A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1483409
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1483409
2 Likes
The mobbed up Mayor of Mal-de-Lardo is the greatest security risk this country has ever faced.
68 Likes
Joyce Vance discusses the Georgia case.
Some counts, but not RICO, dismissed in the Fulton County case
Late last year Judge McAfee heard oral argument on a series of motions to dismiss. Today, he dismissed six of the charges in Fani Willis’ indictment, but importantly, not the centerpiece RICO charge. The Judge wrote that the charges “contain all the essential elements of the crimes but fail to allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of their commission.” The technical vehicle for the dismissal is called a “special demurrer” under Georgia law; it’s a challenge to an indictment that says, in essence, that it doesn’t provide enough information for a defendant to be able to adequately defend himself.
The charges the Judge dismissed, counts 2, 5, 6, 23, 28, and 38, charge various defendants with soliciting a public officer to violate their oath of office. Georgia law says the indictment has to be specific about that violation, and the Judge ruled that the indictment isn’t. That seems like a fair ruling here because the indictment charges that the conduct violated the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions, and the Judge points out that is “so generic as to compel this Court to grant the special demurrers. On its own, the United States Constitution contains hundreds of clauses, any one of which can be the subject of a lifetime’s study. Academics and litigators devote their entire careers to the specialization of a single amendment.”
This isn’t a bad ruling from the Judge. The bad ruling would be if there were convictions in the case that were reversed on appeal because of a flaw in the indictment. The judge is a former federal prosecutor and may have applied this rule more strictly than what is usual in state cases, but the principle is a sound one—when charges do not contain sufficient facts to put defendants on notice, they are due to be dismissed.
In a footnote, Judge McAfee explicitly gave Willis the opportunity to appeal him or correct the error by going back to the grand jury. As a practical matter, Georgia’s RICO statute is broad and Willis can make arguments about these same matters as part of that charge, so there is no need for her to subject the case to the delay that would be involved in rectifying this matter. In the ultimate scheme of things, this is not a big deal, and I don’t read anything into it one way or another about the Judge’s inclinations in the Willis disqualification matter. It seems more likely to me that he’s cleaning up his docket before the April 1 start of spring break in Fulton County.
Forgot the link.
45 Likes
He’s beautiful. I can’t wait to see action shots.
17 Likes
Keep up the pressure
Johnson signals shift on Ukraine to GOP senators | The Hill
49 Likes
He’s the boogie woogie Beagle Boy of Company “T”…
@debg: for a beagle indoors, that is an action shot. They are couch potatoes until they get outdoors.
38 Likes
I know I’m not first, but I have a great story in WaPo about cats:
Cats Aren’t Jerks. They’re Just Misunderstood!
shareable link:
PS: Scum=Trump, same/same
39 Likes
Money Money Money
Former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin putting together investors to buy TikTok, CNBC reports (msn.com)
TikTok had called the bill a “ban” and urged senators to listen to their constituents before taking any action.
“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok,” he said.
13 Likes
I think the narrative of Trump being for sale to the highest donor is a totally wrong framing of this. Trump is the extortionist looking for wherever he can find leverage to force people to pay him off. Just like with impeachment 1. Just like with the extortion of Qatar that saved Jared’s 666 Park Ave. He thinks always like a mob boss, and it turns out that mob boss skills are very useful in politics.
45 Likes
A Democratic legislator on Wednesday called for an inquiry into South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem’s trip to Texas for dental work and a promotional video in which she praises the doctors for giving her “a smile I can be proud of and confident in.”
State Sen. Reynold Nesiba said he initially found the nearly five-minute video to be simply odd. Later he considered other questions and asked the Republican co-chairs of the Legislature’s Government Operations & Audit Committee to put the matter on the panel’s next meeting agenda in July for discussion and questions.
“I just thought it was a very strange video about how much she enjoyed having her teeth done at that particular place,” said Nesiba, a member of the audit committee.
Nesiba said he wonders whether Noem used a state airplane or public funds for the Texas trip and whether the governor paid for the dental procedure or if it was discounted because of her video.
50 Likes
Chump’s access to unlimited media is our biggest problem and has been since he learned how to Twitter.
He has always been fascinated and turned on by the fact he could blow whopper lies past people.
In a room of 20, maybe only a few would keep nodding, entranced. But there were always enough.
Then the entire R voting block offered itself up. Sat enthralled and as one said “Lie to me!” Since then he’s been like a comedian who gets to keep trying out material 24/7. Floating one huge whopper after another and the audience just keeps nodding and applauding. So he goes further, mixing in complete refutations of history we all witnessed. Flooding the zone with 100% anti-reality…approvingly watching his supporters lap it up and the elected Rs rushing to echo the madness.
65 Likes
62 Likes
I saw the funniest thing yesterday. A black cat, an indoor/outdoor one, was standing on a large rock as I walked by yesterday. He was looking down at a squirrel inches away that was standing on its hind legs eating something very nonchalantly. Every few seconds, it would look up at the cat and then continue eating. I was amazed at this supposed “truce” when all of a sudden the cat looked down and moved ever so slightly. The squirrel took off like a shot, the cat in close pursuit. It ran up a tree, and the cat stopped running, looked up for a bit, and then walked away.
I was afraid I was going to see a squirrel murder, so I was very relieved.
48 Likes
CEO of the insurance company that backed Trump bond in Carroll case defends issuing policy (msn.com)
Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg, in a letter to investors, customers and brokers who expressed concerns about the bond, wrote that the decision to give Trump the bond “has nothing to do with the underlying merits” of the appeal, “or with favoring any of the parties in the case.”
“As the surety, we don’t take sides,” Greenberg wrote in the letter, which was obtained by CNBC.
“It would be wrong for us to do so and we are in no way supporting the defendant,” he wrote. “We are supporting and are part of the justice system plumbing included in this case.”
Continue reading
“I fully realize how polarizing and emotional this case and the defendant are and how easy it would be for Chubb to just say no,′ Greenberg wrote. “However, we support the rule of law and our role in it. We considered this the right thing to do and we frankly left our own personal feelings aside.”
Greenberg was named by then-president Trump as a member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations in October 2018. He continued serving on that panel under President Joe Biden until March 2023.
39 Likes
Interesting about who paid Smirnov! Why isn’t this getting more coverage?
48 Likes
Or here in St. Louis it’s 314 Day! (314 is the area code for most of StL)
Now raise your 
if you were awaked by emergency sirens!
(there really needs to be some convent with God about not sending scary weather until such time as one as a chance to get a 
down first)
19 Likes
What right-wing authoritarian wouldn’t be thrilled to have a mind-control network, all their own?
34 Likes