Tonight Lawrence O'Donnell said that "No one is above the law is a myth that endured for 248 years" in American history. We saw this coming, but today we know that officially the category exists of persons who are above the law in the American judicial system. What comes next is the clarification of what persons occupy that category. Only presidents? Only presidents with billionaire backing? Also billionaires who can afford the delay delay delay strategy indefinitely? I also blame Mitch McConnell--for what he personally did to the Court, and then what he personally did in managing the Senate not to convict on the second impeachment--when they all agreed he had committed crimes--while arguing that Trump was not getting away with anything because we have civil and criminal justice systems in this country. How is he sleeping now? The stain McConnell has left on America is also a stench.
If he ever gets around to it, and if he decides that it wouldn’t be “right”. He’s such an institutional it’s, and still believes in the rules of the game. It is a new game, and the MAGAS have no rules except their own.
Exactly right. Robert's fine essay omits one key player in this travesty of justice, Biden. He also failed to call for immediate prosecution for the traitorous actions of trump and his lackey crew. And, rather than appoint a real, qualified AG, he chose Garland. Presumably, it was to assuage his feelings after Moscow Mitch's hideous performance. Sally Yates would have been the obvious superior choice.
But, Old Joe, playing by rules that changed in the 1980s, failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation. His most serious failure as our otherwise good President.
You got that one right. It's not clear whether Garland is a member of the Federalist Society or not. But he is involved with them, and that should have made it clear to both Obama and Biden that he should not be appointed to anything.
The counter could be that the Federalist Society wanted to appear "somewhat" neutral by having panels moderated by someone who has always been considered a judge's judge.
A genuine institutionalist would zealously protect the *institutions*. Garland, Biden, Schumer, and others adopted hands-off policies, acting as though they thought American institutions could, on their own, survive attacks and determined undermining.
I have much more anger at McConnell .. To me he is disgusting. His need to hold onto power is the most important thing in hs life. All his talk about being an institutionalist and preserving the integrity of the Senate was BS. We wouldn't be in this nightmare if he would have convicted Trump at his last impeachment. He was afraid of losing the Maga votes and not being able to get the majority again. Yes Garland turned out to be a disapointment . How do they live with themselves ?
McConnell sleeps like a baby -- rotten to the core ---- This is what we call someone with a major character disorder ---- they do NOT feel shame, guilt, remorse.
Mitch McConnell sleeps very well because he represents the faction of the founding fathers and mothers who shamelessly believed that some where above the law and others were only subject to their dominion. Dominion involves a helluva lot of goalpost moving, but it’s apparently worth it to keep your entitled position and narrative-framing control. We need to wrest our minds away from the myth of what America, -with the largest military in the world, in the history of the world- ever really was about. We functioned as community-minded, altruistic, do-unto-others Citizens. But that’s not the game. We’ve been played. Now what?
My eyes have certainly been opened. Everything I was taught to believe about America was a lie. Equality? Freedom? Justice? Only for white anglo-saxon men of property. That is who America was founded for. Women? Minorities? The Poor? Anyone who doesn't control the means of production? Not so much.
Lady Liberty in NY Harbor is weeping, torch fallen and extinguished. I weep with her, but my rightrighteous anger is compelling me to action. Sherrod Brown may have lost, but all of my down ballot candidates and my congressman, Greg Landsman, won. I will not stop fighting for this country that I cherish and her people of all colors.
The "American story" had not ended - it was in progress. The sad thing is that we've (the people) enabled a group who is dedicated to maintaining their power and, in doing so, are taking us backward. Unfortunately, I also suspect that it's going to be harder and take longer to get back to where we were, if it's at all possible.
Try not to give up, even in your mind, Kim. Remember Robert's thoughts about 2026 and the disgust American citizens are going to feel after they realize they've been duped! However long it takes - that is how long we have to fight back!
In hindsight, it was Obama's failure to enforce (with the public and the Courts) the Senate's constitutional obligation to provide Advice & Consent that allowed McConnell to complete the next step in the slow motion Authoritarian coup.
Garland would have been world's better than Gorsuch. At least Garland does not appear to be in thrall to our uniquely self centered 47th president. Unlike Bondi, for example.
Garland has a judge’s sensibility and not a prosecutor’s. He would have made a far better SCOTUS Justice than he did as the AG, but that’s a pretty low bar. Kamala Harris would’ve made a far better AG than President, though she would have been fine in the Oval Office.
He’s sleeping just fine. They have it all! And the Democrats just wring their hands and are told “it’s up to us.” Why is it never “up to the GQP” to have to win the hard way????
I lifted this verbatim from the comment section of Joyce Vance's Newsletter tonight. It was posted there by Eric Lin Doub. I think it bears repeating here for anyone who didn't see it already.
"The future is bigger than our imaginations. It’s unimaginable, and then it comes anyway. To meet it we need to keep going, to walk past what we can imagine. We need to be unstoppable. And here’s what it takes: you don’t stop walking to congratulate yourself; you don’t stop walking to wallow in despair; you don’t stop because your own life got too comfortable or too rough; you don’t stop because you won; you don’t stop because you lost. There’s more to win, more to lose, others who need you.
"You don’t stop walking because there is no way forward. Of course there is no way. You walk the path into being, you make the way, and if you do it well, others can follow the route. You look backward to grasp the long history you’re moving forward from, the paths others have made, the road you came in on. You look forward to possibility. That’s what we mean by hope, and you look past it into the impossible and that doesn’t stop you either. But mostly you just walk, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. That’s what makes you unstoppable."
C C, Thank you for reposting Solnit’s gorgeous text. While I lack the acumen to summon such impactful exposition, I would note the resilience I’ve been able to muster these past couple of weeks rests solely with engaging with fellow Indivisibles who are laser-focused on the fight at the local, county, state, and federal levels to preserve the institutions that were created to ensure democracy somehow still prevails. To learn more, visit indivisible.org
I venture to say, this means to focus on 2025 and the consequential upcoming elections in Virginia, with the entire General Assembly competing for seats! Also, replacing our R governor with Abigail Spanberger.
Absolutely! The only piece I would add is that Indivisibles have a two-year plan that includes doing all we can to ensure free and fair midterm elections. Once we overcome that hurdle, we’ll regroup and focus on 2027-28.
Bravo Rebecca! Movement is everything! We took stock on why we are where we are. So pick yourselves up off the floor and move forward. Movement will replace the anger into action. This is a weak administration. Trump won’t last, No one does. We have a history of corruption that needs attending to. Merrick Garland needs to pay for his actions that lead us to this point. How? We move. One foot in front of the other. Until we stand at the doorstep of our forefathers demanding justice for America.
Thank you for so eloquently voicing my disgust with where we find ourselves.
We cannot give up or stop, but it is very discouraging in this moment.
I will be giving thanks to you and the others in the Substack community that I have come to depend on to help me keep my sanity during these very sad times.
Right now, I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone, that other dimension that we know is there, but either can't or won't accept as really existing because it is too frightening. I feel for the members of the Congressional January 6th Committee and those who testified against Trump, those brave souls who risked career and life to bring the facts of the insurrection and Trump's nefarious deeds to light. God bless them! And God help us!
I thank you for expressing our shared outrage to the 6 undeserving SCOTUS members, AG Garland .the billionaire supported criminal who is the worst president in US History and Mitch McConnell too. The rule of law and constitution are our Democratic spine. I come to this community for clarity and hope . I am so grateful
Precisely on point. We have handed over our representative democracy to billionaires, who feel entitled to rule the world and they have been aided and abetted by the SCOTUS, whose justices have been rewarded handsomely by billionaires who buy them with luxuries.
I share your thorough disgust with the abandonment of these felonies. There is however an unmentioned "dismissal without prejudice" which means the cases can be picked up once the shithead is out of office. The cases were filed before the statutes of limitations lapsed so they will forever be on time. I would have thought Smith would have asked for an abatement while the perp is in office but without prejudice serves the same purpose. The DOJ rule you cite mentions indictments and prosecutions not being initiated while in office. Those stages were met while he was out of office. There is-even with the dismissals without prejudice- that Trump may try to pardon himself putting a knife into cases forever but as all of knows, that ability has never been tested in the court and especially not the Supreme Court.
"The cases were filed before the statutes of limitations lapsed so they will forever be on time." I didn't know that. Thank you for this small nugget of consolation.
