Smartmatic subpoenas Trump campaign in $2.7B lawsuit against Fox News
Source: raw story
Gideon Rubin May 10, 2023, 5:25 PM ET
Smartmatic, the voting technology company that filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News on allegations it spread falsehoods about its actions during the 2020 election, has subpoenaed Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, CNN’s Oliver Darcy reports.
Smartmatic is seeking a “wide array” of documents from the former president’s campaign, according to the report.
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The subpoena requires the Trump campaign to share with Smartmatic documents related to Fox News and fraudulent allegations the campaign made about the 2020 elections.
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Smartmatic has also subpoenaed former Attorney General Bill Barr........
E. Jean Carroll is weighing whether to file a new defamation lawsuit against former President Donald J. Trump in the wake of his diatribe against her during a CNN town hall Wednesday night, when he said her claim of a decades-old sexual assault was “fake” and a “made-up story,” her lawyer said on Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s comments on CNN came one day after a federal jury in Manhattan awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million in damages after finding Mr. Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s and liable for defaming her last year when he described her claim of assault as a “complete con job,” a “Hoax and a lie” in a social media post.
Ms. Carroll said on Thursday morning that she had been asleep as Mr. Trump talked about her on the town hall program. She said that her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, had sent her the transcript of his comments, and that she had read only the first paragraph.
“It’s just stupid, it’s just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people,” Ms. Carroll said in an interview with The New York Times, adding that she had been “insulted by better people.”
“Donald Trump’s comments Wednesday night about his handling of classified documents appeared to contradict statements by his lawyers, and provide potentially important evidence for federal prosecutors investigating whether to charge him with a crime,” NBC News reports.
Said former U.S. attorney John Fishwick: “Trump’s comments hurt him, and what he said is significant. Not only do they contradict his legal position, he admits to possession and knowledge of classified documents that he is taking from the White House. Jack Smith will make good use of last night’s town hall and it will help him button up his case.”
Georgia Prosecutor Signals August Timetable for Charges in Trump Inquiry
Source: New York Times
By Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim
May 19, 2023
Updated 2:41 a.m. ET
The Georgia prosecutor leading an investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his allies has taken the unusual step of announcing remote work days for most of her staff during the first three weeks of August, asking judges in a downtown Atlanta courthouse not to schedule trials for part of that time as she prepares to bring charges in the inquiry.
The moves suggest that Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, is expecting a grand jury to unseal indictments during that time period. Ms. Willis outlined the remote work plan and made the request to judges in a letter sent on Thursday to 21 Fulton County officials, including the chief county judge, Ural Glanville, and the sheriff, Pat Labat.
“Thank you for your consideration and assistance in keeping the Fulton County Judicial Complex safe during this time,” wrote Ms. Willis, who has already asked the F.B.I. to help with security in and around the courthouse.
Ms. Willis had said in a previous letter that any charges related to the Trump investigation would come in the grand jury term that runs from July 11 to Sept. 1. Her letter on Thursday appears to offer more specificity on timing.
Sarcaustic Steve
@probonoattorney
Hi Erica, while it's fantastic to see the wheels of Justice turn even if ever so slowly for Trump, this feels like unsubstantiated speculation. Do you have ANY foundation/source? Or is it just salacious clickbait gossip? It's frustrating to (repeatedly) see such posts.
'The special counsel's investigation into former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents has subpoenaed records from the Trump Organization, including foreign financial records from seven countries, The New York Times reported Monday.'
Trump allies 'bracing for indictment' as special counsel wraps up Mar-a-Lago document probe: report
Special counsel Jack Smith is finished with collecting testimony and other evidence in his investigation into Donald Trump's classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago, according to a report.
Reporting Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal revealed that those close to the former president are "bracing for his indictment" and are searching for ways "to fundraise off a prosecution."
On Monday, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department had subpoenaed financial documents from seven of Trump's overseas companies in conjunction with the documents probe.
Over the course of the investigation, Mar-a-Lago staff, Trump aides and lawyers have been called to testify before the grand jury. A number of the interviews have come in recent weeks as the probe comes to a close.
U.S. Prosecutors in Trump's criminal case say they have recording of Trump and a witness
Source: CBS News
Prosecutors in former President Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal case have released to his attorneys a recording of Trump and a witness, whose identity was not disclosed, according to a document the office made public Friday.
The document, called an automatic discovery form, describes the nature of the charges against a defendant and a broad overview of the evidence that prosecutors will present at Trump's preliminary hearing or at trial. Trump's attorneys and media organizations, including CBS News, had repeatedly requested that such a form be made public in the weeks since Trump's arrest on April 4.
Trump is the first former president in American history to face criminal charges. He has entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts of falsification of business records for alleged payments made as part of a "hush money" scheme. The document lists the dates of 34 instances between Feb. 14, 2017 and Dec. 5, 2017 when he allegedly falsified records.
In a section devoted to electronic evidence that will be turned over, a prosecutor for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office indicated they have disclosed to the defense a "recording of a conversation between defendant and a witness."
Donald Trump Sometimes Showed Classified Docs to Mar-a-Lago Visitors, According to Witnesses
Prosecutors have reportedly heard more than one testimony alleging that Trump was careless with classified documents, leaving them out in the open and at times showing them to people.
Witnesses are telling prosecutors that Donald Trump had a habit of showing classified documents to visitors at his private Mar-a-Lago club, according to a new Washington Post report.
Sources tell the outlet that the former president — who is currently running for the office again — has been accused by witnesses of keeping classified documents in an area of his office where they were visible, at times showing them to people who visited him.
The report comes as Trump, 76, is mired in an ongoing criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into whether he violated statutes related to national security by allegedly mishandling classified documents he allegedly removed from the White House at the end of his presidency.
Trump White House Aides Subpoenaed in Firing of Election Security Expert
Source: New York Times
The special counsel investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election has subpoenaed staff members from the Trump White House who may have been involved in firing the government cybersecurity official whose agency judged the election “the most secure in American history,” according to two people briefed on the matter.
The team led by the special counsel, Jack Smith, has been asking witnesses about the events surrounding the firing of Christopher Krebs, who was the Trump administration’s top cybersecurity official during the 2020 election. Mr. Krebs’s assessment that the election was secure was at odds with Mr. Trump’s baseless assertions that it was a “fraud on the American public.”
Mr. Smith’s team is also seeking information about how White House officials, including in the Presidential Personnel Office, approached the Justice Department, which Mr. Trump turned to after his election loss as a way to try to stay in power, people familiar with the questions said.
The investigators appear focused on Mr. Trump’s state of mind around the firing of Mr. Krebs, as well as on establishing a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. The latest subpoenas, issued roughly two weeks ago, went to officials in the personnel office, according to the two people familiar with the matter.
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Federal prosecutors have obtained an audio recording of a summer 2021 meeting in which former President Donald Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, multiple sources told CNN, undercutting his argument that he declassified everything.
The recording indicates Trump understood he retained classified material after leaving the White House, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation. On the recording, Trump’s comments suggest he would like to share the information but he’s aware of limitations on his ability post-presidency to declassify records, two of the sources said.
CNN has not listened to the recording, but multiple sources described it. One source said the relevant portion on the Iran document is about two minutes long, and another source said the discussion is a small part of a much longer meeting.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department investigation into Trump, has focused on the meeting as part of the criminal investigation into Trump’s handling of national security secrets. Sources describe the recording as an “important” piece of evidence in a possible case against Trump, who has repeatedly asserted he could retain presidential records and “automatically” declassify documents.
