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Jim Jordan’s tortured defense of Trump points to a coming GOP split
Jim Jordan’s tortured defense of Trump points to a coming GOP split, Greg Sargent, The Washington Post
To hear MAGA Republicans tell it, the indictment of Donald Trump for mishandling national security secrets is one of the most grotesque injustices in U.S. history. They have called for mass protests, vowed “war” in retaliation and even hinted that his supporters should rise up in armed rebellion.

So surely the GOP-controlled House will exercise maximal tactics to sabotage Trump’s prosecution as it gains steam in the coming months, right?

We’ll see about that.

Rep. Jim Jordan went on CNN Sunday and offered a tortured defense of Trump that suggests a coming split among Republicans over how aggressively to fight for the former president. MAGA Republicans will expect the House to do everything within its power, but it’s not clear that the House can do all that much — or that many non-MAGA Republicans will even want to.
Trump Misses the Point
Trump Misses the Point, David A. Graham, The Atlantic
Instead of engaging with the substance of the charges he faces, the former president opted for grievance and misdirection.

But most of the president’s speech skirted any kind of real engagement with the charges against him. His central point was that he had the right to possess the documents he did under the Presidential Records Act, and that as president he had the power to declassify them. These arguments are neither new nor relevant. Trump has used them since the Mar-a-Lago search, though he has provided no evidence for declassification.

The problem for Trump that his indictment sidesteps these matters. Trump complained that the charges never mentioned the Presidential Records Act, and he is correct: It doesn’t engage with the question of whether he had a right to possess the documents. Instead, all of the charges focus on his actions after a May 2022 subpoena to return them. Once that request was made, he allegedly went to great lengths to hide documents from the federal government and even from his own attorneys, and this is where Smith homed in.
The twice-impeached former president is back in the news with yet another criminal indictment. Donate $3 to Daily Kos to support progressive coverage, analysis, and political action.
Trump Thrives in a Broken System. He’ll Get Us There Soon.
Trump Thrives in a Broken System. He’ll Get Us There Soon., Thomas Friedman, The New York Times
The second way that Trump is trying to break our system was on display on Tuesday in Miami, where he followed his appearance as a federal criminal defendant with a political meet-and-greet at a Cuban restaurant. There, once again, Trump tried to discredit the rules of the game that would restrain him and his limitless appetite for power for power’s sake.

How does he do that? First, he gets everyone around him — and, eventually, the vast majority of those in his party — to stop insisting that Trump abide by ethical norms. His family members and party colleagues have grown adept at running away from reporters’ microphones after every Trump outrage.

But precisely because key political allies, church leaders and close family members will not call out Trump for his moral and legal transgressions — which would make his 2024 re-election bid unthinkable and hasten his departure from the political scene — we have to rely solely on the courts to defend the rules of the game.
There Are Still Two Major Legal Threats to the Voting Rights Act
There Are Still Two Major Legal Threats to the Voting Rights Act, Richard L Hasen, Slate
Despite Roberts’ strong opinion in Milligan reaffirming the vitality of Voting Rights Act jurisprudence and confirming the constitutionality of Section 2, there’s no reason to expect that voting rights’ opponents will drop their attacks as they seek to maximize the power of white majority voters. And the varied opinions in the Milligan case leave open at least two major lines of attack against the VRA—that the act is no longer constitutional and that it does not give private plaintiffs a right to sue—that may once again test Roberts’ and Kavanaugh’s commitment to voting rights in cases down the road.
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Aileen Cannon should not preside over the Trump trial
Aileen Cannon should not preside over the Trump trial, Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
The 11th Circuit’s ruling was particularly dismissive in reversing Cannon: “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.” Specifically, the panel held she didn’t have jurisdiction and should not have ruled on the case.

To make matters worse, in the civil case, Cannon posited that Trump deserved special treatment because he is a former president (“[a]s a function of Plaintiff’s former position as President of the United States, the stigma associated with the subject seizure is in a league of its own”). A judge who begins with the unconstitutional premise that Trump is not subject to the law like any other defendant would have a hard time sustaining public faith in the process. Any rulings for Trump would be regarded as evidence of bias; rulings against would be seen as efforts to restore her shattered reputation.
Trump arraigned, pleads not guilty to 37 classified documents charges
Trump arraigned, pleads not guilty to 37 classified documents charges, Shayna Jacobs, David Ovalle, Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, The Washington Post
After scowling through a court hearing, the former president tries to fundraise and hype his candidacy

Trump has denied wrongdoing in each case. He suffered another legal setback Tuesday when a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that writer E. Jean Carroll could add new defamation claims to a lawsuit she has filed against him. Carroll recently won a $5 million judgment against Trump in a different civil lawsuit in New York, after a jury found Trump sexually abused her decades ago and later defamed her.

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