An office of that size has it’s own appellate unit. The briefing they did in the Federal District Court can be pretty efficiently converted to the appeal brief (bolstered by the District Court’s rationale and findings). The new issue the 11th Cir. requested briefing on might take the most time and effort. (but at first blush, it looks like it could be the final dagger for Meadows and the rest)
Yes, there’ll be a good deal of copying and pasting from previous briefs and court orders too. Too late to try for a plea deal?
The Eleventh already demonstrated their impatience with Trump & Co.'s delay tactics by moving with uncharacteristic speed when reviewing Judge Aileen Cannon’s questionable rulings in the Mar-A-Lago special master proceedings. The briefing schedules were measured in hours, not days.
Based on that, and understanding the potential harm to the Georgia case if appellate rulings are delayed, I expected they would proceed with speed in this case, too. I’m so glad they are!
As noted by @Procrustus, that was a fine read. Great way to start my day, too!
I wouldn’t doubt if they were ready even earlier than that. I suspect the prosecutor has considered what motions the defenses are likely to make, what their arguments will be, and are fully prepared to rebute those arguments if they are made.
No. Can’t help them commit a crime. That’s how the District Court in DC ruled that Smith could subpoena the notes from one of Trump’s lawyers, because Trump wasn’t just seeking advice about past conduct but was seeking advice about how to evade the subpoena.
As well, John Eastman is another of the lawyers who was involved in the fake electors / « let’s get Mike to throw the election » plot. He’s facing disbarment proceedings in California, on the basis that his advice was completely unfounded in law. It pops up in the news now and then, but isn’t getting the same coverage as the proceedings against Trump and others in the criminal cases.
I started a thread on it, a « watching brief » of sorts, but haven’t seen any recent developments:
This is why I believe that the mug shot should be his official Presidential portrait, and should hang prominently displayed in the White House in perpetuity.
Perhaps in a bathroom.
On the floor. Leaning up against the toilet and or trash can. Unframed.
Or have hundreds of copies printed up on a convenient scroll.
I’m responding to everyone who commented on my post; you were the last to directly do so.
These comments may just be cynical responses to Trump’s behavior over the past few years. Taken literally, though, they’re saying that Trump is clinically insane, that he no longer is functioning inside of reality and cannot tell wrong from right.
I don’t believe that. He’s a gigantic narcissist, true, and he’s used his wealth and power to bully people into accepting his actions. But he knows he’s used his wealth and power to win, not that he’s always been “right” in the eyes of the law or morality. He’s been “right” in the sense that he does what he wants to benefit himself and gets away with it.
Everything he’s done since the election shows that. He sent out battalions of lawyers to fight cases and lost in court 62 times. Every sane person on his staff told him that his usual methods had hit their ceiling and would no longer work. He just went out and found people he could bully and cow to do his work. None of that indicates he didn’t know he was wrong, just that he needed to continue pushing until the opponent fell over.
Now he’s hit several opponents who won’t fall over. If he were truly insane in the way you all cast him he wouldn’t be as publicly frightened as he is. We can all see and hear the terror. He’s been arrested. Fingerprinted. Stood for a mugshot. These are deeply humiliating. He can see the inside of a jail cell, especially in Fulton County Prison, the one place he can’t game the system and pardon his way out of. That’s death.
He sees death and he’s aware of it. You cannot make the case that he’s simply dismissing reality. People handle the thought of death in many individual ways. Blustering and raging is a common one. Both are proof of understanding what is coming, even though they seldom manifest twenty four hours a day. Denial is also part of the package. So is enjoying what is left. People are complicated. Trump may be a walking compendium of the DSM-III but he’s not clinically insane in this sense. He knows. If you want to use this as schadenfreude, feel free.
Hey, I told you this was heresy.
He’s finding out that going up against a sheet rock contractor is a bit different than going up against a state or the federal government. Surprise, surprise, they have deeper pockets and much, much better lawyers than you do.
The have prison cells too.
@Exapno_Mapcase, I agree with your take. I detect real terror. I’ve always felt that Trump is deeply mentally ill, but not insane to the extent that he’s not responsible for his own actions.
I believe he creates his own reality, and for the most part lives it. But in the back of his dark mind, he knows the truth, and occasionally moments of clarity terrify him. He’s living through an extended span right now. Staring into the abyss is no fun.
Especially when the abyss stares back, as it is doing now.
Don’t worry Trump, It will just feel like an eternity.
He should know this. His ethical mentor Roy Cohn told him to go ahead and legally screw all the civil business partners he wanted, but do not play games in criminal court because you will get fucked. None of this should be a surprise to him. But, FAFO like they say.
I’d love to see a quote/cite.
I read it years ago. I just spent some time looking but can’t find it now.
I didn’t find any direct quote, but this article points out to the many similarities between the two, with the conclusion in particular that I felt speaks to the whole thing:
“The open question,” Tyrnauer said when we talked, “is whether Trump’s luck will hold up or whether—like Cohn—he’ll run out of road and face a tsunami of legal difficulties that will diminish him or put an end to the game that he’s played so effectively.”
“We were all brought up to believe, whether it’s an eye for an eye, it’s religion, it’s Greek tragedy, it’s whatever, that justice is going to catch up with everybody,” Zirin added. “The jury’s still out on Donald Trump. We don’t know whether he’ll get his comeuppance.”
But Tyrnauer reiterated the last lesson of Cohn.
“He got away with it,” he said, “until he didn’t.”
The article is written prior to the 2020 election, and yet absolutely nothing about how Trump acts and plays the game has changed, which surprises absolutely no-one who was paying attention.
today is hearing day in georgia. it will be live in a bit.
one ruling has landed. chesbro and powell will go first, the other 17 will be at a later date. per cnn.