The Conversation -- August 5, 2023

Nick Robertson of the Hill: "The federal judge presiding over former President Trump's election fraud case has ordered his attorneys to respond to prosecutors' request for a protective order by Monday, according to a court filing Saturday. Judge Tanya Chutkan gave Trump's attorneys a single business day to respond to special counsel Jack Smith's request for a strict protective order which would prevent Trump from discussing case evidence in public. Smith made the request last Friday after Trump made a social media post appearing to threaten witnesses in the case. 'IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU!' Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday...." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: :Trump;s attorneys requested a three-day extension -- until Thursday -- to that deadline Saturday afternoon, claiming federal prosecutors want to move the case along too quickly and that a delay gives them enough time to properly respond.... However, Chutkan denied the Trump team's request for an extension Saturday evening...."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The man who tried to overthrow the government he was running was held Thursday by the government he tried to overthrow, a few blocks from where the attempted overthrow took place and a stone's throw from the White House he yearns to return to, to protect himself from the government he tried to overthrow.... While Trump goes for the long con, or the long coup -- rap sheet be damned, it's said that he worries this will hurt his legacy. He shouldn't. His legacy is safe, as the most democracy-destroying, soul-crushing, self-obsessed amadán ever to occupy the Oval. Amadán, that's Gaelic for a man who grows more foolish every day." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead.

Isn't it terrible that so many reporters from so many media outlets are challenging one another in the game of "Gotcha, Supremes!"?? The New York Times just advanced the paper's position: ~~~

~~~ Jo Becker & Julie Tate of the New York Times: "... in a documentary financed by conservative admirers, Justice [Clarence] Thomas ... waxes rhapsodic about the familiarity of spending time with the regular folks he meets along the way in R.V. parks and Walmart parking lots.... [BUT] His Prevost Marathon [R.V.] cost $267,230 [in 1999].... And Justice Thomas, who in the ensuing years would tell friends how he had scrimped and saved to afford the motor coach, did not buy it on his own. In fact, the purchase was underwritten, at least in part, by Anthony Welters, a close friend who made his fortune in the health care industry.... [The true source of funding for the purchase] leaves unanswered a host of questions about whether the justice received, and failed to disclose, a lavish gift from a wealthy friend ... [and whether Thomas failed to comply with] an obligation to report the arrangement under a federal ethics law." The longish article goes into detail about the purchase and payment, and unearths another foreign jaunt Thomas apparently took at Welters' expense but did not report. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When you think about it, "Gotcha, Supremes!" has all the makings of a board game, a la "Monopoly." You advance when your marker lands on "Clarence & Ginny cruise on Harlan's yacht" or "Insufferable Sam takes luxury fishing vacay in billionaire Paul's Alaska resort," but it's a bummer when your marker stops on "Chief John refuses to testify before Senate" or "Insufferable Sam writes a WSJ op-ed."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: If you read the magistrate judge's bail conditions for Donald Trump, which I painstakingly copied off the YouTubes and posted here yesterday, you knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Trump, as is his wont, made it sooner: ~~~

IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I'M COMING AFTER YOU! -- Donald Trump, Liars' Social post, Friday afternoon ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Prosecutors on Friday night called a judge's attention to a social media post from Donald Trump -- issued hours earlier -- in which they say the former president appeared to declare that he's 'coming after' those he sees as responsible for the series of formidable legal challenges he is facing. Attorneys from special counsel Jack Smith's team said the post from Trump 'specifically or by implication' referenced those involved in his criminal case for seeking to subvert the 2020 election.... The prosecutors said Trump's post raised concerns that he might improperly share evidence in the case on his social media account and they urged that he be ordered to keep any evidence prosecutors turn over to his defense team from public view. All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public,' [Molly] Gaston and [Thomas] Windom wrote [to Judge Tanya Chutkan]. 'Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him.... And in recent days, regarding this case, the defendant has issued multiple posts, including [the post referenced here].... Trump's Truth Social post came just one day after he swore in federal court that he would not make any effort to influence or retaliate against witnesses or make any other actions that might obstruct the administration of justice in his case." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I suspect the target of the threat was the Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, who issued the conditions of bail. Trump was reportedly vewwy, vewwy grumpy Thursday, and he likely wanted to provoke the court. I wish Chutkan would send the marshals around to pick up Trump and throw him in the nearest calaboose, but I suspect she'll cut him some slack.

Fortunately, right-wing pundits & other commentators are reacting to this third indictment with their customary reason and fair-minded dispassion: ~~~

Jared Gans of the Hill: "Former President Trump is calling on the Supreme Court to intercede in the legal battles he is facing.... Trump, in a post on Truth Social early Friday, repeated accusations that President Biden is pushing for the cases against him for political purposes.... 'I am leading in all Polls, including against Crooked Joe, but this is not a level playing field. It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede. MAGA!' Trump said." MB: Apparently, Trump is so clueless that he's unaware the Supreme Court doesn't just spontaneously rule on whatever irritates them: they choose among appeals to lower-court decisions. But hey, why not just do what Trump demands? So, Clarence & Sam and all you mini-Supremes he appointed, take a break from your fabulous all-expenses-paid vacations to write up something ordering the DOJ to back off Trump.

Marie: On December 14, 2020, Ronald Hansen of the Arizona Republic wrote that "an Arizona group sent the National Archives in Washington, D.C., notarized documents last week intended to deliver, wrongly, the state's 11 electoral votes for him [Donald Trump].... Mesa resident Lori Osiecki, 62, helped created a facsimile of the 'certificate of ascertainment' that is submitted to formally cast each state's electoral votes as part of an effort to prevent what she views as the fraudulent theft of the election."

Not only did I think this sounded like a grassroots, crackpot gimmick, I didn't even connect it with the following story, though I linked both on December 15:

Jonathan Swan, then reporting for Axios, gave us a hint of the scope of the fake electors scheme, though Swan didn't suggest it was part of an elaborate plot still playing out: "Right up to Monday's Electoral College vote, President Trump held the false hope that Republican-controlled state legislatures would replace electors with allies who'd overturn Joe Biden's win, two people who discussed the matter with him told Axios.... Through the past week, the sources said, the president browbeat GOP legislators in multiple states, launched tirades against Republican Govs. Doug Ducey of Arizona and Brian Kemp of Georgia, vowed to make Fox News 'pay' for accurately calling the race, and tested ways to say he didn't win without acknowledging he had lost."

I was surprised and wondered if Rachel Maddow had crawled out on a limb when weeks later -- and a few days after the January 6 insurrection -- she led with a segment in which she asserted, "... Republicans in multiple states -- had sent in false assertions, forged documents claiming to be the electors for their states," Maddow wondered how "that Trump guy at the Justice Department [-- Jeffrey Clark --] [knew] that two weeks earlier, Republicans in at least five states had ... created these forged elector documents?... But somebody helped them do it, because they all filed the exact same document in the same font, in the same spacing, with the exact same language."

As I recalled, Maddow followed up on the fake electors story a few times before New York Times reporters Alan Feuer, Maggie Haberman and Luke Broadwater reported on February 2, 2021 -- that is, after Joe Biden had become president -- about "an audacious strategy: to put in place alternate slates of electors in states where ... Donald J. Trump was trying to overturn his loss."

That "audacious strategy" -- a strategy I dismissed in mid-December as a harebrained scheme concocted by Arizona rubes whose MAGA hats & tinfoil caps had not protected them from the noonday sun -- became a centerpiece of a House January 6 committee hearing. And now it has turned into a criminal indictment against Donald Trump. The big story often starts with a single piece or perhaps with a few seemingly unrelated or loosely-related pieces.

** Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times puts the big story in an even greater context: "If we truly hope to avoid another Jan. 6, or something worse, we have to deal with our undemocratic system as much as we do with the perpetrators of that particular incident. Whatever benefits our unusual rules and procedures are supposed to have are more than outweighed, at this point in our history, by the danger they pose to the entire American experiment. The threat to the integrity of the Republic is coming, as it often has, from inside the house." MB: This is Bouie's conclusion; read his entire column to understand how he got there. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Those Republican party "leaders" who aren't delusional are secretly or sometimes openly distraught that the leader of their party and their likely presidential* nominee is a whiney old narcissistic sociopath whom they wish would just go away. As conservative writer Ramesh Ponnuru points out, there was a very, very easy way for those Republicans to legally keep Trump from every again running for the presidency*: ~~~

~~~ Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "The editor of National Review's print magazine and Washington Post columnist Ramesh Ponnuru called out Senate Republicans for failing to convict former president Donald Trump during the impeachment trial held for his role in inspiring the January 6 Capitol riot.... 'Republican officeholders ... thought they had no need to act against Trump because, having been defeated on Election Day and then disgraced on Jan. 6, he would "fade away" as a political force.... How's that working out?'" Nice work, Mitch.

Finally, in response to a number of comments in yesterday's thread about the latest from the "Wordsmith of Wasilla," Jack M. added more historical context:

Way back when, I remember saying that Sarah Palin was a gateway drug. Once the ignorati beheld the Incredible Lightness of Her Intellect, they felt empowered, even compelled, to make equally weighty pronouncements without the crutches of fact or context.

When you step back, it's evident that what the Confederates are doing is consistent with what would be business as usual in the United States in 1850: The country was run by and for the benefit of what we know now were not very admirable white people whose word was law. What's happened since has convinced many in the Con camp that a step forward for anyone unwelcome in the trailer park is a step back for the proud white folks washed exclusively in the blood of the lamb everywhere. They're rebelling against events that happened over 150 years ago, which is why those who try to make sense of their actions in a modern framework can be so confused.

Marie: I linked the story below late yesterday morning, so some of you may have missed it:

** "Clueless" Star Presides in Trump Florida Trial. Sarah Lynch & Jacqueline Thomsen of Reuters: "The judge in ... Donald Trump's upcoming trial over his handling of classified documents made two key errors in a June trial, one of which violated a fundamental constitutional right of the defendant and could have invalidated the proceedings, according to legal experts and a court transcript. Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man - accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse - to the defendant's family and the general public, a trial transcript obtained by Reuters showed. A defendant's right to a public trial is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment.... Legal experts said closing a courtroom to the public has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as a 'structural error' - a mistake so significant that it can invalidate a criminal trial because it strikes at the heart of the entire process....

