Tag Archives: Merrick Garland

US

Biden on classified docs discovery: ‘There’s no there there’

Leave a comment

APTOS, Calif. (AP) — A frustrated President Joe Biden said Thursday there is “no there there” when he was persistently questioned about the discovery of classified documents and official records at his home and former office.

“We found a handful of documents were filed in the wrong place,” Biden said to reporters who questioned him during a tour of the damage from storms in California. “We immediately turned them over to the Archives and the Justice Department.”

Biden said he was “fully cooperating and looking forward to getting this resolved quickly.”

“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there,” he said. “There’s no there there.”

The White House has disclosed that Biden attorneys found classified documents and official records on four occasions in recent months — on Nov. 2 at the offices of the Penn Biden Center in Washington, and then in follow up searches on Dec. 20 in the garage of the president’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and on Jan. 11 and 12 in the president’s home library.

The discovery complicates a federal probe into former President Donald Trump, who the Justice Department says took hundreds of records marked classified with him upon leaving the White House in early 2021 and resisted months of requests to return them to the government.

The two cases are different — Biden for example, willingly turned over the documents once found. But the issue is wearing on the president and his aides, who have repeatedly said they acted swiftly and appropriately when the documents were discovered, and are working to be as transparent as possible though key questions remain unanswered.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week appointed Robert Hur, a former Maryland U.S. attorney, to serve as special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s inquiry into the documents. Garland said the extraordinary circumstances warranted a special counsel, and he also made the decision in part to show the Justice Department’s “commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters.”

Hur is taking over for federal prosecutor John Lausch, who was initially asked to review the documents and whose team has already been interviewing former Biden aides responsible for packing up boxes during his time as vice president. Those interviews include Kathy Chung, who served as an administrative assistant during that time, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Biden expressed frustration that the documents matter was coming up as he surveyed coastal storm damage, telling reporters that it “bugs me” that he was being asked about the handling of the classified material even as “we have a serious problem here” in California.

“Why you don’t ask me questions about that?” he pressed.

Biden’s team has faced criticism for its fragmented disclosures — the public wasn’t notified of the documents until early January and after that the additional findings dripped out slowly. It has occasionally led to heated exchanges between reporters and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in the White House briefing room. She ran into trouble when she suggested last Friday that all documents had been recovered, only to have an additional discovery disclosed over the weekend.

Biden said Thursday he has “no regrets” over how and when the public learned about the documents.

“I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do,” he said.

___

Long reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Read original article here

US

Garland appoints special counsel to investigate Biden docs

Leave a comment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate the presence of classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at an unsecured office in Washington dating from his time as vice president.

Robert Hur, a onetime U.S. attorney appointed by former President Donald Trump, will lead the investigation and plans to begin his work soon. His appointment marks the second time in a few months that Garland has appointed a special counsel, an extraordinary fact that reflects the Justice Department’s efforts to independently conduct high-profile probes in an exceedingly heated political environment.

Both of those investigations, the earlier one involving Trump and documents recovered from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, relate to the handling of classified information, though there are notable differences between those cases.

Garland’s decision caps a tumultuous week at the White House, where Biden and his team opened the year hoping to celebrate stronger economic news ahead of launching an expected reelection campaign. But the administration faced a new challenge Monday, when it acknowledged that sensitive documents were found at the office of Biden’s former institute in Washington. The situation intensified by Thursday morning, when Biden’s attorney said an additional classified document was found at a room in his Wilmington home — later revealed by Biden to be his personal library — along with other classified documents in his garage.

The attorney general revealed that Biden’s lawyers informed the Justice Department of the latest discovery at the president’s home on Thursday morning, after FBI agents first retrieved documents from the garage in December.

Biden told reporters at the White House that he was “cooperating fully and completely” with the Justice Department’s investigation into how classified information and government records were stored.

“We have cooperated closely with the Justice Department throughout its review, and we will continue that cooperation with the special counsel,” said Richard Sauber, a lawyer for the president. “We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”

Garland said the “extraordinary circumstances” of the matter required Hur’s appointment, adding that the special counsel is authorized to investigate whether any person or entity violated the law. Federal law requires strict handling procedures for classified information, and official records from Biden’s time as vice president are considered government property under the Presidential Records Act.

“This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters, and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law,” Garland said.

Hur, in a statement, said: “I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial and dispassionate judgment. I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service.”

While Garland said the Justice Department received timely notifications from Biden’s personal attorneys after each set of classified documents was identified, the White House provided delayed and incomplete notification to the American public about the discoveries.

Biden’s personal attorneys found the first set of classified and official documents on Nov. 2 in a locked closet as they cleared out his office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, where he worked after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until he launched his presidential campaign in 2019. The attorneys notified the National Archives, which retrieved the documents the next day and referred the matter to the Justice Department.

Sauber said Biden’s attorneys then underwent a search of other locations where documents could have been transferred after Biden left the vice presidency, including his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Garland said that on Dec. 20, the Justice Department was informed that classified documents and official records were located in Biden’s Wilmington garage, near his Corvette, and that FBI agents took custody of them shortly thereafter.

A search on Wednesday evening turned up the most recently discovered classified document in Biden’s personal library at his home, and the Justice Department was notified Thursday, Garland revealed.

The White House only confirmed the discovery of the Penn Biden Center documents in response to news inquiries Monday and remained silent on the subsequent search of Biden’s homes and the discovery of the garage tranche until Thursday morning, shortly before Garland announced Hur’s appointment. Biden, when he first addressed the matter Tuesday while in Mexico City, also didn’t let on about the subsequent document discoveries.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that despite the public omissions, Biden’s administration was handling the matter correctly.

“There was transparency in doing what you’re supposed to do,” she said, declining to answer repeated questions about when Biden was briefed on the discovery of the documents and whether he would submit to an interview with investigators.

Pressed on whether Biden could guarantee that additional classified documents would not turn up in a further search, Jean-Pierre said, “You should assume that it’s been completed, yes.”

The appointment of yet another special counsel to investigate the handling of classified documents is a remarkable turn of events, legally and politically, for a Justice Department that has spent months looking into the retention by Trump of more than 300 documents with classification markings found at the former president’s Florida estate.

Though the situations are factually and legally different, the discovery of classified documents at two separate locations tied to Biden — as well as the appointment of a new special counsel — would almost certainly complicate any prosecution that the department might bring against Trump.

New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, said of the latest news, “I think Congress has to investigate this.”

“Here’s an individual that sat on ‘60 Minutes’ that was so concerned about President Trump’s documents … and now we find that this is a vice president keeping it for years out in the open in different locations.”

Contradicting several fellow Republicans, however, he said, “We don’t think there needs to be a special prosecutor.”

The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee has requested that intelligence agencies conduct a “damage assessment” of potentially classified documents. Ohio Rep. Mike Turner on Thursday also requested briefings from Garland and the director of national intelligence, Avril Haines, on their reviews by Jan. 26.

“The presence of classified information at these separate locations could implicate the President in the mishandling, potential misuse, and exposure of classified information,” Turner wrote the officials.

___

Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Read original article here

US

Former US attorney named special counsel in Biden document probe

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to take over the investigation into the Obama-era classified documents found at President Joe Biden’s home and former private office.

The special counsel is Robert Hur, who was nominated to be US attorney in Maryland by then-President Donald Trump in 2017 and he served in the role until his resignation in 2021. He had most recently been working in private practice in Washington, DC.

“I strongly believe that the normal processes of this department can handle all investigations with integrity. But under the regulations, the extraordinary circumstances here require the appointment of a special counsel for this matter,” Garland said. “This appointment underscores for the public the department’s commitment to independence and accountability, and particularly sensitive matters and to making decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”

He said that Hur will receive “all the resources he needs to conduct his work.”

“I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment. I intend to follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service,” Hur said in a statement.

The appointment is a major moment for Biden and marks a unique moment in American history with special counsels investigating the current president and his immediate predecessor at the same time. Garland in November appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

The special counsel investigation, along with the aggressive new Republican-led House of Representatives, means Biden may be on the defensive for the next two years.

The appointment comes hours after the White House counsel’s office said in a statement that Biden’s aides located documents with classified markings at two locations inside his home in Wilmington, Delaware. The documents were located in a storage area in Biden’s garage and an adjacent room, the statement reads. Biden frequently spends weekends at the home, located in a wealthy, wooded enclave on a lake.

Speaking Thursday, Biden said the documents were in a “locked garage” and that he was cooperating fully with the Department of Justice.

“It’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” he insisted when a reported asked why he was storing classified material next to a sports car.

The president said he was going “to get a chance to speak on all of this, God willing, soon.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the White House was not given a heads up about Hur’s appointment. However, she could not say exactly when Biden found out the special counsel was appointed, given that he was attending a funeral for former Defense Secretary Ash Carter when the news broke.

“Maybe one of his senior advisers may have told him. I actually don’t know specifically when he knew, but what I can say to you – he was – we were not given a heads up. That I can confirm,” she told reporters during a briefing Thursday afternoon.

The special counsel announcement significantly escalates the existing inquiry, which started as a preliminary review handled by the US attorney in Chicago. This also increases the potential legal exposure for Biden, his aides and lawyers who handled sensitive government materials from his time as vice president. By bringing on a special counsel, Garland is insulating himself from the politically sensitive case, though he’ll still get the final say on whether to bring any charges. When that decision comes, no matter the outcome, it will surely become a major flashpoint in the 2024 presidential race.

The development also further puts the Justice Department and FBI where they don’t want to be – right in the middle of a presidential election for the third straight cycle. Since 2015, there have been near-constant FBI probes into presidents and major candidates: Hillary Clinton’s emails; Trump’s ties to Russia; his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his hoarding of classified materials; and now Biden’s handling of classified files.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to Biden, said in a statement: “We are confident that a thorough review will show that these documents were inadvertently misplaced, and the president and his lawyers acted promptly upon discovery of this mistake.”

During his news conference, Garland laid out a timeline of events in the case.

The National Archives informed a DOJ prosecutor on November 4 that the White House had made the Archives aware of documents with classified markings that had been found at Biden’s think tank, which was not authorized to store classified materials, Garland said Thursday.

The Archives told the prosecutor that the documents has been secured in an Archives facility. The FBI opened an initial assessment five days later, and on November 14, US Attorney John Lausch was tasked with leading that preliminary inquiry. The next month, on December 20, White House counsel informed Lausch of the second batch of apparently classified documents found at Biden’s Wilmington home, according to Garland’s account. On Thursday morning, a personal attorney for Biden called Lausch and informed him that an additional document marked as classified had been found at Biden’s home.

The additional documents were located following a search of the president’s homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. No classified documents were located in the Rehoboth property, the statement said. The documents were found “among personal and political papers.” Lawyers for Biden concluded their review of the Delaware homes on Wednesday evening.

