Former US President Donald Trump is likely to have committed a crime. A federal judge in the US state of California reached that conclusion on Monday night. The case concerned the question of whether attorney John Eastman could invoke a duty of confidentiality. A congressional investigative committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, asked Eastman to deliver his email correspondence with the White House from that point forward to lawmakers. Eastman fought in court, but has now suffered defeat. According to his lawyer, Eastman intends to follow the verdict, even if he “respectfully” disagrees with the judge.
The committee is now receiving more than 100 emails that Eastman exchanged with the White House around Jan. Many of them are not yet public knowledge and, despite being delivered to Congress, will not be published for the time being. Judge David Carter, however, outlined some of the documents in his verdict. The main concern was how Trump could still remain in office after losing the presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. Eastman had theorized that Vice President Mike Pence simply shouldn’t recognize those hailing from states that Trump had narrowly lost in the — rather ceremonial — count of electoral college votes. Trump still says the election was stolen from him, pointing to the states of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania, among others.
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For Judge Carter, these were efforts that raised suspicions that Eastman and Trump were conspiring to obstruct an official congressional ceremony — the electoral college vote count — and mislead the American people about the actual election outcome. “This was a coup seeking a legal basis,” Carter wrote in the verdict. Everyone could see that the procedure was criminal. The United States is built on the peaceful transfer of power. It all started with George Washington, who after the Revolutionary War “lay down his sword to make democratic elections possible”. said Carter.
The verdict has no consequences for Donald Trump for the time being, as he was not involved in the process. After the verdict was announced, spokesperson Taylor Budowich said: “This absurd and baseless verdict is one of the [Ex-Präsident Bill] The Clinton-appointed judge in California is further evidence of how the left is using all branches of state violence as a weapon against President Trump. launch a criminal investigation into the former president for his role in the invasion of the Capitol by an angry mob on January 6, 2021. Minister Merrick Garland had announced that he would investigate the events comprehensively and indict anyone against whom there was evidence. To date, there has been no known investigation into Trump.
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The pressure to act could become even greater if the investigative committee decides the allegations against Trump are justified and then transfers the collected evidence to the ministry. The Committee itself cannot initiate criminal proceedings. He has been investigating the cases since July 2021 and can issue court-proof citations, but has no possibility of imposing sanctions if these are not complied with. On Monday, lawmakers voted to present a contempt case to Congress with the Justice Department against former Trump aide Peter Navarro and former deputy press secretary Dan Scavino. In their refusal to testify, the two cite the former president’s so-called executive privilege. However, President Biden rescinded this to Navarro and Scavino. If the Ministry of Justice initiates the process, the two will face prison terms of up to one year.