The suspect in yesterday's shooting of the son and husband of a federal judge in New Jersey has committed suicide.

He was a lawyer named Roy Den Hollander who billed himself as "anti-feminist".The Daily Beast reports he had a pending case with Salas.

Also, he may have been terminally ill with cancer: [More...]

Fox News' Chris Wallace interviewed Donald Trump today. Here are the top 4 minutes.

Here's the Washington Post's account of the entire interview

Trump says he is implementing a new health care plan within two weeks, and an immigration plan as the Supreme Court gave him the authorization.

He also would not commit to accepting the election results if Biden won.

So, who made Joe Biden's "heart go boom" when he saw her standing there? And, will he pick his heart throb for his running mate or will his head take over and make him choose someone else?**

I've taken the week off from blogging. I'm Trump-ed out, Biden-ed out and virus-ed out. The attention being given to the selfish, ignorant segment of the American people who object to wearing masks is just so aggravating. When the respirator shortage comes, can we send them to the back of the line? (yes that's snark).

But on that topic, I really hoped more people would follow guidelines and stop congregating in large numbers without masks so states will not have to implement their Crisis Standards of Care guidelines, which determine whose life is most worth saving, when due to a shortage of respirators or other equipment or medicine, you can't save them all. Reading these guidelines may be the most depressing wake-up call of this pandemic yet. [More...]

Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was blindsided today by the U.S. Marshals and taken into custody, to await return to a federal prison.

Cohen was furloughed by the U.S. Bureau of Prison back in May, due to the coronavirus. A furlough is temporary. BOP decides what happens when it's over. Sometimes you go back to prison. Sometimes you go home to serve the remainder of your sentence on home confinement.

BOP decided Cohen could serve the rest of his sentence on home confinement and not return to prison when the furlough was up.

Home confinement has restrictions. The conditions are spelled out in a agreement between you and BOP. Cohen apparently had not yet begun his home confinement because he and BOP had not agreed on the terms.

According to Cohen's lawyer, Cohen and his lawyer went down to the U.S. Marshal's office today to sign the agreement. [More...]

There were 60,000 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
The United States is like a rudderless ship. Scientists now warn that it may result in permanent cognitive impairment (brain damage) even to young people. Also, the disease is linked to strokes, heart attacks and blood clots.

Are we getting to the point where masks, or even new lockdowns, will be too little too late?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Supreme Court has ruled Trump does not have absolute immunity as to the Manhattan DA's subpoena of 8 years of his tax records. (Opinion here). But, the Court ruled, he still has defenses:

In the case concerning the prosecutors’ subpoena, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “no citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.” He added that Mr. Trump may still raise objections to the scope and relevance of the subpoena.

In a second case (opinion here), the Court refused to order that Trummp's financial records must be turned over to congressional committees investigating Trump. There could be separation of powers issues. [More...]

The Government filed a peculiar letter request with the Court last night. First, it identifies Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney as Christian Everdell, even though no entry of appearance has been filed.

Everdell is a former AUSA in the Southern District of New York whose main beat was international drug traffickers, like El Chapo and his Colombian associates, and some FARC members and some of the more ridiculous cases, like the ones I've written up many times as the "DEA's Most Excellent African Adventures." (And don't just take it from me, see Ginger Johnson's more excellent article, The Narco-Terror Trap, especially on the Oumar Issa case.

Curiously to me, Everdell resigned in November 2016, months after Chapo was caught for the last time in January and about to be extradited. El Chapo arrived here in January, 2017.

I would think that a prosecutor who spent ten years chasing El Chapo, FARC and Colombian traffickers (even getting a medal from a police group for his work on El Chapo) would stay to see him prosecuted. [More...]

I didn't celebrate the Fourth of July this year. Between the coronavirus and Donald Trump's incompetence, laziness and inability to express a truthful statement, on any topic, America can no longer say it is the leader of the free world. The day he was given a desk in the oval office, he became the laughing stock of the world. Since then, he's done nothing but drag us all down with him.

Today is another day. I am not going to worry about where Donald Trump and his under-informed, marginalized base are leading us. [More...]

Kimberly Guilfoyle, girlfriend of Donald Trump, Jr. who also has a position in the financial department of the Trump re-election campaign, has tested positive for coronavirus. Trump, Jr., so far, does not. The news is filled with video of her speaking (passionately or shrilly, depending on your point of view) at a Trump rally. She did attend the Tulsa rally.

I wonder if she'll give it to Lara and Eric or Brad Parscale (I'd be surprised if Jared or Ivanka give her the time of day). The couple is driving back from South Dakota to New York.

Several secret service people and many Trump campaign staff tested positive in or after Tulsa.
Days later, Mike Pence had to delay a trip to Arizona because more secret service agents became infected. [More...]

The corona virus keeps breaking records. More than 50,000 cases a day in the U.S.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I did not expect this today. Ghislaine Maxwell, former paramour and business associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested in New Hampshire where she has been temporarily residing, to face charges stemming from her relationship with Epstein.

Maxwell faces charges that include transporting a minor for the purposes of criminal sexual activity and conspiring to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, according to a six-count grand jury indictment that was unsealed earlier in the day.

The Indictment is here. The Government is asking she be held without bond. "In short, Maxwell has three passports, large sums of money, extensive international connections, and absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence." (From its detention motion"

But what about her immunity agreement? None of the other recruiters Epstein employed who were granted immunity as part of his plea deal have been charged. For example, according to the NY Times, Sarah Kellen (now Sarah Vickers) was "right under" Ghislaine. If I recall correctly, the immunity provision in Epstein's plea agreement only covered the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of Florida. Also, I wonder if Ghislaine has standing to raise immunity conferred by someone else's plea agreement once he's dead? [More...]

The Supreme Court today let stand a ruling on the death penalty, and as a result, executions may now resume (as Attorney General William Barr has promised they would.) The case is Bourgeois v. Barr, No. 19- 1348.

Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, of the Federal District Court in Washington, blocked the executions in November, saying the protocol the government planned to use did not comply with the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, which requires executions to be carried out “in the manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence is imposed.”

The central legal question in the case is whether the word “manner” in the 1994 law refers to the methods of execution authorized by the relevant states (like hanging, firing squad or lethal injection) or the protocols the states require (like the particular chemicals used in lethal injections, whether a doctor must be present or how a catheter is to be inserted).

The Court's unsigned order today states: [More...]