Tag: Trump abuse of power

Federal judges’ association calls emergency meeting after DOJ intervenes in case of Trump ally Roger Stone

WASHINGTON, DC — A national association of federal judges has called an emergency meeting to address growing concerns about the intervention of Justice Department officials and President Donald Trump in politically  sensitive cases, the group’s president said Monday.

Philadelphia U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, who heads the independent Federal Judges Association, said the group “could not wait” until its spring conference to weigh in on a deepening crisis that has enveloped the Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr.

“There are plenty  of issues that we are concerned about,” Rufe told USA TODAY. “We’ll talk all of this through.” Continue reading.

‘Bill Barr is un-American’: The AG’s ex-boss explains his ‘twisted’ worldview — and why he must be ousted

AlterNet logoIn a new piece for the Atlantic, a man who once supervised Attorney General Bill Barr published an incisive call for the head of the Justice Department to resign while outlining his disturbing view of executive power.

Donald Ayer, the former deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush, supervised Barr when he led the department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 1989 and 1990. After Ayer left deputy attorney general position in 1990, Barr replaced him and then became attorney general, a position he returned to in 2019 under President Donald Trump.

In light of Ayer’s close connection to Barr, his scathing condemnation hits with even more force. Continue reading.

Psychoanalyst breaks down Trump’s ‘God complex’ — and our dangerous collective addiction to his unhinged behavior

AlterNet logoDonald Trump is living breathing proof of the truism that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Such an outcome is made even more dangerous when the person in question has shown himself to be mentally unwell.

Two weeks ago, the Republican Party crowned Donald Trump a de facto king and dictator through his show trial and “acquittal” in the U.S. Senate. Trump and his regime’s enforcers, agents, sycophants and other minions have taken that travesty as permission to launch a full-on assault on the rule of law, the Constitution, democracy and the American people.

Trump is now committing more of the same crimes for which he was impeached. Trump is now so extremely emboldened that he abuses his power in plain sight with the full knowledge that very little if anything can be done to stop him.  Continue reading.

Federal prosecutors weigh new charges that bring Lev Parnas investigation closer to Giuliani

NEW YORK (CNN) — Federal prosecutors are weighing new charges against associates of Rudy Giuliani in connection with a company that paid him $500,000, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Prosecutors with the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York are considering whether to charge Giuliani associate Lev Parnas and at least one of his business partners with misleading potential investors for Fraud Guarantee, the Florida-based company that paid Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, these people say. Parnas co-founded Fraud Guarantee with the idea of providing insurance to companies to protect against fraud.

The scrutiny of Fraud Guarantee brings the investigation closer to Giuliani, Trump’s vocal defender, and raises questions about what role the former mayor played, if any, in the marketing of the company. A lawyer for Giuliani said his client never had any conversations about investor pitches or marketing with Parnas or his business partner David Correia. Continue reading.

Your tax dollars at work: Trump’s new policies are way more alarming than his vengeance campaign against perceived enemies

AlterNet logoSo, while Donald Trump has been parading his vengeance campaign against perceived enemies, what’s his actual government been doing?

Inquiring skeptics want to know.

Mostly, once we set aside the pomp of awarding undeserved medals to Rush Limbaugh and continuing to irritate foreign leaders who had considered themselves allies, the answer is that the government continues to pursue the anti-immigrant, anti-science, anti-environmental policies that have marked the last three years. Continue reading.

Trump suggests that protesting should be illegal

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has long derided the mainstream media as the “enemy of the people” and lashed out at NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem. On Tuesday, he took his attacks on free speech one step further, suggesting in an interview with a conservative news site that the act of protesting should be illegal.

Trump made the remarks in an Oval Office interview with the Daily Caller hours after his Supreme Court nominee, Brett M. Kavanaugh, was greeted by protests on the first day of his confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t know why they don’t take care of a situation like that,” Trump said. “I think it’s embarrassing for the country to allow protesters. You don’t even know what side the protesters are on.” Continue reading.

Over 1,100 former DOJ officials demand Barr’s resignation in scathing letter

AlterNet logoAccording to a report from the New York Times, over 1,100 former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials have signed on to a letter calling for Attorney General Bill Barr to step down.

The report states the letter insists, “Each of us strongly condemns President Trump’s and Attorney General Barr’s interference in the fair administration of justice,” adding those actions “require Mr. Barr to resign.”

The Times notes that signers of the letter come from across the political spectrum, adding, “Protect Democracy, a nonprofit legal group, gathered the signatures from Justice Department alumni and said it would collect more.” Continue reading.

Barr’s internal reviews and re-investigations feed resentment, suspicion inside Justice Dept.

Washington Post logoThe Justice Department in the Trump era has repeatedly tasked U.S. attorneys from far-flung offices to parachute into politically explosive cases in Washington, raising concerns among current and former officials that agency leaders are trying to please the president by reviewing and reinvestigating cases in which he is personally or politically invested.

After a tumultuous week for federal law enforcement in which Attorney General William P. Barr declared he could not do his job if the president kept tweeting about criminal cases, and officials revealed they had dropped one politically charged case while adding new prosecutors to others, several current and former officials expressed alarm at what they characterized as a troubling pattern.

“The power to investigate is the power to destroy,” said Gregory A. Brower, a former U.S. attorney and former senior FBI official. The current approach to sensitive cases, he said, “gives the appearance of politics coming into play whenever the president has a perceived political enemy. . . . The ability to simply point to a pending investigation against a person can have devastating effects on that person and can have a potential political benefit to the person orchestrating the investigation.” Continue reading.

Trump unleashed: President moves with a free hand post-impeachment

The Hill logoPresident Trump is moving swiftly to clear his administration of perceived foes and fill it with loyalists, a sign he’s trying to consolidate power post-impeachment as he heads into the reelection fight.

Trump appears emboldened by his acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate, ousting individuals from his White House and administration whom he believes crossed him during impeachment. This includes Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who the Army secretary said Friday, was not under investigation after Trump hinted he may face further disciplinary action after he was dismissed from his White House post and sent back to the Pentagon early.

While some Republicans hoped the president would be chastened by the impeachment proceedings, the opposite has proven true. Continue reading.

Eight counter-messages for combating Trump fatigue and keeping hopeful and active

AlterNet logoThese days are a slog but there are plenty of reasons for hope.

Here are eight things that worry many of us and eight counter-messages to calm us down, keep us energized, and keep us all working hard.

Yes, people will unite.  I know some of the pie fights are bad right now, but a few short months from now we will all have a candidate and we will all unite.  This is not 2016.  We know what we are fighting against. Continue reading.