Justice delayed is justice denied-- because of corrupt conservative judges

from Josh Marshall --

"... the federal judiciary has failed the country in allowing a renegade ex-president to nullify federal law by means of a more or less open policy of endless delay by means of frivolous motions, appeals and more. As the old adage has it, justice delayed is justice denied. This hasn’t simply been during his criminal prosecutions, which I will discuss in a moment. It stretched over the time of his presidency as well. We know that during his presidency President Trump filled the federal judiciary with a slew of right-wing judges, many of them out-and-out corrupt. He also corrupted the Supreme Court with his unprecedented three appointments in a single term. But here I’m not even talking about right-wing Republican judges who often appear partial to Donald Trump’s ideological aims and frequently his narrower electoral ones as well. We know for instance that Judge Aileen Cannon, a corrupt and transparently partisan Trump appointee, has more or less single-handedly sabotaged the classified documents prosecution. Set that all aside. What I’m talking about are the fair-minded judges who allow a mix of institutional courtesy, established practice and inertia to allow Trump to make a mockery of the criminal justice system.

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What prompts me to write today is the fate of the primary federal charges against Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. When I say “primary” here I mean to signify that the charges related to his attempted coup are far graver than those tied to his post-defeat handling of classified documents. Trump has mounted an appeal based on the outlandish proposition that Presidents are simply immune from prosecution, period. They can’t be prosecuted while in office, which is generally accepted. And, he argues, they can’t be prosecuted afterwards either. There are some technical niceties involved in the arguments. But that’s the gist and the technical points don’t improve the argument. It is simply not a credible argument. And it doesn’t need to be because the point is delay — the ongoing effort to push the prosecution into the window of time in which a newly elected Trump could make the case go away.

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Jack Smith tried to take the appeal directly to the Supreme Court because it is a case of obvious national importance and it is certain it will eventually end up there. The Court declined to skip over the review by the DC Circuit, apparently with the support of the three justices appointed by Democrats. The expectation had been that the DC circuit would deliver a decision within days since it had already expedited the process to move quickly. That was three weeks ago. No one knows what’s happening or when a decision might be rendered. The Supreme Court could obviously scuttle the whole case in various ways but the argument is so weak that seems unlikely. And it’s not entirely clear that four let alone five justices would want to help Trump in this way. But even the DC Circuit seems to be taking its time.

...


It is not like this is slow by normal standards. It’s quite fast. But it’s not a normal case. And we’re all out of excuses. Justice delayed is justice denied. They’ve failed. Let’s just state it clearly."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/justice-delayed-is-justice-denied