But key questions remain unanswered about the stash of classified material, including who brought them to Biden’s private homes and what specifically was contained in them.

Garland decided to appoint a special counsel soon after receiving the recommendation last week from US Attorney John Lausch that one was warranted – and before Garland traveled to Mexico with Biden Sunday night, sources told CNN. Lausch led the preliminary inquiry, and Justice Department officials said Garland based his decision on the facts that investigators had presented him.

But one Justice official said the White House’s public statements earlier this week, offering an incomplete narrative about the classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president, reinforced the need for a special counsel. The misleading statements created the impression that Biden’s team had something to hide, the official said.

Several people associated with Biden have been interviewed as part of the Justice Department investigation into the discovery of classified documents from his time as vice president, according to two people briefed on the matter.

The group includes former aides from Biden’s time as vice president who may have been involved in packing and closing out his records and personal items and extends to some individuals who may have had knowledge how the documents discovered on November 2 ended up inside Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Engagement, the people said.

The names of those interviewed remain unclear. It is possible more interviews may be conducted going forward, one of the people said, though it remains a fluid process.

The Biden issue burst into public view in January, when news reports revealed that a Biden lawyer had discovered 10 classified documents while cleaning out one of Biden’s private offices in Washington, DC. The discovery occurred in November, days before the midterm elections, but Biden’s team kept the matter under wraps and didn’t publicly acknowledge anything until it came out in the press.

CNN reported Wednesday that Biden’s legal team had found another batch of classified documents in a search that began after classified documents were found at his former think tank office in Washington in early November.

The discovery set off alarm bells inside the White House, where only a small circle of advisers and lawyers were aware of the matter. An effort was launched to search other locations where documents from Biden’s time as vice president may have been stored.

CNN previously reported that the initial batch discovered when Biden’s personal attorneys were packing files at his former private office contained 10 classified documents, including US intelligence materials and briefing memos about Ukraine, Iran and the United Kingdom.

Some of the classified documents were “top secret,” the highest level. They were found in three or four boxes that also contained unclassified papers that fall under the Presidential Records Act, CNN has reported.

Classified records are supposed to be stored in secure locations. And under the Presidential Records Act, White House records are supposed to go to the National Archives when an administration ends.

Jean-Pierre has refused to answer a number questions about the documents, citing the Justice Department’s ongoing review of the matter. She has not been able to say who brought the documents into the office.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.



Read original article here

US

DOJ announces special counsel for Trump-related Mar-a-Lago and January 6 criminal investigations

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Both investigations implicate the conduct of Trump, who on Tuesday declared his candidacy in the 2024 presidential race, making him a potential rival of President Joe Biden.

“Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said at the Justice Department on Friday.

Jack Smith, the former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, where he investigated war crimes in Kosovo, will oversee the investigations.

Smith “has built the reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor,” Garland said.

Trump has sought to paint the investigations as politically motivated, including at his Tuesday presidential announcement, where he said he was the victim of a “weaponization” of the justice system.

Speaking at the America First gala at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night, the former president called the special counsel appointment an “appalling announcement” and a “horrendous abuse of power.”

The Mar-a-Lago probe burst into public view when the FBI executed a search warrant on Trump’s Florida resort in August. Trump went to court to secure an order requiring that a third attorney review the materials seized in the search. Documents marked as classified were excluded from that review by an appellate court, allowing for their use in the criminal probe. Investigators have also brought witnesses before a federal grand jury that has been empaneled in DC in the probe.

The prosecutions of those who physically breached the US Capitol have been the most public aspect of the Justice Department’s January 6 probe, and those will remain under the purview of the US Attorney’s office in Washington, DC. But behind the scenes, prosecutors have subpoenaed scores of witnesses close to the former president for documents and testimony in the probe.

“I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice,” Smith said in a statement Friday. “The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”

According to multiple sources, both the Mar-a-Lago investigation and the January 6 investigation around Trump are aiming to gather more information and bring witnesses into a federal grand jury in the coming weeks. Prosecutors sent out several new subpoenas related to both investigations in recent days, with quick return dates as early as next week.

Some of the witnesses being pursued in this round had not spoken to the investigators in these cases before, according to some of the sources.

Many in Trump’s orbit had believed and hoped that the investigation had slowed or even halted, as they hadn’t heard from the Justice Department for weeks after meeting their subpoena document deadlines, multiple sources said.

Some of the subpoenas issued in the probe have indicated a wide-ranging investigation that touches on nearly all aspects of the efforts to overturn Biden’s electoral victory. They signaled that investigators are interested in the plot to put forward fraudulent electors in states Biden won, the work Trump allies did to push baseless election fraud claims and how money flowed to support those various efforts.

Trump’s team had been discussing in recent days the likelihood that the Justice Department would appoint a special counsel, multiple sources familiar with the talks told CNN.

Trump’s lawyers had been dreading the prospect, concerned it could drag out the investigation they have fought continuously in court. And Trump himself has complained about the matter, likening the prospect to former special counsel Robert Mueller, who oversaw the Russia investigation.

The former president on Friday indicated that he had believed federal investigations into him were slowing down or over until the announcement from Garland. He repeatedly called the investigations political and said it was not a fair situation and would not be a fair investigation, telling the crowd at Mar-a-Lago, “You’d really say enough is enough.”

Justice Department officials had been debating for weeks whether to appoint a special counsel, CNN previously reported.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Read original article here

US

What it means that a special counsel is running the Trump investigations

Leave a comment



CNN
 — 

The legal jeopardy former President Donald Trump faces in two federal criminal investigations took on a new tenor Friday with the appointment of a special counsel at the Justice Department.

