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Defend Our Country Digest

Defend Our Country Digest — September 21, 2023

By September 21, 2023No Comments

Driving the Day

Must Read Stories

Trump urged aide to deny knowledge of classified documents, investigation reveals

  • New York Times: Trump Is Said to Have Told Aide Not to Acknowledge She Knew of Documents: “A former assistant to Donald J. Trump has informed investigators that the former president told her to say she did not know anything about the boxes containing classified documents that he had stashed at his private club in Florida after leaving the White House, according to a person briefed on her comments. The assistant, Molly Michael, who worked for Mr. Trump in the area outside the Oval Office and then in his post-presidential office, told the investigators about Mr. Trump’s comments when she was interviewed as part of the inquiry into his handling of sensitive government documents. ‘You don’t know anything about the boxes,’ Mr. Trump told Ms. Michael when he learned that federal officials wanted to talk to her in the case. Her account was first reported by ABC News and was confirmed by the person briefed on her comments.”
  • ABC: Trump wrote to-do lists for assistant on White House documents marked classified: “One of former President Donald Trump’s long-time assistants told federal investigators that Trump repeatedly wrote to-do lists for her on documents from the White House that were marked classified, according to sources familiar with her statements. As described to ABC News, the aide, Molly Michael, told investigators that — more than once — she received requests or taskings from Trump that were written on the back of notecards, and she later recognized those notecards as sensitive White House materials — with visible classification markings — used to brief Trump while he was still in office about phone calls with foreign leaders or other international-related matters. The notecards with classification markings were at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate when FBI agents searched the property on Aug. 8, 2022 — but the materials were not taken by the FBI, according to sources familiar with what Michael told investigators.”
  • Washington Post: Both politically and legally, Trump’s classified docs defense weakens: “In two of the four indictments looming over Donald Trump, the political considerations are hopelessly intertwined with the legal ones. Charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in Florida and Washington are federal ones, meaning that Trump has two avenues for defusing them: either being acquitted by a jury or earning a pardon from the president of the United States. Trump would be justified in thinking that the latter path is the more tenable one; after all, he’s on the brink of becoming the Republican nominee for president and is tied in general election polling with President Biden. At noon on Jan. 20, 2025, the president of the United States might be one Donald Trump, a federal defendant. At 12:01 p.m., he could be the first recipient of a presidential self-pardon (triggering a separate legal fight).”

Experts warn social media firms are unprepared for 2024 elections

  • The Guardian: Social media firms ‘not ready to tackle misinformation’ during global elections: “Social media companies are not ready to tackle misinformation during elections due to take place around the world in 2024 because of language barriers, experts warn. Global Coalition for Tech Justice, a movement of civil society leaders and survivors of tech harms, is calling on leading big tech companies, including Google, TikTok, Meta and X, to ensure that their platforms are equipped to protect democracy and safety during votes next year. In 2024, 2 billion people are due to vote in more than 50 elections, including in the US, India and the EU.”
  • Axios: Supreme Court temporarily halts measure to restrict government communications with social media firms: “The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that restricts communication between the Biden administration and social media companies. The move came hours after Justice Department officials asked the court to issue a stay on the ruling, arguing it violated the First Amendment. The lawsuit highlights the tricky role social media firms played in trying to police disinformation during the height of COVID-19 pandemic.While Democrats pressured them to do more to stop the spread of disinformation related to the virus, Republicans argued they were censoring viewpoints.”
  • Insider Intelligence: Threads and TikTok struggle to block misinformation and conspiracies: “Social platforms still haven’t figured out how to manage misinformation and controversial topics on their platforms after all this time. There are more challenges than ever for platforms trying to curb the spread of harmful content. Artificial intelligence rapidly created a wave of spam and misinformation that platforms have yet to get a handle on. TikTok accidentally blocked searches for ‘WGA’ and ‘WGA strike,’ abbreviations for the Writers Guild of America, while attempting to filter out Qanon conspiracy theories, the company confirmed following a report from Media Matters. Meta is caught up in a similar entanglement. It outright blocked any search related to COVID-19 on Threads, including the name of the disease and the word ‘vaccines.’”

