By Bob Gaydos

A b. We worh Trump’s imhw hamga from the from of the Justice Department headquarters.

  Trump is scheduled to give the State of the Union address tonight and I won’t be watching because I have no interest in listening to a demented old man talk about oatmeal or windmills or the special deal he’s offering on bitcoin.

   Besides, I have a long list of things I haven’t had the time to write about but I’m sure he won’t be talking about tonight.

   Things like the Supreme Court finally slapping him down on his tariffs, saying he had no power to impose them and his childish response to the ruling. Wonder how many justices will be in the chambers tonight.

   Or that phony baloney “Peace Board,”which costs a billion dollars to join and is largely composed of nations whose citizens have been barred from immigrating to the United States by Trump. A big grift.

  Or his image on a banner hanging from the front of the Department of Justice headquarters, as well as at Labor and Agriculture, like the ruler of some Third World country.

    Or his constant threat to attack Iran for developing nuclear weapons capacity when, in his first term, he quit the treaty with them which barred them from doing so and, in his second term said attacks on them had eliminated their nuclear capability. A diversion.

    Or his sudden decision declaring the pesticide Roundup, long declared a cancer threat, is necessary for national security, a favor to a friend.

   Or his equally dangerous and inexcusable decisions to rev up the coal industry and declare that the U.S. has no obligation to fight climate change and not pollute the air. New York MAGA Lee Zeldin, EPA head, gladly made the announcement.

    That’s a quick, short list of the true state of the union. Oh, and inflation is up and job growth is down, whatever he may say.

    Maybe Kash Patel, back from his beer blast with the gold medal-winning men’s hockey team will be in the audience with them and will provide an update on where the FBI’s investigation of all the famous people mentioned in the Epstein files stands. I’m sure some of the survivors of the sex-trafficking ring who are expected to be in the audience as guests of Democrats would appreciate it. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

   The gold-medal winning women’s hockey team rejected Trump’s invitation to the White House because of his insulting comments about them.

   That’s the state of the union.

By Bob Gaydos

           Glenn Kirschner, one of the legion of former Justice Department lawyers enjoying a side gig as media experts explaining the legal ins and outs and many perils facing Donald Trump in several cases in several jurisdictions around the country, recently said that actions by federal prosecutors suggest they may think one of Trump’s many lawyers might have been in Cahoots* with the ex-president on matters regarding the many missing classified government documents.

     To all of which I say, where the heck is Cahoots? And were they hiding documents there, too?

     I first encountered the Cahoots Conundrum a dozen years ago when stories spread about members of Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies being in Cahoots with Al-Qaeda on hiding Osama bin Laden.

     “It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or state institutions of Pakistan, including the ISI and the armed forces, for being in Cahoots with Al Qaeda,” said Yousuf Raza Gilani, then prime minister of Pakistan.

       There were questions at the time about how the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, the most-sought fugitive in the world, could have been living comfortably with his family in a walled compound within walking distance of Pakistan’s version of West Point. Somehow, Cahoots was involved. Maybe that’s where the deal was made to hide Bin Laden.

    My research at the time supported that possibility, with Cahoots being mentioned in questionable dealings in Mexico involving the Catholic Church, the police, and drug cartels. Also in Afghanistan, involving the Afghan military and the Taliban. It seemed to be an ideal place to go to make shady deals because no one apparently knew where Cahoots was. Still don’t, apparently.

    The current Cahoots conundrum mentioned by Kirschner involves one M. Evan Corcoran, Trump and classified documents. Corcoran, a lawyer, wrote a statement for Trump stating that he was in possession of no more classified documents. This followed an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home that uncovered hundreds of such items.

    Trump had another lawyer sign the statement written by Corcoran and give it to the FBI. No more documents. Case closed. But the National Archives disagreed. They suggested the FBI look again. Of course, Trump being Trump, a subsequent search uncovered dozens more documents.

      So Trump and or his lawyer(s) lied to the FBI. Did Corcoran know there were more documents? Did the other lawyer? Did Trump? Was Trump in Cahoots with one or both of them cooking something up?

        Corcoran is claiming attorney-client privilege to avoid testifying before a grand jury investigating Trump’s documents stash. The other lawyer has testified to the grand jury. Prosecutors have reportedly asked a federal judge to deny the attorney-client privilege claim because they believe Corcoran’s legal services were used in furtherance of a crime. That nullifies attorney-client privilege.

     So many questions:

# Did Corcoran know there were more documents when he wrote the statement?

# Did Trump lie to him?

# Did the other lawyer know about the documents?

# Will Trump ever be indicted? On anything?

# Was Robert Mueller ever in Cahoots with Trump?

# Is Nikki Haley seriously running for president?

# Is she in Cahoots plotting with Trump to be his Vice President?

# How does Rudy Giuliani, who in the past has been suspected of being in Cahoots with Trump and others, feel about his political and legal careers now being in Limbo*?

# Does anyone know where Limbo or Cahoots is?

    It just seems to me that we ought to know more about a place where the likes of Donald Trump, Mexican drug cartels and Osama bin Laden have reportedly hung out. Also, I like Glenn Kirschner.

                                  ***

PS: Asterisks on Cahoots and Limbo are mine.

rjgaydos@gmail.com

Bob Gaydos is writer/in-residence at zestoforange.com.