Jack Smith is about to drop a 180-page brief on Judge Tanya Chutkan in the J6 case, it says here.
“In a new filing, the Special Counsel tells Judge Tanya Chutkan its opening immunity brief will be roughly 180 pages with roughly half devoted to a ‘detailed factual proffer’ and plenty of sensitive material warranting redactions,” the attorney added. “The defense opposes the Special Counsel’s request to file such an oversized brief and has asked to have until Tuesday at 5 pm to submit a written opposition.”
Kyle Cheney, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, also reported on the upcoming brief, saying, “Jack Smith signals his brief on presidential immunity, due Thursday, will come in at 180 pages.”
Legal analyst Allison Gill, better known as Mueller, She Wrote, added that “Jack Smith asks for permission to exceed the page limit for his immunity brief. It will be 180 pages, and as expected, they intend to file a substantial part of it UNDER SEAL.”
Former prosecutor Barb McQuade said, “Not a surprise that Jack Smith’s brief in immunity case is lengthy. He plans to lay out the mountain of evidence against Trump.”
I expect, on top of everything else this week, Trump’s lawyers are going to claim an emergency to try to ban Jack Smith’s book report, currently due Thursday.
As you’ll recall, after Judge Tanya Chutkan finally got the Trump January 6 case back, she agreed with Jack Smith’s proposed path forward: They would submit a brief explaining how the superseding indictment complies with the Supreme Court’s immunity opinion. Chutkan set a deadline of September 26, Thursday, for that brief.
Trump seems certain that if voters see that brief, he will lose the election.
Last Thursday, Trump’s lawyers submitted what was supposed to be a discovery filing, in which they basically said, “NOOOOOOO!!!!! No briefing before the election.” …
…Trump will oppose not just the excess pages, 180 instead of 45, but the entire filing. Now he’s got one less day to make that argument.
Which is what you need to understand the other things in the Jack Smith request. Trump is going to stage an emergency to get this question elevated to SCOTUS to prevent the filing this week. He will try to take things SCOTUS ordered Chutkan to do out of her hands, to put them back before SCOTUS.
Anticipating that, Smith starts his request by laying out that he is just trying to do what Chutkan ordered, to show that SCOTUS ordered precisely this briefing.
Of course, the current SCOTUS doesn’t seem to mind looking corrupt and inconsistent, as long as it helps Trump.
I’m sure you’ll be distressed to know that a lot of things are not working out for Trump these days. For example, the Guardian reports that in August the Harris campaign and DNC raised $257 million in campaign contributions, while Trump and the RNC took in only $85 million. And I believe that’s way down from previous months.
Trump responded by announcing he is selling commemorative silver coins, although it’s not clear profit from the coins will go into his campaign. The coins are $100 each, which is quite a markup for silver.
In another sign of increasing desperation, Trump is now declaring that once he’s re-elected, women will no longer think about abortion. His arguments for why that would be true are not terribly clear, however. Perhaps he intends to make thinking about aboriton illegal. That must be the case, especially since there is new documentation of women getting killed because of the Trump abortion bans.
From 2019 to 2022, the rate of maternal mortality cases in Texas rose by 56%, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time period, according to an analysis by the Gender Equity Policy Institute. The nonprofit research group scoured publicly available reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and shared the analysis exclusively with NBC News.
This was expected. There is data going back years from many countries showing that criminalizing abortion tends to correlate to higher maternal mortality rates. Maybe Republicans should have thought about that.
Trump also endeared himself to women by calling MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle a “dumb as a rock bimbo” for arguing in favor of Harris on Bill Maher’s show. Ruhel’s opinion so disturbed Trump he issued a long tirade on Truth Social in which he insulted Ruhle, Maher, Bret Stephens (also on the show), “MSDNC,” and the New York Times. I think we can say that Trump is not exactly a roll-with-the punches guy. That man’s head is going to explode any day now.
You’ve probably heard that Kamala Harris accepted an invitation from CNN for an October debate. Trump has declared it’s “too late” to debate. He may change his mind if his numbers continue to slide. Both candidates are also talking to “Sixty Minutes” about interviews.
"Of course, the current SCOTUS doesn’t seem to mind looking corrupt and inconsistent, as long as it helps Trump"
Yes, they have gone so far down the corruption hole they need Stump they can't really afford too many more fair elections.
