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Inside the intricacies of Trump’s classified documents trial: Discovery, surprising evidence, and the search for fair jurors
- New York Times: Prosecutors Seek to Delay Trump Documents Trial to December: Jack Smith, the special counsel, has asked a federal judge to move back the start of the trial of former President Donald J. Trump and his co-defendant, Walt Nauta, in the classified documents case from August to Dec. 11, according to a Justice Department filing made public late Friday. The Justice Department proposal still calls for a relatively speedy timetable; Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s earlier ruling set the initial trial date at Aug. 14, but it was considered something of an administrative place holder, with both sides anticipating significant procedural delays. In their filing, prosecutors said the additional time would be needed to obtain security clearances for defense lawyers and deal with the procedures around classified evidence. It would also give defense lawyers more time to review the volumes of materials prosecutors have turned over to them, the filing said.
- Wall Street Journal: Trump Prosecutors Struggled Over Motives. Then They Heard the Tape: Justice Department and FBI officials disagreed back in August about whether their investigation into the handling of sensitive documents justified the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Fewer officials had doubts earlier this month, when prosecutors took an even bolder step: asking a grand jury to indict the former president on 37 counts. What turned the tide was an audio tape and other evidence investigators confirmed around February from meetings Trump held almost two years earlier and a thousand miles from the former president’s Palm Beach, Fla., resort, according to people familiar with the matter.
- USA Today: GOP lawmaker criticizes Donald Trump for taking secret information: ‘We don’t have a right’: Republican support for former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case against him is not unanimous. A small but steady group says Trump should never have removed classified documents from the White House, the trigger for Trump’s federal indictment in Florida earlier this month. “We don’t have a right to take top secret information to our home,” said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the House Armed Service Committee, speaking on NBC’s “Meet The Press.” Referencing allegations in the federal indictment against Trump, Bacon said “you don’t show our attack plans on Iran to people who are not clear or documents that talk about our nuclear technology or where our intelligence resources are located throughout the world.”
- BBC: Why picking a fair Florida jury for Trump’s trial will be so hard: When Donald Trump goes on trial in his classified documents case, the court will have to find 12 Florida jurors who can leave their opinion of the former president at the door. That won’t be easy. Jurors are supposed to assess the case on its merits, not their preconceived notion of the defendant. But with a figure as famous and polarising as Mr Trump, that could prove very difficult, lawyers from the state told the BBC. To secure a conviction, the jury’s decision must be unanimous. It would only take one juror voting in Mr Trump’s favour for the US government to lose its case. Both federal prosecutors and Mr Trump’s defence team will use every tool – aggressive questioning, vetoes, legal manoeuvres, and potentially even psychologists – to help them weed out biased jurors. But even the most thorough tactics aren’t fool-proof.
- CNBC: News organizations ask court to reveal witness list in Trump documents case: A group of news organizations asked a federal court Monday to reveal the special counsel’s list of 84 witnesses who are prohibited from speaking with former President Donald Trump about the facts of his criminal classified documents case. “Full transparency — at every step of this historic case — is essential,” attorneys for the press coalition wrote in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida. “Without it, public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings specifically and the judicial system at large will suffer, perhaps irreversibly,” read the court filing from the coalition, which includes NBCUniversal Media, CNN and The New York Times.
Revelations and revisionism in Jan. 6th Probes: Potential Trump insider collaboration, Secret Service testimony, and rising far-right false narratives
- New York Times: Former Trump Campaign Official in Talks to Cooperate in Jan. 6 Inquiry: Michael Roman, a top official in former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 campaign, is in discussions with the office of the special counsel Jack Smith that could soon lead to Mr. Roman voluntarily answering questions about a plan to create slates of pro-Trump electors in key swing states that were won by Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to a person familiar with the matter. If Mr. Roman ends up giving the interview — known as a proffer — to prosecutors working for Mr. Smith, it would be the first known instance of cooperation by someone with direct knowledge of the so-called fake elector plan. That plan has long been at the center of Mr. Smith’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s wide-ranging efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- Washington Post: Justice Dept. asking about 2020 fraud claims as well as fake electors: The Justice Department’s investigation of efforts by Donald Trump and his advisers to overturn the 2020 election results is barreling forward on multiple tracks, according to people familiar with the matter, with prosecutors focused on ads and fundraising pitches claiming election fraud as well as plans for “fake electors” that would swing the election to the incumbent president. Each track poses potential legal peril for those under scrutiny, but also raises tricky questions about where the line should be drawn between political activity, legal advocacy and criminal conspiracy. A key area of interest is the conduct of a handful of lawyers who sought to turn Trump’s defeat into victory by trying to convince state, local, federal and judicial authorities that Joe Biden’s 2020 election win was illegitimate or tainted by fraud.
