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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — December 5, 2022

By December 5, 2022No Comments

Driving the Day: 

Must Read Stories

Trump Calls For A ‘Redo’ Of The 2020 Election By Suspending The Constitution

  • New York Times: Trump’s Call for ‘Termination’ of Constitution Draws Rebukes: An extraordinary antidemocratic statement from former President Donald J. Trump, suggesting the “termination” of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election, drew a degree of bipartisan condemnation over the weekend, with a flood from Democrats and a trickle from Republicans. But it did not appear to do any more than similar past actions in prompting Republican officials to rule out supporting Mr. Trump in 2024. Inaccurately describing the contents of a just-released report about Twitter’s moderation decisions during the 2020 campaign, Mr. Trump again demanded that the 2020 election be overturned or rerun, for the first time explicitly calling to set aside the supreme law of the land. “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” he wrote in a post on Saturday on his social network, Truth Social. The explicit suggestion of suspending the Constitution was astonishing even by the standards of Mr. Trump, who has spent the past two years spreading lies about the 2020 election, which he lost, and promoting various illegal mechanisms for overturning it.
  • The Hill: Top House Intel Republican Condemns Trump’s Calls To Suspend Constitution Over 2020 Election: Rep. Mike Turner (Ohio), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday condemned former President Trump’s suggestion to suspend the Constitution over unfounded claims of mass electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. During an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” moderator Margaret Brennan asked Turner if he condemned Trump’s post on Saturday calling for “the termination of all rules,” including those in the Constitution, over his election claims. “Absolutely,” Turner responded. “And I believe, answering your question, that people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.” Trump formally entered the 2024 presidential race last month, and the post marks the latest instance of some in the GOP criticizing the former president since his announcement. “I, first of all, vehemently disagree with with the statement that Trump has made,” Turner said on CBS. “Trump has made 1,000 statements in which I disagree.” Others in the party, such as Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), however, declined to condemn Trump’s suggestion during an appearance on the Sunday talk show circuit. The former president has also faced condemnation in recent days over dining with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago last month.
  • ABC: Trump’s Call To Suspend Constitution Not A 2024 Deal-Breaker, Leading House Republican Says: Republican Ohio Rep. Dave Joyce said Sunday that he didn’t want to be drawn into commenting on Donald Trump’s recent call to suspend the Constitution over baseless claims of 2020 election fraud. Joyce, the chair of the Republican Governance Group, a centrist group in the House, was asked by ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos to respond to Trump’s post on Saturday on his Truth Social platform. The former president wrongly asserted that the “massive fraud” — which did not occur — “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Joyce initially declined to respond, saying he didn’t know what Trump said on social media and that the public wasn’t “interested in looking backwards.” But Stephanopoulos pressed further, and Joyce ultimately said that Trump’s comment should be taken “in context” but that it wouldn’t prevent him from supporting Trump if he ends up winning the nomination.  “It’s early. I think there’s going to be a lot of people in the primary … [but] I will support whoever the Republican nominee is,” Joyce said while noting he didn’t think Trump would manage to win the 2024 Republican presidential nomination because there are “a lot of other good quality candidates out there.” “That’s a remarkable statement,” Stephanopoulos said. “You just said you’d support a candidate who’s come out for suspending the Constitution.” “Well, you know, he says a lot of things,” Joyce said, adding, “I can’t be really chasing every one of these crazy statements that come from any of these candidates.”

New York Jury Begins Deliberation in Criminal Trial Over Trump Tax Fraud 

  • Reuters: Jury In Trump Organization’s Criminal Tax Fraud Trial To Begin Deliberations: Jurors in the Trump Organization’s tax fraud trial are set to start deliberating on Monday, following four weeks of testimony and arguments about executive pay practices at Donald Trump’s real estate company that prosecutors say amounted to a years-long criminal scheme. The former U.S. president’s company was charged in 2021 with paying personal expenses for some executives without reporting the income, and compensating them as if they were independent contractors. Its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecution. Trump, who last month announced a third run for the presidency in 2024, was not charged in the case. But prosecutor Joshua Steinglass said in his closing argument on Friday that Trump was aware of the scheme, part of an effort to counter the defense’s argument that Weisselberg, 75, sought only to benefit himself and hid his wrongdoing from the Trump family. “He is not on trial here, but that does not mean that you should believe the defense’s narrative that Allen Weisselberg…went rogue,” Steinglass told the jury.
  • New York Times: Trump Approved Key Aspect of Company’s Scheme, Prosecutors Assert: Donald J. Trump approved a key aspect of a tax fraud scheme orchestrated by several top executives at his family business, prosecutors said on Friday in their closing arguments at the company’s trial, an explosive claim as the jury prepares to deliberate next week. Prosecutors have not charged Mr. Trump with participating in the scheme, through which, they say, the executives were compensated in off-the-books perks so that they could evade taxes. But on Friday, Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, told the jury that Mr. Trump had signed off on part of the scheme, and that one document proved it. “Mr. Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,” Mr. Steinglass said, referring to a paper signed by the former president that showed an executive asking that his salary be reduced. “That’s what this document shows,” Mr. Steinglass added, arguing that the lower salary corresponded with the perks the executive, Matthew Calamari, had received. Although prosecutors have shown that Mr. Trump knew about some of the perks his executives were getting, his awareness of the extent of the scheme is murky. Defense lawyers objected strongly to Mr. Steinglass’s statement, and the judge, Justice Juan Merchan of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, sustained their objection. Still, jurors heard what Mr. Steinglass said.

In The States 

ARIZONA: Secretary of State Sends Criminal Referrals For Two Election Deniers Who Refused To Certify The Election Results

  • Arizona Republic: ​​Hobbs’ Office Sends Criminal Referral On 2 Cochise County Supervisors:  Cochise County Supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd knowingly violated state law and should be investigated for potential criminal and civil offenses for delaying the canvass of the general election results, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office stated in a referral to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. The referral comes a day after the supervisors were forced by a court order to certify election results ― although the letter specifically notes that Crosby failed to attend the court-ordered canvass. The letter lays out evidence, culled from public meetings and public statements, to buttress the claim that the law was violated. It included Judd’s statement earlier this week to the New York Times that the county’s objections to how tabulation machines were certified was “the only thing we have to stand on” to not certify the Nov. 8 returns. “Supervisors Crosby and Judd knew they had a statutory requirement to certify the election results by Nov. 28, but instead chose to act in violation of the law, putting false election narratives ahead of Cochise County voters,” the letter, signed by state Elections Director Kori Lorick, states. The referral notes that failure by elected officials to carry out their prescribed duties is subject to a Class 6 felony. That felony can carry a penalty of up to 5 3/4 years in prison, first-time offenders are usually sentenced to the presumptive term of 1 1/2 years, although the law allows it to be bumped down to a misdemeanor. The referral also cites the state’s Election Procedures Manual, which states that a county supervisor who refuses to carry out duties without just cause is subject to a Class 2 misdemeanor and a $500 fine payable to the county.

PENNSYLVANIA: Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner Denounces Lame Duck GOP Impeachment Trial

  • The Philadelphia Inquirer: Krasner Asks Court To Declare Impeachment Unlawful: Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner on Friday asked Commonwealth Court to stop the Republican-led impeachment process against him, arguing that it is an unlawful abuse of power targeting his progressive policies. On Wednesday the state Senate voted to formally accept the articles of impeachment filed by the state House against Krasner, setting the stage for a January trial on whether to remove the prosecutor from office. In the new filings, lawyers for Krasner argued that the articles of impeachment became “null and void” Wednesday, the last day of the 2021-22 legislative session, and that they contained no evidence of “misbehavior in office” that is required for impeachment. The lawyers also said the state legislature lacks the authority to remove local officials from office. The filings name as defendants Sen. Kim Ward, the top Republican in the Senate, unnamed members of the Senate committee that will oversee the case, and the three impeachment managers designated by the House, including State Rep. Jared Solomon, a Democrat representing Northeast Philadelphia, and State Rep. Craig Williams, a Republican representing parts of Delaware and Chester Counties. Ward’s spokesperson, Erica Clayton Wright, told the Associated Press on Friday the filing was under review and a response would be made “once we have had time to evaluate the case.” Clayton Wright has previously said congressional impeachment proceedings have spanned more than one legislative session. Solomon told the AP on Friday he has not read the filings and that he is involved to ensure fairness. ”This is an attempt by Trump-style Republicans to once again blow out the votes of residents in Philadelphia,” Solomon said from New York, where he was attending the annual Pennsylvania Society political event. “If it can happen in Philadelphia, it can happen in any one of our 67 counties. We need to protect democracy and that’s what I’m in the room to do.”

What Experts Are Saying

Heather Cox Richardson, American historian at Boston College: “On Sunday, December 4, all but one Republican lawmaker who expects to stay in office for the next two years stayed resolutely silent about Trump’s open attack on the U.S. Constitution, this nation’s founding document, the basis for our government.” Letters from an American

Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “Trump’s attack on the Constitution is straight out of the proverbial authoritarian playbook. I dissected each sentence with @yasminv. If we can spot these tactics, we can defeat them.” MSNBC Video | Tweet 

Dennis Aftergut, a former assistant U.S. attorney and former Supreme Court advocate: “Trump writing that we should cancel the Constitution ranks right up alongside John Tyler’s support of the Confederacy as among the most shameful acts of a former president in our nation’s history…Out of his gourd with fear of federal prosecution, Trump does something that helps ensure its success.” The Bulwark: Trump Stands in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and Shoots the Constitution

Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “The independent state legislature theory dramatically misreads the Elections Clause as giving state legislators near-exclusive power over federal elections, along with the ability to prohibit any other branch of state government, the courts or the governor, from operating as a check and balance on the power that legislatures would abscond with. In North Carolina, the argument is that state courts lack the power to stop the state legislature from violating the state’s own constitution when it draws new congressional maps. That’s nonsensical. Imagine a world where state legislatures could exercise that kind of power and no one could do anything about it. The potential for abuse is unlimited. Voters across the country would have no remedy against the baldest of partisan gerrymanders. And of course, confidence in the integrity of our elections would bottom out.” Civil Discourse 

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

The Hill: Hawley, Cruz, Rubio emerge as champions of GOP populism amid Trump’s decline

ABC13: Supreme Court weighs ‘most important case’ on democracy

Trump 2024

Axios: Trump is losing altitude after GOP’s midterm disappointment

Semafor: Top evangelicals are backing away from Donald Trump

January 6 And The 2020 Election

CBS: Jan. 6th Committee member Jamie Raskin on Trump: “People are hungering for justice and for accountability and consequences”

Other Trump Investigations 

Politico: Trump’s legal woes just keep piling up

The Hill: Trump loss ignites next steps for DOJ in Mar-a-Lago investigation

Los Angeles Times: Prosecutor says evidence shows Trump ‘explicitly’ OKd tax fraud

Vox: What Congress can do with Trump’s tax returns

Opinion

CNN (Stephen Collinson): Trump’s call to terminate the Constitution is a fantasy, but it’s still dangerous

The Bulwark (Dennis Aftergut): Trump Stands in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and Shoots the Constitution

Washington Post (Ruth Marcus): Trump’s call for suspending the Constitution is too dangerous to ignore

Washington Post (Karen Tumulty): North Carolina’s dubious constitutional theory could undermine elections

Deseret News (Jay Evensen): Forget voter fraud — gerrymandering is the real threat to democracy

Detroit Free Press (Brian Dickerson): Michigan needs a modernized arsenal of democracy

The Hill (Glenn C. Altschuler): What’s the matter with Arizona?

In The States

Los Angeles Times: Defeated election conspiracists seek to lead Michigan Republican Party

Brennan Center for Justice: Arizona County’s Refusal to Certify Vote Shows Why Election Denial Is Still a Threat

ABC: GOP faces further Trump reckoning in Georgia and beyond