Trump's Crimes & Investigations

[LFC]

Trump Org Monitor Given Extraordinary Powers

Barbara Jones, the former federal judge appointed to monitor Trump Org finances during the massive civil lawsuit against the company by the New York attorney general, has been the authority to keep Trump’s business under a very close microscope for any unusual, suspicious, or fraudulent activity.

Will the Trump Organization even be able to function without committing fraud or acting as a money laundering conduit for criminals in Russia and Saudi Arabia?

[goldenvalley]

Trump loses his argument that he needs a special master to review the stuff collected pursuant to a warrant.  The 3 judge appellate panel concludes:

The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations
after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so. Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations. Accordingly, we agree with the government that the district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction, and that dismissal of the entire proceeding is required.

The district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction in this case. For that reason, we VACATE the September 5 order on appeal and REMAND with instructions for
the district court to DISMISS the underlying civil action.

[andydp]

Dec 2, 2022 0:13:33 GMT goldenvalley said:

Trump loses his argument that he needs a special master to review the stuff collected pursuant to a warrant.  The 3 judge appellate panel concludes:

The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations
after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so. Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations. And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations. Accordingly, we agree with the government that the district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction, and that dismissal of the entire proceeding is required.

The district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction in this case. For that reason, we VACATE the September 5 order on appeal and REMAND with instructions for
the district court to DISMISS the underlying civil action.

Does this overrule judge Cannon’s make believe law ruling ?

[jackd]

Yes.

[LFC]

Shorter 3 Judge Panel: Bitch, don't even.

[LFC]

Jack Smith, the DOJ's independent counsel investigating Trump's vast array of crimes, is apparently looking into the fraudulent use of political contributions. Interestingly he sounds like he's full integrated into the DOJ rather than being completely separate. I would think that gives him potential access to all of the DOJ's resources.

Inside Jack Smith’s Operation

CNN has a good bit of new detail on the inner workings of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations. It looks less like Mueller’s separate setup and more like a U.S. attorney operating within the Justice Department.

One thing that caught my eye, because it hasn’t fully been on my radar, is a financial crimes component of the investigation:

Another top prosecutor, JP Cooney, the former head of public corruption in the DC US Attorney’s Office, is overseeing a significant financial probe that Smith will take on. The probe includes examining the possible misuse of political contributions, according to some of the sources. The DC US Attorney’s Office, before the special counsel’s arrival, had examined potential financial crimes related to the January 6 riot, including possible money laundering and the support of rioters’ hotel stays and bus trips to Washington ahead of January 6.

In recent months, however, the financial investigation has sought information about Trump’s post-election Save America PAC and other funding of people who assisted Trump, according to subpoenas viewed by CNN. The financial investigation picked up steam as DOJ investigators enlisted cooperators months after the 2021 riot, one of the sources said.

[LFC]

I'm going to move my posts about the classified documents here since Trump has clearly committed multiple crimes. Right now the situation with possible/probable additional documents is a bit insane. Trump should have been found in contempt multiple times. I truly hope if they find more documents, which they suspect he stole (probably from an inventory list so they many be nearly 100% sure he stole them), he is held in contempt and jailed. He needs a real wakeup call about his lying.

An explainer on what seems to be going on with the hearing yesterday, and the judge's decision not to hold Team Trump in contempt.

1. It seems clear that the DOJ has good info that not all docs have been returned.The reports of what was missing when the latest two were found described for example docs w/ N Korea that don't seem to be the ones that turned up in the storage locker.
2. On the one hand, that is a completely intolerable and bizarre state of affairs. The absolute routine, whoever is being investigated, is DOJ serves a subpoena and the person or the company's custodian of records turns the evidence over and certifies compliance.
3. Here recall that back in May Team Trump gathered together a woefully incomplete set of docs and then had low-woman-on-the-totem-pole Christina Bob, who had just arrived, sign certificate of compliance that turned out to be flagrantly false. She now has her own criminal lawyer and is dealing with DOJ. Fortunately for her she did add something like based on what others told me.
4. Since then, nobody wants to step up to the custodian role, which would put their own necks on the line. Understandable, since among other things they know they have an inveterate liar as a client and one whom they can't woodshed and say cut the crap to, as defense lawyers normally could do here.
5. This produces a crazy stalemate in which no lawyer will act as custodian, even though typically custodians don't swear that everything has been produced but just that they've done a diligent search etc.
6. We shouldn't lose sight of the underlying cause, which is that the former President of the United States lies all the time.
7. So why not just subpoena Trump directly. I think it's because of 5th Am doctrine known as the "act of production" defense. Normally there's no defense to turning over documents in your possession that have inculpatory information about you; you're not being forced to testify but just to produce docs. However, in rare instances in which the actual production would tend to incriminate you, you can assert 5th Am rights.
8. Given that the nature of the investigation is that Trump has taken and concealed docs illegally, it does seem to me that he has a good act of production defense.

