Tag: Trump abuse of power

Assange lawyer claims congressman offered pardon on behalf of Trump in exchange for absolving Russia in WikiLeaks DNC case

Washington Post logoLONDON — A lawyer for Julian Assange said in a British court Wednesday that former Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, an ally of President Trump, made an offer to the WikiLeaks founder on behalf of Trump to pardon Assange in exchange for saying that Russia had nothing to do with the 2016 hack and leak of emails from the Democratic National Committee.

Assange is in a British prison while he awaits a decision on an extradition request by the United States. The U.S. government wants him to stand trial on charges that he violated the Espionage Act by allegedly helping to obtain and then disseminating secret government documents in 2010 and 2011 relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Assange is fighting the extradition — arguing that he acted as a publisher and journalist and that the United States is pursuing him for “political offenses.” He faces a possible 175-year sentence if convicted. Continue reading.

Justice Dept., in wrestling with how to handle Giuliani, tightens rules for Ukraine-related probes

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department revealed Tuesday that law enforcement officials running Ukraine-related investigations must seek approval before expanding their inquiries — a move that could have implications for Rudolph W. Giuliani, as President Trump’s personal attorney pushes for scrutiny of the president’s political foes while facing a federal probe into his own conduct.

The directive from Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen was disclosed in a response to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) after the House Judiciary Committee chairman demanded clarity on how the Justice Department is reviewing information from Giuliani, who has urged law enforcement to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and his son for their dealings in Ukraine.

Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd wrote to Nadler that the department had tapped two U.S. attorneys to assist in the process — Scott Brady in Pittsburgh to receive and assess new information, and Richard Donoghue in Brooklyn to help coordinate personnel throughout the Justice Department involved in Giuliani’s case and others with a focus on Ukraine. An accompanying internal memo, circulated by Rosen in January, says that he and Donoghue must approve expansions of any inquiries. Continue reading.

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Post-impeachment, Trump declares himself the ‘chief law enforcement officer’ of America

Washington Post logoDuring his Senate impeachment trial, Democrats repeatedly asserted that President Trump is “not above the law.” But since his acquittal two weeks ago, analysts say, the president has taken a series of steps aimed at showing that, essentially, he is the law.

On Tuesday, Trump granted clemency to a clutch of political allies, circumventing the usual Justice Department process. The pardons and commutations followed Trump’s moves to punish witnesses in his impeachment trial, publicly intervene in a pending legal case to urge leniency for a friend, attack a federal judge, accuse a juror of bias and threaten to sue his own government for investigating him.

Trump defended his actions, saying he has the right to shape the country’s legal systems as he sees fit. Continue reading.

Here’s the insidious goal behind Trump’s trail of inconsistent lies

AlterNet logoAs Donald Trump embarks on his campaign of vengeance against his enemies, Philip Rucker reminds us that part of that effort is to rewrite history on the Russian probe.

Seven months after Mueller’s marathon testimony brought finality to the Russia investigation, Trump is actively seeking to rewrite the narrative that had been meticulously documented by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials, both for immediate political gain and for history.

Lost amidst all of the focus on the Senate impeachment trial and the attorney general’s undermining of the Department of Justice is the fact that a little more than two weeks ago, the Senate Intelligence Committee released their report on the Obama administration’s response to Russian interference in the 2016 election. The committee’s account tracks almost perfectly with the report published in the Washington Post over two years ago, which led me to write that Trump should be more worried about the Brennan dossier. Continue reading.

For Republicans in Trump’s cover-up, it was all about the money

AlterNet logoIn the latest Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, fully 60% of Americans disapprove of how the U.S. Senate conducted Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The behavior of
Senate Republicans following that trial probably won’t get many cheers, either. The three most closely watched Republicans during the trial, those who pretended to be open-minded and committed to doing their jobs, have all popped up in the last few days with slathering praise for the Trump administration which let loose all the money once the trial was done. It turns out the issue wasn’t the threat of heads on pikes at all. It was all about the bribes.

Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander tweeted to thank Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Trump for the investment of “$9 million in Tennessee to provide and improve high-speed broadband infrastructure projects for 3,744 rural households, 31 businesses and 41 farms.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski had Transportation Secretary and Moscow Mitch spouse Elaine Chao to thank for “a $20M Port Infrastructure Development Program grant to the Port of Alaska to help offset the 1st phase costs of the Port’s desperately-needed modernization program, enabling safe, cost-effective, & reliable Port operations.” That’s a whole 1% of the estimated cost for the port. Was it worth a vote to keep the worst president ever to sit in the Oval Office? Continue reading.

Here’s how the GOP shot itself in the foot with handling of Trump’s impeachment: conservative columnist

AlterNet logoIn a column for the conservative Bulwark, Cato Institute Vice President Gene Healy accused the Republicans of botching their defense of Donald Trump during his impeachment trial, saying they will someday be haunted by the positions they took.

Noting that the president said of his acquittal that it’s a “gorgeous word,” Healy maintained it may not pan out for Republican lawmakers in the same way.

“Whether you cheer or jeer the Senate’s refusal to convict, the more important question is, what precedent did it set? Unlike Supreme Court majority opinions, impeachment verdicts don’t explain themselves. ‘Not guilty’ can mean anything from total vindication to ‘contemptible behavior that doesn’t quite justify removal.’ A great deal turns on how senators from the president’s party explain their votes,” he wrote. “On that score, Senate Republicans sent a distressingly mixed message in the impeachment trial’s immediate aftermath. In their floor speeches explaining their votes, too few managed to clearly condemn Trump’s misuse of presidential power for personal benefit. And too many embraced novel constitutional theories, concocted by Trump’s defense team, that would license more dramatic presidential abuses in the future.”  Continue reading.

rump’s expansive view of executive power gets a post-impeachment surge

After defeating impeachment, Trump is displaying the full extent of his legal authority — creating a challenge for White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

Pat Cipollone took only a short post-impeachment break.

The White House’s top attorney and other members of President Donald Trump’s legal team attended a private party at the Trump International Hotel to celebrate, just hours after the Senate voted largely along party lines to acquit the president.

Then Cipollone and his team of roughly 40 lawyers returned to their routine business — much of which had been put on pause as the top lawyers defended the president from an effort to oust him from office. Continue reading.

John Bolton breaks his silence after Trump impeachment: ‘I knew what I was getting into’

Former national security adviser scant on details about Ukraine, but says he worries ‘effort to write history’ will be censored

John Bolton celebrated Presidents’ Day by breaking his silence for the first time since Donald Trump’s impeachment trial – speaking of his frustrations and teasing the content of his forthcoming book.

But when it came to his former boss, the president’s former national security adviser was scant on details, hinting that he is restricted in what he can say.

Bolton, who left the White House in September following foreign policy disagreements, was interviewed on stage on Monday night at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Continue  reading.

Trump calls for Roger Stone’s conviction to be thrown out

President condemned ‘fraudulent investigation’ into Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing Trump-Russia inquiry

Donald Trump has called for his longtime ally Roger Stone’s recent conviction for witness tampering and lying to Congress to be thrown out.

Trump’s barrage of Tuesday morning tweets comes days after his own attorney general, William Barr, sparked a furore over his apparent intervention in the case.

“Everything having to do with this fraudulent investigation is badly tainted and, in my opinion, should be thrown out,” one of Trump’s tweets said. Continue reading.

U.S. Judges Call Emergency Meeting Over Fears About William Barr And Trump: Report

“There are plenty of issues we are concerned about,” U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, president of the Federal Judges Association, told USA Today.

An association of federal judges is holding an emergency meeting Tuesday to address concerns about the interventions in politically sensitive cases by Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump, USA Today reported.

The Federal Judges Association, which has about 1,100 members, called for the meeting last week after Trump attacked federal prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation for his longtime pal and convicted felon Roger Stone and then soon after the Justice Department pulled back the recommendation.

Trump also criticized the judge who is presiding over Stone’s case. Continue reading.