Days left before Trump’s first trial

Donald Trump said that it would be a “great honor” to be jailed for violating a gag order, marking an escalation in attacks he’s made against New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and other court officials in a case about to go to trial.

Trump’s lawyers have filed another appeal in the hush money case to challenge the order by the trial Judge Merchan denying him from arguing he has presidential immunity. Trump’s attorneys also are challenging Merchan’s “refusal” to recuse himself from the trial and a previous ruling related to how dockets are made publicly. In a brief two-page notice of petition, Trump’s lawyers alleged the judge exceeded his authority in those rulings and have asked the appeals court to hold a hearing on May 6.

Merchan issued an order denying a motion from Trump’s attorneys to delay the trial due to excessive pretrial publicity. The ruling is hardly a surprise, and the latest in a series of decisions by the court this week rejecting Trump’s 11th-hour attempts to stop his first criminal trial. “The remedy that Defendant seeks is an indefinite adjournment. This is not tenable,” Merchan wrote.

[I believe all the pretrial publicity would be minor if Trump stopped bullying and whining.]

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is pushing back on the latest attempt by Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify her entire office from prosecuting the election subversion case in Georgia. Willis asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to uphold Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s initial ruling that allowed her to remain on the criminal case if her top prosecutor, Nathan Wade, resigned.

A New York appeals court with Associate Justice Lizbeth González has denied Trump’s petition to change the venue of his upcoming hush money trial. Trump’s attorneys had urged the court to postpone the trial so it could consider whether to change the venue, arguing that Trump cannot get a fair jury in New York. But González quickly denied the motion to stop the trial after hearing arguments, and there is no further argument on the motion to change the venue. Jury selection cannot proceed next week in a fair manner in New York County, which is Manhattan, based on their research, Trump’s attorney claimed. The trial begins on April 15th.

Earlier this week, Trump’s legal team asked the appeals court to delay the trial so he could challenge a gag order stopping Trump from making statements about witnesses, family members of the judge and prosecutors, and jurors.

[So exactly where they suggest the trial move to? Some area of the country that is heavily Republican? The trial has publicity across the US and at least part of the world.]

Trump asked a New York appeals court for emergency relief to stop the criminal trial from going ahead so he could appeal a lower court’s ruling on presidential immunity on April 25th and have the judge recused from the case. It took Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer just minutes after hearing arguments to reject the interim motion to stay the trial.

Trump said he would testify at his New York criminal hush money trial. “Yeah, I would testify,” Trump said at a news conference at Mar-a-Lago as he continued railing against the charges against him. Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records over the reimbursement of hush money payments made before the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty.

Trump signed a bill in 2019 that increases fines on criminal robocall violations and cracks down on companies making the calls, as part of a federal push against telephone scammers. Why am I mentioned this? In the first week of April 2024, the RNC co-chair and daughter-in-law to Donald Trump, Lara Trump, sent out a robocall to 145,000 people with a series of laws. “We all know the problems. No photo IDs, unsecured ballot drop boxes, mass mailing of ballots, and voter rolls chock full of deceased people and non-citizens are just a few examples of the massive fraud that took place,” the RNC call said.

[Just 15 days ago, Lara Trump, said the “stolen” election from 2020 “is in the past”. She flip flops just like her father-in-law.]

Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, repeatedly claims that he believed Trump stored news clippings, hairspray, shampoo, picture frames and other miscellaneous materials in the boxes in the special counsel’s case into the mishandling of classified documents from the Trump White House. Nauta faces several obstruction-related charges in the case.

[Must be a lot of news clippings, hairspray, shampoo, picture frames. So if he claims he knew the contents of the boxes then he knew that he was wrong in claiming that junk.]

Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory. Some foreign policy experts said Trump’s idea would reward Russian President Vladimir Putin and condone the violation of internationally recognized borders by force.

[Do you think Ukraine would even allow that to happen? I doubt it. Of course what is to stop Russia from wanting more late? Trump in the end, doesn’t care about Ukraine. He doesn’t care about the lives there. He just wants to please his master, Vlady Putain.]

Cowardly, Trump said that abortion rights should be left to the states, offering his clearest stance yet on one of the most delicate and contentious issues in American politics. He previously suggested a 15 week ban. Trump said he was “proudly the person responsible” for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. In 1999, Trump called himself “very pro-choice”. Over the past 25 years, he has changed his stance 13 times.

[What did he do with Roe v. Wade? He stacked the Supreme Court with right wing judges.]

Trump credited his about face in 2015 to a child born to his friends who “was going to be aborted. And it wasn’t aborted. And that child today is a total superstar, a great, great child.”

[Of course, Trump has the history of making up stories. So take this story with a grain of salt….]

House conservatives revolted against GOP leadership and defeated a key vote on the floor, the latest blow to Speaker Mike Johnson that comes after Trump called on Republicans to kill a controversial surveillance law known as FISA. 19 Republicans bucked the House GOP leadership and voting with Democrats to sink the procedural vote. Does Trump want to oust Johnson?

[Those 19 Republicans probably include the usual far right Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz and the rest of the wack job squad. Greene has threatened to oust Johnson and with maybe 19 potential Republicans against Johnson, Congress would go through the same mess when Johnson was first elected speaker. If the coup d’état comes soon, it could kill the Republican’s attempt to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas before the next election.]

Trump’s campaign announced that a recent dinner in Palm Beach would raise at least $50.5 million. The money would be split between Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and others. Each of the 100 guests at the dinner will shell out a minimum of $250,000 and a maximum of about $824,600 each [who got to sit at Trump’s table].

[So these wealthy 100 people don’t seem to mind on backing a narcissist womanizer who was the leader of the Trump Insurrection of January 6th.]

Immigrants arriving today “are people coming in from prisons and jails. They’re coming in from just unbelievable places and countries, countries that are a disaster,” he said, according to the attendee at that fundraiser. He would prefer “Nice countries, you know like Denmark, Switzerland? Do we have any people coming in from Denmark? How about Switzerland? How about Norway?”

During Trump’s 4 year reign, there were 14 cabinet secretary turnovers. In about 3.5 years, President Biden has had 2. In fact, if you add up the Presidents Clinton, G.W. Bush, Obama and Biden years combined, there were still less turnovers than Trump.

Unsure if it is because of Trump, but at least 21 House Republicans will vacate their seat by the next election.

Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who admitted to testifying falsely in Trump’s civil fraud case, was sentenced to five months in jail on perjury charges. Weisselberg was charged with five counts of perjury, but under a deal with prosecutors, he agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts relating to testimony he gave during a 2020 deposition with the attorney general’s office. Weisselberg also admitted to testifying falsely at the civil fraud trial last fall but that is not among the charges to which he pleaded guilty.

In a recent poll, the number of Republicans who agree that there was fraud in the 2020 elections and there was no Russian interference have increased since the elections. Not surprisingly but Republicans overwhelmingly believe all the lies from Trump – anywhere between 37% and 87% – depending on the lie. Democrats are at the other side of the scale with the US funds the majority of the budget for NATO at 26%. Independents tend to be about 10-15% higher. Republicans also don’t seem to care as much if the president is ethical [perfect for Trump] and compassionate [also Trump].

Five subpoenas to the House Trump Insurrection committee

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack [a.k.a Trump Insurrection] on the US Capitol is taking the extraordinary step of sending subpoenas to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. They have rejected the panel’s requests to voluntarily cooperate.

“The fact that they sent it to the press before they send it to the members is just proof it’s all about headlines. This whole thing is a charade,” said Perry. Well, duh! He knew it was coming when he refused to cooperate. McCarthy still calls the committee illegitimate. Unsure in his mind what would make a committee legitimate. All Republican committee investigating Donald Trump? “But the one thing that has changed in America: higher inflation … unsecure border, gas prices and now we don’t have baby formula,” said McCarthy. Yes. I’m sure baby formula has been talking about in Congress daily.

Prosecutors have convened a grand jury to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents that he improperly removed from the White House and brought with him to his resort at Mar-a-Lago after his term ended in January 2021. Charges are rarely brought in investigations into the handling of classified documents and that the Department of Justice typically conducts them to determine whether any highly sensitive information may have been exposed so the intelligence community can take measures to protect sources and methods.

In a nearly hour-and-a-half speech at a political rally recently in Pennsylvania, Trump made only a passing reference to the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn a landmark ruling that established a woman’s right to an abortion [Roe v Wade]. I think even he knows it is a hot topic and he could alienate the very few voters that are pro-choice but like him. [Polls say about two thirds of the US population is in favor of pro-choice to some degree.]

Mark T. Esper, who served Trump as defense secretary, alleges in a new book that he witnessed Trump in the Oval Office suggesting that members of the military should shoot American protesters “in the legs or something” as they are exercising their right to free speech. Esper said it was just him, Trump, Mike Pence. And a few others but only names Pence. Of course Trump denies it who claims “This is a complete lie, and 10 witnesses can back it up.”

As well, Esper claims Trump had developed a disdain for Stanley McChrystal and William H. McRaven, popular and influential military leaders who, in retirement, criticized Trump. When Trump informed Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of his wish to see McChrystal and McRaven court-martialed, the two Pentagon leaders “jumped to their defense,” Esper writes, arguing that both completed distinguished military careers and that taking such action would be “extreme and unwarranted.”

McChrystal, an Army Ranger whom President Barack Obama famously ousted as the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, called Trump “immoral” in an interview with ABC News. McRaven, who under Obama devised the operation resulting in Osama bin Laden’s death, accused Trump in an opinion piece of having “embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation.”

Would you believe three war ships that were built in the Trump era will be decommissioned because of constant hardware problems. The anti-submarine warfare system on the ships “did not work out technically.”

Elon Musk said that he would end Trump’s Twitter ban if he becomes the social media platform’s new owner. Musk said during a keynote address hosted by the Financial Times that Trump shouldn’t have been banned in the first place. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of a country and it did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk said. You think Trump will rush to Twitter? It could show how his Truth Social is sucking. [I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg would have a personal account on a competing platform.]