This would not make it as a legal principle, I think, but every accusation Trump makes can be assumed to be a projection, and every claim he makes can be assumed to be a lie.
I repeat myself, I know. Sorry. But, I recognized him as a liar 45 years ago when he was interviewed by Tom Brokaw on The Today Show. He was obviously lying about the amount of money his father "loaned" him to start his business, and he told a stupid lie about why he didn't try to preserve the sculptures/friezes on the top of the Bonwit Teller Building. He showed me he was a liar and a con artist. The rest of his lovely qualities became clear as time marched on. But he lies as easily as breathing, and often when it is unnecessary. That interview is available on YouTube, as I found out during Short Fingers' first infestation of the White House.
I, too, have known about the sleazeball for over 45 years, when he first came down his magical escalator and landed his ass in Atlantic City, to build his casino, which he then proceeded to rape it dry and bankrupt it. EVERYTHING he says can be taken for granted as being a lie. He wouldn't know the truth if it ran over him and crushed his withering spine. Someone needs to out him to his MAGA minions.
Had anybody out there cared a tinker's damn about this piece of malignant filth, the truth would have been broadcast 24/7 from the mountain tops. I will go to my grave wondering why reporters didn't see fit to bother with due diligence ages ago. The man has never been anything but an extortionist, a gaslighting phony and cruel fraud. This was not hard to figure out. Not in the least.
Honestly that's a bit of a goofy rejoinder. Swalwell is among the most vociferous out there, calling out bullshit to its face. It isn't about trust, it's about *dissent.
"Trust" (or lack thereof, in this case) is one of the reasons why the Dems lost the election last year, along with their policy decisions, but I guess they still haven't figured that out yet. At least you've never read that from Jen, Norm or the vast majority of posters here. But that's to be expected in an ideological echo chamber such as this forum.
The "*dissent", as you call it, could be redirected to something more productive. Protest Trump all you want - no one is stopping you, right? But consider that all this money and energy could be used for town halls, hosted by groups like Indivisible to assess what the Democratic Party should stand FOR instead of AGAINST. Because, as I see it, the policies and positions that got the Dems booted from office haven't changed.
Be the better alternative (policies and vision) instead of constant whiners when your side is out of power.
Unfortunately, MAGA was taken with The Apprentice, which they think was "real." And they choose...I repeat, they choose, to ignore any kind of Truth about him.
I'd like to see every news report on his words or actions begin with this words: "This man is a documented liar. Please be advised that we cannot report than any of his claims are true, only that he has made a particular claim."
Thank you for the 'tip' to hang out our flag ......my husband is a 'disabled Vet' (Vietnam war) and it's something we can do since unable to make it to a Protest today!
Parenthetically: Bari Weiss's CBS News is apparently declining to cover the No Kings protests. ABC and NBC are providing some coverage, but if you look at the CBS home page, you just see lots of pictures of Dear Leader Trump doing Very Important Stuff. Hang out your American flag by all means, but don't look for it to be covered on CBS.
Everyone knows by now that Trump himself is a weak, singularly absurd little man, a reality TV celebrity who can (with patience and flattery) be trained to recite his lines, a useful puppet incapable of hatching anything more ambitious than a temper-tantrum.
It's not Trump who is shredding our constitution, incinerating our norms, tearing down our institutions, and transforming us at light-speed from a constitutional democracy into a violent authoritarian regime: it's the men who run Trump who are doing these things, particularly Russ Vought and Stephen Miller.
They have become for all intents and purposes co-presidents--the real powers behind a reeking golden throne.
Ambitious, unhinged, weirdly intelligent but creepily unattractive, neither man could ever have won political power on his own; not even a backwater seat in Congress. But through perverse influence, they have figured out how to manipulate Trump, and so they have oozed their way into the Oval Office. To the extent anyone runs the country, it's Vought and Miller, not Trump.
Vought, in particular, is pursing a Lenin-like vision that, if unchecked, will leave the poor old republic in ruins. He's closer to the finish line than one would have imagined possible just a few months ago.
To those who haven't read it already, I highly recommend an excellent piece of reporting by Andy Kroll in ProPublica, which dives deep into the role played by Russell Vought in the rapid-fire dismantling of US democracy and its institutions.
