Category Archives: January 6 MAGA riot

Democracy on a respirator, but don’t despair, yet

If we are a nation of laws, and nobody here is above the law, then we can only save ourselves from the crisis we are in by the just application of law. The rule of law saved democracy during Trump’s baseless attempted litigation challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, even judges appointed by Trump were required, by the law itself, to rule against a litigant who produced no evidence of wild conspiracy claims or who made baseless claims requiring the suspension of disbelief and the disregard of actual evidence in order to win. Including the obvious fact that many Republicans were voted into office across states on the same ballots that Trump lost and baselessly insisted were subjected to massive fraud and rigging by a bipartisan cabal of traitors and insurrectionists.

Law is a human construct, and far from perfect, but it is also the most perfect thing we have as citizens to preserve any kind of justice, as well as our form of representative democracy itself. If we have a law against conspiring to stop the functioning of government, which we do [1], it needs to be deployed against those who more and more openly believe, in the words a speechwriter wrote for Barry Goldwater, an extremist Republican candidate sixty years ahead of his time in terms of party politics:

“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Goldwater, you will recall, was the far-right presidential candidate from Arizona who advocated nuking America’s enemies back to the stone age and lost virtually all fifty states in the 1964 election [2]. He is most famous today for the so-called Goldwater Rule [3], a policy made by the American Psychiatric Association, a voluntary membership organization, that states no therapist may venture a public opinion as to the mental and emotional fitness of a political candidate unless he or she has personally examined the person and the patient has consented to have psychiatric details disclosed to the public.

The Goldwater Rule is not a law, or a rule that is binding on anyone who is not a member of the APA, nonetheless, the media often treats it as a law binding on all psychiatrists, even in the face of a candidate or elected official posing a publicly observable imminent threat to our nation. The rule, which was “doubled down” on by the APA soon after Trump became president, has been cogently challenged by many American psychiatrists recently, most outspokenly Dr. Bandy Lee.

The Goldwater Rule, we are told, applies even when you have a president who publicly shows himself daily to be a petulant, churlish, childish, vindictive, paranoid, attention seeking, megalomaniacal, corrupt, punitive, bullying, illogical, incoherent, amoral, transactional, compulsive liar. Even if this leader deliberately stokes an infuriating lie and organizes a rally and march based on that lie, to inspire a fight to overturn the election he lost, on the day the government is officially taking the ceremonial last step in the peaceful transition of power, and he sends a violent mob down to the Capitol to stop it. The Goldwater Rule prevents any shrink from talking about any of that, in their capacity as a psychiatrist, unless the unhinged elected official himself consents to a session and then the disclosure of a clinical diagnosis. Anything beyond “man, woman, camera, TV” is protected by the Goldwater Rule. Of course, anyone as critical of an American president as I am in this paragraph is clearly suffering from what Germans once called “Hitler Derangement Syndrome”.

There’s no law against going on TV and simply lying about whatever you want. Sad but true, in very few cases can anyone be prosecuted for simply making shit up, no matter how ugly or how likely destructive, and braying about it to the public. There is, however, a law against conspiring to stop the government, which is what the “Stop the Steal” riot did for hours on January 6.

It is frustrating to many Americans that the Department of Justice is so slow and deliberate in regard to holding the organizers of the conspiracy that led to a direct attack on democracy accountable. There is not even any apparent movement in this direction, though DOJ investigations are supposed to be conducted secretly without fanfare. We’d like to see some sign!

The law often grinds on slowly. It seems impossible, for example, that the Fulton County DA has not yet indicted Trump for what appears to be a very clear violation of the Georgia law against trying to interfere with, or coerce others to interfere with, a certified election result. The last act of that concerted attempt to overturn the Georgia election results is a recording millions of Americans have heard, for fuck’s sake, during which Trump violated every subsection of the Georgia law. The theory, I suppose, is that when taking a shot at a dangerous predator, be sure that shot is carefully aimed and powerful enough to actually stop the creature.

The Watergate-related indictments took two years to happen. The January 6 indictments are apparently going to take a while longer to assemble airtight cases for, aggravating though that is while the brazen co-conspirators are freely talking their ugly talk and broadcasting it to their increasingly enraged followers on shows like Steve Bannon’s The War Room.

If those indictments don’t happen within a reasonable amount of time, certainly well in advance of the heavily gerrymandered 2022 election (and full restoration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by passing the two House bills is also critical, CRITICAL), stick a fork in our democracy, boys and girls, we’ll have Speaker of the House Donald Trump and the immediate censure of every non-white Democrat and traitor Republican in the House. There will also be summary expulsions for enemies of the Speaker, and probably also televised public book burnings, the kinds of things that always precede even worse barbarity.

And, as for the rule of law, we’ll have plenty more proud, angry, armed vigilante boys like Kyle Rittenhouse, free to take illegally possessed assault rifles into combustible situations like an angry protest over the perfectly legal police shooting, seven times in the back, of an American citizen, and then get acquitted in a trial presided over by a seemingly unrepentant Ku Klux Klansman.

And remember, folks, there’s no law against being in the Ku Klux Klan, it’s that American judge’s first amendment right of association and puts him in good stead for a future career as a celebrity opiner for Rupert Murdoch, OANN or Newsmax.

The law to keep an eye on is the one below, 18 U.S. Code § 2384. And if Merrick Garland doesn’t bring some indictments under this law, of the people who were in that war room in the Willard Hotel on January 5th and 6th and the guy who stood to gain the most from the conspiracy, had his co-conspirator’s bills paid and spoke regularly with them during the riot, we all ought to get down on our knees and, in the words of XTC, while we’re down there, kiss our asses goodbye.

[1]

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

[2]

Johnson carried 44 states and the District of Columbia, which voted for the first time in this election. Goldwater won his home state and swept the states of the Deep South, most of which had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since the end of Reconstruction in 1877. This was the last time that the Democratic Party won the white vote, although they came close in 1992.

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[3]

The Goldwater rule is Section 7 in the American Psychiatric Association’s Principles of Medical Ethics, which states that psychiatrists have a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to the improvement of the community and the betterment of public health, but they should not give a professional opinion about public figures whom they have not examined in person, and from whom they have not obtained consent to discuss their mental health in public statements. Wikipedia

Trump does not contest Judge Chutkan’s statement of facts

Trump’s lawyers immediately appealed Judge Chutkan’s recent executive privilege ruling that denied former president Trump’s demand that as former president (defeated only by fraud) that he is privileged to conceal all records of the lead up to January 6 and on the day itself. We’ll find out how that argument goes on November 30th. Judge Chutkan ruled that the public need for solid information about the planning and implementation of the January 6 MAGA riot, which violently stopped the constitutional duties of a joint session of Congress, coupled with the agreement between Congress and the Executive Branch that evidence needs to be seen, means that Biden’s waiver of Executive Privilege claims made by Trump is the last word on the matter. Trump insists he has a right, as the unindictable president at that time, to hide anything that could cause him irreparable harm. It is the same stance Trump, insister on iron-clad, global, lifetime non-disclosure agreements, has always taken about everything. It is a position that appeals to many Americans– you fucking fight them until you win, no matter what.

Although Judge Chutkan offers it as background, to put her decision in context, we should note that Trump’s lawyers are not able to contest any of the facts the judge, as finder of fact, provides in that section of her decision. The only “answer” to her reconstruction of events leading up to January 6 is by reframing everything so that the most important detail is the frame: in spite of everything, the election was stolen! What did you expect the rightful president to do, sit by while it was being stolen?! Chutkan does not even go into the almost hour of detailed lies Trump told that crowd about how the vote was stolen in state after state, to make them madder than hell, in the minutes leading up to the planned permit-free march down to the Capitol. Is this something that needs public attention? You be the judge:

While not material to the outcome, some factual background on the events leading up to and including January 6, 2021, offers context for the legal dispute here. In the months preceding the 2020 presidential election, Plaintiff declared that the only way he could lose would be if the election were “rigged.” See, e.g., Donald J. Trump, Speech at Republican National Convention Nomination Vote at 22:08 (Aug. 24, 2020) in C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?475000- 103/president-trump-speaks-2020-republican-national-convention-vote.

In the months after losing the election, he repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged, stolen, and fraudulent. For example, in a December 2 speech, he alleged “tremendous voter fraud and irregularities” resulting from a late-night “massive dump” of votes. See President Donald J. Trump, Statement on 2020 Election Results at 0:39, 7:26 (Dec. 2, 2020) in C-SPAN, https://www.cspan.org/video/?506975-1/president-trump-statement-2020-election-results. He also claimed that certain votes were “counted in foreign countries,” that “millions of votes were cast illegally in the swing states alone,” and that it was “statistically impossible” he lost. Id. at 12:00, 14:22, 19:00.

After losing the election, Plaintiff and his supporters filed a plethora of unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn the results. See, e.g., Current Litigation, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION: STANDING COMMITTEE ON ELECTION LAW, Apr. 30, 2021, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/election_law/litigation/.

The United States Supreme Court also denied numerous emergency applications aimed at overturning the results. Id. In response, Plaintiff tweeted that the Court was “totally incompetent and weak on the massive Election Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election.” Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), TWITTER (Dec. 26, 2020, 1:51 PM), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu /documents/tweets-december-26-2020.

He continued his claim that “We won the Presidential Election, by a lot,” and implored Republicans to “FIGHT FOR IT. Don’t let them take it away.” Id. (Dec. 18, 2020, 2:14 PM), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-18- 2020. A Joint Session of Congress was scheduled to convene on January 6, 2021, to count the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election and to officially announce the elected President, as required by the Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act.

In the days leading up to January 6, Plaintiff began promoting a protest rally to take place hours before the Joint Session convened. On December 19, 2020, he tweeted “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), TWITTER (December 19, 2020, 6:42am), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-19-2020.

During a rally, he warned that “Democrats are trying to steal the White House . . . you can’t let that happen. You can’t let it happen,” and promised that “[w]e’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now.” See Donald J. Trump, Remarks at Georgia U.S. Senate Campaign Event at 8:40, 14:19 (Jan. 4, 2021) in Campaign 2020, C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?507634-1/president-trumpcampaigns-republican-senate-candidates-georgia.

On January 6, Plaintiff spoke at the rally at the Ellipse, during which he repeated claims, rejected by numerous courts, that the election was “rigged” and “stolen”; urged then Vice President Pence, who was preparing to convene Congress to tally the electoral votes, “to do the right thing” by rejecting certain states’ electors and declining to certify the election for President Joseph R. Biden; and told protesters to “walk down to the Capitol” to “give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country,” “we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” and “you’ll never take back our country with weakness.” See Donald J. Trump, Rally on Electoral College Vote Certification at 3:33:04, 3:33:36, 3:37:20, 3:47:02, 3:47:22, 4:42:26, 4:41:27 (Jan. 6, 2021) in Campaign 2020, C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?507744-1/rally-electoral-collegevote-certification.

Shortly thereafter, the crowds surged from the rally, marched along Constitution Avenue, and commenced their siege of the Capitol. 

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What is a lie?

This is now a legitimate, and urgent, question. It is related to “what is a crime?” The answer to both questions is, in a phrase a popular law professor taught all his students to say first “it depends”. The answer to both questions in the USA, after years of heartily advertised lies — smoking is perfectly safe, burning fossil fuels is perfectly good for the environment, Oxycodone has a magically low risk of addiction, being in a rage all the time is good for your health, never apologizing is a sign of strength — is that as a society we’ve come to accept many knowing lies as possibly true. After all, why would Exxon or Dick Cheney, or the philanthropic Sackler family, or autocratic multi-billionaire Charles Koch lie?

Boof Kavanaugh’s presumably adoring mother provided her hyper-ambitious only child a good framework for evaluating the truth or falsity of claims that come before a judge: “Use common sense, what smells OK, what smells funny, who stands to gain by the claim?” (Martha Kavanaugh is quoted as saying ““Use your common sense. What rings true. What rings false.” which is a slightly weaker vanilla formulation of what I recall Boof saying, I’ll give the former Montgomery County civil court judge the benefit of the doubt here) It’s a pretty good guide for spotting truth or lies, especially if you include “who stands to gain by the claim”. That seems to me the key consideration when listening to a statement that rings a little iffy.

If you go through a large sum of money, quickly and without any apparent cause, someone might conclude you have a gambling problem. It’s not an unreasonable theory to account for blowing through a pile of cash in an otherwise unexplainable manner. If you are pressed by a family member on the loss of the money, and that family member assumes you have a gambling problem, you will need to say something convincing. You press forward tentatively at first, explaining that you had many unforeseen expenses, such as blah, blah and blah, and had borrowed money you had to repay, which necessitated borrowing more money, which meant you spent more of your own money than you’d planned… if the family member seems amenable to these absurdist explanations you clinch the thing by looking her in the eyes and saying “I do not have a gambling problem.” To disprove the lie, you’d have to find the guy’s bookie, or betting slips, or credit card charges at a gambling parlor. Otherwise, who are you going to believe your wild hunch or my sincere explanation about why your wild hunch is completely wild?

We are now living in the Age of Justifiable Lying, you might say. Lying is seen by millions of our fellow Americans as a purely transactional act, part of the price of doing business, if you like. For the first time in American history a losing candidate (of one party) now routinely doesn’t accept the results, charging voter fraud as the cause of their defeat. Glenn Youngkin won a close governors race in Virginia by about 70,000 votes. His Democratic opponent, seeing the margin was insurmountable, conceded Youngkin’s victory. The same margin decided the race in New Jersey, but the Republican refused to concede for days, making noises about likely fraud, until he blinked and finally conceded defeat.

This refusal to bow to so-called reality, of course, comes directly from the man currently in charge of the Grand Old Party. Trumplethinskin [1] announced in the lead up to his reelection loss to Biden that the only way Biden could beat him would be by cheating. The subtext was that urban voters, in areas where coloreds and whites interact daily on a level perhaps not seen in rural areas, where the real American Volk live, are inherently corrupt, hate America and the good old days, are too “woke” to see how wrong they are about everything. So if you give “urban” votes the same weight as rural votes you will never have true democracy in this country and the place will go openly Communist and white people will be put on trial for things like innocently killing Black people because they have a reasonable and legitimate fear of them.

People like me keep pointing at the evidence that there has never been widespread voter fraud in this country. Partisans like the creepy Hans von Spakovsky have made a career of hunting down voter fraud, fancying themselves warriors for justice, modern day Simon Weisenthals. Spakovsky has found virtually no fraud, ever, and you can see his paltry findings in the database of voter fraud he has been compiling, going back decades. You can point at all the evidence you like, but if the lie has more appeal to you, confirms your worldview, then the so-called lack of evidence is just more evidence of fraud.

When evaluating a claim and deciding whether it is true, it often feels better, and is much easier, to go by your gut than by sifting through conflicting evidence and weighing both sides like some kind of scientist. This gut feeling of truth is the essence of the “confirmation bias” we tend to believe anything that confirms what we already believe. It does not negate the importance of facts and reasoned argument based on fact, of course, but at the same time it often clearly does. Try parsing that one.

Here is the recent statement of facts Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote to put her decision about the former president’s right to hide anything that could irreparably harm him (say by subjecting him to criminal liability for planning and inciting a violent attack to stop the certification of votes and overturn the election).

While not material to the outcome, some factual background on the events leading up to and including January 6, 2021, offers context for the legal dispute here. In the months preceding the 2020 presidential election, Plaintiff declared that the only way he could lose would be if the election were “rigged.” See, e.g., Donald J. Trump, Speech at Republican National Convention Nomination Vote at 22:08 (Aug. 24, 2020) in C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?475000- 103/president-trump-speaks-2020-republican-national-convention-vote.

In the months after losing the election, he repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged, stolen, and fraudulent. For example, in a December 2 speech, he alleged “tremendous voter fraud and irregularities” resulting from a late-night “massive dump” of votes. See President Donald J. Trump, Statement on 2020 Election Results at 0:39, 7:26 (Dec. 2, 2020) in C-SPAN, https://www.cspan.org/video/?506975-1/president-trump-statement-2020-election-results. He also claimed that certain votes were “counted in foreign countries,” that “millions of votes were cast illegally in the swing states alone,” and that it was “statistically impossible” he lost. Id. at 12:00, 14:22, 19:00.

After losing the election, Plaintiff and his supporters filed a plethora of unsuccessful lawsuits seeking to overturn the results. See, e.g., Current Litigation, AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION: STANDING COMMITTEE ON ELECTION LAW, Apr. 30, 2021, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_interest/election_law/litigation/.

The United States Supreme Court also denied numerous emergency applications aimed at overturning the results. Id. In response, Plaintiff tweeted that the Court was “totally incompetent and weak on the massive Election Fraud that took place in the 2020 Presidential Election.” Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), TWITTER (Dec. 26, 2020, 1:51 PM), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu /documents/tweets-december-26-2020.

He continued his claim that “We won the Presidential Election, by a lot,” and implored Republicans to “FIGHT FOR IT. Don’t let them take it away.” Id. (Dec. 18, 2020, 2:14 PM), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-18- 2020. A Joint Session of Congress was scheduled to convene on January 6, 2021, to count the electoral votes of the 2020 presidential election and to officially announce the elected President, as required by the Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act.

In the days leading up to January 6, Plaintiff began promoting a protest rally to take place hours before the Joint Session convened. On December 19, 2020, he tweeted “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), TWITTER (December 19, 2020, 6:42am), https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/tweets-december-19-2020.

During a rally, he warned that “Democrats are trying to steal the White House . . . you can’t let that happen. You can’t let it happen,” and promised that “[w]e’re going to fight like hell, I’ll tell you right now.” See Donald J. Trump, Remarks at Georgia U.S. Senate Campaign Event at 8:40, 14:19 (Jan. 4, 2021) in Campaign 2020, C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?507634-1/president-trumpcampaigns-republican-senate-candidates-georgia.

On January 6, Plaintiff spoke at the rally at the Ellipse, during which he repeated claims, rejected by numerous courts, that the election was “rigged” and “stolen”; urged then Vice President Pence, who was preparing to convene Congress to tally the electoral votes, “to do the right thing” by rejecting certain states’ electors and declining to certify the election for President Joseph R. Biden; and told protesters to “walk down to the Capitol” to “give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country,” “we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” and “you’ll never take back our country with weakness.” See Donald J. Trump, Rally on Electoral College Vote Certification at 3:33:04, 3:33:36, 3:37:20, 3:47:02, 3:47:22, 4:42:26, 4:41:27 (Jan. 6, 2021) in Campaign 2020, C-SPAN, https://www.c-span.org/video/?507744-1/rally-electoral-collegevote-certification.

Shortly thereafter, the crowds surged from the rally, marched along Constitution Avenue, and commenced their siege of the Capitol. 

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The only way to refute this well-documented statement of fact is to angrily denounce this federal judge as a partisan fucking liar, an obvious BLM terrorist-sympathizer and Trump hater who was not even born in this country! That argument will fly with about 39% of the population, those who believe it’s “common sense” to administer Texas justice to a traitor like fucking Mike Pence.

Here’s Martha Kavanaugh, watching them attempt to crucify her innocent and totally nonpartisan son:

[1] tip of the yarmulke to Stephanie Miller

Nothing ominous here

Just because ultra-nationalist Steve Bannon’s body guard (and everyone surrendering for arrest in a nonviolent crime is entitled to a body guard) is dressed as an ISIS fighter is no reason to get excited. It’s the mercenary’s right as an American to dress however the hell he wants. See First and Second Amendments.

Stephen K. Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump, arrives at the FBI’s Washington field office to turn himself in to federal authorities
(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Bannon, by the way, is reportedly worth $55,000,000. If his legal defense against hard to refute charges of Contempt of Congress costs him $1,000,000, you’d expect Bannon to brush that sum aside, a small price to pay for the public performance of valor, steadfastness and the ability to look Destiny in the eye without blinking.

Plus, Bannon will likely be able to raise that sum from the generous MAGA suckers Trump already pardoned him for fleecing (allegedly fleecing — alleged by traitor Bill Barr’s partisan anti-Trump DOJ who arrested and criminally indicted Sloppy Steve).

Fortunately for people like Bannon, there are always billionaire’s yachts, in international waters, where a committed, disciplined, history-studying man-of-the-people, white nationalist can unwind and formulate the next part of his evolving long term battle plan.

Trump’s lizard brain

Sadly this brain of his, the former chief strategist for the former president, worked for his billionaire patron Robert Mercer’s first and second choices in 2016, before throwing his support behind Lyin’ Ted and finally the last right-winger standing, Honest Donnie. Mercer also provided the GOP nominee with Kelleyanne Conway. The rest, as they say, is history.

The former president, always determined to be the smartest man in the room (he described this as part of his business genius while campaigning at wild rallies — surround yourself with loyal idiots to look smart) soon got sick of people giving Bannon credit for Trump’s victories. Trumplethinskin [1] fired Sloppy Steve a few months into his administration.

When it came time to overturn his election loss, Trump turned to a true strategist of chaos, anarchy and autocracy. You need a ruthless pragmatist like that in your War Room at the Willard Hotel as you implement your audacious plan and unleash your enraged mob.

Clearly, an insatiably ravenous reptile needs a cagey brain.

[1] tip of the cap to Stephanie Miller

It’s Common Sense

There’s a real reason that Trump and people like him consider journalists the enemy of the people. Everything we know about the planning, funding and execution of the Stop the Steal riot at the Capitol comes from journalists. You can stonewall Congress without consequence because the courts can be used that way in this country by wealthy, powerful people. But the fucking press … the lying media… der lugenpresse! … enemy of the people!

In a new tape recording of an interview with Trump, released by journalist Johnathan Karl, the mad former president says it’s “common sense” that people who believe there was massive election fraud and Pence refused to do anything about it would rightfully want to lynch the motherfucker.

Shades of Christian Dominionist provocateur William Pelham “Bagpiper Bill” Barr with his sneering “it’s obvious!” when asked for proof that mail-in voting would lead to massive electoral fraud by antifa, enraged colored people and others who unaccountably hate authoritarianism.

What is truly common sense is that when dealing with a bully who has always backed down whenever confronted with a real counterthreat (elevating Jeffrey Clark to AG, quitting GOP, etc.), to not confront him is to empower a sadist without boundaries to take a shit in your mouth and tell you to swallow.

Bon appétit, hesitant Democrats.

Trump scores AGAIN!

Federal Judge Tanya Chutkan yesterday ruled against Trump’s attempt to conceal all presidential papers relating to the planning and implementation of the January 6 Stop the Steal rally and subsequent MAGA riot at the Capitol. All quotes are from the Newsweek edited version of Judge Chutkan’s decision.

Plaintiff does not acknowledge the deference owed to the incumbent President’s judgment. His position that he may override the express will of the executive branch appears to be premised on the notion that his executive power “exists in perpetuity.”

But Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President. He retains the right to assert that his records are privileged, but the incumbent President “is not constitutionally obliged to honor” that assertion.

That is because Plaintiff is no longer situated to protect executive branch interests with “the information and attendant duty of executing the laws in the light of current facts and circumstances.”

And he no longer remains subject to political checks against potential abuse of that power. Moreover, contrary to Plaintiff’s assertion that President Biden’s decision not to invoke executive privilege is “unprecedented,” history is replete with examples of past Presidents declining to assert the privilege.

Trump’s lawyers. doing their best with an extremely weak legal hand, argued there is no legitimate legislative purpose to justify release of Trump’s plans to overturn the election. In attacking Congress’s legitimate legislative purpose in obtaining these documents, they were skating on very thin ice. Judge Chutkan clarifies that Congress does not need to specifically announce its intended legislative purpose, particularly if the Executive Branch agrees that Congress has a legitimate purpose. Then she helps Trump out in understanding what those purposes likely include:

The court has no difficulty discerning multiple subjects on which legislation “could be had” from the Select Committee’s requests. Some examples include enacting or amending criminal laws to deter and punish violent conduct targeted at the institutions of democracy, enacting measures for future executive enforcement of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment against any Member of Congress or Officer of the United States who engaged in “insurrection or rebellion,” or gave “aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 3, imposing structural reforms on executive branch agencies to prevent their abuse for antidemocratic ends, amending the Electoral Count Act, and reallocating resources and modifying processes for intelligence sharing by federal agencies charged with detecting, and interdicting, foreign and domestic threats to the security and integrity of our electoral processes.

Several times in her decision Judge Chutkan states the obvious, making a public record:

The Select Committee appears to be operating under the theory that January 6 did not take place in a vacuum, and instead was the result of a months-long groundswell.

Defendants argue that to identify effective reforms, Congress must first understand the circumstances leading up to January 6 and how the actions of Plaintiff, his advisors, and other government officials contributed or responded to that groundswell.

The court notes that the Select Committee reasonably could find it necessary to investigate the extent to which the January 6 attack on the Capitol may have been an outgrowth of a sustained effort to overturn the 2020 election results, involving individuals both in and outside government.

But the “very nature of the investigative function—like any research—is that it takes the searchers up some ‘blind alleys’ and into nonproductive enterprises. To be a valid legislative inquiry there need be no predictable end result.” Eastland, 421 U.S. at 509.

See, for example John Durham’s so far two and a half year investigation of alleged left wing traitors behind the Mueller investigation. Compare: five day, extremely limited FBI “investigation” into allegations (witness tips forwarded directly to Kavanaugh’s sponsor, fellow Federalist Society all-star Don McGahn) against Justice Boof Kavanaugh.

The Committee could reasonably expect the requested records to shed light on any White House planning and strategies concerning public messaging about the election, any efforts to halt or delay the electoral count, and preparations for and responses to the January 6 rally and attack.

Such information would be plainly material to the Select Committee’s mandate to discover and report on “the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6 [attack],” H.R. 503, § 3(1), and to pass remedial legislation in any number of previously identified areas within their legislative purview.

Court: Trump’s claims fall, release the records, Trump loses this one. Trump: Judge Chutkan is fake, smelly and a liar who does disgusting things when she goes to the bathroom! I have already appealed this bullshit decision, will win AGAIN 6-3 in my Supreme Court!

Nice subpoena

[The House January 6 Select Committee] also subpoenaed John McEntee, a young Trump loyalist who had been the former president’s baggage handler before Trump installed him as the White House personnel director, in charge of hiring for the executive branch. McEntee was reportedly present for many of the key conversations around trying to overturn the 2020 election. 

An article today in The Atlantic by Jonathan D. Karl, the chief Washington correspondent for ABC News, calls “Johnny” McEntee “the man who made January 6 possible.” McEntee purged the administration of anyone he did not consider sufficiently—that is to say, totally—loyal to Trump.

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John McEntee, I’ve been waiting for more news about this promising young man. He had MAGA greatness written all over him, think of Matt Gaetz with athletic ability.