Trump Accused Of 2 Possible Criminal Conspiracy Crimes By Jan 6 Panel

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Caleb Newton
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The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has directly accused former President Donald Trump of possible criminal activity over certain elements of his efforts to overturn the presidential election outcome and ultimately keep Joe Biden from taking his duly decided place as president. The panel laid out these accusations in a court case involving ex-Trump attorney John Eastman; the argument from investigators is that certain records that are in Eastman’s possession should not be considered to be covered by attorney-client privilege because of the potential relation to crimes that were committed. The specific criminal offenses that the panel referenced include obstruction of an official proceeding, defrauding the United States, and common fraud according to the laws of Washington, D.C.

As investigators put it, the “Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States” — and thus, they’re hoping to obtain records that Eastman is trying to keep hidden. Committee chairperson Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) commented as follows, discussing their filing:

‘The Select Committee’s brief refutes on numerous grounds the privilege claims Dr. Eastman has made to try to keep hidden records critical to our investigation. The Select Committee is not conducting a criminal investigation. But, as the judge noted at a previous hearing, Dr. Eastman’s privilege claims raise the question whether the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege applies in this situation. We believe evidence in our possession justifies review of these documents under this exception in camera. The facts we’ve gathered strongly suggest that Dr. Eastman’s emails may show that he helped Donald Trump advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power.’

One critical element of conclusively showing that Trump violated the law against obstruction of an official proceeding would be to prove that the then-president had “corrupt” intent, and the fact that individuals in Trump’s orbit promoted the truth about the election to the then-president even as he continued down the path of trying to keep Biden out of office could show exactly such intent. Investigators cited evidence for their conclusions including an interview with former Trump adviser Jason Miller, who told the panel of a conversation between Trump and campaign aide Matt Oczkowski, who shared details about the then-president’s impending loss with him. Trump didn’t rhetorically budge — instead, he “believed that Matt was not looking at the prospect of legal challenges going our way, and that Matt was looking at purely from what those numbers were showing as opposed to broader things to include legality and election integrity issues which, as a data guy, he may not have been monitoring,” as Miller relayed to investigators.

The committee could end up approving formal criminal referrals targeting Trump over some of these actions, although these referrals would constitute recommendations for prosecution — which would not be binding on the Justice Department. Still, there’d no doubt be a lot of evidence to back up any referrals along these lines, and the Justice Department’s own work to understand what went on is continuing. One of the defendants who was recently charged with seditious conspiracy in relation to the Capitol attack has pleaded guilty to the offense and agreed to provide information to investigators. Individuals involved with the defendant’s organization, the Oath Keepers, believed — for some reason — that Trump would invoke a law known as the Insurrection Act that allowed presidents to call up militias, and they were prepared to be exactly such a pro-Trump militia.



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