Thread: Legal Charges Against Trump

You know he hasn't always been President, right?

The fact is that baldy orange cunto should have been investigated years ago

Thanks SL! I think Fani is going to get a conviction.

Where Trump’s long list of legal challenges stand

Former President Trump faces a number of investigations and lawsuits related to his business practices with the Trump Organization and his four-year stint in the White House as he considers running for reelection in 2024.

Here’s every major legal challenge the former president is facing, from several investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol to a family inheritance feud.

The Jan. 6 investigation and related cases

Trump is facing nine lawsuits related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and the 2020 presidential election.

1. A criminal investigation from the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney’s office is examining whether Trump officials disrupted the 2020 election in the county. The Fulton County has requested a grand jury for the investigation.
2. The NAACP has filed a lawsuit against Trump for allegedly interfering with the 2020 election in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act. The NAACP recently won a victory over the winter and the lawsuit, which 10 members of Congress have signed on to, is moving forward.
3. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) is suing Trump in a separate lawsuit over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
4. U.S. Capitol Police officers filed three separate lawsuits against Trump for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 rioting, which injured more than 100 officers. Four officers committed suicide afterward and one died from a stroke shortly after.
5. Two officers from Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department also filed a lawsuit against Trump, seeking compensation for physical and emotional damages.
6. D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D) said his probe into those who incited Jan. 6 could result in charges against Trump.

New York officials probing the Trump Organization’s property valuations

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is investigating whether Trump inflated property values for investors and deflated them in federal tax forms. She is pushing for Trump to hand over documents and for Trump himself to sit for a deposition, a call he has so far refused in violation of a court order.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is continuing a similar probe into potential tax fraud and financial crimes. The case already resulted in charges filed last year against former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg for his alleged role in a 15-year tax fraud scheme.

The Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney’s office also launched an investigation in October into whether the Trump Organization misled officials about the property value of Trump National Golf Club Westchester.

Federal investigators are looking at whether Trump mishandled classified documents

The National Archives has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether the former president mishandled classified documents.

Fifteen boxes of official records that Trump was legally required to turn over were recovered from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Mary Trump is suing her uncle for allegedly defrauding her from the family inheritance

Trump’s niece says she was defrauded out of millions of dollars from her inheritance.

The lawsuit is ongoing in the New York Supreme Court. Mary Trump has requested a preliminary conference to proceed, while Donald Trump has moved to dismiss the case.

Trump is suing his niece and The New York Times in a separate lawsuit over reporting on his taxes. Mary Trump revealed in her tell-all book that she gave information to the newspaper for the story.

E. Jean Carroll’s sexual assault suit

E. Jean Carroll, a magazine writer who says Trump sexually assaulted her in the ’90s, is suing the former president for saying she fabricated her claims that he raped her.

The lawsuit is pending in U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. A federal judge recently denied Trump’s attempt to countersue.

Former personal attorney Michael Cohen is also suing Trump

In Manhattan federal court, Cohen is suing Trump, the U.S. government and other officials for allegedly retaliating against him after writing a tell-all book about his time serving Trump in a legal capacity.

The attorney says he was returned to federal prison in 2020 because of the book, according to The Associated Press.

Trump Tower lawsuit

Trump actually sat for a four-hour deposition on this one in October.

Six protesters are suing Trump, accusing his security guards of assaulting them outside Trump Tower during a 2015 protest.

Trump called the lawsuit pending in New York State Court “ridiculous” after his deposition.

Doe v. Trump Organization

A class-action lawsuit first filed in 2018 alleges the Trump Organization used their business to scam investors into supporting false or worthless business opportunities.

The case is taking place in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.

Tenants suing Trump for hiking prices

In a lawsuit filed in the New York Supreme Court, tenants who lived in a building once owned by Trump’s father say the Trump family hiked rents by inflating prices for appliances.

The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in March.

Jesus Christ. Don't let this become a TC type landreth cut and paste spam thread.

^ I read them.....and I imagine things will heat up here starting Thursday.

Originally Posted by Cujo

Jesus Christ. Don't let this become a TC type landreth cut and paste spam thread.

I think you'll find there are worse cut and paste merchants on here.

The witless wanketeers for a start.

• Judge orders Trump attorney to turn over documents to Jan. 6 panel

A federal judge ordered former President Trump’s legal adviser, John Eastman, to turn over another batch of 159 documents subpoenaed by the House Jan. 6 select committee, including a single email he found to likely be part of a criminal effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The late Tuesday ruling adds to a decision earlier this year finding that Eastman, who crafted two memos outlining the Trump campaign strategy to block the Jan. 6, 2021, Electoral College certification, cannot shield some of his work from the committee by claiming attorney-client privilege because he participated in a project to undermine the election that was likely criminal.

Judge David Carter, a California-based federal judge who has been reviewing Eastman’s correspondence, found that Trump and his team may have engaged in criminal activity in early December 2020, writing that his emails “confirm that the plan was established well before January 6, 2021.”

“Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan to stop the count was not only established by early December, it was the ultimate goal that the legal team was working to protect from that point forward,” Carter wrote.

The judge gave Eastman until 5 p.m. Wednesday to turn over the latest batch of records.

Eastman detailed two strategies for the Trump campaign: one encouraging former Vice President Mike Pence’s availability to buck his ceremonial duty to certify the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, and the other advising sending “alternate electors” from states that Trump had lost.

In a March ruling, Carter wrote that “the illegality of the plan was obvious” and deemed it “a coup in search of a legal theory.”

Eastman’s actions, Carter found Tuesday, implicates the crime-fraud exception, a loophole in the otherwise broad attorney-client privilege that forfeits the protection from disclosure if an attorney “more likely than not” aided in a criminal or fraudulent enterprise.

Carter wrote that five of Eastman’s documents detail a discussion among Trump’s broader legal team about whether to bring a case that would raise questions about Pence’s availability on Jan. 6, 2021, to reject the election results.

According to the ruling, an attorney involved in the effort wrote in a Dec. 22, 2020, email that a negative ruling would “tank the January 6 strategy.” Carter wrote that the concern over “near-zero chance of success” in court appeared to drive them to pursue a political strategy.

“This email cemented the direction of the January 6 plan,” Carter wrote.

“The Trump legal team chose not to seek recourse in court—instead, they forged ahead with a political campaign to disrupt the electoral count. Lawyers are free not to bring cases; they are not free to evade judicial review to overturn a democratic election,” he determined.

The ruling also rejects certain documents Eastman was hoping to shield through First Amendment claims, including emails related to meetings on Dec. 9 and 16, 2020, to discuss the campaign’s “ground game.”

Some of those emails include correspondence with a “high-profile leader” to discuss “state legislative actions that can reverse the media-called election for Joe Biden.”

Both meetings were with what Eastman described as “civic minded citizens of a conservative viewpoint.” The Dec. 9 meeting included comments from an unidentified sitting lawmaker to discuss a “plan to challenge the electors in the House of Representatives,” while the Dec. 16 meeting included “an elector for President Trump” who would discuss the Electoral College.

Carter determined that withholding these documents from the panel “incorrectly limits the Select Committee’s mandate.”

“Dr. Eastman admitted that his January 6 plan hinged on ‘electors get[ting] a certification from their State Legislators’—without it, the dueling slates would be ‘dead on arrival in Congress,’” Carter wrote.

“Dr. Eastman’s actions in these few weeks indicate that his and President Trump’s pressure campaign to stop the electoral count did not end with Vice President Pence—it targeted every tier of federal and state elected officials. Convincing state legislatures to certify competing electors was essential to stop the count and ensure President Trump’s reelection.”

The decision is the second ordering Eastman to turn over documents to the committee after he tried to shield some 37,000 documents from the panel. Carter previously ordered the attorney to review at least 1,000 of his emails every day.

Carter’s March ruling was widely quoted in a business meeting by the panel that month as it sought to censure two former advisers to Trump that refused to comply with their subpoenas.

The latest ruling comes ahead of the select committee’s primetime public hearing on Thursday evening. Carter’s findings that Trump’s effort was likely criminal has no direct impact on whether he or Eastman will face prosecution, but the rulings have provided momentum for lawmakers eager to lay out their case to the public.

________________

• Trump, two adult children scheduled to testify July 15 in New York AG investigation

Former President Trump and two of his adult children are scheduled to sit for depositions on July 15 in a probe by the attorney general of New York into Trump’s business dealings, according to a court filing Wednesday.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and lawyers for the former president, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump reached an agreement that will give former President Trump time to appeal if he wishes. The Trumps have until Monday to ask the state’s Court of Appeals to hear the case.

James has been investigating whether former President Trump inflated the Trump Organization’s property values for investors and then deflated them in federal tax documents. She has been pushing him to turn over documents and sit for a deposition for months, but he has has appealed her efforts in court. She first requested that he testify in the civil investigation in December.

Trump lawyer Alina Habba did not immediately return a request from The Hill for comment.

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit that former President Trump filed to block James’s investigation late last month. Trump had argued that James’s probe is politically motivated, but U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes rejected the argument.

Habba said at the time she would appeal Sannes’s ruling.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is conducting a similar criminal case looking into possible financial crimes by the Trump Organization.

Thanks SL!

^maybe this will be his downfall.......

Ex-Watergate prosecutor: Trump has "zero" defense in Georgia probe

Former President Trump's taped phone call pressing Georgia's Republican secretary of state in January 2021 to "find 11,780 votes" should be "enough" to indict him, a former Watergate prosecutor told MSNBC on Sunday.

Why it matters: Officials in Georgia are investigating allegations that Trump attempted to interfere with the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

• While Trump has dismissed both the Fulton County investigation and the Jan. 6 committee hearings as "witch-hunts," former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told MSNBC's "The Katie Phang Show" that of all the cases against Trump it's the Georgia one that could "send Donald Trump to prison."

Between the lines: Trump's "only defense" of his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was "to somehow pick up on some ambiguity in the tape, that he did not really mean what he said," Akerman told host Katie Phang.

Yes, but: "Once you look at what he said, trying to get Brad Raffensperger to come up with extra votes to make him a winner in Georgia, and put in the context about the January 6th committee has found, I think they have gotten a case beyond a reasonable doubt," Akerman said

The bottom line: "What is significant with those tapes is that when you put it in context of all of the evidence that the January 6 committee has uncovered — you put that together, Donald Trump has zero defense in Georgia," Akerman said.

The other side: Trump, who's attacked Raffensperger since leaving office over his conduct on voter integrity, said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday: "My phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State, with many other people, including numerous lawyers, knowingly on the line, was absolutely PERFECT and appropriate."

My repub friends on FB are frothing in trump's defense. Some people just can't see what's in front of them.

Brian Kemp subpoenaed to testify in Fulton County Trump investigation

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) will submit a sworn recorded statement to the Fulton County district attorney's office next month for an investigation into former President Trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Why it matters: Kemp is the highest profile Georgia official to be subpoenaed to testify before the district attorney's special grand jury focused on the case. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr have already appeared.

Driving the news: Fulton County special prosecutor Nathan Wade wrote that the office has agreed to accept recorded testimony on July 25 "to accommodate the Governor and his schedule," per a document obtained by Axios and first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

• The office is requesting access to a long list of documentation, including call logs, emails and correspondence with the former president or his allies, as well as any information that "explains what former President Trump was thinking or doing or those working on his behalf."

Catch up quick: Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating possible criminal charges to Trump and his allies over allegations that he tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election for nearly a year and a half.

The big picture: After refusing Trump's pressure to call a special legislative session regarding the election, Kemp became one of the former president's top political targets.

• Trump campaigned for Kemp's opponent, former Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.), but Kemp defeated his challenger with more than 70% of the vote in a May primary.
• Kemp's spokesperson declined to comment on the case beyond confirming receipt of the subpoena.

In the end nothing will come of it because the Democrats are pussies.

Originally Posted by Cujo

In the end nothing will come of it because the Democrats are pussies.

They're fucked anyway whether they prosecute baldy orange cunto or not.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

They're fucked anyway whether they prosecute baldy orange cunto or not.

I'm going to guess, oddly enough, the DOJ or Georgia people care about politics but more about justice, because justice matters.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

he'll be riling the base will claims of a political witchhunt.

Which he's doing now.....only the Jan 6th hearing are seeming to be effective in communicating how he fucked over his base by getting them to donate after he lost the election to all but those who are too brainwashed in to believing his gospel.

Originally Posted by Topper

to all but those who are too brainwashed in to believing his gospel.

Unfortunately that's still a large damn number.


Additionally the smart Republicans that don't necessarily believe his gospel are happy to continue selling their souls and will still support him knowing he has numbers.

And the circle continues.

Originally Posted by Topper

Which he's doing now.....only the Jan 6th hearing are seeming to be effective in communicating how he fucked over his base by getting them to donate after he lost the election to all but those who are too brainwashed in to believing his gospel.

OK so I'll start again and you can tell me if you agree or not:

They're fucked anyway whether they prosecute baldy orange cunto or not.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

OK so I'll start again and you can tell me if you agree or not:

I'm guessing things will be changing, starting in a few months. The democrats were simply unable to seize the moment.

^it's already started.

That trump support is waning.

It would be nice to see a mugshot of the loser around mid-October.

Originally Posted by Topper

I'm guessing things will be changing, starting in a few months. The democrats were simply unable to seize the moment.

My prediction: They are going to get fucked hard. They are stupidly divided.

Georgia officials must testify in Trump investigation, judge rules

A Georgia judge ruled that Republican lawmakers including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and state Sen. William Ligon must testify before a panel focused on the Atlanta investigation of former President Trump.

• But, the judge set parameters regarding what questions they can be asked.

Why it matters: This sets a precedent for any other lawmakers trying to fight subpoenas from the Fulton County DA's special grand jury focused on the broad-reaching investigation into former president Trump and his allies' efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The big picture: U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has said he plans to fight his own subpoena by the Fulton DA's investigation, but that legal challenge would take place out of Georgia.

Driving the news: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Wednesday that the lawmakers must testify, but they are entitled to constitutionally protected "legislative immunity" during that testimony.

• The witnesses, he ruled, may not be asked about anything said while participating in a session of the legislature, including any subcommittee, nor any communications they've had with other legislators or staff about any session.

Catch up quick: Ligon, a Republican from coastal Georgia, chaired several "Election Law Study" state Senate judiciary subcommittees in which Trump's one-time lawyer Rudy Giuliani, among others, testified about false allegations of voter fraud.

• Ligon issued a "chairman's report" after the meeting that called the November election "chaotic" and said "any reported results must be viewed as untrustworthy" and repeated other false allegations of voter fraud.

Yes, but: McBurney explicitly stated that asking about any communication between a lawmaker or staffer with any private citizen, including lobbyists, are within the bounds of the law.

• Five things to know about the Georgia probe into Trump and his allies

The criminal probe into former President Trump and his allies in Georgia took a striking turn this week, with subpoenas being issued to several high-profile figures.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and conservative lawyers John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Cleta Mitchell are among those subpoenaed.

The headline-making move puts new focus on a criminal investigation that has got less attention than the work of the House Select Committee on Jan. 6.

But some experts believe it could end up being just as important.

Here are some of the most salient points about the Georgia probe.

What’s it all about?

The probe, at its core, is about whether laws were broken by Trump and his team in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.

Georgia was among the closest of the battleground states in the election, with President Biden eking out a victory by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point.

The post-election efforts by Team Trump to change that result have been particularly vivid — mostly thanks to a phone call the then-president made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021.

In the call, which was taped, Trump pressed Raffensperger to “find” the number of votes required to overturn Biden’s margin of victory.

Raffensperger resisted Trump’s efforts and has rebutted his false claims of election fraud.

At a public hearing of the Jan. 6 committee on June 21, Raffensperger insisted, “The numbers are the numbers, and numbers don’t lie.”

There were other efforts by Trump’s team in Georgia as well, including a state Senate hearing at which Giuliani made claims of fraud that have been debunked; and a letter that a Trump ally in the Department of Justice wanted to send to Georgia lawmakers.

The proposed letter was so aberrational that even then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone reportedly described it as “a murder-suicide pact.”

Authorities in Georgia, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, have been investigating these actions, among others.

Willis’s office, as The New York Times has noted, has previously said it is investigating whether any of these acts rise to the level of “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”

A grand jury began sitting in May.

Those proceedings are continuing, hence this week’s subpoenas.

Some experts believe the Georgia probe poses the greatest threat to Trump

The Georgia probe could in the end be the most dangerous legal arrow aimed at Trump.

