A grand jury subpoena issued to former Trump administration attorney Eric Herschmann requesting documents and testimony is proof that ex-president Donald Trump is now “the target” of a federal criminal probe into the January 6 Capitol insurrection, according to a prosecutor who spent decades putting white collar criminals behind bars.
Politico broke news of the subpoena, with reporter Betsy Woodruff Swan noting:
Herschmann represented Donald Trump in the former president’s first impeachment trial and later joined the White House as a senior adviser. He did not work in the White House counsel’s office, but did provide Trump with legal advice. Because of that responsibility, there will likely be litigation over the scope of the subpoena and over how executive and attorney-client privileges may limit Herschmann’s ability to comply.
Herschmann is a key figure who was witness to many of the happenings inside the Trump administration prior to and after the Capitol was attacked on Jan. 6:
During the tumultuous final weeks of Trump’s term, Herschmann clashed with other aides and advisers who pushed the defeated president to fight the election results. He was also present for many of the most consequential meetings in that period of time. Among them was a high-stakes meeting where most of the Trump Justice Department’s top brass threatened to resign rather than work under a colleague who wanted to advance spurious claims of widespread voter fraud.
Herschmann also sparred with Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn when they urged Trump to have the military seize voting machines. The Jan. 6 select committee has aired numerous portions of his testimony to their panel, which is blunt and sometimes darkly amusing.
The Politico report prompted a response from Andrew Weissmann, who spent 20 years at the Justice Department and was one of the key investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller during the Russia investigation. Weissmmann weighed in on Twitter in reference to Swan’s article:
“No question now that Trump is the target of the federal 1/6 probe. And correct move here: Lock people into the GJ.”
The key words in Weissmann’s tweet are “the target” because it means that prosecutors and the grand jury they have impaneled believe Trump is the prime suspect who is under investigation and most likely to be indicted if the evidence supports such a move. In other words, the ex-president is the reason the grand jury is meeting in the first place and the focus of their attention.
All of this comes three weeks after the FBI served a search warrant at the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago. That warrant was to gather evidence which may support other indictments of Trump for violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice.
Just when Donald thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse, they did.
