Lindsey Graham is required to testify in Georgia Inquiry

The Mueller investigation of Trump’s search for obstruction of justice at the Mar-a-Lago resort and argued in court against a new rule of law

This development is troubling in that it might be indicative of a pattern of deception which could play into 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.

Cannon nixed several aspects of the plan proposed by senior Judge Raymond Dearie, who was put forward by Trump for the third-party review, that would have required the former President to make uncomfortable assertions in court, including whether he actually believes the FBI planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago, as he has suggested in public statements.

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.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the department to resume using documents that were classified, which may be what the investigation is all about.

Prosecutors have indicated in court filings that understanding how those sensitive government documents were intermixed with other materials at Mar-a-Lago is something they’re closely reviewing.

Cannon rejected the part of the plan that would have forced the legal team to back up their 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.

In another boost for Trump, Cannon said Trump’s legal team does not have to provide certain details about his executive privilege claims in the special master review.

The federal judge removed the special master’s proposed requirement that Trump, when asserting a document is covered by executive privilege, specify whether he believed that barred disclosure within the executive branch versus disclosure outside of it.

For the first time, the Justice Department has evidence that Trump may have committed a crime, according to a finding reported by ABC News. And Howell ruled that prosecutors met the burden to overcome Trump’s right to shield discussions with his lawyers normally protected under attorney-client privilege.

Response to a Critique of Digital Copyright Violation in the First Two Hours of the November 8 Reaction of the New York City Council on the Trump-President Referendum

Cannon pointed out the issues that the parties had faced in securing a vendor to digitally copies the seized materials for the review.

“In conversations between Plaintiff’s counsel and the Government regarding a data vendor, the Government mentioned that the 11,000 documents contain closer to 200,000 pages. That estimated volume, with a need to operate under the accelerated timeframes supported by the Government, is the reason why so many of the Government’s selected vendors have declined the potential engagement,” Trump’s team wrote on Wednesday.

There are signs that one witness could be asked to reappear. And sources told CNN that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been under fierce attack from Trump’s GOP allies, was also taking a moment to regroup amid the furor. Miller reported that Bragg’s team is working out whether to call back a pivotal witness – Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen – to refute testimony this week by Robert Costello, an attorney who previously represented several Trump allies and appeared before the grand jury at the request of Trump’s legal team.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis filed petitions in court seeking to have Gingrich and Flynn, as well as former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann and others, testify next month before a special grand jury that’s been seated to aid her investigation.

CNN previously reported that during the heated Oval Office meeting, Flynn and Powell came up with outrageous suggestions to overturn the election three weeks after Trump pardoned Flynn.

Gingrich’s testimony is supported by information made publicly available by the U.S. House committee that’s investigating the attack on the Capitol.

The former White House lawyer, and at least two others, will be subpoenaed by the court to testify before the grand jury.

The grand jury could vote on an indictment in a matter of months. If Trump is indicted, he would have to appear in criminal court in Manhattan to enter a plea.

The case for an out-of-state witness appearing in the run-up to the 2020 election, as reported by Sheria Flynn

Flynn didn’t respond to phone and email messages for comment while his lawyer didn’t return an email. Gingrich referred questions to his attorney, who declined to comment. Herschmann could not immediately be reached.

A month from Saturday, she will take a break to focus on the case in the run-up to the election.

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.

The petitions were signed by the judge who oversaw the special grand jury and certified that each person’s testimony is needed 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.

The petition said that Herschmann was a senior adviser to the president when he was still in office and was present for multiple meetings related to the 2020 election.

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 also communicated with Powell and others regarding an agreement to hire data solutions firm SullivanStrickler to copy data and software from voting system equipment in Coffee County, about 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, as well as in Michigan and Nevada, Willis wrote. The email and phone message were not returned immediately by 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 immediately be reached for comment.

McBurney said the grand jury is a tool that allows the woman to make her decision, rather than being an investigative tool. McBurney released portions of the special grand jury report that said jurors wanted perjury charges brought against some witnesses.

Instead, the special grand jury wrote a final report with recommendations for the district attorney’s office about how to proceed, including potential violations of state law — though Willis does not have to follow those suggestions if she decides to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.

Inside the Capitol: Inside the House Select Committee on the 2020 Election and the Jan. 6 Insurrection (with an Exclusive Report from CNN)

2020 Election and Jan. 6 insurrection: The House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack has uncovered dramatic evidence of Trump’s actions prior to and after the election. The end of the investigation is imminent because the committee is expected to submit a report by the end of the year.

It is not easy to tell how incriminating testimony about Trump’s behavior will be if it is not cross examined in a court of law. Still, the report – and transcripts of its depositions expected to be sent to the DOJ – could be useful in fleshing out any criminal case by the special counsel, and in preparing the public for the possibility of any move by Smith to charge Trump.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said during the hearing that the footage highlights how Trump administration officials and congressional leaders worked around Trump to put down the riot that he had incited. By showing these behind-the-scenes clips, the committee delivered on its promise to present new material from January 6 to the public.

“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. “And every American is entitled to the answers, so we can act now to protect our republic.”

“The need for this committee to hear from Donald Trump goes beyond our fact-finding. This is a question about accountability to the American people. He must be held accountable. Thompson said that he is required to answer for his actions.

Trump is, for instance, now locked in a subpoena showdown with the House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection. More and more Trump aides are being brought before a grand jury as the Justice Department gets closer to a fateful decision over whether to charge the ex-President over the mob riot.

That’s because if Republicans take back control of the House, which they’re favored to do, the January 6 committee as it’s currently constructed will cease to exist – giving the panel less than three months to issue a final report of its findings.

CNN obtained additional footage that was unseen by the committee. The exclusive footage will air on CNN on Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, during a special edition of “Anderson Cooper 360°.” The footage shows congressional leaders, after evacuating from the Capitol, gathering at Fort McNair working the phones, trying to figure out what was going on at the overrun Capitol, and begging for help as they frantically scrambled to quell the insurrection.

The video shows Pelosi, Schumer, and other top officials coordinating with the Trump team and others to get the resources needed to quell the insurrection and secure the Capitol.

The phone calls between Pelosi and then-vice president Mike Pence were shown in the footage.

Schumer was shown dressing down the Attorney General. 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.”

The testimony of the former members of Trump’s Cabinet aired on Thursday, and one of them said that he could not put aside the shocking events at the Capitol.

“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 am an immigrant to this country. I have faith in this country. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I think that democracy is good. She said that it was a decision she made on her own.

During the summer hearings, Hutchinson provided detailed accounts about Trump’s actions on January 6.

I said to Mark, he cannot possibly believe that we will 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 didn’t win. We are going to keep trying. Hutchinson spoke to the committee.

