Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

I really should read my own blog.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

All hail the time of the bunny!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trump Indictments / Trump Employee #5 Wants People to Know About Trump Before November

Trump Employee #5 Wants People to Know About Trump Before November

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I guess we’re not the only ones who are concluding that Trump – with assists by Judge Cannon and the Supreme Court –  is making a mockery out of our system of justice.

Trump Employee #5 – Brian Butler – tells his story.  Is this the new witness that Jack Smith recently interviewed?

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Apparently chauffeurs are as invisible to “their betters” as janitors and cleaning people are.

I am obviously not a lawyer, but with all the ridiculous recent delays by Cannon, I don’t see how Jack Smith hasn’t hit the point at which he asks for Cannon to be replaced.  Cue the Balloon Juice attorneys who can explain how and why I am wrong about that.

The nations’s founders who did foresee that the call might indeed come from inside the house– at some point in the future of our nation – were not able to prevail and make the constitution air tight so an insurrectionist couldn’t be elected as president.  Oh wait, they did, but our overtly political Supreme Court didn’t care, and jumped the shark to make a ruling on something that wasn’t even before the court.

In this photo, Judge Luttig is my spirit animal.

Trump Employe #5 Wants People to Know About Trump Before November

I think he and I may have been the only people who hoped that the Supreme Court would do the right thing.

Maybe I’m overreacting,  But for quite some time now it has seemed like the courts were holding the line. Cannon is pushing me over the the edge.  Surely the judges on the 11th circuit don’t appreciate her thumbing her nose at lady justice.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  1. 1.

    Dangerman

    Butler did it?

    Figures

    ETA: Universe owes us; his name could have been Colonel Mustard.

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack

    I haven’t seen any coverage of what happened to those documents that got sent to New Jersey or if there was even any follow-up by the feds. I seem to remember some stories saying that they didn’t have subpoenas to search Trump’s New Jersey properties, but nothing after that. WTF. Has anybody seen anything since then?

  5. 5.

    Lapassionara

    I’m sorry that changing trial judges is so difficult, but it is. From this perspective, I wish the documents case had been brought in DC. But it was not, so we play the hand we are dealt.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    @dmsilev:

    the linear nature of time

    I, for one, am glad we have a certified physicist who can set us on the straight and narrow (or is it strait and narrow?) with respect to time.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @Lapassionara: Yeah, I get why Jack Smith chose FL.  Pretty sure he was concerned that he could get a conviction in DC, but then if they appealed based on jurisdiction the whole case could have been thrown out and they would have lost their chance.

    Still, I often wonder if Jack Smith regrets his choice.

    I console myself with the thought that he’s probably a realist and is  not looking backwards.  Instead, he his playing the shitty hand that Cannon deals.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: Everything I’ve seen says that by the time they knew about those docs being sent elsewhere, they couldn’t make probably cause for searching there because their info was old and it had to be more current.

    I say dig up the grave and ask permission later. :-)

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    I ask again: why wouldn’t Mr. Innocent want a swift and complete exoneration well before the election, the better to point out to one and all that the Biden DOJ is corrupt beyond saving and MUST be replaced, starting with Joe “Corleone” Biden.  Campaign on it for over seven straight months, right Donnie?  Total “red wave”, am I right?

    no?

    He’d rather have that kind of cloud hanging over him all year?  All that time spent in …courthouses…instead of doing rallies and sweeping to victory?

    That’s just odd, honestly.

    You’d think an innocent person would want his name cleared just as quickly as possible…🤔

  18. 18.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Hmmmmm….Hannity is showing Biden “bumbling” through New Hampshire.  Such damning evidence of sounding like he’s 81, stuttering a bit, and having the audacity to cough and joke if he’s allowed to take any questions. The horror.

    This after opening with 10 minutes yelling that Biden should apologize for misprouncing that Laken girl’s name.

  19. 19.

    Soprano2

    This should be bombshell news, but it’ll probably sink in 2 days like everything about TFG does.

  20. 20.

    Scout211

    CNNA longtime Mar-a-Lago employee who is a central witness in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents is now speaking publicly because he believes that voters should hear the truth about his former boss and the case before the November election.

    ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!

