Some immediate reactions to the Supreme Court not taking cert today on whether Trump is immune from prosecution for acts taken during his presidency. First, the denial of cert came as a single-sentence order with no dissents or statements. 1/
To the extent there was disagreement, we don’t know how many justices, if any, would have granted review now, nor who they are. For an institution that has lost public confidence in part because of its opacity, this feels like an odd choice, even if the vote was unanimous. 2/
Trump’s brief made two points may have been convincing to several justices: 1) that Judge Chutkan’s opinion was the only judicial opinion ever to rule on a former or current president’s immunity from prosecution; 3/
and 2) that while he agreed with Smith that the case warrants eventual SCOTUS review, Smith never sufficiently explained the “why now” part. 4/
On the first, the court may want the cover of a D.C. Circuit opinion that modifies Judge Chutkan’s ruling and adopts a rule similar to existing case law in civil cases involving former or current presidents. 5/
That rule, as recently enunciated by the DC Circuit in a trio of 1/6 civil cases against Trump, is that former presidents are immune from suit for conduct within their official duties, even up to the “outer perimeter” of those duties. 6/
And as in that civil case, I can see a scenario in which the D.C. Circuit adopts that holding and then rules that the allegations against Trump in the indictment fall far outside that outer perimeter in any event. That, in turn, could be an easier place for SCOTUS to land. 7/
With respect to Smith’s failure to justify the emergency here, the world knows that if Trump is elected in November, he will somehow ensure he is never tried for any federal crimes. 8/
What Smith should have said is that the public has an interest not just in Trump’s speedy trial but in the holding of any trial at all. But he is bending over backwards to avoid the appearance of partisanship—and therefore, his briefs strained to explain the urgency. 9/
One more thought: I read a piece last night that suggests a court invested in preserving democracy could have taken cert on the immunity question and ruled for Smith while overturning the CO Supreme Court on some legal question. That struck me as brilliant—& now we know it was only a dream.
I want to live in a world where we do not talk about judges as if they owe their allegiance, or their very existence, to a particular president. Based on my experience as both a litigator and a journalist, that describes the vast majority of the federal judiciary. 1/
And yet, Judge Aileen Cannon, for all of her credentials and pre-judicial experience, has consistently staged the hearing of motions in a way that favors Trump and his co-defendants, handpicked a theory of dismissal at the invitation-by-concurrence of Justice Thomas, and even exercised jurisdiction she did not have. 2/
Her actions concerning the Special Counsel’s report, for example, were premised on authority she had stripped herself of by dismissing the case and an eventuality she refused to acknowledge: that the indictment against the two people who would supposedly be prejudiced by the report’s release not only had been dismissed but that DOJ’s pending appeal of her ruling will soon disappear too.
NEW: Per @adamreisstv, Rudy Giuliani is now almost 90 minutes late for a one-day trial on whether his Palm Beach, FL condo can be taken to satisfy his $146 million debt to former GA election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. 1/
Rudy owes the women that money because his failure to participate in their defamation lawsuit was so complete that they won a default judgment on liability. And when they tried the issue of damages to a jury last December, that $146 million was the jury’s award. 2/
Since then, he has been playing games with several courts in an attempt to conceal or even exclude his assets from being seized to pay them. He first filed for bankruptcy, only to have his case kicked out of court for his obfuscation and withholding of information. 3/
🧵: In October 2024, @SenWhitehouse released a report about the FBI's supplemental investigation of Brett Kavanaugh after allegations that he sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford surfaced. 1/
And that report caused Whitehouse to find that the FBI's supplemental investigation was deeply flawed and manipulated by the Trump White House despite public attestations that the FBI had carte blanche to pursue all investigative leads. 2/
In his conclusion, Whitehouse noted, "Reliable background investigations of judicial nominees are crucial to the Senate’s constitutional duty to provide advice and consent," a statement with which I imagine most senators would concur, at least in a general sense. 3/
If Samantha Hegseth, Pete Hegseth’s second (and now ex-)wife, proactively sought to speak with the FBI about her ex-husband, why was she not interviewed? The Senate’s decades-long failure to develop a responsible background check system to exercise its “advise and consent” powers is baffling.
Instead, however, some senators have decided that anonymity automatically discredits sexual misconduct and assault accusations—even though there are multiple ways the Armed Services Committee, the FBI, or both could have vetted her story without revealing her name publicly.
For example, Lindsey Graham was once a reliable and prominent voice for survivors of sexual assault. But lately, he’s been singing a different tune:
NEW: Rudy Giuliani’s back in his old stomping grounds — Manhattan federal district court — this morning. And today, he’s facing the prospect of a contempt ruling for failing to turn over a host of property to two former GA election workers to whom he owes nearly $150 million. 1/
In a filing earlier this week, the women’s attorneys note that despite a clear Oct. 2024 order, Giuliani has not given them the title or deed for his vintage Mercedes convertible or his NY condo, both of which he was ordered to turn over. 2/
They also accuse Giuliani of playing games with respect to the whereabouts of his framed DiMaggio jersey, which a friend testified he had seen in Rudy’s Palm Beach condo within the last two years; cash held in a known Citibank account; and even watches and costume jewelry. 3/
Based on the comments in my last thread, it seems like a lot of folks are misinformed or simply willing to drink the red Kool Aid about the law that allowed E. Jean Carroll to make a sexual assault claim in her second, 2022 lawsuit against him. 1/
First and foremost, E. Jean needed no change in law to bring her second defamation claim against Trump. What begat that was his October 2022 tweet basically repeating the same statements about her that he had made in 2019. 2/
But more fundamentally, the Adult Survivors Act was no “get Trump” cabal. It was an effort, years in the making, to extend statutes of limitations for those who alleged they were sexually abused as adults, not minors, as this @nytimes story illustrates: nytimes.com/2019/10/25/nyr…