The Trump White House investigation has been hammered by the delay in a search that had no obstructions of justice on the initial search warrant
On the face of it, this development is troubling since it could suggest a pattern of deception that plays into a possible obstruction of justice charge. There was evidence that the FBI could have obstruction of justice on the initial search warrant, which they showed up with in August.
Cannon referred to the 200,000 pages that were ordered to be postponed. She also nixed the idea of the special master reviewing privilege assertions in tranches. The judge additionally made clear that any motions from Trump to seek the return of property he contends was unlawfully seized would be considered on her docket. Trump opposed the move to allow that litigation to start before the judge who approved the search warrant.
It’s unclear what the delay and the other opportunities Trump will have to hamstring the review will mean for the larger Justice Department investigation, which is looking at whether crimes were committed in how documents from the Trump White House were handled.
Trump went to court to secure an order requiring that a third attorney review the materials seized in the search. The documents were excluded from the review by the appellate court because they were marked as classified.
After that, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago and found hundreds of government records, including classified material. The Trump team found even more classified material in subsequent searches they conducted and turned what they found over to the Justice Department.
Getting the word out about the investigation of Donald Trump’s prosecution of a Russian alleged hush money donor: Judge Howell Howell Revisited Cannon’s Dispatch
Cannon rejected parts of the special master’s plan that would have forced the former President’s legal team to back up their claims that the FBI planted evidence.
The Special Master will have to make a decision on any additional matters if they arise during his review of the Inventory.
In another boost for Trump, Cannon said Trump’s legal team does not have to provide certain details about his executive privilege claims in the special master review.
The ruling removed a major obstacle to the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of government records from Trump’s time in the White House.
The finding, which was part of a major ruling Friday from Judge Beryl Howell of the DC District Court and was first reported by ABC News, makes clear for the first time that the Justice Department is arguing it has evidence that Trump may have committed a crime. Prosecutors did not have to go against Trump’s right to shield discussions with his lawyers from being seen as Attorney-client privilege.
In explaining the “modest enlargement” of the timeline, Cannon pointed to the issues the parties had faced in securing a vendor to digitize the seized materials for the review.
“In conversations between Plaintiff’s counsel and the Government regarding a data vendor, the Government mentioned that the 11,000 documents contain closer to 200,000 pages. That estimated volume, with a need to operate under the accelerated timeframes supported by the Government, is the reason why so many of the Government’s selected vendors have declined the potential engagement,” Trump’s team wrote on Wednesday.
Some in Trump’s inner circle aren’t convinced there are any remaining government documents, after the FBI seized nearly 22,000 pages when they executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August.
Alex Cannon, a lawyer, became a point of contact for officials with the National Archives who had worked for months to get Donald Trump to return the presidential records that he didn’t turn over. Mr. Cannon declined to convey Mr. Trump’s message to the archives because he was not sure if it was true, the people said.
On another front, The New York Times reported that a district attorney in Manhattan is presenting evidence to another grand jury probing Trump’s alleged role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels. There are pending decisions regarding charges relating to Trump’s attempt to overturn his election loss in Georgia. The ex president is not directly targeted by the investigation. This all comes as Smith is also probing Trump’s role in the US Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the investigation into 2020 election interference, filed additional court petitions on Friday seeking to secure testimony from the out-of-state witnesses in front of the special grand jury meeting in Atlanta.
Why did Gingrich’s petition for testimony be filed on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2020, when Trump and Powell were both suspended by the U.S. Capitol
During the heated Oval Office meeting, CNN previously reported, Flynn and Powell floated outrageous suggestions about overturning the election, three weeks after Trump pardoned Flynn.
The U.S. House committee that is investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol is behind the petition for Gingrich’s testimony.
She was going to attempt to issue subpoenas to Herschmann and at least two other people who she claimed had important information to give the grand jury.
The grand jury can vote within months on an indictment. If jurors do indict, that means Trump, who is again running for president, would have to show up in criminal court in Manhattan to enter a plea in the case.
Flynn didn’t immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment, and his lawyer also didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment. Gingrich referred the questions to his attorney. Herschmann could not immediately be reached.
A month from Saturday, she will take a break from public activity in the case that will lead up to the election.
The petitions are meant to have potential witnesses come forward after the election. While the process for securing testimony from out-of-state witnesses can take a long time, it looks like she’s putting the wheels in motion for activity to resume.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, signed off on the petitions, certifying that each person whose testimony is sought is a “necessary and material” witness for the investigation.
He was involved in a plan with other people associated with the Trump campaign to run television ads that made false accusations about election fraud and encouraged members of the public to contact state officials to try to overturn the election results.
The petition seeking Flynn’s testimony says he appeared in an interview on conservative cable news channel Newsmax and said Trump “could take military capabilities” and place them in swing states and “basically re-run an election in each of those states.”
He also met with Trump, attorney Sidney Powell and others at the White House on Dec. 18, 2020, for a meeting that, according to news reports, “focused on topics including invoking martial law, seizing voting machines, and appointing Powell as special counsel to investigate the 2020 election,” Willis wrote.
The petition seeks his testimony regarding meetings he had with former President Trump and others about the 2020 election. Herschmann, who was a senior adviser to Trump from August 2020 through the end of his term, was present for multiple meetings between former President Trump and others.
She identified Penrose as “a cyber investigations, operations and forensics consultant” who worked with Powell and others known to be associated with the Trump campaign in late 2020 and early 2021.
According to a report by Willis, he communicated with Powell and others about an agreement to have SullivanStrickler copy voting system equipment data from Coffee County, as well as in Michigan and Nevada. Penrose did not respond to the email or phone message.
Willis wrote in a petition seeking Lee’s testimony that he was part of an effort to pressure elections worker Ruby Freeman, who was the subject of false claims about election fraud in Fulton County. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Subpoenas to Special Grand Juries in Georgia and a Candidate’s Challenge to the Indictment of a White Man with an Oath
Grand juries empaneled in local courts have their own rules. There’s nothing in the statute about special grand juries in Georgia that says they must be secret. If a grand jury makes a recommendation, the reports from the special grand juries should be published. And Kohrs says the judge gave her and the other jurors permission to speak to the press, albeit with limitations.
Instead, the special grand jury wrote a final report with recommendations for the district attorney’s office about how to proceed, including potential violations of state law — though Willis does not have to follow those suggestions if she decides to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.
Trump lawyer Christina Bobb had to hire her own lawyer after signing an attestation in June which declared that Trump’s team had conducted a “diligent search” to comply with the Justice Department’s subpoena and returned all documents with classified markings. Bobb, who was Trump’s custodian of records at the time, recently told federal investigators in a voluntary interview that the attestation had been drafted by another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, for her to sign. Bobb was rushed to Mar-a-Lago in order to sign the attestation but she insisted that her knowledge was based on the information provided to her.
