Why am I not surprised?
Anybody want to tell me why Trump does not belong in prison?
_____________________________________________________
Justice Department investigating potential presidential pardon bribery scheme, court records reveal
by Katelyn Polantz, CNN
December 1, 2020
(CNN) - The Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House or related political committee in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to court records unsealed Tuesday in federal court.
The case is the latest legal twist in the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration after several of his top advisers have been convicted of federal criminal charges and as the possibility rises of Trump giving pardons to those who've been loyal to him.
The disclosure is in 20 pages of partially redacted documents made public by the DC District Court on Tuesday afternoon. The records show Chief Judge Beryl Howell's review in August of a request from prosecutors to access documents obtained in a search as part of a bribery-for-pardon investigation.
The filings don't reveal a timeline of the alleged scheme, or any names of people potentially involved, except that communications between people including at least one lawyer were seized from an office that was raided sometime before the end of this summer.
No one appears to have been publicly charged with a related crime to date.
The White House declined to comment on the court filing. CNN has previously reported that associates of the President are making appeals to him in the hopes of obtaining pardons before he leaves office. There is no indication that any of those associates are being investigated by DOJ in relation to Tuesday's filing.
According to the court records, at the end of this summer, a filter team, used to make sure prosecutors don't receive tainted evidence that should have been kept from them because it was privileged, had more than 50 digital devices including iPhones, iPads, laptops, thumb drives and computer drives after investigators raided the unidentified offices.
Prosecutors told the court they wanted permission to the filter team's holdings. The prosecutors believed the devices revealed emails that showed allegedly criminal activity, including a "secret lobbying scheme" and a bribery conspiracy that offered "a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence" for a convicted defendant whose name is redacted, according to the redacted documents.
Communications between attorneys and clients are typically privileged and kept from prosecutors as they build their cases, but in this situation, Howell allowed the prosecutors access. Attorney-client communications are not protected as privileged under the law when there is discussion of a crime, among other exceptions.
"The political strategy to obtain a presidential pardon was 'parallel' to and distinct from [redacted]'s role as an attorney-advocate for [redacted name]," Howell wrote in her court order.
The grand jury investigation also appears to relate to unnamed people acting as unregistered "lobbyists to senior White House officials" as they sought to secure a pardon and use an intermediary to send a bribe, the unsealed court records say.
Prosecutors hadn't provided evidence to the judge, however, of any direct payment, and instead showed evidence that a person was seeking clemency because of past and future political contributions.
The investigators indicated in court that they intended to "confront" three people with the communications and complete their investigation.
Over the last week, the Justice Department told Howell it wanted to keep filings related to the matter confidential in court, because "individuals and conduct" hadn't yet been charged.
Trump has granted 29 pardons and commuted 16 people's sentences during his presidency, according to the US Pardon Attorney's office. Several of those have gone to people close to the President or whose names would make a splash -- including the 19th Century suffragist Susan B. Anthony, the former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Bush-era adviser Scooter Libby and longtime Republican political adviser Roger Stone, who lied to Congress to protect Trump's efforts in 2016.
Just last week, Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, undisclosed lobbying for Turkey and the waterfront of potential related crimes that Flynn could have faced in the future.
https://us.cnn.com/2020/12/01/politics/ ... index.html
________________________________________________________
Trump associates, including Giuliani, are asking for pardons
By Jim Acosta and Michael Warren, CNN
December 1, 2020
(CNN) - President Donald Trump's associates are making appeals to him in the hopes of obtaining pardons before he leaves office, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday.
The source said the list of associates broaching the subject of preemptive pardons that would seek to shield those individuals from prosecution includes Rudy Giuliani, who has been leading the President's longshot legal battles to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in his role as Trump's personal attorney.
Giuliani denied discussing a preemptive pardon with the President, telling CNN that the "(New York) Times is completely wrong." He further denied he has talked to anyone at the White House about a pardon for himself.
The New York Times first reported that Giuliani was discussing a pardon with the President.
It's not clear what potential criminal exposure Giuliani or other associates are attempting to preempt. But the source familiar with the discussions went on to cite what friends and allies of the President see as hostility from the incoming Biden administration toward Trump associates.
"Don't trust the Dems," the source said, describing the pardons being sought as "blanket" protection from future prosecution.
Nine individuals in Trump's orbit, including Flynn and Stone, have been indicted or found guilty of crimes related to a constellation of alleged criminal conspiracies.
The appeals come on the heels of Trump's decision to pardon his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Last week, the President granted Flynn a full pardon, absolving him of charges related to lying to federal agents over his contact with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn's pardon was Trump's second act of clemency related to prosecutions of advisers of the President. Earlier this summer, Trump commuted the sentence of Roger Stone.
At least one major ally is appealing further to his instinct for self-preservation, suggesting a self-pardon should be issued.
On Monday, Fox News host Sean Hannity said on his radio show that the President should pardon his family and himself to avoid being prosecuted by the incoming Biden administration.
"The President out the door needs to pardon his whole family and himself," Hannity said, later adding, "I assume that the power of the pardon is absolute, and that he should be able to pardon anybody that he wants to."
https://us.cnn.com/2020/12/01/politics/ ... index.html