On Comey And James

I just wish the judges could tell it like it is.

ie: "I'm dismissing these cases because they're filled with bullshit charges brought by a dumbass president who's nothing but a vindictive little prick. Oh, BTW - I'm referring the government's lawyers to their respective Bar Associations, and strongly recommending sanctions and disbarment. The court stands adjourned."

Judge tosses cases against Comey and James, rules prosecutor appointment unlawful

The decision disqualifying Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. attorney sets back Trump’s efforts to use the Justice Department to target perceived rivals.

A federal judge dismissed charges against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday, delivering a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to engineer prosecutions of two of his prominent foes.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie ruled that Lindsey Halligan, the prosecutor overseeing both cases, had been unlawfully appointed to her position and, therefore, indictments she secured against Comey and James must be thrown out.

Currie, however, denied a request to bar the Justice Department from seeking to indict them again under a lawfully appointed prosecutor.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return calls for comment. However, department officials are all but certain to appeal.

Currie, an appointee of President Bill Clinton normally based in South Carolina, was specially assigned to rule on the validity of Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Her decision delivered rebukes to the Justice Department on two fronts.

By declaring Halligan’s appointment invalid, Currie joined several other judges in rejecting legal arguments the Trump administration has used to install loyalists in top prosecutorial positions across the country.

The judge’s decision to go further and dismiss the cases against Comey and James complicates Trump’s efforts to deploy the Justice Department in furtherance of his desire for retribution.

Trump has called for Comey’s prosecution for years, following his decision to fire the then-FBI director in 2017. He has accused James — a Democrat who ran for office, in part, with vows to hold Trump accountable — of wrongdoing after she secured a multimillion-dollar civil fraud judgment against Trump and his real estate empire last year.

Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly called on the Justice Department to move swiftly to charge James and Comey with crimes, paying little mind to whether evidence existed to support charges.

When Erik S. Siebert, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney overseeing both investigations, concluded that the evidence did not suffice, Trump forced him out of his job and installed Halligan, an ex-White House aide and one of the president’s former personal lawyers, in his place.

Within days, Halligan, who had no previous prosecutorial experience, took both cases before grand juries and secured indictments.

In addition to the effort to challenge the validity of Halligan’s appointment, Comey and James both have urged judges to end their prosecutions on grounds that they are improperly driven by Trump’s vindictive animosity toward them. Separately, Comey has sought dismissal of his case over what his lawyers have described as irregularities in the grand jury process that resulted in his indictment

In defending Halligan, the Justice Department advanced an expansive view of its authority to temporarily fill U.S. attorney vacancies with the president’s candidate of choice despite efforts by Congress to rein in the circumstances in which appointees can fill those roles while bypassing Senate approval.

Typically, the Senate must confirm a president’s U.S. attorney picks. But the law empowers the attorney general to temporarily fill vacancies by making an interim appointment for a period of 120 days.

If the Senate has still not confirmed the president’s nominee by the end of that time, the law permits the federal judges in a given judicial district to name a temporary replacement.

Justice Department lawyers maintain that the attorney general has the authority to make successive interim picks as she did with Halligan’s appointment after Siebert was forced out.

Attorneys for Comey and James disputed that interpretation of the law. They argued that if an administration were allowed to name new interim U.S. attorneys every 120 days, there would be no reason for a president to ever put nominees before the Senate for confirmation.

Today's Robert

We can build a world where innocence is not a commodity.

Just A Wish

If I had 3 wishes, the 1st would be to live long enough to see all these fascists assholes, in government and business, be held fully accountable - arrests, trials, convictions, and prison sentences long enough to cost them their lives.

My 2nd wish would be exactly the same - just for insurance.

And I wouldn't need the 3rd. The first two would give me everything I could ever want.

Well Well Well

Whenever there's another weird thing that POTUS TACO does, we have to stop for a second to consider the possibility that it's meant to distract us from something else.

I can't say for sure that Katie Phang came up with it, but if Trump can't just blow this off, then maybe this is it.

Remember, we've sent USAGs to prison before. Finding enough leverage to get Bondi outa there might not be such a hard row to hoe.

I get the feeling that somebody like Pam Bondi fits with the Trump administration because she can't really hack it in a profession based on actual competition and contention, and so she's been forced to fail up her entire career.

Also, I've been wondering if the courts could help themselves enforce their rulings by coming down hard on Trump's lawyers when they bring the kind of ridiculous garbage they're always bringing before the judges.

