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House Republicans block Democratic effort to expel George Santos, referring the case to Ethics Committee
- New York Times: House Republicans Stall Effort to Kick George Santos Out of Congress: House Republicans on Wednesday repelled an effort by Democrats to force a vote on expelling Representative George Santos of New York, who was charged last week in a 13-count federal indictment covering wire fraud, unlawful monetary transactions, stealing public funds and lying on financial disclosures. Republicans voted along party lines, 221 to 204, to refer the resolution to expel Mr. Santos to the House Ethics Committee, which has been investigating Mr. Santos’s finances and campaign activity for months. The measure to expel Mr. Santos, introduced by Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat of California, was unlikely to succeed in the House, where it would have required a two-thirds supermajority to pass. Republicans hold a majority so thin that Mr. Santos’s vote remains crucial, reducing the political incentive for them to support his ouster.
- CNN: House votes to refer resolution to expel Santos to Ethics Committee: The move to refer the resolution, which required a simple majority to succeed, passed on a party-line vote of 221-204-7. Seven members voted “present,” including Reps. Susan Wild, Veronica Escobar, Mark DeSaulnier, Deborah Ross and Glenn Ivey. They are the five Democratic members that serve on the Ethics Committee. Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Marie Glusenkamp Perez of Washington also voted present. Santos voted in favor of referring the resolution to expel him to the ethics panel. A vote to expel a lawmaker requires a two-thirds majority in the House – 290 votes – a threshold not expected to be met if the resolution did come to an up-or-down vote. As Democrats have pushed for expulsion, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he wants the Ethics Committee to “move rapidly” on its investigation of Santos.
Violence against Congressional staff prompts call for enhanced Capitol Police presence
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Hill: Connolly staffers injured in baseball bat attack in district office: Two staffers for Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) were hospitalized Monday after a man entered the congressman’s district office in Fairfax, Va., and assaulted them with a metal bat, underscoring the threats faced by lawmakers amid extreme political polarization in the U.S. Connolly, who represents Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, said the assailant asked for him before attacking his staffers, who were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Virginia Democrat said Monday evening that he had visited the staffers in the hospital and both have since been released. The suspect struck a senior aide in the head and an intern in the side with the metal bat, Connolly told CNN. It was the intern’s first day on the job, Connolly said. The congressman told the network he was at a ribbon-cutting for a food bank when the assailant entered his office.
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Washington Post: Capitol Police seek increased presence outside D.C. to handle threats: The U.S. Capitol Police want to increase the number of field offices they have around the country to investigate threats to members of Congress, and they also want more funding to beef up cooperation with local police departments, the agency’s chief said Tuesday, a day after a man with a baseball bat attacked staff members of Rep. Gerald E. Connolly in the Democrat’s Fairfax City, Va., district office. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger also said his department needed to add more officers to its dignitary protection division, which he said is currently 30 percent short of full staffing. The Capitol Police received greatly increased funding after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but most of that has been spent on hiring officers and buying equipment for protection of the main Capitol campus, not for members’ security away from Washington, Manger said.
Trump faces legal roadblocks as DA resists disclosure and key attorney departs team
- ABC: Trump not entitled to more info about fraud charges against him, DA’s office argues: Former President Donald Trump “has more than sufficient information to prepare his defense” and is not entitled to a written statement with additional details about the criminal charges he is facing, the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued Tuesday in a new court filing. Trump, who last month pleaded not guilty in a New York City courtroom to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment, is seeking a bill of particulars that would contain details about the prosecutors’ theory of the case that are not included in the indictment. Defense attorneys are seeking more information about the substance of the allegations regarding Trump’s allegedly criminal conduct. They also want prosecutors to specify the other crime Trump is alleged to have aided by falsifying business records, which enabled him to be charged with felonies.
- CNN: Key Trump attorney departs legal team: Timothy Parlatore, an attorney for Donald Trump who played a key role in the Mar-a-Lago documents investigation and once testified before the grand jury, is leaving the former president’s legal team, two sources familiar with the exit tell CNN. Parlatore’s departure became official Tuesday, though it had been rumored for several weeks among the former president’s inner circle. The high-profile departure comes as special counsel Jack Smith appears to be in the final stretch of investigations into the possible mishandling of classified documents and efforts to obstruct the 2020 election. “It’s been an incredible honor to serve and work through interesting legal issues. My departure was a personal choice and does not reflect upon the case, as I believe strongly the (Justice Department) team is engaging in misconduct to pursue an investigation of conduct that is not criminal,” Parlatore said in a statement to CNN.
