The House Select Committee’s Jan. 6 Subpoena of Sen. Randall-Sundrum Trump: Bringing Back the Oz

The subpoena could give the bipartisan committee cover from pro-Trump Republicans who claim that it is a politicized attempt to impugn Trump that has not allowed cross-examination of witnesses. If the committee wanted to enforce a subpoena it would have to seek a contempt of Congress referral from the full House. It took such a step with Trump’s political guru, Steve Bannon, who was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress and soon faces a sentencing hearing.

The House Select Jan. 6 Committee will take up criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump on at least two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to a source familiar with the committee’s discussions but not authorized to speak publicly on the plans.

“They are trying to make the case that Trump is Oz,” said CNN’s John King, interpreting the committee’s subpoena of Trump. “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.

There is a prosecution. Trump could be sentenced to 30 days in prison if found guilty. The House subpoena will result in a sentence being handed down later this month.

Putting a Defendant on the White House: The Case against a President Who Abelian Subpoenas

“None of that is going to happen” said George Faulkner while speaking on CNN Thursday. “This is about laying a marker. This is about having a response from Trump.

Conway did point out the Supreme Court has already made clear where it stands on Trump’s status as a former president when it ignored his attempt to block the National Archives from sharing information with the committee.

The Justice Department is not going after Trump for ignoring a congressional subpoena, but they are looking into his treatment of classified documents while in the White House and his attempt to overturn the election as president.

Liz Cheney said the January 6 committee thinks it has enough information to make referrals to the Department of Justice for prosecutions. 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.

In 1983, Ford testified to a Senate subcommittee. The Senate Historical Office says that the last time a president took questions from congress in the committee setting was 39 years ago.

President Jefferson was subpoenaed by the Chief Justice of the country, but he did not show up for the trial. Jefferson gave some documents. Initially, Burr was found not guilty.

The Investigation of Donald Trump and the US Capitol Insurrection: Subpoenas from the New York Attorney General Letitia James

The Supreme Court did rule New York investigators could get access to the financial documents. Trump’s company is going on trial this month for violating tax laws.

A judge forced him to comply with subpoenas from New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of her civil inquiry into his business practices. He invoked the Fifth Amendment against himself during the deposition.

“There is every reason to believe that the Defendants will continue to engage in similar fraudulent conduct right up to trial unless checked by order of this Court,” James wrote in an application for a preliminary injunction linked to her $250 million suit against Trump, his three eldest children and his firm.

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

The House January 6 committee voted to subpoena him after laying bare his depraved efforts to overthrow the 2020 election and his dereliction of duty as his mob invaded the US Capitol.

The committee had a last chance to get Trump to testify before the elections and came with a warning about a day of infamy in January 2021.

The developments that could hurt Trump were not on stage. They reflect the extraordinary legal thicket surrounding the ex-President, who has not been charged with a crime, and the distance still left to run for efforts to account for his riotous exit from power and a presidency that constantly tested the rule of law.

Donald Trump is heading for a period of maximum legal and political risk over his role in the US Capitol insurrection and hoarding of classified documents that will collide with his efforts to electrify a low wattage 2024 White House bid.

The Supreme Court was not interested in being involved in the Justice Department investigation into Trump at Mar-a-Lago, as the hearing went on.

The court turned down his emergency request to intervene, which could have delayed the case, without explaining why. 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.

Investigating Donald Trump with the DOJ/CNN Investigation of January 6, 2020 Showdown: The Ex-President’s Last Cut, His Protected Freedom, and His Contemplated Obstruction

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.

While television stations beamed blanket coverage of the committee hearing, more news broke that hinted at further grave legal problems the ex-President could face from another Justice Department investigation – also into January 6. Unlike the House’s version, the DOJ’s criminal probe has the power to draw up indictments.

The former chief of staff for the Vice President left the courthouse in Washington, DC. Short had been compelled to testify to the grand jury for the second time, according to a person familiar with the matter, CNN’s Pamela Brown reported. Another Trump adviser, former national security aide Kash Patel, was also seen walking into an area where the grand jury meets. He wouldn’t tell the reporters what he was doing.

According to Brown, a Trump employee told the FBI that the ex-president ordered him to move boxes from the basement storage room at his club after being served with a subpoena for any classified documents. The FBI also has tapes of a staffer moving boxes.

On the face of it, this development is troubling since it could suggest a pattern of deception that plays into a possible obstruction of justice charge. On the initial search warrant before the FBI showed up at Trump’s home in August, the bureau told a judge there could be “evidence of obstruction” at the resort.

