We wanted a better understanding of what the special counsel's investigation around Jan 6 + the Mar-a-Lago documents looked like. Here's what we found...

New deep dive, w reporting from @PaulaReidCNN @KristenhCNN @jeremyherb @ZcohenCNN @evanperez and me: cnn.com/2022/12/11/pol… @PaulaReidCNN @KristenhCNN @jeremyherb @ZcohenCNN @evanperez >>Prosecutors are asking about Trump's intent

Specifically asking witnesses whether there was a plan to steal the election and for Trump not to concede, and what Trump knew and believed heading into the Jan 6 riot

Happening now: Jay Bratt +DOJ prosecutors in a sealed hearing w Trump lawyers before Chief Judge Howell in DC. It’s about holding Donald Trump in contempt re: classified docs subpoena.

12+ reporters, our lawyer @CTobinJD waiting outside the courtroom, asking for public access More from your #CNNstakeout crew @caseyagannon @HBRabinowitz @CNNLauren and I today: cnn.com/2022/12/09/pol…

NEW from @SaraMurray @evanperez and me:

-Late last week, DOJ moved to compel more grand jury testimony from Pat Cipollone, Patrick Philbin in Jan 6 probe
-That comes after BOTH Greg Jacob, Marc Short from VP office were compelled after court fight

More:
cnn.com/2022/10/25/pol… Stepping back--The DOJ is getting A LOT done in under-seal proceedings right now in court related to Jan 6.

Pushing for more testimony by going to a judge for a court order, securing it--at least twice now.

We'll see how the Cipollone/Philbin dispute works out. That'll be huge

Donald Trump is riding out Hurricane Ian at Mar-a-Lago.

Why? Because he had a lawsuit deposition scheduled for Friday (and didn’t move it somewhere more agreeable for opposing counsel)

This story broke open w a bunch of court filings tonight: cnn.com/2022/09/28/pol… These letters have top tier lawyer sniping

Plaintiff counsel: “I expressed some surprise—I believe I used the word ‘walloped’” that Trump team headed to FL

Trump attys: “are currently sitting in the middle of a hurricane while Plaintiffs’ counsel enjoys the comforts of home”

John Eastman is in court right now trying to challenge a House Jan 6 subpoena for ~19,000 of his emails, including ones related to Trump

So far:
-Chapman U, his employer, says he worked for Trump w/o permission
-His lawyer says he was working for Trump at MANY relevant moments Judge David Carter nails down if he was doing work on behalf of client, when Eastman:
-briefed hundreds of state leg
-was at the Willard
-met w Trump & Pence Jan 3

Yes. The client was Trump, Eastman's lawyer answered.

Eight people have gone to court so far to try to block the House Select Committee's pursuit of information.
The latest: Michael Flynn

I dove into his complaint tonight, and how it fits among the other lawsuits/House subpoenas. cnn.com/2021/12/21/pol… Flynn's lawsuit arrives 1 day after he was scheduled to testify to the House--and appears to be trying to hold off the consequence of his failure to appear

Flynn says he's challenging a subpoena to Verizon (that he assumes exists), and trying to assert his 5th
Amendment rights

Trump has sued the Natl Archives and the House 1/6 Committee, seeking to block the release of documents that he believes could be privileged.

You can call Trump lawsuits frivolous all day long, but you'd also better be prepared for a grueling legal battle. Here's why: Trump's go-to arguments for blocking House subpoenas rely on the Supreme Court decision in the Mazars case. He didn't outright win that case, but SCOTUS did lay out a test for Congress. And the case took a long time to resolve. It's still not over.

Big news today out of the White House:

Biden has determined he will NOT assert executive privilege to shield Trump-era records from being seen by the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection attempt From @Kevinliptakcnn @maeganvaz: WH press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden was taking an "eye toward not asserting executive privilege," but that requests would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

.@MarciaCoyle has told me in the past about the joy of lawyers who follow cases all the way from trial courts to the Supreme Court. I can now say I’ve done this as a journalist, and it’s a wild ride to watch a case go all the way

This one: cnn.com/2021/07/02/pol… To set the stage for this House v DOJ battle, the federal courts were already weighing the parameters of grand jury secrecy when the Mueller investigation was winding down.
Some judges believed they could unseal GJ records in certain cases

cnn.com/2019/04/05/pol…

Big picture of how Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell's arguments are going today in the Dominion Voting $1.3B defamation suit: Powell and Lindell are especially relying on perpetuating the idea of election fraud post-Nov 8, arguing that should protect them in court now Powell's atty says she's protected bc she was filing election lawsuits, with witness affidavits accusing fraud

Lindell's atty says he's protected bc the election is still being "investigated"

(Giuliani's atty argued mainly technical issues in an attempt to throw this case out)

New #longread this morning: How CNN obtained the dramatic videos of the January 6 attack.

