We now have a guilty plea to a federal crime that directly implicates Donald Trump in a campaign expenditure felony. Whether Dershowitz is correct that campaign expenditure crimes are akin to jay-walking, there are differing levels of culpability within the crimes themselves. When one takes over six figures to pay off a porn star to keep her quiet, that crime is not “jaw-walking” in any sense, and he plead that he did it at the express direction of the president.
Assuming that it is true, it means that Donald Trump committed a felony prior to taking office, in an effort to win that office. (Incidentally, Cohen’s payment went to Daniels on the same day that Comey’s letter regarding Hillary’s emails came out. Imagine the difference in the election, had Comey followed FBI doctrine an not released news on an investigation so close to an election, but Daniels came forward with her accusations?).
We have not even mentioned Russia yet, and there is ample reason to believe that Trump is a Russian asset within the Oval Office.
The nomination should be held in abeyance while the legitimacy of the Trump presidency is sorted out. Sen. Jeff Markey agrees wholeheartedly:
Sen. Markey: "I will not take a meeting with Brett Kavanaugh. He has been nominated by someone implicated, and all but named as a co-conspirator, in federal crimes. His nomination is tainted and should be considered illegitimate."
— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 22, 2018
Of course it should not be considered.
Mitch McConnell did not allow President Obama to appoint a Supreme Court judge because Mitch McConnell decided that President Obama lost his ability to appoint Supreme Court justices sometime after his second election as president of the United States.
We now have a president, for whom there can be no certainty that he fairly won the election. We know he had fewer votes, if the election were a referendum on whom the people wanted to make that decision, more people wanted Hillary Clinton.
More importantly, Trump is likely to start panicking at a level as yet unseen, firing prosecutors, giving pardons to people in order to save himself from having their testimony placed into a record. He is going to start bringing actions that will be tested in the courts, and he will want his “5” judges there to judge him – he already has one that was stolen, 2 would be an exponentially larger injustice. If a SCOTUS seat was stolen from a two-term legitimately elected president – who chose a dead center moderate to fill the important seat – and later an illegitimate president filled 2 seats with justices picked by the Heritage Foundation, blessed for being appropriately far right in their doctrine, the only remedy for the next legitimate Democratic president would be to pack the Court with at least two off-setting justices.
For now, though, Sen Markey has the right idea. All proceedings concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh should be held in abeyance until we determine if the president is fit to remain in office.
