Ken Chesebro, an attorney indicted in the Georgia election racketeering case, has filed to have the charges against him dismissed, reported Lawfare correspondent Anna Bower.
In the filing, Chesebro argues that he is immune from prosecution because he was "fulfilling his duties to a client as an attorney."
"Mr. Chesebro, being an expert in constitutional law, acted within his capacity as a lawyer in researching and finding precedents in order to form a legal opinion which was then supplied to his client, the Trump Campaign," said the motion. "Nothing about Mr. Chesebro’s conduct falls outside the bounds of what lawyers do on a daily basis; researching the law in order to find solutions that address their clients particularized needs."
According to previous reports, Chesebro was the author of a memo, since obtained by state prosecutors, outlining a "bold" strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, that even he knew to be against the law at the time.
The advice attorneys give to clients is generally privileged, but can be reviewed by prosecutors in cases where the attorney is accused of being involved in a fraudulent scheme.
Chesebro is not the only attorney charged in the Georgia case; others include Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell, all of whom allegedly were involved in plotting how to stop President Joe Biden's victory from being certified.
Former New York mayor and Donald Trump lawyer almost added political fixer for PayPal to his resume – before the company's then-CEO Elon Musk flew to NYC and met him face to face, the billionaire's biographer Walter Isaacson wrote in his new book.
The meeting didn’t go well, the Daily Beast reported.
“It was like walking into a mob scene,” said Michael Moritz, an investor who attended the 2000 meeting. Giuliani “was surrounded by goonish confidantes. He didn’t have any idea whatsoever about Silicon Valley, but he and his henchmen were eager to line their pockets.”
He said Giuliani was finishing his term in office and, during discussions, he demanded that he have a 10 percent stake in PayPal. The company was sold to eBay two years later for $1.5 billion, the report recalls.
Musk thought Giuliani was crazy, telling Moritz, “This guy occupies a different planet.”
Giuliani, of course, went on to become known as "America's Mayor" a year later after his city was hit with the largest terrorist attack on American soil. He ran for president and lost and now is under indictment, accused of attempting to overthrow the 2020 election.
Musk, the man many people now believe is a business genius, had become the X.com CEO and he was tasked with taking the company to the next level by the board. Some on the team wanted to go into business with eBay, but Musk had other ideas. The board staged a coup and got rid of the name, replacing it with PayPal.
Musk, still obsessed with his X, pitched calling the site X-PayPal. He wanted to "take over the world's financial system" and X was the way to do it. He was eventually kicked out as CEO and Peter Thiel took over, selling the company to eBay. Musk used his money to buy SpaceX and then ultimately bought Twitter, changing the name to X. After paying $44 billion for the company, the value has dropped below half that in value.
Giuliani never was hired by PayPal, X or any other national dotcom businesses.
Monday, September 11, 2023 marked the 22nd anniversary of al-Qaeda's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. During a speech in Anchorage, Alaska, President Joe Biden called for Americans to "honor September 11 by renewing our faith in one another" and stressed that the United States has "an obligation, a duty, a responsibility to defend, to preserve, to protect our democracy."
Biden also spoke in memory of the late conservative Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona). Meanwhile, far-right MAGA Republican Kari Lake was honoring someone else on the 9/11 anniversary: Donald Trump.
On X (formerly Twitter), Lake posted photos of Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and wrote, "2 years ago, these two men were among the many heroes that emerged in the aftermath of 9/11. Today, they are being arrested and politically persecuted for questioning corruption in our Government. We were so busy bringing 'freedom' to countries around the world that we lost it here at home."
The Arizona Republic's Laurie Roberts, in a scathing opinion column published on September 12, slams Lake's tweet as ridiculous.
Roberts argues, "Donald Trump? A hero of 9/11?.... Like the 343 New York City firefighters and paramedics who died as the World Trade Center collapsed on them? Or the 341 firefighters, paramedics and civilian support staff who later died of illnesses that were the result of their tireless work that day?"
The columnist continues, "Like the 60 New York City and Port Authority police officers who died? Or the men and women who fought back on United Flight 93? Or the many just regular people who, in the worst moment in their lives, showed us the best of what it is to be human?.... Trump, a hero? The real estate mogul who on September 11, 2001, boasted that after the towers fell he suddenly owned the tallest building in downtown Manhattan?"
Lake has been a staunch Trump loyalist and is reportedly hoping to be his running mate if he wins the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) blasted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday for taking a "baby step" after he called for an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
After McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry, Gaetz took to the House floor, where he tore into the Speaker.
"I rise today to serve notice," Gaetz bellowed. "Mr. Speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role."