    Butler, who was employed at Mar-a-Lago for 20 years, has spoken repeatedly with investigators, paying for his own attorney and breaking with the orbit around Trump that he knows so well – setting him apart from his former colleagues and friends as his former boss has been named in multiple federal investigations.

    I NEVER MET THE GUY!

    Butler says he has considered for months going public about his role in the obstruction case against Trump as he has carefully followed developments in the criminal case. Butler says he decided to sit down with CNN exclusively in West Palm Beach on Monday out of a wish to tell the truth and share what he knows to those who may doubt the facts of the case.

    DEEP STATE! BIDEN CRIME FAMILY!

    A lawyer for Trump declined to comment to CNN, as did a lawyer for Nauta. An attorney for De Oliveira, John Irving, said in a statement, “We look forward to hearing more about Mr. Butler’s version of events when he is under oath and subject to penalty of perjury in the courtroom where that belongs, and we decline to try this case in the media.”

    BUTLER IS A LIAR!  PERJURY!

    [All caps are Trump’s words, maybe].

  21. 21.

    Bobby Thomson

    Smith wants the Eleventh Circuit to take her out sua sponte, following the prudential strategic principle set forth by Omar Little:

    “You come at the king, you best not miss.”

  23. 23.

    Scout211

    @catclub: I strongly suspect that the guy knew he was moving classified documents.

    That would not be surprising in the least.  But you know what all the cops on Law and Order tell the suspect: the first one who cooperates gets the best deal.  I saw it on L&O so it must be true.  😉

  27. 27.

    Kenneth Fair

    You asked about why it would be difficult to recuse Judge Cannon. This analysis is under Fifth Circuit law, but similar law is going to apply in the Eleventh Circuit (which encompasses Florida).

    United States Code Title 28, Section 455, governs the recusal of federal judges. There are several mandatory recusal provisions in Section 455(b)—things like having a financial interest in the outcome of the litigation—that don’t apply to Judge Cannon. The only part of the statute that might apply is Section 455(a), which states, “Any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”

    For recusal to be proper under § 455(a), the party seeking recusal must demonstrate that “a reasonable person, knowing the circumstances, would question the judge’s impartiality.” See Hollimon v. Potter, 365 F. App’x 546, 549 (5th Cir. 2010); see also United States v. Anderson, 160 F.3d 231, 233 (5th Cir. 1998). In conducting this review, a court must ask how the facts would appear to a “well-informed, thoughtful and objective observer, rather than the hypersensitive, cynical, and suspicious person.” Sensley v. Albritton, 385 F.3d 591, 599 (5th Cir. 2004). A court must be careful not to read § 455(a) so broadly as to create a presumption of impartiality such that “recusal is mandated upon the merest unsubstantiated suggestion of personal bias or prejudice.” United States v. Harmon, 21 F. Supp. 2d 642, 645 (N.D. Tex. 1998) (citing United States v. Cooley, 1 F.3d 985, 993 (10th Cir. 1986)).

    In addition to satisfying the statutory requirements for recusal, a motion brought pursuant to § 455 must be timely asserted. United States v. Sanford, 157 F.3d 987, 988 (5th Cir. 1998). “A timely motion to recuse is one filed ‘at the earliest moment after knowledge of the facts demonstrating the basis’ for recusal.” In re Katrina Canal Breaches Litig., 351 F. App’x 938, 944 (5th Cir. 2009) (quoting Travelers Ins. Co. v. Liljeberg Enters., 38 F.3d 1404, 1410 (5th Cir. 1994)).

    There’s an additional layer involved when it would be the DOJ asking for recusal. Code of Federal Regulations Title 28, Section 50.19 regulates the filing of recusal motions and requires a federal prosecutor to get approval from the relevant Assistant Attorney General. This is because, “The determination to seek for any reason the disqualification or recusal of a justice, judge, or magistrate is a most significant and sensitive decision. This is particularly true for government attorneys, who should be guided by uniform procedures in obtaining the requisite authorization for such a motion.”

    Note that if you move to recuse a federal judge, that judge is the first one to rule on whether they should be recused. As you might imagine, most recusal motions are denied unless the judge really wants out of the case.

  30. 30.

    Anoniminous

    Can buy a Supreme Court judge with an RV, Judge Cannon shouldn’t settle for anything less.

