November 27, 2024: Our X/Twitter account (@threadreaderapp) got hacked and unrolls aren't working right now. We appreciate your patience until this is resolved.
Today, I learned that the court filing reflecting Trump’s bond in the civil fraud case was “returned for correction” and specifically, for the inclusion of a current financial statement and power of attorney. But all is not what it seems. 1/
The financial statement that is missing does not seem to be Trump’s. Rather, the court appears to be demanding these documents from Knight Specialty Insurance Co. to ensure that company is sufficiently capitalized and authorized to post the bond. 2/
As of tonight, those documents do not appear on the docket. 3/
Meanwhile, we still don’t know what fee Trump paid for the bond or exactly what collateral he pledged, especially as Don Hanley gave slightly different accounts to various media outlets. 4/
But you know who likely DOES have all of those details? Retired federal judge Barbara Jones, the court-appointed monitor in the case. Under a 3/21/24 order, the Trump Org must give her advanced notice of their efforts to secure surety bonds. 5/
The information she is entitled to includes “any financial disclosures requested or required, any information provided in response to such requests, any representations made by the Trump Org. in connection with acquiring such bonds…” 6/
“…any personal guarantees made by any of the defendants, & any obligations of the Trump Organization required by the surety.” 7/
And I can think of a courtroom full of journalists, as well as a bunch of lawyers in the New York Attorney General’s office, who would love to know what Barbara Jones presumably knows right now. FIN
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NEW: Today’s court order requiring Rudy Giuliani to place most of his possessions, cash, and even his NYC apartment in receivership for the two GA election workers to whom he owes $148 million reminds us what the Big Lie has cost its most avid mouthpieces. 1/
But while Rudy isn’t even allowed to keep his TV, a signed Reggie Jackson photo, or his grandfather’s watch, Trump remains locked in an airtight battle for a second presidential term, during which, if he wins, his legal problems will either disappear or at least recede. 2/
When Trump talks about the 1/6 defendants, he loves to compare their plights with those of those arrested during the summer of 2020 after George Floyd’s death. The conduct at issue is dissimilar—and distracts from the real issue. 3/
For McBurney, the timing was crucial. He acknowledges that a hand count of ballots could be “consistent with the
SEB’s mission of ensuring fair, legal, and orderly elections.” But when the rule is scheduled to be implemented a mere fortnight before the election? 2/
That’s a recipe for chaos, McBurney holds, especially where, as here, the “eleventh and one half hour” implementation put county election boards in the position of having to put the rule into practice without guidelines or training from the GA Secretary of State. 3/
NEW: I am watching a live hearing about the lawfulness of yet another Georgia Elections Board rule, this one requiring hand counts of ballots prior to certification. And Judge Robert McBurney wants to know why, given a “robust record of chaos” caused thus far, he shouldn’t just enjoin it. 1/
Because Fulton County Superior Court proceedings are live-streamed, come watch with me here: .youtube.com/live/-z0N1dHym…
So far, McBurney is approaching this in what seems like a measured way: He acknowledges that the rule does not require the counting of votes, but solely the hand counting of ballots to ensure the number of ballots cast, as tabulated electronically, matches a hand count. 3/
NEW: While Hurricane Milton approaches, voting rights groups in GA and FL are in two separate federal courts this afternoon fighting for emergency extensions of Monday's voter registration deadline for those impacted by Hurricane Helene and/or preparing for Milton. Stay tuned.
An update: The judge in Florida, Robert Hinkle, just denied the effort to extend the deadline there. More to come.
All that's been docketed is this one-page denial without any explanation:
Look beyond the result of today’s GA abortion decision, and you can see Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney stake out a broader, methodological position, especially in the footnotes. 1/
McBurney makes plain what many are afraid to say: that “the meaning of the Constitution is no more fixed than is the composition of the majority in the highest courts of the land — especially when formerly bedrock principles such as stare decisis appear to be on the wane.” 2/
He then explains “the interpretive challenge for the courts is in understanding what is encompassed in the concept of liberty” in GA’s constitution. And that is a problematic exercise, he insists, if one relies on textualism or originalism. 3/
NEW: Judge Tanya Chutkan has now granted the Special Counsel's request to file a 180-page brief defending its superseding indictment as compliant with the Supreme Court's immunity ruling. But don't get your reading corner ready just yet. 1/
Since last year, the federal election interference case has been governed by a protective order that dictates how sensitive discovery materials must be used. And under that order, virtually any material that was not already public or obtained by the defense on its own, not through discovery, is covered. 2/
That order makes plain how filings with sensitive material must be handled in any public filing: Either all sensitive information is redacted, and the parties agree as to those redactions, or . . . .3/