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the trump election lawsuit thread of dominance


henrygandorf

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21 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Depends.  If the Bar is a licensing authority, then it's governmental or at least quasi-governmental.

And yes, if you claim that sky jews are attacking us with space lasers, and other moonbattery, then you should be scrutinized by any licensing authority.  Free speech is not carte blanche to excuse insanity or plain lack of fitness to practice law.  The problem is not what he says; the problem is that what he is saying is evidence that he is sufficiently disconnected from reality that he is not fit to practice law.

If I start to publicly proclaim that I am the Queen of England, and all must bow to me, and I repeatedly enter local jewelry stores demanding that they release my crown jewels to me.....the State Bar will not litigate my status as a sovereign or not.  They will use my outlandish claims to start an inquiry into whether I am batshit.

 

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42 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Depends.  If the Bar is a licensing authority, then it's governmental or at least quasi-governmental.

And yes, if you claim that sky jews are attacking us with space lasers, and other moonbattery, then you should be scrutinized by any licensing authority.  Free speech is not carte blanche to excuse insanity or plain lack of fitness to practice law.  The problem is not what he says; the problem is that what he is saying is evidence that he is sufficiently disconnected from reality that he is not fit to practice law.

If I start to publicly proclaim that I am the Queen of England, and all must bow to me, and I repeatedly enter local jewelry stores demanding that they release my crown jewels to me.....the State Bar will not litigate my status as a sovereign or not.  They will use my outlandish claims to start an inquiry into whether I am batshit.

Yep.  As pointed out in an earlier discussion, the mental health angle and the presence of other non-public non-political-speech evidence of insanity makes him much easier to act against than Sidney Powell or Giuliani.

That doesn't mean that he isn't going to claim that this is violative of his First Amendment rights.  He's just probably going to lose because of the mental health angle.  I might expect him to litigate this as far as he can, all the while littering the record with further affirmative evidence of his insanity.

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Unfortunately, I do not think any party can win on ideas anymore because people are too stupid to understand them beyond the 140 characters of Twitter.  Seriously, everything is taken down to a sound bite because a significant amount of Americans cannot be assed to actually put the time in to understand things.  I blame smart phones and shitty reality TV like KUWTK,  

Fucking morons the lot of them.

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I'm not going to argue whether or not the Georgia Bar is "government", but the First Amendment seems pretty specific about limitations being those related to Federal laws, which presumably flow to state laws, so I guess that's a complication.  I fully acknowledge that there may precedent coloring that interpretation, and that Lin Wood is a fucking nutjob who can and will argue anything, but until someone says otherwise, it feels like any 1A defense is flimsy at best.

Quote

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

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1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm not going to argue whether or not the Georgia Bar is "government", but the First Amendment seems pretty specific about limitations being those related to Federal laws, which presumably flow to state laws, so I guess that's a complication.  I fully acknowledge that there may precedent coloring that interpretation, and that Lin Wood is a fucking nutjob who can and will argue anything, but until someone says otherwise, it feels like any 1A defense is flimsy at best.

 

Most of the Bill of Rights (including the 1st Amendment) have been made applicable to the States under the 14th amendment-its called incorporation. (Not a lawyer, I’m certain they could explain in more detail.)

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2 minutes ago, formermav43 said:

Most of the Bill of Rights (including the 1st Amendment) have been made applicable to the States under the 14th amendment-its called incorporation. (Not a lawyer, I’m certain they could explain in more detail.)

Yes, thanks, I knew it was in there somewhere but I didn't remember it was 14A (which I always think of as "due process").

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2 hours ago, PenelopeWitherspoon said:

Unfortunately, I do not think any party can win on ideas anymore because people are too stupid to understand them beyond the 140 characters of Twitter.  Seriously, everything is taken down to a sound bite because a significant amount of Americans cannot be assed to actually put the time in to understand things.  I blame smart phones and shitty reality TV like KUWTK,  

Fucking morons the lot of them.

I feel like Jim Mora saying this:

But...ideas? Don’t talk about ideas. You kiddin’ me? Ideas? I just wish most of them would learn what an opinion actually is.

pssshhhh. Ideas 

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4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Alternate take:

They have decided that they can't win on ideas.

Their only chance is to take power by undemocratic means.  That failed.  What does that mean?  It means that they didn't try hard enough.  They need to amp up their stochastic terrorists some more, and actually get some commie dems killed, which is what should happen to commie traitors.  And they should allow GOP legislatures to just decide how their state votes, because Constitution.  And they need to cultivate their loyalists in the military to back them next time they try to violently seize power.

That is the current plan.  And if it doesn't work next time....they'll just try harder, using the same methods.

When you're a fascist who wants to take power by undemocratic means, you have to stick with it.  Shit, Hitler failed and went to prison at first.  But he had the stick-to-itness that made him a success.  Just stick with it, and you'll overwhelm the weakling institutions that play by the rules, because you don't give a shit about ANY rules.

Anything else is wishful thinking.  

 

3 hours ago, TexasEd said:

but they have the biggest rallies!

  

Added the votes in there.  The can seize power with their crazy ideas through the rallies and violence.  MTG is counting on it.

A greater number of people than I liked to admit, but recognize exist among us were giddy, gleeful, and overjoyed at watching the Biden-Harris campaign bus get surrounded by aggressive ragey drivers. These were not people trying to drive around a parade or protest in order to get to a destination, these were people actively seeking out and harassing a campaign, aided and abetted by law enforcement in certain Texas communities.

It believe it also happened at some polling locations, but for that I'd need to look up sources for locations.

Security for 2022 candidates should be high.

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1 minute ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

 

A greater number of people than I liked to admit, but recognize exist among us were giddy, gleeful, and overjoyed at watching the Biden-Harris campaign bus get surrounded by aggressive ragey drivers. These were not people trying to drive around a parade or protest in order to get to a destination, these were people actively seeking out and harassing a campaign, aided and abetted by law enforcement in certain Texas communities.

It believe it also happened at some polling locations, but for that I'd need to look up sources for locations.

Security for 2022 candidates should be high.

Brownshirts, lady.  Brownshirts.  All of these scripts have already been written.  All we have to do is read them to know what comes next.

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2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

1A defense is flimsy at best.

For Wood it will be flimsy because the GA Bar will be disbarring or suspending him because he is clinically mentally ill, not because of the insurrection-y character of his speech.

For those whose speech is insurrectionist, it may be more of a hurdle.

State bars absolutely have a compelling interest in preventing the mentally ill from providing legal services.

That interest is not so compelling when it comes to political speech, even if that speech is demonstrably false and/or abstractly or concretely injurious to our system of government.

Once Powell or Giuliani is found guilty of insurrection or sedition by a court of law, the relevant bars will act swiftly to disbar/suspend them.  Or, if they are found "guilty" of ethical violations by courts, the relevant bars may pile on with additional discipline, which might include suspension or disbarment.

But absent rulings from courts, or evidence of insanity, the bars are probably going to be reluctant to act on the basis of wrongheaded or even flat wrong political speech, even if false.

As people love to point out, the founding fathers and many American colonists were insurrectionist in speech and thought.  And the Crown would have jailed them or executed them, and revoked their ability to practice law, which is, for better or worse, what the First Amendment protects against.

 

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8 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Like we didn't know this already....

 

I have never really understood the laws applicable to diverting political funds/donations to personal causes.

If there are shenanigans here, I hope it gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Same particularly with Powell's solicitations for Kraken suits.  

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1 minute ago, TwiceHorn said:

I have never really understood the laws applicable to diverting political funds/donations to personal causes.

If there are shenanigans here, I hope it gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Same particularly with Powell's solicitations for Kraken suits.  

It's trump, there are "shenanigans" in every single thing he does.  And lol at him facing consequences. 

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Just now, DigglerontheHoof said:

It's trump, there are "shenanigans" in every single thing he does.  And lol at him facing consequences. 

Both of these.

There are plenty of ways to "launder" that money (see, e.g., the campaign buying 200k copies of the candidates shitty book to "hand out to supporters"...and just coincidentally funnel bucks into the candidate's pocket).  Now, traditionally, campaigns haven't really abused these mechanisms - they've committed shenanigans, but you know, it would be gauche to just nakedly funnel tens of millions to the candidate.

Well, Trump doesn't even recognize "gauche."  Anything that can be done, can be done on a giant scale.  He will use existing loopholes....to use a Trumpian phrase....."like never before."  Ivanka will be a $1 million a month consultant, he will write a new book that the PAC will buy 2 million copies of (and the book will be published by a new publishing house, "MAGA House" (owned by a series of shells that all come back to Trump, so he gets the publisher's take, too).  And on and on.

The GOOD thing is that he will funnel the money to himself, and not actually use it on furthering the violent insurrectionist movement that he's fostered.  He doesn't need them to commit acts of sedition.  He just needs them to keep sending money, so he'll foment just enough sedition to keep the energy up.  

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5 hours ago, SuingToGetAMessageBoard? said:

Political parties are nimble enough to recognize a losing hand and adjust over time.  For the Republican party in particular this is true -- we say all the time on here that they only care about the acquisition and use of power, not enacting some underlying philosophy with that power.  They just tried to gain power to undemocratic way and ended up losing the House, Senate, and Presidency. I think they'll start realizing they currently have a losing hand in pretty short order, have to deal with the realities of needing actual votes, and somehow adjust to grab additional voters.  My guess is that will mean putting a veneer of respectability back on the party so that young votes and non-racist votes are easier to get.

 

I don't think they can adjust soon enough that they will avoid paying for it for at least one more election cycle though.  I think we are in for crazy town Trump idolatry for at least until 2022 because Trump, Gaetz, Cruz, et al have the biggest microphones and will fight to keep it that way as long as they can.  The consequences of this path won't be fully accepted until another series of losses.  Then they will lose their influence.

Don't underestimate their dedication to voter suppression.  

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53 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I have never really understood the laws applicable to diverting political funds/donations to personal causes.

If there are shenanigans here, I hope it gets prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Same particularly with Powell's solicitations for Kraken suits.  

I would be fine with the FEC sending out a notice to every Trump donor saying "Trump raised $175 million from you in November and December after the election, and only spent $10 million on his legal defense" and include some photos of him jetting around or whatever.

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Doubly impressive when you consider he spent $10mm on legal fees, but somehow managed to NOT pay his top lawyers a single dollar.  

How the fuck did some of you graduate from the University of Texas?  You're literally among the most educated dumbasses on the planet.  

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11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I would be fine with the FEC sending out a notice to every Trump donor saying "Trump raised $175 million from you in November and December after the election, and only spent $10 million on his legal defense" and include some photos of him jetting around or whatever.

They wouldn’t give a fuck. As long as dear leader is happy, they are happy. His happiness is their happiness. Why? Because he told them it was. 
 

characteristics of a cult

  • The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
  • The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
  • The group is preoccupied with making money.
  • Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
  • Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
  • The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
  • The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
  • The group has a polarized us- versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
  • The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
  • The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
  • The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
  • Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
  • Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
  • Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members

 

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The lamentations of a stable genius, ladies and gentlemen.  

I hope whatever y'all got out of the last four years was worth it, because this average-to-below average intelligence, narcissistic sociopath was 15 minutes away from toppling our Republic so you could have a slightly newer pickup truck.  I am very grateful he didn't start or escalate any wars...except the one here at home that my children will have to fight to preserve our Democracy from the shitheaps like Trump and his minions.  That's all you've done here today Trumpers...is doom our children to civil war.  

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5 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Swan had a bonus drop this morning of a White House meeting on December 18.   This one is pretty damned wild:

 

https://www.axios.com/trump-oval-office-meeting-sidney-powell-a8e1e466-2e42-42d0-9cf1-26eb267f8723.html

 

 

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Trump was no longer focused on any semblance of a governing agenda, instead spending his days taking phone calls and meetings from anyone armed with conspiracy theories about the election. For the White House staff, it was an unending sea of garbage churned up by the bottom feeders.

Powell began this meeting with the same baseless claim that now has her facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit: She told the president that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged their machines to flip votes from Trump to Biden and that it was part of an international communist plot to steal the election for the Democrats.

[Note: In response to a request for comment, Powell said in an emailed statement to Axios: “I will not publicly discuss my private meetings with the President of the United States. I believe those meetings are privileged and confidential under executive privilege and under rules of the legal profession. I would caution the readers to view mainstream media reports of any such conversations with a high degree of discernment and a healthy dose of skepticism.”]

Powell waved an affidavit from the pile of papers in her lap, claiming it contained testimony from someone involved in the development of rigged voting machines in Venezuela.

She proposed declaring a national security emergency, granting her and her cabal top-secret security clearances and using the U.S. government to seize Dominion’s voting machines.

"Hold on a minute, Sidney," Herschmann interrupted from the back of the Oval. "You're part of the Rudy team, right? Is your theory that the Democrats got together and changed the rules, or is it that there was foreign interference in our election?"

