jerrymahoney

Off-Off-Topic: Prosecutors: No grounds for judge to recuse in federal case against Trump over 2020 election The former president’s lawyers contend Judge Tanya Chutkan should step aside due to prior comments. 09/14/2023 11:27 PM EDT Special counsel Jack Smith’s office on Thursday sharply rejected former President Donald Trump’s push for U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan to step aside from the federal criminal case related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election. In a 20-page filing, prosecutors said Trump had failed to show any bias by Chutkan against Trump, despite allusions she made to him in a pair of sentencing proceedings against Capitol riot defendants in 2021 and 2022. Rather, argued senior assistant special counsels Molly Gaston and Thomas Windom, Trump “cherry-picks” from Chutkan’s quotes at those hearings to cast accurate and appropriate statements as inappropriate commentary. ... However, judges also have wide latitude to state their views from the bench based on the facts and information they learn in the course of their cases — and both defendants explicitly invited a comparison to Trump and others who stoked the fury of the mob that day. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/14/judge-tanya-chutkan-recuse-trump-case-00116146

Appeals court limits access to GOP congressman’s phone in defeat for special counsel Published 3:40 PM EDT, Wed September 13, 2023 (CNN) A federal appeals court has blocked federal prosecutors from obtaining a swath of cellphone records from a Pennsylvania Republican congressman who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s election defeat in 2020, in a ruling that could have dramatic legal implications that benefit federal lawmakers. The ruling from the three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals made public Wednesday blocks special counsel Jack Smith’s office from obtaining Rep. Scott Perry’s discussions with other lawmakers about the 2020 election. At very least, the appeals court proceedings have put on hold prosecutors’ ability to access a cell phone they wanted to examine of a top, well-connected official backing Trump’s election fraud beliefs after the 2020 election in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/13/politics/scott-perry-congress-phone-ruling/index.html

Georgia Judge Orders 2 Trials for Defendants in Trump Election Case Two defendants will get a speedy trial starting in October, but the others, including Donald J. Trump, can have more time to prepare, the judge ruled. Sept. 14, 2023 Updated 3:36 p.m. ET A judge on Thursday granted former President Donald J. Trump and 16 others a separate trial from two of their co-defendants who will go to trial next month in the Georgia election interference case. A trial date for Mr. Trump and the other 16 co-defendants has not been set. In his order, Judge McAfee described what was to come as a “mega-trial.” But he also raised the possibility that those 17 might not all be tried together in the end, if some make successful arguments to break off their cases. “Additional divisions of these 17 defendants may well be required,” the judge wrote. “That is a decision for another day once the many anticipated pretrial motions have been resolved and a realistic trial date approaches.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/us/trump-chesebro-powell-trial-georgia.html https://archive.ph/bU6qi

My wife is older than my girlfriend.

Yes -- and not hearing the loud BONK BONK End of the walkway

Opinion It’s not up to secretaries of state like me to keep Trump off the ballot By Jocelyn Benson September 13, 2023 at 12:18 p.m. EDT Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, is Michigan’s secretary of state and the author of “Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process.” Is it up to secretaries of state to determine whether Donald Trump can ever serve in elective office again? That seems to be the nearly universal view of those who say the former president is disqualified from such service under the 14th Amendment and want state secretaries of state to unilaterally keep him off the ballot. But that view is misguided. Whether Trump is eligible to run for president again is a decision not for secretaries of state but for the courts. As secretary of state in a key battleground state — and a former election law professor and law school dean — I am keenly aware of the responsibility that secretaries who serve as their states’ chief election officers bear in reassuring voters that our democracy is secure, fair and accessible, and that election results are an accurate reflection of their will. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/13/secretaries-of-state-trump-disqualification/ https://archive.ph/tU3yW

Mick Jagger on David Lettterman's 10 top things he's learned after 50 years in Rock & Roll: #10 You used to play Rock & Roll so you could have sex and do drugs. Now -- you do drugs, so you can still play Rock & Roll and have sex.

I come from a family of over-achievers. And they for long time have wanted nothing to do with me as I am not an over-achiever just plain old sometime achiever. Early on, I was asked if my moving to Thailand maybe had something to with that? I said: Heck. For some of them, it's been so long, they might even realize I'm gone.

What parties?

When I first moved to Thailand and had no transport, I used to hang out in a farang bar. But I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I know nothing about footie, so I soon abandoned that source of entertainment

From the Washington Post article linked earlier: Attorneys for Donald Trump on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to disqualify herself from presiding over Trump’s federal election obstruction case, saying Chutkan appears to have prejudged the former president’s guilt based on statements she made in past cases involving Jan. 6, 2021, riot defendants. The question raised in the recusal motion is not that anything the judge said is incorrect but whether it is prejudicial. The response from the prosecution is due Thursday Washington DC time.

If, after the prosecution responds to the defense motion for recusal and the defense submits their response to that, if the Judge decides not to recuse herself, then the Trump defense can appeal. There is precedence for these kinds of recusal motions at both the appellate and Supreme Court level.

Because the motion for recusal is based upon writings and verbal comments the Judge has said before Trump was served with the indictment.

That may be true. But the issue in this particular topic is what the Judge has said; not what Trump has said.

Trump demands recusal by Judge Chutkan in D.C. Jan. 6 trial Motion says Chutkan’s statements at sentencings for Jan. 6 defendants implied Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics professor at New York University School of Law, said views that a judge expresses at the sentencing of one defendant “cannot be the basis for recusing them in the case of a different defendant.” “Judges are expected to form views after hearing evidence,” Gillers said. “That’s the nature of the job. And judges are trusted not to let those views bias them against other defendants.” But Charles Wolfram, a scholar of legal ethics at Cornell University, said that comments made by a judge in one case can create an untenable appearance of bias in another. “I think it’s close to the line,” Wolfram said. “It’s a plausible argument for Trump to be making.” However, the law leaves it up to the judges themselves to decide after hearing from both sides. Chutkan gave prosecutors until Thursday to respond to the motion, and Trump’s defense until Sunday to make any reply. If Chutkan refuses the request, Trump’s defense lawyers may appeal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/11/trump-chutkan-recusal-jan-6-judge/ https://archive.ph/v97yf

Either way Ms. Enigma and nobody's Casey DiSantis

FYI The Very Private Life of Melania Trump The former first lady has mostly retreated from public view — and steered clear of the campaign trail — while her husband fights to return to the White House and faces increasing legal peril. Updated July 27, 2023 What she has not done, despite invitations from her husband, is appear on the campaign trail. Nor has she been at his side for any of his court appearances. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/us/politics/melania-trump-2024-campaign.html https://archive.ph/oBpME

Those years were not always easy for me -- I'm having a much easier time now.

Judge rejects Meadows effort to move election case from Georgia to federal court in big win for Willis - 09/08/23 6:05 PM ET A federal judge has rejected former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s attempt to move his charges in the Georgia election interference case to federal court. The ruling was a broad rejection of arguments from Meadows that his case should be heard in federal court because he was acting in his capacity as chief of staff at the time. Meadows filed an appeal of the ruling to the 11th circuit just hours after Jones’s decision. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4194977-judge-rejects-meadows-effort-to-move-election-case-from-georgia-to-federal-court-in-big-win-for-willis/

Trump lawyers move ‘insurrection’ clause lawsuit aiming to bar him from the ballot to federal court Updated 5:09 AM GMT+7, September 9, 2023 DENVER (AP) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump moved a lawsuit seeking to bar him from running again for the White House from state to federal court in the first step of what promises to be a tangled legal battle that seems destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. The initial state judge in Denver assigned the case recused himself for an unspecified conflict of interest, and then Trump’s attorneys on Thursday moved the case to federal court — asserting that the matter should be adjudicated at the federal level since it raises a constitutional issue. The plaintiffs in the case will argue it should first go back to state court, but both sides anticipate that ultimately the top echelons of the federal system will have to consider the issues the lawsuit raises. CREW said it will ask a federal judge to return the case to state court. It has also requested a speedy ruling on the issues before Colorado’s Republican primary ballot is finalized on Jan. 5. https://apnews.com/article/trump-2024-amendment-insurrection-ban-ballot-lawsuit-de06bca85bfe233368d6c6f6042c7290

I would say the answer is dependent upon if or how much you annoy persons who set up functions and advertise on this list: https://phangan.events/

It does get tiresome when one or more of the same half-dozen or more posters respond to your almost every post and feel they deserve some reply or answer ... then get perturbed when I say i just don't have or want to have the time to follow-up with every one of them.

They might all fail and Trump is found guilty on all criminal charges in the 4 current cases. Won't get any tear from me. But unless there is some sort of plea bargain or dismissal of charges, all these cases have a long way to go before that eventuality.

I have never said your 'get away with it' line -- just that the criminal cases against Trump may be more difficult than the slam-dunk fans think. And I'll say it again: I don't really care what happens with the criminal cases against Trump so long as he is not re-elected as President in 2024.

Well I just gave you the reference to Professor Richman in case you have any more minor corrections to make. Verbatim from NY Times with no editorial from me. And for the article as a whole, corrections can to mailed to corrections<at>nytimes.com