Friday Round Up! 3/1/24

The Manhattan D.A.'s case against Trump may end up being the only definitive referendum on Trump's attempt manipulate an election.

We spent a lot of time in yesterday’s office hours talking through the implications of the Supreme Court’s grant of Trump’s request for a stay and certoriari on his claim of absolute immunity for crimes related to January 6. It’s not looking good in terms of timing, at last as far as any trial being complete well before the 2024 election. The only silver lining is that a late trial (assuming the Court rules against Trump, which is not a given) may keep the issue live and at the forefront right before the election, which could still be bad news for Trump.

Still, given the uncertainty there, the fact that Judge Aileen Cannon has no intention of letting the classified documents case go to trial anytime soon, and the #@%&! hot mess going on right now in Fulton County, the trial set to begin in New York on March 25 is going to have to convey to both the jury and the public the threat that Trump poses to democracy. You might be thinking, “but, that’s just a podunk case about paying hush money to a porn star.” Not so. I’ve described in a previous post how the Stormy Daniel’s case was the gateway crime for the other election interference efforts that followed, including January 6 (and which continue to this day, with Trump’s recent public appeals to Russia’s interests). Here is the theory of D.A. Alvin Bragg’s case, if you need a refresher:

Basically, it wasn’t *just* that Trump falsified business records; it’s that he did it to conceal information from voters that would have adversely impacted his candidacy. (Note that Bragg does not have to prove the underlying crime, just the intent to commit it.) I will be updating this diagram before the trial so we can follow along with as it unfolds, so stay tuned!

Meanwhile, this week Renato and I discussed the drama unfolding in the Fulton County courthouse, along with a primer on Fourth Amendment law. Did Trump get Special Prosecutor' Nathan Wade’s cell site location information legally? Watch and find out:

Articles worth reading:

• I didn’t get a chance to send out references from our Zoom office hours but the only one was this Newsweek piece written by former Montana governor and RNC chair Marc Racicot, basically saying that the Supreme Court needs to do it’s job and interpret Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Hat tip to the subscriber who pointed to it during our discussion!

Upcoming events:

• Guest Speaker Barb McQuade, Thursday, March 28, 4 p.m. EST. Barb will be a guest speaker for my class, Preserving Democracy in the (Dis)Information Age. Barb is about to release her book, Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America, and I’m excited to get her perspective on where we are as we head into the 2024 election. Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers three hours before the discussion, and will be recorded and posted for paid subscribers the following day.

• Freedom Academy Book Club, Date/Time TBA (likely early April).  We’ll be discussing Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America with author Andrew McKevitt. Drew’s book illuminates how our society became so saturated with guns, and how gun ownership intersects with race, politics, and money. This discussion will be recorded and posted for paid subscribers.

Closing with a pic of me from Drinks Around the World at EPCOT Center last week — here I am enjoying an Ottawa Apple in Canada. (It went downhill from there.) Have a wonderful weekend!