This cracked me up:
A federal judge blasted by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Friday has taken note of the fact that Trump isn’t happy with the way the judge is handling lawsuits over alleged fraud by the Trump University real estate seminar program.
Just hours after Trump used a campaign speech at a San Diego convention center to unleash a remarkable verbal fusillade against U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the judge — who also happens to be based in the same southern California city — acknowledged a much more measured fashion of the criticism Trump has aimed at the court.
“Defendant became the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential race, and has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue,” Curiel said in an order unsealing a series of internal Trump University documents that Trump’s lawyers asked be kept from the public.
The judge’s order didn’t make reference to Trump’s 12-minute tirade Friday afternoon in which the all-but-certain Republican nominee called Curiel a “hater” and again invoked his Latino heritage. However, the judge cited a series of news stories from earlier in the campaign, including an NBC story which noted Trump called Curiel “extremely unfair” and an Associated Press story titled, “Trump: Judge’s ethnicity matters in Trump University suit.”
“I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. He’s a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel … I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself,” Mr. Trump said at Friday’s rally, echoing many of the same points he made in speeches a few months ago. “I’m telling you, this court system, judges in this court system, federal court, they ought to look into Judge Curiel. Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace, OK?”
Curiel said in his order Friday that Trump’s presidential campaign and his criticism of the court were reasons to overrule his objections to the release of so-called “Playbooks” describing Trump University’s operations. The judge also noted that one version was published by POLITICO in March. “The entire 2010 Playbook has been posted online by Politico,” Curiel wrote.
His lawyers have to be screaming.
Baud
Too bad his tax returns weren’t part of the files.
NotMax
Cue the world’s tiniest violin.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Or, perhaps his lawyers are rubbing their hands in glee, thinking of all the overtime for extra motions and appeals and so forth, perhaps?
Working for Trump, they had to know who and what they were in for…
Cheers,
Scott.
Emma
Do not, ever, piss off the judge.
Schlemazel Khan
I’d like to hear from some of the lawyers around the place, how does this BS impact the trial? Should the judge recluse himself to avoid the appearance of prejudice? Could the Drumpfster fire use this in an appeal?
burnspbesq
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
I’d be surprised to learn that Trump pays his bills on time and in full.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Schlemazel Khan: IANAL, but it seems to me that he can’t recuse himself simply based on Trump’s public statements. If there is something there there, then his lawyers can put it in a motion – if they dare.
Cheers,
Scott.
JPL
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: this.. Earlier today, someone mentioned that Donald set himself up to have the judge removed.
smith
@Schlemazel Khan: If it were a requirement for a judge to recuse himself every time a defendant mouthed off about him, there would never be any trials. They’d all use this one weird trick to put it off forever.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@burnspbesq: Wouldn’t they demand to be on retainer before accepting a job with him?
(But, yeah, I guess one has to worry about being paid on time even there.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Emma
@Schlemazel Khan: Not a lawyer, but recusing himself would set a precedent of people being able to get judges dismissed from cases based on ethnicity. Not a desirable outcome.
lamh36
Steve in the ATL
@Schlemazel Khan:
Oh hell no. Otherwise, anyone could get a judge off a case simply by trashing him in public. Same reason the Bundy attempts to sue their judge won’t work.
But as efgoldman noted supra, you don’t fuck with a federal judge. They have massive egos and a lot of power to go with that. Expect every borderline issue to break against Trump in the rest of this case. And the judges are the court of appeals came mostly from the ranks of trial judges, so they will have the same attitude toward Trump for his behavior.
Davis X. Machina
@shomi:
I’m not sure we can get the contradictions sufficiently heightened on such a tight schedule.
NotMax
@https://balloon-juice.com/2016/05/28/actions-have-consequences/#comment-5823385
They’ll try anything and everything to delay DT from testifying until after the election.
kindness
Trump the Carnival Barker. And a sizeable number of people are going to vote for a Carnival Barker.
Maybe democracy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, the parallels to 30’s Germany are becoming to easy to spot. Crazy.
PaulWartenberg2016
@Schlemazel Khan:
If a judge has to recuse him/herself every time a defendant complained about “unfair” treatment, we’d have no trials or judges.
