SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jun 25, 2022 17:07:37 GMT -5
It’s tempting, in assessing Trump’s state of mind, to focus on whether he genuinely believed his assertion that the presidential election was “stolen” — that he had beaten Joe Biden and that therefore his subsequent efforts were merely means well within his power aimed at setting things right. If you can prove that he did know that he lost the election — that it was not “stolen” from him — you go a long way toward clearing that criminal-intent hurdle. Certainly, the House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is amassing evidence that Trump knew he had lost. Numerous Trump aides and lawyers have attested to this before the committee. But so what. For a number of the possible crimes the committee has identified, it doesn’t matter what Trump believed about the election. Focusing on that aspect misses the true test of criminal intent. He still had no legal right to use forged electoral certificates or to pressure election officials in Georgia to “find 11,780 votes” that did not exist, or to engage in other extralegal means to try to hold onto power. That includes pressuring the vice president to assume powers he didn’t have. State and federal criminal laws prohibit these things. Vigilante justice is against the law, even if you (wrongly) believe you are a victim. www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/22/criminal-intent-trump-raffensperger-rusty-bowers/
|
|
TC
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 9,443
|
Post by TC on Jun 27, 2022 10:10:59 GMT -5
"Trial by Combat" Rudy Giuliani trying to parlay being patted on the back into martyrdom
|
|
hoyajinx
Golden Hoya (over 1000 posts)
Posts: 2,340
|
Post by hoyajinx on Jun 27, 2022 11:02:24 GMT -5
"Trial by Combat" Rudy Giuliani trying to parlay being patted on the back into martyrdom When I read the story initially, I thought someone (rightfully) smacked him hard across the face. He said he felt like he was shot? How frail is he? I’ve been tapped harder on the back by my 103 year old grandmother.
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jun 28, 2022 15:55:50 GMT -5
Real possibility that Meadows seeks immunity and flips on his co-conspirators.
|
|
njhoya78
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 7,769
|
Post by njhoya78 on Jun 28, 2022 16:42:43 GMT -5
Real possibility that Meadows seeks immunity and flips on his co-conspirators. I've thought that Meadows had already flipped and that was the reason why DOJ hadn't yet indicted him on the Contempt of Congress charges forwarded by the January 6 Committee.
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jun 28, 2022 16:48:37 GMT -5
Real possibility that Meadows seeks immunity and flips on his co-conspirators. I've thought that Meadows had already flipped and that was the reason why DOJ hadn't yet indicted him on the Contempt of Congress charges forwarded by the January 6 Committee. That has been speculated but there are no facts that I know of that support that conjecture. There is an OLC opinion regarding absolute immunity from Congressional subpoenas for "close" Presidential advisors that may have informed DOJ's decision to decline prosecution of both Meadows and Scavino. Note that the same OLC opinion did not protect Peter Navarro from criminal contempt as his position as an economic advisor apparently did not meet the standard set forth in that OLC opinion. EDIT: If he has already flipped, theoretically he could testify before the J6 Committee. The converse situation, immunized by Congress and then criminally prosecuted, is more problematic and led to the reversal of Ollie North's conviction on appeal. EDIT #2: Also recall that the orange psycho's PAC gave Meadows and his wife $1 million to the "foundation" Meadows set up, i.e., hush money.
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jun 29, 2022 5:30:27 GMT -5
BLUF: For law enforcement to indict a former president (and perhaps the frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination) would set a grave and potentially dangerous precedent. But there is another precedent that is perhaps more grave and more dangerous—deciding that presidents are held to lower standards of criminal behavior than virtually any other American citizen. I don’t know if Trump will face criminal indictment, but after Cassidy Hutchinson’s courageous testimony, the case for prosecuting Trump is stronger than it's ever been before. frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-case-for-prosecuting-donald-trump
|
|
DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,505
|
Post by DanMcQ on Jun 29, 2022 14:29:54 GMT -5
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jun 30, 2022 18:29:17 GMT -5
His defense to criminal intent was flimsy to begin with. After Tuesday’s devastating testimony from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, it lies in tatters. Proving Trump’s culpable state of mind just got a whole lot easier for prosecutors. With Hutchinson’s testimony, we now know that Trump was aware that some of his supporters were armed when he urged them to march on the Capitol and “fight.” “I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. … They can march to the Capitol from here,” Hutchinson recalls Trump saying. Trump didn’t even care about the risk to his own vice president. According to Hutchinson, Mark Meadows, Trump’s final chief of staff, said Trump was not worried about the protesters’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence” and thought “Mike deserves it.” And she said Trump’s own White House counsel warned that if Trump were to go ahead with his own plans to lead the march on the Capitol, “we’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable.” www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/30/hutchinson-testimony-trump-criminal-intent-conway-eliason/
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 1, 2022 17:34:00 GMT -5
When you lose a hard right attorney like McCarthy, the orange psycho should know he's in trouble.
Fox News legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy believes former President Donald Trump will be prosecuted by the Justice Department over his role in the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
McCarthy laid out the charges Trump could face on this week’s episode of The Interview.
“Trump was clearly aware just moments before he took the podium that you had a mob of heavily armed people,” McCarthy said.
“The critical thing he says is ‘they’re not here to hurt me,’ which implies that in his mind, he knows they’re here to hurt someone,” McCarthy continued. “And the second thing he says, which I don’t think has gotten enough attention, ‘they can come in, they can hear me, and then they can march to the Capitol.’
“So he’s very aware that you have a mob that’s armed to the teeth that he is planning to encourage to march on the Capitol. And then as the testimony ensues, we find out that he not only intended them to do that, he wanted to participate, he actually wanted to lead them down there.”
“That knowledge opens up the possibility that you could prosecute for aiding and abetting the intimidation of federal officials, which is a pretty serious crime,” he added.
