Grand Jury Report on the 2016 January 6, 2021, Atlanta Attack and the Trump-Flynn Attempt to Reverse the Georgia Recuperation
A grand jury was empaneled last year to look into potential criminal activity stemming from the failed attempts to reverse President Donald Trump’s defeat in Georgia.
Gingrich and Flynn are among a group of people that the District Attorney is trying to get to testify before a special grand jury.
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.
CNN reported last month that the House select committee investigating the January, 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol sent a letter to Gingrich seeking his voluntary cooperation to discuss his role promoting false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
Willis also filed court paperwork on Friday to attempt to issue subpoenas to former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and at least two other individuals who she says have valuable insight to share with the grand jury.
During a hearing on whether to publicly release the report, she said that the decision to bring charges was imminent, suggesting the special grand jury has recommended multiple indictments.
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 lawyer. Herschmann could not immediately be reached.
Comments on a Petition seeking Lee Willis’s testimony in Fulton County, Georgia, requesting that Lee be seen during the November midterm election
Willis has said she plans to take a monthlong break from public activity in the case leading up to the November midterm election, which is one month from Saturday.
If the petitions are accepted, the potential witnesses can be seen in November. 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.
He and others associated with the Trump campaign had a plan to run television ads that were based on false claims about voter fraud in the upcoming 2020 election and encouraged people to contact state officials to try to overturn the election results.
The petition seeks Flynn’s testimony after it was claimed that he said in an interview that Trump “could take military capabilities and place them in swing states” and then re-run the election.
He met with Powell and other people in the White House on December 18, 2020 for a discussion about martial law, seizing voting machines, and appointing Powell as special counsel to investigate the 2020 election.
She stated that Herschmann had “repeated conversations with other people associated with the Trump campaign, about their efforts to influence the results of the 2020 elections in Georgia and elsewhere.” She explained that he had a “heated conversation” with Eastman about concerns in Georgia.
Penrose worked with Powell, as well as others associated with the Trump campaign, in late 2020 and early 2021.
As part of an agreement with Powell, he communicated about the need to hire a data solutions firm to copy voting equipment data from Coffee County, Georgia, as well as Michigan and Nevada. Penrose did not immediately respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.
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 couldn’t say anything because he couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/08/1127637799/flynn-gingrich-testimony-georgia-election-probe
Special Grand Jury Investigation of The Trump Campaign in Georgia After the 2016 Super Presidential Election: Mr. Graham, the Florida Democrat, and Mike Pence
Special juries are impaneled in Georgia to look into complex cases with a lot of witnesses and logistical concerns. They can compel evidence and subpoena witnesses for questioning and, unlike regular grand juries, can also subpoena the target of an investigation to appear before it.
When its investigation is complete, the special grand jury issues a final report and can recommend action. The district attorney is in a position to ask a regular grand jury for an indictment.
Clark Cunningham said that it was possible that the special grand jury found criminal conduct in the Trump campaign’s activities in Georgia after the election.
Neither Mr. Graham’s media representative nor his lawyers could be reached for comment on Thursday, and a spokesman for Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, declined to comment. But the six-page ruling, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, is a blow for Mr. Graham, the South Carolina Republican who transformed from a critic of Mr. Trump to an avid fan and his golfing partner over the course of Mr. Trump’s one term in office.
The unique and extraordinary legal tangle surrounding Trump means that a third straight US election will be tainted by controversies that will drag the FBI and the Justice Department further into a political morass. A special counsel is looking into PresidentJoe Biden’s handling of documents from his time as vice president, while Mike Pence is also under investigation by the DOJ over similar issues. This follows the Hillary Clinton email flap in 2016 and investigations into the Trump campaign’s links with Russia during that White House bid, as well as Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020.
Saturday was when Trump dropped his strongest hint to date that he was going to run for president again.
Trump never really went away after losing reelection in 2020, but a dizzying catalog of confrontations is vaulting him back into the center of US politics. It is likely to further divide a deeply divided nation. And Trump’s return to the spotlight probably means next month’s midterm elections and the early stages of the 2024 presidential race will be rocked by his characteristic chaos.
Controversies that are coming to a head underscore that the nation and its political and legal systems are still far from dealing with and moving on from the shock and awe fallout of Trump’s turbulent single White House term. GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, alluded to that reality when she said on Sunday that the panel wants to avoid Trump turning his potential testimony into a “circus.”
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.
Trump’s men and women are also stepping up their activity. His political guru Steve Bannon, whose own grassroots movement is seeking to infiltrate school boards and local election machinery, is vowing to expose the Biden “regime” in an appeal against a prison sentence handed down last week for defying a congressional subpoena. Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is calling on the Supreme Court to block an attempt to force him to testify in an investigation in Georgia over Trump’s election stealing effort.
