Yahoo News’ succinct daily update on the criminal and civil cases against the 45th president of the United States.
A new report alleges that special counsel Jack Smith’s team of investigators questioned witnesses in the classified documents investigation about a “hidden room” and a locked closet at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and country club that they did not search in their 2022 raid of the property. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis reportedly has no plans to recuse herself in the Georgia election interference case against Trump and 18 others, despite accusations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with the lead prosecutor. In the United Kingdom, a judge dismisses a lawsuit brought by Trump seeking damages for the intelligence dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. Here are the latest legal developments surrounding the former president seeking to be reelected to the White House in 2024.
Classified documents
Smith’s team questioned witnesses about a Mar-a-Lago ‘hidden room’ and locked closet
Key players: Special counsel Jack Smith, Judge Aileen Cannon, former Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran
- Prosecutors on Smith’s team have interviewed multiple witnesses in the classified documents investigation about a “hidden room” and a locked closet at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and country club that the FBI did not search during its raid of the property on Aug. 8, 2022, ABC News reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources.
- Trump, according to sources, had changed the lock on a closet as Corcoran, his attorney at the time, searched the property for classified documents taken by the former president after he left the White House.
- In the indictment, Trump and two of his employees are charged with mishandling classified documents and attempting to obstruct the efforts by federal investigators to retrieve them.
- The government has recovered more than 300 classified documents to date from Mar-a-Lago, including highly sensitive war plans, but it’s unclear whether more remain missing.
Why it matters: Among the 32 felony counts Smith has charged Trump with in the documents case are two for obstruction of justice, each of which carries a potential prison sentence of 20 years. Prosecutors will certainly use the information gathered from witness interviews to try to establish Trump’s guilt on those charges.
Georgia election interference
Key players: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Judge Scott McAfee, Trump co-defendant Mike Roman, lead prosecutor Nathan Wade
- Amid allegations of an improper sexual relationship with Wade that Trump and Roman say should disqualify her from moving forward with the Georgia case against them, sources told CNN that Willis has no plans to recuse herself.
- Instead, Willis is preparing her response to the legal filing put forth by Roman and signed onto by Trump seeking to have the charges against them dismissed. While Willis plans to tell the judge that Roman and Trump are wrong about the law, she will also stop short of denying having a romantic relationship with Wade, sources told CNN.
- McAfee has given Willis until Friday to respond in writing to the allegations and has scheduled a Feb. 15 hearing on the matter.
- CBS News reporter Daniel Klaidman, the co-author of the new book Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election, agreed that Willis was unlikely to recuse herself.
- “CNN’s report is consistent with what I have been told by my sources. [Willis] has no plans to step aside voluntarily,” Klaidman told Yahoo News. “She is resilient and a fighter and has already been through a lot in this case, horrific racial and sexualized threats and even an assassination threat.”
- Last week, the Georgia Senate approved legislation setting up a committee to investigate Willis for the allegations of improper conduct.
Why it matters: Willis is seeking to avoid any further delays in the trial schedule for Trump and 18 others charged with attempting to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election. The accusations against her could pose a serious threat to that effort, even if they are unlikely to result in her removal from the case.
Steele dossier
U.K. judge tosses Trump lawsuit seeking damages for ‘shocking and scandalous claims’ in Steele dossier
Key players: Judge Karen Steyn, Orbis Business Intelligence founder Christopher Steele, Trump attorney Hugh Tomlinson
- On Thursday, Steyn dismissed a lawsuit brought by Trump that sought damages for the “shocking and scandalous claims” made in the Steele dossier, the Associated Press reported.
- “There are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed to trial,” the judge said.
- Tomlinson said Trump had “suffered personal and reputational damage and distress” because of the unfounded details in the dossier, which was compiled in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
- Put together by Steele, the dossier consisted of rumors and stories about Trump, including tales of sexual encounters with prostitutes in Russia.
- Tomlinson called the contents of the dossier “egregiously inaccurate” and said it included “shocking and scandalous claims about the personal conduct of President Trump.”
- Buzzfeed published the dossier in January of 2017. Lawyers for Orbis countered that the company had never intended for its findings to be made public and that Trump had waited too long to file his lawsuit.
- Steyn agreed with the company.
- In 2022, a U.S. federal judge dismissed a separate dossier case Trump brought against Steele, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton that claimed Steele’s findings had been used to start investigations into Trump’s alleged ties with Russia.
Why it matters: Trump is facing mounting legal costs and the dismissal of the case in the United Kingdom will deprive him of another potential source of funds.
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