Let’s enjoy the good news on today’s BradCast — and we’ve got quite a bit of it — because things may or may not be as bright tomorrow, as returns come in from the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia and the corrupt rightwing U.S. Supreme Court hears a case they may use to undermine American democracy as we have known it for more than 200 years. [Audio link to full show follow this summary.]
But, for tonight, at least, there is a whole bunch of good news regarding a whole bunch of bad news for our disgraced former President…which is great news for everyone else…
- A New York jury in Manhattan took little more than one day to find the Trump Organization guilty of all criminal state tax fraud charges brought against it — 17 counts in all. That follows its longtime Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg‘s guilty plea on 15 counts of fraud. He’s set to receive about five months in prison after his plea and agreement to testify against the company. A company, however, can’t be sentenced to prison, so a fine will be levied instead. But the Manhattan D.A.’s office may have other plans for criminal charges against Donald Trump, which we discuss as well today.
- Meanwhile, Trump is now claiming that he didn’t say what everybody saw him say, when he called for the “termination” of the U.S. Constitution over the weekend. It was, of course, part of his continuing effort to pretend the 2020 Presidential election that he lost was actually stolen from him. More disturbing, however, is the lack of elected Republican officials who, while pretending to be “Constitutional conservatives”, are unable to say whether Trump’s comments disqualify him from becoming President again.
- But, back to brighter news as we continue to try and keep track of accountability for at least 56 known criminal violations of law by the former President since he first ran for office. (That doesn’t include all of the civil violations, such as the $250 million lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against him, his company and his three oldest children on state tax fraud violations.) The Manhattan D.A.’s office of Alvin Bragg, which successfully prosecuted the criminal tax fraud cases against the Trump Organization, has made a new hire that suggests the office may be eyeing new criminal charges against Trump himself this time. We ‘splain.
- Also on Tuesday, the Chair of the bipartisan U.S. House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection and Trump’s many failed attempts to steal the 2020 election, said that the panel will be making criminal referrals to the U.S. Dept. of Justice before year’s end. That may or may not be bad news for Trump himself and many others in the MAGA Cinematic Universe. But it almost certainly ain’t good news for any of them.
- Also also on Tuesday, it is being reported that Jack Smith — newly tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland as Special Counsel overseeing the DoJ’s federal criminal probes into January 6, the documents stolen by Trump from the White House, and any other matters related to either of those cases — has issued his first subpoenas since taking his new position. Officials in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona according to Washington Post, as well as in Pennsylvania, as confirmed by AP, have all recently received demands from Smith for “any and all communications with Trump, his campaign, and a long list of aides and allies.”
It’s going to be a very long rest-of-his-life for Donald Trump — unless he pulls a Ken Lay first. Of course, we wish him nothing but the best.
- And, finally, we finish up today with Desi Doyen and our latest Green News Report, including news on the electric grid attack in North Carolina; Russia targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine (a war crime); and EV sales now surging in U.S. and across the globe…
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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Thank god, Warnock won!
But I’d like to throw a few numbers out there, just for fun, or madness . . .
Number of votes Warnock got in November: 1,946,117
Number of votes Warnock got in Dec runoff (with over 98% reporting): 1,806,827
Number of votes
Stacey Abrams lost with in November: 1,811,471
Number of votes Kemp won with in November: 2,110,328
Number of votes
Stacey Abrams lost with in 2018: 1,923,685
Number of votes Kemp won with in 2018: 1,978,408
Assuming no votes were somehow “flipped” for Kemp this year, then is Kemp simply just GOD in Georgia, or what? Must be.
DonL –
Of course, we can’t know if votes were flipped or not. But, as you note, assuming they weren’t…Kemp ain’t God in GA, but he was seen as standing up to Trump in 2020. Or, at least, not folding to him.
Of course, he had little choice in that. But he is being given undue credit for it by many Republicans who otherwise refused to vote for Trumpers like Walker, etc.
That would explain those numbers, in any event.