The Trump Organization, the GOP, and the Ex-Presidents: A Scenario for the 2016 Elections and a Harmful Warning to the American Public
In Arizona, one of the ex-presidents favorites for governor, Lake is again raising doubts about the election system. Lake is worried that it probably will not be completely fair.
There is a chance that next month will see the election of a Republican majority in the House and that will mean a return of Trumpism to political power. GOP leaders are already talking of a possible drive to impeach Biden and have indicated that they will use their powers to get Biden in a fight with Trump in 2024.
The Republican party is likely to increase its presence in Washington after the elections. There are a number of candidates running on a platform of fraud in the 2020 election, raising questions about whether they will accept the results should they lose their races.
On another politically sensitive front, the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud and grandy larceny trial begins in Manhattan on Monday. The ex- President hasn’t been personally charged, but his trial could impact his business empire and prompt fresh claims from him that he is being mistreated for political reasons. In a separate civil case, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has filed a $250 million civil suit against Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging that they ran tax and insurance fraud schemes to enrich themselves for years.
The Democrats attempted to return Trump to the 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.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/politics/donald-trump-circus-analysis/index.html
The High-Dimensional Political Hacks and Thugs – The Ex-President’s Debate against Joe Biden and the Circus
Surges in petrol prices are more important than raging inflation before voters head to the polls, which could be bad news for the party in power in Washington.
At a Saturday rally in Texas, the ex-president said that he will probably have to go back for a White House bid.
It may take several days, but it will be done with a level of rigor and seriousness that it deserves, Cheney said.
“This isn’t going to be, you know, his first debate against Joe Biden and the circus and the food fight that that became. This is a very serious set of issues.
Trump offered a glimpse of how he might use an appearance before the committee to create a political extravaganza after the panel announced it would send out the subpoena. In a 14-page letter, he made multiple false and debunked claims about election fraud, and lashed out at the panel itself, branding members “highly partisan political Hacks and Thugs whose sole function is to destroy the lives of many hard-working American Patriots, whose records in life have been unblemished until this point of attempted ruination.”
The committee has used testimony and depositions in its presentations, mostly behind closed doors and on video. Only its most sympathetic witnesses have appeared in person. The narrative has helped create a powerful one that shows a shocking lack of duty by Trump on January 6, but it has also denied viewers a chance to see 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.
It’s likely that the former President won’t be interested in having video testimony over an intense period of days or hours, because it will be harder for him to dictate how his testimony would be used.
This could become an academic topic in the future. If a new Republican House majority swept January 6 into action, the issue would become irrelevant since it would be one of the first acts.
Garland would have a dilemma if the case went to trial because of the politics of the time or the consequences of prosecuting a commander in chief would tear the country apart.
It is possible that an ex-president like Biden would make his supporters protest if he were to be prosecuted over the larger haul of documents and conduct that might add up to obstruction. 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.
Mr. Graham may return to the federal courts if the district attorney questions his constitutionally protected activities, according to his office.
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.”
Legal experts believe the case is serious and could threaten Mr. Trump’s presidency.
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 varied.
The South Carolina Investigation into the 2020 Presidential Insurrection and the US Capitol Attack: Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Grand Jury During the One-Hour Call
Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.
They were hired to search Trump’s Bedminster golf club, Trump Tower in New York, an office location in Florida and a storage unit in Florida last October, months after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago. The extent of information they offered the grand jury remains unclear, though they didn’t decline to answer any questions, one of the sources said.
Two former White House lawyers and three of Trump’s closest aides have been brought before a grand jury in Washington, DC, by Smith since Thanksgiving.
In excerpts of the one-hour call, Trump lambasted his fellow Republican for refusing to falsely say that he won the election in Georgia and repeatedly touted baseless claims of election fraud.
Georgia’s people are angry, their country’s are angry. Trump said there was nothing wrong with saying you have re-adjusted.
The Georgia Republican testified that he had received threats after standing up to Trump, and that was part of the investigation into the January 6 insurrection.
Smith will be responsible for overseeing the investigation into the possible mishandling of federal records taken to Mar-a-Lago after Donald Trump left the White House. Smith could still be busy arranging his team and continuing to investigate what has been found even if he isn’t indicted within months, according to people familiar with the probe.
As is normal, it is not known what the people who found the classified documents at the Florida storage facility may have said to the grand jury. The ex-president is being investigated for possible obstruction of justice related to documents, as well as for possible violations of the Espionage Act.
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.
The development comes at the same time federal prosecutors are pushing to look at files on a laptop of at least one staff member around Trump at Mar-a-Lago, according to multiple sources. The special counsel’s office has refused to negotiate with defense attorneys over subpoenas in the past.
One source said investigators were trying to determine if there was an electronic paper trail with the classified documents.
