The Georgia prosecutor investigating whether Donald Trump and his allies broke any laws as they tried to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state has fought back against the former president’s attempt to remove her from the case and exclude evidence. https://t.co/VVL3Gw9jzG
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 16, 2023
Fani Willis is having none of this weak… sauce:
… Trump’s Georgia legal team in March asked the court to toss out the report of a special grand jury that had been seated in the case and to prevent prosecutors from using any evidence or testimony stemming from the panel’s investigation. They also asked that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her office be barred from continuing to investigate or prosecute the case.
Willis responded in a filing Monday that the Trump’s motion is “procedurally flawed” and advances “arguments that lack merit.”
For more than two years now, Willis has been investigating the actions Trump and others took in the wake of the 2020 election. She took the unusual step last year of asking for a special grand jury to aid the investigation, saying the panel’s subpoena power would allow her team to compel the testimony of people who might not otherwise cooperate.
The special grand jury, which did not have the power to issue indictments, was seated last May and dissolved in January after hearing from 75 witnesses and submitting a report with recommendations for Willis. Though most of that report remains under wraps for now according to a judge’s order, the panel’s foreperson has said without naming names that the special grand jury recommended charging multiple people.
Trump lawyers Drew Findling, Jennifer Little and Marissa Goldberg argued that the special grand jury “involved a constant lack of clarity as to the law, inconsistent applications of basic constitutional protections for individuals being brought before it, and a prosecutor’s office that was found to have an actual conflict, yet continued to pursue the investigation.”…
In her motion Monday, Willis asked that McBurney retain supervision of the matter and urged that Trump and Latham’s motions be dismissed or denied without holding a hearing.
Willis wrote that the arguments put forth in the motions fail to meet the “exacting standards” for disqualifying a prosecutor and they also fail to prove their claims that their own due process rights have been violated or that the grand jury process was “tainted” or the law governing it unconstitutional.
Trump and Latham “are not content to follow the ordinary course of the law,” Willis wrote…
Willis last month sent letters to local law enforcement leaders advising them to prepare for “heightened security” as she intends to announce charging decisions in the case between July 11 and Sept. 1. To secure an indictment, she needs to bring the case before a regular grand jury…
You are not nearly as special as you would like to believe, MAGAts. MSNBC’s Jordan Rubin, “Fani Willis trashes Trump’s attempt to quash special grand jury report”:
… In a legal filing Monday, Willis didn’t mince words in responding to motions from Trump and one of the Georgia “fake electors,” Cathy Latham, who joined in the long-shot legal effort.
They tried to throw a kitchen sink of legal arguments at the probe — that the judge should be kicked off the case; that Willis should be kicked off the case; that the special grand jury was tainted and its report should be quashed and expunged from the record; and that any use of evidence presented to the special grand jury should be prohibited.
Willis threw it all right back at them, telling the judge that Trump and Latham raised arguments “for which they have no standing” or “which have no basis in law at all.” The prosecutor basically said that Trump wants to be above the law, writing that he and Latham “seek to ‘restrain’ a criminal investigation before any charges are filed or even sought; they ask that the judicial system place them above and apart from the common administration of the criminal law.”
And if Willis’ thrashing weren’t enough, several media companies submitted their own filing Monday, telling the judge that quashing the special grand jury report would be “unsupported by any legal basis.”…
Even if Judge Robert McBurney indulges Trump’s timeline request, the next big practical question for the judge may be whether he holds a hearing on the matter before ruling. But at this point, barring an unexpected move by McBurney, there’s no reason to think that Willis is in danger of missing her summer time frame for announcing charging decisions.
Also, too:
A Wisconsin judge on Monday refused to break up a lawsuit filed against 10 fake electors for former President Donald Trump and two of his attorneys, saying the case could proceed in the county where it was filed. https://t.co/Kv79D8CZ0I
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 16, 2023
Another batch of lost lambs left abandoned by their God-Emperor…
… The lawsuit seeks $2.4 million from the fake electors and their attorneys, alleging they were part of a conspiracy by Trump and his allies to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential race. It also seeks to disqualify the Republicans from ever serving as electors again.
Fake electors met in Wisconsin and other battleground states where Trump was defeated in 2020, attempting to cast ballots for the former president even though he lost. Republicans who participated in Wisconsin said they were trying to preserve Trump’s legal standing in case courts overturned his defeat.
Nine of the 10 fake electors in Wisconsin, and one of Trump’s attorneys, argued that the lawsuit against them was wrongly filed in Dane County Circuit Court. Since none of them lived in that county, they argued, the lawsuit should be refiled against each of them in their respective home counties.
But Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington disagreed on Monday, saying the lawsuit was properly filed because, in part, at least one of the defendants appears to live in Dane County or does not present evidence to the contrary…
“Although likely not the last, this was just the latest effort to delay any type of accountability,” said Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson. “We are pleased this matter will be resolved in the Dane County Courthouse, just one block from where the fake electors scheme was carried out.”
Attorneys for the fake electors did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment…
War for Ukraine Day 447: A Brief Tuesday Night Update
Betty Cracker
Promoting a comment from a older thread.
Holy shit!
This is like Cousin Lee showing up sober to a wedding! Maybe the backlash thing is real.
rikyrah
She is 89!!😲😲
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRK3hfdk/
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Betty Cracker:
I saw in a comment in an earlier thread that prominent Republicans had endorsed her, saying the Republican, Davis, was “running a dirty campaign”. Also read he had been appealing to white nationalists. Maybe it was a step too far for some people
Josie
I love the look on Fani Willis’ face in that news article. She is having none of his shit, is she.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Wonderful news!
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: and she is wonderful too!
RinaX
Whoo-hoo! Donna beating that creep feels almost as good as when Biden won.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: That IS some good news.
RobArt
@Betty Cracker: I live in Jax & three out of four candidates I voted for won — don’t think that’s ever happened before! (I’m 51 as of yesterday.) I do think DeSantis is causing backlash and also embarrassment among those “moderate” Republicans. Lol, because I don’t think such things legitimately exist but many like to think so. Many well off whites who love their money are still voting Republican and somehow managing to think they’re not bigots themselves. I saw a yard sign for the Democrat Donna Deegan in front of the home of just such a person today. Someone “socially liberal and fiscally conservative” whose votes just coincidentally cause massive harm to her non-white neighbors and queer friends like me!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
👍
Jim, Foolish Literalist
In other primary news, it looks like Daniel Cameron is going to be the GOP candidate for governor in Kentucky against Andy Beshear. Googling to see if Beshear is indeed up for re-election (I thought he might be term-limited), it looks he has some pretty strong approval ratings. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, a Democrat against a Black MAGAt Republican in McConnell-land.
DeSantis apparently endorsed major trump donor (thus former UN ambassador) Kelly Craft at the last minute. Looks like she’s going to come in a distant third.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker: Wow!! That is excellent news! The polling was very tight, last I heard. So incredibly happy Deegan won!
Trivia Man
Thanks again for helping us send Dan Kelly home instead of to the Supreme Court. Reminder: He was a legal advisor for the fake electors in WI.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: I showed up here just now to mention how AMAZING this is, and of course y’all are already here first. =)
Still AMAZING, though, isn’t it? Wow.
Someone please shove a microphone in front of Rhonda tomorrow for his thoughts, pleeeeease!
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: And I will promote my reply (posted on the dead thread.
@Betty Cracker:
I love that so much. Is that a Betty Cracker original, or is that a phrase I have just not heard before. Or, I suppose, you could have a Cousin Lee! :-)
Baud
@WaterGirl:
No fun?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And there were only two candidates.
Ba-dum-dum.
bbleh
Thing that worries me more about Willis is this thing the GA Lege passed (I think) allowing removal of locally elected prosecutors for Reasons. Dunno the details, but one trusts Willis does and has draft indictments ready for the GJ the moment somebody starts those wheels turning.
gene108
@rikyrah:
That’s so great. She’s so full of life. Send it to one of FP’ers to use on their happy things/good news threads.
Tony G
Trump attacking a non-white female prosecutor. Now, that’s certainly an unexpected turn of events.
Geminid
@RobArt: I think there are still such things as moderate-conservative Republicans, and they are what I think of when journalists talk of “moderate Republicans.” In Virginia, a lot of these voters identify as Independents now.
Jacksonville consolidated with Duval County 56 years ago, in 1968. So Duval County party registrations are equivalent to those for Jacksonville. A recent tally showed 231,460 Republicans, 259,608 Democrats, 13,312 “minor party,: and 155,563 non-affiliated.
Last year Ron DeSantis carried Duval County by 11.8%.
zhena gogolia
This Lincoln Project video of “Last Week in Republicans” is something else. Ben Shapiro ranting about how a beaver on “Blue’s Clues” had top surgery. 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3X3JZmjG0Qk
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: Did you see this?
“Organizers of the New College of Florida graduating Class of 2023 student-led “Commencement On Our Terms” have announced civil rights leader and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Maya Wiley as the keynote speaker at the alternative graduation event on Thursday, May 18.
New College graduating seniors and Nova Alliance alumni will host Wiley during the private graduation ceremony offered to this year’s New College graduates.”
“Wiley, a nationally known civil rights activist, attorney and professor, will celebrate New College students and recognize the graduates’ pursuit of academic freedom, knowledge, and diversity, the sponsors said.”
“…..The alternative graduation was organized by New College seniors, with support from the alumni-run Novo Collegian Alliance, which wanted to provide an opportunity for graduates to celebrate their accomplishments while supporting one another following the close of an unusual and trying semester. The graduates will celebrate in a private gathering at an undisclosed location in downtown Sarasota ahead of the school’s traditional graduation, which is slated for Friday, May 19.”
“…..Interim President Richard Corcoran announced that Dr. Scott Atlas will be the commencement speaker for the regular graduation ceremony on Friday at the Ringling Mansion.”
“Atlas, a radiologist, is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He was a controversial figure in former President Donald Trump’s administration, serving as a special White House advisor during the COVID-19 pandemic. His views often contradicted the prevailing medical advice on how to combat COVID.“
I hope Atlas speaks to an empty room and Maya’s speech is received by a SRO crowd!
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2023/05/16/new-colleges-alternative-graduation-to-host-maya-wiley/70223148007/
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think this would be like Boulder electing an Indie over a Democrat (assuming Boulder has a D mayor and not… another party)
Another Scott
@Jackie: They’ve raised almost $105,000 for their commencement events and a post-graduation fund. Their new goal is $135,000.
Good people are good.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Isn’t that where the Air Force academy is?
RaflW
@Jackie: I will be very interested to see how various Florida public universities do this coming fall for overall enrollment, the academic achievement of the incoming classes v. past years, and in particular how the New School fares.
Also how many teaching spots sit open next year.
I mean, I hate that Ronda Sepsis is doing this to Florida schools — with a huge assist from the shitty FL GOP lege — but one hopes for swift and decisive drops in the prestige and power of these schools so the impact of this sh*t is obvious.
RaflW
@Baud: Yes. And (eghad) Focus on the Family HQ.
JWR
@Baud: Yep. Colorado Springs, where Air Force Generals are born(again.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Yup, and a big concentration of fundies, which may or not be related, I think.
Googled to check and I found this story about “The Evangelical Vatican”, I guess that reputation had more to do with Ted Haggard (remember him?) and James Dobson (whom I had happily forgotten about) than the AFA, but as I do believe the AFA has a reputation and the most Jesus-y of the service academies
prostratedragon
@Josie: Another person with a good game face.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
So happy for them! I hope there’s video of Dr. Quacklas speaking to an empty room
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
At least they’re consistent.
Jackie
@Another Scott: Thanks for the Go Fund Me link! I’ll send some💲tomorrow!
persistentillusion
@Baud: Yes, very conservative, fifth highest population of retired vets. I’ve lived here for nearly 30 years. This is amazing.
persistentillusion
@RaflW: The new-ish leader of FOTF took a Large step back when he took office about 5 years ago. They are no longer the force for evil they were.
Wag
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was coming to post about this. Unbelievable. Not only did a Democrat win the race, but the winner is a Nigerian immigrant married to a white woman. I never thought I would see anything like this in Colorado Springs. There is a major breach in the evangelical wall. Time to celebrate!
persistentillusion
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: 8 years ago, things are and have been changing.
Jackie
@RaflW: Me, too. Plus the ridiculous 6 weeks abortion bill. I wouldn’t let my daughter accept a full scholarship to any Florida college.
And the new anti immigration bill he signed isn’t going to go the way Pudd’n Boots expects. This next year is going to be hell for most Floridians.
Can governors be recalled in FL?
mrmoshpotato
Good for her! And fuck all the election deniers! You lost the electoral college AND the popular vote!
Baud
@Jackie:
No, no one in the state can remember who the governor is.
Doc Sardonic
@Jackie: No
Another Scott
Meanwhile, … HeatherCoxRichardson’s substack:
Thanks, Biden.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
“Biden policies increase nation’s cholesterol levels.”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
I noticed that! At my work, a dozen eggs are now only $2-3 compared to the $4-5 they had been for months
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
“Egg prices are down now, but not in time for Easter. Children everywhere blame Biden.”
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: WOWSERS, is all I gotta say right now to that news!!
Joy in FL
@Another Scott: I just donated a little. I am so happy to see effective, creative, strong resistance to the attempt to replace education with indoctrination. Thanks for the link.
dnfree
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Boulder is not what it used to be.
