NEW: THREAD: Remember when Jack Smith filed a motion to compel Donald to notify the court by 12/20 whether he was going to employ an “advice of counsel” defense? Well, haha, Donald has filed his response. Here’s a refresher on the DoJ filing. 1/
First, Donald wants to know why DoJ doesn’t also have to provide a defense. Probably because the prosecution doesn’t provide a defense. But what do I know? 2/
Here, he makes the same “It’s so hard to review discovery and the schedule isn’t fair” argument that the judge has shot down multiple times. She’s not going to be happy that they keep making the same failed argument. Look for the judge to mention that. 3/
This is funny. Trump is mad that the DoJ wants him to turn over evidence before he decides whether he’s going to use the evidence. But DoJ only wants it AFTER he decides to use the defense. That’s what the whole motion was about. The Judge isn’t going to like this, either. 4/
Oh my. Haha he’s actually arguing that he can’t possibly decide his defense without having the discovery. Which he has/will have by December. Also, “the cross and the sword”? Does he mean “the sword and the shield”? 5/
This is funny. Trump says his constitutional rights are being trampled. His lawyers told the world a hundred times he planned on using advice of counsel defense. So I guess it was his own lawyers that did the trampling. Lulz 6/
This footnote, good lord. The prosecution DOES recognize it has an obligation to produce discovery it recovers from investigation. That’s why they want you to TELL THEM about your defense. So they can investigate your production and reciprocate. 🤦♀️ 7/
Pfffffft. “You can’t make this demand! But you should have made it sooner!” 8/
Oh this is rich. “DoJ should have to give us all the stuff that we ourselves created and/or already have.” 9/
There it is. Sword and shield. So they know the phrase at least. 10/
And the best for last. “YOU CANT HAVE MY DEFENSE EARLY but I’ll totally give it to you early. How about January 15 instead of December 20? 11/
THREAD: There’s a new piece out in the Times. I’ll link a gift version in a minute. But man, seems odd to mention McDonald trying to rig the Nevada primary for Donald without mentioning he could be a witness against him in the March DC coup trial. 1/
McDonald is one of the fraudulent electors Jack smith gave immunity to in exchange for testimony. Also, this is funny. Cuccinelli is SURPRISED that Donald is rigging the primaries! I feel like if he thinks for a few more minutes, he might figure it out. 2/
Again, zero mention by the Times of the COUP TRIAL set to begin the day before trump’s rigged CA primary takes place. Seems like some significant context. 3/
THREAD: An outline of what Andy McCabe and I will cover on this Sunday's episode of the JACK podcast.
1. Jack Smith's scathing response to Trump's motion to delay his Florida trial from May 2024 to December 2024. 1/
2. Jack Smith indicates he intends to prove Trump's motive for taking and retaining national defense information in the Florida case even though proving motive is not necessary. He will do this using UNCLASSIFIED evidence. 2/
3. The prevailing theories about WHY Trump took and retained the national defense information, violating the Espionage Act.
4. Judge Aileen Cannon and the October 12th conflict of interest hearings for Walt Nauta and Carlos DeOliveira. 3/
THREAD: I was just watching the former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on @DeadlineWH answering the question "how could this have happened", and he spoke about "The Concept". 1/
The Concept was the incorrect assumption that Syria and Egypt would not initiate a war with Israel that they could not win. That turned out to be false, and the result was the Yom Kippur War of 1973. 2/
Oren says there was a similar kind of concept at play here. He explained that Hamas wears two hats: their terrorist hat, and their government hat as the de facto sovereign of the independent Palestinian state known as Gaza. 3/
NEW: Trump has filed (in the DC coup case) for permission to subpoena: the archivist, the clerk of the House, the entire House Admin committee, Biden’s current counsel Richard Sauber, the general counsel of DHS, Barry Loudermilk, and Bennie Thompson. 1/
He wants to do this because he says Barry Loudermilk, the guy who lied 5 times about giving capitol tours ahead of the insurrection, told him that the 1/6 committee is withholding records. 2/
Here’s a list of the records he seeks via the subpoenas. 3/
NEW: THREAD: Jack Smith has filed a motion in the DC coup case asking Judge Chutkan to require trump to file his notice of intent to file an “advice of counsel” defense by 12/18. Let’s walk through it. 1/ documentcloud.org/documents/2402…
The DoJ reminds the court that if trump wants to use the advice of counsel defense - meaning “my lawyers said it was ok” - trump would waive ALL attorney-client privilege for all communications concerning that defense, which could lead to further discovery AND INVESTIGATION 2/
DoJ points out that AT LEAST 25 witnesses including co-conspirators, campaign employees, the campaign itself, outside attorneys, a non-attorney intermediary, and EVEN A FAMILY MEMBER - have invoked attorney-client privilege. 3/
NEW: THREAD: Jack smith takes trump and Judge Canon to school today in a scathing response to trumps unfounded motion to postpone his Mar-a-Lago espionage and obstruction trial until after the election. Allow me to paraphrase some key points. 1/ storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
First, Smith says “we told you his motion to postpone CIPA (classified documents) was just a precursor for a motion to delay the whole trial. But the court already rejected this dumb argument when he first tried to schedule his trial for after the election.” (Paraphrasing) 2/
It’s also pretty funny that Jack Smith reminds the court that there are still SEVEN months between now and the trial date, and that the court set that trial date less than three months ago. 3/