As the headline suggests, we’ve got a bunch of different odds and ends and follow-ups and codas to share with you on today’s BradCast, along with, several new stories and even a musical ending to it all. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.]
Among today’s stories…
- Trump advisor Peter Navarro was found guilty by a jury in D.C. on Wednesday on two counts of Contempt of Congress for refusing to answer his House January 6 Committee subpoenas for testimony and documents. It’s the second such conviction for a scofflaw Trump apparatchik. Last year, Steve Bannon was found guilty of the same crimes and sentenced to 4 months in prison. He remains out on appeal. Navarro is expected to appeal as well. We wish them both nothing but luck in their continuing efforts to evade the Rule of Law on behalf of the disgraced former President and continuing con-man.
- Just a friendly reminder, because I haven’t seen it covered much in the wake of the recent small plane death of former Vladimir Putin-ally turned short-lived Russian mutineer Yevgeny Prigozhin. I just wanted to make sure this factoid doesn’t fall down the Memory Hole of History: On the day before last year’s mid-term elections in the U.S., Prigozhin admitted, for the first time publicly, that Russia had, in fact, “interfered, are interfering and will interfere” in U.S. elections. Yes, in addition to heading up the brutal Wagner mercenary group in Ukraine and elsewhere, being known as “Putin’s Chef” and eventually failed mutineer, he was also the guy who finally admitted to having interfered in U.S. elections. He was charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2018, for having done so in 2016.
- Following Hurricane Idalia‘s landfall in Northern Florida last week, it’s become clear that a radical new anti-immigrant law signed by the state’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis earlier this year will hamper rebuilding and recovery efforts in the Sunshine State. While damage from Idalia was intense, it made landfall on a sparsely populate part of the state. Next time, Florida may not be so “lucky”. In not-unrelated news for the U.S. East Coast, the huge Hurricane Lee has now intensified to a Category 4 today as it nears the Caribbean.
- A couple of weeks ago, we covered yet another case of voter fraud by a White Republican Trump donor after James Saunders, a 56-year old Ohio attorney, was convicted of unlawfully voting in both Florida and the Buckeye State in the 2020 and 2022 general elections. Last week, he received Ohio’s maximum sentence of three years in prison. The judge sent him immediately to jail following his conviction without allowing him to remain free pending appeal.
- In yet another new case of GOP election fraud last week, Alabama state Rep. David Cole was arrested and charged with voting in “multiple or unauthorized locations” after law enforcement officials determined the District 10 lawmaker actually resided in District 4 in violation of state law. He faces up to 10 years in prison for his crimes, though — in a turnabout for GOPers these days — Cole who was elected to public office last year, had the decency to resign following his arrest and says he plans to plead guilty.
- We’ve been spent quite a bit of time over the past year and a half on both The BradCast and at The BRAD BLOG covering the alarming, unlawful breach, copying and distribution of Georgia‘s statewide voting system software by a bunch of MAGA folks on January 7th, 2021 in rural Coffee County. The scheme was allegedly organized by Trump attorney Sidney Powell after being hatched in the Oval Office in December of 2020. Powell and three others were finally charged by Atlanta-area D.A. Fani Willis for their parts in the plot, in Donald Trump‘s sprawling, 41-count RICO indictment [PDF]. We helped break some of the story last year and have been covering in detail it ever since, including yesterday with guest Marilyn Marks, the woman who first revealed the breach after learning about it via a bizarre phone call she received from one of the participants (who has also since been charged.)
But there is another, less reported aspect to all of this, with no small amount of irony. Two of those charged for key roles in the plot, the County’s then GOP Chair Cathy Latham and then Election Supervisor Misty Hampton, were also part of a voter suppression cabal in the heavily Republican County where about a quarter of the population is Black. In fact, for years, the pair had helped to bring false voter fraud charges against County Commissioner Olivia Coley Pearson, a Black Democrat, for her terrible habit of helping folks get to the polls when they need assistance. As CNN’s Elle Reeve details in an excellent report this week from on the ground in Coffee County, there is good reason that some refer to it as “Crooked Coffee”…even before the massive Republican election fraud breach carried out by Hampton, Latham and many others.
- Next up, Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report following a record brutal summer across the globe. But she also has some good news, such as the Biden Administration‘s effort to reverse Trump’s oil drilling up in the previously pristine Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
- Finally, we close out Labor Day week with a new tune from musician and longtime labor advocate Billy Bragg, who says he was inspired by “the ghost of Woody Guthrie” to respond to a song named Rich Men North of Richmond by Virginia-based singer Oliver Anthony after it recently went viral in GOP circles. Bragg’s new tune in response is called Rich Men Earning North of a Million and it has a very clear message and solution for Anthony “and people like you.”
(Snail mail support to “Brad Friedman, 7095 Hollywood Blvd., #594 Los Angeles, CA 90028” always welcome too!)
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“This matter appears before the Court following Defendant Mark R.Meadows’s filing of a Notice of Removal. Doc. No.[1]. This Order addresses a relatively narrow question: Has Meadows carried his burden of demonstrating that removal of the State of Georgia’s criminal prosecution against him is proper under the federal officer removal statute, 28 U.S.C. §1442 (a)? Having considered the arguments and evidence, the Court concludes that Meadows has not met his burden. Therefore, the Court DECLINES to assume jurisdiction over the State’s criminal prosecution of Meadows under 28 U.S.C. § 1455 and REMANDS the case to Fulton County Superior Court. … (IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA ATLANTA DIVISION, Georgia v Meadows, at pp. 1-2, 9/08/23).
“Meadows also testified that as White House Chief of Staff he was bound by the Hatch Act and he could not engage in political activity. Hearing Tr. 39:7-25; 135:21-136:5. As discussed more fully below, the Hatch Act prohibits an employee from “us[ing] his official authority or influence for the purpose of affecting the result of an election. 5 U.S.C. § 2732(a)(1). This includes, [u]sing his or her official title while participating in political activity. 5 C.F.R. § 734.302(b)(2). And political activity is defined as, activity directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. Id. §734.101.
(ibid, pp. 26-27).
A moment of reckoning for gerrymandering