Flippers and gags

Flippers and Gags

oooh... Sounds a little kinky, don't it?

Truthfully all the news in the last couple weeks does have me a little turned on....

Joe Heller

The shit is going down.

The Flippers

I told you in my last post about former bail bondsman Scott Hall, who pleaded guilty a couple weeks ago and worked out a deal with the prosecutor. He was the first of the 19 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case to flip. Since then, two of the major turncoats have also decided to plead guilty and cooperate. Now they are turncoat turncoats.

You may recall that two of the inner-circle defendants, attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, had asked for and received a speedy trial and were diverted from the consolidated trial of the other 18. Their trials were due to start this month, and both took a turn.

Look at you, Sidney Powell!

First, on Thursday, attorney Sidney Powell, evil mastermind of the plot to subvert the Dominion voting machines data, decided to plead guilty to six counts. 

You'll remember Powell as the one promoting conspiracy theories about the election, such as the involvement of the (long-dead) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. She was at that infamous Oval Office meeting that almost devolved into fisticuffs. She is a bad lady. 

According to the Washington Post, the terms of her plea deal are: "six years’ probation and agreed to pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia, turn over documents and testify truthfully in her co-defendants’ trials."

Chris Britt

Yo! Chesebro!

Friday, just as jury selection was underway, Kenneth Chesebro, former T**** campaign attorney, also plead guilty. 

You remember that Chesebro was the mastermind behind the plot to have fake electors "certify" a win for T****. Certify this, Kenny Boy!

The terms of his plea deal are similar to Powell's. According to the Washington Post: "Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to file false documents and accepted a sentence of three to five years of probation, a $1,000 fine, $5,000 in restitution to the state of Georgia, an apology letter, 100 hours of community service and a promise to testify truthfully against any other co-defendants in the case, should they go to trial."

Love those last bits of the plea terms! What co-defendants might they testify against? A few other co-defendants shared the charges that the Chese-man was facing. They are campaign operative Michael Roman, lawyers Ray Smith and Robert Cheeley, and! attorneys John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani, as well as the big guy, djt himself. Powell shares charges with some of the lower-level conspirators, such as Cathleen Latham, former GOP Chair of Coffee County, Georgia, and Misty Hampton, the former elections supervisor who did Very Bad things like letting T**** people in to access the voting machines and tamper with them. 

But this. This is the best co-conspirator to testify against. A tremendous co-conspirator. The best. He must be tired of winning Bigly Co-conspirator:

Inmate #P01135809

Besides being a big win for D.A. Fani Willis in getting the convictions, with these two early trials off the table, she doesn't have to yet show her hand of the evidence she has. 

Chesebro gets to keep his law license, gets to serve his probation in his home area of Puerto Rico, and if he is a good boy during probation, he will have his conviction expunged under the first-offender part of the deal.

Powell's fate is trickier. She has had numerous lawsuits filed against her regarding her election interference, as well a Texas state bar lawsuit. She may be able to hold on to her legal license, but she has a lot of legal problems separate from this conviction. 

You can read all about Powell's path from quiet federal prosecutor and defense attorney to convicted felon in The Washington Post.

Three down, 16 to go!

The Gags

Judges now in two cases have issued gag orders on the primary defendant. 

In the Federal election interference case, Judge Tanya Chutkan placed a limited gag order last Monday, prohibiting T**** from disparaging the prosecuting attorneys, court personnel, and potential witnesses. Judge Chutkan said, "Mr. Trump is facing felony charges, and he does not get to respond to every criticism if that response could affect a potential witness. He doesn’t get to use all the words."

By Friday, she had paused the gag order while she considers the defendant's intentions to appeal the decision. She will hear arguments about the gag order and then decide if it shall remain in place while it is being appealed. 

It gets sticky, because one of the potential witnesses is also a competing presidential opponent, Mike Pence. T**** should have the right to talk about his opponent. Judge Chutkan ruled that, "If Mr. Trump wants to criticize his political rival, Mr. Pence, he may do so, but he cannot make statements about Mr. Pence’s role in the events in this case."

Nevertheless, T**** is loving the fight. He immediately took the issue to his followers as a donation pitch and issued his usual blustering statement.

This is the second gag order; you'll remember the first one stemmed from his behavior during his civil fraud trial. Judge Arthur Engoron prohibited him from posting about court personnel after he truth-socialed shit about the judge's clerk. 

Well! It turns out that that mean tweet was left up on his campaign website for 17 days after the judge issued the gag order and the original truth social post had been deleted. Judge Engoron fined him $5000.

Some pundits, like me, have applauded the gag orders.  Jeffrey Toobin in the New York Times said that T****'s rhetoric is not just intimidating but downright dangerous, and the Los Angeles Times editorial board assert that the gag order is right and proper. 

And some have cautioned that the gags are an overreach and a violation of T****'s First Amendment rights. Writers like Erwin Chemerinsky in the Los Angeles Times, who called it unconstitutional, and Jonathan Turley writing for The Hill, who called for it to be struck down. 

As the American Civil Liberty Union notes, however, "freedom of speech does not prevent punishing conduct that intimidates, harasses, or threatens another person, even if words are used." Freedom of speech ends when the speech interferes with others' rights. We the People have a right to a fair trial as well! Gag orders are not uncommon, and his status as a candidate should not factor in to protecting his harassing speech.

Other Trial News

The Mar-a-lago case

Co-defendant Waltine Nauta had a Garcia hearing, which considers conflict of interest issues. Nauta has retained T**** organization attorney Stanley Woodword. Woodward would be resonsible for cross-examining the third co-conspirator in the case, Yuscil Taveras. The trouble is that Woodward represented Taveras before Taveras fired him and switched to a public defender and decided to tell the truth. Judge Aileen Cannon criticized prosecutor Jack Smith's timing in bringing about the conflict-of-interest concerns. In the end, the judge ruled that Nauta could continue with Woodward despite potential conflicts of interest, and Woodward stated that he would not question current or former clients.

The New York State campaign Fraud / Stormy Daniels case

No news at this time. It's been put on the back burner so that the other cases can move forward a little more easily. 

Section Three Clarification

Last time I wrote, I said that the 14th Amendment, Section Three solution was dead in the water. That wasn't quite true. There are some lawsuits that are going ahead to force the issue, and no ban on T****'s candidacy will go forward without some court decisions. The groups who are pursuing a disqualification in some states face many challenges, however, and because of that I sort of prematurely called an "out" on that play. For accuracy's sake, I'll outline what the challenges at the state level are looking like. 

Minnesota: A challenge has been mounted in Minnesota by a group called Free Speech for People. Minnesota's Secretary of State Steve Simon has asserted that the secretary "does not have authority to investigate a candidate’s ineligibility." This prompted the group to pursue the state's Supreme Court to weigh in. The court ruled against T****'s direct involvement in the suit, but is allowing a pathway to allow his and his campaign's participation. Oral arguments are set to begin on November 2. 

Free Speech for People has also filed a lawsuit in Michigan. It is going ahead speedily. 

In addition, Free Speech for People had written letters to the secretaries of state in several other states asking for a ban, including Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, New Hampshire and New Mexico. The secretaries have pretty much all backed away, saying they don't want to appear partisan and that it's not in their scope to determine who is and isn't eligible. 

The only other serious court case that I have found going ahead is in Colorado. A group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed a lawsuit to prevent T**** from appearing on the ballot there. The court has repeatedly rejected T****'s efforts to shut the lawsuit down. The trial in Colorado is set to begin on October 30. 

Stay tuned, Resisters!