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'Once Weisselberg pleads guilty it’s over for the Trump Org': Ex-prosecutor Andrew Weissmann
August 15, 2022
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg cut a deal to do five months in jail while not cooperating with investigators. While the deal might be great for Weisselberg, former Justice Department prosecutor for Robert Mueller's investigation, Andrew Weissmann, said it isn't for the Trump Org.
Speaking to MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Monday evening, Weissmann said that in the next few days it could be that Weisselberg is actually pleading guilty as part of the deal.
"The reason that is important for Donald Trump is the Trump Organization is scheduled for trial in October," he explained. Once Allen Weisselberg pleads guilty, it is over for the Trump Organization. The crimes he committed, get imputed to the Trump Organization. So, the leverage in terms of the financial consequences to Donald Trump doesn't mean he's gonna go to jail, but the consequences for the Trump Organization are huge."
Weissmann described it as a "big deal" for the former president in part because what he did was all about making more money, but it was also about bribery.
"This is a big deal," he went on. "So, I think that would be number one, focus on the financial consequences of the Allen Weisselberg deal. And then, down the road, I mean, Lawrence, you laid out a litany of criminal and national security trouble, in Florida, in D.C., in Georgia. And this is a day where you saw a movement on all fronts. And to me, the thing that I thought was probably the most telling was the grand jury subpoena to Eric Hirschmann. There is a guy who can completely corroborate what we heard from Cassidy Hutchinson. I am sure he has information."
He also noted that Hirschmann isn't likely to corroborate the idea that Trump had some kind of magical order to declassify everything.
RELATED: If Trump is the target of investigation there won't be an interview: Former DOJ espionage lawyer
"So, that was a very bad fact, in terms of signaling that Merrick Garland is really I think, putting his foot on the gas," he closed.
See the full conversation, which includes legal expert Brad Moss below. You can also watch at this link.
How Allen Weisselberg's deal is really really bad for Trump youtu.be
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White House staff tried to figure out how to get docs Trump had taken to the residence before he left office: report
August 15, 2022
As part of the report that the Justice Department would prefer not to release the methodology for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant, the New York Times revealed that former White House aides anticipated the documents problem.
In a tweet from Maggie Haberman, she explained that in the weeks leading up to Jan. 20, 2021, White House staff was trying to figure out how to get documents from Trump that he'd taken with him to the residence so that they could be properly stored. By then, however, the staff secretary, Derek Lyons, left and former chief of staff Mark Meadows said he'd handle it.
"...Meadows, the man who oversaw presidential records in the chaotic closing days of the administration, failed to organize an effort to collect, box and deliver materials to the National Archives — as prior presidents, and Mr. Trump’s own vice president, Mike Pence, did," two sources with knowledge of the events said.
According to the Times, the final days of the Trump administration "instead, often focused on settling political grievances and personal grudges."
The quote from the sources could also be an indication that Trump world intends to throw Meadows under the bus for the classified documents.
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The Times went on to describe the contrast between Trump's office and Pence's, which was cataloging and indexing all of the information necessary to comply with the National Archives and records keeping laws.
Pence's counsel, Greg Jacob was described as trying to ensure Pence left office without a single piece of paper that didn't belong to him personally.
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If Trump is the target of investigation there won't be an interview: Former DOJ espionage lawyer
August 15, 2022
Brandon Van Grack joined Rachel Maddow on Monday to discuss the pieces of the new scandal involving former President Donald Trump and classified documents he took from the White House.
Van Grack was the Justice Department lawyer who helped with special counsel Robert Mueller's efforts as well as the lawyer who prosecuted Michael Flynn, before withdrawing in early 2020. Among the things he explained to Maddow was that so many things at issue in the case of Trump's documents is a lot of noise and deflection.
First, there's the matter of the passport. While it might be tempting to highlight Trump's claims, it isn't important.
"It's really important that we're not distracted by the cacophony and really focus on the important information and that goes to my earlier point," he said. "Just based on what we know, there are significant national security implications. But with respect to the passport, if that was in fact true, if there were multiple passports of the former president taken, there really not much to read into that. It is unlikely that the department of justice is signaling that the former president is a flight risk. It is unlikely that the Department of Justice is signaling that criminal charges are imminent."
He explained that it's more likely that it was just a response to the search warrant.
The second issue is that over the past week Trump tried to publicly reach out to Attorney General Merrick Garland or speak to him through the press. Van Grack explained that it too is fairly irrelevant.
"The reality is that there is probably outreaches that occur to senior levels of the government, Department of Justice, all the time," he said. "This is something where I cannot see or think of a situation where an outreach like that will have any impact on the investigation. So, appropriate or not, again, I don't think it will have any impact on the investigation. Again, really, I would consider it to be noise or distraction when the fact is, again, there are real national security issues at play and that should be the focus."
Maddow went on to ask if the former president is in trouble if it turns out he mishandled the documents and put national security at risk. She also wondered if the public would witness the DOJ call Trump in for questioning.
"So, the reality is if he is the target of an investigation, there isn't going to be an interview," Van Grack explained. "And we do know from the information that you discussed at the top of the hour that there is discussion in the government's recent filing in terms of the decision not to unseal the affidavit that there are witnesses who are cooperating with the investigation. Specifically, say that's a basis for not unsealing the affidavit. So, there are certainly people in the orbit that would have information that would be relevant to understanding the intent and motive."
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See the full interview below or at this link.
Former DOJ espionage lawyer www.youtube.com
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