Driving the Day
The case about attempts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia could take 4 months, as the state may call more than 150 witnesses.https://t.co/ie0apKUopa
— Defend Democracy Project (@DemocracyNowUS) September 7, 2023
Must Read Stories
Trump’s “prejudicial” remarks escalate clash with special counsel
- The Guardian: Trump’s posts ‘threaten to prejudice jury pool’ in federal 2020 case, complaint says: “Donald Trump is making ‘daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool’ in the federal criminal case dealing with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, attorneys for special counsel Jack Smith said in a court filing. Trump has not hesitated to criticize the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case. He has called her ‘highly partisan’ and ‘VERY BIASED & UNFAIR,’ pointing to her comments sentencing one of the January 6 rioters. Trump has also attacked Smith, calling him ‘deranged’ and someone with ‘unchecked and insane aggression.’ Chutkan has warned Trump’s attorneys about his comments. She has also imposed a protective order in the case, limiting what documents and other materials can be made with the public.”
- CNN: Clashes mount between Trump and his legal nemesis: “Special counsel Jack Smith is not done with former President Donald Trump and his entourage, despite charging him with four criminal counts over his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and more than three dozen other charges over his hoarding of classified documents in Florida. The clash between the hard-driving prosecutor and the world’s most famous defendant escalated even further on Tuesday, as new details of Smith’s widening probe into election interference emerged. The special counsel is now looking at how money raised off baseless claims of voter fraud was used to fund attempts to breach voting equipment in several states won by President Joe Biden, CNN exclusively reported.”
Trump’s lawyers preemptively alerted him to potential Mar-a-Lago FBI search
- Forbes: Trump Classified Documents: Lawyers Reportedly Said Ex-President Would Go ‘Ballistic’ If Forced To Comply With Subpoena—And Warned Him About FBI Raid: “Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys warned him the FBI could search Mar-A-Lago if he didn’t turn over classified White House documents in response to a subpoena months before such a search took place, ABC News reports, and lawyers believed the former president would go ‘ballistic’ if he was forced to comply with the subpoena—bolstering prosecutors’ case that Trump obstructed their investigation.”
- ABC: Trump was warned that FBI could raid Mar-a-Lago months ahead of time, lawyer’s notes show: “Corcoran’s recollections, captured in a series of voice memos he made on his phone the next day, help illuminate Trump’s alleged efforts to defy a federal grand jury subpoena, and appear to shed more light on his frame of mind when he allegedly launched what prosecutors say was a criminal conspiracy to hide classified documents from both the FBI and Corcoran, his own attorney. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and has denied any wrongdoing. The recordings, which have become a key piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump, contain information that was later described in Smith’s publicly released indictment and in media reports — but many of the details in them have never been made public.”
Tarrio sentencing and its implications for participants in the Capitol Riot
- The Atlantic: The Former Proud Boys Leader Finds Out: Say this for the Proud Boys: “Enrique Tarrio, the group’s former chairman, was sentenced today to 22 years in prison on charges of seditious conspiracy. Tarrio, who was not physically present at the riot after being kicked out of Washington the day before, was convicted in May. It’s the longest January 6–related sentence yet, and follows a series of long sentences announced last week for other Proud Boys: 17 years for Biggs, 18 for Ethan Nordean, 15 for Zachary Rehl—all of whom were found guilty of seditious conspiracy—and 10 years for Dominic Pezzola, who was acquitted of sedition but convicted of six other felonies. In May, Stewart Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years for sedition, in his capacity as head of the Oath Keepers, another group involved in the insurrection.”
- The Independent: Bombshell moment Proud Boys leader finally admits Trump lost 2020 presidential election: “As he pleaded with a federal judge for leniency on 5 September, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys admitted that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Enrique Tarrio, 39, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for orchestrating a failed plot to keep the former president in power – marking the longest sentence ever to date among the hundreds of cases connected to the Capitol riot on 6 January, 2021, an attack fuelled by Mr Trump’s false narrative that the election was “stolen” from him and ‘rigged’ against him. Before his sentence was handed down in US District Court in Washington DC, Tarrio apologised for his actions, branded the Capitol riot a “national embarrassment” and vowed that his days of meddling in politics are over.”
