Cross-posted from “A Federal Judge Is on the Brink of Criminally Prosecuting Trump Officials for Contempt” by @[email protected] in [email protected]
In a thundering opinion on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg announced that he had found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for defiance of his orders. It is “obvious,” Boasberg wrote, that government officials “deliberately flouted” his commands by deporting Venezuelan migrants to a Salvadoran prison on March 15 under President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. And now they must answer for their unlawful conduct. “The Constitution,” he declared, “does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders—especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it.”
Tell me when the judge actually does it though
Pardon
Precisely
Stop edging us
Sure he is. Trump will just pardon him. The US president has officially gotten too much power.
Notes: presidential pardon is available for all offenses against the United States. All offenses against the US are tried by a jury. Contempt of court is not tried by a jury. Thus, is pardon available for contempt of court?
I don’t know. When it’s time, the SC will tell.
I have a feeling Trump may have his own opinion on who gets to decide.
Come back when Donald wears shackles and an orange jump suit.
Fucking do It already. Everyone involved from the ground up.
This is as fast a just court can go. If you want it done more quickly, we’ll need Republicans in Congress to find their spines.
They only have until the 23rd to substantiate their defense before Boasberg charges them. He also states that if Trump’s DoJ refuses to comply, he will appoint an attorney to do so.
Dems too.
That’s assuming people actually turn out to the primaries. At least they’re doing what they can to oppose this compared to the Republican enablers.
That’s assuming people actually turn out to the primaries.
And honest, extant primaries.
Congressional primaries are honest, they’re just not attended. The average Democratic congressional primary turnout is ~20%. You know who always shows for primaries? Old people, and lots of ‘em.
Congressional primaries are honest, they’re just not attended.
Jessica Cisneros did not face an honest primary. Neither did Cori Bush, nor Jamaal Bowman.
They faced a party that is openly hostile to progressives, and one that absolutely plays favorites.
What was the turnout in their districts?
Look at the voting records since j20.
I have. What vote are you challenging? The CR was not the leverage people say it was. A shutdown would permit Trump to terminate non-essential workers under the lack of funding portion of his emergency executive order. None of the other votes are problematic in that they passed with simple majority and Democrats have minority.
They did, however, take every opportunity to confirm Biden’s pending judge appointments when Republican attendance was low, prompting Johnson’s push for proxy voting. They also mandated a 15-day vote against Trump’s emergency EO, which prompted Republicans to redefine the congressional calendar to avoid holding. They’re also the ones partnering with the ACLU to bring these cases to the courts, and are now flying to El Salvador to press Bukele into compliance.
They did a lot of public performance, for sure. They also voted yes on confirmation hearings and iirc a couple of other things. But establishment Dems are not our friends. Take what you need, leave the rest.
The ones where they all block voted no, the ties were broken by Vance. Like I said, they haven’t tipped a vote that Republicans wouldn’t have won.
I’m not a fan of centrist Democrats, but there are many progressives in Congress now, and they’re doing what they can to stop this. Branding them all as the worst of them is ignorant.
Sounds like that’s where it’s heading:
If the government refuses this offer, Boasberg held, it must swiftly identify the officials who violated his orders so they may be criminally prosecuted, facing fines and potential jail time. Critically, Boasberg notes that if the Department of Justice doesn’t appoint a prosecutor to take the case, he will do so on his own.
Annnnnd then Trump Pardons them
You still need to do it. And then add in some unpardonable civil contempt.
Then you roll over like a bitch while everybody else does what they can to help, but keep quiet next time.
swiftly identify the officials who violated his orders
I think this is likely to be the hangup. Everything with this administration is so chaotic and ad-hoc that it might be hard to pin it on a single person or group. If they don’t have beyond-reasonable-doubt certainty that the person they’re holding in contempt is responsible, it’ll probably just get overturned, weakening the bigger Trump v Courts battle.
You’re probably not wrong, but hopefully there’s at least a paper trail the judge can work his way up.
If any paper trail exists, the government will deny it exists, while concurrently setting fire to it and any other evidence they might have left.
Sounds like a RICO case then.
I’m not sure you can easily turn contempt of court into a criminal conspiracy charge.
Money was exchanged for
humanshuman resources, in illegal activity.
-“Who was responsible for XYZ?”
- “I don’t recall.”
Pretty much this is what I’m worried about. Hopefully the government record keeping laws are robust enough that they can eke out a real answer about responsibility by threatening additional charges over failure to document those.
assuming they weren’t sent via self-destructing Signal messages, which itself is a violation of records law
I’m pretty sure they are using a private network for email exchanges.
Maybe we can get copies of their messages from Russia then.
Ok, then I am holding YOU in contempt!
This is the way.
Soooo, citizens can be shipped off to El Salvador eh?
We need to protect that judge.
There’s a very good chance he’ll accidentally fall out of a 10th storey window
He will just pardon them, there’s no reason not to it not like trump has to face the music.
Can’t prosecute Trump because he’s immune. Blanket pardons for his subordinates who break the law on his behalf.
Yeah, this is a nothingburger. If Congress won’t impeach and remove, it essentially means Trump is a king.
The police will NOT side with the judiciary.
They love a strongman.
Someone just like them.
Go on then, go on, what’s the goddamned holdup?
Patience young padwan, they need to do this right and carefully, so it fucking sticks in their eye
Amazing how Trump can get what he wants right away, but to get Trump under anything took us years, and didn’t have him rot in jail. Weird how the “justice” system works.
That’s how it goes. Turns out you can destroy things a lot faster than you can build them. And you can build things poorly faster than you can build them right
It’s always easy to tear things down, it’s hard to do things right
It’s easy to make up excuses for shit you don’t want to do.
So what are you doing bedside bitching in a community forum in a far darkened corner of the Internet where no one is who they say they are, and there’s no one around that would care if they were.
Patience young padwan, they need to do this right and carefully
This was the line for four years.
The last time I fell for that was the Mueller report.
Show me someone slowly fighting against what is happening and I will show you someone grandstanding, on the take or an idealist out of touch with things
I fell for it again with Chutkan and then again with Merchan. People need to go to prison.
This could be another one of those, certainly. But if it’s not, then it has to be done right and that will mean slower than we want it to happen. Do it rushed and wrong, it’s going to get undone
Maybe you’re right, or maybe this is not important at all because there are no effective checks.
I’m no legal expert, and I don’t understand many things. But it seems to me if there were effective checks, then others would have applied it already.
My unjustified opinion is that this, if real, is a last gasp by a few patriots who do not see the writing on the wall, and whose actions will largely be forgotten in the chaos to come.
I hope I’m wrong
The longer it takes the more opportunity Trump has to commit more heinous human rights abuses
She the shorter cuts that are taken will do the same. Do it right or don’t do it at all, that means it might take a while
I’ll believe it when I see it
Even then, who’s going to comply? Who’s going to roll up in there and take people out in cuffs?
Just another in a long list of judgements written on toiletpaper
So what? Do it. Nothing will come of it. Congress sure as hell won’t impeach and remove. Certainly no one will be put in any type of custody.
Sure. Do it for the record. Unfortunately it’s meaningless for the foreseeable future.
So what: we have to protect this judge and act as deputies to enact his rulings or else the system collapses in favor of monarch Trump and 4chancellor Musk
Oh yeah? What’s your plan for that? You volunteering to stand guard at his home with enough weapons to protect him?
How will you help take those that face charges into custody?
If members of his administration are convicted of crimes for following his orders, their replacements may not be as willing to overstep the law.
Dunno if anything will shake up the nut house.
Oh Congress will absolutely impeach and remove…
The judge… :(
I can’t believe people still believe in the courts. It’s insane to watch from the outside. You enshrined a dictator who has proven many times in the past that he has no regard for the courts at all.
