Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

DOJ watchdog to probe alleged use of force by law enforcement against protesters

The Hill logoThe internal watchdog at the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced an investigation into the alleged use of force by federal law enforcement personnel against protesters in Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office will coordinate with his counterpart at the Department of Homeland Security to examine use of force allegations involving DOJ law enforcement personnel.

Horowitz said in a statement that his office “is initiating a review to examine the DOJ’s and its law enforcement components’ roles and responsibilities in responding to protest activity and civil unrest in Washington, DC, and in Portland, Oregon over the prior two months.” Continue reading.

Judge orders Michael Cohen to be released to home confinement

Axios logoA federal judge on Thursday ordered President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen to be released from prison and into home confinement, ruling that the Justice Department retaliated against him over his planned tell-all book about the president.

Catch up quick: Cohen was released from federal prison in New York in May to serve his three-year sentence at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. But he was imprisoned again this month after officials said he refused the conditions of his home confinement, including by writing his book. The judge ruled that DOJ’s actions curbed Cohen’s First Amendment rights.

What they’re saying: ““I’ve never seen such a clause in 21 years of being a judge and sentencing people and looking at terms of supervised release,” District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said at Cohen’s hearing. “Why would the Bureau of Prisons ask for something like this … unless there was a retaliatory purpose?” Continue reading.

Trump’s fight with city leaders escalates

The Hill logoPresident Trump is escalating his fight with city leaders as he looks to send federal law enforcement agents beyond Portland, Ore., and into Chicago and other U.S. cities.

Trump on Wednesday announced that the Justice Department’s “Operation Legend” — an effort to help local police combat violent crime — is expanding from Kansas City, Mo., to Chicago, Albuquerque, N.M., and other U.S. cities.

he move comes as agents Trump deployed to protect federal property in Portland have come under widespread criticism for their heavy-handed tactics. Though the deployment to Portland was not part of Operation Legend, local leaders from other U.S. cities are made nervous by the federal response they’ve seen unfold in Portland. They also feel uneasy because the orders come from a president who has made it a point to single out Democratic-run cities and is eager to flex his law-and-order image ahead of the 2020 election. Continue reading.

How Trump’s Use of Federal Forces in Cities Differs From Past Presidents

New York Times logoLegal scholars fear the president is trying to take on a job that the Constitution did not give the federal government.

Federal forces went into Los Angeles to control the Rodney King riots. They entered Washington, Chicago and Baltimore in the days after the killing of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. They went into Detroit during a race riot in 1943, and then again in 1967. They were in Little Rock, Ark., during school integration. For the Pullman Strike of 1894 in Chicago, and across numerous cities during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, they were there, too.

So in some ways, the scenes of officers clad in riot gear this week in Portland, Ore., have a long American lineage in federal responses to domestic unrest. But there is something different in this moment, too, in President Trump’s repeated vows to send forces to other American cities for reasons that slip between protecting specific federal properties, restoring general order and combating violent crime.

“The idea of bringing in troops or law enforcement in its many forms to quell civilian protest is as American as apple pie — it is foundational to this nation,” said Heather Ann Thompson, a historian at the University of Michigan. But then the president began talking about crime in Chicago, and naming cities where protests this summer haven’t turned violent. Continue reading.

To Battle a Militarized Foe, Portland Protesters Use Umbrellas, Pool Noodles and Fire

New York Times logoWith no clear leaders or blueprints, demonstrators have scrounged for items from home and largely embraced a strategy of spontaneous consensus.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Shields were made of pool noodles, umbrellas and sleds. The body armor was pieced together with bicycle helmets and football pads. The weapons included water bottles and cigarette lighters.

Facing federal forces who came to Portland to subdue them, many of the city’s protesters have taken to the streets this week with items scrounged from home. Then they have assembled at the federal courthouse each night with sometimes starkly different visions of how to put their tools to use.

In 55 consecutive nights of protest in Portland, no two have been alike. The protests began on May 29, after the killing of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. They have continued ever since, night after night, and they show no signs of letting up. Continue reading.

Trump’s assault on election integrity forces question: What would happen if he refused to accept a loss?

Washington Post logoPresident Trump’s relentless efforts to sow doubts about the legitimacy of this year’s election are forcing both parties to reckon with the possibility that he may dispute the result in November if he loses — leading to an unprecedented test of American democracy.

With less than four months before the election, Trump’s escalating attacks on the security of mail-in ballots and his refusal again this week to reassure the country that he would abide by the voters’ will have added urgency to long-simmering concerns among scholars and his critics about the lengths he could go to hold on to power.

“What the president is doing is willfully and wantonly undermining confidence in the most basic democratic process we have,” said William A. Galston, chair of the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program. “Words almost fail me — it’s so deeply irresponsible. He’s arousing his core supporters for a truly damaging crisis in the days and weeks after the November election.” Continue reading.

‘It’s not good for our democracy’: Calls grow for federal officers to shed camouflage

Washington Post logoAs authorities crack down on protests in Portland, Ore., military leaders, lawmakers and former government officials have intensified calls for federal officers to shed the camouflage and return to wearing uniforms that clearly identify them as law enforcement.

The mobilization of federal agents in military-style camouflage in recent days, and their use of unmarked vans to make arrests, has deepened confusion about which force is doing what.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee and a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, said the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies should not allow their officers to wear camouflage. Continue reading.

Political scientist warns Trump may be showing signs of ‘an immature president who refuses to leave the office’

AlterNet logoMuch of the analysis of President Donald Trump’s use of federal Department of Homeland Security officers against protesters in Portland, Oregon has discussed Trump’s actions from a legal or constitutional standpoint. But Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University in Massachusetts, contemplates Trump’s possible political motivations in an op-ed published this week in the Washington Post.

“The official version is that federal officers from the Department of Homeland Security are protecting federal buildings that have been the focus of Black Lives Matter protests,” Drezner explains. “The more disturbing version is that unidentified U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel are wearing camouflage gear, assaulting protesters and driving around in unmarked vans picking up random people. These actions have raised questions about the legality of what is being done…. I’ll confine my response to a more concrete question: what is the political gain that Donald Trump and his administration perceive they will garner from these actions?”

Drezner is dismissive of Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf’s claim that Trump is merely using DHS to protect Portland from “violent anarchists.” Continue reading.

Even Republicans are warning Trump’s DHS is turning into ‘the president’s personal militia’

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump gave Democrats yet another reason to oppose his reelection when he bragged about using federal law enforcement officers against George Floyd protesters in Portland, Oregon and threatened to do the same thing in Chicago and other major cities with Democratic mayors. But some Republicans have been speaking out as well, and liberal Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent discusses their objections in his column this week.

“Under fire for dispatching federal law enforcement into cities in defiance of local leaders, in part to create TV imagery that sends an authoritarian thrill up President Trump’s leg, top officials are offering several new defenses,” Sargent writes. “All are profoundly weak, which is why senior members of previous Republican administrations are now condemning what’s happening.”

One of those Republicans is Michael Chertoff, who served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. Chertoff, Sargent notes, has described Trump’s use of DHS officers as “very problematic” and “very unsettling.” Continue reading.

Trump announces he’s sending federal agents to Chicago

The Hill logoPresident Trump said Wednesday his administration is sending federal law enforcement officers into Chicago and Albuquerque, expanding his controversial crackdown on what he claims is an unchecked surge of violence in Democratic-run cities.

“Today I am announcing a surge of federal law enforcement into American communities plagued by violent crime,” Trump said in remarks from the East Room of the White House.

He added he had “no choice but to get involved.” Continue reading.