The other Dem expelled from the Tennessee House, Justin Pearson, has just been reinstated by a unanimous vote of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. So now both expelled men are un-expelled. I am skeptical Republicans have learned any lessons about overreach, however.
Also, “Senate Democrats are urging the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the expulsions of two Tennessee state representatives to determine whether their removal violated the Constitution or federal civil rights law,” WaPo reports.
In other news, the Dominion lawsuit is not going well for Fox.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis on Wednesday sanctioned Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., for withholding evidence in the Dominion defamation suit, and said he’s considering further investigation and censure.
According to a person present in the courtroom, lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems played recordings Fox News producer Abby Grossberg made during 2020,which were not handed over to Dominion’s lawyers during discovery.
Grossberg, a former producer for Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson, has sued Fox News and said her deposition was coerced. In an amended filing Tuesday, she said she had recorded conversations with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and others.
The sanction gives Dominion a chance to conduct another deposition, at Fox’s expense.
And there’s more!
The surprise evidence and sanction comes days before the trial is scheduled to begin in the $1.6 billion defamation case Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News and Fox Corp. Davis also said Wednesday he was considering appointing a special master to investigate the Fox legal teams’ actions.
On Tuesday, Davis expressed frustration at Fox News for not being straightforward about Rupert Murdoch’s role as a leader at Fox News.
“This is a problem,” Davis said, according to a court transcript. “I need to feel comfortable when you represent something to me that is the truth.”
The latter issue, as I understand it, is that Dominion and the Court understood that Rupert was chairman at Fox Corp. but was not an officer of Fox News, that he’s stepped away from any official capacity at Fox News. But it turns out that wasn’t true. Dominion is complaining that had they known Rupert was still directly involved in making decisions about the News division, they would have handled the case differently. I hope this doesn’t cause the trial date to be pushed back.
In other news — Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller spends six hours at federal court where Jan. 6 grand jury meets. One suspects he was there to testify.
In other news — Democrats want to call GOP’s bluff on defunding the FBI. (No paywall.)
In other news — Trump sues Michael Cohen for reasons. I think Trump is just mad at Michael Cohen about stuff he said in his book.
Among the tapes Grossman purportedly has is Rudy admitting that Trump lost the election.
As for Trump suing Cohen, pretty soon any one that Trump has not sued will be in the minority.
Getting BOTH of the black reps reinstated is a huge in-your-face move. TN might emulate FL and cut funding to the two districts that sent these guys back to work. If they do, will that be grounds for a suit for damages (lost funding) for the reprisal?
It looks like the suit Bragg filed against Jordan was assigned to a Trumpster judge. That's not a guarantee of a flawed verdict but I wish it had gone to a Bush appointee. If the judge does side with Jordan, he/she has to come up with a reason that will stand up under appeal. I think Brag has the law on his side.
Moving away from substance to style – the GOP is playing entirely for special effects. A few illustrations:
1) Jordan is going to hold a circus act in NYC next week to showcase the "victims" of Bragg's tenure. Statistics show Jordan is full of manure – stats show a decline in crime in NYC since Bragg picked up the reins. Jordan and Trump are playing to the crowd – ignoring that this is a criminal trial.
2) Trump is proud of the fund-raising haul in the last week – something over ten million if Trump claims are true. Here Clinton and Trump are on the same wrong page, thinking fund-raising is the most important thing. In an election, you have to reach voters (HRC's skill and comfort with the donor class doomed her with the voters who knew they were being sold out.) The money Trump can raise won’t make a difference in court and it won’t make Trump more comfortable in jail if he’s convicted.
3) Trump is suing Cohen – when Trump tried this with HRC last year, he not only lost but the judge made Trump pay all the legal fees of the defense. (About a million bucks.) If there's no legal merit to the suit, it will not only be tossed, the suit might be a windfall for Cohen's lawyer.
4) Republicans are proposing a law that would put any criminal indictment against a former president in federal court, a suggestion that has no chance of a vote in the Senate.
5) As was noted here, (Moonbat) Cruz wants a Constitutional Amendment that locks the size of the UUSC. And I want a free pony, which is a lot more likely than a Constitutional Amendment.
But the stark contrast of the Dems v the GOP illustrates that elected prosecutors (NY & GA) are threatening the fascists with real (go-to-jail) stuff. The GOP is responding with smoke and mirrors. As far as I can tell, Trump is ringmaster of the circus. Everybody else in the show is following Trump's cues – most of them must be aware all the bills come due in November '24 and the tender the bill must be paid with is votes that they will not have.
If the GOP tries to build a platform based on Trumpism without Trump, the orangeman will fight it from jail. (Or MAL confinement.) Trump will die thinking if he commands an army of fans, he can force the government to free him. When Trump goes down if flames in court and in the next election, the GOP will divorce itself from Trumpism or it will be married to an extremist philosophy built around Trump personally that will doom the party to minority status.
Regarding Fox: if lawyers deceived the judge and withheld evidence that's potentially disbarment-level stuff. If the judge appoints a Special Master, I think it will be to collect the evidence of which lawyers will be subject to the axe. We shall see.