Hutchinson also said that she witnessed a conversation between Meadows and Trump where he was furious the Supreme Court had rejected a lawsuit seeking to overturn the election result.

“The President said … something to the effect of, ‘I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark. This is embarrassing. Figure it out. We need to figure it out. I don’t want people to know that we lost,’” Hutchinson said.

On January 6, one Secret Service agent texted at 12:36 p.m., according to the committee, “With so many weapons found so far; you wonder how many are unknown. It could be sporty after dark.

According to a report in the Huffington Post, before the beginning of the new year, Trump’s communications adviser bragged to his client that he had gotten the base “Fired up” and shared a link to a pro- Trump webpage containing hundreds of threatening comments about killing lawmakers.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said in Thursday’s hearing that that the Secret Service received alerts of online threats made against Vice President Mike Pence ahead of the Capitol insurrection, including that Pence would be “‘a dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.’”

The committee played previously unseen video from its deposition of Pence’s counsel, Greg Jacob. 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 it is important for the public not to think the Vice President has decided about electoral votes before the full facts are known.

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 is notable since the panel used her testimony from the committee’s most recent hearing.

The Mueller Investigation of the January 6 Subpoena for a Depraved Ex-President Donald J.P. Trump

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 ex-president hasn’t been charged in either probe so far, but there is no indication that he will be. But the sense that Trump is approaching a moment of maximum legal peril is being driven both by signs of an increasingly aggressive investigation by special counsel Jack Smith and the realities of a calendar that offers limited time for any potential prosecutions before the 2024 campaign is in full swing. The release of the final report of the January 6 committee could bring a new blow to Trump’s hopes of winning a national election.

And Trump is not just confronting a single case of potentially criminal vulnerability. New developments on multiple fronts suggest it’s possible he could be indicted in several separate investigations that are all apparently moving forward in a long-delayed crescendo of possible accountability.

The Supreme Court told the hearing that it wasn’t interested in getting sucked into Trump’s attempt to derail the Justice Department probe into what he kept at Mar-a-Lago.

The court did not explain why they turned down his request to intervene. 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.

Trump’s lawyers discovered more records in November after the FBI stumbled upon hundreds of other classified pages in his possession. At that time, Trump’s lawyers were locked in a dispute with the Justice Department over whether they had adequately searched his properties and turned over all classified records still in his possession. The DOJ was unsatisfied, and their investigation has continued.

The panel is debating whether or not to make criminal referrals of Trump and others from around him to the Department of Justice. In addition to the criminal liability over the January 6 case, Attorney General Garland and prosecutors in Georgia are investigating attempts by the former President and his associates to overthrow the 2020 election.

Using the Fifth Amendment or citing various legal privileges was a strategy that the grand jury saw from several of the most prominent witnesses, including Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to Kohrs.

CNN’s Brown had reported late on Wednesday that a Trump employee had told the FBI about being directed by the ex-President to move boxes out of a basement storage room at his Florida club after Trump’s legal team received a subpoena for any classified documents. The FBI has video of a staffer moving the boxes.

The details of the Mar-a-Lago incident raise troubling questions but they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstruction of justice according to David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment.

The Justice Department has made clear in private discussions that it believes Trump failed to comply with a May subpoena, ordering the return of all documents marked as classified and that more government records are missing.

On Thursday morning, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a state court to block the Trump Organization from moving assets and continuing to perpetrate what she has alleged in a civil lawsuit is a decades-long fraud.

“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.

Trump is under investigation by a grand jury in Washington for his involvement in the documents case. One source said that prosecutors relied on the videos to argue their case.

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 the handling of documents by President Joe Biden when he was Vice President, and the Department of Justice is reviewing the case of former Vice President Mike Pence who is considering a bid for president. This is not the first time that investigations into the Trump campaign’s links with Russia and Hillary Clinton’s emails have come up.

Trump’s Unselect Committee: Why a Total BUST. When did Jack Smith and I fought on the Wall? When Trump and Hillary Came Out to Congress

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.

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. He made a number of false and incorrect claims about election fraud in a 14-page letter that he sent to the panel.

“Pres Trump will not be intimidate(d) by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions. America First leadership and solutions will be restored if Trump-endorsed candidates sweep the Midterms.

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.

I wonder why the Unselect Committee didn’t summon 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 BUST. Trump wrote.

The obstruction probe being pursued by Jack Smith would likely have significant evidence. It also underscores how critical the testimony of Trump’s defense lawyers would be in the federal grand jury investigation.

While it is unlikely that Trump would comply with the congressional subpoena, the vote to target him will be seen by many watchers as another theatrical flourish in a series of hearings that often resembled a television courtroom drama.

The investigation was no longer just about what happened on January 6 but about the future, according to the committee’s Republican vice chair.

The Wyoming lawmaker who lost her primary to a Trump supporter and won’t be returning to Congress said that ” with every effort to excuse or justify the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic.”

The Second Trial of Donald J. Durham and the F.B.I. On the Case of Danchenko: Resolving the Trump World Records Controversy

In November 2021, Mr. Durham charged Mr. Danchenko with five counts of making false statements to the F.B.I. about his sources for certain claims in the dossier, which contains a collection of rumors and unproven assertions suggesting that Mr. Trump and his 2016 campaign were compromised by and conspiring with Russian intelligence officials to help him defeat Hillary Clinton. There are a few claims that made their way into a wiretap application against a former campaign adviser, but it was largely peripheral to the official inquiry.

This is the second trial for Mr. Durham, whom Mr. Barr appointed to lead the investigation in the spring of 2019. A trial in which Mr. Durham accused a lawyer of giving false information to the F.B.I ended with an exoneration.

In the new trial, which began on Tuesday at a federal courthouse in Northern Virginia and in which testimony is expected to conclude Friday, with closing statements likely on Monday, Mr. Durham and his team have had to grapple with significant questions about the quality of their evidence.

The Trump team is considering a number of options, including if the federal officials can come back to Trump’s property. Sources familiar with the situation say that the legal team is still weighing their options when it comes to how they should respond to the Justice Department.

Corcoran had drafted a statement in June that attested Trump’s team had done a “diligent search” and there were no more classified documents at Trump’s Florida residence.

In the throes of multiple legal battles and hoping to alleviate some of the pressure he is facing, Trump has recently signaled to aides and allies that he is open to a less adversarial approach toward the Justice Department – one that might swiftly resolve the records issue after weeks of contentious court proceedings, according to people familiar with the situation.

“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.”

The battle to return them has been playing out in a court proceeding that is under seal, according to people familiar with the situation. One potential resolution could involve the Justice Department asking a judge to issue an order compelling the Trump team to work with DOJ to arrange for another search.

Chris Kise, a former Florida Solicitor General who joined Donald Trump’s legal team in August after the FBI searched his home, is one of the lawyers who have become more agreeable to the cooperative approach advocated by some of his more experienced lawyers. Some of Kise’s advisers were more aggressive than Trump.

Federal prosecutors have taken a more aggressive stance in the Trump inquiry since last summer, when the Justice Department disclosed it had evidence that records Trump kept in Florida had been concealed or removed, raising the need for an obstruction investigation.

The complicating factors include Trumps personal views on the document dispute. He initially stated that his team was fully cooperative with the investigators and that all they had to do was return the documents. On social media and in court filing, Trump has claimed that he is the owner of the Mar-a-Lago documents. I want my documents back. the former President said in early October.

Trump lawyer Christina Bobb had to hire her own lawyer after signing an attestation in June which declared that Trump’s team had conducted a “diligent search” to comply with the Justice Department’s subpoena and returned all documents with classified markings. Bobb, who was Trump’s custodian of records at the time, recently told federal investigators in a voluntary interview that the attestation had been drafted by another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, for her to sign. Bobb insisted on first adding that her knowledge was based upon the information that has been provided, even though she was rushing to sign the attestation at Mar-a-Lago.

The Ex-President’s Case For Political Persecusation: How a New White House Run Could Save Us from Politics and Politics

According to sources familiar with his situation, the man has insisted to his coworkers that he does not face any risk and has nothired a lawyer.

The former President’s Georgia legal team – Drew Findling, Jennifer Little, and Marisa Goldberg – previously wrote in a January statement that because he was never subpoenaed or asked to appear before the grand jury voluntarily, “we can assume that the grand jury did their job and looked at the facts and the law, as we have, and concluded there were no violations of the law by President Trump.”

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. The six-page ruling from the U.S. court of appeals is a blow to Mr. Graham, a South Carolina Republican who was once a critic of Mr. Trump.

Trump’s campaign has been in turmoil because he is running for the White House in a few years and he has already been accused of being involved in a conspiracy after the last election. He’s promising a presidency of vengeance against his enemies if he’s elected again.

Trump dropped his clearest hint yet Saturday of a new White House run at a moment when he’s on a new collision course with the Biden administration, the courts and facts.

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’s likely to deepen polarization in an already 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.

The former President’s claims of political persecution could make a potential presidential campaign even more complicated, given the open legal and political loops involving him.

In the upcoming elections, the former President’s past and future will most likely be the focus, even though Democrats and Republicans have different ideas about the economy, abortion, foreign policy and crime.

The Republican takeover of the House is almost certain given the hold the ex- President has on the House GOP. Some leading republicans are already talking of possibly impeaching Biden and also indicating they will use their power to rough up Biden for a potential clash with Trump in the future.

New York Sen. Elise Stefanik of New York: A Democratic Candidate in the White House is Concerned about Election Symmetry

In Arizona, one of the ex-president’s favorite candidates, GOP governor hopeful Kari Lake, is again raising doubts about the election system. Lake is afraid that it probably won’t be fair.

One of the most powerful pro-Trump Republicans, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the party’s number three leader in the House, told the New York Post last week that impeachment of Biden was “on the table.” South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace, however, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday she did not want to see tit-for-tat impeachment proceedings after Trump was twice impeached. She was against the process being manipulated. She said Biden had to be investigated for committing impeachable offenses.

The Republican Party is likely to maintain its current presence in Washington after the elections. Scores of Trump-endorsed candidates are running on a platform of his 2020 election fraud falsehoods, raising questions over whether they will accept results should they lose their races in just over two weeks.

On Monday, the Trump Organization is going to be on trial in New York for tax fraud. The ex-President hasn’t been personally charged but the trial could impact his business empire and prompt fresh claims from him that he is being persecuted for political reasons that could inject yet another contentious element into election season. New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, is pursuing a lawsuit against the Trump Organization and Donald Trump for allegedly running tax and insurance fraud schemes to enrich themselves for years.

Democrats have tried to bring Donald Trump back into the public eye. Some campaigns have tried to scare suburban voters by warning of a danger to democracy, after President Joe Biden equates the followers of the anti-fascist group MAGA to fascists.

Indicting Ex-President Donald J.M. Cheney in the House of Representatives: What Does a High-Dimensional Attorney General Can Do?

It’s easy to see why raging inflation and spikes in gasoline prices seem to be a more important concern for voters than the political party in power in Washington.

The ex- President told supporters at a Texas rally that he will probably be in a White House bid again.

“It may take multiple days, and it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline and seriousness that it deserves,” Cheney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“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.

The committee has taken most depositions behind closed doors and on video and used testimony throughout its highly produced presentations. Only its most sympathetic witnesses have appeared in person. While this has helped create a powerful narrative that shows a picture of shocking neglect of duty by Trump, it also deprived 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.

Trump has already tried to use claims that justice is being weaponized against him as rocket fuel for his 2024 presidential bid. And while the law, and not politics, is Garland’s stated business, any potential prosecution of Trump must balance the national interest and the precedent that would be set if a commander in chief were to get away with attempting to overthrow an election.

Were Trump, for instance, to be prosecuted – over what so far appears to be a larger haul of documents and conduct that may add up to obstruction – and Biden is not, the ex-president would incite a firestorm of protest among his supporters. 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.

As a possible indictment looms over former President Trump, House Republicans are arguing that the New York prosecutor investigating alleged hush money paid to Daniels is politically motivated and that his probe won’t stand up in court.

The company is going to show at trial that Weisselberg acted to benefit himself rather than the company, said one of the company’s lawyers. The prosecution could argue the scheme saved money for the company, which did not pay payroll taxes, but the defense is expected to argue it helped the company lose money.

The lawyers could argue that Mr. Weisselberg faced years in prison if he had refused to testify. He is likely to spend 100 days in jail with the plea deal, because of good behavior.

If he lied on the witness stand, the judge overseeing the case could impose a 15 year prison sentence, according to his lawyer.

Mr. Trump, who was not accused of participating in the benefits scheme, has chalked up the case to a “witch hunt” against him, echoing the refrain he uses to leverage legal woes into a rallying cry for his political base.

In a statement, Mr. Graham’s office said that he is partly shielded by the speech or debate clause and that he “may return” to the federal courts “if the district attorney tries to ask questions about his constitutionally protected activities.”

Mr. Cunningham stated that the senator’s reluctance to answer questions might make them public, as well as the fact that those objections may have to be hashed out in open court.

The case represents a serious threat to Mr. Trump as he is recorded telling Mr. Raffensperger that he wanted to reach 11,780 votes.

In recent months, a lot of Mr. Trump’s associates have been arguing in court that they shouldn’t have to participate. So far, their track record has been mixed.

Sources have previously told CNN that in the past few months, a grand jury subpoena has been sent to him for documents related to the handling of Trump records.

