{"id":3621,"date":"2023-01-07T03:26:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-07T09:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=3621"},"modified":"2023-03-19T21:03:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T02:03:53","slug":"two-years-after-us-capitol-attack-investigati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=3621","title":{"rendered":"Two years after US Capitol attack, investigation into Trump and insurrection enters new phase<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years after rioters\u00a0stormed the US Capitol, the Justice Department\u2019s sprawling criminal investigation into the effort to block the peaceful transition of power enters a new phase with the special counsel adding two right-hand prosecutors to an experienced team that will ultimately determine whether former President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0or his allies should face prosecution.
\nSpecial counsel Jack Smith\u00a0has returned to the US after spending the past month working remotely in Europe while recovering from a bicycle accident.
\nHe is adding two longtime associates who have specialized in public corruption cases, according to a person familiar with the matter: Raymond Hulser, the former chief of the DOJ\u2019s public integrity section, and David Harbach, who conducted cases against former Sen. John Edwards and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.<\/p>\n

The expansion under Smith shores up the office\u2019s\u00a0ability to examine broad conspiracy cases\u00a0and determine the avenues of the investigation, another source said. They join a team of more than 20 prosecutors from DOJ, as well as senior advisers brought into the department in recent months, who were already investigating Trump and his allies.
\nDespite Attorney General Merrick Garland\u2019s assurances that Smith\u2019s appointment won\u2019t slow down the dual Trump-related probes, setting his office up does take time. Smith\u2019s team is still working to find a permanent physical office location but has begun changing over email addresses for staffers who had previously been using their usual Justice Department accounts.
\nHarbach was seen by CNN getting his bearings in the federal courthouse in DC on Thursday, speaking to another special counsel prosecutor about extremist group cases and briefly sitting in on an ongoing Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial.
\nAccording to the Justice Department, more than 950 defendants have been arrested for their alleged participation in the January 6, 2021, riot, with more than 500 being found guilty. Four people died in the attack, including rioter Ashli Babbitt who was shot by a Capitol police officer, two members of the crowd who suffered heart attacks, and one who died of an overdose. DOJ says 140 officers were injured that day and\u00a0five officers died\u00a0in the months after the riot \u2013 one\u00a0of strokes\u00a0and four by suicide.<\/p>\n

Smith and his new team have inherited the January 6 probe at a crucial juncture, as the public has a better understanding of the lengths the former president and his allies went to try to keep Trump in the Oval Office but also as congressional investigators hit the limits of their powers.
\nAnd where the House select committee hit brick walls in its probe \u2013 including with recalcitrant witnesses who claimed privileges, or, like Mark Meadows, bailed on cooperating with congressional investigators midway through \u2013 DOJ prosecutors now working under Smith will have certain tools to dismantle those barriers. They include ongoing legal proceedings about piercing the shield of confidentially that normally surrounds a president.
\nThe special counsel also has a massive amount of evidence already in-hand that it now needs to comb through, including\u00a0evidence recently turned over by the House January 6 committee,\u00a0subpoena documents provided by local officials in key states\u00a0and discovery collected from lawyers for Trump allies late last year in a flurry of activity, at least some of which has not even been reviewed yet, according to sources familiar with the investigation.<\/p>\n

Edition<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years after rioters\u00a0stormed the US Capitol, the Justice Department\u2019s sprawling criminal investigation into the effort to block the peaceful transition of power enters a new phase with the special counsel adding two right-hand prosecutors to an experienced team that will ultimately determine whether former President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0or his allies should face prosecution. Special counsel Jack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1386,2877,3857,1230,1186,1198,1527],"class_list":["post-3621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-capitol","tag-department-of-justice","tag-insurrection","tag-trump","tag-two","tag-america","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8030,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3621\/revisions\/8030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}