DOJ MOVES ON TRUMP

Carol Leonnig and associates at the Washington Post report:

“The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter.”

Yesterday, it became known that two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence were questioned about the events of January 6. Additionally, prosecutors have moved in the past week to subpeona individuals for documents and communications around the attempt to substitute what the conspirators themselves termed in their emails “fake electors” from states Joe Biden won. It is now clear that in addition to investigating Trump’s minions, the prosecutors are asking about conversations with Trump himself, to ascertain what his direct involvement in the scheme was and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states and his involvement in directing the ctivities John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani.

This is a big deal. The biggest deal so far in the investigation.

Merrick Garland held a one-on-one interview with NBCs Lester Holt today, in which he stated that the Justice Department was “following the evidence where it leads,” and that the investigation was “proceeding without fear or favor” and would not be affected by whether Trump decided to announce a re-election campaign for president.

If I was Trump, I would be shaking in my boots. This grand jury, unlike the grand jury investigating the rioters who went to the capitol on Trump’s orders, unlike the grand jury investigating the theft of official documents from the White House and their transfer to Mar-A-Largo, and unlike the state grand juries, is investigating a crime that is easy to prove: that the fake electors did what they did, which has all the documentary evidence needed, plus the testimony of participants (some of whom are likely to have turned federal witnesses).

There is no question in the fake electors investigation of anyone exercising their First Amendment Rights or of having “legitimate political participation” questioned. This is fraud against the government, and the existence of the documents is sufficient evidence to prove commission of the crime.

That the prosecutors are going after what Trump himself said and did in the meetings involving this conspiracy means they are looking to indict him for conspiracy to commit federal fraud.

Of all the crimes Trump could be indicted for and charged on, this one is the most effective because no matter how much Conservatism Inc. screams, there is no way for them to deny or deflect, no way to say Trump’s being pursued for what he said, that he couldn’t have known what the crowd might do, or any of the rest of their bullshit.

The question is very simple: what did the president say, to whom, and when did he say it? The fact of the crime is incontrovertible.

This might be seen by politics junkies as the equivalent of getting Al Capone for Tax Evasion rather than the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, but...

The sentence is 20 years.

And this is the kind of conviction that will show him as the two bit con artist he was born as.

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