Tag: Jack Smith

Commentary: The Economics of Early Voting

Admin

After the recent assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, some think the race is Trump’s to lose. I tend to agree that the race is in some ways Trump’s to lose, while at the same time feel very strongly that the left is not going to simply roll over and give up on trying to keep Trump from a second term.

So it’s important to not be over-exuberant; Trump is absolutely riding high right now, from the debacle of a debate for Biden to Judge Cannon dismissing the Jack Smith documents case to surviving an assassination attempt. But the right needs to focus on what takes place between now and November 5th, specifically on how every Republican and conservative can help Trump win by doing one simple thing: casting your ballot early.

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Mar-a-Lago Case Dismissal Could Spell the End of Smith’s D.C. Prosecution and Anti-Trump Lawfare

Just the News
Mar-a-Lago Documents

After surviving an assassination attempt over the weekend, Trump began the week with good news in the form of Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing special counsel Jack Smith’s Mar-a-Lago case against him in a seismic ruling that could spell the end of his federal legal woes and build on his existing momentum in the national spotlight.

Smith had charged Trump in connection with his storage and retention of materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate, which the FBI raided in August of 2022. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith in late 2022 to pursue the case and he brought an initial indictment in 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty though Smith in July of that year brought a superseding indictment with additional charges. The former president has long maintained he was innocent of any wrongdoing and that the case was part of a broader political witch hunt designed to derail his 2024 bid for the White House.

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Legal Analyst Christy Kelly Breaks Down SCOTUS Ruling on Presidential Immunity and How It May Affect Lawfare Against Former President Trump

Kaitlin Housler
Trump SCOTUS

Christy Kelly, reporter at The Arizona Sun Times, said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on Monday in Trump v. United States that former President Donald Trump is immune from federal prosecution for official acts he took while in office is certain to affect current and past litigation surrounding the former president.

However, the nation’s highest court also ruled that there is no immunity for unofficial acts.

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Commentary: The Left Knows Leftism Doesn’t Work

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Joe Biden in front of a burning building (composite image)

Do not expect the radical left to survey the wreckage of socialism and communism in history and accept that statism impoverishes people and erodes their freedoms. There will never be admissions by our elite that progressivism exists mainly for the acquisition of power by the utopian and virtue-signaling few, who ensure that they are never subject to the baleful implementation of their ideological agendas on the rest of us.

Still, leftists look around at what they have done to America in the last four years and implicitly know that the plan did not work, the people detested it, or both.

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CNN’s Jake Tapper Trashed Trump for Years, Now He’s Moderating Presidential Debate

Just the News
Jake Tapper

CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash will moderate the first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

The role is typically meant to be that of a neutral custodian of the conversation between the participants, though Tapper’s long history of harshly criticizing Trump while on the air raises questions about his ability to remain even-handed.

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Commentary: Defund and Investigate Jack Smith

Julie Kelly
Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith was supposed to be basking in glory right now.

In his ideal world, Smith would be hot off a quick conviction of Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. for the former president’s alleged role in the events of January 6 and attempts to “overturn” the 2020 election. The special counsel then would have immediately moved his victorious prosecutors to Palm Beach for the summer to prepare for Trump’s second federal trial related to allegedly stealing national defense information and impeding the Department of Justice’s investigation.

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Commentary: Judge Cannon Puts Jack Smith on Trial

Julie Kelly
Jack Smith

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon may have just indefinitely postponed Donald Trump’s espionage and obstruction trial but that doesn’t mean her federal courtroom in Fort Pierce, Florida will lie dormant over the next few months.

In officially vacating the existing May 20 trial date—an impossibility considering the defendant will be in a Manhattan courtroom for the foreseeable future—Cannon declined to set another date, calling it “imprudent” at this stage of the process. She noted a “myriad” of unresolved matters in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 42-count indictment against the former president and his two co-defendants, Mar-a-Lago employees Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Olivera, for willfully retaining national defense information and attempting to impede the government’s investigation.

