Jack Smith has issued subpoenas for information about Trump’s business deals with foreign countries dating back to 2017. Via the New York Times:
Federal prosecutors overseeing the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents have issued a subpoena for information about Mr. Trump’s business dealings in foreign countries since he took office, according to two people familiar with the matter.
It remains unclear precisely what the prosecutors were hoping to find by sending the subpoena to Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, or when it was issued. But the subpoena suggests that investigators have cast a wider net than previously understood as they scrutinize whether he broke the law in taking sensitive government materials with him upon leaving the White House and then not fully complying with demands for their return.
The subpoena — drafted by the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith — sought details on the Trump Organization’s real estate licensing and development dealings in seven countries: China, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, according to the people familiar with the matter. The subpoena sought the records for deals reached since 2017, when Mr. Trump was sworn in as president.
The document case already falls under the Espionage Act. Are they looking for proof Trump sold copies of classified documents?
“Just about ten minutes ago, on air, I said to you that the stolen documents case against Donald Trump is his biggest threat, and that it gets stronger with every passing day,” Neal Katyal told MSNC’s Katie Phang.
“I guess it’s getting stronger with every passing minute because, in the last ten minutes, it appears to have gotten even stronger.”
“Basically, the background here is the prosecutor’s fear, the public’s fear, that Donald Trump monetizes everything. He monetized Jan. 6th, of all things. He monetizes his impeachment and the like. So, I think the prosecutor’s concern here has been when he took these highly sensitive classified documents, was he trying to monetize those as well?”
Smith doesn’t need this information for the Mar-a-Lago case, Katyal said.
“What this says is perhaps there is even more. There is a whole other set of potential criminal charges.”