The people said that the judge at the DC District Court granted the immunity on any information that he gave to the investigation.

After a secret proceeding in which the Justice Department subpoenaed the doctor to testify, the court decided to keep the decision under seal. His Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination was not a factor that he would answer questions about.

According to court records and sources, though it is unclear whether he is a target of the DOJ investigation into Mar-a-Lago, he is one of a few advisers around the president who could have legal risk related to the situation.

He served as a national security and defense official during the Trump administration, and this summer became one of Trump’s designees to interact with the National Archives and the Justice Department as both agencies have tried to repossess 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.

Taken together, the investigative moves underscore that there is continued grand jury activity in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, at a time when the Justice Department has newer inquiries into unsecured national security records underway involving President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.

The Judicial Investigative Activity of the Justice Department in the U.S. Capitol Campaign and the State of the 2020 Insurrection

Trump and his company deny any wrongdoing or criminality in all matters, state and federal, and have aggressively maintained innocence. Trump has also won dismissals of two lawsuits this week in cases brought by his niece and his former attorney.

The Justice Department is investigating the post-2020 election period. During the quiet period leading up to the midterms, witnesses have been testifying before the grand jury in Washington. Recently, the DOJ moved to compel additional testimony from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin.

Special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed the Secretary of State from Georgia, as part of the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the US Capitol attack.

The grand jury activity expands on previous investigative steps the Justice Department has taken to understand efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies in battleground states after the election.

In the excerpts of the call, Trump lambasted his fellow Republican for not saying that he won the election in Georgia and for repeating lies about election fraud in other states.

The people of Georgia are angry. Trump said there was nothing wrong with saying you have changed your mind.

The Georgia Republican has already spoken with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, and he testified publicly this summer about the threats he received after standing up to Trump.

The Insurrection That Smashed into the Capitol: Jack Smith, the Deputy Attorney General, and the Founding Attorney General of the U.S. Capitol

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’s team still hasn’t found a permanent location for an office, but they are changing over email addresses for staffers who had previously used their Justice Department accounts.

But each sign that once slow burning efforts to work through the trauma of the post-election period are heating up brings a parallel warning that the future threat to truth and democracy remains acute. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance – a key force in the incoming GOP House majority that is likely to try to shut down or obstruct investigations into Trump – is embroiled in yet another controversy over the insurrection.

The Georgia Republican said that the mob that smashed into the Capitol would have been armed if she had her way. She insisted she was joking after the White House criticized her comments. The ex-president stepped up his voter fraud claims by demanding that the constitution be terminated in a sign of how his potential second term might play out if he is re-elected.

Now that we think about the violence of the Capitol he incited days before, it seems like Mr. Trump was willing to lie about a matter at the heart of our democracy. Americans should not forget how this behavior indicts the former president, as well as the Republican members of Congress who he knew would go along with his big lie.

“It’s been over 700 days since the Washington Post published the full hour audio … of that highly incriminating phone call – 700 days for the DOJ to finally get around to subpoena him. When does it happen? Under Jack Smith.

Goodman also suggested that Trump’s legal team was guilty of wishful thinking if they believed that Smith’s appointment after a period spent abroad meant he was less likely to be influenced by the politicized aftermath of the January 6 attack and that a fresh mind would lean against indictments.

Preet Bharara, a former US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that Smith’s appointment and his assembling of a high-powered team of experienced prosecutors represented bad news for Trump.

“I don’t think they would’ve left their former positions, both in government and private practice, unless there was a serious possibility that the Justice Department was on a path to charge. And I think it’ll happen in a month,” he said.

Legal experts say the one about classified documents might move ahead faster because of several failed attempts by Trump to delay it. A judge on Monday formally dismissed Trump’s case challenging the Mar-a-Lago evidence collection and in which she had appointed a special master. The Justice Department has full access to tens of thousands of records and other objects found in the private office and beach club of Donald Trump.

Attorney General Garland has said that investigations will be based on the evidence. The time it takes to prepare for and conduct a trial is a result of the legal process. It is optimal for any proceedings to take place prior to the end of the White House race, as a prosecution of a former president and current president is politically-exploding.

“We’re now coming up against a timeframe in which it is a challenge to finish either case, if it is brought, to finish it before the election,” said CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers on “Newsroom” on Monday.

Rodgers said that a case on the documents side would probably take a lot of time, but if they can they will bring it.

The DOJ needs to demonstrate to Americans that they had no choice but to search the home of an ex president, even though Smith is following legal procedures.

That is yet another reason why the turn of the year and the early months of 2023 are beginning to look like a turning point for both Trump and those investigating him.

With Mr. Rosen’s deputy, Richard Donoghue, also on the line, Mr. Trump launched into the same tired, disproved and discredited allegations he had propagated so often at rallies, during news conferences and on social media. Mr. Donoghue told him there was no truth to it. According to Mr. Donoghue, Mr. Trump, exasperated that his own handpicked top appointees at the Justice Department would not affirm his baseless allegations, responded: “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”

It was a remarkable statement, even though the president had abused his office many times. Having been told by the very department that had investigated his claims of fraud that they were untrue, Mr. Trump told the acting attorney general and his deputy to lie about it and said he would take it from there.

The special counsel has added two prosecutors to his team to determine whether former President Donald Trump or his supporters should be brought to justice for obstructing the peaceful transition of power, two years after a group of protesters disrupted the US Capitol.

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.

The expansion under Smith shores up the office’s ability to examine broad conspiracy cases and determine the avenues of the investigation, another source said. More than 20 prosecutors from the Department of Justice have joined a team which is already investigating Trump and his associates.

Harbach was seen by CNN getting his bearings in the federal courthouse in DC on Thursday, speaking to another special counsel prosecutor about extremist group cases and briefly sitting in on an ongoing Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial.

Using subpoenas to tear down the brick walls of Mar-a-Lago riots: The case of Jan 6, 2021, D.C. Smith

More than 500 defendants have been found guilty of their involvement in the January 6, 2021, riot, according to the Justice Department. Two members of the crowd that suffered heart attacks and one person who died of an overdose, were killed in the attack. The DOJ says five officers died in the months after the riot and 140 officers were injured that day.

Smith’s DOJ prosecutors will have certain tools to tear down those brick walls where the House select committee hit bricks in its probe, including witnesses who refused to testify or cooperated with congressional investigators midway through. They include ongoing legal proceedings about piercing the shield of confidentially that normally surrounds a president.

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. At times, the special counsel’s office has been unwilling to negotiate with defense attorneys over recent subpoenas, leading to tense conversations.

Smith himself sent subpoenas to election officials in seven battleground states and received a trove of material. Included in the response from Michigan’s secretary of state is an email from a county official who was reporting two voicemails they received in December 2020 from individuals seeking access to voting equipment. The clerk wrote that there was one call from someone who claimed to be on Trump’s legal team.

“POTUS expectations are to have something intimate at the ellipse, and call on everyone to march to the capitol,” rally organizer Katrina Pierson wrote in an email days before the Capitol attack.

The 2016 Democratic Congressional Causal Committee on Investigations of the Donald Trump-Helmholtz Email-and-Text-Messaging Campaign

Donald Trump Jr. told investigators that his father does not use email or text messaging. Trump Jr. said he was not sure if he would even know what messaging apps were.

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.”

“If someone can show me evidence that there was influence peddling with those classified documents that were in the possession of President Trump, then we would certainly expand it,” the Kentucky Republican said. He went on to accuse Biden and his family of being “very cozy” with people from the Chinese Communist party but offered no evidence of such links or that they had anything to do with classified documents. His comments made it appear that the committee was trying to find evidence to condemn Biden, but they were also treating Trump differently than had been claimed by the GOP.

“It was pretty obvious that the ex-president was the center of this conspiracy, but he was certainly assisted by many others, including … Mark Meadows and the like,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who served on the committee.

The committee found that many of the state-based operatives and fraudulent electors were in the dark about what was going on. 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.

The last prominent election challenge ended on December 11, 2020, and top Trump campaign officials distanced themselves from the effort.

Investigating Fake Slenders of Elections: A Report on the January 6 Committee-Jacksmith-Trump-Investigation

For those who continued working on the scheme with Congress’ certification in mind, “DOJ would have a much easier case to prove,” said Ryan Goodman, a New York University School of Law professor and former Department of Defense general counsel.

The advisers memo outlines the plan on December 9 and indicates that if a court ruled against Trump, the alternate electors would be crucial.

Several Trump allies were named as potential co-conspirators in the committee’s final report after it referred Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Mark is a former White House chief of staff.

Meadows repeatedly comes up in the committee’s investigation, with evidence showing his involvement on some level in every gambit to overturn the election. Some of the most revelatory evidence came from Meadows himself – in the thousands of text messages he turned over to the committee before ceasing his cooperation with the investigation.

According to testimony that was given to the committee, President Donald Trump and his one-time attorney, Rudy Giuliani, were involved in discussions regarding fake slates of electors.

The committee’s transcripts show that Hutchinson said that during the month of December 2020 and the beginning of January 2021, Meadows burned a number of documents in his fireplace.

After producing the texts to congressional investigators, Meadows changed gears and did not show up for subpoenaed testimony before the House. The lawsuit he filed trying to overturn the subpoena failed, but the Justice Department did not charge him for his lack of cooperation.

The report states that criminal prosecutors may have access to materials that lawmakers don’t have.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/january-6-justice-department-jack-smith-trump-investigation/index.html

Investigating the Hush-money payments in Stormy Daniels’s case: A grand jury investigation into the handling of classified documents for Donald Trump

Trump’s team was not looking to overturn the will of the people but to ensure that the will of the people was accurate, according to Parlatore.

Sources familiar with the investigation say that two people who found classified documents for Donald Trump testified before a federal grand jury in Washington that is looking into his handling of national security records.

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.

The federal grand jury has been used by Jack Smith and his prosecutors almost weekly to question witnesses in the Mar-a-Lago investigation.

The ex-reality TV star, former commander in chief and property developer faces investigations for trying to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified information after leaving office. The Stormy Daniels case may be his most immediate exposure to date.

Now the Manhattan DA’s Office has summoned witnesses to testify about the hush-money payments before a newly empaneled grand jury, according to the source.

The Trump Documents ‘Grand-jury’ Campaign: Stop the Weaponization of our Justice System and Stand Up for Its Legacy

The former president stated in a social media post that this is a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.

The two-time impeached president launched his first campaign trip on Saturday, seeking a political comeback after being accused of fomenting an insurrection and trying to steal an election.

We are going to stop the weaponization of our justice system. There’s never been a justice system like this. The ex-president said on the trail that it was all investigation.

This is a message that may be attractive to some of Trump’s base voters who themselves feel alienated from the federal government and previously bought into his claims about a “deep state” conspiracy against him. It is a technique used by strongman leaders to argue that he is taking the heat so that his followers don’t have to.

According to a former special counsel at the Department of Defense, the latest development was a sign of an advanced special counsel investigation, and it could indicate that Smith was leaning toward indictments.

It appears that he is trying to make sure that their testimony doesn’t go to waste if the prosecutors have incriminating evidence against Trump or exonerating evidence against him.

Fresh indications of the progress in the Trump documents special counsel investigation came after the latest sign of a more balanced approach to the controversy over classified material by the House Republicans.

James Comer was asked by Pamela Brown of CNN why he had not been interested in the more than 325 documents found at Trump’s home but only the 20 or so classified documents that were uncovered at Biden’s house.

The investigations into Trump and Biden are not being done by the same person. In a legal sense, there is no overlap between them. Both will be subject to the same political fury if findings are made public.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/politics/trump-documents-grand-jury-2024-campaign/index.html

The Back of the Progress: Defending President Donald Trump in a Case of Hateful Shooting at the Fulton County Jail

When secret material is taken home, lower-ranking federal workers can be in for a rough ride.

Robert Birchum served in the Air Force for more than 30 years and previously held top secret clearance. He admitted in his plea agreement that he had hundreds of files that had top secret, secret or confidential information in them. According to a plea agreement, theDefendant knew as much as he could about classified information, since his residence was not authorized to store it.

Racketeering charges, sometimes used in gang-related activity, allow prosecutors to bring charges against multiple defendants. It’s possible for the law to be used to show that Trump and his allies were involved in a criminal enterprise to pressure state officials and then try to influence the election.

Governor Deal, despite his tough as-Nails message on crime, could have been a better position to deliver on reforms the left wing of the party had been fighting for. Kim Jackson, who serves at the protests, was elected to the Senate and she said she was excited by the candidacy of a black woman on a platform against the death penalty. A violent mass shooting at multiple spas in and around Atlanta left 8 people dead, mostly Asian women, and appeared to be a hate crime. The capital punishment will be sought for the accused shooter. And though Willis campaigned on pretrial diversion in lieu of prison time as one of her major reform issues, a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union on overcrowded and unsafe conditions at the Fulton County Jail cited insufficient use of diversion and a failure to indict arrested individuals in a timely manner as two major factors.

But the morning after we spoke, I sat in the back of a courtroom where the judge was holding a series of preliminary hearings for jail inmates, all Black men, who had been arrested and held since mid-July. One, accused of stealing equipment from a landscaping truck, had been in jail for 112 days; another, accused of smashing storefront windows, had been locked up for 116. It turned out the initial police report overstated the amount of damage and made the crime a felony.

The Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney Ordered the Public Report of the Special Grand Jury for the 2020 General Election

Mark Binelli is a writer. He last wrote about Yuval Sharon, the opera director, and about the legal aftermath of the bikers brawl in Texas. A female visual artist is interested in telling stories through a Black female perspective. She was named one of The British Journal of Photography’s Ones to Watch in 2019.

The conclusion was reached after reviewing the final report, according to the order. It provided the District Attorney with a list of people who should or should not be indicted after the 2020 general election in Georgia.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered the limited release earlier this week, writing in his order that the report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as concerns the panel had about witnesses lying under oath, will made be public on Thursday.

The portions of the grand jury report that were released last week made it clear that perjury charges were necessary for some witnesses. Kohrs earlier on Tuesday also told The New York Times that the grand jury recommended multiple indictments, though she didn’t provide names.

It was argued in the January 24 hearing that releasing the report now would endanger the rights of those who might be indicted later.

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 long time and consider multiple cases, this body spent about eight months interviewing more than 70 people and gathering evidence, but was not able to indict any of them.

The jury voted to make public the report, even though the judge wanted to know if prior precedents could be used to bar such reports from showing crimes without an indictment.

McBurney also pointed out that what the special grand jury saw was not a trial where a defendant presents his or her side of a case, but was instead “largely controlled by the District Attorney.”

“We have to be mindful of protecting future defendants’ rights,” Willis 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. Those details include:

In document preservation requests to Georgia officials in February 2021, Willis said she was investigating potential crimes, including solicitation of election fraud, making false statements to government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and violence or threats related to election administration.

The judges of the DC Circuit asked the Trump team tospecify documents related to the dispute. The court order doesn’t explain any further what’s happened with documents. But Corcoran also was ordered to hand over a number of documents, including handwritten notes and notes transcribed of a verbal conversation.

To overcome the shield of attorney-client privilege, prosecutors alleged in writing to the judge that the former president used his attorney in furtherance of a crime or fraud, according to one source.

A person familiar with the situation told CNN that he was called to testify last month about what happened in the lead up to the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

It was unclear on Tuesday whether the Justice Department has developed new evidence to argue there was criminal planning, or whether prosecutors are resting on the same arguments made when prosecutors sought a search warrant for Mar-a-Lago last year. They have been looking into both the handling of national security records and obstruction of justice after they had reason to believe federal records were concealed within the beach club.

A Trump spokesperson said the move was “nothing more than a targeted, politically motivated witch hunt against President Trump, concocted to try and prevent the American people from returning him to the White House.”

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.

The Atlanta Grand Jury Investigating Former President Donald Trump’s 2020 Attempts to Overturn the Election: Are There Problems on the List?

In 2020, Trump lost to Joe Biden by nearly 12,000 votes. The former president has insisted that there was nothing problematic about his activities contesting the election.

Cunningham told CNN that the report referred to is either done on Donald Trump’s behalf or directly by him.

Some of the work done on the behalf of the former president to affect the election results was a crime, he said. I think that is significant.

The special grand jury, barred from issuing indictments, penned their final report as a culmination of its seven months of work, which included interviewing 75 witnesses, from Giuliani to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Its final report is expected to include information from the panel’s investigative work, as well as any recommendations for indictments and the conduct that led the panel to its conclusions.

After the special grand jury presents its findings to him, another grand jury in Fulton County will make the final decisions regarding the case.

The foreperson of the Atlanta-based grand jury that investigated former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election told CNN on Tuesday that the panel is recommending multiple indictments and suggested “the big name” may be on the list.

Emily told CNN that she couldn’t imagine doing this for eight months and not having a whole list of recommended indictments. It isn’t a short list. It is not.

She continued, “There may be some names on that list that you wouldn’t expect. But the big name that everyone keeps asking me about – I don’t think you will be shocked.”

The Tennessee State Attorney General’s Special Grand Jury foreperson (David A. Kohrs) Accused that the Trial Rate isn’t Biased

The special grand jury had 24 jurors, including alternates, although all 24 were never present to hear witness testimony together. Only Kohrs has spoken publicly so far.

Asked by CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Erin Burnett OutFront” whether the number of people was “more than a dozen,” Kohrs replied: “I believe so. That may be a good assumption.

“Yes, I am positive I have heard the president on the phone more than once,” she said. CNN has previously said that an additional call by Trump to a Georgia official was part of the investigation.

Despite Trump’s claims that the prosecutors are liberal zealots on a “witch hunt,” Kohrs said she believed Willis and her team acted in a non-partisan fashion and tried to keep the proceedings fair.

“I don’t believe there was bias on the part of the DA’s team,” she told CNN in the phone interview. I know that they were worried of accidentally coloring our opinions one way or the other. They told us that they didn’t want any of their opinions to affect any of our opinions, or any of their additional knowledge to affect our knowledge.”

I would like to see her take pretty much any kind of decisive action to actually make a difference. “There are too many times in recent history that seem to me like someone has gotten called out for something that people had a problem with, and nothing ever happens.”

How often do we see something happen? I would love to see something actually happen. Don’t make me take back my faith in the system,” Kohrs said. “The only thing I would be disappointed in, at this point, is if this whole thing just disappears. That’s the only thing that would make me sad.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/politics/fulton-county-trump-grand-jury-foreperson-ebof/index.html

‘Foreperson’ of the Special Grand Jury in the ‘Mean-Field of a Former White House Adviser’ Michael Flynn

The foreperson also told CNN that she was “pleasantly surprised” by the friendliness of some witnesses, including key Trump insiders like former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, even though he invoked privilege and declined to answer some questions.

They were willing to have a conversation after they were there and I respect that, but some of them fought not to be there. Flynn was very nice in person. He was a nice man. He was definitely interesting. But I don’t recall him saying anything earth-shattering.”

Emily Kohrs, who has described herself as between customer service jobs and not voting in the presidential race, could be a key player in the potential indictment of a former president.

Trump dismissed the investigation on his social media network. You have a woman that is very energetic, get this! ‘foreperson’ of the Racist D.A.’s Special Grand Jury, going around and doing a Media Tour revealing, incredibly, the Grand Jury’s inner workings & thoughts,” he wrote.

She said she hopes something comes of it all and teased that the grand jury may have recommended charges for Trump.

The case of Liz Kohrs: a grand jury encounter with a former US Attorney and a foreperson (with an introduction by E.M. Litman)

She is the foreperson and her identity was first revealed by The AP and she has done interviews with other media.

The former US Attorney Harry Litman said on CNN on Wednesday that prosecutors have got to be “consternated” that a potential jury pool could be contaminated by Kohrs’ “odd 15-minute PR tour.”