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: What makes you say that?

    For one, it’s a private club and people and employees talk and gossip and Trump boasts.

    And second, Butler was a good friend of De Olivera for the past 20 years.

    I would not be surprised that he suspected or was even told that those were the documents that the government wanted back.  He was told to keep certain facts secret from the FBI.

    It really doesn’t matter whether he knew or not, though. He will get a deal now for testifying.

  33. 33.

    Leto

    @Bobby Thomson: @WaterGirl: apparently she’s already been officially slapped down twice (Smith has appealed two of her shoddy rulings to the full 11th Circuit, and they’ve reversed her decisions both times), but apparently if she’s slapped down a third time then that can be grounds for removal. Ofc that doesn’t address the absolute shitshow slow walking that she’s doing to every aspect of this case. Too many of our BJ legal peeps have said that’s “totes fine”* because judicial discretion, or respect for them, or whatever. Just because the Federalist Society has absolutely poisoned the judiciary, we still have to respect them and let them drag their feet for eternity to pressing issues.

    *paraphrasing there.

  34. 34.

    TBone

    @Scott P.: interesting.

    Political psychologists define the authoritarian personality as one that rejects nuance and complexity (including diversity) and tends to engage in all-or-nothing thinking. Those with an authoritarian personality prefer sameness and uniformity and have “cognitive limitations.” Karen Stenner calls them “simple-minded avoiders of complexity.” For more, see this article.

  35. 35.

    Jackie

    More GQP shenanigans:

    Special counsel Robert Hur, who oversaw the investigation into President Joe Biden’s retention of classified information, timed his resignation from the Justice Department with the help of Trump-aligned lawmakers ahead of his testimony to Congress, reported the Independent on Monday.

    “According to multiple sources familiar with Mr Hur’s plans, the special counsel, who is appearing before the Judiciary Committee at the request of the Republican majority led by Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, has arranged his departure from the Department of Justice to be official as of Monday 11 March, one day before he is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill,” wrote Andrew Feinberg. “Instead of appearing as a DOJ employee who is bound by the ethical guidelines which govern the behaviour of federal prosecutors, he will appear as a private citizen with no constraints on his testimony.”

    “That makes it even more problematic from our perspective,” said a source close to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. “If he was still a federal employee, DOJ would have to approve his testimony and they’d be involved in his appearance tomorrow.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/robert-hur-trump/

  37. 37.

    oldgold

    Why did Trump want to keep these documents? What was his plan?

    Were the documents flown to NJ returned? If not, what happened to them?

    I hope this case is tried before the DC case. It is a much better case and more likely to sway votes.

  40. 40.

    TBone

    As for Smith’s motion to reconsider, as noted by Brookings Fellow Institute legal analyst Norm Eisen on Friday on X.com, the motion for reconsideration could have big implications: Cannon already has “two strikes” against her.The first strike, Eisen posited, stems from the time the Eleventh Circuit preliminarily reversed a stay Cannon imposed barring the government from using over 100 documents with classified markings found at Mar-a-Lago for their investigation. The second time arrived when the circuit permanently reversed her appointment of a special master. Smith acknowledged Thursday that his request is one rarely invoked and that reconsideration is an “extraordinary remedy.”“As in civil cases, there are three major grounds which justify reconsideration: (1) an intervening change in controlling law; (2) the availability of new evidence; and (3) the need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice. [R]econsideration is an extraordinary remedy that should be employed sparingly,” Smith wrote.

    https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/this-conclusion-was-wrong-jack-smith-cites-clear-error-witness-intimidation-while-schooling-cannon-on-discovery-restrictions-in-mar-a-lago-documents-case/

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    Maybe I’m overreacting, But for quite some time now it has seemed like the courts were holding the line. Cannon is pushing me over the the edge. Surely the judges on the 11th circuit don’t appreciate her thumbing her nose at lady justice.

    Courts (generally) love procedure and doing things step by step.

    They’re slow.

    I was a youngster when Watergate was happening, so I don’t remember all the details. But it was slow.

