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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — September 14, 2023

By September 14, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Trump and other Georgia defendants challenge charges, seek to have case dismissed

  • New York Times: Trump Moves to Quash Most Charges Against Him in Georgia: “Former President Donald J. Trump asked a judge on Monday to throw out most of the 13 charges against him in the wide-ranging election interference indictment handed up by a grand jury last month in Georgia. A flurry of one-page motions from Mr. Trump’s Georgia lawyer, Steven H. Sadow, piggyback off more expansive recent motions by some of the other 18 defendants in the case, including one filed on behalf of the lawyer Ray Smith III. That motion gives a detailed critique of the 98-page indictment, arguing that its ‘defects’ are ‘voluminous,’ and that it is legally unsound. Among other things, Mr. Smith’s motion says that the charge of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO — which all 19 defendants face — seeks to ‘punish protected First Amendment activity’ and fails to ‘sufficiently allege the existence’ of a racketeering enterprise whose goal was to overturn Mr. Trump’s narrow 2020 election loss in the state.”
  • 11 Alive Atlanta: Former president Trump waives right to speedy trial in Georgia election RICO case: “Former President Donald Trump is waiving his right to seek a speedy trial in the Georgia case in which he and 18 others are accused of participating in an illegal scheme to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s filing is part of the legal maneuvering as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willisseeks to try all 19 defendants together starting next month. Most of the defendants have sought to separate their cases from some or all of the others, with many saying they will not be ready by Oct. 23, when a trial has been set for two defendants who have already filed demands for a speedy trial. The judge has expressed skepticism that all defendants could go to trial that day.”
  • AP: Georgia election case prosecutors cite fairness in urging 1 trial for Trump and 18 other defendants: “Prosecutors who have accused former President Donald Trump and 18 others of participating in an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia maintain that all the defendants should be tried together, citing efficiency and fairness. The case was brought under the state’s anti-racketeering law, meaning the same witnesses and evidence will be used in any trial, they wrote in a brief they said was filed Tuesday. Holding several lengthy trials instead would ‘create an enormous strain on the judicial resources’ of the county superior court and would randomly favor the defendants tried later, who would have the advantage of seeing the state’s evidence and arguments ahead of time, prosecutors wrote.”
  • Axios: What Meadows’ loss on moving Georgia case out of state means for Trump: “Mark Meadows’ rejected bid to move his Georgia racketeering case to federal court could throw a wrench in potential plans to do so for the case’s 18 other defendants, including former President Trump. The former White House chief of staff had the strongest of the bids to transfer his case so far, but doing so would require meeting a narrow provision that the case has a federal connection.”
  • ABC: Kenneth Chesebro files to have charges dismissed in Georgia election interference case: “Lawyers for attorney Kenneth Chesebro on Tuesday filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him in the Georgia election interference case, arguing that his actions were ‘justified’ because he was acting ‘within his capacity as a lawyer’ for the Trump campaign. ‘Mr. Chesebro, being an expert in constitutional law, acted within his capacity as a lawyer in researching and finding precedents in order to form a legal opinion which was then supplied to his client, the Trump Campaign,’ the motion said. Chesebro and 18 others, including former President Donald Trump, have pleaded not guilty to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia. Chesebro is accused of committing acts ‘in furtherance of the conspiracy,’ according to the indictment.”

Ongoing legal developments and implications surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot

  • Politico: Owen Shroyer, InfoWars host and colleague of Alex Jones, gets 60 days for Jan. 6 misdemeanor: “A judge on Tuesday sentenced InfoWars broadcaster Owen Shroyer — who shadowed his boss and ally Alex Jones onto Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021 — to 60 days in prison for breaching the restricted area. U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly handed down the sentence after contending that Shroyer, who never entered the Capitol building, played a role in ‘amping up’ the mob at a sensitive moment during the riot. Shroyer’s foray onto Capitol grounds came even though Shroyer had been ordered to stay away from the area under a court-sanctioned agreement for disrupting a House impeachment hearing in 2019.”
  • Bloomberg Law: First Cases From Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Reach US Supreme Court: “Two men want the US Supreme Court to nix Capitol breach obstruction charges against them in the first Jan. 6 cases to reach the justices. Edward Lang and Garrett Miller allegedly entered the Capitol grounds and wrestled police in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden, the Justice Department says. The cases are among more than 200 in which the government is using an Enron-era statute to punish rioters, according to an amicus brief urging the justices to take up their claims. At issue is whether a provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the 2002 law that grew out of the collapse of Enron Corp. and other corporate scandals, can be applied to the Capitol rioters who interrupted congressional proceedings, or whether the statute is confined to the destruction of documents or other evidence.”
  • The Guardian: Active-duty US marine sentenced for participation in January 6 Capitol attack: “One of three active-duty US marines who stormed the nation’s Capitol together was sentenced on Monday to probation and 279 hours of community service – one hour for every marine who was killed or wounded fighting in the American civil war. The US district judge Ana Reyes said she could not fathom why Dodge Hellonen violated his oath to protect the constitution ‘against all enemies, foreign and domestic’ – and risked his career – by joining the 6 January 2021 riot that disrupted Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. ‘I really urge you to think about why it happened so you can address it and ensure it never happens again,’ Reyes said.”
  • Washington Post: Former Proud Boys leader says prosecutors pushed him to implicate Trump: “Before he went to trial on charges of seditious conspiracy and other counts related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrio was open to cutting a deal with prosecutors. The leader of the far-right Proud Boys had been through the federal criminal system before, for selling stolen medical supplies in Florida, and knew that those who pleaded guilty can get much less prison time than those who go to trial. ‘I was looking and seeking what the plea offer would look like, right?’ Tarrio said in a phone interview with The Washington Post from the D.C. jail. ‘They didn’t want to give me a number,’ he said, referring to a possible prison sentence. I need a number. To me, the most important thing is when I get home to my family.’ Instead, Tarrio said, the prosecutors asked him what role President Donald Trump played in getting the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol. He said the prosecutors, accompanied by FBI agents in the Miami jail where Tarrio was being held at the time, showed him messages that he exchanged with a second person, who in turn was connected to a third person who was connected to Trump.”

In The States

ALABAMA: Alabama asks U.S. Supreme Court again to intervene in redistricting case

  • New York Times: Alabama Asks Supreme Court to Revisit Dispute Over Congressional Map: “Alabama filed an emergency application in the Supreme Court on Monday evening, asking the justices to keep in place for now a congressional map that a lower court had found failed to comply with orders to establish a second majority-Black district or something ‘close to it.’ The application means that the court is again poised to consider the role of race in establishing voting districts for federal elections, three months after the justices, in a surprise ruling, rejected an earlier iteration of the map that they said had diluted the power of Black voters. The request for emergency relief came in response to a ruling from a three-judge panel, which found that the Republican-controlled Legislature had most likely violated a landmark civil rights law because it had not drawn a second district aimed at allowing Black voters the chance to elect representatives. Instead, over the objections of Democrats, the Legislature approved a map that increased the percentage of Black voters in one of the state’s six majority-white congressional districts to about 40 percent, from roughly 30 percent.”

WISCONSIN: Lawsuit asks Wisconsin Supreme Court to block impeachment of recently elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz before Assembly acts

  • Wisconsin Public Radio: Lawsuit filed to block potential impeachment of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz: “A former candidate for the state’s highest court filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking Republican lawmakers from impeaching liberal Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, claiming impeachment would violate the state constitution and ‘nullify the vote’ of more than one million residents. Attorney Timothy Burns lost a 2018 state Supreme Court primary to fellow candidate Michael Screnock and current liberal Justice Rebecca Dallet. He is asking the court to issue an injunction blocking Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and other Assembly lawmakers from voting to impeach Protasiewicz or any other justice unless a majority of the court rules constitutional standards have been met. The suit, filed on behalf of two Protasiewicz voters, is in response to comments made by Vos and other Republican legislators signaling that impeachment could be on the table if the justice doesn’t recuse herself from two redistricting lawsuits before the court because of comments she made on the campaign trail calling GOP-drawn voting maps ‘rigged.’”
  • Associated Press: Senate committee recommends firing Wisconsin’s top elections official in process Democrats dispute: “A Republican-controlled committee on Monday recommended firing Wisconsin’s top elections official rather than reappointing her, clearing the way for a vote by the full GOP-led state Senate as soon as Thursday. The Senate elections committee voted 3-1 along party lines, with one Democrat abstaining, against confirming nonpartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe for a second term. Democrats have accused GOP leaders of improperly pushing through Wolfe’s confirmation after the elections commission’s three Republicans and three Democrats deadlocked along party lines in a reappointment vote in June. Monday’s vote comes despite objections from the state’s Democratic attorney general and the Legislature’s own nonpartisan attorneys who have said that without a majority vote by the commission to reappoint Wolfe, the Senate doesn’t have the authority to go forward with deciding whether to confirm or fire her.”

OHIO: Ohio Redistricting Commission reconvenes to start drawing 2024 legislative maps

  • Ohio Capital Journal: As Ohio Statehouse redistricting begins again, mixed opinions on whether things will change: “The Ohio Redistricting Commission will meet on Wednesday for the first time since May 2022 to discuss Ohio Statehouse voting districts. After well over a year of inaction, and five different Ohio Supreme Court rejections, the commission comes back to work with heavy criticism of previous maps, and a mixed amount of optimism among anti-gerrymandering advocates that things will change. ‘Even though activists from across the state wrote letters, attended, called (senators and representatives) … we know that those calls to do something different largely fell on deaf ears,’ said Petee Talley, head of the Ohio Coalition on Black Civic Participation, of previous efforts to comment on district maps. Court cases out of states like Alabama and Florida showed courts on all levels, including the U.S. Supreme Court, did not agree that racial demographics should be shoved to the side when debating voting districts. Groups like Talley’s OCBCP, the NAACP of Ohio and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative said in a recent press call they were happy to see the rulings after Ohio mapmakers admitted they were instructed by legislative leaders not to include demographic data in Statehouse maps.”

What Experts Are Saying

Lee Kovarsky, a University of Texas law professor, on Trump’s recusal motion (for Salon): “Not only is the motion weak on the merits, but it’s late. You have to file a recusal motion at the earliest practicable moment, and Trump’s known about all of this stuff since the case was assigned to Judge Chutkan. Much of [Trump’s] litigation strategy doubles as a media strategy. That’s all this is. It’s a way of riling his coalition up. I doubt his lawyers even wanted to file it.”

Joyce Vance on X (Twitter), on the denial of Mark Meadows’ appeal: “Meadows will now seek a stay from the 11th Circuit, but she will get the same result. The law is clear. State proceedings continue while removal proceedings are underway, and until they are concluded. The only thing the state court cannot do is enter judgment against a defendant.”

Norman Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, and Joshua Kolb for MSNBC on Alvin Bragg: “In light of the strength of Bragg’s case and his court success defeating Trump’s effort to remove the case to federal court, his willingness to push his case back to allow Smith to go first, in the public interest, is remarkable, particularly for an elected official. His actions — from the investigation he led to the public spirit that infuses both his indictment and his willingness to cede the spotlight — exemplify the legal profession at its best.”

Caroline Sullivan for Democracy Docket: “In Alabama, a group of Republicans filed a lawsuit challenging the use of optical scanners across the state. The plaintiffs argue that these machines subject ‘voters to cast votes on an illegal and unreliable system’ and ask for a hand count of the November 2022 election. (Hand counts are an important tool for recounts or confirming machine accuracy, but if used as a primary tallying method, they can add human error and inaccurate standards into the process.) Even Alabama’s Republican attorney general asked the judge to throw out the case. A similar lawsuit tried to end Arizona’s use of electronic voting machines, specifically optical scanners and Dominion’s BMD technology …the lawsuit was recently dismissed by a judge who called the claims ‘vague,’ ‘speculative’ and ultimately amounted to ‘conjectural allegations.’ Just last week, a New Hampshire man sued the state, trying to outlaw electronic ballot counting technology.”

“In contrast to these ‘speculative’ lawsuits, voting technology has, in general, helped more than hurt the accuracy and efficiency of voting and tabulating results. While aging infrastructure and underfunding of election administration are serious concerns, the claims raised by far-right activists aren’t based in that sphere of reality. Instead, these individuals create the very security breaches they are ‘trying’ to protect against.”

Dennis Aftergut for The Messenger: “Amidst all the news from Georgia last week about Donald Trump and Mark Meadows, no one should overlook the importance of the contempt conviction of Peter Navarro, Trump’s former trade adviser, in a Washington D.C. courtroom. A rule-of-law society’s answer is to defend our system of oversight on executive authority by prosecuting and convicting the individuals who unlawfully seek to weaken it. On Thursday, a jury of Navarro’s peers gave him that answer.”

Headlines

MAGA and the threat to 2024 Elections

Politico: Election experts warn American democracy is ‘under great stress’ ahead of 2024

Daily Yonder: Election Deniers Focus Recruitment in ‘Out of the Way Places’

Trump investigations

CBS: Judge in Trump’s New York case says trial schedule to remain the same, for now

CNN: Trump’s access to classified information restricted as he heads to trial in documents case, federal judge rules

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

The Independent: Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained

Opinion

Washington Post: What Trump’s call for his judge to recuse is really about

Slate: Trump’s Ploy to Evade Punishment for Jan. 6 Is Coming Into Focus

Vanity Fair: Trump’s Criminal Defense Strategy: Delay, Disrupt, Throw S–t Against the Wall and Hope Something Sticks

Daily Beast: Why Trump’s New Argument in the New York AG Case Won’t Save Him

MSNBC: Alvin Bragg keeps winning — and nobody’s talking about it

The Hill: Trump is up to his old tricks in asking Judge Chutkan to recuse

In the States

NC Newsline: Elections changes giving NC legislators more power move back to the forefront

KJZZ: Lake and Finchem attorney: There is no evidence voting machine manipulation occurred

Atlanta Journal-Constitution:189K inactive voter registrations canceled in Georgia