DDT: Three Strikes, a Hit Plus Today’s News

DDT’s Trials:

On the surface, a ruling by Judge Aileen Cannon in the case about Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) sequestering classified documents at Mar-a-Lago as his personal property appeared a positive move from the judge he appointed to protect him. It wasn’t, and here’s why.

Cannon had told lawyers for both DDT and special counsel Jack Smith to prepare jury instructions, the job of a judge, in two scenarios, both violating the law. Backlash to Cannon on either the basis of favoring DDT or judicial incompetence led her to reject his request to dismiss charges that he was illegally hoarding these documents. That sounds like a good result because Smith was on the verge of going to a higher court, the 11^th Court of Appeals, to have the situation corrected.

Yet Cannon left open the possibility for DDT to argue in a trial that the law permitted him to keep the documents. Smith argues that the mishandling of classified documents is governed by the 2017 Espionage Act, making DDT’s “unauthorized possession” of national defense secrets a felony. Even if DDT somehow slips through this law, his haphazard storage of records violates the law, according to Smith.

Cannon also rejected Smith’s request to promptly reveal her position on whether the law authorizes DDT to indefinitely keep these classified records after he left the White House. Smith’s team asked for an immediate decision, but Cannon declared she would tell the jury that demand was “unprecedented and unjust.” Her response addressed the Presidential Records Act, but Smith made no reference to it.

Smith could make a pretrial motion to block DDT’s attorneys from raising these arguments, but Cannon could reject it. On Tuesday, his team threatened to immediately go to the appeals court if Cannon rules that the jury be told that the law could have authorized DDT to retain these documents. On Thursday, she stated she took note of the appeal threat and rejected prosecutors’ attempts to make a decision at this time. Instead, she will wait until defense in the trial, when double jeopardy blocks any appeals about the trial. Smith cannot appeal a Cannon ruling permitting DDT to keep those documents after the trial’s jury is sworn in, creating a situation in which DDT can be acquitted without prosecutors having the right to appeal to a higher court. One possibility is that prosecutors can seek appellate review of pretrial rulings.

DDT’s attorneys have asked that the trial be after the November election with August 12 as a fallback date whereas Smith’s team requested July 8 to begin. Cannon has not set any date. Cannon is the only judge who DDT doesn’t insult. Instead, he called he special counsel “a lowlife who is nasty, rude, and condescending.” Former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz said:

“Turning the trial into a referendum on the judge may be effective from a public relations standpoint, but as a legal matter, it runs the risk of further politicizing the case and creating even more legal issues that could later backfire on the defense.”

In another DDT case, New York AG Letitia James is questioning the source of his $175 million bond posted in the civil business fraud case and gave his lawyers or the bond underwriter ten days to “justify” the bond, prove the company can make good on it. DDT needs to disclose more about his collateral for the bond. The amount protected DDT from posting the entire $454 million in a bond. James also filed notice that it “takes exception to the sufficiency” of the bond.” Knight Specialty Insurance Co. (KSIC) is not qualified in New York.

KSIC is owned by billionaire Don Hankey, known as the “king of subprime car loans.” He was sued by DDT’s DOJ for illegally repossessing dozens of vehicles belonging to military employees. Much of his $7.4 billion net worth comes through his Westlake Services for “targeting low-income customers with high-interest auto loans without obtaining the necessary court orders required under the law,” according to The Daily Beast. In a settlement, Westlake paid $700,000 to affected service members and a $61,000 fine to the federal government.Two years earlier, Westlake and its subsidiary Wilshire allegedly used “illegal debt collection tactics,” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

DDT already owes money to Hankey, who is the largest shareholder in Axos Bank refinancing DDT’s loans on Trump Tower ($100 million) and Doral Golf Course ($125 million) in 2022. Imagine the power that Hankey will have if DDT moves back into the White House.

Thursday brought two other losses for DDT:

Atlanta-area Judge Scott McAfee refused DDT’s arguments to dismiss his criminal indictment on the grounds that freedom of speech protected his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. His lawyer maintained that DDT’s efforts were “core political speech.” Judge Tanya Chutkan had made the same ruling against DDT earlier.

Judge Juan Merchan denied DDT his motion to delay the start of the April 15 criminal trial regarding business fraud and turned down his claim of presidential immunity.

The campaign of conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is taking back one of his lies—language in his fundraising emails referring to January 6 insurrectionists as “activists … stripped of their constitutional liberties.” It was included in fearmongering about government overreach, including the call to “free” Julian Assange who publicized government secrets in his Wikileaks. Campaign statements are similar to those from DDT.

After 30 rebuffs while raising $60 million, No Labels have quit searching for a 2024 presidential candidate although it gained ballot access in 19 states. Former Daily Beast editor and CNN anchor John Avlon, a No Labels co-founder now running for Congress as a Democrat in New York, said his former group was flirting with “a reckless gamble with democracy,” giving the authoritarian DDT the chance to dominate the GOP.

In a preliminary determination, a three-member legal panel of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility found that former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark violated rules of professional conduct and should be professionally disciplined. After the 2020 election, Clark, then acting assistant AG for the civil division, tried to be appointed acting AG to make probes into DDT false claims of voter fraud. According to the panel, Clark violated at least one ethics rule for lawyers barred in the District. The next step is a sanction letter proposing punishment approved by the full board and the D.C. appeals court. Investigators have advocated for his disbarment, but he could also have his legal license suspended. Clark also faces RICO charges in Georgia.

A federal judge in Boston is permitting three Venezuelans of almost 50 migrants who Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022 to sue the company providing the transportation. The plaintiffs declare they were told they would be flown to “a city in the Northeast” and “if they got on the flight, they would be provided with stable housing, work, educational resources” and help in their immigration proceedings, according to the order. DeSantis openly talked about his redirecting migrants from the southern border to create problems for Democratic leaders. Vertol, the company hired for the transport, is based in Oregon and was frequently represented by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

Elon Musk continues to leave X open to foreign influence and bots with his new policy: accounts with over 2,500 verified followers may receive Premium features free included the blue checks. Competition from Meta’s Threads has reached over 130 million active users, but Musk refuses to cite his numbers which have steadily declined. Some people receiving blue checks are offended because they don’t want others to believe they support Musk or X and exchange ideas of how to hide the blue badge from their profiles. Before Musk, the badge was a mark of authenticity. Some “verified users” spread scams, pro-Nazi memes, deepfake pornography, and disinformation including part of the Chinese disinformation campaign removed from Threads.

Peter Navarro, DDT’s former “trade adviser,” has been in a Florida prison for over two weeks, but he continues to beg for freedom from his four-month sentence after refusing a House subpoena during the January 6 insurrection probe. He lost his trial, lost his appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court, and lost his request to the Supreme Court when Chief Justice John Roberts turned him down. Navarro’s latest attempt is asking Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch to reconsider Roberts’ denial to keep him out of prison while he continues to appeal the case. The appeals court briefing for his appeal is set for July 19, 2024—a week after his sentence is completed.

Navarro also fought the DOJ requiring his turning over his work-related White House emails to the National Archives according to the Presidential Records Act. A lower court also ruled that his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination doesn’t entitle him to keep property belonging to a former employer. Earlier he had offered to turn over 200-250 emails if he was granted immunity from prosecution. Handing over 450 records, he claimed he had complied with court orders, but the judge disagreed after looking at a random sampling of 600 more messages that Navarro had declared personal, not professional. Navarro’s lawyer also represents a DDT aide accused of helping him hide classified documents at Mar-a-Lago which DDT also asserted were personal.

Republicans hate drag” “shows so avid DDT-supporter, Utah resident, Mormon, former alcoholic, gay   “Lady Maga USA” calls himself a “costume artist” who is a man dressing in women’s clothing, wearing makeup and displaying feminine mannerisms. He was a big hit at this year’s conservative CPAC.

The Cult of DDT on Easter Weekend

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has had only one campaign event since Super Tuesday on April 12 gave him the delegates to be the GOP presidential candidate. Since then, President Joe Biden has campaigned across the country and boosted both his fundraising and his polling. While Biden opened 100+ campaign offices in swing states, DDT has closed them, and he can’t afford big rallies and TV ads. Along with ridicule of how DDT spends his time, Biden has this video comparing the difference in the two candidates’ activities.   

When he isn’t appearing in court for one of his innumerable hearings, DDT stays near Mar-a-Lago, searching for donors, hosting elected officials, and golfing. DDT badly needs the donations, having less than half the donations and cash in the bank as DDT while paying tens of millions of dollars in legal expenses. None of the daily average of $90,000, however, comes out of his own pocket. Details are here.

DDT calls his ex-diplomat Richard Grenell “my envoy” as Grenell travels the world talking to far-right foreign leaders and working to overturn democracy. As DDT’s shadow secretary of state, Grenell works against the policies of Biden’s administration. He also works on real estate projects with Jared Kushner which might be government related while he promotes Russian interests in the Balkan states.

 The majority of Republicans in the House plot to destroy Social Security and Medicare, but DDT, who blames his own beliefs on Democrats, posted that President Joe Biden is “killing” the social insurance programs “with the INVASION.” Beyond the lie of “invasion,” DDT doesn’t know that undocumented immigrants pay the payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare but don’t get any benefits, meaning more money in the fund. A mass deportation program would weaken finances for these programs.

DDT also doesn’t understand how tariffs work. His desired ten percent tariff on all imported goods would increase prices by up to $1,500 annually for U.S. families. Even a senior trade policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation understands that a universal tariff, especially with retaliation, would drag down the U.S. economy and ten percent could go up to 20 percent like Herbert Hoover’s 1930 Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. DDT also threatens a 100 percent tariff on cars if manufacturers move to Mexico. A tariff is a “gigantic regressive tax increase,” according to Matthew Yglesias. A ten percent tariff on coffee, almost all of it imported, raises the price ten percent while the government takes the money from the tariff. Bananas and fruit out of season would be ten percent more as well as imported cars and car parts.

DDT, grifter-in-chief, has gone from selling sneakers to making money off Bibles selling for $60 each plus shipping and other fees. He said, “It’s my favorite book,” evidently moving on from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. The King James Version may attract evangelicals because this is the only Bible they follow, but Christians describe the sale of the Bible that condemns making money off people’s faith “sacrilege,” “heresy,” and “borderline offensive.” According to historian Jemar Tisby, DDT is pandering to the values of Christian nationalism, the lies that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and should be a Christian theocracy.

Christian nationalism excludes not only all other religions and non-religious beliefs but also Christians who don’t believe in the white supremacy that MAGA supports. The Bible also sells for under $5 or can be downloaded free. DDT’s product states that no money from the sale will go to his campaign but nothing about his legal fees.

While testifying under oath at his disbarment hearing, Jeffrey Clark, who DDT considered for his acting AG, admitted he had inappropriate and unsanctioned contact with Trump behind the backs of his superiors when he was trying to overturn the 2020 election. His supervisors, including acting AG Jeffrey Rosen, had ordered Clark to have no contact with DDT, but Clark continued the communication, violating DOJ rules. To the dismay of his lawyers, he also said DDT was his client although the DOJ is an independent agency.

At a wake for the New York City police officer killed in the line of duty, DDT, under four indictments with 88 charges, complained about runaway crime that doesn’t exist. A police officer has not been killed in the city for two years. DDT considers the criminals from the January 6 insurrection “patriots” although they assaulted 140 police officers. At least 30 states have higher homicide rates than New York City, many of those GOP-led. 

 

DDT hasn’t criticized the Russian arrest of journalist Evan Gershkovich a year ago to avoid offending President Vladimir Putin. About the death of Putin’s opponent Alexei Navalny, DDT said he couldn’t “say for sure,” yet he compared himself to Navalny. DDT also didn’t criticize Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his killing of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Other Legal Issues:

Plaintiffs may file an amended complaint to Buchanan v. Trump, a lawsuit by protesters claiming they were unconstitutionally cleared from Lafayette Park with tear gas and police batons because DDT wanted to walk to his photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal church. The case was settled, but the judge is permitting the complaint.

Although Maine cannot keep DDT’s name off the ballot, per a Supreme Court ruling, DDT wants to erase the December 28 finding that he engaged in insurrection, violating the 14^th Amendment. DDT’s attorneys wrote on March 6 that he is aggrieved by the decision “because it continues to improperly impugn his reputation by branding him an ‘insurrectionist.’” The secretary of state declared the objection “moot” because the primary had passed and votes were counted but expects briefs to be filed in late April or early May.

New York – Criminal Business Fraud/Hush Money to Stormy Daniels to Interfere with 2016 Election:

DDT begged the judge in his civil business fraud trial to “leave my children alone,” but he repeatedly attacks spouses and children of judges overseeing his cases, most recently the daughter, who he identifies by name, of Judge Juan Merchan his criminal business fraud trial. His attacks are based on false X accounts. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg asked Merchan to clarify whether the order bans DDT from these public attacks and direct DDT “to immediately desist” with sanctions if the order is ignored. Expected to last two months, DDT’s trial in the case, the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president, begins on April 15.

Recently, DDT posted a video of a truck with the image of President Joe Biden bound and tied as if he’s in the pickup bed. DDT’s campaign claims that the picture was just of a “truck traveling down the highway” and then accused “Democrats and crazed lunatics” calling for “despicable violence against President Trump and his family. Legal experts are calling DDT’s posting the image a felony, wanting action against him for threatening the president of the United States. Bragg used this action in his filing that included 300 pages of real-world consequences of DDT’s attacks. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, a colleague of Judge Tanya Chutkan who is overseeing another DDT trial for his indictments, talked about the need for judges “to carry out their duties without the threat of potential physical harm.”

Another DDT strategy is to delay the trial because pre-trial publicity and anti-DDT prejudice in Manhattan won’t give him a fair trial, a tactic he has used six times in eight months. DDT hired pollsters who found 61 percent of potential jurors believe he is guilty.  

Georgia – RICO Conspiracy to Overturn Election:

In a hearing with Judge Scott McAfee, DDT’s lawyer pushed for the dismissal of charges against DDT, claiming protected political speech even if found untrue. In addition, DDT’s lawyer argued that DDT’s lies were not only constitutionally protected free speech but truth-telling when DDT said he won Georgia by over 400,000 votes instead of losing by 11,779 votes. DDT was using “election speech,” the lawyer asserted, false statements meant to deliberately mislead that “promote a form of thought that ultimately helps realize the truth.” Prosecutors pointed out that lying on official document violates Georgia law. McAfee did not make a ruling. The hearing to determine Fulton County (GA) DA Fani Willis’ potential conflict of interest, from which she was exonerated, created a backlog of other motions including a trial date and the possible separation of remaining 14 defendants into different trials.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has a new conspiracy theory to rescue DDT from the RICO charges: he was asking about ballots that the post office had lost.   

Florida – DDT’s Taking Classified Documents:

Unexplained filings are piling up in Judge Aileen Cannon’s court, and Roger Parloff, Lawfare senior editor, surmises these “secret docket” measures come from Cannon’s lack of understanding about the judicial filing system. He Xed that Tuesday “the govt sought  permission to file a surreply [second response] relating to a reply that isn’t docketed yet, which related to a response that isn’t docketed yet, which related to a motion that isn’t docketed yet.” Over a month ago, Parloff flagged the same problem over a month ago. He continued:

“On 2/6, departing from Local Rules, she forbade parties from filing sealed or redacted docs without 1st getting her permission. That evolved into attys emailing undocketed docs to each other & the judge while waiting for Cannon to make redaction decisions. So here we are. Why’d she do that? I think because she had a mistaken view that anything filed with the court becomes presumptively public.”

Actions show DDT’s growing desperation as his popularity wanes. In an examination of over 1,000 counties, he is losing support in traditionally GOP territory that he carried in 2016 and 2020. Thus far, the GOP primaries have shown strong support for Nikki Haley against DDT even after she dropped out of the race. Biden has invited those voters to join him; DDT has rejected them.

Bridge Collapse, More News

The collapse of Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore (MD) has taken the top spot in the media today.

One problem for the disaster is that Maersk, the company chartering the cargo ship destroying the bridge, blocked employees from reporting safety concerns to the U.S. Coast Guard, violating the 1984 Seaman’s Protection Act. The company required employees to report their concerns to Maersk before any other authorities. Eight months before the crash into the bridge, the Labor Department sanctioned Maersk and ordered it to reinstate the employee and pay over $700,000 in damages and back wages. The employee, a chief mate on the Safmarine Mafadi, reported unrepaired leaks, unpermitted alcohol consumption onboard, inoperable lifeboats, faulty emergency fire suppression equipment, and other issues.

Another conservative has blamed President Joe Biden for the bridge’s collapse. On conservative Newsmax, host Rob Astorino questioned rust under bridges, but Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) alleged—evidence-free—that infrastructure funds are not being spent “on roads and bridges” but instead on the Green New Deal. She voted against the “socialist wish list” in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act before taking credit for her state project using $26 million for a regional transit hub transition in Charleston. The Biden law provides $40 billion of new funding for bridge repair, replacement, and rehabilitation, the single largest bridge investment since the interstate highway construction act in 1956. Unfortunately, the infrastructure act is inadequate for repairing or replacing 45,000 U.S. bridges at risk and the 173,000 miles of bad roads because these have been neglected for many decades, but the funding is a start.

The background of former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel’s hiring and ousting as an NBC political “analyst” is giving the network’s administration a black eye. The network purportedly tried to soothe McDaniel by comparing her to the hiring of Jen Psaki, a former White House press secretary as MSNBC host, but to do so, they have to ignore that McDaniel worked alongside former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) to overturn the 2020 election in his favor and destroy U.S. democracy. DDT, who fired McDaniel from the RNC, is now attacking NBC for doing the same thing, accusing “MSDNC [sic] FAKE ANCHORS” of taking over the network.

Beyond the bad press, NBC may have to pay her $600,000 for her two-year contract because she didn’t breach its terms. Her interview on Meet the Press would cost the network $500 per second. She is also pursuing defamation and hostile work environment charges after her temporary colleagues attacked her on air. Loyalty didn’t pay off for McDaniel. She faithfully tried to overturn the election and repeated DDT’s lies, but he’s cheering her firing. Her talent agency, CAA, also dropped her on Tuesday. Considering McDaniel’s former lies, this story will continue with reports from the courts.

More lies are important for anyone who wants to be employed by McDaniel’s former boss, RNC. The question whether the 2020 presidential election was stolen is part of job interviews for those from swing states reapplying for jobs. RNC and Trump spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said:

“We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.”

