1/After Trump AG Bill Barr dismissed the charges against former gen'l Mike Flynn that he had twice, under oath, pled guilty to, Barr was asked by CBS’ Catherine Herridge “When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written?”
2/ Barr, the failed public servant who lied to the American people, claiming that the Mueller Report fully exonerated Trump responded: “Well, history is written by the winners, so it largely depends on who’s writing the history.” I think about that a lot.
3/The next election determines both who makes history & as importantly, who writes it. Because truth is not important to Trump, he will claim vile deeds are great ones & whitewash horrible abuses. I don't want either the acts or the rewrites of them to be our future.
If you thought Bill Barr was bad, Trump has far worse coming.
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1/ Jack Smith asks Judge Cannon to modify Trump's pre-trial release order to require him to avoid making comments that foreseeable lead to harm to law enforcement.
2/Trump has been claiming law enforcement/DOJ/Buden Administration targeted him by authorizing the use of deadly force when the search warrant was executed at MAL. It's utter and dangerous nonsense.
3/Former FBI Agent & head of the counterintelligence division Fran Figliuzzi & I had a chat about this earlier tonight, discussing the deadly force policy is a party of every FBI Ops plan. open.substack.com/pub/joycevance…
1/For decades, GOP voters rallied around SCOTUS & the courts as a key reason to support the GOP presidential nominees, no matter who it was. Trump got that support in 2016, even after the Access Hollywood tape. The GOP is reaping the benefits of that sustained political focus.
2/The lesson is obvious. If you care about the courts, vote. We are not powerless, even if we cannot act immediately and in the moment, watching ethics abuses SCOTUS refuses to hold itself accountable for. Yesterday, Biden appointed his 200th judge to the federal bench.
3/Last night following news, justice Alito flew a Christian nationalist flag outside of his NJ Beach house a group gathered in pouring rain to protest. It takes a great love for democracy & horror at what we are observing to go out in the rain like that.
1/The most important thing that happened yesterday wasn’t the end of Michael Cohen’s testimony or the first of Trump’s witnesses on the stand. It was a brief exchange at the start of the morning between Judge Merchan and the lawyers.
2/The lawyers were arguing over whether the defense could present an expert witness on campaign finance law, and if so, what the scope of his testimony would be. Judge Merchan interjected that it was his role to instruct the jury on the law they should use to decide the case.
3/Judge Merchan: "expert testimony is permissible to assist the jury in understanding topics that are beyond the ken of the average juror. For example, DNA evidence, blood splatter evidence, and countless other fields. But, an expert is not permitted to present or interpret the law.”
1/ Monday was supposed to be the start of Trump’s criminal trial in the Southern District of Florida, where he’s charged with mishandling national defense information after he left the White House and spending months actively obstructing the investigation into his conduct.
2/But of course, that case will not start on schedule, which was months behind when this case should have been ready to go to trial in any event, because the Judge seems to have no appetite for justice in this matter.
3/On Sunday, perhaps in an effort to convince us she really is working after months of foot-dragging, Judge Cannon issued an order she styled, “ORDER DIRECTING PUBLIC DOCKETING OF OUTSTANDING UNDOCKETED PRE-TRIAL MOTIONS AND RESOLVING RELATED MOTIONS.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
1/There was little doubt before last week that federal Judge Aileen Cannon was determined to delay Trump’s criminal case in front of her—the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case—until after the election. Now, there is none.
2/Last week Judge Cannon canceled the May 20 trial date & refused to set a new one. Jack Smith had asked for a July date, but she wrote it would be “imprudent and inconsistent” with her duty.
3/Judge Cannon has now done what Trump asked her to do in July 2023, when he filed a joint motion to “postpone initial consideration of any rescheduled trial date until after substantive motions have been presented and adjudicated.” This is what Trump wanted all along.
1/Trump’s lawyers staked their case on Stormy Daniels’ story being a lie. They promised the jury in their opening statement that none of it was true. But they didn’t deliver. Stormy Daniels did.
2/Soon prosecutors will call Michael Cohen. Presumably, his testimony will connect Trump directly to the crime. We know that there is a partial audio recording of at least one of their conversations.
3/Yesterday, during redirect of Daniels, she testified about a civil case where Trump conceded he reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels. That’s going to make it difficult for Trump to deny it now because evidence of his concession in that lawsuit can be introduced here.