This Week: Trump’s Legal Troubles Grow Deeper as His Supporters Threaten Election Integrity in the States
This week, in the New York case in which the judge ruled that former President Donald Trump and his businesses committed fraud by overvaluing their assets, the judge fined Trump $10,000 for violating the limited gag order imposed after Trump maligned court staff on social media. Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen testified in court that he inflated the value of Trump’s assets to “‘whatever number’ Trump wanted.”
In the federal case against Trump for allegedly leading a coup attempt after losing the 2020 presidential election, the judge reimposed a “limited gag order” that prohibits him from making threatening statements against prosecutors, witnesses, court staff, and their families, and the prosecutor gave former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows immunity to testify against Trump. And in the Fulton County, Georgia, case against Trump for allegedly leading a vast multistate criminal enterprise to overturn the 2020 presidential election in seven states, the prosecutor discussed “potential plea deals with at least six” of Trump’s 18 co-defendants.
In Wisconsin, MAGA supporters in the state legislature advanced constitutional amendments to make it more difficult to vote and eliminate a funding stream for election administration. These proposals “stem from false claims” by Trump and his supporters that voter fraud “tipped the 2020 presidential election.” Also in Wisconsin this week, a judge ruled that a vote by MAGA supporters in the state Senate to remove the nonpartisan administrator of the state’s elections commission “had no legal effect, and lawmakers are barred from ousting her while a lawsuit plays out.”
In Arizona, a group of MAGA supporters filed a lawsuit asking a court to rule that unstaffed drop boxes are illegal. In a related manner, a gubernatorial task force recommended changing state law to “prevent voter intimidation” at drop boxes by clarifying that “the existing 75-foot protected zone around polling places also applies to drop boxes.”
In Georgia, MAGA supporters continue to fight in court in support of technicalities that make it more difficult to vote by absentee ballot and in support of a state law that allows for mass voter challenges, even though these challenges intimidate voters.
In Nevada, a federal judge threw out a lawsuit filed by “far-right” activists who attempted to block a bill to increase “criminal penalties for harassing election workers.” In Michigan, the state legislature passed a bill over the objection of MAGA supporters to make it easier to vote by allowing “free or discounted rides to help voters get to the polls.”
Gerrymandering cases continue to work their way through state legislatures and courts in many states. In Georgia, a federal judge ruled that the state’s legislative maps violate the Civil Rights Act and ordered new congressional and state legislative maps to be drawn before the 2024 elections, while in North Carolina, MAGA supporters in the General Assembly passed new gerrymandered congressional maps.