Responding to Oldvet: if there are tapes of Rudy admitting in pvt that they have no evidence that the election was rigged at the same time he claimed in public they have secret evidence, this isn't just bad for Fox – it seems to me it's potentially evidence in GA where Rudy convinced a dozen people to certify (falsely) that Trump won the state. Rudy is the guy who can testify that he and Trump knew that Trump lost. If GA convicts Rudy, he won't get cushy home confinement unless he cooperates fully. He will flip.
according to Joyce Vance, the Trumpster judge is well-respected, no Aileen Cannon or Kacsmaryk, and so that's one less worry
agree about the chances of a constitutional amendment passing, but the point is: that's where their heads are at: lock the current Supreme Court into place, at any cost. It's a sign they're feeling backed into a corner.
The odds of Trump going to jail if he's convicted in the NY case are the same as the odds I will be the next Democratic presidential nominee. Worse, in fact.
I don't know about that. Seems to me that a conviction on 34 felonies would make it pretty difficult for a judge not to impose a token amount of jail time, at a minimum.
10 months on Rikers should do the trick.
I should have read your comment before leaving my own, I'm less confused now!
Remember, Dominion's $1.6 BILLION lawsuit is for defamation.
After this latest stunt, imagine what the punitive damageus might be!!!
Useful tip: It doesn't pay to.piss-off the trial judge.
As for tRUMP's foibles:
I'm sure SS Oberstleutnant Stephen Miller was there testifying.
Or lying.
He sure wasn't there giving his Bubbe's kugel recipe.
I'm pretty sure his Jewish family's disowned the monster.
You're right about Miller's family disowning him. I think I remember an op-ed in the LA Times where his (extended) family did exactly that. Miller went to the most liberal, privileged high schools on the west side of LA, and rode the fascist hate machine to glory. And he's still a young guy.
Tucker Carlson similarly grew up in La Jolla (a very tony ocean-side suburb of San Diego), and sneers at the rest of us.
The TN GOP has shown its collective ass to the world and the world has correctly concluded they are racist buffoons. Those chance encounters in the capitol hallways with the 3 rockstars they created are gonna be awkward. They have been playing up the rural vs urban culture war for a while, it will be interesting to see if Nashville and Memphis have blessed them with any humility going forward.
Amazingly the Arizona state GOP has found its limit and expelled one of its own; Liz Harris.
Trump suing Cohen; let that sink in with his current and potential future lawyers.
Dominion is complaining that had they known Rupert was still directly involved in making decisions about the News division, they would have handled the case differently. I hope this doesn’t cause the trial date to be pushed back.
I’ve read that Dominion would be foolish to stick with the current trial date, since this new info reshapes the case. We all want them to win, and putting the best case forward simply takes time.
In other news, it seems that some yahoo working at a military base is responsible for the documents leak.
The magnitude of the leak – it could absolutely shift the outcome of the war – and the stupid circumstances from which it arose – some ignorant clown trying to impress his “friends” – is better than anything Hollywood could make up.
I’ve been reading a lot about how depleted and exhausted the Ukraine forces are, even as Vlad keeps tossing thousands of conscripts into the meat grinder. The Russians have finally moved into the computerized big brother age by drafting people electronically, through what sounds like a payment system that nearly everybody uses. Refuse to comply, and all sorts of bad things begin to happen to your records, such as your driver’s license gets canceled, or worse. Those who beat this electronic net by fleeing early were the lucky ones.
I’m starting to wonder, if a stalemate or negotiated settlement, with Ukraine giving up some territory (yes, appeasement) is going to be the eventual outcome, despite the massive military power NATO could wield, at the expense of igniting WW3 for real. This dolt who spilled the beans is furthering, maybe even catalyzing this outcome.
"Lots of Lawsuits"
No shit. I always thought that when Stump was playing POTUS he would flood the zone with scandals on purpose to overwhelm our tabloid centered media, it was just a hair brained theory. But it seems like the entire GOP is doing the same thing now, crooked Supremes, phony house committees, congress critters issuing subpoenas when they ignored the same less than a year ago, RWNJ exposing intel to Russia, illegal abortion rulings by RWNJ Judges, Governors offering Pardons for RWNJ murderers before they are even sentenced. RWNJ Congress Critters martyring RWNJ traitors in prison. I'm sure I've only touched on 10% or so, because I just like our tabloid media I just can't fucking keep up? Oh I forgot to mention that Stump has sixteen thousand lawyers working a couple hundred cases, what the fuck is going on? I’m glad I’m retired!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_NrBG0FUWA
Scanning headlines about today's RWNJ who leaked top secret intel. I keep seeing "he was from a patriotic family". What does that mean? I've never understood that word; if you call yourself a patriot does that mean you love your country more than someone else? Are there families who aren't patriotic? To me what that word means is that you wrap yourself up in a flag that represents a country that doesn't really exist. I'm a vet but that doesn't make me special or patriotic it just means I joined the Army? I love when people say: "thanks you for your service" I always reply tersely: "you don't have to thank me, you paid my salary unless of course you don't pay taxes".
