Monthly Archives: June 2022

Former President Trump and three of his children will participate in up to seven hours of questioning in a lawsuit started in 2018 over multilevel marketing company ACN Opportunity, lawyers for the defendants and plaintiffs said in a signed letter to a judge dated Friday, a court filing shows.

The former president and his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trumpwill be deposed for a maximum of seven hours amid a lawsuit looking into the promotion of ACN Opportunity, through which some investors claim to have lost thousands of dollars, Courthouse News Service noted.

The investors argued that it was not clear that the Trumps, who promoted the company, had profited significantly off of it.

The former president and his children had already agreed in March to sit for depositions after previously seeking to have the case dropped in 2018, according to Bloomberg, but the length of the deposition was not previously known.

The parties have discussed the scheduling of these depositions and expect to take a significant number of them in June and July. The parties also have discussed a rough sequence, and have identified certain witnesses who can be deposed now and others whose depositions should be taken later, following production and receipt of certain additional documents and information, the lawyers said.

Defendants previously provided deposition dates for the witnesses, which dates have now lapsed, and expect to provide additional dates soon. The parties are optimistic that we will have a number of agreed-upon dates by the time of the conference scheduled for next week, they added.

The Hill has reached out to a lawyer for the former president for comment.

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Trump, children to sit for up to 7 hours of questioning in lawsuit over marketing company - The Hill

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Donald TrumpAssociated Press

A lawyer for Donald Trump revealed why he could not find 12 former executive assistants.

Most would not return phone calls, the lawyer swore in an affidavit to the NY AG on Friday.

AG Letitia James wants to know how the former assistants organized and preserved Trump's documents.

A defense lawyer has explained why so many of Donald Trump's former executive assistants can't be located: they won't return his phone calls.

New York Attorney General Letitia James demanded that Trump make his former secretaries available as she winds up her 3-year investigation of the former president's real estate and golf resort empire.

She wants them to swear out affidavits explaining the process they used to organize and preserve Trump's personal business records, scant few of which have been produced for the AG's probe.

"It is striking that counsel could not locate any of Mr. Trump's 12 former executive assistants," AG Special Counsel Andrew Amer had said in court papers on May 23.

But most of the 12 missing former executive assistants had not responded to voicemails or failed to call back as promised, explained the latest filing in Trump's battle against James' document subpoeana.

The filing gave this accounting for the 12 AWOL assistants:

Three couldn't be located because they had not left forwarding numbers, the filing said, and a fourth had apparently changed their phone number.

Six more had left forwarding numbers, but didn't return the lawyers' phone calls to those numbers, the filing said.

Another former executive assistant's phone was out of service, and yet another was reached, promised to call back, but did not.

That accounts for 11 of the dozen; the 12th was found in the week since the AG's office complained, and swore an affidavit stating "I have no formal document retention policy" that is now appended to the court record.

One additional executive assistant swore out affidavits earlier this month longtime staffer Rhona Graff, who worked at the the Trump Organization headquarters at Trump Tower in Manhattan, the filing said.

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The Manhattan judge presiding over the James-versus-Trump subpoeana battles, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, has warned that failing to complycould triggera retroactive, $10,000-a-day contempt-of-court fine, costing the former president more than a quarter-million dollars in additional fines.

The court-ordered fine, for failing to fully comply with the AG's subpoena for his personal business documents, had been capped at $110,000 and the contempt order lifted but only conditionally.

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Donald Trump explains why he can't find so many of the former secretaries NY AG Letitia James wants to hear from - Yahoo News

Donald Trump has a long, robust history of getting away with every shady, underhanded, wildly unethical, likely criminal thing hes ever done in his life. Whether its stiffing contractors he owes money to, paying a porn star to keep quiet about their alleged affair, or inciting a violent riot in a botched attempt to overturn the results of an election he lost, the comeuppance that would befall other people never seems to come for the ex-president. But according to a former federal prosecutor, the guys luck may be running out thanks to the state of Georgia.

Over the weekend, Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, told MSNBC that Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, who impaneled a special grand jury earlier this year, has wildly damning evidence on her hands re: Trumps attempt to steal the 2020 Georgia vote. In order to indict the former president, Vance told Katie Phang, Willis needs proof of the former presidents state of mind, and, according to the ex-prosecutor, Willis may have it thanks to the recording of the phone call that took place on January 2, 2021, ahead of the official vote certification, in which Trump ordered Georgia secretary of stateBrad Raffensperger to find him the exact number of votes necessary to win the state, despite the fact that he had actually lost. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state, Trump told Raffensperger, before threatening to prosecute the local official for failing to follow through. That the then president was not asking not for an investigation into potential voting fraud, not for a look to see whether something went wrong, but hes asking Raffensperger to find him the specific number of votes that he needs, Vance told Phang is pretty good evidence of criminal intent walking into it.

