John Charles Eastman is an American lawyer and academic. Due to his efforts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election,attempting to keep then-president Donald Trump in office and obstruct the certification of Joe Biden's victory,he has been criminally indicted,ordered inactive by the State Bar of California,and recommended for disbarment. Eastman has lost eligibility to practice law in California state courts,pending his appeal of the state bar judge's ruling that recommended him for disbarment. Eastman is also named as a co-conspirator in the federal indictment brought against Trump over his attempts to subvert the 2020 election results and prevent the certification of Biden's election.
Mark Randall Meadows is an American politician who served as the 29th White House chief of staff from 2020 to 2021 under the Trump administration. A member of the Republican Party,he also served as the U.S. representative for North Carolina's 11th congressional district from 2013 to 2020. During his legislative tenure,Meadows chaired the Freedom Caucus from 2017 to 2019. He was considered one of Donald Trump's closest allies in the House of Representatives before his appointment as chief of staff.
Various people and groups assert that former U.S. president Donald Trump engaged in impeachable activity both before and during his presidency,and talk of impeachment began before he took office. Grounds asserted for impeachment have included possible violations of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting payments from foreign dignitaries;alleged collusion with Russia during the campaign for the 2016 United States presidential election;alleged obstruction of justice with respect to investigation of the collusion claim;and accusations of "Associating the Presidency with White Nationalism,Neo-Nazism and Hatred",which formed the basis of a resolution for impeachment brought on December 6,2017.
Pasquale Anthony "Pat" Cipollone is an American attorney who served as White House Counsel for President Donald Trump. While in office he defended Trump in his first impeachment trial. He objected to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election,and played a key role in the January 6 committee hearings,specifically the committee's sixth hearing.
The inquiry process which preceded the first impeachment of Donald Trump,45th president of the United States,was initiated by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24,2019,after a whistleblower alleged that Donald Trump may have abused the power of the presidency. Trump was accused of withholding military aid as a means of pressuring newly elected president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue investigations of Joe Biden and his son Hunter and to investigate a conspiracy theory that Ukraine,not Russia,was behind interference in the 2016 presidential election. More than a week after Trump had put a hold on the previously approved aid,he made these requests in a July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president,which the whistleblower said was intended to help Trump's reelection bid.
The first impeachment of President Donald Trump occurred on December 18,2019. On that date,the House of Representatives adopted two articles of impeachment against Trump:abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. On February 5,2020,the Senate voted to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment.
After Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election,Republican nominee and then-incumbent president Donald Trump pursued an unprecedented effort to overturn the election,with support from his campaign,proxies,political allies,and many of his supporters. These efforts culminated in the January 6 Capitol attack by Trump supporters in an attempted self-coup d'état. Trump and his allies used the "big lie" propaganda technique to promote claims that had been proven false and conspiracy theories asserting the election was stolen by means of rigged voting machines,electoral fraud and an international conspiracy. Trump pressed Department of Justice leaders to challenge the results and publicly state the election was corrupt. However,the attorney general,director of National Intelligence,and director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency –as well as some Trump campaign staff –dismissed these claims. State and federal judges,election officials,and state governors also determined the claims were baseless.
On January 2,2021,during an hour-long conference call,then-U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" and overturn the state's election results from the 2020 presidential election. Trump had been unequivocally defeated by Joe Biden in the election,but refused to accept the outcome,and made a months-long effort to overturn the results. Prior to the call to Raffensperger,Trump and his campaign spoke repeatedly to state and local officials in at least three states in which he had lost,urging them to recount votes,throw out some ballots,or replace the Democratic slate of electors with a Republican slate. Trump's call with Raffensperger was released by The Washington Post and other media outlets the next day,after Trump made a statement about the call on Twitter.
The following article is a broad timeline of the course of events surrounding the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6,2021,by rioters supporting United States President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. Pro-Trump rioters stormed the United States Capitol after assembling on the Ellipse of the Capitol complex for a rally headlined as the "Save America March".
