Uh, it appears that Brad Geyer and Jonathon Moseley, attorneys for #CapitolRiot Oath Keepers defendants Kelly Meggs and Kenneth Harrelson, have responded to a judge's denial of their request to file a 130-page brief by filing... 677 pages of documents.
Brad Geyer here regurgitates a popular anti-vax "fact" you might find on Facebook, but it's not true. Of the 312 million Pfizer vaccine doses that have been distributed in the U.S., ~257 million have been administered – leaving ~55 million doses available currently.
Again, false. Blatantly false. See above.
What Geyer is attempting to do is argue detainees at the DC Jail are unable to give informed consent to the vaccine. However, in his own brief, he says non-incarcerated citizens ALSO can't give informed consent because of a "steady stream of propaganda." So... why let them out?
Continues to be false.
Ah, the FDA and Pfizer are in cahoots to... ensure Moderna's profit margins, apparently. Also "vaccine corporatism."
Geyer invites the judge to "extrapolate" that, actually, maybe 2 million people have died from the COVID-19 vaccine. That would be more twice the number of people who've died in the U.S. from the virus – and all unreported!
The problem with VAERS is that it's self-reported. So the anti-vaccine crowd has been encouraging followers to mass report issues to try to skew the data. It comes with a huge asterisk normally, and is now essentially useless for COVID-19.
Geyer then goes into a long rant about the Nuremberg Code, which codified ethics for experimental medical procedures in the wake of Nazi war crimes. Another popular talking point among anti-vaxxers. usatoday.com/story/news/fac…
Geyer goes on to "cite" the work of Dr. David Bauer, a virologist at the Francis Crick Institute, who he claims has said the COVID-19 vaccine "decimates" the body's natural ability to fight viruses Except: False again. Here's Bauer responding to that: theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Here we go: January 6 defendants are being treated liked Jews during the Holocaust, attorney Brad Geyer implies.
There's just a lot going on here.
The 270+ page document appended to the filing is apparently just a print-out of every COVID-19 vaccine-related reaction reported to VigiAccess, which is the WHO's version of VAERS (also self-reported, so the same issues apply, just at a grander scale).
Many of the other filings are print-outs of news articles about disruptions during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.
Anyway, I'll update when Judge Mehta responds.
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Back in Greenbelt this morning to see if the Trump administration will agree to a 48-hour "pause" if Kilmar Abrego Garcia does in fact enter ICE custody next week.
Judge Xinis is fed up with the DOJ, which has so far failed to produce Abrego Garcia's immigration detainer as ordered. She's not going to take their word that it exists.
Xinis: "From day one you have taken the presumption of regularity and you’ve destroyed it, in my view.”
Abrego Garcia's attorney Andrew Rossman says ICE's third-country deportation policy is facially unconstitutional. It allows, he points out, immediate deportation to South Sudan -- which currently has this travel advisory from the State Department.
STARTING SOON: The Justice Department will argue the Trump administration did not violate a court order over the weekend by deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under an invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
Chief Judge James Boasberg: "I've called today's hearing solely to perform fact-finding about the government's compliance with my order."
Judge Boasberg says he's not planning on issuing any rulings today.
The DOJ has appealed both his TRO over the weekend and his decision to hold this hearing today -- although the latter, at least, to no avail. DOJ also now wants Boasberg removed from the case.
This hearing has gotten a slow start as Judge Reyes presses both sides to establish some agreed facts. For one, she asks DOJ attorney if the plaintiffs are all fit to serve:
“We don’t dispute that they are all physically and mentally fit to serve under the current policy.”
Judge Reyes: "If we had President Trump here right now, and I asked, ‘Is this a transgender ban?’ What do you think he would say?”
DOJ attorney Jason Lynch: "I have no idea your honor."
Reyes: “I do. He’d say, ‘Of course it is.’ Because he calls it a transgender ban.”
Judge Reyes isn't satisfied with either side's definition of transgender. She says the plaintiffs' is too narrow and runs into the same problems as the Doe 2 v. Trump case from the 2017 transgender ban.
Government's definition she says is too broad and ill-defined.
Changing gears a bit, at 3 p.m. there's now a hearing on a lawsuit filed last night by the foreign service workers union seeking to halt the Trump administration's wholesale dismantling of USAID, which they say has generated a "global humanitarian crisis."
The hearing is getting started. On the government's side is Brett Schumate, the acting assistant attorney general heading up the DOJ's Civil Division.
Schumate says the Trump administration is "unwilling to alter their current plans."
Trump's order pardoned people *convicted* of crimes related to Jan. 6.
Defendants still awaiting trial or sentencing -- the vast majority at the jail -- have not been pardoned. Trump ordered their cases dismissed. That's not going to happen at 11 p.m. on a federal holiday.
The two people apparently released from the jail tonight, the Valentin brothers of Pennsylvania, were sentenced on Friday. Thus, pardoned and released. wusa9.com/article/news/n…
The confusion is understandable. Pardoning is something the president can do by fiat. Dismissing a federal case requires a U.S attorney to file a motion with the presiding judge, who then must grant the motion and order the defendant's release.
STARTING NOW: Rudy Giuliani is back in federal court in D.C. as a judge hears arguments about whether he should be held in contempt for allegedly resuming defamatory statements against two former Georgia election workers. wusa9.com/article/news/p…
Judge Beryl A. Howell starts off by saying she'd hoped, after sitting through the civil trial and agreeing to a consent agreement, Giuliani would "stop saying such fabricated lies. Especially publicly."
Ruby Freeman's and Shaye Moss's attorney, Michael Gottlieb, says it's "implausible" that Giuliani was talking about anyone other than his clients on his podcast.
"Mr. Giuliani knew exactly what he was doing in making these statements," Gottlieb says.