2020 Election: Predictions, Results and Reactions

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Next week, a man named Douglass Mackey will go on trial for his efforts to undermine the U.S. presidential election in *2016.* He was charged in January 2021. Mackey was apparently a prominent troll on social media using the nickname "Ricky Vaughan"; his true identity became public in 2018. Mackey is alleged, along with four unnamed co-conspirators, with having spread disinformation to Democratic voters in 2016 about how to vote. Today the judge in this case unsealed an order approving a request by prosecutors to keep the identify of one of Mackey's co-conspirators, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating, secret from Mackey. Apparently Mackey only knew this person by his internet alias.

I'm noting this here because (1) I don't want to unearth the 2016 thread so and (2) journalists previously identified another of Mackey's alleged accomplices as Anthime Gionet, aka "Baked Alaska," who is "a pro-Trump white nationalist who was arrested on Jan. 16 [2021] for his involvement in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. Gionet also participated in the deadly white nationalist 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017." (emphasis added)

It took four years to charge Mackey for what he did in 2016. That tells me that three more years may pass before the final charges are brought for actions on January 6th.

That cooperating witness testified today in person but using a pseudonym: "Microchip." So others now know what he looks like but not his real name. In 2016, he spent $300 per month on services to boost the visibility of his disinformation tweets and posted constantly. Why? "To destroy the reputation of Hillary Clinton."

Also presented as part of the prosecutors' case was evidence that the defendant, Douglass Mackey, "called Black people 'the most gullible,' as in easy to deceive . . . [and] also said women should be denied the right to vote."

Mackey was convicted.

[N.E. Brigand]

Here's another important admission in a text from Tucker Carlson that's only come to light because of the Dominion lawsuit. In response to someone complaining that Democrats have competent lawyers while Republicans only have Syndey Powell and Lin Wood, Carlson wrote this about Trump's presidency: "That's the last four years. We're all pretending we've got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it's been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn't really an upside to Trump." Carlson also said that it was "destructive" for Trump not to attend Joe Biden's inauguration. And Carlson said about Trump's various businesses: "All of them fail. What he's good at is destroying things."

A former Fox News producer named Abby Grossberg who was deposed as part of Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Fox (for having pushed the narrative the Dominion changed voters' ballots) now says that Fox lawyers pressured her to give vague answers to some questions and has filed a request to correct her testimony: "I did not understand at the time, as I had not been made aware by Fox, that the statement 'I don’t recall' is potentially perjurious."

Matt Gertz of Media Matters has obtained a slide presentation prepared by Dominion as part of their lawsuit against Fox News, consisting mostly of Fox staff emails obtained in the discovery process. Among them is one in which employees on Tucker Carlson's show say that MyPillow CEO and conspiracy theoriest Mike Lindell is "definitely crazy" before adding that Lindell's financial support (via advertising on Fox) has been crucial to the network's financial stability. In another, Suzanne Scott, the network's CEO, complains about reporters correcting Donald Trump's lies: "This has to stop now... this is bad business... the audience is furious and we are just feeding them material."

There was a hearing today for summary judgment in the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News. The Delaware judge found that Dominon has shown that the statements made on Fox about Dominion were false, so Dominion doesn't need to prove that at trial. But the case will indeed go to trial, where Dominion has to prove "actual malice" by Fox. Here's what Judge Eric M. Davis wrote:

"While the Court must view the record in the light most favorable to Fox, the record does not show a genuine issue of material fact as to falsity. Through its extensive proof, Dominion has met its burden of showing there is no genuine issue of material fact as to falsity. Fox therefore had the burden to show an issue of material fact existed in turn. Fox failed to meet its burden. The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true."

The all-caps are in the opinion and not my addition.

(Edited to add: V beat me to it. When I navigated to HOF, I saw a notification and clicked on it and it took me to the post about Mackey and I didn't realize there was already an earlier post about this subject. Sorry.)

[Voronwë the Faithful]

See the last post of the previous page.

[N.E. Brigand]

Here's another important admission in a text from Tucker Carlson that's only come to light because of the Dominion lawsuit. In response to someone complaining that Democrats have competent lawyers while Republicans only have Syndey Powell and Lin Wood, Carlson wrote this (my emphhasis) about Trump's presidency: "That's the last four years. We're all pretending we've got a lot to show for it, because admitting what a disaster it's been is too tough to digest. But come on. There isn't really an upside to Trump." Carlson also said that it was "destructive" for Trump not to attend Joe Biden's inauguration. And Carlson said about Trump's various businesses: "All of them fail. What he's good at is destroying things."

A former Fox News lawyer producer named Abby Grossberg who was deposed as part of Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Fox (for having pushed the narrative the Dominion changed voters' ballots) now says that Fox lawyers pressured her to give vague answers to some questions and has filed a request to correct her testimony: "I did not understand at the time, as I had not been made aware by Fox, that the statement 'I don’t recall' is potentially perjurious."

