riding the echo down

Posted by Evan Hurst

https://www.wonkette.com/p/lindsey-halligan-now-free-to-bring

We would be very surprised if unqualified idiot Lindsey Halligan is good at cooking, since she’s garbage at understanding how to go “off the record” with a journalist, oh yeah, and also at all lawyer stuff. But the acting US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia — for however long that lasts! — has suddenly had a bunch of time open up in her calendar, so if you’ve invited her to Thanksgiving, don’t let her lie to you and say she “didn’t have time” to make a side.

She has time. She has nothing to do this week, or likely any other week, at least until OAN hires her to be Matt Gaetz’s stunt double.

Because a federal judge has just thrown out her indictments against both James Comey and Letitia James, for the simple reason that Halligan’s own appointment was illegal.

It’s a Thanksgiving miracle!

The greatest shock is that this didn’t happen because of Lindsey Halligan’s specific incompetence, at least not yet, though much more of that could be coming down the pike, what with motions that have been filed for vindictive prosecution, and all the bullshit that’s been coming out about what a one-woman clownshow Halligan’s grand jury process was.

This was about Donald Trump’s incompetence, and Pam Bondi’s incompetence.

“I conclude that all actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, constitute unlawful exercises of executive power and must be set aside,” [US District Court Judge Cameron Currie] wrote in her opinion in the Comey case, a line that she repeated in her ruling in the James case.

The rulings from Currie — a Clinton appointee in South Carolina — explained that Comey’s lawyers were correct to argue that Halligan was improperly appointed.

You can read the judge’s full opinions in either or both rulings linked in that quote above, but the gist is that according to Section 546, once a Senate-confirmed US attorney has peaced out of the building, the attorney general has a total of 120 days of interim appointment authority. This started after Joe Biden’s US attorney for EDVA left on inauguration day and Erik Siebert was appointed as the acting. After 120 days is over, only the judges of that district court may either allow actings to continue serving (which they did with Siebert), or make new appointments.

And guess who did not blindfold themselves, spin around a bunch of times and pin the tail on Lindsey Halligan, once Trump forced Siebert out due to his reticence to make up crimes to charge Comey and James with? That’s right, the district court did not do that.

In sum, the text, structure, and history of section 546 point to one conclusion: the Attorney General’s authority to appoint an interim U.S. Attorney lasts for a total of 120 days from the date she first invokes section 546 after the departure of a Senate-confirmed U.S. Attorney. If the position remains vacant at the end of the 120-day period, the exclusive authority to make further interim appointments under the statute shifts to the district court, where it remains until the President’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate.

It also violated the Appointments Clause, says Currie, who considers it pretty damn cut-and-dried.

Of course, if there had been a prosecutor in THE ENTIRE BUILDING willing to sign their names on Lindsey Halligan’s “My First Prosecution” Dream Indictments of James Comey and Letitia James, they might have survived this.

But there wasn’t, because they were bad indictments, written by a bad idiot.

And it didn’t help that Bondi, once she realized the great fuckups what had transpired, had tried to appoint Halligan retroactively as a super special top secret fairy princess cowboy GI Joe dinosaur spaceman lawyer, and therefore qualified to do any prosecutions she wanted. Pam Bondi HEREBY RATIFIED Lindsey Halligan’s retroactive super secret special new title and everything! (That was the day on Bluesky where everybody started ratifying things, on equal legal footing with Bondi. It was funny.)

In response, mean old Judge Currie said there’s no “New Title, Can’t Get Mad” clause in the Constitution, and that Pam Bondi’s ratifying spells are meaningless and fuck you.

“The implications of a contrary conclusion are extraordinary,” Currie wrote. “It would mean the Government could send any private citizen off the street — attorney or not — into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact. That cannot be the law.”

LMAO.

Currie did order the indictments dismissed without prejudice, though, so the DOJ could bring back the bad idiot cases that Erik Siebert wasn’t willing to bring and that no self-respecting prosecutor in those offices would sign, if they so choose.

Except for there are the matters of all those pending vindictive prosecution motions and all the other problems. Oh and also the statute of limitations on the crime they made up for Comey has now expired.

Also, remember the part about how 120 days is long over, and whoever will be appointed to EDVA will be decided by the judges of the district, unless Trump manages to actually get somebody Senate-confirmed? Yeah. Who besides the hairsprayed dumbass who did these “I’m A Big Lawyer Now” indictments all by herself would be willing to try to refile them?

Dunno.

But hey, these Trump administration motherfuckers will absolutely appeal and also continue to try other bullshit. And we bet they’ll lose, because every lawyer in the Trump administration is just a horrendously bad lawyer.

And we will delight in making fun of their next failures.

Did we mention this is the fourth time this has happened with Trump interim-appointed US attorneys? We should mention that.

OPEN THREAD.

[CBS News]

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https://www.wonkette.com/p/lindsey-halligan-now-free-to-bring

Posted by Marcie Jones

https://www.wonkette.com/p/trumps-leaked-ukraine-peace-plan

There’s a new leaked 28-point US peace plan for Ukraine and Russia, and it is such an embarrassing capitulation to Russia, with a side of grift obviously. Maybe it sounded more noble in the original Russian. Whatever kompromat Jeffrey Epstein may have passed on about Trump and Bubba has got to be some real filth!

The plan came out Friday, ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting in Geneva over the weekend with US officials, and the White House and Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed its authenticity. Trump moaned that if Zelenskyy did not accept it by Thanksgiving, he could “continue to keep fighting his little heart out.” (You know how “Thanksgiving” is such a meaningful deadline, for Ukrainians and other non-Americans.)

But the leaked plan was so bad three days later Rubio walked back to senators that it was even the plan the US was pushing. The only person who seems to like it is Lindsey Graham. (Wonder what filth Russia has on him?) And now even Russia says they don’t want it, because it doesn’t give them the entire nation of Ukraine, duh.

Lord, this plan is so bad no one will claim authorship! Though Reuters reports it was secretly written in Miami in late October by Jared Kushner, who surely has read 25 books on the subject; Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy/golf buddy/real estate developer who’s met with Russians like half a dozen times with no translator; and Kirill Dmitriev. Remember Dmitriev? He was that Russian envoy who once met with Blackwater war profiteer/Betsy DeVos baby brother Erik Prince in the Seychelles in 2017. Now he’s under US sanctions, and leads the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Perfect guy to manage those two useful, greedy idiots!

PREVIOUSLY!

How fucking embarrassing. That this administration has the OPSEC of a sieve. Also the ongoing willful blindness to how Russia has violated previous treaties going back to the Budapest Memorandum about 190 times, including with its invasion of Ukraine in the first place.

And how the US is violating a treaty too by second-guessing and ass-dragging about coming to Ukraine’s aid, as it promised in exchange for Ukraine giving up nuclear weapons. Not to mention how Trump has been vowing since February that there will be extra-super-duper sanctions for Russia if Vladimir does not STOP, and he has now backed off from even that feeble threat.

In the plan, Russia promises to ceasefire. Kind of. The language is, “It is expected that Russia will not invade neighboring countries and NATO will not expand further.” We expect better from you, and sure hope we aren’t disappointed!

In exchange for this renewed and obvious expectation, Ukraine’s sovereignty is “confirmed,” but also, it is supposed to agree to limit the size of its armed forces to 600,000 people; agree to never join NATO, or the EU; and NATO agrees to never, ever let Ukraine join, or to put troops in Ukraine; and Ukraine would agree to hold an election within 100 days. You know, because all Ukraine’s enemies and fairweather friends (that’d be the Trump administration) want to push Zelenskyy out. As if these are things Donald J. Trump can even dictate to a sovereign country/countries, or to NATO, which is not a party to this agreement. That does not sound very “sovereign”! But kidnapped Ukrainian children and civilians will be returned — allegedly — and there would be a ceasefire, so that is nice.

As a prize for being so helpful, US companies will get first dibs on “corporate opportunities” to rebuild Ukraine, and extract its natural resources. Europe will put in $100 billion for reconstruction, and then the US will get half of the profits! What a deal! Sure sounds like Russia trying to bribe the US into giving it a win in a war that it is otherwise losing. Bet Kushner wrote that part!

And Russia would get even more. No more sanctions, and it would get let back into the G8! Half of the electricity generated by the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. And territory, of course. Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, and the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia it has managed to invade so far. And Donetsk Oblast will be considered a neutral demilitarized buffer zone, internationally recognized as territory belonging to Russia. Also a case of Turtle Wax, and a lifetime supply of Rice-a-Roni.

Oh yes, and Ukraine must do DEI! (In a limited way that benefits Russians.) “Ukraine will adopt EU rules on religious tolerance and the protection of linguistic minorities.” Plus, “all Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited.” Well ain’t that the pot callin’ the kettle.

Also, notably, the agreement uses the Russian spellings for things, which sure makes it look like somebody just pasted it right into Google translate.

And all of this peace would be overseen by a Peace Council headed by Trump himself. And if Russia violates it, it will get the sanctions again that the agreement just removed. But never anything stronger than that, and definitely no boots on the ground! NATO will have to just sit back and watch, and American boots are for American cities and blowing up Spanish-speaking fishermen in international waters only.

A word from the BITCH WHO WARNED YOU.

The “plan” was so obviously Russia’s Christmas wish list that even Republicans in Congress were disgusted, and Marco Rubio disowned it as a work in progress. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds from South Dakota:

“Secretary Rubio did make a phone call to us this afternoon. I think he made it very clear that we are the recipients of a proposal that was delivered to one of our representatives. It is not our recommendation. It is not our peace plan. It is a proposal that was received and, as an intermediary, we have made arrangements to share it. We did not release it — it was leaked. It was not released by our members or our representatives.”

Yeah, we get it. It’s Russia’s plan!

Rubles Rubio pushed back:

Uh huh, yeah, sure, whatever demonic combination of Jared Kushner, AI and Russia’s moneyman authored the thing, it is a no-go.

The European Union rejected it. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement:

Any credible and sustainable peace plan should first and foremost stop the killing and end the war, while not sowing the seeds for a future conflict. We have agreed on the main elements necessary for a just and lasting peace and Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Let me highlight three of them.

First, borders cannot be changed by force.

Second, as a sovereign nation there cannot be limitations on Ukraine’s armed forces that would leave the country vulnerable to future attack and thereby also undermining European security.

Third, the centrality of the European Union in securing peace for Ukraine must be fully reflected.

Ukraine must have the freedom and sovereign right to choose its own destiny. They have chosen a European destiny.

Lord, even Russia has now rejected it! Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee described it as a “provocation” and contrary to Russian interests. “The conflict can only be fully resolved if we achieve a clear victory at the front and Ukraine capitulates ... Any other outcome will merely postpone the confrontation.”

Peacemaker President Trump, as is his way, spent the weekend bitching on his shitty website that Joe Biden was the real Ukraine invader, in between posting AI QAnon memes and screaming that Democrats are doing TREASON and SEDITION.

Don’t the Russians love their children too, wondered Sting? The answer is NO. Putin will send Russian boys to die in the meat grinder of his war down to the last, and North Korea’s boys too, why not? And America doesn’t do so great by its own kids either. Venezuela rumble in the jungle, anyone?

So, while Little Rubes is claiming progress, it sure looks like everything is pretty much the same as when Trump got elected, just with 10 extra months of added spectacle of Trump being Putin’s bitch. So much for peace in 48 hours! Russia has not been able to advance its front lines in the more than thousand days since it first invaded, Ukraine has not been able to get the Russians out, and nobody wants Ukraine bombing inside of Russia and triggering Putin to start a nuclear war. (Which is itself more of something Russia and its American mouthpieces want people to believe Russia will do, than it is something they’re really likely to do.)

So stalemate it is.

So earnest, that Sting.

[Reuters archive link / Moscow Times]

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Posted by Marcie Jones

https://www.wonkette.com/p/lets-talk-about-donald-trumps-totally

Whoa, what the heck happened between President Donald John Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the White House on Friday? We were so excited for Mamdani to verbally spank the old pervert from Queens around the room with a rolled-up newspaper, just like he did with the one that came before him, Andrew Cuomo.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to the press scrum: Trump seemed to have been charmed! And suddenly had nothing but nice things to say about the man he’d been ranting was a “100% communist lunatic,” “terrible,” “not very smart,” and “grating.”

Watch this mind-bending display if you missed it:

Trump congratulated Mamdani, said he wanted to help him “make everybody’s dream come true” of a safe New York.

“He’s going to change, also. We all change. I changed a lot.”

Ah, there’s the old abusive husband he’s accused of being! Trump sure has changed, and not just since the Clintons attended his third wedding or when he donated to Hillary’s campaign. Overnight! The president even warmly embraced being called a “fascist” and said being called a “despot” was “not that insulting” because he’s been called worse, while reassuringly patting Mamdani on the arm. Did somebody slip Jesus juice into grandpa’s Diet Coke can?

FRIDAY!

“I feel very confident that he can do a very good job. I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually. And some very liberal people, he won’t surprise them because they already like him.”

Trump dropped all talk of invading New York, or cutting the city off financially (also, courts have told him he can’t do that).

“I expect to be helping him, not hurting him,” Trump 180-ed. “A big help. Because I want New York City to be great. Look, I love New York City, it’s where I come from, I spent a lot of years there. I think this mayor could do some things that are going to be really great,” he said about the city he’d recently posted an AI video of himself literally dumping shit on.

“He’s got views that [are] a little out there, but who knows. I mean, we’re going to see what works.”

“I would feel very, very comfortable being in New York, and I think much more so after the meeting.”

Seriously, has Trump been running for the shelter of some kind of little helpers?

He even threw Elise Stefanik under the bus!

“Do you think you’re standing next to a jihadist?” asked a reporter, referring to the nonstop racist blurblings about Mamdani from the representative from New York who thinks she’s running agaisnt Governor Kathy Hochul.

“No, I don’t,” said Trump. “But she’s out there campaigning, and you know, you say things sometimes in a campaign. She’s a very capable person. But, you’d really have to ask her about that. I met with a man who is a very rational person. I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again.”

Stefanik just lies a lot, what can you do? What an endorsement!

Stefanik responded the next day:

“We all want NYC to succeed. But we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. If he walks like a jihadist If he talks like a jihadist If he campaigns like a jihadist If he supports jihadists, He’s a jihadist. And he’s Kathy Hochul’s jihadist.”

(Here’s what she had to say about Stefanik, by the way.)

Such a big tent Trump has made for the GOP. It fits Nazi sympathizers, Zionists, Middle Eastern despots, evangelicals praying for the rapture, and now Mamdani voters, too!

Trump was so proud he posted multiple photos to his website.

More pictures than he’s ever posted of himself with Barron. And Tiffany? Forget about it.

Naturally, Laura Loomer and the rabid islamophobes in Trump’s base, who Trump himself had been stoking and encouraging ever since his first-term Muslim ban, were in apoplexy all weekend, with Loomer also pounding on X that Mamdani was a JIHADIST trying to “Islamify” America.

Finally, a cultural reference on the internet that’s old enough for Trump to get! And maybe his Middle Eastern friends did give him a little lesson on diversity, equity and inclusion. Like, if you want diverse peoples and their wealth funds to stick some equity and airplane money in your pocket, put a lid on slurs about their religion. Whatever it takes for world peace!

But the question is, why the reversal on Mamdani? Well, Trump always has to project the image of being in control, even and especially when he is not, and his power and influence have slipped BIGLY this month, following the blue tsunami November 4, plus the open Republican rebellion in the House over releasing the Epstein Files.

“He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m okay with that,” Trump insisted about Mamdani, as if he had a choice.

Trump also responds to whatever stimulus is in front of him. A picture of a camel, a charming socialist from Uganda, AI slop of Portland on fire, he responds like a cat with a feather on a string until something else catches his eye. He’ll probably agree with the next oligarch who drops in on him too.

And he likes winners, and winning. The November 4 electoral drubbing Republicans got was all about affordability. Trump wants to position himself as the affordability guy! That sure sounds like what Mamdani tried to sell him behind closed doors.

Plus, federal troops invading the streets of in New York City is a losing proposition for Trump. It’s one thing to turn pockets of Chicago or Los Angeles into warzones, but tiny Manhattan is the economic engine of the western hemisphere. And as much as Trump might like to fantasize about dropping planeloads of diarrhea on it for hating him so much, Manhattan turned into a tear-gas-blasted Fallujah-looking place with armored cars rolling down Broadway and flashbangs going off on Wall Street is not good for his grift or his ego or his MAKING AMERICA GREAT image.

Finally, Trump is not, in fact, better-looking than Mamdani. He might believe there’s no faster way to dull Mamdani’s shine and neutralize that threat than make it look like the two of them are in cahoots. Both sides are the same! Come roll with the big dog for some fleas! (Didn’t work.)

Regardless, as Jeffrey Epstein doled out as advice to pass along to the Russians when dealing with Trump, the guy always has to “be seen to get something.”

So what did Trump get from Mamdani, or what does he expect? Anything beyond being treated like a beloved-yet-fusty eccentric uncle, and attention from Mamdani fans?

We will find out!

[Courthouse News / The Atlantic]

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