UPDATE: Seven men and five women have been chosen for the jury in Donald J. Trump's criminal trial over allegedly fraudulent business records in the payment of hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

FRIDAY 4/19/24

Israel Hits Iran – Israeli defense forces struck Iran with missiles early Friday, possibly near its nuclear research center in Isfahan, multiple news sources report. An Iranian brigadier general reported “loud booms” east of Isfahan, according to Iran’s news agency, says NPR. So far, no signs of casualties or damage. 

U.S. officials received a “last minute” warning on the strike but wasn’t involved, the Italian foreign minister reported from Capri, Italy, where Secretary of State Antony Blinken is attending the G7 summit, The Times of Israel reports. At the G7, Blinken only confirmed reports of the attack and reaffirmed U.S. commitment to Israel’s security.

Regional war? … The Biden administration has preached restraint to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Iran’s apparently unsuccessful drone attack on Israel last weekend, which injured a seven-year-old girl and resulted in no fatalities. But a minority of analysts have said that Iran’s attacks on Israel were actually quite successful in penetrating Israeli airspace and that Israel’s apparent retaliation was exactly what it wants – to escalate the war in Gaza to a regional conflict.

--TL

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THURSDAY 4/18/24

Countdown to Saturday – With Democrats having his back, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring three bills to the House floor Saturday, featuring $60.8 billion in long-awaited aid for Ukraine’s war effort, plus a separate border security bill. 

Ukraine supporter Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) last month announced he would resign from the House with his last day to be Friday, but now says he will stay on to Saturday to support the supplemental, CQ Roll Call reports, citing Gallagher’s aides.

The Senate has recess scheduled for next week, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has suggested it will be cancelled so the upper chamber can quickly pass the supplemental on to President Biden.

“The House must pass the package this week and the Senate should quickly follow,” Biden said.

Democrats will help with the necessary procedural votes to assure the supplemental package passes. They also are expected to provide enough votes to defeat a motion to dismiss threatened by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY).

In addition to the Ukraine package, Johnson’s supplemental, which totals $95.3 billion, includes:

$26.4 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

$8.16 billion for Indo-Pacific region security, including $4 billion to Taiwan and other regional allies, and $3.3 billion for a domestic submarine industrial base.  

A fourth bill would set up a support fund for Ukraine directed by the president and partner countries to allow use of frozen Russian assets to help rebuild the country.

The Ukraine aid bill also includes $9.5 billion in economic aid to be handled as a loan.

A separate bill on border security contains most of HR 2, which passed the House in 2023 with strong Democratic opposition. Except that the new bill does not include the provision mandating use of the E-Verify system for employers to confirm workers’ immigration status and eligibility to work in the United States. 

Johnson will move the bills separately through House procedures, then “stitch” them together as one for the handoff to the Senate, according to Roll Call.

•••

Three-Hour Impeachment Trial – Holding to his promise/warning that the Senate impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas would not take very long, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced two procedural points of order and – voila – it was done, three hours after impeachment jurors were sworn in (per CQ Roll Call). The votes went Schumer’s way, 51-48-1 and 51-49. Republicans’ procedural motions to try and put a stop to Schumer’s stop-action were rejected by the Democratic majority. 

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 4/17/24

Mayorkas On Trial – Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faces a Senate impeachment trial beginning Wednesday for allegedly mishandling the U.S.-Mexican “border crisis.” The Senate’s Democratic majority will attempt to quickly dismiss the impeachment case, though some Republicans, including Utah Sen. Mitt Romney want to have a “debate” about the border issue, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

•••

Ukraine Aid Rising? – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) appears ready to introduce a long-needed aid package to Ukraine, The Hill reports, despite the anti-Ukraine minority in the House having grown to two. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has joined pro-Putin Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in threatening Johnson with a motion to vacate over the aid, though Johnson can pretty much rely on many of the House Democrats’ 214 votes to overcome House Freedom Forum votes that would back a motion by MTG.

