Tag Archives: Overturning

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Adnan Syed hearing live: ‘Serial’ subject appears in court as judge weighs overturning murder conviction

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Adnan Syed gets new trial

Adnan Syed, the 41-year-old who was the subject in the hit podcast series Serial, is appearing in a Baltimore courtroom on Monday afternoon where the judge could throw out his conviction.

Syed was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder, robbery, kidnapping and imprisonment of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.

Lee vanished after leaving her Baltimore high school on 13 January 1999. Her body was found in a shallow grave in a park around a month later.

Syed has always maintained his innocence and denied any involvement in Lee’s death.

On Wednesday, prosecutors filed a motion asking a judge to vacate his murder conviction after new evidence came to light about the possible involvement of two other suspects and doubts have been raised about the reliability of cellphone evidence used at trial.

“After a nearly year-long investigation reviewing the facts of this case, Syed deserves a new trial where he is adequately represented and the latest evidence can be presented,” Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said in a statement.

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Prosecutor asks judge to release Adnan Syed

Prosecutor Becky Feldman has asked the judge to vacate Adnan Syed’s conviction and release him from prison.

She said that the state’s failure to turn over information about other potential suspects to the defence is grounds for his conviction to be tossed and him to be granted a new trial.

The prosecution referred to two other potential suspects in Wednesday’s court filing but has not named them.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 21:00

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Hae Min Lee’s brother says case is ‘killing me’

Hae Min Lee’s brother has addressed the court about the toll the case is taking on him and his family, saying that it is “killing me”.

Young Lee joined the court hearing virtually from the West Coast where he urged the judge to “make the right decision”.

“I’ve been living with this for like 20 plus years. Everyday when I think it’s over… or it’s ended, it always comes back,” he said.

“It’s killing me. It’s really tough.”

He added that he felt “betrayed” by the prosecution, after they blindsided the family by casting doubt on Adnan Syed’s guilt – after spending more than two decades insisting he was the killer.

Mr Lee choked back tears as he said that he was open to the investigation and spoke of the difficulty knowing that someone responsible for his sister’s death could currently be walking free.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 20:46

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Court has resumed

The court is back in session following a brief recess.

The break was called by the judge to give Hae Min Lee’s sibling a chance to join the hearing remotely from the West Coast.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 20:34

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Court takes brief recess

The court has gone on recess for 30 minutes so that Hae Min Lee’s brother has the opportunity to join the hearing virtually.

Young Lee is at his place of work on the West Coast at this time.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 19:47

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Judge denies victim’s family’s request to postpone hearing

Judge Melissa Phinn has denied the victim’s family’s request to postpone Adnan Syed’s court hearing.

The judge said that the state provided the family of Hae Min Lee with enough time to find an attorney that would advise them of their rights to attend and speak at the hearing.

She told the family’s attorney to contact Lee’s brother Young Lee to give him the opportunity to address the court remotely now.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 19:40

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Victim’s family asks judge to postpone hearing

Steve Kelly, the attorney for Hae Min Lee’s family, has requested that the judge postpone the hearing for seven days so that the victim’s brother Young Lee can attend.

Mr Lee lives on the West Coast and was only notified about the state’s plans to toss the conviction one week ago – on 12 September.

However, Mr Lee did not notify the state that he wanted to attend and does not appear to have joined the hearing virtually, tweeted the Baltimore Sun’s Lee Sander

Judge Melissa Phinn said that she wouldn’t have scheduled the hearing for today if she knew he wanted to attend.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 19:35

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Hae Min Lee’s family notified last week about plans to toss conviction, court hears

Hae Min Lee’s family members were notified only last week about the state’s plans to toss Adnan Syed’s murder conviction, the court heard.

Prosecutor Becky Feldman told Judge Melissa Phinn that the family was notified on 12 September – just two days before the state asked the judge to overturn his conviction and release him from prison, reported the Baltimore Sun’s Lee Sanderlin.

The family’s attorney Steve Kelly, addressed the court on their behalf, calling the lack of adequate notice “outrageous”.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 19:22

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Court hearing about to get under way

The court hearing is about to get under way in Baltimore, Maryland.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, prosecutors and members of Adnan Syed’s family and legal team have all arrived at the Elijah E. Cummings courthouse.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 18:59

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Who is Jay Wilds?

Adnan Syed’s 2000 conviction relied heavily on testimony from his friend Jay Wilds, who claimed that Syed confessed to killing Lee and enlisted his help in digging a hole to bury her body in Leakin Park, Baltimore.

Wilds said that he went along with it because Syed threatened to tell the police that he was running a drug operation, which he feared would land him with hefty jail time.

The Serial podcast raised questions about the reliability of his testimony, saying that he had changed his story multiple times.

In 2019, Wilds spoke out publicly for the first time in an interview with The Intercept where he continued to maintain that he saw Lee’s body and helped Syed dispose of it.

However, he changed parts of his story once again, saying that he first saw Lee’s body in the trunk of a car outside his grandmother’s house – and not in the car park of a local Best Buy as he said at trial.

He claimed that he lied to police to protect his grandmother, as he was dealing drugs out of her home at the time.

“I didn’t tell the cops it was in front of my house because I didn’t want to involve my grandmother,” he said.

“I believe I told them it was in front of Cathy’s [a psuedonym] house, but it was in front of my grandmother’s house. I know it didn’t happen anywhere other than my grandmother’s house.

“I remember the highway traffic to my right, and I remember standing there on the curb. I remember Adnan standing next to me.”

He added: “At the time I was convinced that I would be going to jail for a long time if he [Adnan] turned me in for drug dealing, especially to high school kids. I was also running [drug] operations from my grandmother’s house. So that would ruin her life too. I was also around a bunch of people earlier the day [at Cathy’s], and I didn’t want them to get fucked up with homicide.”

Syed has accused Wilds of lying throughout the trial.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 18:55

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Press conference announced in the case

A press conference has been scheduled for the case of Adnan Syed.

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby will hold the briefing outside of the Elijah E. Cummings courthouse in Baltimore, Maryland, immediately after the 2pm court hearing.

Syed is expected to appear in court in person for the hearing, where Judge Melissa Phinn will decide whether to throw out his conviction.

Rachel Sharp19 September 2022 18:30

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Republicans Fear Overturning Roe V. Wade Is a Midterms ‘Losing Issue’

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  • GOP officials are concerned that the overturning of Roe v. Wade will negatively impact midterms, Politico reported.
  • They fear the ruling might shift the focus from the economy and inflation, issues which Biden polls low on.
  • A majority of Americans support legal abortion in some form. A GOP strategist said it is a “losing issue for Republicans.”

While Republicans are publicly celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade, some are privately worrying that the timing could negatively impact the November midterms. 

Some Republicans fear the abortion ruling could give Democrats ammunition to attack them and mobilize voters, Politico reported, based on interviews with more than a dozen GOP strategists and officials.

“This is not a conversation we want to have,” Republican strategist John Thomas told Politico. “We want to have a conversation about the economy. We want to have a conversation about Joe Biden, about pretty much anything else besides Roe. This is a losing issue for Republicans.”

Friday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling overturned nearly a 50-year precedent that legalized abortion nationwide.

Although overturning Roe has been a key ambition for conservatives for decades, the majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or certain circumstances, according to national polls from Pew and Gallup.

Some Republicans worry that the ruling could shift the focus away from the economy and inflation, which has previously been a top issue for voters.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that voters largely disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation.

“Everything was going our way. Gas is above $5. Inflation is a giant problem,” a former Republican congressman, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Politico.

“The only thing [Democrats] have got going for them is the Roe thing, which is what, 40 years of settled law that will be changed that will cause some societal consternation,” he said. “And can they turn that into some turnout? I think the answer is probably ‘Yes.'”

“Maybe instead of losing 45 seats, they lose 30,” the congressman said. At a minimum, “there will be a few seats that Republicans would have won without [the abortion rights decision], and they may not win them now.”

Former President Donald Trump has been widely credited with the abortion ruling because he appointed three conservative justices during his presidency. 

However, even Trump is reported to have privately said that he feared overturning Roe would be “bad for Republicans.”

“You go to any diner in America, and nobody’s talking about this”

Participants hold signs during the Women’s March at the US Supreme Court.

Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Women’s March Inc


Democratic candidates in several key states have said that they plan to make abortion rights a key focus of their campaigns, The New York Times reported.

While abortion has not historically been a major mobilizing issue for voters, polls suggest it will now play a more important role than in the past.

Some fear that the Biden’s party could increase the votes of young people and suburban women, who they had recently been making headway with.

However, others have suggested abortion is still less important to average voters compared to ongoing economic issues.

“You go to any diner in America, and nobody’s talking about this,” Dave Carney, a national Republican strategist told Politico.

“That’s not what’s driving the conversation. Real people, working people, people who vote, are talking about the incompetence of the president, and then they go down the list of six or seven things.”

These issues include the rising price of goods and the recent baby formula shortage.

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Reactions to U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade abortion landmark

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WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) – Public figures across the political spectrum reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Friday overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that recognized a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and legalized it nationwide. read more

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN IN A LIVE ANNOUNCEMENT:

“Today the Supreme Court of the United States expressly took away a constitutional right from the American people that it had already recognized.”

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“This is a sad day for the country in my view. But it doesn’t mean the fight’s over. Let me be very clear and unambiguous: the only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose a balance that exists is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law.”

“Voters need to make their voices heard. This fall (they) must elect more senators and representatives who will codify a woman’s right to choose into federal law once again.”

“I’ve warned about how this decision risks the broader right to privacy for everyone … The right to make the best decisions for your health. The right to use birth control, a married couple in the privacy of their bedroom.”

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESMAN FOR U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES

“Sexual and reproductive health and rights are the foundation of a life of choice, empowerment and equality for the world’s women and girls … Restricting access to abortion does not prevent people from seeking abortion, it only makes it more deadly.”

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI, A DEMOCRAT, IN A STATEMENT:

“This cruel ruling is outrageous and heart-wrenching. But make no mistake: the rights of women and all Americans are on the ballot this November.”

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL IN A STATEMENT:

“This is an historic victory for the Constitution and for the most vulnerable in our society.”

(The decision is) “courageous and correct.”

PLANNED PARENTHOOD:

“SCOTUS may have just ended our constitutional right to abortion, but know this: Abortion is health care, and you deserve to control your body and your future, no matter what. That hasn’t changed. We can’t and we won’t back down now.”

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) DIRECTOR-GENERAL TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, TO REUTERS:

“I am very disappointed, because women’s rights must be protected. And I would have expected America to protect such rights.”

REPUBLICAN FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP:

“This is following the Constitution, and giving rights back when they should have been given long ago … This brings everything back to the states where it has always belonged.”

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks after the the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dobbs v Women’s Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision, at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2022. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

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FORMER VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE IN A STATEMENT:

“Today, Life Won. By overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court of the United States has given the American people a new beginning for life, and I commend the justices in the majority for having the courage of their convictions.

DEMOCRATIC FORMER PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

“Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues -attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.”

FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON:

“Most Americans believe the decision to have a child is one of the most sacred decisions there is, and that such decisions should remain between patients and their doctors. Today’s Supreme Court opinion will live in infamy as a step backward for women’s rights and human rights.”

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON, ON TWITTER:

“Abortion is a fundamental right for all women. We must protect it. I would like to express my solidarity with all those women whose freedoms have today been compromised by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER JUSTIN TRUDEAU ON TWITTER:

“The news coming out of the United States is horrific. My heart goes out to the millions of American women who are now set to lose their legal right to an abortion … No government, politician, or man should tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her body.”

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON AT A NEWS CONFERENCE:

“I think it’s a big step backwards … I’ve always believed in a woman’s right to choose and I stick to that view and that is why the UK has the laws that it does.”

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN DICK DURBIN, IN A STATEMENT:

“I will keep fighting to enshrine into law a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices. We cannot let our children inherit a nation that is less free and more dangerous than the one their parents grew up in.”

KEVIN MCCARTHY, STEVE SCALISE AND ELISE STEFANIK, THE TOP THREE REPUBLICANS IN THE U.S. HOUSE, IN A JOINT STATEMENT:

“We applaud this historic ruling, which will save countless innocent lives. The Supreme Court is right to return the power to protect the unborn to the people’s elected representatives in Congress and the states.”

MINI TIMMARAJU, PRESIDENT OF NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA:

“The impact on the real lives of real people will be devastating … Though we’re grieving the end of the constitutional right to abortion in our country and what it will mean for all of those who need access to care, this fight is far from over.”

PENNY YOUNG NANCE, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF ANTI-ABORTION GROUP CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA:

“We feel empowered to go on a state-by-state basis and fight for what we believe in. Before we couldn’t even have a conversation in state legislatures … Certainly the federal government has a role to play but this is going to be about the states.”

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Reporting by David Morgan, Timothy Ahmann, David Morgan, Doina Chiacu, Chris Gallagher, Rose Horowitch and Susan Heavey in Washington, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, and Ayenat Mersie and Andrew MacAskill in Kigali; Compiled by Chris Gallagher; Edited by Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Bill Gates doubts Musk’s Twitter buy, says draft SCOTUS decision overturning Roe is ‘pretty disappointing’

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While Gates did not precisely define what he meant by “worse” in remarks at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit on Wednesday, he questioned whether Musk is committed to preventing the rapid spread of public health misinformation and vaccine skepticism on social media.

“How does he feel about something that says vaccines kill people, or you know, that Bill Gates is tracking people — is that one of the things he thinks should be spread?” Gates asked.

“If all you need is money and hiring great engineers, he’s probably as good a person as any” to guide Twitter through its next chapter, Gates added, but said he doesn’t expect Musk to replicate Tesla and SpaceX’s “mind-blowing” performance.

“I kind of doubt that’ll happen this time, but we should have an open mind and never underestimate Elon,” Gates said.

Public attention has zeroed in on Gates’ relationship with Musk in recent weeks after Musk tweeted an unflattering picture of Gates and accused him of shorting Tesla’s stock.

On Wednesday, Gates said that Musk’s tweeting “doesn’t bother me” and declined to say whether he has bet against Tesla.

“It’s possible that the stock went down and whoever shorted the stock made money, I don’t know,” Gates said, seemingly with a small smile. “Did it go down in the last month? I don’t know. I don’t think whether one is short or long Tesla is a statement about your seriousness about climate change. I’m putting billions of dollars into climate change innovation; I applaud Tesla’s role in helping with climate change.”

Gates also characterized misinformation on social media as being more than a technology problem, highlighting how people in positions of trust — from religious leaders in Africa to politicians in the United States — play a major role in whether people embrace vaccines or turn instead to “insane” beliefs about alternative, unproven therapies.

“When you don’t have the trusted leaders speaking out about vaccines, it’s pretty hard for the [tech] platform to work against that, so I think that we have a leadership problem and we have a platform problem,” Gates said.

While Musk may bring sweeping changes to Twitter’s product, Gates said he is hopeful that policymakers will develop their own changes to “the legal framework, which he’ll have to follow … there’ll be hopefully innovation in that in parallel with whatever he’s doing on the engineering side.”

Asked to expand on his tweet this week criticizing the leaked Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Gates called the draft decision “pretty disappointing from my point of view.”

“It’s weird to think of the US going backwards, because mostly what we’re trying to do is get other countries to catch up with the rich countries where the right to choose has been pretty well established,” Gates said. “After 50 years, something feels like it is part of the history of the country and it’s strange to say, ‘No, let’s reverse that.'”



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CNN Exclusive: ‘We control them all’: Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows detailed plan for overturning 2020 election before it was called

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In the text, which has not been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Electoral College process, according to the message reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021.

“It’s very simple,” Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, adding later in the same missive: “We have multiple paths We control them all.”

In a statement to CNN, Trump Jr.’s lawyer Alan S. Futerfas said, “After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others. Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded.”

Immediately before his text to Meadows describing multiple paths for challenging the election, Trump Jr. texted Meadows the following: “This is what we need to do please read it and please get it to everyone that needs to see it because I’m not sure we’re doing it.”

The November 5 text message outlines a strategy that is nearly identical to what allies of the former President attempted to carry out in the months that followed. Trump Jr. makes specific reference to filing lawsuits and advocating recounts to prevent certain swing states from certifying their results, as well as having a handful of Republican state houses put forward slates of fake “Trump electors.”

If all that failed, according to the Trump Jr. text, GOP lawmakers in Congress could simply vote to reinstall Trump as President on January 6.

“We have operational control Total leverage,” the message reads. “Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now.”

The text from Trump Jr. is revealing on a number of levels. It shows how those closest to the former President were already exchanging ideas for how to overturn the election months before the January 6 insurrection — and before all the votes were even counted. It would be another two days before major news outlets declared Joe Biden the winner on November 7.

The text also adds to a growing body of evidence of how Trump’s inner circle was actively engaged in discussing how to challenge the election results.

On March 28, Judge David Carter, a federal judge in California, said that Trump, along with conservative lawyer John Eastman, launched an “unprecedented” campaign to overturn a democratic election, calling it “a coup in search of a legal theory.”

George Terwilliger, an attorney for Meadows, declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for the House select committee declined to comment.

Foreshadowing the Trump campaign strategy

In the weeks following the 2020 election, Trump and his allies eventually filed more than 60 unsuccessful lawsuits in key states, failing to convince the courts that his claims about a stolen election were justified, or uncover any evidence of widespread voter fraud.

They also called for various recounts based on those same unfounded voter fraud claims. A number of states conducted recounts in the months after the election, though none of them revealed any fraud substantial enough to have changed the outcome of the vote in any state.

While Trump Jr. was publicly pushing various voter fraud conspiracy theories and generally casting doubt about the results in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, his text to Meadows reveals there were other ideas being discussed privately.

Specifically, Trump Jr. previews a strategy to supplant authentic electors with fake Republican electors in a handful of states. That plan was eventually orchestrated and carried out by allies of the former President, and overseen by his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani.

In his text to Meadows, Trump Jr. identifies two key dates in December that serve as deadlines for states to certify their electoral results and compel Congress to accept them. Though the dates are largely ceremonial, in his text Trump Jr. appears to point to them as potential weaknesses to be exploited by casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election results.

Seeking Trump electors

Trump Jr.’s November 5 text to Meadows came as similar notions of faithless electors were starting to percolate publicly on conservative social media. Trump Jr. sent the text to Meadows at 12:51 p.m., just minutes after conservative radio host Mark Levin had tweeted a similar idea and suggested state legislatures have final say on electors.

If secretaries of state were unable to certify the results, Trump Jr. argues in his text to Meadows that they should press their advantage by having Republican-controlled state assemblies “step in” and put forward separate slates of “Trump electors,” he writes.

“Republicans control Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina etc we get Trump electors,” Trump Jr. adds.

Trump Jr.’s text, however, refers to an untested legal theory that state houses are the ultimate authority in elections and can intervene to put forward a different slate of electors than those chosen by the voters, when in reality this is a ceremonial process and the outcome is essentially a foregone conclusion.

The Justice Department and the House committee are both investigating the fake electors plot within the context of what unfolded on January 6 and Trump’s broader effort to overturn the election.
The strategy floated by Trump Jr. is similar to what was outlined by former Texas Governor and Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who texted Meadows on November 4 suggesting three state legislatures ignore the will of their voters and deliver their states’ electors to Trump.

“HERE’s an AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY: Why can t (sic) the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS,” Perry’s text message read.

A spokesman for Perry told CNN at the time that the former Energy secretary denies being the author of the text. However, multiple people who know Rick Perry previously confirmed to CNN that the phone number the committee has associated with that text message is Perry’s number.

‘We control them all’

Trump Jr. also texts Meadows that Congress could intervene on January 6 and overturn the will of voters if, for some reason, they were unable to secure enough electoral votes to tip the outcome in Trump’s favor using the state-based strategy.

That option, according to Trump Jr.’s text, involves a scenario where neither Biden nor Trump have enough electoral votes to be declared a winner, prompting the House of Representatives to vote by state party delegation, with each state getting one vote.

“Republicans control 28 states Democrats 22 states,” Trump Jr. texts. “Once again Trump wins.”

“We either have a vote WE control and WE win OR it gets kicked to Congress 6 January 2021,” he texts Meadows.

In a series of memos in early January, conservative lawyer John Eastman proposed a variation of that idea.

Eastman’s memo laid out a six-step plan for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election for Trump, which included throwing out the results in seven states because they allegedly had competing electors. In fact, no state had actually put forward an alternate slate of electors — there were merely Trump allies claiming without any authority to be electors.

Eastman, who has been subpoenaed by the House select committee and is fighting to keep some of his records secret from investigators, was accused by Carter of likely engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Trump to overturn the election.

“Dr. Eastman has an unblemished record as an attorney and respectfully disagrees with the judge’s findings,” his attorney Charles Burnham said in response to the judge’s ruling.

Trump Jr. pushes Meadows to fire Wray and install loyalist at FBI

Trump Jr. ends his November 5 text by calling for a litany of personnel moves to solidify his father’s control over the government by putting loyalists in key jobs and initiate investigations into the Biden family.

“Fire Wray; Fire Fauci,” he texts, referring to FBI Director Christopher Wray and White House coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci. Trump Jr. then proposes making former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell interim head of the FBI and having then-Attorney General Bill Barr “select Special prosecutor on HardDrivefromHell Biden crime family.”

As Trump refused to concede in the days and weeks after the 2020 election, rumors swirled that he was still considering firing Wray, along with several other top officials with whom he had grown frustrated.
Trump and his allies sharply criticized Wray for failing to produce information that they claimed would be harmful to the President’s political enemies, including Biden. CNN previously reported that the prospect of Trump firing Wray hung over the FBI for weeks, dating to before Election Day.

While Wray remains in his post and Barr resigned in mid-December 2020 without naming a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens, Trump Jr.’s text underscores just how precarious the situation at DOJ was in the immediate aftermath of the election.

The same is true for Trump Jr.’s recommendation that Meadows replace Wray with Grenell, someone who not only lacked the usual qualifications to lead the FBI but also had a proven track record of doing the former President’s bidding.

After serving a controversial three-month stint as Trump’s acting intel chief, Grenell hit the campaign trail in late 2020 to help promote Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and support his legal challenges in a key swing state: Nevada.

On November 5, Biden held a slim lead over Trump in Nevada but appeared poised to win the state’s six electoral votes. That same day, Grenell and Trump campaign officials announced they were filing a new lawsuit to “stop the counting of illegal votes” but provided no evidence to support their claims of rampant fraud.
This story has been updated with new details of a text message Trump Jr. sent to Meadows.

CNN’s Jamie Gangel and Tara Subramaniam contributed to this report.

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‘Trump Is Wrong,’ Pence Says of False Claim About Overturning Election

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Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday offered his most forceful rebuke of Donald Trump, saying that Mr. Trump is “wrong” that Mr. Pence had the legal authority to change the results of the 2020 election and that the Republican Party must accept the outcome and look toward the future.

