Has this been discussed on TPM? It’s been a lot of news and I haven’t been able to follow it all.
One by one, every guardrail of our society is being torn down…not even hiding it. They aren’t in power, but you don’t need to be for destruction. You just need to be amoral and utterly unworthy of public position and trust.
https://www.rawstory.com/supreme-court-mike-johnson-texting-about-trump/
Excerpts:
“Mike Johnson on the Trump verdict: I do believe the Supreme Court should step in…I think that the Justices on the Court - I know many of them personally - I think they are deeply concerned about that, as we are. So I think they’ll set this straight…”
“This suggests that Speaker Johnson has had conversations with Supreme Court justices on this very topic. Quite interesting, especially given Chief Justice Roberts’ refusal to meet with Senate Dems because of ‘separation of powers,'” wrote journalist Jay Bookman.
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol, also the director of Defending Democracy Together and a former Republican, asked, “What Justices have discussed the Trump case privately with Trump ally Mike Johnson?”
“Fascinating to hear the GOP Speaker of the House admit to having private conversations with multiple justices who expressed concern to him about Trump’s conviction. I’m sure those justices will recuse from any eventual appeal to avoid sitting on a case they’ve pre-judged,” noted Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern, who writes about the law and the courts
Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffrey added, “Why are any justices talking to Johnson about this case? That’s outrageous if true.”
U.S. Naval War College national security affairs professor David Burbach: “Supreme Court Justices have been telling a politician how they’d likely rule on a case that isn’t even in front of them yet, but expressing hopes they do get it? Assuming Johnson isn’t making it up — big assumption — that’s a gross ethical violation.”
The advocacy group Take Back the Court did not hold back.
“Chief Justice Roberts says he won’t meet with senators about obvious ethics violations because of ‘separation of powers,’ but his justices are talking politics in the House Speaker’s DMs,” the group said on social media.
“Today,” they added in an official statement, “House Speaker Mike Johnson alluded to conversations he had with Supreme Court justices about Donald Trump’s felony convictions, saying there are justices who are ‘deeply concerned about’ the rulings — and that he believes the court will ‘set this straight.’ This comes as the court considers a case related to Trump’s immunity from prosecution from official acts done while in office.”
“Seems like we really should know more about the personal relationship between the flag-waving Christian nationalist Speaker of the House and the flag-waving Christian nationalist justices on the U.S. Supreme Court,” suggested Alex Aronson, former Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee who now serves as Executive Director of the non-profit organization Court Accountability.”
He then asked: “Are they texting about Trump?”