The House Select Committee’s subpoena of the Ex-President Donald J. Bannon and the Attack on the US Capitol
Given the slim chance of Trump complying with a congressional subpoena then, many observers will see the dramatic vote to target the ex-President as yet another theatrical flourish in a set of slickly produced hearings that often resembled a television courtroom drama.
The House Select Committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol granted former President Donald Trump more time to turn over documents, but gave little explanation about why the extension was granted.
“They are trying to make the case that Trump is Oz,” said CNN’s John King, interpreting the committee’s subpoena of Trump. He shows himself to be powerful but behind a curtain trying to pull a machine.
Contempt. It is possible for the full house of congress to vote to hold him in contempt, something it has done with several other uncooperative witnesses.
Prosecution. If found guilty, as Bannon was, Trump could theoretically face a minimum of 30 days in jail. Bannon will be sentenced for failing to comply with the House subpoena later this month.
The Oversight Committee of the High Court: a response from Trump to the Senate and the Joint Committee on Investigations of the Trump-McGraw-Feing Papers
“None of that is going to happen,” the Trump critic and conservative lawyer George Conway predicted during an appearance on CNN Thursday. This is about laying a marker. This is about getting a response from Trump.
The Supreme Court has already made clear how it feels about Trump being a former president, when the National Archives ignored his attempt to keep them from sharing certain information with the committee.
When he was president, the Supreme Court punted in 2020 after sending a dispute over house subpoenas for Trump’s financial records to lower courts. The justices want the lower courts to keep in mind separation of powers in cases involving the president. The Oversight Committee got access to the documents after an agreement with Trump.
Liz Cheney of Wyoming said on the January 6 that the committee had enough information to make a referral to the Department of Justice. 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.
Gerald Ford testified about his decision to pardon Richard Nixon in 1974 before a House subcommittee.
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 found not guilty.
Behind-the-scenes Analysis of the January 6 Session-Around-Second Investigation into the First Investigation into Tax Law Violation in the State of New York
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.
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 used the Fifth Amendment against himself during the deposition.
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.
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 footage shows congressional leaders scrambling to make sure that Congress would honor its duty to certify the election results and protect the Capitol and the people inside, even if it meant that Trump would lose the election. The committee shared evidence that Trump ignored the pleas from his advisors to make a statement to put an end to the violence.
The last hearing before the upcoming elections gave the committee a chance to try to get Trump to testify and they warned that he must explain what happened in January of 2021.
During the hearing, Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin said that it was shown that congressional leaders worked with the Trump administration to stop the riot that he instigated. The committee will present new material from January 6 after showing these behind-the-scenes clips.
“We need to seek answers from the person who set this all in motion so we can act now to protect our republic,” said Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
And select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, argued that Trump “is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th. So we want to hear from him.”
CNN has obtained additional footage from Fort McNair that wasn’t shown by the committee. The exclusive footage will be broadcast on CNN at 8pm on Thursday. The footage shows the congressional leaders asking for help as they tried to figure out what was happening at the Capitol, and working the phones at Fort McNair while they frantically tried to quell the insurrection.
Pelosi was on the phone with the then-governor of Virginia about sending reinforcements to the Capitol. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke to the acting Attorney General.
The footage also showed two phone calls between Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence, who took on an impromptu leadership role on January 6, coordinating the emergency response.
Schumer was shown dressing down then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. 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 stated that the pro-Trump rioters were breaking the law at the instigation of the president.
While testifying to the committee about her disgust at the attack, Elaine Chao stated that she was a Democrat and that she had worked for Trump.
“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 came to the country as an immigrant. I believe in this country. I believe in the peaceful transfer of power. I believe in democracy. She said it was a decision she made alone.
On Thursday, the committee showed new deposition from Hutchinson, in which she tells the story about how Trump urged the Georgia Secretary of State to find votes to win the election.
I looked at Mark and I said that he couldn’t possibly think that we were going to pull this off. Like, that call was crazy.’ He looked at me and shook his head. And he was like, “You know, he knows it’s over.” He knows that he lost. But we’re going to keep trying,’” Hutchinson told 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.
In an audio clip, Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that while in the Oval Office, Trump said something to the effect of “We lost, we need to let that issue go to the next guy.”
While there are questions surrounding erased text messages, the panel obtained messages and emails showing the agency received warnings about the possibility of violence as well as real-time reports of weapons in the crowd ahead of Trumps speech at the El
The committee shared a text from Jason Miller, a communications adviser to Mark Meadows, that read: “I GOT THE BASE FIRED UP,” and sent a link to a webpage that had violent comments about Jan. 6.
The Senate Committee on Justice and the Judiciary Investigation of Mike Pence’s Depraved Exit from Power during the November 2018 Reionization
There was an alert of online threats against Vice President Mike Pence that were received by the Secret Service.
The committee played the videotaped deposition of Greg Jacob, one of Pence’s attorneys. Jacob described how he and Short had prepared for Trump to declare victory on Election Night regardless of the results.
The committee said it obtained the memo from the National Archives and presented it to Short on Thursday.
The memo states that the public should not assume the Vice President had decided what to do about disputed electoral votes before all the facts were known.
New emails from Tom Fitton, a conservative activist, were revealed by the committee. The email had a draft statement for Trump to use on Election Night.
Despite the members of the panel being aware that they wanted to hear from Thomas, they did not expect her testimony to be relevant to the whole hearing, which was focused on Trump.
Her absence was notable because the panel had used testimony from many high-profile witnesses since its most recent hearing earlier this summer.
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. 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.
As the midterm election draws closer and Trump grapples with his next political move, he and allies are eager for some relief from his web of legal troubles.
The Supreme Court sent a message from the other side of the road and that it did not want to be involved in the fight between the Justice Department and Trump.
The court turned down the emergency request that could have caused the case to be delayed. There was no dissents from the conservative justices whom Trump elevated to the bench and who seem to owe him a debt of loyalty.
Investigating the Case for Obstruction of Justice at a Florida Resort in Mar-a-Lago during the January 6 Presidential Reheaval
The battle over classified documents, which appears to represent the ex-President’s most clear cut and immediate threat of criminal exposure, is the main political drama that surrounds the revelations from January 6.
The panel is debating whether to refer Trump and the others around him to the Department of Justice for their actions around January 6. Attorney General Garland and prosecutors in Georgia are investigating the attempted overthrow of the 2020 election by Trump and his allies and they are the most significant areas of criminal liability for the ex- President.
A man who served as a chief of staff for Mike Pence was seen leaving a Washington, DC courthouse. 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. 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.
On the face of it, this development is troubling since it could suggest a pattern of deception that plays into a possible obstruction of justice charge. On the initial search warrant before the FBI showed up at Trump’s home in August, the bureau told a judge there could be “evidence of obstruction” at the resort.
Still, David Schoen, who was Trump’s defense lawyer in his second impeachment, told CNN’s “New Day” that though the details of what happened at Mar-a-Lago raised troubling questions, they did not necessarily amount to a case of obstructing justice.
Those aren’t even the only probes connected to Trump. There is also the matter of yet another investigation in Georgia over attempts by the former President and his allies to overturn the election in a crucial 2020 swing state.
What a TRUSTEE Can Do about the Unselect Committee: The Preliminary Hearing on Trump’s Jan. 6 Attack
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. In a 14-page letter, he made multiple false and debunked claims about election fraud, and lashed out at the panel itself, branding members “highly partisan political Hacks and Thugs whose sole function is to destroy the lives of many hard-working American Patriots, whose records in life have been unblemished until this point of attempted ruination.”
Pres Trump won’t be intimidated by their un- American actions. Budowing wrote that Trump-endorsed candidates will win the Midterms and America First leadership will be restored.
Then the former President weighed in on his Truth Social network with another post that failed to answer the accusations against him, but that was clearly designed to stir a political reaction from his supporters.
Why wasn’t the Unselect Committee asking me to testify a long time ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? The Committee is a total disgrace. 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. The committee will be swept into history, with Republicans expected to take over the majority of the House after the elections.
The investigation is not just about what happened on January 6, but also about the future, says the committee’s Republican vice chair.
“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 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.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., noted in his opening remarks that the panel was convening as a “formal committee business meeting,” which meant that in addition to presenting evidence, it could also hold a committee vote on further investigative actions.
Video clips of Roger Stone, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for lying to Congress and other crimes, were shared by the panel. Stone was sentenced to more than three years in prison before Trump pardoned him weeks before leaving office.
How Did The President Win? The F***ing Guy Revealed that he Loses the Election by Giving the Leader the Headshots
“I really do suspect it will still be up in the air,” Stone said. It is important to claim victory when that happens. Nine-tenths of the law is possession. No, we won, f*** you.”
