Tracking Trump's Criminal Liability Post-Presidency 5

https://www.mediaite.com/news/jack-smith-drops-bombshell-filing-promising-proof-...
Jack Smith Drops Bombshell Filing Promising Proof Of Trump ‘Encouragement of Violence’ — And Knowledge Of ‘Consequences’

https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in-trump-announces-hes-bailing-on-testifying-...
JUST IN: Trump Announces He’s Bailing on Testifying in NY Fraud Trial in Wild, All-Caps Truth Social Post

“AS EVERYONE KNOWS, I HAVE VERY SUCCESSFULLY & CONCLUSIVELY TESTIFIED IN THE CORRUPT, BIDEN DIRECTED, NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S RIGGED TRIAL AGAINST ME,” Trump wrote. “WORLD RENOWNED EXPERTS, HIGHLY RESPECTED BANK & INSURANCE EXECUTIVES, REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS, AS WELL AS OTHERS, BOTH HONEST & CREDIBLE, HAVE STATED, CLEARLY & UNEQUIVOCALLY, THAT I, & MY VERY SUCCESSFUL COMPANY, DID NOTHING WRONG!”

“A TOP PROFESSOR FROM NYU STERN SAID, ‘IF MR. TRUMP WERE MY STUDENT, HE WOULD GET AN ‘A’ ON HIS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS. IV’E NEVER SEEN A STATEMENT THAT PROVIDED SO MUCH DETAIL, & IS SO TRANSPARENT, AS THESE STATEMENTS,'” Trump wrote.

***
The $900k Trump witness said the square footage discrepancy was most likely an accounting error. I wonder if bookies had bets on if Trump would actually be appearing in court on Monday.

https://www.mediaite.com/crime/its-game-on-msnbc-panel-reacts-to-breaking-news-t...
‘It’s Game On’: MSNBC Panel Reacts to Breaking News That Supreme Court WILL Consider Jack Smith’s Petition in Trump Election Case

***
Jack Smith shot off a nuke today!

https://www.mediaite.com/news/jack-smith-drops-new-trump-bomb-expert-extracted-d...
Jack Smith Drops New Trump Bomb: Expert ‘Extracted Data’ From White House Phones During Riot — Including Trump’s Cell

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-hawking-pieces-of-the-suit-he-wore-for-his-...
Trump Hawking ‘Pieces’ of the Suit He Wore for His Mugshot and Trading Cards Depicting Him As a Swole Superhero

.....And that’s not all! If you buy more than $4,600 worth of digital cards — that’s 47 cards — you will get an actual physical one OR (maybe) a piece of the suit Trump wore during his Fulton County arrest (“Value: Priceless”) or even (perhaps) a private dinner at Mar-A-Lago! But prospective buyers of these aspirational trading cards should be aware that they may not even get them.....

https://www.rawstory.com/engoron-fire-evacuation/
Judge Engoron evacuated from court due to fire set hours after Trump testimony: report

Justice Arthur Engoron, the judicial official overseeing the civil fraud case in which Donald Trump has been found liable for fraud in real estate dealings, was reportedly evacuated from the court on Wednesday after a small fire was set in the court four hours after testimony wrapped.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/breaking-scotus-rejects-jack-smiths-request-to-hea...

SCOTUS Rejects Jack Smith’s Request to Hear Trump’s Immunity Claim Immediately

***
Trump's conservative rats on the court are most likely praying that ALL of the trials end up being hung so they will never have to show the country their true MAGA colors.

Top Trumps: the 10 worst things the former president said this year (Guardian)

Includes hate speech, incitement to violence, threats, attacks on democracy and due process, etc.

Marshall Cohen {CNN} @MarshallCohen | 4:25 PM · Dec 28, 2023:

EXCLUSIVE: Recordings and emails obtained by CNN show how Trump campaign operatives realized the fake elector certificates from MI & WI were stuck in the mail, and how they scrambled to fly them to DC in time for Jan. 6. w/ @ZcohenCNN @kpolantz @jeremyherb

https://cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics/recordings-trump-team-fake-elector-ballots/i...

4:52 ( https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/status/1740484021681803672 )

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/09/trumps-immunity-claim-gets-frosty-recep...
Trump’s immunity claim gets frosty reception at appeals court

With Trump looking on, the three judges expressed deep skepticism of his contention that a president could not be prosecuted — even for assassinating a rival or selling military secrets — if he were not first impeached and convicted by Congress.

During Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted over an hour, the three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seemed inclined to uphold Chutkan’s ruling — but the precise reasoning they might use, and how quickly they might rule, remained unclear.

>10 Molly3028: And as this article comments on, Republicans need to say if they agree with that argument as doing so means Biden could have Trump killed with no prosecution unless impeached.

https://www.rawstory.com/michael-steele-trump-biden-question/?cx_testId=6&cx...

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/breaking-trump-ordered-to-pay-the-new-york-times-...
BREAKING: Trump Ordered to Pay The New York Times Hundreds of Thousands Over ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuit

A New York state judge ordered former President Donald Trump to pay The New York Times a six-figure legal fee over a now-dismissed lawsuit he brought against the paper.

Trump faces another loss at court with a $392,638.69 fine to pay for the journalists’ legal fees, according to Time’s reporter Susanne Craig, who slammed the lawsuit in which she was included as “frivolous.”

Has Donald Trump paid any of his court-ordered fines over the past few years? Because he has a reputation for skirting payments, I believe it should be news whenever anyone manages to get the money due from him. I don't see that mentioned in updates, so I don't know if he's getting away with ignoring fines after fines after fines or if someone is actually paying up.

Edit: Yes, he has! Surprise.

"Trump pays $15,000 in gag order fines" says ABC News (Oct 27) | paid to the New York Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection
https://abcnews.go.com/US/live-updates/trump-fraud-trial/trump-pays-15000-in-gag...

That doesn't address the millions owed for other cases with rulings.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in-trump-defamation-trial-judge-warns-alina-h...
JUST IN: Trump Defamation Trial Judge Warns Alina Habba She’s ‘On The Verge’ Of Spending Time in ‘Lock Up’

Closing statement issue ~

Trump’s lawyers try to use slides of tweets that weren’t entered into evidence and Carroll objects.
Judge: You’re not showing the slide.
Habba: But, your Honor…
Judge: Sit down. You are on the verge of spending some time in the lock up.

and

Trump stormed out of the courtroom when E. Jean's lawyer was giving her closing statement.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/breaking-jury-slaps-trump-with-83-1-million-in-dam...
BREAKING: Jury Slaps Trump with $83.3 Million in Damages for Defaming E. Jean Carroll

Those damages were comprised of $7.3 million in compensatory damages, $11 million in “reputational repair,” and $65 million in punitive damages.

AND

The NY fraud trial judge is due to come out with his $ amount judgement against Trump the middle of next week.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/rudy-giuliani-defa...
Rudy Giuliani targets Donald Trump for ‘unpaid legal fees’ in new bankruptcy filing

Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani has listed a claim against the one-term president over unpaid legal fees in a new bankruptcy filing.

The ex-New York City mayor includes a “possible claim for unpaid legal fees against Donald J Trump.” in the 26 January filing, which states that the amount is “undetermined.”

***
Rudy has added his name to the growing list of people and entities who are suing Trump.

AND

In a TV interview on Friday night, Rudy said that Trump assaulted E. Jean, but he did not rape her.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-48-million-loan-tax-evasion-special...
Special monitor suggests Trump falsified disclosures over $48 million loan in what could be tax evasion, report says

The letter, first reported by The Messenger, was delivered Friday to update Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron on Jones' findings while reviewing the former president's business dealings through his company, the Trump Organization.

Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto | 10:07 AM · Feb 6, 2024:
CNN Anchor & Chief Nat Sec Analys

Breaking: Trump does not have immunity from prosecution for 2020 election reversal gambits, federal appeals court rules. {unanimously}

For the purpose of this criminal case, former Pres Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.”
------------------------------------------

Kyle Griffin {MSNBC} @kylegriffin1 | 10:40 AM · Feb 6, 2024:

The D.C. Circuit: "It would be a striking paradox if the President, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity.

