2:30 today. The thing to remember is that Sessions WANTED this testimony. So this is likely to his benefit. Or Trump’s. Sessions was once on the periphery of the Trump-Russia scandal. I mean, sure, he failed to disclose at his confirmation hearings that he met with the Russians twice during the campaign. But he fixed that as soon as the … Read More
Can Trump Fire Mueller?
This is complicated and I don’t have much time. So hold on. Trump does not have the legal authority to fire special prosecutor Mueller directly, but that doesn’t mean Trump can’t TRY. For Trump to fire Mueller, he TECHNICALLY must order the Attorney General to fire Mueller. If Trump tried to fire Mueller directly, Mueller could (and probably would) choose … Read More
Maryland And DC Attorneys General File Lawsuit Against Trump Under Emoluments Clause
Although CREW currently has a lawsuit going, the attorneys general of Maryland and DC have filed a lawsuit today against President Trump, citing a constitutional violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. The damage? Well, they claim, the US is effectively not living up to the Constitution, a document that Maryland signed onto in part because of the Emoluments Clause. Also, … Read More
The Comey Memos — Part Two
So some idiot at Redstate is making the argument that the Comey Memos were leaked in contravention of the law: The documents leaked by Comey were official government records. Period. They were created by a government employee (Comey) while acting in his official capacity (FBI director) on a government-issued laptop while sitting in a government car driven by another government … Read More
Infographic: How Impeachment Works
Put a pin in this for future reference:
Did Comey Break The Law By Revealing His Memo Contents To The Press?
No, and in fact, if Trump goes after Comey for dong that, Trump could get in deeper trouble. Here’s why: As the news broke, I was on the phone with Stephen Kohn, partner at a law firm focused on whistleblower protection. We’d been talking about where the boundaries lay for Comey in what he could and couldn’t do with the … Read More
Not To Be Forgotten
One of the most telling and damaging points Comey made was that even after being informed there was absolutely no doubt Russia had mounted a huge effort to interfere with and undermine the credibility of the US election process, Donald Trump never even asked what was being done to prevent further interference by Russia. He was completely incurious about how … Read More
Happy Comey Day
Well, we already know in essence what Comey will testify about, since we have his written statement (which has been dissected to death). I don’t expect a lot of “news” but maybe so more fleshing out. It will be in sharp contrast to yesterday, where two intelligence chiefs repeatedly refused to say whether Trump asked them to intervene in the … Read More
Breaking: Full Text of Comey Prepared Remarks Tomorrow
Chairman Burr, Ranking Member Warner, Members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today. I was asked to testify today to describe for you my interactions with President-Elect and President Trump on subjects that I understand are of interest to you. I have not included every detail from my conversations with the President, but, to … Read More
Previewing Comey’s Big Testimony On Thursday
Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony Thursday to the Senate Intelligence Committee promises to be one of the most highly anticipated congressional appearances in years. Indeed, for a comparable high-stakes hearing, you have to go back to 2015, when Hillary Clinton testified before the House Benghazi Committee. Or 1991, when Anita Hill testified in Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation hearing. … Read More
CREW and The Emoluments Case
Back in January, I wrote about a lawsuit brought against Donald Trump, filed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) which sought a declaratory judgment that Donald Trump, having not divested himself of his hotels in DC, is in violations of the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution. As I wrote back then, one of the problems for … Read More
The “Unmasking” Diversion
Over at Fox News, they use the word “unmasking” a lot. To me, it looks like they haven’t realized it is a common practice in the intelligence community. They just use the word a lot so that their low-information viewers will think it is bad. “Unmasking”, of course, is the process whereby a redacted name of an American citizen is … Read More
Jared And The Russian Backchannel – It Happened, Didn’t Happen, But He Didn’t Do It, But So What If He Did?
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that Jared Kushner sought to create a secret line of communication between Donald Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin during a meeting with Russian diplomats in December. On Saturday, national security adviser H.R. McMaster said at a news conference that he “would not be concerned” about such an arrangement and added that “we have back-channel … Read More
Congressional Investigation Committees Go for Trump’s Personal Lawyer, Michael Cohen
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, has received requests for information from the Senate and House intelligence committees as part of their probes into Russian interference in the U.S. election. The request ;letters were the same ones sent to former Trump aides Carter Page, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn and others. Those letters sought information about Russian contacts, … Read More