The specific outlines of the fight, first reported by CNN, are unknown. A person familiar with the matter said the controversy concerns the testimony of former Vice President Mike Pence by two of his aides. The two appeared before his grand jury in July and answered some, but not all, of the questions based on Trump’s claims of privilege, according to people familiar with the matter.
Grand jury matters are usually kept confidential. But Trump’s attorneys M. Evan Corcoran, John P. Lawrie III, and Timothy C. Parratore appeared in federal court in Washington on Thursday and had no issues publicly scheduled with the chief federal prosecutor on Jan. 6. The incident later came to light. Thomas Windham. A person familiar with the matter said Trump’s representatives were present at the Jan. 6-related proceedings.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, discussed the ongoing criminal investigation.
A spokesman for Trump’s attorney and the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. said he could not comment on the grand jury issue. Efforts to contact Short or Jacobs’ rep Friday night were not immediately successful.
Disputes about executive privilege and the persuasiveness of witness testimony before a grand jury are usually heard by Chief Justice Beryl A. Howell of the United States District Court in Washington. Howell has moved swiftly in the past, but An appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for the District of Columbia will likely be extended until the end of the year, and the allegations are unlikely to go public by then. A Howell spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Most disputes over presidential privileges — often between Congress and the executive branch — Both sides usually settle their differences by compromise rather than risk a precedent defeat for either branch of government.
But the danger of criminal investigations into Trump’s actions during his presidential transition after he failed to win re-election in November 2020 could make negotiations more difficult.
The Justice Department is questioning witnesses about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and his aides who tried to replace accredited electors from several states Joe Biden won with Trump allies. , said people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors have been asking hours of detailed questions about Trump-led meetings in December 2020 and his January 2021 and pressure on Pence to overturn the election. These series of investigations, separate from those of classified documents recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, also involved a legal battle over the issue of client privileges for executives and lawyers. is occurring.
Both Short and Jacob have their own window into these events. Both were with Pence at the Capitol on January 6th. With Pence’s approval, they testified before a House Select Committee conducting a parallel investigation, but former Vice President Pence refused to testify himself. Jacob also told the committee that two days before the riot, Trump’s private attorney, John Eastman, admitted to Pence that his plan to overturn the election was illegal.
In other legal proceedings, Trump’s lawyers have defended claims of presidential privilege, and opposing rulings weaken the confidentiality accorded to the president’s top advisers’ conversations, potentially damaging the presidency. They argue that allowing a sitting president to unilaterally relinquish his predecessor’s executive privileges could politicize and defeat the purpose of the privilege. There is
But Trump’s legal options to withhold testimony may be limited by a string of court decisions since January 6.
Courts have long argued that it is easier to overcome White House executives or attorney-client privilege claims when the information is sought in criminal proceedings rather than in Congress. The criterion is the ability to show that the witness is likely to have information material to the criminal investigation.
When After January, courts will side with Congress, withholding thousands of pages of White House correspondence and records from House Jan. 6 committees, even though lawmakers must meet higher standards. Trump’s attempt to do so, and Eastman’s similar attempt to do so. Insist on attorney-client confidentiality.