Monthly Archives: June 2022

Former President Donald Trump on Friday criticized former Vice President Mike Pence as lacking courage for refusing to carry out a plan to overturn the 2020 election results, echoing a tweet Trump sent on Jan. 6, 2021 as the countrys second-in-command sheltered from a violent mob attacking the U.S. Capitol.

In a keynote speech at a conservative Christian political conference in Nashville, Trump delivereda lengthy speech against what he calls a ludicrous narrative and witch hunt as a House committee continues its investigation into Trumps role in the Jan. 6 attack.

Former Trump aides and staff testified on Thursday of Trumps efforts to pressure Penceto illegally reject the 2020 election results. A former Trump assistant testified Trump called Pence a wimp in a heated Jan. 6 phone call.

I never called Mike Pence a wimp, Trump said. Mike Pence had a chance to be great. He had a chance to be, frankly, historic, but just like Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people, Mike did not have the courage to act.

The bipartisan committee on Thursday alleged Trump's actions endangered the vice president's life in his pursuit of a legal theory that Pence could overturn the election. Pence refused to do so. Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee,called the strategy "illegal and unconstitutional."

Related: Jan. 6 hearing revelations: Trump called Pence a 'wimp' as VP resisted 'pressure campaign' to overturn election

Trump spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at Gaylord Opryland Resort &Convention Center, where hundredsgathered this week to hearprominent conservative and evangelicalspeakers at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Road to Majority."

Despite the friendly reception, Trump's speech struck a discordant tone from other speakers at the conference that at times resembled a well-produced church service.

Following a speech from Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw encouraging Republicans not to match the "sheer anger of the left" in actions and rhetoric,Trump mocked political opponents' appearances and said he believes one Republican on the select committee has a "mental disorder."

The conference featured a slate of Republican heavy hitters and Tennessees Senate delegation, including U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, all of whom avoided any mention of the ongoing Jan. 6 committee on Thursday and early Friday.

Related: Nikki Haley helps kick off Faith and Freedom event as Jan. 6 hearings continue

Before his own speech atthe Faith & Freedom conference, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tweeted Thursday that "Real America" doesn't care about the Jan. 6 investigations.

But Trump appeared to be paying attention, spending more than a half hour of his speech disparaging the committee and current Republican leadership.

"We have to fight some very sick and very evil people, Trump said, describing the bipartisan House committee as having amenacing spirit and being con artists" putting on a "theatrical production."

Trump said if he sought a second term in 2024, he would"very seriously" consider giving pardons to the hundreds of people arrested in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The rioters face charges ranging from seditious conspiracy to assaulting law enforcement.

Related: Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

Conference speakers this week repeatedly referred to upcoming midterm elections as a "battle," invoking biblical and military language to rally supporters for an aggressive push to take back the upper chamber and effectively hobble Democratic President Joe Biden for the remainder of his term.

"It is time to rescue America," U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said. "God favors those who are bold."

Multiple speakers decried public schools and education trends, an ongoing, hot-topic issue that has raged in school board meetings and state legislatures since last year.

Related: Age-appropriate school library bill heads to Tennessee governors desk

Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos praisedschool choice, calling students "hostages" to the public education system.

"Today, kids have been held hostage to radical-left fever dreams," DeVos said. "Education should not be in the domain of government, it should be in the domain of family."

Even with the attention on the 2022 midterms, Trump's appearance stoked continuing questions about his potential candidacy for another term in 2024. Haley, a one-time Trump critic and rumored to be considering a presidential run herself, told a conference attendee on Thursday she would support Trump if he ran.

"Would anybody like me to run for president?" Trump asked on Friday, to thunderous applause.

Reach Melissa Brown at mabrown@tennessean.com.

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Trump criticizes Pence during Nashville speech; Jan. 6 hearings continue - Tennessean

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) As religious conservatives gathered this week at a sprawling resort near the Grand Ole Opry House, Nikki Haley pressed the Faith and Freedom Coalitions Road to Majority crowd to look to the future.

Its up to us to deliver a new birth of patriotism, said Haley, the former South Carolina governor who was ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump. And together with you, and with trust in God, I pledge to answer that call and inspire our country once again, she said, sounding like a White House candidate herself.

Such comments are typical for a party thats out of power and in search of its next leader. Whats unusual: The partys last leader is plotting his own comeback.

Trump spoke from the same stage Friday, making his first public appearance since the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection began to lay bare his desperate attempts to remain in power. It presented harrowing video footage and searing testimony, including accounts from Trumps close associates and members of his family.

He spent much of his speech blasting the committees efforts as politically motivated and insisting hed done nothing wrong.

WATCH: Trump asked us to come, rioters said during Jan. 6 attack

In the face of the video and allies accounts, he still said, What youre seeing is a complete and total lie. Its a complete and total fraud. He claimed footage had been selectively edited and downplayed the insurrection as a simple protest that got out hand.

And he made sure to tease his own plans.

One of the most urgent tasks facing the next Republican president I wonder who that will be, Trump said at one point, prompting a standing ovation and chants of USA!

Would anybody like me to run for president? he asked the crowd, unleashing more cheers.

Trumps return to the public conversation comes as he has been actively weighing when he might formally launch a third presidential run, according to people familiar with the discussions. The debate, according to aides and allies who insist he has yet to make a final decision, centers on whether to announce a campaign in the coming months or, in accordance with tradition, wait until after the November midterm elections.

Trump has spent the past year and a half holding rallies, delivering speeches and using his endorsements to exact revenge and further shape the party in his image. But some supporters say the former president, who has decamped from his Florida Mar-a-Lago club to Bedminster, New Jersey, for the summer, is also growing impatient.

While he has relished his role as a party kingmaker with candidates all but begging his endorsement and racking up large tabs at fundraisers in his ballrooms Trump also misses the days when he was actually king, particularly as he watches Democratic President Joe Biden struggling with low approval ratings and soaring inflation.

I think a lot of Trumps future plans are directly based on Biden, and I think the more Biden continues to stumble on the world stage and on the domestic stage, people forget about the downside, the dark side of Trumps presidency, said Bryan Lanza, a GOP strategist and former Trump campaign official.

An announcement in the near future could complicate efforts by other ambitious Republicans to mount campaigns. Haley, for instance, has said she wouldnt run against Trump.

And there also are concerns that a near-term announcement could hurt Republicans going into the final stretch of a midterm congressional campaign that appears increasingly favorable to the party. A Trump candidacy could unite otherwise despondent Democratic voters, reviving the energy that lifted the party in the 2018 and 2020 campaigns.

WATCH: Jan. 6 committee hearings Day 3

Republicans want the November election to be framed as a referendum on the first two years of Bidens presidency. They dont want anything, including Trump, to throw them off that trajectory.

Regardless of his decision, the aura of inevitability that Trump sought to create from the moment he left the White House has been punctured. Some Republicans have tried to make clear that a Trump candidacy would have little influence on their own decisions.

They include his vice president, Mike Pence, who has been hailed by the Jan. 6 committee as someone who put the national interest ahead of his own political considerations. Trump continued Friday to criticize Pence, who has spoken at the conference numerous times.

Eyeing a White House bid, Pence is maintaining a brisk political schedule focused on drawing attention to Democratic vulnerabilities.

Other possible candidates including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have also indicated their decisions do not rest on Trumps. And they and others have become increasingly brazen in their willingness to cross the former president, including endorsing candidates running against his.

Some of these could-be candidates, including Trumps former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, were appearing alongside the former president at the Faith and Freedom Coalitions gathering in Nashville.

The field could include a long list of others, including Rep. Liz Cheney, the lead Republican on the Jan. 6 panel and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan both Trump critics. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, is seen by many loyal Trump supporters as the future of his movement.

Indeed, many of those attending the conference in Nashville the resort is near the Opry House, where the longtime Grand Ole Opry country music radio show is broadcast werent sold on a third Trump run.

READ MORE: U.S. to ramp up tracking of domestic extremism on social media

I dont know. The jurys still out with me, said Jonathan Goodwin, a minister who works as a Faith and Freedom organizer in South Carolina. I like him, but I think he shot himself in the foot too many times

Goodwin said he definitely had his own concerns about the 2020 election but didnt support how Trump had handled the situation. I think he should have bowed out gracefully, he said, whether it was rigged or not.

Illinois conservative Pam Roehl, who arrived at the conference Friday wearing a red Trump baseball cap and Trump 2020 necklace, said she still supports the former president, but increasingly finds herself in the minority among friends who have moved on, discarding their bumper stickers and embracing DeSantis.

Theyre like kind of, Get with the program. Why arent you backing DeSantis? she said.

Though its increasingly clear that Trump wouldnt march to the GOP nomination unchallenged, a large field of candidates could still work to his advantage. The dynamic is beginning to resemble the 2016 campaign, when Trump faced a large and unwieldy group of candidates that split the anti-Trump vote.

Some in his orbit, like former campaign adviser Jason Miller, have urged him to jump in sooner rather than later, to get a head start on building out a campaign, freeze out competition and keep attention on himself.

An early strategy would also allow Trump to cast his mounting legal vulnerabilities as merely political attacks. An Atlanta district attorney has impaneled a special grand jury to probe his meddling in the 2020 presidential election. And in New York, Trump and two of his children have agreed to sit for depositions next month in the state attorney generals civil investigation into his business practices.

Others are urging Trump to wait until after the midterms, so he can run on Republicans November victories. They also warn that formally declaring his candidacy would trigger campaign finance laws that set limits on how much donors can give. It also would change his relationship with his Save America PAC, which has more than $100 million in the bank more than both national party organizations combined and currently funds his campaign travel.

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Donald Trump teases 2024 presidential run at conservative conference - PBS NewsHour

In the opening public hearings of the select committee investigating the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, the most damning evidence that former President Donald Trump conspired to overturn a lawful election has come from the people Trump himself appointed or hired.

Former Trump Attorney General William Barr, for instance, told the committee that his former boss had "become detached from reality" on the subject of his election loss, adding that Trump had no "interest in what the actual facts were. Barr described as "bulls***" and "complete nonsense" what he called Trump's "crazy" assertions that fraud had cost him the election, and said he had let the president know it.

In response to Barr's testimony to the committee, Trump predictably lashed out at the man he chose to be his attorney general, saying in a statement last week that "he sucked!"

A video of former Attorney General William Barr plays at a hearing on Capitol Hill on June 13. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

It's well-knownthat many of the people who were willing to go to work for the former president have since revised their opinion of him. Trump's four years in the White House saw the highest turnover rate of any administration in U.S. history, and many of those who moved on appear to have left with a bitter taste in their mouth.

As Trump eyes another presidential bid, it is worth considering the people whose opinions of Trump deteriorated as a result of having worked for him. The following is a list of Trump aides and administration officials who have spoken out against their old boss.

Video of former Vice President Mike Pence plays at a hearing June 9 of the Jan. 6 select committee. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

Trump's pressure on his vice president, Mike Pence, to send the Electoral College results back to the states is at the center of the Jan. 6 select committee hearings. Pence's refusal to do so earned him the wrath of Trump and his supporters, who chanted "Hang Mike Pence!" as they ransacked the Capitol.

In a speech to the Federalist Society in February, Pence publicly disclosed his thinking about Trump's request.

President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election, Pence said, adding, The presidency belongs to the American people, and the American people alone. And frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.

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A screen on June 13 plays the testimony of Bill Stepien, former campaign manager for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, to the Jan. 6 select committee. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

In his testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, Bill Stepien, Trump's 2020 campaign manager, said that the dishonest campaign by Trump and his underlings to convince the American people that the election had been "stolen" inspired him to resign.

I didnt think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time, so that led to me stepping away, Stepien told lawmakers.

Former U.S. Attorney for Georgia, B.J. Pak, testifies at a select committee hearing on June 13. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump's former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, B.J. Pak, told the Jan. 6 committee that he had investigated claims of voter fraud in Georgia, including ones made by Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani about voting improprieties in Fulton County, and found them all to be "false." After learning that Trump planned to fire him over that finding, Pak resigned as U.S. attorney.

Eric Herschmann, former White House attorney, in a video deposition played on June 13 on Capitol Hill. (House Select Committee via AP)

In his testimony to the committee, former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann described conversations he had with right-wing attorney John Eastman, the author of an infamous memo imploring Pence to try to reverse the 2020 election results. Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, has said Eastman plotted with Trump to try to overturn the election results.

When Eastman pressed Herschmann to pursue a challenge to the results in Georgia, the White House lawyer said he replied, "Are you out of your f***ing mind?" Herschmann, who had no patience with Trump's claims that the election had been rigged against him, said he then offered Eastman some free legal advice: "Get a great f***ing criminal defense lawyer. You're going to need it."

Education Secretary Betsy Devos listens during a briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic at the White House on Aug. 12, 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

One of Trump's most loyal Cabinet members, former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, said she lost faith in her former boss the day his supporters stormed the Capitol to try to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory.

"When I saw what was happening on Jan. 6 and didn't see the president step in and do what he could have done to turn it back or slow it down or really address the situation, it was just obvious to me that I couldn't continue," DeVos said in an interview published June 9 in USA Today.

DeVos said she also spoke to other Cabinet members and Pence about invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

Former national security adviser John Bolton speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Sept. 30, 2019. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Throughout his 17-month tenure as national security adviser, John Bolton clashed with Trump over how to handle U.S. policy toward North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Ukraine. A year after Trump fired him, Bolton made clear that he would not be casting a vote for Trump in the 2020 election.

I hope [history] will remember him as a one-term president who didnt plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral, Bolton said in an interview with ABC News.We can get over one term. I have absolute confidence. Two terms, Im more troubled about.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis listens to President Donald Trump at the White House on Oct. 23, 2018. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

In his 2018 resignation letter to Trump, former Defense Secretary James Mattis made clear that he strongly opposed the foreign policy decisions of his boss. "Our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships," Mattis wrote.

While remaining mostly silent about his issues with Trump, Mattis issued a stinging rebuke in 2020 of the president's approach to handling civil unrest stemming from police misconduct against African Americans.

"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people does not even pretend to try," Mattis wrote in the Atlantic. "Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

Then-White House chief of staff John Kelly listens as President Donald Trump speaks at a lunch with governors in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on June 21, 2018. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who left the White House in 2019 after repeated clashes with Trump, reportedly called him "the most flawed person" he had ever met.

Kelly shared Mattis's assessment of Trump published in the Atlantic, and essentially told his interviewer, Trump's short-lived communications director Anthony Scaramucci, that the country had made a mistake in electing him.

I think we really need to step back," Kelly said. I think we need to look harder at who we elect.

Then-Acting Defense Secretary Richard Spencer listens during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on July 16, 2019, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP)

Trump fired Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer in 2019 over his objections to Trump's insistence that a member of the Navy SEALs charged with war crimes and murder be allowed to retire with full benefits and with his military rank restored. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Spencer said Trump's intervention was "a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military, to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices."

Gary Cohn, former director of the U.S. National Economic Council, speaks at a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York on Sept. 17, 2018. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

Picked by Trump to serve as a senior adviser and director of the National Economics Council, Gary Cohn left after little more than a year in those roles after a dispute over the president's plan to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum. Months after leaving his job, Cohn was quoted in Bob Woodward's book "Fear: Trump in the White House," calling Trump "a professional liar."

Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump at the time, holds a press briefing at the White House on Dec. 19, 2017, to blame North Korea for unleashing the so-called WannaCry cyberattack. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Trump's homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said that in early 2018 he informed the president that the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered with the 2016 presidential election had been "completely debunked." That didn't stop Trump from embarking on a pressure campaign to convince the government in Kyiv to come up with damaging information on his political rival, Joe Biden. Bossert resigned in April of 2018 and vented months later in an interview with ABC News.

I am deeply frustrated with what he and the legal team is doing and repeating that debunked theory to the president. It sticks in his mind when he hears it over and over again, and for clarity here. ... Let me just again repeat that it has no validity.

Omarosa Manigault Newman, former assistant to President Donald Trump and director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 12, 2018. (William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

The former "Apprentice" contestant hired by Trump as a political aide fell out with her boss after serving nearly a year in his administration. After she was fired, she published one of the first tell-all books about working in the Trump White House.

"Donald Trump, who would attack civil rights icons and professional athletes, who would go after grieving black widows, who would say there were good people on both sides, who endorsed an accused child molester; Donald Trump, and his decisions and his behavior, was harming the country. I could no longer be a part of this madness," she wrote in her book.

Trump fired back at the reality TV star turned politico, calling her "wacky" and "vicious."

Stephanie Grisham, former spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump, arrives for a campaign rally with President Donald Trump in Orlando, Fla., on June 18, 2019. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary and communications director, says she began to sour on Trump before she resigned on Jan. 6, 2021.

In her tell-all book "I'll Take Your Questions Now," she detailed Trump's regular verbal abuse and compromising requests.

I knew that sooner or later, the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic, Grisham wrote.

Grisham has predicted that if Trump were to win a second term, "He will be about revenge."

Alyssa Farah, then White House director of strategic communications, speaks to the media at the White House on Oct. 9, 2020. (Erin Scott/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Former White House Communications Director Alyssa Farrah Griffin left her post in the Trump administration shortly before the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, because she said the president knew full well that he had lost the election but continued to peddle false claims about voter fraud.

He knew, Farrah said in an interview with CNN's Pamela Brown. He told me shortly after that he knew he lost, but then folks got around him. They got information in front of him, and I think his mind genuinely might have been changed about that, and thats scary, because he did lose, and the facts are out there.

Griffin has emerged as a persistent critic of the former president, telling Vanity Fair in May that she is trying to reach those who, like her, "drank the Kool-Aid" and once supported him.

The people Im most hoping to reach and convince that Trump is terrible for our country, are people who, like I once did, support him," she said.

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster listens as U.S. President Donald Trump announces his appointment as national security adviser on Feb. 20, 2017. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Reported to have mocked Trump at a private dinner party as having the intelligence of a "kindergartener," former national security adviser H.R. McMaster left his White House post in 2018, little more than a year after he accepted the post. The two men had often clashed on subjects such as how to end the war in Afghanistan, but McMaster kept his criticism of the president mostly hidden until a month before the 2020 election.

Asked if Trump was as big a threat to election integrity in the U.S. as Russia, McMaster was unequivocal.

He is aiding and abetting Putins efforts by not being direct about this, McMaster said of Trump in an interview on MSNBC.

McMaster theorized that if Trump did not confront Russian President Vladimir Putin over his 2016 election meddling directly, "he'll inadvertently draw his own election into question."

Anthony Scaramucci, former White House communications director, appears on "Meet the Press" in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 21, 2018. (William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

Anthony Scaramucci served in the Trump administration as White House communications director for all of 11 days, but that apparently was enough to dramatically change his view of Donald Trump.

Amid criticism of Trump's response to mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, and Trump's responses to it, Scaramucci diagnosed the fate of all Trump critics.

For the last 3 years I have fully supported this President, Scaramucci tweeted in 2019. Recently he has said things that divide the country in a way that is unacceptable. So I didnt pass the 100% litmus test. Eventually he turns on everyone, and soon it will be you and then the entire country.

Nikki Haley, former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, addresses the Republican National Convention from the Mellon auditorium on Aug. 24, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)

Trump's former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, took aim at the former president a week after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"We need to acknowledge he let us down," Haley, once a steadfast Trump loyalist, told Politico. "He went down a path he shouldn't have, and we shouldn't have followed him, and we shouldn't have listened to him. And we can't let that ever happen again."

Especially galling to Haley was Trump's tweet attacking Pence, as a mob of his supporters roamed the Capitol chanting that he should be hanged.

"When I tell you I'm angry, it's an understatement," Haley said. "Mike has been nothing but loyal to that man. He's been nothing but a good friend of that man. ... I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I'm disgusted by it."

Haley softened that criticism in the months that followed, however.

Michael Cohen, former trusted aide and lawyer to President Donald Trump, testifies before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 27, 2019. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

The longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who also served as the vice president of the Trump Organization, pleaded guilty in 2018 to criminal counts that included campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud. Known as Trump's "fixer," Cohen quickly turned on his former boss, arguing in court that he had broken laws at Trump's direction.

Since his conviction, Cohen has spoken out regularly about his relationship with Trump, and has helped federal and state investigators in their probes of the former president. In a YouTube series posted following the second public hearing of the Jan. 6 select committee, Cohen summarized his attitude toward Trump.

"You may all remember when I testified before the House Oversight Committee and I stated emphatically that Donald Trump is a racist, he's a liar, he's a con man, he's a cheat," Cohen said.

"And over the course of the years, I've called Donald Trump what? The grifter-in-chief. And today what did we learn? That right after they lost the election, the campaign with, of course, Donald's approval puts out this massive request for people to donate to the legal fund to challenge the big lie, to challenge the electoral vote and the theft that he keeps claiming took place. Well, they raised a ton of money. None of that money ended up getting spent, so where did that money go?"

Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrives to deliver farewell remarks at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2018. (Yuri Gripas/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2018 in a tweet after a year that the two men had spent disagreeing on the role of U.S. allies and whether to pursue another nuclear deal with Iran. In the months that followed, Tillerson, the former chairman and CEO of ExxonMobil, let it be known that he did not have an elevated opinion of Trump's intelligence or attention span.

Tillerson said he found it challenging "to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesnt like to read, doesnt read briefing reports, doesnt like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, This is what I believe, he told CBS News in December 2018.

By 2021, his view of Trump had further dimmed.

"His understanding of global events, his understanding of global history, his understanding of U.S. history was really limited. It's really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn't even understand the concept for why we're talking about this," Tillerson told Foreign Policy.

President Donald Trump listens on April 22, 2020, as Dr. Deborah Birx, then White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Alex Brandon/AP)

in her memoir, Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before Its Too Late, former Trump White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx describes the former president's efforts on COVID-19 a "tragedy, on many levels."

Recounting the famous April 2020 briefing during which Trump suggested treating COVID-19 by injecting disinfectant, Birx wrote,I looked down at my feet and wished for two things: something to kick and for the floor to open up and swallow me whole.

