I'm reading the OED definition of "contumacious," encountered this morning in Rolling Stone.
In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump shared a link to a New York Post article ["Dem clients of daughter of NY judge in Trump hush money trial raised $93M off the case"]... and wrote, “This is a disgrace to our Legal System. Judge Merchan should be immediately sanctioned and recused, and this fake ‘case,’ only kept alive by the Highly Conflicted Judge, should be completely dismissed right away.”...
The judge issued a gag order on Tuesday — hours after Trump attacked his daughter — barring the former president from discussing witnesses and others involved in the case.
The daughter is not involved in the case, so what is the argument that he's violated the gag order? The District Attorney Alan Bragg seems to think he has, and he's going so far as to call Trump's speech "contumacious," presumably in the sense of "wilfully disobedient" to the court.
Judge Merchan “should make abundantly clear that the [gag order] protects family members of the Court, the District Attorney, and all other individuals mentioned in the Order,” Bragg wrote in a letter that was filed Thursday and unsealed on Friday....
Merchan ought make something "abundantly clear" that isn't even true?
Bragg additionally asked the judge to “warn [Trump] that his recent conduct is contumacious and direct him to immediately desist” and to implement sanctions against Trump if he does not comply....
“Maybe the judge is such a hater because his daughter makes money by working to ‘Get Trump,’ and when he rules against me over and over again, he is making her company, and her, richer and richer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this week.
The man is obstinately resisting authority and stubbornly perverse, insubordinate, and rebellious. But I don't see the violation of the gag order or the basis for expanding it.
From the NY Post article:
Why shouldn't Trump talk about that?The judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is president of Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm whose top clients include California Rep. Adam Schiff, who was the lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial, and the Senate Majority PAC, a major party fundraiser.
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Damn! He knows how to play these fools.
How does one describe the courtroom version of "suicide by cop?"
Our former president WANTS to wear the orange jumpsuit. He's just taunting them now, asking for it. Can this be seen as anything but contemptuous behavior? What does it take to get run in for contempt of court these days?
Can they hold out? How long can they resist?
If Trump gets his photo op in orange, what happens then?
So many questions. Who will deal with this turbulent man?
Interesting that Bragg wants to expand the gag order to include the family of the DA. Isn’t that Bragg himself? Is there some other conflict there?
There’s no reason to expand the gag if you’re truly interested in sunshine and justice. There should be no gag order in this case at all.
After all of the new and improved charges they dreamed up for Trump, why shouldn’t they dream up new and improved uses for gag orders?
He’s Trump!
Legal argument? A legal argument is required for a judge to harass Trump?
Novel Theory defined.
Its all good! Trump is a distinctly unique threat to "our democracy" such that ANY weapon at hand is OK/fine to use to stop him! Oh, and don't worry, NONE of these new and uncommon uses of any existing laws will ever be used against ANYONE else, ever! We premise! So help us Deep State!
Seems like a bit of a pickle.
A catch 22, possibly.
1) They can’t let you see the sausage makers so they Streisand Effect the sausage maker who just happens to be a family member.
2) Nobody wants to reveal an association with sAdam Schiff
3) "We can’t believe we’re losing to this guy!”
4) Own goal promoting Truth Social…and it was just yesterday we were lectured by the people that said X would disappear that Truth Social was criminally overvalued, but every leftie subscribes and reads..
5) Courts violating laws and rights, can only muster a ‘gee Wally, I just don’t see it…’ from the easychair lawyer emerita…
Why shouldn't Trump talk about that?
Trump's objection spoils the Trump-haters' public narrative about this kangaroo-court.
"so what is the argument that he's violated the gag order?"
Their argument is that he is a mean old orange-colored poopyhead who says nasty things about them on Twitter. We've been at this for almost 9 years now.
Is nothing not incestuous these days?
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/kangaroo-court.html#google_vignette
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What's the meaning of the phrase 'Kangaroo court'?
An unauthorized, bogus court.
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What's the origin of the phrase 'Kangaroo court'?
Kangaroo courts are sham legal proceedings which are set-up in order to give the impression of a fair legal process. In fact, they offer no impartial justice as the verdict, invariably to the detriment of the accused, is decided in advance. Such courts are associated with groups who have found a need to dispense a rough and ready form of justice but are, temporarily at least, outside the bounds of formal judicial processes; for example, inmates in jail, soldiers at war, settlers of lands where no jurisdiction has yet been established.
The origin of 'kangaroo court' is unknown, although, given that kangaroos are native nowhere else, we might expect the term to have originated in Australia. As always, a lack of a definite origin encourages speculative claims, which may be an appropriate word in this context as one frequently repeated supposed derivation relates to 'claim jumping' in the California Gold Rush - hence the allusion to kangaroos. That's quite a plausible notion. Kangaroos and their claim to fame, so to speak, that is, jumping, were known in the USA by the early 1800s, so there's no reason to limit the derivation to Australia. Also, the earliest known citation of the term is American and appears in a collection of magazine articles by Philip Paxton (the pen name of Samuel Adams Hammett), which were published in 1853 under the title of A stray Yankee in Texas:
"By a unanimous vote, Judge G-- was elected to the bench and the 'Mestang' or 'Kangaroo Court' regularly organized."
The natural inclination to want to base the phrase in Australia has led to suggestions that the vacant stares of kangaroos when meeting humans for the first time were mimicked by jury members in court. There's no documentary evidence to support this, or any other Australian derivation, and it seems highly speculative.
The claim jumping derivation though has the feel of a 'trying to hard' explanation that is the stamp of folk etymology. The supposed wordplay of linking kangaroos and jumping is appealing but isn't really necessary to explain this phrase.
Kangaroo courts were also called 'mustang courts' in the USA (see above). Allusions to the unsophisticated natures of wild animals are frequent in the metaphorical coinage of phrases that apply to things that are considered inferior or ersatz. We have dog Latin, dog's breakfast, horse-faced and many others. It seems probable that the reference to mustangs (half-wild horses) and kangaroos came about by that same route.
Why do these people keep trying to make Trump sympathetic?
Jack Smith's lovely bride wrote a glowing book about Michelle O, aka Big Mike. That will next on Trump's hit parade.
Our Gov't, Court system, and corporations are incestuously corrupt.
How do you untangle this type of incest? Unless fathers and daughters, like this judge and his daughter, care about this type of professional copulating and inbreeding...what can you really do?
Once the moral fabric of a country breaks down, like we are seeing in the US, I don't know if you can get it back on track.
Hope everyone had a wonderful transgender visibility day. God Bless the Easter Bunny.
The Judges Daughter threw the first punch in this exchange. She is the one taking a jab at President Trump. I have yet to see the time a Trump was "attacking"/responding to a person that did not throw the metaphorical "first punch". If you are going to step into the arena of social media, exactly like stepping into an MMA ring, don't be shocked when you get a jab to the nose.
This pairs with yesterdays post about the Trump posting the video of two pickups, outfitted with Trump support flags, etc.
The message of ire was presented by a campaign staffer. The rough language and baseless accusations did not come from Biden, but a staffer, with plausible deniability.
This event demonstrates that Trump does his own wet work. When he takes a shot at Biden, it is under Trumps name.
Then a spokesman replies, using like language. Keeping Trumps target about fray, playing statesman.
Hate on Trump all you want. But understand, he and he alone, shoulders all his own words. Refuses to hide behind the skirts of a campaign flunky.
What other politician does his own wet work?
America is sick of this lawfare against Trump.
Why shouldn't Trump talk about that?
Hmmm...Seems like maybe this is a relationship and an organization the Dems don't want anyone looking closer at or digging into.
The Democrat playbook against Trump has been nothing but a gigantic failure. Trump's main tactic is to conjure up a giant shitstorm to create constant buzz keeping his name at the top of every single headline on all the pages of the virtual newspaper.
Blogger Oh Yea said...
Why do these people keep trying to make Trump sympathetic?
In a previous post I connected the Trump "behind bars" photo posted from the judge's daughter's (one time???) account to the image of Biden bound on the back of the truck.
One exception: the image of Biden wasn't bound and gagged.
Oh Yea said...
"Why do these people keep trying to make Trump sympathetic?"
It isn't intentional. It's totally a byproduct of their pride. Because, as Sowell would say, they believe themselves to be the annoited. The sole protectors of their vision of "democracy". And as we have seen they will try and destroy anyone who questions their vision.