I think it’s the most significant thing that has happened in the criminal law in American history, right? It has never happened to a former president.

Georgia State University assistant professor of law Anthony Michael Kreis was the one who told Murray that Kohs was within her rights to discuss the case as long as she didn’t broach the topic of charges.

She did not do anything to violate her obligations. She didn’t do anything that jeopardized the strategy or the ability to bring her case

She appeared to enjoy answering reporters’ questions about the grand jury proceedings, but she had to consider how far away she could go before she answered their questions.

On the other hand, Kohrs’ simple act of publicly embracing the role is a fascinating example of the US justice system, which ultimately relies on everyday people.

Here are the key portions of the interview with CNN. I used the quotes from Bolduan’s questions and the responses from Kohrs in italics.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/georgia-grand-jury-emily-kohrs-what-matters/index.html

What did we learn from the Grand Jury report on elm kohrs what happened in the room of George W. Bush?

I think if you look at the page numbers of the report, there’s about six pages in the middle that got cut out. It’s not a short list if you allow for spacing.

I will tell you that it was a process where we heard his name a lot. We discussed former President Trump a lot in the room, and heard a lot about him. I will tell you that there are no major plot twists waiting for you when this list comes out.

I don’t want to say anything about something the judge chose not to say at this point. There is a chance that I would interfere with the investigations. It is not certain if I would interfere with the procedures. I don’t want to cross that line.

I wouldn’t say that. I would say that – I would say that it ended up included there because it was less pointed of a suggestion than some of the other things we may have written in the parts of the report the judge chose to keep confidential.

I thought it was important to separate it as well, at least in my opinion, not anyone else’s but mine. There’s a difference between the crimes we were called to investigate and crimes that were committed in the room.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/georgia-grand-jury-emily-kohrs-what-matters/index.html

The High-Relevance Case against the Deficiencies of the Georgia Senate District Attorney’s Office on the January 6 March 11 riot: CNN’s Kate Bolduan

Being involved in this process has been enjoyable for me. I am really proud to be a part of this process. I think it’s a privilege to be able to actually be a part of the system for once and making it work.

This has been fascinating to get this peek into the world of politics and of all these different – of government and of all these different things and have the curtain lifted just a little bit and let us peek in as regular people has been amazing. I am very happy that I did it.

I believe it is the opposite. I think that by choosing to have a grand jury, by choosing to impanel regular people, they very specifically chose to avoid politics, to take bias out of the question. Because they chose to get, instead of anyone else, they chose to get 16 random people.

I’m not. I am cautious about my safety. I am aware of my safety but I am not worried. I do not think that I should be in this situation, I do not think any of the jurors did anything that says we believe in one or the other way about politics.

We did our best to find the facts that were empanelled, and we shared them with the district attorney’s office.

Timothy Heaphy told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Erin Burnett OutFront” that “unless there is information inconsistent, which I don’t expect, I think there will likely be indictments both in Georgia and at the federal level.”

“They were present for really significant events. The special counsel is interested in hearing what the president thought of the election results on January 6. And they both had direct communications with him about the events preceding the riot at the Capitol,” he said.

The RICO Investigation of Donald J. Heaphy During his December 2021 White House Phone Call with a Democratic State Senator: A Case Study of the Trump-Georgia Voting Campaign

“He will not stop because of a family relationship, because of purported executive privilege,” Heaphy said of Smith. He is determined to get that information, because the law entitles him to it.

When Republicans took control of the House, they expired a select committee that had previously heard testimony from the president’s daughters. The former president was referred to the Justice Department on four criminal charges in December, but members of the committee stressed those referrals were symbolic and not meant to be a signal that Congress would bring charges.

A source with knowledge of the investigation says that prosecutors in the Atlanta area are looking at bringing racketeering and conspiracy charges for Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the results of the election in Georgia.

The January phone call in which Trump pressured the Secretary of State of Georgia to find votes for him in order to win Georgia’s electoral votes began her investigation in early 2021, after the public revelations.

“The reason that I enjoy RICO is because jurors are very smart, and I think that is one of the reasons I like it,” he said at the news conference. They want to know what happened. They want to make an accurate decision about someone’s life. And so RICO is a tool that allows a prosecutor’s office and law enforcement to tell the whole story.”

John Floyd, a lawyer with deep expertise in racketeering cases, is assisting Fulton County on multiple cases, including Willis gang indictment against the rapper Young Thug, where she is currently using the RICO Act and introducing song lyrics as evidence.

New territory: The case for a criminal indictment of the Manhattan DA for using the power of government to probe the hush money

Trump claimed over the weekend in a post on social media that he would be arrested on Tuesday and urged his supporters to protest. But there has been no official announcement of a criminal indictment.

We are in new territory. We do not know what this does in the long term. The source involved with the Trump campaign said that they would rather not have him indicted than receive a boost.

Some Republicans believe that an indictment could be helpful for Trump, but others are unsure if it will benefit him.

There are many Republicans who are seeking a political opening. Trump’s Republican allies in the House have been demonstrating his enduring strength with the grassroots voters who sent them to Washington by unleashing an extraordinary assault on the Manhattan DA. They are trying to stop him from being held to account and to avoid his legal threats by using the power of government. GOP House committee chairs have demanded Bragg’s testimony as well as pledged to find out if the probe used any federal funds.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Sunday called it “the weakest case out there.” The California Republican, who has instructed GOP-led committees to investigate whether the Manhattan DA used federal funds to probe the hush money payment, said at a news conference that he had already spoken to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan – who is investigating “the weaponization” of the government against political opponents – about looking into that question.

The Mueller Investigation of Donald Trump’s Case against a Murdering Democrat in New York City and Washington, D.C. During the April 13 Broadcasting of Stormy Daniels

The speaker insisted that Donald Trump didn’t want people protesting over what might happen and that they should just not do that. McCarthy said that they want calm out there and not harm to anyone.

Further underscoring Trump’s firm hold on the GOP base, his social media post prompted several of his Republican critics to line up beside him. It feels like a politically charged prosecution, according to former Vice President Mike Pence, who is considering a campaign against Trump for the nomination in the year twenty four. And I, for my part, I just feel like it’s just not what the American people want to see.”

New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who has said it is time for Republicans to move on from Trump, told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” the Bragg investigation was “building a lot of sympathy for the former president.” He added: “I (had) coffee this morning with some folks, and none of them were big Trump supporters, but they all said they felt like he was being attacked.”

— There is also the issue of whether the political division and trauma of putting Trump on trial would be in the wider national interest — at least in a fairly constrained case that seems to hold fewer lasting constitutional implications than those connected to the January 6 investigations. History may not look kindly on any failed prosecution.

CNN takes a look at the legal drama surrounding Donald Trump. CNN will show a segment on the investigations of the Trump family on Tuesday, March 21.

