Skip to main content
Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — October 11, 2023

By October 11, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Allegations surface around Trump’s disclosure of nuclear sub info, while Trump attempts to delay the classified documents case

  • ABC: Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: “Months after leaving the White House, former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago Club — an Australian billionaire who then allegedly shared the information with scores of others, including more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists, according to sources familiar with the matter. The potential disclosure was reported to special counsel Jack Smith’s team as they investigated Trump’s alleged hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, the sources told ABC News. The information could shed further light on Trump’s handling of sensitive government secrets.”
  • NBC: Prosecutors push back on Trump bid to delay documents case until after the election: “Special counsel Jack Smith is pushing back against former President Donald Trump’s bid to delay his trial on charges of mishandling classified information until after the 2024 election, saying there’s no ‘credible justification’ to do so. ‘The defendants make numerous allegations regarding their access to classified discovery arising from the status of secure facilities, their clearances, and other considerations. Most of the allegations are inaccurate or incomplete; collectively they are misleading,’ Smith’s office said in a court filing Monday, arguing the case should go to trial as scheduled in May. The filing also says prosecutors know why Trump is believed to have illegally held on to the large cache of national security information after he left the White House, and it suggests some of the information was even more sensitive than prosecutors initially believed.”

Potential fraud under scrutiny in Trump’s New York civil trial

  • Washington Post: After years of exaggerating his business assets, Trump confronts them in court: “Details are drawn from thousands of pages of court documents prepared by New York Attorney General Letitia James as evidence in the fraud case she has filed against Trump. The documents show how accounting, banking and real estate experts repeatedly informed Trump how much his properties and businesses were really worth. But over and over again, the documents reveal that Trump, his adult sons and top executives allegedly ignored or sidelined those experts, exchanging their figures for numbers from another source: Trump’s own intuition. Over more than four decades as a developer, Trump — now the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — has routinely exaggerated how much he and his assets are worth, while minimizing or omitting liabilities and debts. These self-aggrandizing boasts were central to the reputation he cultivated as a real estate mogul.”
  • AP: Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial is resuming with ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg on the witness stand: “As Donald Trump’s longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg helped spare the former president’s real estate empire from its last existential threat, staving off insolvency after casino bankruptcies and an airline failure in the 1990s. Now, after a recent jail stint for tax fraud, Weisselberg is front and center again — set to testify Tuesday in the civil trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company, the Trump Organization. Weisselberg, also a defendant in the lawsuit, is expected to testify about his role in preparing Trump’s annual financial statements — including conversations they had while finalizing the documents, which were given to banks, insurers and others to make deals and secure loans.”

Updates on Capitol Riot cases

  • Washington Post: ‘Jan. 6 choir’ member sentenced to 7 years in Capitol attack: “A man who joined a nightly performance of the national anthem inside the D.C. jail that has been promoted by former president Donald Trump and his allies was sentenced to seven years in prison for assaulting police and obstructing Congress on Jan. 6. Shane Jenkins, 46, acknowledged in D.C. federal court that he had an “extensive” criminal history and apologized ‘for all the pain and suffering I’ve caused.” But, he added: “I love this country. I’m not some crazed maniac.’ Using a tomahawk he brought with him from Texas, Jenkins was the first to smash a window on the West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol, and was caught on video shouting: ‘We paid for it, it’s our f—ing building.’ That breach gave rioters access to senators’ offices, which were trashed and ransacked.”
  • NBC: Jan. 6 defendant who admitted hitting one officer wants a jury to believe he helped another: “A jury is expected to begin deliberating Tuesday over the fate of a former sheriff’s deputy and Donald Trump supporter who pleaded guilty to assaulting one officer at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — but contends he was trying to help another. Ronald Colton McAbee of Tennessee, who was on medical leave from his law enforcement job during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty last month to a felony charge of assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer, as well as a misdemeanor charge of an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds. McAbee, now 29, admitted that he “swung his arms and hands” toward an officer’s head and torso, making contact with the officer while he was wearing reinforced gloves.”
  • The New Republic: The Ordinary Americans Who Beat the FBI at Finding January 6 Rioters: “If Donald Trump was the first TV entertainer to be elected president, the siege of the Capitol was an insurrection that doubled as a televised spectacle. The greatest tool the FBI had at its disposal was a range of citizen sleuths, eager to sort through the mountain of digital evidence. Soon after the attacks, a sort of internet neighborhood watch arose, naming and flagging insurrectionists for the Justice Department. ‘The internet is both to blame for January 6 and responsible for helping to solve it,’ argues Reilly. Sedition Hunters is named for the cadre of largely anonymous Americans radicalized into action by the insurrection—not to follow former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, but to identify the thousands of rioters who used his words as an excuse to breach the Capitol.”

In The States

WISCONSIN: State Supreme Court agrees to hear legal challenge to Wisconsin’s legislative maps

  • New York Times: As Wisconsin Supreme Court Takes Up Maps Case, Impeachment Threat Looms: “The liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case challenging the state’s Republican-drawn legislative districts, a decision that could spur impeachment proceedings against a newly elected justice, Janet Protasiewicz, who refused to recuse herself from the case. The decision to accept the case — known as an original action because it means the case will bypass Wisconsin’s trial and appeals courts — comes over the objections of at least two of the court’s three conservative justices and the state’s leading Republicans, who have threatened to impeach Justice Protasiewicz before she can rule on it. “Recusal decisions are controlled by the law,” Justice Protasiewicz wrote in her 47-page decision to remain on the case. ‘They are not a matter of personal preference. If precedent requires it, I must recuse. But if precedent does not warrant recusal, my oath binds me to participate.’”

TENNESSEE: Federal appeals panel will not pursue challenge of Tennessee law that bans passing out mail-in ballot applications unless they are a state election employee

  • Associated Press: Appeals panel won’t revive lawsuit against Tennessee ban on giving out mail voting form: “A panel of federal appeals judges has decided not to revive a challenge of a Tennessee law that makes it a felony for anyone other than election officials to distribute absentee ballot applications. In a 2-1 decision Thursday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court’s determination that the ban doesn’t restrict First Amendment speech. The lawsuit was one of several filed during the COVID-19 pandemic against Tennessee’s vote-by-mail restrictions. A district judge declined to block the ban on distributing the absentee voting form ahead of the November 2020 election, then dismissed the lawsuit in December 2021. The plaintiffs include Tennessee’s NAACP conference, The Equity Alliance, which focuses on Black voter registration, and others. They have claimed the law violates First Amendment rights and “serves no purpose,” particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and especially for those without reliable computer, printer or internet access. They want to distribute the official applications to people eligible to vote absentee.”

NEW MEXICO: New Mexico congressional map that was approved by Democrats can stand, judge says

  • Reuters: New Mexico judge rejects Republican challenge to Democratic-drawn congressional map: “A New Mexico judge on Friday rejected a Republican challenge to the state’s Democratic-drawn congressional lines, improving the odds Democrats will maintain their hold on all three of the state’s districts in next year’s election. The state is one of several in which crucial legal battles over congressional redistricting are still raging two years after most states enacted new maps following the once-a-decade U.S. Census. With Democrats only five seats short of recapturing a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the November 2024 election, the outcome of those cases could swing control of Congress. In Friday’s decision, Ninth Judicial District Judge Fred Van Soelen found Democratic lawmakers intentionally split up the state’s conservative southeastern region to dilute Republican votes, turning the historically Republican 2nd District into a highly competitive seat.”

ALABAMA: Alabama finally has a new congressional map after a lengthy legal fight

  • New York Times: Alabama Is Ordered to Use Map With Two Districts That Empower Black Voters: “A federal court ordered Alabama on Thursday to use a new congressional map that could lead the state to elect two Black representatives for the first time in its history, by creating a second district with close to a majority of Black voters. The order, the culmination of a nearly two-year fight over the Republican-dominated state’s illegal dilution of Black voting power, could also see Democrats pick up a seat in the state, at a moment when Republicans control the House of Representatives by a thin margin. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama approved a map that increases the percentage of Black voters in one of the state’s six majority-white congressional districts to 48.7 percent, up from about 30 percent, while preserving the state’s one existing majority-Black district.”
  • The Guardian: Alabama’s new congressional map increases power of Black voters: “Alabama officially has a new congressional map that will increase the power of Black voters in the state, giving them the chance to elect their preferred candidate in at least two of the state’s seven congressional districts in 2024. The decision could help Democrats secure a majority in the US House next year. After the US supreme court twice rebuffed Alabama’s request to block drawing an additional district, a three-judge panel chose the new map on Thursday from three proposals offered by Richard Allen, a court-appointed special master. Black voters make up about a quarter of the population in the state, but comprised a majority in just one of the state’s seven congressional districts under the map Republicans adopted.”

