Raw Story

A judge dealt former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a blow on Monday, rejecting his request to move his criminal charges in Arizona to federal court.

U.S. District Judge John Tuchi wrote Monday that Meadows failed to "present good cause for his untimely filing" of his removal request, and that he failed to "demonstrate that the conduct charged in the state's prosecution relates to his former color of office as Chief of Staff to the President."

In April, an Arizona grand jury indicted 18 people on nine felony counts in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Prosecutors have said Meadows worked with the Trump campaign to "coordinate and implement the false Republican electors' votes in Arizona" and "was involved in the many efforts to keep [Trump] in power despite his defeat at the polls."

ALSO READ: Behind the legal tactics Trump is using to dodge justice for January 6

Meadows has argued that the case ought to be moved to federal court because the allegations that he essentially facilitated communication to and from the president related to the Election was within the scope of his official duties.

But the judge wasn't buying it — and laid into the argument.

"Mr. Meadows has not so much removed the State’s indictment as rewritten it," wrote Tuchi.

"Contrary to Mr. Meadows’s assertions, the State has not indicted Mr. Meadows for merely facilitating communication to and from the President or for simply staying abreast of campaign goings-on," Tuchi added. "Instead, the State has indicted Mr. Meadows for allegedly orchestrating and participating in an illegal electioneering scheme. Few, if any, of the State’s factual allegations even resemble the secretarial duties that Mr. Meadows maintains are the subject of the indictment."

Meadows also faces charges in Georgia in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both states.

A Florida sheriff remarked Monday that the suspect in a second assassination plot targeting former President Donald Trump appeared as calm as if he was heading to church when he was arrested.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder told CNN anchor Erin Burnett that suspect Ryan Routh was stopped in a "chaotic" scene. Around 15-20 armed deputies in body armor stopped Routh and blocked traffic in both directions. A police dog unit and a helicopter were also involved in the stop.

Even so, Snyder noted that Routh appeared "nonplus."

ALSO READ: Behind the legal tactics Trump is using to dodge justice for January 6

"He was nonplus would be the way I would describe it. His facial affect was relatively flat. He was engaged, you could tell. He was alert. He knew what was going on. But yet he never asked, 'What is this about? What's going on?' The normal things that you would expect. Even from guilty people oftentimes try to put on a front, but not him."

Snyder added that Routh appeared "calm as if he was getting ready to go to a late-night church service" and said it was "odd" that Routh didn't ask any questions while in the law enforcement vehicle.

The sheriff said a key witness who identified Routh as the suspect was airlifted to the location.

"He makes the positive ID and really, as far as we're concerned, that's the best ending that could've happened," said Snyder.

Routh, 58, was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number at his initial court appearance.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

Progressive legal expert Elie Mystal, in his blistering condemnation of the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial 6-3 immunity ruling in Trump v. the United States, has made a major distinction between "qualified immunity" and "absolute immunity."

The High Court's decision, Mystal has argued, is dangerous to the rule of law in the U.S. because it grants Trump and future presidents "absolutely immunity" — not merely "qualified immunity" — from criminal prosecution for "official" acts committed as part of their "core" duties.

Even some frequent critics of the Roberts Court were shocked by how far the six GOP-appointed justices went in that ruling. But a memo leaked to the New York Times shows that Chief Justice John Roberts encouraged this outcome.

Salon's Nicholas Liu explains, "John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, on February 22, issued a memo to his colleagues urging them not only to take up an appeal from former President Donald Trump over his immunity claim, but also, to rule in favor of granting him that immunity…. The document, along with other justices' memos, accounts of the proceedings and testimony from sources the Times interviewed, offers a window into Roberts' high level of involvement in several cases that benefited Trump and ultimately helped him climb out of a mire of legal troubles that threatened to upend his 2024 presidential campaign."

ALSO READ: Behind the legal tactics Trump is using to dodge justice for January 6

According to Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak, the February 22 memo that Roberts sent to the eight other justices "radiated frustration and certainty."

Liu notes that the memo is relevant not only to Trump v. the United States, but also, to the High Court's 14th Amendment-related case decision involving the former president.

"Roberts exerted his influence in March this year, when he persuaded the other judges to rule that states could not unilaterally kick federal candidates from a ballot," Liu observes. "While the judges agreed unanimously on the matter, the Court's liberals dissented to an additional proposition that anyone seeking to enforce the Constitution's 14th Amendment against insurrectionist candidates running for office would need to first obtain congressional approval."

Roberts' memo, according to Kantor and Liptak, vehemently disagreed with a lower federal court ruling that tore apart Trump's presidential immunity claims.

The Times journalists report, "The chief justice’s February 22 memo, jump-starting the justices’ formal discussion on whether to hear the case, offered a scathing critique of a lower-court decision and a startling preview of how the high court would later rule, according to several people from the court who saw the document. The chief justice tore into the appellate court opinion greenlighting Mr. Trump’s trial, calling it inadequate and poorly reasoned."

Read the New York Times' full report at this link (subscription required) and Salon's analysis here.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has fallen silent on abortion as he faces a challenge from Democratic Rep. Colin Allred in 2024, and as his state has come under fire for one of the nation's most extreme abortion bans and women have been forced to flee to other states for care. But back in his first term in office, he was much more outspoken in favor of laws like this.

And furthermore, he had ties to a known extremist figure who called for the killing of "abortionists," according to Mother Jones.

“I am grateful to receive the endorsement of Troy Newman,” Cruz said while running for president in 2015 at the Iowa Republican caucuses. “He has served as a voice for the unborn for over 25 years, and works tirelessly every day for the pro-life cause. We need leaders like Troy Newman in this country who will stand up for those who do not have a voice.”

Newman, reported Abby Vesoulis, is best known as the leader of the extreme anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, "a group that in 1991 held weeks-long protests at the abortion clinic of George Tiller, who was later assassinated by an anti-abortion extremist. Moreover, Newman has claimed that extreme weather was God’s punishment for America’s tolerance for abortion and gay rights; he also co-wrote a book that endorsed the execution of abortion providers." The book stated, "The United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists.”

ALSO READ: Scientific American magazine backs Harris with second endorsement in 179-year history

His co-author, Cheryl Sullenger, was actually sentenced to prison over a plot to bomb a California abortion clinic in 1987.

Following the Supreme Court's elimination of Roe v. Wade protections and a sustained backlash to GOP abortion bans that has seen voters defeat anti-abortion proposals and laws at the ballot box in states like Kansas and Ohio, Cruz has become considerably more muted on the topic. He has also introduced legislation to protect access to in vitro fertilization, as anti-abortion judges and activists try to attack that procedure as well.

For the last week, former President Donald Trump has been leveling false attacks against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio --and now, it appears a western Pennsylvania town could face the same crisis.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Monday that the small town of Charleroi, about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, has been facing the same types of xenophobic allegations, said city manager Joe Manning.

In Charleroi, there are “people on Facebook saying that there’s a government-funded tent city in the Rite Aid parking lot, that there’s people walking down the street carrying live chickens," Manning told the Inquirer.

Read Also: 'I want Vance to apologize': We went to Springfield and found community hurt — and divided

Trump put a spotlight on Washington County, Pennsylvania during a recent rally when he falsely claimed that immigrants in the borough were bankrupting residents by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Manning said he received a call from a woman in a neighboring city on Friday. The woman claimed she brought her daughter to the Catholic church for religious classes. After hearing the news, the woman was worried about her daughter's safety.

"Disparaging statements about Haitian immigrants have been circulated online by conservative media outlets, the Washington County Republican Party, and conservative politicians, including Pennsylvania Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick and Charleroi Council member Larry Celaschi," the report said.

The Washington County Republican Party posted about Haitian immigrants on Facebook and was inundated with fearful messages from supporters.

One woman claimed that she got a flat tire driving through Charleroi and her car was "surrounded" by about "15 Haitians." She said she was "scared."

" I was trying to be brave because I didn’t want to act weak honestly I’m not sure what their intentions were," she wrote.

The group got her car unstuck and changed her tire.

Others flooded comments with allegations like “Import the 3rd World become the 3rd World," or accusations that electing Democrats would lead to more "3rd World cities."

Read the full report here.

Shares in former President Donald Trump's Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of his Truth Social network, took a nosedive in early trading on Wednesday, plunging by more than 15 percent shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street.

The dive in Truth Social shares came after Trump delivered a widely criticized debate performance against Vice President Kamala Harris in which he ranted about hoax stories about Haitian immigrants eating Ohio residents' pets.

The drop in share price on Wednesday morning is just the latest in a series of downward slides the company has experienced since the value of its shares peaked in March this year at more than $66 each.

Now, however, shares of the company are trading in the $15 range with seemingly little hope of recovery in the near term, analysts say.

ALSO READ: Trump insults Fox News hosts live on air after they criticized his debate performance

At issue is the fact that earnings reports show that the Trump Media is not only massively unprofitable but is also generating remarkably little in terms of overall revenue.

In the last fiscal quarter, for instance, Trump Media generated just $836,900 in revenue, a 30 percent drop from the revenue it generated in the same quarter one year earlier.