Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but I cannot help but feel the law is steadily closing in on the tfg. He is flailing about and tossing obstacles desperately - and manages delays with some of it - but Garland and the DOJ are way smarter than he and his lawyers are.
As you pointed out in a recent newsletter, Judge Cannon has made an ass of herself (not your words…) The DOJ response craftily gives her an avenue to redemption while not angering the trump base (most of whom I imagine are too ignorant to understand the nuances of the various elements at play) and while also allowing the DOJ to move forward.
As a Brit, living in Tanzania, I thought it might be interesting for some of you to read my reflections on the passing of our Queen. For the record, I am broadly supportive of the functions of the Royal Family while being frustrated by individual members and the wider scope of the privilege.
Elizabeth was 96 years old. There are very few people that are living in the UK who are older than her and even fewer that have memories of the life and times before she was born. She has, simply, been the one constant in everyone's lives: during the good and bad, the painful and joyful, through the mistakes and success. Love it or hate the monarchy, she has been part of our identity as a nation and as citizens for nigh on a century. And I think all of us feel that we have lost a part of ourselves.
The closest example I can use to describe it - but still fails to capture the sheer magnitude - is probably the death of Nelson Mandela.
She came into a world where the British Empire was still powerful and omniscient across large swathes of the world. She stayed in London during the war and even volunteered as a driver and mechanic as part of the effort. She and her sister snuck out of the Palace, incognito, to join the Victory parades in 1945. She was Queen when Britain finally and belatedly recognized the independence of the ex-colonies into Nation States and sought to redress the relationship as one of equals within the Commonwealth, which she was very proud of. She was there during the economic challenges of the 70's and early 80's and the Cold War. She saw in the digital age, the dramatic widening of our horizons, the end of apartheid. She saw huge social change and social justice that are still ongoing today with the me-too movements, the black lives matter, abortion rights, equal representation, LGBTQ+ rights. And she saw the narrowing of our global views on the last few years, the increased nationalism, intolerance and the invasion of Ukraine.
She saw, 14? Prime Ministers come and go and I think most of them, even the most rambunctious, have admitted that they were in awe of her at their weekly meetings and not a little scared. She had views and an in-depth knowledge of politics that was only shared with them. Her devotion to her role was unstinting and extraordinary. it was her greatest weakness and her greatest strength.
She did make mistakes (the relationship and death of Princess Diana - the argument over taxes and the cost of maintaining the extended royal family) - and she certainly sacrificed her family life to duty. At times she felt more remote from the national conversation than was wise. But she has been our constant, our reliable point of reference and was part of who we are as a nation. We are all fallible at times, including the Queen, and that gave her humanity.
If you want to distill the Queen's character and the place she holds in our lives to one photograph, for me it is the one in Church at the funeral of her husband or so many years, Prince Philip. If anyone was going to be given a free pass during COVID to mourn, it would be the Queen. But she refused, and sat, all by herself in her very visible grief. She chose to stand with all people who had had similar grief, isolation and loss in their lives. She chose to be one of us.
Charles will be a different king, he is a different person. He comes with strong views on climate, the environment, the importance of helping the disadvantaged. We are not used to a Monarch with a strong personal philosophy. He also comes with the baggage of a personal life lived on the front pages of newspapers that his mother did not have to content with till later. He is a mix of radical and very reserved, more sensitive and thoughtful than many imagine (as his broadcast yesterday showed) and quite private and conservative. Seventy three is quite late to launch on a new career path and he has big shoes to step into.
Team Trump was venue shopping and found a friendly court. How does the judge who authorized the search warrant feel about Cannon ruling in this case? How can a target of criminal probe involve a different court n the case?
It’s so hard for me to understand what keeps the MAGA crowd glued to Trump. Can’t everyone see by now that his actions put every citizen in the United States (and perhaps beyond) at risk. I mean, the empty classified document folders...what is going on?