If there is a way for Trump's AG to alter that, I'm sure they will. Plus, as you say there is always the self pardon and so long as it doesn't affect the power of the SCOTUS I suspect they'd approve it. In fact, I am beginning to suspect the real limitations to Trump's power will turn out to be that he can do pretty much what he wants to the rest of the executive branch and the legislative branch so long as he doesn't threaten the power the SCOTUS has abrogated to itself.
I believe Jack Smith's decision may have been the best of a bad lot. If I'm not mistaken, he has to report on the cases to Congress, and could lay out much of the evidence there, and it could become public. That being said, while it would be satisfying to us, may not accomplish much.
I don't think the statute of limitations question is clear-cut, and trump will find a way to evade it. Doesn't dismissal put them back on the original clock?
Here is a link to a substack that goes into detail about the legal reasoning behind what Jack Smith did. So far an awful lot of the response (even from people I think highly of) has been almost knee-jerk and alarmist reaction, which disappoints me. Read this to get a clearly written step-by-step description of the process Jack Smith went through in making this decision. Given the circumstances, it really is the best route to preserve the possibility of holding Trump accountable after he is no longer president. What WE need to do is the work to make sure that he is followed by a president who will work to move us back toward the kind of government laid out in the Constitution.
All of the blame belongs to Merrick Garland, the DOJ, and the Supreme Court.
Not all.
Joseph R. Biden, whose Irish stubbornness wouldn't allow him to see that the political strategy of "go along to get along" that he had followed all his life was obsolete, who refused to see the true murderous nature of the modern Republican Party and thought he could still make deals with the gargoyles, as he had since being elected to the Senate 52 years ago, bears the ultimate responsiblity for this since he was the one who placed Garland in the exact job he was incompetent to hold. There is no getting around the fact that today is the greatest defeat of democracy in the 248 year history of the American democratic constitutional republic. The cornerstone - that no man is above the law - has been removed from the structure. How long can the rest stand without it?
I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons on October 5, 1938, regarding the Munich agreement:
"I will, therefore, begin by saying the most unpopular and most unwelcome thing. I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely, that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat..."
Tough words that are hard to hear. But thank you for saying them, TC. We need to consider what TCinLA has written, even if we disagree or don’t like it.
TC; I wholeheartedly agree with you about Biden allowing this debacle to fester and not taking corrective action. He should have fired Garland early on and replaced him with Sally Q Yates.
I assume Garland will eventually write some pious piece extolling the nobility of his actions. He follows James Comey's path in choosing his ego over his duty thereby sacrificing the constitution he took an oath to uphold. And I wonder if Roberts will one day at last understand how much more damage he has done to the Court than any of the prior Chief Justices in the past 75 years?
Thank you for expressing my rage so succinctly. The ubiquity of malign characters coagulating around the most despicable President in our history is surreal. In every branch of government, a critical mass of them seems to have materialized all at the same time to come to the rescue of the least deserving person imaginable. And a Democratic appointee, Merrick the Invertebrate Garland, made this round happen. I just do not understand. This is not the country I thought I was living in.
I have been wondering if garland is actually maga. What a useless public non-servant. What a poor sense of citizenship, leadership, justice and the law. What a waste he has been. Roberts and the rest of the maga justices are a disgrace and a danger
to us all. But I don’t think they care about the constitution or democracy or decency.
I know. Everyone seems to blame his reverence for DOJ policy but really that seems hardly enough to account for the unwillingness to take any steps early on. It almost seems like he must have been given a little visit by someone who persuaded him in whatever way. He does have memberships and contacts which could have imparted a tint to his world view and added a little reinforcement to his (apparent) natural tendency to avoid political conflicts.
My view is that Garland – and Biden, and perhaps many other Democrats – aspired to be gentlemanly and kind, to set an example for the nation. They evidently didn’t realize or take into account the fact that Trump and his kind view such highmindedness as *weakness*, and thus have taken advantage of Democratic tactical weaknesses.
Unfortunately, Democratic politicians and officeholders need to have a bit of streetfighter in them.
Janice, If Neville Chamberlin had not actually met with Hitler to appease him publicly; and simply stepped to the side and allowed Hitler’s plan to unfold without opposition, would his legacy be any less naive and cowardly? Or would he be joining Garland on a slightly different wall of shame and ineffectiveness?
Insurrections require the general who leads the troops and the head of the palace guard who withholds the defending troops and reinforcements. Both leaders are insurrectionists. Our head of state withheld our reinforcements and commanded the assault (albeit in veiled terms they and we all saw through). He helped plan, incite, and participated in an insurrection with aid and later gave comfort to and then defended with falsehoods those caught and imprisoned and now promises to release them from the penalties our legal system imposed. He is an insurrectionist and should not be in any governmental office.
"...that the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court failed to protect American democracy against a hostile takeover by a convicted felon who sought the presidency to escape justice" doesn't even scratch the surface of the dire straits the US and indeed the world find itself after the elections.
All eyes are still on the felon who very well was motivated to use the Presidency as a 'get out of jail' card. But what brought us here is the poisonous mix of big money, religious zealotry, fascist ideology and, yes, also the plain ignorance, stupidity and a misleading but longtime nurtured sense of patriotism and nationalism (where in the world would someone adore a leader who is humping the flag?) of a good part of the electorate.
The Supreme Court and the Justices are certainly not to 'blame' for any oversight, mistake or dereliction of duty. Quite to the contrary, they simply did the job assigned to them. They are already part of the plot, put in place by an expert operation set into motion by the Federalist Society decades ago and completed by Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in Congress.
So the real blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Merrick Garland – and also the Biden administration. Not reigning in an AG who obviously refused to investigate an insurrection out of concerns to appear partisan was a huge mistake.
Thank you, Robert. Interestingly, today I have been in a mood to resolve differences and not blame those that are to blame. That never got us anywhere. I am sticking to this until it bites me in the proverbial “arse”. Thank you for your continued efforts to keep us sane. You’re my go-to for that and tonight you are my connection to the news. I have been inundated with finishing work assignments so that I might enjoy family and friends this weekend. So your newsletter caught me off-guard.
Be well and I hope you and your wonderful family have a wonderful Thanksgiving or as wonderful as one can have not knowing what the future holds.
Lets hope all the evidence is released for posterity. The House Committee hearings need to be re broadcast. Our collective memories are overloaded with what comes at us.
Tonight Lawrence O'Donnell said that "No one is above the law is a myth that endured for 248 years" in American history. We saw this coming, but today we know that officially the category exists of persons who are above the law in the American judicial system. What comes next is the clarification of what persons occupy that category. Only presidents? Only presidents with billionaire backing? Also billionaires who can afford the delay delay delay strategy indefinitely? I also blame Mitch McConnell--for what he personally did to the Court, and then what he personally did in managing the Senate not to convict on the second impeachment--when they all agreed he had committed crimes--while arguing that Trump was not getting away with anything because we have civil and criminal justice systems in this country. How is he sleeping now? The stain McConnell has left on America is also a stench.
He doesn’t care. He is a disgrace to humanity.
Trump threats of recrimination. As a preemptive matter, Biden can issue tens of thousands of pardons -- to people like us.
He just pardoned two turkeys.....
If he ever gets around to it, and if he decides that it wouldn’t be “right”. He’s such an institutional it’s, and still believes in the rules of the game. It is a new game, and the MAGAS have no rules except their own.
Exactly right. Robert's fine essay omits one key player in this travesty of justice, Biden. He also failed to call for immediate prosecution for the traitorous actions of trump and his lackey crew. And, rather than appoint a real, qualified AG, he chose Garland. Presumably, it was to assuage his feelings after Moscow Mitch's hideous performance. Sally Yates would have been the obvious superior choice.
But, Old Joe, playing by rules that changed in the 1980s, failed to grasp the seriousness of the situation. His most serious failure as our otherwise good President.
You got that one right. It's not clear whether Garland is a member of the Federalist Society or not. But he is involved with them, and that should have made it clear to both Obama and Biden that he should not be appointed to anything.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/civpro/2016/03/judge-merrick-garland-was-a-repeat-moderator-for-federalist-society-events.html
And unfortunately, this mistake of Biden's is potentially huge. I guess we'll see in around four years what the outcome is.
The counter could be that the Federalist Society wanted to appear "somewhat" neutral by having panels moderated by someone who has always been considered a judge's judge.
Garland WAS qualified. He was just too much of an institutionalist. The moment called for an attack dog, not an institutionalist.
A genuine institutionalist would zealously protect the *institutions*. Garland, Biden, Schumer, and others adopted hands-off policies, acting as though they thought American institutions could, on their own, survive attacks and determined undermining.
I have much more anger at McConnell .. To me he is disgusting. His need to hold onto power is the most important thing in hs life. All his talk about being an institutionalist and preserving the integrity of the Senate was BS. We wouldn't be in this nightmare if he would have convicted Trump at his last impeachment. He was afraid of losing the Maga votes and not being able to get the majority again. Yes Garland turned out to be a disapointment . How do they live with themselves ?
Garland is a lot more than a disappointment. He is an absolute failure!
Agreed. His name will live in infamy.
Seriously, what an utter weak spined AG...
I agree about McConnell. His just for power, and for kowtoeing to his corporate donors has done untold damage to the judiciary and to democracy.
McConnell sleeps like a baby -- rotten to the core ---- This is what we call someone with a major character disorder ---- they do NOT feel shame, guilt, remorse.
McConnell was in on it. His claim that the courts could handle his criminality was political theater. He knew that they would rule in his favor.
Mitch McConnell sleeps very well because he represents the faction of the founding fathers and mothers who shamelessly believed that some where above the law and others were only subject to their dominion. Dominion involves a helluva lot of goalpost moving, but it’s apparently worth it to keep your entitled position and narrative-framing control. We need to wrest our minds away from the myth of what America, -with the largest military in the world, in the history of the world- ever really was about. We functioned as community-minded, altruistic, do-unto-others Citizens. But that’s not the game. We’ve been played. Now what?
My eyes have certainly been opened. Everything I was taught to believe about America was a lie. Equality? Freedom? Justice? Only for white anglo-saxon men of property. That is who America was founded for. Women? Minorities? The Poor? Anyone who doesn't control the means of production? Not so much.
Lady Liberty in NY Harbor is weeping, torch fallen and extinguished. I weep with her, but my rightrighteous anger is compelling me to action. Sherrod Brown may have lost, but all of my down ballot candidates and my congressman, Greg Landsman, won. I will not stop fighting for this country that I cherish and her people of all colors.
The "American story" had not ended - it was in progress. The sad thing is that we've (the people) enabled a group who is dedicated to maintaining their power and, in doing so, are taking us backward. Unfortunately, I also suspect that it's going to be harder and take longer to get back to where we were, if it's at all possible.
Try not to give up, even in your mind, Kim. Remember Robert's thoughts about 2026 and the disgust American citizens are going to feel after they realize they've been duped! However long it takes - that is how long we have to fight back!
In hindsight, Mitch McConnell keeping President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court 'Merrick Garland' on the sidelines wasn't such a bad thing.
I am not so sure. Garland did considerably more harm as AG than he could do sitting on the SCOTUS bench.
It appears the general consensus is that your hypothetical trumps mine.
Completely agree with you, Stefan.
In hindsight, it was Obama's failure to enforce (with the public and the Courts) the Senate's constitutional obligation to provide Advice & Consent that allowed McConnell to complete the next step in the slow motion Authoritarian coup.
I concur. But that would require democrats to possibly make someone angry.
Well, no. The President cannot force a co-ordinate branch of government to vote on a nominee.
I think the term is advise and consent.
He'd have been a better Justice, he couldn't be worse.
Oh, but it was. Garland on the bench would have been far better than Gorsuch, and Biden would have picked someone else for AG.
Garland would have been world's better than Gorsuch. At least Garland does not appear to be in thrall to our uniquely self centered 47th president. Unlike Bondi, for example.
Garland has a judge’s sensibility and not a prosecutor’s. He would have made a far better SCOTUS Justice than he did as the AG, but that’s a pretty low bar. Kamala Harris would’ve made a far better AG than President, though she would have been fine in the Oval Office.
You've got that right. It's a shame Biden didn't make her AG.
Garland was the federal prosecutor in the case Oklahoma City bombing case.
Robert and Lawrence O'Donnell have now officially buried the myth. A sad day for sure.
He’s sleeping just fine. They have it all! And the Democrats just wring their hands and are told “it’s up to us.” Why is it never “up to the GQP” to have to win the hard way????
I totally agree, Susan, that the initial blame falls heavily on McConnell.
I lifted this verbatim from the comment section of Joyce Vance's Newsletter tonight. It was posted there by Eric Lin Doub. I think it bears repeating here for anyone who didn't see it already.
"The future is bigger than our imaginations. It’s unimaginable, and then it comes anyway. To meet it we need to keep going, to walk past what we can imagine. We need to be unstoppable. And here’s what it takes: you don’t stop walking to congratulate yourself; you don’t stop walking to wallow in despair; you don’t stop because your own life got too comfortable or too rough; you don’t stop because you won; you don’t stop because you lost. There’s more to win, more to lose, others who need you.
"You don’t stop walking because there is no way forward. Of course there is no way. You walk the path into being, you make the way, and if you do it well, others can follow the route. You look backward to grasp the long history you’re moving forward from, the paths others have made, the road you came in on. You look forward to possibility. That’s what we mean by hope, and you look past it into the impossible and that doesn’t stop you either. But mostly you just walk, right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot. That’s what makes you unstoppable."
Rebecca Solnit
C C, Thank you for reposting Solnit’s gorgeous text. While I lack the acumen to summon such impactful exposition, I would note the resilience I’ve been able to muster these past couple of weeks rests solely with engaging with fellow Indivisibles who are laser-focused on the fight at the local, county, state, and federal levels to preserve the institutions that were created to ensure democracy somehow still prevails. To learn more, visit indivisible.org
I venture to say, this means to focus on 2025 and the consequential upcoming elections in Virginia, with the entire General Assembly competing for seats! Also, replacing our R governor with Abigail Spanberger.
Absolutely! The only piece I would add is that Indivisibles have a two-year plan that includes doing all we can to ensure free and fair midterm elections. Once we overcome that hurdle, we’ll regroup and focus on 2027-28.
Rebecca Solnit for the win.
Bravo Rebecca! Movement is everything! We took stock on why we are where we are. So pick yourselves up off the floor and move forward. Movement will replace the anger into action. This is a weak administration. Trump won’t last, No one does. We have a history of corruption that needs attending to. Merrick Garland needs to pay for his actions that lead us to this point. How? We move. One foot in front of the other. Until we stand at the doorstep of our forefathers demanding justice for America.
Your excerpt from Joyce Vance’s newsletter, CC, reminds me of an old Japanese saying: “Fall down seven times; stand up eight.”
I already had copied this from Joyce Vance's comments and pasted onto a word doc that I will refer to frequently.
From Caminante…..
a poem by Antonio Machado
Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
Yes, we must keep walking, together.
Even when we require the assistance of brace or cane or chair with wheels.
YES!
Thank you. I needed this.
Thank you for so eloquently voicing my disgust with where we find ourselves.
We cannot give up or stop, but it is very discouraging in this moment.
I will be giving thanks to you and the others in the Substack community that I have come to depend on to help me keep my sanity during these very sad times.
Right now, I feel like I'm living in the Twilight Zone, that other dimension that we know is there, but either can't or won't accept as really existing because it is too frightening. I feel for the members of the Congressional January 6th Committee and those who testified against Trump, those brave souls who risked career and life to bring the facts of the insurrection and Trump's nefarious deeds to light. God bless them! And God help us!
I thank you for expressing our shared outrage to the 6 undeserving SCOTUS members, AG Garland .the billionaire supported criminal who is the worst president in US History and Mitch McConnell too. The rule of law and constitution are our Democratic spine. I come to this community for clarity and hope . I am so grateful
for your honesty and guidance.
Precisely on point. We have handed over our representative democracy to billionaires, who feel entitled to rule the world and they have been aided and abetted by the SCOTUS, whose justices have been rewarded handsomely by billionaires who buy them with luxuries.
I just keep seeing the photo of Elon, with his belly exposed, jumping for joy at the Trump rally. Ugh...
Look away!!
Kathy, “…..Dixieland”?
Sickening!
I share your thorough disgust with the abandonment of these felonies. There is however an unmentioned "dismissal without prejudice" which means the cases can be picked up once the shithead is out of office. The cases were filed before the statutes of limitations lapsed so they will forever be on time. I would have thought Smith would have asked for an abatement while the perp is in office but without prejudice serves the same purpose. The DOJ rule you cite mentions indictments and prosecutions not being initiated while in office. Those stages were met while he was out of office. There is-even with the dismissals without prejudice- that Trump may try to pardon himself putting a knife into cases forever but as all of knows, that ability has never been tested in the court and especially not the Supreme Court.
