In a much anticipated ruling from the bench, Judge Tanya Chutkin placed a limited gag order (her words) upon former president Donald Trump in connection with his federal criminal case in D.C.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Your clear context helps me so much in trying to manage my frustrations. We clearly have a ways to go before we can finally be rid of this madman and the process, while slow to so many of us, must proceed in the careful, considerate fashion its been designed to do. A terrific explanation, Jay. 👏👏👏
Honestly, I'm reaching the point where even if I read articles about the political process involving stuff like this, I don't really read them, I skim them, then I wait for Jay's writeup. Saves me a lot of time and it always clears out questions I have when I try to parse the various news articles, which are often, frankly, not very well written.
“Is your honor going to put President Trump in jail?” Lauro asked bluntly at one point, calling it one of many questions posed by the “can of worms” created by the prosecution’s request.
This gag order is probably way too nuanced for Trump's simple mind (yes, I know he's a clever deviant who knows how to social media his way to 40% of the vote, but he has no nuance at all).
So I'm very much fantasizing, almost fetishly, that the answer is a loud YES. Let him fundraise from a cold cell without the fake sandbar on his head.
As you said, he will continue to walk right up to the line and playfully stick his toe on the other side with statements that can be reasonably interpreted in multiple ways. In this area of expertise, he is a master craftsman.
This judge has my utmost respect for her thoughtful strategy re consequences for Trump . Thank you for your usual brilliant explanation and shining light on his strategy to be seen as a victim in contrast to her superior intellect and knowledge of the law and his criminal, twisted psyche.
"One tactic Lauro deployed was to suggest that it would be “impossible” and “unfathomable” to put a gag order on a top presidential candidate."
What's even more unfathomable is that he IS a top presidential candidate! Somewhat less unfathomable is that the House of Representatives is getting ready to elect Gym Jordan as speaker. So much for the "moderate" republicans.
Yes, that’s why I included Katyal’s statement. It is the ex-president who is doing the heretofore unfathomable with his personal attacks upon the witnesses, judge, prosecutors and even their family members.
Thank you, Jay Kuo, for all of this. The step-by-step processes help my bullet-point thinking. The “if this, then that, until the next that” explanations require my ability to check my emotions which are struggling enough with wars and disasters. Just thank you.
Every time tRump appears in court, regardless of the day's outcome, it immediately becomes a fund-raising appeal and the ONLY reason he keeps going off on SM and stand-up appearances outside courtrooms. In effect, judges in a sense are tools in his teensy, dirty hands for leveraging money-raising, and no matter how many lines he crosses, there's a bag of MAGA swag on the other side. Win-win, same as it ever was.
I fear our system was not designed to consider the possibility that people would actually be rewarded financially for their worst behavior. That’s a whole ‘nother topic…
the most disgusting part about it is that it works. How many people you know could be indicted on 91 counts of anything and still have people throw their money at him because he's "obviously innocent"? Boggles my mind daily
He always makes the comment that he can't run for office if he can't say what he wants. Making disparaging remarks about judges, witnesses, etc. is not running for office and has nothing to do with policies. When I vote for anyone running for any office, I want to know where he stands on policies, not his opinion on other people.
I commend the US on the prompt attention to these criminal matters. Here in Alberta (Canada), our national police force, the RCMP, have been investigating alleged irregularities surrounding the leadership race of our provincial leadership for 4 1/2 YEARS!!--the race itself was over 6 years ago, and blatantly used false e-mail addresses, improper donations to leadership campaigns, and a kamakaze candidate (the Election Commissioner handed out more than $200,000 in fines in 2019, but...the RCMP have only recently responded to queries to say that the investigation is ongoing.) Sigh
Jay, thank you so very much for pointing out the the following:
"While these responses are understandable, they are unhelpful, intellectually weak, and counterfactual. As I have often said here, accountability is a process, and without an indictment first happening, there is no chance of being convicted; without a conviction there is no chance of him going to prison; and without prison time there is no evidence that the rich and powerful actually get punished. Closing our eyes to the process means a public tuning out, which is anathema and quite destructive to participatory democracy."
The wheels of Justice turn slowly and for very good reasons, as you have so clearly spelled out for your readers.
One of the many things I have come to realize lately was well exemplified by a brief conversation I had with a middle-aged semi-professional administrative assistant recenetly is that many people here in America are remarkably uniformed about what is actually happening in government settings and actually are even, surprisingly, unaware of much of what Trump is spewing forth from his farcical orifice, while I was dismayed by this person's unfeigned and unrealized ignorance, I was also sort of encouraged to think that perhaps an unrealized percentage of the population still remains untainted by Trump and the Neo-Republican Party's deceit, lies, and outright treasonous activities and behaviors and that this actually bodes well for the country as a whole on so far as many remained still uninfluenced by the chaos.
I am currently thinking that it would be very helpful for all of us here in the echo-box of Substack to remember that the actual numbers of people in the various social media platforms who might be negatively inspired or impacted by the ongoing silent insurrection/revolution being perpetrated by movement conservatism's efforts is actually small in number when compared to the country's actual population numbers, (for instance Truth Social has at most 6+million user accounts, out of the total population of 330-million people) and also that the vast majority of people quite naturally and typically focus the majority of their attention and thought to the confines of their immediate, local spheres reaching up to the heights of the state and federal levels only as needed and by and largely when confronted with the news as presented by the larger major media outlets, this last area for me presents as the weakest area of our society's check and balance system. In any event as I intended to say, if a better more accurate portrayal and presentation of just how large Maga numbers are as compared to non-Maga numbers could be formulated that would perhaps help to tame any overblown presentations of Maga influence and strengths, which as currently presented appear quite frightening to many who have difficulty grasping the actual big picture of society as it currently is, as opposed to the small numbers of the actual actors and agents creating all the chaos.
Thank you for helping me keep my chin up and understand this is a process. Your explanations are so clear. Some days I just want to throw my hands up, but then I read you and others that give encouragement to stay the course.
So grateful for the clarity with which you think and write. It really does help a lot of us who—like it or not—consume way too much media and start to feel crazy in the midst of it all! Thank you.
It's time to go in the mud with this lying fiend. I think the DNC should take out billboards across the country, especially in red states that state with large letters "Donald Trump is Lying to You!" And in smaller type: " This life long conman will say anything. Fact is that he cannot say these things under oath so he is hoping that you believe him without actually looking for facts". Leave some kind of contact info for them to call or a website debunking his garbage with facts. It might not sway any MAGA fools but I would love to see Trump's reaction to it.
Lock the conman serial once for ever. He is an economical killer of many families and small businesses due to his arrogant and selfish behaviour. He does not pay his debts. He cheats. A real prototype of the true as&@£s*^%ole. He put into bankrupcy so many people who were working for him. Time for him to die (economically) soon. We are going towards an awful dictatorship. He said it many times. His program is crystal clear. He and those maga / gop / billionaires suporters will dismantle institutions. They'll be "culling" everybody that do not support them. Black, lgbtq++, muslims, jews, blue and yellow and so on. Pogrom in view. Stop this madness! Pleaaase
IMHO, the incessant Wheels of Justice are the antidote to this mendacious snake. I think of Occam's Razor in applying this 'slow' tsunami of accountability. Jack Smith is the 'blade' who keeps it focused, meticulous, concise and fair....a good match for the style of the D.C. Judge. Now, that said, something needs to be done about Judge Cannon on the MAL case. She seems to be working through on the job training with her deference toward Trump.
Probably true, but anyone else's incarceration wouldn't likely spark massive civil unrest, which in the case of 45's followers, translates primarily to violence, primarily enacted against those who are already the most vulnerable/marginalized. While most defendants might be characterized as a knife or a gun, 45 is a ticking bomb. If he explodes, the damage will be felt far and wide.
I think the court should have started by fining him 50k for any instance of violating his release conditions. Further, the gag order should have initially included a fine for each instance of any violation in addition to the threat of modification or dissolution of the release conditions.
Most people would have to squirm and sqander to find money for bail to be able to be out for jail to mount a defense.
