Big picture of how Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell's arguments are going today in the Dominion Voting $1.3B defamation suit: Powell and Lindell are especially relying on perpetuating the idea of election fraud post-Nov 8, arguing that should protect them in court now
Powell's atty says she's protected bc she was filing election lawsuits, with witness affidavits accusing fraud
Lindell's atty says he's protected bc the election is still being "investigated"
(Giuliani's atty argued mainly technical issues in an attempt to throw this case out)
For a blow-by-blow of the Dominion court hearing today, see this thread from @jacq_thomsen, doing legal journo yeoman's work
Sidney Powell's attorney Howard Kleinhendler doubles down, 3.5 hours into the court arguments:
"We're not alleging out of thin air that the voting machines changed votes ... [But] here we are, we're showing you some smoke," he says to Judge Nichols.
Late into this 4 hour hearing, @jacq_thomsen and I kept thinking we heard the lawyers referring to the “I’m a pizza case.” And indeed, that case does exist. (Though it’s not a defamation case) casetext.com/case/imapizza-…
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New #longread this morning: How CNN obtained the dramatic videos of the January 6 attack.
It’s been a struggle for months, and one that’s become more urgent as political disinformation persists cnn.com/2021/06/20/pol…
This is the statement from a judge that’s stuck with me, as to why it’s important to see body camera and surveillance footage:
“It’s shocking ...I had to look at these a couple of times before it really sunk in”
Another judge, commenting on what he was seeing (well after January 6 and the impeachment trial, which showed some angles of the insurrection on tape):
Since 2 congressmen chose this week to teach the world the complicated business of serving lawsuits (and I'm relishing the opportunity to dump my process-server-anecdotes notebook), I've got one more story to share.
It's about the Proud Boys and Enrique Tarrio.
Tarrio was arrested, banished from DC days before the Capitol riot when he landed in town. He had allegedly destroyed the Metropolitan AME Church's Black Lives Matter banner in December.
On top of his arrest, the church sued Tarrio and the Proud Boys.
The lawsuit landed in DC Superior Court the same day as Tarrio's arrest, Jan 4.
The church's lawyers needed to get the suit into the hands of defendant Proud Boys International. So a process server delivered it to the group's registered agent, Jason Van Dyke in Texas, on Jan. 6.
Real talk: Rep. Eric Swalwell technically can't hand Rep. Mo Brooks his insurrection lawsuit when they pass each other in the halls of Congress or when they're both voting on the House floor.
To rewind, this twist came about yesterday. Swalwell sued his colleague Brooks, but Swalwell's lawyers (slash-their process server) say they can't get to Brooks, for a variety of reasons, some explained and some unexplained. Swalwell's team hires a P.I.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson reviewed lots of documents, found lots of misdirection from DOJ
-Barr's team was already working on telling Congress DOJ wouldn't prosecute Trump when appointees Steve Engel, Ed OCallaghan finalized a memo that was supposed to advise the AG on what to do
-DOJ lawyers in court trying to keep the memo secret told the judge it was legal/policy discussions, thus, able to be redacted under the law.
ABJ says it wasn't just deliberative, it was strategy too. DOJ was pretending in court it wasn't, she wrote
Next week marks 100 days since the insurrection, and it's now one of the most sprawling and intensive criminal investigations in American history.
Yet the crush of defendants and evidence in such an unusual set of cases created a logjam in court.
Flipping defendants was already in the works this week, per a court filing and my reporting yesterday.
But leadership at DOJ hadn't signed off on making deals w defendants to plead guilty. (Likelihood is that lots will go that route) cnn.com/2021/04/07/pol…
Guilty verdict of Michael Flynn’s former lobbying partner Bijan Kian, for illegally and secretly working for Turkey in 2016, will stand, 4th Circuit rules.
A trial judge had thrown out the jury verdict and ordered a new trial—but that was the wrong call, the appeals court says
The 4th Circuit said a jury was able to conclude that Kian and a Dutch-Turkish contact of his had conspired to work for Turkey and did not disclose the work to DOJ.
The court noted that it would “refrain from drawing conclusions with respect to Flynn’s alleged participation.”
What this means, in the big picture:
-Big win for DOJ in efforts to enforce FARA
-A reminder that Flynn Intel Group was advocating for Turkey’s interests in 2016–just as Flynn was about to become Trump nat sec adviser
-Flynn’s still got his pardon, and it covers the Turkey stuff