From New York to Washington, DC, associates of former President Donald Trump were feeling the heat from the Justice Department on Tuesday.
In Brooklyn, a federal grand jury returned additional charges against Thomas Barrack, the onetime chairman of Trump's inaugural committee.
The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against Steve Wynn in the nation's capital, arguing that he should register as a foreign agent because he tried to get a diplomatic favor for China.
The chairman of the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol confirmed to the New York Times that the Justice Department has asked for transcripts of interviews the congressional panel has been conducting.
The Justice Department requested the broadest inquiry to date into the attack on the Capitol. More than 800 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection, most of them accused of being part of the pro-Trump mob that day.
The request for transcripts and the scrutiny of the funding of the Trump rally that preceded the Capitol attack signaled that the Justice Department is working its way into the inner circles of the former president.
Norm Eisen, who served as counsel for House Democrats in Trump's first impeachment, described the string of recent developments as neon arrows pointing towards Trump.
I have long been of the opinion that the DOJ was starting to turn their investigation toward the higher-ups involved in January 6, including Donald Trump. Eisen, a former Obama White House ethics official, told Insider that the fact that DOJ is now seeking these transcripts is a further indication of the legal peril.
The request for the transcript shows that they are doing a complete review, which is bad news for the former president.
Thompson said Tuesday that the House panel would not hand over its work product, but might allow Justice Department officials to review transcripts in committee offices.
They want to have access to our work product. Thompson told reporters that they told them that they were not giving that to anyone.
Federal prosecutors alleged in a superseding indictment on Tuesday that Barrack, the billionaire fundraiser for Trump, sought investments from a pair of Abu Dhabi wealth funds when he was illegally lobbying the Trump administration.
According to the superseding indictment filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Barrack's investment firm received capital commitments totaling $374 million from the two UAE funds.
When he was indicted last year, Barrack pleaded not guilty and is set to stand trial later this year.
Barrack is not the only one who will be on trial. The practices of the Trump years were the trading of proximity and access to the president and those around him.
By the end of the day, another member of the Trump family was accused of using White House access to lobby for foreign powers.
In a civil lawsuit, the Justice Department argued that Wynn should register as a lobbyist because of his efforts to persuade US officials to deport a Chinese businessman to China.
The lawsuit seeks to force Wynn to identify himself as a lobbyist under a decades-old law requiring the disclosure of political activities for overseas powers. According to the lawsuit, Wynn had a desire to protect his business interests in Macau and appealed directly to Trump over dinner and over the phone.
Matthew Olsen, the Senate-confirmed head of the Justice Department's national security division, said that the Americans have a right to know if a foreign government uses an American as an agent.
It was the first affirmative civil lawsuit filed under FARA in more than three decades. The lawsuit underscored the Justice Department's stepped-up enforcement of the law, which went largely unenforced for decades until Special Counsel Robert Muller III returned it to prominence with high-profile prosecutions against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and other members of Trump's orbit.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