Torpedo a few of these clowns, and maybe enough of the others will hesitate to lick Trump's boots the way they've been doing.

Katie Phang

She makes a point worth serious consideration: Judges are having a hard time getting Trump's goons to comply, and there's a lot of hand-wringing about the obvious probability of a crisis that ensues if the courts ordered the US Marshals into the fray. So maybe the thing to do is get after the lawyers.

I'm thinking Katie Phang could make a pretty good Attorney General.

There Will Be Justice

But it probably won't happen until after some really bad shit goes down.

Another Win

...for the good guys. This time, it's Janet Mills, Maine's Governor.

I need a scorecard - some way to keep track of Trump's lengthening string of losses.

We're Here

This is where we are now.

Which is to say: We ain't dead yet, but the fat lady's warmin' up.

Justice

Served and not abused.

Pretty Real Journalism

The problem is that there's not enough hardcore, in-your-face, prove-you're-not-the-asshole-you-seem-to-be questioning.

I really miss what 60 Minutes used to be.

Hey, Colorado

Road rage
byu/Cherrypoppinpop inPublicFreakout

MR 17-069 Suspect in Road Rage Incident on Old Stage Road Arrested

A Small Taste Of Justice

Philippine ex-President Duterte to face murder charges at ICC for drug war killings

Summary

• Duterte arrested in Manila amid ICC probe into anti-drugs crackdown
• Plane delayed in Dubai, Duterte received medical attention during layover
• Duterte could be first Asian ex-head of state tried at ICC

ROTTERDAM, March 12 (Reuters) - A plane taking former Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court over murder charges was headed for Rotterdam on Wednesday in a move hailed by families of victims of his "war on drugs" as giving them hope for justice.

Duterte, who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was arrested early on Tuesday in Manila, marking the biggest step yet in the ICC's probe into alleged crimes against humanity during an anti-drugs crackdown that killed thousands and drew condemnation around the world.

Duterte, 79, could become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC in The Hague.

The plane had originally been set to land in the Netherlands around 0600 GMT, but tracking service Flightradar 24 showed it should now arrive just after 1600 GMT after a long layover in Dubai during which he received medical checks.

The ICC's warrant for his arrest says that as president, Duterte created, funded and armed death squads that carried out murders of purported drug users and dealers.

In coming days, he will be brought before a judge and the allegations will be read out in court. Prosecutors accuse him of crimes against humanity for systematic attacks that led to dozens of murders.

- and -

What happens next to ex-Philippine president Duterte?

THE HAGUE, March 12 (Reuters) - Philippine ex-President Duterte, who faces murder charges at the International Criminal Court over his war on drugs, will be taken to a coastal detention unit near The Hague where several infamous war crimes suspects were held.
The Scheveningen prison facility, built in 1882, is where some former leaders prosecuted by international courts or U.N. tribunals spent years during legal proceedings.
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Upon arrival Duterte would generally receive a medical examination and then be taken to a private cell with a sink, toilet, bed, desk and bookshelves.

Duterte will join Kosovo's former president Hashim Thaçi, who is awaiting his war crimes trial, and convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic, who was found guilty of genocide in Bosnia. Other inmates include militia leaders from Sudan, Mali and the Central African Republic.

COOKING, YOGA AND CRAFTS

Because it's technically a detention unit and not a prison, detainees have access to more facilities than they would after a possible conviction. Among privileges are conjugal visits, an outdoor exercise space, unmonitored communications with legal team and visits by a minister or spiritual advisor.

During trials in the aftermath of the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s, for which more than 160 suspects were prosecuted, inmates were known to hold sports matches. The detainees for the U.N. and Kosovo tribunals are in separate wings but share some facilities with the ICC detainees.

Inside there are basic medical facilities and an onsite nurse, but defence lawyers for some suspects have raised concerns that it is difficult to get care after hours.

Suspects have access to a gym, a library and a kitchen where they can prepare their own meals, as a dislike for Dutch cuisine is shared by most detainees, lawyers said.

Inmates can also take yoga and music classes, some get materials for crafts and painting and have access to a computer for legal research. They can receive treatment under the Dutch medical system and have the right to a second opinion by a doctor of their choosing.

INITIAL APPEARANCE

The ICC's warrant for Duterte says that as president he created, funded and armed "death squads" as part of the war on drugs. Prosecutors have accused him of crimes against humanity and pre-trial judges say there are reasonable grounds to prosecute Duterte based on the evidence before them.

In coming days, Duterte will be brought before a judge for an initial appearance, during which the allegations will be detailed in court. Represented by a court-appointed defence council or a lawyer of his picking, he will not be asked to enter a plea.

Among the most well-known former defendants are the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 during his genocide trial, and former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, who was acquitted in 2019 of responsibility for post-election violence in 2010. Liberia's Charles Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in Britain after being convicted by a special tribunal.

Lost Another'n

It's starting to get really clear for me why Trump has been going so far out of his way to get his MAGAgoons to view judges with disdain.

Like everybody who's paid any attention at all, I've had my suspicions, of course, but this brings it into sharper focus.

He's determined to warp The Judiciary so it's just another rubber stamp. He's got most of Congress licking the shit off his boots, but other than 4 SCOTUS bozos and the occasional Aileen Cannon, he's been running into quite a bit of resistance.

This one though - this decision is a pretty clear message that I hope gets out far and wide.

Thank the fake lord for Beryl Howell

Defend your institution

Labor regulator Trump fired must be reinstated, judge rules

Gwynne Wilcox was appointed by Joe Biden to head the National Labor Relations Board. Trump tried to fire her in January.

A federal judge repudiated President Donald Trump’s effort to remove the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, calling it an “illegal act” and “power grab” that misunderstands the limits of his authority.

“An American President is not a king — not even an ‘elected’ one,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote Thursday in a 36-page opinion, “and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants … is not absolute, but may be constrained in appropriate circumstances.”

Howell’s order reinstates Gwynne Wilcox to the NLRB, which plays a major role in policing labor disputes across the country. Though presidents nominate — and the Senate confirms — members of the board, federal law restricts the ability to remove board members absent “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.”

Despite that restriction, Trump fired Wilcox in a Jan. 27 email delivered by a subordinate, saying Wilcox was not working “in a manner consistent with the objectives of my administration.” The firing is part of a broader effort by the president to take control of all purportedly “independent” agencies within the executive branch and undermine decades of efforts in Washington to insulate some federal agencies from political pressure.

On Thursday, a federal workplace watchdog fired by Trump — Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger — dropped his legal bid to reclaim his post after a federal appeals court permitted his termination. Cathy Harris, a member of the Merit Systems Protection Board, which oversees the grievance process for many federal employees, is also resisting Trump’s effort to remove her and was reinstated last month by a federal judge.

The Supreme Court likely will soon weigh in on Congress’ ability to insulate executive branch officials from being fired by the president without cause. With Dellinger’s decision to drop his legal fight, Harris’ case appears likeliest to reach the high court in the near-term. It’s possible Wilcox’s case will get folded into that ongoing fight.

The NLRB consists of five members who serve five-year terms. But without Wilcox, three of the board’s seats are currently vacant.

Wilcox was appointed to the NLRB by former President Joe Biden in 2023 and became the board’s chair in December 2024. She was the first NLRB member ever to be fired in the board’s 90-year history.

Trump also fired the board’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, in a broad effort to take control of the regulatory agency.

Howell, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote that reinstating Wilcox is in the public interest because without her, the NLRB will remain without a quorum and be unable to perform its required role of resolving labor disputes. And she said that Trump had other avenues to control the direction of the board without firing Wilcox: He could have appointed two new members to fill the already vacant seats, along with a new general counsel to steer the board’s policies.

The judge also delivered a warning about Trump’s multi-faceted bid to expand presidential power. She noted that, in defending the firing of Wilcox, Justice Department lawyers cited the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity that shielded Trump from some aspects of the criminal case he faced last year for seeking to subvert the 2020 election.

“The President seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme,” Howell wrote. “The courts are now again forced to determine how much encroachment on the legislature our Constitution can bear and face a slippery slope toward endorsing a presidency that is untouchable by the law.”

Those Kootenai Kops

CBS2

Security firm loses license after woman dragged from Idaho town hall

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — On Saturday, February 22nd, citizens gathered in the Coeur d'Alene High School auditorium to speak with elected members of the Idaho Legislature about community issues. The peaceful event quickly became a viral video on social media, as one woman was dragged from the auditorium by private security.

Teresa Borrenpohl was removed from her seat by a private security company, Lear Asset Management, who dragged her out of the auditorium and tried to tie her hands with zip ties, while the Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris recorded the incident, encouraging her removal.

Attempting to break free, Borrenpohl bit one of the unmarked security guards. A statement released by the CDA Police Department says in part, "During the meeting, after speaking out of turn, Teresa Correnpohl was asked to leave. When she refused, she was physically removed by employees of Lear Asset Management, a private security firm hired by the event organizers."

In a video of the incident, Borrenpohl can be heard shouting, "Women deserve a voice," before being removed. CDA Police report that Lear Asset Management's business license has been revoked for violating Coeur d'Alene City ordinances regarding security agencies and agents. The CDA Police continue to investigate the incident and battery charges against Borrehpohl have been dropped by the prosecutor.

A GoFundMe started the following Sunday, asking people to donate for Borrenpohl's ability to find legal counsel for the fight ahead. The GoFundMe asked for 30 thousand dollars, as of publication it has raised $245,000.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office reports that Sheriff Norris's conduct is also being investigated by an independent probe to ensure that his actions did not violate the code of conduct or the law. CBS2 reached out to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office to clarify whether or not the probe extended beyond Sheriff Norris and who would be running the investigation. The KCSO spokesman said in response that a party has not yet been determined and that no other KCSO employees were present at the event.

Bill And Sarah

Starting at about 25:45, Sarah makes 2 great points

1. If Republicans want to cut stuff, let them do their fucking jobs and cut it out of a proper budget bill 
2. Trump is setting the pretext to ignore the courts when they try to rein in his excesses

It Gets Worse

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael McWhorter (@tizzyent)

Rubio says El Salvador offers to accept deportees from US of any nationality, including Americans

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio left El Salvador on Tuesday with an agreement from that country’s president to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, including violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.

President Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, extraordinary, extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio said after meeting with Bukele at his lakeside country house outside San Salvador for several hours late Monday.

“We can send them, and he will put them in his jails,” Rubio said of migrants of all nationalities detained in the United States. “And, he’s also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though they’re U.S. citizens or legal residents.”

Rubio was visiting El Salvador to press a friendly government to do more to meet President Donald Trump’s demands for a major crackdown on immigration.

Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying El Salvador has “offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.” He said his country would accept only “convicted criminals” and would charge a fee that “would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable.”

Elon Musk, the billionaire working with Trump to remake the federal government, responded on his X platform, “Great idea!!”

After Rubio spoke, a U.S. official said Trump’s Republican administration had no current plans to try to deport American citizens but called Bukele’s offer significant. The U.S. government cannot deport American citizens, and such a move would be met with significant legal challenges.

But is it really a "deportation"? And is it actually illegal to farm out an American criminal to a foreign prison? This is Mr SmarmSpace we're dealing with. He'll have his beagles all over the thing looking for loopholes. If nothing says very specifically that he can't do some shitty thing, he's going to do the shitty thing. And sometimes he does a shitty thing even when there is a law against it.

Can you see how incredibly convenient it would be to have AG Patel railroad somebody - say, a mildly famous political opponent - and bury him in your Rent-A-Gulag 2,000 miles south of Dallas? That could make a lot of people eager to bow down.

The State Department describes El Salvador’s overcrowded prisons as “harsh and dangerous.” On its current country information webpage it says, “In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent.”

El Salvador has lived under a state of emergency since March 2022, when the country’s powerful street gangs went on a killing rampage. Bukele responded by suspending fundamental rights like access to lawyers, and authorities have arrested more than 83,000 people with little to no due process.

In 2023, Bukele opened a massive new prison with capacity for 40,000 gang members and boasted about serving only one meal per day. Prisoners there do not receive visits, and there are no programs preparing them for reinsertion into society after their sentences and no workshops or educational programs.

El Salvador, once one of the most dangerous countries in the world, closed last year with a record low 114 homicides, a newfound security that has propelled Bukele’s soaring popularity in the country of about 6 million residents.

Rubio arrived in San Salvador shortly after watching a U.S.-funded deportation flight with 43 migrants leave from Panama for Colombia. That came a day after Rubio delivered a warning to Panama that unless the government moved immediately to eliminate China’s presence at the Panama Canal, the U.S. would act to do so.

Migration, though, was the main issue of the day, as it will be for the next stops on Rubio’s five-nation Central American tour of Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic after Panama and El Salvador.

His tour is taking place at a time of turmoil in Washington over the status of the government’s main foreign development agency.

Trump’s administration prioritizes stopping people from making the journey to the United States and has worked with regional countries to boost immigration enforcement on their borders as well as to accept deportees from the United States.

