Any doubt that the Justice Department expects to indict high-ranking Trump associates, and perhaps the defeated ex-president himself, for January 6-related crimes has been eliminated. Acting just before the informal rule that the DOJ should not do anything to influence an election 60 days before election day, a reported 30 individuals received approximately 40 subpoenas. The subpoenas are believed to seek evidence relevant to the Justice Department’s long-running investigation of the January 6 Trump insurrection.
Full details on who received subpoenas are forthcoming. But we already know that Trump 2020 campaign officials, including his campaign manager, Bill Stepien and senior White House advisors, Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, and Brian Jack are among those who received them. Also receiving a subpoena was Bernard Kerik, the former New York police commissioner who evolved into a major Trump defender, claiming the 2020 election was fraudulent. Other subpoenas were sent to Boris Epshteyn, an advisor to the 2020 campaign, and Mike Roman, a participant in the effort to create alternative slates of 2020 presidential electors.
If preliminary reports, including comments by Mr. Kerik’s attorney, are accurate, the subpoenas cast a broad net. It appears that information is sought not only about the organization and execution of an effort to create alternative slates of electors in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia, but also about Trump’s Save America PAC and its expenditures.
Questions relating to the use of campaign funds may include whether any were used to support the January 6 insurrection, including paying for the transportation and housing of rioters. Other questions may relate to what communications Trump associates may have had with January 6 rioters.
DOJ has not yet released a list of who received subpoenas. It is doubtful it will, in part because Republicans (with some justification) will attack the timing of the issuance of subpoenas. While the subpoenas may have been issued 60 days before election day, November 8, news about the subpoenas, especially the considerable number of individuals receiving them and their subject matter, will arguably help Democrats in the midterm elections.
Was the Department of Justice right to issue these subpoenas? Yes, but the timing could have been better. The timing will especially be problematic if subpoenas were issued to sitting members of Congress who face re-election this fall. Accusations of involvement in the insurrection have been made against Lauren Boebert (R-CO), right-wing dentist Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and others. Our own Representative Andy Harris attended a White House meeting on December 19, 2021, with several of the usual suspects. If Harris received a subpoena, will he let the voters of the First District know? I would not count on it.
News of the subpoenas comes as a new book, Holding the Line, by Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, hits the bookstores. Berman claims that Donald Trump, acting through then-Attorney General Bill Barr, attempted to encourage prosecutions of Trump’s political enemies to help his 2020 campaign. Berman refused and got fired in June 2020.
Over the weekend, pictures also circulated of several large document boxes being loaded onto a private Trump plane headed to Northern Virginia, where Trump has another of his golf clubs. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has suggested that the FBI needs to search every Trump residence. That may not happen due to the informal “60-day rule,” but perhaps it should. The walls are closing in on Trump. The scent of accountability is in the air.
Ronald Reagan once said, “If not now, when?” That is not a bad question to ask Attorney General Garland. Justice delayed is justice denied. Should we assume that Garland got that memo?
Stand by. This story is not over.
J.E. Dean is a retired attorney and public affairs consultant writing on politics, government, and other subjects.
Mickey Terrone says
It is becoming clearer than ever that the DOJ understands the Trump network of criminal activities knows no bounds. It is critical for the future of our democratic republic that Trump and his accomplices are thoroughly investigated, accused and convicted when found guilty of crimes against the United States and our Constitution. That these MAGA deviates describe themselves as “patriots” becomes the ultimate challenge for our country to crush this cabal organized to overthrow our government in a similar manner that authoritarian dictators and their accomplices attempt to seize power. In the US, with our history of democratic traditions, there is no room for rationalizing treason and undermining the principles of our Founding Fathers, especially on behalf of a degenerate scoundrel like Trump.
“All ahead full!” on this investigation. If Secret Service employees were willing to erase evidence and if Trump accomplices refuse to cooperate, they need to receive severe legal consequences for their crimes against our country. If Trump was selling secrets to our country’s enemies, he should receive no support whatsoever from any patriotic American.
Overthrowing elections and undermining our electoral system cannot go unpunished or even minimally punished. There can be no encouragement for others to try this again. I hope that DOJ agents have seized the phone and phone records of Andy Harris, too. It is reasonable to believe our representative in Congress has participated in these heinous acts against our government and Constitution.
I trust that these subpoenas and phone seizures reflect DOJ is acting to close the loop on evidence gathering among Trump’s closest accomplices. Its also one of the last opportunities for the Republican Party as a whole to distance itself, if not condemn these criminal actions perpetrated by their leader and their fellow federal and state-level party members.
The critical importance of the 2022 election in electing Democrats to maintain control of the House and gain full control of the Senate is clear. Republican control will surely result in ending the investigation and covering up for the massive crimes perpetrated by these people who are unworthy of calling themselves Americans, much less patriots. Democrats, Independents and patriotic Republicans must demand full accountability for whatever criminality is proven and we mush ensure justice is served by electing and re-electing officials who will insist on the facts.
John Dean says
This is a great comment on my editorial, in many ways better than the editorial itself.
Thank you for writing it. I hope many Spy readers read and comment on your comment.
Jerry McConnell says
The timing is not good but there’s never a perfect time for things so wrought with politics weeks before an election. The DOJ may not have many options, and would he gassed with criticism from Goppers no matter how or when they proceed. Hopefully they’ll get one or more of the Trumpster’s men-at-arms to help indict him.
John Dean says
Thank you for reading the piece and for this comment. I fully agree.
Robert Parker says
While there may never be a perfect time for difficult decisions such as these, there is also never a bad time to do the right thing.
Additionally, as a comment to the excellent thoughts offered by Mr. Terrone, in line with our long standing legal tradition that one is innocent until proven guilty, I’d revise his statement that trump and his accomplices be “thoroughly investigated, accused and convicted when found guilty of crimes…” to read instead: be “thoroughly investigated and if indicted and convicted of crimes be appropriately punished…”