Trump is by far the worst and most corrupt president in US history, essentially a mafia boss, who has pardoned and is constantly defending his thugs. He is hoping to attain the power of a fascist dictator, but I am hoping a majority of voters will come to their senses this November and vote the Republicans (who have betrayed their oaths to defend the Constitution) out of power in the House and the Senate.
Unfortunately dictators don't really care about voters. He's putting this country - and the world - in great jeopardy. All he cares about is money, power and abject fealty.
True, but Trump is not a dictator yet. I believe we still have the ability to at least slow him down, especially if the Democrats gain control of the House and the Senate in 2027, and federal judges continue to uphold the rule of law and defend the Constitution. As Trump continues to demonstrate his incompetence in everything other than intimidating Republican politicians and enriching himself, the likelihood increases that he will be forced out of office in January 2029, if not sooner.
The current crop of Republican politicians have certainly shown him abject fealty -- as though they had gone into the phony phone booth of Simon Bar Sinister.
"A shameful stain on American history, justice and the rule of law. Trump has made a mockery of them all."
Can I request that you DO NOT carry on with this arm-waving stuff?
It is not shameful; it is not a stain on American history - it IS American history, and your incredibly inept Constitution, plus a corrupt Congress, simply lets all this stuff go through.
You're going to have to fix all this one day - rather than dreaming that your system is perfect. Get to it.
When we come out of this mess, and with a new President and Congress, it will be time to fix our system to prevent some of the same things from happening again.
IF the “NEW Democrats” win enough seats at the table, and, IF they follow through! My fear is that there will be too many Democrats who will throw away the opportunity to make BOLD changes, instead, playing it safe…not making waves…blending in.
Given that Joyce Vance is the author of this article, she can say whatever she wants to say, however she wants to say it, when she wants to say it and she can even repeat it tomorrow if she chooses. It is our choice as subscribers to read it or not. We all know what needs to be done. We all know that the Constitution is deficient in many ways. But given this unprecedented, sorry, POS Congress, we, the people have not been able to stop this destruction of the rule of law. We will begin the reconstruction when we get back into office. Though, I suspect pardons will continue to be given during the remaining time in office, we will seek redress of these abuses by going after the law licenses of attorneys and throwing out of office (in my head, literally) those who perpetrated these abuses against us. We will get there. It will take some time, but I think all of us here, as subscribers, know this. I also think there is a place in hell for all the insurrectionists and all the others who plotted and collaborated this total injustice on the people in this country.
Ridiculous! History still has moments laudable and shameful. I don't see anyone here suggesting that our Constitution is perfect and we certainly know Congress is corrupt - along with this entire regime, the Supreme Court, and the corporate community - demonstrated every day. The challenge is finding a path to correction without widespread bloodshed. That might be the "dreaming" part.
yes, and the old maxim still works; follow the money.
he didn't release traitors and sexual predators to reoffend because he's incompetent and crazy (though he is), he paid off a private army of guys ready to fight a civil war for him, distracted from epstein, grifted some of the funds for himself i'm sure, and wrapped that around the other thing; freedom from any consequences of his staggering corruption.
good day's work for a dotty old man.
history will remember him for as long as it remembered smedly butler.
The government might not be able to harass these assholes, but the rest of us can. They have earned our eternal enmity and should be declared and treated as persona non grata from here on. We don’t care about them or what happens to them. They got away with attacking us, and they should be grateful we don’t hunt them down. It’s what they deserve.
Oh Joyce thank you for your gracious words to explain the situation we find ourselves facing with this monstrous regime. He’s floundering in a war no one wants. Lying everyday. Costs for all of us are over the top. Thinking about the thin skinned people who say yes in this regime and to this selfish venal man. There will be a reckoning in the future. I hope we can find some peace of mind and hope to repair our nation and the rule of law.
Yes, unfortunately, readers of an older age were taught in school that Arnold was a 'traitor'.....then came Ken Burns documentary of the Revolutionary War....and the times that 'Arnold Saved Washington'!!! If you haven't seen that documentary, it's really well worth watching!
We do need to find ways to make it impossible for a president to "pardon" or "commute" sentences for insurrectionists who were following his orders to reverse election results. Now that Trump got away with it again and a bunch of white boy criminals are released on this nation to do pretty much what they want, we are all at risk and Trumplandia moves forward with its criminal behavior and somehow, it can't be stopped! That is wrong in every way.
What Trumplandia forgets is that we know what the January 6ers did and that they were traitors to the American people and no matter how hard our Baby Donnie wants to hide it or rewrite history or whatever criminal acts he does, people know and it will be recorded in enough places that our grandchildren and beyond will know because their grandparents saw it happening in real time.
I am grateful the judge spoke up with his honest concerns about the dishonest prosecutors' "case," but he should never have had to do that. Juries had rightly spoken.
Trump now thinks he is god and that if he waves his bruised hand or nods, whatever he wants will happen and he will be right to do whatever that is. Dementia does that to narcissistic folks and his white house toddler pool knows it and is using it, hoping they can completely escape accountability for their own illegal actions. I am sure Baby Donnie will pardon them all and himself before leaving office, but historians and others have long memories.
The only thing I keep thinking is that as some point Trump will drop dead, we're all waiting, but the last thing on his mind won't be these people in his administration that need pardons for their corrupt actions and if that happens (he drops dead) they won't get them unless of course he's already handed them out, but he's too much of a narcissist and control freak to do that and it's how he keeps control of all of them to do the things he wants. If he were a younger man, I would be worried, but he isn't. They say, "God works in mysterious ways", and we need a mysterious event now. Apparently Marine One and a passenger aircraft came close yesterday.......................mysterious way. 🤔
Well, the judge's opinion being what it is and the law being what it is, it is up to us to memorialize these actions by ensuring that those who decided to buckle under the weight of a crime boss should carry the weight of their mutual acts and ensure that their names will live in infamy starting with the name of the criminal enablers who signed the motion to dismiss indictment.
The one flaw in this article is that it does not link to the motion.
Take a look at what the man who threw the rule of law out the window said about himself on his LinkedIn bio. I think he would do well to include his deplorable action on May 22, 2026 when he signed the motion to set a dangerous, arch criminal, free.
So that's it then. The Courts are powerless. This ruling is a clarion call to all would be tyrants of the future. The rule of law can not stand against chaos on its own. I grieve for my beautiful country.
Stewart Rhodes is a very dangerous criminal who trump decided to spring from a federal prison without just cause. And in order to do that he required the assistance of licensed attorneys. Those attorneys should be disbrred and shamed before all of America. Their names are:JEANINE FERRIS PIRRO and G.A. MASSUCCO.
The entire purpose of freeing these loathsome convicted criminals is so that they could be activated to commit more violent crimes against whomever their benefactor signals they should whenever required.
This is why Cornyn and Tillis folded like cheap suits over last weekend — they were likely receiving threats from these people via text, email, any number of methods. Same with any Senate members over the past year and a half who may have been deemed wavering on votes for highly questionable nominees such as Emil Bove, to name one of many examples.
You can be sure that Cassidy and Murkowski are recipients of hundreds of these threats this week as they wring their hands over which way to vote on Clod “I’m his lawyer” BlunderBlanche.
Same with the dinosaur Senator Grassley, who had the audacity to dismiss Cornyn’s and Tillis’s concerns as adolescent. He’s an ancient coward who will do and say anything for party over country to keep a target off of his back in Iowa.
The WH has quite literally become a smoky backroom straight out of “The Godfather” where hits are being ordered against anyone perceived as disloyal or unwilling to toe the line. Sadly Senator Cornyn admitted as much on camera this week when deflecting why he caved - “…(he) can’t be reined in.” This was always the intent of getting back into power -- punishing the country for booting the inept fool out of there in 2020 for a million legit reasons.
It’s absolutely crucial that we turn out like never before in modern history in November to take back the House and the Senate. There can be no room for error. We must prove Cornyn wrong.
Judge Mehta — an exceptional, wise and intelligent judge — was being tactful & judicious. But something much more sinister is going on and it is widespread. A president who is a criminally convicted felon — and who continues to lie and defraud the American people — is running the DOJ as his own personal mafia enforcement operation. Convicted criminals are suing the government, and the DOJ is settling those lawsuits and handing out million dollar settlements. It is no longer the Department of Justice. It is the Department of Trump Justice. Prosecute enemies. Reward loyalists. Hear no evil, see no corruption, speak only what Trump wants you to say. This is what we get when we have a criminal running the Executive Branch. We get a government by the criminal … and for the criminals.
I would’ve preferred Judge Meta to dispense with “tactful & judicious” - the ordinary rule- “and find that on the facts of this case, that the judgments made by two juries outweigh the technical right of a subservient justice department to reward these insurrectionists with clemency. Therefore, I decline the government’s invitation to blindly defer to the ordinary rule. The government can take its complaint and its filings and put them in the shredder where they belong. Dismissed with prejudice. Buh-BYE.
That would have been my preference as well, William.
My layperson's interpretation is that the Honorable Judge Mehta begrudgingly accepts that he has no choice but to go along with an unquestionally corrupt pardon, and his only option is to comply, while offering strong words of disapproval for the for the record.
I understand that under this cruel regime, that takes courage, and I applaud him for that, yet this is entirely unsatisfying, it is exasperating!
Something needs to be changed, I'm not qualified to say exactly what that is. I'll have to add "research the history and purpose of the presidential pardon power" to my to-do list. I'm neither a lawyer nor a constitutional scholar, but surely the founders who granted this power never intended to give future tyrants the extraordinary power to absolve violent criminals and traitors.
this entire issue is a "judgment at Nuremburg" moment. Those judges were convicted for following utterly corrupt rules. Would have been better if this judge identified the corrupt motivation of this eternally corrupt administration and refused to go along.
I assume a judge could be disbarred (if that's the correct term?) for violating the law, as flawed as the law may be. But I would also like to see a judge willing to test that premise.
On one hand, I'm hesitant to suggest that our principled judges shold risk elimination when we need them now more than ever. On the other hand, I have to wonder, what good is to have principled judges on the side of democracy, when they are unable to stop this country from slipping further down the existentially dangerous slope we are on?
i'm reminded of the ethical dilemma used in ethics classes of the father whose son is dying and needs a very expensive medication in order to live. The father can't afford it and the pharmacist won't lower the price, so the father breaks into the pharmacy and steals it. How should we regard his action? When should the law be respected and what is a "break the glass" moment when other factors might morally come into play?
How in the world does this man successfully out maneuver the best legal minds in our country? He has ignored court orders. Redefined criminals as patriots. Protects pedophiles. Sends armed, masked thugs against American citizens. How did this happen and how does it change?
A shameful stain on American history, justice and the rule of law. Trump has made a mockery of them all.
Trump is by far the worst and most corrupt president in US history, essentially a mafia boss, who has pardoned and is constantly defending his thugs. He is hoping to attain the power of a fascist dictator, but I am hoping a majority of voters will come to their senses this November and vote the Republicans (who have betrayed their oaths to defend the Constitution) out of power in the House and the Senate.
Unfortunately dictators don't really care about voters. He's putting this country - and the world - in great jeopardy. All he cares about is money, power and abject fealty.
True, but Trump is not a dictator yet. I believe we still have the ability to at least slow him down, especially if the Democrats gain control of the House and the Senate in 2027, and federal judges continue to uphold the rule of law and defend the Constitution. As Trump continues to demonstrate his incompetence in everything other than intimidating Republican politicians and enriching himself, the likelihood increases that he will be forced out of office in January 2029, if not sooner.
It's a hopeful thought, but the cancer has metastasized and the damage is great. Hold that thought!
So true. I just hope that if Democrats do win, we will be able to overcome the lack of a moral compass that has taken hold of so much of the country.
I like the thought that TRUMP IS A CANCER.
From your lips to God’s ear!
Great Jeopardy? What are you talking about?
The current crop of Republican politicians have certainly shown him abject fealty -- as though they had gone into the phony phone booth of Simon Bar Sinister.
What trump has done is that he’s given the country permission to thumb its nose at the rule of law. Shameful.
Looking at that foul picture of a swaggering, preening, out-of-control "pardoned" cowboy just makes the bile rise.
But he's Trump's kind of guy. Box seats at the next UFC charade.
"A shameful stain on American history, justice and the rule of law. Trump has made a mockery of them all."
Can I request that you DO NOT carry on with this arm-waving stuff?
It is not shameful; it is not a stain on American history - it IS American history, and your incredibly inept Constitution, plus a corrupt Congress, simply lets all this stuff go through.
You're going to have to fix all this one day - rather than dreaming that your system is perfect. Get to it.
When we come out of this mess, and with a new President and Congress, it will be time to fix our system to prevent some of the same things from happening again.
IF the “NEW Democrats” win enough seats at the table, and, IF they follow through! My fear is that there will be too many Democrats who will throw away the opportunity to make BOLD changes, instead, playing it safe…not making waves…blending in.
The problem now is that we've allowed this to go so far that the time for gradual, incremental change has evaporated.
Given that Joyce Vance is the author of this article, she can say whatever she wants to say, however she wants to say it, when she wants to say it and she can even repeat it tomorrow if she chooses. It is our choice as subscribers to read it or not. We all know what needs to be done. We all know that the Constitution is deficient in many ways. But given this unprecedented, sorry, POS Congress, we, the people have not been able to stop this destruction of the rule of law. We will begin the reconstruction when we get back into office. Though, I suspect pardons will continue to be given during the remaining time in office, we will seek redress of these abuses by going after the law licenses of attorneys and throwing out of office (in my head, literally) those who perpetrated these abuses against us. We will get there. It will take some time, but I think all of us here, as subscribers, know this. I also think there is a place in hell for all the insurrectionists and all the others who plotted and collaborated this total injustice on the people in this country.
Ridiculous! History still has moments laudable and shameful. I don't see anyone here suggesting that our Constitution is perfect and we certainly know Congress is corrupt - along with this entire regime, the Supreme Court, and the corporate community - demonstrated every day. The challenge is finding a path to correction without widespread bloodshed. That might be the "dreaming" part.
yes, and the old maxim still works; follow the money.
he didn't release traitors and sexual predators to reoffend because he's incompetent and crazy (though he is), he paid off a private army of guys ready to fight a civil war for him, distracted from epstein, grifted some of the funds for himself i'm sure, and wrapped that around the other thing; freedom from any consequences of his staggering corruption.
good day's work for a dotty old man.
history will remember him for as long as it remembered smedly butler.
Thank you for keeping us informed. It’s scary to think what will be lost as they bury us in corruption and run rampant over the rule of law.
The government might not be able to harass these assholes, but the rest of us can. They have earned our eternal enmity and should be declared and treated as persona non grata from here on. We don’t care about them or what happens to them. They got away with attacking us, and they should be grateful we don’t hunt them down. It’s what they deserve.
⬆️⬆️⬆️💯⬆️⬆️⬆️
Oh Joyce thank you for your gracious words to explain the situation we find ourselves facing with this monstrous regime. He’s floundering in a war no one wants. Lying everyday. Costs for all of us are over the top. Thinking about the thin skinned people who say yes in this regime and to this selfish venal man. There will be a reckoning in the future. I hope we can find some peace of mind and hope to repair our nation and the rule of law.
Trump is a modern day Benedict Arnold. The judge at least maintains his honor.
Arguably Benedict Arnold had redeeming qualities
Yes, unfortunately, readers of an older age were taught in school that Arnold was a 'traitor'.....then came Ken Burns documentary of the Revolutionary War....and the times that 'Arnold Saved Washington'!!! If you haven't seen that documentary, it's really well worth watching!
We do need to find ways to make it impossible for a president to "pardon" or "commute" sentences for insurrectionists who were following his orders to reverse election results. Now that Trump got away with it again and a bunch of white boy criminals are released on this nation to do pretty much what they want, we are all at risk and Trumplandia moves forward with its criminal behavior and somehow, it can't be stopped! That is wrong in every way.
What Trumplandia forgets is that we know what the January 6ers did and that they were traitors to the American people and no matter how hard our Baby Donnie wants to hide it or rewrite history or whatever criminal acts he does, people know and it will be recorded in enough places that our grandchildren and beyond will know because their grandparents saw it happening in real time.
I am grateful the judge spoke up with his honest concerns about the dishonest prosecutors' "case," but he should never have had to do that. Juries had rightly spoken.
Trump now thinks he is god and that if he waves his bruised hand or nods, whatever he wants will happen and he will be right to do whatever that is. Dementia does that to narcissistic folks and his white house toddler pool knows it and is using it, hoping they can completely escape accountability for their own illegal actions. I am sure Baby Donnie will pardon them all and himself before leaving office, but historians and others have long memories.
We know what they did.
The only thing I keep thinking is that as some point Trump will drop dead, we're all waiting, but the last thing on his mind won't be these people in his administration that need pardons for their corrupt actions and if that happens (he drops dead) they won't get them unless of course he's already handed them out, but he's too much of a narcissist and control freak to do that and it's how he keeps control of all of them to do the things he wants. If he were a younger man, I would be worried, but he isn't. They say, "God works in mysterious ways", and we need a mysterious event now. Apparently Marine One and a passenger aircraft came close yesterday.......................mysterious way. 🤔
Thank you, Joyce, for your diligence, persistence, and relentless work to save our country. And to keep your readers energized and informed.
Beautifully explained, by Judge Mehta and by you. He did the correct thing and I applaud his bravery in explaining why. He’s rather a badass. Respect.
Well, the judge's opinion being what it is and the law being what it is, it is up to us to memorialize these actions by ensuring that those who decided to buckle under the weight of a crime boss should carry the weight of their mutual acts and ensure that their names will live in infamy starting with the name of the criminal enablers who signed the motion to dismiss indictment.
The one flaw in this article is that it does not link to the motion.
Here is a link to the motion to dismiss indictment signed by JEANINE FERRIS PIRRO and by G.A. MASSUCCO.
https://www.nacdl.org/getattachment/baa11489-3125-4452-be70-f5e213b96ed6/g-gov-uscourts-dcd-239207-967-0.pdf
Take a look at what the man who threw the rule of law out the window said about himself on his LinkedIn bio. I think he would do well to include his deplorable action on May 22, 2026 when he signed the motion to set a dangerous, arch criminal, free.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/g-massucco/
So that's it then. The Courts are powerless. This ruling is a clarion call to all would be tyrants of the future. The rule of law can not stand against chaos on its own. I grieve for my beautiful country.
Stewart Rhodes is a very dangerous criminal who trump decided to spring from a federal prison without just cause. And in order to do that he required the assistance of licensed attorneys. Those attorneys should be disbrred and shamed before all of America. Their names are:JEANINE FERRIS PIRRO and G.A. MASSUCCO.
The entire purpose of freeing these loathsome convicted criminals is so that they could be activated to commit more violent crimes against whomever their benefactor signals they should whenever required.
This is why Cornyn and Tillis folded like cheap suits over last weekend — they were likely receiving threats from these people via text, email, any number of methods. Same with any Senate members over the past year and a half who may have been deemed wavering on votes for highly questionable nominees such as Emil Bove, to name one of many examples.
You can be sure that Cassidy and Murkowski are recipients of hundreds of these threats this week as they wring their hands over which way to vote on Clod “I’m his lawyer” BlunderBlanche.
Same with the dinosaur Senator Grassley, who had the audacity to dismiss Cornyn’s and Tillis’s concerns as adolescent. He’s an ancient coward who will do and say anything for party over country to keep a target off of his back in Iowa.
The WH has quite literally become a smoky backroom straight out of “The Godfather” where hits are being ordered against anyone perceived as disloyal or unwilling to toe the line. Sadly Senator Cornyn admitted as much on camera this week when deflecting why he caved - “…(he) can’t be reined in.” This was always the intent of getting back into power -- punishing the country for booting the inept fool out of there in 2020 for a million legit reasons.
It’s absolutely crucial that we turn out like never before in modern history in November to take back the House and the Senate. There can be no room for error. We must prove Cornyn wrong.
And this is a product of the awful Citizens United ruling of 2010. The Roberts' Court has done our America so much harm.
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) states: "[Dismissal] By the Government. The government may, with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information, or complaint. The government may not dismiss the prosecution during trial without the defendant’s consent." [https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2025-02/federal-rules-of-criminal-procedure-dec-1-2024_0.pdf]
Sounds like the rule needs revision to accomplish intended purpose of the "leave of court" requirement, outlined here (Lawfare, "The Shoddy History Behind a Key Precedent in the Flynn Case" [https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/shoddy-history-behind-key-precedent-flynn-case]) and here (Frampton, "Why Do Rule 48(a) Dismissals Require 'Leave of Court'?" [https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/why-do-rule-48a-dismissals-require-leave-of-court/]): in Frampton's words, "to halt corrupt or politically motivated dismissals of cases."
Brava, Joyce!!! And Judge Mehta!!!
Judge Mehta — an exceptional, wise and intelligent judge — was being tactful & judicious. But something much more sinister is going on and it is widespread. A president who is a criminally convicted felon — and who continues to lie and defraud the American people — is running the DOJ as his own personal mafia enforcement operation. Convicted criminals are suing the government, and the DOJ is settling those lawsuits and handing out million dollar settlements. It is no longer the Department of Justice. It is the Department of Trump Justice. Prosecute enemies. Reward loyalists. Hear no evil, see no corruption, speak only what Trump wants you to say. This is what we get when we have a criminal running the Executive Branch. We get a government by the criminal … and for the criminals.
I would’ve preferred Judge Meta to dispense with “tactful & judicious” - the ordinary rule- “and find that on the facts of this case, that the judgments made by two juries outweigh the technical right of a subservient justice department to reward these insurrectionists with clemency. Therefore, I decline the government’s invitation to blindly defer to the ordinary rule. The government can take its complaint and its filings and put them in the shredder where they belong. Dismissed with prejudice. Buh-BYE.
But that’s just me. You be you.
That would have been my preference as well, William.
My layperson's interpretation is that the Honorable Judge Mehta begrudgingly accepts that he has no choice but to go along with an unquestionally corrupt pardon, and his only option is to comply, while offering strong words of disapproval for the for the record.
I understand that under this cruel regime, that takes courage, and I applaud him for that, yet this is entirely unsatisfying, it is exasperating!
Something needs to be changed, I'm not qualified to say exactly what that is. I'll have to add "research the history and purpose of the presidential pardon power" to my to-do list. I'm neither a lawyer nor a constitutional scholar, but surely the founders who granted this power never intended to give future tyrants the extraordinary power to absolve violent criminals and traitors.
this entire issue is a "judgment at Nuremburg" moment. Those judges were convicted for following utterly corrupt rules. Would have been better if this judge identified the corrupt motivation of this eternally corrupt administration and refused to go along.
I assume a judge could be disbarred (if that's the correct term?) for violating the law, as flawed as the law may be. But I would also like to see a judge willing to test that premise.
On one hand, I'm hesitant to suggest that our principled judges shold risk elimination when we need them now more than ever. On the other hand, I have to wonder, what good is to have principled judges on the side of democracy, when they are unable to stop this country from slipping further down the existentially dangerous slope we are on?
i'm reminded of the ethical dilemma used in ethics classes of the father whose son is dying and needs a very expensive medication in order to live. The father can't afford it and the pharmacist won't lower the price, so the father breaks into the pharmacy and steals it. How should we regard his action? When should the law be respected and what is a "break the glass" moment when other factors might morally come into play?
It is beyond my realm of comprehension and understanding of the human psyche, at least his, as to how the judge could make such ruling.
Perhaps I am naive ... Do I need a reality check?
:(
Under the law, he had no other choice. Another flaw in our laws.
How in the world does this man successfully out maneuver the best legal minds in our country? He has ignored court orders. Redefined criminals as patriots. Protects pedophiles. Sends armed, masked thugs against American citizens. How did this happen and how does it change?