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Judicial - legal outregeousness in the trump era

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Law Firm McGuireWoods Investigated Ex-Client For Trump VOA Chief Michael Pack : NPR. How Biden Should Investigate Trump. This article was published online on December 9, 2020.

How Biden Should Investigate Trump

I. A Crimes Commission? As he prepares to occupy the White House, President-elect Joe Biden faces a decision rare in American history: what to do about the man who has just left office, whose personal corruption, disdain for the Constitution, and destructive mismanagement of the federal government are without precedent.

Human beings crave reckoning, even the saintliest among us. Institutions based on rules and laws need systems of accountability. Internet Recoils In Horror Over Barrett's Ruling That Saying N-word Doesn't Make Workplace ‘Hostile’ Adam Serwer: Pack the Court, Save the Vote. Read: What the rush to confirm Amy Coney Barrett is really about Barrett’s future ascension to the high court portends tremendous headwinds for progressive priorities and legislation.

Adam Serwer: Pack the Court, Save the Vote

But this is not sufficient reason for Democrats to consider drastic measures such as expanding the Supreme Court. Despite rhetoric, GOP has supported packing state courts. Republicans will replace RBG but Democrats hold the trump cards – no, really. In 2005, while bragging about his history of sexual assault, a reality TV host laid out a simple theory of power.

Republicans will replace RBG but Democrats hold the trump cards – no, really

“When you’re a star,” Donald Trump explained to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush, “they let you do it.” Fifteen years later, Trump has gone from The Apprentice to the Oval Office, from grabbing women without their consent to picking a woman to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the supreme court. Yet his approach to power has remained quite consistent. “When you have the Senate, when you have the votes, you can sort of do what you want,” he told Fox & Friends. 135 former Manhattan prosecutors signed letter against Trump & Barr - Business Insider. Trump AG Barr will escape impeachment thanks to 'corrupt' Republicans – Nadler. Attorney general William Barr “certainly deserves” to be impeached and removed but will escape that fate because Republicans who control the Senate are “corrupt against the interests of the country”, the chairman of the House judiciary committee said on Sunday.

Trump AG Barr will escape impeachment thanks to 'corrupt' Republicans – Nadler

The Kavanaugh impeachment payoff: Watergate tapes decision may have been wrong. While it may seem like a lifetime ago this little-reported article came out in mid-July 2018:

The Kavanaugh impeachment payoff: Watergate tapes decision may have been wrong.

It’s true: millions in dark money has been spent to tilt courts right. After the Supreme Court agreed this term to hear a Second Amendment case brought by an NRA affiliate, several Senate Democrats cried foul.

It’s true: millions in dark money has been spent to tilt courts right

To influence the court’s composition, Whitehouse said, a combined $34 million in "dark money" went toward both blocking President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and confirming President Donald Trump’s two Supreme Court picks, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. In a follow-up to the legal brief, Whitehouse in a Sept. 6 Washington Post op-ed described the money as follows: "One unnamed donor gave $17 million to the (Leonard) Leo-affiliated Judicial Crisis Network to block the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland and to support Gorsuch; then a donor — perhaps the same one — gave another $17 million to prop up Kavanaugh. " It can be difficult to trace the path of anonymous political spending with precision, and we wanted to know the factual basis for Whitehouse’s claim. ‘A network of interlocking nonprofits’ Tennessee Pastor Who Repeatedly Raped Daughter, 14, Gets Light Sentence Because Jesus. Nothing says “good Christian man” like rape and incest: Tennessee Pastor David Richards received a light sentence after being convicted of repeatedly raping his 14-year-old daughter.

Tennessee Pastor Who Repeatedly Raped Daughter, 14, Gets Light Sentence Because Jesus

In a despicable miscarriage of justice, Judge Steven Sword sentenced Pastor Richards to only 12 years in prison for repeatedly raping his 14-year-old daughter over the course of several years. In court, prosecutors argued the severity and heinous nature of the crimes deserved a minimum of 72 years in prison, but Judge Steven Sword felt otherwise. Judge Sword, showing sympathy and empathy for the rapist, while minimizing the human suffering caused by Pastor Richards, cited the “good work” the rapist and incestuous pedophile had done in the community in an attempt to justify the light sentence.

AP wipes Iran-Contra pardons from Bill Barr's record: Another win for conventional wisdom. A president facing a major scandal, just as the highest-profile trial is about to begin, pardons the indicted or convicted officials around him to effectively stop the investigation that’s closing in on his own illegal conduct.

AP wipes Iran-Contra pardons from Bill Barr's record: Another win for conventional wisdom

Donald Trump soon? We’ll see. But this actually describes what President George H.W. Bush did in 1992. The Iran-Contra scandal revealed, among other things, that the Reagan-Bush White House had secretly sold missiles to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon, using the proceeds to fund right-wing forces fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government in violation of U.S. law. On Christmas Eve 1992, just as the indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was about to face trial, Bush pardoned him and five others, including former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and and former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane.

'Literally What Jesus Told People to Do': In Arizona, Possible Prison Time for Leaving Food and Water for Migrants. This may be the smoking gun in the Russia investigation. "President Donald Trump directed his longtime attorney Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, according to two federal law enforcement officials involved in an investigation of the matter.

This may be the smoking gun in the Russia investigation

"Trump also supported a plan, set up by Cohen, to visit Russia during the presidential campaign, in order to personally meet President Vladimir Putin and jump-start the tower negotiations. 'Shameful': Colorado Supreme Court Denounced for Siding With Big Oil Profits Over Public Health in Youth-Led Suit. Lawyer Writes Op-Ed About Complaint Against Brett Kavanaugh. Trump made the conservative dream of remaking the federal judiciary true. The presidency of Donald Trump has had very mixed results for those of his supporters who hoped he would deliver conservative policy priorities.

Trump made the conservative dream of remaking the federal judiciary true

Trump’s scandals and high-octane promotion of white identity politics have sucked up all the available oxygen. The only major legislative achievement Republicans can point to after two years is an unpopular tax reform package. US federal judge rules Obama healthcare law unconstitutional. A US federal judge in Texas ruled on Friday that the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is unconstitutional – a decision likely to be appealed to the supreme court. US district judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth agreed with a coalition of 20 states that a change in tax law last year eliminating a penalty for not having health insurance invalidated the entire Obamacare law.

O’Connor’s decision was issued the day before the end of a 45-day sign-up period for 2019 health coverage under the law. About 11.8 million consumers nationwide enrolled in 2018 Obamacare exchange plans, according to the US government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The coalition of states challenging the law was led by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and Wisconsin attorney general Brad Schimel, both Republicans. Republicans have opposed the 2010 law, the signature domestic policy achievement of Barack Obama, since its inception and have repeatedly tried and failed to repeal it.

Tillerson: Trump would ask me to do things I couldn't legally do. Why Does Alex Acosta Still Have a Job? Were there no hearings on bipartisan criminal justice bill? A criminal justice bill with support from bipartisan lawmakers as well as President Donald Trump has sparked a round-robin Twitter dispute among senators. It began with a Nov. 16 report in the New York Times that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had privately told Trump that he was not planning to bring up the bill, known as the First Step Act, in his chamber before the end of the year. The following day, Sen.

Amy Klobuchar tweeted out the story, highlighting a comment in the article by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., one of the bill’s leading Republican opponents. "Mr. Later that day, Cotton replied to Klobuchar, tweeting, "There have been no hearings on this bill. Two days later, Sen. Matthew Whitaker Earned $1.2 Million From Group Backed by Undisclosed Donors. Trump Wanted to Order Justice Dept. to Prosecute Comey and Clinton. 'Scam' Company Advised by Matthew Whitaker Threatened Victims, But Hundreds Filed Complaints Anyway. The Iowa attorney Trump has named as the acting Attorney General has only been on the job a day or so, but he’s already enveloped in scandal.

Matthew Whitaker, who replaced Jeff Sessions after he was forced out by Trump, served on the advisory board of World Patent Marketing, a Florida-based “scam that has bilked thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars,” according to a complaint filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Trump's acting attorney general was part of firm US accused of vast scam. Donald Trump’s new acting attorney general was part of a company accused by the US government of running a multimillion-dollar scam. Matthew Whitaker was paid to sit on the advisory board of World Patent Marketing, which was ordered in May this year to pay a $26m settlement following legal action by federal authorities, which said it tricked aspiring inventors.

Whitaker was appointed acting attorney general on Wednesday afternoon after the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was fired by Trump. Matthew Whitaker: acting attorney general said judges should be Christian. Donald Trump’s new attorney general once said that judges should be Christian and proposed blocking non-religious people from judicial appointments. The Prosecutors Who Aim to Kill. Photo One kept a paperweight model of an electric chair on his desk. Trump Nominates Ten To Federal Courts. President Trump has a large number of judicial vacancies to fill, since Senate Republicans held up President Barack Obama's nominees. Justices Split on Voting Maps Warped by Politics. Kavanaugh disturbing abortion history. Trump shifts courts -hard right click 2x. Rachel Mitchell violated National Prosecutorial Standards click2x. The American prosecutorial community held its collective breath when prosecutor Rachel Mitchell was selected to question Dr.