Do DOJC Files Contain Obstructions at the Trump White House, and a Case for Mishandling Documents?
This development is troubling since it could be that there is a pattern of deception that leads to an obstruction of justice charge. On the initial search warrant before the FBI showed up at Trump’s home in August, the bureau told a judge there could be “evidence of obstruction” at the resort.
Trump objected to making the executive privilege distinction Dearie proposed. Cannon incorporated part of Dearie’s plan for how the documents should be categorized.
On Thursday, Cannon also pushed back the timeline for the review by at least a half-month, while making clear that additional litigation that Trump will have the chance to bring, after the special master process is finished, challenging the search will remain on her docket.
Trump went to court to get an order that a third lawyer review the seized materials. The documents that were marked as classified were not allowed to be used in the criminal probe.
Mar-a-Lago documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material? There is an ongoing Justice Department investigation into whether documents from the Trump White House were mishandled when they were brought to his Mar-a-Lago resort. A federal grand jury in Washington has been empaneled and has interviewed potential witnesses to how Trump handled the documents. At least 15 boxes of White House records, including some classified, were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, according to the National Archives.
The National Archives had no jurisdiction over the investigation of Donald Trump’s personal correspondence with the FBI, but she argued that the FBI planted evidence
Cannon on Thursday rejected part of the special master’s plan that would have forced the former President’s legal team to back up his out-of-court claims that the FBI planted evidence.
“There shall be no separate requirement on Plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the Seized Materials, to lodge ex ante final objections to the accuracy of Defendant’s Inventory, its descriptions, or its contents,” Cannon wrote, noting that her order appointing a special master contemplated only the government filing a declaration verifying the accuracy of the inventory.
Cannon said that the Trump team doesn’t need to give certain details about the executive privilege claims in the review.
The judge decided to remove the requirement for Trump to specify whether he believed that disclosure within the executive branch was barred or not.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department stated that the documents seized from Trump’s Florida residence are official records and should be deposited with the National Archives.
Cannon explained the reasons for the growth of the timelines in a way that made clear the issues the parties had faced when securing a vendor to digitally copy seized materials.
Earlier this week, the department said in a court filing that Trump’s team had indicated the data hosting companies didn’t want to work with the former President. Trump’s team now says the issue is the size of the evidence collection.
Concerns of missing presidential documents was growing inside the National Archives, while the transition team worked with the GSA to facilitate the move. The National Archives alerted Trump’s lawyers in May 2021 that Trump’s letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – and two dozen boxes of records – were missing.
The relationship between the two men had become tense because of the continuing stonewalling by Trump, who questioned why he needed to return items in the first place.
A person with knowledge of the matter said that it was a mutual decision for Alex to no longer deal with Archives.
In February, Trump dictated a statement to his aides saying that all records had been returned and that his relationship with the agency had become strained. Two people familiar with the statement, which was never released, said it inexplicably went on to mention German pipelines. Several advisers to the former President warned him against releasing the statement, including his spokesman Taylor Budowich, who was one of the many Trump aides who approved it.
Ultimately, a version of the statement was released that did not reference giving all documents over but said the papers were returned “on a very friendly basis.”
The FBI and the National Archives: An emergency order to investigate the DOJ case of Donald J. Trump over documents marked classified that he hoarded at the Florida resort
Budowich, who declined to answer detailed questions for this story, said in a statement Monday, “Biden’s weaponized DOJ has no greater ally than the fake news media, which seems to only serve as the partisan microphone of leakers and liars buried deep within the bowels of America’s government.”
The integrity of America for generations to come is assured by the President’s steadfast commitment to defending the Constitution and Office of the Presidency.
The initial volley of boxes returned by Trump’s team contained 184 classified documents, with some of them annotated with handwritten notes by Trump.
The lawyer, Alex Cannon, had become a point of contact for officials with the National Archives, who had tried for months to get Mr. Trump to return presidential records that he failed to turn over upon leaving office. The people say Mr. Cannon was not sure if the message was true.
The court’s decision steers them away from politics at a time when approval ratings of the 6-3 conservative leaned court have dipped to new lows and liberals, including President Joe Biden, have attacked the legitimacy of the institution. The order was issued during the hearing of the House select committee’s investigation of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.
Trump on Tuesday filed an emergency application to the court to step into his dispute with the Justice Department over documents marked classified that he hoarded at the resort in Florida.
After the DOJ subpoenaed Trump for documents, prosecutors went to court to enforce a grand jury subpoena. The judge ordered Trump’s team to comply. The search led to the discovery of two additional documents with classification markings.
The Presidency of the Supreme Court: President Trump, Justice Scalia, and the Challenge to the Post-Oval Office Judgments
The court will not know if this case will be viewed as important by the court or not, and it would be a betrayal of duty if they did not take it up.
And Trump could simply lose – even if he persuades the justices to take the case – since to get emergency relief he must prove that he’s suffered irreparable harm in the matter, a threshold many legal experts believe is a stretch.
He also argued to the court that he shouldn’t have to reveal inner workings about his 2020 presidential campaign, “including his political beliefs, strategy, and fundraising. President Trump did not look at his rights as he entered the Oval Office. It is invalid because the Committee interfered with President Trump’s First Amendment rights.
Trump has long appeared to believe that judges he appointed owe him loyalty. The Supreme Court has nine justices, three of which were nominated by him.
And he has typically reacted badly to his defeats before the top bench. The court had let him down and displayed neither wisdom nor courage in dismissing the challenge to the election.
Trying to Appease a Client with an Emergency Request: The Case of Nixon and the Forty-Fifth President of the United States
It keeps him in the news and makes his supporters feel like he’s being treated unfairly. As in this case, Trump often substitutes a political or public relations strategy for a strong legal one. It would be no surprise to see Trump fund out of his emergency request.
He uses every possible avenue in the legal system to slow a case, and his latest move is consistent with that. The application to the court, according to CNN legal analyst Steve Vladeck, came across as an attempt to appease a litigious client.