This all comes after a Russian missile attack overnight Wednesday on Chernihiv killed at least 15 and injured more than 60, according to The Kyiv Independent.

Like Israel … President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to Ukrainian television to say he was “pleased” Israel got help from allies in last weekend’s Iranian attack by drone and urged his country’s allies to show Ukraine the same sort of support (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

Russian losses A report by the BBC estimates Russia has lost more than 50,000 soldiers in its invasion of Ukraine.

•••

SCOTUS Appears Split – The Supreme Court appears split over former Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-area police officer Joseph Fischer’s argument he should not have been charged with obstructing an official proceeding when he joined a mob attacking the U.S. Capitol in the January 6th riot, according to SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe, in an assessment backed by other news outlets. 

In Fischer v. United States the ex-cop’s attorneys argue that Sec. 1512 (c) (2) applies only to evidence tampering of a congressional inquiry or investigation.

But U.S. Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar argued “a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and disrupted the peaceful transition of power. Many of the rioters obstructed Congress’ work in that official proceeding.”

If the conservative SCOTUS majority, including three Trump appointees, prevails, five other counts against Fischer would remain, though he would need to be re-sentenced or possibly have those five counts dropped.

--TL

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TUESDAY 4/16/24

UPDATE: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Tuesday morning filed a motion seeking to hold Donald J. Trump in contempt for allegedly violating Judge Juan Merchan's partial gag order, Axios reports. Bragg pointed to posts by the former president on his Truth Social account in which he attacks likely witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.

•••

Notes from Court – The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported Monday that Donald J. Trump snoozed for a bit in the Lower Manhattan courtroom where prosecutors, defense attorneys and Justice Juan Merchan vetted potential jurors in the former president’s “hush money” criminal case. Haberman told Kaitlan Collins on CNN’s The Source that Trump later gave her a hard stare, which she figures was a reaction to her nap report.

Meanwhile“Dozens” of potential jurors said they could not be impartial about Trump and were dismissed Monday, according to The Washington Post.

•••

SCOTUS Hears Jan 6th Case Tuesday – The Supreme Court Tuesday hears a case that will affect defendants charged with obstructing or attempting to obstruct Congress’ January 6,, 2021 counting of Electoral College ballots for Joe Biden’s election victory. The case involves Joseph W. Fischer, police officer for a township near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, whose case is “in limbo” after a federal judge ruled the obstruction statute at center of the case against 353 of the January 6th defendants was meant to apply to the destruction of documents and records and not riots held to prevent the counting of ballots, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

A federal appeals court reversed the judge’s decision, which led Fischer to appeal to the Supreme Court, NPR’s Nina Totenberg reports. The case will have implications for special counsel Jack Smith’s election obstruction case against ex-President Trump.

•••

Pick a Bill – With Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to vacate dangling over his head, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has split into three a single $95.3-million supplemental package the Senate passed last year, CQ Roll Call reports. 

Yep, aid for Ukraine, the part of the bill unabashedly pro-Putin MTG wants to die, is split from aid to Israel which is split from aid to Taiwan in Johnson’s proposal. There’s also a fourth presumably bi-partisan bill that would include banning TikTok from the U.S. unless its Chinese owners sell, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

About those bi-partisans: Johnson knows, however, he would get enough votes from Democrats and Republicans to defeat MTG’s motion to vacate.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 4/15/24

The Trial of the Year begins Monday with jury selection in New York State Supreme Court where Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged ex-President Trump with 34 felony charges connected with falsifying records to cover up $130,000 paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.  (Trump denies he had an affair with Daniels.)

Two of Bragg’s top prosecutors quit the case two years ago last month, criticizing the DA because they thought he was going to fumble the hard work of his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., who began his investigation before the end of Trump’s term. Vance’s investigations effectively was split between New York Attorney Gen. Letitia James’ civil case against the Trumps and their organization and Bragg’s case. James is still waiting for Trump to come up with the $454 million judgment against the family’s organization.

The strongest criminal case against Trump, the one over the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago, has effectively been gummed up by Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon and will not likely come to trial before November 5. Same with special prosecutor Jack Smith’s January 6th/election obstruction case and Georgia’s election racketeering case, which would still be considered perhaps the strongest, with “I just want 11,780 votes” on a phone recording, if not for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ alleged indiscretions with one of the prosecutors her office hired.

As our pundit-at-large, Stephen Macaulay, argues in “Trump’s Edge” (see The Gray Area) the ex-president will strengthen his political base even if he is found guilty in the hush money case. But he will be in court six- to eight-weeks, four days a week until the trial ends, reports NPR’s Morning Edition. That gives him weekends to shuttle between Mar-a-Lago and various campaign rallies.

He will face testimony by his former fixer-turned-informant Michael Cohen, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Daniels herself. And last Friday he revealed he will testify himself and tell “the truth. … and the truth is, they have no case,” he told the press. “They have no case.”

If you are looking for a potential end to Donald J. Trump’s political career, this appears to be the only case you have.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

TRUMP’S PERP WALK – Does Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg have a case against Donald J. Trump? Read our center-column analysis of Bragg’s 34-count indictment charging the ex-prez with “Falsifying business records…” scroll down this center column, then read right- and left-column opinions.

Congress remains on Easter/Passover/Ramadan break. Both chambers return Monday, April 17, with the House in session through Thursday, April 20, and the Senate in session through Friday, April 21. The Hustings returns that week.

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FRIDAY 4/7/23

Economy Adds a Cool 236k Jobs – The Labor Department counted 236,000 new jobs added in March, compared with 326,000 jobs in February, indicating a cooling economy, finally; a sign the Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring down inflation with nine consecutive interest rate increases is taking hold. Despite the new jobs number released by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday, the unemployment rate fell slightly from 3.6% in February to 3.5% in March, and average hourly earnings were up 4.2% last month, “also easing from recent months” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Job growth continues in leisure and hospitality, government, professional and business services, and health care, the BLS reports.

Lingering question: Will the Fed’s interest rate increases lead the economy to a “soft landing,” or are we headed for a recession?

--TL

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Does Bragg Have a Case?

By Todd Lassa

New York County Indictment #71543-23 had Democratic pundits, anti-Trump-leaning independents and never-Trump Republicans feeling anxious about the solidity of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.’s 34-count case against the former president. 

Was it the wrong case to come first – or at all -- considering Fulton County, Georgia’s recording of Donald J. Trump calling on the secretary of state for 11,780 more votes in his favor after the 2020 election, last year’s investigation by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, and a stash of classified documents stored at Mar-a-Lago after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president? 

Bragg’s indictment accuses Trump of “Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree in violation of Penal Law 175.10.”

“The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.”

Repeat – no rinse – 34 times.

Former attorney and Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen already has served time for perjury in relation to his falsifying records. Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in “hush money” prior to the 2016 presidential election to silence her story of having sexual relations with Trump, who then allegedly reimbursed Cohen after winning the election, for “attorney’s fees.” Bragg’s case also draws in $150,000 paid to former Playboy model Karen McDougal via the National Enquirer by former publisher of the tabloid and Trump ally David Pecker in a “catch and kill” scheme to suppress salacious stories.

In a statement on the indictment, DA Bragg said he is charging the former president “for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal information and unlawful activity from American voters by and after the 2016 election. During the election, Trump and others employed a “catch and kill” scheme to identify, purchase and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects. Trump then went to great lengths to hide his conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”

But is a business records fraud case based on suppression of a political sex scandal enough?

Justice Juan Merchan has given Trump more than seven months to hone and repeat his 2024 presidential campaign, setting December 4 for his next court date, just two months before the Iowa GOP caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, according to The Hill. Trump added Merchan to his long list of grievances in his Tuesday night echo-chamber speech at Mar-a-Lago, attended by such acolytes as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and MyPillow guy Mike Lindell. 

On CNN, former Obama advisor David Axelrod likened Trump’s airing of grievances at Mar-a-Lago to “a guy on a barstool telling you about his bad divorce.”

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news