The sprawling 41-count indictment of Donald Trump and 18 other defendants in Fulton county had its first test on Monday as Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff, took the stand before a federal judge over his request to move his Georgia election interference case from state to federal court.
Meadows testified for nearly three hours before the court broke for lunch, defending his actions as Trump’s chief of staff while avoiding questions regarding whether he believed Trump won in 2020.
[…]
“There was a political component to everything that we did,” testified Meadows, referring to his actions during the final weeks of the Trump administration.
He also testified that his duties involved sitting in on nearly all of Trump’s meetings, which he would help arrange with various states and agencies, according to ABC News.
“Those were challenging times, bluntly,” said Meadows, testifying about his time as Trump’s chief of staff during the pandemic and through the 2020 election, according to CNN. “I don’t know if anyone was fully prepared for that type of job.”
According to the indictment, Meadows arranged the infamous call between Trump and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, where the former president asked Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to block Biden’s victory. On Monday, Meadows testified that Trump had instructed him to set up the call.
He also at one point instructed a White House aide to draft a strategy memo for “disrupting and delaying” the electoral certification process on 6 January 2021, according to the indictment. Yet Meadows denied doing that on Monday, calling it the “biggest surprise”.
Willis subpoenaed Raffensperger, who testified during the Monday hearing.
When prosecutors asked Raffensperger about the federal government’s role in certifying elections, he testified that it has “none”.
Raffensperger, who was on the stand for more than an hour, also testified Trump “lost the election” and that his “outreach to that extent was extraordinary”, referring to the 2 January 2021 phone call Meadows arranged.
Kurt Hilbert, a Trump campaign attorney, also took the stand Monday and testified the purpose of the call was to discuss the campaign, challenging Meadows’ claim he acted as a federal official.
[…]
Moments before Meadows’ federal court hearing, Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the Fulton county election interference case, said all 19 defendants would be arraigned on 6 September in 15-minute increments. Meadows is set to be arraigned at 10.30am local time, following Trump, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman and Sidney Powell.
Three other defendants have filed motions to remove their cases from Fulton county. Jeffrey Clark, a former justice department official, along with Georgia fake electors David Shafer, Shawn Still and Cathy Latham,are each seeking to move their cases to federal court.
Trump is expected to file a similar request in the coming weeks.
A conservative group opposed to Donald Trump is putting the former president on blast in a new ad demanding “consequences” for his misdeeds in the White House.
The spot from the Republican Accountability Project, which will run on Fox News in several markets, points out that Trump’s constant lies had many people saying in frustration that “nothing matters.”
Trump told more than 30,000 of them during his four years in office, according to a Washington Post tally.
But the voiceover states it’s not true that nothing matters.
“Because in America, the rule of law still matters,” the voice states. “And that’s why Donald Trump has been charged with 91 felonies in four separate cases for attempting to steal an election, falsifying business records and mishandling classified information.”
Then, the spot points out what doesn’t matter… and what does.
“It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump was president of the United States. It doesn’t matter that he is currently running for the presidency,” the voiceover says. “This is America. No one is above the law. That’s why it matters that Donald Trump faces consequences for his actions.”
The video is part of a six-figure ad campaign, with spots appearing on Fox News this week in the key swing-state markets of Phoenix, Milwaukee and Atlanta.
That last location is where Trump was indicted most recently, on charges related to election interference in the state.
The campaign will also include a video billboard in Times Square showing all of Trump’s 91 criminal indictments.
The campaign will also include a video billboard in Times Square showing all of Trump’s 91 criminal indictments:
Jones, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not rule from the bench at the conclusion of Monday’s daylong hearing, but he noted the significance of the issue.
When Meadows’ attorney said at the conclusion of the hearing that his client was “entitled to a prompt determination,” Jones responded that he was likely going to take his time because he thinks the ruling will set precedent for other cases.
“If I don’t rule by September 6, then he should show up for the arraignment,” Jones said of Meadows.
[…]
President Biden is expected to give a speech on Tuesday to mark the selection of these drugs.
“For far too long, Americans have paid more for prescription drugs than any major economy,” Biden said in a statement. “And while the pharmaceutical industry makes record profits, millions of Americans are forced to choose between paying for medications they need to live or paying for food, rent, and other basic necessities. Those days are ending.”
