11 August, 2017
Grand juries play a major role in the USA criminal justice system.
While Donald Trump has accused Robert Mueller of overseeing the "single greatest witch hunt in American political history" and claimed that his F.B.I. probe is being "led by some very bad and conflicted people", his Justice Department has concluded that the special counsel and his team do not, in fact, have any financial conflicts of interest. That panel has been used to gather information on Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser. With news that Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington, D.C., it would make sense for Trump's legal team to advise the president to lay low. A grand jury report could work as the ultimate scapegoat for House Republicans.
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides the legal basis for grand juries. His grand jury will be made up of citizens from a community that voted 93 percent for Hillary Clinton.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the use of a grand jury.
Next, prospective grand jurors are screened, usually through questionnaires. And yet he never empaneled a grand jury, despite the hard evidence. In many states, like Missouri, the probable cause determination can be made either by a grand jury or at a preliminary hearing before a judge. No grand jury for the despicable lies told to cover up the murders in Benghazi.
Most people whose cases go to the grand jury have already been arrested.
For weeks, Washington political circles have been on high alert for the possibility Trump would remove Mueller or otherwise try to assert greater control of the ongoing federal Russian Federation probe. Did they do something wrong because they didn't file the right document or whatever?
In some high-profile cases, witnesses subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury will talk to the press if they think it will be helpful to them.
For Clinton, no grand jury for the abuses at the IRS to target enemies of Obama. After all, what choice would Congress have but to draft Articles of Impeachment following an official grand jury report of near-criminal wrongdoing? The defendant does not know the evidence being considered, does not have a right to be present and can not question the evidence early in the criminal justice process.
"I mean, I want them to get on with the task", he said.
These types of dangers are always present during any grand jury, and getting a grand jury to issue an indictment may be easy.
Let's look at the things Trump should be most anxious about.
