Just out from the NY Times: As federal prosecutors in Manhattan gathered evidence late last year about President Trump’s role in silencing women with hush payments during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump called Matthew G. Whitaker, his newly installed attorney general, with a question. He asked whether Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New … Read More
McCabe Told Gang of Eight About Counterintelligence Investigation Into Trump
I haven’t written much, if anything about former FBI director Andrew McCabe’s series interviews promoting his upcoming new book, but the big reveal from it all is that McCabe ordered a counterintelligence investigation into Trump early in the presidency. Not surprising in one sense, given Trump’s firing of James Comey, etc. But there was an interesting wrinkle to the story. … Read More
Document Dump: California v Trump Complaint
Filed yesterday in US District Court in San Francisco, seventeen states joined to bar Trump for using an emergency declaration to prevent Trump from diverting military funds to build his border wall. Paragraph 160 is where Trump’s own words are used against him.
The Latest Court Attack On Obamacare Could Backfire
The latest conservative challenge to the Affordable Care Act, in which the Trump administration has taken the position that the health care law’s protections for preexisting conditions are unconstitutional, is heading to the courtroom. Federal judge Reed O’Connor, who has ruled against Obamacare before, is set to hear oral arguments on Wednesday, September 5. Trump lawyers are arguing that Obamacare’s most popular provisions … Read More
CNN Sues Trump For Barring Jim Acosta
This is a fight that Trump probably wants, since the “Fake News” — in particular, CNN — is a punching bag he likes to use. CNN has filed a lawsuit against President Trump and several of his aides, seeking the immediate restoration of chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s access to the White House. The lawsuit is a response to … Read More
Are We Overly-Concerned About Whitaker?
Whitaker as Trump’s new Attorney General. Yes, there is cause for concern since he is a Trump loyalist, but I may be in the minority here in thinking that it is not the “red alert” that others make it to be. Here’s why: (1) Opining on TV and print about how the Mueller investigation could or should be curtailed is … Read More
Trump Wants To Defy Constitution By Ending Birthright Citizenship
He can’t do this. He should know it: President Trump said he was preparing an executive order to end birthright citizenship in the United States, his latest attention-grabbing maneuver days before midterm congressional elections, during which he has sought to activate his base by vowing to clamp down on immigrants and immigration. “We’re the only country in the world where … Read More
Once Again, The GOP-Led NC Legislature Gets Foiled By The Courts In Their Attempt To Gerrymander
Yesterday, a federal district court once again struck down North Carolina’s Republican-drawn congressional map as a partisan gerrymander in violation of the Constitution. This ruling reaffirmed the court’s January decision, which the Supreme Court vacated and told them to reconsider in June under a different legal theory of who has standing to sue. Indeed, while the Supreme Court said each district would have to be challenged individually … Read More
Abhorrent Actor Dropped By Agency
Fox News reports: James Woods has been dropped by his talent agent, and received the announcement in an email sent during the Fourth of July holiday. The Oscar-nominated actor shared a screenshot of the email with the subject line “Well…” on his personal Twitter account. The agent, Ken Kaplan, said that he’d come to the decision to no longer represent the … Read More
We Are Fucked: Kennedy Is Retiring
NBC: Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy announced Wednesday that he will retire when his successor is confirmed, preparing the way for the most significant change in the court’s makeup in half a century. The vacancy will allow President Donald Trump to make the U.S. Supreme court a solidly conservative body for years, if not generations, to come — a … Read More
Going After The Leakers: DOJ Gets Its First Scalp
Federal prosecutors announced they were indicting James Wolfe, the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, of lying to FBI agents in December 2017 about his contacts with three reporters, including through his use of encrypted messaging applications. According to the indictment, Wolfe made false statements to the FBI about providing two reporters with non-public information related to the … Read More
Giuliani: Trump Can “Probably” Pardon Himself
In an interview this morning with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” Rudy Giuliani discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether the president may have tried to obstruct justice in the probe of Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. When Stephanopoulos asked if the president has the power to pardon himself, Giuliani … Read More
NFL Blows It
New NFL policy advanced today: The NFL Players Association responds: I suspect the NFL brass thought their policy was a good compromise in that it allows players to remain off the field. But this of course only means that players cannot protest. My view? The players should stand and raise a “black power” salute. It will confuse everyone.
Judge Rules That Trump Cannot Block his Twitter Feed
This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, “block” a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States. The answer to both questions is no. It is sort of … Read More
Now You’re Talking My Language
Trump takes a foray into legal argument: “The questions are an intrusion into the President’s Article 2 powers under the Constitution to fire any Executive Branch Employee…what the President was thinking is an outrageous…..as to the President’s unfettered power to fire anyone…” Joe Digenova, former US Attorney — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2018 Yeah, he’s actually quoting his … Read More