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Former White House Lawyer Predicts Trump Indictment ‘Soon’ – Calls Special Counsel Jack Smith ‘Trump’s Worst Nightmare’

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Former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal thinks the indictment for Donald Trump is coming “soon” in the federal case around the documents scandal.

Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, Katyal said that what is coming down the pike for Trump is going to be his “worst nightmare” because it involves people like special counsel Jack Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland, neither of whom are the extremist political players that Trump wishes they were.

“He has a long-standing reputation in Washington of being bipartisan, of being a careful and respected jurist on both sides of the aisle,” Katyal said of Garland. “But nonetheless, [he’s] a political appointee. So, as between those two, when we’re talking about something as sensitive as ‘do you indict a former president,’ it would make all the sense in the world that’s a Jack Smith determination. That’s what Donald Trump is afraid of. He’s afraid of having someone independent do this. If it’s someone political, [Trump] can trash it as being political or this or that. This is Trump’s worst nightmare.”

Host Nicolle Wallace remembered in 2018 when Donald Trump told the press that he was excited to speak to special counsel Robert Mueller and would be testifying in person. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig said that it’s the perfect example of how Trump is a “master in his own mind of the legal strategy, but more importantly the communication strategy. He’s decided, I’m going to break my own news.”

She went on to say that reporters have heard for weeks that the Smith probe was “nearly cooked, and it’s expected there will be charges. Those have not gone to the attorney general yet, but it’s looming, and Donald Trump knows that too.”

Katyal explained that the Justice Department rules are to bring cases when they’re ready and not consider politics one way or the other.

“My expectation is this is going to be soon,” he predicted. “That’s what — you know, the scope of the investigation, how it heated up in the last few weeks, you know, The Wall Street Journal story which broke some of this said there’s still some investigation left to be done. But I suspect it’s not much.”

He added in the caveat of Georgia, where the D.A. claimed charges were “imminent,” but a lawyer snafu means it will be closer to the end of July or early August that charges would fall in that case.

“But I think Carol is right, the attorney general is also thinking about the clock,” Katyal continued. “Not just the campaign clock, but also the election. And if a Republican wins, say it’s [Gov. Ron] DeSantis (D-FL) or something like that. They may try to pardon Trump and avoid these charges. So, you want to try to get this to a jury so you have a final record of what the jury thinks happened before the prosecution might otherwise be truncated.”

See the conversation in the video below or at the link here.

 

Image via Shutterstock

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‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

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The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

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Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

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With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

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‘Wannabe Dictator’: Milley Appears to Slam Trump After Ex-President Suggested He Should Be Executed

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General Mark Milley, the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top military advisor to the President, during his retirement speech Friday appeared to deliver strong criticism of former President Donald Trump, who appointed him to that post but since has waged war against him.

One week ago the ex-president had said that “in times gone by” General Milley would have been executed for treason. Trump in 2021 had called for General Milley to be “tried for treason.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials,” professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass wrote at The Atlantic after Trump’s most recent attack on the Chairman, “but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes.”

READ MORE: Trump Goes on Wild Rant Targeting Judge and Attorney General After Being Found Liable for Fraud

Trump had written, “if the Fake News reporting is correct,” General Milley “was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.”

Milley was acting within his duties in a White House approved conversation, according to Klass.

On Friday, Milley appeared to blast Trump.

“We don’t take an oath to a tribe. We don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or queen, or a tyrant, or dictator. We don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley declared. “We don’t take an oath to an individual. We take an oath to the Constitution, and we take an oath to the idea that is America, and we’re willing to die to protect it.”

“Every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Guardian and Coast Guardsmen, each of us, emits our very life to protect and defend that document, regardless of personal price to a country.”

READ MORE: ‘He Knows I’m Right’: Democrat Mocks ‘Scared’ McCarthy and Blows Off Chairman Comer in ‘Very Unserious’ Hearing

Vanity Fair on Thursday reported General Milley “said he has taken security precautions to protect himself and his family after Donald Trump all but called for his execution last week.”

Watch Milley’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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