- NBC: Five or six Secret Service agents have testified before Jan. 6 grand jury, sources say: About half a dozen Secret Service agents have testified before the grand jury that will decide whether to indict former President Donald Trump for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and efforts to interfere in the peaceful transfer of the presidency, according to two sources familiar with their testimony. Roughly five or six agents have appeared, the sources said, in compliance with subpoenas they received. It is not known what the agents’ proximity to Trump was on Jan. 6 or what information they may have provided to the grand jury. Special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the events of Jan. 6 is separate from his probe that led to Trump’s recent indictment in Florida for the handling of classified documents. Sources told NBC News that about 24 Secret Service agents appeared before the grand jury that considered that case in Washington before the case moved to Florida.
- New York Times: Far Right Pushes a Through-the-Looking-Glass Narrative on Jan. 6: Six months since the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol completed its work, a far-right ecosystem of true believers has embraced “J6” as the animating force of their lives. They attend the criminal trials of the more prominent rioters charged in the attack. They gather to pray and sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the outer perimeter of the District of Columbia jail, where some two dozen defendants are held. Last week, dozens showed up at an unofficial House hearing convened by a handful of Republican lawmakers to challenge “the fake narrative that an insurrection had occurred on Jan. 6,” as set forth by Jeffrey Clark, a witness at the hearing and a former Justice Department official who worked to undo the results of the 2020 election. In the version advanced by five House Republicans who attended the hearing — Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Ralph Norman, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Troy Nehls — as well as conservative lawyers and Capitol riot defendants, Jan. 6 was an elaborate setup to entrap peaceful Trump supporters, followed by a continuing Biden administration campaign to imprison and torment innocent conservatives.
In The States
LOUISIANA: Supreme Court clears way for redrawing of Louisiana congressional map to include an additional majority-Black district
- NBC News: Supreme Court paves the way for Louisiana congressional districts to be redrawn: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Louisiana’s appeal seeking to prevent the state’s congressional map from being redrawn over claims that it unlawfully dilutes the influence of Black voters. The move via a brief unsigned order was expected after the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 8 that buttressed a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act in a similar case concerning congressional districts in Alabama. The court order noted that the case should be resolved in lower courts “in advance of the 2024 congressional elections in Louisiana.” The case will now move forward in the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Our job is to defend what the legislature passed, and we trust the 5th Circuit will review the merits in accordance with the law,” Louisiana Assistant Attorney General Angelique Freel said in a statement. The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Alabama case could lead to a new map being drawn in Louisiana in which Black voters would have a chance to elect their preferred representative in two of the state’s six congressional districts instead of one. “Thankfully, Louisiana is now on track to add an additional minority opportunity district in time for 2024,” said Abha Khanna, a lawyer representing plaintiffs in the case.
ARIZONA: Defamation lawsuit filed against Kari Lake over election lies and misinformation
- Washington Post: Kari Lake accused of defamation in suit filed by Arizona election official: A key Republican election official in Arizona’s most populous county filed a defamation lawsuit on Thursday against Republican Kari Lake, the former television newscaster who narrowly lost her 2022 race for governor and has falsely blamed widespread fraud and malfeasance in the months since. The lawsuit by Stephen Richer, a Republican who has served as recorder of Maricopa County since 2021, marks the most aggressive attempt to hold Lake and her allies accountable for election-related misinformation. It comes amid other efforts to make right-wing figures and media answerable for spreading election fabrications. In the complaint, Richer alleges that Lake, her campaign and a nonprofit organization tied to her repeatedly and falsely accused him of causing Lake’s 2022 defeat. Lake and the two organizations, the complaint alleges, falsely claimed that Richer “sabotaged the election to prevent Republican candidates, including Lake, from winning.”
KENTUCKY: Court of Appeals hears arguments challenging state’s process that denies voting rights for convicted felons
- WKMS: Appeals court hears case on the restoration of voting rights for Kentuckians with felony convictions: The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Thursday on a case that could affect over 160,000 Kentuckians who are unable to vote because of a felony conviction, according to the League of Women Voters. The case, Deric Lostutter v. The Commonwealth of Kentucky, argues the current system, which grants the governor total discretion in granting voting rights to people who have felony convictions, is a violation of the First Amendment. Shortly after his inauguration in December 2019, Gov. Andy Beshear issued an executive order to restore voting rights to most people with in-state nonviolent felony convictions. The order did not include all felonies nor did it cover those with out-of-state or federal convictions. Previous Gov. Matt Bevin had retracted his predecessor’s voting rights restoration order, which granted automatic voting rights to some people with convictions. Instead, Bevin required people with felony convictions apply to his office to have their rights individually restored, at his discretion.
- Hoptown Chronicle: Kentucky Supreme Court to hear Democrats’ challenge to legislative redistricting: A fight over Kentucky’s state House and U.S. congressional districts is now before the state Supreme Court, more than a year after new maps were adopted by the Republican supermajority that controls the General Assembly. On March 23, the high court agreed to take the challenge by state Democrats, bypassing the state Appeals Court, “in the interests of judicial economy.” Now it’s up to the Supreme Court to decide whether the maps established through redistricting — which a lower court judge already found to be gerrymandered, or manipulated to favor one party — also are unconstitutional. “This is purely a legal question, not a factual one on whether the maps are unfair,” said Joshua Douglas, a University of Kentucky law professor who studies election and constitutional law. The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing in the dispute on Sept. 19. Districts, which define the area an elected official represents, are adjusted every 10 years by the legislature to reflect changes in population and generally favor the party in power. The legal fight comes in advance of next year’s primary and general elections in which all 100 House races and Kentucky’s six congressional seats could be contested.