Ken
@Baud: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Monsters. Taking food out of the mouths of DougJBalloon (NYT Pitchbot)’s children.
(Boy, I’m not sure where or how to put the possessive ‘s in that. Fortunately BJ isn’t haunted by dozens of language and grammar pedants who will spend hours arguing about it.)
Ken B
Isn’t one of DeSantis’ biggest claims to be a better candidate than Trump is that DeSantis doesn’t have loser stink on him?
Meaning that he doesn’t have a long list of losers that he endorsed? ‘Cause it seems like that argument just got fed into a wood chipper.
UncleEbeneezer
Also too, every one of the several former prosecutors I follow have said that Trump’s admissions in the town hall last week, are like an early Xmas gift for Jack Smith and the MAL Documents investigation. Trump’s inability to close his mouth is going to help them make the case when charges are eventually brought to trial.
gwangung
@Ken B: He would if he actually used that as a weapon against TFG.
As it is, the weak, ineffectual criticisms don’t even register. The loser stink is on Desantis.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
JWR
@Ken B:
Hee hee. I read that as “got fed into a woke chipper.” Now I’m wondering what a Woke chipper would do, exactly? How many wokes could a woke chuck woke if a woke chuck could chuck woke?
Wait, there’s a slogan for you: Choke the Woke!
CindyH
deleted
Baud
@CindyH:
What happened in NC?
Sister Golden Bear
@The Oracle of Solace, in case you’re lurking, belated congratulations on tomorrow’s surgery, and wishing you a speedy recovery. Having been through it myself, feel free to reach out if you want to during the coming days.
Lyrebird
Thank you Anne Laurie!
I followed your helpful link. The WSJ is one of the media companies! And the filing is a doozy! IANAL, it’s just interesting to see them bring in pre-American Revolution legal history on this.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ken B:
No. He’s been too fucking chicken to make that claim and actually stand up to Trump in any way. It’s the claim that me, Tony Jay, and probably other people have said DeSantis could have used to take the base away from Trump.
But DeSantis would have to not be a collapsed stack of cold chicken livers to do that. What a pathetic fucking weakling.
mrmoshpotato
@Frankensteinbeck:
What did a collapsed stack of cold chicken livers ever do to you?
JWR
Already mentioned? Dems hold a 102-101 advantage and the Speakership.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is a very strange person
the ghost of Sinemas yet to come?
Roger Moore
@dnfree:
I don’t think Boulder ever was what people said it was. Yeah, it was full of crazy college students, but it was also full of NIMBYs. College towns are generally liberal, but not as liberal as their reputations.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
I’d like to thank everyone for their kind comments on my photos in this morning’s OTR. My schedule was kind of wacked today so I was really late in replying. I had today off, but had to take Madame to a late morning doctor’s appointment, so everything was off(meals, sleep…).
dirge
@mrmoshpotato:
Nothing wrong with a collapsed stack of cold chicken livers, but I wouldn’t have thought one could beat TFG. Though now that I am thinking about it, the idea has a certain appeal. Might have to put the livers in a sausage casing to fashion a sort of bludgeon.
hmm… I may have an idea for an interactive exhibit in the Trump Presidential Library.
Maxim
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: More on Philly:
”Parker, 50, ran on a tough-on-crime platform, pledging to hire 300 new cops for her signature community policing plan and to restore the controversial law enforcement tactic known as stop-and-frisk. She pitched herself as a champion of Philadelphia’s “middle neighborhoods,” those that are neither wealthy nor mired in deep poverty, and vowed to provide stability for working families with good-paying jobs, quality housing, and improved educational opportunities.
A consummate political insider, Parker was the clear favorite of the city’s Democratic establishment, racking up endorsements from scores of local elected officials and ward leaders while getting support from deep-pocketed unions in the building trades and service industry.”
Copy-pasted from the Philly Inquirer.
JWR
Just heard this on the local CBS affiliate. Excellent!
Their union is advising that all current or past gang members call them before talking to “the man”.
Sure Lurkalot
@dnfree: Boulder? What did it used to be?
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Yup yup.
Chicken livers are toothsome. DeSantis is gruesome.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Very nice.
James E Powell
@Maxim:
Stop and frisk not just a “controversial” practice, it’s a “repeatedly shown to be ineffective” practice.
JWR
@JWR: Fixed link to the LASD gang story. Sorry!
Cameron
@Maxim: Rizzo Rising.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Ken: Yes! Won’t anyone think of the Muskfans1488!
Yutsano
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m not going to go looking for it, but I can truly believe that’s an actual handle for someone out there.
JWR
Nebraska is the new Tennessee:
AlaskaReader
@RobArt: If someone votes for Republicans, they cannot, in turn, call themselves fiscally conservative.
Republican fiscal policy is not, by any stretch of the imagination, fiscally conservative.
AlaskaReader
@persistentillusion: Christofascists are no longer the evil they were?
Only if you choose to ignore evident reality.
BellyCat
@JWR: Dems holding PA is wonderful news!
Tony Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
Speaking personally, lots of things. Some good, some not so good, most of them consensual. Stacky always liked to sway back and forth over The Line, called it ‘shaking the pepper’.
DeSantis, though. That wet-patch is about as spicy as Bing Hums Elevator Muzak Volume 5. Probably why his wife leans so hard into the Cosplay games.
Tony Jay
@AlaskaReader:
I think they were referring to the scale and reach of FOTF’s fuckery. Back in the day even politically unengaged teens from the UK had heard of them and could see how major politicians jumped when they cracked the whip. Not so much anymore, they’re no longer the High Priests of the Molech Cult.
AlaskaReader
@Tony Jay: With what we know about the ever broadening reach of the Christofascists, I’m not playing along with any nonsense that they are in any way shape or form, effectively less evil today than at any other time.
That kind of thinking is a fool’s errand.
Not gonna abide by any talk about how they’ve reformed or rehabilitated themselves.
That nonsense ignores the breadth of their recent gains destroying others rights and lives.
That kind of nonsense in the face of current evident reality?
I’m not buying that from anyone.
JWR
Litigious, aren’t she?
glc
@Ken: Here you go (more or less).
Possessive with appositives
Presumably dozens starts around 24, which I think we can muster, and stops somewhere short of 100, which we probably can’t? Requires further study.
As long as I’m here, I’ll mention that the zucchini pasta recipe that was up is really interesting but deep frying is a bridge too far for us. We have a recipe somewhat in the ballpark, admittedly not life-changing, but a favorite anyway.
Tony Jay
@AlaskaReader:
Ha! What? Seriously?
One of two things are happening here.
Either you are Augustus B. Shafernaeker, ambitious heir to the largest straw-bailing consortium on the West Coast and this is one of those promotional scams where you construct rolling fields of lifelike mannequins out of your favoured material for folks to marvel at at maybe stop to take pictures of while passing through on their way to Oakland to visit their Aunt.
Or, it’s early here and late there, and you don’t be reading so good. It happens.
PI stated that, in their personal experience as someone who lives there, one specific Godbotherer vehicle that is still based in their area and was at the forefront of the fundie War on Irrelevance before scandal rocked it, has taken what they termed “a step back” from the attention-seeking bilethrowing it was infamous for and is no longer quite the force for evil it once was.
I agreed with them that you don’t hear too much about that group anymore, and they’re not at the vanguard of the Cultwar as they once were.
How you can take either of these comments and conclude that they place us within fifty miles and a length of rope of claiming that Christofascism itself is no longer a force for evil is, well, it’s a puzzlement. I certainly couldn’t do it. If I reached that far at my advanced age I’d pop a rib and probably end up with a hernia.
Let’s agree that Gandhi had these fuckers pegged right and leave it there, eh?
evodevo
@Baud: Yes…and it’s also a hotbed of Xtian nationalism and talibangelicals…
J R in WV
Nothng worse than christofascists in control of anything. We had an extremely elderly widow next door, who eventually became unable to live alone. Next door on the other side were two equally elderly brothers, who taught me how to farm with a horse, who took Nelly, in her 90s, into their home and cared for her like she was their own mother.
So “fellow” christofascists threw these good people out of their church for “living in sin!” Being as Baptists they are well prepared for schism, the elderly brothers and their friends founded a new church, which welcomes people caring for each other. I loved those old guys, and was proud that I was able to learn from them. They welcomed me and educated me about so many things.
AlaskaReader
@Tony Jay:
The Christofascists have, of late, made the largest gains in their objective effect on national and state policies, more so than they ever did when they were ‘nosier’ than they are now.
They have evolved their methods. You and some others appear to be blind or naive thinking they’ve scaled back their efforts.
Just ask the folks who are currently under threat, those among us who are losing their rights and losing their lives.
As for you thinking you are either analyzing me, or ‘schooling me’, fuck right off with your pompous weak ass mewling.
AlaskaReader
@Tony Jay:
Didn’t want you to miss a response I left for you.