Georgia judge to partially release Trump grand jury report – live

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Air tracking website Flightradar 24 reports its users are closely following a military plane looking for the wreckage of whatever was shot down yesterday over Lake Huron:

See it for yourself here.

“I told you so”.

That’s more or less what Republican senator Marco Rubio has to say about the three downings of unidentified objects over North American skies over the weekend:

The Florida lawmaker has been among those in Congress calling for more transparency from the defense department about unexplained phenomena encountered by airmen over the years.

One final detail from judge Robert McBurney’s ruling on the partial release of the Georgia special grand jury report.

McBurney has read the document in its entirety, and has this to say about it:

Having reviewed the final report, the undersigned concludes that the special purpose grand jury did not exceed the scope of its prescribed mission. Indeed, it provided the District Attorney with exactly what she requested: roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.

Why not make public the full special grand jury report? Two words: due process.

That’s the legal concept judge Robert McBurney cited in denying the release of the entirety of the panel’s investigation into Donald Trump’s meddling effort in Georgia, which took place after Joe Biden won its electoral votes in 2020. Here’s McBurney’s reasoning, from the decision that you can read here.

This special purpose grand jury investigation was, appropriately, largely controlled by the District Attorney. She and her team decided who would be subpoenaed, when they would appear, what questions would be asked, and what aspects of the general election would be explored. The grand jurors were, of course, able to question the witnesses as well, but the process was essentially an investigative tool designed to enable the District Attorney to gather more information about what actually happened in the days following the general election in Fulton County (and elsewhere) so that she could make more informed decision on whether Georgia law was violated and whether anyone should be charged for doing so. It was -- again, entirely appropriately -- one-sided exploration. There were no lawyers advocating for any targets of the investigation. Potential future defendants were not able to present evidence outside the scope of what the District Attorney asked them. They could not call their own witnesses who might rebut what other State’s witnesses had said and they had no ability to present mitigating evidence. Put differently, there was very limited due process in this process for those who might now be named as indictment worthy in the final report.

He continues:

The consequence of these due process deficiencies is not that the special purpose grand jury’s final report is forever suppressed or that its recommendations for or against indictment are in any way flawed or suspect. Rather, the consequence is that those recommendations are for the District Attorney’s eyes only -- for now.

Put in a concise two sentences:

For anyone named in the special purpose grand jury’s final report who was not afforded the opportunity to appear before the grand jury, none 0f those due process rights has been satisfied. And for those who did appear -- willingly or not -- only the right to be heard (although without counsel 0r rebuttal) was protected.

Speaking of investigations into Donald Trump, don’t miss Peter Stone’s dive into whether a now-concluded justice department inquiry was actually an attempt to protect the former president’s reputation:

When the Trump justice department tapped a US attorney to examine the origins of the FBI inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, conservatives and many Republicans hoped it would end the idea Donald Trump’s campaign was boosted by Moscow and back his charges that some FBI officials and others had conspired against him.

But instead, as the multi-year investigation winds down, it is ending with accusations that unethical actions by that special counsel – John Durham – and ex-attorney general William Barr “weaponized” the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to help Trump.

Former DoJ officials and top Democrats are voicing strong criticism that Durham and Barr acted improperly in the almost four-year-old inquiry, citing an in-depth New York Times story that added to other evidence the inquiry looked politically driven to placate Trump’s anger at an investigation he deemed a “witch-hunt”.

The Times report provided disturbing new details, for instance, about how a key prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, quit Durham’s team in 2020 over “ethical” concerns, including his close dealings with Barr, and discussions about releasing an unorthodox interim report before the 2020 election that might have helped Trump, but which didn’t come to fruition.

Critics of the Durham inquiry also noted early on that Barr on several occasions, and contrary to longtime DoJ policies, suggested publicly that Durham’s inquiry would yield significant results, which in effect would help validate Trump’s charges that some officials at the FBI and CIA had led a political witch-hunt.

Further, Barr and Durham, in highly unusual public statements early in their investigation, tried to undermine a chief conclusion of a report by the DoJ inspector general, Michael Horowitz, that the Russia investigation was based on sufficient facts to warrant opening the investigation in 2016.

Ex-DoJ officials say the Durham inquiry seemed aimed from the start at boosting Trump’s political fortunes.

Trump grand jury report will get partial release on 16 February

A judge in Georgia will allow portions of a special grand jury’s report on Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win in the state to be released on 16 February, Lawfare reports.

Robert McBurney, a judge in Fulton county, has approved the release of the report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as a chapter on jurors’ concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath. He is keeping the rest away from the public:

The anxiety of the UFO-plagued weekend may finally be alleviated at the White House press briefing, set for 1 pm eastern time.

John Kirby, the national security council’s communications chief who typically speaks on foreign affairs, is slated to appear alongside the briefing’s usual host, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

US denies China claim that American balloons violated its airspace

The US has denied an allegation made by China’s foreign ministry that high-altitude balloons sent by Washington have violated its airspace 10 times over the past year.

“Since last year, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China’s airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, according to the Associated Press, adding, “It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries.”

He didn’t offer details about the balloons, but the comments drew a response from national security council spokesperson Adrienne Watson:

The US air force earlier in February shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had traversed its airspace and heightened tensions with Beijing. That has led many to suspect that China has something to do with the three unidentified flying objects US jets downed over North America since Friday, though Washington hasn’t yet said where those may have come from.

The military still hasn’t said publicly where the flying objects came from, but in Washington, Republicans know who to blame for them: Joe Biden.

Here’s the attack line from congressman John James:

Punchbowl News reports that senators will receive a classified briefing on Wednesday about the shootdowns. In a Sunday appearance on ABC News, the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer agreed that lawmakers needed to know more about the objects, but also pointed the finger at the Trump administration for not doing more about them:

That’s something I support, Congress should look at that. That’s the question we have to answer. I think our military, our intelligence is doing a great job, present and future. I feel a lot of confidence in what they are doing. But why as far back as the Trump administration did no one know about this?

The third flying object in as many days was shot down by US jets not far from military sites in Michigan, and was “octagonal” in shape, the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports. Here’s a recap of the very busy weekend had by American military aviators:

The US military has shot down a third flying object over North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet.

The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday.

It is understood to have been the same item that was picked up by radar over Montana on Saturday. At the point it was struck by an air-to-air missile launched by F-16 fighter jets, it had been flying across the Great Lakes region at 20,000ft, a height that could have posed a risk to civilian aircraft.

Balloons or aliens? America rattled by weekend of mysterious shootdowns

Good morning, US politics blog readers. It was a busy weekend for the air force, and a bad one for unknown bodies in North American skies. Since Friday, American jets have shot down three objects flying over the US and Canada, but the Pentagon hasn’t yet said what they are (though the New York Times reports that there’s no reason to believe they are extraterrestrial in nature). The shootdowns came days after a US plane downed a Chinese spy balloon that had drifted across American airspace, enraging Washington at Beijing’s audacity. Are these latest objects more of those, or something else? Perhaps we’ll find out today.

Here’s what else we can expect:

• The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, briefs reporters at 1pm eastern time.

• The Senate will convene at 3pm to consider more judicial nominees from Joe Biden.

• Top Biden administration officials including transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House adviser Susan Rice speak at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference starting from 9.30am.