Jack Smith, a DOJ alum known for his work in international war crimes prosecutions, will take over the investigation into sensitive government documents taken to Trump’s Florida home at the end of his presidency.

Smith will also oversee aspects of the probe reviewing efforts to obstruct the transfer of presidential power after 2020, including bids to interfere with Congress’ certification of the vote.

Here’s what to know about the announcement and the investigations:

The attorney general unveiled the appointment of a special counsel for the investigations, which both have touched on Trump, who announced this week that he’s running for the White House in 2024.

Merrick Garland announces special counsel to oversee Trump investigations

Smith will ultimately report to Attorney General Merrick Garland. But as a special counsel he will be operating outside of the day-to-day supervision of the department’s political leadership and his interactions with Biden’s political appointees should be limited.

The independent special counsel puts some distance between the Department’s political leadership – who have been appointed by President Joe Biden – and what is happening in the Trump-related investigations. Smith is registered as an independent, a DOJ official told reporters.

“Such an appointment underscores the Department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” Garland said. “It also allows prosecutors and agents to continue their work expeditiously, and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law.”

The appointment has the practical effect of limiting information about the investigation that must be disclosed to Congress, as only details about its budget must be shared with lawmakers.

The special counsel regulations do allow for Garland to fire Smith. But any decision Garland makes to reject a request from the special counsel, including charging decisions, must also be reported to Congress.

Garland pointed specifically to the announcement by Trump earlier this week that he will seek the Republican nomination in 2024, as well as the indications that Biden has given that he also intends to run for reelection.

Department officials had been discussing appointing a special counsel in the probes implicating the former president, CNN was first to report earlier this month, as a way to shield the probes from accusations that they were being driven by politics.

Garland defended the work of DOJ officials who had been working on those investigation and said Friday that they had conducted “their work in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.” But, he said, the DOJ “has long recognized that in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution.”

The ability of an attorney general to bring in someone from outside of the federal government to lead a politically sensitive investigation is established in US law.

Legal experts in new report conclude there’s a ‘strong basis’ to charge Trump

The appointment order is the clearest sign yet that the scrutiny in the two investigations has turned to conduct linked to Trump. That isn’t to say Trump will be indicted, or that even his close aides will face charges. But it does mean there will be more opacity around that investigation and the Mar-a-Lago probe. And those investigations will be operating on a much longer leash.

So far, the prosecutions in the January 6, 2021, probe have focused on the US Capitol riot itself. But behind the scenes, there have been indications that federal investigators were looking more broadly at the other schemes to interfere with the transfer of power – including schemes involving those the former president’s inner circle.

The newly appointed special counsel has worked in law enforcement positions across America and on the world stage, with a career that Garland said showed his reputation as “an impartial and determined prosecutor.”

Smith’s most recent role was as the chief prosecutor investigating war crimes in Kosovo for a special court of The Hague.

His prior work for the Justice Department includes work as a prosecutor in Brooklyn’s US Attorney’s Office, as well as his time as the chief of the Public Integrity Section, which investigates election crimes and public corruption. He also worked as top prosecutor in the US Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Tennessee, where he was elevated to acting US attorney in early 2017. He served in that role for several months under the Trump administration.

Smith will have at his disposal all of the investigatory tools that a US attorney can use, including subpoena power. He will be given his own budget and can build out a staff to support his work. If he chooses to bring any indictments, his team could also lead those prosecutions in court. His investigatory work must comply with all Justice Department regulations, procedures and policies.

Garland said that he “will ensure that the special counsel receives the resources to conduct this work quickly and completely.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation into Trump-Russia ties ultimately cost nearly $32 million, however that total includes what Mueller borrowed from other parts of the Justice Department that weren’t under his direct control.

Trump said Friday he “won’t partake” in the investigation.

“I have been proven innocent for six years on everything – from fake impeachments to Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more?” Trump told Fox News Digital. “It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political.”

He continued, “I am not going to partake in it… I announce and then they appoint a special prosecutor.”

Garland is appointing Smith to oversee parts of the January 6 probe, but the scope of those parts is wide.

The appointment describes his authority to investigate “whether any person or entity violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021.”

The prosecutions involving those that physically breached the Capitol that day will stay under the purview of the US Attorney’s Office in DC, Garland said.

The Mueller investigation culminated in the 400-page report that was ultimately released to the public with some redactions. However, there is no obligation for a special counsel to produce a publicly releasable and comprehensive report. The regulations only require that that the special counsel provide the attorney general a “confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions reached by the special counsel.”

Garland on Friday did not respond to a reporter’s question asking about the possibility that a report would be released.

CNN legal analyst breaks down why he thinks Garland chose Smith

There is no set deadline for the special counsel to conclude his investigation. If anything, as a special counsel, Smith could be more insulated from political pressure to wrap up the probe. Critics of the current rules for special counsel complain that the regime allows for probes to drag on as they balloon in scope.

Smith, in a statement released by the Justice Department with his announcement, emphasized that he would not let his appointment slow down the speed of the investigations: “The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgment and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”

Read original article here

World

House GOP pushes Hunter Biden probe despite thin majority

Leave a comment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even with their threadbare House majority, Republicans doubled down this week on using their new power next year to investigate the Biden administration and, in particular, the president’s son.

