The Conversation -- August 16, 2023
Michael Gold & Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "A campaign associate of Representative George Santos who impersonated Speaker Kevin McCarthy's former chief of staff was charged with wire fraud and identity theft in a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday. The aide, Samuel Miele, was arraigned Wednesday morning in Brooklyn federal court and released on $150,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty. He was accused by federal prosecutors of sending 'fraudulent fund-raising' emails to more than a dozen potential contributors to an unnamed candidate. In those messages, he claimed to be a 'high-ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities,' the indictment said. When Mr. Miele successfully solicited campaign contributions, he received a 15 percent commission, according to the indictment."
Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "A Republican lawmaker apologized Tuesday for a 'religious freedom' tweet he posted earlier that day after receiving backlash from both sides of the aisle. Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) asked Lizzie Marbach, director of communications at Ohio Right to Life, to delete one of her posts on X...-Twitter, that said there is 'no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.' 'This is one of the most bigoted tweets I have ever seen. Delete it, Lizzie. Religious freedom in the United States applies to every religion. You have gone too far,' he posted on X. Just hours after that post, Miller apologized for the tweet." MB: Miller's mistake was the tone of his tweet, particularly because he's a public official, and he gives the dimwitty lady a command. But the sentiment? I'm with Miller. Marbach's tweet is a straightforward expression of religious bigotry.
American Nightmare. Matt Berg of Politico: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she had not ruled out the possibility of running for the Senate. And she would consider "very heavily" (which must be like considering "very strongly") accepting the V.P. spot on a Trump ticket.
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Trump Crime Blotter
For my presidential knowledge, I am plucky and adventury,
I can never be brought down by the mischief of Jack Smithery;
Because no matter how the Jacks & Fanis try to bring me down
I am the very model of a modern presidential clown. ~~~
~~~ To the tune of and borrowed from the last stanza of the "Modern Major-General's Song" from Gilbert & Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance." Thanks to contributor Patrick for the inspiration. MB: To be fair, there are hundreds of opportunities for poetic creativity in these indictments. Even as I typed it, I could feel that this next story read like the first line of a country & western song: ~~~
~~~ They'll be taking Trump's mugshot at the Fulton County Jail. ~~~
~~~ Update: We have our first stanza! See today's Comments. ~~~
~~~ MB: While Trump does make his perfect phone calls, sadly, it is not possible to write a perfect country and western song about him. As David Allan Coe once pronounced, the perfect C&W song must include "Mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk," only one of which has much to do with Trump. The late, great Steve Goodman responded to Coe by adding a verse (in one version or another) to a song he had previously told Coe "was perfect":
I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train.
Here is the New York Times' liveblog for Tuesday's developments in Georgia's Trump crime family indictment. ~~~
~~~ CNN's live Tuesday updates are here.
Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "On Tuesday morning, [Donald] Trump announced on Truth Social that he will hold a press conference next week where he will produce a 'Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia.'... In a statement posted to X...-Twitter -- [Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp] flatly declared: 'The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.... For nearly three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward -- under oath -- and prove anything in a court of law.'..." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "The report..., according to people familiar with the matter, is a document of more than 100 pages that was compiled at least in part by Liz Harrington, a Trump communications aide who is often described as among the true believers in his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread fraud." ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, what Trump says he plans to do is exactly what Rudy did to get himself indicted in Georgia: tell big fat lies about Georgia election fraud. So, brilliant move! And, for a touch of verisimilitude, I do urge him to get the MyPillow Guy to provide charts and printouts to "back up" Trump's assertions. I can hardly wait.
Here are the 19 defendants, in alphabetical order: Robert Cheeley, Ken Chesebro, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Jenna Ellis, Willie Floyd III, Rudy Giuliani, Scott Hall, Misty Hampton, Trevian Kutti, Cathy Latham, Stephen Lee, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, Michael Roman, David Shafer, Ray Smith, Shawn Still, Donald Trump. D.A. Willis said she planned to try them all together. MB: I hope the court seats them in alphabetical order.
