Last Call For January 6th Justice

Some Democrats on the House January 6th Committee are afraid to refer Trump for Justice Department prosecution because it would look partisan, and at this point I have to ask "Did any of you actually look at Washington for the last 30 years, because Republicans are going to be coming after all of you anyway."

The leaders of the House committee investigating the Capitol attack have grown divided over whether to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department of former President Donald J. Trump, even though they have concluded that they have enough evidence to do so, people involved in the discussions said.

The debate centers on whether making a referral — a largely symbolic act — would backfire by politically tainting the Justice Department’s expanding investigation into the Jan. 6 assault and what led up to it.

Since last summer, a team of former federal prosecutors working for the committee has focused on documenting the attack and the preceding efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to reverse his defeat in the 2020 election. The panel plans to issue a detailed report on its findings, but in recent months it has regularly signaled that it was also weighing a criminal referral that would pressure Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to open a criminal investigation into Mr. Trump.

But now, with the Justice Department appearing to ramp up a wide-ranging investigation, some Democrats are questioning whether there is any need to make a referral — and whether doing so would saddle a criminal case with further partisan baggage at a time when Mr. Trump is openly flirting with running again in 2024.

The shift in the committee’s perspective on making a referral was prompted in part by a ruling two weeks ago by Judge David O. Carter of the Federal District Court for Central California. Deciding a civil case in which the committee had sought access to more than 100 emails written by John C. Eastman, a lawyer who advised Mr. Trump on efforts to derail certification of the Electoral College outcome, Judge Carter found that it was “more likely than not” that Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman had committed federal crimes.

The ruling led some committee and staff members to argue that even though they felt they had amassed enough evidence to justify calling for a prosecution for obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiring to defraud the American people, the judge’s decision would carry far greater weight with Mr. Garland than any referral letter they could write, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.

The members and aides who were reluctant to support a referral contended that making one would create the appearance that Mr. Garland was investigating Mr. Trump at the behest of a Democratic Congress and that if the committee could avoid that perception it should, the people said.

Even if the final report does not include a specific referral letter to Mr. Garland, the findings would still provide federal prosecutors with the evidence the committee uncovered — including some that has not yet become public — that could be used as a road map for any prosecution, the people said.

 

Well holy shit, isn't that the point of an investigation, to gather fucking evidence?

 

Jesus wept, folks. The GOP is already calling you partisan. 

House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy says he has no regrets about having Republicans boycott the special committee probing the Jan. 6 riot, dismissing the investigation as a political hit job.

“This is nothing but a political show,” McCarthy told NBC News in an interview last week just off the House floor. “They already have the report written and they’re trying to create a narrative for it instead of trying to get to the truth.”

But with the Jan. 6 committee preparing to shift next month from the investigative phase to public, televised hearings, McCarthy’s decision last summer to shun the panel will face perhaps its biggest test.

Unlike the first Trump impeachment hearings in 2019, loyalists of the former president will not be in a position to “run interference,” in the words of one GOP source, during the Jan. 6 panel proceedings. Specifically, they won’t be able to aggressively cross-examine witnesses, rebut or interrupt Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and other Democrats, or introduce their own evidence.

Instead, the hearings will be tightly controlled and well-choreographed, focusing on areas like the plot to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory; intelligence and security breakdowns related to the attack; and what former President Donald Trump and his inner circle were doing during the hourslong riot that claimed several lives.

That's opened McCarthy up to criticism from some fellow Republicans.

“I would say it’s absolutely a strategic mistake,” said a senior House GOP aide. “You’re going to have a united front, you’re not going to have a sideshow.

“One of the reasons Democrats’ impeachment hearings failed so spectacularly in 2019 was because you had [GOP Reps.] Elise Stefanik and Jim Jordan and Doug Collins and Mike Turner — all of them running interference because they were sitting on the panels," the aide added. "And they were able to push back on whatever Democrats were trying to press Gordon Sondland and Fiona Hill about. They’re not going to have that this time.”

McCarthy’s decision to yank his members off the Jan. 6 panel — a response to Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocking two of his picks — means pro-Trump Republicans largely have been left in the dark about what's in store for the public hearings. Other than public reporting, Republicans aren't aware of leads the committee is chasing, what witnesses are saying in the 750 depositions the panel has conducted in private, and what’s in the nearly 90,000 documents received by the panel.

“That’s an error,” the GOP aide said. “If Republicans were on a committee and were able to participate in any of this right now, they could be leaking things, they could be setting their own narratives.”

 

GOP aides bragging about using the press, and the press covers it approvingly.

 

We're in so much trouble.

 

The Big Lie, Con't

The Big Lie is the driving force of the GOP campaign in 2022, with Republican after Republican not only repeating the Big Lie in order to win in November, but implying that if they win, that they will do everything they can to make sure no Democrat will ever be allowed to claim victory again.  Nearly 18 months after the 2020 election, Alabama GOP Gov. Kay Ivey is running on this exact platform.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump by “the fake news, Big Tech and blue state liberals” in a campaign ad released Monday, making her the latest high-profile candidate to support unfounded conspiracy theories that the election was illegitimate.

“The fake news, Big Tech and blue state liberals stole the election from President Trump, but here in Alabama, we are making sure that never happens,” the governor says in the ad, titled “Stole.” “We have not, and will not, send absentee ballots to everyone and their brother. We banned corrupt curbside voting, and our results will always be audited. I’m Kay Ivey. The left is probably offended – so be it. As long as I’m governor, we’re going to protect your vote.”

The ad did not elaborate on why Ivey believed the election was stolen from Trump.

There has been no evidence to suggest the 2020 election was stolen.

Ivey campaign manager William Califf said in a statement that the governor would ensure that Alabama’s elections are secure if she wins re-election.

“Gov. Ivey stood with Trump and fought to secure our elections. Here in Alabama, we didn’t have the issues they had in other states,” Califf said. “Gov. Ivey will continue to stand strong and make sure that our elections are secure so that what happened to President Trump in other states will never happen in any election in Alabama.”

 

Now this is Alabama, a state where Democrats don't have a prayer anyway thanks to racist white Republicans dominating the state for years.  Black Democrats have all been stuffed in Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell's 7th District connecting Birmingham and Montgomery for the last decade, and the rest of the state's six districts all have a 30-point GOP lean. 

Which means there's no threat of a close election, and Kay Ivey is running on The Big Lie because she thinks the people of her state are stupid.

Thing is, stupid people have a vote, too.

For now.

Sunday Long Read: The Day The Curtain Fell

Our Sunday Long Read comes to us from Michele Berdy, the Arts editor for the independent Moscow Times, who had lived in Moscow for more than 40 years, as she recounts her career and her escape from Russia as she mourns the future of journalism in Putin's regime.

The day before Russia launched its war against Ukraine, I was in the seaside city of Sochi in southern Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border, attending an arts festival and enjoying a break from the dark and snowy Moscow winter among palm trees and verdant hillsides.

Sochi is on the Black Sea, as is Ukraine. My colleagues and I had been talking for months about aerial photographs that showed a build-up of troops near Russia’s borders with Ukraine, apparently threatening a new invasion. Was it preparation or intimidation? Nothing seemed to be happening, even as the U.S. started warning of an imminent attack.

I work at The Moscow Times, an independent newspaper founded in 1992 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union that publishes online in both English and Russian. As the paper’s arts editor, I was planning to attend the Sochi Winter International Arts Festival beginning on February 16. A few days before I was to leave, I asked my editor if I should go — would it be safe for me to be on the Black Sea coast if war broke out?

“You’ll be in a group,” she said, “and I don’t think it will start.” I said, “I don’t either, but the thing is — I didn’t think Russia would annex Crimea in 2014.” She said, “I didn’t think they’d invade Georgia in 2008.”

I recognize now that the dots were all there. We just couldn’t connect them. We couldn’t imagine a full-scale invasion because a full-scale invasion was unimaginable.

And so I went to Sochi, what now feels like a thousand years ago, and spent every night in the city’s seaside Winter Theater watching the best of Russian and foreign culture, a mix of traditional and very untraditional musical and theater performances, with standing ovations and curtain calls and the local babushkas holding the hands of grandchildren while whispering instructions on proper theater etiquette.

I flew back to Moscow on the evening of February 23. The next morning the war began.

Everything changed in the blink of an eye. Within two weeks, I would find myself in a minivan with a driver and six people, three dogs and mountains of suitcases and bags, getting ready to cross the border out of Russia. I would be the last one of the Moscow Times staff to leave the country, part of an exodus that included most of the foreign correspondents in Russia and thousands of Russians.

I was leaving a place I’d lived for more than 40 years.

 

It's amazing to me that journalists who had lived in Moscow for decades simply didn't see -- or refused to see -- Putin's invasion plans and his military invasion of Ukraine. His goal was always to rule Russia as a new czar, and to reconstitute the Soviet Empire.

I'm glad Berdy was able to escape, but such lotus-eating globally is how we got here in the first place.

Last Call For The Cold Man's War

Republicans threaten people all the time, it's what they do, the question is how and when they make good on those threats, and who suffers - or dies - in the process. But I don't recall a sitting Republican governor threatening an entirely different state if a Democratic governor was elected there before.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday warned of a coming “Cold War” between Florida and Georgia if Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams wins the gubernatorial election in the latter state.

During a press conference in Gulf County, located in northwest Florida, DeSantis referenced the ongoing Masters golf tournament in Georgia, using it as an apparent segue into discussing the state’s elections.

DeSantis said he “really appreciates our Georgians” but that voters would have to “take care” of the 2022 election to prevent Abrams from winning.

“If Stacey Abrams is elected governor of Georgia, I just want to be honest, that will be a cold war between Florida and Georgia,” he said. “I can’t have [former Cuban communist leader Raul] Castro to my south and Abrams to my north, that would be a disaster. So I hope you guys take care of that and we’ll end up in good shape.”

The Hill has reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment.

 

He can't have a Black woman as a neighboring state governor. What's he going to do, cut off orange juice shipments?

 

In all seriousness though, this is just more posturing and trolling because this is what you have to do in order to get ahead in GOP politics: threaten Democrats. Frankly, if both Abrams and DeSantis end up in office, I fully expect things to get much worse on the border than just words.

The GOP's Race To The Bottom, Con't

The difference between simple racism and white supremacy as a power structure in America is Republicans can do racist things like call for the lynching of a Black Secretary of Defense, and white supremacy as a power structure means that racist gets to keep his job.

 

A Republican official in Virginia is refusing to step down after a racist Facebook post he apparently authored last year surfaced recently.

The post attributed to Hampton, Virginia Electoral Board Chair David Dietrich was added to the platform in February 2021 and is just coming into public view for some reason.

The post appeared to be prompted by an effort by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, to expunge White supremacists and other far-right elements in the United States military.

Dietrich specifically mentioned Austin, who is Black, and claimed the measure was in fact a plot “to remove conservative, freedom-loving Americans from the roles.”

He added, “These so-called ‘leaders’ are so vile and racist, there’s no way to describe them other than in terms their own people understand. They are nothing more than dirty, stinking ni***rs.

“We are being forced into a corner by these enemies of the People. If it is a civil war they want, they will get it in spades. Perhaps the best way to pull us back from the brink is a good public lynching.”

In response, the head of the Hampton GOP has called on Dietrich to resign. The group also called on Dietrich to resign in a Facebook post on Thursday, which included a screen shot of the offending remarks.

 

Thing is, Dietrich says he's not going anywhere.  Republican want an excuse to start shooting Black folk in the street. They want a civil war. They want their racist power fantasies to come true in an ocean of blood. And they're doing everything they can to make it happen.

Georgia Republican candidate Kandiss Taylor goes full theocracy explaining her “Jesus, guns, and babies” slogan:

“Don't talk to me about separation of church and state.”

“We are the church and we run the state.”

“[Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists] don't get to silence us.” pic.twitter.com/9nkkn3JRbM

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) April 9, 2022

 

When I say Republicans want a white Christian ethnostate, this is what I mean.

The Road To Gilead, Con't

The first woman arrested in Texas for determining what her own body should be doing now faces felony charges and prison under the state's new Gilead laws, and she will not be the last.

Lizelle Herrera, 26, was arrested on Thursday by the Starr County Sheriff’s Office and charged with murder.

According to a sheriff’s office spokesperson, Herrera was arrested after it was learned she “intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.”

Herrera remains in the custody of the Starr County Sheriff’s Office at this time on a $500 thousand bond.

There aren't more details as of yet, but it could be that Herrera had a medical abortion, and that somebody who knew about it informed the police in order to collect the state's bounty money. If that's actually what happened, it's as vile as it comes.

I would expect Gov. Greg Abbott to gleefully demand that she be made an example of.

 

My biggest fear of course is that by the end of the summer there's going to be hundreds, if not thousands joining her.

Last Call For Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

The verdict on the trial for the four men accused of a plot to kidnap, ransom, and possibly execute Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: 2 acquittals, 2 deadlocks, and white supremacy protecting itself.

Jurors found two men accused by the government of plotting to kidnap and hurt Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer not guilty and failed to reach unanimous verdicts against two others.

The jury said it found Lake Orion resident Daniel Harris, 24 and Brandon Caserta, 33, of Canton Township not guilty and couldn't reach verdicts on accused Whitmer kidnap ringleaders Adam Fox, 38, of Potterville and Barry Croft, 46, of Delaware.

The four men faced kidnapping conspiracy charges, a felony punishable by up to life in prison. Three faced multiple charges, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Earlier Friday, jurors indicated they had reached a verdict on some counts in the case but were locked on others. Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker announced the development just before 11 a.m. and encouraged the jurors in federal court in downtown Grand Rapids to keep deliberating in hopes of reaching a unanimous verdict.

"It is not unusual to come back somewhere along the line of deliberations and say 'we tried, but couldn’t get there,'" the judge said. "At least not on everything."

Around 2 p.m., the jury reemerged before Jonker to indicate they remained at an impasse. Jonker instructed them to return to the jury room to confirm the impasse and fill out forms to indicate what charges they were in agreement on if so.

On Friday, Jonker likened the situation to the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” and the famous catchphrase “Is that your final answer?”

“Before that’s the final answer, I would like you to go back and make another effort to see if you can come to an agreement on issues you are stuck on as a group,” the judge told jurors.

The trial has coincided with jurors in federal court in Washington, D.C., hearing the first cases involving people charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Together, the trials provide the first tests of federal laws being used to punish extremist behavior that erupted nationally in 2020 and 2021 around the presidential election and pandemic.

 

Those laws failed. Here's the best part:

 

Two others, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, earlier pleaded guilty and testified during the trial, telling jurors the plot originated with the group and that they were not entrapped by FBI agents and informants. Eight others are awaiting trial in state courts on domestic terrorism charges.

 

Remember this verdict when you believe you can find 12 people to convict Trump on anything.

The Return Of Lend-Lease

I didn't think it would happen, but in the wake of the largest ground military conflict since WWII, we have the United States gearing up to unleash the full might of American productivity with the return of Lend-Lease.

 

The Senate unanimously passed major legislation late Wednesday to revive a World War II-era program allowing President Joe Biden to more efficiently send weapons and other supplies to Ukraine amid Russia’s bloody invasion.

Senators quickly rallied behind the proposal, known as Lend-Lease, as Ukraine’s military proved it could fend off Russian troops who have been shelling Ukrainian cities and towns since late February. The Lend-Lease program created during World War II was seen as a game-changer in the conflict, as it allowed the U.S. to quickly resupply the Allies without time-consuming procedural hurdles.

Lawmakers are resorting to extraordinary tactics last used during the most significant global conflict of the 20th century — yet another sign that the U.S. and its allies in Europe believe Russia’s invasion presents an existential threat to liberal order.

It’s also an indication that the Western world believes Ukraine can now win the fight against the Russian invaders. Congress recently approved nearly $14 billion of military and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, some of which has already been doled out. On Tuesday, the State Department announced an additional $100 million in funding for Javelin missiles and other materiel, bringing the total security assistance to $1.7 billion since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

The necessity of resupplying Ukraine’s armed forces took on greater urgency in recent days as the brutality of Russia’s war was further exposed, with lawmakers reacting swiftly to urgent pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in particular.

Horrific images emerged from the town of Bucha last weekend showing civilians laying dead in the streets with their hands tied behind their backs, prompting Western leaders to amplify their allegations of war crimes.

In a brief speech on the Senate floor Wednesday night, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the massacres “pure evil,” adding that Russian troops are carrying out a “genocide” in Ukraine.

“When we murder wantonly innocent civilians because of who they are, whether it be their religion, their race, or their nationality, that is genocide, and Mr. Putin is guilty of it,” Schumer said.

The Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act of 2022, as it’s known, would expedite the transfer of critical military equipment and other critical supplies to Ukraine by cutting bureaucratic red tape. It allows for the de facto gifting of equipment, with provisions stipulating that recipient countries would repay the U.S. at a later date.

“As the war in Ukraine unfolds, delivering military aid as quickly as possible is pivotal for Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against Putin’s unprovoked attacks,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the lead Democratic sponsor of the effort. “The Kremlin is committing horrific assaults throughout the nation on civilian infrastructure and targeting innocent men, women and children.”

 

Republicans wanted a separate vote on Russian trade/embargo status and got that today, also 100-0. The House will be voting on Russian sanctions later today. Whether the House takes up the Ukrainian Lend-Lease legislation before Easter break on Friday night isn't clear yet. I expect Pelosi will make it happen.

It's mostly a good thing, let's remember there's always blowback from American military weapons flooding a warzone, but in this case, considering what we're fighting, this is the right call and everyone in the Senate sees it.

Let's go, Lend-Lease!

The Big Lie, Con't

Some 17 months after the 2020 election, Arizona Republicans still haven't been able to find any evidence of that "widespread voter fraud" that Trump insists happened.

A report issued Wednesday by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or irregularities associated with the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County while raising concerns about some voting procedures.

The interim report, six months into an investigation, was detailed in a 12-page letter to Senate President Karen Fann. Brnovich, a Republican, said his office “has left no stone unturned in the aftermath of the 2020 election.”

Former President Donald Trump is pursuing a persistent pressure campaign to uncover any illegal activity that would support his false claims that he defeated President Joe Biden in Arizona 17 months ago.

Trump lost Arizona by less than 10,500 votes, and a GOP-commissioned review in Maricopa County confirmed Biden’s victory.

Trump repeated his Arizona claims as recently as January, when he alleged mass fraud at a rally where he was joined by three of the state's House Republicans — Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko — who voted against certifying Biden’s victory.

“It’s far more than necessary to win the state of Arizona,” Trump said at the rally, where he referred to Brnovich.

“I think he’s a good man. I think he’s going to do his job,” Trump said.

Brnovich initially defended the integrity of election results — much to the disappointment of GOP gubernatorial front-runner Kari Lake.

“There is no evidence, there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change,” Brnovich said days after the 2020 election was called for Biden.

Lake called this week for the decertification of Biden’s victories in Arizona and Wisconsin.

Brnovich’s tenor toward the 2020 election began to shift under pressure from Trump and a host of Arizona Republicans. He is running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Mark Kelly.

Although Wednesday's report did not find mass fraud or conspiracy in the 2020 election, it outlined his office’s concerns with "serious vulnerabilities" involving certain procedures during the campaign, including the signature verification process and the transportation of ballots from drop box locations.

GOP state Sen. Wendy Rogers blasted Brnovich minutes after the release of his letter. In a tweet, she said: “I don’t like letters. I like arrests and prosecutions. Criminals don’t respect legal gobbly-gook that just fills pages when really we can use handcuffs, jail cells and jump suits.” 

I still stand by my belief that Trump will instruct Secretaries of State to refuse to certify Democratic wins in red states due to "election fraud" in November. The evidence will simply be created.

They will make fraud happen.

Last Call For Orange You Glad He's Boxed In?

The boxes of White House records that Trump essentially stole in his last days of his term -- some of them classified as top secret -- that Trump reluctantly returned to the National Archives are now reportedly under Justice Department investigation.

The Justice Department has begun taking steps to investigate former president Donald Trump’s removal of presidential records to Mar-a-Lago — some of which were labeled “top secret,” people familiar with the matter said.

The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, said the probe remained in the very early stages. It’s not yet clear if Justice Department officials have begun reviewing the materials in the boxes or seeking to interview those who might have seen them or been involved in assembling and moving them.

The department is facing increasing political pressure to disclose its plans in the case. On Thursday, House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) accused the Justice Department of obstructing her committee’s investigation into the 15 boxes of records Trump took to his estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

In a letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Maloney alleges that the Justice Department is “interfering” with the investigation by preventing the National Archives and Records Administration from handing over a detailed inventory of the contents of the recovered boxes.

If the department is planning an investigation, that might explain why it would not want lawmakers getting an inventory of the materials.

It is unclear to what extent the Justice Department already has assessed the contents of the boxes, which the National Archives arranged to retrieve from Mar-a-Lago in January — including documents clearly marked as classified, The Washington Post previously reported. The Justice Department, though, has been in touch with the Archives about moving its own inquiry forward, people familiar with the matter said.

Addressing the matter previously, Garland said the department would “do what we always do under these circumstances — look at the facts and the law and take it from there.”

Trump’s spokesman in the past has defended his handling of the records. “It is clear that a normal and routine process is being weaponized by anonymous, politically motivated government sources to peddle Fake News,” Taylor Budowich said in a statement in February.

In her letter Thursday, Maloney said her committee needed further explanation as to why the Justice Department was blocking its request for an inventory of the records.

“The Committee does not wish to interfere in any manner with any potential or ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice,” Maloney wrote. “However, the Committee has not received any explanation as to why the Department is preventing NARA from providing information to the Committee that relates to compliance with the [Presidential Records Act], including unclassified information describing the contents of the 15 boxes from Mar-a-Lago.”

An FBI spokeswoman told The Post, “We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”

 

In other words, there's definitely an investigation, the House Oversight Committee knows there's an investigation, and now you know too, thanks to the Washington Post. Can't keep a secret in DC if more than two people know it.

 

So what does this mean? Trump hauling off boxes of "souvenirs" from his time in the White House clearly violated the Presidential Records Act in multiple cases, and he did so with classified information, presenting a massive security risk to the nation as those documents sat around Mar-a-Lago.

Question is whether or not Merrick Garland and the DoJ want to actually do anything about it, and it always was. Rep. Maloney is making it clear that Garland needs to get moving, and so that's what we're seeing.

How far this investigation goes, well who knows. My view that Garland will never indict Trump because he believes doing so will cause more damage to the country than not indicting him is also pretty clear. I guarantee you the Supreme Court will toss the conviction, which Garland believes he'll never actually get anyway, and that's if the trial ever finishes, with jury tampering if not open jury harm being a real concern.

We'll see where this goes, but yes, another federal investigation into Trump is all but confirmed.

Bragging Wrongs, Con't

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has announced via press release that the office's investigation into Donald Trump is in fact continuing, and not all but dead as it appeared to have been killed by Bragg himself last month, but the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery and Asawin Suebsaeng call bullshit and say the case is 99.99% dead.

Over the last several weeks, the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Donald Trump has appeared to be unraveling, with the two top prosecutors on the case resigning over the lack of charges and the DA feeling so attacked over the lack of movement that he issued a statement Thursday saying an indictment against Trump could still come.

"Investigations are not linear,” DA Alvin Bragg Jr. told CNN Thursday. “So we are following the leads in front of us, and that's what we're doing.”

But inside the DA’s office, the inertia and frustration over Trump potentially avoiding culpability looks worse than ever before.

Yet another prosecutor appears to have been pulled back from the case, according to knowledgeable sources who say it could be further proof of the probe’s failure. And sources now seem to think Trump dodging an indictment is inevitable.

Solomon Shinerock—a lead investigator who helped drive much of the intensive, four-year effort—is no longer as actively involved in the case, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, who all spoke on condition of anonymity.

In recent weeks, Shinerock’s pullback from the team investigating Trump has been conspicuous enough to frustrate some who have been on the prosecutors’ side—and has been noticeable enough to quietly delight lawyers working on the ex-president’s and Trump Organization’s end, sources noted.

Another person familiar with the situation described the current state of the team, which had been investigating Trump, as “gutted” and a “shell” of its former self, even beyond what’s previously been reported. The loss of momentum in this high-profile probe—which some of its former prosecutors believe already produced sufficient evidence to criminally charge Trump—has left several lawyers who’ve worked on the investigation feeling frustrated, and in some cases enraged.

Among the frustrated is Shinerock, according to a source familiar with the matter and another individual briefed on the situation. Shinerock has, predictably, refrained from commenting in public about the current state of the criminal probe, or his opinion about the apparently stalled investigation into Trump and his business empire.

Shinerock is still employed at the DA’s office, but his connection to the special prosecution team now appears tenuous. The office declined to provide a comment addressing allegations that he has stepped back from his lead role on the case. Similarly, Shinerock declined to comment for this story.

For days, The Daily Beast had been pressing spokespeople in the Manhattan DA’s office for comment, sharing with them specific details of this reporting. A spokesperson for the office had repeatedly refused opportunities to go on the record to deny or challenge any of the details.

But Thursday afternoon, hours after being informed of the Beast’s final deadline, the office blasted out its written statement, attributed to Bragg, to a variety of national media outlets, insisting that “the team working on this investigation is comprised of [sic] dedicated, experienced career prosecutors," who are still “investigating thoroughly and following the facts without fear or favor.”

The Daily Beast did not receive this statement, and the DA’s office has continued to decline chances to go on the record to explain how their claims square with this reporting showing how another lead investigator on the case has had his role significantly curtailed.

Shinerock may still be part of the prosecution in some official capacity, and his name may still appear on a number of documents related to the Trump investigation. But sources were clear: Shinerock’s role has been greatly reduced.

One source told The Daily Beast that he last heard from Shinerock six weeks ago.

Another source said Shinerock has been less involved in day-to-day communications ever since the departure of the other two high-ranking prosecutors who recently quit.

Indeed, last month, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz abruptly departed, citing their displeasure with Bragg’s refusal to sign off on an indictment of Trump on the criminal charge of falsifying business records, among other allegations.

 

So now not only are the lead prosecutors gone, but the lead investigator is all but toast. Expect Bragg to announce that won't be charges filed against Trump sometime in the months ahead.  Nothing has changed, and Trump still has to be indicted by anyone, state or federal.

I still don't see that changing anytime soon.

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

A general rule of thumb I've developed over the years is "Try to live your life in a way that you're not listed as a keynote speaker at a white nationalist celebration of Hitler's birthday". I'm fairly sure that's pretty easy to do, but I'll be damned if GOP Rep Paul Gosar of Arizona can figure it the fuck out.

Prescott Republican Congressman Paul Gosar was listed as a “special guest” with the white nationalist American Populist Union at an event that will be on a date popular among white nationalists and Neo-Nazis: Hitler’s birthday.

The American Populist Social will be held in Tempe on April 20, a date revered by white supremacists and Neo-Nazis.

But Gosar’s campaign says he isn’t attending and it doesn’t know how he was listed as a guest of honor, even though Gosar promoted his scheduled appearance on social media.

The American Populist Union is closely aligned with groypers, a group of white nationalists who strive for their ideas to become a part of the Republican mainstream and are largely followers of 23-year-old white nationalist Nick Fuentes. In 2021, Gosar was the first elected official to speak at Fuentes’ America First Political Action Conference in 2021. This year, the conference saw speeches by Gosar, Rogers and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Earlier this month, Gosar said his March video message to attendees of AFPAC was the fault of a staffer who sent his video message to the wrong group. He distanced himself from Fuentes, telling Politico that the young Holocaust-denying racist “has a problem with his mouth.”

Fuentes shared the story on the encrypted messaging app Telegram with the message “April Fool’s!” and later said in a livestream that he and Gosar will continue to “collaborate behind the scenes.”

American Populist Union has connections to Fuentes ideologically and through its members. The group hobnobbed with Arizona politicians in December when it held an event across the street from Turning Point USA that attracted a slew of fringe activists and groypers.

The other featured guest at the event, John Doyle, has allied with and promoted groypers, and he organized a “Stop the Steal” rally in Michigan with Fuentes. Doyle, a YouTube personality who runs a show called “Heck off Commie,” regularly advocates far-right ideology. He has said that Martin Luther King was “not a hero” and has claimed that liberalism is linked to satanism.

 

Weird, Rep. Gosar happily tweeted that he was going to the actual Hitler barbecue and potluck shindig, and his campaign is like "Well I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just a regular guy and not a Nazi."

 

This is the GOP, folks.

 

For ens of millions of American voters, this isn't a dealbreaker.

Last Call For Secret (Squirrel) Service

Sometimes you have to chutzpah of a criminal plan to bribe Secret Service agents before you crush the whole operation.

 

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged two men they say were posing as federal agents, giving free apartments and other gifts to U.S. Secret Service agents, including one who worked on the first lady’s security detail.

The two men — Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36 — were taken into custody as more than a dozen FBI agents charged into a luxury apartment building in Southeast Washington on Wednesday evening.

Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to work for the Department of Homeland Security and work on a special task force investigating gang and violence connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. They allege the two posed as law enforcement officers to integrate with actual federal agents.

Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, flat screen television, a generator, gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents.

He also offered to let them use a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle,” prosecutors say. In one instance, Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect the first lady.

Prosecutors said four Secret Service employees were placed on leave earlier this week as part of the investigation.

The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating an assault on a mail carrier at the apartment building and the men identified themselves as being part of a phony Homeland Security unit they called the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit.

Prosecutors say the men had also set up surveillance in the building and had been telling residents there that they could access any of their cellphones at any time. The residents also told investigators they believed the men had access to their personal information.

Taherzadeh and Ali are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers who could comment on the allegations.

 

So the question is why bribe the USSS agents, and what they were getting in return. That's going to be a fun investigation, I think. It seems since I started this blog back in 2008, the USSS has not exactly covered itself in glory as an institution.

 

Here's hoping we get real reform.

 

A Shadow Of A Country

The Supreme Court issued yet another "shadow docket" ruling today, another 5-4 unsigned ruling with no explanation or decision, that restored a Trump regime environmental rule. The Roberts Court has done this before, most notably in refusing to stay Texas's Abortion Bounty law, a practice that has all but eliminated abortions in the state over the last few months, but the the difference this time is that Chief Justice Roberts finally joined the Court's three liberal justices in denouncing the practice.

Chief Justice John Roberts for the first time joined the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal wing in blasting the conservative majority’s handling of the stream of emergency requests that critics have dubbed the “shadow docket.”

Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent Wednesday as the court temporarily reinstated a Clean Water Act rule issued by former President Donald Trump’s administration. A federal trial judge had tossed out the rule, which scaled back federal protections for streams, wetlands and other bodies of water.

Writing for the dissenters, including Roberts, Justice Elena Kagan said the states and industry groups backing the rule hadn’t shown that its reinstatement would have any practical impact. The court typically requires a showing of “irreparable harm” to issue an emergency order.

The majority’s decision “renders the court’s emergency docket not for emergencies at all,” Kagan wrote. “The docket becomes only another place for merits determinations -- except made without full briefing and argument.”

The Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden is in the process of rewriting the rule. The court is planning to consider a more sweeping clash over the reach of the Clean Water Act in the nine-month term that starts in October.

 

Indeed, Justice Kagan ripped into the practice by the five conservatives.

Writing for the dissenters, Justice Elena Kagan said the court should have allowed the appeal to proceed in the ordinary course.

“The applicants have given us no good reason to think that in the remaining time needed to decide the appeal, they will suffer irreparable harm,” she wrote. “By nonetheless granting relief, the court goes astray.”

She added: “That renders the court’s emergency docket not for emergencies at all. The docket becomes only another place for merits determinations — except made without full briefing and argument.”

 

So yes, another SCOTUS decision with no oral argument, no debate, no authored opinion to explain the ruling, just a decree from the bench by five justices.

 

That's how the Court works now, you see. It's just there to rubber-stamp what the GOP wants.

 

 

 

The Road To Gilead Goes Through Oklahoma

In anticipation of SCOTUS ending Roe v. Wade in the weeks ahead, Oklahoma Republicans have essentially banned and criminalized abortion outright.

With no fanfare and very little noise of any kind, the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Tuesday morning passed and sent to the governor a near-total ban on abortion.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the final vote on Senate Bill 612, by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, occurred as abortion rights activists and others gathered outside the Capitol for a previously scheduled protest against several bans implemented this year by the Republican-controlled state leadership.

If signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, SB 612 would almost certainly be immediately challenged.

While federal courts have recently upheld state laws severely restricting access to abortion, an outright ban on the procedure has yet to be allowed.

A holdover from last session, when it passed the Senate and a House committee, SB 612 would outlaw all abortions in Oklahoma except to save the life of the woman. It would impose a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine on anyone performing an abortion.

The law would not penalize women who undergo the procedure.

Some might consider SB 612 redundant, since Oklahoma statute already would reactivate the state's long-dormant abortion laws should Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion, be overturned.

Some think that could happen in a few months, when the current Supreme Court is expected to issue its decision in a Mississippi case.

Anti-abortion rights activists calling themselves abolitionists advocate ignoring Roe v. Wade or any other federal action that permits abortion, but SB 612's House sponsor, state Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland, said he would not go that far.

Olsen said his bill is intended to have everything in place should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

It could also become a vehicle for a direct challenge of Roe v. Wade if that decision is not overturned.

SB 612 passed off the House floor 70-14, with 16 members not voting. Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, who is not seeking reelection, was the only Republican voting against the measure.

It was not immediately clear whether Gov. Kevin Stitt will sign SB 612, though he has said previously he would sign any bill restricting abortion rights that comes to him.

Again, the most likely outcome is that there are five votes on the Supreme Court to dismantle Roe and Casey v. Planned Parenthood within three months from now, and states will be allowed to restrict abortion as they see fit, creating a two-tiered system where women will have rights to their bodies in half of America and won't in the Gilead states.

I don't particularly see it affecting Republicans negatively, either. If anything, we'll see a massive turnout of the MAGA faithful willing to finish off civil rights for good.

We're going to have to beat them with numbers unseen in our history.