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Judge orders records from Wisconsin's voter fraud probe after Trump's 2020 loss not be destroyed
June 05, 2023
A state judge in Wisconsin has declined to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to preserve records from a Trump-aligned former state Supreme Court justice's taxpayer-funded voter fraud crusade in 2020, reported the Associated Press.
"The lawsuit was one of several filed by liberal watchdog group American Oversight against former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman and the office of special counsel that he led," reported Scott Bauer.
"Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hired Gableman to lead the probe in 2021 under pressure from Trump and conservative Republicans in Wisconsin who were pushing for decertifying Biden's win."
Gableman's investigation quickly came under criticism from both Democrats and Republicans as the former judge engaged in increasingly erratic behavior, even trying to have the mayor of Green Bay and several other public officials arrested.
"Vos put the investigation on hold in April 2022 and then fired Gableman in August 2022 after he turned up no evidence to back Trump's false claims that the election had been stolen from him," said the report. "Vos fired Gableman just days after Vos won his primary over an opponent endorsed by Gableman and Trump. Vos called Gableman an 'embarrassment' to himself and the state."
"Even though the office has been unstaffed for nearly a year, it continues to fight open records lawsuits. Courts have repeatedly ruled against Gableman and his former office in those cases," said the report. "Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost on Monday affirmed with his latest ruling that the office formerly led by Gableman, and any future version of it, is subject to Wisconsin's open records law. Frost granted a temporary injunction against any deletion of records by the office and rejected the motion to dismiss, a request made nearly a year ago."
This comes a month after another Wisconsin election interference case moves forward. Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington ruled in May that a complaint against the fake Trump electors claiming to represent the state must be reheard.
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Trump indictment will come this week because the DOJ is feeling 'internal pressure': legal expert
June 05, 2023
Former FBI general counsel and special counsel prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said Monday he thinks the indictment of Donald Trump will come this week because the Department of Justice is being pressured to move things forward.
The prediction was part of a conversation with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace about the possible venue for trial if Trump is indicted — Florida or Washington, D.C.
Secrets and Laws, an account that purports to be run by a former CIA lawyer, mentioned that there has been little conversation about the potential venue. Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department national security official, is hoping for Washington, while national security analyst Marcy Wheeler expects Florida will be the location. Another commentator, LegalNerd, walked through the potential charges and what the law says about the venue.
Weissmann agreed that the open issue is where charges would be brought and who would be charged alongside Trump.
"Those charges may be ones that can only be brought in a different jurisdiction because there are constitutional rules about where charges can be brought," he explained.
"I should say, ...it is conceivable that Donald Trump would be charged in Florida and not D.C. I don't think that will be the case. But I do think the one thing I'm pretty confident of is that we are going to see charges with respect to the classified documents case, and it seems by all accounts it's going to be this week because I think that DOJ will feel that internal pressure to move this along."
He later said in the Manhattan case with D.A. Alvin Bragg, Trump's lawyers came in to speak before the grand jury before the indictment, and he explained at that time it was an indicator that they were at the end of the probe.
Trump's lawyers met with the DOJ on Monday,
See the discussion below or at the link here.
Indictment will be this week because the 'DOJ is feeling pressure to move this along': Legal expert youtu.be
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Flood in Mar-a-Lago security room treated as suspicious by classified document investigators: report
June 05, 2023
An employee at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club flooded a room containing the facility's security log computers while draining the pool last October, – and prosecutors consider it suspicious, reported CNN on Monday.
"While it’s unclear if the room was intentionally flooded or if it happened by mistake, the incident occurred amid a series of events that federal prosecutors found suspicious," reported Katelyn Polantz, Jeremy Herb, and Kaitlan Collins. "At least one witness has been asked by prosecutors about the flooded server room as part of the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents, according to one of the sources."
According to the report, witnesses have testified that the flood did not damage the computer equipment. However, if the flood was part of a deliberate attempt to damage the equipment, it could be evidence in a potential obstruction case.
"The incident, which has not been previously reported, came roughly two months after the FBI retrieved hundreds of classified documents from the Florida residence and as prosecutors obtained surveillance footage to track how White House records were moved around the resort," said the report. "Prosecutors have been examining any effort to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation after Trump received a subpoena in May 2022 for classified documents."
Trump is being investigated for storing classified documents at the club after he left the White House.
Other key witnesses involved in the investigation include Walt Nauta, a military valet Trump took from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, as well as a maintenance worker at the facility who helped Nauta move boxes of documents containing classified records ahead of federal agents searching the premises.
The investigation is wrapping up with charging decisions imminent, according to recent reports.
Trump has claimed that he did nothing wrong and has an unlimited right to declassify and take home documents as needed, even without going through any proper channels or telling anyone about it. However, recently obtained video evidence shows Trump telling guests at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey that he couldn't share the details of a classified document detailing a possible attack on Iran, suggesting Trump in fact knew he doesn't have blanket declassification authority.
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