US Department of Jesters
Posted on 06/07/2023 12:47:39 PM PDT by thegagline
Federal prosecutors have notified Donald Trump that he is a criminal target and likely to be indicted imminently in a probe into alleged classified documents – even as the Justice Department declined to delay charges to give time to investigate allegations of witness tampering submitted by the former president’s legal team, according to multiple people on Wednesday familiar with the case.
The sources directly familiar with the case told Just the News that DOJ declined to delay the planned indictment of Trump to investigate allegations that a senior prosecutor working on the case tried to influence a key witness by discussing a federal judgeship with the witness’ lawyer.
That allegation is still pending in a secret case before Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, the jurist who oversees the federal court in Washington, D.C., and the grand juries that convene in that courthouse, the sources said.
An historic federal indictment crafted by Special Counsel Jack Smith could be handed up by a federal grand jury against the 45th president as early as this week, the sources said.
Trump has already been indicted in a Manhattan court on charges he falsified business expenses to hide hush money payments to a porn star and has pleaded innocent.
Trump has portrayed both cases as part of a broader “witch hunt” and dual system of justice designed to derail his 2024 presidential candidacy.
This week, Trump argued Smith is a partisan and the federal case against him is being treated differently than one against President Joe Biden, who also was found with classified documents in his possession from his time as vice president.
“HOW CAN DOJ POSSIBLY CHARGE ME, WHO DID NOTHING WRONG, WHEN NO OTHER PRESIDENT’S WERE CHARGED, WHEN JOE BIDEN WON’T BE CHARGED FOR ANYTHING,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in a post in which he also railed against the failure of DOJ to charge Hillary Clinton in 2016 over classified emails kept on her private email server.
“ONLY TRUMP - THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!” he added.
Federal prosecutors deny politics have been involved in their pursuit of Trump.
Smith’s prosecutorial team informed Trump’s legal team in recent days that the charges against the former president could include a violation of 18 U.S. Code Chapter 37 Section 793 that outlaws the “gathering, transmitting or losing” of national defense information. Other charges being considered involve alleged false statements and obstruction of justice, all claims the president and his team have robustly contested in public and in private.
No prior or sitting American president has ever been indicted in federal court, and if the grand jury accepts the prosecutors’ case it will touch off an unprecedented legal battle certain to work its way to the Supreme Court while lingering over the 2024 election in which Trump handily leads the GOP field by as many as 50 points in some polls.
According to multiple sources familiar with the ongoing probe, all of whom talked to Just the News on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media:
Trump’s lawyers have prepared a robust defense based on months of legal research, anticipating Smith might pursue charges. Trump’s lawyers are prepared to argue that a president had broad powers under the Constitution to keep documents or declassify without any fanfare documents from his presidency and take them with him upon leaving office.
They will rely heavily on a U.S. District Court case in Washington more than a decade ago involving former President Bill Clinton that concluded a president had broad and mostly unchallengeable power to determine which documents from his presidency can be kept personally and that any documents moved to Trump’s homes in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., and Bedminster, N.J., fall under that category.
An American Bar Association report in 2022 seemed to agree with Trump’s assertion that “guidelines support his contention that presidents have broad authority to formally declassify most documents that are not statutorily protected, while they are in office.”
Prosecutors plan to counter that authority does not extend to documents containing National Defense Information whose retention or release could jeopardize national security.
They have purportedly introduced to grand jury witnesses a recording Trump’s office made in 2021 during an interview with former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ biographers in which the former president allegedly talked about a document he described as classified and in his possession allegedly written by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley that outlined a war plan against Iran.
While prosecutors have not located an exact document matching Trump’s description, they found one with classified markings written by others laying out an Iranian battle plan that Trump returned to the National Archives more than a year ago.
Trump lawyers have developed evidence showing that information from that plan was leaked to a major magazine by a senior military officer and plan to use that as evidence that it no longer can be considered National Defense Information, according to people familiar with both sides of the case.
But one of the first disputes likely to be addressed is evidence the Trump defense team submitted to Boasberg in a secret court proceeding recently and to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s office Monday alleging a senior federal prosecutor working on the case discussed a federal judgeship with a defense lawyer for a key witness.
Monaco’s office informed the Trump team in the last 24 hours that it was rejecting a request to delay the indictment so the allegation could be investigated.
The lawyer was already in line for consideration by the Biden White House for a judgeship when the prosecutor allegedly raised the nomination while trying to get additional testimony from the lawyer’s client, according to sources familiar with the allegation.
The discussion raised concerns among defense lawyers that it was an effort to influence the witness, who has declined to change his testimony because he claims to have no other information about the movement of boxes and artifacts at Mar-a-Lago since he left the White House, the sources said.
Our ‘law system’ is a corrupt expensive joke, but it’s always amusing watching you defend it
Judge Boasberg is a lowlife Vishinski wannabe.
It’s getting to be about that time, America. Stand up or shut up.
It is beyond alarming that the democrats now openly use law enforcement to take out their opponents.
Newsom is talking about charging DeSantis with kidnapping.
But never you worry, the GOP will respond with strongly worded condemnations and a pledge that they will defend themselves in court. AS IF they will get a fair shake there.
Or maybe it is time for the GOP governors and AG’s to counter and start charging Newsom, Biden and all of them with crimes and jailing their asses. See how long they continue to pull this BS.
Slime balls, every last one of them.
I hope the country burns!!!
thegagline deserves a sock in the mouth.
Strange language “planned indictment” since indictments result from a vote of supposedly impartial citizen grand jurors.
I guess the outcome of that vote is as secure and known in advance as the 2020 election.
No one is going to do anything..people have their own lives to live I see it everyday..they see the corruption but feel they can’t do anything about it so f it and just live with it is how they feel..I can see online that DeSantis people are happy about this news, great, they feel giddy now, but wait til its their guy getting charged federally for “kidnapping” illegals..dont think it will happen, I guaran damn tee it will happen than they wont be laughing so much anymore and guess what, we will be stuck with Chris freakin Christie or Mike Pence
LOL!
I don't understand why a guy would suffer from a persecution complex, just because blue state legislatures are passing bills of attainder and ex-post facto laws to "get Trump".
Yep. It’s coming.
I guess this means that Joe Biden will soon be indicted too as he had many more top secret docs in at least 3 locations like his garage next to his car or a university that had communist chinese paying for his office there and he was not suppose to have a single one.
Tie Trump up in legal knots during an election campaign.
There is no other goal.
Whatever the charges, the public will only see that Trump is being charged for the same things done by Biden and Pence.
As always the more they try to take down Trump, the stronger he gets.
Pete Seeger lyrically asked the question, “When will they ever learn?”
I think I saw a Truth Social post by Trump saying no one told him he was being indicted.
Let them indict. It will just mean millions more people will vote for Trump in ‘24.
Then Trump can just introduce into evidence the admission from AG Barr that a charge of “obstruction” with no underlying crime is baseless.
Remind me again what Federal Crimes Trump broke.
There are several things in America that need killing. The democrat party comes to mind first. Lawyers are next.
The only way Chris Christie gets the nomination is if he eats all the other candidates first.
Mike Pence is a joke. If he makes it to Iowa, he'll be out afterwards.
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