The other Dem expelled from the Tennessee House, Justin Pearson, has just been reinstated by a unanimous vote of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. So now both expelled men are un-expelled. I am skeptical Republicans have learned any lessons about overreach, however.
Also, “Senate Democrats are urging the Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the expulsions of two Tennessee state representatives to determine whether their removal violated the Constitution or federal civil rights law,” WaPo reports.
In other news, the Dominion lawsuit is not going well for Fox.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis on Wednesday sanctioned Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp., for withholding evidence in the Dominion defamation suit, and said he’s considering further investigation and censure.
According to a person present in the courtroom, lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems played recordings Fox News producer Abby Grossberg made during 2020,which were not handed over to Dominion’s lawyers during discovery.
Grossberg, a former producer for Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson, has sued Fox News and said her deposition was coerced. In an amended filing Tuesday, she said she had recorded conversations with Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and others.
The sanction gives Dominion a chance to conduct another deposition, at Fox’s expense.
And there’s more!
The surprise evidence and sanction comes days before the trial is scheduled to begin in the $1.6 billion defamation case Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News and Fox Corp. Davis also said Wednesday he was considering appointing a special master to investigate the Fox legal teams’ actions.
On Tuesday, Davis expressed frustration at Fox News for not being straightforward about Rupert Murdoch’s role as a leader at Fox News.
“This is a problem,” Davis said, according to a court transcript. “I need to feel comfortable when you represent something to me that is the truth.”
The latter issue, as I understand it, is that Dominion and the Court understood that Rupert was chairman at Fox Corp. but was not an officer of Fox News, that he’s stepped away from any official capacity at Fox News. But it turns out that wasn’t true. Dominion is complaining that had they known Rupert was still directly involved in making decisions about the News division, they would have handled the case differently. I hope this doesn’t cause the trial date to be pushed back.
In other news — Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller spends six hours at federal court where Jan. 6 grand jury meets. One suspects he was there to testify.
In other news — Democrats want to call GOP’s bluff on defunding the FBI. (No paywall.)
In other news — Trump sues Michael Cohen for reasons. I think Trump is just mad at Michael Cohen about stuff he said in his book.