The details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raise troubling questions, but they did not amount to obstruction of justice according to David Schoen, Donald Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment.

Those aren’t even the only probes connected to Trump. There is a new investigation in Georgia over attempts by the former President and his allies to change the outcome of the election in a pivotal 2020 swing state.

The Problem of the First Trump: Why Did the Unselect Committee Not Ask Me to Testify About the Attack on January 6? A Commentary on the First-President Taylor Budowich

There are days when Trump’s rhetoric shows how serious of a crisis he is dealing with and other days when he does not, but that’s because he is always fighting.

First Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich mocked the unanimous 9-0 vote in the select committee to subpoena the former President for documents and testimony.

“Pres Trump will not be intimidate(d) by their meritless rhetoric or un-American actions. Trump-endorsed candidates will sweep the Midterms, and America First leadership & solutions will be restored,” Budowich wrote on Twitter.

The former President posted on his Truth Social network that he didn’t have the answers to the accusations against him but that was an attempt to stir up a political reaction from his supporters.

“Why did the Unselect Committee not ask me to testify months ago?” Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? The Committee is a bad thing. Trump wrote.

But any effort to follow a similar path if Trump refuses to testify could take months and involve protracted legal battles. It is unclear whether the Justice Department would consider this a good investment given the advanced state of its own January 6 probe. The committee will probably get swept into history if the Republicans take over the House majority after the 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.

“With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic,” said the Wyoming lawmaker, who won’t be returning to Congress after losing her primary this summer to a Trump-backed challenger.

The House panel decided on Thursday to subpoena Donald Trump if they wanted him to testify about the attack.

The House Select Committee on Investigations of Prosecuting President Donald J. Trump and his aides in the 2016 Midterm Reionization Conference

She said that they were obligated to ask the man who set this all in motion. We can protect our republic now because every American is entitled to those answers.

The resolution that led to the creation of the committee never mentions the task of determining whether anyone broke the law. The House resolution stated that it’s main mission is to come up with an authoritative account of what happened, identify failures by law enforcement, and provide recommendations to prevent it from happening again.

The committee has become a front loader for the DOJ, coming up with theories for laws that may have been broken by President Trump and his team during their time in office.

Many of the committee staff are former prosecutors so they use a strategy of highlighting a range of possible crimes at the panel’s public hearings.

Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This also includes any rallies or marches that are in support of a movement, as well as any political candidates or election causes.

There are hearings that focus on whether Mr. Trump and his aides committed crimes against the American people. At another, members raised the question of whether Mr. Trump or his aides committed witness tampering.

“The purpose of this committee is to ensure that we tell the full truth, allow government officials to make changes to the system, to improve our guardrails, allow the American people to make better decisions about who they elect, and also to encourage D.O.J. to do their job,” Representative Stephanie Murphy, Democrat of Florida, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Donald Trump and his Movement: New Challenges in 21st Century Political Science, the Courts, and the Law & the Case Study in Georgia

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.

After losing reelection in 2020, Trump regrouped and is now in the center of US politics. It will deepen division in the country, which is already deeply divided. 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.

Those controversies also show that given the open legal and political loops involving the ex-President, a potential 2024 presidential campaign rooted in his claims of political persecution could create even more upheaval than his four years in office.

While democracy is a concern of many voters, there is a chance the coming political period may focus on the past and future of the ex- President.

Trump’s men and women are also stepping up their activity. Steve Bannon, whose own grassroots movement is seeking to undermine school boards and local election machinery, will expose Biden’s regime in an appeal against a prison sentence handed down last week. Lindsey Graham wants the Supreme Court to block an attempt to compel him to testify in Georgia about Trump and the election.

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

Trump, Senator Stefanik, and the Trump Organization: Why do Pro-Trump Candidates Run Amenable Campaigns? New York Times State of the Union and CNN

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. Lake said that he was afraid that it probably was not going to 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.” Nancy Mace told CNN on State of the Union that she did not want to see impeachment proceedings in the aftermath of Trump being impeached twice. She said she was against the process being “weaponized.” But when asked whether Biden had committed impeachable offenses, she said: “That is something that would have to be investigated.”

An already pro-Trump Republican presence in Washington is likely to expand after the midterms. Scores of candidates are running on a platform of election fraud that could cause them to lose their races in less than two weeks.

On another politically sensitive front, the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud and grandy larceny trial begins in Manhattan on Monday. 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. In a separate civil case, New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has filed a $250 million civil suit against Trump, three of his adult children and the Trump Organization, alleging that they ran tax and insurance fraud schemes to enrich themselves for years.

