If we are counting stolen Supreme Court seats, make sure to put the tally at 3….
Book reveals Trump effort to persuade Justice Kennedy to step aside for Kavanaugh
New book Dark Towers tells of how family coordinated charm offensive to convince ageing supreme court justice to retire
The Guardian, February 4, 2020
The Trump family carried out a “coordinated White House charm offensive” to persuade Anthony Kennedy, a swing vote on the supreme court, to retire and clear the way for Brett Kavanaugh, according to a forthcoming book.
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Long before Trump ran for the White House, Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin, worked as an investment banker at Deutsche. Enrich describes how he developed a relationship with Trump, his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, helping to finance real-estate deals no other bank would touch because of Trump’s record of failing to pay his debts to lenders, contractors and business partners.
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“Trump’s flattery,” Enrich writes, “was part of a coordinated White House charm offensive designed to persuade the ageing justice – for years, the court’s pivotal swing vote – that it was safe to retire, even with an unpredictable man in the Oval Office.”
Dark Towers describes how Ivanka Trump befriended the judge, sitting next to him at an inaugural lunch, regaling him with accounts of her close friendship with his son, then visiting the elder Kennedy at the supreme court, bringing her five year-old daughter to hear a case about arbitration agreements.
“...bringing her five year-old daughter to hear a case about arbitration agreements.” She brought her child into their dirty scheme as a prop. Just disgusting.
The Son of Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy Helped Trump Secure Loans at Deutsche Bank
Law and Crime, October 28, 2020
The son of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy helped Donald Trump in 2005 secure nearly $700 million in loans to construct a skyscraper in Chicago, despite Trump’s reputation for defaulting on business loans, the New York Timesreported on Tuesday evening.
According to the report, Justin Kennedy, who ran the German bank’s commercial real estate team and was close with the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, was willing to overlook Trump’s shoddy history as a debtor, getting the future president to personally guarantee $40 million of the loan. Both Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump currently work in the White House.
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In Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction, finance editor of the New York Times David Enrich described how Justin Kennedy was “drawn to Trump’s risk-taking and glamour” while he was shepherding lucrative loans to Trump’s private businesses, even after the bank’s clients took massive losses when Trump’s Atlantic City casinos went bankrupt. After Trump’s election, the family reportedly set their sights on persuading Justice Kennedy to step down so the president could appoint a second justice to the bench.
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No one was happier about the outcome of the election than his father, Gregory Kennedy said, according to the book. Anthony Kennedy had been nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1987, and Marcus wrote that Anthony Kennedy wanted to be replaced on the high court by another Republican.
Some have speculated that Trump said this to Kennedy: “Now all we need is RBG.”