“This is what good lawyers who are stuck do to appease bad clients: The jurisdictional argument is narrow, technical, and non-frivolous. It’s a way of filing something in the Supreme Court without going all the way to crazytown and/or acting unethically,” Vladeck, a University of Texas law professor, wrote on Twitter.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said that Trump’s lawyers would “go through every word of this, that is their job, that is their right. They are going to look for any discrepancies that could help them attack the potential witnesses against them in court. Defense lawyers do that.
The application opened with a highly political argument, claiming that the case was an investigation into the Forty-Fifth President of the United States by the administration of his political rival and successor.
“I didn’t see much of an emergency,” Dean, who was at the center of the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
The Investigating Investigation Into Donald Trump’s 2020 Presidential Candidate Referee: Mr. Kise, Michael Flynn, and Jeffery Gingrich
The Supreme Court is currently in public opinion and so wouldn’t want to take on the types of arguments that are highly technical.
The Justice Department made clear in private discussions with Trump’s team as well as court filings that it believes Trump failed to comply with a May subpoena and more government records remain missing.
Whether the FBI rounded up all of the sensitive federal records in Trump’s possession during its August 8 search of his Florida residence and resort is a question that’s loomed over the situation in recent weeks.
The department believes that the injunction could lead to the identification of other records still missing, because the FBI and DOJ won’t be able to review the records to discern any patterns in the types of records retained.
The injunction would prohibit the government from using any aspect of the seized records to locate additional records, said the department.
One lawyer in Mr. Trump’s circle disagreed with Mr. Kise’s approach to dealing with the Justice Department. They talked Mr. Trump out of the idea and have encouraged him to maintain an aggressive stance toward the authorities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
It is unclear at which property Mr. Kise wanted a voluntary search by an outside group to be conducted. Mr. Trump frequently visits his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and an office in Manhattan.
The Georgia prosecutor who is leading the investigation into Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the state is looking for additional testimony from his allies, including Michael Flynn and Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich and Flynn are two of the people that the District Attorney wants to call to testify before a grand jury in support of her investigation.
CNN previously reported that during the heated Oval Office Meeting, Flynn and Powell proposed radical ideas about reversing the election three weeks after Trump pardoned Flynn.
Gingrich took part in a plan to have the Republican electors sign certificates stating that Trump had won the state even though Joe Biden had won, according to the petition.
The process of getting judges in other states to order witnesses to appear is necessary in order to getCompelling testimony from witnesses that don’t live in Georgia. The petitions she filed Friday are essentially precursors to subpoenas.
The grand jury could vote on an indictment in a matter of months. If a jury indicts Trump, he will have to appear in a Manhattan criminal court to enter a plea.
The case for the investigation of false claims about election fraud during the 2020 presidential campaign and their response to a petition seeking Flynn’s testimony
Flynn did not respond to email or phone calls seeking comment and his lawyer did not return an email seeking comment. Gingrich referred questions to his attorney, who declined to comment. Herschmann could not be reached immediately.
The case leading up to the election is going to last a month and she is going to take a break.
Each of the petitions filed Friday seeks to have the potential witnesses appear in November after the election. But the process for securing testimony from out-of-state witnesses sometimes takes a while, so it appears Willis is putting the wheels in motion for activity to resume after her self-imposed pause.
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.
It says he was involved along with others associated with the Trump campaign in a plan to run television ads that “repeated and relied upon false claims about fraud in the 2020 election” and encouraged members of the public to contact state officials to push them to challenge and overturn the election results based on those claims.
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.
Herschmann, who featured prominently in the House committee hearings on the Capitol attack, was a senior adviser to Trump from August 2020 through the end of his term and “was present for multiple meetings between former President Trump and others related to the 2020 election,” Willis wrote in the petition seeking his testimony.
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.
He communicated with Powell and others regarding an agreement to hire SullivanStrickler, a data solutions firm, to copy voting system equipment data in Coffee County, as well as in Michigan and Nevada. A phone and email message were left for Penrose.
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 be reached for comment.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/08/1127637799/flynn-gingrich-testimony-georgia-election-probe
When Donald Trump and Christina Bobb met with the Georgia Super Court (GAUGE) in August 2018: Amidst chaos and rushed chaos in the 2016 presidential campaign
Georgia has special grand juries who investigate cases with large numbers of witnesses and logistical concerns. They have the ability to subpoena witnesses, unlike regular grand juries, and can also summon the target of an investigation.
When the investigation is complete, the grand jury can issue a final report and recommend action. It’s then up to the district attorney to decide whether to ask a regular grand jury for an indictment.
A person familiar with the matter says that Christina Bobb, the lawyer who signed a letter stating that all classified material had been returned, has spoken with federal investigators.
Bobb’s sworn statement to the Justice Department included a caveat that she was certifying based on the information that has been provided to her.
After the boxes were to be picked up and Trump’s team had long gone to Florida, there was yet another snag in August – one pallet was the wrong size and couldn’t fit on the freight elevator. The event delayed the delivery again, the emails show, and resulted in an intern being flown back from the Sunshine State to repack the pallets and prepare them to be sent to Mar-a-Lago, where they finally arrived mid-September.
The newly released emails also provide new details underscoring the rushed, chaotic nature of Trump’s transition after he spent two months exhausting numerous avenues trying to overturn the 2020 election.
Two people who found two classified documents in a Florida storage facility for Donald Trump have testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that’s looking at the former president’s handling of national security records at his Mar-a-Lago residence, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The GSA has said they made a mistake because the president did not take the documents out himself, but even if the documents were classified they wouldn’t meet the burden of intent. The GSA has never said they packed the boxes.
His lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment. The Biden administration had been accused by a spokesman for Mr. Trump of “colluding with the media through targeted leaks” and an ” illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”
A routine and necessary procedure has been utilized by power-hungry bureaucrats to intimidate and silence those who have supported President Trump’s America First agenda. “Why? Democrats have failed the American people so they are scrambling to make a new witch-hunt to distract from their failures.
What can I send to NARA or GSA if I’m not using Transition Funds? A note on the case of the former president
If the item is considered property of the former President, it shouldn’t be shipped using Transition Funds. The guidance on gifts was attached to Kathy’s email and stated that the item should be given to the NARA or GSA. “I just wanted to make sure we had an understanding of what you are allowed to ship using Transition funds.”
In the email exchange, Trump’s director of correspondence Desiree Thompson Sayle asked Geisler to point out where in the federal code she was referring to. “I want to ensure that we are in compliance, and the attached appears to be general guidance on what gifts (foreign and domestic) can be accepted by a government employee or elected official,” she wrote.
“Working with NARA and GSA, I am in full compliance with the final disposition of gifts. So much so, we are loading the large portrait received after the 21st on a Penske truck to transport to my house so I can put it on my moving van,” Sayle added.
The post presidential life of the former President was put in place by the staff of Trump just nine days before the inauguration of Joe Biden. Following the same pattern of past presidential transitions, GSA would provide the funds and support to help with the transition and setting up a post-presidential office.
The chaotic environment continued after Trump vacated the White House. The last night of the outgoing team’s tenure, in July 2021, a flurry of late-night emails reveal staff scrambling unsuccessfully to get the boxes sent off.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/10/politics/trump-documents-shipping-gsa/index.html
The Subpoena and the Mueller Investigation of a White House Activist’s Interaction with a Mar-a-Lago Air Conditioning Unit
Sayle said that his intern can repack his pallet in Crystal City when he returns to DC tomorrow. I’m sending him to pick up a roll of shrink wrap from Uhaul, but I’d like to know if there’s an air conditioning unit on the 12th floor.
The Trump employee initially denied handling sensitive documents or boxes at Mar-a-Lago, according to the source. The witness revised their story to say that Trump instructed them to move the boxes.
The Subpoenas request for evidence and testimony from President Trump is unwarranted because there are more sources of the requested information, including witnesses the Committee has contacted and one million documents the Committee has collected, his attorneys argue. “The Committee also may obtain abundant government records relevant to its inquiry. Because of this obvious availability to obtain testimony and documents from other readily available sources, the Subpoena is invalid.”
Prosecutors said in August that that some documents were likely removed from a storage room before Trump’s lawyers examined the area, while they were trying to comply with the subpoena.
The Justice Department began investigating boxes that were moving from a storage room after the footage of a man who had left the White House and then went to work for Mr. Trump was shown. The inquiry has centred on whether the president kept his national security records after leaving the White House.
As part of its investigation, the Justice Department has interviewed Mr. Nauta on several occasions, according to one of the people. Those interviews started before the F.B.I. executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and carted off more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 that bore classification markings. Mr. Nauta has answered questions but is not formally cooperating with the investigation of Mr. Trump’s handling of the documents.
The Mueller investigation of the January 6, 2020 insurrection: a case against a little guy using the House subpoena
The House select committee is looking into the January 6, 2020 insurrection, and has uncovered dramatic evidence of efforts to overturn the election. The end of the committee’s investigation is expected by the end of the year, if the Republicans take over the House of Representatives.
Trump compliance with the grand jury subpoena is a legal risk, since he may have mishandled classified documents after he left the White House. In court, prosecutors claimed that Trump’s team tried to obstruct the government’s investigation by not fully complying with a subpoena.
CNN’s John King said that they are trying to make the case that Trump is Oz. He is a little guy trying to pull a machine, when you look at him, he is all powerful.
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.
The prosecution is underway. If found guilty, as Bannon was, Trump could theoretically face a minimum of 30 days in jail. Bannon will be sentenced for failing to comply with the House subpoena later this month.
When President George Conway walked away from the House of Representatives on January 6, 2017: Trump and the Clinton Organization face a legal challenge
George Conway said during an appearance on CNN that none of that is going to happen. “This is about laying a marker. This is about triggering a response (from Trump).”
Conway did point out the Supreme Court has already made clear where it stands on Trump’s status as a former president when it ignored his attempt to block the National Archives from sharing information with the committee.
According to Cheney, the committee on January 6 feels that it has enough information to recommend 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.
Most recently, in 1974, Gerald Ford testified voluntarily as president before a House subcommittee about his decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon.
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. Jefferson did ultimately provide some documents. The man was eventually acquitted.
The committee tried to get the records of Trump’s communication on his phones via text and/orAPPS in January of 2021, but they were not granted by the court. The House sought to track down every communication device that Trump used before leaving the presidency, according to the letters.
A judge forced him to comply with subpoenas from New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of her civil inquiry into his business practices. He invoked the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination during that deposition.
Trump, his three oldest children and the Trump Organization were subsequently sued by James. On Thursday, James asked a state court to block Trump from moving assets to shield them from the lawsuit.
Summary of Sessions with the Joint Committee on Capitol Hill Reform (JRC 2023): a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, and Senate Minority Leader
The January 6 committee must finish its work by January 3, 2023 if it is to be continued during the next Congress.
The footage of congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, huddled in a secure location during the insurrection grappling with implications of the pro-Trump mob’s attack on the Capitol was aired at the hearing. The ex- President tried to avoid publicly admitting he was a loser in 2020, but it was found that his complete comprehension of his defeat made his actions even more heinous.
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.
A letter from the committee that accompanied the subpoena summarized what the panel presented in a series of hearings to demonstrate why it believes Trump “personally orchestrated and oversaw” the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“We are obligated to seek answers directly from the man who set this all in motion,” said Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the panel’s top Republican. Every American has the right to be given the answers so we can protect our republic.
And select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, argued that Trump “is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th. So we want to hear from him.”
The committee aired previously unseen footage from Fort McNair, the DC-area Army base where congressional leaders took refuge during the insurrection and scrambled to respond to the unfolding crisis.
The footage shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top officials working the phones and coordinating with Trump Cabinet members and other officials to secure the resources needed to quell the insurrection and secure the Capitol.
The footage also showed two phone calls between Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who took on an impromptu leadership role on January 6, coordinating the emergency response.
The new footage showed Schumer dressing down then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. During their heated phone call, Schumer implored Rosen to intervene directly with Trump, and tell Trump to call off the mob. During the call, Pelosi told Rosen that the pro-Trump rioters were “breaking the law… at the instigation of the President of the United States.”
“I think the events at the Capitol, however they occurred, were shocking and it was something that, as I mentioned in my statement, that I could not put aside,” said Chao, one of the former members of Trump’s Cabinet whose recorded testimony lawmakers aired on Thursday.
“And at a particular point, the events were such that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and my philosophy. I came as an immigrant to this country. I believe in this country. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I believe in democracy. She said that she made the decision on her own.
CNN has previously reported that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former Trump White House aide, told the select committee that she was contacted by someone attempting to influence her testimony.
I told Mark he couldn’t possibly think we’re going to pull this off. Like, that call was crazy.’ And he looked at me and just started shaking his head. And he’s like, ‘No, Cass, you know, he knows it’s over. He knows he lost. Hutchinson told the committee that they are going to keep trying.
Hutchinson said that she witnessed a discussion between Trump and Meadows about the Supreme Court’s rejection of the lawsuit.
The President said that he didn’t want people to know that we lost. This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost,’” Hutchinson said.
While there are still questions surrounding erased text messages from Secret Service agents around the insurrection, the panel obtained messages and emails showing the agency receiving warnings before January 6, 2021, about the prospect of violence, as well as real-time reports of weapons in the crowd ahead of Trump’s speech at the Ellipse.
The text messages show that on Election Day, a group of activists were connecting with GOP lawmakers and rally organizers. Trump Jr. thought that the most sophisticated and plausible way to keep his father in power was to send him ideas for keeping him in power.
The Senate Select Committee on the Investigation of the 2020 Insurrection on the House of Representatives to the Judiciary Select Committee: Mike Pence and Ginni Thomas
The congressman said that the Secret Service received warnings of online threats against VP Mike Pence, who would be dead if he didn’t do the right thing.
The deposition of Greg Jacob was played by the committee. In the clip, Jacob describes how he and Pence’s then-chief of staff Marc Short had prepared, ahead of time, for Trump to declare victory on Election Night, regardless of the results.
After their conversation on November 3, 2020, Jacob drafted a memo to Short, which the committee said it obtained from the National Archives and presented for the first time on Thursday.
The memo says that the public needs to be aware that the Vice President wasn’t in charge of the electoral votes until the complete facts were available.
The committee also revealed new emails conservative legal activist Tom Fitton sent to two Trump advisers a few days before the election. One email contains a draft statement for Trump to declare victory on Election Night.
Committee members interviewed Ginni Thomas last month but ultimately her testimony was not featured as part of the panel’s last hearing before the midterm election.
Her absence was notable since the committee used testimony from several other high-profile witnesses who were interviewed after the most recent hearing.
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.
But the developments that could hurt Trump the most happened off stage. The distance left to run for efforts to account for his exit from power and Presidency is extraordinary, as well as the legal thicket surrounding the ex- President who has not been charged with a crime.
Trump and his allies are hoping for some respite from his legal troubles as the upcoming elections draw closer.
The case could have been delayed without the intervention of the court. No dissents were noted, including from conservative justices Trump elevated to the bench and whom he often seems to believe owe him a debt of loyalty.
Will the Ex-President be Charged with a Crime on January 6? The Mar-a-Lago Investigation and the 2020 Presidential Campaign
For all the political drama that surrounds the continuing revelations over one of the darkest days in modern American history on January 6, it’s the showdown over classified documents that appears to represent the ex-President’s most clear cut and immediate threat of true criminal exposure.
The panel can’t try Trump because it has no power and it can’t force the Justice Department to follow its decisions. The DOJ has its own investigation that requires a higher bar than the political maneuverings of the committee. There are little case law precedents for the potential charges. The seriousness of indicting the ex-president and current White House candidate who have already used violence as a political tactic means it is one of the most fateful challenges the department has to face.
Marc Short, a former chief of staff for then-Vice President Mike Pence, was spotted leaving a courthouse in Washington, DC. A person with knowledge of the matter said that Short was compelled to testify for the second time. Another Trump adviser, former national security aide Kash Patel, was also seen walking into an area where the grand jury meets. He wouldn’t tell reporters what he was doing.
The details of the Mar-a-Lago incident raised troubling questions, but David is not convinced that they constituted a case of obstruction of 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.”
With its mic drop finale, the House committee investigating the US Capitol insurrection left a fateful question hanging over Washington, Donald Trump and the 2024 presidential campaign: will the ex-president be charged with a crime?
According to multiple sources, both the Mar-a-Lago investigation and the January 6 investigation around Trump are aiming to gather more information and bring witnesses into a federal grand jury in the coming weeks. In the last few days prosecutors have sent new subpoenas related to two investigations, with return dates this week.
Rep. L.J. Budowich, R.C.P., C.M.R. Trump, III, Insensitivity to the Unselect Committee on January 6, 2016”
On Thursday, one of those days that is when the seriousness of a crisis can often be seen in the vehemence of the rhetoric he uses to respond, Trump came out fighting.
After the congressional committee said it would send out a subpoena, Trump offered a glimpse of how he might use his appearance before them to create a political spectacle. He made multiple false and debunked claims about election fraud in a 14-page letter, and lashed out at the panel itself, calling them politically motivated hacks and thieves whose sole function is to destroy the lives of many American patriots.
“Pres Trump will not be intimidate(d) by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions. Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms, and America First leadership and solutions will be restored, according to Budowich.
The former President weighed in on his Truth Social network with a post that didn’t answer the accusations against him, which was clearly designed to stir a political reaction from his supporters.
“Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the end of the meeting? The Committee is a total BUST. Trump wrote.
On the day of the subpoena, Trump’s lawyer said the committee was violating normal procedure by publicly releasing the subpoena and would respond as appropriate to the action.
The separation of powers between Congress and the President is not always in the best interests of the legislature, according to a statement from Trump’s attorney.
Observers will see the vote to target ex- President Donald Trump as yet another spectacle in the courtroom of slickly produced hearings that often resembled a television courtroom drama, given the slim chance he would comply with a congressional subpoena.
