January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

[brucejoel99]

I believe jury selection would go on hold while this plays out but motions already in progress they can keep litigating.

An interlocutory appeal temporarily divests the district court only of control over those aspects of the case that are involved in the appeal, but it's also arguable at the moment whether or not (& Trump's certainly arguing that) every district-level proceeding in the case is inherently an automatically-stayed aspect of an overall constitutional immunity appeal, so 🫠🤷‍♂️

[brucejoel99]

Trump's legal team has the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever & quit en masse from sheer exhaustion:

https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1734340401128214883https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1734345586625892807https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1734340562659193277https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1734345977983869100https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1734346515106377998https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1734348809898221830

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1734343076691521870

I’m not sure what the Presidents in parens are in reference to.  Pan and Childs were both appointed to the DC Circuit last year by Biden.  Henderson is a Republican appointed in 1990 by GHW Bush, and is the longest serving active justice on the Court by over 20 years. She’s also been very favorable toward Trump in past rulings, though she’ll obviously be in the minority here.

https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1734370355316470138

[brucejoel99]

I believe jury selection would go on hold while this plays out but motions already in progress they can keep litigating.

An interlocutory appeal temporarily divests the district court only of control over those aspects of the case that are involved in the appeal, but it's also arguable at the moment whether or not (& Trump's certainly arguing that) every district-level proceeding in the case is inherently an automatically-stayed aspect of an overall constitutional immunity appeal, so 🫠🤷‍♂️

There we have it from Chutkan herself:

https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1735033256544706603

[brucejoel99]

Trump's lawyers file objection to expedited resolution of Donald Trump's appeal by the Supreme Court on the grounds of: Special Counsel Jack Smith is The Grinch.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415/gov.uscourts.cadc.40415.1208579017.0.pdf

“his proposed schedule would require attorneys and support staff to work round-the-clock through the holidays, inevitably disrupting family and travel plans. It is as if the Special Counsel “growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming, ‘I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming. … But how?’”

In case anyone has forgotten, a reminder of how much importance Mr. Trump's family puts on Christmas.

He really shouldn't have asked them to think of the timeliness considerations:

https://twitter.com/dsamuelsohn/status/1735020826297073922https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1735076403521945998

[brucejoel99]

It's pretty sickening, though unsurprising, that Trump may get away with his delay tactics.

This is really Biden and Merrick Garland’s fault.  They should have appointed a special prosecutor to get this moving on their first day in office.  Waiting two years to move on this is an enormous failure on the part of Biden’s administration.

Not Biden’s fault. This is all Garland.

To be fair to Garland, there was an immense amount of work to do to acquire and organize evidence (especially around January 6th). Donald didn't start his delaying tactics in 2022. And the deep and meticulous work the DoJ has done is the keeping Donald from already having successfully dodged or delayed his trial well past the election (although drawing Cannon as his judge has certainly helped him in Florida).

There's also the point that denying the Presidency to someone like Donald Trump should not rest on the Justice Department.  Yes, he belongs in prison, and yes, our justice system has failed to put him there. But likewise the voters should never have nominated him the first place, let alone done so a second or third time. And the GOP ought to have impeached him in 2021, at an absolute minimum.

So let's not put the whole weight of our democracy on Garland's shoulders - the Republicans have massively failed their responsibility as citizens.

🗣️

I'm so sick of dealing with this crap that Garland's DOJ ditheredly "waited". Not only did they do the literal opposite, but they (quite rightly) risked losing any chance of pursuing the Team Trump case if they ever proceeded at any point with skipping necessary investigatory steps or taking any such steps unduly quickly! Let's remember the J6 investigation started immediately, but Trump-holdover Sherwin was interested in only charging the violent riot crimes, & Channing Phillips took over from Sherwin as U.S. Atty. for D.C. on Mar. 3rd, 2021, but asked Sherwin to remain supervisor of the J6 prosecutions for the time being, with Sherwin only then taken off for commenting on the case to the media less than 2 wks. after Garland took office as A.G. on Mar. 11th; by the time Lisa Monaco took office on Apr. 21st, she was having to immediately that very same day sign her authorization to the search warrant to seize Rudy's phones, & that was just Rudy: there were 30+ targets of, &/or relevant witnesses to, the investigation who had to undergo lengthy attorney-client privilege reviews!

If DOJ had bothered without regard for the privilege reviews on the phones & emails of Trump's 6 lawyer co-conspirators, that would've auto-guaranteed getting the case thrown out, but they didn't; it took 9 months, but they successfully got everything reviewed, meaning that they could finally start issuing subpoenas by around the time they started doing so in May 2022, at which point the delays became mere overt products of Trump's stalling, namely in the form of executive-privilege challenges from Jun. 2022 to Apr. 2023. That's 9 consecutive months of necessary A-C privilege reviews & then 10 consecutive months of having to deal with pre-indictment EP challenges right there, yet people will claim with a straight face that they "wait[ed] two years to move on this"? My ass they were waiting; they were f**king working the whole damn time! But people don't know how prosecutions work, & so will not only think the arguably biggest one of all-time can just be done overnight, but then blame Biden for failing when it isn't & claim that Garland hasn't taken actions he blatantly has.

[brucejoel99]

Will we get a verdict from the D. C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Trumps "Immunity Claim" this week?

It has been almost 3 Weeks since the Hearing!

The DC Circ. norm is to drop opinions on Tuesdays & Fridays. The ruling to modify & uphold Chutkan's gag order took 45 days. This has taken 20 days so far on an expedited review schedule, so I'd bet on either an opinion dropping this week, or on Henderson being the hold-up since she's entitled as the panel's most senior judge to give the initial opinion assignment (that's presumably taking the time up) to herself & given that expedited consideration was ordered over her dissent, so maybe she doesn't feel bound by the trial calendar despite the panel majority's wish.

[brucejoel99]

If the latter it really sucks since many opined the reason SCOTUS turned down Smith to take it immediately was due to the Circuit putting out such an expedited review schedule.

To say nothing of the fact that it could, ofc, end up taking even longer if Childs & Pan significantly differ with Henderson's draft enough to turn it into a concurrence rather than the panel opinion, & then even further longer still if such differences just serve to heighten the overall pressure for SCOTUS to not deny Trump cert but to indeed review his immunity after all.

Hopefully her joining the unanimous denial of en-banc review of the gag order just implies a single LONG opinion applying all considered args & prob addressing why the precedent on pretrial immunity having to explicitly rest on the Constitution isn't a jurisdictional roadblock to ruling here. May it be enough above reproach that SCOTUS can just deny further review.

[brucejoel99]

🚨🚨🚨🚨
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1754883119717462337

The DC Circ. norm is to drop opinions on Tuesdays & Fridays.

Today could be the day!

we were so close!

[brucejoel99]

Unanimous:

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1754884107123732701

[brucejoel99]

Thank you, Judge Henderson!
https://twitter.com/klasfeldreports/status/1754885068005257628

[brucejoel99]

Trump says in this filing that it would violate the first amendment rights of the voters if the case is not stayed.

https://twitter.com/JoshDorner/status/1757176250051805328

[brucejoel99]

It's something about he won't be able to campaign (he doesn't on weekdays anyway) so they won't be able to hear his voice (like he doesn't have TS) and perspective to inform their decision.

Guess who is responsible handling Emergency from the D.C. Circuit: Roberts himself.

Trump has put Roberts in a very tight spot.

Roberts can theoretically act alone here (& that happens often on noncontroversial requests), but for something this big, he's just gonna refer it to the full Court for a decision here.

[brucejoel99]

What's taking the SCOTUS this long to decide a simple ruling whether to grant Trump a "Stay" on his Immunity Claims or not. I am getting impatient.

Prob 1 of Thomalito writing their dissent from denial.

[brucejoel99]

If Possibility #1 is what’s actually happening, how long can the dissenters delay for?

I believe indefinitely. The other justices could nudge them but that's it.

Well, at least 'til 5 others have had enough.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1762160850167542118

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/two-weeks-of-chaos

MI prosecutors saw this 2 wks. ago & went...

[brucejoel99]

LMAO.
The two posts above are mind-blowing.
I actually thought that much of what Ken Chesebro had testified to, may have actually had some truth to it.
How very, very wrong I was.
I hope they throw this moron in jail, with the rest of The Crazies that took part in the Jan 6th Insurrection.


If you want to read more on this, and actually hear some of Chesebro's words on tape, here is a CNN article ...
https://us.cnn.com/2024/02/26/politics/kenneth-chesebro-secret-twitter-account-kfile/index.html

https://twitter.com/GsuGrinding/status/1762175499155939398

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/bobtheretired/status/1762218622368563661https://twitter.com/bobtheretired/status/1762227086721519994

[brucejoel99]

It’s really seeming like the DC Appeals Court may have made a huge blunder in forcing SCOTUS to act for the trial to go forward by automatically staying their own ruling.  They could have just put the ruling into effect and have allowed SCOTUS to issue a stay if they wanted to.

