A year ago Thursday, Donald Trump boarded Air Force One for the final time in his presidency and retreated to Mar-a-Lago, refusing to stand witness for the swearing-in of Joe Biden.
It was a momentous day marking the culmination of an electoral defeat Trump had pushed desperately to overturn. Now a full year out of office — and 5 years removed from his own swearing-in — Trump is closing in on anniversaries that carry more legal than political significance.
The five-year statute of limitations to prosecute any alleged federal crimes he committed while in office, after all, is ticking away. You may recall Trump's tumultuous first year as president featured a string of episodes that came under scrutiny in the Mueller investigation.
In his final report, Mueller's team documented 10 episodes of possible obstruction of justice by Trump. Among them were Trump's efforts in early 2017 to pressure FBI Director James Comey to close an investigation into Michael Flynn, who at the time was national security advisor.
Trump later fired Comey, setting in motion the events that led to Mueller's appointment as the special counsel in charge of the investigation into Russian interference in the '16 election. They examined not just that episode but also Trump's effort to have Mueller removed.
Mueller declined to make a decision about whether Trump broke the law, in part because of DOJ's policy that presidents can't be charged w/ a federal crime. But, at a House hearing, Mueller acknowledged Trump could theoretically be charged w/ obstruction after leaving office.
Charging an ex-president with a federal crime would be an unprecedented first in American history. Still, in the eyes of Trump's critics, the Mueller report provided a playbook for prosecuting him.
The Justice Department has been silent as the five-year deadline nears.
"What's a matter of urgency that I'm very upset about is the statute of limitations is five years for obstruction of justice, and it's going to expire in a few months," said Richard Painter, a law prof who served as a chief ethics lawyer for the W. Bush admin.
"That Mueller report is a roadmap to an indictment of Donald Trump for obstruction of justice … Literally, a couple hours of work, and you probably have an indictment," added Painter.
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NEWS: Trump Gag Order Opinion Reissued by US Appeals Court — Minus Redactions
@BySteveReilly @TheMessenger themessenger.com/politics/trump…
LEDE: Security concerns by state and local officials were revealed Wednesday when a federal appeals court issued a new, unredacted version of its decision upholding the partial gag order over participants in the Washington, D.C.-election subversion case against Donald Trump.
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Dec. 8 issued the ruling in a 68-page order on Dec. 8, but with certain information redacted, or blacked out, on three of its pages.
The material which was redacted, and is now public, mostly pertains to descriptions of security concerns from public officials.
BREAKING: Trump Georgia Co-Defendant’s Lawyers File Notice to Withdraw from RICO Case
Defense lawyers for Trevian Kutti, the former publicist for the rapper known as Kanye West, on Monday night filed notice they want to drop their client in the Fulton County case
w/ @alemzs @TheMessenger themessenger.com/politics/trump…
ATLANTA — Attorneys for Trevian Kutti, one of Donald Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election racketeering case, filed notice on Monday night they no longer intend to represent the embattled publicist who has gained notoriety for her outlandish statements.
The three-page notice provides no rationale for her Chicago and Atlanta-based lawyers seeking to jump ship.
NEW: Trump Vows to Prosecute Critics and Rivals — But it’s Not Quite That Easy
The Republican presidential frontrunner's second-term retaliation plans may be catnip for his MAGA audiences but will be far more difficult to implement in real life themessenger.com/politics/trump…
Even for someone who has twice survived impeachment and who can expect to be successful in making it his top priority upon inauguration to redirect the DOJ from prosecuting him to becoming one of his biggest defenders, legal experts told The Messenger that Trump may be a bit overconfident if he thinks he could also achieve his goals by taking absolute command of the nation’s most powerful arm of law enforcement to direct at his leisure.
“Those Article III judges will come out ready to filet you if they think you’re in there on behalf of the president of the United States in a criminal case directed by Trump,” said a former senior DOJ official. “That’s why I say the easy part is killing cases. It's one thing to tell a court the president directs us to pardon him. It’s another thing to say we didn't have any real good evidence, but we did X, Y and Z.”
BREAKING NEWS: Georgia Judge Takes a Pass on Sending Trump Co-Defendant to Jail for Witness Intimidation
Fulton County District Attorney wanted Harrison Floyd taken into custody pending trial
by @alemzs @TheMessenger themessenger.com/news/harrison-…
LEDE from ATLANTA – A Georgia judge on Tuesday rejected Fulton County prosecutors' bid to immediately send a Donald Trump co-defendant to jail for witness intimidation before his trial and instead requested his bond conditions be modified to restrict his social media activity.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s decision on the fate of the 39-year old Harrison Floyd came following an afternoon hearing that ran for more than two-and-a-half hours and included a nuanced discussion of how social media works and what constitutes a threat in the 21st century.
NEWS: Gag Order Showdown: Trump & Special Counsel Jack Smith Set to Clash in Appellate Court Oral Arguments
Monday’s three-judge appellate panel starts at 9:30 am @BySteveReilly @TheMessenger themessenger.com/politics/trump…
NEW: Why Trump’s Plan for Supreme Court Intervention in His Criminal Cases Faces Steep Odds
Although he nominated one-third of its justices, former President Donald Trump faces uncertain prospects as he looks to the Supreme Court for help in his ongoing criminal cases
w/ @BySteveReilly @TheMessenger
LEDE: Before Donald Trump faces a jury of his peers, the former president appears increasingly likely to seek help from a Supreme Court that he helped build.
In a series of court filings and arguments in recent weeks, Trump’s legal team has laid the potential groundwork for a review by the nation’s highest court and its conservative majority of a bevy of legal questions unique to his post-presidency and American history.
Trump’s legal team appealed a partial gag order in the election-subversion case to a mid-level federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. late last month, and in the same case, asked a judge Wednesday to halt all proceedings until she rules on their motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds of “presidential immunity.”
In response to litigation across the country this year, Trump and his allies have intimated that the Supreme Court may hold the best hope of granting the former president a favorable ruling.