DL Open Thread: Friday, March 15, 2024

FIRE MERRICK GARLAND TODAY!! I’m gonna try to keep this rant profanity-free.  Because I’m so fluffing angry that I either exercise restraint, or be placed in restraints:

Federal prosecutors have started to produce tens of thousands of documents in response to a subpoena from Donald Trump in the New York state hush money case, threatening to delay the start of that trial by weeks.

The case is set to go to trial March 25, but after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York began to provide reams of previously undisclosed documents, the ultimate start date of the trial may be up in the air.

Bragg had asked for these documents about a year ago, and the Feds just now start producing them on the eve of the trial!!??  Jesus, Mary and Joseph!! (I think that’s the Catholic equivalent of a profane phrase.)

The case is set to go to trial March 25, but after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York began to provide reams of previously undisclosed documents, the ultimate start date of the trial may be up in the air.

Meaning, the trial is delayed for at least a month, perhaps much longer.

Garland couldn’t have been more helpful to Trump and the Rethugs if he were operating as a double agent.  Delaying any investigation into Trump for well over a year before appointing a special prosecutor; naming a Trump appointee to ‘investigate’ Biden’s handling of classified documents.   History will rank him right with James Comey when it comes to unwitting dupes and accomplices.

The Meme Is Out:  Netanyahu Must Go.  Of course, it will have less impact than a fart in church, but Biden has now allowed saying mean things about Netanyahu to become part of their plan for–voter mollification?:

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the Israeli government to hold a new election in a speech warning that Israel risks becoming an international “pariah” under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing cabinet.

Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States and a staunch ally of Israel, said he thinks Israelis understand “better than anybody that Israel cannot hope to succeed as a pariah opposed by the rest of the world” and would choose better leaders if elections were held.

The call, from one of Congress’s strongest supporters of Israel, marks the clearest signal to Israel yet that frustrations over Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza are boiling and could even threaten the future of the close relationship between Israel and the United States.

Schumer doesn’t make that speech w/o Biden’s knowledge and encouragement.  Neither does Kamala Harris do what she did without Biden’s knowledge and encouragement.  Your turn, Joe.  Do something.  Cut off the  weapons.  Cut off all aid to Israel until supplies are allowed into Gaza without Israeli intervention.

The Plan To Silence Fani Willis–Two Years In The Making:

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed a new law Wednesday that will allow the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission to begin disciplining and even ousting local prosecutors it deems to have gone “rogue.”

The bill creating the state-run board with authority to investigate and remove local district attorneys was signed into law last spring and was set to begin reviewing cases in October, but its operations have been on hold since November when the state Supreme Court refused to uphold rules regarding its regulation abilities.

While it hasn’t yet reviewed any actual cases, one of the first complaints filed with the new commission was against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Eight Georgia Senate Republicans filed the complaint with the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission mere weeks after Willis’ office indicted Donald Trump and 18 allies on state racketeering charges, among other things.

The law Kemp signed yesterday will make it so the state Supreme Court does not have to sign off on the commission’s rules of governance in order to function, meaning it can begin operating as intended — to “ensure rogue and incompetent prosecutors are held accountable if they refuse to uphold the law,” Kemp said at the signing Wednesday. That’s the official line on the state-run board. But it’s been designed to serve as a defense mechanism for Trump since the start.

Kemp and Georgia Republicans began pushing the initiative back in 2022 when other Republican governors were looking for ways to enact control over district attorneys whose enforcement they didn’t like. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) was one of the primary ones pushing this at the time as he went after a local DA who said he wouldn’t prosecute people seeking abortions.

But the long game was clear from the start, which is why the AP’s headline on Democratic concern for Willis was so striking to me. Before Willis brought any charges against Trump or his allies and before the defendants in that case dragged her through hours of testimony on a romantic relationship she had with one of the prosecutors on the Trump case, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made it clear that the bill to create the commission was being introduced as a proactive retribution plan in the event that Willis brought charges against Trump. I unpacked that more here.

Smirnov And Trump: Perfect Together:

An American company that paid the now indicted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov in 2020 is connected to a UK company owned by Trump business associates in Dubai, according to business filings and court documents.

Smirnov is now accused of lying to the FBI about Hunter Biden and his father, President Joe Biden, alleging that they engaged in a bribery scheme with executives at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov’s accounts to the FBI, beginning in 2020, that federal prosecutors now say are fabrications, served as a major justification of the House impeachment investigation into the Bidens.

Back in 2020, Smirnov was paid $600,000 by a company called Economic Transformation Technologies (ETT), prosecutors said. That same year, Smirnov began lying to the FBI about the Bidens, according to the indictment.

The exact business model of Texas-based ETT is murky. Its mission statement reads in part: “ETT set up the chess board to bring in top notch executives from those sectors to help implement its vision of love and social impact to improve the quality of human existence through the application of ‘new age’ technologies.”

The current CEO, Condon, is a California man who has been involved in several civil lawsuits, including a civil Rico case in 2010 that he won on appeal. Condon’s official biography says he is “a former professional tennis player, financial advisor, and currently is an entrepreneur focused on social-impact projects, public-private partnerships, and creating smart communities that benefit both individuals and governments”.

Condon, Arjomand and Khan registered ETT Investment Holding Limited in the UK on 6 March 2020. Khan, an investor who purchased the Plaza hotel in 2018, and Arjomand have ties to Donald Trump through Trump associates and Damac, a major Middle East developer that has partnered with Trump for a decade. Arjomand, Khan and Condon owned 34%, 33% and 33% of ETT Investment Holding Limited respectively, according to UK business filings. No other information on the UK company is readily available.

The former Damac chairman Hussain Sajwani is also close to Trump and has been described as his friend in multiple news reports. Trump has called the billionaire a “friend” and a “great man”, and his family “the most beautiful people”.

Doesn’t the FBI conduct background checks?  Why, they’re as bad as local police agencies.

What do you want to talk about?