This guy has his freedom intact, plenty of ill gotten funds to pay multiple legal teams and still run for office. Hit him where it hurts, tha bank account (or his vanity, make him wear an orange jumpsuit to court)
He should have been in jail long ago. He has been lying and cheating for OVER 50 YEARS. These trials aren't his first foray into the court system. Decades of trials against him: racial discrimination in the 70s; organized crime allegations in the 80s; financial instability in the 90s; more financial instability in the 00s; and All The Things since 2016 but now we're supposed to be positive because "...she [could hit] him with a fine and [tell] him the next time he does it, it’s a week of home detention for a month with no social media privileges...?!" Really? Little Donny doesn't eat his veggies, no bedtime story - that's how he's been treated his whole damn life. Enough is enough. I will not be made to feel that my negative attitude and belief that no, nothing will actually happen to him is wrong. Feel free to call my remarks unhelpful and intellectually weak but they are not un-factual.
If Trump truly does not understand that the gag order is not limiting his speech, but instead is limiting his ability to troll and dox court and DOJ personnel, then he shouldn’t be president. If his comprehension is so limited, how can he function as POTUS?
Oh he understands, his base does not. Nor do they care to do one iota of research- they believe everything he says hook, line and sinker. What better way to raise money than "Look they are trying to hurt my campaign"
I agree he understands that. But the right loves to say Biden is feeble minded. But I think we need to highlight every time Trump doesn’t understand simple, basic instructions (even if he does understand).
"President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people’s right to support him..." Yes, they have the right to support him OR someone else that's better.
"Please make a contribution to prove that you will also never surrender our mission..." And not making a contribution proves what?
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Your clear context helps me so much in trying to manage my frustrations. We clearly have a ways to go before we can finally be rid of this madman and the process, while slow to so many of us, must proceed in the careful, considerate fashion its been designed to do. A terrific explanation, Jay. 👏👏👏
Honestly, I'm reaching the point where even if I read articles about the political process involving stuff like this, I don't really read them, I skim them, then I wait for Jay's writeup. Saves me a lot of time and it always clears out questions I have when I try to parse the various news articles, which are often, frankly, not very well written.
This makes me very happy to read!
I couldn’t agree more! I always wait for Jay to clear things up!
I totally agree. I scan headlines and some articles but Jay is now my go to.
I’m glad it was helpful.
that's just how I felt. So helpful and encouraging.
Per Politico:
“Is your honor going to put President Trump in jail?” Lauro asked bluntly at one point, calling it one of many questions posed by the “can of worms” created by the prosecution’s request.
This gag order is probably way too nuanced for Trump's simple mind (yes, I know he's a clever deviant who knows how to social media his way to 40% of the vote, but he has no nuance at all).
So I'm very much fantasizing, almost fetishly, that the answer is a loud YES. Let him fundraise from a cold cell without the fake sandbar on his head.
I doubt he will actually test her that far, but we’ll have to see. He would be foolish to try.
As you said, he will continue to walk right up to the line and playfully stick his toe on the other side with statements that can be reasonably interpreted in multiple ways. In this area of expertise, he is a master craftsman.
This judge has my utmost respect for her thoughtful strategy re consequences for Trump . Thank you for your usual brilliant explanation and shining light on his strategy to be seen as a victim in contrast to her superior intellect and knowledge of the law and his criminal, twisted psyche.
"One tactic Lauro deployed was to suggest that it would be “impossible” and “unfathomable” to put a gag order on a top presidential candidate."
What's even more unfathomable is that he IS a top presidential candidate! Somewhat less unfathomable is that the House of Representatives is getting ready to elect Gym Jordan as speaker. So much for the "moderate" republicans.
Yes, that’s why I included Katyal’s statement. It is the ex-president who is doing the heretofore unfathomable with his personal attacks upon the witnesses, judge, prosecutors and even their family members.
I agree 100%. This is what the GOP has come to. I am an independent but can't even bring myself to vote Republican for local office right now.
Same here. What does being a Republican even mean today? In my mind, nothing good. They are all complicit in the attempts to overthrow democracy.
Closeted MAGAts, as I see it.
Too true.
Thank you, Jay Kuo, for all of this. The step-by-step processes help my bullet-point thinking. The “if this, then that, until the next that” explanations require my ability to check my emotions which are struggling enough with wars and disasters. Just thank you.
