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Dominic Pezzola, the rank-and-file member of the Proud Boys who led the charge into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by shattering a window with a stolen police riot shield, was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison. It was only half of the 20 years that the government had requested and less than the punishment meted out to several rioters found guilty of assaulting the police. Mr. Pezzola, a flooring contractor from Rochester, N.Y., was the only one of the five men charged in the case who was found not guilty of sedition at the trial in Federal District Court in Washington. But the jury convicted him of six other felonies, including assaulting a police officer, a conspiracy to keep members of Congress from certifying the election and the destruction of one of the Capitol building’s windows. Despite telling Judge Timothy J. Kelly, who has overseen the Proud Boys sedition case, that he was remorseful and had given up on politics, Mr. Pezzola raised his fist before he was removed from the courtroom and shouted, “Trump won!”

Persons: Dominic Pezzola, Pezzola, Timothy J, Kelly, “ Trump Organizations: Capitol, Mr, Federal, Court Locations: Rochester, N.Y, Washington

Joseph Biggs, a onetime lieutenant in the Proud Boys, was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison after his conviction on charges of seditious conspiracy for plotting with a gang of pro-Trump followers to attack the Capitol and disrupt the peaceful transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Biggs’s sentence was one of the stiffest penalties issued so far in more than 1,100 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol attack and among only a handful to have been legally labeled an act of terrorism. It was just over half of the 33 years the government had requested and just shy of the 18-year term given in May to Stewart Rhodes, the leader of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers militia, who was also found guilty of sedition. One of Mr. Biggs’s co-defendants, Zachary Rehl, is scheduled to be sentenced in front of Judge Kelly on Thursday afternoon. The Proud Boys — who had been fighting on the streets since 2017 for a range of far-right causes — became a central focus of the F.B.I.’s investigation into Jan. 6 within days of the Capitol attack.

Persons: Joseph Biggs, Stewart Rhodes, Judge Timothy J, Kelly, Enrique Tarrio, Biggs’s, Zachary Rehl, Judge Kelly, — Organizations: Trump, Federal, Court Locations: Washington

☆ Giuliani Is Liable for Defaming Georgia Election Workers, Judge Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Rudolph W. Giuliani was liable for defaming two Georgia election workers by repeatedly declaring that they had mishandled ballots while counting votes in Atlanta during the 2020 election. A lawyer for Mr. Giuliani declined to comment. Judge Howell’s decision came a little more than a month after Mr. Giuliani conceded in two stipulations in the case that he had made false statements when he accused the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, of manipulating ballots while working at the State Farm Arena for the Fulton County Board of Elections. Mr. Giuliani later sought to explain that his stipulations were solely meant to get past a dispute with Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss about discovery evidence in the case and move toward dismissing the allegations outright. But Judge Howell, complaining that Mr. Giuliani’s stipulations “hold more holes than Swiss cheese,” took the proactive step of declaring him liable for “defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy and punitive damage claims.”

Persons: Rudolph W, Giuliani, Beryl A, Howell, Donald J, Howell’s, Ruby Freeman, Shaye Moss, Mr, Freeman, Moss, Judge Howell, ” Organizations: Court, Farm Arena, Fulton County Locations: Georgia, Atlanta, Federal, Washington, Fulton

☆ Judge Sets Trial Date in March for Trump’s Federal Election Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s prosecution on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election set a trial date on Monday for early March, laying out a schedule that was close to the government’s initial request of January and that rebuffed Mr. Trump’s extraordinary proposal to push off the proceeding until nearly a year and half after the 2024 election. The decision by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, issued at a contentious hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, to start the trial on March 4 potentially brought it into conflict with two other trials that Mr. Trump is facing that month. The district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., has proposed taking Mr. Trump to trial on charges of tampering with the election in that state on the same day. A second trial in Manhattan, in which Mr. Trump has been accused of more than 30 felonies connected to hush-money payments to a porn actress in the run-up the 2016 election, is set to go to trial on March 25. While Judge Chutkan noted that she had already spoken to the judge in the Manhattan case, the fact that three of the four criminal cases confronting Mr. Trump could go before separate juries in separate cities within weeks of one another reflects the extraordinary nature of the former president’s legal situation.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Tanya S, Chutkan, Trump, Judge Chutkan Organizations: Federal, Court Locations: Washington, Fulton County ,, Manhattan

☆ Hearings Set for Monday in Two Election Cases Against Trump
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By the end of Monday, another piece could be put in place in the complicated jigsaw puzzle of the four criminal cases facing former President Donald J. Trump: A date could be chosen for Mr. Trump’s federal trial on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election. At a hearing scheduled for Monday morning in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan is set to consider — and may select — the date of the trial. As Judge Chutkan considers the arguments, another legal proceeding related to Mr. Trump will be playing out on Monday in federal court in Atlanta, underscoring the complexity of bringing the charges against him to trial. Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., recently proposed starting a trial in her case against Mr. Trump, on charges of tampering with the 2020 election in that state, in March. But that date remains somewhat uncertain not only because of the jockeying among prosecutors over the timing of the different cases, but also because some of Mr. Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the case have asked for the trial to start as early as this fall while others want to slow things down.

Persons: Donald J, Tanya S, Judge Chutkan, Trump, Fani, Willis, Trump’s Organizations: Trump, Mr, Court Locations: Washington, Atlanta, Fulton County ,

Mr. De Oliveira was also charged in the superseding indictment, which cited testimony from a witness who appeared to be Mr. Taveras. Mr. Taveras has not been charged in the case. Mr. Woodward’s fees have been paid by Save America, the political action committee aligned with Mr. Trump. The PAC was seeded with small donations from Mr. Trump’s supporters, who responded to his calls to help him prove what he falsely claimed was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Trump advisers have insisted that there is no connection between any witness’s testimony and payment of their legal fees.

Persons: De Oliveira, Taveras, Trump, Trump’s, James E, “, Judge Boasberg, Woodward, Nauta, ” Organizations: Save America, Mr, Trump, First, Federal Locations: Mar, Washington

This winter, after receiving a subpoena from a grand jury investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Mark Meadows commenced a delicate dance with federal prosecutors. Yet Mr. Meadows — Mr. Trump’s final White House chief of staff — initially declined to answer certain questions, sticking to his former boss’s position that they were shielded by executive privilege. But when prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, challenged Mr. Trump’s executive privilege claims before a judge, Mr. Meadows pivoted. Even though he risked enraging Mr. Trump, he decided to trust Mr. Smith’s team, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Meadows quietly arranged to talk with them not only about the steps the former president took to stay in office, but also about his handling of classified documents after he left.

Persons: Donald J, Trump’s, Mark Meadows, Meadows, —, Jack Smith, Mr, Trump, Smith’s Organizations: White House, Mr, Republican Locations: Washington, Georgia

☆ Prosecutors Criticize Trump’s Request for 2026 Trial Date in Jan. 6 Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal prosecutors pushed back on Monday against former President Donald J. Trump’s request to postpone his election interference trial in Washington until well into 2026, asserting that his main reason for the delay — the amount of evidence his lawyers have to sort through — was vastly overstated. Mr. Trump’s lawyers, in an extremely aggressive move last week, asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, to put the trial off until at least April 2026. That schedule would call for a jury to be seated nearly a year and a half after the 2024 election and almost three years after the charges against Mr. Trump were originally filed. The lawyers said they needed so much time because the amount of discovery evidence they expect to receive from the government was enormous — as much as 8.5 terabytes of materials, they told Judge Chutkan, totaling over 11.5 million pages. As part of their filing to the judge, the lawyers included a graph that purported to show how a stack of 11.5 million pages would result in a “tower of paper stretching nearly 5,000 feet into the sky.” That, the lawyers pointed out, was “taller than the Washington Monument, stacked on top of itself eight times, with nearly a million pages to spare.”

Persons: Donald J, Tanya S, Chutkan, Trump, Judge Chutkan Organizations: Mr Locations: Washington

It remains unclear why Mr. Chesebro was with Mr. Jones’s group outside the Capitol or how he came to be with them. A lawyer for Mr. Jones said that Mr. Jones was unaware that Mr. Chesebro had been following his entourage that day. Wearing a red MAGA hat, Mr. Chesebro can be seen joining Mr. Jones’s group outside the Capitol shortly before 2 p.m. that day, according to the photographs and video reviewed by The Times. Mr. Jones and Mr. Alexander were among the first “Stop the Steal” activists to draw attention from federal prosecutors investigating the Capitol riot. As early as April 2022, Mr. Jones reached out to the Justice Department in an unsuccessful effort to secure an immunity deal in exchange for information.

Persons: Chesebro, Jones, Trump’s, Trump, Joseph R, Biden, Jack Smith, Mike Pence, Mr, Alexander, Owen Shroyer, Jones’s, — Organizations: Capitol, Mr, The Times, Justice Department Locations: Fulton County ,, Washington

☆ 33 Years, Stiffest Jan. 6 Sentence So Far, Sought for Proud Boys Leaders
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Federal prosecutors recommended on Thursday that two top leaders of the far-right Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol be sentenced to 33 years in prison, the stiffest penalties requested so far out of more than 1,000 people charged in the sprawling investigation. In seeking to severely punish the two Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the group, and Joseph Biggs, one of Mr. Tarrio’s top lieutenants, prosecutors asked the judge in the case to increase their sentences with what is known as a terrorism enhancement. “The defendants understood the stakes, and they embraced their role in bringing about a ‘revolution,’” the prosecutors wrote in a 155-page filing to Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court in Washington. “They failed. They are not heroes; they are criminals.”

Persons: Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Tarrio’s, ’, Timothy J, Kelly, “, ”, Donald J Organizations: Capitol, U.S, Trump Locations: Washington

☆ Trump’s Lawyers Seek April 2026 Start to Jan. 6 Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And that was only three weeks before the March 25 start date for Mr. Trump’s fourth trial — one that will take place in Manhattan on charges related to hush money payments made to a porn star in the weeks before the 2016 election. Some of the former president’s advisers have made no secret of the fact that he is looking to win the next election as a way to try to solve his legal problems. If Mr. Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, can push the federal trials until after the election and prevail, he could seek to pardon himself after taking office or have his attorney general simply dismiss the matter altogether. To that end, his lawyers have sought various ways to slow prosecutors in their race to get to trial and have tried to delay the proceedings where they can. At a subsequent hearing, they told Judge Cannon that she should push back the trial until after the 2024 election because, among other reasons, Mr. Trump could never get a fair jury in the maelstrom of news media attention surrounding the race.

Persons: Trump’s, Trump, Aileen M, Cannon, Judge Cannon Locations: Manhattan

☆ Texas Woman Charged With Threatening to Kill Judge in Trump Election Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Trump has a long history of verbally attacking judges and other people involved in the criminal cases brought against him, particularly on social media. Almost immediately, Mr. Trump tested the boundaries of Judge Chutkan’s admonition by posting a series of messages on Truth Social that largely amplified the criticism that other people had lodged against her. VERY BIASED & UNFAIR.”The posts criticizing Judge Chutkan were published after Ms. Shry’s voice mail message. When federal agents visited Ms. Shry at home three days after she left the message for Judge Chutkan, she admitted that she had called the judge’s chambers, the complaint said. Ms. Shry told the agents that she had no plans to go to Washington or to Houston, the area that Ms. Lee represents.

Persons: Trump, Judge Chutkan, Mr, Trump’s, Mike Davis, “, she’s, Shry, Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, Alvin Organizations: Trump, ” Locations: Washington, Houston

Just days ago, the judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s prosecution on charges of seeking to subvert the 2020 election admonished him against violating the conditions of his release put in place at his arraignment — including by making “inflammatory statements” that could be construed as possibly intimidating witnesses or other people involved in the case. But Mr. Trump immediately tested that warning by posting a string of messages on his social media website, Truth Social, that largely amplified others criticizing the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan. In one post, written by an ally of Mr. Trump’s, the lawyer Mike Davis, a large photo of Judge Chutkan accompanied text that falsely claimed she had “openly admitted she’s running election interference against Trump.” In two other posts, Mr. Trump wrote, “She obviously wants me behind bars. VERY BIASED & UNFAIR.”After eight years of pushing back at a number of institutions in the United States, Mr. Trump is now probing the limits of what the criminal justice system will tolerate and the lines that Judge Chutkan sought to lay out about what he can — and cannot — say about the election interference case she is overseeing. He has waged a similarly defiant campaign against others involved in criminal cases against him, denouncing Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two federal indictments against him, as “deranged”; casting Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., as “corrupt”; and even singling out witnesses.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Tanya S, Mr, Trump’s, Mike Davis, Judge Chutkan, “, she’s, ”, Chutkan, Jack Smith, Willis Organizations: Trump, ” Locations: United States, Fulton County ,

The federal prosecutors who charged former President Donald J. Trump this month with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election got access this winter to a trove of so-called direct messages that Mr. Trump sent others privately through his Twitter account, according to court papers unsealed on Tuesday. While it remained unclear what sorts of information the messages contained and who exactly may have written them, it was a revelation that there were private messages associated with the Twitter account of Mr. Trump, who has famously been cautious about using written forms of communications in his dealings with aides and allies. The court papers disclosing that prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, obtained direct messages from Mr. Trump’s Twitter account emerged from a fight with Twitter over the legality of executing a warrant on the former president’s social media. Days after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the platform shut down his account. The papers included transcripts of hearings in Federal District Court in Washington in February during which Judge Beryl A. Howell asserted that Mr. Smith’s office had sought Mr. Trump’s direct messages — or DMs — from Twitter as part of a search warrant it executed on the account in January.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Jack Smith, Beryl A, Howell Organizations: Twitter, Capitol, Court Locations: Washington

A grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., on Monday unveiled the fourth criminal indictment of former President Donald J. Trump. Like a federal indictment earlier this month, this one concerns Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. But it differs in that it charges 18 other defendants who are alleged to have taken part in the scheme. The 41 Counts in the Georgia Indictment 22 counts Related to forgery or false documents and statements 8 counts Related to soliciting or impersonating public officers 3 counts Related to influencing witnesses 3 counts Related to election fraud or defrauding the state 3 counts Related to computer tampering 1 count Related to racketeering 1 count Related to perjuryThe New York Times is annotating the document. Download the full PDF.

Persons: Donald J Organizations: Trump, New York Times Locations: Fulton County ,, Georgia

Image Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and lawyer for Mr. Trump, was charged as well in the indictment. The indictment bundles together several efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse the election results in Georgia. The two women served as election workers in Georgia in 2020 and were wrongfully accused of fraud by Mr. Trump and his allies. Patrick Labat, the Fulton County sheriff, said this month that unless he was told otherwise, Mr. Trump would be booked in the same way as any other defendant. Image Mr. Trump has until Aug. 25 to surrender in Fulton County, where he would be arraigned on the charges and enter a plea.

Persons: District Attorney Fani, Willis, Donald Trump, Donald J, Trump, Fani T, Ms, Jon Cherry, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Trump’s, Rudolph W, Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John C, Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Nicole Craine, Robert Cheeley, Ray Smith III, Ruby Freeman, Shaye Moss, Shuran Huang, Patrick Labat, Kenny Holston, New York Times Trump, Ché Alexander, Richard Fausset, Danny Hakim, Anna Betts Organizations: District Attorney, Mr, Trump, Organization, . Credit, The New York Times, New, New York City, The New York, New York Times, Reuters, court’s Locations: Fulton County, Georgia, Atlanta, New York, Michigan , Arizona, Pennsylvania, Coffee County, Fulton

☆ Prosecutors Object to Trump’s Proposal to Discuss Evidence at Mar-a-Lago
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The federal prosecutors overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald J. Trump objected on Monday to his proposal to discuss highly sensitive discovery evidence at a secure location at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence in Florida. Last week, Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who is presiding over the case, to let the former president discuss the classified discovery evidence in the “secure facility” that he once used for such materials when he was in office. That facility, the lawyers said, was “at or near his residence,” an apparent reference to Mar-a-Lago, which is in West Palm Beach. But in their own filing to Judge Cannon, prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, said that Mr. Trump was seeking “special treatment that no other criminal defendant would receive” by requesting to discuss the classified material at home. “In essence,” one of the prosecutors, Jay I. Bratt, wrote, “he is asking to be the only defendant ever in a case involving classified information (at least to the government’s knowledge) who would be able to discuss classified information in a private residence.”

