Replies to post #345857 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Trump lied his way to the presidency.

"An Ugly Day for the Justice Department"

Trump Just Showed Us We Should Always Assume He Is Lying... Again
And the corporate media just failed yet another test on calling him out on his lies.
Dec. 2016 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=127505398

As president Trump has lied ever since.

UPDATE on LYIN' TRUMP'S Lies..
April 2020 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=154997451

Trump has attacked all American institutions.

Trump's wrecking ball assaults American government. Luckily, it is strongly built
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=150042714

Trump has made the press the enemy of the people.

Donald Trump vs. the United States of America
Just the facts, in 40 sentences.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=151294152

Barr is working to corrupt the American justice system.

In Flynn Case, Barr Again Takes Aim at Mueller Inquiry
The Justice Department’s move was the latest example of the attorney general’s effort to chisel away at the special counsel investigation and emphasize an alternate narrative.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/us/politics/barr-mueller-investigation-flynn.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Barr has made the law the enemy of the people.

The Appalling Damage of Dropping the Michael Flynn Case
It embeds into official U.S. policy a shockingly extremist view of law enforcement as the enemy of the American people.
By Neal K. Katyal and Joshua A. Geltzer
The authors are law professors at Georgetown.
[...]
It’s because this move embeds into official U.S. policy an extremist view of law enforcement as the enemy of the American people. It’s a deception that Americans must see through — and that the federal judge overseeing Mr. Flynn’s case, Emmet Sullivan, can reject by examining the Justice Department’s rationale in open court and by allowing a future Justice Department to reconsider charges.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/michael-flynn-trump-barr.html

Trump says he is 'the chief law enforcement officer of the country."

President Trump Appears to Believe He Is the Attorney General of the United States
by Matt Naham | 2:20 pm, February 18th, 2020
he commander in chief is, in his words, “actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country.” President Donald Trump made that comment on Tuesday from the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews when discussing high-profile pardons and commutations.
https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/president-trump-appears-to-believe-he-is-the-attorney-general-of-the-united-states/

But i guess that wouldn't bother Barr, eh. After all Trump has also said he is the "total authority" and Barr didn't object to that.

What's the point?

That the president and the guy in charge of of the justice system are working hand in hand, and they don't give a damn about American democracy.

You all know that. And you know this.

Only the American people can save America. November 3, 2020.

[fuagf]

To link - U.S. judge puts on hold Justice Dept. move to dismiss Michael Flynn's guilty plea

"An Ugly Day for the Justice Department"

[...]

A U.S. judge on Tuesday put on hold the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Michael Flynn, saying he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue against the bid to exonerate President Trump’s former national security adviser of lying to the FBI.

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=155594040

See also the first reply

Trump lied his way to the presidency.
[...]
The Appalling Damage of Dropping the Michael Flynn Case
It embeds into official U.S. policy a shockingly extremist view of law enforcement as the enemy of the American people.
By Neal K. Katyal and Joshua A. Geltzer
The authors are law professors at Georgetown.
[...]
It’s because this move embeds into official U.S. policy an extremist view of law enforcement as the enemy of the American people. It’s a deception that Americans must see through — and that the federal judge overseeing Mr. Flynn’s case, Emmet Sullivan, can reject by examining the Justice Department’s rationale in open court and by allowing a future Justice Department to reconsider charges.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/michael-flynn-trump-barr.html

More - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=155529260

[fuagf]

The new Michael Flynn documents aren’t the bombshell Trump is making them out to be

"An Ugly Day for the Justice Department"

Including one example of extremely misleading cherry picking in the defense of Flynn.

Trump claims they’re a “total exoneration” for his former top adviser. They aren’t.

By Aaron Rupar@atrupar Apr 30, 2020, 2:00pm EDT

[...]

Related
Trump blames Obama for not warning him about Michael Flynn. Which Obama did.
https://www.vox.com/2019/5/17/18629545/trump-michael-flynn-tweet-obama-warned-him

[...]

In one handwritten note that Trump and his backers in Congress and on Fox News are trumpeting as a bombshell, Bill Priestap, then the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, wrote, “What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ & have them decide. Or, if he initially lies, then we present him [redacted] & he admits it, document for DOJ, & let them decide how to address it.”

Catherine Herridge
@CBS_Herridge

#FLYNN docs just unsealed, including handwritten notes
1/24/2017 day of Flynn FBI interview. Transcript: “What is our
goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute
him or get him fired?” Read transcript notes, copy original just filed. @CBSNews


59.9K
8:49 AM - Apr 30, 2020

35.7K people are talking about this

On that same piece of paper, Priestap wrote, “If we’re seen as playing games, WH [White House] will be furious. Protect our institution by not playing games.” Another note says, “We regularly show subjects evidence, with the goal of getting them to admit their wrongdoing. I don’t see how getting someone to admit their wrongdoing is going easy on him.”

None of this may seem like a big deal. But to Trumpworld, it’s evidence that Flynn was set up by “dirty cops” who were already resolved at that early date to bring Trump down.

Devin Nunes
@DevinNunes

Clear now that General Flynn was set up by dirty cops at the
highest levels of our government...
93.7K
8:51 AM - Apr 30, 2020

49K people are talking about this

Trump even went as far as to retweet a post from his son Donald Trump Jr. calling for the imprisonment of FBI officials involved in the case.

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/30/21242695/michael-flynn-bill-priestap-notes-total-exoneration-trump-russia

[fuagf]

Michael Flynn's lawyers try an end run around federal judge

"An Ugly Day for the Justice Department
First - Flynn Redux: What Those FBI Documents Really Show
"Trump Justice Department Dropping Charges Against Michael Flynn: Report""

His lawyers also accused a U.S. District Court judge of bias and asked that the case be reassigned for any future proceedings.


Former national security adviser Michael Flynn. | Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

By JOSH GERSTEIN 05/19/2020 03:21 PM EDT Updated: 05/19/2020 10:03 PM EDT

Lawyers for former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn are mounting an unusual and aggressive bid to get a federal appeals court to shut down his prosecution despite efforts by the federal judge assigned the case to solicit outside advice on whether it should proceed.

Flynn’s lawyers filed a petition .. https://sidneypowell.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Petition-filed.pdf .. Tuesday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asking it to grant the Justice Department’s motion to abandon the case.

Flynn’s lawyers also accused U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan of bias and asked that the case be reassigned for any future proceedings, which could include a possible contempt of court charge against Flynn for repeatedly affirming that he lied to the FBI in 2017 — something he now insists did not happen.

“An innocent man has been the target of a vendetta by politically motivated officials at the highest level of the FBI,” Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell and her colleagues wrote in the new filing.

“The egregious Government misconduct, and the three-year abuse of General Flynn and his family, cry out for ending this ordeal immediately and permanently. The district judge’s orders reveal his plan to continue the case indefinitely, rubbing salt in General Flynn’s open wound from the Government’s misconduct and threatening him with criminal contempt,” she added.

Flynn’s filing — known as a “mandamus” petition — faces a high legal hurdle. Unlike a traditional appeal, Flynn’s defense must show that he has an indisputable right to relief from Sullivan’s orders.

Powell argues that Sullivan is defying a unanimous Supreme Court decision issued earlier this month that swatted down another federal appeals court .. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/07/supreme-court-punts-on-immigration-law-case-242571 .. for inviting outside lawyers to provide friend-of-the-court arguments in a criminal case.

Last week, Sullivan appointed a former federal judge — John Gleeson — to advise him on whether to grant the government’s motion to dismiss and whether Flynn should face the initial stage of a criminal contempt proceeding.

Attorney General Bill Barr decided earlier this month to seek to abandon the prosecution. He said a review of the case by a prosecutor he appointed found the FBI had no legitimate legal basis to interview Flynn four days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. In that interview, Flynn denied or said he could not recall any substantive conversations with thenRussian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

Powell’s latest filing with the appeals court adheres to the dramatic, provocative style of her earlier pleadings.

“Petitioner, through no fault of his own, has been drawn into a Kafkaesque nightmare that is a cross between The Trial and In the Penal Colony. He has been subjected to deception, abuse, penury, obloquy, and humiliation,” she wrote.

“Having risked his life in service to his country, he has found himself the target of a political vendetta designed to strip him of his honor and savings, and to deprive the President of his advice. He has been dragged through the mud and forced, through coercion and the artful withholding of information crucial to his defense, to confess to a crime he did not commit — indeed, to a crime that could not exist,” Powell added.

Congress - McConnell challenges judge’s handling of Flynn case
By JOSH GERSTEIN
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/19/mcconnell-judges-handling-flynn-case-268117

Flynn’s submission also swings hard at Sullivan, irreverently accusing the Clinton appointee of seeking the spotlight by not immediately signing off on dismissal of the case against the former Defense Intelligence Agency chief.

“This is an umpire who has decided to steal public attention from the players and focus it on himself,” Powell said of the trial judge. “He wants to pitch, bat, run bases, and play shortstop. In truth, he is way out in left field.”

It’s unclear how Flynn’s case and his lawyers’ unorthodox style will play with the powerful D.C. appeals court, which currently has seven Democratic appointees and four GOP appointees.

Flynn’s petition is likely to be considered by a three-judge panel drawn from those ranks. However, the court’s two Trump appointees have recused themselves from some cases stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.

If Flynn doesn’t get relief from the appeals court, he could ask for an emergency order from the Supreme Court.

Sullivan has yet to comment on or respond to Flynn's bid to kick him off the case, but the judge continued moving forward Tuesday with his plans to solicit and air full legal arguments on the government's move to drop the prosecution. In a new order, the judge set a July 16 hearing on the issue and scheduled written filings from the government, Flynn's defense and outside groups on various dates over the next six weeks.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/19/michael-flynn-lawyers-federal-judge-268280

See also:

Interesting thread about Judge Sullivan and the Flynn case.

