Below is my column in The Messenger on how the second indictment could prove damaging for President Joe Biden. Ironically, both Trump indictments have blowback potential for Biden on the retention of classified material and the dissemination of false claims. Notably, the New York Times has reported that Biden has had his own Thomas Becket moments in telling aides that he wanted Trump indicted and criticizing the Attorney General Merrick Garland for the delay. It is not clear if Smith will “rid [Biden] of this meddlesome president,” but his theory of criminality could prove costly to Biden himself. Indeed, it could be used as a basis for an impeachment inquiry.
Here is the column:
After last week’s indictment of former President Donald Trump relating to the 2020 election, CNN declared that the charges were “personal” for President Joe Biden, who previously said Trump’s words sounded like “sedition.”
Of course, Trump was not charged with sedition or even seditious conspiracy. Nor was he charged with conspiracy to incitement or insurrection, the grounds for his second impeachment.
However, if Biden does view this case as personal, as CNN suggests, he might be right for the wrong reason. That’s because the case being constructed against Trump by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith could prove a serious problem for Biden, too — particularly as the basis for a House impeachment inquiry.
The latest Trump indictment, based on little new evidence and even less established law, faces a major threshold challenge under the First Amendment. Smith is seeking to criminalize what constitutes disinformation, which not only runs against the grain of the First Amendment but also prior cases. That includes United States v. Alvarez, which overturned the conviction of a politician for knowingly lying about his military background.
The Justice Department acknowledges that the Constitution protects false statements made in political campaigns. Yet it maintains that Trump can be convicted for lying because he really did not believe what he said.
The problem is that the effect of these lies largely fueled the actions of third parties. If Trump were accused of using fraud for pecuniary gain or of lying to federal investigators, there would be no free-speech problem. The complaint, however, focuses on the lies rather than any larceny or standalone crime. It is diffuse in saying that raising doubts over the election undermined the value or results of voting. Previous challenges have been made to certification of presidential elections with little basis (including by Democrats) and even alternative sets of electors have been submitted without criminal charges.
This criminal intent is based on Trump being told by many people that the election was not stolen and he could not stop its certification. I was one of those who maintained that Trump was wrong on the election, Vice President Pence’s authority to void the results, and the Trump team’s challenges. However, Trump followed the advice of a second, albeit smaller, set of lawyers who told him there was a basis for challenging the election.
That is not a crime. It is, in my view, protected political speech. Presidents routinely lie on matters great and small. Many of those lies cost citizens dearly, from “keeping your doctor” under ObamaCare to losing your life in Vietnam. Criminalizing lies in campaigns because of the spread of disinformation or disorder is a slippery slope that vests unprecedented power in the Justice Department.
There is a wicked twist in all of this for Biden. The very controversial linchpin used against Trump could conceivably be used against Biden, particularly in the launching of an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans.
While third parties proceeded to take steps to challenge the election and offer alternative electors, Trump continued to publicly deny the election’s legitimacy and failed to effectively call them back. He is accused of seeking out those who would legitimize or enable his political spin on his 2020 defeat.
Not dissimilarly, Biden has long been accused of knowing disregard for constitutional limitations as his administration has pushed unconstitutional measures. For example, Biden conceded that his own White House counsel and trusted legal advisers uniformly told him that renewing a national eviction moratorium would be unconstitutional — but he listened instead to a Harvard law professor who reportedly assured him he had the authority. His eviction-ban order was quickly found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Far more serious are the accusations facing Biden over his response to a growing corruption scandal allegedly involving his son and others. It now seems clear that Biden has lied to the public for years on critical details of the scandal. Indeed, his denial of any knowledge or involvement in his son’s overseas business deals go back to the 2020 presidential debate.
Biden also denied that Hunter Biden received any money from China, which the Washington Post now declares to be manifestly untrue. For years, Biden has allowed his staff, including White House officials, to repeat his denials while opposing any further investigation.
That is why guilt by implication or association, as employed by special counsel Smith against Trump, could be a dangerous legal standard for Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden’s former friend and associate, Devon Archer, told House Oversight Committee investigators last week that they were indeed selling “the brand” and that Joe Biden was part of that brand.
Ironically, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) — who demolished Biden’s defense in an earlier House hearing with two IRS agents — repeated the same blunder during Archer’s closed-door committee appearance. In the previous hearing, Goldman bizarrely raised the instance of Joe Biden going to a lunch at the Four Seasons with Hunter and his Chinese business associates.
