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Post by Newsman on Jul 18, 2023 10:49:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump says he is target of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn 2020 electionDonald Trump has claimed he received a letter informing him that he is a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Posting to the Truth Social platform, Trump said he received “horrifying news” from his attorneys on Sunday night. Trump wrote: Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again, it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and Indictment.Target letters are typically given to subjects in a criminal investigation to put them on notice that they are facing the prospect of indictment.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 10:50:39 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Donald Trump, who said he received a letter on Sunday from special counsel Jack Smith informing him that he is a target in the 6 January investigation, claimed “nothing like this has ever happened in our Country before”. Posting on Truth Social, the former president wrote in all-caps: This witch hunt is all about election interference and a complete and total political weaponization of law enforcement!
A person close to Donald Trump confirmed to the New York Times that the former president had received the so-called target letter. The letter indicates that yet another indictment of Trump could be imminent, although it is not clear what kind of charges he could ultimately face. It would be the second time special counsel Jack Smith has notified Trump that he is a target in a federal investigation. In June, Trump received a letter from Smith before he was indicted by a grand jury in Florida for his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving the White House and his alleged efforts to obstruct the government’s investigation. A spokesperson for Smith did not immediately return an email seeking comment, according to AP.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 10:52:17 GMT -5
(The Guardian) What is a target letter, and what does it mean for Donald Trump?A target letter from federal prosecutors to Donald Trump indicates that prosecutors are focused on the former president’s actions in the criminal investigation into efforts to over the 2020 election. Justice Department regulations allow for prosecutors to notify subjects of an investigation that they have become a target. Those notifications aren’t required, according to CNN, but prosecutors have the discretion to notify subjects that they have become a target. A target letter is the clearest sign that special counsel Jack Smith is close to seeking an indictment for Trump, though it is not clear what kind of charges he could ultimately face. But once notified, it is possible the recipient is not ultimately charged. A target has the opportunity to present evidence or testify to the grand jury if they choose. The idea is that they may want to tell the grand jury something to avoid indictment, or may want to assert their fifth amendment right against self-incrimination, according to the New York Times. In a Truth Social post, Trump said he was asked if he wishes to appear before the grand jury this week. He is expected to decline the invitation to appear before the grand jury, NYT reported. A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment, according to AP.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 10:55:41 GMT -5
(The Guardian) It is unclear what specific charges Donald Trump could face in the Justice Department’s 6 January investigation. But it had been clear that the former president’s actions would be a central focus of the DOJ’s investigation. Attorney general Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to review the matter last year to determine “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power”. A model prosecution memo suggested Trump could face charges on conspiracy to defraud the US after creating fake electoral certificates that were submitted to Congress, according to the Hill. This could include Trump pressuring his vice president, Mike Pence, to unilaterally block the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, according to Politico. -- Investigators have also examined Trump’s consideration of a plan to seize voting machines from the states, his campaign of false claims that the election was stolen and his role in advancing a plan to assemble bogus slates of presidential electors to stoke a conflict ahead of 6 January.
The far-right Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has described the news of the alleged letter from special prosecutor Jack Smith to Donald Trump identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection as “absolute bullshit”. NBC reported her saying: Yeah, it’s absolute bull----. Yeah, that’s my reaction. This is the only way that the Democrats have to beat President Trump is to arrest him, smear him, charge him with ridiculous charges.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 10:56:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) A target letter typically provides the recipient the opportunity to present evidence or testify to the grand jury if they choose. Donald Trump is expected to decline this invitation. Targets of investigations rarely avail themselves of the opportunity to appear before a grand jury, according to Mitchell Epner, a former assistant US attorney for the district of New Jersey. Epper told the New York Times that he would be “very surprised” if Trump were to testify before the grand jury. He added that he expected the Justice Department to present a potential indictment to the grand jury soon and for a charging decision to be made quickly. -- It could be as little as days but more typically weeks, sometimes months.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 10:59:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Donald Trump said he was told in the so-called target letter to “report” to a grand jury within four days of receiving it on Sunday. Trump’s attorneys, including Todd Blanche, received the target letter on Sunday, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins writes. The former president’s team has not formally responded to the invitation, she says.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy responded to the latest news that Donald Trump said he is a target of a grand jury investigation by special prosecutor Jack Smith. McCarthy accused the Biden administration of weaponizing government against its chief political opponent, and suggested baselessly that it was because of Trump’s poll numbers. He told reporters: President Trump went up in the polls and actually was surpassing President Biden for reelection. So what do they do now? Weaponize government to go after their number one opponent.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 11:00:29 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2023 14:37:52 GMT -5
(The Guardian) House majority leader Steve Scalise questioned the timing of the latest development in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection. Scalise accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the government against Donald Trump, just days before IRS whistleblowers prepare to testify before a House panel investigating Hunter Biden. Scalise, at a House GOP conference briefing, said: Now you see the Biden administration going after President Trump once again, it begs that question: is there a double standard? Is justice being administered equally.
