Wheels of justice grinding slowly but surely

An Arizona grand jury has indicted 18 allies of Donald Trump for their efforts to subvert the 2020 election — including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney Rudy Giuliani and former Trump campaign operative Mike Roman.

The indictment, which includes felony counts of conspiracy, fraud and forgery, also describes Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.

  Politico

So, indict the mfer.

“Defendants and unindicted coconspirators schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency to keep Unindicted Coconspirator 1 in office against the will of Arizona’s voters,” the 58-page indictment reads.

The names of seven of the defendants, including Meadows, Giuliani and Roman, are redacted, but the document makes clear who they are by describing their roles. Ken Chesebro, an attorney who helped devise Trump’s post-election strategy, is described as “unindicted coconspirator 4.

[...]

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has been helming the aggressive investigation. Though she initially appeared to be focused primarily on the false electors, in recent months she issued a wave of subpoenas to figures in Trump’s national orbit.

Mayes is the fifth prosecutor to bring criminal charges over the sprawling, multi-state bid by Trump and his allies to upend the 2020 results. Special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with federal crimes for those efforts. Prosecutors in Georgia have charged Trump and many of his allies for their bid to overturn the results in that state, including the fake electors plot. Prosecutors in Michigan and Nevada have also charged Republicans who posed as fake electors in those states.

UPDATE 04/25/2024:

MAGA: Make Attorneys Get Attorneys

Trump attorneys Christina Bobb and Evan Corcoran affirmed to the Justice Department that Trump had handed over all classified records from his Mar-a-Lago residence in response to a May subpoena. But prosecutors said their response was "incomplete" after the FBI searched and found more documents at Mar-a-Lago and cited evidence of "obstructive conduct" in response to the subpoena.

[...]

Bobb signed a document affirming that Trump handed over "all documents that are responsive to the subpoena" after a "diligent search." Corcoran then met with DOJ officials and made a similar statement. Investigators ultimately found more evidence that there were additional documents at Mar-a-Lago and secured a warrant to search the premises in August.

[...]

[Bobb] told the pro-Trump Right Side Broadcasting Network that she was not acting as Trump's attorney while serving as a custodian of records when responding to the subpoena, according to the report, meaning that the DOJ could compel her testimony more easily than if she were acting as Trump's lawyer at the time.

[...]

Bobb has since hired her own lawyer, Florida-based former prosecutor John Lauro, and "made it known to Trump allies that she is willing to cooperate and be interviewed by the Justice Department," according to the Post. And colleagues have similarly urged Corcoran to hire a criminal defense lawyer because of his response to the subpoena, according to the report, but he has insisted it is not necessary.

  Salon

Let's see how long he holds out.

And in what capacity was Bobb acting if not his attorney?

"I think people were a little bit confused," Bobb said. "I am on President Trump's legal team. I do work for him on election issues. I was never on the legal team handling this case, just to be clear on that. Which is why I came in as the custodian of records — because I wasn't on that team."

I think I can see why people would be "a little bit confused."

With his own attorneys facing potential legal jeopardy, Trump struggled to find an elite attorney willing to represent him in the case. Trump ultimately hired former Florida Solicitor General Chris Kise, who once represented a member of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro's administration, paying him a $3 million retainer from money donated to his super PAC.

Of course. Trump is not going to pay his own bills.

Kise warned Trump's team that attacks were only likely to make the DOJ more aggressive and urged them to seek an "off-ramp" before a possible indictment, according to the report. He also argued that Trump's other lawyers, whom he said lacked experience with this type of case, had "deepened Trump's problems" and "could face legal trouble themselves."

[...]

Just weeks after joining Trump's legal team, CNN reported that he has already been sidelined. Though his name appeared on numerous court filings, he did not sign onto the Trump team's combative filing questioning the DOJ's motives last week. The Post reported that Kise is now unlikely to play a public role in the Mar-a-Lago case, though he will continue to help Trump deal with "his other legal problems."

Had he not realized that Trump doesn't take his lawyers' advice unless it's what he wants it to be? I mean, he just got that experience himself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

It was bound to come to this

Which asshole drafted the statement and then gave it to the dingbat woman to sign?

MAGA:  Make Attorneys Get Attorneys

UPDATE:

Trump's bevy of sexy female attorneys

Here's a prior one:

Jenna Ellis

A judge in Colorado this week ordered Jenna Ellis, a former legal adviser to Donald Trump, to appear before a grand jury investigating whether the Trump and others illegally tried to influence the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia.

[...]

“Conservative women look so good that the left (who only have women like Rachel Maddow) assumes we’ve had surgeries to look this hot ... nah dawg, not a one. That would be your side. On kids,” Ellis tweeted.

[...]

Right-wing activists have falsely claimed that gender affirmation surgery is mutilating children. Ellis is among them.

[...]

Ellis doubled down on her attacks on Maddow Friday morning, tweeting, “The left is *still* big mad that conservative women are hotter than Rachel Maddow If you’re so mad about it, try embracing your femininity instead of looking 'gender neutral' or like dudes.”

[...]

Ellis, who The Colorado Sun reports was fired from her prosecutor’s job before eventually working for Trump, “failed to meet the employer’s expectations” and “made mistakes on cases the employer believes she should not have made,” according to a document from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

  Yahoo

Here are three current ones:

Christina Bobb

When the FBI stormed former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Monday, agents were confronted by his attorney Christina Bobb, an ex-U.S. Marine and a former anchor on the far-right news network One America News (OAN).

[...]

Bobb told OAN the raid was a sham because authorities recently met with the former president, who she said has been “very cooperative” with the investigation.

“I’m a little bit befuddled as to why they would do such a drastic thing, so disrespecting and so dishonoring, other than the fact it’s a political tool,” she said.

Bobb also said there was “not anything there” for the FBI to find, claiming the investigation would not yield any damning results against Trump.

[...]

“It’s not going to hold water and it’s not going to stick,” she said. “They just don’t have a leg to stand on.”

[...]

While working for OAN, Bobb began volunteering to help Trump’s legal team and assisted with the effort to overturn certification of the 2020 election in battleground states, The Washington Post reported.

Bobb, a passionate supporter of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen, also vigorously supported the 2021 Arizona election audit in Maricopa County, even raising money through a fundraising platform for the audit, which ultimately did not find any widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election.

[...]

Her work includes “election integrity” representation and helping Trump with the Jan. 6 investigation, Bobb said.

[...]

The former president had [...] asked her to take the job.

“Which was amazing, that was great,” she said. “He knew a lot of the efforts I was taking, through One America News. … We had a good relationship."

  The Hill

Lindsey Halligan

Lindsey Halligan, a Florida-based attorney for former President Donald Trump, was at Mar-a-Lago and spoke with CBS News about the FBI search.

[...]

Halligan said the search warrant was sealed, and because she had not been party to this aspect of Trump's legal portfolio until Monday, did not know what kinds of documents the FBI might be looking for nor what kinds of documents the former president keeps with him at Mar-a-Lago.

Nonetheless, she insisted that the government's search "was an appalling display of abuse and power — complete overkill." She also asserted that "if they needed documents, they could have asked. There's never been an issue with compliance." Halligan said the search came as a "huge surprise."

  CBS

Alina Habba

New York State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron brought all the parties together in a Zoom conference to hear everyone's positions. In his corner, Trump had someone who was far from the national radar: a 36-year-old lawyer named Alina Habba.

At times, Habba treated the court hearing like a Fox News appearance, inquiring why the New York state Attorney General's office would not investigate Hillary Clinton instead of Trump. Engoron's law clerk told her several times to stop interrupting him.

In the end, Engoron ordered Trump, Donald Trump Jr, and Ivanka Trump to sit for depositions within 21 days. Habba's arguments didn't work.

[...]

"For Donald, the only option is victory at any cost," [one-time Trump lawyer and fixer Michael] Cohen told Insider. "This even includes having counsel act in ways detrimental to their reputation and career."

"If she falls down the garbage chute I did," he said. "I predict a very bad ending."

  Business Insider

A lawyer for Donald Trump is being accused of "racist" office behavior by an ex-employee, including allegedly shouting "I hate that Black bitch!" about the New York Attorney General Letitia James after losing a court case.

The New Jersey-based attorney, Alina Habba, is also on tape dropping "N" bombs while rapping bombastically along to gangsta rap recordings that blasted in her Bedminster law offices, according to the lawyer beyind a lawsuit filed this week in Middlesex County, New Jersey.

The audio tapes — duets, apparently, which also feature Habba's law partner Michael Madaio rapping along — may become public as part of her client's new lawsuit, said Jaqueline Tillmann, the Princeton lawyer repping former Habba employee Na'Syia Drayton.

"We are contemplating amending the complaint and adding one or two of the recordings as exhibits," Tillmann told Insider Thursday.

  Business Insider

Trump's reality is television.  He reminds me of Ghaddafi, who had a personal guard of tall, sexy women.

No doubt Trump envied Ghaddifi's riches and his women.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Coup attempt: fraudulent elector slates update

[M]embers of former President Donald Trump's campaign team were far more involved than previously known in the plan, a core tenet of the broader plot to overturn President Joe Biden's victory when Congress counted the electoral votes on January 6.

Giuliani and his allies coordinated the nuts-and-bolts of the process on a state-by-state level. [...] One source said there were multiple planning calls between Trump campaign officials and GOP state operatives, and that Giuliani participated in at least one call. The source also said the Trump campaign lined up supporters to fill elector slots, secured meeting rooms in statehouses for the fake electors to meet on December 14, 2020, and circulated drafts of fake certificates that were ultimately sent to the National Archives.

Trump and some of his top advisers publicly encouraged the "alternate electors" scheme in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico. But behind the scenes, Giuliani and Trump campaign officials actively choreographed the process.

[...]

One fake elector from Michigan boasted at a recent event hosted by a local Republican organization that the Trump campaign directed the entire operation.

"We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that," Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said.

  CNN

How are people this stupid taking over the country?

Maddock was also one of the 16 Trump supporters from Michigan who served as fake electors and signed the illegitimate certificate that was sent to the National Archives.

[...]

[January 6] Committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi told reporters Thursday the panel is looking into whether there was a broader conspiracy or involvement from the Trump White House in the creation or submission of these fake electors.

[...]

In its subpoena letter sent to Giuliani on Tuesday, the House committee specifically references his efforts to convince state legislatures to overturn election results.

[...]

One of the pro-Trump electors from Pennsylvania, Sam DeMarco, told CNN there was a last-minute dispute, where the state's GOP electors pushed Trump campaign officials to add legal caveats to the fake certificate to say they were only electors-in-waiting, if Trump's legal challenges prevailed.

The fake documents from Pennsylvania and New Mexico ultimately contained these caveats, but the documents from the other five states explicitly claimed, falsely, that the pro-Trump electors were the rightful electors.

So, some are slightly smarter than others.

A source familiar with the situation told CNN that Pence was concerned about the possibility of "alternate electors," and his team carefully worded what he said that day during the Electoral College certification to recognize only the legitimate electors.

One of the sources with direct knowledge of the scheme, a former Trump campaign staffer, told CNN that Giuliani worked closely on the seven-state stunt with Christina Bobb, a correspondent for the pro-Trump propaganda network One America News.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Totally believable

It was Reagan's defense - "I forgot." It worked for him.

Maybe Eastman can remember who he sent the memo to when he finished writing it.  That could jog his memory on who asked for it.

In seeking to compel testimony from [Steve] Bannon, the congressional panel investigating Jan. 6 this week cited his reported presence at the “ ‘war room’ organized at the Willard [hotel near the White House].” The House voted Thursday to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with the committee’s subpoena.

The committee has also requested documents and communications related to [legal scholar and Trump adviser John] Eastman’s legal advice and analysis.

[...]

They were led by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani. Former chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon was an occasional presence as the effort’s senior political adviser. Former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik was there as an investigator. Also present was John Eastman, the scholar, who outlined scenarios for denying Biden the presidency in an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

[...]

Also present was One America News reporter Christina Bobb, a lawyer by training who was volunteering for the campaign at the time, according to people familiar with the operation.

They sought to make the case to Pence and ramp up pressure on him to take actions on Jan. 6 that Eastman suggested were within his powers, three people familiar with the operation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

[...]

On Jan. 2, Trump, Giuliani and Eastman spoke to 300 state legislators via a conference call meant to arm them with purported evidence of fraud and galvanize them to take action to “decertify” their election results. “You are the real power,” Trump told the state lawmakers, according to a Washington Examiner report. “You’re the ones that are going to make the decision.”

[...]Three days after the call, dozens of lawmakers from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wrote to Pence. They asked that he delay certification of Biden’s victory for 10 days to allow “our respective bodies to meet, investigate, and as a body vote on certification or decertification of the election.”

[...]

But after other efforts failed, as Jan. 6 neared, the Eastman strategy came into bloom. Eastman, a Federalist Society member, law professor and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had the conservative legal credentials to burnish the argument. Eastman’s first memo, only two pages long, described a six-point plan by which Pence could effectively commandeer the electoral counting process and enable Trump to win. The memo was first revealed last month in the book “Peril,” by Washington Post writers Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

[...]

Eastman has said it was a “preliminary draft” of a more complete and nuanced memo that outlined multiple possible outcomes following the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. The ideas in the memos were the basis for a discussion of options Pence had with Eastman and Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 4, he has said.

Eastman has more recently distanced himself from the memos, telling the National Review on Friday that the options he outlined did not represent his advice. He said he wrote the memos at the request of “somebody in the legal team” whose name he could not recall.

[...]

The effort underscores the extent to which Trump and a handful of true believers were working until the last possible moment to subvert the will of the voters, seeking to pressure Pence to delay or even block certification of the election, leveraging any possible constitutional loophole to test the boundaries of American democracy.

  WaPo

How many people are on "the legal team"?

[J.Michael] Luttig, a former federal appellate judge well known to Trump and for whom Eastman had clerked early in his career, told Pence’s staff on Jan. 4 that the analysis Eastman offered in his first memo was “incorrect.” Luttig said subsequently that Eastman’s advice was wrong “at every turn,” including his suggestion that the vice president could delay the electoral vote count.

[...]

[B]y Jan. 5, Pence was not sold on the plan, according to “Peril.” That evening, Trump called over to Giuliani and then to Bannon, who were both at the Willard at the time, according to the book, which reported some details of the events at the Willard that day. Trump told Bannon that Pence had been “very arrogant” when the two discussed the matter earlier in the day, the book reported. The following day, Eastman spoke at the rally on the Ellipse.

“All we are demanding of Vice President Pence is this afternoon at one o’clock he let the legislatures of the states look into this so that we get to the bottom of it and the American people know whether we have control of the direction of our government or not!” Eastman told the crowd. “We no longer live in a self-governing republic if we can’t get the answer to this question!”

That rather puts the lie to his claim that the memo options "did not represent his advice".  And not remembering who asked for the memo is unbelievable on its face.  Let me guess:  Eastman will not be answering questions from the January 6 committee.  Lying to reporters is one thing.  Lying to Congress carries consequences (supposedly).

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

And if Trump gets back in the White House (or perhaps any Republican at this point), what we'll be as a country is a "bad mafia movie".