Shut Him Up 🌻 🌻 🌻

Retribution:  The Fulton County RICO case has already had a few notable effects; it has moved a number of politicians to publicly acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square. Unfortunately, it has also led to a few death threats.  The politicians speaking truth include Georgia Governor Brian Kemp who responded to another one of Trump’s assertions that the election was fraudulent by saying “the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud on has failed to come forward under oath and prove anything in a court of law.”  Kemp is hardly an angel; he ran for Governor riding around on a “deportation” bus with the tagline “follow me to Mexico.” He is likely to challenge Senator Jon Ossoff in 2026 and/or run for president in 2028 and probably believes that his current “above the fray” strategy benefits him in the long term but he does deserve some credit for saying the truth when so many others won’t.  His statement was echoed by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and finally by former VP Pence who said the “Georgia election was not stolen.” When asked Ron DeSantis who finally grudgingly admitted that Biden is the legitimate president, pivoted to bragging about the two county District Attorneys that he has fired, a not so subtle attack on DA Fani Willis.  Pence, whose polling remains in the single digits, seems to finally recognize that waffling and kowtowing to Trump isn’t working for him, it’s not clear that speaking truth will either but at this point it probably won’t hurt. We’ll know if he sticks to his new strategy when he appears on the first Republican debate stage next week, an appearance that Trump is expected to skip.  For his part, Trump is doing what he does, planning counter programming for debate night and attacking everyone “persecuting” him.  He’s also promised to hold a “show and tell” press conference on Monday where he says he’ll be bringing exonerating proof in the form of a lengthy report produced by his staff that proves that the election was rigged.  Right after that he’ll deliver his much=awaited health plan and launch into one of his infrastructure weeks? On the even darker side, yesterday a Texas woman, Abigai Jo Shry was arrested for threatening the lives of January 6 election interference judge Tanya Chutkan, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and the “LGTBQ community.”  Shry’s threats included a call to Chutkan’s chambers in which she said, “Hey you stupid slave,” used the N word and then added “you are in our sights….if Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly bitch.” She also threatened Chutkan’s family. Moreover, taking Trump’s call for retribution and intimidation seriously some of his MAGA maniacs have posted the names and addresses of all of the members of the Fulton County grand jurors on a right-wing website. Its time for Chutkan to shut Trump down if she can only figure out a way to do that without triggering a civil war.

Peaches:  Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who may or may not be cooperating with Special Counsel Jack Smith on his election interference case, has requested that his Fulton County case be moved to Federal Court and Trump is expected to do the same soon shortly. Moving to Federal Court won’t facilitate a future presidential pardon but it does make it more likely that some Republican suburbanites are included in the jury pool.  In addition, cameras aren’t allowed in Federal courts and even though he generally loves the klieg lights, Trump doesn’t want his base to actually see and hear witnesses testifying against him for days on end while he sits idly by with his make-up melting. A few more things about the Fulton County case, though a total of 19 people were indicted, there are also 30 unindicted co-conspirators, a list that is thought to include some of the usual characters like Boris Epshteyn, lots of fake electors and some Trump campaign officials. Also, yesterday DA Fani Willis said that her plan is to start the case on March 4.  That’s probably not going to happen, but it sounds nice. A number of pundits have pointed out that given the number of people she’s indicted, everything about her case will take longer to complete though a number of others have also pointed out that some of her “indicted” will probably go for plea deals, thinning the herd before the case goes to court.  All this legal maneuvering is expensive, less of a problem for Trump who to the extent he actually pays his lawyers uses money that he raised from small mom and pop donors to “Stop the Steal,” but a bigly problem for some other others including lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis.  While Trump money is being used to help Giuliani fund the legally required and costly data storing of his records, none of it is going to his lawyers and because she was seen attending a Ron DeSantis event, none of it is going to his one-time side kick Jenna Ellis who is now begging for money on Give Send Go, a Christian crowd sourcing site where overnight her take has risen from $18,000 to $40,000 because there’s a mark born every second.  

Drugs and Districts: Though it feels like the news is all Trump all the time there are other things happening.  Yesterday, an Appeals Court ruled two to one that abortion pill Mifepristone remain legal and available while the case regarding the “legitimacy” of its very legitimate FDA approval awaits Supreme Court review. Unfortunately, the court-imposed restrictions on the drug’s use.  As a result, women seeking Mifepristone will not be able to obtain in through the mails and will be required to first have an in person, rather than a teleconference, visit with a physician, impediments intended to make it more difficult for women seeking abortions.  The dissenting Judge, wanted to ban Mifepristone altogether. On the congressional front, it’s looking likely that a largely Black Democratic district that was redistricted away in north Florida will be restored and we should know soon whether Federal judges will allow Alabama officials to get away with violating an order by the Supreme Court that they restore the largely Black district that they keep trying to gerrymander away.  The expectation is that the court will take it upon themselves to redraw the district lines in order to restore the Black district but it’s Alabama so who knows what will happen.  And then there’s Long Island Representative George Santos.  He’s still in Congress despite all of his criming but one of his former aides was indicted yesterday for impersonating one of Speaker McCarthy’s senior aides while fund raising for Santos.    

X: Special Counsel Jack obtained Trump’s records, including his tweets, cancelled tweets, and DMs, from Twitter but not without a big fight because Elon Musk tried his best to refuse to comply with Special Jack’s subpoena. The twitter fight took place in February.  Twitter ended up being fined bigly by then US District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell who questioned whether the company’s resistance reflected an effort by then new CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to get “cozy” with Trump in part because Twitter had previously complied with subpoenas for other people’s records.  It’s not clear if the records proved helpful to Jack’s team because they weren’t referenced in his speaking indictment but among other things, they likely revealed more about who actually typed Trump’s tweets as well as how his messages were drafted and redrafted on January 6.