The second impeachment trial of Donald Trump,the 45th president of the United States,began on February 9,2021,and concluded with his acquittal on February 13. Donald Trump had been impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives on January 13,2021. The House adopted one article of impeachment against Trump:incitement of insurrection. He is the only U.S. president and only federal official to be impeached twice. He was impeached by the House seven days prior to the expiration of his term and the inauguration of Joe Biden. Because he left office before the trial,this was the first impeachment trial of a former president. The article of impeachment addressed Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results and stated that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol in Washington,D.C.,while Congress was convened to count the electoral votes and certify the victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol was a select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives established to investigate the U.S. Capitol attack.
This is a timeline of major events in second half of 2019 related to the investigations into the myriad links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate,relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8,and the transition,the first and second halves of 2017,the first and second halves of 2018,and the first half of 2019,but precedes that of 2020 and 2021.
Cassidy Jacqueline Hutchinson is a former White House aide who served as assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the first Trump administration.
Two related investigations by New York State and City officials were opened by 2020 to determine whether the Trump Organization has committed financial fraud. One of these is a criminal case being conducted by the Manhattan district attorney (DA) and the other is a civil case being conducted by the New York State Attorney General (AG). The DA's case has led to two of the organization's subsidiary companies being found guilty of 17 charges including tax fraud and the indictment of Donald Trump,while the AG has succeeded in imposing an independent monitor to prevent future fraud by the organization.
Gregory Jacob is an American lawyer who was legal counsel to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during the administration of Donald Trump. He is currently a partner in the Washington office of the law firm,O'Melveny &Myers,specializing in ERISA matters.
The Trump fake electors plot was a scheme to submit illegitimate certificates of ascertainment to falsely claim U.S. president Donald Trump had won the electoral college vote in certain states,following Trump's loss in the 2020 United States presidential election. After the results of the 2020 election determined Trump had lost,the scheme was devised by him,his associates,and Republican Party officials in seven states,and it formed a part of Trump and his associates' attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. The intent of the scheme was to pass the illegitimate certificates to then-vice president Mike Pence in the hope he would count them,rather than the authentic certificates,and thus overturn Joe Biden's victory. This scheme was defended by a fringe legal theory developed by Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman,detailed in the Eastman memos,which claimed a vice president has the constitutional discretion to swap official electors with an alternate slate during the certification process,thus changing the outcome of the electoral college vote and the overall winner of the presidential race. The scheme came to be known as the Pence Card. By June 2024,dozens of Republican state officials and Trump associates had been indicted in four states for their alleged involvement. The federal Smith special counsel investigation is investigating Trump's role in the events. According to testimony Trump was aware of the fake electors scheme,and knew that Eastman's plan for Pence to obstruct the certification of electoral votes was a violation of the Electoral Count Act.
The United States Justice Department investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election began in early 2021 with investigations and prosecutions of hundreds of individuals who participated in the January 6,2021 attack on the United States Capitol. By early 2022,the investigation had expanded to examine Donald Trump's inner circle,with the Justice Department impaneling several federal grand juries to investigate the attempts to overturn the election. Later in 2022,a special counsel was appointed. On August 1,2023,Trump was indicted. The indictment also describes six alleged co-conspirators.
An ongoing special counsel investigation was opened by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18,2022,to continue two investigations initiated by the Justice Department (DOJ) regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump. Garland appointed Jack Smith,a longtime federal prosecutor,to lead the independent investigations. Smith was tasked with investigating Trump's role in the January 6 United States Capitol attack and Trump's mishandling of government records,including classified documents.
Stefan C. Passantino is an American lawyer and former head ethics deputy counsel in President Trump's Office of White House Counsel. He is best known for his representation of a witness in the Jan 6 Capitol attack House investigation. In January 2023 he was hired by the Trump Organization.
