I wonder what the kill shot is, and I wonder how ABC got these "portions" of the videos.ABC News has obtained portions of videos of the proffer sessions of both [Jenna] Ellis and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who aided Trump's efforts to overturn the election.
[...]
Ellis, in her proffer session, informed prosecutors that senior Trump White House official Dan Scavino told her "the boss" would refuse to leave the White House despite losing the election, and alluded to two other instances she said were "relevant" to prosecutors -- but appeared to be prevented from disclosing those in the video portions obtained by ABC News due to attorney-client privilege, which hindered portions of her proffer.
Powell, meanwhile, explained to prosecutors her plans for seizing voting machines nationwide and claimed that she frequently communicated with Trump during her efforts to overturn the 2020 election -- though both now claim she was never his attorney.
[...]
[She said Scavino told her] in response to her apologizing over the lack of success with their election challenges in court, culminating with a Supreme Court loss that indicated their ability to challenge the election "was essentially over."
[...]
"And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, 'Well, we don't care, and we're not going to leave,'" Ellis said of the alleged Dec. 19 conversation with Scavino. "And I said, 'What do you mean?' And he said 'Well, the boss', meaning President Trump -- and everyone understood 'the boss,' that's what we all called him -- he said, 'The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.'"
Ellis continued, "And I said to him, 'Well, it doesn't quite work that way, you realize?' and he said, 'We don't care.'"
[...]
"Assuming Ms. Ellis testifies consistently at trial, her testimony about the Scavino conversation would help the State prove its allegation that the former President conspired with others to unlawfully change the result of the election," said [former Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons] Timmons. "But that evidence is not a 'kill shot' in that it didn't come directly from the former President."
ABC
UPDATE 08:54 am:Powell reiterated the false assertion that Trump won the election -- but acknowledged in the video that she didn't know much about election law to begin with.
[...]
Powell described in her proffer interview being in close and repeated contact with then-President Trump, claiming that she frequently received calls from Trump asking for updates on their efforts to overturn the election
[...]
Trump, said Powell, "was specifically willing to appoint me special counsel" -- a move that would have granted her substantial legal powers. "In fact, he looked over at [White House Counsel Pat] Cipollone three different times and said, 'Do I have the authority to name her special counsel?' and Cipollone said, 'Yes, you do,'" she said in the video.
"And then somebody said, 'Well, she doesn't have a security clearance,'" Powell said. "So he looked at Cipollone and he said, 'Do I have the authority to give her a security clearance?' and Cipollone said, 'Yes, you do.'
[...]
"I called Mark Meadows the next morning just to run it to ground, and said, 'Hey, when can I come pick up my badge and my key?'" Powell said. "He essentially laughed -- I mean he said, you know, 'It's not going to happen.'"
[...]
[Powell] told prosecutors that she never heard Trump concede that he lost the election even after being told by key aides that he had. Instead, she said he was following "instincts" that he won.
[...]
Powell said she was present when multiple advisers told him he had lost, and prosecutors pressed Powell over why the president followed her advice instead of his other advisers.
"Because I didn't think he had lost," Powell replied, later saying, "I saw an avenue pursuant to which, if I was right, he would remain president."
[...]
"That information would be helpful for the defense in that it bolsters a defense that the former president thought he was acting lawfully," [Timmons said].
[See update at 1:06 pm below* for information on the protective order issue.]
The Post got recordings from four people, Ellis and Powell, and Ken Chesebro and Scott Hall. Story here. Post here.
Well that's not good. But at least it wasn't the judge, and therefore not mistrial fodder. It could be, however, that the judge's question served as a reminder to one of the participants (defense, I presume) that there was still time to leak.Willis and her team originally requested a protective order over evidence in the case on Sept. 27.
[...]
During a hearing in the case last month, before Powell, Chesebro and Ellis entered guilty pleas, McAfee asked about the status of that proposed protective order and a defense attorney for Chesebro said the order was still being negotiated between prosecutors and the numerous defense attorneys on the case.
WaPo
“These confidential video recordings were not released by the State to any party other than the defendants charged in the indictment, pursuant to the discovery process as required by law,” the filing said. “The release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial, constitutes indirect communication about the facts of this case with codefendants and witnesses, and obstructs the administration of justice, in violation of the conditions of release imposed on each defendant.”
Prosecutors said they would no longer share “confidential video recordings of proffers” to any defense attorneys involved in the case and said they must view those statements in person at the district attorney’s office. “They may take notes, but they will be prohibited from creating any recordings or reproductions.”
[...]
Steve Sadow, the lead Georgia attorney for Trump, emailed prosecutors saying the leak of the recordings did not come from him or another co-counsel on the case and asked prosecutors if someone in the district attorney’s office disclosed it to the media.
“The State had nothing to do with leaking any information to the media!” Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor and lead government attorney on the case, replied.
An attorney for Harrison Floyd, a Trump ally charged for his alleged role in the harassment of election worker Ruby Freeman, replied to the chain on Tuesday morning, writing, “It was Harrison Floyd’s team.” Prosecutors said in the filing Floyd’s attorney later said that statement was a typo and Floyd’s team had not shared the information with the media.
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