Chop Wood, Carry Water 4/15
The election interference trial begins!
Hi, all, and happy Monday.
It’s a big week! The trial that starts today may not represent the most significant of Trump’s criminal court cases, but it’s the one that’s starting now, not next year, so that makes it important, indeed. This is what accountability—or the beginning of it—looks like! Let’s celebrate it. Judging by how freaked out Trump is, even he feels like it’s a huge deal.
One small reminder: when talking about this case let’s remember to talk about it not as a “hush money” case, but as being about election interference. Because that speaks to the felony Trump is being charged with.
To put it simply, Trump is being tried for two things: first, for falsifying business records, which he did to cover up the fact that he paid off Stormy Daniels so that she couldn’t tell the world he’d had an affair with her when Melania was home nursing his infant son. Such falsification would normally be a misdemeanor, but because it was in pursuance of a second crime—in this case not reporting campaign expenditures, which are what Alvin Bragg is arguing those payments were—it incurs a second, felony charge.
It’s also why this is election interference.
Please recall that Trump made these payoffs just weeks after the Access Hollywood tapes had come out. His campaign was still reeling. It was touch and go. He knew that if another sordid story about his philandering broke, especially one involving a porn star, he’d likely lose the election. He therefore conspired with his associates to “catch and kill” Daniels’ story—and then cover that up—in order to ensure that voters would be deprived of information that would very likely influence their decisions. It’s pretty clear cut.
As the Statement of Facts that accompanies the indictment describes, Trump “orchestrated a scheme with others to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects.”
Can Bragg prove all of this? It remains to be seen. But can we explain clearly to friends, family, the guy at the dry cleaners and the folks at book club that this is what the case is about? I hope so!
In other news, I’m hoping we can leverage the events of the weekend to get the House to move on Ukraine funding NOW, because they really, really need to. So our call scripts today will deal with that.
It’s a good thing we can walk and chew gum, my friends. Because it’s going to be a busy, highly consequential, and probably dramatic week. Let’s stay focussed, remain calm, and remember: hope is an action.
So let’s get to work right now.
Call Your Senators (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
After the events of the weekend I am calling to demand that Congress stop messing around and get Ukraine the aid it needs. I know the Senate has passed such aid, but I’m asking the Senator to publicly demand that the House now follow suit.
We need to take the threat that Iran and Russia pose seriously; funding Ukraine is a huge part of that. It’s time for Congress to unite behind our President and help him strengthen our alliances. The countries I just mentioned are being emboldened by the Republicans’ delays. Enough. The threat is real. We need to act like it. Thanks.
Call Your House Rep (find yours here) 📲
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
After the events of the weekend I am calling to demand that the House stop messing around and pass Ukraine aid today. We need to take the threat that Iran and Russia pose seriously; funding Ukraine is a huge part of that. It’s time for Congress to unite behind our President and help him strengthen our alliances.
The countries I just mentioned are being emboldened by the Republicans’ delays. Enough. The threat is real. We need to act like it. Thanks.
Extra Credit ✅
Do FedEx and Pfizer really support a national abortion ban, massive detention camps and millions deported, all without due process? Do they want to abolish the Department of Education, eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, dismantle the FBI and Homeland Security, and refocus the Justice Department on the prosecution of Trump’s political enemies?
It seems like it, because they’re both funding the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group that has thrown its weight behind the cruel and unconstitutional Project 2025.
It’s time for FedEx and Pfizer to know the American public is watching. Please personalize and send this letter demanding they drop ALEC and reject Trump’s Project 2025 now.
Get Smart! 📚
Exciting! Join the States Project tomorrow, April 16th at 8PM ET / 5PM PT, for a special conversation about their work together this year in North Carolina and Wisconsin! Because yes, they’ve just added those two states!
RSVP here for a link to the event.
Spread the Word! 📣
Even as Republicans continue to systematically eliminate access to abortion, their efforts are being thwarted by a network of providers who mail abortion pills to ALL 50 states. Pregnant people need to know that pills are safe, accessible, low cost, and sometimes free—and they can get all the information they need through Plan C.
The Plan C website not only connects people to suppliers--it also provides social media toolkits and stickers.
If you live in a red state (or will be visiting one), please consider ordering stickers from Plan C and pasting them everywhere. (They also have a DIY version you can download and print at home here.) Public bathrooms, airports, bus stops, on phone poles outside clubs and coffee shops, in music venues, in schools, in Target dressing rooms. Use your imagination. Give them to teenagers and have them distribute them wherever they go. Include men’s bathrooms.
If you live in a blue state, have stickers delivered to supportive friends or relatives who live in red states. And, of course, their usefulness isn’t limited to red states. Abortions can be hard to come by in blue states, too.
Win Races and Give Money! 🗳 💰
Want to help us win in AZ?
Perennially purple Maricopa County (in the Phoenix area) represents 60% of Arizona’s electorate. For over a decade, Maricopa has been the largest-gaining county in the nation, adding 56,831 residents in 2022.
Swing Blue Alliance’s new opportunity map shows that as of 2020 the unregistered voting age population was nearly 800,000 in Maricopa County. They’ve analyzed data on all precincts in Maricopa County and identified the top precincts to register voters. That’s where they will focus their volunteer energy!
How? They're helping the Maricopa County Democrats double their voter registration budget! These funds will help the Voter Registration Committee register voters and collect signatures to put an abortion initiative on the ballot in November.
Click here to donate to Maricopa County Democrats
But they’re also registering voters in AZ, and they’d love you to join them.
Click here if you can travel to register voters in AZ
Read This! 📖
I’ve just discovered the amazing daily Substack “What Did Joe Biden Do Today?”
It’s exactly what it sounds like, and it’s greatly useful. Below is Saturday’s edition. Check it out, and, if you’re interested, subscribe! Then share tidbits from it with the “But what is Joe Biden actually doing?” folks in your life!
Resistbot Letter (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.) 💻
[To: all three reps] [H/T Coalition For Gun Industry Accountability] [Text SIGN PXFJXI to Resistbot at 50409 or via Apple Messages / WHATSAPP / MESSENGER]
I’m writing as a constituent to urge Congress to pass H.R.4184 and S.2048, The Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act. This bill would repeal the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) to ensure that the survivors of gun violence will be allowed to have their day in court and that gun manufacturers, sellers and interest groups are not shielded from liability when they act with negligence and disregard for public safety.
In 2005, Congress passed PLCAA, which provides immunity in state and federal courts from civil liability for manufacturers, distributors, and dealers of firearms, as well as its trade associations, in most negligence and products liability actions. The gun industry enjoys this unique immunity from liability under well-established common law principles that apply to everyone else in society. As a result, gun makers and sellers do not act with the safety of the public in mind. Under the current law, the gun industry cannot be sued by consumers who are harmed by their products, unlike virtually every other manufacturer of consumer products. It also allows gun sellers to turn a blind eye to straw purchasers or traffickers who may buy hundreds of weapons to transfer them to others with no background check whatsoever.
Numerous cases across the nation have been dismissed on the basis of PLCAA even when the gun industry actions would qualify as negligent if it involved any other product, and many additional cases have likely not been brought due to the chilling effect of PLCAA’s blanket immunity. PLCAA immunizes the gun industry that manufactures, distributes and sells lethal weapons from its fundamental duty to act responsibly in the interest of public safety and empowers the worst actors to act with impunity.
It’s long past time to repeal PLCAA to allow civil cases to go forward against irresponsible actors in state and federal courts, just as they would if they involved any other product. Letting courts hear these cases would provide victims of gun violence their day in court and the Equal Access to Justice for Victims of Gun Violence Act would promote responsible business practices that would reduce gun deaths and injuries. Let’s get this done, please! Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk soon.
Jess
I wrote an email to MSNB C telling them to change the caption HUSH MONEY trial to ELECTION INTERFERENCE. No reply yet.
Thanks, Jess, for emphasizing the point that the NY case should not be called, "The Hush Money Case." I was appalled that MSNBC had that across their screen every time I tuned in today, and the NYT had it on their online features. The "hush money"aspect is irrelevant as far as the crime goes - paying a porn star for her silence is not a crime legally. What is illegal is making the payment by disguising it as something it wasn't, in order to deceive voters and hide the payment as a business expense. The crimes are falsification of business records to skirt campaign laws. The underlying action was the hush money aspect, but that's like the cheap underwear under a fancy suit. "Hush Money" is clickbait - nothing more and nothing less, and it denigrates our legal process.