From a Google Image Search - NPR
Donald Trump, after an FBI search that found classified documents at Mar-A-Lago, is leading the entire nation on a chase through the media but also through the legal system and the courts of the land. If Donald Trump has a superpower, it is his knowledge of America’s court system and his vast experience with how to play it and “own” it.
Donald was mentored by Roy Cohn, once chief counsel for Senator Joseph McCarthy. Sen. McCarthy headed the famous hunt for communists in every corner of America. He blacklisted politicians, movie stars and film directors. McCarthy called before his Committee on Un-American Activities anyone he suspected of having communist sympathies. These charges, even if unproven, sidelined left-leaning Democrats and citizens for decades, ruining the careers of many who were communists in name only.
“Cohn was indicted four times from the mid-’60s to the early ’70s—for stock-swindling and obstructing justice and perjury and bribery and conspiracy and extortion and blackmail and filing false reports. And three times he was acquitted—the fourth ended in a mistrial—giving him a kind of sneering, sinister sheen of invulnerability. Cohn, Tyrnauer’s work reaffirms, took his sanction-skirting capers and twisted them into a sort of suit of armor.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/
Cohn was a mentor for a younger Donald Trump.
“In 1973, a brash young would-be developer from Queens met one of New York’s premier power brokers: Roy Cohn, whose name is still synonymous with the rise of McCarthyism and its dark political arts. With the ruthless attorney as a guide, Trump propelled himself into the city’s power circles and learned many of the tactics that would inexplicably lead him to the White House years later.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/donald-trump-roy-cohn-relationship
Perhaps this is where Trump learned to wrangle the court system, which now seems to hold no mysteries for Donald Trump. Once he was elected to the presidency, he used the system to reach his tentacles into the most important courts in the land. While not the dragon-styled monster from Game of Thrones, Donald appears to be a monster octopus placing cronies in key spots in both our government, our communities, and our courts.
Turns out that Mitch McConnell, heading the minority party in the Senate had little to do during Trump’s term as president except obstruct the Democrats and put judges on federal benches, judges that were perhaps recommended by the Federalist Society. These right-wing judges were vetted and ready for quick confirmation now that only 50 votes were needed to confirm judges, payback for a Democratic move to kill the filibuster in 2013. This move served the Dems well in 2013 but has since backfired. Mitch McConnell extended this “nuclear option” for the first time to approve the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
Here's a quick list of the number of appointments Mitch McConnell and Trump were busy confirming during Trump’s four years in office.:
Article I – 26 judge appts., US Court of Federal Claims – 10, US Tax Court – 7, US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims – 6, Article III judges – 234, Associate Judges of the Supreme Court – 3, US Court of Appeals – 54, US District Courts -174, Court of International Trade – 3, Circuit Courts of Appeals – 12 (Wikipedia)
“Donald Trump leaves the White House having appointed more than 200 judges to the federal bench, including nearly as many powerful federal appeals court judges in four years as Barack Obama appointed in eight.
Trump, the nation’s 45th president, worked closely with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans to reshape the federal judiciary – particularly the appeals courts – for decades to come. Federal judges have lifetime tenure and typically remain on the bench long after the presidents who nominated them have left office”
1 More than a quarter of currently active federal judges are now Trump appointees.
2 Trump was slightly more likely than other recent GOP presidents to appoint women to the federal judiciary, but less likely to do so than the last two Democratic presidents.
3 Trump appointed a smaller share of non-White federal judges than other recent presidents.
4 More than a quarter of currently active federal judges are now Trump appointees.
President Trump has still never showed his taxes as all recent presidents have done, although some tax documents were leaked to the New York Times. These were most likely state tax documents as Trump has been on the radar of Letitia James the current Attorney General of NYS. Trump shows nothing but contempt for Ms. James, who is not afraid of him in the least, but who is rather young. Can moxie win? Perhaps. Trump seems confident that he can easily beat Letitia James. Donald Trump was recently forced to give a deposition in NY and he was not forthcoming.
“Former President Donald Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination Wednesday during a deposition before lawyers from New York Attorney General Letitia James' office in its probe into the Trump Organization's business practices.
The deposition lasted four hours, and the only question the former president answered was about his name, Trump attorney Ron Fischetti told NBC News.
A source with knowledge of the deposition said Trump took the Fifth more than 440 times.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-deposed-ny-ag-civil-probe-business-practices-rcna42355
Trump pardoned Steve Bannon for a federal offense, but Bannon is now faced with a trial in a state court for fraud in the We Build the Wall project.
“President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon in the final hours of his White House term as part of a flurry of clemency action that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family.”
https://apnews.com/article/steve-bannon-trump-pardons-broidy-66c82f25134735e742b2501c118723bb
“Former president Donald Trump said he would issue full pardons and a government apology to rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and violently attacked law enforcement to stop the democratic transfer of power.
“I mean full pardons with an apology to many,” he told conservative radio host Wendy Bell on Thursday morning. Such a move would be contingent on Trump running and winning the 2024 presidential election.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/09/01/trump-jan-6-rioters-pardon/
“WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday agreed to appoint a special master to review records seized by the FBI during its search of former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, a move that is likely to delay the Justice Department's criminal investigation.
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in West Palm Beach, Florida, granted Trump's request for a special master, an independent third party who is sometimes assigned in sensitive cases to review materials that could be covered by attorney-client privilege.”
Aileen Cannon is one of the judges handpicked by the Federalist Society, Trump, and Mitch McConnell in the greatest marathon court stuffing Republican term ever. She practically confesses that her ruling is written and handed down to reward the man who believes he is still president. Perhaps Judge Cannon also believes “the big lie”.
There have surely been partisan courts before now. However, in these days when the divisions between parties are acrimonious and possibly existential,
for Trump, the master of the game of courts to have had the opportunity to rig America’s courts in his favor makes it clearer than ever how close America is to becoming an authoritarian state. If we lose the game of courts we could become an entire nation turned into a monument to one man’s ego and a testament to one party’s manipulations on behalf of the wealthy.