Fox News published a piece this Tuesday afternoon reporting that more than 100 of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ former clerks had signed onto a letter defending the justice’s “integrity” and “independence.” The signatories argued that recent media reports on him unethically accepting luxurious gifts from billionaire donors and people with business before the high court are simply all “part of larger attack on the Court” and its “legitimacy.”
High profile circuit court judges like David Stras of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, Jim Ho of the 5th Circuit and Allison Rushing of the 4th (all Trump appointees) count themselves among the 112 signees.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) hinted on Tuesday that the Republican majority may permanently adopt the controversial House floor rules it passed for its special session, which offered state House Republicans a tool for silencing their minority colleagues and members of the public.
House Freedom Caucus member Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said Monday he is planning to introduce two amendments to eliminate federal funding for the three prosecutors who indicted Donald Trump — Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Monday was a taste of what’s to come in the weeks and months ahead, as multiple prosecutions of Donald J. Trump come to a head.
Dueling hearings in DC and Atlanta Monday morning. Mark Meadows testifying in Atlanta at the same time Peter Navarro was on the stand in his own case in DC. Rulings, decisions, and scheduling matters from multiple judges colliding on a crowded calendar. Legal journalists and court watchers doing successive deep dives into various criminal procedure rabbit holes.
It’s a lot. But it shouldn’t cause you any handwringing. Don’t despair. While these aren’t normal times, and some of the cases have historic implications, you can take some satisfaction in knowing that we’re still in the early innings. Little that is happening now is going to dictate the ultimate outcomes in these cases.
A lot of the coverage is going to focus on what’s not normal about these prosecutions. But there’s more normal here than not. The criminal justice system, as flawed as it is, is still regularized, procedurally predictable, and operates at scale. It can handle this.
We Have A Trump Trial Date!
March 4, 2024. A full two years sooner than Trump asked for. A reasonable starting point. It may not stick. Lots can happen between now and March.
But getting a big delay to the start of trial was, as TPM’s Emine Yücel reported from the DC federal courthouse, a key element of Trump’s defense strategy. So this was a setback for him, as evidenced by the histrionics of Trump lawyer John Lauro in court.
How’s Trump Taking It?
Well …
Another deranged tweet. Attacks prosecutor. Attacks judge. What could go wrong? pic.twitter.com/Zm1m3IlRb9
Florida lawyer files legal challenge to disqualify Trump from 2024 presidential race.
Bloomberg: Trump Sees Immunity Fight as Path to Delay 2020 Criminal Trial
TPM’s Nicole Lafond: Like Vow To Appeal Trial Date, Trump Often Makes Promises Online That Won’t Hold Up In Court
Mark Meadows Rolls The Dice
High risk/high reward strategy for Mark Meadows as he took the stand on his own behalf to try to get the Georgia racketeering prosecution moved from state to federal court.
The federal judge who must decide the issue promised to move as quickly as possible but indicated that it’s a complicated legal question with little precedent for guidance. In a sign that he might not rule immediately, the judge warned Meadows that he would have to attend his arraignment if no decision is issued by then. Arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 6.
Georgia Racketeering Miscellany
The arraignments of the 19 co-defendants, including Trump, in the Georgia racketeering case have been set for Sept. 6.
Now that indictments have been handed down in the Georgia racketeering case, a state judge has set a Sept. 6 deadline to file objections to the unsealing of special grand jury’s report on its investigation, with a target date of Sept. 8 to unseal it and make it public in its entirety.
Proud Boys Sentencing Gets Underway
Beginning today and over the next couple of days, the Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack will be sentenced in federal court in DC.
Significant in its own right, but also remember that prosecutors rightly consider the Proud Boys more culpable than the Oath Keepers were, and are accordingly seeking stiffer sentences, up to the 33 years.
And that in turn could arguably shape the sentence recommendation and ultimately the sentence for the big fella, Trump himself, if ultimately convicted for his role in trying to seize power unlawfully.
Longest Jan. 6 Sentence To Date: Stewart Rhodes
Here’s what an 18-year federal prison sentence looks like in practice:
Bureau of Prisons estimates a release date of June 12, 2037 for OathKeepers founder Elmer Stewart Rhodes in US Capitol siege seditious conspiracy case
That's after the next FOUR Presidential elections and the next FOUR electoral count certifications pic.twitter.com/O7olUtAs9C
Peter Navarro last-ditch effort to avoid a trial on contempt of Congress charges for defying the Jan. 6 committee did not go well.
RIP Joe The Plumber
ELYRIA, OH – OCTOBER 30: Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) (L) and Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher address a campaign rally at Lorain County Community College October 30, 2008 in Elyria, Ohio. With less than a week before the U.S. presidential election, McCain launched a two-day bus tour of the swing state of Ohio, where some polls show his opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) leading by nine points. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Condolences to the friends and family of the man himself, Samuel Wurzelbacher.
As for “Joe the Plumber” – the conservative-creation, the media-fabrication, the stand-in for a make-believe, working-class world that political reporters deify, the caricature of the small business owner – I’d like to be able say good riddance to that, but of course that archetype is far from gone.
Looking back on the 2008 election, it seems both quaint and a ominous portending of the collapse of the Republican Party into a fash-forward, radical rightist party. And of course many political reporters still pose as representing an imagined non-ideological working-class world rooted in basic common sense.
More Trouble For Matt Schlapp
The vice chairman of the board of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, resigned Friday and called for an independent investigation into additional allegations of sexual misconduct against Chairman Matt Schlapp.
House GOP impeaching Biden despite no wrongdoing or even evidence of wrongdoing.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy wanting to avoid a vote on starting the impeachment process to protect his more vulnerable members.
Anyone pretending that the entire House GOP won’t be on the hook for starting an impeachment process if they don’t vote on it.
WI Supreme Court Never Ceases To Amaze
AP: Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice accuses liberal majority of staging ‘coup’
WaPo: Wisconsin Supreme Court flips liberal, creating a ‘seismic shift’
2020 Election Still Not Over For WI GOP
Wisconsin Republicans are aiming to remove Meagan Wolfe, the nonpartisan administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. They kick things off today by hauling her before a state Senate committee.
GOP Silences ‘Tennessee Three’ Dem
In a special session called in reaction to the Covenant School shooting in Nashville, GOP lawmakers Monday temporarily barred state Rep. Justin Jones from speaking on the House floor.
Pope Gets Spicy
AP: “Pope Francis has blasted the ‘backwardness’ of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church, saying they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.”
2024 Ephemera
NYT: How Trump’s Election Lies Left the Michigan G.O.P. Broken and Battered
White House public engagement director Stephen Benjamin on social media posts comparing Trump's mugshot with MLK's: "I've not seen that and I feel better that I haven't seen that." pic.twitter.com/mnvJIXJD2p
As soon as U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set the trial date in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump for March 4, the former president posted a predictable tirade on his bootleg Twitter app crying “Election Interference!” and, among other things, vowing to appeal the scheduling decision.
“I will APPEAL!” he intoned.
As multiple legal experts on Twitter have noted, that’s not a thing. Trump can’t appeal the trial date, but he can try to delay it via pretrial motions.
Former President Donald Trump’s lawyer John Lauro came into Monday’s hearing, scheduled to set the trial date in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case, extremely hot.
The group pushing a constitutional amendment to buttress abortion rights in Ohio sued in the state’s Supreme Court Monday after the state ballot board approved language to appear on the November ballot that the group calls “misleading” and “deceptive.”
TPM reporter Emine Yücel was at the federal courthouse in D.C. this morning, where U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan set the trial date for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 case against Donald Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. She fed me information from the courthouse which I unpacked below.
Smith’s team had requested a January starting date arguing it is important for the case to be resolved before the upcoming presidential election, in which Trump is currently the leading candidate for the Republican Party. Trump’s team committed to dragging things out and argued in support of an absurd April 2026 starting date during Monday’s hearing.
Chutkan had previously shown interest in moving the case along quickly, but it was unclear if she would agree with prosecutors and allow the case to move forward alongside Trump’s trial in Florida related to his handling of classified records. At the end of Monday’s hearing she set the trial date for March 4, 2024, the same date that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis proposed for her case to begin trial.
This morning we’re covering a key hearing in the prosecution of Donald Trump, an important moment for the future of the country as well as the 2024 election. I also try to devote time to making sense of or simply identifying the big trends driving global history today. One which has fascinated me for years is the relative eclipse of state power in the favor of private corporations and individuals who in various ways act with the power we associate with states or become so powerful that they put themselves significantly beyond the power of states to control.
