To quote Voltaire, I may not agree with Matt Drudge, but I must admit the guys is astute, insightful and one hell of an intellectual.
Only Drudge has the clarity to see, and laser-like ability to pinpoint, the man behind the the tear gas and chaos of Baltimore riots; President Barack Obama. Check out his brilliant tweet:
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image via twitter[/caption]
I have nothing to add.
On Friday, ABC News reported that proceedings in the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump for appear to have been initially assigned to Aileen Cannon — the same Trump-appointed judge who tried to block the FBI from reviewing documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, only to be smacked down by the Court of Appeals.
The appointment, which may only be preliminary and a function of the fact that she previously ruled on a search warrant that was part of the same case, triggered an immediate reaction from legal experts.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance argued on Twitter that if Cannon ultimately ends up fully assigned to the case, special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the prosecution, would have grounds to ask the 11th Circuit to force her to step aside.
"Before everyone gets too spun up about reports Judge Cannon has been assigned to the Trump case, a little law. I used to be an appellate chief in the 11th Circuit (where Florida is) and I litigated a few appeals where we asked the court of appeals to order a judge to recuse," wrote Vance.
"Although a judge's behavior in court generally doesn't form the basis for recusal, the 11th Circuit has ordered 'reassignment' where a judge leans so heavily for a defendant they call their objectivity in the eyes of the public into question ... This is persuasive authority that Judge Cannon must step aside if the case falls to her as a permanent assignment. Her court and certainly the 11th won't tolerate the damage it would do to their credibility if she failed to voluntarily recuse."
But assuming that Cannon does end up trying the case, other experts weighed in on some of the implications.
Cannon will have a large amount of say in how the trial goes, from considering motions to dismiss, to deciding what can be submitted as evidence, to conveying instructions to the jury. Trump would likely want to go even further and request a bench trial, cutting out the jury entirely and simply allowing Cannon to determine the verdict herself. But not so fast, wrote former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti — that will almost certainly not happen.
"Trump could seek a bench trial instead of a jury trial, but the prosecution would have to consent," wrote Mariotti. "Unless both sides (and the judge) disagree, there is a jury trial."
Georgia State law professor Anthony Michael Kreis wrote, "Judge Britt Grant is just waiting here in Atlanta to reverse Cannon" — a reference to an appellate judge on the 11th Circuit, herself another Trump appointee, who both joined the opinion reversing Cannon's blockade on the FBI investigation and scolded Trump's attorneys for misrepresenting facts about the case.
One of the other conclusions, tweeted Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley, is that if Cannon really does see the case through from beginning to end, and the jury finds Trump guilty, all of his claims about the case being a political hit look laughable.
"If Trump ends up being convicted in a case overseen by a conservative judge he appointed (w/ appeals handled by a conservative majority appeals court and SCOTUS) it would make it a little more difficult to claim it's a baseless partisan witch-hunt," he wrote.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf announced this Tuesday that they would merge to create a still-unnamed new golf entity. According to reports, the merger allows Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) to have a significant role in men's professional golf.
But according to Politico, while the Saudi-backed venture was successful, it hasn't done a lot to change the regime's image. “September 11,” “hijackers,” “Jamal Khashoggi,” “human rights abuses” and “dismemberment” are terms associated with the kingdom that will be hard to rebrand.
"Amid a torrent of headlines, the dynamics of the world’s worst sportswashing campaign asserted themselves anew: LIV may have pulled off an upset victory, but the news was all full of things the kingdom would rather not discuss. And now the long-dominant American golf organization was getting slimed, too," writes Politico's Michael Shaffer, who asks another question: "Is this the dumbest PR campaign in the history of the Beltway’s influence industry?"
LIV has claimed that its goals have nothing to do with “sportswashing" Saudi human rights abuses. But regardless, the conversation drifted into subjects surrounding terrorism, which have dogged the Saudis for decades.
Now the kingdom has to deal with a new topic -- betrayal. "An endlessly wealthy foreign entity enticed an American institution to abruptly reverse itself, letting down the golfers who had nobly refused the Saudi money while making a liar of the commissioner who begged them to stick with PGA in the name of all that is decent and true," writes Shaffer.
"Memories are short and, who knows, perhaps the ruling Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will turn out like one of those American robber barons who buys the local football team, wins a Super Bowl and turns himself into a man of the people."
Read the full article over at Politico.
Judge Aileen Cannon will be assigned to oversee at least the initial stages of Donald Trump's classified documents case in Miami, ABC News reported Friday.
"Cannon's apparent assignment would add yet another unprecedented wrinkle to a case involving the first federal charges against a former president: Trump appointed Cannon to the federal bench in 2019, meaning that, if Trump is ultimately convicted, she would be responsible for determining the sentence – which may include prison time – for the man who elevated her to the role," the report explained.
The judge previously helped Trump impose a special master to sift through the documents from Mar-a-Lago. She was not only overruled by a higher court, but they went so far as to accuse her of flouting the law. The three-judge panel accused her of imposing things that have no relevance to the case.
Legal experts speaking to "Morning Joe" on MSNBC explained that her appointment could be due to her overseeing parts of the early stages of the documents investigation. She was appointed as a "special master" to review materials that were seized from Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
Host Ari Melber explained that the news is coming from the PACER system, which is a public catalogue of federal court records. The Trump filing is assigned to a judge with Cannon's initials. Thought it's possible that she would oversee the arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday, but not the entire trial.
"Usually, when you start a federal case from scratch, there's a random assignment" of a judge, he said. "That's one of the many ways you assure impartiality. It's possible this is being lumped in with the prior proceedings because of the searches, etcetera, which means it wouldn't be the normal random process. It's also possible we don't know who's been assigned to oversee the trial, and this is for the Tuesday arraignment."
Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) also said that Cannon's name wasn't the only one on the summons. Judge Bruce Reinhart was also included.
"It would be common in the federal system for a magistrate to handle the initial proceeding," said McCaskill. "But Ari is right, this may not be in Miami-Dade, this may end up in West Palm and it may be that because of the common practice of assigning a judge a case they have been involved in before, assuming they know the facts, and they're more familiar with everything that's gone on in the case, that may be why her name is on this.
"But I can imagine that there will be some pushing and pulling in the courtroom about her ability to go forward with this case because of the problems that she encountered making rulings in the last case. This would be a real blow, I think, to fairness if this woman ended up presiding over the trial."
See the commentary on it below or at the link here.
Trump's favorite judge to preside over his proceeding -- at least part of itwww.youtube.com
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