In August 20223, special counsel Jack Smith obtained an indictment of Donald Trump on charges that included “obstruction of an official proceeding.” | Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Published December 19, 2023
A newly unsealed court document underscores the Justice Department’s long pursuit of evidence to support the obstruction allegations now lodged against Trump.
Months before special counsel Jack Smith took over the case, federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. were considering obstruction charges in connection with Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election.
A newly unsealed court filing related to the Trump grand jury investigation shows that prosecutors were eyeing the charge — which had already been deployed against dozens of Jan. 6 riot defendants — at least by September 2022 and perhaps as early as the spring.
It’s not clear whether the prosecutors at the time were considering bringing the charge against Trump himself or only against people in his orbit. Eventually, Smith did charge Trump with obstruction in the summer of 2023. The unsealed document underscores the Justice Department’s long and laborious pursuit of evidence to support the obstruction allegations now lodged against Trump — even as the statute itself could be upended by the Supreme Court.
The filing relates to search warrants obtained by prosecutors in June and July 2022 to scour the personal email accounts of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, his deputy Kenneth Klukowski and the Chapman University account of attorney John Eastman. Those warrants had previously been disclosed by U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell, who unsealed documents connected to the search a full year ago.
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SOURCE: www.politico.com
RELATED: Trump Attorney Reveals Why Jack Smith Wants Quick Supreme Court Ruling
An attorney for the former president issued the comment over the weekend.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits at the defense table with his attorneys Christopher Kise (L) and Alina Habba (R) in New York State Supreme Court on December 7, 2023 in New York City. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez-Pool/Getty Images)
Published December 18, 2023
Former President Donald Trump’s attorney was critical of special counsel Jack Smith’s urgency to obtain a Supreme Court ruling on whether the former president had immunity.
Last week, the special counsel’s office filed a petition with the U.S. high court, asking the justices to issue a quick ruling on whether President Trump had immunity in connection to election-related charges that Mr. Smith filed against the president earlier this year. The justices agreed to take the case, asking the former president’s team to submit arguments by next week.
Ms. Habba said that “everyone can see” what Mr. Smith’s team is doing with the case, describing it as “election interference” targeting her client. “They can’t beat him in the ballots, so they’re gonna have to either, you know, lie, cheat, steal or the newest, is lawfare, put him in jail, tie him up,” she continued, adding that “it’s un-American.”
President Trump, she added, is now “getting a lot of voters that he normally wouldn’t get because they’re seeing this, and he is the victim of, all of a sudden, they’ve made him a victim of complete and utter election interference and lawfare.”
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SOURCE: www.theepochtimes.com
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Jack Smith, Donald Trump (Smith photo by Robin Van Lonkhuijsen for AFP/ Trump by Saul Loeb for AFP)
Published December 19, 2023
Donald Trump’s attorneys complained that federal prosecutors might be violating a court-ordered pause to his election subversion case by providing him with discovery material.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered the halt last week while the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals considers Trump’s “presidential immunity” claim, and his legal team made a filing Monday night arguing that special counsel Jack Smith was ignoring that and trying to “advance” the case by serving them with “thousands of pages of additional discovery” and a “draft exhibit list,” reported The Messenger.
“Such maneuvers are exactly what the Stay Order forbids, and impose a significant and prohibited burden on President Trump,” wrote his attorneys. “President Trump has an incontrovertible and inviolable right to be free from the burdens of this litigation during his appeal.”
The special counsel’s office notified Chutkan earlier Monday that they had delivered an exhibit list to Trump’s lawyers to comply with a deadline she had previously set, stating they hoped that would ensure the trial moves ahead promptly once the judge resumes jurisdiction over the case.
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SOURCE: www.rawstory.com
