Driving the Day:
NEWS: Donald Trump’s legal team is in direct communication with Justice Department officials, the first sign of talks between the two sides as the criminal probe into January 6, 2021. https://t.co/eQwTEXB0Tb
— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) August 5, 2022
Must Read Stories
Trump’s Lawyers Are Talking To The DOJ As The January 6 Criminal Probe Intensifies
- CNN: Trump Lawyers In Talks With Justice Department About January 6 Criminal Probe: Former President Donald Trump’s legal team is in direct communication with Justice Department officials, the first sign of talks between the two sides as the criminal probe into January 6, 2021, accelerates, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The talks revolve around whether Trump would be able to shield conversations he had while he was president from federal investigators In recent weeks, investigators have moved aggressively into Trump’s orbit, subpoenaing top former White House officials, focusing on efforts to overturn the 2020 election and executing searches of lawyers who sought to aid those efforts. The Trump team’s discussions are with the US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, which is in charge of the investigation, and its top January 6 prosecutor Thomas Windom, the sources said. The conversations have not been previously reported.
- CNN: Cheney Says DOJ Not Prosecuting Trump If There’s Evidence Could Call Into Question The Us As ‘Nation Of Laws’: Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney said if the Justice Department does not prosecute former President Donald Trump for his role in the insurrection at the US Capitol and “the facts and the evidence are there,” the decision could call into question whether the United States can “call ourselves a nation of laws.” In an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt, Cheney — the GOP vice chair of the House select committee investigating the events surrounding the January 6, 2021, insurrection — said Trump is “guilty of the most serious dereliction of duty of any president in our nation’s history” and pointed to a judge who’s said he likely committed crimes. She said the House committee is “going to continue to follow the facts. I think Department of Justice will do that. But they have to make decisions about prosecution.” “Understanding what it means if the facts and the evidence are there, and they decide not to prosecute — how do we then call ourselves a nation of laws? I think that’s a very serious, serious balancing,” Cheney said “The question for us is, are we a nation of laws? Are we a country where no one is above the law? And what do the facts and the evidence show?” Cheney said.
- CNBC: Trump likely To Be Criminally Charged In DOJ Election Probe Along With Other Former White House Officials, Obama AG Holder Says: Former President Donald Trump “probably” will be indicted on criminal charges along with officials in his White House as part of a Justice Department investigation of efforts to reverse the 2020 election results nationally, ex-Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview Thursday. But Holder suggested that before that happens, Trump is more likely to first face possible criminal charges from the Georgia state prosecutor who is investigating attempts by Trump and his allies to undo President Joe Biden’s win there in 2020. Holder, who led the Justice Department during the Obama administration, made those predictions during an interview with the SiriusXM Urban View satellite radio show Joe Madison The Black Eagle.
Lawyer In Alex Jones Defamation Trial Will Give The Conspiracy Theorist Talk Show Host’s Phone To The January 6 Committee
- New York Times: Lawyer Says He Intends to Give Alex Jones’s Texts to House Jan. 6 Panel: The lawyer for plaintiffs who are suing the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said Thursday that he plans to turn over two years of text messages from Mr. Jones’s phone to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The lawyer, Mark Bankston, who represents Sandy Hook parents suing Mr. Jones in defamation lawsuits for lies he had spread about the 2012 school shooting, said in court in Austin, Texas, that he planned to turn over the texts unless a judge instructed him not to do so. “I certainly intend to do that, unless you tell me not to,” Mr. Bankston told the judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, who appeared unsympathetic to requests from Mr. Jones’s lawyers that Mr. Bankston return the materials to them. When lawyers raised the possibility that the texts could be subpoenaed by the committee, the judge replied, “They’re going to now. They know about them.”
Authoritarian Hungarian Leader Viktor Orban Receives A Warm Reception From US Republicans At CPAC
- Washington Post: Amid ‘mixed Race’ Speech Blowback, Orban Echoes Trump In Dallas: It was a Trump rally with a Hungarian accent. Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister who has consolidated autocratic power with hard-right opposition to immigration and liberal democracy, addressed a crowd of thousands of American admirers in Dallas on Thursday with a red-meat speech that could have easily been delivered by any Republican candidate on the campaign trail this year. Orban presented the two countries as twin fronts in a struggle against common enemies he described as globalists, progressives, communists and “fake news.” “The West is at war with itself,” Orban said. “The globalist can all go to hell. I have come to Texas,” he added, stumbling over a famous slogan attributed to Texas legend Davy Crockett. The speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) went ahead despite Orban’s latest controversy: a speech in which he railed against Europe becoming “mixed race,” saying that Europeans did not want to live with people from outside the continent. One of his own close advisers resigned in protest, calling the speech “pure Nazi.” But Orban has found defenders among prominent American conservatives, including former president Donald Trump, Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance. On his way to Dallas, Orban stopped to visit Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. In a statement, Trump called Orban his “friend” and said he valued his perspective. “Few people know as much about what is going on in the world today,” Trump said.
Liz Cheney Goes On The Offensive In The Closing Days Of Her Primary Campaign
- Politico: Dick Cheney Calls Trump A ‘Coward’ In Ad For Daughter’s Reelection: Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in an ad released Thursday to boost his daughter Liz’s reelection campaign, took direct aim at Donald Trump. Cheney looked directly into the camera in the 60-second ad and lambasted the former president as a “coward.” “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters. He lost his election, and he lost big. I know it. He knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know.” Her father’s ad dropped less than two weeks before Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is set to face a tough challenge from a Trump-backed candidate, attorney Harriet Hageman, in her Aug. 16 primary. Cheney has raised millions as her national profile balloons, but it might not be enough to take on Trump and his advisers, who have poured money and energy into her takedown.
- Axios: Republicans’ Last-Minute Cheney Lifeline: A handful of Republican operatives are quietly mounting a last-ditch effort to rescue Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from a Trump-backed primary challenge, Axios has learned. Why it matters: The previously unreported effort shows how some Republicans are trying to surreptitiously undercut the former president’s revenge campaign, which has so far claimed the political lives of a significant chunk of GOP critics. Cheney — the vice chair of the House Jan. 6 committee — could be the next casualty. She’s facing tough odds in her primary fight this month against Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman. Driving the news: Involved in the effort are Jeff Larson, the chairman of Republican research firm America Rising and a longtime Cheney backer, and Julia Griswold Dailer, a former Trump White House and inauguration committee aide. Their strategy is two-pronged: Persuade Democrats to cross the aisle and back the Wyoming Republican in this month’s open primary, and dent her Trump-endorsed challenger by portraying her as insufficiently loyal to the former president.
In The States
ARIZONA: Kari Lake Victory Completes Trump Sweep Of GOP Primary In Arizona
- Associated Press: Trump Ally Kari Lake Wins Gop Primary For Arizona Governor: Kari Lake, a former news anchor who walked away from her journalism career and was embraced by Donald Trump and his staunch supporters, won the Republican primary for Arizona governor on Thursday. Lake’s victory was a blow to the GOP establishment that lined up behind lawyer and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson in an attempt to push their party past the chaotic Trump era. Lake said she would not have certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory and put false claims of election fraud at the center of her campaign. “Arizonans who have been forgotten by the establishment just delivered a political earthquake,” Lake said in a statement after the race was called. Republicans now enter the general election sprint with a slate of nominees closely allied with Trump who deny that Biden was legitimately elected president. Lake will face Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in the November election.
FLORIDA: In An Attack On Elected Representation And Abortion And LGBT Rights, Ron DeSantis Suspends Tampa Prosecutor
- Bolts: Florida Governor Suspends Tampa Prosecutor in Latest Attack on Abortion and Trans Rights: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took the extraordinary step on Thursday of suspending the locally elected prosecutor of Hillsborough County, home to Tampa. Andrew Warren, the suspended prosecutor, promptly denounced the move as an “illegal overreach.” The suspension of this Democratic official, announced by the Republican governor at a news conference where he was flanked by Hillsborough County’s Republican sheriff and other local officials, is the latest chapter in the GOP’s sustained attacks on reproductive rights and transgender rights in Florida, as well as broader criminal justice reform efforts. DeSantis based the suspension on Warren’s statements that his office would not prosecute abortion-related cases and cases involving anti-transgender laws. DeSantis also mentioned Warren’s policies establishing a presumption against prosecuting certain behaviors. DeSantis claimed that with those statements and policies Warren “neglected” his duties and “display[ed] a lack of competence” to carry out his duties. DeSantis replaced Warren with Susan Lopez, a local judge who is a member of the conservative legal organization the Federalist Society. His decision effectively kicked the Democratic Party out of an office it won in both 2016 and 2020, in a county that DeSantis himself lost by nine percentage points in 2018.
PENNSYLVANIA: GOP Embrace Of Far Right Doug Mastriano In Pennsylvania Echoes Trump’s Rise
- Politico: Fight Him, Shun Him … Embrace Him? Mastriano’s Relationship With GOP Leaders Mirrors Trump’s Rise: GOP leaders rushed to stop him in the primary. When he won anyway, some polls unexpectedly showed him within reach of his Democratic rival, and the Republican establishment began to warm to him. But then he was engulfed by controversy — exactly the kind that GOP insiders had previously worried could sink his chances. The candidate is Pennsylvania governor hopeful Doug Mastriano — but this year, he’s following a path Republicans recognize from their see-saw first months getting used to Donald Trump as the party’s leader back in 2016. In an election season in which inflation and high gas prices have given most Republicans an edge, Mastriano has spent the past few weeks under fire for his ties to a far-right social media platform. He had an account this year on Gab, the site where Robert Bowers made violent antisemitic comments before the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Mastriano also told Gab CEO Andrew Torba in an interview, “Thank God for what you’ve done,” and paid the site $5,000 for “consulting” services. “People that were not happy with his nomination — this is why,” said Josh Novotney, a GOP consultant in Pennsylvania. “Because it’s like, ‘When’s the other shoe going to drop too? What else is out there?’ is what I think more people are saying and thinking.” The response to the episode within the Republican Party has taken on a Trump-esque quality. Some party insiders are grumbling about what they see as Mastriano’s unforced error, largely privately, and a small handful of Republican candidates in competitive districts are distancing themselves from him. But most GOP leaders, at least publicly, appear to be sticking by Mastriano’s side.
What Experts Are Saying
Joanna Lydgate, the chief executive of States United Action, re: Election Denier candidates for governor and secretary of state: “‘If any one of these election deniers wins statewide office, that’s a five-alarm fire for our elections,’ said Joanna Lydgate, the chief executive of States United Action, a bipartisan legal and democracy watchdog organization. ‘It could throw our elections into chaos. It could put our democracy at risk.’” New York Times
Eric Holder, former US attorney general (Radio): “My guess is that by the end of this process, you’re going to see indictments involving high-level people in the White House, you’re going to see indictments against people outside the White House who were advising them with regard to the attempt to steal the election, and I think ultimately you’re probably going to see the President, former President of the United States indicted as well.” Sirius XM
Harry Litman, former US attorney: “It’s always seemed likely that the link b/t Trump and the Proud Boys and other terrorists doing his bidding on the ground would be a sort of bridge conspiracy comprising the most motley grotesque figures in Trump land such as [Alex] Jones, [Roger] Stone, and [Rudy] Giuliani.” Tweet
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Associated Press: Primaries bring big losses for incumbent GOP state lawmakers
The Guardian: MyPillow chief spends tens of millions in fresh crusade to push Trump’s big lie
Mother Jones: Trump Merch, Rabid Fans, Disgraced Ex-Officials: Inside the Right-Wing Conference Circuit
New York Times: How Republicans Are ‘Weaponizing’ Public Office Against Climate Action
USA Today: Trump PAC formed to push debunked voter fraud claims paid $60K to Melania Trump’s fashion designer
Washington Post (Analysis): Blake Masters And Kari Lake Are Not The Same Kind Of Republican:
Washington Post: Trump voters back his candidates. Some aren’t so sure about a 2024 bid.
Washington Post: Democrats face blowback after boosting far-right Michigan candidate
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Bloomberg: Missing Text Messages Prompted Internal Pentagon Policy Review
CNN: DHS to stop wiping phones without backups
NPR: A judge unleashed a tirade on a prominent Jan. 6 defendant for his post-plea comments
Politico: Hearing on stripping Rudy Giuliani’s D.C. law license set for October
Washington Post (Analysis): How close to the Capitol riot was too close?
Opinion
New York Times (Katherine Miller): This Is Why Peter Meijer Lost?
Washington Post (Greg Sargent): The Trumpists are winning. Here are 3 hidden reasons to fear them.
In The States
Arizona Republic: Pinal County elections director fired after error-plagued primary
Connecticut Mirror: Donald Trump endorses Leora Levy for U.S. Senate in live phone call
Denver Post: The Results Are In — Again: Tina Peters Lost Her Gop Primary Election For Secretary Of State Nomination:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tensions rippling through the Wisconsin Republican Party take hold in GOP stronghold Waukesha County
Votebeat: A network of conservative election activists springs from Tarrant County
