The subpoena’s importance and the congressional oversight committee will be increased if the subcommittee stops arguing Trump is Oz

Taking on Trump directly marks an increase in the subpoena’s significance. Congress rarely issues subpoenas to sitting or former presidents. And if Trump does buck the subpoena, it would allow the committee to proclaim that it made a formal attempt to get Trump to talk to panelists, only to see him to refuse.

Already, in a March court filing, the committee said Trump illegally obstructed an official proceeding — Congress’ counting of the Electoral College votes. Trump was added to the list of those who engaged in a criminal conspiracy.

CNN analyst John King said that the committee was trying to make the case that Trump is Oz. “He presents himself as all powerful, but when you look, it’s actually a little guy behind a curtain trying to pull a machine.”

Contempt. The full House, which is controlled by Democrats until at least January, could vote to hold him in contempt of Congress, something it’s done with several other uncooperative witnesses.

They’ve used criminal statutes regarding violence, obstruction of an official proceeding, and seditious conspiracy. So the House select committee referring Trump for such a charge would be a big deal.

George Whittaker predicted that none of that would happen during an appearance on CNN Thursday. “This is about laying a marker. This is about provoking a response from Trump.

The Supreme Court made clear where it stands on the matter of Trump being a former president, when the National Archives refused to give information to the committee.

Trump has branded the James probe as a stunt and denied wrongdoing. The Justice Department hasn’t charged the former President, nor anyone else in its investigation over the Capitol insurrection. Criminal charges cannot be brought by the House select committee, although it may send criminal referrals to the Justice Department. The investigation into classified documents uncovered during the FBI search of his residence at Mar-a-Lago has been blasted by Trump as a witch hunt.

The January 6 committee felt it had enough information to forward prosecutions stemming from the work to the DOJ, according to Liz Cheney of Wyoming. And she noted that more than 30 witnesses have invoked Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination with regard to their dealings with the former President.

The Senate subcommittee that heard Ford’s testimony later decided he was a former president. That hearing, 39 years ago, was the last time a president took questions from lawmakers in the committee setting, according to the Senate Historical Office and Senate Library.

President Thomas Jefferson declined to appear at former Vice President Aaron Burr’s trial for treason even though he was subpoenaed by then-Chief Justice John Marshall. Jefferson did ultimately provide some documents. Burr was eventually acquitted.

The Mueller Investigation of the January 6 Insurrection: The Case for the Repented Appointment of Jeff Sessions to the U.S. Senate Select Committee

The Supreme Court did rule New York investigators could get access to the financial documents. Trump’s company will go on criminal trial this month on charges of violating tax laws.

The New York Attorney General was going to investigate him into his business practices, and a judge ordered him to comply with subpoenas. He invoked the Fifth Amendment in order to be heard during the deposition.

Trump and the Trump Organization were sued by James. James petitioned a state court to block Trump from moving assets to shield them from the lawsuit.

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

A public meeting on Monday will likely be the final meeting of the House Select Committee looking into the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

This comes after a series of public hearings, several of which were held in primetime, in which the committee made the case that Trump was the central player in a scheme to overturn the will of voters, prevent the peaceful transition of power, and remain in office.

The committee wanted to tell a complete story of what happened in the weeks leading up to and on January 6.

She says they are obligated to seek answers from the man who started it all. “And every American is entitled to those answers, so we can act now to protect our republic.”

Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and the Chairman of the select committee, argued that Trump is the one person who really knows what happened on January 6th. We want to hear from him.

Additional footage from Fort McNair was not shown by the committee. CNN will broadcast exclusive footage from Anderson Cooper during a special show on Thursday night. 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 footage shows Pelosi, Schumer, and other top officials in the Capitol working to get the resources needed to quell the insurrection.

Two phone calls were made between Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was in charge of the emergency response on January 6, according to the footage.

Schumer dressed down the acting 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.”

Elaine Chao, who resigned from her post as Trump’s secretary of Transportation a day after the insurrection, spoke in personal terms about her disgust toward the attack when she testified to the committee.

The events that were happening were so bad that it was impossible for me to continue, given my personal values and philosophy. I’m an immigrant to this country. I believe in the country it is in. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I believe in democracy. She said it was a decision she made on her own.