"The cases were filed before the statutes of limitations lapsed so they will forever be on time." I didn't know that. Thank you for this small nugget of consolation.
If there is a way for Trump's AG to alter that, I'm sure they will. Plus, as you say there is always the self pardon and so long as it doesn't affect the power of the SCOTUS I suspect they'd approve it. In fact, I am beginning to suspect the real limitations to Trump's power will turn out to be that he can do pretty much what he wants to the rest of the executive branch and the legislative branch so long as he doesn't threaten the power the SCOTUS has abrogated to itself.
Good analysis. Thanks!
I believe Jack Smith's decision may have been the best of a bad lot. If I'm not mistaken, he has to report on the cases to Congress, and could lay out much of the evidence there, and it could become public. That being said, while it would be satisfying to us, may not accomplish much.
I don't think the statute of limitations question is clear-cut, and trump will find a way to evade it. Doesn't dismissal put them back on the original clock?
Nope. It simply moves the clock back so it opens up again when Trump is not president. The indictment doesn't go away.
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/jack-smith-seeks-to-preserve-the?publication_id=1669845&post_id=152152615&isFreemail=true&r=2xvjl&triedRedirect=true
I am not an attorney and was unaware of that. Thank you.
Here is a link to a substack that goes into detail about the legal reasoning behind what Jack Smith did. So far an awful lot of the response (even from people I think highly of) has been almost knee-jerk and alarmist reaction, which disappoints me. Read this to get a clearly written step-by-step description of the process Jack Smith went through in making this decision. Given the circumstances, it really is the best route to preserve the possibility of holding Trump accountable after he is no longer president. What WE need to do is the work to make sure that he is followed by a president who will work to move us back toward the kind of government laid out in the Constitution.
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/jack-smith-seeks-to-preserve-the?publication_id=1669845&post_id=152152615&isFreemail=true&r=2xvjl&triedRedirect=true
… a President *and* a Congress.
Mr. Hubbell, you are fighting for us all, and providing an inspiring example of American citizen ship. God bless you, and keep it going!
Thanks -
Jack Gilpin
All of the blame belongs to Merrick Garland, the DOJ, and the Supreme Court.
Not all.
Joseph R. Biden, whose Irish stubbornness wouldn't allow him to see that the political strategy of "go along to get along" that he had followed all his life was obsolete, who refused to see the true murderous nature of the modern Republican Party and thought he could still make deals with the gargoyles, as he had since being elected to the Senate 52 years ago, bears the ultimate responsiblity for this since he was the one who placed Garland in the exact job he was incompetent to hold. There is no getting around the fact that today is the greatest defeat of democracy in the 248 year history of the American democratic constitutional republic. The cornerstone - that no man is above the law - has been removed from the structure. How long can the rest stand without it?
I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons on October 5, 1938, regarding the Munich agreement:
"I will, therefore, begin by saying the most unpopular and most unwelcome thing. I will begin by saying what everybody would like to ignore or forget but which must nevertheless be stated, namely, that we have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat..."
Tough words that are hard to hear. But thank you for saying them, TC. We need to consider what TCinLA has written, even if we disagree or don’t like it.
TC; I wholeheartedly agree with you about Biden allowing this debacle to fester and not taking corrective action. He should have fired Garland early on and replaced him with Sally Q Yates.
Excellent points, TC.
I assume Garland will eventually write some pious piece extolling the nobility of his actions. He follows James Comey's path in choosing his ego over his duty thereby sacrificing the constitution he took an oath to uphold. And I wonder if Roberts will one day at last understand how much more damage he has done to the Court than any of the prior Chief Justices in the past 75 years?
Agree, but I think he has inflicted more damage than any justice in 140 years.
Roberts understands perfectly. This was the plan all along
Thank you for expressing my rage so succinctly. The ubiquity of malign characters coagulating around the most despicable President in our history is surreal. In every branch of government, a critical mass of them seems to have materialized all at the same time to come to the rescue of the least deserving person imaginable. And a Democratic appointee, Merrick the Invertebrate Garland, made this round happen. I just do not understand. This is not the country I thought I was living in.
