'Toontime: Beat the Clock

credit: A. Zyglis

Update:  The Wall Street Journal  reports that Cash Patel has agreed to testify to the federal grand jury in the Mar-a-Lago Papers case in return for immunity.This is a significant development since Patel, a former high national security official in Trump's regime, publicly claimed that Trump declassified the secret document stashed at his Florida compound.  Patel invoked the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination in his previous appearance before the grand jury.  No evidence of such claimed declassification has emerged during the months of investigation into the illegal retention of government documents, nor has any such allegation be made in court filings by the crime boss' legal team.

{11.02.2022} Because of feckless Washington careerists, Trumpillini's plan to delay his prosecution until his 2024 presidential campaign begins appears to be succeeding.  After his campaign begins he can shout "political persecution" until his voters drop their ballots,  Helped by the likes of minions Lindsey Graham, Rudi Guiliani , John Eastman, Clarence Thomas, Virginia Thomas, Eileen Cannon and others, Trump has litigated at every possible juncture. His mercenary army of lawyers paid for by endless and sometimes misleading fundraising.  He does not have to win every courtroom battle, but only hold the ball until the clock runs out.  He has had a lot of practice in this technique during his lifetime.

The Supremes handed him another setback this week, denying Lindsey Graham's appeal of the subpoena ordering him to testify in the Fulton County grand jury investigation of attempts to illegally influence the 2020 election outcome.  Lindsey allegedly wanted to "explore the possibility of more favorable outcome", possibly by throwing out some absentee ballots as invalid according to Georgia prosecutors.  Lindsey made at lease two phone calls  to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff,   The deranged Trump was recorded asking Raffensperger to "find 11,870 votes".  

Lindsey was subpoenaed in July.The Supreme Court rejected Lindsey's argument that his meddling was protected by the Constitution's speech and debate clause this week  The conservative Court is still running interference for him because the Chief Justice temporarily blocked the appeals court order requiring Trumpillini to turn over his tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.  Litigation over his returns has been going on since 2019 when that committee requested the IRS to turn over his tax returns as part of its probe into how the Service handles presidential audits.  Trump was the only recent president to refuse to make his returns public.

Fulton County DA Fani Willis is expanding her office's investigation into a wider probe of a, "multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere"--notably swing states where state legislators might have been swayed into submitted alternate slates of electors to Congress.  Communications from his campaign lawyers show they were counting on Justice Thomas to delay certification of Georgia's electors for Biden.

A federal district court judge ruled on Monday that former chief of staff Mark Meadows must testify before the January 6th Committee   The federal ruling comes just days after a South Carolina judge ruled that Meadows must also testify pursuant to the Fulton County grand jury's subpoena.  Meadows has been fighting the federal demand for testimony since receiving a subpoena at the end of last year,  He may appeal the case to insure more delay.  His tactics seem to have worked since Repugnants in the House have vowed to disband the Select Committee if they take control of the House in January.  Accountability you scream?  VOTE DEMOCRATIC before your democracy dies a tragic but avoidable death.