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Accountable. In their motion for a protective order, the Justice Department says, quote, such a protective order is needed in this case the because the defendant has released statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys and other associates in legal matters pending against him. In recent days the defendant has issued multiple posts, either specifically or by implication including the following which the defendant posted just hours ago. If you go after me, im coming after you. The filing including a screen shot of that ominous threat. Prosecutors went on to say, quote, if the defendant were to begin issuing public posts using details or, for example, grand jury transcripts obtained in discovery, it could have a harmful, Chilling Effect on witnesses or adversely affect the Fair Administration ....
That president trump might publish grand jury transcripts or other sensitive information, a provocative claim when searching for headlines perhaps but one that falters under minimal scrutiny. so it seems they re trying to downplay that because anyone who read that social media post saying if you come after me i m going to come aafter you, read that and interpreted that as a threat, as a possible example of witness intimidation. they re saying that is hyperbolic and that is not the case. except that we have seen and heard donald trump do that over the years. we have seen sadly too many politicians in his party adopt the posture of saying we are going to weaponize our power if we don t like what you do, if we don t like what you say, if we don t like the positions you take. i was just in front of a house select committee on weaponization of the government ....
If these aides are found to be witnesses in the case, that s going to be a big decision that jack smith is going to make. he s going to have to be fairly selective, in choosing witnesses who are not going to display favoritism to their current boss in some ways and are going to be able to stick strictly to the facts. frank, over the weekend trump posted his harshest criticism of mike pence so far calling him, quote, little mike pence and calling him delusional. there are going to be trump allies who are going to dismiss this and just say it s, again, trump being trump. but it s in the context of a special prosecution and an indictment. trump is now publicly threatening by someone who by any fair means is a witness in the election-related case. yeah, no question. i also think it will be a totality of the circumstances argument where literally jack ....
Chutkan. it s not a serious argument. let me play a little more of what lauro had to say yesterday and then, jack, i ll get your thoughts on it. listen. at what point does he accept the truth that he didn t win? well, he believes he won. the biden administration will never be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he didn t. what he s being indicted for ultimately is following legal advice from as esteemed scholar, john eastman, that he could petition his own vice president and ask his vice president to pause the voting on january 6th to give the states one last chance to certify or reaudit. that was the ultimate ask that president trump made in his ellipse speech. that s clearly protected. you can see the contours of the legal defense forming here ....
That they want somebody that is going to give them a tangible look at what the next president would do, ayman. that s what they re looking for. you do hear at these events, you hear cheers for his war on disney. it s not like the republican they re looking for someone offering a hopeful vision. at least that might offer a potential off-ramp from trump. if you compare him to vivek ramaswamy, vivek, his whole stump speech is all about future, tomorrow, how can we fix problems. desantis is all about litigating these past beefs that he s had and this war on woke and the stuff he s had in florida, it s not aspirational and that s not what republican voters are looking for. and by the way, it s just how do you get to the right of trump on woke? rich lowry at the national review, i m not always quoting rich lowry but he said trump s out there making fun of the u.s. women s national soccer team and ....