Former President Donald Trump’s legal team may need to come up with a more “creative argument” in defending him as their legal one “ain’t working,” former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Steele said on Saturday.
Steele’s comments come after Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows was handed a legal loss on Friday after trying to move his case to a federal court instead of a state one.
The former White House chief of staff is facing two criminal counts, accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, along with Trump and 17 other associates of the former president. All 19 defendants from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ indictment have pleaded not guilty to their various charges. Meadows took the stand in Georgia last week to argue that his case should be tried in federal court, given that his actions tied to the indictment fell under his responsibilities as chief of staff.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones wrote in his 49-page filing order on Friday, however, that Meadows’ actions fell outside the requirements of a White House chief of staff.
What gives me some hope, is that it’s in (part of) the republican establishment’s interest for Trump to go to jail.
That way it becomes very hard for him still to run, he can be replaced by someone more controllable/sensible, but his ‘persecution’ can be used as a symbol to increase turnout of conservative voters.
I think it’s a balance for them. He’s unruly and I think they’d be happy to be rid of him, but they want to make sure they don’t set precedence for them all to go to jail, too. That’s the main reason they want him gone. They’ve been setting up dominos for decades and Trump is a whirling dervish fucking everything up. Some dominos get knocked down too early, some get interrupted from knocking down the whole path, some just become ineffective. It’s hard to build infrastructure around what he does.
Yeah a big part of why nobody was prosecuted for the Iraq war was that everyone was guilty and everyone thought they were gonna get away with it. If one of them got prosecuted that would open up the door for the rest of them.
The actual Georgia establishment doesn’t want to be told what to do by Yankees. Raffensberger and Kemp want their block back.
Honestly I was amazed that a New York carpetbagger that was lifelong friends of the Clintons who was so firmly in the Hollywood elite that his cabinet was full of producers is a savior to the southern republicans.
It’s really a testament to his acting skills.