Also, shame on Mitch McConnell too! We wouldn't be in this mess if he had had the balls to impeach the criminal in the first place!
The insurrectionist was the tihular leader of McConnell’s party. One thinh sbout the GOP: many of its leaders put party above ethical principle.
I have been wondering if garland is actually maga. What a useless public non-servant. What a poor sense of citizenship, leadership, justice and the law. What a waste he has been. Roberts and the rest of the maga justices are a disgrace and a danger
to us all. But I don’t think they care about the constitution or democracy or decency.
I know. Everyone seems to blame his reverence for DOJ policy but really that seems hardly enough to account for the unwillingness to take any steps early on. It almost seems like he must have been given a little visit by someone who persuaded him in whatever way. He does have memberships and contacts which could have imparted a tint to his world view and added a little reinforcement to his (apparent) natural tendency to avoid political conflicts.
I’ve heard he’s a member of the federalist Society. I’ve heard he’s been mentored by Jamie Gorelick who is Jared Kushner‘s lawyer.
My view is that Garland – and Biden, and perhaps many other Democrats – aspired to be gentlemanly and kind, to set an example for the nation. They evidently didn’t realize or take into account the fact that Trump and his kind view such highmindedness as *weakness*, and thus have taken advantage of Democratic tactical weaknesses.
Unfortunately, Democratic politicians and officeholders need to have a bit of streetfighter in them.
Of course they don't. That's why they were put there in the first place.
Janice, If Neville Chamberlin had not actually met with Hitler to appease him publicly; and simply stepped to the side and allowed Hitler’s plan to unfold without opposition, would his legacy be any less naive and cowardly? Or would he be joining Garland on a slightly different wall of shame and ineffectiveness?
Insurrections require the general who leads the troops and the head of the palace guard who withholds the defending troops and reinforcements. Both leaders are insurrectionists. Our head of state withheld our reinforcements and commanded the assault (albeit in veiled terms they and we all saw through). He helped plan, incite, and participated in an insurrection with aid and later gave comfort to and then defended with falsehoods those caught and imprisoned and now promises to release them from the penalties our legal system imposed. He is an insurrectionist and should not be in any governmental office.
"...that the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court failed to protect American democracy against a hostile takeover by a convicted felon who sought the presidency to escape justice" doesn't even scratch the surface of the dire straits the US and indeed the world find itself after the elections.
All eyes are still on the felon who very well was motivated to use the Presidency as a 'get out of jail' card. But what brought us here is the poisonous mix of big money, religious zealotry, fascist ideology and, yes, also the plain ignorance, stupidity and a misleading but longtime nurtured sense of patriotism and nationalism (where in the world would someone adore a leader who is humping the flag?) of a good part of the electorate.
The Supreme Court and the Justices are certainly not to 'blame' for any oversight, mistake or dereliction of duty. Quite to the contrary, they simply did the job assigned to them. They are already part of the plot, put in place by an expert operation set into motion by the Federalist Society decades ago and completed by Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in Congress.
So the real blame rests squarely on the shoulders of Merrick Garland – and also the Biden administration. Not reigning in an AG who obviously refused to investigate an insurrection out of concerns to appear partisan was a huge mistake.
This! Yes, sadly, I believe this is the fruition of a very long well-orchestrated game.
“Not reining in an AG who refused to investigate … out of concerns to appear partisan …” –
Fear of *appearing* partisan got the upper hand over *acting firmly on principle*. Biden ans Garland failed to articulate and defend principle.
Thank you, Robert. Interestingly, today I have been in a mood to resolve differences and not blame those that are to blame. That never got us anywhere. I am sticking to this until it bites me in the proverbial “arse”. Thank you for your continued efforts to keep us sane. You’re my go-to for that and tonight you are my connection to the news. I have been inundated with finishing work assignments so that I might enjoy family and friends this weekend. So your newsletter caught me off-guard.
Be well and I hope you and your wonderful family have a wonderful Thanksgiving or as wonderful as one can have not knowing what the future holds.
Lets hope all the evidence is released for posterity. The House Committee hearings need to be re broadcast. Our collective memories are overloaded with what comes at us.
Michal did you see this,m
https://youtu.be/lQarrEbNCZY?feature=shared
Thank you