Trump Stiffed His Co-Conspirators. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Several of the attorneys who spearheaded ... Donald Trump's frenzied effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election tried, and failed, to collect payment for the work they did for Trump's political operation, according to testimony to congressional investigators and Federal Election Commission records. This is despite the fact that their lawsuits and false claims of election interference helped the Trump campaign and allied committees raise $250 million in the weeks following the November vote.... Among them was Trump's closest ally ... Rudy Giuliani.... The revelation that [Trump] likely stiffed Giuliani, a longtime friend, is all the more striking given that much of the work Giuliani did for the Trump operation is detailed in a sprawling RICO indictment in Georgia released Monday, in which Giuliani is a co-defendant.... Today, that money raised by Trump's political operation is instead helping Trump pay his own legal bills...." Also not paid: Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro or John Eastman. MB: Aw shucks, this is just Trump being Trump.
Tuesday Morning. Kyle Cheney of Politico: Trump is likely to try to move the Georgia case to federal court. And he could be successful. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Tuesday Evening. Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is seeking to move the Fulton County, Georgia, prosecution against him to federal court so that he can try to get the case dismissed under federal law. Meadows argued in a new court filing submitted in the US District Court of the Northern District of Georgia that he is entitled to bring a federal immunity defense because the Georgia state charges against him stem from his conduct as ... Donald Trump's chief of staff. Meadows is one of 19 defendants, including Trump, who were charged on Monday in the Georgia 2020 election subversion case. Meadows' request would not move the entirety of District Attorney Fani Willis' case to federal court. Rather, it would be a defendant-by-defendant endeavor. Trump, who faces 13 charges, is also expected to try to move the case to federal court, according to multiple sources familiar with the legal team's thinking.... Willis charged Meadows with violating Georgia's anti-racketeering act known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, and with soliciting a public official to violate their oath. According to the docket, Meadows' removal request has been assigned to US District Judge Steve Jones, an appointee of former President Barack Obama."
Jeff Amy of the AP: “A Georgia state agency said Tuesday that it will name a special prosecutor to consider whether the state's Republican lieutenant governor should face criminal charges after ... Donald Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted Monday for working to overturn the state's 2020 election results. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was one of 16 Republican electors who falsely claimed that Trump won Georgia. As a state senator, he also sought a special session of Georgia's Legislature aimed at overturning President Joe Biden's narrow win in the state. But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was barred by a judge from indicting Jones. Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney agreed with Jones that Willis, an elected Democrat, had a conflict of interest because she hosted a fundraiser for the Democrat who lost to Jones in the 2022 election for lieutenant governor. McBurney said in a hearing that Willis' decision to host the fundraiser was a 'what are you thinking?' moment."
Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Just days ago, the judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of seeking to subvert the 2020 election admonished him against violating the conditions of his release put in place at his arraignment -- including by making 'inflammatory statements' that could be construed as possibly intimidating witnesses or other people involved in the case. But Mr. Trump immediately tested that warning by posting a string of messages on his social media website, Truth Social, that largely amplified others criticizing the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan.... Mr. Trump is now probing the limits of what the criminal justice system will tolerate and the lines that Judge Chutkan sought to lay out.... Some lawyers have said that if Mr. Trump were an ordinary citizen issuing these attacks, he would be in jail by now." MB: This is just how a bratty toddler responds to a parental warning.
Release the DMs! Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The federal prosecutors who charged ... Donald J. Trump this month with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election got access this winter to a trove of so-called direct messages that Mr. Trump sent others privately through his Twitter account, according to court papers unsealed on Tuesday. While it remained unclear what sorts of information the messages contained and who exactly may have written them, it was a revelation that there were private messages associated with the Twitter account of Mr. Trump, who has famously been cautious about using written forms of communications in his dealings with aides and allies.... The [newly-unsealed] papers included transcripts of hearings in Federal District Court in Washington in February ... [before] Judge Beryl A. Howell...." During the proceedings, Twitter sought to tell Mr. Trump the court had ordered the company to release the direct messages to Jack Smith. "Twitter not only lost the fight but also was found to be in contempt of court for delaying complying with the warrant. Judge Howell fined the company $350,000." Politico's story is here.
Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former President Trump is asking for a hold on a lawsuit related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol due to his federal charges. The partner of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the Jan. 6 insurrection, sued the former president and two rioters charged with assaulting Sicknick earlier this year. Sandra Garza alleged that Trump and the two rioters, Julian Khater and George Tanios, are 'directly and vicariously liable' for Sicknick's death.... 'Forcing President Trump to defend this case while simultaneously defending a criminal prosecution based on related conduct would undoubtedly compromise either his right to defend himself in this case, his criminal defense, or both,' his lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday."
