Reads like a strategy to discourage "complex white-collar or national security investigations".
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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Most of the fascist coup is voluntary.
All of the checks and balances depended on people in positions of authority and power putting up a meaningful resistance; not just the virtue signal of an oath.
Exactly none of the US system of checks and balances includes expecting an employee of the executive branch to defy the head of the executive branch.
It works by the courts invalidating executive orders as illegal or unconstitutional, and the Congress refusing to fund or legislate at the executive's whims.
Our checks and balances are working fairly well, especially considering that the GOP hold majorities in every part of the federal government. The problem is just that Congress let the other two branches assume too much of its own authority.
Our checks and balances are working fairly well,
Fucking what?
For real. Congress mandated, and courts ordered the release of the Epstein files and the DOJ went 'nah brah'. There is a massive constitutional crisis unfolding on multiple fronts and I just cant fucking believe how most Americans still have the freedom blinders on.
From a purely federalist standpoint the Epstein files are as irrelevant as any murder or rape. Child trafficking and sexual abuse are already illegal, and if the full unredacted Epstein files included conclusive proof that Trump raped a kindergartner to death it wouldn't change enough votes to matter.
Trump is exposing the very real flaws in the US system and the bundle of precedents whose existence dissuaded actual change during the imperial-esque exoansion of executive power during the cold war, but he hasn't broken the constitutional system. Congress still passes laws, those laws still go into effect, and the executive branch still largely obeys the adjudicated application of those laws by the courts.
We have very real problems and Trump is definitely trying to break the system so he doesn't end his life in prison, but it's not fucking broken yet. Although it is a system that's historically led to a bunch of terrible things, from Jim Crow and the Trail of Tears to the 80s AIDS epidemic and Anne Frank being sent back to Germany to die.
~I may have misremembered if Anne was one of the German Jews turned away while fleeing Germany, but it definitely happened to some of her peers.~
Congress passed a law, requiring release of the files, courts ordered their release, the administration just didn't comply. The fact that happened means the crisis is now.
That's not what happened. There was a release of Epstein files, just not as much as was intended by Congress
The next step would be for someone with standing to file a suit with the courts, who would then rule if the law passed by congress requires more than is done already given the external rules of the constitution and all the other laws congress has passed.
The executive branch applying laws in a way that Congress did not necessarily intend is not enough for a "constitutional crisis", wherin the federal system has broken down in a way that cannot be corrected without discarding the system.
There are other crisis, like SCOTUS presuming to interfere in the administration of elections or dictate whether or not Congress really meant it when they passed a law, but those have unexhausted and nonforclosed plausible remedies if Congress decides to actually try and fix them.
They responded to the July 2nd court ordered dealine, based on a lawsuit brought by journalist Katie Phang, by providing massive redactions and still millions of missing files, she sued based on the epstein files transparency act, Todd Blanche has even conceded the he is in violation of the act in their continued withholding of names and info. If congress can pass legislation and this kind of response is accepted, in the capital and in the courts, then the law doesn't mean much.
Did the courts issue an order that was neither stayed nor recalled which the executive hasn't conformed to?
Filing a lawsuit is exactly how laws are applied. And the system runs on temporary and final court orders that constrain or command executive action, that are often appealed and formally stayed pending appeal. Blanche or trump or god himself conceding to anything doesn't matter unless and until a court issues an order.
Laws are not self executing, and while their plodding reaction to contemptuous behavior is infuriating it is how the system has always worked.
I'm way more worried about ICE than I am the Epstein files. Not to say that lining those child-raping pedophiles against a firing squad isnt an important goal, but we can't jump to the neremberg trials when the Nazis still occupy France.
It was neither stayed or recalled before the deadline. I hope that you're right and the slow moving gears of justice catch up, but from where I sit the nation is losing ground on multiple fronts of unconstitutional fuckery, and if the citizenry responds 'wait and see' I fear that there's no real mechanism to stop them before the law and the bill of rights are mere window dressing for something much darker.
If we had a unicameral sovereign parliament we'd have devolved into a dictatorship almost a decade ago.
Our checks and balances aren't meant to keep the US from doing shitty things. They're meant to preserve the responsiveness of the government to the people. If enough of the people in enough of the country keep electing people who promise to do shitty things, shitty things will get done. That's democracy.
There's a lot of pressure to avoid telling your boss "No." It even begins in compulsory education. Do what you're told or suffer the consequences.
Sound like such a great place to work. Remember this?:
I wonder what she's up to these days. Did she get fired for that? Quit? Did she even get released from contempt?
She's running as a Democrat, against Ilhan Omar, in a race where Progressives have enormous momentum. Then you read her campaign stuff in the link, and she highlights her fascist homeland security creds, but never mentions her dedication to Democratic causes, or any criticism of MAGA. It doesn't even mention that she's running as a Democrat. I had to Google it to confirm it. She's clearly ashamed to be running as a Democrat. In Minnesota.
She's just a Manchurian MAGA who was complaining because she had to work so hard to defend obvious unconstitutional legal bullshit.
That was my take when I read her platform. Like there's nothing truly objectionable, I don't disagree with any of it, but it just kinda gives that vibe in what it doesn't say and how it says what it does. It's vague where I'm looking for specifics. Shit, supporting small business used to be a Republican talking point — and I don't hate local business at all, but it sounds neo-liberal to me.
At any rate, anyone who thinks Illhan Omar isn't killing it and needs to be replaced is pretty suspect. Someone who was any kind of progressive would find somewhere else to run.
I'm glad someone else read between the lines, and found a different message. She's a Fetterman, at best.
I'm not going to presume to tell you what she really thinks or really stands for, but my understanding was the whole "this job sucks" thing was a refusal to defend what ICE was doing. That she had been given the thankless task of being the legal point of contact between a justice system she had worked very hard to become a part of and a rogue agency that was making a mockery of justice in every sense.
running in the primary against Ilhan Omar. sems quixotic
The last lawsuit had the judge recommending sanctions for the DoJ attorneys, so we've now reached the point where these attorneys will be paying a steep PERSONAL price for bringing these bullshit lawsuits.
I'm waiting for the moment when a judge declares Trump and the DoJ a Vexation Litigant, and prohibits their lawsuits.
That was ALWAYS going to be the outcome whether they wanted to believe it or not. Trump has always been like this and they chose to believe it couldn't possibly happen to them (or whatever happens was worth it financially).
Leopards gotta eat.
Would they have good enough lawyers to go after me if I took the signing bonus and ran?
They can deport you for free
free money glitch, take the signing bonus then self deport for more money, they bring me back for a court case but get deported so I sue them
A certain number of people will take money to do bad things. But when you risk being disbarred over some illegal unconstitutional idiocy a corrupt president orders you to do, maybe it isn't worth throwing away 7 years of law school.
"I'm still paying student loans!"
This isn't good news, btw.
The more professional, principled attorneys leave the DoJ, the more easily the DoJ can be weaponized with incompetent and corrupt attorneys.
This isn't the rug being pulled from under Trump. This is the purge in action.
Yup, and there are far more corrupt horrible people with law degrees out there than you'd ever imagine. Ambulance chasing scum is baby shit next to what these fucks are willing to do.
Anyone why voluntarily serves this evil administration is a piece of shit and they should be ashamed of themselves
Trump's DOJ would be a stain on even the best resume...
If a lawyer is about retirement age or ready to leave law, it might not be a bad job to take. Good pay, bonuses, etc. But they would have to contend with the "follow Trump's unreasonable & illegal dictates and then get barred from practice" that go along with it. Too much of a gamble for a lawyer who needs to keep practicing for another 10-30 years.
Dump can't apparently pay notoriously slimy people enough for them lick his arse and tell him he tastes like sweet tea...
That's funny.
The next president is going to have a nightmare rehiring not only all that talent and experience but also the institutional knowledge lost by this brain drain.
Also, 25 open matters at all times? What the fuck...
waste, fraud, abuse