Category: Uncategorized

Special Counsel Jack Smith filed his response to Donald Trump’s request to have a SCIF installed at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s members-only geriatric supper club and flop house.  While Smith defers to the CISO–chief information security officer–to determine what location would be best, Smith notes there are many reasons to ban Trump from putting the SCIF where he wants to:

In making this request for the creation of a secure location for his personal use, Trump continues to seek special treatment that no other criminal defendant would receive. In essence, he is asking to be the only defendant ever in a case involving classified information (at least to the Government’s knowledge) who would be able to discuss classified information in a private residence. And of course, The Mar-a-Lago Club is even less suited than most residences to host a secure location, because it is a social club. In addition to Trump’s residence and office, The Mar-a-Lago Club contains more than 25 guest rooms, two ballrooms, a spa, a gift store, exercise facilities, office space, and an outdoor pool and patio. See ECF No. 85 at 5. As of January 2021, The Mar-a-Lago Club had hundreds of members and was staffed by more than 150 full-time, part-time, and temporary employees.

Twelve prominent judges and attorneys including a man Donald Trump once considered for a Supreme Court seat have filed an amicus brief with the DC District Court calling for Trump’s trial for attempting to overturn the 2020 election to commence with all due speed.

A witness before the House January 6th select committee, Judge Michael Luttig joined other prominent legal personalities including White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter and George W. Bush’s torture misprisioner Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez in calling for an expedited trial, saying the facts of the case are clearly and plainly laid out, which should significantly reduce pre-trial delays.

“Accordingly, … a speedy trial on the schedule proposed by the United States government appears both practicable and to satisfy the former president’s constitutional and statutory right to a speedy trial,” the filing states.  “The former president is entitled to this speedy trial as a matter of law. He is not entitled to an unjust delay in his trial to serve his purely personal and political interests in the delay of his trial.  Such a delay would offend the constitutional and statutory right afforded the former president and frustrate the public interest afforded the American people under the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

MSNBC’s Blayne Alexander reports what a lot of court watchers in front of the Fulton County courthouse are telling their audiences:  we don’t know when indictments will be handed down, but signs point to Monday night.  The courthouse doors are still open past the traditional 5 p.m. (local time) closing time.  A member of the security team told a producer that the doors will remain open as long as the grand jury is meeting.  Alexander also reports that the grand jury has heard from five of the ten scheduled witnesses, with the unnamed fifth witness having spent more than two hours testifying.

Little heard-of Trump attorney Jesse Binnall entered a motion Monday seeking to delay the civil lawsuit filed by the partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after being attacked and injured during the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress.

Asking for special treatment because he’s a former president and a candidate for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election cycle, Trump’s lawyer essentially claims he shouldn’t be liable to testify in two different trials simultaneously because he will likely plead the Fifth in the civil trial which, Binnall claims, would prejudice the multitude of other cases–both civil and criminal–Trump faces.

“Absent a stay, President Trump will be placed in the untenable position of fully litigating this case and risking his criminal defense, or pleading the Fifth Amendment and hampering his chance of success in this case,” the motion states.  “Such a dilemma should especially be avoided when it involves a former President of the United States and current frontrunner, presidential candidate for the Republican Party in 2024.  Never in our Nation’s history have we seen the Department of Justice, overseen by a political appointee appointed by the sitting President, target the sitting President’s chief political rival with criminal charges. Thus, it is imperative that President Trump be able to defend the criminal case fully, without the burden of defending overlapping civil litigation.”

Asked if he echos indicted felon Donald Trump’s claim that his call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where Trump asked him to create out of thin air enough votes for him to win the state was a “perfect call,” Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson backs away from his previous undying defense of the disgraced indicted felon while maintaining that the 2020 election was rigged.

“Well again, I-I-I’ll let the legal system figure that out.  What I do know is that there are all kinds of irregularities in the 2020 election.  That is indisputable,” Johnson asserts, apparently unaware of the actual definition of the word “indisputable.”  “I know that the media, I know the Democrats sweep all that under the rug[.]”

With students due back in school as early as this week in some districts, Florida public schools are experiencing an unprecedented number of vacancies largely thanks to the state’s GOP Governor Ron DeSantis’s ongoing war against civility and education, Newsweek reports.

The Florida Education Association counts 5,294 vacant teacher positions listed on various districts’ websites around the state, and another 4,631 education and support staff openings around the state.  Faced with state demands that teachers do not respect students’ rights and censor their subject matter to fit the political demands of DeSantis, teachers–and families–are fleeing Florida to make sure their children and students receive competent educations.

“Today, Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by an NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair,” Robert F. Kennedy’s campaign asserted in a statement hours after the candidate repeatedly supported a ban on abortions after 15-weeks of pregnancy during a Sunday interview at the Iowa State Fair.  The problem with the campaign’s response, though, is that Kennedy repeatedly stated his support for the ban.

Kennedy’s position opposes the Democratic Party’s official platform about abortion being the choice of the pregnant person, and the statement got immediate pushback from voters.  When asked about abortion by a reporter at the Iowa State Fair on Sunday, Kennedy replied, “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the woman during the first three months of life.”  Asked specifically if he would support a “cap… at 15 weeks,” Kennedy replied “yes” after a moment’s hesitation.

Two witnesses originally scheduled to testify before the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury investigating Donald Trump and his cabal’s efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election in Georgia appear to be speeding up:  two key witnesses who were originally scheduled to testify Tuesday have been called to the courthouse Monday afternoon.

According to MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin, both former Republican Georgia Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan and independent journalist George Chidi are now scheduled to appear before the grand jury Monday.

In a landmark ruling, a Montana judge decided that the state government has violated its own constitution ensuring every citizen’s “right to a clean and healthful environment” by subsidizing fossil fuel harvesting and use over other energy sources, the Washington Post reports.  The case, brought by Montanans between the ages of five-years-old up to age 22, is believed to be the first successful constitutionally-based argument about the right to a clean environment brought by minors suing to ensure governments honor their stewardship of the nation for future generations.

The Montana Environmental Protection Act, originally passed in 1971, was updated in 2001 to loosen environmental protections to be more fossil-fuel friendly.  Recent revisions and other legislation, however, provided funds for fossil fuel harvesting and use in the state, while impeding the development of renewable fuels.  Article II Section 3 of the state constitution, however, requires the government to protect the environment:

All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. They include the right to a clean and healthful environment and the rights of pursuing life’s basic necessities, enjoying and defending their lives and liberties, acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and seeking their safety, health and happiness in all lawful ways. In enjoying these rights, all persons recognize corresponding responsibilities.  [Emphasis added]

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan denied a request by indicted felon Donald Trump’s lawyers seeking to remove the judge from the case relating to Trump’s coverup of hush money payments to a porn star he had a sexual encounter with, claiming he was biased because his daughter’s employer, Authentic Campaigns, does work for Democratic candidates, the New York Post reports.

Trump lawyers also sought Merchan’s recusal because the judge donated a total of $20 to Democratic candidates in the 2020 election cycle.  [A search of the FEC database shows no donation to federal candidates by anyone named “Juan Merchan” in New York.]

“The speculative and hypothetical scenarios offered by Defendant fall well short of the legal standard,” Merchan wrote in his decision, saying he “examined [his] conscience and is certain in [his] ability to be fair and impartial.”

A filing in the Fulton County [Georgia] court clerk’s office apparently listing as many as 39 charges against Donald Trump mysteriously appeared–and within minutes, disappeared–from the clerk’s website, Reuters reports.  The list of charges include some that were expected–such as RICO and various false writings/statements–but also included some unusual ones for Trump, such as “Conspiracy to commit impersonating a Public Officer.”

The district attorney’s office and the court clerk’s office both confirmed that no indictment of Donald Trump has been handed down by the grand jury.  The origin of the document is unexplained.

Six Mississippi former law enforcement officers who dubbed themselves the “Goon Squad” pleaded guilty to state charges for detaining and torturing two Black men for more than an hour after breaking into their home in January, ABC News reports.  One of the officers put a gun in a victim’s mouth and pulled the trigger; the gun did not discharge.

According to court documents, a neighbor called police because the victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, two Black men, lived in a house with a white woman, Kristi Walley, a disabled childhood friend of Parker’s whom Parker was helping to care for.

For 90 minutes, the group used stun guns, sex toys and other instruments to torture Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker in their Rankin County house.  Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke–all members of the sheriff’s department–and Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield pleaded guilty to state charges of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to hinder prosecution. Elward, the one who put the gun in the man’s mouth, also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

Sixteen members of Congress have reimbursed themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars each from campaign donations for personal money they spent on their campaigns thanks to a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that removed limits on repayments for personal spending on campaigns, Roll Call reports.  Before the SCOTUS ruling, there were time and amount limitations for repayment of personal loans to politicians’ own campaigns; those limits do not exist any longer.

Republican Ohio Senator JD Vance has take 42% of donations, or $480,000 since his 2022 election to repay himself.  Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson took $400,000 in May for a personal loan that goes back to 2010; with a personal net worth exceeding $40 million, Johnson has more than $8 million in personal loans for all his Senate campaigns that he’ll likely take donors’ money to re-enrich himself.  Oklahoma’s GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin, who once claimed he only made $50,000 per year but amassed a fortune putting his net worth somewhere over $35 million, has started to repay the $1 million he used.  Mullin’s campaign now has less than $200,000 cash on hand.

Mehmet Oz, the TeeVee doctor from New Jersey who made an unsuccessful run for a Pennsylvania Senate seat, has repaid himself more than $1 million of the $26 million he reported lending to his campaign.  He continues to fundraise off the Republican base to try to recoup his losses.  On financial disclosures, Oz reported his personal net wealth between $76 million to $300 million, mostly from his television show in which he frequently promoted snake oil cures. 

