"The Land of the Free"? You must be joking!

I have grumped before, many a time and oft', on the subject of the American legal system which strikes me as the equivalent of an out-of-control tank with sundry government officials and politicians squabbling for control of it.  We have just witnessed this behemoth smash into the offices of a US lawyer acting for Donald Trump and seize all the records of their formerly private and confidential interactions.  Of course, I am no lawyer - and I thank the Lord for that, Sir! - but it strikes me as outrageous. And this is the second time in three months that the iron fist of government has smashed through an American front door.  Recently Paul Manafort and his family, despite him  being a co-operative witness in a government investigation, had his private home invaded in the middle of the night without warning by government agents.  That was bad enough but for such agents to steal private and confidential documents from a lawyer's office is the stuff of totalitarian behaviour.

Whenever, these extra-legal activities take place, I always consult my own lawyer for advice, well, not exactly my lawyer but you know what I mean!  He is Mr. Alan Dershowitz, an impeccably Right-wing lawyer but one with deep, fundamental beliefs in the proper conduct of the law.  This from an interview with The Mail:

The concept of assembling a taint team, he said, revolves around the Fifth Amendment, which protects Americans from being forced to incriminate themselves.

So when the team sifts through Cohen's documents, hard drives and memory sticks, it will be searching for protected material that should be kept private.

But the Fourth Amendment prohibits 'unreasonable' searches and seizures by the government – a description that could apply to scooping up communications between a lawyer and his client, except in extreme circumstances.

And the Sixth Amendment guarantees Americans the right to 'the assistance of counsel' for courtroom defense, meaning no government can interfere with that relationship.

My next port of call for some detached analysis is The National Review which again is a Right-wing site but one imbued with the notion that the Constitution rules supreme.  Today, Mr. Andrew C. McCarthy who is not just any old lawyer but once actually worked for the particular department that is now set to rifle through Trump's communications with his lawyer makes clear the minefield of 'do's and don'ts' that cover this quagmire of legal proceedings.

Needless to say, the whole thing emanates from the so-called Mueller investigation which, I suspect was the il-begotten brain child of that stinking mess of corrupt bureaucracy, the Justice Department.  This pile of corruption has launched Mueller like a guided missile with only one fixed target - the destruction of Donald Trump.  Such an admirable sense of duty and energy and yet ... and yet ... they couldn't manage to even dip their quill pens in the inkpots to take a hard look at Hillary Clinton!

 

Comments

[missred]

I am calling it a coup d'état. Trump needs to fire them all. It is within his authority and I believe it is his responsibility to clean out corrupt justice.
The President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law (subject to Congressional override), and appoints the members of the Cabinet (subject to Senate approval) and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies.

[Cuffleyburgers]

Quite so Duffers.

Missing only a "So-called" or perhaps a "Mis-named" in front of the words "Justice department".

It's increasingly apparent that the US will never recover from the Trump presidency; and not from anything he has done; it is the deranged response by the Deep State and the Powers That Be, the Washington Establishment which is causing the damage.

It's terrifying, and it is testament to Trumps strength of will that he hasn't folded under the immense pressure.

It is also tragic, because once they've broken America, which they almost certainly will do, where the fuck to we aspire to go to?

Brussels? (only joking)

[backofanenvelope]

My theory is that Trump is just letting his opponents dig an ever bigger hole.

[Bob]

Gosh, the right is so victimized. Outlets report things Trump and his supporters don't like so they must be fake news outlets. His associates run afoul of the law so the law must be out of control. The just approved $25 million settlement for fraud by Trump's university must also be a legal travesty:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-trumpuniversity-settlement/trump-university-settlement-now-final-as-objector-drops-appeal-idUSKBN1HG36V

Mueller is limited to how the Russians affected our election, but if during his investigation he finds other crimes he is obligated to pass the information on to the proper authorities. Even the NR admits the action was appropriate.

Other "detached" analysis by Andrew C. McCarthy, however, fails to mention the 2008 Obama campaign paid the highest fine of its type, beating Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole's previous record of $100,000:

https://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/obama-2008-campaign-fined-375000-085784

In the American system of government no one is above the law, including presidential nominees or presidents. And we probably ain't seen nothing yet.

[Backofanenvelope]

Mueller has been on the job for over a year. How long has he got?

[Bob]

There's no time limit set by law. The Whitewater investigation lasted from 1992 until 2000. It began with a Resolution Trust Corporation investigation and went through other departments and 2 Independent Counsels:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitewater_controversy

[Whitewall]

The deafening sound from the American Civil Liberties Union is telling.

[Bob]

To give Andrew C. McCarthy his due, he does realize at the end:

"This particular scandal was not caused by the Russia investigation, much as Trump seems determined to conflate the two. It is not the work of Bob Mueller, Jeff Sessions, or Rod Rosenstein. None of them had anything to do with the porn star going public. It was Trump’s conduct that caused this mess; it was the hare-brained scheme to cover up the mess that brings us to this pass."

The ACLU has nothing to complain about because the evidence needed to convince a federal judge to issue a search warrant against a lawyer has to meet the highest standards. Cohen's been a bad boy.

[JK]

Bob?

Forget for a moment its a Trump lawyer that got raided.

Doesn't it give you the slightest pause that the 5th Amendment (and likely the 4th) could be so casually tossed off by our media?

Don't you reckon that, had this been any other pol's lawyer office getting rifled the whole of CNN, MSNBC, for that matter the ACLU, would be screaming bloody murder?

Hell nevermind a pol's lawyer - reckon what'd happened to John Gleeson's prospects of getting a conviction against John Gotti if he'd pulled a stunt like that?

[Michael F Adams]

Dershowitz is not a Right Wing professor. He is about as far Left as one can go. BUT he believes in the Bill of Rights, and is screaming bloody murder that it is being violated.

[Bob]

JK,

I really don't care what anyone says on TV. TV is for entertainment, shallow coverage of news, and propaganda. Trump supporters who watch Fox talk shows believe he's being picked on by the "deep state", liberals, leftists, etc., etc., etc. In fact he's been his own worst enemy.

You can ask 12 year old kids in Chicago what they think of construction companies and most will say they're "connected" or "mobbed up" or something of the like. Trump comes from that world and has left a trail of "interesting" transactions. At a point no bank in the US would give him a loan and he got involved with Russian oligarchs. He also spent years developing a playboy persona. It takes some really selective suspension of disbelief to think he couldn't have some problematic connections to the Russians and lots of women.

Like I already mentioned, the bar to get a federal warrant against a lawyer is high, and it's been cleared. If Trump acts out the way he's been talking and tweeting, he's cooked. Here's the opinion of another famous lawyer:

https://jonathanturley.org/2018/04/10/mr-president-if-many-people-have-said-you-should-fire-mueller-many-people-are-wrong/

[JK]

Bob,

Well here's the opinion of another other famous lawyer:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/trump-and-the-unitary-executive/