Trump and others charged with conspiring to overturn 2020 election in Georgia

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

Here's the full list of the defendants: ...
Harrison Floyd, leader of Black Voices for Trump

Somehow this seems to have slipped past us here, but last week two media outlets published videos of the proffer sessions of the four Georgia defendants who have pleaded guilty: Jenna Ellis, Sydney Powell, Kennth Chesebro, and Scott Hall. District Attorney Fani Willis was not happy about this leak, which she said was designed to intimidate witnesses and to help other defendants get their stories straight, and she renewed her pervious request for Judge Scott McAfee to issue a protective order, which he did a few days later. There was some initial confusion about who leaked the video, but it turned out to be the lawyer for defendant Misty Hampton, the Coffee County elections supervisor. (At least, they leaked the video to ABC. Marcy Wheeler has noted that no one seems to have copped to releasing video the Washington Post.

At about the same time, Willis also asked the judge to revoke Harrison Floyd's bond because certain public statements and social media activity in which he had engaged, including tagging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Fulton County poll worker Ruby Freeman, were violations of his bond agreement. That led to a hearing before Judge McAfee today. Notably Fani Willis herself represented her office today to argue that Floyd's public comments were designed to inspire others to threaten witnesses. The judge ruled that Floyd had "technically" violated his bond conditions, but not sufficiently to result in remand, and he modified those conditions to clarify what Floyd can and cannot say. After the hearing ended, Floyd, who had been chastised at one point by the judge for speaking out of turn when he "corrected" Willis's reference to "defendant Trump" by saying "President Trump," said to reporters: "Fani's just taken two L's, we got more for her. She’s just mad she can’t get past the Uncle Tom … she's just a little district attorney and I'm presidential."

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I watched some of the hearing today. I think Judge McAfee got it right.

As for the release of the proffer videos he also correctly entered a protective order to prevent future links.

Speaking of protective orders Trump’s attorney in the Georgia case apparently wants relevant evidence from the DC case but can't get it it because of the protective order in that case. So he has filed a motion with Judge McAfee. Good luck with that!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I knew that Judge McAfee was fairly young, but I did not realize until reading this (excellent, as always) report by Anna Bowers on the Floyd consent bond violation ruling that he was only 34 years old.

Judge McAfee: Don’t Lock Him Up - New terms for Harrison Floyd’s consent bond, and an answer to whether Gabriel Sterling enjoys being called a piece of fecal matter.

[N.E. Brigand]

Among the nineteen people charged in Fani Willis's investigation are four people who specifically were indicted for allegedly having illegally accessed the voting systems elsewhere in Georgia: in Coffee County. Two of them, Sidney Powell and Scott Hall, have pleaded guilty. Two others, Misty Hampton and Cathy Latham, await trial. It is also possible that other charges relating to the Coffee County activity will be brought by the Georgia attorney general as a result of an investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. which last month issued a 392-page report.

But as Anna Bower writes today at Lawfare, the GBI report is missing some pertinent information, including details about Latham's interactions with Rudy Giuliani and others in Washington around January 6th. Bower says that the GBI's work appears largely to be just a compilation of other group's investigations.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is consistent with other reports that I have seen about the oral argument in Mark Meadows appeal of the denial of his petition to remove his case to federal court.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

The answer to Harry Litman's question is that the ruling was as broad as possible. The panel unanimously ruled that Meadows was not entitled to removal since he was a former, not current, official, and further ruled that even if a former official was entitled to removal his conduct was not remotely within his official duties, so he still would not be entitled to removal. The opinion was written Chief Judge Pryor, one of the most conservative judges in the country, and a close ally of Justice Thomas.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

While Trump's claims of immunity seek unlikely to succeed, this other filing by a lawyer for defendant Mike Roman seems like a major problem for Fani Willis:

"Filing alleges improper relationship between Fulton DA, top Trump prosecutor."

"Fulton DA Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship, according to a bombshell new court filing that argued the indictment was unconstitutional."

Roman's lawyer alleges that the proof are in the sealed divorce filings of Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor hired by Willis for the Trump case, and that Wade "paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton funds his law firm received." If the facts are as alleged and the court agrees that there is a conflict of interest here, then the case gets taken away from Fani Willi's office and handed over to a lawyer chosen by the state's Prosecuting Attorney's Counsel. Depending on who gets picked, the case then gets dropped entirely.

But what happens with those people who already pleaded guilty (some of whom, I believe, have agreed to testify in other cases including federal cases)?

[N.E. Brigand]

Fani Willis will be deposed by divorce attorneys for Nathan Wade's wife on Jan. 23rd. You can read more about this matter in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

"Could Willis allegations sink Trump case? Legal experts weigh in."

