Seven 🌻 🌻 🌻

🥂 🥂 🥂 🥂 🥂 🥂 🥂 As you probably heard, Trump has been indicted in relation to the purloined documents he took to Mar a Lago rather than for the January 6^th insurrection where witnesses, including Steve Bannon, are still being called to testify in front of a Washington DC grand jury. According to Jim Trusty, one of his lawyers, Trump is facing seven charges, including a charge under the Espionage Act, charges of obstruction of justice, destruction or falsification of records, conspiracy, and false statements. Naturally, immediately after hearing from his lawyers Trump took to Truth Social so that he could be the first to share the news with the rest of us. He then posted a video where he ranted about being an innocent man, the victim of election interference and questioned why he, rather than Biden, Hunter, and Hillary, was the one being charged. And, yes, his abettors and some of his Republican competitors including Gym Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Elise Stefanik, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy weighed in, calling the charges further evidence of how Biden, the DOJ, and the Democrats are weaponizing government and destroying the country.  Trump who is currently summering at his Bedminster,  New Jersey club, his escape hatch from Florida summers, is due to fly to hot, humid, stormy Miami to appear in a Federal court room on Tuesday where he, his lawyers, and the rest of us, will learn more details about the charges. In case you are wondering about the Miami connection, the charges were brought there rather than Washington DC due to a venue issue because, though the documents were taken from Washington, Trump’s related obstruction, lying, and espionage violations took place in Florida.  Though DC courts are more familiar with purloined document cases and a jury selected from DC’s more left leaning pool might be more inclined to convict Trump than one from Florida, Smith didn’t want to run the risk that this case against Trump would be thrown out on a venue technicality. To the extent that Trump is eventually indicted for his insurrection related activities, he will be charged and tried in Washington DC.  The use of two distinct grand juries from different Federal districts isn’t unheard of, Paul Manafort, who Trump subsequently pardoned, was convicted in both DC and Virginia and the good news here is that the Miami federal court, like the Virginia one is known to be one of those fasting acting “rocket dockets.” Will Trump being indicted matter to his base?  Probably not so much though some Republican voters and even more independents might care especially if it turns out that Trump shared defense plans with the Saudis, the new owners of American golf, or other unsavory characters.  Clearly that’s what the growing list of his challengers, including recent addition North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum but not including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu who says he’s not running, hope despite their, or at least some of their claims that he’s being treated so unfairly.    

Sweet Alabama:  Though the Trump indictments sucked the air from the news cycle, there was another bigly story yesterday.  By a vote of 5 to 4 in the Allen v Milligan case the Supreme Court struck down a Republican drawn congressional map in Alabama, ruling that the state had violated the Voting Rights Act by squishing as many of the state’s Black voters, who represent 27% of Alabama’s population, into one of the state’s seven districts rather than the two that would have been more appropriate.   Oddly enough the decision was written by Chief Justice Roberts who was also responsible for writing the opinion in the landmark Shelby case that dismantled large parts of the Voting Rights Act.  In another surprise, in addition to reliably liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and newbie Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Brett “beer” Kavanaugh joined the majority, although he did write a separate concurrence where he warned that the Voting Rights Act shouldn’t be allowed to last forever.  Kavanaugh who still votes mostly with the right, may be this court’s version of former Justice Anthony Kennedy because occasionally, but not too often, he joins with his more liberal colleagues. The Alabama decision is likely to have consequences outside of the state, at least that’s the hope of Democrats, because there are a few other districts in Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas and even Florida that are as equally racially gerrymandered.  If those states are pushed to redraw their districts, the Democrats stand a better chance of winning the House back in 2024. Worth noting, SCOTUS could have and should have issued this ruling before the 2022 midterms but instead they punted until now, so they are kind of responsible for the House currently being led by the current crop of crazies. As to the House, the Republicans are about to lose a member.  Not George of many names Santos, he’s super glued himself to Kevin and won’t leave until he’s surgically excised.  The departing member is Utah’s Chris Stewart who announced that he’s leaving to spend more time with his ailing wife.  Stewart’s seat, unlike   Santos’ is reliably Republican but as a result of his departure it will remain empty until a new election can be held. That’s a problem for McCarthy whose insurrection faction is in full rebellion mode, which also explains why they’ll be allowed to act out all their impeachment and investigatory fantasies this summer.

Pain Sponge: Once again, a head of iceberg lettuce is the victor.  This time the leafy green beat out CNN’s now former CEO Chris Licht who has been unceremoniously fired.  Licht may be gone, but CNN’s problems still remain because though, as evidenced by the Trump townhall debacle and his way too revealing profile in The Atlantic, Licht lacked judgement and failed miserably at his job, he was essentially following the orders of his boss David Zaslav who is following the orders of the very conservative/libertarian billionaire John Malone.  Zaslav has appointed four new co-heads to temporarily run things at the network while he searches for his Tom Wambsgans.