Not Done Yet

Avatar photoby

Don’t give up on seeing Trump financials before election. Lower courts might kick ass. The Judicial Branch is pissed.

Having read all of SCOTUS opinions and dissents in these Trump cases yesterday I hear Masonic tongues to lower courts: Burn this dude if you want. Sooner not later if you want.

💬 Add your voice: Comment on today’s post
Share

75 thoughts on “Not Done Yet”

  1. and if the congress critters can get their act together before adjourning for the campaign, it could be mueller time again.

    the supremes have proclaimed “no one is above the law” and that specifically applies to the president.  with that said, the DOJ’s policy that kept special counsel Mueller from formally concluding tRump committed crimes is no longer valid.

    Mr Mueller should be asked (allowed and perhaps mandated) to amend his statement to congress  to correct the record now that that barrier  has been effectively removed.  

  2. Daniel Goldman doesn’t see the SFB financial documents seeing the light of day before November, the wheels of justice grinding slowly and all. I’m afraid I agree with him. Biden’s campaign now has a great weapon to wield- hiding his information from the courts (and ultimately voters) despite SCOTUS making clear he has no legal basis to do so. 

  3. Mary T had access to tax docs.  That’s how she found out the her NDA was invalid.  They bought her silence with a handful of beans, and, they weren’t magic beans.  Doesn’t that lead somewhere?   Did he lie about assets every time he got a loan?

  4. Attorneys et al are mad at Trump, but they are rip him to shreds disgusted with Barr.  He has made them all look bad. 

  6. I do believe that Cy Vance could get the info to his grand jury before November, assuming the District Court in Manhattan feels some urgency to get this moving along, and with Sekulow being the asswipe who’s fighting it on SFB’s behalf, it would be easy to do that to show him that his vacuous arguments aren’t funny. I don’t underestimate Jay’s ability to delay the release, or at least attempt to, but I also don’t underestimate the power of a state court judge whose prior judgement was questioned before the Supreme Court, which upheld that judgment.
     
    Here are pieces from the Syllabus that reflect the Court’s ruling (I apologize for the length):

    Syllabus

    TRUMP v. VANCE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, et al.

    certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the second circuit

    No. 19–635. Argued May 12, 2020—Decided July 9, 2020

    In 2019, the New York County District Attorney’s Office—acting on behalf of a grand jury—served a subpoena duces tecum on Mazars USA, LLP, the personal accounting firm of President Donald J. Trump, for financial records relating to the President and his businesses. The President, acting in his personal capacity, sued the district attorney and Mazars in Federal District Court to enjoin enforcement of the subpoena, arguing that a sitting President enjoys absolute immunity from state criminal process under Article II and the Supremacy Clause. The District Court dismissed the case under the abstention doctrine of Younger v.Harris, 401 U.S. 37, and, in the alternative, held that the President was not entitled to injunctive relief. The Second Circuit rejected the District Court’s dismissal under Younger but agreed with the court’s denial of injunctive relief, concluding that presidential immunity did not bar enforcement of the subpoena and rejecting the argument of the United States as amicus curiae that a state grand jury subpoena seeking the President’s documents must satisfy a heightened showing of need.

    Held: Article II and the Supremacy Clause do not categorically preclude, or require a heightened standard for, the issuance of a state criminal subpoena to a sitting President. 

    …[In] United States v. Burr, 25 F. Cas. 30, 33–34. [Chief Justice John Marshal explained that] The sole argument for an exemption [in Burr]was that a President’s “duties as chief magistrate demand his whole time for national objects.”Ibid. But, in Marshall’s assessment, those duties were “not unremitting,”ibid.,and any conflict could be addressed by the court upon return of the subpoena. Marshall also concluded that the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee extended to the production of papers. “[T]he propriety of introducing any papers,” he explained, would “depend on the character of the paper, not the character of the person who holds it,” and would have “due consideration” upon the return of the subpoena.Id., at 34, 37. Jefferson agreed to furnish whatever justice required, subject to the prerogative to decide whether particular executive communications should be withheld.

    In the two centuries since Burr, successive Presidents from Monroe to Clinton have accepted Marshall’s ruling that the Chief Executive is subject to subpoena and have uniformly agreed to testify when called in criminal proceedings.
    ***
    Recognizing that “compulsory process” was imperative for both the prosecution and the defense, the Court held that the President’s “generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.” United States v.Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 713. President Nixon dutifully released the tapes. Pp. 3–10.
    (b) This history all involved federal criminal proceedings. Here, the President claims that the Supremacy Clause gives a sitting President absolute immunity from state criminal subpoenas because compliance with such subpoenas would categorically impair the performance of his Article II functions. The Solicitor General, arguing on behalf of the United States, claims that a state grand jury subpoena for a sitting President’s personal records must, at the very least, meet a heightened standard of need. 

    Recognizing that “compulsory process” was imperative for both the prosecution and the defense, the Court held that the President’s “generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial.” United States v.Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 713. President Nixon dutifully released the tapes. Pp. 3–10.
    (b) This history all involved federal criminal proceedings. Here, the President claims that the Supremacy Clause gives a sitting President absolute immunity from state criminal subpoenas because compliance with such subpoenas would categorically impair the performance of his Article II functions. The Solicitor General, arguing on behalf of the United States, claims that a state grand jury subpoena for a sitting President’s personal records must, at the very least, meet a heightened standard of need. 
    ***
    Marshall’s ruling in Burr, entrenched by 200 years of practice and this Court’s decision in Nixon, confirms that federal criminal subpoenas do not “rise to the level of constitutionally forbidden impairment of the Executive’s ability to perform its constitutionally mandated functions.”Clinton v.Jones,520 U.S. 681, 702–703. But the President claims that state criminal subpoenas necessarily pose a unique threat of impairment and thus require absolute immunity. His categorical argument focuses on three burdens: diversion, stigma, and harassment.
    ***
    The prospect that a President may become “preoccupied by pending litigation” did not ordinarily implicate constitutional concerns.  Two centuries of experience likewise confirm that a properly tailored criminal subpoena will not normally hamper the performance of a President’s constitutional duties.

    The President claims this case is different. He believes that he is under investigation and argues that the toll will necessarily be heavier in that circumstance. But the President is not seeking immunity from the diversion occasioned by the prospect of future criminal liability. He concedes that he may be investigated while in office. His objection is instead limited to the additionaldistraction caused by the subpoena itself. That argument, however, runs up against the 200 years of precedent establishing that Presidents, and their official communications, are subject to judicial process, see Burr, 25 F. Cas., at 34, even when the President is under investigation, see Nixon, 418 U. S., at 706. Pp. 12–14.

    (ii) The President next claims that the stigma of being subpoenaed will undermine his leadership at home and abroad. But even if a tarnished reputation were a cognizable impairment, there is nothing inherently stigmatizing about a President performing “the citizen’s normal duty of . . . furnishing information relevant” to a criminal investigation. Branzburg v.Hayes,408 U.S. 665, 691. Nor can the risk of association with persons or activities under criminal investigation absolve a President of such an important public duty.
    ***
    (iii) Finally, the President argues that subjecting Presidents to state criminal subpoenas will make them “easily identifiable target[s]” for harassment. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 753. The Court rejected a nearly identical argument in Clinton, concluding that the risk posed by harassing civil litigation was not “serious” because federal courts have the tools to deter and dismiss vexatious lawsuits. 520 U. S., at 708. Harassing state criminal subpoenas could, under certain circumstances, threaten the independence or effectiveness of the Executive. But here again the law already seeks to protect against such abuse. First, grand juries are prohibited from engaging in “arbitrary fishing expeditions” or initiating investigations “out of malice or an intent to harass,” [Citation omitted] and federal courts may intervene in state proceedings that are motivated by or conducted in bad faith. Second, because the Supremacy Clause prohibits state judges and prosecutors from interfering with a President’s official duties, any effort to manipulate a President’s policy decisions or to retaliate against a President for official acts through issuance of a subpoena would be an unconstitutional attempt to “influence” a superior sovereign “exempt” from such obstacles, see [Citation omitted]. And federal law allows a President to challenge any such allegedly unconstitutional influence in a federal forum. 