Birx said she demanded that guidance be immediately reversed, and Trump quickly pivoted to saying he had only been joking.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, addresses a press briefing at the White House on April 13, 2021. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

Like Birx, Dr. Anthony Fauci also quickly ran afoul of Trump in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic for questioning his judgment on how to deal with rising infections and deaths and publicly correcting him at news conferences.

Fauci, who had declared prior to the 2020 election that he would not stay in his job if Trump were to win, has described the "liberating feeling" of working for Biden. That's not surprising given that Trump and his allies have often attempted to blame the pandemic on Fauci.

In an interview with the New York Times, Fauci said he realized that his relationship with Trump was likely to go south as he continued to appear at daily coronavirus briefings with the president.

"He would say something that clearly was not correct, and then a reporter would say, 'Well, lets hear from Dr. Fauci.' I would have to get up and say, 'No, Im sorry, I do not think that is the case.' It isnt like I took any pleasure in contradicting the president of the United States. I have a great deal of respect for the office. But I made a decision that I just had to. Otherwise I would be compromising my own integrity, and be giving a false message to the world. If I didnt speak up, it would be almost tacit approval that what he was saying was OK," Fauci said.

"Thats when I started to get into some trouble."

Cover photo: Peter Casey/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters

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The growing list of people Donald Trump hired who eventually soured on him - Yahoo News

This year, Pence has taken on a new persona among the crowda Trump era castoff who is probably better off not showing his face. And he seems to know it. The former veep was invited to the conference but decided not to attend. It was the first time Pence had missed the conference in five years.

I was such a big fan of his but that part of the Republican Party is the educational elites the old horses are on their way out, said Mary Obersteadt, the immediate past president of Nashville Republican Women. She wore rhinestone Trump and DeSantis pins on her conference lanyard. I respect him for what he did and how he served this nation but hes so disappointing when he - he should have communicated and stayed with Trump with Jan. 6, they should have been on the same level.

Pences absence from this years conference was due to a scheduling conflict, according to the conference organizers and Pences team. On Thursday, he attended a roundtable with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

But while he still is rooted in the Christian conservative community, having attended an event with the Coalition in North Carolina to engage Chrisitan voters in the Charlotte area, his decision to skip the Faith & Freedom gathering underscores the crossroads he currently finds himself in politically.

I think hes seeking Gods direction for his decision on what to do next, said Dr. Robert Jeffress, pastor at First Baptist Dallas, who is close to both Pence and Trump, and sits on the advisory board for Pences political group, Advancing American Freedom.

At a time when Pences main ideological causes are on the cusp of historic successwith the Supreme Court set to overturn the landmark abortion rights case, Roe v. Wade he finds himself in the thick of intra-party drama. This week, the House select committee investigating the riots on Capitol Hill zeroed in on Pences decision to resist Donald Trumps pressure for him to block certification of the Electoral College vote count.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump points to the crowd after giving the keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition during their annual "Road To Majority Policy Conference" on June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.|Seth Herald/Getty Images

While Pence has, so far, dodged discussing the committees proceedings, Trump used his own appearance at the Faith & Freedom conference to attack his veep.

Mike Pence had a chance to be great, he had a chance to be frankly historic, Trump said. But Mike did not have the courage to act.

It was a remarkable moment for a conference that in past years served as a celebration for the former vice president as a top conservative Christian leader. But things have changed since Trump left office. Last year, in the shadow of Jan. 6, Pence was jeered by the crowd and called a traitor while on stage. Now, when asked about what they think of Pence or how they view his political future, attendees sighed or visibly shrugged.

Thats a good question, said Sandi McGuire, a Christian minister from Raleigh, North Carolina. I havent seen him much. I dont like speaking adverse toward anyone, he did great work. He came here last year and a percentage booed him. Im not sure in fairness where he is. I wish him the best but he hasnt been anywhere to be found.

Its kind of hard, its a hard one, said Emily Hinojos from Rutherford, N.C. when asked about Pences political future. I dont know where hes at since Jan 6. Its hard to tell youre not in their shoes but we would have liked him to support Trump better.

The mood of the crowd at Faith & Freedom reflected the degree to which Republican politicians are judged not so much by their ideologies but by their relationship to Trump. Ralph Reed, a Republican strategist and founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, is close with both Trump and Pence. But when asked if he was surprised by Trumps attacks, he would only say he consulted with Trumps speechwriters yesterday.

If Mike Pence wanted to come and wanted to offer a rejoinder to these folks, he could have done it. Im not saying he should have done it. I told him when I saw him a couple weeks ago, no harm no foul, but I said I want you here next year and hell be there, Reed said to a small group of reporters after Trumps speech.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump exits the stage after giving the keynote address at the Faith & Freedom Coalition during their annual "Road To Majority Policy Conference" on June 17, 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee.|Seth Herald/Getty Images

Pences own relationship with Trump is deeply complicated. For a few months after leaving the White House, the two would occasionally speak. But they havent talked for a year now even though their paths have occasionally crossed, including when both men addressed top Republican donors at a retreat in New Orleans in March. Trump continues to admonish his former vice president in public, while Pence has remained firm in his decision to certify the election.

In recent months, Pence has turned his focus to the midterms. Hes offered endorsements in key midterm races like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and held a fundraiser for incumbent Rep. Steve Chabot on Thursday. On Monday, he is set to deliver a speech on the economy at the University Club of Chicago.

Our path is a little bit different than everybody else is at this point, said a person close to Pences political operation, who defended Pences decision to not go to the Nashville cattle call. And whether he decided to do this thing or not, he doesnt have to go there to get coverage.

But its unclear how Pence can build up a national profile if he were to lose the full support of his bedrock constituency: Evangelicals. Not everyone in his camp is worried. Aides to Pence say he holds appeal across the Republican party.

Vice President Pence checks the hawk lane. He checks the traditional GOP lane. And obviously probably the biggest one is the Evangelical lane, said the Pence ally.

And Bob Vander Plaats, president and CEO of The Family Leader, a conservative Christian parent organization for the Iowa Family Policy Center, said Pences support remains strong among social conservatives and Evangelicals in Iowa, especially as support of Trump wanes.

Not to play Bob Seger on you, but I think theyre looking to turn the page, Vander Plaats said of Iowa voters he talks to. Take the best of Trump, and lets see if Ron DeSantis can carry on that fightor Mike Pence or Mike Pompeo or Ted Cruz or whoever you throw into that match.

But among those in Nashville this weekend, Pence seemed more a relic of the past than an element of the future. None of the merchandise stalls that lined the entrance to the conference ballroom featured Pences name, while there were piles of red, white, and blue Trump and Trump 2024 t-shirts and hats for sale.

I feel like he was mistreated so long he wanted to give his soul a break and his family. I dont think its political, its personal he doesnt want to get attacked right now, said Krista Kiepke from Clarksville, Tenn. Jesus himself removed from the disciples to refresh so he could do his job so I look at it as that.

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Pence skips Faith & Freedom conference. Is attacked by Trump anyways. - POLITICO

The lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump on how to overturn the 2020 election requested a pardon from him in the days after Jan. 6, the committee investigating the Capitol attack revealed on Thursday.

At the committees third public hearing on June 16, law professor John Eastman emailed Trumps personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, asking for executive clemency. Ive decided that I should be on the pardon list, if that is still in the works, he wrote, according to an email obtained by the House panel.

The revelation came a week after Rep. Liz Cheney, the vice chair of the panel, alleged that multiple Republicans in Congress had also requested pardons from Trump before he left office for their roles in trying to block the transfer of power to Joe Biden. She only mentioned one lawmaker by name: Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.

As you will see, Rep. Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after Jan. 6 to seek a presidential pardon, said Cheney, a Wyoming Republican. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. (Perry quickly denied ever seeking a pardon, calling it an absolute, shameful, and soulless lie.)

The mentions of presidential pardons have set off a whirlwind of speculation on Capitol Hill about which members of Congress might have sought pardons and why. Committee members plan to flesh out what they have learned about the pardon requests in an upcoming hearing. Legal experts say such pardon requests could be construed as demonstrating a consciousness of guilt or recognition that they might have committed a crime by the members who sought them. Less damningly, their entreaties could also reflect concern that they feared unfairly becoming targets of investigation or prosecution.

The disclosure of multiple Trump allies seeking pardons in the wake of the attack on the Capitol has also raised questions about the extent of a presidents pardoning authority, including whether Trump may have issued secret presidential pardons that have yet to come to light. (Answer: maybe.)

Here is what you need to know.

According to one former prosecutor, the reason is simple. It tells us that they fear theyre going to be charged, or more generally, that theyve engaged in conduct thats a federal crime, Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, tells TIME.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, the Department of Justice has been conducting its own investigation of the attack. Thus far, more than 800 people have been charged for storming the Capitol, and nearly 300 have entered guilty pleas on charges ranging from civil disorder and theft of government property to obstruction of an official congressional proceeding and seditious conspiracy.

President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani speaks to supporters from The Ellipse near the White House, in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.

Brendan SmialowskiAPF/Getty Images

So far, no lawmakers or government officials have been charged, nor is there evidence that any are targets of the DOJ investigation.

One of the challenges prosecutors face is untangling criminal behavior from constitutionally protected political protests.

If the speech is likely and intended to incite imminent criminal action, then its not protected, says Elie Honig, a former federal and New Jersey state prosecutor. But, he notes, theres a difference between someone saying We need to throw these bums out and Lets go in there, smash up the windows, and beat the crap out of the first representative we see.

So its a spectrum between those two poles, he adds. Theres no automatic formula for that. It ultimately comes down to the prosecutors judgment and what the prosecutor believes would be convincing to the jury.

Several right-wing Republican lawmakers were reportedly involved in the planning of Jan. 6 protests. Several also vociferously challenged the certification of Biden as president on the House floor. Others cheered the crowd that day. On Wednesday, the Jan. 6 committee released surveillance footage of Rep. Barry Loudermilk, Republican of Georgia, giving a tour of the building to people later spotted in videos breaching the Capitol. None of those actions is a crime. (Loudermillk criticized the committee for what he called a smear campaign, adding that the Capitol Police already put this false accusation to bed.)

If a member of Congress did knowingly commit a crime like those the Justice Department is prosecuting related to the Capitol attack, they would of course have a reason to ask for a pardon. But from a practical standpoint, if any lawmakers thought they could be at risk of criminal prosecution, requesting a pardon from a sympathetic president is not necessarily unreasonable, says Margaret Love, former U.S. Pardon Attorney from 1990 to 1997 under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Why not? Love says of members of Congress seeking clemency. A little insurance policy? Theres no reason why they shouldnt have asked.

In his final days in office, Trump did pardon many people close to him, such as Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner. But in all of those cases, Trump pardoned individuals who had already been charged with or convicted of crimes. If any members of Congress asked Trump for a presidential pardon, they were presumably asking for a preemptive one.

The short answer is yes. Generally speaking, the president can pardon federal crimes and people can request clemency, Jeffrey Crouch, a government professor at American University and an expert on presidential pardon power, wrote in an email to TIME. Even though a pardon usually comes at the end of the legal process, the president can short-circuit that process if he wants.

Past presidents have issued blanket pardons, such as Jimmy Carter who exonerated everyone who dodged the Vietnam draft. Its much rarer, though, for presidents to pardon individuals who have not yet been charged with a crime or not knowing the precise charge, if any, they were expected to face. A rare exception was when former President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, in 1974 for whatever crimes he may have committed against the United States as president.

Trump himself waded into similar territory with his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, whom he pardoned in 2020 for lying to federal investigators but also for any and all possible offenses he may have committed related to Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation.

For the most part, however, pardons are issued for specific offenses, Litman argues. In theory, its well understood that a pardon is for specified conduct, he said. Its not just a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Nonetheless, Trump had the authority to issue very broad pardons to some of his allies in Congress, Crouch says. President Trump could have pardoned people without spelling out exactly what offenses he was pardoning, he says. The president has leeway to fashion the type of mercy he is offering and how broad it can be, but recent presidents are usually specific about pardons.

There are two glaring exceptions, though, to that power: if the pardon itself was part of a criminal act or the cover up of one. Most scholars would agree that even though the presidents pardon power is broad, it cant be used as part of a crime, Litman says. So its possible to grant a pardon in a way that is an obstruction of justice, for example.

Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California, from right, Representative Liz Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, and chairman Representative Bernie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, exit following a hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., US, on Thursday, June 16, 2022.

Tom BrennerBloomberg/Getty Images

In the June 9 primetime hearing, Cheney suggested that the committee had evidence that GOP members of Congress requested pardons from Trump. Yet some veteran prosecutors and pardon lawyers say that has left them wondering whether the president might have issued any in secret.

The Justice Department has a page on its website listing every pardon it knows of that was issued by Trump. When asked by TIME whether Trump may have issued pardons not on the list, Dena Iverson, a DOJ spokesperson responded, All of the pardons are on the website.

Love, however, says Trump still could have granted additional pardons and never informed the Justice Department about them.

The president could have signed a cocktail napkin and put it away in a bottom drawer only to be revealed after he left office, Love says. Its just that this has never before happened, at least since the Civil War. And after January 20, he could have called up and said, Oh, by the way, Joe, look in the bottom drawer there. Youll find a bunch of paper there. He could have given them to the beneficiaries of these acts of grace. A pardon doesnt have to be published right away to be valid, or even published at all.

Its not the first time the prospect of Trump issuing secret pardons has come up. In September 2017, a Democratic congressman introduced a bill that would have forced the White House to publicly announce any presidential pardons within three days of their being granted. With Republicans then in control of both houses of Congress, the legislation went nowhere. But it underscored the reality that theres nothing forcing a president to publicly disclose every pardon they issue.

The Jan. 6 committee appears to be preparing to show the public how Perry and other members of Congress at the very least sought pardons from Trump. Everything were doing is documented by evidence, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, recently told CNN regarding the pardon requests. Everything that we are doing is based on facts.

When asked by TIME on Thursday about the possibility that Trump may have issued pardons in secret, Raskin said the committee had not considered it.

The question prompted Raskin to think back to when the committee deposed Eastman. He was not particularly forthcoming, pleading his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 100 times. But the committee had focused on the paper trail showing Eastman seeking a pardon, and not the possibility that Trump may have agreed to the request without ever formally announcing it.

We should have asked him, Raskin says, Do you have a pardon?

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Could Donald Trump Have Issued Jan. 6 Pardons to Allies? - TIME

So, the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 6 Select Committee has revealed that former President Donald Trump used his baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him to fleece his followers.

What.

A.

Shock.

Who could have predicted that a man who built his business, such as it is, by slapping his name on everything but used tissues and then selling those products, such as they are, at inflated prices would resort to yet another con when he was under pressure?

Who would have thought that a guy who ran for president primarily to restore some luster to his fading brand wouldnt leap at one more chance to bilk the faithful?

And who possibly could have seen that a fellow who spent at least a third of his time as both presidential candidate and president staying at Trump properties, thus lining his own pockets with taxpayer funds and campaign contributions, would not be able to resist one more grab at the cookie jar?

Clearly, such grasping chicanery on the part of the former president comes completely out of left field because, up until this point, nothing Donald Trump ever has done in his life would indicate that he is either greedy or mendacious.

Yeah.

Right.

When the history of this period is written presuming the republic survives and Americans still are permitted to express themselves freely and honestly one question will be at the center of all the studies and scholarship.

Why and how did so many Americans allow themselves to be gulled by a con artist who views them the way a rat does pieces of cheese?

I understand why so many working-class Americans turned to Trump in the first place. Their concerns werent being addressed by either political party.

Still arent, for that matter.

The traditional Republican Party always has favored the wishes of capital over the needs of labor, elevating the interests of the haves over those of the have-nots. The GOP also has a history of pitting working people against each other.

Were seeing that again now.

After years of encouraging tensions and resentments between working-class U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants, some Republicans now have begun quietly arguing that relaxing immigration restrictions would help ease inflationary pressures.

By driving down wages.

Once again, in the GOPs world view, the burden of solving an economic problem must fall on the shoulders of working people.

Not that the Democrats cant be just as clueless. Their solution to the problems of the working class is to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.

There are at least two problems with that.

The first is that the real minimum wage in this country now already is between $15 and $17 per hour and its likely to climb higher than that as the worldwide labor shortage deepens in the coming years. Democrats want to close the barn door not just after the horse fled but at one of the few times in history when the horse might have some power to choose which barn it likes best and under what conditions.

The second problem with the Democrats minimum-wage policy is that it isnt grounded in any recognizable reality.

How many of them would like to try to raise a family of four on $31,000 a year? Thats what 40 hours per week of $15 per hour pays for a years labor. How many Democrats in Congress and state legislatures across the country think they could build better lives for their own children and pursue the American dream on those wages?

Donald Trump became a force in Americas political life because neither party seemed to care or grasp the challenges millions of Americans faced.

In their desperation, they turned to a grifter who saw them as lemons to squeeze for the juice they might provide him.

Now, even as evidence overwhelmingly mounts that Trump has done little but use and abuse those who gave him their devotion, many, many Americans remain faithful to the man who has misled them at every turn.

Why?

Perhaps Mark Twain said it best.

Its easier to fool people, Twain wrote, than to convince them they have been fooled.

John Krull is director of Franklin College's Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students. The opinions expressed by the author do not reflect the views of Franklin College.

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John Krull: Donald Trump and the art of the grift - Terre Haute Tribune Star

Many other Trump advisers, including former attorney-general Bill Barr, had revealed earlier in the week how they repeatedly tried to debunk Trumps claims of a stolen election.

Former US vice president Mike Pence.Credit:AP

But in a grievance-fuelled address lasting almost 90 minutes, Trump said he simply wanted Pence to send the votes back to state legislatures because of the electoral fraud he claims took place.

He had a chance to be, frankly, historic, Trump said of Pence. But just like Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people he did not have the courage to act.

The former president also took aim at the committee itself, accusing the group of editing video depositions and taking witness statements out of context in order to create a fake and phony narrative and a chilling attempt to weaponise the justice system against their political opponents.

What happened on January 6 was a simple protest that got out of hand, he said. And they never show the size of the crowd. I believe it was the largest number of people Ive ever spoken to. Im not talking about the very small percentage of people who went down to the Capitol, many of whom did nothing wrong ... Im talking about the crowd I spoke to before [at the rally that preceded the attack].

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Trumps speech was the seventh time he appeared at the Faith and Freedom conference, an annual conservative gathering that bills itself as Americas premiere pro-faith, pro-family event and is designed to empower conservative activists to fight for their values at the polls.

The former president has repeatedly said he would wait until after the midterms when the Republicans are expected to regain control of Congress to announce if he would run for president again.

The findings of the committees probe could end up having an impact on such an announcement, particularly if it leads to a criminal investigation into Trump by the Department of Justice.

Others in Trumps orbit have already found themselves in legal turmoil as a result of the committees work, such as former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who pleaded not guilty to contempt of Congress charges on Friday after not co-operating with the January 6 investigation.

The committees fourth hearing will take place on Tuesday and is likely to feature testimony from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his top deputy Gabriel Sterling.

Raffensperger is the electoral official who famously rebuffed Trumps pressure to simply find enough votes to help reverse his defeat in Georgia the once Republican state that ultimately handed Biden control of the White House after it flipped to the Democrats in 2020. Sterling, meanwhile, was an outspoken critic of Trumps claims of fraud.

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A simple protest that got out of hand: Trump defends role in Capitol attack - Sydney Morning Herald

Public hearings serve a subtle function. They permit the minds of the American people to acculturate to the facts and evidence. By laying out the facts that explain what Mr. Trump did, the Jan. 6 hearings can, in advance, help acclimate the public to why the Justice Department has to take criminal action against the former president. The hearings may afford the department a deeper and public explanation of its reasoning than an indictment out of the blue would offer. Public sentiment of this kind could help insulate the department against a claim that it is politically motivated. These hearings may prove to be a bridge between the Justice Department and the public.

Now consider that elusive third audience: the eyes of history. On the one hand, Mr. Garland has to fear being seen as political, and on the other, he knows that the rule of law requires him to bring an indictment if the evidence shows Mr. Trump committed one of the most serious crimes against the United States in our history. Trying to game history is a notoriously fraught enterprise, but it seems certain that if Mr. Garland is to be the first attorney general to bring criminal charges against a former president, having the facts surfaced first by a bipartisan congressional committee would be enormously helpful and provide an evidentiary record that the public today, and historians in the future, could examine.

Of course, critics will complain about the composition of the committee and the like, but those complaints, relatively speaking, are likely to be weaker than they would be if the Justice Department just investigated and prosecuted the case against the former president by itself. Here, Congress has a unique voice because the attack occurred on its members, on their soil.

What would criminal charges against Donald Trump look like? Obstruction of an official proceeding is a serious offense that requires the prosecution to show that a defendant obstructed, or attempted to obstruct, an official proceeding and that the defendant did so corruptly. The official proceeding part of this is clear by law, on Jan. 6, Congress and the vice president must certify the votes. There appears to have been an orchestrated plot by some to try to interfere with that certification the question is really whether the former president was part of that plot. The committee has presented evidence suggesting that Mr. Trump, along with the lawyer John Eastman, and perhaps others such as the former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official, attempted to interfere with the election certification on Jan. 6. Before the hearings, it was thought that Mr. Trumps defense against this charge is that he genuinely believed that he had won the election and wasnt acting corruptly.

The testimony in last weeks hearing cast immense doubt on that claim. Mr. Trumps close ally, former Attorney General William Barr, testified that he told the president that arguments claiming he had won the election were bullshit. Mr. Trumps daughter Ivanka testified that she believed Mr. Barr. Mr. Trumps own election data people told him the same. Mr. Trump might try to claim he still believed the nonsense, but such an argument would be difficult to make given the array of people who told him in no uncertain terms that he had lost. Mr. Trump persisted, despite the warnings, to try to interfere with the lawful transfer of power. This looks very much like an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.

The Justice Department could also bring the charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States. A charge of conspiracy requires proof that two or more people agreed to defraud the country. A key feature of conspiracy charges is that the plot need not succeed charges are tethered to the agreement to do something illegal, not to actually pull it off. Prosecutors need not wait until the bomb goes off (or in this case, until the election results are wrongfully thrown out) before bringing charges.

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Opinion | The Future Criminal Case Against Donald Trump - The New York Times

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