The penalty under that statute, McCarthy said, “goes up to 20 years if you’re talking about people using potentially lethal, dangerous weapons.”
SOURCE: Mediaite, June 30, 2022
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 2, 2022 5:56:44 GMT -5
McCarthy engages in typical right wing whataboutism by falsely equating civil unrest resulting from the killing of Black Americans with the mango maniac's attempt to subvert American democracy. Despite acknowledging a prosecutable case, failing to prosecute the orange psycho gives him or his fellow cultists license to try again. Before Hutchinson’s testimony, there was a dearth of public evidence that Trump was actively complicit in the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, as opposed to being recklessly indifferent to the potential for it. But according to Hutchinson, Trump was fully aware that the Jan. 6 mob was well armed yet willfully encouraged it to march on the Capitol. This portrayal casts a more damning light on the former president’s profound dereliction of duty and, as I see it, may change the calculus Attorney General Merrick Garland will need to make. A rational jury could conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Trump aided and abetted the forcible intimidation and assault of government officials, and that he corruptly obstructed a congressional proceeding (namely, the constitutionally required count of electoral votes). www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/01/hutchinson-testimony-changes-calculus-on-indicting-trump/
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 2, 2022 18:52:49 GMT -5
Until Tuesday, we had both publicly stated that the Department of Justice had insufficient evidence to indict former President Trump for his conduct on Jan. 6. Our conclusion, which we each came to independently, was largely grounded in First Amendment concerns about criminalizing purely political speech. But Tuesday’s explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, changed our minds. In particular, Hutchinson testified to hearing Trump order that the magnetometers (metal detectors) used to keep armed people away from the president be removed: “I don’t f*#king care that they have weapons, they’re not here to hurt me. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the Editeding mags [magnetometers] away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here; let the people in and take the mags away.” www.lawfareblog.com/cassidy-hutchinsons-testimony-changed-our-minds-about-indicting-donald-trump
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 2, 2022 21:20:58 GMT -5
Looks like DOJ is going hard on the false electors investigation. The Justice Department has subpoenaed two Republican Arizona state senators for information tied to possible correspondence with President Donald Trump’s attorneys as attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election were underway. Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael, who served as alternate electors, received grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department earlier this month. So did two GOP activists who served as alternate electors, Nancy Cottle and Loraine Pellegrino, people familiar with the matter said. www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/01/karen-fann-subpoena/
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 6, 2022 17:42:03 GMT -5
Again and again in recent years, current and former Justice Department officials—along with academics, journalists, and other commentators—have struggled to explain to the public the importance of Justice Department independence: the idea that the powers of law enforcement should not be wielded as a tool of political power. Donald Trump attacked this norm again and again during his presidency—asking the FBI to back off its investigation into his national security adviser, Michael Flynn; working to undermine the Mueller investigation; demanding that the Justice Department investigate Hillary Clinton; and on and on. His efforts to use the department to help him hold on to power after the 2020 election were one more instance of that long-running trend. And yet, for all the danger that Trump’s efforts to turn the Justice Department into his personal muscle posed to democracy, it’s proved strikingly difficult to communicate to Americans the crucial role of that independence as a check against authoritarianism. Now, the House select committee investigating Jan. 6 is taking a crack at the problem. Will it be any more successful? www.lawfareblog.com/why-jan-6-committee-talking-about-justice-department-independence
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 20, 2022 16:33:11 GMT -5
The real story here is one of a remarkably quick and aggressive investigation, a probe that has brought enormous prosecutorial and investigative resources to the table, prosecuted an astonishingly large number of people in a short space of time, lost only a few cases, and crawled swiftly up the ladder of defendant importance. It is a probe that is today knocking on the doors of defendants within Trump’s inner circle and elsewhere in the political echelon of Trumpist politics. It is a probe that will only heat up more as the months grind on. Complex federal investigations always take a long time. Always. They take a long time because they involve a great deal of information, and the FBI and other investigators have to learn all of it. Federal prosecutors can’t have surprises at trial; they can’t afford to get blindsided with material they didn’t know about. A federal prosecution is not an environment in which “good enough” is good enough. To bring cases that will stand up in court, they need proof beyond a reasonable doubt, and they need it using admissible evidence only. They need it for every single element of every criminal offense they seek to charge, and they need it in a form that will convince each and every juror. In situations involving high-profile defendants and politically sensitive matters, the standards go up even further—not because the law is different for such people but because the capacity for institutional embarrassment induces a certain additional care. www.lawfareblog.com/defense-justice-department
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 25, 2022 15:19:41 GMT -5
Pence COS Marc Short has appeared before a federal grand jury probing the Jan. 6th insurrection.
Hopefully, DOJ finally ramping up to get all the corrupt and criminal MAGA GOPers.
Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, appeared before a federal grand jury last week investigating matters connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His appearance was under subpoena, according to the person.
SOURCE: Politico, July 25, 2022
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 26, 2022 8:03:39 GMT -5
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 26, 2022 18:11:08 GMT -5
The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states, the people said. Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump’s involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers, including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, these people said. www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/26/trump-justice-investigation-january-6/
|
|
DanMcQ
Moderator
Posts: 30,505
|
Post by DanMcQ on Jul 26, 2022 20:46:51 GMT -5
|
|
SSHoya
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."
Posts: 18,261
|
Post by SSHoya on Jul 27, 2022 15:03:52 GMT -5
Cassidy Hutchinson cooperating with DOJ prosecutors in insurrection probe. DOJ reached out to her.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, has recently cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation into the events of Jan. 6, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Justice Department reached out to her following her testimony a month ago before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the sources said.
SOURCE: ABC News, July 27, 2022
|
|