"We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results. Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and to have their votes count."

>18 margd:

Perfect timing!

Maybe this will move the needle towards the passing of the major bill that has been worked on by the non-MAGAs in Congress.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/huge-win-for-jack-smith-cnns-elie-honig-says-scot...

‘Huge Win for Jack Smith!’ CNN’s Elie Honig Says SCOTUS May Not Even Take Up Presidential Immunity Case After DC Court ‘Forcefully Rejected’ Trump’s Argument

***
The Trump fever may finally be breaking!

>20 Molly3028: I guess that's good but it would be nice if some of these cases would get going before the November election.

A side note but in the latest television ratings more people are watching the Hallmark Channel these days than CNN which just goes to show how terrible 24-7 news channels are. For me Fox is the worst but Fox has always had the most loyal viewers. CNN and MSNBC though are also really really bad.

Re: SCOTUS hearing

The Trump era has produced a massive multi-faceted test that will determine just how strong America's democracy actually is as we approach its 250th birthday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna137694
Trump seeks Supreme Court intervention in election subversion case

Former President Donald Trump is turning to the justices in a last-ditch effort to prevent his prosecution in the federal election interference case from moving closer to trial.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-melts-down-after-being-ordered-to-pay-354-m...
Trump Melts Down After Being Ordered to Pay $354 Million: ‘Total SHAM’

***
Recent judgements ~
$5m / $83m / $354m
$4m, Jr. / $4m, Eric

Keep this up. You are doing great work getting this information out there. Bravo!

> 24

After including interest, that 354 million figure is actually 463.9 million. Interest is increasing at a rate of one million dollars per week. The total amount owed by tRump himself is, of now, over 550 million dollars. Lawsuits from police officers injured during the Jan. 6 insurrection could soon add hundreds of million dollars more (this would include, of course, lawsuits from the estates of deceased officers).

Unintended consequences ~

At the present time, Trump and his fraud defenders are reminding Americans about the sewer-like qualities of the high-end real estate industry in the U.S.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/21/trump-faces-obstacles-to-securing-an-appeal-bond...
‘Who’s going to do that?’: Trump faces hurdles in securing appeal bond for fraud case

***
Surety bond agencies appear to be more careful about who they do business with than the banks which handed Trump multi-millions on a silver platter.

The Shark Tank loon and the billionaire couple who started the GOFUNDME Trump site should be the ones forking over the moolah to the orange dud.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/new-york-attorney-general-warns-court-trump-doesn...
New York Attorney General Warns Court Trump Doesn’t Have Enough Cash to Pay Fraud Penalty

On Wednesday, Trump asked the appeals court to hold the enforcement of the penalties by offering to post a $100 million bond until the full appeals process is completed.

James responded to Trump’s efforts to pause enforcement of the penalty by claiming he does not have enough liquid cash on hand in a letter to the appeals court.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-denied-request-to-pause-454-million-new-yor...
Trump Denied Request to Pause $454 Million New York Fraud Verdict

Associate Justice Anil Singh ruled Wednesday that Trump could not post $100 million bond while the appeals process is completed, according to Reuters. By granting Trump a bond, a bonding company would be financially liable for any payout if Trump loses his appeal and is unable to pay.

However, Singh did grant part of Trump’s request for a stay on the penalty barring him from running a corporation based in New York and applying for loans from a New York bank for three years.

>28 Molly3028: One reason why fellow billionaires aren't stepping up to help out their bro is that they would have a substantial gift tax amount if simply donated, and they also KNOW Donnie wouldn't repay them if it was a loan.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4477031-supreme-court-agrees-to-wei...
Supreme Court agrees to weigh Trump’s criminal immunity in historic case

April 22 is the argument day!

***
Is it going to take too long to have a trial go ahead before election day???

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trumps-truth-social-payday-hits-road-bump-as-co-fo...
Trump’s Truth Social Payday Hits Road Bump As Co-Founders Sue Ex-President

Former President Donald Trump’s much-needed, potential $3 billion payday from his Truth Social platform hit another snag this week as his co-founders sued him for allegedly scheming to diminish their stake in the company.

Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss sued Trump on Wednesday claiming he was part of a scheme “to deprive them of a stake in the company that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” reported the Washington Post.

***
That sure sounds like a scam the life-long con would hatch to scr*w with his clueless business partners.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2024/03/01/trump-has-one-week-to-pay-8...
Trump Has One Week To Pay $83.3 Million To E. Jean Carroll—And She’s Expressing ‘Very Serious Concerns’

Trump intends to appeal the judgment, but will still have to either pay the money into a court-controlled account or post an appeals bond guaranteeing his ability to pay.

https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-now-owes-1m-more-in-interest-on-ny-...
Think your interest costs are high? Donald Trump now owes $1M more in interest on his NY fraud trial judgment.

Under last month's fraud trial judgment, Trump's debt to NY rises by $111,984 in interest per day. That means every 9 days, he owes the state another $1M.

***
Trump appears to be having a problem hooking up with a bonding entity! Apparently, three weeks remain in the 30-day countdown.

>1 Molly3028: I thought this was a site for books and bookslovers, not a woke forum. anyway, as a Dutch guy I 'll be glad if senile Biden is gone together with his dems and Trump will be back :D

I wonder how many clueless, money-strapped MAGAs are giving money to the BILLIONAIRE grifter this year. Sadly, they continue to wonder why they are always behind the “8” ball in the game of life.

>37 annus_sanctus: Go away, Holy Anus. You bore us.

>37 annus_sanctus:

I think if you've been reading these forums you'll notice that many of the posters wish that Biden was gone, but they want him to be replaced with someone better, not someone who has openly threatened to act as a dictator and dismantle due process and the rule of law.

Your incorrect and pejorative use of the word "woke" prompts me to repost some recent words of a British Anglican bishop:

‘Woke’ should not be used as a negative, warns C of E’s first black female bishop (Guardian)

“Woke” should not be used as a negative term, the Church of England’s first black female bishop has said, in a stinging rebuke against government ministers and others “who are threatened” by the social justice movement. Such people want others to think it was a “sin created by the left”, the Right Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the bishop of Dover, told the C of E’s ruling assembly, the General Synod... “When it comes to the topic of racial justice, I have heard the word ‘woke’ being bandied about by many people, including government ministers, certain radio presenters and those in the media. And in every case, they’ve used it incorrectly. “The term woke originated in the USA and it was a black terminology, speaking specifically and directly to black people regarding the need to wake up and stay alert, to be consciously aware. So it is not just a mere word, it is a movement. “Those who are threatened by the authenticity of this movement want to scare us into thinking that being woke is a sin created by people on the left... So I want to address the elephant in the room … in case there is anybody nurturing those incorrect thoughts and mumbling under one’s breath or to your neighbour, ‘here we go again’, negatively using the term woke"...

But I would agree with you that posts by some anti-Trump members read more like campaign slogans than the sort of reasoned conversations one might expect on a book forum, almost as bad as some of the posts by right wing members.

Marc E. Elias @marceelias | 9:23 PM · Mar 3, 2024:
Founder @DemocracyDocket. Chair @EliasLawGroup...Washington, DC...

In a city of 700,000, Donald Trump got 676 votes in the GOP primary. A tough jury pool....
Image news tally ( https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1764476691622084667/photo/1 )

{Trump. Putin. lists of informants. informants captured/murdered...}

https://twitter.com/TeahCartel/status/1764327877300883635/photo/1

>43 margd: Holy Hell!! Can we verify this story yet?

I seem to recall the 2019-2021 stuff. Also, some Saudi stuff. Will keep eye out for them.

I expect we will hear more about the kinds of documents at MAL, but seem to recall that Putin was not pleased when FBI seized them.

