DOJ grand jury into Donald Trump’s financial fraud subpoenas a familiar face
Earlier this week ABC News reported that the DOJ has a grand jury investigating how Donald Trump used a PAC to raise money under the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Now the New York Times is revealing the names of some of those subpoena recipients – including one you’ll recognize.
The subpoena recipients include former Trump White House adviser Stephen Miller, a guy whose name seems to surface in every Trump White House scandal. This means that Miller will have to provide documents, communications, and presumably testimony as needed. There’s really no getting out of a grand jury subpoena, because the courts tend to process battles over these kinds of subpoenas rather swiftly.
In other words, Miller will soon have to give up Trump. People cannot be compelled to testify against themselves to a grand jury, but they can be compelled to testify against others; the Fifth Amendment only protects against self incrimination. Miller will surely claim executive privilege, but that doesn’t apply to criminal acts committed by a President, so it won’t hold up.
The key here is the timing. ABC says that this grand jury has been sending out subpoenas to more than a dozen Trump associates for the past several weeks. That seems to line up with when the DOJ carried out a search and seizure warrant at Trump’s home. While that was in a separate classified documents probe, it’s starting to feel like the DOJ’s various probes into Trump are being lined up so they reach a peak at the same time. Stay tuned.
