Day 1414: "Competing constitutional interests."

WTF Just Happened Today?

Tuesday, December 3, 2024

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1/ Trump – citing the language Biden used to pardoned his son – urged a judge to dismiss his 34 felony convictions of orchestrating an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election by falsifying business records. “As President Biden put it yesterday, ‘Enough is enough.’ This case, which should never have been brought, must now be dismissed,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently’ […] ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.’” The filing formally demands that New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan throw out Trump’s criminal case and nullify a unanimous jury’s conclusion that Trump committed 34 felonies. Trump’s attorneys also argued that his prosecution disrupts the president-elect’s transition and “threatens the functioning of the federal government.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, meanwhile, suggested postponing Trump’s sentencing until after he completes his second term in 2029, “to balance competing constitutional interests” of Trump’s conviction and his presidential duties. (NBC News / Washington Post / ABC News / CBS News)

• 🎓 WTF is a Presidential Pardon? A presidential pardon is one of the most powerful and controversial tools at the disposal of the President of the United States. Rooted in the U.S. Constitution, it enables the president to forgive individuals for federal crimes, potentially restoring their rights and mitigating the consequences of their actions. This legal mechanism has significant implications for justice, politics, and society.
• 🧩 What’s at stake? At stake is the integrity of the justice system and its ability to prosecute powerful individuals without political bias. A dismissal could embolden future leaders to claim political immunity, eroding judicial independence. Conversely, proceeding with sentencing risks intensifying political polarization and debates over the limits of prosecutorial discretion. The court’s decision will likely have lasting implications for legal norms and the balance of power in American democracy. Ensuring transparency and fairness in this high-profile case is crucial to maintaining public confidence. Future developments will test how the justice system navigates politically charged prosecutions and the separation of powers.

2/ Fox News has avoided reporting on recent allegations of financial mismanagement, sexism, sexual misconduct, and alcohol abuse against Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary. Hegseth, an Army veteran but with no Pentagon experience, worked at Fox News for a decade and nearly all of the recent mentions of Hegseth on Fox have been supportive or sympathetic, insulating its conservative audience from two recent reports: Hegseth’s own mother accused her son of being “an abuser of women” who “belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego.” Penelope Hegseth sent the 2018 email while Hegseth was divorcing his second wife after having an affair with a Fox News executive producer. And a previously...

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