Friday the 13th: Justice Day

A major inflection point in USA history will occur on Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue decisions on a few important petitions.  They are important to impeachment proceedings in the House Of Representatives, and they may be why various Republicans have been encouraging swift proceedings recently, so articles of impeachment could be finalized before these decisions arrive.

First: A major case is "Trump vs Deutsche Bank" (docket # 19A640).  This decision is important because of what journalists have been able to piece together, even without access to the details.

"The review also found that Deutsche Bank had produced a number of “exposure reports” that flagged the growing business with Mr. Trump, but that they had not been adequately reviewed by senior executives. On Deutsche Bank’s trading floor, managers began warning employees not to use the word “Trump” in communications with people outside the bank. Salesmen who violated the edict were scolded by compliance officers who said the bank feared stoking public interest in its ties to the new president. One reason: If Mr. Trump were to default on his loans, Deutsche Bank would have to choose between seizing his assets or cutting him a lucrative break — a situation the bank would rather resolve in private."
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/18/business/trump-deutsche-bank.html

So the bank was performing inappropriate transactions for Trump, they were flagged internally for review, but upper management quashed them in favor of continuing that business.  Then they ordered employees to never call attention to it.  That business was for properties around the world where Trump now sends taxpayer dollars.  Remember those strange expenditures at his golf course in Turnberry, Scotland?  That's just one bank-loan property where he's been sending dollars as President, to himself from us.

Second:  Another case is "Trump vs Mazars USA" (docket # 19A545), also asking for financial records that could shed light on conflicts of interest.  Mazars apparently is the firm that handles Trump's tax returns.  Trump appointees are also blocking direct access to those tax returns at the IRS, so that's probably why it was necessary to subpeona outside entities for the information.

"In the case involving the House subpoena to Mazars, Trump’s claim is entirely predicated on the alarming argument that, outside the context of impeachment, Congress lacks any constitutional authority at all to investigate a sitting President’s possible conflicts of interest and violations of law."
- https://www.justsecurity.org/67461/understanding-the-two-mazars-subpoena-cases-before-the-supreme-court/

These decisions (not rulings after oral arguments, just administrative decisions on whether or not to allow lower court decisions to stand) will have a huge impact on refinement of Articles Of Impeachment.

Third:  As if that's not momentous enough, keep in mind that a President's power to pardon offenses does not extend to protection against investigation for impeachment proceedings.  Assuming that the Supreme Court on Friday allows the lower court rulings to stand, then it means that the House may further impeach all of the federal officials implicated during the many, many problems that are already known, including the rest of Trump's family, after they have agreement from the judicial branch on their subpeona authority.  Because what could go wrong with a corrupt family using nepotism to share White House jobs together?

Fourth:  Those illegalities could lead back to the Supreme Court itself.  Remember Case #1 above with Deutsche Bank?  Former Justice Kennedy's son was part of the Deutsche Bank fiasco with Trump.  Kennedy suddenly quit the court, Kavanaugh suddenly got enough money to pay off significant debts equal to his annual income, then Kavanaugh was appointed as Kennedy's replacement on the Supreme Court.  It doesn't require a conspiracy theorist to see something odd in that sequence of events.

"We don't yet know:
*Who paid Kavanaugh's debts.
*What he did with Bush and Cheney on torture; some 90% of his paperwork was never released.
*Who ordered the FBI not to fully investigate him.
*Why Kennedy "retired" when his son was implicated in Trump's Deutsche Bank problems."
- https://twitter.com/Thom_Hartmann/status/1173292447964651521

So.  Big day ahead for the USA.  We find out if we can keep our laws alive.  Friday the 13th.  "Justice Day."

Update: 2019 December 14 Saturday:

This post was too long to scroll through on my cell phone.  I cut out today's update and pasted it into a new post.