US Person has looked at the released portions of the special grand jury report and he is underwhelmed. It seems the authorities are focused on running their investigations into the wire of the 2024 election. As readers probably know by now, the Department of Justice has a policy of not prosecuting during an election cycle. Fulton County DA Fanni Willis convinced the judge not to release any portion of the grand jury's report that might prejudice a criminal defendant's right to due process. She told the judge indictments are "imminent" over a month ago.
The released portions are mostly boilerplate, and no names of possible defendants are revealed. In fact the only public conclusions the grand jury reached were that the election of 2020 was fair, and that Trump's theories of fraud are not supported by facts. Thank you, we knew that already. It also states that a majority thinks several witnesses lied during their testimony. If the grand jury identified specific crimes and the identity of persons committing them, that information is in the hands of the Fulton County District Attorney. The jury set out violations of law it found in a sealed portion of its report saying “We set forth for the Court our recommendations on indictments and relevant statutes, including their votes by the Grand Jurors. This includes the votes respective to each topic, indicated in a ‘Yea/Nay/Abstain’ format throughout.”and the jurors, "acknowledge the discretion of the District Attorney to seek indictments where she finds sufficient cause." It is her move now. Although a state prosecution for election fraud of the Orche Menace would not be barred by DOJ's internal policies, it would be highly unlikely that a prosecution of a political figure would take place in the later stages (say after a primary) of a presidential election, despite the smoking gun of his phone call to Georgia's Secretary of State demanding 11,000 more votes for him be "found". In the bizarro world of his own, the Orche Menace is claiming exoneration because his name was not mentioned in the released portions of the report. The guy is really out there.
On another front against Trump, the Special Counsel investigating him for the attempted coup has subpoenaed Mark Meadows, former chief of staff and a key figure in the conspiracy. Meadows avoided appearing before the January 6th Committee by feigning cooperation and ignoring a congressional subpeona. He released some of his digital communications, which apparently proved useful, but it was a carefully calculated move on his part. His latest subpoena is both a good and bad thing. Getting his testimony under oath is important to proving Individual One's participation in the historic conspiracy and his criminal intent to subvert the election process by fraudulent means. But under another obscure DOJ rule, a witness before a grand jury cannot be a target of the investigation. This means Meadows will not be charged with a crime related to the coup attempt, if he complies with process. Of course, he is still vulnerable to perjury charges if he lies under oath. According to CNN the Special Prosecutor is locked in eight secret court battles to enforce subpoenas or divulge evidence. The difficulty of prosecuting elected officials and former elected officials with various types of privilege is apparent. One of those cases involves Repugnant Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. DOJ wants access to his cell phone records, which Perry claims are protected under the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. What is becoming increasingly clear from all this is that members of Congress aided and abetted the insurection.
On the question of Trump's intent, the WaPo printed a story that says Herr Trumpillini went so far as to retain outside research consultants to examine whether any of the claims of fraud advanced by his campaign were supported by evidence. The consultants told Trump that there was no material evidence of fraud. This conclusion was in addition to the sixty-two civil cases in which there was no finding of significant election fraud. This mountain of evidence did not stop the sociopathic liar in office from continuing his efforts to overturn the election results. Willful ignorance of fact is not a legal defense.
As previously stated here the name of Trump's legal defense is delay. His sycophantic sidekick, Mike Pence, has announced he will fight the grand jury subpoena for his testimony. Apparently his attorneys agree that executive privilege has been undeniably waived by Pence, who published a memoire about his conversations with Herr Trumpilini on or about January 6th. Give them credit for innovation. They have concocted a novel, if ridiculous, argument that Pence, acting as president of the Senate on January 6th has immunity under the speech and debate clause of the Constitution. That clause only applies to members of Congress' speech in either house. Pence was not a member of Congress, but a member of the Executive Branch acting in a ceremonial capacity. The novel argument is only calculated to get Pence to the conservative Supreme Court. But even MAGA jurist Clarence Thomas could not swallow such a preposterous rationale, but it will take more time to process his constitutional claim. Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina already tried this gambit before the Georgia Special Grand Jury and lost in federal court. Eight months and counting.
 |
| credit: M. Ramirez Wackydoodle sez: How' bout a John Gotti? |