Background Briefing: August 13, 2023

On By gram

Trump Faces Jeopardy From Reconstruction Era Laws

We begin with laws from the 1870s Reconstruction era being applied to Trump’s prosecution with the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 included in Jack Smith’s January 6 indictments and two prominent conservative law professors conclusion that Trump should be disqualified from the presidency under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for his participation in an insurrection against the US government. Joining us is Kristy Parker, Counsel at Protect Democracy where she leads litigation to secure accountability for abuses of executive power and interference with government functions, and leads advocacy to reform the Department of Justice and protect its independence from politicization. Before joining Protect Democracy, she spent 15 years as a federal prosecutor at the Justice Department, specializing in police excessive force and hate crimes cases as a Deputy Chief of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section. We discuss her article at The New York Times, “Why It’s No Surprise That Trump is Being Charged Under a Reconstruction-Era Law.”

 

Trump Warned Not to Turn January 6 Trial Into a Carnival

Then we examine Judge Chutkan’s warning to Trump and his lawyers that if he makes inflammatory remarks and tries to turn the January 6 trial into a carnival, she will speed the trial along which is the last thing Trump wants since his strategy is to drag the proceeding out until after the election. Joining us is Jennifer Taub, a legal scholar and professor of law at Western New England School of Law who was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and has testified as a banking law expert before Congress and her latest book is Big Dirty Money: Making White Collar Criminals Pay now out in paperback. She is the host of the new podcast “Booked Up with Jen Taub” and we discuss her latest article at the Washington Monthly, “The Jury is Not Going to Believe Trump’s Defense in the January 6 Trial.”

After 5 Decades in Public Office the So-Called Head of the “Biden Crime Family” Has No Charges Against Him, Unlike the Head of the Trump Crime Family

Then finally we examine the appointment of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden case after a plea bargain deal fell apart in Federal Court in Delaware. Joining us is David Redlawsk, Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Delaware. He was a co-editor of the journal Political Psychology from 2010 through 2015 and is an author or editor of 9 books and more than 50 articles and book chapters. His newest books are the Oxford Encyclopedia of Political Decision Making, for which he is Editor-in Chief, and A Citizen’s Guide to the Political Psychology of Voting. We assess why the so-called head of the “Biden crime family” after five decades in public office, has never had charges brought against him, unlike the head of the Trump crime family.