Reed Mideke@pbump points out that Chesebro's lawyer claims he *never* believed the election was stolen, which would seem to make his attempts to flip it for Trump even more blatantly criminal than someone like Powell, who perhaps genuinely (if delusionally) believed zombie Hugo Chavez used Italian spy satellites to flip votes https://wapo.st/473v7AS
Meadows reportedly cooperating in the federal 1/6 case… will he be next in line to take a deal in Georgia? (edit: or not, see below) https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/24/politics/mark-meadows/index.html
Ellis makes 3/4 of the "elite strike force" flipped https://apnews.com/article/jenna-ellis-plea-deal-georgia-election-case-c4dbacd3e4bbb5415ebd3d42d8fa3128
Jenna Ellis pleads guilty in Georgia Trump election case
Donald Trump’s lead attorney in the 2020 Georgia election case against him is using another attorney’s guilty plea to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the racketeering charges brought against all 19 defendants. Trump attorney Steve Sadow says it's the fourth time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has dismissed the racketeering charge “in return for a plea to probation." Attorney Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony over efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss in Georgia. The Florida resident is the fourth defendant in the case to enter into a plea deal with prosecutors. Prosecutors say Ellis helped other lawyers as they lied to Georgia lawmakers.
Caution the Meadows "scoop" may have been overplayed and just refer to limited immunity for grand jury testimony: https://twitter.com/openargs/status/1716946708687630745
Opening Arguments on X
PLEASE be careful as you're reading this story; we're going to discuss on the show tomorrow, of course. But the "immunity" referred to here is immunity for *testifying* before the DC Grand Jury, which occurred back in June. There's no evidence Meadows has gone Michael Cohen.
Better reporting of the #Meadows immunity deal from Guardian Trump crimes beat reporter Hugo Lowell
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/24/trump-chief-of-staff-mark-meadows-2020-election-case-immunity
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/24/trump-chief-of-staff-mark-meadows-2020-election-case-immunity
Liz Dye brings more than you ever wanted to know about failed traffic court prosecutor / self proclaimed professor of constitutional law / Georgia first time felony offender Jenna Ellis
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/jenna-ellis-guilty-plea-statement-biography
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/jenna-ellis-guilty-plea-statement-biography
Chutkan reinstates the Trump Jan 6 gag order, though the actual order appears to be in PACER limbo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/29/trump-gag-order-resumes-jan-6-judge/
Also: "Trump is personally furious about the gag order, advisers told The Washington Post, but his campaign sees it as a political asset" - Campaign may be under-pricing the difficulty of running a campaign from jail
(I don't actually think he's likely to go to jail, but I do think if he pushes his luck too far he's gonna find out fines aren't the only tool in the box)
(I don't actually think he's likely to go to jail, but I do think if he pushes his luck too far he's gonna find out fines aren't the only tool in the box)
Chutkan brings some shade denying Trump's claim of absolute immunity: "Indeed, it is likely that a President who knows that their actions may one day be held to criminal account will be motivated to take greater care that the laws are faithfully executed" https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67656595/united-states-v-trump/#entry-171
More Chutkan: It's a feature, not a bug "If the specter of subsequent prosecution encourages a sitting President to reconsider before deciding to act with criminal intent, that is a benefit, not a defect."
"Every President will face difficult decisions; whether to intentionally commit a federal crime should not be one of them."
CA Bar's closing brief in Eastman's case spends a significant portion of its 86 pages setting 🔥 to one John Eastman https://discipline.calbar.ca.gov/portal/DocumentViewer/Index/VBqEKKzWq7BHFLcNbcYFBPwEVGppqKqRVh1jPShvzLRW-TqEo4kMqYD8POcD6IXmvjC-TMQt9Ct_mI544fmjiNq7TQItUIXPLobITmdyBQk1?caseNum=SBC-23-O-30029&docType=Pleading&docName=STATE%20BAR%20S%20CLOSING%20BRIEF&docTypeId=269&isVersionId=False&p=0
Rudy's lawyer: the millions of dollars Freeman and Moss are seeking would be the “civil equivalent of the death penalty … It would be the end of Mr. Giuliani”
Filed under "don't threaten me with a good time"
(also IIRC Howell already ruled he fucked around so badly in discovery he can't argue he's too poor, because he didn't produce financial information)
"Special counsel Jack Smith has extracted data from the cell phone Donald Trump used while in the White House" - Presumably a government provided phone, since we would have heard if personal devices had been seized. IIRC he was supposed to have a dedicated twitter phone.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/11/special-counsel-trump-phone-data-trial-00131196
Filing says Expert 3 will testify they: "extracted and processed data from the White House cell phones used by the defendant and one other individual (Individual 1);"
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67656595/united-states-v-trump/?page=2#entry-183
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67656595/united-states-v-trump/?page=2#entry-183
Rudy #Giuliani, having already been found liable for defaming Freeman and Moss and admitting in court filings the things he said about them were untrue, says outside the courthouse "Everything I said about them is true … They were engaging in changing votes."
