111 Comments

Judge Dearie restores my faith in courts that actually act according to the rule of law. Thank you Judge Dearie, and Robert for explaining so well.

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Best argument I ever made in court was before Judge Dearie. That was after he told me that we were going to lose, so all the pressure was off. (Robert will understand that.).

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Absolutely!

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I am hopelessly fond of punning: I find myself saying, "Judge, dearie!

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Silly question here, counsel. Even if Trump had the ability to declassify the files, and had done so, how does that leave them up for grabs by his sticky fingers? Wouldn't they remain government property, like Oval Office furniture, White House golden bathroom fixtures, or the copper coils in the HVAC? (And when we say "government" property, don't we mean the citizens'?)

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Trump makes the following series of arguments, which are wrong. I declassified them so I can possess them without violating the regulation regarding possession and storage of classified materials. And they are not presidential records because I control which records are protected by the PRA. So they are my personal property. Of course, trump neither declassified the records nor exempted them from the PRA.

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The law says that those boxes of documents belong in the National Archives. They never, ever were tRump’s personal property. Is he claiming that some items are personal like a restaurant menu, family photos, Christmas cards, etc? Were random items thrown in the boxes an attempt to conceal them so as to steal government papers? The classification question deals with espionage charges, right? No previous president has committed crimes like tRump. His “victim” whines sound like my kids when they were 10 and 7. The whining never worked .

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Richard, that is my question also. The only reason to review anything is to determine which documents, if any, are not presidential papers, like his tax returns or his passport, or are actually subject to attorney-client privilege, documents produced for him personally by his non-government lawyers. Other than that, he has no interest in the documents to get them back, classified or not. Right?

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That's my thinking, but I don't even play a lawyer on TV. I rely on my lawyer Mr. Hubble for advice in these matters. It does seem that if it didn't belong to you before you walked off with it, it doesn't belong to you after you walked off with it. At least that was Miss Kip's counsel in kindergarten.

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Ms. Simone (grade 1 both kids) always stopped, in her black dress in the middle of the classroom, 'That's not happening.'

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Once again, I find it unconscionable that Democrats are in any way supporting far-right candidates in primaries in hopes that they’ll be defeated in the general election by Democrats. What if they aren’t!! Not to mention the moral and ethical ramifications.

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Would never sign on to this, too many unhinged MAGAts in my area, and I’m sure they all vote.

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Exactly! We Democrats say we are better than them. We need to BE better, not just talk about it.

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100% agree. You'd think they'd have learn that lesson from Trump. Unfortunately there are too many people that vote R right down the line, because they are in denial about how extreme these people actually are, and you may lose those races if Democrats don't show up to vote. I don't buy into the whole, "there are way more undecided voters than you think" narrative.

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At least up until a few years ago, I always saw Republicans as voting "For the Good of the Organization," aka, "GOO," in lock step with the recommendations and rarely wavering. Democrats on the other hand are more "scatter shot"voters; a large collection of renegades of all sorts who come together with the hope that passing some planks in the larger platform will bring the best to everyone. I am proud to be one of those renegades.

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does sound like a death trap.

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"Trump doesn’t know what is in the classified documents because he made no effort to index or summarize them." And yet he knew enough that he wanted to steal them. Given that he's stupid (like a rabid fox), it's likely that someone pointed him in the right direction. Now who might that be? Hmmm, Comrade Putin? Mohammed bin Salman? Clearly someone with money to dangle before Trump's grasping eyes.

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Which is why he had Jared Kushner pulling files --someone not elected and lacking a clearance. I seriously believe tRump sells that info to our enemies. TRump is the worst traitor this country has ever grappled with; he should get the Rosenberg Treatment. In fact, he should have been isolated/incarcerated long before because he is a danger to national security.

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When the final account is written, I suspect that historians will conclude that the classified documents were just thrown into boxes,willy-nilly, in the Mango Mussolini’s mad dash to get out of the White House on January 20th.

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No argument there. But what was Il Duce Donaldo's motivation?

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Is the pendulum finally swinging to justice?

Will Dearie clear the way for DOJ to do it's job?

Will James's announcement today be the one we have been hoping for?

Will Jean's rape law suit get traction as a holiday gift to all of us who have a shred of morality and decency?

To all the people who "made the trade" - excused TFG of his criminality and immorality so you could get a tax break or a reactionary judge to hobble women's rights - now your dear leader is about to be stripped of his babble and clothes. The true beast will be revealed. And as time passes, millions of you will lie and say that you didn't vote for him.

