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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — October 12, 2023

By October 12, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Federal prosecutors seek to understand Trump’s legal defense strategy, protect jurors’ identities ahead of trial

  • New York Times: Prosecutors Ask if Trump Will Blame His Lawyers as Defense in Election Case: “Federal prosecutors asked a judge on Tuesday to force former President Donald J. Trump to tell them months before he goes to trial on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election whether he intends to defend himself by blaming the stable of lawyers around him at the time for giving him poor legal advice. In a motion filed to the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, the prosecutors sought an order that would compel Mr. Trump to tell them by Dec. 18 if he plans to pursue the blame-the-lawyers strategy — known as an advice of counsel defense — at his federal election interference trial, which is now set to begin in March in Federal District Court in Washington. Both Mr. Trump and his current team of lawyers have ‘repeatedly and publicly announced’ that they were going to use such arguments as ‘a central component of his defense,’ prosecutors told Judge Chutkan in their filing. They said they wanted a formal order forcing Mr. Trump to tell them his plans by mid-December ‘to prevent disruption of the pretrial schedule and delay of the trial.’”
  • NBC: At least 25 Trump election case witnesses withheld information based on attorney-client privilege, prosecutors say: “Dozens of witnesses who were interviewed in the federal investigation that led to a four-count indictment against former President Donald Trump for his efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power withheld information on the basis of assertions of attorney-client privilege, special counsel Jack Smith’s office said in a court filing Tuesday. Smith’s office is asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to require Trump’s team to disclose by December whether he plans to argue at trial that he relied on the advice of counsel after his 2020 election loss. While many lawyers in Trump’s orbit have said they told him that mass election fraud claims were unfounded and that he couldn’t overturn the election results, Trump chose to rely upon a fringe group of lawyers that former Attorney General William Barr referred to as a ‘clown car.’ Since his indictment, Trump and his team have ‘repeatedly and publicly announced that he intends to assert the advice of counsel as a central component of his defense at trial,’ Smith’s team wrote.”
  • PBS: Citing Trump’s online attacks, U.S. prosecutors seek protections for jurors in election case: “Federal prosecutors on Tuesday urged the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington to take steps to protect the identity of prospective jurors, citing the former president’s ‘continued use of social media as a weapon of intimidation in court proceedings.’ Special counsel Jack Smith’s team wants U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a written questionnaire to help the two sides choose potential jurors in the case accusing the former Republican president of illegally plotting to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. But it also would give lawyers early access to the identities of possible jurors. Prosecutors said in court papers they are concerned about what Trump might do with research on possible jurors, pointing to his recent disparagement of the clerk of the New York judge overseeing Trump’s civil business fraud trial that caused the judge to issue a limited gag order.”
  • Politico: Special counsel to Trump: Don’t ‘friend’ potential jurors: “Special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday urged the federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. election-subversion case to implement measures aimed at protecting the confidentiality and safety of potential jurors. Smith’s team encouraged U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to authorize a questionnaire to begin screening potential jurors in early February, about a month before the case is scheduled to go to trial. That process would help weed out potential jurors who express an inability to participate in the case or judge the matter fairly, but it also would expose their identities to the attorneys in the case. The prosecutors prodded the judge to adopt several measures to prevent jurors’ personal information from being disseminated to the public.”

Rep. George Santos faces new criminal charges amid ongoing DOJ probe into wrongdoing

  • New York Times: Santos Faces New Charges Accusing Him of Lies and Credit Card Fraud: “Federal prosecutors on Tuesday filed a significant array of additional charges against Representative George Santos of New York, accusing him of new criminal schemes, including stealing the identities and credit card details of donors to his campaign. The new accusations were made in a 23-count superseding indictment that laid out how Mr. Santos had charged his donors’ credit cards ‘repeatedly, without their authorization,’ distributing the money to his and other candidates’ campaigns and to his own bank account. The new indictment filed in the Eastern District of New York added 10 charges against Mr. Santos: conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, false statements to the Federal Election Commission and falsifying records to obstruct the commission.”
  • CNN: Santos says he won’t accept plea deal and will run for reelection: “Embattled Rep. George Santos remained defiant on Wednesday after facing new federal criminal charges, insisting he would not accept a plea deal and that he will run for reelection next year. Santos, a New York Republican, claimed that none of the 23 charges against him had any merit, contending that he would fight them all in court and battle calls for his expulsion. ‘I’m going to continue to fight this as much as I said in the past. Nothing has changed,’ Santos told a small group of reporters in his office on Wednesday morning. ‘I think I’ve made it clear that I will fight this to prove my innocence. So yeah, I’m pretty much denying every last bit of charges.’”
  • Axios: Santos says he will “fight until the bitter end” over 10 new federal charges: “Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on Wednesday brushed off the 10 new charges filed against him, saying he is innocent and will ‘fight until the bitter end.’ Santos’ new comments indicate that the embattled representative plans to hang on to his seat, despite increasing pressure to leave office. In a superseding indictment in the Eastern District of New York unsealed on Tuesday, Santos was accused of conspiracy, wire fraud, false statement, falsification of records, aggravated identity theft and credit card fraud. Those allegations came on top of the 13 charges he received in a federal indictment earlier this year, which included wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying to Congress.”

In The States

NORTH CAROLINA: Republican supermajority overrides Gov. Cooper’s veto of voting law, Democrats and voting rights groups sue

  • Politico: Dems file lawsuit challenging just-enacted, Republican-crafted North Carolina voting law: “Two top Democratic organizations filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Republican-backed North Carolina election law moments after it went into effect. The lawsuit, filed by Democratic National Committee and North Carolina Democratic Party, tackles multiple aspects of Senate Bill 747. But the plaintiffs are specifically seeking preliminary relief on the bill’s provisions on same-day registration, which require additional photo ID and address verification requirements. Under those provisions, if voters opt to do same-day registration but do not have their submitted information verified on time, the ballot could be withdrawn under the new laws. The lawsuit was filed immediately after the GOP-dominated legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill, according to Biden campaign officials who have been working closely with the DNC and North Carolina Democrats to craft the lawsuit in anticipation of the bill’s movement.”
  • Washington Post: North Carolina Republicans override governor’s veto on key election law: “North Carolina Republican lawmakers on Tuesday overrode the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that overhauls who runs elections and achieves a long-sought goal of the state’s GOP. The legislation creates bipartisan boards that could deadlock on establishing early voting locations or certifying results in a state that may prove crucial in next year’s presidential election. Democrats and election experts warn the changes risk creating dysfunction in 2024, with Gov. Roy Cooper saying they ‘could doom our state’s elections to gridlock and severely limit early voting.’ The legislation, he said in his veto of the bill last month, ‘also creates a grave risk that Republican legislators or courts would be empowered to change the results of an election if they don’t like the winner.’ Republicans contend the bill helps guarantee elections will be run fairly by establishing bipartisan election boards that will take politics out of the process.”
  • NC Newsline: Overriding Gov. Cooper’s vetoes, the NC legislature makes it harder to vote, easier to pollute.: “The state legislature voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes of bills on elections, political appointments, and environmental protections on Tuesday, enacting laws that tighten voting rules, change election administration, and loosen pollution regulations. Two of the new laws are already being challenged in court. The Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic Party are suing in federal court over the new elections law, saying it makes it harder for some people to register to vote or have their votes count. The law would also permit an ‘influx of intimidating and largely unconstrained poll observers into voting places,’ the lawsuit says. Minutes after the legislature canceled Cooper’s veto of the voting bill, voter groups filed a federal lawsuit challenging one of the same law’s provisions as unconstitutional. Later, Cooper filed a suit in state court challenging the law reducing a governor’s appointments to state boards and commissions. The law violates the principles of separation of powers, the lawsuit says.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments over South Carolina congressional map