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Judge Aileen M, Cannon, ”, Judge Cannon, Jack Smith, Jay I, Bratt, “ Locations: Mar, Florida, West Palm

Mr. Trump was also charged with attempting to obstruct an official proceeding — the certification of the election results by Congress. The indictment said Mr. Trump and six unnamed co-conspirators had pushed state legislators and election officials to change electoral votes won by Mr. Biden to votes for Mr. Trump. The July indictment accused Mr. Trump, Mr. De Oliveira and Mr. Nauta of trying to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage. Rather than publish her account, the tabloid suppressed it in cooperation with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, prosecutors say. Mr. Trump faced a second criminal investigation in New York related to financial dealings at a Trump Organization golf course in Westchester County.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Jack Smith, Alvin L, Bragg, Joseph R, Biden Jr, Biden, Prosecutors, Mike Pence, Mr, Smith, Walt Nauta, Smith’s, Carlos De Oliveira, De Oliveira, Nauta, ’, Stormy Daniels, Michael D, Cohen, Daniels, Karen McDougal, McDougal, Bragg’s, Juan M, Merchan, “ Trump, Merchan’s, Mimi E, Rocah, Letitia James, James, Donald Jr, Eric, Ivanka Trump, Maggie Haberman, Glenn Thrush, Jonah E, Rebecca Davis O’Brien, Michael Gold, Michael Rothfeld, Ed Shanahan, Richard Fausset, Ashley Wong Organizations: Mr, Capitol, Federal, Court, Congress, Justice Department, Mar, Manhattan, National Enquirer, Trump Tower, U.S, Trump Organization, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, New York, Civil, New, Trump Locations: Manhattan, Lago, United States, Palm Beach, Fla, Mar, New York, Westchester County, Bromwich

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s prosecution on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election rejected his request on Friday to be able to speak broadly about evidence and witnesses — and warned Mr. Trump she would take necessary “measures” to keep him from intimidating witnesses or tainting potential jurors. The caution from the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, came during a 90-minute hearing in Federal District Court in Washington to discuss the scope of a protective order over the discovery evidence in Mr. Trump’s case, a typically routine step in criminal matters. Judge Chutkan said she planned to impose the order but agreed to a modification requested by the Trump legal team that it apply only to “sensitive” materials and not all evidence turned over to the defense. She concluded the hearing with a blunt warning to Mr. Trump, and an unmistakable reference to a recent social media post in which he warned, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!” — a statement his spokesman later said was aimed at political opponents and not at people involved in the case. “I do want to issue a general word of caution — I intend to ensure the orderly administration of justice in this case as I would in any other case, and even arguably ambiguous statements by the parties or their counsel,” she said, could be considered an attempt to “intimidate witnesses or prejudice potential jurors,” triggering the court to take action.

Persons: Donald J, —, Trump, Tanya S, Chutkan, Judge Chutkan, I’m, ” Organizations: Federal, Court, Trump Locations: Washington

☆ Special Counsel Proposes January Date for Trump’s Election Interference Trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The prosecutors overseeing the indictment of former President Donald J. Trump on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election asked a judge on Thursday to set a trial date in the case for early January, laying out an aggressive schedule for the proceeding. The prosecutors further proposed that Mr. Trump’s lawyers submit their first pretrial motions in not much more than a month. Mr. Trump’s legal team will get to suggest its own timetable for the case next week and will surely object to the government’s proposal. If accepted, the accelerated schedule would make the election interference case the first of the three criminal cases that Mr. Trump now faces to be put in front of a jury. In their filing to Judge Chutkan, the prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, said the rapid pace they suggested was needed given the gravity and historic nature of the charges.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Tanya S, Chutkan, Judge Chutkan, Jack Smith Organizations: Federal, Court Locations: Washington

