A federal judge has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to either unredact and release more records related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein or provide a detailed explanation for why the redactions remain necessary.
The order comes amid heightened scrutiny over the U.S. government’s handling of millions of pages of investigative files related to the disgraced financier who was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s order issued Thursday directs acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to justify the department’s continued withholding of portions of the records after lawmakers and victims’ advocates questioned whether some redactions exceed what is legally permitted.
I’m so fucking sick of this. Exercise your authority. Enough with the kid gloves.
Hold people in jail cells until they comply with the laws for which they are clearly not in compliance. That’s what would happen to you or me. Hold them in contempt.
The reason these judges won’t do that is because they know that the authority they wield is only possible with the cooperation of the executive. They don’t want to shatter the illusion that they are a co-equal branch because they fear that once that cat is out of the bag they won’t be able to coax it back in.
How is that any different to what is happening now? Is anyone left in the world dumb enough not to see that is exactly what is happening? is anybody out there so stupid they still think there is a functioning government in the USA?
The answer is always yes no matter the context.
sadly yes
They can hold them in civil contempt & fine them (as in the individual lawyers & officials) an escalating amount each day.
There is also inherent contempt which Congress fucking refuses to use for some reason.
Pedo Trump can’t do an thing about either of these forms of contempt.
Yep. Judge orders someone in contempt, POTUS tells the enforcers to ignore the contempt order, oops all is broken.
I’m not sure what the fix would have been, but having a judicial LEO would have been a good start. Like the Federal Marshalls but scarier because they’re all in black robes.
The federal marshalls are under the judiciary and are their enforcement arm.
https://www.usmarshals.gov/what-we-do
Ostensibly yes, but what do you actually expect to happen if a judge orders the marshalls to take leadership at the DoJ into custody? The mission of the Marshall service may be to provide enforcement to the Judiciary, but they are part of the DoJ and the executive.
They could try. Are you seeing the repubs not doing things because “they wont work”? Do it anyway, cause a problem, muck up the works.
Turnabout is fair play. Break norms and force their hand.
I agree that they could, and should, try. I just think that the reason they don’t is because they know that it would be unsuccessful.