There’s a lot going on in the court system these days, and I thought a primer on the US judicial system might be in order. Every primer needs an organizing concept, so I’m going to organize this primer around the various charges faced by TFG throughout the country.
Let’s look first at the Federal Court system.
This is the system under which TFG is being investigated in the federal court in DC for two sets of issues: the “documents at Mar-a-Lago” and “the Big Lie” (efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election through election fraud and incitement to riot). Both of these are being investigated under the auspices of the Justice Department Special Counsel, appointed specifically to investigate these two complicated cases.
o There has been a lot of activity over the last week on both of these cases. Specifically, the judge in the DC Circuit Court (the trial court in the federal district court) has lifted the “attorney-client privilege” claimed by attorneys representing TFG. This means that the judge has ruled that there is adequate evidence that the lawyers’ interactions with TFG were in furtherance of underlying criminal activity and that therefore they had to answer questions about their client.
o In addition, this court has subpoenaed several people associated with TFG’s 2020 campaign and his administration. Those subpoenaed include TFG’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former DNI John Ratcliffe, former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, former top aide Stephen Miller, former deputy chief of staff and social media director Dan Scavino, former aides Nick Luna and John McEntee, along with former top DHS official Ken Cuccinelli. These individuals had all claimed Executive Privilege in their refusal to answer questions earlier. TFG will likely appeal the ruling, but he is unlikely to be able to prevent their testimony.
This is also the system in which a civil lawsuit against TFG is currently in litigation. In this case, Jean Carroll has sued TFG (in the Southern District of New York, or SDNY) for defamation after he publicly accused her, in June 2029, of fabricating a rape allegation against him. TFG currently filed an appeal before the Second Circuit, arguing that he had official immunity from Carroll’s defamation claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA).
o In September of 2022, the Second Circuit asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to rule on whether Trump’s public denial fell within the scope of his employment under the FTCA.
o Subsequently Carroll sued TFG for battery alleging he raped and and for defamation on the basis of a lengthy statement he made on October 12, 2022. The claim of defamation is similar to the suit Carroll brought earlier, except this time Trump made his statement saying she fabricated the rape allegation after he was no longer in office. Accordingly, there is no prospect of his obtaining immunity under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
o Carroll filed this suit on the first day permitted under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, N.Y. C.P.L.R. § 214-j. The law provides a one-year window for sexual assault survivors to file civil claims even if the statute of limitations has passed. This is an active case.
During TFG’s presidency and its aftermath, there has been much talk about presidential pardons. In the waning days of his administration, TFG pardoned fine folks like Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Paul Manafort – all participants in one way or another in the a variety of illegal shenanigans. In addition, credible testimony from a number of witnesses before the January 6 committee indicated that TFG or his representatives had “dangled” pardons in front of potential witnesses against TFG, essentially promising to reward them if they kept silent. TFG has also promised that if he wins in 2024 he will pardon people who participated in a variety of federal crimes, including the January 6 invasion of the US Capitol.
There are a couple of things to note about pardons.
A president’s pardon power extends only to federal crimes. He cannot pardon people for state crimes. Thus the cases he faces in state courts (in Georgia and New York, for example) are beyond the reach of a presidential pardon.
A president cannot pardon himself, so far as we know. This is an important caveat: TFG did a lot of things while President that have never been done before, and it has sometimes taken a while for our political processes to catch up.
Now to the state Court system. TFG has managed to run afoul of the courts in two states – Georgia and New York – during his glorious years in the public eye.
In Georgia (Atlanta), Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to bring charges against TFG for various elements of election fraud, including a “fake electors” scheme whereby unauthorized electors pledged to TFG tried to pass themselves off as the legitimately chosen electors for the states.
In New York, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is expected to bring indictments against TFG for a variety of charges involving using campaign donations to pay hush money to an adult movie actress so that she didn’t spill the beans right before the 2016 election. Other charges relating to tax fraud are likely to be included in these charges.
There’s more percolating behind the scenes, but that will do for now. Suffice it to say that the putative front-runner for the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination is facing multiple criminal indictments and civil lawsuits that will be resolved within the next year or two – putting these trials smackdab in the middle of the 2024 presidential campaign season. TFG declared his candidacy in November of 2022, in part because he believed that he would not be prosecuted while running for office. This would be a politically based prosecution, he yelps. This would be weaponization of the justice system, he brays.
He will not be successful in avoiding the consequences of his lifetime of criminal behavior. The GOP seems to have only one dog in this hunt – TFG – they publicly support him by quietly wishing he would just go away ffs.
As is his pattern, he has been threatening violence if he is arrested or (Lord love us) convicted in any of these trials. He’s not threatening to be violent himself, mind you; he’s too chicken to do that. He’s just observing “well, you know, people might get violent if you sentence me to prison.” He has not yet said “will be wild,” but he’s close.
The US needs to leave TFG on the ash heap of history and move on to undo the damage he has done to America.
Yeah; the ash heap of history. I like that image. There's a lot of work to do and we need to get to it.
ffs indeed