In his own committee appearance, Archer was careful not to overstate his knowledge of demands made on then-Vice President Biden and denied personal knowledge of any. Yet Goldman refused to leave a good answer alone and plowed forward into the unknown. He noted that Archer had said they discussed “niceties” — “Where are you, how’s the weather, how’s the fishing?” — in more than 20 phone calls with the senior Biden in the presence of Hunter’s foreign business partners. Goldman pressed Archer to expand, and Archer did, stating: “They were calls to talk about the weather, and that was signal enough to be powerful.”
In other words, the point was the call itself — the access — not the content of the calls.
Later, in a media interview, Archer reaffirmed that it is “categorically false” that Joe Biden had no role in or knowledge of his son’s business dealings, stating: “He was aware of Hunter’s business. He met with Hunter’s business partners.”
Archer also confirmed dinners long denied by Biden officials and the media. For example, prior reports of a 2015 dinner with Hunter’s business associates directly contradicted the president’s repeated denials of knowledge or involvement. A Biden 2020 campaign spokesman at the time insisted the story was false, and Politico reported that other officials also assured that it was all untrue; some suggested it was more “Russian disinformation.”
It turns out that denial also was a lie, because Archer confirmed that Biden “had dinner” with him and several others, including “Vadym P. from Burisma,” referring to an officer of a Ukrainian energy company. The senior Biden reportedly joined the dinner and engaged in discussions.
Biden surely knew his denials of knowledge and interactions were untrue, even as his aides misinformed the public and as congressional and federal investigations occurred.
Now, according to special counsel Smith, such knowing lies can be criminal matters, at least in the case of Donald Trump. For Congress, it could also trigger impeachment inquiries in the case of Joe Biden — and that would make this very personal indeed.
Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.
Backfire Bombshell
I don’t understand the difference between
– Trump ‘clinging’ to power and Biden demanding power
– About Trump refusing to accept the results of the election and Biden refusing to accept that he lost
The election results are well within the statistical margin of error – so why is Biden feel so strongly that he is is ‘right’ that he won an election that statistics says is a toss-up, at best
And if Biden really lost but forced himself on the rest of us – then isn’t Biden the one ‘clinging’ to power?
“. . . his son’s overseas *business* deals . . .” (JT, emphasis added)
“Business” deals, “business” associates is a widely used, grotesque mischaracterization of the Bidens’ swindles. Conducting business, the trading of economic value for economic value, is a noble activity. The Biden deals were corrupt, dishonest, bribery, extortion, grifting.
Please, everyone, us language precisely. Call those deals what they were: Bribery schemes, corruption schemes, grifting schemes, selling-out-your-country schemes.
I’d settle for “Influence peddling”. -a.v.
You create the virus then you fire, cancel, ban, incarcerate and lawfare anyone who doesn’t like it.
You steal the election then you fire, cancel, ban, incarcerate and lawfare anyone who doesn’t like it.
You’re the innocent golden snow of honor justice propriety fairness and acumen.
I have been learning more about “Bidenomics” lately. His family crime syndicate took in tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies and countries that was funneled into shell corporations, family members, etc. I am curious how I can go overseas and come back with bags and suitcases of cash for no special reason other than my last name. No expectations. No strings attached.
Meanwhile inflation under his watch is soaring and wages are down and Americans have over a trillion dollars in consumer debt! Cash is leaving the private sector thus reducing liquidity and investors are now gaining from interest income.
Oh, and I also have in my library the book, “How to Lie With Statistics.”
FishWings responds to me (disappeared with Bug’s), “Trump domestically…over 400,000 US citizens dead from Trumps inaction, misinformation and lies.”
I know how hard some people work to appear intelligent, but not FishWings. He stands out, trying to look stupid, and succeeds.
Despite having vaccines, improved drugs, and more available accumulated knowledge, Biden had more than double the number of deaths as Trump.
The monitors of this blog should arrest FishWings for indecent exposure because he is running around with nothing in his head.
U.S. HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE
𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚, 𝐊𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐤𝐡𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐔𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞
By: U.S. House Oversight Committee – Press Release Published: Aug 9, 2023
https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-releases-third-bank-memo-detailing-payments-to-the-bidens-from-russia-kazakhstan-and-ukraine%EF%BF%BC/
Hunter Biden
𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐇𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐬
by Reese Gorman, Congressional Reporter | August 09, 2023 09:00 AM
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/-oversight-committee-releases-new-hunter-biden-bank-memo
What kind of dressing do want on your word salad.
