To Trump’s chagrin, Pence rejected the plan.įurther, the New York state attorney general last month stated in a court document that investigators had found evidence that Trump’s real-estate business used “fraudulent or misleading” asset valuations to obtain loans and tax benefits, allegations Trump and his lawyers called politically motivated.Įx-prosecutors say that Trump’s Texas comments are dangerous and could legally boomerang, as the prosecutors appear to have new momentum. Last month too, a top justice official revealed that the DoJ is investigating fake elector certifications declaring Trump the winner in several states he lost, a scheme reportedly pushed by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani for Vice-President Mike Pence could block Congress from certifying Biden’s win. Trump’s call for huge protests prompted the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, who is leading the criminal inquiry, to ask the FBI to compile a threat assessment to protect her office and the grand jury that is slated to meet in May. Trump’s angry outburst came as three investigations by prosecutors that could lead to charges against Trump or top associates all seemed to gain steam last month.Ī special grand jury, for example, was approved in Atlanta focused on Trump’s call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on 2 January last year, asking him to just “find” enough votes to block Joe Biden’s Georgia victory, a state Trump lost by more than 11,700 votes. He’s not interested in the pursuit of justice but blocking any investigations,” Moore added. Trump “is essentially calling for vigilante justice against the justice system. Likewise, a former US attorney in Georgia, Michael Moore, said Trump’s comments could “potentially intimidate witnesses and members of a grand jury”, noting that it is a felony in Georgia to deter a witness from testifying before a grand jury. “Criminal intent can be hard to prove, but when a potential defendant says something easily seen as intimidating or threatening to those investigating the case it becomes easier,” Aftergut said.Īftergut added that having proclaimed “his support for the insurrectionists, Trump added evidence of his corrupt intent on January 6 should the DoJ prosecute him for aiding the seditious conspiracy, or for impeding an official proceeding of Congress”. ![]() Trump’s anxiety was palpable when he urged supporters at the Texas rally to stage “the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington DC, in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere,” should any charges be brought, a plea for help that could boomerang and create more legal problems for the former president.ĭennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor who is of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy, told the Guardian that Trump “may have shot himself in the foot” with the comments. Taken together, veteran prosecutors say Trump’s comments seemed to reveal that the former president now feels more legal jeopardy from the three inquiries in Atlanta, Washington and New York, all of which have accelerated since the start of 2022. ![]() The former Nixon White House counsel John Dean attacked Trump’s talk of pardons for the rioters as the “stuff of dictators”, and stressed that “failure to confront a tyrant only encourages bad behavior”.
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