Trump and his lawyers would have to prove such “unfairness” in appeal anyway, using qualitative and quantitative proof. For example, they’d have to show this judge once ruled on a similar proceeding in one way but then ruled the opposite on Trump, or show that the judge allowed evidence that in previous trials he never granted.
This is basically Trump setting himself up to be the victim of someone else’s “hatred” of him all because he’s Trump – loved by women, feared by men, ruler of all kingdoms – rather than the factual evidence of Trump’s ongoing con artist scams.
PaulWartenberg2016
@NotMax:
They already have, the trial is set for Nov. 28th well after Election Day.
sdhays
The trial was initially going to start this month, wasn’t it? I remember reading a few months ago that it was really going to hit the fan right around the time it would become impossible for the Republican Party to make him go away (that turned out to be earlier than previously expected, but at the time it was forecast to be right about now).
JPL
I’m listening to CSPAN’s coverage of the Libertarian party. I think they are all stoned.
Kropadope
@Schlemazel Khan:
Before long, defendants would be able to simply select the judge they want. The defendant calling the judge a “hater” is no evidence of bias.
Mike J
@Emma:
Even if the judge really did have it in for you. Especially if the judge really has it in for you. (Not that it was the case with Trump’s judge, at least before this.)
mak
@burnspbesq: Your suspecions are well-founded. Google “Trump discount.”
burnspbesq
This may be a fun read: excerpts from Trump’s deposition.
http://www.trumpuniversitylitigation.com/Content/Documents/Excerpts%20from%20the%20deposition%20of%20Donald%20Trump.pdf
JPL
CSPAN link for the libertarian party debate..
Weld has to be embarrassed These guys are nuts..
Miss Bianca
@efgoldman: “I’ll bet said lawyers threw up in their mouths when Trump and the opossum on his head, opened his.
As the Bundys are finding out in another federal court, you don’t fuck with a federal judge.”
Oh, from your mouth to God’s ear, efg!
Miss Bianca
@JPL: Really?? :) That tickles me to no end, for some reason, because the one Libertarian I know really well is relatively straight-edge – he’ll drink some, but doesn’t smoke at all, at all…never has.
Baud
@JPL: I remember when libertarians were a thing.
JPL
@Miss Bianca: If you can stream CSPAN, do so.. Trump isn’t the only crazy one.
Gotta say.. I’m not sure I trust McAfee security..
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman:
Mike J
@PaulWartenberg2016: Last I heard was first hearing was set for July 18, the same day as the start of the Republican convention.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Libertarians: as the kid said, “They’re idiots!”.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@efgoldman: See Burn[s]’s link at #26. It has Trump’s deposition from December 10, 2015.
Cheers,
Scott.
BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL: McAfee sold it to Intel years ago.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA: Chris Hayes still seems to have a thing for them. They are always on his show. Maybe they’re the only Republicans he can stand.
Miss Bianca
@JPL: Eh? I don’t trust ’em either, necessarily – but do they have something to do with Libertarians? I thought they were an international company…
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: Well he might be correct. Someone wants to fund the military with bake sales.
mcafee is really nuts though..
BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL:
Eh, she.
Villago Delenda Est
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: They’re going to have unimpeachable reasons for removal of a judge, and the whining of a 69 year old man-child who embarrasses toddlers with his outbursts is not going to meet that standard.
NotMax
@JPL
Always used to find* entertaining the interviews on C-SPAN with candidates from the Natural Law party. Eccentric rather than crazy, yet resolutely rational.
*Before the ragga-fragga cable company moved it to the next higher cost tier.
Baud
@JPL:
That used to be a liberal bumper sticker.
Keith P.
@Baud: Mark my words, when Trump goes down in the polls, he’ll leak his own returns in order to make a big stink over the IRS leaking his returns on Obama’s orders.
JCJ
@Emma:
A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.
Baud
@Keith P.: I hope so. I’d like to see what he’s hiding
JPL
@Baud: You could try that. This is the first time that I watched a Libertarian debate. I can’t decide whether or not I find it interesting or horrifying.
Baud
@JPL: I’m watching now. There are five of them!
Baud
@JPL: Oh, I hope Perry wins. He’s the creepiest.