The agreement Rubio described for El Salvador to accept foreign nationals arrested in the United States for violating U.S. immigration laws is known as a “safe third country” agreement. Officials have suggested this might be an option for Venezuelan gang members convicted of crimes in the United States should Venezuela refuse to accept them, but Rubio said Bukele’s offer was for detainees of any nationality.

Rubio said Bukele then went further and said his country was willing to accept and to jail U.S. citizens or legal residents convicted of and imprisoned for violent crimes.

Human rights activists have warned that El Salvador lacks a consistent policy for the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees and that such an agreement might not be limited to violent criminals.

Manuel Flores, the secretary general of the leftist opposition party Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, criticized the “safe third country” plan, saying it would signal that the region is Washington’s “backyard to dump the garbage.”

After meeting with Bukele, Rubio signed a memorandum of understanding with his Salvadoran counterpart to advance U.S.-El Salvador civil nuclear cooperation. The document could lead to a more formal deal on cooperation in nuclear power and medicine that the U.S. has with numerous countries.

While Rubio was out of the U.S., staffers of the U.S. Agency for International Development were instructed Monday to stay out of the agency’s Washington headquarters after Musk announced Trump had agreed with him to shut the agency.

Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs shut down. Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID but had delegated that authority so he would not be running its day-to-day operations.

The change means that USAID is no longer an independent government agency as it had been for decades — although its new status will likely be challenged in court — and will be run out of the State Department by department officials.

In his remarks, Rubio stressed that some and perhaps many USAID programs would continue in the new configuration but that the switch was necessary because the agency had become unaccountable to the executive branch and Congress.

Remember This

The last paragraph from Jack Smith's report:

"The Department's view that the Constitution prohibits the continued indictment and prosecution of a President is categorical and does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government's proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Office stands fully behind. Indeed, but for Mr. Trump's election and imminent return to the Presidency, the Office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial."

Who Knew?

In a country where people are

"hopelessly deeply divided",

it seems all it took

to get everybody on the same page

was a dead CEO?

Busted

Another candidate for Trump's pardon spree.

FBI informant accused of lying about Joe and Hunter Biden pleads guilty

An FBI informant accused of lying about the Biden family has cut a plea deal with special counsel David Weiss, the prosecutor who led the criminal probe into Hunter Biden.

Alexander Smirnov is set to plead guilty to four charges, including tax evasion and obstructing justice by providing false information to the FBI, according to a court filing in California on Thursday.

Smirnov had falsely told the FBI in 2020 that Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, was illicitly paying off Joe Biden while he was vice president, and his son Hunter, who was on the company’s board.

This will likely end Weiss’ investigation. The special counsel led the prosecution against Hunter Biden, who was convicted of tax and firearms charges. President Biden issued a pardon for his son before he was scheduled to be sentenced this month.

Under the plea agreement, prosecutors and the defendant are asking the judge to sentence Smirnov to between four and six years in prison.

Smirnov’s admissions that are part of his plea make clear a major accusation of corruption between Burisma and the Bidens, which fueled conservative attacks of the now-president and his son, were false.

“The events Defendant first reported to the Handler in June 2020 were fabrications,” the plea documents say. “Defendant transformed his routine and unextraordinary business contacts with Burisma in 2017 and later into bribery allegations against Public Official 1, the presumptive nominee of one of the two major political parties for President, after expressing bias against Public Official 1 and his candidacy.”

The plea agreement says that Smirnov repeated his false accusations about the Bidens again in 2023, and was telling investigators by then a “new false narrative” about Hunter Biden. At that time, Weiss’ office was continuing to investigate Hunter Biden and brought charges against him on gun and tax crimes.

The court hasn’t yet scheduled when it will hear Smirnov’s plea.

Smirnov, in his plea, admits to his own set of tax crimes.

He brought in more than two millions dollars between 2000 and 2022 that he reported a small fraction to the IRS, avoiding the tax payments over those three years. Smirnov admits he spent from the money more than $1 million on a condo purchase in Las Vegas, a lease for a Bentley and other luxury items for himself and his partner.

A Justice Department official declined to comment.

Today's Brian & Glenn

I think I get it - gotta be careful about setting precedent, and you don't wanna hand the bad guys a weapon they can use against you later (assuming of course we actually find our way outa this fucked up mess), and we have to interpret the law, and apply the law, and not try to make the law on the judiciary side - etc etc etc. I'm there. I get it.

But goddammit - I'm so fucking sick of rich people stomping around in smarmspace manufacturing loopholes - using and abusing the courts to duck responsibility.

Here's a thought: Obey the fucking law. Could we try that for a while?