In The States
ARIZONA: Courts to hear cases on voter suppression law and Kari Lake’s election challenge
- Courthouse News Service: Ninth Circuit to decide constitutionality of new Arizona voter registration law: A Ninth Circuit panel took up the question Tuesday of whether Arizona can enforce a law that advocacy groups say will disenfranchise Arizona voters. SB1260, signed into law in June, would require county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration and remove them from the state’s permanent vote-by-mail list if they’re registered to vote in a different county. It also would make it a felony to “provide a mechanism for voting to another person who is registered in another state,” regardless of if that person now lives in Arizona and intends to vote only in Arizona. The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans sued the attorney general and secretary of state this past August, claiming that the three provisions listed in the bill (referred to as the cancellation, removal and felony provisions) “have no rational connection to any legitimate government purpose” and will only “severely chill voter registration and voter engagement efforts, and disenfranchise eligible Arizona voters.” The law disproportionally affects people who move often, like young people and minority voters, as well as older folks who come to Arizona to retire, the Alliance claims.
- AZ Central: Kari Lake election challenge heads to trial, with voter signatures under scrutiny: A three-day trial is slated to begin Wednesday for former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to try to prove that Maricopa County didn’t properly verify voter signatures on ballot envelopes last year and that the failures changed the outcome of the November election. Lake, a former television news anchor, is contesting her loss by about 17,000 votes to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Lake first challenged her loss in December, and three Arizona courts since then have found no evidence to grant her request that she be declared the governor or order a re-do of the election in Maricopa County. On one piece of the case, however, the Arizona Supreme Court took issue with the legal grounds a judge used to dismiss the count. The state’s top court said that element of the case should be reconsidered, and that will take place in the trial that begins Wednesday.
NORTH CAROLINA: State’s new Republican supermajority override governor’s veto, banning abortion after 12 weeks
- Washington Post: North Carolina bans abortion past 12 weeks, overriding governor veto: The North Carolina legislature banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy Tuesday evening, voting to override the veto of Gov. Roy Cooper (D), while a similar measure heads to a final vote in Nebraska in the coming days. The Senate voted to override the veto in a 30-to-20 vote Tuesday afternoon with the House swiftly following suit in a 72-to-48 vote. Shouts of “shame, shame” erupted on the House floor after the chamber, with its new GOP supermajority, approved the override. The bills both significantly narrow the window for legal abortions but stop short of more restrictive bans that have taken effect across the South and Midwest since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — the result of a push from moderate Republicans who feared political backlash.
TEXAS: Bill that would eliminate voting centers in counties concern voting rights advocates and local government officials
- Texas Tribune: Eliminating countywide voting in Texas would make the process harder on voters, cost more money, election leaders say: Nearly two decades ago, Roxzine Stinson helped usher a new voting model into Lubbock County. Now, she and other election administrators across Texas are bracing for its possible demise. Last month, the state Senate passed a bill that would eliminate vote centers — polling locations scattered throughout the county that any registered voter can vote at — on Election Day and require residents to vote at an assigned precinct, typically in their neighborhood. Senate Bill 990, authored by Republican Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood passed along party lines in the Senate and has been referred to the House Elections Committee. “I really hate taking a step back after we’ve moved forward the way we have,” Stinson said. It is not clear if the bill will gain sufficient support to pass through the lower chamber. A hearing has not been scheduled, and just over two weeks remain in the regular legislative session.
MISSISSIPPI: Legal action continues as court seeks to dismiss lawsuit against anti-democratic law dealing with Jackson’s court system
- Associated Press: 1 lawsuit over appointment of Mississippi judges dismissed, another case still alive: A Mississippi judge has dismissed one lawsuit that challenges a new law dealing with appointment of judges in the majority-Black capital city of Jackson and the surrounding county, but a separate lawsuit remains alive in federal court. In the ruling Monday, Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas wrote that appointing judges does not violate the Mississippi Constitution. Three Jackson residents testified to Thomas last week that the new law tramples their rights because most Mississippi judges are elected. Thomas wrote that a 1989 state law allows appointment of judges in some circumstances and that “disappointment and frustration with the legislative process does not create a judicial right to relief.” “While the Court is sympathetic to the Plaintiffs’ feelings, it cannot find that the same constitutes irreparable harm,” Thomas wrote. Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they will appeal Thomas’ dismissal of the case and his decision last week to remove Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Randolph as a defendant.
