LATimes Sr Legal Affairs Columnist. Host & exec prod,
@talkingfedspod
. FCA Lawyer. Teach con law at UCSD& UCLA. Senior Fellow USC. Former US Atty, Dep Assis AG.
From Barr's confirmation hearing: “Q: Do you believe a president could lawfully issue a pardon in exchange for the recipient’s promise to not incriminate him?” Barr: “No, that would be a crime.”
Turns out Dr. Oz, Newly victorious Republican candidate for Senate from Pennsylvania,is registered to vote in New Jersey, not Pennsylvania, and has been registered there since the 1980s.
Barely breaks eye contact with witnesses. Barely refers to notes. They will study this in law schools, history classes, and rhetoric seminars. Very very few US politicians could come close to this.
We heard that Donald Trump only cares about the big stuff that helps him personally.
The question now is — what do we care about? The Constitution? Our oath of office?
Or merely our party.
In the words of Elijah Cummings:
We are better than that.
The New York City Bar Association has written to Congressional leaders “in response to continuing actions by Attorney General William P. Barr that raise the most serious questions about Mr. Barr’s fitness for the high office that he holds.”
Just to be clear, this is not a controversial statement: Judge Cannon has ruled that the attorney general of the United States may not look at lawfully seized fruits (nobody says otherwise) of a criminal investigation. That itself is a breathtaking overreach.
This is a bonafide scandal. On the legal level, it means the Court decided a case that wasn't a real case or controversy as Art III requires. On the political level, it
Man cited in Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case says he was never involved
Zelensky: “I do not really believe in the outcome of this meeting,” he said, “but let them try to make sure that no citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as a president, have not tried to stop the war.”
What an amazing story he is turning out to be. Some are born great...
Thread: here's where I think we are. It's pretty exquisite. Berman is court appointed and under 28 USC §546 his appointment lasts until there is a presidentially appointed and confirmed US Attorney.
Pence’s constitutional role is to “open” the certificates. That’s it. Not to certify not even technically to count. He has no way even to purport to change the count. It’d be like saying the Oscar presenters get to decide who wins Best Picture.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson, sentencing Carl Dresch and adding to her outstanding record of fidelity to the Constitution: “You call yourself a patriot? That’s not patriotism. Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a single head of state.”
Among the most revolting details: the court redacted the names of the two agents who applied for the warrant. Trump released it with their names, and now they need federal protection against death threats and the like.
Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss files charges against Epstein enabler Ghislaine Maxwell. Lots and lots of social elite have to be terrified: if she opts to cooperate, her little black book could inculpate a who's who of bigwig assailants.
The DOJ filing is devastating on several of the errors in Cannon's opinion. It will tie both the judge and Trump in knots. Here are a few of the highlights.
1. She held that there could potentially be some interest for Trump in executive privilege materials.That was far-fetched
Not clear if you could convict him of attempted murder of the Vice President but not clear you couldn't. This has to be the darkest moment in Presidential history.
If you haven't been in the DOJ, might be hard to imagine how outrageous it is that Clark went to the White House on 12/22/20, with Scott Perry, without notifying the AG and DAG. It is an instant firing offense. It is completely beyond the pale.
CNN reports that the secret proceedings before Judge Howell concerned precisely whether Cipollone & Philbin's claims of executive privilege fail, & the court held that they do. Meaning the table is now set for them both to be forced to say what Trump told them. That's Incendiary.
Unreal. this should be a code red alarm. Trump has summarily removed Glenn Fine, the universally well respected IG who was tabbed to oversee his administration's management of the $2 trillion stimulus package. Deep deep rot.
I couldn't quite bring myself to tweet out during the Garland hearing, which I thought represented a new low for the House Judiciary Committee. It wasn't simply that every Q from R's was based on a knowing lie; it was the remarkable nastiness & impoliteness. They're total punks.
Beginning of trail was intercept of bank data showing large financial transfers from a bank account controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency to a Taliban-linked account. 2 officials confirm Trump was briefed. In a different time, we'd be talking impeachment.
I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen a court reject a proposed amicus brief, especially from eminent amici like the Former GOP prosecutors Cannon just refused to hear from. That’s now several bizarre & non-judicial moves, starting w/ her first announcement of intent to grant SM.
This really is the equivalent of pardoning Haldeman or John Mitchell. It's not like Nixon's pardon; it's not like GWBush's pardon in Iran Contra. it's crystalline corruption: Not just a political crony but the guy who still has the goods on Trump's criminal conduct and lying
You can be pretty sure that McCarthy forced Santos to step down from committees not based on what we already know, but on what he knows we’re going to find out.
Boom there it is! Oath Keepers heavy Brian Ulrich pleads to "obstruction of an official proceeding" and seditious conspiracy--the most serious charges DOJ has brought -- and agrees to cooperate with the Department's investigation.
The judge has ruled, and will instruct the jury, that all of Fox’s statements were false. But Dominion still has the right to make its case. So they are going to present the statements, from their first opening, in all their lurid detail. Fox has to just sit there and take it.
Jury takes 2 hours to convict Thomas Webster, former NYPD, of assaulting a DC, police officer with a metal flagpole during the 1/6 riot. Webster had argued self-defense.
Ok I’m going to go ahead and call BS on this. Trump has no authority to “quarantine “ (not the right word anyway) New York. He just can’t stand it that Cuomo is outshining him.
Wow: The extremely well respected Mark Pomerantz, who was leading the NY DA investigation, believed that Trump was “guilty of numerous felony violations” & that it was “a grave failure of justice” not to hold him accountable, according to a copy of his resignation letter.
So now we know, presumably from Sen Lee, that Trump called him from a White House # during the 7 1/2 stretch. Meaning it had to have been scrubbed from the log. And who could have given that order? Flagrantly illegal not to mention potentially huge new evidence of crim intent.
Hold the phone -- FBI now at Victoria Toensing's house. Lawyer, wife and partner of Joseph DiGenova, same circles as Rudy and Trump. This has the hallmarks of a bigger day at DOJ. And she's probably not expecting it, unlike Rudy
Had a chance now to read the 112-page opinion saying civil case by Swalwell et al can go forward against Trump. This one is potentially even worse for him than the NY action.
on a side note, I found it impressive how Pelosi totally kept her cool in talking w/ AG and everyone else. maybe more than any actor in the melodrama, she had no panic, no screaming, no outrage. just cool as a cucumber and focus on getting the job done.
Bill Barr is no longer the Attorney General of the United States. If by chance he picked today so as not to be complicit in some horrific abuse of power, we all better prepare for the worst.
Cannon gives Trump until Monday at 10 AM to file a response. She has to be hoping that he agrees to the partial stay to get her out of the mess she created. But it’s not in his DNA. But If he goes the “I declassified“ route, a cascade of troubles follow.
This is literally a qualification for office, no different from being 35 for a Pres: You are disqualified if "having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, to support the Constitution of the United States, have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same."
For the reasons I’ve said for a while, the Fulton County investigation poses the most direct personal threat to Trump. But the scandal that is metastasizing quickly and now may threaten Team Trump more than any is the forgeries. They’ve got Watergate -level potential breadth.
Marjorie Taylor Greene files suit in Georgia alleging that the lawsuit seeking to disqualify her under the 14th Amendment from future service for having engaged in insurrection is an unconstitutional infringement of her 1st Am rights. She and Cawthorn are definitely squirming.
The accusations involving Stefan Passantino--that he advised Cassidy Hutchinson to say she did not recall when in fact she did -- is absolutely career ending if it pans out. Virtual instant disarmament and lucky if he stays out of jail.
Georgia recount will finish on time by noon tomorrow with Biden still comfortably in the lead. Next to nothing left for Team Trump in terms of claims that could alter results in a state.
Ruling in MTG case means there’s an administrative hearing on Friday at which she can, and the plan is that she will, be called to testify. She then needs to answer any relevant question – a very liberal standard —under penalty of perjury. Think of the possibilities.
This is not the sort of case that any young judge, however conservative, wants to be known by for all her career. And the DOJ is giving her a relatively face-saving out. It would be blunder on top of blunder if she doesn’t take advantage of it.
Tonight, Warriors Coach Steve Kerr will call on people to support Brady and work to prevent gun violence. Before tip-off at 9 p.m. ET, Coach Kerr will display graphics on jumbotrons, allowing attendees to text “change” to 877-877 to donate and urge senate to take up gun reform.
Secret Svc says the agent in the car when Trump supposedly lurched for the wheel will talk to the committee. Hutchinson atty says rightly it should be under oath.But the real person who sh testify is Ornato, who made the statement. Prediction: he’s an arch-loyalist and won’t show
Special grand jury of 23 jurors and 3 alternates seated in Fulton County Georgia to consider criminal charges against Trump for the Raffensperger shakedown.
Here is the ultimate hardball ’s just a thought experiment here, though not much worse than what McConnell has done in the past. Move to exclude the 16 jurors who weren’t present. Apparently 15 were Rs. That would then mean 56 to convict,.
The point I was dying to make before
@DeadlineWH
ran out of time: if this becomes a story of the rise and fall of the Amer experiment, we will point to the minute when McConnell decided not to vote for impeachment as the most important missed opportunity to salvage our democracy.
According to prosecutors, Stewart Rhodes, lead Oath Keeper charged w/ seditious conspiracy, is having his legal bills paid from a fund run and furnished by ...............Sidney Powell.
Trump tried to settle, and she rebuffed him. She really holds all the cards at this point. Trumps can't go to trial. They will need to appeal to her sense of tempered justice...
Argument over. Trumps lawyer got beaten up pretty badly. He lurched at the end for a whole new argument about a general warrant, and the court called him out on it.
It's not his style, so you can't say he did it on purpose; but Merrick Garland has been like an Akido master or a matador to Trump's bull: while remaining passive and completely by the book, he and the DOJ have totally outmaneuvered Trump and now are seeing all his lies revealed
Another very interesting aspect of the Cawthorn action: Under NC law, once a challenger provide reasonable suspicion that candidate doesn't meet qualifications, burden on CANDIDATE to show he does. So Cawthorn has burden to show he didn't participate in an insurrection.
Trump Organization comptroller testifies that a note on Donald Trump's personal ledger referring to Allen Weisselberg was removed before the Organization turned over a copy to the Grand Jury. That's a potential obstruction of justice.
Mark Poemerantz, a very seasoned and respected pro, in particular brought in to the DA's office to lead the charge, and just can't see his walking away absent serious roadblocks put up by new DA Bragg. Something is really funky here.
NY Times find 7 people who heard about the Ramirez incident years before. But per WH instructions, and Senate R insistence, the FBI interviewed none of them or 18 other witnesses. The renewed background investigation was a total con job.
Team Trump now licking their wounds. Dearie seems poised to just say the 100 docs are classified, maybe w/o even looking at them, since they're so marked and Trump team gave zero evidence..
The supposed DOJ official extorting Matt Gaetz was David McGee, a career guy in DOJ who served as a 1st AUSA. Not someone in a position to extort. He says, "This is a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that Gaetz is apparently about to indicted for sex trafficking girls."
That didn't take long. Looks as if the DC grand jury is now rolling out separate indictments of Trump's co-conspirators. Really underscores Smith's resolve to charge, and try, Trump alone. The case is built for speed. It should in fact go to verdict well before Nov 2024.
Durbin just got her -- she said there was no evidence in record and bam he showed her there was from the majority opinion. she's having to bob and weave now
A small but important detail that shouldn’t get lost in the tsunami of revelations. Cipollone has to go to Hutchinson to plead with her to tell Meadows not to let Trump to the capital because Meadow’s not responding to him.
DOJ appeals Cannon's order on the merits, and proposes expedited schedule. Also adds new argument - that needs there rest of the 11,000+ docs to ascertain what happened to the classified ones. If they win, it's Goodnight, Aileen...
Reffitt GUILTY on all five counts. Huge victory for DOJ. Very short deliberations. Basically a rout. And a foreboding lesson for the 375 defendants waiting in the wings,
Don't ask don't tell how
@TPM
got its hands on the Meadows texts, but they've performed a real public service. The texts are totally damning and show not just Meadows but lawmakers (34 of them!) and others all willingly conspiring in the Big Lie attempted coup. Utterly shameful.
basically can't overmphasize the impact of the resignations of Kravis and Zelinsky. this is the worst crisis for DOJ easily since Mitchell if not before.
End of the road for Trump -- and Ivanka and Jr -- trying to evade the deposition in NY AG James's civil action. The highest court in NY turned down his appeal. Absent a ridiculous & quickly denied cert pen to Sup Ct, look for him to have to raise his right hand in a month or so
Wow.
@Liz_Cheney
going straight to possible criminal culpability by Trump as reason they need Meadows’s testimony. They are not messing around. Also puts maximum pressure on Meadows- without his testimony, nobody to defend Trump.
Whatever cases involving Trump and allies have been vexing Trump and Barr, you can bet they’re gonna move at double time now. and more likely also that we learn about them through leaks
Bam -- right in the gut: "I don't know how you can characterize it as an irregular channel if you're talking about the Pres of US, Secretary of State, Chief of Staff, Secretary of Energy."
Castor violated lawyer's maxim, don't ask question you don't know the answer to.
To a prosecutor's eye, this really looks increasingly like one big scheme, overseen by Trump and Giuliani, to obtain illegal assistance from Ukraine in the 2020 election.
Hi. I’m Will Hurd. I’m deaf, dumb, and blind; also I’ve spent the last two weeks in a cave. “I’ve not heard evidence proving the president committed bribery or extortion.”
Not to get overexcited or anything, but seems to me that a congressional vote to bar Trump from future office for insurrection under 14th Am §3 would be the biggest thing Congress has done in a generation.
@tribelaw
?
Really extremely aggressive pushback from Fani Willis to Jim Jordan. Letter tells him he's transgressing state sovereignty, separation of powers, administration of criminal justice, & the deliberative process privilege; then provides "voluntary" answers that shred his arguments.
This is a cesspool, and it's getting deeper: 5th circuit mifepristone judge James Ho (who just found that doctors have standing based on "aesthetic injury" of viewing an aborted fetus) sworn in in Harlan Crow’s private library, and flight records indicate Thomas flew there in…
And to state the obvious, DOJ's decision to fight Cipollone & Philbin's executive privilege claims shows they are moving like a freight train directly at Donald Trump.
Oops. After twice representing to the court that Rupert Murdoch has no official roll at Fox News, Fox revealed that Murdoch is “executive chair” at Fox News. The mild mannered judge was fairly steaming. He told Fox attorney “you have a credibility problem.”
Vaccine passports are a good idea. Among other things, it will single out the still large contingent of people who refuse vaccines, who will be foreclosed from doing a lot of things their peers can do. That should help break the resistance down.
Having now read a detailed, blow-by-blow account of the hearing, I am very impressed with Chutkan’s control and sophistication. Several moments of wryness, very quick pick up of nuances, forceful reminders of who is in charge without being overbearing. She’s the judge the case…