"The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair," he asserted. "Now, moments ago, Speaker McCarthy endorsed an impeachment inquiry. This is a baby step following weeks of pressure from House conservatives to do more. We must move faster."
Gaetz conceded that the measure he wanted McCarthy to pass would likely fail.
"Do these things or face a motion to vacate the chair and let me alert the country," he warned. "And if Democrats bail out McCarthy, as they may do, then I will lead the resistance to this uniparty and the Biden-McCarthy-Jeffries government that they are attempting to build."
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani suggested he was enjoying the anniversary of 9/11 until he attended a remembrance ceremony with Vice President Kamala Harris.
"But the main thing that struck me yesterday and destroyed my day was standing there with this group of, I consider, criminals who have made my country much more dangerous than it was the day before and the day of September 11," Giuliani told Steve Bannon a day after attending the ceremony with Harris and others.
"Bernie Kerik and Maria [Ryan] really despise [DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas]," he continued. "They see him as a walking liar. And I can't stand Harris. And I heard a giggle. And Bernie and I looked at each other, and I said, we got to get out of here. I can't stand at this sacred ground."
Giuliani complained that people who "had nothing to do with September 11" participated in the event.
"And here they're being honored at a September 11 ceremony for bringing terrorists into the United States in numbers we didn't know before September 11," he said.
Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday asked a court to sever his Georgia criminal case from co-defendants Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell, saying he won't be ready to defend himself.
Chesebro and Powell asked for quick trials and a judge set theirs to start on Oct. 23, but Giuliani's attorneys argued in a filing Tuesday that the former New York City mayor would not be prepared that soon, reported Lawfare's Anna Bower.
— (@)
"Defendant has not filed a statutory demand for a speedy trial," his attorneys wrote in the filing. "Nonetheless, to the extent that it is necessary, Defendant moves that this court severs him from the trial set for co-defendants Chesebro and Powell and/or continue his trial from that date. Defendant has not received more than 2 terabytes of discovery to be provided in this case, nor has he seen a complete list of witnesses which the state intends to call at trial."
Giuliani's attorneys said they would consider filing additional motions to sever his case from 16 other co-defendants indicted in Fulton County along with Donald Trump due to their post-2020 election activity, but they would wait until receiving evidence in the discovery process.
In an interview with CNN, Rudy Giuliani's lawyer, David Wolfe, was asked extensively about the fundraising the former mayor has been forced to do and some of the legal costs incurred while fighting cases around the 2020 election.
Paula Reid, filling in for Jim Acosta, asked about the $5 million in legal fees that he owes and the recent $ 100,000-per-plate fundraiser at Donald Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey country club. Wolfe said he wasn't invited to the dinner and doesn't know who was there or what was said.
Giuliani was told not to talk about the case to anyone, so Reid asked if Giuliani talked to Trump about the case while the two were there for the fundraiser.
"Well, he said that he wouldn't," Wolfe said of his client. "The court directed that he shouldn't."
Reid went on to ask him how he came to work for Giuliani, "Did he reach out to you?"
Wolfe played coy, saying not that Giuliani approached him but "they reached out to me," not explaining whether "they" were his lawyers or anyone else affiliated with the case
Reid then asked if he was being paid for the work. Wolfe exclaimed, "Well, of course I'm getting paid for my work."
"You know, I'm flying this aircraft, and when I'm riding as a passenger on the aircraft, I've never had the pilot come back and say, who paid for your tickets?" said Wolfe. "I'm doing my work. I've been paid to do my work, and it's going to cause some problems for the state to respond to it."
Planes generally have the names of the airlines on the sides and tail. When one crashes the owners, pilot and all details are revealed.
It prompted Reid to ask Wolfe about the private plane Giuliani took to Georgia and who may have paid for it. Raw Story's investigation at the time found only that the plane was owned by a charter jet company that was hired. It was never clear who paid for the company to take Giuliani to Georgia.
"I just told him he had to be here," said Wolfe. "That he got to get here was all that I was concerned about, private or commercial."
He then complained that people are paying more attention to following the money behind the co-conspirators in the Trump case rather than the case itself.
A report Sunday revealed Giuliani's longtime girlfriend was wearing a large diamond ring on her left hand. The report described it as a $60,000 diamond.
Rudy Giuliani is begging for financial help for his legal troubles, but his longtime girlfriend has a new $60,000 diamond ring on her left hand.
The Daily Mail revealed the photos of Maria Ryan a 57-year-old nurse practitioner. Reporting Sunday, the site described her as "smiling from ear to ear as she headed into an office building in Midtown East," where Giuliani has been seen many times.
The Daily Mail assessed the diamond, "if real" at $60,000, but it seems far bigger than some of the rings listed by an estate jewelry sale site, selling the top 30 engagement rings for $60,000.
The Diamond Registry lists the average cost of a 5-carat diamond between $9,350 to $147,400 per carat, depending on the cut, clarity and color.
"The average wholesale price of a 3-carat weighted GIA Certified Diamond would fit the range between $ 18,150 and $ 254,430," the site also said.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump held a fundraiser for Giuliani at $100,000 a plate, in an attempt to fund the former mayor's legal fees incurred from his efforts to fight the 2020 election. The financial situation for Giuliani is so dire that he put his Manhattan apartment up for sale in early August before he was named in the Fulton County, Georgia indictment.
"Right now, he has $181,000 in current bills," said CNN's Katelyn Polantz in August. "That includes a judgment from a court last week saying he had to pay a phone bill for his company from 2020, that he has to pay legal fees for two Georgia election workers who are suing him. That's what the sanction would be, an $89,000 sanction. That's not even what happens if he were to lose that case."
Ex-President Donald Trump former attorney Rudy Giuliani filed a new suit Friday challenging the racketeering charges he currently faces in Georgia, CNN reports.
The former New York mayor was one of 18 people charged alongside the MAGA 2024 hopeful last month by a Fulton County Superior Court grand jury for his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Trump's favor.
Per CNN, Giuliani's new filing asks "Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to quash the indictment, or at least to set a hearing on the matter."
The ex-mayor argues that the current indictment against him is "a conspiratorial bouillabaisse consisting of purported criminal acts, daily activities, and constitutionally protected speech," asserting the indictment contains "'deficiencies' that render it invalid, and that prosecutors are violating his rights against 'double jeopardy' by how they structured the racketeering conspiracy allegations."
After repeatedly and unsuccessfully requesting compensation from Trump, the former president "hosted a $100,000-a-plate fundraiser for" the former mayor at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club this week, according to PBS.
NEW YORK — Michael Ragusa, a Rikers Island investigator who dropped out of a City Council race earlier this year after his campaign faced accusations of ballot petition fraud, recently began moonlighting as a security guard for embattled former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Daily News has learned. Ragusa, who mounted an unsuccessful GOP bid for the 47th Council District in southern Brooklyn before pulling the plug on it in April, confirmed Friday he started the Giuliani security guard gig about a year ago, months before the ex-mayor was indicted in Georgia this summer on criminal charges stemming f...
A former Rudy Giuliani staffer on Thursday lamented the downward spiral of his ex-boss, who he said has become a “pathetic shadow of his former self.”
Former Giuliani spokesman Ken Frydman’s appearance on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins” followed reports former President Donald Trump was holding a $100,000-per-plate fundraiser for the former New York City mayor to help cover his legal bills.
Giuliani and Trump are among 19 co-defendants who were indicted in the Georgia election conspiracy case, which is being charged under the state’s racketeering law.
Collins noted that Frydman has known Giuliani since the 1990s.
“What happened? What changed from Rudy Giuliani being this legendary U.S. Attorney, this former mayor here in New York City into a co-defendant in the state of Georgia, unindicted potentially in other cases, and the fact that he's having to fundraise so much money?” she asked.
“Well, he took on Donald Trump as a client. Shame on him for not knowing that he wouldn't pay his bills, shame on him for not knowing that he would get in trouble, certainly not to the degree that he's gotten. I don't think he ever anticipated being indicted, certainly. But he should have known better. Donald Trump has a long history of not paying his attorneys and not caring about, you know how it turns out for them,” Frydman said.
“How much is his lifestyle changed?” Asked Collins. “I mean, CNBC said in 2012, that he was one of the richest politicians in America and had a wealth of about $65 million. And now he's struggling to pay, you know, they claimed $20,000 recently.”
“He had a very expensive divorce as you know, Caitlin, and his legal fees are just adding up every day and he doesn't have a way really to make a living because law licenses have been suspended in in D.C. and New York, and who would hire him as an attorney anyway, so he's left to cameo appearances and his WABC talk show which I understand he makes about $400,000 a year but that's just a drop in the bucket compared to what he owes,” Frydman said.
Collins noted that Giuliani is also selling his New York apartment.
“He listed it for a $6.5 million, I think he paid $4.77 (million) in 2002, so $2 million increase but it didn't appreciate the way so many other apartments in that neighborhood have so it's a fire sale,” Frydman said.
“It seems like a very different Rudy Giuliani than the one that you were working for in 1993,” noted Collins.
“A very sad in some say pathetic shadow of his former self, and I'm very sad to see it,” Frydman said.
“I think the attorneys should be telling him that his only goal should be to die free man and keep kicking the can down the road, delay, delay, delay, his legal matters as long as he can. And same for Trump.”
A legal expert suggested Thursday Rudy Giuliani could eventually turn on the former president.
NYU law professor Ryan Goodman during an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” suggested that perceived disloyalty and financial strain could compel the former New York City mayor to flip on Donald Trump.
Goodman’s comments came amid reports Trump was holding a $100,000-per-plate fundraiser for Giuliani’s legal fees at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday night.
“Giuliani is so crucial in all of these cases that Trump is doing this now. Is there a risk of Giuliani I guess for lack of a better word flipping if Trump doesn't help them in this way,” Burnett asked Goodman.
“I could easily imagine so,” Goodman said. “So I would side essentially with what the advisors who are telling Trump you know, ‘if you want to keep him in the fold, you want to keep this person viable financially,’ because if he is going down financially at this burn rate, then he might very well think, just out of a sense of betrayal, ‘even though I didn't ask him directly, he has not given back to me, given how much I've given my life to the former president.’"
“And the second (reason) might just be when these financial bills start to mount like this, you just can't have the legal team that you need in place to fend off an indictment in Georgia that might take four months, and then the judge in Georgia this week said, ‘Well, it might be double that amount of time.’ That's just an enormous financial bill that he has to pay if he's going to put up a strong defense.”
“Have you ever heard anything like this people raising money like this?” Burnett asked.
“No,” Goodman said. “it's also unusual to go up to a billionaire or multi billionaire’s home in order to pay $100,000 when that person is sitting in that room could obviously cut the check.”
While senators’ health ailments are dominating cable shows and social media, the debate has barely penetrated the marble walls of one of the nation’s oldest Senates ever.
That’s by design.
“It is an institution that honors old age. Seniority is everything,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told Raw Story after voting at the Capitol on Wednesday. “The Senate is also a place where one person on the first day can do some really big things, mostly based on their ability to obstruct, but that's the way it's built. It does reward longevity, and, consequently, you end up with a lot of older members.”
Indeed, the position of Senate president pro tempore — third in line to the presidency — is traditionally reserved for the majority party senator who’s served the longest, continuously. Committee chairpersons are often, if not exclusively, given to a majority party senator with the longest service on a given committee.
You also end up with a lot of secrets in an already secretive body. There’s a seemingly impenetrable veil of silence at the Capitol when it comes to lawmakers with failing health.
Seemingly, one of the most enduring bipartisan principles in the “World’s Greatest Deliberative Body” seems to be that you let your political friends and foes alike die as they please — even if you find them diminishing right next to you as you consider some of the nation’s most critical decisions and cast consequential votes.
When Senate insiders do talk — staffers, in particular — it’s generally in whispers about the lengths some must go to prop up their aged bosses. And it’s not pretty.
‘Out of respect for colleagues’
Six years ago — or one term, according to Senate time — in her piece, “An old-school pharmacy hand-delivers drugs to Congress,”Erin Mershon of STAT News reported that Capitol Hill pharmacist Mike Kim fills Alzheimer’s prescriptions for at least one member of Congress.
That terrifyingly tantalizing admission is news to freshmen senators — “That's pretty wild. I'm gonna look that up and read it,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told Raw Story — but it’s simply the ways of Washington to senior senators who seem in on the not-so-secret-secret.
“I actually don't want to comment on that out of respect for colleagues,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told Raw Story after exiting a Senate elevator.
Others shrug off reports of their congressional colleagues being afflicted with debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s.
“We're a representative body reflective of the country. There's probably a lot of people in the workforce that are engaged in all kinds of different medications, whether they're for Alzheimer's, mental health, whatever. That doesn't surprise me,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Raw Story on Wednesday while walking next to the underground Senate tram.
Capito serves as a part of McConnell’s leadership team. She was in his office Tuesday night for their regular start of the week meeting.
“He was sharp as ever,” Capito said.
How the ravages of age affect the human body is a congressional drama that’s as old as Congress.
In 1846, former President John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Voters didn’t care. The former U.S. senator from Massachusetts overcame its debilitating effects and was then sent back to Washington, only this time as a member of the House.
That’s where, in 1848, Adams collapsed as he rose in his seat on the House floor only to later die in the Speaker’s Room of the Capitol.
More recently, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC) remained in office until his 100th birthday.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) died in office in 2009 at 77.
