Day: February 16, 2023

Background Briefing: February 16, 2023

The Partial Release of Findings From the Special Grand Jury Investigation of Trump’s Attempt to “Find” 11,780 Votes in Georgia

We begin with the partial release today of findings from the special grand jury in Atlanta’s Fulton County that for the past 6 months has been investigating Donald Trump’s effort to “find” 11,780 votes to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Joining us is Adam Klasfeld, the managing editor at Law and Crime, a legal news service based in New York. He previously was a reporter for Courthouse News Service where he had been covering the Russia probe and international money laundering among other legal matters. We discuss what was released in terms of an opening and closing summary plus recommendations to the DA that she should prosecute some of the witnesses subpoenaed for committing perjury and Adam’s article at Law and Crime, “Special grand jury recommends indictments in Trump 2020 Georgia election probe.”

 

Which of the Many Cases Against Trump Will be the First to Issue Indictments

Then we look into how the possible forthcoming indictments from the Atlanta grand jury fit into the other cases against Donald Trump and which is the most likely to issue indictments first. Joining us is David Graham, a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers political and global news. He previously reported for Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The National. His latest article at the Atlantic is “Trump’s Last-Ditch Gamble to Avoid Indictment” and we discuss his recent article at The Atlantic, “A Guide to the Possible Forthcoming Indictments of Donald Trump.”

 

Why the Department of Transportation Can’t Regulate Rail Companies to Prevent Derailments of Toxic Chemicals

 Then finally we examine the hypocrisy emerging from the Ohio derailment and toxic spill in criticism leveled at Transportation Secretary Buttigieg by Republican Senators Rubio and Vance to which Buttigieg countered that his agency’s ability to regulate the rail system was constrained by pro-business laws passed in 2017 by the Trump administration. Joining us is Nelson Lichtenstein, Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at University of California Santa Barbara, where he directs the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy. He is the author of State of the Union: A Century of American Labor, Achieving Workers’ Rights in the Global Economy, The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business and The Right and Labor in America: Politics, Ideology, and Imagination. His forthcoming book is A Fabulous Failure:The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism.