Damn our weak leaders.

Screw it tho! Swap an agreement to release EPSTEIN FILES for it.
Only need a few crossover votes for trump to soil himself at the prospect.

And:
Who can we get to flip.
What is the going price for sitting US senator.

They should sue Chump directly, am I right? He's the one with the money, the power and the guilt.

EVERYTHING they do stinks of corruption.
“Evil men do as they please;
Men who would be good
must do as they are allowed.”
A Fatal Flaw?
So Far.

Did the 8 Democrats who voted in favor of it know about this? If no, why didn't they read the bill? If yes, then why didn't they demand its removal?

Doubt if any of this was a secret to any sitting US senator.

But if they didn't know, shame on them. What planet do they live on?

Only two ways to slice it and neither one good.

Last edited Tue Nov 11, 2025, 12:46 AM - Edit history (3)

Worse, it apparently allows him to be individually sued for $500,000 if he did not give Senators notice of the subpoena within 60 days (he did not let them know until this year). And that liability would attach regardless of whether the subpoena was properly obtained. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/us/politics/senators-shutdown-smith-phone-searches.html

Because the provision is retroactive to 2022, it would appear to make eligible the eight senators whose phone records were subpoenaed by investigators for Smith as he examined efforts by Trump to obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election on 1/6/2021.

Each violation would be worth at least $500,000 in any legal claim, according to the bill language. The bill would also sharply limit the way the government could resist such a claim, taking away any government claims of qualified or sovereign immunity to fight a lawsuit over the issue.

The Republican senators whose phone records were subpoenaed as part of the investigation were: Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. Representative Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania also had his phone records subpoenaed but would not be eligible because he is a member of the House. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/us/politics/senators-shutdown-smith-phone-searches.html


But these notice requirements did not exist in 2023. Making Smith retroactively liable for $500,000 per senator ($4M total!) is a blatant violation of due process. A retroactive civil law can be challenged under the Due Process Clause of the US Constitution for creating unforeseen liability for past actions, which is the same reasoning for the Constitution’s ban on retroactive (ex post facto) criminal laws.

When it comes to the law and current DOJ he can think circles around those 8 magas.

Just like DOJ paid $5M to insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt's family.

It's all part of Trump's looting of our Treasury.

And don't forget that the DOJ has just lost thousands of lawyers they can't replace.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143563218

This BS is going nowhere in the DC Circuit. These overpaid senators pay out of their own pockets. These federal judges KNOW wtf has gone on in DC, and will not allow these cases to proceed.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143563218

I don't care how powerful you want to believe trump is. He's weak. He's a loser. And they'll lose their lawsuits. Because the bill deprives Smith of his constitutional due process rights by being retroactive. Because of that alone it smacks of allowing malicious prosecution. ffs, get a grip.

We've got a damn good governing party in the Senate which as the minority party, don't forget, just got a shit ton of stuff done in this bill. These mindlessly petty pile ons against our party are bad faith criticisms toward our very excellent party.

All they have to do assert their legal claim/cause of action and what the money they want. DOJ won't fight it, they'll just pay it. The only reason Babbitt's family had to file a lawsuit is because Biden’s DOJ denied their claim.

Thanks.

Something about this doesn't seem legal, though, insofar as the former DOJ doing its job to investigate Jan 6 through its criminal division -- and now to simply make a government claim, though? Something's not right on the rule of law side of this, imo.

GOP senators are no longer just whining about “Arctic Frost,” they’re now giving themselves the ability to file civil lawsuits over the faux controversy.

When the facts aren’t in your favor … replace the facts with lies.

Republicans use spending bill to empower themselves to sue over phone records searches www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— @jimrissmiller.bsky.social 2025-11-11T20:13:01.063Z

Link to tweet

The entire caucus spent DAYS on that bill. All the Democratic Senators had DAYS to change the minds of those you downtalk, but they had important issues to address for Americans and they took a compromise position. Think they didn't know that Jack Smith could handle that BS?

If broke a law and it was their phone, you would think they already could sue. Maybe the reason why is that you can't sue a government worker for doing anything that was legitimately their job and this was allowing them to do so.

However, the fact that they NEED this implies Smith was legitimately doing his job. If so, even if one of these people sue him, wouldn't he make that case to defend the search as reasonable?

If SCOTUS allows this to stand, we might as well ALL pack up and leave the country. It would mean that any legislator in Washington is free to commit crimes while using their phones, and they would never be investigated or prosecuted for it.

Link to tweet