Intensifying Inquiry Into Alternate Electors Focuses on Trump Lawyers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

The Justice Department has stepped up its criminal investigation into the creation of alternate slates of pro-Trump electors seeking to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory in the 2020 election, with a particular focus on a team of lawyers that worked on behalf of President Donald J. Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. A federal grand jury in Washington has started issuing subpoenas in recent weeks to people linked to the alternate elector plan, requesting information about several lawyers including Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and one of his chief legal advisers, John Eastman, one of the people said.

The subpoenas also seek information on other pro-Trump lawyers like Jenna Ellis, who worked with Mr. Giuliani, and Kenneth Chesebro, who wrote memos supporting the elector scheme in the weeks after the election. A top Justice Department official acknowledged in January that prosecutors were trying to determine whether any crimes were committed in the scheme. Under the plan, election officials in seven key swing states put forward formal lists of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College on the grounds that the states would be shown to have swung in favor of Mr. Trump once their claims of widespread election fraud had been accepted.

Those claims were baseless, and all seven states were awarded to Mr. Biden. It is a federal crime to knowingly submit false statements to a federal agency or agent for an undue end. The alternate elector slates were filed with a handful of government bodies, including the National Archives. The focus on the alternate electors is only one of the efforts by the Justice Department to broaden its vast investigation of hundreds of rioters who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the past few months, grand jury subpoenas have also been issued seeking information about a wide array of people who organized Mr. Trump’s rally near the White House that day, and about any members of the executive and legislative branches who may have taken part in planning the event or tried to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election. The subpoenas in the elector investigation are the first public indications that the roles of Mr. Giuliani and other lawyers working on Mr. Trump’s behalf are of interest to federal prosecutors.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/us/politics/pro-trump-lawyers-elector-scheme.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[Fiendish Thingy]

1. Great news- you can't ignore a grand jury subpoena without immediate consequences

Let’s see Jenna Ellis sweat on the stand, even if she invokes the fifth a hundred times.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. We have a current GOP gubernatorial candidate (Doug Mastriano)

who was deep into the "fake" electors here in PA. He was subpoenaed by the J6 Committee back in February and there has been no response by him to them (at least that has been reported) since.

[Fiendish Thingy]

4. Congressional subpoena is different than GJ or judicial subpoena

If Mastriano ignored a subpoena from a GJ, he’d be in jail until he complied; ask Susan MacDougal.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Well in this case, before even doing a referral to DOJ for a subpoena

they would do a standard series of "escalation" steps to get someone to come in and testify. I.e.,

1.) Send a formal letter "inviting" them to testify
2.) If that is ignored with no communications before a "respond by" date, then re-send the invite to see if they can work out scheduling and any extensions that might be needed for depositions and/or for doc production
3.) If that is ignored then debate with other members about whether to persue a formal subpoena for the witness
4.) If a formal subpoena is issued and ignored, then they have to decide on whether it is worth doing a criminal referral, with the caveat that DOJ might or might not act on it right away, but notice that this has happened often lights a fire under some of the intransigent refusers

What we'll have to watch in the future is Bannon, who was indicted and held in contempt for refusing the J6 Committee subpoena, and his trial is (so far) scheduled for July 18. So will have to see if someone (prosecution or defense) pushes that date back or whether he shows up or not.

And as a note (I was a fed for over 30 years and did have to work with DOJ every once in awhile), McDougal's case was not about refusing a subpoena but about refusing to answer some questions during her grand jury testimony.

[Fiendish Thingy]

8. MacDougal was cited for Contempt of Court, no?

Same result as if she had refused to show up at all.

Bannon’s trial is for Contempt of Congress, and not really related to the issue of a GJ issuing subpoenas for witnesses.

Your list 1-4 seems to refer to subpoenas from congressional committees, not From a court or GJ.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. The issue with McDougal was not that she didn't show up for the grand jury

She did and she WAS responsive, EXCEPT for 3 questions that she refused to answer, and was thus charged with contempt. But she showed up vs what I was trying to point out, was a hypothetical of someone who attempts to completely blow off a grand jury subpoena (e.g., like a Roger Stone aide, who finally relented almost a year later to appear).

And Bannon's trial is now criminal, regardless of it being "Contempt of Congress" or whatnot because it was as a result of a DOJ referral, and a grand jury indictment.

And yes my list was referencing how the Congressional Committees handle their subpoenas since the OP is specifically dealing with the topic of "fake electors" and Doug Mastriano was involved in that here in PA AND was subpoenaed by the J6 Committee back in February with respect to "fake electors".

The option is now on the table for whether the J6 Committee will criminally refer Mastriano to DOJ, for his refusal to be responsive to their subpoena and/or whether DOJ will get him directly via a grand jury subpoena, IF, per the OP topic, they are supposedly looking into the submissions of "fake electors" to government entities, including Congress and NARA.

[agingdem]

2. Cleta Mitchell, too, I hope

[erronis]

5. Sidney Powell: "no reasonable person would conclude ... were truly statements of fact"

Please throw in Victoria Toensing and her husband Joseph diGenova. What a bunch of pure scum that has accrued around the GQP body politick.

Oh, of course. J. Suckalow.

[PSPS]

6. OMG!!!111! The "inquiry" is "intensifying!!!"!"!"" OMG!!11!

[867-5309.]

10. This is sewius!

The highest level of intensity evah!!!