Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Everybody saw this coming.

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

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

No one could have predicted…

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

I was promised a recession.

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Trump Indictments

Not a Good Day for Donnie

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First Biden mocks him (see previous post) and now this.

Judge Gives Trump Organization’s Babysitter ‘Enhanced’ Control  (Daily Beast)

Barbara S. Jones, a former federal judge, now has the authority to review the company’s “day-to-day operations,” internal records, and financial accounting.

The Trump Organization will now be under even more control of a former federal judge who has been monitoring Donald Trump’s eponymous family company, following a court order on Thursday that punishes the former president for committing bank fraud.

Barbara S. Jones, who has been babysitting the real estate company for more than a year, was granted enhanced powers by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur F. Engoron—the same judge who ordered Trump to pay $464 million for lying about his wealth for years.

While the company previously had to notify Jones anytime it shifted more than $5 million or engaged in business deals, she now has the right to essentially do whatever she deems necessary to keep the Trump Organization from engaging in dirty business practices.

Judge Engoron’s new order.

New York Attorney General takes initial step to prepare to seize Trump assets (CNN)

The New York attorney general’s office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Donald Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs.

State lawyers entered the judgments with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, just one week after Judge Arthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.

Entering a judgment would be the first step a creditor would take to attempt to recover property. Additional steps, such as putting liens on assets or moving to foreclose on properties, or taking other actions in court would follow, if the asset is going to be seized.

The judgment is already entered in New York city where Trump’s properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings are located.

Judgments have not been entered in Florida counties including Miami or Palm Beach where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property and the Trump National Doral Golf Club and resort are located or Cook County, Illinois, where Trump’s hotel in Chicago is located, according to a review of records Thursday by CNN.

Trump now has four days to satisfy the judgment or sway an appeals court to allow him to post a smaller amount or defer posting the payment until after the appeal.

Update: it’s hard to keep up!

Open thread.

Not a Good Day for DonniePost + Comments (227)

Laughter and Tears Open Thread

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A few laughs at the former guy’s expense.

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And one WTF??!

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I was guessing that mishegoss was a synonym for clusterfuck, but it doesn’t appear to be exactly that.

craziness; senseless behavior
Definitions of mishegoss. (Yiddish) craziness; senseless behavior or activity. synonyms: meshugaas, mishegaas. type of: craziness, folly, foolery, indulgence, lunacy, tomfoolery.

Also, when I heard what Cannon had ruled – let’s let the jurors without clearance see all the national security and classified documents so they can decide for themselves whether they are personal documents! – my first thought was maybe this is just crazy enough that Jack Smith  can get Cannon thrown into whichever circle of hell she belongs in  take it to the 11th Circuit, and some legal peeps seem to be having a similar thought.

A (writ of) mandamus is an order from a court to an inferior government official ordering the government official to properly fulfill their official duties or correct an abuse of discretion.

Open thread.

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Trump: Bottled in Bond

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Seems our favorite adjudged rapist and fraudster is having a spot of bother raising half a billion:

Trump: Bottled in Bond

[That link leads to Friedman’s feed, as the post itself seems to be visible only to Bluesky users.]

TL:DR–no one in the rather small universe of insurance companies that provide such bonds will take on such an enormous sum without cash or cash-equivalent collateral.

Trump: Bottled in Bond 1

What I found particularly interesting was the remark in an insurance broker’s affirmation that most of the handful of companies that do handle transactions on this scale cap their exposure at $100 million.

That suggests to me that even if Judge Engeron were to reduce the bond to, say, the principle amount without interest (high in the $300 millions) or even just to cut the demand in half ($232 million) Trump would still have a big hill to climb. And even at the lower amount, he’d still be on the hook for a 4% premium, or over $5 million in ready money.

[ETA: to repeat, I am not a lawyer, but if I’ve read actual lawyers correctly, the bond has to cover 110% of the judgment, so if Engeron does not drop the amount required Trump needs to raise or get surety for over $500 million.  That’s kinda of a lot of money even for a real billionaire.]

Not to mention that Trump and his attorneys did not exactly ingratiate themselves with this judge.  That shouldn’t and maybe won’t make a difference to Engeron’s engagement with the merits of their argument, but (recalling that IANAL) it seems likely that the quality of mercy may be just a bit strained in this instance.

In possibly unrelated news, popcorn futures opened significantly higher in the morning markets.

As open as Trump’s books aren’t, this thread is.

Image: Victor Dubreuil, Barrels of Money, c. 1897

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Friday Afternoon Open Thread: In Legal News

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Small roundup of legal news because I’m still wound up about, well, all of it!

Andrew Weissmann gets smacked down.

Andrew Weissmann’s buddy Norm Eisen doesn’t agree with Andrew, either!

Speaking of Norm Eisen. This is a short clip where he explains that he thinks there is room for 2 Trump cases to go to trial before the election, which ones, and why.

For rikyrah:

Loved this from Sheldon Whitehouse. “If you wanna be a celebrity, be a chef.”

Open thread.

Update: I’ll put up another Worker Power fundraising thread tomorrow, but if you donate in the meantime, just let me know in the comments here.   frosty’s match is still active, and we have another BJ Angel waiting in the wings, so all donations up to $25 per person will be matched as long as you let us know in the comments.

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Fulton County Fani Willis Ruling from Judge McAfee

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It may be early for a news post, but I’m so pleased that I don’t want to wait.

I have gotten so tired of judicial overreach that it’s a happy surprise when it doesn’t happen.  When it comes to the courts right now, I feel like the dog that expects to be beaten, rather than the dog that is occasionally beaten.  What a relief this ruling is!

In other news, I had misinterpreted Alvin Bragg’s “I won’t object to a 30-day delay”.  He apparently wasn’t volunteering for a 30-day delay on this – this was more of him setting down a marker – along the lines of I can live with a 30-day delay because of this bullshit, but it had better not be longer than that.

Totally open thread.

Update:  Oh, and if you donated for a match for Worker Power in AZ overnight, you can let me know in the comments here.   frosty’s match is still active, so all donations up to $25 per person are being matched.

Fulton County Fani Willis Ruling from Judge McAfeePost + Comments (158)

Judge McAfee in GA Case – No Need To Panic

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I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from the legal eagles soon, as to whether this is a big deal. While we wait.

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h/t Omnes on this last one.

Update with further details at 2 pn:

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Update at 4:27 pm

Judge nixes some of Georgia’s charges against Trump and his allies − but that won’t necessarily derail the case.

Is the judge saying there is not enough evidence to proceed with this case?

No. He’s saying that the state has not sufficiently explained how the evidence relates to an oath. For example, we know Rudy Giuliani went to the Georgia General Assembly with John Eastman and provided false information in order to encourage these state officials to overturn the election. The theory is that violated both the federal and state constitutions.

But a prosecutor could make that claim in a number of different ways. Did they violate the Georgia Constitution’s right to vote; did they violate the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution? Is it the right to vote that is spelled out in Georgia’s state Constitution? Or is there some other provision of federal or state law they violated? It’s just not clear.

Could this delay the trial against Trump and his allies in Georgia?

Maybe. We will have to see. Willis can bring a new, more detailed indictment that is more in line with the state oath. I think if Willis brings another indictment on these charges, there probably won’t be a delay.

If she appeals this decision, rather than just seeking a new indictment, that might slow things down a little.

Open thread.

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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.

Trump Employee #5 Wants People to Know About Trump Before NovemberPost + Comments (76)