Courts

Trump Judge Makes Jurisdictional Ruling Against Trump

It's a minor ruling but, let's be happy anyway.

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(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Another day, another court loss for Donald Trump in his ongoing attempts to shield his tax returns from lawful subpoenas.

In the gallery of epic benchslaps Trump has received from federal courts (so far my favorite is still the 75-page smackdown from U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero), the beating administered to Trump today is pretty tame. U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols kicked one of Trump’s arguments about the laws passed in New York regarding tax returns from his court in D.C. It was purely a jurisdictional ruling. Here’s the conclusion from the ruling:

Based on the current allegations, Mr. Trump has not met his burden of establishing personal jurisdiction over either of the New York Defendants. The Court therefore need not reach the question of proper venue. Accordingly, the New York Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED, and Mr. Trump’s Amended Complaint is DISMISSED without prejudice as to them. Mr. Trump may press his claims against the New York Defendants in this Court should future events support the exercise of personal jurisdiction over them, or he may opt to pursue those claims in an appropriate forum.

Trump’s legal arguments are almost always wrong and usually offensively bad. This one is no different. There was literally no reason for him to bring this suit in D.C., and Judge Nichols said so.

The only interesting thing here is that Nichols falsified records and switched the samples to bring you Provasic. Just kidding, that was Dr. Charles Nichols, not Judge Carl Nichols. But Judge Nichols is notable for being a judge appointed by Trump. Most of Trump’s federal losses are handed to him by judges who were appointed by other presidents. Nichols was confirmed this past May. Having one of Trump’s crazy and stupid arguments kicked by a fresh-faced Trump judge is not something we’ve seen before.

That’s probably also why Nichols’s decision was so openly begging Trump’s lawyers to refile in New York. But, I don’t think it will do much good in New York as the Second Circuit has already weighed in on the dumbass arguments Trump is making up there.

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We’re all just waiting for the administration to ask different Trump judges — Neil Gorsuch and alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh — to bail him out.

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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