# NY AG Letitia James drops the (civil) hammer {On Trump & Family} \[9/21/2022\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 21, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991 "2022-09-21T16:13:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 47
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/922 "2023-11-02T22:32:39Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > something something about Georgia” is all he’s got. That’s easy; “Drop the charges or Georgia doesn’t get a single dime of federal funding”, followed by, if not immediately obeyed, “Drop the charges or we issue a new “All the Money in Georgia” tax, and don’t bother telling us that’s unconstitutional, because we now define what is in the constitution!” If Trump wins in 2024, it’s a safe bet the GOP will win both houses of congress, and with the Supreme Court on his side, there will be no one to stop them. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/923 "2023-11-02T22:35:14Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > I can’t emphasize enough how utterly stupid and unproductive it is to start fights with the judge’s staff. You are a wise lawyer. 😉 > [@Moriarty](#): > > Besides, judges have lots of cases they are handling, and that doesn’t stop just because they are in trial. There’s a lot of reasons why a clerk may be giving messages to a judge (which may not even pertain to the particulars of the case), and it’s is simply absurd to try to attach nefarious motives to the communications between a judge and his clerk. This is 100% true. The phone rings for the judge’s assistant (or more accurately, flashes). It’s the Clerk’s Office, asking if the judge still has so-and-so’s file in his office. The judge’s assistant passes a note to the judge asking, “Is so-and-so’s file still in your office? The Clerk’s Office has someone who needs to see it. May they come get it?” Judge either nods or writes a note back. And sometimes, the notes passed between a judge and his clerk are as bad as you can imagine. But that’s still between them. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/924 "2023-11-02T22:35:23Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > There’s a lot of reasons why a clerk may be giving messages to a judge (which may not even pertain to the particulars of the case), and it’s is simply absurd to try to attach nefarious motives to the communications between a judge and his clerk. Agree, but to his dunderheaded moron minions who don’t know any better all he has to do is suggest this courtroom exchange “proves” bias and he can complain at how unfair the trial is (this also helps with fundraising via Fleece-a-Rube dot com). ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/925 "2023-11-03T00:41:54Z")
On other sites, the Trumpers are basically asking why a Judge should _even have_ a clerk in their courtroom At All. I rarely engage when the incoming is suffering so acutely from rhetorical ED, but I did happen to point to this little web page: > **[Court Clerk's Station](https://www.ncsc.org/courthouseplanning/space-planning-standards/court-clerks-station)** > To facilitate passing files between judge and clerk in a paper-based courtroom, the clerk’s station should be located immediately adjacent to the judge, and is usually one riser-level lower. The clerk should also have easy access to case files, evidence, and exhibits, as well as to the jury, to call prospective jurors to the jury box and to swear in impaneled jurors. In more traditional courtrooms, the clerk sits at a desk in front of the judge. [![](https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/image/0015/26007/court-clerks-station-1.jpeg) ](https://www.ncsc.org/__data/assets/image/0015/26007/court-clerks-station-1.jpeg) And Golly Gee Wilikers: it seems like you were _meant_ to be there from day one. Who knew? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/926 "2023-11-03T01:06:31Z")
Gotta love the war on education in this country, eh? Courtroom clerks are far from the most important people in the courtroom, but we have our functions. Exhibits: There’s a difference between an item being offered as evidence and being received in evidence as an exhibit to be published to the jury. It’s up to the clerk to keep track of the status of each item, as well as maintain custody of the exhibits and secure them in between trial sessions. Jurors: The clerk is the liaison between the jury services folks and the judge. We let jury services know when panels are needed and how many. When prospective jurors come to the courtroom, we’re responsible to take roll and ensure everyone is there before proceedings get underway. We administer the oaths to panels of prospective jurors and to jurors who are selected to sit for a case. Oaths: We administer oaths to jurors, witnesses and non-official language interpreters. There are other oaths, but these are the main ones. Liaison: 1) Between lawyers and judge; 2) Between other court staff and judge; 3) Between custody/law enforcement officials and judge. Gatekeepers indeed. Head Schleppers: Moving files and documents between the main Clerk’s Office and the judge. Every file the judge reviews, every document the judge signs must be returned to the main office for additional processing. I find all this focus by the Trump people on the judge’s clerk to be utterly ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/927 "2023-11-03T01:13:24Z")
A courtroom can’t operate without a clerk sitting close to the judge. The clerks are essential. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/928 "2023-11-03T02:15:12Z")
Most everything “they” know is from Judge Judy and L&O series. That extra (clerk) would have to be paid on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/929 "2023-11-03T02:44:42Z")
I forgot to mention one of our most important functions: To take minutes of every proceeding and distill those into minute orders for the court file. When you go to a clerk’s office and ask to review a file to see what happened in a case in a courtroom proceeding on a given day, you’re reading a clerk’s minute order. We also prepare and serve the written rulings of a judge if the judge doesn’t make their ruling from the bench. If they make their ruling from the bench, we must make sure to include it in our minute order of proceedings for the day. In addition to trial proceedings, judges hear their regular calendars daily. These are “cattle calls” for various proceedings where dozens of cases are heard in a 2-3 hour session. They can be status conferences, motions, plea hearings, arraignments, preliminary hearings, etc. There are lots of files, orders and minute orders that clerks handle for these calendars daily. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/930 "2023-11-03T04:56:22Z")
Thanks to Mr. Trump, I’m learning quite a bit about how trials work in the federal system as well as the great states of Georgia and New York. You would have thought years of watching the docudrama _Night Court_ and following the trials and tribulations of “Mac” the court clerk I would have known more about how such things work. But I’m really getting a better understanding and I can’t help but appreciate that. Thanks, Mr. Trump! ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/931 "2023-11-03T05:04:08Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I find all this focus by the Trump people on the judge’s clerk to be utterly ridiculous. I wonder if their “objection” cited the Law and Order episode where it turned out the judge was in the early stages of dementia, and his (well meaning but very misguided) law clerk was transmitting everything she thought he should say to him via laptop for him to read out. I think she was one of the docs in ER? ETA: here we go - Sherry Stringfield is the actor > **[Zero](https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Zero)** > > When his latest case seems to be going too smoothly, Cutter becomes worried about the mental health of the judge trying his case. Jeremy Sisto as Detective Cyrus Lupo Anthony Anderson as Detective Kevin Bernard S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita... And I’m remembering now, she was an old friend of DA Cutter. He cleverly exposed what was going on by somehow figuring out a way to put her on the witness stand from where she couldn’t coach the judge. I remember the episode because, unusually, there’s a stunning young female ADA who looks like a model. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/932 "2023-11-03T05:04:29Z")
Well, unlike on _Night Court_, I’m pretty sure that Mr. Trump won’t be sentenced to “Fifty dollars and time served.” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/933 "2023-11-03T06:15:50Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > I believe so. I did 6x7=2, carry the 4, 7x1= 7, plus 4, equals 11, sooooo, 112. I did 160 (16 X 10) - 48 (16 X 3) = 112. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/934 "2023-11-03T06:21:31Z")
The math thing may have gone on a bit toooo long here, eh? 🤪 🤪 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/935 "2023-11-03T06:36:36Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I find all this focus by the Trump people on the judge’s clerk to be utterly ridiculous. If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts; if you have the law on your side, pound the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table; when even that doesn’t work, pound the clerk. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/936 "2023-11-03T11:15:57Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > But I’m really getting a better understanding and I can’t help but appreciate that. Thanks, Mr. Trump! I’m confused. I thought Republicans were against education? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/937 "2023-11-03T11:56:48Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I find all this focus by the Trump people on the judge’s clerk to be utterly ridiculous. I don’t. It’s like those two poll workers in Georgia they attacked. It’s entirely intentional, to make good people like you afraid to do the jobs we need done to have functional rule of law in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/938 "2023-11-03T13:31:02Z")
[Court denies Ivanka Trump’s bid to pause testimony after she claimed ‘undue hardship’ if made to appear during school week | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/politics/ivanka-trump-testimony-appeal-school-week/index.html) A higher court on Thursday denied Ivanka Trump’s request to postpone her upcoming testimony in her father’s civil fraud trial, shortly after she claimed she’d suffer “undue hardship” if forced to appear during a school week. “Ms. Trump, who resides in Florida with her three minor children, will suffer undue hardship if a stay is denied and she is required to testify at trial in New York in the middle of a school week, in a case she has already been dismissed from, before her appeal is heard,” her attorney argued in part in an appeal filed Thursday. seriously!! seriously! undue hardship for testifying on a school day? gah. this family is beyond ridiculous. the before the appeal thing is somewhat logical. the school day thing is utter balderdash. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/939 "2023-11-03T13:33:53Z")
You _know_ they’ve got a full-time nanny for those kids. No way in hell she does the school run every morning. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/940 "2023-11-03T13:34:33Z")
I find it helpful if we never lose sight of the fact that … they’ve got nothing. ISTM that neither the facts nor the law are on their side … in pretty much any of the pending cases. My guess is that the Kushner family has a harem, compliments of the House of Saud, that helps ensure few distractions from Jared’s day job of managing $2B of their sovereign wealth – wealth that their own people thought should probably not be entrusted to Jared. It doesn’t _seem_ like your textbook “hardship,” though, does it? ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2023, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991/941 "2023-11-03T13:41:36Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > It doesn’t _seem_ like your textbook “hardship,” though, does it? Well, remember, this is the family that started from practically nothing, just a small $3,000,000 loan from Grandpa Trump. So they know suffering. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991.md?page=46) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ny-ag-letitia-james-drops-the-civil-hammer-on-trump-family-9-21-2022/971991.md?page=48)