Dem
51
GOP
49
Donald Trump didn't make too many headlines yesterday, despite his interview with Tucker Carlson. However, his various legal problems are never far away these days, meaning he's always popping up, even if you'd like to forget about him. Yesterday, there were a few stories on that front.
To start, and not surprisingly, Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark were both rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones, who said that they most certainly do have to travel to Atlanta this week and surrender themselves. They may still be able to get their case to federal court, or maybe not; that will be decided on another day.
On that point, reader D.C. in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, who certainly knows better than we do, offers a more proper explanation of why those two want to change venues:
Meadows and Clark are attempting to move their case to federal court because they want to raise immunity challenges, claiming "these were official actions as part of my job duties." Public employees receive various degrees of immunity from criminal and civil charges for actions taken in official capacity. I teach about this very topic in my Administrative Law and Public Sector HR courses. If they were to successfully move the case, it could potentially narrow the actions the prosecutors could use as evidence of furtherance of the conspiracy. That said, their appeals are likely to fail because actions that violate laws typically fall outside the scope of one's job duties. None of the actions/accusations outlined in the indictment are common job duties of a White House Chief of Staff or environmental attorney for DOJ.
As far as getting a more favorable jury, that's probably a motivation, but I don't see it as an equally good one. Fulton County, while certainly Democratic, does have plenty of rural Trumpy areas. Moving it to the Northern Federal District for Georgia would likely net a few more favorable jurors, but the defense should be able to find at least a handful of Republican jurors in Fulton County. It's certainly not as bad as Washington, DC, for Trump and his conspirators.
Thanks, D.C.!
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani managed to pull his stuff together enough to be able to surrender yesterday; he was released on $150,000 bond. Trump lawyer Sidney Powell also surrendered; she put up a $100,000 bond. Trump, of course, will surrender today, while the remaining folks have about 36 hours left to take care of business.
And speaking of money, reader J.S. in The Hague, Netherlands, warns us about this story. It would seem that Trump is hosting a $100,000 a plate dinner to raise money for America's former mayor. For your 100 large, you get to participate in an hourlong round-table discussion with the former president and Giuliani, and then Trump will hightail it and you get to have dinner with just Giuliani. Quite the bargain. Trump does not generally share money with anyone, and he rarely shares access to his whale donors. Clearly, he really, really wants to make sure that Giuliani remains squarely on Team Donald.
We shall see what today brings. Trump's surrender will make a lot of newscasts and headlines, but there likely won't be much to say about it. Perhaps we'll even get a day off from Trump legal news. (Z)