    (2) A state grand jury subpoena seeking a President’s private papers need not satisfy a heightened need standard, for three reasons. First, although a President cannot be treated as an “ordinary individual” when executive communications are sought, Burr teaches that, with regard to private papers, a President stands in “nearly the same situation with any other individual.” 25 F. Cas., at 191–192. Second, there has been no showing here that heightened protection against state subpoenas is necessary for the Executive to fulfill his Article II functions. Finally, absent a need to protect the Executive, the public interest in fair and effective law enforcement cuts in favor of comprehensive access to evidence.
    ***

    Case closed.

     

  7. And from the inimitable George Conway in his piece at Wapo today:

    The case, ironically, came about partly because of Mary Trump. As her book explains, she became a principal confidential source for a New York Times exposé that described how the Trump Organization, over many years, may have dodged taxes. Those allegations became part of the predicate for a New York state criminal investigation that the president sued to curtail. Trump argued that, because he’s president, not even his accountants had to respond to the district attorney’s subpoena.
     

    The Supreme Court would have none of it. Its decision rejected Trump’s narcissistic vision of the presidency. “In our judicial system,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court, “the public has a right to every man’s evidence.” And that includes a president’s evidence. Just as other presidents have “uniformly” given evidence when required of them, the court held, so, too will Donald Trump and his businesses and accountants. Indeed, the court confirmed, “state grand juries are free to investigate a sitting president with an eye toward charging him after the completion of his term.” On these points, at least, the court was unanimous. As Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion aptly put, “no one is above the law.”

    George, so right so often, unlike SFB.  
     
    (The only link I left in the Conway quote above is to the SCOTUS decision for those who have just a touch of masochism).

  9. The Conway daughter has joined the twitter fray, but requests that people leave her parents out of it.
    Fat chance, young lady. 

  10. Sturg,  I saw a snippet of that yesterday.  Apparently mom tried to take her phone away after she tweeted some message disagreeing with Mom’s positions for SFB.  And sent a tweet or message to dad that she’s sorry his marriage didn’t work out.  Nah, no one’s gonna care about stuff like that….

  16. Well, when someone comes into the office (and outside vendor to fix a copier or something) the anti-maskers are wearing masks!  They take them off when we don’t have company, though. Hey, we are not quarantining here at the office.  Dumbasses!    I overheard one saying prez tRUMP was right, more testing creates more cases.   Dumbass!

  19. Has Gov. Desantis ever been inside of a school?  In what way is a classroom set up like a Home Depot?

  20. BiD…  thanks for the news.  Yeah… maybe it will rain again… or even better…  maybe he’ll drop dead by then.

  21. this from page 6 of the opinion seems tailor made for a lincoln project ad.  at least a tweet and retweet or two.

    … as Marshall explained, a king is born to power and can “do no wrong.” Ibid. The President, by contrast, is “of the people” and subject to the law.

  22. Supreme Court Trump Ruling

    above by Darcy at cleveland free press plus this from his article:

    The Manhattan D.A.‘s investigations revolve around the alleged hush money payments Trump’s then attorney Michael Cohen made to women Trump had affairs with, which the President has denied.
    It’s likely not a coincidence that the same time the Supreme Court rulings were taking place, the William Barr Justice Department had Cohen remanded back to jail for refusing not to talk to the media or use social media as a condition to his early release due to Covid-19.

  23. Don’t love the Lincoln Project too much.     They are what a lot of Democrats have often wished for; people making ads for Democrats but doing it like Republicans.  But in the end they are Republicans and the policy divide is great.  But learn the lesson — the ads work .  Democrats can make them too.

  24. Everyday Biden seems impervious the various Trump assaults.  I  hope this holds out when the campaign season and the debates start.

  25. Bullshit. Too few were going to show up. Even the GOP governor wasn’t going. 

    Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) tweeted at 1:11 PM on Fri, Jul 10, 2020:

    With Tropical Storm Fay heading towards the Great State of New Hampshire this weekend, we are forced to reschedule our Portsmouth, New Hampshire Rally at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease. Stay safe, we will be there soon!