- Salon: Why the Proud Boys’ sentences matter: They’re scaring the rest of MAGA straight: “At the sentencing hearings for the five Proud Boys convicted for some of the most serious crimes related to the January 6 insurrection, the crocodile tears were flowing. Perhaps hoping for mercy from the Donald Trump-appointed federal judge, Timothy Kelly, one member of the neo-fascist gang after another claimed to have seen the error of their ways and promised to walk a better path from here on out. Dominic Pezzola, who had joined the group only weeks before the January 6 attack, declared himself ‘a changed and humbled man’ ready to return to a quiet life as an apolitical father and partner to his girlfriend. Joseph Biggs, who was functionally second in command of the Proud Boys on the day of the riot, claimed, ‘I was seduced by the crowd’ before claiming that he’s ‘so sorry.’ Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio claimed to be “profusely sorry” and called the cops he sicced his gang on ‘heroes.’”
- Rolling Stone: The Proud Boys Are Paying for Jan. 6. Are Trump and His Cronies Next?: “The capo of the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 — has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for his part in the seditious conspiracy to block the peaceful transfer of power to President Joe Biden following the 2020 election. Tarrio’s two-decade sentence — the stiffest yet for a Jan. 6 defendant — was handed down Tuesday afternoon in a packed Washington, D.C., courtroom. Tarrio’s prison term tops that delivered to Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, who received 18 years for leading that militia’s seditious conspiracy plot on Jan. 6. The sentence puts a capstone on judicial accountability for the leaders from both extremist groups, who were willing to resort to violence to keep Trump in office. The harsh justice handed down to the brass of these organizations adds ballast to the federal conspiracy case against Trump, for his role in the effort to overturn the election three years ago, though it’s unclear what kind of repercussions the former president may face — if he faces any at all.”
In The States
ALABAMA: After the federal court struck down Alabama’s new Republican-drawn congressional map, the state Attorney General appeals the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court
- Reuters: Alabama to ask US Supreme Court to keep Republican-drawn electoral map: “Alabama’s Republican-backed congressional map illegally dilutes Black residents’ voting power and must be redrawn, a panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday, a decision that the state said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That appeal plan escalated the stakes of a judicial decision that boosted Democratic chances to win back a U.S. House of Representatives majority in the 2024 congressional elections. The lower court’s ruling marked the second time that the judges threw out a map delineating the boundaries of the seven U.S. House districts in Alabama put in place by the Republican-controlled state legislature. The three-judge panel in Birmingham wrote that it saw little reason to give the state legislature a third chance. Instead, a court-appointed special master will create a new electoral map ahead of next year’s vote, the judges decided. At issue was whether the Republican-drawn map violated a bedrock federal civil rights law, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.”
GEORGIA: Georgia’s congressional maps get their day in court, could decide control of U.S. House seat
- Georgia Recorder: Georgia redistricting trial opens with debate over federal requirements for Black representation: “A federal trial that could recontour the political landscape in Georgia ahead of next year’s congressional and legislative races started Tuesday. The complex trial, which is expected to last through next week, focuses on a trio of challenges targeting the state’s congressional map – which helped Republicans gain a U.S. House seat last year – as well as district lines carving up the state Senate and House of Representatives. The lawsuits all argue the maps drawn during a special session in late 2021 violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court kept intact with its surprise ruling against Alabama’s maps this summer. This decades-old provision bars practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. ‘The Voting Rights Act was designed for a case like this one,’ said Sophia Lin Lakin, interim co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project. District Judge Steve C. Jones is presiding over the trial in the same 19th floor courtroom that has been the setting for the push by some defendants in the 2020 election interference case to have their trial moved from Fulton County to federal court.”
OHIO: Voting rights groups say prolonging legal battle is bad for voters, ask for their challenge to congressional map to be dismissed
- Associated Press: Voting rights groups ask to dismiss lawsuit challenging gerrymandered Ohio congressional map: “Ohio voting-rights groups moved to dismiss their lawsuit against Ohio’s unconstitutional congressional map on Tuesday, arguing that prolonging the legal wrangling over where to draw district boundaries isn’t in the best interests of Ohio voters. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Ohio and others, told the Ohio Supreme Court that they are willing to live with the U.S. House map approved March 2, 2022, and used in last year’s elections, ‘(i)n lieu of the continued turmoil brought about by cycles of redrawn maps and ensuing litigation.’ Democrats netted wins under that map — securing five of 15 U.S. House seats, compared to the four of 16 they had held previously. Ohio had lost one seat under the 2020 Census because of lagging population growth.”
