Monday Reads: May the 4th (Indictment) be with you!

John (repeat1968) Buss, @repeat1968
Panic in MAGAville as Fani is swinging for the fences. #FaniWillis #IndictmentWatch #GeorgiaOnMyMind #FoldingChair

Good Morning, Sky Dancers!

There’s some exciting news out from Congressman Jamie Raskin.  Finally, after all the grifting, emoluments violations, and stealing items from the White House, Congressional Democrats will be releasing a report on how much money has gone missing since the Trump Family Crime Syndicate infested the White House.  I’m still waiting for answers for Jerad and that 2 billion dollar deal with the Saudis.

This is from The New York Daily News.  “As GOP attacks Bidens, Rep. Jamie Raskin promises report on ‘foreign government emoluments’ to Trump.”  This is reported by Shant Shahrigian.

Amid GOP howls over the Hunter Biden case, lawmakers are scrutinizing former President Donald Trump’s business dealings during his time in office, Rep. Jamie Raskin said Sunday.

The Maryland Democrat promised a new report on cash that foreign governments gave to Trump businesses, though he did not go into detail.

“We’re going to release a report about all of the foreign government emoluments — millions of dollars — we can document that Donald Trump pocketed at the hotels, at the golf courses [and] business deals when he was president and that his family got,” Raskin told ABC’s “This Week.”

The comment came amid a series of questions to Raskin about GOP and federal probes of Hunter Biden. Republicans in Congress have been investigating whether the troubled son inappropriately benefited from his powerful father, among other accusations that remain unproven.

Raskin said his Republican counterparts should look closer to home.

“During the Trump administration, we saw the development of a completely new public philosophy, which is that government is not an instrument of the common good in the public interest,” he said.

While a frequent news subject during the Trump years, the former president’s business dealings with foreign governments drew no legal consequences. In 2021, the Supreme Court ended lawsuits accusing the president of taking illegal payments, saying they were irrelevant since he was out of office.

But Raskin accused Republicans including Rep. James Comer of Kentucky of having a double standard by probing the Bidens while ignoring Trump and his family.

I’m eagerly awaiting this report.  Meanwhile, the Fulton County, Georgia Grand Jury will meet this week and will likely return Trump’s 4th indictment. This is from The Independent. “At least two witnesses have been called to testify, signalling that a vote to indict could be imminent.”

Former Republican Lt Governor Geoff Duncan said he has been requested to appear on Tuesday, 15 August.

“I did just receive notification to appear on Tuesday morning at the Fulton County grand jury and I certainly will be there to do my part in recounting the facts,” he told CNN. “I have no expectations as to the questions, and I’ll certainly answer whatever questions are put in front of me.”

Journalist George Chidi also has announced that he is preparing to testify on Tuesday.

The case is the culmination of a wide-ranging investigation over the last two years following the former president’s pressure campaign targeting state officials to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Ms Willis opened an investigation shortly after news of Mr Trump’s call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state’s top elections official, who was pressed to find “11,870 votes” – just enough needed for then-President Trump to beat Joe Biden in the state.

A special grand jury previously heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including aides and former attorneys to Mr Trump. That jury concluded its report in January with recommendations for state prosecutors to bring charges that will soon be reviewed by the newly impaneled grand jury.

The investigation is among several facing the former president, who was separately charged with three criminal conspiracies and obstruction in a federal case stemming from the US Department of Justice special counsel probe into his attempts to subvert the election outcome.

Trump continues to attack Judge Chutkan.   I hope she fines him, jails him, or gags him.  I’m getting tired of all the news being about this bellicose, belligerent old man.  This is from Politico. “Trump jabs at judge in election case, testing warning against ‘inflammatory’ statements. Overnight, Trump called Chutkan ‘biased and unfair’ for comments during 2022 sentencing of Jan. 6 defendant.”  This is reported by Kyle Cheney.

Donald Trump slammed the judge presiding over his newest criminal case early Monday, testing her three-day-old warning that he refrain from “inflammatory” attacks against those involved in his case.

In a Truth Social post just before 1 a.m., Trump assailed U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan as “highly partisan” and “very biased and unfair,” citing as evidence a statement she made during the sentencing of a woman who participated in the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“She obviously wants me behind bars,” Trump wrote.

Trump was alluding to Chutkan’s remark during the October 2022 sentencing of Christine Priola of Ohio. Chutkan admonished Priola, before sentencing her to 15 months in jail, about the Jan. 6 mob’s threat to the peaceful transfer of power.

“I see the videotapes. I see the footage of the flags and the signs that people were carrying and the hats that they were wearing, and the garb,” Chutkan said. “And the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty to one man, not to the Constitution, of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant; not to the ideals of this county and not to the principles of democracy. It’s blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”

Chutkan’s sentiments have been common among judges who have sentenced Jan. 6 rioters. Several have expressed discomfort over punishing rioters — who had been deluged with lies about the election by Trump and steered to the Capitol with a warning that their country was being stolen and their livelihoods were in danger — while those who misled them have faced no consequences. But Chutkan is the first of those judges to end up with Trump as a defendant in her court, charged by special counsel Jack Smith with seeking to subvert the 2020 election with lies and a plan to violate the constitution.

We haven’t had this much bullshit in courts since they brought down the Mafia. Speaking of crazy old men, RFK Jr. makes Bernie look like a kind beacon of light.  I can’t imagine how much he embarrasses his family, who are constantly releasing statements that state that he doesn’t represent any of them or the family trust. This is from Politico. “RFK Jr. backs 15-week federal ban on abortion, then reverses himself. “Today, Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question,” his campaign said.”  Yeah, right, there was interference in the tinfoil hat. He definitely doesn’t understand the gestation cycle.

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday said he would support a federal ban on abortion after the first three months of pregnancy, but his campaign later said he “misunderstood” the question.

Speaking to NBC from the Iowa State Fair, Kennedy said, “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,” but added: “Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child.”

He said he would sign a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks or 21 weeks of pregnancy if he were elected president.

A longtime advocate of what he calls “medical freedom,” Kennedy has been in the public eye in recent years largely for discussions about public health issues, in particular his stated doubts about mandates for vaccinations and some conspiracy theories about Covid-19, including widely condemned suggestions that the virus could have been engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. (Kennedy used the phrase “medical freedom” in his exchange with Vitali.)

In June in a town hall in New Hampshire, he called himself “pro-choice” and spoke in favor of legal abortion.

“I’m not going be in a position, put myself in a position, where I am going to tell a woman to bring a child to term,” he said at the time.

I actually saw the wife of a friend in an RFK campaign shirt.  Wow, was she taking big hits in the comments section.  It’s nice to see the Bernie Bros go after some one else for a change besides a woman candidate.

AND speaking of that … save the date!  It’s tonight!

So, that’s about it for me today.  We’re breaking a record for the third week in a row of at least 4 days over 100 back-to-back.  The entire city of New Orleans is crazy from the heat.  I’m just still just hanging out in the bathtub.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?