This past week, both my husband and I received notices from our preferred provider that our insurer, Aetna Medicare Advantage, has canceled their contract as of December 1st. We spoke with Aetna and they said our provider had canceled the contract. We are appalled that this is happening to us, especially since we are 81 and 85, respectively. Almost ALL of our doctors are within this practice and this now means we have to go searching for new doctors, fast!!! My gut tells me that this is part of the healthcare fallout hitting the American people, while this wannabe dictator sits in his gilded throne room, spitting out orders to anyone within arm's reach, so he can have his fun with retribution towards everyone he doesn't like!! How did we get here? Why did we get here? We MUST stop this annihilation of our country, whatever way we can. Make your voices heard!! TUCK FRUMP!!!
"But when it comes to the Trump administration, it’s the opposite. We must operate on a presumption of irregularity. That is because everyone from the president on down treats the Constitution and our laws as targets to be barraged, not rules to be followed."
Excellently put and observed. Another problem that we've been facing is legacy media's efforts to sane-wash what comes out of this administration, and another group therein that uses bothsideisms to damp down the horrors that we're enduring. Then there are the outright lies. These efforts have a dulling effect. Truth, facts, and civility need to return.
It's not irregular behavior, it's autocratic behavior. Since his election, Trump has behaved as an autocrat. He believes he is King and can do what he wants. His actions say in no uncertain language, STOP ME, if you can. His desires for money and power are unlimited. He wants to be as rich as Putin, control as much territory as Putin, namely all of North America. He's a classical narcissistic sociopath and a compulsive liar. And he's controlled to some extent by billionaires and others we probably don't know about. He's pure id, no superego. He projects, if he accuses someone of something, he's either done it himself, is doing it, or will do it. He wants to gobble up everything, fatty that he is. He's a very sick puppy, but not as sick as the American idiots that voted for him out of what they perceived to be self interest. H.L. Mencken got it right when he said that, and I paraphrase, that at some time in the future, the people of this great country will get their wish and we will have a downright moron in the White House. Mencken neglected to mention the evil part.
I wouldn't be prone to convict someone like Bolton so long as Trump goes free, for his own more serious classified document crimes as well as the many other crimes that he has committed.
Norm, if you want and can use contributions significantly more than the cost of a subscription, your office must acknowledge them. If you are a 501c3, which I think you are, a receipt would receipt which lays it out would be nice,
I've come to think that money contributed to legal efforts to defang Trump's excesses is money better spent than early contributions to congressional campaigns which at least are identifiable, or responsive to the many vague solicitations which want me to give money to show how angry I am.
Norm, this could be a ‘game changer’ in your incredible efforts against this Regime. As you know, donations to anything political isn’t deductible, but 501(c)3 sure is. I’ve donated thru Democracy Defenders and others, but that designation could open the floodgates! SUPER idea from John (thanks, John!) YAY!!!
Norm's appearance on MSNBC in which he speaks of the John Bolton indictment, is AMAZING! Impassioned! Extraordinarily factual and rational. Utterly persuasive. Incredibly informative. Norm at his best. I missed this MSNBC segment and I'm so grateful it's presented here. If this is what Norm is like in court, all I can say is, Adios President Incompetent!
In my "alternative reality", I would like to see the White House Press Corp only cover Trump if he has something factual to state. Either the Press Corp pushes back on Trump's lies or doesn't ask him any further questions. We all know that Trump thrives on attention. That is why he holds "open" Cabinet meetings that are nothing but praise to the "Emperor". The meetings are disgusting and filled with more lying, and it sickens me to see our US Government "function" this way. The Media has failed to do their job, the exception being the Pentagon Press Corp who refused to sign Hegseth's BS contract and turned in their credentials and walked out!
This is a very strange argument for a lawyer to make. It's especially strange for a lawyer who is trying to educate people. First, this argument fails to accurately even explain the legal reason for the “presumption of regularity.” Second (and significantly worse) it portrays the presumption as something that inherently benefits "government officials" merely because they are "government officials." This is far from true.
The truth is simple and too often obscured. First, any such presumption exists only in litigation. It does not apply to "the government" merely because it is "the government." Such a presumption would apply to any party in litigation when the other party must bear the burden of proof. The presumption is a rule of law (it is part of "the rule of law"), so it applies whether government employees are considered trustworthy or not.
There is no presumption of regularity favoring the government in any case in which the government must bear the burden of proof. The presumption of regularity applies when a plaintiff sues the government in ligation, so it applies primarily to protect us (the taxpayers (the People"), not to protect the public servants who are accused of violating the law.
