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Tag: Storming of the United States Capitol

  • Supreme Court sidesteps decision on Trump presidential immunity claim in federal election interference case

    Supreme Court sidesteps decision on Trump presidential immunity claim in federal election interference case

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    U.S. President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, July 9, 2020.

    Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

    Steering clear of a political firestorm for now, the Supreme Court said Friday it would not immediately decide the key issue of whether former President Donald Trump has broad immunity for actions he took challenging the 2020 presidential election results.

    The court denied without comment special counsel Jack Smith’s request asking the justices to circumvent the normal appeals court process and quickly decide the legal question, which looms large in Trump’s criminal prosecution in Washington over allegations of election interference.

    If Trump were to win on this threshold issue, the charges would be dismissed. If he loses, the legal proceedings in the trial court would continue, with Trump having other issues he could mount appeals over.

    As a result of the court’s refusal to intervene, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will take first crack at the issue; it is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Jan. 9.

    Once that court rules, the Supreme Court could act quickly on whether to take up the case.

    In asking the court to step in on an expedited basis, Smith said the case “presents a fundamental question at the heart of our democracy: whether a former President is absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office.”

    Trump’s lawyers argued in court papers that Smith had given “no compelling reason” why the Supreme Court should immediately step in ahead of the appeals court.

    On Dec. 7, Washington-based U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss his indictment on presidential immunity and constitutional grounds. The case is on hold while Trump appeals the decision.

    Trump’s lawyers argue that his role in questioning the result of the election was within the “outer perimeter” of his official responsibilities as president, citing a 1982 Supreme Court ruling about presidential immunity. Therefore, under Supreme Court precedent, Trump is immune from prosecution, his lawyers say.

    They also say the Senate’s acquittal of Trump following impeachment proceedings over his role in events that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol means he cannot be separately prosecuted for the same actions.

    Smith argues that Trump’s role in seeking to overturn the election was not related to his official responsibilities as president and that the Constitution’s language on impeachment allows for separate criminal proceedings even if the president is acquitted.

    In August, a federal grand jury in Washington indicted Trump on four charges: conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted. Trump pleaded not guilty.

    The election interference case is one of four criminal prosecutions Trump faces heading into the 2024 presidential election season, in which he is a front-runner for the Republican nomination.

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  • Jan. 6 rioter who put feet on desk in Pelosi’s office convicted on all counts

    Jan. 6 rioter who put feet on desk in Pelosi’s office convicted on all counts

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    A supporter of US President Donald Trump sits inside the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as he protest inside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6, 2021.

    Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

    An Arkansas man who was photographed during the Jan. 6 riot with his feet on a desk in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, was found guilty on all counts Monday after brief jury deliberations.

    Richard Barnett faced eight charges stemming from the insurrection, including theft of government property. He said repeatedly in court last week that he regretted what transpired at the Capitol that day but did not consider his actions illegal.

    Barnett appears in images from the riot reclining in a chair in the speaker’s office, with his feet propped up, and what the government referred to as a “stun device” tucked in his pants. Before leaving Pelosi’s office, Barnett took an envelope that he later displayed for cameras outside the Capitol.

    In court on Friday, before the case was handed to the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon pored over Barnett’s version of Jan. 6 and poked holes in his testimony, visibly angering Barnett.

    Barnett, who a day earlier had said he would apologize to Pelosi, D-Calif., if she were in court, admitted during cross-examination that when a police officer told him he needed to leave her office he replied: “You need to give up communism.”

    Barnett also admitted to telling an officer in the Capitol: “We’re in a war. You need to pick a side. Don’t be on the wrong side or you’re going to get hurt.”

    Richard ‘Bigo’ Barnett arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse for jury selection in his trial on January 10, 2023 in Washington, DC.

    Win Mcnamee | Getty Images

    Defending his actions, Barnett said he didn’t believe he had violated the law on Jan. 6.

    “I made some bad mistakes and I regret them but I don’t think I broke the law,” Barnett said Friday. “I feel like a f—— idiot.”

    Two years after the riot, the FBI and the Justice Department’s investigation into the Capitol attack has yielded 900 arrests and nearly 500 guilty pleas.

    — Dareh Gregorian contributed.

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  • Steve Bannon set to be sentenced for contempt of Congress

    Steve Bannon set to be sentenced for contempt of Congress

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    Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon speaks to the media after the opening day of his trial on contempt of Congress charges stemming from his refusal to cooperate with the U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, at U.S. District Court in Washington, July 18, 2022.

    Joshua Roberts | Reuters

    Former top Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon is set to be sentenced Friday for defying a subpoena from the congressional probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

    The proceeding, set for 9 a.m. ET in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., could make Bannon one of the highest-profile figures to be locked up on charges related to the insurrection. He is expected to appeal his conviction.

    Federal prosecutors want the court to sentence Bannon to six months in jail — the top end of the federal sentencing guidelines range — and the maximum fine of $200,000.

    A right-wing media figure and onetime close ally of former President Donald Trump, Bannon “consistently acted in bad faith” as he tried to impede the House select committee’s investigation, prosecutors argued.

    Bannon has asked federal Judge Carl Nichols for a sentence of probation. His lawyers also argued that the court should delay any sentence imposed until an appeals court could hear the case.

    Bannon’s sentence came one year to the day since the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a House select committee’s subpoena for documents and testimony. Bannon was indicted in November on two criminal counts and convicted after a federal trial in July.

    Bannon’s lawyer had argued that the subpoena would violate Trump’s executive privilege, the presidential power to withhold certain information from the public.

    But Bannon reversed course days before his trial, saying he was willing to testify because Trump had agreed to waive his executive privilege claim.

    Prosecutors called that a stunt. In a court filing Monday, they wrote that after Bannon’s gambit failed to delay the trial, “he never made any further attempt to comply with the subpoena—continuing up to this day.”

    Attorneys for Bannon argued in part that Bannon should receive a light sentence because he was merely following his lawyer’s advice when he defied the select committee’s subpoena.

    “The facts of this case show that Mr. Bannon’s conduct was based on his good-faith reliance on his lawyer’s advice,” the defendant’s attorneys wrote in a court filing this week.

    But the Justice Department prosecutors said that Bannon “pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt” from “the moment” he was served the subpoena.

    “A person could have shown no greater contempt than the Defendant did in his defiance of the Committee’s subpoena,” they told the court.

    “The rioters who overran the Capitol on January 6 did not just attack a building—they assaulted the rule of law upon which this country was built and through which it endures. By flouting the Select Committee’s subpoena and its authority, the Defendant exacerbated that assault,” their memo said.

    This is developing news. Please check back for updates.

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