Will we finally get the Constitutional showdown we’ve been waiting for? It’s obvious that Trump believes neither he not any of his underlings should deign to appear before another branch of the US government. Constitutional Republic? Pshaw. It’s Unitary Executive Time, Baby! The President gets to decide all by his-damned-self what counts as a “legitimate” investigation and what is a … Read More
The Fallout Continues
It’s been two days after his embarrassing testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Barr’s jaw-dropping performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday dispelled any lingering confidence in the impartial administration of justice — the bedrock of our republic. He actually testified that if the president feels an investigation is unfounded, he “does not have to sit there constitutionally and allow … 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
Attorney General Barr Testifies Before Senate Judiciary
Despite what he testified to earlier, we learned last night that AG Barr was fully aware that Mueller did not care for Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report. In fact, Mueller sent Barr a letter explicitly complaining about Barr’s characterization of the investigation’s conclusions. The letter, dated March 27, was the second correspondence Mueller sent to Barr after the attorney … Read More
Ben Wittes: Five Conclusions
Lawfare’s Benjamin Wittes – a man not given to hyperbole – has finished reading the Mueller Report and created a nice crib sheet of his conclusions: The president committed crimes. There is no way around it. Attorney General William Barr’s efforts to clear President Donald Trump, both in his original letter and in his press conference the morning of the … Read More
Rod Rosenstein Announces His Departure
He is out on May 11. The Deputy Attorney General, the overseer of the Mueller probe for a while, seemed at one point to recognize the threat that Trump posed, but he quickly became the poster boy for the Republican’s capitulation to Trump, as Jonathan Chait explains: The most bizarre passage in Rod Rosenstein’s letter to President Trump resigning his … Read More
Trump’s Politics Of Hatred Has A Death Toll
Hatred, resentment, white supremacy and victimhood are deadly political tools. President Trump wields them with no thought to the consequences — and people die. The latest is Lori Gilbert Kaye, 60, shot and killed Saturday at the Chabad of Poway synagogue near San Diego. The shooter, a 19-year-old gunman armed with a military-style assault rifle, wounded three others. The assailant, who reportedly … 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
Trump Doubles Down On Charlottesville “Both Sides” Comment
Trump tries to defend his Charlottesville response by praising Robert E. Lee. He claims the 'very fine people' remark was about people who "felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee. A great general, whether you like it or not."Via Politico pic.twitter.com/01W4IwGx8y — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 26, 2019 Joe Biden’s presidential launch has again cast a spotlight … Read More
Breaking: Russian Gun Rights Activist Maria Butina Sentenced To 18 Months After Conspiring To Infiltrate The NRA
Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina was sentenced to an 18-month prison term Friday in Washington after failing to register as a foreign agent for conspiring to infiltrate conservative U.S. political circles for the Kremlin. Butina, 30, pleaded guilty in December to conspiring with a senior Russian official to access the National Rifle Association among other groups from 2015 until she was … Read More
North Korea Billed U.S. The Sum Of $2 Million For The Return Of A Dead Hostage
What the hell? North Korea issued a $2 million bill for the hospital care of comatose American Otto Warmbier, insisting that a U.S. official sign a pledge to pay it before being allowed to fly the University of Virginia student from Pyongyang in 2017. The presentation of the invoice — not previously disclosed by U.S. or North Korean officials — … Read More
Trump Is Challenging Democrats On Many Fronts
President Donald Trump, while portraying himself as the victim in a political war, is foiling an aggressive House Democratic majority’s investigations with historic fervor by refusing to comply with many subpoenas and other oversight requests. On one level, this is nothing new. Prior Congresses and White Houses have certainly found themselves at odds over how much information to disclose. But … Read More
Trump Complains To Twitter About His Follower Count
Imagine being the most powerful man in the world with access to intelligence and data that could make any human’s mind spin with amazement. Now imagine using that power to drag in the CEO of Twitter to complain that your follower count isn’t as high as the previous President. President Trump on Tuesday met privately with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, … Read More
Trump’s Twitter Meltdown This Morning
Lord help us. Trump has tweeted or retweeted more than 50 times in the last 24 hours. — Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 23, 2019 Greg Sargant explains why he think Trump is so enraged: Democrats have now subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress and testify about his direct involvement in some of the most explosive revelations … Read More
Post-Mueller Report Polls Show Public Is Tepid On Impeachment
Conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C., holds that impeachment would be a massive gift to President Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election effort. President Bill Clinton famously stayed popular throughout his impeachment proceedings, and since any effort to remove Trump would likely fail in the Senate, many people believe impeachment would be doomed from the start. But we really shouldn’t be so sure. … Read More