Charge!

I stepped away from the news for a few hours last night, and look what happened. From New York Times :

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said on Wednesday that there was enough evidence to conclude that former President Donald J. Trump and some of his allies might have conspired to commit fraud and obstruction by misleading Americans about the outcome of the 2020 election and attempting to overturn the result.

In a court filing in a civil case in California, the committee’s lawyers for the first time laid out their theory of a potential criminal case against the former president. They said they had accumulated evidence demonstrating that Mr. Trump, the conservative lawyer John Eastman and other allies could potentially be charged with criminal violations including obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the American people.

The filing, which I’ve only browsed, makes for surreal reading. Here’s an exchange between John F. Wood, the committee’s senior investigative counsel, and John Eastman:

Q Dr. Eastman, did you write the opinion piece that’s in tab 16?

A Fifth.

Q Okay. Just so I understand, Dr. Eastman, you're invoking your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to question whether this opinion and commentary piece with the byline John C. Eastman, you’re invoking the Fifth Amendment right to not answer that question?

A On advice of counsel, I’m invoking the Fifth.

At another point Eastman takes the Fifth in response to a question about whether he’s refusing to answer questions only about his actions or also about his thoughts regarding the Electoral College.