Last Call For Orange Meltdown: 3rd Strike Edition

A big, big day in Trump conspiracy fraud legal news today, not one, not two, but three big stories. First, former Georgia Republican state Sen. Jen Jordan is on the list for Fulton County DA Fani Willis's grand jury.

 

Former Georgia Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan received subpoenas to testify before a Fulton County grand jury later this month, she told CNN.

The subpoenas to Jordan and independent journalist George Chidi are the strongest indication yet that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis intends to seek indictments in her criminal probe into efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

Two grand juries with the power to issue indictments meet regularly in Fulton County, and Willis is expected to go before one of them this month to present her case. The presentment will likely take two days, according to people familiar with the matter.

The witnesses are expected to shed light on different aspects of Willis’ case. While Chidi can share information about the fake GOP electors that convened in Georgia, Jordan witnessed the election presentation Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies made before Georgia state lawmakers in 2020.

On December 3, 2020, Jordan was at the Georgia Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing about election integrity during which Giuliani, then a Trump lawyer, and other supporters of the former president spread conspiracy theories about widespread irregularities and fraud in the state.

At the hearing, Trump’s team presented a video of what they claimed was evidence of fraud from election night ballot tabulating in Fulton County, allegations that were investigated by the FBI, Department of Justice and state election officials – and proven to be erroneous.

The subpoenas for grand jury testimony call on the witnesses to appear before the grand jury during the month of August and state that witnesses will get 48 hours notice when they are required to appear.

 

As Willis warms up the band in Georgia, the state of Michigan is making its move in its own elector fraud conspiracy case against Mango Mussolini and friends.

A former Republican attorney general candidate and another supporter of former President Donald Trump have been criminally charged in Michigan in connection with accessing and tampering with voting machines after the 2020 election, according to court records.

Matthew DePerno, a Republican lawyer who was endorsed by Trump in an unsuccessful run for Michigan attorney general last year, was charged with undue possession of a voting machine and conspiracy, according to Oakland County court records.

Daire Rendon, a former Republican state representative, was charged with conspiracy to commit undue possession of a voting machine and false pretenses. A lawyer listed on court documents as representing Rendon could not be immediately reached for comment by phone.

Both were arraigned remotely Tuesday afternoon, according to Richard Lynch, the court administrator for Oakland County’s 6th Circuit.

A special prosecutor, D.J. Hilson, has been reviewing the investigation and considering charges since September. He convened a grand jury in March to determine whether criminal indictments should be issued, according to court documents.

In a statement, Hilson said the charges were authorized by “an independent citizens grand jury,” and that his office did not make any recommendations.

Those charged in Michigan are the latest facing legal consequences for alleged crimes committed after embracing Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

 

Now, if this was all the bad news Trump's legal team got today, it would still be a hell of a bad way to start the month.

 

But then Jack Smith showed up with the third strike.

A grand jury indicted former president Donald Trump on Tuesday for a raft of alleged crimes in his brazen efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election — the latest legal and political aftershock stemming from the riot at the U.S. Capitol two and a half years ago.

The four-count, 45-page indictment accuses Trump of three distinct conspiracies, charging that he conspired to defraud the U.S., conspired to obstruct an official proceeding and conspired against people’s rights.

“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power,” the indictment charges, saying Trump unleashed a blizzard of lies about purported mass voter fraud, and then tried to get state, local, and federal officials to act to change the vote results.

“These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. In fact, the Defendant was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue — often by the people on whom he relied for candid advice on important matters, and who were best positioned to know the facts — and he deliberately disregarded the truth,” the indictment states.

“The attack on our nation’s capitol on Jan. 6 2021 was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy," special counsel Jack Smith said in announcing the indictment. "It was fueled by lies, lies by the defendant.”

Smith also praised the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol, saying they “did not just defend a building or the people sheltering in it. They put their lives on the line to defend who we are as a country and a people.”

In broad strokes and particular conversations with officials around the country, the indictment recounts much of what was already known about Trump’s efforts to stay in the White House despite losing the election. But the indictment frames that conduct as a destructive criminal conspiracy that attempted to demolish a bedrock function of American democracy.

While no one else is charged alongside Trump, the indictment describes six unnamed and so far uncharged co-conspirators, who also appear to be in significant legal jeopardy. Some of the individuals are easily identifiable, such as Rudolph W. Giuliani, Trump’s former lawyer.

Giuliani and a number of the other uncharged co-conspirators are identifiable based on details in the indictment and previous reporting by The Washington Post and other outlets. Co-conspirator 2, described as “an attorney who devised an attempted to implement a strategy to leverage the Vice President’s ceremonial role overseeing the certification proceeding” is John Eastman, a law professor.

The indictment describes co-conspirator 3 as an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud Trump himself said sounded “crazy” — and the description of that person matches Trump ally Sidney Powell. Co-conspirator 4 is described as a then-Justice Department official who “attempted to use the Justice Department to open sham election crime investigations." Other details of that person’s actions match Jeffrey Clark, whom Trump considered appointing as attorney general in the final days of his administration.

Co-conspirator 5 is described in the indictment as a lawyer who tried to implement a plan "to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding,” — a reference that appears to match Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump attorney who worked on the scheme to enact false presidential electors.

Lawyers for the uncharged co-conspirators did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

 

All the ketchup just hit the walls at Mar-a-Lago tonight.  Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, and Kenny Chesebro are all going down with him.

It will only get worse for Trump from here.

RIP Sheila Oliver

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver, a Democratic stalwart in the state's politics for decades, has died at the age of 71.

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver died Tuesday, one day after she was rushed to the hospital for an undisclosed medical issue.

"It is with incredible sadness and a heavy heart that we announce the passing of the Honorable Sheila Y. Oliver, Lieutenant Governor of the State of New Jersey," the Oliver family said in a statement. "She was not only a distinguished public servant but also our cherished daughter, sister, aunt, friend, and hero."

Oliver was 71 years old.

She had been serving as acting governor with Gov. Phil Murphy on vacation. The Democratic Senate President, Nicholas Scutari, took over as acting governor when Oliver was rushed to the hospital Monday.

Murphy remembered Oliver as a "trailblazer" in announcing her death.

"When I selected her to be my running mate in 2017, Lieutenant Governor Oliver was already a trailblazer in every sense of the word," Murphy said in a statement. "She had already made history as the first Black woman to serve as Speaker of the General Assembly, and just the second Black woman in the nation’s history to lead a house of a state legislature. I knew then that her decades of public service made her the ideal partner for me to lead the State of New Jersey. It was the best decision I ever made."

Former New Jersey governor and 2024 presidential candidate Chris Christie tweeted, "It is a sad day for NJ and for me personally."

"I will miss Sheila. She served as Speaker in my first term and we treated each other with kindness and respect," Christie said. "She was a great person and partner."

 

It's notable in today's age of blisteringly partisan politics that a Republican 2024 candidate like Christie would have anything nice to say about any Democrat in America at all. Again, meeting the absolute minimum standards for human decorum, I guess.

Oliver leaves behind a nearly three-decade legacy of service to the Garden State.

Born and raised in Newark, Oliver graduated from the city’s Weequahic High School before earning a sociology degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and a masters in planning and administration from Columbia University. She was an East Orange resident.

She later worked for a nonprofit social services organization and taught at Essex County College and nearby Caldwell University.

Oliver moved into politics when she was elected to the East Orange Board of Education, an office she held from 1994 to 2000. During that time, she served two years as vice president and ended her time as president of the board.

She concurrently served as an Essex County freeholder from 1996-99. And in between, she lost a bid for East Orange mayor by a mere 51 votes.

A few years later, Oliver moved up to Trenton. She was elected to the Assembly in 2003 and was chosen by her fellow Democrats to become the chamber’s 169th speaker in 2009.

Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, D-Passaic and chairwoman of the New Jersey Legislature Black Caucus, described Oliver as a beloved mentor and an inspiration.

“As a freshman entering the New Jersey General Assembly, I was fortunate to work alongside Lt. Governor Oliver. Having the privilege of witnessing her lead as Speaker of the Assembly had a powerful impact on me,” Sumter said. “Representation matters, and I was honored to have Lt. Gov. Oliver be my mentor and educate me on the history of the politics in the state of New Jersey and how to navigate through the Legislature.”

“Lt. Governor Oliver’s influence transcended generations and she paved the way for Black and Brown women to pursue higher office. She taught us the importance of being informed, skilled, and graceful,” Sumter said.

Oliver was the second woman after Marion West Higgins in 1965 and the second Black lawmaker, after S. Howard Woodson in 1974, to ascend to the powerful position. She was also the second Black woman in American history to lead a state legislative chamber, after Karen Bass of California.

 

That it took until 2009 to have just the second Black woman Speaker in a state legislature is ridiculous, but Oliver met that challenge -- and Chris Christie -- head on.

 

Here's to the fighters. Black Lives Still Matter.

Generation X, We Have To Do Better Than Trump

As Steve M. points out, Gen X is firmly the Trump Generation.

 

 

Every other age group favors Biden, but 45-to-64-year-olds favor Trump by 9 points. I'm 64, so I'm at the upper bound of this age range, but I don't think of this group as my people. They're largely Reagan youth. They grew up during the presidency of a controversial former media star who persuaded much of the country that he was just a harmless patriot who loved regular American folks. And now nearly half of them are eager to vote for Donald Trump.

I'm oversimplifying, obviously, but this isn't the first poll I've seen with this skew. It may be more about the life stages these voters are in -- mid- to late career, with an awareness that a comfortable retirement won't be as easy to attain as it was for their elders. (But the generations who are even younger have it worse, and they're mildly or significantly pro-Biden.) It may be that these respondents are old enough to be alienated by race and gender changes in American society that younger people approve of. (But you'd expect senior citizens to be more put off, yet they have a slight preference for the Democrat.)

If these poll numbers suggest enduring Reaganism, it's a mix of economic anxiety and hate for people seen as "others" -- and there's some irony to that, because much of the Reagan generation's economic anxiety is the direct result of the way Reaganism funneled (and still funnels) cash from the poor and middle class to the rich. "Othering" was a Reagan skill, although he substituted a smile and a wink for the scowls of George Wallace and Richard Nixon. (Trump often seems to be having a good time when he's othering people, too.) And Reagan specifically othered Democrats, in a way that GOP politicians and right-wing media outlets have done ever since.

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama embodied at least part of subsequent eras, and their message was inclusive. Reagan's wasn't. So it doesn't surprise me if many of the children of his era are Trumpers now.

 

Folks age 45-60 are pretty much all of Generation X, and 60-65 like Steve are the youngest Boomers. I'd ask what happened to us, but we've always been nihilists. We grew up seeing Saint Ronnie and Poppy Bush turn our world to ash and we said "We can do better!"

 

Then the last 30 years happened and "doing better" got beaten out of us with a sledgehammer by AIDS, the Challenger explosion, DARE, two Gulf Wars, 9/11, the dot-com bust, global warming. the Great Recession and hey, now COVID and AI.  The good times in our lives were running around the neighborhood playing Nintendo, watching actual music videos on MTV, crashing R-Rated movies like Platoon and drinking Hi-C Octo Cooler. Gen X wants that shit back, and that means most of us equated the 80's and Reaganism with "the way things should be".

We gotta do better now. Trump's gonna kill us all if we don't.