The committee showed a new video deposition from Hutchinson where she talks about how Trump urged Georgia to vote for him in the January 2020 elections in order to win the popular vote.

I told Mark that we wouldn’t be able to pull this off. Like, that call was crazy.’ He looked at me and shook his head. He knows it’s over, you know. He knows he lost. Hutchinson told the committee that they were going to keep trying.

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 that he didn’t want people to know we lost. This is not good. 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.

Days before January Trump’s communication adviser, Jason Miller, boasted to Meadows that he “got the base FIRED UP,” and shared a link to a pro-Trump webpage containing hundreds of threatening comments about killing lawmakers if they went ahead with certifying Joe Biden’s legitimate electoral victory, according to a new text message the panel showed Thursday.

The congressman said in the hearing that the Secret Service had received online threats against the vice president, one of which said that he would die if he didn’t do the right thing.

The House Select Committee on Judiciary Ethics and the Case against the Donald Trump Assassination in the 2019 US Capitol Insurrection

The committee also revealed new evidence Thursday that Trump had devised a plan, well before any votes were counted, to declare victory no matter what the election results were.

The committee said it obtained from the National Archives a memo that was written after their conversation on November 3, 2020.

“It is essential that the Vice President not be perceived by the public as having decided questions concerning disputed electoral votes prior to the full development of all relevant facts,” the memo reads.

Tom Fitton sent two new emails to the two Trump advisers a few days before the election. One email contains a draft statement for Trump to declare victory on Election Night.

The panel downplayed the significance of her testimony after she was interviewed, and it was clear that she wasn’t going to be a central part of the hearing because it was focused on Trump.

Her absence was notable because the committee did use testimony from other high-profile witnesses who had been interviewed.

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.

But the developments that could hurt Trump the most happened off stage. The legal maze surrounding the ex-president, who hasn’t been charged with a crime, and the distance left to try to reconcile his presidency that constantly tested the rule of law, reflect the extraordinary legal thicket surrounding him.

Donald Trump is going to have a period of high legal and political risk over his role in the US Capitol insurrection and his desire to be the next president.

The Supreme Court heard from across the road that it was not going to be sucked into Trump’s quest to derail the Justice Department probe into classified material he kept at Mar-a-Lago.

The court turned down his request, without explaining what it was that had delayed the case. 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.

Why is the January 6 showdown over classified documents so dark? A story of Mike Pence, a former US Senator, and a prosecuting lawyer

For all the political drama that surrounds the continuing revelations over one of the darkest days in modern American history on January 6, it’s the showdown over classified documents that appears to represent the ex-President’s most clear cut and immediate threat of true criminal exposure.

The former President asked why the panel waited so long to call him. But his obstruction of the investigation and attempts to prevent former aides from testifying means he is on thin ice in criticizing its conduct. It’s not uncommon for investigators to build a case first before reaching the most high profile potential target of a probe.

A man who used to work in the office of Mike Pence leaves a courthouse in Washington DC. A person familiar with the matter said that Short was compelled to testify for the second time. Another Trump adviser, former national security aide Kash Patel, was also seen walking into an area where the grand jury meets. Patel would not tell reporters what he was doing.

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 also has surveillance footage showing a staffer moving the boxes.

To explain his finding of evidence of obstruction, the judge pointed to emails that showed that the Trump team was contemplating filing lawsuits not to obtain legitimate legal relief, but to meddle in congressional proceedings.

Still, David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment, told CNN’s “New Day” that though the details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raised troubling questions, they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstructing justice.

A quickening special counsel probe, now focusing on the alleged attempt to steal Georgia’s election, the climax of the House January 6 committee and a new trial of pro-Trump Oath Keepers extremists underscore the breadth of attempts to secure accountability over one of the darkest days in modern American history. A month after voters sent a signal of disapproval with his obsession with the 2020 election, signs of a net may be closing around Trump and his allies.

What happened on January 6? The Unselect Committee closed its hearing on the January 6 attack in the U.S. Senator Dan Budowich weighed in on Twitter

One of the worst days for Trump to respond to a crisis is the day before it, when he comes out fighting.

The unanimous vote in the committee to subpoena the former President for documents was mocked by the first Trump spokesman.