Despite the political gift that Trump was presented, the case remains. Biden should have given back classified documents that were found at his home in Delaware and at the office he once used in Washington. There was some classified material at his house.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer was asked by CNN’s Pamela Brown why he had no interest in the more than 325 documents that were discovered at Trumps home and why he was fixated upon the roughly twenty classified documents that were uncovered in Biden’s premises.
The Mar-a-Lago Grand Jury Campaign of the Ex-President Jesse Watts: Covering a “Dark State” Encounter
In the Mar-a-Lago investigation, special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors have been using a federal grand jury nearly weekly to question witnesses.
The twice-impeached former president, who tried to steal an election and is accused of fomenting an insurrection, launched his first two-state campaign swing on Saturday as he seeks a stunning political comeback.
Then on Monday, the possibilities of exposure grew, a sign that a campaign likely to be repeated with distracted from criminal investigations.
Trump knows how to use legal and political methods to call him to account. 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.
“We’re going to stop the appalling weaponization of our justice system. There’s never been a justice system like this. On the trail over the weekend, the ex-president said it was all an investigation.
This message might be attractive to some of Trump’s base voters who are angry with the federal government and bought into his claims about a “deep state” conspiracy against him. It’s also a technique, in which a strongman leader argues that he is taking the heat so his followers don’t have to, that is a familiar page in the authority playbooks of demagogues throughout history.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/politics/trump-documents-grand-jury-2024-campaign/index.html
From Biden’s Family to the Donald Trump Campaign: Analyses of the Internal Investigation into a Former Air Force Lie Sergeant’s Secret Documents Furor
Ryan Goodman, a former special counsel at the Department of Defense, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday that the latest development was a sign of an advanced special counsel investigation and could indicate that Smith was leaning toward indictments.
It looks like he’s trying to lock in their testimony, to understand how the prosecutors would use incriminating evidence against them, whether it be against Trump or exonerate him.
If someone shows me evidence that there was influence peddling with the classified documents that were in the possession of President Trump, then we are going to expand it. He said that Biden’s family was close to people in the Chinese Communist party, but he didn’t give any proof of it 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.
The investigations into Biden’s and Trump’s secret documents are not being done by the same team. There is no overlap between them in a legal sense. If findings are made public they will both be seen as traitors.
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.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand reported that court documents show that a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who stored files with classified information at his Florida home, will plead guilty in February to one count of unlawful retention of national defense information.
A Determination of the Special Purpose Grand Jury’s Report to the Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney
“Having reviewed the final report, the undersigned concludes that the special purpose grand jury did not exceed the scope of its prescribed mission,” the order reads. “Indeed, it provided the District Attorney with exactly what she requested: a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.”
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.
McBurney wrote that there are three parts to the final report and Section VIII which is where the special purpose grand jury discusses its concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath. The grand jury has not identified those witnesses and the conclusion might be made public at this time.
The decision Monday comes after a Jan. 24 hearing where District Attorney Fani Willis’ office argued against publishing the report and a consortium of media outlets said it should be published with no redactions.
McBurney’s order is a slight compromise, writing that certain parts of the report should be shared with the public while others merit secrecy until further action by prosecutors.
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 found that the uniqueness of the special purpose grand jury left him with a decision that “is not that simple,” calling the investigation “entirely appropriately a one-sided exploration” that means it would not be fair to have that exploration made public outside of a court setting if and when indictments are issued.
“We have to be aware of the rights of future defendants,” he said. “We want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly, and we think for future defendants to be treated fairly, it’s not appropriate at this time to have this report released.”
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. The 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 were notified they may be considered targets of the investigation, including Giuliani, Shafer and the rest of the fake electors, though the DA was disqualified from investigating new Lt. Gov. Burt Jones by Judge McBurney because of a conflict of interest.
The big question is whether the portions will include any bits of information that shed new light on what Trump himself did two years ago and whether the special grand jury concluded that the former president committed any crimes.
Investigating an Overturned 2020 Presidential Election: The Georgian Grand Jury in Charge of a “Perfect” Phone Call to the Secretary of State
In 2020, Trump lost to Biden by over 12,000 votes. There was nothing wrong with the activities the former president did during the election.
Cunningham told CNN that the conduct mentioned in the report is either done on Trump’s behalf or directly by him.
A cross section of citizens has spent nine months working hard at this, and they have decided that some of the actions taken by the former president to overturn the election results was a crime. I think that is very significant.
Georgia’s investigation was set in motion nearly two years ago by an hourlong phone call from Trump to the Secretary of State who asked him to find the votes for Trump. It was called a “perfect” phone call by Trump.
The grand jury was barred from issuing indictments, which is why the final report is a culmination of their seven months of work.
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.