BREAKING: Arizona prosecutors have charged 11 fake electors for their roles in efforts to subvert the 2020 election. mcusercontent.com/cc1fad182b6d6f…
There are *seven* additional people charged in this indictment who have not yet been served. So their names remain redacted. mcusercontent.com/cc1fad182b6d6f…
MORE: The universe of indicted Trump allies charged over the 2020 election expanded tonight. It now includes:
-Mark Meadows
-Rudy Giuliani
-John Eastman
-Ken Chesebro
-Jenna Ellis
-Mike Roman
-Sidney Powell
-Boris Epshteyn
-Christina Bobb
-Jeffrey Clark
-36 fake electors (including state GOP chairs Michael McDonald, Kelli Ward, David Shafer) politico.com/news/2024/04/2…
NOTABLE DETAIL: Witnesses in Arizona told us that the grand jurors — a mix of political backgrounds — were particularly proactive, driving lines of inquiry with witnesses that went further than what prosecutors often asked about.
MORE: The indictment (right) notes that a member of Congress also called AZ House Speaer Rusty Bowers on Jan. 6 to urge him to support overturning the election. Bowers previously told the Jan. 6 committee (left) this was Biggs. politico.com/news/2024/04/2…
If there’s a significant fact or detail in the AZ indictment that wasn’t previously unearthed by the Jan. 6 committee, news reports or texts/emails released in other litigation, I haven’t found it. politico.com/news/2024/04/2…
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1) Donald Trump could win by losing because in this case losing his most extreme argument means further delay of trial — and for Trump, delay is almost as good as an outright win
2) The conservatives on the court contorted themselves to avoid discussing the specific case in front of them — Donald Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election. They talked about FDR, Nixon and future presidents. But they rarely engaged w the present.
There's some wild stuff in this newly unsealed (but heavily redacted) FBI interview from a high-level Trump-world person related to the classified docs investigation.
And while the interview is primarily about the docs investigation, this person apparently witnessed Jeff Clark hand Trump the letter about Georgia electors: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This person has a very low opinion of "person 24," who apparently tried to overplay a relationship with Trump and pushed the post-hoc claims that Trump had "declassified everything." storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
JUST IN: The DC Circuit has upheld the conviction of former Ron/Rand Paul aide Jesse BENTON for orchestrating an illegal payment from a Russian national to the Trump campaign and RNC. documentcloud.org/documents/2455…
Trump had previously pardoned Benton for *other* campaign finance crimes. The story of this particular contribution is really incredible. the Russian, Roman Vasilenko, really wanted to meet Oprah, Stephen Seagal or Jimmy Carter. documentcloud.org/documents/2455…
Forget the experts: Prosecutors and Trump defense lawyers have already told us what they think is necessary in four different Trump cases. And the questions they want(ed) to ask range from pointed and political to philosophical and a bit odd.
At bottom there are five clear categories aimed at delving into jurors’ minds:
-Opinions about Trump, the man and his presidency
-Views about Trump’s criminal cases
-Political views/activity
-News consumption
-Wildcards aimed at unearthing hidden biases
Some interesting tidbits in Walt Nauta’s May 2022 interview with the FBI. They clearly had some doubts about his veracity and whether he had been coached in his answers.
At one point, the agents appealed to him to make sure he’d be “on the Govrnment’s side with this” because people risk/lose their lives to collect classified intel storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This is where the FBI agents seem to indicate Nauta’s story doesn’t check out, and it’s where the interview gets a little tenser.
JUST IN: Jack Smith files his opening brief at the Supreme Court re: presidential immunity. The crux: Criminal law includes a million safeguards and due process protections that render Trump's claims about politically motivated prosecutions meritless. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…
👀 Smith argues that even if the Supreme Court sharply narrows the obstruction statute in Fischer, Trump's two obstruction counts are still valid because it would apply to the "creation" of false documents (a.k.a. elector certificates. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/2…
NEW: Jack Smith argues that Trump's involvement in the false electors plot will salvage the obstruction charges against him no matter what the Supreme Court does in United States v. Fischer.