Preceding Trump won’t be intimidated by their un-American actions. Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms, and America First leadership & solutions will be restored,” Budowich wrote on Twitter.

Then the former President weighed in on his Truth Social network with another post that failed to answer the accusations against him, but that was clearly designed to stir a political reaction from his supporters.

I wonder if the Unselect Committee asked me to testify months ago. How come they waited until the last moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total ‘BUST,’” Trump wrote.

But any effort to follow a similar path if Trump refuses to testify could take months and involve protracted legal battles. It’s unclear whether the Justice Department would consider this a good investment, especially given the advanced state of its own January 6 probe. And there’s a good chance the committee will be swept into history anyway, with Republicans favored to take over the House majority following the midterm elections.

But the committee’s Republican vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, said the investigation was no longer just about what happened on January 6, but about the future.

A Wyoming lawmaker who lost to a Trump-backed challenger this summer said that she won’t be returning to Congress because of “every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President.”

The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack closed its hearing on Thursday by taking a vote on whether to subpoena former President Donald Trump to testify before them.

The Donald Trump Circums & Challenges: A New Course in History, Politics and the Future of the U.S. Presidential Campaign

Former President Donald Trump and his movement are posing new challenges to accountability, free elections and the rule of law, ushering in a fresh period of political turmoil.

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 is likely to deepen the deep divide within the 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 ex-president’s claims of political persecution may cause more upheaval than his four years in office as a result of the open legal and political loops involving him.

While both parties have differing policies on the economy, abortion, foreign policy and crime, there is a chance that the coming political period may be focused on the ex- President and his future.

There’s a rising prospect next month’s election will install a Republican majority in the House that will effectively mean a return of Trumpism to political power given the hold the ex-President maintains over the House GOP. Some leading Republicans are already looking into the possibility of impeaching Biden, as a way to rough up him for a potential clash with Trump in the future.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/politics/donald-trump-circus-analysis/index.html

Kaluza-Klein and the Donald Trump Organization: How far will it go? New York, NY, and Manhattan report on a single voter fraud perpetrator

In Arizona, one of the ex-President’s favorite candidates, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake – a serial spreader of voter fraud falsehoods – is again raising doubts about the election system. “I’m afraid that it probably is not going to be completely fair,” Lake told AZTV7 on Sunday.

The New York Post reported on last week that the New York Rep., as the number three Republican in the House, said that impeachment of Biden was on the table. Mace told CNN on Sunday that she did not want to see impeachment proceedings for Trump after he was impeached twice. She said she didn’t like the process being weaponized. She said that there would have to be an investigation into whether or not Biden had committed impeachable offenses.

Republican influence in Washington is likely to increase 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 another politically sensitive front, the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud and grandy larceny trial begins in Manhattan on Monday. Fresh claims from the ex-president that he is being treated unfairly because of his political leanings could potentially inject yet another contentious element into the election season, and the trial could impact his business empire. New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Donald Trump, his children and the Trump Organization of running tax and insurance fraud schemes to enrich themselves for years.

Democrats have made their own attempts to return Trump to the political spotlight. President Joe Biden equated MAGA followers with “semi-fascism” and some campaigns have tried to scare critical suburban voters by warning pro-Trump candidates are a danger to democracy.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/politics/donald-trump-circus-analysis/index.html

The Investigating Committee on the Investigation of a White House Candidate for the Special Investigative Team of the U.S. Department of Interior and Justice

But raging inflation and spikes in gasoline prices appear to be a far more potent concern before voters head to the polls, which could spell bad news for the party in power in Washington.

The ex-President told supporters at a rally in Texas on Saturday regarding the possibility of a new White House bid, “I will probably have to do it 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 not a trivial set of issues.

The committee has used testimony throughout its presentations, using closed doors and video depositions. Only its most sympathetic witnesses have appeared in person. The narrative created by this has helped create a powerful one that paints a picture of shocking neglect of duty by Trump on January 6 and has deprived viewers of seeing witnesses. The committee’s case may be difficult to assess in a court of law because of this.

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.

