Skip to main content
Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — November 14, 2023

By November 14, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

FBI investigating letters sent to election offices in Nevada, California, Washington, Georgia, and Oregon that contained fentanyl or other substances

  • Washington Post: Suspicious letters sent to elections offices in at least five states: “Authorities in at least five states were Thursday night investigating suspicious letters mailed to election offices. The letters, at least one of which contained fentanyl, forced evacuations and in some cases temporarily disrupted ballot counting after Tuesday’s elections. Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays. Secretaries of state in Nevada, California, Washington State, Georgia, and Oregon all confirmed that election offices in their states had received the letters and said law enforcement, including the FBI, is investigating the matter. The FBI confirmed in a statement that the agency, ‘along with our law enforcement partners, responded to multiple incidents involving suspicious letters sent to ballot counting centers in several states.’”
  • Associated Press: Local election workers have been under siege since 2020. Now they face fentanyl-laced letters: “While workers were counting ballots for primary elections in August, the elections office in King County, Washington, received a suspicious envelope that turned out to contain trace amounts of fentanyl. It happened again this week, and not just in Washington state, where the office was processing ballots from the general election and had to be evacuated. Election offices in at least five states were sent threatening mail, some containing the potentially deadly drug, authorities say. Authorities were working to intercept any additional letters still in the mail system, including one bound for Atlanta’s Fulton County, the largest voting jurisdiction in one of the nation’s most important presidential swing states. Officials said Friday afternoon the letter sent to the Georgia office had been located.”
  • NBC News: FBI investigating letters with suspicious powder sent to election workers in multiple states: “The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating a series of letters containing suspicious powder that were sent to election workers in multiple states in recent days, law enforcement officials told NBC News. In at least one case, the powder tested positive in a field test for fentanyl, officials said Thursday. There have been no reports of anyone suffering ill health effects, the officials said. The substances found in the letters are still being lab-tested. In a statement Thursday evening, the FBI said that it had responded to ‘multiple incidents involving suspicious letters sent to ballot counting centers in several states.’ The bureau did not provide further details, citing ‘ongoing matters.’”

     

Supreme Court announces ethics code for justices following repeated scandals

  • Washington Post: Supreme Court under pressure issues ethics guidelines specific to justices: “The Supreme Court on Monday issued a statement of ethics specific to the nine justices after reports of lavish and unreported travel and gifts for some of its members prompted intense public criticism and political pressure. A statement from the court said that while ‘for the most part’ the guidelines are not new, they were necessary for the public. The absence of an ethics code ‘has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,’ said the statement signed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and his eight colleagues. ‘To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.’”
  • NBC News: Supreme Court adopts code of conduct amid ethics scrutiny: “The Supreme Court on Monday announced it has adopted what it called a new code of conduct following allegations of ethics lapses. The court issued a 14-page document that included five canons of conduct in addition to lengthy commentary. ‘The undersigned justices are promulgating this Code of Conduct to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court,’ the justices said in an attached statement. Most of the rules outlined in the code are not themselves new, the statement said, but the lack of a published code ‘has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the justices of this court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.’”
  • CNN: Supreme Court attempts to address ethics concerns with new code of conduct: “The Supreme Court said Monday it is adopting a code of conduct in an attempt to bolster the public’s confidence in the court after months of news stories alleging that some of the justices have been skirting ethics regulations. In a brief statement, the justices said that the code is ‘substantially derived’ from an existing code of conduct that applies to the lower court but has been adapted to the ‘unique institutional setting of the Supreme Court.’ However, the justices failed to explain how the code would work, and who would enforce it, and acknowledged they had more work to do, including on financial disclosures. The court acknowledged it might need additional resources to “perform an initial and ongoing review of recusal and other ethics issues.”

Former President Trump’s lawyers ask Judge Chutkan to allow the federal election interference trial to be televised; DOJ pushes back

  • New York Times: Trump Asks Judge to Televise Federal Election Trial: “Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump have told a judge that she should permit his trial on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election to be televised live from the courtroom. It was the first time that Mr. Trump has formally weighed in on the issue of whether to broadcast any of the four criminal trials he is facing. His motion to Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the federal election trial in Washington, came after similar requests made by several media organizations and was filed late on Friday. A judge in Georgia who is handling Mr. Trump’s state election subversion case has said that proceedings will be televised. But the request to Judge Chutkan is likely to face an uphill battle given that federal rules of criminal procedure — and the Supreme Court — generally prohibit cameras in federal courtrooms.”
  • CNN: Trump’s legal team asks for federal election subversion trial to be televised: “Former President Donald Trump’s legal team has formally told a federal court that he would like his election subversion trial in Washington, DC, to be televised. Court rules do not allow for broadcasting of federal proceedings, and the Justice Department is opposed to allowing cameras. Several media outlets have asked the court to consider allowing cameras at the historic trial, set for March. ‘President Trump absolutely agrees, and in fact demands, that these proceedings should be fully televised,’ his attorneys wrote in the filing late Friday night. The filing included several of Trump’s criticisms that his case is illegitimate and that he is being deprived of his rights, and argued to the court that a televised trial would allow him to overcome the unfairness of the justice system because the public would watch it.”
  • MSNBC: Trump wants his election interference trial to air on TV. Here’s why: “Donald Trump wants a chance to play the victim to an audience at his federal election interference trial. In a blustering motion filed late Friday, his attorneys asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to allow the trial to be televised, endorsing media outlets’ requests for live audio and video coverage of the proceedings. ‘As President Trump has made clear from the outset, the prosecution has repeatedly denied him his fundamental constitutional rights, including the right to prepare for trial and to present a fulsome defense,’ his attorneys wrote. ‘The prosecution wishes to continue this travesty in darkness. President Trump calls for sunlight.’”
  • CNN: Special counsel says Trump wants Jan. 6 trial to be a ‘media event’ as it argues against live court TV: “The special counsel’s office is pushing back against Donald Trump using his Washington, DC, federal criminal trial as a spectacle after Trump’s lawyers told the court this weekend he’d support cameras in the courtroom. Trump’s bid to open his DC federal criminal trial to cameras is ‘a transparent effort to demand special treatment, try his case in the courtroom of public opinion, and turn his trial into a media event,’ prosecutors wrote in a new court filing on Monday. They also told the court that broadcasting the trial could create a spectacle that may invite witness intimidation. Several national media outlets, including CNN, have asked the federal judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election subversion criminal case to consider allowing the proceedings to be aired.”

In The States

TEXAS: Texas judge rules against GOP lawsuit seeking to toss 2022 election result in Harris County

  • Texas Tribune: Judge upholds 2022 Harris County election results, throws out most GOP lawsuits: “Harris County’s 2022 election results were upheld by a judge Thursday night, who also threw out all but one remaining lawsuit from Republican candidates against the county, saying in his ruling that there were not enough disputed votes to merit a new election. ‘The court has found many mistakes and violations of the Election Code by the Harris County Elections Administration Office and other election officials,’ wrote Judge David Peeples, a retired judge from San Antonio who presided over the case. ‘But the court holds that not enough votes were put in doubt to justify voiding the election for the189th District Court and ordering a new one.’ Republican candidate Erin Lunceford filed a lawsuit last December asking for a new election in the 189th judicial district court race after she lost to Democrat Tamika Craft by 2,743 votes. She argued that people were unable to vote after about 20 voting locations ran out of ballot paper and a variety of difficulties that resulted in polls being kept open an extra hour.”
  • Houston Chronicle: Judges say Galveston County violated U.S. Voting Rights Act, but another test looms: “A federal appeals court Friday ruled that Galveston County commissioners violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act by eliminating the only majority-minority district in its latest redistricting process. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed October’s ruling finding the county violated the Voting Rights Act, but the judges said previous precedent essentially tied their hands. Three judges on the panel wrote they were interested in revisiting precedent, which allows claims on behalf of a broad coalition. In this case, that means on behalf of Black and Hispanic voters, said Mark Gaber, the Campaign Legal Center’s senior director for redistricting. The legal center was one of the plaintiffs who sued the county after it passed the maps in 2021. The Justice Department, the local branch of NAACP, and residents of the redrawn district, among others, also sued. The case went to trial in August in Galveston.”

