BREAKING: Witness list expanding in multi-conspiracy probe out of Fort Pierce and now includes, et. al.: FBI Analyst Brian Auten; Biden aide Eric Ciaramella; Obama/Biden aide Celeste Wallander; IC IG Michael Atkinson; Clapper aide Vinh Nguyen#Russiagate
https://x.com/paulsperry_/status/2075352675097485804
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Although Donald Trump’s defenders describe the Russia hoax and other efforts to frame the president as a "grand conspiracy," RealClearInvestigations has learned that the man now leading the probe of that scandal is pursuing multiple conspiracy prosecutions that are smaller and more manageable, according to several sources with direct knowledge of the probe.
Since taking over the Justice Department’s far-flung investigation in April, veteran prosecutor Joseph diGenova and his team quickly concluded that combining all of the alleged wrongdoing, which ranges from falsifying evidence and committing perjury to leaking classified information and obstructing justice, into one unified plot and trying them together as a single case would be unmanageable.
“You’d have 50 defendants in the courtroom,” said a well-placed source familiar with diGenova’s thinking.
Joseph diGenova is leading the first holistic probe of Russiagate scandal.
Before diGenova took over the investigation two months ago, its contours were ill-defined as it lurched ahead in fits and starts for more than a year. But according to the sources, diGenova is tackling the case with a new, disciplined focus and in so doing is giving it the direction it’s lacked.
But this is a change in tactics, not the theory of the case. The sources say his operating assumption is that Trump’s enemies in the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, the Obama and Biden administration, some Democrats in Congress, and their like-minded accomplices across several government agencies – including the CIA and the FBI – joined in one continuous conspiracy over almost a decade to deny Trump his civil rights, derail his political campaigns, and undermine his presidency.
Holistic Review
Where other investigators have looked at specific pieces of the effort Trump’s defenders now call "Russiagate” after its original origins, diGenova is launching the first holistic look at the entire scandal. A well-placed source said it is looking at events from June 2015 when Trump first came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy through the 2022 FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago after he left office.
Insider sources provided RCI with an exclusive look into the specially assigned prosecutor’s office and its recent legal maneuvers.
They said two separate grand juries in South Florida are now collecting and hearing evidence in what could become a series of conspiracy cases brought against people who served in the highest reaches of government, including former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey.
Since much of the government’s alleged corrupt anti-Trump activity took place in 2016, prosecuting the cases as conspiracies is the only way to get around the five-year federal statute of limitations.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tapped diGenova, a longtime denizen of Washington, D.C., who was a U.S. attorney during the Reagan administration, to helm the sprawling investigation into what Blanche views as a series of baseless and seditious prosecutions and impeachments of Trump. The acting attorney general has created a special position for diGenova with the title “counselor to the attorney general.”
DiGenova has moved into an office in Fort Pierce, Fla., where one federal grand jury is actively hearing evidence in the case. Another grand jury has been convened in Miami, where Jason Reding Quinones, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, is based. He is said to be working closely with diGenova.
DiGenova and his team are confident that the jury pool and judges in South Florida will give them a fair hearing, as opposed to Washington, D.C., where they are no longer utilizing a third grand jury.
“It’s dead in D.C. Everything is in South Florida now,” a red jurisdiction more sympathetic to Trump, said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.
As a former federal prosecutor and independent counsel, diGenova is known for using grand juries, which are comprised of 16 to 23 citizens who hear a prosecutor’s case, to aggressively collect evidence by issuing subpoenas for documents and witnesses.
The sources say a fresh round of grand jury subpoenas is expected to go out in early July.