If a moment of truth is approaching for Trump, the same can be said of Garland and the DOJ. The decision to charge the former president will be met with a furious political reaction. Given that the ex-president’s movement has already shown it sees violence as a legitimate tool to express a political grievance, things could get especially dangerous.

It would cause a lot of uproar if it was decided to charge an ex-president for running for another White House term. But sparing him from accountability if there’s evidence of a crime would send a damaging signal to future presidents with strongman instincts.

“This is not a situation where the committee is going to allow Donald Trump to create a circus in order to make himself look good,” Cheney said.

That being said, there is a strong chance the former president will not produce the documents by the end of the day. The committee has been lenient when it comes to deadlines in the past, at least when there’s ongoing communication with a subject’s legal team.

Other high-profile people found in the committee’s order include Roger Stone, Stephen Bannon, retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Rudolph Giuliani and more.

The Subpoena File of the Select Committee on Investigations of a Republican Political Advisor to the 2018 U.S. House Select Committee

She said that the committee has been working in a collaborative way and that they won’t have disagreements about that. We have to make those decisions as the situation changes.

The same day the House committee ordered Trump to turn over documents and testify, a judge sentenced his political advisor, Steve Banon, to four months in prison for contempt.

The committee also said it “received correspondence from the former President and his counsel in connection with the Select Committee’s subpoena” but did not provide additional information.

In its initial subpoena, the committee alleges that Giuliani “actively promoted claims of election fraud on behalf of the former President and sought to convince state legislators to take steps to overturn the election results.” The subpoena says Giuliani was talking to members of Congress about delaying or reversing the results of the 2020 election.

For example, during one of the panel’s final hearings, Committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney raised concerns of witness tampering tied to Trump, but it’s unclear if the panel will pursue a related referral.

It also asked Trump to turn over all records of phone calls, text messages or communications with any members of Congress from December 18, 2020, to January 6, 2021; all of his communications on January 6 specifically, and any communications or efforts to contact other witnesses in the committee’s investigation.

The request asked for documents and communications relating to the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or any of the other groups from September 1, 2020, to the present. The request spans 19 different categories.

Subcommittee Summary: Sensitivities to Corrections to Mar-a-Lago Documents for the Post-2020 Election Campaign

Trump and his company have denied all wrongdoing in all federal, state, and local matters. The lawsuits that Trump won dismissal of this week were brought by his niece and former attorney.

Mar-a-Lago documents: Did Trump mishandle classified material? The Justice Department is investigating whether documents from the Trump administration were mishandled when they were brought to his Mar-a-Lago resort after he left office. A federal grand jury in Washington has been empaneled and has interviewed potential witnesses to 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.

The Justice Department is looking into the post-2020 election period. While the DOJ has not acted publicly during the so-called quiet period leading up to the midterms, a grand jury in Washington has been hearing from witnesses. Former White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin were forced to testify by the DOJ.

CNN has learned that the panel weighed criminal referrals for a number of Trump’s closest allies, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and White House chief of staff MarkMeadows.

A referral is a recommendation that the DOJ look at charging the individuals. The House committee’s final report – to be released Wednesday – will provide justification from the panel’s investigation for recommending the charges.

Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said Thursday that committee members are expected to reach a decision on criminal referrals when members meet virtually on Sunday.

“I think the more we looked at the body of evidence that we had collected, we just felt that while we’re not in the business of investigating people for criminal activities, we just couldn’t overlook some of them,” Thompson said.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who leads the January 6 subcommittee tasked with presenting recommendations on criminal referrals to the full committee, said Thursday, “I think anyone who engages in criminal actions needs to be held accountable for them. We’re going to spell it out.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who leads the January 6 subcommittee tasked with presenting recommendations on criminal referrals to the full panel, recently said that “the gravest offense in constitutional terms is the attempt to overthrow a presidential election and bypass the constitutional order. There are a lot of statutory offenses which support the larger and more violent assault on America.

The plans come as a subcommittee of the larger panel’s four lawyers — Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff of California and Republican Vice Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming — met with the full panel several times this month to present their findings on referrals and other recommendations.

