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honest.abe

honest.abe's Journal
honest.abe's Journal
June 13, 2023

Trump finds no new lawyers for court appearance in Mar-a-Lago case

Donald Trump is expected to be represented at his first court appearance to face federal criminal charges for retaining national security materials and obstruction of justice by two of his existing lawyers, despite trying to recruit a local Florida lawyer willing to join his legal defense team.

The lawyers making an appearance with Trump on Tuesday will be the top former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche and the former Florida solicitor general Chris Kise, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump’s co-defendant, his valet Walt Nauta, will be represented by Stanley Woodward.

Trump and his legal team spent the afternoon before his arraignment interviewing potential lawyers but the interviews did not result in any joining the team in time for Trump’s initial court appearance scheduled for 3pm ET on Tuesday after several attorneys declined to take him as a client.

Trump has also seemingly been unable to find a specialist national security lawyer, eligible to possess a security clearance, to help him navigate the Espionage Act charges.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/13/trump-finds-no-new-lawyers-mar-a-lago-documents-arraignment

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So I suppose this means the arraignment will not be delayed. Good news, I think.
June 2, 2023

Debt ceiling bill won't be signed until Saturday at the earliest

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Joe Biden won’t be signing the debt ceiling bill that passed Congress until tomorrow at the earliest.

“It won’t be today. The House and the Senate have to do their business, so we’re going to work very quickly to get this done to make sure we can sign it hopefully as soon as tomorrow,” Jean-Pierre said. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said that the debt ceiling must be raised by 5 June, which means that Biden must sign the bill by the weekend to avoid default. Jean-Pierre said the White House is confident they can get the bill signed before June 5.

Jean-Pierre did not specify what Congress needs to do before getting it on Biden’s desk. Biden is planning to address the deal in a speech tonight at 7pm. Jean-Pierre said that he will focus on the bipartisan nature of the deal and how it benefits Americans.

“When you think about what could have happened here, to our seniors, to our veterans, to American families,” Jean-Pierre said. “That is something the president believes he has an opportunity to talk directly to the American people [about]. This could’ve been, as we’ve said over and over again, devastating.”

“He believes this is a good moment to lay that out and how we were able to come together to avert this crisis.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2023/jun/02/trump-desantis-2024-election-republican-biden-debt-ceiling-live-updates

This is a bit weird. Anyone know what's going on here??
June 2, 2023

Senate vote on debt ceiling will be tonight around 10pm.

They are currently working through voting on 11 amendments which is supposed to take about 10 minutes per amendment. They are curently on the 3rd one (as of 8:40 pm) so 8 more to go so looks like around 10pm for the final vote.

Here are the list of amendments.

1. Paul 107 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
2. Braun 91 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
3. Marshall 110 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
4. Sullivan 125 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
5. Hawley 93 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
6. Kennedy 104 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
7. Cotton 106 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
8. Budd 134 (60 vote affirmative threshold)
9. Lee 98 (Majority)
10. Kennedy 102 (Majority)
11. Kaine 101 (Majority)

It will be followed by final passage of the debt ceiling bill:

HR 3746 (An Act to Provide for a Responsible Increase to the Debt Ceiling). Subject to a 60 vote affirmative threshold.

https://www.c-span.org/networks/?channel=c-span-2

They must defeat each amendment or it goes back to the House which is not what we want. Very unlikely any amendment will pass.

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