Tennessee GOP lawmakers expel two Democrats, spare one over gun control protest

Yahoo! News

Tennessee GOP lawmakers expel two Democrats, spare one over gun control protest

The two expelled Democrats, both Black men, were two of the youngest members of the House. The other Democrat not expelled, a white woman, believes race played a role in their dismissal.

Marquise Francis, National Reporter – April 6, 2023

The majority-Republican Tennessee House voted to expel two Democrats and spared a third Thursday afternoon after the trio of lawmakers led a protest on the House floor last week to demand action on gun control in the wake of the latest deadly school shooting in Nashville last Monday that claimed the lives of six people, including three children.

State representatives Justin Jones of Nashville and Justin Pearson of Memphis, both Black and two of the youngest members of the Legislature, were voted out of the House with vote tallies of 72-25 and 69-26 respectively, while Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a white woman, was spared by one vote with a vote tally of 65-30.

It takes two-thirds of the House to officially expel a member and Tennessee House is made up of 75 Republicans and 23 Democrats, with one vacancy.

When asked what made the difference between her outcome and those of her former colleagues, Johnson told a group of reporters shortly after her vote that “it might have to do with the color of our skin.”

Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, right, receives a hug from Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, on the floor of the House chamber after a resolution to expel Johnson from the legislature failed Thursday, April 6, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, right, receives a hug from Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, on the floor of the House chamber after a resolution to expel Johnson from the legislature failed Thursday, April 6, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Johnson also vowed to do everything in her power to fight to get the jobs back for her colleagues.

The trio of Democrats — who in recent days have gained notoriety as the so-called Tennessee Three — said they understood that they were breaking decorum when they approached the podium last week with a bullhorn chanting, “No action, no peace!” They were echoing the sentiments of thousands of students, parents and community members they had met with earlier that day, many of whom were still present and shouting from the gallery above the chamber, having grown impatient as the majority GOP House worked through various pieces of legislation, but none addressing guns.

The Democrats had expected consequences for their actions, they admit, but had no idea it would cost them their jobs.

Republicans on Monday introduced legislation to expel the three Democrats for “disorderly behavior,” with GOP House Speaker Cameron Sexton likening the public display to an “insurrection.”

“What they did was try to hold up the people’s business on the House floor instead of doing it the way that they should have done it, which they have the means to do,” Sexton said on “The Hal Show Podcast” the evening of the outburst. “They actually thought that they would be arrested. And so they decided that them being a victim was more important than focusing on the six victims from Monday. And that’s appalling.”

Sexton did not return Yahoo News’ request for comment.

Protesters in the gallery of the Tennessee state Capitol on Monday demanding action on gun reform
Protesters in the gallery of the Tennessee state Capitol on Monday demanding action on gun reform. (Seth Herald/Getty Images)

When Johnson joined her two former colleagues in boisterous chants for gun reform on the state Capitol’s House floor last Thursday during a recess between bills, it was largely because she knows firsthand about the trauma that plagues, even at times consumes, an individual after experiencing a school shooting.

In the wake of the latest deadly school shooting in Nashville last week that claimed the lives of six people, including three children, Johnson recalls her own school shooting experience in the state fifteen years prior.

The Democratic lawmaker was a teacher more than a decade ago at Central High School in Knoxville when in 2008 a student fatally shot a 15-year-old classmate during a dispute. As those unsettling memories returned with this most recent tragedy, Johnsons said she felt silenced by the majority Republican-led House for not formally bringing a gun control discussion to the floor — so she and two others took it upon themselves.

“As an educator who’s been in a school when there was a school shooting, we have to [make] this issue paramount,” Johnson, who represents Knoxville, told Yahoo News, recalling the psychological aftermath that the 2008 shooting had on the community. “It was a trauma-filled day and a sad day – and we lost a life. It had a serious effect on students.”

Republicans also stripped the lawmakers – who represent the state’s largest three cities with about 80,000 constituents each – of their committee assignments and revoked building access.

‘Chilling effect across the country’

Ahead of the expulsion votes, Johnson believed the move would have sweeping ramifications across the rest of the country.

“This is going to have a chilling effect across the country, especially in red states,” she said. “It’s going to scare people from talking about real issues. … [Republicans] thought they would take this opportunity to take these respected voices in the state away and didn’t take a second to think about what they were doing.”

Pearson, who was elected to his seat in January, claims that Republicans in the state House are “silently complicit to gun companies,” which is leading to an “erosion of democracy.”

“There were thousands outside wanting us to stand up,” Pearson told Yahoo News. “I come from a community that [deals with gun violence regularly]. We want action so we don’t have this issue. This is indicative of the silencing.”

Former Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, delivers his final remarks on the floor of the House chamber as he is expelled from the Legislature on Thursday
Former Rep. Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, delivers his final remarks on the floor of the House chamber as he is expelled from the Legislature on Thursday. (George Walker IV/AP)

Leaders from across the country have also echoed this sentiment.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre slammed Tennessee Republicans for taking swift action on the Democrats’ protest, but failing to address legitimate solutions that could prevent another school shooting.

“The fact that this vote is happening is shocking, undemocratic and without precedent across Tennessee and across America, our kids are paying the price for the actions of Republican lawmakers who continue to refuse to take action on stronger gun laws,” Jean-Pierre said during Thursday’s press briefing.

Guns remain the leading cause of death for children and adolescents under the age of 19 since surpassing car accidents in 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021 alone, firearms accounted for nearly one in five deaths of children.

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, where the deadliest elementary school shooting in American history happened in 2012, called the move to expel the legislators “bone-chilling.”

“I’m not excusing yelling out of turn on the House floor,” Murphy tweeted Tuesday. “Civility still matters in politics. But expulsion is an extreme measure of last resort, not the first step when someone breaks the House floor rules. And the double standard tells you everything you need to know.”

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty)
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty)

Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called the impending expulsion “infuriating and anti-democratic.”

Jones, who at 27 is one of the youngest members of the Tennessee House of Representatives, told CNN Wednesday that the move to expel him and his colleagues is “morally insane.”

“It’s very concerning and it represents a clear and present danger to democracy all across this nation that should trouble us all,” he said.

But some critics are cautious to overstate the effects of an expulsion. Thomas Goodman, an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and Law at Rhodes College in Memphis, believes there are ways to be disruptive within the confines of procedure.

“I fear this could lead to a chilling effect on other Republican-led states, possibly deterring the voicing of dissident opinions in states where abortion laws and gun control policy do not neatly align with the majority’s views,” Goodman said in an email to Yahoo News. “But why limit it to Republican-led states? What about the potential for Democratic-majority states to act in similarly abusive ways?”

“Democrats in other states could continue expressing their opinions and offering dissent, but through mechanisms that do not disrupt parliamentary procedures, within acceptable parliamentary channels,” he said.

Concerns of a double standard

The move to expel the three Democrats has also raised concerns of a double standard within the Republican-controlled State House that in recent years declined to take action against a member accused of sexual misconduct and another facing an indictment for violating federal campaign finance laws. Another unidentified Republican member of the House allegedly urinated on a colleague’s chair.

“Evidently these are not expulsion-worthy displays of unethical behavior or lack of decorum,” Carrie Russell, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University told Yahoo News in an email, while duly acknowledging that a move like this “signals that dissent and protesting against the stated agenda, regardless of the context, will procedurally engender the most extreme measures – rendering their seats vacant and removing the ability of the voters in the states’ most diverse districts to receive representation in the halls of government.”

Protesters gather outside the Tennessee State Capitol to call for an end to gun violence and support stronger gun laws after a deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. March 30, 2023. (REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo)
Protesters gather outside the Tennessee State Capitol to call for an end to gun violence and support stronger gun laws after a deadly shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. March 30, 2023. (REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo)

Since the Civil War, just two other members of the House have been expelled for much more egregious actions. Most recently, in 2016 then-Rep. Jeremy Durham, a Republican, was removed from the House over allegations of sexual misconduct with at least 22 women. Prior to that, in 1980, then-Rep. Robert Fisher, a Republican, was expelled after being convicted of soliciting a bribe in exchange for attempting to prevent pending legislation from going through.

Because of these serious infractions in the past leading to expulsion, political experts say a move to remove legislators for protesting out of turn would set a troubling precedent.

“Expulsion directly removes a duly elected official. It takes the decision out of the hands of the electorate,” Susan Haynes, an associate professor of political science at Lipscomb University in Nashville, told Yahoo News, adding that expulsion in this circumstance, “lessens the threshold for what qualifies as an expellable offense.”

“Neither the Tennessee Constitution nor the U.S. Constitution specifies what constitutes an expellable offense, so there is significant ambiguity there, but if we make this a political decision and weaponize the process, it sets a dangerous precedent,” she said.

Tennessee State Troopers block the stairwell leading to the legislative chambers Thursday, April 6, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Tennessee State Troopers block the stairwell leading to the legislative chambers Thursday, April 6, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Jana Morgan, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee and co-author of the book Hijacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence sees two possible results from an expulsion that could result in contrasting outcomes.

“Expelling these legislators would immediately strip thousands of Tennesseeans of elected representation in the state Legislature, and the expulsion proceedings could work to silence the voices that these members aimed to amplify,” Morgan told Yahoo News. “At the same time, the ripple effects from this expulsion effort could actually galvanize the supporters of the Tennessee Three as well as gun control advocates across the state and country.”

Fanning the flames of heightened frustrations, on Monday, Republican Rep. Justin Lafferty allegedly assaulted Jones as he held his phone to film on the House floor as community members in the gallery above the House floor chanted “fascists”.

“This is a sad day for Tennessee,” Jones said in a tweet capturing the incident.

Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), speaks to a group made up of mainly high school students during their sit in to demand answers on what representatives plan to do on gun reform in the state of Tennessee, at the Cordell Hull State Office Building a week after the mass shooting at The Covenant School, in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. April 3, 2023.  (Nicole Hester/USA Today Network via REUTERS)
Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville), speaks to a group made up of mainly high school students during their sit in to demand answers on what representatives plan to do on gun reform in the state of Tennessee, at the Cordell Hull State Office Building a week after the mass shooting at The Covenant School, in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. April 3, 2023. (Nicole Hester/USA Today Network via REUTERS)

Johnson called the incident an example of “privilege” at work. But beyond the infighting and tense exchanges in the past week, she says, what’s most frustrating is the fact that real human lives are at stake. Having been in elected office off and on for a decade, Johnson said she’s seen the decay of bipartisan work for the greater good.

Dating back to when she was first elected in 2013, Johnson recalls a time when, “We were on both sides of the aisle, but we would get along. Now there’s a meanness with this new class even more. It’s concerning and we are moving further and further away from democracy.”

Republicans push back

Still, Republicans appear to be holding their ground.

Republican Rep. Gino Bulso, who sponsored Johnson’s expulsion, said during an appearance on the conservative Daily Wire podcast on Wednesday that the trio’s actions warrant their discipline.

“They voluntarily disqualified themselves from further service,” Bulso said. “Rather than comply with their oath to the Constitution and comply with the rules, they decided to go outside of the House and effectively shut it down. And so what we’re simply doing is recognizing that they’ve voluntarily chosen to put themselves outside the House and formally expel them.”

Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, sees some lingering questions for the state House’s ultimate voting body.

“The key question is whether the lawmakers are being punished for their actions or their speech,” he said. “If no one has ever been expelled for comparably disruptive behavior in the chamber, there’s a strong argument that they’re being punished for their speech, which would violate the First Amendment. … This has the feel of retaliation for criticism directed at House members.”

Protesters stand in the house gallery as the House starts its morning session while protesters gather at the Tennessee State Capitol building to call for gun reform laws and to show support for the 'Tennessee Three' Democratic representatives who are facing expulsion Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, and Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis on April 6, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)
Protesters stand in the house gallery as the House starts its morning session while protesters gather at the Tennessee State Capitol building to call for gun reform laws and to show support for the ‘Tennessee Three’ Democratic representatives who are facing expulsion Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, Rep. Justin Jones of Nashville, and Rep. Justin Pearson of Memphis on April 6, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)

As for expectations ahead of Thursday’s votes, Pearson thinks this is likely his last week as an elected official. But the work, he says, never stops.

“I expect the majority of those people to expel us in an attempt to expel us [as people], but you can’t silence us,” he said. “We are going to continue to do the work to not be silenced.”

Cover thumbnail: Seth Herald/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s indicted. But in Kansas, we’ve got a bigger Trump problem.

The Wichita Eagle – Opinion

Donald Trump’s indicted. But in Kansas, we’ve got a bigger Trump problem. | Opinion

Dion Lefler – April 4, 2023

Monte Wolverton/Cagle Cartoons

Donald Trump’s been indicted.

Big deal.

He probably did all kinds of fun things with adult-entertainment performer Stormy Daniels. And he probably did pay her hush money. And he probably didn’t list “paying off porn star to keep her quiet” in his business records.

Again, big deal.

I guess we’re supposed to be impressed by the historicness of it all — the first time a former U.S. president’s been indicted on criminal charges. As I’m flipping through the cable-news networks, MSNBC just called it “a critical moment in this country’s democracy.”

I’m not feeling it.

A “critical moment in this country’s democracy” was when Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and pressured him to “find” 11,780 votes to win Trump a state he obviously, if narrowly, lost. Fortunately, Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, courageously told Trump to pound sand, knowing he’d be targeted by Trump and his “Stop the Steal” army.

Another “critical moment in this country’s democracy” was Trump and his organization whipping up the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to intimidate Vice President Mike Pence into overthrowing the election, and with it, our constitutional republic. I wish I could say that Kansas’ congressional delegation followed Raffensperger’s example and stood tall. But two-thirds of our members — Sen. Roger Marshall and Reps. Ron Estes, Jake LaTurner and Tracey Mann — were too scared of pro-Trump voters back home and sided with him and his QAnon clown show.

If you want to indict Trump for something, indict him for those egregious violations of our nation’s most sacred political rights. Stormy’s a side show.

Speaking of critical moments for democracy, the Stop the Steal circus is currently playing an extended run right here in Kansas.

MAGA Republicans at the Statehouse are doing their best to steal your voting rights by making it harder to vote, closing down drop boxes and ending the three-day grace period for the Post Office to deliver ballots that are postmarked by election day.

My strong advice to Kansas voters would be to focus on that instead of Donald and Stormy’s soap opera. It affects you a lot more.

Democrats will no doubt get a few chuckles out of Trump having to get mug-shotted, fingerprinted and weighed at the jail. But the Republicans will probably get the last laugh.

There are two possible outcomes, either Trump is found guilty or he isn’t.

If he’s found guilty, he’ll probably get fined — the usual outcome for white-collar crime, first offense. But he’ll gain more power and influence as a martyr of the right than he has now.

If he’s acquitted or there’s a hung jury, Republicans will raise truckloads of money by claiming he, and they, are all innocent victims of political persecution by a system run amok.

In fact, the Kansas Republican Party’s already hard at it.

In their Friday File newsletter/fund-raising appeal, they called the indictment “another partisan attack where the Democrats are weaponizing the justice system against their enemies.”

They go on at some length, with the usual whataboutism references to Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hillary Clinton’s e-mail, Jeffrey Epstein’s black book, COVID vaccines and Benghazi, which they spell “Behgazi.”

They claim prosecuting Trump “puts America on the slippery slope where banana republics languish.”

That part’s actually kind of funny because offhand, it’s hard to imagine anything more “banana republic” than asking an election official to “find” votes, trying to decertify an honest election, or suppressing political opponents’ votes — which by every word and deed the state GOP’s indicated they don’t have a problem with as long as it’s their side doing it.

They wrap up with this somewhat ominous statement: “As Republicans we have a duty to protect the USA because Democrats simply refuse. Elections are the only civil and nonviolent remedy to change our government. But are our elections truly secure?”

Seems like we’ve heard that before — right around Jan. 6, 2021.

Law & Dis-Order – Crime and Punishment

Law and Disorder – Crime and Punishment

John Hanno – The Tarbaby’s blog – April 2, 2023

Trump indicted live updates: Ex-president expected to appear before judge Tuesday

The opening disclaimer for NBC’s Law & Order reads, “The following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.” Never the less, regular viewers recognize recent story lines “ripped from the headlines” on a regular basis. We can reliably predict, the “Trump indicted by New York Grand Jury; becomes the first U.S. President in history to be prosecuted” headline, will soon spark future crime-time episodes.

MAGA World quickly pounced on Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg as being, nasty, on a vendetta, a pawn of George Soros, a racist, an animal and above all, a political tool. Some on the left believe he should have waited his turn on the Trump indictment train, but they fail to appreciate the element of statute of limitations.

How often have we faithfully followed story lines from our favorite crime shows, depicting serial (killers- rapists- drug kings -abusers etc. etc.) continued week after week, with the investigative authorities assembling an elaborate white board of circumstantial evidence, but unable to quite convince the D.A. / prosecutor to bring charges on the most serious violations, before the legal clock runs out. They’re convinced the career criminal is as guilty as sin but can’t quite close the deal. That’s when they must, by hook or crook, charge the bastards with any even minor infraction, in order to take them off the streets, before they can continue their carnage and mayhem. And then just when we think all is lost, they uncover the smoking gun, the final nail in the coffin that will put them away for life.

During his half century plus of life in New York and then in the White House, Trump seems to have left no criminal enterprise untapped. Insurrection and attempts to overthrow American Democracy, conspiring with a foreign enemy during his campaigns, theft of confidential government documents, business and bank fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, obstruction of justice in multiple cases, witness intimidation, bribery, campaign violations, perjury, sexual assault, violations with his school and charities, real estate discrimination, slander etc. etc. are just some of allegations leveled against Trump and his various business enterprises. There’s no doubt a list of crimes they haven’t discovered yet.

In the Trump Organization trial, two entities were found guilty by a jury in December of a combined 17 counts related to criminal tax fraud. They were fined the maximum allowed. And his CFO Allen Weisselberg, who is currently incarcerated in New York City’s Rikers Island jail, entered a guilty plea last year and admitted to receiving more than $1.7 million in untaxed compensation. Who can forget all the fines for Trump family financial malfeasance. And who can forget all the Trump miscreants, cronies and conspirators who were hired, fired, indicted, convicted, jailed and utterly defamed.

D.A. Bragg campaigned and won his election on a platform of fairness and equity in the system of justice he’s now responsible for. He pledged to turn the page on a two tier system of justice. Both the right and the left forget that New York, New York is at the top of the list of world class banking, business and financial centers of the world. Trump and his enterprises have been a constant assault against and black eye for that reputation. Enough is enough they said.

After a two year long investigation of Trump and all of his Inc’s, they believe they have the goods and will attempt to take them off the streets of New York forever. Rumors are the good citizen street sweepers of New York have found at least 30 criminal count violations this serial criminal is guilty of. MAGA members of congress cry political persecution, and threaten to tar and feather D.A Bragg, without even seeing the sealed indictment.

Who is Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg?

The cast of Presidential contenders, previously Trump enablers, often critics, and then turned demonizers, and now turned staunch defenders can’t figure out whether to pee their pants , pray for Trump, or go dumb. Lindsey Graham, Mike Pence, DeSantis and others, must bow to the MAGA monster Trump unleased and which they and others glorified and anointed. The MAGA faithful will not be denied their perceived grievances’.

The Benghazi wing of the Republi-con House of Representatives spends their waking hours trying to out Trumpit their outraged colleagues. They have no one to blame for tomorrows karmatic political awakening but their own cowardice. They turned a blind eye to their twice impeached President’s unending assault on our American Democratic Institutions.

Trump’s entourage leaves South Florida today on a journey most American believe is long overdue. Who knows what happens when he lands in Manhattan. Too many in the MAGA cult hierarchy pray for violence and chaos. Lindsey Graham was particularly apoplectic: “They are trying to drain him dry. He’s spent more money on lawyers than most people spent on campaigns. They’re trying to bleed him dry. Donald J. Trump dot com. Go tonight. Give the president some money to fight this bullshit! This is going to destroy America!”

Wow, that’s richy rich! No doubt Trump has spent more on lawyers (billed but probably not paid) than any single entity by far, but that’s because not only is he allegedly the head of the most complex criminal enterprise in American History, legal warfare is also his primary modus operandi. Sooner or later, some news organization will attempt to add up the cost to all Federal and State Governments and to various businesses and individuals, for them to rein in and take to task, Trump Inc. and his many conspirators and enablers in congress. I’m guessing the bill is closing in on a billion dollars. This is not your Grandfathers conservative, penny pinching GOP.

Trump will try to blame everyone in sight for his legal predicaments, including D.A. Alvin Bragg and his team of prosecutors, Judge Juan Merchan , who will oversee his case, the New Yorkers who indicted him, and probably the jury of his peers who will convict him. But Trump has no one to blame but his own egomaniacal self. His rein of amateurish governing Apprenticeship is being recorded in history, as we speak, as the very biggest prime time “Loser” to ever occupy the White House.

But the biggest blame must be laid at the feet of the MAGA base of nationalistic, racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti government, anti Democratic bomb throwers. They seriously need to ask themselves what kind of a country they want to live in. Some seriously think Vladimir Putin is a better leader than Joe Biden. And that Russia and the autocratic Kremlin leaders promise a more agreeable way of life. Most of the civilized world would disagree. And since Putin unleashed a campaign of war crimes and genocide by invading their peaceful Democratic neighbor Ukraine, more than a million Russian citizens have fled the country; and still many more are trying. And as the MAGA crowd likes to point out on a daily basis, millions of folks flock to our Southern border and now to our Northern border trying to become part of this American Democratic Experience.

American’s need to allow our Justice System protect it’s citizens from serial evildoers. Serial bizzaro man, Lindsey Graham pleads with the MAGA faithful to quickly send in their rent and utility money, so billionaire Trump can mount a legal defense, and also suggests “How can President Trump avoid prosecution in New York?,” asked Graham. “On the way to the DA’s office on Tuesday, Trump should smash some windows, rob a few shops and punch a cop.” MAGA World responded with donations of $5 million within 48 hours.

I don’t believe there’s a single, reputable Fortune 50, 100, 500, 50,000 or any mom and pop business anywhere, who would employ Trump, or pay him any amount, to do any job. Isn’t there an ethical, and reasonable, true conservative Republican anywhere in America that this toxic MAGA crowd would nominate to represent the party?

This sad state of our political climate clearly represents how low, the once “Law and Order” Republican party, has sunk. Heaven help us.

What Trump risks if he keeps talking about the judge in his N.Y. criminal case

NBC News

What Trump risks if he keeps talking about the judge in his N.Y. criminal case

The former president has suggested Judge Juan Merchan is biased, and referred to District Attorney Alvin Bragg as an “animal.” Could the court limit his ability to speak about the case?

By Laura Jarrett – April 3, 2023

Former President Donald Trump onboard his airplane as he is flown to Iowa on March 13, 2023.
Former President Donald Trump onboard his airplane as he is flown to Iowa on March 13. Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images file

For days, former President Donald Trump has been on a tear on social media, railing against District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money investigation, his former lawyer Michael Cohen, prosecutors and, more recently, the judge presiding over the historic case.

Without evidence, he’s referred to Judge Juan Merchan as “Trump Hating” and suggested that Merchan was “handpicked” by Bragg. In an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, was asked about the attacks and whether he believes the judge harbors any slant.

“No, I don’t believe the judge is biased. I mean, the president is entitled to his own opinion,” Tacopina said.

Trump has referred to Bragg as an “animal” in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social. In an earlier Truth Social post, he appears to have shared an article that included an image of him wielding a baseball bat juxtaposed next to an image of Bragg’s head. That post was deleted.

All defendants have a right to vigorously defend their innocence, but Trump can’t threaten the prosecutor without risking other legal charges under New York law. The judge could also issue a gag order to prevent Trump or his attorneys from speaking publicly about the case.

NBC News spoke with former prosecutors about how and when a judge might limit speech about a case.

What’s a “gag order?”

A gag order is a judicially imposed order restricting parties, attorneys and/or witnesses in a pending case from making any public statements about it. The standard courts look to is whether such statements have a “reasonable likelihood” of possibly preventing a fair trial.

Merchan could issue one himself, or do so at the request of either side, but former prosecutors say they are not used frequently in New York. It’s up to the judge to craft the order as narrowly as possible to protect free speech rights, while at the same time preserving the defendant’s right to a fair trial. Often a defendant’s attorney will request that a judge issue one — whereas in this case, it’s Trump own statements that have fueled speculation about whether Merchan will issue one. 

The fact that Trump is running for public office raises the stakes and puts any restriction on his First Amendment rights in sharper view, but Robert C. Gottlieb, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said that shouldn’t matter.

“He’s no different than anyone else,” said Gottlieb of Trump, noting that while one cannot ignore the political implications of the case, “that does not give him [Trump] more rights to influence jurors or to threaten or incite violence. In that courtroom, he is only a defendant.”

Gottlieb also pointed to ethical rules prohibiting Trump’s attorneys from making public statements intended to prejudice the jury pool or influence the outcome of the trial.

What’s the likelihood of the judge imposing one here?

Other former prosecutors are more skeptical that a gag issue will be issued at Tuesday’s arraignment based on Trump’s social media posts thus far.

“I think it would be challenging to do it out of the box,” said Daniel Horwitz, another former assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, now in private practice. “There usually has to be a predicate for it.”

Horwitz suggested it’s more likely that Merchan will issue a warning to everyone in court Tuesday and set some “ground rules,” essentially putting Trump on notice that if he talks, “he does it at his peril.”

Gottlieb has appeared before Merchan and agreed that, at minimum, the judge will make a record of what Trump has said about the case thus far, and admonish him against making any statements that could influence the jurors.

“I cannot believe that it won’t be addressed,” said Gottlieb. “You can’t ignore what has happened.”

Even if the judge opts not to impose a gag order, former District Attorney Cy Vance, who immediately preceded Bragg, noted that Trump risks violating other laws if he continues to make statements about the case.

“There is a crime. That’s called obstructing governmental administration under New York law,” Vance said on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday, explaining that it would involve efforts to intimidate a public official. “[I]f I were Mr. Trump’s lawyer I would tell him to knock it off because it’s not going to help him with the judge and if it is charged, that’s not going to help him with a jury.”

