Bondi’s Wedding Ring Made Trump Bleed
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The comic horror of Trump’s DOJ
Before we get to the heart of developments related to Trump’s Justice Department, a quick foray into absurdism that is never far from the surface.
Thanks to a notebook published by WSJ journalists in an article apparently about the politicization of the Justice Department under the thumb of the Trump White House, we have a bunch of new nuggets both cringe and absurd.
There was this year, for example, when President Trump cut his hand over Attorney General Pam Bondi’s gaudy alliance. I can’t even with this story. This and other weak points in the WSJ story:
- Say what you will about disgraced Attorney General John Mitchell, but he never made Richard Nixon’s hand bleed with his wedding ring (as far as we know):
Trump occasionally reminds aides of an incident last year in which he cut his hand on Bondi’s grand wedding ring, causing it to bleed.
- Officials confirmed that Trump’s social media post demanding that Bondi hurry up and indict former FBI Director Jim Comey was already meant to be a direct message to her and was not intended to blast her publicly:
Trump thought he sent the message directly to Bondi, addressing it to “Pam,” and was surprised to learn it was public, the officials said. Bondi became upset and called White House aides and Trump, who then agreed to send a second message praising Bondi as doing a “GREAT job.”
- No story about the absurd Trump DOJ is complete without an appearance by Ed Martin:
He works in an office dubbed the “Freedom Suite” at the end of a fourth-floor hallway from the deputy attorney general, which visitors have described as being decorated with oversized photos of Trump and a small cup of holy water hanging on the wall.
As with everything in the Trump era, absurdism is an inextricable part of corruption, retaliation, and destruction. As important as the ruin of the Justice Department is and as serious as we must take it, it is important to remember that it was gutted by clowns and fools. Absurdly.
Now let’s move on to the content of the WSJ report…
More substantial excerpts from the WSJ article on politically motivated retaliation lawsuits:
- Federal prosecutors in Maryland “are expected in the coming days” to charge former Trump national security adviser-turned-Trump critic John Bolton with mishandling classified information, the newspaper reports, citing sources familiar with the matter.
- Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, a relatively recent target of Trump’s ire, is now under intense investigation, although what exactly is unclear: “Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days as part of the Wray investigation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. »
- Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who leveled the mortgage fraud allegations against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), went further than previously reported in submitting the false allegations to Trump: “This summer, Pulte traveled to the White House and gave Trump a presentation elaborated with visuals explaining why the New York Attorney General should be indicted. »
Comey pleads not guilty
During the indictment of former FBI Director Jim Comey on politicized charges of lying to Congress, his lawyer laid out the key pretrial challenges he will raise for the indictment.
As expected, former Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a longtime friend of Comey and now his lawyer, will focus on the unusual circumstances surrounding the indictment and President Trump’s questionable nomination of Lindsey Halligan to serve as acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The four areas of attack described by Fitzgerald:
While Fitzgerald complains that the indictment leaves him guessing about the identities of key figures in the government’s case, I would expect him to eventually file a motion for a particulars bill, a more precise rendering of the facts in the indictment.
The two front-line prosecutors who came from North Carolina to help Halligan in the case — because prosecutors in his own office have largely washed their hands of it — are still aware of the discovery, an unusual position to be in. post-indictment. “We believe that in this case the cart was put before the horse,” Fitzgerald said during the arraignment. “My customer doesn’t want to wait while he looks for things.”
Fitzgerald told U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff, a Biden appointee, that he had no substantive contact with prosecutors about the case before Tuesday afternoon.
Nachmanoff set an aggressive but not crazy initial timeline for pretrial motions. It is almost inevitable that these deadlines will be pushed back, but this district is known for its rocket role, so the matter is not likely to linger.
Still, Comey’s challenge to Halligan’s nomination will have to be heard by a judge outside the district because she replaced the former acting U.S. attorney who was appointed by district judges, creating a conflict of interest. So that might slow things down a bit.
Kash Patel fires 2 FBI agents from Jack Smith investigation
The fallout has already begun when Republicans cried bloody murder because special counsel Jack Smith investigated whether they were involved in subverting the 2020 election. To get ahead of the outrage machine, FBI Director Kash Patel took action against three FBI agents, including firing two of them, NBC News reports.
‘Come get me’
Just another day in Trump’s America, as he uses social media to threaten to imprison the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago:
Happy reading
Greg Sargent: Inside Stephen Miller’s Secret Plan to Normalize Trump’s Dictator Regime
“We can’t rule that out.”
After a wild White House meeting in which Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration was going to treat antifa the same way it treats drug cartels, a sobering warning from Senator Schiff (D-CA) about President Trump’s threat to domestic opposition groups:
Quote of the day
“Despotism does not impose itself on everyone at once. It infiltrates from the margins of society.”Brian Beutler
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