General Discussion

...you completely ignore that, even as the case was before Judge Chutkan, the Supreme Court gave Trump immunity for 'official acts' which forced Smith to revise the charges to counter that interference by the maga majority months before the election.

September 5, 2024

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Thursday accused Donald Trump's lawyers of trying to stop potentially damaging evidence of his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss from becoming public before the Nov. 5 election, while acknowledging the case would not go to trial before then.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan also gave prosecutors what is likely their last chance to divulge evidence in the case before the election, ordering Special Counsel Jack Smith to respond by Sept. 26 to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

Thomas Windom, a prosecutor in Smith's office, told Chutkan prosecutors were prepared to reveal potentially new evidence in their filing to argue that their remaining case against Trump is not affected by the high court's ruling and should proceed to trial.

A revised indictment obtained by Smith in August preserved the same four charges first brought last year, but dropped allegations the Supreme Court found could not remain part of the case.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-judge-weigh-path-forward-100455749.html

...did you want them to investigate the rioter's ties to the Trump WH, or not?


Several months after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, FBI investigators began pursuing a tantalizing tip suggesting that Donald Trump had possibly met with members of the Proud Boys, the far-right group that took part in some of the most brutal violence that day, people briefed on the investigation told CNN.
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For months, the FBI and a team of prosecutors looked for potential links between Trump’s inner circle and the Proud Boys, whose leader was ultimately found guilty of seditious conspiracy and is serving 22 years in prison, the longest sentence of any January 6 defendant.

Investigators spent much of that summer poring over call records of Proud Boys members and conducting scores of interviews. They homed in on a period in late 2020, when an informant alleged an interaction between Trump or his inner circle and the Proud Boys occurred.

Prosecutors inside the Justice Department also dug through reams of opaque financial records, searching for any direct links between Trump and the organizations that brought “Stop the Steal” rallygoers to Washington for his speech ahead of the Capitol attack. From there, they examined the so-called war room setup at the Willard hotel in Washington, where Steve Bannon and other Trump supporters strategized how to thwart the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

In the end, no direct criminal links to Trump emerged. The suspected Proud Boys meeting, the Willard hotel room and the rally fundraising were all dead ends.

“The evidence just wasn’t there,” one former Justice Department official told CNN.

While federal investigators continued to pursue Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, mostly done in plain sight, they always faced long odds and a ticking political clock. The countdown compressed as Trump went from party pariah to inevitable Republican nominee, and expired once he won reelection.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-judge-weigh-path-forward-100455749.html

...also, if you take the time to read Smith's revised indictment reissued in September 2024, you'll see references to the Willard Hotel and passages about Trump influencing the rioters to attack the Capitol.