The Subpoena Committee on Special Restrictions to the Interior and the 2020 U.S. Senate Elections: Trump and the House Appropriate Treatment
A coda to its public hearings, the subpoena might not lead to Trump’s testimony and handing over of documents, but it will act as a teaser for what’s to come.
The committee still has a report to publish and could also request that the Justice Department pursue charges against Trump or his former aides for their roles in helping to incite the attack on the Capitol and their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
CNN’s John King said that the committee was trying to make a case that Trump is Oz. “He presents himself as all powerful, but when you look, it’s actually a little guy behind a curtain trying to pull a machine.”
Contempt. The full House, which is controlled by Democrats until at least January, could vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, something it’s done with several other uncooperative witnesses.
Prosecution. It is possible for Trump to face 30 days in jail if he is found guilty. The House subpoena will be sentenced later this month.
Putting up a marker: triggering a response from the president to the judiciary and the Senate committee setting up the 2020 presidential campaign
“None of that is going to happen,” the Trump critic and conservative lawyer George Conway predicted during an appearance on CNN Thursday. This is about setting up a marker. This is about triggering a response (from Trump).”
The Supreme Court has already made clear where it stands on Trump’s status as a former president when it ignores his attempts to block the National Archives from sharing information with the committee.
He argued to the court that he should not have to reveal anything about his 2020 presidential campaign, including his political beliefs. President Trump did not check his constitutional rights at the Oval Office door. The Subpoena to President Trump is invalid because it violates his First Amendment rights.
Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming said the January 6 committee feels it has enough information to make referrals to the Department of Justice for prosecutions stemming from the committee’s work. And she noted that more than 30 witnesses have invoked Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination with regard to their dealings with the former President.
Ford later testified as a former president in 1983 to a Senate subcommittee. That hearing, 39 years ago, was the last time a president took questions from lawmakers in the committee setting, according to the Senate Historical Office and Senate Library.
President Thomas Jefferson declined to appear at former Vice President Aaron Burr’s trial for treason even though he was subpoenaed by then-Chief Justice John Marshall. Some documents were provided by Jefferson. Burr was eventually acquitted.
The judicial branch of the Trump investigation: The emergence of new challenges for the Democrats and Trump’s legacy in the early stage of the 2020 presidential campaign
The Supreme Court did rule New York investigators could get access to the financial documents. The criminal trial of Trump’s company will start this month.
He was forced to comply with subpoenas from the New York Attorney General as part of her civil inquiry into his business practices. The Fifth Amendment allowed him to invoke it during the deposition.
James filed a lawsuit against the Trump Organization, Trump and his children. On Thursday, James asked a state court to block Trump from moving assets to shield them from the lawsuit.
The January 6 committee will need to wrap up its work by January 3, 2023, if the Congress doesn’t start again by that time.
Former President Donald Trump and his movement are posing new challenges to accountability, free elections and the rule of law, ushering in a fresh period of political turmoil.
Saturday was the clearest hint yet of a new White House run by Trump, who is on a collision course with the courts and facts.
Trump never really went away after losing reelection in 2020, but a dizzying catalog of confrontations is vaulting him back into the center of US politics. It could deepen the divisions in the nation. The early stages of the president’s race will be affected by his chaotic behavior because of Trump’s return to the spotlight.
On the litigation and Trump’s noncompliance over the next few months: Where is the ex-President, and what are the doubts about the election system?
The committee would evaluate next steps in the litigation and about the former President’s noncompliance over the next few days.
If the ex- President’s claims of political persecution were to be substantiated, a potential presidential campaign in 2024 could create more upheaval than his four years in office.
And while fierce differences are emerging between Democrats and Republicans over policy on the economy, abortion, foreign policy and crime in the 2022 midterms – while concerns about democracy often rank lower for voters – there is every chance the coming political period revolves mostly around the ex-President’s past and future.
Trump’s men and women are also stepping up their activity. His political guru Steve Bannon, whose own grassroots movement is seeking to infiltrate school boards and local election machinery, is vowing to expose the Biden “regime” in an appeal against a prison sentence handed down last week for defying a congressional subpoena. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is calling on the Supreme Court to block the attempt to have him testify in a Georgia investigation of Donald Trump.
In Arizona, one of the ex-President’s favorite candidates, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake – a serial spreader of voter fraud falsehoods – is again raising doubts about the election system. Lake told AZTV7 on Sunday that it probably wouldn’t be fair.
The Case for Impeachment of the New York Rep. Elise Stefanik: What Will They Tell us about the 2020 Midterm Election?
One of the most powerful pro-Trump Republicans, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the party’s number three leader in the House, told the New York Post last week that impeachment of Biden was “on the table.” South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, however, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday she did not want to see tit-for-tat impeachment proceedings after Trump was twice impeached. She said she did not like the process being weaponized. But when asked whether Biden had committed impeachable offenses, she said: “That is something that would have to be investigated.”
An already pro-Trump Republican presence in Washington is likely to expand after the midterms. The candidates are running on a platform with false statements about how the election will be rigged, raising questions as to whether they will accept the results.
The New York Times reported that a district attorney in Manhattan is presenting evidence to another grand jury looking into the case of Stormy Daniels. Last week, a district attorney in Georgia said decisions are imminent on charges related to Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. It’s not clear if the ex-president is targeted by the investigation. This all comes as Smith is also probing Trump’s role in the US Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Democrats are trying to bring Trump back to the forefront. President Joe Biden equated followers of the alt-right with fascists and some campaigns have tried to scare suburban voters by warning them that pro-Trump candidates are a danger to democracy.
Before voting, inflation and spikes in the price of gasoline could be more of a concern than the party in control of Washington.
What will the investigation of an ex-president tell us about a scandal that happened after he ran for the White House in January of 2016?
The ex-president told his supporters at a Texas rally on Saturday that he would probably have to run for president again.
“It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves,” Cheney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The circus and the food fight that followed the first debate between Joe Biden and his opponent won’t happen again. This set of issues is far too serious.
Trump sued the committee on November 11 as a way to challenge its subpoena according to filings in a federal court in Florida. His lawsuit sought to challenge both the legitimacy of the committee – which multiple courts have upheld – and claim he should be immune from testimony about the time he was president.
The committee has used testimony in its presentations, as well as taking depositions in closed doors and using video. Only its most sympathetic witnesses have appeared in person. While this has helped create a powerful narrative that has painted a picture of shocking derelictions of duty by Trump on January 6, it has also deprived viewers of seeing witnesses under cross examination. It was difficult to assess whether the case would be accepted by a court of law because of this.
The prospect of video testimony over an intense period of days or hours is likely to be unappealing to the former President because it would be harder for him to dictate the terms of the exchanges and control how his testimony might be used.
The investigation of an ex-president was always going to create a political furor. If Trump is charged, there will be a lot of decisions to make for Attorney General Merrick Garland because of the stakes.
The consequences of prosecuting a former commander in chief in a politically charged environment, and the national interest in implementing the law to its full extent or not, would be two different issues for Garland.
There would be a lot of furor if it were to be decided to charge the ex-president for a second White House term. But sparing him from accountability if there’s evidence of a crime would send a damaging signal to future presidents with strongman instincts.
The Department of Justice and Republicans in the House of Representatives will start investigating each other after Tuesday’s voting ends.
If investigators at the Department of Justice want to indict Trump before he officially launches a presidential campaign, they’ll have to act fast. Sources have told CNN that he could announce his candidacy a week after Election Day.
It is possible for Trump to take control of the primary field before other GOP candidates, if GOP wins occur on Election Day.
Hunter Biden and the Biden Insurrection: Why Republicans Aren’t Ready to Give Up on a 2020 Presidential Inquisition
If American voters trade in Democrats for a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, everyone will be paying attention to Hunter Biden, the president’s troubled son.
The House January 6 committee will be shut down, and the public inquisition Republicans have been pursuing for years against President Joe Biden’s son will go into public overdrive.
GOP lawmakers do not have a detailed inflation plan, the issue driving many voters to the polls. They have created a road map for the FBI and Department of Justice in order to assist them in the investigation of Hunter Biden, who has struggled with substance abuse and has a career dealing with foreign nationals. The subject of a federal investigation in Delaware has not been charged with a crime.
It’s false to equate GOP efforts to investigate Hunter Biden’s business activities with the January 6 committee’s efforts to document the insurrection and Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.
James Comer was asked by CNN’s Pamela Brown why he had no interest in the more than 330 documents found at Trump’s home but only 20 classified documents discovered in Biden’s house and an unknown number also found, despite being fixated upon the other 20 classified documents found in Biden’
The fact that Republicans have promised to investigate about the Biden administration is at the bottom of a CNN report by Melaniezanona, Manu Raju and Annie Grayer.
Investigations, hearings and subpoenas will dominate in a GOP majority, according to CNN’s report, which notes that Republicans won’t have power to pass much of anything into law.
The majority of bills will be messaging, and unlikely to overcome the president’s veto or the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, although they would have to pass legislation to fund the government and raise the national borrowing limit to raise a debt default.
The 2020 Midterm Election: Donald Trump Fails to Follow Subpoenas and Attempts to Shut Down the Electoral College
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection said former President Donald Trump has “failed to comply” with its subpoena for documents and testimony.
The committee has the power to hold witnesses in contempt of congress if they refuse to comply with the subpoena, but it doesn’t have the power to force compliance in the courts.
Thompson and Cheney said in their statement on Monday, “[Trump’s] attorneys have made no attempt to negotiate an appearance of any sort, and his lawsuit parades out many of the same arguments that courts have rejected repeatedly over the last year.”
Donald Trump and several of his closest allies are hiding from the Select Committee’s investigation and refuse to do what more than a thousand other witnesses have done. The plan to block the transfer of power was masterminded by Donald Trump. He is obliged to give answers to the American people.
A court ruled against Trump when he attempted to file a lawsuit to block the release of documents related to Jan. 6.
Special counsel Jack Smith has issued a subpoena to local officials in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, for information related to the 2020 election, a spokesperson for the county told CNN.
There were efforts to put forward slates of pro-Trump electorates. CNN reported this summer that the DOJ issued numerous subpoenas and was seeking information in all seven states where Trump’s campaign convened the false electors as part of the effort to subvert the Electoral College.
In November 2020, Trump’s campaign team fought in court to throw out over 10,000 absentee ballots in Philadelphia and Allegheny counties that were missing dates or names. Those attempts were rejected by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, which argued in its opinion that “while constituting technical violations of the Election Code, [the mistakes] do not warrant the wholesale disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvanian voters.”
The recent subpoenas come as a group of election security advocates have demanded that Smith and the federal agencies investigate a number of voting system compromises in multiple states during the 2020 election.
The group requested a federal investigation into a multi-state conspiracy to copy voting software that has been reported in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
The Pence Case for 2020: Why Does Biden Have the Right Honesty? An Analysis by Julian Zelizer, A CNN Political Analyst
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith last month to oversee parts of the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. He will likely be tasked with making policy decisions around whether to charge Trump.
Editor’s Note: Julian Zelizer, a CNN political analyst, is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author and editor of 25 books, including the New York Times best-seller, “Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends About Our Past” (Basic Books). Follow him on Twitter @julianzelizer. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
A source who was briefed on some of the Pence documents previously told CNN that the government papers recovered from his home were “lower level” classification, without any SCI or SAP markings.
The revelations show that this is more than just an inside Washington story. It’s not one that will leave any time soon. While Pence’s disclosure certainly takes the heat off Biden, this scandal is bad news for Biden’s brand name.
And new polling makes this clear. A majority of Americans approve of appointing a special counsel to look into Biden’s handling of classified documents. However, according to the same CNN poll, it seems Americans understand the differences between the two cases involving Biden and Trump. While a majority of Americans disapprove of the way Biden has handled the issue and consider it a serious or “somewhat serious” problem, it’s telling that only 37% of Americans believe he has done something illegal. Yet, when it comes to Trump’s case, 52% of Americans believe he has done something illegal.
Biden, who was the foil to Trump in 2020, has now mishandled the political high ground on this issue. And with Pence thrown into the mix, Trump’s team believes the latest developments could help support their argument that this should be treated as an administrative issue, rather than a criminal one.
Biden might have a stronger reputation than Clinton, which will help. There will be an onslaught of attacks in the next two years.
We’re now seeing the first major blow to that image, with more attacks sure to come now that the Republicans who have gained control of the House are vowing to investigate everything from Hunter Biden to the president’s border policies.
But all of this is surmountable. While there are constraints on what Biden can say in the midst of an ongoing investigation, he should be as direct with the public as possible and make every effort to turn over whatever material he has. He must keep the public eye focused on the chaos and divisions that have arisen in the House Republicans and push forward conversations about his domestic agenda.
The turmoil will also renew talks within the Democratic Party about whether Biden should run for reelection or who might challenge him in the primaries — two conversations that had largely abated after the party’s stunning performance in the midterms.
The issues Biden would rather focus on are slowing of inflation or military support for Ukrainians, and all of these controversies can distract the public from them.
And, of course, there are plenty of ways this could continue going south for Biden, especially if there are fresh revelations surrounding his handling of classified documents.
The story can have a significant political impact on him and his supporters. It has already opened the door to questions about his prospects in 2024 and given a laggard Trump campaign something to crow about.
The Mueller investigation of the Mar-a-Lago collusion probe of the 2016 presidential insurrection attempt by Anomalous Document Leakage
The former president, who is accused of fomenting an insurrection and tried to steal a election, launched his first two-state campaign swing on Saturday as he seeks a political comeback.
On Monday, the potential exposure appeared to grow, suggesting a campaign likely to be repeatedly distracted by criminal investigations.
We are going to stop the weaponization of our justice system. There’s never been a justice system like this. The ex-president said over the weekend it was all an investigation.
This is a message that could be attractive to some of the base voters in his campaign who have been swayed by his lies about a deep state conspiracy against him. The tactics of demagogues and strongman leaders alike use this technique, where the leader argues that he is taking the heat so his followers don’t have to.
Two people hired to comb through four of Trump’s properties after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago were each interviewed for about three hours last week. The extent of information they offered the grand jury remains unclear, though they didn’t decline to answer any questions, one of the sources familiar with the investigation said.
According to a former special counsel for the Department of Defense, the latest development indicated that Smith was leaning toward indictments.
“It sounds like he is trying to lock in their testimony, to understand how they would testify at trial, whether it is incriminating evidence against Trump or exculpatory evidence that the prosecutors would then have that and have it solidified.”
On a more granular level, the report about the grand jury underscores that for all the political noise, the investigation into Trump’s haul of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is taking place inside its own legal bubble.
Those discoveries allowed Trump to claim that he was being unfairly singled out, even if the cases have significant differences. After Biden and Pence took documents to their homes, Trump claimed the material was his and not the government, which will make it hard for him to argue that he accidentally took documents to his home.
The Kentucky Republican said if someone could prove there was influence peddling with the classified documents, they would definitely expand it. He went on to accuse Biden and his family of being very cozy with people from the Chinese Communist party but offered no evidence that they were involved in the leaking of classified documents. His remarks left the impression that his committee is seeking to find evidence to condemn Biden but is treating Trump differently – exactly the kind of double standard the GOP has claimed the DOJ is employing toward Trump.
Attorney General Merrick Garland brought on special prosecutors to investigate Biden and Trump. The Trump matter is being investigated by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed in November. And the Biden matter is being investigated by special counsel Robert Hur, who was appointed in January.
Birchum’s discovery of classified documents: what happens to lower-rank federal employees when classified information is taken home with a plea agreement
As the political consequences from the classified documents furor grew on Monday, the country got a glimpse of what happens to lower-ranking Federal employees when secret material is taken home.
Robert Birchum was in the Air Force for more than 30 years and held top secret clearance. According to his plea agreement, he stored hundreds of files that contained information marked as top secret, secret or confidential classified outside of authorized locations. A plea agreement stated that “the defendant’s residence was not a location authorized to store classified information, and the defendant knew as much.”
For Trump, more than 325 classified records have been recovered. This includes documents that were turned over to the Justice Department and found by the FBI.
