Following Orders

In the post-Watergate order, attorneys general take direction from the president, but only up to a certain point. On matters of policy, it’s entirely appropriate for an attorney general to execute the executive’s plans. But that’s not true when it comes to handling individual cases. Justice demands that those cases be pursued solely on the basis of the facts and the law, not partisan politics. The president isn’t supposed to use the Justice Department like it’s his own personal prosecutor’s office instead of an office with a serious obligation to do justice.

But tonight, no surprises, Pam Bondi did just that. The Epstein scandal is starting to look like an albatross around this administration’s neck that can’t be removed. In what appeared to be a choreographed shift away from talk of a special prosecutor look into the matter, Trump said earlier today, in a social media post of course, that grand jury material from the Epstein case should be made public. “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!

Pam Bondi responded with alacrity. “President Trump—we are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts,” she tweeted.

Why the shift? Release of the grand jury material, or as Trump would have it, only the bits that are “pertinent,” isn’t automatic. Federal prosecutors need a court order to disclose grand jury testimony; they can’t just do it on their own. Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, Rule 6(e)(3)(E), “The court may authorize disclosure—at a time, in a manner, and subject to any other conditions that it directs—of a grand-jury matter” in a number of situations including: (1) in connection with a judicial proceeding; (2) to a defendant who has come forward with evidence that something improper occurred before the grand jury and he may be entitled to have the case dismissed; or (3) at the request of the federal government, to another jurisdiction that needs it to prosecute a case. Even if the government can shoehorn its request into one of these categories or another provision of the rule, it will take time. There may be objections from Ghislaine Maxwell, whose case is still on appeal. And, DOJ would have to make a “strong showing of particularized need” that “outweighs the public interest in secrecy” in order for the release to be ordered.

Grand jury secrecy is designed to protect the integrity of the investigation, prevent witnesses from being intimidated, and safeguard the reputations of those not indicted. To get grand jury material disclosed, a party has to demonstrate a specific need for the information that outweighs the public interest in maintaining secrecy. So why land on an option that is so limited and so fraught? All of the possible impediments to releasing grand jury material may well be the point for Trump. He can say, yet again, that he tried and the courts stood in his way. Even a delay, while lawyers brief the matter and a judge schedules a hearing, could work in Trump’s favor if the fickle public loses interest in the issue and moves on, and he lives to fight another day, yet again. That could explain this strategy.

A lot of ink has been spilled on how unfit to serve Pam Bondi is. But it was not enough to convince the Senate to reject her nomination. And now we pay the price for it, with an attorney general who is incapable of acting independently of the president to do the right thing instead of the expedient thing. Bondi is giving Trump cover so he can try to ride this dispute out. She acceded to his order that she ask the court to release what is just a small fraction of the material from the Epstein investigation, only testimony of witnesses prosecutors brought before the grand jury when they sought their indictment. And she does it knowing that it’s unlikely to succeed or could take some time.

In 2007, after Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was forced to resign in the wake of a scandal over politicizing the role of U.S. Attorney, former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick was asked what made a good attorney general, and she said, “The primary responsibility of the attorney general of the United States is to be the voice for the rule of law, and to insure both the effective and impartial enforcement of the law, and advise the president and the rest of his administration on the ways in which the actions that they take can conform to law and policy and the Constitution.” None of that sounds like Pam Bondi. She is more along the lines of Roy Cohn, the win-at-all-costs lawyer who shaped Trump’s youth, than the attorneys general, appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, who have served honorable since Watergate. Trump has finally found himself an attorney general who will unquestioningly follow his orders, and in doing so, bring disgrace on the Justice Department.

It’s very likely that Bondi is aiding and abetting Trump in playing delay, yet again. Even if Bondi succeeded in finding a judge who would order the release of the grand jury transcripts immediately, it’s unlikely that would satisfy the conspiracy-theory-promoting part of Trump’s base. For them, nothing short of exposing all of the details will suffice. There is far more to a criminal investigation than transcripts of witness testimony before the grand jury, at least some of which is likely to be just an FBI agent acting as a summary witness, and relating various hearsay matters to the grand jury (hearsay is permissible at this stage in the proceedings) rather than bringing in the witnesses themselves. What Trump and Bondi are talking about doesn’t include statements made by witnesses who weren’t called, investigative reporting conducted by agents, and physical evidence. This grand jury testimony, if it does become public, will be just that. Grand jury testimony. Not “The List.” Even transcripts that would be produced would be likely to be heavily redacted to protect victims—perfectly legitimate, but likely to incite adherents of the conspiracy lifestyle. In other words, this is a dodge, not what the transparency people are calling for. It’s an attempt by Trump to divert attention and tie the matter up in litigation over whether the grand jury information should be released for long enough to divert attention. There’s always a federal judge you can blame for your problems when you’re Donald Trump—he’ll say he tried to get the records, but a judge stood in his way.

Today, longtime (and apparently now former) Trump supporter Nick Fuentes had this to say about the president, “F*** you … you suck.”

He called Trump fat, a joke, and not as funny as he thinks he is. “This entire thing has been a scam,” he said of MAGA. “The liberals were right, the MAGA supporters were had,” he said, calling Trump a scam artist. It seemed to come out of nowhere, but it shows how deep the Epstein case goes. Forget the price of eggs, loss of medical insurance, and sending people to places like South Sudan and “Alligator Alcatraz.” It’s Trump’s Epstein cover-up that seems to be rending MAGA apart.

Who could have seen it coming? It’s hard not to feel a desire to make more popcorn and watch it happen. That’s because this is so utterly unprecedented in Trump world. In times of trouble in Trump world, everyone lines up behind the president’s claims, no matter how unbelievable or ridiculous. They march their way through the problem in lockstep, ignoring any suggestion that their emperor has no clothes, and getting away with it for the most part up until now.

We’re still waiting to see if this time will be different or if it will be like every other time Lucy has pulled the football away from Charlie Brown just when we thought he’d be able to kick it this time. We’ve been here before.

Late in the day, The Wall Street Journal weighed in. It had seen a long-rumored birthday card Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein and was reporting on it despite a lawsuit Trump threatened if they went ahead. The Journal tweeted, “Exclusive: For Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, friends created a book of bawdy letters. One was from Donald Trump.”

Trump threatened to sue Rupert Murdoch and the WSJ. He says the card is a fake, not written in his language, and that he doesn’t draw. They reported anyhow. Good on them. It feels like another hollow threat from Trump in any event; a lawsuit would bring too much exposure with it. Perhaps another deposition where he could do something like confusing E. Jean Carroll with his ex-wife Marla Maples after he tried to defend her defamation lawsuit against him by saying she wasn’t his type—and subsequently losing not once, but twice. But none of that stopped Trump from making the threat.

Now we watch it all play out with Trump and the lawyer who has forgotten she is supposed to represent the people, not the president, at his side. Donald Trump lives in a world where people take his orders. Pam Bondi certainly does. But it looks like MAGA isn’t. If people like Nick Fuentes are giving the base permission to abandon Donald Trump, who knows how far this could go?

We’re in this together,

Joyce