Federal grand jury hears testimony about Trump's motive for taking classified documents: report
January 18, 2023
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As America braces for what would be the first indictment of a former president in the nation’s history, a surge in threats and violent rhetoric has law enforcement officials alarmed, CBS News reports.
Intelligence sources told the news outlet that the threats are from violent domestic extremists in connection with the potential indictment of Donald Trump. But authorities have not deemed any specific threat to be credible, the report said.
Online posts that include calling for a civil war warned that indicting Trump would be a “red line” that would trigger more violence than the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the report said.
The threats mostly target law enforcement, judges and government officials viewed as central to a “political persecution of Trump.”
Trump has done little to tamp down the rhetoric.
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Our best face’: Jan. 6 rally organizers coordinated with White House and militant Trump backers
In an all-caps post on Saturday on his Truth Social website, Trump indicated he expects to be arrested Tuesday in connection with the Manhattan investigation into alleged hush money payments for adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The former president urged his supporters to rally on his behalf.
"IT'S TIME!!!" Trump wrote. "WE JUST CAN'T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY'RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!"
Manhattan District Alvin Bragg in an email to staffers obtained by CBS News said his office will not be intimidated by such threats.
"We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York," Bragg wrote.
"Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment."
The New York case is among four criminal investigations the former president is under.
A Fulton County, Georgia grand jury is investigating Trump for election interference, and the Department of Justice is conducting separate probes over the handling of classified documents and Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The U.S. Capitol Police in Washington D.C. plans to have additional staffing Tuesday and Wednesday, the report said.
RELATED: Trump ally Robert Costello reveals what he told the Manhattan grand jury
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Donald Trump's lawyers attempted to undo the full report of the special grand jury in Fulton County as part of a court motion this week. But according to Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe, the motion was essentially nothing.
The motion asks that the judge "preclude any state prosecutor agency from presenting or utilizing any evidence or testimony derived by the Special Purpose Grand Jury." MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell noted that it goes against a Georgia state law.
"I was a little worried at first, I thought it was going to be — someone said it was a 485-pound document. It turned out to be 485 pages. Most of them were just filler it was very easy and a quick read over dinner, in fact," Tribe explained. "It doesn't say much of anything. It makes bizarre claims. It says that Judge Robert McBurney was really unfair. It doesn't show anything about a supposedly unfair. On the contrary, he ruled quite often against things that Fani Willis wanted to do. It asked to have Fani Willis, and her whole office removed because they were illegal or unfair. But that effort was already made by the fake electors, and they were quickly turned away by the Georgia courts. There is really nothing here. It is just air."
He went on to say that he thinks it's another attempt by Trump to "delay," which is something Trump tries to do frequently in his cases, Tribe said.
"You could see that it shows desperation, except I can't believe that the lawyers expect anything other than a slap down," he explained. "But undoubtedly instructed by their client to delay, delay, delay. That is his go-to strategy. They did their best. And I feel sorry for them. There is no there, there. In fact, the patience of the judicial system has got to be wearing thin. I mean this is his technique everywhere. Throw everything against the wall. Hope something will stick."
One example he cites is the Trump lawyers claiming that there is too much vagueness in the laws about these legal bodies and that it was designed that way to trap ordinary Americans.
"There are not really designed to insist that the laws structuring the criminal justice system meets some special standard of, you know, clarity and predictability," said Tribe. "These laws, setting up the special grand jury are no vaguer than the others. It is a standard technique, not often used, but there's nothing wrong with it. And the main point is it is not a trial. It is simply part of the investigation. The special grand jury is an investigatory body. That is why it cannot return an indictment. He is just jumping the gun predicting that somehow he will be able to succeed in getting useful delay, but I don't think he is going to get much out of it.
See the full comments from Professor Tribe below or at the link here.
Laurence Tribe on Trump's stupid motion www.youtube.com
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Maddow: Other arrested politicians never tried to break the rule of law the way Trump is threatening
March 20, 2023
Donald Trump spent the weekend sounding the alarm on the "witch hunt" that is after him for the hush money payments he gave to adult film star Stormy Daniels. At one point on Saturday, Trump ranted that he was to be arrested on Tuesday and that he desperately needed his supporters to show up and protest.
As of Monday afternoon, there were about five reporters per protester standing outside Trump Tower. Meanwhile, Trump's most loyal allies, like Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) were begging MAGA supporters not to enact any kind of violence.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow began her Monday show by naming the dozens of politicians over the years who have been indicted and arrested — and whose mugshots were spread across the internet.
She reminded folks about former Vice President Spiro Agnew, who in 1973 swore he would never resign. A week later, he stepped down due to an indictment.
At no point, however, did any of those arrests lead to a breakdown of the law, much less violence on the streets.
On his social media account Sunday, Trump implied that police in the NYPD wouldn't want to be involved in arresting him since he's so loyal to them.
In Georgia, the state legislature passed a bill to remove prosecutors if people don't like who they're prosecuting. Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) said that he would sign it. While it hasn't been signed yet, the legislature is already at work to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from her elected position because of who the grand jury might recommend she indict. In a previous report, Maddow called it "authoritarian."
Disgraced former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik called for law enforcement to mutiny. Law enforcement at all levels must refuse to enforce the law, he claimed, according to Maddow.
"It does not bend the Constitution, let alone break it to indict criminals for crimes, even when the alleged criminal is someone who has been elected to a very important job," she explained. "It's run-of-the-mill public corruption enforcement in this country, and we do it all the time. And there is no reason why a former president should be magically immune from the same legal system that just in the past three years has put handcuffs on at least 13 state senators, 17 state representatives, one serving congressman, one former congressman, the Delaware state auditor, the North Carolina Republican Party chair, the insurance commissioner of Georgia, too many counselors, aldermen, executives and mayors to count. It happens all the time. It really does not have to be the end of the world."
She went on to say that if anyone is telling you that an indictment of this public official is something they've never seen before and that there will be an unstoppable civil war, it's because that's what they secretly want.
"Anybody telling you that is the consequence of him being potentially indicted, well, that person may be wishing for that, but there is no reason that something like that is inevitable," said Maddow. "This is not something coming up that is extraneous to our system that we need to invent something new to contend with. The bottom line here is that prosecuting public officials and former public officials — it happens all the time in the United States of America. And it never engenders violence. And it never endangers the country, and it doesn't require our legal system to be fundamentally rethought or dismantled."
See her comments in the clip below or at the link here.
Maddow reveals how arrested politicians never tried to break the rule of law the way Trump threatens www.youtube.com
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