Let me see if I can put this together coherently. It's an understatement to say these are unique times in US history. As I approach 70 years of age, I'm seeing stuff like nothing that has happened in my lifetime.
Example 1: The J6 Insurrection. I believe Trump orchestrated an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election knowing full well that he lost. The coup attempt included the deliberate introduction of a violent faction with the fraud of fake electors' false claims of victory which documents and testimony should eventually prove Trump engineered.
Dynamics: Using mob violence and fraud directed from the Oval Office to overwhelm the Constitutional process on that day and stop the transfer of power.
Example 2: BEFORE J6, Trump pardoned Michael Fynn, Roger Stone, Paul Manifort, and Steve Bannon. IMO, Stone directed the violence – he seemed to be the contact with the militias who were present. Michel Flynn and Steve Bannon have continued to agitate for the MAGA mob.
Dynamic: Using the power of the pardon to release some of his key generals to direct and continue to agitate for mob action. This is the executive branch selectively undoing the work of the judicial system so that criminals can be freed to commit more crime for the lawless former guy. (And I do not use the word 'lawless' lightly.)
Example 3: A federal judge in TX neutered a 20-year-old ruling by the FDA which authorized the medical use of a drug to induce abortion in early pregnancy. No judge has single-handedly pulled a drug before,
Dynamic: Using an activist judge to arbitrarily cancel the process of approving prescriptions. If sustained, a federal judge can do almost anything that the Suprmes won't reverse. (And that's the test here – how brazen will the USSC be in ignoring the process of law?)
Example 4: The US House is trying to use its power and authority to reverse the prosecution of Trump at the state level! This is government operating so far out of their lane it would be funny if the isues weren't so critical.
Dynamc: The former president, as de-facto leader of the Republican party, is directing public officials in the House to abuse their constitutional power to protect him personally. At no time, have Republican members expressed confidence that Trump will be exonerated in the process of a jury trial. TRUMP is above the law and must not be subjected to the evidence and proof (or lack) that everyone else in the country may be subject to.
Example 5: At Trump's direction, the House has and is proposing to "defund" the DOJ and FBI unlest they cease investigating Trump's crimes. This would be an unfair citation if only lunatics on the fringe (MTG) had proposed it, but Gym Jordan is running with it and McCarthy has not opposed it.
Dynamic: Trump is personally threatening to shut down the federal government for investigating him personally. (Maybe I've led a sheltered life. Has ANYONE seen anything remotely similar in their lifetime in the US?)
Example 6: A man has been convicted of murder in TX. He texted in advance his intentions to shoot a liberal protester. Which he did that day. The victim was also armed and the trial centered on "stand your ground". The jury didn't buy it. The gun of the victim still had the safety on and no round in the chamber. Governor Abbot is promising to pardon the murderer. This is a public declaration by the governor of open season on liberals. I see no other way to interpret it, assuming he follows through.
Dynamic: Using the power as chief executive of the largest GOP state to sanction murder is the stuff of nightmares. I expect it to be official next week.
I wish I had more time for research, and to assemble this better. It would help if I was a better writer. This stuff is all out there but no one I've read has stepped away from these individually to put them in a larger frame together. They are part of a theme for the GOP – the law exists to punish the enemies of Trump and his allies – not as a universal set of rules for all.
THAT'S what changed, I think. We all used to all play by a set of rules, not perfectly, but most of the time and both parties. The GOP can't play fair and win because the demographics are changing. Rather than change the GOP platform to maintain a share of the electorate which could keep conservative ideas in the running, the GOP has ditched every principle but one – Maintain Power!
Doug, excellent summation. I am a bit older and I remember a popular expression sometime around 1970 was "Thank God the 60's are over!", it is sadly amusing to recall that now.
" The GOP can't play fair and win because the demographics are changing"
Spot on, that's at the heart of all of this, they know the clock is running out, they can't gerrymander a 20% minority, they can't suppress 80% of the electorate so the next move full on Authoritarianism, bring on the "strongmen". I do have one quip with your analysis "Trump orchestrated an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election knowing full well that he lost". I believe for a fleeting microsecond Stump understood he lost, but I really believe he has some sort of mental disorder (or power depending on your viewpoint) that enables him to lie to himself, I think he convinced himself that he couldn't have lost. It's a difference without distinction but it just might be his best legal strategy someday. The George Costanza defense!
The federal judge who ordered Navaro to give up the records on this "Proton" account is "my" judge.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/12/appeals-court-peter-navarros-presidential-records-00091771
What I find interesting is Navaro's attempt to claim a 5th Amendment basis. Is Navaro aware that the substance of these communications will prove a crime? That's rich. Noxon resolved his crisis by destroying a portion of the tape that Nixon had possession of. Times have changed, The messages are on Proton. Navaro can destroy his phone but it looks like the records would continue out there in the cloud. And recoverable by DOJ by order once the appeals are exhausted.
SO…. what did Navaro do… with who… and who else is implicated? Enquiring minds want to know.