Well yeah, this is all what should have happened already if justice was real. But Trump has thus far been given a buttload of legal deference simply because he is who he is - a old rich white guy who was once President. There are perks that come with that status that you and I don’t get. Justice is a highly contingent thing in the United States.
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Makes me wonder how any lawyer could represent Trump. They know they aren’t going to get paid, it will probably ruin their reputation, they will be forever known as a “former Trump lawyer”, and if they are at all ethical they will probably end up quitting anyway if they aren’t fired first.
I just don’t get what the upside is here… exposure? Notoriety? Certainly not money.
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You just asked what the judge could do, and there are plenty of options. It remains to be seen if there’s any courage to do this. I mean he’s clearly breaking the law and violating court orders, and this is just one instance of it. With zero consequences, he will just keep doing it too.
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The only option you listed other than jail (which I already implied was an option, just not a likely one) was sanctions - but what does that mean to Trump? Nothing. Unless he’s physically restrained, his actions will be effectively consequence-free. Which is why he must be physically restrained. But like you, I don’t think the will exists for that to happen.
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Donald Trump says he will ask the Judge to step aside
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A handful are competent. You can easily discern which ones those are because they demanded money up front.
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As has been mentioned, he may very well end up in jail for contempt: no judge likes their orders being ignored, and even the Supreme Court has ruled multiple times that such punishments are part of the system. It would take an overthrow of the judicial system for another branch, such as the Executive Branch which owns Homeland Security of which the Secret Service is a part, to declare that a judge’s contempt order to be invalid or unenforceable – I don’t see even the current Supreme Court ruling otherwise. Sure, the SS might well end up taking over part of the jail to provide security to ensure he doesn’t end up ‘committing suicide’ or getting beat up by the other prisoners, but if a judge says he’s in contempt and must spend a night, or the rest of the lead up to the trial, in jail, in he goes.
As for being held without monitored and chaperoned outside communication, this is standard treatment for people who have committed felony levels of classified material improper handling – see Reality Winner – until such time as the knowledge in their head is either made safe, or the perpetrator is believed to no longer be an information leak threat. Can you imagine, post conviction for stealing and mishandling top secret diplomatic and military information, Trump being allowed to talk to agents of America’s foreign enemies without someone there to stop him if he starts babbling about secrets?
What wakes me up at night, though, is the thought of Trump getting off Scott-free due to combination of Cannon forcing a mistrial, the other juries being hung by Quisling jurors who would never convict their messiah, and outright judicial abuse by Trump appointed appellate judges and the Supreme Court. If we can somehow avoid that, even one conviction on a matter of substance should be enough to curtail his freedom of speech, legally, to something which means we may actually never have to listen to him again.
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Yes, I understand this. I have considered it, and find it unlikely, which is why I was asking about other options that would be meaningful to a defendant like Trump.
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She also denied a request from Lord Dampnut’s lawyers for an extension:
The decision from US District Judge Tanya Chutkan caps a flurry of activity in the case after special counsel Jack Smith’s team on Friday asked Chutkan to quickly set limits on what Trump’s team can do with the evidence that will be shared with them.
That was a very quick decision to slap down that request from LD’s land sharks.
This judge has presided over numerous cases of Jan 6 insurgernts & she doesn’t seem to suffer fools gladly.
If she doesn’t like what she hears on Monday, she may well hit Lord Dampnut with contempt charges & order him held without bail until trial.
Wouldn’t that be nice!
Here’s hoping for swift justice.
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Oh, if you just want to know the punishments a judge can:
- Issue fines, both to the defendant and their lawyers, which I agree Trump would just not pay or siphon from resources he doesn’t care about.
- Incarceration. It’s the law – you’re released pre-trial, you show contempt, you go to jail until trial, and I think this is likely if he doesn’t shape up. You’ve already rejected this, so onwards.
- Community Service – I’d love to see Trump in a bright-orange safety vest picking up trash by the side of the road, but since they’d have to close the road to keep people from running him down, that seems unlikely.
- Order the defendant bound and gagged while in the courtroom. For example, see Bobby Seale. I’m kinda hoping for this one, but it is usually reserved for the kind of defendant who won’t shut up or keeps attacking, verbally or physically, officers of the court or others during trial. Unlikely, but not out of the real of possibility.
Anyone know of any other actually used pre-trial contempt punishments in the US?
I expect that unless he’s actually locked up tight he’ll eventually run away and hide rather than face justice. There’s some great examples in history of some horrific punishments for contempt, but the US Constitution specifically prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishments, so it’s pretty much just fines, time, and service nowadays, with a bit of bondage for the truly disruptive.
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Who he is alleging is more biased than Cannon in Florida, who he personally appointed.
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Maybe he will just say it: He cannot get a fair trial since he is guilty.
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But it’s never his fault, so he can’t be guilty!
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Although Trump lawyers are also responsible for their client’s actions, because they’re involved too. NYTimes just had an article about how his legal team is a total clusterfuck of conflicts of interest, the lawyers also taking the cases of the people Trump roped into his crimes (despite their interests not being the same as Trump’s), the lawyers themselves being implicated in crimes and witnesses… it’s such a mess, and an unprecedented one that the lawyers have unnecessarily, deliberately entered into.
They’re getting paid through his PAC funds. And also getting paid to represent witnesses, other Trump lawyers, etc. in a cluster fuck of conflicts of interests. Yeah, when the dust finally settles, I’d not be surprised if many of his lawyers were facing legal consequences of some sort themselves, due to their actions in these cases. They’re being pretty dumb.
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“Any federal district judge ought to understand it raises enormous and unprecedented logistical issues,” Rosenberg said
And how are Secret Service’s logistical issues the judge and court’s problem?
The judge could make it real easy by denying Secret Service access to the prison, except during visiting hours. I don’t see how the executive branch Secret Service has any overriding authority over the judicial branch.
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Make an order. If it is not complied with that is contempt of court. Not a USian but the principle of allowing the court to do its work is fundamental to the courts system and judges have swingeing, draconian powers to maintain the integrity of the courts system.
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