Three Things: Lawyer Dumps Kushner, Hot at Fox, Dimon’s Douchery
Can’t keep up with the amount of crap in the news today. It’s a Friday smack in the middle of summer, for god’s sake; can’t the news-making weasels give the treadmill a rest? Go to the beach already. Chris Christie can give you directions. Sheesh.
– 1 –
Jamie Gorelick put on her boots made for walking. She’s “wrapping up,” they say. Yeah, like rotting fish in news paper, wrapping up. The ~100 names added to Kushner’s SF-86 must have been the last straw — or perhaps the baloney fib about a staffer hitting Enter too soon on a correction to the SF-86 (which is supposed to be a paper form?).
With Team Trump, watch the women. When they leave it’s a sign, just like with The Donald’s ex-wives
– 2 –
Fox News’ too-few journalists are struggling with the crap Team Trump is shoveling. Check out Shepard Smith’s southern accent unleashed while talking with Chris Wallace about all the lies from the White House. Wallace is nearly without words at one point.
– 3 –
JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon went off on a rant about the U.S. today. Depending on which outlet you read you’ll find completely different takes on what he said. Sadly, it’s more of the same crap which both caused the 2008 crash and put us in this lie-filled quagmire today (too much litigation, complex non-competitive taxes, blah-blah-blah). The jerk-offs on Wall Street don’t realize that regulations they bitch about are what makes the U.S. a safe place to live and do business. China has envied our clean skies and our banking system assures businesses will see their money all their money at the end of the day.
If anything is fucked up with the U.S. it’s that its workers don’t make a living wage and are sandwiched between outrageous college tuition payments and rising rents — and guys like Dimon (who should have been perp walked) think coastal real estate is pricey?
– 4 –
Okay, a fourth thing: Corey Lewandowski tried to give Donald Trump cover for his whereabouts on June 9th last year. WHY? We know now there were EIGHT people in the meeting room though it’s not clear who the last person was. Paul Manafort? Or Donald Trump?
Treat this like an open thread — and treat each other gently, you’ve only just started the weekend!
Just a note; former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman said on M.S.N.B.C. last night (about 1:25) the SF-86 is now done on-line, so hitting send is not an entirely implausible story.
Not that I believe a word of it.
Yeah, been so for a while now. That means exactly nothing. You still have to repetitively endorse as you go,and still have to go through a complicated e-signature process with prompts to make sure you are “really” done. It is more complex than the e-sig lawyers using ECF have to go through. And, trust me, ECF makes sure you really “want to file”. This current Kushner excuse is totally full of shit.
Susan Hennessey: Thread:
As to Gorelick….think there are few things in play, including potential conflicts (which “could” be worked around but are suddenly not convenient to do so, potential fall girl, and Abbe Lowell doesn’t want an amateur in the soup when the heat is being turned up.
Just my guess…..
bmaz, many thanks.
What occurred to me instead is that Gorelick is in no sense “amateur”, but someone – I’d be loathe to ascribe this to Lowell, but more a case of Lowell telling a receptive-minded client ‘Here are the implications, limitations & risks in having her involved but of course it’s up to you’ – with not ‘merely’ divided loyalties but far more importantly with acute awareness of the ethical dilemma posed where attorneys are seconded into the construction and presentation of fraudulent defenses – in particular that such a scenario can utterly compromise the assumed Cone of Silence of client-attorney privilege.
The bit about Gorelick ‘remaining on’ (for now) to deal with ‘some related matters’ is of course total b.s. Pretty sure that all that really means is they’ve decided not to piss her off by stiffing her on her work in progress or gratuitously diss’ing her alongside delivering the pink slip, and are implying she’s somehow still ‘on board’ by the artifice of just implying that they’ll honor her retainer in full for some unspecified period until the coast is clear (or the tide has swept all away).
If the implication is that with Abbe Lowell’s appearance, Team T has gone to the mattresses, I say: Oh yeah.
Well, yeah, my implication was that Kushner is battening down the hatches and down to the mattresses. And by “amateur” I meant for the real strategy they need to implement at this point, which is to stop treating this mess as an annoying PR thing to be managed, and instead treat it as a real criminal case. Gorelick is certainly an accomplished and experienced attorney, but not at handling a true criminal defense. Her long background is as a manager and bureaucrat, not an actual litigation shark, especially in the criminal arena. But that is exactly what Abbe Lowell is. And it does neither him, nor Kushner, any good to have Gorelick on an equal plane muddying the control at this point.
As a lawyer, I think this is both smart, and necessary. As an avid popcorn eating citizen and news junkie, it saddens me as it will make Kushner and his defense much more opaque and less fun to watch. And Trump bringing Ty Cobb into the actual White House is a similar move. It is stunning it took the Trumpalos so long to wise up and get real pros.
Avattoir – Been chewing on this a little. I wonder if Lowell will pull back on Kushner’s willingness to testify to Congress (Jr. too?)? I mean, I wouldn’t think it a good idea to put them under oath and let them gab with Mueller hanging out there. Not a chance in hell. I don’t care if asserting the 5th makes them look bad or not, it wouldn’t be happening.
She could be doing the ethical thing and withdrawing when client not forthcoming. Or she is taking an off ramp because client told her too much. Next lawyer benefits from a client who Gets a chance to be less stupid and re set relationship.
Meh, she is gone because Abbe is going to run the show, and do it his way. The rest is window dressing to make it all look sweet and nice.
Nice rant on Dimon. You hit the SOB right on the nose.
FYI, Nobody from D.C. goes to Jersey beaches. There are too many people from New Jersey there. There’s a reason Christie is Gov. The Delaware beaches or Ocean City, Md are the places to go. Here’s directions in the hope it will help some of the weasels get out of town. Take Rt 50 east from the beltway over the Bay bridge, then choose your poison and turn left on a road over to the shore.
You’ll pass my house in Arnold, MD; don’t forget to pick up some crabs and corn! Maybe some mussels too?
Drop some off on the way back:)
This 12 minute clip from an interview with the economist Ann Pettifor (“The Production of Money”) is worth the time, the last 3 minutes she shares her low opinion of bankers: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=74&jumival=19463
Lawyers like Gorelick ordinarily welcome seriously wealthy clients who are afraid and in deep trouble and who have political clout, let alone the clout of the White House.
What they don’t want are clients who are clueless and with a negative learning curve, who don’t pay their bills, who repeatedly lie to them as well as others, who refuse to listen and let the lawyer do her job, and refuse to change their course of action.
What lawyer would willingly let a Trump client be put under oath and answer questions if they knew they were going to lie or couldn’t stick to the pre-arranged game plan? A recipe for disaster for both lawyer and client.
Watergate gets mentioned ad nauseum as informative & instructive related to The Trump Team’s obvious & transparent Treason. This is well beyond Watergate. It’s many times more serious. Nixon was many things, and some of those things were actually good things believe it or not, but one thing he wasn’t was a Treasonous Traitor. He wasn’t yucking it up with Brehsnev and Brehsnev’s Soviet Goons in The Oval Office.
I say this because as part of the Containment Strategy employed by The Establishment, it wants to treat this like Watergate and I don’t know about you, but for me, NO WAY. Trump and his minions need to FRY like The Rosenbergs FRIED, or else The Rosenbergs were murdered, versus executed for Treason, and they deserve a full & complete exoneration with an Official Apology to The Nation & their heirs.
But we know none of that is going to happen. I doubt anyone will even receive any Jail Time even, and that, folks, is Injustice, not Justice.
My favorite Commentator amidst all of this is Richard Painter. He’s Spot On compared to The Wonkish Mainstream Media that all-to-often gets mired, and lost, in The Weeds (The Details). He says it like it is and how it needs to be said.
The Mainstream Media wants to deliver a slap on the wrist, or if nothing else, bring Trump to heel and have him treat them with the respect they believe they deserve. If that’s their motivation, and I believe it is, it’s despicable.
The Democrats & The Republicans are both treating this CRISIS, and it is a CRISIS, like Politics As Usual, but it’s not Politics As Usual. The Democrats & The Republicans know no other way. It’s the only way they know how to react & behave. Everything is Fair Game for Political Machinations & Political Gain, the Country be Damned.
Therefore, an appropriate response to this Trumpian Fiasco will not be forthcoming, in my opinion. All of us who want to see Justice delivered will be sadly disappointed and the last shred of any semblance of Democracy in America will be eviscerated.
America is teetering at the precipice of Client State Status and The Elite, like The Elite of England during the rise of Nazism, are not only standing by and letting it happen, but have in fact enabled it every step of the way.
re: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Whatever else you want to say about their behavior, it was motivated by moral conviction. The believed that without the deterrence of the USSR possessing nuclear weapons, the USA would use nukes against it’s conventional enemies, leading to the destruction of the human species. Based on our actions on the world stage since the mid 50’s, I’m not so sure they were wrong, or that they didn’t do the moral thing.
I agree about The Rosenbergs. They saw the plight of The Little People at the height of The Great Depression and sought solutions to that plight. Unfortunately, they were fooled, like so many, by Stalin. Some even emigrated from America to Russia only to be shipped off to The Gulag. They were idealistic and naive, but their intentions were morally motivated & pure. Unlike Trump & his Criminal Cabal, who’s motives are anything but moral & pure.
Dear Cold: If you are talking about the Trump issues and mentioning “treason”, you are nuts and clearly have no grasp of what treason legally is.
The treason statute, 18 USC §2381 specifies:
It is undisputed that Trump and crew have not “levied war” on the United States. And “adhering to an enemy” requires intent to render the enemy tangible support (“aid and comfort”). Most critically, long-established doctrine has defined enemies as only those against whom a legally declared state of war exists. There is obviously not that either. The constant chatter in the press, from pundits, and even some law professors (Hi Larry Tribe!) about treason is simply idiotic.
And, by the way, the Rosenbergs were not convicted of treason either, they were convicted of espionage.
Dear bmaz,
Ever The Lawyer, aren’t you? You are proving my point about Lawyers and The Law, precisely.
I don’t care what The Law says Treason is or isn’t. I know Treason when I see it, and Trump & his Criminal Cabal are Treasonous Traitors beyond The Shadow of a Doubt.
Regardless of whether The Rosenbergs were tried for Espionage or Treason, they were considered Treasonous Traitors by most everyone, and yet, their “crime” was so benign in comparison to what Trump & his Criminal Cabal have done and are doing, it’s not even Apples to Oranges, but instead, it’s more akin to Kiwi Fruit versus Ebola.
Thank you for providing the exact exhibit I needed to prove how The Establishment, the glue of which is The Law and The Lawyers, will attempt to contain the Toxic Contaminant that is Trump & his Criminal Cabal and in the process prohibit a more radical solution to the quickly growing and spreading contamination.
Putin knows this and is using it against America, Clever Midget that he is.
The Democrats are providing cover for Trump & his Criminal Cabal despite their Political Grandstanding and Feigned Indignation. Just as Trump didn’t jail Hillary as he promised he would, The Democrats won’t jail Trump & his Criminal Cabal.
Meanwhile, America & its Vaunted Constitution continue to transform into a Russian Colony.
Well, aren’t you a piece of work. If you don’t care about the law or what it says, you’d be well advised not to talk about it since you don’t have a clue on the subject.
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere.
No, bmaz, I’m not a Piece of Work, Donald Trump & his Criminal Cabal are and I consider you attacking me instead of HIM & IT (his Criminal Cabal) indicative of who & what YOU are. I could make the case, effectively & reasonably, that you too are treasonous by aiding & abetting Treasonous Traitors and providing cover for them via an obfuscatory and muddled reading of The Law as it exists and an application of it that is contrary to its sentiment when it was first drafted.
I snipped the salient part of the quoted law you provided above concerning Treason. Trump is absolutely guilty of Treason per that wording and so too is The GOP. Of course, you need to understand Putin’s Russia, its intentions & strategy, to know that Russia is engaged in a War on America, but once you do or if you do, it’s plainly obvious Trump & his Criminal Cabal are “adhering to our enemies and giving them aid & comfort within the United States and elsewhere.”
Unless, of course, Donald Trump doesn’t owe allegiance to the United States. I’m sure there are more than a few Crafty Law-Loving Lawyers who would be happy to prove that to be the case and in so doing preemptively exonerate Trump & his Criminal Cabal of Treason.
You “snip” all you want. You are full of shit and don’t have a clue in the world what you are talking about.
Cold,
You claimed you could make the case. Ok, make it.
Please, provide evidence–that’s admissible–that Trump has
1. “adhered to their enemies.”
2. gave “them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere.”
Here’s Some Evidence, Right Here. The National Security State & Putin Have The Rest That They Will Keep Leaking Over The Next Four Or More Years
Cold,
What’s it evidence of?
Cold, this is important to define as I had said last week on an earlier thread, because sometime in the future the GOP will use this as “precedent” like they used the so-called Biden rule to block Garland for SCOTUS. Treason is narrowly defined in the US Constitution as well because of what I called “definition creep” to where dissing the king was declared to be treason. Don’t think for a minute that Napoleorange won’t go there, either.
With that said, I don’t see how Jr dodges an espionage charge with the Russian spy there.
I agree. It’s narrowly defined purposefully & strategically. Everything about the Constitution is a preclusion & safeguard against Mob Rule. The Founders feared Mob Rule & Populist Revolt more than they feared British Intervention. The Constitution was crafted with this in mind and it was interpreted with this in mind, and the clause about Treason is solid proof of it.
As we now see, though, this carefully-crafted Law and the strict & narrow interpretation of it is now hamstringing The Little People from any recourse against a Treasonous Tyrant who is consolidating Power. America is steadily being Hoisted by its own Petard, or I should say Petards because there are definitely more than one.
America actually has many Petards and Putin and Clever Interlopers seemingly everywhere know these Petards and are Hoisting America on them as we speak — with the aiding & abetting of Insiders to include now pretty much the entirety of The GOP.
Those who advocate that we continue the strict interpretation of an already narrowly-defined Law related to Treason do so because to more broadly interpret the Law as it relates to Treason or to legally expand the definition of it means a Wider Net and a Wider Net means many more Swamp Critters than just Trump & his Criminal Cabal will be caught up in it, like, let’s say, The Clintons and perhaps even Obama if he collects on his Deferred Emoluments and becomes the first Billionaire Ex-President which I predict he will be once he collects on all his Winnings which are nothing more really than Deferred Pay-To-Play Special Access Emoluments.
That being said, as if anyone needed any more proof we’re embroiled in a Global Class War initiated by The Rich against The Little People The World over, if Trump was just an Ordinary Joe he would have been incarcerated already and maybe even tried & convicted by now. Injustice is swift if you’re The Little People and Justice is Slow As Molasses if existent at all when it comes to The Rich.
All Men Are Created Equal and that equality is eviscerated once you exhale your first breath. The Law ensures it.
It is embarrassing to be an American these days, but not for the reasons Jamie Dimon lists. Mr. Dimon is arguing for increasing the power of global capital, to lessen its ties to any jurisdiction, indeed to make it immune to any state’s jurisdiction – except when it needs security for its loans or to enforce their repayment.
