We learned that the DOJ is investigating a scheme to offer a bribe to the Trump White House in exchange for a pardon.
I’ll bet you didn’t see that plot twist coming. Me neither. I also didn’t expect Barr to announce that the DOJ didn’t find enough evidence of election fraud to sway the election.
Plus, Barr spent a few hours at the White House today in a meeting with Trump. I wonder what they talked about.
Okay, back to the order indicating that an indictment is coming. The heavily-redacted document is here.
What happened is this. The DOJ asked permission to review “certain Attorney-Client communications.” In other words, they requested a search warrant. The memo “identifies both individuals and conduct that have not been charged by the grand jury.”
Looks like we have a “secret lobbying scheme” in which [redacted] and [redacted] acted as lobbyists to “senior White House officials.”
How many characters fits into the boxes? 🕵️♂️
The proposed trade was political contributions in exchange for a pardon.
The actors included several sets of lawyers. Most of the document discusses why the attorney-client privilege doesn’t apply. (The document concludes that privileged information was disclosed to third-parties, which then waives the privilege. The Court doesn’t have to reach the question of whether the crime-fraud exception applies because the third-party waiver applies.)
What’s with these lawyers negotiating for payment in exchange for pardons? Aren’t there already enough lawyer jokes?
Parts of the document look like parts of the Mueller report. Redactions literally go on for pages:
Here’s something interesting. The Washington Post reported that “No government official was or is currently a subject or target of the investigation disclosed in this filing,” said a DOJ official. (A “subject” is a person whose conduct is within the scope of the grand jury’s investigation.)
I’m skeptical. If true, why wasn’t that information released publicly and officially? The story makes the White House look bad. And what’s with the search warrant? If the White House refused the bribe and turned over the people attempting the bribe, the DOJ would have had enough evidence without the search warrant (unless they there is a wide conspiracy and they wanted to get to the bottom of it.)
The search warrant communications are fairly recent. The warrant wouldn’t be more than 4 years old.
We can’t read anything into the timing of this. The initial order is dated Aug. 28, and the government was told to let the court know within 90 days whether any portion could be unsealed, which they did on Nov. 25.
Sigh. I guess we’ll find out eventually.
Oh, speaking of pardons:
