Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

~~~

~~~

Friday, October 8, 2021

Trump has instructed four associates to defy the January 6 Committee's subpoenas.

 


BREAKING NEWS:    President Biden refuses to assert privilege over Trump documents sought by January 6 committee 


 (CNN)The White House has informed the National Archives they are not asserting executive privilege on behalf of former President Donald Trump, paving the way for the Archives to share documents with the House committee investigating the January 6 violence at the US Capitol, according to a source familiar with the matter.


ALSO:

Just in: Jan. 6 committee announces panel will consider criminal contempt of Congress referral over Trump aides subpoena defiance: “We will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena.”


GOOD!




"Can you say no to a subpoena? 


Don't ever think you can simply ignore a subpoena. Even if you have a legitimate reason to avoid the subpoena, you need to respond and explain your position. If you ignore the subpoena, you can be held in contempt of court." 



Former President Donald Trump is directing a group of his former aides to ignore a subpoena from the House committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and signaling he will go to court to block their testimony to the investigators. 

The committee has subpoenaed documents and testimony from four Trump administration alumni: former social media czar Dan Scavino, former Defense Department official Kash Patel, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former White House adviser Steve Bannon. 

The four men were ordered to turn over documents related to Jan. 6 by Thursday and to sit for interviews with investigators next week.  But Trump is saying otherwise. In a letter that POLITICO viewed, a Trump lawyer tells them not to cooperate with the probe. 

The letter stated the committee is seeking materials that are covered by executive privilege, as well as other privileges."



What "executive privilege?" Trump is a private citizen. Because Trump no longer is in office, he cannot directly assert privilege to keep witnesses quiet or documents out of the hands of Congress, because President Biden will have some say in the matter. 


Eggleston: "The law is actually fairly clear on this, although there’s always the issue of whether this new Supreme Court would follow the pretty settled law or not. So, let me give you two answers, the first administrative and the second legal. First, neither the current president nor the prior president has physical custody of the materials from the prior presidents. All of these materials are stored at the National Archives. 

I dealt with this as the last White House counsel for Obama, when we had the enormous processes of transferring our data out of the White House and to the Archives. 

If there is a request for what would otherwise be privileged material regarding a prior presidency, representatives of the prior president are supposed to consult with representatives of the current president, and then the current president decides."

*************************


The Former Guy told his lackyes to defy a lawful subpoena. 

As usual, Trump is a lawbreaker and a disrupter who feels rules and laws don't apply to him. His whole life has been an unending series of lying, cheating, and committing fraud. And here he is again, on the wrong side of the law, encouraging his flunkies to break it.

I hope that the Congressional committee issuing the subpoenas teaches The LAWLESS Former Guy, (who lost the last election by 7 million popular votes and an electoral landslide), the meaning of this old saying:



"Eff around and find out."



16 comments:

Shaw Kenawe said...

From a friend on Twitter:

"Susan McDougal went to prison for 18 months for refusal of a subpoena to testify against the Clinton's during Whitewater.

Do I need to repeat that?

Jail these bastards."

Les Carpenter said...

trump is now testing the legal system further. His past experiences have informled his present situation with respect to 12/062021, the date,month, ad year of the trump insurrection.

The slime in orange has been treated kindly by the legal system, given the egregiously unethical conduct trump and his brand companies have always traveled in. With the title President (former) attached to his name, and having turned the SCOTUS con, as well as appointing many federal judges, trrump likely has calculated he will skate (again) and soon all will be well for him again.

Shaw, I'm starting to believe he just might be right. Our U S of A is turning into a more unethical and immoral societ1y daily it seems.

Anonymous said...

All 535 of them should be in jail and we can start over with term limits, citizen legislators and no lobbyists to bribe government to get their way.

Les Carpenter said...

Talk to the wall. It likely cares more than the majotrity of supposed " patriotic" Americans.

Frankly I place a GREAT deal of blame on moderates and democrats (especially moderates and independents) because IF they ALL turned out to vote the razor thin difference in strength would shift to stronger dem/progressive strength and a weakening of trumpublican (republican) strength.

Tibet is actually looking more attractive by the month! Sad I know but true.

Paula said...

Donald Trump, an ordinary citizen of the U.S., is intervening in an official proceeding and trying to influence others not to cooperate."

That's plain and simple obstruction of justice.

Jerry said...

His buddies have been willing to do all sorts of illegal things for him. It won;t surprise me if they tell Congress to go to hell.

Les Carpenter said...

And nearly 1/2 the country seens ambivalent to that crime. Everything is impermanent. Apparently that applies to our democratic republic and the rule of law.

Dave Miller said...

Re Susan McDougal... it's really apples and oranges.

McDougal complied with her subpoena, in a criminal court grand jury proceeding and actually appeared. However, once there she refused to answer some of the questions she was asked and was held in contempt of court and then jailed for 18 months.

I'm not sure we've ever jailed anyone in the modern era for a Contempt of Congress charge which is what this would entail, should the Trumpistas refuse to appear.

Dave Miller said...

Paula... we have a letter from Trump's lawyers, who when Trump is asked about, he will quickly throw them under the bus and claim he had no knowledge.

Dave Miller said...

Sadly, I'm with Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project who stated on twitter...

"As of now 1/6 commission is dead already, and will not enforce the subpoenas. Trump wins. The 1/6 terror plot will go unexamined and unpunished."

Shaw Kenawe said...

Dave,

I haven’t seen any sign that Rick Wilson is wrong on enforcing subpoenas. These anti-democracy Trumpers need to be held to account.

Ray Cranston said...

OT: Here's an idiot Trumper pretending to know what she's talking about:

“Biden is pushing to have all of our transactions over $600 reported to the IRS”….TWO comments back said “You tell me WHERE it says that anywhere!” and “Where did you get THAT idiotic information?” Yup.

It took me 3 seconds to Google and I even found a Yahoo article about it so I linked that to both of these jerks. Response? S I L E N C E


Here's what the ENTIRE proposal is about, not what the idiot above reported:

Under the proposed legislation, “Financial institutions would report data on financial accounts in an information return. The annual return will report gross inflows and outflows with a breakdown for physical cash, transactions with a foreign account, and transfers to and from another account with the same owner. This requirement would apply to all business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts, with the exception of accounts below a low de minimis gross flow threshold of $600 or fair market value of $600.”

The measure, if approved, would begin in 2023.


Dave Dubya said...

Let's look at a few of the laws broken by Trump.

His crimes include but are not limited to: multiple cases of criminal sexual conduct, insurance fraud, bank fraud, campaign finance violations, obstruction of Justice, extortion by demanding Ukraine investigate the Bidens, Election tampering, and incitement of insurrection.

Only those among the insane authoritarian cult would see their Dear Leader as the "Law and order" president.

Dervish Sanders said...

Another crime Dotard is bigly guilty of is income tax evasion. How much longer before he's charged with something? I am getting impatient.

Les Carpenter said...

It is very possible the orange slime skates yet again. And, it is beginning to look like 2122 & 2124 will return America to the political party that has been squeezing, and will continue to squeeze, the very life from our democratic republic. The aim of the authoritarian Trumpublican (republican) party.

The American experiment in self rule WILL FAIL, if it does, because of 1) ignorance and 2) greed. Something many capitalists, conservatives, and republicans seem to be very proud to represent.

Les Carpenter said...

2022 and 2024 sounds better. If things stay as trends have been trending by 2122 and 2124 this DR will be no longer.

There... fixed it.