I understand why people are saying that Trump got off on a technicality. The idea is to emphasize that most of the Senators who voted to acquit Trump did so even though they thought he was guilty. To be precise, it was a made-up technicality. The “jurisdictional” problem the Republican Senators found was not one …
The impeachment trial brought home a painful reality. Trump is only part of the problem. The larger problem is that Trump is being shielded by a major political party that believes in his tactics and everything he stands for, and will defend literally anything he does. The dramatic conclusion of the trial came when 7 …
You can read my latest piece for The Washington Post on their website, or I’ve cut and pasted it here: Suppose an incumbent president up for another term decides not to honor the result of the election. Suppose he tries every means available to keep himself in office: He pressures local officials to “find” votes, he files dozens …
On Saturday, I did an explainer of the Smartmatic lawsuit against Fox and other defendants. Today I’ll look at the Dominion suits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell Dominion’s complaint against Giuliani is here. The claim is similar to the Smartmatic complaint, which is no surprise since the facts are the same. Dominion asserts that …
More Fun with Defamation Law: Dominion, Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell Read More »
I conclude my forthcoming book on Disinformation (to be published by Macmillan, I don’t know exactly when) with a chapter on ways to help slow the spread of disinformation. One suggestion is defamation lawsuits. The example I used was when the Sandy Hook parents successfully sued Alex Jones over his theories that the parents were …
I offered an Over the Cliff Notes to the House Manager’s brief here. I’ve been waiting for the Trump legal team to respond. They filed one brief, in response to the Articles of Impeachment. It’s here. It appears that that brief may be the only pre-trial brief they file, so I’ll do a close reading. …
My website and blog were down for about 24 hours, and my email function wasn’t working for about a week–but my web host assures me that the problem is fixed. The House Manager’s Impeachment Pre-Trial Brief is here. It’s 77 pages. I’d give it an A+. (The link doesn’t seem to work on Safari). Right …
After the news broke last week that 45 Republican Senators voted against holding an impeachment trial for Trump and it thus appeared that the GOP would close ranks around Trump again (thereby hardening into an extremist anti-democratic party) one of my followers said this: I believe the future of democracy would be far better served …
Dear Readers: I wrote this a few days ago, but my email notifications wasn’t working properly. Apologies. 💠 Interesting question: Time to get philosophical. The place to start, I think is how political psychologists define conservatism. True conservatives, according to NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt, conservatives form a kind of yin-yang balance with liberals: Liberals embrace …
The New York Times reports that we can expect a wave of pardons from Trump tomorrow, the last day of his presidency. Not surprisingly, pardons are on everyone’s mind. Here is the best answer I know: No, the pardons can’t be overturned Corrupt pardons can be prosecuted as a separate crime Trump can’t pardon himself, …
The Constitution in General and the Pardon Power in Particular Read More »
