[guest post by Dana]

Appearing to undermine his own claim, CNN made public the audio of Donald Trump discussing classified materials in his possession:

CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where President Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify https://t.co/5KE0TdVzv3 pic.twitter.com/3YgexinSWC

— CNN (@CNN) June 27, 2023

From Politico:

Former President Donald Trump appears to have acknowledged keeping national security documents he did not declassify, according to an audio recording obtained by CNN.

In the two-minute recording, Trump can be heard stating, “these are the papers” while referring to something he calls “highly confidential.”

“This was done by the military and given to me,” Trump said in the recording. “See as president I could have declassified it. Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

Trump describes his “big pile of paper” to people in the room and says, “Isn’t it amazing? … They presented me this — this is off the record.”

Trump responded to the release of the audio as you would expect – he claimed that the audio exonerates him:

The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe. This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!

And this morning:

Good times.

Really, what more can be said about Trump’s reckless handling of sensitive documents, his flippant dismissiveness and denial of the law, his continual flip-flops on what he had in his possession and what he didn’t, as well as the endless layers of lies coming from his mouth, all designed to save himself and confuse (and/or exhaust) the masses. This man has proven that he has absolutely no business being near classified documents, let alone actually getting his grubby little paws on them again. I’m tired, so I’ll just leave it at this: We are indeed electing idiots – and Republicans are posed to do so again:

Because of the situation that we’re in, where we have a major-party candidate who’s trying to unravel our democracy — and I don’t say that lightly — we have to think about, all right, what kinds of alliances are necessary to defeat him, and those are the alliances we’ve got to build across party lines…I really believe, and I’ve never believed something as strongly as I know this, that the single most important thing for the country is that Donald Trump can’t be anywhere near the Oval Office again.

Amen.

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Per SCOTUS majority, “state courts do not have free rein”:

In a major election-law decision, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that although the Constitution gives state legislatures the power to regulate federal elections, state courts can supervise the legislature’s exercise of that power. By a vote of 6-3, the court rejected the so-called “independent state legislature theory,” holding that the North Carolina Supreme Court did not violate the Constitution when it set aside a congressional map adopted by the state’s legislature.

…

In a press release issued shortly after the decision was announced, Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, one of the challengers, called the ruling a “historic victory for the people of North Carolina and for American democracy. Today, the Supreme Court made clear that state courts and state constitutions should serve as a critical check against abuses of power by legislators.”

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the 6-3 opinion. In part:

“Federal courts must not abandon their duty to exercise judicial review.

When state legislatures act pursuant to their Elections Clause authority, they engage in lawmaking subject to the typical constraints on the exercise of such power…In sum, our precedents have long rejected the view that legislative action under the Elections Clause is purely federal in character, governed only by restraints found in the Federal Constitution.”

Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Roberts in the majority.

–Dana