Giuliani's legal efforts, while replete with debunked claims about voter fraud, had largely focused on allegations of misconduct by corrupt Democrats and election officials.

"It's foreign interference," Powell insisted, then added: "Rudy hasn't understood what this case is about until just now."

In disbelief, Herschmann yelled out to an aide in the outer Oval Office. "Get Pat down here immediately!" Several minutes later, White House counsel Pat Cipollone walked into the Oval. He looked at Byrne and said, "Who are you?"

The meeting was already getting heated.

White House staff had spent weeks poring over the evidence underlying hundreds of affidavits and other claims of fraud promoted by Trump allies like Powell. The team had done the due diligence and knew the specific details of what was being alleged better than anybody. Time and time again, they found, Powell's allegations fell apart under basic scrutiny.

But Powell, fixing on Trump, continued to elaborate on a fantastical election narrative involving Venezuela, Iran, China and others. She named a county in Georgia where she claimed she could prove that Dominion had illegally flipped the vote.

Herschmann interrupted to point out that Trump had actually won the Georgia county in question: "So your theory is that Dominion intentionally flipped the votes so we could win that county?" 

As for Powell's larger claims, he demanded she provide evidence for what — if true — would amount to the greatest national security breach in American history. They needed to dial in one of the campaign's lawyers, Herschmann said, and Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan was patched in via speakerphone.

By now, people were yelling and cursing.

The room was starting to fill up. Trump's personal assistant summoned White House staff secretary Derek Lyons to join the meeting and asked him to bring a copy of a 2018 executive order that the Powell group kept citing as the key to victory. Lyons agreed with Cipollone and the other officials that Powell's theories were nonsensical. 

It was now four against four.

Flynn went berserk. The former three-star general, whom Trump had fired as his first national security after he was caught lying to the FBI (and later pardoned), stood up and turned from the Resolute Desk to face Herschmann.

"You're quitting! You're a quitter! You're not fighting!” he exploded at the senior adviser. Flynn then turned to the president, and implored: "Sir, we need fighters."

Herschmann ignored Flynn at first and continued to probe Powell's pitch with questions about the underlying evidence. "All you do is promise, but never deliver," he said to her sharply.

Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles.

Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down.

The meeting had come entirely off the rails.

Byrne, backing up Flynn, told Trump the White House lawyers didn't care about him and were being obstructive. "Sir, we're both entrepreneurs, and we both built businesses," the former Overstock CEO told Trump. "We know that there are times you have to be creative and take different steps."

This was a remarkable level of personal familiarity, given it was the first time Byrne had met the president. All the stanchions and buffers between the White House and the outside world had crumbled. 

Byrne kept attacking the senior White House staff in front of Trump. "They've already abandoned you," he told the president aggressively. Periodically during the meeting Flynn or Byrne challenged Trump's top staff — portraying them as disloyal: So do you think the president won or not?

At one point, with Flynn shouting, Byrne raised his hand to talk. He stood up and turned around to face Herschmann. "You're a quitter," he said. "You've been interfering with everything. You've been cutting us off."

"Do you even know who the fuck I am, you idiot?" Herschmann snapped back.

"Yeah, you're Patrick Cipollone," Byrne said.

"Wrong! Wrong, you idiot!"

The staff were now on their feet, standing behind one of the couches and facing the Powell crew at the Resolute Desk. Cipollone stood to Herschmann's left. Lyons, on his last day on the job, stood to Herschmann's right.

Trump was behind the desk, watching the show. He briefly left the meeting to wander into his private dining room.

The usually mild-mannered Lyons blasted the Powell set: "You've brought 60 cases. And you've lost every case you’ve had!"

Trump came back into the Oval Office from the dining room to rejoin the meeting. Lyons pointed out to Powell that their incompetence went beyond their lawsuits being thrown out for standing. "You somehow managed to misspell the word 'District' three different ways in your suits," he said pointedly.

In a Georgia case, the Powell team had misidentified the court on the first page of their filing as "THE UNITED STATES DISTRICCT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRCOICT OF GEORGIA." And they had identified the Michigan court as the "EASTERN DISTRCT OF MICHIGAN." 

These were sloppy spelling errors. But given that these lawsuits aimed to overturn a presidential election, the court nomenclature should have been pristine. 

Powell, Flynn and Byrne began attacking Lyons as they renewed their argument to Trump: There they go again, they want to focus on the insignificant details instead of fighting for you.

Trump replied, "No, no, he's right. That was very embarrassing. That shouldn't have happened."

The Powell team needed to regroup. They shifted to a new grievance to turn the conversation away from their embarrassing errors. Powell insisted that they hadn't "lost" the 60-odd court cases, since the cases were mostly dismissed for lack of standing and they had never had the chance to present their evidence.

Every judge is corrupt, she claimed. We can't rely on them. The White House lawyers couldn't believe what they were hearing. "That's your argument?" a stunned Herschmann said. "Even the judges we appointed? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

Powell had more to say. She and Flynn began trashing the FBI as well, and the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr, telling Trump that neither could be trusted. Both institutions, they said, were corrupt, and Trump needed to fire the leadership and get in new people he could trust.

Cipollone, standing his ground amidst this mishmash of conspiracies, said they were totally wrong. He aggressively defended the DOJ and the FBI, saying they had looked into every major claim of fraud that had been reported.

Flynn and Powell had long nursed their antipathy to the FBI and Justice. Flynn had pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation but withdrew the plea after hiring Powell as his lawyer in June 2019.

The two alleged the FBI had entrapped Flynn and failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, known as Brady material, as required by law. They had found an ally in Barr, a fierce critic of the Russia investigation who finally directed the DOJ to drop Flynn's case.

Herschmann, known inside the White House as a defender of Barr and the DOJ, went off on Flynn again: "Listen, the same people that you're trashing, if they didn't produce the Brady material to Sidney, your ass would still be in jail!"

It was no longer technically true that Flynn would be in jail, as he had received a post-election pardon from Trump. But Flynn was furious. "Don't mention my case," he roared. Herschmann responded, "Where do you think Sidney got this information? Where do you think it came from? From the exact same people in the Department of Justice that you're now saying are corrupt."

Byrne, wearing jeans, a hoodie and a neck gaiter, piped up with his own conspiracy: "I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation." 

Herschmann stared at the eccentric millionaire. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?" Byrne brought up the bizarre Clinton bribery claim several more times during the meeting to the astonishment of White House lawyers.

Trump, for his part, also seemed perplexed by Byrne. But he was not entirely convinced the ideas Powell was presenting were insane. 

He asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. They’re saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let's give this a shot.

The words "martial law" were never spoken during the meeting, despite Flynn having raised the idea in an appearance the previous day on Newsmax, a right-wing hive for election conspiracies.

But this was a distinction without much of a difference. What Flynn and Powell were proposing amounted to suspending normal laws and mobilizing the U.S. government to seize Dominion voting machines around the country.

Powell was arguing that they couldn't get a judge to enforce any subpoena to hand over the voting machines because all the judges were corrupt. She and her group repeatedly referred to the National Emergencies Act and a Trump executive order from 2018 that was designed to clear the way for the government to sanction foreign actors interfering in U.S. elections.

These laws were, in the view of Powell, Flynn and the others, the key to unlocking extraordinary powers for Trump to stay in office beyond Jan. 20.

Their theory was that because foreign enemies had stolen the election, all bets were off and Trump could use the full force of the United States government to go after Dominion.

It was remarkable that the presidency had deteriorated to such an extent that this fight in the Oval Office between senior White House officials and radical conspiracists was even taking place.

"How exactly are you going to do this?" an exasperated Herschmann asked again, later in the conversation. Newman again cited the 2018 executive order, which prompted Herschmann to question out loud whether she was even a lawyer.

Then Byrne chimed in: "There are guys with big guns and badges who can get these things." Herschmann couldn't believe it. "What are you, three years old?" he asked.

Lyons, the staff secretary, told the president that the executive order Powell and Flynn were citing did not give him the authority they claimed it did to seize voting machines. Morgan, the campaign lawyer, also expressed skepticism about their idea of invoking national security emergency powers.

To help adjudicate, Trump then patched in the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, on speakerphone. Trump's personal assistant brought O'Brien into the call with no explanation of what madness would await him.

O'Brien said very little in the short time he was on the call but intervened at one point to say he saw no evidence to support Powell's notion of declaring a national security emergency to seize voting machines. There was so much fiery crosstalk it was hard for anyone on the telephone to follow the conversation.

Trump expressed skepticism at various points about Powell's theories, but he said, "At least she’s out there fighting."

The discussion shifted from Dominion voting machines to a conversation about appointing Powell as a special counsel inside the government to investigate voter fraud. She wanted a top secret security clearance and access to confidential voter information.

Lyons told Trump he couldn't appoint Powell as a special counsel at the Justice Department because this was an attorney general appointment. Lyons, Cipollone and Herschmann — in fact the entire senior White House staff who were aware of this idea — were all vehemently opposed to Powell becoming a special counsel anywhere in the government.

By this point Trump had also patched into the call his personal lawyer Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows indicated that he was trying to wrap his mind around what exactly Powell's role would entail. He told Powell she would have to fill out the SF-86 questionnaire before starting as special counsel. 

This was seen as a delaying tactic. The sense in the room was that Trump might actually greenlight this extraordinary proposal.

At its essence, the Powell crew's argument to the president was this: We have the real information. These people — your White House staff — don't believe in the truth. They're liars and quitters. They're not willing to fight for you because they don't want to get their hands dirty. Put us in charge. Let us take control of everything. We'll prove to you that what we're saying is right. We won't quit, we'll fight. We're willing to fight for the presidency.

On some level, this argument was music to Trump's ears. He was desperate. Powell and her team were the only people willing to tell him what he wanted to hear — that a path to stay in power in the White House remained.

The Oval Office portion of the meeting had dragged on for nearly three hours, creeping beyond 9 p.m. The arguments became so heated that even Giuliani — still on the phone — at one point told everyone to calm down. One participant later recalled: "When Rudy's the voice of reason, you know the meeting's not going well." 

Giuliani told Trump he was going to come over to the White House. The president, having forgotten about the others on the line, hung up and cut multiple people off the call.

Herschmann, Cipollone and Lyons left the Oval Office, but soon discovered that the Powell entourage had made their way to the president’s residence. They followed them upstairs, to the Yellow Oval Room, Trump's living room, where they were joined by Giuliani and Meadows.

Trump sat beside Powell in armchairs facing the door, separated by a round, wooden antique table. Giuliani sat in an armchair to the right of them, while Byrne and Meadows sat on a couch. Byrne wolfed down pigs in a blanket and little meatballs on toothpicks that staff had set on the coffee table.

Herschmann was primed to brawl and ready to dump on Powell. It had been a long day. 

"Rudy," he said, turning to Giuliani, "Sidney was just in the Oval telling the president you don't know what the fuck you're doing. Right, Sidney?" He turned to Powell: "Why don't you tell Rudy to his face?"

"Eric, really it's not appropriate," Trump replied curtly. 

"What's not appropriate?" Herschmann shot back. Turning to Powell, he said, "Why don't you repeat to Rudy what you just told the president in the Oval Office — that he has no idea about the case and that he only just began to understand it a few hours ago."

Three days later, Giuliani would publicly distance himself from Powell, telling Newsmax that Powell did not represent the president, and that "whatever she's talking about, it's her own opinions."

It didn't take long for the yelling to start up again. They were now in hour four of a meeting unprecedented even by the deranged standards of the final days of the Trump presidency. 

Now it was Meadows' turn, blasting Flynn for trashing him and accusing him of being a quitter. "Don't you dare challenge me about whether I'm being supportive of the president and working hard," Meadows shouted, reminding Flynn that he'd defended him during his legal troubles.

Trump and Cipollone, who frequently butted heads, went at it too, over whether the administration had the authority to do what Powell was proposing.

Powell kept asserting throughout the night that she had — or would soon produce — the evidence needed to prove foreign interference. She kept insisting that Trump had the legal authority he needed to seize voting machines. But she did not have the goods.

Powell at one point turned to Lyons and demanded, "Why are you speaking? Are you still employed here?" The staff secretary, who had already resigned, laughed and joked, "Well I guess I'm here until midnight."

It was after midnight by the time the White House officials had finally said their piece. They left that night fully prepared for the mad possibility Trump might still name Sidney Powell special counsel. You have our advice, they told the president before walking out. You decide who to listen to.

 

 

That is fucking hilarious.  Thank you very much.  That made my day.

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A couple of my favorites:

Quote

At one point, with Flynn shouting, Byrne raised his hand to talk. He stood up and turned around to face Herschmann. "You're a quitter," he said. "You've been interfering with everything. You've been cutting us off."

"Do you even know who the fuck I am, you idiot?" Herschmann snapped back.

"Yeah, you're Patrick Cipollone," Byrne said.

"Wrong! Wrong, you idiot!"

Quote

Trump came back into the Oval Office from the dining room to rejoin the meeting. Lyons pointed out to Powell that their incompetence went beyond their lawsuits being thrown out for standing. "You somehow managed to misspell the word 'District' three different ways in your suits," he said pointedly.

