January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

DeSantis on CNN

First question: “if Jack smith has evidence that Trump committed a crime, should Smith bring those charges”

Then Desantis starts talking about Alvin Bragg. He goes on and on without ever giving an answer to the question (and he was asked twice). I’m becoming more understanding of how DeSantis’ campaign has been going downhill

Cause all DeSantis can do is try to dodge these questions because if he answers “yes trump should be indicted” , his chances at the gop nomination would completely go up in smoke .

Because the Republican party is the antithesis of rule of law.

[Inmate Trump]

We all just need to settle to the fact that the GOP is not a party of patriotic Americans, but rather treacherous rogue elements actively working to dismantle our government and nation from the inside out.

To be clear, there are some good people in the GOP but they are an extremely low minority. The overwhelming majority of the party (elected officials and citizens) do not want what is best for the country—in fact, they want the opposite.

[emailking]

Trump grand jury to hear testimony from aide who was with him on Jan. 6
The grand jury convened by special counsel Jack Smith is not expected to hear testimony from Trump, who said he received a letter notifying him he’s a target in the probe.

A federal grand jury deciding whether to indict former President Donald Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election is set to meet Thursday and hear testimony from an aide who was with Trump for much of the day on Jan. 6, 2021.

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. Russell has previously testified before the grand jury, which is investigating the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to "interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election."

Stanley Woodward, a lawyer representing Russell, was spotted near where the grand jury is meeting Thursday.

Trump — who said this week that he received a target letter giving him until Thursday to testify before the grand jury — is not expected to appear at the federal courthouse in Washington.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/trump-grand-jury-hear-testimony-aide-was-jan-6-rcna94998


They heard testimony from this guy all day.

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1682367307807444992

Fani Willis has a history of using Georgia's racketeering statute (which is more expansive than the federal one), most notably when she was lead prosecutor in the Atlanta school test cheating scandal.

[Sir Mohamed]

Trump is getting deeper and deeper into that hole. It's really fascinating how a majority of the GOP electorate thinks this dude is their man for 2024.

[Badger]

Trump is getting deeper and deeper into that hole. It's really fascinating how a majority of the GOP electorate thinks this dude is their man for 2024.

You misspelled "disgusting".

[2016]

Democrats want to kick Trump off the Presidential Ballots

https://conservativebrief.com/real-reason-75100/?utm_source=CB&utm_medium=JE

[Ferguson97]

Democrats want to kick Trump off the Presidential Ballots

https://conservativebrief.com/real-reason-75100/?utm_source=CB&utm_medium=JE

Why should we trust what "conservativebrief.com" has to say?

[GeorgiaModerate]

Here's the detailed timeline:

https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1682384488922513408

This is good info but should really go in the documents case thread.

[DaleCooper]

She wants him to be acquitted before the election.

[GeorgiaModerate]

I do have a tendency to assume the best in people most of the time, but it looks to me like after her early attempts to help Trump and getting throughly slapped down by a higher court, Cannon seems to have learned her lesson and is steering a good compromise course -- at least for now.  (Remember one definition of a compromise: an agreement that makes all parties equally unhappy.)

[Badger]

I do have a tendency to assume the best in people most of the time, but it looks to me like after her early attempts to help Trump and getting throughly slapped down by a higher court, Cannon seems to have learned her lesson and is steering a good compromise course -- at least for now.  (Remember one definition of a compromise: an agreement that makes all parties equally unhappy.)

Two to one odds that she will grant a motion for continuance somewhere down the road for some remotely barely able to keep a straight face in court reason given by the Trump defense team.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Trump is getting deeper and deeper into that hole. It's really fascinating how a majority of the GOP electorate thinks this dude is their man for 2024.

When they also believe that he won the last election and therefore still find him electable, it's not really all that astounding. They seriously are living in a distorted, alternate reality.

[GeorgiaModerate]

There are reports that a number of media vans have lined up outside the federal courthouse in DC where the J6 grand jury has been meeting.  Anticipating an announcement tomorrow?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Sure hope it doesn’t come down during the bar exam.

[Tekken_Guy]

I do have a tendency to assume the best in people most of the time, but it looks to me like after her early attempts to help Trump and getting throughly slapped down by a higher court, Cannon seems to have learned her lesson and is steering a good compromise course -- at least for now.  (Remember one definition of a compromise: an agreement that makes all parties equally unhappy.)

Two to one odds that she will grant a motion for continuance somewhere down the road for some remotely barely able to keep a straight face in court reason given by the Trump defense team.

She wants him to be acquitted before the election.

If she acts like a MAGA hack in the trial she will get slapped down by the 11th Circuit and possibly removed from the case altogether.

