There is a chance that the subpoena could set off a battle over executive privilege

The Subpoena Jan 6 Committee on Democrat Influence on the White House: The Case for a President Who Is a Citizen

As the subject of a congressional subpoena, it must be painfully clear to Trump that he is a former president. Someone else is a citizen. The kind who can be issued a subpoena.

The report still has to be published, but the committee could ask the Justice Department to pursue charges against Trump or his former aides for their roles in the attack on the Capitol, and their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“They are trying to make the case that Trump is Oz,” said CNN’s John King, interpreting the committee’s subpoena of Trump. When you think about it, he is a guy behind a curtain trying to pull a machine.

They weretemptt. 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.

There was a prosecution. 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.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/trump-subpoena-jan-6-committee-what-matters/index.html

Trump’s Jan 6 subpoena dispute with the Senate Committee on Investigations and the Library: George Conway says “nothing is going to happen”

George Conway said that “None of that is going to happen” during an appearance on CNN Thursday. This is the process of putting a marker. This is about triggering a response (from Trump).”

The Supreme Court has made clear that it stands by Trump as a former president when he tried to prevent the National Archives from sharing information with the committee.

Back when he was president, the Supreme Court punted in 2020 when it sent a dispute over House subpoenas for Trump’s financial records back to lower courts. Justices told lower courts to consider separation of powers even in cases involving the president’s private information. The House Oversight Committee recently reached an agreement with Trump to get access to the documents.

Cheney, who serves as vice chair of the House committee, singled out people who invoked the Fifth Amendment or refused to testify rather than elaborate on their communications with Trump on January 6, 2021, including:

Ford later testified as a former president in 1983 to a Senate subcommittee. According to the Senate Library and the Senate Historical Office, there have been no questions asked from lawmakers in the committee setting for the last 39 years.

Even though he had been subpoenaed by the Chief Justice, Thomas Jefferson did not attend the trial of the Vice President for treason. Jefferson did ultimately provide some documents. Burr was eventually acquitted.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/trump-subpoena-jan-6-committee-what-matters/index.html

The Mueller investigation of a New York mobster’s lawsuit against the Democratic nominee, J. Edwards, A.C. Trump and the House of Representatives

New York investigators could get access to the financial documents according to the Supreme Court. Trump’s company is accused of violating tax laws, and is about to go on trial.

A judge ordered him to comply with subpoenas from the New York Attorney General in order to investigate his business practices. During the deposition, he invoked the 5th amendment protection.

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.

That means the January 6 committee must plan to wrap up all of its work by January 3, 2023, when the next Congress begins and the January 6 committee may be no more.

The legal protection afforded to the former President has been invoked many times to block testimony and subpoenas relating to the attack on the Capitol. He may do it again in response to a subpoena.

Pence’s role in presiding over the electoral certification process made him a central figure in the Jan. 6 proceedings. In the week before the mob attacked Capitol, Trump put intense pressure on his vice president to overturn the election results. Pence was also present during several critical meetings with Trump and his allies ahead of Jan. 6.

Why does the DOJ need to subpoena the president? A lawyer’s perspective on the Nixon administration’s case against the Watergate investigation

The president of the United States is given a legal protection known as executive privilege and it allows them to keep their private communication away from Congress and courts.

“If the information was disclosed, it would cause harm to the country, the public interest, and a lot of other things,” said Jonathan Shaub, a former Justice Department official who is now a professor.

According to legal experts, the protection allows a president’s advisers to give candid advice without fear of disclosure, making the deliberations more productive.

The idea is from the Nixon administration, where a special prosecutor leading the Watergate investigation subpoenaed President Nixon for tapes and transcripts of conversations.

The court found confidentiality interest in the communications between a president and their senior-most advisers, despite their ruling against Nixon. The court stated that executive privilege does not apply when the communications relate to a criminal investigation.

For example, in Nixon’s case, the Supreme Court found a compelling interest in the criminal case against the Watergate burglars, since there was a “demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.”

Practically speaking, most disputes are solved by compromise between those asking for documents and those giving testimony, legal experts said.

The issue was brought up frequently in the committee’s investigation of the Capitol attack. The committee subpoenaed numerous Trump aides and advisers, several of whom refused to testify on the basis of executive privilege. The DOJ brought criminal charges for two of the advisers: one was found guilty of contempt of Congress, while the other was found not guilty. There will be a case against another person this year.

A court ruled against Trump last year, despite his attempt to block the release of Jan. 6 documents.

The former president has also tried to use executive privilege to block testimony to a federal grand jury, but those efforts have been less successful, the New York Times has reported.

Victoria Nourse, who was the Department of Justice’s chief counsel under then- Vice President Joe Biden, said a subpoena is harder to ignore. Congressional subpoenas can lack teeth because the process to get a judge to enforce them can be slow, she explained.

“Usually a vice president will ask the president to give him executive privilege and to announce that,” said Nourse, who is now a professor at Georgetown Law. “In this case, that would be a question in and of itself: whether Trump will do that for Pence.”

If Trump does decide to assert executive privilege, then a battle in court might follow. There is no executive privilege when it comes to a crime. They want a judge to adjudicate it but the question is how far they’re willing to go.