Things today that make me go hmm.
Everyone all studied up on wire fraud?
Good.
Asking for no reason.
— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) September 7, 2023
I know it’s (fake) Jack Smith, but the federal grand jury in DC is meeting again today.
So my head is titled tilted and I am thinking “hmm”.
Something else that makes me say “hmm” today?
First of all, unless that was part of the nefarious plan, which is quite possible, that seems like a funny hill to take a stand on.
Second, was John Eastman serving as an attorney to Trump? Did they have a contract? Did Eastman receive payment for services? Did Trump slip him a dollar like they did on Perry Mason, to make Trump Eastman’s client?
Count me as a member of Team Nefarious Plan.
Anything else we should be speculating on today?
Open thread.
Old School
I guess for fundraising off of The Big Lie?
Josie
@Old School:
And possibly using said funds for another purpose?
Ben Cisco
@Old School: That train is NEVER LATE.
artem1s
Things that make me go WTF is TIFG up to NOW?!!!!!!911!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lowtechcyclist
What title has been bestowed on your head, WG? ;-)
(Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Ben Cisco
@Josie: Nor this one.
Anonymous At Work
Bill Arnold
WTF? This is interesting. :-)
lowtechcyclist
Did he specify who his client was? Trump? Grassley? Someone else? Can a lawyer assert attorney-client privilege without divulging the identity of the client? Because the name of the client would be an important piece of the puzzle, at least for those of us who don’t have access to grand jury testimony.
trollhattan
Technically it’s not “wire” fraud when conducted via fiber optic. You’re pwnd again, Liberal abortion-loving Hippies!
Chief Oshkosh
When do the feds arrest Elon for fucking with national security?
Josie
@lowtechcyclist: He specifically answered, “President Trump.”
Ken
Shall we start a pool on (fake) Jack E. Smith’s next question?
I’ll take “Is everyone familiar with the Mann Act?”
Mr. Bemused Senior
What a pleasure that would be. It could collapse the whole house of cards.
rikyrah
@Anonymous At Work:
If this actually happens..
Jack Smith is the person we all wanted Robert Mueller to be.
lowtechcyclist
@Josie:
So he says he can’t talk about Grassley because he was representing Trump. Ho-kay.
Wonder if they’ve questioned Grassley about how he expected to be presiding that day.
Alison Rose
Yes.
tobie
@lowtechcyclist: apparently he said it was Trump.
wjca
Something that makes me go hmmm….
The Wisconsin legislature, specifically the Senate majority leader. If their lower house impeaches the new Chief Justice, as they are talking about doing, she cannot vote on cases until her Senate trial is concluded. (Leaving the state Supreme Court a 3-3 tie.) And, if she is removed, the (Democratic) Governor would appoint her replacement.
So now said Senate majority leader says that the Senate will not hold a trial at all. Instead, they will just sit on the impeachment. Meaning the Court will remain with a 3-3 tie (i.e. no action votes) indefinitely. And thus unable to rule against the current gerrymander.
Delk
Things that make me go hmmmm…
The doctor who told me I had 18 months to live when I was 23.
I turned 61 today.
Baud
@Delk:
Glad he was wrong!
rikyrah
@Delk:
YESS…..clap clap clap for you. :)
JPL
@Delk: Oh Happy Day!!!!
Josie
@Delk: Your comment made me smile. Congratulations and best wishes for the future.
MattF
Yes, Doctor Eastman’s ambition was to be the Giant Brain behind the Revolution. And one can (almost) understand how he arrived at that ambition.
Eastman: Here I am, in the Oval Office, surrounded by morons. I’m the smart one here. Therefore, I must be their leader.
Narrator: This was not the correct conclusion.
jonas
Here we are all concerned that a group of people may have committed wire fraud in their conspiracy with the previous president to prevent a constitutional transfer of power, while CNN (at least the website) and the FTFNYT have firmly and calmly collectively set their hair on fire and pretty much declared the 2024 election over for Biden and suggest that we just preemptively hand Trump the keys to the White House right now, even though he’s been indicted multiple times, to avoid more trouble down the road.
Man, the MSM hate Biden. It’s really palpable.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ken:
That’s the one about crossing state lions for immortal porpoises, right?
billtheXVIII
@wjca: then she resigns and the dem governor appoints her replacement, which could be herself.
Alison Rose
@Delk: That’s awesome! Sometimes medicine not being an exact science can work out for the better :)
jonas
@wjca: Can you imagine if a Democratic legislature were fucking around like this with a Republican state supreme court justice? As I’ve said many times, the place would be in flames and several crackpots with guns would have already been caught trying to breach the capitol building.
I hope there’s some way Marc Elias’s crew can descend on Wisconsin and start kicking some judicial ass with what’s going on there. It’s illegal voter disenfranchisement.
SiubhanDuinne
@Delk:
Wow! Very very happy about that particular medical error.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY MORE!!
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: Dammit! :-)
WaterGirl
@Bill Arnold: Duh. I forgot to include the link to the article. Remedied now.
Typo and no link. Low-quality hire! Low-quality hire!
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist:
They asked Eastman, and he said the client was Trump.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne: Version I learned was stately lions and yes, yes it is. :-)
ETA also involved underage gulls.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: Robert Mueller did an excellent job
wrong addressee can’t fix
Alison Rose
@WaterGirl: John should dock your pay ;)
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: That’s in the article that I forgot to link to when I posted (remedied now!).
My summary of that part:
Mumble-mumble no one said Grassley WOULD BE presiding that day mumble-mumble or that they didn’t expect Pence to be there mumble-mumble just that he might have to preside for a moment here or there during the course of the day.
WaterGirl
@Delk: Go you!
They told my dad he would never make it to 30 because of his heart murmur. He did a little bit better than that – 84!
wjca
Close. It’s about transporting a minor across a state line for immoral purposes.
“Immoral purposes” generally being understood to be sex, specifically child prostitution. Not sure if the act itself defines the term. Or just assumes that, like “pornography”, everyone will recognize it when they see it.
Old School
@Delk: Happy Birthday!
rikyrah
@jonas:
he broke up their gravy train.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: immortal purposes?
Philbert
@wjca: Chuck Berry was convisted and Johnny B Goode isa on Voyager, so imoortal it is!
smith
One big piece of unfinished business for Biden is reforming tax laws so that mobster-oligarchs have to actually pay them. They know he seriously intends to do this. It is inarguably an existential threat to them if their big piles of money are diminished in any way, so of course they have their people at FTFNYT and CNN do what they can to avoid such a disaster.
WaterGirl
@Ken: Remind me how / why / when we think Trump violated that?
It’s impossible to track all the awful things he has done.
WaterGirl
@Josie: Sorry, Josie! I forgot to include the article you sent me! It’s in there now, with a h/t to you.
smith
I’ve read that some in the GQP would like to establish that it means crossing state lines to get an abortion.
Josie
@WaterGirl:
No worries. I actually didn’t think I needed any credit. I just thought it was funny that the guy who thinks he is the smartest one in the room made such a stupid error.
All I can figure is that there was someone else in the conversation, so he was afraid to lie about it and invite a perjury charge.
unctuous
@Anonymous At Work: It doesn’t seem likely every one of the prosecutors missed that angle. I didn’t think of that but I’m not a prosecutor. I did wonder vaguely about how the TFG PAC could be used as a legal defense ATM but again IANP.
If they were just waiting I can’t think of a reason why. To net as many fraudster fish as possible? Or get the biggest fraudsters as mired in the net as possible?
Any thoughts?
Brachiator
@wjca:
I don’t understand this at all. What crime did the Justice supposedly commit?
Amadan
@trollhattan: Hence the phrase “All coppers are bastards”
Old School
@Brachiator:
Hearing a gerrymandering case (although it hasn’t started yet) when she said the current maps were unfair while campaigning.
JWR
I’ve been hearing a lot of very serious media stars* and experts* droning on about the coming indictment of Hunter Biden and what this will mean for the rest of Biden’s term. So what are the odds that a grand jury will vote to indict HB when a 5 year Repub “investigation” pretty much turned up squat?
* and * : Media stars and experts all seen on either CBS or NBC morning news shows.
Josie
@Brachiator: She talked about gerrymandering during her campaign. They seem to be charging her for what she might do (vote against gerrymandering).
ETA: or what Old School said.
Old School
@WaterGirl:
It was a joke.
So true.
wjca
@Brachiator: They have not actually cited one, AFAICT. At most, they object that she has not promised to recuse herself from cases regarding a) redistricting and b) abortion. Because, you see, she suggested during her campaign that there might be issues there — making her unacceptably prejudiced.**
** Not to be confused with acceptably prejudiced. .
CaseyL
@Brachiator:
The GOP says she committed impeachable acts by commenting on issues that will come before her on the Court.
(None of their judges are held to that standard, of course.)
Ruckus
Everything SFB touches, breathes on, stands near, invites into his twisted bullshit world, turns to crap, if they weren’t crap before, which I believe is one of his requirements to have anything to do with anyone or anything, they have to be at least close to him in craptastic thought, words and action.
WaterGirl
@Josie: I based half of the post around the article, but forgot to include the article!
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
Ah, the underage gulls. Knew I was forgetting an important element!
catclub
Reports that Elon Musk is breaking his satellite system to knee cap Ukraine against the Russians makes me go more than just hmmmm.
randy khan
Conversations between lawyers and other people can be subject to attorney-client privilege even without a formal relationship, which often is tricky for the lawyer to figure out. Because of this, lawyers sometimes send “You’re not my client” letters to people to make sure it’s clear there’s no relationship.
Roger Moore
@wjca:
FWIW, the Mann act was amended in 1986 to clarify it. The stuff about “immoral purposes” was replaced with “any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense”. That was probably necessary to avoid having people challenge it for unconstitutional vagueness.
catclub
@Chief Oshkosh:
beat me to it.
WaterGirl
When voting for judges, we wouldn’t want voters make an informed choice. //
Apparently it’s acceptable to
make false statementsLIE UNDER OATH like the Republican Supreme Court justices.NotMax
Is it Wankel Week again?
@Delk
Have a happy!
WaterGirl
@catclub: Is there more recent news about that? Or just based on the evidence that’s in plain sight?
jonas
@smith: The IRA contained a provision — that miraculously made into the bill and through Congress — for an alternative minimum corporate tax of 15%, which means no more corporations earning millions or billions in profits, but using loopholes and write-downs to claim no tax liability, or even massive tax credits. I think the company has to have net earnings over $1 billion to fall under the rule, but it’s pretty incredible that Biden got it through. IIRC closing the carried interest loophole was shot down by fucking “maverick” Kristen Sinema. That wouldn’t have been a huge game-changer revenue-wise, but it would at the very least prevent hedge fund managers from making $250 million in
casino winningsfees and paying only a 20% marginal rate on it.SiubhanDuinne
@wjca:
The only possible response.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
They’re threatening to impeach because they can. Actual offenses are completely secondary.
SiubhanDuinne
@wjca:
The only possible response.
catclub
Under headlines that make you wonder how stupid CNN is (and go hmmm):
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
That’s new reporting of old breakage, which was common knowledge, or at least commonly suspected.
The Kerch bridge drone attack, and recent naval drone attacks against Russian ships, mean that Ukraine has worked around the starlink geofencing somehow, or that it has been stopped, or that a special deal was made to enable some uses.
wjca
Thanks for the clarification. (It becomes ever more obvious that IANAL)
catclub
@WaterGirl: CNN headline about new book.
wjca
Not quite. They’re threatening to impeach because they need to. Otherwise their gerrymander, their power, is probably toast.
Alison Rose
@catclub: LOL, they left out the “If you’ve just woken up from a coma” bit before the “Here’s why”.
eversor
For the “all they are idiots” style question… I’ve learned through the years that many people who are (or were once) really good at their profession are vastly over confident in their own abilities. This leads to the issue of taking risks and getting way out over your skis. In IT this causes hilarious issues! I’ve caused like two, and had to clean up dozens over the years. I got bit twice and then started documenting the fuck out of everything and loading it into planners before I touched a thing and demanded someone else sign off on it.
@trollhattan:
While I know you are joking in the business we don’t talk about wires. It’s about cables. They are all rated. So you have POTS (ye old telephone cable which is still around because some protocols need it), ETHERNET (this is your standard copper cable but now the current standards range from 10mb to 10gb) and then FIBER. These are all physical cables, they aren’t wires. A wired circut is the industry slang for something that has a physical cable connecting it. A circuit is just a network and can include WiFi or SAT connections. Talking electrical/network shit gets weird fast as to what most people call it, what it is, vs what the professional slang is about it.
On the personal got a couple job bites at under 100k but seem like good places, a few professional firms that doubles that salary easily and then some but I’m not sure I want that now. I’ll have to figure it out. I think I’m old enough I just want to settle at a place and ride it out for the 26 years (?) to retire. Got a bunch of very nice contract bites at sick money with the catch of I need to get on the ACA to get my own insurance and set up my own retirement accounts and I don’t want to do that but it is tempting.
WaterGirl
@catclub: I know! I know!
Because they want to make their own choices about their own bodies?
Do I win?
hitchhiker
The voters of WI just elected that judge by a very big margin, in what is supposed to be a 50/50 state. If the Rs use their gerrymandered supermajority to handcuff her, they are likely to learn that even the most gerrymandered citizens can get mad enough to kick them where it hurts.
If they do this, I hope she resigns and the D governor replaces her instantly. Rs will still pay the price on voting day, and the court will be able to right some wrongs.
jonas
@Brachiator: Oh, there was no crime. The argument, if you can call it that, is that she ran as a “partisan” candidate. She admitted to being a Democrat and expressed her displeasure with the legislature’s gerrymander — which, one might note, is *precisely* why she won. Quite handily.
The Wisconsin GOP knows very well if their gerrymander gets undone, a lot of them will be out of a job. So they’re grasping at whatever straws they can and don’t give a shit how awful they look. Remember, shamelessness is their superpower.
Another Scott
B-J’s crack internet lawyers here have told me, when I had similar questions a while ago, that no contract needs to be signed and no money needs to change hands for someone to be your lawyer.
And I guess that makes sense. TV shows like Night Court had people show up at the court and meet their lawyer there just before entering a plea – no money, no contract, just “Here’s my lawyer!” And we all know, TV shows are always correct.
Still, it will be good for Eastman to have to talk, and to FO after all of his FA.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
E.
@wjca: Whoa. Never mind democracy, these are not people who believe in the rule of law.
Trivia Man
@Delk: my grandmother lived into her 90s and never got tired of telling these stories. “He told me I had no more than 2 months to live. Of course, he died in 1975.” I think she was given THE NEWS 4 times and outlived every one of those doctors.
lollipopguild
@Brachiator: She was elected while being a Democrat.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@Delk: I suppose that doctor is dead now? Congrats on proving that doctor to be so very wrong.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@SiubhanDuinne: A P.D.Q Bach reference! Thank you!
Mousebumples
Adding on the Wisconsin Supreme Court stuff – if anyone has time to volunteer (locally or virtually, I think), WisDems has launched a campaign.
https://www.defendjustice.com/
(there is a fundraising link there, because of course, but that’s the background info page. Volunteer here – https://www.mobilize.us/wisdems/ )
I’m short on free time but hoping to call my GOP state reps yet this week to express my displeasure with their plan.
Mai Naem mobile >
It has to have to do with the MAL IT guy flipping. Maybe there’s russian/saudi/chinese/turkish/hungarianmoney coming in not just the PAC money.
wjca
If I somehow inadvertently suggested otherwise, I do abjectly apologize. Because, of course, all they believe in is power — always assuming that it’s their power.
Scout211
I don’t know if this has been posted yet, but to answer your question about Eastman answering questions, he tried to plead the 5th but was denied. Link
cain
@billtheXVIII: SInce the whole thing is in bad faith – the governor has every right to do it. They can bitch all they want. Still a clever gambit.
smith
I just read some excerpts from Fani Willis’ response to Jim Jordan after his attempt to call her on the carpet for her temerity in prosecuting the Man Who Would Be King. Wow! That lady does not take prisoners!
Some choice bits:
She also includes several detailed sections advising him on how he could do a much better job on the House Judiciary Committee.
Really, every page of the letter has multiple gems. It should stand a long time as a classic in the art of shade-throwing.
cain
@Brachiator: Judging while woke.
JaneE
@lowtechcyclist: Now Grassley is saying he did expect Pence to be presiding. If that earlier quote is accurate, that is a direct contradiction to what he said on the 5th. Did he know in advance the SS would try to whisk Pence out of the Capitol? The way I heard it Pence refused to go.
Alison Rose
@JaneE:
The one smart thing he’s ever done. Of course, it was in complete self-interest, but I can’t fault even Pence for being like “I would rather not be murdered, thank you”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mousebumples: Living in Madison, my state representative is one of the good guys. I called the rep from my hometown and talked to a staffer. He said he was getting a bunch of calls and that the rep did not have position yet. I think pressure can work here. Janet got a lot of votes. More than many assembly got in their own districts. Telling those voters to fuck off isn’t necessarily a good plan.
Ken
I mentioned it more as a L.B.J.-style “I’d like to see the son-of-a-bitch deny it” move; but, there have been rumors about the modeling agency he once ran.
SiubhanDuinne
@smith:
I stubbed out my last cigarette on March 14, 1993, but I swear if someone walked in right now and offered me a smoke, I’d be taking the deepest drag you ever saw. That was amazing. You go, Fani!
moonbat
@smith: THAT is freakin’ awesome!
Mousebumples
That’s my thought too. I live in a purple part of the state – but… Gerrymandering.
Might also pretend to live where my parents still are and call those reaaaaally conservative reps. (WOW counties)
WaterGirl
@smith: I can say with 99% confidence that the final page of her letter got lost before Fani Willis sent that response:
I agree with (hypothetical) Fani. It’s time to bring that one back again.
OldDave
That’s where I heard it! Thanks to the both of you.
Villago Delenda Est
@wjca:
This is key.
Gravenstone
@wjca: If they pull that stunt, Justice Protasiewicz will just resign her seat and Gov. Evers will name her replacement. That replacement would then need to stand for re-election in the following Spring’s primaries, per state law. This would fuck the Republicans extra hard because the electorate will be even more pissed off than when she was elected last year. That would bode even worse for them in the 2024 general election.
bbleh
Navarro guilty of contempt. Another one bites the dust.
bbleh
@Gravenstone: asked about that a while ago. Is it indeed the case that, if she resigns while they’re just sitting on it (or, I suppose for any other reason), the Gov names a replacement? Seems like that kinda nips their strategy in the bud, not that they won’t go through with it purely out of spite.
bbleh
@Brachiator: @wjca: does there need to be a crime? Isn’t the power of impeachment pretty much what the Lege says it is? Or does the WI constitution say specifically there must be one, in which case if it’s still up to the Assembly to decide to prosecute and the Senate to convict, what difference does it make?
Scout211
Good.
He and his attorney will file for a mistrial. They claim the jurors went outside for a break and could have been influence by all the protesters. LOL
And then, most likely an appeal like Bannon who still has not served his sentence. Grrrrr.
Stuart Frasier
@bbleh: WI has a higher threshold for removing a judge, removal by address, which requires a 2/3 vote in both houses. It’s not actually obvious that impeachment applies to judges. It should end up decided by a state court.
