Pass the Popcorn

We have gotten another dump of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith's election interference case.

While some folks are claiming that this is attempted election interference, I would argue that it is more just an alignment of the facts, and timing of the delays that Trump and his Evil Minions™, including the 6 conservative justices on the Supreme Court.

Between this, and Arnold Palmer's penis (more on that later), this has not been a good week for the Trumpster fire:

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Friday unsealed the appendix of source materials underpinning special counsel Jack Smith’s massive legal filing that detailed the evidence collected against Donald Trump in the federal D.C. election interference case — though the document was heavily redacted and appeared to contain few new revelations.

The unsealed and unredacted portions of the 1,889-page appendix included transcripts of interviews with the legislative committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, excerpts from former vice president Mike Pence’s autobiography, a transcript of a Trump White House news briefing after the election in November 2020 and a transcript of a 2023 CNN town hall interview with the former president.

Trump’s legal team had opposed making the materials public so soon, arguing that Chutkan’s releasing them now could appear as though the court was trying to affect the upcoming election. But Chutkan disagreed, saying that withholding the documents could amount to election interference.

Trump's legal team has spent years delaying this.  If they had not, this would have been out while the primaries were still going on.

Tough sh%$ folks.

………

One portion of the appendix that adds new detail is a less-redacted version of a previously released transcript from the House Jan. 6 committee, which indicates Trump was told of the Jan. 6 riot as early as 1:21 p.m. that day.

………

Trump didn’t send a video message telling people to go home until 4:17 p.m. — nearly three hours after his apparent conversation with the valet.

Chutkan had previously unsealed Smith’s detailed 165-page filing, which contained a thorough account of the evidence investigators had gathered with footnotes indicating the source of the materials. It was meant to convince the judge that Trump could still be prosecuted even after the Supreme Court ruled this summer he had broad immunity.

The appendix was far less explosive, but it still underscored Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the election results.

The appendix included dozens of statements by swing-state lawmakers, agencies and officials contradicting allegations of election fraud by Trump and his campaign, along with Pence’s written account of his repeated refusals to go along with Trump’s plan to not accept the outcome. Prosecutors have argued that Trump’s chargeable conduct was in his private capacity as a candidate and not subject to presidential immunity, including his dealings with state officials in the alleged phony elector plot.

Also included in the appendix were transcripts of Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where he pressured the state official to “find 11,780 votes” to flip the state’s result and key post-election memos by Trump’s private attorneys concocting a plan to submit fake slates of electors from swing states to throw the election to the GOP-controlled House.

This really isn't anything new, but to the degree that this puts Trump on his back heel, this is a good thing.