Tuesday, February 18, 2020

The trump Criminal Empire Threatens The Rule of Law

This is how fucked up our federal government is under the misrule of KING trump. Via Jamie Ross at Daily Beast:

The head of the Federal Judges Association has reportedly taken the unprecedented step of calling an emergency meeting to discuss President Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr’s intervention in Roger Stone’s sentencing recommendation. U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, who leads the association of around 1,100 life-term federal judges, told USA Today that the issue “could not wait.” She said: “There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about... We’ll talk all this through.”
Rufe’s announcement follows an open letter signed by more than 1,000 former Justice Department employees calling on Barr to resign over the Stone case. Last week, Trump made clear that he was angry about the length of the sentence recommended for his friend Roger Stone, then Barr’s Justice Department withdrew that recommendation. Trump also attacked the judge in the Stone case, Amy Berman Jackson, with unfounded accusations of political bias. The Washington Post reported that the Federal Judges Association has never called an emergency meeting such as the one described by Rufe in the USA Today interview...

This has never happened before.

That is because we've never had a goddamned dictator-wannabe con artist asshole crook in office before. Yes, this is including the likes of Nixon and Harding and Jackson (and if you're so inclined I will include Bill Clinton in that mix).

That is because previous Presidents showed due deference to the independence of the Judiciary, whereas this President Loser of the Popular Vote trump wants every branch and every office of government bowing to him with undeserved fealty.

The amount of concern among other Republican leaders, especially the cowering ass-covering Senators who just gave trump their Stamp of Approval to break every law he wishes, will most likely rise to the level of telling Fox Not-News "Well, we'll write a strongly-worded letter to the White House as soon as we can find a typewriter that still works."

Christ.

Traditionally, the judges in our federal system try to avoid the appearance of partisanship or political bias - even as they pass rulings that have bias, thanks a lot Rehnquist Court for the Bush v. Gore monstrosity - but in this regard they can no longer avoid it. trump and his lackey AG Barr are directly attacking the independence of the third branch of our government, hacking at the checks and balances that are supposed to keep power shared and out of the hands of just one person.

But that's what trump wants, after all. trump has no respect for others unless they're rich and powerful, what he aspires to be (and what he secretly may not be, hence his refusal to ever show his tax returns). trump WANTS all that power, refuses to share it to those he views as lackeys and servants and losers. he chafes against the restrictions of dealing with Congress (even when his fellow Republicans controlled it between 2017-18, he couldn't handle sharing power with them), and he's expressed his disdain for judges before.

And now trump is unleashed. he thinks Congress can't touch him now (and with the Senate refusing to hold him accountable, he's right). The only thing standing in his way of Absolute Rule is a court system still holding his business buddies and Russian connections to count for their law-breaking before and during the 2016 elections.

Now trump wants the judges to arbitrarily give him and his buddies Stone, Flynn, Manafort and others a clean break, no more jail time for the sins they've plead out or convicted of, before trump has to resort to the obvious step of pardoning each of them anyway (trump and his lawyers have to understand the risks of pardons - if accepted, you can't claim Fifth Amendment protections from testifying later - so they want the judges to do the dirty work for them).

We are at a critical moment in our nation's history.

One branch of government - the Executive - is at war with another branch - the Judiciary - and the stakes are high. Above all the power of the Constitution itself serving as the Law of this Land.

Gods help us.

P.S. Dear judges, now would be a good time to figure out how to issue Contempt rulings on trump, Barr, Stone, and every other corrupt Republican threatening our legal system. KaiThnxBye

1 comment:

dinthebeast said...

So today he throws a pardon fit, to get them used to it so he can do the really bad ones. Blago? Milken? Really?

-Doug in Sugar Pine