Katelyn Polantz
@kpolantz
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Correspondent @CNN. 10+yrs covering legal DC. Prev: @americanlawyer @theNLJ @roanoketimes @newshour You can take the girl out of the Rust Belt but ... #H2P
Joined March 2011
Come back for my Ted Talk in 20 years about how the courts weren't politically expedient enough during the Trump presidency to solve any of the really big Constitutional separation of powers questions before them.
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Man, this line in Robert Mueller's sentencing memo for Paul Manafort. "Given the breadth of Manafort’s criminal activity, the government has not located a comparable case with the unique array of crimes and aggravating factors.". 🔥🔥🔥.
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NEW NEW: The Justice Dept is investigating a potentially criminal scheme of bribery for a presidential pardon. LOTS redacted/unknown . but court records are here, released this afternoon by the DC District Court:
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This is BIG. Federal judge fast-tracking case over Congress' subpoena of Donald Trump's accounting records (read: tax returns and more). The court hearing is on Tuesday.
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Since all eyes are on Roger Stone (+Trump) tonight, let's take a stroll through all the OMG, WHAT JUST HAPPENED moments in this case. Thread:.
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NEW: Judge Emmet Sullivan is so angered by the US Postal Service's inability to sweep its facilities for ballots yesterday afternoon, following a court order to do so, that he said he will want answers under oath from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
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New from @evanperez: The White House official who concluded in April that, following edits, John Bolton’s manuscript didn’t contain classified information is lawyering up.
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Biggest news here: Other prosecutors at the DC US Attorney's Office have discussed resigning in the coming days, following Roger Stone sentencing about-face:.
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UPDATE: 4 defense attorneys at different large law firms have been approached to join Trump's legal defense team in recent weeks. All 4 turned him down.
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Whoa. Chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court after the state GOP criticized a lower-court judge for siding with Dems in a lawsuit to allow more dropboxes in the state>>
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NEW IN THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: .The chief judge of the DC District Court has extended the term of the grand jury used by Mueller for indictments. They were set to expire Jan. 6. Now could sit for up to 6 more months.
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Proud Boys isn’t just some random white nationalist group. Facebook head of security policy in July: "We first started looking into this network as part of our investigation into the Proud Boys. Our investigation linked this network to Roger Stone”.
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I'll end with this, the words of the federal judge who handled more on the Mueller cases than any other court. "He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the President. He was prosecuted for covering up for the President".
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Reasons why big law firms have told me they won’t rep Trump:.1 Already repping subjects in investigation.2 He’s a “difficult” client.3 Could hurt relationships w corporate clients.4 Could hurt associate recruiting.5 Key partner is “busy”.6 He attacked judge/rule of law.
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A devastating blow in court to Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell as Dominion Voting seeks billions for defamation. A Trump-appointed judge says it may be possible for Dominion to prove they had actual malice when they claimed election fraud
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John Eastman is in court right now trying to challenge a House Jan 6 subpoena for ~19,000 of his emails, including ones related to Trump. So far: .-Chapman U, his employer, says he worked for Trump w/o permission.-His lawyer says he was working for Trump at MANY relevant moments.
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NEW Double-barrel Jan 6 stories w @evanperez this pm:. Former DOJ staffer Ken Klukowski, who worked with Jeffrey Clark, is now cooperating in the DOJ Jan 6 investigation. Searched his electronic records. His lawyer confirms: "We've been fully cooperating".
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Guilty verdict of Michael Flynn’s former lobbying partner Bijan Kian, for illegally and secretly working for Turkey in 2016, will stand, 4th Circuit rules. A trial judge had thrown out the jury verdict and ordered a new trial—but that was the wrong call, the appeals court says.
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BREAKING: Rick Gates' three attorneys who've been repping him in court withdrew from his case this afternoon. AND THEN: A team of lawyers from Sidley Austin (which we connected to Gates last week) spent the afternoon inside Mueller's office building.
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The judge who's going to consider lawsuits over Bill Barr's redactions to the Mueller report is already flagging public concern about how this will go. Checks and balances in action.
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👀Mueller's top appellate lawyer Michael Dreeben tells judge he can't respond to @washingtonpost request to unseal Paul Manafort court docs because he and co-counsel "FACE A PRESS OF OTHER WORK" this week.👀. (What is keeping him so busy???)
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“Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself.” —Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion, three days before Nixon resigned
As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!.
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Headline: MUELLER RAISED POSSIBILITY TRUMP LIED TO HIM. Follow updates here as we report on the Mueller report's re-release this afternoon:.
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New details about Rep. Scott Perry phone search today: . -DOJ inspector general’s office is mentioned on warrant—to potentially do the forensic exam of the phone. That’s the same approach specified in John Eastman phone search. OIG is also working on Jeffrey Clark investigation.
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Special counsel scooplet: Stephen Miller testified on Tuesday to the Jan 6 federal grand jury in DC—that makes him the first known witness to testify since the DOJ appointed special counsel Jack Smith to oversee the investigation.
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Hours after the Senate said it didn't want more documents, OMB reveals (in a court filing) there are more documents that show Trump's decision-making on Ukraine aid.
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It appears to be the beginning of the bitter end for Paul Manafort. The Special Counsel's Office is going to file its sentencing memo for his criminal case in Virginia TODAY. Stand by for a fast-moving Friday.
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NEW FROM COURT TODAY: Andrew Miller, an associate of Roger Stone, has agreed to testify to a grand jury used by Mueller at 9:30 am this Friday, his attorney and Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky said at a hearing today. This was minutes after Mueller made his public statement.
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NEW HINT FROM DOJ: Federal prosecutors (from Mueller's office, NSD, DC USAO) told a judge today they need to keep some info under seal in the Concord Management/Internet Research Agency social media scheme case because it discusses a "matter occurring before the grand jury.".
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Well this is new: The Federal Trade Commission is investigation Steve Bannon's efforts for Cambridge Analytica--whether "he may be held individually liable for the deceptive conduct."
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JUST PUBLISHED: Mueller team signals to Roger Stone associate another indictment may be in the works (and this comes after Whitaker comments today). via @SaraMurray and me:
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NEW: Mueller says they have account data showing communications between Stone and Wikileaks. They've never said this before. Previous indictments left open the possibility Stone may not have actually reached Assange in 2016
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From @MaryKayMallonee and a team of CNN trackers: . Paul Manafort arrived at Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, around 8pm. Keeping him in DC was a risk to his safety. This appears to be where he’ll stay behind bars until his trial in September.
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Also today in court in Washington:.DOJ is supposed to file publicly transcripts of Michael Flynn's calls with Russians and other recordings from his case in the Mueller investigation. Potentially some parts of the Mueller report we haven't seen yet, too.
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At 11:40 last night, Mueller’s dropped a court filing that says:.-How much Rosenstein is fully behind this investigation .-They’ve investigated Manafort for allegedly helping Russians interfere w elex.-Knew exactly what else they were pursuing last August
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Sam Nunberg update: Still apparently testifying with the Mueller grand jury. 5.5 hours and counting (which is, for the record, longer than his cable news interview tour on Monday).
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Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson will hold a hearing today at 2 over whether to intervene immediately in the Trump administration's record-keeping practices, especially regarding calls/mtgs between Trump and foreign leaders.
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NEW: On his request to drop the case against Michael Flynn, DC US Attorney Tim Shea signed his name above his ousted predecessor's bar ID number. It's adding to questions about how the DOJ put together the reversal and why Shea alone signed the document.
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The Manafort asset forfeiture proceeding is getting odd. What's up with this shell company that says Manafort owes $1 million? DOJ asked today in court
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The National Archives just … puts it out there. Trump is trying to keep secret from the Jan 6 House investigation:.-Mark Meadows’ handwritten notes about Jan 6.-call/switchboard logs to the Pres and VP.-WH daily diaries .and much more about the attempt to overturn the election
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From late last night in a court filing: George Papadopoulos says Sessions supported Putin-Trump campaign meeting, contradicting the Attorney General’s sworn testimony to Congress
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👀 Prosecutors plan to call a witness from the Secret Service to testify about the evacuation of Mike Pence at the first scheduled Jan 6 insurrection trial
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Roger Stone jurors wrote anonymously to the court where they served this week. Again, they’re unanimous: They’re scared for their safety and want privacy
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NEW: Rick Gates' case before Judge Amy Berman Jackson in DC federal court will be handled by the DC US Attorney's Office as Mueller exits, per the special counsel's office today.
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Donald Trump is riding out Hurricane Ian at Mar-a-Lago. Why? Because he had a lawsuit deposition scheduled for Friday (and didn’t move it somewhere more agreeable for opposing counsel). This story broke open w a bunch of court filings tonight:
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Rudy Giuliani and OAN sued by Georgia election workers. The 2020 ballot processors say right-wing election fraud claims prompted strangers to harass them, showing up at their associated addresses and sending unwanted pizzas, rude Christmas cards
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EXCLUSIVE @CNNPolitics: For more 3+ years, federal prosecutors investigated whether money flowing through an Egyptian state-owned bank could have backed $10M Trump donated to his own campaign days before the 2016 election
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Would you like to read a point-by-point rejection of election fraud allegations in Michigan, showing why they're not credible? .That exists now, from a judge. Read it here:
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If there's anything you learn as a legal reporter, it's that when the DOJ writes something in a court filing, you pay attention to every word. Court filing yesterday, re: Mar-a-Lago search: "This investigation implicates highly classified materials".
The DOJ item that caught CNN reporter @kpolantz by surprise after seeing so many of these filings for years.
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BREAKING: Paul Manafort LIED to FBI and special counsel’s office “on a variety of subject matters” after pleading guilty. Prosecutors want to move him to sentencing. Plea deal/cooperation has been "breached," they say, according to new court filing.
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Just in: Judge TS Ellis on Paul Manafort’s request to wear a suit instead of an inmate uniform at his court hearing Friday: "The defendant should be treated no differently from other defendants who are in custody post conviction.".
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Judge David Carter nails down if he was doing work on behalf of client, when Eastman:.-briefed hundreds of state leg.-was at the Willard.-met w Trump & Pence Jan 3. Yes. The client was Trump, Eastman's lawyer answered.
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Mark your calendar for tomorrow. More details of the Mueller investigation into Michael Cohen are coming.
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NEW this afternoon: Mueller interview notes obtained by CNN show Trump's push for stolen emails
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New tonight: Trump campaign told fake electors in Georgia to use 'complete secrecy’ for their December 2020 statehouse meeting, previously undisclosed email reveals. I’ve also learned this email is part of the DOJ investigation into the fake electors
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Just got the transcript from the Roger Stone sentencing. Judge Amy Berman Jackson spoke for almost an hour--with an intensity I don't think we've seen before--before sentencing Stone. This was clearly the peak of her speech:
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The "truth matters" moment: Here's prosecutor Michael Marando's full quote from the very end of closing arguments at Roger Stone's trial yesterday.
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This is the full statement from an unnamed Capitol Police officer knocked unconscious by a rioter on January 6. The unnamed officer sent this statement to DOJ today, and a prosecutor read it during a court hearing for defendant Ryan Samsel. @CNNPolitics got the transcript.
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And then! DOJ is prepping to go to court to try to squeeze testimony from WH officials about Trump conversations that Trump wants to keep as privileged. Much, much more here:.
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All of Stone’s jurors later wrote to the court they wanted their privacy and feared for their safety. Some got mysterious phone calls, postcards from strangers.
