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The (Il)Logic of Elise Stefanik's Hostage Video

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emptywheel
Elise Stefanik didn't call Jan6ers "hostages" today because she believes it. She blurted that word along with about 20 others to perform the word salad Trump values.
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Dan Scavino, Alone with Trump, Had Access to the Attempted Murder Weapon

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emptywheel
As expected, Dan Scavino told prosecutors that he was not in the room when a Tweet sent from Trump's phone almost got his Vice President killed.
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How Trump Manipulated 3 NYT Journalists to Make a Campaign Ad for Fascism

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emptywheel
In honor of January 6, a slew of journalists allowed themselves to be manipulated by Donald Trump to suggest one can't discern who is telling the truth about democracy and rule of law, Joe Biden or Trump.
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"Stand Back and Stand By:" Jack Smith's Hidden Cards

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emptywheel
Last summer, Jack Smith chose to indict just Trump, by himself. At any point, he could choose to do something else.
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SCOTUS Rushes to Grant Trump Protections After It Refused to Rush to Ensure Due Process

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emptywheel
The Supreme Court will rush to interfere in states' management of elections in Colorado.
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This Poll Is as Important as a Trump Trial

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emptywheel
As of right now, thin majorities support democracy over Trump's fascism. Those numbers need to be defended and, hopefully, expanded.
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Rebuttals to Eric Trump's Talking Points about His Daddy's Corruption

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emptywheel
Eric Trump's excuses for his Daddy's funding from foreign governments while he was President don't really help him.
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In Rudy Giuliani Affidavit, SDNY Hung Up the Perfect Phone Call

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emptywheel
A comparison of three warrants used in the influence peddling investigation of Lev Parnas and Rudy Giuliani leaves unanswered how much SDNY learned about the funding of the effort to fire Marie Yovanovitch in exchange for dirt on Hunter Biden.
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Socially Normative Agency And Rights

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Ed Walker
Rights set the boundaries of the demands society can make on us. Why do unaccountable and unconstrained judges get to make the final decision?
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Welcome to 2024: New Little Habits, New Little Hopes

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Rayne
An open thread post which includes a cocktail recipe and a hortatory kick in the ass to start this new year.
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What Joseph Ziegler Didn't Find When He Looked for Hunter Biden's Sex Workers

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emptywheel
In the week that Hunter Biden paid a sex worker a Venmo payment that IRS Agent Joseph Ziegler turned into a felony tax case, Hunter's identity had been potentially compromised no less than six times.
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When Michael Dreeben Accepted John Sauer's Invitation to Talk about Speech and Debate

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emptywheel
John Sauer added something to Donald Trump's immunity claims: That he should be entitled to the same immunities members of Congress are. That led Michael Dreeben to invoke Karen Henderson's past concurrence establishing that, "it is well settled that a Member is subject to criminal prosecution and process."
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What Jack Smith Didn't Say in His Double Jeopardy Response

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emptywheel
JacK Smith repeated some language in his response to Trump's double jeopardy claim that keeps options open regarding an incitement of insurrection charge.
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Rudy Giuliani's Scott Brady Interview Doesn't Appear in His Warrant Affidavit

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emptywheel
The warrant affidavit targeting Rudy from April 21, 2021 relied on articles, interviews, and Tweets to source Rudy's own claims about what he was doing in Ukraine in 2019. It never once mentions the 4-hour interview about the topic Rudy did with Pittsburgh US Attorney Scott Brady on January 29, 2020.
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Jim Jordan Says Trump's Years of Blowing Off Subpoenas May Merit Impeachment

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emptywheel
Jim Jordan has now declared that all the years of Trump's efforts to get people to blow off subpoenas might merit impeachment.
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Socially Normative Agency

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Ed Walker
Human agency is formed and controlled socially, through family and community.
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Jonathan Chait's Rube-Con Lets SCOTUS Off Easy

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emptywheel
If you believe Trump's eligibility to run for President should not be decided by unelected judges, then the only defensible position -- Republican or Democrat, literate or no -- is to demand that Trump stands trial before general election ballots get printed.
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"Whether Others ... Said Untrue Things on the Internet Does Not Exonerate" Trump

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emptywheel
In a motion in limine attempting to prevent Trump from turning his trial into a political circus, Molly Gaston argued that Trump shouldn't be able to blame Russia for his lies, this time.
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In Lev Parnas Investigation, SDNY Decided that Ivana Trump Is Not Political

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emptywheel
When SDNY obtained a warrant for Lev Parnas' Instagram account in December 2019, they chose not to obtain a photo showing Ivana Trump at an event for Parnas' fraudulent Fraud Guarantee business, months before Parnas first started buying access to Donald Trump.
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SDNY Obtained Warrant(s) for Foreign Agent Charges before John Demers Reviewed the Perfect Transcript

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emptywheel
Before Bill Barr's DOJ treated the criminal referral of Trump's "perfect phone call" with Volodymyr Zelensky, SDNY had already made the Lev Parnas investigation a national security investigation.
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