Crooked Media - What A Day: Passss, Queen

- Georgia GOP senate candidate Herschel Walker, getting lost in his own profundity. 

It brings me [sighs deeply] truly no pleasure to report that developments in the ever-evolving criminal saga of Donald Trump somehow managed to dominate the news cycle yet again today, barely edging out the death of the longest-reigning monarch in British history. 
 

• The Justice Department will appeal a (Trump-appointed) federal judge’s decision to freeze the criminal investigation of Trump’s theft of classified documents and appoint a special master to review said documents and others, which the FBI seized in its August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. This comes three days after judge Aileen Cannon’s lawless ruling, which effectively places Trump beyond the reach of law at least until the special master can sift through the documents. DOJ wrote in a brief filing that it will pursue an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unless Cannon modifies her order. 
   

• In shoe-on-the-other foot news, Geoffrey Berman—who served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for two and a half years until June 2020—has a new tell-all book detailing how, during Trump’s presidency, Justice Department officials made “overtly political” demands of him, including to prosecute Trump’s critics. Yep, that sounds right. Also, thanks for saving these damning revelations for your book! As a reminder: Trump fired Berman after he refused to resign, when Bill Barr tried to replace him with a Trump stooge. Lest we forget that Bill Barr is not, despite his recent criticisms of Trump, a good guy!
   

• But wait, there’s more! A federal grand jury in Washington is examining how Trump’s main fundraising vehicle after the election, Save America PAC, was formed and how it spends its money. The Justice Department is interested in the inner workings of the PAC, and has subpoenaed junior and mid-level aides who worked in the White House and for Trump’s presidential campaign. In another sector of the crimes web, federal prosecutors issued a subpoena to Trump’s former special assistant and deputy director of presidential advance operations in the White House, William Russell, as part of the investigation of the January 6 insurrection. Russell will be the latest in a growing list of former Trump administration officials to testify to a grand jury.

Even as Trump continues to evade the hammer of justice, his former advisors and those who peddled his lies have not been so lucky. 
 

• Steve Bannon has been charged in New York with money laundering, fraud, and conspiracy in connection with the “We Build the Wall” fundraising scam as he awaits sentencing for a different crime. Love this journey for him. In other felons with baggage: Professional conservative media pest Dinesh D’Souza’s book was published then recalled, citing an unspecified “publishing error” (i.e. they don’t want to get sued). NPR obtained a copy, and discovered it’s full of more unfounded conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election than even we thought he was capable of. Perhaps the publisher realized that the “publishing error” in question was releasing the book at all.
   

• While you’re at it, check out this Associated Press investigation of how Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn Flynn has used public appearances to fan political resentment among voters, make political endorsements, build alliances, and amass a network of nonprofit group contacts to advance his nakedly undemocratic ambition. Along the way, he and his companies have raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars towards that effort. He has not been shy about employing the radical Christian nationalist ideals that are central to his project. He very often cites a “spiritual war” he believes the United States is currently fighting, and regularly refers to other Americans as “evil.” Cool guy. Normal thing to say.

The common thread that unites Bannon, D’Souza, and Flynn is that Trump gave all of them corrupt pardons, leaving justice available only at the state level. As Trump’s hand-picked judge shields him from one investigation, a similar workaround is available: indict him. Do it now, or Trump may well steal a chance to pardon hundreds of insurrectionists, and all the enemies of democracy he forgot the first time around.

Exciting News! The Wilderness with Jon Favreau is back for season 3 and this time Jon talked to grassroots organizers, strategists, and voters across the country who hold the future of democracy in their hands. Throughout the season Jon digs deeper into what it will take for Democrats to reach these voters in battleground regions for the midterms, who turned out to help last election, but aren’t sure if they’ll do it again. 

The Wilderness trailer is out now! You can listen to the first episode starting September 12, wherever you get your podcasts.

In a highly unusual development, a group representing the chief justices of every state supreme court in the country has filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the so-called “independent legislature theory.” The brief comes in response to the potentially disastrous case Moore vs. Harper, in which North Carolina lawmakers have argued that state legislatures have sole authority to regulate federal elections, and therefore state courts should not be allowed to weigh in on whether a legislature’s election-related actions (like gerrymandering) violate the state’s laws or constitution. This is, how do we put this delicately: absolute bullshit. The brief from these 50 state supreme court justices cites the famous 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury vs. Madison, which established the concept of judicial review as part of the government’s system of checks and balances. Remember checks and balances? Even North Carolina’s own Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that independent legislature theory is a “repugnant” idea that “would produce absurd and dangerous consequences.” Not only would the proposed idea allow state legislatures to gerrymander with impunity, they could also ignore the popular vote in presidential elections and give their electors to the candidate of whichever party controls the state legislature. If you were wondering why a bunch of Trumpy state lawmakers were pushing this ludicrous idea after his failed coup, now you know. What is the legalese phrase for “extremely fucking scary”?

Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland today at 96 years old after 70 years on the throne. The British currency is about to get considerably uglier. 

Clark County, NV, Public Administration Robert Telles was arrested on suspicion of murder last night regarding the fatal stabbing of Las Vegas Review Journal reporter Jeff German.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has been very publicly flip-flopping on whether or not he would support gay marriage in a vote and now he’s also trying to deny that he ever threatened the funding of Social Security, which he absolutely did. 

Speaking of a vote to protect same-sex marriage, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters yesterday that such a vote would take place in the coming weeks, which will force Republicans to make their stances known before midterm elections.

The Idaho State Legislature has asked a federal judge to reconsider his decision blocking the state from enforcing a strict abortion ban which would make performing an abortion in the case of a medical emergency a felony. There is no hell hot enough for these people, and if I say any more I’ll probably be added to several government watchlists. 

Former Massachusetts state representative and Trump-endorsed lunatic Geoff Diehl won the state’s Republican primary and will face off against state attorney general Maura Healy in the governor’s race this November. 

In a shocking development in a horrifying sexual abuse case, new records show that state-Rep. Merrill Nelson (R-UT) advised the Mormon bishop who disclosed that church member Paul Adams had sexually abused his two daughters not to report the abuse to authorities. Nelson also previously represented the Mormon Church as an attorney. 

A new report from researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that “early onset” cancers in adults younger than 50 years old have “dramatically increased” around the world over the course of the past few decades.

For the past 10 months, local leaders have been unable to hire a permanent director to run the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, the county in Georgia home to Atlanta. The previous director resigned in November and officially departed in April after pressure from local lawmakers and the ongoing right-wing climate of violence stemming from the 2020 election. This is the same county where election officials faced death threats and harassment from disgraced former president Trump and his rabid supporters. Yeah, can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t want that job! Department staff have worked under an interim director in the meantime, but there are worries that such disorganization and hesitancy to implement changes mandated by a new voting law could lead to mistakes that could then lead to accusations of fraud. And Fulton County will certainly be under renewed, intense scrutiny in 2024. Again, we’ll never know why people aren’t lining up around the block for this job. 

The founder of the Hawaii chapter of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys will plead guilty to charges related to the January 6th insurrection. Aloha, prison. 

Princeton will cover all college bills for families of accepted students who earn less than $100,000 per year. With an endowment worth $37 billion, this is otherwise known as “the least they could do.”

A new Reuters poll found that a majority of Americans believe that Trump’s MAGA movement is undermining democracy. I don’t know if this counts as traditional “good news” per se but it’s certainly better than the alternative. 

18 year-old high school student Shiva Rajbhandari won an election for a Boise, ID, school board seat, ousting incumbent Steve Schmidt, who recently lost several key endorsements after Schmidt refused to disavow a statement of support from a hardline right-wing group. A rare two-for-one win! 

The Supreme Court of Michigan declared today that voters should determine whether to enshrine abortion rights into their state constitution via a ballot measure in this November’s elections. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) plans to re-introduce a bill that would ban anti-union “right-to-work” laws which are currently on the books in the majority of American states. Beating union-busters at their own game? Liz has a plan for that.