Trump's Election Coup Trial Back On Track

 

ICYMI with all the campaign news, the Middle East powder keg, and the Olympics, the effort to bring the racist convicted felon Malignant Loser to justice in the 2020 election coup criminal case is back with Judge Chutkan.  While a trial prior to the November election is out of the question (thanks, illegitimate MAGAt Republican Supreme Court!), there's going to be a renewed legal spotlight placed on the would- be "president for life," starting August 9:

The stalled criminal case against Donald Trump for seeking to subvert the 2020 election is starting to move.

The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity — a breathtaking legal victory for Trump’s bid to sideline his criminal prosecutions — had kept the election-subversion case on ice for months. Even after the July 1 ruling, the high court’s rules required a one-month delay to give prosecutors the chance to ask the justices to reconsider the outcome.

On Friday, that window closed. The case was returned to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which took just minutes to send the matter back to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been in a holding pattern since December awaiting the outcome of the immunity fight.

On Saturday, Chutkan took her first steps in the case in months, setting an August 16 hearing to consider setting a new schedule. She has asked for prosecutors and Trump to offer their own thinking on the matter in writing by August 9. The court session won’t force Trump off the campaign trail, since Chutkan said she won’t require him to be present.

Still, the flurry of actions signals new life for the gravest of the four criminal cases against Trump — and it comes at a time when other Trump cases have stalled. Special counsel Jack Smith charged the former president in August 2023 with four counts, alleging a sweeping conspiracy to disenfranchise millions of voters and pressure government officials to overturn the legitimate 2020 election results.

There appears to be no real prospect of a trial in the case before the November election, but some Trump critics have been eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s ministerial action of returning the case to the trial court, hoping that it results in a series of swift decisions from Chutkan that could again put Trump on the defensive...  (our emphasis)

On that last point, Judge Chutkan has already started with swift decisions in addition to the ones noted above, rejecting on Saturday the Malignant Loser's attempt to dismiss the case over bogus charges of political interference by President Biden:

... In the ruling, Chutkan said Trump repeatedly mischaracterized the charges against him, which describe far more than simply criminalizing his claimed belief that the 2020 election was stolen.

Rather, Chutkan ruled, the charges describe a sweeping attempt to manipulate and lie to government authorities in order to undermine the lawful 2020 election results. And Trump’s claim that Biden was secretly behind the prosecution relied on flimsy evidence and anonymously sourced articles that Chutkan said he described inaccurately...

This case will be shuttlecocking between Chutkan, the appeals court, and the illegitimate MAGAt Republican Supreme Court for months, no doubt.  But, as the article points out, there could be many opportunities for Special Counsel Smith to get evidence of the Malignant Loser's infamy into the public domain, especially if Chutkan allows

... a hearing to assess the effect of the immunity ruling on the evidence Smith intends to present. That proceeding could feature witness testimony from key figures in the case.

Trump opponents hope this “mini-trial” would showcase Trump’s ties to the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, and remind voters of the most chaotic day of Trump’s presidency, even if it doesn’t carry the same stakes as a jury trial...

This isn't over yet, and to quote a favorite Presidential candidate, "When we fight, we win."

(Photo illustration: via Politico / Getty Images)

A "Mini-Trial" For Trump?

 

As we await the illegitimate Republican Supreme Court's purposefully- delayed decision Monday on convicted felon Malignant Loser's expansive claim of presidential immunity, some are gaming out how Special Counsel Jack Smith might proceed in the election interference case, should the Court instruct Judge Chutkan to define which actions in the indictment are protected presidential acts and which are not.  One expert believes there could be a "mini-trial" that will allow the evidence against the Malignant Loser to be laid out for the public before the election:

[NBC legal expert Katie] Phang suggested Chutkan would jump into the case with both feet immediately after all of the delays.

'"I believe, as do others, that Judge Chutkan will be told she needs to make a determination as to what conduct that is alleged in the indictment is quote 'official acts as president' and what conduct is quote 'unofficial acts.' The unofficial acts do not get the immunity."

"I'm a believer and I've been pushing this idea you will see an evidentiary hearing that Judge Chutkan will do and I think very quickly, she's going to put the pedal to the metal on this," she added.

