Judge finds Trump 'more likely than not' committed felony obstruction in effort to overturn election
A federal judge has found that former President Donald Trump "more likely than not" committed felony obstruction in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
U.S District Judge David Carter said in the ruling that Trump's former lawyer John Eastman must turn over most documents he is withholding from the Jan. 6 House committee investigating the attack on the U.S Capitol.
"Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021," Carter wrote.
The judge, who reviewed Eastman's documents, ordered Eastman to turn over all but ten that the court found privileged.
In response, Eastman's legal team said in a statement Monday afternoon that Eastman "intends to comply with the court's order" and will turn over the requested documents.
In his ruling, Judge Carter, a Clinton appointee, provided a summary of several documents Eastman has sought to block.
"The eleventh document is a chain forwarding to Dr. Eastman a draft memo written for President Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani," Carter wrote. "The memo recommended that Vice President Pence reject electors from contested states on January 6. This may have been the first time members of President Trump's team transformed a legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act into a day-by-day plan of action."
"The draft memo pushed a strategy that knowingly violated the Electoral Count Act, and Dr. Eastman's later memos closely track its analysis and proposal," Carter wrote.
"The memo is both intimately related to and clearly advanced the plan to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021," wrote the judge. "Because the memo likely furthered the crimes of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, it is subject to the crime-fraud exception and the Court ORDERS it to be disclosed."
