Trump Circles Drain as Missouri SEC. of State Held in Contempt, Forced to Use Old Congress Map

0:00Michael Popok:In breaking news, the Secretary of State for the State of Missouri, Danny Hoskins, was found in contempt by the entirety of the Missouri Supreme Court for his actions taken to try to violate their injunction, 7-0, which required him to use a 2022 congressional map for the ballots that are going out in eight days, not a 2025 map led by MAGA loyalists. that would have given the Republicans a seven to one advantage in the Missouri congressional delegation. Now it's going to be five to three, maybe six to two at worst. The Democrats just picked up at least one, if not two seats. The only thing that Danny Heskins avoided today in front of his state Supreme Court is any punishment because they found that he purged his contempt.

0:59Michael Popok:He resolved his contempt by making a statement and instructing election officials to use the 2022 map, which is exactly what the Missouri Supreme Court ordered him to do. And once they saw that he announced that and declared in court that the 2025 map was not operative, had never become operative or lawful because it was never subjected to the referendum of the voters. 300 ,000 voters in Missouri voted to put that map on a ballot. And it was Denny Hoskins that stood in their way. So as soon as they heard that he's instructed, instructed the members of his staff to use the 2022 map coming off the 2020 census, that's how he avoided punishment.

1:48Michael Popok:But he got punished. Wait till I read to you from some of the questions and answers from a very hot and upset Missouri Supreme Court bench. I'm Michael Popak. We're kicking off Friday on Legal AF with this reporting. There's a backstory here. Yesterday, at about 15 minutes or so past 10 a.m., the United States Supreme Court entered an emergency order against Danny Heskins blocking a lower federal district court judge in St. Louis who had ordered that the 2025 maps be used, which was inconsistent with an order by the highest court in Missouri on Missouri law. The Missouri Supreme Court had ruled 7-0, which is hard to do when you've got five Republicans and two Democrats, 7-0 that the 2022 map had to be used, which created at least one more Democratic safe seat.

2:52Michael Popok:So you had these competing orders, but one is by the highest court in the state system and one, a district court judge. The problem for the district court judge is Justice Kavanaugh had already made an earlier emergency ruling siding with the Missouri Supreme Court. Well, the federal judge appointed by Donald Trump didn't care. He said, well, I'm still going to grant an injunction, which is going to enforce the 2025 map, the seven to one Republican map. So the parties that brought the original signed petition to get the ballot, the ballot issue up to the voters, filed an emergency appeal first to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

3:33Two Trump judges out of three voted not to block that district court judge's order, meaning they sided with the 2025 map and Danny Hoskins, which led to another emergency application to Justice Kavanaugh on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the judge gave just about a dozen hours to the Secretary of State of Missouri to file by 10 a.m. on Thursday morning his opposition so that the full court could decide. Two interesting things happened. The Secretary of State was late. He filed his brief after 10 a.m., already violating rules, and within about 15 minutes, one of the fastest deliberations I've ever seen, it was the velocity at which the Supreme Court moved here is breathtaking.

4:2615 minutes, They entered an order against Danny Haskins, blocking for now the ruling of the lower court judge, the trial court judge, meaning siding again with Missouri Supreme Court.

4:41Michael Popok:2022 map, not 2025 map. Now, they left themselves a little out because the Supreme Court likes to do that. They said, well, if the appeal keeps going down below and it ends up with us, we'll kind of reevaluate. But for the midterms, when ballots go out in eight days and we're 53 days away from a midterm election, no, you're not using the 2025 map. But that didn't end the problem. Because while all this was going on, while Denny Hoskins was getting a competing order from a lower federal court judge, it was pissing off the state Supreme Court, including its chief judge, who is a Republican. And the chief judge there, Brent Powell, entered an order to show cause yesterday for Danny Haskins himself to explain why he shouldn't be found in contempt for violating their injunctive order requiring the use of the 2022 map because he'd sent out an email to his staff, the election officials, ordering them to use the 2025 map.

