The legal information could make or break the case against Trump
Grand jury investigation of the case of Donald Trump in the run-up to the January 6, 2021 insurrection: The case of Daniels
It’s been nearly eight years since he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower and more than two years since the January 6, 2021, insurrection, but the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump has never been more intense.
The investigation into payments made to Daniels in the run-up to the presidential election has been delayed by the New York District Attorney.
The $130,000 payment was paid by former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to Daniels to remain quiet about an alleged affair between Daniels and Trump years earlier.
According to people close to the investigation, prosecutors examined the potential of insurance fraud after new information came to light about the Trump Organization.
Special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at Trump’s resort and into parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
The Justice Department investigation continues into whether documents from the Trump White House were illegally mishandled when they were taken to Mar-a-Lago in Florida after he left office. A grand jury is looking into how Trump handled the documents.
The National Archives, charged with collecting and sorting presidential material, has previously said that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from Mar-a-Lago, including some classified records.
According to legal experts, any illegal retention or destruction of White House documents could violate a criminal law prohibiting the removal or destruction of official government records.
A report it issued claims that Trump “oversaw” the fake electors effort in seven states that he lost. The report said that Trump worked to bribe Congress with false Electoral College ballots.
Trump wants to keep former advisers from testifying about their conversations, claiming executive and attorney-client privileges to keep information confidential or slow down criminal investigators.
Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis oversaw a special grand jury that was tasked with looking into what Trump and his supporters may have done to overturn Biden’s win in Georgia.
The grand jury’s report found there was nothing widespread voter fraud and that perjury charges could be considered against some people who testified.
There was evidence of Trump’s actions before and after the January 6 congressional attack, especially the attempts to use the levers of government to overturn the election.
The committee referred at least four criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department before Republicans took over the House at the end of 2022, to coincide with the start of the new Congress.
A New York jury found the Trump Organization guilty last month of tax fraud, grand larcenies and false business records in what prosecutors said was a 15-year scheme to cheat tax authorities.
Former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to his role in the tax scheme and was sentenced to five months at Rikers Island. He will be released this summer.
The Trump-Russia Investigative Case Against James, A New York Times, Correspondence with Middlebrooks and the U.S. Attorney’s Office
The investigation was politically motivated because of James’s electoral ambitions and Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Former magazine writer E. Jean Carroll alleged Trump raped her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defamed her when he denied the rape, said she was not his “type” and alleged she had made the claim to boost sales of her book.
The President and the Justice Department said that he was an employee of the government and that he denied the accusations after being questioned by reporters. They argue that the government cannot be sued for defamation and so the Justice Department should take on that role.
Due to the legal battle, the trial on the initial lawsuit is delayed and the second trial is set to begin in April.
The various cases accuse Trump of directing assault and battery; aiding and abetting assault and battery; and violating Washington laws that prohibit incitement of riots and disorderly conduct.
Trump and his top advisers have not been charged with any crimes. The former president and others who have been sued have argued they are not responsible for the actions of the people who stormed the Capitol.
Strzok and Page were constant targets of verbal attacks by Trump and his allies as part of the larger ire Trump expressed toward the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation. Trump repeatedly and publicly called for Strzok’s ouster until he was fired in August 2018.
In November 2022, a New York state judge threw out the lawsuit, saying Mary Trump’s claims are barred by an earlier settlement she reached over 20 years ago. Mary Trump has appealed.
Trump is appealing the decision, but Middlebrooks also ruled that the former president and his attorneys are liable for nearly $1 million in sanctions for bringing the case in the first place.
“No reasonable lawyer would have filed it,” Middlebrooks wrote. The counts of the amended complaint were intended for a political purpose.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/20/politics/donald-trump-legal-clouds/index.html
Michael Cohen sued Donald Trump, William Barr and others for Defamation and Libel in a Wall-Centric Social Media Campaign
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen sued Trump, former Attorney General William Barr and others, alleging they put him back in jail to prevent him from promoting his upcoming book while under home confinement.
When Cohen was serving the rest of his sentence for lying to Congress, and campaign violations at home, he started an anti-Trump social media campaign. Cohen said he was sent back to prison in retaliation and spent 16 days in solitary.
The lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge. The Supreme Court precedent prevents the district judge from allowing the case to move forward, even if he was sympathetic to Cohen.
Mary Trump filed a lawsuit in 2020 against her uncle, Donald Trump, and her sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, who are the trustees of her uncle Robert Trump’s estate.
Donald Trump sued CNN in a southern Florida federal court in the fall, accusing the network of launching a campaign of defamation in the form of libel and slander.
Woodward spoke to Trump about his book, published in September 2020. Woodward later released “The Trump Tapes,” an audiobook featuring eight hours of raw interviews with Trump interspersed with the author’s commentary.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/20/politics/donald-trump-legal-clouds/index.html
The case of Michael Cohen: Selective prosecution of a public official under the Trump Organization and its investigation of his tax dealings with a Manhattan criminal case
“The Times’s coverage of Donald Trump’s taxes helped inform the public through meticulous reporting on a subject of overriding public interest,” the Times said in a statement. “This lawsuit is an attempt to silence independent news organizations and we plan to vigorously defend against it.”
There is a question of whether the Manhattan criminal case is an example ofselective prosecution, going after a political enemy for a crime that no one else would be charged with. Not by a long shot. Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, pleaded guilty to a federal crime related to this conduct and served time for it. Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Cohen acted at the direction of Mr. Trump. It would be anathema to the rule of law not to prosecute the principal for the crime when a lower-level conspirator has been prosecuted.
Mr. Bragg, however, has had to pick up the slack, since federal prosecutors have not pursued such charges, for reasons that were clear under the corrupt influence of William Barr. It’s not clear why a criminal investigation or indictment of Mr. Trump hasn’t been pursued under the current administration.
The district attorney’s office has frequently charged people with making false business filings, often as felonies but also as misdemeanors. A common use of such a charge is when a defendant commits fraud, such as insurance or tax fraud, and in the course of that scheme creates a false business record to cover up the crime and avoid detection. As a new study co-authored by one of us shows, precedents include charging a teacher for allegedly submitting a fake Covid-19 vaccination card to the New York City Department of Education and her school principal; an auto repair store owner who failed to file proper tax forms, resulting in more than $60,000 in unpaid taxes; and a woman who fraudulently obtained store credit at a Lord & Taylor and then used that credit to purchase several items before she left the store.
The allegation is that Mr. Trump would pay Mr. Cohen for the payments he made to Ms. Daniels. Even though Mr. Cohen would have to report such charges on his taxes, the Trump Organization paid him extra money to do so. Similarly, to keep the Daniels payments secret, neither Mr. Trump nor his campaign would report the payments as a campaign contribution by either Mr. Cohen or Mr. Trump.
A New York Times review and interviews with election law experts strongly suggest that New York state prosecutors have never before filed an election law case involving a federal campaign. Bringing an untested case against anyone, let alone a former president of the United States, carries the risk that a court could throw out or narrow the case.
Although the district attorney’s office need not obtain a conviction on the election law violation, or even include it in the indictment, that second crime might be the aspect of the legal theory that is most vulnerable to attack.
