Flynn's call was worse than

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 21 May 2020 07:22:14 +0000

Flynn's call was worse than thought - much worse.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/09/the-logan-act-is-just-the-cherry-o...

The contrary. They only found

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 21 May 2020 06:19:28 +0000

The contrary. They only found the first calls because they were trying to figure out why Putin didn't do what they expected. So they probably didn't START reviewing the rest of them until around that date.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 20, 2020

Attorney General Barr Met

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 21 May 2020 06:10:53 +0000

In reply to DoJ Craziness Thread

Attorney General Barr Met with John Durham Three Days After Mueller Report Was Submitted

https://t.co/DUn2jLbU7c
— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) May 20, 2020

The frothy right has been

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 21 May 2020 06:02:55 +0000

In reply to DoJ Craziness Thread

The frothy right has been claiming Flynn's lies weren't material bc FBI already knew what he said to Kislyak.

But FBI DIDN'T know that Flynn had coordinated his message with Mar-a-Lago. And that's what makes the lies material.
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) May 21, 2020

Sullivan has been crafting

moat — Thu, 21 May 2020 00:45:14 +0000

In reply to Wow, Powell really likes

Sullivan has been crafting his decisions with an eye upon the appeal process for a long time. This motion amounts to appealing a decision that has not been made yet. I wouldn't be surprised if the D.C. Courts simply respond by something like:
"We will review the matter when the sentencing function of the court is completed."

Wow, Powell really likes

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 20 May 2020 18:54:28 +0000

In reply to Marcy nails it again: Writ of

Wow, Powell really likes poking the bear. Would like to see her get swatted back for a change.

Marcy nails it again: Writ of

moat — Wed, 20 May 2020 18:19:56 +0000

In reply to Explanation: writ of mandamus

Marcy nails it again: Writ of Mandamus is filed by Flynn's lawyer.

Bad Analysis - no, Barr just

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 19 May 2020 10:29:23 +0000

In reply to Aaron Blake @ WaPo via MSN so

Bad Analysis - no, Barr just largely said he's going to treat any criminal accusations of Trump as nonsense, even as he has an investigator spreading a wide net over possible Obama, Biden & staff actions for any possible questionable activities whatsoever. It's 5 1/2 months until election day, so there's no time to actually take any possible charge to court, but plenty of time to dig up accusations as dirt to taint Biden & Obama's administration.
Note that Barr is not condemning Trump's digging for dirt on Biden in Ukraine and China, the former for which Trump was impeached and held a kangaroo court in the Senate just 3 1/2 months ago.

"And what happened to the president and I’ve said this many times, what happened to the president in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent. It was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history. The law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative against the president."

The proper investigative and prosecutive standards of the department of justice were abused, in my view, in order to reach a particular result. We saw two different standards of justice emerge, one that applied to President Trump and his associates and the other that applied to everybody else. We can’t allow this ever to happen again. The Durham investigation is trying to get to the bottom of what happened, and it will determine whether there were any federal laws broken. And if there were, those who broke the laws will be held to account....

"Now under the longstanding standards of the department, criminal charges are appropriate only when we have enough evidence to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt." - notice that Barr is doing a bait-and-switch - criminal charges follow an investigation, and the Durham investigation is decidedly a *CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION* - while Mueller's investigation of Trump Tower meetings with Russians and Flynn lying about his meeting with Kislyak and Erik Prince & Jared setting up back channels with Russia and Trump operative Roger Stone coordinating Hillary email leaks with Wikileaks & Guccifer and Manafort giving WI/PA/MI/MN polling data to Kilimnik while Maria Butina was fluffing the NRA wasn't just inconclusive but "baseless".

Feel the unlevel playing field. Yet our stupid gobsmacked press falls for it again.
=============================================

And secondly, President Trump has recently said that he wants to see the justice department prosecute figures of the Obama administration, president Obama and Joseph Biden for what he calls crimes. Is that something the DOJ will do.

William Barr: (22:48)
Okay. Let me ask the director to respond to the first question and then I’ll come back and answer the second.

William Barr: (23:51)
Pete, I’m not going to comment on what the president or vice president Biden for that matter, say in connection with their campaigns. But I will address the role of the department of justice. I think as you know, I’ve commented since I have been attorney general and even during my confirmation hearings that over the past few decades, there have been increasing attempts to use the criminal justice system as a political weapon. The legal tactic has been to gin up allegations of criminality by one’s political opponents based on the flimsiest of legal theories. This is not a good development. This is not good for our political life, and it’s not good for the criminal justice system. And as long as I’m attorney general, the criminal justice system will not be used for partisan political ends. And this is especially true for the upcoming elections and in November.

William Barr: (25:07)
We live in a very divided country right now, and I think that it is critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make a decision, a choice between President Trump and vice president Biden based on a robust debate of policy issues. And we cannot allow this process to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate. And I’m committed that this election will be conducted without this kind of interference. Any effort to pursue an investigation of either candidate has to be approved by me. And what happened to the president and I’ve said this many times, what happened to the president in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent. It was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history. The law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative against the president.

William Barr: (26:29)
The proper investigative and prosecutive standards of the department of justice were abused, in my view, in order to reach a particular result. We saw two different standards of justice emerge, one that applied to President Trump and his associates and the other that applied to everybody else. We can’t allow this ever to happen again. The Durham investigation is trying to get to the bottom of what happened, and it will determine whether there were any federal laws broken. And if there were, those who broke the laws will be held to account. But this cannot be and it will not be a tit for tat exercise. We are not going to lower the standards just to achieve a result. The only way to stop this vicious cycle, the only way to break away from a dual system of justice is to make sure that we scrupulously apply a single and proper standard of justice for everybody.

William Barr: (27:40)
Now under the longstanding standards of the department, criminal charges are appropriate only when we have enough evidence to prove each element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the standard we’re applying. Now I have a general idea of how Mr. Durham’s investigation is going and as I have indicated, some aspects of the matter are being examined as potential crimes. But we have to bear in mind what the Supreme Court recently reminded us of in the bridge gate case. The court said there, there’s a difference between an abuse of power and a federal crime. Not every abuse of power, no matter how outrageous, is necessarily a federal crime. Now as to President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man. Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others. Thanks for your question, Pete. The next question.

Aaron Blake @ WaPo via MSN so

artappraiser — Mon, 18 May 2020 23:16:52 +0000

In reply to DoJ Craziness Thread

Aaron Blake @ WaPo via MSN so no paywall:

Analysis: Barr punches a hole in Trump’s baseless 'Obamagate' trial balloon https://t.co/UhPROflJ9b
— J. W. (@wolfjon4) May 18, 2020

dagblog - Comments for "DoJ Craziness Thread"

thread complaining about

Flynn's call was worse than

The contrary. They only found

Attorney General Barr Met

The frothy right has been

Sullivan has been crafting

Wow, Powell really likes

Marcy nails it again: Writ of

Bad Analysis - no, Barr just

Aaron Blake @ WaPo via MSN so