All eyes will be on “60 Minutes” tonight.
One segment is on freezing the biological clock, with Lesley Stahl.
But it’s Scott Pelley”s report on “The Rule of Law” that will cause a stir.
This will be a searing look at Donald Trump’s major court loss this week. On Friday a federal judge permanently blocked President Trump’s executive order that targeted the law firm Perkins Coie, ruling the order was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, issued a permanent injunction barring the enforcement of any part of Trump’s order from March, which focused on the firm’s representation of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and its work with billionaire donor George Soros.
The judge wrote: “No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.'”
She said Trump’s order — another step in his vendetta against the government, and all of us, “violates the Constitution and is thus null and void.”
The judge’s order comes as many major law firms in got so scared of Trump that they started making onerous deals with him to avoid retaliation. Paul Weiss Rifkind and Skadden Arps are among them, causing backlash within the legal community. A protest letter was signed by dozens of the latter firm’s alumni.
Pelley will not quit investigating the corruption of the Trump government despite the ousting of the show’s executive producer — and his producer — Bill Owens. Pelley offered a seething commentary on the show last week against Paramount and owner Shari Redstone.
Redstone had reportedly complained that “60 Minutes” — currently being sued by Trump — was supposed to let her know about sensitive segments. (Pelley had just previously had a headline making interview with Ukraine president Zelensky.) It’s hard to believe she doesn’t know about tonight’s segment. The values of CBS — called the Tiffany network — and “60 Minutes” — the gold standard in news — must be upheld. Otherwise, we are cooked.
PS Scott Pelley rocks. His pieces are so well written you can listen to them on the radio and feel completely drawn in. He wasn’t appreciated when he was the anchor of “CBS Evening News.”
