A thread on the TX Supreme Court’s stay of the lower court’s TRO that allowed Kate Cox to get the pregnancy-related medical care she vitally needs.

I don’t say this publicly very often - if ever - but I’m so disgusted. /1 Bear in mind that there is no new decision out of the Texas Supreme Court today - it’s just that she decided to leave the state because that court paused the lower court’s ruling on Friday. She’s 20 weeks pregnant, so time is running out for an appeal on the merits. /2

Timeline from affidavit (THREAD):
-5/6/21 NARA asks for missing PRA records
-late 12/21 requests continued; NARA finally learns of 12 boxes ready for retrieval
- 1/18/22 NARA got 15 MAL boxes from Trump; CBS Miami reports at least 2 moving trucks were at MAL that day (1/5) -2/9/22 NARA referred matter to DOJ
-2/18/22 NARA sent letter to House Oversight Committee re: 15 boxes; same day, Trump PAC states that everything found was routine
-5/5/22 Breitbart runs article in which Kash Patel says reports of classified info at MAL are "misleading" (2/5)

Thoughts on affidavit (1) It references 18 USC 793(e) of the Espionage Act (previously we did not know which subsection); this applies to unauthorized possession, and requires a showing that Trump had reason to believe the info could be used to injure the US or help foreign 1/9 adversary but kept it anyway; (2) it contains a great description of the levels of classification at stake so this is good info for the public to understand; (3) key: "In order for a foreign government to receive access to classified information, the originating United 2/9

In terms of legal quality, this filing is pretty "ouchie." A THREAD with some initial thoughts: 1) Trump's lawyers cite federal criminal procedure Rule 41(g) but that is about getting property back and they don't even ask for that, which is not a surprise because the property 1/7

https://twitter.com/FrankFigliuzzi1/status/1561830021542694914

is not his; 2) they claim the government gives no reason for the search but of course that is false it cites three criminal statutes including the espionage act and obstruction of justice 3) they then argue that Trump had "complete" control over presidential records 2/7

Key takeaways from FL federal judge's ruling today on MAL affidavit (attached): (1) 1st Amendment is not in play here, just general public's right to know; (2) judge reiterated 1/5
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… that affidavit is "reliable," that disclosing it entirely would reveal sources and methods and potentially put agents in danger (he ticks off threats so far) (3) he might agree with FBI that redactions will produce a Swiss cheese affidavit of no meaningful value to the public 2/5

Federal judge will soon rule on @LindseyGrahamSC’s motion to quash GA grand jury subpoena for testimony on his 2 dubious 2020 election-related calls to GA Secretary of State (THREAD) /1 He makes 3 arguments (which already lost in state court):

•That the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause provides absolute protection against inquiry into his “legislative” acts; problem here is it begs the question of whether calls were truly legitimate legislative acts /2

I will be on @MSNBC at 1:25p with @ChrisJansing to discuss this horrifyingly troubling story of a 17-year old Nebraska child and her mom being prosecuted for the child's allegedly self-induced abortion: nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news… THREAD: What does this mean for women and girls seeking reproductive care in states that ban abortion? Is this legal for Meta to turn this data over to prosecutors? Yikes. 1/ HIPAA, the federal privacy law, applies only to health plans, healthcare providers, and healthcare ...

THREAD: Could FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search ultimately mean Trump is banned from public office? 1/ those convicted under 18 USC 2071 of concealment, mutilation, destruction of US documents “shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States”… 2/ But the closest SCOTUS case on this point is Powell v. McCormack (1969), which involved the House’s refusal to seat Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY) due to allegations that Powell “had deceived the House authorities as to travel expenses” and made illegal payments to…

THREAD: Now that @EricHolder predicts a Trump indictment, #BillBarr admitted that “evidence is building” against him, his own lawyers told him it’s possible & are taking to DOJ (and told him to stop talking to @MarkMeadows), the country needs to prepare for this possibility /1 An indictment is necessary to protect the rule of law and an accountable presidency, but is not sufficient—the Big Lie cancer is spreading throughout the political system, even into SCOTUS, which might decide to hand elections to gerrymandered GOP state legislatures next term /2

Thread: Secret Service purge of 1/6 texts that began 1/27 (11 days after Congress asked for them) is legally troubling because: (1) Trump was still president from 1/6 to 1/20 & also when the Secret Service plan to migrate phone data was initiated in Sept. 2020 (2) Congress' 1/15 retention letter went to a top official at HHS, Joseph Mayer. HHS oversees the Secret Service (here is the letter intelligence.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…). WTF happened? (3) Chad Wolf, acting HHS Secretary and his number two, Ken Cuccinelli, also erased phone data; (4) in Feb. 22, over a year

Here is the future face of the US if the viral, hate, lies and gaslighting Trump unleashed in our culture aren’t deterred, soon. It’s all there in the Texas Republican Convention platform—America won’t be a union anymore. texastribune.org/2022/06/18/rep… via @TexasTribune The new platform would call for:

-Requiring Texas students “to learn about the humanity of the preborn child,” including teaching that life begins at fertilization and requiring students to listen to live ultrasounds of gestating fetuses and watch a “Miracle of Life” type video

Tuesday’s hearing was about facts: was there any factual evidence of a fraudulent election? No. Today’s hearing is about the law: does the Constitution enable a Vice President to ignore the state certifications of the Electoral College votes? No.

Some more takeaways from impeachment today: 1/ Lots of focus on the former VP - @glennkirschner2 just said on my IGTV show #SimplePolitics that House impeachment managers seem to be making a case that Donald Trump engaged in a conspiracy to attempt to murder #MIKEPENCE. /2 Senators are biased jurors but also lived through the trauma; this presentation is putting them back on Jan. 6 at an emotional level, though some Republicans (@HawleyMO) reported failure to even watch the evidence. Will this change minds? Awaken hearts?

Here are some key takeaways from @RepRaskin's formidable argument today: 1/ Trump's defense is that what he did was "totally appropriate" so the parties are proceeding on the joint assumption that it would happen again if he were re-elected in 2024; /2 Trump's 12/19/20 tweet telling supporters to "be there" and that it will "be wild" on 1/6 expressly singled out the day - 1/6 - *because of" the counting of electoral college votes that day, which goes to knowledge and intent;

Let's not forget Judge Sullivan's words about #MichaelFlynn: “This is a very serious offense,” “Arguably, you sold your country out.” Flynn is “an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States.” “[Flynn] was a high-ranking government official, advising the president of the United States,” Sullivan said. “I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain, for this criminal offense.”

The AG “may remove a Special Counsel for misconduct, dereliction of duty, incapacity, conflict of interest, or for other good cause, including violation of Departmental policies.” And the AG has to explain why in writing./2 Rosenstein has said there are no grounds for removal, and an acting AG (Whitaker) is not the AG, so removal likely has to wait until a new AG is confirmed, so Mueller should be safe for now./3