This may be a delaying tactic on Trump’s part or a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks strategy.” Unfortunately, that strategy seems to have worked for him in the past. My hope is that this is coming to some kind of end for him, but then others are waiting in the wings to try their hand at being the next Trump. I can’t begin to understand how different the United States would be under another Trump or Trump-like administration.
Please spend this weekend being with trees and water and loved ones and fixing things with your hands. And if you have to read make it your own version of Jane Austin or Donna Leon. I have the sense it may be the last chance you get a chance to truly rest and replenish yourself for a while. The only time I was ever in Sequoia Park was in October. Admidst the big trees there were deciduous yellows plants and smaller trees changing into autumn clothes. And it was quiet.
As a former mental health therapist working for a County government, I had to operate under HIPAA laws regarding the privacy of the clients. I had to sign out any charts that I needed and had to return them by the end of the day, where they were stored in a locked file cabinet, in a locked room, in a locked building. There were special protocols in place if charts had to be transported to another County facility. We could not leave charts in our car, take them home, etc. Our clerical staff kept track and would immediately start a search for any missing charts. If a staff person was fired, they were escorted out of the building, and the administrators cleaned out their desks to ensure the fired staff person didn't take anything that wasn't theirs or damage County property.
If a County agency has such privacy protections in place, it seems to me that there has to be staff in the federal government who have the role of tracking classified documents, to make sure that only those authorized to see them have access, to know where the documents are at all times and to make sure that they are secured properly. It seems like there should/must be a tracking system for all these documents, so that it would be immediately known that some were missing. How was it possible for Trump to have the ability to remove these highly sensitive documents from the White House in the first place, never mind keep them for this long, when they are a security threat? Why was he given such deferential treatment, knowing who he is and the "clear and present danger" his actions present to our country? I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how this happened!
I know no one wanted to cross him, but I would hope that there are career staff and even partisan staff who care about our democracy and understood the security risks of allowing these documents to leave the White House who would have notified higher up administrators of these security breaches. I haven't seen any reference to the role others in the administration have played in allowing the removal of highly classified docments. Who was negligent in their duty of tracking these documents? Who packed the boxes, and couldn't they see that the documents were clearly marked Top Secret, etc., and question it? Trump couldn't, and wouldn't, do all of the grunt work of packing on his own. Was there more than negligence at play here-did Trump have people actively helping him remove and keep these documents? I guess no one thought to look to see what was in the boxes that were being sent to Mar-a-Lago.
I am certain that all trump wants is to delay the legal proceedings against him until he gets to be president again (OMG NO!). It is a clear pattern from his past, and about all he can do to delay his arrest for keeping highly classified documents. He is hoping to be president again so he can pardon himself and all his criminal friends. As far as I can see, he is another Hitler, and he wants to be our dictator if he wins the presidency.
I used to work at the Y12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, TN where I held a "Q" clearance for access into areas where weapons components were worked on. I had to go through severe training of the various aspects of holding a national security clearance, and was told that this clearance was the most serious aspect of my job. Any violation of my clearance would result in dire consequences for me with the possibility of nearly instant jail time, or if I was guilty of espionage, I could be put to death. It is WAY past time for us to stop pussy footing around with trump! Indict him and throw him in jail ASAP!
If I had done what trump did, I would have been in jail so fast it would be dizzying! It really frosts me that he is being allowed to flaunt America's national security rules and being allowed to run free while his money allows him to buy the best lawyers, break the law, and get away with it. The man is a Clear and Present Danger to America and to all of it's citizens, and he needs to be in jail now! Of course, with all his crimes exposed and he has a fair trial, per the law.
Sep 10, 2022·edited Sep 10, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
The thing that continues to puzzle me is how ANYONE can claim that a classified document is subject to either attorney client or executive privilege. if the job of a Special Master is to review documents for privilege, what is s/he doing looking at classified documents?
What attorney prepared such document for trump? If it was so prepared, why was the privilege not waived as soon as the document was allowed to be seen by anyone with the appropriate security privilege? That's how attorney-client privilege works.