"And the evidence you'll be hearing will be an opportunity for special counsel Jack Smith to present the entirety of the indictment because I believe the indictment against Donald Trump is all unofficial acts; none of that was kosher, none of it was supposed to happen, it was all illegal."

"You will see special counsel Jack Smith put on what I'm going to call a mini-trial through the course of the evidentiary hearing so Americans can hear what Donald Trump did." (our emphasis)

We may not have the full trial and verdict before the election, but the public may well get to see the mountains of evidence of the Malignant Loser's role at the center of the plot to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.  If the Court rules as expected Monday, it will be up to Judge Chutkan and Jack Smith to sort out how to proceed in the most expedited manner possible in order for the public to be reminded of the existential threat posed by the Malignant Loser. 

(Photo:  Trump between a rock and a hard place? / Jim Watson, Saul Loeb, U.S. District Court, AFP via Getty Images) 

 

The Chesebro Fake Electors Memo

 

A December 6, 2020, memo from Malignant Loser consigliere Kenneth Chesebro (a.k.a. Conspirator #5), in the possession of Special Counsel Jack Smith and now the New York Times, is a smoking gun in an arsenal of smoking guns the Special Counsel has access to in his case proving a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Here's a lengthy excerpt from the Times' reporting:

A lawyer allied with President Donald J. Trump first laid out a plot to use false slates of electors to subvert the 2020 election in a previously unknown internal campaign memo that prosecutors are portraying as a crucial link in how the Trump team’s efforts evolved into a criminal conspiracy.

The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo came to light in last week’s indictment of Mr. Trump, though its details remained unclear. But a copy obtained by The New York Times shows for the first time that the lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, acknowledged from the start that he was proposing “a bold, controversial strategy” that the Supreme Court “likely” would reject in the end.

But even if the plan did not ultimately pass legal muster at the highest level, Mr. Chesebro argued that it would achieve two goals. It would focus attention on claims of voter fraud and “buy the Trump campaign more time to win litigation that would deprive Biden of electoral votes and/or add to Trump’s column.”

The memo had been a missing piece in the public record of how Mr. Trump’s allies developed their strategy to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory. In mid-December, the false Trump electors could go through the motions of voting as if they had the authority to do so. Then, on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence could unilaterally count those slates of votes, rather than the official and certified ones for Mr. Biden.

While that basic plan itself was already known, the document, described by prosecutors as the “fraudulent elector memo,” provides new details about how it originated and was discussed behind the scenes. Among those details is Mr. Chesebro’s proposed “messaging” strategy to explain why pro-Trump electors were meeting in states where Mr. Biden was declared the winner. The campaign would present that step as “a routine measure that is necessary to ensure” that the correct electoral slate could be counted by Congress if courts or legislatures later concluded that Mr. Trump had actually won the states.  [snip]

But the indictment portrayed the Dec. 6 memo as a “sharp departure” from that proposal, becoming what prosecutors say was a criminal plot to engineer “a fake controversy that would derail the proper certification of Biden as president-elect.”

“I recognize that what I suggest is a bold, controversial strategy, and that there are many reasons why it might not end up being executed on Jan. 6,” Mr. Chesebro wrote. “But as long as it is one possible option, to preserve it as a possibility it is important that the Trump-Pence electors cast their electoral votes on Dec. 14.”

Three days later, Mr. Chesebro drew up specific instructions to create fraudulent electors in multiple states — in another memo whose existence, along with the one in November, was first reported by The Times last year. The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot also cited them in its December report, but it apparently did not learn of the Dec. 6 memo.

“I believe that what can be achieved on Jan. 6 is not simply to keep Biden below 270 electoral votes,” Mr. Chesebro wrote in the newly disclosed memo. “It seems feasible that the vote count can be conducted so that at no point will Trump be behind in the electoral vote count unless and until Biden can obtain a favorable decision from the Supreme Court upholding the Electoral Count Act as constitutional, or otherwise recognizing the power of Congress (and not the president of the Senate) to count the votes.”...

