I’ve been fixated by the Trump porn star hush money election interference trial and have neglected to comment on the other cases against him. All three cases are stuck in neutral.

In Georgia, an appellate court has taken Trump’s appeal of the trial court’s refusal to recuse Fani Willis from the case. This appeal has a decent chance. That’s what happens when you let your private life interfere with your job and hire your unqualified boyfriend as lead counsel on a complex RICO case. The dude is an ambulance chaser, not a criminal lawyer. Oy, just oy.

The Willis mishigas reminds me of this Nixon quote from his interview with David Frost:

In the purloined papers case, Judge Aileen Cannon continues to find ways to delay the trial. Does she wear a MAGA t-shirt under her robe like this one:

So, the Kaiser of Chaos is a biker now? I bet he’d fall off a Harley if he tried to mount one. Judge Cannon probably visualizes herself riding into the sunset on a motorcycle with Trump. She’s a MAGA activist in judicial drag but was she Born To Be Wild?

The Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian is no Peter Fonda. He does, however, have a demented glint in his eye like Dennis Hopper.

I’m staying out of the weeds on Cannon’s rulings. I planned to say something in defense of Jack Smith’s handling of that case but I’ll let the Morning Memo Man, David Kurtz, take the first crack at it:

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon being so obviously in the tank for Donald Trump in indefinitely postponing his Mar-a-Lago trial set off a new round of recriminations over various tactical decisions Special Counsel Jack Smith made in bringing the classified documents case.

 

Smith should have picked a different venue than South Florida! He should have had Cannon recused already! If Garland hadn’t been so slow, this wouldn’t be an issue now!

 

None of those are availing here, and they miss the larger point that for the rule of law to mean anything it must be sturdier and more enduring than a few tactical decisions by a single prosecutor in a single case.

Smith played it straight in picking the venue. If the rule of law is to have any meaning, that’s the way it has to be. Besides, most of the whining has come from amateur lawyers. Since I believe that Trump will lose the election, the case will go to trial next year. It should have happened before the election, but won’t thanks to the slowness of the system and the malevolent incompetence of Aileen Cannon.

Repeat after me: There Is Still No Deux Ex Machina.

A quick note about the absolutely bonkers absolute immunity shitshow case before SCOTUS. The fine folks at Just Security have been thinking ahead to what happens when the Supremes finally release their opinion. Matthew Seilgman, Ryan Goodman, and Norman Eisen have come up with 3 possible scenarios of what comes next:

• Scenario 1: Immunity for Core Article II Powers Only
• Scenario 2: A Broader Immunity Rule that the Court Itself Applies (At Least in Part)
• Scenario 3: The Court Adopts an Immunity Rule and Orders the District Court to Apply it on Remand

I’m not sure where the Court will come down but it’s nice to have a road map. Thanks, gentleman.

I recently re-read The Brethren by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong for the umpteenth time. I only intended to read the part about United States v. Nixon but wound up reading the whole damn thing.

I was struck by how common recusals were on both the Warren and Burger courts. SCOTUS became more imperious after Rehnquist was promoted to Chief and Scalia joined the court. Both scoffed at the previously high recusal rate. This scoffing led to the current situation where Clarence Thomas refuses to recuse from cases that potentially involve his wingnut wife.

The Federal and Georgia cases are a procedural mess struggling to crawl from the wreckage wrought by Willis, Cannon, and Sam the Sham Alito & The Federalist Society Pharaohs. In contrast, let’s brag about Alvin Bragg whose state case seems to be steaming towards a conviction.

The last word goes to Dave Edmunds followed by Graham Parker who wrote the song but gave it to Dave: