A federal judge in Colorado on Monday ordered two pro-Trump lawyers who launched one of MAGAland’s many lawsuits aiming to undo the 2020 election to hand over $186,922 in attorneys fees to the defendants in their suit, including Dominion Voting Systems and Facebook.
Continue reading “Pro-Trump Lawyers Ordered To Pay More Than $100k For Wasting Everyone’s Time With Big Lie Suit”Oh Man, Professional Clown Gohmert Is Running For Texas AG
Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX), one of ex-President Donald Trump’s most faithful and wackiest foot soldiers in Congress, made it official on Monday night: He’s running for Texas attorney general.
Continue reading “Oh Man, Professional Clown Gohmert Is Running For Texas AG”To Keep An Eye On
Global geopolitics, especially in its military dimensions, remains mostly outside the purview of this site. But I want to make sure you’re current on some key developments around the world, any number of which could develop into crises fairly quickly.
We’ve discussed the on-going tensions over Taiwan. Last week there was a minor incident in Chinese Coast Guard vessels used water cannons on Philippine resupply ships on their way to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. The State Department sent out a message in which it pointedly noted that “an armed attack on Philippine public vessels in the South China Sea would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S. Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.”
Continue reading “To Keep An Eye On”Chris Wallace Had A Sad About Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 Propaganda
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Privately Complaining To Fox Execs
Fox News hosts Chris Wallace and Bret Baier criticized Tucker Carlson’s so-called “documentary” on the Capitol insurrection in private conversations with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News Media President Jay Wallace, according to NPR.
- The hosts’ complaints reportedly made it up the chain to Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of Fox Corp., Fox News’ parent company.
- Carlson’s documentary on Fox Nation whitewashes the Capitol attack as a false flag operation–apparently step too far for Wallace and Baier, who work for a network that freely peddled misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine and boosted the false “election fraud” narrative that led to the insurrection in the first place.
RNC Foots Trump’s Legal Bills In NY Probes
The Republican National Committee has been spending party funds on helping ex-President Donald Trump pay his defense lawyer amid New York Attorney General Letitia James’ and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s investigations into the Trump Organization.
- There hasn’t been any indication that the New York probes involve Trump’s presidency or his campaigns.
- The RNC paid out $121,670 to Trump’s attorney in October.
- The pretext? James vowed to crack down on the former president and his shady business practices, a source told the Washington Post.
- The RNC reportedly isn’t footing the bill for Trump’s legal battles with the House Jan. 6 select committee over White House records connected to the events of the Capitol insurrection.
Waukesha Christmas Parade Driver Charged With 5 Counts Of Murder
Darrell Brooks was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide after he allegedly plowed an SUV into the crowd at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin on Sunday.
- Brooks has a criminal history that includes domestic abuse.
- 48 other people were injured in the incident, according to local authorities.
- Authorities say they believe Brooks acted alone, and that there aren’t indications that the attack was tied to terrorism.
Pro-Trump Lawyers Must Cough Up Attorneys Fees For Big Lie Lawsuit
More consequences for pro-Trump attorneys who tried to use the courts to steal the election: A federal judge in Colorado ordered lawyers Gary Fielder and Ernest John Walker to fork over nearly $180,000 in attorneys fees to the defendants in their Big Lie lawsuit.
- Their lawsuit was used to “manipulate gullible members of the public and foment public unrest,” the judge wrote.
- The suit was “one enormous conspiracy theory,” the judge said in his previous ruling against the plaintiffs.
- The defendants were Facebook, Dominion Voting Systems, the states of Pennsylvania and Michigan and nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, an election reform advocacy group.
The Latest In Gaetz World
Florida real estate developer Stephen Alford pleaded guilty yesterday to trying to extort $25 million from Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) father and somehow get a long-missing FBI agent released from Iran in exchange for a presidential pardon for Gaetz, who’s being investigated for sex trafficking.
Gohmert Launches Bid For Texas AG
Reliable Trump toady and professional wack Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX) officially announced that he’s running for Texas attorney general, and of course one of the issues he’s focused on is “election integrity.”
Biden Will Run For Reelection, White House Says
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that the President plans to run for a second term in 2024 amid private fears among Biden’s Democratic allies that he wouldn’t do so.
DOJ Reaches Huge Settlement With Families Of Parkland Shooting Victims
The Justice Department will pay $127.5 million to 16 families of the victims of the 2018 Parkland high school massacre, who accused the FBI of failing to act on tips about the shooter before the attack.
US Included In List Of ‘Backsliding’ Democracies For First Time
Congratulations, America! We’ve been added to the list of “backsliding” democracies by International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a European think tank based in Sweden.
- The U.S. fell victim to “authoritarian tendencies,” IDEA wrote in its 2021 report.
- The group’s assessment is based on–you guessed it–Trump’s presidency. The report pointed specifically to his desperate crusade to undermine the 2020 election, leading to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
TaskRabbit For Murder-For-Hire
A Michigan woman is going to jail because she tried to hire a hitman to kill her ex-husband through RentAHitman.com, a service purportedly run by a man named (and I’m not kidding about this) “Guido Fanelli.”
- It’s a fake website owned by a guy in California, and he’s gotten hundreds of murder requests via the “service request form” on the site.
- The now-convicted Michigan woman even noted in her request that it was “kind of weird” that Guido’s service was right there out in the open instead of the dark web. Also, “I prefer not going to jail,” she wrote in her email.
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‘It’s Cheap’: Rittenhouse Attorney Disses House GOPers’ Internship Offers To Acquitted Teen
Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense attorney Mark Richards on Monday took aim at the multiple House Republicans who have offered an internship to his client, days after Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges related to his shooting of three people (two fatally) during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
Continue reading “‘It’s Cheap’: Rittenhouse Attorney Disses House GOPers’ Internship Offers To Acquitted Teen”Where Things Stand: Now Look What We’ve Gone And Done
It’s all Matt Shuham’s fault.
Back in May, Matt interviewed the lawyer for the most high-profile Jan. 6 defendant of them all: Jacob Chansley, the QAnon shaman. The quotes from the lawyer were enough to peel your hair back.
Now they may*** be the basis for an ineffective assistance of counsel appeal from Chansley, who has already pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Now Look What We’ve Gone And Done”Stunning Details
The horrific vehicular homicides at the Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin has even more jaw-dropping details behind it. Earlier today The Washington Post and other publications reported that when suspect Darrell Brook Jr plowed through the parade he was fleeing from the scene of a knife fight after police were called. That made it seem like – at least in a very narrow sense – plowing into the people in the parade wasn’t part of some plan but part of reckless driving trying to avoid arrest.
But a new report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reveals that earlier this month Brooks was arrested for intentionally running over a woman in a gas station parking lot after chasing her to the gas station after a fight. Brooks posted a $1,000 bond for the attack at the gas station and was released from the Milwaukee County Jail on November 16th, last Tuesday.
Continue reading “Stunning Details”Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Others
The Jan. 6 Committee sent subpoenas to five more people involved in organizing rallies on the day of the Capitol insurrection, including Roger Stone and Alex Jones.
Continue reading “Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Others”Closing Arguments Continue In Ahmaud Arbery Murder Trial
Closing arguments began Monday in the murder trial of three white men — Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael and William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. — who are accused of murdering 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, while he was out on a jog near his home town of Brunswick, Georgia, in February last year.
Follow along with our coverage below.
Fight Breaks Out Over Who Exactly Represents QAnon Shaman In Court
Around midday Monday, news surfaced that “Q Shaman” Jacob Chansley apparently had new legal representation: infamous and prolific conservative attorney John Pierce.
Hours later, his existing lawyer, Albert Watkins, denied to TPM that any change had taken place.
Pierce had indicated in a court filing that he’d be taking over Chansley’s case — and said in a statement that he might pursue an appeal based on Watkins’ ineffective legal work.
In an email to TPM a few hours later, Watkins fired back directly at Pierce.
“Upon noting today’s entry of appearance of John M. Pierce, Esq. in Mr. Chansley’s J6 case, Watkins personally spoke with Mr. Chansley who confirmed he did not personally authorize Mr. Pierce to represent him and confirmed Watkins’ continuing representation of the man who has become universally known as ‘The Shaman,’” Watkins wrote.
Pierce did not immediately return TPM’s emailed request for comment on Watkin’s statement. A phone call addressed to Pierce went to a voicemail that had not been set up.
Watkins, too, said he had not heard back from Pierce. “Watkins issued a letter to Mr. Pierce confirming he had not received any contact from Mr. Pierce and requesting the prompt withdrawal of his entry of appearance,” he told TPM in an email. “No response from Pierce has been forthcoming.”
Pierce is the former Kyle Rittenhouse attorney who has represented more than a dozen different defendants charged in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. He made headlines in August after suddenly disappearing for more than a week, and came back only saying that he had been hospitalized while declining to state why.
In a court filing in Chansley’s criminal case and a statement midday Monday, Piece claimed to be repping Chansley as the Q Shaman mulled whether to file a direct appeal of his conviction and sentence of 41 months in prison, imposed last week by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth for the District of Columbia.
Lamberth had not yet approved Pierce’s request; nor had Watkins petitioned for the judge to allow him to depart the case.
The statement, issued by a non-profit associated with Pierce, indicated that Chansley may file claims of “ineffective assistance of counsel” — in effect arguing that the Q Shaman was so poorly represented that his conviction should be reversed. The statement said William Shipley, another attorney who has represented Jan. 6 defendants, would be representing Chansley alongside Pierce.
“It appears a third-party named under a power-of-attorney for financial matters for Mr. Chansley may have attempted to use the power-of-attorney to serve as authority to engage Mr. Pierce,” Watkins told TPM.
Watkins’ representation of Chansley caused a stir earlier this year, when he remarked that many of the Jan. 6 defendants are “short-bus people.”
“A lot of these defendants — and I’m going to use this colloquial term, perhaps disrespectfully — but they’re all fucking short-bus people,” Watkins told TPM. “These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded, they’re on the goddamn spectrum.”
That statement led one co-defendant of the attorney’s clients to say that Watkins had made a fair trial impossible.
On Jan. 6, Chansley paraded around the Capitol building in full shamanic regalia, making it to the Senate dais while carrying a spear. Federal prosecutors said that he left a note for Mike Pence during his time in the chambers of power which read “justice is coming.”
For Chansley, justice began to arrive three days later, on his Jan. 9 arrest.
With Watkins representing him, Chansley pleaded guilty to a single count of obstructing a congressional proceeding in September. Per that agreement, Chansley agreed to a sentence range of between 41 and 51 months in prison.
Judge Lambert sentenced Chansley last week to the lower end of that range, imposing a sentence of 41 months followed by three years probation.
The National Constitutional Law Union, a non-profit that Pierce founded, issued the statement announcing Pierce’s representation of Chansley. It said that funds from the organization will finance Pierce’s representation of Chansley.
It also cast Chansley and other Jan. 6 defendants as participants in “protests,” while noting that the group is “committed to zealously defending their interests against the predations of governmental actors.”