bucolic_frolic

bucolic_frolic's Journal

January 3, 2018

BREAKING Manafort sues DOJ, Mueller over Russia probe authority

Source: CNN

Manafort sues DOJ, Mueller over Russia probe authority

By Evan Perez, CNN Justice Correspondent

Updated 3:11 PM ET, Wed January 3, 2018

(CNN)Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman indicted on money laundering and other charges, filed a lawsuit challenging the broad authority of special counsel Robert Mueller and alleging the Justice Department violated the law in appointing Mueller.

The suit brought Wednesday in US District Court in Washington where Manafort and another former Trump campaign aide are charged, challenges Mueller's decision to charge Manafort with alleged crimes that they say have nothing to do with the 2016 campaign, but rather relate to lucrative lobbying work Manafort and his deputy did for a former Russia-friendly government in Ukraine. That work ended in 2014, the suit says. Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates deny the allegations in the charges.

The legal action represents a new tack in a broader effort by supporters of the President to push back on the special counsel. Some Republicans have begun publicly calling for Mueller's probe to be shut down. Manafort's attorneys have echoed the President's criticism that Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election is pursuing crimes that never happened.

The Manafort lawsuit alleges Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Mueller have unlawfully exceeded the authorities allowed under the law governing special counsel appointments. The lawsuit contends that the order Rosenstein signed to appoint Mueller "exceeds the scope of Mr. Rosenstein's authority to appoint special counsel as well as specific restrictions on the scope of such appointments."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/politics/manafort-lawsuit-robert-mueller-authority/index.html

January 3, 2018

Grand jury to state police: Give up trooper shooting probes

Source: 6ABC Philadelphia (AP)

Tuesday, January 02, 2018 06:11PM
EASTON, Pa. --
The "arrogant" Pennsylvania State Police should stop investigating shootings by its own troopers to ensure such probes are transparent and "free from potential bias or conflicts of interest," a grand jury said in a scathing report released Tuesday.

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Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli, who has been sharply critical of the state police policy, released the 38-page report. He sought the grand jury after state police refused to allow his detectives to take the lead on a probe of a fatal trooper shooting near Easton. Troopers shot and killed Anthony Ardo on May 20 after he ignored their commands and attempted to light the fuse of a firework mortar around his neck.

The grand jury concluded that Ardo's shooting was justified. At Morganelli's behest, the panel then began investigating state police procedure on trooper-involved shootings, concluding after months of study that one of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies is going about it the wrong way.

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Read more: http://6abc.com/grand-jury-to-state-police-give-up-trooper-shooting-probes/2852434/

More at link. This is what a Democratic District Attorney can accomplish. Unprecedented. Healthy sunshine on an established procedure that is surely perceived as thorough and fair, but would have even more credibility if it were independent.

January 1, 2018

Why Trumps War on the Deep State Is FailingSo Far

So for right now, let’s consider the damage—both tangible and intangible—as a work in progress: non-trivial, potentially severe, but so far not catastrophic, and difficult ultimately to assess.

And despite all of that, I think we can say that, broadly speaking, the apparatus of democratic rule-of-law governance had held up reasonably well so far. Trump aspires to corrupt the Justice Department, but he has not yet managed to corrupt the Justice Department. He aspires to use the FBI to go after his political enemies, but he has not yet managed that either. He aspires to an intelligence community that will validate his premises, but he has not managed to get one. At the end of the day, Trump has not managed to shut down the Russia investigation. He has not managed to fire his attorney general or his deputy attorney general—both of whom he evidently hates. He has not even managed to rid himself of the lowly deputy FBI director, Andrew McCabe—though he so clearly wants that particular scalp—who will retire in March and not be removed before then. He’s already angry at his new FBI director, Christopher Wray.

The president is evidently incredulous about his inability to corrupt these institutions. He waxed frustrated about it, for example, in a recent radio interview:

But you know, the saddest thing is, because I am the President of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I’m not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I’m not supposed to be doing the kind of things I would love to be doing and I am very frustrated by it. I look at what’s happening with the Justice Department, why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her dossier, and the kind of money… I don’t know, is it possible that they paid $12.4 million for the dossier . . . which is total phony, fake, fraud and how is it used? It’s very discouraging to me. I’ll be honest, I’m very unhappy with it, that the Justice Department isn’t going . . . maybe they are but you know as President, and I think you understand this, as a President you’re not supposed to be involved in that process. But hopefully they are doing something and at some point, maybe we are going to all have it out.

One might look at all of this as evidence that Trump is not wholly unwise, so he announces his intentions to do all sort of bad things but then ultimately does not pull the trigger on many of them. I think the better understanding is that he is, at least for now, meaningfully constrained—both by politics and by law and rules.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-trumps-war-deep-state-failing%E2%80%94so-far

January 1, 2018

It was all rigged: Frontline: To Catch A Trader

December 30, 2017

Phrased more intuitively

We are taking systems conceived for social welfare to value all socioeconomic levels of society and restructuring them to serve as profit centers for those of the most fortunate financial circumstances.

This is not going to work out well, anywhere. Once the masses figure it out, they will resist, cease to serve, look after their own only, or rebel.

December 26, 2017

Machine gun prop used by Clint Eastwood in Where Eagles Dare is handed into police under gun amnesty

olice holding a weapons amnesty were stunned after a man handed in Clint Eastwood's MP40 machine gun he used in the film 'Where Eagles Dare'.

Avon and Somerset Police say the prop German sub-machine gun was dropped at Bridgwater Police Station by an unnamed man who worked in the film industry.

He told officers the MP40 sub-machine gun was used by Eastwood in the movie while he was disguised as a Nazi.

Richard Vise evidential property and stores manager, said: 'A man walked into the station claiming to work in the film industry.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5125145/Clint-Eastwood-gun-Eagles-Dare-given-police.html#ixzz52Kw4qduG
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5125145/Clint-Eastwood-gun-Eagles-Dare-given-police.html