GOP Disarray On Display
CPAC, back in Maryland this year, starts on March 1. No one is to say anything about Matt Schlapp, who owns it, having fondled a young man, who is now suing him… but the name of the venue is the Gaylord Convention Center. Trump is the headliner and most of the speakers are Trump sycophants like Trump Jr and Gargoyle, Stephen Miller, Marjorie Traitor Greene— who many want to see run as Trump’s VP (especially Democratic Party officials)— Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Scott Perry, Ronny Jackson, Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Gym Jordan, Devin Nunes and Elise Stefanik. But Trump’s 2 official opponents will be speaking as well, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy (as well as Mike Pompeo, but not Ron DeSantis. Like Fox News, DeSantis is staying away). But there will be no debate— just a MAGA Trump festival.
For a debate, you’ll have to wait until August when the RNC has its first scheduled encounter between Trump and DeSantis and their opponents looking for some attention. But what if Trump decides to forgo the debate and just stage his own event instead? Why would he do that? Well…
Yesterday Ronna Romney McDaniel was on CNN repeating her warning that to participate in the debates, the candidates must pledge to support whomever comes out the winner of the primary process. No one really cares who Larry Hogan, Asa Hutchinson or Mike Pompeo supports but the big fear is that if Trump doesn’t win, he’ll undermine DeSantis. McDaniel to Dana Bash: “If you’re going to be on the Republican National Committee debate stage asking voters to support you, you should say, ‘I’m going to support the voters and who they choose as the nominee.’ Anyone getting on the Republican national committee debate stage should be able to say, ‘I will support the will of the voters and the eventual nominee of our party.’” In an interview with WISN-TV on Saturday, Paul Ryan said that he’d only attend the Republican National Convention, which is being held around an hour drive from his home, if someone not named Trump is the nominee. (Ryan still has nightmare flashbacks remembering when he announced the results naming Trump the GOP nominee in 2016, when he was the the convention chair.)
Bash reminded her that Trump had already said he won’t take the pledge and that support for a candidate not named Trump is not automatic. “It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”
McDaniel said Trump will sign anyway. “I think they’re all going to sign. I really do. I think President Trump would like to be on the debate stage.” That sounds like a threat. Or maybe Trump will be too busy with his various trials to bother. Yesterday a trio of Wall Street Journal reporters wrote special counsel Jack Smith’s probe is heating up, as exemplified by the aggressive attitude towards compelling Pence to testify before the grand jury. Ditto re. Mark Meadows.
“In a typical case, these top-level, inner-circle people are some of the last people you’d expect to be subpoenaed,” said Randall Eliason, a former public-corruption prosecutor who now teaches criminal law at George Washington University.
“You don’t talk to them at the beginning of the investigation, because you don’t know enough yet. Just looking at that, when I see subpoenas to the highest-level inner-circle people, that makes me think they’re close to wrapping up,” he added.
…It isn’t clear when or even whether the special counsel’s activity will result in indictments. Even if no charges are brought, Smith is expected to outline his findings in a final report. Questions directed at some of those testifying have been wide-ranging, leading some of them to come away thinking Smith’s team was more interested in gathering details for a report rather than for any specific indictment, people familiar with questioning said.
The frenzy of subpoenas comes as Judge Beryl Howell’s seven-year term as chief judge of the D.C. district court enters its last month. In that post, she has presided over all grand-jury matters in Washington and repeatedly ruled for the Justice Department in closed-door disputes with Trump over executive privilege. Judge James Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee confirmed in 2011, is set to succeed Judge Howell in the role next month.
Beyond his scrutiny of Trump’s efforts to cling to power, Smith is separately examining the handling of classified records at the former president’s South Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago.
Last month at least three lawyers for Trump appeared before a grand jury in the investigation into the cache of classified documents kept at the residence. Among them was Evan Corcoran, a lawyer who handled Trump’s responses to government requests for the return of documents from his presidency.
A lawyer for Trump, Timothy Parlatore, said: “The only reason to focus on the lawyers is where you don’t have a solid underlying case.”
Ahead of his grand-jury appearance in January, Corcoran retained a lawyer, Michael Levy, who previously represented current and former Enron executives during the investigation into the company’s collapse. Messrs. Corcoran and Levy worked together in the 1990s as federal prosecutors in Washington.
After Corcoran cited attorney-client privilege in declining to answer some questions before the grand jury, prosecutors asked Judge Howell to invoke the crime-fraud exception to bypass that privilege and extract more testimony.
The exception applies in instances where there is reason to believe legal advice has been used in furtherance of a crime. The move to invoke the crime-fraud exception suggests that federal prosecutors suspect that Trump or his allies used Corcoran’s services in such a way.
Corcoran’s grand-jury testimony followed an appearance by another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, who signed a statement in June attesting that all documents requested by a subpoena to the former president had been turned over to the Justice Department. Two months after that sworn statement, on Aug. 8, a court-authorized FBI search uncovered a trove of additional materials bearing classified markings.
In an autumn interview with federal investigators, Ms. Bobb said Corcoran assured her that he conducted a thorough search of Mar-a-Lago before he asked her to certify that all records requested by a subpoena had been returned, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Another Trump lawyer, Alina Habba, appeared before the grand jury last month. Federal investigators have also interviewed Jesse Binnall, a lawyer who has represented the Trump campaign and defended the former president against civil lawsuits alleging that he helped incite the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
…Prosecutors have asked about the role of one of the former president’s lawyers, Boris Epshteyn, in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, with questions suggesting an interest in whether he sought to influence witness testimony, according to people familiar with the investigation. In their questioning, prosecutors have inquired specifically about Epshteyn’s discussions around forming what is known as a common-interest privilege among those involved in the investigation, they said.
…The privilege, which is akin to a joint defense agreement, is intended to allow for confidential communication among lawyers and their clients in investigations involving multiple witnesses.
In pursuing testimony from lawyers, Smith’s team stepped into delicate territory rife with questions about attorney-client privilege, a move that suggests his office exhausted other investigative avenues, former prosecutors said.
“That’s not stuff you do lightly. It’s a serious step,” Eliason said. “It’s going to be time-consuming. It’s not something you do if you think this case isn’t going anywhere.”
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