But the midterm results have emboldened a White House that has long prepared for this moment. Republicans secured much smaller margins than anticipated, and aides to President Joe Biden and other Democrats believe voters punished the GOP for its reliance on conspiracy theories and Donald Trump-fueled lies over the 2020 election.

They see it as validation for the administration’s playbook for the midterms and going forward to focus on legislative achievements and continue them, in contrast to Trump-aligned candidates whose complaints about the president’s son played to their most loyal supporters and were too far in the weeds for the average American. The Democrats retained control of the Senate and the GOP’s margin in the House is expected to the slimmest majority in two decades.

“If you look back, we picked up seats in New York, New Jersey, California,” said Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist and public affairs executive. “These were not voters coming to the polls because they wanted Hunter Biden investigated — far from it. They were coming to the polls because they were upset about inflation. They’re upset about gas prices. They’re upset about what’s going on with the war in Ukraine.”

But House Republicans used their first news conference after clinching the majority to discuss presidential son Hunter Biden and the Justice Department, renewing long-held grievances about what they claim is a politicized law enforcement agency and a bombshell corruption case overlooked by Democrats and the media.

“From their first press conference, these congressional Republicans made clear that they’re going to do one thing in this new Congress, which is investigations, and they’re doing this for political payback for Biden’s efforts on an agenda that helps working people,” said Kyle Herrig, the founder of the Congressional Integrity Project, a newly relaunched, multimillion-dollar effort by Democratic strategists to counter the onslaught of House GOP probes.

Inside the White House, the counsel’s office added staff months ago and beefed up its communication efforts, and staff has been deep into researching and preparing for the attacks. They’ve worked to try to identify their own vulnerabilities and plan effective responses.

Rep. James Comer, incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said there are “troubling questions” of the utmost importance about Hunter Biden’s business dealings and one of the president’s brothers, James Biden, that require deeper investigation.

“Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government is the primary mission of the Oversight Committee,” said Comer, R-Ky. “As such, this investigation is a top priority.”

Republican legislators promised a trove of new information this past week, but what they have presented so far has been a condensed rehash of a few years’ worth of complaints about Hunter Biden’s business dealings, going back to conspiracy theories raised by Trump.

Hunter Biden joined the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014, around the time his father, then vice president, was helping conduct the Obama administration’s foreign policy with Ukraine. Senate Republicans have said that the appointment may have posed a conflict of interest, but they did not present evidence that the hiring influenced U.S. policies, and they did not implicate Joe Biden in any wrongdoing.

Republican lawmakers and their staff for the past year have been analyzing messages and financial transactions found on a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden. They long have discussed issuing congressional subpoenas to foreign entities that did business with him, and they recently brought on James Mandolfo, a former federal prosecutor, to assist with the investigation as general counsel for the Oversight Committee.

The difference now is that Republicans will have subpoena power to follow through, however small their majority may be.

“The Republicans are going to go ahead,” said Tom Davis, a Republican lawyer who specializes in congressional investigations and legislative strategy. “I think their members are enthusiastic about going after this stuff. Look, the 40-year trend is parties under-investigate their own and over-investigate the other party. It didn’t start here.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed the GOP focus on investigations as “on-brand” thinking.

“They said they were going to fight inflation, they said they were going to make that a priority, then they get the majority and their top priority is actually not focusing on the American family, but focusing on the president’s family,” she said.

Even some newly elected Republicans are pushing back against the idea.

“The top priority is to deal with inflation and the cost of living. … What I don’t want to see is what we saw in the Trump administration, where Democrats went after the president and the administration incessantly,” Rep.-elect Mike Lawler of New York said on CNN.

Hunter Biden’s taxes and foreign business work are already under federal investigation, with a grand jury in Delaware hearing testimony in recent months.

While he never held a position on the presidential campaign or in the White House, his membership on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and his efforts to strike deals in China have long raised questions about whether he traded on his father’s public service, including reported references in his emails to the “big guy.”

Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business, and nothing the Republicans have put forth suggests otherwise. And there are no indications that the federal investigation involves the president.

Trump and his supporters, meanwhile, have advanced a widely discredited theory that Biden pushed for the firing of Ukraine’s top prosecutor to protect his son and Burisma from investigation. Biden did indeed press for the prosecutor’s firing, but that was a reflection of the official position of not only the Obama administration but many Western countries and because the prosecutor was perceived as soft on corruption.

House Republicans also have signaled upcoming investigations into immigration, government spending and parents’ rights. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray have been put on notice as potential witnesses.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, incoming Judiciary chairman, has long complained of what he says is a politicized Justice Department and the ongoing probes into Trump.

On Friday, Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.

Trump, in a speech Friday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate, slammed the development as “the latest in a long series of witch hunts.”

Of Joe and Hunter Biden, he asked, “Where’s their special prosecutor?”

Matt Mackowiak, a Republican political strategist, said it’s one thing if the investigations into Hunter Biden stick to corruption questions, but if it veers into the kind of mean-spirited messaging that has been floating around in far-right circles, “I don’t know that the public will have much patience for that.”

Read original article here

US

Trump 2024 rivals court his donors at big Las Vegas meeting

Leave a comment

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Republican Party’s nascent 2024 class, emboldened as ever, openly cast Donald Trump as “a loser” over and over on Friday as they courted donors and activists fretting about the GOP’s future under the former president’s leadership.

Trump’s vocal critics included current and former Republican governors, members of his own Cabinet and major donors who gathered along the Las Vegas strip for what organizers described as the unofficial beginning of the next presidential primary season. It was a remarkable display of defiance for a party defined almost wholly by its allegiance to Trump for the past six years.