Second, any such presumption exists only to the extent that the plaintiff in litigation must bear a burden of proof. Suits under several legal regimes illustrate this point. The classic illustration is the "presumption of innocence" (which favors criminal defendants and disfavors the government). The "presumption of innocence" is a corollary to the burden of proof that the government must bear: the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt every material fact establishing guilt of a crime. There already is no presumption of regularity in criminal proceedings against anyone (including Comey or James) because the government must bear the burden of proof.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the government also must bear the burden of proof, so it is not entitled to any "presumption of regularity." Under FOIA, the presumption is that the government cannot withhold records that have been requested.
One of the most anti-constitutional positions possible is the presumption that our public servants are behaving themselves (i.e., not abusing their powers or even usurping powers that they were not given).
As James Madison also emphasized:
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
Madison in Federalist No. 51 also emphasized that powers were woven into our Constitution (the sovereignty of the people and "federalism" and "separation of powers") not to serve public servants, but to ensure that all our public servants actually do serve the public:
"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people [e.g., in elections or other manifestations of public opinion] is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. This policy of [ensuring] opposite and rival interests [by constitutional] distributions of power [has a profoundly important purpose:] the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every [public servant] may be a sentinel over the public rights. . . . .
In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments [national and state], and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments [legislative, executive and judicial]. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself."
This would not make it as a legal principle, I think, but every accusation Trump makes can be assumed to be a projection, and every claim he makes can be assumed to be a lie.
I repeat myself, I know. Sorry. But, I recognized him as a liar 45 years ago when he was interviewed by Tom Brokaw on The Today Show. He was obviously lying about the amount of money his father "loaned" him to start his business, and he told a stupid lie about why he didn't try to preserve the sculptures/friezes on the top of the Bonwit Teller Building. He showed me he was a liar and a con artist. The rest of his lovely qualities became clear as time marched on. But he lies as easily as breathing, and often when it is unnecessary. That interview is available on YouTube, as I found out during Short Fingers' first infestation of the White House.
I, too, have known about the sleazeball for over 45 years, when he first came down his magical escalator and landed his ass in Atlantic City, to build his casino, which he then proceeded to rape it dry and bankrupt it. EVERYTHING he says can be taken for granted as being a lie. He wouldn't know the truth if it ran over him and crushed his withering spine. Someone needs to out him to his MAGA minions.
Had anybody out there cared a tinker's damn about this piece of malignant filth, the truth would have been broadcast 24/7 from the mountain tops. I will go to my grave wondering why reporters didn't see fit to bother with due diligence ages ago. The man has never been anything but an extortionist, a gaslighting phony and cruel fraud. This was not hard to figure out. Not in the least.
"I will go to my grave wondering why reporters didn't see fit to bother with due diligence ages ago."
For the other side of the same coin:
"Charlamagne grills Eric Swalwell on why Dems should be trusted after they 'lied to us so long' about Biden"
https://www.iask.ca/news/fadbd50f4e258c5cf1fec9b78c10f440/charlamagne-grills-eric-swalwell-on-why-dems-should-be-trusted-after-they-lied-to-us-so-long-about-biden
Honestly that's a bit of a goofy rejoinder. Swalwell is among the most vociferous out there, calling out bullshit to its face. It isn't about trust, it's about *dissent.
Hal is a MAGAt Troll.
"It isn't about trust, it's about *dissent."
"Trust" (or lack thereof, in this case) is one of the reasons why the Dems lost the election last year, along with their policy decisions, but I guess they still haven't figured that out yet. At least you've never read that from Jen, Norm or the vast majority of posters here. But that's to be expected in an ideological echo chamber such as this forum.
The "*dissent", as you call it, could be redirected to something more productive. Protest Trump all you want - no one is stopping you, right? But consider that all this money and energy could be used for town halls, hosted by groups like Indivisible to assess what the Democratic Party should stand FOR instead of AGAINST. Because, as I see it, the policies and positions that got the Dems booted from office haven't changed.
Be the better alternative (policies and vision) instead of constant whiners when your side is out of power.
Truth!!!
Unfortunately, MAGA was taken with The Apprentice, which they think was "real." And they choose...I repeat, they choose, to ignore any kind of Truth about him.
I can make the blue KoolAid!
His vulnerable underbelly is the Epstein discharge petition. Petition every House Republican.
Right on!!!
Do it NOW!!!
I'd like to see every news report on his words or actions begin with this words: "This man is a documented liar. Please be advised that we cannot report than any of his claims are true, only that he has made a particular claim."
Amen.
It's "No Kings" day. Hang out your Americaan flag. We're the real Americans. Celebrate who we are and what we want our country to be. DUMP TRUMP.
Thank you for the 'tip' to hang out our flag ......my husband is a 'disabled Vet' (Vietnam war) and it's something we can do since unable to make it to a Protest today!
TY!! We all have something to contribute
Parenthetically: Bari Weiss's CBS News is apparently declining to cover the No Kings protests. ABC and NBC are providing some coverage, but if you look at the CBS home page, you just see lots of pictures of Dear Leader Trump doing Very Important Stuff. Hang out your American flag by all means, but don't look for it to be covered on CBS.
That was fast, Bari.
Everyone knows by now that Trump himself is a weak, singularly absurd little man, a reality TV celebrity who can (with patience and flattery) be trained to recite his lines, a useful puppet incapable of hatching anything more ambitious than a temper-tantrum.
It's not Trump who is shredding our constitution, incinerating our norms, tearing down our institutions, and transforming us at light-speed from a constitutional democracy into a violent authoritarian regime: it's the men who run Trump who are doing these things, particularly Russ Vought and Stephen Miller.
They have become for all intents and purposes co-presidents--the real powers behind a reeking golden throne.
Ambitious, unhinged, weirdly intelligent but creepily unattractive, neither man could ever have won political power on his own; not even a backwater seat in Congress. But through perverse influence, they have figured out how to manipulate Trump, and so they have oozed their way into the Oval Office. To the extent anyone runs the country, it's Vought and Miller, not Trump.
Vought, in particular, is pursing a Lenin-like vision that, if unchecked, will leave the poor old republic in ruins. He's closer to the finish line than one would have imagined possible just a few months ago.
To those who haven't read it already, I highly recommend an excellent piece of reporting by Andy Kroll in ProPublica, which dives deep into the role played by Russell Vought in the rapid-fire dismantling of US democracy and its institutions.
https://www.propublica.org/article/russ-vought-trump-shadow-president-omb?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-newsletter
This is an excellent link. Here is one on today's ProPublic newsletter which continues its Vought reporting, along with other reporting.
newsletters@lists.propublica.net
"Irregularity" is too amorphous, wishy-washy, and nambypamby a word. Everything Trump's administration does is with an evil intent and purpose.
This past week, both my husband and I received notices from our preferred provider that our insurer, Aetna Medicare Advantage, has canceled their contract as of December 1st. We spoke with Aetna and they said our provider had canceled the contract. We are appalled that this is happening to us, especially since we are 81 and 85, respectively. Almost ALL of our doctors are within this practice and this now means we have to go searching for new doctors, fast!!! My gut tells me that this is part of the healthcare fallout hitting the American people, while this wannabe dictator sits in his gilded throne room, spitting out orders to anyone within arm's reach, so he can have his fun with retribution towards everyone he doesn't like!! How did we get here? Why did we get here? We MUST stop this annihilation of our country, whatever way we can. Make your voices heard!! TUCK FRUMP!!!
Let's hope the chickens come home to roost and remain until Election Day 2026.
"But when it comes to the Trump administration, it’s the opposite. We must operate on a presumption of irregularity. That is because everyone from the president on down treats the Constitution and our laws as targets to be barraged, not rules to be followed."
Excellently put and observed. Another problem that we've been facing is legacy media's efforts to sane-wash what comes out of this administration, and another group therein that uses bothsideisms to damp down the horrors that we're enduring. Then there are the outright lies. These efforts have a dulling effect. Truth, facts, and civility need to return.
Excellent post, dear Norm! Huge thanks to you and your legal team for your tremendous work. You guys rock!!! 🤘🏽
Happy No Kings Day, everyone! Have fun today and stay safe out there. 🗽🇺🇸💙
It's not irregular behavior, it's autocratic behavior. Since his election, Trump has behaved as an autocrat. He believes he is King and can do what he wants. His actions say in no uncertain language, STOP ME, if you can. His desires for money and power are unlimited. He wants to be as rich as Putin, control as much territory as Putin, namely all of North America. He's a classical narcissistic sociopath and a compulsive liar. And he's controlled to some extent by billionaires and others we probably don't know about. He's pure id, no superego. He projects, if he accuses someone of something, he's either done it himself, is doing it, or will do it. He wants to gobble up everything, fatty that he is. He's a very sick puppy, but not as sick as the American idiots that voted for him out of what they perceived to be self interest. H.L. Mencken got it right when he said that, and I paraphrase, that at some time in the future, the people of this great country will get their wish and we will have a downright moron in the White House. Mencken neglected to mention the evil part.
Another excellent week of amazing articles. Thank you, Norm, for all the work you are doing for democracy and for keeping us informed and educated!
I wouldn't be prone to convict someone like Bolton so long as Trump goes free, for his own more serious classified document crimes as well as the many other crimes that he has committed.
Norm, if you want and can use contributions significantly more than the cost of a subscription, your office must acknowledge them. If you are a 501c3, which I think you are, a receipt would receipt which lays it out would be nice,
I've come to think that money contributed to legal efforts to defang Trump's excesses is money better spent than early contributions to congressional campaigns which at least are identifiable, or responsive to the many vague solicitations which want me to give money to show how angry I am.
Norm, this could be a ‘game changer’ in your incredible efforts against this Regime. As you know, donations to anything political isn’t deductible, but 501(c)3 sure is. I’ve donated thru Democracy Defenders and others, but that designation could open the floodgates! SUPER idea from John (thanks, John!) YAY!!!
Defenders of Democracy is a 501C3.
Guess we need to stress that a RECEIPT would be welcomed. I think I haven’t gotten any? But thanks again for the ‘reminder’!
Thank you, Norm. Happy NKD everyone! Get out there and show up, please 🙏
Bonjour!
Just checking in after the “No Kings” in Paris - great turnout, so hope all goes well across the U.S. too.
Norm's appearance on MSNBC in which he speaks of the John Bolton indictment, is AMAZING! Impassioned! Extraordinarily factual and rational. Utterly persuasive. Incredibly informative. Norm at his best. I missed this MSNBC segment and I'm so grateful it's presented here. If this is what Norm is like in court, all I can say is, Adios President Incompetent!
In my "alternative reality", I would like to see the White House Press Corp only cover Trump if he has something factual to state. Either the Press Corp pushes back on Trump's lies or doesn't ask him any further questions. We all know that Trump thrives on attention. That is why he holds "open" Cabinet meetings that are nothing but praise to the "Emperor". The meetings are disgusting and filled with more lying, and it sickens me to see our US Government "function" this way. The Media has failed to do their job, the exception being the Pentagon Press Corp who refused to sign Hegseth's BS contract and turned in their credentials and walked out!
This is a very strange argument for a lawyer to make. It's especially strange for a lawyer who is trying to educate people. First, this argument fails to accurately even explain the legal reason for the “presumption of regularity.” Second (and significantly worse) it portrays the presumption as something that inherently benefits "government officials" merely because they are "government officials." This is far from true.
The truth is simple and too often obscured. First, any such presumption exists only in litigation. It does not apply to "the government" merely because it is "the government." Such a presumption would apply to any party in litigation when the other party must bear the burden of proof. The presumption is a rule of law (it is part of "the rule of law"), so it applies whether government employees are considered trustworthy or not.
There is no presumption of regularity favoring the government in any case in which the government must bear the burden of proof. The presumption of regularity applies when a plaintiff sues the government in ligation, so it applies primarily to protect us (the taxpayers (the People"), not to protect the public servants who are accused of violating the law.
Second, any such presumption exists only to the extent that the plaintiff in litigation must bear a burden of proof. Suits under several legal regimes illustrate this point. The classic illustration is the "presumption of innocence" (which favors criminal defendants and disfavors the government). The "presumption of innocence" is a corollary to the burden of proof that the government must bear: the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt every material fact establishing guilt of a crime. There already is no presumption of regularity in criminal proceedings against anyone (including Comey or James) because the government must bear the burden of proof.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the government also must bear the burden of proof, so it is not entitled to any "presumption of regularity." Under FOIA, the presumption is that the government cannot withhold records that have been requested.
One of the most anti-constitutional positions possible is the presumption that our public servants are behaving themselves (i.e., not abusing their powers or even usurping powers that they were not given).
As James Madison also emphasized:
"A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."
Madison in Federalist No. 51 also emphasized that powers were woven into our Constitution (the sovereignty of the people and "federalism" and "separation of powers") not to serve public servants, but to ensure that all our public servants actually do serve the public:
"In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people [e.g., in elections or other manifestations of public opinion] is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. This policy of [ensuring] opposite and rival interests [by constitutional] distributions of power [has a profoundly important purpose:] the constant aim is to divide and arrange the several offices in such a manner as that each may be a check on the other that the private interest of every [public servant] may be a sentinel over the public rights. . . . .
In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments [national and state], and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments [legislative, executive and judicial]. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people. The different governments will control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself."