The daily Trumpster fires are sucking all of the oxygen out of the news alerts, so the Kris Kobach trial in Kansas is getting almost no attention, which is sad, because it is some of the best reading of the month.
KCUR has a great feature on their page Still Updating: The Daily Developments Of The Kansas Motor-Voter V. Kobach Trial. I highly recommend reading the whole thing but some greatest hits
Kobach and an attorney from his office, Sue Becker, got off to a rocky start when they were blocked from showing to the court — and asking witnesses questions about — multiple documents that Kobach’s team hadn’t formally introduced as evidence.
“Evidence 101 — not going to do it,” said Judge Julie Robinson, who was appointed to the bench by then-President George W. Bush. “We’re going to follow the rules of evidence.”
Kobach decided to represent himself and not use the state AG
“The attorney general, I’m sure, took Mr. Kobach at his word that he would provide proper representation to the state,” said Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat who is an attorney.
"But in view of what appears to be violation of rules of professional responsibility, I would hope that Attorney General Schmidt gives this very serious consideration."
Carmichael is referring to Kobach’s previous conduct in the case. Last year, a federal judge fined him $1,000 for misleading the court about documents he took into a meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is spearheading the lawsuit, has also filed a contempt of court motion against Kobach alleging he has disregarded court orders to register voters. Kobach says the motion is without merit.
More on this later, back to the trial recap
Kobach’s legal team continued to trip up on courtroom procedures, such as how to introduce evidence and quote from depositions while cross-examining witnesses.
At one point, Becker attempted to read aloud a document after being blocked by rules on admitting evidence.
“I'm not going to let you just read the contents into the record,” the judge told her.
ACLU attorney Dale Ho is worth every penny we have ever donated to that organization
The ACLU put Rutgers University professor Lorraine Minnite on the stand. She said “fraud” involves knowingly doing something illegal — a definition that she said aligns with criminal law…
She studied news coverage in Kansas going back to the 1990s and found voter fraud got almost no attention until Kobach ran for his current office and began describing it as pervasive.
Ho just obliterated Kobach’s “expert” witnesses
The ACLU challenged von Spakovsky by getting him to concede he has never published any peer-reviewed work and pressing him on an opinion piece he wrote on Somalis stealing a Missouri election through illegal voting — something that didn’t happen.
"You never published a written retraction?" Ho asked him.
"I don't believe so," von Spakovsky replied.
Some outstanding journalists have been covering this and their twitter feeds are a thing to behold. #ACLUvKobach is worth checking out but here are some of my favorites
Jessica Huseman is promising a great piece on Pro Publica in the coming weeks. I can’t wait. Seriously, check this out, reading about Kris Kobach’s epic FAIL is guaranteed to brighten your day.