Cannon ... declined to open the courtroom to the public despite repeated requests from both prosecutors and defense attorneys, the transcript showed.... [Scott] Berry, the federal defender, argued in the courtroom that Cannon's refusal to let his client's mother and sister be present during jury selection was a Sixth Amendment violation. 'All right, thank you. Your objection is overruled,' Cannon replied.... Cannon ... also neglected to swear in the prospective jury pool - an obligatory procedure in which people who may serve on the panel pledge to tell the truth during the selection process. This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mind you, Cannon didn't make these fundamental mistakes back in days of yore. She made them less than two months ago. If, by any chance, Trump's trial ever takes place and if he is found guilty, he is almost guaranteed to win an acquittal on appeal because Cannon will likely have made more than one "structural error." This woman is so stubborn in her ignorance that not only does she not know what we learned in 9th-grade civics class about the Sixth Amendment, she won't even accept coaching on the subject from both prosecution and defense attorneys.

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "About three dozen House Democrats, led by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), are calling for televising the federal trials of ... Donald Trump on charges related to the 2020 election and the retention of classified documents. In a letter to Judge Roslynn Mauskopf, who oversees the administration of federal courts, the lawmakers argued that the move would bolster public acceptance of the outcome.... A lawyer for Trump has also suggested that they would like the expected trial on 2020 election-related charges to be televised. Last month, after Trump revealed that he had received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith, Trump attorney John Lauro said he would welcome additional transparency."

The U.S. of Trump. Dan Nexon in LG&$: "As Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley report in Rolling Stone: 'DONALD TRUMP ... always has revenge on his mind, and his allies are preparing to use a future administration to not only undo all of Special Counsel Jack Smith's work -- but to take vengeance on Smith, and on virtually everyone else, who dared investigate Trump during his time out of power. Rosters full of MAGAfied lawyers are being assembled. Plans are being laid for an entire new office of the Justice Department dedicated to 'election integrity.' An assembly line is being prepared of revenge-focused 'special counsels' and 'special prosecutors.'... And a fresh wave of pardons is under consideration for Trump associates, election deniers, and -- the former president boasts -- for Jan. 6 rioters.'... In sum, anyone involved with a putatively 'left' or 'centrist' third-party campaign in this cycle is ipso facto a moral degenerate." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you think Rolling Stone is a far-out, radical left publication whose reporters are making up scary stories about Trump's intentions, the sobersided Associated Press backs up Suebsaeng & Rawnsley's reporting.

Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "A man who called for a 'mass shooting of poll workers' and threatened two Arizona county officials and their families over the 2022 election was sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in federal prison, prosecutors said. The man, Frederick Francis Goltz, 52, pleaded guilty in April to two counts of interstate threatening communications in connection with his threats to two Republican Maricopa County officials in Arizona, the authorities said: Stephen Richer, the county recorder, and Tom Liddy, the county attorney's civil division chief. Mr. Goltz, who is a Canadian citizen and lived in Lubbock, Texas, believed in 2022 that rampant voter fraud was occurring in Arizona, prosecutors said, so he resorted to online threats, saying in a post on a right-wing forum site that referred to Maricopa County officials: 'Someone needs to get these people AND their children. The children are the most important message to send.'" An NBC News story is here.

The Dangerous Lunatics Among Us. Campbell Robertson of the New York Times: "... in a trial that ended on Thursday with the imposition of a death sentence, scores of witnesses took turns dissecting the life and motivations of one middle-aged man who lived alone in a small apartment before carrying out the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history: the killing of 11 worshipers in a Pittsburgh synagogue on Oct. 27, 2018.... In the online far-right fever swamps that have grown immensely since the synagogue massacre, the views Mr. Bowers expressed on social media five years ago would be 'simply unremarkable,' said Oren Segal ... of the Anti-Defamation League.... 'There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people saying that stuff and even worse,' Mr. Segal said."

Presidential Race 2024

The Lord High Executioner. Why did Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis miss seeing most of the coverage of Donald Trump's indictment? Because, DeSantis cheerfully explained, "So we had an execution yesterday, so I was tied up with that for most of the day." Lah-de-dah, lah-de-dokes, I was busy killing folks. What with his campaign promise last Sunday to "start slitting throats on day one' of "deep state" bureaucrats, DeSantis' campaign is morphing from whining about minorities to an imitation of a splatter movie. Still, "I was overseeing an execution" is more original than the usual dog-ate-my-homework excuses.

Perhaps following Mike Pence's lead, the knife-wielding Florida governor dips a Nancy Sinatra white boot into the shallow end of the Trump-critical pool: ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Nehamas & Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said that claims about the 2020 election being stolen were false, directly contradicting a central argument of ... Donald J. Trump and his supporters. The comments went further than Mr. DeSantis typically goes when asked about Mr. Trump's defeat. The governor has often tried to hedge, refusing to acknowledge that the election was fairly conducted. In his response on Friday, Mr. DeSantis did not mention Mr. Trump by name -- saying merely that such theories were 'unsubstantiated.'... 'All those theories that were put out did not prove to be true,' Mr. DeSantis said in response to a reporter's question...." CNN's report is here.

Mississippi. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Mississippi's lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of a range of felonies is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment and 'is at odds with society's evolving standards of decency, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. In an emphatic 2-to-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upbraided Mississippi officials for what it called a pointless 'denial of the democratic core of American citizenship.'...They added: 'It is an especially cruel penalty as applied to those whom the justice system has already deemed to have completed all terms of their sentences. These individuals, despite having satisfied their debt to society, are precluded from ever fully participating in civic life. Indeed, they are excluded from the most essential feature and expression of citizenship in a democracy -- voting.'" The AP's story is here.

Texas. Niha Masih of the Washington Post: "A judge in Texas on Friday temporarily allowed abortions for people with dangerous or complicated pregnancies, following emotional testimonies from women during a hearing last month about the impact of the state's restrictive abortion laws on their bodies. Judge Jessica Mangrum ruled in favor of a group of women and doctors who had filed a lawsuit in March seeking clarity on the scope of the medical emergencies exception clause in the state's abortion ban. In the ruling, Mangrum said that uncertainty on the exceptions and 'related threat of enforcement of Texas's abortion bans' created a risk that doctors 'will have no choice but to bar or delay the provision of abortion care to pregnant people in Texas for whom an abortion would prevent or alleviate a risk of death or risk to their health.' The judge set a trial date for March next year." The AP's story is here.

News Lede

New York Times: “Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Harvard law professor who helped reframe debates around criminal justice, school desegregation and reparations during the 1990s and 2000s, all the while mentoring a new generation of Black lawyers that included President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, died on Friday at his home in Odenton, Md. He was 70.”

The Conversation -- August 4, 2023

** Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "If we truly hope to avoid another Jan. 6, or something worse, we have to deal with our undemocratic system as much as we do with the perpetrators of that particular incident. Whatever benefits our unusual rules and procedures are supposed to have are more than outweighed, at this point in our history, by the danger they pose to the entire American experiment. The threat to the integrity of the Republic is coming, as it often has, from inside the house." MB: This is Bouie's conclusion; read his entire column to understand how he got there. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For more insights into how we got here, see Jack M.'s commentary in today's thread.

Marie: Please scroll down & read the linked ** Reuters story on Aileen Cannon. It's scary.

Famous Last Words of One-term Presidents

In a few days I will lay down my official responsibilities in this office, to take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of President, the title of citizen. -- President Jimmy Carter, January 14, 1981

Can you believe I lost to this fucking guy? -- President* Donald Trump, mid-November 2020

Glenn Thrush & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump appeared in federal court in Washington[, D.C.,] on Thursday for the first time to face charges that he conspired to remain in office despite his 2020 election loss, pleading not guilty at a hearing conducted in the shadow of the Capitol, where his supporters, fueled by his lies, had rampaged to block the peaceful transfer of power. Mr. Trump was booked and fingerprinted before entering the courtroom and offering a soft-spoken 'not guilty' to each of the four counts lodged against him on Tuesday by Jack Smith, the special counsel.... A first pretrial hearing was set for Aug. 28." Politico's report is here.

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Seven federal judges sat in the D.C. courthouse and watched while Trump was arraigned by their magistrate judge colleague. Th group included Chief Judge James Boasberg, and judges Amy Berman Jackson and Randy Moss, who were with four others in the back row of the room. Jackson has presided over a number of criminal cases involving Trump associates. Trump, while president in 2020, blasted her in a tweet as she prepared to sentence his longtime advisor Roger Stone, the notorious Republican self-described trickster...." This is part of a liveblog. (Also linked yesterday.)

If you fail to comply with any of the conditions of your release, a warrant may be issued for your arrest, your conditions of release may be revoked, and you may be held pending trial in this case. Your most important condition of release, sir, is that you not commit a state, federal or local crime while on release. I want to remind you that it is a crime to try to influence a juror, or to threaten or attempt to bribe a witness or any other person who may have information about your case, or to retaliate against anyone for providing information about our case to the prosecution, or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice. -- Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya, to Donald Trump, arraignment August 3, 2023

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The warning to Trump is notable given the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol alleged the former president and his allies tried to contact and influence a witness in that probe. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said at a hearing last summer that Trump tried to call an unnamed witness. She separately described a case of a witness describing receiving phone calls reminding them that Trump was paying attention to who said what." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Joy Reid of MSNBC pointed out on air that these instructions -- don't commit a crime, don't tamper with a jury member, don't speak to or mess with witnesses -- sound like instructions a judge would give a mob boss.

** "Clueless" Star Presides in Trump Florida Trial. Sarah Lynch & Jacqueline Thomsen of Reuters: "The judge in ... Donald Trump's upcoming trial over his handling of classified documents made two key errors in a June trial, one of which violated a fundamental constitutional right of the defendant and could have invalidated the proceedings, according to legal experts and a court transcript. Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man - accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse - to the defendant's family and the general public, a trial transcript obtained by Reuters showed. A defendant's right to a public trial is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's Sixth Amendment.... Legal experts said closing a courtroom to the public has been recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as a 'structural error' - a mistake so significant that it can invalidate a criminal trial because it strikes at the heart of the entire process.... Cannon ... declined to open the courtroom to the public despite repeated requests from both prosecutors and defense attorneys, the transcript showed.... [Scott] Berry, the federal defender, argued in the courtroom that Cannon's refusal to let his client's mother and sister be present during jury selection was a Sixth Amendment violation. 'All right, thank you. Your objection is overruled,' Cannon replied.... Cannon ... also neglected to swear in the prospective jury pool - an obligatory procedure in which people who may serve on the panel pledge to tell the truth during the selection process. This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Mind you, Cannon didn't make these fundamental mistakes back in her younger days. She made them less than two months ago. If, by any chance, Trump's trial ever takes place and if he is found guilty, he is almost guaranteed to win an acquittal on appeal because Cannon will likely have made more than one "structural error." This woman is so stubborn in her ignorance that not only does she not know what we learned in 9th-grade civics class about the Sixth Amendment, she won't even accept coaching on the subject from both prosecution and defense attorneys.