LOUISIANA: Federal appeals court sets Jan. 15 deadline for Louisiana lawmakers to enact new congressional map

  • Louisiana Illuminator: U.S. 5th Circuit sets deadline for Louisiana Legislature to draw new congressional maps: “The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is giving the legislature until Jan. 15 to draw new congressional maps that include two majority Black districts. Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, a Republican, says he will call a special redistricting session of the legislature once he’s sworn in Jan. 8. A spokesperson for current Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said that action is ‘constitutionally impossible’ because state law requires seven days’ notice before a special session proclamation. The court’s ruling states that ‘limited additional time’ could be granted if requested. A spokesperson for Edwards has not yet said whether he would seek to call a special session before the end of his term. ‘This is about simple math, basic fairness, and the rule of law,” Edwards said in a press release. ‘With the 5th Circuit’s action today, I remain confident that we will have a fair map with two majority Black districts before the congressional elections next year.’ Outgoing Louisiana House Speaker Clay Schexnayder told the USA Today Network he thinks it would be best for the new Legislature to take up the issue. Current House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, said that it would be impossible to get a majority of members to sign the petition ‘with Jeff putting his thumb on the scale,’ referring to the Gov.-elect.

WISCONSIN: State lawmakers pass a “mixed bag” of election bills and constitutional amendments, which now head to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ desk

  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Assembly lawmakers approved about 20 election bills. Here’s what they would do.: “The state Assembly passed about 20 elections and voting bills Thursday, including several that carry the support of Democrats and clerks. While most of the bills have yet to be taken up by the Senate, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is likely to sign some of them, including a proposal to allow clerks to begin processing absentee ballots a day early. ‘Gov. Evers will veto any bill that enables politicians to interfere with our elections or makes it harder for eligible Wisconsinites to cast their ballot, but if there are common-sense proposals that help ensure Wisconsin’s elections continue to be fair, secure, and safe, he’ll certainly consider signing them,’ Evers spokeswoman Britt Cudaback said. While most of the bills were passed by the Republican majority with voice votes, about half of them have received bipartisan cosponsorship or Democratic votes in committee.”
  • CBS News Minnesota: Wisconsin’s Democratic governor says he would sign current GOP-backed ballot pre-processing bill: “Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said Thursday that he will sign into law a bill that would allow Wisconsin elections officials to process absentee ballots the day before an election if the Republican-controlled Legislature passes the measure in its current form. The Republican-backed proposal, which was up for a vote in the state Assembly on Thursday, is intended to ease the workload of local clerks and their staff, who run elections and prevent ballot counting from stretching late into election night. The state Senate would also need to pass it before it would go to the governor. Evers and the Republicans who control the Legislature have seldom found common ground on election proposals. The governor has vetoed numerous GOP-sponsored election bills in recent years that he said would make it harder to vote. ‘Gov. Evers will veto any bill that enables politicians to interfere with our elections or makes it harder for eligible Wisconsinites to cast their ballot, but if there are common-sense proposals that help ensure Wisconsin’s elections continue to be fair, secure, and safe, he’ll certainly consider signing them,’ Evers’ spokesperson, Britt Cudaback, said in a statement.”

What Experts Are Saying

Michael Podhorzer for Weekend Reading: “American elections are supposed to grant ‘the consent of the governed,’ as the Declaration of Independence put it, to those who win them. But somehow, our elections have become synonymous with democracy itself, rather than a tool we use to practice democracy. No matter how broken our tools get – and no matter how much we complain about the obvious disrepair – we keep using them, and we keep declaring the results to be the finest possible workmanship.”