Longtime GOP strategist Doug Heye said that the party expects staffers to agree with the presidential candidates. Agreeing with a stolen election is “the last frontier of that.” Many employees will also be expected to move near Mar-a-Lago, leaving the RNC headquarters largely empty.

DDT wants to hire another election denier, Jeffrey Clark, after the 2024 election, but Clark, who almost became DOJ’s attorney general inder DDT last time, may lose his license to practice law because of his “false claims as he attempted to enlist the agency in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to undo his 2020 election loss.” The D.C. Bar disciplinary counsel said that he tried to commit “a coup” at the DOJ. Clark also claims that “smart thermostats” were used to manipulate voting machines.

Another DDT sycophant, his former lawyer John Eastman, should be disbarred for attempts to overturn the 2020 election according to a California judge. Eastman also faces RICO charges in Georgia. The judge called for Eastman’s law license to be revoked, and Eastman’s case moves to the state Supreme Court.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who started going broke by putting $40 million into overturing the 2020 presidential election, is being evicted from a Minnesota warehouse for not paying $217,000 in rent. He also lost $100 million in revenue after shopping networks and retailers dropped Lindell’s products. Earlier this month, he appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast, asking for donations  to fund his new Arizona lawsuit for Kari Lake.  

Desperate to appear more moderate for her U.S. Arizonan senator his fall, Lake conceded in an election officer’s defamation suit against her and won’t defend her accusations that a GOP Maricopa County official rigged the 2022 election. She claimed he sabotaged vote tabulators, causing her to lose the gubernatorial election, and purposefully printing the “wrong image on the ballot,” one inch smaller. Her excuse for concession was that she didn’t want to legitimize the lawsuit, which the default judgment does.

Three senior Boeing executives, including CEO Dave Calhoun, are leaving the company. The head of commercial planes immediately resigned, a board member won’t run for reelection, and Calhoun is staying until the end of the year. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) director Michael Whitaker said the company must work on safety standards because the company’s priorities “have been on production and not on safety and quality.” Barry Valentine, a former FAA senior official, said that competition with rivals such as France-based Airbus, changed Boeing’s management from engineers to accountants.

On the state level:

A three-judge panel for the 5^th Circuit Court again blocked the state’s law arresting immigrants attempting to cross the border with one judge dissenting, during the court’s litigation. For the majority, Judge Priscilla Richman wrote:

“For nearly 150 years, the Supreme Court has held that the power to control immigration—the entry, admission, and removal of noncitizens—is exclusively a federal power.”

Richman also cited a 2012 Supreme court ruling invalidating an Arizona law. She added that it is the president’s role “to decide whether, and if so, how to pursue noncitizens illegally present in the United States.” Judge Andrew Oldham, a DDT appointee, submitted a long dissent about not blocking the law because of hypothetical concerns about its enforcement. The Supreme Court had declared on March 19 that the law could go into effect until the 5^th Circuit Court made a decision.

After almost two years of litigation, Disney has a reached a settlement with Florida regarding Gov. Ron DeSantis’ takeover of the district controlling Walt Disney World. The agreement erases the board’s control over design and construction at Disney World by declaring all prior settlements null and void. Both parties are dropping lawsuits against each other by resolving disagreements outside the courtroom with neither party admitting fault or liability.

In the land of can’t, DeSantis has signed one of the strictest bans on social media use by youth in the U.S. Barring social media accounts for everyone 14 and under plus requiring 15- and 16-year-olds to have parental consent for accounts, the law may end up in court for violating the First Amendment. A letter from a coalition of groups warned that an outright ban would “deprive Florida’s youth of vital resources, educational engagement, support networks, and opportunities for personal and academic growth.” Parents have no rights for children under 15.

Florida blocks social media to protect youth but allows them to contract measles which has now spread to three other states. The state has no policy requiring vaccination or isolation, and 20 percent of children contracting the disease will need to be hospitalized.

Despite objections from Apple, Oregon has passed the nation’s strongest Right to Repair law which bans “parts pairing,” allowing companies such as Apple to decide when and how people can replace parts. The law requires manufacturers to provide Oregonians and small repair businesses with access to parts, tools, and information needed to fix personal electronics and household appliances. 

The federal Hyde Amendment prevents funds from providing abortions so Nevada has now joined 17 other states using state funds to cover abortions under Medicaid to comply with the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment, adopted in 2022. A Pennsylvania ruling overturned an almost 40-year precedent that the state ERA didn’t apply to laws that regulate pregnancy or other “physical characteristics unique to one sex.”

Polling:

Higher taxes for the wealthy are popular in swing states. Almost seventy percent of respondents in seven swing states want higher taxes on billionaires and people who make over $400,000 each year, according to a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll.

 Gallup’s economic confidence index has bounced back to its highest reading since August 2021. Thirty percent of people in the U.S. now say the economy is either excellent or good, up from a low of 11 percent in June of 2022.

Fifty-five percent of people in the U.S. disapprove of Israel’s military action in Gaza, while 36 percent approve. In November, 50 percent approved, and 45 percent disapproved

Matt Schlapp, American Conservative Union chair, settled the sexual assault lawsuit by Carlton Huffman with a payment of $480,000 through an insurance policy. Huffman claimed he didn’t get the payment, but multiple sources reported the financial arrangements. He said he was legally allowed to say only five words, “We have resolved our differences. A trial was originally set for June.

DDT Wants ‘Absolute Immunity’ for His Crimes

Republicans have tried to make Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization the biggest issue of January 9, but they lost out to the hearing about immunity for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) because he was elected president in 2016. A three-judge panel of the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court questioned DDT’s lawyers about how and why he should have absolute immunity for anything he did while in the White House and since then. The decision will determine whether DDT is immune for his obstruction of justice when he tried to block the counting of the electoral votes on January 6, 2021, because he was still in the White House at the time.

The most memorable answers from the lawyers are the attorneys’ statements that presidents could not be prosecuted for orders to kill a rival or anyone else or for selling pardons and nuclear secrets. They also tried to use the double jeopardy argument making him immune because he had not been found guilty in an impeachment trial. According to their argument, a president can be prosecuted only if he has been impeached and convicted. A judge asked:

“I understand your position to be that a president is immune from criminal prosecution for any official act that he takes as president even if that action is taken for an unlawful or unconstitutional purpose, is that correct?”

The lawyer responded that prosecution was allowed only after the Senate convicted the president in impeachment. She again asked the question for a “yes or no” answer, and the lawyer repeated his former answer. According to Pearce, founding father Alexander Hamilton, cited by DDT’s lawyers, stated that a former president can be criminally prosecuted. Later, James Pearce, who argued the case for the U.S. government, said the lawyer’s comments portended “an extraordinarily frightening future” because the belief puts presidents outside and above the law.

DDT’s lawyers have reversed their position since his impeachment and his case Trump v. Vance when he tried to keep his tax returns from Manhattan DA Cy Vance. For both those cases, DDT’s legal team argued he could be criminally prosecuted after he left the White House. The lawyer finally admitted that was the case, but those arguments are not “res judicata,” binding on DDT in the current case. Pearce pointed out that some Republicans said they voted against conviction in the impeachment because they expected the DOJ to investigate and determine any charges against DDT.

A judge turned the argument about impeachment conviction allowing prosecution against the lawyer. She said:

“So, therefore, he’s not completely immune, because you concede he can be prosecuted under certain circumstances. Isn’t that also a concession a president can be prosecuted for an official act, because they can be impeached for an official act?”

She added:

“All of your other arguments seem to fall away … if you concede a president can be prosecuted under some circumstances.”

The judges also asked whether DDT’s attempts to overturn the election were part of his presidential duties and whether their court should make that decision. The lawyer claimed that DDT’s actions, such as meetings with congressional members and the DOJ about a stolen election, were his presidential responsibilities. In addition, DDT’s social media posts encouraging people to be at the Capitol on January 6 were an official presidential communication channel, making his tweets also immune. A judge appointed by George H.W. Bush was again skeptical and retorted:

“I think it’s paradoxical to say that his constitutional duty to take care [that] the laws be faithfully executed allows him to violate federal laws.”

In another exchange between DDT’s legal team and the judges, a lawyer said he assumed the future would not be full of vindictive “tit-for-tat prosecutions.” DDT has repeatedly promised retaliation when he coopts the DOJ. The day before the hearing, DDT suggested he would have Biden indicted.  

In a delay argument, DDT’s lawyer concluded the hearing by asking the judges to “stay the mandate” so he could “seek further review” if he loses.

DDT complained about being forced to leave the campaign trail in Iowa to attend the hearing, but he was not required to be present. Defendants typically don’t attend their hearings. DDT did use the hearing to advertise a calendar, supposedly free for a donation of $47, listing the important parts of his time in the White House. Missing, however, is the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

DDT finished the day by refusing to answer reporters’ questions about whether he would tell his supporters to not engage in violence. Four days earlier, President Joe Biden had told his audience that DDT wouldn’t condemn violence.  

“Trump won’t do what an American president must do. He refuses to denounce political violence. So hear me clearly. I’ll say what Donald Trump won’t. Political violence is never, ever acceptable in the United States political system. Never, never, never. It has no place in a democracy. None.”

A reporter asked DDT, “Will you tell your supporters now, no matter what, no violence?” DDT walked away.

DDT’s unconstitutional plans for retaliation against critics and opponents have been well publicized. He has listed these enemies to his advisers and friends, wanting the DOJ to investigate them, among them former chief of staff John Kelly, former AG Bill Barr, former attorney Ty Cobb, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Mark A. Milley. Publicly, DDT has said he will appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Biden and his family.

Associates are drafting plans to eliminate policies shielding criminal prosecutions based on political considerations. A partnership of right-wing think tanks in Washington is preparing “Project 2025,” including executive orders, that will deploy the military domestically under the 1871 Insurrection Act. Another scheme removes the independence from the DOJ under the claim that it is not based in law or the Constitution. Former budget director Russ Vought, in charge of this plot, said:

“You don’t need a statutory change at all, you need a mind-set change. You need an attorney general and a White House Counsel’s Office that don’t view themselves as trying to protect the department from the president.”

Jeffrey Clark, part of Vought’s think tank, leads the work on the Insurrection Act under Project 2025. He is one of six unnamed co-conspirators described in DDT’s indictment in the federal election interference case. Clark is also DDT’s co-defendant in Fulton County’s (GA) RICO case for pressuring superiors at the DOJ to investigate evidence-free election crimes and organize fake electors in 2020 swing states.

DDT has found another victim for his “birther” conspiracy theory. Beginning with the accusation that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and therefore ineligible to be president, he moved on to the same charge against presidential opponent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Now he’s telling the same lie about Nikki Haley, another presidential opponent who is surging in the polls. His falsehood will be almost immediately debunked, but the DDT’s statement will point out that Haley is the daughter of immigrants.

Thursday, DDT plans another appearance, this one giving a closing argument at the New York civil trial determining the amount of damages for his business fraud. Defendants representing themselves in the closing argument is highly unusual, and DDT isn’t a lawyer. The purpose will be to persuade Judge Arthur Engoron of his innocence in the fraud by vastly increasing his assets’ value for more beneficial loans. To determine the financial cost to DDT, Engoron will weigh claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. He hopes to have a verdict by the end of this month.

Menendez, Courts – Corruption

The indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) gave Republicans an excuse to exercise their hypocrisy muscles. “You know why I’m standing by him? Because his constituents voted for him,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. “I believe in the rule of law,” the House speaker added. “A person’s innocent until proven guilty.” No, the Speaker wasn’t talking about Menendez. He was defending Rep. George Santos (R-NY) in January after he was indicted with 13 charges. Nine months later, McCarthy said Menendez should resign, “very much so” and what prosecutors presented “seems pretty black and white.”

With a small margin in the House, McCarthy needs Santos’ vote. The Senate has a smaller margin, but McCarthy doesn’t care—it’s Democratic.

Democrats may be right in calling for Menendez to resign, but the Supreme Court might consider him innocent. In 2016, a unanimous court found Bob McDonnell, former Virginia GOP governor, and his wife innocent of bribery and corruption because they didn’t take the money in a direct exchange for an “official act.”

Dangers for Menendez:

• Democrats are not eager to defend him.
• The corruption is obvious. 
• Menendez hasn’t bothered with a defense other than he’s not guilty and that accusations come from racism toward his being “a first generation Latino American” to become a senator.

Judge Aileen Cannon, appointed by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), has been stalling the trial regarding his concealing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago for over six weeks. Now she agreed to a DOJ request for hearings on October 12 about conflicts of interest: two DDT attorneys representing his co-defendants represent other clients who may be witnesses against Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. Stanley Woodward, Nauta’s attorney represented “at least seven other individuals who have been questioned in connection with the investigation,” including those who testified about Nauta, according to the DOJ. Nauta should be told of “potential conflicts and attendant risks,” the DOJ wrote.

The Georgia RICO case with 19 defendants including DDT keeps plugging along as three more of them, fake electors illegally signing a certificate for the Electoral College, requested a move from state to federal court. DDT’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark made the same request;  Meadows was refused. They all claim trying to overturn the election is legal because they were federal officers. Chesebro’s defense is that GOP electors weren’t false because the Republican Party elected them. Federal Judge Steve Jones did not give a time when he would rule; Meadows is appealing his rejection.  

Clark maintains DDT told him to write the letter to top Georgia officials accusing election fraud in the state. He said that DDT had “ratified” all his actions dealing with the elections in a three-hour meeting in the Oval Office. Clark is charged not only with the state RICO act but also attempting to create a false statement—the draft letter.

Fulton County DA Fani Willis has listed former MAGA lawyer Lin Wood as a state witness, raising conflicts of interest for several defense attorneys. He recently retired to avoid professional discipline. Lawyers include Harry MacDougald representing Clark; McDougald had represented and was co-counsel to Wood in a failed 2020 election-related petition to the Supreme Court. Another lawyer, Scott Grubman, had represented Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his wife, Patricia Raffensperger, state witnesses; Grubman represents Ken Chesebro.

Judge Scott McAfee will permit attorneys for two co-defendants, Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell, to interview jurors returning the RICO indictment with some restrictions. Their trial is scheduled for October 23. McAfee said the Court would “guide and maintain oversight” of the process to ensure that “privileged matters remain protected.” He also emphasized the importance of secrecy surrounding grand jury deliberations. Defense attorneys are to file a list of proposed questions, and the state can file any objections. 

Peter Navarro, DDT’s former trade adviser found by Jared Kushner on Amazon, has stayed loyal to his boss. As part of his protection, Navarro called female aides who formerly worked at the White House—Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Stephanie Grisham, Kayleigh McEnany, Olivia Troye—the “pimp ladies” because they testified against Deposed Donald Trump (DDT). He was especially vicious about Hutchinson’s narrative of Rudy Giuliani sexually molesting her at the rally on January 6, 2021. Navarro finished his angry tweet with “Rudy Giuliani hero, Cassidy trash.” McEnany is an odd name to include because the former press secretary hired as Fox network pundit has not spoken out against DDT. The Supreme Court will likely hear the case, Moore v. U.S., in December with Alito’s interviewer the case’s petitioner.    

With the Supreme Court going back into session next week, the subject of recusal has been popular, especially after new corruption scandals surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas. As he proceeds to participate in rulings for cases in which he has received favors from some of the principals, people are questioning why Republicans believe he shouldn’t need to recuse himself in a case dealing with government regulations after he benefits from the Koch network. In part of its report on the situation, ProPublica recounts when Republicans, including than Indiana’s Rep. Mike Pence, asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to recuse herself from all abortion-related cases because she spoke at a lecture cosponsored by a women’s rights group that filed Supreme Court briefs.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has recused herself from the government regulation case, nicknamed Chevron because of a prior ruling with that name. She sat on the case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, while on the D.C. Circuit Court.

Justice Samuel Alito has excused himself from any need for recusal with his rule, that recusal is simply the “personal decision of each justice.” Therefore, he isn’t recusing himself from a “major tax case” involving an attorney who interviewed him for a newspaper article and helped him “air his personal grievances.”   Regarding the interviews, Alito said “he did so as a journalist, not an advocate.”

The Mississippi Supreme Court has come out on the side of democracy—at least a little. It struck down part of a 2023 state law authorizing some circuit court judges in Jackson and surrounding county to be appointed rather than elected. The area is majority Black, and concerns came from the majority-white legislature trampling voting rights. Most judges are elected in the rest of the state. The chief justice can appoint justices for such reasons as a case backlog, but the court stated it saw no special circumstances to require appointments in this situation. The NAACP has been fighting the legislature for almost a year while it decided to appoint judges and expand the state police role in Jackson.

Gov. Tate Reeves has worked since 2020 to put Jackson citizens under his thumb by allowing the water disaster in the state capital, ending the federal pandemic rental assistance program, and returning the $130 million in aid. The city population, 83 percent Black, was without water for six weeks before the thick brown water barely emerging from the pipes cost $40 a month. In 2021, Reeves refused federal Covid unemployment benefits in the state with no minimum wage and the highest poverty and child poverty rates in the U.S. Food stamp funding was used for athletics; 90 percent of those applying for that help are denied.

In reporting about the retirement of Rupert Murdoch from his leadership position, MSNBC host Medhi Hasan wrote:

“Three of the most destructive events of my lifetime could not have happened without the toxic influence of Fox Corp. and News Corp.”

The Iraq War: An examination by The Guardian of 175 Murdoch-owned papers before the war showed all of them supported the invasion. Over half of Fox’s viewers thought WMDs were discovered in Iraq even as late as 2015, 12 years after the invasion and long after the lie was uncovered. While former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair hadn’t decided on the country’s involvement, he thought a phone call promoting the war from Murdoch “was prompted by Washington.”

Brexit: News Group Newspapers, parent of The Sun, registered as an official “leave E.U.” campaign group and spent over 96,000 euros on the newspaper’s “BeLEAVE in Britain” posters. The slim majority for separation between the UK and the EU in 2016 sent the UK into a tailspin with the resignation of four prime ministers and resulted in economic havoc. From an undermined EU came an increasing rise in domestic far-right populists and an expansionist Putin Russia.

DDT and the Big Lie: Fox provided the foundation for DDT’s 2016 presidential victory by building a conservative audience incensed by “birther” conspiracies and anti-immigrant anger. Murdoch provided DDT with free airtime with the weekly segment Mondays with Trump in 2011. After DDT’s nomination, Fox was his propaganda arm and then transitioned into state TV after DDT moved into the White House. After DDT lost in 2020, Fox stayed with DDT, blasting DDT in private but still profiting from pushing his big lie about having won the election.

Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said:

“No individual alive has done more to divide America than Murdoch.”

All three of the above, plus far more violations of democracy, weren’t done for principle or ideology, only for power and wealth. Murdoch agreed with this position when he said during the Dominion lawsuit against Fox that he agreed his platforming conspiracy theorists was “not red or blue, it is green.”

Biden Visits Maui, GOP Heats Up

Wildfires razed parts of Maui on August 8 and 9, but President Joe Biden waited until August 21 to visit the devastated area. Republicans used his wait to slam Biden for his lack of compassion, and some of the media followed their message, preferring to follow an indicted blowhard who constantly blusters about his personal problems instead of covering the tireless, behind-the-scenes work to make people’s lives better. Pundits demand the excitement of braggadocio while making hay out of a photo to Biden on the beach during his annual vacation. Overlooked is the chaos that a Biden visit would have caused in the already shattered island, reeling from the deadliest fire in recent U.S. history.

After notice of a brush fire on the first day, Biden started monitoring events through frequent briefings. The next day he sent his “deepest condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the wildfires in Maui” sending them prayers from himself and his wife, Jill Biden. He added that he had ordered federal assets to the island, including the Navy’s 3^rd Fleet and the U.S. Coast Guard, and directed the Transportation Department to coordinate evacuation on commercial airlines. On August 10, he opened a speech in Salt Lake City about the PACT Act by reporting he had “approved a major disaster declaration” for aid to Hawaii. Biden also provided information about what he had already done and promised to make every possible “available to them.” He also signed a disaster declaration and ordered federal aid, including assistance for temporary housing, home repairs, property losses, debris removal, and hazard mitigation.

Within the next five days, Biden had deployed almost 1,000 federal personnel to Maui along with meals, water, cots, blankets, and shelter supplies. FEMA’s approval of $700 per household without housing provides funds for essential items such as medication. Affected businesses and non-profits could receive low-interest federal disaster loans, and the Agriculture Department and HHS provided SNAP (food stamp) and healthcare benefits. On the island, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared roads and worked on the electrical grid and removal of hazardous waste. The U.S. Forest Service coordinated with state officials to put out fire and stop outbreaks. The Department of Defense moved supplies.

During Biden’s meeting with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David beginning on August 17, he targeted his announcements to that important summit while he continued to work behind the scenes. Pro-Russian people in the U.S. grabbed that shift to claim that Biden was ignoring the U.S. to help Ukraine. Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, spread that myth to support Russia and China, as Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) wants. Congressional members from Hawaii, however, understand the work that Biden and the federal government has done. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) said:

“We in Hawaii have been through hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions—but we have never seen such a robust federal response. Thank you.” 

On Monday, when the Bidens visited, Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee said:

“The thousands of people who were in our emergency shelters are no longer there. I think there’s nine people left as of today. Thousands have been moved to transitional quarters like the hotels, who are taking very good care of the people, as well as individual homes and short-term rentals.

“So, I’m sure, as you’re talking to various people, you will hear stories of disappointment, of course, because they have lost a lot. You can’t blame them for being disappointed. But there are many success stories as well.”

Biden assured officials that the recovery effort would respect local traditions.

In an attempt to smear Biden, Fox network began the rumor, based on a low resolution video, that the president of fell asleep at the Maui fire memorial. A higher resolution video from C-SPAN shows Biden sitting at a table where he watches a speaker and coughs. He then looks downward for about ten seconds and then nods in agreement with the speaker.

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates wrote:

“It’s unfortunate they feel the need to lie. Instead, they should join him in supporting the people of Maui.”

The conservative media also blasted Biden for petting a dog, saying it “distracted” him. The dog is a cadaver dog with the job of searching for bodies.

David Ingram wrote that unchecked posts spreading on the country’s largest social media platforms—including Elon Musk’s X—use low-quality videos to publish misinformation that researchers call “cheap fakes misleading people with simple techniques.

Back on the U.S. mainland, almost half the people hit the third day of an unprecedented heat wave throughout the Midwest and the South, shattering records for both daytime and nighttime highs. Sixteen states from Minnesota to Louisiana face excessive heat warnings where heat indexes, the air temperature combined with relative humidity, goes as high as 120 degrees, even 130 degrees by Wednesday.

Defendants in the Fulton County (GA) RICO case are also heating up. Former chief of staff Mark Meadows asked for an intension to the August 25^th noon self-surrender for processing at the Atlanta jail; DA Fani Willis replied to Meadows’ attorney:

“Good Morning Mr. Moran, I am not granting any extensions. I gave 2 weeks for people to surrender themselves to the court. Your client is no different than any other criminal defendant in this jurisdiction. The two weeks was a tremendous courtesy. At 12:30 p.m. on Friday I shall file warrants in the system. My team has availability to meet to discuss reasonable consent bonds Wednesday and Thursday.”

The first of the 19 indicted defendants have started surrendering. Bail bondsman Scott Hall arrived on August 21, followed by DDT’s lawyer John Eastman. His disciplinary trial before California’s state bar was delayed by two days to allow for his trip to Atlanta and return to Los Angeles. The process reportedly takes several hours. DDT has repeatedly said he plans to appear on Thursday for his processing.

Meadows and Jeffrey Clark think they’re so special that their parts in the RICO case should be moved to federal court. Clark, shortly DDT’s acting director of the DOJ’s Civil Division, filed an “emergency” request to assert he has immunity from state prosecution and gave the judge a 5:00 pm deadline to rule on it.  When DDT considered making Clark acting AG in after the 2020 election, the goal being the election’s change to DDT’s favor, DOJ officials had threatened to resign en mass. According to the request, Clark explained he needed an immediate decision to avoid “the choice of making rushed travel arrangements to fly into Atlanta or instead risking being labeled a fugitive.” The legal world is amused by Clark’s demand for entitlement and delay of a week to make an appeal.

Another defendant, former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, provided documents showing that DDT’s attorneys, his campaign, and the local GOP urged him to organize the fake electors in the midst of the RICO case. Shafer is charged with racketeering, “impersonating a public officer, forgery, false statements and writings, filing false documents, and violation of oath by a public officer.

If you lose government services in October, blame the House far-right “Freedom” Caucus. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) wants a short-term funding measure to avoid a shutdown, but ultraconservative Republicans say they won’t vote for one if he doesn’t satisfy their demands of right-wing immigration policies, further curtailment of federal law enforcement “weaponization, and blocks unidentified “cancerous woke policies” in the Pentagon. And no “blank check” for Ukraine. No matter what happens, the House will make McCarthy’s life miserable.  

In an effort to satisfy his far-right members, McCarthy told Larry Kudlow that the House could start impeaching Biden as soon as September—evidently forgetting that the House has only 12 days to pass 11 appropriations bill that the Senate will find acceptable. For a reason, he talked about Biden not giving him documents for evidence that prove Biden and his son Hunter accepted bribes form Ukrainian officials, proof that they haven’t been able to find for years.

McCarthy is complaining about the White House not providing documents that Republicans haven’t requested, but he has been vague about what documents he wants. The GOP is still pursuing an assertion about a bribe coming from an unverified tip to the FBI now denied by Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky. McCarthy’s complaint contradicts a statement from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) who said in late June that the committee had received “100 percent” of documents requested through subpoenas “whether it’s with the FBI or with banks or with Treasury.”

In Texas, “RuPublicans” are fighting Gov. Greg Abbott’s drag ban, which the GOP calls “sexually oriented performances.” Having hit over their crowd-funding $10,000 goal, the group is using AI reimagining anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans as drag queens on billboards, earning over $16,000.  Here’s one sample of their visuals using former VP Mike Pence.

Wednesday night is the first GOP primary presidential candidate debate among eight candidates who promised to support the primary winner—even if he’s indicted. Fox will broadcast it from 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm EST. DDT may be watching it: he’s already taped his interview with Tucker Carlson to be broadcast at the same time.

Secret Service Scandals, More Weekly News

A few of the text messages exchanged among Secret Service members on January 5-6 being sought by the House January 6 investigative committee and deleted by the Secret Service may have been discovered. The agency’s investigators found metadata from around that date which were not retained while examining phones of 10 Secret Service personnel. The discovery came after the DHS inspector general, James Cuffari, asked for text records last year from 24 people at the Secret Service because of demands from the House committee. It revealed only one text.

The IG had asked for text messages for January 7-8—after the insurrection was over. On January 6, the Secret Service planned and shadowed DDT’s movements, and texts would be a treasure trove of background for DDT’s activities. On July 20, the inspector general order Secret Service to stop its investigation because of a criminal probe.

The Secret Service blames the missing data on a migration of phones or a “device replacement program” beginning on January 27, 2021, one week after the inauguration of President Joe Biden. On January 16, 2021, House members sent letters to various agencies, including the Secret Service, to preserve records related to January 6. Spokesman for the Secret Service Anthony Guglielmi said the agency had no record of the letter, and Cuffari’s first request for records was on February 26, 2021, a month after the “migration” started. Both the House committee and the National Archives are searching for information with, respectively, a subpoena and a request.

Cuffari was long been aware that the texts are missing and failed to take any action for nine months. He also rejected sending an alert about the access problem until his first public statement in a letter to Congress on July 13, 2022—18 months after the House ordered him to save all records related to the insurrection. The Secret Service still stated that the migration had not lost any of the texts the inspector general was seeking, a complete falsehood.

Both Cuffari and James Murray, Secret Service director, are trying to dig themselves out of the scandal exploding after the agents’ deleted texts that could reveal DDT’s activities on the days before and of the insurrection. DDT appointed both of them, based on friends’ recommendations and their loyalty to protect him at any costs. According to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, the Secret Service were told at least three times to preserve text messages and communications on the agency’s phones, per federal law. Murray didn’t live up to his responsibility. Investigative journalist Carol Leonnig wrote that DDT wanted to appoint Secret Service Tony Ornato for the agency’s director in 2019, but Ornato recommended Murray. Ornato then became DDT’s deputy chief of staff, and Murray became the director after a ten-minute interview with DDT.  

During his Cuffari’s tenure as director:

He rejected his staff’s recommendation to investigate the Secret Service role in the June 2020 violent clearing of peaceful anti-racist protesters from Lafayette Square for DDT’s photo op at St. John’s Church.

Cuffari suppressed a report about sexual misconduct within DHS for over a year and then told Congress he would issue it because it was old information.

He attempted to limit the investigation into COVID spread within the Secret Service alleged caused by DDT’s re-election campaign not following guidelines.

He ignored staff’s request to examine Secret Service COVID protocols putting Secret Service employees at risk because DDT would not wear masks in close quarters before a vaccine was available.

He stonewalled his career staff from interviewing key officials in a review about Border Patrol employee participation in a Facebook group rife with racist and sexist messages until one of them behind it had resigned.

He was accused of stalling a whistleblower’s complaint about DHS officials politicizing its department in support of DDT and Stephen Miller until after DDT lost the election.

The DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis also released no “intelligence products specific for January 6”, 2021, attack on the capitol.

Under Cuffari, the DHS did not launch a single probe specifically investigating the Secret Service at any point during the tenure of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT).

In another week, Murray is leaving his director of Secret Service position to become chief security officer for Snap Inc., owner of the Snapchat social media site. Despite glowing comments about the Secret Service, others have pointed out continuing scandals including prostitution, security missteps for President Obama, and the ongoing allegations of politization during DDT’s term and into that of President Joe Biden.

Recently, two of Biden’s Secret Service detail in South Korea caused an altercation with the country’s citizens while the two men were bar-hopping while off duty. A month earlier, agency leaders admitted four employees, including one assigned to protect first lady Jill Biden were allegedly hoodwinked by two men impersonating federal agents and gave them expensive gifts. On January 6, then-VP Mike Pence refused to get into a car with Secret Service agents for fear they would remove him from his responsibility to preside over counting electoral votes after the insurrection.

On July 12, 2022, the House committee hearing presented testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson; she claimed Ornato had told her that DDT lunged for the car’s steering wheel to keep the driver from returning to the White House on January 6 instead of going to the U.S. Capitol. She added that Robert Engel, head of DDT’s security detail who was present at the discussion, did not deny Ornato’s claim. They have said the incident didn’t happen but have yet to testify under oath and retained private counsel as has the driver. At the July 22, 2022 hearing, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) said two additional sources have partly corroborated the story about DDT’s attack on his Secret Service detail, one of them, “a former White House employee with national security responsibilities.” The second witness was retired Washington, DC, police Sgt. Mark Robinson, who was in DDT’s motorcade that day.

Former members of the Secret Service, media pundits, and politicians have disagreed whether the texts were maliciously deleted through politics or just lost through sloppy, bad governance. Whether from incompetence or intention, the result is criminal.

Following are a few snippets of recent news, some of them flying under the radar:

Jeffrey Clark, who DDT tried to make Acting AG to overturn the Georgia 2020 election, is facing ethics charges at the D.C. Bar which could require him to cooperate with any DOJ investigation of DDT. His choice could be prison or cooperation.

Conservatives have a new scapegoat for all the hate in the U.S.—Hillary Clinton. Paul Waldman has a differing opinion in his column, “The Most Dangerous Threat to America? White Male Entitlement.”

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are no longer connected to DDT’s political endeavors—at least for now.

The Senate voted 64-34 to advance a slimmer bill boosting U.S. semiconductor competition with China, $50 billion in subsidies for manufacturing computer chips and decrease dependence on Asia. The global shortage hurts many manufacturing industries—automotive vehicles, mobile phones, consumer technology, defense systems, etc. If senators pass the bill, it moves to the House. Over a year ago, the bill passed the Senate with $250 billion, but the House didn’t consider it. The House bill included climate change funding, and Republicans refused it.

As usual, DDT has soaked up media coverage with almost no space left over for Biden’s trip to the Middle East except for outrage about a fist bump with murderer Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). His trip began gathering support against Iran, a country developing much more power since DDT backed out of the agreement to keep it from having nuclear weapons. Biden’s work was to lay diplomacy for Saudi Arabia for an agreement with Israel like the Jerusalem Declaration, similar to the Abraham Accords, signed during Biden’s trip. The work with Middle East countries is vital because Russian President Vladimir Putin is building a coalition with Iran and China—a primary security threat. MBS already signed the Jeddah Communique, stressing the importance for both sides “of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” Biden’s final stop, the GCC+3 summit with nine Middle East leaders, shows the U.S. will not leave a vacuum for China, Iran, or Russia. Global affairs, like life, are complicated.

Conservatives who follow Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post will be reading this about DDT after the eighth hearing:    

“His only focus was to find any means—damn the consequences—to block the peaceful transfer of power. There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence.”

Murdoch has sent a message to DDT about his future aspirations of completing an authoritarian regime, again weaponizing his power to force loyalty and militarize the nation with grand displays of parades. Even Murdoch wants the GOP to move on without DDT.

January 6, 2021 Hearings – June 23, 2022 plus Breaking News

 In another bombshell ruling, six Supreme Court justices struck down a 1913 New York law requiring people to demonstrate they have a “special need for self-protection” to carry a concealed handgun in public. To an indifferent majority, Justice Stephen Breyer noted the 277 reported mass shootings, more than one per day, during fewer than the first six months of 2022. He added, “Gun violence has now surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents.” Shootings in New York City doubled between 2019 and 2021, rising much more in the first quarter of 2022. Wayne Pierre, NRA’s executive vice president, took credit for the ruling; its opinion was written by Clarence Thomas.

The six Supremes also blocked people from suing police if they are not given their Miranda rights. Samuel Alito wrote the violation is not “a violation of the Fifth Amendment.” Therefore police are required to read everyone their Miranda rights, but not doing it doesn’t violate the law.  

By 65-14, the Senate passed its lukewarm “gun reform” bill that one media sourced called the “most significant gun legislation in three decades.” The anti-assault law, which saved many lives, passed in 1994 but expired in 2004, resulting in thousands of deaths. The bill now goes to the House for debate, revisions, and a vote.

Since the fourth hearing by the House January 6 investigative committee on June 21, the number of violent threats against committee members has been on the rise, probably requiring security detail for all of them. Even before that hearing, the wife of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) received a letter threatening to execute her and their five-month-old baby. He said that violence will not lessen until people believe the truth. Despite her security detail since last year, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) has not been able to have publicized campaign events because of security concerns.

After his day in the sun on June 21 for his testimony about denying the demands of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) to violate the law and the U.S. Constitution, Rusty Bowers, Arizona state House speaker, destroyed his credibility when he said he would still vote for DDT in 2024. He testified that DDT “wanted him to take illegal, immoral, unprecedented, and unconstitutional steps to overturn the 2020 election results in his state,” according to Oliver Knox. “And Trump never provided a shred of evidence for his false claims of voter fraud.”

DDT attacked Bowers for being a RINO, “Republican in Name Only,” and repeated his lie that Bowers had told DDT he believed “the election was rigged.” Bowers needs DDT’s base in his state senate run against against another Mormon during the August 2 primary as he leaves the House. DDT has also become increasingly angry with the failed strategy of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) who tried to close down the House investigative committee by pulling his appointments after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused two of them, one of them now subpoenaed.

McCarthy advised Republicans to ignore all these hearings, but DDT isn’t following that advice. McCarthy said that appointing Republicans to the committee would create more difficulty if they attacked it as political, but DDT wants to know why no one is defending him on television. DDT has also not endorsed McCarthy for becoming House speaker job if the GOP takes over the chamber in 2022, and McCarthy needs DDT’s base.

The first GOP failure in blocking an investigation was their refusal to create an independent commission with five Republicans and five Democrats who would equally share subpoena powers and prepare the final report. McCarthy had agreed to the commission if Democrats agreed to five changes. The Democrats agreed with the changes, but McCarthy backed out. House Republicans said they voted against it after DDT opposed the idea. The five GOP members who McCarthy withdrew from the official committee have formed their own “shadow” group to center on “the real true story about what took place on Jan. 6” largely focusing on alleged security failures under Pelosi’s watch with a report released before the August recess.

The official committee is now able to investigate and present findings without distraction. It behaves in a highly professional manner, and obstructive Republicans have no information to prepare DDT’s defense, no way to influence the committee’s direction, no contrary questions, no leaking, and no diluting findings before the final report. Republicans other than DDT are upset with McCarthy.

