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Trump White House Suffers Serious Legal Setback As Judge Says Don McGahn Must Testify
"Don McGahn will comply with Judge Jackson’s decision unless it is stayed pending appeal", the former White House counsel's lawyer said Monday evening, after Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, shot down the Trump administration's contention that presidential advisors are totally immune from requests that they detail their official duties.
The ruling is a serious blow to the White House, which has sought to block top Trump aides from testify
It is interesting to see right wingers who not long ago were going ballistic over the idea of a national ID card go silent on this issue.
This essentially comes down to the scope of your job in the White House … job duties which fall under the umbrella of legality. None of these trump monsters are protected or immune from illegal activities and that includes trump the mafia king — who assumes that DOJ will protect him with endless favorable opinions.
Would anything reek more than to have the DOJ ignore trump engaged in acts of murder or bribery or election fraud, or treason — what purpose will DOJ play in American law, if they allow criminality to be common place?
Sure this gets dicey with DOJ’s abuse of power potential — along with the twisted road to SCOTUS — but it’s little victories like this McGahn case that allow Congress and Justice to check and balance a few monsters. DOJ will appeal this to SCOTUS as a fast track case, but, what of John Roberts? Will the Chief be forced to recuse himself from the McGahn case or the Senate Impeachment — or, does it matter at all, because maybe there is no conflict or overlapping complexities. But, what-if Roberts sides with trump and the GOP court to allow McGahn to not testify to Congress, and then, in a matter of weeks, Roberts sides with GOP Senate and exonerates trump. Isn’t this whole mess somewhat too politicized and polarized and unjust — isn’t the justice system becoming more powerful than Congress, or more specifically doesn’t this look more and more like an illegal coup, where a corrupt president and his party are abusing the executive branch and forming partnerships with the Justice Dept?
Re: Committee on Judiciary v. Miers ==> Opinion by: John Deacon Bates:
(born October 11, 1946) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in December 2001
“The Executive’s current claim of absolute immunity from compelled congressional process for senior presidential aides is without any support in the case law. The fallacy of that claim was presaged in United States v. Nixon itself (id. at 706):
neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified Presidential privilege of immunity from judicial [or congressional] process under all circumstances."
Also see: Ultimately, Jackson could not “abide DOJ’s less-than-subtle suggestion that, under our constitutional scheme, the Legislature and the Judiciary are both hopelessly stymied when it comes to addressing alleged abuses by the Executive branch, such that, ultimately, the President wields virtually unchecked power.” We now have to hope that the Supreme Court cannot abide it, either.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/11/don-mcgahn-ruling-john-bolton-mick-mulvaney-impeachment.html