Per WaPo, Breaking: The U.S. Dept. of Justice is officially investigating Donald Trump's actions in the Jan. 6th probe

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From reporters Carol D. Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey and Spencer S. Hsu:

 

The Justice Department is investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter.

 

Prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury — including two top aides to Vice President Mike Pence — have asked in recent days about conversations with Trump, his lawyers, and others in his inner circle who sought to substitute Trump allies for certified electors from some states Joe Biden won, according to two people familiar with the matter. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

 

The prosecutors have asked hours of detailed questions about meetings Trump led in December 2020 and January 2021; his pressure campaign on Pence to overturn the election; and what instructions Trump gave his lawyers and advisers about fake electors and sending electors back to the states, the people said. Some of the questions focused directly on the extent of Trump’s involvement in the fake-elector effort led by his outside lawyers, including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, these people said.

 

In addition, Justice Department investigators in April received phone records of key officials and aides in the Trump administration, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, according to two people familiar with the matter. That effort is another indicator of how expansive the Jan. 6 probe had become, well before the high-profile, televised House hearings in June and July on the subject.

 

The Washington Post and other news organizations have previously written that the Justice Department is examining the conduct of Eastman, Giuliani and others in Trump’s orbit. But the degree of prosecutors’ interest in Trump’s actions has not been previously reported, nor has the review of senior Trump aides’ phone records.

 

A Trump spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokesman and a lawyer for Meadows both declined to comment.

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There are two principal tracks of the investigation that could ultimately lead to additional scrutiny of Trump, two people familiar with the situation said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

 

The first centers on seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct a government proceeding [...] The second involves potential fraud associated with the false-electors scheme or with pressure Trump and his allies allegedly put on the Justice Department and others to falsely claim that the election was rigged and votes were fraudulently cast.

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This year, the fake-elector scheme has become a major focus of the Justice Department inquiry. After Trump lost the election, lawyers and others close to him urged GOP officials in key states to submit alternate and illegitimate slates of electors to reject the results of the state vote totals.

 

In a call on Dec. 27, 2020, witnesses have said, Trump told acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen that he wanted his Justice Department to say there was significant election fraud, and said he was poised to oust Rosen and replace him with Clark, who was willing to make that assertion.

 

Rosen told Trump that the Justice Department could not “flip a switch and change the election,” according to notes of the conversation cited by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

 

“I don’t expect you to do that,” Trump responded, according to the notes. “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”

 

The president urged Rosen to “just have a press conference.” Rosen refused. “We don’t see that,” he told Trump. “We’re not going to have a press conference.”

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These are very specific things that they are investigation.

 

In other words, they're not trying to find if they did something wrong.

 

They have already zero'd in on the idea that they were trying to CHANGE OUT the electors from states that Biden won.

 

That is the crime. They now are trying to see if they were intentionally trying to do that.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if the Secret Service texts that suddenly went missing within the past couple of weeks has officially caused the US Dept. of Justice to go into full investigation.

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And the investigation will have email that shows that people within Trump's campaign were 100% aware that they were attempting to push "fake" electors to replace the legitimate electors that are being submitted by the states in which Biden clearly won.

 

We know this.........because THEY USED the phrase "fake electors" in their emails.

 

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The Times highlighted one email, for example, from Jack Wilenchik, a lawyer who helped organize the bogus electors in Arizona. “We would just be sending in ‘fake’ electoral votes to Pence so that ‘someone’ in Congress can make an objection when they start counting votes, and start arguing that the ‘fake’ votes should be counted,” Wilenchik wrote on Dec. 8, 2020, in an email to Boris Epshteyn, a strategic adviser for the Trump campaign.

 

The lawyer soon added that “‘alternative’ votes is probably a better term than ‘fake’ votes.” The email added a smiley face emoji.

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That proves intent.