Mikey Is Getting Downright Voluble. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said that ... Donald J. Trump and his advisers had tried to get him 'essentially to overturn the election' and that the American people needed to know it. The remarks, made in an interview with Fox News, are some of Mr. Pence's most pointed to date about what he experienced in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, when he presided over the congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory.... 'It wasn't just that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Context. Robert Farley of FactCheck.org: "In an interview hours after ... Donald Trump was indicted for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, one of his attorneys said that all Trump had ultimately asked his vice president to do was 'simply pause' the Electoral College count at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On Fox News the following night, Aug. 2, former Vice President Mike Pence called that claim 'completely false.' Pence said Trump and his 'gaggle of crackpot lawyers' asked him 'to literally reject votes.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian fills out Pence's remark: "The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trials of Rudy. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Already identified as a co-conspirator in the latest indictment of Donald J. Trump, Rudolph W. Giuliani faced further embarrassment this week when a woman suing him for sexual assault and harassment revealed an assortment of disparaging remarks she said he had made. The woman, Noelle Dunphy, filed a lawsuit in May claiming that Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, began harassing and assaulting her shortly after he hired her in January 2019. Mr. Giuliani has responded that Ms. Dunphy was never his employee and that the two had a consensual relationship. Ms. Dunphy said in her lawsuit that she had audio recordings that supported her claims. The recordings themselves have not been made public. In the transcripts filed on Tuesday by Ms. Dunphy's lawyer, Justin T. Kelton, Mr. Giuliani uses a homophobic slur, makes disparaging remarks about Jews and women and uses sexually explicit language in conversation with Ms. Dunphy.... In [one excerpt], he engaged in a derisive discussion of the size of Jewish men's genitals."

     ~~~ Marie: To give you an idea of how stupid & bigoted Rudy is, there's this from the Times story: "In one excerpt, he complains that the Jewish people continue to celebrate the ancient holiday of Passover. 'Jews,' he says. 'They want to go through that freaking Passover all the time. Man, oh, man. Get over the Passover. It was like 3,000 years ago. OK, the Red Sea parted. Big deal. Not the first time that happened.'" Dear Former Altar Boy Rudy: Christians celebrate the Passover not once a year, but every single day. They call it "Holy Communion" or the "Eucharist," which is a remembrance of Jesus' Last Supper, a Passover feast. The Eucharist is a central sacrament of the Christian faith. If anything, Passover is more important to Christians than it is to Jews.

Another "Star Witness" Disputes GOPS Claims. Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner..., testified before investigators working for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee this week, a transcript of which was released Thursday, hours before the arraignment of ... Donald Trump.... The 141-page transcript ... includes multiple occasions in which Archer ... testified in definitive terms that Hunter Biden was not able to influence his father's actions or policy decisions and that 'nothing of material' was ever discussed with Joe Biden during his frequent communications with his son.... And Archer also disputed claims being pushed by Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R- Ky.) and Republican lawmakers that Biden had accepted a bribe from a foreign national while he served as vice president ... in exchange for a desired policy outcome.... Archer was touted by House Republicans as the linchpin in a quest to corroborate unsubstantiated claims that President Biden was involved in his son's foreign business affairs." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So once again, we learn that Hunter was/is a sleazy opportunist -- kinda like Ivanka Trump & Jared $2BB Kushner, both of whom held high-level government jobs, and like the Trump patriarch himself. Fellows, why aren't you out investigating the real criminals? ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: After Devon Archer testified, Jim Comer -- who did not attend the hearing -- and Jim Jordan went on Fox "News" and lied about what Archer had said under oath. "Consider the first words out of Comer's mouth in that interview with [Sean] Hannity: 'Every day this bribery scandal becomes more credible.' In fact, Archer's testimony pointed precisely in the opposite direction. That's the pattern here. Comer and Jordan and others hype claims of Joe Biden's involvement in Hunter Biden's work only to see those claims collapse as more information is made public. Devon Archer's testimony was hailed as a central breakthrough in implicating Joe Biden. Instead, it has a top ally of Hunter Biden stating under penalty of perjury that Joe Biden was not involved in Hunter Biden's business and that Biden's trip to Ukraine in 2015 was not centered on protecting Burisma at all."

