Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) continues to stay busy. Last week was his 22-minute booking at the Atlanta (GA) jail for his fourth indictment, a 75-minute interview with Tucker Carlson shown in opposition to the first GOP presidential debate, and rants on Truth Social about his unfair life. He probably has some briefing about upcoming hearings although one of his lawyers said he didn’t need to do any prep for court proceedings because of his “intelligence. Crimes covered in the 91 charges for the four indictments include obstruction of justice, racketeering conspiracy, and falsifying business records. DDT’s biggest crisis, however, is that he can’t attend the seniors championship at his Aberdeen, Scotland, golf course but must stay in the U.S. to “fight off the Crazed Radical Left Lunatics, Communists, Marxists, and Fascists.” A summary of last week and projections for the coming week.
Next week’s tentative schedule:
August 28 – Hearing for former chief of staff Mark Meadows’ motion to move his case to federal court: In Fulton County (GA), DA Fani Willis will present details of the RICO case against Meadows, DDT, and 17 co-defendants. Meadows want the charges dismissed because of his federal immunity; he claims his actions to disrupt the Georgia state election were on behalf of the federal government and tied to his position. The court also needs to schedule arraignments of the 19 co-defendants and determine whether they are required to appear in person in Atlanta or appear virtually.
Ken Chesebro, one of DDT’s 18 co-defendants in the racketeering case, is asking for a trial within 70 days. The game for an early trial request is to catch prosecutors unprepared, but Willis immediately proposed the requested October 23rd trial date for all defendants. A judge accepted the date but only for Chesebro, leaving the question of whether the cases will be separated. Chesebro helped create the fake elector scheme and played a large part in it. Georgia gives defendants the right to a trial starting within two weeks after indictment. DDT has requested his trial be severed from those who want an earlier trial.
One co-defendant is in jail; Harrison Floyd was denied bond until a hearing. He is accused of intimidating Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and assaulting federal officers attempting to serve him with a subpoena for his part in the January 6 insurrection. Bond amounts for the other co-defendants.
August 28 – Hearing on the trial date for Jack Smith’s obstruction indictment in Washington, D.C.: Prosecutors want the trial to begin on January 2, 2024, four days before the anniversary of the insurrection and putting the verdict in the midst of 2020 presidential primary season. DDT wants the trial to be put off until after April 2026. Judge Tanya Chutkan may set up dates for pretrial proceedings and trial.
Another issue in the case is an alleged conflict of interest in DDT’s paying Stanley Woodward, the attorney for his personal assistant, Walt Nauta, charged with obstructing federal efforts to recover classified documents from Mar-a-Lago by deleting surveillance tapes. Smith has addressed the problem in the Florida federal court of DDT’s pet judge Aileen Cannon. She earlier scheduled a hearing to discuss handling classified evidence in the case but postponed it with no rescheduling date.
DDT’s technology worker Yuscil Taveras admitted he lied to a grand jury about the deletion of this security footage, causing additional charges against DDT and Nauta as well as the indictment of Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira. Taveras dropped DDT-paid Woodward as his attorney and asked for a federal defender. The government is separately investigating DDT’s PAC, Save America, about the payment of lawyers. Since January, the PAC has paid over $21 million in legal fees for DDT and several witnesses in the case.
Two major topics surrounding DDT’s indictments and upcoming court proceedings focus on continued loyalty of his co-defendants and possibility of DDT’s removal from state ballots.
Meadows is one of eight co-defendants have already filed for their cases to be delayed, moved, or expedited. Success on their part or flipping by making a deal would be advantageous to Willis who likely doesn’t want to try 19 defendants. Meadows request to move his case to a federal court was followed by Jeffrey Clark, Shawn Still, Cathy Latham, and David Shafer who made the same request. In their motions, Meadows, Latham, Still, and Shafer stated their part in overturning election results came from DDT’s direction, hurting DDT’s defense.
Still, a GOP state senator and fake elector, may be suspended from the Senate. The state constitution requires Gov. Brian Kemp to convene a three-person panel to determine whether Still’s indictment both “relates to and adversely affects the administration” of his office and “that the rights and interests of the public are adversely affected thereby.” If Still survives that, he must decide if he will seek reelection next year.
In Florida, the first state where DDT’s eligibility for presidential candidate has been challenged, a tax attorney in Palm Beach County filed the dispute in federal court, citing his having been “engaged in insurrection and also gave aid and comfort to other individuals who were engaging in such actions.” The lawyer said he became convinced by an analysis by a former 4th Circuit Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig and Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe.
In New Hampshire, the Secretary of State plans to obtain legal advice about DDT’s eligibility after receiving letters asking him to block him from the ballot. The state’s primary is only five months away. The 2020 GOP nominee for the first congressional district said he is considering a lawsuit to ensure the Secretary enforce the constitution against DDT.
Joshua Zeitz has an historical overview of the 14th Amendment’s view about the problem of DDT’s eligibility. If DDT’s name disappears from state primary ballots, he may immediately lose electoral votes before the general election.
Republicans have complained about DDT’s “two-tiered justice,” and they’re right. To be booked, he flew into Atlanta on his private jet, drove through deserted streets with a long motorcade, spent 22 minutes at the jail where he had his mug shot taken after practicing his expression, drove back to the airport, and flew home on his private jet. DDT also got to list a flattering physical description, increasing his height by an inch and dropping his weight by ten per cent since his self-identified reporting at the Manhattan booking. In April, he said he was 6’2” and 240 pounds. No one else gets this royal treatment.
For those who enjoy trivia, Amy Gardner sites the misconceptions of not only DDT’s statistics but also those of other defendants. As she lambasts the mistakes, however, she also refers to DDT as “the president.” That’s Joe Biden, not DDT—unless she’s buying into the lie of a “stolen” election and even then she’s wrong.
Only DDT would spend time planning his expression on a mug shot. He hoped to look “defiant” but instead appeared sinister. Or, as DDT’s former security adviser John Bolton said, “thug.” Thug shot?
DDT may claim that over 240 million people watched his interview with Tucker Carlson on X, but the definition of “view” is at least two seconds. One person scrolling by a dozen times gives 12 “views.” In addition, the interview had under 800,000 “likes, perhaps closer to the number of “watchers.” This counterprogramming is unlikely to have affected viewership of the first GOP presidential debate with an estimated 12.8 million people watching—far below Fox’s inflated initial 50 million. The watchers were half those of DDT’s first presidential debate in 2015.
DDT has created such a cult that his followers view him as more reliable for “truth” than friends, families, and faith leaders. In one poll, 61 percent of GOP voters who prioritize “honest and trustworthy” candidates picked DDT, a huge liar. DeSantis was second with 17 percent. About sources for “truth”:
- 71 percent – DDT
- 63 percent – friends and families
- 56 percent – conservative media figures
- 42 percent – religious leaders
Another oddity in the polling: 29 percent of DDT voters think he lies to them—and they still support him. According to pollster Tresa Undem:
“Victimhood is embedded in every part of Trump’s campaign, personality, communications, and strategy. The only thing that shifts is the topic and the object of blame.
Undem has these findings about Republicans: over four-fifths agree that discrimination against whites is now as big a problem as bias against minorities; three-fourths describe discrimination against Christians as a significant U.S. problem; about seven-in-ten state that society now punishes men just for acting like men; and about two-thirds call white men as the group most discriminated against in the modern US. Half of Republicans in her polling agree with all four of those assertions, seven-in-ten agreed with at least three of them. Only one-in-20 Republicans rejected all of those ideas. According to Undem, Republicans agreeing with those statements are much more likely than others in the GOP to hold strongly favorable opinions of DDT and believe he stands up for “people like me.”
DDT is so cheap he won’t even pay an annual $300 for a permit granting the clock with his name in front of Trump Tower. A dozen years ago, the Trump Organization illegally placed a 16-foot clock on Fifth Avenue with no permission. In 2015, the city ordered the clock removed, and DDT moved to the White House before the situation was settled. The city is again demanding a permit.
Nel's New Day 