Official Trump Insurrection Rally 1/6/21 Fukkery, NY Probe, DOJ Probe & Georgia Probe Thread!

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Judge Chutkan's 'Important' Language in Trump Filing Outlined by Attorney​


Today at null

Trump Immunity Case: What To Know About Supreme Court Ruling

By Flynn Nicholls

An attorney has said Judge Tanya Chutkan made an important distinction in her Saturday ruling where she shot down Donald Trump's motion to dismiss the federal charges against him in the election interference case, in her first ruling since getting the case back off the Supreme Court.

Writing in her blog Civil Discourse, Joyce Vance, a former United States attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said Chutkan's reasoning carefully sidestepped one way Trump could have otherwise appealed if convicted.

Trump's lawyers had filed a motion to dismiss the four charges against him in his federal election interference case, arguing that the charges amount to a "theory [by the prosecutors]...that it is illegal to dispute the outcome of an election and work with others to propose alternate electors."

Chutkan rejected the motion and wrote that the argument "mischaracterizes his alleged conduct," which are not related to his political views, but rather allege that he knowingly lied to further a criminal conspiracy.

Donald Trump


Donald Trump at a rally in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021. An attorney has said Judge Tanya Chutkan made an important distinction in her Saturday ruling where she shot down Trump's motion to dismiss...

Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS

"The Indictment does not charge defendant for publicly disputing the election outcome and merely 'working with others' to propose alternate electors. Indeed, it expressly states: defendant had a right, like every American, to speak publicly about the election and even to claim, falsely, that there had been outcome-determinative fraud during the election and that he had won. He was also entitled to formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means."

Vance said that this was a critical distinction for Chutkan to make.

"This is important because this part of the indictment is critical to preventing Trump from raising a First Amendment defense on appeal if he's convicted," Vance wrote.

"Jack Smith carefully framed the indictment to clarify Trump is not charged with engaging in political speech that is protected by the Constitution, and Judge Chutkan picked up the refrain. It's the sort of painstaking care good judges take to protect the results in the trial court on appeal.

Vance noted that Trump cannot appeal this decision now and cannot challenge the ruling unless he is convicted.

"So, election in less than 90 days or not, the judge was ready to rock and roll the minute she got jurisdiction back," she wrote.

The Department of Justice has accused Trump of attempting to overturn President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory in events that led to the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, but the former president claims that he is immune from prosecution because he was in office when the alleged event took place.

Trump claimed without evidence that the election was stolen from him due to widespread voter fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to all four felony charges against him and claims the case is politically motivated.

After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 1, in a 6-3 decision, that former presidents have immunity for official acts conducted while in office, but not for unofficial acts, the judgment was handed back to Chutkan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Chutkan has ordered the defense and prosecution to jointly file a schedule for pretrial proceedings by August 9 and has scheduled a status conference with the lawyers for August 16.
 

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Judge sets Trump 2020 election subversion case pre-trial meeting for Aug 16​


2024-08-03T234713Z1413043744RC2N89ANK1UIRTRMADP3USA-ELECTION-TRUMP.JPG

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts accusing him of a multi-part conspiracy to subvert his 2020 election loss. PHOTO: REUTERS

Updated

Aug 04, 2024, 09:00 AM

WASHINGTON - US District Judge Tanya Chutkan scheduled a pre-trial meeting on Aug 16 in the criminal case accusing Donald Trump of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a court document showed on Aug 3.

Ms Chutkan’s order comes a day after she regained jurisdiction in the case which had been on pause for nearly eight months to allow for Trump to get his presidential immunity claim adjudicated.

She is expected to decide in the coming weeks which aspects of the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith must be tossed out after the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents are entitled to broad immunity for official actions taken while in office.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts accusing him of a multi-part conspiracy to subvert his 2020 election loss.

In a court document on Aug 3, Ms Chutkan said Trump will not be required to appear in court for the status conference on Aug 16. All parties were asked to propose a schedule for pre-trial proceedings by Aug 9.

Trump’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Ms Chutkan also denied two of Trump’s motions to dismiss the charges against him, one on the basis of statutory grounds and one on the basis of vindictive and selective prosecution.

Trump may file a renewed motion after all issues of immunity have been resolved, she said.

The Supreme Court’s decision to take up the immunity claim case, which it heard on its last day of arguments in April and ruled on July 1, made it all but impossible for the criminal case to go to trial before the Nov 5 US presidential election.

Ms Chutkan has previously promised to give Trump about 90 days to prepare for trial once the case returns to her courtroom, with a trial expected to last six to eight weeks.

Trump, the first former US president to be criminally prosecuted, is the Republican nominee for president. US Vice-President Kamala Harris on Aug 2 secured the delegate votes needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. REUTERS
 

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Garland on special counsel appointment ruling: ‘Do I look like someone who would make that basic mistake about the law?’​


By Dan Berman and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

2 minute read

Published 9:26 PM EDT, Tue July 30, 2024

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a press conference at the US Department of Justice on June 27, 2024, in Washington, DC.


Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a press conference at the US Department of Justice on June 27, 2024, in Washington, DC.

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

CNN —

Attorney General Merrick Garland stressed his unhappiness with the Florida-based judge who said his appointment of a special counsel to prosecute Donald Trump was illegal, saying he wouldn’t make a “basic mistake about the law.”

In an interview with NBC News, Garland was asked about Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling this month that threw out the indictment charging the former president with mishandling classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The attorney general, a former federal judge and a Supreme Court nominee blocked by the Senate, didn’t hold back as he spoke from a Justice Department library.

Judge Aileen Cannon in court on March 14, 2024.
Related article If the Trump classified documents case is reinstated, Judge Aileen Cannon would be difficult to remove

“Look as you well know, I picked this room for this interview,” Garland said in response to a question about Cannon’s ruling. “This is my favorite room in the Justice Department. It’s a law library. For more than 20 years I was a federal judge. Do I look like somebody who would make that basic mistake about the law? I don’t think so.”

Garland added: “Our position is that it’s constitutional and valid. That’s why we appealed.”

The Justice Department is appealing the ruling to the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of allowing special counsel Jack Smith to resume his case in Florida. It’s unclear if Cannon’s ruling will impact the charges against Trump related to January 6, 2021, in Washington, DC.

Garland said he followed the same process in appointing Smith as was previously done when John Durham and Robert Mueller were appointed as special counsels during the Trump administration.

“’Til now, every single court, including the Supreme Court, that has considered the legality of special counsel appointment has upheld it,” Garland said.

Iranian threats​


Garland also warned in the interview published Tuesday of threats against US government officials from Iran, saying, “I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Iranian plotting.”

He told NBC that “our intelligence community has made clear that we believe that the Iranians are attempting to kill or injure former high government officials.”

“This is an ongoing issue,” he said. “We have ongoing investigations.”

The attorney general also said it was “extremely alarming” that a would-be assassin was able to get so close to Trump.

“Democracy will not survive if people decide that the way in which they’re going to get whatever outcomes they want, or whatever other motive he may have, is by killing someone,” he said. “That’s why we have to find out what happened here, why it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
 

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What was a Florida judge who is presiding over a Trump trial doing in Montana?​


By:​







Photo illustration (Photo illustration via Pxfuel | Public domain).

Montana has suddenly become part of the storyline in one of former President Donald J. Trump’s federal trials, this one focusing on whether he took and hid classified documents from his presidency.

The federal trial, which includes special prosecutor Jack Smith, is being overseen by federal district court Judge Aileen Cannon, a judge appointed by Trump during his presidency.

Trump is also the presumptive GOP nominee for president in 2024.

However, reporting by National Public Radio shows that Cannon traveled twice recently to a luxury resort in Pray, Montana, to attend a conservative legal conference, but failed to disclose the trips, which some estimate cost in the tens of thousands of dollars apiece.

Federal guidelines do not prohibit a sitting federal judge from taking luxury vacation, even paid for by another person or group, so long as they are disclosed and documented.


Judge Aileen Cannon, a federal judge in the Southern District of Florida.

Since NPR first reported the story, Cannon has amended a required filing, documenting the trip, but who paid for the travel remains unclear. The conferences, which she attended at Sage Lodge, were sponsored by the George Mason School of Law, a conservative leaning law school with deep ties to Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society.

Cannon attended two “judicial education programs” sponsored by the George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, called the “Sage Lodge Colloquium.” Both were week-long seminars during the last week of September in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

The luxury lodge in Pray boasts a spa and locally-sourced food from the area. It bills itself as “the ultimate Montana luxury resort getaway.” A search for accommodations on the website reveals a nightly retail rate of between $819 and $5,436.

The lecturers at the seminars featured an array of scholars, experts, reading assignments and lecturers, largely from the GMU faculty. Some of the topics were esoteric, like “Law, Lawyers and Courts in Early Crime Classics,” to more modern topics like “Climate Change and the Common Law.”

Some of the speakers were better known in the region, including Cam Sholly, superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, who gave a fireside chat during one of the evenings.

Other presentations included several sessions by Todd Zywicki, a GMU Foundation professor of law and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. In 2022, he presented two sessions, according to the published agenda, including “Woke Law!” And “Unprofitable Education: Student Loans, Higher Education Costs, and the Regulatory State.”

The 2022 Colloquium was billed as a special “YELLOWSTONE” edition, and focused on land and issues of the American West, according to the schedule, with sessions on the history of public lands in the West, and titles of seminars, “This is MY LAND” and “Whose River Is It?”

The Colloquium partnered with the Property and Environment Research Center, PERC, an established and well-known group in Montana. PERC has its roots at Montana State University but is now a stand-alone organization that examines how free markets can improve the environment.

The 2022 session featured a session on “Bootleggers and Baptists,” an economic theory that posits some groups that would seem opposite support the same policy for different reasons. In the classic example, proposed by Bruce Yandle, both bootleggers and Baptists favored a prohibition on alcohol, but for different reasons. Both groups, who disagreed about alcohol supported the bans for their own gain. The theory examines how leaders in politics and the courts “broker” power within those groups, and the effects of those policies.

On Tuesday, Cannon also pushed back a deadline for filings in the case against Trump regarding classified documents, making it appear more likely that the trial may not resume before Election Day 2024. Trump’s trial was scheduled to being on May 20, but a new date has not yet been established by Cannon, according to the federal docket.

 
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