WTF Just Happened Today

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

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1/ The Justice Department appealed a district court ruling that ordered it to release the entire memo used in 2019 to justify not charging Trump with obstruction of justice in the Russia investigation. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson accused the Justice Department and then-Attorney General William Barr of being “disingenuous to this court” when describing Robert Mueller’s findings about why he decided not to pursue obstruction charges. Jackson ordered the entire document released. The Justice Department, however, released a partially unredacted version of the Office of Legal Counsel memo – a page and a half were made public. (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News / Politico)

2/ Trump’s former White House counsel agreed to testify behind closed doors about Trump’s efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation. Donald McGahn will testify before the House Judiciary Committee next week about his role as a key witness in the Mueller report. A transcript of the interview will be released afterward. In 2019, the Trump White House invoked executive privilege and ordered McGahn not to comply with a congressional subpoena for documents related to Mueller’s investigation. McGahn spent more than 30 hours speaking to Mueller’s investigators, outlining two episodes where Trump asked him to have Mueller fired, and later asking McGahn to deny news reports about that conversation. McGahn rebuffed both requests. (New York Times / CNN / NBC News)

3/ New York federal prosecutors investigating Rudy Giuliani seized email and iCloud accounts they believe belong to two former Ukranian government officials, as well as the cell phone and iPad of a pro-Trump Ukrainian businessman. The attorney for Lev Parnas, an indicted former Giuliani ally, wrote in a court filing that the evidence seized “likely includes e-mail, text, and encrypted communications” between Giuliani, Victoria Toensing, Trump, William Barr, “high-level members of the Justice Department, Presidential impeachment attorneys Jay Sekulow, Jane Raskin and others, Senator Lindsey Graham, Congressman Devin Nunes and others, relating to the timing of the arrest and indictment of the defendants as a means to prevent potential disclosures to Congress in the first impeachment inquiry of then-President Donald. J. Trump.” The court filing also disclosed that federal prosecutors have “historical and prospective cell site information” related to Giuliani and Toensing – both were the subjects of search warrants executed last month. The court filing contained redacted portions, which could be read by copying and pasting them into another document. (CNN)

4/ Trump responded to a l...

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