January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

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Judge Chutkan for SCOTUS. This woman has made it crystal clear that she is not one to be f***ed with and she does not suffer fools.

[Yoda]

Also, GA is probably the best case that Trump serves legit time in prison. The Governor has no pardon power and the pardon board can only give a pardon after a certain % of the time has been served.

Still requires a unanimous jury, no? Not a great bet in Georgia.

DC, imo, is the best bet that he serves prison.

Fulton County, though.  Atlanta.

Ok, help me out here, they were saying on MSNBC a little bit ago that trump is going to try and get this case moved to federal court. What would be the basis for that? And how likely is he to succeed?

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Most likely trial date?

I'm thinking March. Jack Smith said his team only needs 4-6 weeks and wants to start Jan. The judge will probably do March. Starting in March allows for the document trial to start in May.

Of course, the NY trial would need to be pushed back.

NY can go last of all four for all I care. It's the least urgent as far as the public's serious interest in seeing all the facts about what trump did surrounding attempts to overturn the election, 1/6 and the classified documents.

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https://twitter.com/beckerdavidj/status/1692310286898749915

IANAL so of course have no experience with such things, but when I saw this earlier today I couldn't help but think it sounded so unserious and disrespectful to the court that I thought the judge might see it almost as a personal insult with no regard for her time and the concept of the public's right to a speedy trial.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/beckerdavidj/status/1692310286898749915

IANAL so of course have no experience with such things, but when I saw this earlier today I couldn't help but think it sounded so unserious and disrespectful to the court that I thought the judge might see it almost as a personal insult with no regard for her time and the concept of the public's right to a speedy trial.

Since Judge Chutkan is very unlikely to allow normal Trump antics and disrespect for the law, perhaps the Defendant's team is trying to make her angry enough to do or say something they think they can use to get her removed from the case, or win an appeal they would not otherwise get?

Too bad for him I think she's way too smart for that.

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A 74 year old man basically decided to go to prison for up to 2 years to protect the career criminal donald trump. IMO if you're that f***ing stupid you deserve prison.

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Mark Meadows granted immunity, tells special counsel he warned Trump about 2020 claims: Sources

Former President Donald Trump's final chief of staff in the White House, Mark Meadows, has spoken with special counsel Jack Smith's team at least three times this year, including once before a federal grand jury, which came only after Smith granted Meadows immunity to testify under oath, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The sources said Meadows informed Smith's team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump's prolific rhetoric regarding the election.

Gotta say my gut reaction to Meadows getting immunity was big disappointment. He's guilty of so many serious crimes it's not even funny, and he keeps getting off. He better be delivering some absolutely, incredibly damning testimony on trump if he's been given immunity. I'm gonna be sore about this until/if such testimony happens.

[Yoda]

Aw! I wanted Meadows to go to prison.

I'm still royally pissed about him not going to prison for the voter fraud.

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At this point Trump wants to actively be jailed, right?

I think he’s basically testing the waters on how far he’ll be allowed to go, since he doesn’t care about a $10,000 fine. He’s more or less daring the judge to jail him pretrial as a power move. “You know you wouldn’t dare… what are you gonna do about it?”

I think Chutkan's plan should be to keep exponentially raising the fine on trump each time he breaks the gag order, as putting him in jail for a day is what he wants so he can portray himself as a persecuted martyr and whip his fans into a frenzy. Hit him where it hurts - his money. $10k this time, $50k the next, $250K next, $1 million next, $10 million and so on. We all know trump is cash poor. It will quickly get to a point where he can't afford to threaten anyone involved in the case anymore.

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At the Appeals Court, Trump’s lawyers are currently, explicitly arguing that it would be perfectly legal for the president to assassinate a political rival.

Specifically they are arguing that he would be immune from prosecution unless he were impeached and convicted first. Even though Senate Republicans said that the reason they weren’t voting to convict him in 2021 (purportedly) was that he should be tried in court instead of being impeached and convicted!

Alex Wagner did a good job on her show last night laying out the shell game that republicans have carefully crafted in order to constantly excuse donald trump and protect him from the consequences of his crimes. Second impeachment? "He's out of office, so the criminal justice system is the correct avenue to hold him accountable." Now that's been out of office for years? "Oh, wait, we forgot, actually he has complete and total immunity for everything he ever did while President, and the criminal justice system actually cant touch him. Sorry stupid liberals!"

[Yoda]

F***ing finally! Why did this take so long?

I'm crossing my fingers every day that emailking is prescient.

Hopefully the Supreme Court now quickly throws out Trump's bogus arguments and the trial can finally get started. It's about time.

Am I wrong to assume that the full DC Circuit will definitely not agree to hear the case in full? So the only further (big) delay will be if SCOTUS take it's time with this?

[Yoda]

F***ing finally! Why did this take so long?

I'm crossing my fingers every day that emailking is prescient.

Hopefully the Supreme Court now quickly throws out Trump's bogus arguments and the trial can finally get started. It's about time.

Am I wrong to assume that the full DC Circuit will definitely not agree to hear the case in full? So the only further (big) delay will be if SCOTUS take it's time with this?

It was a unanimous decision with a Republican appointee writing the opinion. Will it even receive a hearing or will it just be denied?

That's my hope, but my jaded political brain says enough of the SCOTUS conservatives will at least take the appeal and waste more time, even if they end up affirming the decision. I'd very much like to be wrong on this, of course.

We're looking at a May start date for this trial at this point, and that's the best case scenario. Absolutely absurd that trump (or any criminal defendant) can delay such a serious case for this long. I thought the right to a speedy trial worked both ways? The government has a right to try donald trump in a speedy manner. I can't imagine a trial where the public interest is greater. We deserve to hear the evidence against him, and his defense, before the election.

[Yoda]

https://twitter.com/AWeissmann_/status/1755044971541893247

^ very possible scenario!

Not that I'd have a problem with it, but wouldn't allowing the trial to proceed while hearing the appeal essentially be an admission that the Court was going to eventually uphold the Circuit ruling?

[Yoda]

Listening to the CO Case on SCOTUS while they will rule with Trump on that I deem it as ZERO Percent that they will grant him "Absolute Immunity" if they do take the "Immunity" Case.

I think we all agree there's zero chance they rule he has any kind of immunity, as that would be a bonkers decision. The worry is whether they waste a ton of time in the process.

[Yoda]

My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!

That's Trump last night. I guess all J6 convictions are getting pardons on the dictator day, if he wins.

But I thought the J6 convicts were all actually Antifa and FBI plants? So trump will be pardoning Antifa and anti-trump Deep State agents? Or have trump and the rest of the Republican Party officially abandoned that lie when it became too inconvenient for them?

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F***ing FINALLY. Career criminal Mark Meadows is FINALLY charged with one of his many crimes. Jfc it's about time.

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Someone on MSNBC said Chesebro is cooperating with prosecutors in this case. Does anyone know if that's true?

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Doesn't this at least mean the calendar is open for Chutkan, provided any SCOTUS ruling isn't too brazen and favorable for Trump?

Yes, that’s the silver lining in this decision.

Again, assuming the Supreme Court rules soon enough and doesn't rule in Trump's favor, which should not be considered very likely.

I think it's a foregone conclusion that they're going to send it back to a lower court for review, to decide which charges might covered by Presidential Immunity, thus making certain that either: 1) President[sic] Trump can pardon himself, or 2) Loser Trump is no longer a threat to them (they hope).

If I was the judge, I'd take about an hour to decide that only the crimes specifically stated in the Constitution that the President is immune to are what trump is safe from prosecution of. Problem solved. Let the "strict constructionists" on SCOTUS find fault with that. I don't care one bit about DoJ legal opinion memos.