Bizarre, Lawyering, Politics

The Lincoln Project Moves From Doxxing To Trolling With Recent Commercial

I have previously criticized the Lincoln Project which has not only sought to dox Trump attorneys but fund a campaign of harassment targeting Republican lawyers, their firms, and their clients. The project was not only founded in part by lawyer George Conway but is funded by hundreds of lawyers who have remained silent as the Project engaged in such abusive conduct. Now, the Project has been reduced to open trolling with a commercial that literally has no value or purpose other than mocking President Trump. It is now an open trolling operations funded by lawyers around the country.  To do so in the name of Abraham Lincoln is a particular disgrace.

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Justice, Politics, Society

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Trump Attacks Barr On Not Disclosing Ongoing Biden Investigations

This morning, Brian Kilmeade did an excellent interview with President Donald Trump and pressed him on issues like a possible floor challenge to the certification of the 2020 election under what I have called a “Death Star” strategy.   Trump notably refused to answer that question and whether he would attend the inauguration by saying “I don’t want to talk about that.”  What he clearly wanted to talk about was Attorney General Bill Barr, who is facing calls to be fired for his maintaining confidentiality over ongoing federal investigations linked to Hunter Biden. Kilmeade pressed Trump on the attacks on Attorney General Bill Barr and quoted me as saying that Barr acted correctly in declining to reveal ongoing investigations related to Hunter Biden.  Trump responded that he is only asking for what Special Counsel Robert Mueller did in correcting a false news story in 2019. I disagree with the analogy with that clarification, which presented a very different ethical and factual situation.  Barr did exactly what he had to do to protect not just the integrity of these investigations but the integrity of the Justice Department as a whole.

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Bizarre, Media, Politics

CNN’s April Ryan Strikes Out At Reporters Disclosing Embarrassing Comments From Joe Biden

We have been discussing the open bias shown by the media in the last four years. It is not clear if we can regain the ground lost for journalism as even journalism professors call for the rejection of objectivity in favor of advocacy. This has included shielding Joe Biden from any challenging questions during the recent election. That includes the news blackout on reporting on the Hunter Biden scandal, the subject of my column today in the Hill. CNN’s April Ryan personifies this trend. Even as the media is facing widespread criticism for burying the Hunter Biden story (and is now doing the same with the Swalwell scandal), Ryan lashed out at confidential sources responsible for leaking a recording of Joe Biden making embarrassing comments about the “defund the police” movement. Ryan is demanding to know who is responsible for allowing the embarrassing comments to be made public despite her past enthusiastic discussion of such leaks against President Donald Trump. Continue reading “CNN’s April Ryan Strikes Out At Reporters Disclosing Embarrassing Comments From Joe Biden” →

Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Politics

No Friend of Congress: Pascrell Seeks To Block 120 House Republicans From Being Seated For Signing Amicus Brief

It appears that Rep. Bill Pascrell (D., NJ) has a serious problem with Republicans going to court.  We recently discussed Pascrell’s absurd effort to disbar roughly two dozen Republican lawyers for challenging the results of the 2020 election. Now Pascrell is declaring that 120 House Republicans signing a “Friend of the Court brief” (or amicus brief) is tantamount to supporting a rebellion against the United States and that they should be blocked from taking their seats in Congress. I previously denounced Pascrell for his “dangerous form of demagoguery.” This latest call shows the demagoguery has reached a level of utter delusion.    Continue reading “No Friend of Congress: Pascrell Seeks To Block 120 House Republicans From Being Seated For Signing Amicus Brief” →

Free Speech, Media, Politics

Whitmer Defends Democratic Rep Over Violent Rhetoric As Other Democrats Seek diGenova’s Disbarment For His Comments
YouTube Screenshot

There is an interesting contrast developing in two controversies.  We recently discussed how legal experts demanded that Joe diGenova be disbarred for recently saying that Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency head Chris Krebs should to be “drawn and quartered” for his failure to protect this election.  Krebs has filed a legally dubious lawsuit against diGenova. Yet, in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other Democrats have defended Rep. Cynthia Johnson who called out for “soldiers” to “make [Trump supporters] pay” for their criticism and harassment of her. Those who insisted on disbarment and other measures for diGenova are conspicuously silent about such overheated rhetoric from the left.

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Criminal law, Politics

“Like A Needle Pulling A Thread”: Kim Gardner Kicked Off McCloskey Case
YouTube Screenshot

I have been skeptical in the past of the charges brought against Mark and Patricia McCloskey by Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner given the countervailing rights of gun possession and home protection in Missouri. I felt that a case could be maintained as a charging matter but I still fail to see how such charges could be proven at trial or sustained on appeal.  Now, a court has removed Gardner as prosecutor for fundraising on the case.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

New York Woman Wearing Python Hits Car, Crashes Through Firehouse, and Damages Firetrucks

A New York woman, Sarah Espinosa, 22, has been arrested for a rather odd offense after crashing her car while under the influence. That is unfortunately not particularly uncommon but she crashed her Prius into a firehouse while wearing a giant python around her neck. Beyond that curiosity, there is one aspect of her case that raises a question about redundant charging by prosecutors. Continue reading “New York Woman Wearing Python Hits Car, Crashes Through Firehouse, and Damages Firetrucks” →

Columns, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics

Flynn’s Cadaver Synod: The Court Dismisses A Dead Case But Not Before It Flogs The Corpse

Below is my column in the Hill on the conclusion of the case of Gen. Michael Flynn, which ended (not surprisingly) with one last gratuitous and controversial act from the court.  Judge Emmet Sullivan decided to effectively flog Flynn on his way out of his court.

