Even as the judge’s latest moves show she’s carefully disguising her advocacy for Trump, he is making it clear that he expects her to save him.
When Judge Aileen Cannon handed down her latest ruling in the prosecution of Donald Trump for stealing classified documents, many legal observers immediately understood the shady gamesmanship lurking behind it. She did, technically, rule against Trump by refusing to dismiss the case—but actually made it easier for herself to kill the case later, or to steer a jury toward an acquittal.
Trump’s lawyers had argued that the Presidential Records Act, which was passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal, allowed him to reclassify national security documents as his personal property. That’s a grotesque misreading of the law’s history and intent, and Cannon appeared to agree, declaring that the PRA “does not provide a pre-trial basis to dismiss” the case. The media reported this as a partial “win” for special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution team.
But as constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe put it, this was a “pretend” ruling against Trump that ended up “reserving” Cannon’s ability to decide the case for Trump in a way that cannot be appealed. In short, Cannon seems to recognize that as she moves toward that endgame, it’s essential to maintain plausible deniability throughout.
“Judge Cannon is being canny in her Trump-protective approach,” Lee Kovarsky, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told me.
Cannon isn’t exactly one of the great legal minds of our time. I wonder if we will eventually find out Heritage Foundation or something similar is covertly coaching her through each stage.
Of course. She’s dumber than a second coat of paint.
huh?
I too am wondering what’s dumb or otherwise wrong or undesirable about a second coat of paint. Seems context dependent but they left the context general/generic
Everyone knows the first coat is the smartest. Just kidding, I have no idea what that means
Jack Smith’s refusal to demand her recusal months ago is going to prove to be a fatal mistake in this case.
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Because the situation has literally never come up before.
No where in the rules does it say dogs can’t play basketball.
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I live in a very red rural area. The folks here reinforce misinformation propaganda and shut down anyone who dares not toe the MAGA line. They do not understand at all that they are living under a democracy. They might be uneducated and misinformed but they vote!
Get out the vote too. Volunteer. Donate. All hands on deck.
trump isn’t accidentally doing anything at all, he said he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue, he’s doing this all out in public, just like everything else, and daring the united states justice system to be able to do anything meaningful to him at all. this isn’t a gotcha, it’s a so fucking what. he doesn’t care. almost half the population of the united states is betting the other half can’t do a fucking thing about it, and so far, they’ve been right.
*won’t. Won’t do a thing about it.
