Isn’t he the guy who was in the Sharpiegate video? I always thought he had a look on his face like, “Man, I’m not being paid nearly enough to do this sort of shit” in that video.
Is it Pence yet?
Amy Fiscus, NYTimes:
Remember the scene in Hunt for Red October where the Soviet ambassador is chided for losing another submarine?
I keep thinking about that each time a Trump confident ends up in criminal investigations. “Are you serious? Another one?”
The article linked above says:
[Bolding mine]
Don’t those prosecutors work in the DOJ under Barr? How and why were they “allowed”* to do this? I should understand this but I don’t.
*It wouldn’t be a question during normal times of Law and Order but Bob-Barr-the-Door frowns on investigations related to his buddy Don
My first gut reaction is that they’re maybe trying to go with the “it was all Rudy, he went rogue” defense. We’ve all been waiting at the bus stop to see when he’d be thrown under…
US Attorneys such as Geoffrey Berman (a Trump appointee, it should be noted) work basically independent of the Attorney General. As much as Barr may want to stifle investigations, he would be breaking the law himself to actively interfere in the lawful prosecution of a criminal for whom there is probable cause to arrest as determined by a grand jury. Barr is already damaged and questionable due to his willingness to misrepresent Robert Mueller’s findings/report. IOW, he’s skating on thin ice as it is. He may not be willing to skate so far as to commit an obvious crime. Attorneys General can go to jail, too – and have.
He does, but not for nothing is the Southern District of New York known and referred to as the Sovereign District of New York. They pride themselves on their independence. I was leery of Berman when he was first appointed to replace Preet Bahrara. I felt mildly better when Berman recused himself from overseeing the Michael Cohen investigation. He seems committed to preserving the integrity of SDNY. I do hope that is the case.
I always hear this about the SDNY, but is there any special mandate that gives them some degree of freedom from Washington? Sure they’re in charge of Wall St and NYC, but that just means they have a bigger staff and budget, right? Is it just a soft power from NYC connections?
No specific mandate of which I’m aware.
To my understanding, within the DOJ the SDNY is considered the most prestigious of all the US Attorneys’ offices in the country. Merely through an accident of geography, they handle highly visible, high risk/benefit cases. They’re tough – because they have to be. As such, they have more autonomy than some of the other offices, perhaps.
As I understand it, it’s a culture and reputation thing. They guard their independence fiercely.
IANAL and I have no first hand knowledge of this beyond being an avid watcher of matters legal. I think there are some Dopers who have more first-hand knowledge of the reasons underlying for their reputation. Perhaps they’ll speak up.
…Talia Lavin, former fact-checker with the New York Times (that nobody has really heard of but is hated and targeted often by the alt-right) apparently got hold of Rudy’s cellphone number and has been prank-texting him. The responses (if true of course, the way the world is going right now I can barely trust anyone or anything anymore, but she insists the responses are true) are not what one would expect from the Presidents Lawyer.
These guys are really not smart. When Michelle Obama said “I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the UN; they are not that smart” she wasn’t joking.
I follow her on Twitter, but I missed that!
A few months ago, I listed to Rachel Maddow’s podcast series, “Bag Man,” about Spiro Agnew, and the investigation that led to his resignation as Vice-President.
The U.S. Attorney for the Maryland District in that era, George Beall, and his office, had been investigating corruption among public officials in Baltimore, and discovered that Agnew (who had, before becoming VP, been a county executive in Baltimore, and then the governor of Maryland) had been taking payoffs.
When Agnew learned that he was a target of Beall’s office’s investigation, the White House had attempted to force Beall to stop the investigation – this included asking Beall’s brother, J. Glen Beall (then a senator from Maryland) to intervene on Agnew’s behalf, as well as sending George H.W. Bush (then the GOP Chairman) to ask Beall to stop. Beall refused to stop, and his office was able to secure a “no contest” plea from Agnew, and force his resignation as VP.
White House sends Ukraine talking points to Democrats. Again. Dumbshits gonna dumbshit.
Not really seeming like an accident at this point. Disgruntled staff.
Yeaaaah… if I was a general directing a war against even a very stupid enemy, I would be very suspicious if the enemy’s Order of Battle fell out of the blue sky right into my hands not once, but twice.
PsyOps, dudes. Counter-Intelligence. …and stuff.
Neal Katyal (Acting Solicitor General under Obama) was on Maddow this evening. After listing some of the recent legal and political setbacks for the malAdministration, he continued thus:
After I picked myself up off the floor I realized this may be a major factor in the surge of support for impeachment and removal. And barring some major upheaval, it’s only going to get worse.
Could it be? Some good news?
I’m wondering whether, and please don’t think I’m Nazifying the thread, there’ll be consideration of the “I’m just following orders” defense.
Trump is telling his subordinates they’re not allowed to talk with Congress. But it looks like this order may itself be illegal. If subordinates follow his order, and thereby defy a legally-issued subpoena from Congress, will they say they were just following orders? Will they be punished anyway?
IANAL but it seems to me that a subpoena trumps (as it were) an “order” from your boss, even if that boss is, well, you know…
Washington Post, via Kyle Griffin, MSNBC: