NEW: Tonight, concerned that Trump’s escalating rhetoric about the standard instructions attached to the MAL search warrant will result in violence against law enforcement, the Special Counsel’s office is asking not for a gag order, but to modify Trump’s conditions of release. 1/
That matters because when Trump was first indicted, his bond — which he signed — made clear that his continued release was conditioned on his compliance with certain terms. 2/
For example, Trump’s order not only prohibits him from violating any federal, state or local law while on release but also precludes his speaking to any fact witnesses on a list shared with his lawyers about the facts of the case, except through their respective lawyers. 3/
But in asking to modify Trump’s conditions of release to prohibit his making statements that pose a “significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger” to law enforcement involved in the investigation and prosecution of the MAL case, the Special Counsel is upping the ante. 4/
Why? Because where a defendant violates a condition of his release, the consequences can include “the immediate issuance of a warrant for the defendant’s arrest, a revocation of release, and order of detention,” as well as a prosecution for contempt. 5/
But perhaps most importantly, if Judge Cannon denies this motion, it is immediately appealable to the 11th Circuit under federal statute, which provides in relevant part:
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/
NEW: Today, while announcing the indictment of Sean “Diddy” Combs, SDNY U.S. Attorney Damian Williams thanked the victims and witnesses who have stepped forward so far. But there is one whose story looms largest in the indictment: Cassie Ventura, his ex-partner. 1/
Ventura filed a civil complaint against Combs last November in federal court that was settled a day later. But the complaint is still available—and a quick read highlights that many of the incidents she alleged are also core to the indictment. 2/
For example, Ventura alleges Combs forced her “to engage in sex acts with male sex workers while masturbating and filming the encounters,” a key element of the “Freak Offs” details in today’s indictment. 3/
NEW: I watched a portion of the Trump press conference today--but it wasn't until I read his comments that I realized that just a day after New York's highest court upheld the gag order, he arguably violated it again. 1/
Trump focused his ire on "one person in particular" who he characterized as having been sent by the White House from DOJ to New York to get NY Attorney General Tish James's civil fraud case started, "then go to the DA in Manhattan." 2/
There is literally only one person he could have been talking about--but both the timing and context of his returning to New York after a stint at DOJ is not as Trump claims. 3/
NEW: Judge Chutkan vowed to enter a scheduling order before day’s end. And she did, granting Jack Smith’s proposal to submit a “comprehensive” brief on immunity, including supporting evidence, by 9/26. 1/
That briefing will wrap up by late October, at which point she “will determine whether further proceedings are necessary.” 2/
Chutkan also, as expected, is giving Trump a chance to move to dismiss on the ground that Jack Smith is “an illegitimate prosecutor,” as Trump lawyer John Lauro said in court today. 3/