Tomorrow Before Noon

It has been quite a day.

In the Southern District of Florida, DOJ filed a proposed redacted version of its search warrant affidavit with the court and, just like that, Judge Reinhart reviewed the proposal and ordered DOJ to make it public by noon tomorrow.

                          

 

We still don’t know just how much of the affidavit will be revealed. It seems likely Trump is going to regret ever calling for its release. It’s going to be another interesting day tomorrow.

Back to Fulton County, Georgia

1.     A Fulton County state court judge denied the motion filed by 11 fake Georgia electors to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from investigating them.

The 11 tried to piggyback on an earlier order, disqualifying Willis from investigating state senator Burt Jones, who is running for Lt. Governor. Willis hosted a fundraiser for his Democratic opponent. The judge ruled this created a conflict and any investigation into Jones had to be conducted by a different prosecutor.

But today, the judge firmly rejected the notion that the 11 fake electors could also escape investigation by Willis. None of them had situations like Jones’. Their lawyer argued Willis was nonetheless biased, offering that all the targets of the investigation were Republicans. The judge quipped in a footnote “It eludes the undersigned how an investigation into allegations of Republican interference in the 2020 general election in Georgia would have any other list of targets than Republicans.”

2.     Governor Brian Kemp was in court today, trying to block Willis’ subpoena for his testimony. The judge has not yet ruled.

Here’s the bottom line. Kemp delayed testifying, despite the DA’s persistent efforts—first voluntary and then by subpoena, to bring him in. Now, months into the process, he says she shouldn’t be able to make him testify before his election in November, even though he’s responsible for the delay.

But Kemp is a fact witness. If he’d observed a car wreck and was called to testify, would he argue he shouldn’t have to before the election? Of course not. It’s a bad argument, tantamount to asking for special treatment because he’s on the ballot and doesn’t want to have to testify against the former president before the voting starts. And I’m sure that if the court permits him to delay past November, Kemp will find fresh reasons to claim he can’t testify after the election.

Kemp also argues that he has sovereign immunity as the state’s governor, which should prevent his grand jury testimony. But again, Kemp isn’t a target of the investigation, he’s just a fact witness, so that doctrine shouldn’t apply.

Willis has been specific in identifying the testimony she needs from Kemp, including, perhaps most importantly, a phone call with the former president, as well as other calls he received and whether there was pressure, including threats, regarding the outcome of vote counting in Georgia. This testimony is all highly material to Willis’ investigation. She was entitled to it when she first asked for it, and she should get it now, without any more delay.

3.     Lindsey Graham’s effort to quash his subpoena to testify is back in front of a federal district court judge in Georgia, who is expediting proceedings, requiring briefs from all parties by August 31. Graham, as we’ve previously discussed, is trying to convince the judge that his call to a Georgia official about counting absentee ballots, among other things, are covered by Constitutional protections for Congressional speech or debate. That one is a bit of a head scratcher.

Fun fact: among Graham’s lawyers is Don McGahn, former White House counsel, who’s been in the news again because of the Barr/OLC memo I wrote about yesterday.

4.     Kenneth Cheesebro, a name you may not know, has moved to quash his subpoena from Willis, claiming his testimony would violate his attorney-client relationship with the Trump campaign. There was reporting Cheesebro worked with Rudy Giuliani on the fake elector scheme.

Cheesebro was served with his subpoena on July 12. It calls for him to testify on August 30. So here he is, just five days ahead of that testimony, but more than five weeks after he was subpoenaed, trying to delay.

If you’re sensing a theme tonight, you’re right. It’s all about delay. I’ve never seen so many people who are fact witnesses to a possible crime, let alone one as serious as interference in a presidential election, try to avoid testifying.

5.     And finally, this evening, news broke that the Fulton County DA is seeking testimony from Mark Meadows, as well as former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and Former Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn.

Meadows has been awfully quiet lately and there’s been speculation that could mean he’s negotiating a plea agreement with DOJ in exchange for his testimony. But it’s just that, speculation. As of today, there’s nothing formal to support it. But his absence, lately, has been conspicuous.

Meadows played a big role in Georgia after Trump lost the election, including arranging Trump’s January 2021 call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who he told to “find” him 11,780 votes, exactly the number he would need to win. You don’t have to be a prosecutor to appreciate how valuable Meadow’s testimony could be if he ever decides to come clean.

There is a lot going on in Georgia. Willis is months out from completing the special grand jury investigation, let alone seeking an indictment if the evidence merits one, but she’s been relentless. She’s said she’ll sit out the period of time around the election to avoid even the appearance of undue political influence, so we could expect that as we get into September, she may pump the breaks, at least the ones that can be observed in public.

While we’re focused on Mar-a-Lago and Fulton County, both the January 6 committee and DOJ continue their work. It’s been a bad week for the former president and there’s more coming tomorrow and likely next week as we head into the Labor Day holiday. Stay tuned.

We’re in this together,

Joyce