Today’s BradCast, not unlike today’s news, goes from grim to grimmer…But we find a reason or two to smile every now again. Really! I promise! [Audio link to show is posted below.]
Among the tales told of our broken country on today’s program…
- Breaking right at the top, Trump’s Dept. of Justice announces 17 new charges filed against WikiLeak’s Julian Assange, “including a virtually unprecedented move to charge him with publishing classified material,” which serves as a very serious threat to the First Amendment rights of all journalists and media outlets;
- Breaking over night, 13 tornadoes were confirmed across Missouri, including a “violent” twister that ripped through its capital of Jefferson City. One near Joplin lead to the deaths of three, eight years to the day after a tornado, one of the deadliest in U.S. history, killed 160 in the southwest MO town. In total, there have been more than 130 tornadoes over about a half-dozen states in just the past week…for some reason;
- A breakthrough in the Senate on Thursday as the White House finally agreed to support a long-awaited disaster relief bill that does not include more money for Trump’s border projects. But it does include $19 billion in actual disaster relief funding to hurricane, tornado, flooding, and wildfire ravaged states in the Southeast, Midwest, California, Puerto Rico and elsewhere after Trump held up the measure for months in hopes of border money and to block much-needed funds for Puerto Rico where communities were wiped out and thousands of Americans killed following 2017’s Hurricane Maria;
- The Trump Administration announced another $16 billion giveaway to farmers — on top of the $11 billion bailout they were given last year — as compensation for Trump’s ongoing trade war with China that has broken import/export markets around the world, hitting Trump supporters in farm country particularly hard. As it has become clear that President Stable Genius’ trade war with China shows no sign of ending any time soon (“They’re really easy to win!,” he has repeatedly said) and as the cost of his import tariffs (new taxes on Americans) continue to add up, world financial markets are “buckling” again today;
- And, as all of that is ongoing, Trump appears to be coming even more unglued by the day, as the noose of his own criminality continues to tighten. Witness his insane tweets attacking his own former Sec. of State Rex Tillerson, who he described on Twitter today as “‘dumb as a rock’ and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State.” Maybe. But whoever would hire such an ill-prepared dolt for such an important job must be even dumber, apparently. Trump’s comments were in response to testimony the former Secretary of State and Exxon-Mobil CEO gave to Congress this week, in which he detailed for hours how embarrassingly unprepared Trump was for a two-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the 2017 G-20 summit;
- And yet, with all of that, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who charged on Wednesday that Trump was “engaged in a cover-up”, vowed at her weekly press conference on Thursday that House Democrats were “not on a path to impeachment”. She further suggested that Trump was too unstable to govern and offered prayers once again for him while “wish[ing] that his family or his Administration or his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.” If only there was a way for CONGRESS to somehow “intervene for the good of the country”. Maybe Pelosi will come up with something…anything that could be done on that score. In the meantime, she did note that the use of the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which allows a President’s cabinet to remove a President who is, for any reason, “unable to discharge the duties of the office” would be “a good idea.” But really, if only there was SOMETHING a majority led by Pelosi in the House could possibly do for the good of the country?! We discuss;
- Next, as if you didn’t think this Presidency could get any grimmer, Trump is now said to be considering a Memorial Day weekend pardon of a passel of U.S. military war criminals who were either convicted of horrific crimes via military court-martial or who have been charged and are facing upcoming trials. We detail some of those horrendous crimes and the likely reason that Trump is now reportedly turning the Presidential pardon process on its head to grant unprecedented get-out-of-jail-free cards to war criminals while insulting his own military and breaking his own military justice system in the bargain. (Hint: Fox “News”);
- Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest Green News Report, with more on the week’s terrifying tornado swarms and flooding in the beleaguered Midwest, a disturbing new study on sea level rise, Louisiana’s plan to retreat from the coast, and some good news and bad (mostly bad) from Trump’s EPA…
The BradCast
with Brad Friedman
5/23/2019
Disaster, Relief, Bailouts, War Criminal Pardons and ‘Intervention for the Good of the Country’: ‘BradCast’ 5/23/2019 | Broken U.S. goes from grim to grimmer... · · · · · Disaster, Relief, Bailouts, War Criminal Pardons and ‘Intervention for the Good of the Country’: ‘BradCast’ 5/23/2019 | Broken U.S. goes from grim to grimmer...
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Hey Brad,
When judges say they will not issue stays pending appeals, as two did this week, how does it work with regard to release of the requested financial materials? Are Mazars, Deutsche Bank, and Capital One free to give over the materials immediately? Are they compelled to? Or not? How long does the next appeal take? How does an impending follow-up appeal affect(or not) the materials being released? Do you(or Ernie)know how any of that works?
David – Not a lawyer here, as you know (Ernie may be able to jump in with better information), but my understanding, at least in the Mazars case, is that the judge, refusing a stay pending appeal, gave the firm 7 days to comply with the subpoena.
Trump’s attorneys have since either filed an appeal (or a notice that they intend to, not sure). My understanding is that they may now ask the Appeals Court for a stay. But, short of that being granted, Mazars would have to comply within that 7 day window granted by the Judge Mehta.
I haven’t looked at the details on the second case (Deutsche Bank & Capital One), and I don’t recall the judge ordering defendants to comply within a certain number of days, but he may have done so as well.
Either way, until they get a court order to hold, they will have to (or be able to, depending on how they look at it) comply with the subpoena to turn over the docs to Congress.
Thanks, Brad. I had heard that seven day thing, but still wasn’t completely sure what it means in reality, ie.–timeline for getting the damn things to Congress. Why a week? Why not a day or two? Doesn’t a week give more time for a stay to be imposed? Why would they need a week? Aren’t the records all computerized(maybe not)? If they are, wouldn’t it take just a coupla key strokes? Why the week?
Can you tell I’m a tad anxious to get them to Congo?
Seven days is a reasonable time to both prepare the documents for delivery (there may be thousands or millions of them, as it’s over a long period of time and includes a number of Trump entities), as well as allows enough time for the case — and a possibly injunction — to be appealed for and decided upon by another court.
Judge Mehta already made a fairly strong determination in his ruling, but it’s not unreasonable to allow another court to be able to review that decision in some fashion. Seven days would, theoretically, allow enough time for such a review.
His job is not to force Mazars to turn over the docs to Congress. It’s to determine if the Plaintiffs (the Trumps) have a reasonable case or not. So far, he says they do not. But he is just one judge, and (the good ones anyway) allow that higher courts may see things differently for any number of reasons.
Thanks, Brad, for the further clarification. Much appreciated.