If you didn't see Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday, the Main Story was about bail reform.  It's was extremely interesting, often very funny, but also makes very clear what the point of bail reform is and how bail has long been abused, putting people -- who have not yet been convicted of anything (and are therefore legally innocent) in jail because they cannot afford to pay the bail, sometimes for longer periods of time than the sentence if they were found guilty.
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In a sort of interesting addendum to the very end of my article this morning, where I suggested that the huge jury award for political defamation has to be giving sleepless nights to Trump, Mr. MyPillow and Fox "News" in the upcoming defamation lawsuits against them, there was this from RawStory.

The headline is -- "‘Furious’ Trump ‘raging’ for ‘days’ over DOJ classified documents, fraud, and defamation and rape cases." And they write:

“'Trump put out a statement yesterday excoriating E. Jean Carroll, who is suing him for defamation after she accused him of rape decades earlier. He is said to have been raging the last few days over DOJ docs case as well as Carroll case,' [Maggie] Haberman writes, 'in which he is set to be deposed next week, as well as furious about a deposition he gave in lawsuit related to ACN, which he gave this past Tuesday.'

"In his rant Wednesday night some legal experts say he established further evidence for Carroll’s defamation case. He had argued his comments were protected because he made them while being president. While that argument is in question [indeed, it's why the government is not defending him, as he asked], he now is no longer president."

File this in the "Oops" folder, under "Being one's own worth enemy."

And just one more example why one should follow your lawyers' advice to just shut up.

First, a jury in Texas awarded the families of Sandy Hook $45 million in their defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones.
 
Then, yesterday, a Connecticut jury awarded $965 million dollars.
 
But that’s not the bad news.  (Oh, okay, yes, it’s the bad news.  But it’s not the worst news.)
 
There’s still another trial to go.  And here’s the thing -- even that isn’t the worst news.
 
That’s because the $965 million award yesterday was “only” for compensatory damages.  There still could be punitive damages!  In fact, in an interview on MSNBC, one of the lawyers for the families was asked if there could be punitive damages still to come, and he said, yes – and then added that it’s likely there will be.
 
Oh, and that's not even all the “Worst News.”  That's because the jury award doesn’t include legal fees he has to pay.  And since the family lawyers were most-certainly working on contingency, that means probably 40% of the award – which is another $370 million.  So, $1.335 BILLION.
 
All of which makes Alex Jones’s pump-fisting, Happy Dance, real-time reaction to the jury announcement a really, really ill-advised action.
 
Yes, yes, he’s declared bankruptcy.  And yes, the award will likely be cut.  So, no, the families will not get all that money, nor will the attorneys.  And not one penny of that amount will compensate for the loss of their child.  But even if the award is cut in half, and even if there are no punitive damages awarded (though, no doubt, there will be – and most likely it will be huge), that’s still $670 million.  And there’s still another lawsuit pending.

(And there's no absolute certainty that the judgement will be cut.  A legal expert on Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night said that as far as he could tell, everything was done properly according to the law.  So -- who knows?)
 
Further, just because Alex Jones has declared bankruptcy, it doesn’t mean it has to be accepted.  A bankruptcy judge carries a great deal of weight.  And even if it is approved, you can be sure he will monitored meticulously for many years to come, to make sure the plaintiffs know when every dime comes in, so it can be garnished.  It's possible too that Jones won't be able to purchase property, because of the kind of judgement this was.  And however joyful Alex Jones is pretending to be, bankruptcy is not a Monopoly “Get Out of Jail Free” card.  His financial life is ruined.  A judgement of $965 million has that effect.
 
And we just take a quick side note to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who no doubt spoke for many Alex Jones adorers -- no, Alex Jones was not "persecuted." He was sued. He had legal representation. A jury of his peers listened -- likely made up of Republicans and Democrats. They not only found him guilty, they found him SO guilty that they award a judgement of a BILLION DOLLARS.  It's the justice system.  That’s how it works.  A core part of democracy.  And it’s not shocking to know that Ms. Greene – and far too many on the extreme right – don’t grasp that.
 
But there’s another impact that’s a result of the trial.  And it has nothing to do with how much money was awarded.  Nor does it have anything to do with even Alex Jones.
 
It’s that this was a small window into looking how juries today look at the “I can lie however much I want to and defame whoever I chose” mentality that began with Trump and spread throughout the Republican Party.  And there are three other very important defamation lawsuits currently pending.
 
There is the defamation lawsuit by E. Jean Carroll against Trump after he called her a liar for claiming he raped her, and then smeared her further.  Just yesterday, the judge in the case turned down Trump’s latest effort to delay his sworn deposition and said he most appear next week.
 
There is also the $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting against Mr. MyPillow.  It’s a case he seems almost blissfully ignorant of its weight, since he keeps going out in public and repeating the very things he’s being sued for, about how the election was stolen, and Dominion Voting machines are at the heart of it.
 
And finally there is the $1.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting against “Fox News.”  Fox is clearly very concerned about this, so concerned that when it became clear that Dominion was seriously moving towards suing, the channel changed course and had its on-air personalities stop smearing Dominion.  This is known in legal circles as much too little, much much much too late.
 
Certainly, all three of these cases are different from the lawsuit(s) against Alex Jones.  But the results so far (totaling a minimum of $1.010 billion) can’t give anyone with an upcoming political-based defamation lawsuit filed against them even a moment’s comfort.
 