Speaking to a gathering of conservatives near Orlando, Fla., the former vice president said he understands “the disappointment so many feel about the last election” but repudiated Mr. Trump’s false claims that Mr. Pence could reject the Electoral College results and alter the outcome last year.

“President Trump is wrong,” said Mr. Pence, in his remarks before the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. “I had no right to overturn the election.”

The comments marked the strongest rejection of Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election by his former vice president. Mr. Pence refused to give in to Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign on Jan. 6 to change the results. Since then, he has remained relatively quiet about that decision, largely declining to directly attack Mr. Trump or assign him any blame for inciting the deadly siege on the Capitol. In public appearances last year, Mr. Pence defended his role in resisting Mr. Trump but did not go further than saying the two men will never “see eye to eye about that day.”

But tensions have been rising in recent days between the two men. As Mr. Pence positions himself for a possible presidential bid in 2024, Mr. Trump has pushed more intensely a false narrative aimed at blaming his former vice president for failing to stop President Biden from taking office.

Mr. Pence cast his opposition on Friday as larger than the immediate political moment, implying that the false claims pushed by Mr. Trump and his followers threatened to undermine American democracy.

“The truth is there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes,” he said. “If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections — we’ll lose our country.”

In a speech that largely focused on attacking the policies and record of the Biden administration, Mr. Pence described Jan. 6 as a “dark day” in Washington. Such a description runs counter to an attempt by some on the right to rewrite history by describing the siege as a peaceful rally and by calling the rioters “political prisoners.” And he urged Mr. Trump and his party to accept the results of the last election.

“Whatever the future holds, I know we did our duty that day,” Mr. Pence said. “I believe the time has come to focus on the future.”

But Mr. Pence stopped short of completely breaking with the right-wing base that remains deeply influenced by Mr. Trump.

Mr. Pence did not explicitly say Mr. Trump lost the election and declined to address the false claims of election fraud still being pushed by the former president and his supporters. The carefully constructed wording of his rebuke shows an effort by Mr. Pence to defend his own actions on Jan. 6, while not completely alienating a Republican base that remains animated by conspiracy theories of a stolen election. Their support could be crucial in any 2024 primary contest.

His comments came just hours after the Republican Party voted to censure two Republican lawmakers for taking part in the House investigation of the Jan. 6 attack. The lawmakers, Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, were censured for participating in what the party’s resolution described as the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Legal scholars and officials from both parties say the vice president does not have the power to overturn elections. Mr. Pence agrees with that interpretation of the law: In a letter to Congress sent the morning of the Capitol attack, Mr. Pence rejected the president’s claims, writing that the Constitution “constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”

On Sunday, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Pence could have “overturned the election” in a statement denouncing a bipartisan push to rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887. The former president and his allies misinterpreted that century-old law in their failed bid to persuade Mr. Pence to throw out legitimate election results. And on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the congressional committee investigating the role of his administration in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol should instead examine “why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval.”

Mr. Trump’s attempts to influence his vice president have become a focus of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, with some members seeing the participation of Mr. Pence’s team as vital to deciding whether it has sufficient evidence to make a criminal referral of Mr. Trump to the Justice Department. Two of Mr. Pence’s aides testified privately before the committee this week and Mr. Pence’s lawyer and the panel have been talking informally about whether the former vice president would be willing to speak to investigators.

The Justice Department has also been examining the ways in which Mr. Trump’s attacks on Mr. Pence influenced the mob on Jan. 6. In recent plea negotiations in some Jan. 6 cases, prosecutors have asked defense lawyers whether their clients would admit in sworn statements that they stormed the Capitol believing that Mr. Trump wanted them to stop Mr. Pence from certifying the election.

As the attackers raided the Capitol that day, some chanted “Hang Mike Pence.” Mr. Trump initially brushed aside calls from aides and allies to call them off. Since then, Mr. Trump has defended the chants as understandable because, as he said in an interview with ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, “the people were very angry” about the election.

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