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Huge win tonight @cnnpolitics getting details about the Mueller investigation out of the federal court in Washington. Newly released details show speed, scope of Mueller investigation:
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NEW: Olivia Nuzzi is accusing Ryan Lizza of harassment, blackmail, hacking in court. Got a protective order against him today. More:
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Judge Amy Berman Jackson had thoughtful things to share at Rick Gates’ sentencing today, about the Mueller investigation, transparency, and the truth. Her most poignant quotes:
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New tonight: The Georgia GOP chair told the House 1/6 committee today that the Trump campaign directed alternate elector effort
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Robert Mueller contemplated publicly defending his investigation for weeks--especially after DOJ's reversal on Flynn. The White House statement about Roger Stone on Friday finally pushed him to break his silence. New reporting, w @jeremyherb:
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Fed court records are now describing assault rifles, homemade bombs around the Capitol melee Wednesday. One man w hundreds of rounds of ammo texting about shooting Pelosi. A new, unsettling look at the extremism Trump drew to DC this week:
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Judge Carter is putting this on warp speed. Chapman U gives Eastman his emails by tomorrow, noon PST. Eastman starts making productions to the House immediately, does a privilege log (so withholds client advice). They're back in court in 1 week on who has final say on privilege.
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It's not even 2pm, and we've got 3 court developments today already showing how cases that seek to block vote certification of Biden wins, spread fraud disinformation and claim sweeping unfairness aren't going to fly in court.
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Stop the Steal's massive disinformation campaign connected to Roger Stone and Steve Bannon
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I spent weeks tracking cases where DOJ showed judges body cam video of Jan 6 police assaults. Just now, we’re starting to see more of that video—but only because CNN + 14 other outlets banded together to sue for access . This is essential to our understanding of the insurrection.
FULL STORY on the new video that, why it came out today, the months-long court fight by CNN and other news outlets to unearth these important videos for the American people to see. This effort has been led by my friend and colleague @kpolantz
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Latest in the Roger Stone criminal case: Judge wants him to explain why he hadn't mentioned to her "imminent general release" of a book. She has very specific questions for him.
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Trump told an ally that he knows he lost but is delaying the transition and is trying to sow doubt about election results to get back at Dems for questioning the legitimacy of his own election. What a story, w a @DanaBashCNN @GloriaBorger double byline!.
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JUST IN: Judge Chutkan denies Trump's attempt to keep secret his White House records . “The court holds that the public interest lies in permitting—not enjoining— the combined will of the legislative and executive branches to study the events that led to and occurred on Jan 6". .
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Not to distract, BUT there's a redacted supplemental filing from Mueller coming in the Manafort case that was filed under seal sometime between yesterday and today. It's not available yet. Per new Judge Jackson order.
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What's behind those redactions in this paragraph of the Mueller report?? .House Dems want to know, and think what Trump said about WikiLeaks could play into impeachment. This is according to a new court filing in the House's lawsuit over Mueller grand jury details.
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NEW: Paul Manafort is now in the Manhattan Correctional Center, a federal prison, as he awaits his first appearance before a judge on state charges. The feds moved him to NYC this morning.
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As we anticipate the end of Mueller, signs of a wind-down:.-SCO prosecutors bringing family into the office for visits.-Staff carrying out boxes.-Manafort sentenced, top prosecutor leaving.-office of 16 attys down to 10.-DC US Atty stepping up in cases.-grand jury not seen in 2mo.
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NEW TONIGHT: A major release by the DC District Court reveals that the mystery foreign-owned company Mueller subpoena handed over records in February -- but the investigation continues on.MORE:
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The #CNNStakeout always gets the story: .An ex-girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is seen as a key witness in the ongoing investigation into alleged sex trafficking, entered an Orlando federal courthouse with her lawyer on Wednesday. Grand jury is seated.
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I’m headed to court for the 10am sentencing of Richard Pinedo, the third person to be sentenced for crimes unearthed by special counsel Robert Mueller.
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If this were an administration where pardon applications went through DOJ's Office of the Pardon Attorney, Alex van der Zwaan wouldn't even have been eligible to apply. He's Dutch and was deported following his prison time.
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NEW from @evanperez and me: Manafort meant for polling data to go to Ukrainian oligarchs who owed him millions. He expected $2.4M from them in November 2016, he told his accountant
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Jury decided: Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty on lying. Guilty on obstruction. Guilty on witness tampering. Meanwhile, Trump was tweeting about a double standard
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I want to walk through the document trail (all public records!) that underpins our story today. Through these (+sources), we were able to reveal a long-hidden leg of the Mueller investigation.
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That's Ellen Knight. Her lawyer still unnamed. Knight, the National Security Council official in charge of pre-publication reviews, is cited in DOJ's lawsuit seeking to stop publication of Bolton’s book, and she could have a key role in the escalating court fight.
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This was the final argument DOJ prosecutors made to Roger Stone’s jurors asking for a conviction. An unforgettable closing. "Truth matters." .
The "truth matters" moment: Here's prosecutor Michael Marando's full quote from the very end of closing arguments at Roger Stone's trial yesterday.
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Court scoop! . DOJ investigating FALSE STATEMENTS, CONSPIRACY, OBSTRUCTION (18 USC § 1001, 371, 1512) in crim probe into Trumpworld post-election, Jeff Clark. This is according to a fresh update in Clark atty ethics case.New story via @Tierney_Megan + me:.
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Sam Nunberg’s interview with the grand jury is done, we’re told. Reporters at the courthouse haven’t seen him in person exiting yet. He spent 6+ hours today in the grand jury area as a witness.
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The indictment: Stone wanted from WikiLeaks Dem emails stolen by Russia in 2016. Coordinated w Trump campaign looking to capitalize on leaks. Stone lied to Congress about it, avoided giving up records and threatened an associate to keep the story straight
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NEW SCOOP ON MUELLER INVESTIGATION from @CNNPolitics: Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio visited the Special Counsel's Office in February last year. Takes on new significance this week. via the fab @SaraMurray @caroline_mkelly @stark_talk:
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This launched quite the backlash for Barr, including the first round of several open letters from former officials condemning Bill Barr’s leadership at DOJ
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BREAKING: FBI raid at 30 Rock today. Here’s the official statement from the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, where Michael Cohen had his office in NY that was searched:
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Facebook kicked Stone off Instagram and pulled 100+ associated social media accounts this week.
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Stone’s lead prosecutor from the Mueller team, Aaron Zelinsky, testified to Congress that political influence to cut Stone a break came from the top of the DOJ. Zelinsky had also taken Stone to trial then resigned over the sentencing walkback
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Update: Michael Flynn sentencing that was set for Feb 27 CANCELED until further notice
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The first chair prosecutor at Stone’s trial, Jonathan Kravis, called Barr’s decision to lighten the Department's position in the Stone case “an abdication of the commitment to equal justice under the law”.His @washingtonpost op-ed:
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Rudy Giuliani--or at least lawyers representing him--is expected in federal court in DC at 2 pm for a hearing on Dominion's lawsuit accusing him of defamation.
BREAKING: Rudy Giuliani is suspended from practicing law in New York state following disciplinary proceedings over 2020 election statements
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That Stone was a target of the Mueller investigation and why became clear in 2018. Jerome Corsi played chicken with Mueller over the Stone/WikiLeaks situation, somehow avoiding a criminal charge. They offered him a plea deal, Corsi refused to sign it
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SPOTTED: Rick Gates walked into the courthouse at 2:10 pm.-Wouldn't say why he's here.-Walked into the clerk's office to drop off a filing.-Has a 5pm deadline to tell the judge what he’d like to do about his trial attys exit.-Criminal charge filed today in case is still a mystery.
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