87 Comments

Of course she did. We all knew she would. She's nothing more than a robed MAGAt bought and paid for by the criminal himself. Despite ALL the legal experts who weighed in on this, despite the fact that DOJ has already reviewed the documents, despite the fact that lives are in jeopardy, despite the fact that he has NO "executive privilege" and she knows it, despite the fact that attorney/client documents have already been separated out, despite the fact that nothing needs an expensive and lengthy review on top of the already completed extensive and lengthy review, she threw her reputation - assuming she had one to begin with - down the swirling toilet. How long now before we see her smiling face at Mar a Lago? Any bets? I called her a loose Cannon before and she has confirmed this. Someone needs to follow the money trail with regards to Ms Cannon.

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Disclaimer: I haven't found a copy of the actual order yet, but from The New York Times article up now, it looks to me like the judge contorted herself into a legal pretzel to get to this result. She says she's not convinced there's no executive privilege after a president is no longer in office. OK, when does it stop? 10 years? 100 years? I hope the DOJ appeals this to the 11th Circuit immediately. Also, the DOJ and Trump have been given until the 9th to each give her a list of names of potential special masters, who will have unlimited access. I seriously doubt that anyone that Trump's attorneys would name should be within a mile of those documents from a security point of view, and does anyone think Trump would accept a special master who is part of the deep state? I question whether the Federalist Society would even be happy with this ruling.

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She obviously doesn't know enough to do the job she was given over her lack of qualifications for it.

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Wouldn’t the Special Master have to have a Top Secret clearance? Otherwise any jerk could be pouring over documents with national security information.

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Like all of Orange Foolius's sidekicks in crime?

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She is a Sleeper Agent planted to do just this kind of thing when activated. (Similar to certain recent Supreme Court appointees. ) Our Judiciary is a weak link in our democratic system. They are appointed by political apparatchiks, appointed for life, not subject to recall, etc. Leave it to Republicans to exploit this vulnerability.

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Apt description of looney tunes judge. She obviously doesn’t care about the safety of our country and all the intelligence compromised by Trump. Horrible. Like your idea re: Garland. Just go for it. ❤️🤍💙

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Yes indict him now. If it were any one of us we’d be behind bars already.

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No combover required.

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Indict, indict, indict, free our people.

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I got nothin’ except incoherent profanity at the moment.

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Mine is very coherent

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If time were not so urgent I would urge DOJ to appeal this ruling to a higher court and have her ruling overruled so her record would forever show she made an incorrect illegal decision. Since the request for a special master was made I have heard or read dozens of lawyers and former judges say her ruling was without merit. It is time some of these Federalist Society hacks be exposed for what they are. Bought and paid for.

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Why does he need urging? Do you have some reason to think he needs or would respond to proding?

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Well, while Merrick Garland is a well respected judge I have yet to see him demonstrate the bulldog tenacity an AG should have to protect the rights guaranteed to all citizens by the Constitution. At some point “being deliberate” means you are too passive.

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Yes, but I meant to say, is he responsible to public pressure the way an elected official is? Appointees answer to the one who appointed them and are not obligated to the public, no yes?

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In this case the criminality is so obvious and in our faces a responsible prosecutor would not have to wait for public pressure to do his/her job to protect the law. When Cassidy Hutchinson appeared before the 9/11 Committee word was what she had to say was a big surprise within DOJ and Garland immediately ramped up the investigation of those in the Trump orbit who might know more. Was it really Cassidy Hutchinson's job to ring the alarm bell. I do not want a hanging AG but I do want one who has his/her ear to the ground and follows up more aggressively when there is blood on the water. Trump and his team created a lot of chum.

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Lucian, I thought you were taking the day off! But I guess the important news waits for no one. Nice, succinct post, reporting a ridiculously wrong decision by the court on both legal and factual grounds.

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Loon is right. I was surprised to learn she went to a decent law school, but even the best law schools admit corrupt and deeply flawed, even psychotic, people from time to time. Roy Cohn went to Columbia law and refined racist demagoguery to an art form, enabling the likes of Fred Trump and Joseph McCarthy. But this loon’s appointment to the federal bench makes a mockery of our judicial branch. A fascist-grooming organization, the Federalist Society, will kill democracy here if we let it.

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The corruption and deeply flawed characters don't surprise me all that much, but I'm surprised by how many apparently stupid individuals managed to graduate from top colleges and top law schools.. Either those places are not as selective and demanding as they're reputed to be, or these people's brains have deteriorated a lot since graduation. I mean, Josh Hawley graduated from Stanford and Yale Law. Ted Cruz graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law. Go figure.

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My wife worked (staff) at the UT School of Law for many years and saw up close exactly how clueless, partisan, and self-entitled many law students were -- along with the faculty. No surprises for me to see this sort of crap.

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As a young person, I assumed that doctors (MDs) were the most brijlliant of the brilliant. Then I started my undergrad career at a university with a very well thought of med school. I met dozens of med students and pre-meds; given the time (1970 or so), they were virtually all men. My assumptions about doctors did not survive.

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And, the King of DeSantistan, Yale and Harvard Law!!!

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I know! There are a bunch more, and I'm shocked whenever theiir alma maters are mentioned.

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They must all be closet racists, that is the only logical excuse.

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I would simply say in the case of both Cruz and Hawley you can be both intelligent and bankrupt of character, integrity and empathy. Blind ambition is a character killer.

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And when such people fall in with others -- many others -- of the same ilk, there's nothing to restrain them..

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Remember, all the hard work is done getting in.

After that...

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If your daddy went to Yale, you will be admitted and graduated even if you don't attend classes or do the work.

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It's a Skull and Bones thang!!!

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I’m reminded of an old saying:

What do you call someone who graduates last in their medical school class?

Doctor.

Same for law school.

Also, academic institutions, and their component colleges and schools, are all evaluated on their graduation rates. Give that a thought.

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I was a grad student at U Chicago when the Federalist Society was just getting started. One afternoon I was walking with a friend through the Social Sciences Building when FedSoc was having a meeting. We glanced in the classroom where they were huddled and I asked my friend “who are these people?” She said, “It’s a club for guys who can’t get laid.”

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Great story thanks!

(Unfortunately, those "guys who can't get laid." are perfectly happy to screw the rest of us and the entire country.)

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Yeah, and it was U of Chicago. So it's not like they couldn't get laid because the women were prom queens - we were all nerds. Those FedSoc guys couldn't get laid because they were horrible misogynists. Insufferable assholes, in other words.

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The Department of Justice has been around a while. They have files and folders from 1820 and 1920. They have a long vivid memory. The Federal Government has witnessed a hundred Trumps and they well understand the tricks and frauds. Judges have always been partisan and have often given idiotic rulings. Mr. Garland has known for a year that Trump would find a judge to butter his bread. The public eventually detects the stench and where it's coming from. If the DOJ can't get traction with this judge, Georgia can step up and file state charges of tampering or obstruction. From a prison in Georgia Trump can continue his federal obstruction. He is going to be prosecuted, count on it. He has offended too many members of the legal community.

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oh lordy

i hope so.

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I am livid. I knew it was coming and it did and I knew the other things were too, and they did and I seem to be in a perpetual state of lividness, lividity and outrage. No decent judge would have ever appointed a special master for this particular crime except a MAGAt appointee.

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Jesus Effing Christ

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And you thought you had the day off ?

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I cannot WAIT for the January 6 hearings to get rolling again.

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