I am a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, worked on two Supreme Court confirmations, and clerked for two federal appellate judges.
The indictment and case against President Trump is outrageous and shocking.
But let’s get into the details.
Here are my 6 key points on the case:
(1) Interplay between the Espionage Act and the Presidential Records Act
A lot of my friends have spoken insightfully about the scope of the Presidential Records Act. I’d direct you to Mike Davis’s (@mrddmia) commentary on the subject, and also Michael Bekesha of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
(2) Classification and National Defense Information
I want to reiterate this point because it’s really important:
Just because something is classified—even Top Secret, SCI, NOFORN, FISA, pick your alphabet soup—does not mean that it is National Defense Information (NDI) within… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
(3) Walt Nauta and DOJ Misconduct
Far and away the most troubling side story to emerge from this saga so far are the allegations made by Trump aide and co-defendant Walt Nauta’s lawyer last week.
You may have missed it if you blinked. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media has… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
(4) Attorney Client Privilege
The indictment relies on a significant amount of information received, in one form or another, from one of Trump’s lawyers, Evan Corcoran, who was compelled to testify in front of the grand jury. According to news reports, the argument for breaching… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
(5) Timing: Why now?
This is not a legal defect in the indictment, but it’s an important point. Why are they bringing this case now?
They know that Trump is the leading candidate for president. They know he’s beating Biden in the polls. They must know how bad it looks for a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
(6) Jack Smith: Why him?
If you could pick any lawyer in the country to handle a controversial case against a former president, a case involving an aggressive, unprecedented use of the Espionage Act, a controversial law in and of itself, what lawyer would you pick?
This has been fun. Happy to answer questions, and I’m sure I’ll post more as the case proceeds.
It’s been pointed out to me that the final vote on McDonnell v. United States was 8-0, not 9-0, because Justice Scalia passed away before the opinion was issued.
My point still stands. The Supreme Court unanimously said that Smith overstepped and smacked him down for it.
And if you like what you’ve read, and want to help elect a conservative fighter as Missouri’s next Attorney General, check out our campaign at: votescharf.com
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The complaint by the Center for American Rights clearly lays out how CBS has broken the law:
Through their editing process, they effectively transformed Kamala’s answer into a totally different answer.
Under FCC and legal precedent, that constitutes illegal news distortion.
Center for American Rights has a very simple demand:
The American people have a right to know what Kamala’s actual answers were to the questions she was asked by CBS — so CBS should release the full, unedited transcript of its interview.
BREAKING: President Trump files motion to dismiss D.C. case
A short while ago in federal court in Washington, D.C., President Trump filed a motion to dismiss the case pending against him there for his alleged actions in the aftermath of the 2020 elections. The motion cites presidential immunity as a ground to dismiss the case in its entirety. This is a very big deal.
The motion persuasively argues that the D.C. case should be dismissed, and if past practice is any guide all proceedings could and should be stayed while this issue is litigated fully. Notably, this same reasoning should apply to the ongoing Georgia prosecution as well.
A number of legal commentators have anticipated this move, and in this thread I’m going to get into the weeds and review the core argument made—that presidential immunity is an absolute bar to the prosecution of President Trump for his alleged acts in office that underlie the federal prosecution in D.C.
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(A) Presidential Immunity
At its heart, President Trump is arguing that presidents, even after their terms in office are over, are absolutely immune from criminal prosecutions arising out of their acts in office that fall within the “outer perimeter” of their official responsibilities as president, unless they have first been both impeached and convicted by the House of Representatives and Senate. And he’s arguing that all of the acts he is alleged to have committed fall within this absolute immunity.
This view, as the motion filed today makes clear, is deeply rooted in bedrock legal principles, in caselaw, in the Constitution, and in actual practice dating back centuries.
In Nixon v. Fitzgerald, the Supreme Court ruled that a president has absolute immunity from civil liability for acts within the outer perimeter of their official responsibilities. In short, you cannot sue a former president personally because his official acts harmed you. This is unquestioned Supreme Court precedent, based on very serious, core separation of powers concerns. If a president were susceptible to civil suit for his official acts, the Court held that this would “raise unique risks to the functioning of government” in light of the “singular importance of the President’s duties.” The purpose of presidential immunity, the Fitzgerald Court’s view, is to prevent concerns about being sued clouding the president’s judgment and crippling his ability to act—presidents need to be able to discharge their duties to the best of their abilities without having to worry about being haled into court when their terms expire.
This well-established immunity doctrine has never been tested in the criminal context, for the simple reason that no president has been subjected to the sort of relentless prosecutions that President Trump has now been faced with, but the motion persuasively argues that the reasoning in Fitzgerald should still apply.
2/6
(B) Impeachment Clause
This view is also rooted in the actual text of the Constitution. The Impeachment Clause of Article I provides that, although impeachment proceedings do not themselves carry a punishment beyond removal from office, a party convicted after impeachment "shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”
By specifying that a president impeached and convicted could be subject to indictment, etc., the Constitution plainly and clearly implies that absent impeachment and conviction a president cannot be criminally prosecuted for his official acts.
Democrats impeached President Trump twice, and on both occasions the Senate acquitted him. Absent a conviction at an impeachment trial, presidential immunity applies to all of President Trump’s acts that fall within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities, and for these acts at least he cannot be prosecuted.
3/6
He's going to lose, and it's not going to be close.
Missourians are going to stand behind Josh Hawley.
But let's dig a little deeper on Wesley.
The receipts are telling.
1/8
Bell was first elected as St. Louis County prosecutor in 2018, unseating Bob McCulloch, whose offense in the eyes of the woke left seems to have been prosecuting violent criminals and supporting the police.
Bell was supported by some of the most radical leftists in America.
2/8
Bell took $57,500 from Real Justice PAC.
That PAC was funded largely by Cari Tuna, the radical leftist wife of Facebook founder Dustin Moskovitz. Tuna and Moskovitz have contributed tens of millions to radical left wing causes.
There is nothing antisemitic about opposing George Soros.
Today, @josh_hammer and I are launching Jews Against Soros (JewsAgainstSoros.com), a new grassroots coalition of Jews who oppose George Soros's radical left-wing agenda.
Soros directly spent $128.5 million on left-wing campaigns in the 2022 midterm elections, making him the largest political donor in America.
The Democracy Alliance network that he co-founded publicly announced plans to spend $275 million to defeat President Trump in 2020.
2/8
Soros spent $40 million funding radical left-wing prosecutors like Kim Gardner, Alvin Bragg, Chesa Boudin, and Kim Foxx, who have refused to prosecute violent criminals, turning great American cities into crime warzones.
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