Nightly Nuance - January 5, 2021

Hello, my friends. Today's let's discuss whether the President's call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger violated any laws. 

First, let's establish that the call was properly recorded. Under both Washington DC and Georgia law, only one party to a call must consent to its recording. (That said and because I love you, please don't surreptitiously record your calls!). 

I think we all know on some level that the call was improper. Former prosecutor Patrick Cotter says mob bosses wouldn't have been so overt. 

We have federal statutes prohibiting election fraud, voter intimidation, and extortion. Georgia also has felony and misdemeanor level crimes for soliciting election fraud.  Representatives Ted Lieu and Kathleen Rice have asked the FBI to investigate, and two former presidents of the Georgia state bar have asked for investigations as well. Strangely, the US Attorney in Georgia resigned on Monday. 

So, we have a problematic call and statutes that seem to apply. Why might Trump not be prosecuted? He could pardon himself to escape federal liability (not state). All of these crimes require criminal intent, which could be very tough to establish. Fundamentally, the question of whether to prosecute is always a policy decision. 

Members of Congress are also considering another impeachment proceeding and censure. 

If you want lots of reading about this, you came to the right place: 

NYT 

NPR 

Slate 

NBC News 

Atlanta Journal Constitution (excellent)  

Washington Post 

Vanity Fair  

Politico 

NY Mag 

CNN 

More CNN 

Fox News  

I also spent a minute on how attorneys general find their way into office. There are a bunch of schools of thought on this. I recommend: 

Harvard Law Review  

The Conversation 

Yale  

Harvard again  

Finally, Keely wanted to talk about Bean Dad. So, let's. (And, of course, after I recorded, I learned there was even more to the story). 

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