Aftermath of the Trump Administration, November 2023

 

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Wednesday, 1 November 2023:

 

If Trump Wins, His Allies Want Lawyers Who Will Bless a More Radical Agenda. Politically appointed lawyers sometimes frustrated Donald Trump’s ambitions. His allies are planning to install more aggressive legal gatekeepers if he regains the White House. The New York Times, Jonathan Swan, Charlie Savage, and Maggie Haberman, Thursday, 1 November 2023: “Close allies of Donald J. Trump are preparing to populate a new administration with a more aggressive breed of right-wing lawyer, dispensing with traditional conservatives who they believe stymied his agenda in his first term. The allies have been drawing up lists of lawyers they view as ideologically and temperamentally suited to serve in a second Trump administration. Their aim is to reduce the chances that politically appointed lawyers would frustrate a more radical White House agenda — as they sometimes did when Mr. Trump was in office, by raising objections to his desires for certain harsher immigration policies or for greater personal control over the Justice Department, among others. Now, as Trump allies grow more confident in an election victory next fall, several outside groups, staffed by former Trump officials who are expected to serve in senior roles if he wins, have begun parallel personnel efforts. At the start of Mr. Trump’s term, his administration relied on the influential Federalist Society, the conservative legal network whose members filled key executive branch legal roles and whose leader helped select his judicial nominations. But in a striking shift, Trump allies are building new recruiting pipelines separate from the Federalist Society. These back-room discussions were described by seven people with knowledge of the planning, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. In addition, The New York Times interviewed former senior lawyers in the Trump administration and other allies who have remained close to the former president and are likely to serve in a second term.”

Donald Trump Jr. Denies Responsibility for Company Business Statements. The former president’s son began the Trump family’s parade to the witness stand in the civil fraud case. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich and Kate Christobek, Wednesday, 1 November 2023: “Donald Trump Jr. testified on Wednesday that he had no direct involvement in annual financial statements that his family’s business gave banks and insurers despite language in the statements themselves suggesting that he was partially responsible for them. His contention, which came during the trial of a civil fraud lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general, capped an afternoon of otherwise unremarkable testimony from Mr. Trump, who is the first of his family members to testify about the case. Asked whether he worked on one such statement, from 2017, Mr. Trump was clear: ‘I did not. The accountants worked on it. That’s what we pay them for.’ He soon clarified that his conversations with others at the company may have informed the financial statement. The attorney general, Letitia James, has said such papers were filled with fraud that helped the company, the Trump Organization, gain favorable treatment from lenders.” See also, Donald Trump Jr. testifies and deflects responsibility in New York business fraud case, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs and Mark Berman, Wednesday, 1 November 2023: “Donald Trump Jr. testified Wednesday afternoon in a multimillion-dollar civil case that accuses him, his father and other Trump Organization executives of cheating in business deals, saying he was not directly involved in the production of financial statements. The former president’s son is the first member of his family to be called as a witness by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) in its $250 million fraud lawsuit against the family and the company. James’s lawsuit accuses Donald Trump and his executives of inflating his financial statements to secure better terms. During his testimony, Trump Jr. said the responsibility of preparing financial statements rested with Mazars USA, the company’s longtime accounting firm.” See also, Donald Trump Jr. testifies he never worked on the key documents in his father’s New York civil fraud trial, Associated Press, Michael R. Sisak and Jennifer Peltz, Wednesday, 1 November 2023: “Donald Trump Jr. testified Wednesday that he never worked on his father’s financial statements, the documents now at the heart of the civil fraud trial that threatens former President Donald Trump’s real estate empire. The ex-president’s eldest son is an executive vice president of the family’s Trump Organization and has been a trustee of a trust set up to hold its assets when his father was in the White House. At least one of the annual financial statements bore language saying the trustees ‘are responsible’ for the document. But Donald Trump Jr. said he didn’t recall ever working on any of the financial statements and had ‘no specific knowledge’ of them. The lawsuit centers on whether the former president and his business misled banks and insurers by inflating his net worth on the financial statements. He and other defendants, including sons Donald Jr. and Eric, deny wrongdoing.” See also, Live From Trump Fraud Trial: Donald Trump Jr. Takes the Stand, Forbes, Dan Alexander, Wednesday, 1 November 2023.

Before he became a politician, House Speaker Mike Johnson partnered with an anti-gay conversion therapy group, CNN Politics, Andrew Kaczynski, Wednesday, 1 November 2023: “Speaker of the House Mike Johnson closely collaborated with a group in the mid-to-late 2000s that promoted ‘conversion therapy,’ a discredited practice that asserted it could change the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian individuals. Prior to launching his political career, Johnson, a lawyer, gave legal advice to an organization called Exodus International and partnered with the group to put on an annual anti-gay event aimed at teens, according to a CNN KFile review of more than a dozen of Johnson’s media appearances from that timespan. Founded in 1976, Exodus International was a leader in the so-called ‘ex-gay’ movement, which aimed to make gay individuals straight through conversion therapy programs using religious and counseling methods. Exodus International connected ministries across the world using these controversial approaches. The group shut down in 2013, with its founder posting a public apology for the ‘pain and hurt’ his organization caused. Conversion therapy has been widely condemned by most major medical institutions and has been shown to be harmful to struggling LGBTQ people.”

Continue reading Aftermath of the Trump Administration, November 2023:

Trump wants to build a free online university, and make Harvard and other large universities pay for it. Trump is pledging to create a federally funded online university where ‘wokeness or jihadism’ are not allowed. Politico, Meridith McGraw and Michael Stratford, Wednesday, 1 November 2023: “Donald Trump wants to ‘revolutionize’ higher education if elected president. And in a new campaign policy video, he is pledging to do so by creating a federally funded online university that awards free degrees — one where ‘wokeness or jihadism’ are not allowed…. ‘We spend more money on higher education than any other country and yet, they’re turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions,’ Trump said in a video of his proposal. ‘We can’t let this happen.’ Trump campaign officials said they have yet to decide who would run American Academy, but said they would look to include private sector resources and they pointed to several potential models, including oversight by an existing government agency, a presidentially appointed board or commission, or a publicly funded private entity.”

 

Thursday, 2 November 2023:

 

Trump Asks Federal Appeals Court to Lift Gag Order in Election Case. The former president argued that the order restricting what he can say about the case should not be in effect while he seeks to have it thrown out on appeal. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Thursday, 2 November 2023: “Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump filed an emergency request to a federal appeals court on Thursday seeking to lift the gag order imposed on him in the criminal case in which he stands accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election. The lawyers asked the appeals court to keep the pause of the order in place until it reaches a final decision on whether the order should have been issued in the first place…. Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the appeals court to render a decision on their request for a stay by Nov. 10. They suggested that they would seek relief from the Supreme Court if the appellate judges denied their motion.” See also, Trump asks appeals court to lift gag order imposed on him in 2020 election interference case, Associated Press, Alanna Durkin Richer, Thursday, 2 November 2023: “Former President Donald Trump asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to lift a gag order restricting his speech about potential witnesses, prosecutors and court staff in the case that accuses him of scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss. Trump’s attorneys urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to block the gag order ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan while the Republican former president pursues his appeals…. The order bars Trump from making public statements targeting special counsel Jack Smith and his team, court employees and possible witnesses. It does not prohibit Trump from airing general complaints, even incendiary ones, about the case against him. The judge has explicitly said Trump is still allowed to assert his claims of innocence and his claims that the case is politically motivated. Trump has made verbal attacks on those involved in the criminal cases against him a central part of his bid to reclaim the White House in 2024.”

Special counsel Jack Smith tells judge Trump is attempting to delay trials ‘at any cost.’ Trump is seeking delays in both the classified documents and January 6 cases. ABC News, Katherine Faulders, Thursday, 2 November 2023: “The special counsel leading both the classified documents probe and the Jan. 6 election interference investigation says that former President Donald Trump is trying to delay both trials ‘at any cost,’ after Trump’s attorneys filed a motion for a stay in the Jan. 6 case. Attorneys for Trump on Wednesday asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference case to delay all proceedings in the case pending a resolution of their motion to dismiss the case on immunity grounds…. The request came on the same day that the judge in Trump’s classified documents case, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, said she would consider pushing back that case’s schedule following a motion by Trump’s attorneys. Early Thursday morning, special counsel Jack Smith’s team alerted Judge Cannon to Trump’s motion to stay in the Jan. 6 case, saying that the motions in those separate proceedings illustrate Trump’s goal to delay both of the trials ‘at any cost.’ ‘As the Government argued to the Court yesterday, the trial date in the District of Columbia case should not be a determinative factor in the Court’s decision whether to modify the dates in this matter,’ the special counsel said in the Thursday filing. ‘Defendant Trump’s actions in the hours following the hearing in this case illustrate the point and confirm his overriding interest in delaying both trials at any cost.'” See also, Special counsel Jack Smith accuses Trump legal team of trying to manipulate the courts with requests to delay trials past the 2024 presidential election, CNN Politics, Katelyn Polantz, Thursday, 2 November 2023: “Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s office have accused former President Donald Trump’s legal team of seeking to manipulate the courts in their bid to delay his trials past the 2024 presidential election. Fresh off a Florida hearing where Trump appeared to gain traction in his effort to delay one of his criminal trials, his attorneys asked Wednesday night for a second trial he faces next year in Washington, DC, to be put on hold. But Trump’s emboldened attempts to delay facing federal juries – on his national security records mishandling and 2020 election cases – while he is running for president were quickly called out by prosecutors who accuse him of manipulating the courts.”

Trump’s Sons Cast the Blame for Fraud on Their Company’s Accountants. Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric Trump both testified in the New York civil fraud trial that accuses their family business of overvaluing its assets. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, Thursday, 2 November 2023: “Eric and Donald J. Trump Jr., the elder sons of the 45th president, stepped out of their father’s shadow and into a legal minefield on Thursday, tiptoeing around potentially damaging evidence as they testified in a trial that threatens their family business. Donald Trump Jr. was mostly calm but often evasive as he blamed outside accountants for any errors in company financial statements during nearly two hours on the stand. The documents are at the heart of the civil case in State Supreme Court in Manhattan that accuses the brothers, their father and the firm of defrauding banks and insurers. His younger brother, Eric, who now runs the Trump Organization, was more precise in his answers but more combative in his tone. He acknowledged his central role within the company but denied direct involvement with the documents….  Mr. Trump’s sons were summoned to the stand by the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, which sued the Trumps and the Trump Organization, accusing them of overvaluing the former president’s assets to obtain favorable loans and other benefits.”

 

Friday, 3 November 2023:

 

Trump Lawyers Attack Law Clerk, Overshadowing Eric Trump’s Testimony. Eric Trump took the stand for a second day in a civil fraud case that threatens his family’s business, but the judge’s clerk was again the target of complaints. The New York Times, Johan E. Bromwich and Kate Christobek, Friday, 3 November 2023: “Donald J. Trump’s legal team on Friday repeatedly attacked a law clerk during the former president’s civil fraud trial, overshadowing Eric Trump’s second day on the witness stand and prompting the judge to bar the lawyers from making public statements about his private communications with his staff. The judge, Arthur F. Engoron, works closely with the clerk, Allison Greenfield, and the two often speak and pass notes on the bench. Ms. Greenfield previously worked as a trial attorney in New York City’s law department, and the judge appears to rely on her expertise when considering rules of evidence and other matters. But the former president has taken issue with her involvement in the monthlong trial — Ms. Greenfield is a Democrat and Mr. Trump believes she is biased against him — and his lawyers have complained about her regularly. On Friday, one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers, Christopher M. Kise, continued those objections, saying that the communications between the judge and clerk had created a ‘perception of bias.’ After court had ended for the day, Justice Engoron issued a written order prohibiting the lawyers from making public statements, in or out of court, about his private communications with Ms. Greenfield, including their conversations and notes. He said that the lawyers’ arguments had no basis, that their accusations of bias were false and that failure to heed the order would result in ‘serious sanctions.’ He again said that he was concerned about danger to his staff, and noted that his chambers had been ‘inundated with hundreds of harassing and threatening phone calls, voicemails, emails, letters and packages’ since the trial began. A lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the case against Mr. Trump and his two adult sons, pronounced the whole issue a ‘sideshow’ after Eric Trump had concluded his testimony.”

Appeals Court Temporarily Frees Trump From Gag Order in Election Case. A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington lifted the order for at least two weeks, freeing the former president to say what he wants about prosecutors and witnesses. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Friday, 3 November 2023: “An appeals court in Washington on Friday paused the gag order imposed on former President Donald J. Trump in the federal case accusing him of seeking to overturn the 2020 election, temporarily freeing him to go back to attacking the prosecutors and witnesses involved in the proceeding. In a brief order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the pause of about two weeks was needed to give it ‘sufficient opportunity’ to decide whether to enact a longer freeze as the court considered the separate — and more important — issue of whether the gag order had been correctly imposed in the first place. The panel’s ruling came in response to an emergency request to lift the order pending appeal that Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed on Thursday night. While the judges — all three of whom were appointed by Democrats — paused the gag order until at least Nov. 20 to permit additional papers to be filed, they wrote in their decision on Friday that the brief stay ‘should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits’ of Mr. Trump’s broader motion for a more sustained pause. The gag order, which was put in place last month by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in Federal District Court in Washington, has now been frozen, reinstated and frozen again…. Prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, have repeatedly tried to portray the former president as a serial abuser of social media whose often belligerent posts about people involved in the election subversion case have had dangerous effects in the real world.” See also, Gag order against Trump in January 6 case put on hold by appellate court, The Washington Post, Rachel Weiner, Friday, 3 November 2023: “Former president Donald Trump is again free to disparage the prosecutors, witnesses and court staffers involved in his federal election obstruction case in D.C. — for now. A federal appeals court put a judge’s gag order against Trump on hold while it considers his claim that the restrictions violate his First Amendment rights. Briefs from both sides are due over the next three weeks. The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit deciding the case is made up of two appointees of President Barack Obama and one appointee of President Biden.” See also, Appeals court freezes gag order against Trump in federal election subversion case and will hear oral arguments this month, CNN Politics, Devan Cole and Katelyn Polantz, Friday, 3 November 2023: “A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily froze the limited gag order issued against Donald Trump in the former president’s election subversion criminal case in Washington, DC, allowing him to again speak freely with criticism of possible witnesses in the case. In a brief order, a three-judge panel at the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals said they were pausing the gag order issued by District Judge Tanya Chutkan to give them more time to consider Trump’s request to pause the order while his appeal plays out before the court. The appellate judges – Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard, both Barack Obama appointees, and Brad Garcia, a Joe Biden appointee – said they would fast-track Trump’s appeal of the gag order and hear arguments in the matter on November 20.”

