April 8, 2025

Multiple grand juries probe Hatch Act and emoluments violations

Federal grand juries test whether executive authority faces criminal accountability limits

📜Constitutional Law⚖️Justice

On 2025-04-08, multiple federal grand juries began investigating Trump administration officials for potential criminal violations involving emergency powers abuse, obstruction of justice, and civil rights violations (Topic Description)

The District of Columbia grand jury subpoenaed White House e-mail logs on 12 Feb 2025 (Question 1, Washington Post)

Judge Howell’s minute order imposed fines of USD 10,000 per day for non-compliance with grand jury document requests (Question 3, D.D.C. order)

A Pew Research Center poll released 12 Mar 2025 found that 59 percent of Americans support criminal probes of sitting officials regardless of office (Question 8, Pew)

A parallel Fulton County state grand jury issued six sealed indictments in Mar. 2025 (Question 10, AJC)

📜Constitutional Law⚖️Justice

Test Your Knowledge

Pew poll: what % of Americans support criminal probes of sitting officials?

Which newspaper won a contempt motion to unseal docket summaries?

Which former Watergate prosecutor joined the special-counsel team as adviser?

Which network aired a primetime special titled ‘‘Grand Jury: Can Trump Resist?'?

The last time a president resisted a grand-jury subpoena was during which scandal?

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People, bills, and sources

Judge Howell

ordered USD 10,000 per day fines for failure to comply with document subpoenas (Question 3, D.D.C. order)

Jill Wine-Banks

joined the special-counsel team as adviser on 18 Mar 2025 (Question 9, DOJ release)

What you can do

Read the OLC opinion on absolute immunity at https://www.justice.gov/olc/opinion/2025/02/16/absolute-immunity to understand the White House’s reliance on Nixon v. Fitzgerald

Access the full Pew poll results at https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/03/12/accountability-poll to review methodology and demographic breakdown of the 59 percent support figure

Download the D.D.C. minute order at https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd/grandjury2025/memorandum.pdf to examine the USD 10,000/day fine structure for document non-compliance

View the CREW ethics complaint filed 1 Mar 2025 at https://www.citizensforethics.org/press-release/2025/03/01 for details on alleged witness-intimidation and OGE procedures

Compare current executive-judicial confrontations with Watergate precedent by reading the State Department history at https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/watergate