INDICTED (INDICATED) #4 - Quadfecta! Perfecta? - Judge Scott McAfee - Georgia v. Trump ET AL - P01135809- Fani Willis

[MN-Skeptic]

Lawfare has links to all of today's filing. Go here - https://www.lawfaremedia.org/current-pr ... ton-county - and scroll down to see today's filings.

[p0rtia]

Thanks!

[noblepa]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/08/politics ... index.html

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.

Is this filing just asking for charges against him to be dismissed and he tosses all the other defendants under the bus?

Of course. The others weren't President and therefore don't have immunity.

Sorry, guys. You'll all have to stand trial without me.

[pipistrelle]

Difficult to believe ensuring election integrity involves finding xyz number of votes for meeeee.

[Rolodex]

There are some procedural things going on in this case today; some motions being argued in front of the judge.

Live stream, if you want to follow:

[MN-Skeptic]

If you're on Twitter, Anna Bower if live tweeting this hearing.

[raison de arizona]

Gym Jordan writes a letter to Nathan Wade. News at 11.
https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-s ... n-da-1.pdf

Bonus! mtg's letter regarding Wade to the Governor and AG:

► Show Spoiler

[Rolodex]

NEW DEFENSE!!

He didn't know he was committing a crime!

Former President Donald Trump demanded the election crimes case against him be dismissed on the grounds that he didn’t have advance notice he would be committing a crime by trying to overturn the election.

From his attorney's Motion to Dissmiss to the Judge McAfee:

Our country has a longstanding tradition of forceful political advocacy regarding widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities in a long list of Presidential elections throughout our history, therefore, President Trump lacked fair notice that his advocacy in the instance of the 2020 Presidential Election could be criminalized.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-dem ... was-crime/

[AndyinPA]

Is there no sense of shame in these attorneys?

[raison de arizona]

Is there no sense of shame in these attorneys?

They’ve proven themselves thrilled to open themselves to sanctions, not for money, but for just a pat on the head from tfg.

[Dr. Ken]

NEW DEFENSE!!

He didn't know he was committing a crime!

Former President Donald Trump demanded the election crimes case against him be dismissed on the grounds that he didn’t have advance notice he would be committing a crime by trying to overturn the election.

From his attorney's Motion to Dissmiss to the Judge McAfee:

Our country has a longstanding tradition of forceful political advocacy regarding widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities in a long list of Presidential elections throughout our history, therefore, President Trump lacked fair notice that his advocacy in the instance of the 2020 Presidential Election could be criminalized.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-dem ... was-crime/

Isn't ignorance of the law not an excuse? But seriously how does he not think overturning the election isn't a crime? Good luck arguing that.

[Foggy]

Is there no sense of shame in these attorneys?

99% of attorneys make all the rest look bad.

[sugar magnolia]

Is there no sense of shame in these attorneys?

Is there no sense at all among them?

[chancery]

Meh. It might be a stupid motion, but shameful, no.

If mens rea is an element of the charge, it's your sacred duty as a defense attorney to attack it. And, for worse or for more worse*, white collar crimes usually contain stringent mental state elements for the purpose of letting rich bad guys off the hook.

_____
* "For better or for worse" doesn't seem appropriate here.

[bob]

If mens rea is an element of the charge, it's your sacred duty as a defense attorney to attack it. And, for worse or for more worse*, white collar crimes usually contain stringent mental state elements for the purpose of letting rich bad guys off the hook.

Concur.

The judge likely will deny with the suggestion to craft some jury instructions, present some evidence, make your pitch to the jurors, and let them decide.

[Rolodex]

Notwithstanding that lots of attorneys around him said nope no fraud. I mean, you'd assume they'd say "we've gone through all the legal avenues" and I'm pretty sure I've read they told him the fake elector scheme wasn't legal or one of those legal avenues.

All the recounts had been done. Court cases were over. All that was left was loony Eastman and the WH attorneys seems to have tried to save him from that (as well as DoJ).

[Maybenaut]

If mens rea is an element of the charge, it's your sacred duty as a defense attorney to attack it. And, for worse or for more worse*, white collar crimes usually contain stringent mental state elements for the purpose of letting rich bad guys off the hook.

Concur.

Me three. Defense attorney just playing the crappy hand he was dealt.

[bob]

From his attorney's Motion to Dissmiss to the Judge McAfee:

Our country has a longstanding tradition of forceful political advocacy regarding widespread allegations of fraud and irregularities in a long list of Presidential elections throughout our history, therefore, President Trump lacked fair notice that his advocacy in the instance of the 2020 Presidential Election could be criminalized.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/trump-dem ... was-crime/

Poking through, there's this:

President Trump, like all citizens, is entitled to have fair warning as to where the line is drawn which separates permissible activity from that which is allegedly criminal. See United States v. Lanier, 520 U.S. 259, 265 (1997) (“‘No man shall be held criminally responsible for conduct which he could not reasonably understand to be proscribed.”).

“Due process bars courts from applying a novel construction of a criminal statute to conduct that neither the statute nor any prior judicial decision has fairly disclosed to be within its scope…” Id. at 266 (internal citations omitted).

This is a fairly poor reading of Lanier, which starts off:

Respondent Lanier was convicted under 18 U. S. C. § 242 of criminally violating the constitutional rights of five women by assaulting them sexually while he served as a state judge. The jury had been instructed, inter alia, that the Government had to prove as an element of the offense that Lanier had deprived the victims of their Fourteenth Amendment due process right to liberty, which included the right to be free from sexually motivated physical assaults and coerced sexual battery.

Is anybody in Georgia state court facing a federal charge for violating anyone's constitutional rights? Nope.

Is anybody in Georgia state court facing a state charge for violating anyone's constitutional rights? Again, nope.

Back to Lanier: The 6th Cir. vacated Lanier's convictions, concluding the charges were too novel and not specified under existing law. SCOTUS unanimously reversed, concluding the standard imposed by the 6th was more than the U.S. Constitution required.

So, yes, the judge was properly convicted of violating his victims' constitutional rights, despite SCOTUS' never having first said, "you can violate someone's constitutional rights when you rape them under the color of the authority of being a judge."

Oh: Once SCOTUS vacated, the defendant was ordered to surrender, and he instead absconded. So his appeal following remand was dismissed. (The judge eventually served his time and was released a few years ago.)

To conclude: that's some rather creative quotemining of dicta. From a case about a defendant who fled once he was ordered to report.

[raison de arizona]

Yeah well to me it sounds a lot like My Client Was Too Stupid To Know He Was Breaking The Law. Which I’m not sympathetic to.

But I get why he needs to argue it.

[Slim Cognito]

To this not a lawyer’s simplistic impression, that sounded like an admission of guilt.

“After you cut me off and I intentionally ran into the back of your car, I didn’t realize I was not allowed to run into the back of your car.”

[p0rtia]

The only thing left to do is negotiate the price.

[raison de arizona]

https://x.com/kyledcheney/status/174772 ... 50271?s=20

JUST IN: Georgia judge denies Trump and Jeff Clark motions to compel new info from prosecutors, saying the demanded materials — potetntial non-public evidence shared with investigators by the Jan. 6 committee — "do not exist."

► Show Spoiler

[Rolodex]

I wonder what they asked for.

All the evidence of voter fraud?

Trump's affidavit saying he knows he lost?

The missing 11,800 ballots?

Mike Lindell's brain?

[p0rtia]

I wonder what they asked for.

All the evidence of voter fraud?

Trump's affidavit saying he knows he lost?

The missing 11,800 ballots?

Mike Lindell's brain?

I think this is related to fuckhead lawyers' request for all correspondence between Willis and the Jan 6 Committee, and copies of anything they got from the Jan 6 Committee, etc.

[Rolodex]

I wonder what they asked for.

All the evidence of voter fraud?

Trump's affidavit saying he knows he lost?

The missing 11,800 ballots?

Mike Lindell's brain?

I think this is related to fuckhead lawyers' request for all correspondence between Willis and the Jan 6 Committee, and copies of anything they got from the Jan 6 Committee, etc.

Probably so. Also from the "wishful thinking" category. They'd already said there was nothing more, but these guys gotta get all huffy about it.