The Red Wave is just beginning but not like Trump's remora expected
Your scorecard update
The two largest libel/defamation awards/settlements in US history now:
Alex Jones: $1,487,000,000 to parents of murdered Sandy Hook kids
Fox News: $787,500,000 to Dominion Voting Systems
The other major voting machine company, Smartmatic, has a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox ahead in New York.
And there are pending trials against NewsMax and OANN.
It’s amazing how readily these faux news orgs & people will commit financial suicide to support Donald Trump and/or gun sellers. So far, the lies have cost this pair more than 2-1/4 billion dollars. Shareholders of Fox may soon be seeking damages too.
And now is not the time to stop going after these bigtime criminals. That’s how our justice system is supposed to work, to stay healthy. It’s called ‘accountability.’
Let’s see who’s winning in the courts.
April 2018: Class action suits brought against Trump University by defrauded students resulted in Trump paying a $25,000,000 settlement that was finalized by a judge that month.
Nov 2019: Trump ordered to pay $2 million for misusing funds donated to the Trump Foundation charity for his own political gain.
November 2020-January 2021: the Trump campaign, Republican allies, and Trump himself made at least 42 legal challenges to the election results in AZ, NM, NV, WI, MI, PA, GA, and lost all of them, including some that went to the Supreme Court. More than one attorney has been disbarred or is facing disbarment hearings for these.
This includes 3 SCOTUS losses, 13 PA losses, 4 NV losses, 5 GA losses, 5 MI losses, 4 AZ losses, 7 WI losses, and 1 NM loss.
April 2023: Yesterday’s settlement against Fox. The judge in the trial also has ruled Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell made false statements, and each attorney is still facing lawsuits of their own. Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion from Powell, $1.3 billion from Giuliani, and Smartmatic is seeking $2.7 billion from Fox News.
There’s also:
- a libel lawsuit filed by an Erie, PA postmaster wrongly accused by Project Veritas of backdating mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election. A former USPS worker made the claim and called the postmaster (Weisenbach) a ‘Trump hater’ though Weisenbach voted for Trump. A stranger who heard the Project Veritas report confronted the postmaster at his home, so he and his wife had to take refuge in a hotel two hours away.
- a lawsuit filed by a Georgia voter that the movie, 2000 Mules, claimed was harvesting the ballots of others and stuffing ballot boxes there. The voter dropped ballots cast by himself, his wife and adult kids, which is legal. The movie’s claims were completely debunked by judges repeatedly as it provided zero proof of any illegal activities. The movie was made by ex-felon Dinesh D’Souza who received a pardon from Trump. That voter received numerous threats of violence because of the movie’s assertions.
- a lawsuit from 2 Georgia election workers who were falsely accused of election fraud by two rightwing media outlets and Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani. They also have experienced threats from Trump supporters.
- Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s financial fraud trial against Trump is ahead.
- Jean Carroll’s defamation trial against Trump, (who she alleges raped her) begins next week.
- Atlanta area DA Fani Willis is close to announcing charges against Trump and others. News broke yesterday that she’s still conducting interviews of Trump’s slate of fake electors, that some are implicating others in that slate, so she’s seeking to get a Trump lawyer removed from the case since that lawyer can’t adequately represent them all as they turn on each other.
While it’s typically difficult to prove defamation and libel, several non-profit orgs have played a role in assisting the little guys harmed by the deliberate lies. Some will no doubt be able to use evidence uncovered in similar probes and trials.
But wait, there’s more.
Two groups whose donors are legally secret are planning to use a Civil War law to challenge Trump’s efforts to get on ballots in numerous states. The law says any officer of the US who engages in an insurrection or rebellion against the US is barred from running for election again. Trump’s gearing up for those court battles too.
Plus, of course, there’s the DOJ review of all the fraudulent election claims, insurrection efforts and stolen/hidden classified documents that Trump, his staff, lawyers and others were involved in which is the biggest shoe yet to drop.
Based on the track record of court trials to date, betting on most future outcomes has to be a bookie’s dream.
The two biggest questions yet to be answered: how will the obviously corrupted SCOTUS rule on anything that comes to them by their cosset, Trump? And how many more lawsuits will arise for Trump to lose that we don’t know about yet?
One certainty: Trump isn’t getting much sleep these days. He has to think of dozens of derogatory nicknames, racist, anti-semitic & misogynist insults for every prosecutor, judge, bailiff, plaintiff, juror and hostile witness who’ll be involved in these trials.
But he won’t quit as long as he can keep the money coming in from his true believers.
Today I read a poll that has him at 43% in the coming Republican primaries with DeSantis, Nikki Haley and another lesser known pulling in less than half that support. As the polling firm was new to me, a little quick research determined its founders were all former Trump campaign officials. Of course.
It’s still likely that DeSantis’ support is crumbling due to his efforts to fight every culture war he can think of, even though Trump continues to control that space. (The censorship of discussing LGTBQ people in younger grades in public schools has now been expanded to all grades in Florida).
But the GOP remains hell-bent on supporting the country’s worst criminal leader in its history. While the growing majority of Americans are just eager to focus on any news that doesn’t involve him at all.
These steadfast litigants are setting the stage nicely. Then it’ll be up to us voters to clean out Congress and the state legislatures from people so warped in their ethics and intelligence. There’ll be 11 million more young people eligible to vote by Election Day. As I said before, let’s settle for no less than 60% wins across the country by November 2024.
Followups on other legal/illegal events covered in recent newsletters
Oklahoma: McCurtain County Commissioner Mark Jennings resigned this morning, days after audio revealed the discussion about killing two local journalists. The others involved -Investigator Alicia Manning, Sheriff Kevin Clardy and trust administrator Larry Hendrix were suspended from the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association last Monday night but technically aren’t resigned or fired.
Missouri: the KC man who shot Ralph Yarl surrendered Tuesday, was arraigned today and is free on $200,000 bond. Yarl suffered permanent physical injuries from a cracked skull, loss of brain tissue and scarring, but is expected to make close to a full recovery.
Missouri’s governor decided to use the moment to attack Joe Biden for politicizing the attack.
Tennessee: after the peaceful student protests criticizing the failure of the legislature to take action to pass meaningful gun reform legislation, after the expulsion and reinstatement of two young Black legislators, the legislature finally took action on guns.
The GOP lawmakers passed a bill 19-9 shielding gun manufacturers from any liability for gun murders. Apparently gun makers and gun sellers own the legislature. The Christian 9 year olds murdered don’t matter in Nashville.