The night before the June 23 hearing, law enforcement officers used an FBI-issued warrant to search the home of Jeffrey Clark, Assistant AG for the Environment. Warrants are given only with evidence of a crime. DDT had planned to install Clark as acting AG in January 2021 to replace Jeffrey Rosen and make Clark the third AG in two weeks, after DDT fired his own appointee Bill Barr. The proposal failed when hundreds of DOJ employees threatened to quit if DDT replaced Rosen with Clark who planned to tell Georgia officials the lie that the department had proof for the state to rescind its certification of Joe Biden for the presidency.

When earlier called by the investigative committee to testify, Clark declared both attorney-client privilege—although he worked for an independent agency—and the Fifth Amendment over 100 times to not incriminate himself. He can’t do both. On January 3, DDT started calling Clark his acting AG, although he had not appointed him, to give Clark the power to endorse his lies about election fraud.  

[The hearings require an elaborate production as shown by this shot of the MSNBC control room.] 

Witnesses at the June 23 hearing included Rosen, acting AG during the January 6 insurrection; Richard Donoghue, Rosen’s top deputy; and Steven Engel, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. Both Donoghue and Engel had threatened to resign if DDT replaced Rosen with Clark. All witnesses detailed their clarifications with DDT about the invalidity of DDDT’s accusations of the “stolen election” theories. Donoghue testified that DDT asked him to tell the public that the election had “widespread fraud” despite no evidence. He said, “Leave the rest of it to us,” meaning himself and the “U.S. Congressmen.” DDT’s former White House attorney Eric Herschmann told Clark, considered incompetent because he knew nothing about criminal law, sarcastically told Clark he was perfect for the job because he was willing to commit a felony.  

Some of today’s revelations:

Congressional co-conspirators to overturn the 2020 presidential election: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), sworn into the House three days before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) attended a December meeting at the White House to discuss strategy although DDT knew there was no evidence of fraud. Perry introduced DDT to Clark who had no connection to election fraud or criminal investigations outside environmental damage.

Request for DDT’s pardons: Among members of Congress asking for DDT’s pardons to cover their crimes were GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL), Mo Brooks (AL), Andy Biggs (AZ), Louie Gohmert (TX), Scott Perry (PA), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA). Both Gaetz, under investigation for federal child sex-trafficking and other crimes, and Brooks wanted blanket pardons for all possible crimes in the past and future, according to Mark Meadows’ former aide Cassidy Hutchinson. More members of Congress may have asked for presidential pardons. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) also asked if DDT would be giving pardons to congressional members. Pardoned people have to testify because they cannot plead the Fifth Amendment, not incriminating themselves.

Links with DOJ to overturn the election: In addition to the hearing’s DOJ witnesses and news about Clark, new DOJ attorney Ken Klukowski worked with Clark and DDT’s lawyer John Eastman to overturn the election, according to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY). Their dual method was to overhaul DOJ for it to focus on fraud claims and persuade legislatures to sign off on alternate slates of electors.

Pentagon involvement: DDT told former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller to call a high-ranking official in Rome (Italy) about the conspiracy theory “Italygate” that an Italian defense contractor uploaded software to a satellite to switch votes from DDT to Joe Biden. It was just one of the conspiracy theories that DDT told the DOJ to follow.

Film footage: British filmmaker Alex Holder testified behind closed doors and showed the raw footage of DDT, his family, friends, and then-VP Mike Pence from September 2020 to after the January 6 attack. DDT told the filmmakers, “I think I treat people well, unless they don’t treat me well, in which case you go to war.”

Sedition: DDT’s daily pressure on members of an independent government agency presents a clear picture of his opposition to his own government which was searching for justice, support the will of the people, and following the Constitution.

After this evidence of DDT’s incessant push at the DOJ to make the independent agency an arm of his campaign to create a coup, the next hearings, expected to cover domestic extremism and DDT’s actions inside the White House, will be scheduled starting the week of July 11. The wait is to incorporate the “new evidence [the committee reveives] on a daily basis with enormous velocity,” according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). The two hearings may not be the last before the panel issues final reports later this year.

A more detailed summary of the June 23 hearing by Heather Cox Richardson.

A Roundup of January 6 Political Rogues

Instead of tapering off with time, the news from the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is building as the “stop the steal” movement created by Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) continues to dominate the media.

DDT’s lawyers are beginning to suffer from the court rulings after his failure to overturn the election. A grand jury found that Sidney Powell, the leader of his legal campaign, filed false incorporation papers in Texas for her non-profit, Defending the Republic. She listed two men on the three-person board of directors who had not given her permission to use their names. A federal criminal inquiry has been investigating allegations of her fundraising and financial fraud in running the group, including the possibility that she falsely claimed donations financed her lawsuits. Powell also named several plaintiffs and co-counsel in her election-related cases without their permission and exaggerated the role in the cases.     

Powell is also one of nine lawyers connected to DDT who were ordered to pay Detroit and Michigan $175,000 for abusing the court system with a sham lawsuit trying to overturn the 2020 election results. The state is also seeking disbarment for four of the attorneys, one of them Powell who is licensed in Texas. Earlier, a Colorado judge fined two lawyers $187,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit, stating, “They need to take responsibility.” In a class action suit for 160 million U.S. voters, the two had alleged a plot to give the president win to Joe Biden who received more than seven million votes than DDT.

Rioters from January 6 also continue to receive sentences. A federal judge told one of them, who was waving a 1776 flag, while attacking the Capitol that his attempt to overturn a democratic was the opposite of the American Revolution values. She pointed out:

“In 1776, the people who went on to form a democracy didn’t do that at the urging of a single head of state. … The point of 1776 was to let the people to decide who would rule them. [On January 6] the point was to substitute the will of the people with the will of the mob… You were a participant, albeit a minor one, in an effort to subvert and overturn the democratic process. That day didn’t just cost you a lot, it cost our country a lot.”

On January 6, Rep. Lauren Boebert tweeted, “Today is 1776.”

Meanwhile, the House January 6 Committee has assiduously pursued its goal to investigate the involved people and events surrounding the insurrection. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), one of two Republicans on the committee, announced the panel will hold “multiple weeks public hearings” next year, detailing “in vivid color” those events, including the ones concerning from the White House. Cheney stated that the hearings will lay out “exactly what happened every minute of the day on Jan. 6 here at the Capitol and at the White House and what led to that violent attack.”

The committee has recommended a vote on declaring former acting assistant AG Jeffrey Clark in contempt for not responding to a subpoena although he claimed he would appear before the panel to plead the Fifth Amendment. He tried unsuccessfully to get the DOJ involved in overturning the 2020 election. Instead of appearing at a hearing, he claimed a medical problem; the hearing is reset for December 16. Clark would be the second person refusing to testify and be declared in contempt after Steve Bannon’s name was sent to the DOJ and indicted on two criminal counts by a federal grand jury. Steve Bannon’s lawyer to fight the charge of contempt is David Schoen, the man who Bannon ridiculed during DDT’s second impeachment trial.

Bannon may face more criminal charges, this one about illegally coordinating with Cambridge Analytica’s foreign employees for the elections in 2014 and 2016, that one for DDT. While DDT was in the White House FEC commissioners ignored his 2016 campaign, but a statement from Rebekah Mercer, former Bannon’s business partner and DDT’s supporter, revealed a complaint alleging illegal activities and pointed the finger at Bannon.

Attorney John Eastman, who wrote a memo for VP Mike Pence explaining how Pence could overturn the election on January 6 by denying the Electoral Votes, also took the Fifth Amendment in Eastman’s letter to the committee. The Fifth Amendment permits people the right to refuse testifying to avoid incriminating themselves. DDT called the Fifth Amendment the refuge of mobsters, and President Nixon, during Watergate, told his aides, “I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up, or anything else.”  

DDT may be the most notable person trying to avoid compliance with a subpoena regarding January 6. This week, a three-judge panel of DC Circuit Court heard his appeal to hide documents revealing his communication and events pertaining to the insurrection. Biden had waived executive privilege for these materials, declared the committee needed to see them for the national interest. One of DDT’s lawyers struggled for an answer when a judge asked him why a former president had more authority than the current one concerning executive privilege.

DDT’s last chief of staff Mark Meadows may be another witness to declare executive privilege to avoid revealing what happened. In his new book, he writes about his attempts to use the DOJ to push the “stolen election” lies and tried to use the Pentagon, FBI, national security council, and the office of the Director of National Intelligence to find information to support about China hacking the election. Supposedly, she didn’t believe these lies but followed them to please DDT. Meadows also put conspiratorial tales about voter fraud on YouTube. He was also behind the myth that people in Italy used satellites to change votes.

Meadows’ private Gmail account tells how he pressured Georgia officials to get the extra votes for DDT. The telephone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was preceded by 18 other calls from Meadows, and Raffensperger told the chief of staff he thought the Gmail messages were a prank. A question is what other evidence is on those emails. Meadows’ attempt to withhold information may be compromised by his having put the details into his book, The Chief’s Chief, and cause trouble in his claiming executive privilege. He, too, is on the verge of being accused of contempt. Legal experts assert the privilege does not exist if information has already been made public.