5:43Michael Popok:And then he showed up in court today, right, while the Supreme Court was ruling against him at the United States Supreme Court was ruling against him at that moment. He was in court fighting for his professional life against contempt. And he had to finally fold because he got kicked in the nuts enough and admit that he was only going to use the 2022 map because the United States Supreme Court just told him to. But you got judges there that were not happy with it. For instance, the chief judge said he wanted to hear from Hoskins' attorney, because he had an attorney, William Seidek, about whether he wanted him to say out loud on the record that the 2025 map, which is also known as HB1, House Bill 1, never went into effect.

6:33I want to hear that. And Powell said, I want to make sure that the attorney general and the secretary of state understand that there's nothing that would prevent the holding from being in effect, that HB1 never went into effect. So you had no right to ignore our injunction order. Sadek said that that was the case under state law. Powell also voiced concern about possible future actions trying to resurrect the 2025

6:58Michael Popok:map, because apparently they used that 2025 map in August last month, which is now ineffective. So he said, is the Secretary of State, Danny Hoskins, and your client's intention, if he's successful on appeal, to conduct a second election with that 2025 map? And he didn't like the answer that he got from Danny Hoskins' lawyer. Sydek said, well, there's multiple moving parts and scenarios here. He said, no. He said, well, if a federal court were to issue a new order that went into effect and the secretary would have to comply with the federal court order, and they said, no, you comply with our order about our state constitution and the rules of the road there, that the federal court has no supremacy, has no power to override the Missouri Supreme Court.

7:54Judge Paul Wilson, one of the seven judges, said he wasn't comfortable with the answers that he was getting. He said, quote, what else is there to be considered other than the fact that our injunction of the Missouri Supreme Court, which has never been in effect, is still fully in effect? In other words, you've never respected it. Seidlick told the court that Hoskins was between a rock and a hard place, but he was in a rock and a hard place of his own making

8:20Michael Popok:because he ran to federal court to get an improvident injunction from a federal district court judge when he already knew what the Supreme Court was going to do. I mean, there were no dissent by the United States Supreme Court. Powell, the chief judge, jumped in and said, but because he chose a door, he risked being held in contempt in one of the courts. He picked door number one or door number two. He could have just waited until we got a ruling from the United States Supreme Court. He didn't have to run to federal court. He now made an announcement, and this is what But one of the attorneys for the other side said, he said, I thought we were all going to agree to be adults here today and do what the law required.

9:02I recommend that you tell the local election authorities today that they are to follow your orders and that they are to use what is the law in the state in Chapter 128 and they're not to use House Bill number one.

9:17Michael Popok:And now that's what exactly, because they came back in the afternoon in between that hearing and their order that they announced, Danny Hoskins issued a statement that he was going to use the original map that's already codified and not the new House bill, which was not part of, which is not active or valid because the voters have not voted on it. This is what Catherine Hannaway, the Missouri Attorney General, said. We affirm that the Secretary of State and his position and decision to advise local election authorities that the 2022 map is in effect. We respect and will continue to comply with all court decisions, including orders issued by the Supreme Court of Missouri.

10:03We appreciate Secretary Hoskins' continued commitment to upholding the law and working to fulfill his duties on behalf of Missouri. Is that what he's doing? That's not what the people in the streets of Missouri think as they've been protesting it. This set up a firestorm because it's the crossroads of what's going on in America. We're all Missourians right now. We're all fighting for a proper map and to be heard at voting time. And Donald Trump and MAGA keep poking the bear. They keep grabbing the third rail and electrocuting themselves. We'll continue to follow it. But that's it, folks. Folks, game over for the midterms.

10:422022 map gets used. At least one more Democrat goes to the House from Missouri, maybe even two, because I see a fired up electorate ready to vote for more than one Democrat, which helps the Democrats count to 218, which is what they need to take control of the House. I'm Michael Popak. Voting has started here. Vote early. Vote often. Subscribe to Legal AF. It's all for free. Until my next report, I'm Michael Pofok.

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