The anti- democracy, un- American chicanery exhibited in the memo is breathtaking, to say the least. As the article suggests, the existence of such a written "plan" was surmised, but not a reality until the Special Counsel obtained it.  Delaying the process, rigging the Senate vote count, pressuring Republicans to put forth fake electors in states controlled by Republicans -- all after courts had soundly rejected 60- plus claims of voter fraud by the Malignant Loser's coup clowns, to keep an election loser in office illegitimately. And because of the Malignant Loser's inability to keep his fat mouth shut, this was largely done out in the open.

All the more reason the trials need to be open and televised.

 

Trump Lawyer Slinks Off To Retirement Before He Can Be Disbarred

This outcome falls into several categories, such as "everything Trump touches dies" and "fuck around and find out":

Attorney Lin Wood, who filed legal challenges seeking to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss, is relinquishing his law license, electing to retire from practicing rather than face possible disbarment. Multiple states have weighed disciplining him for pushing Trump’s false claims that he defeated Joe Biden.

On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to “retire” his law license in light of “disciplinary proceedings pending against me.” In the request, made in a letter and posted on his Telegram account, Wood acknowledges that he is “prohibited from practicing law in this State and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission.”  [snip]

In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump praised Wood as doing a “good job” filing legal challenges seeking to overturn his loss, though Trump’s campaign at times distanced itself from him. Dozens of lawsuits making such allegations were rejected by the courts across the country.

Officials in Georgia had been weighing whether to disbar Wood over his efforts, holding a disciplinary trial earlier this year. Wood sued the state bar in 2022, claiming the bar’s request that he undergo a mental health evaluation as part of its probe violated his constitutional rights, but a federal appeals court tossed that ruling, saying Wood failed to show there was “bad faith” behind the request.  [snip]

Other attorneys affiliated with efforts to keep Trump in power following his 2020 election loss have faced similar challenges. Attorney John Eastman, architect of that strategy, faces 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy aimed at having then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of Biden’s victory.

May his "retirement" not be golden.

Losing your license also may be the least of the problems facing the Malignant Loser's "attorneys." Rudy "Toot Toot" Giuliani and Sidney Powell have already been sanctioned by federal courts for their roles in covering up for the Malignant Loser in various investigations.  More seriously, Special Counsel Jack Smith appears to be targeting the Malignant Loser's "attorneys," including Wood, Rudy and Powell for the roles they played in the failed 2020 election coup attempt/ fake electors scheme.  

These misfits are due all the dishonor and opprobrium to which they have and will be subject; some time in the slammer would be true justice, though, given their eager participation in the first (and hopefully last) attempted coup in the nation's history.  Fingers and toes crossed.

BONUS:  Giuliani has now been recommended for disbarment in Washington, DC.  It's a start.

(Image:  Three stooges: Wood, Giuliani, Powell/ MSNBC/ Reuters; Getty)

Presidential Election Reform Act Passes House

An attempt to bulletproof the certification of electoral votes against the next Trumpist Republican coup attempt passed the House yesterday:

The House voted Wednesday to pass an electoral reform bill that seeks to prevent presidents from trying to overturn election results through Congress, the first vote on such an effort since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral win.

The bill passed on a 229-203 vote, with just nine Republicans breaking ranks and joining Democrats in supporting the measure. None of those nine Republican lawmakers will be members of Congress next year — either because they lost their primaries or chose to retire.

The Presidential Election Reform Act, written by Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), explicitly cites the Capitol attack as a reason to amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887, “to prevent other future unlawful efforts to overturn Presidential elections and to ensure future peaceful transfers of Presidential power.”  [snip]

The Presidential Election Reform Act would clearly reaffirm that the vice president has no role in validating a presidential election beyond acting as a figurehead who oversees the counting process, barring that person from changing the results. It also would expand the threshold necessary for members of both chambers to object to a state’s results, as well as clarify the role governors play in the process. Finally, it would make clear that state legislatures can’t change election rules retroactively to alter the results.

So, now it heads to the Senate, where:

Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation in the Senate, the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, that differs from the House on the threshold for members of both chambers to object. Bipartisan support for the Senate bill is growing, with 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans co-sponsors as of Wednesday afternoon.

Somehow, in some form that will plug holes in the current electoral count process, we think a bill will pass and be signed by the President, if only by the barest margin in the Senate.  But, we'll see.