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When former President Donald J. Trump appears in court before Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on charges of conspiring to subvert American democracy, it will not be the first time she has dealt with high-profile questions related to Mr. Trump’s attempts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. Nearly two years ago, Judge Chutkan rejected Mr. Trump's efforts to prevent his White House records from being given to the House committee investigating his actions leading up to and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by his supporters — delivering a swift and sharp rebuke about the limits of his ability as former president to invoke executive privilege. “Presidents are not kings,” she wrote, “and plaintiff is not president.”It is not clear when Judge Chutkan, 61, and Mr. Trump will first meet. He is set to appear before a magistrate judge for an initial court appearance on Thursday, where he is likely to be arraigned and enter a plea of not guilty — just as he did in June in a separate case involving his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Tanya S, Chutkan, Trump’s, ”, “, Judge Chutkan Organizations: Capitol, White

☆ Here Are the Charges Trump Faces in the Jan. 6 Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Here is a closer look at the charges. One of the charges, a conspiracy to violate rights, is Section 241 of Title 18 of the United States Code. A conviction on this charge is punishable by up to five years in prison. But in a series of cases in the 20th century, the Supreme Court upheld expanding use of the statute to election-fraud conspiracies, like ballot-box stuffing. In invoking the statute, the indictment frames it as “a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.” Essentially, Mr. Smith has accused Mr. Trump of trying to rig the outcome of the election to falsely claim victory.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Smith Organizations: United, Ku Klux Klan Locations: United States

☆ Intelligence Board Recommends Curbing F.B.I.’s Power to Use Surveillance Program
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The White House was studying the recommendation, a senior administration official said in a background briefing on Monday. The program traces back to a once secret warrantless surveillance program that the George W. Bush administration started after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. After the program was exposed, Congress legalized a version of it. The U.S. government can currently use the program to gather information about other governments, counterterrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. How the government can use its database of intercepts that have been already collected when scrutinizing Americans has been a subject of heated debate.

Persons: “, George W, Bush Organizations: Google, National Security Agency Locations: U.S

☆ Biden Orders U.S. to Share Evidence of Russian War Crimes With Hague Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden has quietly ordered the U.S. government to begin sharing evidence of Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, according to officials familiar with the matter, signaling a major shift in American policy. The decision, made by Mr. Biden in recent days, overrides months of resistance by the Pentagon, which argued that it could pave the way for the court to prosecute American troops, according to the officials. It was unclear why Mr. Biden let the impasse linger or what finally led him to resolve it. Already, they have shared some of that evidence with Ukrainian prosecutors but had refrained from doing so with The Hague. Since the International Criminal Court was created by a 1998 treaty to investigate war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, administrations of both parties have viewed it with wariness and sometimes hostility.

Persons: Biden, Mr Organizations: International Criminal, Pentagon Locations: Ukraine, The Hague, Hague

☆ Judge Vacates Bowe Bergdahl’s Conviction and Dishonorable Discharge
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a 63-page ruling, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia vacated all the court-martial proceedings against Sergeant Bergdahl after October 2017. At the time, the military judge in the case, Jeffery R. Nance, then an Army colonel, applied for a job with the Justice Department under President Donald J. Trump, a step he did not disclose. Mr. Trump had repeatedly railed against the sergeant, calling him a traitor and suggesting that he be executed. The ruling could lead to a second trial before a new judge. In pleading guilty to desertion and to endangering the American troops sent to search for him at his court-martial, Sergeant Bergdahl had his rank reduced to private and was dishonorably discharged.

Persons: Bowe Bergdahl, Reggie B, Walton, Sergeant Bergdahl, Jeffery R, Nance, Donald J, Trump, Eugene R Organizations: Army, Federal, Court, District of Columbia, Justice Department Locations: Afghanistan

☆ F.B.I. Botched Query on Senator Even as Its Adherence to Wiretap Program Rules Rose
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

analyst improperly used a high-profile warrantless surveillance program to conduct overly broad searches about two lawmakers, including a U.S. senator, last June, a newly declassified court ruling released on Friday shows, even as the bureau has overall improved compliance with limits on the program. But the queries were too wide-ranging, using only their last names without limiting terms to screen out irrelevant material, it said. A series of earlier disclosures about recent violations of querying standards by the F.B.I. — many of which took place before a series of internal changes in 2021 and 2022 — has given fodder to its skeptics. Known as Section 702, the law traces back to 2008 when Congress legalized a version of a warrantless surveillance program secretly created after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Persons: — Organizations: Google

☆ Trump’s Legal Woes Mount as Trial Dates and Campaign Calendar Collide
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As former President Donald J. Trump campaigns for the White House while multiple criminal prosecutions against him play out, at least one thing is clear: Under the laws of physics, he cannot be in two places at once. Generally, criminal defendants must be present in the courtroom during their trials. Not only will that force Mr. Trump to step away from the campaign trail, possibly for weeks at a time, but the judges overseeing his trials must also jostle for position in sequencing dates. The collision course is raising extraordinary — and unprecedented — questions about the logistical, legal and political challenges of various trials unfolding against the backdrop of a presidential campaign. “The courts will have to decide how to balance the public interest in having expeditious trials against Trump’s interest and the public interest in his being able to campaign so that the democratic process works,” said Bruce Green, a Fordham University professor and former prosecutor.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ”, Bruce Green, “ Organizations: Trump, White, Fordham University

Federal prosecutors have introduced a new twist in the Jan. 6 investigation by suggesting in a target letter that they could charge former President Donald J. Trump with violating a civil rights statute that dates back to the post-Civil War Reconstruction era, according to three people familiar with the matter. The letter to Mr. Trump from the special counsel, Jack Smith, referred to three criminal statutes as part of the grand jury investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election loss, according to two people with knowledge of its contents. Two of the statutes were familiar from the criminal referral by the House Jan. 6 committee and months of discussion by legal experts: conspiracy to defraud the government and obstruction of an official proceeding. But the third criminal law cited in the letter was a surprise: Section 241 of Title 18 of the United States Code, which makes it a crime for people to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” in the “free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”Congress enacted that statute after the Civil War to provide a tool for federal agents to go after Southern whites, including Ku Klux Klan members, who engaged in terrorism to prevent formerly enslaved African Americans from voting. But in the modern era, it has been used more broadly, including in cases of voting fraud conspiracies.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jack Smith, “ Organizations: Trump, United States Code, Ku Klux Klan Locations: United States, ”, Southern

☆ Target Letter to Trump Raises Possibility of Obstruction and Fraud Charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Charlie Savage | More About Charlie Savage | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But since the Capitol attack — in part because of revelations by a House committee investigation and news reports — many legal specialists and commentators have converged on several charges that are particularly likely, especially obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the government. Norman Eisen, who worked for the House Judiciary Committee during Mr. Trump’s first impeachment and contributed to a prosecution memo modeling potential Jan. 6-related charges, said that the target letter suggested the special counsel “has more than enough evidence” to bring a case against the former president. “By leading the effort to procure fraudulent electoral certificates across the nation, Trump helmed a conspiracy to defraud the U.S.,” Mr. Eisen said. “And by using those false documents to press Mike Pence to disrupt the Jan. 6 meeting of Congress, Trump attempted to obstruct an official proceeding.”There have also been signs that prosecutors have explored potential charges involving wire or mail fraud related to Mr. Trump’s fund-raising efforts in the name of overturning the election results. Any charges in the District of Columbia — where federal grand juries have been hearing evidence — would raise additional legal peril for Mr. Trump.

Persons: Norman Eisen, Trump’s, “, Trump, ”, Eisen, Mike Pence Organizations: Mr, District of Columbia, Justice Department Locations: District, Palm Beach County, Fla, Lago

Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands. Their plans to centralize more power in the Oval Office stretch far beyond the former president’s recent remarks that he would order a criminal investigation into his political rival, President Biden, signaling his intent to end the post-Watergate norm of Justice Department independence from White House political control. Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him. Mr. Trump intends to bring independent agencies — like the Federal Communications Commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden Organizations: White House, Justice Department, White, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission

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