“Today, my Administration announced the first 10 Medicare Part D drugs that have been selected for price negotiation — for the first time ever,” Biden continued. “They are among the most common and costly prescriptions that treat everything from heart failure, blood clots, diabetes, arthritis, Crohn’s disease — and more. This is on top of progress we made in reducing the cost of insulin to $35 a month for seniors on Medicare.”
Lauding the plan as a “key part of Bidenomics,” Biden also noted that he was “not backing down” in light of the lawsuits that have been filed against Medicare drug price negotiation.
“Goldman Sachs warned clients in a report Sunday that it now views a government shutdown later this year as “more likely than not” because of differences over spending issues and “potential complications from various political issues.”
“I don’t think anybody supports a government shutdown,” a Senate Republican aide said. “But the House is something we don’t have much control over, if any.”
“The House Freedom Caucus issued a statement Monday calling for defense and nondefense funding levels for fiscal 2024 to be lowered to the fiscal 2022 level of $1.471 trillion, well below the $1.59 trillion spending cap set by the Biden-McCarthy debt limit deal.”
“They pledged to oppose any stopgap spending measure that does not include the House-passed “Secure the Border Act,” which would restart construction of the southern border wall…”
“House conservatives also insisted that spending legislation “address the unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department and FBI to focus on prosecuting real criminals instead of conducting political witch hunts” and “end the Left’s cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon,” referring to the Defense Department’s policies of paying for service members to travel to obtain abortions, as well as its diversity initiatives and a policy treating transgender people according to how they self-identify.”
“Jim Dyer, the former Republican staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, said he doesn’t see the Senate Republican Conference backing these demands. “These are not the types of activities, respectfully, that you would find in a final product. I think that’s a huge management problem for the House Republican leadership if that’s the way these guys are leaning,” he said. “How the hell would you write legislation opposing the weaponization of the Justice Department?”
“Dyer said he doesn’t see Senate Republicans backing up House Republicans’ demands for the stopgap spending measure that needs to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown or other spending bills.”
September 30th. Hmmm. Would a government shutdown include Federal Courts? If so, they can’t keep them shut down until after the election.
Also, it’s probably not good to shut things down during hurricane season, especially if your home state will need FEMA to come to the rescue.
“Meadows disputed allegations laid out in the indictment, saying that he never directed Trump White House aide John McEntee to write a memo about a strategy for “disrupting and delaying” the January 6, 2021, congressional certification of the election.”
“Because this was a pre-trial hearing, Meadows therefore was denying an allegation before seeing what evidence the district attorney had gathered to accuse him of it in the first place.”
I hope Meadows just shot himself in the foot.
Just got a groove initiated as I harkened back to a simpler pavilion.
I see 91 felonies and can only think of the lyrics to 99 Luftballoons in translation. We might see alien space lasers yet.
“The FBI is investigating more than a dozen Uzbek nationals allowed into the US after they sought asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year, a scramble set off when US intelligence officials found that the migrants traveled with the help of a smuggler with ties to ISIS, according to multiple US officials.”
“While the FBI says no specific ISIS plot has been identified, officials are still working to “identify and assess” all of the individuals who gained entry to the United States, according to a statement from National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson. And they are closely scrutinizing a number of the migrants as possible criminal threats, according to two US officials.”
“…the episode was so alarming that an urgent classified intelligence report was circulated to President Joe Biden’s top Cabinet officials in their morning briefing book.” <— How do we know this?
Well, if this ends up shutting down border crossings, what are Republicans going to whine about?
“The incident kicked off a flurry of urgent meetings among top national security and administration officials at a time when Republicans have hammered Biden on the security of the southern border heading into the 2024 campaign. Staff on key congressional committees have been informed of the incident, according to two sources familiar with the matter.”
“Earlier this year, a cohort of migrants from Uzbekistan requested asylum and were screened by the Department of Homeland Security, part of a rising number of asylum seekers who have traveled to the US from Central Asia in recent years. There was no information in any of the intelligence community’s databases that raised any red flags and the people were all released into the US pending a court date.”
“Speaking at a July congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “From the FBI’s perspective, that we are seeing all sorts of very serious, very serious, criminal threats that come from across the border.”
“Wray said the southern border was becoming “more of a priority” for the FBI.”
“Some intelligence officials who viewed the intelligence report sent around earlier this month worry that ISIS may shift its tactics to target the southern border, long a bogeyman on the political right but one that intelligence officials say has yet to become a reality.”
Remember the Republican rumors that they were finding prayer rugs and copies of the Quran at the border during the Obama administration? It sounds like they manifested the heck out of it by offering bad ideas.
“Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday abruptly ended a special session initially touted to improve public safety in the wake of a deadly elementary school shooting, but it quickly unraveled into chaos over the past week as the GOP-dominant Statehouse refused to take up gun control measures and instead spent most of the time ensnared in political infighting.”
“In a particularly heated moment after the session concluded, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson appeared to have a brief physical interaction where both accused each other of shoving within moments of the House chamber adjourning the special session.”
“Pearson and Jones were expelled by the Republican supermajority earlier this year. Both have since been reelected and have remained critical of Sexton’s leadership.”
“Sexton said a security guard put his hand on his back and knocked Sexton forward, prompting the speaker to move right to step past a photographer. Then, Sexton said Pearson “comes in and pops me from the right side,” bumping his shoulder. Sexton said he did not throw his shoulder into Pearson.”
“Pearson told reporters that Sexton was “initiating this act of aggression, an act of violence against me,” saying he was not being aggressive with Sexton or pushing him.”
Film at 11 –
🎶🇺🇸
i’ve cooked all the green beans in the pot so satisfied i’m eating them
Mark Meadows testifies in bid to move Georgia election case to federal court | Mark Meadows | The Guardian
‘No One Is Above The Law’: Republican Group Hits Trump Hard In Damning Fox News Ad (msn.com)
The campaign will also include a video billboard in Times Square showing all of Trump’s 91 criminal indictments:
more on that meadows hearing from CNN:
and a more in depth coverage by Atlanta newspaper of yesterday’s hearing:
https://www.ajc.com/politics/breaking-meadows-defends-actions-as-he-testifies-in-federal-court/YG3IFQBGGJA5BGAP5FNO74CIMI/
Super blue moon tomorrow night. Catch it now or wait until 2037 for the next one.
Full Blue Moon near Saturn: It’s a supermoon on August 30-31 (earthsky.org)
what uncle joe did and is doing this summer and beyond affecting everyday lives
Here are the first 10 Medicare drugs the government will negotiate lower prices | The Hill
the hill link listed these drugs:
Eliquis
Jardiance
Xarelto
Januvia
Farxiga
Entresto
Enbrel
Imbruvica
Stelara
NovoLog
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4170143-gop-tensions-between-senate-house-raise-shutdown-odds/
“Goldman Sachs warned clients in a report Sunday that it now views a government shutdown later this year as “more likely than not” because of differences over spending issues and “potential complications from various political issues.”
“I don’t think anybody supports a government shutdown,” a Senate Republican aide said. “But the House is something we don’t have much control over, if any.”
“The House Freedom Caucus issued a statement Monday calling for defense and nondefense funding levels for fiscal 2024 to be lowered to the fiscal 2022 level of $1.471 trillion, well below the $1.59 trillion spending cap set by the Biden-McCarthy debt limit deal.”
“They pledged to oppose any stopgap spending measure that does not include the House-passed “Secure the Border Act,” which would restart construction of the southern border wall…”
“House conservatives also insisted that spending legislation “address the unprecedented weaponization of the Justice Department and FBI to focus on prosecuting real criminals instead of conducting political witch hunts” and “end the Left’s cancerous woke policies in the Pentagon,” referring to the Defense Department’s policies of paying for service members to travel to obtain abortions, as well as its diversity initiatives and a policy treating transgender people according to how they self-identify.”
“Jim Dyer, the former Republican staff director of the House Appropriations Committee, said he doesn’t see the Senate Republican Conference backing these demands. “These are not the types of activities, respectfully, that you would find in a final product. I think that’s a huge management problem for the House Republican leadership if that’s the way these guys are leaning,” he said. “How the hell would you write legislation opposing the weaponization of the Justice Department?”
“Dyer said he doesn’t see Senate Republicans backing up House Republicans’ demands for the stopgap spending measure that needs to pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a government shutdown or other spending bills.”
September 30th. Hmmm. Would a government shutdown include Federal Courts? If so, they can’t keep them shut down until after the election.
Also, it’s probably not good to shut things down during hurricane season, especially if your home state will need FEMA to come to the rescue.
Anti-woke, snoozing losers.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/politics/mark-meadows-gamble-trump-fani-willis/index.html
“Meadows disputed allegations laid out in the indictment, saying that he never directed Trump White House aide John McEntee to write a memo about a strategy for “disrupting and delaying” the January 6, 2021, congressional certification of the election.”
“Because this was a pre-trial hearing, Meadows therefore was denying an allegation before seeing what evidence the district attorney had gathered to accuse him of it in the first place.”
I hope Meadows just shot himself in the foot.
Just got a groove initiated as I harkened back to a simpler pavilion.
I see 91 felonies and can only think of the lyrics to 99 Luftballoons in translation. We might see alien space lasers yet.
96 —count ‘em—96 !
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/29/politics/migrants-us-southern-border-smuggler-isis-ties/index.html
“The FBI is investigating more than a dozen Uzbek nationals allowed into the US after they sought asylum at the southern border with Mexico earlier this year, a scramble set off when US intelligence officials found that the migrants traveled with the help of a smuggler with ties to ISIS, according to multiple US officials.”
“While the FBI says no specific ISIS plot has been identified, officials are still working to “identify and assess” all of the individuals who gained entry to the United States, according to a statement from National Security Council spokesman Adrienne Watson. And they are closely scrutinizing a number of the migrants as possible criminal threats, according to two US officials.”
“…the episode was so alarming that an urgent classified intelligence report was circulated to President Joe Biden’s top Cabinet officials in their morning briefing book.” <— How do we know this?
Well, if this ends up shutting down border crossings, what are Republicans going to whine about?
“The incident kicked off a flurry of urgent meetings among top national security and administration officials at a time when Republicans have hammered Biden on the security of the southern border heading into the 2024 campaign. Staff on key congressional committees have been informed of the incident, according to two sources familiar with the matter.”
“Earlier this year, a cohort of migrants from Uzbekistan requested asylum and were screened by the Department of Homeland Security, part of a rising number of asylum seekers who have traveled to the US from Central Asia in recent years. There was no information in any of the intelligence community’s databases that raised any red flags and the people were all released into the US pending a court date.”
“Speaking at a July congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “From the FBI’s perspective, that we are seeing all sorts of very serious, very serious, criminal threats that come from across the border.”
“Wray said the southern border was becoming “more of a priority” for the FBI.”
“Some intelligence officials who viewed the intelligence report sent around earlier this month worry that ISIS may shift its tactics to target the southern border, long a bogeyman on the political right but one that intelligence officials say has yet to become a reality.”
Remember the Republican rumors that they were finding prayer rugs and copies of the Quran at the border during the Obama administration? It sounds like they manifested the heck out of it by offering bad ideas.
https://apnews.com/article/tennessee-republicans-special-session-e2f2ae7248a2a48a277dfb6f6af98734
“Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday abruptly ended a special session initially touted to improve public safety in the wake of a deadly elementary school shooting, but it quickly unraveled into chaos over the past week as the GOP-dominant Statehouse refused to take up gun control measures and instead spent most of the time ensnared in political infighting.”
“In a particularly heated moment after the session concluded, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Democratic Rep. Justin Pearson appeared to have a brief physical interaction where both accused each other of shoving within moments of the House chamber adjourning the special session.”
“Pearson and Jones were expelled by the Republican supermajority earlier this year. Both have since been reelected and have remained critical of Sexton’s leadership.”
“Sexton said a security guard put his hand on his back and knocked Sexton forward, prompting the speaker to move right to step past a photographer. Then, Sexton said Pearson “comes in and pops me from the right side,” bumping his shoulder. Sexton said he did not throw his shoulder into Pearson.”
“Pearson told reporters that Sexton was “initiating this act of aggression, an act of violence against me,” saying he was not being aggressive with Sexton or pushing him.”
Film at 11 –
🎶🇺🇸
i’ve cooked all the green beans in the pot so satisfied i’m eating them
re: American political media
🤘🇺🇸✌️🇺🇦
Bink, bravo – great selections.
NEW THREAD