Thread by @dcstl

Last night the US Attorney for the Northern District of GA, BJ Pak, resigned before his planned stop date of 1/20/21. This is significant for a few reasons.

Thread:

First, it's important to state the obvi: Pak resigned on the day of the GA senate runoff elections. Which, no matter who wins, will be decided by razor thin margins, likely in both races.

No matter which party wins, if the margins are thin enough, the other side will conduct formal and legal electoral challenges. These challenges will carry more weight if they are initiated by the US Attorney's office, as opposed to being initiated by the GA GOP, or say Giuliani

There is no limit to the lawsuits, injunctions,TROs, etc that the actual US Atty can file in GA's fed courts to muddy up the waters between now and 1/20, thus keeping election results in limbo for weeks if not more. These challenges could keep the winners from taking the seats.

Which of course, could have ramifications on the makeup of the Senate as Trump continues his last minute deperation hail marys to remain in the White House.

The challenge for Trump is that he needs a loyalist in the Northrn Dist. of GA's US Atty's office. BJ Pak - with an entire legal career ahead of him at a a global law firm in ATL - would not throw away his career over frivolous and malicious lawsuits challenging today's results

And Trump didn't have time to find that loyalist. So he circumvented the line of succession to Pak's office and appointed Bobby Christine, a loyalist who is currently US Atty for the Southern District of GA. Christine will head BOTH districts for now.

So with Christie heading Northern and Southern GA Districts, Trump has a loyalist in place who can legally challenge the results in the places where the Dem votes are likely heaviest: in Metro Atlanta (Northern Dist) and Savannah (Southern Dist.).

A Trump loyalist in the Southern District is key here, because @ReverendWarnock is from there, and is likely to outperform recent history's GA statewide nominees, i.e. Michelle Nunn, Jason Carter, etc. Gotta have a US Atty prepared to challenge that increased Warnock turnout.

Important to note that Trump didn't touch the US Atty from the Middle District of GA, Macon. He didn't need to because he has the Dem voting centers covered with a Trump loyalist US Atty, once he appointed Christine to cover Atlanta (Fulton County) and Savannah (Chatham).

A skeptic would say that legal challenges were inevitable either way, because the elections would be so close. They will likely be in the margin that triggers automatic challenges/recounts. Maybe so.

But it would be foolish to underestimate the weight of these legal challenges coming from the actual United States Attorney's offices in GA, with the full imprimatur of federal legal authority. That means something.

Imagine the US Atty bringing actions against county election authorities in heavy Dem turnout areas like Savannah and metro. Atlanta. Imagine the US Atty brining actions against Dem organizations who architected increased turnout to achieve Dem victories in these races.

And I'm not talking civil actions to challenge results here. I'm talking civil actions to challenge results and criminal actions against organizers and groups who have done the work to flip GA blue presidentially, and potentially win two senate seats.

It’s not far-fetched at all. Criminal charges against organizers are an integral part of the voting rights struggle in the south. Just ask Jeff Sessions.

As US Atty for the Southern District of Alabama, Sessions prosecuted the Perry County three in 1985, Black organizers who increased registration and turnout in Alabama’s black belt throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He prosecuted them on absurd charges of voter fraud.

The only thing that kept the Perry County three from federal felony convictions and severe jail time was the @NAACP_LDF trial team, led by a young @DevalPatrick, who defeated Sessions at trial in the matter.

History has to be instructive here. As of today, Trump has his loyalist US Attorney in place in the heavily Democratic jurisdictions of Georgia. It would be irresponsible to think that federal legal challenges to tonight’s results will not ensue if either Dem wins.

The fact that he resigned two weeks ahead of schedule suggests to me that BJ Pak was not willing to be a stooge in Trump’s evil legal game. Bottom line is that the only United States attorney to resign today is the one covering a jurisdiction for today’s Senate races.

I’m praying that they don’t trump up – pun intended - criminal charges against the incredible organizers & workers who have done heroic work in GA over the last 10 yrs. To think that that couldn’t happen is ahistorical and irresponsible. It is the story of voter suppression.

Post script: earlier in the thread I said:

"BJ Pak - with a legal career ahead of him at a a global law firm - would not throw away his career over frivolous and malicious lawsuits challenging today's results".

Ask Cleta Mitchell, who assisted Trump on the GA SecState call.

Mitchell's law firm, Foley Lardner, accepted her resignation today. Serious big time law firms don't play that game.

cnn.com/2021/01/05/pol…

PPS: Here's an article for more information on Jeff Sessions' prosecution of the Perry County Three in 1985. This prosecution was by no means an outlier. Historically, it was standard practice.

nytimes.com/2017/01/09/mag…