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The Comic Horror of the Trump DOJ
Before we get into the substantive coverage of developments related to the Trump Justice Department, a quick foray into the absurdism that is never far from the surface.
Thanks to a notebook dump by WSJ reporters in a story ostensibly about the politicization of the Justice Department under the thumb of the Trump White House, we have a bunch of new nuggets that are equal parts cringey and preposterous.
There was the time earlier this year, for instance, when President Trump cut his hand on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s gaudy wedding ring. I can’t even with this story. That and the other lowlights of the WSJ story:
- Say what you want about disgraced Attorney General John Mitchell, but he never made Richard Nixon’s hand bleed with his wedding ring (so far as we know):
Trump occasionally reminds aides about an incident last year in which Trump cut his hand on Bondi’s large wedding ring, causing him to bleed.
- Officials confirmed that Trump’s social media post demanding that Bondi hurry up and indict former FBI Director Jim Comey already was meant to be a direct message to her and not intended to put her on public blast:
Trump believed he had sent Bondi the message directly, addressing it to “Pam,” and was surprised to learn it was public, the officials said. Bondi grew upset and called White House aides and Trump, who then agreed to send a second post praising Bondi as doing a “GREAT job.”
- No story on the absurdist Trump DOJ is complete without a cameo from Ed Martin:
He works from an office dubbed the “Freedom Suite” on one end of a hallway on the deputy attorney general’s fourth floor, which visitors have described as being decorated with oversize photos of Trump and a small cup of holy water on the wall.
As with all things in the Trump era, the absurdism is an inextricable part of the corruption, retribution, and destruction. As historically significant as the ruination of the Justice Department is and as seriously as we must take it, it’s important to remember it’s been gutted by clowns and imbeciles. Absurdly.
Now on to the Substance of the WSJ Report …
More substantive nuggets from the WSJ story on the politically motivated retribution prosecutions:
- Federal prosecutors in Maryland are “expected in coming days” to charge former Trump national security adviser turned Trump critic John Bolton with mishandling classified information, the paper reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
- Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, a relatively recent target of Trump’s ire, is now under full-blown investigation, though for exactly what is not clear: “Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.”
- Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, who has ginned up the mortgage fraud allegations against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), went farther than previously reported in getting the bogus allegations in front of Trump: “This summer, Pulte visited the White House and gave Trump an elaborate presentation with visuals that included why the New York attorney general should be charged.”
Comey Pleads Not Guilty
During the arraignment of former FBI Director Jim Comey on politicized charges of lying to Congress, his attorney previewed the main pre-trial challenges he will raise to the indictment.
As expected, former Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a longtime Comey friend and now his attorney, will zero in on the unusual circumstances surrounding the indictment and on President Trump’s questionable appointment of Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The four areas of attack Fitzgerald outlined:
- the validity of Halligan’s appointment;
- abuse of the grand jury process;
- outrageous conduct by the government; and
- vindictive/selective prosecution.
With Fitzgerald complaining that the bare-bones indictment left him guessing about the identities of key figures in the government’s case, I’d expect him to eventually file a motion for a bill of particulars, a more fact-specific rendering of the indictment.
The two line prosecutors brought in from North Carolina to help Halligan with the case — because prosecutors in her own office have largely washed their hands of it — are still getting up to speed on discovery, an unusual position to be in post-indictment. “We feel that, in this case, the cart has been placed before the horse,” Fitzgerald said during the arraignment. “My client doesn’t want to wait around while they look for things.”
Fitzgerald told U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee, that he had not had substantive contact with prosecutors about the case until Tuesday afternoon.
Nachmanoff set an aggressive but not crazy initial schedule for pre-trial motions. It’s almost inevitable that those deadlines will get pushed back, but this district is notorious for its rocket docket, so the case is not likely to linger.
Still, Comey’s challenge to Halligan’s appointment will have to be heard by a judge from outside the district because she displaced the prior interim U.S. attorney who had been appointed by the judges of the district, creating a conflict of interest. So that may slow things down a bit.
Kash Patel Fires 2 FBI Agents From Jack Smith’s Probe
The fallout has already begun from Republicans screaming bloody murder because Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated whether they were involved in subverting the 2020 election. To get ahead of the outrage machine, FBI Director Kash Patel took action against three FBI agents, including firing two of them, NBC News reports.
‘Come and Get Me’
Just another day in Trump’s America as he uses social media to threaten to jail Illinois’ governor and Chicago’s mayor:
Good Read
Greg Sargent: Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Rule
‘We Can’t Rule That Out’
After a crazy meeting at the White House in which Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration was going to treat antifa the way it’s treated drug cartels, a sobering warning from Sen. Schiff (D-CA) on President Trump’s threat to domestic opposition groups:
Quote of the Day
“Despotism doesn’t impose itself on everyone all at once. It creeps inward from the margins of society.”–Brian Beutler
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