When the horse is out of the barn

Last week, we talked about Mary Trump’s forthcoming book — a New York judge placed a temporary restraining order on it, but an appeals court reversed that order for the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster. The publication date of the book was moved up and now several reporters have a copy and are reporting details about Mary Trump’s account. So, what does it mean now that Simon & Schuster is free of the temporary restraining order but Mary Trump isn’t? And now that the horse is out of the barn (Trump hiring someone to take his SATs and other such details), why would the Trump family continue to seek to stop publication of the book?

Then: Roger Stone is appealing Long Suffering Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s order for him to report to prison later this month, citing new confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the facility. Judge Jackson might have some discretion here, but the Bureau of Prisons has a lot more say in what happens to inmates. Shouldn’t he be asking the BOP?

Michael Cohen, while on furlough and home confinement from prison, was spotted at a French bistro near his apartment in New York. Is that...okay? Plus: the Ghislaine Maxwell indictment, Paul Erickson’s sentence, and next term, the Supreme Court will take the Mueller grand jury materials case.