Here is the column: Continue reading “Flynn’s Cadaver Synod: The Court Dismisses A Dead Case But Not Before It Flogs The Corpse” →

Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Media, Politics

Is the Media Burying The Swalwell Story?

We often discuss media coverage and accuracy on developing legal and political controversies.  Much of this discussion recently has focused on the bias shown by the media in the last four years. I have worked for the media as a legal analyst and columnist for years, but I have never before seen this raw and open bias in major media. At the same time, academics are rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy.

This morning, Fox News called out all of the networks for zero coverage of the bombshell story from Axios that Rep. Eric Swalwell may have had a close relationship with a suspected Chinese spy who fled to China a few years ago.  Many of us were struck by the lack of coverage, particularly given the position of Swalwell on the House Intelligence Committee and his former bid for the presidency. It was particularly striking when the media is now reluctantly covering the Hunter Biden story after a long blackout before the election. Yet, the most stark comparison is with the exhaustive coverage given the highly analogous story involving an alleged spy, Maria Butina, who had an affair with a high-ranking figure in the National Rifle Association. Continue reading “Is the Media Burying The Swalwell Story?” →

Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Society

YouTube Declares It Will Censor Videos Questioning Biden’s Victory

We have have been discussing how writers, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and his key advisers. The erosion of free speech has been radically accelerated by the Big Tech and social media companies. The level of censorship and viewpoint regulation has raised questions of a new type of state media where companies advance an ideological agenda with political allies.  The state media criticism was never more compelling than in the announcement of YouTube this week that it would now remove videos that question the victory of President-elect Joe Biden.  The election is over but YouTube will now scrub away any dissenting views that the election was marred by fraud. It now appears to be protecting history itself from things deemed disinformation — the ultimate calling of the corporate censor.

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Criminal law, Justice, Media, Politics

Hunter Biden Is Under Federal Investigation

Hunter Biden confirmed yesterday that he is indeed under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware for possible tax violations.  For years, the media has maintained a virtual blackout on Hunter Biden stories even as some of us noted that a 2019 subpoena indicated an active criminal investigation. Apparently, there was no way to “say this nicely” so the media said virtually nothing at all. The son of the incoming president will now be investigated by his father’s Justice Department. In the meantime, many in the media are still struggling with the journalistic version of the denial stage in the Kübler–Ross stages of grieving.  The move during the lame duck period could reflect a desire to iron plate the investigation before the arrival of a Biden Justice Department. It will certainly add a new complication to any already difficult situation with a pending Special Counsel investigation.

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Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Media, Politics, Society

“Free Speech Is Being Weaponized”: Columbia Dean and New Yorker Writer Calls For More Censorship

We have been discussing how reporters, editors, commentators, and academics have embraced rising calls for censorship and speech controls, including President-elect Joe Biden and key advisers.  This includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy. Now, Columbia Journalism Dean and New Yorker writer Steve Coll has denounced how the First Amendment right to freedom of speech was being “weaponized” to protect disinformation. That’s right. A journalism dean and writer declaring that the problem is that free speech itself is allowing too much freedom on the Internet and other forums. Continue reading ““Free Speech Is Being Weaponized”: Columbia Dean and New Yorker Writer Calls For More Censorship” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Lawyering, Media, Politics

Krebs Files Lawsuit Against diGenova, The Trump Campaign, and Newsmax

Christopher Krebs, has filed a lawsuit against Trump attorney Joe diGenova over this controversial joke that Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” and then “shot” for his failures as the former head of U.S. cybersecurity.  The lawsuit strikes me as meritless under governing tort doctrines. While Mark Zaid declared that “no rational person” who heard diGenova calling for a person to be drawn and quartered and then shot “would have taken it as ‘jest,’” many of us took the comment as an obvious use of exaggerated rhetoric. While I immediately condemned the language, I did not view it as a serious call for violence. Torts cases of defamation often turn common understanding of such expression as jokes or opinion. The lawsuit not only contradicts governing case law but threatens constitutional protections for free speech and the free press in seeking such tort relief.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Is Biden About To Help Make The Case For A Self-Pardon?

With the nomination of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, the list of presumed frontrunners for Attorney General is narrowing. One name remains prominently at top: former Associate Attorney General Sally Yates.  Yates’ appointment would be one of the most controversial for Biden and would likely lead to an intense confirmation fight over her standoff with President Donald Trump at the start of his Administration as well as her role in the Russian investigation. However, in a strange way, Yates’ controversy could be exactly what both President Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden need if they are looking a basis for a self-pardon.

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Uncategorized

Res Ipsa Hits 47,000,000

crowd vj dayThis morning, we passed the 47,000,000 mark in views on the blog. We only just passed 46,000,000 but November had the greatest traffic for the blog in its history. The blog continues to grow with new regular commenters and a growing international readership. Again, we thank our loyal readers who return every day to discuss contemporary legal, political, and occasionally bizarre stories. We have used these moments to give thanks for our many regular readers around the world and give you an idea of the current profile of readers on the blog. We continue to rank with the top legal blogs in the world. As always, I want to offer special thanks for Darren Smith who has continued to help manage the blog and help out folks who encounter posting problems.

So here is our current profile:

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Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks