I have come around to the conclusion that something really big is going to drop on Camp Runamuck, and that this is why the Five O’Clock Follies have become so unhinged lately, and also why El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago apparently decided to let Stephen Miller off the chain again as regards immigration. From CNN:



"In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" he tweeted. Officials were still working to draft the executive order, according to an administration official, but hope to have it completed in the next few days for Trump to sign. While the language is still being finalized, the order is expected to temporarily halt the issuance of new green cards and work visas -- steps that had already effectively already been in place amid the coronavirus pandemic.



The order, if it ever appears, will exempt farmworkers and healthcare workers. Until it does appear, however, it’s not unfair to consider the president*’s tweet to be a noisy distraction. But from what, is the question. It could be bad news about the pandemic. It could be bad internal poll numbers indicating the possibility that the Republicans will be left as a pile of smoking meat by the side of the road come November.

I choose to believe that, maybe, it’s because federal Judge Reggie Walton has cloistered himself at the moment to do some serious reading. From the National Law Journal:

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton of the District of Columbia had ordered the Justice Department to turn over the report, in a ruling that sharply criticized U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s handling of the more than 400-page document. Walton said Barr displayed a “lack of candor” in his public rollout of the Mueller report, and the judge assailed the Justice Department leader for appearing to spin the Russia investigation’s findings “in favor of President Trump.”

“The court has grave concerns about the objectivity of the process that preceded the public release of the redacted version of the Mueller Report and its impacts on the department’s subsequent justifications that its redactions of the Mueller Report are authorized by the [Freedom of Information Act],” Walton said in his 23-page ruling March 5.



Justice Department lawyers submitted the report Monday, only to have Walton note that he will not be able to review the unredacted version until at least April 20, in light of an order issued by Chief Judge Beryl Howell that drastically limited the court’s operations amid the coronavirus crisis.



This would account for the wild detour that the president* took over the weekend when he hijacked some time in the Follies to go after Mueller again. At the time, I just thought that one of the tiny hamsters in his brain had fallen off the wheel. Now, I’m not so sure. When last we heard from Judge Walton, he was fitting William Barr’s reputation for a shroud. Now, he’s self-quarantined with the entire Mueller report. That’s got to get knees watery all throughout the administration*.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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