Team Trump is creative as hell in finding ways to flog the corpse of Irony. Turn’s out Irony isn’t as the guys says in The Princess Bride ‘all the way dead.” Federal Judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon issued a howler of a legal decision to protect her benefactor Trumpty. Now it’s being cited by a defense attorney to block Trump’s and AG Bondi’s attempt to get around the law to keep Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney in New Jersey!
Yep, according to this short article from Raw Story attorneys for a criminal defendant in New Jersey are using Cannon’s ruling that Jack Smith’s appointment as Special Counsel was unconstitutional as the basis for saying so is Habba’s! We don’t get many chances to smile, much less laugh these days but when I read this I couldn’t resist. Cannon of course was dead wrong on the law which eventually would have gotten her another trip to the legal woodshed by appellate courts. Still, it’s sitting there and it’s come back to, for a time at least bite her and Trumpty in the ass!
Loose Cannon was Trump’s REAL defense down in Florida. She was always waiting for the right time (as in Trump getting re-elected) to dismiss the charges of mishandling classified information. When she finally did what we all knew she was going to do her ruling included this:
“It is undisputed, and correct, that all United States Attorneys (93 currently) have been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate throughout our Nation’s history, except that Congress has permitted the Attorney General to appoint interim United States Attorneys with specific restrictions,” Cannon wrote at the time.
My how the worm has turned! I’m not a lawyer so someone correct me if I’m wrong but a finding in one federal circuit doesn’t necessarily bind all other circuits. In other words on a ruling on a point of law in one part of the country can conflict with the legal standards in a different place/circuit. New Jersey is in a different circuit than Florida and can ignore Cannon’s ruling if it wants. Also, contrary to popular belief on a specific point of law two or more circuits disagreeing and having their own precedent doesn’t mean SCOTUS has to step in and resolve the differences! The law does in fact sometimes differ on a given matter depending on where in the country it’s raised in court.
What matters right now is that all this raises some interesting issues I’ll discuss in a moment. First, let’s start with the motion in that drug case in New Jersey:
According to attorney Thomas Mirigliano, Cannon’s ruling conflicts with the maneuvering Trump used to keep Habba in place after a panel of judges effectively ousted her.
“As Judge Cannon explained in Trump, when executive officials deliberately engineer an appointment in violation of statutory and constitutional mandates, the only effective remedy is dismissal or, at the very least, disqualification of the unconstitutionally appointed officer and her subordinates,” a Wednesday filing from Mirigliano said.
Ok. Now we’re off to the races and some of those interesting questions I mentioned a minute ago. As I said, up in New Jersey both the District Judge and the Appellate Court it’s in can simply say (and they’d be right) Judge Loose Cannon is wrong on the law and stick with what they did in not allowing Habba’s tenure to continue. Not for nothing but there’s a ton of precedent they can cite if they want to humiliate her. The question is not how quickly they will sort out this nonsense by kicking Habba out so the charges can be refiled with a proper U.S. Attorney in charge.
That puts Trump and Bondi in a bind. They can either reassign her somewhere else (for 120 days) or recall her to main DOJ in DC. There’s nothing for her to do there really but I’m sure she’ll keep busy. Not doing the people’s business, but that’s a whole different topic. The third option is to follow the lead of the newly (and appallingly) confirmed appellate judge Emil Bove and say screw the law and courts.
That leaves the judge in this particular case (there will be other similar filings for other defendants) some options. Grant the defense motion and dismiss the case based on Cannon’s ruling, which I don’t see happening. If jeopardy hasn’t attached he can issue a dismissal with leave to re-present the case/charges once a legitimate U.S. Attorney with legal authority is in charge of that office. If that happens one can be sure Mirigliano will be in court invoking the “speedy trial” statute. Given how loathe appellate courts are to rule quickly that means if Habba isn’t replaced via legal/legitimate means the judge will have no choice but to dismiss the case – with prejudice.
Will Trump let a drug dealer and who the hell knows who else walk free just so he can keep the completely unqualified Habba in that job? Will he push the matter all the way up to SCOTUS to try and get the Independent Counsel statute ruled un-Constitutional after all the precedent saying otherwise? Here’s a fun thought. Suppose in order to keep Habba Team Trump, as in DOJ says in effect ‘You know what? Judge Cannon got it wrong about the govt’s authority to appoint lawyers outside the typical U.S. Attorney process.”
That would be a hoot. Look, we all know what’s coming with SCOTUS. Thomas and Alito are getting old and not just Trump but others want to appoint some successors for both that can spend another few decades perverting the law and our Constitution to support batshit insane conservative ideals. Cannon was I truly believe thinking long-term when she handled Trump’s legal problems the way she did. She figured if Trump somehow got re-elected he’d move her up to an appellate court and after a short stint on up to SCOTUS. Bondi sending lawyers into court to trash Cannon will ensure that never happens!
Well, I could ramble on about this all afternoon. I just wanted to call your attention to yet another pool Trump has dumped a truckload of turds into that HE now has to dive in to.
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