Wisconsin Constitution
Article VII – Judiciary
Section 13 – Justices and judges: removal by address.
Universal Citation: WI Const art VII § 13
[As amended April 1974 and April 1977] Any justice or judge may be removed from office by address of both houses of the legislature, if two-thirds of all the members elected to each house concur therein, but no removal shall be made by virtue of this section unless the justice or judge complained of is served with a copy of the charges, as the ground of address, and has had an opportunity of being heard. On the question of removal, the ayes and noes shall be entered on the journals. [1971 J.R. 30, 1973 J.R. 25, vote April 1974; 1975 J.R. 13, 1977 J.R. 7, vote April 1977]
bbleh
@Stuart Frasier: ok but still up to the Lege, right? They charge her with … something (doesn’t say the “charges” have to be out of the criminal code, right?), she gets to say her piece, and then they vote. Obviously the whole thing is making a mockery of the process, but these are Republicans, and the show must go on!
bbleh
@Scout211: you always file for a mistrial, no? Even if it’s just Jewish Space Lasers. And in this case there was a court officer present with them. So the Judge said he’d hear evidence, but this sounds like a serious Hail Mary to me.
Stuart Frasier
@bbleh: The point is they don’t have enough votes for removal by address.
bbleh
@Stuart Frasier: Ah, sorry, I thought they had a supermajority. Well that DOES make a difference.
Omnes Omnibus
@bbleh: They have the numbers (just) for impeachment. They do not have the numbers to use the judicial removal process. If they go forward, they will use impeachment. There will be a fight over whether it is appropriate and/or allowed. Right now, I am not sure they can get all the GOP reps on board. The situation is still developing.
eversor
@Ken:
He ran a child prostitution industry it’s always projection with them. If you C which could be Conservative, Capitalist, or Christian, it’s always projection. The Christians are just the worst of it.
misterpuff
@CaseyL:
No, they lie about it instead.
ETA Water Girl beat me to it!
sukabi
think the GJ reconvened to specifically take a look at the “fundraising” they were doing off their insurrection planning …from there they could be charged with wire fraud…
misterpuff
Wisc. Lege impeachs, Senate declines to have a trial, Justice resigns, Gov appoints her to open position.
Wisc Lege vows to impeach again. Rinse and Repeat.
How many times can this go on? Can any Court work get done in the time she is “on the bench’ and unimpeached.
Wisc Goopers: Stop Me before I Impeach Again!
bbleh
@misterpuff: I did wonder about this. Or there’s a rotating cast, impeach one, s/he resigns, and the next is appointed. So then the question is, who moves more slowly, the Lege or the Court?
Good thing Republicans aren’t interested in anything like effective governance or the responsibilities of office or anything like that…
bbleh
@Omnes Omnibus: so there’s “removal by address” AND there’s impeachment? Or is it only one? And they have enough in the lower house to impeach or charge or whatever it is, but not enough in the upper house to remove? Or they have enough to remove via impeachment but not by address?
What a sh!tshow. “Laboratories of democracy” indeed. More like lavatories of democracy…
Burnspbesq
@artem1s:
I (and people much smarter than me) have been saying for several months that the potential fifth indictment was wire fraud and mail fraud connected to using the Big Lie to fleece the rubes.
Burnspbesq
@jonas:
To their credit, WI Dems are fundraising like crazy of this latest foolishness from Vos et al. I saw the number $4 million somewhere today.
currawong
I know too but he is certainly very well informed.
wjca
I think you missed the turn. What we’re looking at is, they charge he and impeach her. At which point, she is still Chief Justice, but cannot vote on cases. But the Senate doesn’t vote on removing her, nor even hold hearings. Instead, they sit on their hands. After all, as long as she can’t vote on cases, they’re good.
Hence the talk about her resigning and getting reappointed.
frosty
@Delk: Wow, amazing! Happy Birthday (and [counts fingers] 38 others).