Much like the hellish fires sweeping across the American and Canadian West, the madness consumes ever more of us. A mad Republican majority, outnumbering Nero by the hundreds, fiddles while Washington burns—a Republican majority focused not on addressing inflation, income inequality, unaffordable housing, but on sending us all back in time when race, gender, sexual orientation, and faith kept us apart. When suspicion, distrust, intolerance, even naked hatred reigned.
A smaller—but no less mad—Supreme Court majority believes it can substitute its faux morality for reasoned judgment, condemning American women to surrender their bodies to the idiot men and fanatic women who, in gerrymandered states across the nation, insist that God speaks through them and that they know best. They pretend they are pro-life as they continue to enable and empower those who too often use semi-automatic weapons of war against innocent civilians, condemning America’s children to the now vital active-shooter drills that we know increase depression, stress, and anxiety among our youth. Meanwhile, they disenfranchise the rest of us who don’t want to be the victims of their distorted interpretation of the Second Amendment.
As the country and wider world yearn for answers to the multiple crises that worsen, as the fires rage and the ice melts, tyrants—petty and all-powerful—plunder at will. Putin, the invader, is admired by an ex-American president who somehow imagines that betraying our nation’s secrets impresses those who pay over-priced membership fees to hang out in his tasteless Miami Beach castle. As an odd coalition of pretend progressives and once-upon-a-time hawks want to abandon the Ukrainians who fight for their lives and self-determination against the very same Vladimir who, if they ever whispered a peep of criticism within his borders, would gladly find room for them in his Stalinist prisons.
If you still need convincing, please take a deep breath and consider our newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who, as the New York Times reminds us, “played a pivotal role in congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election.”
The Times explains:
“An evangelical Christian, he has voted for a national abortion ban and co-sponsored a 20-week abortion ban … On the day the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, he celebrated, calling it ‘an extraordinary day in American history that took us almost a half-century to get to.’”
But, as CNN reports, it only gets worse:
“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has a history of harsh anti-gay language from his time as an attorney for a socially conservative legal group in the mid-2000s. In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a ‘inherently unnatural’ and ‘dangerous lifestyle’ that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy ‘the entire democratic system.’ …
“At the time, Johnson was an attorney and spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, known today as Alliance Defending Freedom, where he also authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas — which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults.”
This MAGA madness threatens my mental health. It is like we are staring into an ever-rotating oversized mirror ball at a Mar-a-Lago Halloween, and we are all a bit blind. It seems to me that the only time and place where we can fully see what we once were, appreciating just a bit of old-fashioned quiet reflection and rationality, is in some of the courtrooms of America.
Unsurprisingly, it is these very courts of law that so enrage the liar-in-chief. As his free days dwindle, as his newly-repentant rats race to toss themselves from the sinking S.S. Stop The Steal, Captain Trump is trying to squeeze in as many lies and threats and lunatic-like ravings as he can.
A quick recap: On September 15, 2023, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith filed a motion to prevent Donald Trump from trying to frighten his prosecutors and influence the jury in his Washington, D.C. election-interference case. Special Prosecutor Smith urged Judge Tanya Chutkan to “enter a narrowly tailored order pursuant to Local Criminal Rule 57.7(c) that restricts certain prejudicial extrajudicial statements.” Smith explained:
On October 17, 2023, Judge Chutkan issued an order setting forth some limits on what Trump could say about the case:
“In order to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings, it is necessary to impose certain restrictions on public statements by interested parties. Undisputed testimony cited by the government demonstrates that when Defendant has publicly attacked individuals, including on matters related to this case, those individuals are consequently threatened and harassed.”
Chutkan explained:
As Chutkan details:
“All interested parties in this matter, including the parties and their counsel, are prohibited from making any public statements, or directing others to make any public statements, that target (1) the Special Counsel prosecuting this case or his staff; (2) defense counsel or their staff; (3) any of this court’s staff or other supporting personnel; or (4) any reasonably foreseeable witness or the substance of their testimony.
“This Order shall not be construed to prohibit Defendant from making statements criticizing the government generally, including the current administration or the Department of Justice; statements asserting that Defendant is innocent of the charges against him, or that his prosecution is politically motivated; or statements criticizing the campaign platforms or policies of Defendant’s current political rivals, such as former Vice President Pence.”
In typical Trump fashion, his response was counterattack and rhetoric:
It is almost as if Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss don’t really exist, that Rusty Bowers and his wife weren’t harassed in Arizona, that January 6 never happened, and that the jails aren’t filled with convicted rioters who followed Trump’s call to come to D.C. Trump’s team wrote: “the Court cited no evidence that President Trump’s statements — as distinct from the statements of millions of others — caused such alleged threats or harassment, let alone that the statements were directed to inciting imminent lawless action.” (Emphasis added.)
That same day, as CNN reported, “In a brief order, Chutkan, who is overseeing the case against Trump in Washington, DC, said she was issuing the administrative stay of the gag order entered earlier this week to give the parties more time to brief her on the former president’s request to pause the order while his appeal of it plays out.”
Trump’s legal team then filed another motion to dismiss the entire DOJ indictment, arguing “that there can be no absolute truth about who won the 2020 election and so, therefore, Trump can’t face criminal charges stemming from his advocacy advancing claims that were made without evidence that the election was stolen.” (Emphasis added.)
Really? Is it possible there is no way to objectively determine the winner of an election? Is it just what people imagine it to be? Perhaps in Trumpovia, where a stupid opinion counts as much as a smart one, where anti-vaccine science deniers cancel out experienced epidemiologists and virologists:
In the perverted world in which Trump wants us to live, a world in which the Republican majority in the House of Representatives seem anxious to dwell, in which all of the many recounts, the many lost court cases matter so much less than the oft-told stolen election lie:
“The fact that the [DOJ] indictment alleges that the speech at issue was supposedly, according to the prosecution, ‘false’ makes no difference. Under the First Amendment, each individual American participating in a free marketplace of ideas — not the federal Government — decides for him or herself what is true and false on great disputed social and political questions.” (Emphasis added.)
Paging Mr. Orwell.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump just can’t help himself. So addicted to bullying and character assassination, he continues on, even at his own expense. Let’s see how he is dealing with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million lawsuit before Judge Engoron. The case alleges that Trump exaggerated the values of his real estate properties to get more favorable loans and then deflated their worth for tax purposes.
On October 2, 2023, The Washington Post noted:
“Trump spoke outside the courtroom before, during and after the hearing, pointing fingers at others while suggesting the case was connected to larger political and legal forces he has denounced on the campaign trail as a Republican 2024 presidential candidate. Trump told reporters that Engoron, who had issued a pretrial decision stripping Trump of control of his New York business licenses, was ‘a disgrace’ who should be disbarred. The court’s clerk, he said, shouldn’t be working the case because she ‘hates Trump’ more than the judge. James, a Democrat, was ‘a total crook, a terrible person,’ who should be focused on murders not on his financial statements, he said.”
Later, Trump posted this picture of Judge Engoron’s law clerk on his Truth Social network:
Almost immediately, as The Washington Post reported:
“The judge overseeing a civil trial over alleged business fraud committed by Donald Trump and his company issued a gag order in the case Tuesday barring the former president from making public comments about his court staff. The decision by Judge Arthur Engoron, announced about a day and a half into the trial, came soon after Trump posted on social media about a staffer for the judge and included a picture of the person … Engoron’s decision amounted to a sharp rebuke of at least some of Trump’s commentary. The gag order applies to all parties involved in the case, though it appeared aimed primarily at Trump.”
