Trump Administration - Festering Skidmarks

[LFC]

More on the secret memo to Barr on the strategy to not to prosecute Trump after the Mueller findings. Barr's DOJ had fought hard to keep it secret. The judge called bullshit.

The decision adds to the criticism federal judges and others have had about Barr and his handling of the end of the Mueller investigation. Jackson and others have repeatedly questioned Barr's motives to keep documents related to the investigation -- including Mueller's findings and Barr's reactions to them -- secret or by delaying their release.

"The agency's redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time," Jackson wrote in a 35-page opinion released Tuesday.

"The fact that [Trump] would not be prosecuted was a given," she added.

Jackson's strongly worded opinion, though largely about technicalities around government confidentiality, comes close to accusing the Justice Department of a cover-up.

The judge wrote that while top DOJ officials prepared the legal opinion that gave Barr cover not to prosecute Trump, they simultaneously were emailing about a higher priority they had: to inform Congress the President was exonerated.

The Mueller probe thoroughly investigated several episodes where Trump tried to impede or end the inquiry into his campaign's ties to Russia. But the special counsel left the indictment decision to Barr and his top political appointees. Mueller partly found that Justice Department policy blocked the prosecution of a sitting President. After closing his office, Mueller later told to Congress that an ex-President could be prosecuted for obstruction, yet Barr had already reached a definitive conclusion in Trump's case.

Jackson reviewed closely how that decision came about, looking at court statements from department lawyers and internal emails between Barr's top advisers.

Justice Department officials' "affidavits [in court about the memo] are so inconsistent with evidence in the record, they are not worthy of credence," Jackson wrote.

Another federal judge previously slammed Barr in another public records case following the Mueller investigation, saying the attorney general had a "lack of candor" that was helpful to Trump politically when the then-attorney general told Congress and announced to the public what Mueller had found, without releasing Mueller's nearly 500-page report.

[Deleted]

So, in theory, can Judge Amy hold Barr in contempt of court?

[Traveler]

What I cannot figure out is why is the Garland JD impeding the release of the memo now? Their motivation is 100% opposite of Barr's JD. Let those who aided and abetted the enemy take their lumps.

[LFC]

What? No honor among thieves? I'm shocked, shocked I say! Now excuse me while I dance around singing "Schaaaaaa-denfreude!"

Former President Donald Trump in January, apparently fresh out of ideas about how to overturn his election loss and days away from leaving the White House, had reportedly not appreciated a demand from his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani for $20,000 a day in fees for his failed attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Washington Post reported at the time that he told his aides not to pay.

It doesn’t appear that his position has changed much since then or that he’s opening his pockets to help his associate.

New reports suggest that allies of Trump’s former lawyer have been pleading with the ex-president to pay Giuliani for failed efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election as he faces his own costly legal challenges.

Trump weakly came to Giuliani’s defense during a Fox News interview last week after learning that FBI agents executed search warrants in his home and office — but talk is cheap, as the saying goes.

Andrew Giuliani told CNN his father was reimbursed for travel-related expenses incurred after the 2020 election, when he departed on a false election fraud crusade to Arizona and other states. Giuliani has not, however, been paid for legal services, his son said.

“The legal costs with him fighting to retain his law license in New York and fighting the Southern District (of New York) on what I think are bogus charges, that should be indemnified,” Andrew Giuliani said.

Giuliani has hired new lawyers in the costly defense, and his own attorney Robert Costello has also raised the issue in recent days with lawyers for Trump, CNN said.

Meanwhile Rudy gets to watch his coffers get drained as he desperately tries to staunch the bleeding.

Former Trump lawyer and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who currently under federal investigation over potential foreign lobbying law violations, has been tightening his belt by jettisoning employees and independent contractors in recent weeks, according to Politico.

One of Politico’s sources said the staffers were told that the lawyer was trying to cut costs.

Though Giuliani reportedly hired a part-time driver recently, Politico notes that the entourage that follows him around New York has shrunk overall.

[Deleted]

So Rudy is bleeding money, not just shoe-polish-as-hair-dye?

Reading between the lines, I gather, LFC feels sorry for Rudy...secretly!  

Will Trump pay Rudy? Certainly not $20,000/day. Initially I was of the opinion Rudy would need incontrovertible evidence of Trump's criminality. Then I started listing types of crimes that might get Trump in trouble. Leading an insurrection? Nope. Violating the constitution? Never. Looting the treasury? Nope - he was just being smart, and it's blue state money anyway. Grabbing 'em by the pussy or worse? Makes him a rockstar. Shooting someone on any avenue numbered 1-9? That person deserved it. Drinking the blood of children? QAnon would claim that to be patriotic duty.

So looks like Rudy is SOL.

[RichTBikkies]

probabilistic3 Avatar

May 7, 2021 17:50:51 GMT 1 probabilistic3 said:

So Rudy is bleeding money, not just shoe-polish-as-hair-dye?



So looks like Rudy is SOL.

[LFC]

May 7, 2021 16:50:51 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Reading between the lines, I gather, LFC feels sorry for Rudy...secretly!  

Damn right I am. I've been sending him thoughts and prayers ever since! I'm sure he appreciates them.

[goldenvalley]

May 7, 2021 19:04:23 GMT LFC said:

May 7, 2021 16:50:51 GMT @probabilistic3 said:

Reading between the lines, I gather, LFC feels sorry for Rudy...secretly!  

Damn right I am. I've been sending him thoughts and prayers ever since! I'm sure he appreciates them.

thoughts and prayers... that phrase leaves lots to the imagination!

[pnwguy]

May 7, 2021 19:42:41 GMT goldenvalley said:

May 7, 2021 19:04:23 GMT LFC said:

Damn right I am. I've been sending him thoughts and prayers ever since! I'm sure he appreciates them.

thoughts and prayers... that phrase leaves lots to the imagination!

Voodoo prayers, mind you...

[LFC]

Jeffrey Rosen needs to be subpoenaed, placed under oath, and hit with contempt charges and imprisonment if he refuses to answer questions about the lead-up to the Jan. 6 Republican Insurrection. What a slippery scumbag.

Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen stonewalled a House Oversight Committee hearing on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, citing privileges that nobody had claimed in a bid to avoid discussing what former President Trump asked of him as he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Among other things, Rosen refused to describe the contents of his conversations with Trump before Jan. 6, including what the former president asked him to do during a White House meeting on Jan. 3.

Rosen also declined to describe what took place on Jan. 6 as an “insurrection,” instead saying he found the events “abhorrent.”

Trump and Rosen met in the White House on Jan. 3. At around the same time, Trump was reportedly entertaining a bizarre plot to install another DOJ official, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, in Rosen’s place. Clark reportedly told Rosen that the election results would be overturned.

In prepared remarks for the hearing, Rosen emphasized that under his tenure as acting attorney general, the Department of Justice did not “participate in any campaign’s or political party’s legal challenges to the certification of the Electoral College votes” and supported “an orderly and peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution.”

“The only time DOJ did file a brief, it was to seek a dismissal of Representative [Louie] Gohmert’s lawsuit aiming to decertify the electoral count — and that lawsuit was dismissed, as DOJ had urged,” Rosen wrote.

But in his live appearance Wednesday, Rosen offered less information than he did in his prewritten opening statement. In one exchange, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) asked Rosen multiple questions about the Jan. 3 meeting, to which Rosen offered a vast array of excuses as to why he could not answer.

At first, he implied that it was his role as a lawyer that gave the conversation secrecy.

“Respectful, I understand your interest in the issue and I’ve been trying to be as forthcoming as I can,” he said to Connolly. “When you ask me about communications with the president, I, as a lawyer, don’t get to make the decision on whether I can reveal a private conversation on that — other people make that decision and I’ve been asked today to stick to the ground rules I have.”

A few answers later, he made it sound like the conversation was private due to executive privilege. It’s unclear to what privilege Rosen may have been referring.

“I don’t think it’s my role here today to discuss communications with the President in the Oval Office or White House without authority to do that,” he said.

Connolly noted that Rosen had not formally invoked executive privilege, also a rather flimsy argument given that Rosen is no longer AG and Trump is no longer president.

Rosen then brought up an inspector general investigation as an obstacle in response to a question about Trump DOJ official Clark’s alleged attempts to use the DOJ to overturn the election. That effort reportedly centered on a plan to remove Rosen and replace him with Clark.

But even for that, Rosen kept mum.

“That episode is the subject of an inspector general investigation,” he said.

Finally, he concluded that he could not stray from “ground rules” decided by his counsel, the Department of Justice and the committee before his testimony.

[goldenvalley]

I'm reading the thread title "Final Skidmarks" and thinking maybe that was an optimistic view of the Trump Admin. His malevolence and that of so many people who are attracted to it are nowhere near being "final" in their impacts.

[LFC]

What's going to happen if Cy Vance issues an arrest warrant for Trump? Palm Beach is planning for it but DeSantis could (and probably would) protect him from extradition. I have little doubt that the lawless party of fascism will march in locked goose step to protect Dear Leader.

Law enforcement officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, are reportedly putting together contingency plans in case ex-President Donald Trump, who resides in his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, gets slapped with an indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.

Politico’s Playbook reports that part of that planning has included discussions on the issue of potentially extraditing Trump if necessary.

Playbook notes that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), one of the ex-president’s top lackeys, has the authority to intervene in interstate extraditions.

[pnwguy]

At least NY state could start to seize assets in blue states.

[goldenvalley]

May 13, 2021 15:02:25 GMT LFC said:

What's going to happen if Cy Vance issues an arrest warrant for Trump? Palm Beach is planning for it but DeSantis could (and probably would) protect him from extradition. I have little doubt that the lawless party of fascism will march in locked goose step to protect Dear Leader.

Law enforcement officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, are reportedly putting together contingency plans in case ex-President Donald Trump, who resides in his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, gets slapped with an indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance.

Politico’s Playbook reports that part of that planning has included discussions on the issue of potentially extraditing Trump if necessary.

Playbook notes that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), one of the ex-president’s top lackeys, has the authority to intervene in interstate extraditions.

Back when news of Giuliani broke, former US Atty Preet Bhara predicted that an indictment would show up probably in the fall.  He thought it would take time to build an indictment based witnesses turning over evidence against Trump.

[LFC]

Rudy is pleading for help. Trump and his people are ignoring him. So ... much ... schadenfreude.

Team Trump’s reluctance to intervene comes at a time when federal investigators have ramped up their probe into whether Giuliani’s Ukraine-related work during the Trump era amounted to an unregistered and illegal lobbying operation on behalf of foreign figures. So far, no charges have been brought against the former New York City mayor as a result of this investigation, which began in 2019. Trump’s silence has led to simmering frustrations among members of Giuliani’s inner orbit, who privately allege that the ex-president’s team is working to convince him to hang Giuliani out to dry in his hour of need.

“It’s a question now of whether or not [the former president and his team] want to leave Rudy to fend for himself or if they’re going to take a stand against this,” one person close to Giuliani said last week. “Right now, we don’t know.”

Among Giuliani allies’ pleas, the three sources said, have been for Trump to issue a strong verbal or written statement saying Giuliani’s work during the Trump-Ukraine saga was done on behalf of then-President Trump—and therefore not part of an illegal foreign lobbying effort. In other words, Trump’s corroboration would be more than good public relations for Giuliani, it would back up a key pillar of Giuliani’s legal argument that he wasn’t lobbying and is innocent of the allegations.

Other asks have included having the ex-president sign on to a legal motion to have federal investigators throw out any seized communications that Giuliani and his lawyers argue are covered by attorney-client privilege. Further, there have been repeated requests that Trump and his team financially aid Giuliani’s ballooning legal defense and help cover the mounting, sizable expenses.

Two people close to Trump say they have urged the former president to lay low on the matter and to refrain from making too many statements or commitments on Giuliani and the federal probe. These people have told Trump that it’s unclear what the feds have and that any statement could backfire both on him and on Giuliani. Moreover, various people in Trump’s social and political orbits have been trying to convince the former president for years that Giuliani has been too great a liability for him, and they have suggested that he cut the lawyer loose.

[LFC]

This was insane, even for Trump.

John McEntee, one of Donald Trump's most-favored aides, handed retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor a piece of paper with a few notes scribbled on it. He explained: "This is what the president wants you to do."

1. Get us out of Afghanistan.

2. Get us out of Iraq and Syria.

3. Complete the withdrawal from Germany.

4. Get us out of Africa.

It was Nov. 9, 2020 — days after Trump lost his re-election bid, 10 weeks before the end of his presidency and just moments after Macgregor was offered a post as senior adviser to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

As head of the powerful Presidential Personnel Office, McEntee had Trump's ear. Even so, Macgregor was astonished. He told McEntee he doubted they could do all of these things before Jan. 20.

"Then do as much as you can," McEntee replied.

In Macgregor's opinion, Miller probably couldn't act on his own authority to execute a total withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan because he was serving in an acting capacity. If this was for real, Macgregor told McEntee, then it was going to need an order from the president.

The one-page memo was delivered by courier to Christopher Miller's office two days later, on the afternoon of Nov. 11. The order arrived seemingly out of nowhere, and its instructions, signed by Trump, were stunning: All U.S. military forces were to be withdrawn from Somalia by Dec. 31, 2020. All U.S. forces were to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, 2021.

What the fuck is this? Miller wondered.

A former Green Beret, Miller had directed the National Counterterrorism Center and was accustomed to following process. Trump had tapped him to run the Pentagon after his unceremonious firing-by-tweet of Mark Esper. It was Miller's third day on the job.

News of the memo spread quickly throughout the Pentagon. Top military brass, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, were appalled. This was not the way to conduct policy — with no consultation, no input, no process for gaming out consequences or offering alternatives.

[LFC]

A shrill, pathetic Rudy plays the victim and hamfistedly tries to pull the rest of the Trumpsters into his problems. Yeah, nice try. Maybe you should have made your statement at Four Seasons.

Rudy Giuliani was once dubbed a human hand grenade by John Bolton. Now he is flinging himself at Trumpworld in a bid to defend himself against an increasingly serious federal criminal investigation.

The former lawyer to the president is claiming in a new court filing that not only is he being politically persecuted by prosecutors from the Southern District of New York, but so is former President Trump. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is also caught up in the mess, Giuliani claims, as well as the former U.S. Attorney in Pittsburgh.

“The SDNY simply chose to treat a distinguished lawyer as if he was the head of a drug cartel or a terrorist, in order to create maximum prejudicial coverage of both Giuliani, and his most well-known client – the former President of the United States,” reads the court filing, which protests against a government offer to have a special master sift through the results of search warrants executed on Giuliani’s home and office last month.

Giuliani bear-hugs Trump in the filing, saying that for much of the time that he was under investigation he was communicating and working with the former president and his Department of Justice.

[goldenvalley]

May 17, 2021 18:21:35 GMT LFC said:

This was insane, even for Trump.

John McEntee, one of Donald Trump's most-favored aides, handed retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor a piece of paper with a few notes scribbled on it. He explained: "This is what the president wants you to do."

1. Get us out of Afghanistan.

2. Get us out of Iraq and Syria.

3. Complete the withdrawal from Germany.

4. Get us out of Africa.

It was Nov. 9, 2020 — days after Trump lost his re-election bid, 10 weeks before the end of his presidency and just moments after Macgregor was offered a post as senior adviser to acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.

As head of the powerful Presidential Personnel Office, McEntee had Trump's ear. Even so, Macgregor was astonished. He told McEntee he doubted they could do all of these things before Jan. 20.

"Then do as much as you can," McEntee replied.

In Macgregor's opinion, Miller probably couldn't act on his own authority to execute a total withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan because he was serving in an acting capacity. If this was for real, Macgregor told McEntee, then it was going to need an order from the president.

The one-page memo was delivered by courier to Christopher Miller's office two days later, on the afternoon of Nov. 11. The order arrived seemingly out of nowhere, and its instructions, signed by Trump, were stunning: All U.S. military forces were to be withdrawn from Somalia by Dec. 31, 2020. All U.S. forces were to be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, 2021.

What the fuck is this? Miller wondered.

A former Green Beret, Miller had directed the National Counterterrorism Center and was accustomed to following process. Trump had tapped him to run the Pentagon after his unceremonious firing-by-tweet of Mark Esper. It was Miller's third day on the job.

News of the memo spread quickly throughout the Pentagon. Top military brass, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, were appalled. This was not the way to conduct policy — with no consultation, no input, no process for gaming out consequences or offering alternatives.

I don't find this insane by Trump standards.  It's evident that he believed he had the power to order such things to happen and to be obeyed without question.  He installed Miller because the others wouldn't do what he wanted and thought Miller would.   

[LFC]

Gordon Sondlon is suing Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for legal fees.

Gordon Sondland, the former U.S. ambassador to the EU, is suing former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the government in a bid to have one of the two pay for $1.8 million in legal fees incurred during the 2019 Ukraine impeachment inquiry.

The Washington Post first reported the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

When the impeachment inquiry began in September 2019, Sondland alleged, he met with Pompeo and received an assurance: while government lawyers would not represent him in the inquiry, the State Department would reimburse Sondland for all of his legal costs relating to the impeachment.

But when it came time to pay up in February 2020, Sondland said, State Department officials told Sondland that “the Administration wanted to purge everyone remotely connected to the Impeachment trial.”

