Tag Archives: DOJ

legal news

This isn’t compromise … it’s betrayal

In all the years I have been watching and covering politics — as a daily print journalist — I have seen my share of men and women make compromises to seek a greater good.

The decision by key Republican U.S. senators to back Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation in the Senate, however, falls into a darker category. It is a betrayal of common decency, not to mention of the oath they all took to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution.

Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina both had been critical of recent decisions by Donald J. Trump. They made noise about opposing Blanche’s confirmation. It turned out that’s what it was: just a lot of noise.

The same could be said of Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a longtime foe of Trump. He, too, cast his vote to confirm Blanche, even though the new AG demonstrated repeatedly during his confirmation hearing that he had no intention of bucking the POTUS were he to issue an order that would violate the Constitution. Blanche, of course, served as Trump’s defense lawyer during his trials for various felonies of which he was convicted.

Accordingly, I am going to say a good word about Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,, who were the only GOP senators to stand on principle, rather than on blind fealty to a lame-duck president who has shown zero inclination to do anything for the good of the entire nation he was elected to lead.

Cornyn and Tillis’s plunge into the cavern is particularly odious. They had demanded a written commitment from Blanche that he would disallow the spending of $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to the traitorous felons convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection against the government after the 2020 election that Trump lost to President Biden. They got a written promise from Blanche, but there remains a distinct possibility that he and/or Trump could renege on that promise. There is zero legal binding to it.

Cornyn and Tillis both went with the idiot in chief rather than sending a clear message that they stood on a matter of principle.

Blanche’s confirmation by a 50-49 partisan vote, indeed, was a dark day for the rule of law. The GOP will have to defend the indefensible before a voting public that has lost its patience with a once-great political party.

Donald Trump, national news

Trump angry at GOP rebellion? Awww, too bad

Word out of DC is that the hothead in chief, Donald Trump, is angry over Republican resistance to his choice to be the next attorney general.

Gosh, what could be getting under their skin? It could be that Todd Blanche can’t stop acting like Trump’s personal lawyer, which he was for several years. It might be Blanche’s resistance to submit in writing a pledge to protect the reputations of the victims of the late Jeffrey Epstein, who brutalized these women. Maybe it’s a collection of “all of the above” factors that make Blanche totally unfit to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

At least two GOP senators, lame ducks John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, say they might vote “no” on Blanche’s AG nomination. Cornyn lost his GOP runoff race and Tillis chose not to seek re-election. They’re both free of Trump’s threats. We also have Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who’s been a thorn in Trump’s s ample backside for years.

I am pleased to see the GOP Senate caucus grow a set of — oh, you know — and start to resist Trump on matters that count. Selecting an AG is a big deal. Blanche shouldn’t get the nod to lead the Department of Justice. Hope is beginning to stir.

crime news, legal news

Clown show adds another player

Legal scholars need not apply for any position within the Trump administration that requires knowledge of the U.S. Constitution. All you have to be is a pal to Donald J. Trump.

Todd Blanche, who once served as Trump’s criminal defense lawyer, appears to be POTUS 47’s latest pick to be attorney general. He replaces the disgraced Pam Bondi, another dedicated Trumpkin who got canned a few weeks ago.

This is what it’s come down to, as Trump seeks to find “the best people” to fill these posts.

Blanche has been acting AG since Bondi got the boot. I’ll give him credit for reportedly persuading Trump to scrap the $1.8 billion slush fund that POTUS sought to set up to pay rewards for many of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

That’s not good enough, however, for Blanche to assume the role as the “people’s lawyer.”

I am left to breathe a heavy sigh of disgust.

crime news

Bondi is now a ‘former U.S. attorney general’

Allow me to join the millions of Americans who today are cheering the news that Donald Trump has fired Pam Bondi from her post as U.S. attorney general.

I would say that “Pam, we hardly knew ye,” but that wouldn’t be true. We got to know a lot about Bondi during her year-long stint as AG. None of it good, from my perspective.

She proved to be every bit the sycophant that Trump sought when he plucked her from the ranks of Florida elected officials. She was so good at it that she should have embarrassed Trump with her hideous performances testifying — if you want to call it such — before congressional committees on matters involving Jeffrey Epstein and Trump’s pardon of the Jan. 6 traitors who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

My favorite moment came when she lied under oath to a House committee, was called on that lie by Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and then bellowed “Don’t you ever accuse me of committing a crime!” Wait a sec, Mme. AG. The nation just heard you commit perjury when you said the record contains “no evidence” accusing Trump of committing a crime.

It damn sure does! Lieu brought it out for public display.

If the POTUS had an ounce of shame, he would be embarrassed by Bondi’s performance as AG.

Hit the road, Pam. Me? I’m going to watch the Artemis II mission head for the moon and cheer on those four brave astronauts as they continue to bring smiles to our faces.

crime news

What and when did Trump know about Epstein?

Donald Trump’s refusal to release for public view all the files contained about Jeffrey Epstein — the late sex trafficker and abuser of underage girls — compels me to circle back to a point I have made on this and other issues.

Which is this: If the president of the United States is as clean as Trump says he is, then he should release the files untouched by redactions and allow the public full access to information that can answer a key question about Trump. What did POTUS know and when did he know it?

I do not believe Trump was involved directly in the crimes for which Epstein was convicted and jailed. I am one American patriot who wants to know if the future president knew in real time whether Epstein and his girlfriend, Gyslane Maxwell, were rounding up girls and subjecting them to Epstein’s desire to be pleasured by them.

Trump says there’s nothing to see in those files. Really, Mr. Liar in Chief? Release the damn files and let us determine whether you’re right, that there’s nothing in them that implicates Trump. Fine … but Trump and Epstein once were besties. Therefore, did Trump know about the hideous crimes Epstein was committing?

Trump eventually would run for president. He won in 2016 and in 2024. It would have been important for Trumpkins to know whether their guy was hobknobbing with a sex trafficker. That’s kind of important, don’t you think?

Trump and the Justice Department are refusing to let us see those files. That leads to believe the files contain something in there that is going to cause the POTUS some serious grief.

I believe we might be witnessing a White House coverup.

crime news, legal news

Irony runs thick

You want irony? I’ve got a huge dose of it for you to ponder. It comes via testimony from a sitting U.S. senator from Rhode Island.

Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, reminded his Senate Judiciary Committee colleagues the other day of the irony committed by AG Pam Bondi in testimony before the panel.

She had just secured an indictment of former FBI Director Jim Comey on a specious charge that he lied before the committee, committing an act of perjury. The indictment is so flimsy it likely won’t be tried. It was handed over on a total of two pages. That’s it! Comey allegedly lied about who told him what about a pending hearing. It’s pure crap.

Oh, but wait. Bondi then told the same Senate panel that Whitehouse accepted a favor from a donor, a charge that Whitehouse says is “demonstrably false.” He said a first-year law student could have looked up the facts and determined that the favor didn’t occur.

Therefore, Whitehouse said, Bondi committed the very same crime for which Comey has been indicted.

Do we indict the attorney general? If she isn’t above the law … then why not?

legal news

Patel: worst of the bunch

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Of the remaining appointees to the Donald Trump Cabinet who remain quite problematic, I am going to single out of them as being the worst of the bunch.

FBI director-designate Kash Patel is utterly, completely and unquestionably unfit for the job he says he wants. Trump picked him, I guess, because Patel has all but declared war on the very agency he wants to lead.

How in the name of law enforcement can anyone justify this moron’s ascent into the FBI directorship? Patel and Trump have accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the agency against Trump’s political adversaries. What the new guy has suggested doing makes any accusation of Biden’s weaponization laughable on its face.

He said he wants to close the agency and turn it into a museum to commemorate the “deep state,” whatever the f*** that is. He vows to launch probes into special counsel Jack Smith’s work on behalf of the attorney general to prosecute Trump for crimes against the government. He wouldn’s shirk at any notion to prosecute the Jan. 6 House select committee that probed the insurrection that sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Patel refuses to answer direct questions about whether he would say “no” to an order from Trump that is illegal. Nor does he acknowledge that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

The clown is part of the Big Lie cabal that has no business serving as a top law enforcement official in our cherished federal government.

Kash Patel gets my nod as the worst of the sorry bunch still awaiting Senate confirmation. The sad truth, apparently, is that he’ll get confirmed. God help us.

crime news

Ex-Rep. Gaetz: Serial lawbreaker?

OK, here is what we now have learned about a fellow selected by Donald Trump to be the nation’s next attorney general.

The House Ethics Committee report has issued a scathing report of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., engaging in sex with underage girls, of paying women for sex, illicit drug use, receiving improper gifts and granting special favors to personal associates … and for obstruction of justice.

The dude no longer will be attorney general, as he pulled out of consideration for the chief law enforcer’s post. But you know what? Many, many questions remain about what in the name of careful analysis was Trump thinking when he tossed Gaetz’s name into the hopper?

Good … grief, man!

The ethics panel chose to not file a criminal referral on Gaetz. It surely should have done so. The report suggests that the bipartisan committee found substantial evidence of Gaetz violating Florida’s statutory rape laws. Still, no charges? What the hell … ?

Let’s look briefly at the cavalier attitude Trump exhibited in nominating Gaetz in the first place. The POTUS-elect chose to forgo any criminal background check of his Cabinet nominees, choosing instead to rely on his own, um, instincts. Well, those instincts have revealed plenty about the individual who’s about to become the next president.

And they aren’t good.

Gaetz won’t be AG and for that we all can breathe easily. We still will have Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office, making decisions affecting our lives.

What has been revealed about Trump’s selection process for a key Cabinet post should make all Americans very afraid of what’s to come when the huckster takes his oath of office.

ABC News reported: In its report, the committee concluded that it did not find substantial evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, finding that while Gaetz “did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex,” investigators did not find evidence “that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the Committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”

But … Trump surely knew about this behavior and still he picked him to be AG.

Disgusting.

crime news

Patel to weaponize FBI

Let me see if I have this straight: Donald J. Trump has accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the Justice Department to go after Trumpkins and other MAGA goons, yet the new president has selected a guy, Kash Patel, to run the FBI with the expressed purpose of finding political foes and prosecuting them for unknown reasons.

Talk about weaponization!

Patel, of course, has no business running the nation’s top police force. He is a Trump loyalist and so far has spoken the words the boss wants to hear. I use the term “boss” with caution, because in reality you and I are the bosses. Patel doesn’t see it that way. He sees the president as the boss, is answerable only to him and therefore must be held accountable only by the nimrod sitting behind the Resolute Desk.

Not true, not by a long shot.

Patel is likely to get picked apart by Senate Judiciary Committee members, maybe even some of his fellow Republicans.

I’m tellin’ ya, Donald Trump’s next term as president is going to be one for the books … likely the comic books.

crime news, legal news, national news

Trump: Slipperiest man alive

Donald J. Trump has just earned a new title that smacks of royalty.

I hereby crown this guy King Donald, The Slipperiest Man Alive. The dude received this unofficial title when special counsel Jack Smith announced today he would move to dismiss all the federal charges leveled against Trump.

They include his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on our government as well as his keeping of classified documents at his Florida estate.

What happened to force Smith to make this decision? Near as I can tell, it was the Supreme Court ruling that granted Trump immunity from prosecution while he sits in the Oval Office.

So, the two federal charges appear headed for the dustbin. All that’s left to prosecute is the Georgia case alleging that Trump sought to pressure state officials to “find” enough votes in Georgia to swing that state’s total in 2020 to Trump’s column.

The feds have no authority over DA Fani Willis’s right to prosecute that case as an elected state official. Then again, that case appears to be sucking wind at this stage.

Here we stand. A man who was impeached twice during his first term in office, convicted of 34 felony counts in New York on a hush-money payment to an adult film actress and then was charged in multiple cases on state and federal felonies has been re-elected to the nation’s highest office.

He now wears the crown awarded to the Slipperiest Man Alive.

Stunning … simply stunning.