As HuffPost notes, while Williss probe was initially launched in response to that very damning call, the investigation has now been expanded into includepossible racketeering and fraudlinked to a number of efforts by Republicans to upend the election. Raffensperger, who won his primary last week, is scheduled to testify before the grand jury on Thursday.

An analysis by the Brookings Institution released last yearwhich the Fulton County D.A.s office has studied concludedthat Trumps actions in Georgia put him at substantial risk of possible state charges predicated on multiple crimes, including criminal solicitation to commit election fraud; intentional interference with performance of election duties; conspiracy to commit election fraud; criminal solicitation; and state RICO violations. In aninterviewwith TheNew York Times, Willis said, Anything that is relevant to attempts to interfere with the Georgia election will be subject to review. An investigation is like an onion. You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else.

Is Trump actually in legal peril? If his history is anything to go by, its hard to say yes, overwhelming evidence not withstanding. But he sure seems upset about Williss work, having bleated on Truth Social over the weekend: The young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat Prosecutor from Georgia, who is presiding over one of the most Crime Ridden and Corrupt places in the USA, Fulton County, has put together a Grand Jury to investigate an absolutely PERFECT phone call to the Secretary of State. Many lawyers, from both sides, were knowingly on the call. I also assumed it was taped. I called to fight a Rigged & Stolen Election, and they go after me instead of the people that Rigged and Stole it. God Bless America!

At a rally in Texas in January, Trump similarly attacked Willis, along with two other Black prosecutors without mentioning any of the investigators by name, telling his supporters the Fulton County D.A., New York attorney general Letitia James, and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg are vicious, horrible people and claiming theyre racists and theyre very sick, theyre mentally sick.Then he encouraged his followers to launch the biggest protest we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere, if these radical racist vicious prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, a demand former prosecutors believe could backfire legally on him given it sounds a lot like an attempt to obstruct justice.

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In other Trump legal news

New York A.G. Letitia Jameswho last week scored a victory when an appeals court ruled Trump, Ivanka, and Don Jr. must sit for under-oath depositionsis reportedly looking to expunge the Trump Organization from the face of the Earth. Per Insider:

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Donald Trump Seems Pretty Panicky About That Criminal Investigation in Georgia! - Vanity Fair

Legal experts believe the US Justice Department has made headway with an important criminal inquiry and could be homing in on top Trump lawyers who plotted to overturn Joe Bidens election, after the department wrote to the House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack seeking transcripts of witness depositions and interviews.

While its unclear exactly what information the DoJ asked for, former prosecutors note that the 20 April request occurred at about the same time a Washington DC grand jury issued subpoenas seeking information about several Trump lawyers including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, plus other Trump advisers, who reportedly played roles in a fake electors scheme.

Giuliani, Trumps former personal lawyer, worked with other lawyers and some campaign officials to spearhead a scheme to replace Biden electors with alternative Trump ones in seven states that Biden won, with an eye to blocking Congress certification of Biden on January 6 when a mob of Trump loyalists attacked the Capitol.

Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco announced early this year that the justice department had begun investigating fake elector certificates at the behest of some state attorneys general including Michigans.

The House committees sprawling investigation, which has interviewed more than 1,000 people, has focused on top Trump loyalists including Eastman and Giuliani. Last month, Giuliani testified virtually for more than seven hours but reportedly asserted privilege and dodged many questions about his contacts with Trump House allies.

Ex-prosecutors also caution that while the justice department may want to obtain more evidence from the House select committee about the fake electors scheme and lawyers including Giuliani, there are other top Trump allies who sought to overturn Bidens win, plus central figures in the Capitol attack who have drawn scrutiny from both the panel and justice, whom prosecutors may now have in their sights.

A grand jury in Washington DC, for instance, also began issuing subpoenas a few months ago seeking information about Trump allies involved in the planning and financing of the large Trump rally that preceded the Capitol attack, as the Washington Post first reported.

Further, other recent grand jury activity in Washington indicates a widening justice inquiry into top Trump allies including a subpoena last month to Peter Navarro, Trumps former top trade adviser, for testimony and some of his written communications with Trump. Navarro has responded with a lawsuit to block the subpoena.

In addition, several months ago the House sent the justice department a criminal contempt of Congress referral about Mark Meadows, Trumps former chief of staff, who played central roles in efforts to overturn Bidens win, and was not fully cooperative with the panels requests for documents and testimony.

In replying to the justice departments letter, the January 6 panel chair Bennie Thompson stressed that the committees inquiry is continuing and that we told them that as a committee, the product was ours, and were not giving anyone access to the work product we cant give them unilateral access and called the DoJ request premature.

But Thompson also told reporters last month the committee may allow some materials requested to be reviewed in the panels offices.

Former prosecutors say Thompsons response, albeit mixed, seems to augur well for more cooperation in the future and pointed to several ways that the overture to the House panel could substantially benefit current inquiries.

The DoJ request for the fruits of the House committee investigation was inevitable but is still very important, former justice inspector general Michael Bromwich said.

It will substantially advance the DoJ investigation into the role played by higher-level architects of the insurrection, Bromwich added. It will save DoJ time and resources in pushing the investigation forward. Its very much like having a large second investigative staff that has been working in parallel rather than at cross-purposes with the criminal investigators. Because the House committee has not immunized any witnesses, the legal obstacles for using that testimony dont exist.

Despite Thompsons initial guarded response, Bromwich said he expects they will comply promptly, adding that the panel is probably irritated that the request didnt come earlier, rather than at a time its members are swamped with prep for public hearings and is well into drafting its report.

Likewise, Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan, told the Guardian that outreach to obtain transcripts from the House panel could prove a boon to prosecutors.

Obtaining the transcripts directly from the committee is a way to maximize efficiency, said McQuade, now a professor of practice at the University of Michigan Law School. Investigators can see what witnesses have said before and decide whether they need to be interviewed again. They can use the transcripts to eliminate witnesses who dont have much light to shed on the matters under investigation.

McQuade noted that months ago, Monaco confirmed that DoJ had received evidence from state AGs about alternate slates of electors and was investigating. It appears that DoJ is now issuing subpoenas regarding this episode. They will likely ask questions about why and how this plan was carried out and who was involved. The answers to those questions will guide the investigation. One could imagine each link leading to the next and possibly all the way to Donald Trump.

As of late May, the justice department had charged over 830 people for crimes related to their roles in the January 6 Capitol attack which followed a Trump rally where he urged a large crowd to fight like hell. The federal charges range from illegal entry to seditious conspiracy involving Proud Boys and Oath Keepers members, some of whom have pleaded guilty.

On another front, a CNN report in late May revealed that FBI agents had recently conducted interviews in Georgia and Michigan with individuals who initially signed up to be Trump electors but then bowed out, asking specific questions about their contacts with Trump campaign officials and others.

As DoJ has ramped up its inquiry into Trumps fake electors, ex-prosecutors see more benefits that DoJs request to the House committee could produce.

One expects that the main purpose is to check the consistency of critical accounts which is valuable and does signal that DoJ is moving forward amid signs that it is increasingly examining the conduct of Giuliani and Eastman, ex-prosecutor Paul Rosenzweig said.

In another investigative twist, Paul Pelletier, the former acting chief of the fraud section at DoJ said: DoJs public acknowledgment of their interest in the January 6 transcripts may well be only the tip of the iceberg.

While Chairman Thompson has deferred a formal response to the governments inquiry, they likely have been informally sharing evidence for some time as is common in these investigations.

Looking forward, other former prosecutors sound bullish the House panel will extend cooperation to DoJ.

The panel is sure to cooperate because they are patriots, former federal prosecutor Dennis Aftergut told me. They know the importance of January 6 criminal accountability. That is the DoJs department, not theirs, but predicted that the committee will cooperate on their schedule.

Aftergut stressed that the committee has done a bang-up job with its wide ranging investigation, but probably wants to keep the publics attention focused on their upcoming hearings which Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin has predicted will blow the roof off the House.

Still, he added, Chairman Thompson calling cooperation now premature signals that its coming.

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US Justice Department could be zeroing in on Trump lawyers, experts say - The Guardian US

Former President Donald Trump is leaving Florida to avoid the swampy summer months.

Trump left his beachside Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and as of Friday is at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a Republican source close to the former president who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Before leaving, Trump did a TV interview from Mar-a-Lago on Thursday evening with the Miami Spanish-language station MegaTV. He's leaving South Florida just as the area is facing a tropical storm warning throughout the weekend.

Trump's move north means much of the Republican political braintrust will follow. GOP political hopefuls have flocked to Mar-a-Lago, holding fundraisers and other events there as they hope to get some face time with Trump and perhaps even land a coveted endorsement.

Now, Bedminster will become the new go-to spot for the GOP.

Trump's post-presidential office didn't reply to questions about the change in scenery or confirm that he had arrived in Bedminster. Last year, Trump left Mar-a-Lago for the summer on Mother's Day.

But political meetings are already set. Several US House members from the conservative Freedom Caucus will meet with Trump in Bedminster on Tuesday, Politico first reported.

Melissa Braid, spokeswoman for the House Freedom Caucus, told Insider that the group would be meeting to "discuss its continued efforts to defeat the Democrats' radical socialist agenda, and advance conservative America First policies."

The meeting will also happen two days before the House's January 6 Select Committee will begin holding public hearings about the 2021 attack at the US Capitol that attempted to thwart the certification of President Joe Biden's election victory.

Trump, 75, a perennial snowbird, has for two decades escaped to Florida during the north's frigid winter months and then returned north as the summer season kicks off. He's expected to remain in Bedminster until the early fall.

Mar-a-Lago's main Club closed for the season after its annual Mother's Day brunch, but its Beach Club was open until Memorial Day, as is customary before the season's long humid wave and ahead of hurricane season.

Mar-a-Lago is expected to reopen for a big party on Halloween weekend, said a second Republican source who frequently attended events at the club and spoke on condition of anonymity after speaking with a current club member. Tiffany Trump, the former president's younger daughter, is planning to have her wedding at Mar-a-Lago on November 12.

Florida is Trump's permanent post-presidential home and where he votes, and Trump often called it the "Winter White House" when he was still in office. His Bedminster club will put him just 45 miles west of New York City, another major donor power center and where he used to live before running for office.

Political events are lucrative for the Trump organization, which has received millions of dollars over the years for hosting fundraisers. Insider also reported that the Secret Service has spent about $2 million to stay and dine at Trump properties since he became the 2016 GOP nominee.

Trump has often made appearances at various Mar-a-Lago events, sometimes even to delight his guests by acting as DJ for the evening. One of his favorite songs to play a regular at his campaign rallies is "YMCA," he said on the "Full Send Podcast."

The former president often hints that he'll seek the White House again in 2024 and has raised significant cash for his two political action committees, Save America and the Make America Great Again PAC.

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Trump is moving from Florida to New Jersey and Republicans will follow - Business Insider

In August 2020, then-White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was concerned about the guidance that then-President Donald Trump was receiving from some in his inner circle, notably Mark Meadows the conservative ex-North Carolina congressman who had been chief of staff since March of that year.

Conway would soon be leaving her role in the White House, but she ruminated on the continued challenges stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and Trump's reelection matchup against then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

The veteran pollster didn't think Trump was being well-served by Meadows and didn't bite her tongue in laying out her frustrations him and several other top aides in the White House, which she detailed in her memoir, "Here's the Deal."

"Some of the staff egos were bigger than the enormous tasks confronting us. Others acted like adolescents in cliques or hungry sharks with agendas separate from that of the nation. People could not even agree on a mask policy. Most of them were insisting he would win reelection in a landslide before 'Sleepy Joe' ever awoke," she wrote.

She added: "Meadows, the self-described 'chief 's chief,' was the fourth person to serve in that role, and the only one during the most fraught time for the president and for the nation. The man did not match the moment. I could have been angry, but mostly I felt worried."

Conway went on to state that during such a tumultuous time with thousands of Americans dying from the coronavirus and millions of people contracting the virus before vaccines were authorized for emergency use Trump needed top-tier advisors who would steer him in a good direction.

"Trump can be as good a listener as he is a talker, so quality of counsel and pureness of advice are imperative," she wrote. "Personnel could be a blind spot for him. Facing the twin challenges of COVID and a reelection campaign, he deserved the best and the brightest."

In the book, she opined that Trump was "poorly advised" on many issues including gay rights pointing out that "senior staff" put a stop to a plan by the then-president and first lady Melania Trump to commemorate Pride Month in 2020.

"My eyes were already wide open. The president was being underserved, poorly advised, and, ironically, ignored by 'senior staff,'" she wrote.

She continued: "Like in June of that year, when the First Lady was finalizing a plan to light up the White House in the pride colors and send out a tweet that the president planned to retweet. All of a sudden when the day came, nothing happened the whole plan had been blocked."

Conway took another dig at Meadows in the book, remarking that "he wanted to be the president's BFF," which "meant more important than the duly-elected vice president."

Insider reached out to Meadows for comment.

Last December, Meadows released his memoir, "The Chief's Chief," where he detailed his response to Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis and subsequent hospitalization, while also describing his loyalty to the then-president, writing that he would have "dressed in a giant penguin suit" to have him back in the Oval Office after the health-related ordeal.

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Conway: Meadows 'did not match the moment' as Trump WH chief of staff - Business Insider

Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a key member of the January 6 committee investigating the Capitol attack, givesInside the Hivean exclusive preview of next weeks prime-time hearing.

After nearly a year of investigating the insurrection, Raskin says the most surprising discovery has been the role that money played, and the role of a financial motivebehind all these events to keep the money pouring in. The committee, he promises, will also draw direct and indirect lines between the top of the Republican hierarchy and the violent hooligans and street fascists who overran the Capitol.

But will Donald Trump himself be implicated? Raskin has said the former president will get his comeuppance, but whether hell face direct criminal justice for his premeditated role in an attempted coup remains an open question. Tantalizingly, Raskin deflects on the question of whether former vice president Mike Pence has spoken to the committee or might testify against Trump. I cant get into it, he says.

Plus: Raskin offers a powerful message and emotional plea to Democrats demoralized by the political landscape facing the party going into the midterms.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin Talks Donald Trump and Previews the Jan. 6 Hearings - Vanity Fair

Donald Trump Jr., left, and Johnny Depp, right, in a composite image.Getty Images

Donald Trump Jr. has once again weighed into the defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp.

Following the jury's verdict, he shared a pro-Depp meme on his Instagram account.

Depp will be remembered as "the first man to win an argument with a woman," the post said.

Donald Trump Jr has once again weighed into the high-profile defamation trial between Amber Heard and Johnny Depp following the jury's verdict on Wednesday.

On Friday, the eldest son of former President Donald Trump shared an Instagram post that said that "Depp will always be remembered as the first man to win an argument with a woman."

He accompanied the post with a caption: " precedent breaker!!!"

In Wednesday's verdict, jurors found both Depp and Heard liable for defaming each other, marking the end of six dramatic weeks of testimony in Fairfax County, Virginia.

The jury awarded Depp $15 million in damages on Wednesday, finding that Heard defamed him when she described herself as a victim of domestic violence in a 2018 The Washington Post op-ed.

The jury also awarded Heard a smaller sum of $2 million in compensatory damages, finding Depp liable for defamation when one of his attorneys described her allegations of sexual abuse as a "hoax."

Trump Jr. has previously offered commentary on Wednesday's verdict, celebrating it as a supposed end of the MeToo era.

"Believe all women... except Amber Heard," he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Republicans' House Judiciary Committee celebrated the verdict by posting a GIF of Captain Jack Sparrow Depp's character from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany, who served as White House press secretary for Trump Jr.'s father, criticized Republicans for showing their support to Depp.

"I see some Republicans celebrating him. I don't think that this is your guy,' she said, per DailyMail.com. McEnany noted that, in 2017, Depp joked about assassinating Trump.

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Donald Trump Jr. posts meme calling Johnny Depp the 'first man to win an argument with a woman' following Amber Heard trial verdict - Yahoo News

Among the many lingering images from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was seeing then-Vice President Mike Pence flee with his security detail as a group of rabid Donald Trump supporters appeared to hunt him. The Hang Mike Pence chants during the insurrectionist riot cant be unheard.

What we didnt know, however, was that members of the Indiana Republicans team feared that Trump had put his own vice president in so much jeopardy that a scenario like this could unfold. The New York Times Maggie Haberman, sharing an anecdote from her upcoming book, published a report today that read in part:

The day before a mob of President Donald J. Trumps supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pences chief of staff called Mr. Pences lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office. The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it.

This was not a situation in which Pences chief of staff routinely flagged security concerns for the then-vice presidents detail. In fact, the Times report, which hasnt been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that it happened exactly once: Jan. 5, 2021. The article added:

Mr. Short did not know what form such a security risk might take, according to people familiar with the events. But after days of intensifying pressure from Mr. Trump on Mr. Pence to take the extraordinary step of intervening in the certification of the Electoral College count to forestall Mr. Trumps defeat, Mr. Short seemed to have good reason for concern. The vice presidents refusal to go along was exploding into an open and bitter breach between the two men at a time when the president was stoking the fury of his supporters who were streaming into Washington.

We all know, of course, what happened, but reading a report like this brings the details into focus: The sitting vice presidents right-hand man had a private conversation with the Secret Service about a possible security threat created by the sitting president.

Or put another way, Short feared that Trump had personally put Pence in danger, which proved prophetic a day later.

History offers examples of presidents and vice presidents who didnt necessarily get along, but theres no parallel for anything like this in the American tradition.

All of this, of course, came against a backdrop in which Trump and many of his allies desperately tried to persuade Pence to participate in a coup scheme. The then-vice president, we later learned, was prepared to ignore his legal obligations, and he actively explored ways to corrupt the process, but Pence couldnt figure out how to make the scheme work.

Todays reporting also dovetails with related revelations that have come to the fore recently. Indeed, it was just last week when multiple news outlets reported that, as Hang Mike Pence chants echoed on Capitol Hill, then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told aides that Trump complained about Pence being whisked to safety. A New York Times report added, Mr. Meadows, according to an account provided to the House committee investigating Jan. 6, then told the colleagues that Mr. Trump had said something to the effect of, maybe Mr. Pence should be hanged.

As we discussed soon after, all of this was stunning, but not altogether surprising. Trump, during the riot, published an anti-Pence tweet, effectively accusing him of treachery, and by all accounts, Trump made no effort to reach out to his then-vice president after the riot to check on his wellbeing.

Months later, the former president sat down with ABC News Jonathan Karl, who initially asked whether he was concerned at all about Pences safety during the assault on the Capitol. No, I thought he was well-protected, and I had heard that he was in good shape, Trump replied. No. Because I had heard he was in very good shape. But, but, no, I think

The reporter intervened, reminding the Republican, Because you heard those chants that was terrible. Trump was unmoved, saying, He could have well, the people were very angry.

Karl added, They were saying, Hang Mike Pence. Trump responded, Because its common sense, Jon.

All of these revelations remain important for reasons that go beyond completing the historical record. Violent insurrectionists attacked our seat of government. Some hunted the sitting vice president, who had to flee for his own safety. Trump apparently didnt much care because Pence grudgingly concluded he couldnt help the sitting president steal an election.

This is the stuff of nightmares in a free and stable democracy.

We know quite a bit about what transpired during this attack, but no one should assume all the important revelations have been exposed.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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Pences team reportedly feared Trump put VP at risk on Jan. 6 - MSNBC

Donald Trump can fairly be described as a political crime boss. His contempt for democracy and the rule of law is reminiscent of the legendary organized-crime chieftains found in both fiction and reality. He used his presidency (and its aftermath) to enrich himself, along with his family and other members of his inner circle. Trump is deeply attracted to violence, although like the head of a crime family does not personally engage in it. He may be a sociopath or a psychopath, but regardless of clinical definitions is certainly antisocial and destructive.

Despite his uneven recent record of political endorsements, Trump remains the obvious leader of the Republican Party and the larger fascist movement in and around it. For millions of Americans, his orders and wishes are not to be disobeyed, and at least some of his loyal foot soldiers are willing to commit acts of violence at his command and perhaps to kill or die for him.

Trump runs his crime family from Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, which in a fictional narrative or a journalistic report from another nation would be described as a "compound." Republican candidates, party leaders and other members of his MAGA movement arrive there to make offerings of cash and undying loyalty, and to receive his praise (or admonition) and receive their further orders.

RELATED:Merrick Garland "fears no person," says legal scholar Norm Eisen and he's coming for Trump

Crime as politics, or "criminogenic" politics, to use the academic term, is a distinguishing feature of autocratic and authoritarian regimes. Real or aspiring strongman-type leaders, Donald Trump very much included, have no conception of public service that extends beyond accumulating money, power and personal glory. Politics and governance are but means to that end, and the law is not understood as a neutral leveling force that applies equally to all. Instead, it is an instrument of power, tailored to serve the personal needs of the autocratic-dictatorial leader and the most loyal and servile members of his regime.

There exists a literal mountain of scholarship, research, reporting, commentary and analysis by people from a wide range of disciplines journalists, mental health professionals, philosophers, lawyers, historians and political scientists, to name a few on the subject of Donald Trump and what his rise to power has meant for American democracy and society. But to this point, very few experts in crime and criminal behavior have specifically addressed the Trump phenomenon and its larger consequences.

Gregg Barak has tried to fill that void with his new book "Criminology on Trump," published in May by Routledge. Barak is an emeritus professor of criminology and criminal justice at Eastern Michigan University and was formerly a visiting distinguished professor in the College of Justice & Safety at Eastern Kentucky University. He is also the author of "Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding" and "Violence, Conflict, and World Order," among other works, and is co-founder and North American editor of the Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime.

In this conversation, Barak explains his view that Donald Trump is not a hapless fool or idiot, as some have depicted him. For Barak, Trump is a consummate con artist and perhaps a criminal mastermind who has spent decades mastering the law and learning how to escape accountability for his criminal actions and other transgressive behavior. Barak says that Trump had a mentor in this regard, the legendary fixer and right-wing political operative Roy Cohn, who taught Trump that even legal defeats or setbacks can be spun as symbolic victories.

Barak also argues that Trump was in all probability central to the planning and execution of the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt and took great joy in watching the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol. Barak also warns that Donald Trump is such a skilled performer that he is likely to evade responsibility for his criminal misconduct no matter what evidence is presented later this month by the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. Donald Trump's followers have not been duped into supporting him, Barak concludes, but greatly enjoy his antisocial behavior and live vicariously through it.

How are you feeling given all the crises we have faced in America during the Age of Trump and beyond?

I'm emotionally stressed. I'm anxious. I'm seeing the end of democracy. I'm just totally absorbed in writing about and thinking about Donald Trump. I began thinking about writing a book about Donald Trump in 2017. I got sucked in. Everyone else had been talking about Donald Trump from the perspective of journalists, lawyers, therapists and other points of view. But where were the criminologists? Donald Trump is a matter of crime and justice.

You say that you "got sucked in," that Trump pulled you into his orbit, in effect. I have heard many people say that about him. How did this happen? What is so compelling and intriguing about him? That's a big part of his power.

I'm sucked in because I study deception. I study mistrust. I study the con. Donald Trump is the archetype of all those things. He's a grifter, he's a racketeer. He's all of those things in one persona and one individual.

I have also described Donald Trump as a con artist, as well as a professional wrestling "heel," a carnie and a street hustler. What's the con that Donald Trump is running and why are so many people suckered by it?

Donald Trump is all of those things. But how does he get away with all the lawlessness. be it as a candidate or as occupant of the White House? He's a media-savvy showman. He offers himself up as a subject of both enjoyment and pain, and that helps him to elicit effective identification among the public. Ironically, Trump's positive attraction is fundamentally derived from his negativity, cruelty and deviance.

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Trump's political attraction has to do with his chauvinistic attitudes of white supremacy, cultural racism, and misogyny. In other words, Trump has become a superb agent of obscene, transgressive enjoyment. This is true whether he's vilifying immigrants, denigrating women or trying to humiliate a former ally.

His fake populism is all about style and attitude. It has absolutely nothing to do with any belief system, set of values or ideologies. Trump has no principles or ethics that he truly subscribes to. The only thing that matters to Trump is the accumulation of power and glorification.

People are not really being conned by Trump: They know it's a con. But they admire the fact that he's basically saying "f**k you" to everyone and getting away with it.

Trump's basic con is that he's going to bring something to people who feel aggrieved or that they need something. That he is fighting on their behalf. But again, it's not even that Trump doesn't deliver what he promises. Those people are not even really being conned: They know that Trump is a con artist. But they admire the fact that Trump can push back, that he can thumb his nose at the law and rules and norms, that he can abuse the law and everyone else, for that matter and get away with it. A big part of why Trump's followers are captivated by him is because he's basically saying "fuck you" to everyone and getting away with it. Donald Trump is a type of outlaw.

As a criminologist, what do you see when you look at Donald Trump?

I am looking at how Trump, throughout his lifetime, has been involved with fraud and deception. I see Trump as one of America's most successful outlaws. Why? Because he's been violating the law virtually every day of his life. He has not been charged once with a criminal offense. That's genius. That is just phenomenal.

This man's been accused of sexual assault, tax evasion, money laundering, nonpayment of employees and defrauding of tenants, customers, contractors, investors, bankers and charities. Yet has never been charged with any crime.

