Ohio state Rep. Tavia Galonski (D) continues to garner extensive national coverage over her pledge to file a referral with the Hague for charges of crimes against humanity by President Donald Trump over his handling of the pandemic. Yesterday, she reaffirmed with NBC News that she would be making a referral “tomorrow.” Galonski is specifically citing Trump’s promotion of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment despite the absence of conclusive studies on its benefits. While Galonski originally said that she had “no idea” how to file such a referral, she has asked “how hard can it be?” The answer is extremely hard if you have, as here, an entirely frivolous basis for a referral.
Galonski caused a stir on Sunday by tweeting “I can’t take it anymore. I’ve been to The Hague. I’m making a referral for crimes against humanity tomorrow. Today’s press conference was the last straw. I know the need for a prosecution referral when I see one.”
Galonski is a lawyer with a J.D. the University of Akron School of Law and a B.A. from Emory University. She is also a former magistrate in the Summit Count Common Pleas Court.
The problem with the referral is that it does not involve any cognizable crime against humanity. Trump has admitted that the drug is not fully tested and vetted. He also has said that he is not a doctor and any decision to prescribe the drug would rest with doctors. However, Galonski is certainly correct that Trump has been almost obsessional in his raising of the drug and the need to get it to patients. Many disagree with the promotion based on the lack of clinical testing but it is not a crime of any kind let alone a crime against humanity. If it were, every politician in every country could be dragged into the Hague.
The International Criminal Court prosecutes individuals for such crimes as genocide, war crimes as well as crimes against humanity. The latter category at Nuremburg was defined as:
“Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.“
The past charges of crimes against humanity refer to a much different type of act in both magnitude and motive. It is not advocating for a medical treatment that a president believes might save thousands of people.
The ICC itself states that
“can prosecute crimes against humanity, which are serious violations committed as part of a large-scale attack against any civilian population. The 15 forms of crimes against humanity listed in the Rome Statute include offences such as murder, rape, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, enslavement – particularly of women and children, sexual slavery, torture, apartheid and deportation.”
Anyone can referral a complaint to the Office of the Prosecutor or that office can start an investigation on its own authority. However, the office must “determine whether there is sufficient evidence of crimes of sufficient gravity falling within the ICC’s jurisdiction, whether there are genuine national proceedings, and whether opening an investigation would serve the interests of justice and of the victims.” Absent such a finding, a case cannot proceed.
The ICC remains a matter of great controversy. Many opposed it in the United States as usurping the authority of domestic courts and constitutional standards. Specifically, some suggested that the ICC could be used to criminalize policy disagreements — precisely what Galonski would be doing with this referral.
Despite the extensive coverage, the changes of Trump being charged with Crimes Against Humanity in the Hague are about as likely as his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in Stockholm.
Key Passage From Turley’s Column:
“Trump has admitted that the drug is not fully tested and vetted. He also has said that he is not a doctor and any decision to prescribe the drug would rest with doctors. However, Galonski is certainly correct that Trump has been almost obsessional in his raising of the drug and the need to get it to patients”.
……………………………………………………………
I don’t think a referral to The Hague is quite appropriate here. But the above passage speaks volumes. We have a president with no medical experience obsessively promoting a drug treatment. ..Why..??
It has been revealed, however that certain friends of Trump are invested in this drug and Trump himself holds a minor stake. What’s more, certain personalities at Fox News are also keen on the drug. Fox News, in fact, invariably figures in everything Trump embraces.
REGARDING BELOW:
Those next 5 comments, I suspect, are all the same Trumper. We have never seen those names before. It’s someone who feels that liberals are too visible on these threads. So they’ve decided to tilt these threads back to a Trump-friendly appearance.
Seth, you keep getting more bad hash in your ObamaBong… find that safe place… relax. 5 more years of Trump is good for you, well, at least good for your Mama putting a roof over your head.
BTW, do you still wear your pink vag!na hat while you scream at the sky ?
A lot of doctors and their patients are reporting success with this drug. Trump has pushed to make it more available. For most people, this is known as common sense.
It’s a good gamble as long as the drug doesn’t replace a better drug that is available.
Duh. Have you heard of a better drug?
There are some in the pipeline that might end up better that we might not even be aware of. Right now hydroxychoroquine, Z-Pack and Zinc sound like they might be the best around that we know about, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be replaced.