I'm curious what's in ex-wife Ivana's casket, which took some burly men to carry it in to final resting place in NJ golf course. The grass isn't being mowed last photo I saw--she, if her ashes are in there--is truly buried in the rough. Donald mightn't care, but surely her three children would?) I hope and trust that FBI is monitoring the gravesite for activity--Donald, Ruzzians, and others.

Hungary's Orban just visited Trump at MAL. Hope not errand-boy for Putin...

Usually each party's Presidential nominee is given security briefings. It was a courtesy Trump did not extended to Biden even after his election. A courtesy not a requirement: hope anything that Trump, if R nominee, gets has no details beyond publicly available.

That boy's needing money...

Anyway that's the scuttlebutt I'm reading. Some conspiracy, no doubt, but amazed if allies, etc., will want to share anything Trump will see...

boricuabc @boricuabc2 | 7:54 AM · Mar 3, 2024:

Eyes open everyone. This week Victor Orban is visiting Trump in MAR. If suddenly there after (1-2 days) Trump magically is able to post his bonds to appeal his cases, you will know where the money came from.

>43 margd: I'm not sure who wants to go to Twitter to read political news, especially in the same week of news about the company leaking IP adressses.

Is the link covering connections mentioned by TIME?

"How Putin Co-Opted the Republican Party" | The D.C. Brief
https://time.com/6757904/trump-russia-republican-party/

https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in-trump-coughs-up-massive-91-million-plus-bo...
JUST IN: Trump Coughs Up Massive $91 Million-Plus Bond For E. Jean Carroll Appeal

$91.6m

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tried-to-move-assets-to-florida-ny-attorne...
Trump tried to move assets to Florida, NY officials complain in fraud-judgment filing

He recently tried to change the addresses for major assets from NY to Florida.

>49 Molly3028: Of course he did.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/breaking-trump-says-paying-465-million-fraud-bond...
BREAKING: Trump Says Paying $465 Million Fraud Bond is a ‘Practical Impossibility’ in New Court Filing

The filing explains that Trump is having difficulty finding any company underwrite a bond of this size, with his lawyers stating, “The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude.”

The bonding companies won't accept real-estate as collateral.

***
Where are all of Trump's billionaire buddies who give him their best wishes and $$$ for his prez run on a regular basis???

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/ex-trump-ally-omarosa-claims-former-boss-is-pa...
Ex-Trump Ally Omarosa Claims Former Boss Is ‘Particularly Angry’ an ‘African American Woman’ Is Holding Him Accountable

Anytime Donald is being held accountable for his bad behavior, he is going to be unhappy, but he is particularly angry about the fact that he is being held accountable, not just by a woman, but by an African American woman,” Omarosa said, referring to the James case where Trump revealed in a court filing that he cannot secure a bond for a $464 million civil fraud judgement.

AND

Omarosa theorized on Monday that Trump’s recent controversial “bloodbath” comment that’s led to another feud between him and much of the media was a purposeful distraction to steal headlines away from the fact that he cannot secure a bond.

If Trump were anyone else in the court system, a psych eval would already be underway!

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/just-in-ex-trump-election-lawyer-john-eastman-...
JUST IN: Ex-Trump Election Lawyer John Eastman Has Been Disbarred

John Eastman, the former Donald Trump election lawyer behind the so-called “fake electors” scheme, was officially disbarred by the state of California on Tuesday.

>54 Molly3028: Finally some consequences.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/jack-smith-confronts-trump-appointed-judge-in-blis...
Jack Smith Confronts Trump-Appointed Judge In Blistering New Filing Threatening ‘Appellate Action’ Over Jury Order

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-appointed-judge-shoots-down-trumps-bid-to-di...
Trump-Appointed Judge Shoots Down Trump’s Bid to Dismiss Classified Docs Case

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, rejected a motion from Trump’s legal team that argued the former president had the authority to take classified documents with him to Mar-A-Lago after he left office in 2021, citing the Presidential Records Act. However, according to CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Tierney Sneed, and Katelyn Polantz, the order left open the possibility that Trump can still use the PRA as an argument in his case.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/judge-rejects-trumps-motion-to-dismiss-georgia-cas...
Judge Rejects Trump’s Motion to Dismiss Georgia Case on Free Speech Grounds

https://www.mediaite.com/news/two-maga-congressmen-subpoenaed-in-trump-fake-elec...
Two MAGA Congressmen Subpoenaed in Trump Fake Electors Probe

Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar of Arizona received subpoenas as part of a probe into a scheme that attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state, according to a Politico report published Thursday.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-bond-2667696958/
Letitia James demands proof that company that posted Trump's bond is 'financially sound'

***
GO Letitia!

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-bond-sponsorhearing/
Judge schedules a hearing to find out if Trump's bond sponsor is properly backed

Judge Arthur Engoron responded to a brief filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James asking for financial information that can confirm the company that insured Donald Trump's bond was solvent.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-national-golf-club-at-epicenter-of-4-8-magn...
Trump National Golf Club At Epicenter Of 4.8 Magnitude New Jersey Earthquake

>62 Molly3028: that's religious liability, arguably. I doubt he can be sued for a geological event.

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-threatens-reaction-to-pending-sham-trial-fu...
Trump Threatens Reaction to Pending ‘SHAM Trial’ in Fundraising Email: ’72 Hours Until All Hell Breaks Loose!’

https://www.mediaite.com/news/cnns-kaitlan-collins-breaks-bombshell-news-trump-l...
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Breaks Bombshell News Trump Lawyer Evan Corcoran Leaves Team Trump — ‘Major Witness’ In Docs Case

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/14/trump-hush-money-trial-witnesses-001518...
A porn star, a president and a publisher named Pecker: The key potential witnesses at Trump’s criminal trial

***
Blue collar MAGAs envy Trump!

IMHO it appears that the Trump saga may end up being an OJ saga on steroids.

I heard the old man fell asleep in the courtroom during today's jury selection for his first criminal trial.

He Donald Trump is astoundingly like a toddler.

I guess it doesn't matter to him who is on the jury or what's said to them. He'll cry it's unfair no matter what happens.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/just-in-david-pecker-reportedly-set-to-be-the-firs...
JUST IN: David Pecker Reportedly Set to Be the First Witness in Trump Hush Money Trial

The Times is reporting that David Pecker — the former National Enquirer publisher whose tabloid engaged in so-called “catch and kill” practices to bury negative stories about Trump — will be first to take the stand after opening arguments are presented.

>68 aspirit: So, his falling asleep at random intervals could be a sign of advancing old age catching him up, sure. Or it could be that he's just showing how very anti-woke he is.

4D chess!

>70 kiparsky: :crying:

By the way, the jury selection was faster than expected. The defendant's naps must have kept him quiet long enough for everyone working in the court could do their jobs.

A grand jury has indicted 11 "fake electors"—Republicans who in 2020 falsely declared Trump won the election for the state.

Joe Biden had actually won in Arizona by more than ten thousand votes.

The defendants include the former chair of the Arizona Republican Party, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state legislators. The grand jury indictment also describes an unindicted co-conspirator who is clearly {Donald} Trump.

Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Wisconsin have already indicted fake electors who tried to steal their state elections for Trump. Republican politicians in Pennsylvnia and New Mexico were also part of the conspiracy to steal the presidential election; however, those states have not filed charges.

Trump has previously been accused in court documents for organizing the fake elector scheme while he was still in office. A federal court indicted him last August for it.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/arizona-fake-electors-charges-2020-election-9da5a7e58...

In addition, Michigan today named Trump a coconspirator in the fake elector scheme!

Source: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/24/donald-trump-unindict...

This week is packed with Trump trial news.

Associated Press said:

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments this week with profound legal and political consequences: whether former President Donald Trump is immune from prosecution in a federal case charging him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In addition to establishing a potentially historic ruling about the scope of presidential power, the court’s decision — whenever it comes — will undoubtedly go a long way in determining a trial date for Trump in one of the four criminal prosecutions that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee faces.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/trump-trial-jan-6-supreme-court-immunity-jack-smith-9...

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/just-in-donald-trump-loses-attempt-to-overturn-80...
JUST IN: Donald Trump Loses Attempt to Overturn $80 Million Verdict in E. Jean Carroll Case

***
AMEN

The SCOTUS members appear to be in a continue-to-delay-everything frame of mind. Trump and his enablers will most likely be popping champagne corks far into the night!

Presidential immunity arguments heard by US Supreme Court:

Liz Cheney @Liz_Cheney | 6:31 AM · Apr 26, 2024:

POTUS has no official role in the 1/6 count. When a candidate pressures/threatens the President of the Senate (Pence), pressures and lobbies state legislatures & members of Congress, and oversees a fraudulent elector scheme, his acts are private. And plotting to appoint an AG in a quid pro quo for help on 1/6 parallels CJ Roberts’ bribery hypo.

Trump told SCOTUS in his 12/9/20 brief that he was filing in his “personal capacity as a candidate.” The Court need not resolve more difficult immunity Qs not at issue here. Rule quickly and decisively.
---------------------------------

Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ {Harvard Law} tribelaw | 5:35 PM · Apr 25, 2024

Today’s SCOTUS argument was more like a hearing in Congress to design an immunity law for future presidents, with Justice Kavanaugh saying “We’re not taking about the present case” and Justice Gorsuch saying “We’re writing rules for the ages” and Justice Alito joining in (cont’d)

Only Justice Jackson reminded her colleagues that deciding this case was the Court’s task and that it might not be cool to use it as a vehicle for “answering in advance all these abstract questions”!

So much for the idea of each branch staying in its constitutional lane!
...................................

Then Chief Justice Burger, no liberal, wrote in the 5-4 Nixon v Fitzgerald case on which Trump’s lawyers relied in SCOTUS today that no claim of immunity for crimes committed by a former president while in office would “be credible.” He was right.

The justices who were eager to invent a sphere of such immunity today weren’t deterred by such precedent or by logic. They’re shameless.
----------------------------------------

@judgeluttig @judgeluttig | 1:04 PM · Apr 25, 2024:
{J. Michael Luttig is a conservative former appeals court judge, testified to Jan 6 committee}
https://twitter.com/judgeluttig/status/1783542500545745258
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1783542480069185587.html

As with the three-hour argument in Trump v. Anderson, a disconcertingly precious little of the two-hour argument today was even devoted to the specific and only question presented for decision.
The Court and the parties discussed everything but the specific question presented.

That question is simply whether a former President of the United States may be prosecuted for attempting to remain in power notwithstanding the election of his successor by the American People.
thereby also depriving his lawfully elected successor of the powers of the presidency to which that successor became entitled upon his rightful election by the American People -- and preventing the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.

It is not even arguably a core power or function of the President of the United States to ensure the fairness, accuracy, and integrity of a presidential election.

Let alone is it a core power or function of the President of the United States to ensure the proper certification of the next president by the Congress of the United States. Neither of these is a power or function of the president at all.

In fact, the Framers of the Constitution well understood the enormous potential for self-interested conflict were the President to have a role in these fundamental constitutional functions.

Consequently, they purposely and pointedly withheld from the President any role in these fundamental constitutional functions.
To whatever extent the Framers implicitly provided in the Executive any role whatsoever in these fundamental constitutional functions, it was a limited role for the Executive Branch,
through the Department of Justice, to inquire into allegations of fraud in presidential elections and ensure that the election was free, fair, and accurate.

The former president’s Department of Justice did just that and found that there was no fraud sufficient to draw into question the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The former president of course has refused to this day to accept that finding by not only his own Department of Justice, but also countless others of his closest advisors.

Whether undertaken in his or her “official,” “candidate,” or “personal” capacity, a President of the United States has never been and can never be immune from prosecution (after leaving office),
for having attempted to remain in power notwithstanding the election of that President’s successor by the American People.

Consequently, there is no reason whatsoever for the Supreme Court to remand to the lower courts for a determination of which of the alleged criminal acts might have been personal and which might have been official.

Neither is a clear statement from Congress that a president is subject to prosecution under the statutes with which the former president has been charged necessary in this particular case.

As applied to the former president for the criminal conduct with which he has been charged, there can be no question but that Congress intended a President of the United States to come within the ambit of the statutory offenses with which he has been charged.

For the same reason, it would be ludicrous to contend that the former president was not on sufficient notice that if he committed the criminal acts charged, he would be subject to criminal prosecution by the United States of America.

To hold otherwise would make a mockery out of the “plain statement” rule.
_______________________________

margd: No questions that I heard from Justice Thomas. Given his wife Ginny's support for post-election shenanigans leading up to Jan 6, how the heck can he not recuse himself from hearing this case??

Several justices served in presidential administrations, including Kavanaugh, who also worked for independent counsel Ken Starr in prosecuting the Clinton sex scandal (https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/20/politics/kavanaugh-clinton-starr-lewinsky-memo/index.html) ...

Having taken this case, how can Supreme Court avoid taking another hit to its credibility?? Only by declaring no man is above the law?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/shocker-top-conservative-judge-trump-100000802.html
Shocker From Top Conservative Judge: Trump Likely To Skate Completely

(J. Michael) Luttig’s fear that Trump may very well skate centers on the lines of questioning from the court’s right-wing majority about Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing prosecution of Trump. As many observers noted, those justices appeared largely uninterested in the question before them—whether Trump’s alleged crimes related to the insurrection constituted official presidential acts that are immune from prosecution after leaving office.

***
Unfortunately, The Founders never envisioned a Trump-like con character gaining the presidency and present-day SCOTUS members lacking moral compasses sitting in judgement of his actions.

Team Trump Is Ready to Lose the Supreme Court Immunity Case. They’re Celebrating
Adam Rawnsley, Asawin Suebsaeng | April 24, 2024

...Three people with direct knowledge of the matter tell Rolling Stone that many of the former president’s lawyers and political advisers have already accepted that the justices will likely rule against him, and reject his claims to expansive presidential immunity in perpetuity. Bringing the case before the court — after a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., shut down their arguments on executive power — was a delaying tactic designed to push Trump’s criminal election subversion trial past Election Day this fall. The strategy paid off so much more than MAGAworld anticipated.

“We already pulled off the heist,” says a source close to Trump, noting it doesn’t matter to them what the Supreme Court decides now...

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-celebrating-suprem...

Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ {Harvard law Emeritus} tribelaw | 8:06 AM · Apr 28, 2024 (X):

Trump’s lawyer “acknowledged under questioning by Justice Barrett that some of the allegations against Trump do not involve official acts but private ones, so the prosecution could move ahead {immediately} with those charges and not others. But that wouldn’t necessarily delay the trial sufficiently for Trump’s purposes.” So Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch & Kavanaugh would surely reject that path. But if both Barrett and Roberts care more about preserving the Constitution and the Rule of Law than about protecting Trump, they could still save the day and the republic by joining Jackson, Kagan & Sotomayor in deciding NOW the purely legal question of which acts can’t be charged in a slimmed-down indictment and quickly lifting the stay of trial proceedings in Chutkan’s court.
https://theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/04/trump-presidential-inmunity-sup...

MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch | 4:10 PM · Apr 29, 2024 {X}:

Judge Luttig issued a dire warning to the Supreme Court on the heels of their decision over Trump’s immunity claims. What the esteemed conservative former judge says in this interview is so important.
----------------------------------------

Judge Luttig Issues DIRE WARNING to Supreme Court over Trump Immunity (40:29)
Meidas Touch | Apr 29, 2024

In a special Legal AF no holds barred exclusive interview, conservative constitutional scholar former appellate Judge J Michael Luttig joins Michael Popok again to explain why he is so disheartened with the Supreme Court oral argument on whether Trump should be granted immunity from criminal prosecution, and why it could lead to it “cutting the heart out of” and “unsouling” of our constitutional democracy.
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1785038889369162132
Transcript & video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzI56VHA92k )

https://www.mediaite.com/crime/breaking-judge-aileen-cannon-postpones-trumps-doc...
BREAKING: Judge Aileen Cannon Postpones Trump’s Documents Trial Indefinitely

The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture—before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and Classified Information Procedures Act issues remaining and forthcoming—would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court. critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury.’ The Court therefore vacates the current May 20, 2024, trial date (and associated calendar call), to be reset by separate order following resolution of the matters before the Court, consistent with Defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice.

***
Being in way over her head gave her the opportunity to do exactly what Trump was hoping would happen when she was assigned the case. Why did the judge decide to do this on Stormy's day in court???

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/liz-cheney-brutally-mocks-mike-johnson-joining...
Liz Cheney Brutally Mocks Mike Johnson Joining The ‘I Cheated On My Wife With a Porn Star’ Fan Club

Have to admit I’m surprised that @SpeakerJohnson wants to be in the “I cheated on my wife with a porn star” club. I guess he’s not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all.

Democrats probe Trump’s request for campaign cash from Big Oil

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4662616-raskin-democrats-probe-tru...

In light of a separate Politico report that said the oil industry was writing executive orders for the former president to sign, Raskin also wrote that companies “may have already accepted or facilitated Mr. Trump’s explicit corrupt bargain.”

>84 2wonderY: Look for gas prices to increase before the election...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/this-was-a-disaster-former-trump-attorney-blasts-tru...
‘This Was a DISASTER!’ Former Trump Attorney Blasts Trump for Insisting Bob Costello Take the Stand

“The lawyers have to run the show,” Brennan said about reports that Trump insisted his lawyers put Costello on the stand. “The client — I don’t care if the client is the former president of the United States, the lawyers have the client talk about pleading guilty and pleading not guilty, testifying or not. That’s fine. And maybe some input on waiver trial versus jury trial. That’s it.”

***
Costello was the one, and only, defense witness. He highlighted all that is wrong with Trump world during his brief appearance in court.

Trump's attorneys found classified docs in his bedroom months after raid
Sareen Habeshian | 5/21/2024

Former President Trump's attorneys found classified documents in his bedroom four months after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, per court documents unsealed Tuesday...

...June (2023)...the DOJ said ... that the boxes, stored everywhere from a shower to a business center, held hundreds of classified documents that, if exposed, could threaten U.S. national security, foreign relations, and the safety of the military...

Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/21/trumps-classified-documents-bedroom-mar-a-lago

Heard just now on MSNBC, Trump is guilty on all 34 counts in the New York case.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-verdict-hush-money-tr...

Interesting torrent of pro-Trump comments versus how many people liked the post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C7m2y5zyr8v/?igsh=aWZrNnR5MnptMG84

The next question is what the sentence is going to be or whether he can continue his presidential run. On the second part of that I would think maybe not or hopefully not. I've heard already that they might not imprison him---because of his age.....which is like WTF! Laws are made for us not the elites is pretty much how I would read that if Donald gets off scot free from a bunch of felony convictions. I wouldn't be shocked though. He's going to appeal and how that affects things is another question. I was attracted by a Breaking Points caption today on YouTube--US "DYING EMPIRE Led By Bad People" say young voters----which pretty much says it all and speaks to this again.

The aftermath of this year's events ~

The GOP (the former law & order/family values party)

Donald J. Trump (45) ~ E. Jean Carroll ~ Stormy Daniels

are ALL going to be ETERNALLY linked together!

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/dow-gains-nearly-600-points-after-fox-business-guest...
Dow Gains Nearly 600 Points After Fox Business Guest Predicted ‘Crash’ After Trump Conviction

Trump's former lawyer with the baseball name Mr. Cobb says the founding fathers would be 'stunned and weeping' by the verdict found against Mr. Trump the former and perhaps future leader of this country. It just strikes me odd the reverence that we have for the so-called founding fathers as if they weren't capable of petty jealousy or ambition or even criminality themselves. These are things that are very human and these people from the past were themselves very human too as would be Jesus and his apostles or anyone else who ever walked upright and breathed air since our switchover from ape to human being. In any case Mr. Trump is not our first criminal POTUS.....an argument could be made against any number of them but we could also say Richard Nixon was a close second to Trump. If charges against him had been pursued he probably would have been found guilty too.

Half the world bars convicted felons from entry, but there's always Russia and Saudi Arabia? Farfetched, but can you imagine a felonious President Trump ignoring other countries' laws and being thrown into, say, a Chinese labor camp (tariffs)? Iranian prison (broken treaty)? Kenyan jail (insults to Africa?), Canadian / Mexican jails (NAFTA negotiations), a Turkish prison? Would the US bail him out? Would the US let him back in the country?? (Yes? 'coz he's a citizen?) UK's Scotland would deport him if he tried to visit his golf course, I bet?

Countries that bar convicted felons from entry:
—Argentina
—Australia
—Brazil
—Cambodia
—Canada
—Chile
—China
—Cuba
—Dominican Republic
—Egypt
—Ethiopia
—Hong Kong
—India
—Indonesia
—Iran
—Ireland
—Israel
—Japan
—Kenya
—Macau
—Malaysia
—Mexico
—Morocco
—Nepal
—New Zealand
—Peru
—The Phillipines
—Singapore
—South Africa
—South Korea
—Taiwan
—Tanzania
—Tunisia
—Turkey
—The Ukraine
—The UAE
—The United Kingdom
—The United States

Thankfully, a POTUS would never need to visit any of these places
So…

1. The guy who constantly implemented restrictions on which countries people could travel to the U.S. from—based mostly on his own bigotry and business interests—is now banned from traveling to nearly half the planet

2. He’s banned from his own golf courses in Scotland 🤣

- Andrew—Author of America Rises On Substack @AmoneyResists | 2:33 PM · May 31, 2024 {X}:
Pro-Democracy. Anti-Fascism. Gay AF. The GOP is a fascist Nazi cult.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1796607329204396210.html

>93 margd: My guess though would be that many if not most of the above will make an exception in his case if he wins back the Presidency. The United States is just too powerful of a world actor.

>94 lriley:
Do you really consider that the rest of the world does not now view USA as a laughing stock?

Trump has dragged US politics lower than any tin-pot dictatorship on the world stage.

>95 Novak: Not necessarily. When some world leaders or media entities use to poke fun at Trump---the weight of US power still backed them off from not taking him seriously. FWIW most of them aren't exactly prizes either. I think a lot of people around the world see the US as a dangerous bullying.....and not just with Trump at the helm though he definitely has been the worst. He's also an encouragement to right wing movements which sometimes have been able to take and/or consolidate power mirroring what's happened here. I also think we've kind of lost the Global South not just because of Trump's 4 years but the Biden administration hypocrisy has not helped that either.

As Trump faces criminal charges, here are 27 people he's previously said should be indicted or jailed
Mike Levine | June 29, 2023

From Clinton to Biden, Trump has said numerous foes should be behind bars. ... Not one of them has been charged with any crimes.

... In one of his final attacks on Clinton before winning the White House in 2016, Trump repeatedly warned that a president under felony indictment would "be a mess for many years to come" -- it would trigger "an unprecedented unconstitutional crisis" and "cripple the operations of our government," he said.

"Nothing will get done. Government will grind to a halt, and our country will continue to suffer," Trump declared in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Oct. 31, 2016, a week before the election.

At the time, Trump suggested that Clinton would soon face indictment for a slew of supposed crimes. She "shouldn't be allowed to run" in the first place due to her alleged crimes, he told supporters.

Clinton was never charged with any crimes...

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/trump-faces-criminal-charges-27-people-previously-...
________________________________

Liam Nissan™ @theliamnissan | 10:21 AM · Jun 1, 2024:
I remember when Kyle Rittenhouse was found "not guilty" the MAGAts told us to trust and accept the verdict. Now it's time to follow your own advice you dumb f*cking yokels

>97 margd: FWIW after his conviction the other day Trump said it shouldn't happen to anyone who has ever been POTUS. Why not if they committed a crime? Well I guess because.....But anyway he's never been careful about what he says and he won't remember later on if he ever gets back into power. To me the last several POTUS's have in some way or other weaponized or sought to weaponize the Justice Dept.......maybe none as much as Donald has though. If he gets back in again I expect he's going to go to greater lengths. Still when you see congress seeking to shut down first amendment rights on college campuses for instance......when you see cops out in the street beating on and arresting most of the time peaceful protesters shutting down dissent almost seems to be a group project of both major parties. No doubt that those with political power don't feel obliged to listen to or act on the concerns of the majority of voters in this country and the louder the voters get the more they feel under threat but it's not just the threat they feel to themselves but some of their biggest/wealthiest/sometimes foreign country donors too.

>92 lriley: It just strikes me odd the reverence that we have for the so-called founding fathers as if they weren't capable of petty jealousy or ambition or even criminality themselves.

I remember having my eyes opened many decades ago, growing up with the myth of young George Washington and the cherry tree, etc. etc., by Kenneth Roberts' Oliver Wiswell. The backstories of the signatories of the Declaration made several of them out to have been an unsavory lot, appending their John Hancocks (he being one the less savory among them) in order to avoid bankruptcy or criminal charges pending under English law.

>97 margd:

I'm unclear why one would pay heed to anything that man said yesterday, let alone eight years back. As someone said long ago about lovers, his words are written on wind and the running waters.

Multiple Trump Witnesses Have Received Significant Financial Benefits From His Businesses, Campaign
Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski | June 3, 2024

Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump have received significant financial benefits {from Trump’s businesses and campaign committees}, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from Trump’s media company.

These pay increases and other benefits often came at delicate moments in the legal proceedings against Trump... {e.g.} after {employee} was subpoenaed but before he testified.

...can be evidence of a crime if they come outside the normal course of business. To prove witness tampering, prosecutors would need to show that perks or punishments were intended to influence testimony.

...Prosecutors could point to the benefits to undermine the credibility of those aides on the witness stand...

https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-criminal-cases-witnesses-financi...

Roger Stone Seems to Imply Trump Totally Controls Judge Cannon
Hafiz Rashid | June 20, 2024

A secretly recorded conversation with Roger Stone suggests that the Donald Trump adviser and confidant is implying that the judge in Trump’s classified documents case, Aileen Cannon, could be in the convicted felon and former president’s pocket.

...Liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor secretly recorded the self-described “dirty trickster” {Roger Stone} at a Catholics Prayer for Trump event on March 19 at Mar-a-Lago, where he made several comments hinting that Cannon would dismiss the case. ...

...Stone was caught on video saying, “We are beating them. I think the judge is on the verge of dismissing the charges against him in Florida,” referring to Cannon.

“They’re delayed in New York City, and they’re now delayed in Washington,” Stone continued, alluding to Trump’s election interference case regarding the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Stone’s words, if he is hinting at Cannon working with Trump, would seemingly be corroborated by a Thursday New York Times report revealing that the Trump-appointed judge was urged by senior federal judges to hand off Trump’s classified documents case to other judges with more experience, who didn’t have previous involvement interfering in the case, as Cannon had. Cecilia Altonaga, the chief U.S. district judge for the Southern District of Florida and Cannon’s superior, even reached out to Cannon and told her taking the case would be “bad optics.” Cannon turned the judges down.

Cannon’s decisions in the case have been criticized for appearing to favor the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon. She’s agreed to hear pretrial motions that have slowed down proceedings, thrown out parts of the case, and postponed the trial indefinitely. The judge has drawn criticism, even from one of Trump’s former lawyers, for seeming to be prone to exploitation.

https://newrepublic.com/post/182935/roger-stone-trump-judge-cannon-classified-do...

Mueller, She Wrote @MuellerSheWrote | 6:52 PM · Jun 21, 2024 {X}:

NEW: Just as I had suspected, Jack Smith has added the June 11 threat against an FBI agent by a trump supporter to his motion to modify trump’s bail conditions in the Mar a Lago case. This is in response to Trump asserting falsely that Biden and the FBI were trying to assassinate him during the search of Mar a Lago. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.fl...

Text excerpt (https://x.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1804286386352328773/photo/1)

To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race | Editorial
The Editorial Board | Published June 29, 2024

Biden had a horrible night Thursday. But the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/first-presidential-debate-joe-biden-...

>104 margd: were the last two links simply you squeezing in your opinion about the Democratic nominee for POTUS, or is there information about the Trumps' criminal culpibility at those pages?

>105 aspirit: Culpability.

Good catch. I meant to add the two editorials that Biden should quit to #122 in Presidential Election 2024 thread (Philadelphia Inquirer's powerful Editorial saying TRUMP should drop out). Will fix.

The Supreme Court Rules on Presidential Immunity
Hyemin Han | July 1, 2024

The Court ruled that presidents enjoy absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts,” sending former President Donald Trump’s case back to the district court for fact-finding...

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-supreme-court-rules-on-presidential-imm...

Anna Bower @AnnaBower | 12:34 PM · Jul 1, 2024:
Legal Fellow & Courts Correspondent @lawfare. Detailed reporting and legal analysis of the 4 criminal cases against Trump.

If Judge Cannon decides to toss out Trump’s classified documents case on grounds that Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed, she now knows that she has at least one Supreme Court justice who would likely agree.

From Justice Thomas’s concurring opinion in the immunity decision:
Text (https://x.com/AnnaBower/status/1807814924778754350/photo/1)

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4750581-supreme-court-immunity-nixo...
John Dean says Nixon ‘would have survived’ Watergate under immunity ruling

John Dean, former White House counsel for the Nixon administration, said he believes former President Nixon “would have survived” the Watergate scandal if the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling issued Monday, which largely shields former presidents from criminal prosecution for actions in office, existed at the time.

David Frum {The Atlantic} @davidfrum | 7:46 AM · Jul 2, 2024

My thought for today is whether it wouldn't be better for Jack Smith to resign at once and make clear why: "The Supreme Court has spoken, Donald Trump is above the law. The legal system will not hold him to account, only the voters can."
------------------------------------------

Gary Barone @gbarone2
Yup. Except the public needs to hear the complete evidence.

Trump seeks to set aside his New York hush money guilty verdict after Supreme Court immunity ruling
AP | July 2 2024

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers have asked the New York judge who presided over his hush money trial to set aside his conviction and delay his sentencing, scheduled for next week.

The letter to Judge Juan M. Merchan cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling earlier Monday on presidential immunity and asked the judge to delay Trump’s sentencing while he weighs the high court’s decision and how it could influence the New York case...

The lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed a position the defense raised earlier in the case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence they said constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter...

In prior court filings, Trump contended he is immune from prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. His lawyers did not raise that as a defense in the hush money case, but they argued that some evidence — including Trump’s social media posts about former lawyer Michael Cohen — comes from his time as president and should have been excluded from the trial because of immunity protections...

https://apnews.com/article/trump-hush-money-supreme-court-immunity-3d97d2e9497a5...

>112 margd: contd.

US prosecutors say not opposed to delaying Trump sentencing
DW | 2 July 2024

Manhattan prosecutors have said they would not oppose a delay in sentencing the former US President Donald Trump after his hush-money case. Monday's Supreme Court immunity ruling may have an impact on sentencing anyway.

...In a letter filed Tuesday, prosecutors {in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's} office said they would be open to delaying the July 11 sentencing for up to two weeks.

"Although we believe defendant's arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request" to delay the sentencing pending determination of the motion, the prosecutors wrote...

https://www.dw.com/en/us-prosecutors-say-not-opposed-to-delaying-trump-sentencin...

>113 margd: contd.

BREAKING: Trump’s sentencing in New York has been officially postponed to September 18 at 10AM, while the court determines if the Supreme Court immunity decision impacts the conviction.

Merchan 2 July 2024 letter to Trump lawyer and NY AG lawyer
https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1808215438398312755/photo/1
https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1808215438398312755/photo/2

- MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch | 3:05 PM · Jul 2, 2024

Do we need this thread anymore?

Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ {{Harvard Law Emeritus}} tribelaw | 10:09 AM · Jul 15, 2024:
https://x.com/tribelaw/status/1812852062255788276

Judge Cannon just did the unthinkable: She dismissed the Trump classified documents case on the repeatedly rejected basis that DOJ violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause by appointing Special Counsel Smith at all! DOJ must appeal right away. On SCOTUS, only Justice Thomas took that view in Trump v. United States. This finally gives Jack Smith an opportunity to seek her removal from the case. I think the case for doing so is very strong.

An alternative path for DOJ would be to abandon the Special Counsel regulation and just refile the case without a special counsel in DC, but that would be optically terrible and set a terrible precedent.
_____________________________

Jim Sciutto {CNN} @jimsciutto | 10:15 AM · Jul 15, 2024:

Breaking: Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump, finding the special counsel prosecution is in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.

“The Clerk is directed to CLOSE this case. Any scheduled hearings are CANCELLED. Any pending motions are DENIED AS MOOT, and any pending deadlines are TERMINATED,” Cannon wrote.
______________________________

Kyle Cheney {Politico} @kyledcheney | 9:58 AM · Jul 15, 2024

Cannon says Jack Smith's appointment usurps legislative power.
{93 p} https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648652/gov.uscourts.fl...

Text excerpt, highlighted (https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/1812849306715435424/photo/1)
______________________________

Chris Hayes {MSNBC} @chrislhayes | 10:08 AM · Jul 15, 2024:
Just to be crystal clear: SCOTUS has upheld special counsels repeatedly. Cannon is a district court judge, her job is to apply controlling precedent. She’s doing this because she thinks the MAGA court is on the same page as her and Trump’s lawyers and will go along.

Fr. Bill Dailey, CSC fatherbill.bsky.social @wrdcsc:
Thomas gave her the cover in his immunity concurrence which nobody joined. I assume if nothing else she wants rid of this case, and now the 11th *could* reassign it. Nobody joined the concurrence, but as @jadler1969 notes it’s not plainly foreclosed by precedent.

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes:
I mean I think Roberts opinion in US v Trump which goes out of its way (in a way not required by disposal of the case before them) to take aim at the post Watergate settlement of DOJ independence suggests to me this would be an open question before the court.

Anythinbz 🇮🇹 @30nemagar:
What’s ironic is Hunter Biden attorneys used the same argument and got rejected.

Prof. John McLaughlin @Harvard1988 | 11:12 AM · Jul 15, 2024:
Professor, member of FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI Bulger Task Force (ret.) National Radio Commentator. Board of Directors, Harvard University (ret.)

🚨🚨National Emergency For The Rule Of Law:
Judge Cannon Dismissed The Stolen Classified Documents Case Today.

#JackSmith Must Appeal This Case Today & Have CANNON Removed.
SMITH Has Two Options:
1) Appeal To 11th Circuit, or
2) Submit The Case For Prosecution Through @TheJusticeDept
And Have A U.S. Attorney In Another Court Prosecute This Extremely Important Criminal Case.

🚨BOTTOM LINE:
TRUMP WILL ONLY BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE AFTER HE LOSES ELECTION 2024

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/17/trump-classified-documen...
Special counsel Jack Smith appeals dismissal of Trump classified files case

US prosecutors on Wednesday formally appealed a federal judge’s decision just two days ago to throw out the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally stashing classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence and elsewhere after leaving the White House in 2021.

The office of special counsel Jack Smith filed a notice in court in Florida indicating it would ask the 11th US circuit court of appeals, based in Atlanta, to revive the case and reverse the 15 July ruling by the Florida-based US district judge Aileen Cannon, who unexpectedly decided that Smith had been unlawfully appointed in the first place by the US attorney general, Merrick Garland.

American rule of law is vanishing at the tips of Trump-appointed judges’ pens (Guardian)

Judge Cannon acted like part of Trump’s defense team. Her dismissal of his documents case is predictable yet disturbing...

Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance |
@UALawSchool |@MSNBC & @NBCNews |... Obama US Atty |25 year fed'l prosecutor

New York appellate court rejects Trump's plea to lift {Jude Merchan's} gag order he's under.

TEXT ( https://x.com/JoyceWhiteVance/status/1819044291970220080/photo/1 )

https://www.mediaite.com/crime/just-in-former-trump-attorney-agrees-to-cooperate...
Former Trump Attorney Agrees to Cooperate with Prosecution in Fake Electors Case

A lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 presidential election has agreed to cooperate with Arizona prosecutors in their case involving fake electors.

Jenna Ellis was one of several attorneys who unsuccessfully worked on behalf of former President Donald Trump to invalidate his election loss.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that all nine felony charges against Ellis will be dropped in exchange for her cooperation.

Might she be available for Jack Smith’s case?

Jenna Ellis flips to help Arizona prosecutors in 2020 election case

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4812300-jenna-ellis-flips-arizona-f...

The former Trump campaign lawyer faced charges in Georgia for pushing the fake electors scheme and conspiring to help Trump remain in the White House after losing the 2020 presidential election, too, but later agreed to cooperate with state prosecutors. She pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

Mueller, She Wrote @MuellerSheWrote | 4:07 PM · Aug 27, 2024 {X}:
https://x.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1828524651582235098

🚨🚨🚨 BREAKING 🚨🚨🚨
JACK SMITH HAS RE-FILED THE COUP CHARGES AGAINST TRUMP IN DC VIA SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT

I’ll break this all down shortly. Link to subscribe for free is in my bio.

Case 1:23-cr-00257-TSC Document 226 Filed 08/27/24 Page 1 of 36
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd...
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Trump charged in superseding indictment in election interference case following SCOTUS ruling
Alexander Mallin, Katherine Faulders, and Peter Charalambous | August 27, 2024

The new indictment adjusts the charges to the Supreme Court's immunity ruling.

...While the original indictment laid out five ways Trump allegedly obstructed the function of the federal government -- having state election officials change electoral votes, arranging fraudulent slates of electors, using the Department of Justice to conduct "sham" investigations, enlisting the Vice President to obstruct the certification of the election, and exploiting the chaos of the Jan. 6 riot -- the new indictment removes mention of his use of the Department of Justice, which was explicitly mentioned in the Supreme Court's ruling as falling within his official duties...

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-charged-su

>123 margd: Trump's Truth Social responses to new indictment:

https://x.com/AmoneyResists/status/1828554847127245042/photo/1
https://x.com/AmoneyResists/status/1828554847127245042/photo/2

I've just read a letter in the Times suggesting that Harris should start her term by pardoning Trump for all Federal cases against him.
Not as insane an idea as you might think, but I doubt if it would happen. What I would like to see is someone asking Trump whether he would accept such a pardon.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't know that accepting a pardon is, legally speaking, an admission of guilt, so it would be entertaining to see him confess to those crimes on air.

Ryan Goodman @rgoodlaw | 9:16 AM · Sep 2, 2024 {X}:
Former Special Counsel @DeptofDefense. Co-editor-in-chief @just_security. Chaired Professor NYU Law. Former Chaired Professor Harvard Law. Co-director @RCLS_NYU {NYC}
https://x.com/rgoodlaw/status/1830589933544747136

6 ... A comparison document.
It shows the tracked changes between the original and superseding indictment in US v Trump (including the new allegations apparently added to support the obstruction charges).

PDF: https://justsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/comparison-trump-v-us-origin...
(71 p)

Haitian nonprofit files criminal charges against Vance and Trump for Springfield claims
Erin Glynn | 24 September 2024

...The charges laid out in the filing include:
- Disrupting public service by "causing widespread bomb and other threats."
- Making false alarms by "knowingly causing alarm."
- Committing telecommunications harassment "by spreading claims they know to be false."
- Committing aggravated menacing "by knowingly making intimidating statements" and "knowingly causing others to falsely believe that members of the Springfield, Ohio Haitian community would cause serious physical harm to the person or property of others within the Springfield, Ohio community."
- Violating the complicity statute by "conspiring with one another and spreading vicious lies that caused innocent parties to be parties to their various crimes."...

https://www.dispatch.com/news/

"The evidence will be powerful": Legal experts say Jack Smith about to drop a bomb in Trump case

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/25/the-evidence-will-be-powerful-legal-experts-say...

James Sample, a constitutional law professor at Hofstra University, agreed that the filing was necessary in light of “the Supreme Court’s dramatic expansion of Presidential immunity,” saying that “an oversized, highly detailed legal brief, detailing with as much factual specificity as is possible, is not only appropriate, but necessary.”

11 damning details in Jack Smith’s new brief in the Trump election case
Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein | 10/02/2024

From Trump’s fictitious stats about voter fraud to the FBI’s forensic analysis of Trump’s phone, prosecutors previewed how they would make their case at trial.

Alone with his phone
Trump asked: ‘So what?’
Disregarding the results
Inventing statistics
Broken promises of evidence
Mocking Sidney Powell
Trump’s Jan. 5 call to Steve Bannon
A preview of forensic evidence
‘Make them riot’
Rudy’s rise
Rudy’s follies

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/02/jack-smith-trump-election-brief-details...
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5 key details in special counsel Jack Smith's Trump election case filing
Chris Pandolfo | October 3, 2024

Breaking down the key details from Smith's latest court filing

1. Smith's ‘factual proffer’
2. Smith claims Trump's personal attorney told POTUS election fraud claims were ‘bulls---’
3. New details on Trump's interactions with Vice President Mike Pence
4. White House staffer allegedly overhears Trump say, ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost'
5. Smith presents case against presidential immunity

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/5-key-details-special-counsel-jack-smiths-trump...

Opinion piece: How Jack Smith Outsmarted the Supreme Court

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/how-jack-smith-outsmarted-t...

Shoot! The Atlantic only allows the first few paragraphs.

Here's the whole thing on MSN:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/how-jack-smith-outsmarted-the-supreme-cou...

In remounting his case, Smith has taken the opportunity to release previously unknown details, some of which he says he doesn’t even plan to present at trial, that underscore the depravity as well as the extent of Trump’s criminal actions. Consider, for example, Smith’s telling of Trump’s reaction to the news from one of his staff, at the height of the violence on January 6, that his tweets attacking Pence had placed Pence’s life in extreme danger. “So what?” Trump reportedly replied. He had clearly intended for his tweets to reach the mob at the Capitol. His nonchalance about the vice president’s life epitomizes the lengths to which he would go to complete his coup d’état.

But the real force of Smith’s filing is in its tight presentation of the evidence of a criminal conspiracy in minute detail, dating back to the summer before the 2020 election, when Trump began publicly casting doubts on its legitimacy should he not be declared the winner. “The only way they can take this election away from us is if this is a rigged election,” he told the Republican National Convention in his nomination-acceptance speech in August 2020.

From that point forward, Trump was at the center of every effort to keep him in power, even once he was fully aware that he had no grounds to contest Joe Biden’s victory. There were his private operatives sowing chaos at polling places and vote-counting centers, the scheming to declare victory on Election Night before the results were in, the bogus legal challenges, the fake-elector fraud, the plot to deny official certification by Congress on January 6, and finally the insurrection itself. “It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election,” one witness reports Trump saying. “You still have to fight like hell.”

The crucial point to which the filing unfailingly returns is that none of Trump’s actions listed in the revised indictment, even those that the Court cited as “official,” deserves immunity. As Smith makes clear, the Framers of the Constitution deliberately precluded the executive branch from having official involvement in the conduct of presidential elections. The reason was obvious: Any involvement by a president would be an open invitation to corruption. To make the case that any such involvement falls within a president’s official duties would seem, at best, extremely difficult.

It is here that Smith turns the Court’s Trump v. United States ruling to his own advantage. Concerning specific charges that Trump’s speechmaking contributed to the insurrection, the Court allowed that “there may be contexts in which the President speaks in an unofficial capacity—perhaps as a candidate for office or party leader.” Quoting from an earlier Court decision, the ruling then states that determining these matters would require that the district court undertake “objective analysis of the ‘content, form, and context’” of the speeches in question, a “necessarily fact-bound analysis.” Likewise, regarding the allegations apart from Trump’s supposedly official communications and public speeches, the justices enjoined the district court, on remand, to “carefully analyze” those charges “to determine whether they too involve conduct for which the President may be immune from prosecution.”

Citing those exact phrases as the Court’s standard of inquiry and proof, Smith then offers evidence that every count in the revised indictment concerns either technically official conduct undeserving of immunity or unofficial conduct involving Trump’s private actions as a candidate and not his official duties as president. These actions include his efforts to pressure state officials, preposterously presented by Trump’s defense attorneys as official inquiries into election integrity. They include his conversations about elector slates, about which the president has no official duties. They also encompass all of his speechmaking about the allegedly crooked election, up to and including his incitement at the January 6 rally at the Ellipse, which was not an official function.

Above all, Smith nails down a matter that the Court’s opinion went out of its way to declare “official” and presumably immune: Trump’s efforts to pressure Pence into declining to certify Biden’s win. Although the filing acknowledges that the Court had held that these conversations between Trump and Pence about “their official responsibilities” qualified as “official,” it rebuts the presumption that those discussions therefore qualify as immune. The filing observes that the discussions did not concern Pence’s duties as president of the Senate “writ large,” but only his distinct duties overseeing the certification of a presidential election—a process in which a president, whether or not he is a candidate for reelection, has, by the Framers’ considered design, no official role.

Here the logic of Smith’s argument cuts to the quick. By the Court majority’s own standard, as stated in its Trump v. United States decision, the presumption of immunity for official actions would disappear only if a prosecutor could demonstrate that bringing criminal charges against a president or former president would not present “dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.” Because certification of a presidential election, the subject of Trump’s “official” pressuring, involves neither the authority nor the functions of the executive branch, the immunity claims concerning that pressuring are therefore groundless—according to the Court majority’s own logic.

The rest of Trump and Pence’s interactions do not even qualify as official, Smith shows. In all of their other postelection, in-person conversations and private phone calls, Trump and Pence were acting not in their capacities as president and vice president but as running mates pondering their electoral prospects, even after Biden had been declared the winner. If, as the Court itself has stated, context is important with regard to speechmaking, so it is important with regard to communications between the top officials of the executive branch. To be sure, Smith allows, Trump and Pence “naturally may have touched upon arguably official responsibilities,” but “the overall context and content of the conversations demonstrate that they were primarily frank exchanges between two candidates on a shared ticket”—strictly unofficial conduct.

In all, by recasting the case against Trump in view of the Court’s immunity decision, Smith has drawn upon that very ruling to establish that none of Trump’s actions in connection with January 6 cited in the revised indictment is immune from prosecution. And in doing that, he has further discredited an already discredited Supreme Court.
_________________
I don't believe SCOTUS will follow the logic of their own ruling when it comes before them again. They have proved themselves not fit.

One person is above the law in America, apparently ...

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney | 7:36 AM · Nov 22, 2024:
Senior legal affairs reporter for @POLITICO with a focus on Jan. 6, democracy and the balance of power in government.

BREAKING: It's official. Trump's sentencing in New York is canceled indefinitely.
https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/1859984235739918468/photo/1