The dam is about to burst. Perhaps we'll establish a new National Holiday: "Indictment Day"

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I think all of us should ignore the polls and just take a hard look around us. Let me give you two examples. I live in NC and Cheri Beasley is running for Senator on the Democratic ticket. Her ads are focused on abortion and women’s right to choose and law and order and highlighting her experience as a NC Supreme Court Justice with endorsements from other judges even Republicans. Her opponent has publicly stated his view against any abortion at any time and his unwillingness to commit to accepting defeat and conceding the election. The second thing to watch are the headlines in the local newspaper and how the headlines define the current political environment around migrants being transported across state lines and abortion laws being passed in neighboring states. Our newspaper is a conservative newspaper and the headlines alone indicate there is polite dissatisfaction with Republican antics and candidates. Look around and read the tea leaves and you will see a slight shift that hopefully is gaining momentum.

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All the more reason to support local journalism.

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Here is hoping North Carolina comes through for Cheri Beasley. I hadn't heard much about the NC Senate race. I saw her interviewed and was impressed. She is so thoughtful and clearly spoken. First thing my husband said was, "Let's send her money." (We are in California.)

Good luck.

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Lindsey Graham! You can’t count on consistency or honesty from one week to the next, he is tremendously enamored of the limelight however. I wish he’d just move on to a private life of contemplation and spare South Carolinians and the rest of us his unwavering hypocrisy.

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Not yet. The more Lindsey yells “national abortion ban,” the hope of rallying more anti-forced birthers than the crowd he’s trying to rally.

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I think you hit the nail on the head that Loose Cannon is going to let Judge Dearie right her wrongs. She did what she was told/paid to do, and she can now try to wash out the stain on her reputation. But, like Lady MacBeth, this stain will be hers forever.

Thank you, as always, for your cogent explanations!

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What a world we live in! On a day when the Special Master, requested by Trump himself, gave him a "Come to Jesus" talk; when Ron DeSantis appeared, for all the world, to be his very own Loony Tunes villain, complete with dynamite grease all over his face; when Vladimir Putin's female admirers yelled and screamed that the Donbas would be legally Russian after September 27-or else, the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, stated publicly what we have known to be true for some time-that there is simply no viable alternative to an international, rules-based social order. Kazakhstan, lying between Russia and China, due north of Iran and Afghanistan, represents the antithesis of those nations' autocrats.

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It's all so 🤯

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El Jefe del Merde a Loco is running out of options. At the rate Fatso is sweating (see video of his hatealong on Saturday), Fatso won't be so fatso by the time he gets fitted for his new orange jumpsuit.

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Seth Hufstedler. Shirley Hufstedler. Judge Dearie. Thank you!

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Attorney Trusty, Judge Dearie, and Loose Cannon...if I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was reading a comic strip.

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I suspect the NY AG's announcement will be THE headline news today.

As for the classified documents that were stolen and taken to Mar-A-Lago, I'm most interested in what was in the empty folders, why they are empty, and where the contents are now.

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AND so it is

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Once Trump's lawyers learn that he has been lying to them, they will be ethically precluded from advocating Trump's fraudulent position to the judge. Of course, we don't know if Trump's lawyers follow the ethics rules that apply to lawyers.

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Based on their filings on Tuesday they know Trump is not telling the truth because they want proof that he declassified the documents and which one’s.

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Because the possibility exists that Trump sold/shared TOP SECRET intelligence, his lawyers should be desperately proving that Trump declassified the documents, especially whatever was in the empty TOP SECRET folders, else an espionage charge looms.

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Graham may be panicking. His next round of public notoriety may be an indictment for election tampering in Georgia. He's trying to drum up a wave of popular support among GOP diehards. Yes, Lindsey, orange is a good color on you! Maybe you'll even sort out your sexual identity in prison. You may find it liberating.

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Interesting thought about the move to get ahead of an indictment.

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Isn't that "their" MO? Deflect from their own debacles, blame the "other" side, throw out a myriad of "but...but...but", and squeal louder the more they're cornered. Oh, and clutch pearls.

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The best Tweet about Dearie’s statements and a Twitter account that’s fun to follow because he gets Trump’s voice right.

Gollum J. Trump

@realGollumTrump

NOOO! Tricksy Speshal Master ruins it, RUINS IT! Says we cant has juicy fish cakes & eats it TOO! Mustnt lets it takes sweet fish cakes! So portant! So SCRUMPTIOUS! But isnt that just turns of phrases eh precious? NEVER MINDS! We unsecrets all scrollses with wave of the PRECIOUS!

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