2975
2976

I mean, I realize Louise isn’t American, but if you’re going to spend so much time spouting nonsense about US politics, at least maybe grasp it a bit better than a third grader?

2977

Sounds like someone trolled Mensch but good.

2978

More perspective on this:

2979

That Doug Blockmon piece is excellent.

It undermined confidence in his leadership among Republican House members as they eye falling approval ratings before the 2018 midterm elections, and reflected the president’s staggeringly poor judgment in the selection of top aides, his astonishingly bad political instincts other than in the rawest theater of the campaign trail, and his establishment of a White House staff that can only be described as fully dysfunctional.

Love that phrase “rawest theater.” Nails it.

2980

More on Mensch being an idiot.

2981


“I was there it didn’t happen.” = “I forget what happened.”

2982

Man, McMaster is throwing away his well-earned reputation for Trump, who doesn’t even like him anyway.

2983

Are you kidding me? How many times will they use that same defense.

@Woolen_Horde and the worst part is that he seemed capable of maybe helping keep a grip on sanity in the WH. Now he’s fallen completely into line or playing some long game we can’t see (like Comey).

2984

And he is the guy that wrote the book on generals needing to not be yes men

2985

He had better hope there are no “tapes” of the meeting!

2986

He can just read the transcript of the meeting, which is where the info came from to begin with. Is there a white house dog yet so it can eat the transcript?

2987

At what point does ‘being enough of a yes man to retain access and be the grownup in the room’ turn into just ‘being a yes-man’? I feel that much of the German High Command grappled with this question until the July 20 plot.

hashtagdailygodwin

2988

Explain, please?

Not saying she is right, but according to this a number of different non-members of the House could trigger the start of the process, including a grand jury. If this involves the recommendation of a FISC court to impeach could what they have said be true?

TBH, my understanding of how this stuff works is about Schoolhouse Rock deep.

2989

Anyone can recommend impeachment. Congressman Al Green recommended impeachment, gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker recommended impeachment, and many of us here recommended impeachment. All of our recommendations have precisely the same value: none. The process of impeachment can only originate in the House.

As for Mensch’s article:

  • The Supreme Court would not need to notify the President about impeachment, because the whole process is transparent.

  • Impeachment does not affect the President’s ability to issue pardons.

  • There is no Marshal of the Supreme Court.

2990

Thank you.

BTW, there actually is a Marshal of the Supreme Court. But she oversees the in-house security and handles payroll, basically.

2991

`6. A smart prosecutor will see the advantages of waiting. Once the president is no longer in office—a day that can brought nearer through impeachment—his argument for immunity from prosecution becomes much weaker. This gives any prosecutor a good reason to be patient and wait, either for impeachment and removal, for resignation, or for the natural end of the president’s term. This principle was seen in action when President Clinton’s pursuer Robert Ray — Kenneth Starr’s successor — appeared ready to prosecute before he and Clinton negotiated a settlement on Clinton’s last full day in office.

`7. Even if convicted, a sitting president might be able to pardon himself. A final reason that prosecuting a sitting president would be awkward is that, at least for federal charges, he could immediately grant himself a pardon. No one is sure whether a presidential self-pardon would be valid and there are good arguments on both sides. President Nixon considered pardoning himself, but decided against it. A president who tried to pardon himself would surely pay a huge political price. But any president who was politically weak enough that he was facing prosecution and impeachment (not necessarily in that order) would likely have nothing to lose. Of course, a president could try to pardon himself regardless of whether there was an active criminal investigation against him. But doing so could hasten his impeachment—which the pardon power cannot touch. Once again, impeachment saves the day.

2992

You felt strongly enough to put that in italics, but it is incorrect, as Triggercut mentioned. Furthermore, I think you may be incorrect about impeachment/pardons (at least insofar as a pardon can’t prevent impeachment, though that’s not what you said). You haven’t answered the question: if a FISC grand jury were recommending impeachment (which doesn’t mean a damned thing, I get that) how would that information be conveyed to the president?

2993

Ok, so there is a Marshal. I doubt she is involved in impeachment, so you can italicize that instead.

Grand juries don’t consider impeachment, they consider prosecution. If for some reason they wanted to suggest impeachment instead, they could use the usual mechanisms, like a press conference or maybe an angry blog post.

The main point here is that impeachment is not a criminal proceeding. That’s why pardons are irrelevant, and the SCOTUS does not get involved (except for the Chief Justice, who only serves as a referee).

Impeachment is a political proceeding. Officials can be impeached for practically any reason at all, even if they have not broken the law. The best analogy I can think of is that impeachment is like a recall vote, except only Congress gets to vote.

2994

  1. FISC/FISA doesn’t do grand juries or indictments. They approve/issue warrants for federal surveillance.

  2. If a grand jury was empaneled to seek an indictment against a sitting president, it would be a matter of public record, and also a massive news story for a variety of reasons, one of which includes the constitutional question of whether a president can be indicted at all. (Richard Nixon was listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Watergate coverup.

  3. If there was a criminal case of this gravity proceeding against the president at all, House and Senate judiciary and oversight committees would be notified along with the White House counsel, and we’d all know about it. Also, the president would likely get a separate lawyer or legal team outside the official White House counsel.