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Jack Smith Takes Up the Aid and Abet Theory Endorsed by Judge Amit Mehta in 2022

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emptywheel
Back in February 2022, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that it was at least plausible to hold Trump liable for the assaults of cops on January 6 via an aid and abet theory of liability. In Jack Smith's response to Trump's attempt to get his indictment thrown out based on the Fischer decision Smith adopts that theory of liability.
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325,000 People Vote in First Day of Early Voting in Georgia

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emptywheel
In the first day of early voting yesterday, over 325,000 people voted.
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Searching for Jared Wise

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emptywheel
Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent and current January 6 defendant Jared Wise believed that a CHP officer was out to get him on April 2, 2023. And actions he took as a result -- getting out of his car to film the cop -- ended up in a suppression motion.
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We Are All Don Bacon's Wife: The Threats Trump Elicits for Personal Gain

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emptywheel
The list of people against whom Trump has elicited threats is perhaps the best indication of what a second Trump term would look like.
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JD Vance Asserts that He and Trump Cannot Win Legitimately

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emptywheel
JD Vance, by claiming that the decision by Twitter and Facebook to censor Hunter Biden's dick pics in 2020 would justify the Vice President not certifying Joe Biden's win, asserts that according to his own standarda, he and Trump cannot legitimately win this election, because they in fact asked tech companies to "censor" the stolen JD dossier.
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Machine for Fascism: The Two Stephens

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emptywheel
Back in June, Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon argued that Trump had to be permitted to make false claims that stoke political violence as part of his campaign. That strategy has become painfully clear in recent days.
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The Individual In Contemporary Society

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Ed Walker
What am I doing here?
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NYT "Censors" Elon Musk's Jokes about Assassinating the Vice President and His "Censorship" of JD Vance Dossier

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emptywheel
In a piece purporting to explain Elon Musk's role in helping Trump get elected, NYT leaves out Musk's jokes about assassination attempts against Kamala Harris and Trump's hypocritical involvement in getting the JD Vance dossier suppressed.
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Trump Demands Emergency Appendix Surgery

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emptywheel
Trump's latest efforts to keep details of how he almost got his Vice President assassinated under wraps may well draw more attention to them.
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Putin Has Convinced Trump He's Keeping Trump's Weakness Secret

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emptywheel
Russia's 2016 intelligence operation and its aftermath may be the most successful intelligence operation in recent history, because Vladimir Putin has gotten Trump to believe that his KGB handler is hiding the proof he's got of how weak Trump is. 
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Bombshell "New[s]:" Jack Smith DID Consult about Timing before Adopting Post-SCOTUS Path

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emptywheel
Jack Goldsmith joins Elie Honig complaining about new disclosures from Jack Smith that are not new. Chalk this up to yet another instance where the people complaining about what Jack Smith did end up revealing they don't know what Jack Smith did. 
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As Russia Overtly Helps Trump Get Elected, Trump Continues to Check in with Vladimir Putin

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emptywheel
Because Trump has so successfully bullied journalists not to cover the Russia Russia Russia story, Vladimir Putin's clear outreach to Trump this election has gone largely ignored. Now that Bob Woodward has revealed that Trump has spoken with Putin around seven times in since he left office, that needs to change.
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Disaster Disinformation Is This Year's John Podesta Emails

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emptywheel
The Republican party is treating deadly hurricanes like they treated John Podesta's risotto recipe and Hunter Biden's dick pics in past elections.
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Trump Pardoned Unindicted Co-Conspirator Steve Bannon for Defrauding Trump's Supporters

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emptywheel
Four years later, Steve Bannon is in a worse position as he was four years ago: Finishing his prison term, but still facing accountability for cheating Trump's supporters, even as being treated as a co-conspirator in Trump's efforts to "break loose ... all hell."
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All Hell Is Going to Break Loose: Maybe Jack Smith Did Precisely What Elie Honig Claims He Didn't

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emptywheel
In a recent column, Elie Honig bitched that Jack Smith's immunity filing violates DOJ's prohibition on pre-election statements. I suspect, however, that Jack Smith actually did adhere to DOJ rules by withholding things he might otherwise have included in the superseding indictment against Trump. Maybe we have those to look forward to, after the election. If we make it that far.
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Tie Game: WaPo's Polls and Maggie's Misinformation

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emptywheel
In a nearly tied race, the outcome will come down to field operations and Trump's ability to lie at an industrial scale.
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From the Willard to Danbury Correctional: Steve Bannon Allegedly Joins the Conspiracy

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emptywheel
Jack Smith's story about January 6 has finally arrived at the Willard Hotel, with Steve Bannon in tow.
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