Driving the Day
Must Read Stories
Manhattan DA Bragg sues Rep. Jim Jordan to block unconstitutional interference in Trump case
- New York Times: Bragg Sues Jim Jordan in Move to Block Interference in Trump Case: The Manhattan district attorney on Tuesday sued Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio in an extraordinary step intended to keep congressional Republicans from interfering in the office’s criminal case against former President Donald J. Trump. The 50-page suit, filed in federal court in the Southern District of New York, accuses Mr. Jordan of a “brazen and unconstitutional attack” on the prosecution of Mr. Trump and a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg. Mr. Bragg last week unveiled 34 felony charges against Mr. Trump that stem from the former president’s attempts to cover up a potential sex scandal during and after the 2016 presidential campaign.
- MSNBC: Alvin Bragg is done playing nice with Jim Jordan: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has kept his cool as Republicans have ramped up their pressure campaign against him. For weeks now, his office has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the House Judiciary Committee over the committee’s demand for documents and testimony related to his prosecution of former President Donald Trump. But now it’s clear that Bragg is done playing nice, and he is asking the courts to end this farce. Even before a grand jury voted to indict Trump, Republicans warned Bragg that he’d regret what they deemed a “politically motivated prosecutorial decision.” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is leading that charge from his perch atop the Judiciary Committee. It’s clear that Jordan, one of Trump’s top allies in Congress, and other members of the House GOP are trying to influence the outcome of the trial — or at the very least ensure Bragg will pay a political cost for it.
- The Hill: ‘Racist’ rhetoric sparks alarm as Black prosecutors investigate Trump: Several top Black prosecutors have been thrust into the spotlight as they lead high-profile investigations into former President Trump ahead of the 2024 election.While the investigations have given the prosecutors positive coverage, they have also opened them up to controversy, as well as frequent attacks from Trump and his allies, some of which observers say carry racist undertones. Trump has called Letitia James a racist and, during the lead-up to the indictment in the hush-money case being issued, demanded Alvin Bragg be arrested too, at one point branding him a “racist in reverse.” He also called Bragg a “criminal” and an “animal” and posted a photo of himself holding a baseball bat to Bragg’s head. These images and words are “dangerous,” said Adrianne Shropshire, a political strategist who’s also the executive director at BlackPAC.
- Vox: The standoff between Jim Jordan and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, explained: This week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a lawsuit against House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan in an effort to block Republicans’ demands that witnesses testify before Congress and produce documents related to the indictment of former President Donald Trump. Trump’s indictment sparked widespread condemnation by Republicans, and the back-and-forth between Jordan and Bragg highlights how aggressively the GOP has defended the former president against an effort it claims is politically driven. The House investigation, ultimately, is a means to find some evidence that the indictment is a political attack, to defuse its severity, and to distract voters from the charges. Bragg’s lawsuit follows ongoing attacks Republicans have made on this case. In early April, a Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money that was paid to former porn performer Stormy Daniels.
Congressional ‘Gang of Eight’ investigates mishandled classified records amid claims that Trump obstructed justice
- New York Times: Witnesses Asked About Trump’s Handling of Map with Classified Information: Federal investigators are asking witnesses whether former President Donald J. Trump showed off to aides and visitors a map he took with him when he left office that contains sensitive intelligence information, four people with knowledge of the matter said. The map has been just one focus of the broad Justice Department investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents after he departed the White House. The nature of the map and the information it contained is not clear. But investigators have questioned a number of witnesses about it, according to the people with knowledge of the matter, as the special counsel overseeing the Justice Department’s Trump-focused inquiries, Jack Smith, examines the former president’s handling of classified material after leaving office and weighs charges that could include obstruction of justice.
- The Hill: Barr says US potentially has ‘very good evidence’ Trump obstructed justice in classified documents case: Former Attorney General William Barr said Sunday that investigators probing the potential mishandling of classified documents by former President Trump likely have “very good evidence” that Trump attempted to keep authorities from obtaining the materials after he left the White House. The case against Trump, Barr said, comes down to the matter of how long it took the government to get the materials back, which will play a significant role. “He had no claim to those documents, especially the classified documents. They belonged to the government. And so, I think he was jerking the government around. And they subpoenaed it. And they tried to jawbone him into delivering documents,” Barr said.
