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Opinion Distinguished person of the week: This judge is holding Trump accountable
Judge David Carter is an amazing man
Link to tweet
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/23/trump-prosecution-jan-6-judge-carter/
O
n Wednesday, Carter held that eight more privileged documents fell within the crime-fraud exception to attorney-client privilege because Trump consulted Eastman “for advice that will serve [them] in the commission of a fraud or crime,” and the communications themselves were “sufficiently related to” and made “in furtherance of” the crime. Carter explained, “There are four documents … in which Dr. Eastman and other attorneys suggest that — irrespective of the merits — the primary goal of filing [election-related lawsuits] is to delay or otherwise disrupt the January 6 vote.”
Carter took aim at one lawsuit that Trump and his attorneys filed before a court in Fulton County, Ga., in which they alleged the county’s vote total included 10,315 deceased people, 2,560 felons and 2,423 unregistered voters. But these numbers were false, Carter wrote, and Eastman told Trump as much. Nevertheless, they filed a suit repeating this false allegation in a sworn pleading. Carter explains:
In other words, just as the Jan. 6 committee showed over the course of its hearings, Trump knew he had lost in Georgia and knew the numbers of fraudulent votes he was throwing about were false. Yet he kept repeating these lies, including under oath in federal court.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance writes in a Substack post, “This is a civil case and the issue before Judge Carter is whether to enforce the subpoena the [Jan. 6 committee] sent to Eastman. . . . It doesn’t mean an indictment of Trump will automatically follow.” Still, Vance explains, Carter’s ruling amounts to a federal court judge arguing that there is sufficient evidence “from the mouth of his own attorney, that [Trump] knew the Big Lie was a Big Lie.”
Between this ruling and the voluminous evidence presented in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, the Justice Department would have a difficult time explaining a decision not to indict Trump. As Norman Eisen, who served as co-counsel for the House impeachment managers during Trump’s first impeachment, put it on Twitter, “The new documents that Eastman was trying to hide and [Carter] just released are so important. They prove that Trump knowingly lied under oath about his 2020 election claims.” Eisen adds, “That bolsters the already strong criminal case” that Trump attempted to defraud the United States in challenging Georgia’s results.
Carter took aim at one lawsuit that Trump and his attorneys filed before a court in Fulton County, Ga., in which they alleged the county’s vote total included 10,315 deceased people, 2,560 felons and 2,423 unregistered voters. But these numbers were false, Carter wrote, and Eastman told Trump as much. Nevertheless, they filed a suit repeating this false allegation in a sworn pleading. Carter explains:
President Trump and his attorneys ultimately filed the complaint with the same inaccurate numbers without rectifying, clarifying, or otherwise changing them. President Trump, moreover, signed a verification swearing under oath that the incorporated, inaccurate numbers “are true and correct” or “believed to be true and correct” to the best of his knowledge and belief.
The emails show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public. The Court finds that these emails are sufficiently related to and in furtherance of a conspiracy to defraud the United States.
In other words, just as the Jan. 6 committee showed over the course of its hearings, Trump knew he had lost in Georgia and knew the numbers of fraudulent votes he was throwing about were false. Yet he kept repeating these lies, including under oath in federal court.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance writes in a Substack post, “This is a civil case and the issue before Judge Carter is whether to enforce the subpoena the [Jan. 6 committee] sent to Eastman. . . . It doesn’t mean an indictment of Trump will automatically follow.” Still, Vance explains, Carter’s ruling amounts to a federal court judge arguing that there is sufficient evidence “from the mouth of his own attorney, that [Trump] knew the Big Lie was a Big Lie.”
Between this ruling and the voluminous evidence presented in the Jan. 6 committee hearings, the Justice Department would have a difficult time explaining a decision not to indict Trump. As Norman Eisen, who served as co-counsel for the House impeachment managers during Trump’s first impeachment, put it on Twitter, “The new documents that Eastman was trying to hide and [Carter] just released are so important. They prove that Trump knowingly lied under oath about his 2020 election claims.” Eisen adds, “That bolsters the already strong criminal case” that Trump attempted to defraud the United States in challenging Georgia’s results.
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