Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2

[Rick Plant]

As special counsel nears decision in Trump cases, who are the lawyers working with him
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lawyers-working-special-counsel-jack-smith-trump-jan/story?id=98893019

[Rick Plant]

Dominion wants ‘accountability’ over Fox News election lies, co-founder says

Company that won $787.5m settlement pursuing defamation lawsuits against two Fox competitors and four Trump allies



Dominion Voting Systems, which last month reached a $787.5m settlement of its $1.6bn defamation case against Fox News, is seeking wider accountability for the broadcast of Donald Trump’s election fraud lies and will “not … stop until we get it”, a co-founder said.

redacted in court filings but reportedly linked to the dramatic firing of Tucker Carlson would soon be revealed.

John Poulos, chief executive of Dominion, Hootan Yaghoobzadeh, an investor from Staple Street Capital, and Stephen Shackelford, a partner at Susman Godfrey, the law firm representing Dominion, spoke to Axios in an interview published on Monday.

Fox still faces a $2.7bn suit from Smartmatic, another election machine company targeted by Trump and his allies in their lies about voter fraud in his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden.

Axios noted that Dominion is pursuing defamation lawsuits against two Fox competitors, One America News and NewsMax, and four Trump allies: Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell and Patrick Byrne.

Poulos said: “As we said from the beginning, we’re seeking accountability and we’re not going to stop until we get it. We have six more cases and we are completely aligned as we have been from the beginning.”

The settlement in Dominion’s Fox case came as the two sides waited in court in Delaware for trial to begin.

Shackelford said the suit and settlement “should send a big signal to the other defendants that we are serious about exposing the truth, and we are serious about accomplishing full compensation and justice for Dominion”.

Fox was not required to issue an on-air apology but the case uncovered a mine of internal messages which showed executives and hosts acknowledged that Trump and allies were lying but gave them airtime anyway.

Last week, Fox fired the prime-time host Tucker Carlson. The extent to which the decision was linked to Dominion remains unknown, if subject to extensive reporting.

Yaghoobzadeh said: “I think the consequences of the entire strategy that we pursued are starting to reflect themselves.”

Shackelford said Dominion “did not insist on them firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement. But the very fact that that’s what resulted out of all of this, and it’s traceable from the work that Dominion and Staple Street set in motion, that’s the sort of stuff Hootan is talking about.”

It has been reported that messages redacted in court filings contain instances of Carlson using “highly offensive” language about Fox executives.

Shackelford said: “Of course I know what’s in the redacted stuff and I can’t say anything about it … I hope that it all gets un-redacted at some point.”

He added: “We expected [Fox] to fight tooth and nail and to pull out all the stops, and they did. The scariest part of what they did trying to rewrite first amendment law just to save Fox’s hide in a way that was completely, in my view, disingenuous and dangerous.”

Yaghoobzadeh pointed to the continuing careers of other anchors who spread Trump’s lies, prominently including Maria Bartiromo.

“I just don’t know how informed every Fortune 500 CEO is to the lack of journalistic standards that were used in that initial broadcast,” Yaghoobzadeh said, about Bartiromo’s business-oriented show.

And if they’re deciding to go on that show after understanding all that information, I’m not one to judge these things but I certainly wouldn’t go on that show.”

Asked for comment, Fox News pointed to a previous statement in which it said it was “pleased to have reached a settlement”, acknowledged rulings “finding certain claims about Dominion to be false”, and claimed the deal “reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/01/fox-news-dominion-lawsuits-trump-election-lies

[Rick Plant]

Judge may release full texts exposing Tucker Carlson: legal analyst

A group of media outlets are continuing the lawsuit to obtain the full discovery exhibits in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News and Fox Corp. Over the past week, more information has been revealed about comments former host Tucker Carlson made. But in the documents themselves, there were many redactions.

According to a recent report, the comments were so bad Fox felt they were "unsurvivable."

Dominion lawyer Davida Brook outlined some things they hoped to discuss in the trial, but she left out the details that many reporters are hungry for.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace asked what she called the "$787.5 million question," a play off of the gameshow and the settlement Fox agreed to with Dominion. Speaking to former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, she asked if those redactions would expose what Carlson did that was so bad and whether it's within the public's interest to know.

"I think The New York Times and the public's interest in having this material unredacted and disclosed publicly would involve, if the judge used any of this information that he was privy to, what's behind those black bar redactions, in resolving all of the pretrial issues he had to resolve. I think then those matters have to be disclosed publicly because it really bears on the quality and the performance of the judge in his rulings up until the day of trial when it's settled."

He went on to also cite the First Amendment piece of the trial and the "public's right to know" is also on the side of the media outlets fighting the case.

"I don't think we can let this go without commenting on the hypocrisy of Fox 'News.' I'm going to go with the air quotes — a 'news organization' fighting against the First Amendment, freedom of the press and public's right to know," Kirschner continued. "I do think where Fox's interest would be strongest at its zenith is if there was really proprietary business information somehow behind the redactions. I find that unlikely, but, you know, it is a little bit of a gray area when it comes to a case having settled, not going to trial."

He explained that in criminal cases, there would be a request to seal some things for witness protection and security matters, but once the trial is over, everything was then unsealed. So, it doesn't matter to the case now that Dominion has settled with Fox.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Trump aide Dan Scavino testified to Jack Smith’s grand jury today, per NBC News. Everyone is assuming this is his first go-round. But the courts ordered him to testify five weeks ago. It’s entirely possible he already testified, came back today more testimony post-Pence.

The media stakes out the courthouse and tries to spot every witness going in, and takes the position that if it hasn’t seen someone go in then they must not have testified yet. But witnesses have ways of sneaking in, and it’s not possible for the media to spot 100% of them.

So we don’t know if Scavino’s testimony today was his first go-round or second.

Nor do we know if Mark Meadows has already testified. He could have cut a deal to be snuck in through a parking garage or something.

We don’t know how many more witnesses (if any) are still left.

[Rick Plant]

Jack Smith holds the keys to blocking Trump from a self-pardon

With Donald Trump facing multiple investigations in New York, Georgia and Washington, D.C., questions are being raised over whether he will be eligible for a pardon should he be found guilty of any of the many crimes he has been accused of.

In a speculative column for Politico, University of Baltimore School of Law professor Kimberly Wehle wrote that there are many paths and outcomes depending upon whether the former president is indicted at the state or federal level, but one charge and conviction would put a pardon out of reach even if Trump is re-elected and tries to absolve himself.

Digging deep into the Constitution, Wehle suggests that, should special counsel Jack Smith indict Donald Trump for his part in leading the Jan. 6 insurrection, there will be nothing he or even President Joe Biden can do about it via the pardon.

As she wrote, the charges in Trump's second impeachment provide a roadmap.

"No court has yet considered the question of whether presidents can pardon themselves, even for crimes committed in the Oval Office," she wrote. "Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution states of impeachment, which is the most apparent remedy for presidential wrongdoing in office, that 'the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.'"

"Given that impeachments cannot be pardoned under Article II, the impeachment language — which makes former presidents subject to the criminal laws for impeachable conduct — could be read to suggest that crimes related to impeachments cannot be pardoned, either," she explained.

She added that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment also presents a roadblock to the former president.

"If Smith’s grand jury indicts Trump under the section of federal sedition law which provides that '[w]hoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto . . . shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States,' a self-pardon would clash with the Supreme Court’s longstanding recognition, discussed below, that pardons cannot undermine other parts of the Constitution."

Read More Here: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/02/donald-trump-pardon-00094636

[Rick Plant]

Judge sets deadline after Trumps stop turning over documents in fraud case



Forbes reported on Wednesday that Donald Trump and his three eldest children who worked at the Trump Organization have failed to turn over emails and other communications requested in the fraud suit from New York Attorney General Letitia James.

A letter submitted to the court last week revealed “an unexplained drop-off in emails for Ivanka Trump” as another one of the issues for the investigators. The request comes from the fraud investigation into the Trump Organization's business practices. Already, Trump has been forced to pay $110,000 in fines because Judge Arthur Engoron found the former president in contempt because he wouldn't comply with a subpoena.

It's unclear if Trump and his family members could be forced to fork over more cash due to the inability to comply with other subpoenas. But thus far, the AG's office is requesting a timeline for the document delivery.

"The attorney general’s office is now saying the Trumps’ evasiveness has continued into the discovery process of the $250 million lawsuit, which alleges Donald Trump, his children, the Trump Organization and some of its top executives inflated property values to obtain economic benefits, such as securing cheaper loans," Forbes reported. The Trump side denies the charges in the case and the elder Trump has spent a lot of time on his social media account trashing the New York AG using racist nicknames forher.

The court filing asks the judge to intervene again, saying that they had started to give documents but haven't given a timeline for when that request would be fulfilled. James also said that the Trumps aren't answering questions about how the materials are being collected.

"The letter notes a significant decline in emails turned over from Ivanka Trump, dropping from an average of 1,200 emails per month in the first nine months of 2014 to just 37 emails a month in 2016," the report continued.

According to the attorney general's office, the lawyers gave a less-than-satisfactory excuse.

“Not only have defendants failed to offer any substantive response to this inquiry, but there have been no documents produced by Ms. Trump,” the AG's office told the judge.

Ivanka Trump has also replaced her attorneys, though some of the attorneys she was using still represent Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

Some of the requests from the AG have been granted by the judge, namely that the Trumps submit sworn affidavits on how the collections have worked, what they've done so far and he also set a May 12 deadline to turn over everything outstanding.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fraud-case-documents-requested/

[Rick Plant]

BREAKING: THREAD: new reporting from @kpolantz and @PaulaReidCNN indicates that Jack Smith prosecutors have been asking questions about the HANDLING/TAMPERING of the surveillance footage subpoenaed on June 24, 2022 in the documents case.

Read Thread Here: https://twitter.com/MuellerSheWrote/status/1653904692311916544