Your entire post pretty much sums up this painful dialog that’s been going on for days about HCQ. Since fairy dust and Jack’s magic beans aren’t approved by the FDA or CDC, or Barron Trump for that matter, then who gives a $hit what may or possibly could be or might happen to be the future best protocol? Right now, given the choice of dying or using the best option available, then HCQ is the go to treatment. Unless of course you hate President Trump and you’d sooner die than ever give him a victory.
Just effing stupid overall that this topic is even controversial.
super minor like $1,500 indirect interest at most. maybe a lot to me but coins lost under the couch to him
and who cares anyhow if it works. it is under experimental emergency use and they can verify its effectiveness later when the data comes in. ,for now it’s up to doctors to give it a spin with their patients or not. thats their job!
off label uses are being tried all the time
you guys just cant resist making a mountain out of every bogus little molehill
and it’s actually good he’s shared the information whether you guys like it or not
Aw for gawd sakes why this idget from Ohio when we already have Sherrod Brown, a dyed-in-the-wool flaming libtard maroon?
Ohio state Rep. Tavia Galonski (D) is an enemy combatant. She should be treated as such.
How Hard Can It Be? It’s easy and a piece of cake
Chinese military strategists are pleased that the China virus was able to render a U.S. nuclear aircraft carrier and it’s battle group support ships inoperative without a single shot being fired.
Meanwhile Chinese military drills will continue.
Another example that just because one has academic credentials does not mean one is capable of reason. But we all enjoy people who foolishly display their total absence of common sense, it’s similar to when we pass a car wreck and we just have to look. Thanks Galonski for illustrating that in America, any fool can become a lawyer and worse, a judge, “how hard can it be?”
The only crime;s against humanity that have happened are what you the w.h.o. and China have committed since the outbreak of the Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus and should stand trial for it.
“Murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, whether or not in violation of the domestic law of the country where perpetrated.“
Wow. That sums up the entire history of the Democrat party neat as neat.
Rep. Galonski has severe Trump syndrome and severe HATERED of TRUMP – She is NUTS and how anyone would vote for this nut case is beyond me.
But, she represents the DEMP Party of TRUMP HATERS – so her stance is nothing new- we hear daily from the MSM who hate Trump.
In the end, Trump has and will beat them all.
My dear departed wife would say that hatred is a poison you swallow hoping someone else will die.
Very well stated. I hope your late wife and my late wife don’t ever meet: their combined brilliance would make us both need “Son”glasses.
😉
Trump should occupy Slobodan’s old cell
What a stupid comment Zinioviv! Jackass.
Well you step forward and let us execute you and then we’ll see if it can be arranged. Until then you just go ask mommy for the key to your safe place and your blankey, and let adults handle the day to day.
I would say this though…the ICC should be a place to try the internationally stupid people and journalist like you, your an embarrassment to humans.
Maybe it would help if you all charged him with an actual crime. I hate the guy is not going to get it done. You’ve tried twice now and failed. He’s more popular than ever… never mind it’s working for me.
your namesake Zinoviev occupies a cell in hell next to Kamenev, two losers who Stalin put out of their misery
what do you know about Slobo, anyways? dead for ten years why bring him up. bizarre
did you take a left turn at Pozarevac and lose your way to here?
Zinoviv, now i understand why you mention Slobo.
He knew some problems could only be resolved with force.
We’re not there– yet.
How embarrassing for the Universities she attended and the people who voted for her
Meanwhile, back to significant news stories:
Most NY corona virus cases not from China or Asia, but Europe, according to 2 different studies using different samples.:
“The explosion of Covid-19 cases in the New York City area resulted largely from infected patients who flew in from Europe, genome scientists say.
Researchers at NYU Langone Health said they’ve analyzed 75 samples from patients who were diagnosed with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at New York-area hospitals last month.
About two-thirds of the samples appear to have European origins, said Adriana Heguy, director of the Genome Technology Center at the medical center. The virus appears to have been imported to New York from the U.K. and several European countries, including France, Austria and the Netherlands, she said….”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-08/most-nyc-covid-19-cases-came-from-europe-genome-researchers-say
Another independent study confirmed this one.
““The majority is clearly European,” said Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who co-wrote a study awaiting peer review.
A separate team at N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine came to strikingly similar conclusions, despite studying a different group of cases. Both teams analyzed genomes from coronaviruses taken from New Yorkers starting in mid-March.
The research revealed a previously hidden spread of the virus that might have been detected if aggressive testing programs had been put in place….”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/science/new-york-coronavirus-cases-europe-genomes.html
Thanks, Book. I wouldn’t be surprised, if and when there’s an appropriate testing effort, that CV-19 has been in the States since last spring at least.
Elvis its possible it was already circulating. Maybe thats why California has fewer cases. Stanford is exploring this hypothesis apparently
no way of getting to that information without a reliable regime of antibody testing
As the liberals fight to prove it wasn’t Chine. Here is the gem of the article. “As new genomes come to light, researchers upload them to an online database called GISAID. A team of virus evolution experts are analyzing the growing collection of genomes in a project called Nextstrain. They continually update the virus family tree.
The deepest branches of the tree all belong to lineages from China. The Nextstrain team has also used the mutation rate to determine that the virus probably first moved into humans from an animal host in late 2019. On Dec. 31, China announced that doctors in Wuhan were treating dozens of cases of a mysterious new respiratory illness.“.
Gabby, I see you are trying to make sense of the gibberish promoted by AnonX2. Anons live in Democratic purgatory so they creates a surrounding fantasy that they can discuss to make life easier. I love when people talk to themselves.
an illness Dr Li, rest in peace, identified Dec 1 but the CCP thugs locked him up, made him sign a false confession, berfore they let him loose to go treat the very same thing and die from it himself
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-china-li-wenliang-whistleblower-doctor-martyr-2020-4
https://twitter.com/repgalonski?lang=en
She was evidently a magistrate in the Summit County juvenile court for 14 years. The patronage mill in Summit County is not sending the juvenile court their best.
Yea, too bad that TIA.
Hey, did you know the President declared bankruptcy at least 4 times, one year in the 1990’s claimed bigger losses on his tax return than any other American, and was bailed out by Russian oligarches close to Putin in the oughts?
That is todays GOP, but they’re not sending their best.
I see you do not know that HE did not file bankrupty but his companies did You must have come from the same place as this TDS sickened OHIO politician
John writes:
“…HE did not file bankrupty but his companies did ..”
You must be very proud. I mean who hasn’t filed for bankruptcy 6 times and been turned off by everybody but Russian gangsters?
bythebook-You’re just another liberal shit stain suffering from TDS for how many years now skippy boy? Grow up and get a life.
Tim –
Interesting theory. Are you suggesting I am responsible for Trump’s bankruptcies and dependence on Russian oligarches?
his corporate bankruptcies — I don’t know the details and I suspect you dont either. come forward with authority which analyzes the factors and then we have something to discuss., otherwise this is just more trolling
the bit about being dependent on russian gangsters, where is the proof of that? i remeber a year or two ago when Enigma said it was coming! still not here yet i guess
” I mean who hasn’t filed for bankruptcy 6 times and been turned off by everybody but Russian gangsters?”
***********************
Your business sense is only superseded by your legal sense. Hard to imagine being that wrong, that often and being willing to display it. You run a lemonade stand, Trump runs several multi-million dollar businesses and is worth over a billion. He donates his salary which is likely more than you make. Yeah, he should take management advice from you. LOL
bankruptcy is a law, and creditors can follow the law and seek relief, whether persons or corporations
it’s a shame that more humble people don’t avail themselves of it. they should
Come again? I think you got your talking points mixed up.
The president was an equity investor in a company which applied for re-organization four times, after which he sold the properties in question (located in Atlantic City). Neither Trump nor the Trump Organization has ever applied for re-organization. (I think there was another property in New York where there was a similar application).
The attorneys you consult aren’t the best either, I see.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-business-failures-were-very-real
Your other half seems to be doing the same as you, citing references to articles he either hasn’t read or doesn’t understand. Two half-brains are not additive, rather remain the same or trend towards the inferior half.
@This is absurd.
What if they are?
Are what?
@This is absurd
What if the patronage mill is sending them their best?
Perhaps Summit County wanted the intellect of the judge and defendents to be equal under the law.
I think our friend Mespo offered from his experience on Bar association vetting panels that the judiciary tends to be made up of (1) quondam prosecutors, (2) quondam employees of the state attorney-general, or (3) quondam lawyers in private practice who hadn’t been making much of a living at it. Lawyers who make good coin don’t have much incentive in middle age to seek a position on the bench. A dear cousin is a lawyer. His father told me some time ago that at some point someone had offered him an aphorism: “The A lawyers teach the B lawyers how to argue in front of the C lawyers”. A police officer friend told me that in his department, the joke was, Q “What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50?” A “Your honor”.
Not everyone in law finds chasing ambulances very gratifying or fulfilling and of the top grads every year, many of the best gravitate to clerkships and federal prosecuting jobs, not Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe.
this remark from book shows the arrogance of someone who is connected to the world of “Biglaw” or perhaps federal service. the tone of the remark shows amazing arrogance. also one rarely hears that sort of condescension around here from a Democrat, since Democrats tend to populate the plaintiffs’ bar quite thickly. odd
i have to deal with the arrogance of corporate hacks all the time, including from third rate clerks who call themselves bankers and stuffed shirt lawyers whose educational attainments were unimpressive, though they often pretend otherwise.
not all lawyers with excellent grades necessarily want to go shine the boots of some corporate leviathan!
some of us are out here actually making a living helping humble people with their basic legal needs
His son is a Justice Department lifer. U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington and then San Francisco.
His son has a JD from Tulane, IIRC. U.S. News puts that institution at the 70th percentile of American law schools. Right behind Florida State.
Mr K:
“some of us are out here actually making a living helping humble people with their basic legal needs”
**********************
And my hat is off to you and the scads of other lawyers doing near pro bono work for regular folks, bearing the ridicule of idiots so turned sideways with envy they insult you to your face and facing frustrated judges who think its just another case with different names. Lawyers are certainly no saints but guys like Kurtz make me proud every day that I cross the James River driving into work.
btb:
“Not everyone in law finds chasing ambulances very gratifying or fulfilling and of the top grads every year.”
*************************
As usual you have no idea of what it takes to take on people’s complex legal problems against well-heeled lawyers just as smart as you are but with near unlimited defense budgets. And to finance those fights from your own funds with no assurance of getting paid a fee or even reimbursed for costs. You wanna talk cahones? The average Plaintiff’s med mal case has costs of about $75,000 – $100,000. I think we have 4 or 5 running now. Take a walk in my moccasins sometime there, bricklayer.
TIA:
“I think our friend Mespo offered from his experience on Bar association vetting panels that the judiciary tends to be made up of (1) quondam prosecutors, (2) quondam employees of the state attorney-general, or (3) quondam lawyers in private practice who hadn’t been making much of a living at it. ”
**********************************
When I served on vetting committees, we had an impossible task of getting successful civil lawyers to even consider jobs on the bench. Back when the pensions paid 3 for 1 we got a few to do the job. When that contracted to 2 for 1 and then 1 for 1, the only folks who wanted the black-robed job were career prosecutors and AGs who already had vested state pensions they could supplement. The quality of the state judiciary is pretty good given those constraints and those on the bench try very hard but the fact is the cream of the legal profession still works in corporate/tax/development law where the courtroom is as unappealing to them as your average traffic ticket holder. We in the personal injury field still have the most lucrative practices excepting the med mal defense guys who can bill anything and the intellectual property guys who have the Fortune 500 guys to pay the freight.
What was it that Marc Lamont Hill called Martin Luther King III and Jim Brown? Oh yeah, now I remember.
“an entirely frivolous basis for a referral.”
Wouldn’t that be calling a shovel a shovel full of it?
This is the Democratic Party.
If hydroxychloriquine proves through testing to an be effective treatment does Trump qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Seriously, when the stock market fell 2 weeks ago, how many elitists on the left invested in pharmaceuticals that promoted a vaccine 12-18 months down the road?
Enter an off patent drug that is simple to make, been around for decades and has shown promise in the fight.
As the media and political leftists have been hollerin’, “Follow the money….”
I wish I could vote by mail.
Yes, maybe not the best venue to deal with the fog of Trump. As a parasite con man, he doesn’t like kill off the host, he needs it to survive…
He’s going to lose in November though and that’s the best way to address his particular brand of incompetence and moral ineptitude.
Not that Galonski’s shooting of the hill won’t be entertaining to watch. It brings back the memory of the “smell of sulfur” being cited at the U.N. after a particular Bush Jr. speech. Trump has put himself in that rarefied air.
Thanks for the wishcast. Been an education.
Always up to do my best for the n’er do wells, Absurd. Glad you enjoyed.
Elvis – it’s a whole lot easier to explore minor incidences surrounding Trump than his failures and corruption. One way is to give his cult members something to entertain them with, such as trivial
attempts by Congress members to get publicity.
Agreed, Bill. I’m noticing a pattern around here. Hmmm.
High emotion, low IQ. Typical of those infected with TDS.
I don’t think WE are a member and that is key to taking a case.