Last week, five more subpoenas from the committee included those for Roger Stone and Alex Jones. Jones’ subpoena cited his assignment from the White House “to lead a march to the Capitol where President Trump would meet the group …” DDT never appeared, and hundreds of his followers face criminal charges. Yet documentation shows the plan came from DDT. Roger Stone turned on Katrina Pierson, who he said was “deeply involved in the violent and unlawful acts of January 6.”

In the past five months, the House panel has issued 45 subpoenas to organizations and individuals: close DDT allies, 4; rallies and events organizers before January 6, 19; Department of Justice, 1; DDT campaign officials, 6; DDT White House officials, 10; and groups and individuals linked to the Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 5. The names are here.

Some notable subpoena recipients:

William Stepien: manager of DDT’s 2020 campaign which asked states not to certify the legal election results.

Jason Miller: DDT’s advisor who talked about a stolen election before people voted.

Angela McCallum: executive assistant to DDT’s 2020 campaign who pressured a Michigan state representative to appointed alternate electors because of “election fraud.”

Bernard Kerik: former New York City police commissioner who paid for the Willard Hotel rooms, the plotters’ command center. (DDT pardoned him after his convictions for tax fraud, ethics violations, and criminal false statements.)

Michael Flynn: DDT ally who told DDT to declare martial law and “rerun” the election and participated in the December 18, 2020, at the Oval Office “during which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the false message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud.”

Steven Miller: the architect of DDT’s anti-immigration policies and his voter fraud conspiracies before the January 6 rally.

Kayleigh McEnany: DDT’s press secretary who made many statements from both the White House and media outlets about “very real claims” of fraud.   

John McEntee: DDT’s former bagman and White House personnel director who tried to halt the transition process to President Joe Biden.

Members have also privately interviewed over 250 people, most of whom responded voluntarily, including one of the 650 rioters charged in the insurrection and state GOP officials who worked with DDT to overturn the election.  

DDT has come full circle since his inauguration: his biggest problem about January is that no one admires the size of his crowd at the rally. He had no regrets about holding the rally leading to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, just complaints about how people weren’t talking about the number of people who attended.

 

House Votes for Bannon’s Criminal Contempt

The U.S. House voted today to hold Steve Bannon, former White House adviser to Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), in criminal contempt of Congress because he refused to comply with the subpoena from the January 6 Committee investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Nine Republicans joined all Democrats for the 229-202 yes vote; seven of the Republicans also voted to impeach DDT the second time. Bannon, who left the White House 3.5 years before DDT did—and before the attack on the Capitol—has claimed protection from DDT’s “executive privilege.” Legal experts, however, state that the claim cannot apply to private citizens. The charge can result in up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

DDT is also using executive privilege to keep the House investigation committee from obtaining archived records surrounding January 6, but he isn’t the executive. President Joe Biden has already approved the request for the records. At her weekly news conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that Bannon reportedly “had specific knowledge about the events of January 6th before they occurred and had multiple roles relevant to the attack and [was] very outspoken about it.”

Last year, Bannon was charged in a fundraising scam supposedly to collect money for DDT’s wall on the southern border in which he took about $1 million. One of DDT’s last acts before leaving the White House was to pardon Bannon, and a judge dismissed that specific fraud case four months later. After Bannon’s conversations with DDT leading up to the attack, he made a January 5 comment on his podcast that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.” The “hell” included five dead, several of them police officers, and over 140 officers injured with ax handles, metal batons, wooden poles, hockey sticks, and other weapons.

Although the January 6 Committee has two Republicans, House Minority Leader (R-CA) Kevin McCarthy falsely claimed that it represents “the first time in the history of Congress that the minority was not able to participate.” McCarthy pulled all his GOP nominations for the committee after Pelosi refused two of them, one of them being Jim Jordan (R-OH) who may receive a subpoena to testify before the committee. The other one, Jim Banks (R-IN) is still claiming the riot on January 6 was a “permitted political rally” and asked why it needed to be investigated. Both Banks and Jordan voted against creating the committee and to overturn Biden’s presidency on January 6.

Banks also wrote letters signing himself as the “ranking member” of the committee in a letter to the Department of the Interior on September 16 when he requested all information provided to the committee. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy), actually a committee member, called him out for his falsehood on the House floor today. Another committee member, Rep. Jamie Rankin (D-MD) called Banks “not only delusional and fantastical, but it might be some kind of violation of the rules of the House.”

The fireworks were on display both during the debate for the vote and earlier during the Rules Committee hearing when Republicans tried to protect Bannon from the subpoena. The January 6 Committee had unanimously voted to hold Bannon in criminal contempt and refer charges to the DOJ, and the Rules Committee met to determine process for the full House vote. Appearing before that committee, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) argued that DDT’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election was legal came to naught when confronted by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a constitutional law professor. Raskin said DDT’s over 60 lawsuits to “prove” a “stolen” election failed courts found no evidence of voter fraud, and Gaetz claimed a need for a legal “remedy.” The law professor responded:

“There’s no remedy because there’s no violation, Mr. Gaetz.”

Gaetz said the courts didn’t “take up the facts” on “jurisdiction or remedy,” and Raskin came back at him:

“You know what? That might work on Steve Bannon’s podcast, but that’s not going to work in the Rules Committee in the United States House of Representatives.”

The discussion went to why Gaetz didn’t want a congressional inquiry into the violent January 6 attack. Gaetz declared the inquiry was “unwarranted,” and Raskin accused him of not wanting “to know the answer.” In denying investigations, Gaetz may have been thinking of the FBI probe into Gaetz’s alleged sex trafficking and other crimes with evidence, including witnesses.

The perpetually angry former assistant wrestling coach who ignored reports of his team doctor’s sexually abusing athletes, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), furiously refused to say the 2020 election was “not stolen” by President Joe Biden. Jordan claims he never said the election was stolen but that it should be investigated, later falsely saying that Republicans “condemned violence every stinking time” although many of his colleagues compared the January 6 attack to “tourists” in the Capitol.

Jordan again displayed his poor memory when he told the Rules Committee he couldn’t remember how many times he talked to DDT on that day. He repeated his statement that “it’s not about me” and testified that he didn’t talk to DDT “before or during” the attack.” Yet he told Politico in August that he was “sure” one of the calls was in the safe room where lawmakers were sequestered during the attack. Democratic lawmakers have suggested that Jordan may also be subpoenaed to testify before the January 6 Committee.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a member of the committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, also testified before the Rules Committee:

“Mr. Bannon’s and Mr. Trump’s privilege arguments do, however, appear to reveal one thing: They suggest that President Trump was personally involved in the planning and execution of January 6th, and this committee will get to the bottom of that.”

Cheney also directly addressed “my Republican colleagues”:

“Almost all of you know in your hearts that what happened on Jan. 6 was profoundly wrong. You know that there is no evidence of widespread election fraud sufficient to overturn the election; you know that the Dominion voting machines were not corrupted by a foreign power. You know those claims are false. Yet President Trump repeats them almost daily.”   

McCarthy told all the Republicans to vote against holding Bannon in criminal contempt, but he might also be subpoenaed for testimony regarding his events on January 6. Last month, Sidney Powell, one of DDT’s lawyers to overturn the election, implicated both McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) in the plot. She suggested the insurrection could delay the election’s certification until DDT’s lawyers could file a 12^th Amendment case allowing state electors to change their votes to DDT. Buying time could allow Justice Samuel Alito to block the certification.

In another high-profile subpoena, the January 6 committee summoned Jeffrey Clark, the former little-known DOJ official who tried to overturn Biden’s election. It was the 19^th subpoena leading up to the vote on Bannon’s criminal contempt charge. Clark had delivered a letter to George state legislators and others requesting a delay in the election results certification. Despite no evidence of fraud, he also wanted to hold a news conference about allegations of DDT’s claims about a “stolen” election. DDT and Clark discussed ousting the newly-appointed acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, to force Georgia to overturn the state’s presidential election results, according to former DDT administration officials.

Clark’s subpoena was the 19^th from the January 6 Committee. Fourteen subjects have scheduled depositions, and three are “engaged. George Baron Coleman representing Ali Alexander, head of Stop the Steal, won’t be deposed. Alexander said he planned the January 6 insurrection with the help of Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), and Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ).

In the Senate on Wednesday, all 50 Republicans voted against the right for Democrats to vote on the Freedom to Vote Act. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) objected to an earlier voting rights bill and promised to write a bill that Republicans could support. He wrote the bill, it was presented, and Republicans voted down any debate on it in a filibuster for the third time regarding a bill blocking many eligible voters in the nation, primarily low-income and minorities, from democratically voting in elections. House Minority Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called the bill permitting eligible voters to participate in elections a “rotten core” and a “radical agenda.” He also claimed that requiring 60 percent of the senators to even discuss a bill came from the “framers,” which it did not. Unlike the past when filibusters required a person’s nonspeaking behavior on the Senate floor, a senator can just call in a filibuster while they are on vacation.

The “rotten core” McConnell claimed: a paper trail for ballots, Election Day a holiday, two weeks of early voting, no permission required for vote by mail, and automatic and same-day voter registration. the bill also prohibits partisan gerrymandering, require transparency in advertising, and protect election officials from attacks. The Federal Election Commission gutted under DDT would be rebuilt. The Senate has an advantage over individual states: the federal lawmakers must have 60 percent to pass a bill whereas state legislatures require only a simple majority. In the U.S. Senate 41 senators represent only 21 percent of the population.