Two days ago, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was effectively chased from a restaurant by protesters screaming at her and her companion. The scene at MXDC Cocina Mexicana was shocking to most of us who have decried the loss of civility in today’s political discourse. One person clearly not shocked was Rep. Jackie Speier (D., Cal.) who defended the protesters and blamed it on Trump’s divisive political rhetoric. While the protest seemed clearly organized, Speier portrayed it as a spontaneous expression of anger by citizens in her interview on CNN. The scene was very disturbing as was the apparent impunity exercised by the protesters in shutting down a restaurant. It now appears that it was a protest by the Democratic Socialists of America and one of those participating was a DOJ employee, Allison Hrabar. Hrabar is reportedly a paralegal specialist and her participation could raise again our long-standing debate over the punishment of employees for comments or actions taken outside of the workplace.
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the recent hearing before the Senate Judiciary on the Inspector General’s investigation into the Clinton email controversy.
We have been looking at vintage mugshots recently discovered in the archives of the West Midlands Police Department, including the oldest mugshot in British history. These photos come from Birmingham England. This is James Freeth who was pictured in 1861 for an unknown crime. 
Last night, the blog hit another milestone today with over 35,000,000 views. We have also passed 50,000 followers on Twitter. We relish these “little engine that could” moments to take stock in our expanding base of readers. The blog shows that there is still an interest in a place for passionate but civil discourse on legal and policy issues of our time (and perhaps a few wacky stories). As always, I want to offer special thanks for our weekend contributors and particularly Darren Smith who continues help up with periodic technical problems etc).
Shamon West, 21, may want to look a bit more closely at the stolen ids of his victims. West stole the purse of Flora Lunsford from her car while she was getting gas. Two days later, he gave the card back to Lunsford after claiming to be her to pay for his meal. She called the police instead.
This is John Williams who is depicted in one of the recently discovered Victorian era mugshots that we have been featuring on our blog. They include the oldest mugshots in Britain and were taken at the Moor Street staton in 
One of the funnier