Obama-Appointed Judge Moves Merkley Lawsuit Against Trump, Kavanaugh Ahead – Same Corrupt Judge From Manafort Trial

Obama-Appointed Judge Moves Merkley Lawsuit Against Trump, Kavanaugh Ahead – Same Corrupt Judge From Manafort Trial

by Brock Simmons
September 29, 2018

A U.S. District Court Judge has ruled that Oregon senator Jeff Merkley can proceed with his grandstanding lawsuit against the Trump Administration and Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Judge Amy Berman Jackson was appointed by Obama in early 2011, and took the bench in March after a 97-0 confirmation vote.

KOIN 6 Reports:

A lawsuit filed by a Democratic senator from Oregon aiming to compel the Trump administration to release 100,000 pages of documents on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is inching forward in federal court, with an Obama nominee assigned to hear it.

Sen. Jeff Merkley’s lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in the nation’s capital, has been overshadowed by sexual harassment accusations against the nominee, but the case remains alive, with summonses prepared for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others, court documents show.

Now Merkley is asking the federal court to order the Trump administration, which has claimed executive privilege in withholding the 100,000 documents on Kavanaugh, to delay hearings until they’re produced and senators can digest them.

Merkley told reporters in a conference call Wednesday that “we’re seeking the court to intervene and give senators access to the nominee’s record.”

The judge assigned to the case, Amy Berman Jackson, was nominated to the federal court by then-President Barack Obama in 2011. She has handled some high-profile cases.

Jackson was to have presided over the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort until he pleaded guilty in a plea bargain earlier this month. Jackson said Manafort’s plea deal requires him to cooperate “fully and truthfully” with the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Jackson said Manafort must participate in interviews and debriefings, provide documents and testify in future cases.

At the center of Merkley’s lawsuit are records from when Kavanaugh worked in the George W. Bush White House as legal counsel and then as staff secretary. The Trump administration says disclosing records from his tenure as legal counsel would disrupt the functions or decision-making processes of the executive branch.

But that’s not all. Amy Berman Jackson was also the judge who tossed out a lawsuit against Hillary filed by the families of Benghazi victims Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith.

According to Quartz:

Judge Jackson dismissed a lawsuit in May of 2017 brought by the parents of Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith, two soldiers killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack. The lawsuit alleged that Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server caused the death of their sons, and that Clinton defamed them after disputing their account of a meeting with her. In her decision, Jackson calls the deaths of the plaintiffs’ sons “tragic” and an “unspeakable loss,” but said they did not prove their argument.

Berman Jackson also donated to Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign.

In fairness, though, Berman Jackson was also the judge who ruled that the IRS was unfairly targeting conservative groups, and presided over the Jesse Jackson Jr. trial, where he was convicted on his campaign financing covfefe.

Meanwhile, senator Jeff Merkley is rumored to be running for President in 2020, so he needs to manufacture as many scandals against Trump as he can, so he can grandstand and gain name recognition.