What Experts Are Saying

Norm Eisen on X (Twitter): “Trump violating Engoron’s gag order would likely only result in a financial sanction the first time. But if Trump kept doing it, the penalties could become much more severe. And can he stop himself?”

Special Counsel Jack Smith, in a filing on the classified documents case against Trump, on Monday: “The defendants provide no credible justification to postpone a trial that is still seven months away… The Government has provided the defendants extensive, prompt, and well-organized unclassified discovery, yielding an exhaustive roadmap of proof of the detailed allegations in the superseding indictment. The vast majority of classified discovery is also available to the defendants… There is no reason to adjourn the trial date. The defendants’ motion should be denied.”

Katherine Stewart, author on books about political extremism, to Salon: “The survey data should disturb everybody. Because when you ask people if it is justified to use political violence to overthrow the regime, a significant percentage are ready to take up arms. According to a 2021 Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, 41 percent of Republicans, 40 percent of independents and 23 percent of Democrats say violence against the government is sometimes justified. Moreover, according to the University of Chicago’s Project on Security & Threats, 10 percent of American adults said they believe the government is run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles, and a quarter said they believe in the Great Replacement conspiracy. The mainstreaming of this type of disinformation and conspiracism creates a permission structure for violence.”

Marc Elias for Democracy Docket: “The more likely reason Alabama forfeited its ability to enact a new, compliant map is that — like George Wallace — the state wanted to show its white supporters that it would not abide by a federal court order. For Alabama, defying the court was not an unfortunate necessity to obtain further court review, it was the point. Unfortunately, we are seeing similar behavior elsewhere. In Louisiana, the Republican-controlled Legislature is fighting a similar battle. When a trial court ordered the creation of a second Black-opportunity district, the state sought Supreme Court review. After it rejected Alabama’s arguments, the high court sent the Louisiana case back to the lower court. Like Alabama, Louisiana seems dug into continuing the fight.”

Joyce Vance on X (Twitter): “In Trump legal news this week, two things to look for: Defendants Kenneth Chesebro & Sidney Powell & prosecutors must submit questions they want propounded to jurors in a written questionnaire the first group of 450 will respond to under oath in court on Oct. 20. Individual questioning in court begins on Oct 23 & an additional group of 450 potential jurors have been subpoenaed to appear Oct. 27 in case a jury can’t be struck from the 1st group. Georgia law requires questions about preconceived views be asked, but the parties can go beyond that. Each trial juror must be able to set aside any preconceived notions & decide the case based solely on the evidence in court & the law the judge explains to them. Each juror will have to make that commitment under oath. It could be a long process. Judge Cannon was slow to schedule this hearing & has shown hostility to prosecutors’ position.”

Headlines

MAGA and the Threat to 2024 Elections

ABC 13 Grand Rapids: Experts, officials warn of artificial intelligence challenges ahead of 2024 elections

Trump investigations

NBC: Trump moves to dismiss ‘meandering’ New York hush money case

11 Alive: Georgia Republicans file complaint against DA Willis after Trump indictment

CBS: Michigan judge rules defendants accused in false elector scheme will not have charges dropped

Axios: Trump’s lawyers cite “presidential immunity” in request to dismiss Jan. 6 case

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

CNN: Jim Jordan repeatedly pushed false stolen election rhetoric in lead up to January 6

Tampa Bay Times: Proud Boys member from Florida convicted for role in Jan. 6 insurrection

Opinion

The Hill: Can Trump conceivably beat the legal clock — and the rap?

New York Times: Where an Obsession With Election Integrity Can Lead

The Hill: Ahead of 2024, we must protect election workers nationwide. Our democracy depends on it

In the States

Courthouse News Service: Fifth Circuit considers majority-Black districts in Louisiana congressional maps

KCRA: California governor vetoes bill requiring independent panels to draw local voting districts

NC Newsline: Racial gerrymandering returns to U.S. Supreme Court. This time it’s South Carolina’s fight.