"See, this is exactly what we have to avoid, which is some minority of folks trying to silence dissent," he complained. "I believe a lot of the time differing, but there's a decorum that should be adhered to."
"Is this an insurrection?" the lawmaker asked. "So will they be held to the same, I don't want another January 6th, do we?"
Moments later, Fallon abruptly decided to call a recess in the hearing.
"Does the Capitol Police not do their jobs? What in the hell's going on?" he remarked.
Reacting to the newly revealed audio tape of Donald Trump reportedly bragging about sharing sensitive government documents after he was out of office, a former prosecutor suggested it is just another "smoking gun" that can be added to the "arsenal" of smoking guns the Department of Justice has on the former president.
Appearing on MSNBC's "The Alex Witt Show," former prosecutor Charles E. Colman claimed that there is such a preponderance of evidence against the former president -- much of which has come directly from his public comments -- that is may only be a matter of weeks before he is indicted by special counsel Jack Smith.
"Is this recording a smoking gun? Does it provide the nexus to prove Trump's intent, and that he knew all along the limitations of declassifying documents?" host Witt asked.
"Well, I do think it's a smoking gun," Colman replied. "It's important to understand, Donald Trump has already provided Jack Smith and special counsel's office with a smoking arsenal of other different things along the lines of establishing his guilt in criminal liabilities -- especially with the Mar-a-Lago case."
"This case has been very straightforward from the outset, because of the myriad attempts of federal agencies to try and get documents from Donald Trump, letting him know that he should not have them," he added.
David McCormick, the former chief executive officer of the world's largest hedge fund, revealed in a March interview with Politico that he is weighing a run for the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania for the United States Senate in 2024.
"I believe that our political system always will self-correct," McCormick, who was defeated in the 2022 GOP Senate primary by failed candidate Mehmet Oz, told Politico. "We're in such a moment of self-correction in my opinion, and that's what I'm trying to do, is support that with the agenda here around educating our people and confronting China and securing America."
The Associated Press noted in April 2022 that "McCormick and his wife estimated the value of their assets between $116 million and $289 million, including a valuable stake in Bridgewater Associates."
This week, Heartland Signal revealed that part of McCormick's massive net worth came from his experience consulting corporations on how to ship American jobs overseas.
"From 2001 to 2004, McCormick was the chief executive officer of a global software company called FreeMarkets. The company described its operations as a resource to help other businesses 'lower costs, reduce risks and increase profitability,'" Heartland Signal reported. "When FreeMarkets was purchased by Ariba in 2004, McCormick stayed and became the president of Ariba while FreeMarkets’ many services carried over, which included 'procurement outsourcing.'"
During McCormick's tenure as CEO, Ariba "released a guide for 'Low-Cost Country Sourcing,' which lays out strategies for businesses to cut costs and save money via shipping jobs overseas. The company also had a specific page on its website that outlined its strategy for 'low-cost country sourcing.' One of these 'low-cost countries' was India, which McCormick called an important location for country sourcing," Heartland Signal explained.
According to Heartland Signal, McCormick defended his work in 2004, stating that "big multinational companies are interested in doing business in India and, being in the business of spend management, we help them to work out what they buy and who they buy from. Services like the low-cost country sourcing program are a key differentiator for Ariba, as they enable it to offer complete spend management solutions to customers."
Heartland Signal's full report continues here. Politico's conversation with McCormick is here.
A distinguished group of former Department of Justice officials, former federal prosecutors, law professors and legal scholars have combined their talents and created a 186-page "Model Prosecution Memo" that lays out their proposed path to indict and convict former President Donald Trump of six federal crimes.
Writing for Above the Law, Andrew Weissmann, Ryan Goodman, Joyce Vance, Norman L. Eisen, Fred Wertheimer, Siven Watt, E. Danya Perry, Joshua Stanton and Joshua Kolb, stated that, based on what is already publicly known about the sensitive government documents that the former president took with him to Mar-a-Lago after his election loss — and his refusal to hand them over — there is already a solid enough case for a conviction.
The entire document (which can be read here or below) makes the case that the former president can be charged with:
Mishandling of Government Documents
1. Retention of National Defense Information (18 U.S.C. § 793(e))
2. Concealing Government Records (18 U.S.C. § 2071)
3. Conversion of Government Property (18 U.S.C. § 641)
Obstruction, Contempt, False Information
1. Obstruction of Justice (18 U.S.C. § 1519)
2. Criminal Contempt (18 U.S.C. § 402)
3. False Statements to Federal Investigators (18 U.S.C. § 1001)
They wrote, "There is sufficient evidence to obtain and sustain a conviction here, if the information gleaned from government filings and statements and voluminous public reporting is accurate. Indeed, the DOJ is likely now, or shortly will be, internally circulating a pros memo of its own saying so. That DOJ memo will, however, be highly confidential, in part because it will contain information derived through the grand jury and attorney work product. Since it will not be publicly available, we offer this analysis."
As part of the memo, they stated, "....the discussion starts with Trump’s resistance to the Government’s attempts to recover the documents. We recount the more than one-and-a-half-year effort on the part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Justice Department to recover the documents. Those efforts culminated in the FBI’s recovery of approximately 13,000 documents, including information on some of the nation’s most sensitive national defense programs, pursuant to a court-authorized search warrant for Mar-a-Lago (MAL)."
In their conclusion, they suggested, "The Department’s own precedent makes clear that charging Trump would be to treat him comparably to others who engaged in similar criminal behavior, often with far fewer aggravating factors than the former president. Based on the publicly available information to date, a powerful case exists for charging Trump under the federal criminal statutes discussed in this memorandum."