The experts cited are divided.

The filing notes that Wade is billing Willis's office at $250/hour for his special prosecutor duties. That's apparently twice what the regular prosecutors in Willis's office makes. But as we know from the Donald Trump/Stormy Daniels SLAPP litigation a few years ago, it's not very much as attorney's rates go.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not an expert, but I doubt that the allegations will sink the case, though they may cause all kinds of problems for Fani Willis.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[N.E. Brigand]

He's not a lawyer, but I appreciated Josh Marshall's brief commentary on this matter.

On the one hand it’s still not clear to me — and not to many lawyers I’ve spoken to — just what the bad act here would be. Unless Nathan Wade, the outside prosecutor and alleged boyfriend, was submitting false billing reports, the claims of misuse of public funds or kickbacks are thin at best. Willis and Wade are adults. They can have a romantic relationship if they want. But the thinness of these accusations on the merits are just swallowed alive by the dumbfounding inexplicability of just what on earth Willis — assuming the claims of a relationship are true — was possibly thinking. Trump goes to town on the alleged partisanship of his enemies’ nephew’s friend’s personal trainer. What was she thinking? And with everything that was and is at stake.

It’s still my sense that this was always the point. You can’t go into court and say, “Hey, he’s her boyfriend!” You need to make some argument for why that matters to the case. Whether those arguments add up is kind of beside the point. Certainly in the court of public opinion and maybe in a real court too.

Marshall notes that this hearing will be televised.

[N.E. Brigand]

Seeing lots of Republicans today castigating Fani Willis for being an adulterer, which is rich given that they make this argument while defending Donald Trump. Well-known conservative commentator Erick Erickson goes so far as to point out that adultery is a felony in Georgia, but Anthony Michael Kreis notes that (1) that law requires both parties be married but Wilis has been divorced since 2005, and (2) that law is unenforceable anyway.

Kreis also says that based on financial documents released today, he doesn't see any behavior by Willis that could lead to the case being taken away from her office, but he endorses others' suggestion that, simply to avoid the appearance of impropriety, she take a leave of absence and turn the case over to a deputy.

On the other hand, Andrew Fleischman points to the latest reply by Jocelyn Wade in the divorce proceedings with her husband Nathan, who is the special prosecutor that Willis hired despite apparently having had an intimate relationship with him. Jocelyn wants to depose Willis. Yesterday Willis filed a response arguing that for various reasons, she doesn't have to be deposed, but also claiming that the Wades had been separated since 2017 because Joycelyn Wade had an affair with Nathan Wade's best friend. Not so, says Jocelyn Wade in today's filing as she alleges that by making this claim, Willis has defamed her. What a freaking mess.

[N.E. Brigand]

Politico reports on Find Me the Votes: A Hard-Charging Georgia Prosecutor, a Rogue President, and the Plot to Steal an American Election, a new book (to be published next week) by Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman. Apparently the book:

reveals that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) “threw Trump under the bus” during Graham’s secret grand jury testimony in the Georgia election subversion case....

“After fighting a four-month legal battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to block his grand jury subpoena — and losing — South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham turned on a dime ‘and threw Trump under the bus,’ according to a source familiar with his testimony. According to secret grand jury testimony in Fulton County confirmed by the authors, Graham testified that if you told Trump ‘That Martians came and stole the election, he’d probably believe you.’

“He also suggested to the grand jurors that Trump cheated at golf. After Graham was finished testifying, he bumped into Fani Willis in a hallway and thanked her for the opportunity to tell his story. ‘That was so cathartic,’ he told Willis. ‘I feel so much better.’ Then, to the astonishment of one source who witnessed the scene, South Carolina’s senior senator hugged the Fulton County DA who was aggressively pursuing Trump. Willis’s reaction: ‘She was like “whatever, dude,”’ according to one witness of the strange encounter.”

Well that's interesting, but I can see how Graham perhaps thought it would help Trump by portraying him as being led around by the real villains.

[Sunsilver]

Oh, Trump does cheat at golf! Michael Cohen golfed with him frequently, and saw him do it on a regular basis. It's hardly surprising - he will do anything to win!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Trump has now joined and "supplemented" Roman's motion by pointing to those comments by Willis and claiming that they show that she has inserted race into the process.

[N.E. Brigand]

Fani Willis's special prosecutor and alleged boyfriend Nathan Wade's divorce case has been "settled on a temporary basis, negating the need for a public hearing on Wednesday in which Wade was expected to be called to testify." This probably means Willis also won't be called to testify in that matter.

The motion to dismiss remains very much alive, and Willis has to respond by Friday.