[LFC]

Other than the help he got from Judge "Loose" Cannon, Trump's record in court isn't going well lately.

Trump Loses In Court … Again

The former president tried an end run around New York Attorney General Letitia James’ massive civil fraud case against the Trump Org by suing her in Florida. It failed. A federal judge Wednesday rejected Trump’s request for an emergency injunction and warned in a footnote to his ruling: “This litigation has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous.” The same judge recently sanctioned Trump lawyers in a different case for filing a frivolous lawsuit.

[LFC]

Jack Smith continues to be Trump's worst nightmare, an honest and competent prosecutor.

The special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump brought on two current and former long-time career prosecutors experienced in handling complex public corruption cases, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has tapped Ray Hulser, a veteran prosecutor who previously led the Justice Department’s public integrity section, and hired David Harbach, who previously served as counsel to a Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, according to the person who asked to remain anonymous. 

The two attorneys have prosecuted some of the most high-profile public corruption targets of both political parties in recent years, including cases against Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and former presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards. 

[goldenvalley]

Jan 9, 2023 18:44:20 GMT LFC said:

Jack Smith continues to be Trump's worst nightmare, an honest and competent prosecutor.

The special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump brought on two current and former long-time career prosecutors experienced in handling complex public corruption cases, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has tapped Ray Hulser, a veteran prosecutor who previously led the Justice Department’s public integrity section, and hired David Harbach, who previously served as counsel to a Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, according to the person who asked to remain anonymous. 

The two attorneys have prosecuted some of the most high-profile public corruption targets of both political parties in recent years, including cases against Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and former presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards. 

Jordan better hurry up with his investigate the investigators hearings.  He's gonna end up indicted fairly quickly.

[LFC]

Jan 9, 2023 23:52:19 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jordan better hurry up with his investigate the investigators hearings.  He's gonna end up indicted fairly quickly.

I want hear each and every Congressional Democrat he attempts to subpoena repeat the following words; "Following the precedent of Rep. Gym Jordan we decline to appear before his committee. Since he stated clearly, “You have not explained the Constitutional basis for the extraordinary claim that a congressional committee may compel the testimony of other Members of Congress” and because he called it a "dangerous escalation", we will follow his lead. BTW Rep. Ted Lieu said they're already laying the groundwork.

[indy]

Jan 9, 2023 18:44:20 GMT LFC said:

Jack Smith continues to be Trump's worst nightmare, an honest and competent prosecutor.

The special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump brought on two current and former long-time career prosecutors experienced in handling complex public corruption cases, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Special Counsel Jack Smith has tapped Ray Hulser, a veteran prosecutor who previously led the Justice Department’s public integrity section, and hired David Harbach, who previously served as counsel to a Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, according to the person who asked to remain anonymous. 

The two attorneys have prosecuted some of the most high-profile public corruption targets of both political parties in recent years, including cases against Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and former presidential candidate and Senator John Edwards. 

Smith has subpoenaed Giuliani: edition.cnn.com/2023/01/09/politics/rudy-giuliani-subpoena-special-counsel-fundraising-trump/index.html

[LFC]

Weasleberg got 5 months. Meh.

Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump ’s business empire was taken into custody Tuesday to begin serving a five-month jail term for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks — a punishment the judge who sentenced him said was probably too lenient.

Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and to be a witness against the Trump Organization, where he’s worked since the mid-1980s. His testimony helped convict the former president’s company, where he had served as chief financial officer, of tax fraud.

But when he made the sentence official Tuesday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said that after listening to Weisselberg’s testimony during that trial, he regretted that the penalty wasn’t tougher. He said he was especially appalled by testimony that Weisselberg gave his wife a $6,000 check for a no-show job so that she could qualify for Social Security benefits.

Had he not already promised to give Weisselberg five months, Merchan said, “I would be imposing a sentence much greater than that.”