Then, more than two weeks later, on the evening of October 19, 2023, Judge Engoron learned that, contrary to his order, and despite Donald Trump’s declaration that he had removed the post and photograph of the Judge’s law clerk, the photo was still present on a Trump website. Judge Engoron wrote in a two-page statement:
Quite clearly, Donald Trump is completely unaccustomed to being held accountable. Not surprisingly, it took less than a week for him to re-offend. This time, it seemed he couldn’t stand having to listen to his one-time fixer, Michael Cohen, explain how Trump and his company juggled the books. And so he couldn’t help from exploding to reporters outside the courtroom during a recess, vilifying the judge, Cohen, and the judge’s law clerk once again. The Washington Post reported:
“A New York judge on Wednesday fined Donald Trump $10,000 for violating a gag order in a business-fraud lawsuit — and warned the former president that the penalties will only get worse if he keeps breaking the rules set for the civil trial …
“The five-figure fine came after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron unexpectedly called Trump to the witness stand to explain, under oath, a comment he made outside the courtroom earlier in the day … Speaking to reporters in a hallway, Trump complained that Engoron, a Democrat, is ‘a very partisan judge, with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.’
“Learning of those comments, Engoron summoned Trump to explain exactly what he meant … Trump told the judge he was talking only about Cohen. But when pressed, he said of the law clerk: ‘I think she’s very biased against us. I think we made that clear.’ Engoron said he didn’t believe Trump’s explanation that he was talking about Cohen. ‘As the trier of fact I find that the witness is not credible,’ Engoron said, adding that he believed Trump was ‘referring to my … principal law clerk, who is sitting much closer to me.’” (Emphasis added.)
The next day, Trump returned to his Truth Social network to issue a series of blistering attacks on Judge Engoron, Georgia Attorney General Letitia James, and prosecution witness Michael Cohen. He described Judge Engoron this way: “The unhinged Judge, a highly political and fully biased Trump Hater …”
Then, in another post, Trump wrote:
Clearly, the first fine of $5,000 had little effect, and the second fine of $10,000 just seemed to stimulate further abuse. Who knows what Judge Engoron does next?
Almost immediately, in his new brief about the D.C. gag order, Jack Smith incorporated Donald Trump’s remarks at the New York City courthouse and the news about the fines levied by Judge Engoron alongside his evidence of Trump’s recent attacks on his team and potential witnesses.
Smith acknowledges:
“[Judge Chutkan’s narrow gag order] leaves the defendant entirely free … to assert his innocence, claim that his prosecution is politically motivated, criticize the platforms and policies of his political opponents, and level all manner of criticism at various institutions and individuals, including the incumbent president and the Department of Justice. But, like every other criminal defendant, what the defendant may not do is publicly target certain trial participants in order to ‘vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants’ or to ‘launch a pretrial smear campaign against … foreseeable witnesses’ … ‘Because such targeted ‘statements pose sufficiently grave threats to the integrity of the proceedings that cannot be addressed by alternative means.’”
Smith was particularly troubled by Trump’s Truth Social post responding to reports by ABC News about a potential immunity deal for his former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. ABC wrote:
“[S]ources said Meadows informed Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump’s prolific rhetoric regarding the election. According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being ‘dishonest’ with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.” (Emphasis added.)
Here is Donald Trump’s Truth Social post:
Some argue that such language resulted in tangible danger to his targets:
Smith noted these threats even extended to the judge herself:
Smith continues:
Of course, Donald Trump and his team offered no answers, firm in the belief that he is entitled to target those who seek to hold him accountable. Because Trump, like King Lear, is convinced he is “a man more sinned against than sinning.” He will never go quiet into any night. And the closer he comes to conviction, the more he will rant and resist.
Up to now, he has bullied more than enough enablers to secure his safety. But in these few judicial sanctuaries, the arenas he hasn’t been able to tame, the tide has been turning. And it is in the courts of Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York City that some semblance of sanity has survived in a kind of protective custody. They remain the rare places in America where mad MAGA claims are forced to confront old-fashioned truth and consequence.
And because of the primacy of evidence and facts, we can finally witness the frantic rush to cop a plea. Yes, having proudly done the crime, we can now watch the desperate, slightly pathetic attempts of Trump’s co-conspirators to avoid doing the time—the moment many have been dreaming of, an accountability a long time coming. For, in Georgia, thanks to the brave work and perseverance of Attorney General Fani Willis, Trump acolytes, one after the other, are pleading guilty for what they did by transforming MAGA words into illegal action.
And what we are witnessing now is the collision between political zeal, denial, and bravado and the cold calculation that is provided by a thorough, fact-based prosecution. While Trump continues to rail against the prospect of finally being held to account, the others, his foot soldiers in their brazen attempt to derail a free and fair election, are deciding they would rather abandon him and live another day on this side of the prison bars.
As the UK Guardian reported, first was Scott Hall:
“Former Republican poll watcher Scott Hall pleads guilty to five criminal counts and must testify against co-defendants … The surprise move from Hall came after he gave a recorded statement, it was revealed in court, to prosecutors who are almost certain to use that testimony against the former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell when she goes to trial in October accused of several of the same crimes … A live video of the court proceeding showed Hall pleading guilty to five counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties, a misdemeanor charge. Hall was sentenced to five years’ probation, a $5,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and to write an apology letter to the state.”
As The Washington Post put it:
“Sidney Powell was Trump’s biggest ‘fighter.’ Now she’s a big threat … In the weeks after the 2020 election, a self-assured lawyer with a Southern drawl quickly climbed the ranks of the movement trying to keep President Trump in power: She aired outlandish assertions on Fox News and before cameras at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, filed a battery of lawsuits pressing Trump’s case and took part in an Oval Office meeting where the president considered naming her a special prosecutor … [Then] Trump’s team spurned her … She was ordered to pay sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit in Michigan. The State Bar of Texas lodged a disciplinary complaint against her. Two companies that make voting software sued her …
“On Thursday, Powell resolved the Georgia case by pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties. Her plea related to her involvement with a secretive effort to access and copy election software in rural Coffee County, Ga. in the months after the 2020 election — part of an attempt to prove Democrats might have tampered with the machines. The deal turns Powell into the government’s most prominent known asset in its quest to convict Trump, potentially now dangerous to the president she once supported.”
Remember how, once upon a time, Powell then Kenneth Chesebro requested an expedited trial, and we expected to see them together in the Fulton Count courtroom? Well, Chesebro took the hint and almost immediately got his own plea deal.
As The Washington Post of October 20, 2023 explained:
“Kenneth Chesebro, a former lawyer for Donald Trump’s campaign, pleaded guilty Friday to illegally conspiring to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia, striking a deal in which he will avoid jail time and agreed to provide evidence that could implicate other defendants, including Trump himself …
“Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to file false documents and accepted a sentence of three to five years of probation, a $1,000 fine, $5,000 in restitution to the state of Georgia, an apology letter, 100 hours of community service and a promise to testify truthfully against any other co-defendants in the case, should they go to trial. The charge relates to Chesebro’s role organizing slates of pro-Trump electors to meet in seven states where Joe Biden had won.”
And, as Hugo Lowell of the UK Guardian wrote:
“Trump’s eventual plan involved trying to use the existence of the fake electors to pressure his vice-president, Mike Pence, to declare at the certification that the election results in battleground states that Trump actually lost remained in doubt, and could therefore not be counted. At issue for Trump is that Chesebro’s plea deal in Fulton county required him to admit guilt to count 15 in the indictment — that Trump and Chesebro and others violated the law in filing the fake electors certificate — and thereby affirm that the fake electors were indeed fraudulent.”
Dominoes falling on by one. Next, Trump attorney Jenna Ellis found herself in tears as she apologized to the people of Georgia while pleading guilty to a felony, admitting that what she and her cohorts had said time and time again to TV audiences, state legislators, to Trump supporters, were actually lies she now deeply regrets telling:
So much about this cowardly new MAGA mad world view tests our sanity. For me, it has been watching how quickly hard-earned progress in race relations, immigration, in women’s rights, in moving beyond sexual stereotypes, and our approach to mental health challenges have been undermined and reversed. It has been hard to recognize—and name—the descent into our own homegrown authoritarianism. Many times we have wanted to imagine Trump and Trumpism as a kind of joke, or a bad dream that would evaporate with the new day. Who could have imagined an American president in the 21st century attacking a prisoner of war, a Gold Star family? Yes, we have gotten used to graft and corruption, but publicly flattering a Russian thug or North Korean dictator who has imprisoned his entire nation was, up until now, beyond the pale.
Any one of the things that were done in Georgia, or the events of January 6, would in normal times have sent enormous shockwaves throughout the nation. Instead, Republican voters seem intent on sending Trump back to the Oval Office.
I am holding on for dear life to the hope that, in the very midst of this madness, the prosecutors, court staff, the judges and the juries—even as they are viciously attacked—will continue to stay strong and stand up for the principle that no one is above the law.
And that goes for Donald Trump’s more pedestrian crimes—not insurrection, but plan old-fashioned grifting. As the heat intensifies in Georgia and Jack Smith prepares for the documents case in Florida and the federal election interference case in Washington, it is easy to overlook what is happening in New York City as Judge Engoron considers how much money to fine the various Trump companies. And even though Trump has already stormed out of the courtroom when cited for his second violation of Judge Engoron’s gag rule, soon he and his children will have to take the stand.
In case you have forgotten, the indictment offers a picture of how the Trump family operated its businesses:
Thankfully, in New York City, the citizens, as represented by their attorney general, are insisting on an honest accounting rather than the mad, disingenuous claims of the Trumps:
As Attorney General James’ indictment notes: “And in their roles as Executive Vice Presidents, each of the three Trump children had familiarity with, responsibility for, and made use of, the Statements of Financial Condition in commercial transactions.” (Emphasis added.) It seemed clear to me over these last years that they imagined themselves some version of American nobility, exempt from the responsibilities and consequences of the laws the rest of us followed.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to learn, as Vanity Fair reports, that especially Ivanka, who with her husband Jared Kushner leveraged time in the White House to walk away with billions from the Saudi Sovereign Fund, will have to face questions from the court.
For, as James reminds us:
“Ivanka Trump, an honors graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, was familiar with the Statements of Financial Condition, making presentations on them to the GSA in 2011, and using them to facilitate loans from Deutsche Bank in2012 and 2013. Ms. Trump maintained responsibility for those loans, which required annual submission of the Statements and confirmation that there had been no material changes in Mr. Trump’s net worth. Ms. Trump was familiar with the financial performance of the properties incorporated in the Statement, including through her responsibility for Trump International Realty.”
It is clear to me that until enough Americans rouse themselves to overcome the many obstacles the Republicans create to prevent free and fair elections, until they refuse to be systematically stripped of the choice to love who they love, to read what they want, to maximize their potential regardless of race and creed and gender, and insist on our ability to create a far more equitable America, we will have to rely on the courage of the courts.
Thankfully, Judge Chutkan is rising to the challenge. As The Washington Post reported on October 29, 2023:
“A federal judge has reimposed limits on former president Donald Trump’s public statements in advance of his trial on charges of conspiring to subvert the results of the 2020 election. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on Sunday evening put back in place an order she had lifted nine days earlier to give Trump and U.S. prosecutors more time to argue whether the restrictions were unconstitutional, as attorneys for the former president had claimed. Trump can now ask a higher court for an emergency stay pending appeal, but in the meantime he is bound by Chutkan’s limits. If Trump violates the gag, as he did a similar order by a state judge in New York, Chutkan will have to decide how to punish the former president and leading presidential candidate.”
Thomas Paine wrote this about the struggle against British tyranny, but it seems to me it applies perfectly to the ongoing fight against MAGA authoritarianism:
“These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldiers and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: – It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
And so, in the midst of this madness, Judge Engoron stated a very simple truth: “A trial is a search for the truth, and the law is entitled to every person’s evidence.”
I will take the simple truths over the mad frauds any day of the week.
Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans are betting we have esteemed the right to vote in free and fair elections too lightly, that we have too cheaply regarded our democracy. We are lucky to have women like Fani Willis and Letitia James and men like Jack Smith on the frontlines of the fight for our freedom. But it is time for the rest of us to move from the midst of this madness to actively join the fight.
