June 21, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge [Amy Berman Jackson] on Wednesday sentenced a rioter who savagely assaulted an officer [Michael Fanone] defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to more than 12 years in prison, calling him a 'one-man army of hate' whose severe punishment might act as a deterrent to future acts of political violence. The 151-month sentence, handed down at a two-and-a-half-hour hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, was one of the stiffest so far in the Justice Department's sprawling investigation of the Capitol attack. It stemmed from one of the most wrenching episodes of the day, an assault on a District of Columbia police officer with a Taser-like weapon that left him unconscious and unable to return to his duties. The defendant, Daniel Rodriguez, 40, who had previously admitted to driving from California to Washington to do armed battle on behalf of ... Donald J. Trump, expressed some regret for his actions as he asked the judge for leniency. But after receiving his sentence, Mr. Rodriguez smiled and let out a defiant shout of 'Trump won!' before being led out of the room by federal marshals."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times covers Sam Alito's Excellent Vacation (see related stories linked below), and Liptak whacks Sam: Alito claimed "that he did not know of [immensely wealthy Paul] Singer's connection to the cases before the court, including one in which the court issued a 7-to-1 decision in favor of one of Mr. Singer's businesses, with Justice Alito in the majority. But Mr. Singer's connection to the case, Republic of Argentina v. NML Capital, was widely reported." ~~~

     ~~~ Cheap Wine! Here's something funny: Alito complained about the cheap accommodations. From the ProPublica report, also linked below: writes, "At night, the lodge's chefs served multicourse meals of Alaskan king crab legs or Kobe filet. On the last evening, a member of Alito's group bragged that the wine they were drinking cost $1,000 a bottle, one of the lodge's fishing guides told ProPublica. In his [Wall Street Journal] op-ed, Alito described the lodge as a 'comfortable but rustic facility.' The justice said he does not remember if he was served wine, but if he was, it didn't cost $1,000 a bottle. (Alito also pointed readers to the lodge's website. The lodge has been sold since 2008 and is now a more downscale accommodation.)" ~~~

~~~ What Sam Chooses Not to Get. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... this debate over ethical edicts and rulemaking -- however likely to favor ProPublica's interpretation -- is beside the point. The point, instead, is that luxury recreational trips paid for by wealthy benefactors is inherently in conflict with the role of serving on the Supreme Court.... All of us hope to be considered entertaining and popular on our own merits, but those in positions of power should recognize that demonstrations of personal appreciation are not always rooted in beneficence.... The rules and guidelines addressing reporting and recusal by Supreme Court justices should be fail-safes against unscrupulous actors, not challenges to be sidestepped through clever rationalization." MB: There is a pathetic quality to Sam & Clarence, who prefer to believe that wealthy benefactors find them interesting and charming company rather than useful tools in the benefactors' big bags of tricks. You're a tool, Sambo, not a winsome party guest.

~~~~~~~~~~

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal judge presiding over the prosecution of ... Donald J. Trump in the classified documents case set an aggressive schedule on Tuesday, ordering a trial to begin as soon as Aug. 14. While the timeline set by the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, is likely to be delayed by extensive pretrial litigation -- including over how to handle classified material -- its brisk pace suggests that she is seeking to avoid any criticism for dragging her feet or for slow-walking the proceeding. In each of four other criminal trials she has overseen that were identified in a New York Times review, she has initially set a relatively quick trial date and later pushed it back. The early moves by Judge Cannon, a relatively inexperienced jurist who was appointed by Mr. Trump in 2020, are being particularly closely watched. She disrupted the documents investigation last year with several rulings favorable to the former president before a conservative appeals court overturned her, saying that she never had legitimate legal authority to intervene." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. A CNBC report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Another anti-Trump ad writes itself:

Stefano Dazio & Michael Blood of the AP: "An effort to disbar conservative attorney John Eastman, who devised ways to keep ... Donald Trump in the White House after his defeat in the 2020 election, will begin Tuesday in Los Angeles. Eastman is expected to spend the day testifying before the State Bar of California in a proceeding that could result in him losing his license to practice law in the state. He faces 11 disciplinary charges stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy that was aimed at helping Trump remain in power by disrupting the counting of state electoral votes. The State Bar's counsel will seek Eastman's disbarment during a hearing before the State Bar Court that's expected to last at least eight days. If the court finds Eastman culpable of the alleged violations it can recommend a punishment such as suspending or revoking his law license. The California Supreme Court makes the final decision." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "John Eastman, the attorney who wrote the infamous so-called 'coup memo' that urged former Vice President Mike Pence to reject certified election results on Jan. 6, 2021, got off to a rough start in his disbarment hearing on Tuesday. As reported by NPR investigative reporter Tom Dreisbach, Eastman tried to call as an expert witness a certified public accountant named Joseph Fried who wrote an ebook about the 2020 election in which he cast doubt on the legitimacy of President Joe Biden's win. California State Bar Court Judge Yvette Roland, however, wanted no part of Fried in the hearings, as she noted he lacked any relevant experience in running elections. 'I don't see how Mr. Fried is qualified to be an expert,' she told Eastman."

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "On a remote site at the edge of the Gulf of Oman, thousands of migrant laborers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are at work in 103-degree heat, toiling in shifts from dawn until nightfall to build a new city, a multibillion-dollar project backed by Oman's oil-rich government that has an unusual partner: ... Donald J. Trump.... The Oman deal has taken [Mr. Trump's] financial stake in one of the world's most strategically important and volatile regions to a new level, underscoring how his business and his politics intersect as he runs for president again amid intensifying legal and ethical troubles.... The venture puts Mr. Trump in business with the government of Oman, an ally of the United States with which Mr. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, cultivated ties while in office and which plays a vital diplomatic role in a volatile region.... Mr. Trump was brought into the deal by a Saudi real estate firm, Dar Al Arkan, which is closely intertwined with the Saudi government. While in office, Mr. Trump developed a tight relationship with Saudi leaders.... Mr. Trump's company, the Trump Organization, has already brought in at least $5 million from the Oman deal. Under its terms, Trump Organization will not put up any money for the development.... The project could also draw scrutiny in the West for its treatment of its migrant workers...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden said on Tuesday night that President Xi Jinping of China had been kept in the dark by his own government about the spy balloon that crossed into United States airspace this winter before being shot down by an American fighter jet. At a campaign fund-raiser in California, Mr. Biden set off into what appeared to be an unplanned riff.... 'The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with two boxcars full of spy equipment in it is he didn't know it was there,' Mr. Biden told about 130 guests at the big-dollar event in a private Kentfield home. 'No, I'm serious. That's what's a great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn't know what happened.' Other U.S. officials were surprised on Tuesday night that the president would discuss the sensitive information in a public setting, but one official who has been briefed on the intelligence and spoke on condition of anonymity said Mr. Biden's remarks accurately reflected the American government's private assessment." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Trevor Hunnicutt & Ryan Woo of Reuters: "China hit back on Wednesday after U.S. President Joe Biden referred to President Xi Jinping as a 'dictator', saying the remarks were absurd and a provocation, in an unexpected spat immediately following efforts by both sides to lower tensions. Biden's comments came just a day after top U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to stabilize bilateral relations that China says are at their lowest point since formal ties were established."

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "The identities of the people who guaranteed Rep. George Santos' $500,000 bond in his criminal fraud case will be revealed Thursday at noon ET, a federal judge ordered Tuesday. Judge Joanna Seybert's order in U.S. District Court in Long Island came less than two weeks after the Republican lawmaker's attorney argued that the bail backers' identities should be kept private because of the 'media frenzy' surrounding the case. Other sealed documents in the case, including Seybert's full written order, are also scheduled to be unsealed Thursday, according to a docket entry in Santos' case."

Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "President Biden's son Hunter has reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would likely keep him out of jail, according to court papers filed Tuesday. Any proposed plea deal would have to be approved by a federal judge. Both the prosecutors and the defense counsel have requested a court hearing at which Hunter Biden, 53, can enter his plea. The agreement caps an investigation that was opened in 2018 during the Trump administration, and has generated intense interest and criticism since 2020 from Republican politicians who accused the Biden administration of reluctance to pursue the case. The terms of the proposed deal -- negotiated with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from ... Donald Trump's administration -- are likely to face similar scrutiny." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Even after [Delaware's U.S. Attorney David] Weiss [-- appointed by Donald Trump and one of only two Trump U.S. attorney holdovers --] conducted a five-year investigation that yielded evidence to charge [Hunter] Biden only on narrow charges, Republicans, including those who take a dim view of Mr. Trump's handling of classified material after he left office, have accused the White House and Mr. Garland of weaponizing the Justice Department.... House Speaker Kevin McCarthy decried the deal as evidence of a 'two-tiered' system of justice under Mr. Garland that has resulted in the aggressive prosecution of Mr. Trump, and leniency toward the president's allies and family -- although the two cases differ substantially." A Media Matters story by Matt Gertz is here. ~~~

~~~ Chris Hayes of MSNBC has a sensible take on the Hunter Biden plea deal:

     ~~~ Former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said on MSNBC that the agreed-upon plea deal was an overcharge, more than prosecutors would charge against an "ordinary person." ~~~

     ~~~ Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "The charges brought against President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden are rarely prosecuted, legal experts say.... The federal gun charge, which makes it unlawful for a drug addict to possess a weapon, is a rarely used statute that is facing legal challenges and has recently been used as a catch-all charge against white supremacists. Like the gun charge, the tax charges are rarely brought against first-time offenders and even more rarely result in jail time, Andrew Weissmann, a former FBI general counsel and NBC News contributor, tweeted Tuesday. 'This is if anything harsh, not lenient,' he wrote. Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti agreed.... 'If anything, Hunter Biden was treated harshly -- those crimes are rarely charged.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you want to put Hunter Biden's crimes in context, this segment of last night's Lawrence O'Donnell's show, in which O'Donnell compares Hunter's misdemeanors with Donald Trump's felonies, is amusing. Trump, of course, thinks Hunter should go to jail, while his own excuse for stealing classified documents and storing them in the ballroom is that he had packed them with his shoes and pants, so he "didn't want to" return them in compliance with a federal subpoena. So he didn't. And that's okay.

Alito Isn't Just a Dick; He's a Corrupt Dick. Justin Elliott, et al., of ProPublica: "In early July 2008, Samuel Alito ... was on vacation at a luxury fishing lodge [in northern Alaska] that charged more than $1,000 a day.... Alito posed for a picture. To his left, ... [stood] Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire who has repeatedly asked the Supreme Court to rule in his favor in high-stakes business disputes. Singer ... flew Alito to Alaska on a private jet. If the justice chartered the plane himself, the cost could have exceeded $100,000 one way. In the years that followed, Singer's hedge fund came before the court at least 10 times in cases where his role was often covered by the legal press and mainstream media.... Alito did not report the 2008 fishing trip on his annual financial disclosures. By failing to disclose the private jet flight Singer provided, Alito appears to have violated a federal law that requires justices to disclose most gifts, according to ethics law experts. Experts said they could not identify an instance of a justice ruling on a case after receiving an expensive gift paid for by one of the parties.... Leonard Leo, the longtime leader of the conservative Federalist Society, attended and helped organize the Alaska fishing vacation.... The Supreme Court's head spokeswoman told ProPublica that Alito would not be commenting." But he did. ~~~

Sam Alito Is Out of Order (As Are WSJ Editorial-page Editors). Paul Farhi of the Washington Post:"Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. took issue with questions raised by the investigative journalism outlet ProPublica about his travel with a politically active billionaire, and on Tuesday evening, he outlined his defense in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal. Yet Alito was responding to a news story that ProPublica hadn't yet published. Alito's Journal column, bluntly headlined 'ProPublica Misleads Its Readers,' was an unusual public venture by a Supreme Court justice into the highly opinionated realm of a newspaper editorial page. And it drew criticism late Tuesday for effectively leaking elements of ProPublica's still-in-progress journalism -- with the assistance of the Journal's editorial-page editors. An editor's note at the top of Alito's column said that ProPublica reporters Justin Elliott and Josh Kaplan had sent a series of questions to Alito last week and asked for a response by Tuesday at noon. The editor's note doesn't mention that ProPublica hadn't yet published its story -- nor that Alito did not provide his answers directly to ProPublica.... ProPublica published its story on Alito just before midnight on Tuesday, about five hours after the Journal published Alito's defensive column." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Today is the longest day of the year, a great time for an Alaska vacay! If you enjoy fishing and luxury resorts, why not phone Paul Singer and ask him to fly you to Alaska & put you up at his place? Because this is something he does, even for people, according to Insufferable Sam, with whom he has spoken on "no more than a handful of occasions."

Presidential Race 2024 Horror Story. Marie: It's the morning of November 5, 2024. You're on your way to the polls. Here are your choices for president: Republican: Donald Trump. Democrat: RFK Jr. Whatever: Cornel West. No Labels: Joe Manchin.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, et al., of the New York Times: "Years before OceanGate's submersible craft went missing in the Atlantic Ocean with five people onboard, the company faced several warnings as it prepared for its hallmark mission of taking wealthy passengers to tour the Titanic's wreckage.... OceanGate's director of marine operations, David Lochridge, started working on a report around that time, according to court documents, ultimately producing a scathing document in which he said the craft needed more testing and stressed 'the potential dangers to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths.' Two months later, OceanGate faced similarly dire calls from more than three dozen people -- industry leaders, deep-sea explorers and oceanographers -- who warned in a letter to its chief executive, Stockton Rush, that the company's 'experimental' approach and its decision to forgo a traditional assessment could lead to potentially 'catastrophic' problems with the Titanic mission.... Mr. Rush, the company's chief executive, is one of the passengers on the vessel and was serving as its pilot when it went missing on Sunday...." An AP story is here. Related reports linked under "News Ledes."

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Rick Rojas & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Arkansas on Tuesday struck down the state's law forbidding medical treatments for children and teenagers seeking gender transitions, blocking what had been the first in a wave of such measures championed by conservative lawmakers across the country. The case had been closely watched as an important test of whether bans or severe restrictions on transition care for minors, which have since been enacted by 19 other states, could withstand legal challenges being brought by activists and civil liberties groups. It is the first ruling to broadly block such a ban for an entire state, though judges have intervened to temporarily delay similar laws from going into effect. In his 80-page ruling, Judge James M. Moody Jr. of Federal District Court in Little Rock said the law both discriminated against transgender people and violated the constitutional rights of doctors. He also said that the state of Arkansas had failed to substantially prove a number of its claims, including that the care was experimental or carelessly prescribed to teenagers." Moody is an Obama appointee. An AP story is here.

Florida. Beth Reinhard & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Florida Gov. Ron "DeSantis seized on the unusual retirement of three liberal justices at once to quickly remake the [state's supreme] court. He did so with the help of a secretive panel led by Leonard Leo -- the key architect of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority -- that quietly vetted judicial nominees in an Orlando conference room three weeks before the governor's inauguration.... After taking office in January 2019, DeSantis appointed three new justices in two weeks, flipping the court from what he described as a 4-3 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative advantage. More recently, two justices appointed by past Republicans stepped down and took more lucrative jobs with allies of the governor, allowing DeSantis to handpick his own stalwarts. The governor's efforts have yielded one of the most conservative state Supreme Courts in the country, reflecting Florida's shift from a politically competitive state to a testing ground for culture war legislation over immigration, race and sex education that is now at the heart of DeSantis's presidential bid.... The governor's confidential vetting process for the high court was one of the earliest examples of what would become a signature tactic of his administration -- testing the boundaries of executive authority, while defying protocols aimed at transparency and accountability." (Also linked yesterday.)

Georgia. Jeff Amy of the AP: "Georgia's State Election Board won't take over running elections in the state's most populous county, ending an investigation that had sparked fears of partisan meddling. The board voted unanimously on Tuesday to end its performance review of Fulton County nearly two years after it had begun. Multiple board members said that they want the county to continue to work on improvements before the 2024 election and not to backslide on work already done.... Fulton County officials noted that the review panel found no violations of state law or rules across nine elections that it monitored." ~~~

~~~ Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Allegations of election fraud against two Georgia election workers who became the subjects of a Trump-backed conspiracy theory in the aftermath of the 2020 election were found to be 'false and unsubstantiated,' according to an investigative report released Tuesday by the Georgia Elections Board. Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea 'Shaye' Moss, both former election workers from Fulton County, faced threats of violence from conspiracy theorists after their election-night conduct on a polling place livestream proliferated online among right-wing election deniers who believed Donald Trump won the 2020 election."

Louisiana. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The last four Roman Catholic archbishops of New Orleans went to shocking lengths to conceal a confessed serial child molester who is still living but has never been prosecuted, a Guardian investigation has found. Upon review of hundreds of pages of previously secret church files, the Guardian has uncovered arguably the most complete account yet about the extremes to which the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the US went to coddle the admitted child molester Lawrence Hecker. Back in 1999, Hecker confessed to his superiors at the archdiocese of New Orleans that he had either sexually molested or otherwise shared a bed with multiple teenagers whom he met through his work as a Roman Catholic priest." Read on to get an idea of "shocking lengths" the archdiocese went to in order to conceal Hecker's crimes. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Pam Belluck & Emily Bazelon of the New York Times: "The New York State Legislature gave final approval on Tuesday to legislation that provides legal protection for New York doctors to prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states that have outlawed abortion. The measure, along with similar new laws in several other states controlled by Democrats, could significantly expand medication abortion access by allowing more patients in states that restrict abortion to end pregnancies at home, without traveling to states where abortion is legal. The New York bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has indicated that she supports the idea of such a shield law. The bill stipulates that New York courts and officials will not cooperate if a state with an abortion ban tries to prosecute, sue or otherwise penalize a New York health care provider who offers abortion via telemedicine to a patient in that state, as long as the provider complies with New York law. It passed the State Assembly by a vote of 99 to 45 on Tuesday evening after clearing the Senate by a vote of 39 to 22 last month."

Way Beyond

Honduras. Emiano Mega & Joan Suazo of the New York Times: "At least 41 inmates were killed on Tuesday morning in central Honduras after a riot broke out at the country's only prison for women, one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in the country's long-troubled prison system. Most of the victims had been burned, while others had been shot, said Yuri Mora, a spokesman for the public prosecutor's office, who added that the death toll was expected to rise as investigators combed through the detention facility in Támara, near Tegucigalpa, the capital. While the cause of the violence was not clear, the prison has been the scene of ongoing conflict between feuding gangs."

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here.

News Lede

New York Times: "A Canadian surveillance aircraft looking for the missing Titan submersible and the five people on board in the North Atlantic has 'detected underwater noises in the search area,' the U.S. Coast Guard said early Wednesday. The Coast Guard said in a brief statement on Twitter that remote-operated vehicles were still searching for the Titan. Officials in the United States and Canada did not immediately respond to requests for further comment late Tuesday." This is a liveblog. It's dated June 20 but appears on the NYT June 21 online front page. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's liveblog for Wednesday is here.

Comments

[ForrestMorris]

https://democraticundergroung.com/100218025630

President Biden drops the hammer on billionaires.
Who knew there was a tax bracket as low as 8%?

Apparently around a thousand billionaires are aware of it.

** Marie: the site Forrest links locked up my computer and brought up a "warning" message that itself seemed suspect. So link at your own risk. It worked okay for Forrest, so maybe a virus got into my computer, but if it did, it got there via the link.

Update: Oops! See comments below.

[Ken Winkes]

Marie,

Change the "g" to a "d" in "underground" and the site works...

[unwashed]

Forrest's site worked for me after spelling corrected:

https://democraticunderground.com/100218025630

[ForrestMorris]

Sorry, arthritis and humidity don't go well together.

Another thought on those billionaire's taxes. Is spending tons of
money entertaining, flying around, lodging, etc. of some of those
Supreme Court Justices considered a business write off?
Yeah, lets cut back some more on the IRS so things like that will go
unnoticed.

[P.D.Pepe]

Am I reading this correctly? Given the stellar job Fox's Brett B's attempted with Humpty Dumpty, along with the snarly smack-a-roos from Fatty's "I have the best people in my administration," it looks to me that many in the GOP ––especially those who once served in his administration and perhaps Fox –-are throwing him under that old yellow bus and are moving on. Yet–––there appear to be many of the unwashed who still worship that slippery snake oil salesman and intend to vote for him again––sort of like that old time religion that's good enough and requires no inquiries. Interesting to watch this transition.

And speaking of religion: the story above re: the extremes to which the second-oldest Catholic archdiocese in the US went to coddle the admitted child molester Lawrence Hecker once again sheds light on the darkness that has been interwoven with religious institutions–-the flimsy fabric of sexual retentions rears its ugly head while worshipping the glory of a god.

[Akhilleus]

What, no quotes from 16th C English judges?

My favorite excuse peddled by Sam (Bought and Paid for) Alito as to why he “had to” go on that $100,000 plane ride with a billionaire conniver, is “a seat on the plane would have been vacant otherwise”!

Wow. Now that is some major fucking courtesy there. Can we expect that Hit Man Sam will now be booking seats on commercial flights flying without a full complement of passengers? Next time I’m on a plane and there’s an empty seat, ima call Sammy to get his ass down there toot sweet.

But just for a second, let’s consider the logic of this particular excuse.

He had to go because otherwise there’d be an empty seat.

So what?

Did Singer have to pay more because there was an empty seat? Did the plane require a full passenger load in order to properly fly? Is there an 11th Commandment I’m not familiar with? “Thou shalt not allow empty seats on planes”?

No, no, and no.

This isn’t a “dog ate my homework” excuse, this is a “dog wrote my homework” excuse. Just imagine a plaintiff coming before a court of law trying to make this bullshit fly (so to speak).

“Mr. Alito…tell us why you were on the plane with those crooks?”

“Well, your honor, I had no choice. See? There was an empty seat.”

“What? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. Guilty!”

Not just embarrassing. Insulting. Singer didn’t just hook a big salmon, he reeled in a Supreme Court Justice who later went on to make him billions. And now he’s got him stuffed and hanging on the wall at his fishing lodge.

Empty seat, my ass.

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: And this doesn't count the extra fuel the plane used to haul Sam's fat ass and his luggage to Alaska, the extra meals and drinks and all the flight attendants had to dish up, etc. Then, when he got to Alaska, what about all he consumed there, all the work the kitchen and housework staff had to do to accommodate Sam?

But then, it turns out there was a room at the lodge that was vacant, the chair in the dining room was empty, etc. So again, Sam was doing Singer a favor. So not a stupid excuse at all. Clearly, you are not up on Alitologica. Better start reading more 16th-century English judges.

[Jeanne]

Alito should have after his name: ...Alito, Arrogant Pr***.
He is a mess. Who died and made him king?? Scalia, maybe? Started with him, anyhow...the process to completely taint the SC. I just can't, with him.

[Akhilleus]

Philip Bump, in a story linked above, describes Pro Publica’s story about outrageous ethical lapses on the part of Samuel Alito as an “interpretation”.

If one were caught breaking into a bank and making off with a bundle would a charge of bank robbery be called an “interpretation”?

WTF?

The guy gets a $100,000 vacation, flown to a swanky lodge in Alaska where “the boys” swig $1,000 bottles of wine and fish for salmon. THEN, the guy who foot the bill for Sam’s trip (and who knows what else?) comes before Alito in his capacity as a Supreme Court Justice, asking for a $2 billion payout. Sam says “No problem”.

How is it an “interpretation” to call that a scandalous ethical problem?

So sick to death of this bending over backwards to not piss off traitors and crooks!

[Akhilleus]

It’s never enough…

Had Hunter Biden received a life sentence for the tax thing, they’d be outraged, demanding the death penalty. And I can’t WAIT to hear them go to the mattresses about the gun charge…these assholes who insist that demented clowns be allowed to carry automatic weapons into daycare centers.

But for a lying traitor, they demand that DoJ prosecutors looking into his many crimes be ejected into space, without a suit.

It’s never enough.