Friday, March 24, 2023

Executive privilege rejected for more than attorney Corcoran

These rejections by Judge Howell indicates she believes the DOJ has presented credible evidence that there are underlying crimes, forfeiting the claim of executive privilege.  Corcoran's testimony is for the classified documents case; these guys are for the insurrection case.
DONALD TRUMP’S CLAIMS of “executive privilege” will not block key administration deputies from testifying before the federal grand jury investigating the former president for his campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election and his role in the bloody events of Jan. 6.

As reported by ABC and CNN, a federal judge has dismissed Trump’s bid to prevent Special Counsel Jack Smith from questioning White House witnesses about their former boss. Judge Beryl Howell issued the decision in a sealed order last week.

The judicial order, per the reports, paves the way for Smith to compel testimony from top Trump deputies and loyalists including:

- Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff
- Dan Scavino, Trump’s social media maven
- Stephen Miller, the far-right Trump adviser and speechwriter
- John Ratcliffe, the ex Director of National Intelligence
- Ken Cuccineli, a former top Homeland Security official

  Rolling Stone
All of them know where all the bodies are buried. I suppose they will most often take the 5th. I'll be interested in seeing where it all goes, particularly if any of them are then targeted for prosecution.

And, of course, we have to go through appeals first.
The former president is predictably pissed. “The DOJ is continuously stepping far outside the standard norms in attempting to destroy the long accepted, long held, Constitutionally based standards of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege,” a Trump spokesperson told ABC in a statement that also alleged: “There is no factual or legal basis or substance to any case against President Trump. The deranged Democrats and their comrades in the mainstream media are corrupting the legal process and weaponizing the justice system in order to manipulate public opinion, because they are clearly losing the political battle.”
Clearly they are not. 

....but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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