Appeals court largely upholds Trump gag order in federal election interference case
Trump is prohibited from making public statements about potential witnesses.
“The Order is affirmed to the extent it prohibits all parties and their counsel from making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation in the investigation or in this criminal proceeding,” the opinion reads.
The notable change from [Judge Tanya] Chutkan’s previous order: Trump is now free to level attacks against special counsel Jack Smith himself — but not members of his team.
As an important constitutional point, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals notes that the courts are part of the government, and the First Amendment allows criticism of the government. However, what you can’t do is target individuals for intimidation, and that core part of Judge Tanya Chutkan’s gag order is sustained.
Report: Kenneth Chesebro, ‘architect’ of false electors plot, cooperating with Wisconsin investigation
The Wisconsin Department of Justice would not confirm the existence of an investigation
The news comes days after a civil lawsuit against 10 Wisconsin false electors was settled.
Chesebro helped design a scheme that would have replaced electors for President Joe Biden in certain swing states with electors for former President Donald Trump.
Chesebro has since pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy charges related to election interference in Georgia. His lawyer in that case contested claims that Chesebro served as the plan’s architect, saying his client took a plea deal that would not have been offered to someone conspiring to undermine American democracy.
Key Trump attorney in fake elector plot to meet with AZ prosecutors: report
The attorney for Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign who was a leading architect of the plan to organize fake presidential electors in Arizona and other battleground states that the twice-impeached president lost is set to meet with prosecutors in the Grand Canyon State on Monday.
Attorney General Kris Mayes earlier this year launched an investigation into the 11 Arizona Republicans who falsely claimed to be the electors, even though the election was certified showing Joe Biden won by about 10,000 votes.
The Wisconsin and Arizona investigations are in addition to indictments in Michigan, Georgia, and just this week, Nevada. Those states have indicted false electors, and the news stories make clear they’ve indicted Republicans. That’s because this was a Republican scheme to steal the election.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
2 Ontario men arrested on charges linked to neo-Nazi terrorist movement
Men being held for a bail hearing, investigators say
Two Ontario men are facing terrorism-related charges, the RCMP says, after allegedly participating in the creation of manifestos and recruiting videos in support of far-right extremism and the neo-Nazi terrorist movement.
In a news release issued Friday morning, police said the charges stem from an 18-month investigation, with several search warrants carried out in the Toronto and Niagara regions.
The men, according to investigators, helped create Terrorgram Collective manifestos and Atomwaffen Division recruiting videos.
Paul Krugman/The New York Times:
The Progressive Case for Bidenomics
I can report from experience that talking about these issues with people on the right is basically impossible. Point out that most workers’ earnings have significantly outpaced inflation since the eve of the pandemic, and they’ll say you’re a member of the elite who has no idea what things really cost. Point out that Americans are more likely than not to express positive views about their family’s own financial situation and that strong consumer spending belies claims that families are suffering, and they’ll say you’re a snob telling people how to feel. It’s a no-win situation.
Biden campaign says jobs report shows he is ‘cleaning up the economic disaster’ Trump left
“Joe Biden has now created more jobs in less than three years than any president created in four, cleaning up the economic disaster [Trump] left behind,” Biden-Harris 2024 spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement.
“There’s more work to be done, but his record shows Americans can’t trust Trump to do it. Instead of standing up to corporate greed to lower costs and raise wages for working people, Trump would double down on the same failed policies that gave massive tax cuts to the rich and big corporations, while creating incentives to ship American jobs overseas,” he added.
The campaign also claimed Trump, who is leading the GOP field for the presidential nomination, put the economy “in ruin” as president.
Say it loud.
Bolts magazine:
Yet Another State Shuts the Door on Partisan Gerrymandering Complaints
The U.S. Supreme Court said it’ll never review partisan gerrymandering but maybe states can. New Hampshire is the latest state to refuse to.
Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal judges could not entertain complaints of partisan gerrymandering. In its landmark 5-4 decision Rucho v. Common Cause, the court said that it’s not for federal courts to decide whether an election map is designed to give one party an illegal advantage. But Chief Justice John Roberts assured plaintiffs that his decision does not leave them powerless to stop partisan gerrymandering since they still have a path for litigation: state courts.
The Rucho decision did not “condemn complaints about districting to echo into a void,” Roberts wrote, since states “are actively addressing the issue on a number of fronts.”
New Hampshire last week became the latest state to show the promise was largely illusory.
On the main theme of Republican politics (not policy, politics):