The sworn statement that Bobb submitted to the Justice Department included a caveat that she was making the certification “based upon the information that has been provided to me.”
The Trump employee initially denied handling sensitive documents or boxes at Mar-a-Lago, according to the source. But the FBI developed evidence that prompted investigators to go back to the witness, who revised their story to say Trump had given instructions to move the boxes, the source said.
His clash with the institutions of accountability got even more bitter on Friday when the House January 6 committee subpoenaed documents and testimony. Trump has challenged such requests in the past and tried to frustrate investigations into his conduct. But the subpoena also raised the possibility that he might opt to testify in order to claim the political spotlight – even though giving evidence under oath could cause him more legal exposure.
According to multiple sources, the development comes as federal prosecutors push to look at files on a laptop of at least one staff member who worked for Trump at Mar-a-Lago. tense conversations have been had due to the special counsel’s office being unwilling to negotiate over subpoenas.
The letter that accompanied the subpoena was a summary of what the committee had presented during hearings to demonstrate that Trump oversaw the effort to overturn the election.
It also asked Trump to turn over all records of phone calls, text messages or communications with any members of Congress from December 18, 2020, to January 6, 2021; all of his communications on January 6 specifically, and any communications or efforts to contact other witnesses in the committee’s investigation.
There is not a lot of certainty in whether or not Trump will be charged in any of the cases. But the pattern of recent days appears to show the legal clouds around him darkening.
Trump is a master at calling other people to account, legally and politically. He’s already built a central foundation of his new presidential quest around the idea that he’s being political persecuted by Justice Department investigations and what he claims are rogue Democratic prosecutors.
The Supreme Court decided against siding with Trump as the House select committee hearing went on.
The appeals court is being asked to intervene by the team of Trump. Three judges from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals have moved fast to respond, as they are still considering whether to put the decision from Howell on hold.
In a new twist to his classified material saga, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and Katelyn Polantz reported that two people who found two classified documents in a Trump storage facility in Florida testified before a federal grand jury. Federal prosecutors are also pushing to look at files on a laptop of at least one staff member around Trump at Mar-a-Lago, CNN reported. The former president has not been charged with a crime, but these developments are the latest sign of an aggressive approach by special counsel Jack Smith in probing the matter. And it shows how a regular drumbeat of legal problems could detract from the former president’s attempts to inject energy into a so-far tepid campaign – especially given the multiple criminal threats he may face.
The former president wants to know why the panel waited so long to call him. But his obstruction of the investigation and attempts to prevent former aides from testifying means he is on thin ice in criticizing its conduct. It’s not unusual for investigators to build a case before approaching the biggest potential target of a probe.
An appeal over whether former Pence chief counsel Greg Jacob and chief of staff Marc Short should have been forced to answer questions about Trump interactions around January 6. Both went to the grand jury in DC on the same Friday last July and refused to give some answers because of Trump’s attempted claims of confidentiality around the presidency. They testified a second time after being ordered by the court to testify more, CNN previously confirmed. They both appeared a second time at the grand jury. The Trump team is appealing the decisions.
Still, David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment, told CNN’s “New Day” that though the details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raised troubling questions, they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstructing justice.
But he added: “If President Trump or someone acting on behalf knew … that they didn’t have the right to have these documents in their possession, the documents belonged to the government or the American people, et cetera, and knowingly disobeyed the subpoena, knowingly hid the documents or kept the documents from being found, then that could theoretically constitute obstruction.”
On Thursday morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state court to block the Trump Organization from moving assets and continuing to perpetrate what she has alleged in a civil lawsuit is a decades-long fraud.
James wants a preliminary injunction to stop Trump and his associates from engaging in fraudulent conduct until her $250 million lawsuit against them is heard.
Trump is being investigated by the Justice Department in relation to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, and his possible mishandling of classified material. The Manhattan district attorney is leading the criminal probe in New York, along with a civil fraud lawsuit from the state attorney general.
The Georgia investigation has long been seen as one of Trump’s biggest unsettled legal vulnerabilities, though any prosecution of him would be ripe for constitutional challenges and would face more scrutiny than perhaps any previous case initiated by a local prosecutor.
On Trump’s decision to subpoena the Associated Investigative Committee on the January 6 Special Session of the United States House of Representatives
As always, Trump came out fighting on Thursday, one of those days when the seriousness of a crisis he is facing can often be gauged by the vehemence of the rhetoric he uses to respond.
The select committee voted to subpoena the former President for documents, but First Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich mocked the vote.
“Pres Trump will not be intimidate(d) by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions. Budowich wrote that Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms.
It was obvious that the former President was trying to stir a political reaction from his supporters after he posted on his Truth social network that he had not answered the accusations against him.
Why didn’t the Unselect Committee invite me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? The committee is a waste of time. Trump wrote.
It could become an academic thing. Given the possibility of a Trump legal challenge to the subpoena, the issue could drag on for months and become moot since a possible new Republican House majority would likely sweep the January 6 committee away as one of its first acts.
The subpoena could also give the bipartisan committee some cover from pro-Trump Republicans who claim that it is a politicized attempt to impugn Trump that has not allowed cross-examination of witnesses. A contempt of Congress referral to the Justice Department would be needed if the committee wanted to enforce a subpoena. The decision to go against Trump’s political guru, SteveBannon, who was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress, was taken in the same way.
It would take months and involve legal battles to try and follow a path like that if Trump doesn’t testify. Given the advanced state of its own January 6 probe, it is not certain whether the Justice Department would be willing to consider this a good investment. With Republicans expected to take control of the House following the elections, there is a chance that the committee will be swept into history.
Given the slim chance of Trump complying with a congressional subpoena then, many observers will see the dramatic vote to target the ex-President as yet another theatrical flourish in a set of slickly produced hearings that often resembled a television courtroom drama.
Liz Cheney, the Republican committee vice chair, said the investigation was more about the future than it was about what happened on January 6.
“With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic,” said the Wyoming lawmaker, who won’t be returning to Congress after losing her primary this summer to a Trump-backed challenger.
The Case for Return of His Personal Protected Documents During the 2016 Presidential Campaign: Corcoran, Kise, and Trump
The legal team for Donald Trump is considering whether or not to allow federal agents to go back to the former President’s Florida home to search for sensitive government documents, sources tell CNN.
The approach is not new as the Trump team is making an argument in court that the records he took with him when he was president are his personal property.
The former President wants to move on, according to a person close to him, as the general belief in Trump World is that this is nothing more than a joke.
At least some of the battle to secure their return has been playing out behind the scenes in a court proceeding that is under seal, according to people familiar with the situation. The Justice Department might ask a judge to order the Trump team to work with them to arrange for another search.
Sources close to the former President said that he is more receptive to the approach advocated by some of his lawyers, including Kise, who joined the legal team following the FBI search. Kise had faced headwinds from Trump and some of his more aggressive advisers.
Trump has favored a more pugilistic approach, even accusing federal investigators at one point of planting evidence during their search at Mar-a-Lago – a claim he has never substantiated in court.
According to sources familiar with his situation, Corcoran has insisted to colleagues that he does not face any legal risk and hasn’t hired a lawyer.
A fateful national moment is brewing amid Trump’s wild rhetoric and predictions of his own arrest, a political storm whipped up by his allies, and anticipation among those who have long chafed at his flair for impunity.
At a time when he is on a new course with the courts and the facts, Trump dropped his clearest hint yet of a new White House run.
The current prominence of Trump on the political scene was not something he had experienced before. One-term presidents typically fade fairly fast into history. But it is a testament to the firm hold he maintains over much of the GOP that he’s still a key player nearly two years after losing reelection. While some in the GOP want to move on from his legal and political problems, Trump still seems to have plenty of juice.
Those controversies also show that given the open legal and political loops involving the ex-President, a potential 2024 presidential campaign rooted in his claims of political persecution could create even 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.
Special counsel Jack Smith is locked in at least eight secret court battles that aim to unearth some of the most closely held details about Donald Trump’s actions after the 2020 election and handling of classified material, according to sources and court records reviewed by CNN.
The Arizona Case for Reply of the Ex-President’s Favorite Candidate for the Post-Supermajority Office
In Arizona, the ex-president’s favorite candidate for governor is raising doubts about the election system due to his history of voter fraud. “I’m afraid that it probably is not going to be completely fair,” Lake told AZTV7 on Sunday.
There’s a rising prospect next month’s election will install a Republican majority in the House that will effectively mean a return of Trumpism to political power given the hold the ex-President maintains over the House GOP. The leading Republicans of this country are already signaling that they will use their power to investigate to try and beat up Biden in order to have a confrontation with Trump in 2024.
An already pro-Trump Republican presence in Washington is likely to expand after the midterms. Scores of Trump-endorsed candidates are running on a platform of his 2020 election fraud falsehoods, raising questions over whether they will accept results should they lose their races in just over two weeks.
The hush money investigation is hardly the only legal cloud hanging over the former president. In a separate development in a distinct probe, the Justice Department has convinced a federal judge that Trump used one of his defense attorneys in furtherance of a crime or fraud related to the existence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, sources familiar with the matter told CNN Tuesday evening.
Democrats have made their own attempts to return Trump to the political spotlight. President Joe Biden equated MAGA followers with “semi-fascism” and some campaigns have tried to scare critical suburban voters by warning pro-Trump candidates are a danger to democracy.
The party in power in Washington might suffer bad news because of raging inflation and spikes in gasoline prices before voters head to the polls.
The Phenomenology of a New White House: The Case for a Refreshing Look at an Ex-President’s Interaction with Joe Biden
The ex-President told supporters at a rally in Texas on Saturday regarding the possibility of a new White House bid, “I will probably have to do it again.”
It may take several days, and it will be done with the same level of seriousness and rigor that is required, according to Cheney.
This isn’t going to be the first debate that he will have against Joe Biden and the circus. This is not something that is easy to handle.
But interview transcripts released by the committee also reveal gaps that could stymy federal investigators, witnesses with faltering memories and testimony about Trump’s tech-avoidance.
The former President would not want to testify in a video format, because it would be much harder for him to dictate the terms of the exchanges and make sure his testimony was used correctly.
If there is evidence that a crime was committed, Garland could face a dilemma about whether to implement the law to its full extent, or if the consequences of prosecuting the former president in a politically charged atmosphere would tear the country apart.
Were Trump, for instance, to be prosecuted – over what so far appears to be a larger haul of documents and conduct that may add up to obstruction – and Biden is not, the ex-president would incite a firestorm of protest among his supporters. Even though the sitting president enjoys protections from prosecution because of historic Justice Department guidance, it’s hard to see how the political ground for prosecuting just one of them could hold firm – especially if Biden and Trump are rival presidential candidates in 2024.
The investigation of the grand jury investigation into Mar-a-Lago: a new prosecutor has been summoned to appear before a grand jury
Mr. Graham was originally ordered to appear before the grand jury in late August. He was ordered to give testimony in November, according to a document that his lawyers have filed with the Supreme Court.
The senator is at risk of having his objections hashed out in open court because he is unwilling to answer the questions of the grand jury.
The case is believed to be a serious threat to Mr. Trump because he was recorded on the phone trying to get more votes than he needed to win.
In recent months, a number of high-profile allies of Mr. Trump have been waging battles in courtrooms around the nation, arguing that they should not have to participate. Their track record has been mixed so far.
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Donald Trump adviser Kash Patel to testify before a grand jury investigating the handling of federal records at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
The judge of the DC District Court granted immunity from prosecution to any person who gave information to the investigation.
The sealed court decision was made after a confidential proceeding in which the Justice Department subpoenaed the architect of the 9/11 attacks. At that time, he declined to answer questions by asserting his Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.
According to court records and sources, however, it is not certain if Patel is a target of the justice department probe into Mar-a-Lago.
He served as a national security and defense official during the Trump administration, and this summer became one of Trump’s designees to interact with the National Archives and the Justice Department as both agencies have tried to repossess classified records Trump kept from his presidency. He has claimed in conservative media interviews he personally witnessed Trump declassifying records before he left the presidency, and has argued Trump should be able to release classified information.
Taken together, the investigative moves underscore that there is continued grand jury activity in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, at a time when the Justice Department has newer inquiries into unsecured national security records underway involving President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.
The select committee began sending documents and transcripts as of last week, the source added, with the production focusing specifically on former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump’s former election lawyer John Eastman.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chairwoman of the committee, previously said the committee was “in discussions” with Trump’s attorneys about testifying under oath in the probe. But it remains unclear whether those discussions will lead to him sitting for a deposition.
The broad document request asked for all documents and communication relating to or referring to members of the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, or other groups from September 1, 2020, to the present. The panel requests 19 different kinds of documents.
The Special Counsel Appointment and the Public Interest in the Investigations of the 2016 Mar-a-Lago Sesquished by the FBI
Trump’s lawyers had been dreading the prospect of a special counsel, concerned it could drag out the investigation they have fought continuously in court. Robert Mueller oversaw the Russia investigation, and Trump likened the prospect to him.