In a Georgia case, the Powell team had misidentified the court on the first page of their filing as "THE UNITED STATES DISTRICCT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRCOICT OF GEORGIA." And they had identified the Michigan court as the "EASTERN DISTRCT OF MICHIGAN." 

 

 

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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There should be no doubt that Herschmann is the source on this, trying to save a little face.

"Herschmann sat down with his big swinging dick and chastised the conspirators for there unprofessionalism and bullshit. He cussed them out, countered their rhetoric with facts and sanity, and pulled the 'do you know who the fuck I am?' card. He even yelled back at Trump!" (paraphrasing, but barely)

Yet, with all of that supposed power and sway in the room, up to that meeting, he was completely unsuccessful in getting the President to even entertain the idea that he lost the election, using the White House data and research that the story referenced.

...or maybe, just maybe, like seemingly everyone else, he just sat back and humored the President in his last few weeks in the White House, then was somehow surprised about how out of hand it got.

You don't get to be voice of reason now.

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48 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

That is fucking hilarious.  Thank you very much.  That made my day.

And it is at least 80% believable.  These are exactly the people and personalities that we saw in public.  This is pretty much how they would conduct themselves in private as well.

We had a fucking lunatic in office, surrounded by an enabling cadre of lunatics.  That we got through this with ONLY an unchecked deadly pandemic and a violent revolt intended to decapitate a branch of government means that we were LUCKY.

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37 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

And it is at least 80% believable.  These are exactly the people and personalities that we saw in public.  This is pretty much how they would conduct themselves in private as well.

We had a fucking lunatic in office, surrounded by an enabling cadre of lunatics.  That we got through this with ONLY an unchecked deadly pandemic and a violent revolt intended to decapitate a branch of government means that we were LUCKY.

I believe it 100%, but you're probably right to discount 20% of it just on "eyewitness" testimony and recall.  

I think all of the litigation and litigation-adjacent lawdogs have been in on the "end of the line" meetings with clients who may be saner than Trump, but are still irrational about their lawsuit or transaction.

What may not be apparent is how stressful those meetings are for everyone concerned (assuming a threshhold of sanity and rationality).  But even and especially the irrational client who has to come to terms with the loss of the battle, the end of the ammunition.  I suspect that meeting was hard on Trump.  It was definitely hard on many of the lawdogs.  And that's delicious.

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That is fucking hilarious.  Thank you very much.  That made my day.

Was it the shoveling of meatballs and pigs in blankets or the “‘Who am I?”, “You’re Pat Cipollone!’, “No I’m not, you fucking idiot!” exchange that made you laugh the hardest?

It was the meatballs and pigs in blankets for me.
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12 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:


Was it the shoveling of meatballs and pigs in blankets or the “‘Who am I?”, “You’re Pat Cipollone!’, “No I’m not, you fucking idiot!” exchange that made you laugh the hardest?

It was the meatballs and pigs in blankets for me.

There were many.  The first, that got me the most, was Powell's allegation that "we've got evidence that a Dominion machine in a GA county flipped votes to Biden."  To which someone replied, "Trump won that county."

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16 minutes ago, Bama Chick said:


Was it the shoveling of meatballs and pigs in blankets or the “‘Who am I?”, “You’re Pat Cipollone!’, “No I’m not, you fucking idiot!” exchange that made you laugh the hardest?

It was the meatballs and pigs in blankets for me.

‘Who am I?”, “You’re Pat Cipollone!’, “No I’m not, you fucking idiot!” is the one I want to see in a tv show or a movie.  Come on HBO, you gave us Game Changer with Sarah Palin - THIS is movie worthy. 

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‘Who am I?”, “You’re Pat Cipollone!’, “No I’m not, you fucking idiot!” is the one I want to see in a tv show or a movie.  Come on HBO, you gave us Game Changer with Sarah Palin - THIS is movie worthy. 

There is so much movie worthy. It’s going to have to be like a House of Cards series that lasts years. But is real.
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1 hour ago, Js1 said:

‘Who am I?”, “You’re Pat Cipollone!’, “No I’m not, you fucking idiot!” is the one I want to see in a tv show or a movie.  Come on HBO, you gave us Game Changer with Sarah Palin - THIS is movie worthy. 

The best part was that Cipollone was standing right to watch that happen.

Um, hello!

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