For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!
For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.
Tuesday, 1 October 2024:
JD Vance refuses to say Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, sparking the vice presidential debate’s biggest clash. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz called Senator JD Vance’s non-answer ‘damning’ as the pair sparred over January 6 and Trump’s refusal to concede defeat. The Washington Post, Patrick Marley and Amy Gardner, Tuesday, 1 October 2024: “Sen. JD Vance refused to acknowledge that former president Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, setting off one of the most contentious exchanges in Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate with Gov. Tim Walz. Walz vigorously pressed Vance on the issue near the end of a debate that had otherwise been marked by unusual comity. ‘I would just ask, did he lose the 2020 election?’ Walz asked. ‘Tim, I’m focused on the future,’ Vance said, without addressing the question. ‘That is a damning non-answer,’ Walz responded.” See also, Fact-checking the CBS News vice presidential debate between Vance and Walz, CNN Politics, CNN Staff, published on Wednesday, 2 October 2024.
Wednesday, 2 October 2024:
Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against Trump. Judge Tanya Chutkan made public portions of a filing by prosecutors setting out their argument for why the case should go forward despite the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. The New York Times, Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “When told by an aide that Vice President Mike Pence was in peril as the rioting on Capitol Hill escalated on Jan. 6, 2021, President Donald J. Trump replied, ‘So what?’ When one of his lawyers told him that his false claims that the election had been marred by widespread fraud would not hold up in court, Mr. Trump responded, ‘The details don’t matter.’ On a flight with Mr. Trump and his family after the election, an Oval Office assistant heard Mr. Trump say: ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.’ Those accounts were among new evidence disclosed in a court filing made public on Wednesday in which the special counsel investigating Mr. Trump made his case for why the former president is not immune from prosecution on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. Made public by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington, the 165-page brief was partly redacted but expansive, adding details to the already extensive record of how Mr. Trump lost the race but attempted nonetheless to cling to power. The brief from the prosecution team led by the special counsel, Jack Smith, asserts that there is ample evidence that Mr. Trump’s efforts to remain in office were those of a desperate losing candidate rather than official acts of a president that would be considered immune from prosecution under a landmark Supreme Court ruling this summer. ‘The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct,’ prosecutors wrote. ‘Not so. Although the defendant was the incumbent president during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one.'” See also, Read the Special Counsel’s Newly Unsealed Evidence Against Trump. The New York Times, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “A sprawling legal brief by the special counsel, Jack Smith, that was partly unsealed on Wednesday lays out his case for why former President Donald J. Trump is not immune from prosecution on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. It adds new details to the extensive public record of how Mr. Trump lost the race but attempted nonetheless to cling to power.” See also, Filing in Trump Election Case Fleshes Out Roles of a Sprawling Cast. Donald Trump is the only defendant in the special counsel’s case that charges him with a plot to remain in power after his 2020 loss. But a newly unsealed brief provides fresh details about many other figures. The New York Times, Alan Feuer and Charlie Savage, published on Thursday, 3 October 2024: “When the special counsel, Jack Smith, charged former President Donald J. Trump last year with plotting to overturn the 2020 election, the federal indictment filed in Washington had only one defendant: Mr. Trump himself, who stood accused of working with a small team of conspirators. But in a court filing unsealed on Wednesday, Mr. Smith drew on the actions of a much larger group to tell the tale of how Mr. Trump lost the race but sought to stay in the White House. He populated his brief with a sprawling cast of characters — lawyers, longtime Trump aides, campaign operatives, even some of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — who all played a supporting role either for or against Mr. Trump’s attempts to cling to power. Most of them were not named in the 165-page filing, and were referred to only by numeric monikers, though many of their identities could be divined from details in the brief. And the sheer scope of the crew was evidenced by the fact that the anonymized references started with Person 1 and went all the way to Person 71.” See also, As rioters stormed the Capitol with Vice President Mike Pence inside, Trump allegedly said ‘So what?’ The Washington Post, Spencer S. Hsu, Josh Dawsey, Tom Jackman, and Amy Gardner, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “President Donald Trump appeared indifferent as rioters stormed the Capitol to try to prevent the transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, telling an aide ‘So what?’ even after learning security measures were being taken to protect his vice president, prosecutors alleged in an explosive new court filing unsealed Wednesday. The much-anticipated 165-page filing from special counsel Jack Smith offers a searing portrayal of Trump just a month before the 2024 election. It describes in more extensive detail than before how many people — including Vice President Mike Pence, party and state leaders, his own campaign officials, his own campaign lawyers, and others — told Trump there was no proof the election was stolen, and how Trump nonetheless waged a campaign to overturn the result. Prosecutors reconstructed behind-the-scenes interactions, including one in which an aide rushed to the dining room to share with Trump, who had been watching the events on TV and tweeting, that action was being taken to ensure the safety of Pence, who was in the Capitol building. ‘The defendant looked at him and said only, So what?’ the filing alleges.” See also, 5 takeaways from the big new filing on Trump’s 2020 plot to overturn the presidential election. ‘So what,’ ‘Make them riot,’ ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election’ and what it all means legally and politically. The Washington Post, Aaron Blake, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “We just got the most extensive new detail in years about former president Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the 2020 election, in the form of a much-anticipated filing from special counsel Jack Smith. The 165-page partially redacted filing, which was unsealed by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, lays out the evidence Smith’s team would like to present in the long-delayed Jan. 6 federal criminal case against Trump. What evidence Smith can use and what charges can stand are disputed after the Supreme Court recently gave presidents including Trump extensive immunity from criminal prosecution. But the filing also doubles as a sort of blueprint for the case ahead. It features some significant revelations and quotes that could be important not just for the legal battle, but for the 2024 election.” See also, Judge Tanya Chutkan unseals new evidence against Trump in the January 6 election interference case, NPR, Carrie Johnson and Ryan Lucas, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “In a newly unsealed court filing, special counsel Jack Smith provides the most detailed picture yet of his criminal case against Donald Trump for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election and why the former president isn’t immune from prosecution. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, released the filing, with minor redactions, on Wednesday. The special counsel uses the 165-page document to make his case that Trump’s actions around the election were made in a private capacity and not in his official role as president. The filing comes after the Supreme Court ruled this summer that presidents enjoy broad immunity for official acts while in office, but not for unofficial acts as a candidate or a private citizen.” See also, Prosecutors lay out new evidence in Trump election case and accuse him of having ‘resorted to crimes,’ Associated Press, Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and ‘resorted to crimes’ in his failed bid to cling to power, according to a court filing unsealed Wednesday that offers new evidence from the landmark criminal case against the former president. The filing from special counsel Jack Smith’s team offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the election reaches trial. Although a months-long congressional investigation and the indictment itself have chronicled in stark detail Trump’s efforts to undo the election, the filing cites previously unknown accounts offered by Trump’s closest aides to paint a portrait of an ‘increasingly desperate’ president who, while losing his grip on the White House, ‘used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process.'”
If Trump Wins, Could He Really Use the Justice Department to Jail His Rivals? The New York Times, Emily Bazelon, Marco Hernandez, Mattathias Schwartz, and Bill Marsh, Wednesday, 2 October 2024: “It has become commonplace for Donald Trump to talk about how he will use the Justice Department to punish his enemies should he regain the presidency. He routinely calls for prosecuting his current opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and regularly accuses her and President Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department against him. Though there is no evidence that Biden or Harris had any involvement in the charges Trump faces, relating to the 2020 election and mishandling classified documents, he frequently asserts that these cases justify his plans for retribution. Trump’s threats raise questions about what restraints could prevent him from following through. Since Watergate, when Richard Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment for meddling in an F.B.I. investigation, American presidents have taken pains to distance the White House from the Justice Department’s decisions about whom to investigate and prosecute. (The exception to this was Trump during his first term.) But only norms and precedents, not laws, prevent this. In our system, the attorney general and the director of the F.B.I. sit within the executive branch and answer to the president. How might a politically motivated prosecution actually unfold? The steps below show exactly how Trump could make his threats real — all while staying within the constitutional limits on presidential power.” See also, Why Legal Experts Are Worried About a Second Trump Presidency. In a survey of 50 members of the D.C. legal establishment, many warn that Trump could follow through on his threats to prosecute his political adversaries. The New York Times, Emily Bazelon and Mattathias Schwartz, Wednesday, 2 October 2024.
Continue reading Aftermath of the Trump Administration, October 2024: