NEW: Judge Darrin Gayles, who will preside over Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal may be having deja vu: He presided over Trump's ill-fated 2023 lawsuit against Michael Cohen.
Trump ultimately dropped that case to avoid being deposed.
www.politico.com/news/2025/07…— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney.bsky.social) July 21, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Politico, “Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal now has a judge — and it’s not Aileen Cannon”:
… Trump sued Cohen in April 2023 seeking a $500 million payout for claims that Cohen violated his attorney-client relationship with Trump and enriched himself off their relationship. Six months later, Trump abandoned the lawsuit, just before Cohen’s lawyers were set to question him under oath.
Trump’s new lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and owner Rupert Murdoch seeks an even more audacious sum: $20 billion. Trump says the newspaper defamed him by reporting last week that Trump may have sent Epstein a suggestive birthday card more than two decades ago. Trump filed the lawsuit on Friday, and Gayles was assigned to preside over the case on Monday.
But as with the Cohen case, there’s an open question of whether Trump’s new lawsuit is more of a political stunt than a serious attempt to litigate the issue. If Trump pursues the case, he would open himself up to answering questions under oath about his connection to the disgraced financier who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Trump’s decision to file the case in southern Florida led to suspicions he was hoping to draw U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, his own appointee who helped him escape criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. But Trump’s attorney Alejandro Brito — the same lawyer who led the ill-fated Cohen suit — filed the case in the Miami division of the federal judicial district of south Florida. Cannon sits in the Fort Pierce district, making it unlikely she would have been selected under the court’s assignment process.
Gayles, a George Washington University law graduate who made history as the first openly gay Black man appointed to the federal bench, was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. One reason: His judicial background tilts bipartisan. He was appointed to state-court judgeships in Florida by two Republican governors, Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist, before Obama nominated him to his current role…
Speaking at an American Bar Association conference in March, Gayles lamented the decline in public confidence in the judiciary. He gave a few reasons for that decline, including the Supreme Court’s frequent reliance on its “shadow docket” to issue short-form emergency rulings. He also blamed the practice of litigants strategically filing lawsuits in certain districts in hopes of drawing favorable judges willing to issue nationwide injunctions. And he lamented expectations that judges will rule based on the president who appointed them.
“We all have to do better and push back. We are independent, we make decisions on the facts and the law,” he said.
Gayles also denounced attacks on the judiciary that go beyond mere criticism and put people in danger. “We’re not infallible. Sometimes we get it wrong because we deal with a lot of very difficult, complicated issues,” he said. “It’s the nature of the criticism. If it’s done in a way that subjects us to harm, that’s problematic.”…
Baud
Sounds like the judge will be fair.
prostratedragon
So, tailor-made for this case!
The Audacity of Krope
Which, due to Trump’s habit of making wild claims and perpetual victim mentality, will mean he will most likely be deemed unfair by certain cultish segments of the population before all this is over.
catclub
@Baud: or sounds like the judge will be re-assigned.
prostratedragon
An underlying Schrodinger duality?
Baud
@catclub:
Motion to Recuse on the Grounds of Insufficient Bias
Miki
I just hope he’s wise to/intolerant of Trump attys slow-walking fucking everything.
I want to read the transcripts of the depositions well before 2026.
I know. Dream on ….
SpaceUnit
My guess is that there will be an “undisclosed settlement” which will allow trump to claim he’s been vindicated.
MattF
Considering that Old Rupert went ahead with publishing the article despite a personal plea from Old Donald… That seems to me to be a BFD.
Baud
There’s a Hunter Biden interview that’s going viral on Blue sky.
I have a feeling he’s going to be invited to be a front pager here soon
ETA: I’m confident Anne Laurie will be on it.
prostratedragon
@prostratedragon:
And yet he could release these:
That duality rests on a single point, it seems.
MazeDancer
Gee, wonder if Trump will drop this case before being deposed…
catclub
@SpaceUnit: I realized yesterday that the best possible way to pay legalized bribes to trump is to do what the WSJ has done… and then settle with an ‘undisclosed’ payment to Trump.
also then repudiate their own reporting.
CBS has done it to get the paramount deal settled.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: What does he say?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
The two clips I saw, he defends immigrants and goes after Clooney.
You’d love it
ETA: Immigrants
ETA: Clooney
me
@catclub: If rupert wanted to pay a bribe he could just donate directly to the djt library and casino slush fund. Also, that’s what the NYPost is for not WSJ.
lowtechcyclist
I’d like to see him deposed, alright, and not in the sense of being questioned in a deposition.
Weird how that word has two such different meanings.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: “Fuck George Clooney” would be enough. “Boycott George Clooney” would be perfect.
ETA: Every once in a while y’all make me regret my resistance to getting on Bluesky.
SpaceUnit
@catclub:
It also allows his MAGA cult to dismiss all Epstein stories as “fake news”.
rikyrah
Bobby Kogan (@BBKogan) posted at 1:46 PM on Mon, Jul 21, 2025:
Final CBO score of the “big beautiful bill” is out
Biggest Medicaid cuts ever – in fact, 4 times the size of the previous biggest; $894-$990 bn
Kicks 10 million off health insurance
Biggest SNAP cuts ever, $187 bn
Still increases deficit by $3.4 trillion from huge tax cuts t.co/COh90thwIe
(https://x.com/BBKogan/status/1947367525307515246?t=JFiOqUG6ir9CnmSWnW8P0g&s=03)
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Most things in life are a mixed bag.
rikyrah
improvise. Adapt. overcome. (@reesetheone1) posted at 9:46 PM on Sun, Jul 20, 2025:
Harris won more liberals than Obama.
Ran worse with moderates conservatives and indies.
Alot of moderates stayed home or moved right. t.co/xpNbgwEURj
(x.com/reesetheone1/status/1947126016700252669?t=VVwUn_rRU4vcajR6doZoDw&s=03)
Tim 🇺🇸 (@trouble_man90) posted at 2:43 PM on Mon, Jul 21, 2025:
According to voters, Kamala was the most left wing candidate they had ever seen, and unfortunately they didn’t like it. Going further left isn’t the answer.
(x.com/trouble_man90/status/1947381957525995652?t=JIvQIbWlPW46n-eVi565fA&s=03)
The Audacity of Krope
As if they needed a plausible reason.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist: If by “deposed”, you mean “yeeted into a MRI while wearing tacky gold-plated steel jewelry”…… then we’re in agreement.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: He was breathing fire about Clooney for sure. Good.
The Audacity of Krope
Making this claim is seemingly always the answer.
I demand justice on my issues and no one else’s!
rikyrah
JUST PHUCKING GHOULS
Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) posted at 2:36 PM on Mon, Jul 21, 2025:
Cantor Fitzerland, the company being ran by Howard Lutnick’s 2 sons, is now buying rights to tariff refunds from small companies that cannot afford to wait a year for either the courts or Trump himself to overrule these tariffs.
Poor people selling their hard earned money for pennies on the dollar to the son of a billionaire who literally gets to decide these policies himself.
How much more obvious can they make it for you all?t.co/U6pLb2TdNz
(x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1947380186942742748?t=vd__4Np2vg5Z88zDlHPpkA&s=03)
Princess
@zhena gogolia: He talks like he’s Biden’s anger translator.
mark
Hope the WSJ doesn’t cave in on this like Jeff Bezos. et al did. Not saying I agree with the WSJ, but dang, somebody needs to be a stand up guy.
Glory b
Off topic (but it’s an open thread), dont know if it was mentioned before, but Malcolm Jamal Warner, whp played Bill Cosby’s son on The Cosby Show, died today.
He drowned while he was on a family vacation.
For many people, he was like another brother. It was the first time I remember a character who had a learning disability. They showed a long process, his parent’s anger at his failing grades, learning about the problem and him overcoming it.
I didn’t watch him in The Resident (I think?) but I understand he was good.
Anyway, RIP.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@The Audacity of Krope:
Yup. It’s always okay to punch left with that crowd but whenever it’s questions about centrists and the rest of the Klein/Shor/Smith/Stancil/MattY “liberals” it’s “STFU, you don’t understand party unity or coalition politics.”
I’ll be waiting for an Atlantic “think” piece to launder this into something for the Totebagger Radio crowd.
Princess
Evidently Trump removed WSJ from the press pool for his UK trip, as one does when one has nothing to hide about one’s close friendship with Epstein.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
They call me MR. GIB.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
I’d ask in what ways they think Harris was noticeably to the left of Biden, but if you set pictures of them side by side, I bet the answer becomes clear.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Love it!
rikyrah
@Glory b:
Been watching Cosby Youtube clips all this afternoon :(
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
While I’d like him to spend the rest of his life after 1/20/29 in prison, I’ve all but abandoned hope there, so I think I could get behind your proposal.
But I was thinking more of being removed from office before his term is up.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I told you you’d love it!
The Audacity of Krope
It’s the same as bipartisanship when the discussion is Democrats v Republicans. The left is always expected to simply defer to the right.
Shakti
The talking heads at CNBC seemed optimistic about the economy…talking a lot about Dominoes and the attempt to fire the head of the Fed.
It all depends on whether the WSJ thinks they do better as cronies or whether they think they can’t work around Trump agitating and fucking up the money. Non trivial chance they fold.
prostratedragon
@rikyrah: Hmm. SEPYCANs? Steal Evety Penny You Can.
Baud
@Shakti:
Stock market has been up.
Of course, it was up under Biden when they economy was supposedly terrible.
Dollar is way down, however, and deficit spending is through the roof thanks to Trump.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist:
Acceptable but not emotionally satisfying.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
Anybody nominally on our side like those referenced people on twitter claim that Harris was noticeably left of Biden are a) full of shit, and b) not good faith commenters on this subject.
Now, if they say that the media and the other side managed to portray her (and message appropriately and effectively) as being some deranged commie, then sure, we can start a discussion about how that came about and it’s *possible* impact on a variety of electoral blocs.
But they don’t because that’s not what their trying to do.
prostratedragon
@lowtechcyclist: Even if you helpfully put her picture to the right.
New Deal democrat
One of the trends that has been most striking in the past year – ever since the Trump vs. US decision – is the radicalization of many legal and political scholars.
Today it’s Josh Chafetz, Georgetown Law Professor and expert on Congress’s Constitutional powers. He has published a new paper entitled “The Chadha Presidency.” Here is an abridgment of the abstract:
“Why hasn’t [Congress] reined in some of the worst abuses of the Trump Administration? This Article argues that a significant part of the answer to this oft-voiced lament lies in a 1983 Supreme Court case, INS v. Chadha. In Chadha, the Court held that all legislative vetoes are unconstitutional- thereby striking down provisions in hundreds of statutes. It also made the choice to sever the legislative veto from the delegation of authority to the executive, thereby leaving in place only one side of a bargain between Congress and the presidency. The executive could still make use of delegated power, free from the post-hoc check of the legislative veto.
“Among the myriad statutes whose legislative veto provisions were invalidated by Chadha were … the War Powers Resolution, the Impoundment Control Act, the Arms Export Control Act, the National Emergencies Act, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act[, ] all of [which] have been the subject of high-profile interbranch conflicts during Donald Trump’s [Presidency.] ….
“[This] suggests that a binding legislative veto would be even more significant in the Trump presidency than in prior presidencies ….”
Not only does this suggest that Chafetz is open to a significant Constitutional change, but he republished this reply by Jamal Greene, a law professor at Columbia:
“I have come to the view that if and when we get to the other side, real constitutional reform will be needed, and allowing for some version of a legislative veto absolutely has to be part of that.”
The radicalization continues apace.
(btw, I agree that a major upgrade to Congress’s power vs. the Executive, and a check on the Judiciary as well, are necessary.)
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
And as we all know, deficit spending is only an issue when Dems are in charge.
The Audacity of Krope
No matter how many times Dems reduce the deficit that Republicans before them built up. I remember the deficit once being eliminated under D leadership.
I suppose infinite deficit is fine as long as we don’t spend taxpayer money on taxpayer needs.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
@The Audacity of Krope:
They want the deficit as an excuse to cut social programs.
trollhattan
Best Cannon misfire ever.
Scout211
Also too, Harvard v Trump.
He is not happy with the judge.
I often wonder why they let him get away with smearing the judges publicly. No one else can do that and not be sanctioned or fined. But then I remember he was given a get out of jail card from SCOTUS and cannot be wrong, he can only be wronged. It’s settled law for
centuriesdecadesat least a year.Bill Arnold
@Baud:
That’s just an excuse, for Borrow and Spend Republicans.
Baud
Bill Arnold
@Scout211:
Classic projection.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: I quote-skeeted it: “Where’s the lie?”
trollhattan
Surprised it didn’t continue “She is a TOTAL DISASTER, who lives at 4714 Tallyho Lane, Scarsdale.”
Betty
@zhena gogolia: I saw multiple clips on Threads. He is unleashed. Lots of F bombs.
bbleh
“… there’s an open question of whether Trump’s new lawsuit is more of a political stunt than a serious attempt to litigate the issue.”