Republicans Introduce Bill to Expel Palestinians From the United States. Representative Ryan Zinke (R-Montana) and a group of far-right House Republicans want to revoke visas issued to Palestinians. HuffPost, Arthur Delaney and Rowaida Abdelaziz, Friday, 3 November 2023: “Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) introduced legislation on Thursday to ban Palestinians from the United States in an echo of former President Donald Trump’s infamous ‘Muslim ban.’ The bill would pause visas for Palestinians and go a step further by revoking any visas issued since Oct. 1. Though the legislation specifically targets Palestinians who obtained visas in the last month, the title of Zinke’s press release makes his broader sentiment clear: ‘Zinke Introduces Bill to Expel Palestinians from the United States.’ The summary says the measure would direct the Department of Homeland Security to ‘identify and remove covered aliens without lawful status,’ including those whose lawful status was just revoked.”

Mark Meadows’ conservative book publisher is suing him for lying in his memoir, Business Insider, Brent D. Griffiths, Friday, 3 November 2023: “Not everyone is happy with Mark Meadows’ reported turn against former President Donald Trump. On Friday, All Season Press, the independent publisher of Meadows’ memoir, filed suit against the former White House chief of staff alleging he can’t have both ways. In All Seasons’ view, Meadows can’t reportedly tell special counsel Jack Smith that he warned Trump against claiming the election was stolen only to write at length in his memoir that Trump really did win the 2020 presidential election. ‘Meadows’ reported statements to the Special Prosecutor and/or his staff [sic] and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements in his Book, one central theme of which is that President Trump was the true winner of the 2020 Presidential Election and that election was “stolen” and “rigged” with the help from “allies in the liberal media,” who ignored actual evidence of fraud, right there in plain sight for anyone to access and analyze, leading to the wrongful election of President Biden,’ the lawsuit claims.”

Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson Substack, Heather Cox Richardson, Friday, 3 November 2023: “[F]ar from trying to work across the aisle, [House Speaker Mike] Johnson has been throwing red meat to his base. In the last two days, for example, the House has voted to slash 39% of the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 13% of the budget of the National Park Service. It voted to require the Biden administration to advance oil drilling off the Alaska coast. It has voted on reducing the salary of the EPA administrator, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, and the Secretary of the Interior to $1 each. Yesterday, Johnson told reporters he considers extremists Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) close friends and said ‘I don’t disagree with them on many issues and principles.’ To direct his communications team, Johnson has tapped Raj Shah, a former executive from the Fox News Corporation, who was a key player in promoting the lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. As the head of the ‘Brand Protection Unit,’ Shah demanded that the Fox News Channel continue to lie to viewers who would leave the station if it told the truth. Johnson has hired Shah to be his deputy chief of staff for communications and, according to Alex Isenstadt of Politico, ‘help run messaging for House Republicans.’… Trump has also made it clear he and his allies want to gut the nonpartisan civil service and fill tens of thousands of government positions with his own loyalists. Led by Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Trump’s allies believe that agencies like the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission should not be independent but should push the president’s agenda.”

 

Saturday, 4 November 2023:

 

Trump and media want a televised trial in D.C. The Justice department does not. The Washington Post, Spencer S. Hsu and Tom Jackman, Saturday, 4 November 2023: “The Justice Department formally urged a federal judge Friday to reject calls by news organizations and by former president Donald Trump’s defense to allow live television coverage of his federal trial in March on charges of illegally conspiring to subvert the results of the 2020 election, joining a potentially historic legal battle over public access to the federal courts. Last month, lawyers for a coalition of news organizations including The Washington Post and for the corporate parent of NBC News filed two petitions in Washington asking U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to make an exception to the long-standing rule barring cameras from federal courtrooms for Trump’s case and to permit the televising, recording, or same-day release of video and audio recordings of his trial. ‘Since the founding of our Nation, we have never had a criminal case where securing the public’s confidence will be more important than with United States v. Donald J. Trump,’ attorneys for the 20-member news coalition wrote in an Oct. 5 application. They asserted that the trial of a former president and presumptive 2024 presidential nominee on charges of obstructing the most recent election ‘presents the strongest possible circumstances for continuous public oversight of the justice system.'”

 

Sunday, 5 November 2023:

 

Trump and allies plot to punish critics and opponents. Advisers have also discussed deploying the military to quell potential unrest on Inauguration Day. Critics have called the ideas under consideration dangerous and unconstitutional. The Washington Post, Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, and Devlin Barrett, Sunday, 5 November 2023: “Donald Trump and his allies have begun mapping out specific plans for using the federal government to punish critics and opponents should he win a second term, with the former president naming individuals he wants to investigate or prosecute and his associates drafting plans to potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations. In private, Trump has told advisers and friends in recent months that he wants the Justice Department to investigate onetime officials and allies who have become critical of his time in office, including his former chief of staff, John F. Kelly, and former attorney general William P. Barr, as well as his ex-attorney Ty Cobb and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley, according to people who have talked to him, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Trump has also talked of prosecuting officials at the FBI and Justice Department, a person familiar with the matter said.” See also, Trump’s Recipe for a Shockingly Raw Power Grab. The former president and his allies are reportedly planning to lay siege to the rule of law. Politico. Jack Shafer, published on Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “You can’t say Donald Trump didn’t warn us. Trump and his think tank loyalists are collecting the ingredients and refining the recipe for an authoritarian regime should he win the 2024 presidential election. According to a page one story in The Washington Post Monday, Trump plans on the first day of his new administration to invoke the Insurrection Act so he can dispatch the military to counter any demonstrations that might resist his policies. Why might he need the Insurrection Act? Well, the piece also notes Trump intends to turbo-politicize the Department of Justice and order prosecutions of his former aides and officials who have criticized him. Perhaps he thinks the country won’t let him go buck wild on the rule of law without a stink, so he wants to be ready to sic troops on the inevitable protestors…. [T]his new round of bombast and threats is not just a matter of Trump being Trump. What’s different this time is that Trump’s building an extra-legal foundation of declarations and appointments to make his 2017-2021 aspirations, which sounded like off-the-cuff ravings at the time, come true. Recall the scary preview of his ambitions he gave in a March 2023 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he promised his ‘wronged and betrayed’ supporters that he would be their ‘justice’ and ‘retribution.’… By putting us on notice that he plans to punish his past foes — and presumably his future foes — with the justice system, Trump has given us a head start in blocking his future lawlessness. These promises — call them campaign promises — deserve full scrutiny from the press.”

Mike Johnson Admits He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Intake in Resurfaced Video. ‘I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate,’ Speaker of the House says of his ‘accountability partner.’ Rolling Stone, Daniel Kreps, Sunday, 5 November 2023: “Speaker of the House Mike Johnson admitted that he and his son monitored each other’s porn intake in a resurfaced clip from 2022.” See also, Mike Johnson Said He and His Son Monitor Each Other’s Porn Usage, and Yeah, It’s Exactly as Weird as It Sounds. Vanity Fair, Bess Levin, published on Monday, 6 November 2023: “Mike Johnson has not even been House Speaker for a full two weeks, but we’ve managed to learn a tremendous amount about him—most of which could be charitably described as extremely not good. This weekend, though, brought a new category of details about the congressional leader, the response to which has been: WTF? The reveal, via Rolling Stone, is that as of at least last year, Johnson and his then 17-year-old son monitored each other’s porn usage in an effort to ensure neither was watching any. How, you might ask, could anyone possibly know this? Johnson talked about it publicly in 2022. Yes, in a recently unearthed clip, the representative from Louisiana extolled the virtues of a piece of technology called Covenant Eyes, the purpose of which is to stop anyone who subscribes to it from looking at porn or what it deems questionable images. ‘Covenant Eyes is the software we’ve been using for a long time in our household,’ Johnson said on a panel at a conference about the dangers of technology. ‘It scans…all the activity on your phone or your devices, your laptop, tablet, what have you, we do all of it, and then it sends a report to your accountability partner. So my accountability partner right now is Jack, my son…he is 17. So he and I get a report of all the things that are on…our devices once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell you my son has got a clean slate.’ Johnson added: ‘It’s really sensitive, it’ll pick up almost anything, it looks for keywords, search terms, and also images, and it will send your accountability partner a blurred picture of the image.'”

 

Monday, 6 November 2023:

 

Highlights From Trump’s Testimony in His Civil Fraud Trial. The judge in the case sought to rein in the former president, who railed against him and New York’s attorney general from the stand, and seemed to undercut efforts to distance himself from the property valuations at the heart of the case. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, Monday, 6 November 2023: “He was belligerent and brash, unrepentant and verbose — regardless of the courtroom setting, he was the quintessential Donald J. Trump. Within minutes of Mr. Trump’s taking the witness stand on Monday, his civil fraud trial in Manhattan devolved into a chaotic spectacle before a packed house. The former president lashed out at his accusers and denied their claims, even while conceding involvement in some of the conduct at the case’s heart. Ranting and rambling as the courtroom pulsed with tension, Mr. Trump attacked New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, as a ‘political hack.’ He derided the proceeding as ‘a very unfair trial.’ And he scolded the judge overseeing the case, Arthur F. Engoron, for having decided before the trial that he had committed fraud. ‘He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me!’ Mr. Trump exclaimed from the stand, pointing at the judge, who flashed a grin. The outbursts demonstrated the former president’s disdain for a case that has already imperiled his family business and labeled him a fraud and a cheat. Ms. James, who has become one of Mr. Trump’s arch antagonists, has not only put his company on trial, but also called into question the richer-than-rich persona that he built over his years as a businessman and reality television star — the identity that propelled his run for the White House. Mr. Trump, who was accused by Ms. James of inflating his net worth to defraud banks and insurers, acknowledged helping to assemble annual financial statements submitted to the banks.” See also, A Judge Tries to Do What Few Have Accomplished: Rein in Trump. Through the first few hours of Donald J. Trump’s time on the witness stand, he and Judge Arthur F. Engoron traded irritated facial expressions. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich, Monday, 6 November 2023. See also, Trump completes testimony in New York civil fraud trial, The Washington Post, Monday, 6 November 2023: “Former president Donald Trump had a contentious day on the witness stand Monday in the civil trial accusing him and his company of committing rampant fraud. He drew multiple warnings from the trial judge for veering off topic and criticizing the proceedings, while also staunchly defending the way he and the Trump Organization valued their properties. The case involves a $250 million lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), who says Trump and others intentionally inflated the value of his assets to secure better financial terms. Trump denies wrongdoing. He has been fined $15,000 for twice violating a gag order that bars him from making statements about court employees.” See also, 4 things we learned from Trump’s testimony in the New York fraud trial, The Washington Post, Aaron Blake, Monday, 6 November 2023. See also, Testifying in fraud case, Trump clashes with judge and draws reprimands, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs, Jonathan O’Connell, Wesley Parnell, and Mark Berman, Monday, 6 November 2023. See also, Why a New York Judge Abandoned Plans to Get Trump Under ‘Control’ in Civil Fraud Trial. A day of testimony showed that Trump is more interested in treating his trial as political theater instead of trying to win the case. The Messenger, Adam Klasfeld, Monday, 6 November 2023: “After warning he would take action, Justice Engoron apparently decided that he would not sanction or strike testimony by Trump, which makes sense in a bench trial where he is the sole arbiter of how much weight to give testimony and how to evaluate credibility,’ [former federal prosecutor Mitchell] Epner said. ‘An appeals court might second guess Justice Engoron’s decision to strike or sanction, but it would never second guess his credibility determinations.'” See also, Trump takes the witness stand and doesn’t break character. In a series of outbursts while testifying, Trump assailed the judge who is overseeing his civil fraud case. Politico, Erica Orden, Monday, 6 November 2023: “Testimony by Donald Trump in a civil fraud trial Monday quickly descended into bitter sniping as Trump’s discursive answers and outbursts prompted the judge to repeatedly admonish him. During his four hours on the witness stand, the former president lost his temper and attacked the judge, railing against the person who will decide the fate of his business empire and suggesting one of his pretrial rulings was ‘very stupid.’ Trump continually flouted the judge’s instructions to provide succinct and direct answers to questions, instead offering much of the political animus Trump typically deploys on the campaign trail.”

Prosecutors Assail Trump’s Bid to Have Federal Election Case Dismissed. Prosecutors said that Mr. Trump’s barrage of motions to have the case tossed out were full of ‘distortions and misrepresentations.’ The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Monday, 6 November 2023: “Federal prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to reject a barrage of motions filed last month by former President Donald J. Trump that sought to toss out the indictment charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election and said his claims were full of ‘distortions and misrepresentations.’ In a 79-page court filing, prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, went one by one through Mr. Trump’s multiple motions to dismiss the case and accused him and his lawyers of essentially trying to flip the script of the four-count indictment filed against him in August. ‘The defendant attempts to rewrite the indictment, claiming that it charges him with wholly innocuous, perhaps even admirable conduct, — sharing his opinions about election fraud and seeking election integrity,’ James I. Pearce, one of the prosecutors, wrote, ‘when in fact it clearly describes the defendant’s fraudulent use of knowingly false statements as weapons in furtherance of his criminal plans.'” See also, Department of Justice says Trump belief that the 2020 election was stolen is not a defense. Trump claimed he can’t be charged with intending to deceive; Special Counsel said his crimes were steeped in lies. The Washington Post, Rachel Weiner, Spences S. Hsu, and Tom Jackman, Monday, 6 November 2023: “Special counsel prosecutors said Monday they plan to show at trial that Donald Trump lied repeatedly about the results of the 2020 election as part of a conspiracy to subvert the legitimate results. But they also said they don’t need to prove whether Trump believed he lost the race. Legal experts have debated the importance of Trump’s state of mind in his federal election subversion case in D.C., with some arguing that to win a conviction the government must pin down the true beliefs of a politician who amassed a long record of making false or misleading claims while president. The Justice Department weighed in on the debate for the first time, saying that what they need to prove is not that Trump believed the ‘Big Lie’ of the election being stolen but that he knowingly spread associated lies in a criminal scheme to stay in power. Lies will be key to special counsel Jack Smith’s case, as the government indicated by using ‘deceit”’46 times in the 79-page filing, including saying Trump is guilty of “perpetrating an unprecedented campaign of deceit to attack” the election, Congress’s certification of the vote, and Americans rights to have their votes counted.” See also, Special counsel says in new filing that the January 6 riot was the ‘culmination’ of Trump conspiracies to overturn the 2020 election. The special counsel’s office called Trump’s motion a ‘meritless effort’ to evade allegations that he was responsible for the attack on the Capitol. NBC News, Daniel Barnes and Zoë Richards, Monday, 6 November 2023: “Donald Trump is responsible for the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 because they were the ‘culmination’ of his conspiracies to overturn the 2020 presidential election, special counsel Jack Smith’s office says in a new filing in the former president‘s federal election interference case. The filing is in response to Trump’s motion to strike ‘inflammatory’ references to the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, from his criminal indictment on four charges related to his alleged efforts to interfere with the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory.”