If necessary, a special counsel can be appointed to prosecute anyone suspected of crimes. He or she has to be outside the government. A special counsel is typically appointed when the usual investigative bodies under the Justice Department, such as the FBI, have a conflict of interest in carrying out a probe.
According to recent developments, including the former president announcing that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the current president stating that he would like to run, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.
Jack Smith, the former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, where he investigated war crimes in Kosovo, will oversee the investigations.
Speaking at the America First gala at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night, the former president called the special counsel appointment an “appalling announcement” and a “horrendous abuse of power.”
According to the former president on Friday, he thought federal investigations into him were over until the announcement from Garland. He told the crowd at Mar-a-Lago that the investigations were political and would not be a fair investigation.
Judge Raymond Dearie served as the special master in the Mar-a-Lago case until the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals halted his review of the seized documents.
“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”
Both approaches would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations, and the 11th Circuit said that they would be a radical reordering of our caselaw.
Trump’s legal team broadly argued that a special master is necessary to ensure the Justice Department returns any of his private documents seized during the search of Mar-a-Lago.
Prosecutors are examining whether there was obstruction of justice, criminal handling of government records and violations of the Espionage Act, which prohibits unauthorized storage of national defense information.
The House Select Committee on the 2018 January 6, 2021 Attack: Report of the Committee and a New Era for Investigating Democrat and Republican Campaigns
A new era for criminal investigators, politicians and members of the public will begin Wednesday, when the final report from the House select committee on the January 6, 2021, attack is released.
The final report of the committee will reveal how Republicans in the House will make good on their promise of investigating Biden and his administration on a large number of fronts as soon as they take charge of the House on January 6.
The overview presented by the committee on Monday included evidence for many criminal statutes it believes were violated during the attempts to prevent Donald Trump from winning the election.
The Department of Justice may be able to get testimony from the Chief of Staff of President Trump and others who invoked their Sixth Amendment rights, for example, as a result of the Committee obtaining certain witness records.
“Certain witnesses and lawyers were unnecessarily combative, answered hundreds of questions with variants of ‘I do not recall’ in circumstances where that answer seemed unbelievable, appeared to testify from lawyer-written talking points rather than their own recollections, provided highly questionable rationalizations or otherwise resisted telling the truth,” the panel added.
The public can make an assessment of these issues based on transcripts of the proceedings of the committee, as well as the accounts of different witnesses and the conduct of counsel.
In the summary, it’s stated that the panel was unable to get a former White House deputy chief of staff to corroborate a bombshell moment during the public hearings, in which Ornato described Trump’s altercation with the head of his security detail.
In terms of financing after the 2020 presidential election and through the January 6 rallies, the committee says it gathered evidence indicating that Trump “raised roughly one quarter of a billion dollars in fundraising efforts between the election and January 6th.”
The Trump Campaign sent millions of emails to their supporters with the message that the election was rigged, that their donations could stop Democrats from stealing the election, and that Biden would be a good president.
The Trump family and inner circle have been accused of benefiting from the false claims made by the former president, according to a California Democrat.
DOJ initially asked the panel for all of its transcripts back in May, but committee members, particularly Thompson, felt strongly the depositions were the property of the committee.
CNN is reporting that a source familiar with President Trump’s January 6 legal team told them that the former president’s legal team will be interested in viewing the transcripts of the committee to see if they were presented publicly because it differed from what was said.
The former president’s aides and advisers hope that the release of the transcripts will provide new information about the DOJ criminal investigation into January 6.
Various Republican lawmakers have tried to downplay the work of the select committee in order to argue that it has not addressed the security failures that led to the US Capitol breach. Kevin McCarthy was one of five House Republicans subpoenaed and did not cooperate with the investigation. The panel took the unprecedented step of referring the four returning members of Congress to the House Ethics Committee.
McCarthy has promised to hold hearings next year on Capitol Security failures and has demanded that all of the select committee’s records and transcripts be preserved.
Why the Justice Department is so strongly pursuing Donald Trump’s prosecution in the December 16, 2020 attack on the US Capitol, Attorney General Jon Parlatore told CNN
The January 6 committee’s criminal referrals to the Justice Department, urging the prosecution of Donald Trump, are “worthless,” one of the former president’s lawyers told CNN on Saturday.
Parlatore was responding to the unprecedented criminal referrals that the bipartisan select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol sent to the Justice Department earlier this week. Committee members said they believed Trump was guilty of at least four federal crimes, including conspiracy and obstructing a joint session of Congress.
“It’s political noise, but it doesn’t have any effect, as of right now, on our defense,” said Parlatore, who represents Trump in the Justice Department probes into January 6 and the potential mishandling of government documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Parlatore told CNN on Saturday that he was sure there weren’t any more records with classification markings still at Mar-a-Lago, saying, “Everything that was found has been turned over.”
A source tells CNN that a judge has asked the attorneys for the former president to turn over the names of the individuals who were hired to look at four properties.
CNN reports that the legal team of Donald Trump hired two individuals to look for classified documents in Trump Tower, the Bedminster golf club, and an office location in Florida. Those documents were given to the FBI. There was no documents with classified markings found during the search of the four Trump’s properties.
The DOJ wanted Trump and his office in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena after the Mar-a-Lago resort was searched.
The grand jury investigations aren’t being disclosed by the Justice Department because they won’t admit it.
The Justice Department is expanding under Jack Smith, the attorney general said in the January 6, 2021 riot of Washington, D.C., an attorney general
He is adding two longtime associates who have specialized in public corruption cases, according to a person familiar with the matter: Raymond Hulser, the former chief of the DOJ’s public integrity section, and David Harbach, who conducted cases against former Sen. John Edwards and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
The expansion under Smith shores up the office’s ability to examine broad conspiracy cases and determine the avenues of the investigation, another source said. A group of more than 20 prosecutors from the DOJ were already investigating Trump and his allies before they joined them.
The attorney general assured that Smith would not be slowed down by his appointment, despite the fact that setting up his office takes time. Smith’s team is still working to find a permanent physical office location but has begun changing over email addresses for staffers who had previously been using their usual Justice Department accounts.
While in the federal courthouse in DC last Thursday, Harbach spoke to another prosecutor about cases of extremists and sat in on an Oath Keepers trial.