HAHAHAHAHA! Nonononono, stop! Please! Yer KILLIN’ me …
Shakti
@Baud: @Baud:
They only care about the deficit when it’s about helping people they don’t like.
I’m convinced the stock market is just a mood ring for people with money. I should know better with all the evidence.
Baud
zhena gogolia
@Baud: He sounds a little like me . . .
Shakti
I’ve been thinking about this article and how it explains Trump’s lack of opposition /appeal.
The Politics of Humiliation
Baud
Apparently, the whole Hunter Biden interview is three hours long.
Or 20 minutes if you edit out the F-bombs.
Splitting Image
@Baud:
The more of these dumps they do, the more the Epstein files will be conspicuous by their absence.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I bet he knows how to spell everyone’s name correctly too.
Baud
@Splitting Image:
I’m just glad we’ll finally find out what happened to Jimmy Hoffa.
Betty
@Baud: Any port in a storm. Pathetic.
trollhattan
@Baud: That’s. Not. Parody?
Baud
@trollhattan:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Suzanne
@Baud: Replaying the old hits!
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: Cantor Fitzgerald have been ghouls for decades, including (maybe especially) after 9/11 when most of their employees were killed.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: STRZOK!
Baud
They’re going to ruin the label, aren’t they?
trollhattan
Digby has the receipts on how Trump has transformed the Oval into “Trailer Park Versailles.”
digbysblog.net/2025/07/21/trailer-park-versailles/
Boggled, I am. Even knowing it was bad, nothing quite like the before/afters.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Did excitement over the new pope have them using “conclave?” What a weird choice.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: STRZOK
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: Haha, beat me to it
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Raptured. I keep on telling you folks. 😁
Captain C
@Baud: The FTFNYT will be all over this.
Baud
@Captain C:
Someone there literally yelled “STOP THE PRESSES” this afternoon.
Baud
Trump DOJ wanted one day
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
One twist, that was grotesquely under-reported at the time:
The State Department unclassified email servers were penetrated and probably monitored by the Russians the entire time that Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. The NYTimes even reported this, like paragraph 12/13 of a piece about how very bad bad bad she was.
WTFGhost
I’ll grant you, I have no reason to say something that might put a judge’s life in danger, but, judges should remember that *real people* are helped, or harmed, by their decision.
One SCOTUS judge ruled that, if a trucker has two choices, abandon his load to save his life, or risk his life by staying put, he should stay put, or, get fired. That judge said “die, rather than rescue yourself, or, of course you get fired.”
If that judge were to step on an unexploded landmine, and vanish, like people handling dynamite on “Lost,” I would shed few tears, and, if a friend of that trucker decided to hurt that judge, I wouldn’t be surprised, but, I would have counseled against it, tried to calm them down, shared a bottle while we complained about the judge, etc., if I had the opportunity.
It’s not because I don’t like the judge – it’s because he completely ignored humanity. He should have been raging against the law that would say “die, just to protect property,” but, he was just fine with the result. He even joked about the result, saying “people think I hate truckers!”
No, I just thought you’d cut off a man’s livelihood, for saving his life; that’s not hate, it’s such a hideous, horrible, indifference to human suffering it’s inexplicable! And that is far, far, worse, far more damaging, than hate.
So, even if the law was being a total dick, a judge should say “in this case, the law is a dick; I believe, under the circumstances, the company had the right to fire this man, but it should be unlawful for them to do so,” however a judge does that. Dicta, I believe, probably spelled differently when it’s from dick-judge.
So, I kind-of agree – we shouldn’t be having judges afraid to be humans who must make decisions, because someone has to. But those judges should have their humanity, and those of plaintiffs/prosecutors, and defendants, topmost in their mind, so they *don’t* make a decision that’s so obviously harmful, or even murderous, that people would be furiously angry with them.
Or, if the judges feel they must make a decision some will find “so obviously hurtful, or even murderous,” they should try to nevertheless observe what inhumanity is being done to these people who are being harmed, or murdered… and probably order extra security, just in case.
Because making people furiously angry is going to be part of the job, and, furiously angry people do stupid shit sometimes. Just… remember sometimes that fury is justified, because sometimes, the law, or the judge (Yes, that’s *YOU*, judgie!), is an ass. What actions happen next, well, I just said the *emotion* is justified, not any action taken as a result.
That’s how I see it, anyway.
satby
@trollhattan: I love the one guy: “it’s like a Dollar Tree Versailles”
Captain C
@Baud: Probably not nearly as well as The Great Gonzo.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: A rare win for judicial independence. Still not enough if you’re holding to the standards of our justice system.
