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The favorite trick Trump could use in new case underscores how broken the US legal system is
March 06, 2021
Former President Donald Trump has been hit with a lot of lawsuits over the years, but one of his favorite legal tricks has managed to help him come out unscathed more than once.
A new MSNBC News op-ed written by Jessica Levinson offers insight into how one of Trump's new legal cases could play out if he is able to turn to one of his most effective defenses.
<p>On Friday, March 5, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) filed a lawsuit with a relatively different legal strategy compared to the approach House impeachment managers took when Trump was charged with inciting the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.</p><p>Although Trump has already been acquitted for his alleged involvement in the deadly Capitol riots, the Democratic lawmaker opted to sue the former president and her personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for "conspiring with the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers to violate civil rights by blocking the counting of electoral college votes." Swalwell's suit also categorizes the alleged offenses as negligence.</p><p>But could this approach hold up in Trump? There is a possibility Swalwell could be headed in the right direction but Levinson also lays out Trump's possible defense.</p><p>She wrote:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;"><em>Trump's main defenses here, probably similar to his likely defenses in the Thompson case, will likely be the freedom of speech under the First Amendment and that he is protected from liability because he took all of the actions alleged in the complaint while he was president.</em></p><p>It also highlights the broad spectrum of the First Amendment and how Trump's legal team could use it to his advantage.</p><p>The publication notes that the First Amendment typically provides a wide panorama of protection "to engage in speech, particularly political speech, and very certainly even impassioned and nasty speech. But that protection is not unlimited. And given the allegations contained in both complaints, it is difficult to see how the actions Trump engaged in could fall within his official duties and responsibilities as president."</p><p>While there is still no way to determine what the likely outcome will be, Levinson notes that there is a strong possibility Trump's legal team case ultimately end up shaping the case as a political argument as opposed to what it should be: a legal argument.</p>
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Donald Trump Jr is outraged someone found out on Twitter they were fired: 'This is insanity, guys'
March 06, 2021
During his one-term in office, Donald Trump was notorious for firing people on Twitter.
Now his eldest son is blasting such a managerial practice for lacking decency.
<p>"What we found out this week, is that the Washington Redskins (sic) just got rid of their cheerleaders," Donald Trump, Jr. complained in a video posted online on Saturday.</p><p>"Apparently they didn't have the decency to tell them face-to-face. The cheerleading squad was disbanded, but apparently they read about it on Twitter. "This is insanity guys."</p><p>The list of officials who learned on Twitter they had been fired by Trump, Sr. includes chief of staff <a href="https://deadline.com/2017/07/donald-trump-fires-reince-priebus-chief-of-staff-john-kelly-1202138359/" target="_blank">Reince Priebus</a>, Secretary of State <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/13/17113950/trump-state-department-rex-tillerson-fired-tweet-twitter" target="_blank">Rex Tillerson</a>, Homeland Security Secretary <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/10/james-comey-discovered-had-fired-tv-screens-giving-speech-staff/" target="_blank">Kirstjen Nielson</a>, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/02/politics/shulkin-tweet-fired-cnntv/index.html" target="_blank">David Shulkin</a>, White House counsel <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-white-house-counsel-donald-mcgahn-will-leave-his-job-in-the-fall/2018/08/29/f56828be-ab98-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.db0ee097bebf" target="_blank">Don McGahn</a> and DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/11/17/936007888/trump-tweets-that-he-fired-top-cybersecurity-official-christopher-krebs" target="_blank">Christopher Krebs</a>.</p><p>Former FBI Director <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/10/james-comey-discovered-had-fired-tv-screens-giving-speech-staff/" target="_blank">James Comey</a> saw on TV that he had been fired.<br/></p><p>Watch:</p><div class="rm-embed embed-media"><script>!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src="https://rumble.com/embedJS/u4"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+"/?url="+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+"&args="+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, "script", "Rumble");</script><div id="rumble_vbsaot"></div><script>Rumble("play", {"video":"vbsaot","div":"rumble_vbsaot"});</script></div>
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The choices President Joe Biden has made during his first 46 days in office could define his term as president.
Biden placed a big bet on who government needed to focus on help and The Washington Post reports his stimulus passage "represents one of the most generous expansions of aid to the poor in recent history."
<p>"The roughly $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which only Democrats supported, spends most of the money on low-income and middle-class Americans and state and local governments, with very little funding going toward companies, a contrast to the bipartisan aid bills that passed last year under President Donald Trump," The Post reported. "This round of aid enjoys wide support across the country, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/02/25/gop-might-oppose-one-most-popular-bills-decades-how-risky-is-that/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target="_blank">polls show</a>, and it is likely to be felt quickly by low- and<strong> </strong>moderate-income Americans who stand to receive not just larger checks than before, but money from expanded tax credits, particularly geared toward parents; enhanced unemployment; rental assistance; food aid and health insurance subsidies."</p><p>The New York Times also focused the efforts to help the least fortunate under the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/business/biden-economy.html" target="_blank">headline</a>, "To Juice the Economy, Biden Bets on the Poor."</p><p>"To jump-start the ailing economy, President Biden is turning to the lowest-paid workers in America, and to the people who are currently unable to work at all. Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion economic relief package, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us/politics/biden-stimulus-plan.html" target="_blank" title="">cleared the Senate on Saturday</a> and could be headed for the president's signature in a matter of days, would overwhelmingly help low earners and the middle class, with little direct aid for the high earners who have largely kept their jobs and padded their savings over the past year," The Times reported.</p><p>Biden's focus marks a major shift from Donald Trump's administration.</p><p>"For the president, the plan is more than just a stimulus proposal. It is a declaration of his economic policy — one that captures the principle Democrats and liberal economists have espoused over the past decade: that the best way to stoke faster economic growth is from the bottom up. Mr. Biden's approach in his first major economic legislation is in stark contrast to President Donald J. Trump's, whose initial effort in Congress was a tax-cut package in 2017 that largely benefited corporations and wealthier Americans," The Times noted.</p><p>Following Senate passage, Biden released a video praising the vote.</p>
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<div style="margin:1em 0">I want to thank all of the Senators who worked so hard to reach a compromise and voted to pass the American Rescue… https://t.co/VMVokbesfz</div> — President Biden (@President Biden)
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