January 6th legal proceedings and investigations megathread

[Landslide Lyndon]

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE “ASSIGNED” TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

^ Trump saying there's very powerful grounds to remove the judge. Also several other all caps paragraphs this morning and also said Pelosi is a witch and will go to hell someday.

If Trump's family really loved him they'd have him committed at a mental institution.

[Florida Man for Crime]

Come to think of it, you know what I would have done if I were Pence when Trump started hitting on me back in mid-December or so? Of course you do. I would have filed an emergency petition with SCOTUS stating that Trump was demanding that I perform more than a ministerial function in certifying duly qualified electors, and subvert the election by installing rogue ones, or let the legislatures mess with them, and I want a ruling on the matter, and I want it now. Our democracy is at stake, and potentially, the peaceful transfer of power. After SCOTUS blowz Trump away, what is Trump going to do then? Bitch that all his appointees were Judas goats, just like Pence himself?

The only difference is that the Supreme Court building also would have been invaded in addition to the US capitol on January 6, and that the crowd would have been yelling to hang John Roberts as well as Mike Pence.

And incidentally, this is what happened in the Brazilian version of January 6 where the Supreme Court chambers were also trashed by the treasonous mob.

[Torie]

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE “ASSIGNED” TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

^ Trump saying there's very powerful grounds to remove the judge. Also several other all caps paragraphs this morning and also said Pelosi is a witch and will go to hell someday.

My 7th great aunt was the most famous of American witches, and a very fine person. Pelosi may be a witch, but she is not going to hell.

Has any Pub politician ever got a change of venue out of DC for crimes committed in DC because DC has too many Dems? That obnoxious lawyer of his doing the media rounds spinning like a top played the West Virginia card on Face the Nation today. Why WV? Because it is representative of the entire nation. That is what he actually said. Who knew?

[GP270watch]

 The "free speech" defense is complete nonsense. Trump also thought he won the 2016 popular vote because "at least 3 million illegals voted in California"(magically the same number he needed to win the popular vote). Just like he needed to find around 11,000 votes in Georgia. Any jury that doesn't find him guilty is filled with MAGA lunatics.

[GeorgiaModerate]

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE “ASSIGNED” TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

^ Trump saying there's very powerful grounds to remove the judge. Also several other all caps paragraphs this morning and also said Pelosi is a witch and will go to hell someday.

My 7th great aunt was the most famous of American witches, and a very fine person. Pelosi may be a witch, but she is not going to hell.

Has any Pub politician ever got a change of venue out of DC for crimes committed in DC because DC has too many Dems? That obnoxious lawyer of his doing the media rounds spinning like a top played the West Virginia card on Face the Nation today. Why WV? Because it is representative of the entire nation. That is what he actually said. Who knew?

It may well represent the mythical nation that exists in the minds of Trump and his supporters.

Fun facts from the Census Bureau (July 1, 2022 population estimates; numbers will not sum to 100% due to some people in multiple categories):

DC: 46.2% White, 45.0% Black, 11.7% Hispanic, 4.7% Asian

WV: 92.8% White, 3.7% Black, 2.1% Hispanic, 0.7% Asian

Guess which one the Trump lawyer said is more diverse?

[Torie]

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE “ASSIGNED” TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

^ Trump saying there's very powerful grounds to remove the judge. Also several other all caps paragraphs this morning and also said Pelosi is a witch and will go to hell someday.

My 7th great aunt was the most famous of American witches, and a very fine person. Pelosi may be a witch, but she is not going to hell.

Has any Pub politician ever got a change of venue out of DC for crimes committed in DC because DC has too many Dems? That obnoxious lawyer of his doing the media rounds spinning like a top played the West Virginia card on Face the Nation today. Why WV? Because it is representative of the entire nation. That is what he actually said. Who knew?

It may well represent the mythical nation that exists in the minds of Trump and his supporters.

Fun facts from the Census Bureau (July 1, 2022 population estimates; numbers will not sum to 100% due to some people in multiple categories):

DC: 46.2% White, 45.0% Black, 11.7% Hispanic, 4.7% Asian

WV: 92.8% White, 3.7% Black, 2.1% Hispanic, 0.7% Asian

Guess which one the Trump lawyer said is more diverse?

DC is way over represented by gays GM. If you find a gay in WV let me know.

And now another Torie story. The pack went to this capacious park in the Poconos, where sightings of interracial gay couples with cute miniature designer dogs are just not a thing.  Man trucks with gun racks with F [American flag] Biden are. Anyway, as the pack perambulates towards the trail head (Torie wants to do a survey with a specific goal in mind about watersheds but I digress), this old man in a beat up car exits it to greet us as if we were a life raft, to tell us his life story. He's gay and had not felt safe to express it and chat about it in a long, long time. I would like to think we cheered him up a bit.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

THERE IS NO WAY I CAN GET A FAIR TRIAL WITH THE JUDGE “ASSIGNED” TO THE RIDICULOUS FREEDOM OF SPEECH/FAIR ELECTIONS CASE. EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, AND SO DOES SHE! WE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY ASKING FOR RECUSAL OF THIS JUDGE ON VERY POWERFUL GROUNDS, AND LIKEWISE FOR VENUE CHANGE, OUT IF D.C.

^ Trump saying there's very powerful grounds to remove the judge. Also several other all caps paragraphs this morning and also said Pelosi is a witch and will go to hell someday.

[Landslide Lyndon]

LOL!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-2020-election-indictment-lawyer-john-lauro-rcna98406

If former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution,” it doesn’t mean he necessarily broke any criminal laws, John Lauro, Trump’s criminal defense attorney, argued Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press."

...

“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law," Lauro contended, saying it was "just plain wrong" to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.

"And to say that is contrary to decades of legal statutes,” he continued.

“These kinds of constitutional and statutory disagreements don’t lead to criminal charges," Lauro said. "And one thing that Mr. Pence has never said is that he thought President Trump was acting criminally."

[brucejoel99]

LOL!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-2020-election-indictment-lawyer-john-lauro-rcna98406

If former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution,” it doesn’t mean he necessarily broke any criminal laws, John Lauro, Trump’s criminal defense attorney, argued Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press."

...

“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law," Lauro contended, saying it was "just plain wrong" to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.

"And to say that is contrary to decades of legal statutes,” he continued.

“These kinds of constitutional and statutory disagreements don’t lead to criminal charges," Lauro said. "And one thing that Mr. Pence has never said is that he thought President Trump was acting criminally."

https://twitter.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/1688192713840037888https://twitter.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/1688195757864595461

[emailking]

I think Lauro may be technically correct on that as a general statement, but probably not the best thing to say and in any case he did violate criminal law.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

https://twitter.com/EdKrassen/status/1688180938637811712?t=6XS_1p2MPQW8odRzuPbnF...

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1688580530302865408?s=20

[Redban]

I doubt Trump would be in the courtroom though; he'd probably get a waiver to be in the field campainging during trial

Donald Trump's attorney called for the upcoming January 6 trial against the former president to be televised, arguing Americans deserve to see the proceedings.

Attorney John Lauro made the argument during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" with host Shannon Bream. Lauro argued that prosecutors and President Biden's administration as a whole are seeking to withhold information from the public by sticking to the tradition of not having cameras in federal courtrooms.

"Would you be OK – would the president support – a televised trial?" Bream asked. "It would have to go through all sorts of hoops and rule changes and those kinds of things, but let the American people see every minute of it and decide for themselves."

"I personally would love to see that," Lauro responded. "I'm convinced the Biden administration does not want the American people to see the truth. They acted on it by filing this protective order, which is an effort to keep important information about this case from the press."

"I'm shocked, actually, that all the networks haven't lined up and filed pleadings already objecting to this very broad attempt by the Biden administration to keep information away from the American people," he added.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-attorney-calls-jan-6-151848412.html

[GeorgiaModerate]

I doubt Trump would be in the courtroom though; he'd probably get a waiver to be in the field campainging during trial

Donald Trump's attorney called for the upcoming January 6 trial against the former president to be televised, arguing Americans deserve to see the proceedings.

Attorney John Lauro made the argument during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" with host Shannon Bream. Lauro argued that prosecutors and President Biden's administration as a whole are seeking to withhold information from the public by sticking to the tradition of not having cameras in federal courtrooms.

"Would you be OK – would the president support – a televised trial?" Bream asked. "It would have to go through all sorts of hoops and rule changes and those kinds of things, but let the American people see every minute of it and decide for themselves."

"I personally would love to see that," Lauro responded. "I'm convinced the Biden administration does not want the American people to see the truth. They acted on it by filing this protective order, which is an effort to keep important information about this case from the press."

"I'm shocked, actually, that all the networks haven't lined up and filed pleadings already objecting to this very broad attempt by the Biden administration to keep information away from the American people," he added.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-attorney-calls-jan-6-151848412.html

I find it extremely unlikely that the judge would allow Trump to be absent during his trial.  I do agree that televising the trial is in the public's interest.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Unsurprising:
New Judge Cannon order opens door for DOJ to ask for her Trump case removal: legal experts

"Judge Cannon responds to the govt's request for a hearing on Nauta's lawyer's conflicts & discloses the existence of a grand jury investigation in another district while denying gov't's motion to seal. The govt can appeal. This may tee up the issue of her fitness on this case," Vance tweeted.

MSNBC host and former prosecutor Katie Phang agreed, chiming in with: "If the DOJ filed under seal certain documents, and Judge Cannon just disclosed the existence of an otherwise confidential grand jury proceeding, we might be at the motion for recusal stage for the DOJ…"

And Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor who worked for special counsel Robert Mueller, argued that Cannon was either showing bias or ignorance with her latest ruling.

"The obstruction crimes that were investigated are charges that could have been brought in FLA or in DC and thus could be investigated in either district," he wrote. "And there was conduct that is alleged to have occurred outside FLA."

This comes on the heels of a non-Trump-related story about Cannon:
Trump documents case judge made multiple errors in earlier trial

Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man - accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse - to the defendant's family and the general public, pointing to a lack of space in the courtroom, a trial transcript viewed by Reuters showed.

This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Spearman's plea deal included an unusual provision allowing him to appeal a decision by Cannon against his motion to suppress evidence in the case.

Cannon's decision to close the courtroom represents "a fundamental constitutional error," said Stephen Smith, a professor at the Santa Clara School of Law in California. "She ignored the public trial right entirely. It's as though she didn't know it existed."

[Middle-aged Europe]

LOL!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-2020-election-indictment-lawyer-john-lauro-rcna98406

If former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution,” it doesn’t mean he necessarily broke any criminal laws, John Lauro, Trump’s criminal defense attorney, argued Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press."

...

“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law," Lauro contended, saying it was "just plain wrong" to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.

"And to say that is contrary to decades of legal statutes,” he continued.

“These kinds of constitutional and statutory disagreements don’t lead to criminal charges," Lauro said. "And one thing that Mr. Pence has never said is that he thought President Trump was acting criminally."

https://twitter.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/1688192713840037888https://twitter.com/AnthonyMKreis/status/1688195757864595461

According to the Nixon doctrine it is not illegal when the President does it though.

[Yoda]

Unsurprising:
New Judge Cannon order opens door for DOJ to ask for her Trump case removal: legal experts

"Judge Cannon responds to the govt's request for a hearing on Nauta's lawyer's conflicts & discloses the existence of a grand jury investigation in another district while denying gov't's motion to seal. The govt can appeal. This may tee up the issue of her fitness on this case," Vance tweeted.

MSNBC host and former prosecutor Katie Phang agreed, chiming in with: "If the DOJ filed under seal certain documents, and Judge Cannon just disclosed the existence of an otherwise confidential grand jury proceeding, we might be at the motion for recusal stage for the DOJ…"

And Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor who worked for special counsel Robert Mueller, argued that Cannon was either showing bias or ignorance with her latest ruling.

"The obstruction crimes that were investigated are charges that could have been brought in FLA or in DC and thus could be investigated in either district," he wrote. "And there was conduct that is alleged to have occurred outside FLA."

This comes on the heels of a non-Trump-related story about Cannon:
Trump documents case judge made multiple errors in earlier trial

Florida-based U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon closed jury selection for the trial of an Alabama man - accused by federal prosecutors of running a website with images of child sex abuse - to the defendant's family and the general public, pointing to a lack of space in the courtroom, a trial transcript viewed by Reuters showed.

This error forced Cannon to re-start jury selection before the trial ended abruptly with defendant William Spearman pleading guilty as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Spearman's plea deal included an unusual provision allowing him to appeal a decision by Cannon against his motion to suppress evidence in the case.

Cannon's decision to close the courtroom represents "a fundamental constitutional error," said Stephen Smith, a professor at the Santa Clara School of Law in California. "She ignored the public trial right entirely. It's as though she didn't know it existed."

It would be pretty hilarious if she managed to get herself kicked off of the case this early. On the not-so-funny side, the absolute clowns trump put on the federal bench like Cannon and the freak in North Texas will be wreaking havoc and issuing nonsense opinions for 40 years. We absolutely MUST pack SCOTUS if we ever get the chance.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Hahahaha!!!

https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1688660375007289344?s=20

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

LOL!

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/donald-trump-2020-election-indictment-lawyer-john-lauro-rcna98406

If former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the Constitution,” it doesn’t mean he necessarily broke any criminal laws, John Lauro, Trump’s criminal defense attorney, argued Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press."

...

“A technical violation of the Constitution is not a violation of criminal law," Lauro contended, saying it was "just plain wrong" to suggest that Trump had pressed Pence to break the law.

"And to say that is contrary to decades of legal statutes,” he continued.

“These kinds of constitutional and statutory disagreements don’t lead to criminal charges," Lauro said. "And one thing that Mr. Pence has never said is that he thought President Trump was acting criminally."

We're at the point where if the law worked the way Trump and his supporters claim it does (which it absolutely does not), Biden & Harris could just declare Biden as President for Life.

[Inmate Trump]

I long for the day we no longer have to discuss Donald Trump every day.

Will that day ever come?

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

I long for the day we no longer have to discuss Donald Trump every day.

Will that day ever come?

When he’s in jail or dead

[GeorgiaModerate]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1688995093267480576

* Stocks up on popcorn *

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1688995093267480576

* Stocks up on popcorn *

I have no doubt that Donald Trump can find 2000 jackasses who will speak in his defense.
/s

Seriously though, the GOP are clearly trying to make this about free speech and "the election was stolen".  I'm pretty confident this judge will not let the trial be derailed in Donald's favor, That may even work in the popular media. (I have no doubt that the NYT and its Trump-whisperers will uncritically repeat the stupidest of Donald's talking points ad nauseaum.)

Also, the bit about how he'd rather be in France seems like it wil make a great campaign commercial.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

They are trying to muddy the waters and convince his followers that they are persecuting him over speech when the indictment has nothing to do with what he said. But most people will not read the indictment so they will believe the BS Trump and his allies are spewing.

If all Trump did was say he won without the pressure campaigns that followed, sure, this case would be DOA.

[Storr]

I'm not sure "I'd rather be in France than the country I'm running to be President of" is the best campaign message.