It’s a scathing opinion, right from the opening graf: Judge Mehta rules against Trump in financial record case. Mehta starts his 41-page opinion with a quote from President Buchanan. pic.twitter.com/ZDmOYw6Rra — Charlie Gile (@CharlieGileNBC) May 20, 2019 “It is simply not fathomable that a Constitution that grants Congress the power to remove a President for reasons including criminal behavior would … Read More
Trump’s Lawyers Adopt Untenable Position
On all fronts, Trump, through his lawyers, is fighting congressional subpoenas issued to him, his businesses, his sons, etc. in the courts. Trump and his allies are working to block more than 20 separate investigations into his actions as president, his personal finances and his administration’s policies, according to a Washington Post analysis. The most important case of all is, ironically, one … Read More
The Alabama Abortion Bill: Too Much Too Soon
Alabama’s state Senate passed a bill on Tuesday to outlaw nearly all abortions, creating exceptions only to protect the mother’s health, as part of a multistate effort to have the US Supreme Court reconsider a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. The country’s strictest abortion bill was previously approved by the Alabama House of Representatives and will now go to … Read More
400+ Former Federal Prosecutors Can’t Be Wrong
More than 400 former federal prosecutors have signed onto a statement asserting that if the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) did not prohibit a sitting president from being indicted, President Trump would be charged with obstruction of justice. Special counsel Robert Mueller laid out extensive evidence of possible obstruction by Trump in volume 2 of his report, though he ultimately … Read More
Barr’s Most Absurd Defenses Of Trump’s Obstructive Conduct
By now, it’s pretty clear that Attorney General Bill Barr thinks there was nothing unusual — let alone potentially criminal — about President Trump’s intervention in the federal Russia investigation. Not the repeated pushes to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, not the public fuming about being the innocent victim of a federal “witch hunt,” not the tweeted threats to the … Read More
The NRA Finds Itself Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun
A wide-ranging investigation into the NRA announced this weekend by New York State Attorney General Letitia James threatens the very existence of the organization. James has the power to ask a judge to dissolve the gun-rights group if she finds evidence that the board engaged in serial violations of New York state charity law, as her office did with the Donald … Read More
Trump Stonewalling Is A Constitutional Crisis In Itself
Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and Trump’s children with wife No. 1 have combined to sue Deutsche Bank and Capital One in an effort to force them to ignore a congressional subpoena. Among other things, the suit alleges that the subpoenas constitute “harassment” and makes the odd claim that the House Intelligence Committee failed to “negotiate” with Trump over the scope of the order. … Read More
Aaron Walker: Still The Virginia Bar’s Biggest Embarrassment
From a court opinion handed down denying several right wingnuts their motion to dismiss (in a lawsuit brought by a Charlottesville victim) – scroll to the bottom of the page: [Red markup are mine] Here’s what the judge was referring to (among other examples): Seriously . . . what attorney wastes a judge’s time with pop culture references to Guardians … Read More
Thank God For The Federal Courts
WaPo: Federal judges have ruled against the Trump administration at least 63 times over the past two years, an extraordinary record of legal defeat that has stymied large parts of the president’s agenda on the environment, immigration and other matters. In case after case, judges have rebuked Trump officials for failing to follow the most basic rules of governance for … Read More
Manafort’s Light Sentence Has Nothing To Do With Trump And Everything To Do With White Collar Crime
The 47-month sentenced former Donald Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort received yesterday in a Virginia courtroom drew wide condemnation for its leniency. Actually, it is less, because he gets credit for nine months of time served. Convicted as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations, Manafort faced 19 to 24 years per guidelines of the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Criminal sentences … Read More
Breaking: Witness Tampering Successful
pic.twitter.com/YGSjuaXenv — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 23, 2019 Recall that the president told @JudgeJeanine last weekend that media and prosecutors ought to be looking into Cohen's family, suggesting a look at private citizens. One in a series of suggestions that Cohen family be pursued that POTUS has made. — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) January 23, 2019 Reporting by @KatyTurNBC just on … Read More
Breaking: Trump Suborned Perjury According To Buzzfeed Report
A bombshell from Buzzfeed, which, if true, is grounds for impeachment: President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter. Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during … Read More
NC09 Follies
It is hard to describe the craziness going on in the Ninth District of North Carolina. But I will try. We really need to start in December 2016. Following a bitter gubernatorial campaign where incumbent Republican Pat McCrory is defeated by Democrat Roy Cooper, the GOP NC General Assembly holds special sessions before the new Democratic governor comes into office. … Read More
The Barr Memo
Trump’s pick for the Attorney General (to replace Jeff Sessions) is William Barr, who previously served as Attorney General under President George H.W. Bush. In June 2018, Barr sent the Justice Department an unsolicited memo questioning the appropriateness of an obstruction probe special counsel Robert Mueller is said to be conducting of certain Trump actions in the White House. Barr in … Read More
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