NEWS FLASH!!!
There are now “NINE wonders of the ‘earth’” and the grand canyon is one of them.
In other news, the weather channel is predicting a 90% chance of precipitation—-in Pedo Joe’s pants.
And Joe Briben brought up his oil cancer again. It must be a very non-aggressive type of CA, because it looks like his dementia is advancing more rapidly. If he is blatantly going to hold up his cheat sheet in full view of the camera, the least he could do is stick to it!
My understanding is that Pence will testify that he was asked by Trump to unilaterally reject Biden electors in some states and count Trump electors. Or alternatively to reject the Biden electors and send the matter back to the state legislatures. That could be a legal problem for Trump, and certainly for his lawyer Eastman, in terms of the Electoral Count Act and the defrauding statutes — even if he thinks he won the popular vote in those states.
Steve, you are leaving out the fact Congress changed the Electoral Count Act, to Prevent the VP from doing what President Trump asked.
Law not as precise as your dreams have told you.
The Question all the internet lawyers, like yourself refuse to even take a troll like swipe .
Who exactly would have the constitutional power to challenge the VP from rejecting EC votes from States that showed evidence of having less than legal election procedures. But its not about the VP denying EV votes. Its about Constitutional plenary power.
Number 1. The House has no shortage of valid reasons to impeach Biden. They don’t need to invent new charges based on questionable legal precedents.
Number 2. There is no reason to believe that any law applied to a Republican will ever be applied to a Democrat. It doesn’t happen in our new and improved Justice System.
Exactly…so Mathew ‘walker’ Anderson of Sherburne Co minnesota is criminally charged with a ghost gun…..charge….even tho he cleared it with the atf first. .the state goes after him as a felon for no serial number. Clearly based on the last weeks ruling….it’s all ambiguios….the question then is if….the rule of lieninty means anything. .?? .. ie due prossess….means much? That the “law” has to be obvious….but obviously if a law says to do xyz…and you comply with that…how can other than following that law be considered criminal? Hence even before the rule of lienty…..which roots are in due process itself.
But I suspect as namely named….this will be a “forsham” case….it’s so sad to see our courts certs …be used so shame-ly. Like the anti car bills ..about the opposite we the ppl wanted for over 50 years. And all they got is clockwork orange. … propaganda. These are serious cases that go to root of everything the last 78 years. Their problem is clock work…no one knows …orange and how it turns out for them….but basic principals are obvous….like due process….and not by beholden you must believe x types……no due process where in the first instance the law was obvious….anything less is a gulag…ussr…lawn services…seriously?
𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩’𝐬 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭
New court papers first reported by Politico reveal that the special counsel investigating former President Trump secured a search warrant for his Twitter account back in January.
By: Taylor Hatmaker @tayhatmaker – August 9, 2023 | 1:11 PM PDT
https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/09/trump-special-counsel-twitter-search-warrant/
Beryl Howell Held Elon Musk’s Xitter in Contempt
2016 Presidential Election, January 6 Insurrection / by emptywheel / August 9, 2023
https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/08/09/beryl-howell-held-elon-musks-xitter-in-contempt/
[UNSEALED] FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
Argued May 19, 2023
No. 23-5044
Decided July 18, 2023
Reissued August 9, 2023
lNRE: SEALED CASE
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
(No. 1:23-sc-00031)
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cadc.39513/gov.uscourts.cadc.39513.1208541751.0.pdf
The hat makers credibility is in the pot….he now does upside down visors…
Who refused to prepare for Jan 6? The Democrats
Who lied about Jan 6? The Democrats.
Who stirred up violence on Jan 6. Lots of people including Democrat or FBI operatives.
Ray Epps is seen near Michael Jones.
====
Who is Michael Jones?: FBI Informant Planted in Proud Boys Caught on Tape on January 6
Instead of serving time in prison for felony convictions, Jones is part of the so-called “white supremacy” movement. He also reportedly is a fed.
Further, Jones’ conduct on January 6 was far more violent than the conduct of any of the five Proud Boys later charged with seditious conspiracy and other felonies. (All were denied bail.) Four of the five were convicted of seditious conspiracy in April and face decades in prison.
https://www.declassified.live/p/who-is-michael-jones-fbi-informant?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-47f3e47a-68dd-4a44-ae49-b5ac000c0100
DC is a symptom of a far bigger problem in America. Democrats can not tolerate bad news on their watch. DC mayor is a Democrat black female Leftist who demanded defunding of police back in 2020. She betrays the blacks of DC for the “party”. so naturally they want to change the topic to….But Trump! But Republicans! as they ignore the cries of fear from Americans demanding help from Democrat policies. It is stunning that the DC Police Chief is pleading with community members. Happily Democrat Congresswoman Cori Bush has spent thousands of dollars to hire her own personal security. Small comfort for blacks of DC living in fear
DC police chief shares efforts to curb rise in violence, improve policing
D.C. leaders gathered in Brookland on Tuesday night to discuss the rise of violent crime across the city, hoping to reassure residents that law enforcement is working hard to address community concerns.
At the meeting, acting Police Chief Pamela Smith pleaded with community members.
“Hang in there with us a little bit longer, we are doing the best we can with what we have,” she said to a crowded gymnasium of residents.
The District has seen 161 homicides in 2023 so far — a 28% increase compared to the same period last year. If the city reaches 200 homicides, it will be for the third year in a row.
https://wtop.com/dc/2023/08/dc-police-chief-shares-efforts-to-curb-rise-in-violence-improve-policing/
#DefundDemocrats
The entire west coast has become unlivable due to Democrats governing all three states and virtually all city governments (ditto for most large cities anywhere in the US, such as Chicago, St Louis, and New Orleans where my son just spent a year and barely escaped with his life). But the idiot voters keep voting Democrats back in. In L.A. they wouldn’t even recall Gascon even though he’s made that city a hell hole of crime. I say they get the government they deserve.
OT, John Stossel blows up the climate scam:
https://twitter.com/JohnStossel/status/1688935346711773184
I love his calm, fact based approach.
One thing we have not heard about is one of the biggest volcano eruptions in the past 150 years and the debris in the atmosphere, water vapor, and 50-80KM of seabed destruction near Tonga but felt worldwide and into space. What we do is peanuts by comparison. Where is the talk about that? Oh, I forget, it’s not part of the “settled science.”
https://youtu.be/RmTqphI0ods
Criminalization is the wrong approach to reigning in deliberate falsehoods as a routine tool of political competition.
Liability assigned by a civil lawsuit Jury is the Constitutionally-proper way to go. In such torts cases, the government has no particular advantage — as in prosecution, where govt. can both lie to the public and decide not to prosecute itself.
The proposal is similar to Defamation Law, except the wronged party is the Public, whose injury is being impeded in making public policy and leadership decisions based on facts and reason. This flows from the notion of “the consent of the governed” — if that consent were obtained through trickery and deceit, and important irreversible decisions are made in the interim, the public fury upon learning the truth at being duped could unleash a Constitutional crisis.
In other words, the consent of the governed is open to being undermined if 1A goes so far as to protect psyOps-style, deceitful mind-control effectively waged on the public during decisionmaking timeframes. This happened in the lead up to the Iraq War at an ultimate cost of 4000 American lives, $ trillions that could have been better spent, and a government in Baghdad no more friendly to the US than Saddam’s regime was. How many more collossal blunders like that lie ahead if the Trump case results in an even wider berth given to professional, well-funded, mendacious infowarriors? The result would be a mendocracy — where the most sophisticated, clever liars and their media-echo networks rule. Is that what we want?
The Nick Sandmann-CNN/WaPo case, Sandy Hook parents-Alex Jones case, and Dominion Voting-Fox News case point the way to giving the people the necessary legal tool to confront the political whopper. The major difference is the snail’s pace of torts due-process, with all its delays, will not solve the problem. The infowarrior only needs the false narrative to have “legs” temporarily — during critical decision timeframes. Don’t you think Mike Morrell (a guy who received dozens of hours of psyOps training at Langley paid by we taxpayers) was thinking this way 3 weeks before the 2020 election?
So, we have a good model for how the public — the electorate — can better keep govt. honest. We just have to broaden defamation law to cover public-frauds-of-consequence, and create rapid due-diligence in these courts so that the truth is playing on a level field with the well-crafted falsehood, subpoena and discovery smash the veil of secrecy behind which the hoax-crafter operates, evidence is challenged in an adversarial process, a Jury of 12 ordinary Americans serves as finder-of-fact — and a Judge imposes a schedule leading to closure. If that schedule can be adapted for rapid-response due-diligence, then brazen lies can be stopped in their tracks before having time to do damage to public decisionmaking.
