Team Trump starts weak
As America knows to its disgust, a grand jury (GJ) has indicted James Comey on two charges. However, indictments are not a high legal bar. Sol Wachtler famously said that the process is so stacked against a defendant that a DA could get a GJ to indict a ham sandwich. Only the prosecution presents evidence. And they only need to show "probable cause." W." Which is on the other side of the street from the "preponderance of the evidence" required in a civil trial. And across town from the "beyond a reasonable doubt" required in Comey's criminal trial.
Should that trial come to pass. And there is no guarantee it will. Especially, as Trump seems determined to scuttle an already laughably weak case.
All of this makes the failure of Trump's newly installed US Attorney (Eastern VA), Lindsey Halligan, to get an indictment on a third charge significant. Halligan's ousted predecessor thought none of the charges had merit. In addition, an indictment only requires a majority vote of the grand jurors. And scuttlebutt has it that the vote on the two indictments was not unanimous.
Patel blusters like a nervous man
On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel was sensitive to accusations that the Comey prosecution has no legal merit and is merely political vengeance directed at a man who would not carry Trump's first term water. If Patel were confident, he would have waved away the dissenting voices and declared he was satisfied the evidence was so overwhelming that the trial jury would convict before lunch.
But Patel is not confident. He knows he's screwing the pooch. So no sangfroid for him. Instead, he tweeted with the hyperbole of a man on the wrong side of the facts.
"Career FBI agents, intel analysts, and staff led the investigation into Comey and others. They called the balls and strikes and will continue to do so. The wildly false accusations attacking this FBI for the politicization of law enforcement comes from the same bankrupt media that sold the world on Russia Gate- it's hypocrisy on steroids."
"Their baseless objections tell us now, more than ever, that we are precisely over the target and will remain on mission until completion," he concluded. "Thank you to this brave FBI team. Mission First."
Three thoughts:
One: In his Senate confirmation hearings, Chief Justice John Roberts declared it would be his job to "call balls and strikes." Now, all the MAGAs have decided that Robert's cyncal phrase is the perfect euphemism for "we'll thumb the scales until we get the result we want."
Two: Every accusation is a confession. Patel's boss is the poster child of "wildly false accusations" and the "politicization of law enforcement." Patel is nowt but Trump's loyal asslick.
Three: WTF? "We are precisely over the target," "remain on mission," "Mission First"? I can imagine Kash describing a trip to buy apples. 'I initiated the mission with a frontal assault on the Piggly Wiggly. Briefly reconnoitered the produce section for enemy combatants embedded in the civilian population. Sought cover near customer service. And launched a thrust directly at the fruit after a diversionary feint towards the cut flowers. The mission was a success, although Mrs Patel did ask me what kind of fucking idiot thought a kiwi was an apple.'
