There was a lawyer WC knew back in the day. When you asked her a difficult question she didn’t want to answer, she’d respond, “How ’bout those Phillies?” It’s an evasion and a not very clever way of ducking an issue, attempting to change the subject. It’s now the Republican Party’s go-to solution to the…
On September 18, 2018, the New York Times ran a long article titled, “Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Scheme as He Reaped Riches from His Father.” The Times won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting. Donald Trump, outraged that his niece had cooperated with the Times reporters and provided documents to them, sued the Times.…
Make no mistake. Over time, and in many different places, when it comes to making ourselves happy, we humans have long relied on the humiliations and failures of other people. “Not Just a German Word: A Brief History of Schadenfreude,” Tiffany Watt Smith Smith’s excellent, long essay on the guilty pleasures of Schadenfreude makes the…
When Fox News asked Sidney Powell what her sources were for her . . . surprising . . . claims about the 2020 presidential election, she forwarded an email she had received to several “journalists” at Fox News. The email, first revealed in Dominion Voting Systems’ motion for summary judgment as to liability in Dominion’s…
It’s been a while since we looked at the lawyers who supported Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. While Trump is still using the lie on his 2024 campaign trail, his former lawyers are paying the price of knowingly defending and perpetuating a lie. Most recently Colorado lawyer Jenna Lynn Ellis…
Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News is headed for trial in a couple of months. Dominon’s case for liability is very strong, and the lawyering by Dominion is top notch. Dominion’s decision to seek summary judgment against the Fox defendants means that its documents seeking summary judgment are now public record, at least…
Coda: (figuratively) A conclusion (of a statement or event, for example), final portion, tail end. Wiktionary, “Coda“ The thing about Donald Trump is that it is always about Donald Trump. Not the country that, as President, he swore to defend. Not the voters who made him president. Not the political party he was supposed to lead.…
WC briefly noted earlier that the California Bar Association had finally taken action against John Eastman. The Bar’s complaint has since been made public. WC has read it. And it is devastating. Eastman will doubtless fight the Bar’s effort a long time, but the undisputed evidence – the facts in the public record already –…
Trump promised the American people he would appoint “the best people.” That turned out to be a lie, too. What we got was continuous turnover in staff and senior positions, dozens of indictments and multiple guilty pleas. WC recognizes that it can be hard to keep track of the criminal convictions so, as a service…
When WC went to law school, shortly after the Civil War, there wasn’t an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. There wasn’t an 11th Circuit until 1981, when Congress carved Florida, Alabama and Georgia out of the 5th Circuit to create the newbie circuit. But even if it is new, as the law measures time, it…
Any experienced private attorney will tell you there are clients who are too dangerous to represent. At best, they will damage your professional reputation and stiff you for all or part of your fees; at worst, they will drag you down with them. As WC’s Legal Ethics professor told us back in law school, we…
Do you think that Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election was legitimate or not legitimate? – Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No Legitimate 64% 25% 96% 62% 57% 71% 75% 51% Not legitimate 29 66 3 28 34 24 21 41 DK/NA 7 9 1 10 9 5 4 8 Quinnipiac…
Yes, as WC has noted earlier, it would take a multi-volume encyclopedia-length effort to sort out Donald Trump’s many crimes, so WC proposes to focus on just the most recent ones. In addition to those involving the presence of presidential records and classified documents at Mar-a-lago, Trump’s tasteless offense to architecture in Palm Beach, Florida,…
Yes, WC understands it would take a multi-volume encyclopedia-length effort to sort out Donald Trump’s many crimes, so WC proposes to focus on just the most recent ones, those involving the presence of presidential records and classified documents at Mar-a-lago, Trump’s tasteless offense to architecture in Palm Beach, Florida. Heck, even for the post-presidency criminal…
WC was told one time, and regrettably the source is forgotten, that “Lawyers arrive after the battle is over and bayonet the wounded. Then the accountants arrive and pick the pockets of the dead.” Welp, the bayoneting and pickpocketing is still going on over the Mueller Report and the reaction of the Trump Administration to…
Anyone with a shred of critical thinking skills knows Donald Trump’s reaction to getting caught in misconduct is to throw out a series of bullshit responses until he finds one that works with his supporters.1 Trump has now been caught twice with presidential documents, the second time with documents described in the infamous Mar-a-Lago search…
A Freudian slip, also called parapraxis, is a communications mistake that is believed to be linked to the unconscious mind. The theory – backed by some decent science – is that this kind of gaffe reveals secret thoughts and feelings that people hold. About 45 minutes into the July 21 testimony of former Trump White…
“In like Flynn” is a phrase associated with the late actor Errol Flynn. He had a well-deserved reputation for womanizing, consumption of alcohol, and brawling. In November 1942, two underage girls, Betty Hansen and Peggy Satterlee, accused him of statutory rape. The trial took place in January and February 1943, and Flynn was acquitted of the charges.…
Several readers have asked WC what he thinks is at the heart of all the problems facing America. It’s more than one thing, of course. But with this post, WC concludes this semi-regular series, which has used mostly photographs to illustrate the problems. Here’s Part 1; here’s Part 2; here’s Part 3; here’s Part 4.…
Several readers have asked WC what he thinks is at the heart of all the problems facing America. It’s more than one thing, of course. But with this post, WC continues his semi-regular series, using mostly photographs to illustrate the problem. Here’s Part 1; here’s Part 2. In this case, this particular problem is pretty…
Several readers have asked WC what he thinks is at the heart of all the problems facing America. It’s more than one thing, of course. But with this post, WC continues a new, semi-regular series, using only photographs to illustrate the problem. WC cautions readers that some of these photos contain obscenities. But that’s part…
Exhibit ASteven F. Holtze, is a Texas multi-millionaire and a major Republican donor, who runs a natural-health and hormone replacement clinic, paid more than a quarter million dollars to ex-Houston police captain Mark Aguirre to find election fraud.1 It was Aguirre who on October 19, 2020, rammed his car into the a cargo truck owned by…
A business is financially bankrupt when its liabilities exceed its assets, and it is unable to pay its debts as they come due. A political party, by contrast, is intellectually bankrupt when its election platform consists of nothing but lies and illusions. Such a political party has run out of substantive ideas, and has had…
If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself. Eastman v. Thompson et al., Case No. 8:22-cv-00099-DOC-DFM,…
Trump, of course, has claimed for years now that there was election fraud in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Now there seems to be overwhelming evidence that election fraud did occur. Admittedly, it didn’t affect the outcome, but it was fraud all the same. A Colorado grand jury has indicted Mesa County, Colorado county clerk,…
The Republican National Committee on February 3, 2022 adopted a resolution condemning fellow Republicans Liz Cheney (R, Wyoming) and Adam Kinzinger (R, Illinois) because that are serving on the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attempted insurrection. The Republican National Committee said “Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate…
With this post, WC inaugurates a new recurring, semi-regular series: the worst of the worst in state legislatures, focusing initially on the Alaska and Idaho state legislatures. Neither WC nor his readers have high expectations for state legislators, but this series looks at the exceptionally appalling. David Eastman represents the Susitna River Valley, Alaska.1 He’s…
This email turned up, appropriately enough, in WC’s Junk Mail folder. What Donald is selling this week has less flavor than a Trump Steak and less substance than a degree from Trump University. But it’s still just another con. He’s selling you the privilege of getting junk mail. He’s selling you the right to get…
Cyber Ninjas, the wholly unqualified computer security firm hired by the Arizona state senate to perform a wholly unnecessary audit of the Maricopa County, Arizona 2020 election, is going out of business. It leaves behind compromised election data, unpaid subcontractors, unperformed work, ongoing court fines and a laughably shoddy report, devastatingly rebutted by the Maricopa…
From the guy who brought you Trump University (closed after charged with fraud) Trump Plaza (closed after bankruptcy) Trump Airlines (closed after one year) Trump Steaks (withdrawn after 11 months) Trump Mortgage (failed after 7 months) And a wonderful array of additional bankruptcies, product failures and outright frauds, Donald Trump now presents: Trump Media &…
Wickersham's Conscience 
You must be logged in to post a comment.