It’s been a struggle for months, and one that’s become more urgent as political disinformation persists cnn.com/2021/06/20/pol… This is the statement from a judge that’s stuck with me, as to why it’s important to see body camera and surveillance footage:

Since 2 congressmen chose this week to teach the world the complicated business of serving lawsuits (and I'm relishing the opportunity to dump my process-server-anecdotes notebook), I've got one more story to share.

It's about the Proud Boys and Enrique Tarrio. Tarrio was arrested, banished from DC days before the Capitol riot when he landed in town. He had allegedly destroyed the Metropolitan AME Church's Black Lives Matter banner in December.

On top of his arrest, the church sued Tarrio and the Proud Boys.

cnn.com/2021/01/04/pol…

Real talk: Rep. Eric Swalwell technically can't hand Rep. Mo Brooks his insurrection lawsuit when they pass each other in the halls of Congress or when they're both voting on the House floor.

Swalwell has to use a third party.

cnn.com/2021/06/03/pol… Or! Brooks could have a lawyer waive service, or sign a waiver accepting the lawsuit.

Yes, there are rules around this. It's a whole thing. law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/rul…

New today: We're STILL unpacking what went down at DOJ at the end of the Mueller investigation

A judge now says a secret memo to Bill Barr about not prosecuting Trump for obstruction must be released to @CREWcrew

cnn.com/2021/05/04/pol… Judge Amy Berman Jackson reviewed lots of documents, found lots of misdirection from DOJ
-Barr's team was already working on telling Congress DOJ wouldn't prosecute Trump when appointees Steve Engel, Ed OCallaghan finalized a memo that was supposed to advise the AG on what to do

Breaking tonight: DOJ has now given the greenlight for plea deals in at least some of the lower-profile Capitol riot cases.

Expect some of the 350+ cases to start moving now in court cnn.com/2021/04/08/pol… Next week marks 100 days since the insurrection, and it's now one of the most sprawling and intensive criminal investigations in American history.
Yet the crush of defendants and evidence in such an unusual set of cases created a logjam in court.

Guilty verdict of Michael Flynn’s former lobbying partner Bijan Kian, for illegally and secretly working for Turkey in 2016, will stand, 4th Circuit rules.

A trial judge had thrown out the jury verdict and ordered a new trial—but that was the wrong call, the appeals court says The 4th Circuit said a jury was able to conclude that Kian and a Dutch-Turkish contact of his had conspired to work for Turkey and did not disclose the work to DOJ. 
The court noted that it would “refrain from drawing conclusions with respect to Flynn’s alleged participation.”

In the Capitol riot cases, judges have split on whether to keep defendants in jail before trial. That’s not unusual, given how the system works and the charges that are being used—but it’s a surprise to many people tuning into these cases cnn.com/2021/02/19/pol… This report from 2018 really digs into the numbers on pretrial detention in the federal judiciary—and the reasons people are detained following an arrest. uscourts.gov/sites/default/…

NEW reporting on Roger Stone and the Proud Boys:

Prosecutors investigated them in 2019 re: Stone's Instagram post about the judge in his case. Proud Boys leaders including Enrique Tarrio were subpoenaed for grand jury testimony. No charges resulted.

cnn.com/2021/02/17/pol… "They asked me about if I had anything to do about posting that. They were asking me if Stone has ever paid me, what he's ever paid me for," Florida Proud Boys head Tyler Ziolkowski told CNN this week.

To sum up where things stand: Trump had a very bad Friday in court with his election cases. They're headed for more action next week cnn.com/2020/11/14/pol… Some notable points in the recent election court filings that were overshadowed by the bluster and the rulings against Trump:
- The new 3rd Circ decision cuts out some claims Trump was trying to make in PA--putting his weak case in an even worse position cnn.com/2020/11/14/pol…

NEW: Judge Emmet Sullivan is so angered by the US Postal Service's inability to sweep its facilities for ballots yesterday afternoon, following a court order to do so, that he said he will want answers under oath from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Sullivan ordered USPS to have inspectors sweep facilities between 12:30-3 yesterday, and they didn't. They went back in for sweeps after 4, notifying the judge late of the failure. So today we have a series of hearings about what happened, and how many ballots aren't delivered.

I want to walk through the document trail (all public records!) that underpins our story today. Through these (+sources), we were able to reveal a long-hidden leg of the Mueller investigation
cnn.com/2020/10/14/pol… Chief Judge Beryl Howell of DC District Court unsealed much of the bank subpoena fight in 2019, w the bank’s name + country obscured.
DC Circuit, SCOTUS also released redacted versions of appeals proceedings

Trial court records are here, case 18-gj-41
dcd.uscourts.gov/unsealed-order…