WSB-TV:
What is Georgia’s RICO Act?
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has a track record of using RICO charges in unconventional ways to achieve convictions.
RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations. The RICO Act was passed in the Georgia General Assembly in 1980 and is used to prove that a business was being used for illegal means.
We expect RICO indictments in Georgia this week, perhaps as soon as Tuesday. But as I understand the right-wing narrative, this is all because Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government to distract from Hunter Biden. Or something like that.
Axios:
Why Georgia's case against Trump could be so damaging
3. While the federal judiciary — and New York courts — are averse to televising criminal proceedings, Georgia courts are more transparent, Kreis notes.
- Georgia may end up being the only case that is broadcast to the world, potentially giving the public a better chance to digest the evidence — which could be politically damning for Trump.
Between the lines: Willis is considered a RICO expert who successfully prosecuted a large criminal case over a test cheating scandal in the Atlanta Public School System in 2015.
CNN:
Georgia prosecutors have messages showing Trump’s team is behind voting system breach
Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County, sources tell CNN.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen individuals when her team presents its case before a grand jury next week. Several individuals involved in the voting systems breach in Coffee County are among those who may face charges in the sprawling criminal probe.
Investigators in the Georgia criminal probe have long suspected the breach was not an organic effort sprung from sympathetic Trump supporters in rural and heavily Republican Coffee County – a county Trump won by nearly 70% of the vote. They have gathered evidence indicating it was a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software, according to people familiar with the situation.
Trump allies attempted to access voting systems after the 2020 election as part of the broader push to produce evidence that could back up the former president’s baseless claims of widespread fraud.
Tamar Hallerman/X via Threadreader:
Next week is going to be busy here in Atlanta: we're expecting Fulton DA Fani Willis to pursue indictments against Trump + others. I’ve been covering her elections interference case since the beginning, along with my @ajccolleagues. Here's a look at what to expect 🧵
For starters, my colleague @ajccourts put together this cheat sheet on where we've been and what's on the horizon …
We're expecting prosecutors to begin presenting their case to grand jurors on Monday morning. Past racketeering cases have taken about 2 days to present. Which gels with two witnesses in this case saying they were told to come in Tues
The above thread has a very nice summary of the legal situation in Georgia.
Meanwhile, it’s not just Donald Trump. Republicans all over the country are upset about losing power, so they rig the system and then accuse Democrats of doing the same.
Vos says lawmakers may consider impeachment if Protasiewicz doesn't recuse from redistricting cases
If Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz does not recuse from lawsuits challenging the state's legislative boundaries, Republicans who control the state Legislature might consider impeachment proceedings, the Assembly's top Republican said Friday.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester, said in an interview on WSAU he does not believe impeachment should be considered lightly by lawmakers. But he said the idea could move forward if Protasiewicz does not recuse herself on cases he said she "prejudged" during her campaign for a seat on the state's highest court.
Noah Berlatsky/”Public Notice” on Substack:
Ohio's rejection of Issue 1 shows how toxic abortion has become for the GOP
Turns out even folks in red and purple states don't like to have their rights taken away.
Republicans don’t want to let voters protect their own abortion rights. So, to prevent the abortion rights initiative from passing, they rushed for a vote on their own referendum, called Issue 1. Issue 1, had it been approved, would have raised the threshold for ballot initiatives to 60 percent. It also required petitioners to get ballot signatures from every Ohio county, effectively increasing the power of rural low-population areas dominated by more conservative voters.
The GOP was aware that asking voters to undermine their own influence was a hard sell. So they tried to rig the odds.
Ohio Capital Journal:
Frank LaRose’s very bad day. Sec. of State dodged press, issued angry statement as Issue 1 failed
It’s unclear whether, going into Tuesday, Frank LaRose anticipated that the measure he was championing was going to fail — even though related issues have gotten trounced in state after state after state.
But by Election Day, early voting had been torrid for weeks — especially in big cities where people were likely to vote against Issue 1, the initiative LaRose was supporting. Prospects seemed to be dimming for the measure — which would have made it much more difficult for voters to initiate and pass amendments to the state Constitution.
By Tuesday morning, LaRose, who was the most visible face of Issue 1, might have been worried. Before noon, he ducked a meeting with reporters. That afternoon, he was attacked by an Arizona Republican who came to Ohio to campaign for Issue 1. That evening, after the blowout became apparent, he skipped a press conference and the official speaking in his place pointed blame at his fellow Republicans.
At 11:23 p.m., LaRose broke his silence by issuing a statement. It was angry, misleading, and hardly a concession that voters disliked his proposal, which they defeated by a 14-point margin. Making the loss even more bitter, some counties that had voted for Donald Trump in 2020 joined the chorus in voting “no” on Issue 1.
Marisa Kabas/”The Handbasket” on Substack:
A conversation with the newspaper owner raided by cops
Eric Meyer says his paper had been investigating the police chief prior to the raids on his office and home.
Very few stories these days take my breath away, but this one did the trick: Cops in Kansas raided the office of local newspaper the Marion County Record Friday morning because of a complaint by a local restaurant owner named Kari Newell. She was unhappy with the outlet’s reporting on how she kicked out reporters from a recent event at her establishment with US Congressman Jake LaTurner (R-KS) and subsequent research they were conducting. The cops responded in kind, seizing cell phones, computers, and other devices necessary for publishing the paper after receving a signed search warrant from a judge.
What has remained unreported until now is that, prior to the raids, the newspaper had been actively investigating Gideon Cody, Chief of Police for the city of Marion. They’d received multiple tips alleging he’d retired from his previous job to avoid demotion and punishment over alleged sexual misconduct charges.
The New Republic:
The Claremont Institute: The Anti-Democracy Think Tank
It was once (mostly) traditionally conservative and (sort of) intellectually rigorous. Now it platforms white nationalists and promotes authoritarianism.
Most of us are familiar with the theocrats of the religious right and the anti-government extremists, groups that overlap a bit but remain distinct. The Claremont Institute folks aren’t quite either of those things, and yet they’re both and more. In embodying a kind of nihilistic yearning to destroy modernity, they have become an indispensable part of right-wing America’s evolution toward authoritarianism.
Extremism of the right-wing variety has always figured on the sidelines of American culture, and it has enjoyed a renaissance with the rise of social media. But Claremont represents something new in modern American politics: a group of people, not internet conspiracy freaks but credentialed and influential leaders, who are openly contemptuous of democracy. And they stand a reasonable chance of being seated at the highest levels of government—at the right hand of a President Trump or a President DeSantis, for example.
Mike Pence was good on Jan. 6, but it’s the only day he was. The rest of the time he’s reverted to form.
David Rothkopf/The Daily Beast:
It’s Time to Give Kamala Harris Her Due
The press has taken too long to notice, but the barrier-breaking vice president has been an accomplished leader and advocate in the Biden administration.
It appears that it is, at long last, time to acknowledge the extraordinary and vital role being played by Vice President Kamala Harris on behalf of the Biden administration and the United States.
Finally, the narratives in the press that had for too long been colored by the political agenda, misogyny and racism of critics, have begun to change to reflect reality.
That said, there is still an aspect to Harris’ performance as vice president that remains underappreciated—the substance of her record as a full partner to the president, at the lead on domestic and international issues. That record not only makes her one of the most effective vice presidents in modern U.S. history, it has been part of President Joe Biden’s active effort to ensure that no one is better qualified to succeed him as President of the United States.
Jamelle Bouie/The New York Times:
Why an Unremarkable Racist Enjoyed the Backing of Billionaires
A whole coterie of Silicon Valley billionaires and millionaires have lent their time and attention to [Richard] Hanania, as well as elevated his work. Marc Andreessen, a powerful venture capitalist, appeared on his podcast. David Sacks, a close associate of Elon Musk, wrote a glowing endorsement of Hanania’s forthcoming book. So did Peter Thiel, the billionaire supporter of right-wing causes and organizations. “D.E.I. will never d-i-e from words alone,” wrote Thiel. “Hanania shows we need the sticks and stones of government violence to exorcise the diversity demon.” Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican presidential candidate, also praised the book as a “devastating kill shot to the intellectual foundations of identity politics in America.”
The question to ask here — the question that matters — is why an otherwise obscure racist has the ear and support of some of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley? What purpose, to a billionaire venture capitalist, do Hanania’s ideas serve?
Look back to our history and the answer is straightforward. Just as in the 1920s (and before), the idea of race hierarchy works to naturalize the broad spectrum of inequalities, and capitalist inequality in particular.