Newton's Third Law Hits Washington

There seems to be a slight pattern building recently, most-especially the last few days.  Whether it’s just a matter of timing, or actually has more substance to it, we’ll have to see.  But at the moment --

Yesterday, a federal judge in Wisconsin denied a challenge by Kyle Rittenhouse’s lawyers and ruled instead that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of Anthony Huber who was killed by Rittenhouse in 2020 can proceed.  The suit was filed against Rittenhouse, city officials and police officers.  The challenge was over a claim that Rittenhouse was not properly served, but the judge ruled that that was only because Rittenhouse has clearly been evading service.  In his ruling to let the case go forward, the judge said that Huber’s death “could plausibly be regarded as having been proximately caused by the actions of the governmental defendants.”  The ruling was not on the merits of the case, though made clear that there is a difference between not being convicted of murder and causing the wrongful death of someone.  This would seem to put a temporary hold on the Kyle Rittenhouse Rehabilitation Tour, which was already dealt a blow when then the venue scheduled to hold the big gala event he was planning pulled out when it became clear what was to take place.

Also yesterday, after long being the target of conservative conspiratorialists, lawyers for Hunter Biden went on the offensive and (in the words of the Washington Post) sent “blistering” letters to state and federal prosecutors saying that there should be criminal investigations into Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon and others who publicly disseminated his personal data.  Additional letters were sent to Tucker Carlson and Fox “News” which demanded that falsehoods be corrected at the risk of a defamation lawsuit – something that Fox should probably be used to nowadays.  Further, another letter (with 36 pages of evidence) was sent to the IRS challenging the nonprofit status of the group Marco Polo, run by conservative activist and former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler, who published a bulk of emails allegedly tied to Hunter Biden.   As the Washington Post notes, “The new strategy marks a calculated risk that it is better to forge a combative path and take on Biden’s longtime critics, even if it means inviting more news coverage...”

And after finishing this article, I now have to jump in here again with an addendum that, also today, Congressman Richie Torres just filed an FEC complaint against "George Santos."  Given that the Justice Department has already gotten involved, as well, and that there were House ethic complaints filed against him, it seems that this is just the starting point for his troubles.  Whoever "he" actually is.

Two days ago, a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Trump and two men convicted in the death of Officer Brian Sicknick.  In part, the lawsuit lists what it says are the lies that Trump pushed to claim non-existent election fraud, for which tens of thousands came to Washington, D.C. in response.  And “some were stirred to violence by Defendant Trump’s words on that day."

These four stories the past two days come on the heels of another story two days ago from Arizona.  So, that's five the past two days.  This one concerns dear Kari Lake, a proud graduate of the Mr. MyPillow Humiliate Yourself Symposium. After still refusing to concede and still insisting she won the governor’s race despite her loss being certified, and after tweeting what she claimed was evidence of voter fraud that was almost immediate debunked, and after claiming she could nonetheless call the Arizona legislature to session despite zero authority, Kari Lake has now been referred to the state's Attorney General for criminal investigation by the Secretary of State.  The reason is because that supposed “evidenced” she tweeted copies of was the public exposure of confidential voter signatures, which is against the law.  In fact, an elections expert says this may even be a felony.  Tammy Patrick, Chief Executive for Programs at National Association of Election Administrators, says that “Arizona statute is very clear about when and where a voter signature can be shared or replicated or reproduced, or put online or used in social media.” Though there are a very few exceptions, "When I read the law, it looks to me like that's a felony.”

And somewhat related to this, though from a different angle, a couple of weeks ago a federal judge in Florida got fed up with the frivolous lawsuit tactics of Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba, and jointly fined the pair almost a million dollars.  And then yesterday, Habba announced that she will no longer be representing Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit.  The problem for Ms. Abba is that my guess is this means Trump is not going to help out in paying her portion of the $1 million fine. The further problem for her is that since the fine was joint, and Trump (being Trump) may try to avoid paying anything, that leaves her in quite a financial hole to pay.

I have no idea what will transpire with any of these lawsuits and efforts.  Maybe they all have merit and will succeed.  Maybe some will, maybe none.  We’ll find out. 

More to the point, as I said above, I don’t know if all these instance have come to a head on top of one another because of a matter of timing, or if two years of frustration and mounting evidence, and the January 6 Select Committee hearings on television, and the growing attention on five (at present count) lawsuits against Trump, along with the 900+ guilty convictions and pleas of January 6 Insurrectionists have all pushed this segment of the public from being passive, having to continue watching and listening to Republicans still crying “voter fraud” and denying elections, as Republicans take control of the House of Representatives with promises of impeachments of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and investigations of Secretary of state Anthony Blinken, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the FBI, the Jan. 6 House Select Committee and…and…on and on, and the concept of enough already -- enough is enough – has kicked in, and the time for being passive and taking it quietly is over.  Recognizing that “Actions have consequences” is a real thing – literally, in physics, Newton’s Third Law that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction” – and if you’re going to try to attack the U.S. Capitol, try to overthrow the government, kill people, deny elections, disseminate private information, delay justice with frivolous lawsuits and keep on at it relentlessly for two years with no end in sight, then – enough, there will be pushback, there will be consequences.

I don’t know which it is.  A matter of timing, or Newton’s Law.  I suspect the latter.  And a big reason I suspect that is because I think there will be much more of it.  These aren’t likely the last lawsuits like this we’ll see – against Trump, and his minions.