Meet the judge presiding over Trump’s criminal arraignment

CNN – Politics

Meet the judge presiding over Trump’s criminal arraignment

By Sydney Kashiwaga – April 2, 2023

Judge Juan Merchan

When Donald Trump enters a New York courtroom on Tuesday, he’ll face a seasoned judge who is no stranger to the former president’s orbit.

Acting New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan has sentenced Trump’s close confident Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and overseen former adviser Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.

But Trump’s historic arraignment on Tuesday will perhaps be Merchan’s most high-profile case to date, even after a long career atop the state-level trial court.

Merchan has been described by observers as a “tough” judge, yet one who is fair, no matter who is before him.

Here’s what you need to know.

“A man of his word’

Trump’s arraignment is likely to be a spectacle with a show of law enforcement and with the former president already fanning the flames on social media with his views on Merchan and his indictment.

But in the courthouse, Merchan does not stand for disruptions or delays, attorneys who have appeared before him told CNN, and he’s known to maintain control of his courtroom even when his cases draw considerable attention.

“Judge Merchan was efficient, practical, and listened carefully to what I had to say,” Nicholas Gravante, the attorney who represented Weisselberg in his plea, said via email.

“He was clear in signaling his judicial inclinations, which helped me tremendously in giving Mr. Weisselberg informed legal advice. Judge Merchan was always well-prepared, accessible, and – most importantly in the Weisselberg matter – a man of his word. He treated me and my colleagues with the utmost respect, both in open court and behind closed doors.”

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a private practice attorney who previously worked as the chief assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, supervising cases Merchan presided over, echoed that sentiment.

“[Merchan] doesn’t let the prosecutors or the defendants create any issues in his courtroom. He doesn’t let a media circus or any other kind of circus happen. I don’t think Donald Trump attacking him and threatening him is going to bode very well for him in the courtroom,” Agnifilo said.

“The judge is the kind of judge where he will ignore it and not hold it against Donald Trump. He’s not vindictive in any way like that.”

‘Tough’ but ‘compassionate’

Merchan showed some of his tough side when Weisselberg was sentenced, telling the former Trump associate that if he had not already promised him a five-month sentence, he would have handed him a “much greater” sentence after having listened to evidence at trial.

When he presided over Bannon’s criminal fraud case, Merchan chastised the former Trump aide’s new team of attorneys for delaying the case when they asked for more time to review new evidence.

In addition to the Trump cases, Merchan has also presided over other high-profile cases, including the “soccer mom madam” trial, in which he set a $2 million bond for suburban mom Anna Gristina, who was charged with running a $2,000-an-hour escort service for the wealthy, Bloomberg News reported.

Merchan also handed a 25-years-to-life sentence to a Senegalese man who raped and murdered his girlfriend.

Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore said during an interview Friday on CNN that Merchan was “not easy” on him when he tried a case before him, but echoed that the judge likely will be fair.

“I’ve tried a case in front of him before. He could be tough. I don’t think it’s necessarily going to be something that’s going to change his ability to evaluate the facts and the law in this case,” Parlatore said.

Merchan, however, is also credited by his peers for having helped create the Manhattan Mental Health Court, which he often presides over and where he has earned a reputation for “compassionate” rulings that give defendants second chances.

“I watched a colleague of mine try a shooting case where someone got shot, so he’s able to try those very serious violent crimes and then switch,” said Brendan Tracy, a criminal defense attorney who previously served as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

“Maybe someone who was a serial shoplifter and then charged with grand larceny and is in mental health treatment court because they had mental health issues, he was able to handle the wide range of cases and do them all fairly,” Tracy added.

Still, Earl Ward, a trial attorney and chair of public defender nonprofit The Bronx Defenders, said that having watched Merchan preside over cases in the Mental Health Court, the judge often sided with prosecutors.

“He’s fair and his rulings are consistent with the law, but if it’s a close call, his reputation is that he lands on the prosecution’s side,” Ward said.

Early career

Merchan launched his legal career in 1994 when he started off as an assistant district attorney in the trial division in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. Several years later, he moved on to the state attorney general’s office, where he worked on cases in Long Island.

In 2006, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, then a Republican, appointed Merchan to Family Court in the Bronx, and Democratic Gov. David Paterson appointed him to the New York State Court of Claims in 2009, the same year he began serving as an acting New York Supreme Court Judge.

Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Merchan emigrated to the United States at the age of 6 and grew up in the New York City neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens, according to a New York Times profile of the judge. He was the first in his family to go to college.

Merchan initially studied business at Baruch College in New York before he dropped out of school to go work only to return several years later to finish school so that he could get his law degree, the Times reported.

He eventually received his law degree from Hofstra University.

CNN’s Kara Scannell and Lauren del Valle contributed to this report.

Related:

NPR – Law

What to know about Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Trump’s criminal case

Joe Hernandez – April 2, 2023

Manhattan Criminal Court is seen in New York on Friday.Yuki Iwamura/AP

Now that former President Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in connection to a hush-money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016, attention will no doubt turn to his arraignment and potential trial.

The judge handling the unusual and historic case is Juan Manuel Merchan, a veteran of the New York court system who has spent more than 15 years on the bench and is no stranger to high-profile prosecutions — particularly those involving Trump and his associates.

This is perhaps Merchan’s most noteworthy case yet, as it’s the first time that a former U.S. president has ever been charged with a crime.

Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, is expected to appear in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday for his arraignment.

The former president has already aired his opinion about the judge presiding over his case, saying in a post on Truth Social last week that Merchan “hates me” and that the judge “railroaded” Trump’s former chief financial officer into pleading guilty in a tax fraud case.

Merchan has overseen other cases related to Trump

Last year, Merchan oversaw the closely watched criminal tax fraud case against Trump’s company, which was ultimately found guilty by a Manhattan jury. Trump himself was not a defendant in that case.

Two business entities controlled by Trump were found guilty of 17 counts of tax fraud and falsifying business records and were ordered to pay the maximum penalty of $1.61 million.

During the proceedings, Merchan shut down the suggestion from the Trump Organization’s legal team that the case was a politically motivated prosecution against the former president and told attorneys to focus on the specific charges, CBS News reported.

“I will not allow you in any way to bring up a selective prosecution claim, or claim this is some sort of novel prosecution,” Merchan said.

Former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty in the case and served as a star witness for the prosecution. Merchan sentenced him to five months in prison, and the judge said he would have handed down a harsher sentence if he hadn’t already agreed to the plea deal, Politico reported.

Merchan is also overseeing a criminal case against former Trump aide Steve Bannon, who’s facing fraud and money laundering charges related to a former charity that promised to help build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.

Merchan is a veteran of the New York legal system

According to the New York Law Journal, Merchan has been an acting justice of the New York Supreme Court since 2009.Sponsor Message

“He’s a serious jurist, smart and even tempered,” Manhattan defense attorney Ron Kuby told NBC News. “He’s not one of those judges who yells at lawyers, and is characterized as a no-nonsense judge. But he’s always in control of the courtroom.”

Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a lawyer who previously worked in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office supervising cases Merchan oversaw, told CNN that Trump likely wouldn’t help his case by publicly criticizing the judge.

Merchan “doesn’t let the prosecutors or the defendants create any issues in his courtroom. He doesn’t let a media circus or any other kind of circus happen. I don’t think Donald Trump attacking him and threatening him is going to bode very well for him in the courtroom,” Agnifilo said.

“The judge is the kind of judge where he will ignore it and not hold it against Donald Trump. He’s not vindictive in any way like that.”

Merchan was previously a family court judge, a New York assistant attorney general and an assistant district attorney for New York County.

He graduated from Baruch College in 1990 and earned his law degree from Hofstra University in 1994.

Report details ‘staggering’ church sex abuse in Maryland

Associated Press

Report details ‘staggering’ church sex abuse in Maryland

Les Skene, Brian Witte and Sarah Brumfield – April 5, 2023

Jean Hargadon Wehner speaks about the release of the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore by the Maryland Attorney General's Office on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. Standing next to her is Teresa Lancaster. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Jean Hargadon Wehner speaks about the release of the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. Standing next to her is Teresa Lancaster. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Kurt Rupprecht speaks about the abuse he suffered after the release of the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore by the Maryland Attorney General's Office on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Kurt Rupprecht speaks about the abuse he suffered after the release of the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Teresa Lancaster speaks about the release of the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore by the Maryland Attorney General's Office on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Teresa Lancaster speaks about the release of the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore by the Maryland Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown comments about releasing the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown comments about releasing the redacted report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore on Wednesday, April 6, 2023, in Baltimore. (Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun via AP)

BALTIMORE (AP) — More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused over 600 children and often escaped accountability, according to a long-awaited state report released Wednesday that revealed the scope of abuse spanning 80 years and accused church leaders of decades of coverups.

The report paints a damning picture of the archdiocese, which is the oldest Roman Catholic diocese in the country and spans much of Maryland. Some parishes, schools and congregations had more than one abuser at the same time — including St. Mark Parish in Catonsville, which had 11 abusers living and working there between 1964 and 2004. One deacon admitted to molesting over 100 children. Another priest was allowed to feign hepatitis treatment and make other excuses to avoid facing abuse allegations.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released the findings of their yearslong investigation during Holy Week — considered the most sacred time of year in Christianity ahead of Easter Sunday — and said the number of victims is likely far higher. The report was redacted to protect confidential grand jury materials, meaning the identities of some accused clergy were removed.

“The staggering pervasiveness of the abuse itself underscores the culpability of the Church hierarchy,” the report said. “The sheer number of abusers and victims, the depravity of the abusers’ conduct, and the frequency with which known abusers were given the opportunity to continue preying upon children are astonishing.”

Disclosure of the redacted findings marks a significant development in an ongoing legal battle over their release and adds to growing evidence from parishes across the country as numerous similar revelations have rocked the Catholic Church in recent years.

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, in a statement posted online, apologized to the victims and said the report “details a reprehensible time in the history of this Archdiocese, a time that will not be covered up, ignored or forgotten.”

“It is difficult for most to imagine that such evil acts could have actually occurred,” Lori said. “For victim-survivors everywhere, they know the hard truth: These evil acts did occur.”

Also on Wednesday, the state legislature passed a bill to end a statute of limitations on abuse-related civil lawsuits, sending it to Gov. Wes Moore, who has said he supports it. The Baltimore archdiocese says it has paid more than $13.2 million for care and compensation for 301 abuse victims since the 1980s, including $6.8 million toward 105 voluntary settlements.

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who took office in January, said the investigation shows “pervasive, pernicious and persistent abuse.” State investigators began their work in 2019; they reviewed over 100,000 pages of documents dating back to the 1940s and interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses.

ABUSE RECALLED AS A ‘LIFE SENTENCE’

Victims said the report was a long-overdue public reckoning with shameful accusations the church has been facing for decades.

Jean Hargadon Wehner said she was abused in Baltimore as a teen by A. Joseph Maskell, a priest who served as her Catholic high school’s counselor and chaplain. She said she reported her abuse to church officials in the early ’90s, when her memories of the trauma finally surfaced about two decades after she was repeatedly raped.

“I expected them to do the right thing in 1992,” she told reporters Wednesday. “I’m still angry.”

Maskell abused at least 39 victims, according to the report. He denied the allegations before his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged. The Associated Press typically doesn’t name victims of abuse, but Wehner has spoken publicly to draw attention to the issue.

Kurt Rupprecht, who also experienced abuse as a child, said he was in his late 40s when he pieced together his traumatic memories. He said the realization brought him some relief because it explained decades of self-destructive behavior and mental health challenges, but also left him overwhelmed with anger and disbelief.

Rupprecht said his abuser was assigned to the Diocese of Wilmington, which covers some counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

“We’re here to speak the truth and never stop,” he said after the news conference. “We deal with this every day. It is our life sentence.”

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, noted the report lists more names of abusers than have been released publicly by archdiocese officials. The organization called on the archbishop to explain the discrepancies.

Other investigations involving the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, which both include parts of Maryland, are ongoing.

ARCHDIOCESE TOOK STEPS TO PROTECT THE ACCUSED

The Baltimore report says church leaders were focused on keeping abuse hidden, not on protecting victims or stopping abuse. In some situations, victims ended up reporting abuse to priests who were abusive themselves. And when law enforcement did become aware of abuse allegations, police and prosecutors were often deferential and “uninterested in probing what church leaders knew and when,” according to the report.

The nearly 500-page document includes numerous instances of leaders taking steps to protect accused clergy, including allowing them to retire with financial support rather than be ousted, letting them remain in the ministry and failing to report alleged abuse to law enforcement.

In 1964, for instance, Father Laurence Brett admitted to sexually abusing a teenager at a Catholic university in Connecticut.

He was sent to New Mexico under the guise of hepatitis treatment and then to Sacramento, where another teenage boy reported being abused by Brett, the report said. He was later assigned to Baltimore, where he served as chaplain at a Catholic high school for boys and abused over 20 victims.

After several students accused him of abuse in 1973, Brett was allowed to resign, saying he had to care for a sick aunt. School officials didn’t report the abuse to authorities and dozens more victims later came forward. He never faced criminal charges and died in 2010.

The report largely focuses on the years before 2002, when an investigation by the Boston Globe into abuse and coverup in the Archdiocese of Boston led to an explosion of revelations nationwide. The nation’s Catholic bishops, for the first time, then agreed on reforms including a lifetime ban from ministry for any priest who commits even a single incident of abuse. While new national policies significantly improved the internal handling of reported abuse in the Baltimore archdiocese after 2002, significant flaws remained, according to the report.

Only one person has been indicted through the investigation: Neil Adleberg, 74, who was arrested last year and charged with rape and other counts. The case remains ongoing. Officials said he coached wrestling at a Catholic high school in the ’70s, then returned to the role for the 2014-2015 school year. The alleged abuse occurred in 2013 and 2014 but the victim was not a student of the school, officials said.

COURT TO CONSIDER RELEASING MORE NAMES IN THE FUTURE

Lawyers for the state asked a court for permission to release the report and a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled last month that a redacted version should be made public. The court ordered the removal the names and titles of 37 people accused of wrongdoing — whose names came out during confidential grand jury proceedings — but will consider releasing a more complete version in the future.

Lawmakers’ passage of a bill to end the state’s statute of limitations Wednesday came after similar proposals failed in recent years. Currently, victims of child sex abuse in Maryland can’t sue after they turn 38. The bill would eliminate the age limit and allow for retroactive lawsuits.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has long faced scrutiny over its handling of abuse allegations.

In 2002, Cardinal William Keeler, who served as Baltimore archbishop for nearly two decades, released a list of 57 priests accused of sexual abuse, earning himself a reputation for transparency at a time when the nationwide scope of wrongdoing remained largely unexposed. That changed, however, when a Pennsylvania grand jury accused Keeler of covering up sexual abuse allegations while serving as bishop of Harrisburg in the 1980s.

Associated Press reporter Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Peter Smith contributed from Pittsburgh. Witte reported from Annapolis and Brumfield reported from Silver Spring.

Cops Reveal Chilling New Details About Nashville Shooter Audrey Hale

Daily Beast

Cops Reveal Chilling New Details About Nashville Shooter Audrey Hale

Josh Fiallo – April 3, 2023

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
Metropolitan Nashville Police Department

Authorities revealed Monday that Nashville mass killer Audrey Hale fired off 152 rounds during the assault at the Covenant School that left six dead and sent a church community into mourning.

The shocking detail emerged in the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department’s latest update on their investigation, which also revealed that Hale plotted the massacre for months in writings found inside his car and home.

“[Hale] documented, in journals, [their] planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School,” police said in a news release Monday.

Nashville Shooter Amassed an Arsenal Despite Being Under Doctor’s Care

Cops say Hale’s writings have been turned over to the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia, which is working with local detectives to determine what drove Hale to slaughter three kids and three staffers at his former primary school.

While a precise motive hasn’t been discovered, police said they’ve determined that Hale “considered the actions of other mass murderers.”

Hale’s motive has been a mystery from the start. Nashville Police Chief John Drake initially speculated that 28-year-old Hale, who attended the private religious school as a kid, held “resentment” toward former teachers there. It’s since been revealed that Hale was devastated by the recent death of a close friend, was under the care of a doctor for an emotional disorder, and had sent a series of dark messages to a friend just before the assault began.

On the day of the shooting, March 27, Drake said Hale left behind a “manifesto” that was being studied by detectives, but its contents haven’t been made public.

The barrage of bullets fired by Hale came from two assault rifles and a handgun, cops said Monday. The three weapons were part of a seven-gun arsenal Hale had legally amassed behind his parents back—stashing the weapons throughout the Nashville home they shared, Drake said last week.

Hale was gunned down by two Nashville officers just 14 minutes after he broke into the school by shooting through locked glass doors. Police said Monday those officers each fired four shots, killing Hale at the scene.

Related:

Associated Press

Nashville police: School shooter planned attack for months

Travis Loller, Jonathan Mattise and Kimberlee Krues – April 3, 2023

Students march from Hume Fogg High School to the State Capitol for the March For Our Lives protest against gun violence in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Students march from Hume Fogg High School to the State Capitol for the March For Our Lives protest against gun violence in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Students gather outside the State Capitol for the March for Our Lives anti gun protest in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Nashville School Shooting
Students gather outside the State Capitol for the March for Our Lives anti gun protest in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Maggie Williams wipes away tears as she is comforted by Ruby Barton at the March for Our Lives anti gun violence protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Maggie Williams wipes away tears as she is comforted by Ruby Barton at the March for Our Lives anti gun violence protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Josia Arteaga, front right, takes part in the March for Our Lives anti gun protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Josia Arteaga, front right, takes part in the March for Our Lives anti gun protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Students participate in the March for Our Lives anti gun violence protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Students participate in the March for Our Lives anti gun violence protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Cheyenne Harris yells with other demonstrators at the March for Our Lives anti gun protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Cheyenne Harris yells with other demonstrators at the March for Our Lives anti gun protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Robin Casler draws a chalk outline around Noah Williams at the March for Our Lives anti gun protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Robin Casler draws a chalk outline around Noah Williams at the March for Our Lives anti gun protest outside the State Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
A balloon with names of the victims is seen at a memorial at the entrance to The Covenant School on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
A balloon with names of the victims is seen at a memorial at the entrance to The Covenant School on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As students across Nashville walked out of class on Monday to protest gun violence at the Tennessee Capitol following a school shooting last week, police said the person who killed six people, including three 9-year-old children, had been planning the massacre for months.

Police have not established a motive for the shootings at The Covenant School, a small Christian elementary school where the 28-year-old shooter was once a student, according to a Monday news release from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Both Nashville police and FBI agents continue to review writings left behind by Audrey Hale, both in Hale’s vehicle and home, police said.

“It is known that Hale considered the actions of other mass murderers,” police said.

The three children who were killed in the shooting were Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The three adults were Katherine Koonce, 60, the head of the school, custodian Mike Hill, 61, and 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.

Hale fired 152 rounds during the attack before being killed by police. That included 126 rifle rounds and 26 nine-millimeter rounds, according to police.

Outside the state Capitol on Monday, thousands rallied in a call for gun reform, many of them students from Nashville-area schools who walked out of their classes en masse. Some other students sat outside the House speaker’s office in the legislative building.

The crowd outside the Capitol echoed chants such as “thoughts and prayers are not enough” and sang along to songs like “All You Need is Love” – adding to it, “and action!” At one point, they sat for a moment of silence, raising posters above their heads that read, “Thoughts and prayers are useless to dead children,” “Book bags not body bags,” and “2nd graders over 2nd amendment.” Some students wore orange shooting-target stickers on their shirts.

Vivian Carlson, a senior at Hume-Fogg High School nearby in downtown Nashville, helped organize her school’s walkout. She told the crowd that her biggest fear last week, when the shooting unfolded, should have been “missing the bus or my stepmom scolding me for not cleaning the cat litter box.” Instead, she said she was missing English class Monday because politicians are “protecting old laws for a new society.”

Carlson, like many others who addressed the crowd, called for changes to Tennessee’s gun laws, including a ban on assault weapons, tougher background checks and a “red flag” law. Red flag laws generally allow law enforcement to temporarily confiscate weapons from people whose statements or behavior are deemed to make them a danger to themselves or others.

“To my fellow students, we cannot let this pressure and fire escape us,” Carlson said. “Feel the fear as you walk into school and let it inspire you to fight for change. And please, if there is one thing you can do, I beg you to vote.”

Tennessee’s Republican governor and supermajority Republican legislature have moved to loosen gun laws in recent years. The same day as the Covenant shooting a federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age for Tennesseans to carry handguns publicly without a permit to 18 — just two years after a new law set the age at 21.

As thousands swarmed the Capitol, Gov. Bill Lee and state lawmakers held a press conference nearby to unveil legislative proposals that would add more funding for school resource officers and mental health resources.

The proposals included $140 million to place an armed security guard at every public school, as well as $27 million to enhance public and private school security. Lee is also proposing adding $30 million to expand the state’s homeland security network that will work with both public and private schools.

The governor’s proposals must now clear the Legislature as lawmakers are in their final weeks of the session.

Notably absent from Lee’s announcement were any calls to tighten the state’s access to guns. As he stood surrounded by top Republican leaders, Lee said he believed that people who are a threat to themselves should not have access to weapons, but also stated that any law designed to address those concerns shouldn’t impede 2nd Amendment rights.

He called on the Legislature to find the appropriate solution. Yet that call to action may be short-lived after Sen. Todd Gardenhire, who chairs the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters that he has no plans to consider any new gun-related bills this session.

“We all agree that we should all find something that we agree upon,” Lee said. “I think we can do that and I think we should do that.”

Lee added that he had not talked to Gardenhire about his stance on halting new gun legislation.

An AP investigation last year found that most U.S. state barely use the red flag laws touted as the most powerful tool to stop gun violence before it happens. It’s a trend experts blame on a lack of awareness of the laws and resistance by some authorities to enforce them even as shootings and gun deaths soar.

Even after the main rally ended Monday, hundreds of protesters remained at the Capitol as lawmakers went into the House and Senate chambers for their evening sessions. Many protesters made their way inside the building, where they sang “This Little Light of Mine” before erupting into chants, “Save our kids!”

The scene recalled a rowdy gun control protest last week. On Thursday, protesters were forced to leave the Senate chamber gallery after yelling, “Children are dead!” — and two Democratic lawmakers caused the House to temporarily shut down by chanting, “Power to the people!” through a megaphone.

Police have said Hale was under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed “emotional disorder.” However, authorities haven’t disclosed a link between that care and the shooting. Police also said Hale was not on their radar before the attack.

Social media accounts and other sources indicate that the shooter identified as a man and might have recently begun using the first name Aiden. Police have said Hale “was assigned female at birth” but used masculine pronouns on a social media profile. However, police have continued to use female pronouns and the name Audrey to describe Hale.

Here’s how the polarizing M16 or AR-15 rifle went from a symbol of America’s lost war in Vietnam to being owned by about 16 million Americans in 70 years

Business Insider

Here’s how the polarizing M16 or AR-15 rifle went from a symbol of America’s lost war in Vietnam to being owned by about 16 million Americans in 70 years

James Pasley – April 1, 2023

Reporter Betsy Halstead stands on the bed of a truck holding an M16 automatic rifle
Reporter Betsy Halstead learns how to fire an M16 automatic rifle during the Vietnam War in 1965.Bettmann/Getty Images
  • The M16 or AR-15 rifle is one of the US’s most divisive symbols
  • To gun enthusiasts, it is an effective, lightweight weapon. To anti-gun advocates, it’s a symbol of mass shootings.
  • Experts estimate approximately 16 million adults in the US now own at least one of these rifles.

On Monday, a mass shooter killed three students and three adults at a school in Nashville. The shooter used two AR-15 rifles in the attack.

Semiautomatic rifles, including AR-15s, are becoming more common weapons used in recent mass shootings in the US, according to the National Criminal Justice Association. Since 2012, 10 out of 17 of the deadliest shootings in the country featured an AR-15 rifle, the Independent reported.- ADVERTISEMENT -https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-10-1/html/r-sf-flx.html

AR-15 rifles are light, accurate, and quick. When they were used by the military, they were called M16 rifles.

As of 2023, about 16 million adults in the US own at least one, according to polling conducted by The Washington Post and Ipsos. It is the country’s best-selling rifle, but it has also become a divisive political symbol.

According to CJ Chivers, when a discussion turns to AR-15s, it stops being rational.

“The conversation is burdened by history, cluttered with conflicting anecdotes, and argued over by passionate camps,” Chivers wrote in an article for The New York Times.

In the 1950s, Eugene Stoner, an engineer with firearms company ArmaLite, was tinkering with gun designs in his garage.

Soldiers looking at an M-15 rifle in 1965.
Soldiers looking at an M-15 rifle in 1965.Stuart William MacGladrie/Fairfax Media/Getty Images

He wanted to create a new gun that could shoot steadily with a single pull of the trigger after studies showed soldiers dealing with the pressure of combat during World War II and the Korean War were not pulling the trigger on their weapons.

Sources: New YorkerNew York Times

Stoner ended up inventing the AR-15 (as in the “ArmaLite Rifle) to rival the Soviet-created AK-47. He understood the importance of a light gun and how deadly a small bullet could be.

A pile of empty brass casings from M16 rifles on the group at the Fort Dix firing range, New Jersey, in 1967.
A pile of empty brass casings from M16 rifles on the group at the Fort Dix firing range, New Jersey, in 1967.Leif Skoogfors/Getty Images

He spoke to Congress about his gun and explained its effectiveness, saying all bullets were designed to fly through the air, but they became unstable when they hit a target.

What wasn’t so obvious was that a smaller bullet grew unstable quicker and caused far more damage to the target — meaning more brutal injuries for their opponents.

Sources: Washington PostWashington PostNew YorkerPoynter

In a recent investigation, The Washington Post examined the damage a modern AR-15 can inflict, finding an AR-15 bullet can destroy entire organs or rip apart a human skull.

A US soldier holding an M16 rifle beside abandoned vehicles with their doors open in Saudi Arabia in 1991.
A US soldier holding an M16 rifle beside abandoned vehicles with their doors open in Saudi Arabia in 1991.David Turnley/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images

Joseph Sakran, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a gunshot survivor, told The Washington Post that when he operated on people who had been shot by an AR-15, their body tissue “literally just crumbled into your hands.”

The Washington Post compared the bullet’s damage to the wake of a boat — where a blast ripples out, damaging body parts otherwise untouched by the bullet.

Source: Washington Post

The US army wanted this kind of lethal weapon for the Vietnam War. It needed a decent alternative to the North Vietnamese’s AK-47s.

President John F. Kennedy examines an early Colt AR-15 in the White House in 1963.
President John F. Kennedy examines an early Colt AR-15 in the White House in 1963.Cecil Stoughton courtesy JFK Library/Getty Images

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostNew YorkerNew York Times

Unlike the cumbersome M-14 that soldiers had been using, the AR-15 was accurate, quick, and light to carry. Soldiers could go into battle with it, as well as plenty of ammunition.

A soldier uses his M16 during a battle in the Vietnam War in 1971.
A soldier uses his M16 during a battle in the Vietnam War in 1971.Neal Ulevich/AP

It used a gas operating system, making reloading quicker, and it included a new design that redirected gas from the fired cartridge, which made it easier to aim.

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostNew YorkerNew York Times

After initial testing in 1958, the US government bought 8,500 in 1962 and renamed it the M16. An internal report from the Pentagon called the gun “an outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality.”

The M16 rifle in 1967.
The M16 rifle in 1967.Bettmann/Getty Images

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostNew YorkerCNN

But the design of the M16 wasn’t ready for combat. The government probably should have refined the design. Instead, it hurried out production of the rifle.

US Marines in Vietnam use their M16 rifles in 1968.
US Marines in Vietnam use their M16 rifles in 1968.AP

By 1966, issues with the M16 were widespread. Soldiers’ rifles were jamming during battles. A report from 1967 said four out of every five troops from a group of 1,585 had dealt with jamming.

Paratroopers carry a wounded soldier while another holds an M16 in Vietnam in 1965.
Paratroopers carry a wounded soldier while another holds an M16 in Vietnam in 1965.Horst Faas/AP

It got so bad that soldiers had to use a metal rod to dislodge a cartridge case. The gun was compared to a single-shot musket rifle.

Source: New York Times

Even so, the US army kept to its story — this was the weapon that would win them the Vietnam War.

A soldier keeps his M16 out of the water while crossing a Mekong Delta waterway in Vietnam in May 1969.
A soldier keeps his M16 out of the water while crossing a Mekong Delta waterway in Vietnam in May 1969.Robert Shaw/AP

Source: New York Times

At the same time, American firearms manufacturer Colt Industries was working on modifying the M16. By 1967, it was made of plastic, aluminum alloy, and steel and was capable of shooting 30 rounds over nine football fields at a speed far faster than the speed of sound.

A cavalry soldier looks through a "starlight scope" that is attached to an M16 rifle in Vietnam in 1967.
A cavalry soldier looks through a “starlight scope” that is attached to an M16 rifle in Vietnam in 1967.Claude Bohner/AP

Source: Washington Post

During this period, Colt also turned to the domestic market. The company released a civilian M16 which was, once again, called an AR-15. It had the same gas operating system and was advertised to campers and hunters.

A weapons expert shows an officer how to use an AR-15 at a firing range in 2002.
A weapons expert shows an officer how to use an AR-15 at a firing range in 2002.Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images

Though the M16 was fully automatic, the AR-15 was a semi-automatic weapon, meaning one-trigger pull shot one bullet, and the gun automatically reloaded the chamber.

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostPoynter

The National Rifle Association called it “America’s rifle.” It later was advertised using questions like, “Should you shoot a rapist before he cuts your throat?”

A child is beside a table of bumper stickers at an NRA convention in 1995.
A table of bumper stickers at an NRA convention in 1995.Mark Peterson/Corbis/Getty Images

Sources: New York TimesNew Yorker

After 1977, when the patent for Stoner’s original gas system expired, a dozen manufacturers started selling their own AR-15 rifle, and “AR-15” became an umbrella name for a type of rifle.

A person holds gun while others look at guns at an NRA convention in 1995.
People looking at guns at an NRA convention in 1995.Mark Peterson/Corbis/Getty Images

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostCNNPoynter

But the AR-15 didn’t become a domestic hit overnight. A large portion of the gun industry wasn’t sure about it. Many people called it the “black rifle” and considered it too expensive and ugly for hunting.

An army instructor inspects US-made M16 rifles during a training exercise in El Salvador in 1982.
An army instructor inspects US-made M16 rifles during a training exercise in El Salvador in 1982.Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Instead, throughout the 1980s, AR-15s were mainly bought by law enforcement and “survivalists.”

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostCNN

Things began to change in 1989 after a mass shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California. A lone gunman shot 34 people, killing 5 children, before killing himself. In response, Colt stopped selling AR-15s for a whole year.

Daniel Correa shows one of the guns that was used in the mass shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California.
Daniel Correa shows one of the guns that was used in the mass shooting at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California.AP

But Chris Bartocci, former Colt employee and author, told CNN the shooting actually increased the AR-15’s profile. Before the shooting, many people didn’t know this type of gun was available on the domestic market. But they knew about it afterward.

Source: CNN

Weapon bans were discussed during the Bush administration, but nothing was formalized until 1994 when the Clinton administration passed a bipartisan law that banned the manufacturing and selling of about 118 types of military-grade guns.

President Bill Clinton shakes hands with Stephen Sposato after he signed a sweeping crime bill that included a ban on assault weapons.
President Bill Clinton shakes hands with Stephen Sposato, whose wife was killed by a gun violence, after he signed a sweeping crime bill that included a ban on assault weapons.J. Scott Applewhite/AP

They were defined for the first time as “assault weapons.” The ban was imposed on guns that had magazines that could hold more than 10 bullets.

“Today, at last, the waiting ends,” then-President Bill Clinton said at the signing. “Today, the bickering stops, the era of excuses is over.”

Sources: New York TimesNew York TimesPoynter

But the new law didn’t include guns that were made before 1994, and due to loopholes, buyers could still buy slightly modified AR-15s. The Washington Post called the law “largely toothless.”

A civilian tries out an M16 at a gun shop in 1993.
A civilian tries out an M16 at a gun shop in 1993.Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

Some experts also believed that banning assault weapons made them more attractive to some Americans.

Sources: New York TimesWashington PostPoynter

In the early 2000s, the gun industry, which had been in a slump, harnessed the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to stoke patriotism and increase demand for AR-15s.

“There has never been a better accidental advertising campaign in history,” Doug Painter, former president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told The Washington Post.

Source: Washington Post

This continued into 2004 when the Clinton administration ban ended. At this point, the US was in the midst of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and patriotic images of soldiers using M16s prompted an increase in civilians buying AR-15s.

A woman is instructed how to handle an M16 rifle by Marine Sergeant Richard Diaz in California in 2002.
A woman is instructed how to handle an M16 rifle by Marine Sergeant Richard Diaz in California in 2002.David Paul Morris/Getty Images

Sources: New York TimesNew York TimesCNNWashington Post

First-person shooter video games like Call Of Duty increased the popularity of AR-15s by showing people what it was like to use one in a virtual setting.

A man holds a video game controller while playing Call of Duty 3 as seen on a screen in 2006.
A man plays Call of Duty 3 in 2006.Joerg Sarbach/AP

Sources: Washington PostPoynter

AR-15s could also be reconfigured based on their owners’ needs — cosmetically or for different uses, like hunting, target practice, or law enforcement — which helped their growing popularity.

A gun salesman holds an AR-15 with a bayonet mount at a Pittsburgh gun shop in 2004.
A gun salesman holds an AR-15 with a bayonet mount at a Pittsburgh gun shop in 2004.Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Source: CNN

In 2005, the gun lobby was bolstered by the Bush administration. It passed a law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce Arms Act, which protected gun companies from being sued when their guns were used unlawfully, like in a mass shooting.

Former President George W. Bush is applauded for signing the Protection of Lawful Commerce Arms Act in 2005.
Former President George W. Bush is applauded for signing the Protection of Lawful Commerce Arms Act in 2005.Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Sources: PoynterCNBC

In 2007 and 2008, during Barack Obama’s run for president, the gun lobby didn’t miss a beat. They claimed the US had never “faced a presidential candidate — and hundreds of candidates running for other offices — with such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms.”

A sign explaining a version of Obama's gun control policies sits taped at a gun store in 2008.
A sign explaining a version of Obama’s gun control policies sits taped at a gun store in 2008.Kasha Broussalian/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera/Getty Images

The fear of another gun ban caused sales to go up again. According to CNN, gun production increased by more than 50% once Obama took office.

Sources: CT PostNew YorkerCNN

According to Ryan Busse, a senior policy advisor who worked for a gun control policy group called Giffords, it was during this era that the AR-15’s image began to change.

A woman holds an AR-15 at a gun rights rally at the Utah State Capitol in 2013.
A woman holds an AR-15 at a gun rights rally at the Utah State Capitol in 2013.George Frey/Getty Images

“By the time Obama was leading in the polls in 2007, the AR-15 was starting to become the poster child, both of industry growth, but also what we now see, which is right-wing politics wrapped in and around the firearms industry and firearms ownership,” Busse told Poynter.

Source: Poynter

The AR-15’s popularity began to show in another way, too — it became more prevalent in mass shootings. From 1996 to 2009, AR-15s were used in one out of every three mass shootings. But from 2009 to 2019, it was used in more than half of mass shootings.

People embrace by a memorial for a mass shooting in Oregon in 2019
People at a memorial for a mass shooting in Oregon in 2019, where the shooter used an AR-15 rifle.Scott Olsen/Getty Images

At the same time, a Pew gun survey conducted in 1999 and 2017 showed gun owners had done a complete reversal in why they bought guns. In 1999, 26% of participants owned a gun for protection. By 2017, it was up to 67%.

Sources: Washington PostPoynterCNN

Despite the increase in use during mass shootings, the industry continues to grow. As of 2023, about 16 million adults in the US own at least one AR-15 rifle. It has become the country’s best-selling rifle.

A man and his 7-year-old son look at an AR-15 rifle at an NRA convention in 2022.
A man and his 7-year-old son look at an AR-15 rifle at an NRA convention in 2022.Brandon Bell/Getty Images

The gun industry believes there are about 20 million AR-15s across the country.

Source: Washington PostInsider

In 2021, President Joe Biden said if he could do one thing to the gun industry, it would be to let victims of gun violence sue gun makers. But so far, he hasn’t achieved that.

President Joe Biden speaks about efforts to reduce gun violence at The Boys & Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley in Monterey Park, California.
President Joe Biden speaks about efforts to reduce gun violence at The Boys & Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley in Monterey Park, California.Evan Vucci/AP

Last year, his administration did pass a new gun law, but it doesn’t specifically restrict AR-15s and is actually less restrictive than the 1994 law.

Sources: PoynterCNBC

Going forward, it remains difficult to impose any limits on selling and purchasing AR-15s because of the rifle’s popularity and powerful lobbying by gun companies and the NRA.

A man holds an AR-15 while the gun shop owner looks on at a Maryland gun shop
A man holds an AR-15 while the gun shop owner looks on at a Maryland gun shop in 2023.Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Source: Washington Post

As Senator Chris Murphy told The Washington Post, protecting the AR-15 has become the gun lobby’s “number one priority.”

US Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a gun protest in 2022.
US Sen. Chris Murphy speaks during a gun protest in 2022.Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

George Soros responds to GOP attacks over Manhattan DA: ‘I don’t know him’

The Hill

George Soros responds to GOP attacks over Manhattan DA: ‘I don’t know him’

Jared Gans – March 31, 2023

George Soros responds to GOP attacks over Manhattan DA: ‘I don’t know him’

Prominent Democratic donor George Soros responded to Republican attacks on him over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) investigation that led to an indictment of former President Trump, saying that “I don’t know” Bragg.

Soros told Semafor that he did not contribute any money to Bragg’s campaign to become district attorney and does not know him. His response came as several members of the GOP have denounced Bragg as being backed and funded by Soros.

“I think some on the right would rather focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories than on the serious charges against the former president,” Soros said.

He has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Color of Change PAC, which endorsed Bragg and spent money to help his candidacy.

Soros has often been the subject of right-wing attacks and some conspiracy theories based on the large donations he has made to Democratic candidates over the years. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who leads a right-wing party, criticized Soros over donations he has made to support democracy in his native country, Hungary, and included some antisemitic tropes.

The Anti-Defamation League reported that conspiracy theories surrounding Soros have falsely attempted to cast him as controlling global society, leaning into antisemitic myths.

Soros pointed Semafor to an op-ed that he wrote in The Wall Street Journal as to why he has donated to “reform-minded prosecutors.”

He said in the piece that he believes both justice and safety need to be advanced in the criminal justice system. He said greater investment needs to happen to prevent crime through methods like deploying mental health professionals in “crisis situations,” investing in youth job programs and creating opportunities for inmates to get an education while in prison.

Soros said “reform-minded” prosecutors and law enforcement officials have rallied around a more “effective and just” agenda.

“This is why I have supported the election (and more recently the re-election) of prosecutors who support reform,” he said in the op-ed. “I have done it transparently, and I have no intention of stopping. The funds I provide enable sensible reform-minded candidates to receive a hearing from the public.”

Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and other top Republicans have targeted Bragg following the Trump indictment by tying him to Soros.

“The Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney has consistently bent the law to downgrade felonies and to excuse criminal misconduct. Yet, now he is stretching the law to target a political opponent,” DeSantis said in a statement Thursday.

Trump to be arraigned Tuesday to face hush money indictment

Associated Press

Trump to be arraigned Tuesday to face hush money indictment

Michael R. Sisak – March 31, 2023

Former President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on his plane after a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, in Waco, Texas, Saturday, March 25, 2023, while en route to West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Former President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on his plane after a campaign rally at Waco Regional Airport, in Waco, Texas, Saturday, March 25, 2023, while en route to West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Richard Fisher protests former President Donald Trump outside Trump Tower on Friday, March 31, 2023, in New York. Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Thursday, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House.(AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)
Richard Fisher protests former President Donald Trump outside Trump Tower on Friday, March 31, 2023, in New York. Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Thursday, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House.(AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)
Protesters gather outside Trump Tower on Friday, March 31, 2023, in New York. Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Thursday, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)
Protesters gather outside Trump Tower on Friday, March 31, 2023, in New York. Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, Thursday, a historic reckoning after years of investigations into his personal, political and business dealings and an abrupt jolt to his bid to retake the White House. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump will be arraigned Tuesday after his indictment in New York City, court officials said Friday, his formal surrender and arrest presenting the historic, shocking scene of a former U.S. commander in chief forced to stand before a judge.

While Trump and his lawyers prepared for his defense, the prosecutor in his hush money case defended the grand jury investigation that propelled him toward trial, as congressional Republicans painted it all as politically motivated.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told three Republican House committee chairs Friday that such claims are “misleading and meritless” and rebuffed congressional probing into the grand jury process — by law, a confidential one.

“We urge you to refrain from these inflammatory accusations, withdraw your demand for information, and let the criminal justice process proceed without unlawful political interference,” Bragg wrote to Reps. James Comer, Jim Jordan and Bryan Steil.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to use congressional oversight to probe Bragg. Steil, Jordan and Comer have asked Bragg’s office for grand jury testimony, documents and copies of any communications with the Justice Department.

Trump’s indictment, announced Thursday, came after a grand jury probe into hush money paid during the 2016 presidential campaign to squelch allegations of an extramarital sexual encounter. The indictment itself has remained sealed, as is standard in New York before an arraignment.

Trump, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing and denounced the investigation as a “scam,” a “persecution,” an injustice and a political low blow aimed at damaging his 2024 presidential run.

Trump lawyer Joseph Tacopina said during TV interviews Friday he would “very aggressively” challenge the legal validity of the Manhattan grand jury indictment. Trump himself, on his social media platform, trained his ire about what he calls a “political persecution” on a new target: the judge expected to handle the case.

No ex-president has ever been charged with a crime before, so there’s no rulebook for booking one. Trump has Secret Service protection, so agents would need to be by his side at all times.

Indeed, Trump was asked to surrender Friday, but his lawyers said the Secret Service needed more time to make security preparations, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Even for defendants who turn themselves in, answering criminal charges in New York generally entails at least several hours of detention while being fingerprinted, photographed, and going through other procedures.

Bragg’s office said Thursday it had contacted Trump’s lawyer to coordinate a surrender. Ahead of the court’s announcement of the arraignment date, Trump’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said that Tuesday was the likely date for Trump to turn himself in.

The investigation dug into six-figure payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both claim to have had sexual encounters with the married Trump years before he got into politics; he denies having sexual liaisons with either woman.

As Trump ran for president in 2016, his allies paid the women to bury their allegations. The publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer paid McDougal $150,000 for rights to her story and sat on it, in an arrangement brokered by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

After Cohen himself paid Daniels $130,000, Trump’s company reimbursed him, added bonuses and logged the payments to Cohen as legal expenses.

Federal prosecutors argued — in a 2018 criminal case against Cohen — that the payments equated to illegal aid to Trump’s campaign. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violation charges, but federal prosecutors didn’t go after Trump, who was then in the White House. However, some of their court filings obliquely implicated him as someone who knew about the payment arrangements.

The New York indictment came as Trump contends with other investigations that could have grave legal consequences.

In Atlanta, prosecutors are considering whether he committed any crimes when trying to get Georgia officials to overturn his narrow 2020 election loss there to Joe Biden.

At the federal level, a Justice Department-appointed special counsel also is investigating Trump’s efforts to unravel the national election results. Additionally, the special counsel is examining how and why Trump held onto a cache of top secret government documents at his Florida club and residence, Mar-a-Lago, and whether the ex-president or his representatives tried to obstruct the probe into those documents.

Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Farnoush Amiri contributed from Washington.