Joyce Alene Profile picture
@UALawSchool |@MSNBC & @NBCNews |Podcasts #SistersInLaw & Cafe Insider|Obama US Atty |25 year fed'l prosecutor |Wife & Mom of 4 |Knits a lot |Now on Substack
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Mar 25 6 tweets 3 min read
1/Last Monday, Trump’s lawyers told the court they had tried—and failed—to get a bond. They asked the court for a stay or an alternative to a full bond. They said “the court may consider ‘any relevant factor, including...any exigency or hardship confronting any party.’” Image 2/So what is the “exigency or hardship”? The Trump team claimed that despite “diligent efforts” "a bond in the judgment's full amount is ‘a practical impossibility.’" The wrote that
the bond requires "reserves approaching $1 billion … is unprecedented for a private company.”
Mar 24 5 tweets 2 min read
1/There is immense Democratic pressure on NJ Senator Menendez to drop out & he seems to be saying he won't run again. But there's been no pressure from his party on Trump, who is now the nominee despite 4 criminal indictments & a massive judgment for engaging in business fraud. 2/Also, two defamation judgments against him where a jury found he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll.

Sometimes it's important to take a step back & think about the things that we know & have watched happen. We stop really considering what they mean because they're so baked in.
Mar 18 5 tweets 2 min read
1/Trump & some of his co-defendants have now asked Judge McAfee for permission to appeal his decision that Fani Willis can stay on the case. Image 2/For there to be an unusual interlocutory appeal—one that occurs before trial—requires approval from Judge McAfee, who has until Monday. If he blesses an appeal, it's still up to the court of appeals to decide if it wants to take the case.
Mar 14 4 tweets 1 min read
1/In the Mar-a-Lago case, Judge Cannon will hear from the lawyers today on Trump’s motions to dismiss the prosecution based on the Presidential Records Act & “unconstitutional vagueness.” I've handled a lot of motions in criminal cases. These are barely better than frivolous. 2/Trump insists he designated the documents as personal records under the PRA so his possession of them was authorized & he can’t be prosecuted for it. But he's never been able to explain how the PRA trumps laws about handling classified & national defense info. It doesn't.
Mar 6 4 tweets 2 min read
1/Tuesday, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg responded to Trump’s motions in limine, which are about what evidence the jury to consider when the case goes to trial on March 25. Trump wants to prevent the DA from making key arguments and offering evidence from important witnesses. 2/Trump wants to keep Michael Cohen from testifying. His reason? He doesn't think Cohen will be believable. But the whole point of a trial is letting a jury hear the evidence & decide where the truth lies. This is their decision to make, both the defendant's in a criminal case.
Mar 1 6 tweets 1 min read
1/ In the Fulton County proceeding to disqualify (DQ) Fani Willis, the defendants arguing for DQ near the burden of proving that it's the judge should remove Willis from the case. What does that mean? 2/ It means that unless the evidence establishes a financial conflict of interest-that's the Georgia law standard for DQ--Willis should stay in the case. And the evidence doesn't establish a financial conflict on Willis' behalf, even if Wade bought her dinner a few times.
Mar 1 5 tweets 1 min read
1/ Decisions about what evidence is admitted at trial is left to the discretion of the trial judge. For the classified documents case, that means Judge Cannon gets to decide what evidence Jack Smith can introduce. 2/Decisions against the gov't on evidence aren't subject to review on appeal if a defendant is acquitted. Once a jury is sworn in, double jeopardy attaches & a defendant who is acquitted can't be retried. If a judge excludes essential evidence & the jury acquits, that's it.
Feb 29 8 tweets 2 min read
1/Yesterday, the Supreme Court told us that it will hear Trump's presidential immunity appeal. After sitting on the request for two and a half weeks, they've issued a brief grant of certiorari, scheduling argument for the week of April 22. Image 2/The case could have been handled more quickly, especially because the issue before the Court isn’t difficult: either presidents can commit crimes to stay in office or they can’t. The timeline here is a choice by the Justices that gives Trump at least two more months of delay.
Feb 22 5 tweets 2 min read
1/I wrote about the Alabama Sup Ct decision holding couples could sue under a wrongful death statute for negligence in destroying embryos, frozen for use in IVF. The decision accepted the view that the embryos qualify as “lives.” Image 2/It took 5 days for UAB, a major university hospital, to shut down its IVF program. Although this case is only about civil liability under the Wrongful Death statute, it could be applied in other contexts, perhaps even extending to criminal prosecutions. nbcnews.com/health/health-…
Feb 1 7 tweets 2 min read
1/While the House GOP refuses to move ahead with immigration legislation, Texas has stepped into the breach. TX wants to take over from the fed'l gov't & implement its own policy, even when it leads to migrants dying as they attempt to cross the border. cbp.gov/newsroom/natio… 2/The current immigration challenge by Governor Abbott is over Texas’s installation of razor wire along a 29-mile stretch of the border, preventing federal agents from access to the border near Eagle Pass, Texas. Bear with me on the legal quagmire that followed. Image
Jan 24 4 tweets 1 min read
1/On July 31, 2018, I was driving through New Hampshire to drop our youngest kid off at camp. He was already feeling homesick so we stopped to get a nice last deli lunch. The TV was on Fox. Midway thru lunch, the chyron showed Justice Kennedy had just, unexpectedly, resigned. 2/It was such a gut punch because it meant Trump would get to reshape the SCOTUS majority. What hit even harder was how happy the people around me seemed to be. They were pro-Trump. By this point, it was well known Trump was separating families at the border.
