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October 23, 2020
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Trump's executive privilege gambit is useless as Jack Smith 'zeroes in' on his aides: former prosecutor
March 25, 2023
Former President Donald Trump's former aides and advisers, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli, and former strategist Stephen Miller, are being ordered by a judge to testify to special counsel Jack Smith's federal grand jury investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a complete rebuke of Trump and his allies' claims they are shielded by executive privilege.
None of this should be a surprise, former federal prosecutor Shan Wu told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Friday.
"Attempts that derailed the investigation have failed and the legal battles are far from over," said Wagner. "Just from the prosecutors' perspective, I wonder how you interpret this string of victories for Jack Smith and what it means for future subpoenas like those of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner."
"Alex, this goes to the heart of why the executive privilege defense or barriers won't work here, because dating back to the United States v. Nixon the Supreme Court made it clear that the executive privilege, which does exist, won't shield the communications in the face of a criminal grand jury investigation, which is what we have going on right here," said Wu.
"These folks all indicate that Smith zeroing in on people who are in a position to know about Trump's state of mind, the intent, which is really gonna be the core of the controversy over whether he really believed that there was a problem with the election, where what was he doing in terms of trying to overturn the election results — these are the kind of people you need to have in there to make that case for or against," Wu continued. "My only frustration is I wish that it happened a lot earlier."
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Here's how much Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has lost investing in Trump’s Truth Social venture
All of this comes as Trump's lawyer Evan Corcoran was ordered by a judge to turn over communications in the classified documents case, which Smith is also investigating — after prosecutors provided evidence that Corcoran misled investigators, triggering the "crime-fraud" exception to attorney-client privilege.
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Shan Wu says Trump's executive privilege defenses are crumbling www.youtube.com
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Far-right Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) tried to claim, during a call-in session for C-SPAN on Friday, that none of the January 6 insurrectionists were prosecuted for sedition — and was quickly slapped down by the Washington Journal host, reported The Daily Beast.
"Taking calls from viewers during an appearance on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, a rite of passage for guests of the program, the MAGA lawmaker was soon grilled by callers over former President Donald Trump’s promise to pardon Capitol rioters," reported Justin Baragona. "'Trump wants to pardon the traitors that have been convicted of seditious conspiracy? Come on! What the hell’s wrong with you Republicans?!' one caller from Oregon exclaimed. 'I appreciate the call, and I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying, but I think you’re talking about the former president saying if he gets elected he’d issue some pardons or clemency to some of the people arrested and prosecuted on Jan. 6,' Biggs answered."
Biggs went on to say that, “Not all were convicted of seditious treason. In fact, none were! So that’s important to understand. The second thing I would say is that many of them were convicted of misdemeanor trespass. And I think that’s important to understand as well.”
"Right after the Trump-boosting lawmaker was done railing against the 'lies' spread about the Jan. 6 attack, Washington Journal host Greta Brawner casually chimed in to correct Biggs’ own falsehoods," the report continued. "'Congressman, USA Today had this headline back in November of 2022 that Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder, was found guilty of seditious conspiracy,' she flatly stated. Indeed, Rhodes and co-defendant Kelly Meggs — leader of the far-right militia’s Florida chapter — were both convicted of seditious conspiracy last year for planning an armed rebellion to stop the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Both men face up to 20 years in prison."
Cornered, Biggs simply replied, “Oh, OK. Yeah, well, I didn’t follow that case.”
Biggs also added to another caller that it's been "completely debunked" that he asked Trump for a pardon. He has denied that he ever asked for a pardon, which was asserted by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, but has not testified about his interactions with Trump under oath.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Here's how much Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has lost investing in Trump’s Truth Social venture
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has hired a new speechwriter with ties to a notorious neo-Nazi activist — much to the alarm of former Republican strategist Tim Miller, who laid out the implications in an article for The Bulwark on Friday.
"I perked up when I heard scuttlebutt a few weeks ago that Ron DeSantis had chosen a speechwriter not from the ranks of the GOP’s classically liberal old order, but from the brash online 'new right' that is more animated by culture wars and MAGA identity politics than by free markets and free people," wrote Tim Miller. Specifically, he hired Nate Hochman — "a conservative writer who has earned more ink by the age of 25 than anyone this side of Justin Bieber, has garnered a reputation as a young MAGA whisperer," and who has "found it necessary to cozy up to the movement’s gutter-dwelling racists in order to climb the ladder of influence."
"As first reported by the Dispatch last year, Hochman participated in a Twitter Space with white nationalist virgin Nick Fuentes — and lavishly praised him," wrote Miller. "'We were just talking about your influence and we were saying, like, you’ve gotten a lot of kids ‘based’ and we respect that for sure,' Hochman said. 'I literally said, I think Nick’s probably a better influence than Ben Shapiro on young men who might otherwise be conservative.'"
Hochman also stated during the Twitter Space that he agreed with Fuentes' claim that “women are goofy ... they should have no authority over men” and “just really have no business in politics.”
Fuentes is an avowed white supremacist and Holocaust denier who has praised Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and wants to turn America into a white and anti-Jewish ethnostate. He was recently placed on the "no fly" list after allegedly threatening to strangle a flight attendant.
Despite his history, Trump hosted him at Mar-a-Lago last year for a dinner meeting, alongside pro-Hitler rapper Kanye "Ye" West.
"This will be one of the defining questions of the DeSantis campaign: Will pre-MAGA Ron re-emerge and bring aboard the GOP old guard? Or will he keep leaning toward the groypers and Orbánists and culture warriors on the nationalist 'new right'?" concluded Miller. "The answer will depend on DeSantis himself — and on the staffers and advisers he chooses to surround himself with. Hochman’s hire is an early sign of which way it will go."
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Here's how much Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has lost investing in Trump’s Truth Social venture
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