What Experts Are Saying
Tom Joscelyn, Senior Fellow at the Reiss Center on Law and Security, Norman L. Eisen, special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings and trial of Trump, and Fred Wertheimer, Founder and President of Democracy 21: “During a town hall event on CNN Wednesday night, former President Donald Trump made multiple incriminating remarks about his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s responses will further hurt his case should Special Counsel Jack Smith charge the former president in connection with his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol and other attempts to hold onto power unlawfully. Trump’s statements were also valuable to Fulton County DA Fani Willis in her investigation and possible prosecution.” Just Security: How Trump’s CNN Town Hall Remarks Put Him in Greater Legal Peril for Jan. 6 Investigations
Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University, and Dennis Aftergut, former federal prosecutor and Chief Assistant City Attorney in San Francisco: “In terms of criminal law, among several self-destructive statements former President Donald Trump made in CNN’s “Town Hall,” the competition is stiff for the title of most damaging to his legal defense. From the perspective of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s expected prosecution of Trump relating to the Mar-a-Lago documents case, however, to this constitutional scholar and former federal prosecutor, one statement stands out for a reason of criminal procedure rather than just substantive criminal law: Trump made an admission that helps secure Washington DC rather than Florida as the proper venue for the indictment and trial. Where this case is tried can be the whole ballgame. When asked why he took government documents from the White House, Trump answered: ‘I was there and I took what I took . . . . I had every right to do it. I didn’t make a secret of it. You know, the boxes were stationed outside of the White House.’” Just Security: Trump’s Most Pivotal, Incriminating Admission on CNN
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, historian at New York University: “It is unfortunate that even the violent coup of Jan. 6, 2021, carried out at Trump’s instigation by members of his MAGA tribe, has not moved the needle on how he is seen…Giving violence a positive association is critical. Trump’s comment at the town hall that Jan. 6 rioters had “love in their hearts” continued that re-education, but it also contained a grain of truth. Jan. 6 was a rescue operation of a beloved cult head, and the MAGA thugs who assaulted the Capitol proclaimed their allegiance to Trump to the world. They did have “love in their hearts” –for him –and rage against his many supposed enemies.” Lucid
Zoe Marks, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, and Erica Chenoweth, Frank Stanton professor of the First Amendment at Harvard Kennedy School: “U.S. feminists have been raising alarms about persistent assaults on gender equality. Across the country, GOP-led legislatures are rolling back reproductive rights, legislating against trans youth and their families, and censoring school curricula about racism, sexism, LGBTQ+ issues and even what to expect at the gynecologist’s office. These developments in the U.S. reflect a troubling pattern: Around the world, patriarchal authoritarianism is on the rise, and democracy is on the decline. The connection between sexism and authoritarianism is not coincidental, or a mere character flaw of individual misogynists-in-chief. Women’s political power is essential to a properly functioning multiracial democracy, and fully free, empowered women are a threat to autocracy. Assaults on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights—and attempts to put women “in their place”—constitute a backlash against feminist progress expanding women’s full inclusion in public life.” Ms. Magazine
Headlines
The MAGA Movement And The Ongoing Threat To Elections
Salon: Living like Rudy: Giuliani is the face of MAGA “freedom”
Trump Investigations
NPR GPB: Fulton County DA Willis rebuts Trump’s efforts to remove her from 2020 election probe
January 6 And The 2020 Election
Rolling Stone: MTG Wants to Impeach D.C. DA for Not Letting Jan. 6 Rioters Skate
Salt Lake Tribune: Utahn charged with attacking police during Jan. 6 insurrection
Guardian: January 6 rioter shot in face by police sentenced to nearly two years in prison
Roll Call: House Republicans target Capitol Police preparedness in review of Jan. 6 attack
Opinion
Hill: The empty chair at the Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy trials
New York Times: The Republican Embrace of Vigilantism Is No Accident
Washington Post: U.S. conservatives have found an alarming model for their movement
USA Today: As Trump election probe continues, if Georgia’s fake electors get busted, so could Arizona’s
Hill: The Supreme Court’s recusal process is its next ethical conundrum
In the States
Washington Post: Republican tapped to lead Fulton elections board withdraws under pressure
Montana Free Press: SOS files opening argument in 2021 election laws appeal
ProPublica: Clyburn’s Role in South Carolina Redistricting May Be Examined as Supreme Court Hears Racial Gerrymandering Case