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Commentary: The Travesties of the Trump Trials

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Do not believe the White House/mainstream media-concocted narrative that the four criminal court cases—prosecuted by Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis—were not in part coordinated, synchronized, and timed to reach their courtroom psychodramatic finales right during the 2024 campaign season.

These local, state, and federal Lilliputian agendas were designed to tie down, gag, confine, bankrupt, and destroy Trump psychologically and physically. They are the final lawfare denouement to years of extra-legal efforts to emasculate him.

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House Dems Move to Strip Trump of Secret Service Protection, If Convicted

Just the News
Donald Trump Secret Service

A group of House Democrats on Friday introduced legislation to strip former President Donald Trump of his Secret Service protection should he be convicted in one of the myriad criminal cases against him.

Trump is currently on trial in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case over allegedly falsifying business records. Trump has pleaded not guilty and contends that the case is part of broader political witch hunt against him. He also faces two separate federal indictments from special counsel Jack Smith and a fourth from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: The Supreme Court Can Right an Egregious Wrong in Jan 6 Cases, But Will It?

Julie Kelly

In July 2023, Joshua Youngerman was arrested in California on five misdemeanors for his participation in the events of January 6. According to charging documents, Youngerman entered the Capitol at 2:37 p.m. — 20 minutes after the House went into recess amid the escalating chaos — through an open door as Capitol Police stood by. He exited through the same door two minutes later. But just last week, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves added another charge to Youngerman’s case: 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding. Youngerman is one of more than 330 J6ers charged with the evidence-destroying statute passed in the wake of the Enron-Arthur Anderson accounting scandal that Joe Biden’s Justice Department has weaponized to punish Americans who protested Biden’s election that afternoon. The count also is included in both of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictments against Donald Trump. Graves’ decision to indict Youngerman now is a stunning act of hubris and defiance. Why? Because the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this Tuesday in Joseph Fischer v. USA, which challenges the government’s interpretation of the obstruction count in Jan 6 cases. Many legal and court observers expect the court to wholly or partially overturn how the…

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Jack Smith Criticizes Trump Documents Judge’s Instructions as ‘Fundamentally Flawed’

Just the News
Special Counsel Jack Smith

Special counsel Jack Smith criticized the federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s classified documents trial as relying on a “fundamentally flawed legal premise” that “would distort the trial,” when she ordered both parties to submit jury instructions.

Smith’s sharp response Tuesday comes after Florida-based U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Canon last month asked attorneys to submit instructions based on two scenarios. In the first one, the jury would consider whether records Trump allegedly possesses are personal or presidential under the Presidential Records Act. The second scenario, Canon wrote, would assume that “the Presidential Records Act gives the president the sole authority to categorize records as personal or presidential during their time in office,” which would make the case significantly more difficult to prosecute.

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Trump’s Former Attorney John Eastman in Good Spirits About the Ongoing Lawfare Against Him, Both Prosecution and Disbarment Proceedings

Rachel Alexander

Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, who is undergoing lawfare as a result of his representation of Trump in the 2020 election challenges, is facing multiple legal proceedings but is in good spirits.

Eastman, widely considered one of the top legal scholars on the right, who founded the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, served as dean for Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told The Arizona Sun Times during an interview that he remains “cheerful but defiant.”

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Julie Kelly Commentary: In the Room at Friday’s Florida Hearing in Trump’s Classified Documents Case

Julie Kelly
FL Judge Aileen Cannon Infront of florida courthouse

I am digging into a few other matters related to this case, the contempt order issued Thursday against veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge, and a new appellate court ruling overturning the use of a sentencing enhancement for J6ers convicted of the controversial 1512(c)(2) charge so unfortunately I can’t write a full article on yesterday’s hearing that I attended in person in Fort Pierce. So I want to share my X posts about what happened.

A few additional observations: Judge Cannon’s approach and style is inimical from that of judges in D.C. For part of the proceedings, I kept thinking how DOJ’s J6 prosecution in Washington would be so different if only half the judges were as careful and prepared and nontheatrical as Cannon. I shared this with a J6 defense attorney last night and he agreed.

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Jack Smith Makes Another Push to Keep Documents Under Seal

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Jack Smith

Special Counsel Jack Smith asked Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday to reconsider her decision to unseal certain documents prosecutors wanted to keep from the public docket.

