Tag Archives: DOJ

crime news

Will he end up in cuffs and leg irons?

When I hear this chatter from a former president’s lawyers that the ex-POTUS could serve time in prison, my thoughts turn immediately to a friend I haven’t seen in more than two decades.

His name is Peter and he lives in Australia. He has been saying ever since the crap hit the fan on the former president that he truly envisions the sight of the former president being hauled away in handcuffs and leg irons.

That he committed such egregious crimes as president and as an immediate past president that the feds will have no choice but to indict him, put him on trial and then, if convicted, haul his overfed backside off to the slammer.

Peter and I communicate often, discussing the affairs of our respective governments. I concede openly that he is more dialed in to what’s happening here than I am with what is occurring in Canberra. Indeed, the stakes involving the former president would send shock waves worldwide if he is convicted of felonies.

For us, the notion of sending an ex-POTUS to prison is all but anathema. For those around the world, in other democratic nations, it’s happened already.

France has imprisoned a former president; so has Peru. Other leaders of less-free governments have faced criminal charges and have served time as well.

Such a thing would be unfathomable — in many Americans’ eyes — if the criminal defendant is a former president of the United States.

Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a hard-nosed seasoned prosecutor to take over the twin probes involving Donald Trump’s role in the 1/6 assault on our government and the squirreling away of classified documents he took from the White House as he was preparing to leave office.

The smart money seems to suggest that the special counsel, Jack Smith, has wrapped up his documents investigation. He is going to indict the ex-president soon on serious federal charges that could — if he’s convicted — put the ex-POTUS behind bars possibly for the rest of his life. I mean, he is 76 years of age.

What’s more, none of this involves the state prosecutors’ investigations into his trying to overturn election results in Georgia and his indictment on charges that he misspent campaign funds to keep a porn star quiet about a fling she alleges the two of them had in 2006.

I hope my friend reads this blog. So, to him I want to say: It looks more possible than ever that your wish well could come true.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

DOJ calls it quits on Hunter Biden

Well now, the U.S. Department of Justice has sent its investigative team — the one working on whether to charge Hunter Biden with a crime — home.

Something tells me the DOJ has decided what many of us have believed all along, that Republican questions about the president’s son have produced a serious nothing burger.

Shades of Benghazi, it looks for all the world to me.

You’ll recall that the GOP congressional caucus looked high and low for something on which to charge then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the wake of the terrorist raid on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It was a tragic event, to be sure. The GOP found nothing it could hang on Clinton or her diplomatic team.

Now comes this baloney involving Hunter Biden. He made a lot of money working for a Ukrainian oil company. That’s a crime? Hardly!

I don’t expect the GOP hounds to be called off. They’ll keep looking. I mean, we have an election coming up and President Biden’s foes need all the dirt they can find to sully the president’s re-election effort.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Democracy scores big!

Democracy has taken it on the chin in recent years as elements of our society have sought to overturn legitimate presidential elections through force and intimidation.

Well … today our democratic principles scored a big victory when a criminal trial jury delivered guilty verdicts to four members of a group called the Proud Boys, convicting them of seditious conspiracy.

These dipsh**s now stand to serve many years in prison for their actions on 1/6, which included assaulting law enforcement officers while seeking to storm the Capitol Building as Congress was meeting to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

This attack was a direct frontal assault on the very tenet on which our democratic process was founded: the peaceful transfer of power from one presidential administration to another.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department has scored a major victory for all of us who love this nation and who adhere to the principles on which the founders created it.

What’s more, Garland dropped a bit of a hint of more to come when he declared that his “work continues.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Ted Cruz: serial idiot

Ted Cruz just cannot seem to resist making an ass of himself while pretending to serve as a Republican U.S. senator from Texas.

I watched a snippet of his confrontation with Attorney General Merrick Garland today and came away thinking: What in the name of idiocy keeps this clown in office?

He was questioning the AG on whether he — Garland — had the authority to issue warrants to prosecute those who threatened federal judges. Garland sought to answer the question. Cruz wouldn’t let him answer the question.

