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You are here: Home / Politics / Trump Indictments / Does Anyone Understand What This Is About?

Does Anyone Understand What This Is About?

by WaterGirl|  July 20, 20236:10 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Politics, Trump Indictments

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Does anyone understand what this is all about?  I sure don’t!.

NEWS: Stan Woodward, appearing late to a sentencing in a Jan. 6 case, says he was delayed because special counsel Smith team started asking his client (believed to be Trump aid Will Russell) questions that infringe on executive privilege.

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 20, 2023

NEW: Bizarre moment at the courthouse today when an irate Judge McFadden ordered special counsel Smith’s prosecutors to leave the grand jury and come into his courtroom to explain why they made Stan Woodward 25 minutes late to a Jan. 6 verdict.https://t.co/1WpI0dGTsx

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 20, 2023

Good write-up from Kyle about that other thing that happened in Judge McFadden's courtroom today. https://t.co/ITySTVXGRn

— Jordan Fischer (@JordanOnRecord) July 20, 2023

Judge scolds Jack Smith’s team for causing delay in unrelated Jan. 6 verdict
Prodded by the judge, a lawyer revealed that a grand jury witness faced questions implicating “executive privilege” — the latest sign of Smith’s probe into Donald Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election.

McFadden continued reading from his verdict for 10 minutes before summoning Windom to the bench for a six-minute sealed conversation that was obscured from the packed courtroom by a white noise “husher.” Windom then returned to the grand jury room and McFadden continued to read from the verdict.

The dispute centered on the role of Klein’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, who also represents a constellation of Trump associates involved in Smith’s probes. Woodward arrived 25 minutes late for the 2 p.m. verdict, prompting a frustrated McFadden to demand an explanation.

Woodward initially asked to speak to the judge in private, citing grand jury secrecy rules, but McFadden made clear he absolved Woodward of his secrecy obligations and asked for an explanation in open court.

Woodward revealed that he had a client before the grand jury who was being asked questions that implicate “executive privilege.” He said prosecutors had assured him they would halt their questioning in time for Woodward to appear at the verdict, but when they did not, he felt obligated to remain by the grand jury room.

It’s unclear which of Woodward’s clients was appearing before the grand jury, though several reports have indicated that William Russell, a former Trump White House aide and a Woodward client, was expected to appear Thursday.

The fact that the questioning ranged into areas potentially related to executive privilege — a legal protection for presidential deliberations and advice — is another signal that Smith’s prosecutors are pressing for information about Trump’s conduct in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and the lead-up to the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    SiubhanDuinne

    July 20, 2023 at 6:14 pm

    In that first tweet, I think he means “impinge,” not “infringe.”

     

    ETA: Or maybe not.

  2. 2.

    TaMara

    July 20, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    If I understood the lawyer (Andrew Weissmann () on Deadline Whitehouse – it wasn’t much of anything. The defense lawyer was late to the hearing because he was in a grand jury testimony with Smith’s prosecutors. He said he was late because he was arguing something, something, Executive Privilege.  Because that was under seal, the judge called everyone into chambers so it was private, and resolved it.

    The quote from Andrew Weissmann, “tempest in a teapot”

  3. 3.

    craigie

    July 20, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    Is “Executive Privilege” a thing after the fact?

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    July 20, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    So much crime, so little time.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    On June 7, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated McFadden to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

    I’m sure that has nothing to do with this. //

    Sure looks like an abuse of power to me.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 6:23 pm

    @TaMara: From what I read, it’s kind of a big deal that McFadden waved secrecy for the Trump attorney on a case that wasn’t even McFadden’s.

    But what do I know?  Not enough, clearly.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 6:25 pm

    @TaMara: Interesting that Weissman said it was a tempest in a teapot.  This is what I had read from Weissman.

    And is the Judge going to ask for answers in open court about a sealed Grand Jury matter that is overseen by the Chief Judge, NOT him? That wd be a bad display of judicial conduct. https://t.co/sm7DEmqG2B

    — Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻 (@AWeissmann_) July 20, 2023

  8. 8.

    CaseyL

    July 20, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    I find it kind of interesting that so many defense attorneys for Trump’s various minions are representing multiple minions.

    That would in ordinary times represent an unethical conflict of interest – but of course “legal ethics” are only for libtards, never for Republicans, and never EVER for attorneys representing the shitstain himself.

    And I guess the universe of “lawyers willing to represent Trumpsters in cases relating to Trump” is small enough that a lot of them have to double-triple-etc. book themselves.