I wonder if Trump will just declare victory? He’s gonna declare victory. But that doesn’t mean he’s a winner. He’s just gonna say he’s the winner,” he said.
Even though he declared he won, Trump admitted he lost the election. Testimony from former White House officials demonstrate that while the president was publicly forging a campaign to overturn the election, he privately was acknowledging his loss.
The communications director remembered a comment from the president that he went into the Oval just to give the president the headlines. And he was looking at the TV and he said, ‘Can you believe I lost to this f***ing guy?’ “
I vaguely remember him saying that he was a professor and then turning over the phone to Mr. Eastman, who was talking about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges would change the outcome of the election.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125333531/jan-6-hearing-recap-takeaways-trump-subpoena
Reply to Speaker Pelosi on “Jan 6th, 2015, 8:00 a.m.’”: Trump’s “Mindor” is the One at the Center of the Story”
They think that they will outnumber the police in D.C. and have a large enough group to force their way into the city.
In previous hearings, the panel described how the crowd that arrived on Jan. 6 was heavily armed, and that many wouldn’t enter into the Ellipse because they would have to go through magnetometers, a fact Trump was aware of.
Do you think this is true? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., can be seen saying to House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, after being informed that members on the House floor were donning tear gas masks in anticipation of a breach.
Secret Service feared for Pence’s safety. An agent warned that it was probably not going to be good for the VP, according to new documents from the agency. Another agent noted there were 24,000 likes on Trump’s tweet within two minutes.
Mick Mulvaney confirms GOP Rep’s account of McCarthy’s call to Trump. In a conversation between Trump and GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy asked Trump to shut up his supporters because his staff was running for their lives.
“The president told them something along the lines of, ‘Kevin, maybe these people are just more angry about this than you are. Maybe they’re a little more upset.
Trump was the central player. After the election, President Trump continued his pursuit of avenues to overturn the results, and that’s what happened at the hearing.
Thompson said that Trump tried to take away the voice of the American people in selecting their president, and replace it with his will to remain in power. “He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on Jan. 6.”
Trump kept repeating the nonsense to a wide audience even when the top law enforcement officials told him his claims were false. pic.twitter.com/PIRy9XSF3O
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/10/13/1125333531/jan-6-hearing-recap-takeaways-trump-subpoena
The Search for Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Documents: Investigating the Case for a Supervised Return to Florida
She said the foot soldiers who invaded our Capitol can’t be punished only by the nation. We chip away at the foundation of our Republic with every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former president.
Sources tell CNN that the legal team for Donald Trump may allow federal agents to return to the former President’s Florida residence, and potentially conduct a supervised search to satisfy demands by the Justice Department that all sensitive government documents are returned.
The FBI seized nearly 22,000 pages when they searched the Mar-a-Lago estate in August and some in Trump’s inner circle are not sure if there are any remaining government documents.
Even as Trump continues to argue that the records he took with him during his presidency are his own personal property, his team is making court arguments that he heard from the conservative activist Tom Fitton.
A person who is close to Trump said the former President wants to move on and that the general belief is that this is ado about nothing.
At least some of the battle to secure their return has been playing out behind the scenes in a court proceeding that is under seal, according to people familiar with the situation. One way the Justice Department could get the Trump team to work with them is to have a judge order them to do so.
The former President has been more open minded to the idea of a cooperative approach, including Chris Kise, a former Florida Attorney General who joined the legal team following the FBI search. Kise was facing some of his advisers who were more aggressive.
Trump accused federal investigators of planting evidence during their search of Mar-a-Lago, a claim that he has never substantiated in court.
Among the complicating factors has been Trump’s personal views on the document dispute. He initially claimed that his team had been fully cooperative with investigators and insisted on social media “ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS ASK,” for documents to be returned. On social media, Trump has claimed that he owns the Mar-a-Lago documents. I would like my documents back! The former President made an announcement in 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. A source with knowledge of the event said that Bobb had been rushed to Mar- a-Lago to sign the attestation but she insisted on stating that her knowledge was based upon the information provided to her.
Two months later, the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, recovering thousands of additional government documents, including more than 100 with classified markings.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/19/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-second-search/index.html
The Trump Era: The Challenges of Political Correctness and the Rule of Law in a New Period of Political Turbulence after the 2016 Presidential Campaign
Sources familiar with Corcoran’s situation said that he insisted to colleagues that he doesn’t face any legal risk and hasn’t hired a lawyer.
Boris Epshteyn, a third Trump lawyer, testified before a Georgia grand jury regarding efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Donald Trump and his movement are putting up new challenges to accountability, free elections and the rule of law, in a new period of political turmoil.
At a time when he is on a collision course with the courts and facts, Donald Trump dropped his clearest hint yet of a White House run.
It was already unusual that Trump was at the top of the political scene. One-term presidents typically fade fairly fast into history. He is still a key player nearly two years after losing his reelection, despite the fact that he has a firm hold on much of the GOP. And while there is growing talk about whether his thicket of legal and political controversies could convince some GOP primary voters it’s time to move on, Trump still seems to have plenty of juice.
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.
Due to the fact that both Republicans and Democrats want to keep control of the congress, there is every chance the coming election period will be dominated by the former President’s past and future.
Trump’s men and women are also stepping up their activity. The political guru Steve Bannon will expose the Biden regime in an appeal after the vice president was sentenced to a month in prison for disobeying a congressional subpoena. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is calling on the Supreme Court to block an attempt to compel him to testify in an investigation in Georgia.
Rep. Stefanik, the Trump Organization, and the ex-President Joe Biden: Implications of a candidate’s campaigning against impeachment
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 thinks that it is 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 was interviewed by Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” and she said she didn’t want to see impeachment proceedings after Trump was impeached twice. She said she was against the process being weaponized. She replied that Biden would have to be investigated for committing impeachable offenses.
An already pro-Trump Republican presence in Washington is likely to expand after the midterms. Several hundred Trump-endoorsed candidates are running on a platform of election fraud, raising questions over whether they will accept results if they lose their races.
The Trump Organization is going to be tried on tax fraud and other charges in Manhattan next week. The ex-president has not been personally charged but the trial could impact his business empire and cause him to make another claim that he is being persecuted for political reasons. New York Attorney General Lettie James, a Democrat, has filed a $250 million civil suit against Trump, three of his adult children, and the Trump Organization for their alleged involvement in tax and insurance fraud.
Democrats want to get Trump back in 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 First Debate against Joe Biden: The Case for an Ex-President Running for a Non-Consecutive Second White House Term
If voters are worried about inflation before the election, it will be bad news for the party in power in Washington.
The ex- President told supporters at a rally in Texas that he will probably have to run for president again.
It could take multiple days, but Cheney said it will be done with a level of rigor and discipline that it deserves.
The first debate against Joe Biden will not be the one he will have, you know what I mean. This is too serious a set of issues.
The committee has taken most depositions behind closed doors and on video and used testimony throughout its highly produced presentations. The most sympathetic witnesses have shown up in person. The powerful narrative created by this and the fact that Trump didn’t live up to his duties on January 6 has 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.
If there is evidence a crime was committed, Garland would face a dilemma over whether the national interest lay in implementing the law to its full extent or whether the consequences of prosecuting a former commander in chief in a fractious political atmosphere could tear the country apart.
A decision to charge an ex-president running for a non-consecutive second White House term would undoubtedly cause a firestorm. If there was evidence of a crime then sparing him from accountability would be a big blow to future presidents.
“This isn’t a situation in which the committee won’t put itself at Donald Trump’s mercy as he tries to create a circus,” Cheney said.
It’s very probable the former president won’t produce the documents by the end of the day. When there’s ongoing communication with a subject’s legal team the committee has been less strict about deadlines in the past.
Other people found in the order include Roger Stone, Stephen Bannon, Jeffrey Clark, and more.
Subpoena Correspondence to the Senate Committee on Investigations of the Decay of the U.S. President Donald J. Trump
“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.”
The committee did not provide any additional information about the correspondence it received from the former President and his counsel.
Despite operating as two separate teams, the lawyers who are focused on addressing the committee’s subpoena are consulting with attorneys representing Trump in the Justice Department’s criminal probe related to January 6, the source said, noting there are areas of potential overlap between the two separate legal matters.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chairwoman of the committee, previously said the committee was “in discussions” with Trump’s attorneys about testifying under oath in the probe. But it remains unclear whether those discussions will lead to him sitting for a deposition.
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 broad document request even asked for all documents and communications relating or referring “in any way” to members of the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, or other extremist groups from September 1, 2020, to the present. The panel’s document request spans 19 different categories.