In which case C.J. Roberts, being responsible for emergency D.C. Circuit filings, would've automatically imposed an administrative stay pending referral to the full Court for consideration & adjudication of Trump's motion. What the panel's automatic stay-by-SCOTUS did is entirely foreclose en-banc proceedings as practically moot, a huge blunder… for Trump's delay strategy!

[brucejoel99]

SCOTUS is taking the case April 22, ugghh

https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1762961432449106429https://twitter.com/harrylitman/status/1762962393687093405
Currently in Spain without the S rn

[brucejoel99]

SCOTUS is taking the case April 22, ugghh

Jesus christ, and of course they won't even take it up until 2 months from now. That means they won't have a decision till May (June at the latest), which means the trial wouldn't be able to start until later in the Summer most likely.

Absolutely ridiculous that they couldn't just not take it up; I don't see why would they need to take it up unless they want to set a permanent precedent here on the issue. But there's also the chance that this hack court will somehow rule in favor of him. Not just that, but of course in doing this, they know it's going to delay the trial further.

I mean, taking it up by the end of Summer would not put it in peril at all. I don't imagine the trial would take over a month so if you have a trial in say, August, you could wrap it up by Sept/Oct. It's cutting it close, but I wouldn't say imperiled. However, it still presents a *chance* which is really annoying and it feels like the SC knows exactly what they're doing with this.

If they take a month (big if) and assuming Chutkan doesn't give in to the argument that they should delay the trial until after the election (likely I think) and if the trial takes 2 months like she has estimated, we could actually be looking at a possible conviction in October! 🤯

Judge Luttig thinks (disappointingly) there must be dissent on the court and thusly they will announce a decision in the normal course so probably July. If that holds, Trump will likely be in the middle of the trial on election day.

Chutkan promised to give Trump a day back of discovery & trial prep for every day that trial was stayed pending the appeal of his immunity motion, so if one assumes that SCOTUS doesn't rule on an Apr. case 'til the end of Jun., it's 198 days from Dec. 13th when Chutkan lost the case on immunity-appeal to the end of SCOTUS' term on Jun. 28th, putting trial in 2025.

[brucejoel99]

If they take a month (big if) and assuming Chutkan doesn't give in to the argument that they should delay the trial until after the election (likely I think) and if the trial takes 2 months like she has estimated, we could actually be looking at a possible conviction in October! 🤯

Judge Luttig thinks (disappointingly) there must be dissent on the court and thusly they will announce a decision in the normal course so probably July. If that holds, Trump will likely be in the middle of the trial on election day.

Chutkan promised to give Trump a day back of discovery & trial prep for every day that trial was stayed pending the appeal of his immunity motion, so if one assumes that SCOTUS doesn't rule on an Apr. case 'til the end of Jun., it's 198 days from Dec. 13th when Chutkan lost the case on immunity-appeal to the end of SCOTUS' term on Jun. 28th, putting trial in 2025.

I don't think so, I believe they get 7 more weeks once she gets the mandate back.

Basing this conclusion off Parloff's analysis of Chutkan's order from back when everybody was still waiting to hear from the D.C. Circuit:

https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/1748347757079761316
EDIT: nvm, you're right

https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/1757938321802592441https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/1757442319882584369

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1762993961944170960

This is why my takes tonight have been grounded in the "either 3 cert votes spent weeks haggling for a 4th, or the Thomalito draft dissent from denying the stay was so bad that it needed a binding clapback" camp & not the "SCOTUS took weeks to decide something it'd routinely decide immediately because the same Court responsible for next month's Manhattan prosecution is now going out on a limb to protect the personal stakes of Donald Trump of all people" camp.

[brucejoel99]

People keep referring to the 88 day thing, but I believe Chutkan said somewhere that she would be open to shortening that time period given the situation. Frankly, there's no reason why Trump's lawyers can't be using that time *now* to prepare while waiting for the SC.

She suggested shortening the time-frame if egregious gag-order violations called for it, so otherwise, the judge explicitly promising you that you don't have to in the meantime is a pretty good reason!

https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/1763201303654662441

Also I see some people keep having the trial be like 2 months long... that seems seriously excessive. Your regular trials are like ~3 days long. High profile ones tend to be maybe a few weeks, if that. There's no way it'll be even over a month long.

The Special Counsel has already publicly published his estimate that presenting the prosecution's case alone will take 4-6 weeks.

[brucejoel99]

The Special Counsel has already publicly published his estimate that presenting the prosecution's case alone will take 4-6 weeks.

I've seen some speculation on Twitter that Smith might narrow his case to make it quicker to present, if it looks like the timing is close.

"Slim to win"