On today’s BradCast we catch up on where each of the major, still-unindicted criminal investigations of Donald Trump currently stand with the one person who may pay closer attention to the details of the cases than even the prosecutors working on them! [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Over the weekend, longtime national security journalist MARCY WHEELER of Emptywheel wrote three articles, summarizing the latest status in each of the three ongoing criminal probes of the already-criminally-indicted-in-New-York former President, and what the final issues are that prosecutors must nail down before indictments can be brought.
Those cases include Special Counsel Jack Smith‘s federal investigations of Trump’s January 6 related conspiracies and the documents he stole from the White House, as well as Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis‘ broad probe into Trump’s failed attempt to strong-arm state officials into stealing the 2020 election from Joe Biden.
Among the many points discussed with Wheeler, who joins us today from Paris…
- Why determining the legal definition of “corrupt purpose” in the D.C. federal court circuit, in regards to Trump’s attempt to obstruct the Electoral College vote certification, is so important to Smith’s case.
- Why pending cases against Jan. 6 insurrectionists remain key to that definition.
- Why the fake electors schemes in several states and Trump’s fraudulent fundraising on his lies about election fraud is also critical to Smith’s case.
- Evidence that Trump’s own attorneys knew in advance that their fake electors scheme was unlawful.
- Why nailing down testimony from cooperating witnesses is so important and whether former VP Mike Pence — who testified before Smith’s federal grand jury last week about Trump’s attempt to have him assassinated — can be made into a sympathetic witness on the stand.
- Will we see a broad set of indictments against Trump regarding Jan. 6 or just one or two focused, easily provable charges?
- Is Smith investigating the multi-state conspiracy to breach voting system software in states like Georgia, Michigan, Colorado and elsewhere as part of his probe?
- What’s the hold-up in bringing charges on what has always seemed like the simplest of the many ongoing cases?
- Why it’s helpful that Smith is overseeing both this case and the Jan 6 probe, given that several witnesses are key to each of the cases.
- What the specific criminal charges may ultimately be, and the important related decision on whether they will be brought in Florida or in D.C.
- What’s the hold-up for D.A. Willis in bringing charges in the Georgia-related crimes?
- Why Trump is likely to try and move any GA charges to the federal level (and into Smith’s lap).
- How and why a number of co-conspirators may have suddenly decided to cooperate with Willis after all in recent days.
- How there may be an additional 24(!) previously-unknown witnesses to Trump’s infamous Jan 2, 2021 phone call to the GA Sec. of State attempting to strong-arm him to “find” 11,000 votes to steal the state’s election from Biden.
That’s just a sample, of course. Wheeler joins us for the full hour. Dig in…
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