Tag Archives: DOJ

crime news, legal news

Special counsel looking better

Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint a special counsel to lead the investigation into the 1/6 insurrection and the pilfering of classified documents by the former POTUS is looking better all the time.

The counsel is John L. “Jack” Smith, a career prosecutor, a registered independent and a no-nonsense public servant. The attorney general saw a potential conflict of interest in prosecuting Donald J. Trump while the former president campaigns for the office. The conflict would arrive if Trump gets nominated by Republicans and runs against Joe Biden, the president who selected Garland to run the Justice Department.

So he’s backing away from active participation. Why is that such a bad thing?

I see few downsides to it. Smith will get to work immediately and will guide the prosecutorial team already assembled to its conclusion in both of these cases.

My hunch follows the lead already expressed, which is that Smith will get to the end of it all in fairly short order. Then we’ll get a decision on whether Donald Trump is indicted for the crimes I believe he committed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news

Special counsel: yes or no?

Attorney General Merrick Garland no doubt saw this moment coming a while ago, yet he waited until today to announce that he is appointing a special counsel to examine two key aspects of the criminality demonstrated by Donald J. Trump.

The special counsel is a young man named Jack Smith, a career prosecutor and someone known to be a no-nonsense battler for the truth.

What did the AG see happening? It was the prospect that Trump would declare his candidacy for president in 2024. He likely figured the twice-impeached, disgraced and utterly unfit Trump would make another go at the office of POTUS.

OK, I am going to endorse Merrick Garland’s decision to step away formally from the probes into the 1/6 insurrection and the Mar-a-Lago document theft.

Look at it this way. Garland and the Department of Justice have done a lot of the spade work already. They have uncovered mountains of evidence that Trump incited the attack on the Capitol on 1/6 and — more specifically — that he has obstructed justice in the recovery of documents Trump took with him to his estate when he left the White House … hopefully for the final time, ever!

I know what some of you might be thinking. We’ve been down this “special counsel road” already. Robert Mueller took the job to probe whether there was collusion between Trump and them Russians. He didn’t indict anyone.

But wait. That was then. The here and now has revealed another set of evidence on another set of crimes. The new special counsel has before him a mountain of evidence through which he can pore.

Do I want any more delay in this search for accountability? Of course not! Nor do I necessarily believe there will be a delay. AG Garland has promised that the counsel will move expeditiously. Let’s hope he hits the ground at a full gallop.

The bottom line, though, is that Merrick Garland envisioned a potential conflict of interest were he to remain in charge of these two probes. It remains a possibility — although I consider it a remote one — that Trump might end up running for president against the man who selected Garland to lead DOJ.

Accordingly, I believe Garland’s decision was the correct one.

Now, it becomes imperative for the special counsel to get busy … as in right now!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

legal news, national news

When will indictment arrive?

All the smart money — and even some of the dumber dough — believes that Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to indict Donald J. Trump … for something!

So many questions lurk on the edges and even some in the guts of the issue.

When will the indictment(s) come? How far will the AG go in charging the former president of the U.S.A. with committing a criminal act? How does an indictment affect the former POTUS’s plans for running for the presidency again, if he’s indeed going to do so? What will be the response of Trump’s diminishing — but still frothing rabid — base of supporters?

I happen to believe that Garland could indict Trump on obstruction of justice, on violating his oath of office, potentially on contempt of Congress, on conspiracy to commit sedition.

It all turns on the events of 1/6. Trump incited the insurrection and no one on Earth is going to persuade me he didn’t do it.

However, Merrick Garland is nothing if not a realist. He knows the stakes are huge. If Republicans gain control of Congress after the midterm election, he faces the prospect of impeachment by Republicans still steamed over Democrats’ decision to impeach Trump twice.

The biggest obstacle to impeaching the AG, though, is that he is doing his job. Unlike the “high crimes” that produced two impeachments against Trump — seeking political favors from a foreign government and inciting the attack on the Capitol — Garland merely would be doing his job in accordance with the law.

That likely wouldn’t stop the GOP from seeking to make Garland “pay” for the impeachment of the former POTUS.

This is all part of the drama that awaits as Merrick Garland ponders what appears to be an inevitable action. I am waiting to see how this drama ends.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, Donald Trump, national news

Prepare for the Big Stall

Donald J. Trump has been summoned to testify before the House select 1/6 committee, but none of us should hold our breath waiting for the ex-POTUS to actually testify … under oath.

The former president who insists he did nothing wrong, that he didn’t incite the assault on the Capitol on 1/6 is going to act like someone who is as guilty as hell. He will stall, delay, obstruct and otherwise do all he can do to stall his testimony.

And all of it will produce a ton of evidence that Trump is as guilty as the dickens.

The former Imbecile in Chief is seeking to prevent his testimony.

Now, I have to wonder: Why would an innocent man want to prevent testifying before a duly constituted congressional committee? You and I know the answer to that. It’s because he can’t tell the truth if his life depended on it and, therefore, the truth is going to convict him.

This individual should prepare for being served with an indictment.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, national news

Trump admits guilt … bring it!

(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Whoever serves these days as Donald J. Trump’s legal advisers surely must know that they have an imbecile for a client. Why do I say that?

Because … at that rally over the weekend, The Donald took it upon himself to admit to taking documents from the White House and squirreling them away in his glitzy Florida estate. He all but admitted to committing a crime!

Let’s see. I believe that’s what the FBI was seeking to determine when they searched Trump’s home and discovered all those documents. Isn’t that correct?

What’s more, the Donald keeps lying about what transpired when the FBI searched his joint. He suggests it was a “raid.” He implies they forced their way in. He keeps insisting no one knew they were coming. Wrong, wrong and wrong again.

Oh, and he accuses the FBI of “planting” evidence.

Hah! Didn’t happen, Donald.

Any reputable lawyer in the country would advise their client to shut the hell up, to not talk out loud about a pending criminal case. Maybe The Donald’s legal eagles advised him as such. Maybe he ignored them. The Department of Justice is examining whether The Donald broke the law by taking documents from the White House, some of which were marked “top secret.”

Do I need to remind everyone that a conviction of a crime could bring some prison time to the former POTUS?

Whatever the case, the individuals who have taken on the task of defending the indefensible — the taking of classified documents from the White House — now must understand fully what millions of Americans know already.

The former president of the United States — in the words of former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — is a fu**ing moron!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, FBI, legal news, national news, political news

Believing now that indictment is coming

From virtually the moment that he skulked out of town prior to the ceremony celebrating the guy who defeated in the 2020 presidential election, I have resisted the notion that Donald J. Trump would be indicted on charges of criminal behavior.

Today, though, my thoughts have changed … dramatically, I must add.

I believe that Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to indict the former president of the United States, making a huge bit of history in the process. The charges that Garland might level against Trump, though, remain an open question.

They include the most serious, say, obstruction of justice or conspiracy to commit sedition. Those are felonies that carry enormous prison terms if someone is convicted of the allegation.

There might be misdemeanor charges leveled, dealing with the handling of those classified documents that Trump squirreled away in his glitzy Florida estate.

Friends of mine who live in faraway lands have speculated that Trump would be hauled off in leg irons and handcuffs. Other friends of mine — those who are loyal to Trump — have said quite the opposite. They don’t defend the individual’s character, saying he “never would do” the things that have been alleged already. Instead, they challenge the motives of the federal investigation.

I believe Merrick Garland is as fine a public servant as we can find. His career as a federal judge was marked by universal praise — from the left and the right — for his judicial scholarship and the meticulous nature of his court rulings. Even when the Senate GOP leadership blocked his nomination to the Supreme Court in early 2016, they didn’t question his qualifications or the quality of the man; they were motivated by pure politics.

I am unaware of the particulars of the AG’s investigation. All I have to assess it is my belief in the character of the man leading it.

He has said that “no one is above the law.” By “no one,” he means, well … no one!

Therefore, I believe he has compiled enough evidence to cobble together a prosecutorial complaint against Donald John Trump.

Then we shall watch the full-scale implosion of a man deluded with notions of grandeur. It cannot happen to a more deserving individual.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump, legal news, national news, national security, political news

What’s with Barr?

More than a few Americans are wondering: What in the world has gotten into William Barr, the last man to serve as attorney general during the Donald Trump administration?

Barr succeeded Jeff Sessions as AG after Trump fired Sessions because Sessions refused to investigate the “Russia collusion” matter, citing potential conflict of interest; Sessions acted out of conscience and a standard of ethical behavior. Trump looked for an AG who he thought would be loyal to the president; he found one in Barr.

Barr did Trump’s bidding. His disgraceful whitewashing and deceptive misinterpretation of Robert Mueller’s probe into the Russian “collusion” matter will stand for all time as an attempt at pandering to the boss. Then he quit just near the end of Trump’s term. Barr had grown weary of defending Trump’s Big Lie about alleged widespread voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Now comes the “new” William Barr. He says Trump should never have taken those top-secret documents out of the White House and kept them in his Florida home. Barr’s critics say his “coming out” as Mr. Legal Straight Arrow is too little, too late. I am not going to pound Barr for his late-blooming fit of reason and sanity.

He’s speaking the proverbial truth to power. When is that ever a bad thing? He has been a frequent guest on Fox News talk shows to do precisely that. Indeed, he has walked into the belly of the beast to tell us all the truth about what is right and wrong in Trump’s pitiful attempts at defending the indefensible.

Why Barr is breaking from Trump — and the GOP — over Mar-a-Lago search | The Hill

I am going to give William Barr credit for telling the world what many of us knew already, that the ex-POTUS deludes himself with grandeur and visions of lifelong power. Do I wish Barr had spoken out while he served in the Trump administration? Certainly!

He’s doing so now. That’s all right with me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, military news, national news, political news

Equal justice? Hah!

Donald J. Trump is supposed to be subject to the same standards as every U.S. citizen now that he no longer is president of the United States.

Isn’t that the rule? Isn’t that what Attorney General Merrick Garland has implied all along while stipulating that “no one is above the law”?

Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, though, has a different take on it. Cohen, who served as defense boss during the Clinton administration, said today that had he taken the documents now believed to have been found among the cache of papers in Trump’s home that he would have been arrested on the spot and taken into custody.

Which begs the question: If Donald Trump now is just an ordinary citizen of this country and has been found to have taken highly classified documents home with him as he left the White House for keeps, why hasn’t he been arrested and charged with, oh, violating the Presidential Records Act or the Espionage Act?

Former Secretary of Defense walks through what would happen to him if he took the documents Trump did (msn.com)

I am acutely aware that all of that would take us down a path on which we have never walked. However, it does appear to be more than just scuttlebutt that Trump had in his possession documents containing — gulp! — nuclear secrets.

What in the name of MADness was Trump going to do with this stuff?

This brings me to another question: Is Donald Trump ever going to be treated like any schmuck who takes official documents illegally?

Allow me to borrow this phrase: Lock him up!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, legal news, national news, national security

Is she a ‘Trump judge’?

Donald J. Trump’s past blathering about “Obama judges” and “Clinton judges” ruling against him in various legal battles gives me pause as I try to weigh the legal significance of a federal judge who has ruled in the ex-president’s favor in his fight with the FBI over those classified documents he squirreled away at his Florida estate.

Legal and constitutional scholars have been quick to condemn Trump’s assertion that those decisions with which he disagrees are the result of the political leanings of the judges who delivered them. They have said that judges take solemn oaths to be faithful to the Constitution and that’s what they have done in issuing their rulings.

Now we have a Trump-appointed federal judge — Aileen Cannon — deciding that it’s OK to appoint a special master to pore through the documents seized by the FBI in its search for possible criminal evidence.

The Justice Department argued against the appointment of such a special master. It well could appeal the decision by Judge Cannon.

But I am left to ponder something. If the ex-POTUS is going to rant and rail against judges who happen to occupy their seat on the bench because they are appointed by political rivals of his, is it OK for others to do the same thing when a Trump-appointed judge issues a key ruling in the former president’s favor?

Just askin’, man.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

crime news, FBI, legal news, national news, political news

FBI acted properly

I am going to seek to put to rest a lie that Donald J. Trump keeps repeating as it involves the FBI search for classified/top secret documents that the ex-president squirreled away illegally in his Florida home.

All set? Here goes.

Trump keeps saying that the FBI “raided” his home. It was no “raid.” The FBI worked with a federal judge to obtain a search warrant based on what it believes is “probable cause” that a crime took place. The feds sought the documents that Trump spirited out of the White House in violation of the Presidential Records Act that stipulates that official documents need to go to the National Archives.

When the FBI found the documents, the agents — in full view of Trump’s lawyers — spread them on the floor for picture-taking purposes. The ex-POTUS’s newest lie is that the feds spread the documents out to illustrate that Trump was so damn careless he would just toss ’em on the floor for the whole world to see.

No! The FBI was following standard operating evidence-gathering procedure. Trump never says the FBI picked the documents up and put them where agents found them: in the boxes that Trump’s team took from the White House to Florida.

As is always the case with this clown, the crowd that hears these lies cheers on the liar who spreads them, filling him with even more hubris to repeat them.

Disgraceful.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com