But the committee’s Republican vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, said the investigation was no longer just about what happened on January 6, but about the future.
The Wyoming lawmaker who lost her primary this summer to a Trump-backed challenger criticized the former President for his conduct and said we need to chip away at the foundation of our republic.
Where Are the Beef? How Do We Need Some Beef in the DOJ Investigation of a Presidential Visit to Florida, A Day after Trump’s Visit?
The records were so sensitive that the Justice Department requested that the court stay out of the dispute.
“As this Court has emphasized, courts should be cautious before ‘insisting upon an examination’ of records whose disclosure would jeopardize national security ‘even by the judge alone, in chambers,’” DOJ wrote earlier this week, citing a past case.
The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to put on hold some of the orders after the Justice Department asked for it to be done.
“The Eleventh Circuit lacked jurisdiction to review, much less stay, an interlocutory order of the District Court providing for the Special Master to review materials seized from President Trump’s home,” Trump told the Supreme Court last week.
The appeals court order that made Raymond Dearie the special master will make it more difficult for him to work, said Trump’s team.
The filing said that a limit on the transparency of the review of materials seized in the raid erodes public confidence in the system.
The former president’s team was initially given the role of special master by an appellate court, but it was taken away by another court. The DOJ appointed a special counsel in order to please Trump.
“Where’s the beef? I need some beef,” Judge Raymond Dearie, acting as the third-party reviewer of the seized documents, said during a half-hour conference call with the attorneys from both sides.
On Tuesday, Dearie pointed, for instance, to a letter that’s already in dispute as potentially private in the collection of documents taken from Trump’s Florida estate. The Justice Department was apparently addressed to by the letter that was found in Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department hadn’t said if the agency had received it.
Dearie questioned if the two sides could determine if the letter was sent, which would be crucial to help the judge decide if it should be kept confidential.
When I have only one month to deal with who knows how many assertions, Dearie of the Eastern District of New York is not interested in dealing with nonsense.
“Unless I’m wrong, and I’ve been wrong before, there’s a certain incongruity there. Dearie speculated that the lawyers might address that in a submission.
Trump’s Legal Team in the War for Mar-a-Lago: What Will It Take? An Analysis with a Closer Look
The parties have not yet indicated how many of the nearly 22,000 pages seized at Mar-a-Lago Trump are in dispute and will require the special master to make a call.
The possibility of allowing federal officials to return to Trump’s property – likely with Trump’s own lawyers present – is just one option on the table as the Trump team grapples with how best to protect the former President from legal jeopardy. The legal team for Donald Trump has not made any decisions yet, but they are weighing how to handle the Justice Department.
According to people with knowledge of the matter, Trump recently signaled to aides and allies that he was open to a less aggressive approach toward the Justice Department and that it could resolve the records issue after weeks of litigation.
“The general belief in Trump World is that this is much ado about nothing and the sooner we get past it the better,” said a person close to Trump, adding that the former President has told allies he “wants to move on.”
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 could ask a judge to force the Trump team to arrange another search if they didn’t already do it.
Trump has accused federal investigators at one point of planting evidence during their search for Mar-a-Lago, but he never substantiated it in court.
Sources familiar with his situation said that he insisted to his colleagues that he does not have any legal risk, and has not hired a lawyer.
The Trump-Bush: Trump and the Phenomenology of Democracy and Prominence in a New Presidential Season of Political Instability
The Justice Department filed a letter on Thursday detailing the ownership and executive privilege claims that have arisen out of a bunch of 15 records. The F.B.I. agents took some documents and materials from the Mar-a-Lago club when they were authorized to do so by a court.
The materials from the initial tranche that Mr. Trump maintains belong to him include six packages submitted to him when he was president supporting requests that he grant clemency to pardon-seekers; two documents related to his administration’s immigration policies; and an email addressed to him from a person at a military academy, it said.
The rule of law, free elections and accountability have been challenged by Donald Trump and his movement, which resulted in a new period of political turmoil.
At a time when he is on a collision course with the Biden administration and the courts, Trump dropped his clearest hint yet of a White House run.
Trump’s current prominence was already unusual. One-term presidents don’t last long in 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. And while there is growing talk about whether his thicket of legal and political controversies could convince some GOP primary voters it’s time to move on, 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.
Two years after a group of rioters broke into the US Capitol, the Justice Department is in the early stages of its criminal investigation into the efforts to prevent the peaceful transition of power, with the special counsel adding two right-hand prosecutors to an experienced team that will determine whether former President Donald
Are Elections Going to Be Fair? AZ’s Kari Lake, a Republican Adviser to the President, Reveals Tax Fraud
In Arizona, one of the ex-President’s favorite candidates, Kari Lake, is once again raising doubts about the election system. “I’m afraid that it probably is not going to be completely fair,” Lake told AZTV7 on Sunday.
The result of next month’s election will potentially install a Republican majority in the House, which will mean a return of Trumpism to political power given the hold the ex-president has over the House GOP. According to a group of leading Republicans, they will use their powers to impeach Biden if they have to, because of their dislike of Biden and his clash with Trump.
A Republican presence in Washington is likely to increase after the elections. Many of the Trump-endorsed candidates are running on a platform of electoral fraud, raising doubts about whether they will accept the results if they lose their seats in less than two weeks.
Trump was not charged in connection with the payments. The Justice Department had determined that the sitting president wouldn’t be indicted. The investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office focused on tax fraud. Last year, longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty and Trump’s company was convicted of scheming to pay its employees with untaxed benefits such as luxury cars and apartments.
Investigating the Case for an Ex-President Running for the Post-Trump Inflationary War: The Case Against Joe Biden
Democrats are attempting to bring Trump back to the attention of the electorate. 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.
But raging inflation and spikes in gasoline prices appear to be a far more potent concern before voters head to the polls, which could spell bad news for the party in power in Washington.
The ex-president told supporters at a Texas rally that he will probably have to run for president again.
It may take multiple days, but it will be done with a level of rigor and seriousness that it deserves, according to Cheney.
This isn’t going to be his first debate against Joe Biden and the food fight that preceded it. This set of issues is too serious.
