So this just happened — Sidney Powell has taken a plea deal in the Georgia election interference case.
Powell agreed to plead out one day before her trial, alongside Ken Chesebro, was set to begin in Fulton County Superior Court.
Powell agreed at the hearing to plead guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit interference with the performance of election duties. The penalty includes six years probation, a recorded proffer interview with prosecutors, a commitment to testify about her actions in future trials, and a $6,000 fine.
This suggests Powell is not utterly demented. And I bet she knows a lot of stuff. So who’s next?
In other news: The House is supposed to convene at noon today, and Gym wants a third vote. We’ll see if he gets it. I’ve read in several sources that there are some Republicans and Democrats warming up to the idea of giving temp speaker McHenry enough authority to let the House do its basic functions as a legislative body until the GOP can settle on a speaker. But it’s far from a done deal. If that doesn’t happen, and if Gym keeps losing, I don’t see that there are any other plans.
See also Multiple members are detailing death threats and other intimidation they’ve faced for opposing Jim Jordan’s speakership bid at Politico. I bet a lot of these people never imagined the MAGA goons would be coming after them.
I’ll update this post as stuff happens today.
Update: Gym surrenders. There won’t be another vote. He’s endorsing the plan to empower the temp speaker to temporarily run the House.
Update: Whoops, scratch the last update. The New York Times just reported that Gym wants another vote after all.
Just hours after the hard-right Republican said he would hit pause on his candidacy and support elevating the interim speaker, Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina, to temporarily lead the House, Mr. Jordan reversed course yet again and said he would move forward with his bid to win the post. It was not immediately clear when another vote could be scheduled.
His decision came after a furious backlash from rank-and-file Republicans including many of his far-right supporters, who said empowering Mr. McHenry — a stand-in appointed to his post after the ouster of then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy — would effectively cede control of the House floor to Democrats and set a bad precedent.
Trump denies knowing her and calls for his followers to off her in 5, 4, 3…
I'm surprised more Republicans aren't backing the idea of just sort of easing McHenry into the job. The Gaetz wing clearly doesn't actually want to be in power; that's too much like a real job. They just want to scream about how much better things would be if they WERE in power.
If they had better political skills, they could probably convince their colleagues to back McHenry while they remain on the outside shouting about the RINO being forced on them, but of course they don't have any political skills whatsoever.
And I know some Republicans are going "We can't do that because it's a constitutional office and no one voted for McHenry," but since when do they care about elections?
I wonder if Chesebro will be next to plead, and would this mean Trump's day in court is expedited, Fani Willis possibly getting a conviction ahead of the Nov 2024 election. Plead Ken, plead.
It's been a good day. Anytime a MAGAt like Jordan is set back is a cause for celebration.
Oh Kraken, we hardly knew ye !
I get the feeling McHenry doesn't really want the job. Who could blame him?
Powell was selected to be the one to take the fall for all the others. Too crazy for Rudy, even. Trump wound up distancing from her. Yeah, her stuff was even more sci-fi than what the others were proposing. BUT, she was in meetings with Trump and the rest of the wrecking crew. She's gonna take the stand in the trials that happen next year in GA. The defendants will not. I'm sure the cross-examination will be brutal but unless she sabotages her testimony with lies and contradictions, it's the best evidence the jury will hear about the workings of the conspiracy. Also, I read that the DA just got hold of 15,000 text messages and emails with the dingbat who opened the door to Powell and her team of crazies. Who knows who else is implicated in those messages? Two people have flipped for very favorable terms. They won't be the last.
The House convened and went to recess. They're working out terms to empower the temporary speaker so they can pass essential legislation. Some Republicans are livid because it boils down to a power-sharing compromise that will prevent a shutdown and will allow compromise legislation (Ukraine) to pass with only a few Republicans joining all Democrats.
Jordan avoided the humiliation of another vote. I suspect it's back to the drawing board (Think Wil-e-coyotey.) to try to figure out how the Speakership vote can be structured so it's Jordan or no one and there's only one vote possible. I don't think there's any way, but they are more devious and twisted than I am.
The historians are going to get more good data on TFG and his activities. I wonder when Trump is going to quit saying witch hunt. By the time this is all over he may decide to have a coming out party with a big kettle of his potion to sell.
He'll be screaming "witch hunt!" from his prison cell. I so hope he lives long enough to get there, and finally hit bottom. He'll have a breakdown first.
A former lawyer for Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded guilty to aiding the former U.S. president’s efforts to overturn his election defeat in the state of Georgia, agreeing to testify against him if called.
So, The Kraken cracked!
HA!!!!!
tRUMP just unloaded some "soft-serve chocolate ice-cream" into his boxers!
I thought they were going to have to waterboard her to get her to crack. Instead she folded like a cheap suit. It's looking more like Fani Willis is the one who is releasing the Kracken.
IMO, Jordan does not want another vote now – he will bleed even more votes. There's a number of Republicans thoroughly pissed about threats and intimidation. None of it "just happened." Jordan is of course denying he's at fault for the organized intimidation. But I think Jordan is more likely to have thirty holdouts tomorrow than some number in the teens.
Jordan is trying to figure out how to reverse the trend before there's another vote. IMO, that's why Jordan wanted to install the temporary speaker – to hold onto the status of nominee for a few weeks at least while Jordan tries to figure out how to win people over who are completely over him.
His supporters balked at the idea of a temporary speaker because it would certainly require Democrats to cross over and that means negotiating with the enemy. (And not shutting down government or withholding aid to Ukraine.) So Jordan misjudged his own caucus.
The only thing McHenry can do is call for a vote. I do not see how they avoid it tomorrow. This will take Jordan out of field goal range. (I think) It should open up talk about who can be nominated who can get to 217. And yeah, there's no option except a non-fascist and Democrats crossing over. But it may take weeks.
Will the vote – maybe tomorrow – end Jordan's bid for speaker?
One strategy of humans in a problem situation, even used by the very young ones, is to shake things, as they get older maybe shake things up. In as much as corporations might be considered human, we often hear of corporate shake ups. In Elon Musk world, we are not sure if that is not just business as usual. It is a problem-solving strategy with risk, and at times unproductive or even counterproductive. Of late, humans are just going to blow things up or blow it all up as the neo-problem-solving strategy of choice. Note here the house of representatives, the west bank, and for Hamas, Israel and for Trump our justice system. At least Joe Biden can see problem solving solutions that are not in that domain. He is at least of the age where his only problem-solving strategy is to get on the cell phone and make it someone else's problem. I am seeing too much of that of late too.