    Break-in on June 17, 1972.
    Grand jury indictment of the burglars on September 15, 1972.
    Trial and guilty pleas or convictions on January 30, 1973.
    February 7, 1973, senate votes unanimously to create Select committee to investigate.
    July 13, 1973, Butterfield says there are Oval Office tapes.
    October 20, 1973, Saturday Night Massacre.
    November 17, 1973, Nixon says he’s “not a crook.”
    March 1, 1974, grand jury indicts 7 of Nixon’s former aids and secretly lists Nixon as an “unindicted co-conspirator”
    April 29, 1974, Nixon announces he will release transcripts (rather than the tapes).
    July 24, 1974, SCOTUS says (8:0) that Nixon’s executive privilege claims over the tapes are void and he has to release the tapes.
    July 27, 1974, House committee votes 27:11 to authorize first article of impeachment (obstruction of justice).
    August 5, 1974, Nixon releases “smoking gun” tape that shows he knew about the coverup from the start.
    August 8, 1974, Nixon announces that he’s resigning effective noon the next day.

    2+ years, and he wasn’t even indicted. And wasn’t fighting in several courts at once. And on and on.

    Here, as elsewhere, there is no One Weird Trick and no shortcuts. The courts are going to be slow. Politicians are going to be slow. Voters aren’t paying much attention yet.

    I ass-u-me that if Cannon is slapped down again on appeal of one of her whacky decisions that she will be instructed by the appeals court on how to do it right rather than being removed (because removal is very disruptive and will add more delays, if nothing else). But IANAL.

    We citizens are going to have to do the right thing in November and going forward.

    tl;dr – Hope for the best, but plan and do the work as if the worst were possible.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Another Scott

    @Jeffro: As you know, to ask the question is to answer it.  ;-)

    “You just tell them and they believe – they just  do.”

    Logic and consistency and common-sense don’t matter.  Getting Donnie what he wants at that moment, updated continuously*, is all that matters.

    Grr…,
    Scott.
    * – All Hail Cleek!!

  46. 46.

    Anonymous At Work

    @Kenneth Fair: Also, you can’t ask the 11th Circuit to intervene and consider recusal as a remedial action until the young Aileen issues a final order that you intend to appeal.  She is delaying any and all orders to the maximum extent possible, then issuing paperless orders or granting Jack Smith’s motion that should have been automatic months ago.  So she’s not giving Jack Smith the opening that he can use.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Manyakitty: I ass-u-me all the really sensitive stuff that TIFG absconded with is well tabulated and they know exactly what is missing.  And they assume that, other than the stuff already found at Xanadu, it’s gone.

    I’m no expert, but it’s my understanding that the system knows that even the most sensitive information can get out.  And cause “exceptionally grave damage” to national security (or whatever the expression is).  It’s happened before (spies at Los Alamos giving stuff to Stalin, etc.).  The system of laws and regulations intends to make the price for doing so high enough that few will try it – not to make it impossible for it to happen.

    That last bit is another reason why TIFG is screwed.  The whole national information security system is built on clear rules and “need to know” and clear consequences and all the rest.  The system will crumble if TIFG gets away with it.  So, he won’t.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  49. 49.

    catclub

    @Another Scott: I’m no expert, but it’s my understanding that the system knows that even the most sensitive information can get out.

     

    it WAS my understanding that there are custodians for every document – maybe with an excel spreadsheet that tells who has checked out what document  or if it is back in the secure file drawer. In which case there would have been people screaming (inside the system) about missing documents the day trump decamped to Mar-a-lago. Given how long they wrangled over the stuff with trump before the search warrant was issued,  I no longer think the custody system was very good. Also they certainly seemed shocked at what turned up.

  50. 50.

    Another Scott

    @catclub: I ass-u-me that there’s often some delay of transferring stuff back to the various safes during a change of administration.  And it’s not a huge deal, because people take it seriously to make sure the stuff is eventually picked up and transferred properly.  So, within a few days or so, everything’s back to normal.  Usually.  That’s my guess.

    The system isn’t designed to handle the case where the guy at the top is throwing sensitive stuff in the toilet, or eating them, or absconding with them along with his fake Man of the Year magazine covers while he’s slinking away from the White House to his personal Xanadu (rather than attending the inauguration of his/her successor).

    But, as I say, I’m no expert.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    suffragette city

    Others may have watched the interview of Judge Luttig on Legal AF but when asked did not think it would be an easy task to have Cannon removed.

  52. 52.

