The Fourth Circuit just sided with President Trump, dismissing a lawsuit claiming the president is illegally profiting from foreign and state government visitors at his luxury hotel in downtown Washington. The unanimous ruling is a victory for the president in a novel case brought by the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia involving anti-corruption provisions in the … Read More
Russia Was Behind The Seth Rich Conspiracy But Fox News And Others Ran With It
On July 10, 2016, young DNC staffer Seth Rich was beaten up and shot while walking home in Washington, D.C. His death immediately became fodder for conspiracy theorists, who had been running a tally of the so-called “Clinton Body Count” since 2008. Today, Michael Isikoff published the results of his investigation into the origins of that particular conspiracy theory. His primary source, Deborah Sines, … Read More
The “Investigating The Investigators” Investigation Runs Into A Stumbling Block: The Steele Dossier Was Credible
Reuters: Federal lawyers probing the origins of the investigation of ties between Russia and President Donald Trump’s campaign have interviewed the author of a “dossier” that alleged misconduct between Trump and Moscow, prompting the lawyers to extend their inquiry. Three attorneys from the Inspector General’s office of the U.S. Department of Justice met in person in early June with dossier … Read More
Breaking: Second Circuit Rules That Trump Cannot Block People On Twitter
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a New York judge’s ruling and found that Trump “engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination by utilizing Twitter’s ‘blocking’ function to limit certain users’ access to his social media account, which is otherwise open to the public at large, because he disagrees with their speech.” “We hold that he engaged in such discrimination,” the ruling … Read More
Jeffrey Epstein Charged As Sex Trafficker; Who Is Worried?
Jeffrey Epstein, a prominent money manager who owns sprawling homes in Palm Beach, New York, the Virgin Islands and other locales, was just charged as a sex trafficker and pedophile by federal prosecutors. Epstein, who has been accused repeatedly over the years of manipulating and molesting underage girls, was arrested at a New Jersey airport on Saturday, according to multiple media reports. The Daily Beast, which broke the news of … Read More
Ben Wittes’ Questions For Mueller
At Lawfare, Ben Wittes correctly advises Congress to not waste time questioning Mueller about things he won’t answer (i.e., anything outside the four corners of the report), and to ask precise yes/no questions. That way, you can move the ball forward, if only slightly, and not have the whole thing be theater. He’s right about that, and then he gives … Read More
Trump Administration Flips Again On Citizenship Question As Lawyers Scramble For A Justification
The news Tuesday that the Trump Administration was giving up on adding a citizenship question to the census came as a surprise, it seems, to Trump, who tweeted a denial: And Trump’s assertion that the news was “fake” cam as a surprise to the judge overseeing the case, who was told differently. Justice Department lawyers told United States District Judge … Read More
Document Dump: The OIG Report On Border Detainees Is Disturbing
The Atlantic: The report echoed the accounts of lawyers who visited a border facility in Clint, southwest of El Paso, last month. Department of Homeland security officials had sought to rebut those claims. During a meeting with reporters last Friday to discuss border arrests, Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of DHS, called the lawyers’ descriptions “unsubstantiated allegations.” The Trump administration has repeatedly … Read More
Trump Turns 4th Of July Celebration Into 2020 Election Rally, With Tanks As Props
It looks like President Trump’s dreamed-about military parade will be happening on Independence Day: President Trump said on Monday that the Pentagon would put military tanks on display on Thursday in Washington as part of his plans to turn the annual Fourth of July celebration in the nation’s capital into a salute to the country’s military prowess. The tanks will join an airborne … Read More
Trump Administration Caves On Citizenship Question On 2020 Census
And like that, they lose: There will not be a question asking about citizenship on the 2020 census, the Trump administration said Tuesday. The decision comes less than a week after the Supreme Court temporarily blocked the administration from adding the question, saying it did not provide an adequate explanation for the addition. “We can confirm that the decision has … Read More
News Bits
(1) ABOUT TIME From the Washington Post: House Democrats filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration seeking access to President Trump’s tax returns. Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, filed the lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department after months of feuding with the Trump administration over the returns. … Read More
Trump Puts Focus On His Shady Businesses
He’s changing the conversation to something that hurts him. Um okay. It is hard to know why Trump is focusing on this today — there is nothing in the news which suggests any movement in the efforts of the NY Attorney General to get the tax returns of Trump businesses (although they succeeded in getting the Trump Foundation shut down … Read More
Trump Embarrasses The U.S. On The World Stage
Asked at a news conference in Japan on Saturday whether he agrees with Vladimir Putin’s claim that “Western-style liberalism” is in decline, President Trump responded by criticizing the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, which he said are “sad to look at” because they are “run by liberal people.” Obviously, this was not what the Russian strongman was talking about during his interview with the Financial … Read More
SCOTUS WrapUp: Trump Denied Citizenship Question In 2020 Census; On The Other Hand, Democracy Is Screwed
The last day of the term meant the handing down of two critical and important opinions. The first, Department of Commerce v New York, was a blow to the Trump administration. The issue involves the inclusion of a question non the census about citizenship. It was challenged on the grounds that it was arbitrary and capricious — in essence, that … Read More