Sondland was fired, and received $86,040 in reimbursement from the government, the lawsuit alleges. The Portland hotel entrepreneur’s legal team, which included veteran D.C. litigator Bob Luskin, cost him $1.8 million, Sondland claims in the lawsuit.

Well there's your second mistake, Gordon. You trusted Trump when it came to money. Your first was ever becoming involved with him in the first place.

[goldenvalley]

May 24, 2021 15:33:38 GMT LFC said:

Gordon Sondlon is suing Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for legal fees.

Gordon Sondland, the former U.S. ambassador to the EU, is suing former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the government in a bid to have one of the two pay for $1.8 million in legal fees incurred during the 2019 Ukraine impeachment inquiry.

The Washington Post first reported the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

When the impeachment inquiry began in September 2019, Sondland alleged, he met with Pompeo and received an assurance: while government lawyers would not represent him in the inquiry, the State Department would reimburse Sondland for all of his legal costs relating to the impeachment.

But when it came time to pay up in February 2020, Sondland said, State Department officials told Sondland that “the Administration wanted to purge everyone remotely connected to the Impeachment trial.”

Sondland was fired, and received $86,040 in reimbursement from the government, the lawsuit alleges. The Portland hotel entrepreneur’s legal team, which included veteran D.C. litigator Bob Luskin, cost him $1.8 million, Sondland claims in the lawsuit.

Well there's your second mistake, Gordon. You trusted Trump when it came to money. Your first was ever becoming involved with him in the first place.

They'll deny there was a contract BUT wouldn't it be fun if Pompeo had the guts to argue that smarmy dude breached his contract with State Dept and/or Pompeo by not giving the testimony they wanted?   

[LFC]

Another judge says Wilhelm Barr was full of shit when he instantly spread his propaganda about the Mueller report to try to shape the narrative.

A federal judge accused former Attorney General Bill of plotting to get a “jump” on the department’s “public relations” spin of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report and then obscuring that scheme in later Freedom of Information Act litigation.

The swipes at Barr’s handling of the Mueller probe came in previously redacted portions of a May 3 opinion that ordered the release of an internal DOJ memo related to the Mueller report.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson unsealed the unredacted opinion Tuesday after the Biden administration agreed to a release of her opinion in full, even as it’s fighting in court to keep some parts of the internal DOJ memo private.

The litigation and Jackson’s description of the memo sheds light on how Barr sought to shape the public perception of Mueller’s probe, by releasing a letter to Congress “summarizing” Mueller’s report several weeks ahead of when it made the report itself public.

Jackson and another federal judge have said Barr’s summary didn’t square up with Mueller’s own explicit refusal in his report to clear the former president’s conduct.

I wonder what Biden's DOJ wants to keep hidden.

[LFC]

An accidental release suggests that the investigation into Giuliani is bigger than previously reported. Thoughts and prayers you bad dye-job cousinf***er.

After the attorney for a Rudy Giuliani associate accidentally revealed an apparently wider scope of the former mayor’s criminal investigation, a Manhattan federal judge moved to put the whole thing under wraps.

U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken for the Southern District of New York ordered the court filing with botched redactions sealed, after CNN first reported that the document revealed a lawyer saying that prosecutors had seized the email accounts of two Ukrainians and the electronic devices of a third.

Joseph Bondy, an attorney for Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, made the improper redactions in a filing asking for access to information gathered by prosecutors in the course of their investigation into the former NYC mayor.

Bondy said in the filing that prosecutors had seized the email accounts of former prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko and former fiscal service chief Roman Nasirov. They also said that they seized the electronic devices of Alexander Levin, a private businessman.

The filing had black bars displayed over the redacted areas, but copying and pasting the underlying text into a new word document revealed what was meant to be sealed.

[LFC]

Rudy Giuliani’s Actual Legal Defense: These Dems Are Peddling Conspiracies!

I see his legal bills going up, up, up. After all the money he sucked out of various state budgets with his conspiracies all I can say is "you reap what you sow, motherf***er." I hope he gets hit with double the costs he forced others to pay.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2021 14:55:39 GMT LFC said:

Rudy Giuliani’s Actual Legal Defense: These Dems Are Peddling Conspiracies!

I see his legal bills going up, up, up. ... all I can say is "you reap what you sow, motherf***er." ...

But..but... he cannot afford real hair-dye!

[goldenvalley]

He's a hot shot lawyer. He can defend himself.