    Marmot

    It’s weird y’all obsess about every minor movement in the justice system.

    It’s like sports fandom: Pointless.

    If he were poor, “justice” would have been served.

  54. 54.

    catclub

    @Another Scott: I am no expert either, but I really thought that the custodians had something nearly as sophisticated as an excel spreadsheet that says ‘these documents were checked out [on dec 31]  by Ralph to show to the big guy, those documents were checked out by marge [ on dec 25th] to show to the big guy’  …. and they have not been returned yet.

     

    There might even be catalog numbers on the documents!

  56. 56.

    Another Scott

    If I were a believer in conspiracies, I wouldn’t waste time on Kate’s family portrait. But maybe on things like this…

    L O L G O P
    @lolgop.bsky.social

    Tonight I can write the saddest lines. The fate of democracy depends in large part on Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Mar 11, 2024 at 4:51 PM

    L O L G O P @lolgop.bsky.social
    6h

    I’m clearly in the “rein the bastard in” camp. But he would rather make Biden look impotent than grant any pause that may cost him his career. In fact, that’s what’s bound to happen after Biden hugged him following October 7th.

    Putin and Iran “encouraging” the Houthi’s to start trouble in the Red Sea, also too…

    Hmmm…

    Keep pluggin’ away, Joe. You’ve got this.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  57. 57.

    Marmot

    @Another Scott:

    The system of laws and regulations intends to make the price for doing so high enough that few will try it – not to make it impossible for it to happen.

    That last bit is another reason why TIFG is screwed.  The whole national information security system is built on clear rules and “need to know” and clear consequences and all the rest.  The system will crumble if TIFG gets away with it.  So, he won’t.

    Counterpoint: At heart, the justice system follows the whims and fads of society, though it makes a lot of Latin words about objectivity.

  58. 58.

    wjca

    Surely the judges on the 11th circuit don’t appreciate her thumbing her nose at lady justice.

    A question for the lawyers here: What happens if a judge gets disbarred?  Not just to her, but to any cases in progress.

  59. 59.

    wjca

    @catclub: Given how long they wrangled over the stuff with trump before the search warrant was issued,  I no longer think the custody system was very good. Also they certainly seemed shocked at what turned up.

    The Trump White House was sloppy and chaotic about everything.  Why would classified document handling be any different?

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Thanks.

    I was thinking along the lines of this part:

    “Special security folks are responsible for taking care of all those documents.”

    The POTUS doesn’t have to sign documents in and out all the time, but the guy at the Pentagon that prepared the sensitive report and sent it to the White House does. Someone signed for the stuff at the White House, so there’s a record somewhere. (My assumption is that most of the sensitive stuff that TIFG stole was actually originally created elsewhere.)

    Of course, there’s the way the system is supposed to work, the way it normally actually works, and the way it works when TIFG is in charge and there’s an opium den run by the president’s doc on campus, and all the rest…

    But, again, I’m not an expert.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    Bugboy

    Expand the court.  I don’t mean threaten to expand it, like FDR did.  DO IT.

    All of this clown show, and I mean ALL. OF. IT. is in anticipation of the backstop that is the SCOTUS there to make every silly, frivolous, yet legally permittable effort worth it.  Remove that, and the clown show ends, at least in the form that it currently is.

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    Sometimes I’m glad that I’m well into the second half of life.  The next 40 years on earth are going to be increasingly painful to experience.

  68. 68.

    Denali5

    If people don’t know about TIFG by now, they must have been in a cave for the last 8 years. They know.

  71. 71.

    fancycwabs

    I dunno, that sounds like probable cause to raid every other Trump property and conduct a search for classified documents, which, if found, would result in indictments far from the jurisdiction of Eileen Cannon.

  73. 73.

    RobertS

    Cannon is just latest Republican Hack judge to carry water for Trump.

    Like SCROTUS, she’s firmly in Trump’s camp, but can’t rule directly on his behalf without losing all credibility.  There are some limits.     What she can do, and what SCROTUS can do, is control the schedule to benefit Trump.

  76. 76.

    Argiope

    @dmsilev: if you’re a mechanic, why can’t you fix this crappy timeline somehow? Are we out of warranty or something?  Can we haz an alternative universe please? Pull some strings?

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