Presidential Race 2024

We're going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one. -- Ron DeSantis, Sunday ~~~

~~~ First, Kill All the Bureaucrats. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday said he would 'start slitting throats on day one' when it comes to taking on the 'deep state.' DeSantis made the remarks at a barbecue campaign event in Rye, N.H., hosted by former Sen. Scott Brown (R-N.H.)." MB: Actually, that's (R-Mass.). (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Hannah Knowles & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "On Thursday, as [his] comments drew more attention, two prominent unions representing tens of thousands of federal workers called on DeSantis to retract his words. Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union -- which represents about 150,000 employees at the Internal Revenue Service and 30 other federal agencies -- called the comments 'repulsive and unworthy of the presidential campaign trail' in a statement. Everett Kelley, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement that 'violent anti-government rhetoric from politicians has deadly consequences'' pointing to a pro-Trump's mob's storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021."

Tennessee. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "Two Tennessee Democrats who were expelled from the state legislature in April over their participation in a gun-control protest won back their seats late Thursday. Reps. Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis) and Justin Jones (D-Nashville) easily defeated their Republican opponents in districts that lean Democrat, according to unofficial results.... Pearson and Jones were labeled as members of the 'Tennessee Three,' along with Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), after the GOP-led state House voted to expel Jones and Pearson for joining protesters demanding stronger gun control legislation at the state Capitol. The protest came in the wake of a shooting in Nashville that had left three children and three adults dead." The NBC News story is here.

Texas. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "Texas A&M University acknowledged on Thursday that top university officials, fearing criticism from conservatives, had made 'significant mistakes' in their failed effort to hire a prominent Black professor to run the university's journalism program. It said it had reached a $1 million settlement with the professor, Kathleen McElroy. The university released a report by its general counsel that casts an unfavorable light on the behind-the-scenes discussions over Dr. McElroy's hiring, revealing that university officials had pushed for a delay in Dr. McElroy's hiring until after the state legislative session adjourned, fearing a possible backlash from conservative lawmakers. Then, following complaints about her hiring from university regents, they changed the terms of her contract.... Dr. McElroy, who had run the journalism program at the University of Texas and was formerly an editor at The New York Times, announced in July that she would not take the job, less than a month after Texas A&M had held a public signing ceremony to welcome her, complete with balloons."

The Conversation -- August 3, 2023

The Washington Post is live-updating Trump's arraignment, not that you and I will be able to see the proceedings. Ken Delanian of NBC News said this morning that the courtroom/secret chamber provides seating for 5 members of the public and 11 journalists. (Scroll on down to Dan Mangan's post to learn who did get seats in the courtroom.) ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates Thursday are here: Glenn Thrush: "... Donald J. Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges that he conspired to remain in office despite his 2020 election loss, appearing before a judge in a Washington courthouse in the shadow of the Capitol, where his supporters rampaged in an effort to undermine the peaceful transfer of power.... The same courthouse where Mr. Trump appeared before Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya to face the charges brought by the special counsel, Jack Smith, has already hosted a stream of trials for Trump supporters accused of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021." ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Savage: Prosecutor Thomas "Windom tells the judge that the parties have agreed that, as a condition of release, Trump must not violate federal or state law, must appear in court as directed and must sign an appearance bond. He must not communicate with anyone he knows to be a witness, except through his lawyers or in the presence of his lawyers.... Upadhyaya ... [warns] Trump against violating the conditions of release.... If he fails to comply, a warrant may be issued for his arrest, the conditions of release may be revoked, and he may be held pending trial and receive a longer sentence. He could also be charged with contempt of court." MB: Not mentioned here, but emphasized during MSNBC coverage as a condition of bail, is the requirement that Trump not tamper with a jury member. Andrew Weissmann said this condition along with the condition that the Defendant not commit any crimes were, well, unusual. ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The magistrate judge handling former President Trump's arraignment on charges related to trying to overturn the 2020 election warned him Thursday against bribing or influencing witnesses. U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya reminded Trump during the arraignment proceedings that bribing, influencing or retaliating against witnesses is a crime.... The warning to Trump is notable given the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol alleged the former president and his allies tried to contact and influence a witness in that probe. Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said at a hearing last summer that Trump tried to call an unnamed witness. She separately described a case of a witness describing receiving phone calls reminding them that Trump was paying attention to who said what." ~~~

     ~~~ Joy Reid of MSNBC pointed out on air that these instructions -- don't commit a crime, don't tamper with a jury member, don't speak to or mess with witnesses -- sound like instructions a judge would give a mob boss. ~~~

~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Seven federal judges sat in the D.C. courthouse and watched while Trump was arraigned by their magistrate judge colleague. The group included Chief Judge James Boasberg, and judges Amy Berman Jackson and Randy Moss, who were with four others in the back row of the room. Jackson has presided over a number of criminal cases involving Trump associates. Trump, while president in 2020, blasted her in a tweet as she prepared to sentence his longtime advisor Roger Stone, the notorious Republican self-described trickster...." This is part of a liveblog.

Mikey Is Getting Downright Voluble. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said that ... Donald J. Trump and his advisers had tried to get him 'essentially to overturn the election' and that the American people needed to know it. The remarks, made in an interview with Fox News, are some of Mr. Pence's most pointed to date about what he experienced in the weeks leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, when he presided over the congressional certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory.... 'It wasn't just that they asked for a pause. The president specifically asked me and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me to literally reject votes.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Context. Robert Farley of FactCheck.org: "In an interview hours after ... Donald Trump was indicted for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, one of his attorneys said that all Trump had ultimately asked his vice president to do was 'simply pause' the Electoral College count at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. On Fox News the following night, Aug. 2, former Vice President Mike Pence called that claim 'completely false.' Pence said Trump and his 'gaggle of crackpot lawyers' asked him 'to literally reject votes.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian fills out Pence's remark: "The president specifically asked me, and his gaggle of crackpot lawyers asked me, to literally reject votes, which would have resulted in the issue being turned over to the House of Representatives, and literally chaos would have ensued."

We're going to have all of these deep state people, you know, we are going to start slitting throats on day one. -- Ron DeSantis, Sunday ~~~

