Draining the Swamp

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Did anyone know that Justin Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's son, was the global head of the real-estate capital markets division of Deutsche Bank, which loaned to Trump when other banks wouldn't?

Holy crap.

We're so compromised.

eta: The son of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justin Kennedy, was leading a real-estate division of Deutsche Bank as it gave President Donald Trump over $1 billion in loans to finance his real-estate projects when other banks wouldn't. NO OTHER BANK WOULD DO BUSINESS WITH Trump.

- Doc

[_EAllusion]

This got a lot of press in left-wing sources around the time of Kennedy's retirement. It was discussed here if I recall. I don't see anything to it. Deutsche Bank is up to its eyeballs in Russian money laundering suspicion and has questionable connections to Trump; that's true. Kennedy' son had a high position at Deutsche Bank. That's also true. But as far as the conspiratorial suggestion that this means something underhanded was afoot in Kennedy's retirement, there doesn't seem to be anything there. The arguments that tried to make that case did what this opening post does by merely mentioning a degree of separation, waggling the eyebrow, and expecting that to do the work.

[_Kevin Graham]

Did anyone know that Justin Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's son, was the global head of the real-estate capital markets division of Deutsche Bank, which loaned to Trump when other banks wouldn't?

Holy crap.

We're so compromised.

eta: The son of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Justin Kennedy, was leading a real-estate division of Deutsche Bank as it gave President Donald Trump over $1 billion in loans to finance his real-estate projects when other banks wouldn't. NO OTHER BANK WOULD DO BUSINESS WITH Trump.

- Doc

I brought this up a few weeks ago and then EA poo pooed on the conspiracy theory.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Well. I don't know how much the decision played into Kennedy's retirement. I think what bothers me is the clear connection between a Supreme Court judge, his son, and of course Russian money. If Trump supporters were so passionate about draining the swamp doesn't this provide a clear example of how politics work in Washington, and that the swamp is alive and well? I did a quick google search using the keywords 'kennedy deutsch bank' and this NYT article popped up:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/28/us/p ... ement.html

Then, after Justice Gorsuch’s nomination was announced, a White House official singled out two candidates for the next Supreme Court vacancy: Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati.

The two judges had something in common: They had both clerked for Justice Kennedy.

In the meantime, as the White House turned to stocking the lower courts, it did not overlook Justice Kennedy’s clerks. Mr. Trump nominated three of them to federal appeals courts: Judges Stephanos Bibas and Michael Scudder, both of whom have been confirmed, and Eric Murphy, the Ohio solicitor general, whom Mr. Trump nominated to the Sixth Circuit this month.

Isn't this how things work with the connected? Basically, now I see it is Trump signals to Kennedy that if he gets these loans Kennedy will be able to replace himself with an equally Conservative judge, and that his clerks will fill lower court positions. Perhaps we can call it a soft quid pro quo. Whatever the case may be the optics don't look good, and it certainly falls in line with the swampiness of DC.

- Doc

eta: My apologies for missing any prior postings on the topic, by the way. I happened to read an article covering this connection and was, again, appalled at what I perceive the backdoor deal making that the powerful seem to do.

[_honorentheos]

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49381

This was one of a couple of threads on Kennedy's retirement announcement. I think the others were more about the court broadly while this one took up the issue in this thread's OP directly. But there may have been others.