GOVERNMENT’S MOTION FOR IMMUNITY DETERMINATION
The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct. Not so. Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one. Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted—a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role. In Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 2312 (2024), the Supreme Court held that presidents are immune from prosecution for certain official conduct— including the defendant’s use of the Justice Department in furtherance of his scheme, as was alleged in the original indictment—and remanded to this Court to determine whether the remaining allegations against the defendant are immunized. The answer to that question is no.
We shall see, I guess. Unsurprisingly, the Defendant is unhappy.
As I post this, the news developments are coming fast and furious.
UPDATE
Jack Smith’s Big New Jan. 6 Brief Is a Major Indictment of the Supreme Court
It’s rare to simultaneously feel red-hot anger and wistfulness, especially when merely reading a document. But those are exactly the emotions that washed over me when I read the redacted version of special counsel Jack Smith’s brief reciting in detail the evidence against Donald Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 election. The anger is at the Supreme Court for depriving the American people of the chance for a full public airing of Donald Trump’s attempt to use fraud and trickery to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory before voters consider whether to put Trump back in office beginning January 2025. The wistfulness comes with the recognition that there is about an even chance that this will be the last evidence produced by the federal government of this nefarious plot. If Donald Trump wins election next month, the end of this prosecution is certain and the risks of future election subversion heightened...
UPDATE
FROM JOYCE VANCE WHITE'S SUBSTACK
None of Trump’s interactions with the people listed in the document were made in his role as Chief Executive. Instead, he acted as a candidate grasping at straws, seeking any angle to cling to power. This clarity makes the filing more focused and devastating, particularly as it highlights the involvement of Trump’s campaign staff and personal advisers—figures among the most corrupt and amoral imaginable.MOVING ALONG
The document is not only a shocking moral indictment of Trump but an unprecedented window into the fraudulent scheme he spearheaded to maintain power. It exposes Trump’s belief that lies and coercion could resolve any crisis, relying on his subordinates to follow his will without question. What’s remarkable in this filing is how little resistance Trump faced within his inner circle, proving just how far he had ingrained the “stolen election” lie well before the votes were even cast. As alarming as this is, it’s a grim forecast of what may come as Trump continues to sow similar seeds of doubt today...
Paula White was, in many ways, not the first televangelist to get a job in the White House. The first, I would argue, was Donald Trump himself, who had entered the White House two years earlier. In the picture that Paula White paints, Trump has long been an assiduous student of TV preaching, particularly what’s propagated by prosperity preachers and positive thinkers. With his oddly coiffed hair, his formative Norman Vincent Peale theology, his salesmanship, his bombastic oratory, and his unflinching personal schtick forged out of years of celebrity and television savvy, Trump has pantomimed the televangelists. His celebrity could easily mingle with Paula White’s clique of entrepreneurial charismatic celebrities because Trump’s whole brand is made of similar material. For what is “Make America Great Again” if not a gospel? It’s a nationalistic prosperity gospel, to be sure, mixed with a few “American carnage” fire-and-brimstone threats if Trump’s ways are not followed. Coached by Paula White, Trump has now mastered the religious dimension of his own televangelism career, riding evangelical support all the way to the White House.Also timely, 'eh?
There was only one official White House-sanctioned prayer offered on the morning of January 6, 2021. It was led by Paula White. On that cold January morning, before Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse telling the lusty crowds to “fight like hell,” before Rudy Giuliani shouted for “trial by combat,” and before the crowds began marching across the National Mall to threaten lawmakers into reneging on American democracy, an invocation from Paula White opened the event.Let us pray, because God is going to be in today. We believe in miracles...This tenacious, talented, tragic, triumphant woman—someone who has broken every glass ceiling she came up against—became the first pastor to offer an official blessing over an attempted American insurrection.
So let every adversary against democracy, against freedom, against life, against liberty, against justice, against peace, against righteousness be overturned right now in the name of Jesus...
God, we ask right now in conclusion for your provision, for your protection, for your power, for an outpouring of your Spirit like never before. I secure POTUS [President of the United States]. I thank you for President Trump. I thank you that he has stood with Israel; he has stood with life; he has stood for righteousness...
He has walked in your ways. And as you have allowed me to have a relationship with him and his family for twenty years, right now, as his pastor, I put a hedge of protection around him. I secure his purpose. I secure his destiny. I secure his life.
It’s true that Paula White has built bridges. She built a bridge that allowed her fellow Independent Charismatics to enthusiastically join the inner circle of power within the religious right. She built a bridge across a major divide in American evangelicalism between charismatics and noncharismatics. And she built a bridge between the Independent Charismatic celebrity class and the White House.
These bridges proved strong enough that the leaders of the NAR, and other ambitious charismatic leaders and networks, could link arms with other Christians and Trump advisers in an attempt to overthrow our democracy, all under the banner of Christian unity and revival hope.
Taylor, Matthew D.. The Violent Take It by Force (pp. 47-48). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.
I expected I'd to enjoy the book, but thus far I am way more impressed than I'd anticipated. I DM'd the author.
I have to do a bit of attitude readjustment with respect to some of these evangelist people.
A bit.
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| Paula in the pink suit. |
I wrote a song about religion once. Long time ago. Has sort of a 3/4 time Loggins & Messina 70’s groove to it.
Moving along to the ensuing chapter...
Highly recommended read. More to come...
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