Asher D. Hildebrand for Democracy Docket: “The new North Carolina maps are even worse than many feared, pursuing partisan advantage with greater audacity and precision than any gerrymander in recent history. It’s not just that the congressional plan replaces a politically balanced map (7-7 in the current Congress) with one that will produce a Republican advantage of at least 10-4 in 2024, and likely 11-3 within a few years. It’s also the ruthless efficiency with which the plan achieves this feat. The map packs Democratic and Black voters heavily into three urban districts in the Research Triangle and Charlotte while spreading Republican voters evenly across the rest of the state. In redistricting terms, it maximizes wasted Democratic votes and minimizes wasted GOP votes.”

Andrew Wiessmann on Judge Cannon’s recent ruling regarding the trial date for the document case, on X (Twitter): “This doesn’t change my opinion of Cannon one iota; by allowing Trump to later move to delay the trial, but keeping the date for now, she is blocking Fani Willis from scheduling her trial on the current FLA date. And Cannon has substantially delayed the dates for all FLA filings.”

Norm Eisen, Tom Joscelyn, and Fred Wertheimer for Just Security: “On Monday, the government’s lawyers filed an opposition to the Trump defense team’s attempt to strike mentions of ‘the actions at the Capitol on January 6, 2021’ from the federal indictment. Trump’s lawyers argued that he is not charged with ‘responsibility’ for those actions and that all references to them should be stricken from the indictment because they are supposedly prejudicial and inflammatory. Smith’s team fired back, describing Trump’s argument as ‘disingenuous’ and laying blame for the Capitol attack squarely on the former president’s shoulders. The government’s lawyers write that Trump’s argument is a ‘meritless effort to evade the indictment’s clear allegations’ that the former president is ‘responsible for events at the Capitol on January 6.’”

Heather Digby Parton on Trump’s extremist rhetoric, for Salon: “Today, Trump is on the stump threatening daily to exact revenge on his political enemies, which includes Democrats, the press, election officials, the Department of Justice, and anyone else he believes has crossed him. It is the main theme of his campaign. But calling these enemies vermin takes it to a whole new level and one which has even more resonance than usual with the current discussion of antisemitism. He’s now blatantly using the language of Nazi Germany to degrade and dehumanize Jews in the 1930s. If I had to guess, I would say that Trump didn’t come up with that word himself. He’s more of a ‘rats’ guy than a ‘vermin’ guy when it comes to rhetoric. And the fact that he repeated the exact phrase from the teleprompter at a rally later in the day on Saturday indicates that it was a speech writer’s work not his own, although it certainly reflects his feelings on the matter. I suspect it was either written or inspired by his righthand fascist, Stephen Miller, featured heavily in yet another chilling article in the New York Times about the Trump agenda for his second term.”

Headlines

Extremism

Salon: “Exactly how dictators speak”: Alarm as Trump spox vows that critics’ “existence will be crushed”

Trump investigations

Politico: Judge Aileen Cannon rebuffs Trump’s call for trial delay in classified documents case — for now

The Hill: Trump dismisses report that Mar-a-Lago workers may testify in classified documents case

Washington Post: Trump’s defense at N.Y. fraud trial begins with Donald Trump Jr. testimony

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How Georgia’s Trump case could help federal DOJ prosecutors

ABC News: Jan. 6 suspect who fled police used chemical spray on officers at Capitol, prosecutors say

Opinion

Washington Post: Republicans have become a threat to democracy and national security

The 19th: ‘There is still work to be done’: Voters with disabilities face unaddressed barriers to the ballot

New York Times: The Legal Double Standard That’s Rarely Discussed

In the States

MLive: Michigan to allow 16-year-olds to preregister to vote

Idaho Capital Sun: Idaho voter registration lawsuits in limbo: Unraveling the latest in voting legal battles

Crosscut: Republicans ask SCOTUS to intervene in redistricting Central WA