Posted originally on the CTH on December 13, 2023 | Sundance
In a three-page opinion and order [pdf Available Here], DC District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan outlines that she may be forced to pause the case against President Trump until the appellate court, and then likely the Supreme Court, make a decision on presidential immunity.
Within this opinion/order, we find the reason for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to jump over the appellate court and ask the Supreme Court to expedite a review and determination on the issue.
The jurisdictional issue on the specifics of the pre-trial appeal is likely to slow down the trial dates being pushed by Special Prosecutor Smith. Overall, this has been a very bad day for the Lawfare team, as they run into judicial processes that cannot be facilitated by politically motivated higher courts.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 13, 2023 | Sundance
Two of the charges against Donald Trump are centered around 18 U.S. Code § 1512(c)(2), part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As noted by Julie Kelly, “The statute was meant to close a loophole in other obstruction laws related to the destruction of evidence but left open to interpretation the terms “corruptly” and “official proceeding.”
In addition to Donald Trump, this federal statute meant to target organized crime and financial crimes has been used against 300 J6 defendants. Three J6 defendants have appealed the use of this provision to charge them with obstruction. A DC trial judge originally agreed with the argument and dismissed the framework of the Lawfare effort. However, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the dismissal order.
J6 Defendants Edward Lang, Garrett Miller and Joseph Fischer appealed to the Supreme Court, which has now agreed to take up the case, U.S. v Fischer. In one way, this can be looked at as the Supreme Court reviewing the charges against Donald Trump, without ruling on the charges against Donald Trump.
There is a strong possibility the twisted Lawfare use of 18 USC 1512 by the DOJ will be rejected by the court, thereby removing two of the charges against Trump.
Washington — The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will hear a court fight involving the breadth of a federal obstruction law that has been used to prosecute scores of defendants for their alleged actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, as well as former President Donald Trump.
An eventual decision from the Supreme Court in the case known as Fischer v. U.S. could have far-reaching impacts, since the Justice Department has charged more than 300 people under the obstruction statute in cases related to Jan. 6.
Most significantly, special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with a single count of corruptly obstructing and impeding an official proceeding, namely Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results on Jan. 6. The former president has pleaded not guilty to that offense and the three others he is facing in the case related to the 2020 presidential election. A trial in Trump’s case is set to begin in March.
Arguments before the Supreme Court will take place next year, with a decision, which could threaten Trump’s charge, expected by the end of June. (read more)
As we have noted from the outset, Lawfare is a construct, a twisted manipulation of law, specifically intended for media consumption with the end goal to influence public opinion.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has applied twisted interpretations of law to his cases. The ability of the constructs to withstand judicial scrutiny has only just begun.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 11, 2023 | Sundance
After years of assembling datapoints around the potential for the Supreme Court to be compromised, it was the discovery of Mary McCord’s husband Sheldon Snook deep in the office of Chief Justice John Roberts that finally sealed the deal for me personally. Yes, the Supreme Court is compromised.
Quick Context. Mary McCord was the architect of all Trump targeting efforts. The FISA on Carter Page, the weaponization of the DOJ-NSD, the installation of Michael Atkinson as Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), the companion to Sally Yates in the Flynn targeting, lead staff for the Schiff/Nadler impeachment effort, later appointment by FISA Presiding Judge Boasberg to be amicus to the FISC, in combination with Chief Justice John Roberts holding authority over the FISC, and the discovery that Sheldon Snook, McCord’s husband works in Robert’s office as “special assistant to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s counselor. The counselor’s office advises the chief justice not only on the management and budget of the Supreme Court but also on his interactions with the executive and legislative branches, along with numerous other public roles in which Roberts serves.” (link)
Mary McCord is the fulcrum point for all of the above issues. She connects all of the targeting operations. Mary McCord is the center of it, and John Robert’s office is compromised by the appointment of her husband Sheldon Snook. So, this story below does not surprise me.
Special Prosecutor Jack Smith jumped over the appeals court and asked the Supreme Court to decide on President Trump’s position of presidential immunity for his requests to secure the integrity of the 2020 election while in office. In the fastest turn around time in history, the Supreme Court [Robert’s office] said yes, they will hear the arguments.
WASHINGTON DC – Special counsel Jack Smith is urging the Supreme Court to urgently resolve Donald Trump’s claim that he’s immune from prosecution for charges related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election.
Without the Supreme Court’s swift intervention, Trump’s trial could be indefinitely delayed, the special counsel warned in a petition to the high court on Monday.
That’s because the trial, scheduled to begin March 4, is effectively suspended while Trump pursues his appeal of the trial judge’s ruling rejecting his immunity arguments, Smith wrote. Resolution of the novel legal question is necessary to ensure the case proceeds “promptly,” he argued.
By coming directly to the Supreme Court, Smith is hoping to bypass a federal appeals court and is mounting an aggressive bid to keep the timing of the election-focused trial on track. If the March 4 trial date sticks, it would be the first trial for Trump in the four criminal cases he is facing as he mounts a bid for re-election to the White House.
[…] The justices acted quickly on Smith’s motion. In a brief order Monday afternoon, they directed Trump’s lawyers to respond by Dec. 20 to the prosecutor’s request for the Supreme Court to add the case to its docket for this term. (read more)
There’s your inflection point timeframe.
The executive branch wants Trump on trial by Super Tuesday, March 5th the main primary election date. The legislative branch wants to extend warrantless surveillance, the mechanism to exploit the Trump supporter targeting operation, through April 19th. [Patriots Day ]
There’s the 2024 detonation timeframe, between March and mid-April.
Elon Musk herds all the MAGA groups and “domestic violent extremists” into the Twitter stadium. All seats are filled by March. Boom, everyone scrambles. Thousands of subpoenas released as part of the metadata hit list.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 11, 2023 | Sundance
In this short clip {direct Rumble link here} former AG Eric Holder is asked about the potential for a President (Trump) to target his political opposition using the DOJ.
Not coincidentally, nor ironically, Holder goes on to outline the exact process that Joe Biden is using to target Donald Trump. Which is the exact same process Barack Obama used through Eric Holder to target his political opposition in the aftermath of the 2010 shellacking. First the video, then the reminder. Eric Holder knows a great deal about how this process works, because he did exactly what he is outlining. WATCH:
What too few people remember is that back in 2011, in the aftermath of the November 2010 shellacking of the Democrats by activist Tea Party groups around the country, AG Holder asked the Treasury Department to participate in a “special research project.”
The IRS was asked for the Schedule-B’s of groups who were registered as “patriot” groups (Tea Party Patriots) and other names associated with the political uprising against Barack Obama and the takeover of federal healthcare, ie Obamacare. The Cincinnati field office of the IRS then sent the DOJ a batch of CD-ROM’s containing the names of the individual donors listed on the IRS 501-c (3)(4) forms. That list was then compiled and used by the federal government to target the donors and supporters.
A Cincinnati IRS office worker blew the whistle.
An investigation was launched by congress.
IRS head Lois Lerner then pleaded the 5th amendment, and later the IRS/DOJ settled a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the targets.
During the investigation, former Obama Chief of Staff Jack Lew was moved into position as Treasury Secretary, with the priority to cover-up and hide the DOJ initiating request.
Specifically, because the Tea Party groups were primary targeting the Republican members of the UniParty, the DOJ effort to destroy the participants was fully supported in 2012, 2013, 2014, by Republican leadership as well as complicit Democrats. This was the most transparent UniParty cover-up operation through that date. Only later exceeded by their unity in common cause against the Donald Trump presidency.
The Obama/Holder group learned a lesson in 2012 when the IRS whistleblower came forward. The use of the IRS was dropped, and instead the administration switched to using the NSA database for their targeting data. Federal officers, FBI offices and contractors working on behalf of the government, then began exploiting the NSA database for information on opposition to the Obama administration.