Federal prosecutors have interviewed officials from all seven battleground states targeted by former President Donald Trump and his allies in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, CNN is reporting. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team met with at least one official from the Nevada secretary of state’s office in recent months as part of the justice department’s ongoing criminal investigation into the January 6 insurrection, a source told the news channel. A spokesperson for Nevada’s current secretary of state, Francisco Aguilar, who was not in office during the 2020 election, said his office has been in contact with Smith’s team and is complying all requests from the justice department. During that same time period, prosecutors reportedly also spoke with officials from the other six states targeted by Trump and his allies – Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico.
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Post by Webster on Jul 19, 2023 15:29:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, who Donald Trump pressured to overturn the 2020 election, has been cooperating with special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection, NBC reported. A spokesperson for Ducey yesterday confirmed that Smith’s team had contacted the former governor. “Yes, he’s been contacted. He’s been responsive, and just as he’s done since the election, he will do the right thing,” they told CNN. Trump narrowly lost Arizona to Joe Biden by less than 11,000 votes. In a phone call after his defeat, Trump tried to pressure Ducey to find fraud in the state’s election results that would help him overturn his loss, according to sources. Trump also reportedly repeatedly asked his vice president, Mike Pence, to call Ducey and prod him to find evidence to substantiate Trump’s claims of fraud. Pence called Ducey several times to discuss the election, according to sources.
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Post by Webster on Jul 19, 2023 15:35:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The letter to Donald Trump by special counsel Jack Smith identifying him as a “target” in the justice department’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection listed the federal statutes under which the former president could be charged, according to multiple reports. Trump announced on Tuesday morning that his attorneys handed him a letter from Smith as he was having dinner on Sunday night. Posting to his Truth Social website, Trump wrote: Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter … stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an Arrest and an Indictment.The letter indicates that a new indictment of the former president could be imminent. It mentions three federal statutes: conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud the United States, deprivation of rights under color of law, and tampering with a witness, victim or an informant, according to ABC and the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter. The context surrounding the statutes cited in the target letter is unclear, and their citation in the letter does not necessarily mean that Trump will be charged with related counts. There are no additional details in the letter and it does not say how Smith’s office claims Trump may have violated the statutes listed, sources told ABC.
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Post by Webster on Jul 19, 2023 15:37:03 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump jokes about his legal challenges after receiving target letterDonald Trump sought to downplay his legal challenges while railing against special counsel Jack Smith and the justice department, after announcing he had received a letter naming him as the target of the DoJ’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump, headlining a Republican county meeting in eastern Iowa on Tuesday night, attacked federal investigators as he tried to make light of what could be his third criminal indictment since March. He said: I didn’t know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries. Now I’m becoming an expert. I have no choice.Trump also taped an interview on Tuesday night with Fox News host Sean Hannity, who opened the town hall event by saying that the former president didn’t seem to be bothered by “never-ending attacks”. “It bothers me,” Trump replied, adding: It’s a disgrace what’s happening to our country.
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Post by Webster on Jul 19, 2023 15:39:53 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump could face new indictment within days after target letterThe letter identifying Donald Trump as a target in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection could mean that the former president face a new indictment as early as the end of the week. “A third indictment appears to be forthcoming,” Brookings Institution senior fellow Benjamin Wittes posted on the Lawfare blog, adding: It’s reasonable to expect the grand jury to act as early as the end of this week.
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Post by Webster on Jul 20, 2023 15:01:55 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Trump under investigation for civil rights conspiracy in January 6 inquiryFederal prosecutors investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results have evidence to charge the former president with three crimes, including section 241 of the US legal code that makes it unlawful to conspire to violate civil rights, two people familiar with the matter said. The potential charges detailed in a target letter sent to Trump by prosecutors from the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who also charged Trump with retaining classified documents last month, was the clearest signal of an imminent indictment. Prosecutors appear to have evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States based on the target letter, two statutes that the House select committee examining the January 6 Capitol attack issued criminal referrals for last year. The target letter to Trump identified a previously unconsidered third charge, the sources said. That is section 241 of title 18 of the US code, which makes it unlawful to conspire to threaten or intimidate a person in the “free exercise” of any right or privilege under the “Constitution or laws of the United States”. The statute, enacted to protect the civil rights of Black voters targeted by white supremacy groups after the US civil war, is unusual because it is typically used by prosecutors in law enforcement misconduct and hate crime prosecutions, though its use has expanded in recent years.
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Post by Webster on Jul 20, 2023 15:02:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) What the potential charges means for Trump is unclear. Prosecutors have been examining various instances of Trump pressuring officials like his former vice-president Mike Pence, but Trump’s efforts to obstruct the transfer of power could also be construed as conspiring to defraud voters more generally. The other two statutes, meanwhile, suggest a core part of the case against Trump is focused on the so-called fake electors scheme and the former president’s efforts to use the fake slates in a conspiracy to stop the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win on 6 January 2021. The target letter did not cite any seditious conspiracy, incitement of insurrection or deprivation of rights under color of law – other areas for which legal experts have suggested Trump could have legal risk. Last year, the House select committee that investigated the Capitol attack concluded that Trump committed multiple crimes in an attempt to reverse his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official proceeding. The committee issued symbolic criminal referrals to the justice department, although at that point the justice department had since stepped up its criminal investigation with the addition of new prosecutors in spring 2022 before they were folded into the special counsel’s office. House investigators also concluded that there was evidence for prosecutors to charge Trump with conspiracy to defraud and obstruction of an official proceeding. They also issued referrals for incitement of insurrection, which was not listed in the target letter. Should prosecutors charge Trump in the federal January 6 investigation, the case could go to trial much more quickly than the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case – before the 2024 election – because pre-trial proceedings would not be delayed by rules governing national security materials.
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Post by Webster on Jul 20, 2023 15:03:20 GMT -5
(The Guardian) January 6 grand jury to hear testimony from Trump aideA federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election will hear testimony from an aide who was with the former president for much of the day on 6 January 2021, according to multiple reports. William Russell, a former White House aide who now works for Trump’s presidential campaign, is scheduled to testify before the grand jury convened by special counsel Jack Smith, both CNN and NBC reported. Russell, who has previously testified before the grand jury, served in the Trump White House as a special assistant to the president and deputy director of advance, before moving to Florida to work as an aid to Trump after he left office. Multiple former senior Trump White House officials have testified before the grand jury in the special counsel’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection. Among those who have testified are Trump’s son-in-law and former White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and former top Trump aide, Hope Hicks. In April, Mike Pence testified for seven hours behind closed doors, meaning the details of what he told the prosecutors in the case remain uncertain.
Recent witnesses who have appeared before the grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were reportedly asked about the former president’s state of mind surrounding the January 6 insurrection. Federal prosecutors asked multiple former senior Trump White House officials to speak to Trump’s mindset in the days and weeks after losing the 2020 election, leading up to 6 January, according to a New York Times report. Witnesses including Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were asked if he had privately acknowledged that he had lost the election, it said. Kushner is understood to have said that it was his impression that Trump truly believed the election was stolen. The line of questioning suggested prosecutors were trying to determine if Trump acted with corrupt intent as he sought to remain in power, the paper said.
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