THREAD: What should we make of the news that Judge Sullivan has appointed retired Judge John Gleeson to present arguments in opposition to the DOJ's motion to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn?

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) May 13, 2020

https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=155618532
.. and in reply ..
GOOD - Judge in Michael Flynn and asylum cases has a tough reputation
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=155618162

[BOREALIS]

Five Ways William Barr Is Turning America Into a Dictatorship

Trump’s attorney general has corrupted the Justice Department and willfully abetted the president’s lawlessness.

by Robert Reich February 27, 2020


Attorney General William Barr, seen here earlier this month, has made only minimal gestures to push back
against the corruption of the Trump administration.

William Barr was installed as attorney general specifically to turn the Department of Justice into an arm of the Trump Cover-Up. And we’ve seen him do exactly that.

Barr has corrupted and politicized the Department of Justice, working hand in hand with Donald Trump to bend federal law enforcement to the president’s will. Here are some of the ways Barr is helping Trump turn our democracy into a dictatorship:

1. He intervened in the sentencing of Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime confidant and adviser, who faced a prison sentence for obstructing Congress and witness tampering in connection with the Russia investigation. The day prosecutors announced they were seeking seven to nine years for Stone’s sentencing, Trump called the sentence “a horrible aberration,” and said that the prosecutors “ought to be ashamed of themselves” and were “an insult to our country.” A mere 24 hours later, after Trump’s public tantrum, the Department of Justice announced it would change its sentencing recommendation for Stone. Showing more backbone than Barr, four career prosecutors then withdrew from the case, and one resigned.

The incident caused such an uproar that Barr was forced to declare that he wouldn’t be “bullied” and that Trump’s tweets “make it impossible to do my job.” But anyone who has watched Barr repeatedly roll over for Trump saw this as a minimal face-saving gesture. For example:

2. Barr has green-lit an “intake process” for any information that Trump stooge Rudy Giuliani may dig up about Ukraine and the elections. That’s right. Barr has given Trump’s personal lawyer, who is under a Justice Department investigation that has led to charges against two of his associates, a direct line to the Justice Department to funnel dirt about Trump’s political rivals.

3. Barr misled the public about the contents of the Mueller report. Before the report was released, Barr sent a memo to Congress “summarizing” its findings. In his memo, Barr claimed there was insufficient evidence for an obstruction of justice case and supported Trump’s claims of “total exoneration.” Robert Mueller was so infuriated by Barr’s misrepresentation of his findings that he wrote a letter complaining that Barr’s summary “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s investigation. Barr nonetheless held a press conference reiterating his own claims, bolstering Trump’s narrative of “total exoneration,” and shifting the media coverage of the report.

4. Barr refused to accept the findings of the inspector general report investigating the origins of the Russia probe. In December, Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report, finding that while the Russia probe was flawed in some aspects, there was no evidence of political bias and it was justified. This, of course, contradicts Trump’s narrative that the Russia probe was launched by deep-state partisan hacks determined to take him down. The day the report was released, Barr called the Russia investigation a “travesty” and claimed that there were “gross abuses … and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the FBI” and that he thought “there was bad faith” in the investigation. It’s unprecedented for the attorney general to so vehemently disagree with the findings of an impartial inspector general.

5. Barr buried the whistleblower complaint that kick-started the impeachment inquiry and tried to keep it from reaching Congress. His Justice Department investigated the contents of the complaint within a narrow scope and wrapped up its investigation within a mere three weeks, finding no evidence of wrongdoing. Yet again, Barr was running interference to shield Trump from accountability.

Trump says he has the “legal right” to meddle in cases handled by the Justice Department.

That’s wrong. If a president can punish enemies and reward friends through the administration of justice, there can be no justice. Justice requires impartial and equal treatment under the law. Partiality or inequality in deciding whom to prosecute and how to punish is tyranny. Plain and simple.

More from Robert Reich

A half-century ago, I witnessed the near dissolution of justice under President Nixon. I served in the Justice Department when a bipartisan Congress resolved that what had occurred would never happen again. But what occurred under Nixon is happening again. Like Nixon, Trump has usurped the independence of the Department of Justice for his own ends.

But unlike Nixon, Trump won’t resign. He has too many enablers—not just a shameful attorney general but also shameless congressional Republicans—who place a lower priority on justice than on satisfying the most vindictive and paranoid occupant of the White House in modern American history.

One ABC News interview, conducted only to give the appearance of impartiality, doesn’t make up for the myriad ways Attorney General Bill Barr has corrupted the Justice Department and willfully abetted Trump’s lawlessness. For the sake of our democracy, he must resign immediately.

https://prospect.org/justice/five-ways-william-barr-is-turning-america-into-a-dictatorship/