#TrumpTrial started earlier than I did today. Grabbing coffee, starting THREAD HERE🧵1/… #Trump#legal
Here’s the list of Trump’s allies attending his trial today:
AG Alan Wilson
Rep. Eric Burlison
Rep. Andrew Clyde
Rep. Mary Miller
Rep. Keith Self
John Coale
Alan Dershowitz
Will Scharf
Steve Witkoff
Bernie Kerik
Kash Patel
Vernon Jones
Jerry Kassar
Chuck Zito
#Trump has a huge posse today, including #KashPatel; #GerryKassar, a #conservative party leader in NY; #BernieKerik, fmr NYPD commissioner who was imprisoned for tax fraud & false statements; #AlanDershowitz, lawyer who defended Trump during his first impeachment, & #BorisEpshteyn, legal adviser who was #indicted in AZ for attempts to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election.
#Blanche moves on to the documents that prosecutors say were falsified. He suggests that everyone BUT #Trump — #AllenWeisselberg, #EricTrump, #DonaldTrumpJr & #MichaelCohen himself — may have falsified the docs, disguising them as repayments for #legal services. But not Trump himself, Blanche signals to the jury, w/o saying it outright.
#Blanche suggests the invoices that said #MichaelCohen was being reimbursed for #legal work were not false, because he did do legal work for #Trump.
Cohen has yet to lose his temper, & often responds to some of Blanche's questions w/perplexity. His go-to answer: “Yes, sir” or “No, sir.”
Blanche asks Cohen about the checks he received from Trump. Cohen says that 9 of them, each $35k, came directly from Trump,& were signed by him, testimony gotten —& documented— by prosecution.
#Blanche introduced an email #MichaelCohen sent to #RobertCostello, the lawyer who was informally advising Cohen & serving as a back channel to the #Trump legal team.
In the email, Cohen said “we will advance our conversations” about formalizing that #legal relationship, after Costello wrote to Cohen lamenting that he had “failed to communicate with me despite several text messages & emails.”
#PaperExcellence has hired McMillan at least six times over the last six years to advise on more than $6 billion US in transactions, including its takeovers of #forestry companies #CatalystPaper, #Domtar & #ResoluteForestProducts. It also represented a Paper Excellence subsidiary in a dispute with CN Rail.
Multiple #legal#ethics experts said they felt the FSC's decision to hire McMillan was problematic.
The “enhanced care model,” replaced #litigation based model & provides set amounts of #compensation by #injury type to victims, regardless of fault & without a referral. It eliminates most victims’ #RightToSue.
Let's dive into some citations Kagan used and see what the underlying stuff says.
For fun---because I definitely see a Federalist citation in there and the beauty of the writing is irresistible.
Chiafalo v. Washington, you may actually recall, was a Supreme Court case involving "Faithless Electors" in the 2016 election. (Image: Summary of Facts)
The Court permitted States to penalize the faithless electors.
The Pocket Veto Case was a case in which President Coolidge allowed a bill passed by Congress to expire without signing it after Congress' adjournment.
The question was whether the bill was law considering the Presentment Clause in Article I. (Image 1)
The Clause reads like an LSAT logic game, but the Court held the bill did not become law.
The important part for Kagan's opinion is the quote's context: (Image 2).
So if the Executive has been allowed to do something for a long time, and its done it for a long time, and the Legislature let it do it for a long time, and the Judiciary approved its doing it for a long time, then there is a constitutional inertia that exists.
The Court can intervene, but only if it can overcome the inertia.
Kagan then details the 200 years of unbroken tradition with broad Congressional discretion over form of Appropriation.
"The founding-era practice that the Court relates (Image 1) became the 19th-century practice (Image 2), which became the 20th-century practice (Image 3), which became today’s. (Image 4)"
[parenthetical added by me]
And throwing in Scalia for good measure. Everyone loves a good Scalia cite.
Kagan then notes that there are many appropriations made which are not on an annual basis and not required to return to the Legislature for additional funding:
Customs Service, Post Office, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (Definitely an office I knew existed 😉), and the Federal Reserve Board.
And that's about it for Kagan and her interesting squad of justices.
McCulloch v. Maryland was an early case from 1819 in which the State of Maryland had put a tax on a bank chartered by the federal government. The litigation stemmed from a refusal to pay the tax, and the Court of Appeals held the bank to be unconstitutional, necessitating Supreme Court review.
Ends up being the seminal "necessary & proper" case.
And the part to which she cites... is exactly that:
She cites to this part of Byrd, citing Richardson.
The context around the quoted part is, I think, extremely important. (Image 2).
It not only notes that the court's role is not general supervision, but that the "irreplaceable value of [judicial review]" is its protection of individual liberties.
70 yrs after #SCOTUS delivered its landmark decision outlawing school segregation, #BrownVBoardOfEducation ranks as perhaps the court’s most venerated decision….
Most everything else related to the decision…is complex.
Nearly 7/10 Americans say more should be done to integrate schools…a figure that has steadily climbed from 30% in 1973….But a deeper look into the views of both Black & White people shows skepticism about the success of #Brown….
…The #Brown decision focused on the value of mixing children of different races. But for many #integration activists —then & now— the case is about a path to #fair & #equitable educational #resources. Those legal battles cont. Today’s complex views about #schools & integration come amid persistent #segregation that has risen in recent decades,changes in the #legal landscape & complicated dynamics of #education & #race in #America today.
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
#Blanche tries to undermine the relationship #MichaelCohen said he had w/ #Trump. He asks whether Cohen did #legal work not only for Trump, but also for his family & the #TrumpOrganization. Then Blanche notes that Cohen did not have a legal retainer to do the work. (He was employed but the TrumpOrg. A retainer would be redundant)
Prosecutors have said that #Trump's reimbursements for the #HushMoney were fraudulently disguised as #legal services, even though #MichaelCohen had no legal retainer. The point Blanche is seeking to make is: Cohen did legal work for years, & never had a legal retainer. (See above)
#Blanche is also trying to minimize the fact that Cohen had no retainer agreement w/ Trump, suggesting NY #ethics rules don’t require it.