In a 57-page opinion, the D.C. Circuit has rejected, as expected, former President Donald Trump's sweeping immunity claim. Many of us anticipated this result. Here is the opinion storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
...Notably, the panel rejected the claim of many critics that there should be no appellate review. However, it categorically rejects the claim of Trump that he is entitled to immunity as a private citizen...
...The question is now whether Smith will again seek to curtail the time or options for Trump in appealing this decision. Trump has weeks to file for a full en banc review. He was previously unsuccessful in that effort with the Supreme Court.
...Crunching the numbers, Trump can seek corrections in the short term but, even without a correction to the opinion, he has 45 days to seek an en banc where the government is a party. He then has 90 days after the rejected of any en banc decision. ...
...So, even without factoring in review time for the circuit, Trump could extend this process 135 days absent a successful move to expedite. The 90 day period alone would put a petition into May. Any rejection of appeals, without an expedited calendar, puts this into the summer...
...That is without delays or a successful grant on by the D.C. Circuit (unlikely) or the Supreme Court (uncertain). After that appellate line is tied off, the parties would have to return to the trial court to resume the pre-trial work, which could take months. That puts the trial very close to the election and would raise obvious concerns given the long-standing DOJ policy to avoid trials with a few months of an election.
...While Smith will likely try again to expedite, the question is why the Supreme Court would suddenly see a need to curtail the time or process when it previously denied such efforts. There is no longer a scheduled trial on the docket and Smith is the prevailing party. That is not ideal for a motion to expedite further appeals.
...Notably, in a footnote at the end of the decision, the panel declines look at the merits of the threshold challenge that "the appointment of Special Counsel Smith is invalid because (1) no statute authorizes the position Smith occupies and (2) the Special Counsel is a principal officer who must be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate."
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Here is the new indictment of former President Donald Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith, which is to indictments what shrinkflation is to products -- same package just less content...
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...Smith simply re-indicted on same four criminal counts with less evidence. He removed factual claims that clearly would trip the wire on the recent presidential immunity ruling of the Supreme Court...
......It reminds me of my favorite Italian beef stand in Chicago when a women asked if there was a low cal option. The owner cut it in half and charged her the same amount...
After years to refusing to release documents on censorship, Mark Zuckerberg has finally come clean and admitted that the Biden-Harris Administration pressured Facebook to censor Americans. I discuss that government-corporate alliance in my new book. amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS…
...Zuckerberg's belated admission () that Facebook yielded to the pressure to censor comes after years of concealing such coordination and even a commercial campaign to get the public to embrace censorship. Remember this? shorturl.at/WVlNI jonathanturley.org/2021/05/03/lea…
When Elon Musk was being attacked for releasing the Twitter files and dismantling the company's censorship apparatus, Zuckerberg was resisting efforts to release his own files and evidence of government pressure to censor Americans...
The Washington Post is reporting that "the 81-year-old had shown signs of slipping for a long time, but his inner circle worked to conceal his decline." That is a rather curious and belated observation. The Post leaves the obvious implications unstated...
...First, Kamala Harris was part of that "inner circle," something that she is emphasizing on the campaign trial . That would mean that she also concealed his decline but denying it publicly...
...Second, since many were long writing about the decline, it begs the question of the near total lack of interest in that issue by the media, including the Washington Post. Many professed to the public that Biden was sharp as a tack...jonathanturley.org/2024/07/04/rep…
President Biden is citing a series of cases with which he disagrees as the basis for seeking to fundamentally change the Court. The message is clear. If the Court ruled as he demanded, it would not have to be changed...
...Biden states that we need to chance the court with "regularity". He appears to be saying that this would be done legislatively. Then why not 8 years or 2 years instead of 18 years? If Congress has that authority, it could the occupants faster than a South Beach time share...
...Biden is citing President Johnson who pushed to change the law (and the Court) without seeking to fundamentally change the institution itself...
The decision of Joe Biden to withdraw from his reelection bid raises the obvious question of how he can continue as president if he is incapable of running for that office. The Democratic Party seems to have created its own 25th Amendment, but ...
...there remains the "other" 25th Amendment. This is a type of 25th-lite option where you lack capacity to run but not to serve for an office...
...It also focuses attention on the efforts of Democrats to drop any challengers or hold any debates through the primary as millions voted for Biden. Holding a party "primary" in a matter of weeks is hardly a substitute for a primary campaign to expose candidates to prolonged scrutiny...jonathanturley.org/2023/12/04/bal…
The conviction of Sen. Menendez in Washington is monumental. He was one of the untouchables. Despite long being viewed as corrupt, Menendez wielded power with abandon for his own benefit...
...The problem was the defense theory. Menendez tried to convince the jury that this was a "Cuban thing." They clearly viewed it as a "corruption thing"...
...The images of gold bars and cash stuffed in clothes is difficult to overcome with a cultural claim. Yet, this conviction is an indictment of the Washington establishment. Menendez was always viewed as a corrupt figure but he was still given powerful positions that he used for corrupt purposes...