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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — December 12, 2023

By December 12, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Trump gag order upheld, but narrowed, in January 6 election obstruction case

  • New York Times: Appeals Court Upholds, but Narrows, Gag Order on Trump in Election Case: “A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the gag order imposed two months ago on former President Donald J. Trump in the criminal case accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election but narrowed its terms to allow him to keep attacking one of his main targets: Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing his federal prosecutions. The fight over the gag order has pitted the First Amendment rights of a presidential candidate against fears that his vitriolic language could spur his supporters to violence against participants in the case. While the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed that a gag order was justified, its adjustments gave Mr. Trump broader latitude to lash out at some of the people he has been targeting for months.”
  • Washington Post:  Trump gag order reinstated but narrowed in Jan. 6 case: “A federal appeals court narrowed an order limiting what former president Donald Trump can say about people involved in the criminal case alleging that he tried to subvert the 2020 election results, saying he cannot talk about witnesses’ involvement or single out other individuals in ways likely to interfere with the case. ‘We do not allow such an order lightly. Mr. Trump is a former President and current candidate for the presidency, and there is a strong public interest in what he has to say,’ Judge Patricia Millett wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. ‘But Mr. Trump is also an indicted criminal defendant, and he must stand trial in a courtroom under the same procedures that govern all other criminal defendants. That is what the rule of law means.’”
  • The Guardian: Trump tests federal gag order with attack on Bill Barr: ‘He was a coward’: “Donald Trump tested the contours of his gag order in the federal criminal case over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, assailing his former attorney general and potential trial witness William Barr in remarks at a Saturday night New York gala event. ‘He was a coward. He was afraid of being impeached.’ The US court of appeals for the DC circuit notably ruled days before that Trump remains barred from attacking potential trial witnesses in the 2020 election interference case pending against him in Washington as long as his attacks do not involve their participation in the criminal investigation or trial proceedings.”
  • Daily Beast: Trump Has Found a Dangerous Workaround to Gag Orders: “Donald Trump is, once again, outmaneuvering the American court system. No, his New York bank fraud trial is unlikely to end favorably for the former president. But that trial is quickly becoming a blueprint for defying gag orders—an issue that will only become more pressing as several criminal cases loom on the horizon. Trump’s strategy has been simple: say whatever he wants, inspire a gag order, appeal the decision, and even if the gag order is upheld, refuse to delete the social media posts he made during the confusion. Trump then watches his old posts take on a life of their own, inspiring violent threats against his intended targets while he quietly sits by.”

Growing legal repercussions for “fake Trump electors”

  • Washington Post: Less appetite — and opportunity — to serve as fake Trump electors in 2024: “In the past few months, 25 of those 84 electors have been charged with felonies, such as forgery, false statements and filing false documents. Ten more have agreed as part of a lawsuit settlement to not serve as electors in any election in which Trump is on the ballot. And 13 others in Georgia have been labeled ‘unindicted co-conspirators.’ The publicity surrounding those investigations, and the specter of tarnished reputations and heavy legal costs, are likely to discourage future Trump electors — should the former president secure the GOP nomination next year — from casting votes for him in a state where Biden is again declared the winner, many Republicans said.”
  • Business Insider: Facing charges, several pro-Trump fake electors say they wouldn’t do it again: ‘Hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge’: “In December 2020, Republican activist James ‘Ken’ Carroll cast an electoral vote for Trump at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta as part of an ‘alternate’ slate of delegates, despite Biden’s certified victory in the former Republican stronghold-turned-swing state. He was one of 16 GOP signatories to do so. But Carroll told The Post that he wouldn’t take the same action if he could go back in time. ‘Knowing what I know now? No,’ Carroll said. ‘But hindsight provides a wealth of knowledge we don’t have at the time of an event.’ In recent months, 25 of the 84 electors involved in alternate elector schemes have been charged with a series of felonies, and 10 additional electors have agreed not to put their names forward as legitimate electors in any election featuring Trump on the ballot.”
  • New York Times: As More ‘Fake Electors’ Face Charges, a Key Witness Emerges: “Twenty-four of the so-called fake Trump electors now face criminal charges in three different states, and one of the legal architects of the plan to deploy them, Kenneth Chesebro, has emerged as a witness in all of the cases. Mr. Chesebro, a Harvard-trained lawyer, helped develop the plan to have Republicans in battleground states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020 present themselves as Trump electors. The scheme was part of an effort to have Congress block or delay the certification of Mr. Biden’s Electoral College victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Earlier this week, a Nevada grand jury indicted six former Trump electors, including top leaders of the state’s Republican Party, on charges of forging and submitting fraudulent documents.”

Rudy Giuliani faces trial for defamation damages, potentially owing millions of dollars to Georgia election workers over 2020 election lies

  • New York Times: Giuliani to Go on Trial for Damages in Defamation Case: “There will be no good news — only shades of bad — for Rudolph W. Giuliani when he appears in court on Monday for a trial to determine how much he will have to pay two Georgia election workers he lied about after the 2020 presidential race. Nearly two years ago, the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, sued Mr. Giuliani for defamation, accusing him of some of the most pernicious falsehoods to have emerged from his attempts to keep his friend and client, Donald J. Trump, in office. Over and over, the women claimed, Mr. Giuliani dishonestly asserted that they had tried to cheat Mr. Trump out of a victory by manipulating ballots they were counting at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta.”
  • Washington Post: Giuliani could pay millions as Ga. election worker defamation trial starts: “Former Trump attorney and ex-New York mayor Rudy Giuliani could be on the hook for up to $43.5 million in damages when a defamation lawsuit filed against him by two Georgia election workers goes to trial Monday in Washington, D.C. The showdown between the financially strapped Giuliani and the two temporary poll workers he baselessly accused of ballot tampering in 2020 will highlight a major court battle over false claims that became central to former president Donald Trump’s efforts to stay in power and is now at the heart of two criminal cases against him.”

In the States 

GEORGIA: Gerrymandered voting maps signed by Governor Kemp after being approved by state legislators

  • WSB: Governor Kemp signs new Georgia voting district maps after special session: “Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed off on the state’s newly redrawn congressional and legislative district maps. The new maps were drawn during a special legislative session prompted by a federal court, where a judge had ruled Georgia’s most recent maps were unconstitutional. The session started on Nov. 29, accompanied by an end to an executive order, which suspended the state’s fuel tax. The maps were voted into approval by lawmakers Tuesday, but Georgia Democrats said the new maps shuffled districts to appear in compliance, rather than actually follow the intention and order of the judge’s decision. Legislation for the new districts was sent to Kemp for approval on Thursday. Now signed into law by Kemp, the maps are expected to be contested by a variety of voting rights organizations. If opponents of the maps are successful in court, and the maps are again rejected, a judge could order a special master to redraw the maps again.”
  • Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Georgia congressional map approved, preserving Republican power: “Georgia Republican legislators passed a new congressional map Thursday that protects their party’s dominance in the U.S. House and might violate a federal judge’s order requiring an additional majority-Black district. The redistricting plan, approved by the Georgia House on a party-line vote, is designed to preserve Republicans’ 9-5 advantage in the state delegation to the U.S. House. The revised districts now go to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature. The new map sets up a high-stakes court battle over which districts will be used in next year’s elections after a federal judge ruled that Georgia’s current political boundaries illegally weakened Black voting power in violation of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.”

TEXAS: Voters ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in Galveston County redistricting case after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the county to use a map that violates the Voting Rights Act

  • Courthouse News Service: Galveston County, Texas, redistricting fight returns to the Supreme Court: “Three Black Democratic residents of Galveston County, Texas, on Friday asked the Supreme Court to stop the county from using a Republican-drawn voting map for next year’s elections. In the two months since U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Donald Trump appointee, directed the Galveston County Commissioners Court, its five-member elected executive board, to redraw voting precincts, the Fifth Circuit has taken the litigation on a dizzying roller coaster ride. An 11-6 en banc order Thursday by the appellate court was its latest twist. The majority decreed that Galveston County, for next year’s March 5 primary and Nov. 5 general elections, must use a voting map Brown had determined violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
  • Houston Chronicle: Fifth Circuit rules Galveston County should keep new maps in place for election: “Galveston County is moving forward with its 2024 election using district maps that multiple courts have ruled violate the Voting Rights Act by denying Black and Latino voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Thursday overruled a district court judge who tried to enforce previous maps on the county while the case works its way through the legal circuit. The county will proceed barring a last-minute intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this before,’ said Mark Gaber, senior director for redistricting at the Campaign Legal Center, which represents one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The maps dismantle the district represented by Commissioner Stephen Holmes, all but ensuring his defeat in 2024. Holmes, who is Black, represents the only district in the county in which a majority of residents are people of color.”

TENNESSEE: Tennessee Supreme Court blocks decision to redraw state’s Senate maps

  • The Tennessean: Tennessee Supreme Court temporarily blocks ruling declaring Senate maps unconstitutional: “The Tennessee Supreme Court on Friday issued a ruling temporarily blocking a Davidson County Chancery Court order for the state Senate to redraw its redistricting map. A three-judge panel last month found the state’s 2022 Senate map unconstitutional and ordered lawmakers to submit a new map by Jan. 31, a ruling Tennessee immediately appealed. The Supreme Court’s stay means Tennessee can hold elections under the current map without submitting a new one until the appeals process plays out, which could drag on for months. In the same ruling, the high court denied plaintiff Francie Hunt’s request to expedite the appeals process so as not to complicate upcoming Senate elections. Hunt argued Tennessee voters will be forced to vote for the second time in Senate elections based on an unconstitutional map.”

What Experts Are Saying

Tom Joscelyn, Norman L. Eisen and Fred Wertheimer for Just Security: “In his latest filing, Smith argues that Trump’s ‘post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 – that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification.’”

Dennis Aftergut for the Hill, on Trump’s gag order reinstatement: “Friday’s unanimous three-judge panel rejected the notion that Trump because he is running for president, enjoys absolute rights under the First Amendment: “Like any other criminal defendant, Mr. Trump does not have an unlimited right to speak … He must stand trial in a courtroom under the same procedures that govern all other criminal defendants. That is what the rule of law means.”

Joyce Vance on X (Twitter): “In Trump’s DC criminal case 2 motions will compete for our attention this week. First, Trump’s motion for a stay while his appeal of rulings against him on immunity & double jeopardy are on appeal. Second, Trump’s motion for additional discovery from the government.”

Paige Anderholm for Democracy Docket: “As of 2016, just 17% of U.S. polling locations were fully accessible. Given this state of inaccessibility, voters with disabilities, particularly those with ambulatory disabilities, are more likely to utilize mail-in ballots than voters without disabilities. The community’s reliance on mail-in voting puts them at a higher risk for disenfranchisement as their ballots are more likely to navigate harmful administrative hurdles like signature matching, shortened mail-in ballot return windows, and the lack of accessible electronic ballots. The abundance of obstacles is often a result of the way mail-in voting is treated by state lawmakers and how accessibility within the electoral process is an afterthought at best.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a video on X (Twitter): “Donald Trump can continue to try to distract from reality. He can continue to call me names. But as the judge said today, ‘the standard is truth.’ And the truth is on our side.”

Headlines

Extremism

Forbes: Elon Musk Celebrates Alex Jones X Return In Chat

Trump investigations and cases

New York Times: Special Counsel Asks Supreme Court to Decide Whether Trump Is Immune From Prosecution

New York Times: Prosecutors Ask Judge to Deny Trump’s Request to Freeze Election Case

Washington Post: What to know about Donald Trump’s gag orders in D.C. and New York

Newsweek: Letitia James Details Threatening Messages in Filing Against Donald Trump

ABC: With his empire at stake, Trump has spent $2.5 million on expert testimony in his fraud trial

The Hill: Trump reverses on testifying in New York fraud trial, says he won’t take the stand

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

Boston 25 News: Former Boston Police officer to plead guilty to Jan. 6 riot charges

WNCT 9 CBS: Snow Hill couple facing charges for role in Jan. 6 breach of U.S. Capitol

Opinion

The Hill: Glenn Altschuler: No, expelling George Santos didn’t set a bad precedent

New York Times: David French: Why Fundamentalists Love Trump

The Hill: James Zirin: Trump’s ‘similar acts’ unveiled before his election interference trial

Newsweek: Mary Ann Mancuso: Blocking Legal Proceedings Against Trump Would Damage Democracy

In the States

WBUR: Mass. voter ID ballot campaign falls short on needed signatures

The Advocate: In the Louisiana redistricting case, the U.S. government intervenes. See why.

Nevada Independent: Democrat-linked attorneys sue to stop voter ID ballot measure

Washington Post: Maryland civil rights groups allege county violates voting rights laws