Trump Boasts About Investigation Record Ahead of Jan. 6 Committee Hearing, Continued Mar-a-Lago Probe | CPT PPP Coverage

Former President Donald Trump boasted on Sunday of the numerous investigations he’s “beat” ahead of a Jan. 6 Committee hearing this week and continued legal battles over his handling of government records at Mar-a-Lago.

“For six straight years, these witch hunts have been in full force,” Trump said at a rally for Republican candidates in Arizona on Sunday. “Witch hunts, hoaxes and abuses have been coming at us at a fast and furious pace.”

Trump checked off the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, two impeachment inquiries, the New York Attorney General’s civil probe into his business practices and an ongoing Georgia election integrity investigation.

“Now it’s the unselect committee of political hacks and thugs,” Trump said. “And that’s a scam”

The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is set to meet on Thursday for what could be its final hearing, after eight public events this summer.

Committee members have remained tight-lipped about the hearing’s focus. Nevertheless, it stands to “be potentially more sweeping than some of the other hearings,” Rep. Adam Schiff of California said recently on CNN’s “State of the Union,” and it “will tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election.”

The hearing could include recorded testimony from Trump’s former cabinet members or Ginni Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been active in efforts to invalidate the 2020 election.

The hearing comes as the panel is looking to wrap its investigation that has gathered testimony from hundreds of witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents over the past 15 months, while considering whether to make a criminal referral and turn over documents to the Justice Department.

On Sunday, Trump also described the “break in” of his Mar-a-Lago estate by the FBI in August, citing a slew of former presidents who he claimed had taken documents from the White House, while insisting that handling of government records was protected under the Presidential Records Act and other statutes.

“There is no crime,” Trump said of his storage of a “small number” of boxes at Mar-a-Lago. “They should give me immediately back everything they’ve taken from me because it’s mine.”

The assertion seemed to undercut an earlier claim from Trump that the FBI had planted evidence at his Florida estate, which a court-appointed third party has been trying to flesh out in recent weeks.

The special master, who was appointed by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon after a request from Trump, has been tasked with conducting a review of the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago. But the Justice Department has argued that doing so impedes its investigation, appealing Cannon’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The appeals court granted a partial stay on the order, returning about 100 documents with classified markings to the Justice Department, while allowing the special master to proceed with the review of the thousands of remaining documents.

But last week, Trump escalated matters when he asked the Supreme Court to intervene by requesting that the documents marked as classified be returned to the special master for review.

Justice Clarence Thomas ordered the Justice Department to respond to Trump’s request by Tuesday, before the high court decides whether and how to weigh in on the matter.

The deadline comes as the 11th Circuit also granted the Justice Department’s request to expedite an appeal of the broader question of the appointment of the special master, moving up the briefing schedule to conclude by mid-November. The Justice Department had argued that barring its review of the thousands of remaining documents in the hands of the special master harms its investigation.