Crooked Media - Where's the 'Keefe?

Today kicked off the first day of televised hearings in the Fulton County, GA, conspiracy case against disgraced former president Donald Trump and his cronies for attempting to overturn the 2020 election. 
 

• Two of Trump’s trusted lawyers, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have both filed demands for a speedy trial—alone—so Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set their trial start date for October 23—together. However, he was skeptical of prosecutors’ arguments that all 19 defendants in the case could be tried in 40 days, calling such a schedule “a bit unrealistic.” Judge McAfee has not yet decided on a schedule for the rest of the defendants, all of whom have pleaded not guilty and waived their right to in-person arraignment. 
   

• Also on Wednesday, the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit seeking to bar Trump from the primary ballot in Colorado, arguing that his incitement of the January 6 insurrection is disqualifying under the 14th Amendment. The idea that Trump might be ineligible for office under 14th Amendment has been kicked around since the immediate aftermath of the Capitol siege, but this legal challenge is likely the first one eventually destined for the Supreme Court. Ratified in 1868, section three of the 14th Amendment bars insurrectionists and those who give them aid and comfort (starting with former Confederate officials) from becoming federal officeholders. 
   

• In more bad news for Trump, a New York judge also rejected his request to delay his wide-ranging civil fraud trial, calling it “completely without merit.” Not a good Wednesday for the big guy! The trial is scheduled to begin on October 2. Attorney General Letitia James (D-NY) is seeking $250 million in damages in the case accusing Trump and his co-defendants from the Trump Organization of submitting years of fraudulent financial statements to get cushy tax benefits and favorable loans for the company.

And the hits just keep on comin’...
 

• Remember yesterday when I wrote about the emerging (very cool) trend of Trump’s allies, aides, and co-defendants flipping on him? Well, add another to the list. Yuscil Taveras, an IT worker at Mar-a-Lago, reportedly struck an agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office in the classified-documents case according to his defense attorney. Taveras is referenced in the filing as “Trump Employee 4” and according to the terms of the deal, he agreed to testify in the classified documents case in exchange for immunity. He has thus not been formally charged with any crimes. 
   

• Taveras’ secret grand jury testimony in July became the source of new allegations against Trump that were later included in a superseding indictment just weeks later. The allegations in question include efforts by Trump, his longtime valet Walt Nauta, and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira, to destroy incriminating security footage from the grounds. All three men have pleaded not guilty to the allegations. 
   

I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re getting pretty tired of this guy, but we enjoy the comeuppance!

On this week’s episode of Keep It, Ira and Louis talk about Beyonce’s star-studded Renaissance birthday show and new music from pop icons: Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears, and more. Plus, Brittany Broski joins to discuss her comic and cultural inspirations and her new podcast The Broski Report. Listen to this convo, and more only on Keep It. Follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Around the time that Florida adopted new curriculum standards for middle-school Black history courses that included instruction on the “benefits” of slavery, the state’s Department of Education announced a new partnership with the far-right advocacy group masquerading as a university: PragerU. Now, Oklahoma is following suit. PragerU is not an accredited academic institution, it is a group of reactionary activists known for churning out revisionist U.S. history videos and other “educational content.” Oklahoma’s far-right State Superintendent Ryan Walters—who recently claimed that race was not a factor in the Tulsa Race Massacre and compared teachers unions to terrorists—announced the change. PragerU reportedly plans to expand its partnerships to Texas as well. PragerU has been producing right-wing propaganda for years, including videos promoting climate-change denial and Christian nationalism. The erosion of separation of church and state continues with the use of PragerU materials in public schools. In July, Oklahoma became the first state to open a tax-funded Christian charter school. There are three-million public school students in Florida, 700,000 in Oklahoma, and six-million in Texas.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that special counsel David Weiss intends to seek an indictment against Hunter Biden related to gun charges by the end of the month. 

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) must remove the deadly floating border barrier in the Rio Grande River. Abbott immediately appealed the decision. 

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin continues to cling to the archaic and utterly nonsensical “blue slip” tradition in which a single opposing-party senator is able to kill judicial nominees if they will be seated in that senator’s home state. 

The EPA is delaying plans to fortify air-quality standards for smog until after the 2024 election, saying that “several issues” raised by the agency’s panel in a recent report “warrant additional evaluation and review.”

An independent audit found that departed Project Veritas founder and right-wing propagandist James O’Keefe spent the nonprofit’s money on personal indulgences like helicopter travel and DJ equipment. Why aren’t we surprised he wants to be a DJ?

This summer was the hottest on record worldwide, which, according to Republicans, is a coincidence.  

President Biden has directed the DNC to allocate $1.2 million into Virginia legislative races to counter record-breaking fundraising by Gov. Glenn Younkin (R-VA). 

An election denier named David Whipple got himself appointed (by an all-GOP board of supervisors) to an election-oversight job in Iowa’s Warren County, so local Democrats organized a special election to remove him. The measure won by a staggering 34 points, a huge mandate from a county that went for Trump in 2020 by 17 points.

World leaders and finance ministers are meeting this week in India for the G20 summit, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is facing growing doubts from some nations about the effectiveness of sanctions against Russia. Alliances are forming among nations that have, for some time now, been resistant to U.S.-led coordinated efforts of economic punishment on Russia for the war in Ukraine. Sanctions have been successful in restricting revenue for Russia, despite the fact that their economy continues to grow. 

Romania’s defense minister Angel Tilvar said on Wednesday that parts of what may be a Russian drone fell into Romanian territory, two days after Ukraine said that Russian drones had exploded there. Earlier, Romanian officials denied reports of drones falling on its territory, and said Russian attacks in neighboring Ukraine posed no direct threat to the country. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday that confirmation of the parts belonging to a Russian drone would be a serious violation, as Romania is a member of NATO. Russian attacks in ports across the Danube River have increased since July when Moscow pulled out of the Black Sea grain agreement.

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A New York federal judge has found Donald Trump liable for repeatedly defaming writer E. Jean Carroll on Wednesday when he denied raping her in 2019, which means the ensuing trial will only determine how much more money he owes her. A jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $5 million for sexual assault in a separate defamation lawsuit. 
 

The progressive nonprofit House Majority Forward launched a $20 million voter-registration drive focusing on key regions in the fight for the House majority in 2024. 

The Supreme Court of Mexico has decriminalized abortion.