The last batch of Michigan fake electors has been arraigned.

They are charged with forgery, conspiracy to commit election forgery, and publishing a counterfeit record—namely, the false electoral certificate they sent to D.C. as part of Trump's scheme. cnn.com/2023/08/10/pol… Here's a copy of the fake elector certificate the false electors from Michigan sent to D.C.

Okay, I've tweeted a lot about the § 371 count, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., which is, I think, the easiest charge to prove. One of those threads is QTed here.

But let's talk about the second count, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/1686519207402393600

For the second count, DOJ will have to prove Trump (1) knowingly (2) entered into an agreement (3) to obstruct an official proceeding (4) corruptly and (5) at least one overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.

This continues to fail to grapple with Tanner, Dennis, Haas, Hammerschmidt.

Trump is not charged with wire fraud or honest services fraud. And clear (and binding on the lower courts) precedent says that conspiracy to defraud the U.S. does not require loss of money or property.

https://twitter.com/AndrewCMcCarthy/status/1686907532541902848

It is true that SCOTUS has in recent years pared back the meaning of fraud in wire fraud and honest services fraud prosecutions. But they have not altered conspiracy to defraud the U.S., which goes back A LOT further than the wire fraud or honest service fraud statutes.

Lawgeeks, here's the Trump (Jan 6.) indictment.

He is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceedings, obstruction of an official proceeding, and civil rights conspiracy. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… Co-Conspirator 1 is Rudy Giuliani.
Co-Conspirator 2 is John Eastman.
Co-Conspirator 3 is Sidney Powell.
Co-Conspirator 4 is Jeffrey Clark.
Co-Conspirator 5 is Kenneth Chesebro.
Co-Conspirator 6 is ???

"But the Summer 2020 rioters got away with it!"

No, lots were prosecuted.

"But some of them got away with it, and FBI is, like, finding all the Jan. 6 rioters n stuff."

Uh, okay??

"It's not fair!"

Did the Jan. 6 rioters post their rioting on Facebook?

"..."

Yeah. "How dare these state and local agencies not hunt down every person who under cover of darkness and chaos rioted!!!"

Same people: "How dare the FBI find these people who rioted in broad daylight and then posted their crimes to social media! This is a double standard!!!!"

Here's why it's frustrating when, for example, Gov. DeSantis says he would pardon Jan. 6 rioters for "technical violations of the law" if Summer 2020 rioters didn't get prosecuted.

First, as we've seen, the hypothetical isn't actually true, but he won't tell his followers that.

https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/1670886685704351779

But second, most Summer 2020 riots were state crimes, not federal crimes. Of course DOJ didn't prosecute state crimes, that's not DOJ's job, that's state prosecutors.

This stuff about "uneven application of justice" doesn't involve DOJ's area of authority at all.

Chuck Todd puts up some resistance early in this interview regarding the Trump indictment, but then totally fails to respond to VP Pence's false claim that BLM rioters weren't prosecuted.

In fact, there have been hundreds of convictions for the Summer 2020 riots.

https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/1670492031360069632

There is this enduring myth on the right that BLM rioters went unprosecuted by the hundreds, and journalists should rightly call it out when presidential candidates make this false claim.

While it is true that NARA gave Trump many opportunities to give back presidential records, for that period May 2021 to January 2022 (when Trump gave back 15 boxes), they were just looking for presidential records. NARA only discovered docs with classification markings in the 15 boxes in Feb 2022.

At that point NARA got DOJ involved, and at that point Trump's options to get away with things were sharply limited.

For the record, I'm still on the right, just not a Republican given the sad moral degeneration of that party.

And there's nothing conservative about insisting the federal government must honor a traitorous incompetent like Braxton Bragg.

https://twitter.com/clownrevivified/status/1667619403612016641

While we're back on the topic, keep in mind that government action encourages private action.

Changing Fort Liberty's name back to Fort Bragg to appease Confederate sympathizers will encourage private action to encourage Confederate sympathizers. It's a terrible idea.

Most everyone has focused on the classified documents portion of the crime (which it's true is quite a spectacular fuck-up from Trump) and not the attempted cover-up, which one of Trump's attorneys apparently memorialized in writing.

https://twitter.com/walterolson/status/1667681038930157569

The cover-up is far more shocking to me because just taking and trying to keep the documents is exactly what we expect Trump to do.

