7 Things: Trump/DOJ agree on special master choice, challenge to Alabama’s electoral system fails miserably, and more …

7. New book claims Trump said he wouldn’t leave the White House, but he clearly did

• New York Times journalist and CNN regular commentator Maggie Haberman has announced she’ll be releasing a book about former President Donald Trump and claims Trump told an aide he’s “just not going to leave” the White House after the 2020 presidential election.  

• Haberman also claims that Trump said, “How can you leave when you won an election?” In her book, she also details that Trump allegedly asked Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel, “Why should I leave if they stole it from me?” The book is being used as an example of how Trump planned to sew doubt in the election and it is being suggested that the Jan. 6 committee is interested in the book.

6. Might be time for teachers to get some control over their peers

• In El Paso, Texas, Franklin High School teacher Amber Parker has been fired by the school board for instructing students to refer to pedophiles as “Minor Attracted Persons” during an English lesson.

• The decision to terminate Parker was made after a TikTok video was uploaded with Parker’s comments. Board trustee Daniel Call said Parker was “pretending to advocate a position she didn’t actually believe in order to challenge the students in preparation for them reading the book ‘The Crucible,’” but Parker was heard on recording saying, “Don’t judge people just because they want to have sex with 5-year-olds.” Since the vote to terminate, Call has said, “there were more things that the public may not know about that was included on the closed findings.”

5. Record enrollment at the University of Alabama

• As schools have returned for the fall semester, the University of Alabama has announced that they’ve seen record enrollment for the new school year, with the highest number of students at the school ever- recorded totaling 38,645.

• There has also been an increase in National Merit Scholars in the new freshman class with 322 this year, which represents a 15% increase. President Dr. Stuart Bell said, “As high achieving students graduate and begin their careers or further their education, they demonstrate the incredible value of a UA degree. The many who do so by remaining in Alabama are critical to growing and strengthening our local and state economies.”

4. Method of execution should be the choice of the prisoner

• The execution of Alan Eugene Miller is scheduled for Sept. 22 and he has requested to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, which is not the final decision since it appears the form Miller allegedly completed requesting the alternate form of execution was lost or just never completed. 

• Deputy Alabama Attorney General James Houts has said it’s possible Miller could be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, but Miller’s attorney Mara Klebaner has said Miller shouldn’t be a “test case,” since the execution method has never been used. But didn’t her client ask for this?

3. Alabama is happy with financial position to build more prisons

• Alabama Financial Commissioner Bill Poole has recently commented on Alabama moving forward with building prisons saying, “We are very comfortable with our current position in terms of moving forward with the two prison projects.” Alabama came up short $200 million from where they wanted to be in a bond sale, but the plan will progress. 

• Poole went on to say, “We have sufficient project funds to move forward for at least two to three years.” More funding will be needed in the future, but according to Poole the state isn’t concerned with that issue, and said, “We’re not in a panic. There’s no reason to be concerned at this point. We have ample, we have over $1 billion of project funds at present, so we’re in a very good position to take our time and make sure we handle the financing, the pricing, to keep these projects on time and under budget and financed fully.”

2. Lawsuit against voting machines dismissed, it was garbage all along

• The federal lawsuit against electronic voting machines in Alabama has been dismissed by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Greg Griffin. The lawsuit originated from claims the electronic ballot counting had the potential for tampering. The goal of this lawsuit was to force hand counts of ballots in the general election.

• In his dismissal, Griffin agreed with attorneys for the state the lawsuit has been based on speculation, rather than actual accounts of miscounted votes. 

1. DOJ agrees to Trump’s choice for special master

• Judge Raymond J. Dearie, who has served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, was suggested by former President Donald Trump to be the special master and the Department of Justice agreed. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon will get the final say but an agreement on the person will make this easier for her.

• The issue is not even remotely resolved. The special master will review the 11,000 documents taken during the raid at Mar-a-Lago but there are still concerns about the role, including the number of documents in play, whether or not Trump will provide a list of reasons documents should be blocked from the DOJ for its review, whether the timeline will be the three months Trump wants or Oct. 17 the DOJ wants and who will pay.