Sorry missed the last post, in regard to the Teamsters, I'm not at all surprised they endorsed Harris. I consider it a win that didn't endorse anyone. Teamsters represents a bunch of Truckers and Law Enforcement types, most of which are Stumpers. Not a huge loss almost every other Union is getting behind Harris including the all important UAW. UAW is really the only union that we consumers can choose to support 100%. We can only buy cars from UAW represented companies like I have my entire life. So if your out of work or you want to support Trump. Eat your Nissan!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxcTgY4j9H8&list=RDbxcTgY4j9H8&start_radio=1
I'm trying to digest this. Team Trump has until 5PM Tuesday to explain in writing why Smith can't file a 180-page brief on the immunity issue that the USSC punted BACK to Chutkin with instructions to analyze what in the indictment is or is not official. Smith seems to argue that the revised (superseding) indictment excludes any parts that the USSC found objectionable. But Smith's argument is that the actions which Trump is charged with were NOT part of his official duties. The only way Chutkin can make the determination (which the USSC decision mandates) is by examining the facts pertaining to each charge. Forcing Smith to cherry-pick evidence to comply with the usual 45-page limit narrows Chutkins view of the facts to 25% of what Smith thinks is essential for Chutkin to decide.
Trump's argument on Tuesday will be that it's election interference. He will demand a delay until after the election. Chutkin has already decided that the election is not a factor. So Team Trump knows what will come back. Chutkin will grant Smith's request. This is the point where Trump will ask the USSC to intervene. I don't trust the USSC as far as I could throw Clarance Thomas. But I don't think there's an issue that warrants the USSC to step in. The immunity issue (decided wrong) WAS a Constitutional issue that could properly pause the prosecution of the case. Here's the problem. When Team Trump files an appeal of Chutkin's decision, things may be paused until the DC appeals court decides that Chutkin's decision is NOT appealable. (If that's a word.) And Trump will appeal to the USSC, which is not required to move swiftly. So they sit on it until after the election when they also deny the appeal. And the case goes forward. At some point, Trump's lawyers are subject to sanctions if they continue to file frivolous appeals.
I defer to Marcy as the legal expert but I think Trump will get away with it UNLESS the USSC immediately refuses Trump's appeal.
The courts will not deliver the blow that crushes Trump with the facts of his crimes. It falls on the voters to deny Trump the presidency. He's done an excellent job of delaying all the cases but nothing has actually been tossed. The FL case will come back with a new judge, I hope. Trump has no Plan B if the loses the election, unless it's fleeing the country. Which might be the best political outcome because Trump would be in permanent self-exile. He could not return to the US without being arrested and held without bail for every one of the criminal trials. If any of the criminal trials have begun before Trump leaves, that trial can continue to completion. The verdict and sentencing would stand.
The election is close – I'm looking at polls of the swing states. Trump is perhaps ahead in AZ and GA. Even if Harris wins GA, Trump has the most leverage to hang up certification there. (So if Harris wins, she might not get credit in the EC on J6.) The governors of PA and NC are Democrats. Stealing those states will be more difficult. 270toWin estimates Harris has 292. That's 22 more EC votes than she needs. She could lose PA (19 votes), GA, and AZ… and still win by 3 votes by taking NC, which is only recently a "Leans D" state. But it's close.
"Appealable" is most definitely a word.
O.T. Well apparently the genocide in Gaza 45,000 dead hasn't moved the polls enough toward Stump so Bibi has decided to Bomb civilians in Lebanon, over 300 killed in the last two days. Maybe that will move the polls toward diaper don? CNN calls it a "high stakes game". Funny I always thought provoking a war and racking up civilian casualties was a bit more serious than a game? I don't know how we got here exactly but we are in a place where almost no one from either party or our corporate media will speak out against Israel's deadly aggression, especially this close to an election. Bibi understands that fact very well.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-09-19/ty-article/.premium/new-evidence-reveals-netanyahus-relentless-efforts-to-block-hostage-deal-report-shows/00000192-0a79-d1bc-a1ff-2e7fe0420000
It looks like Netanyahu's mission statement is to spread enough hate to ensure near continuous warfare into the next century at least. He may need to appoint a hate spreader designee, as he is no spring chicken. I remember when they could get a war over with in less than a week. Of course, back then, youth and innocence inspired other life options. Now the destiny of Thanatos rules over what was once called the cradle of civilization. Not a sign of civility in sight. Just a big mess getting bigger.