The Week Ahead

September 29, 2024

We’re headed into another week full of activity.

Monday

Trump’s former chief of staff and co-defendant in the Fulton County case Mark Meadows is still trying to convince the Supreme Court to give him a hand. Meadows wants the Court to rule that his prosecution should be removed to federal court because he was an official officer. He filed his petition for certiorari, the formal request for the Court to take his case, last July. The state of Georgia’s brief was due on Monday, but after a request for a short extension due to the damage Hurricane Helene did in the state, the Court is permitting them to file on Thursday.

If the Supreme Court agrees to take this case, it will be a major one, offering the possibility, if the Court is so inclined, that it might extend coattails from last term’s grant of broad presidential immunity to Donald Trump to his coconspirators.

Also scheduled for Monday, but now off the table, the trial in Smartmatic's defamation lawsuit against Newsmax. Smartmatic sued over what it alleges are lies about its voting machines that aired in the wake of the 2020 election. The parties settled that case late last week while jury selection was underway in Delaware. The details of the settlement are secret.

Smartmatic settled a case against One America News earlier this year. They still have litigation pending against Fox News. Voting maker Dominion previously settled its defamation case against Fox News for $787.5 million.

One impact of these civil cases is that they will force people working with Trump, including new organizations, to be far more circumspect in giving oxygen to his lies about the outcome of the election if they want to avoid similar “bet the firm” litigation as a result.

Tuesday

Former President Jimmy Carter turns 100 on Tuesday.

Carter’s birthday in 2021, when his wife, Rosalynn, was still alive.

Tuesday night at 9 p.m ET., we’ll all be watching J.D. Vance and Tim Walz square off for about 90 minutes on CBS. I’m looking forward to the Walz-isms. We’ll have another live chat for paid Civil Discourse subscribers. It was fun but crazy last time, and I loved getting to see all of your thoughts in real time during the presidential debate. If you aren’t all ready, this is a great prompt to upgrade to a paid subscription and join us. You’ll be able to find the chat here on Tuesday.

There will also be important legal developments on Tuesday. Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the Trump grand jury, will being a bench trial (no jury) in the challenge to recently passed rules by the Georgia Election Board that the DNC, Georgia Democratic Party, and individual county election board members are challenging. The rules could lead to legal chaos when it’s time to certify Georgia’s vote in the presidential election if these new rules are permitted to remain in place. The trial will be live-streamed.

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s immunity filing is still under seal in the District of Columbia. Trump’s team has a filing due on Tuesday at noon, their opportunity to object to the redactions the government proposes before the pleading is made public. They have until 5:00 p.m. on October 10 to file additional objections to the appendix of the evidence Smith appended to his filing. Expect Trump to object to pretty much everything.

Had Congress not reached a last-minute agreement to kick the can down the road to December on the federal government’s budget for this fiscal year, Tuesday would be the first day of shutdown for the federal government. The continuing resolution (CR) that keeps the government running until December 20 passed by a vote of 78 to 18 in the Senate and 341 to 82 in the House. You can see how your elected officials voted here.

One of Congress’s chief roles under the Constitution is to hold the power of the purse. It’s ridiculous that they can’t pass a budget every year in advance of the start of the new fiscal year on October 1. Most of the opposition came from the Republican side of the aisle here, because what could make more sense that risking a budget shutdown in between the election and inauguration day in the time of Trump?

Thursday

Trump has a supplement due to his motion to dismiss the Special Counsel’s election interference prosecution against him. This motion to dismiss is on statutory grounds and was originally filed last October, alleging the indictment is deficient because the conspiracy count doesn’t allege “deceit and trickery,” which the statute requires and because the two obstruction charges must involve destruction of records, which Trump claims, the government didn’t allege.

In August, after the case returned to her from the Supreme Court, Judge Chutkan initially denied Trump’s motion without prejudice, meaning he would be able to refile it.

She subsequently amended her order, reopening the matter and ordering the Trump team to file a supplement to their motion this week. Normally, I wouldn’t expect a motion like this to have much vitality because it fails to take into account the full scope of the government’s evidence and courts treat these issues with lenience. But because this is a Trump case, anything can happen.

Friday

In another reminder of the special treatment criminal defendant Donald Trump has received from some courts, the Georgia Court of Appeals will not be hearing oral argument this Friday on the effort by Trump and some of his co-defendants’ efforts to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the RICO case she brought against them. The court had tentatively set the case for October 4. In July, though, it scheduled the hearing for December 5, after the election.

It is all, of course, about delay. Most of the proceedings in the case have been stalled since the issue was raised and there is no trial date on the horizon. And this isn’t the end of it. The case will likely be appealed by whoever loses to the states highest court, the Georgia Supreme Court.

Next Sunday

And, even though it’s not until next Sunday, October 6 at 8 p.m., I wanted to get this on your radar screen so you can sign up for it today: The ultimate cat ladies, people who care about women’s health and think it matters, are holding a call for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump, JD Vance & Project 2025 threaten a woman's right to reproductive healthcare, from her first period to pregnancy to menopause. We obviously can’t let them into the White House and our bedrooms. I hope you’ll join us! There will be lots of amazing women on the call, and I’m honored to be among them. You can register here: https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/709691/

The work has only just started, and I’m already exhausted!

We’re in this together,

Joyce