Station Selected:
On a day when America recalls the stirring words of Abraham Lincoln in dedication of the National Cemetery at the Gettysburg Battlefield 159 years ago, describing and discussing the contemporary applications of his Rule of Law-inspiring message: First, witnessed in two major appointments of this past week—namely, the selection of former federal trial Judge Barbara Jones to monitor the actions of the Trump Companies while the State of New York continues its civil litigation, and the announcement of former federal prosecutor Jack Smith to oversee and direct the continuing federal investigations of the former President’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and his (unrelated) taking and retention of records (some classified) following his departure from office in January of 2021.
Unqualified endorsement of the former appointment to ensure that no further state violations occur in the management of properties and other financial assets—and strong support for the further pursuit of federal charges in the latter, but with considerable concern about the messaging (implicit if not explicit in the special counsel appointment) about the enduring, now restored capacities of ethical, tenured civil servants of the Justice Department to conduct this important work—absent credible concerns about their political impartiality and non-partisan ethics.
Excellent commentary and questioning from broadcast callers leading naturally into the review of the major goings-on in two (also unrelated) criminal trials of this past week—namely, the testimony of federal defendants in the seditious conspiracy trial (in Washington, D.C.) of Oath Keepers charged with organizing the January 6 rioting, and the testimony of the chief financial officer (a cooperating state defendant) of the Trump Organization in the criminal tax fraud trial in Manhattan. Finally, complementing our weeks-long analysis of some of the most important cases pending before the United States Supreme Court, an outline of a judicial challenge to the lawfulness of a long-standing federal law shielding on-line social media platform-providers for false, damaging, and incendiary posts of their users.