"Judge Howell told Mr. Giuliani’s lawyer, Joseph Sibley IV, that comments like those could be considered another defamation claim"
Today's #SchadenfreudeFriday brought to you by America's Mayor, Rudy #Giuliani
"Donald Wakeford, a prosecutor in the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, contended that chilling sitting officials from committing crimes would be a good thing" https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/15/mark-meadows-trump-georgia-charges-federal-court-00131993
LOL, not like it matters but Rudy owes 5% annual interest for as long as he doesn't pay Freeman and Moss https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/61642105/freeman-v-herring-networks-inc/?page=2#entry-142
The Detroit News got recordings of Trump pressuring Wayne County canvassers not to certify the election, and it sounds like it was even more blatant than reported at the time
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/21/donald-trump-recorded-pressuring-wayne-canvassers-not-to-certify-2020-vote-michigan/72004514007/
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2023/12/21/donald-trump-recorded-pressuring-wayne-canvassers-not-to-certify-2020-vote-michigan/72004514007/
Trump campaign hand-flying the fake elector certificates really goes to show how invested they were in that part of the plot. Also: “Freaking trump idiots want someone to fly original elector papers to the senate President,” a Wisconsin GOP official wrote
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics/recordings-trump-team-fake-elector-ballots/index.html
"if they are elected, they would pardon the former president should he be convicted of any of the 91 felony charges he’s currently facing" unclear if it's just Wapo's phrasing, or Haley and DeSantis claim they're gonna pardon state felonies. Anyway, that's all of the "serious" GOP candidates all-in on the idea their presidents are, in fact, above the law ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Would nice if some reporters would directly challenge them on the idea they would override a jury, regardless of any facts or evidence which emerge in the yet-to-occur trials
Of course, the reality is they're trying to score points with his base because they'll lose the primary if they don't, but as previously noted (https://twitter.com/reedmideke/status/1666629199442968578) it's hard to campaign effectively against a guy while also constantly defending his many many incredibly blatant crimes
Seems like one obvious question to ask Trump's lawyers is, if their immunity argument stands and Biden determines it's his presidential duty to uphold section 3 of the 14th amendment by personally shooting Trump on the courthouse steps, would he also be immune from prosecution?
Politico used a public records request to get local police bodycam footage of the response to Harrison Floyd's altercation with the FBI agents trying to serve him a Jan 6 subpoena, revealing previously unknown contents of the subpoena
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/04/harrison-floyd-trump-bodycam-footage-jack-smith-00133933
"Aside from Trump, Scavino was the only other person with access to Trump's Twitter account" - Suggests that whatever they got out of the twitter warrant (https://mastodon.social/@reedmideke/110896688292382007) will be pretty definitively attributable to a specific person
Update: Judge Pan asked the obvious question (https://mastodon.social/@reedmideke/111693576014497281) and Trump's lawyers answered in the affirmative, as long as POTUS isn't convicted on impeachment. One might also note other Trump lawyers have argued that presidents cannot be impeached after their term is over, so inauguration day could get spicy…
Man how ridiculous if Willis blows up the entire case for this (yep, cops everywhere believe rules are for other people)
In which The Cheese risks big trouble over a little twitter alt (or more specifically, lying about it to various investigrators) https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/26/politics/kenneth-chesebro-secret-twitter-account-kfile/index.html
This is wild: Stefanie Lambert, attorney for overstock dot com CEO/election crank Patrick Byrne, represents him a hearing related to their apparent flagrant violation of a protective order in a suit Dominion filed against Byrne. After the hearing, she's arrested by U.S. Marshals on a Michigan bench warrant for failing to appear in state case where she's charged with illegally accessing voting machines
From Dominion's motion: "Lambert has a well-documented history of violating court orders and improperly accessing voting information, activities that have resulted in disciplinary referrals, an indictment, and an open bench warrant"
Byrne probably has trouble finding quality representation who will do anything other than tell him to settle, but having an open bench warrant in a related matter seems like it a red flag
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60120428/us-dominion-inc-v-byrne/#entry-75
Still kind of amazing the president of the United States enlisted utter crackpots like Powell, Byrne and Lindell to overturn the election for him, and large fraction of the country is convinced they should have won
Welcome to Findsoutville, John Eastman "In view of the circumstances surrounding Eastman’s misconduct and balancing the aggravation and mitigation, the court recommends that Eastman be disbarred" https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24521265-sbc-23-o-30029-decision-trial
"Giuliani made an expensive choice when he decided not to preserve and produce any meaningful relevant and responsive information during discovery" - The Alex Jones strategy working about as well for Rudy as it did for Jones https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/61642105/freeman-v-herring-networks-inc/?page=2#entry-159
Gateway Pundit joining Rudy and Jones in trying to escape via bankruptcy. Also kinda hilarious if a couple of underpaid front line Georgia election workers end up bankrupting the big name election disinfo players (and kinda sad that it comes down to them, but they should come out pretty well in the end) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/24/gateway-pundit-rightwing-website-bankruptcy
Other thing that stands out is how totally self inflicted it is. It was obvious very early on that attacks on Freeman and Moss were complete garbage, anyone with a shred of decency would have issued a retraction and apology and have been at minimal risk of being bankrupt through defamation claims (even if publishing them in the first place was negligent) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh nice "reporting suggests that among the indicted are Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Christina Bob, Boris Epshteyn, and Mike Roman… Trump is referred to in the indictment as “Unindicted Coconspirator 1”" https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/arizona-grand-jury-indicts-18-in-connection-with-fake-electors-scheme
Today's GOP in a nutshell: 'The charges against Bobb are notable because she was recently elevated to a senior position at the Republican National Committee focused on “election integrity.”' https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/24/arizona-election-indictments-giuliani-meadows-trump-00154241
Still not completely convinced the lawyers representing the chief rival of the current POTUS have fully thought through their argument that a sitting POTUS could be immune from prosecution for assassinating their rivals
DC bar Disciplinary Counsel not beating around the bush "Jeffrey Clark betrayed his oath to support the Constitution of the United States of America. He is not fit to be a member of the District of Columbia Bar" https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24628521-2024-04-29-disciplinary-counsels-proposed-findings-of-fact-and-conclusions-1
#Giuliani, trying to use bankruptcy to escape various verdicts against him "would stick to a $43,000-a-month budget, he said in court filings, roughly in line with the income he drew from his retirement accounts and Social Security… It did not take him long to blow his budget. In another bankruptcy filing, he said he actually spent nearly $120,000 in January"
Totally normal thing written about totally normal candidate "Trump was determined to hire Manafort, planning to hand him a substantial role at the convention because he appreciated the loyalty he had shown him even while in prison"
"The defense attorney insisted that Trump was not aware of the payment to Daniels by Michael Cohen, his onetime lawyer and fixer, and that Trump’s subsequent payments to Cohen were legitimate compensation for legal work"
Man, I can see path to convincing at least one juror he didn't commit the charged felony, but that seems like an extremely tough sell to anyone who isn't already all-in on Trump, and liable to backfire with anyone else
I mean, IANAL, but #2 and especially #3 seem a lot more susceptible to reasonable doubt than claiming the checks he personally signed to the guy who paid off the porn star were legit legal expenses ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://www.justsecurity.org/96153/trump-trial-closing-statements/
What to Expect in the Closings at the Trump Trial
Last week, both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases in former President Donald Trump’s New York trial for allegedly falsifying business records (FBR) in his effort “to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election,” in the words of Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan’s case summary. At closing arguments starting Tuesday morning, Trump’s defense […]
TBT: Donald "When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just seen them thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice'" https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-police-nice-suspects/story?id=48914504
Spare a thought for the jurors, for whom the shitshow will most likely continue for a very long time https://wapo.st/3wYShMk
A bunch of GOPers and Very Serious op-ed writers are about to spew a bunch of words about how terrible and abnormal it is to convict a former president, so here's your periodic reminder that it happens fairly regularly in other democracies https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/18/democracy-law-indictment-leaders-trump-bolsonaro-imran-khan/
D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility on Rudy "No prior disciplinary cases involving frivolous litigation are remotely comparable to this case. We conclude that disbarment is the only sanction that will protect the public, the courts, and the integrity of the legal profession"
In response to a story about Trump's long-standing pattern of doing things that look a whole lot like witness tampering: 'Trump’s attorney, David Warrington, sent ProPublica a cease-and-desist letter demanding this article not be published. The letter warned that if the outlet and its reporters “continue their reckless campaign of defamation, President Trump will evaluate all legal remedies”'
https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-criminal-cases-witnesses-financial-benefits
As #SLAPP threats go, "evaluate all legal remedies" is the kind of weaksauce you get when your lawyers have already explained that you'd lose and probably end up paying the other side's costs
In which Wisconsin indicts The Cheese https://abcnews.go.com/US/wisconsin-ag-charges-trump-attorney-kenneth-chesebro-fake/story?id=110816248
US bankruptcy judge Mindy Mora rules Gateway Pundit has to wait for Freeman, Moss and Dominion to actually bankrupt them before filing for bankruptcy: "There is no present financial distress, no looming foreclosure sale, no prospect of a market crash. There is only the State Court Litigation in which TGP must defend itself. That’s not a basis for bankruptcy relief; it’s the justice system in operation" 🥳
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/25/gateway-pundit-bankruptcy-filing
Hoft bragging about how he was using preemptive bankruptcy as a legal strategy probably didn't help his case (didn't work for Alex Jones either)
Giuliani's attempt at the "preemptive bankruptcy to get out of defamation liability" gambit also appears to be nearly kaput, having gained only a few months of delay and some substantial new debts
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rudy-giuliani-agrees-deal-end-bankruptcy-case-pay-112450071
Elite Strike Farce update: "Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Monday that Ellis agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and is willing to testify in court"
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/05/nx-s1-5064635/jenna-ellis-cooperation-agreement-in-arizona-fake-elector-case
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/05/nx-s1-5064635/jenna-ellis-cooperation-agreement-in-arizona-fake-elector-case
Former Mesa County (Colorado) Clerk / election denier Tina Peters reaches the find out phase: "convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state"
https://apnews.com/article/tina-peters-election-computer-breach-8a171657321dd595dfd2dd81e0a0a848
Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, one-time hero to election deniers, convicted in computer breach
Former Colorado clerk Tina Peters, the first local election official to be charged with a security breach after the 2020 election amid unfounded conspiracy theories, has been found guilty by a jury on most of the charges she faced. Jurors reached the verdict Monday. Peters was accused of using someone else’s security badge to give an expert affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell access to the system and deceiving others about his identity. Prosecutors say she was seeking fame and became “fixated” on alleged voting problems. Peters was acquitted on three charges related to using the security badge without the owner's permission.
Tina Peters gets 9 years, unhelped by being completely unrepentant and continuing to push conspiracy BS throughout her trail and after conviction https://apnews.com/article/tina-peters-colorado-clerk-election-vote-fraud-b456ce4f80dc97f4b967eb6297311a51
Tina Peters, former Colorado clerk, sentenced 9 years for voting scheme
A former Colorado county clerk has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for leading a scheme to breach voting system data in her county. Judge Matthew Barrett handed down the sentence Thursday after a jury found Tina Peters guilty of most charges against her in August. Peters was the first election official to be charged with a security breach amid the rampant false claims that widespread fraud altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. Peters was convicted for allowing a county security card to be misused to give a man access to the Mesa County election system and for deceiving other officials about that person’s identity.
After losing the preemptive bankruptcy gambit, Gateway Pundit settles with Freeman and Moss. Terms undisclosed, but the defamatory articles have been removed
(I predict it won't be long before Hoft publicly claims the stories were true)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/10/gateway-pundit-defamation-lawsuit-election-workers
Among the assets Freeman and Moss got from Giuliani today is the right to sue the 2020 Trump campaign and/or RNC for the $2 million Rudy dubiously claims he's owed (for "legal work" that may well include him going around defaming them)
Wonder if they'll try to collect? Seems like it could be a long expensive haul with unfriendly, minimally cooperative witnesses
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69015293/freeman-v-giuliani/#entry-62
Rudy tried to delay that until after the election, on the grounds that it might cause a media ruckus and tarnish his reputation with the MAGA faithful… which the judge duly noted was a tad hypocritical and denied
Flip them all@reedmideke “President Trump”??? And here I thought his current titile is #ConvictedFelon
@reedmideke Not a whisper about this ProPublica piece on ABC News this evening. Long stories about a shark attack, Pat Sajack, a momentary glitch on Wall Street… Our media is a shameful disgrace.