Court tosses Vindman suit, rules "political hackery" not justiciable

In his 29-page ruling, Judge Boasberg recognizes the “harsh, meanspirited, and at times misleading attacks” against Vindman but declares that “political hackery alone does not violate [the law at issue].”

Notably, this motion alleged that he failed to state a claim for civil conspiracy under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In such a motion, the alleged facts are read by the court in favor of Vindman. The Court concluded that, even assuming these facts in his favor, he failed to state a claim because there is no evidence of a conspiracy against Vindman:

“Taken as true, the facts establish that Defendants worked together and had the common motive of defending Trump during his impeachment proceedings. They do not, however, show that any Defendant here joined with any other co-conspirator in the specific goal of intimidating Vindman from testifying or performing his job.”

When it was filed, liberal legal experts on Just Security insisted that Vindman was “right on the law.” Another expert declared “it’s difficult to imagine the defense offering up any justification of Vindman’s treatment that wouldn’t be laughed out of the courtroom.” Jessica A. Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said that the “plain text of the statute” supported Vindman and that “you can absolutely say with a straight face that there’s a ‘there’ there.”

Judge Boasberg, a Clinton appointee, was clearly unwilling to go “there.”