23 Comments
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Charles Welsh's avatar

Fundamentally, this seems like an attempt to intimidate. As such, I wonder would some SLAPP countersuit would be appropriate?

Kathy Hughes's avatar

SLAPP might not be permitted in this case. I agree with you it’s an attempt to intimidate media, especially independent media. It’s also utterly bogus.

Bob Tinsman's avatar

Ah, you're right, because anti-SLAPP only applies to civil suits. We haven't needed anti-SLAPP for criminal charges because there's an assumption that prosecutors are not weaponizing their power. Throw that one out the window...

Jeff Lazar's avatar

Harry, nice two-parter. Question for you: Whom do you consider more dangerous? Scam Blondi or ICE Barbie?

Sarah Larkin's avatar

Both are equally dangerous but ICE Barbie is actually more dangerous, because she celebrates and lies about unaliving peaceful protestors and people of color and worst of all using little children as bait and then locking them up with the parent. She’s one who belongs in jail herself IMHO.

Martha's avatar

It is my fondest hope that Bondi and others will be disbarred and humiliated. Even for those of us with no legal training, this case seems absurd. It appears full of projections, suppositions and innuendos, rather than facts that could support the need for arresting someone. The tragedy is that, while this case will collapse, Don Lemon and others will be forced to disrupt their lives - and livelihoods - to fight it. Perhaps that’s the goal of this regime: find ways to make your adversaries suffer, however flimsy the premise. That is low.

Josie's avatar

Harry, my God, how many more lawsuits is this addled man going to pursue? Trump's such a waste of time and lately waste of any thoughts. He's so litigious it's sickening. I wonder if he knows he's a laughing stock and an embarrassment not only to this country but to the world. It's amazing that some really ignorant people put him back into the Oval Office, a 34 count felon should have been put in jail.

Corinne Corley's avatar

This essay sings. Thank you. It needs to be a billboard.

Sam Faeth's avatar

Your clarifications were very helpful for those of us without a legal education. Thank you.

Susan Jones's avatar

Trump may have finally found something he can be king of: King of SLAPP! It's his solution to his every perceived problem or criticism.

Richard France, Ph.D.'s avatar

A free press, honest elections, and an independent judiciary -- undermine those, as our deranged and increasingly demented Hitler wannabe is hellbent to do, and you have undermined our democracy. WELCOME TO THE FOURTH REICH, AMERICA !!!

William MacKenzie's avatar

Drilling down, it would be interesting to know who at Justice wrote the indictment. These should not all be faceless bureaucrats.

Susan Linehan's avatar

This feels really like dismissal for failure to state a cause of action. Is there any congregant who will testify that lemon caused them to feel fear of

bodily harm ?

Is there video anywhere that shows what went on the church ?

John Evans-Klock's avatar

You are right, in general, but it’s going to be difficult to convince Middle America that the protest was not “obstruction.”

Protect the Vote's avatar

Cheeto’s Obsession With Rigging Elections

One basic value that Cheeto holds as number one importance is not to be a loser This underscores the Big Lie and all of the political machinations to try to reverse history as if it’s a time machine to go after anything that would state the obvious: he lost the 2020 election

Cheeto was so obsessed with the 2020 election loss that he even rigged the 2024(bit.ly/41UelTx) with the help of vigilante challenges with the help of his Nazi allies who love Der Fuhrer’s bravado But like almost everything Cheeto says, the use of the term “rigged” is nothing but a projection of what he himself has and wants to do in the future: Rig elections and his Nazi allies are complicit

Now Cheeto has tried to politically engineer mid decade gerrymandering but that seems to have become a bust The Nazis have been trying to get voter information so they can nationalize the vigilante challenge theme Then he sent Gabbard to Georgia to confiscate 2020 ballots The Cheeto suggested that he’ll get control of voting equipment but his latest gambit is to have 15 GOP states(https://bit.ly/3NRxC4V) take over elections so that it will guarantee that the Nazi Republicans will never lose future elections Why bother running on policy when you can just assure yourself that the Nazis will not have to worry about election losses? All because Cheeto has held a longstanding belief from his days with his mentor Roy Cohn that he should NEVER BE A LOSER Unfortunately for Cheeto he is and always will be a loser and the polls show it

Sarah Larkin's avatar

Great two parter Harry! It’s always performative BS charges with this administration, and it’s all about creating more chaos to distract from what they’re doing behind the scenes that worse and more of it!

Ellen Kutcher's avatar

Ok at the end you didn’t say whether this would put him in jail or go away or never get to court .for us dumb people who can’t understand everything you’re saying what is the final verdict on your part

The AI Architect's avatar

Brilliant dissection of how the prosecution twists proximity and speech into "intimidation." I once saw a protest at a clinic entrance where actual barricading happened, and that's nothing like what happened at the church. The gap beween what FACE requires and what the indictment alleges is kinda staggering tbh.