EDITED to correct Ms. Grossberg's job: she was a Fox News producer, not a lawyer. My apologies for the error.

All that said, as shown by various emails cited here, Abby Grossberg is hardly blameless in Fox's mistreatment of Dominion.

[N.E. Brigand]

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." -- William Faulkner

A new study finds that counties which in 1940 had a higher share of whites who migrated (or whose ancestors migrated) from former Confederate states in the early 1900s were likelier to support conservative politics for decades afterward, including being likelier to vote for Donald Trump in 2020.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

More details here on the timing. Apparently Donald Trump filed his appeal at 9 p.m. yesterday, the court ordered briefings from the Dept. of Justice and Trump's team after 11 p.m. yesterday, those were submitted by 9:30 a.m. this morning, and the appeal was denied a few hours later. Two Obama judges and a Trump judge, and no dissent noted.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sources are telling CNN's Kaitlin Collins that Donald Trump is unlikely to appeal today's ruling to the Supreme Court.

[N.E. Brigand]

Last night's Wisconsin election saw that state's supreme court flip from Republican to Democratic control for the first time in years. Responding to that news, right-wing "Stop the Steal" organizer Ali Alexander, who helped to organize the events of January 6th (which is why I'm noting this here), today wrote "I do not see a path to 270 in 2024."

In other words, the insurrectionists were counting on Wisconsin awarding its electoral votes to Donald Trump next year even if the voters choose Joe Biden.

[RoseMorninStar]

They're pretty blatant about it, aren't they?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[RoseMorninStar]

Think of how bizarre that statement would have read say.. 10 years ago.

[N.E. Brigand]

Weirdly, my Microsoft-driven news feed earlier today (before we learned this news about Pence complying) featured this story from The Hill:

"Pence defense upheld by court."

Here's how it opens:

Former Vice President Mike Pence startled some legal observers when he invoked congressional immunity to resist a subpoena for testimony before a grand jury looking into efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Pence was relying on his position as president of the Senate to argue he could not be compelled to testify in any other place regarding his duties as a constitutional officer of Congress. It was the first time that a vice president has relied on that shield from legal process.

The “speech or debate” clause in Article I, section 6, of the Constitution states that senators and representatives are privileged from arrest in going to and coming from sessions of Congress and “shall not be questioned in any other place” for “any speech or debate in either house.” The only exceptions are “cases of treason, felony and breach of the peace.”

The legal experts were perhaps less surprised by the time U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled on March 28 that Pence did have limited “speech or debate” immunity from testifying about his specific duties and actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when he presided over the electoral vote count for president and vice president before a joint session of Congress. The actual language and reasoning behind that ruling remain under seal.

Eventually the story does acknowledge that Judge Boasberg's ruling actually went very much against Mike Pence (and thus in favor of Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation into Donald Trump's actions around January 6th), but the headline and first paragraphs really make it seem as if the opposite happened.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This hugely important decision by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversing the outlier opinion of Trump-appointed Judge Carl Nichols who ruled that January 6 insurrectionists who allegedly assaulted law enforcement officers during the 1/6 insurrection could not be charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing or impeding an official proceeding was written by Circuit Judge Florence Pan. Pan was appointed to fill the vacancy left on that court when Ketanji Brown Jackson was elevated to the Supreme Court. Jackson, in turn, had been appointed to the D.C. Circuit to fill the vacancy left with Merrick Garland became Attorney General. Judge Pan was joined in part by Judge Justin Walker, who was appointed by Trump. Judge Walker wrote a separate opinion concurring in part. Another Trump-appointed Judge, Gregory Katsas dissented.

[N.E. Brigand]

On January 6th, there were 22 windows broken at the Capitol. Here is an illustrated attempt to identify each of the people who broke them: Part 1, Part 2 (more here).

[N.E. Brigand]

A Georgia reporter named Anna Bower believes she's found a way to tell when a Fulton County grand jury is likely to be hearing the Donald Trump / 2020 election case. Bower believes it will take two or three days for District Attorney Fani Willis's team to present the evidence in this rather complicated case. Accordingly, when one of the two empaneled grand juries stops issuing indictments in other cases, that could be a sign that they're hearing the Trump case. There are two grand juries. One meets Mondays and Tuesdays; the other meets Thursdays and Fridays. Thirty (non-Trump) indictments from the second grand jury were docketed today, so they almost certainly haven't heard the 2020 election case yet. (That said, it's not a perfect system, because apparently grand juries do more than just hear evidnece and issue indictments.) Bower will be updating four days each week.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Anna Bower is great.

That being said I don't think that the currently enpaneled grand juries are going to indict.I think if it happens it will be by one of the new grand jury's that will be enpaneled beginning May 1st.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I still don't think that Georgia indictments are coming until next month, but this is still interesting given that Parnas hself was indicted on a differentGiulianiinvestigation.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

More trouble for Fox.