DOJ examines Trump’s actions
Donald Trump likes to use variants of “nobody’s ever seen.” It seems Special Counsel Jack Smith and his team of investigators are gathering evidence against him the likes of which nobody’s ever seen (Bloomberg):
Officials in several states confirmed they have complied with an early round of grand jury subpoenas from Smith’s office. One set of material reviewed by Bloomberg from a key battleground in Nevada shows Trump’s 2020 campaign representatives lobbing accusations of fraud and mismanagement at local officials in the days after the election.
Attorneys working under Smith are also poring over dozens of interview transcripts from the congressional panel that just wrapped up its own Jan. 6 probe, said people familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be named to discuss information not yet public. That includes testimony from White House aides who said Trump knew he lost the election and at least one Republican official who linked the former president to efforts to seat alternate slates of electors in some states he lost.
Trump is the focus of two Smith-led investigations, one into Trump’s handling of federal documents. The other centers on Trump’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election and alleged complicity in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters two years ago today.
State and county officials in Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico and Nevada confirmed they’ve complied with subpoenas. Officials in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond.
Trump may be in for an unhappy New Year:
Some charging decisions could be made within weeks, especially if Smith moves to pressure individuals into cooperating. The special counsel’s office and Justice Department leaders realize that the historic investigations and the potential for politically explosive indictments and trials will collide with the 2024 presidential election calendar as the year goes on, according to people familiar.
As Smith’s team pores over the January 6 Committeee interview transcripts, they will look for sufficient evidence for bringing any charges, including on those recommended by J6 members in their criminal referrals.
“You want to make sure you understand what they said before, what follow up needs to be done, and for those witnesses you think might be valuable, there’s a whole bunch of work to see if what they said can be corroborated,” said Kelly Currie, a partner at Crowell & Moring and former colleague of Smith’s at the Justice Department.
Trump continues to lose court battles with investigators and did again this week (New York Times):
A federal judge has ordered lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump to give the government the names of the private investigators who searched Mr. Trump’s properties late last year for any remaining classified documents, part of what appeared to be a step by the Justice Department toward questioning the investigators about their efforts, two people familiar with the matter said.
The order, issued on Wednesday by Beryl A. Howell, the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, was the latest twist in a monthslong dispute between prosecutors and Mr. Trump’s lawyers about how forthcoming the former president has been in returning classified material that he removed from the White House after he left office. Hundreds of classified documents were later recovered by the government from Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club and residence in Florida.
The fact that the Justice Department sought a formal order for the investigators’ names suggests an increasing breakdown in trust between prosecutors investigating the documents case and Mr. Trump’s legal team. And the request comes as a special counsel has taken over the inquiry into whether Mr. Trump willfully retained sensitive records or obstructed the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
“Increasing breakdown in trust” implies there was ever any from the start. Trump and his associates (Flunkies? Cronies? Goombahs?) have proven themselves untrustworthy.
Fulton Co., Ga. District Attorney Fani Willis has yet to weigh in with charges against Trump for election tampering that may be the easiest of all to prove. It’s all on a recorded phone call.