A few months ago Donald Trump sued Hillary Clinton in federal court for—
Well, for being mean to him, I guess. This is decidedly not a federal crime, but Trump hoped to get a favorable hearing anyway by filing his suit in a Florida district where the only judge was Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who recently ruled for him in his plea for a special master in the Mar-a-Lago case. But through a quirk of scheduling the case ended up instead with a non-Trump judge who was decidedly not amused by Trump's filing. Here are a few of the best lines from Judge Donald Middlebrooks' dismissal of the entire case:
What the Amended Complaint lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances.
To say that Plaintiff’s 193-page, 819-paragraph Amended Complaint is excessive in length would be putting things mildly.
Knowledge that Florida is a state in the United States does not equate to knowledge that Defendants’ actions will have consequences in Florida.
It is not simply that I find the Amended Complaint “inadequate in any respect”; it is inadequate in nearly every respect.
At its core, the problem with Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint is that Plaintiff is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm; instead, he is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him.
I wonder: Is Aileen Cannon at all embarrassed by the fact that Trump apparently expects her to rule in his favor like an old time machine pol no matter how stupid his case is? Because this was a pretty stupid case indeed.
Poor Aileen is catching all kinds of shit from all directions for her ruling. She thought she had a cushy lifetime job courtesy of sucking up to Donald Trump and the Federalist Society. How was she supposed to know the federal judges are actually expected to know about the law? Given it looks like Trump in no position to do her any favors in the future, the smart thing for her to do is to join Bill Barr, Michael Cohen et al in turning on him. Unfortunately for her it appears one thing she is not is smart.
She thought she had a cushy lifetime job courtesy of sucking up to Donald Trump and the Federalist Society.
And she was right to think this. You're not suggesting there's any prospect of a successful impeachment of this loon, are you? And I seriously doubt she gives a whit about what Rachel Maddow or the NY Times thinks of her.
If these wingnuts cared more about how they're perceived by the wider civil society, we'd be in a lot less trouble as a country.
In a just world, the Cokedup Werewolf jurist would be fed to Pablo Escobar's hippos.
All this fuss about a storage issue of some overdue library books. Tch, tch.
Clearly Trump hoped this case would be heard by Cannon. Lord knows what idiocy would have ensued if he'd got his wish.
The best line is the last line:
Rough translation: You best understand I'll be spanking some of you lawyers real good and ain't no Judge Cannon getting in between us.
You best understand I'll be spanking some of you lawyers real good and ain't no Judge
Eh, I'll believe it when I see it. I don't think Trump or any of his lawyers have ever been sanctioned for their legal nonsense. Cohen went to jail, but that was because he took the fall for Trump's campaign finance fraud. Forget Art of the Deal. All Trump's books up to now should have been titled "I Can't Believe I Keep Getting Away With This Shit" vols. I-X.
Sanctions were imposed in a number of the "election fraud" cases.
Don't let facts get in the way of the tankie narrative that Donald Trump (who they do nor support) always gets away with it.
For zippy one-liners from the ruling, I personally like the way this one captures the overall flavor of the effort.
"But even if Plaintiff’s RICO claims were timely, they still fail on the merits at every step of the analysis."
I've been wondering about this. Is there a way for litigants to choose what judge hears their case? I know they may have some discretion with respect to which court (geographic location) handles an appeal. But, for instance, did Trump's lawyers know that Judge Canon would hear the initial motion for a special master? Were they able to arrange or game this, or did they simply get lucky?
LUcky.
I've been wondering myself if Cannon can feel embarrassment or if she cares about her reputation. Guess we'll find out soon.DOJ has given her an out; she should take it.
Cocaine is numbing.
Aileen feels nothing.
The courts have taken some steps to minimize judge shopping. Plaintiffs file in a jurisdiction with favorable judge(s). If that court is packed with favorable judges, your odds of winning goes up. If there is only one judge, bingo...almost. Cases can still be assigned to other judges in the circuit.
Judge shopping means you routinely hear about that one judge in TX attacking ACA, etc. It's also why Sate of Texas will tend to file cases in a Federal court hours outside Austin, and not the one in Austin.
Fyi: https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2022/8/10/23296841/supreme-court-biden-judiciary-republicans-texas-judge-shopping-immigration-obamacare
Sounds like brazen junkies from J.D. ANTIVAXXX's Hillbilly Holler going doctor shopping to get their Oxxxy fixxx.
Several months ago Politico had a useful article about the RICO case. There's a docketing system that apparently kicks in sometimes. Just luck of the draw it went to Middlebrooks instead of Cannon; he even alluded to it.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/06/judge-recuse-trump-hillary-clinton-00023650
I get the impression that most often a case will be heard where filed, but it can be filed at any division in the District. Middlebrooks is one of two judges in the West Palm division, where MAL is; both its judges are Obama appointees. (Cannon is the only one in her Ft Pierce division.)
Trump appointed 5 of the FL Southern District's 15 sitting judges. I've wondered if that helped precipitate the move from NYC to FL, as he only appointed 4 of the 25 there.
Thank you to all who responded.
Trump is going to abuse us all until he becomes enfeebled by old age… then his kids will take over. There’s just too much money to be made with the con. I don’t know what you do about this. Ignore it? Ridicule it? Prosecute it? I can’t even begin to imagine how this ever actually ends.
Fortunately, for me, I have expunged all Trumpists from my life. Ignoring it works for me.
"Becomes".
Well… enfeebled as in bedridden and suffering from dementia. Pooping and pissing in a diaper. Drooling and blabbering gibberish for days on end. I wish him that lengthy suffering… with Ivanka getting pinched and poked at every visit with the creep.
I’m a terrible person.
Ar his most recent Nuremburg rally in Pennsylvania, El Jefe implied he just had Zuckerberg over for dinner at the White House the previous week.
His brain is more fried than Hunter Biden's tinfoil.
I agree…..we witness daily his criminal enterprise at work…and how he uses the criminal Justice system to against itself to escape punishment. I’m sure he bribes and/or threatens judges and AGs..mafia style…to get them to back down or make horrendous rulings. You can’t get this guy….but you still have to try…
How do you think he's going to try to bully his way into the Queen's funeral, suggest that he's got something on her?
I hope he’s the only living president uninvited. Carter won go due to old age.
It’s really not his thing anyway. He’ll make a show of it either way. How awful that would be.
Butt kisser Aileen is obviously too thick to understand that we are all laughing at her for being taken in by the orange genius. She deserves to be kicked off the bench.
Between her, Dave Portnoy, & two semesters of Drew Magary, Ann Arbor us clearly not sending their best
I almost included Nate Silver, but that Loq Qabin twerp went to State.
Silver went to U of C, which accounts for him being a Maroon.
Having thoroughly corrupted the executive branch on his watch, and let loose a murderous mob against his critics in the legislative branch, Trump has now turned his attention to destroying the judicial branch. He is thorough if not anything else.
ETTD
And unfortunately, trump didn't need to start the ball rolling when it comes to SCOTUS; it lost my respect after the 2000 election decision.
Now that Justice Roberts has seen fit to publicly decry those who claim that his court has lost legitimacy, he obviously will not admit that Citizens United was & remains a large part of the problem.
And his decision to undermine voting protections by claiming that they are no longer needed was outrageously wrong. He has no justification for his complaint about how the Roberts court is perceived.
PBS recently aired (rebroadcast) a piece on Sandra Day O'Connor. Why did she got along with anointing Bush? Because the alternatives would have been worse and Bush would still be president. At the time if the recount, the electors were already certified by the republican sec. of state. If recount continued, it would only lead to a second slate of electors, and the Gov, Bush's brother would have to pick one set. Jeb already committed to picking the one for this brother, no matter what. Sandra thought that would be worse for democracy then letting the Supreme Court suffer a bit.
Oh, nice to know that the GOP’s willingness to overrule the people and steal elections has a long history …
Why would that be worse? If she'd let Jeb take the fall for it it would have been self-evidently partisan but planting the Supreme Court imprimatur upon it gives it precedent, whatever they said at the time, and gives it an institutional credibility it would never otherwise have had.
They removed from the Republican party the burden of their own corruption.
Yes.
She was not concerned about the corruption in the GOP, but the illegitimacy of the office of the President. Gore conceded to preserve the union too.
That's why the GOP has to collapse...we need a legitimate party to oppose Democrats.
So now people doubt the legitimacy of the Court. Good exchange?
Don't forger 9/11/01 was a direct result of Supremes Presidential winner George W. Bush minimizing US intelligence on al-Qaeda because it originated from staff in the Soviet Oxford Mole Bill Climpton regime.
Bill gated America, so anything he claimed was to protect it was actually to destroy it.
Thanks- I saw part of that, but missed the pertinent election information. It's like thinking of what Eisenhower did right, but missing the fact that his initial refusal to support Joseph McCarthy's campaign collapsed, & how RFK - not necessarily the wisest appointment by his brother - actually decided to sneak into a cemetery to pay his respects to McCarthy.
Yes, I know - all "heroes" have feet of clay. Oddly, the Biden I detested as senator has improved over the years in my estimation - although Confederate flags in the Wilmington train platform years ago explained a lot about his constituents' opposition to busing & his getting advice on the subject from Southern Democrats.
When will Chief Supreme be releasing the findings of the Dobbs leak investigation?
Ginni did it! I called it first! Or not...
🙂 Why not? She's done worse.
I waded through the entire thing and what strikes me the most is that Trump must have wasted hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of scarce judicial resources to pursue a pretty evidently frivolous case. The judge and/or his clerks had to wade through 200 pages of crap and then look up and summarize the relevant case law to rule on assertions that barely border on actual legal claims. Granted, the defense attorneys probably did a fair amount of this work, but I don't think judges routinely assume attorneys are going to give them accurate readings of relevant cases. It's just a fantastic waste of everybody's time and money to soothe Trump's ego and aid his fund raising efforts. I do hope the judge imposes sanctions on his lawyers.
+++
Sad
There are times when the contradictions need to be enhanced.
The judge didn't have to look up the case law. Hillary's lawyers gave it to him.
So, you're saying, she rigged something else.
lawyers=enablers. sanction them hard as warning to other enablers.
I'm afraid that I read "an old time machine pol," not as the intended "old-time machine pol," but as an old pol who stepped out of a time machine.
Cannon's choice now is to follow the road map DOJ is giving her and progress toward becoming a real jurist, or to stay in that seat long enough for this current furor to die down and then take up a lifetime sinecure at Judicial Watch or some other wingnut welfare agency. She's acing her qualifying exams for that slot as we watch, and imo the only betting item is how many months before she quietly signs up for the welfare.
Depends on whom she names special master. If it's Michael Flynn or Robert Ray or some such, she's learned nothing. If it's algore or Cunnilingus Rice or John Kerry, she might be on a path to legitimacy.
Tom Fitton would also be a tell. But he'd have to get his head out of trump's ass long enough to get a security clearance, and who knows whether he'd be willing to make that sacrifice. At this point my money would be on Kenneth Starr, actually.
Actually, the DOJ notes that anything with a classification is ipso facto a government document and needs no review. I don’t know how one could argue against that.
You're right, they can't exactly *argue* against it, not in the normal meaning of "consider facts and elements in their proper categories, and lay out relevant cases and draw logical analogies to the facts of this case." But they can fulminate, imprecate, and bluster in legally irrelevant ways, and on the record so far they'll stand a better than even chance that this judge will dance to it.
Tom Fitton is as much a lawyer as Benjamin Wittes.
Neither one should be anywhere near the special master position.
... I will never give Ben Witless the benefit of the doubt.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no, it won't be Ken Starr.
She may not be impeachable, but could she be disbarred?
While we all indulge this silliness, the Ukrainians are, perhaps, fighting evil for us and kicking Russian ass. Send trump to Moscow and throw him out a window. We know he’s the enemy. We know the only way to rid ourselves of him. We know what must be done. But, as they say, the evils are still sufferable. Let me know when you’ve had enough.
Not sure what is happening in Ukraine. New York Times web site says the Russians are “retreating”. CNN says they are “fleeing”. The LA Times says Russia has announced a “troop pullback”. Washington Post says Ukraine is “gaining ground”.
And Fox News apparently thinks nothing of any importance is happening and are ignoring it completely.
The Russians themselves announced they are ‘repositioning’ out of Izyum and Balakliya. Especially the former was a major base for the occupiers. Clearly they were about to be enveloped and destroyed; as it is, the Ukrainians claim that a lot of materièl was abandoned by the withdrawing forces. Things are developing rapidly. The ‘repositioned’ forces will have to be re-provisioned, just at the time when the Ukrainians are using their Western-supplied precision weapons to target supply lines and ammunition depots. Even if the units can be re-formed, the Russians have had difficulty integrating reinforcements into established positions.
It’s just weird to me how the different news outlets are reporting (or not reporting) this. Several stories in the NYT but for LAT it is not even on front page of web site. If you read the LAT and watch Fox News you won’t even know it’s happening. CBS News also doesn’t have it on its front page. NBC has it on front page, but below stories on how King Charles will reign.
So there seems to be varying editorial opinion as to the importance of what’s happening in Ukraine.
The experts have been telling us to expect a drawn-out war of attrition, but then, a lot of experts expected a quick Russian victory. I think it’s not impossible that the Russian position could collapse rather quickly. Every time they suffer a setback, they have to revise their plans, and they just don’t seem to be very good at that.
I am, perhaps, oddly obsessed with this conflict. I see it as a basic good vs evil… well maybe just average vs. evil. But that evil is really maximally evil and is a stand in for trumpists. They are what we could become. I’m a pretty cynical guy, but… this conflict with Russia is a clear case worthy of maximum effort.
So I’m just going to hope for the best. The only good Russian is a dead one. Just like the only good US Republican is a dead one.
I’m still a misanthrope.
I think this is right when it comes to specific combat scenes as around Izyum-- the Russians responded to the very heavy publicity as well as military pressure focused on the south and positioned as much as they could to meet it, while the Ukrainians were also preparing more nimble forces to exploit weaknesses in other key areas. I haven't seen a whole lot of reports but it really does look like at least some of the Russian units have lit out for the territories. Brilliant setup and follow-through by the Ukrainians, along the lines of those fields of inflated rubber tanks in English fields opposite Calais before Overlord.
I agree that Russians haven't shown any capacity to adapt and reposition in tactical time and parts of their theater might well collapse as here. But I'm not looking for 1917, if only because of Crimea and its status as a last redoubt, if it comes to that.
From the start I've thought they'd only give up on this project to save one of the central institutions of the Russian state, either internal security or less likely, because less central, the army. Battlefield losses would have to be completely catastrophic to matter for internal security-- not that they haven't been from a more western perspective-- but I don't think they care as much about being big and fearsome to the world at this point as much as they do about being the biggest fish regardless what the pond looks like. Their internal media control seems solid enough that public opinion is a non-factor.
So individual theaters can collapse quickly, and all glory to the Ukrainians when they do, but I don't expect to see any fundamental changes on Russia's side as long as Putin and his buddies decide who falls out the windows.
Most of the Russians doing the fighting are not top of the line troops. IIRC there were quite a few conscripts in the ranks
But even at that I woefully underestimated the Ukrainian Army and overestimated the resolve, and replenishment capabilities of the Russian Army.
In many sectors it was not an orderly retreat - more of a "get out of Dodge" type retreat.
Somewhere along the line Putin will find "his general" who will rally the troops but at that time it may be too late.
I think everybody, including most if not all area experts, underestimated the Ukrainians and overestimated the Russians. Mark Hertling may be the big exception.
With all this reported disorder, we could be about to see a rerun of the play where senior Russian officers have to go out to front-line headquarters to impose discipline, and just like last time around many will earn appreciative obituaries for themselves.
Trustfund babies on left & right, from Walker Bragman to Tucker Carlson, say Putin is unquestionably winning in Ukraine.
So, there's your answer.
Never forget,
https://mobile.twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1568693198771613696
He had his tux made that on purpose.
He had his tux made like that on purpose.
A buttoned jacket would accentuate the inability of his corset to diminish his FUPA.
Since she fully intended to rule for him again the answer is no.