Nor should it.

If you missed LAST WEEK TONIGHT with John Oliver last night, the Main Story was on Crime Reporting on the news.  It was a terrific, fascinating story and well-researched (mixed with a lot of sardonic humor) that looks at home TV and print news coverage of crime very often inappropriately colors our perspective on crime.  (For instance, taking only the police report which might be twisting the facts -- or reporting on the crime and the accused, but not following up that the person was innocent.)

​On this week’s Al Franken podcast, his guest is Dahlia Lithwick, who talks about her new book, Lady Justice.  As Al writes, “It profiles heroic women attorneys who stepped up to fight injustice and won!”

I understand why Trump, Republican officials, the far right, Trump supporters and fascists are howling at the moon, upset by Trump getting a legal search warrant authorized by a federal judge because there was probable cause of a crime.  If I had tried to stage an Insurrection coup to overthrow the government and end democracy in the United States, I wouldn’t want the FBI to get a legal search warrant authorized by a federal judge for my home either.  The thing is, I just don’t get the sense that they understand why most others are upset that Trump, Republicans officials, the far right, Trump supporters and fascists tried to stage an Insurrection coup to overthrow the government and end democracy in the United States.
 
One of the howling-at-the-moon cries we’re hearing from Republicans and others on the far right is that “If they can search Trump’s home, they can search YOURS!!!!!  Well – yes, they can.  They always have been able to.  That’s a given, we all know that.  If you commit a crime, they can get a legal search warrant authorized by a judge because of probable cause that a crime was committed at your home.
 
When Hilary Clinton used a personal server to send and receive emails at her home, Trump, Republican officials and the far right howled at the moon that “She put us all at risk” and “Lock her up!  Lock her up!”  But now that Trump has taken boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of documents from the White House, many of which may be classified, some of which may be highly classified and actually “putting us all at risk,” none of which he has the right to be in possession of because they belong to the Office of the President, and he is not the president, it’s so odd that Trump and all these Republican officials and the far right seem to have no recollection that this is something they’re supposed to be outraged at and howling at the moon over.  Things like when Mike Pence tweeted that “.@realDonaldTrump and I commend the FBI for reopening an investigation into Clinton's personal email server because no one is above the law."   Or when Sarah Huckabee tweeted “When you're attacking FBI agents because you're under criminal investigation, you're losing.” 
 
Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was howling at the moon that Attorney General Merrick better remember to save all his records and saying he planned to hold a hearing if Republicans take control of the House.  The thing is, not only is Merrick Garland known for being meticulous and doesn’t need a reminder to save material (especially when the McCarthy charge was made on the same day photos were revealed of Trump tearing up documents and flushing them in his toilet), but I think the very last thing Republicans would want is for all the DOJ confidential documents of their investigation into the Republican coup attempt released to the public.  Including any information they have on Mr. McCarthy.  On the other hand, Democrats would probably be thrilled for such a hearing and release of everything the Justice Department has discovered, whether or not it can yet be charged as a crime.
 
It's understandable that Trump is howling at the moon about how unfair this legal search warrant is.  There’s a lot of fundraising you can do off that.  But if it was actually unfair and showed the FBI acting politically and without reason, he has every legal right to release the official government list of everything that was seized from his home.  For some odd reason, though, he hasn’t done that.
 
I get that Republican officials are so deeply upset at a legal search warrant being used by the FBI --  but when you start howling at the moon how you want to defund the FBI and Department of Justice, it starts to make others wonder what you’re trying to hide.  Putting aside for the moment that undermining the FBI and DOJ is a core principle of fascism, and also ignoring that Republicans have long tried to paint themselves as “The Party of Law and Order” (sic), I have to think that “We want to get rid of the Justice Department and FBI, you’re on  your own” is not a great campaign issue.  Okay, in fairness, I understand why Matt Gaetz is pushing this, he’s under FBI investigation, but it’s just weird for other Republicans.  Or anyone in a civilized society.
 
There's something really odd, too, about Republican officials and the fascist right howling at the moon for how politicized the Department of Justice and FBI were in getting this legal search warrant.  Putting aside how much Trump and Attorney General William Barr literally politicized the DOJ, what's so odd here is how totally unaware the howlers all are that the director of the FBI Christopher Wray was appointed by Trump -- and the judge who signed the search warrant, Bruce Reinhardt, was appointed by...okay, let's all say it together -- Trump.

And finally, some of the loudest howling at the moon by Trump, Pence, Republican officials, and the fascist right is how this legal search warrant, authorized by a federal judge appointed by Trump under an FBI director appointed by Trump, issued to a former president is unprecedented -- absolutely unprecedented!!  But somehow, all that howling noise seems to have blocked out the obvious that a president organizing a coup and leading an Insurrection to overthrow the government and end democracy is why the search was unprecedented -- because a coup attempt by a sitting president is what, above all, is unprecedented -- absolutely unprecedented!  By the way, also unprecedented -- absolutely unprecedented is a president who was impeached twice, said he trusted the Russian dictator more than U.S. intelligence services, gave away classified information in the Oval Office to the Russian Foreign Minster, and tried to get his vice-president hanged. 

But why quibble with reality when you can howl at the moon.