  • New York Times: Justices Split on South Carolina Voting Map Said to Be Racial Gerrymander: “The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday on a constitutional puzzle from South Carolina: how to disentangle the roles of race and partisanship in drawing voting maps when Black voters overwhelmingly favor Democrats. The difference matters because the Supreme Court has said that only racial gerrymandering may be challenged in federal court as constitutionally suspect. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Federal District Court in Columbia, S.C., ruled in January that the state’s First Congressional District, drawn after the 2020 census, violated the Constitution by making race the predominant factor. Several members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed unpersuaded by the lower court’s findings and reasoning on Wednesday. They said the evidence that Republican state lawmakers had used race as the predominant factor was circumstantial and consistent with something that is legally acceptable: trying to achieve the purely partisan goal of creating a district with a distinct conservative tilt.”
  • Associated Press: The Supreme Court weighs whether South Carolina targeted Black voters in redistricting: “The Supreme Court is taking up a new congressional redistricting case, this time from South Carolina, that could shape the fight for partisan control of the House of Representatives. Arguments taking place at the high court on Wednesday will focus on a coastal district that is held by Republican Rep. Nancy Mace. In January, a lower court ordered the district redrawn after finding that Republicans who control the state Legislature improperly moved Democratic-leaning Black voters into another district to make the seat safer for Mace in 2022. When Mace first won election in 2020, she edged Democratic incumbent Rep. Joe Cunningham by 1%, under 5,400 votes. In 2022, following redistricting driven by the 2020 census results, Mace won reelection by 14%. She is one of eight right-flank Republicans who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

What Experts Are Saying

Joyce Vance: “No matter how Trump’s lawyers try to dress it up and normalize it, it’s criminal conduct. Sure, Trump can have conversations with people, but when they’re about trying to change the results of an election he’s lost, they cross the line and are no longer within the official governing duties of a president, not even within the outer edges of its periphery.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith, in a filing on Monday on the classified documents case: “That the classified materials at issue in this case were taken from the White House and retained at Mar-a-Lago is not in dispute. What is in dispute is how that occurred, why it occurred, what Trump knew, and what Trump intended in retaining them — all issues that the Government will prove at trial primarily with unclassified evidence.”

Brenda Murphy, president of the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, for Democracy Docket: “The time is now for Black voters to be fairly accounted for and fully heard. Black voters should be able to meaningfully participate in the political process. We need legislators that can speak to our communities’ challenges to represent us and when we speak about our concerns — they listen. Black voters in the 1st Congressional District have already had to vote under an unconstitutional map once, during last year’s midterm elections, and should not have to continue to endure this indignity.”

Noah Bookbinder on X (Twitter): “Rep. George Santos’ outrageous and deceptive conduct has now resulted in a much expanded new indictment. His continued presence in Congress is an embarrassment and a disservice to his constituents. He needs to resign.”

Joe Cirincione, national security analyst, on Trump’s alleged sharing of US nuclear submarine info with a foreign national at Mar-a-Lago, on MSNBC: “If I had done this, I’d be in jail right now.”

Headlines

MAGA Extremism

Newsweek: Republican Group Blasts MAGA for Threatening ‘National Security’

MSNBC: Fox News is digging deep for shock value. That’s bad for media — and its audience.

Current Affairs: How the Media Turns Extremists Into “Moderates”

Trump investigations

Washington Post: A tantalizing detail in a new Trump legal filing

Newsweek: Donald Trump’s Lawyers to Get Classified Documents Back—On One Condition

Politico: Alex Jones to fight Georgia prosecutors’ bid to call him as witness in trial of Trump co-defendants

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

Detroit Free Press: Feds want ex-GOP governor hopeful Ryan Kelley to get 3 months in prison for Jan. 6 charge

Opinion

Washington Post: Why 70 aging federal jurists should make way for younger judges

MSNBC: Donald Trump’s ‘presidential immunity’ claim is absurd. It could still buy him time

In the States

Washington Post: Republican effort to impeach Wis. Supreme Court justice loses steam

Los Angeles Times: Newsom vetoes bills that would have mandated independent redistricting for L.A.

Ohio Capital Journal: How efforts to restrict democracy in Ohio also make it harder to fight climate change

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Report notes confidence in Virginia election process, areas for concern