The committee has taken most depositions behind closed doors and on video and used testimony throughout its highly produced presentations. The most sympathetic witnesses have shown up in person. The narrative has helped create a powerful narrative that paints a picture of shocking neglect by Trump in January, but it also deprives viewers of seeing witnesses under cross examination. This has made it difficult to assess whether the committee’s case would stand up to more rigorous evidentiary requirements in a court of law.
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.
There is a dilemma Garland faces if there is evidence of a crime, whether the national interest requires implementing the law to its full extent or whether the consequences of prosecuting a former commander in chief will tear the country apart.
A decision to charge an ex-president running for a non-consecutive second White House term would undoubtedly cause a firestorm. If there is evidence of a crime, sparing him from accountability would send a negative signal to future presidents.
Is Mr. Graham a candidate of the U.S. Attorney’s Special Agent? The case of Mr. Raffensperger
Mr. Graham was ordered to appear before the grand jury in late August. According to a document filed with the Supreme Court by his lawyers, he received a subpoena ordering him to give testimony in November.
However, he added, those objections may have to be hashed out in open court — a risk for the senator, Mr. Cunningham said, “because it may disclose to public view both the topics the grand jury is exploring and his unwillingness to answer such questions.”
The case seems to be a serious threat to Mr. Trump, as evidenced by the phone call in which he told Mr. Raffensperger he wanted to find 11,780 votes.
In recent months, a group of Mr. Trump’s allies have argued that they should not have to fight in court. So far, their track record has been mixed.
On October 13, Patel spent several hours before the grand jury at the US courthouse in Washington, DC, sources told CNN at the time. When approached then at the courthouse by CNN, one of his attorneys, Stanley Woodward, refused to say what Patel’s matter was about, and only confirmed that he represented the Trump adviser.
The people stated that the judge in the District Court granted immunity from prosecution on any information that was provided to the investigation.
The decision of the court is not made public, even after a confidential proceeding in which a grand jury was convened to try to reach a guilty verdict in the case of Mr. Patel. At that time, he declined to answer questions by asserting his Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.
According to court records, a few of Trump’s advisers may have legal problems, but it’s not clear if he is a target of the Justice Department probe.
He served as a national security and defense official in President Trumps administration, and this summer became a designated liaison to the National Archives and the Justice Department, which have tried to recover some of the 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.
The Mar-A-Lago Sessions: Subpoenaing Trump and the Select Committee on a House Select Committee for Athocyanic Investigations
The FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in August, and other witnesses were subpoenaed to the grand jury looking at the case, one source said.
The panel subpoenaed Trump on October 21 seeking documents by November 4 and testimony starting on November 14. According to court documents, Thompson accused Trump’s team of trying to delay, when the former president failed to turn over documents by the first deadline.
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. It is unclear if those discussions will lead to a deposition.
Privilege protections around the executive branch are at risk if the House gets its demands, which include revealing conversations with Justice Department officials and members of Congress about the 2020 election.
The request asked for all documents and communications between September 1, 2020 and the present that related to Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or other extremists. The panel’s document request spans 19 different categories.
The House select committee subpoenaed Donald Trump in January of 2021, and the former president has filed a lawsuit to try and get rid of it.
Multiple courts have upheld the legitimacy of the committee, and Trump is challenging it, as well as claiming he should not be protected from testifying about his time in office.
Since Trump’s team replied on November 9 that he wouldn’t testify and found no records to turn over related to personal communications, the House hasn’t respond substantively, the court papers said.
The lawsuit raises some protections surrounding the presidency that have not been tested by appeals courts, and it also provides a court with the authority to weigh in on his standoff with House Democrats over the past few years.
The Mississippi Democrat who chairs the committee wrote to the person who wrote the letter that it appeared to be a delay tactic.
The committee has previously held witnesses in contempt of Congress for defying the panel’s subpoenas but has little ability to force compliance with the subpoena quickly through the courts.
The Case of Donald Trump in the High Court Against Election Propagation and Election Destroy: A Comment from the Thompson-Chenney Attorney’s Office
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.”
“The truth is that Donald Trump, like several of his closest allies, is hiding from the Select Committee’s investigation and refusing to do what more than a thousand other witnesses have done,” Thompson and Cheney wrote. “Donald Trump orchestrated a scheme to overturn a presidential election and block the transfer of power. He is obligated to give answers to the Americans.
The Trump company and the president have always maintained their innocence and have denied wrongdoing in all of the matters they have been accused of. Trump has also won dismissals of two lawsuits this week in cases brought by his niece and his former attorney.
The Justice Department is looking into the post-2020 election period. During the quiet period leading up to the elections, witnesses have come before the grand jury in Washington. Pat Cipollone, a former White House counsel, and Patrick Philbin, a deputy White House counsel, were moved to testify by the DOJ.
Two documents with classified markings were found in a Florida storage unit during a search by a team hired by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.
Concerns from the Justice Department that not all documents have been returned to the government led to four searches. Carried out in recent weeks, the searches were overseen by Trump’s legal team, another source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Special Counsel Appointment at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort and the January 6, 2021, Insurrection: Is It Enough?
A special counsel is a lawyer who is appointed to lead an investigation and if necessary to prosecute anyone suspected of crimes. The person must come from 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.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
Jack Smith was the chief prosecutor at the special court in The Hague, which investigated war crimes in Kosovo.
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.”
The former president said on Friday that he thought the federal investigations of him were close to a conclusion. He repeatedly called the investigations political and said it was not a fair situation and would not be a fair investigation, telling the crowd at Mar-a-Lago, “You’d really say enough is enough.”
The appeals court agreed with them. A rule that would allow any subject of a search warrant to prevent government investigations after they are executed is out of bounds. We can’t have a rule that only allows former presidents to do it.
The 11th Circuit said that either approach would be a “radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations” and that “both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”
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.
“Ours is not a system of justice where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass,” said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the committee who dramatically unveiled its criminal referrals.
