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The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

The revolution will be supervised.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Consistently wrong since 2002

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / Ancient and Sacred Order of Ineptitude

Ancient and Sacred Order of Ineptitude

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Kash Patel, the staffer who wrote the Nunes memo, is – shocker – a fucking moron:

Patel was issued a rare “order of ineptitude” in 2016 by U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, who faulted the lawyer’s handling of the prosecution of Omar Faraj Saeed Al Hardan, who was accused of trying to support ISIS.

“If the pretentious lawyers from ‘main’ justice knew what they were doing — or had the humility to ask for help from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Texas,” Hughes wrote, “it would not have taken three days, seven telephone calls, three voicemail messages and one snippy electronic message for them to indirectly ask the court for assistance in ordering a transcript.”
[…] The judge admonished Patel from the bench after he arrived in court, shortly after a flight, without proper attire.

“You’re not a member of the trial team,” Hughes said. “It’s been going on for a month or so and you haven’t been here, have you?”

“And where is your tie?” the judge said. “Where is your suit?”

Hughes then demanded Patel’s passport to prove he’d just arrived from an overseas flight, and he asked why he had been chosen to participate if there were other prosecutors nearby in the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“What is the utility to me and to the people of America to have you fly down here at their expense, eat at their expense and stay at their expense when there are plenty of capable people over there, in this room plus over there?” Hughes said. “You’re just one more nonessential employee from Washington.”

“You don’t add a bit of value, do you?” the judge added.

Judge Lynn Hughes (a man, if that weren’t already obvious) was appointed by St. Ronald Reagan.

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Elmo

    It takes an awful lot for me to feel sorry for an attorney in the Justice Department. It takes even more when I know from later events that the attorney is hip-deep in Trumpism and Nunesscheise.

    This dick of a judge has managed it. Who thinks he would have treated a white guy from Texas like this? Anyone? Bueller?

  2. 2.

    Baud

    I’m not saying he’s not a moron (I don’t know), but someone else here said that the judge was way out of line. I really don’t like asshole judges.

  6. 6.

    Eljai

    You don’t add a bit of value

    Come to think of it, this applies to everyone in Trump’s orbit, including Trump himself.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    I honestly don’t understand focusing on the intelligence of the staffer. Do we think the staffer is manipulating Nunes to act the way he’s acting? Seems like Nunes is responsible regardless of how smart the staffer is.

  9. 9.

    Immanentize

    Judge Hughes is a dangerous Judge who has been ‘sanctioned’ by the Fifth Circuit for his bad demeanor and atrocious court case management. I think he had all criminal cases reassigned at one point.

    Then again, blind squirrel and all….

  10. 10.

    Just One More Canuck

    “order of ineptitude”? Is Kash Patel related to McMegan?

    Though to be fair, “order of ineptitude” could apply to the entire Trump administration

  13. 13.

    eric

    @LAO: perhaps, but that was some of the worst work I have ever seen from a lawyer. You walk in there without a suit, you are asking for a beatdown, so you better be ready with a non-dick way of answering the question or front it asap. “I just got back from London” is the worst answer he could give. Presumably you bring a suit with you to London knowing you were coming to Court when you got back. I travel A LOT for work and I always have a suit with me just in case. and if there is a trial? heck yeah. this is a bad combo of jerk meets dick (and not in the good way).

  17. 17.

    Sab

    @Immanentize: And yet he is there for life. We have a similar quality judge appointed by Bush in Ohio. And the Trump appointees will be with us for decades.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    @Sab: Federal judges can be impeached. If the Democrats win back Congress, this could happen, especially with the incompetent boobs Dolt45 appointed.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    @eric:

    this is a bad combo of jerk meets dick (and not in the good way).

    Hopefully it will all work out in favor of the defendant, which is probably what everyone involved deserves.

    (Though I don’t know anything about the merits of this specific case, I’m a little suspicious of all “terrorism”-related cases.)

  21. 21.

    LAO

    @eric: I guess — the conference appears to be in chambers, not the well of the courtroom and the Judge was already plenty pissed at the thought of Patel before he even entered the room. I have been dressed down by federal judges before, sometimes deservedly and sometimes not. It appeared to me that the Judge was just looking for an excuse to pounce and the idiot gave him one.

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    It sounds like the judge was already cheesed off with the federal prosecutors even before Patel turned up in his court, out of the blue and improperly dressed. It may have been purely fortuitous that Patel was the one to receive the shellacking.

    By the way, I am impressed with Rawstory’s choice of photo for the story. It’s simply impossible for a grown person to be photographed playing air guitar at a party without looking dopey.

  25. 25.

    Elmo

    @eric: I thought he was returning from Kazakhstan or some similar place. Transiting through London. No?

    Anyway, I would understand the judge saying, in his best flat voice, “You’re not dressed. Come back when you are.” but to just continually demean the guy personally, keep hammering him for even being there? I doubt very much that he was there on a personal whim. People who aren’t Federal judges tend to go where their bosses send them. Really unfair and vicious to demean him like that for being “useless” and adding no value, and so on, and so on – and then to dismiss him after making him stand through it? Just fking petty, nasty powertripping dick move.

  26. 26.

    foucault swing voter mistermix

    Just a note on why it’s important that the lead Republican counsel of Nunes’ committee is (apparently) an idiot. Staff do all of the heavy lifting for Members of Congress. I’m sure this guy spent a lot of time crafting the load of shit that Nunes is trying to grunt out, and he’s definitely at least in part responsible for this attempt to pre-emptively dirty up Mueller and the FBI. And even if this judge is an asshole – and by all accounts he is – it seems like he picked a worthy target in this one instance.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @foucault swing voter mistermix:

    I’m sure this guy spent a lot of time crafting the load of shit that Nunes is trying to grunt out,

    Then the dumber the better. A smart staffer might make it sound good.

    nd he’s definitely at least in part responsible for this attempt to pre-emptively dirty up Mueller and the FBI.

    That’s an issue of integrity, not intelligence.

  30. 30.

    foucault swing voter mistermix

    @Baud:

    That’s an issue of integrity, not intelligence.

    Can’t it be both? I think that’s a lot of the problem with the Trump administration in general – they are dumb and evil. Thank Baby Jesus that they aren’t smart and evil or we’d be in even worse shape than we are now.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    No one is in charge and they’re all horrible so they don’t know how to act:

    Internal HUD emails show meetings scheduled for Carson Jr. by HUD staff, including a May 25, 2017 scheduled meeting with “Ben Jr. and friends” in the secretary’s dining room. Three months later, on August 15, HUD aide and longtime Trump associate Lynne Patton scheduled a “Dinner w/BJ & friends” to take place at DelMonico’s Kitchen, even though Carson Jr. does not work for the agency.
    The emails also suggest that Candy Carson, Ben Carson’s wife, pushed for her son to meet with at least one Cabinet-level official. In May 2017, Sheila Greenwood, Carson’s chief of staff, reached out to another HUD staffer regarding a meeting between Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Carson Jr., a meeting suggested by Candy Carson. Greenwood gave the HUD staffer the email address of Chao’s chief of staff, saying that the person “would be able to connect BJ and the Secretary should you choose to pursue.”

    IMAGINE what goes on in Trumpworld, just on a daily basis. It’s a corruption free for all.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    @LAO: Who is Mark Felt?

    I don’t mean that as a Jeopardy answer: I mean who is going to be Deep Throat in this Watergate reboot?

    I mean, even Nixon knew J. Edgar Hoover was the more dangerous cat in the jungle.

  33. 33.

    foucault swing voter mistermix

    @Amir Khalid:

    What happens after a judge formally calls a lawyer out for ineptitude?

    A swirly in the toilet in the judge’s private chambers, I assume.

  35. 35.

    Neldob

    Off topic, but has anyone seen much calling out of how the SOTU claimed credit for BHOs accomplishments?

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @foucault swing voter mistermix: He might be both. I don’t know. But when a Republican agrees to sell out his integrity to protect Trump, that doesn’t tell me anything about his level of intelligence. Gorsuch and Alito are relatively smart, and I have no doubt they would have helped Nunes draft this memo if they worked for him.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    I think my favorite part is the nepotism. The adult children of these people Trump hires seem to feel they are entitled to wander around behind their parents at work! It’s the craziest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. It’s like you hire one and you get the whole damn family. These adult children must be MOVING to DC to pretend-work at these “jobs”. What were they doing before? Nothing? They can just drop their whole lives and follow dad around at work?

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Major Major Major Major: I said “relatively.” I’ve read some of his opinions. He has the flourish of a pseudo-intellectual. But I’m confident his smarter than most of the Republicans in the administration or in Congress.

  46. 46.

    Sab

    @Kay: Isn’t that pretty much how banana republics work? One of the perks of power is you get to hire all your relatives on the government’s dime?

  47. 47.

    Barbara

    For a man to show up in court without a tie is always a bad move. You can buy ties on the street corner or in the airport on the way to the destination where the court is, and a button down shirt too if you need to. Heck, I have borrowed shirts from people if I needed to wear a suit and didn’t have one. When I worked for the court, we had a snowstorm and one of the attorneys was surprised that we were still open, and borrowed a tie from the clerk. So the judge was a dick, but think about it, if there was a hearing scheduled close in time to your return from vacation, you would work with your team to cover it under the assumption that you might not be able to handle it yourself. You wouldn’t just show up in court unprepared. When stuff like this happens, it’s usually only after a lot of other signs of disorganization and lack of preparation.

  49. 49.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The concept that Reagan was smarter that the typical current Republican is just mind boggling.

  50. 50.

    dmsilev

    Apparently, speaking of evil ineptitude, the House GOP just released The Memo.

    Another glob of shit hitting the fan, and at this point the blades are so encrusted that the motor is starting to seize up and emit smoke.

  51. 51.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Looks like the Nunes memo will be released in the next few minutes. Twitter activity is ramping up. Select excerpts have been released to, surprise, surprise, Fox News and the Washington Examiner.

  53. 53.

    germy

    The entire House GOP memo, according to the reporting going on Fox News now, is that the surveillance of Carter Page wouldn't have been possible without the dossier. This is something they've been claiming for months, is not that interesting and also is probably not true.

    — Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 2, 2018

  54. 54.

    Niles

    Here is a little more context: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/you-dont-add-a-bit-of-value-do-you-texas-judge-berates-government-lawyers/2016/02/11/0b3a181c-d006-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html

    The judge is an old white man from Texas. The attorney is a POC. The DOJ was run by Loretta Lynch at the time. The DOJ lawyers obviously thought the judge was a racist. That is why they ordered the transcript.

    Kash Patel is the lawyer the judge berated, but he was not the lawyer who screwed up ordering the transcript.

  55. 55.

    James E. Powell

    @Elmo:

    It’s black robe disease. There is no cure. I’ve been taken down by federal judges who thundered at me like the Wizard of Oz for all manner of minor offenses. One judge yelled at me for fifteen minutes because I filed a motion for additional time in which to respond to a motion for summary judgment. I was apparently personally responsible for overloaded dockets. Then he granted the motion. I kept the penitent expression on my face and thanked him.

    I am a firm believer that the lifetime appointments need to end. I’d go for 21 year terms, rule against perpetuities.

  56. 56.

    different-church-lady

    @germy: EMAILS EMAILS EMAILS!!! MEMO MEMO MEMO!!!

    This is entirely about holding on to market share, not increasing it.

  59. 59.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    While it was indeed an entertaining read, the judge does not belong on the bench. Lawyers should be able to scold someone with civility, and judges should all be able to. This guy’s just an asshole.

    I have absolutley no doubt he’d never have behaved that way with a white guy from Texas, or from anywhere. He’d most likely have been snotty to a white guy from main Justice, as he does have an attitude about DC, but a white guy with an English/Irish/Scots/ maybe French or German sounding surname, not a fucking chance that guy gets reamed like the brown guy with an Asian surname did.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    So, The Memo is apparently 4 pages long. Given the GOP’s work ethic, I have to ask “in what font size and what line spacing?”. We might find that it’s only about 2 Tweets in actual length, which by odd coincidence matches up well with Trump’s attention span.

  61. 61.

    efgoldman

    Patel may or may not be a moron. Given that he’s a Trumpie, the answer is probably yes. But the judge is an asshole.

  62. 62.

    Miss Bianca

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: From the little I’ve read of the interaction, it does indeed sound like the meeting of Dick and Jerk. And I agree with you, I bet that judge would have taken a slightly less aggressive tone with a white guy.

    ETA: How are you, btw? Been meaning to email you with some more details about our Master’s foxhunting case – now the county attorney thinks she can try to ban her hunting on public lands. le sigh.

  67. 67.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: TheHill says:

    Intelligence Committee Republicans, led by chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), leveraged an obscure House rule never before used by the committee to override the classification of the document, arguing that its findings are serious enough that the public deserves to know about them.

    Because of course they did. Rules and norms are for little people.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  72. 72.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @LAO: My favorite part was when they’re discussing the new docket control officer, because of course the judge didn’t like the previously assigned one and the AUSA assures his honor that there’s a new one.

    Defense Attorney: I believe his name is Scooter Slade
    AUSA – I haven’t met him so I don’t know what he’s like.Have you met him?
    Defense Attorney: No. But his name gives me confidence.

    I like that style.

    @eric: Your point about it being horrifying prep and work on the part of counsel from Main Justice is precisely correct however. Strolling in clueless about the court (the person, who was certainly known to the attorneys in the district as um, distinctive) and without a suit is just stupid. Judge is still an asshole though.

  73. 73.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: I think that the Intelligence Committees can declassify things (it would be hard for them to do oversight of the Three Letter Agencies otherwise), but I don’t know the details. And there was that Senator that put the Pentagon Papers in the Congressional Record.

    But IANAL.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    efgoldman

    @Immanentize:

    Judge Hughes is a dangerous Judge who has been ‘sanctioned’ by the Fifth Circuit for his bad demeanor and atrocious court case management.

    Isn’t that also the circuit where some other judge (Smith??) ordered the DOJ lawyers basically to submit a term paper, early in the Obama administration?
    And Janice Rogers Brown

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    My late Republican dad started his own business specifically so he could be his own man and not spend his life following his dad around. And he sold it off and retired long before my brother or I would have been interested in running it, which we weren’t.

  78. 78.

    efgoldman

    @Yutsano:

    Federal judges can be impeached.

    Don’t they require 2/3 to remove? Or is that just the president/VP
    Anyway, this would set a horrible precedent. What we can do in the majority, so can the RWNJs, although in their charming way they will overdo it. Would we really want to spend any number of congressional sessions impeaching and trying judges?
    If there are real crooks (and I’m sure there are) get ’em out

  81. 81.

    Feebog

    I noted last night that I have been in situations where I stopped a hearing (I conduct administrative hearings for the county and city of Los Angeles) and took an attorney to a conference room for an attitude adjustment. The Opposing Counsel was also there to avoid any accusation of ex party communication. But I have never heard of a judge thrash an attorney like this, not even close.

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