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Lisa Rubin

Jan 20 • 9 tweets • 3 min read

This morning, Trump withdrew his Florida lawsuit against NY Attorney General Tish James, a move many saw as his Hail Mary bid to end the AG's $250 million civil lawsuit against the Trump organization and various individuals, including Trump himself. The question is why? 1/

After all, Trump insisted on Truth Social last night that his former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, who was sentenced to 5 months in Rikers for tax fraud and related crimes, is instead a "CRIME VICTIM" at the hands of New York authorities--and so is he. 2/

But as is increasingly the case with Trump, his "truths" are his tells, and this is no exception. His suit against James shares a critical feature with another suit he has filed in Florida federal district court: the same judge, Donald Middlebrooks. 3/

Trump's first suit before Judge Middlebrooks -- a civil RICO suit alleging a conspiracy by Hillary Clinton, the DNC and others to spread a false narrative about collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia -- failed miserably. 4/

In November, Middlebrooks even sanctioned Trump's lawyers $50k for filing a meritless "two-hundred page political manifesto" in response to a single defendant's motion. And he noted that nearly 20 others' sanctions motion was still pending. 5/

cnbc.com/2022/11/10/tru…

In a brutal, 46-page opinion, he granted that motion last night. After noting the case "should never have been brought" & that "no reasonable lawyer would have filed it," he ordered Trump's lawyers to pay $938k to 18 others they "needlessly harmed." 6/

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…

And in doing so, Middlebrooks expressly discussed Trump's case against James, which he considered to be "part of Mr. Trump's pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes" and therefore relevant to the motion before him in the RICO matter. 7/

Indeed, Middlebrooks recalled how, in denying Trump's "emergency" motion to enjoin the NYAG's case last month, he urged Trump to drop the case altogether because it "has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous.” 8/

So this morning, after his overnight "truth" spree, Trump did something rather startling: He folded. That decision was perhaps driven by lawyers who can't afford a massive sanctions award either reputationally or financially. But it's weird to see Trump basically concede. FIN

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Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby

Jan 20

The Justice Department responded today to the barrage of information requests it has already received from House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan. And in the nicest way possible, the letter reminds Jordan, "Do your job." 1/

politico.com/f/?id=00000185…

Almost the first thing out of DOJ's mouth is an offer to help with *potential legislation.* It's a nice way of saying yes, congressional oversight is great, but have you tried enacting laws?

And then they go through department protocol for hearings and witness testimony before finally getting to oversight requests, which DOJ says "must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work."

Read 5 tweets

Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby

Jan 19

NEW: SCOTUS says after interviewing 97 people and "examining the Court’s computer devices, networks, printers, and available call and text logs," it can't "identify a person responsible by
a preponderance of the evidence" for leaking the Dobbs draft.

A few things of interest: First, the report reflects both temporary & permanent court personnel were interviewed--and that everyone with "access to the draft opinion signed sworn affidavits affirming they did not disclose the draft opinion nor know anything about who did." 1/

But it's not at all clear whether the justices were among the interviewees. Instead, the report says 97 people were interviewed, and that in addition to the Justices, 82 people had electronic or hard copy access to the February draft opinion published by Politico in May.

Read 11 tweets

Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby

Jan 19

@ejeancarroll

And as I promised, more excerpts from Trump’s deposition in @ejeancarroll’s defamation suit were released tonight. I was off today—but am reading through the nearly fifty new pages now. 1/

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1615882252633735170

@washingtonpost

And as @washingtonpost reports tonight, the most breathtaking part is when, confronted by @kaplanrobbie with a photo of himself greeting Carroll and her then-husband, John Johnson, he identifies Carroll as wife #2 Marla Maples before his lawyer, Alina Habba, corrects him. 2/

Nonetheless, despite mistaking Carroll for Maples — whose breasts and legs so transfixed Trump that he wondered aloud if their 1-year-old daughter would inherit them as well as her mother’s beauty — he continued to insist well into the deposition that Carroll wasn’t his type. 3/

Read 6 tweets

Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby

Jan 16

Since news broke that classified records were found in Biden’s office, the House GOP has worked overtime to blur what look like critical distinctions between the two situations. That false equivalence conceals a less obvious hypocrisy about executive vs. congressional power. 1/

During the Trump presidency and until the GOP took back the House, Republicans believed in a muscular executive branch. They defended Trump’s frequent overreaching (and overriding Congress) as the natural consequence of the way things should be under a unitary executive. 2/

And the flip side of their concept of a unitary executive was a deflated, lesser Congress that stayed firmly in its lane. That’s how they argued against multiple congressional investigations relating, directly or indirectly, to Trump’s conduct. 3/

Read 12 tweets

Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby

Jan 14

Today will mark my 75th time as a legal guest on MSNBC since I started stepping out from my newsroom cubicle in July. It’s not a journey I predicted or expected when I left BigLaw five years ago. 1/

When I left Big Law five years ago, I was tired, bitter, and most of all, angry with myself for not being able to combine parenthood and practice, especially when I knew I had some of the qualities of an outstanding lawyer. 2/

A senior partner even said to me, “You have the 10 percent that can’t be taught. Don’t f#%^ up the other 90.” That messed with me for a long time, replaying in a loop of self-blame & frustration with a law firm culture built on more, better, faster as means of differentiation. 3/

Read 6 tweets

Lisa Rubin

@lawofruby

Jan 14

@ejeancarroll

Tonight, I mentioned that @ejeancarroll’s recent defamation suit heads to trial in April. What I *didn’t* say is this: In a brief filed this week in the first case, Carroll’s legal team attached what I understand are MORE excerpts from Trump’s deposition. 1/

Those excerpts — and references to them in the brief — are under seal right now. But Trump has to tell the court why they should remain so. And given today’s earlier order unsealing the initial batch of excerpts, it’s unlikely he’ll prevail. 2/

So if you found today’s excerpts as bizarre and galling as I did, hold onto your hats. We could see even more as soon as next week. FIN

Read 4 tweets

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