The Broadview Six

I'm far from the first person to note the MO of Trump and his regime when it comes to violating laws and the constitutional order, but after the many court cases they have lost, including multiple judges decrying their actions, it was the one yesterday against the Broadview Six that has finally put some words in my mouth.

Ken White, a criminal defense attorney and First Amendment litigator who was Twitter-famous as Pope Hat and is now on BlueSky, had a great thread explaining what happened in the Broadview grand jury case. To summarize, the Trump prosecutor improperly vouched for aspects of the case to the grand jury, communicated with grand jury members off the record, redacted parts of transcripts and lied about it, and finally "when grand jurors voted no bill the first time, [prosecutors] asked grand jurors who had 'made up their mind' not to participate in the next ones." Essentially, they shopped for jurors who were most likely to agree to indict.

Given all of that, the judge released the six defendants from all charges, such that they cannot be charged again. The judge will be looking into prosecutorial misconduct.

The thing I want to say about this regime's way of conducting itself is this: They act like a badly brought-up first grader on a playground, one who does what he wants to other kids until he gets called on it and told to stop. And then his only words are "Who says?" and "Make me." 

Like I said, I know I'm not the first one to point out that the regime functions at a low level (or no level) of morality. But it's good to allow yourself to feel the shock of it again once in a while.