Dennis Aftergut, Salon

As sure as the sun rises in the east, on Monday afternoon the House Jan. 6 committee will today refer former President Donald Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. The open questions are: On which charges, and who else will be referred?

Prosecutors and the committee, even as parts of different branches of government, share the mission of strengthening the rule of law. Prosecutors do it by charging and convicting those who violate criminal statutes. The committee's principal task has been to marshal and present evidence that educates the American people about Trump's role as the central actor in the conspiracy to end our democracy.

It has succeeded. ...

Failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake — who despite her defeat may yet be a Republican vice-presidential contender — has filed a new lawsuit ostensibly aimed at reversing her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Lake appears to be going for a hat trick of courtroom defeats, which remains no match for her idol, former President Donald Trump, who lost more than 60 cases after the 2020 election.

The first of Lake's lawsuits, filed earlier this year, was dismissed in August. It sought to replace Maricopa County's voting machines with paper ballots.

Here's the clincher: In a new order on Dec. 2, federal Judge John Tuchi described the complaint as filled with "false, misleading, and speculative allegations." ...

The devastating photo that went viral last week of the "Top Secret" markings on documents that the FBI found in its court-approved Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump's office speaks a thousand words about a former president's utter carelessness with national security secrets.

The photo was part of a Justice Department court filing on Aug. 30. The documents were apparently found in Trump's personal office drawer, with his passports, and then placed on the floor for photographers.

Trump has already given his response, blaming the FBI for placing the documents on the floor and claiming that they were declassified — which is almost certainly untrue, and largely irrelevant. His point man for the latter claim has been Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes who has become a key Trump operative....

After Monday's FBI search of Donald Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago, Trump blasted out the news of the unprecedented intrusion on a former president's residence. He asserted that it was politically motivated.

But late on Thursday, the Washington Post reported that "sources familiar with the investigation" say that "classified documents relating to nuclear weapons" were among the materials the FBI search was seeking. The Post's sources did not say whether the agents found such materials.

One source, however, told the Post that among the 15 boxes of materials recovered from Mar-a-Lago in January was material that included "signal intelligence," that is, "intercepted electronic communications like emails and phone calls of foreign leaders."...