Extremism in focus: far-right activism and hate crimes are on the rise

  • USA Today: ‘Attack on military readiness’ Human rights groups sound new alarm on extremism: “Human rights groups sound new alarm on extremism: Sounding a fresh alarm about white supremacism and extremism in the military, a coalition of more than 35 human rights groups, experts and faith organizations this week called on the Secretary of Defense to account for the department’s apparent lack of progress. “Extremism undermines the strength of the military and our democracy,” the groups, led by Human Rights First, wrote in a letter Wednesday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The letter cites a USA TODAY investigation published in July, which found the military could show almost no progress on a collection of reforms Austin called for more than two years ago.“
  • New York Magazine: Parental-Rights Extremism Is on the March: “Parental-rights activists have spent decades urging Republicans to join their far-right movement, which is deeply hostile to public education. Over the last few years, their efforts have begun to succeed. A conservative backlash against COVID-era school closures and masking policies led to the formation of groups like Moms of Liberty, which have since become standard-bearers in the broader fight against ‘wokeness.’ Parents simply want to protect children from smut and indoctrination, activists say. ‘Parental rights’ is veneer, though: The movement exclusively opposes LGBT content, sex education, and anti-racist material. They’ve banned books and threatened librarians and fired teachers. These activists are extremists, and so are their allies in office.”
  • NPR: Hate crimes in the nation’s 10 largest cities spiked significantly last year: “For the second year in a row, hate crimes in large U.S. cities hit a record high. That’s according to a new report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Chicago saw nearly 200 reported hate crimes last year. That’s up from 104 in the previous year. And that trend is continuing across the country. The 10 largest cities have seen an average increase of 22%.”

 

In The States

ALABAMA: Pro-voting plaintiffs ask SCOTUS to deny Alabama’s appeal for a stay in redistricting case

  • Roll Call: Challengers urge Supreme Court to allow Alabama redistricting order: “Several challengers to Alabama’s congressional map on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court not to halt a lower court ruling for an outside expert to propose new maps for the 2024 election. A brief from the challengers, including Alabama voters and the state NAACP, responded to a request from an Alabama official for the justices to intervene in the case. A three-judge panel has struck down the latest revised congressional lines drawn by state lawmakers, finding that the map still violated the Voting Rights Act because it has only a single district where Black voters would have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. The challengers told the justices that Wes Allen, Alabama’s secretary of state, is seeking a pause of that order, called a stay, to avoid facing the consequences of not drawing a second district where Black voters could elect the candidate of their choice. “The Secretary is not entitled to a stay to implement a congressional map that openly defies the clear rulings of the district court and this Court,” the brief stated.”

NEW YORK: State Supreme Court pauses the appellate court’s order to redraw the New York congressional districts

  • Politico: Republicans win a temporary freeze in New York’s redistricting fight: “Republicans won a preliminary round in the latest legal fight over New York’s congressional districts: the state’s top court on Tuesday declined to force a mapmaking commission to immediately start drafting new lines. The maps drawn in 2022 were tossed when the courts concluded Democrats didn’t take the proper steps before enacting them, leading to court-drawn lines that helped Republicans flip three House seats that were critical to the GOP winning House control. Democrats have since argued that they should now be allowed to redraft the maps for 2024 rather than rely on the existing ones for the remainder of the decade. There’s a lot at stake: The lines drawn by Democrats in 2022 would have given the party a significant edge in 22 of the state’s 26 congressional districts. The court-drawn one focused on creating as many competitive districts as possible, and those coupled with a relatively strong Republican year meant Democrats wound up winning only 15.”
  • Spectrum News: Expert: Latest New York redistricting move is a split decision: “Redistricting is a never-ending story in New York state. Both sides of the political aisle are fighting over whether New York should have another go at drawing congressional district lines by the 2024 elections, a critical question considering how close the numbers are in the House of Representatives. The latest ruling, which came down Tuesday morning from the state Court of Appeals, was an order that said the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC), which is tasked with drawing congressional lines, may start to work on new lines while litigation progresses. At the same time, the stay on the current maps continues, which is a win for Republicans. Jeff Wice, adjunct professor of law and senior fellow at the New York Census and Redistricting Institute at the New York Law School, called the split ruling ‘Solomonic.’”

PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania governor announces automatic voter registration in key swing state

  • New York Times: Pennsylvania Will Start Automatic Voter Registration: “Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could play an outsize role in the 2024 presidential election, will begin to automatically register new voters as part of its driver’s license and state ID approval process, officials said on Tuesday. The program, which was announced by Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, is similar to those offered in 23 other states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Voters must meet certain eligibility requirements, which include being a U.S. citizen and a Pennsylvania resident for at least 30 days before an election. They also must be at least 18 years old on the date of the next election. ‘Automatic voter registration is a common-sense step to ensure election security and save Pennsylvanians time and tax dollars,’ Mr. Shapiro said in a statement. ‘Residents of our Commonwealth already provide proof of identity, residency, age and citizenship at the D.M.V. — all the information required to register to vote — so it makes good sense to streamline that process with voter registration.”

