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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — December 7, 2022

By December 7, 2022No Comments

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January 6 Committee Will Make Criminal Referrals To The Department of Justice, According to Chairman Bennie Thompson

  • CNN: House January 6 Committee Has Decided To Make Criminal Referrals, Chairman Says: The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol has decided to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, told reporters Tuesday. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said the committee has not narrowed down the universe of individuals who may be referred. Asked whether Thompson believed any witnesses perjured themselves, he said, “that’s part of the discussion.” When the panel makes referrals, Thompson said it will be a separate document from the panel’s final report that will be sent to the DOJ. A select committee spokesperson confirmed to CNN that criminal referrals will be “considered as a final part” of the panel’s work. “The Committee has determined that referrals to outside entities should be considered as a final part of its work. The committee will make decisions about specifics in the days ahead,” the spokesperson said. A source tells CNN the criminal referrals the January 6 committee will ultimately be making “will be focused on the main organizers and leaders of the attacks.”
  • USA Today: Jan. 6 Committee To Recommend DOJ Pursue Criminal Charges, But Hasn’t Yet Decided On Names: The House committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, has decided to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges, but has not yet identified who should be targeted, the chairman told reporters Tuesday. The panel has already made four criminal referrals against four people accused of contempt of Congress for defying committee subpoenas, and the department charged two of them. But additional committee recommendations could reach as high as former President Donald Trump and cover crimes beyond the riot such as perjury or witness tampering. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters the committee has not narrowed down the universe of individuals who may be referred, according to CNN. “At this point, there’ll be a separate document coming from me to DOJ,” Thompson said, according to The Associated Press. The committee’s recommendations, which will be included in its final report expected by Christmas, are non binding but would reflect a legislative perspective for executive branch investigators to consider. The Justice Department declined to comment on the announcement. Norm Eisen, a lawyer who served as counsel to the Democratic House committee leading Trump’s first impeachment, said he expected the recommendations to focus on two allegations: the attempt to defraud the United States through overturning the 2020 election and obstruction of an official congressional proceeding.
  • New York Times: House Jan. 6 Committee to Issue Criminal Referrals, Chairman Says: Representative Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, on Tuesday gave the strongest signal yet that the panel planned to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department, raising the prospect of a history-making finding that former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election amounted to a crime. In comments to reporters that appeared to pre-empt a formal decision by the committee, Mr. Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat, said the panel had yet to agree on whom to recommend for charges or which crimes to name. But his remarks — including a contorted attempt to qualify his initial statement — suggested that, as the committee members wrap up their work, they are heavily inclined toward calling for prosecutions of those involved in the Jan. 6 riot and the monthslong election subversion effort, directed by Mr. Trump, that gave rise to it. A criminal referral by the panel would be largely symbolic, holding no legal weight because Congress has no enforcement power and no formal say in what the Justice Department does. The department has already been carrying out a criminal investigation into Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including the appointment last month of a special counsel who authorized a round of subpoenas after taking over. Yet a referral would be another remarkable development in a precedent-shattering investigation by Congress of Mr. Trump’s bid to nullify his defeat, and could increase the pressure on Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, to bring prosecutions.

New York Jury Finds Donald Trump’s Company Guilty of Tax Fraud

  • Politico: Trump Org. Guilty On All Counts In New York Criminal Tax Fraud Trial: The real estate company on which former President Donald Trump built his empire was convicted on all charges Tuesday in a 13-year criminal tax fraud scheme. The 17 guilty counts delivered by a New York state jury — which could lead to $1.6 million in fines for the Trump Organization — are the latest setback for Trump, who is beset by a constricting circle of legal woes as he launches another bid at the presidency. “The former president’s companies now stand convicted of crimes. That is consequential,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters in the courthouse after the verdict. “This was a case about lying and cheating, false documents to the end of evading taxes for individuals and corporations.” Prosecutors said the company criminally dodged taxes and suppressed payroll costs by lavishing its executives with unreported perks, such as leases on luxury cars and apartments. Trump was not charged, but the conviction required a jury to conclude that the scheme was conducted in part to benefit the company. Prosecutors told the jury during closing arguments that Trump was “explicitly sanctioning tax fraud,” though New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan sustained an objection over the claim. Before deliberations, Merchant instructed the jury, some of whom reportedly expressed distaste for Trump during selection, to forget their personal feelings about Trump. “You must set aside any biases you might have in favor of or against Mr. Trump and his family, and you must not let any such bias influence your verdict in this case,” he said. In a statement, Trump vowed an appeal and claimed the verdict by 12 jurors was “a continuation of the Greatest Political Witch Hunt in the History of our Country.”
  • The Independent: Trump Organization Found Guilty On Criminal Tax Fraud Charges: A New York City jury has convicted two subsidiaries of former president Donald Trump’s eponymous real estate and licensing company, the Trump Organization of charges stemming from what prosecutors described as a sweeping, multi-decade scheme to avoid paying payroll taxes by compensating top executives with untaxed benefits such as housing and automobiles. Jurors rendered a guilty verdict on all of the 15 charges included in an indictment filed last year against the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation, as well as its long-time chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. […] Mr Trump had hardly been mentioned during the weekslong trial, but as he showed jurors company payroll documents showing the untaxed compensation, he placed blame squarely on the former chief executive. “Donald Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud — that’s what this document shows,” he said. He added that the “narrative” spun by the company which portrayed the ex-president as “blissfully ignorant” of his company’s accounting practices was “not real.”

Supreme Court Hears Radical North Carolina Redistricting Case Over Independent State Legislature Theory

  • MSNBC: Why The Supreme Court’s Redistricting Case Is A Threat To Democracy: On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Moore v. Harper, through which North Carolina’s Republican legislators are fighting to protect an “aggressively gerrymandered congressional map” thrown out by that state’s Supreme Court on constitutional grounds. But while the case is, on its face, about gerrymandering and congressional elections, it’s really about the power of state courts and presidential elections. For decades, states’ rights have been one of the central tenets of modern Republican Party politics, animating everything from the crusade to topple Roe v. Wade to the fight against Covid vaccine mandates and the discharge of student loan debt. But where elections are concerned, conservatives have embraced a form of federal control: through its courts. And over the last 20 years, they have transformed a passage from then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s concurrence in Bush v. Gore, which reasoned that any departure from state legislation concerning presidential elections “presents a federal constitutional question,” into a movement for the adoption of the “independent state legislature doctrine.” The independent state legislature doctrine is the theory that through two clauses — the Elections Clause of Article I and the Presidential Electors Clause of Article II — the Constitution gives state legislatures sweeping authority over the appointment of presidential electors and the administration of congressional elections. Among its adherents are former Trump election lawyer John Eastman, who filed an amicus brief arguing its virtues, and to a less extreme extent, the Republican Party itself. If embraced by a majority of the Supreme Court, the independent state legislature doctrine could reduce the role of or even prevent state courts from reviewing and regulating state election laws.
  • FiveThirtyEight: ​​How North Carolina’s Political Warfare Could Impact The Entire Country: North Carolina is no stranger to making political waves, and in the weeks ahead, the Tar Heel State’s internal battles could create ripple effects across the country. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in Moore v. Harper, which stems from the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision to reject a congressional district map drawn by the state legislature that the court found to be so extremely gerrymandered, it was unconstitutional. The former’s pending ruling could have major ramifications for the division of power over elections in every state in the country. It’s also the culmination of a decade-long effort by North Carolina Republicans to cling onto power.  Depending on how it rules, the Supreme Court could give partisan state lawmakers even greater power to draw district lines and run elections, while weakening the authority of state courts to keep those powers in check. And in charting the course of this case, it’s clear exactly what the plaintiffs — North Carolina Republicans — hope to gain. The story starts over a decade ago, when the GOP took control of the Tar Heel State’s legislature, and winds up at the steps of the Supreme Court, where some of those same Republican lawmakers are hoping to shore up their power in a fast-growing and demographically shifting state. North Carolina’s most extreme political maneuvers have threatened to seep out and radicalize other parts of the country before. Moore v. Harper could spring an actual leak.
  • Vanity Fair: Will The Supreme Court Help The Radical Right Unravel Democracy?: The Supreme Court’s conservative majority dramatically upended American life in their past session, including in their precedent-shattering ruling this summer that eliminated the federal right to an abortion. But in a forthcoming case this term, they could go even further, potentially throwing the democratic process itself into jeopardy. “I am extremely concerned,” former attorney general Eric Holder told Face the Nation on Sunday. “This is a very, very dangerous theory. It would put our system of checks and balances at risk.” At issue in Moore v. Harper, which justices will consider in oral arguments Wednesday, is what’s known as the “independent state legislature” theory. With contemporary roots in William Rehnquist’s concurring opinion in Bush v. Gore, the widely-scorned theory was resurrected in 2020 by John Eastman as part of his efforts to help Donald Trump overturn his election loss to Joe Biden. The premise: State legislatures, a majority of which are controlled by Republicans, have ultimate authority over the elections process, with essentially no oversight or constitutional checks on their power. The petitioners in the North Carolina case have invoked the theory to get the high court to reinstate their gerrymandered congressional map, which the state Supreme Court struck down as racially discriminatory. But the implications of the case go well beyond gerrymandering: In the most extreme application of the theory, state legislatures could potentially disregard election results and appoint their own electors, as Eastman floated in a memo following the 2020 election.

Department of Justice Subpoenas State Officials For Communications With Trump On Jan. 6

  • Washington Post: Justice Dept. Subpoenas Ariz., Mich., Wis. Officials For Trump Communications: Special counsel Jack Smith has sent grand-jury subpoenas to local officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states that were central to former president Donald Trump’s failed plan to stay in power following the 2020 election — seeking any and all communications with Trump, his campaign and a long list of aides and allies. The requests for records arrived in Dane County, Wis.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Wayne County, Mich., late last week, and in Milwaukee on Monday, officials said. They are among the first known subpoenas issued since Smith was named last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the Jan. 6 Capitol attack case as well as the criminal probe of Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home. The subpoenas, at least three of which are dated Nov. 22, indicates that the Justice Department is extending its examination of the circumstances leading up to the Capitol attack to include local election officials and their potential interactions with the former president and his representatives. The virtually identical requests to Arizona and Wisconsin name Trump individually, in addition to employees, agents and attorneys for his campaign. Details of the Michigan subpoena, confirmed by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, were not immediately available.
  • AP: DOJ Subpoenas Election Officials In States Trump Disputed: Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed local election officials in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania, asking for communications with or involving former President Donald Trump, his 2020 campaign aides and a list of allies involved in his efforts to try to overturn the results of the election. The requests, issued to Milwaukee and Dane counties in Wisconsin; Wayne County, Michigan; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, are the first known subpoenas by Smith, who was named special counsel last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the violent storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s frantic efforts to remain in power. The subpoenas, some of which were first reported by The Washington Post, are the clearest indication yet that Smith’s work will include an examination of the fake electors that were part of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election count and certification. All of the states where requests were sent are states that Trump and his allies targeted as they tried to overturn the democratic vote.

In The States 

GEORGIA: Election Denier Herschel Walker Loses Georgia Senate Runoff

  • Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Warnock Defeats Walker, Giving Democrats 51-49 Majority In Senate: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock fended off a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker to win a full six-year term that broadens the Democratic majority in the chamber after a turbulent runoff campaign that sharpened partisan divides in one of the nation’s most politically competitive states. Warnock’s victory Tuesday was a rare bright spot for Democrats in Georgia after a midterm that ended in triumph for every other statewide Republican candidate, and his win prevented an outright reversal just two years after Democrats swept the U.S. Senate runoffs and helped Joe Biden win the White House. The $401 million race was the nation’s most expensive. The victory gives Democrats 51 seats in the Senate, meaning they can claim a majority on committees and exert more influence without having to depend exclusively on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie breaking vote. In a subdued concession speech Tuesday night, Walker made no mention of Warnock but urged his supporters to “believe in our elected officials.” “There’s no excuses in life, and I am not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight,” Walker said. Warnock prevailed with a strategy that mobilized both reliably liberal Democrats and middle-of-the-road voters, including many in the latter bloc who split their ticket in the first round by also voting for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Throughout the campaign, he stressed his efforts to reach across the aisle, and he did it again in his victory speech, saying he would continue to work on issues such as criminal justice and lowering the costs of prescription drugs. “I want all of Georgia to know, whether you voted for me or not, I am going to keep working for you,” Warnock said.
  • Daily Beast: Raphael Warnock Takes Down Herschel Walker in Georgia Runoff: For the second time in two years, Georgia voters showed up in droves for a nationally watched Senate runoff battle—and chose Raphael Warnock, the pastor-turned-Democratic star, to represent them in Washington. On Tuesday, in a race called by the Associated Press, Warnock finally defeated his Republican opponent, the football legend Herschel Walker, in the final contest of the 2022 election cycle. Although Democrats had already secured the Senate majority in the November election, Warnock’s victory is an exclamation point to a campaign season in which the party defied expectations that President Joe Biden’s unpopularity and a struggling economy would doom their hopes. With 51 seats in the chamber next year, Democrats will have the power to confirm Biden’s nominees for the federal judiciary and administration posts far more smoothly. They’ll also no longer have to broker an agreement with the GOP to set the balance of power on committees. For many Democrats, Warnock brings far more to the table than just a vote. One of just three Black senators, Warnock is a prolific fundraiser and skilled communicator. With a six-year Senate term ahead, he can finally begin building a résumé beyond his consecutive runoff wins during an essentially unbroken four-year marathon of campaigning. For Republicans, Walker’s defeat caps a disappointing election cycle that saw them fail to flip any Democratic Senate seats despite being favored to win control of the chamber. The loss—which many Republicans had expected—is sure to reignite the blame game that consumed top Senate Republicans after November, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the campaign chief, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), openly squabbling about party strategy and alleged missteps. The result will also further sour Republicans on Donald Trump. The ex-president was one of Walker’s key backers, and his defeat is just the last of many defeats suffered by candidates that Trump had favored most.

ARIZONA: Secretary of State Certifies Midterm Election Results As Official After Weeks-Long Standoff With Election Deniers

  • CBS4: Arizona Certifies 2022 Election Results Amid Threat Of More GOP Challenges: Arizona officials certified the state’s vote canvass on Monday, officially declaring winners in the high-profile gubernatorial and Senate races, among other contests, as GOP figures vow to fight the election results in court. The once low-profile certification process turned into a fierce battle between election officials, Republican candidates and some county boards as the GOP seized on printer malfunctions in the state’s most populous county, in part leading Arizona to become an epicenter for voter disenfranchisement allegations. Election officials have acknowledged mishaps but insist no voter was disenfranchised. Some GOP figures and their supporters claimed officials were lying, unsuccessfully calling on county boards to not certify their canvasses in recent days before turning their ire to Monday’s state-level certification. But Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), who is now governor-elect, Gov. Doug Ducey (R), state Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) and Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Brutinel still met to canvass last month’s election on Monday, a timeline mandated by state law. “Arizona had a successful election,” Hobbs said. “But too often throughout the process, powerful voices proliferated misinformation that threatened to disenfranchise voters. Democracy prevailed, but it’s not out of the woods. 2024 will bring a host of challenges from the election denial community that we must prepare for.” The certification paves the way for automatic recounts to begin in three close races — attorney general, state superintendent and a state House seat near Phoenix — and officials signed certificates of election for the other contests.

What Experts Are Saying

Norm Eisen, a counsel to the Democratic House committee leading Trump’s first impeachment: “said he expected the recommendations to focus on two allegations: the attempt to defraud the United States through overturning the 2020 election and obstruction of an official congressional proceeding. Despite the Justice Department already investigating aggressively, Eisen said the recommendations would still be important to explain the evidence and allegations. ‘No. 1, they stiffen the spine of state and federal prosecutors by encouraging them to act,’ Eisen said. ‘No. 2, they provide important information, the roadmap, the evidence. That’s the most critical part.’” USA Today 

Debra Perlin, policy director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW): “He [Eisen] and Debra Perlin, policy director for the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said referrals could target Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump personal lawyer John Eastman and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark…’These are serious minds and serious legal thinkers who believe that the threshold has been met to make criminal referrals, who believe that prosecution is required,’ Perlin said.” USA Today 

Elie Honig, former federal and state prosecutor (CNN Video): “You’d have to start with #DonaldTrump. There’s no question that the committee established that all of this happened because of #Trump, with Trump’s knowledge and to some extent with what Trump was hoping to accomplish.” Porter Anderson Tweet 

Michael Sozan, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress (Video Explainer): In this video, the Center for American Progress unpacks the arguments in Moore v. Harper, a case with the potential to upend free and fair elections. As explained in the video, if the court’s extreme conservative majority adopts the reckless independent state legislature theory, partisan state legislators could have limitless power to craft election laws and draw rigged congressional maps. CAP: Supreme Court Decision in Moore v. Harper Could Harm Free and Fair Elections | Tweet

Ari Savitzky, Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU Voting Rights Project: “If the Supreme Court adopts the North Carolina legislators’ proposed rule in Moore, it will make it even easier for state legislatures to suppress the vote and subvert election results, and it will give both political parties the green light to draw gerrymandered election districts. Adopting the legislators’ rule would also require the court to turn its back on principles ostensibly favored by its current majority, like original meaning and federalism, which stand against the legislators’ radical and disruptive legal theory. Moore is an opportunity for the court to reject that radicalism, and to reaffirm the common-sense rule that has been in place since the Constitution was ratified: State legislatures always act subject to the state constitutions that charter them and define their powers. Nothing less than that basic principle of American constitutional government is at stake.” ACLU: Explaining Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court Case That Could Upend Democracy

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

Politico: How the ‘independent legislature’ case before SCOTUS could upend elections

Mother Jones: How Right-Wing Groups Set the Stage for the Supreme Court to Rig Future Elections

Trump 2024

New York Times: Trump Bedeviled by Company’s Conviction and Senate Candidate’s Defeat

The Hill: GOP smells blood with wounded Trump  

CNN: This kind of week could break Donald Trump

NBC: Herschel Walker’s loss is just more bad news for Trump
The Hill: McConnell: Trump would have hard time becoming president given Constitution comments

January 6 And The 2020 Election

CNN: Jan. 6 committee member previews details in panel’s upcoming report

ABC: Jan. 6 officers awarded Congressional Gold Medals; some family seem to snub Republican leaders

NBC: Jan. 6 rioter who warned of ‘siege’ is sentenced to 3 years

Washington Post: Giuliani ‘weaponized’ law license in Trump election suit, D.C. Bar argues

Other Trump Investigations 

New York Times: Manhattan D.A. Hires Ex-D.O.J. Official to Help Lead Trump Investigation

CNN: Federal appeals court considers Trump’s plea to grant him immunity from Capitol riot lawsuits

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Florida appeals court directs Flynn to testify before Fulton grand jury

Supreme Court

Politico: Arizona GOP legislator: Danger to democracy in Supreme Court case isn’t theoretical

Political Violence

Raw Story: One-third of the FBI’s domestic terrorism investigations ‘relate’ to January 6th: report

Opinion

New York Times (Roy Cooper): I’m the Governor of North Carolina. This Fringe Claim Before the Supreme Court Would Upend Democracy. 

Washington Post (Editorial Board): The Supreme Court’s Elections Opening in Moore v. Harper

New York Times (Charles M. Blow): Walker, Trump’s Celebrity Pick, Underscores Trump’s Fall

The Daily Beast (Michael A. Cohen): Herschel Walker Lost, but the GOP Is Still Poisoned by MAGA Loonies 

The Guardian (Lloyd Green): Georgia’s runoff was a resounding rebuke of Trumpism. Will Republicans hear it? 

CNN (Jon Gabriel): Arizonans aren’t buying what Kari Lake is peddling

In The States

North Carolina Public Radio: NC case at Supreme Court could test fundamentals of US democracy.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How Raphael Warnock defeated Herschel Walker

11Alive: Georgia Senate race attracted new voters, data shows

Minnesota Reformer: A record-setting number of women will serve in state legislatures in 2023

FOX12: Whitmer kidnap plotter deserves life in prison, prosecutors say

Las Vegas Sun: Outgoing elections head in Clark County details threats

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philly DA Larry Krasner says GOP effort to remove him is part of an ‘authoritarian attack’ on democracy