~~~ First, Kill All the Bureaucrats. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Sunday said he would 'start slitting throats on day one' when it comes to taking on the 'deep state.' DeSantis made the remarks at a barbecue campaign event in Rye, N.H., hosted by former Sen. Scott Brown (R-N.H.)." MB: Actually, that's (R-Mass.).

~~~~~~~~~~

American Carnage. He leaves in his wake ruined lives.... The people who went up to Capitol Hill, these individuals, many of the people who served him in government that got sucked into things, he just leaves all this carnage in his wake. -- Bill Barr, in a CNN interview Wednesday

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: The top story in the New York Times today, by Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman, is a gigantic gift to Donald Trump in the same way Schmidt's stories about Hillary Clinton's emails were a gigantic gift to Donald Trump. The story's headline is "Trump Election Charges Set Up Clash of Lies Versus Free Speech," and most of the story is about Trump's defense claiming he has a First Amendment right to lie. Any reader who gets as far as Paragraph 16 (i.e., almost no one) will learn that "Legal experts were skeptical about the strength of those [First Amendment] claims as a defense." That is, the part of the story that most readers will absorb is that part that makes Trump's fake argument for him. And even way down the story where a "legal expert" gets a say, the story poses him as a toady for the prosecutor, a Duke professor who is himself a former prosecutor. He is cast as the second side of he-said/they-said. It's merely the prosecutors' and expert's opinion that masterminding a bank robbery is not protected speech. And, wow, this pointy-headed, elite prosecutorial "expert" -- in concert with the "deranged, deep-state Biden DOJ" -- seems to oppose your Bill of Rights freeeedoms! I wonder if Trump has Schmidt & Haberman on retainer. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Devlin Barrett & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's trial for allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election may hinge on a long-debated aspect of the former president's mind-set: How much, or if, he believes his own false claims.... Central to special counsel Jack Smith's case is the accusation that Trump knew his claims were lies. Evidence of a defendant's intent is often critical to criminal prosecutions, and it may be the most crucial element of Smith's case against Trump." The reporters then cite "a veteran D.C. lawyer" named Robert Kelner who claims Smith "needs to show that all of the false statements Trump made about the election ... were understood by Trump to be false; otherwise, it becomes a case about political speech and First Amendment rights, and that's not where the government wants to be." MB: I'm not sure that's true, either. If, as in my hypothetical example above, you mastermind a bank robbery, nobody cares whether or not you thought robbing the bank was the right thing to do. Your instructions to your criminal crew are not protected speech. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Speaking to Chris Hayes of MSNBC Wednesday, Rick Hasan provided a more closely analogous example: If Trump had told Pence that he would break Pence's legs & murder his children if Pence accepted Wisconsin's slate of Biden electors, that would still have been a crime, even if Trump really, really believed he Trump had won the election in Wisconsin.  

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post points to a better Trump defense: Trump's "defense lawyer, John Lauro, went on Fox News and telegraphed his coming strategy.... He declared that Trump merely acted on what he thought was reasonable advice from his lawyer, John Eastman.... This suggests that an 'advice of counsel' argument will be central to Trump's defense.... 'I've always thought this might be his strongest argument,' New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, who has written extensively about the case, told me. Though Goodman believes this 'won't work,' he said it deserves more attention.... Clearly Trump knew Eastman's theory was baloney. But the rub is getting 12 jurors to agree -- not to mention, perhaps, five Supreme Court justices."

Maggie Haberman & others at the New York Times find evidence that Co-conspirator 6 is Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn. unwashed noted the other day that Marcy Wheeler had speculated Co-conspirator 6 was Mike Roman. Wheeler since has updated her post to note the NYT speculation.

At long last, it dawns on Mikey that Donald is not qualified to be president* (also embedded yesterday afternoon): ~~~

Marie: The most surprising thing to me about the latest Trump indictment is how little of it is new. The indictment does fill in some blank spots in the narrative with a few -- significant -- bits of information. Some of these new bits obviously came from Mike Pence. Otherwise, there is little in the indictment that the House January 6 committee and the new media have not covered.

     If the Mar-a-Lago indictments incorporated some cliffhangers, the entire coup indictment is cloaked in mystery. It doesn't name the co-conspirators (which is standard DOJ practice for unindicted co-conspirators). It doesn't tell us whether or not these co-conspirators will be indicted. Why, maybe they'll cop a plea and cooperate!

     It tells us almost nothing about Mark Meadows, a critical player in the scheme. He is not among the co-conspirators cited, yet the House committee findings as well as public reporting suggest he was deeply involved in the conspiracy to find election fraud and otherwise aided and abetted Trump's crime spree. Meadows gets only glancing mention in the indictment (p. 14), and only that entry on page 14 suggests he might have been a source. But we do know he appeared before the grand jury; we just can't be sure whether he spilled the beans or if his time in the hot seat was a Fifth Amendment lollapalooza.

     And what about that January 6 phone call between Trump and Kevin in which Trump tells Kevin the insurrectionists were "more upset about the election than you are"? Jose Pagliery of the Daily Beast points out that the two-person conversation is one of the few incidents cited in the indictment without sourcing? Did My Kevin flip? Was there a recording? Is Meadows the source?