"We want to punish and imprison this guy, but he won't play along... so it looks like the only recourse is to punish and imprison him."
You don’t understand. If you criticize the judge’s daughter, it adversely affects the trial and is improper. If you give money to the judge’s daughter, it does not influence the trial and is proper. The judge wants everyone to do the proper thing.
"We want to punish and imprison this guy, but he won't play along... so it looks like the only recourse is to punish and imprison him."
Let's be clear; the trial judge excluded himself and the DA from the gag order because he wanted to be excrutiatingly solicitous of Trump's ability to vent about those two official actors in Trump's criminal case. (While protecting jurors, witnesses, court staff, etc.) So yes, there is that. But Judge Merchan's daughter has no sensible place in that rationale.
If someone wants to argue that the order doesn't specifically cover the judge's daughter, that's fine. The order can be amended, if needed. It does appear that it is needed. Although Judge Merchan may not want to do that. He might prefer to live with personal risk, and to have his daughter live with risk, rather than create the slightest room for Trump to appeal anything. I think the simple answer is to quit trying to enforce gag pretrial gag orders with Trump and to instread realize that Trump is making a speedier trial imperative. I am personally not interested in any gag orders, but for any trial lawyer this clearly makes it imperative to get a jury picked sooner, rather than later. And of course that is what Trump fears most. Let's get this trial going, ASAP. Because Trump is such a pre-trial menace.
But there is also this; if there were merit -- actual, actionable, legal merit -- to Trump's whining about Judge Merchan's daughter's association with Democratic politicians, then the obvious action to be taken would be to file a motion demanding his recusal. Doubtlessly, Trump has asked about that and his attorneys have told him that such a motion would never win. So then what is the point with Trump's public harassment of the judge's daughter? Well, it is all of the stuff Althouse doesn't want to deal with; Trump's personal aggrandizement, his self-victimization, his sociopolitical campaigning, and also in the end the punishment of any who threaten him.
That's your guy. Your nominee for President.
"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."
-renowned legal scholar and philosopher Mike Tyson
Trump is inside their OODA loop.
Road Runner smiles.
"America is sick of this lawfare against Trump."
"'Pilate, willing to content the people..." This is justice of convenience, which is not true justice. To give in to the will of the people, though you know it is wrong, to yield to the pressure of the crowd, though you know it is wrong, it's always a hard position to be in. In your heart you know what is true. In your heart you know what is right. In your heart you know what you ought to do. But there is this pressure against you, the pressure to make the wrong decision, to do the wrong thing. And how sad it is when a person yields to that pressure, rather than to stand up for that which he knows to be right and true. Pilate, in order to placate the people, freed Barabbas but delivered Jesus to be crucified." (Pastor Chuck Smith 1982)
Isn't it funny how Trump is the only one bringing to light how family members, which are specifically called out in federal bribery statutes, routinely make obscene amounts of money for everyone who is persecuting Trump? "Mainstream" media goes nowhere near the story, for they are part of it and wish to not reveal that to their gullible consumers. The Uniparty Leaders go nowhere near the story, for they are part of it and wish to not reveal that to their gullible voters.
Now I see exactly why the obscene and ridiculous charge of incest was alleged by more rabid members of Team Left upon Trump's ascension to the White House. It's always leftist projection with this crowd, followed by criminalizing their enemies' every action.
… Michelle O, aka Big Mike
Not to be confused with this Big Mike!
Stating facts is neither hate speech nor an attack.
Trump is free to point out that it's a political trial. Freedom to frame is the point of freedom of speech. He'd need a meta-trial to have authority to gag that.
What Dave Begley said.
Let's all talk about the gag order and potential violation thereof, and ignore the screamingly obvious conflict of interest that accompanies each and every prosecution of Trump. If he is so guilty, why can't they find a prosecutor and judge with no personal stake to pursue him?
More indictments than Al Capone!
How else are Folk Heroes created?
Hate on Trump all you want. But understand, he and he alone, shoulders all his own words. Refuses to hide behind the skirts of a campaign flunky. What other politician does his own wet work?
The stupidest businessman the earth has ever seen runs laps around the most sophisticated political industrial complex the earth has ever seen…
What Iowan2 said. The Judges daughter struck first. Progressives will rue the day, when all their lawfare smacks THEM back in the face.
How is it possible that linking to a newspaper article violates a gag order? Presumably, Merchan won't go for it. Just more grandstanding from a corrupt DA.
Ginni Thomas would like a word.
shred of the con tumaceous [= adjective] as in odorous
whole thing smells
He's the current Bobby Seale.
Dem convention should be fun to watch.
Dems, especially those in the so-called justice system have decided that "anything goes" to prevent him from being elected and to ruin him personally. Apparently, he has decided to respond in kind and they don't like it.
Toughsky shitsky.
Gusty Winds: "Hope everyone had a wonderful transgender visibility day. God Bless the Easter Bunny."
A good time was had by all at the WH. QuidProJoe put on a dress and hid his own Easter eggs in the Rose Garden.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Isn't it funny how Trump is the only one bringing to light how family members, which are specifically called out in federal bribery statutes, routinely make obscene amounts of money for everyone who is persecuting Trump? "Mainstream" media goes nowhere near the story, for they are part of it and wish to not reveal that to their gullible consumers. The Uniparty Leaders go nowhere near the story, for they are part of it and wish to not reveal that to their gullible voters.
Now I see exactly why the obscene and ridiculous charge of incest was alleged by more rabid members of Team Left upon Trump's ascension to the White House. It's always leftist projection with this crowd, followed by criminalizing their enemies' every action.
If you look back at Republican Presidential candidates for quite some time every one of them with the exception of McCain(and what a winner he was) graduated from Yale or Harvard. Most of our republican leaders seem to go to the same schools as the democrat leaders no matter where they grew up.
Ronald Regan didn't go. Everyone remember how the media and the political class including the republican party treated him?
Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
Now everyone go look at Ron Desantis's career where he went to college etc. and tell me he wasn't being groomed by someone to be a 60 million vote loser republican nominee for the last several decades.
The AG makes it 'abundantly clear' that the daughter of the judge should be protected from the unpleasant critical attention of its victim, while furthering her commercial interests, but the judge is immune from examination of any unseemly, corrupt connections associated with his child's anti-Trump enterprises. Lawfare, captured in its essence. 'It's OK when we do it'
In 1884 they said of Grover Cleveland “We love him for the enemies he has made.” 140 years later one could say the same about Donald Trump. Any person hated that much by such despicable creatures as Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Letitia James, George Stephanopoulos, and damned near everybody in Washington, DC, has to have a lot of good inside him.
If you are running a political consulting firm, you should be considered a public political figure.
What's the meaning of the phrase 'Kangaroo court'?
Trump has now been found guilty of a sexual assault that occurred on a date nobody remembers. Trump has also now been found guilty of fraud against no victim that was identified. How much longer before Trump, or anyone else, can be indicted for a crime that no one recalls when it occurred AND no victim is identified?
I wouldn't have known about this Judge's daughter without Trump posting and Althouse commenting, and it is a shame that nobody mentioned this Judge's daughter's business previously. If Trump was such an obvious criminal, why can't they put the case in front of a Judge without such conflicts? Is it because of what we are seeing from Judge Cannon?
Trump not a believer that the meek shall inherit the White House.
The daughter is not involved in the case, so what is the argument that he's violated the gag order? The District Attorney Alan Bragg seems to think he has, and he's going so far as to call Trump's speech "contumacious," presumably in the sense of "willfully disobedient" to the court.
It is one this to be required to be obedient to a just and fair court, but are we really required to obey corrupt courts and judges?
"contumacious" - stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority
Obviously because the corrupt nature of the judge, the DA etc...Trump is refusing to recognize their authority.
Contumacious and contumely are words that should make a comeback.
Win or lose the presidency again, Trump has done, at least for me, one enormous favor for the country- he has demonstrated beyond all doubt just how utterly corrupt our system of governance really is. I think I knew this on some level my entire life, but for decades I was able to put that doubt away safely unthought of most of the time. I now can't unsee what Trump has revealed in the last 9 years, nor can I unthink it any longer.
And, as usual, South Park got here first- "Respect my authority!"
Leland: "How much longer before Trump, or anyone else, can be indicted for a crime that no one recalls when it occurred AND no victim is identified?"
Don't forget Christine Blasey Ford who has just written a book including the "assault" by a boy she never met, on a date she can't recall, that witnesses say never happened.
"We [Democrats] choose [our] truth over facts." Joe Biden, 2019. In the Muslim word it's called taqiyya.
rehajm said...
Hate on Trump all you want. But understand, he and he alone, shoulders all his own words. Refuses to hide behind the skirts of a campaign flunky. What other politician does his own wet work?
The stupidest businessman the earth has ever seen runs laps around the most sophisticated political industrial complex the earth has ever seen…
Regan did the same thing to a lesser extent.
Our Lawyer/Yale/Harvard leadership group has always proven to be uninspiring. Republicans should never put a Yale/Harvard grad in any leadership position again just based on their track record.
Rolling Stone traffics in legally established defamantion.
Why are you even acknowledging its existence?
Trump understands that there are very large numbers of people who wish they could speak to, and of, judges the way he does. These people get a great deal of vicarious satisfaction from his remarks. Those quantities of people, and the strength of their feelings, would be a lot less, if modern judges remembered that the privileges of their office need not be exercised in a manner that provokes resentment and diminishes respect for the court. Every time a judge cuts off someone in court, upbraids someone, issues a ruling that offends sanity and logic, and the targets must simply sit there and take it because that's the way the system is, that judge strengthens the appeal of Trump refusing to simply sit there and take it.
If Trump was such an obvious criminal, why can't they put the case in front of a Judge without such conflicts? Is it because of what we are seeing from Judge Cannon?
Bingo!
The advisers who feed him this stuff as an effective way to fight his charges are the advisers who will have his ear in the WH if the polls hold.
There is a special place in hell for democrats who use lawfare as a political tactic.
Trump prepares EMBARASSINGLY DESPERATE motion to throw judge out my favorite TDS site explains it all.
"Not to be confused with this Big Mike!"
Has anyone ever seen Big Mike and Big Mike together in the same room? Just asking questions here.
The Democrats apparently feel that they don't need to persuade the public at large--just registered Democrats who are currently working for the Biden campaign or their properly vetted immediate family members.....Fani WIllis, and now this. At what concentration does the odor of mendacity rise to the level of mustard gas?
So Alvin Bragg is channeling his inner Strother Martin (the road gang boss who hated Cool Hand Luke). He's going to make damned sure that Trump has a "failure to communicate".
When I saw our host describe the Bad Orange Man as "obstinately resisting authority. . . stubbornly perverse, insubordinate and rebellious" I saw Cool Hand Luke--who was all of those things.
And the judge's daughter--who has Adam Schiff as a prominent client--takes a shot at The Donald--and the Donald responds. And old Strother Martin Alvin Bragg gets wee wee'd up.
Bragg needs a timeout--or maybe a week or so in the prison camp cooler.
So Alvin Bragg is channeling his inner Strother Martin (the road gang boss who hated Cool Hand Luke). He's going to make damned sure that Trump has a "failure to communicate".
When I saw our host describe the Bad Orange Man as "obstinately resisting authority. . . stubbornly perverse, insubordinate and rebellious" I saw Cool Hand Luke--who was all of those things.
And the judge's daughter--who has Adam Schiff as a prominent client--takes a shot at The Donald--and the Donald responds. And old Strother Martin Alvin Bragg gets wee wee'd up.
Bragg needs a timeout--or maybe a week or so in the prison camp cooler.
Good move by Trump.
Bragg, and possibly the judge will join in, is calling on the court to "gag" clearly political speech since the daughter is running a direct campaign against Trump and his running for office.
So now we are convicting on the basis of an adversarial attitude by the accused. Well, if the "contumaceous" charge don't stick, they can try the felonious sounding "obdurate" or the more misdemeanor-ish "recalcitrant" and see if they get a conviction with one, the other, or both.
The media wants us to think Trump has violated the gag order without actually saying that because they know he hasn't. I miss the old media.
"Contumacious", or why Black's Law Dictionary exists.
Typo here?
"Mechan ought make something "abundantly clear" that isn't even true?"
I understand the use of a gag order to preserve the defendant's right to a fair trial and in limited cases involving proprietary information or the protection of witnesses but where does the right of the judge to suppress the opinions of the defendant arise? What is the history of the judge having the power to suppress the defendant's speech? I can see it if there credible threats of violence but otherwise?
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