I’d prefer a more lenient system overall, but I don’t think the first beneficiaries of lenience should be brutal and/or corrupt cops.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
He’ll probably be pardoned.
The Audacity of Krope
@Gin & Tonic: 🎶Strzok me, Strzok me🎶
WTFGhost
@Bill Arnold: More importantly, there is only ONE CRIME for which Hillary Clinton could be accused. Sharing classified information, either deliberately (NO ONE has suggested this) or through “gross negligence,” i.e., being so effing careless that of course you spilled.
That’s like, leaving your laptop unlocked in a public area when you’re not using it. Okay? It’s not like “she used a private server, which coulda been hacked!” because that doesn’t meet the “gross negligence” standard.
The very idea of “gross negligence” is like, “we think you hired someone to take your car to a chop shop, and split the proceeds with you, and then report the vehicle stolen. We can’t prove you committed a crime, but the keys in the car, door wide open, known car thief 20 feet away, that’s gross negligence. Even if you didn’t *give* it to him, you practically did! We’re not paying on your claim.”
That’s gross negligence.
Jackie
@trollhattan:
I saw a bit of a video clip a few days ago of FFOTUS and a dignitary sitting in front of the fireplace and ALL I COULD SEE WAS CHEAP TACKY GOLD plastered over almost every inch of it. Just gross.
bbleh
@WTFGhost: not really interested in relitigating the whole thing, but IIRC the “classified” information she “shared” was publicly available WaPo stories that contained information that was considered classified but had been revealed by a WaPo source.
And of course the comparable leaks and spills by the Orange Guy’s people are literally orders of magnitude worse.
I cannot even …
Jackie
@Baud:
Oh, YAY! I was so prepared to hear one day… Justice for Breonna FINALLY!
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: by “left-wing”, do these “moderates” happen to mean “Harris is Black, Asian, female, and Californian, and we don’t like *that*”? We wonders, yes, we wonders…
mrmoshpotato
@The Audacity of Krope:
As a wise man once said, Fuck ’em!
I hope this judge has many opportunities to judicially punch the bullying orange bitch in his fucking fascist face.
Glory b
@WTFGhost: My understanding at the time was that HER server was actually better than the State Department ones because she was never hacked.
Baud
Glory b
@bbleh: Yes, things that weren’t classified at the time got a look-back and were then given classified designations they didn’t have at the time.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: True.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Wow. Bravo, Hunter! I want to see that full interview – all fucks intacted!
Aussie Sheila
@Shakti:
That essay was excellent.
Sure Lurkalot
@Miss Bianca: I remember tax credits/subsidies for starting a small business, having a kid, buying your first home. Parental leave, raising the federal minimum wage ($7.25 since 2009), restoring Roe, negotiated prices for meds.
Real radical stuff. Trotsky platform. I can see why moderates fled to Trump or stayed home. Sure thing.
Torrey
@Glory b:
RIP Malcolm Jamal Warner
Terrible news, but thank you for relaying it. A great loss: actor (film, television, theater), director, musician, spoken word poet. . . . Emmy and Grammy winner. RIP.
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: Indeed. She was a black woman who seriously expected to be treated equally to a white man. Which is, ya know, basically like being an anarcho-communist. /s
Anyway
Hunter Biden remind me of why I don’t discuss politics IRL. Can’t stop the f-bombs …he calls out Anita Dunn, David Axelrod, James Carville…thought I was listening to a Jackal podcast.
Anyway
@Torrey: RIP Malcolm Jamal Warner. 54 is too young. Condolences to his family.
Professor Bigfoot
@zhena gogolia: He sounds a lot like me. ;)
zhena gogolia
@Professor Bigfoot: It’s very cathartic!
prostratedragon
@Gin & Tonic: This stunt forces a girl to fight bad thoughts.
catclub
@lowtechcyclist: yeah, I remember the GOP calling Obama the most left wing anything evar! also!
Also Biden in 2020. It is a habit.
WTFGhost
@bbleh: Well, but that was also the point. She shared 3 documents marked “c for confidential” at a later time, versus Kegsbreath or whatever his nickname is this week, who sent live battle plans to a journalist while the planes were ready to launch!
*That*, my friends, that is “gross negligence.” He did nothing to avoid spilling national security secrets, not even the most basic thing, that everyone knows is required: making sure everyone about to receive them has both the right authorization, and, a need to know.
@Glory b: It was, in fact….