That assumes he wins. He didn’t the last time, and I doubt he will this time.
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
Win or lose it’s a sensible strategy. There’s no down side for her. She’s already been exposed as a hack. If he doesn’t get reelected and she faces another round of reversals, she doesn’t suffer any further sanction. She’s not penalized. She won’t get impeached because the political climate won’t permit it. She keeps her seat until she dies or retires.
If she has any kind of professional conscience, if she has any intent to rehabilitate her judicial image, she recuses herself. If she doesn’t recuse herself, it’ll be clear what she plans to do.
Unless she has hopes of getting on the Court of Appeals someday. She’s still relatively young.
That’s the up side of supporting Trump and hoping for his reelection. The worst possible outcome for her is that Trump loses and this is as high as she goes.
This is tingling something in my memory…from a Twilight Zone episode?
Star Trek. The unpleasant fate of one Harry Mudd, he of the tribble fame.
Oh, yeah.
At first, I was thinking of that old Twilight Zone ep with Keenan Wynn (A World of His Own), but it wasn’t quite right. It was that Star Trek ep alright.
Cool word. I was immediately reminded of liminal, as in liminal space. Both mean (essentially) “at the threshold.” Other words incorporating the Latin root limen/limin include preliminary and subliminal.
Just thought it was neat.
If she does a professional job, and no appellate court overturns her decisions, her image as a judge will be bolstered.
If she recuses, she might be perceived as cowardly, or convinced that she’s not up to the job.
It’s also entirely possible that she has no personal allegiance to donald - she might be saying to herself “i got here on my own merit. He only nominated me because he was given a list of names.”
She might be a very conservative judge, but that usually manifests itself as bias in favor of the prosecutor.
At the end of the day, she doesn’t have to do much to let a fair trial play out. It would be both the path of least resistance and the best outcome in terms of her long term reputation.
Nitpick. Cyrano Jones was the trader in tribbles.
Pure speculation here, but would other judges, in the privacy of chambers, be leaning on her not to screw this up?
I can only speak to my own limited experience as a paid voyeur in state level interactions between judges in chambers. From that perspective, the answer is, “Kind of.”
We tried a few high-profile cases in my day. It was very important to the whole bench that cases be tried in a manner that appeared fair to all parties and by a judge with enough experience to handle the case well. There were few informal discussions between judges about all this. But in a more formal setting, they would discuss it thoroughly. Only the judges were present at these meetings.
There would also be a meeting between the Presiding Judge and the judge assigned to the case, to ensure all concerns were being looked at and addressed with respect to security, media, special handling for a defendant, etc. So far as I recall, there was never questioning about capability. If a judge is appointed/elected, it is assumed that they can do the job. (Sometimes erroneously. Much like presidents, it seems.)
Some judges cared far more about how they were perceived and others, far less. I never saw any judge tell another judge how to run their courtroom. In many respects, those courtrooms were the private kingdoms of the judges who inhabited them. Unless a judge specifically solicited the opinion of another judge, such opinions weren’t offered.
Probably not a post that inspires confidence.
No, not much confidence. But I do wonder, if the presiding judge has some real worries after discussing case management with Cannon, might that lead her/him to reassign the case?
It’s interesting that Jack Teixera, the young Air National Guardsman charged with distributing classified documents a month ago, seems to have had the same basic motive as Trump: impressing acquaintances. They both just want to show off how cool they are.
(I’m sure many others must have noticed this — likely in this very thread.)
I’d have to say, unlikely. She is presumed to have earned the right to live or die by her own hand in this matter.
In this instance, it may be an egregious error. But they will probably fall back on their particular custom and practice, and I can’t say I disagree with them doing that.
Let’s just hope Jack Smith has gamed it all out to his satisfaction. I like to believe he has.
Lawfare has an analysis of “shoes hanging in the air to drop”:
There are notes in the indictment about documents existing and being shown around at Trump’s place in Bedminster, New Jersey. They note that this location could have also been raided and simply didn’t make the news, that there could still be investigative threads being followed there, and that any case against Trump for his actions in Bedminster would be filed as a separate case in that district.
Likewise, if Trump did something improper in sending the documents away from the White House, that might also be charged - probably in DC.
There’s some other analysis of others getting pulled in and additional charges.
He had documents at Mara Lardo in his desk. He brandished papers at guests at Bedminster, and he presumably has a desk there, too. They can’t find those papers. I think I know where they can at least look. If they have searched Bedminster, I haven’t heard about it. IANAL, but I think they have grounds to turn every property he owns upside down and shake them.
That’s a killer question to pursue in voir dire. No one posting shit about Trump, positively or negatively, ever anticipated serving on a jury someday trying him personally, and any prevarication is a federal crime, so you’re likely to get honest responses.
The shit I’ve posted about him in P&E alone, let alone the Pit, would get me bounced from any jury in the world trying Donald Trump.
Thanks for posting. I was just about to post it, too. I’ll just copy n paste my thoughts about it below:
Basically, Jack Smith may have held back some charges and could bring future charges in different venues (DC, and New Jersey) and this would give him different Judges/juries.
What is venue…Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to be tried in the location where the crime was committed. It’s a bit more nuance, but that’s it. Jack Smith would have preferred to bring these charges in DC where there are more favorables in this matter to a the prosecutor than Florida (better Judges, better Jury pool). He could have tried, and it’s certainly possible to bring all the charges in one venue even if all the crimes where not committed in that location, but he did not. However, it’s also possible, and less complicated, to bring charges separately in their clear respective venues.
So, here, we have three main locations/proper venues:
Charged
Florida: Everything he was charged for. Basically, not handing over the documents, the majority of the storage/coverup/concealment.
However, the indictment talks about more criminal activity than he was charged with.
Not Charged
New Jersey: More of the concealment (he flew docs from FL to his NJ residence to further conceal them). He also discussed them with others. Both of those are illegal and can be charged.
DC: The removal of the docs to a place they shouldn’t go (Florida residence). This was not charged.
I would hope safe deposit boxes as well. Storage units, every damn thing that is associated with him.