WSD Drawings

Breaking News!  Friday, Sept 29 -- one of the 19 Rico co-defendants has pleaded guilty to the charges against him, according to CNBC .  He gets 5 years probation and has agreed to "testify truthfully in this case and all further proceedings." h Scott Hall is a bail bondsman and you can look at his own autobio here . He had built up quite the professional reputation in the bail bonding profession and may have quickly realized that he had better get on the right side as soon as possible after falling under the sway of this foolish ragtag group of Vote-Finders. Ahhh -- this news so satisfying! For so many years, we have become numb to people in power at all levels of government blatantly lie, cheat and steal without any impunity. So much like those Watergate days gone by and yet unlike them -- the MAGA power base is far-reaching and more dangerous than Nixon's Silent Majority. It is also satisfying because I have been working on a bunch of the Atlanta #TrumpTrials defendants...

Judge Cannon is a US District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, nominated by Donald John Trump .  You can read about her undistinguished career here . You might remember that she was the presiding judge in the initial court hearings regarding the classified documents case in Florida. She granted Trump's request for a "Special Master" to review the documents. After much delay and upon appeal, the 11th Circuit found that Cannon wrongly exercised jurisdiction over the case.  Now she has returned to oversee the federal criminal case against Trump for his mishandling of the documents. She has not recused herself, although some legal scholars have called for her to do so. I say, leave her on! Let her try to up the drama -- let's see what happens then! In her official photographic portrait, the judge has every hair in place, every stroke of make-up is perfection. She is pleased to be a judge.  Let us hope that she has the wisdom to listen to her elders in the 11th ...

We will be seeing the most of this judge over the next year of trials, as he is leading the proceedings in the only trial that is being televised/streamed. He was a Bush era appointee but does not appear to be crazily conservative. My sense of him so far is that he is quite aware of the gravity of the proceedings and is not going to be leaning on one side or the other. He put up a lot from Sydney Powell's and Ken Chesebro's attorneys in the one session I watched. But in the end, it felt like he knew they were making their objections and motions on behalf of clients who are in deep trouble.  These are all my speculations based upon fleeting moments of character study as well as deep observation of photographs of the subjects' faces. It will be interesting to record how my reactions might change as the trials move forward.  

She has been very tough on all the Jan 6 defendants who hav landed in her court. Could this be the reason team Trump is calling for Judge Tanya Chutkan to recuse herself? Daughter of a professional dancer and a doctor, Tanya's Wiki bio is well worth the read. I loved drawing this face, and indeed did several versions!  One looked way too much like Rachel Maddow for my tastes. I think this one has the proper solemnity and self-confidence necessary to deal with Donald John Trump in court. Unfortunately, this one will not be televised, but we will look forward to the pool reports and the court room drawings. Is it proper to make sketches based on other artist's sketches?  Seems like a sketchy move!  

  Sydney Powell is what we used to call a wack job. She started life as a lawyer and a prosecuting attorney but took hard veers to the right when she began defending Enron executives, and went full tilt boogie in fighting the Mueller investigation.  If you don't have the time or inclination to read her full Wikipedia entry, this section should suffice: Powell claimed that Flynn was framed by a covert " deep state " operation, [6] [11]  and has promoted personalities and slogans associated with the  QAnon conspiracy theory. She alleged that a secret international cabal involving communists, " globalists ",  George Soros ,  Hugo Chávez  (who died in 2013), the  Clinton Foundation , the  CIA , and thousands of Democratic and Republican officials—including then-Trump ally and  Georgia governor   Brian Kemp —used voting machines to transfer millions of votes away from Trump in the  2020 presidential election . [12] [13] [14]  ...

  John Eastman clerked for Clarence Thomas, need I say more? As I do for each of these characters, I scan Wikipedia for a summary of their lives and careers. I want to figure out how they got to this point of supporting a disgraced president through criminal activities. John Eastman’s resume lists lots of conservative jurisprudence experience. Just reflect on this one little bullet point:  “For the 2020–2021 academic year he was the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy at the Bruce D. Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado Boulder . [32]” Wikipedia Can you imagine taking a class from him?  What would they be studying specifically in Western Culture? Perhaps the fall of Julius Caesar? The rise of fascism in 20th century Europe and Asia?  If anyone has taken a class from Prof Eastman, please feel free to share your class syllabus with us!

Judge Juan Merchan refused to recuse himself when the defense accused him of donating $15 to Biden's campaign. (Yes, that is correct a mere fifteen smackeroos!)  He also had encouraged Trump associate  Allen H. Weisselberg in a previous trial to testify against Trump (which sounds like a positive rather than a negative, unless you are Trump.)  Born in Boghata, Colombia, Juan immigrated with his family to the US when he was 6. He is the first member of his family to graduate from college. He is also the cutest of all the judges so far!  Check out his Wiki bio here . Highlights include presiding over the Trump organization's criminal trial along with Weisselberg, and in November this year, Steve Bannon will be facing him in court for fraud and money-laundering.