Georgia grand jury investigating Trump returns indictments

[GeorgiaModerate]

Willis has filed to revoke the bond of Harrison Floyd because of X posts he made. He was the only defendant who was remanded to custody initially because he didn't have a lawyer set up a release agreement for him.

Judge rejected the request.

However, he's going to amend Floyd's conditions to make them more explicit.  IMO this is a reasonable middle course.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1725614305754636546

Since May is the current Florida date, it's possible Georgia moves up a few months once that is moved. I think NY is scheduled for late March too.

Expect Cannon to push back the Florida trial incrementally, so as to try and sabotage both it and the GA trial for the benefit Donald's campaign to escape justice via the Presidency.

[Tekken_Guy]

https://twitter.com/BradMossEsq/status/1725614305754636546

Since May is the current Florida date, it's possible Georgia moves up a few months once that is moved. I think NY is scheduled for late March too.

Expect Cannon to push back the Florida trial incrementally, so as to try and sabotage both it and the GA trial for the benefit Donald's campaign to escape justice via the Presidency.

Then how about Jack Smith get it moved immediately to make room for GA.

[emailking]

Georgia prosecutors oppose plea deals for Trump, Meadows and Giuliani
Exclusive: sources say Fulton county prosecutors unwilling to offer deals to key trio, preferring instead to force them to trial

Fulton county prosecutors do not intend to offer plea deals to Donald Trump and at least two high-level co-defendants charged in connection with their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, according to two people familiar with the matter, preferring instead to force them to trial.

The individuals seen as ineligible include Trump, his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Aside from those three, the Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis has opened plea talks or has left open the possibility of talks with the remaining co-defendants in the hope that they ultimately decide to become cooperating witnesses against the former president, the people said.

The previously unreported decision has not been communicated formally and could still change, for instance, if prosecutors shift strategy. But it signals who prosecutors consider their main targets, and how they want to wield the power of Georgia’s racketeering statute to their advantage.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/28/trump-trial-georgia-no-plea-deal

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Trump is gonna lose we just voted blue wall 22

[emailking]

I don't know where to put this since there's no thread, but there's a verdict in Rudy's civil trial brought by the 2 Georgia election workers he regularly defames.

[emailking]

$75 million in punitive damages
$20 million to each of the women for emotional distress
$16 in compensatory damages to each

Wow!

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I wonder what Rudy was thinking when he decided to become Trump's lapdog. He could've stayed out of the limelight and died as America's beloved mayor. Now he'll die broke and hated by most.

[emailking]

Rudy Giuliani hit with $148M verdict for defaming two Georgia election workers
An attorney for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, had urged the eight-person jury to “send a message” with its verdict.

Rudy Giuliani should pay a pair of Georgia election workers he repeatedly and falsely accused of fraud $148 million in damages, a federal jury said Friday.

The eight-person jury awarded Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, the sum after a four-day trial, during which they testified that Giuliani’s lies in support of former President Donald Trump’s bogus stolen-election claims subjected them to a torrent of racist and violent threats and turned their lives upside down.

The amount awarded to Freeman and Moss was for three different kinds of damages — defamation, punitive and emotional distress. The plaintiffs were awarded $20 million each for emotional distress, and $75 million between them in punitive damages. Freeman was separately awarded just over $16 million in defamation damages, while Moss was awarded almost $17 million.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/rudy-giuliani-hit-148m-verdict-defaming-two-georgia-election-workers-rcna129807


Even after the verdict, Giuliani again said that everything he said about them is supportable.

[Landslide Lyndon]

These civil trials are hilarious, wasn't OJ supposed to pay over 30 million, and he didn't give the family a dime?

I see you are a big fan of law and order too, like your leader.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Even after the verdict, Giuliani again said that everything he said about them is supportable.

This is getting to become the standard MO for Republicans: say one thing under oath, then walk out of the courtroom and start lying again. And the problem there isn't that they do it, but that Republican voters continue to support the people who engage in this sort of behavior.

[Badger]

These civil trials are hilarious, wasn't OJ supposed to pay over 30 million, and he didn't give the family a dime?

So very on brand for you to be rooting for the bad guy. Grow up child.

[emailking]

Trump Is Selling Pieces of His Mug Shot Suit
It’s not just a piece of political memorabilia — it’s a strategy.

When Donald J. Trump walked into a Georgia courthouse on Aug. 24 to be booked as part of his fourth criminal indictment, becoming the first former president (and only current presidential candidate) to have a mug shot taken, the picture seemed destined to become a symbol of this fraught, unprecedented moment in American history. As has become increasingly clear, however, Mr. Trump and his team have come to see the mug shot in a different way.

Specifically, as the source material for a new strain of political pop culture mythmaking and memorabilia.

Almost overnight they splashed the image, with Mr. Trump’s signature glower, across mugs, T-shirts and posters in their campaign store, using it and all it represents as a key component of their fund-raising. Then, this week, NFT INT, the official licensee of the Trump name and image for digital trading cards, began selling a special “Mugshot Edition” NFT set that includes, for a certain few willing to buy the whole thing, pieces of the blue suit and red tie Mr. Trump wore in the photo.

Or, as the NFT INT website calls the garment, “The most historically significant artifact in American history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/style/trump-mug-shot-suit-nfts.html

[Inmate Trump]

People are dumb enough to buy that too, that’s the saddest part.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Trump Is Selling Pieces of His Mug Shot Suit
It’s not just a piece of political memorabilia — it’s a strategy.

When Donald J. Trump walked into a Georgia courthouse on Aug. 24 to be booked as part of his fourth criminal indictment, becoming the first former president (and only current presidential candidate) to have a mug shot taken, the picture seemed destined to become a symbol of this fraught, unprecedented moment in American history. As has become increasingly clear, however, Mr. Trump and his team have come to see the mug shot in a different way.

Specifically, as the source material for a new strain of political pop culture mythmaking and memorabilia.

Almost overnight they splashed the image, with Mr. Trump’s signature glower, across mugs, T-shirts and posters in their campaign store, using it and all it represents as a key component of their fund-raising. Then, this week, NFT INT, the official licensee of the Trump name and image for digital trading cards, began selling a special “Mugshot Edition” NFT set that includes, for a certain few willing to buy the whole thing, pieces of the blue suit and red tie Mr. Trump wore in the photo.

Or, as the NFT INT website calls the garment, “The most historically significant artifact in American history.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/style/trump-mug-shot-suit-nfts.html

Anyone want to take a guess at what the odds are that the fabric isn't actually from the suit? (From sheer laziness and poor logistics, if nothing else.)

[emailking]

Appeals court rejects Mark Meadows’ bid to move his Georgia case out of state court
Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump, was previously denied a request to move his case to federal court.

A federal appeals court on Monday rejected an effort by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his Georgia election interference case out of state court.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge’s ruling from September that said Meadows had not demonstrated that the alleged conduct that prompted his prosecution was related to his official duties in the Trump administration.

The court’s decision is a blow to Meadows, who in August sought “prompt removal” of his case from state court, citing a federal law that allows U.S. officers to move civil actions or criminal prosecutions in state court to a federal venue if the alleged actions were taken “under color” of their government office.

"Because federal-officer removal...does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties," the appeals court wrote in its opinion Monday affirming the lower court's ruling.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/appeals-court-rejects-mark-meadows-bid-move-georgia-case-state-court-rcna130058

[GeorgiaModerate]

Appeals court rejects Mark Meadows’ bid to move his Georgia case out of state court
Meadows, who served as White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump, was previously denied a request to move his case to federal court.

A federal appeals court on Monday rejected an effort by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to move his Georgia election interference case out of state court.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a judge’s ruling from September that said Meadows had not demonstrated that the alleged conduct that prompted his prosecution was related to his official duties in the Trump administration.

The court’s decision is a blow to Meadows, who in August sought “prompt removal” of his case from state court, citing a federal law that allows U.S. officers to move civil actions or criminal prosecutions in state court to a federal venue if the alleged actions were taken “under color” of their government office.

"Because federal-officer removal...does not apply to former federal officers, and even if it did, the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related to Meadows’s official duties," the appeals court wrote in its opinion Monday affirming the lower court's ruling.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/appeals-court-rejects-mark-meadows-bid-move-georgia-case-state-court-rcna130058

This is going to be interesting to watch. Meadows could appeal further to SCOTUS, where he'd almost certainly lose. If so, then he's stuck in state court. Would he then try to get a plea deal from Fani Willis? She's previously said that deals are off the table for three defendants: Trump, Giuliani, and Meadows. But if he could provide enough evidence to hand over Trump on a silver platter -- and he probably can -- I'm inclined to think she'd take him up on it.

[emailking]

Trump wants Georgia election subversion case dismissed, arguing he has presidential immunity

Former President Donald Trump is seeking to have the sweeping criminal conspiracy case against him in Georgia thrown out by arguing he is protected from prosecution under presidential immunity.

Trump’s immunity claims in the Georgia case, filed on Monday as part of a motion to dismiss state-level criminal charges against the former president, are similar to those argued by his defense team in the federal election subversion case.

“The indictment in this case charges President Trump for acts that lie at the heart of his official responsibilities as President. The indictment is barred by presidential immunity and should be dismissed with prejudice,” the motion filed by Trump’s lawyer in the Georgia case reads.

...

Trump’s attorney argues that the specific acts in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ indictment “lie squarely within the ‘outer perimeter’ of the President’s official duties.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/politics/trump-fulton-county-georgia-immunity/index.html

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Donald's lawyers present new defense argument: he was too stupid to know election interference was illegal.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-georgia-case-dismissed-immunity-b2475100.html

Attorneys for Donald Trump claim that the former president didn’t have “fair notice” that his attempts to reverse his Georgia loss in the 2020 presidential election could result in criminal charges against him.

A flurry of filings in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday argue that the sprawling election interference case against Mr Trump “consists entirely of core political speech at the zenith of First Amendment protections”.

Attorneys for the former president want the case dismissed on grounds that he has “presidential immunity” from actions while in office, that he was already acquitted for similar allegations in his second impeachment trial, and that he was never told that what he was doing in the state – where he is charged as part of an alleged racketeering scheme to unlawfully subvert the state’s election results – could be prosecuted.

As always, one of the few things worse than Donald Trump is people supporting Donald Trump.

[Redban]

Filing alleges ‘improper’ relationship between Fulton DA, top Trump prosecutor
Fani Willis hired alleged romantic partner as special prosecutor, court motion says

District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship …. The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/breaking-filing-alleges-improper-relationship-between-fulton-da-top-trump-prosecutor/A2N2OWCM7FFWJBQH2ORAK2BKMQ/

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

“alleged”

[Birdish]

Filing alleges ‘improper’ relationship between Fulton DA, top Trump prosecutor
Fani Willis hired alleged romantic partner as special prosecutor, court motion says

District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship …. The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/breaking-filing-alleges-improper-relationship-between-fulton-da-top-trump-prosecutor/A2N2OWCM7FFWJBQH2ORAK2BKMQ/

Having read the ABC, CNN and NYT's reporting, the filing has no concrete evidence presented and it's unlikely to derail any indictments. But it is an optics issue that will probably have to get resolved.

[brucejoel99]

The own-goal to end all own-goals if the GA RICO case gets dismissed as an unconstitutional malicious prosecution because of a classic Atlanta corruption momenf

https://twitter.com/tamarhallerman/status/1744493348746854442https://twitter.com/ASFleischman/status/1744504082893840700

[Hindsight was 2020]

https://twitter.com/tamarhallerman/status/1744486283492073976?s=12
Ya we’re gonna need something more solid than this

[Ferguson97]

Nothingburger