While losing a case representing Trump in court in New York Alina Habba did an interview where the subject of whether she was Trump’s lawyer because of her appearance came up. She of course denied looks being a factor while pointing out (correctly) it helps in this or any society to be good looking. Still, she pretty much said she’d rather be pretty than smart because she can ‘fake being smart.’ We have yet to see her actually successfully fake being smart, and the federal judges in New Jersey haven’t either so when her interim appointment ran out they named someone else to the U.S. Attorney position. The DOJ has been scrambling to salvage hundreds of prosecutions. Or rather fumbling and bumbling.
At the risk of getting too technical there is a process set forth by legislation for filling the various U.S. Attorney positions. A President nominates someone, who must then be confirmed by the Senate in its Constitutionally defined role of ‘advice and consent.’ Someone can fill the job on an interim basis for up to 120 while the confirmation process plays out. If not confirmed in 120 days things get into wonky territory. A panel of federal judges in the relevant Circuit can extend the appointment, or for various reasons pick someone and cut the President and DOJ out of the process entirely. There’s more but I don’t want to bog this down with all the contingencies of the law on this. I’ve given you the basics.
Habba didn’t have the votes, even in a GOP controlled Senate to get confirmed. However Trump (and therefore Bondi) want her on the job in New Jersey so they tried to get around the law. What’s supposed to happen is that the #2 in the office, a career prosecutor is supposed to Act as U.S. Attorney until a successor is named whether it’s the judges in the Circuit or a new nominee of the President’s. Trump of course had DOJ try a workaround and the judges said no. So Bondi and the DOJ have resorted to inventing new tricks, hence the “Wackadoodle” descriptor spoken of in this article from Raw Story.
According to Raw Story DOJ has hatched what’s being call an unprecedented scheme to allow Habba to continue in her job. Yes, this being Team Trump it’s a doozy and it matters because it could tank so many prosecutions and not just white collar stuff. When state or federal prosecutors file charges in court the actual charging document, the indictment is signed off on by a state/local District Attorney or in federal court a U.S. Attorney. In other words it’s under their personal authority a case is filed and prosecuted, even if usually underlings actually appear in court and move the case along to it’s conclusion. As I already said there are provisions for someone to sign off on things in an ACTING capacity but both at the local/state and federal level who can act in that capacity is clearly defined by law.
So what’s going on in New Jersey that’s threatening prosecutions of even firearms and drug trafficking? The federal circuit got fed up with ‘Trump Games’ and a clear and distinct order was issued from the Bench back on August 21:
U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann ruled Aug. 21 that Habba “is not currently qualified to exercise the functions and duties of the office in an acting capacity” and “must be disqualified from participating in any ongoing cases” because her interim appointment by President Donald Trump ended without her Senate confirmation.
With hundreds of cases at risk Team Trump chose to keep rolling the dice, but also knew the attempting to find workarounds by having underlings sign off on things was pissing off judges to the point where cases would start being dismissed. So ‘Wackadoodle’ got put on steroids and instead of an underling Bondi and the DOJ are now trying to have one of Habba’s superiors sign off on her cases? See what I mean about both Wackadoodle and unprecedented? It gets better. The person at main DOJ down in DC who’s signing on the dotted line instead of Habba is another personal Trump attorney. Lest anyone forgets, like Habba Todd Blanche ALSO lost up in New York representing Trump!
Seems to me like a guy who hates losing and losers so much Trump seems awfully devoted to freaking losers. Including lawyers who cost him vast sums of money and weren’t able to prevent him from becoming a convicted felon but also an adjudicated rapist or technically sexual assaulter. I don’t get it. Mr. “You’re Fired” goes all in on lawyers like this? I’m starting to wonder if like Putin THEY have info on Trump he will do ANYTHING to keep from seeing the light of day. That’s another topic for another time. What matters is that on the same day the earlier reference order was entered into the record Habba signed off on more new indictments including three for felony gun possession and one for cocaine trafficking.
Only, as the linked article tells us on the line where Habba’s signature should have been it was the second highest ranking person in the DOJ, Deputy AG Todd Blanche. This is WAY the hell out there to say the least. Top officials at DOJ don’t get involved in daily, routine matters like this, much less act as what when I was on Active Duty in the Corps would be called the ‘Convening Authority’ for a Court Martial. Ah, but this is Trumpty’s version of the Presidency so laws and norms are frozen in suspended animation:
“They’re trying to make it seem like he’s ultimately responsible for the filing and to make any defects in her appointment immaterial by putting a higher up on the paperwork,” said Rutgers University law professor David Noll. “This is all such wackadoodle, unprecedented territory. I’d be surprised if there’s an answer in case law as to whether the courts would accept it.”
Appellate judges seemed doubtful that Habba could remain in her position during Oct. 20 arguments, and DOJ lawyers were unable to provide a clear date for when her time would run out, although DOJ counsel Henry Whitaker suggested that she could serve “successive 120-day appointments” to meet statutory requirements.
“Can you come up with an example of any time that such a concatenation of events has occurred with respect to the appointment of a United States attorney?” said Appellate Judge D. Brooks Smith.
“I guess I cannot,” Whitaker admitted, as Habba sat in the courtroom.
This is yet another example of Trump (and his people) throwing turds at the wall and hoping something sticks. It’s not the first time a lawyer for Trump, and this administration has had to stand there in court making a bullshit argument. More importantly it’s not the first time a judge put them on the spot and asked them to cite ANY instance of said bullshit argument being put forth and accepted and the hapless toadie Trump lawyer having to own up to trying to feed the court a plate of bullshit.
One final note. This current mess was inspired by none other than federal District Judge Aileen “Loose” Canon in her frantic efforts to protect her Trumpty from having the full measure of his breach of National Security exposed in court, and worse convicted. And sent to jail. A lawyer up in Habba’s jurisdiction happened to listen to legal expert Andrew Weissman and read her ruling about Jack Smith’s appointment being invalid:
Defense attorney Thomas Mirigliano, whose client was indicted by Habba on drug and weapons charges, was the first to challenge the validity of Habba’s work, citing a controversial decision by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to argue that Habba lacked the authority to bring charges in the case, reported NOTUS
I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a great idea,” Mirigliano said after getting the idea after listening to an interview with former DOK prosecutor Andrew Weissman’s. “I’m not a cocktail party guy. I have a lot of business in New Jersey, however … I just have no allegiance to anyone except my clients, and I think I have gained respect for that. I have no problem saying what needs to be said. I don’t pull punches.”
As Raw Story goes on to say, lots of other lawyers have looked at what Mirigliano has started and followed suit (pun intended). We’ll have to see how all this works out, while waiting for Habba to successfully ‘fake being smart.’
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