Following the bombshell Washington Post report claiming that President Donald Trump spilled classified intel to Russian officials in the Oval Office last week, the president's national security adviser, Lt. Gen. HR McMaster, reportedly expressed displeasure at the news.
According to Daily Caller White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, McMaster reportedly said "this is the last place I wanted to be" outside of Press Secretary Sean Spicer's office.
In the initial Post report about Trump's Oval Office divulgence, McMaster was quoted as saying "at no time were any intelligence sources of methods discussed and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly."
Read Collins' tweet below.
After WaPo story breaks, McMaster sees a line of reporters in the hall outside Spicer's office. "This is the last place I wanted to be."
The Arizona indictment released on Wednesday for the fake elector scheme charges several of former President Donald Trump's lawyers and strategists, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb, and Boris Epshteyn, as well as Arizona GOP officials like Kelli Ward, and names Trump himself as an unindicted co-conspirator — but there's a conspicuous hole in the indictments, as a major architect of the fake elector scheme, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, is missing.
That's not by accident, NYU Law professor Ryan Goodman wrote for his Just Security site.
"Chesebro has so far escaped prosecution in other states where false electors are under indictment," wrote Goodman. "His protection from prosecution appears to be on the basis that he 'cooperated' with those investigations. However, recent investigative reporting by CNN and others has revealed that Chesebro apparently made false statements to state prosecutors in Michigan and Nevada while feigning cooperation with their respective criminal investigations of false electors (see also this analysis of flaws with his proffer agreement in Georgia)."
"That all is now fairly well known to close observers of these cases. Why then the Arizona indictment excludes Chesebro is a mystery," he continued. "Prosecutors in Michigan and Nevada have decided not to seek indictments of anyone at the national level and instead focused only on false electors in their states. But in Arizona that’s different, as the prosecutors have now charged several out-of-state individuals who were involved in the nationally coordinated effort to overturn the election results. But not Chesebro."
Goodman concluded that the likeliest explanation was that he did provide help to the Arizona prosecutors specifically.
This comes as former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann speculates that Chesebro might also have some degree of utility as a witness in the federal case brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith, which is currently on hold pending the Supreme Court's review of Trump's claims to presidential immunity.
A key member of Donald Trump's legal defense team has reportedly dropped one of the former president's associates, Boris Epshteyn, as a client as it became clear that the two were considered adversarial to each other due to a recent Arizona criminal indictment.
Hugo Lowell, political investigations reporter for The Guardian, reported after Epshteyn was indicted in Arizona that "Trump lawyer Todd Blanche may soon have to choose whether loyalty is [with] Trump or Boris Epshteyn — clients who are now likely adversarial to each other."
Lowell noted that, while "Trump is charged [with] 2020 election subversion in DC and Georgia," Epshteyn has been "charged [with] 2020 election subversion in Arizona."
The reporter further noted that Blanche "was originally Epshteyn’s lawyer and represented him before the Special Counsel."
"Epshteyn then intro’d him to Trump, and Blanche became his lawyer, too," he said Wednesday. "Now Blanche almost certainly is legally conflicted, though Trump and Epshteyn could waive the conflict."
In an updated post, Lowell stated that "Trump lawyer Todd Blanche is no longer representing Boris Epshteyn, per person familiar."
"Unclear when the representation ended," he said. "Blanche told Epshteyn tonight that he needs to find an Arizona lawyer ASAP."
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman called the development "fallout from Arizona case."
"Epshteyn indicted for first time and Blanche no longer represents him," he said.
MSNBC host and legal analyst Katie Phang also chimed in on Blanche leaving Epshteyn, saying, "So it looks like Todd Blanche went with the buttered side."
While numerous people were charged in the
Arizona fake elector effort to keep President Donald Trump in power back in 2020 — the former president, referred to as "Unindicted Co-Conspirator 1," so far gets to skate free.
Trump might not be indicted in the case yet, but it is another state indictment. And that means even if the 45th president wins the election come Nov. 5 and is able to serve out another term, he would be unable to pardon his cohorts like attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows among others should they get convicted.
Former federal prosecutor and university law professor Ryan Goodman appeared on CNN's "Out Front" to discuss the Arizona indictment that appeared to spare Trump another criminal case.
He said, "This is state prosecution of state crimes" and so "if Donald Trump is elected president, he can't do anything about it."
The reason the president is powerless to wash the slate for these accused is because they're not federal crimes.
Moreover, Goodman said Trump also "cannot quash the investigation because that's only about the Justice Department, not about state law enforcement authorities."
If the case moves ahead with a formal trial and ends in conviction, Trump will effectively be "just left out there as unindicted co-conspirator."
So what happens to all of Trump's indicted co-conspirators?
Goodman said, "these folks might be left holding the bag."
The move contradicted the fact that then-President Elect Joe Biden had been found to have won by 10,457 votes and state officials certified his electors.
Among some of the others named in the indictment were former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, who
tweeted on Jan. 6, 2021, following the siege on the U.S. Capitol by hordes of Trump supporters: “Congress is adjourned. Send the elector choice back to the legislatures.”
