January 5, 2018

Our Legal System Is About to Get a Real Workout

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Paul Manafort is suing Robert Mueller for going beyond his remit by prosecuting him for fraud rather than collusion with Russia.

Donald Trump has threatened to sue a publisher over a book he doesn’t like.

Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham are trying to get the FBI to investigate Christopher Steele, the guy who put together the Trump “dossier.”

The FBI has reopened its absurd investigation of the Clinton Foundation.

After James Comey testified before Congress in March, Attorney General Jeff Sessions tasked a staffer with generating “one negative article a day in the news media.”

The American legal system is really getting a workout these days, now that we have a president who sees courts and the Justice Department primarily as tools to take revenge on his enemies. I hope it’s up to the task.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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