[DaleCooper]

I do have a tendency to assume the best in people most of the time, but it looks to me like after her early attempts to help Trump and getting throughly slapped down by a higher court, Cannon seems to have learned her lesson and is steering a good compromise course -- at least for now.  (Remember one definition of a compromise: an agreement that makes all parties equally unhappy.)

Two to one odds that she will grant a motion for continuance somewhere down the road for some remotely barely able to keep a straight face in court reason given by the Trump defense team.

She wants him to be acquitted before the election.

If she acts like a MAGA hack in the trial she will get slapped down by the 11th Circuit and possibly removed from the case altogether.

She'll try to be sneaky about it.

[Tekken_Guy]

I do have a tendency to assume the best in people most of the time, but it looks to me like after her early attempts to help Trump and getting throughly slapped down by a higher court, Cannon seems to have learned her lesson and is steering a good compromise course -- at least for now.  (Remember one definition of a compromise: an agreement that makes all parties equally unhappy.)

Two to one odds that she will grant a motion for continuance somewhere down the road for some remotely barely able to keep a straight face in court reason given by the Trump defense team.

She wants him to be acquitted before the election.

If she acts like a MAGA hack in the trial she will get slapped down by the 11th Circuit and possibly removed from the case altogether.

She'll try to be sneaky about it.

Even if she does act sneaky, the DOJ can appeal to the 11th and get her taken off the case whenever they want.

28 U.S.C. § 455(a) says “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned“.

[emailking]

It's hard to get a judge removed under that though.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

It's hard to get a judge removed under that though.

She's already delayed the trial from this August to next May. She can doubtless find seemingly unobjectionable ways to push it out another three months. And once things are within 90 days of the election, the DoJ and the courts will slow down even more. 

[emailking]

Yeah I'm sure she can delay things until after the election if she wants. I just don't think she can be removed for that. Unless she slips up and delays for a reason that isn't legal but there are plenty of legal ways.

[Torie]

I do have a tendency to assume the best in people most of the time, but it looks to me like after her early attempts to help Trump and getting throughly slapped down by a higher court, Cannon seems to have learned her lesson and is steering a good compromise course -- at least for now.  (Remember one definition of a compromise: an agreement that makes all parties equally unhappy.)

These days that makes you an endangered species deserving of special protection.

Myself, my expectations are low, but I still think I am above average in the sense that I want to see the actual evidence before consigning people to drawing and quartering in shark infested waters. Evidence based decision making is also going out of favor, in lieu of uncharitable surmises.

My diss of Cannon to date is that her writing ability is pedestrian.

[Former Dean Phillips Supporters for Haley (I guess???!?) 👁️]

Ex-NYPD Boss Handing Over Trump Records to Jack Smith

Bernie Kerik has been engaged in a legal battle over turning over documents. He's finally cooperating.

Bernie Kerik, the former NYPD commissioner who collected evidence of supposed election fraud for the Trump campaign in 2020, has cut a deal to turn over records to Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith as part of the investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Smith previously sought the documents, which are related to Kerik’s role as the former president’s on-the-ground investigator looking into eventually disproven conspiracy theories about ballot stuffing and fake voters. However, Kerik’s legal team had refused to turn those documents over, citing attorney-client privilege stemming from the fact that Kerik was working on behalf of Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

But on Friday, Trump himself waived that privilege and agreed to have the documents turned over, according to Kerik’s defense lawyer, Timothy Parlatore.

Smith is expected to now receive nearly 2,000 pages of material describing how Kerik looked into bogus fraud allegations. The records could prove pivotal for federal prosecutors, who are seeking evidence of Trump’s decision-making process as he relentlessly voiced baseless accusations that the 2020 election was “rigged,” even though top advisers had told him otherwise.

[emailking]

Special counsel scrutinizing February 2020 meeting where Trump praised US election security protections

Special counsel Jack Smith’s office has asked former US officials about a February 2020 Oval Office meeting where then-President Donald Trump praised improvements to the security of US elections, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

In the meeting with senior US officials and White House staff, Trump touted his administration’s work to expand the use of paper ballots and support security audits of vote tallies. Trump was so encouraged by federal efforts to protect election systems that he suggested the FBI and Department of Homeland Security hold a press conference to take credit for the work, four people familiar with the meeting told CNN.

...

Smith’s office has in recent months interviewed multiple former US officials with knowledge of the February 2020 Oval Office briefing, sources said, though not everyone who attended the meeting and has talked to the special counsel was asked about it. In their questions to at least one of those former officials, investigators were interested in how Trump reacted to information from his advisers that US election systems were secure, and whether Trump was well informed on the topic, one of the sources said.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/24/politics/special-counsel-trump-oval-office-election-security-february-2020/index.html

[emailking]

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1683555692500725761

He predicted the MAL indictment to within a day so this might be worth watching. (We haven't heard yet about the defense meeting with Smith yet.)