I hope you are correct (and that there is no way to arrest them without a grand jury vote).
But what if the grand jury is in a deep red county? The needed simple majority of those grand jurors may not look at it the way we would.
As to whether Pat Bondi is capable of ordering an arrest of a Trump enemy, here is a snippet of evidence:
Maybe Trump will be too old and tired to push through arrests of his perceived enemies. But I think the risk is high.
A corrupt AG has the power to make someone’s life miserable even if it doesn’t end with a conviction. Nixon used the justice department and the IRS to harass his political opponents. Trump is even less scrupulous than Nixon was.
Trump plans to declare a state of emergency to justify the use of the military to round up immigrants for deportation. I’m worried that’s not all he’ll do. The Constitution allows for the suspension of habeas corpus in cases of rebellion. I wouldn’t put it past him to claim there’s a rebellion and use this to arrest and hold people without trial.
Trump did the same in his last term. He couldn’t charge anyone because they didn’t actually do anything criminal, but he could “investigate” them relentlessly. I expect that to be expanded immensely with a new AG.
While I understand what you’re saying and agree, in the interests of accuracy I should mention that goldfish actually have a good long-term memory.
On topic: it looks like the Cabinet picks are being used as a loyalty test for Vance’s replacement. It’s bootlickers all the way down.
Yeah. Well, why would anyone expect anything other than hardcore MAGA? Trump values groveling loyalty above all else.
I’m not convinced Trump is that scheming.
However, Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation has a database of pre-vetted conservatives to suggest to Trump, THOSE guys are capable of playing chess.
I’m not as convinced of that as I once was.
Yes, especially since Trump is cool with extorsion and espionage.
I mean, who doesn’t hide top secret government documents in a bathroom that has a copy machine? Every bathroom has a copy machine, right?
It would make copying your butt a lot easier.
A more detailed account of the interplay between filling vacancies and senate confirmation:
Here’s the summary:
When an executive branch advice and consent position covered by the Vacancies Act becomes vacant, it may be filled temporarily in one of three ways under the act: (1) the first assistant to such a position may automatically assume the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity; (2) the President may direct an officer who is occupying a different advice and consent position to perform these tasks; or (3) the President may select an officer or employee who is occupying a different position, within the same agency, for which the rate of pay is equal to or greater than the minimum rate of pay at the GS-15 level. The selected official must have served in that agency for at least 90 days during the year preceding the vacancy.
Gaetz wouldn’t qualify under any of these three categories. Moot now, in light of the recent announcement that Trump has moved on.
The bathroom wasn’t the room with the copy machine - that was a different easily-accessible room full of boxes of confidential files.
So a differnent room with boxes of top secret docs had a copy machine? I swear I saw a picture and the copy machine was in the bathroom.
I searched for this, I did not see a picture of a copier in the bathroom.
I did see a chandelier in the bathroom. Ummm… One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen.
Spotted online:
“Gaetz couldn’t even wait until his nomination turned 18.”
I think it’s a mistake to assume that if Trump isn’t doing any 4D chess calculations, then no 4D chess calculations are happening.
The only impediment to this kind of triangulation is that there are probably multiple people doing it in contention with each other.
I don’t think her position would be as much of an immediate threat to American democracy. So I think Gaetz would have been more immediately and definitely worse for America because he would be able to directly crack down on perceived enemies.
I’m not sure which would have been worse for the world, because while she would be more immediately worse for the world, if American democracy falls, that would also be worse for the world.
I suspect Trump grapples with the nuances of Candyland.
mmm
I have to agree with this assessment. Not only doesn’t he play 4-D chess, he doesn’t play 3-D or 2-D or even 1-D.
Subsidiary question. In his resignation letter, the pervert said he would not take the oath of office for his old seat (to which he had been re-elected). What happens now? Is the seat automatically vacated so the governor can call an immediate by-election? Or is it just left in limbo for two years?
The primary is set for Jan 28 with the election in April.
There is a special election to fill the current vacancy.
The primary election for the district is slated to take place on Jan. 28, 2025 and the district’s general election will take place on April 1, 2025.
It is vacant until then. That’s the soonest Florida law allows it to be filled.
That is a welcome bit of levity, in an otherwise very scary discussion, that I can get behind.
Right, there are a series of minimum times for qualifying, campaigning, certifying primary result, etc. that runs into that minimum time limit. Gaetz’s resignation with less than two months left in the running term renders moot a special election to fill the lame-duck session, but his foregoing his status as reelected extends the vacancy into the next Congress so it starts the clock for that. The US Constitution and Florida law require the calling of a Special Election but do not set a maximum time limit for it, in other occasions governors have allowed it to take most of a year so they can combine it with the next cycle of local elections, but with a razor thin majority in the House there is strong pressure to get that covered fast.
Careful what you wish for. I am no fan of Gaetz (far from it) and happy he won’t be AG but I am not confident his replacement will be an improvement.
One possibility:
Mike Davis, the man who many expect to be Donald Trump’s attorney general, appeared on Benny Johnson’s podcast The Benny Show last year to outline who exactly is on Trump’s hit list.
Davis told Johnson he has five lists ready to go, but appeared to name only four.
“I will rain hell on Washington D.C.,” he said. “I have five lists ready to go and they’re growing. List number one—we’re gonna fire. We’re gonna fire a lot of people in the executive branch of the deep state. Number two—we’re gonna indict. We’re gonna indict Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and James Biden and every other scumball sleazeball Biden, except for the 5-year-old granddaughter who they refused to acknowledge for five years until political pressure got to Joe Biden.”