ICYMI: Trump’s latest great ideas; Stephen Colbert; Epstein, Epstein, Epstein

Trump’s (latest) great ideas

 How about appointing an anti-Muslim “alpha male” influencer as ambassador to mostly-Muslim Malaysia? 

Or eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse by firing State Department employees working on counterterrorism, stopping drug trafficking, energy diplomacy and mitigating passport and visa fraud? 

Or refusing permission or funding to ship 800,000 doses of mpox vaccines, leaving them sitting in storage until their expiration dates? 

Or firing the watchdogs whose job it is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse? 

The War on Laughter

Trust Andy Borowitz to get serious about laughter. Writing seriously about CBS firing Colbert, he skewers the CBS justification—”This is purely a financial decision.” 

“They might be the most hilarious words ever typed, with the possible exception of the phrase ‘Trump’s presidential library.’ …

“Like everything else rattling around in the commodious cavern of Trump’s brain, his fear of ridicule is unoriginal: he shares it with pretty much every dictator in the world. You might have noticed, for example, that there isn’t a thriving comedy scene in Pyongyang.

“The autocrats’ anxiety is entirely justified. Comedy is their kryptonite. They rule by intimidation, and when we laugh at them, their power to scare us evaporates.”  

If you are not, like me, already oversubscribed to too many blogs and news reports, consider throwing a few bucks to The Borowitz Report.  

Oh, and by the way—before he was elected president of Ukraine, Zelenskyy worked in comedy and entertainment. We could do worse than Stephen Colbert. In fact, we already did much worse. 

Epstein, Epstein, Epstein

Oops—CBS’s description of its termination of Colbert might not be the most hilarious words ever written. Trump is suing the Wall Street Journal, and part of his filing reads: 

“16. The Article was published in The Wall Street Journal as an exclusive. However, since publication, the Defendants have widely disseminated it to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.”

I wonder what he thinks “exclusive” means? Or is it “publication” that confuses him?

Releasing Grand Jury Minutes

Trump can’t just tell the Attorney General to unseal grand jury transcripts. Testimony before a grand jury is secret, by law. It is secret to protect witnesses and to protect the entire process. Maybe it shouldn’t be—but the law is there, and exceptions do not look like they apply in the Epstein-Trump instance.

Joyce Vance explains:

“Release of the grand jury material, or as Trump would have it, only the bits that are “pertinent,” isn’t automatic. Federal prosecutors need a court order to disclose grand jury testimony; they can’t just do it on their own. Under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure, Rule 6(e)(3)(E), “The court may authorize disclosure—at a time, in a manner, and subject to any other conditions that it directs—of a grand-jury matter” in a number of situations including: (1) in connection with a judicial proceeding; (2) to a defendant who has come forward with evidence that something improper occurred before the grand jury and he may be entitled to have the case dismissed; or (3) at the request of the federal government, to another jurisdiction that needs it to prosecute a case. Even if the government can shoehorn its request into one of these categories or another provision of the rule, it will take time. There may be objections from Ghislaine Maxwell, whose case is still on appeal. And, DOJ would have to make a “strong showing of particularized need” that “outweighs the public interest in secrecy” in order for the release to be ordered.” 

One More Epstein Casualty

Maureen Comey worked on the criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as a lawyer in the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York. She was abruptly fired on July 15.

[New York Times] “There was no explicit indication that Ms. Comey’s firing was related to her work on the cases against Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 for her role in a yearslong scheme to sexually exploit underage girls.

“But as recently as Tuesday, Ms. Comey’s role in their cases was highlighted in a Politico article, which noted that she had argued against the disclosure of investigative records.

“It stands to reason that Ms. Comey, as one of the lead prosecutors in Mr. Epstein’s case, would have asked that certain information remain private, as is standard in sensitive cases involving victims of sexual violence. The Justice Department could move to unseal those files, if it chose. …

“The abrupt firing of a prosecutor — especially a veteran like Ms. Comey — was once unusual. But such episodes have become more common as President Trump has taken close control of the Justice Department.

“Still, Ms. Comey’s dismissal is the most high-profile departure from her office since February, when the Trump administration moved to abandon corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York. That decision led to the resignation of at least eight prosecutors in New York and Washington.” 

Maureen Comey is the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, also a Trump target of Trump.