August 3, 2023
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3.
Called for a Federal takeover?
The defendant will have some sort of initial appearance in court today on the latest charges.
August 15, 2023
Trump Indicted In Georgia
Make no mistake about it, this Georgia indictment is far more serious trouble for Trump than anything that came before it.
He will be convicted.
He cannot pardon himself (he can't anyway, but he'd try) for State crimes.
It's likely that he's going to go to prison. If convicted, he will be ineligible to serve as President. It will spark a Constitutional crisis, as he's already shown that he'll try to disregard the Constitution and his followers will as well.
It will go, in that scenario, if he were to be elected, to the Supreme Court.
The Court will rule him ineligible. It will have to, in part because he will be, and in part because if it does not, it will destroy the Court.
A normal person, including a normal politician, wouldn't put the country through this.
August 16, 2023
But Trump, as we know, is not normal.
One thing I'm glad to see about the Georgia indictment is lawyers included in it. As a lawyer, the entire Trump episode has really drug the profession into the mud, if I'm to put it politely, and that includes the lawyers currently defending him.
Everyone has a right to a defense, but that doesn't justify a lawyer taking any defense. Right now, Trump would be best served by lawyers who were telling him to negotiate, not defend, and so would the nation. Instead, he'll fight it out and the lawyers who are providing him with a defense will go home with a tidy sum, probably, fate the nation irrespective.
That this earlier collection may serve time is a good thing.
August 23, 2023
Another weird blathering from the former President.
August 23, 2023
John Eastman, who traded his role as a law professor to being an advisor with a crackpot legal theory in Trump's effort to subvert the vote, surrendered to Fulton County authorities.
It's interesting in that he cited the right of attorneys to advise their clients as a defense. Attorneys do not have a right to advise their clients, but not with made up crap that justifies anything.
But that's exactly what attorneys in the US have been doing in some instances for years, and with impunity. If nothing else comes out of this, that this may have reached its limit is at least a good thing.
August 25, 2023
Booked in.
September 1, 2023
John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani are complaining about being indicted for giving legal advice.
Frankly, it's about time that lawyers giving batshit crazy legal advice bore some penalty for it, no matter how polished the crap may be.
Trump's trial in Georgia will be livestreamed, which I feel to be a mistake, quite frankly.
September 6, 2023
Trump has been found liable in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, so when it proceeds to trial on January 15, the only issue will be damages.
September 9, 2023
DA Wills replied to Representative Jim Jordan, giving him a dope slap.
This is thick with irony. Not only has Willis basically told Jordan he's a butt sitting ignoramus, but Jordan's actions flew in the face of a favored populist idea that states have supremacy over the Federal Government. Willis actually exercised an example of where the states are in fact supreme, state criminal charges.
It has also been learned that the grand jury wished to bring in broader referrals than actually resulted in charges, including one against Lindsey Graham. I tend to agree with the prosecutor's choice to limit the number of accused to what was done, but that should be a warning signal to Trump et al. The Grand Jury was obviously irate, and the criminal jury is likely to be as well.
October 5, 2023
Mike Lindell, the "my pillow" guy who became a fanatic Trump backer, is seeing his lawyers attempt to withdraw from representation in defamation suits against him for non-payment.
All lawyers are mercenaries, something clients are oddly inclined to forget.
October 20, 2023
Sidney Powell, lawyer who supported Trump in crackpot election theories, plead guilty to six misdemeanors in Georgia, thereby avoiding trial.
It's likely that part of the deal that lead to this means she'll now turn on her former political champion, who will in turn be dissing her with nicknames soon.
In a court hearing yesterday, one of Trump's lawyers more or less called the court's judicial law clerk stupid, which was a very stupid thing to do. The court ordered an apology.
October 24, 2023
Jenna Ellis has now plead guilty, expressed remorse for having become tied up in the matter, spoke unkindly of Rudy Giuliani.
Where are all those people who were claiming the prosecutor made a strategic error in this matter?
November 14, 2023
While it will make no difference to his followers, former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis' proffer to Georgia prosecutors has been released. In it, she states that Trump official Dan Scavino told her that Trump would refuse to leave the White House despite losing the election. There was apparently more damaging information, but it was not released.
This came before the assault on the capitol.
Ellis recounted the exchange coming when she apologized for the lack of success in the absurd post election litigation, something that was never going to work In reply to this Ellis recounted:
"And he said to me, in a kind of excited tone, 'Well, we don't care, and we're not going to leave, And I said, 'What do you mean?' And he said 'Well, the boss', meaning President Trump -- and everyone understood 'the boss,' that's what we all called him -- he said, 'The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power. And I said to him, 'Well, it doesn't quite work that way, you realize?' and he said, 'We don't care.'"
This should really lead to sedition charges against Trump, which have never been filed, in part due to the absurdly slow pace that American justice currently works at. The fact that hasn't occured is putting Trump in a position to imperil American democracy again. Should he live through a four-year term, should he be elected to the discredit of the country, it's not impossible to imagine him refusing to leave office. My guess is that there certainly will be an effort to repeal the Constitutional amendment limiting Presidents to two terms.
November 22, 2023
While I failed to post it at the time, the Court in Colorado found Trump to be an insurrectionist, but then bizarrely found he could remain on the ballot.
Of interest, laymen seem to find this ruling confusing, but it isn't. His being found to be an insurrectionist was likely a relatively easy call, given the mountains of evidence as to what occured on January 6 and thereafter. Sooner or later, the glacially slow process will result, I suspect in his being charged with being a seditionist, and he'll be likely to be convicted. The real question is whether that will occur in 2024, or 2029.
Anyhow, the part that's a big aggravating is the court's leaving him on the ballot, but then Colorado's judges stand for retention and this was somewhat of a safe way out of this for the Judge. Her ruling was massive, and I've linked it in elsewhere, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find for those wishing to. I've linked it in the following quote:
A better ruling, however, would have been that he was ineligible to be on the ballot. Some excellent commentary for that is available
here.
Now Trump's legal team is trying to certify the question of his having been an insurrectionist to the U.S. Supreme Court. My suspicion is the Court won't take it. If it does, this will prove to be a massive legal mistake, as my guess is that the Supreme Court would uphold the Colorado ruling. Trump's team, however, must be worried that other courts will give the ruling full faith and credit.
Also, in an effort to have a gag order lifted, Trump found himself faced with a Federal tour de force on what they intend to show at his Federal trial. They intend to maintain that he was an agent in a conspiracy giving rise to the insurrection.
These two things together are really monumental, quite frankly. The Federal Government intends to show that Trump was a seditious insurrectionist. The Colorado trial level judge has already said he was an insurrectionist. He's now taking this latter matter to the U.S. Supreme Court. . . if they allow the certification, which they likely will not, in an effort to hold that ruling off.
If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Colorado ruling, it may have the effect of amounting to res judicata on that issue, disqualifying him from the Presidency, and basically getting to a conviction, almost, in Federal Court before he's even tried there.
November 23, 2023
The Colorado Supreme Court is taking up the issue of the 14th Amendment in an appeal from the district court.
My prediction here is that it will adopt the district court's finding that Trump is an insurrectionist, but remand for an order depriving him of a position on Colorado's ballot.
This holding, should it come first, will then be used as a persuasive argument, or even on a full faith and credit basis, in other states.
December 1, 2023
The court in New York reimposed a gag order after a series of harassing Trump statements about the Court and its personnel.
December 7, 2023
The Colorado Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Colorado 14th Amendment case yesterday.
December 9, 2023
One I managed to miss earlier this week, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose filed amicus briefs in the Colorado suit.
December 11, 2023
Trump will not be testifying at his civil fraud trial today, no doubt because his lawyer want him to shut up.
December 24 2023
The Colorado Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision that Trump is guilty of insurrection, but remanded the court's decision that he wasn't subject to the 14th Amendment. He is therefore barred from Colorado's ballot.
The Republican Party of Colorado has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review. Trump indicates he intends to do the same.
That will prove to be a massive, campaign ending, error, should the Supreme Court take the matter up.
The Michigan Supreme Court rejected a 14th Amendment claim against Trump, holding he can remain on the ballot there.
cont:
Colorado Supreme Court Ruling in Anderson v. Griswold Appealed to U.S. Supreme Court
Denver, December 28, 2023 - The Colorado Republican Party has appealed the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision in Anderson v. Griswold to the U.S. Supreme Court. With the appeal filed, Donald Trump will be included as a candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot when certification occurs on January 5, 2024, unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling.
Secretary of State Griswold has commented: “Donald Trump engaged in insurrection and was disqualified under the Constitution from the Colorado Ballot. The Colorado Supreme Court got it right. This decision is now being appealed. I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to act quickly given the upcoming presidential primary election.”
On December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Donald Trump is ineligible to appear on the Colorado 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot due to the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Colorado Supreme Court simultaneously stayed that ruling until January 4, with that stay remaining in place in the event of an appeal.
Key Upcoming Dates:
- January 5: Deadline for Secretary of State Griswold to certify the names and party affiliations of candidates on the 2024 Presidential Primary Ballot.
- January 5: U.S. Supreme Court conference day
- January 20: Deadline for 2024 Presidential Primary Ballots to be sent to military and overseas voters.
- February 12: First day 2024 Presidential Primary Ballots can be mailed to active registered voters.
- February 26: First day of in-person voting for the 2024 President Primary.
- March 5: Colorado 2024 Presidential Primary Day, polls close at 7:00 PM Mountain Time.
Frankly, the decision above by the Colorado Secretary of State, unless there's more to it that I don't know, is flat out wrong. Her court has decided that Trump is unqualified. An appeal doesn't matter without an order from the appellate court staying the decision.
She's wrong.
Maine won't be the last state to decide in this fashion, and now there's a split set of decisions. The Supreme Court will have to intervene.
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