- WCBE: Ohio elections officials concerned expired ID may thwart voters: “Elections officials in Ohio, looking at results of the Aug. 8 special election, are concerned that the voter ID law that went into effect this year might result in more voters being turned away at the polls. The Aug. 8 election was just the second one under House Bill 458, which requires Ohio voters to show valid photo ID in order to vote. The same law shortened the period to mail in absentee ballots. House Bill 458 passed last year and took effect in April, just before the May primary. The law spells out a number of forms of valid photo ID, including an unexpired Ohio driver’s license or state ID card, a U.S. passport or passport card, a U.S. military ID card. If a voter who does not have the proper ID casts a provisional ballot, that ballot cannot be counted. Aaron Ockerman of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials said he is concerned that the new law might result in a higher number of voters being turned away or ballots being rejected.”
TEXAS: Impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton continues in state Senate
- Washington Post: Texas AG Paxton pleads not guilty as historic impeachment trial begins: “The Texas Senate’s historic impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton, the conservative firebrand accused of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of office, opened Tuesday with him alternately denounced for betraying ‘his constituents and the sacred public trust’ and defended given ‘baseless’ charges and evidence ‘dumber than a bag of hair.’ Paxton (R), only the third official to be impeached since Texas became a state in 1845, left the chamber before a fellow Republican delivered the prosecution’s opening statements. ‘Mr. Paxton has been entrusted with great power. Unfortunately, rather than rise to the occasion, he has revealed his true character,’ said Rep. Andrew Murr, a lawyer and rancher with a handlebar mustache who led the investigation that culminated in the House’s overwhelming vote to impeach in May. He said he and his colleagues ‘uncovered egregious misconduct and abuse of office’ and alluded to actions by Paxton and his backers ‘seeking to intimidate the Senate.’”
What Experts Are Saying
Joyce Vance on MSNBC, about Fani Willis: “What she’s doing here is large in scope, it’s complicated because it involves a former President, It’s important because it involves election interference in 2020. but it’s not really outside of her wheelhouse,” Vance says. “This is what the voters in Fulton County, Georgia elected her to do in cases that involve violent crime and politics and public corruption and all sorts of fraud and it’s what she does.”
Marc Elias for Democracy Docket: “It’s been a rough year for lawyers tasked with defending Republican redistricting maps in court. At the beginning of this year, the conventional wisdom was that the U.S. Supreme Court would reverse two lower court victories achieved by Democrats and their progressive allies in early 2022. Then the seemingly unconventional happened.
First, in Allen v. Milligan, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision to strike down Alabama’s new congressional map for failing to comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA)… Then, weeks later, the Court rejected the fringe independent state legislature theory in a redistricting case from North Carolina… In normal times, the Supreme Court handing two high profile losses to the GOP would have settled much of the remaining lower court docket related to redistricting. We don’t live in normal times.”
Jon Lewis for CNN: “On Tuesday, US District Judge Timothy Kelly sentenced Proud Boys former chairman Enrique Tarrio to 22 years in prison, after last week handing down terms of 17 years, 15 years and 18 years, respectively, to Proud Boys leaders Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean. The convictions of four of the group’s senior members on seditious conspiracy charges are a victory for democracy and the rule of law. These sentences, some of the longest in the cases against those behind the Capitol breach, hold accountable the leaders of a neo-fascist street gang that served as the tip of the spear on the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.”
Amanda Marcotte for Salon: “It would be nice if these men would reflect on how they lost their way, but the good news is that we don’t need their penitence. Punishment is enough, especially when it comes to what really matters, which is deterrence. There’s ample reason to believe that the prosecution of the Capitol rioters — and increasingly of the coup leadership — is having the desired effect.”
Headlines
The MAGA Movement and the Ongoing Threat to Elections
Vanity Fair: “Insider” Election Threats
Trump Investigations
NBC: Georgia judge to consider Trump co-defendants’ requests to sever their cases
The Hill: Trump seeks delay for New York fraud trial
New York Times: Prosecutors Begin Case Against Peter Navarro in Contempt Trial
January 6 and the 2020 Elections
Raw Story: MAGA rioter blew Trump-signed stimulus check on plane ticket to rally that would lead to his arrest
The Hill: Cohen says Jan. 6 sentences ‘should be a warning’ for Georgia defendants
Opinion
New York Times: Alabama Cherishes Its History of Defying the Federal Courts
Washington Post: A crisis in U.S. presidential legitimacy is looming
New York Times: Behold the Free Speech Chutzpah of the Republican Party
In the States
Channel3000: Judge blocks Wisconsin officials from using federal voter registration form
CNN: Arizona GOP’s rebuff of one-day, in-person, primary highlights party’s rift over election security
Detroit News: Michigan Sheriff Sues His Own County For Election-Related Emails
