Judge's attempt to keep abortion hearing secret speaks volumes about his bias
March 15, 2023
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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has signaled a willingness to haul Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into Congress to explain his investigation of former President Donald Trump's hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
However, Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent believes "it’s not clear that Jordan... has thought this through," as this course of action could lead to a counteroffensive from Democrats.
Among other things, such hearings would constantly remind Americans that Trump paid money to an adult film star to cover up an affair he'd had shortly after his third wife had given birth to their son.
"If and when there is an indictment, we will be able to reconstruct all the facts of this case in a way that makes sense to the American public,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) tells Sargent.
RELATED: Trump bizarrely says charges against him 'can't be brought' in latest rant against Manhattan DA
Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY), meanwhile, tells Sargent that Jordan's actions will make it easy for Democrats to argue that House Republicans are "using the official power of Congress to effectively coordinate with a criminal defendant."
Sargent adds that he finds it very difficult to imagine that Republicans will really want to burn political capital defending Trump from such an unseemly scandal.
"But do vulnerable House Republicans really want to vote on a criminal referral for law enforcement, all to defend Trump from sleazy hush-money charges?" he asks. "It’s doubtful. Doing so could yoke the House GOP ever more tightly to Trump."
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The Koch family's effort to sink Donald Trump's third re-election campaign is more of a last gasp than a return to form, according to insiders.
Americans for Prosperity are pledging $75 million to "turn the page" on Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, sources told Semafor, but some former staffers and allies inside the Koch network say the political machine that once rivaled the RNC no longer has much relevance within the conservative movement.
“I really think they lost focus, they lost drive," said Frayda Levin, a former AFP board member and a member of Club for Growth’s board. "It wasn’t clear anymore what they wanted to achieve. I really wonder what their mailing list is these days. My sense is that there’s not a whole lot of energy, that they’re trying to recreate something that isn’t there.”
The GOP has shifted away from AFP's positions on a variety of topics, including immigration, since Trump's rise, and some question whether the organization will survive remaining founder Charles Koch when he retires or passes away, following the 2019 death of his brother David.
READ MORE: Trump's 11th-hour attempt to thwart New York indictment blows up in his face: analysis
AFP has tried to cultivate a post-partisan brand in recent years, while still lobbying for economically conservative bills in GOP state legislatures, but the changes Trump has foisted on the Republican Party has undercut their influence -- despite protests from organization leaders.
“AFP was more effective on every measure than it had ever been: more activists, more effective and successful policy engagement, including economic issues, and greater financial stability,” said former AFP president Nancy Pfotenhauer. “It’s remarkable what they have done in the states. And as you know, states lead federal efforts on the policy front.”
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Trump's 11th-hour attempt to thwart New York indictment blows up in his face: analysis
March 22, 2023
Faced with a likely indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg over his $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, former President Donald Trump deployed a last-ditch weapon.
Trump tapped attorney Robert Costello to testify to the grand jury on his behalf, specifically to discredit Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who facilitated the payment to Daniels — part of Bragg's evidence that Trump deliberately falsified business records to keep the payment secret.
But that doesn't appear to have helped the former president, wrote former federal prosecutor Shan Wu for The Daily Beast on Wednesday. In fact, it may have made his legal situation even worse.
"In testimony before Congress and in his guilty plea, Cohen stated that he acted at the direction of Trump. Cohen’s actions in 2016 were effective. Neither Daniels nor McDougal spoke up before the election," wrote Wu. "Now, faced with an imminent indictment years later arising from these actions and Cohen having met with Manhattan prosecutors multiple times, Trump’s legal team deployed Costello as their weapon of choice against Cohen. Costello seemed well-situated to attack the former fixer because he had at one point met with Cohen and advised him about what to do about the federal criminal probe into his actions."
READ MORE: Election officials order Trump to stop stalling and file his financial disclosures
However, wrote Wu, the fact that Costello raged to the press after his testimony that prosecutors had limited what he was allowed to say and "cherry-picked" evidence, is a clear sign the strategy didn't work.
This shouldn't be a surprise, he noted, since "most people and defense counsel know that the prosecutors exert a great deal of influence over grand juries — hence the adage about how prosecutors could get a grand jury to 'indict a ham sandwich.'"
Moreover, Wu argued, by having Costello attack Cohen in the grand jury, Trump may have actually hurt his case — because now Manhattan prosecutors have a preview of what his defense is going to be if Trump goes to trial.
"Having heard Costello testify for some two hours, prosecutors are now well versed in exactly how Trump’s defense counsel plan to attack Cohen and have ample time to prepare themselves as well as Cohen for his eventual testimony if Trump is indicted and the case goes to trial," wrote Wu.
Worse for Team Trump, Wu suggests, Costello may have just opened himself up to legal ethics complaints and criminal liability, since he advised Cohen to follow Trump's instructions on the hush payment, put more spotlight on Trump's efforts to stop Cohen from cooperating with criminal probes.
"Of course it may come as no surprise nowadays when lawyers working for Trump run afoul of legal ethics rules," added Wu. "By one count some 17 have faced potential legal sanctions for their conduct, including Rudy Giuliani, who faces potential disbarment in both New York and Washington, D.C."
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