JPL
@Baud: Are you the sliced and diced type?
Feldman makes sense.
Adam L Silverman
@JPL: Webb did not go over well.
SiubhanDuinne
Why? Won’t they get paid regardless?
NotMax
@JPL
One of the Koch brothers was on the Libertarian ticket as candidate for veep.
All you need to know about the Libertarians. ’nuff said.
smintheus
Amusingly, Trump likes to remind people that he’s a “counterpuncher”. Personally, I doubt that Trump has ever taken a punch in his life, and have to wonder whether he even knows what counterpunching is about.
Baud
@JPL: Sounds kinky.
JPL
@Baud: Now someone is promoting adopting the fetus..
Baud
@JPL: That was the creepy one.
JPL
The questions are pretty good.
A Ghost To Most
All the libertarians I’ve known have been all about obsessive greed and selfishness, not about choice of celebrant.
Baud
@JPL: Pretty straightforward questions. Better than the questions asked during the Dem debates.
JPL
haha.. Now we are on to big caliber guns.
and also licenses for sex..
NotMax
@efgoldman
Already tried when it happened some years ago, to no avail.
Turns out general access is a preferred suggestion, not a requirement or regulation.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Wait, you’re *all* watching this?
ETA: I would be, but my browser is suddenly balking at streaming CNN and Youtube…le sigh.
Adam L Silverman
@smintheus: I would pay good money to see Secretary Clinton, at the first debate, turn to him in mid tirade and say: “Shut the fuck up Donny!” And when he started telling her to stop or he’d do something about it that she’d reply: “what are you gonna do tough guy, come on, show everybody just how tough you are.”
If Jeb had done that when Trump badmouthed his mom during that debate, things might be different now.
Baud
@Miss Bianca: It’s actually more sophisticated than watching Trump.
JPL
@Baud: At this point of the debate, I’m throwing my support behind Feldman.
Baud
@JPL: Unixex government bathrooms!
NotMax
@NotMax
Would add that when first moved here it took more than 5 years of incessant nagging to get them to carry C-SPAN at all, on any tier. And that was back when there was only one C-SPAN channel.
JPL
@Baud: I like to think of it as Balloon Juice porn.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: I’m not. I saw a news article about it earlier today.
WebbWeld was trying to bond with the Libertarians and it came out badly.http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/libertarians-turn-on-vp-candidate-for-saying-theyre-stereotyped-as-unattractive-people/
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: You’re killing me over here.
@Baud: I wouldn’t doubt it. If you took Libertarian principles seriously, and called yourself a Jeffersonian Democrat, you might be able to remake your whole campaign for Baud! 2020!
Baud
@JPL: It’s fun cuz there’s no chance any of these fools will get elected to anything.
ThresherK
@JPL: Well, I guess if “a Libertarian is a Republican who wants* to smoke pot…”
It’s a well know fact that there’s one more way to finish that axiom. Were they trying to get laid?
smintheus
@Adam L Silverman: So easy to wind that buffoon up, and even easier to smack him down. I only hope that Clinton has the sense to play him out.
WarMunchkin
Not that I want to be seen as defending Trump, but doesn’t this come off like a judge is allowed to do whatever s/he wants if the judge doesn’t like a participant in a trial? I guess to some extent that’s always the case, but what accountability is there if a judge did this, to, say, a civil rights group that criticized the handling?
Baud
McAfee sounds like a narrator for one of those 50s sci-fi flicks.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: I thought Jeb should have walked over and gotten into his face over those remarks. The “aw man!” and the role of the eyes and the shoulder shrug certainly didn’t do him any good.
JPL
@Baud: Are you still watching.. What is McAfee talking about.. He is definitely on something..
Baud
@JPL: That wasn’t McAfee. It was the guy next to Feldman. He said the government can have unisex bathrooms but private property owners can discriminate against transgender folks because PROPERTY RIGHTS!!!
ETA; It was Austin Peterson.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: OMG. This shit is comedy *gold*! You can’t make me believe that media outlets couldn’t be making a killing marketing the truth of what’s really going on in the world!
smith
@JPL:
Whatever happened to that murder charge he was dodging?
smintheus
@WarMunchkin: A civil rights group, being sued for fraud and racketeering, that asked the judge to keep its policy papers secret? A group that went on to hold the judge up to public contempt and portrayed the court proceedings as a travesty of justice?
I’m having trouble figuring out which civil rights group you might have in mind.
SFAW
@WarMunchkin:
I think there might be a difference between criticizing a judge’s handling and vile personal attacks.
I’m actually a little amazed that Trump was so restrained. I would have thought he would call the Hon. Judge Curiel a mojado. [Had he done that, his lawyers might have been tempted to kill themselves.]
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: See, that would *have* to be my model as a politician. I’ve decided that if I ever want to fall on my sword and run as an honest-to-God Democrat in my county, knowing that I will get creamed, the only way to get thru’ it is to treat it as complete performance art. I’d have nothing – absolutely nothing – to lose by speaking truth to power.
Of course, I might *have* to start packing a side-arm, at that point…
JPL
This is the reason I’m cheering for Feldman.. This is his response on whether or not abortion should be illegal “I don’t mix dairy products and meat products, but I don’t think cheeseburgers should be illegal.”
Patricia Kayden
@shomi: Be impeached by a Republican-controlled House? Doubt it.
@SiubhanDuinne: Hugely paid! I’m sure they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Baud
“People are smart enough to know not to give heroin to a child except under the direct supervision of a doctor.”
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: It is what it is.
Miss Bianca
@JPL: See, that actually *makes sense* as an analogy! To me, anyway.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@NotMax: Rational? I don’t think so. At least I never understood the consistency of their “rational system”.
NLP Defense Platform:
Their policies were a mixture of Reaganism (with some nicer words hiding it) with some libertarian stuff (drugs) with a bunch of weird meditation mumbo-jumbo on top. Nobody was buying it – they folded in 2004.
There’s no “natural law” about it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Come on – you don’t think that story was a *little* bit funny?
Baud
Gary Johnson just lost the crowd by saying he would have supported the 64 civil rights act.
Really?
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Alll it’s missing is “OCP.”
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Its all performance art. Trump gets this instinctively and that’s why he’s where he is and the others are all at home.
Gin & Tonic
@JPL: Can’t link now, but look up the Wired article about Mcafee from 3-4 years ago. He is not just crazy, he may be a murderer.
Marc
@Baud: Here you go!
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Adam L Silverman: You had me very confused there.
“What!!? Jim Webb is trying to run as a Libertarian now?!?!!”
You mean William Weld, I think. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Anya
@lamh36: I think she’s afraid he will punish her daughter. This is the same sick guy who reneged on a promise to pay the medical bills of his nephew’s sick infant when his brother’s children sued their grandfather’s estate for being left out of the will.
Baud
Uh oh. Now Gary Johnson supports drivers licenses. He’s toast.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: It was predictable. Neither Johnson nor Weld are really Libertarians. Weld is an old style Massachusetts Republican and Johnson is just an inconsistent on the ideological issues Southwestern Republican. They make little sense for the Libertarian Party – not that it makes much sense itself, but Johnson thinks he should be president so…
Really?
@Adam L Silverman: Or some cliche thought experiment like “Can you imagine/synergise(season eight Simpsons) Hillary VS. Melania who might just have that shred of humanity?”
Adam L Silverman
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Sorry fingers got ahead of the brain. I fixed it.
Tom
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Like his lawyers will ever get paid.
JPL
Johnson just got booed because he believes that folks should have a license to drive. Now McAfee is giving his final speech.
Adam L Silverman
@Really?: I don’t watch the Simpsons, so I’m don’t think I can.
JPL
I don’t know who this Perry guy is, but he likes tomatoes .. We all need to be as free as tomatoes.
Baud
@JPL: Feldman raps his closing. Awesome.
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: How come the pages are out of order? I’m getting Trumplash!
Really?
… Or that pic of Sophie Turner -> “Matriachry” I subscribe to G Carlin -> “He – and if there is a God, I am convinced He is a He, because no woman could or would ever fuck things up this badly.”
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Ah. But knowing that, sometimes one can use art to speak truth when it’s needed. You do have to be a performer, tho’. President Obama, for example, I call a consummately skilled performer, who is informed by real intellect, real understanding – and real heart. He raises the art of political performance – performing leadership – to a height that only be dreamed of – not even dreamed of – by someone like Trump.
Which is why I love your little Clinton-Trump scenario. The day that Clinton seizes that audacious energy and runs with it – she could smear Trump’s pretensions under her heel, and that laugh of hers while she did it would be infectious.
JPL
@Baud: I am never going to the Cleveland Clinic though. Although I think he is the winner tonight, I certainly don’t want him injecting me .
Baud
@JPL: Ain’t that the truth? I’d rather be awake for my surgery.
Really?
@Adam L Silverman: You missed the meta which is nothing after season 10. Though purists would insist that it’s not after season eight. Whether or not someone is committed enough to strap some plastique to their chest remains to be seen.
? Martin
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
They were the Transcendental Meditation party. Through meditation we could reduce global stress, reduce crime, war, unemployment, and so on. Tough sell in a country that believes God sent Donald Trump to protect civilization from the harpies.
JPL
Gotta say that I’m still confused about McAfee’s statement. Are they building top down or not?
I’m glad that I watched though..
The questions were good
The candidates were a tad odd though
Baud
@JPL: Agree. That was confusing. The libertarians will have a difficult decision to make tomorrow.
JPL
@Baud: Are you going to bid on their signatures.. oh my
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: We will have to see if she will rise to the occasion. She did very well with Congressman Gowdy’s Special Benghazi Committee, so I expect we’re in for some surprises from her that people aren’t expecting.
Schlemazel Khan
Thanks for the answers about the case. I figured the judge would stay but was not sure because I thought Drumpf’s lawyers would claim prejudice when they lose.
I have a good friend who wanted to be a libertarian but hung with the Republicans because be swallowed the BS about ‘smaller government” It took me about 5 years of pointing out what they really believed and then the insanity of Boy Blunder’s maladministration for him to flip. He has not voted for a Republican since 2002 and I see it as a proud accomplishment.
Adam L Silverman
@Really?: Okay. I was a Futurama watcher myself.
Captain C
@JPL: That one with the long hair and big ears seemed to be on a meth bender at one point.
Really?
@Adam L Silverman: Nah it’s just that whole joke. Like posting Fry minus “Can’t tell if..” or Inigo minus “That word…”
Hal
I’m not going. You’re the best man I’ll ever know, there’s no way I could, ever go…
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: What’s deeply, hilariously disturbing to me is that a lot of Republicans are probably wishing like hell that they *had* the Johnson-Weld ticket!
Adam L Silverman
@Really?: ahh, okay. I think I’m tracking.
Baud
@JPL: I wouldn’t be caught dead with those freaks.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: You go to the Convention with the nominee you have, not the nominee you want. Also, democracy is messy.
JPL
@Captain C: Tomorrow I assume the same audience selects their candidate. As long as that candidate takes away from Trump, I could care less who it is. The one thing I realized after listening, is that I’m not a libertarian.
Really?
@Miss Bianca: Your namesake left quite an impression on me as a lad. (John Candy as an albatross!” COWABUNGA)
It’s part of what fascinates me with these MRA swine and their terrible fear of “stronk women!’
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: and yet, I got called out on this very forum just the other day for advancing an opinion very similar! Accused of being “Rumsfeldian!” Oh, my heart, my heart!
Baud
@Really?:
To be fair, they sound terrifying.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: I did not see that. We’ve got your back. And for a reasonable fee we will consider returning it.
Bill_D
@Villago Delenda Est: If elected, Trump will have him arrested and imprisoned. Without trial. Everyone who refuses to engage in this unconstitutional act will be fired until Trump finds lackeys who will do it. Just like Nixon did in the “Saturday Night Massacre”.
If Trump gets in, it’s a whole new ball game. You can’t assume any rights you’ve previously taken for granted will still be there.
Really?
@Baud: Well, with President-Elect Baud’s help, Poland can into space!!.
Baud
@efgoldman: JPL lured me into it.
MazeDancer
@shomi:
Have wondered if this was the GOP strategy. Trump says he’s not really interested in the “real” job as President. That the VP will do all that governing stuff. And McConnell has said they’ll keep Trump in check.
So, maybe their strategy, if Trump is elected, is impeach him. And let the VP do the real job.
Trump may want to go with a lightweight for VP nom. Job security.
Miss Bianca
@Really?: Ah, you speak of Miss Bianca in the movies! Do you know, I have never seen Disney’s Rescuers? Seems almost monstrous! …but my nym was inspired by the book. : )
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: You make me laugh. : )
It was just one of our usual lumpish garden gnomes – can’t even call ’em trolls!
@efgoldman: I revere them for it.
Really?
@Miss Bianca: Well Netfllix should have both but if you’re listening to Bernard you better fasten your belt!.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: then wait till you see the next post.
Captain C
@JPL: They often sounded a combination of sophomoric with retrofitting means and facts to meet their ideology. Also very enthusiastic in the 18th century sense.
burnspbesq
@WarMunchkin:
Trump has tried to spin it that way, and will likely continue to do so, but the WaPo had a lot of law on its side in asking for the docs to be unsealed.
If you want to see this as payback for Trump’s attacks on Bezos, I probably won’t discourage you very much.
PaulWartenberg2016
@Mike J:
Ah, that I had not heard. the deposition would be an interesting bit of theater no matter what.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@PaulWartenberg2016: See #26 for a link to excerpts of the deposition from last December.
Cheers,
Scott.
Really?
@shomi: shouldn’t you be piling up the snowbanks before Koba gets there?
Patricia Kayden
@JPL: Nuttier than Trump?
Matt McIrvin
@shomi: Still thinking he won’t get the Republican nomination?
Eric
@NotMax: Ironically, Trump could play that violin.
Barry
@shomi: ” I say 1 year because he would likely be impeach by that time.”
Counterexample: George W. Bush.
Ken
@mak:
And “Trump deadbeat.” Google it often, so it moves up in the autocomplete suggestions. Click on the links with the most damaging information, so they move up in the list.
trnc
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I have thought for a while that for all of his alleged savvy, Don the Con often looks like the mark targeted by everyone on his campaign.
Burgermeister
Exactly. Stupid defendants try crap like this all the time. Just look at the moron in the Bundy Ranch fiasco who, after he was indicted, arrested, and stuck in jail without bail by a Judge who has made it clear she’s not going to be taking any shit, decided that the smart play would be to file a civil suit against her and then demand she recuse herself because she’s a a party to “ongoing litigation” with the defendant.
The failure there wasn’t nearly as spectacular or self defeating, but but it was a giant failure nonetheless
Davebo
Dated a federal judge for a couple of years.
The difference between God and a judge?
God doesn’t think she’s a judge!
Barbara
@WarMunchkin: The presumption against sealing materials in federal litigation is nearly overwhelming. In order to overcome it, the materials have to be of the kind that would cause irrevocable harm and that the party would never have willingly released to the public. As the judge said, the material that was at issue was made available by Politico on its website. Has Trump sued Politico to take it down because it obtained the material illegally? Strategy documents might count if they were current or contained a lot of proprietary data. Even then, you typically black out the parts that contain pricing information or trade secrets. This isn’t a federal judge winging it. This is a federal judge applying the standards of the jurisdiction (Ninth Circuit) that has a lot of case law on the subject. “Donald Duck” can’t avoid every negative outcome by ducking the issues and resorting to name calling.
TriassicSands
Because Trump is the greatest human being ever to have walked the Earth, everyone is jealous of him. That means that they also want to bring him down, try to ruin his greatness, and reduce him to being an ordinary human being.
Obviously, no Hispanic judge should ever be allowed to rule in a case involving Trump. Ditto for any judges who aren’t older, white males. Likewise, no male judge with a wife who isn’t “hot” should be permitted to oversee a Trump case. In fact, every potential judge should be given a polygraph test before being allowed to preside. In some cases, the polygraph may be inadequate and waterboarding and other enhanced questioning techniques will have to be used to ensure fairness for Mr. Trump.
In the end, it may be necessary to allow Trump to choose his own judge, as that would be the only way to satisfy DT that he is being fairly. Better yet, simply allowing Trump to do whatever he wants to do, whenever he wants to do it, to whomever he chooses without the threat of punitive action is probably the best way to treat the world’s biggest baby.