Special Prosecutor

‘Oh Lordy, There’s Recordings’ Of Trump Discussing Retaining Still Classified Documents (Updated)

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Update to Trump ‘Dress Rehearsal’ For Hiding Classified Documents From His Lawyers And The FBI. CNN reports, EXCLUSIVE: Trump captured on tape talking about classified document he kept after leaving the White House: Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto … Read more

Trump ‘Dress Rehearsal’ For Hiding Classified Documents From His Lawyers And The FBI

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I have said before that the Special Counsel’s case against insurrectionist Donald Trump for the mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home in exile looks like a slam dunk. Recent reporting only confirms this. The Washington Post reports, Trump workers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes a day before FBI came for documents: Two of Donald Trump’s … Read more

Merrick Garland Punts, Appoints A Special Counsel To Handle Trump Investigations

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Lawfare Blog reports, Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Lead Trump-Related Investigations: On Nov. 18, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that he has issued an order to appoint John (Jack) L. Smith to serve as special counsel for the Department of Justice to conduct two ongoing investigations related to former President Trump. Smith will oversee the … Read more

Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen is getting a legal education

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Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer Michael D. Cohen is like Thomas “Tom” Hagen, the consigliere to the Corleone family in The Godfather.

A couple of weeks ago, McClatchy News reported Mueller probe tracking down Trump business partners, with Cohen a focus of queries;

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators this week questioned an associate of the Trump Organization who was involved in overseas deals with President Donald Trump’s company in recent years.

Armed with subpoenas compelling electronic records and sworn testimony, Mueller’s team showed up unannounced at the home of the business associate, who was a party to multiple transactions connected to Trump’s effort to expand his brand abroad, according to persons familiar with the proceedings.

Investigators were particularly interested in interactions involving Michael D. Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney and a former Trump Organization employee. Among other things, Cohen was involved in business deals secured or sought by the Trump Organization in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

The New York Times reported on March 15 that Mueller had subpoenaed unspecified records from the Trump Organization. Days before that, the Washington Post reported that Mueller’s team was looking into a Moscow hotel deal for which Cohen brought to Donald Trump a letter of intent from a Moscow developer during the 2016 presidential campaign.

They must have obtained something of evidentiary value because a week ago Monday the F.B.I. Raided the Office of Trump’s Longtime Lawyer Michael Cohen: “The F.B.I. raided the Rockefeller Center office and Park Avenue hotel room [and home] of President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, on Monday morning, seizing business records, emails and documents related to several topics, including a payment to a pornographic film actress.”

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Donald Trump tried to fire the Special Counsel last June – testify about that under oath

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On Wednesday, in an impromptu press conference that was in defiance of the “Church Lady” in the White House, chief of staff Gen. John Kelly, Trump bristles under some of his orderly chief of staff’s restrictions, President Trump “proceeded to field a rush of questions on the Russia investigation with answers that rattled his lawyers and senior aides and left Kelly dealing with the fallout.”

Trump Says He Is Willing to Speak Under Oath to Mueller:

President Trump said on Wednesday that he was willing and eager to be interviewed by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, insisting that he has done nothing wrong.

“I’m looking forward to it, actually,” Mr. Trump said of talking to Mr. Mueller, answering months of speculation over whether he was willing to submit to questions from the special counsel[.]

“I would love to do that — I’d like to do it as soon as possible,” the president told reporters on Wednesday of the prospect of being interviewed by Mr. Mueller, adding that his lawyers have told him it would be “about two to three weeks” until it takes place. Almost as an afterthought, he added, any such interview would be “subject to my lawyers, and all of that.”

Yeah, that was a big caveat. Let the lawyer walk back begin:

Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer leading the response to the investigation, said Mr. Trump was speaking hurriedly and intended only to say that he was willing to meet.

“He’s ready to meet with them, but he’ll be guided by the advice of his personal counsel,” Mr. Cobb said. He said the arrangements were being worked out between Mr. Mueller’s team and the president’s personal lawyers.

[T]here are no discussions about Mr. Trump speaking before a grand jury, which is how prosecutors speak to witnesses under oath. Interviews with agents and prosecutors are not conducted under oath, but lying to the F.B.I. is a felony.

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