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Legal


TRUMP LIKELY COMMITTED FELONY OBSTRUCTION, FEDERAL JUDGE RULES

A federal judge ruled that former President Donald Trump “more likely than not”
attempted to illegally obstruct Congress.



Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally for Georgia GOP candidates
at Banks County Dragway in Commerce, Ga., on March 26. | Hyosub Shin/Atlanta
Journal-Constitution via AP

By Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein and Nicholas Wu

03/28/2022 11:50 AM EDT

Updated: 03/28/2022 11:02 PM EDT

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 * * Link Copied
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A federal judge ruled Monday that former President Donald Trump “more likely
than not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress as part of a criminal
conspiracy when he tried to subvert the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President
Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January
6, 2021,” U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote.




Carter’s sweeping and historic ruling came as he ordered the release to the
House’s Jan. 6 committee of 101 emails from Trump ally John Eastman, rejecting
Eastman’s effort to shield them via attorney-client privilege.

Eastman used the email account of his former employer, Chapman University, to
discuss political and legal strategy related to efforts to overturn the 2020
election and had sued the select committee to prevent them from obtaining the
emails from the school. Chapman University spokesperson Cerise Valenzuela
Metzger said the university would comply with the court order, and Eastman said
in a statement through his attorneys he would also comply.

Carter, who sits in federal court in California, said that the plan Eastman
helped develop was obviously illegal and that Trump knew it at the time, but
pushed forward with an effort he says would have effectively ended American
democracy.

“If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently
ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the
Constitution,” Carter wrote. “If the country does not commit to investigating
and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6
will repeat itself.”

The remarkable ruling may be the first in history in which a federal judge
determined a president, while in office, appeared to commit a crime. The
decision has no direct role in whether Trump will be charged criminally but
could increase pressure on the Justice Department and its chief, Attorney
General Merrick Garland, to conduct an aggressive investigation that could lead
to such charges.

Thus far, Garland has promised to probe legal violations related to Jan. 6 “at
any level,” but there have been virtually no outward signs that the Justice
Department is investigating Trump or his top advisers over their roles in
instigating the Capitol attack or otherwise scuttling or delay the
electoral-vote-tallying session.

Justice Department spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment on the
ruling.

Asked about the decision, a spokesperson for Trump pointed to a statement the
former president issued late Monday that did not directly address Carter’s
ruling but inveighed against the House Jan. 6 panel.

“So the Radical Left Democrats in Congress and the Unselect Committee continue
to seek the destruction of lives of very good people, but have no interest in
going after the criminals and thugs who cheated like mad dogs on the 2020
Presidential Election,” Trump said. “All the evidence is in and conclusive, but
they, and the Fake News Media, refuse to look at or report it.”




Eastman’s strategy centered on pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence to
single-handedly overturn the election when Congress convened on Jan. 6 to count
electoral votes. Eastman urged Pence to simply declare the election in dispute
and send the process back to GOP-controlled state legislatures, who could then
replace Joe Biden’s electors with Trump’s. Pence resisted that push, and his
aides argued fiercely that the plan was plainly illegal.

Carter ruled that the efforts by Trump and Eastman were obviously contrary to a
federal law, the Electoral Count Act, which has governed the counting of
electoral votes since 1887. Eastman premised his plan on a belief that the
135-year-old law was unconstitutional and urged Pence to simply ignore aspects
of it he viewed as inconvenient. Carter said the recourse to oppose the
Electoral Count Act was in court, not “a last-ditch attempt to secure the
Presidency by any means.”

“Our nation was founded on the peaceful transition of power, epitomized by
George Washington laying down his sword to make way for democratic elections,”
Carter wrote in a 44-page ruling. “Ignoring this history, President Trump
vigorously campaigned for the Vice President to single-handedly determine the
results of the 2020 election. With a plan this ‘BOLD,’ President Trump knowingly
tried to subvert this fundamental principle.”

The decision also helps shore up a theory increasingly embraced by members of
the Jan. 6 select committee: that Trump seized on legal strategies he knew were
meritless in order to subvert the transfer of power to Joe Biden — an effort
that contributed to the violence that unfolded at the Capitol. Trump allies have
long assailed the select committee as a political effort led by Democrats, but
Carter’s analysis now gives the committee the imprimatur of a federal court.

Among the emails Carter ordered released included documents prepared for members
of Congress. Seven senators are named as the recipients of some of the
documents, though they were created to persuade lawmakers, not in preparation
for litigation.

Eastman had claimed attorney-client privilege over nine emails and attachments,
but none of the emails listed Trump as a sender or recipient, Carter noted, and
two of them blind copied a close Trump adviser. Other emails included discussion
of state-level efforts about election fraud allegations.

Legal


6 QUESTIONS ABOUT CLARENCE THOMAS AND SUPREME COURT CONFLICT OF INTEREST

By Josh Gerstein

Perhaps the most important email in the newly disclosed batch is a memo to Trump
attorney Rudy Giuliani, which was forwarded to Eastman, sketching out a series
of scenarios surrounding the Jan. 6 session.

“This may have been the first time members of President Trump’s team transformed
a legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act into a day-by-day plan of
action,” Carter noted. “The memo is both intimately related to and clearly
advanced the plan to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”

Carter indicated that the memo “maps out potential Supreme Court suits and the
impact of different judicial outcomes.” Though the memo was clearly related to
potential litigation, Carter determined that it warranted disclosure because of
the “crime-fraud exception” to attorney-client privilege.

In his ruling, Carter agreed that 10 of Eastman’s emails should remain shielded
by attorney-client privilege. But he said none of the 10 appeared “pivotal” to
the select committee’s investigation. Nine of them, he wrote, were about
potential litigation, and the tenth captured Eastman’s “thoughts on the evening
of January 6 about potential future actions.”

Carter, who sits in Santa Ana, Calif. and is an appointee of President Bill
Clinton, acknowledged long-shot arguments by Eastman that the 1887 law governing
the tallying and certification of electoral votes was at odds with the
Constitution. However, the judge said that did not permit Trump the right to
defy the statute or to seek to persuade Pence to circumvent it.

“Believing the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional did not give President
Trump license to violate it,” Carter wrote. “Disagreeing with the law entitled
President Trump to seek a remedy in court, not to disrupt a
constitutionally-mandated process. And President Trump knew how to pursue
election claims in court — after filing and losing more than sixty suits, this
plan was a last-ditch attempt to secure the Presidency by any means.”

Eastman could try to appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
and, from there, to the Supreme Court.


MOST READ


 1. IMPEACH THOMAS? HOUSE DEMS CAN GO THERE, BUT MOST WON’T.


 2. A GOOGLE BILLIONAIRE’S FINGERPRINTS ARE ALL OVER BIDEN’S SCIENCE OFFICE


 3. U.S. TRAINING UKRAINIAN TROOPS IN POLAND, BIDEN SEEMS TO REVEAL


 4. TRUMP LIKELY COMMITTED FELONY OBSTRUCTION, FEDERAL JUDGE RULES


 5. 6 QUESTIONS ABOUT CLARENCE THOMAS AND SUPREME COURT CONFLICT OF INTEREST










 * Filed under:
 * Courts,
 * Donald Trump,
 * Donald Trump 2020,
 * John Eastman,
 * Legal,
 * 2020 Elections,
 * 2020 Presidential Candidates,
 * Jan. 6 Capitol riot,
 * Insurrection Fallout


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