He hectored, harangued and hassled the attorney general, accusing him of lying, of failing to do his job, of being a toadie for the left.

Good grief. The Cruz Missile simply is not to be trusted as a spokesman for anything or anyone other than himself.

Cruz says he will run for a third term in the Senate in 2024 and will forgo another run for the White House. That doesn’t make me feel one little bit better about the state of Texas politics.

Let’s remember at least this thing about Cruz: When hundreds of Texans were freezing to death in February 2021, Cruz decided to jet off to sunny — and warm — Cancun, only to blame his daughter for talking him into taking the family there when he got busted.

The guy is an utter ass.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence plays VP dodge ball

What would happen if you or I received a subpoena from the attorney general of the United States? Would any of us be able to hide behind some nebulous “executive privilege” clause that protects us from answering questions under oath from duly constituted investigators?

Oh … I kinda doubt it.

However, former Vice President Mike Pence has been summoned by the Justice Department to tell the legal eagles what happened during the 1/6 insurrection. Pence said he won’t comply. He will bob and weave his way out of testifying, contending that what he and Donald Trump — the insurrectionist in chief — said to each other is privileged conversation.

It appears to be a monumental legal stretch for Pence to make that argument stick.

Pence reportedly wants to run for president. The fellow he served as VP, Trump, already is running for the office in 2024. Pence and Trump already are estranged … reportedly! I mean, Trump said the traitorous mob should have lynched him; he said Pence lacked the guts to overturn the 2020 election results; he accused Pence of being a wimp.

All the VP did on 1/6 was, shall we say, follow the law and the U.S. Constitution while presiding over a joint congressional session gathered to count the Electoral College votes and certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.

For my money, Pence is playing a fool’s hand if he expects to get out of testifying. I don’t want to think of Pence as being a fool.

But then again, he agreed to serve with Donald Trump.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Still waiting on AG

Merrick Garland has impressed me ever since I first heard of him as a man of high principle and of well … patience.

He once was selected to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, but saw his nomination derailed in 2016 by Senate Republicans who decided to play politics with President Obama’s constitutional authority to nominate justices to the highest court in the land.

Garland went back to the DC Circuit Court bench until he got tapped to become attorney general in Joe Biden’s presidential administration.

He now is overseeing — even from some distance — investigations into the goings-on of Donald J. Trump. He has handed off a key probe to a special counsel, Jack Smith, who appears to be closing the circle around Trump. Smith has subpoenaed former Vice President Mike Pence to testify under oath to a grand jury looking into Trump’s incitement of the 1/6 insurrection.

My sincere hope is that Pence complies, takes the oath and tells the truth. Will he do the right thing? He’s a man of deep faith, so I believe the Bible instructs him to follow the law.

Meanwhile, AG Garland is biding his time in collecting information that will help him determine whether to indict Trump for (alleged) crimes he committed while he was getting ready to depart the White House.

I once hoped for a quick end to this probe. I have changed my mind, which I am entitled to do. I believe it is critical for the AG to get it right. A mistake in evidence-gathering would spell disaster for the rule of law and for holding Trump accountable for the crimes I believe he committed.

Merrick Garland just doesn’t strike me as a gun-toting buckaroo. I will have faith that he will deliver the correct decision at the correct time and in the correct context.

The AG is just too damn smart to blow this gig.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

GOP suffers short-term memory loss

Congress’s newly minted Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives clearly is suffering from some form of collective dementia, or amnesia … or at least some short-term memory loss.

The GOP caucus formed this committee assigned with investigating what it calls the “weaponization” of the executive branch by the Democratic administration led by President Biden.

It makes me want to shout: are you fu**ing kidding me?

The Donald Trump administration managed to weaponize the Department of Justice at every turn imaginable. Where was the outrage then among the GOP allies of the disgraced, twice-impeached POTUS? Oh, wait! They cheered the liar on!

Now they want to “investigate” whether the DOJ has “weaponized the FBI” because it sought — and received — permission from a federal judge to look for classified documents in Trump’s home in Florida. What a crock!

Indeed, the very existence of a committee assigned to do what the GOP wants from this panel in itself is a weaponization of the legislative branch of government.

So, for the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to proclaim its piety in search of the truth is laughable on its face. Except no one ought to be laughing.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

We’re waiting on AG … patiently

A nation’s patience appears to be running a bit thin as it awaits some key decisions by its chief law enforcement officer … the attorney general of the United States.

AG Merrick Garland is a meticulous man and I am glad to have someone as thoughtful and as deliberate as Garland on the job at the Justice Department.

Am I among those who want Garland to act sooner rather than later? Not really. In truth, my mind and my interests are drawn to more personal matters these days, as my wife struggles with a serious medical condition.

However, were I free to think more frequently about Garland’s probe into the activities of Donald J. Trump my belief would be to let the man proceed at his own pace and at his discretion.

He already has appointed two special counsels to probe Trump’s pilfering of classified documents to his glitzy joint in Florida as well as the classified documents found in President Biden’s home in Delaware. I’ve declared already that I do not consider the incidents to be equal; the Trump matter is much more egregious than what I believe the president allowed to occur.

Garland, though, came to the DOJ after serving for many years on the federal bench. President Obama wanted Garland to take a seat on the Supreme Court, but Senate Republicans made sure that wouldn’t happen. His reputation as a jurist was that he was fair, dispassionate and — well — judicious.

He brings those traits to the Justice Department.

Garland also has declared that “no one is above the law” and has affirmed that statement merely by repeating what he has declared that “no one” can escape justice. By “no one,” I am going to presume he means that even former POTUSes are in the crosshairs.

Let us remember, too, that Garland has received a referral from the House 1/6 committee to pursue criminal indictments relating to the insurrection. He’s working on that matter, also with all deliberate speed. And … we have the Fulton County, Ga., district attorney, Fani Willis, who is examining whether to indict Trump on election tampering in the 2020 presidential election.

All of this requires patience, folks. I happen to possess plenty of it. How about you?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Get a grip, Mr. POTUS!

My head is likely to explode the next time I hear anyone equate two cases of classified documents showing up in private residences of men who hold high public office.

Still, I am about to pull my hair out over the revelations that keep dripping out over the discovery of such documents in President Biden’s home.

Get a grip, will you, Mr. President?

Meanwhile, we have the document scandal that continues to swirl around Donald J. Trump. The ex-POTUS took those documents with him to Florida as he was leaving office in January 2021. Biden’s stash showed up at his home after he served as vice president, leaving that office in 2017.

Biden continues to insist he is cooperating with Justice Department officials … and I believe him; Trump, meanwhile, continues to stonewall as best he can.

Still, I just wish the current president would pull his sh** together and give us a full, complete and transparent explanation into how the hell those documents got into his garage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news

Does one ‘scandal’ affect the other?

Donald Trump’s classified document scandal is the real thing; a president leaves office and takes with him hundreds of pages of documents that do not belong to him.

Joe Biden’s classified document matter is different: he served as vice president, left that office, and squirreled away a few pages of classified documents.

Trump has challenged efforts to retrieve them; Biden has cooperated fully with the feds.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed two special counsels to examine these matters. Question of the day: Should one scandal affect the investigation of the other? My answer: No.

More specifically, special counsel Jack Smith’s work on the Trump matter should proceed with all deliberate speed. Robert Hur’s work on the Biden matter also should proceed.

One investigation must not affect the other one. More to the point is that Smith’s probe into the Trump scandal — which differs, in my mind, greatly from what is occurring with the Biden matter — must continue to its conclusion.

In my view, that conclusion should include an indictment of the ex-POTUS on allegations that he has obstructed justice and committed an illegal theft of government property.

But … that call belongs to AG Garland and his team of legal eagles. He vows to proceed with meticulous caution, which is all right with me. Garland has to get it right, understanding as I am sure he does the gravity of indicting a former POTUS and charging with enough criminal behavior to put him behind bars — if he’s convicted — for the rest of his sorry-ass life.

The Biden matter might complicate the probe into Trump’s scandal, but it must not derail it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com