With tensions rising as thousands of Wagner forces settled into neighboring Belarus and transiting to an isolated patch of Russian territory on the Baltic Sea, Polish authorities have been on alert for subversive actions from the Russian mercenary force, arresting two Russians for spreading recruitment fliers throughout Warsaw and Krakow, the Associated Press reports.

Polish’s Internal Security Agency, its equivalent of the FBI, arrested two people identified only as Alexei T. and Andrei G. on Friday for taken $5,000 to hand out and spread fliers in the two cities.  In recent months, Poland has detained more than 22 people for working within Poland for Russian interests.

Wallowing as the perpetual bronze medalist in the ratings war, CNN will undergo another major primetime programming shift prompted by the end of the disastrous reign of former chairman Chris Licht as the original cable news outlet preps for the upcoming presidential elections, it reports.

Anderson Cooper will hold onto his weeknight 8 p.m. ET slot, but Kaitlan Collins is being booted from the 9 p.m. hour in favor of a new “limited” show debuting this fall featuring one-time NBA star Charles Barkley and TV personality Gayle King.  Abby Phillips will take over at 10 p.m. and Laura Coates will host the 11 p.m. hour.

“I mean, this was a crooked app0intment,” one of the little-known Republican Ohio House delegation who wears suit coats, Warren Davidson, says on a little-watched conservative propaganda network about Special Counsel David Weiss, who was appointed US Attorney by indicted felon Donald Trump.  “Ah, um, might’ve as well just appointed a member of the Biden crime family, ah, to run the investigation.  Basically we fear he’s just going to find evidence and destroy it rather than prosecute.  When I talk to constituents all over Ohio this summer, uh, they’re ready for a trial.  I mean, most of the folks I’ve talked to in my counties feel like there’s enough for a conviction in any one of our counties.”

Without evidence, Davidson baselessly accuses David Weiss, an attorney who has never been accused of tampering with evidence or found to have acted unethically in any of his prosecutions.  This is all the GOP has to run on:  slanders and lies. 

Further evidence that the Fulton County, Georgia grand jury’s probe is going far beyond previously-indicted felon Donald Trump:  MSNBC reports two key witnesses who heard hair dye dispenser and former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s December 2020 presentation on overturning the 2020 election were seen entering the Fulton County courthouse Monday morning.

Former state representative Bee Nguyen and former state senator Jen Jordan both sat in on briefings by lawyers representing Trump who asserted to the Georgia legislature that there was massive fraud in the state’s 2020 vote count–but only for the presidential race.  They’re expected to testify about the presentation and their other independent findings about the falsity of the stolen election claim.

Besides witnessing Giuliani’s presentation and hearing the coup plan, Jordan ran into a number of fraudulent Republican electors in the Capitol on December 14th as they enacted their plan.  Nguyen went even further to debunk the Trump camp’s claims:  she pored over the list of votes Giuliani et al claimed were fraudulent, finding the names of her relatives and personal friends on the list.  She further investigated, interviewing others on the list, finding their votes and voter registration were valid.

The IRS has a continuity policy on their website that details how they will continue to collect taxes if a nuclear attack happens on US soil.

The IRS literally wouldn’t stop taxing us if the entire country was nuked to pieces.

Let that sink in.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) August 14, 2023

In what is the clearest demonstration of why her food poisoning factory disguised as a gun showroom shuttered, Marjorie Taylor Green’s “little bitch” Lauren Boebert (LB²) took to Twitter Monday morning to complain about competent government agencies planning to continue to operate after an emergency.  The Republican Colorado Congresswoman and wannabe social media sensation was thankfully not in office 2001, because she would have surrendered on 9/12.

“I am reading reports that failed former Lt Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury. He shouldn’t. I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the Election Fraud that took place in Georgia. He refused having a Special Session to find out what went on, became very unpopular with Republicans (I refused to endorse him!), and fought the TRUTH all the way. A loser, he went to FNCNN!” writes disgraced former President Trump on Truth Social (just after yet another screaming meltdown about DA Fani Willis). It’s not clear if this would violate his pretrial conditions in DC, since as far as we know Duncan’s only a witness in Georgia. Certainly can’t be helping though.

Former Second Lady Karen Pence tells ABC News she “never felt afraid” while she was in the Capitol on January 6th while thousands of murderous Trump fans attacked the building seeking to literally lynch her husband Mike for refusing to unilaterally overturn the 2020 election.

“I just was discussing this with someone here in Iowa a few minutes ago, I never felt afraid. I really felt like we just had such a peace and God’s presence,” said Karen, who appears to understand that it’s a political liability with GOP primary voters to acknowledge that they showed up that day fully intent on killing her entire family for betraying the Orange God Emperor.