In New York and Washington, DC, officials are preparing for potential protests as a grand jury empaneled as part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s alleged role in a scheme to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels continues to weigh possible charges.

In New York City – where the grand jury has been meeting – all NYPD officers are expected to be in uniform and ready for deployment Tuesday, according to an internal memo that a source shared with CNN. Law enforcement officials told CNN that although Tuesday is a “high alert day,” there is currently no credible threat.

The memo came in response to Trump’s social media posts over the weekend that called on his supporters to protest in response to a potential arrest, echoing the calls he made for protests in Washington, DC, in response to his 2020 election loss – protests that later turned violent when scores of his supporters stormed the Capitol. According to a department intelligence assessment obtained by CNN the US Capitol Police force are not currently tracking any direct or credible threats to the US Capitol.

There is uncertainty over how long the investigation will last and advisers to the former president were frustrated with the lack of information around a potential indictment and appearance in New York, where Trump would be tried.

Cohen made himself available to the office as a rebuttal witness but was not required, according to a statement provided by his lawyer.

Bragg’s Investigation of the Ex-President: A Response to Reply from the Speaker of the House Judiciary and Appeals Committees

House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Oversight Committee Chair Jim Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., kicked off their own probe on Monday, sending Bragg a letter demanding documents, communications and testimony related to his investigation of the former president.

A spokesman for Bragg said that the district attorney’s team would not be intimidated by attempts to undermine the justice process or deter us from fairly applying the law.

We won’t be deterred from applying the law by baseless accusations or by attempts to undermine the justice process. We follow the law even if we are afraid or trying to uncover the truth. Our skilled, honest and dedicated lawyers remain hard at work.

The three chairmen called a possible indictment “an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority” and said it was based on “a novel legal theory untested anywhere in the country and one that federal authorities declined to pursue.”

They expect him to appear as soon as possible but haven’t set a date for the hearing. They gave Bragg a deadline of Thursday to respond to them to set up a possible appearance.

House Republicans are huddling at their annual retreat in Orlando, Fla., and the former president, who is running for the GOP nomination in 2024, is dominating the conversation.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy fielded several questions about Trump at a press conference Sunday evening, and largely focused his response on attacking Bragg’s tenure and legal approach, instead of defending Trump’s behavior.

McCarthy said the reason New York races were won by them was because the district attorney had not protected the people of New York. The statute of limitations are no longer there. He added about an indictment: “This will not hold up in court, if this is what he wants to do.”

An investigation of the communications between a lawyer and the former president: Can attorney-client privilege be used in furtherance of a crime?

Questions about Trump continued to be a point of focus as House Republicans attempted to showcase their legislative agenda in the majority.

The first question was about Bragg’s probe, which was the topic of a press conference with Hispanic Republicans. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., used the same refrain most GOP lawmakers have used, telling reporters, “It certainly smells like it’s political.”

Howell, in her sealed ruling, determined prosecutors were able to show Trump attorney Evan Corcoran’s legal services were used in furtherance of a crime, so attorney-client privilege didn’t apply, sources told CNN.

The DC Circuit judges set a deadline for Trump’s lawyers to give more information and arguments by midnight and for the prosecutors to respond by 6 a.m.

Two advisers said that the former president appears to have resigned himself to the likelihood of an indictment, with one close adviser calling his perceived distancing from the matter “compartmentalization.”

CNN reported Tuesday evening that communications between Daniels and the lawyer who is now representing Trump were turned over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The exchanges between Daniels and Joe tacopina raise the possibility that the Trump attorney could be kicked out of the defense.

CNN has not seen the records in question, and Tacopina denies that there is a conflict or that confidential information was shared with his office. He said he didn’t meet or speak with Daniels. The impact on the case will be dependent on the substance of the communications, ethical experts said.

What Do Social Media Comments Say About Donald Trump’s Outbursts of January 6 Attacks in the U.S. Capitol?

Trump is scheduled to travel to Waco, Texas, on Saturday for his first major campaign rally since announcing his third presidential bid, though an adviser questioned whether an indictment from the New York grand jury could derail those plans.

On his social media page, Trump called for protests when he said that he would be arrested. He moved away from that language after allies and advisers called on him to tone it down, a sign he may be listening.

Still, federal officials, including those at the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, are monitoring what they say has been an uptick in violent rhetoric online, including calls for “civil war,” since Trump made those calls. But so far, it’s been limited to chatter and has lacked the actionable information, coordination and volume that preceded the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, US officials and security experts told CNN.

As speculation mounts that former President Donald Trump could soon be indicted over hush money payments to an adult film actress in 2016, Alvin Bragg may have to make a history-making decision.

This is a sham. Was federal funds involved? Did this stem from — it sure looks like it grew out of the special counsel investigation, because those are the legislative concerns we have as Congress.

The Mueller investigation and the case of Donald Trump: The piercing of the hush money to Donald Trump is ill-equipped

If the grand jury indicts Trump, Bragg’s ability to coordinate with everyone from the Secret Service to the president’s lawyers and the police will be tested. There are concerns for Bragg and his staff. Trump said he is innocent and has been vilifying the party on social media all weekend.

The drama around the various cases in New York, Florida and Washington has become even more tense and confusing because of a circus-like atmosphere in those places. And a mounting partisan uproar led by House Republicans, meanwhile, appears designed to blur the facts, distract from the evidence and fuel Trump’s claim he’s the victim of an endless political vendetta.

Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and CNN legal analyst, said the piercing of this bedrock legal protection was highly unusual and an ill omen for Trump, since Corcoran’s testimony could be used to suggest he committed a crime. This could involve not just the mishandling of classified documents but also possible obstruction of justice. “It considerably worsens what was probably Trump’s most federal legal peril,” Eisen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room” on Wednesday.

Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels, is seen by some analysts as a weak link in any trial since his credibility could be undermined by his own conviction for lying to Congress. Bragg would have to test Cohen’s trustworthiness in a grand jury or trial. He said that it was very much in their interests to take a beat and then make a decision. “This kind of thing happens all the time, as prosecutors decide whether and how to bring cases.”

Underscoring one thread of the political drama that could ensue, Trump’s potential biggest rival in the 2024 Republican primary chose this week to twist the knife while other potential GOP White House contenders were rushing to Trump’s defense in the hush money case. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told a crowd on Monday that he doesn’t “know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star” and later implied in an interview that if he won the Oval Office, he would be far more disciplined than Trump was in his riotous four years as president. While news of Trump’s legal troubles reminded Americans of the daily drama he put up for four years, DeSantis told Morgan that no daily drama, focus on the big picture and put points on the board.

One of the advisers to the governor was quoted as saying that the governor can not afford to be left out of the game. “He clearly made the calculus it was time to push back.”