“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
It was only a matter of time. Donald J. Trump being a teetotaler hasn’t stopped him from getting drunk on power in his second term. And, hoo-boy, he’s on a bender (New York Times):
President Trump demanded on Saturday that his attorney general move quickly to prosecute figures he considers his enemies, the latest blow to the Justice Department’s tradition of independence.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post addressed to “Pam,” meaning Attorney General Pam Bondi. “They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
Mr. Trump named James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director; Senator Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California; and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, saying he was reading about how they were “all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.”
Trump was always going to go Red Queen. His Truth Social post from Saturday makes clear we have arrived at the “off with their heads” phase.
Trump has his Depends in a wad because Erik Siebert, the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, resigned Friday after Trump told reporters he wanted him out. After Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of falsifying mortgage application records, Siebert was tasked with investigating the claim.
However (ABC News):
After a five-month investigation and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, federal prosecutors have so far uncovered no clear evidence that James knowingly made false statements to a financial institution to secure favorable terms on a mortgage for her Virginia home, according to multiple sources briefed on the investigation.
Siebert filed no charges. No one told him that if he found none he was supposed to fabricate evidence and bring charges anyway. The Red Queen wants heads, and Siebert failed to deliver. So Trump demanded his. Siebert immediately resigned. Naturally, Trump claimed he had “You’re fired!” him.
A new, more compliant prosecutor must be found must be found for Eastern District of Virginia. Trump proposed one, an insurance attorney with no prosecutorial experience. Lindsey Halligan is a special assistant to the president and one of Trump’s personal attorneys. Halligan, along with former OAN host Christina Bobb, was on the Trump legal team that made many errors in legal filings over the Mar-a-Lago documents case in 2022.
Sarah Rumpf reported for Mediaite:
Here, Halligan is the local counsel for the case and filed the Motions to Appear Pro Hac Vice for Corcoran and Trusty on Aug. 22, along with the original complaint. That same day, the clerk of court recorded in the case docket receipt of the motions, the filing fees, and the additional fees for Corcoran and Trusty’s pro hac vice admission.
The clerk also subsequently filed a “Clerk’s Notice of Filing Deficiency” indicating that “Document(s) were filed conventionally that should have been filed electronically (CM/ECF Administrative Procedures).” That is a reference to the Case Management/ Electronic Case Files system that requires federal court documents to be filed electronically.
Halligan appears to have messed this up with all of the initial filings by failing to file them electronically. That’s an embarrassing error considering the CM/ECF system has been in place for two decades; it was rolled out nationally to the federal district courts in 2002 and in 2004 in the appellate courts, the year I first started practicing law.
[…]
Amended pro hac vice motions for Corcoran and Trusty were filed on Aug. 23, but Halligan again failed to properly file them electronically, drawing yet another Clerk’s Notice of Filing Deficiency” indicating the documents were “filed conventionally that should have been filed electronically.”
What’s your bet that that Trump chose Ms. Halligan, like Bobb, for how she looks on TV and her willingness to say, “Yes, sir, how high?” rather than for her legal talents? (I didn’t look up her photo before reaching that conclusion.)
Siebert is not the only prosecutor skating on thin ice with Trump (NYT again):
Beyond their efforts to push out Mr. Siebert, whose inquiries into Ms. James and Mr. Comey effectively fizzled out, administration officials have also ramped up pressure against Kelly O. Hayes, the U.S. attorney in Maryland, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Ms. Hayes, a career prosecutor who has spent more than a decade in that office, is leading inquiries into two other vocal critics of Mr. Trump: Mr. Schiff, who has been accused of mortgage fraud by Mr. Trump’s allies; and John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, who is facing scrutiny over allegations of mishandling classified information.
I hope her resume is in good order.
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