There was an interesting article on NRO about the fact that Obama made a slip in his speech at the memorial service, when he said that the judge was just there to say, “Hi!” to Congresswoman Giffords. It seems that if the judge was indeed there to just to say hello, he was not on official duty and therefore the feds would not have jurisdiction over his killing, which is the only excuse for the feds to have taken over this tragedy.
The article went on to say that the prosecutors could get around this by saying that wasn’t really the case, that the judge went there to enlist Gifford’s help in getting a judicial emergency declared in Arizona immigration cases.
Well, one problem with that. The day of the shooting, I read that the judge’s office had released a statement saying that the judge had written a letter concerning the need for a judicial emergency and Giffords had already signed it and the judge just went down there to say hello and thank her for her help.
If the “thank you” was part of the chain of communication in dealing with other Federal branches then that was part of him acting in his capacity, not a social call unrelated to his responsibilities. Her already having signed the letter would not have brought a total end to the cycle of coordination and interplay, IMHOBDIR. (In my humble opinion, but damnit, I’m right.)LOL