     We also know from public reporting that DOJ investigators and the grand jury heard from many witnesses whose input is not reflected in the indictment. A huge blank in the indictment is what-all happened surrounding Trump's January 6 speech at the Ellipse. The indictment does not include any mention of Trump's behavior immediately before and after his notorious remarks, although some remarks themselves are covered in the indictment. Cassidy Hutchinson described this behavior in dramatic detail, and the prosecutors later spoke with first-hand witnesses to Hutchinson's second-hand testimony. Maybe the additional information is superfluous to this particular indictment -- or maybe another indictment or indictments are in the offing. We have no idea. Clearly, the indictment is not an exhaustive review of the evidence prosecutors have against the Conspirator-in-Chief.

MEANWHILE, in Florida. Perry Stein & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Jack Smith has asked Judge Aileen M. Cannon for a hearing to discuss whether the lawyer who represents one of Donald Trump's co-defendants in the classified documents case has too many conflicts to provide adequate legal advice to his client. In a court filing Wednesday, prosecutors said Stanley Woodward -- the lawyer for Trump valet Waltine 'Walt' Nauta -- has represented at least seven other clients whom prosecutors have interviewed about Trump's alleged efforts to keep classified documents in defiance of the government's demand they be returned. Two of Woodward's clients could be called as government witnesses in the trial, the filing said.... Prosecutors said in the filing that they told Woodward earlier that at least one of his clients had incriminating information against Nauta. That client appears to be a Mar-a-Lago IT worker named Yuscil Taveras. The Washington Post has previously reported that Taveras retained a new lawyer July 5 and eventually offered information implicating Trump, Nauta and [Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos] De Oliveira in the alleged effort to delete surveillance footage." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Isn't it odd how people have to get new, non-Trumpy lawyers to tell the truth? The ostensible question here is whether Nauta can get a fair trial with adequate assistance of counsel, which is his Sixth Amendment right. But what about Taveras -- or the other government witness Woodward represents or represented? While Woodward was his counsel, it's certainly possible that Taveras told the lawyer negative things about himself. Maybe Woodward asked, for instance, "Is there anything about you or in your background that could help prosecutors make you seem like an unreliable witness?" Taveras might then have given Woodward information that could make him seem untruthful. Woodward, armed with that attorney-client privileged information, could still manage to "find" it and use it against Taveras during the trial.

Dinner for Three at the Bedminster Club. Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Shortly after learning he was being indicted a third time..., Donald J. Trump had a private dinner with the top leadership at Fox News as they lobbied him to attend the first Republican presidential primary debate this month, three people familiar with the event said. The dinner between Mr. Trump, the Fox News president Jay Wallace and the network's chief executive, Suzanne Scott, was held in a private dining room at Mr. Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J...."

Another TuKKKer Conspiracy Theory Bites the Dust. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: ";A Donald Trump fan who participated in the Jan. 6 attack and then was the subject of a conspiracy theory on Tucker Carlson's former Fox News show was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday. Rally Runner, formerly known as Daniel Donnelly Jr., was arrested in St. Louis, Missouri, according to court records. Runner faces five federal charges, including obstructing, impeding, and interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder. Back in 2021, Joseph McBride, a lawyer who was then representing several Jan. 6 defendants, said on Carlson's show that Runner was 'clearly a law enforcement officer' and an 'agent provocateur' who had only dressed up as a Trump fan as part of a scheme to make Trump fans look bad. In fact, Runner was a real Trump fan, as well as a St. Louis Cardinals fanatic who ran around the stadium during home games, thus his name change."

Could Either of These Kids Be President When He Grows Up? Maggie Astor of the New York Times: Ron DeSantis has agreed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom's challenge to a debate on Fox "News" hosted by Sean Hannity. The debate may happen in early November of this year.

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Despite going on cable news Monday to tout the 'bombshell' testimony Devon Archer, a longtime business partner of President Joe Biden's son Hunter, would present to his House Oversight Committee, chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) skipped the hearing, The Daily Beast reported. Sources speaking to The Beast said Comer was neither present on Capitol Hill for the interview, nor did he participate remotely." MB: Wait! This was the bombshell interview that would get Joe Biden impeached, convicted, sent to prison for life or maybe hanged by the neck from the nearest cherry tree -- and Comer was MIA? Well, I nevah!

If You Thought It Was Winter in South America.... Ian Livingston of the Washington Post: "It's the middle of winter in South America, but that hasn't kept the heat away in Chile, Argentina and surrounding locations. Multiple spells of oddly hot weather have roasted the region in recent weeks. The latest spell early this week has become the most intense, pushing the mercury above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, while setting an August record for Chile.... Weather historian Thierry Goose tweeted that this was an 'extraordinary winter heatwave' for Chile as the temperature climbed to 101.7 degrees (38.7 Celsius), a national record for August."