Child Trump, "They're mine. Mine!" No, Donald, They are not yours.
"Why Jack Smith is taking so long RE the Mar a Lardo doc thefts. Motive."
Special counsel is locked in at least 8 secret court battles in Trump investigations
By Katelyn Polantz, Casey Gannon and Evan Perez, CNN Published 6:00 AM EST, Thu February 16, 2023
Jack Smith, left, and Donald Trump
CNN — Special counsel Jack Smith is locked in at least eight secret court battles that aim to unearth some of the most closely held details about Donald Trump’s .. .https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/president-donald-trump-45 .. actions after the 2020 election and handling of classified material, according to sources and court records reviewed by CNN.
The outcome of these disputes could have far-reaching implications, as they revolve around a 2024 presidential candidate and could lead courts to shape the law around the presidency, separation of powers and attorney-client confidentiality in ways they’ve never done before.
Yet almost all of the proceedings are sealed, and filings and decisions aren’t public.
By comparison, Robert Mueller’s grand jury investigation into Trump had a smattering of sealed proceedings where investigators used the court to pry for more answers, and independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation ultimately totaled seven similar sealed cases.
A key sealed case revealed Wednesday is an attempt to force more answers about direct conversations between Trump and his defense attorney Evan Corcoran, where the Justice Department is arguing the investigation found evidence .. https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/14/politics/evan-corcoran-trump-attorney-testimony/index.html .. the conversations may be part of furthering or covering up a crime related to the Mar-a-Lago document boxes.
A spokesman for Smith’s office declined to comment.
About half a dozen cases are still ongoing in court, either before Chief Judge Beryl Howell or in the appeals court above her, the DC Circuit. Most appear to follow the typical arc of miscellaneous cases that arise during grand jury investigations, where prosecutors sometimes use the court to enforce their subpoenas.
Investigations that implicate government officials often beget sealed court proceedings, because confidential grand jury witnesses become more likely to assert privileges that prompt prosecutors to ask judges to compel more answers, criminal law experts say.
“I think we are in extraordinary times. Part of it is I think President Trump continues to assert these theories long after they’ve been batted away by the court,” Neil Eggleston, a former White House counsel who argued for executive privilege during the Clinton administration and the Whitewater investigation.
In Whitewater, after the court in DC ruled that privilege claims wouldn’t hold up when a federal grand jury needed information, other witnesses shied away from trying to refuse to testify, Eggleston recalled. But in the Trump investigations, witnesses aligned continue to test whether he still may have special confidentiality protections.
Still, the number of cases is out of the ordinary.
The other known cases are:
The Justice Department’s long-running effort to enforce a May 2022 subpoena for all classified records in Trump’s possession. After a sealed December hearing, Howell gave Smith’s investigators an avenue .. https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/politics/trump-lawyers-property-search-names/index.html .. to ask more questions of two people hired to search Trump’s properties in December and found more documents with classified markings. Those two people testified to the grand jury late last month. Sixteen national media outlets, including CNN, have asked Howell to make public transcripts of hearings and other records in the case.
An appeal over whether former Pence chief counsel Greg Jacob and chief of staff Marc Short should have been forced to answer questions about Trump interactions around January 6. Both went to the grand jury in DC on the same Friday last July and refused to give some answers because of Trump’s attempted claims of confidentiality around the presidency. Court orders prompted them to testify a second time, seeking out more testimony from them in October last year, CNN previously confirmed. They both appeared a second time at the grand jury. The Trump team still has filed an appeal of Howell’s decisions.
An appealover whether former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone and deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin could decline to answer questions about direct conversations with Trump from the end of his presidency. Both men cited various privileges when they testified to the grand jury in September, but were forced to appear a second time .. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/01/politics/cipollone-philbin-trump-lawyers-testify/index.html .. and give more answers after court rulings in November and December, CNN previously confirmed. Though they have already testified twice, Trump’s team filed an appeal.
Following the seizure of Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Scott Perry’s cell phone .. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/politics/scott-perry-text-messages/index.html .. in August in the January 6 investigation, lawyers for the congressman challenged the Justice Department’s ability to access data taken from the phone, citing protection around Congress under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause. Howell refused to keep the records from investigators, but an appeals court panel has blocked the DOJ from seeing the records so far, according to indications in the court record. The case is set for oral arguments on February 23 at the appeals court in Washington. The circuit court also has a request from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to unseal documents in the case.
Both Republican and Democratic leadership in the US House have wanted a part in the case because of the implications for Congress, CNN has confirmed.
Howell has released redacted versions of two attorney confidentiality decisions she made last year giving prosecutors access to emails between Perry and three lawyers – John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark and Ken Klukowski – before January 6, 2021.
Howell separately denied Clark’s attempt to keep from investigators a draft of his autobiography that discussed his efforts at the Justice Department on behalf of Trump before January 6. Clark had tried to mark the draft outline about his life as an attorney work product.
The Justice Department secured a court order for Trump adviser Kash Patel .. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/02/politics/kash-patel-testify-mar-a-lago-documents-grand-jury/index.html .. to answer questions under oath in the Mar-a-Lago investigation. Patel initially declined to answer questions before the grand jury in October, citing his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Then prosecutors fought for more answers by immunizing his testimony from prosecution, CNN previously reported.
Transparency is lacking
The suite of special counsel’s office grand jury cases raises questions how transparent the courts will be regarding these cases, and how soon documents filed in court could become available.
The New York Times and Politico are trying to convince Howell to release redacted versions of any sealed court fights related to the grand jury where Trump or others in his administration have tried to limit the investigation with claims of executive privilege, according to court filings.
The media organizations argue there’s a “profound national interest” in those legal papers.
But the Justice Department is against making disclosures related to the grand jury investigations – and won’t even admit the proceedings are taking place.
In this May 2022 photo, Attorney Alina Habba poses for a portrait at her apartment in midtown Manhattan.
On Monday, they argued to Howell that with the intense public interest around the cases, there should be even more secrecy than when the court releases other records.
“To advance the policy goals underlying grand jury secrecy, it may well be necessary for a court to more frequently decline to release judicial opinions ancillary to grand jury investigations that are the subject of intense press attention as opposed to matters that have attracted little public attention,” lawyers from the DOJ’s civil division wrote.
Unconscionable attacks against Smith and Willis. Trump’s allies attempt to undermine prosecutors endangering his 2024 bid
"Why Jack Smith is taking so long RE the Mar a Lardo doc thefts. Motive."
Yes, WHY? WHO was Trump thinking of selling WHAT information to?
Ex-prosecutors express criticism as key Republican allies attempt to derail investigations into former president
Peter Stone in Washington Wed 17 May 2023 11.00 BST Last modified on Wed 17 May 2023 13.35 BST
‘The strategy seems to be to undermine all efforts to hold Trump accountable for misconduct,’ said Barbara McQuade, former US attorney for eastern Michigan. Photograph: Chris Seward/AP
As Donald Trump’s legal troubles mount at the federal, state and local levels, the ex-president and his lawyers arebanking on their political allies in the Republican party to make attacks on a New York prosecutor who has charged Trump with criminal offenses, and to also get them to help derail investigations that endanger his 2024 campaign.
Former prosecutors and members of both parties have voiced strong criticism about the drives by Trump, his lawyers and Republican House allies to attack prosecutors who have filed charges against Trump or are investigating him, calling such moves antithetical to democratic principles and the rule of law.
Such criticism has not deterred Trump, his lawyers or pliable Republicans.. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/republicans .. from trying to discredit prosecutors with political attacks that in part reflect Trump’s lack of success in convincing courts to curb prosecutors.
In April, the House judiciary committee chairman, Jim Jordan, a key Trump ally, publicly launched an inquiry into the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, soon after he filed a 34-count indictment of Trump for falsifying business records tied to alleged hush money payments that Trump made in 2016 to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claimed Trump had an affair with her.
In a Fox News interview last month, Jordan echoed Trump’s attacks on Bragg for “interfering” in the coming election charging that “Alvin Bragg used federal tax dollars to go after a former president, to indict a former president for no crime, [which] interferes with the federal election”.
Donald Trump and Jim Jordan at a rally for JD Vance in Vandalia, Ohio, in November 2022. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP
The House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, too has supported Trump by calling the Bragg charges “not a real case”, after downplaying the investigation by saying the payments were just “personal money”.
For his part, Trump has repeatedly launched his own feverish attacks on several prosecutors including calling Bragg, who is black, an “animal”, a “degenerate psychopath” and a “racist”.
Two Trump lawyers also last month wrote to the House intelligence committee chairman, Michael Turner, blasting special counsel Jack Smith for pursuing a criminal inquiry into Trump’s retention of hundreds of classified documents at his Florida home Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House.
The letter asked Turner to tell Smith to “stand down”. It came amid signs Smith’s inquiry may be in its closing stages with fresh testimony from Trump insiders and was sent to Turner even though Congress does not have the authority to control justice department (DoJ) criminal investigations.
Trump’s own attacks on Smith escalated in mid-May with posts on his Truth Social platform charging Smith with “harassing, terrorizing and threatening people who work for me, probably illegally”.
Separately, Trump and his lawyers have mounted harsh attacks on the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, who since early 2021 has been investigating drives by Trump and his allies to block Joe Biden’s win in Georgia .. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/state-of-georgia .. including a high-pressure Trump call with the secretary of state, and is expected to file charges this summer against Trump and several others.
Trump has labeled Willis, who is black, a “racist”, and his lawyers are trying to have a special grand jury report, which is mostly under seal, but reportedly recommended charges against more than a dozen people “quashed and expunged from the record”, a move Willis is challenging.
Taken together, the efforts by Trump and his lawyers to ratchet up House attacks on prosecutors and investigators fuel concerns amid experts.
"Casting doubt on the legitimacy of investigations is another attack on democracy Barbara McQuade, former US attorney for eastern Michigan
“Casting doubt on the legitimacy of investigations is another attack on democracy,” said former US attorney for eastern Michigan Barbara McQuade. “The strategy seems to be to undermine all efforts to hold Trump accountable for misconduct. The logical extension of that practice would be to allow Trump to violate the law with impunity. The rule of law demands that all of us be held to the same standard.”
Other ex-prosecutors express similar criticism and stress that politicians seeking to do Trump’s bidding in this regard could be participating in a public cover-up.
“The folks who Trump is enlisting to help him with a legislative fix need to be reminded of how easy it is to potentially become part of a cover-up to the American people after the fact,” said former Georgia US attorney Michael Moore. “A prosecutor can easily argue that these continued efforts to generate help are both proof of his guilt and proof that he knows he’s caught.”
Moore added: “Given the status of the multiple inquiries involving Trump, I wouldn’t want to be the one getting the call to help. I’d feel like a fireman answering the alarm yet knowing I was the one likely to get burned.”
Similarly, current and former House members say moves to undermine prosecutors by Trump, his lawyers and House allies are dangerous to US civic life.
“All the attacks on judges, prosecutors and the courts are a thoroughgoing assault on any part of the judicial system that takes up a case related to Trump,” the House Democrat Jamie Raskin told the Guardian. “It’s an astounding violation of our proper federal role. It demonstrates the willingness to use any lever of institutional power over other parts of the government to advance Trump-related objectives.”
Former Republican congressman Charlie Dent agreed.
“I would never have intervened in a pending federal, state or local criminal matter. At the very least it would have felt inappropriate. The members who are attempting to shield Trump from federal, state or local investigations should stand down.”
Such qualms didn’t slow Jordan from aggressively attacking Bragg’s 34-count indictment of Trump and echoing Trump’s claims that the charges were politically driven.
Soon after Trump blasted the Bragg charges, Jordan issued a subpoena to Bragg which the prosecutor rejected as improper interference in a pending criminal case. Then Jordan subpoenaed a top ex-prosecutor in the DA’s office, Mark Pomerantz, who penned a book about the long-running inquiry into Trump’s hush money payments.
While Pomerantz is expected to comply with the subpoena, Jordan may not be pleased with the results, say critics. Paul Pelletier, a former acting chief of the fraud section at the justice department, told the Guardian that Jordan’s move to haul Pomerantz before his committee “is going to boomerang because Mark Pomerantz, as he detailed in his book, is likely to shiv Trump”.
Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, in late April. Photograph: Charles Krupa/AP
Separately, to help Trump fend off Smith’s investigation into the hundreds of classified documents he took to Mar-a-Lago, other Trump lawyers are prodding Congress to intercede and short-circuit the special counsel’s inquiry.
“DoJ should be ordered to stand down, and the intelligence community should instead conduct an appropriate investigation and provide a full report to this committee, as well as your counterparts in the Senate,” the Trump lawyers wrote to Turner.
The letter lamely faulted “the staff’s packing processes and not any criminal intent by President Trump”, to explain how the classified documents wound up in Mar-a-Lago. Trump, though, may have undercut his own lawyers during his CNN town hall last week when speaking of the removal of the documents, he boasted: “I had every right to do it, I didn’t make a secret of it.”
Some House veterans ridicule the Trump lawyers’ missive. “I think the letter to Turner was stupid,” the former Republican congressman Tom Davis said. “Why they would do that is bonkers.”
Trump’s efforts to mobilize House allies to go after the criminal investigations into his conduct set dangerous precedents and will not succeed, say critics.
“Not long ago, a savvy legislator would try hard to keep away from pending criminal or civil enforcement investigations, perhaps out of a sense of propriety, perhaps for fear of scandal,”the Columbia law professor and ex-prosecutor Daniel Richman said.
“Maybe this is no longer true, and what otherwise would seem like naked obstruction for partisan gain or out of partisan loyalty can hide behind a claim of fighting the alleged weaponization of the federal government.”
Other justice department veterans are adamant that prosecutors won’t be deterred by political pressures on them.
“The attempted infusion of political influence into the work of DoJ’s career prosecutors rarely if ever benefits the target of such an investigation. It is viewed by prosecutors as an attempt to corrupt and improperly influence their investigation, and that’s a line DoJ’s prosecutors won’t cross,” said Pelletier.
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