Blanche
and
Donald
Trump
(Photo
by
Brendan
McDermid-Pool/Getty
Images)
Donald
Trump
has
a
certain
instinct
for
organized
crime.
It’s
how
his
own
former
lawyer
described
Trump’s
business
management.
So
maybe
it’s
not
a
surprise
that
he
runs
right
to
RICO
whenever
he
wants
to
throw
a
tantrum
in
court.
He
invoked
the
statute
in
his
loony
lawsuit
against
every
Democrat
in
D.C.
and,
as
the
T-shirt
would
say,
“all
I
got
was
this
lousy
$1
million
sanction
for
filing
a
frivolous
suit.”
But
that
was
when
he
sat
on
the
civilian
side
of
the
ledger.
Now
that
he’s
converted
the
Department
of
Justice
into
his
personal
grievance
clearing
house,
he
has
the
benefit
of
sending
taxpayer-funded
lawyers
into
court…
to
file
frivolous
cases.
Last
week,
Trump
went
to
Joe’s
Seafood,
Prime
Steak
&
Stone
Crab
with
Vice
President
JD
Vance,
Acting
Archivist
Marco
Rubio,
and
Secretary
of
Not-the-Department-of-War
Pete
Hegseth.
While
at
dinner,
activist
group
Code
Pink
heckled
the
group.
In
response,
the
gathering
of
hardcore
alpha
males
went
crying
to
Pam
Bondi
to
protect
them
from
the
scary
women
hurting
their
feelings.
“I’ve
asked
[Bondi]
to
look
into
that
in
terms
of
RICO,
bringing
RICO
cases,”
Trump
said.
“They
should
be
put
in
jail,
what
they’re
doing
to
this
country
is
really
subversive.”
Which
is
a
Yelp
review,
not
RICO.
In
a
sane
administration,
this
is
where
the
adults
in
the
room
step
in
to
tell
the
increasingly
obvious
sundowning
president
that,
no,
in
fact
protesters
are
not
a
racketeering
operation.
But
here
in
Trump
II:
Electric
Boogaloo,
every
official
scrambles
to
the
nearest
cable
news
hit
to
rubberstamp
whatever
baseless
theory
comes
out
of
the
Oval
Office,
so
Deputy
Attorney
General
Todd
Blanche
ran
to
CNN
for
some
banana
republic
cosplay
about
the
boss’s
brilliant
suggestion
that
a
handful
of
women
disrupting
dinner
amounts
to
a
criminal
conspiracy.
Now
we
turn
it
over
to
Ken
White,
who
responds
to
stupid
efforts
to
use
the
RICO
statute
like
Bruce
Wayne
catching
a
glimpse
of
the
Bat-Signal:
As
Kaitlan
Collins
correctly
sets
up
the
topic,
Todd
Blanche
is
arguing
that
a
statute
designed
to
dismantle
the
Gambino
Crime
Family
and
take
on
Al
Qaeda
and
direct
it
at
the
notorious
criminal
enterprise
of
*checks
notes*
the
Ladies
Who
Lunch.
Blanche,
to
his
enduring
professional
detriment,
continued:
“So
is
it,
again,
sheer
happenstance
that
individuals
show
up
at
a
restaurant
where
the
president
is
trying
to
enjoy
dinner
in
Washington,
DC,
and
accost
him
with
vile
words
and
vile
anger?
And
meanwhile,
he’s
simply
trying
to
have
dinner.
Does
it
mean
it’s
just
completely
random
that
they
showed
up?
Maybe,”
Blanche
said
on
“The
Source.”
“But
to
the
extent
that
it’s
part
of
an
organized
effort
to
inflict
harm
and
terror
and
damage
to
the
United
States,
there’s
potential,
potential
investigations
there.”
No,
there
are
not.
They
showed
up
because
Trump
was
there,
and
they
yelled
at
him.
While
we’re
at
it
what
does
“accost
him
with
vile
words
and
vile
anger”
mean?
Where
does
it
fit
on
a
protest
scale
relative
to
“storming
the
Capitol
and
trying
to
beat
cops
to
death
with
fire
extinguishers?”
Because
apparently
that’s
the
basis
of
a
full
pardon,
so
we
really
need
to
nail
down
where
this
veers
into
organized
crime.
RICO
requires,
in
a
nutshell,
racketeering
activity
and
an
enterprise
carrying
it
out.
Blanche
suggests
that
there’s
some
mass
conspiracy
—
probably
directed
by
George
Soros,
since
everything
is
with
these
people
—
to
send
protesters
wherever
the
president
goes.
The
problem,
as
White’s
post
notes,
is
that
even
if
that
fever
dream
enterprise
existed,
there’s
no
racketeering!
Because
the
predicate
acts
for
RICO
are
a
relatively
small
list
of
specific
crimes
like
murder
and
arson.
Hurting
the
president’s
fee-fees,
it
will
shock
you
not
at
all,
does
not
make
the
list.
This
is
the
kind
of
legal
theory
that
would
embarrass
a
1L.
It’s
something
for
your
dumbest
relative
to
post
before
ending
up
on
Bad
Legal
Takes.
Pressed
by
Collins
on
whether
the
protesters
were
inflicting
harm
by
shouting
at
the
president,
Blanche
said,
“I
mean,
honestly,
so
you’re
asking
whether
there’s
damage
done
by
four
individuals
screaming
and
yelling
at
the
president
of
our
United
States
while
he’s
trying
to
have
dinner?
That
can’t
be
a
serious
question.”
It
shouldn’t
be
a
serious
question,
but
not
for
the
reasons
Blanche
is
going
for
here.
Blanche
knows
this
is
garbage
too.
That’s
why
he
couches
it
in
lawyerly
“potential”
and
“maybe,”
so
he
can
gaslight
disciplinary
counsel
later
while
Trump
claps
like
a
seal
watching
clips
on
Fox
&
Friends.
On
a
transcript,
divorced
of
tone,
Blanche’s
response
here
looks
like
he’s
not
saying
something
insane.
Good
luck
on
the
plausible
deniability.
No
judge
is
going
for
this.
Frankly,
no
D.C.
grand
jury
is
going
for
this.
These
are
the
same
people
returning
no
bills
on
far
more
colorable
cases
than
this
RICO
clown
show.
It’s
just
cable
Kabuki,
a
farce
played
out
to
make
Trump
feel
like
he
made
a
smart
suggestion
before
the
DOJ
quietly
drops
it.
But
that’s
still
a
problem.
The
media
needs
to
stop
indulging
this
nonsense.
They
don’t
have
to
invite
administration
officials
on
to
make
up
stuff.
After
Trump
spouted
off
about
RICO,
there’s
no
obligation
to
bring
Blanche
on
to
explain
it.
What’s
he
going
to
do?
He’s
not
going
to
tell
the
emperor
he’s
got
no
clothes.
And
so
we
spin
out
this
stupid
idea
for
another
news
cycle.
When
Justice
Sotomayor
wonders
whatever
happened
to
civic
education,
the
media’s
compulsion
to
platform
stupid
legal
arguments
is
part
of
it.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.