There were at least 60 Trump documents that were labeled top secret. There are some documents with the term “SAP” designation, which means “special access programs”, and they are used for documents that are closely held with special protocols for who can access the material.
The epoch of the investigation: The case of U.S. Sen. John F. Pence in the wake of the 2020 mob attack
The Trump investigation has progressed the farthest. Federal prosecutors got a subpoena, demanded the return of all classified documents and tried to hold Trump in contempt when he didn’t fully comply. Investigators also got a judge to approve a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago and CNN has reported that there is an active grand jury based in Washington, DC, that recently heard testimony from witnesses.
The FBI interviewed some of the people on Biden’s team who handled documents, but there haven’t been any subpoenas or search warrants.
The former vice president should not want the embarrassing spectacle of the Supreme Court compelling him to appear before a grand jury in Washington just when he’s starting his campaign for the presidency; recall the unanimous Supreme Court ruling that ordered Richard Nixon to turn over the fatally damning Oval Office tapes. It’s going to be an uncomfortable situation for a man who is considered a profile in courage in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election by many of us on the political spectrum. Mr. Pence was far from the constitutionally hallowed ground on which he stood on January 6th, when he branded the Department of Justice’s subpoena as unconstitutional.
Pence’s role in presiding over the electoral certification process made him a central figure in the Jan. 6 proceedings. In the days and hours before the mob attacked the Capitol, Trump subjected his vice president to intense pressure to overturn the 2020 election results. Several critical meetings with Trump and his allies were held before the Jan. 6th.
How a Former Vice President Can Obtain Executive Privilege in the Era of the Watergate Break-In Investigations, as Revised by Shaub
There is not a clear way for a former president to claim it. After Nixon left office, Congress tried to compel him to turn over his presidential records, which he refused to do, citing executive privilege. That case also went to the Supreme Court, which again ruled against him — but left some ambiguity over whether former presidents could assert the privilege in the future.
Jonathan Shaub is a former Justice Department official who is now a professor at the University of Kentucky.
The president’s advisers can give candid advice that is free from fear of public disclosure if the protection is in place.
The idea dates to the Nixon administration, when a special prosecutor leading the investigation of the Watergate break-in subpoenaed President Richard Nixon for tapes and transcripts of conversations related to the burglary.
Despite the court’s decision against Nixon, it found confidentiality interest in communications between a president and their advisers. But, the court specified, there’s one very clear limit — executive privilege does not apply when the communications are relevant to a criminal investigation.
For example, in Nixon’s case, the Supreme Court found a compelling interest in the criminal case against the Watergate burglars, since there was a “demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.”
Legal experts said that most disputes over executive privilege have been resolved by compromise between those requesting the documents and those providing them.
The former president has also tried to use executive privilege to block testimony to a federal grand jury, but those efforts have been less successful, the New York Times has reported.
Victoria Nourse, who was a DOJ official and the chief counsel to the vice president of the US under joe Biden, said that a subpoena is more difficult to ignore. Congressional subpoenas can lack teeth because the process to get a judge to enforce them can be slow, she explained.
“Usually a vice president will ask the president to give him executive privilege and to announce that,” said Nourse, who is now a professor at Georgetown Law. “That would be a question in and of itself, whether Trump will do that for Pence.”
If Trump decides to assert executive privilege then there will be a court battle. Executive Privilege does not apply to a crime. So the question is how far they want to take this and if they want a judge to adjudicate it,” she said.
Jack Smith and the J.O.J. subpoena: Mr. Pence didn’t intend to weaken President Biden’s political hand
A politician should be careful what he wishes for — no more so than when he’s a possible presidential candidate who would have the Supreme Court decide a constitutional case that could undermine his viability in an upcoming campaign.
Mr. Pence was trying to score political points by referring to Mr. Smith as a Biden D.O.J. subpoena. Well enough. That is what politicians do. Jack Smith did not intend to strengthen President Biden’s political hand when he subpoenaed him. Thus the jarring dissonance between the subpoena and Mr. Pence’s characterization of it. Mr. Pence chose to politicize the subpoena, not the D.O.J.