After viewing his courtroom sketch for his $250 million New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump reportedly told the artist he’s “gotta lose some weight,” The Messenger reports.
Kenneth Chesebro Cooperating in Four State Probes
“The pro-Trump lawyer who helped devise the 2020 fake electors plot and already pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in Georgia is now cooperating with Michigan and Wisconsin state investigators in hopes of avoiding more criminal charges,” CNN reports.
“In a dramatic turnaround from 2020 – when the lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, was at the center of efforts by former President Donald Trump to subvert the Electoral College and overturn his defeat – Chesebro is now helping investigators in at least four states who are looking into the scheme.”
Trump Appeals Immunity Ruling
“Donald Trump filed notice on Thursday saying he will appeal a D.C. judge’s ruling that he was not immune from being charged with federal crimes for his efforts to undo the outcome of the 2020 election, either by his former role as president or the Constitution’s rules for impeachment,” the Washington Post reports.
“The notice is a minor procedural step. But it sets in motion one of the most potentially consequential parts of Trump’s legal saga as the first former president to be charged with crimes.”
“How and when the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court handle his appeal could have a huge impact on whether Trump — who is again running for president — goes on trial before voters go to the polls in 2024, or ever.”
A Looming Legal and Political Collision
New York Times: “The trial, based on charges that Mr. Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election, is scheduled to start in early March. And while the date could change, it is likely that a jury will sit in judgment of Mr. Trump before the 2024 election — perhaps even before the Republican Party meets in Milwaukee in July for its nominating convention.”
“Mr. Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination and is facing 91 felony charges in four separate cases. Putting him on trial either before the convention or during the general election would potentially lead to a series of events that have never been seen before in the annals of American law and politics.”
“It would almost certainly fuse Mr. Trump’s role as a criminal defendant with his role as a presidential candidate. It would transform the steps of the federal courthouse into a site for daily impromptu campaign rallies. And it would place the legal case and the race for the White House on a direct collision course, each one increasingly capable of shaping the other.”
Quote of the Day
“I take Trump at his word that he intends to govern as a dictator, and when he says he will do so ‘only on day one,’ he shows how much contempt he has for the country he intends to rule and the people he means to control.”
— Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe, quoted by the Boston Globe.
Georgia Prosecutors Predict Jail Sentences
“Fulton County prosecutors have signaled they want prison sentences in the Georgia criminal case against Donald Trump and his top allies for allegedly violating the racketeering statute as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to exchanges in private emails,” The Guardian reports.
Wrote Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis: “We have a long road ahead. Long after these folks are in jail, we will still be practicing law.”
“The previously unreported emails, between Willis and defense lawyers, open a window on to the endgame envisioned by prosecutors on her team – which could inform legal strategies ahead of a potential trial next year, such as approaches toward plea deal negotiations.”
Trump Returns to Court as Fraud Trial Comes to Close
The Messenger: “On Thursday morning, Trump is expected to return to New York Supreme Court for the defense’s final expert witness: New York University research professor Eli Bartov, who focuses on accounting.”
“Bartov is expected to be the second-to-last witness, and Trump himself is anticipated to be the final witness on Monday.”
How Trump Would Build His ‘Loyalty’ Cabinet
“Former President Trump, if elected, would build a Cabinet and White House staff based mainly on two imperatives: pre-vetted loyalty to him and a commitment to stretch legal and governance boundaries,” Axios reports.
“Trump would fill the most powerful jobs in government with men like Stephen Miller, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Kash Patel — with the possible return of Steve Bannon. If Trump won in 2024, he’d turn to loyalists who share his zeal to punish critics, purge non-believers, and take controversial legal and military action.”
Tim Miller: “This is about the most dystopian article ever written. Like asking ChatGPT to write about a fantasy Trump administration cabinet that blends Nazis and celebrities in the style of 2008 Politico playbook.”
Georgia Prosecutors to Call Key Trump Officials
“Fulton County prosecutors could call several senior officials who served in the Trump administration and Georgia’s top elected leaders as witnesses during the trial for their election interference case,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
“Among the names prosecutors have included on their almost 200-person witness list: former Vice President Mike Pence; ex-Attorney General Bill Barr; onetime Justice Department officials Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue; U.S. Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania; and Steve Bannon, the conservative provocateur and former aide to former President Donald Trump.”
Georgia Prosecutors Put Pence on Witness List
“Prosecutors in the Georgia election subversion case against former President Donald Trump have officially listed former Vice President Mike Pence as one of the witnesses who could be called to testify at trial,” CNN reports.
“Pence, who has appeared before a federal grand jury as part of special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has not been considered a major part of criminal proceedings in Georgia.”
Rudy Giuliani a No Show for Defamation Trial
“Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Georgia election workers who have been tormented by harassment and threats since 2020, were prepared Tuesday to confront the man they view as the chief instigator of their suffering: Rudy Giuliani,” Politico reports.
“But Giuliani was a no-show at a federal court hearing in the duo’s defamation lawsuit, prompting a lashing for his attorney by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who had ordered Giuliani to be present.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media… We’re going to come after you—whether it’s criminal or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice and Steve, this is why they hate us. This is why we’re tyrannical.”
— Trump adviser Kash Patel, in an interview with Steve Bannon, saying Donald Trump is serious about revenge.
Jack Smith Says Trump ‘Sent’ Rioters to Capitol
Washington Post: “In a new court filing, prosecutors working for special counsel Jack Smith went further than in their August indictment in attempting to tie him to that day’s violence, saying they intended to introduce evidence of his other acts both before the November 2020 presidential election and subsequent alleged threats to establish his motive, intent and preparation for subverting its legitimate results.”
From the filing: “Evidence of the defendant’s post-conspiracy embrace of particularly violent and notorious rioters is admissible to establish the defendant’s motive and intent on January 6 — that he sent supporters, including groups like the Proud Boys, whom he knew were angry, and whom he now calls ‘patriots,’ to the Capitol to achieve the criminal objective of obstructing the congressional certification.”
They added: “At trial, the Government will introduce a number of public statements by the defendant in advance of the charged conspiracies, claiming that there would be fraud in the 2020 presidential election,” laying the “foundation for the defendant’s criminal efforts.”
Jack Smith to Detail Trump’s Past Election Lies
Special Counsel Jack Smith told a federal court that he intends to introduce evidence that Donald Trump was lying about elections and voting procedures as early as 2012 as part of the prosecution’s case in the Washington, D.C. election subversion trial.
A MAGA Judiciary
Adam Serwer: “The federal judiciary has become a battleground in a right-wing culture war that aims to turn back the clock to a time when conservative mores—around gender, sexuality, race—were unchallenged and, in some respects, unchallengeable. Many of the federal judges appointed during Trump’s presidency seem to see themselves as foot soldiers in that war, which they view as a crusade to restore the original meaning of the Constitution. Yet in practice, their rulings have proved to be little more than Trump-era right-wing punditry with cherry-picked historical citations.”
“The 2016 Trump administration was focused on quickly filling the judiciary with judges who are not just ideologically conservative but dedicated right-wing zealots. But that administration ‘didn’t have all of the chess pieces completely lined up’ to get right-wing ideologues into every open seat, Jake Faleschini, of the liberal legal-advocacy group Alliance for Justice, told me. More restrained conservative jurists filled some of those seats. Trump and his allies will be better prepared next time, he said. ‘Those chess pieces are very well lined up now.'”
Corruption Unbound
Franklin Foer: “It didn’t happen all at once. Trump spent the early days of his presidency testing boundaries. He used his bully pulpit to unabashedly promote his real-estate portfolio. His properties charged the Secret Service ‘exorbitant rates’—as much as $1,185 a night, per a House Oversight Committee report—for housing agents when Trump or his family members visited. By the time Trump and his cronies left the White House, they had slowly erased any compunction, both within the Republican Party and outside it, about their corruption. They left power having compiled a playbook for exploiting public office for private gain.”
“That know-how—that confidence in their own impunity, that savvy understanding of how to profitably deal with malignant interests—will inevitably be applied to plans for a second term. If the first Trump presidency was, for the most part, an improvised exercise in petty corruption, a second would likely consist of systematic abuse of the government. There’s a term to describe the sort of regime that might emerge on the other side: a Mafia state.”
Cheney Says Trump Would Become Permanent President
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) told the Today Show that Donald Trump would install himself as a permanent president and refuse to leave office after the mandated two-term limit if he is reelected.
Said Cheney: “There’s no question. Absolutely. He’s already done it once… He’s already attempted to seize power, and he was stopped, thankfully, and for the good of the nation and the republic. But he said he will do it again. He’s expressed no remorse for what he did.”
Quote of the Day
“When you have a president who’s willing to go to war with the rule of law, to ignore the rulings of the courts if he doesn’t agree with them, that has the potential to unravel everything.”
— Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), talking to Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump.
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