  9. 9.

    TaMara

    July 20, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    @WaterGirl: I think that was before all the details were known.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 6:29 pm

    @CaseyL: What I don’t understand is why it’s there Special Counsel’s fault if Trump has 5 lawyers for the 50 legal suits he’s involved in.

    I would have been yelling at Trump’s attorney.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 6:30 pm

    @TaMara: Ah.  As I said, I don’t really understand what was going on.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    July 20, 2023 at 6:31 pm

    Congratulations Washington Commanders fans. Your long national nightmare is over.

  13. 13.

    Josie

    July 20, 2023 at 6:32 pm

    These district judges have quite a bit of power and it sometimes goes to their heads. If they have a slightly arrogant personality to begin with, this job just makes it much worse.

  14. 14.

    TaMara

    July 20, 2023 at 6:33 pm

    @WaterGirl: Oh me either! I was listening in the car while I was going to get blocks of ice (see previous post!) and heard it but didn’t quite understand it, came home, rewound the DVR, and listened carefully. So I’m pretty sure I got what he said correct, but what the heck it all means 🤷🏻‍♀️

  15. 15.

    Ken

    July 20, 2023 at 6:36 pm

    @CaseyL: the universe of “lawyers willing to represent Trumpsters in cases relating to Trump” is small enough

    And especially so when you consider the effects of Make Attorneys Get Attorneys.

  16. 16.

    Roger Moore

    July 20, 2023 at 6:38 pm

    @CaseyL:

    There definitely is a serious conflict of interest with a lot of the people in Trump’s orbit.  As I understand it, many of those people are having their lawyers paid for by Trump or people in his orbit, and that’s an inherent conflict.  That’s why you had the thing about lawyers for the false electors in Georgia not bothering to tell them about an offer of immunity.  I honestly wonder if the legal arrangements could be classified as an attempt at witness tampering.  It’s certainly a big enough ethical morass that plenty of those lawyers should fear disbarment.

  17. 17.

    MattF

    July 20, 2023 at 6:39 pm

    You get a district judge, a grand jury with its own judge, a million lawyers, a trillion defendants, a special prosecutor, plus Donald Fucking Trump, weird things will happen.

  18. 18.

    Roger Moore

    July 20, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    @Baud:

    Congratulations Washington Commanders fans. Your long national nightmare is over.

    I’m glad Dan Snyder will no longer be associated with the team.  That said, I found it intriguing to see two headlines about the team, one saying they had been fined $60 million and one saying they were sold for $6 billion.  Talk about a slap on the wrist!

  19. 19.

    Tim Curtin

    July 20, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    Trump judge throws a tantrum to hear his name on Fox News?

  20. 20.

    MattF

    July 20, 2023 at 6:45 pm

    @Baud: I was a Redskins fan, back in the first Joe Gibbs era. It was fun. It’d be nice if it was fun again, but it would be a long climb back.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    July 20, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    @MattF:

    I would love to seem them win it all next year just to rub it in Snyder’s face.

  22. 22.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    July 20, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    In our Zoom on Tuesday Imm. made the point that judges are very picky about lawyers keeping to schedules and don’t like to hear excuses about why they can’t or don’t show up on time.  Maybe this is just an example of that.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    July 20, 2023 at 6:57 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior

    BINGO.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    July 20, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    @MattF: John Riggins telling Sandra Day O’Connor to “come on, loosen up, Sandy baby, you’re too tight.” is Peak Redskins lore. The nadir is Theismann’s leg in slo-mo. Over and over.

  25. 25.

    raven

    July 20, 2023 at 7:06 pm

    @MattF: Joe Washington!

  26. 26.

    surfk9

    July 20, 2023 at 7:10 pm

    Marcy Wheeler says that McFadden is the Trumpiest of the Judges, often giving comparatively lenient sentences.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    July 20, 2023 at 7:11 pm

    @Roger Moore: The league is for the owners and by the owners. They don’t like seeing big fines but so big.

    They also like to see big a franchise sale price because that makes their own franchise more valuable. Some them wanted a vote to force Snyder to sell, but the majority held back because they wanted him to get the best price possible. knowing that Snyder would sell.

    I think owners also told him to sell or else be forced to sell. The straw that probably broke the camel’s back were  reports that Snyder was gathering dirt on other owners in order to blackmail them into letting him stay in their billionaires’ club.

    Fun Dan Snyder Fact: Snyder made his fortune in the 1980s and 90s selling advertising space on electronic billboards, the kind you might see in doctor’s offices and other public spaces, and then buying up other companies that did the same.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 7:19 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Then why not yell at the lawyer who was late, rather than dragging a lead attorney for the Special Counsel out the the GRAND JURY he was in at the moment?

  29. 29.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    July 20, 2023 at 7:21 pm

    @surfk9:

    Oh, McFadden was flexing way out of bounds.

    He’s undoubtedly already heard some tongue lashing.

  30. 30.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    July 20, 2023 at 7:26 pm

    @WaterGirl:  to hear from both sides?   I don’t have any direct insight, I’m just speculating. Reporting indicates the discussion was private.

  31. 31.

    Craig

    July 20, 2023 at 7:31 pm

    @trollhattan: I’ll never forget the David Letterman gag of Joe Theismann’s broken leg pencil sharpener.

  32. 32.

    Craig

    July 20, 2023 at 7:32 pm

    @WaterGirl: cause he’s an asshole.

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    July 20, 2023 at 7:45 pm

    @trollhattan:

    The nadir is Theismann’s leg in slo-mo. Over and over.

    I remember that.  I don’t know what idiot at the network thought that was OK.  For some reason, it was an especially gruesome injury, so watching it over and over was really unpleasant.

  34. 34.

    bbleh

    July 20, 2023 at 7:52 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: @WaterGirl: @Craig: from what I’ve read of his behavior in the past, concur w Craig’s opinion.  He was being pissy.  And the Trump guy’s lawyer blamed the Smith people who were running the GJ, so he got pissy with both of them.  None of which is to say he shouldn’t get annoyed about schedules not being kept — defy that, and what will you defy next? — but this is hardly like someone being a complete no-show, or even not already in the building.

    And apart from all that, it does seem that the cadre of Trump-related lawyers is getting spread rather thin across all the defendants and witnesses and their multiple trials and appearances.  It would appear that the Trump strategy of throwing money at lawyers to wear opponents down doesn’t work very well when it comes to a DOJ Special Counsel, especially when you have a reputation for not listening to lawyers or paying their bills.

  35. 35.

    eclare

    July 20, 2023 at 7:55 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I don’t watch much NFL, and I remember seeing that over and over.  Hideous.

    Hopefully times have changed.  I was watching a college football game several years ago, and there was a gruesome injury.  The announcers either played it back only once or didn’t play it back at all, I can’t remember.  Luckily the player recovered and went on to have a great NFL career.

  36. 36.

    steppy

    July 20, 2023 at 8:00 pm

    My experience with federal judges goes back some 35 years, to when I was a technician for a company that sold and serviced personal computers (no networks, crashable hard disks, much less reliable than today). I found all of them to be arrogant, enormously egotistical, self-regarding masters of their domains. I doubt Judge McFadden strays an inch from that model.

  37. 37.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    July 20, 2023 at 8:08 pm

    @raven: Hog heaven

  38. 38.

    UncleEbeneezer

    July 20, 2023 at 8:13 pm

    To whomever mentioned Happy Valley in a MediumCool post about tv finales, thank you.  You prompted us to go back to it after taking a break (for no particular reason) in the middle of Season 2.  Half-way through Season 3 now and forgot just how good it is.  Though it does sometimes want to make me scream “Oh, FFS just tell the son all the g-damn details of what his Dad did!!!”

  39. 39.

    Martin

    July 20, 2023 at 8:15 pm

    Shorter: Lawyer was arguing executive privilege which Biden didn’t extend and Smiths team doesn’t need to listen to and lawyer wouldn’t give it up, was late to judge screaming ‘respect mah authority!’, because judge. The end.

  40. 40.

    UncleEbeneezer

    July 20, 2023 at 8:17 pm

    TERF-ism truly rots the brain.  In a Tweet a couple days ago making her usual Transphobic points, Martina Navratilova actually typed the words “Biology doesn’t change.  Ever.”  Which is just a jaw-droopingly wrong statement.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    July 20, 2023 at 8:19 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I didn’t realize she was a TERF.

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    July 20, 2023 at 8:29 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I’m sure the response would be, “You knew what I meant!”

    Those types are never wrong

  43. 43.

    Hoppie

    July 20, 2023 at 8:32 pm

    @Baud: Excellent Onion reference, thanks for the memories.

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 20, 2023 at 8:32 pm

    People cannot get overwrought every time a federal judge does something arrogant. That way madness lies.

  45. 45.