GEORGIA: Georgia’s Secretary of State dismisses voting security audit
- Georgia Recorder: Despite concerns, Georgia election officials plan to delay voting fixes till after ‘24 election: A long-running dispute over Georgia’s voting system has further fueled claims that state election officials haven’t done enough to ensure election security ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The State Election Board this week rejected a petition to expedite the Secretary of State’s decision to wait until 2025 before updating the Dominion Voting Systems software. The decision comes after state election officials urged caution against making rash recommended changes to technology that Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger declares to be secure and battle tested. A U.S. District court judge last week unsealed a cybersecurity expert’s report that details how the state’s electronic voting system could be hacked to manipulate election results. Meanwhile, state officials are also mulling the findings of another analyst who greatly discounts any possibility of electronic manipulation of the Dominion voting system that has been in place in Georgia since 2019. The Dominion machines used in several battleground states in the 2020 presidential election became fodder for President Donald Trump to level false allegations that the equipment had been manipulated to switch votes from Trump to help seal the victory for Democrat Joe Biden. A number of state and federal investigations found no evidence of voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and multiple recounts confirmed Biden’s victory in Georgia.
What Experts Are Saying
VIDEO: Barbara McQuade, former US attorney: “It does seem that the special counsel’s investigation is really focusing on this fake electors component of the case.” MSNBC’s The ReidOut Show Tweet
Joyce Vance, former US attorney: “[W]e still have the Friday-night pleadings filed by special counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago prosecution to work our way through. DOJ asked the judge to set a firm trial date in December, reflecting the reality of conducting discovery involving classified materials and the legitimate delay involved in that process. But it’s also clear that the special counsel was prepared, as we had speculated he might be, and has already turned over non-classified discovery. Smith asked the court to set up a pre-trial conference to get the process underway with classified materials—these will have to be stored in a secure facility called a SCIF, and the defense will only be able to view them inside of that facility. Any notes they take must remain there, and any motions and briefs they write in regard to them must be written inside of that space. You can see how complicated this gets from here on out.” Civil Discourse
Alicia Bannon, director of the Judiciary Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, and Michael Milov-Cordoba, a fellow in the Brennan Center’s Judiciary Program: “Today’s Supreme Court has assumed a degree of power and importance that would have been unrecognizable in the founding era. A recent cascade of ethics scandals has laid bare a system in which justices wield tremendous power for decades with little accountability, while the Court’s rulings are increasingly unmoored from democratic values and the principle of judicial restraint. At the same time, polarization among the political parties and the justices themselves has dramatically increased the partisan stakes of the confirmation process, leading to a broken system. Public trust in the Court is at a historical low. For all these reasons, there are growing calls for reform. Proposals range from creating an ethics code to expanding the Court to stripping its jurisdiction. One of the most popular options would also be among the most transformative: establishing 18-year terms and regularized appointments for justices. Under this system, justices would sit in staggered terms of active service on the Court, such that a new vacancy would open every two years. Each president would have two, and only two, appointments during a four-year term.This paper explains how such a reform would work, why it would bolster the Court’s legitimacy, and how to transition from the current system.” Brennan Center for Justice: Report: Supreme Court Term Limits
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Rolling Stone: Trump Honored as ‘Man of Decade,’ Tells Crowd: ‘I’m Being Indicted for You’
Trump Investigations
CBS: McCarthy says he supports House resolutions to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments
CNN: Special counsel trades immunity for fake elector testimony as Jan 6 probe heats up
Washington Post: How Trump convinced his base that his indictments were aimed at them
CNN: Supreme Court drops case concerning Trump hotel records
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Washington Post: New video undercuts claim Twitter censored pro-Trump views before Jan. 6
Boston 25 News: New Hampshire woman arrested for actions during Jan. 6 Capitol breach
NBC: InfoWars host Owen Shroyer pleads guilty in Jan. 6 case
NBC: Trump spoke at a fundraiser for Jan. 6 defendants
Opinion
Washington Post: Trump coup plotter John Eastman is finally facing real accountability
New York Times: It’s Not Too Late for the Republican Party
Washington Post: Will the GOP learn anything from the Trump-Boebert-Greene follies?
New York Times: Worrying About the Judge and the Jury for Trump’s Trial
In the States
The Guardian: A timeline of voting restrictions passed by US states since 2013
Dallas Morning News: Texas joins the Soros-scared retreat from voter roll verification
GoLocalProv: 17-Year-Olds Can Now Vote in Primaries in Rhode Island
