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I tend to disagree with this. The documents apparently includes the following language:
It seems to me that allowing others to be the primary occupants of the house is not consistent with this language.
So if I understand you correctly, your argument is as follows:
A career prosecutor and a Trump appointee declined to pursue the case.
It follows that those officials determined that the case was meritless.
If the case is meritless, it's because there is corroborating evidence for James' claims about the intended use of the property.
Does that pretty much sum up your argument?
Also, I had a couple other questions:
Regarding Trump's alleged wrongdoing in the civil case against him, you said:
Are you able to identify 2 or 3 precedents for similar legal proceedings against ordinary citizens from the last 20 or 30 years?
Also, you said this:
Of these cases, which would you say was the most egregious case with the most unquestionable guilt? I am asking because I would like to look at it more carefully.
I'd suggest a possible alternative reason for why prosecutors might want to avoid prosecuting James regardless of the merit of the case: the standard that it establishes exposes them. James is a prosecutor. You're a prosecutor. James did politically motivated prosecutions of your boss. Your boss asks you to prosecute her in retaliation. What's gonna happen to you in 4-8-12 years when the political pendulum swings? You've just walked directly in front of the crosshairs. In contrast, you know your boss' reputation, if you refuse he'll fire you, he might badmouth you a bit, but if you lay low and shut your mouth afterwards, he's not gonna come after you.
I agree that's a possibility. Another possibility is that the prosecutor simply thinks it's abuse of office to engage in politically-motivated retaliation. Even if the prosecution is in retaliation for something that itself was abusive.
Also, even if the prosecutor is not worried about being brought up on trumped-up charges down the road, he still might worry about damage to his reputation. It's very common for former federal prosecutors to end up with high-paying jobs at fancy law firms. Having been the person who prosecuted Letitia James would probably mean having to write off the possibility of future employment at 70-80% of BigLaw type firms. Perhaps more.
There's also the part where lawfare works better when the target of it actually commits a crime. It's admittedly early to tell, but Comey's trial might not go so well for the administration.
A prosecutor's job is to score a conviction. Imagine you're a prosecutor, and your boss tells you you're required to stand in front of a judge being berated because the point was just to harass a guy.
I'm not sure what your point is here. Are you confident that Letitia James has not committed any crimes?
I'm saying attorneys like winning cases because their professional record is the cases they have won. One of the problems with lawfare is by its very nature it's based on going after someone you hate rather than someone who provably committed a crime. If you are a DOJ employee and your boss tells you to find something to stick John Smith with, you may refuse because there's nothing to stick Smith with. Tit-for-tat lawfare is limited by the DOJ's willingness to be put in shitty situations to appease their boss.
With Letitia, I am reading the other thread with interest. I have a bit of passing knowledge of law, but I'm not going to presume to tell the Motte how I think that will go when The Motte includes actual lawyers. Rov_Scam has an interesting analysis. That said, I was pointing out the the Letitia case is not the only example of lawfare going on right now.
Agreed, but so what? I still don't see your point. I agree that in general lawfare results in cases which are, all things being equal, less likely to succeed on the merits. (if "lawfare" is defined as public officials first targeting individuals for political reasons and then trying to put together cases against them). Is that your point?
Except that his analysis appears to be incorrect, at least according to the text of the US Code and a set of pattern jury instructions I found.
Unless he's willing to post information which would allow his credentials to be confirmed, I wouldn't put much stock in it.
Close to it. During Trump's first term, he fought to get Sessions out because A) Sessions recused himself from testifying in Trump's defense during the Russia investigation and B) Trump wanted Sessions to engage in lawfare against Clinton and Sessions refused. Erik Siebert resigned allegedly because he refused to go after Letitia. I am saying that if lawfare results in this kind of staff turnover that also doesn't suggest tit-for-tat lawfare is going to be a recurring theme. I'll grant you that 2 cases out of 3 is low sample size to draw conclusions.
Yes I saw that as well. I don't know that your argument is a slam dunk, though I'm not dismissing it either.
I'm not that jaded that I expect people to dox themselves before I believe them. Rov has been around a while and talks like he knows what he's talking about. That's usually fine for me until someone posts in a way that sets off bullshit detectors.
The case against her existed before Trump wanted to prosecute it. The FBI simply declined to pursue it. Is ignoring the political shield that protects a politician from prosecution that actually anyone else would be subject to the same as lawfare?
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