One reason is the recorded phone call with Raffensperger.

In addition to the ominous request to “find” votes, the then-president also implied, in vague terms, that Raffensperger was complicit in election fraud or was willfully ignoring it. This, Trump warned Raffensperger, was “a criminal offense.”

Raffensperger has said he viewed Trump’s words as a threat.

Last month, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman told MSNBC’s Katie Phang, “Donald Trump has zero defense in Georgia. If I had to put my money on one prosecution that’s going to go forward here that will send Donald Trump to jail — it’s Georgia.”

Of course, Trump and his supporters see things completely differently.

“I did NOTHING wrong in Georgia, but others did,” the former president wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, apparently responding to news of the subpoenas. “They CHEATED in the 2020 election and those are the ones that should be investigated (and prosecuted).”

The DA seems to like her chances

Willis, the district attorney leading the probe, is exuding confidence so far.

In an interview with Yahoo News last month, she spoke about her willingness to enforce subpoenas even on recalcitrant, high-profile witnesses.

“I’ve had a witness arrested before because they ignore my subpoena. And you do not expect to have to do it. But I will,” she said.

In the same interview, Willis said she feels “great” about the make-up of the grand jury and underlined the importance of maintaining the integrity of elections — something she traced back to lessons learned from her father, a onetime Black Panther who became a lawyer.

She recalled being “dragged to the polls” as a young girl and added: “So you understand very, very early on, voting is such an intrinsic right … And so I understand how important the infraction on someone’s right to vote is. So I do get the significance.”

In a separate interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Willis promised that she will be guided only by whether the facts would support criminal prosecution.

“If we can do that, I’m going to bring an indictment — I don’t care who it is,” she said.

But if it’s Trump, any trial will be a sensation.

Some key figures have already testified

The Georgia grand jury has already heard testimony from other key witnesses.

Raffensperger appeared before it in private in early June — before he testified to the House Select Committee in public.

According to The Associated Press, Raffensperger told one reporter on his way into the Georgia proceedings that his testimony would be “hopefully short” — but ended up staying for more than five hours.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) has been subpoenaed and is expected to testify before the grand jury later this month.

Kemp, like Raffensperger, resisted Trump’s pressure to overturn the elections. Trump then backed challengers to both men in Republican primaries this year. In the end, Raffensperger and Kemp both survived, dealing Trump his most notable defeats of this year’s election season to date.

CNN reported in May that “several individuals” who were willing to serve, on specious grounds, as pro-Trump electors in Georgia have also been interviewed. The CNN report said these people had been told they were “considered witnesses, rather than subjects or targets” — suggesting that Willis might be more interested in what they can reveal than in charging them.

A decision on charges could come soon — or not

Willis, despite her expressions of confidence, has shifted around when it comes to predicting a timetable for when the grand jury might finish its work.

In January, she told The Associated Press she expected a decision on whether to bring charges “in the first half of the year.”

But in an NBC News interview this week, Willis said she was “not in a rush” to finish. She also said that, if a decision had not been reached before early voting in the midterm elections begins, she would halt activities until after the election.

The grand jury, empaneled in May, can sit for up to a year. But a decision on whether to charge, or not, can come at any time.

___________

• Atlanta newspaper subpoenaed in probe of Trump’s election meddling

An Atlanta newspaper has been issued a subpoena by the special grand jury investigating possible criminal activity of former President Trump and his allies following the 2020 election.

The Fulton County grand jury is looking to obtain the full audio recording of a leaked Jan. 11, 2021, conference call involving former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia Bobby Christine, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The AJC reported on the call in question at the time.

That Journal report outlined how Christine had told others in his office on the call that he had dismissed two cases of alleged voter fraud in the state based on a lack of evidence.

“In my opinion, there is no there, there,” Christine said on the call, the newspaper reported.

On Tuesday, the same grand jury issued subpoenas to several members of Trump’s inner circle around the time of the election, including Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and conservative lawyer John Eastman.

The subpoenas stem from an ongoing investigation from current Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is looking to ascertain whether Trump and his allies tired to unlawfully influence the 2020 election.

Trump and his allies have long baselessly suggested widespread voter fraud, including in Fulton County, Georgia, led to a “rigged” presidential election against him.