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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — August 22, 2023

By August 22, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Capitol Riot developments: Officer’s death, links to Chesebro and sentencing updates

  • Washington Post: DOJ says D.C. officer’s suicide after Jan. 6 riot is line of duty death: The U.S. Department of Justice has designated the death of D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith — who took his own life after helping defend the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot — as having occurred in the line of duty, granting his widow access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal benefits, according to the family’s attorney. The Justice Department revealed the determination to the family Thursday. It did so under a law amended last year to make it easier for families of officers who die by suicide to access death benefits, marking a shift in how the government treats first responders who suffer mental health crises arising from what they encounter on the job. “I could have given up. But I did not want any future widow, or widower, to ever go through what I went through in the aftermath of Jeffrey’s death,” said Erin Smith, Jeffrey Smith’s widow, in a statement. She spent years pressing local and federal officials to honor officers who die by suicide in the same way as any others who die in the line of duty.
  • New York Times: Architect of Fake Electors Scheme Appeared to Be Outside Capitol on Jan. 6: Photographs and videos reviewed by The New York Times suggest that Kenneth Chesebro, one of the legal architects of former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, was in the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and spent part of that day closely following the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who helped lead a mob toward the building. Mr. Chesebro did not appear to have illegally entered the Capitol, as did hundreds of other rioters, or committed any violence. But the photographs and videos appearing to show him marching with Mr. Jones, the proprietor of Infowars, and members of his entourage — including Ali Alexander, a prominent “Stop the Steal” organizer — were the first time that one of the many aides and lawyers who helped the former president try to subvert the democratic process with controversial legal theories was also found to have had a connection to pro-Trump activists who were on the ground during the Capitol attack.
  • Axios: Trump’s bail set at $200,000 in Georgia 2020 election case: Former President Trump’s bail has been set at $200,000 in the Fulton County prosecution over his alleged efforts to subvert 2020 election results in Georgia. Driving the news: The Monday court filing, signed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Trump’s lawyers, also includes strict conditions on witness intimidation.
  • Washington Post: FBI looks for Proud Boy after the Jan. 6 convict missed his sentencing: Law enforcement authorities were searching this weekend for a Proud Boys member who had been scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Friday for sentencing after he was convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. An FBI wanted poster says Christopher Worrell, 52, of Naples, Fla., violated “conditions of release pending sentencing on federal charges.” The bureau asked anyone with information about Worrell’s whereabouts to contact their local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate. Worrell had been under house arrest in Florida since his November 2021 release from the D.C. jail, where he said he was mistreated for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and a broken wrist. He was scheduled to be sentenced Friday. Worrell’s attorney Bill Shipley declined to comment.
  • ABC: Court tosses Jan. 6 sentence in ruling that could impact other low-level Capitol riot cases: A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a new sentence for a North Carolina man who pleaded guilty to a petty offense in the Capitol riot — a ruling that could impact dozens of low-level cases in the massive Jan. 6, 2021 prosecution. The appeals court in Washington said James Little was wrongly sentenced for his conviction on a misdemeanor offense to both prison time and probation, which is court-ordered monitoring of defendants who are not behind bars. Little, who entered the Capitol but didn’t join in any destruction or violence, pleaded guilty in 2021 to a charge that carries up to six months behind bars. He was sentenced last year to 60 days in prison followed by three years of probation. But the 2-1 opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that probation and imprisonment “may not be imposed as a single sentence” for a petty offense, adding “there are separate options on the menu.” Judge Robert Wilkins, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, dissented. The decision could invalidate the sentences of dozens of Jan. 6 defendants who received what is known as a “split sentence” for a petty offense. More than 80 other Jan. 6 defendants have been sentenced to both prison time and probation for the same misdemeanor offense as Little, according to an Associated Press analysis.
  • Washington Post: U.S. seeks 33 years in prison for Proud Boys’ Tarrio in Jan. 6 attack: U.S. prosecutors asked a federal judge Thursday to sentence former Proud Boys chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and leader Joe Biggs to 33 years in prison and other top members of the far-right extremist group to two to three decades behind bars after four of them were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. “The scope of the defendants’ conspiracy is vast. The defendants organized and directed a force of nearly 200 to attack the heart of our democracy,” a crime unparalleled in American history, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason McCullough and Conor Mulroe wrote. They said the Proud Boys leaders “intentionally positioned themselves at the vanguard of political violence in this country.” The prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly to hand down stiff sentences to deter others “who would mobilize such … violence in the future.”

Pence and Meadows challenge Trump’s defense in classified documents case

  • New York Times: Pence Undercuts Trump’s Defense in Classified Documents Case: Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday that he knew of no widespread declassification of documents by President Donald J. Trump when they were in the White House together, refuting one of the former president’s main defenses against charges of endangering national security. Mr. Trump, who has been indicted on 40 felony counts and accused of taking war plans and other secret documents with him when he left office and refusing to return many of them, has long insisted that he had issued a “standing order” to declassify papers and that any he brought home were automatically declassified. But his vice president became the latest former Trump administration official to say that he had heard of no such edict. “I was never made aware of any broad-based effort to declassify documents,” Mr. Pence said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
  • ABC: Meadows told special counsel he could not recall Trump ever declassifying Mar-a-Lago docs: Appearing to contradict former President Donald Trump’s primary public defense in the classified documents case, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has told special counsel Jack Smith’s investigators that he could not recall Trump ever ordering, or even discussing, declassifying broad sets of classified materials before leaving the White House, nor was he aware of any “standing order” from Trump authorizing the automatic declassification of materials taken out of the Oval Office, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Ever since the FBI’s seizure of more than 100 classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate last August, Trump has insisted that he declassified all the materials before he left office. The former president now faces 40 separate criminal charges related to his possession of those documents, ranging from unlawful retention of national defense information to various obstruction-related offenses. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied any wrongdoing.

FBI and Fulton County investigate grand jury intimidation in Georgia

  • New York Times: FBI joins investigation of threats to grand jurors in Trump Georgia case: The FBI has joined an investigation into a barrage of threats against Fulton County officials in recent days, including members of the Atlanta-area grand jury that voted to indict former president Donald Trump and 18 of his allies in a sweeping criminal case focused on alleged 2020 election interference. A spokesperson for the FBI Atlanta office said that the agency is “aware of threats of violence” against Fulton County officials and that it is working with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office to investigate — but declined to identify specific targets or whether anyone has acted on those threats. “It is our policy not to discuss details of ongoing investigations,” the FBI statement said. “However, each and every potential threat brought to our attention is taken seriously. Individuals found responsible for making threats in violation of state and/or federal laws will be prosecuted.”
  • CBS: Fulton County Sheriff’s Office investigating threats to grand jurors who voted on Trump indictment: Law enforcement in Fulton County, Georgia, are investigating threats to members of the grand jury that returned the indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 other associates after the grand jurors’ personal information was shared online, the sheriff’s office said Thursday. The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is leading the effort to track down the origins of the threats and working with local, state and federal law enforcement, the agency said in a statement. “We take this matter very seriously and are coordinating with our law enforcement partners to respond quickly to any credible threat and to ensure the safety of those individuals who carried out their civic duty,” the office of Sheriff Pat Labat said. The sweeping indictment handed up by the grand jury Monday charges Trump and 18 others over their alleged roles in a scheme to reverse the former president’s loss in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election. The charging document lists 41 counts in all, of which Trump faces 13 counts. The former president has denied wrongdoing and accused Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is leading the investigation, of pursuing a politically charged “witch hunt.”

In The States

GEORGIA: Federal judges in Georgia and Texas rule against key provisions of two restrictive election laws passed two years ago

  • Courthouse News Service: Judge temporarily blocks parts of Georgia voting law restrictions: A federal judge in Georgia issued three rulings Friday pertaining to voting law restrictions that the state passed after the 2020 presidential election and were soon challenged by multiple civil rights groups. S.B. 202, also known as the “Election Integrity Act of 2021,” was signed into law by Republican Governor Brian Kemp in 2021 and enacted new voting restrictions that spanned from voter ID requirements to curbing the ability of churches and others to hand out food and water to voters waiting in long lines. But U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee on Friday granted two motions for preliminary injunctions, with one blocking the provision of the law that prohibited the distribution of food, drinks or gifts to voters waiting in line within 150 feet of polling precincts. The Trump-appointed judge was unpersuaded by the state’s concerns that the ban aimed to protect election efficiency and ruled that it violated the First Amendment and rights to freedom of speech.
  • Associated Press: Federal judges rule against provisions of GOP-backed voting laws in Georgia and Texas: Federal judges in Georgia and Texas have ruled against key provisions of two controversial election laws passed two years ago as the Republican Party sought to tighten voting rules after former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential contest. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez struck down a provision of Texas’ law requiring that mail voters provide the same identification number they used when they registered to vote. He ruled the requirement violated the U.S. Civil Rights Act because it led to people being unable to cast ballots due to a matter irrelevant to whether they are registered. The change led to skyrocketing mail ballot rejections in the first election after the law passed in September 2021 and was targeted in a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice. “This ruling sends a clear message that states may not impose unlawful and unnecessary requirements that disenfranchise eligible voters seeking to participate in our democracy,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement after the ruling, which came Thursday. The Texas Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In Georgia, voting rights advocates got a more mixed set of rulings Friday from U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee.

OHIO: Proposed Ohio constitutional amendment seeks to end gerrymandering after legislature defied courts

  • Ohio Capital Journal: Former Ohio Chief Justice continues fight against gerrymandered maps: When her Ohio Supreme Court decisions were ignored by Republicans, former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor vowed to fix what she calls a broken system. She is now the face of a bipartisan movement to stop gerrymandering by overhauling the redistricting system. Once the most powerful woman in the state, O’Connor was age-limited out of the Court. “What have I been doing since I’ve retired?” O’Connor said in an interview Wednesday with Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau. “If I had to do a title, it would be redistricting, redistricting, redistricting.” The Republican became the leader in the fight against gerrymandering in 2022, ruling seven times that GOP-backed statehouse district and congressional maps were unconstitutional. “The Republicans were interested in a supermajority, maintaining a supermajority,” she said. “Those are the considerations that are the antithesis of fair maps.” She is helping to lead a new effort to change how Ohio draws maps. She said her four-decade-long career in public service, plus her experience in “the trenches” of the redistricting mess, should give voters the trust that she has their best interest in mind. “I need to be involved in this and champion it,” she said. The coalition Citizens Not Politicians has put forward a constitutional amendment for the November 2024 ballot.
  • Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio redistricting: How would the proposal to ditch politicians for citizens work?: Ohioans could vote on a new way of drawing statehouse and congressional districts that replaces politicians with citizens as soon as next year. The new approach, proposed by a group called Citizens Not Politicians, is a complex, multistep process that details who would draw the new districts and how they could draw them. Former Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor, a Republican who is advocating for the constitutional amendment, says that complexity is a feature, not a bug. “The specificity is intentional,” O’Connor told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau. “That was one of the loopholes in the current constitutional amendments: words that I thought were too easy to give outs.” Redistricting is the process of crafting districts for the politicians who represent Ohioans at the statehouse in Columbus and Congress in Washington, D.C. Gerrymandering occurs when those districts are drawn to disproportionately favor one political party over the other.

NORTH CAROLINA: North Carolina legislature sends election overhaul bill to governor’s desk

  • Washington Post: N.C. Republican bill limits mail voting, private election funding: Republicans in North Carolina passed election administration legislation on Wednesday night that curtails absentee voting, empowers partisan poll watchers and restricts private funding for elections. Voting rights advocates and Democrats have warned that the measure, which passed both chambers in the state’s legislature along party lines, erodes access to the ballot in the battleground state. Gov. Roy Cooper (D) is expected to veto the legislation, but Republicans can overturn his decision because they have veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers. In a statement Thursday, Cooper said the measure is one of many “harmful bills also currently being pushed by extreme MAGA Republican legislators.” “The North Carolina local and state elections boards conducted secure and accurate elections that resulted in a Republican supermajority and a Trump win in NC,” Cooper noted. “But now, using the “big lie” of election fraud, this same legislature wants to block voters they think won’t vote Republican, legitimize conspiracy theorists to intimidate election workers and anoint themselves to decide contested elections.”

What Experts Are Saying

Norman Eisen, E. Danya Perry, Joshua Stanton, and Madison Gee: “About 18 hours after Fulton County District Attorney (DA) Fani Willis revealed the indictment of former president Donald Trump, his ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and 17 others, Meadows attempted to remove his prosecution from Georgia state to federal court. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones, who on Wednesday, ruled he has jurisdiction and set an expeditious hearing for August 28th at which Meadows can present evidence and legal argument to support his position. The DA can do the same at the hearing to oppose, and her written brief in response to the removal petition is due on August 23rd. So how likely is it that Meadows will succeed? A look at the applicable law suggests that he will have a very steep hill to climb if he is to be successful in removing the case. In this analysis, we explain why.” Brookings Institute 

Mike Podhorzer: “On December 19, 2020, Trump tweeted “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.” But on January 2, 2021, by dramatically announcing that they would be challenging the Electoral College outcome, Senators Cruz, Johnson, Lankford, Daines, Kennedy, Blackburn, and Braun, and Senators-elect Lummis, Marshall, Hagerty and Tuberville, altered the meaning of January 6th. Especially in what they said outside of the mainstream media (on Fox et al, as well as in social media and fundraising appeals), they created the illusion that coming to Washington on January 6th could actually overturn the results of the 2020 elections. In the fantasy world these Republicans breathed life into, those coming to Washington could easily imagine that they would soon be seen as patriotic heroes. Without that permission structure, it’s easy to imagine January 6th looking more like the sparsely-attended protests outside courthouses this year following each new Trump indictment.” Weekend Reading

Marc Elias, founder of Democracy Docket: “These indictments are critical to our system of justice and the rule of law. But they cover only a fraction of the damage Trump and his allies have done to our system of elections. The indictments only cover a snapshot in time. To present their cases to a jury, prosecutors need to tell a story of criminality with a beginning and an end.” The Indictments Are Only a Snapshot of Trump’s Conspiracy Against Democracy – Democracy Docket

Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College, and Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator: “Trump uses the word “racist” to describe Fani Willis, the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney who led the grand jury investigation. She and her office have received racist threats and phone calls. The Fulton County Sheriff reported that he too had been threatened for his role in protecting Willis. For months, Trump has been attacking Special Counsel Jack Smith. He, too, has been threatened and has a security detail. It’s no accident that Trump has targeted officials and citizens who play key roles in the criminal justice system now focused on holding him to account. It’s no accident that his followers hear his signals, present and past, as a literal call to arms.” The Hill

Headlines

The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections

MSNBC: Is the MAGA base a cult?

NPR: Threats, slurs and menace: Far-right websites target Fulton County grand jurors

Nation: Undercover With the New Alt Right

Trump Investigations 

New York Times: Prosecutors Criticize Trump’s Request for 2026 Trial Date in Jan. 6 Case

New York Magazine: Giuliani Begged, But Trump Refused to Cover His Crushing Legal Bills

ABC: Trump to be booked at Georgia’s notorious Fulton County Jail at center of DOJ probe

New York Times: How Many of Trump’s Trials Will Happen Before the Election?

January 6 And The 2020 Election

News 8 Tampa: St. Pete Proud Boy pleads guilty to assaulting police on Jan. 6

CBS: Jan. 6 committee staffer: “Zero evidence that Ray Epps was a federal agent”

Opinion

New York Times: The Trump Indictments Are an Indictment of America 

New York Times: Live by RICO, Die by RICO

In the States

Axios: Fight over felons’ voting rights heats up for 2024

ABC News: Mississippi seeks new court hearing to revive its permanent stripping of some felons’ voting rights

Associated Press: Houstonians worry new laws will deter voters who don’t recall the hard-won fight for voting rights