Last Week in Legal: Holiday Edition

The courts didn't stop just because it was Christmas.

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Trump lost both his attempt to dismiss based on Presidential Immunity and his attempt to delay the trial. A few weeks ago, a federal appeals court decided that Trump had waited too long to raise the Presidential Immunity defense. Trump’s lawyer, Habba, vowed to appeal the ruling, which she called “fundamentally flawed,” to SCOTUS. Team Trump then requested a stay pending that SCOTUS appeal and the same federal appeals court denied that as well.

Business Fraud Case

The case is on hiatus for the holiday. Closing arguments are expected to start on January 11. The Hill - a left-of-center news site - has a nice recap of the case, including that the banks found no fraud and had no problems doing business with the Trump Family. No matter what happens at closing, this case is going to be appealed for so many reasons, from the judge’s clear bias, his clerk’s shenanigans, lack of any victims, all kinds of reasons.

Indictment 3: The J6 Case in DC

The Presidential Immunity appeal is in full swing. Several different groups have filed Amicus Briefs both for and against Trump. For example, one brief argues that Trump violated Constitutional Article 2.1.1, while another claims that Jack Smith has no right to hold his office. There will be a hearing for the lawyers to address the arguments brought up in the various briefs on January 9.

14th Amendment Challenges

The 34-page ruling from Maine’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, is some of the most nonsensical reasoning put forth to date. Essentially, the unelected democrat deemed the J6 commission report and the testimony of Professor Maglioccoa (who testified in the CO hearing) to be all the evidence she needed to remove Trump on the grounds he was guilty of insurrection - something he has NEVER been charged or adjudicated for. This is an absolutely ridiculous ruling. It is most definitely being appealed by both Trump and the GOP.

The Wisconsin Election Commission rejected yet another attempt to remove Trump from the ballot. They had rejected a similar case twice before. The most recent rejectee has declared his intent to file a lawsuit.

In a strange turn of events, California’s Democratic Secretary of State included Trump on the certified list of primary candidates on the California ballot, despite calls by the Lt. Governor to remove him.

After the Colorado Supreme Court's decision, the GOP quickly filed their appeal to SCOTUS. Trump’s team is expected to file an appeal on January 2. The Petitioners, who are represented by CREW - the org representing most of the people filing 14th challenges - have also requested an expedited hearing from SCOTUS.

To keep up with all the other 14th Amendment challenges, follow the tracker at Lawfare.

Other Legal Challenges

Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen and his lawyer David Schwartz were both forced to submit declarations to the court regarding the bogus case citations in the latest filing. In those declarations, we learn that Schwartz is a long-time Cohen friend who is working the case pro bono. Also, Cohen used Bard, Google’s version of Chat-GPT, to find the cases in question. According to Schwartz, Cohen drafts the motions. He just looks them over and files them since Cohen was disbarred five years ago. In this case, he saw that Cohen had talked to his other lawyer, Danya Perry, and was led to believe that the fake case citations came from her office, so he didn’t look into them. Meanwhile, Cohen completely throws his good friend under the bus and begs the court not to be mad at him because his lawyer is incompetent.

The DOJ is only recommending six months for Ray Epps, the J6’er who most believe to be a FedBoi. Their reasoning for such a light sentence for the man who actively encouraged people to go into the Capitol? He cooperated with the Feds and was the victim of a conspiracy theory.

SBF/FTX Update

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the crypto-currency marketplace FTX, was found Guilty on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy back in November. The charges against him had been split into two cases, with the campaign finance charges in the second case due to the extradition agreement with the Bahamas. On December 29, 2023, the DOJ sent a letter to the judge, dropping the second case ahead of sentencing in the first case.

During the trial for the first seven counts, it came out that SBF had bribed Chinese officials and gotten the money he donated to American politicians on both sides of the aisle from “loans” he took from Alameda’s accounts. He also ran a scheme with his younger brother to use straw donors to send Alameda money to politicians.

The crypto community is upset that SBF seems to be getting away with so much, and lots of people think the DOJ is trying to cover for the politicians who got money from Sam. The DOJ claims that they couldn’t get the OK from the Bahamas to proceed with the extra charges. They also say that the second trial couldn’t add any more time to the sentence SBF is facing. Because almost all of the evidence for trial two was presented at trial one, the judge can simply take that information under advisement when issuing SBF’s sentence.

Senator Menendez Bribery Trial

The DOJ dropped a superseding indictment on “Gold Bars Bob” Menendez and his crew. Included is a brand new charge - FARA violations!

There is also information detailing a scheme to get Daibes paid by a Qatari investment company and evidence that Bob and his wife may have gotten more gold bars from Daibes than initially thought.

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Lorraine Yuriar is a wife, mother, and lifelong conservative, currently stuck in a very blue state.