- New York Times: Leaders in Congress Given Classified Records Found at Homes of Biden and Trump: American intelligence agencies have begun providing leaders of the House and Senate access to copies of the classified documents found in the possession of former President Donald J. Trump and President Biden, according to U.S. officials. The materials, which started arriving on Capitol Hill last week, are being shared exclusively with the so-called Gang of Eight, which includes the leaders of both chambers and the chairmen and ranking members of the two congressional intelligence committees, who hold the highest-level security clearances in Congress. But it will likely be several weeks, if not longer, before lawmakers are given access to the full complement of documents they are seeking, said the officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the sharing of the documents.
In The States
TENNESSEE: Both elected lawmakers who were expelled for participating in a nonviolent protest calling for stricter gun laws have been reinstated
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Washington Post: In Tennessee, second expelled Black Democratic lawmaker is reappointed: Justin Pearson, one of two Black Democratic lawmakers expelled by Republican state representatives for leading a gun-control protest on the Tennessee House floor, was reappointed to the office Wednesday, returning to his seat after a tumultuous week that deepened partisan rancor in the state and transformed the pair into national political figures. Seven local commissioners in Shelby County voted unanimously to reinstate Pearson six days after the contentious expulsion and two days after commissioners in Nashville voted unanimously to return the other expelled lawmaker, Justin Jones, to the statehouse. Their ejection from the legislature, where Republicans hold a supermajority, followed a mass killing at a Nashville school that ignited grief and demonstrations in the capital and spurred Pearson, Jones and a third Democrat to protest in the House chamber.
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NBC: How redistricting brought Tennessee to this moment: Political and racial tensions in Tennessee erupted into public view last week when Republicans in the state Assembly voted to expel two Black Democrats from the chamber. It was an unprecedented action that Democrats across the country — including President Joe Biden — excoriated as racist and political. But politics watchers in Tennessee and around the nation say that what happened was nothing new for the state’s GOP lawmakers and that the process Republicans have taken to minimize the representation of Democrats — on both the federal and state levels — has actually been years in the making. In recent years, Republicans have redrawn maps that effectively curtail the number of districts that represent Democrats — including some of the most diverse districts in the state — and increase the number of solidly red ones. The end result has been less representation for Democrats and for Black constituents in the state House in Nashville and in the U.S. Congress.
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New York Times: Defiant and Determined, I’m Ready to Keep Fighting for Tennessee: Last week, the people of Tennessee and the nation witnessed an assault against democracy when my colleague Justin Jones and I, both young Black Democratic men, were expelled from office for allegedly breaching decorum on the House floor. My former colleague, a 60-year-old white female Democratic representative, Gloria Johnson, had also joined our peaceful protest against gun violence but narrowly survived expulsion. Mr. Jones has since returned to the House after a vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council. I’m hoping the Shelby County Board of Commissioners similarly puts me back in the House on Wednesday. There is something amiss in the decorum of the State House when G.O.P. leaders like Representative Paul Sherrell, who proposed death from “hanging by a tree” as an acceptable form of state execution (Mr. Sherrell later apologized for his comment) feel comfortable berating Mr. Jones and me for our peaceful act of civil disobedience. This, in Tennessee, the birthplace of the Klan, a land stained with the blood of lynchings of my people.
VIRGINIA: Governor rolls back policy to restore voting rights for felons
- Washington Post: Youngkin to meet with Democrats on felon voting rights restoration: Democratic lawmakers plan to meet with Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) Wednesday morning to press him to change — or at least clarify — a policy for restoring the voting rights of people convicted of felonies, which has led to far fewer restorations than the practices of his recent predecessors in the Executive Mansion. But Youngkin defended his stance Tuesday, saying it conforms to the state constitution and restores a rigor to the process that other governors ignored. “Tomorrow morning we get a chance to listen to one another and exchange views,” Youngkin told reporters after an unrelated public event in Petersburg. He added that the state constitution is “very clear that what I have to do is give every formerly incarcerated Virginian an individual review. And that’s what we’re committed to do.”
- New York Times: Virginia Rolls Back Voting Rights for Ex-Felons, Bucking Shaky Bipartisan Trend: For more than a decade, states around the country have steadily chipped away at one of the biggest roadblocks to voting in the United States — laws on the books that bar former felons from casting a ballot. But there are now signs that trend could be reversing. Last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican who took office a year ago, revealed that he had rescinded a policy of automatically restoring voting rights to residents who have completed felony sentences. In a February hearing, North Carolina’s Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Republican majority, appeared deeply skeptical that a lower court had constitutional authority when it restored voting rights last year to people who had completed their sentences. A ruling is expected soon. And then there’s Florida — whose Republican-dominated Legislature effectively nullified a citizen ballot initiative granting voting rights to a huge number of former felons in 2020. That left all three states on a path toward rolling back state policies on restoring voting rights for former felons close to where they were 50 and even 100 years ago.
NEVADA: Nevada lawmakers hear bill the would further criminalize election intimidation
- Las Vegas Review-Journal: Senate committee approves elections bills: Nevada lawmakers voted to advance a handful of bills aimed at changing election laws, beating a Friday deadline to move legislation out of committees. Lawmakers on the Senate’s Legislative Operations and Elections Committee voted 3-2 to approve Senate Bill 133, legislation that would criminalize conspiring to create or serve in a false slate of electors. The crime would be classified as a category B felony, punishable by a sentence of four to 10 years in state prison without the possibility of probation. In addition, the state or local governments could not employ or appoint to public office any person convicted of a violation. The bill comes in response to a group of Republican electors who signed fake certificates in December as part of a scheme to allow President Donald Trump to remain in office. The electors met at the legislative building in Carson City, signed the documents and sent them to Washington, D.C. The certificates were never counted, however.
ARIZONA: Printer problems in Arizona election traced to changes in ballot paper
- Washington Post: Printer glitches in Ariz. election not due to malfeasance, review finds: The combination of heavier paper and longer ballots was responsible for problems tabulating votes at dozens of polling places in Maricopa County, Ariz., during last November’s midterm elections, according to a report released Monday. The report was prepared by a former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, Ruth McGregor, who was tapped by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to conduct an independent review of why some of the Oki B432 printers that had performed effectively during an earlier August primary then malfunctioned several months later. McGregor retained election experts for her months-long probe. McGregor emphasized in an introduction to the nearly 40-page document that her review was “independent and free of any outside influence.”
- Washington Post: Arizona legislators expel GOP member over baseless election claims: The Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives expelled a GOP member from the chamber Wednesday after an ethics committee concluded she committed “disorderly behavior” for lying about false testimony given during a February legislative hearing on elections. The resolution to expel state Rep. Liz Harris, which passed with bipartisan support, said her conduct undermined the public’s confidence in the House, violated the “inherent obligation” to protect the chamber’s integrity, and “violated the order and decorum” needed to do the people’s work. In February, a speaker invited by Harris to testify at the election-focused hearing baselessly accused Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, Republican House Speaker Ben Toma, Maricopa County leaders and local judges of accepting bribes from a drug cartel.
What Experts Are Saying
Kent Syler, a political science professor and expert on state politics at Middle Tennessee State University: “‘We’re just not in a normal political system…In a normal two-party system, if one party goes too far, usually the other party stops them. They put the brakes on.’ In Tennessee, he said, ‘there’s nobody to put on the brakes.’” New York Times
Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a law professor at Harvard University: “‘state policy outcomes are becoming more bimodal’ — liberal or conservative, rather than centrist — ‘than in previous eras,’ and that the ‘misalignment between public policy and public opinion is pervasive in modern American politics,’ particularly in red states ‘where public policy is far more extreme and conservative than the public wants.’…In theory, the hostility of average voters to extreme issue stances can pressure politicians to move toward the center, Stephanopoulos contended, ‘but this aligning impact of general elections can be reduced through tactics like gerrymandering, which make it unlikely that even large swings in public opinion will much alter the composition of the legislature.’” Thomas B. Edsall NYT Column: The Republican Strategists Who Have Carefully Planned All of This
Theda Skocpol, a professor of political science and sociology at Harvard University: “The first-movers who figured out how to configure this new ‘laboratory of democratic constriction’ were legal eagles in the Federalist Society and beyond, because the key structural dynamic in the current G.O.P. gallop toward minority authoritarianism is the mutual interlock between post-2010 Republican control, often supermajority control, of dozens of state legislatures and the Scotus decision in 2019 to allow even the most extreme and bizarre forms of partisan gerrymandering…This situation, locked in place by a corruptly installed Supreme Court majority and by many rotten-borough judicial districts like the one in Amarillo, means that minority authoritarians, behind a bare facade of “constitutionalism,” can render majority-elected officials, including the President and many governors, officials in name only. The great thing from the minority authoritarian point of view, is that those visible chief executives (and urban mayors and district attorneys) can still be blamed for government non-function and societal problems, but they cannot address them with even broadly supported measures (such as simple background checks for having military assault weapons).” Thomas B. Edsall NYT Column: The Republican Strategists Who Have Carefully Planned All of This
Pippa Norris, a political scientist at Harvard’s Kennedy School: “With their backs to the wall, Norris argued, conservatives have capitalized on ‘institutional features of U.S. elections that allow Republicans to seek to dismantle checks on executive power — including the extreme decentralization of electoral administration to partisan officials with minimal federal regulation, partisan gerrymandering of districts, overrepresentation of rural states in the U.S. Senate and Electoral College, partisan appointments in the judiciary, primary elections rallying the faithful in the base but excluding the less mobilized moderate independents, the role of money from rich donors in elections and campaigns, and so on and so forth. The Trump presidency exacerbated these developments, but their roots are far deeper and more enduring.’” Thomas B. Edsall NYT Column: The Republican Strategists Who Have Carefully Planned All of This
Bruce Cain, a political scientist at Stanford University: “If elected officials and judges get too far out of alignment with voters, they will get the message in the form of surprising electoral outcomes, as recently occurred in Wisconsin. Democrats in the seventies and eighties experienced the same on busing, crime and welfare…my optimism about this assumes the Republicans do not give up on elections altogether, which is more in doubt than I ever anticipated a decade ago.” Thomas B. Edsall NYT Column: The Republican Strategists Who Have Carefully Planned All of This
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian at New York University: “In their mania to control bodies, votes, and minds, lawmakers of an autocratic party now devoted to conspiracy theories and violence do not see that they are sparking a vast rejection of their inhumanity that will only grow in the next few years —or perhaps they think that criminalizing protest and arming more vigilantes will take care of the problem. Instead, their actions are sparking a turn to activism, including among lawmakers, and new alliances are being formed. “You are seeing the nation just sort of burst at its seams with political tension,” said Fried, capturing the mood. From ‘laboratories of autocracy,’ to use David Pepper’s term for the role many U.S. statehouses have played in this country, we shall see legislatures, in alliance with grassroots and civil society organizations, act as sites of anti-authoritarian action. Each episode of resistance will inspire other Americans to mobilize locally and nationally on behalf of democratic rights.” Lucid
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Washington Post: Trump says criminal conviction wouldn’t stop him from running for president
Salon: The not-so-hidden message behind Donald Trump’s Easter threats of “World War III”
Daily Beast: Election-Denying MAGA Clerk Tina Peters Ducks Prison Time
Trump Investigations
CNN: Trump asks to delay sexual assault trial following historic indictment
Washington Post: Special counsel focuses on Trump fundraising off false election claims
Mother Jones: What Happens if Donald Trump Simply Refuses to Disclose His Finances?
Washington Post: Trump sues former counsel Michael Cohen for $500 million
January 6 And The 2020 Election
New York Times: Judge Imposes Sanction on Fox for Withholding Evidence in Defamation Case
Washington Post: Proud Boys defendant calls Jan. 6 violence ‘disgrace’ at trial
New York Times: Judge Limits Fox’s Options for Defense in Dominion Trial
The Hill: Stephen Miller testifies before grand jury about Jan. 6 conversations with Trump: reports
NBC: Trump fan gets 4-year sentence for hitting officers with a fire extinguisher on Jan. 6
Politico: The Jan. 6 problem inside a pro-democracy organization
CBS 8 Las Vegas: Nevada man seen in ‘Jack Skellington’ costume sentenced to prison for assaulting officers on Jan. 6
NBC: Coalition of media companies sue for Jan. 6 tapes given to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson
Opinion
New York Times: The Tennessee State House Is Where We Belong
Los Angeles Times: Supreme Court Justices Should Report Lavish Trips. Even Those with “Dearest Friends”
New York Times: 54 Years Ago, a Supreme Court Justice Was Forced to Quit for Behavior Arguably Less Egregious Than Thomas’s
The Hill: A hundred days into a MAGA-controlled House, the threat to democracy is stronger than ever
Wall Street Journal: How College Students View the Donald Trump Indictment
In the States
The Guardian: How Ron DeSantis waged a targeted assault on Black voters: ‘I fear for what’s to come’
NBC: How redistricting brought Tennessee to this moment