Assuming that executive privilege can be claimed by trump at all now that he's not president (a big assumption given the Supreme's holding in the Nixon case) what "close advisor" prepared the document for trump's particular use? Further, the history of executive privilege shows it rests on the concept of separate powers: it is intended to protect certain (limited) types of advice to the president from scrutiny by either the legislative or judicial branch. In this case a) those who prepare and classify such documents AND b) the FBI/DOJ are ALL PART of the executive branch. No separation of powers issue exists. Why can a member of Congress with the proper security clearances be allowed to see them (as has long been the practice) if the separation of powers prevents them looking at such documents?
In all the many discussions of the Mar-a-Lago search issues that I have read, I haven't found anyone who has raised this simple question. What have I missed?
Although I appreciate the general tone of optimism in the comments, I am reserving mine for now. Given the circumstances and nature of the Mar-a-Lago documents, any of us would have been promptly arrested had we taken classified materials. Either the law says he could take them or he can’t. Appears the law says no. He cannot claim that he did not know about the material. The material was in his private residence and even in his personal office. This slow slog through the legal aspects of all this just seems to affirm Judge Cannon’s notion of trump being a special case due to his high profile and political ambitions. We are, sadly, faced with a justice system that has a problem applying laws evenly and promptly to those deemed the “1%”. If trump is eventually indicted, it will have strained our justice system, and the very notion that laws apply equally to all, which, last I checked, is a cornerstone of our “democracy”.
I am also grateful that the ex president who lost the election only listens to his own counsel,
because he always steps in it when he opens his mouth. His selfish infantile thinking and his bully
pulpit led him to believe he was actually intelligent. But he has never considered that the people
who listen to him..(none of who are the brightest bulbs in the chandelier) are actually in the basket that Mrs Clinton warned us about. Her remark was perhaps not the most timely during an election. But we have all learned that what she referred to was an underbelly of discontent in States who's elected officials were in it only for personal gain and power. His same motive entirely .
The remembrances about Queen Elizabeth’s long reign remind us of the limits of power and the comparative almost unlimited sphere of influence. As a constitutional monarch, she had virtually no political or governmental power, yet she was formally titled the sovereign. We will probably never know the extent of her actual influence on life and policy in the UK and Commonwealth, but former Prime Minister John Major, in his brief tribute on BBC, spoke of her regularly manifested wisdom and deep knowledge in their regular conversations about matters of state and wide consequence.
It is good to be reminded of the distinction between power and influence because all of us have limited power to control events, but all have - and each of us has - a sphere of influence with others with whom we can and regularly do share our values, beliefs and relevant knowledge. Because the Queen was a public figure for over 70 years, we had the opportunity to discern her major character and personality traits. We know of her strong sense of duty that motivated and guided her actions that reflected her care for “her people” around the world and her willingness to dedicate her long life to public service. It is likely that those same character and personality traits were evidenced in her private conversations with Prime Ministers and others in positions of governmental or ecclesiastical power, as John Major indicated had been the case in his experience. Similarly, each of us has a sphere of influence in which our character traits and values are manifested as we tell “our story” about what and who we care about, what we are grateful for, and what angers or concerns us enough to prompt or seek remedial action. The Queen did not let the lack of power prevent her from using her influence to affect the lives of others to the extent she could. Nor should we.
You wrote: "The parties did not agree on a special master. The government suggested two retired judges, while Trump proposed a retired judge and a private attorney who is a member of the Federalist Society and married to a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal—which would hear any appeal from Judge Cannon’s rulings. If Judge Cannon appoints the private attorney candidate as special master, the House should begin impeachment proceedings for Judge Cannon ASAP."
Perhaps the House should begin preparation right now, as this probably will come to pass, if Loose Cannon performs true to form.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but I cannot help but feel the law is steadily closing in on the tfg. He is flailing about and tossing obstacles desperately - and manages delays with some of it - but Garland and the DOJ are way smarter than he and his lawyers are.
As you pointed out in a recent newsletter, Judge Cannon has made an ass of herself (not your words…) The DOJ response craftily gives her an avenue to redemption while not angering the trump base (most of whom I imagine are too ignorant to understand the nuances of the various elements at play) and while also allowing the DOJ to move forward.
Monday will tell
As a Brit, living in Tanzania, I thought it might be interesting for some of you to read my reflections on the passing of our Queen. For the record, I am broadly supportive of the functions of the Royal Family while being frustrated by individual members and the wider scope of the privilege.
Elizabeth was 96 years old. There are very few people that are living in the UK who are older than her and even fewer that have memories of the life and times before she was born. She has, simply, been the one constant in everyone's lives: during the good and bad, the painful and joyful, through the mistakes and success. Love it or hate the monarchy, she has been part of our identity as a nation and as citizens for nigh on a century. And I think all of us feel that we have lost a part of ourselves.
The closest example I can use to describe it - but still fails to capture the sheer magnitude - is probably the death of Nelson Mandela.
She came into a world where the British Empire was still powerful and omniscient across large swathes of the world. She stayed in London during the war and even volunteered as a driver and mechanic as part of the effort. She and her sister snuck out of the Palace, incognito, to join the Victory parades in 1945. She was Queen when Britain finally and belatedly recognized the independence of the ex-colonies into Nation States and sought to redress the relationship as one of equals within the Commonwealth, which she was very proud of. She was there during the economic challenges of the 70's and early 80's and the Cold War. She saw in the digital age, the dramatic widening of our horizons, the end of apartheid. She saw huge social change and social justice that are still ongoing today with the me-too movements, the black lives matter, abortion rights, equal representation, LGBTQ+ rights. And she saw the narrowing of our global views on the last few years, the increased nationalism, intolerance and the invasion of Ukraine.
She saw, 14? Prime Ministers come and go and I think most of them, even the most rambunctious, have admitted that they were in awe of her at their weekly meetings and not a little scared. She had views and an in-depth knowledge of politics that was only shared with them. Her devotion to her role was unstinting and extraordinary. it was her greatest weakness and her greatest strength.
She did make mistakes (the relationship and death of Princess Diana - the argument over taxes and the cost of maintaining the extended royal family) - and she certainly sacrificed her family life to duty. At times she felt more remote from the national conversation than was wise. But she has been our constant, our reliable point of reference and was part of who we are as a nation. We are all fallible at times, including the Queen, and that gave her humanity.
If you want to distill the Queen's character and the place she holds in our lives to one photograph, for me it is the one in Church at the funeral of her husband or so many years, Prince Philip. If anyone was going to be given a free pass during COVID to mourn, it would be the Queen. But she refused, and sat, all by herself in her very visible grief. She chose to stand with all people who had had similar grief, isolation and loss in their lives. She chose to be one of us.
Charles will be a different king, he is a different person. He comes with strong views on climate, the environment, the importance of helping the disadvantaged. We are not used to a Monarch with a strong personal philosophy. He also comes with the baggage of a personal life lived on the front pages of newspapers that his mother did not have to content with till later. He is a mix of radical and very reserved, more sensitive and thoughtful than many imagine (as his broadcast yesterday showed) and quite private and conservative. Seventy three is quite late to launch on a new career path and he has big shoes to step into.
Team Trump was venue shopping and found a friendly court. How does the judge who authorized the search warrant feel about Cannon ruling in this case? How can a target of criminal probe involve a different court n the case?
I did not realize that Congress could impeach Cannon. It is my strong feeling this should begin immediately.
It’s so hard for me to understand what keeps the MAGA crowd glued to Trump. Can’t everyone see by now that his actions put every citizen in the United States (and perhaps beyond) at risk. I mean, the empty classified document folders...what is going on?
This may be a delaying tactic on Trump’s part or a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks strategy.” Unfortunately, that strategy seems to have worked for him in the past. My hope is that this is coming to some kind of end for him, but then others are waiting in the wings to try their hand at being the next Trump. I can’t begin to understand how different the United States would be under another Trump or Trump-like administration.
Thanks as always.
Please spend this weekend being with trees and water and loved ones and fixing things with your hands. And if you have to read make it your own version of Jane Austin or Donna Leon. I have the sense it may be the last chance you get a chance to truly rest and replenish yourself for a while. The only time I was ever in Sequoia Park was in October. Admidst the big trees there were deciduous yellows plants and smaller trees changing into autumn clothes. And it was quiet.
So Trump’s lawyers request a special master and expect DOJ ( taxpayers) to pay 50 % of the cost. What arrogance !
As a former mental health therapist working for a County government, I had to operate under HIPAA laws regarding the privacy of the clients. I had to sign out any charts that I needed and had to return them by the end of the day, where they were stored in a locked file cabinet, in a locked room, in a locked building. There were special protocols in place if charts had to be transported to another County facility. We could not leave charts in our car, take them home, etc. Our clerical staff kept track and would immediately start a search for any missing charts. If a staff person was fired, they were escorted out of the building, and the administrators cleaned out their desks to ensure the fired staff person didn't take anything that wasn't theirs or damage County property.
If a County agency has such privacy protections in place, it seems to me that there has to be staff in the federal government who have the role of tracking classified documents, to make sure that only those authorized to see them have access, to know where the documents are at all times and to make sure that they are secured properly. It seems like there should/must be a tracking system for all these documents, so that it would be immediately known that some were missing. How was it possible for Trump to have the ability to remove these highly sensitive documents from the White House in the first place, never mind keep them for this long, when they are a security threat? Why was he given such deferential treatment, knowing who he is and the "clear and present danger" his actions present to our country? I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how this happened!
I know no one wanted to cross him, but I would hope that there are career staff and even partisan staff who care about our democracy and understood the security risks of allowing these documents to leave the White House who would have notified higher up administrators of these security breaches. I haven't seen any reference to the role others in the administration have played in allowing the removal of highly classified docments. Who was negligent in their duty of tracking these documents? Who packed the boxes, and couldn't they see that the documents were clearly marked Top Secret, etc., and question it? Trump couldn't, and wouldn't, do all of the grunt work of packing on his own. Was there more than negligence at play here-did Trump have people actively helping him remove and keep these documents? I guess no one thought to look to see what was in the boxes that were being sent to Mar-a-Lago.
I am certain that all trump wants is to delay the legal proceedings against him until he gets to be president again (OMG NO!). It is a clear pattern from his past, and about all he can do to delay his arrest for keeping highly classified documents. He is hoping to be president again so he can pardon himself and all his criminal friends. As far as I can see, he is another Hitler, and he wants to be our dictator if he wins the presidency.
I used to work at the Y12 nuclear facility in Oak Ridge, TN where I held a "Q" clearance for access into areas where weapons components were worked on. I had to go through severe training of the various aspects of holding a national security clearance, and was told that this clearance was the most serious aspect of my job. Any violation of my clearance would result in dire consequences for me with the possibility of nearly instant jail time, or if I was guilty of espionage, I could be put to death. It is WAY past time for us to stop pussy footing around with trump! Indict him and throw him in jail ASAP!
If I had done what trump did, I would have been in jail so fast it would be dizzying! It really frosts me that he is being allowed to flaunt America's national security rules and being allowed to run free while his money allows him to buy the best lawyers, break the law, and get away with it. The man is a Clear and Present Danger to America and to all of it's citizens, and he needs to be in jail now! Of course, with all his crimes exposed and he has a fair trial, per the law.
The thing that continues to puzzle me is how ANYONE can claim that a classified document is subject to either attorney client or executive privilege. if the job of a Special Master is to review documents for privilege, what is s/he doing looking at classified documents?
What attorney prepared such document for trump? If it was so prepared, why was the privilege not waived as soon as the document was allowed to be seen by anyone with the appropriate security privilege? That's how attorney-client privilege works.
Assuming that executive privilege can be claimed by trump at all now that he's not president (a big assumption given the Supreme's holding in the Nixon case) what "close advisor" prepared the document for trump's particular use? Further, the history of executive privilege shows it rests on the concept of separate powers: it is intended to protect certain (limited) types of advice to the president from scrutiny by either the legislative or judicial branch. In this case a) those who prepare and classify such documents AND b) the FBI/DOJ are ALL PART of the executive branch. No separation of powers issue exists. Why can a member of Congress with the proper security clearances be allowed to see them (as has long been the practice) if the separation of powers prevents them looking at such documents?
In all the many discussions of the Mar-a-Lago search issues that I have read, I haven't found anyone who has raised this simple question. What have I missed?
Although I appreciate the general tone of optimism in the comments, I am reserving mine for now. Given the circumstances and nature of the Mar-a-Lago documents, any of us would have been promptly arrested had we taken classified materials. Either the law says he could take them or he can’t. Appears the law says no. He cannot claim that he did not know about the material. The material was in his private residence and even in his personal office. This slow slog through the legal aspects of all this just seems to affirm Judge Cannon’s notion of trump being a special case due to his high profile and political ambitions. We are, sadly, faced with a justice system that has a problem applying laws evenly and promptly to those deemed the “1%”. If trump is eventually indicted, it will have strained our justice system, and the very notion that laws apply equally to all, which, last I checked, is a cornerstone of our “democracy”.
Robert, Thank you for all your hard work!
I am also grateful that the ex president who lost the election only listens to his own counsel,
because he always steps in it when he opens his mouth. His selfish infantile thinking and his bully
pulpit led him to believe he was actually intelligent. But he has never considered that the people
who listen to him..(none of who are the brightest bulbs in the chandelier) are actually in the basket that Mrs Clinton warned us about. Her remark was perhaps not the most timely during an election. But we have all learned that what she referred to was an underbelly of discontent in States who's elected officials were in it only for personal gain and power. His same motive entirely .
One has to wonder what types of pressure, threats, or possibly incentives were presented to Judge Cannon to obtain the ruling..
Will the Pinchbeck Pimp finally be hoist on his own Petard?
Will the Loose Cannon be Fired?
Stay tuned...
The remembrances about Queen Elizabeth’s long reign remind us of the limits of power and the comparative almost unlimited sphere of influence. As a constitutional monarch, she had virtually no political or governmental power, yet she was formally titled the sovereign. We will probably never know the extent of her actual influence on life and policy in the UK and Commonwealth, but former Prime Minister John Major, in his brief tribute on BBC, spoke of her regularly manifested wisdom and deep knowledge in their regular conversations about matters of state and wide consequence.
It is good to be reminded of the distinction between power and influence because all of us have limited power to control events, but all have - and each of us has - a sphere of influence with others with whom we can and regularly do share our values, beliefs and relevant knowledge. Because the Queen was a public figure for over 70 years, we had the opportunity to discern her major character and personality traits. We know of her strong sense of duty that motivated and guided her actions that reflected her care for “her people” around the world and her willingness to dedicate her long life to public service. It is likely that those same character and personality traits were evidenced in her private conversations with Prime Ministers and others in positions of governmental or ecclesiastical power, as John Major indicated had been the case in his experience. Similarly, each of us has a sphere of influence in which our character traits and values are manifested as we tell “our story” about what and who we care about, what we are grateful for, and what angers or concerns us enough to prompt or seek remedial action. The Queen did not let the lack of power prevent her from using her influence to affect the lives of others to the extent she could. Nor should we.
You wrote: "The parties did not agree on a special master. The government suggested two retired judges, while Trump proposed a retired judge and a private attorney who is a member of the Federalist Society and married to a judge on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal—which would hear any appeal from Judge Cannon’s rulings. If Judge Cannon appoints the private attorney candidate as special master, the House should begin impeachment proceedings for Judge Cannon ASAP."
Perhaps the House should begin preparation right now, as this probably will come to pass, if Loose Cannon performs true to form.