Democrats made their own attempts to get Trump back into the public eye. 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 investigation of the White House investigation of an ex-President’s first debate against Joe Biden and the circus: What can we learn from the video testimony?

The party in power in Washington could suffer bad news if voters head to the polls with inflation and spikes in gasoline prices high on their minds.

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 a very serious set of issues.

It is difficult to tell whether some incriminating testimony of Trump’s behavior would hold up under the higher evidentiary standard of a court of law because the committee’s hearings did not include any cross examination of witnesses. 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.

The former President is not likely to approve of the idea of a video testimony period of days or hours, since it would be hard for him to dictate how his testimony would be used.

The same can be said of Garland and the DOJ, as a moment of truth may come for Trump. Any decision to charge the former president in either case is bound to trigger a furious political chain 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.

If an ex-president is charged with running for a non-consecutive second White House term, it is likely to cause a big uproar. 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 put itself at the mercy of Donald Trump in terms of his efforts to create a circus,” Cheney said.

The committee told the former President’s counsel that he must start production next week, and that he will have to testify on November 14th.

One set of records the panel is after involves communications with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, both designated as far-right extremist groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The committee ordered Trump to turn over his conversations with either group from September 2020 to the present.

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 Subcommittency Select Committee on Senate Judgments to a Charge of Criminal Contempt of Congress

“The committee has been working in a very collaborative way and I would anticipate we won’t have disagreements about that,” she said. “But we’ll have to make those decisions as we come to it.”

On the same day that the House committee ordered Trump to turn over the documents and testify, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols sentenced Steve Bannon, Trump’s political advisor, to four months in prison for criminal contempt of Congress after failing to comply with a different committee subpoena.

The former President and his counsel had correspondence with the committee, but they did not provide any additional information.

A source says that the Trump legal team had been coordinating with members of the former president’s legal team in order to figure out how to comply with the subpoena.

The committee is in discussions with the Trump attorneys about testifying under oath, according to Liz Cheney. But it remains unclear whether those discussions will lead to him sitting for a deposition.

The committee has not officially decided whom to refer to the Justice Department for prosecution and for what offenses, sources said. The four individuals who are not previously reported give a glimpse into the deliberations of the panel.

While the referrals would largely be symbolic in nature – as the Justice Department has already undertaken a sprawling investigation into the US Capitol attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election – committee members have stressed that the move serves as a way to document their views for the record.

Bennie Thompson, chair of the committee, said he expected to make a decision about criminal referrals at Sunday’s virtual meeting. But Schiff reiterated on Sunday that the committee will wait to announce its decision until December 21, when it plans to present the rest of its report.

Subpoenaed Meadows: Why Is Donald Trump so Wrong? Investigating Trump’s Insurrection Against White Man’s Phone

We weren’t in the business of investigating people for criminal activity so we couldn’t overlook some of them.

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. And we are going to spell that out.”

“The gravest offense in constitutional terms is the attempt to overthrow a presidential election and bypass the constitutional order,” Raskin told reporters. The violence on America is supported by a host of statutory offenses, which are related to all of that.

The panel’s vice chair is the GOP Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

The committee subpoenaed Meadows for documents and testimony in September of last year, and he handed over more than 2,000 text messages he sent and received between Election Day 2020 and Joe Biden’s inauguration. The text messages, which were obtained by CNN, reveal how top Republican Party officials, right-wing figures and even Trump’s family members discussed with Meadows what Trump should say and do after the election and in the middle of the insurrection.

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

There is a process for making contempt of Congress happen, he said. We will explain our decisions in detail, and we will make different kinds of referrals for different people.

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. The FBI took Eastman’s phone as part of a criminal investigation, according to a court filing.

In the hearing, the committee walked through the legal theory that was put forward by Eastman, that was rejected by Trump’s White House attorneys, but still embraced by the former President.

Clark invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during his deposition with the committee. Federal investigators have raided Clark’s home as part of their own criminal investigation.

The panel dedicated much of a June hearing to Clark’s role in Trump’s attempts to weaponize the Justice Department in the final months of his term as part of the plot to overturn the 2020 election and stay in power.

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.

CNN has previously reported on the role that Perry played, and the committee in court filings released text messages Perry exchanged with Meadows about Clark.

Cassidy Hutchinson said during the hearing that he wanted Mr. 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 may hold a public meeting on Monday to make a decision on issuing criminal referrals and other recommendations related to the attack on the Capitol.

The decision has loomed large over the committee. The panel believes that Trump and his people have committed a crime when they tried to prevent the transfer of power, as they laid out in their hearings. But they have long been split over what exactly to do about it.

“We are in common agreement about what our approach should be. According to the California Democrat, he is not authorized to tell you what that is. “I think we are all certainly in agreement that there is evidence of criminality 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. It ought to be given consideration by the Department.

How Jack Smith blasted the Republican Insurrection and the Freedom of the Inflaton: When does it happen? Under Jack Smith

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. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a key force in the incoming GOP House majority that is likely to try to shut down or obstruct investigations into Trump, is involved 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.

It is remarkable that Washington politics are still so tight even though many people are more concerned with their families and paying rent when inflation is high. A damaging impact is being had by Trump’s lies. Even after Republicans won the House last month, a new CNN/SSRS poll published Monday found that only 34% of Republican-aligned adults are even somewhat confident that elections reflect the will of the people – down from 43% in October.

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. It emerged Monday that Smith’s team subpoenaed Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was on the other end of the then-president’s phone call designed to convince him to “find” sufficient votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the Peach State in 2020. 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 has passed since the Washington Post published the full hour audio of that phone call, and the DOJ has yet 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. He thinks that it will happen in a month.

Legal experts say that the one regarding classified documents may move ahead the fastest, after a number of failed attempts by Trump to delay it. A judge dismissed Trump’s case on Monday because she had appointed a special master. The Justice Department is given full access to the tens of thousands of records that are located in Trump’s private office and beach club.

Attorney General Garland stated that investigations will be conducted where the evidence leads. The legal process takes a lot of time to prepare and conduct. If a former president and a current president were to be charged, it would be optimal for any proceedings to take place before the end of the White House race.

According to CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers, it is a challenge to finish both cases before the election.

“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 even more incumbent on the DOJ to demonstrate to Americans that it had no choice, for instance, to mount an unprecedented search at an ex-president’s home.

That’s yet another reason why the turn of the year and the early months of 2023 are beginning to look like a moment of reckoning for both Trump and those who are investigating him.

The 2020 Committee on Ethics and Integrity: a report on the Eastman’s investigation of a partisan campaign against the 2020 presidential election

The panel had been planning to release its final report a day later next week and then hold a hearing on the same day.

“We looked at the schedule, and it appears we can complete our work a little bit before that. It’s time to get it to the public as quickly as possible. Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters on Tuesday from the Capitol steps.

Ultimately, Thompson hinted the panel’s various referrals could fall into five or six categories, including criminal, House Ethics Committee complaints and referrals for discipline of attorneys through legal bar associations. These referrals and recommendations could include evidence that would be new to the public.

It is possible the committee could consider ethics complaints for the five House Republicans who disobeyed their subpoenas. Thompson defended the possibility of issuing referrals for ethics complaints for members at the end of a congressional session.

Any attorney who was found to be connected to the plot to overthrow the 2020 presidential election could be disciplined, as was said by Thompson.

“I think anytime an officer of the court disrespects the ethics of a proceeding, that has to be reviewed” as part of the committee’s discussions, Thompson told NPR earlier this month. I wouldn’t want to work with a Lawyer who did not respect the highest possible ethical standards.

Thompson has previously told NPR the final report could be about eight chapters long and 1,000 pages in length. The transcripts from more than 1000 witnesses will be shared by the end of the year.

The final committee report could include additional charges proposed for Trump, according to the source. The justification that will be given from the investigation for the charges will be provided.

The recommendations under consideration of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the federal government match allegations the select committee made against Trump and his elections attorney John Eastman in a previous court proceeding seeking Eastman’s emails. A judge had agreed with the House, finding it could access Eastman’s emails about his 2020 election work for Trump because the pair was likely planning to defraud the US and engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct Congress, according to that court proceeding.

The committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on the history of this country, according to Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump.

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.”

Report of the Joint Task Force on Capitol Violence and Obstructive Procedures, with a Special Report to the General Relativity Committee

When the Justice Department prosecutes people for the attack on the Capitol, they usually use criminal statutes related to violence, obstructing a congressional proceeding, and seditious conspiracy.

The full report of the committee will be released on Wednesday, according to Thompson. The Mississippi Democrat said the panel will approve its final report Monday and make announcements about criminal referrals to the Justice Department, but the public will not see the final report until two days later.

After nearly two years, Monday’s meeting gave the finishing touches to an investigation into the events which led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol.