Some of the most radical legal theories which animated Donald Trump’s 2020 coup attempt filtered in from a once-obscure Wisconsin attorney.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1480523
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1480523
So, in reality, Mike Pence has Chesebro to thank for sending a mob after him that nearly lynched him on January 6.
8 Likes
I’ve never been clear on why New Mexico was included in the fake electors scheme. Biden won the state by nearly 11%.
Did the r’s think that the cowboys for trump would just lasso and brand the majority in New Mexico? That one’s a head scratcher.
Great job with this series, Josh.
20 Likes
To me, all the proof required to negate Trump’s whole legal argument is that they only sought to prove fraud in states that would have made a difference to him politically.
Fraud in Missouri? Don’t care. Hmmm.
Fraud that would necessitate Republicans who won having to be recounted? Don’t care.
This whole things is naked. He’s clothing himself in bullshit fast enough to seem like he’s wearing anything at all.
Corporate media is a mindless monster.
Or a mindful one.
15 Likes
Trump would have found a way. They were the justification end of an argument that he said he already won.
Probably a lot more gambits out there. I mean, Roger Stone at the same time is in the same hotel room as the coordinated attack teams from the Oath Keepers sent round lighting fires.
2 Likes
For the record, this:
. . . is the part of the Constitution where monkeys fly out of trump’s butt. There’s nothing whatsoever that gives the Senate any such authority. So the core of Chesebro’s entire scheme is just fucking up Congress’s shit so they can do a coup. I look forward to his forthcoming federal indictment and prison sentence.
25 Likes
That’s an overstatement. Stone frequently had OK’s and PB’s serving as “security” around him, including on J6. When they learned that the Capitol was being assaulted, they stole a golf cart to ride to the scene, which is a pretty clear indication that they did not have foreknowledge of any plan to fuck up Congress’s shit. Although it’s worth noting that one of Stone’s J5 OK bodyguards, Joshua James, has pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and admitted that there was a plan to fuck up Congress’s shit.
I think it’s reasonably clear from the evidence at the OK trials that they mostly thought they were on scene so they could take up arms when trump invoked the Insurrection Act, thereby deputizing their “militia” to do his bidding. Stewart Rhodes, in particular, was butthurt that trump didn’t do it.
7 Likes
And if Pence had left the building?
1 Like
Grassley presides and the vote still gets certified even if he tries to derail the count. The Chesebro scheme only works if trump has solid majorities in both chambers, which he did not have. If Grassley tries to reject Arizona’s votes, members simply object and it goes to separate votes in both chambers, which would sustain the real votes. And we know that outcome with a total certainty because both chambers overruled the trumpist objections in the actual certification ceremony.
10 Likes
Yeah. My thought too.
1 Like
The sidebar bit, about Justin Clark telling the attorneys that they wouldn’t be paid unless they won . . . I mean, yes, this is Trump’s outfit we’re talking about, but the fact remains that that just seems odd to me. There was already plenty of money. Why not pay out, win or lose?
7 Likes
I’m left wondering why Grassley ever spoke of the concrete possibility or expectation that Pence would not show up for whatever part of January 6 he was alluding to. It seems like the Grassley camp has frantically and effectively blown a rhetorical smokescreen around the whole issue after the fact of his gratuitously bringing it up. Anybody got any insights on that?
8 Likes
I used to call him Cheesybro; now it’s more like Dumbro. What really gets me in the long run is how often weird and paranoid thinking gets mistaken for brains in law school land.
5 Likes
Duh.
They probably weren’t gonna get paid even if he won.
ETA. This is the “you gotta pay your bills” guy.
4 Likes
They did lose, but the article doesn’t indicate if they were actually stiffed. I suspect they were not. I think it was a “motivational” statement along the lines of “The beatings will continue until morale improves.” They were probably always going to pay them, but they tried to “motivate them to win” by threatening to withhold their pay if they lost.
A strategy that only right-wing Social Darwinists could concoct as a valid motivational theory.
2 Likes
It’s an inverted world when ordinary citizens send their hard-earned money to a man who claims to be a billionaire
14 Likes
Lying scheming muthaf*ckers. These year GOTV like our democracy depends on it.
5 Likes
Because he’s not all that bright. Somebody told him that Pence might be recusing, so he just blabbed it out to the press.
9 Likes
Headline on msnbc
SCOTUS gives Jack Smith a week to respond on Trump immunity
… … … …
In the world of justice and lawyers that is beyond light speed. But I can say right off that Article 1 section 3certainly indicates zero criminal immunity for a POTUS or Veep.
But I am no lawyer and no good at inventing abnormal realities. I would think Mr Smith would be ready to respond by the end of tomorrow.
6 Likes
I think that Grassley is a little short in the brains dept. by this time. But of course nowhere near as short as Chesebro, Giulianni, Eastman and of course the Rump.
2 Likes