More than 500 people were found guilty of participating in the January 6, 2021 riot, which the Justice Department says resulted in the arrest of more than 950 defendants. Four people died in the attack, including a rioter shot by a police officer, two people who suffered heart attacks, and one who died of an overdose. In the days after the riot, 140 officers were injured and five officers died of their injuries, one by strokes and four by suicide.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/january-6-justice-department-jack-smith-trump-investigation/index.html
Subpoenas, Emails, and the Trump-Steal Committee: How DOJ Prosecutives Smell the Law, or Does Trump Attempt to Obstruct the Second Amendment?
And where the House select committee hit brick walls in its probe – including with recalcitrant witnesses who claimed privileges, or, like Mark Meadows, bailed on cooperating with congressional investigators midway through – DOJ prosecutors now working under Smith will have certain tools to dismantle those barriers. There are ongoing legal proceedings surrounding the shield of confidentially that surrounds a president.
Smith himself sent subpoenas to election officials in seven battleground states and received a trove of material. Included in the response from Michigan’s secretary of state is an email from a county official who was reporting two voicemails they received in December 2020 from individuals seeking access to voting equipment. The clerk wrote that a person claimed to work for Trump’s legal team.
“POTUS expectations are to have something intimate at the ellipse, and call on everyone to march to the capitol,” rally organizer Katrina Pierson wrote in an email days before the Capitol attack.
Donald Trump Jr. told investigators that his father did not use text messaging or email. As for other messaging apps, “I’m not sure he’d even know what they were,” Trump Jr. said.
Trump has a style of making ambiguous requests rather than direct demands that can be seen in the displays of his style of pressing state officials. “One thing I do remember is that he never, ever, to the best of my recollection, ever made a specific ask,” said Michigan’s former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey. General topics were always the focus.
Campaign staff testified that Trump was behind the drive to carry out the maneuver, and the panel collected other evidence that Trump was in the loop about its operation – including with a phone call to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
According to the evidence collected by the committee, many of the state-based operatives and fraudulent electors themselves were largely in the dark about what the endgame of the gambit was. Several testified that they believed alternate electors would be a contingency plan in case of a legal challenge that would change the outcome of the election.
After the last major election challenge petered out in December 2015, top Trump campaign officials distanced themselves from the effort.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/january-6-justice-department-jack-smith-trump-investigation/index.html
Mark Meadows and Cassidy Hutchinson: Investigations into a Decay Plan to Reverse the Donald’s Election
“DOJ would have a much easier case to prove if the scheme had been certified by Congress,” stated a New York University School of Law professor and former Department of Defense general counsel.
A memo outlining the plan on December 9 suggests those advisers saw the alternate electors crucial not only in the event of a court ruling that reversed Trump’s electoral loss, but if a “state legislature” or “Congress” deemed the Trump electors as the valid ones.
The committee referred to Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, but also said that several of his friends were potential co-conspirators. One of them was former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
In the investigation, there is evidence showing his involvement in every effort to overturn the election. The most significant evidence came from the thousands of text messages Meadows turned over to the committee before he stopped cooperating with the investigation.
The texts show that beginning on Election Day, Meadows was connecting activists pushing conspiracy theories and strategizing with GOP lawmakers and rally organizers preparing for January 6. The Trump Jr. was texting with ideas that he thought were viable to keep his father in power.
Meadows and Giuliani, Trump’s one-time attorney, were involved in early conversations about putting forward fake slates of electors, according to testimony that former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave to the committee.
Transcripts released by the committee also reveal that Hutchinson testified before the committee how Meadows regularly burned documents in his fireplace around a dozen times – about once or twice a week – between December 2020 and mid-January 2021.
After producing the texts to congressional investigators, Meadows changed gears and did not show up for subpoenaed testimony before the House. A lawsuit he filed challenging the subpoena was unsuccessful, but the Justice Department opted not to bring criminal charges for his lack of cooperation.
The committee noted in their report’s summary that criminal prosecutors may have access to materials that lawmakers didn’t have, pointing to Meadows specifically.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/january-6-justice-department-jack-smith-trump-investigation/index.html
Investigation of the Mar-a-Lago investigation of a case of hush-money payments against the ex-president of the United States
Parlatore insisted Trump and his team “were not looking to overturn the will of the people, only to ensure that the will of the people was accurately counted,” adding that Trump was “absolutely opposed” to the violence that took place at the US Capitol.
Two people who were hired to search for Trump properties in late fall were both interviewed for about three hours last week.
After the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, they hired a group of people to look at Trump’s Bedminster golf club, Trump Tower in New York, and an office location in Florida. The grand jury did not decline to hear any questions from them, though the degree of information they offered still is not known.
By pushing for access to computers, investigators are trying to determine if there is an electronic paper trail regarding the classified documents, another source said.
From the outside, it appears as if Biden and Pence were far more cooperative with the DOJ and the FBI after some classified documents were found at their properties than Trump has been. It took an FBI search warrant for agents to get into Mar-a-Lago, as the ex-president claimed that the documents he took with him when he left office belonged to him. The House Republican counter- attack was made more likely because voters might find it hard to understand the legal differences between the two cases.
Special counsel Jack Smith and the prosecutors who work for him are using the federal grand jury to question witnesses every week in the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
Attorney Robert Costello, at the request of Trump’s legal team, testified Monday for nearly three hours in front of the grand jury in an effort to discredit the testimony of the former president’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen, who has admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels just before the 2016 election to stop her from going public about an alleged affair with the former president.
Now the Manhattan DA’s Office has summoned witnesses to testify about the hush-money payments before a newly empaneled grand jury, according to the source.
The Great Witch Hunt: Trump’s First Two State Campaign Swing Against Corcorcoran and the Democratic-Democratic Corcoran
For his part, the former president said in a social media post that this is “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time” and added, “NEVER HAD AN AFFAIR.”
The twice-impeached former president is looking for a political comeback, and began his first two state campaign swing on Saturday.
We are going to stop our justice system from being weaponized. There’s never been a justice system like this. The ex-president said on the trail that it was all an investigation.
This is a message that may be attractive to some of Trump’s base voters who themselves feel alienated from the federal government and previously bought into his claims about a “deep state” conspiracy against him. It is a technique in which a strongman leader argues that he is taking the heat because he knows his followers don’t have to.
The former Special Counsel at the Department of Defense said that the latest development could be a sign of an advanced special counsel investigation, and 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.”
A key sealed case revealed Wednesday is an attempt to force more answers about direct conversations between Trump and his defense attorney Evan Corcoran, where the Justice Department is arguing the investigation found evidence the conversations may be part of furthering or covering up a crime related to the Mar-a-Lago document boxes.
Kentucky Republican said that if someone were to show him evidence of influence peddling with the classified documents, then he would 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 of such links or that they had anything to do with 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.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer was, for example, asked by CNN’s Pamela Brown this weekend why he had no interest in the more than 325 documents found at Trump’s home but was fixated upon the approximately 20 classified documents uncovered in Biden’s premises by lawyers and an unknown number also found during an FBI search of the president’s home this month.
The two special counsel investigations probing Trump and Biden’s retention of secret documents are unfolding independently. There is no reason for the two of them to have an overlap. If findings are made public, they will both be involved in a political firefight.
Fulton County Circuit Judge Robert McBurney Revised an Order to Release the Special Purpose Grand Jury Report on Unlawful Retention of National Defense Information
As the political fallout from the classified documents furor deepened on Monday, the country got a reminder of the treatment that can await lower-ranking members of the federal workforce when secret material is taken home.
According to court documents, a retired air Force lieutenant colonel will plead guilty in February to one count of unlawfully retaining national defense information.
After reviewing the final report, the order concluded that the special purpose grand jury did not exceed the scope of its mission. The District Attorney had requested a roster of who should and should not be indicted for the conduct of the 2020 general election in Georgia, and it was provided by it.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in an eight-page order released Monday that there are due process concerns for people that the report names as likely violators of state laws, but he found that three sections that do not mention specifics can be released later this week, on Thursday.
On Thursday, the report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as concerns the panel had about witnesses lying under oath, will be made public. McBurney noted that some information in the sections could be vexed.
At the January 24 hearing, she and her staff argued against releasing the report because of the possible harm to the rights of those who might be indicted later.
While certain parts of the report should be kept under wraps until further action is taken by prosecutors, others should be released to the public.
Unlike regular grand juries, which meet for a much more limited time and consider multiple cases, this rarely used body spent roughly eight months interviewing more than 70 witnesses and gathering evidence, though it did not have the power to issue indictments.
Jurors voted to have that report made public, but the judge had questions about the applicability of prior precedents that have generally barred such reports from outlining alleged crimes without an indictment.
McBurney was left with a decision that was not simple and that the special purpose grand jury had a singular focus that made it hard to make public.
“We have to be careful about allowing the rights of future defendants to be trampled on,” he said. We do not believe it is appropriate to have this report released now because we want everyone to be treated fairly and future defendants to be treated fairly.
Though the work of the special grand jury was largely conducted behind closed doors, relevant public court filings have given clues as to potential targets of the investigation who might have broken laws. Those details include:
Willis so far has remained tight-lipped about potential indictments, other than telling the court that “decisions are imminent.” At least 17 people, including Giuliani and the rest of the fake voters, were told they could be targets of the investigation.
— On Wednesday, his problems deepened when an appeals court ruled that Trump’s defense attorney, Evan Corcoran, must testify before a grand jury in the case surrounding classified documents that Trump ferreted away at his resort at Mar-a-Lago. The decision was so significant that the court had to convince the DOJ there was enough evidence to show Trump had committed a crime in order to puncture the convention of attorney-client privilege.
To overcome the shield of attorney-client privilege, prosecutors alleged in writing to the judge that the former president used his attorney in furtherance of a crime or fraud, according to one source.
Corcoran recently appeared before the grand jury for roughly four hours and is the third attorney to testify before the grand jury. He has not yet appeared a second time, so it’s not clear if he’s going to do that.
It was not sure if the Justice Department had new evidence to support the argument that there was criminal planning, or if they were relying on the same arguments they made when requesting a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago. They suspected that federal records were moved or concealed inside the beach club and have been investigating this ever since.
The move was nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump, designed to stop the people of America from electing him to the White House.
Sessions of Special Counsel Robertson-Robertson and the Seizure of Scott Perry’s Cell Phone During the 2016 Trump-President Correspondence
The outcome of the disputes could potentially have far-reaching consequences, including the separation of powers, and could lead courts to make changes to the law around the presidency.
The sheer number of grand jury challenges from potential witnesses is both a reflection of the scope of the special counsel’s investigation and a hallmark of Trump’s ultra-combative style in the face of investigations.
The grand jury investigation into Trump had a few sealed proceedings where investigators used the court to get more info, and the Whitewater investigation had seven similar cases that were sealed.
About half a dozen cases are still ongoing in court, either before Chief Judge Beryl Howell or in the appeals court above her, the DC Circuit. Most appear to follow the typical arc of miscellaneous cases that arise during grand jury investigations, where prosecutors sometimes use the court to enforce their subpoenas.
In Whitewater, after the court in DC ruled that privilege claims wouldn’t hold up when a federal grand jury needed information, other witnesses shied away from trying to refuse to testify, Eggleston recalled. But in the Trump investigations, witnesses aligned continue to test whether he still may have special confidentiality protections.
The White House counsel and deputy White House counsel can decline to answer questions about their dealings with the President from the end of his time in office. Both men cited various privileges when they testified to the grand jury in September, but were forced to appear a second time and give more answers after court rulings in November and December, CNN previously confirmed. Trump’s team appealed after they testified twice.
Following the seizure of Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Scott Perry’s cell phone in August in the January 6 investigation, lawyers for the congressman challenged the Justice Department’s ability to access data taken from the phone, citing protection around Congress under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. An appeals court panel has blocked the DOJ from viewing the records so far, according to the court record. The case is set for oral arguments on February 23 at the appeals court in Washington. The circuit court also has a request from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to unseal documents in the case.
The New York Times and Politico are trying to convince Howell to release redacted versions of any sealed court fights related to the grand jury where Trump or others in his administration have tried to limit the investigation with claims of executive privilege, according to court filings.
Clark was attempting to keep investigators from seeing a draft of his memoir that discussed his efforts at the Justice Department on behalf of Trump. Clark had tried to mark the draft outline about his life as an attorney work product.
They argued on Monday that with the public interested in the cases, there should be more confidentiality than what the court releases.
The big question is whether parts of them contain information that can shed new light on what Trump did two years ago and if the special grand jury found that the former president committed any crimes.
The Atlanta Grand Jury Investigates Former President Donald Trump’s Efforts To Overturn the 2020 Election: The Case for a Big Name?
Trump lost to Joe Biden in Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes in 2020. The former president has stated that there wasn’t any problem with his campaigning during the election.
Cunningham added to CNN that “there is no doubt that whatever (the report is) referring to is either conduct that was done directly by Donald Trump or done on his behalf.”
“That would tell us that this cross section of citizens, having spent nine months working hard at this, has concluded that at least some of what was done on behalf of the former president to overturn the election results was a crime,” he said. “I think that’s terrifically significant.”
The special grand jury, barred from issuing indictments, penned their final report as a culmination of its seven months of work, which included interviewing 75 witnesses, from Giuliani to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Its final report is likely to include some summary of the panel’s investigative work, as well as any recommendations for indictments and the alleged conduct that led the panel to its conclusions.
No one has been charged in the case yet, and another grand jury in Fulton County would make those decisions now that the special grand jury has presented its findings to Willis.
The foreperson of the Atlanta-based grand jury that investigated former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election told CNN on Tuesday that the panel is recommending multiple indictments and suggested “the big name” may be on the list.
“Can you imagine doing this for eight months and not coming out with a whole list” of recommended indictments, Emily Kohrs told CNN. “It’s not a short list. It is not.
She continued, “There may be some names on that list that you wouldn’t expect. But the big name that everyone keeps asking me about – I don’t think you will be shocked.”
CNN’s Kate Bolduan reveals that the grand jury of the state of Georgia is not a witch hunt, but a foreperson-ebof
The grand jury had 24 jurors, but all of them were not present to hear witness testimony. Only Kohrs has spoken publicly so far.
The number of people was being asked by CNN’s Kate Bolduan if it was more than a dozen. That may be a good assumption.
Trump, who has launched his 2024 campaign for the White House, denies any criminal wrongdoing. He claims that the Democrat is biased and promotes a false claim that he won the election in Georgia.
She said she heard Trump ask the Georgia Secretary of State to find the votes he needed to win the state as part of the probe, not the one he made after the election.
Despite Trump’s claims that the prosecutors are liberal zealots on a “witch hunt,” Kohrs said she believed Willis and her team acted in a non-partisan fashion and tried to keep the proceedings fair.
She told CNN that she did not think there was bias on the team of prosecutors. “I know for a fact that they were always very worried about accidentally coloring our opinions one way or the other … They told us that they didn’t want any of their opinions to affect any of our opinions, or any of their additional knowledge to affect our knowledge.”
“I hope she does something, I want to see her take almost any kind of decisive action in order to do something.” There are many times in recent history where someone is called out for something, and nothing ever happens.
“How often does something actually happen? I would love to see something actually happen. Don’t make me take back my faith in the system,” Kohrs said. “The only thing I would be disappointed in, at this point, is if this whole thing just disappears. That is the only thing that makes me sad.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/politics/fulton-county-trump-grand-jury-foreperson-ebof/index.html
The Foreperson in the Special Grand Jury: What Happens When a 30-Year-Old Woman Tells Them All About Trump
The foreperson said that she was surprised by the politeness of some witnesses, even though he invoked privilege and declined to answer some questions.
Some of the people who were willing to have a conversation were not willing to be there. In person, Flynn was very nice. He was a very nice man. He was definitely interesting. But I don’t recall him saying anything earth-shattering.”
It’s a marvel of the American judicial system that Emily Kohrs, a 30-year-old woman who has described herself as between customer service jobs and who said she didn’t vote in the 2020 presidential election, could play a pivotal role in the potential indictment of a former US president.
In an interview on Tuesday night with CNN’s Kate Bolduan, Kohrs was clearly thrilled to play a part in the special grand jury and laughing so much that he was starstruck by Giuliani’s appearance.
Kohrs is cagily answering questions, teasing that the special grand jury may have recommended charges for Trump and saying she hopes something comes of it all.
Her identity as the foreperson was first revealed by The Associated Press, and in addition to the AP, she has, in short order, done interviews with The New York Times, NBC News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and CNN.
What happened to the former US Attorney Harry Litman and the way the grand jury handled her case? A CNN interview with Joel Kohrs, MD, A.D. Krusis, and K.A. Rubio
The former US Attorney Harry Litman said on CNN on Wednesday that prosecutors have got to be “consternated” that a potential jury pool could be contaminated by Kohrs’ “odd 15-minute PR tour.”
I am straining for the right word, but that would be the biggest thing that has happened in the criminal law in American history. This has never happened to a former president,” Litman said.
According to Anthony Michael Krusis, an associate professor of law at Georgia State University, he believes that as long as she doesn’t mention any charges, and doesn’t refer to the case as a whole, she is within her rights to talk about it.
“She didn’t do anything violative of her obligations,” Kreis said. “I don’t think she did anything that jeopardized Fani Willis’ strategy or her ability to bring her case.”
Kohrs told reporters McBurney gave the jury instructions, and she seemed to consider exactly how far she could go before answering reporters’ individual questions – though she also seemed to enjoy the opportunity to dish about the grand jury proceedings.
The simple act of embracing the role is a fascinating example of how the US justice system relies on everyday people.
Here are some of the key parts of the interview with CNN. I’ve paraphrased Bolduan’s questions and have noted Kohrs’ responses in italics.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/georgia-grand-jury-emily-kohrs-what-matters/index.html
The case against the disclosure of the report to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Human Rights and Integrity (Judicial Committee 97, No. 99), [J. Phys. Lett. 89 (1986
I think if you look at the page numbers of the report, there’s about six pages in the middle that got cut out. It is not a short list.
I will tell you that it was a process where we heard his name a lot. We definitely heard a lot about former President Trump, and we definitely discussed him a lot in the room. There are no major plot twists waiting for you when this list comes out, I will tell you that.
I don’t want to speak out on something that the judge, like I said, consciously chose not to release at this point. I don’t know if I would support the investigations. I don’t know if I would interfere with procedures in some way. I very much do not want to cross that line.
I would not say that. I believe that it ended up there because it was less pointed than the other things that were written in the report, and so the judge chose not to make them public.
I will say that I thought it was important to keep it separate as well, at least in my opinion, not anybody else’s but mine. There’s a difference between the crimes we were called to investigate and crimes that were committed in the room.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/georgia-grand-jury-emily-kohrs-what-matters/index.html
How Did the jury choose to impanel regular people? A statement from Timothy Heaphy on CNN, Jan. 6, 2015, a “Democratic Analogy”
I enjoy being a part of this process. I think it’s amazing to actually be able to be a part of this process for once. I think it’s a privilege to be able to actually be a part of the system for once and making it work.
This has been fascinating to get this peek into the world of politics and of all these different – of government and of all these different things and have the curtain lifted just a little bit and let us peek in as regular people has been amazing. I am very happy that I did it.
I believe it’s the opposite. I think that the jury chose to avoid politics by impaneling regular people, because they wanted to take bias out of the question. They got 16, instead of anyone else, because they chose to.
I am not. I am cautious when it comes to my safety. I am aware of my safety, but I am not worried. I don’t think I should be, I think the jury did nothing about politics or anything like that, I don’t think they did anything about politics at all.
I think we were empaneled to find facts, and I think we did our best to find those facts and share those facts with the district attorney and her office.
I think there will be indictments at the federal level unless there is a lack of information, which I don’t expect, said Timothy Heaphy on CNN.
They were in attendance for important events. The special counsel will want to hear about the election results, and what happened on January 6. They both had contact with him about the events preceding the riot at the Capitol.
CNN Primetime: Inside the Trump Investigations – Detecting Donald Trump’s alleged misconduct in a scheme to pay off an adult film star
“He will not stop because of a family relationship, because of purported executive privilege,” Heaphy said of Smith. “He believes that the law entitles him to all of that information, and he’s determined to get it.”
Republican control of the House left the House select committee no longer functioning in January. The panel had referred the former president to the Justice Department on four criminal charges in December, and while largely symbolic in nature, committee members stressed those referrals served as a way to document their views given that Congress cannot bring charges.
CNN looks at the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump. Watch “CNN Primetime: Inside the Trump Investigations” Tuesday, March 21 at 9 p.m. ET.
Officials in Washington, DC, and New York are preparing for potential protests, as a grand jury empaneled in the investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged role in a scheme to pay off an adult film star is considering charges.
According to an internal memo shared with CNN, NYPD officers in New York City are ready for deployment Tuesday, and all are expected to be in uniform. Law enforcement officials told CNN that although Tuesday is a “high alert day,” there is currently no credible threat.
The memo came in response to Trump’s social media posts over the weekend that called on his supporters to protest in response to a potential arrest, echoing the calls he made for protests in Washington, DC, in response to his 2020 election loss – protests that later turned violent when scores of his supporters stormed the Capitol. CNN obtained an intelligence report from the US Capitol Police force stating that they are not currently tracking any threats to the US Capitol.
A source tells CNN that if Trump is indicted, they do not think he will be arrested before next week. They did not have any knowledge about the timing of a potential indictment as of Monday night, even though they had been told by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that nothing would happen on Tuesday.
Cohen made himself available to the DA’s office as a rebuttal witness Monday but was “not needed,” according to a statement provided to CNN by his lawyer.
The Communications Between Donald J. Bragg and the Attorney for Trump Have been Handed over to the New York District Attorney During a Grand Jury Investigation
On Capitol Hill, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Chairman James Comer and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil said they intend to investigate whether Bragg and his office used federal public safety funds as part of its grand jury probe in an extraordinary move to intervene in the investigation.
A spokesperson for Bragg responded by saying that the district attorney’s team “will not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process, nor will we let baseless accusations deter us from fairly applying the law.”
“In every prosecution, we follow the law without fear or favor to uncover the truth. The skilled, honest and dedicated lawyers remain hard at work.
Sources told CNN that attorney-client privilege did not apply because prosecutors were able to show Trump’s lawyer was used in furtherance of a crime.
Judges Nina Pillard, Michelle Childs and Florence Pan of the DC Circuit have demanded more information and arguments by early Wednesday morning, setting a deadline for Trump and his lawyers by midnight and for prosecutors to respond by 6 a.m.
Two advisers said that the former president appears to have resigned himself to the likelihood of an indictment and that one close adviser called his apparent distance from the matter “compartmentalization.”
CNN reported exclusively Tuesday night that the communications between Daniels and the attorney for Trump have been handed over to the Manhattan district attorney. The exchanges – said to date back to 2018, when Daniels was seeking representation – raise the possibility that the Trump attorney, Joe Tacopina, could be sidelined from Trump’s defense.
The records in question have not been viewed by CNN and no conflict or confidential information has been shared with his office. He says he neither met nor spoke to Daniels. The impact of the disclosure depends on the circumstances and substance of the communications.
The Trump War: Implications to the Court and to the American Civil Libertarian Movement Against Corcoran’s Ontology of Murder
An adviser questioned if an indictment from a New York grand jury could derail plans for Trump to attend a rally in Texas on Saturday.
We are in new territory. We don’t know what this does long term politically. We’d rather he just not be indicted than get some potential boost,” a source involved with Trump’s campaign told CNN.
Over the weekend, Trump on his social media page called for protests of what he said was his impending arrest. But he’s moved away from that language in recent days after calls from allies and advisers to tone down his rhetoric, a sign he may be listening to those around him.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are keeping a close eye on violent rhetoric online, including calls for civil war, that have arisen since Trump made those calls. But so far, it’s been limited to chatter and has lacked the actionable information, coordination and volume that preceded the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, US officials and security experts told CNN.
An increasingly circus-like atmosphere in Washington, New York and Florida, where Trump now lives, is making the drama around the various cases even more tense and confusing – and, to some extent, taking the focus away from what may be a moment of dubious history. The controversy is designed to distract from the evidence and fuel Trump’s claim he is the victim of an endless political vendetta.
Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and CNN legal analyst, said the piercing of this bedrock legal protection was highly unusual and an ill omen for Trump, since Corcoran’s testimony could be used to suggest he committed a crime. The possible obstruction of justice could happen as a result of the mishandling of classified documents. “It considerably worsens what was probably Trump’s most federal legal peril,” Eisen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” on Wednesday.
Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels, is seen by some analysts as a weak link in any trial since his credibility could be undermined by his own conviction for lying to Congress. CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams explained that Bragg would have to test the question of Cohen’s trustworthiness now before a grand jury or at trial. “It’s very much in their interests, to take a beat, step back and decide,” he said. It happens all the time, as prosecutors decide how to bring cases.
A Republican Candidate in the House of Representatives Angry at the Manhattan DA: Implications for the Special Counsel’s Investigation
Trump lashing out at DeSantis, who has yet to declare a campaign, is cranking up the GOP presidential race to its most intense level yet just as the former president’s legal problems also seem to be exploding. In a Wednesday statement, Trump claimed that Ron is the best Public Relations guy in the country, despite being an average governor. “But it is all a Mirage, just look at the facts and figures, they don’t lie—And we don’t want Ron as our President!”
“The governor can’t afford to be marginalized from the get go,” one DeSantis adviser told CNN’s Steve Contorno amid Trump’s attacks on the governor. “He clearly made the calculus it was time to push back.”
Other Republicans are also seeking a political opening. Trump’s Republican allies in the House have been demonstrating his enduring strength with the grassroots voters who sent them to Washington by unleashing an extraordinary assault on the Manhattan DA. They are using the power of the government to try to keep Trump away from being held to account and to get rid of his legal threats. GOP House committee chairs have, for instance, demanded Bragg’s testimony and have pledged to find out whether his probe used any federal funds.
The attorney’s appearance before the grand jury this week has the potential to make or break the special counsel’s investigation into the handling of classified records at Mar-a-Lago and possible obstruction of justice when the federal government tried to get the documents back.