ChiGoose

Tremendous failure by the Secret Service to secure the roof of a building right by the event

Do you think it was Trump’s gay lover? Or is that more of a hammer thing than a gun thing..?

The Dems: secretly controlling everything everywhere but also unable to get a very old and unpopular man to not be their nominee.

Completely agree. I wonder if they offed themselves or were taken out. Either way, captured alive would have been preferable

I have good friends who live there. They have complaints. Hoping to visit them soon though.

We will know what happened at some point. We don’t know that right now. Don’t jump to conclusions.

Now would be a great time to not jump to conclusions

Energetic lying > slow old truth

I remain amazed at how absolutely gullible the MAGA crowd has shown themselves to be. Some random dude claims there’s a longer delay with no sources, no context, no proof, and they just eat it up. Time and time and time again, they fall for falsehoods because they just want to believe so badly. Biden tried to assassinate Trump. Biden wandered off aimlessly at the G7. The FBI leaked a staged a Mar a Lago photo to hurt Trump. All blatantly and provably false. No hint of skepticism or critical thought. Just lap up whatever feels good.

Another state decided to blatantly violate the Constitution. And here I thought the GOP was always talking about how much they love the Constitution…

If in the filing where the DoJ first disclosed the photo, they introduced it by saying that it was a picture of documents they removed from a container, then how was it fabricated?

Probably. Which is... not good.

You don't understand. It's "State's rights so long as the states do the thing we want them to"

But he assured us he was settling the issue by leaving it to the states! Who could have possibly predicted this chaos?

I don't think Smith would acknowledge leaking material. I just question whether or not there was actually a leak since there is no evidence that anyone had the photo before it was published to the court docket. I mostly agree with @The Frankish Reich on the NY case. I was skeptical of it as first, but the more I learned about NY practice and the evidence presented in the case, I came to the conclusion that it was a strong case. Would Bragg have brought it against an average Joe? Can't say. That office has brought similar charges in the past but I think it's fair to assume that if Trump wasn't Trump, he might not have been charged. Of course, that doesn't mean he was innocent. He very clearly violated the law and a jury found so. Maybe he and Hunter Biden can commiserate together about how unfair life is. If they didn't want to be prosecuted, they probably shouldn't have done crimes. If I recall, the intelligence agents in question stated that the laptop had all of the earmarks of a Russian op but also stated that they were not saying for certain that it was. Also, that was a letter, not a court case, not testimony taken under oath. Just their assessment of a situation. If you want to complain that the media coverage was bad, by all means do so, but I don't think it's relevant to the Smith investigations.

Interesting... Supreme Court set to allow abortions in medical emergencies, briefly-published opinion shows Draft opinion was briefly posted to the court’s website Wednesday morning The Supreme Court is poised to allow abortions in medical emergencies, an opinion briefly published on the court’s website and obtained by BloombergLaw revealed. Wednesday morning, a draft opinion in the consolidated cases Moyle v US and US v Idaho was published as the court issued two other opinions but quickly removed. The opinion – which is not final – the court will reinstate a lower court ruling that ensured hospitals in Idaho provide abortions in emergency medical situations but decline to issue a formal ruling in the dispute. The majority will instead dismiss the case as improvidently granted.

I think an underreported story here is how nuts the 5th Circuit has gotten. Given the current SCOTUS's disregard for precedent, the 5th Circuit seems to be intentionally trying to push the limits but it's become too much for Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett to abide.

It's great news for corrupt officials like Mike Madigan. U.S. Supreme Court accuses feds of 'vague and unfair trap' in ruling that could affect Madigan corruption case "...The high court’s decision to take up the Snyder case interrupted the momentum federal prosecutors here had built through a series of corruption trials in 2023. Not only were a group of onetime Madigan allies set to be sentenced in January for a nearly decade-long scheme to bribe the ex-speaker, but Madigan had been set to go to trial this spring. Instead, Madigan’s trial is now set for October, and sentencing hearings for the four Madigan allies have been put on hold. The corruption conviction of Snyder gave the Supreme Court the opportunity to study a law known as the “federal program bribery” statute. It applies to any state or local government agent who “corruptly solicits … anything of value … intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection with any business” worth $5,000 or more. Madigan’s lawyers have noted that seven of the 23 counts he faces in his indictment are tied to the law in question. It’s involved in five of the counts in the separate case dealing with the four Madigan allies, who include former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore."

If there’s one thing SCOTUS loves, it’s weakening anti-corruption laws: Be sure to tip your congressman!

Reporting on legal issues is difficult because things are often complicated and lay in gray areas where there is plenty of room to disagree. If the law was easy, we wouldn't need lawyers. But what really irks me is when people like Julie Kelly who either don't know what they are talking about or worse: are intentionally lying, mislead the public. I don't expect the average person to take the time to read through actual court filings; that's what you have reporters for. But when influencers are unable to do the due diligence and just put out information that is blatantly wrong (i.e. Biden tried to have Trump assassinated, the DoJ staged the photograph to harm Trump politically), it misleads the public and can cause serious issues. It leads to people, through no fault of their own, believing conspiracies and lies because they don't realize they've been had by a bad faith actor.

I did not mean to say you were acting in bad faith and if you took my comments as such, I apologize. Sticking strictly to the claims that the DoJ leaked a staged photo to harm Trump politically, it feels like a lot of people are making a bad faith claim because the photo was not leaked and the document it was originally included in had the context that the documents were removed from a container.

Former North Dakota lawmaker to plead guilty to traveling to pay for sex with minor "BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A former North Dakota lawmaker who was one of the most powerful members of the Legislature has signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors on a charge that he traveled to Europe with the intent of paying for sex with a minor. Former Republican state Sen. Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, signed the plea agreement last week. It was filed Monday. He agreed to plead guilty to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity. Prosecutors will recommend the low end of the sentencing guideline range and move to dismiss Holmberg’s other charge, receipt and attempted receipt of child sexual abuse material, according to the plea agreement. He would have to register as a sex offender under the plea deal. The maximum penalties are 30 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release, according to the document. Prosecutors will likely recommend a prison sentence of roughly three to four years, Holmberg attorney Mark Friese said. The court will schedule a plea hearing and order a presentence investigation report, he said. Sentencing is likely to happen sometime this fall, he said. The travel offense doesn’t carry a mandatory sentence; the receipt charge has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison, Friese said. Prosecutors alleged Holmberg repeatedly traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic with intent to pay for sex with a minor from around June 2011 to November 2016. The indictment against Holmberg was unsealed in October 2023. Holmberg served in the Legislature from 1976 until mid-2022. He first announced his intent not to seek reelection, but he resigned following reporting from The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead that he exchanged dozens of text messages with a man in jail for child sexual abuse material. His trial was scheduled to begin in September in Fargo. He initially pleaded not guilty. For many years, Holmberg chaired the influential Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes budgets. He also chaired the Legislative Management panel, which handles the Legislature’s business between biennial sessions. That job let him approve his own travel. Records obtained by The Associated Press showed that Holmberg took dozens of trips throughout the U.S. and to other countries since 1999. Destinations included cities in more than 30 states as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and Norway. Earlier this year, the North Dakota School Boards Association returned about $142,000 to the state and ended its role in the Global Bridges teacher exchange program months after releasing travel records following Holmberg’s indictment that showed he traveled to Prague and other European cities in 2011, 2018 and 2019, utilizing state funds. It’s unclear whether the misconduct alleged by authorities occurred during any of those trips."

Not a great sign