The committee says Trump failed to comply with the subpoena
The case for Donald Trump: a little guy behind a curtain trying to pull a machine and a congressional subpoena
As the subject of a congressional subpoena, it’s necessary that Trump be clear that he’s a former president. Someone else is a citizen. A subpoena can be issued to this kind of person.
All of those battles have dragged on for years, a timetable that the House January 6 committee doesn’t have. The Justice Department will not publicly engage in any activity this close to an election, and voters could well hand control of the House to Republicans in November.
CNN’s John King said the committee was trying to make the case that Trump is Oz. He claims to be powerful, but he is actually a little guy behind a curtain trying to pull a machine.
I wastemptt. The full House, which is controlled by Democrats until at least January, could vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, something it’s done with several other uncooperative witnesses.
Prosecution. It’s possible that Trump could face a minimum of 30 days in jail if found guilty. Bannon will be sentenced for failing to comply with the House subpoena later this month.
Donald Trump, First Amendment, and Subpoenas to the Commission on Investigating the Tagged Causality Violations of the First Amendment
George Conway, a Trump critic and conservative lawyer, predicted during an interview on CNN Thursday that none of that would happen. “This is about laying a marker. This is about getting a response from Trump.
The Supreme Court made clear where it stood on Trump being a former president when it did not allow the National Archives to share information with the committee.
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 check his constitutional rights at the Oval Office door. Because the Committee’s Subpoena to President Trump infringes upon his First Amendment rights it is invalid.”
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:
Gerald Ford appeared before a congressional subcommittee in 1974 about pardoning 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. Some documents were provided by Jefferson. Burr was eventually acquitted.
Trump’s riotous exit from power and the justice department’s emergency request to intervene in his probe of the Russian presidential epoch
The Supreme Court decided that investigators in New York could get access to the financial documents. The criminal trial for Trump’s company will be held this month.
He was forced by a judge to comply with subpoenas by the New York Attorney General in relation to his business practices. He invoked the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination during that deposition.
“There is every reason to believe that the Defendants will continue to engage in similar fraudulent conduct right up to trial unless checked by order of this Court,” James wrote in an application for a preliminary injunction linked to her $250 million suit against Trump, his three eldest children and his firm.
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 House January 6 committee voted to subpoena him after laying bare his depraved efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and his dereliction of duty as his mob invaded the US Capitol.
The committee’s dramatic, though probably futile, effort to get Trump to testify was a mic drop moment to cap its last hearing before the midterm elections and came with a warning that Trump owes the nation an explanation for a day of infamy in January 2021.
But the developments that could hurt Trump the most happened off stage. They reflect the extraordinary legal thicket surrounding the ex-President, who has not been charged with a crime, and the distance still left to run for efforts to account for his riotous exit from power and a presidency that constantly tested the rule of law.
Since he started his campaign in 2015, there have been many predictions about the future of Trump, but he has continued to defy them.
In the middle of the House select committee hearing, the Supreme Court sent a message stating that it had no interest in being sucked into Trump’s effort to derail the Justice Department probe.
The court turned down his emergency request to intervene, which could have delayed the case, without explaining why. There was nothing to disagree about, from the conservative justices who elevated Trump to the bench and whom he feels owe him a debt of loyalty.
A Tale of Two Investigative Events, One in the White House: The Case for an Impeached Ex-President and the Indirect Detection of Justice
For all the political drama that surrounds the revelations over one of the most dark days in modern American history, it is the clash over classified documents that appears to represent the most clear cut and immediate threat of true criminal exposure.
The former President wants to know why the panel waited so long to call him. He is not able to criticize its conduct due to his obstruction of the investigation and attempts to prevent former aides from testifying. And it is not unusual for investigators to build a case before approaching the most prominent potential target of a probe.
Smith and his team of 20 prosecutors are working quickly in the criminal probes. Since Thanksgiving, he has brought a number of close Trump associates before a grand jury in Washington, including two former White House lawyers, three of Trump’s closest aides, and his former speechwriter Stephen Miller.
The CNN story states that an employee of the Trump Organization told the FBI that he was instructed by the ex-president to move boxes from a basement storage room in order to comply with a subpoena. A staffer is seen in the FBI’s footage moving the boxes.
On the face of it, this development is troubling since it could suggest a pattern of deception that plays into a possible obstruction of justice charge. 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.
Still, David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment, told CNN’s “New Day” that though the details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raised troubling questions, they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstructing justice.
Those aren’t even the only probes connected to Trump. There is also the matter of yet another investigation in Georgia over attempts by the former President and his allies to overturn the election in a crucial 2020 swing state.
Tease him up: Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify? The case of the former President, Taylor Budowich
As always, Trump came out fighting on Thursday, one of those days when the seriousness of a crisis he is facing can often be gauged by the vehemence of the rhetoric he uses to respond.
First Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich mocked the unanimous 9-0 vote in the select committee to subpoena the former President for documents and testimony.
Pres Trump will not be intimidated by their rhetoric or actions. Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms, and America First leadership & solutions will be restored,” Budowich wrote on Twitter.
Then the former President weighed in on his Truth Social network with another post that failed to answer the accusations against him, but that 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 very end, the final moments of their last meeting? The Committee is a total blosque. Trump wrote.
The release of the lawsuit was accompanied by a statement from the attorney for Trump that said the separation of powers allowed Congress not to compel the President to testify.