“Maybe there’s a little blood in the water and the sharks are circling,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican presidential prospect himself and frequent Trump critic said in an interview. “I don’t think we’ve ever gotten to this point before.”

The gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting, which began Friday, comes just days after Trump became the first candidate to formally launch a 2024 campaign. His allies hoped his early announcement might ward off serious primary challenges, but several potential candidates said that’s not likely after Trump loyalists lost midterm contests last week in battleground states from Arizona to Pennsylvania. His political standing within the GOP, already weakening, plummeted further.

Ahead of his Friday night address, Mike Pompeo, the former Secretary of State under Trump, mocked one of his former boss’ slogans: “We were told we’d get tired of winning. But I’m tired of losing.”

“Personality, celebrity just aren’t going to get it done,” he said later from the ballroom stage.

Trump is scheduled to address the weekend gathering by video conference on Saturday. The vast majority of the high-profile Republican officials considering a 2024 White House bid appeared in person the two-day conference, which included a series of private donor meetings and public speeches.

The program featured DeSantis, a leading Trump rival, and Pence, whom Trump blames for not overturning the 2020 election. Other speakers included Hogan, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Florida Sen. Rick Scott.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another potential 2024 contender, canceled his appearance after a Sunday shooting at the University of Virginia that left three dead.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, who could become the House speaker when Republicans take over in January, is also scheduled.

There seemed to be little sympathy for Trump’s latest legal challenges.

Hours before Friday’s opening dinner, Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to oversee the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.

Sununu, the New Hampshire governor who easily won reelection last week, said there was no sign that his party would rally to Trump’s defense this time.

“Those are his issues to sort out,” Sununu said. “Everyone’s gonna sit back and watch the show. And that’s not just his supporters — that’s his money, that’s donors, that’s fundraisers,” said the Republican governor, who easily won reelection last week. “We’re just moving on.”

With a loyal base of support among rank-and-file voters and a sprawling fundraising operation featuring small-dollar contributions, Trump does not need major donors or party leaders to reach for the GOP nomination a third time. But unwillingness by big-money Republicans to commit to him — at least, for now — could make his path back to the White House more difficult.

There was little sign of enthusiasm for Trump’s 2024 presidential aspirations in the hallways and conference rooms of the weekend gathering. At Friday night’s dinner, organizers offered attendees yarmulkes bearing Trump’s name, but there were few takers.

That’s even as Jewish Republicans continued to heap praise on Trump’s commitment to Israel while in the White House.

“There’s no question that what President Trump accomplished over his four years in terms of strengthening the the U.S.-Israel relationship was unparalleled. He was the most pro-Israel president ever,” said Matt Brooks, the Republican Jewish Coalition’s executive director.

But that may not be enough to win over the coalition’s leading donors this time.

“For a lot of people who are attending this conference, this is about the future,” Brooks said. “And for some of them, President Trump may be their answer. For others, they’re interested in what others have to say.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie leaned into Trump’s political failures during a private dinner with the group’s leading donors on Thursday. In a subsequent interview, he did not back down.

“In my view, he’s now a loser. He’s an electoral loser,” said Christie, another 2024 prospect. “You look at a general electorate, I don’t think there’s a Democrat he can beat because he’s now toxic to suburban voters on a personal level, and he’s earned it.”

The annual event is playing out at the Las Vegas Strip’s Venetian Hotel in a nod to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s longtime benefactor, Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate who died last year. His wife Miriam Adelson remains a fundraising force within the GOP, though her level of giving in the recent midterm election, which exceeded $20 million, was somewhat scaled back.

The 76-year-old Israeli-born Miriam Adelson “is staying neutral” in the GOP’s 2024 presidential primary, according to the family’s longtime political gatekeeper Andy Abboud.

She is not alone.

Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress and heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetics fortune, backed Trump’s previous campaigns but has no plans to support him in 2024, according to a Lauder spokesman.

Longtime Trump backer Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman and CEO of the Blackstone Group investment firm, told Axios this week that he would back someone from a “new generation” of Republicans. Kenneth C. Griffin, the hedge-fund billionaire, is already openly backing DeSantis.

On Friday, aerospace CEO Phillip Friedman described himself as a “big Trump supporter,” but said he’s open to listening to others moving forward.

“There’s a couple other people who have his policies but don’t have the baggage,” Friedman said of Trump.

In his keynote address, Pence focused largely on the Trump administration’s accomplishments, but included a few indirect jabs at the former president.

“To win the future,” Pence said, “we as Republicans and elected leaders must do more than criticize and complain.”

He was more direct i n an interview this week.

“I think we will have better choices in 2024,” Pence told The Associated Press. “And I’m very confident that Republican primary voters will choose wisely.”

___

AP writer Michelle Price in New York contributed.

Read original article here

World

Donald Trump’s Fate in Justice Department Probes Headed for Special Counsel

Leave a comment

WASHINGTON—Attorney General

Merrick Garland

appointed a former federal and international war-crimes prosecutor as special counsel on Friday to oversee Justice Department investigations into former President

Donald Trump.

Jack Smith, who once led the Justice Department unit that investigates public corruption and since 2018 was the chief prosecutor at The Hague investigating war crimes in Kosovo, will be the third special counsel in five years to examine issues involving Mr. Trump.

He will lead both the probe into the handling of classified documents at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and oversee key aspects of the sprawling Justice Department investigation into efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“The Special Counsel is authorized to prosecute federal crimes arising from the investigation of these matters,” Mr. Garland said in a brief memo naming Mr. Smith to the post. The memo said Mr. Smith’s remit doesn’t include cases against those who were physically present at the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

The appointment comes three days after Mr. Trump announced another bid for the presidency and would mark the naming of the third independent prosecutor in five years to examine issues involving Mr. Trump.

Jack Smith previously led the Justice Department unit that investigates public corruption.



Photo:

U.S. Department of Justice

The move reflects the sensitivity of Mr. Garland overseeing any investigation into Mr. Trump now that he is a declared presidential candidate. President Biden, who has said he intends to run for re-election in 2024, nominated Mr. Garland to head the Justice Department in part for the former judge’s promise to insulate the agency from political influence.

Some legal experts have anticipated such an appointment. Regulations governing special counsels provide for the attorney general to name an outsider if he determines that the investigation or prosecution presents a conflict of interest for the department and recusals of certain officials wouldn’t be enough to overcome the concerns.

Some former Justice Department officials and prosecutors have said such an appointment wouldn’t do much to allay criticism of the FBI and Justice Department by Mr. Trump and his supporters. There are few people with the necessary prosecutorial experience and nonpartisan reputation who would be willing to take on the post, those people say.

A special-counsel appointment won’t entirely eliminate the appearance of a conflict, as Mr. Garland and other senior Justice Department officials are still likely to be involved in some decision-making related to the probe, according to people familiar with past special counsels.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol voted in mid-October to issue a subpoena for relevant documents and testimony under oath from former President Donald Trump. Photo: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com and Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

US

Trump criminal probes will proceed — even as he’s candidate

Leave a comment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s early announcement of his third White House bid won’t shield the former president from the criminal investigations already confronting him as an ordinary citizen, leaving him legally and politically exposed as he seeks the 2024 Republican nomination.

The Justice Department is pushing ahead with its probes. And with the midterm elections now mostly complete and the 2024 presidential campaign months away from beginning in earnest, federal prosecutors have plenty of time to continue their work even as Trump hits the campaign trail.

“I don’t think the department is going to hesitate as a result of Trump nominating himself and anointing himself as the first candidate in the 2024 election,” said former Justice Department prosecutor Michael Weinstein. “I just think they will see that as him trying to game the system as he’s done very successfully in the courts,” and they’re prepared for his “blowback.”

Trump enters the race facing federal investigations related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and into the hoarding of top-secret government documents at his Florida estate — plus a separate s tate probe in Georgia. The Mar-a-Lago investigation has advanced especially swiftly, with prosecutors this month giving a close Trump ally immunity to secure his testimony before a federal grand jury. Justice Department lawyers in that probe say they have amassed evidence of potential crimes involving not only obstruction but also the willful retention of national defense information.

It remains unclear if anyone will be charged, as does the timetable for a decision. But former officials say the best way to ensure the outcome is seen as above reproach is to conduct a by-the-book investigation showing no special favor or ill treatment because of Trump’s former high office.

“The public will have the most faith in what you’re doing, and you will get the most successful results, if you treat Donald Trump like any other American,” said Matthew Miller, who served as Justice Department spokesman under former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Current Attorney General Merrick Garland has suggested as much, saying last summer in response to questions about Trump and the Jan. 6 investigation that “no person is above the law.” Asked in a July television interview how a potential Trump candidacy might affect the department, Garland replied: “We will hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer — legitimate, lawful transfer — of power from one administration to the next.”

Investigating any elected official, or candidate for office, almost always invites political speculation. Justice Department protocol cautions prosecutors against taking overt action in the direct run-up to an election, but that’s more a standard convention than a hard-and-fast rule. And the 2024 presidential contest is two years away.

Still, it’s not easy to investigate a former president or current candidate. That’s especially true in the case of Trump, who spent his presidency assailing his own Justice Department and haranguing attorneys general he himself had appointed. He has already lambasted the FBI for searching Mar-a-Lago in August, using the episode to raise funds from supporters.

Now, with his candidacy official, he and his supporters will try to reframe the narrative of the investigation as political persecution by a Democratic administration that fears him for 2024.

In fact, one risk for Democrats is that Trump — who during his announcement Tuesday declared himself “a victim” — could galvanize his supporters anew with that argument. On the other hand, the results of last week’s midterm elections suggest he may be more politically vulnerable than many had thought, including in his Republican Party.

What about past investigations of a presidential candidate? There is a recent precedent, though under different circumstances.

In 2016, the Obama administration’s Justice Department investigated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state. Despite the efforts of the law enforcement officials who worked the investigation to remain above the fray, the probe became repeatedly mired in presidential politics — in ways that may not have been foreseen when it began.

Then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch expressed regret over a chance encounter she had with Bill Clinton in the final days of the investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey was blamed for harming Clinton’s candidacy by making a detailed public explanation of why the bureau was not recommending charges and then for reopening the probe 11 days before the election.

David Laufman, who supervised that investigation for the Justice Department as chief of the same section now running the Mar-a-Lago probe, said there’s a “surreal disconnect” between the political maelstrom that accompanies politically freighted investigations and the heads-down mentality of a prosecutor determined to just do the work.

“Here we were, conducting a criminal investigation with national security undertones in a way that was practically splashed on the front page of every newspaper every fricking day,” Laufman said. “And all we could do was to continue to do what we knew had to be done — to obtain all the relevant facts needed to make judgments about whether it was appropriate to recommend criminal charges.”

