Jordan Rubin in the April 28th edition of MSNBC’s Deadline: Legal newsletter. Trump’s danger is on display in multiple Manhattan courts
Special counsel Jack Smith moved one step closer to potentially charging Donald Trump in the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation this week. We learned late Thursday that former Vice President Mike Pence appeared before Smith’s grand jury investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court denied Trump’s attempt to keep Pence off the grand jury stand. And that was far from the former president’s only legal problem this week.
Trump’s civil rape and defamation trial began Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, with plaintiff E. Jean Carroll taking the stand in the days that followed. My colleague Lisa Rubin, who’s been in court for the ordeal, described the extraordinary opening statement delivered by Carroll’s legal team. Though he hasn’t stepped foot in the courtroom and might not throughout the trial, Trump is already tempting additional legal trouble with his social media posts lashing out at Carroll.
Trump’s criminal entanglements moved along as well this week, with state prosecutors in the Manhattan hush money case seeking a protective orderto restrict Trump’s access to and use of evidence that’ll be turned over during discovery. In its request, the Manhattan district attorney’s office cited the former president’s history of lashing out at seemingly everyone involved in his multiple investigations over the years.
Down in Georgia, we got some big timing news, thanks to a letter from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to local law enforcement, in which she told them to prepare for criminal charging decisions in her 2020 election interference probe between July 11 and Sept. 1. While she supposedly sent the letter so law enforcement could make safety preparations, MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann explained what he believes was the true motivation of her message.
In other Trump news of importance last week
+ CNN: Hear Arnold Schwarzenegger’s prediction about Trump – In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about his predictions for former President Donald Trump in 2024.
+ Daily Kos: A second researcher hired by Trump admits that he found no fraud in 2020 election—and Trump knew it
+ Washington Post: Trump touts authoritarian vision for second term: ‘I am your justice’ – The former president is proposing deploying the military domestically, purging the federal workforce and building futuristic cities from scratch
+ MSNBC’s Deadline White House: Trump’s embrace of a Jan. 6 defendant sets a dangerous precedent
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