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Under cover of night, 5 more Trump co-conspirators booked at Georgia jail [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2023-08-25
The past 24 hours have seen a slew of RICO-indicted conspirators booked into Georgia’s Fulton County jail. The biggest fish of the bunch was former President Donald Trump, whose mugshot typifies the faux-bravado we’ve come to expect from him.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that after Trump’s booking, five more co-defendants surrendered overnight at the same jail.
After midnight, Michael Roman, Trump’s 2020 campaign director of Election Day operations, was booked and released on a $50,000 bond. Like Kenneth Chesebro before him, Roman faces charges that he worked to create slates of “fake electors” to be used to cast electoral votes against the will of American voters. Roman’s work allegedly spanned many states, including Georgia. The seven counts against him include impersonating a public officer as well as conspiracy to commit forgery, filing false documents, and committing false statements.
Around the same time, Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still was booked in and released on a $10,000 bond. Still faces similar charges to Roman, but according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he might also end up suspended from his state Senate seat, pending the resolution of his case. Still is an interesting case because his lawyer has already brought up Trump’s name as a defense. In a filing with the court preceding his surrender, Still’s attorney argued:
Mr. Still, as a presidential elector, was also acting at the direction of the incumbent President of the United States. The President’s attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on December 14, 2020, in order to preserve the presidential election contest.
While some might interpret that as legalese for Trump made me do it, the general consensus is that Still’s attorney hopes to argue that because Still was acting on behalf of the federal government, Still should essentially be immune from state prosecution, per the Constitution’s supremacy clause. That’s their argument at least. And even if Still were successful, he would still be tried in federal court.
Another late-night surrender came from Jeffrey Clark, a former senior Justice Department official, who reportedly worked on creating excuses for the fake-elector plan. He reportedly drafted a letter, using government letterhead, that attempted to lend credence to the false election-fraud claims peddled by Trump and crew. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Clark was issued a $100,000 bond.
Clark was followed by Misty Hampton, who was released on a $10,000 bond for her part in the conspiracy. Hampton, an elections supervisor in rural Georgia, faces computer- and voting-machine-related charges—alleged behavior that appears to be unfortunately common among other MAGA-affiliated officials across the country.
Later that night came the booking of attorney Bob Cheeley. Cheeley had already secured himself a $50,000 bond before surrendering to county officials. Cheeley is one of those who took video of election workers counting ballots and falsely claimed they were counting votes multiple times.
Illinois chaplain Stephen Cliffgard Lee and Trevian Kutti, Kanye West’s former publicist, had until 12 PM Friday to surrender. The former was able to fundraise $7,500 to make 10% of the bond needed for his release, while Kutti was able to secure a $75,000 bond earlier this week. Both were booked Friday, with their very own special mugshots.
x Booking photo for Illinois pastor Stephen Cliffgard Lee. @ajc pic.twitter.com/Gndt9Bly3z — Jozsef Papp (@JozsefPapp_) August 25, 2023
x The booking photo of Trevian Kutti who lied to and threatened election workers. pic.twitter.com/N1eR0VwExc — Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) August 25, 2023
Trumpland’s attempted coup d’état to keep their disgraced loser of a leader in power failed. As history has taught us: If you fail to overthrow a government, you generally pay the piper with jail time, exile, or even death. Based on that, Trump and friends have gotten off easy.
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/25/2189561/-Under-cover-of-night-5-more-Trump-co-conspirators-booked-at-Georgia-jail
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