Trump Crime Family Made Man Pleads Not Guilty. Shawn Nottingham of CNN: "Carlos de Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to multiple obstruction-related offenses tied to ... Donald Trump's alleged unlawful retention of documents after leaving office, including classified material at Trump's Florida resort." (Also linked yesterday.)
(Alleged!) GOP Criminal Misses Another Disclosure Deadline. Grace Ashford & Michael Gold of the New York Times: Rep. George "Santos ... missed the Aug. 13 deadline to file his [financial] disclosures [with the House Ethics Committee], a lapse that could lead to fines. He had already received a 90-day extension from the initial deadline.... [Rep. Santos] is facing 13 felony charges related to his finances...."
Reid Epstein & Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: "President Biden said on Tuesday that he would travel to Hawaii to inspect damage on Maui after deadly wildfires ripped through the island, killing at least 99 people and devastating an entire coastal town. 'My wife, Jill, and I are going to travel to Hawaii as soon as we can,' Mr. Biden said in a speech focused on the economy at a wind and electric power manufacturing plant in Milwaukee. 'That's what I've been talking to the governor about but I don't want to get in the way.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
David Ignatius of the Washington Post: President Biden & Secretary of State Antony Blinken are "trying to foster partnerships and norms of behavior -- in dealing with China, Russia and Ukraine, as well as new challenges such as artificial intelligence -- that are broadly based and, hopefully, sustainable.... Even at a moment when American politics seems to be in free fall, this administration has kept its feet on the ground in foreign policy. That should reassure people who care about American interests -- at home and abroad." MB: This is another example of how responsible governance garners zero votes. Far fewer Americans know about Biden & Blinken's global diplomacy than believe that Donald Trump would have prevented Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
At Baylor, Harassment of LGBTQ+ Students is A-OK. Fiona Andre of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Education Department accepted Baylor University's request for exemption from Title IX's sexual harassment provision after the private Baptist school asked to dismiss discrimination complaints filed by LGBTQ+ students that the university said were 'inconsistent' with the institution's religious values."
Michael Rothfeld of the New York Times: "The former head of counterintelligence for the F.B.I. in New York pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to a single reduced charge of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and laundering payments from a prominent Russian oligarch. The plea by the former agent, Charles F. McGonigal, represented a remarkable turn for a man who once occupied one of the most sensitive and trusted positions in the American intelligence community, placing him among the highest-ranking F.B.I. officials ever to be convicted of a crime.... The conspiracy charge he pleaded guilty to was newly filed by prosecutors on Tuesday, replacing the original indictment handed up by a grand jury in January that had included more serious charges of violating U.S. sanctions and laundering money.... Mr. McGonigal still faces a second indictment brought by federal prosecutors in Washington on charges that accuse him of concealing his acceptance of $225,000 from a businessman and of hiding dealings in Eastern Europe while working for the bureau. Mr. McGonigal has pleaded not guilty to those charges but is in talks to resolve them...." (Also linked yesterday.) CNN's story is here.
Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Hunter Biden attorney Christopher Clark is withdrawing from representing the president's son in a Delaware probe, pointing to a continuing legal battle over a plea agreement in the tax case that dissolved before it could be approved by a judge. Clark's notice to the court indicates he could be a witness in coming challenges over the disintegration of the deal, which the Justice Department moved to withdraw minutes after Attorney General Merrick Garland elevated Delaware prosecutor David Weiss to serve as a special counsel in the matter." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Kara Scannell of CNN: "Special counsel David Weiss said the deal his team previously reached with Hunter Biden to resolve a felony gun possession charge was never approved by a probation officer and is not binding.... Biden's lawyers on Sunday said they believed an agreement to resolve a felony gun possession charge was 'valid and binding.'"
Presidential Race 2024
The Elephant in the Room -- Is Under Indictment. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: During a speech in Milwaukee, President Biden made Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) the object of his scorn but said nothing about the presidential candidate currently out on bail in three criminal cases & awaiting booking in a fourth. "'We have the best workers in the world,' Mr. Biden said. 'It's about time Ron Johnson's friends understood that.'"
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Kansas. Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Joann Meyer, who spent nearly 60 years as a reporter, columnist, editor and associate publisher at The Marion County Record in Kansas, died on Saturday [link fixed] at her home, a day after the police searched the newspaper's offices. She was 98. Her son, Eric Meyer, the newspaper's publisher, confirmed the death. He said that the cause had not been determined, but that the coroner had concluded that the stress of the searches -- at her home, which she shared with him, as well as at the paper's offices -- was a contributing factor.... Mr. Meyer said that his mother was in shock after the raid...."
Yes, Massachusetts, There Is a Free Lunch. Megan Cerullo of CBS News: "Every kid in Massachusetts will get a free lunch, paid for by proceeds from a new state tax on millionaires. A new 4% tax on the state's wealthiest residents will account for $1 billion of the state's $56 billion fiscal budget for 2024, according to state documents. A portion of those funds will be used to provide all public-school students with free weekday meals, according to State House News Service. The new tax, which was approved by voters last year and went into effect in 2023, applies to Massachusetts residents with incomes over $1 million."
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Reader Comments (14)
Miles Gloriosus conquers Florida
Just declare DeSantis the winner and tell Disney to drop dead.
This is what DeSantolini hacks, sycophants, and lackeys on the Florida tourism something, something board are demanding. They are telling a judge to just forget about a trial, rule in our favor.
Pretty soon Florida won’t even have judges.
Authoritarian Handbook, Ch. 2, p. 1.
The dictator is always right. Especially when going up against a mouse.
—But Chris (Bridge Closure) Christie is now kicking his ass in New Hampshire. That’s a lot more people for DeSantolini to sue. It’s hard work being an authoritarian tyrant. People don’t understand.
I’m reminded of the character Miles Gloriosus* in the musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, the narcissistic nimrod general who declares:
I, Miles Gloriosus,
I, slaughterer of thousands,
I, oppressor of the meek,
Subduer of the weak,
Degrader of the Greek,
Destroyer of the Turk,
Must hurry back to work.
[MILES & ROMANS:]
I/he, Miles Gloriosus,
[SOLDIERS]
A man among men!
[MILES & ROMANS:]
I/he, paragon of virtue,
[SOLDIERS]
With sword and with pen!
[MILES]
I, in war the most admired,
In wit the most inspired,
In love the most desired,
In dress the best displayed--
I am a parade!
[SOLDIERS]
Look at those eyes, cunning and keen,
Look at the size of those thighs, like a mighty machine!
[PSEUDOLUS]
Those are the mightiest thighs that I have ever seen…I mean…
[MILES]
Make haste!
I have no time to waste:
There are shrines
I should be sacking,
Ribs I should be cracking,
Eyes to gouge and booty to divide.
*Miles Gloriosus became shorthand in Rome to describe butthead braggart military officers. The name came from a play by Plautus. Glorious required armies of sycophants to tell him how wonderful he was and to praise his stupidest ideas, typically hated by the people. Except for the “mighty thighs like a machine”, sounds very much like DeSantolini.
They’ll be taking DiJiT’s mugshot
At the Fulton County jail
So his very next Truth Social
Will be soliciting for bail
For his codefendants, he doesn’t give a buck
They can get their own cash
And take a flying …
Rotten apples
In the apples falling from trees department, we have one Brantley Starr (sounds like a cartoon name, a character from some fourth rate B movie).
You may recall last week that a Jesus judge in Texas ordered Southwest Airlines executives to attend classes in Right-wing Religion Rules All after losing a case involving the firing of an employee for disseminating hate propaganda (Jesus must have ordered her to do it).
The employee was reinstated but that wasn’t enough for the judge, who attended the Abilene Christian University, thus the court ordered re-education religious brainwashing.
But here’s something I missed. Besides being an unqualified hack promoted from assistant to Texas AG and career criminal, Ken Paxton, to a cushy lifetime appointment on the federal bench by Fuckface von Clownstick, this guy, Brantley Starr, is a nephew of disgraced former Baylor University president and chaser of Bill Clinton’s penis, Ken Starr.
Ken Starr, you may recall, spent years and tens of millions of taxpayer dollars attacking Bill Clinton for a blow job, he also worked on Fatty’s legal defense team during one of his two impeachments (thus the payback, a job for the nephew). He was obviously so incensed by SEX that he covered up rapes and sexual assaults against female students while serving as Boss at Baylor. After all, they were just broads. Their rapists were FOOTBALL PLAYERS! (Cue cute cheerleaders and marching band.)
Boy, oh boy, it’s a pretty incestuous world out there on the right, Starr’s loser nephew gets a lifetime job on the federal bench. Javanka gets billions after taking up space for four years in the Trump White House.
Sick trees and rotten apples.
Kudos to the alliterators in yesterday's comments. It was epic!
Miss Margie Sez…
“Buddee, buddee, buddee…
Fani Willis should be going after rapists!”
Oooh-kaaay…
Do tell, Marge! Rapists, you say? Umm, she is. Going after a rapist, that is. Just not for rape. At least not this time. That trial is over. Guilty.
Does this idiot ever run stuff by, you know, sentient beings before the lip flapping commences?
Maybe next time she should say “Go after someone who steals state secrets”, right? Or someone guilty of fraud, or pussy grabbing, or insurrection, or…
Re Abilene Christian: What the Founders did is even more admirable when you consider how much religion pervaded politics in the England of their forebears and even in the New World. The system of government they designed was intended to allow people who didn't want one religion or another (or any for that matter) inundating their lives via those whose lives would feel incomplete were they not to share the Good News.
It's particularly admirable because most of the people who accomplished it were themselves at least nominally Christian, a group that reveres the Bible as a reference where democracy as a form of government never appears. Religion is by its nature authoritarian because God doesn't like it if people can vote on whether or not what he says goes. So, from an authoritarian tradition came those who somehow protected those who rejected divine authority from being burned at the stake or stuck in the pillory.
If the Texas person who bothered others with her godly proselytizing had instead been plumping for Amway or the SPLC, it's likely that the judge would have found such behavior intrusive. However, when it's done in the name of the Lord, everything changes because (1) the Founders didn't really mean that stuff about religion staying in its lane and (2) the Lord needs lobbyists, I guess.
Before the Civil War, slaveholders defended their way of life by happily pointing to slavery in the Bible. ("The Lord is cool with it.") When people claim religious authority for being jerks and judges buy those arguments, we're on our way back to the days before the Founders figured out that no matter what good might come from mixing religion and politics, the example of England in the 1640s and the decades following was a good reason not to.
@Jack Mahoney: As you say, the Founders were at least nominally Christian and some were adamantly so. But I think the impetus behind the separation of church & state (as, for instance, Jefferson expressed in his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists) grows out of the Deist philosophy that the more thoughtful Founders followed when considering what kind of government would work in a pluralistic society that included the Roman Catholics of Maryland and the Calvinists of Massachusetts, not to mention the Jews of Truro, R.I. It is possible to be a Deist, after all, and own your own fine Episcopalian pew, as George Washington did. And, as you say, they had the example of centuries of European religious strife and wars to suggest to them there must be a better way.
I'm afraid the Founders' Enlightened Deism would deeply trouble Insufferable Sam & his Supreme cohort, not to mention the millions of "patriotic" Americans who are sure this is a "Christian nation."
This country is the beneficiary of the tail end of the Enlightenment, and true believers of various narrower persuasions have had the freeeedom to fight that good fortune ever since.
Yesterday I heard some lawyers saying that Trump could still get probation in his Georgia case. That made me wonder how probation works when the defendant is facing indictments in multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. One condition of probation is that the accused not commit any more crimes while on release. Will they tell Trump he can only have the 90 crimes he's already been accused of committing, no more from this point forward?
Rico Law
Conservative judges do science.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/appeals-court-upholds-restrictions-abortion-pill-access-rcna100255
Have to love the way they do it.
The way I read this decision is that abortion pill access caused no major health risk to women until Democrats forced its wider distribution, which might have made it more dangerous to the women it was nor harming earlier....
From NBC News
"Trump supporters post names and addresses of Georgia grand jurors online
The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric, NBC News has learned."
RAS,
Probably not what the loonies have in mind, but how about a nationwide campaign to flood these good folks with thank you letters?
This kind of highlights how things were, maybe by a few decades, before Fuckface von Clownstick. The sentiment remains the same.
I love the haircuts and ruffles. Pre-LGBTQS+.
This kind of highlights how things were, maybe by a few decades, before Fuckface von Clownstick. The sentiment remains the same.
I love the haircuts and ruffles. Pre-LGBTQS+.