More broadly, the committee has now sketched the most urgent framing of a perennial question about Trump’s riotous careers in business and politics: Will he ever face accountability for his rule-breaking conduct? The question is especially acute given that the norm crushed this time almost toppled US democracy.
The issue of accountability gets to the core of Raskin’s comment about foot soldiers – since many of those who were in the mob that trashed the Capitol have been convicted and jailed already. Trump repeatedly ignored paying political and legal prices as the epitome of a ringleader who skips past judgement since winning the White House. Robert Muller, who was the special counsel, did not find evidence that the president committed crimes when he was in office but he did find evidence that Trump tried to obstruct the investigation. Trump was the first president to be impeached twice, but most Republicans in the Senate found reasons not to convict him.
Specifically, the panel said Trump should be charged with giving aid or comfort to an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, defrauding the US and making false statements. The central cause of January 6 was one man, according to the executive summary of the final report. The events of January 6 would not have been possible without him.
The committee cites Section 1512 (c) (2) of Title 18 of the US code, which makes it a crime to “corruptly” obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding or attempt to do so. According to what the panel said, that seems to be the case, with a cocktail of schemes aimed at disrupting the will of voters in the run up to the mob attack on Congress.
The Investigation of the Insurrection Associated with the November 11, 2001 Instability in the House of Representatives of the U.S. Senate Major General Relativity
The DOJ has its own investigation into the events surrounding the insurrection and will have to decide if the case stands up in a court of law, as it appeared in the committee room on Monday afternoon.
“The Justice Department has to go so much further on every single one of these people who was touched and interviewed and seen by the committee in any way,” former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe said on CNN on Monday.
The Justice Department faces some challenges due to the nature of the insurrection and the involvement of a former president. A good defense team can try to muddy the question of whether or not there was election fraud by reframing the true intent of Trump and trying to undermine the prosecution. They could argue that he was exercising his constitutional right to free speech by telling his supporters to fight. Special counsel Jack Smith and Garland would have to satisfy themselves before laying charges that there was a substantial likelihood of obtaining a conviction if they decided to prosecute, after considering the likely thrust of Trump’s defense.
The referral accusing President Donald Trump of making aid and comfort to an insurrection would likely be a First Amendment defence, according to Rod Rosenstein, who served as deputy attorney general.
“The Department would have to prove that the president’s comments were directed at inciting imminent lawless action. In other words, they’d actually have to prove he intended for a mob to engage in violent activity. That would be a hurdle to prosecuting him under that charge,” Rosenstein said.
It is unlikely that prosecutors at the DOJ will be influenced by the opinion of the select committee, albeit one that is backed up by a mountain of evidence, that the former president should be indicted. Still, the volume of testimony and other documents that have been amassed by the panel could be useful to the DOJ’s investigation, which is one reason prosecutors have been keen to get hold of its testimony and other materials for months.
With the DOJ facing an enormous pressure of investigating Trump, it is hard to say that Monday’s events will add to that burden. But at the same time, if Garland were to disregard multiple referrals, he would be certain to infuriate Democrats who already think the department has been slow to pursue Trump.
If Smith believed Trump had aided an insurrection, it would not be different than if the DOJ agreed with one of the lesser charges. It has never occurred to America that a sitting president’s administration would take action against his potential successor in a bid to topple him. And of course, if no case is made over January 6, Trump is also facing the possibility of charges in another Justice Department investigation – into his hoarding of classified material at his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left office.
Smith could help by making the public aware of the possibility that a former president could go on trial if they saw the graphic depiction of Trump’s behavior. Attempted coups are more like fragile developing world democracies and dictatorships.
“No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any office,” the Wyoming Republican said on Monday.
Reply to the Select Committee on Investigations of the Incarceration in the U.S. Senator’s Close Encounter with the Associated Attorney General Merrick Garland
According to a member of the committee, the committee will make the transcripts public on Wednesday.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee parts of the DOJ’s investigation into the insurrection, sent a letter to the committee earlier this month requesting all of the information from the panel’s investigation, one of the sources told CNN.
The committee is in a very important week. During the panel’s last public meeting, members voted to refer former president Donald Trump to the DOJ on at least four criminal charges. The full final report is expected to be released on Wednesday.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson told CNN that the panel is expecting to release hundreds of transcripts but there are some witnesses that the committee has agreed to protect.
Garland will make the ultimate decision as to whether charges are brought or not, depending on the facts and evidence.
The summary released Monday also claimed the panel has a “range of evidence suggesting specific efforts to obstruct the Committee’s investigation.” There are concerns that the attorneys paid by Trump’s political committee have incentives to defend him rather than represent their own clients.
“The Select Committee also has concerns regarding certain other witnesses, including those who still rely for their income or employment by organizations linked to President Trump, such as the America First Policy Institute,” the panel wrote in Monday’s summary.
Some witnesses or lawyers were unnecessarily combative, answered hundreds of questions with variant of ‘I do not recall’ in circumstances where that answer seemed unbelievable, testified from a lawyer-written talking point rather than their own recollections, or refused to tell the truth.
“The public can ultimately make its own assessment of these issues when it reviews the Committee transcripts and can compare the accounts of different witnesses and the conduct of counsel,” the summary previewed.
The Select Committee on the Ethics of the 2020 US Capitol Breath: Summary and Report on a Bombshell Moment by Ornato
The summary details that the panel was ultimately unable to get former White House deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato to corroborate a bombshell moment during the public hearings, in which Hutchinson recalled Ornato describing Trump’s altercation with the head of his security detail when he was told he would not be taken to the Capitol following his speech on the Ellipse.
The committee says it gathered evidence indicating that Trump raised about one quarter of a billion dollars after the 2020 election and also through the January 6 rallies.
“For example, the Trump Campaign, along with the Republican National Committee, sent millions of emails to their supporters, with messaging claiming that the election was ‘rigged,’ that their donations could stop Democrats from ‘trying to steal the election,’ and that Vice President Biden would be an ‘illegitimate president’ if he took office,’” the summary states.
The panel never went as far as Lofgren said it had evidence that members of the Trump family and inner circle personally benefited from money raised based on false statements made by the former president.
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.
Aides and advisers to the former president are also hoping the release of the panel’s transcripts will provide new information about the DOJ criminal investigation into January 6.
At various points during the committee’s hearings, Trump’s allies and advisers were surprised by snippets of testimony they were unaware of before hearing publicly, including that of Ivanka Trump.
The final report and transcripts of the committee will tell how Republicans, particularly in the House, will look to make good on their promise of going after Biden and his administration on a variety of fronts when they take control of the House next month.
Various Republican lawmakers have sought to discredit the select committee’s work since its inception and have argued that the panel has not addressed the security failures that led to the US Capitol breach. Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, was subpoenaed by the committee along with five other House Republicans. The four returning members of congress were referred by the panel to the ethics committee.
McCarthy wants the select committee to preserve all of its records and transcripts so they can look over the security failures that led to the Capitol breach.
The investigation of the January 6, 2021, hacking attack on the US Capitol, by Tim Parlatore, an attorney for the US Department of Justice
“The referral itself is pretty much worthless,” Trump lawyer Tim Parlatore said on “CNN Newsroom.” “The Department of Justice doesn’t have to follow it. There’s been an existing investigation that we have been dealing with for quite some time. It really politicizes the process, that’s what it does.
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.
There weren’t any more records that had classification markings, Parlatore told CNN on Saturday, “everything that was found has been turned over.”
The chief judge of the DC District Court did not hold Trump in contempt of court, but urged the Justice Department to work out a resolution as they attempt to get all national security records back in the hands of the federal government. The judge had questioned prosecutors on how she could hold Trump’s team in contempt given the steps Trump’s lawyers had taken to alleviate the Justice Department’s concerns that there may still be records in Trump’s possession, according to sources.
The media organizations wanted to know more about what happened behind closed doors in the case of the August search, which is why the Justice Department asked for continued secrecy.
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.
Another source said that the office was able to examine broad conspiracy cases thanks to the expansion under Smith. They join a team of more than 20 prosecutors from DOJ, as well as senior advisers brought into the department in recent months, who were already investigating Trump and his allies.
Despite Attorney General Merrick Garland’s assurances that Smith’s appointment won’t slow down the dual Trump-related probes, setting his office up does take time. Smith and his team are working to find a permanent physical location, but have started changing email addresses for staffers who used to use their Justice Department accounts.
Harbach talked to another special counsel prosecutor about the cases of extremists in the courthouse and sat in on the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial.
The Ex-President of the January 6, 2021, Religion Propagation Against the State Legislature: How Donald Trump Jr. Dismantled the Barrier of Confidential Information
More than 850 people have been taken into custody for their alleged involvement in the January 6, 2021, riot, with 500 being found guilty according to the Justice Department. One of the four deaths was that of Ashli Babbitt, the rioter shot by a Capitol police officer. Two members of the crowd suffered heart attacks and one died of an overdose. In the month after the riot, five officers died, including one stroke and four by suicide, according to the DOJ.
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. They include ongoing legal proceedings about piercing the shield of confidentially that normally surrounds a president.
Smith sent subpoenas to election Officials in seven battleground states and got a lot of material. The email from the county official who received two voicemails from individuals requesting access to voting equipment is included in the response from the secretary of state. The clerk wrote that the caller claimed to work for the Trump legal team.
The organizers of the rally said in an email that they were expecting something intimate at the ellipse and that everyone should march to the capitol.
“My father doesn’t use text messaging or email,” Donald Trump Jr. told congressional investigators during his interview. He would not know what the other apps were, said Trump Jr.
Trump’s style of making ambiguous asks rather than direct demands was also on display as he pressed state officials to upend the election results. “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. “It was always just general topics.”
It was clear from the beginning that the ex-president led the conspiracy but he was aided by a lot of other people.
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 of them testified that they were under the impression alternate electors were being assembled as a contingency plan in case Trump prevailed in a legal challenge that changed the result in their state.
After the last prominent election challenge at the Supreme Court, 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
Jack Smith, a White House aide, and the committee on the investigation of fake slates: The case of Meadows, the White House assistant, and a former aide
The Department of Defense would have a much easier case to prove if Congress had certified the scheme, said a law professor and former general counsel.
The plan was laid out in a memo on December 9 and it suggests advisers thought the alternate electors were important if the court reversed the electoral loss.
While the committee made the historic move of referring Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, it also named several Trump allies as potential co-conspirators in its final report. The former White House chief of staff was one of them.
Meadows repeatedly comes up in the committee’s investigation, with evidence showing his involvement on some level in every gambit to overturn the election. The most important example of this was when Meadows turned over thousands of text messages to the committee before ending his cooperation with the investigation.
Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a White House aide, stated in testimony that there were discussions about putting forward fake slates of electors.
According to the transcripts, Hutchinson explained to the committee that Meadow frequently burned documents in his fireplace between December 2020 and January 2021.
After he turned over the texts to congressional investigators, he changed his mind about testifying 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
Investigations of the Mar-A-Lago Hush Money Payments to a Prosecutor: A New Look at a Pence-Biden Investigation
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.
The two individuals who were hired to search four of Trump’s properties last fall were each interviewed for about three hours in separate appearances last week.
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.
The Biden and Pence situations have been markedly different. While they also highlight sloppiness around the tracking of classified papers, both Biden’s and Pence’s teams have readily handed them back to intelligence officials.
Special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors who now work for him have used the federal grand jury nearly weekly to question witnesses in the Mar-a-Lago investigation.
As Cohen put it during a plea hearing, the payments were made “in coordination with, and at the direction of, a candidate for federal office.” He said paid the money and arranged to be reimbursed $420,000 by Trump’s company to cover his taxes. The company recorded the payments to Cohen as legal fees, which could constitute a crime in New York.
The witnesses have been summoned to testify before a grand jury in relation to the hush money payments.
The Greatest Witch Hunt Ever: A Pedestrian’s Tale of Three Cities, One Night at a Time, and One More Day in the Life of a Man
The former president stated that this is a continuation of the greatest witch hunt ever and added, “never had an affair.”