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Tuesday Afternoon Massacre

carlitos

"más divertido"
carlitos
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For those unfamiliar with the reference, the "Saturday Night Massacre" was when two of Richard Nixon's attorneys-general resigned rather than carry out his inappropriate orders to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

Today in DC, US Attorneys are apparently withdrawing and resigning over Trump's twitter-led interference in making a sentencing recommendation for convicted felon Roger Stone.

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/11/tuesday-afternoon-massacre-an.html

Earlier today, top Mueller prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky resigned from his position as AUSA in the DC office, but still works in MD... for now.

Jonathan Kravis became the second -- in a statement he said he "has resigned as an Assistant United States Attorney and therefore no longer represents the government in this case."

A third AUSA, Adam Jed, another Mueller veteran, just withdrew.

And a new DOJ attorney, John Crabb Jr., has entered his appearance.
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From CNN - Four are apparently out, after they felt undercut by their bosses at Justice going around them asking for a reduced sentence recommendation, which had nothing at all to do with the President tweeting about Roger Stone at 2 in the morning.

Prosecutors quit
Soon after the revised recommendation was made, the four prosecutors who had worked on the trial, Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, Jonathan Kravis, Adam Jed and Mike Marando, filed a motion to withdraw from the case. Zelinsky and Kravis both resigned from the DC US attorney's office.
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IIRC, the Judge in the Stone case is Amy Berman-Jackson

IIRC, Judge Berman Jackson doesn't take any **** from the DOJ. If she thinks the sentencing recommendation is too light, she will either ignore it or send it back with a "please try again" notice.
 
Puppycow said:
Makes me think that Trump may just go ahead and pardon Stone at some point. Because he can.
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The pardon is scheduled for November 4.
smartcooky said:
IIRC, the Judge in the Stone case is Amy Berman-Jackson

IIRC, Judge Berman Jackson doesn't take any **** from the DOJ. If she thinks the sentencing recommendation is too light, she will either ignore it or send it back with a "please try again" notice.
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Goddam radical commie librul leftist unelected judge!
 
Puppycow said:
Makes me think that Trump may just go ahead and pardon Stone at some point. Because he can.
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I suspect not. I think a commuted sentence is more likely. Less controversial, and accomplishes the most important part of a pardon for someone like Stone.
 
Ziggurat said:
....Less controversial,....
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Sure. But pardoning Stone would troll the libs more. Trolling the libs is the primary thing these days.

I don't think our current President is much concerned with controversy any more. If he ever was.
 
Ziggurat said:
I suspect not. I think a commuted sentence is more likely. Less controversial, and accomplishes the most important part of a pardon for someone like Stone.
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crescent said:
Sure. But pardoning Stone would troll the libs more. Trolling the libs is the primary thing these days.

I don't think our current President is much concerned with controversy any more. If he ever was.
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Agreed. Why on Earth would Trump care if something is controversial? It’s not like He would face any real consequence.
 
Ziggurat said:
I suspect not. I think a commuted sentence is more likely. Less controversial, and accomplishes the most important part of a pardon for someone like Stone.
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Well, yeah. By "pardon" I was just using a shorthand for pardon or commute.

I still hear people say that Obama "pardoned" Chelsea Manning. He did not. But he did commute part of her sentence so that she could be released early.

But a full pardon for Stone wouldn't surprise me much, controversial or not. Trump doesn't seem very controversy-shy to me.
 
I don't know. He might be willing to pardon Stone, but someone would sit Trump down with slides and crayon drawings and explain that a Pardon would leave Stone open to subpoenas. Probably just get the sentence commutation like Scooter Libby.
 
Imagine having such strong principles that you would quit your job for them. I hope they all go on to have very successful careers.
 
Random said:
I don't know. He might be willing to pardon Stone, but someone would sit Trump down with slides and crayon drawings and explain that a Pardon would leave Stone open to subpoenas. Probably just get the sentence commutation like Scooter Libby.
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Not doubting you or anything, but could you explain that bit?
 
smartcooky said:
Not doubting you or anything, but could you explain that bit?
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I think Random is probably referring to the 5th amendment, but it seems sort of unlikely to me that this would really matter. I mean, hypothetically he could be open to subpoenas either way. It also presumes that Stone has knowledge of some other crime that he could or would testify to.
 
smartcooky said:
Not doubting you or anything, but could you explain that bit?
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Someone who has been pardoned can no longer be prosecuted for whatever he did. That means he can no longer claim the protection of the Fifth Amendment because he can no longer incriminate himself. He can then be ordered to give full and truthful testimony about somebody/everybody else's crimes, and if he refuses to do so or lies under oath he can then be prosecuted for the new crimes of contempt and maybe perjury and obstruction of justice. If Trump pardons him, he could be required to give up everything he knows about every crime Trump has ever committed -- and he's known Trump for around 30 years. Manafort presents the same problem.
 
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Pardoning Stone would be in line with the accepted use of power of the Presidency.
Telling the DoJ to ask for a lighter sentence because it's your guy is an abuse of power.
 
Loss Leader said:
Imagine having such strong principles that you would quit your job for them. I hope they all go on to have very successful careers.
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The concept is alien to Trump. As far as he's concerned, people only do things out of self-interest, and, occasionally, pure hatred.
 
Trebuchet said:
The pardon is scheduled for November 4.
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Ziggurat said:
I suspect not. I think a commuted sentence is more likely. Less controversial, and accomplishes the most important part of a pardon for someone like Stone.
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varwoche said:
November 4.
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Yeah, I'm thinking full pardon, not a commutation. Possibly before the election.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1227441882793480196

He'll claim they're the victims of "Prosecutorial Misconduct".
There's also this story:

https://thehill.com/homenews/admini...ation-of-former-us-attorney-for-treasury-post
 
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