Dimon, like Trump, argues about issues solely for their effect on his personal power and wealth. Normal Americans are concerned about their jobs, education and health care, about their neighbors and the environment they live in. They are worried about their futures and about their children’s futures.
Americans would be less embarrassed if Donald Trump knew anything about being president – except how to profit from it – and if Jamie Dimon had to relearn what he knows about capitalism from inside a for-profit prison.
Mr. Dimon delivered his tirade while announcing the most profitable year ever for a US bank, proving he is as greedy and as much of a sociopath as Donald Trump. Also like Donald, he has no capacity for embarrassment. What he wants is continued immunity from reasonable taxation and for his criminal excess.
Well, Jamie’s got his, but as I’ve seen frequently money is now an ego issue as a substitute for d…kwaving. He and his ilk will never have enough.
The ironic thing is, Too-Big-To-Fail is straight out of The Communist Handbook. I’ll never forget the story about the Shoe Factory in The Soviet Union that made shoes a certain size that hardly fit anyone, yet, despite receiving feedback and knowledge of this, The Shoe Factory was ordered by Central to continue to produce shoes that size that no one would ever wear because The Show-Must-Go-On regardless of its efficacy. The same Principle applies to America’s Too-Big-To-Fail Policy, except it’s even more cynical than The Soviet’s Produce-Regardless-Of-Demand Policy in that America’s Too-Big-To-Fail Policy keeps these Parasitic Corporate Behemoths afloat to continue the theft, thus further concentrating The Wealth of the already Fabulously Wealthy at The Taxpayers’ expense.
I believe in Free Enterprise, not Capitalism, and Free Enterprise necessarily means Free-To-Fail without Government Intervention, otherwise there is nothing Free about it.
An old joke behind the Iron Curtain was that the state pretended to pay them so they pretended to work.
bmaz, are you a Gorsuch Fan? If not, you could have fooled me.
Long-Established Doctrine held, for quite a while actually, that slaves were 3/5 of a person (which was actually quite a progressive compromise for the day) until it was later ruled The 3/5 of a Person Compromise was actually Systemic Sadism and the Long-Established Doctrine was dropped and no longer applicable.
The Nature of War and The Nature of Enemies has changed substantially in the last two and one half centuries, and as such, so too should this Long-Established Doctrine about Treason change. Because, as it stands, considering what Trump & Putin have planned for America, your narrow and feckless application of it renders it an Unjust Law and I’m with MLK when it comes to Unjust Laws.
This is a Prime Example of how rigid unadaptive Laws, and Strict Myopic Interpretations of them, prevent a proper, effective response to a World that is changing so rapidly, Clever Interlopers can unofficially declare a New Form of War on America and use what I just described against Americans & America as they ride Roughshod across America’s Systemic Stultification.
Attention Emptywheel readers:
This individual, Cold N. Hoefield is feeding you pure unadulterated bullshit. Please do not pay one second of attention to anything he says about the law, lawyers or judges. He is full of shit.
He capitalizes words like he’s thinking in German. It’s hard to read, when you’re having to figure out whether it’s a name, a title, or just Random Caps.
He also wrote Brehsnev.
Is there a language where the name is spelled that way, or where the transliteration to English would come out that way?
“I don’t care what The Law says Treason is or isn’t.” Every thing after that is just crap…
Did I say that? If not, I should have. Seriously, “treason” is FAR more narrow and constrained that people glibly bandy it about. There is, by no extrapolation of any even possible allegations, anything that could support “treason”. People just need to stop with that.
@ Cold N. Holefield says:
July 16, 2017 at 9:12 am
Despite bmaz’s warning…
@ Cold.. *clapping*… bravo. Meanwhile, here’s a middle finger to the catfish..er.. *lawyer*
A reminder… Tactics discussed in February 2016…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/01/18/russias-radical-new-strategy-for-information-warfare/?utm_term=.7bda62a81e9c
Thanks for that, a good reminder — very incriminating, yes?