Donald Trump knows the law inside and out. When you've been a litigant who has been involved with 4,000 lawsuits, and have been the plaintiff in most of those cases, you get to know the law. Donald Trump knows how to play the law. In part, that is why he has been successful in weaponizing it.

What is the secret of Trump's success, in terms of never being held truly accountable for his crimes and all his fraudulent or unethical business activities?

Trump hooked up with Roy Cohn back in the 1970s, during the first lawsuit involving Trump and his father, Fred Trump Sr. It was for housing discrimination. Fred Sr. gave Donald the job of going out and finding an attorney, and Donald connected with Cohn, who he had admired from a distance.

Cohn became a surrogate father and a mentor, in a sense. Trump learned how to deny things, how to sensationalize things, how to weaponize the law and how, even when you lose, you can still win by spinning events in the public eye. More than anything else, Donald Trump learned that, if possible, you never settle. Well, Trump settles sometimes, but he has only lost a small percentage of his cases. He has won the overwhelming majority of them because he wears people down. He goes on for so long that most people don't have the deep pockets to go the distance.

Trump enjoys litigation. He doesn't even care if he wins or loses a case, because whichever it is, he spins it as though he won. Why do Trump's lies work? Because he says them so many times, that after a while, people quit trying to repudiate the lie. They give up.

Some of the psychologists and other mental health experts I've spoken to have said that in other circumstances Trump would have been a petty criminal and gone to jail. What are your thoughts?

Perhaps Donald Trump would have gotten into trouble and gotten caught. But given how introverted he really is, with all his insecurities, I don't know that he would have even aspired, or had the nerve, to be a hood or a criminal. I'm not sure Donald would have been doing street crime. I just don't see it. I don't think he has the nerve.

What do you make of Trump's likely defense that he didn't really know what was happening on Jan. 6, 2021? That other people were acting without his knowledge, and that he is innocent or ignorant about such things?

On Jan. 6, Trump knew precisely the whole time what was going on. He was loving every minute of it. Everything he has done in his whole life has been with malice aforethought.

He knew everything. Donald Trump knew precisely the whole time what was going on. He was aware. Donald Trump is such a great performer that if he wanted to plead that he was crazy or that he was insane and I am saying that tongue in cheek I believe that he could pull it off. And we know how hard it is to pull off an insanity defense. He would be successful, and he'd tell you, "This is the greatest insanity defense you've ever heard."Yes, I am saying this as a joke, but Trump does not lack the knowledge to do this. And he doesn't lack the intent. Everything Trump has done in his whole life has been with regularity and malice aforethought.

One of the issues that comes up about Donald Trump and his apparent crimes is the question of whether he is actually capable of knowing right from wrong.

Donald Trump certainly knows the difference between right and wrong. On Jan. 6, Trump was sitting there when everybody was telling him, "Donald, you've got to stop this." He was loving every minute of it. He knew what was going on. The fact that he didn't stop what was happening at the Capitol is evidence of consciousness of guilt or intent. He knew what was transpiring. It's what he wanted to happen!

So many people are going to testify before they even get to Donald Trump. They won't even need him at that point. Donald Trump will not be able to successfully defend himself by saying he was an idiot.

You said you were joking about this, but could Trump mount a successful insanity defense?

Here is an important distinction. "The Donald," the persona and the character, could pull it off. But Donald Trump the real person can't. Donald Trump the real person cannot reveal that side of his vulnerability. He couldn't conceive that he wasn't a genius. He couldn't acknowledge that he was crazy. The Donald Trump character could do all of those things.

So at the end of this long story, does Donald Trump go to jail? There are folks who have convinced themselves that such an outcome is inevitable, that he will finally be punished for his crimes. I am of the mind that there is no way that happens. Rich white men like Donald Trump are largely above the law in America.

If Trump is acquitted, then he doesn't go to jail. If there's one juror who says no, then Trump is a free man. If there's a unanimous verdict, I believe that he'll be punished. If Trump is not actually incarcerated, he'll be on a short leash. He'll be under supervision. Perhaps he will be allowed to stay at Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump is a stain on the presidency. He deserves to be locked up.

How dangerous is Trump? I have consistently tried to warn people that he is very dangerous, quite likely the most dangerous person in America. But you are a criminologist: Am I exaggerating?

He's as dangerous as anyone could be.

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