Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The trial begins: “Donald Trump ‘orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt’ the 2016 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors Monday during opening statements in the first-ever criminal trial of a former president. ‘This case is about criminal conspiracy,’ prosecutor Matthew Colangelo told the 12-person jury and six alternates. Trump, he said, conspired to corrupt the 2016 presidential election by conspiring with his lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, who was the publisher of the National Enquirer at the time.”
* As for what to expect, do prosecutors have a mountain against the former president? Yes. Does that guarantee a conviction? No.
* In keeping with recent events, a New York Times reporter inside the courtroom said Trump was “jolted awake“ when his defense attorney “nudged him” during this morning’s proceedings.
* The latest Jan. 6 sentence: “A Jan. 6 defendant who brought a Confederate flag to the Capitol and wore an ‘I [heart] TRUMP’ beanie as he assaulted police officers with chemical spray, partially blinding two of them for hours, was sentenced to 30 months in prison on Monday. Isreal Easterday, 23, was arrested in Florida in December 2022 and was found guilty in October on several counts, including felony charges of civil disorder and assaulting officers.”
* A big win for the UAW: “The United Auto Workers said late Friday that Volkswagen employees in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have overwhelmingly voted to join the union — marking a major milestone for the labor organization and its first successful organizing drive of an automaker outside of Detroit’s Big Three.”
* Earth Day: “President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities. He also plans to expand his New Deal-style American Climate Corps green jobs training program.” * The future of a U.S. airbase is uncertain: “More than 1,000 American military personnel will leave Niger in the coming months, Biden administration officials said on Friday, upending U.S. counterterrorism and security policy in the tumultuous Sahel region of Africa.” * Quite a warning: “U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has handed down her harshest Jan. 6 sentence to date — five-and-a-half years — to Scott Miller, a Maryland man and former Proud Boys leader who assaulted multiple officers in a violent attempt to breach the Capitol. … ‘It can happen again,’ the Obama-appointed judge said. ‘Extremism is alive and well in this country. Threats of violence continue unabated.’” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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