Happy Trump Arrest Day, Wonkers! Again!
This evening, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, the former president informs us, he will turn himself in at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta and be released on $200,000 bail. Presumably this will not involve a trip to ye olde bail bondsman, as it did for Trump’s erstwhile pro bono lawyer. But it will involve a mugshot!
Leaving aside the wild visuals, though, there is an absolutely bonkers amount of stuff going on with the Georgia case. So, let’s hit it rundown-style, before we get buried under another tsunami of craziness.
Yesterday we told you about efforts to flee the jurisdiction by Mark Meadows, Jeff Clark, and fake elector David Shafer, all of whom were indicted last week along with Trump.
Clark, the former DOJ environmental lawyer who tried to get acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen to send a letter to Georgia legislators urging them to steal Biden’s electors based on non-existent fraud investigations, may have a strong case for removing his case to federal court. He did appear to be acting under color of his federal office, albeit for a totally nefarious purpose. What he does not have a is a strong case to transfer his case to federal court under the standards for civil removal, because SHUT UP a criminal indictment is not CIVIL, you absolute knob.
But civil removal halts the state case in its tracks, while criminal cases can keep going in state trial courts while a federal judge mulls it over. And since Clark really, really didn’t want to fly to Atlanta and get arrested, he went for it and demanded that Judge Steve Jones leap in to save him. After which Meadows also demanded to be rescued from the indignities of a mugshot, because, what the hell, why not?
But actually DA Fani Willis could think of multiple reasons why not, and they all boiled down to, NO, THAT IS NOW HOW CRIMINAL REMOVAL GOES, YOU DIPSHITS. Or words to that effect. You can read her flaming responses to Clark and Meadows here and here.
Money shot:
Federal removal is designed to protect federal functions from State interference, but that was not a risk in 2020 or 2021 and is not a risk now. Instead, this case concerns attempts to interfere in State functions by federal officials without any authority of their own.
She also noted that Meadows appears to be conceding that he was violating the Hatch Act’s prohibition on abusing federal office to affect the outcome of an election when he did all that stuff he insists was official business, which is not a great defense.
Meadows’s hearing to determine whether he is entitled to remove his case to federal court is scheduled for Monday morning, and DA Willis just subpoenaed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his chief elections investigator Francis Watson to appear as state witnesses. Meadows set up and participated in the the infamous call pressuring Raffensperger to “find” Trump 11,780 votes, and is alleged in the indictment to have offered campaign cash to Watson if she could speed up the signature audit.
Meanwhile, a bunch of conservative legal scholars, led by former Judge Michael Luttig, have filed an amicus brief saying no way, no how should Meadows and Clark be allowed to remove their cases to federal court.
There’s also a weird theory floating around and referenced in both removal petitions that removing the case for any one party will necessarily launch all 19 defendants into federal court. But that way madness lies!
Should you fire your lawyer the day of your arrest?
Probably not!
Did Trump start the day by firing his attorney Drew Findling and replacing him with Steve Sadow?
Sadow has some experience battling Willis over RICO charges through his representation of rapper Young Slime Life (YSL). Jury selection in that case took six months, and Trump’s goal is to push all his trials back until after the election, so, that one’s not too difficult to parse.
And speaking of timing of the trial …
Attorney Ken Cheseboro, AKA Co-Conspirator 5 in the Special Counsel’s election interference indictment, managed to get a named role in the Georgia indictment. He recently came to prominence as the architect of the evolving plan to steal electors, and he’s making waves in Georgia this week after filing a motion for speedy trial that would force the prosecutors to bring their case by the end of October.
This is functionally a dare, since a case involving 19 defendants, at least three of whom are going to try to remove their cases to federal court, would normally take months, if not years to prepare. But in the event, DA Willis said “BET” and immediately agreed to his timeline.
Seems pretty likely that Cheseboro’s former client Donald Trump will have something to say about that one. As will Trump’s goons in Congress!
CNN reports that the Trump’s allies in the House are gearing up to investigate DA Fani Willis for … aggravated Black lady being mean to Trump?
Look, they’ll come up with something.
They already tried this play with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, with very moderate success, on the ostensible theory that Congress has an obligation to oversee the use of federal funds distributed to state prosecutors.
This time around, they seem to be focusing their inquiries on any nexus between Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office and the Georgia prosecutor, on the theory that President Joe Biden is masterminding a WITCH HUNT, even as he’s a doting old fool who can’t tie his shoes. Outside of Trump’s social media feed, there seems to be precious little evidence of any coordination, but that’s never stopped these guys before.
It’s a clusterfuck. Now here’s Rudy, discovering that, yes, there is something more embarrassing than holding a press conference in a landscaper’s parking lot across from a porno shop.
Catch Liz Dye on Opening Arguments podcast.
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