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Grain alcohol and rain water

Published by Tom Sullivan on September 26, 2023

A “desperate effort at censorship”?

Donald J. Trump is one grain alcohol and rain water away from pulling a Browning machine gun out of his golf bag.

Facing 91 felony charges across multiple jurisdictions, Trump believes it violates his rights if he’s not allowed to issue threats, intimidate potential witnesses, and taint jury pools as he campaigns for president awaiting trial. His defense team alleges a “desperate effort at censorship” by federal prosecutors.

Can you hear His Indictedness whine from where you are?

Politico:

Donald Trump’s lawyers said Monday that a gag order proposed by prosecutors would unconstitutionally silence him during key months of the 2024 presidential campaign, urging a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to reject the proposed limits.

In a 25-page filing that mirrored some of Trump’s own heated political rhetoric, Trump’s attorneys said the former president’s attacks on potential witnesses, special counsel Jack Smith and even U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan herself are protected by the First Amendment and were not actual threats or incitement of attacks.

“The prosecution may not like President Trump’s entirely valid criticisms,” attorneys Gregory Singer, John Lauro and Todd Blanche wrote in the late-night filing, ”but neither it nor this court are the filter for what the public may hear.”

Meaning what? His Incitefulness is free to shout “FIRE” in any theater in the land? That’s Trump’s position. As if he cannot campaign for president without issuing threats and promising retribution against anyone who has or will cross him.

[Special prosecutor Jack] Smith’s team sought the gag order earlier this month, citing Trump’s recent inflammatory attacks on potential witnesses in his upcoming trial on charges related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election. They also cited his attacks on prosecutors and Chutkan, as well as on figures like Mike Pence, who is expected to be a key witness in the case.

Trump’s defense team argues that “the prosecution offers no evidence of any causal connection between [Trump’s] speech and the alleged unlawful acts of others.”

Marcy Wheeler reminds those who clearly need reminding that multiple prisoners convicted for their actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection “blamed Trump for their actions,” testimony the DOJ cited in its gag order request:

Lauro ignores the multiple cases, cited in prosecutors’ filing, where people told Trump directly that his incitement had ratcheted up threats against people like Jeff Duncan, Chris Krebs, and Ruby Freeman. He ignores prosecutors’ citation of Trump bragging about the way his followers respond to Trump.

As he acknowledged in a televised town hall on May 10, 2023, his supporters listen to him “like no one else.”

Perhaps more importantly, Lauro ignores something he has already ignored, in his reply to his own motion to recuse Tanya Chutkan.

As I noted, by filing a motion to recuse based off things Judge Chutkan said when January 6 defendants blamed Trump for their actions, Trump invited prosecutors to lay out the many more times defendants had done just that. Not only did prosecutors provide eight other examples where defendants already sentenced by Chutkan blamed Trump for their actions, DOJ laid out something that Robert Palmer said of his own actions on January 6: That he went to the Capitol “at the behest” of Trump and took action to prevent the certification of the vote because of the false claims Trump had made.

It’s an overused reference, but the defense’s defense has no clothes. The only people who cannot see Trump’s efforts to taint the jury pool and intimidate witnesses are those who refuse to see. We may be past the point where MAGA threats against anyone and everyone perceived as a Trump enemy are self-sustaining. But that does not mean Trump should be free to keep feeding the fire and putting his targets at risk of injury or death.

Meidas Touch has collected “27 Insane Things Trump Said He Will Do in a 2nd Term.” Many reflect Trump’s dictatorial vision for a United States of Trump. Here is just a selection:

1. He will arrest all homeless people across the country for “urban camping,” round them up and then “relocate them” to “tent cities” where they can be “rehabilitated. 4/18/23

2. Require every federal employee to take a new patriotism exam and they will be terminated if they refuse to take them or fail to pass. 4/14/23

5. He will have DOJ subpoena local DAs and their staff and remove them from office if he determines that they are failing to do their job to his satisfaction. 5/4/23

7. He will seize university endowments and also fine them millions of dollars if he determines the schools are marxist and/or discriminating against white people. 5/2/23

8. He will have DOJ investigate and prosecute General Milley for treason. 9/22/23

11. Any person convicted of selling drugs will get the death penalty. 11/15/22

12. Pardon convicted J6 inmates convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers, with an apology from the US government. 9/1/22

13. Have DOJ investigate Comcast, NBC and MSNBC for treason and remove them from the public airwaves. 9/24/23

17. He would terminate the Constitution if he determined that fraud occurred during an election. 12/3/22

21. Fire 40,000 career civil servants on day one and replace them with “patriots” loyal to him. 7/22/22.

And while he’s busy saving the whales by demolishing wind turbines, Trump will require all citizens to change their underwear every half-hour.

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