This little orange piggy can cry “weee. weee. weee” all the way to 1 First St NE -SIGNIFICANT win for the Select Committee on Jan 6th

Or at least that’s what the USCA-DC ruling notes in the footnotes. What is it I say about Footnotes? READ THEM. #Breaking SCOTUS issued two rulings regarding Texas SB-8 (see my footnotes for

Dec 10, 2021

Your daily dose of salt water therapy

whispers that address in the title of this article is SCOTUS’ actual street address -see I told you that my petty is super meta <snort>

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Quick Point of Personal Privilege…

Before I walk you through the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -DC Circuit’s ruling (USCCoA-DC) —I should disclose that this week has been brutal. I’m keenly aware that recently my output on Substack might be substandard. The reason is simple; I have long standing professional obligations. These standing obligations and they can severely hampered my free time. For Example: in the past 10 days I’ve put over 1,400 miles on my (rental) car. Driving approximately 3 hours each way. I do this so I can be at home to say goodnight to my kiddos. That’s my round-about-way of explaining my lack of publication of articles or lesser quality of factual reporting, that many of my readers are accustomed to, has been substandard. And I apologize.

Although those who know me in real life or use to follow me on twitter -it is has long been known; from November thru March (with intermittent reprieves) my schedule is pretty much “I’d love to but can we push to early April?” —Yes that tends to be my standard response when the General Assembly is in session. (Factoring in the legislative pre-filing which ramps up to over drive in early November) This is also why my Family and I spend a month down at our Beach House.

Incidentally one thing that I truly miss about twitter is ability to pump out facts with little to no effort -with expediency being the main feature of that platform. Conversely Substack requires a more in-depth and thoughtful analysis. Facts can stand on their own and do not need “dressing up” by breathless Tweets that proclaim “something really big is about to happen” —As many of you know, I made a promise in January 2017 that I would never monetize any of my research or analysis, nor would I put my content behind a paywall. I do not like to break promises. And the fact remains I’ve never accepted a penny (or any other form of compensation) for my Tweets, Blog or Substack —the reality is if my work demands require all of my attention then I need to cut something loose. After all I am not a cyborg. But again I apologize for the recent substandard articles.

Dear Mark, who’s bank rolling your legal expenses?

Your lawsuit is hilariously frivolous - I am genuinely looking forward to Madam Speaker’s and the Select Committee’s response(s) to your Trump inspired Triple-D litigation strategy. I hope the Speaker & the Select Committee’s answer to your lawsuit —annihilates your specious arguments about Executive Privilege and other Constitutional Issues, of which you improperly asserted.

In light of the USCCoA-DC December 9, 2021 ruling, where the USCA-DC eviscerated Trump’s Executive Privilege and Separation of Powers arguments. You went running to the Propaganda-MotherShip aka Fox “News” — and once again beclowning yourself. The simple fact that neither you nor Hannity discussed the USCCoA-DC ruling. Based on the ECF the ruling was docketed shortly before 6PM DC local time.

You sure sounded nervous, defensive and at times completely untethered from reality. I could have sworn your voice cracked a few times when you appeared on Hannity’s dystopian propaganda “show” that masquerades as a “news” broadcast.

Acyn @Acyn

Meadows: I can assure you there’s nothing criminal about my actions. It’s all about wanting clarity under the law

Let’s just look at the FEC Receipts

Rhetorical question: is the RNC bank-rolling you legal expenses? Preliminary research suggest that you retained Scott Gast 1 retained McGuire Woods after you parted ways with Trump’s Former White House Counsel. Because based on a FEC Report 2it’s notable that the RNC’s FEC disbursements paid McGuire Woods:

October 13, 2021 paid $205,276.78
October 27, 2021 10/27/2021 $50,822.62
I believe you retained McGuire Woods on or before October 9, 2021

To be fair and transparent it is possible that the October 2021 disbursement of >$255K to McGuire Woods might simply be for general legal services but the “compliance” annotation also means the RNC might (operative word) retained McGuire Woods to help them with FEC Compliance. In short that October 2021 disbursement might not be related to Mark Meadows growing litigation cost -except I ran a comparative analysis and it does in fact look like the recent disbursement are an anomaly and one could infer that the RNC is paying Meadows’ legal expenses (at a later date I’ll drill down further and will discuss the ramifications of taxes and why the RNC is bankrolling the same individuals who radicalized thousand of domestic terrorist, instructing the MAGA-QANON-RNC (funded -technically it was RAGA who was all in on the Jan6th acts of Domestic Terrorism) —but for now I certainly have a lot of questions and plan on commencing additional research over the weekend. For now let’s focus on the recent USCCoA-DC ruling

House Select Committee on Jan6th BIG win…

Shortly before 6PM (DC local time) on December 9, 2021 the USCCoA-DC issued the following ruling. Before we commence an in-depth discussion, I want to set your expectations. The USCCoA-DC ruling did not go well for Trump. Notwithstanding he will almost certainly file a writ with SCOTUS. So I would urge caution in “celebrating” today’s ruling. Because I’ve spent years tracking and researching Trump’s vexatious litigation. And it’s almost a lock that he’s going to run crying to the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) -if my preliminary research is correct during the Trump Administration he ran to SCOTUS “because it’s an emergency” at least twenty eight times SCOTUS enable Trump’s authoritarian tendencies and insofar as to retain a “true independent judiciary” —the subtext of that is 28 times SCOTUS allowed Trump to usurp power from the other co-equal branches of Government -do NOT get me started about the SCOTUS’ shadow docket. There’s a lot I could say but —let’s set aside that sidebar discussion —if you’re inclined a few months ago I talked about SCOTUS’ Shadow Docket in the context of Texas’ SB-8 3

Steve Vladeck @steve_vladeck

While we're closing the book on the Trump administration, here's the final tally of emergency #SCOTUS applications from Trump's DOJ: 41 in total, 28 of which were granted at least in part. That's in contrast to a total of *8* over the prior 16 years: harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/upl…

Moreover I typically do not skip to the last page of a Court’s ruling. To me that’s like reading the first and last chapter of a novel —while capriciously ignoring the underlying rationale. However in this rare circumstances I believe the very last page of today’s ruling is incredibly important and I’m not one to add unnecessary dramatic flair to facts. So in short I’m not going to keep you in suspense, because that would be cruel and frustrating.

The last page of today’s ruling, eloquently encapsulates the “meat” of

what happened on Jan6th
why Donald Trump is fighting so vehemently to hide that information from both Congress and the Department of Justice and from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office (who’s investigation into Trump’s likely violation of Georgia Voting laws 4 5 6

In short the USCCoA-DC acknowledged that Trump has 14 days to “file a petition for a writ of certiorari and an accompanying motion for an injunction pending review with the Supreme Court”

Deeper dive of USCCoA- DC Circuit

The opening salvo of the December 9th Ruling - there are very key and salient and indisputable facts but I want to draw your attention to the following because it’s a concise finding of facts -not Trump’s alternative facts - because of Trump’s Deadly Big Lie and the potential devastating impact on our Republic and tested our Democracy like it’s never been tested before. Five police officers died, four of whom die by suicide.

…a mob professing support for then-President Trump violently attacked the United States Capitol in an effort to prevent a Joint Session of Congress from certifying the electoral college votes designating Joseph R. Biden the 46th President of the United States. The rampage left multiple people dead, injured more than 140 people, and inflicted millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol.
Then-Vice President Pence, Senators, and Representatives were all forced to halt their constitutional duties and flee the House and Senate chambers for safety.

After the deadly Jan6th Domestic Terror attack, the House of Republic established the House Select Committee on Jan6th -the Select Committee’s charter, scope and authority vís-a-vís H.R. Res. 503, 7 of the 117th Congress …

Important subtext of Trump et al Litigation regarding the House Select Committee…

The subtext of the various cases brought by Trump and his enablers: they hold utter contempt for a co-equal branch of Government. There use to be a time when Congress issued a subpoena —that individual would postulate themselves and respected the authority (which our Constitution vests with Congress and for that matter our Federal Courts) of Congress. It has been largely established and later confirmed by a finding of facts that Donald Trump is a the actual poster child for what constitutes a “vexatious litigant” …his recent lawsuit is another offensive display of his utter contempt for our form of Government. Specifically the three co-equal branches of Government —in Trump’s delusional world he is “a king” and enjoys “absolute immunity” —I now refer you to pages 5 and 6 of the USCCoA-DC Ruling because this ruling not only affirms the House Select Committee’s authority. If you choose to ignore everything else in this article, I beseech you to please pay attention to pages 5 and 6 - but the footnote on page 6 is absolutely savage

The central question in this case is whether, despite the exceptional and imperative circumstances underlying the Committee’s request and President Biden’s decision, a federal court can, at the former President’s behest, override President Biden’s decision not to invoke privilege and prevent his release to Congress of documents in his possession that he deems to be needed for a critical legislative inquiry.
…Trump has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment and the agreement and accommodations worked out between the Political Branches over these documents.

“…Former President Trump likewise has failed to establish irreparable harm…balance of interests and equities weigh decisively in favor of disclosure…”

Again I would urge you to read page 5, specifically the third paragraph -the USCCoAs affirmed the Select Committee’s authority but (and this is important) and unfortunately most overlooked this incredibly important holding:

Congress’s uniquely vital interest in studying the January 6th attack on itself to formulate remedial legislation and to safeguard its constitutional and legislative operations

In short the USCCoA-DC held - Trump offered zero evidence that he would suffer irreparable harm. In non-legalese the Court essentially ruled that Trump’s lawsuit isn’t valid, he failed to particularize any kind of injury…but the subtext here is, what exactly is Trump trying to hide? The inference here and generally largely agreed upon within the DMV (DC MD VA) legal communities is Trump’s ridiculous and laughable arguments are not valid and what arguments Trump did articulate the District Court and now the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals-DC Circuit also rejected Trump flawed and specious arguments.

On page 18 the footnote absolutely eviscerated Trump’s argument about Executive Privilege and expounded on what Trump’s own attorney argued in District Court…there’s a misconception that Trump is fighting for a blanket Executive Privilege (whispers he’s no longer the Executive, we have one executive at at time, thusly President Joe Biden is the current executive & the incumbent executive is the one who holds the privilege) but the point is Trump only asserted executive privilege on a small subset of documents. Which again should make all of us wonder…

What is Donald Trump trying to hide regarding Jan6th

What has the Archivist already released?

I’ve taken the liberty of embedding the various tranches the archivist has already provided - also see footnote on page 20 again the privilege has only been asserted on a very small subset of documents…additionally I would absolutely recommend that you bookmark the following National Archives Jan6th Page:

https://www.archives.gov/foia/january-6-committee however I went ahead and embedded links to the documents that have already been released. Full disclosure unfortunately I haven’t read each of the documents but plan to over the weekend and I’ll likely publish a follow up article next week —but I felt obligated to disclose I haven’t read all the National Archives documents…as many of you know typically I read every document before I publish an article. That’s me being intellectually honest with you and holding myself accountable to properly set my readers expectations…

…Former President Trump has not raised any arguments about those six pages in this appeal…

The Archivist provided a fourth tranche of roughly 551 pages of responsive records to former President Trump and President Biden in mid-October…. As of now, former President Trump and President Biden have reviewed only a small set of pages from that tranche…Trump asserted executive privilege over six pages, and President Biden has declined to support that assertion.

Records Related to the Request for Presidential Records by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol

The U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol requested records from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) under the Presidential Records Act. The letters on this page represent communications regarding the committee's request for presidential records.

To help you better understand pages 28 thru 34 I would highly recommend you read this article, which has nearly all the OLC memorandums embedded

File411’s Newsletter

You do NOT “plead the fifth” -you invoke it. Period. Full Stop. Updated with Meadows lawsuit against Speaker Pelosi

Updated December 8, 2021 at 5:45PM Guys you do understand that I actually have a full time job, right? But as luck would have it -I had 15 minutes in between meetings. See DDC-ECF https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/doc1/04518935396 a preliminary and quick read of the complaint -I am literally stifling my laughter -also I’m not trying to be a jerk which is why…

3 years ago · 13 likes · 16 comments · File411

Again should you be inclined you can read the full 68 page ruling click this link https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/913002F9EFB94590852587A60075CC4F/$file/21-5254-1926128.pdf

At any rate I had a little bit of time so I took my lunch break to finish up the final edits of this article. My goal is to provide you with a concise summary and access to the underlying documents discussed in the recent USCCoA-DC ruling. With that said I have to dash to a 1:45PM meeting and I’ll be out of pocket until I return to the DC area later this evening.

And lastly yesterday marked exactly 60 days from that gnarly car accident. Yesterday afternoon my husband arranged for our local dealer to deliver the replacement car to our home —and then he proceeded to taunt me that he was going to take the replacement car for a spin… note the odometer only has five miles on it -well that’s because the local dealer put my car on a trailer…

That ushered in a series hilarious text messages between us -and it also might have given a few lawmakers that I might have Tourette’s because of my unexpected laughter. So when I walked in the door last night (after leaving just before 5AM) at around 10:45PM DC local time -I was too tired to take the car out for a spin -but this morning’s commute was -awesome.

I still have 4 weeks left of PT for my broken foot and at least 3 additional dental procedures but I am ever so grateful that I wasn’t more severely injured and I’m extremely grateful that my family wasn’t in the car during the wreck. But there’s significant progress to repair the damage sustained on October 9, 2021. Progress is a good thing -also comparison is in fact a theft of joy.