Your Once and Final Supreme Double Impeachee

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Will Nov-Jan be pardon season in the USA?

And so it begins:
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/823893821/trump-pardons-michael-flynn-who-pleaded-guilty-to-lying-about-russia-contact

[Dr Sardonicus]

After the court session I mentioned in this post when the DOJ declined to give oral arguments in defense of its motion to substitute the government for the president as Defendant in a defamation suit, I somehow missed hearing about the judge denying the motion less than a week later. The order denying the motion is dated October 27^th. Of course, that wasn't the end of it...

DOJ appeals ruling that said it can't take the place of Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation suit

(CNN)The Justice Department is appealing a court ruling that denied its move to substitute itself for President Donald Trump as the defendant in the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who has accused the President of raping her.

The appeal is a sign that the Justice Department is continuing to back Trump in court even after he lost the presidential election.

Last month, Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the Justice Department's attempt to replace Trump in the lawsuit. The Justice Department sought to intervene in the case, which, if approved, would have likely led to the dismissal of the case because the government cannot be sued for defamation.

"We are not at all surprised that the current Department of Justice, which filed its motion to intervene in E Jean Carroll's case at the request of the White House, is appealing Judge Kaplan's decision," Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement.

She added, "From the very start of this case, Donald Trump's number one goal has been to avoid discovery and cause delay."

[rogue]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

And so it begins:
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/823893821/trump-pardons-michael-flynn-who-pleaded-guilty-to-lying-about-russia-contact

I'm curious as to how many pardons are for sale and for how much. If Trump truly has $400m in debt, I would not put it past him to ask for $$$ before granting pardons.

[kladner]

The following is lifted from Facebook. It is a masterpiece of nasty name-calling on the departing gang of criminals.

//From UK novelist HARI KUNZRU

"Mike Pence, you repressed joyless would-be witchfinder, every time you spoke you always looked like you were straining to expel an enormous bolus of your own hypocrisy from your clenched sphincter.

“Betsy DeVos, you blandly foolish soulless entitled child-stealing witch, rotting like a corpse inside your Chanel suit.

“All the generals, you spineless buzz-cut phallus-brained plastic Spartans fawning and wriggling to distract yourself from your moral cowardice.

“Kayleigh McEnenay, you evacuated husk of a mean-girl cheerleader, the cavity where your heart once was is pumped full of spite and moronic lies.

“Bill Barr, you vast pompous pus-filled bladder of casuistry, you are an enemy of justice, bloated with resentment and cruelty, wobbling like a jelly at the feet of the oligarchs.

“Jared Kushner, you vacuous dainty preening overpromoted nub of mediocrity, squeezed like an entitled smear of toothpaste into a silk suit bought with tear-stained dollars wrung out of the suffering tenants of your slum apartments.

“Ivanka Trump, you monstrous slug of vanity, you infantile ninny so marinaded in self-regard that in your pea brain you believe we ought to love you for your crimes.

“Mike Pompeo, you bubble, you booby, you flatulent zero, that roiling in your ample gut that you mistake for world shaking significance is just the acid reflux of irrelevancy.

“Don Junior, you scabrous single-nostriled unloved elephant-murdering human wreckage, vibrating with bitterness and impotent rage at all the opportunities you’ve squandered.

“Sarah Sanders, you crude hulking beetle-browed bully, working your multiple chins as you masticated another stinking quid of falsity, spitting again and again on the people you were supposed to inform.

“Interlude: all you staffers and interns, so eager to crunch your way in your shiny new work shoes over the bodies of the poor and powerless, I smite you and cast you out one by one.

“Eric Trump, you pallid clammy suppurating nocturnal semi-human grub, your absence of charisma is your only notable trait and the act of flushing you from memory will so be smooth and painless that in a month people will find it hard to picture your moon face.

“Rudy Giuliani, you capering cartoonish skull-faced bag of graft and corruption, too stupid even to ask who’s pulling your strings just so long as you can cake your crusty face in tv make-up and clack your jaw at a camera.

“And of course Stephen Miller, you weeping pustule upon the social body, you dreg, you homunculus, you noxious slime felched from the gaping cavity of Jim Crow, one day may you find yourself walking barefoot across hot sand, desperate for water, crying for your missing child.

“With that I'll rest a while, and go to find a street corner to dance on."//

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

The following is lifted from Facebook. It is a masterpiece of nasty name-calling on the departing gang of criminals.

I'll see your quote of the name-calling Facebook post, and will raise you one dose of reality:

AP sources: Trump floats Sidney Powell as special counsel

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump floated naming lawyer Sidney Powell, who was booted from his campaign’s legal team after pushing unfounded conspiracy theories, as a special counsel investigating allegations of voter fraud as he grasps for straws to stay in power.

During a Friday meeting at the White House, Trump went as far as discussing getting Powell security clearance, according to two people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Trump pardons 15, including Republican allies

And several war criminals...

In the group announced Tuesday night were four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad that left more a dozen Iraqi civilians dead and caused an international uproar over the use of private security guards in a war zone.

Supporters of Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, the former contractors at Blackwater Worldwide, had lobbied for pardons, arguing that the men had been excessively punished in an investigation and prosecution they said was tainted by problems and withheld exculpatory evidence. All four were serving lengthy prison sentences.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Trump vetoes defense bill, setting up possible override vote

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday vetoed the annual defense policy bill, following through on threats to veto a measure that has broad bipartisan support in Congress and potentially setting up the first override vote of his presidency.

The bill affirms 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes more than $740 billion in military programs and construction.

The action came while Trump was holed up at the White House, stewing about his election loss and escalating his standoff with Republicans as he pushed fraudulent conspiracy theories and tried to pressure them to back his efforts to overturn the results.

The House was poised to return Monday, and the Senate on Tuesday, to consider votes to override the president's veto.

It seems he's now off to Mar-a-Lago for Christmas.

I would be very surprised if Congress did not override this veto.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Will Nov-Jan be pardon season in the USA?

More of them:
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/23/949820820/trump-pardons-roger-stone-paul-manafort-and-charles-kushner

President Trump issued several more pardons on Wednesday evening, including to former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Republican operative Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of Ivanka Trump.

In total, Trump pardoned 26 people and commuted the sentences of three more people — the second consecutive night of what is expected to be a flurry of acts of clemency before he leaves office.

[Dr Sardonicus]

IMO we get a good idea of the kind of criminality the Great Leaver condones - sadism under color of authority, fraud, and tax evasion. From The AP story I have selected some which may not be as well known as some of his chums.

STEPHANIE MOHR
The former Maryland police officer was convicted in 2001 of violating a homeless man's civil rights by letting her police dog attack him even though he had surrendered.
<snip>

GARY BRUGMAN
The former U.S. Border Patrol agent was convicted of striking and violating the civil rights of a man who had crossed the U.S. border illegally.
<snip>
The White House said his pardon was supported by several Republican members of Congress and conservative media personalities, including Laura Ingraham, Sara Carter, Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs, along with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who also was convicted of a federal crime and pardoned by Trump.

MARY MCCARTY
<snip>
When she was convicted, prosecutors said she had misused her position as a county commissioner to "personally enrich herself, her husband, and their associates through a series of municipal bond transactions" and by receiving gifts and gratuities from people doing business with the Board of County Commissioners.

The White House said her pardon was supported by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax Media.

MARK SILJANDER
The former Southwest Michigan congressman was convicted of obstructing justice and failing to register as a foreign agent. He was sentenced to serve more than a year in prison after being accused of accepting stolen funds on behalf of a Missouri charity with alleged terrorism ties.
<snip>

MARK SHAPIRO AND IRVING STITSKY
Trump commuted Shapiro and Stitsky's sentences after they were convicted in federal court in New York of defrauding more than 250 people in a $23 million real estate scam. Both men were convicted and sentenced to serve 85 years in federal prison. Prosecutors said Stitsky and Shapiro also diverted millions of dollars of investor funds for their own benefit.
<snip>

JAMES BATMASIAN
Batmasian is a real-estate investor and runs property management companies in South Florida. He pleaded guilty to cheating the federal government out of more than $250,000 by failing to pay federal taxes for employees at his company.
<snip>

[Dr Sardonicus]

There has been speculation in the news recently about the fate of the COVID relief package, which was appended to a "must pass" government funding bill designed to avoid a "government shut-down" on Monday. It involves an unusual use of Executive power.

The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 7 paragraph 2, last sentence reads (my emphasis):

If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law.

The emphasized portion describes what is commonly referred to as a "pocket veto." If Congress passes a bill within ten days of adjournment (not counting Sundays), the President can just sit on it, and the bill dies.

It is being speculated that this may be the fate awaiting the COVID relief package. It depends on when the bill is officially received by the president, and what he actually does.

In 1864, Congress enacted a very punitive version of Reconstruction known as the Wade-Davis Bill. But the bill was passed just before adjournment, and President Abraham Lincoln killed it with a pocket veto.

I remember hearing about a pocket veto on the news in the 1980's. It was a bill setting Federal regulations for the manufacture of appliances or something like that, and was said at the time to have been to only bill in the history of the Republic ever to have been passed unanimously by both houses of Congress. President Reagan killed the bill with a pocket veto.

I remember a non-use of the pocket veto at the State level one year when (the now-late) Jim Thompson was Governor. During the lame duck session following the November 1978 elections, the Illinois Legislature voted a pay raise for themselves and other State employees. Rather than killing it by pocket veto, Governor Thompson actually vetoed the bill immediately, giving the Legislature the opportunity to override his veto, which they promptly did.

[Xyzzy]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/24/opini...nor/index.html