Correspondence between Donald J. Eastman and Sen. Scott Perry during a hearing on contempt of Congress in the 2016 midterm congressional certification hearing

Meadows did not turn over other documents he had, and the House committee voted to hold him in criminal contempt of Congress for it and for his refusal to testify, referring the matter to the Justice Department. The Justice Department decided not to indict Meadows for not complying with his subpoena because of his high level position and claims of executive privilege.

Raskin also suggested Thursday that previous referrals to DOJ for contempt of Congress would not impact how the panel handles these criminal referrals.

“We obviously did contempt of Congress referrals earlier and there’s a whole statutory process for making that happen,” he said. We will give you an explanation of why we are making certain kinds of referrals.

In the midst of a legal fight to obtain Eastman’s emails, a federal judge ruled in March that Eastman, along with Trump, may have been planning a crime as they sought to disrupt the January 6 congressional certification of the presidential election. According to a court filing from Eastman, his phone was taken by the FBI in June as part of a criminal investigation.

In the hearing, the committee walked through how Eastman put forward a legal theory that Pence could unilaterally block certification of the election – a theory that was roundly rejected by Trump’s White House attorneys and Pence’s team, but was nevertheless embraced by the former President.

The former DOJ official was facing a criminal contempt of Congress referral at the time after he refused to answer the committee’s questions at a prior deposition. The referral was never sent to DOJ because on the day the committee voted on the contempt referral, Clark’s lawyer informed the committee that he planned to invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions on the grounds it may incriminate him.

The June hearing was dedicated to Clark’s role in the plot to take over the Justice Department in the last months of Trump’s term to keep him in office.

The committee in particular zeroed in on the efforts of Rep. Scott Perry, the Pennsylvania Republican, who connected Clark to the White House in December 2020.

The committee in court filings released text messages that showed that they had discussed the issue of Clark.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Meadows, said in a deposition played at the hearing that he wanted Mr. Jeff Clark to take over the Department of Justice.

Giuliani, Trump’s onetime personal attorney and a lead architect of his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, met with the panel in May for more than nine hours.

The House select panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol could hold what could be its final public meeting on Monday to announce and vote on its plans to issue criminal referrals and other recommendations.

The decision has loomed large over the committee. In their hearings, the panel members said that Trump and some of his allies had committed a crime when they tried to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. But they have long been split over what exactly to do about it.

“We are in common agreement about what our approach should be. I am not authorized to tell you what it is at this point, and I am not ready for that. We all agree that there is evidence of criminal activity here. And we want to make sure that the Justice Department is aware of that.

“So I think it’s an important decision in its own right if we go forward with it,” he said. “And one that the Department ought to give due consideration to.”

When Will It Happen? The Case of Jack Smith During the Insurrection that Shot Joe Biden and Saves Joey from the White House

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 if she had her way, the mob that smashed into the Capitol would have been armed. She then rebuffed White House condemnations of her comments by insisting she was joking. This came days after the ex-president stepped up his voter fraud falsehoods by demanding the termination of the Constitution in a sign of how his potential second term might unfold if he wins the 2024 election and returns to the White House.

Even though many Americans are more concerned with feeding their families and paying rent than with Trump trying to overturn a presidential election, it is still very odd how tight a hold he has on Washington politics. Trump’s campaign of lies is having an impact. A new CNN/SSRS poll shows that after Republicans won the House, fewer people are confident that elections are in line with the will of the people.

CNN reported Sunday that Smith is speeding ahead on twin probes into Trump’s role in an effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 and his apparently haphazard storage of classified documents at his Florida residence and resort. The Georgia Secretary of State was subpoenaed by Smith’s team to testify about how the then-president tried to get him to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. Smith has also issued a flurry of grand jury subpoenas since Thanksgiving, including to ex-Trump adviser Stephen Miller and two former White legal counsels.

700 days have passed since the Washington Post published the full hour audio of that phone call and the DOJ is still waiting 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.

According to Bharara, the appointment of Smith and his assembling of a high-powered team of experienced prosecutors represented bad news for Trump.

I don’t believe they would have left their former positions unless there was a chance of the Justice Department taking over. And I think it’ll happen in a month,” he said.

Attorney General Garland has said that no one is above the law and that investigations would go where evidence leads. It would take a while to prepare and conduct a trial in the legal process. It would make sense for any prosecutor to take place well before the presidential campaign is over, due to the fact that the prosecution of a former president would be politically damaging.

When it comes to the case being brought or finished before the election, it is going to be a challenge according to CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers.

“So, I think they will bring a case on the documents side, if they can, as soon as they can,” Rodgers said, adding that any case on January 6 would probably take more time.

While Smith is following legal procedures, the political context makes it more incumbent on the DOJ to demonstrate to Americans that they had no choice but to conduct the search at the ex-president’s home.

The turn of the year and the early months of 2020 are beginning to look like a time of ruin for both Trump and the people investigating him.

When Ethics Meets Politics: Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and a Source who criticized the Committee

The final report and a hearing could now be held sooner than expected, as the panel now thinks it can hold that presentation a day earlier.

We looked at the schedule, and it appears we can complete our work before that. So why not get it to the public as quick as we can?” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters on Tuesday from the Capitol steps.

In addition to criminal referrals, Thompson told reporters last week that the panel could issue five to six categories of referrals beyond criminal referrals such as ethics referrals to the House Ethics Committee, bar discipline referrals and campaign finance referrals.

Five House Republicans were subpoenaed, but refused to cooperate with the House ethics committee, meaning they could be referred by the panel.

The committee discovered several attorneys connected to the presidential election plot, including one who wanted the results to be changed. Thompson was not ready to rule out anyone.

When an officer of the court disrespects the ethics of a proceeding, it must be reviewed by the committee, Thompson told NPR earlier this month. I wouldn’t mind if a lawyer didn’t respect those ethical standards as I think they are the highest possible.

Thompson has said that the transcripts from more than 1,000 interviews the panel conducted will be made public once the final report is released.

The final committee report could include additional charges proposed for Trump, according to the source. It will provide the reason why the charges were recommended.

Legislators can rely on an opinion from a federal judge in California who wrote this year that there was evidence that Trump and his associates were scheming to trick the government and obstruct an official proceeding.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump, criticized the committee in a statement as a “Kangaroo court” that held “show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history.”

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the committee, told CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday that the panel has “been very careful in crafting these recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we’ve uncovered.”

“We spent a huge amount of time not just on what the code sections are and the bottom line recommendation, but the facts – and I think it’s really important when we discuss whatever it is we are going to do and we’ll have a vote on it, that people understand the facts behind the conclusions we reach,” the California Democrat said on “The Lead.”

Subpoenas in the Investigation of the Capitol Attack, and Implications for Senate Referendum Reports to the Justice Department

The Justice Department has largely focused on criminal statutes related to the violence, for obstructing a congressional proceeding and in some limited cases for seditious conspiracy, when charging defendants in connection with the attack on the US Capitol.

The committee will hold its final public meeting next week, and the full report will be made public on Wednesday. The panel will approve its final report on Monday and make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but the public won’t see it until two days later, according to the Mississippi Democrat.

GOP lawmakers who refuse to comply with subpoenas will be held accountable, according to a member of the select committee.

The appropriate remedy for members of Congress who ignore congressional subpoenas will be considered, as will the evidence that was so pertinent to our investigation, according to the California Democrat.

The impact House referrals could have remains unclear because the Department of Justice special counsel investigation is already examining Trump in its extensive probe into January 6.

“Censure was something that we have considered. Schiff said the committee would reveal its decision Monday, but that ethics referrals had been considered.

What the committee wants to hear about a criminal investigation of the late-term Republican presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, and what the committee expects to learn from it

There is someone that tried to force state officials to find votes that didn’t exist. This is someone who tried to interfere with a joint session, even inciting a mob to attack the Capitol. If that’s not criminal, then I don’t know what is,” he added.

The committee is going to refer the Justice Department to the US attorney’s office for possible charges relating to Trump, and even though he wasn’t going to say what they were about, he said he thought the former president broke several criminal statutes.

“I think the president has violated multiple criminal laws. And I think you have to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is, you have to be prosecuted,” he said.

And while we won’t know everything that’s to come from the January 6 committee this week until it unfolds, here’s what you need to know about what’s expected, what’s not, and where this could all lead.

The public meeting on Monday is expected to hear that the panel will refer at least three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department.

The federal investigation now being led by special counsel Jack Smith is examining Trump in its extensive probe into January 6, 2021, and it appears that DOJ investigators are already looking at much of the conduct that the select committee has highlighted.

Attorney General Garland said that the facts and evidence needed to support a prosecution was the most important factor in deciding whether to bring charges. The ultimate decision on charging will be made by Garland.

The December 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol – What will it take to resolve it? A panel discussion on Jan. 6 incident

The judges described the January 6 attack on Congress as “insurrection”. But the Justice Department has not opted to bring the charge in its hundreds of US Capitol riot cases.

“That will be something we will be considering tomorrow,” Schiff added, noting that the panel has weighed whether it is better to criminally refer members of Congress to other parts of the federal government or if Congress should “police its own.”

But any move by the January 6 panel to approve a referral would be largely symbolic because a referral by no means obligates federal prosecutors to bring such a case.

Among them are insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government, according to a source familiar with the matter.

For the latter two, the lawmakers can rely on an opinion from a federal judge in California, who wrote earlier this year that there was evidence that Trump and his allies were plotting to defraud the US government and to obstruct an official proceeding. The opinion was handed down by the US District Judge in regards to the matter of the House being able to access certain emails.

Supporting evidence and not individuals will be named in any referrals presented on Monday. The meeting will feature a public presentation that summarizes the panel’s work.

GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of two Republicans on the committee who will be retiring at the end of this Congress, told CNN, “It would be nice if the last thing I was doing was something a little less dramatic,” but he emphasized that the report will “be one of the most important things we do.”

Why does this matter?: The investigation into the attack on Jan. 6 has come to an end. Some members argued that Trump and his allies were given an advantage in their attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election because of the weaknesses in the electoral system. The Electoral Count Act should be reformed, as policy recommendations will be made by the panel.

Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., told NPR she came away from reading the Jan. 6 report “shocked by the breadth and depth of this plan to create a big lie and pull every lever of government to corrupt an election.”

“We’ve seen petty criminals who’ve been charged with misdemeanors for trespassing be held accountable, but not the masterminds of this, who really did try to corrupt the government and its processes,” Luria said.

“We’re not piling onto existing prosecutions,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said of upcoming criminal referrals. “We’re wanting to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks and the crimes of the most serious gravity are attended to.”

The Jan 6 Committee is About to Have Its Last Hearing Apparently There’s Nothing Wrong with Dan Goldman, John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro

Additionally, the committee has also laid out evidence against those who they say crafted and pushed the strategy of derailing the certification of the election:

New York Democratic Rep.-elect Dan Goldman, a former House impeachment lawyer, said the panel could have criminal evidence that the Justice Department would not have without a referral. Goldman thought that the panel could be considering referrals for intimidation, obstruction of justice and false statements made under oath.

The Department of Justice wants to make sure that the evidence they uncover is included in the evaluation of whether or not a crime was committed, Goldman said.

NPR obtained a small portion of a draft script for the Monday meeting that shows the panel intends to accuse lawyers John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro of being tied to the conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

One of the key figures in the effort to get rid of President Biden’s win was Eastman, as well as another key figure in the scheme was Chesebro.

“They could be subject of both criminal referrals, but also referrals to their state bar association to review whether or not they should continue to have their bar license if they are making blatant misrepresentations in court filings or otherwise,” Goldman said.

The ethics panel is unlikely to start another investigation with the congressional session over and Republicans in charge of the House.

When asked at a press conference last week if he was concerned that he and his colleagues might face criminal referrals, McCarthy said, “No, not at all. We did nothing wrong.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/19/1143415487/the-jan-6-committee-is-about-to-have-its-last-hearing-heres-what-to-expect

CNN special coverage of the rioting in the wake of the 2001 Chicago gun attacks, and why people aren’t ashamed of their crimes

More than 900 people have been charged with crimes related to the attack. In all 50 states, law enforcement has arrested people who are accused of rioting.

CNN’s special coverage of the meeting, anchored by Jake Tapper and Erin Burnett, will begin at 12 p.m. ET. It will stream live without requiring a cable log-in via CNN.com, CNN OTT and mobile apps, or CNNgo from 12 p.m. ET to 5 p.m. ET.