A stunningly broad subpoena against more than 30 former President Donald Trump’s campaign officials and aides represents the clearest sign yet of the seriousness of the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the events surrounding the U.S. Capitol riot.
The game, revealed Monday, also shows that while Trump may succeed in slowing a separate investigation into the maintenance of classified information at Mar-a-Lago, his potential exposure to legal ramifications is deep and threatening. Trump has not been charged with a crime in either investigation.
But the subpoenas show that the Justice Department’s investigation, which has been going behind the scenes for months and has caused Trump critics to express frustration with Attorney General Merrick Garland, is far more extensive than previously known. . And it appears to be intensifying, with investigators apparently narrowing their focus based on other subpoenas, evidence and witness statements.
“That’s how classic investigations are conducted, going up the chain,” David Laufman, former head of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Division, told CNN’s Erin Burnett Monday.
“Now they’re locking in people closer and closer to the President to learn more and more about what the President knew and when he knew it.”
The twice-impeached former President has usually been successful in fighting without the legal scrutiny and scandals that would have ended the careers of conventional politicians. But it’s clear that he faces legal concerns on multiple fronts, some related to his attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, and all in part stemming from his view that as president, even in political life, his position granted him almost unlimited power without control.
News of more than 30 new subpoenas for documents and some for testimony before a grand jury suggests the Justice Department is investigating a scheme to frame fake voters to invalidate President Joe Biden’s victories in swing states in 2020. There are also indications that prosecutors looking into Trump’s fundraising operation and how the former President’s Jan. 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally was organized, according to new information reported by CNN, some of which was first revealed by the New York Times.
The flurry of subpoenas in recent days came just before a 60-day quiet period that the DOJ generally seeks to avoid appearing to influence elections with politically sensitive investigations. Midterm elections in November will decide the fate of the Senate and House of Representatives and multiple state and local seats. Trump, touting his false claims that he was illegally ousted from office in a fraudulent election, has been a key factor in the 2022 campaign.
Trump associates who have received subpoenas include former campaign manager Bill Stepien and former campaign finance director Sean Dolman, sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Trump’s former deputy chief of staff and social media guru Dan Scavino was also subpoenaed, according to a source familiar with the matter. None of the three men responded to requests for comment. Brian Jack, the last White House political director under Trump, was also invited, according to a source familiar with the situation. Jack also did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
The revelation comes as the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot meets on Tuesday to discuss next steps in its investigation and possible new televised hearings after a series of scripted hearings over the summer that painted a deeply damning picture of his behavior Trump after the last election. .
The committee is expected to discuss whether to invite Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence to appear. Committee members do not expect either to testify, sources said, but some believe they should be asked for the record of the emergency circumstances of the former president’s attempt to block a peaceful transfer of power after democratic elections.
This subplot also takes place amid an investigation in Georgia into alleged efforts to try to persuade local officials to overturn Biden’s victory in the crucial state.
All of those investigations in recent days have been overshadowed by yet another legal battle over Trump’s hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, which led to a protracted standoff with the DOJ and ultimately led to an FBI investigation into the estate of. last month.
The former president’s lawyers argued in a new filing in that case Monday that a judge should reject the DOJ’s attempt to continue reviewing classified material as part of its criminal investigation. The department says the judge’s initial prohibition against doing so effectively makes it impossible to assess the potential harm from the former president’s apparently lax handling of classified information and poses a serious risk to national security.
In a characteristically expansive interpretation of the president’s position, Trump argued in a Monday deposition that in his previous position he had broad authority to declassify records and that a former president should have an “absolute right of access” to presidential records — whether classified or no. CNN reported that multiple former senior national security officials reject the idea that the former president had some kind of plan to declassify documents en masse. And even if he had, the Presidential Records Act states that presidential documents belong in the National Archives.
But in a bold move, Trump’s legal team tried to play down the significance of the controversy.
“In what is at its core a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the administration unfairly seeks to criminalize the 45th President’s possession of his own presidential and personal records,” Trump’s legal team wrote to Judge Eileen Cannon. The Trump appointee presiding over the case is seeking to have a third-party lawyer known as a special master review the documents for privilege issues.
Each of the Trump team’s claims is highly controversial and appears to run counter to most conventional readings of American law. The argument that Mar-a-Lago was a secure facility and that the evidence was kept in a locked room seems to ignore the fact that some of the 100 documents the FBI took from Trump’s home carried the highest levels of US government classification and will normally only be allowed to be viewed by a select level of officials in the highest security areas. And the Washington Post reported last week that secrets of a foreign state’s nuclear program were among the information the FBI took from his residence. Such information would be among the most protected and restricted information in the government’s possession.
Trump’s arguments may seem strange in many cases. But they could also achieve something he wants – delaying any potential formal legal moves against him for as long as possible, opening up even more appeals through layers of the court system.
In the case of the classified documents drama, that could mean the case stretches into the 2024 campaign, when Trump is expected to mount a bid to win back the White House. The former President has already criticized the Justice Department’s action as an example of political persecution, a charge that is sure to escalate during a presidential bid.
But new indications Monday about the overall nature of the investigations leading up to Jan. 6 raised the question of how long Trump can keep out of the multiple investigations stemming from his inability to accept his 2020 loss. .