  26. something’s fishy about this.  either barr is up to no good & cohen’s in danger (remember what happened to epstein in that same jail)

    or if not barr doings the SDNY might be trying to insure his availability to testify in upcoming events. ???

    from NYTimes:

    Mr. Cohen, who was released from prison in May on a medical furlough, was stunned when probation officers asked him to sign a document that would have barred him from speaking to reporters or publishing a book during the rest of his sentence, his legal adviser said.
    Mr. Cohen, believing the agreement violated his First Amendment rights, refused to sign it, the adviser, Lanny Davis, said. Less than two hours later, federal marshals stepped out of an elevator with handcuffs and took Mr. Cohen back into custody.
    […]
    In a statement, the federal Bureau of Prisons said that Mr. Cohen had been returned to jail after he “refused the conditions of his home confinement.”
    As a federal inmate, the bureau said in a separate statement, Mr. Cohen must comply with bureau policies, including requirements that he consent to electronic monitoring and obtain approval for any media interviews.
    Last week, Mr. Cohen said on Twitter that he anticipated releasing a book in late September. Mr. Davis said on Thursday that the book was ready for publication and would recount Mr. Cohen’s experiences working for Mr. Trump for years.

  27. correction on above. not same jail as epstein’s

    from fox news:

    Cohen attorney Jeffrey Levine told Fox News on Friday that his client is being held in solitary confinement at Otisville Federal prison in upstate New York.
    Levine told Fox News that he is working to get Cohen released and return him to home confinement.
    The Wall Street Journal reported Cohen was placed in solitary confinement Friday to quarantine due to coronavirus risks.

  29. Barr (rather, Barr for SFB) seems to be showing Cohen who’s boss.  Lanny could become a potent force in this election to shine a light on Barr’s shenanigans. Bet that this will be in Court quickly.

  30. Weather forecast for Portsmouth Saturday night is 71 degrees, 20% chance of rain.  Yeah, TS Faye, alright.  

  32. Yeah…. it seems Faye is coming sooner than originally forecast and further west.  Vermont will get nailed.  And yes, Sununu said he wouldn’t go due to the risk of Covid.
     
    trump = chicken

  34. “He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn’t.”

    Roger Stone to Huffpo today. 

  37. Corey – someone should tell him that stairs were invented thousands of years ago so that people wouldn’t slip on ramps.

  38. I’m telling ya, the courts are pedal to the metal for once. 

    A federal judge in NY – acting quickly on his own and without being asked by either side — has ordered attorneys for President Trump and Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance to inform the court by next Wednesday morning how they expect to proceed with the subpoena for Trump’s tax docs.

  39. Craig – from the little snippets I have seen online the lack of attendees is driving the end of the latest rally.  And, to think it  was supposed to be inside a hanger, no wet slippery ramps, because the first estimate of crowd size was small.  This is starting to show a trend, Tulsa was a stinker, Phoenix was less so, and now we have the cancellation.  Could it be fear of death?  Could it be no enthusiasm for a loser?  I think it is both.  The guy has one act and it has been played. 

  43. So the fat bastard can’t even get enough people to fill up the fucking airplane hanger? And blaming it on the weather? Bullshit. He was willing to expose 19,000 people to coronavirus but the possibility that they might be exposed to a 20% chance of rain for an indoor event was just too much? How pathetic.

  44. Soon, like Spinal Tap, he’ll be playing the Friday night dance on an Air Force base somewhere in Alaska. 
    Poor schmuck don’t realize that once the machine starts tearing you to shreds It doesn’t end until there is nothing left but a pile of smoldering shreds on the floor.

  47. Hope folks in NH weather-troll him on Twitter this weekend.  ☀️ 
    Anyone know how to block text messages from campaigns that I did not sign up to receive?  I’m getting bombarded and aside from just deleting them, I hope they get cofeve for bothering me.

  49. Craig
    I sure hope you’re right about the courts. I want Trump exposed for the fraud he is. Lol, on canceling his rally. Poor attendance, even some of his cult members are saying wait a minute.

