Names a special counsel to go after both the Mar-A-Lago and January 6th cases. No thread on this yet? https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/11/18/justice-trump-garland-special-counsel/
Their impeachment of any Biden official will have the same effect as both of Trump's impeachments. Meaning, nothing will happen and no one will be removed from office.
I don’t love it. It probably delays the cases by a few weeks as he gets up to speed. But it should prevent them from getting cancelled for whatever reason.
The question is can the house defund the investigation. It'll be interesting to see if they want to. Even Evangelical leaders are moving off of Trump - in their usual bullshit way claiming they were tricked by him. Accountability for my greed and power lust? Never! Election denial is the new Lost Cause. It also gives some level of protection to the Administration if the investigation continues on into the next campaign - and considering campaigning is 24/7/365 that's already happened.
Peter Strzok thinks it won’t slow things down and can speed things up. https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1593710169011388416?s=46&t=63x7IRSvZw3Q_CZqHv4-sQ
I get that Garland has this "slow and steady" reputation, but he's really shitting the bed by moving so slowly here. The closer you get to November 2024 the more likely Republicans are to circle the wagons regardless of what happens, and even if he's convicted Trump has a pretty good chance of getting Clarence Thomas and friends to rule that that any punishment barring him from running for president again is unconstitutional.
Most legal scholars I've seen believe this is exactly the right move. Renato Mariotti and Asha Rangappa are two I follow on Twitter (for now, anyway) and they are both praising this move. I think most in the legal community expected this prior to any indictment, and both of them believe this definitely presages said indictment.
kinda, yeah.. I mean they started off just wanting to free the slaves and keep the republic together and eventually wound up, umm, not doing that.
3 new grand juries were being impaneled at US District Court in DC a few hours ago, I saw while here. https://twitter.com/ajdukakis/status/1593673467886436353
They were the prophised ones, to bring balance to the US! They were to destroy the racists, not join them!
To quote one of the responses, nothing says “We’re guilty” like defunding the people investigating you. https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1593788290205089792?s=20&t=zY9j-k7TEhjQfZCSSpqluA
Biff's giving a speech tonight. If this guy were coming after me I'd be scared too. He looks like some kind of executioner.
We are speeding things up? So we have taken our foot off the breaks after 2 fucking years. The light is still going to turn red before anything gets done unless one of the pathetic old trump loving dems hits the gas. It is too late. The republicans won the house and they will do everything they can to delay this. They have slept through the green light, finally looked up from their pohones, and now the light is orange and they are hoping that they can idle into the intersection before the oncoming traffic runs them down. We are never getting an indictment and a trial in time to make 90 days before november 2024. Even if we do Desantis will pardon Trump on his first day in office because Joe isn't going to be a 2 term president. The light is only green for a certain amount of time and Garland spent it all on his cell phone. Maybe I am wrong, but it won't be for lack of the dems trying their hardest not to do anything.
Interesting from @emptywheel: SCO decision might also be driven by cases on incumbent (soon majority/oversight leadership) House members. Scott Perry had his phone seized. MTJ, Gaetz, Jordan, others were at WH in Dec discussing overturning the election. https://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1593973773308403712?s=46&t=HJiBOd5MEAc1-HwQHQ5eSg
Unlikely. For a Republican House member to step down upon being indicted, that Republican House member would need to have a sense of shame. And for a Republican majority to expel one of its members for being a criminal, the other Republican House members would have to value ethics over power. I don't see either of those happening anytime soon.
I totally agree. It would be fucking awesome, but none of them would actually step down, and it would probably just lead to their re-election in a couple years.
I'm content to assume Sarah Kendzior is again (sadly) correct and he'll eventually get away with everything. Until/unless they prove me wrong. Elite criminal impunity is one of the strongest forces in human behavior.
Lawrence Tribe also said that he at first didn't like it but has been persuaded it's a good move. The key thing is that dude has to have the (effective) last word which is to say, if he brings a case to Garland, Garland's already committed to let him run with it. What worries me is that Garland doesn't have the spine for it and will let it wither in the same way that he didn't pick up and finish Mueller's work
Lawrence O'Donnel had a monologue the other night pointing out that running a bullshit impeachment on Clinton made both he and the Dems MORE popular in '98
52% of Twitter said to let him back. I'm trying to think of something 52% of people could vote for in 2024 to let him back.