Finally Friday Reads: These Trump Rats, See How They Flip

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

Welcome to this week’s adventures at As the Trumperz Turn!  This week’s installment is Trump Lawyers Bail.  Quick, little rats!  The ship is sinking!  Who thought I could use this many stale metaphors in such a short time!

We’ve had two defections in the Georgia Election Fraud this week.  Lawyer Sidney Powell and Advisor Kenneth Cheesebro both pled guilty, worked out a deal, and answered many questions that will undoubtedly make Trump’s jail prospects pretty good. This is from the Washington Post. “Trump co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro pleads guilty in Georgia election case. Chesebro became the second former Trump lawyer to plead guilty in as many days, following Sidney Powell on Thursday. This is reported by Holly Bailey and Amy Gardner.

Kenneth Chesebro, a former lawyer for Donald Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty Friday to illegally conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. The plea came in just hours after jury selection began in the highly anticipated case, ahead of an expected trial next month

Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to file false documents, and accepted a sentence of three to five years of probation, a $1,000 fine, $5,000 in restitution to the state of Georgia, an apology letter, 100 hours of community service and a promise to testify truthfully against any other co-defendants in the case, should they go to trial.

In his plea deal, Chesebro implicated several of those co-defendants as being part of the conspiracy to file false documents — a charge related to his role organizing slates of pro-Trump electors to meet in seven states where Biden had won. They are Trump, four other lawyers including Rudy Giuliani, and one campaign operative.

Chesebro’s guilty plea made him the second former Trump lawyer to plead guilty in as many days, following a plea from Sidney Powell on Thursday, and the third co-defendant to admit guilt in the sweeping criminal racketeering case alleging Trump and 18 allies broke the Georgia law when they sought to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state. In addition to Powell, bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty earlier this month in the conspiracy — with all agreeing to testify against others in the case.

The plea is the latest legal victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D), whose office is prosecuting the Georgia case. In addition to flipping one of the key members of the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors now avoid a trial in which they would have had to showcase much of their evidence against Trump and others, which might have offered lawyers for others a legal advantage heading into other trials.

The potential for incriminating testimony from three of Trump’s co-defendants could have far-reaching impact on the former president’s legal fortunes in the case, as well as some of the other high-profile defendants, notably Giuliani, who is alleged to have known about both Powell’s and Chesebro’s efforts to help overturn Trump’s loss.

This makes things very interesting.  Powell is a pretty good catch. This is from The Rolling Stone.  “Team Trump Never Dreamed Sidney Powell Would Flip on Them.’

But few, if any, of Trump’s aides and lawyers had predicted that Powell would cut any deal this soon.

The news of Powell’s plea agreement Thursday morning stunned a number of Trump’s top advisers and attorneys, all of whom thought Powell — the truest of all Trump-backing, election-denying true believers — was among the least likely to take a plea deal ahead of trial, the people familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone. Some had even told Trump in recent months that they thought Powell would be (foolishly, in their opinion) fighting the so-called “deep state” in court ‘til the bitter end. She even pushed the idea that Trump could “simply be reinstated” in the middle of President Joe Biden’s term.

In the sprawling RICO prosecution of Trump and others, Powell was charged with, among other counts, conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to defraud the state, and conspiracy to commit computer theft. (Powell was implicated in a bizarre plot to access Coffee County voting data, according to prosecutors, to aid their crusade to keep Trump in power after his 2020 election loss.)

Powell has now agreed to plead guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties. As part of her agreement with Fulton County prosecutors, Powell agreed to serve six years on probation, pay a $6,000 fine, and write a letter of apology to Georgia residents.

Powell’s plea agreement raises the possibility that she could testify against the former president although the scope of her cooperation in the case remains unclear. Two other sources with knowledge of Powell’s recent moves say that one of the biggest factors in Powell’s decision was simple. The attorney hasn’t lost faith in her conspiracy theories or the anti-democratic lies about the 2020 election being “stolen” from Trump, the sources say. Rather, the sources say, she has privately conveyed that she’s merely beaten down and tired from the legal odyssey her efforts to overturn the election has wrought.

After nearly three years of being at the center of lawsuits and various investigations stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to those with knowledge of her situation, Powell is looking to end her various legal fights. The fact that Trump and most of the Republican elite have essentially abandoned her has also likely sapped Powell’s resolve.

While the Chesebro and Powell Pleans means there will be no October trial, there will be trials later. The Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports that potential jurors have been called in for interviews.  Trump is busy up in New York right now.

This is from CNN. “Trump fraud trial judge suggests gag order violation could result in imprisonment.”

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial admonished the former president’s attorneys for a “blatant violation” of a gag order and suggested that violations could result in “imprisonment.”

Judge Arthur Engoron said despite his clear order to take down a social media post attacking his clerk, “I learned that the subject post was never removed from the website.”

“And, in fact, had been on that website for the past 17 days. I understand that it was removed late last night but only in response to an email,” Engoron said.

The post was removed from Truth Social right after the gag order was issued but not from Trump’s campaign website, DonaldJTrump.com.

The judge hinted at serious sanctions for the former president.

“I will now provide defendants an opportunity to explain why this blatant violation of this gag order should not result in serious sanctions including financial penalties… and or possibly imprisonment.”

Trump attorney Chris Kise apologized to Engoron, saying it was “inadvertent” that the post was able to live on what he called a “back page” of Trump’s campaign website.

“It appears no one also took down the ICYMI link that’s in the campaign website in the back pages,” Kise said.

“Truly this appears to be inadvertent,” Kise said, adding, “I certainly apologize on behalf of my clients.”

Meanwhile, Trump Toady Gymbo Jordan lost his third vote for speaker.  This is from breaking news from the Washington Post. Why are the diehard Trumperz so socially stupid? He’s not gotten any of the hints suggesting he’s never going to get that position.

House Republicans are huddling behind closed doors Friday after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed on a third ballot to be elected House speaker. In their meeting, the Republican conference is voting by secret ballot on whether Jordan should drop out of the race, according to two people familiar with the proceedings who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a closed meeting. Jordan, a conservative firebrand and ally of former president Donald Trump, vowed at a news conference earlier Friday that he would keep fighting for the job.

Politico has interesting coverage about the GOP dysfunction and in-fighting.  “House GOP drowning as crisis reaches breaking point. It seems that every day without a speaker brings a new release of pent-up anger from Republicans who see no way out of their self-inflicted pain.” 

When Matt Gaetz stepped to the microphones during Thursday’s three-hour private House GOP meeting on the speakership, the speaker he ousted promptly yelled at him to “sit down.”

Kevin McCarthy was not the only Republican to vent fury with Gaetz, the Florida conservative who successfully ousted the House’s leader. The room met Gaetz with booing, profanities and calls to back off, according to multiple lawmakers in the room. When Gaetz refused, Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.) stood up and hollered a command at him that one Republican recalled as: “If you don’t sit down, I’ll put you down.”

It seems that every day without a speaker brings a new release of pent-up anger from the House GOP, which is stuck in the bewildering position of technically controlling a chamber of Congress where it can’t even vote on bills. At the moment, their latest pick for speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), cannot win the gavel on the floor and yet still won’t end his campaign — preventing a half-dozen or more other ambitious GOP lawmakers from jumping into the race.

Republicans’ inability to elect a new leader is so acute that by Thursday, they squabbled over whether to empower a colleague who they wouldn’t elect to control the floor, only to jettison that idea hours later. Those talks about elevating Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) quickly grew nasty as conservatives accused fellow Republicans of pursuing a power-sharing arrangement with Democrats.

What went unsaid: Those same conservatives are loath to abandon Jordan’s doomed candidacy lest it underscore that their most influential voice couldn’t get the votes.

After 16 days adrift, it was clear by Thursday evening that House Republicans have hit rock bottom. What began as social media sniping over their failed speakership battle has devolved into real fears for the safety of members whose families are receiving personal threats over their decision to oppose Jordan.

There’s some good news from the Gaza/Israel War.  Two American hostages will be released by Hamas.  This is from CNN.

Two American hostages, a mother and her daughter, are being released by Hamas, according to a person familiar with the negotiations and a diplomatic source.

The two have been handed over to the Red Cross and are “on their way out,” the source familiar with negotiations said.

The two are being released on “humanitarian grounds” because the mother is in poor health, the same source said.

It is unclear whether they will leave Gaza into Egypt or Israel. This is the result of the negotiations between Qatar and Hamas that started after Hamas abducted around 200 people from Israel on October 7.

In a statement, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said: “In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless.”

The White House has not commented. The Israeli prime minister’s office has not commented. CNN has reached out to the Red Cross. The United Nations warned on Friday the taking of hostages is prohibited by international law.

At least it’s the weekend.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?