Dahlia Litchwick: On Thursday, during oral arguments in Trump v. United States, the Republican-appointed justices shattered those illusions. This was the case we had been waiting for, and all was made clear—brutally so. These justices donned the attitude of cynical partisans, repeatedly lending legitimacy to the former president’s outrageous claims of immunity from criminal prosecution. To at least five of the conservatives, the real threat to democracy wasn’t Trump’s attempt to overturn the election—but the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute him for the act. These justices fear t ..read more

It’s a bit ironic that, the day before the Supreme Court immunity hearing, Arizona issued iindictments of the Arizona fake electors and some of their national-level handlers — Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Mike Roman, Jenna Ellis, and Christina Bobb. Philip Bump at WaPo points out that Bobb was recently put in charge of the Trump campaign’s “election integrity division,” or maybe it’s the RNC’s election integrity division; it’s hard to tell. It was either an odd or a fitting appointment, depending on how you look at it. Bobb wrote a book — “Stealing Your Vote: The ..read more

Today’s our day off. The Manhattan trial resumes tomorrow. Tomorrow is also when the SCOTUS will hear Trump’s immunity argument. Yesterday the Senate signed off on the aid packages for Ukraine, Israel, et al., and today President Biden signed them. There are other things going on today, but for now I want to look at Congress. It appears this is Let’s Take Marjorie Taylor Greene Down a Few Pegs Week for congressional Republicans. This is from The Hill: Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) took a shot at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Tuesday, saying she is “dragging our brand ..read more

Is this an admission? I’m reading that today David Pecker of National Enquirer fame was asked why he paid $30,000 for the “illegitimate child” story, even though he believed it not to be true. And Pecker said, “If it got out to another publication, another media outlet, it would have been very embarrassing to the campaign.” It seems to me that Bragg has a pretty good case. He’s even got the voice recording of Trump and Michael Cohen discussing how they were going to “finance” the project with “our friend David.” I don’t think Trump is going to get away with claiming he had no idea Michael Cohe ..read more

Right now there’s an overwhelming amount of commentary on the opening arguments (example) that I’m still sorting out. Here’s also a key takeaways article from WaPo. Jeremy Stahl writes at Slate that Trump seemed to be mentally checking out whenever the prosecution was presenting its arguments. The defense arguments seem wobbly to me, but all they have to do is plant reasonable doubt in just one juror’s mind. Judge Engoron accepted the hinky appeal bond (drat) but put some conditions on it. The state of New York is never going to see that money, I fear. I’m hearing that there were no pro-Trump ..read more

With so much going on this week I plan to do a lot of short posts instead of a few omnibus posts. I already posted about the Sandoval ruling this morning. That’s interesting stuff by itself. In the Manhattan criminal trial, the prosecution has made opening arguments and the defense is finishing up. It’s going to be a short trial day today because one of the jurors has a medical issue that needs addressing. The best way to follow along is the New York Times live feed, IMO. No paywall. Update: The trial had time to introduce the first witness, who is David Pecker of the National Enquirer. He’ll ..read more

Good morning everybody! This is the first day of what could be a significant week. And we have a ruling on Friday’s Sandoval hearing already. Merchan granted questioning about the following: *The New York Attorney General verdict that Trump misstated the value of his assets for economic benefit *That he violated a court order in attacking Judge Engoron’s clerk during that case *That he was found to have defamed E. Jean Carroll *That he was found another time to have defamed E. Jean Carroll *That he stipulated to the dissolution of the Trump foundation in another NYAG case This is from the Ne ..read more

As expected, the House passed $61 billion in aid for Ukraine this afternoon, as well as $26 billion in aid for Israel and Gaza. Earlier they passed $8.1 billion in aid for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region and a bill that requires the current Chinese owner of TikTok to sell or face a potential ban. Moscow Marjorie is pissed. I understand she threw a fit when many of the Dems started waving little Ukrainian flags when the bill passed. Now these have to go back to the Senate. I don’t know how much the  House bills differ from what the Senate passed earlier. I hope the Ukraine bil ..read more

The jurors and alternates are selected, and the trial begins Monday. There also was a Sandoval hearing today, which is “to let a defendant decide whether it is in his or her best interest to testify. In the hearing, which typically takes place before a trial begins, prosecutors are required to outline a defendant’s past crimes and misdeeds that could be brought up on cross-examination,” it says on the Internet somewhere. The judge will rule on Monday what questions would be allowed if Trump testifies, which he wants to do. Yes, he’s that stupid. Some guy named Maxwell Azzarello of St. Augustin ..read more

I’m going to be straight with you here. If I were POTUS now, I’d be seriously considering a super-dark special ops operation that takes out Benjamn Netanyahu. With extreme prejudice. And any other extremist faction leader that’s keeping the hard-right coalition in power in the Israeli Parliament. They are a threat to the world at this point. I understand the Biden Administration was going all-out to persuade Netanyahu to not retaliate. There are reports they even offered to step aside and let the IDF invade Rafah as long as there was no retaliation against Iran. So Bibi retaliated, and I’m sur ..read more