CNN
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Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has expressed continued interest in a chaotic Oval Office meeting that took place in the final days of the Trump administration, during which the former president considered some of the most desperate to keep him in power over the objections of his White. Lawyer of the house.
Multiple sources told CNN that investigators have asked several witnesses before the grand jury and during interviews about the meeting, which took place about six weeks after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Some witnesses were asked about the meeting months ago, while several others have faced more recent questions, including Rudy Giuliani.
Last month, over two consecutive days, Giuliani sat down with investigators for a voluntary interview on a range of topics, including the tumultuous December 2020 meeting he attended, sources said.
Prosecutors have specifically asked about three outside Trump advisers who participated in the meeting: former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, sources said.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, declined to comment.
An attorney for Powell declined to comment, as did an attorney for Byrne. CNN has also reached out to an attorney for Flynn for comment.
Both Powell and Byrne previously spoke at length under oath about the meeting and other issues to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Flynn refused to answer questions in his committee’s interview, asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
The special counsel’s sustained interest in the chaotic episode comes as Smith’s team appears to be nearing charging decisions in the investigation into efforts to overturn the election results. Investigators are still collecting evidence, contacting several new witnesses in recent weeks and working to schedule interviews.
During a heated Oval Office meeting on December 18, 2020, outside advisers clashed with top West Wing lawyers over a plan to have the military seize voting machines in crucial states that Trump had lost. They also discussed appointing Powell as a special counsel to investigate alleged voter fraud and Trump invoking martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election.
Screams and insults ensued; the night ended with Trump tweeting that an upcoming rally in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021, to protest the election results “is going to be wild.”
Among the witnesses questioned by the special counsel’s team was former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, who told a House select committee on January 6 that he was told by phone at the meeting on 18 of December after it had already turned into a shouting match between Flynn. Powell and White House lawyers, according to a transcript of O’Brien’s statement that was released by the panel.
Details about subsequent secret grand jury testimony and closed-door interviews illustrate how the special counsel and his prosecutors are looking at the various ways Trump tried to reverse his election loss despite some of his top officials they have advised against it.
The continued emphasis on the Dec. 18 Oval Office meeting appears to coincide with the special counsel’s broader effort to delve into the actions of various Trump lawyers and allies during the Dec. 14 2020 to January 6, 2021.
The Dec. 14 date is of particular interest to prosecutors, sources told CNN. That day, a list of Republican alternate electors in seven battleground states signed certificates falsely claiming that Trump had won. Also that day, members of the Electoral College gathered in all 50 states to officially cast their ballots, declaring Joe Biden the winner with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.
Investigators have focused on efforts to recruit the illegitimate voters, get them to sign certificates falsely claiming Trump had won, and then use them as a pretense to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to delay certifying the victory of the Electoral College for Biden on January 6.
At least one witness has told prosecutors in recent weeks that Trump allies asked Pence to question the legitimacy of Biden’s electors in those seven states based on unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud and to reverse the certification decision in the states themselves, a source said.