☆ Trump Seeks to Review Classified Evidence at His Own Secure Facility
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday asked the judge overseeing his prosecution on charges of risking national security secrets if he could discuss the classified discovery evidence in the case in the “secure facility” that he once used for classified material when he was in office. The request to the federal judge, Aileen M. Cannon, was an attempt to get around a stricter provision contained in a protective order proposed by the government that would require Mr. Trump to discuss and review the classified evidence only in one of the highly secure locations run by the federal courts in Florida. While Mr. Trump’s lawyers refused to offer many details about their preferred location, they told Judge Cannon that it was “a previously approved facility at or near his residence” — an apparent reference to Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida. Christopher M. Kise, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said the request to allow the former president to re-establish “the same secure area” for classified material would cut down on the “immense practical and logistical hurdles and costs” of having Mr. Trump travel to one of the sensitive compartmented information facilities, or SCIFs, run by the courts.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Aileen M, Cannon, Judge Cannon, ” —, Christopher M Organizations: Wednesday, Mr Locations: Florida

☆ Special Counsel Obtained Search Warrant for Trump’s Twitter Account
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Prosecutors working for Jack Smith, the special counsel who has twice brought indictments against former President Donald J. Trump, obtained a search warrant early this year for Mr. Trump’s long-dormant Twitter account as part of their inquiry into his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, according to court papers unsealed on Wednesday. The warrant, which was signed by a federal judge in Washington in January after Elon Musk took over Twitter, now called X, is the first known example of prosecutors directly searching Mr. Trump’s communications and adds a new dimension to the scope of the special counsel’s efforts to investigate the former president. The court papers, which emerged from an appeal by Twitter challenging a part of the judge’s decision to issue the warrant, did not reveal what prosecutors were looking for in Mr. Trump’s Twitter account, which the tech company shut down for nearly two years soon after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But the papers indicate that prosecutors got permission from the judge not to tell Mr. Trump for months that they had obtained the warrant for his account. The prosecutors feared that if Mr. Trump learned about the warrant, it “would seriously jeopardize the ongoing investigation” by giving him “an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior, [or] notify confederates,” the papers said.

Persons: Jack Smith, Donald J, Trump, Trump’s, Elon Musk Organizations: Mr, Elon, Twitter, Capitol Locations: Washington

☆ What to Know About Prosecutors’ Request for Protective Order in Jan. 6 Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Alan Feuer | More About Alan Feuer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Their argument was inferential, asserting that a protective order was “particularly important” in this case because Mr. Trump has a longstanding habit of attacking those involved in criminal cases against him. Here is what to know about the protective order and what to expect. Discovery evidence represents the bulk of the information that criminal investigators collect during an inquiry. If the discovery evidence is particularly damning, it can also cause lawyers to advise their clients to plead guilty. Protective orders are typically put in place over discovery material to ensure that the case moves forward in an orderly fashion and with a measure of decorum.

Persons: Trump, Judge Chutkan, Trump’s, Mr

Shortly after, in a standard move early in a criminal prosecution, the government filed its request for a protective order in the case to Judge Chutkan. A short time after the government’s filing, Mr. Trump’s campaign issued a statement with no aide’s name attached, insisting he was practicing his First Amendment rights. “The Truth post cited is the definition of political speech,” the statement said, adding that it was in response to “dishonest special interest groups” and political committees attacking him. That Mr. Trump is a political candidate exercising free speech is going to be an element of his defense in the latest case against him. (It includes the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who has brought a civil action case.)

Persons: Judge Chutkan, Trump “, ”, Trump’s, Trump, Biden, Letitia James Organizations: “ IF, Prosecutors, Twitter, New Locations: New York

M. Evan Corcoran, a lawyer who accompanied former President Donald J. Trump to court this week for his arraignment on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election, has given crucial evidence in Mr. Trump’s other federal case — the one accusing him of illegally hoarding classified documents. Another lawyer close to Mr. Trump, Boris Epshteyn, sat for an interview with prosecutors this spring and could be one of the former president’s co-conspirators in the election tampering case. And Mr. Epshteyn’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, is defending Mr. Trump against both the documents and election case indictments. The legal team that Mr. Trump has assembled to represent him in the twin prosecutions by the special counsel, Jack Smith, is marked by a tangled web of potential conflicts and overlapping interests — so much so that Mr. Smith’s office has started asking questions.

Persons: Evan Corcoran, Donald J, Trump, Boris Epshteyn, Epshteyn’s, Todd Blanche, Jack Smith

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