With Trump the old wisecrack about lawyers who need a lawyers themselves is no joke. He’s had legal ‘talent’ who signed up to do his bidding disgraced, sanctioned and in multiple cases flat-out disbarred. We have yet another case of a Trump lawyer, albeit one who works for the DOJ staring down the wrong end of a legal shotgun for trying to put one over on a judge, and worse the stunt resulting in the Trump administration going after that judge. A Trump goon tried to pull a fast one on a federal judge and is now facing disciplinary action.
Make no mistake – in this second Trump administration the DOJ works for HIM and by god will carry out his wishes. He’s got DOJ intervening in the case where he lost an $83 million judgement to E. Jean Carrol. That’s certainly not the only civil matter he’s got DOJ working on but we have seen again and again he’s got them mounting bogus prosecutions. If career prosecutors who’ve managed to hang on to their jobs so far won’t push bullshit cases Bondi brought in enough hacks that will do what Trumpty wants done.
Alas, again and again Trump’s DOJ keeps losing cases which never should have been brought in the first place. In some cases, most notably in DC they couldn’t even get a misdemeanor conviction against the Subway Sandwich thrower. That by the way was after striking out getting a felony prosecution into court! The old saying about a prosecutor being able to indict a ham sandwich has gotten a thrashing during Trump’s second term. Worse, he’s got judges tossing cases out before they ever get going! With the GOP in control (barely, but it’s enough) of both chambers of Congress Trump already owns not just the Executive Branch but also the legislative one. He’s clearly been out to own the third – the Judicial Branch. He’s gotten much more than he should out of it, especially from SCOTUS but he doesn’t yet “own” it so he’s been constantly attacking the judiciary.
As this article from Alternet explains it looks like Team Trump, via the DOJ tried to set up a judge to look bad. Last month federal District Judge Melissa R, Dubose in Rhode Island released Bryan Rafael Ramirez on bond. Despite the fact he was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic. That of course looks really bad because it is. Naturally, within a couple of days the Trump administration was blasting her as ‘soft on crime’ and calling her an “Activist Biden Judge”:
“This is yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities,” DHS blared in an April 30 post. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS will continue to fight for the removal of criminal illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country.”
Ah, but there’s more to the story. Judges do research like any other lawyer but focus on law that applies to a given case. Like anyone else they hear about lawyering on the courthouse steps but when it comes to the facts of a case they focus on what’s actually presented by lawyers from each side in the actual courtroom while it’s in session. The rest is just noise. Judges don’t have their own set of investigators running down leads or verifying what lawyers before them say or present in motions/briefs.
Judges rely on opposing counsel to do that. They reasonably assume that any negative information the prosecution has about a defendant will be presented. Like say murder charges in another country and documentation. So if a government prosecutor decides to omit something that important it’s not the judges fault for making a ruling based on what information WAS submitted. Given how quickly Team Trump made a BFD out of Ramirez getting bail it seems clear DOJ gave orders to trick-bag the judge:
But the problem with that, however, is that Trump’s administrative prosecutor, Kevin Bolan, knowingly failed to alert Judge DuBose about Gomez’ murder charges before she released him. According to the Times, Bolan withheld that pivotal information on advice from the Homeland Security Department.
Well, if they thought they would get away with this stunt it seems like they chose poorly when selecting the judge they’d pull this stunt with:
Infuriated, Judge DuBose called the withheld information a “serious breakdown” in legal ethics, and said further inquiry was needed into possible violations of Mr. Bolan’s duty of candor to the court. She said she would also consider imposing sanctions on the Homeland Security Department for misconduct
Bolan/DOJ didn’t just piss off the judge. And Bolan’s ‘apology’ isn’t flying with her or others up there:
Bolan apologized, “but acting on behalf of the district’s three life-tenured judges, Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. chose Niki Kuckes, a law professor at Roger Williams University and a former clerk of Justice Antonin Scalia, to investigate the issue,” reports the Times.
“Kuckes will write a report that will inform the judges’ decision about whether to open ‘formal disciplinary proceedings.’ If the court finds that Mr. Bolan engaged in misconduct, it could impose punishments that range from a reprimand or fines to disbarment,” said the Times, citing the court’s local rules.
From where I sit the best asshat Bolan can hope for is a formal sanction but when you look at the total picture it’s clear what happened. He agree with his superiors at DOJ to front an attempt to embarrass a federal judge. That seems like ample reason to refer him to his state Bar and have his license revoked. In the meantime judge DuBose keeps asking DHS to take down that f**king press statement about her being a ‘soft on crime, activist Biden judge.’ Apparently they haven’t done so. Let’s hope THAT leads to sanctions against the DOJ which will weigh against them in other cases all over the country.
In the end the bottom line is that if you want to be a Toady Trump Lawyer you should go ahead and retain counsel because odds are you’re going to need your own lawyer someday!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
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