  50. Ann Coulter Calls for ‘Broken-Down Old Man’ McConnell to Be Defeated in November, Praises Democratic Challenger

    Ann Coulter, who wrote the book In Trump We Trust, has been far more critical of the president recently, calling him a “moron” and a “blithering idiot” just two months ago.
    Now Coulter is calling for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to lose in November to Democratic opponent Amy McGrath, who recently won the nomination in a close race against Charles Booker.
    Coulter went off over a GOP group affiliated with McConnell taking out ads to stop Kris Kobach in the Kansas Senate primary:

  52. In all the talk about opening schools and forcing children to be in classrooms never has one little data point been mentioned.  A certain percentage of the children will be infected with the virus.  A certain percentage of them will die of the virus.  Not one media report states that simple fact.  I did the calculation a few months ago and came up with between one hundred thousand and two hundred thousand K-12 students will contract the virus.  I do not have a working number for the percentage who will die.  I will make a SWAG at it with between ten thousand and fifteen thousand will die.
    This also does not cover the teachers and other staff, bus drivers, cafeteria staff, etc and their vulnerabilities.  AND, it does not cover the families and friends who are infected by the children.  Only imbeciles and idiots will want to infect and kill young children and their families.

  53. Whenever the tRUMP tax docs do get released, will it topple their house of cards completely?  Will it take down the kids, too?  One or all of those little bastards will run for POTUS some day.  Will this kill their hopes for a dynasty? 

  56. craig, do the courts in NY close during the whole month of august like they do in a lot of states?  could be the good judge wants to be able to rule before then or at least have all the ducks in a row first thing come september.

  57. more reasons to consider about the judge jump starting proceedings from wapo:

    Lawyers from Vance’s office previously argued that delays could jeopardize their ability to file charges if any are warranted due to the timing of the payments as they apply to state statutes of limitations. The statute of limitations for a misdemeanor falsifying business records count has already passed, and the five-year deadline by which to bring a felony-level case over the transactions is approaching.

  58. Roger Stone.   The world is not a fair place
    otherwise he would be in jail for the full sentence.  

  59. Yep, Roger’s a beneficiary of unequal justice. If I was Joe’s campaign manager I’d be on the pardons like stink on shit. 

  60. Did they do anything illegal when they nabbed Cohen? Are the First Amendment rights of felons protected?

  62. He saved Stone. Not even a distraction from thousands deathly ill and thousands dying. And his TOTAL incompetence.
    I thought of voting by mail but decided no. First the snail mail to get the ballot and then snail mail to get it and then snail mail it back. And Trump threatening to do something with the USPS vis-a-vis that. NO, too important.  It’ll be a risk  I’m willing to take to at least make sure that my ballot doesn’t disappear.
    An now in Tejas:  Abbott said that if one child tests positive in a school then the school will be closed for 5 days for cleaning and disinfecting.  LOL…and in 5 days another child tests positive…and so it’ll go.  Brilliant!

  63. You do not have to mail it.  Your ballot can be turned in at your Board of Elections anytime from when you received it until election day and you can ask for a date/time stamp

  64.  Rest peacefully in the knowledge that there won’t be a Repug in office to pardon SFB when he’s convicted of oh, so many things.  

  67. TT – Wouldn’t it be cheaper to get tablets and high-speed internet to kids than to heat/cool/clean schools, to say nothing of sickness/death?   Not sure about kids who don’t have a non-working adult at home, although there are many who are still unemployed or who will continue to WFH.
    Would teachers or students be able to sue the school district if they contract COVID at school, say if there’s a large cluster at the school?  

  69. Our governor is pretty much making masks mandatory when indoors in public places starting on Monday. Possible $500 fines to violators. A few guys at work were ranting on that right away. I just decided to go to the beach tonight and forget about the troubles of the world.

  70. Pretty view.  (I have to remember that what I say under my mask can still be heard, though muffled.)

  73. If your grandpa could fight the Nazis when he was 19, you can wear a mask.  It’s really not that hard, folks. 

Comments are closed.