CNN — Google and X, formerly Twitter, recently provided hundreds of files to Michigan prosecutors for their 2020 election subversion probe, complying with search warrants that investigators obtained after CNN revealed secret social media accounts belonging to pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who played a major role in the fake electors plot. https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/29/politics/michigan-search-warrants-google-twitter-2020-fake-electors/index.html
“In addition to concealing his secret Twitter account, Chesebro told investigators that he didn’t use social media applications to send and receive private messages.
“That denial is undercut by the materials X gave to investigators, which contain more than 160 sent messages and more than 25 received messages between 2014 and 2021, with most of them amid the 2020 election fallout.”
I write a lot about the reality that fascism itself, is a legalist, top-down political formulation that is very much about seizing control of the law, and then using that to install and maintain a fascist order. This runs entirely contrary to popular conceptions of fascism, which often portray the rise of a fascist movement or dictatorship, as a sort of "popular madness," where a majority of people support a fascist doctrine because of ignorance, or being deceived into doing so; or worse, the result of a "chud rush" where a bunch of "guys with guns" physically seize the halls of power and declare "it's fascism now." The reality that actually the best weapons to subvert democratic will that a fascist order has at its disposal are judges, lawyers and lawmakers, not an army of street nazis, was true in pre-war Germany, and it's true today.
Finally, it would appear that some folks are starting to notice:
A lot of this article by Josh Kovensky, over at Talking Points Memo (a Dem-aligned blog run by Josh Marshall) is about the particulars of Trump's Jan 6th, 2021 attempted autogolpe and how it was planned. It's a worthwhile read, but I'd just like to highlight the section that demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about in terms of the legalist nature of a fascist takeover, and how that sort of thing actually happens in reality, rather than popular imagination:
"The trove provides a definitive account of how a small group of attorneys, dedicated to Trump, designed and tried to implement the portion of the coup attempt which unfolded via legal arguments. They burnished the former president’s efforts with a veneer of respectability that at times masked their radicalism: This portion of the effort to reverse Trump’s loss did not proceed via loud claims of voter fraud or through Sidney Powell’s promise of a “Kraken” lawsuit that would wipe her enemies away, nor did it move forward through the actions of mobs and street thugs primed to seize the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Rather, the attorneys involved all had extensive experience in the practice of law. Chesebro is a Harvard Law graduate who spent much of his early career working on appellate cases with liberal commentator and Harvard Law professor Larry Tribe. John Eastman was a longtime conservative movement attorney who had been dean of Chapman University Law School. Others, like Pennsylvania attorney Bruce Marks, had built careers out of an extensive civil practice."
And I mean, yeah, yeah "not all lawyers" but that isn't the point here. The point is that when fascism comes to your door, it's going to be there because a bunch of guys with law degrees have twisted the rules to make fascism not only legal, but the only law of the land. That's how it always works. That's why Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself said "we should never forget that everything Adolph Hitler did in Germany was "legal"... What you saw on January 6th, was merely the public facing of a plot to abuse the law, for the purposes of overturning an election; and it's a pretty good preview of just how Trump, his cronies, and the folks behind Project 2025, mean to bring overt fascist rule to America after this next election.
"No active judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit was interested in sitting en banc to rehear Mark Meadows’ case for moving his Georgia RICO case to federal court, the court said Wednesday in a brief denial."
Judge McAfee orders unsealing of criminal case dockets for Ken #Chesebro & #SidneyPowell.
During Powell & Chesebro's plea hearings, McAfee ordered that their cases be sealed. He now reverses that decision after weighing the strong public interest in a publicly available docket. #Georgia#TrumpIndictment#legal
Defendant Kenneth #Chesebro just walked into Judge McAfee’s courtroom ahead of today’s 1:30 hearing. It’s the first time I’ve seen him in court #legal#TrumpIndictment #Georgia
Oy. Yet another thread for me to relay. Anna Bower:
I'm back in courtroom 5A for the motions hearing in State of Georgia v. Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell. Things get started at 1:30 pm.
One of the defendants, Ken Chesebro, is present in court today. No sign of Sidney Powell. 1/...
Just in: DA #FaniWillis responding to Ken #Chesebro's speedy trial demand. Calling for the trial for all 19 Fulton defendants to begin on Oct. 23, 2023
Will be up to Judge McAfee to weigh in now. There's also the question of what happens to the pending fed removal motions....
#Ginni#Gitmo#Thomas is a qanon fascist, she worked really hard to overthrow the government and the election, end America and install a tyrant, rapist, fraud, and coup leader. Ginni is a disgrace to America. Call out her crimes and her fraud everyday.
We see you Ginni. We see what you did. Your BFF Ken #Chesebro and you directed and advised #Coup plotter Mark Meadows.