But hiding some of the documents from his attorney to cause that attorney to make a false statement to the grand jury/FBI is serious obstruction.

This is included because it demonstrates Trump's knowledge of the federal government's classification scheme in general and the particular requirement that classified documents be protected from disclosure.

https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1667251873252888595

Some of these counts will require the government to prove that Trump acted "corruptly" in committing the crime. One way to do that (there is a circuit split on what "corruptly" means) is to show that the defendant knew of the illegality of the act when he did it.

One thing is very clear. Special Counsel Durham is way outside his mandate to make these findings and recommendations.

His mandate was to find and prosecute lawbreaking, not to pass judgment on the propriety of the FBI's Russia investigation.

https://twitter.com/JonahDispatch/status/1658215896802795522

Once you get past Special Counsel Durham's bluster, you find these conclusions, which are actually related to the mandate in his appointment order:

No evidence sufficient to demonstrate violations of criminal law, no evidence, acquittal, no evidence.

While we wait to see Special Counsel Durham's final report, a reminder of his mandate: to find whether any feds. or any other person broke the law in connection with intel., counter-intel., or law-enforcement directed at the 2016 presidential campaigns.

https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/1582474906255577088

As I wrote last year, Durham largely came up short in his mandate to find lawbreaking. Instead, I expect we're going to hear (once again) about the Steele Dossier, its origins, and the role it played Kevin Clinesmith's wrongdoing and the Carter Page FISA warrant applications.

Couple things here.

(1) You just established reasonable doubt.

(2) I'm so thankful that I don't have to take public transit anymore.

https://twitter.com/swin24/status/1657417079576829952

Folks, you can't say he "was a clear and present danger" and then say he should have been restrained a different way.

That's why this is charged as manslaughter, not murder.

If you want to know where Republicans are going to go with this, look no further -->

https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1656014087308947457

They don't care. As usual, Trump (and, of by extension, themselves) are the real victims here.

"The lawsuit was old news! She was old! This was a gift for Democrats! And jurors in New York didn't even vote for Trump! And what about Clinton!"

Just excuses and resentment.

Fed. judge upholds the federal ban on firearms possession for individuals who were involuntarily committed.

Reasons that if the 2A allowed the disarmament of blacks and Native Americans for being perceived as dangerous, it allows same for this group. documentcloud.org/documents/2380… There's a lot of outrage in the replies to this one, but it seems to me the judge is faithfully applying SCOTUS' instruction in Bruen that, to be upheld, a firearm regulation must be consistent with the historical tradition of firearm regulation.

Disney has amended its lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis and the CFTOD to include the governor's remarks last week tying the legislation to Disney's opposition to last year's parent's rights law (aka the don't say gay law). deadline.com/wp-content/upl… This part quoting Gov. DeSantis' statement at the close of the legislative session last week is particularly relevant to the First Amendment retaliation and Due Process causes of action.

Okay, first things first. There isn't a conspiracy charge in the indictment the DA posted.

Not sure where that rumor started, but it's not in the indictment. Second, the alleged false entries in business records that form the heart of the charges range from February 14, 2017 to December 5, 2017.

They reference invoices from Michael Cohen, ledger entries, and checks and check stubs from Trump.

5th Cir. notes that (unlike nine other circuits) it has never adopted a state-created danger cause of action under § 1983 to permit individuals to sue state actors for acts or failures to act, so such a right could not be clearly established.

QI granted. ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/2… The Court cites Dobbs and a lack of briefing for declining to use this case to establish a state-created danger cause of action in this case.

Kudos to TPM for getting the transcript of the status conference in which the judge asked the parties to keep secret the timing of the preliminary injunction hearing in the mifepristone case.

Relevant part starts on page 10 of the PDF. talkingpointsmemo.com/news/judge-kac… That hearing, we now know, is tomorrow morning. The judge had intended to only post the hearing notice tonight after close of business in order to minimize protests.

He went ahead and posted it after someone spilled the beans this past weekend.

Folks, this is extremely, *extremely* irregular. Holding court hearings in secret is MASSIVELY disfavored.

The right of the public to know and attend what's being decided in our courts is a core feature of the American judicial system.

This is bad.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur… I am shocked that a federal judge would try to hide a court hearing from the public. This is bananas.

He is unfit.