Appeals court grants DOJ bid to drop prosecution of Trump's former co-defendants in classified docs case
Source: Politico
02/11/2025 10:40 AM EST
A federal appeals court has put an end to the last remnant of special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal prosecutions that once targeted President Donald Trump. The Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted the Justice Department’s bid to abandon obstruction of justice and false statement charges against two Trump allies accused of helping Trump cover-up the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
The dismissal was largely a formality: The Justice Department moved to drop the appeal last month after the department came under the control of Trump appointees, including a lawyer who was a defense attorney for Trump in his criminal cases.
The Justice Department, under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, had been appealing a July ruling from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissing the criminal case against Trump, his longtime personal aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. Cannon ruled Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional.
Following Trump’s election in November, the Justice Department dropped its bid to revive the charges against Trump, citing a longstanding policy against prosecuting a sitting president. However, prosecutors’ effort to reinstate the case against Nauta and De Oliveira continued until DOJ reversed course last month. The 11th Circuit, for unexplained reasons, waited nearly two weeks to grant DOJ’s request. The earlier bid seeking to dismiss Trump from the appeal was granted by the same court in just one day.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/11/classified-documents-case-justice-department-016141
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Anna Betts
Mon 16 Sep 2024 12.50 EDT
John Roberts Jr used his position as the US supreme court’s chief justice to urge his colleagues to rule quickly – and in favor – of Donald Trump ahead of the decision that granted him and other presidents immunity for official acts, according to a New York Times investigation published on Sunday.
The new report provides details about what was happening behind the scenes in the country’s highest court during the three recent supreme court decisions centering on – and generally favoring – the Republican former president.
Based on leaked memos, documentation of the proceedings, and interviews with court insiders, the Times report suggests that Roberts – who was appointed to the supreme court during Republican George W Bush’s presidency – took an unusually active role in the three cases in question. And he wrote the majority opinions on all three.
In addition to the presidential immunity ruling, the decisions collectively barred states from removing any official – including Trump – from a federal ballot as well as declaring the government had overstepped with respect to obstruction of justice charges filed against participants of the 6 January 2021 attack that the former president’s supporters aimed at Congress.
(snip)
not when he was under investigation.
And actually, until January 20, 2021, he WAS still (purportedly) "President", which was through 2 weeks post-January 6, when the rumblings of an investigation by Democrats, who had just taken the Senate by a nose, were underway, and while he was still in the position.
And in fact, he WAS impeached for a 2nd time for "insurrection" (although not yet tried) BEFORE he left office in 2021.
Jan. 11, 2021, 8:15 AM EST / Updated Jan. 11, 2021, 6:38 PM EST
By Alex Moe, Rebecca Shabad and Dareh Gregorian
WASHINGTON — House Democrats plan to vote on a measure calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Donald Trump and on an article of impeachment in the next two days.
Democrats introduced the impeachment article Monday charging Trump with "incitement of insurrection" in urging his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol last week, as well as a resolution that calls on Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution to remove him from office before Jan. 20.
The House will vote on the 25th Amendment measure as early as Tuesday and on the article of impeachment Wednesday — one week to the day after the deadly mayhem that has shaken Washington to the core and a week before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
The impeachment measure, which has more than 200 Democratic co-sponsors, says Trump "gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government." "He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government," it says. "He thereby betrayed his trust as president, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States."
(snip)
Staff and agency
Wed 13 Jan 2021 20.10 EST
Ten Republican members of the US House of Representatives voted to impeach Donald Trump over the deadly insurrection at the Capitol, making it the most bipartisan presidential impeachment in US history.
The break with the president stood in sharp contrast to the unanimous support for Trump among House Republicans when he was first impeached by Democrats in 2019.
All Democrats who voted supported impeachment, while 197 Republicans voted no.
The Republican votes made it a historic moment. In comparison, five Democrats voted to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998.
(snip)
don't devote 1/2 of their main webpage real estate on Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift or Ye or the latest on Blake Lively or whoever.
Bread and Circuses.
and one hell of a lot of it.