JUST IN: Federal Judge says says Donald Trump ‘likely’ committed multiple crimes in a "coup" to block Biden victory

Donald Trump appears to have committed multiple felonies as he sought to return himself to power on 6 January, a judge said in a Monday ruling that ordered the Trump lawyer John Eastman to turn over hundreds of emails to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.

The extraordinary ruling marks a breakthrough and paves the way for the select committee to obtain some of Eastman’s most sensitive emails concerning his illegal scheme to overturn the 2020 election, which he had attempted to shield from the inquiry.

“Based on the evidence the court finds that it is more likely than not that President Trump and Dr Eastman dishonestly conspired to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6 2021,” ruled Judge David Carter.

Trump and Eastman launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election in a strategy that was unprecedented in American history, Carter said, describing their scheme as a “coup in search of a legal theory” and directly spurred the Capitol attack.

The judgesaid in the ruling that even if Eastman might be correct that the Electoral Count Act was at odds with the constitution, it did not give Trump license to defy, or allow him to circumvent, the statute.

“Disagreeing with the law entitled President Trump to seek a remedy in court, not to disrupt a constitutionally mandated process,” Judge Carter said. “This plan was a last-ditch attempt to secure the presidency by any means.”

The judge’s order is perhaps the first time ever that a federal court has found a president may have committed a crime while in office – and raises the stakes for the justice department, which has vowed to pursue January 6 criminal cases at any level.

The decision will also serve to undercut Trump’s claim that the investigation is a partisan effort to hurt him politically, now that the select committee’s inquiry has been reaffirmed through the imprimatur of a federal court. It also comes amid reports that Trump’s son-in-law and close aide during his presidency, Jared Kushner, is scheduled to appear before the January 6 panel this week.

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