Cannon, who is overseeing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida, ruled Tuesday that certain discovery material Smith wanted to keep under seal because it could impact the safety of potential witnesses would be disclosed out of the “strong presumption of public access in criminal proceedings.” Smith urged Cannon to reconsider her decision, arguing that she “applied the wrong legal standard and issued orders that, in practice, will expose witnesses and others to intolerable and needless risks.”

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Commentary: Was It Legal to Appoint Jack Smith in the First Place?

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Jack Smith

Was Special Counsel Jack Smith illegally appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland and is his prosecution of former Pres. Donald Trump unlawful? That is the intriguing issue raised in an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court by Schaerr Jaffe, LLP, on behalf of former Attorney General Ed Meese and two law professors, Steven Calabresi and Gary Lawson, in the case of U.S. v. Trump.

We won’t get an immediate answer to this question because on the Friday before Christmas, the Supreme Court issued a one-line order refusing to take up Smith’s request that the court review Trump’s claim of presidential immunity, which was denied by the trial court, in the federal prosecution being pursued by Smith in the District of Columbia. The special counsel had petitioned the court to take the case on an expedited basis, urging the justices to bypass review by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

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Commentary: DC Appellate Judges Use ‘Unprecedented Approach’ to Get Trump’s Twitter Files

Julie Kelly
Trump DC

In January 2023, two months after his appointment as special counsel, Jack Smith applied for a search warrant to obtain all of the data associated with Donald Trump’s long-dormant Twitter account. Smith sought not just public posts but direct messages, drafted and deleted posts, and the identity of any individual with access to the account. Smith also asked for “all users [Trump’s account] has followed, unfollowed, muted, unmuted, blocked, or unblocked, and all users who have followed, unfollowed, muted, unmuted, blocked, or unblocked” Trump’s account.

The application was stunning in scope with no justification as to why the government needed such a limitless trove of information—particularly one that clearly ran afoul of Trump’s right to assert executive privilege. So, Smith neatly settled that matter by additionally asking for a nondisclosure order that prevented Twitter from notifying Trump about the search warrant for 180 days.

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DOJ Attorney Playing Key Role in Jack Smith’s Prosecution of Trump Worked on Case That Put Pro-Life Activist in Jail

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Molly Gaston

One of the prosecutors helping special counsel Jack Smith prosecute former President Donald Trump for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election also worked on a high-profile case against a pro-life activist.

Molly Gaston, a prosecutor who spent years in the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office and is now playing a key role on Smith’s team, worked on the early stages of the prosecution of pro-life activist Lauren Handy. Handy had been in jail since August when she, along with four co-defendants, were found guilty of violating the Freedom of Access To Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for blocking access to a Washington, D.C., abortion clinic in 2020.

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Commentary: The Hackery of Judge Florence Pan

Julie Kelly

If a court proceeding held in the nation’s capital on Tuesday is an indication of how 2024 will go—things will be a lot worse than even the biggest skeptic predicted.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia—Biden appointees Florence Pan and Michelle Childs and George H. W. Bush appointee Karen Henderson—heard oral arguments for Donald Trump’s appeal of a lower court decision that concluded presidents are not immune from criminal prosecution for their conduct in office. The appeal originated out of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment against the former president related to the events of January 6.

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Prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Team Shut Down FBI Investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016

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Clinton Foundation

A top prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team recommended that the FBI shut down an investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016, despite ample evidence of suspicious activity related to hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign transactions, Fox News reported.

In his May 2023 report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Special Counsel John Durham identified Ray Hulser, the former chief of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section (PIN), as the official who “declined prosecution” of the Clinton Foundation. Hulser now serves on Smith’s team currently prosecuting former President Donald Trump for alleged crimes related to January 6.

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Supreme Court Hands Jack Smith a Major Defeat in Trump 2020 Election Case

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The Supreme Court declined special counsel Jack Smith’s request Friday for it to quickly consider a key question in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case without letting the lower court weigh in first.

Smith asked the justices last week to hear former President Donald Trump’s bid to have his election interference case dismissed based on presidential immunity without allowing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to first consider the issue. In an unsigned order Friday, the justices shot down his request.

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Commentary: The ‘Jan. 6 Jurisprudence’ About to Be Unleashed on Trump

RealClearWire

Defense attorneys have coined the term “January 6 Jurisprudence” to describe the treatment received by the more than 1,200 defendants arrested so far in connection with the events of Jan. 6, 2021. This carve-out legal system involves the unprecedented and possibly unlawful use of a corporate evidence-tampering statute; excessive prison sentences and indefinite periods of pretrial incarceration; and the designation of nonviolent offenses as federal crimes of terrorism.

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Commentary: Where Are the J6 Committee Videos?

Julie Kelly
January 6 Riot

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s criminal case against Donald Trump for the events of January 6 is inextricably tied to the work of the special House committee that conducted an 18-month investigation into what happened before, on, and after that day.

In fact, one could safely argue that Smith lifted much of the language directly from the committee’s findings to prepare his 45-page indictment. Three of the four criminal referrals made by the committee, formed by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in June 2021, are reflected in Smith’s indictment. As Kyle Cheney, Politico’s legal affairs reporter recently noted, “the words in Smith’s filing are almost verbatim the case that the committee’s vice chair, Liz Cheney, made at the panel’s first public hearing.”

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VoterGA’s Garland Favorito Warns ‘Blatant Lies’ in Federal Trump Case Will ‘Influence, Manipulate’ 2024 Election Results

Tom Pappert

Garland Favorito of the Georgia election integrity group VoterGA warned in a press conference on Tuesday that special prosecutor Jack Smith’s case against former President Donald Trump is an attempt to smear Republicans with “blatant lies” before voters head to the polls in 2024.

Favorito highlighted Smith’s claims that Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome determinative fraud in the election,” ordered a false set of Electoral College certifications that purported to be from legitimate electors, and urged former Vice President Mike Pence to fraudulently alter the Electoral College votes on January 6 as easily disprovable lies designed to taint Republicans in to potential voters, then offered counterarguments to Smith’s accusations.

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Jack Smith Wants a Gag Order Against Donald Trump in January 6 Case

Just the News

Special counsel Jack Smith has asked a judge to issue a gag order to former President Donald Trump in his Jan. 6 case to prevent him from publicly attacking major figures in the case.

“The defendant’s past conduct, including conduct that has taken place after and as a direct result of the indictment in this case, amply demonstrates the need for this order,” reads a filing from prosecutors that Politico obtained.

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Jim Jordan Probes Jack Smith’s Office

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Republican House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan is launching a probe into Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office over an aide who allegedly “improperly pressured” a lawyer representing a defendant in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case, he announced in a letter Thursday.

The investigation focuses on senior prosecutor Jay Bratt’s alleged effort to pressure Stanley Woodward, who represents Walt Nauta, former President Donald Trump’s co-defendant in the classified documents case. Bratt implied that the Biden administration would be more favorable towards Woodward’s application for a D.C. superior court judgeship if his client cooperated as a witness against former President Donald Trump, according to Jordan’s letter.

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Commentary: The Mugshot Heard ‘Round the World

Admin

Donald Trump’s historic arrest in Georgia Thursday evening was a virtual declaration of war on America. A former president was dragged into a filthy county jail behind enemy lines and had his mugshot taken, adding insult to the injury of an indictment for the bogus crime of challenging his political opponent. The dramatic moment followed days of buildup, as the “co-conspirators” in his “criminal enterprise” were methodically paraded in front of the country. These nefarious plotters include lawyers like John Eastman, a decent man whose “crime” is giving legal advice on a contentious constitutional question.

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Judge Sides with Trump on Protective Order, Handing Jack Smith an Early Defeat

Admin

A federal judge on Friday sided with Donald Trump, rejecting a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith for a protective order that would have imposed some speech restrictions on the former president as he runs in the 2024 election.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled prosecutors did not meet the burden for the protective order but also put Trump on notice he will have to be careful about what he says and releases about the case.

