Legitimate political discourse
Net closing, all too slowly, on Trump ... Deserted by accountants ... Flushing papers ... Destruction and obstruction ... Supreme Court odds-on the uphold racial gerrymanders ... Voting rights for the chopper ... Roger Fitch reports from Washington
"Republicans always cave to Trump. And so it will be when it comes to the story of whether the riot was bad or good. It's just a matter of time." - Salon prediction, February 3, 2022.
"WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and [are]utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, … be it … RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee … formally censures Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and shall immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party ..." - Republican National Committee, February 4, 2022
In the same week that Donald Trump proudly admitted his object was to overthrow the election, the RNC described January 6 as "legitimate political discourse", and censured the two Republicans on the house committee investigating it.
It's seems extraordinary that the ex-president hasn't yet been charged with one or another of the many crimes he committed in office, e.g, those identified in the Mueller Report, many of which are approaching five-year limitations.
The only thing sparing Trump from immediate federal charges seems to be over-caution at Main Justice, where the OLC and its opinions are yet to be "detrumpified"; anyone but Trump would already be facing federal charges.
Even so, Trump is in peril. His bookkeepers have disowned their accounts, and New York State is closing in. His strategy remains to obstruct investigations until a new Republican house majority, or his own election in 2024, can quash federal hearings and criminal charges - but that won't help him in state courts.
Leaving aside the 14th amendment's exclusion of insurrectionists from federal office, Trump may have forfeited his office and become disqualified in future, under the Presidential Records Act, or under 18USC§2071 (Concealment, Mutilation or Removal of Official Records). DoJ has been asked to investigate.
Unsurprisingly, with a classy guy like Trump, allegations include flushing papers down the presidential dunny. Ironically, Nixon's "White House plumbers" were pursued by the Watergate committee for their role in plugging leaks of classified information, but Trump's White House plumbers are real tradies who cleared drains blocked with such matter, and could be called to testify by the January 6 committee.
It's all consistent with Trump's lifetime habit of concealment and his aversion to creating or retaining incriminating documents.
Among the purloined documents, retrieved from Mar-a-Lago after six months of negotiations, are some marked classified, and there are serious consequences for removing classified documents from the National Archives, as Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger, learned.
A National Archives court filing has revealed which documents Donald Trump wants to hide: diaries, schedules, activity and call logs, draft speeches, and White House staffers' files.
Documents taken from the White House for "safekeeping" at Mar-a-Lago
Trump's abduction and destruction of documents is also under investigation by the House Oversight Committee.
Memos recovered so far have been damning, according to the NY Times, which has finally begun to acknowledge Trump's seditious behaviour.
Among the most incriminating are those concerning a scheme concocted by Trump's shady lawyers to steal the election with sham electors - what happened to "counselling crime" as grounds for disbarment?
Trump also had a scheme to seize and impound voting machines, but couldn't decide which government department to subvert, so purported executive orders were drafted for both Homeland Security and DoD (DoJ was also considered).
Now, these fake executive orders and election slates, some torn up by Trump and restored by his staff, are finding their way to the January 6 committee.
Other possible crimes are being uncovered as the January 6 investigation unfolds. It's been revealed that Donald Trump's bagmen gave $1 million to the piggy bank of his former chief of staff Mark Meadows who conveniently declined to proceed with his January 6 committee deposition. Witness interference?
Trump has also been dangling future pardons to those currently being tried for the January 6 break-in, should he succeed in becoming president again. In fact, Trump considered pardoning the Capitol break-in mob before he left office.
Trump's obsession with pardons is well-known. Even so, members of the January 6 committee have indicated that dangling them amounts to witness tampering.
Believing he might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, Trump has moved on to incitements to violence against prosecutors, who, he complains, are
"... trying to put me in jail. The[y] are vicious, horrible people. They're racists and they're very sick…mentally sick. They're going after me without any protection of my rights by the supreme court or most other courts."
Why don't the prosecutors just get on with it, convene grand juries and indict him?
Here's the latest litigation tracker for all of the crimes and civil actions (some overseas) involving the man and his companies.
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Jackson: Supreme Court frontrunner
The new hard-right supreme court super-majority is settling in for years of political and judicial mischief. The Atlantic looked at supreme court history and the perils of a new court with an 1890s perspective.
A court retirement by one of the remnant liberals has been announced; President Biden is about to fill the vacancy on the court created by the planned retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, a centrist member of the Democrat-appointed minority.
Biden has already announced the appointee will be one of several well-known African-American women serving on lower courts. The frontrunner is believed to be the highly-qualified Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently serving on the DC circuit.
Headed for the court are the decisions of state and federal judges striking down, as racial gerrymanders, the latest congressional redistricting by states. The supreme court responded by reinstating an egregious Alabama racial gerrymander.
In a demonstrably partisan election-year interference, a 5-4 majority of the court used its "shadow docket" to lift a stay unanimously granted by a special three-judge federal court. Now, challenged districts whose legality is yet to be decided may be implemented in this year's elections.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberals; perhaps he now regrets personally gutting the Voting Rights Act 1965 in the infamous 2013 decision, Shelby County v Holder, another Alabama case.
It's only one lost seat for the Democrats, but five Republican-appointed justices couldn't resist the opportunity to put their thumbs on the scale in an election year .
Court observer Linda Greenhouse called it the moment the court "crossed the Rubicon" of partisan activism; the court is now on track to completely hollow out the VRA before the 2024 election.
Caesar crosses the Rubicon in 49 BCE
As Steve Vladeck points out, Justice Kavanaugh and the more extreme justices can't wait for a full briefing and oral argument before rendering a decision changing the law. They plan to use stay order pretexts and the shadow docket to change it now.
The disheartening result is Merrill v Milligan.
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