    Steve in the ATL

    July 20, 2023 at 8:38 pm

    @Josie: sometimes? You clearly don’t know any federal judges!

  46. 46.

    lowtechcyclist

    July 20, 2023 at 8:39 pm

    @Baud:

    Congratulations Washington Commanders fans. Your long national nightmare is over.

    Way too late for me.

    I had been a serious Redskins fan, from the late 1960s (Vince Lombardi!) until about a dozen years ago.  I’d been reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog, and he was writing about CTE, and I just couldn’t go on watching football anymore after that.

    Gotta admit, though, the mess that Snyder had made of the Redskins made it a lot easier to quit the sport than it might have otherwise been.

    Still, I’m glad to hear that he’s no longer associated with the team.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    July 20, 2023 at 8:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Hey, I didn’t include a single exclamation point in there. :-)

    But perhaps you weren’t calling the post overwrought!

  48. 48.

    UncleEbeneezer

    July 20, 2023 at 8:43 pm

    @Baud: Yup.  She’s been getting more and more overt and loud about it.  It’s really sad.  Especially since people used to mock her and call her a man etc., because she was muscular, gay and didn’t conform to how women are supposed to dress.  You’d think she’d have more solidarity with Transgender people but she’s basically another JK Rowlings at this point.  Maybe only second to Margaret Court (notorious LGBTQ-phobic bigot) as the most TERFy tennis legend.

  49. 49.

    RSA

    July 20, 2023 at 8:54 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:  “Biology doesn’t change.  Ever.”  Which is just a jaw-droopingly wrong statement.

    I’m reminded of once getting into a discussion on Crooked Timber, about human nature.  When someone said that human nature was constant and unchanging, I objected that this was unlikely, given that humans evolved over some long period of time. I got a dickish dismissal in response. Some philosophers… :-)

  50. 50.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    July 20, 2023 at 9:12 pm

    *sigh* On the one hand, on the other hand.

    Are we really different from the people who roamed the savannah?  What has changed is society. I like to think we have the ability to change our behavior, to become better.  Slavery is gone and despite some people who might like to restore it, it’s not coming back.  It isn’t basic human nature that has changed, it’s our environment. That was a choice.

  51. 51.

    Sister Golden Bear

    July 20, 2023 at 10:41 pm

    @WaterGirl: The prosecutors told the lawyer they’d be done with him in time to make to the judge’s verdict. When they went past that time, the lawyer felt obliged to stay with his client during questioning.

    Once the lawyer explained this, the judge let the lawyer off the hook and turned his ire on the prosecutors for (according to the lawyer) violating their agreement on scheduling.

  52. 52.

    Sister Golden Bear

    July 20, 2023 at 10:55 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: Sadly I’ve seen this behavior before, when someone is insecure about their social position then punching down is one way of both signaling they’re one of the “good ones” — not like those people — and (in their minds) protecting those social position.

    In my opinion experience, boundary-policing is more common among older lesbians and gays of her age. They had extremely hard to establish their identities as gays and lesbians, and feel extremely threatened by any they perceive as muddying that identity. It’s a similar dynamic to the biphobia that’s still all too common.

    Also Second Wave feminism could sometimes be extremely transphobic, and women like her remained locked in that mindset.

  53. 53.

    glc

    July 20, 2023 at 11:20 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/bookshelf/192182/masters-of-the-planet-the-search-for-our-human-origins

    (Odd title, solid book.)

    Short version: yes, we are very different, along multiple and not always obvious dimensions. And still puzzling out the details.

  54. 54.

    wenchacha

    July 20, 2023 at 11:28 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer: So disappointing! It’s not like so-so young male players will decide to transition just so they can be champions.

    If “assigned male at birth” kids could avoid puberty or even begin hormone therapy, they will just be like other girls, I think. I have so much compassion for trans women who have all the characteristics of an adult male body.

  55. 55.

    Burnspbesq

    July 21, 2023 at 5:10 am

    @CaseyL:

    The Government is institutionally disinclined to file motions to disqualify opposing counsel unless the conflict is really egregious—and that goes double in criminal cases, where the Sixth Amendment right to counsel is in play.

    I vividly remember all the hoops I had to jump through to get permission to file one (which was granted, in an opinion that made its way into the textbook on ethical issues in tax practice) back in my IRS Chief Counsel days.

  56. 56.

    Chris T.

    July 21, 2023 at 11:21 am

    @WaterGirl: ““You yell at the attorney you have, not the attorney you might want or wish to have at a later time.” —Rumsfeld

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