He said he believed the investigators working Mar-a-Lago have been the same way, praising their professionalism amid pressure from the public and even concerns about their personal safety.

In the Clinton case, Comey has said he considered recommending a separate special counsel to direct the investigation, though he ultimately did not. The option of a specially appointed prosecutor who would report to Garland exists here as well, just as the Trump-era Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to lead the investigation into potential coordination between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.

It’s not clear how seriously Garland would consider that. A department spokesman declined to comment.

Politics aside, in making the decision whether to bring an indictment, much will ultimately depend on the strength of the Justice Department’s case.

“If the government’s case is exceptionally strong, I think the rule of law will have a predominant weight in the attorney general’s calculus,” Laufman said.

____

Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

___

More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump



Read original article here

World

Legal observers cast doubt as DOJ mulls Trump special counsel

Leave a comment

Donald Trump’s signals that he may soon launch his 2024 candidacy are triggering discussions over whether to appoint a special counsel to oversee the numerous criminal probes into the former president — with legal experts warning the idea holds little benefit for the Justice Department. 

Justice Department leaders have been discussing the issue more seriously, according to CNN, amid reports that Trump could announce a presidential bid as early as Monday night.  

Several legal observers interviewed by The Hill said it would be a bad idea for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel. 

“If they’re going to do a special counsel because they think that it will protect the prosecution of the former president from political attack on the grounds that the indictment is politically motivated, that’s a fool’s errand because going that way will have minimal impact on the width and breadth of the criticism,” said Jeff Robbins, an attorney now in private practice who has served as both a federal prosecutor and a Senate investigative counsel. 

Legal experts say Attorney General Merrick Garland would have to be aware that many Trump supporters will be unsatisfied by a prosecution no matter who takes the reins. 

“If the appointment of independent counsel was meant to forestall criticism, that wouldn’t work anyway,” said Michael Bromwich, who served as the Justice Department’s inspector general during the Clinton administration and as a prosecutor for the independent counsel that investigated the Iran-Contra scandal. 

He said people who “don’t like any prosecutor who decides to charge Trump are going to find a way to dislike it.” 

“And so the attacks on Merrick Garland will exist if he keeps the case, and they would exist if he appointed a special counsel to take over the decisionmaking authority in the case,” Bromwich said. “So I think he’s found out it’s a no-win situation for him. And I think he understands that.”  

The Justice Department has its own regulations about when to appoint a special counsel to oversee an investigation, but it ultimately gives the attorney general broad discretion over when to do so. 

Andrew Weissmann, who was one of the lead prosecutors on the Mueller investigation, said he suspects the Justice Department long ago evaluated whether to bring in a special counsel and decided against it but is reevaluating given Trump’s potential announcement. 

“I think it’s responsible if they’re looking at it again,” he said.   

“To me, I took that as that is what a Merrick Garland Justice Department would do. It’s a rule-of-law place. There’s a regulation that says you’re supposed to examine these issues. The facts may change, so they need to look to see whether their assessment should change if the facts change. And I suspect they’ll come out at the same place,” he said. 

He added that an early announcement of a presidential run by Trump would change little since Trump is the “de facto leader of the Republican Party.”  

“So I just didn’t know that the analysis changes a lot,” Weissmann said. 

A campaign kickoff by Trump would only increase timeline pressures on the Justice Department. Experts say appointing a special counsel would be a lengthy process for a Justice Department that doesn’t have time to lose.

Beyond recruiting someone to take the role, a special counsel would need time to get read into the two Trump investigations — one for his mishandling of presidential records found at Mar-a-Lago and the other involving his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.  

 “It would slow it down enormously. And so one, I think, pretty strong argument is you want as little as possible of this investigation and any charges to overlap with the homestretch of the presidential campaign,” Bromwich said. 

And it would likely require significant Justice Department resources anyway.

“I think that appointing a special counsel would in many ways be more symbolic than real because they not only have to rely on work already done by Justice Department lawyers. They probably would have to have many of those lawyers detail to the special counsel in order to continue doing the work because that’s where the expertise resides,” Bromwich added.

Robbins said such a move would aid arguments that the special counsel is nothing more than a “disingenuous fig leaf.” 

It’s also not clear who the special counsel could be or if would have appeal to a strong candidate. 

“If there was anybody whose credibility as a nonpartisan, right-down-the-middle prosecutor that should have been impregnable, it was Bob Mueller. Highly thought of on both sides of the aisle, FBI director approved for an extension by both sides of the aisle — the whole drill. It didn’t affect the attack on him from Trump World one iota,” Robbins said. 

Weissmann said he thinks the environment for special counsels has only gotten worse since he aided with Mueller’s probe into Trump and Russia. 

“There’s a playbook of vilifying a special counsel. I never thought we could be in a more volatile [time] than when Robert Mueller was special counsel. Even though there were lots of lots of threats, I think it’s gone to a new level, which is hard to imagine,” he said. 

Robbins, however, also sees little benefit to looking outside the Justice Department when what he sees as the perfect man for the moment is already in the job. 

“How do you find somebody who is better suited to appear above the fray than Merrick Garland, a former highly respected, mild-mannered, by-the-book, famously judicious, famously restrained court of appeals justice [who] has at every turn endeavored to avoid presenting as a partisan and who is not a partisan by nature,” he said.  

“How do you find somebody who was better than that to serve as a nonpartisan face of such a delicate prosecution?” Robbins asked. 

“Not easy,” he added.  

Read original article here