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) died in office in 2010 at 92.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) died in office in 2018 at 81.
Such situations can leave millions of constituents without the active representation of a key, duly elected federal lawmaker — or, in the case of those who die in office, no elected representation at all. Governors work to quickly fill their seat, but they don’t consult voters and often tap one of their political allies, some of whom never seem to leave the seat.
‘Medicine shouldn't be politicized’
These days, the nation’s aged politicians are protected by their aides and most of their colleagues whoplay senatorially-supportive roles.
But every now and again, a lawmaker breaks Congress’ unofficially-official code of silence.
We saw that rarity this spring when Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) had enough ofthe congressional veil of silence after his state’s senior stateswoman, Feinstein, told Raw Story, “I’m not announcing anything” — hours after her office had literally announced she wasn’t seeking re-election in 2024.
As Khanna took to social media to call for Feinstein’s resignation, he showed the public what’s common knowledge in Washington: Feinstein stopped making some of her own decisions long ago.
“It’s time for@SenFeinstein to resign. We need to put the country ahead of personal loyalty. While she has had a lifetime of public service, it is obvious she can no longer fulfill her duties,” Khanna wrote. “Not speaking out undermines our credibility as elected representatives of the people.”
Of course, it would be unethical, immoral and idiotic for a doctor to divulge their patient’s diagnosis without consent. Consent, however, is not the problem when Washington physicians go out of their way to politically protect politicians.
Glowing physical examinations can transform a physician into a politician. Just ask Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX). He catapulted himself into the U.S. House Representatives after garnering headlines while serving as former President Donald Trump’s White House physician. Politicized medicine is a disease all its own, at least according to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The Duke-trained ophthalmologist is one of four physicians currently serving in the Senate. He’s openly questioning Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of U.S. Congress, for reporting McConnell’s showing no signs of a seizure or stroke.
“Medicine shouldn't be politicized, and if you're giving advice on, you know, what someone's potential diagnosis is, really, it ought to be based on the facts. And what I can tell you is that having vacant spells of 30 seconds or more where you’re unresponsive, is not a sign or a symptom of a concussion,” Paul told reporters Wednesday.
Bolstered by the Capitol physician’s report, the 81-year-old Senate minority leader brushed aside health questions Wednesday.
“I’m going to finish my term as leader and I’m going to finish my Senate term,” McConnell told the congressional press corps.
Everything’s … fine?
To many members of the Senate, everything’s fine, even if many read more into McConnell’s health episodes than the congressional physician reported.
“I think people need to actually read his book to understand the guy had polio and polio’s coming back and he's having some serious pain issues,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) told Raw Story just off the Senate floor. “The first time it happened, he was on the floor at 10 o’clock that night having conversations with us. Sharp as a tack.”
At the start of this Congress, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) challenged McConnell’s leadership position, but, like most all others, he’s backing McConnell now.
Support McConnell continuing as leader?
“Absolutely,” Scott told reporters at the Capitol. “Mine was all about how you manage the Congress.”
As for Feinstein?
“Every time I’ve talked to her she’s been really nice to me,” Scott told Raw Story.
In your five years serving next to Feinstein, ever had a good policy conversation with her?
In a building built on seniority, members of both parties have already gamed out what the eventual exits of Feinstein and McConnell — and their combined 70 years in Washington — mean for their respective party’s rank and file.
But those whispers are kept far away from the cameras, secure within the bipartisan veil of silence.
While Feinstein checked outlong ago, McConnell, who isn’t up for re-election until 2026, seems bent on staying put for at least the next three-plus years.
His colleagues seem fine with that, because, most argue, Kentuckians decided to give him a seventh six-year term back in 2020 — even if voters nationally overwhelmingly support congressional term limits and age limits. Many frustrated voters even support cognitive tests for older lawmakers — something Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has vocally pushed for lawmakers over the age of 75.
In New Hampshire on Tuesday, Haley even suggested 80-year-old President Joe Biden, if elected for a second term, would die before his term was up in 2029.
"There's no way Joe Biden is going to be 86. We all see it. This is about the fact that — you think it it's bad now? This could get so much more worse," Haley said.
Meanwhile, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump would become the oldest person elected president — 78 in November 2024 — were he to win the White House next year.
As for McConnell, many lawmakers just wish he'd get his eyes checked. Because, even as most senators reject proposals like term limits or mental fitness tests, they say Washington’s broken. They just wish those at the top of Washington’s power pyramid could see the ruins they’ve left in their storied wakes.
“It barely functions at all, as far as I can tell,” Cramer of North Dakota told Raw Story. “I think we should get back to some better guardrails.”
