Dem
47
GOP
53
It was a busy weekend on the legal front, as Donald Trump and his administration continued to suffer setbacks with every level of the court system that is not the Supreme Court:
Slush Fund Blues: A number of lawsuits have been filed against the Rioters and Thieves Fund and there has already been court action in a couple of them. The first court order, issued Friday morning, was courtesy of U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia and involves a case filed by plaintiffs who claim they were victims of Trump's weaponization of the Department of Justice. Among them is former federal prosecutor Andrew Floyd, who worked on 1/6 cases and who Trump fired last year, and a college professor who Trump's DoJ charged with assaulting federal agents at a protest (no, he's not sandwich guy but, like him, the prof was acquitted). The judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the government from setting up the fund, transferring any money to it, or making any disbursements from it until at least June 12, when a hearing will be held.
Later on Friday, the judge who was overseeing Trump's fake IRS case, Kathleen M. Williams, reopened it at the request of 35 former federal judges who claim that Trump's suit perpetrated a fraud on the court. The judge said she would investigate the circumstances surrounding the suit and ordered the government to file a brief by June 12 concerning whether Trump colluded with the IRS and DoJ in concocting the case and then dropping it to avoid judicial scrutiny.
Our Take: Ruh-roh. On the one hand, if Acting AG Tood Blanche and Trump really thought no one would sue them over this slush fund and that no court would put a stop to it, maybe we can sell them that land in Florida we're always trying to move. On the other hand, once again, the courts are bailing out the Republican conferences in Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) are probably secretly rejoicing that they can publicly call out the courts for being "activist judges" while avoiding having to take any uncomfortable votes on Trump's rioters' relief fund.
On top of that, you hardly need a law degree to see how completely corrupt and illegal this thing is, but on its way to the dump, it could take a few people with it. In particular, if Williams decides to do some investigating into the origins of this case, Blanche and acting IRS Commissioner Frank Bisignano could have to answer some rather awkward questions. They will stonewall, of course, but in the meantime, their little project will be on ice. For once, their standard delay tactics are only going to hurt themselves.
The
Trump-Kennedy Center: We know how much Trump loves to attach his name to stuff. Well, thanks to yet another Friday court ruling, the Trump name has to come off the Kennedy Center. U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ordered the name removed within 2 weeks because adding it violated the law passed by Congress in 1964 naming the building in honor of President John F. Kennedy. His order also prohibits the board from carrying out its planned summer closure because the board failed to do its due diligence before making that decision. Both sides have to file an update on next steps by June 5.Our Take: Trump was not happy about this decision and went onto his social media site to whine about it. He now claims he's abandoning the center altogether, while also complaining about the judge's decision. Meanwhile, 2 weeks from Friday is June 12. Trump's team is going to be awfully busy that day. It will be very interesting to see if his underlings comply with the order to take his name off the building. We may wll be treated to the rare sight of Trump's name being taken off something, which would certainly serve as a metaphor for how his presidency is going.
86 Petracca: People on the left, and the right, agree that the case brought against former FBI Director James Comey—the case of the seashells that gave Trump the sads—is utterly without merit. It's hard to imagine it will make it to trial (though it's also hard to imagine how it got past a grand jury). Over the weekend, the prosecutor that Todd Blanche got to bring the case, Matthew Petracca, decided to leave his position as Assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina. He'll move to some other, as-yet-unannounced position in the DoJ, but he's no longer the attorney of record for the Comey case, and has been succeeded in that capacity by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Severo.
Our Take: Nobody is explaining why Petracca jumped ship. One can certainly imagine less-than-innocent explanations, like some sort of tampering with the grand jury, as happened with U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the "Broadview Six" case that was dismissed last week. However, that is just idle speculation at this point. What's certain is that Severo is a 30-year, well-respected prosecutor. We can imagine him deciding to drop the case or, at very least, to continue "prosecuting" it with a palpable lack of enthusiasm.
There will undoubtedly be more legal news later this week. There always is. (L & Z)