HERE WE GO AGAIN!

  So former Vice President Mike Pence, on this second week of February, 2023, received a grand jury subpoena in the federal criminal investigation of the Capitol insurrection riot that occurred in January 2021. This, we are told, is after weeks of "negotiation" with the former vice president and his team. So much for the swift administration of justice.

And let's not kid ourselves. Just because Pence got a subpoena does not mean he will promptly to comply with it. Unless he is already "in the bag" and this is just cosmetics, he might, like others have done, litigate, asserting "executive privilege."

More bullshit. There ain't no executive privilege here. The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear, that with the exception of specific privileges, such as lawyer/client, and priest/penitent, etc., executive conversations that do not refer to diplomatic or military matters must yield to the criminal process. Pence and his team know this. All the MAGAs do, and screw around to show they are good Trumpists, and pour sand into the justice system machinery to accomplish delay, delay, delay.

While I am not a fan of this Supreme Court, it has not yet reversed U.S. v Nixon -- a decision, you will recall, that required the sitting president to turn over to a prosecutor, evidence so damaging to the president that it led to his resignation.

The Supremes could not have been clearer. Nixon's defense of executive privilege covering his conversations with his chief of staff was soundly and explicitly and unanimously rejected. 

Indulge me, please, while I quote some key words from this unanimous decision about the limits of what we now call "executive privilege"):

          "Neither the doctrine of separation of powers, nor the generalized need for confidentiality of high-level communications, without more, can sustain an absolute, unqualified presidential privilege of immunity from judicial process under all circumstances …  . Absent a claim of a need to protect military, diplomatic, or sensitive national security secrets, the confidentialities of presidential communications is not significantly diminished by producing material for a criminal trial … . 

When a claim of presidential privilege as to materials subpoenaed for use in a criminal trial is not on the ground that military or diplomatic secrets are implicated… the president's  generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial ... . The allowance of the privilege to withhold evidence that is demonstrably relevant in a criminal trial would cut deeply into the guarantee of due process of law."  

Presumably, the Pence subpoena concerns two subjects: Trump's failure to turn over classified documents and Trump's connection to January 6, not documents or discussions about military and diplomatic secrets. So what's left? The real possibility that this is showtime, that's what. Pence has already written a book about Jan 6 and there is a real possibility that he is already in the bag: he is going to tell all, and wants the cover of a judge's order to appeal to the MAGA faithful who might go to Pence in the primaries once it becomes clear that Trump is history. Is Pence a likely winner of that lottery? I doubt it, but when you are that close, ya chase all possibilities.

Added to all this is yesterday's news that Pence's lawyers have also received grand jury subpoenas. A package deal?

One can only hope this is the final act in this drama. If the team of Smith and Garland doesn't get its act together in the immediate future, they are going to screw up this prosecution. Lots of reasons that I need not go into now, but they are already a year late and an effective prosecution will not stand further delay. Now or never, kids.

Lock em up!

A bientot.

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