“I’m not going to deviate from the promise, though I believe a stiffer sentence is warranted, having heard the evidence,” he added.

Maybe prosecutors should go after his wife for Social Security fraud. I doubt she was part of the promise.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 10, 2023 21:20:21 GMT LFC said:

Weasleberg got 5 months. Meh.

Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump ’s business empire was taken into custody Tuesday to begin serving a five-month jail term for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks — a punishment the judge who sentenced him said was probably too lenient.

Weisselberg, 75, was promised that sentence in August when he agreed to plead guilty to 15 tax crimes and to be a witness against the Trump Organization, where he’s worked since the mid-1980s. His testimony helped convict the former president’s company, where he had served as chief financial officer, of tax fraud.

But when he made the sentence official Tuesday, Judge Juan Manuel Merchan said that after listening to Weisselberg’s testimony during that trial, he regretted that the penalty wasn’t tougher. He said he was especially appalled by testimony that Weisselberg gave his wife a $6,000 check for a no-show job so that she could qualify for Social Security benefits.

Had he not already promised to give Weisselberg five months, Merchan said, “I would be imposing a sentence much greater than that.”

“I’m not going to deviate from the promise, though I believe a stiffer sentence is warranted, having heard the evidence,” he added.

Maybe prosecutors should go after his wife for Social Security fraud. I doubt she was part of the promise.

5 months? Less than 1 1/2 weeks per charge?  That is ridiculous for $1.7 million in taxes not paid.

[LFC]

Giuliani was subpoenaed by the DOJ over Trump's fundraising activities. Oh, Rudy. I hope all these legal issues are sucking your bank accounts dry. You earned that for your lies and grift.

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani, asking him to turn over records to a federal grand jury as part of an investigation into the former president’s fundraising following the 2020 election, according to a person familiar with the subpoena.

The subpoena, which was sent more than a month ago and has not been previously reported, requests documents from Giuliani about payments he received around the 2020 election, when Giuliani filed numerous lawsuits on Trump’s behalf contesting the election results, the person said.

Prosecutors have also subpoenaed other witnesses who are close to Trump, asking specifically for documents related to disbursements from the Save America PAC, Trump’s primary fundraising operation set up shortly after the 2020 election, according to other sources with insight into the probe.

Taken together, the subpoenas demonstrate prosecutors’ growing interest in following the money after the 2020 election as part of their sweeping criminal probe around Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss of the presidency.

Save America was part of broader fundraising efforts by Trump and the Republican Party that raised more than $250 million after the election. Since then, the political action committee has compensated several lawyers who now represent Trump and his allies in January 6-related investigations.

The subpoenas to other witnesses in addition to Giuliani were sent in late December, according to the other sources.

[LFC]

Once again we're back in the crazy territory of what should only be a story at The Onion.

Big Oops

Former President Donald Trump mistook a picture of Jean Carroll, the woman who has accused him of raping her in the mid-90s, for his second wife Marla Maples – wait for it – in a deposition he gave in the Carroll case.

Carroll is, of course, the woman Trump has repeatedly said is not his “type.”

That's going to play well in front of a jury. Maybe his defense will be that he thought he was raping his wife.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 19, 2023 17:22:23 GMT LFC said:

Once again we're back in the crazy territory of what should only be a story at The Onion.

Big Oops

Former President Donald Trump mistook a picture of Jean Carroll, the woman who has accused him of raping her in the mid-90s, for his second wife Marla Maples – wait for it – in a deposition he gave in the Carroll case.

Carroll is, of course, the woman Trump has repeatedly said is not his “type.”

That's going to play well in front of a jury. Maybe his defense will be that he thought he was raping his wife.

His lawyer must have been dying inside when that happened.   And the plaintiff's are saying "yeah sure 'she's not your type'...well she was in the 1990s when the rape occurred".

[LFC]

Jan 19, 2023 17:43:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

His lawyer must have been dying inside when that happened.

I assume that feeling has been shared by many an attorney who made the mistake of representing Trump, especially when it came time to get paid.

[pnwguy]

Jan 19, 2023 19:56:23 GMT LFC said:

Jan 19, 2023 17:43:45 GMT goldenvalley said:

His lawyer must have been dying inside when that happened.

I assume that feeling has been shared by many an attorney who made the mistake of representing Trump, especially when it came time to get paid.

Trump Defense Attorneys -- Get Raped Twice!