 

Tuesday, 7 November 2023:

 

Ohio Vote Continues a Winning Streak for Abortion Rights. The State Constitution will protect access to the procedure. The ballot result sends a strong signal that voters are still angry about the demise of Roe. The New York Times, Kate Zernike, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “Ohio’s resounding approval of a ballot measure enshrining a right to abortion in the State Constitution continued a winning streak for abortion-rights groups that have appealed directly to voters after the demise of Roe v. Wade. Abortion rights advocates who 18 months ago saw few paths around a conservative Supreme Court and gerrymandered legislatures, have instead found success by tapping into popular support.” See also, Abortion Rights Fuel Big Democratic Wins and Hopes for 2024. Election results from Tuesday showed that Democrats, independents, and even some moderate Republicans can coalesce around the issue. The New York Times, Lisa Lerer and Shane Goldmacher, published on Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “Democrats won decisive victories in major races across the country on Tuesday evening, overcoming the downward pull of an unpopular president, lingering inflation and growing global unrest by relying on abortion, the issue that has emerged as their fail-safe since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. In races in parts of the South and the Rust Belt, Democrats put abortion rights at the center of their campaigns, spending tens of millions of dollars on ads highlighting Republican support for abortion bans. The Democratic governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, won a second term, after repeatedly criticizing his Republican opponent for initially backing a state abortion ban that contains no exceptions for rape or incest. In Virginia, Democrats won control of both chambers after an avalanche of advertising focused on abortion. In Pennsylvania, Democrats won a seat on the State Supreme Court, in a race that also saw a flurry of abortion-related ads. And in Ohio, a ballot measure establishing a right to abortion in the State Constitution won by a double-digit margin, a striking demonstration of support for abortion rights in a conservative state that Donald J. Trump won twice by convincing margins.” See also, Abortion rights advocates win major victories in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia. The results sent a stark signal for 2024 about enduring demands across the political spectrum to protect access to abortion, even in conservative states. The Washington Post, Hannah Knowles and Caroline Kitchener, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “Abortion rights advocates won major victories Tuesday as voters in conservative-leaning Ohio decisively passed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing access to abortion, while those in ruby-red Kentucky reelected a Democratic governor who aggressively attacked his opponent for supporting the state’s near-total ban on the procedure. In Virginia, a battleground state where Republicans pushed a proposal to outlaw most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, Democrats were projected to take control of the state legislature after campaigning heavily on preserving access.” See also, Virginia Democrats sweep legislative elections after campaigning on abortion rights, Associated Press, Sarah Rankin, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “Virginia Democrats who campaigned on protecting abortion rights swept Tuesday’s legislative elections, retaking full control of the General Assembly after two years of divided power. The outcome is a sharp loss for Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his fellow Republicans, who exerted a great deal of energy, money and political capital on their effort to secure a GOP trifecta.”

5 ways Trump and allies plan for a more authoritarian second term, The Washington Post, Aaron Blake, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “A single hour on Sunday morning might have delivered the most thoroughly depressing political news of 2023 for those dreading another Donald Trump presidency. At 5 a.m. came President Biden’s worst 2024 numbers yet: a New York Times-Siena College poll showing Trump leading in five of six key swing states. At 6 a.m. came a reminder about what that could portend: a Washington Post exposé about how Trump and his allies plan to use a second term to wrest control of and politicize the Justice Department to target his political foes. The Post’s big story was hardly the first evidence of the plans for a consolidation of power and a more authoritarian second term. [Here] is a recap of what we know, based on reports like The Post’s — as well as the words of both Trump and his allies. 1. Use the Justice Department for political purposes…. 2. Purge the government and install loyalists…. 3. Consolidate power in the presidency…. 4. Pardon January 6 insurrectionists…. 5. Crack down on immigrants harder, with extraordinary tools.”

Special Counsel David Weiss Rebuts Claims of Favoritism Toward Hunter Biden. Weiss told a House committee that he has always had authority over the investigation. The New York Times, Glenn Thrush and Luke Broadwater, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “David C. Weiss, who negotiated an ill-fated plea deal with President Biden’s son, Hunter, fiercely defended the integrity of his investigation before House Republicans on Tuesday, the first time a special counsel has fielded questions from lawmakers before concluding an inquiry. During a tense closed-door interview that lasted more than six hours, Mr. Weiss, a veteran federal prosecutor, pushed back against Republican allegations that he brokered a sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden under pressure from the White House. He also disputed a whistle-blower’s claim that he once said he lacked full authority to pursue tax and gun charges. Mr. Weiss, in a dark suit with an American flag pin, told the House Judiciary Committee that he was the ultimate ‘decision maker’ in the Biden case and was ‘at no time blocked’ from doing what he wanted, according to a copy of his written opening remarks. ‘To my knowledge, I am the first special counsel to testify before the submission of the special counsel report,’ Mr. Weiss said. ‘I have done so out of respect for the committee’s oversight responsibilities and to respond to questions raised about the scope of my authority.’ That Mr. Weiss spoke to the committee before issuing a final report on the investigation reflected his mounting frustration with House Republicans, according to people close to him, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. The party’s leaders have sought to make the Hunter Biden investigation a centerpiece of their sputtering impeachment inquiry into President Biden, a rallying point to unite their fractious and fragile majority.” See also, Hunter Biden prosecutor David Weiss says Justice officials never blocked him. In rare testimony to Congress by a special counsel, the Delaware prosecutor defends the handling of the politically sensitive case. The Washington Post, Devlin Barrett and Jacqueline Alemany, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “David Weiss, the federal prosecutor tapped to serve as special counsel investigating Hunter Biden, testified Tuesday behind closed doors to a House committee, telling lawmakers that he has had full authority over the case and has not been overruled at any point by other Justice Department officials. It is highly unusual for the Justice Department to make a special counsel available for questioning by Congress before an investigation is complete. Weiss did so in large part to address lingering concerns raised by two IRS agents on the Biden case who earlier this year accused Weiss and other Justice Department officials of slow-walking their work. One of the agents said Weiss told him he wasn’t the decision-maker in the case. Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware, has disputed that claim and did so again in his opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee.” See also, David Weiss, special counsel in Hunter Biden investigation, tells House Republicans he was not blocked from bringing charges. Weiss’ closed-door meeting was the first time a special counsel has answered questions from Congressional investigators before concluding an investigation. NBC News, Ryan Nobles and Summer Concepcion, Tuesday, 7 November 2023: “Special counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden, told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that he was not thwarted from advancing charges against the president’s son. ‘At no time was I blocked, or otherwise prevented from pursuing charges or taking the steps necessary in the investigation by other United States Attorneys, the Tax Division or anyone else at the Department of Justice,’ Weiss said in his closed-door testimony, according to prepared remarks obtained by NBC News. Weiss also said he doesn’t make decisions in the case in a ‘vacuum’ and must obey federal laws, the principles of federal prosecution and Justice Department guidelines. ‘As a result, there are processes that I must adhere to in making investigative and charging decisions,’ he told the committee. ‘These processes did not interfere with my decision-making authority.'”

 

Wednesday, 8 November 2023:

 

Highlights From Ivanka Trump’s Testimony in Her Father’s Fraud Trial. The former president’s daughter helped set up some of the company’s relationships with financial institutions. At Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, she testified about the loan terms she received, which were backed by his wealth. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “Her father went on the attack. Her brothers backed away. And on Wednesday, Ivanka Trump calmly sidestepped accusations that her family’s business prospered thanks to a lie. Ms. Trump, the fourth member of her family to take the witness stand in the civil fraud case brought by the New York attorney general, was questioned for five hours about her father’s net worth and the loans he received because of it. While some evidence suggested that Ms. Trump had dealt directly with her father’s annual financial statements, which listed the value of his assets, she said that her focus had been elsewhere. ‘I would assume he would have personal financial statements,’ she said, adding, ‘Those weren’t things that I was privy to.’ The trial stems from a lawsuit filed by the attorney general, Letitia James, that accuses former President Donald J. Trump and his family business of fraudulently inflating his wealth on the financial statements.” See also, Ivanka Trump testifies in New York fraud case against family business, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs and Mark Berman, Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “Ivanka Trump testified Wednesday of limited awareness of financial statements central to a civil trial accusing her father, two of her brothers and their namesake business of fraud, capping off a striking stretch that saw four members of the family questioned under oath. Like her brothers, who testified last week, Ivanka Trump spent her time on the witness stand at New York State Supreme Court distancing herself from the financial documents at the heart of the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). In a lawsuit last year, James accused former president Donald Trump and his company of knowingly inflating the value of assets in financial statements submitted to banks and insurance companies to secure better terms.” See also, Ivanka Trump’s testimony in New York civil fraud case: She said she worked on her dad’s deals but not on financial documents key to the case, Associated Press, Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak, Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “Ivanka Trump didn’t want to testify. But on the stand Wednesday in her father’s civil fraud trial, she took the opportunity to contend the family business has ‘overdelivered,’ even as she kept her distance from financial documents that New York state says were fraudulent. Former President Donald Trump’s elder daughter capped a major stretch in the lawsuit that could reshape his real estate empire. She followed her father and her brothers Eric and Donald Trump Jr. to the witness stand, and the New York attorney general’s office rested its case after her testimony. The defense gets its turn now. Ivanka Trump has been in her father’s inner circle in both business and politics, as an executive vice president at the family’s Trump Organization and then as a senior White House adviser. But she testified that she had no role in his personal financial statements, which New York Attorney General Letitia James claims were fraudulently inflated and deceived banks and lenders.”

Minnesota Justices Rebuff Attempt to Bar Trump From Ballot Under 14th Amendment. In rejecting a petition arguing that former President Donald Trump was ineligible, the Minnesota Supreme Court did not rule on the merits and said the claims could be filed again later. The New York Times, Maggie Astor, Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition seeking to disqualify former President Donald J. Trump from holding office again under the 14th Amendment. Election officials and the courts did not have the authority to stop the Republican Party from offering Mr. Trump as a primary candidate, the justices found. They did not rule on the merits of the petitioners’ constitutional argument: that Mr. Trump’s actions before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol amounted to ‘engaging in insurrection’ against the Constitution after taking an oath to support it. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to keep former Confederates out of the government, says anyone who has done that is ineligible to hold office.” See also, Minnesota Supreme Court rules Trump can appear on 2024 primary ballot in Minnesota, The Washington Post, Patrick Marley, Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that former president Donald Trump can appear on the primary ballot next year but left open the possibility he could be struck from the general election ballot because of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The ruling offered both a setback and a glimmer of hope to those trying to remove Trump from ballots around the country. The Minnesota case is one of several interlocking challenges that argue Trump cannot serve again under Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from holding office. Those bringing the lawsuits contend Trump incited an insurrection by urging his supporters to come to Washington and then telling them to go to the Capitol to ‘fight like hell’ while Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s victory. In a short court order, Minnesota Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson said the justices are dismissing the case because the state’s March 5 primary is ‘an internal party election to serve internal party purposes’ that does not provide the final determination of who appears on the ballot for the general election in November 2024. ‘And there is no state statute that prohibits a major political party from placing on the presidential nomination primary ballot, or sending delegates to the national convention supporting, a candidate who is ineligible to hold office,’ Hudson wrote.” See also, Minnesota Supreme Court won’t remove Trump from Republican primary ballot in 14th Amendment challenge, CNN Politics, Marshall Cohen, Wednesday, 8 November 2023: “The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an attempt to block Donald Trump from the state’s GOP primary ballot next year based on the 14th Amendment’s ‘insurrectionist ban’ but said the challengers can try again to block him from the general election ballot if the former president wins the Republican nomination. The 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, says US officials who take an oath to uphold the Constitution are banned from future office if they ‘engaged in insurrection.’ But the Constitution doesn’t say how to enforce the ban, and it has only been applied twice since 1919, which is why many experts view these challenges as a long shot. The ruling is a victory for Trump, in terms of keeping his name on Minnesota’s ballot for the 2024 GOP primary, where recent polling shows he has a commanding lead. However, the Minnesota justices didn’t go as far as Trump’s lawyers wanted, which was to shut down the case altogether and keep the former president on the ballot for both the primary and general election.”

 

Thursday, 9 November 2023:

 

Conservative West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin Says He Will Not Seek Re-election, Dealing Blow to Democrats. The decision by Manchin will leave open a seat in a deeply red state, threatening Democrats’ hold on the Senate. The New York Times, Luke Broadwater, Thursday, 9 November 2023: “Senator Joe Manchin III, the conservative West Virginia Democrat known for bipartisan deal-making and also for frustrating some of his party’s most ambitious policy goals, announced on Thursday that he would not seek re-election, dealing a blow to Democrats’ chances of holding the Senate next year. Instead, Mr. Manchin, who was likely to face a strong Republican challenger to keep his Senate seat in a deeply red state, said he would continue exploring whether there was an appetite in the country for a centrist third-party bid for the presidency. That prospect has alarmed many Democrats, who fear such a run could doom President Biden’s hopes of remaining in the White House.” See also, Conservative Senate Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia says he will not seek reelection. His retirement threatens Democrats’ Senate majority and raises their fears of a third-party presidential run. The Washington Post, Liz Goodwin, Amy B Wang, and Michael Scherer. Thursday, 9 November 2023: “Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced Thursday he would not seek reelection in 2024, setting back Democrats’ plans to hold onto their Senate majority in 2024 and raising their fears that he could get involved in the presidential race as a third-party candidate…. Manchin, 76, had defied political gravity by holding onto his seat in a deeply red state but would have faced long odds against either Gov. Jim Justice or Rep. Alex Mooney (W.Va.), who are running in the GOP primary next year. The veteran politician had run the coal country state as governor, but West Virginia’s rightward turn in recent years had left him the only Democrat in statewide office.”

Trump says on Univision he could weaponize the FBI and the Department of Justice against his enemies. During a sit-down interview with the Spanish television giant, the former president also defended migrant family separations at the border. The Washington Post, Maegan Vazquez, Thursday, 9 November 2023: “In an interview that aired Thursday night on Univision, former president Donald Trump indicated that if he’s elected in 2024, he may use the federal government to punish his critics and he defended his administration’s separation of migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. During the interview on the Spanish-language TV network, journalist Enrique Acevedo asked Trump if he would weaponize the FBI and Justice Department on his opponents in the same way he claims federal law enforcement agencies have been weaponized against him. ‘Yeah. If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,’ Trump told Acevedo, according to excerpts of the interview. ‘What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box,’ the former president continued, adding, ‘You know, when you’re president and you’ve done a good job and you’re popular, you don’t go after them so you can win an election. They have done something that allows the next party … if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, “Go down and indict them. They’d be out of business. They’d be out of the election,” Trump continued.'” See also, Trump suggests he would use the FBI to go after political rivals if elected in 2024. Trump said: ‘If I happen to be president and I see somebody doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them.’ The Guardian, Sam Levine, published on Friday, 10 November 2023: “Donald Trump has suggested he would use the FBI and justice department to go after political rivals should he return to the White House next year in a move which will further stoke fears of what a second period of office for Trump could mean. Trump made the comments during an interview with the Spanish-language television network Univision.”

Why Is Mike Johnson Flying a Christian Nationalist flag Outside His Office? A new report confirmed that the House speaker is displaying an ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag outside his door. The New Republic, Tori Otten, Friday, 10 November 2023: “House Speaker Mike Johnson has three flags hanging outside his office: the American flag, the Louisiana state flag, and a flag representing a movement that wants to turn the United States into a religious Christian nation. Normal stuff, you know? The flag is white with a green evergreen tree in the middle and the phrase ‘An Appeal to Heaven’ at the top. A report published Friday by Rolling Stone confirmed that the flag is outside his district office in Washington. The flag was originally used as a banner during the Revolutionary War, but over the past decade, it has been embraced by a sect of Christianity called the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR. A central tenet of NAR’s belief system is that it is God’s will for Christians to take control of all aspects of U.S. society—including education, arts and entertainment, the media, and businesses—to create a religious nation. The NAR fully embraced Donald Trump when he announced he was running for office, endorsing him early on and helping endear him to other Christian movements. As a result, the Appeal to Heaven flag has become popular among Trump supporters.”

Inside Mike Johnson’s Ties to a Far-Right Movement to Gut the Constitution. The new House speaker has longstanding ties to the evangelical inspired Convention of States cause. Politico, Laura Jedeed, Friday, 10 November 2023: “As the interregnum without a speaker of the House came to an end last month, people from across the political spectrum came together, in a rare show of unity, to ask a single question: Who in the world is Mike Johnson? But amidst the general bewilderment, one group of conservative evangelicals with a radical cause immediately recognized the new speaker’s name. For the last 10 years, the ‘Convention of States’ movement has sought to remake the Constitution and force a tea party vision of the framers’ intent upon America. This group wants to wholesale rewrite wide swaths of the U.S. Constitution in one fell swoop. In the process, they hope to do away with regulatory agencies like the FDA and the CDC, virtually eliminate the federal government’s ability to borrow money, and empower state legislatures to override federal law. As far-fetched as this idea might sound, the movement is gaining traction — and now, it believes, it has a friend in the speaker of the House. ‘Speaker Mike Johnson has long been a supporter of Convention of States,’ Mark Meckler, co-founder of Convention of States Action (COSA), told me when I asked about Johnson’s ascension. ‘It shows that the conservative movement in America is united around COS and recognizes the need to rein in an out-of-control federal government which will never restrain itself.'”

 

Saturday, 11 November 2023:

 

In Veterans Day Speech, Trump Promises to ‘Root Out the Radical Left Thugs That Live Like Vermin Within the Confines of Our Country.’ The former president said that threats from abroad were less concerning than liberal ‘threats from within’ and that he was a ‘very proud election denier.’ The New York Times, Michael Gold, Saturday, 11 November 2023: “Former President Donald J. Trump, on a day set aside to celebrate those who have defended the United States in uniform, promised to honor veterans in part by assailing what he portrayed as America’s greatest foe: the political left. Using incendiary and dehumanizing language to refer to his opponents, Mr. Trump vowed to ‘root out’ what he called ‘the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.’ ‘The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within,’ Mr. Trump said Saturday in a nearly two-hour Veterans Day address in Claremont, N.H.” See also, Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing dictators Hitler and Mussolini. On Veterans day, the former president vowed to ‘root out’ his liberal opponents, drawing backlash from historians who say his rhetoric is reminiscent of authoritarians. The Washington Post, Marianne LeVine, published on Sunday, 12 November 2023: “Former president Donald Trump denigrated his domestic opponents and critics during a Veterans Day speech Saturday, calling those on the other side of the aisle ‘vermin’ and suggesting that they pose a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China or North Korea. That language is drawing rebuke from historians, who compared it to that of authoritarian leaders…. The former president’s speech in Claremont, N.H., echoed his message of vengeance and grievance, as he called himself a ‘very proud election denier’ and decried his legal entanglements, once again attacking the judge in a New York civil trial and re-upping his attacks on special counsel Jack Smith. In the speech, Trump once again portrayed himself as a victim of a political system that is out to get him and his supporters. Yet Trump’s use of the word ‘vermin’ both in his speech and in a Truth Social post on Saturday drew particular backlash. ‘The language is the language that dictators use to instill fear,’ said Timothy Naftali, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. ‘When you dehumanize an opponent, you strip them of their constitutional rights to participate securely in a democracy because you’re saying they’re not human. That’s what dictators do.’ Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University, said in an email to The Washington Post that ‘calling people “vermin” was used effectively by Hitler and Mussolini to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence.'” See also, Trump Compares Political Foes to ‘Vermin’ on Veterans Day–Echoing Nazi Propaganda, Forbes, Sara Dorn, published on Sunday, 12 November 2023: “Former President Donald Trump pledged to eliminate political extremist groups that ‘lie, steal and cheat on elections,’ calling them ‘vermin’ during a speech Saturday and in a Truth Social post commemorating Veterans Day—echoing a term Nazis often used in antisemitic propaganda to dehumanize Jews, equating them to parasites who spread disease…. The former president’s incendiary rhetoric invokes a term frequently used by Nazis to dehumanize Jews, including a 1939 quote attributed to Hitler: ‘This vermin must be destroyed. The Jews are our sworn enemies,’ he told the Czech foreign minister, according to historical accounts.” See also, It’s Official: With ‘Vermin,’ Trump Is Now Using Straight-up Nazi Talk. He’s telling us what he will do to his political enemies if he’s president again. Is anyone listening? The New Republic, Michael Tomasky, published on Sunday, 12 November 2023: “We’ve all often wondered whether Donald Trump understands the historical import of what comes out of his mouth. He’s so ill-informed, so proudly ignorant, that it’s easy to think that when he hurls a historical insult, he just doesn’t know. I feel pretty safe in saying that we can now stop giving him the benefit of that particular doubt. His use—twice; once on social media and then repeated in a speech—of the word ‘vermin’ to describe his political enemies cannot be an accident. That’s an unusual word choice. It’s not a smear that one just grabs out of the air. And it appears in history chiefly in one context, and one context only. Before we get to that, let’s just record what he wrote and said. On Saturday at 10:25 a.m., he posted on Truth Social: ‘In honor of our great Veterans on Veteran’s Day, we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, lie, steal, and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American dream.’ Then, at a rally in New Hampshire later that day, he repeated those words essentially verbatim—promising to ‘root out … the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country’—and doubled down on it: ‘The real threat is not from the radical right; the real threat is from the radical left, and it’s growing every day, every single day. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from within. Our threat is from within.’ This is straight-up Nazi talk, in a way he’s never done quite before. To announce that the real enemy is domestic and then to speak of that enemy in subhuman terms is Fascism 101. Especially that particular word. Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Maus and Maus II, the graphic novels in which he drew Jews as mice and their Nazi captors as menacing cats, explained some years ago to The New York Review of Books how he hit upon the idea:

Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps, and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans. If he regains power, Donald Trump wants not only to revive some of the immigration policies criticized as draconian during his presidency, but expand and toughen them. The New York Times, Charlie Savage, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan, Saturday, 11 November 2023: “Former President Donald J. Trump is planning an extreme expansion of his first-term crackdown on immigration if he returns to power in 2025 — including preparing to round up undocumented people already in the United States on a vast scale and detain them in sprawling camps while they wait to be expelled. The plans would sharply restrict both legal and illegal immigration in a multitude of ways. Mr. Trump wants to revive his first-term border policies, including banning entry by people from certain Muslim-majority nations and reimposing a Covid 19-era policy of refusing asylum claims — though this time he would base that refusal on assertions that migrants carry other infectious diseases like tuberculosis. He plans to scour the country for unauthorized immigrants and deport people by the millions per year. To help speed mass deportations, Mr. Trump is preparing an enormous expansion of a form of removal that does not require due process hearings. To help Immigration and Customs Enforcement carry out sweeping raids, he plans to reassign other federal agents and deputize local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states. To ease the strain on ICE detention facilities, Mr. Trump wants to build huge camps to detain people while their cases are processed and they await deportation flights. And to get around any refusal by Congress to appropriate the necessary funds, Mr. Trump would redirect money in the military budget, as he did in his first term to spend more on a border wall than Congress had authorized.” See also, Trump’s plans if he returns to the White House include deportation raids, tariffs, and mass firings, Associated Press, Jill Colvin, published on Sunday, 12 November 2023: “A mass deportation operation. A new Muslim ban. Tariffs on all imported goods and ‘freedom cities’ built on federal land. Much of the 2024 presidential campaign has been dominated by the myriad investigations into former President Donald Trump and the subsequent charges against him. But with less than a year until Election Day, Trump is dominating the race for the Republican nomination and has already laid out a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term. His ideas, and even the issues he focuses on most, are wildly different from President Joe Biden’s proposals. If implemented, Trump’s plans would represent a dramatic government overhaul arguably more consequential than that of his first term. His presidency, especially the early days, was marked by chaos, infighting and a wave of hastily written executive orders that were quickly overturned by the courts. Some of his current ideas would probably end up in court or impeded by Congress. But Trump’s campaign and allied groups are assembling policy books with detailed plans.”

Trump Asks Judge to Televise Federal Election Trial. The request to Judge Tanya Chutkan was short on legal arguments and long on bluster, and it faces an uphill battle as federal courts generally prohibit cameras. The New York Times, Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman, Saturday, 11 November 2023: “Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump have told a judge that she should permit his trial on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election to be televised live from the courtroom. It was the first time that Mr. Trump has formally weighed in on the issue of whether to broadcast any of the four criminal trials he is facing. His motion to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal election trial in Washington, came after similar requests made by several media organizations and was filed late on Friday. A judge in Georgia who is handling Mr. Trump’s state election subversion case has said that proceeding will be televised. But the request to Judge Chutkan is likely to face an uphill battle given that federal rules of criminal procedure — and the Supreme Court — generally prohibit cameras in federal courtrooms. Mr. Trump’s motion for a televised trial came in a filing adopting his bombastic and combative style.” See also, Trump joins media outlets in pushing for his federal election interference case to be televised, Associated Press, Alanna Durkin Richer, Saturday, 11 November 2023: “Donald Trump is pushing for his federal election interference trial in Washington to be televised, joining media outlets that say the American public should be able to watch the historic case unfold. Federal court rules prohibit broadcasting proceedings, but The Associated Press and other news organizations say the unprecedented case of a former president standing trial on accusations that he tried to subvert the will of voters warrants making an exception. The Justice Department is opposing the effort, arguing that the judge overseeing the case does not have the authority to ignore the long-standing nationwide policy against cameras in federal courtrooms. The trial is scheduled to begin on March 4.” See also, ‘Travesty in darkness’: Trump backs drive to televise his D.C. election subversion trial. Trump, who is facing four criminal prosecutions as well as several civil lawsuits, has been trying in recent weeks to leverage those proceedings to amplify his message to voters. Politico, Josh Gerstein, Saturday, 11 November 2023: “Donald Trump is endorsing an effort by news organizations to provide live television coverage of his trial on federal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. In a bombastic legal filing submitted late Friday to the judge who’s scheduled that trial to begin in March, Trump’s attorneys argued he’s the victim of political persecution by President Joe Biden’s administration and should be allowed to use the platform of TV to showcase the proceedings’ unfairness.”

 

Monday, 13 November 2023:

 

Supreme Court Adopts Ethics Code After Reports of Undisclosed Gifts and Travel. The code does not specify how the rules will be enforced or by whom. The New York Times, Abbie VanSickle and Adam Liptak, Monday, 13 November 2023: “The Supreme Court issued an ethics code on Monday after a series of revelations about undisclosed property deals and gifts intensified pressure on the justices to adopt one. In a statement, the justices said they had established the code of conduct ‘to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the members of the court.’ Left unclear was how the rules would be enforced, and the court said that it was still studying how any code would be put into effect. ‘For the most part these rules and principles are not new,’ the court said, adding that ‘the absence of a code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.’ Revelations of lavish vacations and high-end gifts have cast a light on how few ethics rules bind the justices, but under the new code, it remains unclear which of those activities would violate the rules — and who would decide. The code, laid out over nine pages, does not place specific restrictions on gifts, travel or real estate deals. But it does caution the justices that they should not take part in outside activities that ‘detract from the dignity of the justice’s office,’ ‘interfere with the performance of the justice’s official duties,’ ‘reflect adversely on the justice’s impartiality’ or ‘lead to frequent disqualification.’ The rules also prohibit justices from allowing ‘family, social, political, financial or other relationships to influence official conduct or judgment.’ The document cites examples of when justices must recuse themselves from a case, including when they have a ‘personal bias’ or a financial interest.” See also, Supreme Court, under pressure, issues ethics code specific to justices, The Washington Post, Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Supreme Court justices stung by controversies over the court’s ethics pledged Monday to follow a broad code of conduct promoting ‘integrity and impartiality,’ but without a way to enforce its standards against those who fall short. A statement from the court said that while ‘for the most part’ the guidelines were a compilation of standards the justices have tried to follow, the public commitment was necessary to correct a public ‘misunderstanding’ about the justices’ ethical obligations. The absence of an ethics code has given the impression ‘that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,’ said the statement, signed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and his eight colleagues. ‘To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.'” See also, Supreme Court attempts to address ethics concerns with new code of conduct but leaves many questions unanswered, CNN Politics, Ariane de Vogue and Devan Cole, Monday, 13 November 2023: “The Supreme Court on Monday announced a code of conduct in an attempt to bolster the public’s confidence in the court after months of news stories alleging that some of the justices have been skirting ethics regulations. In a brief statement the justices said that the code is ‘substantially derived’ from an existing code of conduct that applies to the lower court but has been adapted to the ‘unique institutional setting of the Supreme Court.’ While the justices reiterate in the code they should ‘maintain and observe high standards of conduct in order to preserve the integrity and independence of the United States,’ they fail to explain how the code would work and who would enforce it, and acknowledged they had more work to do, including on financial disclosures.”

Trump New York Civil Fraud Trial: In Return to Stand, Donald Trump Jr. Lauds His Father and Trump Buildings. The former president’s son spent more than three hours heaping praise on the company’s properties, which the defense suggests are actually undervalued by statements a judge deemed fraudulent. The cross-examination by a lawyer for the state was brief. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich, Ben Protess, and Kate Christobek, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Donald J. Trump’s signature properties are at the heart of a sweeping civil fraud case accusing him of manipulating their values and his net worth. To hear the former president’s eldest son tell it, those properties prove something far rosier: the brilliance of the Trump family business…. In a return appearance at a trial that has featured a parade of Trumps on the stand as they fight for the future of their family business, the junior Mr. Trump testified in bursts of hyperbole and platitudes. His rhetoric sounded as though it had been ripped from the pages of an airline magazine or a travel brochure, and he saved the highest praise for the man who he said made it all happen: his father, a ‘visionary’ who is ‘an artist with real estate’ and ‘creates things that other people would never envision.’ Yet some of his high-flying claims clashed with present-day reality. In recent years, the Trump Organization has shrunk, as the family name was scrubbed from some of the properties he extolled, taken off buildings in New York, Washington and, soon, Hawaii. Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street have also, at times, lost a number of tenants. Some of the former president’s properties struggled even to turn a profit.” See also, Trump’s defense at New York civil fraud trial begins with Donald Trump Jr. testimony, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs and Mark Berman, Monday, 13 November 2023: “The defense team representing Donald Trump in a civil trial accusing him and his business of fraud began presenting its case Monday, with co-defendant Donald Trump Jr. testifying in glowing, ecstatic terms about the company’s properties.” See also, Key takeaways from Donald Trump Jr.’s return to court in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial, CNN Politics, Jeremy Herb, Lauren del Valle, and Kara Scannell, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Donald Trump Jr. returned to the witness stand Monday to give his family’s side of the story in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial against Donald Trump. Trump Jr.’s testimony often appeared as a lengthy effort to rehabilitate the image of the Trump Organization in the eyes of Judge Arthur Engoron. The former president’s son gushed about the properties he said his father had transformed from dilapidated run-down tracts of land into spectacular and magnificent buildings and golf courses…. The testimony signaled how Trump’s lawyers plan to mount a defense in a case in which Engoron has already ruled the former president and his co-defendants were liable for fraud. Engoron is now deciding six additional claims and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.”

After Calling Foes ‘Vermin,’ Trump Campaign Warns Its Critics Will Be ‘Crushed.’ The former president’s Veterans Day speech used language similar to the dehumanizing rhetoric wielded by dictators like Hitler and Mussolini. The New York Times, Michael Gold, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign rejected criticism that he was echoing the language of fascist dictators with his vow to root out his political opponents like ‘vermin,’ then doubled down: It said on Monday that the ‘sad, miserable existence’ of those who made such comparisons would be ‘crushed’ with Mr. Trump back in the White House. ‘Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ a campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said, ‘and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.’ At a campaign event Saturday in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump vowed to ‘root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.’ He then said his political opposition was the most pressing and pernicious threat facing America. ‘The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘Our threat is from within.’ The former president’s remarks drew criticism from some liberals and historians who pointed to echoes of dehumanizing rhetoric wielded by fascist dictators like Hitler and Benito Mussolini. An earlier version of Mr. Cheung’s statement, in which he said the ‘entire existence’ of those critics would be crushed, was reported by The Washington Post on Sunday. Mr. Cheung said on Monday that he edited his initial statement ‘seconds’ after sending it, and The Post amended its article to include both versions. Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for President Biden’s re-election campaign, said in a statement that Mr. Trump at his Veterans Day speech had ‘parroted the autocratic language’ of “dictators many U.S. veterans gave their lives fighting, in order to defeat exactly the kind of un-American ideas Trump now champions.” Though violent language was a feature of Mr. Trump’s last two campaigns, his speeches have grown more extreme as he tries to win a second term. At recent rallies and events, Mr. Trump has compared immigrants coming over the border to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer and cannibal from the horror movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ He called on shoplifters to be shot in a speech in California, and over the weekend in New Hampshire, he again called for drug dealers to be subject to the death penalty. He has insinuated that a military general whom he appointed as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed for treason. Last month, Mr. Trump told a right-wing website that migrants were ‘poisoning the blood of our country,’ a phrase recalling white supremacist ideology and comments made by Hitler in his manifesto ‘Mein Kampf.'”

Federal Prosecutors Object to Trump Request for Broadcast of Election Trial. The office of the special counsel said that televising the proceeding would create a ‘carnival atmosphere’ and allow the former president to divert attention from the charges he faces. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Federal prosecutors on Monday accused former President Donald J. Trump of trying to turn his trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election into ‘a media event’ with a ‘carnival atmosphere’ by backing calls to have it broadcast live on television. Even though federal rules of criminal procedure forbid televising trials, Mr. Trump’s lawyers last week asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the election subversion case, to agree to requests from news organizations to broadcast the proceedings. Mr. Trump’s filing was short on legal arguments and relied instead on several dubious claims that he was being treated unfairly in the case and that only the transparency of a televised trial could cure the purported wrongs he had suffered. But firing back on Monday, prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, reminded Judge Chutkan that she had already vowed to treat Mr. Trump like any other criminal defendant. The prosecutors added that despite the former president’s references to ‘fairness,’ he was actually trying to create a circuslike environment ‘from which he hopes to profit by distracting, like many fraud defendants try to do, from the charges against him. The defendant’s response is a transparent effort to demand special treatment, try his case in the courtroom of public opinion and turn his trial into a media event,’ the prosecutors wrote.”

‘The boss is not going to leave’: Proffer session videos show ex-Trump lawyers telling Georgia prosecutors about efforts to overturn the 2020 election. ABC News obtained video from interviews held with Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell. ABC News, Olivia Rubin and Will Steakin, Monday, 13 November 2023: “As part of a plea deal, one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys has told prosecutors in Georgia that she was informed in the wake of the 2020 election that Donald Trump was ‘not going to leave’ the White House — despite the fact that he had already lost the election and most of his subsequent challenges. The revelation, along with others, came during a confidential interview the attorney, Jenna Ellis, had with Fulton County investigators. ABC News has obtained portions of videos of the proffer sessions of both Ellis and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who aided Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. The videos for the first time reveal details of what they have told law enforcement since agreeing to cooperate last month in the district attorney’s election interference case. Ellis, in her proffer session, informed prosecutors that senior Trump White House official Dan Scavino told her ‘the boss’ would refuse to leave the White House despite losing the election, and alluded to two other instances she said were ‘relevant’ to prosecutors — but appeared to be prevented from disclosing those in the video portions obtained by ABC News due to attorney-client privilege, which hindered portions of her proffer. Powell, meanwhile, explained to prosecutors her plans for seizing voting machines nationwide and claimed that she frequently communicated with Trump during her efforts to overturn the 2020 election — though both now claim she was never his attorney. In the session, Powell reiterated the false assertion that Trump won the election — but acknowledged in the video that she didn’t know much about election law to begin with.” See also, Ex-Trump allies detail efforts to overturn election in Georgia plea videos, The Washington Post, Amy gardner and Holly Bailey, Monday, 13 November 2023: “A former attorney for Donald Trump has told Georgia prosecutors that a top presidential aide said to her in December 2020 that ‘the boss’ did not plan to leave the White House ‘under any circumstances,’ according to a video recording obtained by The Washington Post. Jenna Ellis, a onetime Trump lawyer who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for her testimony in the Fulton County, Ga., case, told prosecutors in the video that Dan Scavino, Trump’s deputy chief of staff at the time, was unfazed by her view that the president was running out of options to challenge Joe Biden’s victory. ‘And he said to me, you know, in a kind of excited tone, Well, we don’t care, and we’re not going to leave,’ Ellis said in the video. The description comes from a series of recordings obtained by The Post of the statements of the four defendants who have accepted plea deals in the Georgia case — recordings that they were required to make under the terms of their deals and that were intended to lay out what they know that could be used against the other defendants in the case. Although some of the recordings were garbled, the portions of the four statements that The Post was able to review — from Ellis, lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, and Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall — offered many previously undisclosed details about the effort by Trump and his allies to reverse his defeat.” See also, Lawyer Jenna Ellis Says Trump Aide Dan Scavino Told Her After the 2020 Election: ‘The Boss Is Not Going to Leave.’ The revelation came in a statement that Ellis gave to prosecutors in Fulton county, Georgia, after she pleaded guilty in the election interference case there. The New York Times, Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, Monday, 13 November 2023: “In the aftermath of the 2020 election, former President Donald J. Trump planned to refuse to leave the White House ‘under any circumstances’ despite losing at the polls, a longtime Trump aide told one of the lawyers who is cooperating with prosecutors in Atlanta as part of a plea agreement. The lawyer, Jenna Ellis, described the aide’s statement during an interview with the district attorney’s office in Fulton County, Ga., parts of which were obtained and published on Monday by ABC News. Such interviews, known as proffer statements, have been conducted with Ms. Ellis and three other defendants who reached plea agreements in the Georgia election interference case against Mr. Trump and more than a dozen of his allies. ABC obtained excerpts from the interviews with Ms. Ellis and Sidney Powell, another lawyer indicted in the case.”

‘I’m more worried today than I was on January 6’: Retired conservative judge Michael Luttig is battling to stop a Trump victory, which he says would be ‘catastrophic for America’s democracy,’ The Guardian, David Smith, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Michael Luttig knows the eye of the storm. On the night of 4 January 2021, the retired federal judge advised Mike Pence, the vice-president, against trying to overturn the results of the presidential election. Last year on live television he delivered compelling testimony to the congressional panel investigating the January 6 insurrection. Now, with less than a year until the nation goes back to the polls, Luttig recognises that the battle to save the American republic from the demagoguery of Donald Trump is far from over – and he is more worried than ever before. ‘I am more worried for America today than I was on January 6,’ he warns in a phone interview with the Guardian. ‘For all the reasons that we know, his election would be catastrophic for America’s democracy.'”

Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab, Axios, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Monday, 13 November 2023: “Former President Trump’s allies are pre-screening the ideologies of thousands of potential foot soldiers, as part of an unprecedented operation to centralize and expand his power at every level of the U.S. government if he wins in 2024, officials involved in the effort tell Axios. Why it matters:Hundreds of people are spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents. The screening for ready-to-serve loyalists has already begun, driven in part by artificial intelligence from tech giant Oracle, contracted for the project. Social media histories are already being plumbed. When Trump took office in 2017, he included many conventional Republicans in his Cabinet and key positions. Those officials often curtailed his behavior and power. Trump himself spends little time plotting governing plans. But he is well aware of a highly coordinated campaign to be ready to jam government offices with loyalists willing to stretch traditional boundaries. If Trump were to win, thousands of Trump-first loyalists would be ready for legal, judicial, defense, regulatory and domestic policy jobs. His inner circle plans to purge anyone viewed as hostile to the hard-edged, authoritarian-sounding plans he calls ‘Agenda 47.'”

 

Tuesday, 14 November 2023:

 

Federal Prosecutors Make Their Case for Gag Order on Trump. The filing was the latest volley in the fight over whether the former president should be limited in what he can say about his trial on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Tuesday, 14 November 2023: “Prosecutors asked a federal appeals court in Washington on Tuesday to give its approval to a gag order imposed on former President Donald J. Trump in his federal election interference case, saying that Mr. Trump’s ‘long history’ of targeting his adversaries on social media has often led to dangers in the real world. The gag order on Mr. Trump was suspended this month by the appeals court as it considers whether the trial judge in the case, Tanya S. Chutkan, was justified in imposing it in the first place. The court is scheduled to hear oral arguments about the order next week. In a 67-page filing, Cecil Vandevender, an assistant to Jack Smith, the special counsel leading the federal prosecutions of the former president, told the appeals court that Mr. Trump had received several warnings to curb his aggressive public statements. Still, Mr. Vandevender wrote, the former president has persistently sought to ‘malign’ Mr. Smith and his family, and ‘target specific witnesses with attacks on their character and credibility.’ Mr. Trump’s attacks on those involved in the election interference case were ‘part of a pattern, stretching back years, in which people publicly targeted by the defendant are, as a result of the targeting, subject to harassment, threats and intimidation,’ Mr. Vandevender wrote.”

Fani Willis says Georgia trial involving Trump seeking to overturn his 2020 election loss might not conclude until early 2025, The Washington Post, Holly Bailey and Amy Gardner, Tuesday, 14 November 2023: “The Atlanta-area prosecutor leading the criminal racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 allies alleging they broke the law when they sought to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss said Tuesday that she anticipated the trial to conclude by early 2025, with proceedings probably underway during the final stretch of the 2024 presidential election. In an interview at The Washington Post Live’s Global Women’s Summit, Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) said the anticipated trial over alleged election interference by Trump and his allies could be ongoing on Election Day 2024 and possibly still underway on Inauguration Day.” See also, Georgia Prosecutor Fani Willis Sees Trump Case Stretching Into 2025. As Willis discussed the case at a conference, her office sought an emergency protective order to prevent more leaks of discovery materials. The New York Times, Richard Fausset and Danny Hakim, Tuesday, 14 November 2023: “Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta district attorney leading an election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump and 14 of his allies, said on Tuesday that a trial would very likely ‘not conclude until the winter or the very early part of 2025.’ She also defended the scope of the racketeering indictment she brought in August, noting that she had prosecuted far larger racketeering cases in her career. Defendants in such cases ‘got involved in the criminal enterprise,’ she said. ‘They deserve to be charged. In fact, they earned it.’ Ms. Willis’s office charged Mr. Trump and 18 other defendants with participating in a criminal enterprise aimed at changing the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Four of the defendants have already taken plea deals, agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.” See also, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asks for protective order after leak of witness videos in Trump election interference case. Parts of videotaped testimony from Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro, and Scott Hall were leaked to two outlets. NBC News, Charlie Gile, Blayne Alexander, and Dareh Gregorian, Tuesday, 14 November 2023: “Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office is seeking an emergency protective order after parts of videos from key witnesses in her election interference case against former President Donald Trump and others were leaked to two news outlets. ‘The release of these confidential video recordings is clearly intended to intimidate witnesses in this case, subjecting them to harassment and threats prior to trial,’ the DA’s office said in a court filing Tuesday after parts of the videotaped statements of lawyers Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro and bail bondsman Scott Hall were made public. The four were among the original 19 defendants charged in the racketeering case in August and have all pleaded guilty to related charges. The footage, known as proffer videos, was made pursuant to the defendants’ plea agreements, which required that they provide true and accurate information to prosecutors.”

 

Wednesday, 15 November 2023:

 

Trump Lawyers Call for Mistrial in Civil Fraud Case, Attacking Judge Arthur F. Engoron. The long-shot effort doubled as a political salvo against Engoron who is expected to reject it. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “Lawyers for Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for a mistrial in the civil fraud case against him in New York, arguing that the judge and his law clerk were politically biased against him. The long-shot legal effort, filed in New York State Supreme Court, comes after the judge, Arthur F. Engoron, placed separate gag orders on the Republican former president and his lawyers, barring them from commenting on his court staff. Mr. Trump and his allies have made a habit of attacking the judge and his law clerk, Allison Greenfield, and the former president has twice violated the order, incurring $15,000 in fines. In the filing, Mr. Trump’s lawyers refer to the gag orders as ‘unconstitutional.'” See also, Donald Trump files for a mistrial in the New York civil fraud case, saying Judge Arthur Engoron is biased, CNN, Kara Scannell, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “Donald Trump is asking for a mistrial in his civil fraud case alleging the judge who will decide the case is biased against him. Trump’s attorneys filed a motion Wednesday, saying “’the evidence of apparent and actual bias is tangible and overwhelming.’ The motion cites Judge Arthur Engoron and his law clerk, who has been the subject of multiple complaints from Trump’s attorneys and the former president himself, resulting in a gag order from the judge.” See also, Trump’s lawyers want a mistrial in his New York civil fraud case. They claim the judge is biased. Associated Press, Michael R. Sisak, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “Lawyers for Donald Trump asked for a mistrial Wednesday in the New York civil fraud case that threatens the former president’s real estate empire. They accused the judge of tainting the proceedings with ‘tangible and overwhelming’ bias. Trump’s lawyers urged Judge Arthur Engoron to stop the case immediately, arguing he had irreparably harmed Trump’s right to a fair trial through ‘astonishing departures from ordinary standards of impartiality.’ They cited his rulings against their client as well as the prominent role played by the judge’s chief law clerk. Engoron gave lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office until Thursday to decide whether they will file a response before he rules. Judges have broad latitude to conduct trials as they choose. Last week, Engoron spurned the defense’s request to end the trial through what’s known as a directed verdict.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis seeks to revoke bond of Trump co-defendant Harrison Floyd. Willis says Floyd engaged in a ‘pattern of intimidation’ of co-defendants and witnesses. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tamar Hallerman, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is asking a judge to revoke the bond agreement for one of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in her election interference case, citing what she says is a ‘pattern of intimidation’ toward co-defendants and witnesses. Willis said Harrison Floyd has ‘engaged in numerous intentional and flagrant violations’ of his bond agreement. She pointed to recent comments Floyd made on conservative podcasts and posts on the social media site X that tag Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, former Fulton County poll worker Ruby Freeman and others.” See also, Georgia prosecutors ask judge to jail election subversion defendant over ‘effort to intimidate’ witnesses, CNN Politics, Marshall Cohen and Devan Cole, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “Fulton County prosecutors asked a judge Wednesday to jail Harrison Floyd, who is charged in the 2020 election subversion case in Georgia, because of his alleged ‘effort to intimidate codefendants and witnesses,’ according to court filings. This is the first time Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked to revoke someone’s bond in the case. Prosecutors highlighted Floyd’s recent social media posts about Georgia election officials who are likely to be called as witnesses in the case, as well as his recent comments on a conservative podcast about Jenna Ellis, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate.”

Jonathan Miller, lawyer for Trump co-defendant in Georgia case, admits leaking witness videos. Miller, an attorney for Misty Hampton, said he shared the witness proffer videos with one of the two media outlets that reported on them. NBC News, Charlie Gile, Dareh Gregorian, Blayne Alexander, and Zoë Richards, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “An attorney for one of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the Fulton County district attorney’s 2020 election interference case admitted at a hearing Wednesday that he had shared witness proffer videos of key figures in the case with a media outlet, saying he thought it was in his client’s interest to do so. Jonathan Miller, an attorney for Misty Hampton, made the confession during an emergency hearing for a protective order that was prompted by the publication of parts of the video statements of Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall by ABC News and The Washington Post. The judge said he would issue a protective order barring the disclosure of certain discovery information by Thursday morning. Powell, Ellis, Chesebro and Hall were among the original 18 defendants charged alongside former President Donald Trump in the racketeering case in August. All four have pleaded guilty to related charges. The proffer videos were made pursuant to their plea agreements, which required that they provide true and accurate information to prosecutors. The videos showed Ellis recounting a conversation with Trump adviser Dan Scavino in which he told her that Trump would not leave the White House regardless of the election results, and Powell testifying that Trump was repeatedly told by others that he’d lost the election.”

Nevada attorney general is investigating false electors who aided Trump in 2020. The state’s attorney general is investigating the efforts of Republicans who falsely claimed to be Trump electors. Politico, Betsy Woodruff Swan, Wednesday, 15 November 2023: “The attorney general of Nevada is quietly investigating Republican activists and operatives who falsely pledged the state’s six electoral votes to Donald Trump in 2020, despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state. In recent weeks, investigators have questioned witnesses about the attempts of the so-called alternate electors to present themselves as viable representatives of the states’ voters, according to three people familiar with the probe. Investigators have also asked about documents those people prepared as part of the effort. The probe, which until now has not been publicly reported, is the latest sign of potential legal jeopardy for the Republicans who, amid Trump’s bid to cling to power, posed as electors in states that Biden won. False electors in Georgia and Michigan are already facing criminal charges, and an investigation is underway in Arizona.”

 

Thursday, 16 November 2023:

 

Gag order against Trump temporarily lifted in New York civil fraud trial, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs, Thursday, 16 November 2023: “An appellate judge on Thursday temporarily lifted a limited gag order issued against Donald Trump and his attorneys in the $250 million civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The temporary pause on the order allows Trump and his defense team to discuss the judge’s law clerk, pending further appellate review. The decision followed a hearing at the Appellate Division’s First Department before Judge David Friedman. Friedman wrote after hearing arguments that the stay was being imposed in consideration of ‘constitutional and statutory rights at issue.'” See also, Trump and His Aides Immediately Attack Clerk After Gag Order Is Paused. Allison Greenfield has become a lightning rod for the former president and his allies, who say a civil fraud case against him is political persecution. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich and Alan Feuer, Thursday, 16 November 2023: “A New York appeals court judge on Thursday paused gag orders on Donald J. Trump and his lawyers that had prevented them from commenting on court staff in the civil fraud trial of the former president. The order against Mr. Trump was issued on the trial’s second day by the presiding judge, Arthur F. Engoron, after Mr. Trump attacked the judge’s law clerk in a social media post accusing her of being a Democratic partisan. It prohibited Mr. Trump from any further attacks on the clerk and other court staff. Mr. Trump has twice violated the order, incurring $15,000 in fines. The judge later issued a similar order against Mr. Trump’s lawyers, barring them from commenting on his private communications with court staff. This week, Mr. Trump’s lawyers challenged both of those orders in an appeals court and on Thursday, the appellate judge, David Friedman, paused them after an hourlong oral argument. The decision left Mr. Trump free, for the moment, of all of the gag orders placed on him. Earlier this month, a federal appeals court temporarily froze the order issued against him in his election interference case in Washington. About an hour after the New York gag orders were paused, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, posted on social media attacking Allison Greenfield, the clerk, calling her a ‘Democrat Operative.’ Later, shortly before 7 p.m., Mr. Trump himself seized on the pause by posting a message on his Truth Social platform in which he called Ms. Greenfield ‘politically biased’ and ‘out of control.'”

 

Friday, 17 November 2023:

 

Colorado Judge Keeps Trump on Ballot but Finds He ‘Engaged in Insurrection.’ A district court judge ruled that former President Donald J. Trump ‘engaged in insurrection’ but said the disqualification clause of the 14th Amendment did not apply to him. The New York Times, Maggie Astor, Friday, 17 November 2023: “A Colorado judge ruled on Friday that former President Donald J. Trump could remain on the primary ballot in the state, rejecting the argument that the 14th Amendment prevents him from holding office again — but doing so on relatively narrow grounds that lawyers for the voters seeking to disqualify him said they would appeal. With his actions before and during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Judge Sarah B. Wallace ruled, Mr. Trump engaged in insurrection against the Constitution, an offense that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — which was ratified in 1868 to keep former Confederates out of the government — deems disqualifying for people who previously took an oath to support the Constitution. But Judge Wallace, a state district court judge in Denver, concluded that Section 3 did not include the presidential oath in that category. The clause does not explicitly name the presidency, so that question hinged on whether the president was included in the category ‘officer of the United States.’ Because of ‘the absence of the president from the list of positions to which the amendment applies combined with the fact that Section 3 specifies that the disqualifying oath is one to “support” the Constitution whereas the presidential oath is to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution,’ Judge Wallace wrote, ‘it appears to the court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section 3 did not intend to include a person who had only taken the presidential oath. Part of the court’s decision,’ she continued, ‘is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent of Section 3.’ She added in a footnote that it was ‘not for this court to decide’ whether the omission of the presidency was intentional or an oversight.” See also, Colorado judge rules Trump can be on ballot but says he ‘engaged’ in insurrection, The Washington Post, Patrick Marley, Friday, 17 November 2023: “A judge on Friday ruled Donald Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but decided that he is not barred from appearing on the primary ballot in Colorado. A judge on Friday ruled Donald Trump had engaged in insurrection by inciting a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but decided that he is not barred from appearing on the primary ballot in Colorado. The ruling in state court — the first to find that the presidential candidate had participated in an insurrection — served as a rebuke to the Republican front-runner, even as it provided him with a legal victory. Trump has won a string of cases brought by opponents who are trying to keep him off the ballot under a provision of the Constitution that bars officials who engage in insurrection from holding office. Denver District Judge Sarah B. Wallace wrote that Trump ‘acted with the specific intent to disrupt the Electoral College certification of President Biden’s electoral victory through unlawful means; specifically, by using unlawful force and violence.’ And, she concluded, ‘that Trump incited an insurrection on January 6, 2021 and therefore “engaged” in insurrection.'”

Judge Tanya Chutkan Rejects Trump Motion to Strike January 6 Mentions From Federal Election Case. The ruling was a step toward allowing prosecutors to introduce evidence at trial that members of the mob that stormed the Capitol believed they were acting at Donald Trump’s instruction. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Friday, 17 November 2023: “The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election rejected on Friday a request by Mr. Trump’s lawyers to remove language from his indictment describing the role he played in the violence that erupted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The ruling by the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, was an initial step toward allowing prosecutors in the case to introduce evidence at trial that members of the mob that stormed the Capitol that day believed they were acting at Mr. Trump’s instruction. Last month, Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Chutkan to strike any mention of the riot at the Capitol from the 45-page indictment filed against him this summer in Federal District Court in Washington. The lawyers argued that since none of the four charges in the case explicitly accused Mr. Trump of inciting the violence that day, any reference to the mob attack would be prejudicial and irrelevant. Prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, shot back that even if they had not filed formal incitement charges, the riot would be instrumental in their efforts to prove one of their central allegations: that Mr. Trump had plotted to obstruct the certification of the election that was taking place at a proceeding at the Capitol on Jan. 6. In court papers to Judge Chutkan, prosecutors called the Jan. 6 attack ‘the culmination’ of Mr. Trump’s ‘criminal conspiracies’ to overturn the election. They also suggested that they were poised to introduce video evidence of the riot and call witnesses at trial who could testify that they attacked police and stormed the Capitol after hearing Mr. Trump exhort them to ‘fight’ in a speech he gave before the violence broke out.”

 

Monday, 20 November 2023:

 

Trump’s Dire Words Raise New Fears About His Authoritarian Bent. The former president is focusing his most vicious attacks on domestic political opponents, setting off fresh worries among autocracy experts. The New York Times, Michael C. Bender and Michael Gold, Monday, 20 November 2023: “Donald J. Trump rose to power with political campaigns that largely attacked external targets, including immigration from predominantly Muslim countries and from south of the United States-Mexico border. But now, in his third presidential bid, some of his most vicious and debasing attacks have been leveled at domestic opponents. During a Veterans Day speech, Mr. Trump used language that echoed authoritarian leaders who rose to power in Germany and Italy in the 1930s, degrading his political adversaries as ‘vermin’ who needed to be ‘rooted out. The threat from outside forces,’ Mr. Trump said, ‘is far less sinister, dangerous and grave than the threat from within.’ This turn inward has sounded new alarms among experts on autocracy who have long worried about Mr. Trump’s praise for foreign dictators and disdain for democratic ideals. They said the former president’s increasingly intensive focus on perceived internal enemies was a hallmark of dangerous totalitarian leaders. Scholars, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans are asking anew how much Mr. Trump resembles current strongmen abroad and how he compares to authoritarian leaders of the past. Perhaps most urgently, they are wondering whether his rhetorical turn into more fascist-sounding territory is just his latest public provocation of the left, an evolution in his beliefs or the dropping of a veil. ‘There are echoes of fascist rhetoric, and they’re very precise,’ said Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a professor at New York University who studies fascism. ‘The overall strategy is an obvious one of dehumanizing people so that the public will not have as much of an outcry at the things that you want to do.’ Mr. Trump’s shift comes as he and his allies devise plans for a second term that would upend some of the long-held norms of American democracy and the rule of law. These ambitions include using the Justice Department to take vengeance on his political rivals, plotting a vast expansion of presidential power and installing ideologically aligned lawyers in key positions to bless his contentious actions.”

Federal Court Moves to Drastically Weaken Voting Rights Act. The ruling, which is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court, would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from suing under a key provision of the landmark law. The New York Times, Nick Corasaniti, Monday, 20 November 2023: “A federal appeals court moved on Monday to drastically weaken the Voting Rights Act, issuing a ruling that would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights groups from filing lawsuits under a central provision of the landmark civil rights law. The ruling, made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, found that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a crucial part of the law that prohibits election or voting practices that discriminate against Americans based on race. The opinion is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. The court’s current conservative majority has issued several key decisions in recent years that have weakened the Voting Rights Act. But the justices have upheld the law in other instances, including in a June ruling that found Alabama had drawn a racially discriminatory congressional map.” See also, Appeals court decision could limit enforcement of Voting Rights Act, The Washington Post, Mariana Alfaro, Monday, 20 November 2023: “A federal court on Monday issued a decision that could severely curtail enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, which could affect voters of color nationwide and will probably be appealed to the Supreme Court. In its 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that private citizens and groups like the NAACP cannot bring lawsuits under a provision that forbids discrimination in state and local elections laws. The appellate court found that the key section of the act can only be enforced by the U.S. attorney general. That upheld a decision by U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky, who in 2022 dismissed a lawsuit challenging Arkansas’ new district map because he said that the Justice Department had to join the plaintiffs.” See also, Appeals court strikes down key tool used to enforce Voting Rights Act, CNN Politics, Fredreka Schouten, Monday, 20 November 2023: “A federal appeals court on Monday ruled against a key tool used to enforce the Voting Rights Act – likely setting up another Supreme Court showdown over one of the nation’s landmark civil rights laws. In a ruling that springs from an Arkansas redistricting case, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that private entities cannot bring lawsuits under a provision of the law, known as Section 2. If it stands, the decision would dramatically weaken what remains of the Voting Rights Act, passed in 1965 to counter racial discrimination in elections. In a 2-1 decision, the judges said the ‘text and structure’ of the voting rights statute shows that Congress did not give private plaintiffs the authority to sue. The appellate panel affirmed a 2022 ruling by a Trump-appointed federal judge in Arkansas that held only the US Justice Department can bring Section 2 lawsuits.”

 

Tuesday, 21 November 2023:

 

The Trump Threat Is Growing. Lawyers Must Rise to Meet This Moment. The New York Times, George Conway, J. Michael Luttig, and Barbara Comstock, Tuesday, 21 November 2023: “American democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law are the righteous causes of our times, and the nation’s legal profession is obligated to support them. But with the acquiescence of the larger conservative legal movement, these pillars of our system of governance are increasingly in peril. The dangers will only grow should Donald Trump be returned to the White House next November. Recent reporting about plans for a second Trump presidency are frightening. He would stock his administration with partisan loyalists committed to fast-tracking his agenda and sidestepping — if not circumventing altogether — existing laws and long-established legal norms. This would include appointing to high public office political appointees to rubber-stamp his plans to investigate and exact retribution against his political opponents; make federal public servants removable at will by the president himself; and invoke special powers to take unilateral action on First Amendment-protected activities, criminal justice, elections, immigration and more. We have seen him try this before, though fortunately he was thwarted — he would say ‘betrayed’— by executive branch lawyers and by judges who refused to go along with his more draconian and often unlawful policies and his effort to remain in office after being cast out by voters. But should Mr. Trump return to the White House, he will arrive with a coterie of lawyers and advisers who, like him, are determined not to be thwarted again. The Federalist Society, long the standard-bearer for the conservative legal movement, has failed to respond in this period of crisis. That is why we need an organization of conservative lawyers committed to the foundational constitutional principles we once all agreed upon: the primacy of American democracy, the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law, the independence of the courts, the inviolability of elections and mutual support among those tasked with the solemn responsibility of enforcing the laws of the United States. This new organization must step up, speak out and defend these ideals.”

 

Wednesday, 22 November 2023:

 

Office of judge presiding over Trump’s New York civil fraud trial  bombarded with threats. Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk have also received antisemitic abuse since a gag order imposed on the ex-president was lifted. The Guardian, Callum Jones, Wednesday, 22 November 2023: “The office of the New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has been bombarded with death threats and antisemitic abuse following the former president’s online attacks. Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk, Allison Greenfield, are said to have received hundreds of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages via telephone and social media. Attorneys for the New York state court system made the case for the imposition of gag orders on Trump, citing ‘serious and credible’ threats against Engoron and Greenfield. Transcribed voicemail messages, disclosed in court filings, revealed the extent of the abuse directed at the pair. Alongside racist and sexist attacks the messages contain several death threats. ‘I mean, honestly, you should be assassinated,’ said one. ‘You should be killed. You should be not assassin executed [sic]. You should be executed.'”

 

Thursday, 23 November 2023:

 

Book by Tim Alberta says Trump called Iowa evangelicals ‘so-called Christians’ and ‘pieces of shit’ during 2016 Republican primary, The Guardian, Martin Pengelly, Thursday, 23 November 2023: “In the heat of the Republican primary of 2016, Donald Trump called evangelical supporters of his rival Ted Cruz ‘so-called Christians’ and ‘real pieces of shit,’ a new book says. The news lands as the 2024 Republican primary heats up, two months out from the Iowa caucus and a day after Trump’s closest rival this time, the hard-right Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was endorsed by Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa. The new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta, an influential reporter and staff writer for the Atlantic, will be published on 5 December. The Guardian obtained a copy.” See also, Trump Called Evangelicals ‘So-Called Christians,’ ‘Real Pieces of S–t’ During 2016 Primary. The former president was angered after flubbing his favorite Bible verse and seeing voters turn to Ted Cruz, according to author Tim Alberta. The Messenger, Zachary Leeman, Thursday, 23 November 2023: “Then White House hopeful-Donald Trump called evangelical supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ‘so-called Christians’ and ‘full of s—t’ in the heat of the 2016 presidential primary race, according to an upcoming book. The Guardian published excerpts from ‘The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in a Time of Extremism’ written by Atlantic reporter Tim Alberta, who previously made waves with his behind-the-scenes look at Chris Licht’s short and drama-filled time as the head of CNN. Trump’s alleged comments on certain evangelical voters came in January 2016 when Trump was asked to name his favorite Bible verse and he said ‘Two Corinthians’ instead of ‘Second Corinthians,’ a move that earned him some criticism. When Family Research Council president Tony Perkins endorsed Cruz following the flub, Trump went into a ‘spiral,’ according to Alberta.”

 

Friday, 24 November 2023:

 

Trump’s Attacks on New York Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron, and His Law Clerk Allison Greenfield Trigger ‘Hundreds’ of Threats. The former president went on another tear against the civil fraud case in an unglued Thanksgiving message. Vanity Fair, Eric Lutz, published on Friday, 24 November 2023: “Donald Trump celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday this week by taking advantage of a pause in the gag order he’d been under in his civil fraud trial, attacking New York Attorney General Letitia James, Judge Arthur Engoron, and his law clerk in a social media tirade. ‘Happy Thanksgiving to ALL,’ Trump wrote, including the ‘racist’ AG, the ‘psycho’ judge, and the ‘corrupt’ clerk, all of whom he accused of conspiring with Joe Biden and others ‘who are seriously looking to DESTROY OUR COUNTRY.'”

 

Sunday, 26 November 2023:

 

A Troubling Trump Pardon and a Link to the Kushners. A commutation for a drug smuggler named Jonathan Braun had broader implications than previously known. It puts new focus on how Donald Trump would use his clemency powers in a second term. The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Alan Feuer, Sunday, 26 November 2023: “A New York Times investigation, drawing on documents and interviews with current and former officials, and others familiar with Mr. Braun’s case, found there were even greater ramifications stemming from the commutation than previously known and revealed new details about Mr. Braun’s history and how the commutation came about.

• The commutation dealt a substantial blow to an ambitious criminal investigation being led by the Justice Department’s U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan aimed at punishing members of the predatory lending industry who hurt small businesses. Mr. Braun and prosecutors were in negotiations over a cooperation deal in which he would be let out of prison in exchange for flipping on industry insiders and potentially even wearing a wire. But the commutation instantly destroyed the government’s leverage on Mr. Braun. The investigation into the industry, and Mr. Braun’s conduct, remains open but hampered by the lack of an insider.

• At multiple levels, up to the president, the justice system appeared to fail more than once to take full account of Mr. Braun’s activities. After pleading guilty to drug charges in 2011, Mr. Braun agreed to cooperate in a continuing investigation, allowing him to stay out of prison but under supervision for nine years — a period he used to establish himself as a predatory lender, making violent threats to those who owed him money, court filings show. Since returning to predatory lending after being freed, Mr. Braun is still engaging in deceptive business tactics, regulators and customers say.

• In working to secure his release, Mr. Braun’s family used a connection to Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser, to try to get the matter before Mr. Trump. Jared Kushner’s White House office drafted the language used in the news release to announce commutations for Mr. Braun and others.

3 Takeaways From the Investigation Into Trump’s Pardon of Jonathan Braun. Mr. Braun was still under investigation by the Justice Department at the time of his pardon. Here are some key points about the case. The New York Times, Michael S. Schmidt, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan, and Alan Feuer, Sunday, 26 November 2023: “Two days after Donald J. Trump left the White House, The New York Times published a story about how one of his last acts as president had been to commute the 10-year sentence of Jonathan Braun, a marijuana smuggler who had ongoing legal problems and a reputation for making violent threats. In his final weeks in office, Mr. Trump had used his pardon power on behalf of a parade of loyalists, as well as scores of others who were not big political names. But few of them stood out like Mr. Braun, who was still under investigation by the Justice Department in an entirely different matter: for gouging small businesses through high-interest loans.”

Colorado Republican Representative Ken Buck blasts his party’s hardliners for ‘lying to America.’ ‘Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America,’ Buck said. Politico, Kelly Garrity, Sunday, 26 November 2023: “Republican Rep. Ken Buck laid into his own party Sunday, blasting those who continue to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was stolen for ‘lying to America.’ ‘Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America,’ the Colorado Republican said during an interview in CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’ ‘Everyone who makes the argument that January 6 was, you know, an unguided tour of the Capitol is lying to America. Everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in January 6, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn’t commit crimes, those folks are lying to America.'”

 

Monday, 27 November 2023:

 

Biden Campaign Aims to Weaponize Trump’s Threat to Obamacare. The president’s aides quickly jumped on a statement by Donald Trump that he was ‘seriously looking at alternatives’ to the health law. The New York Times, Reid J. Epstein, Monday, 27 November 2023: “Very few events bring aides on President Biden’s re-election campaign more joy than when former President Donald J. Trump threatens to repeal popular Democratic policies. So when Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, wrote on social media over the holiday weekend that he was ‘seriously looking at alternatives’ to the 13-year-old Affordable Care Act, and that his fellow Republicans should ‘never give up’ seeking its repeal, Mr. Biden’s campaign was happy to cede its programming decisions to Mr. Trump. The president’s campaign altered its previous plans and instead will spend much of this week amplifying Mr. Trump’s threat, which was less a substantive policy proposal he had considered thoughtfully than it was a reaction to an editorial he had read in The Wall Street Journal. Still, Mr. Biden’s aides intend to once again push to make Mr. Trump and his proposals the news. That strategy has become a key cog for the campaign, as Mr. Biden struggles with low approval ratings and increasingly focuses on foreign policy rather than his re-election bid.”

 

Tuesday, 28 November 2023:

 

Former Vice President Mike Pence told January 6 special counsel Jack Smith’s team harrowing details about 2020 presidential election aftermath and warnings to Trump. Pence is the top official known to have spoken with investigators. ABC News, Katherine Faulders, Mike Levine, and Alexander Malin, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “Speaking with special counsel Jack Smith’s team earlier this year, former Vice President Mike Pence offered harrowing details about how, in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, then-President Donald Trump surrounded himself with ‘crank’ attorneys, espoused ‘un-American’ legal theories, and almost pushed the country toward a ‘constitutional crisis,’ according to sources familiar with what Pence told investigators. The sources said Pence also told investigators he’s ‘sure’ that — in the days before Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob tried to stop Congress from certifying the election — he informed Trump he still hadn’t seen evidence of significant election fraud, but Trump was unmoved, continuing to claim the election was ‘stolen’ and acting ‘recklessly’ on that ‘tragic day.’ Pence is the highest-ranking current or former government official known to have spoken with the special counsel team investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election. What he allegedly told investigators, described exclusively to ABC News, sheds further light on the evidence Smith’s team has amassed as it prosecutes Trump for allegedly trying to unlawfully “remain in power” and “erode public faith” in democratic institutions…. According to sources, one of Pence’s notes obtained by Smith’s team shows that, days before Pence was set to preside over Congress certifying the election results on Jan. 6, 2021, he momentarily decided that he would skip the proceedings altogether, writing in the note that there were ‘too many questions’ and it would otherwise be ‘too hurtful to my friend.’ But he ultimately concluded he had a duty to show up…. ‘Not feeling like I should attend electoral count,’ Pence wrote in his notes in late December. ‘Too many questions, too many doubts, too hurtful to my friend. Therefore I’m not going to participate in certification of election.’ Then, sitting across the table from his son, a Marine, while on vacation in Colorado, his son said to him, ‘Dad, you took the same oath I took’ — it was ‘an oath to support and defend the Constitution,’ Pence recalled to Smith’s investigators, sources said. That’s when Pence decided he would be at the Capitol on Jan. 6 after all, according to the sources.”

Liz Cheney’s new book blasts Republicans as ‘enablers and collaborators’ of Trump, whom one member called ‘Orange Jesus,’ CNN Politics, Jamie Gangel, Jeremy Herb, and Elizabeth Stuart, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “In her new book, former Rep. Liz Cheney paints a scathing portrait of the Republican Party, condemning her former colleagues and party leaders as ‘enablers and collaborators,’ who after the 2020 election were ‘willing to violate their oath to the Constitution out of political expediency and loyalty to Donald Trump.’ The book, ‘Oath and Honor,’ which was obtained exclusively by CNN ahead of its Dec. 5 release, is an unflinching account of what Cheney calls the GOP’s ‘cowardice,’ and how so many were willing to support former President Donald Trump, who she calls ‘the most dangerous man ever to inhabit the Oval Office.’ Cheney delivers a particularly devastating takedown of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who she says told her that Trump knew he’d lost the election. Cheney is also critical of McCarthy’s successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who ‘appeared especially susceptible to flattery from Trump and aspired to being anywhere in Trump’s orbit,’ she writes.”

Koch Network Endorses Nikki Haley in Bid to Push Republicans Past Trump. The support will give Ms. Haley more organizational strength in the field as she battles Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida for the No. 2 spot in the Republican presidential race. The New York Times, Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher, and Jonathan Swan, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “The political network founded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch has endorsed Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential nominating contest, giving her organizational muscle and financial heft as she battles Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to be the top rival to former President Donald J. Trump. The group announced its plans in a memo on Tuesday. The commitment by the network, Americans for Prosperity Action, bolsters Ms. Haley as the campaign enters the final seven weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Since the first Republican primary debate, Ms. Haley has steadily climbed in polls, even as Mr. DeSantis has slipped. Mr. Trump remains the dominant front-runner in the race.” See also, Koch network endorses Nikki Haley for president as it looks to stop Trump, The Washington Post, Dylan Wells and Hannah Knowles, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “The powerful political network led by conservative billionaire Charles Koch endorsed Nikki Haley for president on Tuesday, as it looks to stop Donald Trump from being the Republican nominee. Americans for Prosperity Action, the network’s flagship political group, announced the group’s first endorsement of its type in a presidential race. In 2015, the Koch network identified five approved presidential candidates, all of whom fell to Trump.”

Trump Seeks to Use Trial to Challenge Findings That 2020 election Was Fair. The former president’s lawyers in his federal trial on charges of trying to overturn the election are asking to collect a wide range of evidence–including on unrelated issues like Hunter Biden. The New York Times, Alan Feuer, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump said in court papers that they planned to question the findings of several government agencies that the 2020 election was conducted fairly as part of their efforts to defend Mr. Trump against federal charges that he sought to overturn the results of the race. The lawyers also suggested in the papers that they intended to raise a host of distractions as part of their defense, indicating that they want to drag unrelated matters like Hunter Biden’s criminal prosecution and the investigation into former Vice President Mike Pence’s handling of classified documents into the election interference case. The twin filings by Mr. Trump’s lawyers late on Monday were formal requests to the prosecution to provide them with reams of additional material that they believe can help them fight the conspiracy indictment accusing Mr. Trump of seeking to subvert the lawful transfer of presidential power three years ago and stay in office despite his loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr. Criminal defendants routinely make such requests in what are known as motions to compel discovery, but many of those made in Mr. Trump’s two filings were long-shot efforts that are likely to be rejected. Ultimately, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the election interference case, will have the power to decide which, if any, of the records Mr. Trump will get. But even if his lawyers get far less than what they asked for, the scope of their requests can be read as a kind of outline of how they plan to fight the case, which is set to go to trial in March in Federal District Court in Washington.” See also, Trump lawyers seek to investigate U.S. handling of 2020 election fraud claims. New court filing seeks evidence to relitigate debunked claims that the election was ‘stolen,’ investigate Department of Justice communications with Biden, Biden’s son, and Mike Pence. The Washington Post, Spencer S. Hsu and Rachel Weiner, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “Attorneys for Donald Trump have asked a federal judge in Washington to allow them to investigate several U.S. government agencies about their handling of investigations into him and allegations of voter fraud three years ago as the former president moves to defend himself from charges that he criminally conspired to subvert the results of the 2020 election. In court papers filed Monday, Trump’s legal team sought permission to compel prosecutors to turn over information about the FBI, national security and election integrity units of the Justice Department, as well as the intelligence community and Department of Homeland Security’s response to foreign interference and other threats to the 2020 election, in what appeared to be an attempt to resuscitate his unfounded allegation that President Biden’s election victory was ‘stolen.'”

Judge Beryl Howell, who spearheaded the judiciary’s response to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, blamed that event on ‘big lies’ and warned that the country is in danger of turning toward authoritarianism, Politico, Josh Gerstein, Tuesday, 28 November 2023: “The judge who spearheaded the judiciary’s response to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, blamed that event on ‘big lies’ and warned that the country is in danger of turning toward authoritarianism. As the federal court in Washington that Judge Beryl Howell once oversaw prepares for a historic trial of former President Donald Trump on charges of attempting to fraudulently overturn the results of the 2020 election, the jurist used a rare public speech Tuesday to lament that many of those convicted for their actions on Jan. 6 fell under the sway of falsehoods. ‘My D.C. judicial colleagues and I regularly see the impact of big lies at the sentencing of hundreds, hundreds of individuals who have been convicted for offense conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, when they disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol,’ said Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama. Howell, who served as chief judge of the District Court from 2016 until March and remains on the bench there, also suggested that the dangers evident on the day of the Capitol riot have not passed — in part because some Americans have become unmoored from facts.”

 

Wednesday, 29 November 2023:

 

Liz Cheney Says Kevin Mc Carthy Claimed Trump Was ‘Not Eating’ After Leaving Office in January 2021. In a new memoir, Liz Cheney wrote that Kevin McCarthy justified his trip to Mar-a-Lago by saying the former president was depressed after losing re-election. The New York Times, Peter Baker, Wednesday, 29 November 2023: “Former President Donald J. Trump was ‘really depressed’ in the days after losing re-election and leaving office in January 2021, so much so that he was ‘not eating.’ At least that is what Kevin McCarthy told Liz Cheney in trying to explain why he had traveled to Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, an act of solidarity that many have identified as a pivotal moment in reviving the former president’s political viability. Mr. McCarthy, the California congressman who was then the House Republican leader, had condemned Mr. Trump for fueling the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol and even suggested that he resign, only to turn around and effectively absolve the former president by embracing him again. In her new book, Ms. Cheney, perhaps the country’s most vocal anti-Trump Republican, reports that Mr. McCarthy justified the Jan. 28 visit as an act of compassion for a beaten ally. Ms. Cheney wrote that she was so shocked when she first saw the photograph of Mr. McCarthy and Mr. Trump standing side by side with grins on their faces that she thought it was a fake. “Not even Kevin McCarthy could be this craven, I thought,” she wrote. ‘I was wrong.’ She went to see Mr. McCarthy to confront him about rehabilitating the twice-impeached former president who had just tried to overturn an election he lost. ‘Mar-a-Lago?’ she asked Mr. McCarthy, according to the book. ‘What the hell?’ He tried to downplay the meeting, saying he had already been in Florida when Mr. Trump’s staff called. ‘They’re really worried,’ Mr. McCarthy said by her account. ‘Trump’s not eating, so they asked me to come see him.’ ‘What?’ she recalled replying. ‘You went to Mar-a-Lago because Trump’s not eating?’ ‘Yeah, he’s really depressed,’ Mr. McCarthy said.”

Lawyer Jennifer Little Told Trump That Defying Documents Subpoena Would Be a Crime. Little recounted the discussion to a grand jury overseen by the special counsel Jack Smith before he brought charges against the former president. The New York Times, Maggie Haberman and Alan Feuer, Wednesday, 29 November 2023: “Not long after federal prosecutors issued a subpoena last year for all the classified documents that former President Donald J. Trump took with him from the White House to his estate in southern Florida, one of his lawyers told him, in no uncertain terms, that it would be a crime if he did not comply with the demand, according to a person familiar with the matter. The lawyer, Jennifer Little, this year related the account of her discussion with Mr. Trump to a grand jury overseen by the special counsel Jack Smith. She is one of several witnesses who prosecutors were told had advised Mr. Trump to cooperate. A few months after Ms. Little testified to the grand jury, Mr. Smith charged Mr. Trump with violating the subpoena for the documents and obstructing the government’s repeated efforts to reclaim nearly three dozen classified documents that he removed from the White House. As part of her grand jury appearance, Ms. Little told prosecutors that the former president clearly understood her warning, the person familiar with the matter said. Her sworn testimony that Mr. Trump was aware that disregarding the subpoena would be a criminal offense could serve as significant evidence of his consciousness of guilt if she ends up being called as a witness when the case eventually goes in front of a jury.”

Court filing reveals Republican Representative Scott Perry’s vast web of contacts in bid to reverse 2020 election. A federal appeals court on Wednesday released previously secret text messages from Perry–only to remove them from the public docket later in the day. Politico, Kyle Cheney, Wednesday, 29 November 2023: “At 11:08 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2020, days before Donald Trump prepared to install Jeff Clark atop the Justice Department amid his frenzied push to remain in power, Clark got a text from one key ally, Rep. Scott Perry. ‘POTUS seems very happy with your response. I read it just as you dictated,’ Perry (R-Pa.) texted the senior Justice Department official. ‘I’m praying. This makes me quite nervous. And wonder if I’m worthy or ready,’ Clark replied. ‘You are the man. I have confirmed it. God does what he does for a reason,’ Perry continued. At the time, Clark was supporting Trump’s false claims of voter fraud — and Trump, hoping to harness the Justice Department in his bid to overturn the 2020 election, was nearing a decision to appoint Clark as acting attorney general. He ultimately backed off amid a high-level rebellion at DOJ and in the White House. But the newly disclosed text messages — contained in a court filing that appears to have been erroneously made public on Wednesday — show that Clark was girding for the appointment, bolstered by support from Perry, a conservative leader in Congress. The intimate exchange, along with a batch of other communications, was released by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously heard litigation over special counsel Jack Smith’s effort to access the communications stored on Perry’s cell phone. The court partially blocked Smith’s effort in a ruling that relied on the Constitution’s ‘speech or debate’ clause, which allows members of Congress to prevent certain communications from being probed by prosecutors.”

 

Thursday, 30 November 2023:

 

Trump Is Again Barred From Insulting Court Staff in New York Civil Fraud Trial. A gag order that was put on hold by an appeals court judge has been reinstated. The former president has twice violated the order, insulting the judge’s clerk. The New York Times, Jonah E. Bromwich and Kate Christobek, Thursday, 30 November 2023: “An appeals court on Thursday reinstated a narrow gag order on Donald J. Trump that bars him from attacking court staff in his civil fraud trial in New York. The former president has already violated the order twice, incurring a total of $15,000 in fines. The order was first put in place by the trial judge, Arthur F. Engoron, in early October, after Mr. Trump attacked the judge’s law clerk on social media. Mr. Trump falsely referred to the clerk, Allison Greenfield, as ‘Schumer’s girlfriend’ alongside a photo of her and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, and said that she was running the case against Mr. Trump. With their client barred from attacking Ms. Greenfield, Mr. Trump’s lawyers continued to take issue with her prominence. They accused her of displaying bias against them as the judge consulted with his clerk during the trial, which stems from a lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. Eventually, Justice Engoron placed a gag order on the lawyers as well, prohibiting them from commenting on his conferences and written exchanges with Ms. Greenfield.” See also, New York appeals court reinstates Trump gag order in New York civil fraud case, The Washington Post, Shayna Jacobs, Thursday, 30 November 2023: “A New York appeals court on Thursday reinstated a limited gag order on Donald Trump, preventing him from making public comments about court staffers in a civil business fraud case brought by the state. The court, in a two-page decision, upheld New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s set of orders that prevented Trump and his defense team from mentioning court staffers, including a law clerk who has been the subject of antisemitic and other threats and messages since the case began. Engoron imposed a gag order on the former president for comments that the judge said endangered the clerk’s safety. The order, prohibiting Trump from discussing any members of the court staff, was issued a day after Trump posted a photo of the employee on social media that the judge said led to threats. His lawyers weeks later were barred from discussing communications between Engoron and his staff. A court judicial-threats officer monitoring the situation said in a recent court filing that the judge and his staff face constant harassment. The clerk, according to the officer, gets 20 to 30 unwanted calls a day to her personal cellphone and up to 50 messages a day to personal email addresses and social media accounts.” See also, An appeals court reinstates gag order that barred Trump from maligning court staff in New York civil fraud trial, Associated Press, Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak, Thursday, 30 November 2023: “A New York appeals court Thursday reinstated a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after the former president repeatedly disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial. The one-sentence decision came two weeks after an individual appellate judge put the gag order on hold while the appeals process played out. Trial judge Arthur Engoron, who imposed the restriction, said he now planned to enforce it ‘rigorously and vigorously.'”

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Subpoenas for Leading Conservative Judicial Activist Leonard Leo and Billionaire Republican Megadonor Harlan Crow in Supreme Court Ethics Inquiry. The decision to try to compel cooperation from Leo and Crow came over fierce Republican opposition and threats of retaliation. The New York Times, Carl Hulse, Thursday, 30 November 2023: “The Senate Judiciary Committee authorized subpoenas on Thursday for conservative allies of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., acting over angry objections from Republicans to secure more information about luxury travel, gifts and other benefits provided to members of the Supreme Court. The panel concluded an acrimonious session with Republicans storming out as Democrats voted to approve subpoenas for Leonard Leo, a leading conservative judicial activist, and the billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. They were the latest steps in the committee’s inquiry into the court after a series of media reports about undisclosed trips and real estate deals. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the panel, called the men ‘central players’ in what he described as an ethics crisis on the Supreme Court. He said the committee needed to uphold Senate authority after the men refused for months to cooperate with the panel about their interactions with the justices.” See also, Democrats vote to subpoena Supreme Court conservative allies Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo, The Washington Post, Ann E. Marimow, Thursday, 30 November 2023: “Senate Democrats voted Thursday to subpoena two prominent allies of conservative Supreme Court justices, an unusual attempt to learn more about undisclosed gifts to the justices that Republican lawmakers said would not ultimately succeed before the full Senate. The contentious hearing on whether to demand information from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow and conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo featured forceful pushback from Republicans who defended the court’s conservatives. It came two weeks after the Supreme Court announced for the first time that the justices would follow a broad code of conduct to promote ‘integrity and impartiality.'”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even though the Trump administration is no longer in office, I am continuing to post summaries of the daily political news and major stories relating to this tragic and dangerous period in US history. I try to focus on the differences between the Trump administration and the Biden administration and on the ongoing toxic residual effects of the Trump administration and Republicans. I usually post throughout the day and let the news settle for a day or so before posting.

I created Muckraker Farm in 2014 as a place to post muckraking (investigative) journalism going back to the 19th century. I hope to return to this original project soon. You can find these muckraking pieces under the Home Page link at the top of this site. Thanks for reading!