It can be so difficult to understand where things are going. I have had to sit down with post-its sometimes and map everything out!
Nodding. I do it with work, contracts, and have no difficulty. I’ll try to do more with “all this.” Thank you, again, Jay.
ditto!
Every time tRump appears in court, regardless of the day's outcome, it immediately becomes a fund-raising appeal and the ONLY reason he keeps going off on SM and stand-up appearances outside courtrooms. In effect, judges in a sense are tools in his teensy, dirty hands for leveraging money-raising, and no matter how many lines he crosses, there's a bag of MAGA swag on the other side. Win-win, same as it ever was.
I fear our system was not designed to consider the possibility that people would actually be rewarded financially for their worst behavior. That’s a whole ‘nother topic…
the most disgusting part about it is that it works. How many people you know could be indicted on 91 counts of anything and still have people throw their money at him because he's "obviously innocent"? Boggles my mind daily
He always makes the comment that he can't run for office if he can't say what he wants. Making disparaging remarks about judges, witnesses, etc. is not running for office and has nothing to do with policies. When I vote for anyone running for any office, I want to know where he stands on policies, not his opinion on other people.
I commend the US on the prompt attention to these criminal matters. Here in Alberta (Canada), our national police force, the RCMP, have been investigating alleged irregularities surrounding the leadership race of our provincial leadership for 4 1/2 YEARS!!--the race itself was over 6 years ago, and blatantly used false e-mail addresses, improper donations to leadership campaigns, and a kamakaze candidate (the Election Commissioner handed out more than $200,000 in fines in 2019, but...the RCMP have only recently responded to queries to say that the investigation is ongoing.) Sigh
It’s oddly comforting to learn that justice moves even more slowly in another democracy.
Jay, thank you so very much for pointing out the the following:
"While these responses are understandable, they are unhelpful, intellectually weak, and counterfactual. As I have often said here, accountability is a process, and without an indictment first happening, there is no chance of being convicted; without a conviction there is no chance of him going to prison; and without prison time there is no evidence that the rich and powerful actually get punished. Closing our eyes to the process means a public tuning out, which is anathema and quite destructive to participatory democracy."
The wheels of Justice turn slowly and for very good reasons, as you have so clearly spelled out for your readers.
One of the many things I have come to realize lately was well exemplified by a brief conversation I had with a middle-aged semi-professional administrative assistant recenetly is that many people here in America are remarkably uniformed about what is actually happening in government settings and actually are even, surprisingly, unaware of much of what Trump is spewing forth from his farcical orifice, while I was dismayed by this person's unfeigned and unrealized ignorance, I was also sort of encouraged to think that perhaps an unrealized percentage of the population still remains untainted by Trump and the Neo-Republican Party's deceit, lies, and outright treasonous activities and behaviors and that this actually bodes well for the country as a whole on so far as many remained still uninfluenced by the chaos.
I am currently thinking that it would be very helpful for all of us here in the echo-box of Substack to remember that the actual numbers of people in the various social media platforms who might be negatively inspired or impacted by the ongoing silent insurrection/revolution being perpetrated by movement conservatism's efforts is actually small in number when compared to the country's actual population numbers, (for instance Truth Social has at most 6+million user accounts, out of the total population of 330-million people) and also that the vast majority of people quite naturally and typically focus the majority of their attention and thought to the confines of their immediate, local spheres reaching up to the heights of the state and federal levels only as needed and by and largely when confronted with the news as presented by the larger major media outlets, this last area for me presents as the weakest area of our society's check and balance system. In any event as I intended to say, if a better more accurate portrayal and presentation of just how large Maga numbers are as compared to non-Maga numbers could be formulated that would perhaps help to tame any overblown presentations of Maga influence and strengths, which as currently presented appear quite frightening to many who have difficulty grasping the actual big picture of society as it currently is, as opposed to the small numbers of the actual actors and agents creating all the chaos.
Thank you for helping me keep my chin up and understand this is a process. Your explanations are so clear. Some days I just want to throw my hands up, but then I read you and others that give encouragement to stay the course.
So grateful for the clarity with which you think and write. It really does help a lot of us who—like it or not—consume way too much media and start to feel crazy in the midst of it all! Thank you.
It's time to go in the mud with this lying fiend. I think the DNC should take out billboards across the country, especially in red states that state with large letters "Donald Trump is Lying to You!" And in smaller type: " This life long conman will say anything. Fact is that he cannot say these things under oath so he is hoping that you believe him without actually looking for facts". Leave some kind of contact info for them to call or a website debunking his garbage with facts. It might not sway any MAGA fools but I would love to see Trump's reaction to it.
I imagine these would be targeted by dangerous fools with their AR-15s quite quickly.
My thoughts exactly
Lock the conman serial once for ever. He is an economical killer of many families and small businesses due to his arrogant and selfish behaviour. He does not pay his debts. He cheats. A real prototype of the true as&@£s*^%ole. He put into bankrupcy so many people who were working for him. Time for him to die (economically) soon. We are going towards an awful dictatorship. He said it many times. His program is crystal clear. He and those maga / gop / billionaires suporters will dismantle institutions. They'll be "culling" everybody that do not support them. Black, lgbtq++, muslims, jews, blue and yellow and so on. Pogrom in view. Stop this madness! Pleaaase
We can and will stop him, if we stay strong and focused.
IMHO, the incessant Wheels of Justice are the antidote to this mendacious snake. I think of Occam's Razor in applying this 'slow' tsunami of accountability. Jack Smith is the 'blade' who keeps it focused, meticulous, concise and fair....a good match for the style of the D.C. Judge. Now, that said, something needs to be done about Judge Cannon on the MAL case. She seems to be working through on the job training with her deference toward Trump.
Why do I feel I've been gaslighted?
Trump is still a free man. Anyone else would be in jail long ago.
Probably true, but anyone else's incarceration wouldn't likely spark massive civil unrest, which in the case of 45's followers, translates primarily to violence, primarily enacted against those who are already the most vulnerable/marginalized. While most defendants might be characterized as a knife or a gun, 45 is a ticking bomb. If he explodes, the damage will be felt far and wide.
I feel the same to a degree.
I think the court should have started by fining him 50k for any instance of violating his release conditions. Further, the gag order should have initially included a fine for each instance of any violation in addition to the threat of modification or dissolution of the release conditions.
Most people would have to squirm and sqander to find money for bail to be able to be out for jail to mount a defense.
This guy has his freedom intact, plenty of ill gotten funds to pay multiple legal teams and still run for office. Hit him where it hurts, tha bank account (or his vanity, make him wear an orange jumpsuit to court)
Good idea
He should have been in jail long ago. He has been lying and cheating for OVER 50 YEARS. These trials aren't his first foray into the court system. Decades of trials against him: racial discrimination in the 70s; organized crime allegations in the 80s; financial instability in the 90s; more financial instability in the 00s; and All The Things since 2016 but now we're supposed to be positive because "...she [could hit] him with a fine and [tell] him the next time he does it, it’s a week of home detention for a month with no social media privileges...?!" Really? Little Donny doesn't eat his veggies, no bedtime story - that's how he's been treated his whole damn life. Enough is enough. I will not be made to feel that my negative attitude and belief that no, nothing will actually happen to him is wrong. Feel free to call my remarks unhelpful and intellectually weak but they are not un-factual.
If Trump truly does not understand that the gag order is not limiting his speech, but instead is limiting his ability to troll and dox court and DOJ personnel, then he shouldn’t be president. If his comprehension is so limited, how can he function as POTUS?
He doesn’t care, and neither do his voters. This isn’t about his competence, it’s about preserving for themselves a certain privileged status.
Oh he understands, his base does not. Nor do they care to do one iota of research- they believe everything he says hook, line and sinker. What better way to raise money than "Look they are trying to hurt my campaign"
I agree he understands that. But the right loves to say Biden is feeble minded. But I think we need to highlight every time Trump doesn’t understand simple, basic instructions (even if he does understand).
We definitely should! If only they would listen
good idea
"President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people’s right to support him..." Yes, they have the right to support him OR someone else that's better.
"Please make a contribution to prove that you will also never surrender our mission..." And not making a contribution proves what?