ARIZONA: Arizona county elections director resigns after pushing fake claims of voter fraud

  • Associated Press: Arizona county elections leader who promoted voter fraud conspiracies resigns: “The elections director of a rural Arizona county who pushed false claims that voter fraud was behind President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss is resigning five months after being hired. Bob Bartelsmeyer submitted his resignation last Friday and announced he would return to his previous job as elections director in La Paz County, more than 300 miles (483 kilometers) west near the California state line, KVOA-TV in Tucson reported Tuesday. A public information officer for Cochise County did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Bartelsmeyer was picked as elections director in April by the two Republicans on the three-member Cochise County Board of Supervisors. Bartelsmeyer publicly shared memes on his personal Facebook page supporting Trump’s allegations of fraud and promoting the lie that Dominion voting machines manipulated the outcome.”

What Experts Are Saying

Professor Bobbie Eisenstock, California State University, Northridge: “The lesson from the recent elections is to expect more mis- and disinformation in 2024 including more targeted attacks using more sophisticated AI-enabled technology that can quickly generate fraudulent information and realistic-looking fake social media accounts. It is challenging to combat disinformation when tens of millions of people are sharing it.”

Norm Eisen and Richard Painter for Slate: “Donald Trump may not like Chutkan for a variety of reasons—she was appointed by President Barack Obama; she sits in the District of Columbia, which did not cast its Electoral College votes for Trump; she did not give him his 2026 trial date; and, perhaps most significantly, she believes people should be held accountable for their actions, not allowed to shift all the blame to others. All of this, however, is irrelevant to recusal of a judge under federal law. She should not and almost certainly will not remove herself from the case, and that is a good thing. If the issue is appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, or eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, it will likely fail there too.”

Former Federal Prosecutor Neama Rahmani on Molly Michael’s classified documents testimony for Salon: “Michael’s testimony is damning in the classified documents case. [It demonstrates] Trump’s knowledge that he unlawfully maintained classified documents, his intent to keep them from the FBI, and to obstruct justice.Sophisticated criminal defendants do not often admit to committing crimes, but if the jury believes Michael, that is exactly what Trump did.”

Joyce Vance, on X (Twitter): “Molly Michael will be an important witness in the Mar-a-Lago case. She personally interacted with Trump. And she’s the one who received lists he wrote for her on the back of notecards containing classified information, which he treated like scratch paper.”

Representative Terri Sewell (AL-7) for Democracy Docket: “Across the nation, MAGA extremists are working to limit voting access, undermine faith in our elections and dilute the power of Black and minority voters.The [Supreme] Court’s 5-4 Shelby County decision eliminated the [Voting Rights Act’s] ability to prevent states and municipalities from enacting discriminatory voting laws and unfair maps. The flood gates opened, immediately leading to a wave of restrictive voting bills, extreme gerrymandering, voter roll purges and polling location closures — all targeting voters of color… In the first five years after the Shelby decision, almost 1,700 polling places were shut down in states previously covered by the VRA, and in the decade since the decision, at least 29 states have passed a total of almost 100 restrictive voting laws. This year alone has brought a near record pace of anti-voting bills, with nearly 400 introduced in states across the country. Our nation has reached an inflection point. We must take action to protect our right to vote and our democracy.”

Headlines

Trump investigations

CBS: Attorney General Merrick Garland says “no one” has told him to indict Trump

The Hill: Chesebro, Powell allowed to interview Trump grand jurors in Georgia case

Newsweek: Trump Will Be Convicted With ‘Chorus of Republican Voices’: Kirschner

Rolling Stone: MAGA Lawyer Lin Wood Is Cooperating With Georgia in Case Against Trump

January 6 and the 2020 Elections

New York Times: Ray Epps, Target of Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory, Charged in Capitol Attack

CBS: Trump reiterates request for Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself from his D.C. Jan. 6 case

Axios: DOJ charges Trump supporter at center of a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory

Opinion

Washington Post: The presidential libraries’ moral fog dampens the defense of democracy

The Hill: If the Supreme Court won’t hold itself accountable, term limits can

In the States

Kentucky Today: Kentucky justices hear arguments over Congressional redistricting plan

Ohio Capital Journal: Ohio Redistricting Commission set to meet Wednesday, Dems introduce legislative map

NC Newsline: NC House okays GOP bills to alter election board appointments, open voting records