(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Dictator Drumphf aims to defy the Law and the Courts [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-10
Let’s be clear, MAGAs are criminals. They are a semi-organized criminal enterprise. They aren’t shy about it, they aren’t even subtle.
They’ve attacked USAID with a set of exaggerations, lies and conspiracies which they’ve used as a bogus excuse to shut down the agency. This is ironic since USAID was in the process of investigating misuse by Musk’s Starlink system in Ukraine.
USAID was investigating its relationship with Starlink just months before tech billionaire Elon Musk attempted to shut the agency down, according to reports. The freezes and cuts to the foreign aid department, spearheaded by Musk as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), raise questions of a potential conflict of interest, as Musk is the owner of Starlink, a subsidiary of his company SpaceX. Newsweek contacted Elon Musk and Starlink through SpaceX via email. Fears that Musk and others could use their positions in government to benefit themselves have been around since President Donald Trump won the 2024 election. The move to dismantle USAID is the first major policy decision Musk has made, and the way it is handled will be indicative of how powerful he will be over the next four years. During a hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability in September, USAID Inspector General Paul K. Martin told Congress that the agency was examining its relationship with Starlink, one of Musk's most prominent tech ventures. In 2022, USAID and Starlink collaborated to provide 5,000 Starlink terminals to Ukraine, to give the country fighting Russian invasion access to Musk's advanced internet system, operated through SpaceX, as reported by The Lever. "In addition to another ongoing audit on direct budget support, we are examining USAID's Energy Security Project, USAID's oversight of Starlink Satellite Terminals provided to the Ukrainian government, and USAID's efforts to protect against sexual exploitation and abuse in Ukraine," Martin told Congress.
But MAGA’s ignore this.
They can ignore every court decision on the 2020 election without batting an eye. They’ve been hit with multiple negative court decisions involving Elon Musk and DOGE and they just don’t care.
Jim Jordan argues that Drumphf makes the decisions.
Inside Politics host Manu Raju asked Jordan about a Reagan-appointed federal judge who argued "the president is going too far" on policy changes like rescinding birthright citizenship. "I'm talking about, there's a pattern where judges are saying they're going too far on these issues," Raju pressed after Jordan argued it was "just one judge" who blocked Trump's order to end birthright citizenship. "All I know is, again, Article Two, Section One, the very first sentence, 'The executive power shall be vested in a president,'" Jordan said, citing the Constitution. "I think it's important, 'a president of the United States of America,' not in bureaucrats, not in career people — in the president. The guy who put his name on the ballot." Jordan continued, "This is a fundamental difference we have with the left. The left thinks, 'Oh, it's the career experts who make the decisions.' That's not how our country works. It's the guy who puts his name on the ballot, gets elected by 'We the people.' He gets to make the decisions, or she gets to make the decisions. That's how — we don't want the Faucis of the world and all the people in the bureaucracy making the decisions. We want the guy who puts their name on the ballot and gets elected by the American people." "But, you guys are elected, too, you know, co-equal branch of the government," Raju said, stopping short of discussing the system of checks and balances that prevents any one branch of government from wielding all the power.
Here’s the thing. The Congress establishes the budget. They establish what gets paid for and what doesn’t. The President gets to sign that budget or he gets to veto that budget — he’s doesn’t get to micromanage what he will pay for within that budget and what he won’t. He doesn’t get to re-write the budget on-the-fly after it’s been approved. Violating the budget and the priorities in that budget is a violation of the law and in Article 2, Section One it also says that the Executive will “take care that the laws are faithfully implemented.”
The President may make the final decisions, but there are many specific micro-decisions that have to be made by his staff with subject matter expertise on a day-to-day basis. Government scientists have to make evaluations. Government accountants have to make assessments. Government regulators have to makes rules and standards. That is not his job.
Now we have JD Vance and Mike Lee suggesting that Drumphf should defy the judges.
x x YouTube Video The vice president, who's a Yale Law School graduate, and fellow attorney Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) questioned the authority of the judicial branch over the executive by tweeting that judges had no authority over a president's "legitimate power," after court order blocked Trump's billionaire benefactor Elon Musk from accessing sensitive private data. "Step back and look at this, I think, what would Mike Lee be saying if some major Democratic donor, wealthy person came in and just started mucking around in people's data?" Klobuchar told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "He is doing this, Elon Musk is doing this at the behest of the president of the United States, and so many of these things are illegal. Here's what's weird about this: They control both houses of Congress and the presidency, and Mike Lee well knows that if they want to do this right, there is a way they can go in. They can decide, even though this cancer research is going on in red states and blue states and purple states, they can go in and cut that from the budget. I don't think they'll want to do that because they understand that every dollar they put in [the National Institutes of Health] brings out $2 in economic activity. But as you note, they can do this the right way and they can pass a budget and they can give their tax cuts to the wealthy if that's what they want, and we will do everything to fight it and to make the case to our constituents and to the American people." "But why they have to pretend that this is a coup when the courts have every right to enforce the law," Klobuchar added. "At that inauguration, I made that point. We have that inauguration in the Capitol for a reason, not at a presidential palace like they do in some countries, and we have the Supreme Court there for a reason, because it is a clear, clear message to America that we have three equal branches of government in this country. They are messing around with this, and both Mike Lee and J.D. Vance are students of the Constitution, and they know it's wrong. But again, they are doing this at the behest of one Donald Trump, and it's our job in Congress to stand up to it."
Steven Miller claims that what the Judge has done is “Unconstitutional.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller lashed out at "radical left" judges who have blocked Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing the Treasury Department's federal payments system. During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo asked Miller to respond to "efforts by some of these liberal judges to stop President Trump from allowing Elon Musk access to these issues." "So, as you're aware, a radical left judge said that the Secretary of the Treasury cannot access the Treasury computer system!" Miller exclaimed. "This isn't just unconstitutional! That ruling is an assault on the very idea of democracy itself!"
No, the Judge said that only authorized Treasury staff can access the system, not unauthorized members of DOGE.
Miller accused "rogue bureaucrats who are elected by no one" of running the government — but he wasn't talking about Musk.
"Whether it be with the Treasury bureaucrats or the FBI bureaucrats or the CIA bureaucrats or the USAID bureaucrats, with this unelected shadow force that is running our government and running our country!" the Trump adviser yelled. "Donald Trump is engaging in the most important restoration of democracy in over a century by saying that we are going to restore power to the people through their elected president and his appointed officers."
The DOJ has now demanded that the Judge reverse his order.
Justice Department lawyers asked Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas to immediately end or modify the court order issued by another federal judge Saturday blocking system access to everyone but career employees who had taken proper training after states sued over access that Musk and other special government employees had been given, reported Politico. “Basic democratic accountability requires that every executive agency’s work be supervised by politically accountable leadership, who ultimately answer to the president,” DOJ attorneys wrote in the 11-page filing. DOJ lawyers said they're negotiating with the states on an agreement that would narrow U.S. District judge Paul Engelmayer's order, and Vargas said she would demand an expedited review Monday night if an agreement wasn't reached by 5 p.m.
This has set off alarm bells with Ellie Honig.
While discussing Vance's weekend attacks on judges who have shot down Trump administration policies, Honig argued that the vice president was heading into uncharted territory with respect to the rule of law. J.D. Vance said over the weekend that a judge who halted Elon Musk from accessing Treasury records was overstepping their authority. "Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power," he posted on social media.
Yeah, actually, they are. They do exactly that.
"J.D. Vance is really stepping very close to dangerous ground with that statement and he knows it," he said. "The notion that the courts cannot stop the executive from doing what he wants, the notion that the executive may have the option of defying the courts, that is completely beyond even what the most extreme right-wing conservative theory in favor of broad executive power has ever argued. "Now, look, there is a very broad view of executive power, sometimes it's called the unitary executive theory, which holds essentially that the president is all-powerful within the executive branch. But even proponents of that theory do not say that the president is free to disregard an order of the court. If that were to happen, that is a line in the sand that has not been crossed."
Norm Eisen points out that these efforts are illegal and may lead to criminal contempt.
x x YouTube Video "The very first case, locking Mr. [Elon] Musk out of the Treasury Department. He has no right to look at that data," he said, referring to a challenge which saw a judge at the weekend temporarily cut Musk's access to the nation's financial records. "Tying the hands of the president, the attorney general and others who want to dox reveal the identity of 6,000 FBI agents. They don't have any legal right to do that under the Privacy Act and otherwise," he went on, referencing plans to name agents who worked on January 6 cases. He also pointed out that on Monday morning, they're in court fighting Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship, which Eisen said is "rewriting the Constitution." The legal team also filed a brief on behalf of "almost two dozen conservatives" fighting back against the purge of federal staffers who work for congressionally established and funded agencies. "This offer to force federal employees out without the permission of Congress is illegal. And that case will be heard today. We've been involved in many of these cases, and they're going to lose," Eisen said. The host asked whether he believed the courts would agree. "I do. I think that the courts will start with civil contempt. They'll move to criminal contempt. They have broader sanctions. They're going to rule against the administration," promised Eisen. "In that case, I think the Supreme Court will back them up." The host also wondered if there was any way to enforce the court rulings if Trump decided to ignore them, asking whether the U.S. Marshals would get involved. "I think American democracy is strong enough to meet this test," he added. "We are at a crossroads. That's why we've been involved in dozens of cases, with dozens more coming in the weeks and months ahead. But I believe in the strength of American democracy. If Donald Trump and Elon Musk and J.D. Vance test the will of the American people or the American courts, I think they're going to get a very strong pushback."
George Conway also says that this is a potential constitutional crisis.
"J.D. Vance is an embarrassment to the law school that I attended," Conway said. "But the fact of the matter is, he's telling us something that we should have already known, and last week I said it. They are not going to obey court orders, they have decided that they are going to push the boundaries on executive power by basically infringing on the Article 1 power of Congress, and they are violating statutory, they're violating the text of the Constitution in the birthright citizenship issue. "They are violating the text of statutes by having DOGE run around and do all the things that they've been doing, the executive orders, there's no reason that this government that has decided not to obey the laws and the Constitution of the United States is going to obey a court order and, as you know, having practiced law there's really only one way that courts can enforce their orders when somebody is being contumacious and refusing to obey an order, and that's to send the U.S. Marshals out to take somebody in and to hold them in contempt or to otherwise enforce court orders."
"Well, who does the U.S. Marshals Service work for?" Conway added. "The U.S. Marshals Service is part of the United States Department of Justice. It reports to Donald J. Trump, and what's going to happen here, mark my words, is that at some point, they are going to basically tell the United States Marshals Service, do not enforce any of these orders, we will not obey them, and you are not to enforce them and, once that happens, I mean, I hope it doesn't happen, but I know in my heart that it will, our 236-year experiment in the federal rule of law, in democratic self-governance for the United States of America, in American constitutionalism, is essentially over." Conway didn't see any institutional bulwark against Trump's abuse of the rule of law. "The only recourse is to go out on the streets and march," Conway said. "That is the only recourse. The courts have no mechanism to enforce their orders other than through the United States Marshals Service, and that's through the Department of Justice, thus through the executive branch. The reason why we obey court orders is because the executive branch complies with court orders. If the executive branch does not comply with court orders and makes a point of saying that we will not comply with court orders, the rule of law, as far as the federal government is concerned, is over, and that is something we need to start focusing on and discussing, because that's where these people will go." "There is no logical stopping point for them, and this is, you know, the only recourse will be for people to get out and say, we want the rule of law, we want a government that obeys the law, and that's going to require people to go out on the streets, because that is, there is no other alternative," he added.
If DOGE starts defying the Judge what happens next? Does the US Marshall service get involved to enforce the judicial order? And what happens when Trump orders Pam Bondi to have the US Marshalls stand down?
Does the Judge then issue a Contempt of Court order against Pam Bondi and have her arrested and jailed for defying a court order?
Does Trump then pardon Bondi and have her released?
Wouldn’t that be Obstruction of Justice and (another) Impeachable Offense?
If this happens, should we be in the streets protesting the DICTATOR in the White House who repeatedly lies ignores congressional law and defies judges?
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/10/2302750/-Dictator-Drumphf-aims-to-defy-the-Law-and-the-Courts?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
