Special Counsel Jack Smith just issued the first criminal indictment of alleged disinformation in my view. If you take a red pen to all of the material presumptively protected by the First Amendment, you can reduce much of the indictment to haiku...
...I felt that the Mar-a-Lago indictment was strong. This is the inverse. This is closer to the case against former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell where Smith was overturned by an unanimous Supreme Court...
...The press conference held by Smith only deepened the unease for some of us. Smith railed against the January 6th riot and made it sound like he was indicting Trump on incitement. He didn't. The disconnect was glaring and concerning.
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If Trump wanted to defibrillate the Justice Department, the Matt Gaetz nomination is the 100,000-volt option. The President-elect clearly wants an outsider without cultural or professional ties to DOJ. However, securing confirmation will be a monumental challenge...
...The nomination may have a curious effect on the nomination fights. It will likely draw fire and resources from other nominees. Indeed, other nominees may appear less controversial by comparison. However, it will also serve as a rallying point for a party left in disarray...
...The President-elect has a legitimate grievance with the Justice Department and a mistrust in the ability of that department to reform itself. Gaetz nomination strips away the surge protectors and pads to deliver a shock to the system...
The Manhattan case is delayed for a week. My friend Andy McCarthy has suggested that the delay could lead to a suspension for the next term. If so, that would hardly be welcomed by the Trump team. It would be a curious resolution to keep it unresolved...
...The other possibility is that in roughly a week, the court could dismiss the case. That would be warranted in my view. In any case, whatever the ruling, the ability of the Trump team needs to be able to appeal any case that is not dismissed. This case is riddled with reversible errors in my view. The one option that should be rejected, in my view, is suspending during the pendency of the new administration...
...reversible errors. I would be surprised if the option is suspension for the pendency of the coming term. It would produce the absurd status of a Damocles Sword dangling over the head of the president...
Roughly ten minutes ago, the "end of the filibuster" movement suddenly went silent. In the morning, the rights of the minority will suddenly become the cause célèbre of Washington...
...At the same time, the push to expand the Supreme Court fell silent as pundits and politicians embraced the nine-member court as sacrosanct.
...At the same time, the push to get Justice Sotomayor to resign became a campaign for the need fo continuity and longevity on the Court...
Musk appears to have prevailed in the litigation in Philadelphia against Larry Krasner. He will be allowed to continue his promotion to get people to sign petitions to support the first and second amendment rights...
... As I stated earlier, I do not believe that Musk's promotion violates federal law as paying for votes or registrations. Krasner seemed eager to pull Musk into court, but appears to have failed to convince the court. We are awaiting an order.
...We have the footage of Musk bringing in his sweepstake promotion for a successful landing in Philadelphia:
We are having a repeat from the Biden-Harris campaign in 2020 as Harris refused to say whether she voted for Proposition 36 in California for tougher criminal sentencing. In 2020, Biden refused to say how he felt about court packing before the election... dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…
...Crime is one of the top issues this election, but Harris insisted that it was too close to the election to make her views known. That rather counterintuitive argument flips the entire point of an election to hash out the positions on major issues...
...If you are running on saving democracy, it would be reassuring to give democracy a chance by being open with voters about your position on major issues like criminal justice.
DA Mike Mancuso has confirmed that suspicious registrations have been traced to "Field and Media Corps” of Fieldcorps. facebook.com/MikeMancusoDis… Fieldscorps is reportedly linked to Democratic campaigns, though this is a developing story. wgal.com/article/pennsy…
...Local media reported that the company's "website listed a number of Democratic campaigns as clients including Biden-Harris, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Arizona Democrats."...
...The good news is that these forms were flagged before the election. The question is the number of affected registrations. We still do not know many details, including confirming which campaigns retained FieldCorps. Since these companies work in many states, transparency is key on the patterns found in Pennsylvania.