Subpoenas for Deposition Testimony by the Select Committee on the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and Other Extremists
The Republican vice chair said the investigation was not just about what happened on January 6, but about the future.
The Wyoming lawmaker said that with every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic.
Cheney said the committee wouldn’t put itself at Donald Trump’s mercy if he did something to create a circus.
“We have informed the former President’s counsel that he must begin producing records no later than next week and he remains under subpoena for deposition testimony starting on November 14th,” the committee said in the statement.
The request asked for all documents and communications relating to members of the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or other extremists from September 1, 2020, to the present. The panel’s document request spans 19 different categories.
Other high-profile people found in the committee’s order include Roger Stone, Stephen Bannon, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Rudolph Giuliani and more.
“The committee has been working in a very collaborative way and I would anticipate we won’t have disagreements about that,” she said. “But we’ll have to make those decisions as we come to it.”
On the same day that the House committee ordered Trump to turn over the documents and testify, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols sentenced Steve Bannon, Trump’s political advisor, to four months in prison for criminal contempt of Congress after failing to comply with a different committee subpoena.
The committee also said it “received correspondence from the former President and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee’s subpoena” but did not provide additional information.
There are some areas of potential overlap between the two separate legal matters, so the lawyers who are focused on the committee subpoena are consulting with the attorneys for the Trump team in the criminal investigation.
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’s not clear if those discussions will lead him to sit for a deposition.
In the past, witnesses have been held in contempt for disobeying the committee’s subpoena but it has been difficult to force compliance through the courts.
“Given the timing and nature of your letter – without any acknowledgment that Mr. Trump will ultimately comply with the subpoena – your approach on his behalf appears to be a delay tactic,” Thompson wrote.
Donald Trump and his friends are hiding from the Select Committee investigation and refuse to do the things that other witnesses have done, Thompson and Cheney wrote. Donald Trump tried to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of power. He has a duty to answer questions from the American people.
Trump said in the lawsuit that the House’s demands, if he met them, would violate privilege protections around the executive branch, including revealing conversations he had with Justice Department officials and members of Congress about the 2020 election and “pending governmental business.”
Smith is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving office. There is a subpoena for January 6, but it could also be related to the documents investigation. He played a part in discussions about returning government records in his possession, as one of the designees to the National Archives.
Those efforts included putting forward slates of pro-Trump electors and filing baseless lawsuits. CNN reported that the DOJ issued a number of subpoenas and was interested in information in the states where Trump’s campaign convened false electors to subvert the Electoral College.
In the fall of 2020 Trump’s campaign team took court to throw out over 10,000 ballots due to missing names and dates. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania argued in its opinion that the mistakes don’t warrant the wholesale disenfranchisement of thousands of Pennsylvanian voters.
The group of election security advocates has called for Smith and other federal agencies to investigate a number of voting system breeches in multiple states carried out by allies of Trump.
The group has requested a federal probe into what it calls a “multi-state conspiracy to copy voting software,” pointing to reported breaches in Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
State Bureau of Investigation Investigation of a Newly-Informed Democrat Candidate: Mark Meadows and his wife Debra Meadows
For the time being, Smith has not sought testimony from a handful of other potentially relevant Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller or former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, two other sources tell CNN.
The North Carolina Department of Justice announced Friday that there was “not sufficient evidence” to bring charges against former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his wife, Debra Meadows, over allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The investigation began after The New Yorker magazine reported that Mark Meadows, a former Republican congressman from North Carolina, registered to vote weeks before the 2020 election at a mobile home in Macon County where he had allegedly never lived or even visited. The former owner of the McConnell Road property in Scaly Mountain told the article that his wife used to stay there for a couple of months, but she couldn’t remember when and he hadn’t ever visited or spent a night there.
The State Bureau of Investigation did an inquiry into the fraud allegations, but neither Mark nor their wife declined to be interviewed.
The release from Stein stated that the key facts were that he was engaged in public service in Washington, DC, and therefore qualified for a residency exception under state law.
State prosecutors said that the statute of limitations for misdemeanor charges related to false information on an election form had expired by the time the office received the report. The prosecutors wrote that they determined there would be a “low likelihood of success” to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the Meadowses committed a felony by knowingly swearing to false information on their voter forms.
A source told CNN that MarkMeadows had been subpoenaed for his testimony in the investigation of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
“None of the matters involving January 6th, however, are relevant to the specific allegations of voter fraud concerning Mr. and Mrs. Meadows that were referred to my office for review,” Stein added.
Investigating a Democratic White House Investigation into the 2020 January 6 Violence in Washington D.C. O’Brien vs. Donald Trump
O’Brien considered resigning from his post over Trump’s response to the violence on January 6, 2021, but ultimately decided to remain in the job, CNN previously reported. The National Security Council should have been involved in the handling of the classified materials at the end of the Donald Trump presidency, and may have known about how the records ended up at Mar-a-Lago.
Separately, Trump’s former acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf was interviewed by Justice Department lawyers in recent weeks as part of the ongoing special counsel investigation related to 2020 election interference, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Wolf declined to comment on his recent interview with federal investigators, which was first reported by Bloomberg. A spokesman for Smith also declined to comment.
Last month, Ken Cuccinelli, who was Wolf’s deputy, testified to a federal grand jury as part of Smith’s election interference probe. When Cuccinelli was questioned about privilege claims, he didn’t say anything.
In the days after the January 6 attack, Wolf urged Trump and all elected officials to condemn the violence on Capitol Hill, calling what transpired “tragic and sickening.”