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Trump Leads Biden by Four Points After Indictments: Poll

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, a recent survey has shown.

Trump earned the support of 42% of registered voters in the latest Premise survey, posting a 4-point lead over Joe Biden’s 38% support. Against Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Biden claimed a modest 2-point lead, edging out the GOP’s second-place candidate by 36% to 34%. 

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Yet More Indictments: Prosecution of 2020 Alternate Electors in Six of Seven States Likely

Just the News
Polling Place

In Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of former President Donald Trump regarding the 2020 presidential election and Jan. 6, the issue of alternate electors from seven states has become another focal point, as officials – all Democrats – from six of those states determine whether to prosecute.

In the federal indictment of Trump last week, Smith charged the former president with four counts, including conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The indictment also acknowledges six unnamed co-conspirators with whom Trump allegedly did “conspire, confederate, and agree” to defraud the country.

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Commentary: Trump Indictment Is a Mockery of Common Sense

Admin

At the end of the classic independent film Reservoir Dogs, the characters end up in a Mexican standoff. The criminal gang’s ringleader, Joe, insists that Mr. Orange is working with the police, even though he is dying on the floor, having been shot during a failed jewelry store heist. Mr. White – the crooks use aliases – insists that Joe is wrong. Guns get drawn. Mr. White demands some proof for Joe’s claim about Mr. Orange. Joe angrily responds, “You don’t need proof when you have instinct!” You can watch the (admittedly brutal) scene here.

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Granite State Republicans Largely Unmoved by Latest Trump Indictment

Admin

If special prosecutor Jack Smith hoped his latest round of indictments against Donald Trump would convince Republicans to reconsider their support for the former president, he failed — particularly in the Granite State.

But if, as many political operatives believe, part of Smith’s goal is to get Republicans to rally around Trump’s troubled candidacy and help him become the GOP nominee, it’s mission accomplished.

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Five 2020 Election Irregularities, Illegalities That Collide with Jack Smith’s Trump Indictment

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump has been arraigned on four felony counts alleging he conspired to spread claims of 2020 election fraud that he knew to be untrue to stop certification of the vote.

Federal prosecutors bringing the case, however, will have to contend with at least five high-profile cases of confirmed irregularities or illegalities from the 2020 contest ranging from Iranian interference to unlawful voting procedures.

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Commentary: Former President Donald Trump Had a Right to Challenge the Results of the 2020 Election

Admin

Former President Donald Trump, who is running for president again in 2024 for the Republican nomination, has once again been indicted on Aug. 1 by Special Counsel Jack Smith, this time for challenging the results of the 2020 election, alleging Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”

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Judge Overseeing Trump 2020 Election Case Donated Thousands to Obama

Just the News

The federal judge overseeing special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump over the 2020 election donated thousands of dollars to elect Barack Obama as president.

D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, a 2014 Obama appointee, is presiding over Trump’s case after he was indicted Tuesday on four charges related to his alleged involvement in challenging the 2020 election and the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

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Jack Smith’s Team Admits to ‘Incorrect’ Claim About Evidence in Trump Classified Documents Case

Just the News

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team admitted to incorrectly claiming to have turned over evidence as required by law in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. 

While preparing last week to indict Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira for allegedly conspiring with Trump to delete surveillance footage from the estate, prosecutors learned that footage included as evidence “had not been processed and uploaded to the platform established for the defense to view,” Smith’s team wrote in a filing Monday.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Sues the DOJ, Files New FOIA Request Relating to Trump Indictment

Kaitlin Housler

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after the department failed to respond to his previously-filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to uncover the communication between the White House, DOJ, and Special Counsel Jack Smith about the indictment in the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump.

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Republicans Condemn New Charges in Trump Classified Docs Case

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Conservatives and Republicans condemned a new round of charges against former President Donald Trump in the case involving classified material at Mar-a-Lago.

Special Counsel Jack Smith revealed the new charges in a superseding indictment issued Thursday that included charges against Carlos De Oliveira, a maintenance worker at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida estate owned by former President Trump. Smith initially secured a 37-count indictment against Trump in June.

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