Approximately 80% of all NSA database searches were non-compliant.
Meanwhile, back in the DOJ National Security Division (DOJ-NSD), the Holder operation continued with the use of weaponized FISA-702 exploits as surveillance and FARA violations as the process tool. The DOJ-NSD was created by Eric Holder and refused any DOJ inspector oversight until 2017 under the Trump administration. The process of having no oversight made it easier for the targeting operations to continue.
This is the truth of the thing, and CTH covered it in detail as it was happening.
President Obama and AG Eric Holder did exactly what Mr. Holder is now outlining in that CNN interview. Essentially, Holder is saying the quiet part out loud, while recognizing that too few people will ever understand that he is guilty of the exact process he is explaining.
Posted originally on Dec 4, 2023 By Martin Armstrong
QUESTION: Is it true that Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus, and when the Supreme Court ruled against him, he just ignored them? Didn’t this also undermine the rule of law to where we stand today?
WG
ANSWER: Sadly, yes, you heard correctly. At the time, Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that President Lincoln did not have the authority to suspend habeas corpus. Lincoln just ignored the Supreme Court entirely and refused to release John Merryman, who was a state legislator from Maryland, whom they arrested for attempting to hinder Union troops from moving from Baltimore to Washington. Later, on July 4, Lincoln, in a speech was very defiant. He acted like a tyrant and claimed he needed to suspend the rules in order to put down the rebellion in the South. So in other words, the rule of law and the Constitution mean nothing if the government claims it needs to act unconstitutionally.
Five years later, a new Supreme Court essentially backed Justice Taney’s ruling: In an unrelated case, the court held that only Congress could suspend habeas corpus and that civilians were not subject to military courts, even during a war.
I have read the discussions to form the Constitution. There is no question that the Framers intended to apply Blackstone’s foundation of law and to some extent, even Lord Coke. These were the glory days of the Rule of Law. The abuse of the rule of law in England really began during the 18th century. The colonies were denied most of the English Bill of Rights from the 17th century, which emerged after the English Revolution against King Charles I and his beheading in 1649.
The Sixth Amendment to our Constitution was intended to guarantee you counsel, which was denied in England since you had to defend yourself and all lawyers were prosecutors for the King. It entitled you to a trial by jury created in the Magna Carta against the abuse of the King back in the 13th century.
However, the Sixth Amendment guarantees a trial where the crime occurred – VENUE. The King would charge you, but because American juries would rule against the king, he put you in chains and transported you to England, where an English jury would always find you guilty. These were part of the abuses of the Rule of Law that led to the Revolution. You see, the Special Prosecutor indicts Trump in Washington DC, where 85% of the people are Democrats, but then files the criminal change in Florida. He is abusing the rule of law exactly as did the King.
Now, the mistake the Framers made was it took the theoretical King/Queen’s Bench which was supposed to be strictly law, and merged it with Chancery, which was “discretion” under EQUITY. It is true that the concept of equity or fairness predated Romans and was part of Asian culture as well as Judaea, where King Solomon decided who the real month of the child was.
I am concerned with the evolution of how we ended up where we are, and there is now NO POSSIBLE WAY the lawyers can reverse this trend. We have to crash and burn. Once you merge the King/Queen Bench with Chancery (discretion), there can be no rule of law. The very standard of review by an appellate court is now abuse of discretion. That is precise what Lord Coke declared:
“God send me never to live under the law of convenience or discretion.”
It was during the late 17th century that we find the original hanging judge – Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys. He was a ruthless prosecutor who targeted Catholics from 1677 until 1685. Then he was made Chief Justice. He was absolutely ruthless. He was a Puratin – no mercy. On Christmas Day no less, Jeffreys ordered the whipping of a woman:
“Hangman, I charge you to pay particular attention to this lady. Scourge her soundly, man; scourge her till her blood runs down! It is Christmas, a cold time for madam to strip. See that you warm her shoulders thoroughly.”
For stealing an apple when starving, he would ship you to America and rob your family of any support, all for the profit of selling “criminals” to plantation owners in America. You have no idea of how evil the rule of law has become when governments seek to exercise their power. There are never any rights that supersede the sheer will of the government.
This is what John Stuart Mill wrote about in his celebrated On Liberty. Just look at what they are doing to Trump. Indicting him where they can ensure Democrats would execute him if they could, and they charge him in Florida to comply superficially with the Sixth Amendment. This is the same abuse of law that led to the American Revolution, and there is NOBODY in Congress standing up for the last string that holds our civilization together.
Lincoln suspended the writ of Habeas Corpus by executive decree. During World War II, the Supreme Court allowed the imprisonment of all Japanese based entirely on their race, even if they were third-generation Americans. If we go to war with China, does that allow the government to imprison all Chinese simply because of their race? What if we went to war with Italy? Shall all Italians report to concentration camps?
We handed out one of the reports on Marshal Law, which Lincoln used to circumvent the Constitution. He just ignored the Supreme Court, and this is what we have to look forward to.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance
This is kind of awesome in a pathetic and funny way. Worse still, every time I write about him you guys make me hungry for donuts. However, that said, and because laughing is a key ingredient to living our best life, if you can get past the Laura Ingraham lip treatment aspect, Chris Christie sounds desperate.
Appearing on Face the Nation, a newly lip enhanced Christie swears he still has a chance. WATCH:
Look, let’s be honest. If the gastric band didn’t work, there’s only so much Sununu and the cosmetics can do. The demons inside are beginning to manifest.
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to the former Governor of New Jersey and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, good to have you back on the program. We know, sir, the RNC is supposed to announce tomorrow who will be on that December 6 debate stage. Has the RNC told you you’ve qualified to be there and if you haven’t, will you drop out?
2024 GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE CHRIS CHRISTIE: I don’t think they’ve told anybody yet who all of us are going to be on the stage, but I’m confident, Margaret, that I will be there and that we have all the qualifications necessary to get there.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Because, you told CNN over Thanksgiving, you will stay in the race through the Convention, which would put you into the summer months. Does the field need to consolidate to beat Donald Trump, which you say is one of your prime motivations in running.
CHRISTIE: Look, this field has already consolidated more than any non-incumbent field in this century Margaret. Back this time, eight years ago, we had 13 candidates still in the race. At this time back, you know, in 2011, we had eight candidates in the race. At this time back in 2007, we had nine candidates in the race and so this field is consolidated significantly, and I suspect it will consolidate more after folks vote in Iowa and New Hampshire.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But, isn’t it a little bit different that you have the 45th President of the United states running, a known entity who has this automatic platform. It’s just a different model. It’s a different case.
CHRISTIE: Yeah, the other thing that makes it different, Margaret, is he’s got 91 counts of indictment against him. The day before Super Tuesday, he’s going to start a criminal trial, where his former chief of staff and one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus is going to testify that he committed crimes on his watch and was directed to commit crimes by Donald Trump. There’s a lot of things different about this and that’s why anybody tried to predict this is just shooting in the dark.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But why don’t- why hasn’t that turned off the GOP electorate? When you look at CBS polling, and others, he is leading, as you know. And then I mean, you’ve made clear when some of the other competitors are using really harsh rhetoric that you think that should disqualify them. Why hasn’t that extreme rhetoric turned the GOP off of these other candidates either?
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Well, look, I- first off, I don’t think you know exactly what’s going to happen at all until people vote. Look, if we listen to all the polling, Margaret, Hillary Clinton would be in her second term. So I don’t believe that polling is nearly as reliable as it used to be and I don’t believe that people tell the truth to pollsters. And so at the end of the day, everybody who’s trying to make these decisions now is just wrong. Let’s remember something, in this- in the Republican primary in ’07, do you know who was winning at this time in ’07? Mitt Romney. You know who was winning at this time in ’11? Newt Gingrich. And winning this time and ’15 was Ben Carson. I don’t remember any of those presidencies, Margaret. So you know, my view, we can’t worry about that kind of stuff. What we need to worry about is the direction this country is going in, and most people don’t agree with it. And if you don’t agree with the direction of the country, why would you vote for either Trump or Biden, who have put us in this direction?
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I have a lot more to talk to you about including on the issues and the things that we know from our own polling voters want to hear from candidates like you. So I’m going to ask you to stick with us because I do have to take a commercial break and we’ll have more questions on the other side of it.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. We have more now from former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, candidate for the Republican nomination. Sir, I want to pick up where we left off. You know, we hear from political pundits all the time, oh, Americans just don’t care about national security when it comes to how they vote, but you are the only candidate who has gone to both Israel and Ukraine during this campaign, at least only one still standing. Why was it important for you to go?
CHRISTIE: So, I think if you want to be President of the United States, you have to see these things for yourself. You can’t count on reports from pundits or the press, or from other folks in public life. You’ve got to see it for yourself and I will tell you, when I went to Israel, Margaret, just a couple of weeks ago, the inhumanity I saw that Hamas rained upon the Jewish people in Israel, I went into one home of a 24-year-old couple recently married, both were murdered in their small three-room home. And there were 140 bullet holes in the walls to kill two people, Margaret, it’s not just the inhumanity that Hamas executes, it’s the joy they take in that inhumanity. And that’s why Israel has to do what they need to do to eliminate that military threat. And I think I would not have completely understood it, and couldn’t be an effective president if I didn’t see it for myself.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’ll see if some of the other candidates go, one of the things that I also want to pick up on that we see voters responding to thus far is abortion. You know, it’s been a galvanizing issue in favor of Democrats. We’ve seen that a few times now. Are you concerned that in a head-to-head that that will help to buoy the President himself as he runs for reelection? And how does a Republican candidate like yourself, take the issue to the national stage when the message for decades has been it’s a state issue?
CHRISTIE: Look, Margaret, I’ve been consistent on this. I believe the conservative smart approach is to let the states make these decisions and that’s what I think they should do. And that’s why I said, I wouldn’t sign a six-week national abortion ban as Governor DeSantis and now just recently in Iowa, Governor Haley has said she would sign a six week ban. I don’t think you can say one thing in one place and something else in another, you need to be consistent. For 50 years, Republicans have argued that the Supreme Court took this decision away from the people. I think this belongs in the hands of the people of each individual state, we see a great democratic, small d, event going on right now across the country, in places like Michigan and Kansas, in Ohio, where people are voting, but let’s let the American people vote in their individual states, and decide what they want this policy to be.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So better for the party not to have a national policy, essentially, is what you’re saying.
CHRISTIE: I believe that’s- I believe that’s true. I believe that’s what the Constitution guides us to do. And that’s where we should stay and that’s where I’ve been. And I’m concerned, quite frankly, Margaret, that, you know, candidates in this race have been all over the block on this. And it’s not right, people deserve to have a straight answer from you and that’s my straight answer.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, also, giving a fairly straight assessment is Liz Cheney, the former Congresswoman who just did an interview with my colleague, John Dickerson, and told him, ‘the United States is sleepwalking into a dictatorship.’ Bob Kagan, writer in the New York- in the Washington Post had an op ed saying, ‘after Super Tuesday in March, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee and what happens there will be a swift and dramatic shift in the political power dynamic in his favor,’ saying all Republican critics, perhaps even yourself will fall silent out of self preservation. Is that how you see your party behaving after March?
CHRISTIE: Look, I can’t speak for everyone in my party, I can only speak for myself, Margaret. And anybody who knows me knows I will not be silent. I haven’t been silent since the day I got into this race. And in fact, unlike others, you know, Nikki Haley says he was the right president for the right time and that for some reason, you know, drama and chaos seem to follow him. The reason is that he acts like someone who doesn’t care about our democracy acts like someone who wants to be a dictator. He acts like someone who doesn’t care for the Constitution. In fact, he’s even said himself he’d be willing to suspend the Constitution if an election wasn’t going in his direction. Margaret, I was the only one on that stage going back to August, when I- when we were asked would you support someone who, you know, was convicted of a felony for President of the United States? Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, they all raised their hands. I did not and I think I’ve made it very very clear how I feel about this and if folks want to return to some decency and civility why would you ever vote for Donald Trump.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Chris Christie, we’ll watch. Thanks for your time, we’ll be right back.
Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance
The Iowa caucuses are January 15, 2024, and represent the first opportunity for the GOP nomination contest to highlight candidate support.
Initially, I was going to wait to post this information later, mid-December. However, based on conversation earlier today, and my pledge to be publicly consistent and transparent, here’s an advance review of my expectations.
(#1) The full-throated DOJ, Jack Smith, Georgia and New York legal cases will likely trigger, like scud missiles in a blitz attack against Donald Trump, around 10 days prior to the Iowa caucuses. I’m not sure what the granular details of the Lawfare assault will look like; however, the timing will certainly be in/around these dates. The deepest part of the DC system that is in full alignment against Trump will be looking at this time frame as the first opportunity to hit Trump hard. The main battery comes after the 2024 RNC convention (Wisconsin, thanks Ronna).
(#2) Simultaneous to this, keep in mind the Sea Island group have spent hundreds of millions on an organizational process for Ron DeSantis, that is now contingent upon an Iowa victory. Just like the timing of the Mar-a-Lago raid, there will likely be some background coordination between the administrative state in DC and the organizational assemblies of DeSantis and Nikki Haley. Again, this is the first opportunity for the ‘stop Trump’ apparatus to create an inflection point. If President Trump crushes the Iowa caucuses, he will destroy the GOPe narrative.
(#3) This also creates the context timeline for us to consider an urgency by the deepest part of the DC control apparatus to influence public opinion. As a result, and given the recent remarks by platform operator Elon Musk, we may also see something happening with Twitter that blocks the ability of the assembled masses to communicate about whatever happens in #1. To a significant extent, MAGA has assembled discussion into a large Twitter stadium per se’. If the people controlling U.S. political outcomes want to hit hard, they will need a significant and timed disruption in the system of public communication. Scattering that stadium would be very effective.
The DHS artificial intelligence (AI) rollout into the ¹overall communication system, specifically social media, can also be considered as part of a disruption effort to influence the 2024 election. The national security labeling, definitions that establish censorship, removal and content control, will almost certainly flow through the pre-existing Public-Private partnerships. I would not be surprised to see the timing of that launch, in a full scale, somewhat in this same calendar period.
We all know the 2024 election is for all the marbles, so we just await the predictable incoming fire.
Smart wolverines will have preestablished iron dome defenses at the ready.
¹[GO DEEP] DHS’ AI task force is coordinating with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on how the department can partner with critical infrastructure organizations “on safeguarding their uses of AI and strengthening their cybersecurity practices writ large to defend against evolving threats.”
Posted originally on the CTH on December 3, 2023 | Sundance
In the state of Maine, the deadline for candidates for president to turn in a sufficient number of signatures to be on the March 5, 2024 Primary Election ballot was 5 p.m. on Friday. The candidates needed 2,000 valid voter signatures to appear on the ballot. According to the Secretary of State, candidate Chris Christie did not make the cut.
Dec. 2 (UPI) — Former New Jersey governor and Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie will not be on the Maine primary election ballot after failing to obtain the required number of in-state petition signatures.
In order to be on the ballot for Maine’s March 5, 2024, primary election, candidates must have 2,000 in-state signatures, but state officials said Saturday he didn’t make the cut.
“The deadline for candidates for president to turn in a sufficient number of signatures to be on the March 5, 2024, primary election ballot was 5 p.m. today,” Maine’s Secretary of State said in a press release.
Christie only received 844 signatures, Maine Director of Elections Heidi Peckham told CBS News. (link)
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