Once when you have to defend his criminal insanity.  The second time when he refuses to pay you.

[indy]

Speaking of Trump's attorneys, yesterday a judge imposed $1M fine on Trump AND HIS LEAD ATTORNEY Alina Habb in the idiotic Clinton et al. lawsuit.

Under the order, the Republican Trump and Habba, are jointly and severally liable for the total amount of sanctions the judge imposed to cover the defendants’ legal fees and costs : $937,989.39. That amount is about $120,000 less than what the defendants jointly requested for sanctions.

How dumb do you suppose Habba is? Did she get Trump to indemnify her? And even is she did what's the chance he will honor the agreement?

www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/trump-and-lawyers-sanctioned-almost-1-million-for-frivolous-lawsuit-against-hillary-clinton.html

[LFC]

Jan 20, 2023 12:20:07 GMT indy said:

Speaking of Trump's attorneys, yesterday a judge imposed $1M fine on Trump AND HIS LEAD ATTORNEY Alina Habb in the idiotic Clinton et al. lawsuit.

Thank you for this. It makes me smile.

[indy]

Jan 20, 2023 15:10:15 GMT LFC said:

Jan 20, 2023 12:20:07 GMT indy said:

Speaking of Trump's attorneys, yesterday a judge imposed $1M fine on Trump AND HIS LEAD ATTORNEY Alina Habb in the idiotic Clinton et al. lawsuit.

Thank you for this. It makes me smile.

I briefly looked over the decision. As part of the judge's support for sanctions and to establish a pattern of behavior of abuse of the court system by Trump he discussed a bunch of other cases, most of them still ongoing. The implication to me was that perhaps there are more sanctions yet to come.

[indy]

Not a good day for the insurrection types.

Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack in the second major trial of far-right extremists accused of plotting to forcibly keep President Donald Trump in power.

news.yahoo.com/four-oath-keepers-convicted-jan-193930393.html

An Arkansas man who was infamously photographed putting his feet on a desk inside then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the January 6, 2021, insurrection was found guilty on eight counts by a Washington, DC, jury Monday.

www.cnn.com/2023/01/23/politics/richard-barnett-pelosi-office-january-6/index.html

[goldenvalley]

Jan 23, 2023 20:22:55 GMT indy said:

Not a good day for the insurrection types.

Four members of the Oath Keepers were convicted Monday of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack in the second major trial of far-right extremists accused of plotting to forcibly keep President Donald Trump in power.

news.yahoo.com/four-oath-keepers-convicted-jan-193930393.html

An Arkansas man who was infamously photographed putting his feet on a desk inside then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the January 6, 2021, insurrection was found guilty on eight counts by a Washington, DC, jury Monday.

www.cnn.com/2023/01/23/politics/richard-barnett-pelosi-office-january-6/index.html

The Oath Keepers defense lawyer had a point:

Through attorneys, the defendants claimed their motives and actions, while foolish, were idiosyncratic and unplanned. They were drawn to the Oath Keepers not to overthrow the government but for protection from the antifascists, criminals and covid restrictions right-wing media led them to fear, they argued. Rhodes then convinced them he was likely to receive orders directly from Trump to muster as a defense force under the Insurrection Act.

“Responsibility really rests at our politicians’ feet,” Moerschel’s attorney, Scott Weinberg said. “The president and Stewart Rhodes were claiming that the world is coming to an end even before the election.” He said most Oath Keepers quit after about a year, when they realized it was just Rhodes’s “piggy bank” — and that those who joined the fray on Jan. 6, 2021, were mostly “rookies.”

[goldenvalley]

Documents, documents, classified documents!   Looks like we have an issue with the way classified documents are handled. Where is the chain of custody???  Biden finds some and now Mike Pence has too.

Aides to former Vice President Mike Pence found a small number of documents with classified markings at his home in Indiana during a search last week, according to an adviser to Mr. Pence.

The documents were “inadvertently boxed and transported” to Mr. Pence’s home at the end of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, Greg Jacob, Mr. Pence’s representative for dealing with records related to the presidency, wrote in a letter to the National Archives.

The letter, dated Jan. 18, 2023, said that the former vice president was unaware of the existence of the documents and reiterated that he took seriously the handling of classified materials and wanted to help.

I don't think this lets the ex-president off the hook at all.  He actively tried to keep them while the other two guys turned them over without being asked to do so.  Obstruction is the ex-president's greatest sin in this situation.