The Trump crime spree appears to be near an end. Fresh news came in the past 2 days on these three cases…. and more. There’s not one Georgia phone call that Trump made in pursuit of votes trying to thieve it away from Georgia voters. He called the Georgia Governor, its Secretary of State, the Georgia House Speaker and Frances Watson, (the chief investigator at the Georgia secretary of state’s office)
Mar 18, 2023·edited Mar 19, 2023Liked by Your server, Kevin Hayden
Re: the late GA Speaker:
"In February 2019, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV reported that Ralston regularly used his position as speaker to benefit his Blue Ridge-based private law practice.[15] A 1905 state law (O.C.G.A. § 17-8-26)[16] requires judges and prosecutors to defer to the schedules of any member of the general assembly who is also a practicing lawyer, and as speaker, Ralston was able to claim scheduling conflicts any time of year. By delaying court cases in this manner, Ralston was able to keep his clients free on bond for months or even years, while weakening court cases over time by letting memories fade and evidence expire. Some of Ralston's clients retained him specifically for these reasons.[17]
Journalists found that over the course of 21 cases, Ralston requested delays 57 times, and that on 76 of the 93 conflicting days, the legislature was not in session; he would commonly delay individual cases over a dozen times each. Charges against Ralston's clients who benefited from this include drunk driving, child molestation, and assault.[18]
In April 2019, an independent researcher reviewed Ralston's court cases across eight counties and found that from 2010 through 2019, Ralston delayed 226 cases a total of 966 times. Multiple attorneys wrote formal complaints to various judges regarding Ralston's delays. In response, Ralston said that the researcher "does not understand the legal system or the criminal justice system... [and] didn't have anything critical to say about my performance as speaker."[19]
The original law allowing this was amended over a century later in 2006 by SB 503. Previously, the law allowed representatives to delay court hearings only during the legislative session and for the following three weeks. A committee was formed to reconcile differences between the house and senate versions of SB 503, and Ralston himself was named a member. His exact role in crafting the current law's language is unknown.[20]
Little to no pushback from judges has been found. Ralston had been known to seek revenge on political opponents and, as speaker, controlled two seats on the investigative panel of the state judicial qualifications commission. Further, the Georgia legislature made itself exempt from the Georgia Open Records Act. Georgia House Speaker."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ralston
David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) was a dirtbag of the highest order:
HIs wiki is...restrained. I know people he has hurt with his abuse of the law; and his dying of a painful but undisclosed ailment over some years, days after reelection by the useful idiots of Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens Co, is not commensurate with the pain he caused. And he faced no meaningful sanction.
But he was a pragmatist: he managed to keep the worst of the TEAParty/MAGA and Religious Right legislation at bay as "bad for business". The new GAGOP House leadership is not, so much.
And his response to Agent Orange was pretty much shutting the Churl down: saying he'd do what he could for tRump, meaning he wasn't going out of his way. tRump had in effect lost Georgia for the GOP
by repeatedly demeaning the expensive new voting system (that is, due to US Dist. Court Judge Amy Totenberg's supervision...where have I heard that name?) that was transparent, and had a paper audit system, and left no scope for Sec. o'State Raffensperger to pull the requested ~11,700 votes out of his ass.
Trump depressed his own votes, by repeatedly insisting it was already rigged, and was crapping on the runoffs that elected Warnock and Ossoff. Herschel was in some way tRump's revenge...
That said, Ralston also knew the GA Lege's schedule/calendar is pretty much set in stone, and that Gov. Kemp, disgusted w/tRump's idiocy (and no one calls him "Brain Kemp") was not going to take the extraordinary effort to call a Special Session.
Dying was the best thing he's done for Blue Ridge in some time, even if a MAGA idiot is replacing him.
Re: the late GA Speaker:
"In February 2019, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV reported that Ralston regularly used his position as speaker to benefit his Blue Ridge-based private law practice.[15] A 1905 state law (O.C.G.A. § 17-8-26)[16] requires judges and prosecutors to defer to the schedules of any member of the general assembly who is also a practicing lawyer, and as speaker, Ralston was able to claim scheduling conflicts any time of year. By delaying court cases in this manner, Ralston was able to keep his clients free on bond for months or even years, while weakening court cases over time by letting memories fade and evidence expire. Some of Ralston's clients retained him specifically for these reasons.[17]
Journalists found that over the course of 21 cases, Ralston requested delays 57 times, and that on 76 of the 93 conflicting days, the legislature was not in session; he would commonly delay individual cases over a dozen times each. Charges against Ralston's clients who benefited from this include drunk driving, child molestation, and assault.[18]
In April 2019, an independent researcher reviewed Ralston's court cases across eight counties and found that from 2010 through 2019, Ralston delayed 226 cases a total of 966 times. Multiple attorneys wrote formal complaints to various judges regarding Ralston's delays. In response, Ralston said that the researcher "does not understand the legal system or the criminal justice system... [and] didn't have anything critical to say about my performance as speaker."[19]
The original law allowing this was amended over a century later in 2006 by SB 503. Previously, the law allowed representatives to delay court hearings only during the legislative session and for the following three weeks. A committee was formed to reconcile differences between the house and senate versions of SB 503, and Ralston himself was named a member. His exact role in crafting the current law's language is unknown.[20]
Little to no pushback from judges has been found. Ralston had been known to seek revenge on political opponents and, as speaker, controlled two seats on the investigative panel of the state judicial qualifications commission. Further, the Georgia legislature made itself exempt from the Georgia Open Records Act. Georgia House Speaker."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ralston
David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) was a dirtbag of the highest order:
HIs wiki is...restrained. I know people he has hurt with his abuse of the law; and his dying of a painful but undisclosed ailment over some years, days after reelection by the useful idiots of Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens Co, is not commensurate with the pain he caused. And he faced no meaningful sanction.
But he was a pragmatist: he managed to keep the worst of the TEAParty/MAGA and Religious Right legislation at bay as "bad for business". The new GAGOP House leadership is not, so much.
And his response to Agent Orange was pretty much shutting the Churl down: saying he'd do what he could for tRump, meaning he wasn't going out of his way. tRump had in effect lost Georgia for the GOP
by repeatedly demeaning the expensive new voting system (that is, due to US Dist. Court Judge Amy Totenberg's supervision...where have I heard that name?) that was transparent, and had a paper audit system, and left no scope for Sec. o'State Raffensperger to pull the requested ~11,700 votes out of his ass.
Trump depressed his own votes, by repeatedly insisting it was already rigged, and was crapping on the runoffs that elected Warnock and Ossoff. Herschel was in some way tRump's revenge...
That said, Ralston also knew the GA Lege's schedule/calendar is pretty much set in stone, and that Gov. Kemp, disgusted w/tRump's idiocy (and no one calls him "Brain Kemp") was not going to take the extraordinary effort to call a Special Session.
Dying was the best thing he's done for Blue Ridge in some time, even if a MAGA idiot is replacing him.