The "Great Unraveling" continues.

I'm sure it's a coincidence that it came a day after Chutkan postponed the trial. I presume Trump will try his luck with the Supreme Court now.

 

But will the trial come before the election? Can he delay the appeal process long enough?

 

Since there is no merit to the appeal the SC shouldn't take the case.

 

I have not read any commentary about the likelihood of a verdict before the election. But given the polling numbers on how big the impact a guilty verdict would be he will obviously do all he can to delay it. It's been his goal from the beginning.

 

They're kind of busy debating the insurrectionist Democrats and their sycophants at the moment so it may be pending for a little while longer. Speaking of insurrection, care to remind the class where you stood on attacking our democracy via blatantly unconstitutional state actions?

People whose words and opinions gave support to the people who shared the mentality of attacking the legal continuation of our election is the new definition of insurrectionist, even if they weren't physically there. That reminds me of a lot of people lately. Does that remind you of anyone in this thread?

I kind of lose faith in the opinions of those who said states had the clear authority to violate the Constitution to keep their political rival off the ballot.

 

III. What Happens at the Supreme Court?

The specific application Trump files will almost certainly ask the Court to “stay” (i.e., freeze) the D.C. Circuit’s mandate pending its disposition of a (forthcoming) petition for certiorari in the Supreme Court. In other words, “I’m going to appeal the D.C. Circuit’s ruling at some point. Until I do, please keep the trial on hold.” It goes to Chief Justice Roberts in the first place in his capacity as Circuit Justice for the D.C. Circuit, and Roberts will quickly order a response from Special Counsel Jack Smith, who represents the federal government in this case. But contra some accounts you might’ve read last week, there is no need for Roberts to issue an “administrative stay” that temporarily pauses things while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s request. Again, the D.C. Circuit’s mandate cleverly keeps the mandate paused while the Supreme Court considers Trump’s application, so nothing happens to the D.C. Circuit’s mandate until Roberts or the full Court rules on Trump’s application. (It’ll be the full Court.)
https://stevevladeck.substack.com/p/66-united-states-v-trump

Appealing everything, no matter the merits, is THE strategy.

 

Dismiss, delay or stay on track: Trump hush money judge to decide Thursday

NEW YORK — In a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, Donald Trump will learn whether his glide path to the Republican nomination this spring will be disrupted by his first criminal trial.

The case, stemming from Trump’s efforts during the 2016 presidential campaign to cover up an alleged affair with a porn star, is scheduled to go to trial on March 25. At Thursday’s hearing, Justice Juan Merchan is expected to decide whether to stick with that schedule, postpone the trial or even throw out the case altogether.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/14/trump-hush-money-trial-hearing-00141570

This one has been flying under the radar.

But not this one.

Special counsel Jack Smith urges Supreme Court to reject Trump bid to delay election trial

WASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject an emergency application filed by Donald Trump that sought to further delay the former president's criminal trial arising from efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Smith filed his response to Trump's request six days ahead of the deadline imposed by the court. The former president wants more time to litigate his claim that the federal indictment should be dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity.


Trump's bid to put on hold an appeals court ruling that rejected his immunity claim fails to meet the necessary requirements for the Supreme Court to intervene, Smith said in his filing.

"Delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict — a compelling interest in every criminal case and one that has unique national importance here," Smith wrote.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/su...preme-court-reject-trump-bid-delay-rcna138906

 

Trump’s first criminal trial will start March 25, judge says

Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial will start on March 25 as scheduled, a judge said in New York on Thursday as he denied Trump’s attempts to throw out the charges. The case involves hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The schedule means Trump will spend weeks in court instead of on the campaign trail as he pivots to a general election against President Joe Biden.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/15/trump-hush-money-criminal-case-hearing-update-00141621

Don's going to be a busy, busy, rapist.

 

Judge in Trump Georgia election case considers whether to disqualify DA Fani Willis

A Georgia judge presiding over criminal charges against Donald Trump heard arguments Thursday about whether to disqualify the district attorney leading the election interference case against the former president.

The hearing centers on allegations from one of Trump’s co-defendants that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade personally benefited from their romantic relationship.

An attorney for the D.A. kicked off the hearing by accusing a defense lawyer of making “legally meritless” and “factually unsupported” allegations in a prior hearing.

The state’s attorney, Adam Abbate, called for a hearing on whether to sanction that lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, for her “lack of candor.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/15/tru...ers-whether-to-disqualify-da-fani-willis.html

Everything I have read suggests a romantic relationship of this nature is not grounds for disqualification.

 

The charged crimes strike at the heart of our democracy. A President’s alleged criminal scheme to overturn an election and thwart the peaceful transfer of power to his successor should be the last place to recognize a novel form of absolute immunity from federal criminal law.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24427549-23a745-response

 

The Legal Coup
New Documents Reveal How Trump Lawyers Sought ‘Chaos’ to Force SCOTUS, or Whoever Else, to Anoint Trump

In late 2020, a group of conservative movement attorneys set out to build a legal pathway by which Donald Trump could stay in power, having lost the election.

We’ve known about the outcome of their work for three years now: how it led to the violence of Jan. 6, and fed the dream of Trump’s supporters that he might continue to serve after Jan. 20, 2021.

But TPM can now reveal the ways in which their theorizing, in early stages, went even further than previously known, imagining a Jan. 6 that lasted for not hours but days, an intervention by Supreme Court justices that they presumed to be loyal to President Trump, and a vice president who upended his constitutional duties, allowing the U.S. to descend into chaos.

A trove of documents obtained by TPM details many of the conversations among Trump campaign lawyers, and, in particular, the theories offered by Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who worked with the campaign in the months leading up to Jan. 6.

Within weeks of Trump denouncing the election itself and claiming that he had won, Chesebro and Trump campaign attorneys around him began to explore more exotic legal theories in which endless chaos in Congress would prove that the legislature could not certify a winner. That stalemate, they theorized, would force the Supreme Court to act.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/intro-chesebro-docs

Things are still being unraveled.

 

Trump Ordered to Pay $355 Million and Barred From New York Business

A New York judge on Friday handed Donald J. Trump a crushing defeat in his civil fraud case, finding the former president liable for conspiring to manipulate his net worth and ordering him to pay a penalty of $355 million that could wipe out his entire stockpile of cash.

The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron caps a chaotic, yearslong case in which New York’s attorney general put Mr. Trump’s fantastical claims of wealth on trial. With no jury, the power was in Justice Engoron’s hands alone, and he came down hard: The judge delivered a sweeping array of punishments that threatens the former president’s business empire as he simultaneously contends with four criminal prosecutions and seeks to regain the White House.

Not only did Justice Engoron impose a three-year ban preventing Mr. Trump from serving in top roles at any New York company, including his own, but the judge also applied that punishment to the former president’s adult sons for two years and ordered that they pay more than $4 million each. One of the sons, Eric Trump, is the Trump Organization’s de facto chief executive, and the ruling throws into doubt whether any member of the family can run the business in the near term.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/nyregion/trump-civil-fraud-trial-ruling.html

Booyah.

 

Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration

An influential think tank close to Donald Trump is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.

Spearheading the effort is Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and has remained close to him. Vought, who is frequently cited as a potential chief of staff in a second Trump White House, is president of The Center for Renewing America think tank, a leading group in a conservative consortium preparing for a second Trump term.

Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. As the country has become less religious and more diverse, Vought has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has spoken of policies he might pursue in response.

One document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. “Christian nationalism” is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/donald-trump-allies-christian-nationalism-00142086

I suppose it goes without saying the irony of anything to do with christians having anything to do with the Orange Rapists makes a mockery of anything to do with the teaching of jeeeeeezus.

 

Hitt said he “wasn’t comfortable with” Trump campaign attempts to toss out votes in Wisconsin, and that he didn’t believe the legal claims of widespread fraud.

“We got specific advice from our lawyers that these documents were meaningless, unless a court said they had meaning,” he said.

He added that he felt pressured into signing the document, fearful that he would be held responsible in the situation that Trump won the suit and the electors were not prepared.

“It was not a safe time,” he said. “If my lawyer is right, and the whole reason Trump loses Wisconsin is because of me, I will be scared to death.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...-signing-document-claiming-trump-won-in-2020/

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-fake-elector-wisconsin-60-minutes-video-2024-02-18/

The prospect of Don's violent mob being after them would scare anyone.

 

.

 

Aileen Cannon Might Actually Get Herself Kicked Off the Trump Classified Docs Case

The recent news about possible Russian space nukes reminds us that we live in a very insecure world. That is why perhaps none of Donald Trump’s four criminal cases is more troubling than the federal prosecution brought by special counsel Jack Smith for mishandling classified documents. Unfortunately, the judge handling the case, Aileen Cannon—a last-minute appointment rushed through in the waning days of the Trump administration—has proved herself to be by far the worst of the jurists overseeing these momentous cases. Her decisions during the investigative phase of the case strayed wildly from precedent, leading to brutal reversals by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Now Smith appears to be preparing to ask that body to overturn at least one and possibly two of her decisions. In our view, while he is there on those other issues, he should also petition them to remove her from the case.

Why do we think Smith might be headed to the court of appeals? In part because he has already sought reconsideration for the latest of Cannon’s unlawful orders. This is a step that is warranted only in rare circumstances, including when a judge has made a “clear error” that led to “manifest injustice.” In this instance, at Trump’s behest, Cannon has decided to unseal the identities of two dozen potential witnesses, along with sensitive information they provided to the government. The “clear error” Smith identifies is striking: He alleges that Cannon applied the wrong legal standard in making this decision, requiring him to make a far more stringent showing than should be needed to protect these names. In his motion for reconsideration, Smith shows that the case law—including the very cases Cannon herself cited in her order—does not establish the unreasonable hurdles she wants him to clear.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/aileen-cannon-trump-classified-disqualification.html

Is it a surprise that an unqualified hack, loyal to Dear Leader, has had two rulings overturned already with a third one potentially on the way? No. Based on this, should she be removed as judge in this case? Yes. Will Trumpworld cry foul? Does a bear.... in the woods?

 

‘Who’s going to do that?’: Trump faces hurdles in securing appeal bond for fraud case

Former President Donald Trump is gearing up to fight a massive fine in the New York business fraud case that threatens to erase most of the cash he says he has on hand.

But first, he has to secure a bond — and that might not be so easy.

Trump on Friday was ordered to pay about $355 million in penalties, plus more than $98 million in interest after a judge found the former president liable for fraud for manipulating financial statements given to lenders. Every day, the accruing interest adds $87,502 to Trump’s bill.

Unless he wants to pay the entire penalty while his expected appeal is considered, Trump will need to post an appeal bond. This is typically up to 120% of the judgment plus the current interest.

At that rate, Trump’s original ruling with interest would indicate he will need to secure a bond worth more than $540 million. But it’s unlikely that the real estate baron will be able to use his properties as collateral.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/21/trump-faces-obstacles-to-securing-an-appeal-bond-in-fraud-case-.html

Cultist brothers, can you spare a dime?

 

I can't decide if your reference to "insurrectionist Democrats" is more childish than pathetic or the other way around. Next, you'll accuse Biden of wearing orange makeup and having a dead squirrel on his head.

 

Donald J. Trump Is Racing Against Time to Find a Half-Billion Dollar Bond

Donald J. Trump is on the clock.

The $454 million judgment that a New York judge imposed on Mr. Trump in his civil fraud case took effect on Friday, placing the former president in a precarious position.

Now, he must either come up with the money quickly or persuade a company to post a bond on his behalf, essentially vouching for him to the court with an I.O.U.

The bond is likely to be his best bet: Mr. Trump, who also faces an $83.3 million judgment in an unrelated defamation case, does not have enough cash on hand to do it all himself, according to a recent New York Times analysis of his finances. If Mr. Trump can find a bond company willing to do a deal this big, it will require him to pay the firm a fee as high as 3 percent of the judgment and to pledge collateral.

The bond would prevent the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the civil fraud case against Mr. Trump, from collecting the $454 million while Mr. Trump’s appeal is heard. Without it, the attorney general, Letitia James, is entitled to collect at any moment.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/24/...9087&user_id=fecdfdffdaaa11107b72f0f4f6e429cc

Maybe Putin will post a bond for his favorite candidate.

 

Bribed Joe's Dementia seems to be seeping into way too much of the Left.

Reporter Flails Defending 'Christian Nationalism' Smear.


Who mistook her for insightful, intelligent, and well-informed?

This dumbass 'reporter Heidi Przybyla is in meltdown mode after receiving much-deserved blowback for penning a scaremongering report about how a second term of Donald Trump will bring about a wave of so-called “Christian nationalism.”' And naturally a bunch of similar dunderheads promptly radiated her ignorance on social media.

'Przybyla and co-author Alexander Ward warned that Christians close to Trump are secretly plotting to advance America’s founding Judeo-Christian values should the former president defeat Joe Biden this November.'

'These “Christian nationalists” (A.K.A. mainstream Christians), the two wrote, represent an existential threat to the republic because they believe America “was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life.”'

As folks were quizzing her on where they are getting this latest bit of dumb assed crap they are trying to squirt all over the nation like the gas on The View after Taco Tuesday, they decide to "explain".

“The one thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians by the way, because Christian nationalists is very different — is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority; they don’t come from Congress; they don’t come from the Supreme Court — they come from God,” Przybyla said.

These people are graduates from our better Universities, yet they are wholly unfamiliar with the Declaration of Independence and the fact that our very nation, the longest enduring Constitutional Liberal Democracy in existence today, is founded that very principle.

Our rights are not granted by earthy authority, and so they cannot be legitimately revoked by human authority, our rights are innate within us, simply because we are human beings, and our governments sole legitimate purpose is to SECURE those innate rights.

The Thesis Statement Of The United States Of America:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
​

The problem with having Bribed Demented Joe as the head of the Left, is that way too much of the Left is rapidly becoming infected with his advancing dementia. We stand in shock at these ignorant pronouncements and the way that others within the Left, without a thought to the contrary then begin repeating them and bleating them like they are the secular gospel.

Someday when the stupor lifts, I'd like to hear what was going through your minds during this period.

'Here @MSNBC helpfully makes it clear their disdain for Christians in America. She says that if you believe that your rights come from God, you aren’t a Christian, you are a Christian nationalist. Somehow they seem to not mention that our own founding documents make this proclamation, as have most Americans throughout our history.'

Watch how passionately she delivers her nonsense and how intently those listening to her absorb it rather than promptly pointing out that she spouting incoherent gibberish.

'the more extended clip of this gets worse. She confuses mainline and mainstream evangelicalism (the former are liberal denominations). And says these Christians want to apply natural law to marriage, etc. That is mainstream Christianity.'

And to make the point of just how foolishly Republicans have selected past "leaders" one of the guys listening to her like she is making perfectly good sense, is Michael Steele, past chairman of the RNC. Not long ago, frauds like Nikki Haley could have top leadership positions in the RNC simply for the asking.

She was promptly challenged:

'Make your choice. Do you believe that our rights: Are unalienable & endowed by our Creator?
Or are they subject to change by whims Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris?'

She wants them subject to the whims Boxwine Nancy, Bribed Demented Joe and Kamalalalalalal Harris.

 

Dueling pro-Trump factions in Michigan throw the swing state’s Republicans into disarray

WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Republican Party was deep in debt when a longtime party donor who had given more than $1 million over the past decade asked for a meeting with its chairwoman.

Kristina Karamo turned down the donor. Her reasoning, according to two people familiar with the matter, was that he was a “Republican in Name Only,” or a “RINO,” an insult long used to denigrate members of the party seen as not conservative enough.

Today, the party’s finances are so dire that Karamo has sued former party leaders so she can get permission to sell the organization’s headquarters. And she’s refusing to leave her post even as former President Donald Trump and national Republicans have installed a new ally in her place.
https://apnews.com/article/michigan...kstra-karamo-88d110d19ee2927a83844b9587b7148c

Such are the ancillary affects of Trumpery.

 

In Trump Criminal Case, Manhattan D.A. Asks for Gag Order Before Trial

Manhattan prosecutors on Monday asked the judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald J. Trump to prohibit the former president from attacking witnesses or exposing jurors’ identities.

The requests, made in filings by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, noted Mr. Trump’s “longstanding history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, judges, and others involved in legal proceedings against him.”

In outlining a narrowly crafted gag order, the office hewed closely to the terms of a similar order upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington in another of Mr. Trump’s criminal cases.

The gag order in the Manhattan case, if the judge approves it, would bar Mr. Trump from “making or directing others to make” statements about witnesses concerning their role in the case. The district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, also asked that Mr. Trump be barred from commenting on prosecutors on the case — other than Mr. Bragg himself — as well as court staff members.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/nyregion/trump-gag-order-hush-money-trial.html

Cuz with Trump's record of attempted intimidation of court personnel and witness tampering why wouldn't Bragg ask for one?

 

Trump appeals New York civil fraud verdict

Former President Donald Trump on Monday filed a notice of appeal of the New York civil judgment finding him liable for fraudulently inflating his net worth on years of financial statements.

The legal challenge came less than two weeks after Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay more than $450 million in fines and interest for his fraudulent business practices.

“We trust that the Appellate Division will overturn this egregious fine and take the necessary steps to restore the public faith in New York’s legal system,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in a statement.

Engoron also barred Trump for three years from running a business in New York or applying for loans from financial institutions registered with the state.

Trump’s post-judgment interest will continue to accrue at $111,984 each day until it is paid, according to the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the case against Trump and his company.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/26/trump-appeals-new-york-civil-fraud-verdict.html

$111,984 each day. Ouch.

 

Prosecutors Reject Claims of Unfairness in Trump Classified Documents Case

Federal prosecutors on Monday rejected former President Donald J. Trump’s claims that he was unfairly charged with holding on to classified documents after he left office, saying that his case bore no comparison to the one in which President Biden was cleared of wrongdoing even though he was found in possession of classified materials after leaving the vice presidency.

In rebuffing what was known as a “selective prosecution” claim by Mr. Trump, the prosecutors said that while many government officials over the years had taken classified materials with them after leaving office — often inadvertently, but occasionally willfully — Mr. Trump’s case remained unique because of the extent to which he had “resisted the government’s lawful efforts to recover them.”

“There has never been a case in American history in which a former official has engaged in conduct remotely similar to Trump’s,” they wrote.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/us/politics/prosecutors-trump-classified-documents.html

Everyone should read this short filing by Smith. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.337.0.pdf

He explains the crimes Trump committed in trying to keep the government from taking possession of the classified material Trump stole.

“Most notably, Trump, unlike Biden, is alleged to have engaged in extensive and repeated efforts to obstruct justice and thwart the return of documents bearing classification markings. And the evidence concerning the two men’s intent—whether they knowingly possessed and willfully retained such documents—is also starkly different, as reflected in the Hur Report’s conclusion.”
https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...in his filing,conduct and not been prosecuted.

Will any of the details, most already known, marking the vast difference between Trump and Biden's cases be acknowledged by The Following? Not a chance.

 

Trump Says He Might Have to Sell Properties to Pay $454 Million Penalty

Donald J. Trump offered a New York appeals court on Wednesday a bond of only $100 million to pause the more than $450 million judgment he faces in his civil fraud case, saying that he might need to sell some of his properties unless he gets relief.

It was a stunning acknowledgment that Mr. Trump, who is racing the clock to either secure a bond from a company or produce the full amount himself, lacks the resources to do so. Without a bond, the New York attorney general’s office, which brought the fraud case, could seek to collect from Mr. Trump at any moment.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers also asked the court to delay a wide range of other punishments the judge in the fraud case levied in his decision earlier this month. They include a prohibition on obtaining a loan from a New York bank for three years and a ban on running a company in the state during that same period.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/nyregion/trump-bond-civil-fraud.html

No mercy.