Jan 22 4 tweets 2 min read
1/ Fani Willis' lawyer made the point there's no need for her testimony because info about the Wade's finances is better obtained from the parties to the divorce. The Judge suspended her depo until he hears Wade's testimony. Increasingly, this looks like a political stunt. 2/ Michael Roman, the defendant who moved to dismiss his & Trump's prosecution because of Willis & Wade's alleged relationship is a long time GOP campaign operative whose past is worth underscoring. joycevance.substack.com/p/mike-roman-p…
Jan 20 8 tweets 3 min read
1/Senators John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, cosponsored S. 3250, “An Act to provide remote access to court proceedings for victims of the 1988 Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.” Image 2/ S. 3250 was introduced in the Senate on 11/8/23 & passed by unanimous consent on 12/6. It cleared the House Thursday. Now it just needs President Biden’s signature. Once that happens, the bill, as they say, will become a law. Image
Jan 18 8 tweets 2 min read
1/Donald Trump Says Nikki Haley can’t be president. He's advanced the argument that the former South Carolina Governor and his own ambassador to the United Nations isn’t eligible to hold office because she’s not a “natural born citizen.” He's wrong. But it's worse than that. Image 2/I wrote about it for @cafedotcom I know it's behind a paywall but I hope you'll read it anyhow. Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution establishes the eligibility criteria to be president. cafe.com/notes-from-con…
Jan 10 8 tweets 2 min read
1/Donald Trump made some predictable comments after yesterday morning's oral argument. As he finished, a reporter shouted out a request that he use the moment to tell his followers, “No violence.” The former president walked out of the room without responding. Image 2/That was the only exchange he was in control of yesterday. The top line from the argument: a broad consensus among observers that the panel didn’t buy Trump’s immunity argument. None of the Judges seemed to believe Trump should be immune from prosecution.
Dec 28, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
1/ Jack Smith filed a motion in limine Wednesday morning. That's a type of motion used to obtain a pre-trial ruling from the judge regarding the admissibility of certain types of evidence at trial. The motion gives us insight into what Smith expects Trump's team to do at trial. Image 2/Decisions about the admissibility of evidence are within the trial judge’s discretion. They are only reversible error (the kind that can invalidate a conviction) if the court of appeals believes the judge abused their discretion when they admitted a piece of evidence. This means prosecutors must be careful. On the one hand, they must ensure they can put in all of the evidence that is essential to prove their case. But they must also take care that they don’t push the envelope too far when it comes to either admitting their evidence or efforts to exclude evidence a defendant wants to offer.
Dec 25, 2023 4 tweets 1 min read
1/ An important insight about voting, to share with folks around you who say Biden is too old or not their perfect candidate: choosing not to vote is as much participation in the outcome of the election as voting is. 2/Biden will need to win with overwhelming numbers as protection against what will come from Trump in the wake of a loss. We do all remember January 6, right?
Dec 22, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
1/Supreme Court tells Jack Smith no--they won't jump over the court of appeals and consider Trump's immunity motion expeditiously Image 2/This is bad news for Judge Chutkan's March trial date, because even if the court of appeals rules quickly, Trump gets 90 days to file for cert, and he can ask for the full appellate court to rehear the appeal en banc, with all of the judges present, as an intermediary step.
Dec 19, 2023 9 tweets 3 min read
1/Depending on where you live, it may seem impossible for the country to reelect Donald Trump. I hear that from a lot of people. But the truth is, it’s not. Some of our fellow citizens, inexplicably, do not see the fraud & risk of fascism in front of them. Here's Reno last Sunday Image 2/Trump told the crowd in Reno: “We're going to win 4 more years in the White House, then after that we'll negotiate. Based on the way I was treated; we're probably entitled to another four after that." That's the leading GOP candidate saying he'll end the Constitution.
Dec 11, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
1/Jack Smith got into Trump's phone & the expert who did it will testify to “the usage of these phones throughout the post-election period, including on and around January 6, 2021,” when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol... politico.com/news/2023/12/1… 2/...after Trump urged them to fight to “stop the steal.” The expert’s review also included “analyzing images found on the phones and websites visited.”

Really bad news for Trump.
Dec 11, 2023 8 tweets 2 min read
1/In Trump’s DC criminal case 2 motions will compete for our attention this week. First, Trump’s motion for a stay while his appeal of rulings against him on immunity & double jeopardy are on appeal. Second, Trump’s motion for additional discovery from the government. 2/The stay dispute is over a Supreme Court case called Griggs v. Provident Consumer Discount, which says that when one party in a case takes an appeal, it takes away the district court’s ability to proceed as to “aspects of the case involved in the appeal.”