And all this can give new life to the 1st Amendment, by making it clear that we don’t need government prosecution to deter intentional disinformation. We’ll have a much stronger means.
pb – this is a creative idea, worth fleshing out. In that vein: normally for civil cases the plaintiffs have to show damages that can be measured in dollars. That holds for defamation cases. In very limited circumstances courts in civil cases can order specific performance, as of a contract. Courts can also grant injunctive relief. What type of damages or relief did you have in mind? IOW, if the plaintiffs win, what will the order say?
Good questions, Kansas. Primarily, a finding of “liability” would tag the accused respondent (infowarrior) as a willful liar, establish the truth, and officially discredit the fabrication. There could be punitive-only damages, although if financial harm is inflicted through the uptake of the lie, compensatory damages. I don’t think there could be injunctive relief (pre-trial), because the facts are only decided by the Jury at the end of the trial. My sense is that the mere fact of a big lie being challenged with a lawsuit would begin to chip away at its traction.
There also should be a penalty for a frivolous, harassing lawsuit unable to prove willful, knowing mendacity.
I’d like comments from lawyers who work the defamation venue…does this sound feasible? What are some gotchas to consider? What loopholes could infowarriors exploit?
Gun-free Washington DC is a hell hole
as of Aug 9, 2023…
https://mpdc.dc.gov/page/district-crime-data-glance
Offense 2022 2023 Percent Change
Homicide 126 162 29%
Sex Abuse 79 94 19%
Assault w/ a Dangerous Weapon 852 888 4%
Robbery 1,300 2,085 60%
Violent Crime – Total 2,357 3,229 37%
Burglary 657 627 -5%
Motor Vehicle Theft 2,067 4,417 114%
Theft from Auto 4,691 4,742 1%
Theft (Other) 6,120 7,643 25%
Arson 2 8 300%
Property Crime – Total 13,537 17,437 29%
All Crime – Total 15,894 20,666 30%
DC has a population of almost 700,000. On a per capita basis, a number of Republican-led cities (e.g., Anchorage, Alaska) are more dangerous. But I doubt you’ll criticize them.
Anchorage is a nonpartisan council/assembly.
Cities with the Highest Murder Rates
10. Washington, D.C.
Washington D.C. has the tenth-highest murder rate in the country of 22.8 murders per 100,000. There were 162 homicides in D.C. in 2019, two higher than in 2018. Gun violence is a big problem in D.C. and the main cause of death in homicides; however, nearly 8 out of 10 gunshots go unreported in D.C., a statistic that prompted the police to begin using ShotSpotter technology to detect and alert police of gunshots.
____
This is our Capital!
Gun free zones are some of the most dangerous places in America. Just ask the 32 people slaughtered and the 17 wounded at Virginia Tech who were unable to defend themselves because they were in a gun free zone.
A self-identified “MAGA Trumper” with a sniper rifle has been killed by the FBI as they attempted to arrest him for threatening to assassinate Biden, Harris, Alvin Bragg, Tish James, and others. He’d threatened to murder Biden during his visit to Utah today.
He was 75 years old. Makes you wonder….
75 years old. Yea, he was a credible threat. Sounds like he was incited by chuck shumer’s “reap the whirlwind” speech.
Fake ass people spewing nonsense.
Too bad the fbi didnt find a credible threat before innocent americans were killed at the Boston marathon.
Strange with his lengthy history, known patterns of movement, and his age, that the entire full array of the local, State, and Federal law enforcement failed to safely arrest this subject.
In Trump’s other federal case, his lawyers just asked Judge Cannon to order that a SCIF be constructed at MaL so he can discuss classified discovery material more conveniently. So much for the false claims that he already had a SCIF there post-presidency and that all of the docs in question were declassified.
As for the ask, I doubt that Cannon can order the Executive to create a SCIF anywhere.
OT
Democrats called for defunding the police even if they control Washington DC. The Left (and the MSM but I repeat myself) have told us crime is down. Maybe its all because of climate change…as in change the subject
We are clearly in a war zone’: DC Council member calls on National Guard to fight city violence
https://wtop.com/dc/2023/08/we-are-clearly-in-a-war-zone-dc-council-member-calls-on-national-guard-to-fight-city-violence/