Wednesday, September 09, 2020

"Must be da money!"


Yup.  The campaign has run out of cash, and Trump isn't contributing anything from his own funds.  The "smart money" on this (and oddly, I can't find those tweets now) said yesterday this was Trump delaying the case again, because that's what he does.

Eh.

Civil cases take years to get to trial.  Court dockets are crowded, discovery must be made, depositions must be taken.  Let me walk you through typical discovery:  it starts with questions (lawyers call them "interrogatories" because "questions" doesn't sound authoritative enough).  You typically have a month (more or less) to answer those.  From those one decides on depositions (and all of this goes two ways; both sides get to do this, and they seldom do it concurrently, so double all these time periods and you see where the time goes), and then those are conducted.  They may be preceded by requests for documents.  I was once walked into a room about the size of a ballroom, stacked almost floor to ceiling with documents on a construction project.  I had 8 hours to pick what I wanted.  It took months afterwards to comb through what was selected and arrange it into the basis for depositions.  Documents don't explain themselves, or rise up and tell you they are important to you.  Depositions may lead to hearings (or not); there may be hearings on evidence and production of documents and of witnesses, even the answering of written questions.   And most lawyers have several cases to work on, not just one (the way they all do on TeeVee).  Civil suits take a long time to get to trial because everyone involved is busy, and unlike TeeVee this isn't the only "story" they are working on.

Trump has delayed the Carroll case, at most, by four months (no, I don't think he'll win re-election).  That's not really a significant delay, all things considered.  Trump may be playing the delay game, but it's much more likely he's out of campaign money to spend (his primary rule of living is never to spend his own.  He didn't go bankrupt, a casino with his name did; an airline with his name did; etc.) and he can't forego legal representation in this case.  His lawyers, IOW, demanded payment, and Trump didn't want to pony up, so he turned to Barr.  Not that there isn't fodder there:


Barr's motivations are another matter.  Trump's are plain.  He always prefers to spend other people's money.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. The Thought Criminal10:53 AM

    If you hear someone say "devout Catholic" they are almost certainly:

    a. Not a Catholic and have a superficial idea of what that would have to mean - Though lots of bishops and cardinals and some Popes also seem to use it that way.

    b. They're a "traditional Catholic" of the Raymond Burke Carlo Vigano type cultists.

    c. They believe that the Burke-Vigano kind of Catholics are what Catholics are.

    d. Someone who just has the phrase on the tip of their tongue because they've heard it.

    For some reason this makes me think of the Boston cable channel who in the story about the Baptist-Typhoid Marys in Sanford ME, had a slide of hands holding a rosary in the background. Lots of cluelessness going on.

    By the way, I doubt Barr or his pedophile daddy who converted the family had any belief in even traditional Catholic moral teaching, neither of them practiced it at all. I suspect he figured it would make him more marketable in the job market of his choice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rmj11:24 AM

    Yup. Daniel Berrigan is never identified as a "devout Catholic," even though he was (or Fr. James Martin, for that matter, who also is). It's always reserved for conservatives (politically, theologically) and usually means what you said.

    So it's just as well Berrigan and Martin aren't labeled "devout."

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)