We recently discussed how the plea agreement with a BLM protester (who tried to cut the brake lines on a police vehicle) may indicate a significant shift from the Trump Administration in prosecuting violent protesters. New figures out of Portland would indicate that there is such a major shift occurring. The Justice Department are dropping 58 of the 97 criminal charges brought after the Portland riots, including assaults on officers.
Category: Justice
I have been a long critic of Rudy Giuliani going back years, including interviews and press conferences that I have condemned for making unsupported statements (as well as comments inimical to his client’s interest). However, Giuliani may have a valid point. The Biden Administration sent FBI agents to raid his home and other lawyers to seize “electronic devices.” According to Giuliani, this included computers and cell phones containing electronic files. However, the agents reportedly refused to take hard drives that Giuliani said contained material related to Hunter Biden, the son of our President. If the warrant did call for the seizure of computer and electronic devices, that makes no sense at all, particularly in accepting the word of the target of the search as to the contents of the devices. As a defense attorney, I often question the scope of seizures in such searches as excessive or overly broad. I have never run into a search where agents refused to take evidence that is ordinarily defined within the scope of the warrant. We have yet to see the warrant itself but this is a curious omission given the seizure of computers.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
After a two year long impasse, the Iraqi Parliament enacted law recompensing Yazidi and other similarly stationed ethnic groups for the genocide and other crimes against humanity they suffered at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It is hard to imagine how any human being could be made whole after having suffered such inhumanity prosecuted against these people. The Iraqi Government does deserve praise for making a credible and genuine effort to afford them a promise of compensation and opportunities to earn a more promising and just future within their country and society in general.
Iraqi President Barham Salih tweeted the legislation, “is a victory for the victims [and] our daughters who have been subjected to the most heinous violations and crimes of ISIS genocide.”
The law provides recognition by the Iraqi Government of the genocide, which up until then was only officially so by the Kurdistan Regional Government in the North.
Continue reading “Iraqi Parliament Enacts Recompense Law for Yazidi Genocide Victims”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
I thought I would make a suggestion for those who wish to pay forward a debt of gratitude we might owe our local police officers for what has been a very difficult few years. Maybe each of you might consider for even once in 2021 anonymously paying for coffee or a lunch for a police officer who serves your community. It might be a few dollars, but I can assure you it will make their shift just a bit more enjoyable–that someone cared and was grateful.
Continue reading “Giving Thanks: Buy Coffee or Lunch For A Police Officer This Year”
Below is my column in the Hill on grounds for and against the appointment of a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation. By refusing address the underlying allegations, Joe Biden is magnifying the concerns over possible conflicts of interest and his own possible exposure. Biden is maintaining that he will not ask potential Justice Department nominees about the investigation but he is also refusing to answer specific questions. In the meantime, he appeared to confirm that he views the investigation to be Russian disinformation. That is a familiar profile in a scandal at the start of an Administration and Democrats are likely to face their own prior calls to investigate the Trump family on such questions of foreign influence.
Here is the column: Continue reading “The Case For and Against The Appointment Of A Special Counsel In The Hunter Biden Investigation”
Below is my column in the Hill on the early departure of Attorney General Bill Barr. The move will give Trump the record on Attorneys General. That is not good. A President cannot selected too many Supreme Court justices or too few Attorneys General. Reports indicate that, with Barr leaving, Trump is openly discussing appointing a special counsel for the Hunter Biden investigation. At this point, that appears entirely unnecessary and would further tarnish the image of Trump as someone who is interfering with the internal decisions of the Justice Department. What is clear is that Barr proved a critical fire wall for the Department at one of its most chaotic and challenging periods. As I have previously said, Barr remains more sinned against than sinner and history will vindicate his tenure at the Justice Department.
Here is the column: Continue reading “Bill Barr’s Family Time: How The Justice Department Has Lost One Of Its Staunchest Defenders”
CNN’s media reporter Brian Stelter appeared to answer my question from a couple days ago on whether the media would bury that scandal involving Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. The answer is now clearly yes. Indeed, Stelter was critical of coverage on Fox as excessive on the Biden scandal as his network continues to downplay or bury both the Biden and the Swalwell stories. To cover the Biden story would expose CNN’s own failure to honestly report a major story before the election in order to protect Biden. This is scandal that not only raises the possible criminal prosecution of the son of the incoming president but involves emails and evidence that directly contradict Joe Biden’s past denials of knowledge or involvement. Stelter however views the problem as covering the story too much. It seems that it is not Biden controlling the media but the media simply controlling its “portions.”
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.
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”
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.
Continue reading “Hunter Biden Is Under Federal Investigation”
We have been discussing the previously announced use of terrorism laws to address violent protests around the country, a move that I have criticized as raising civil liberty concerns. There have been cases that arguably fit a terrorism model however and now the Justice Department has charged a new such case against two women associated with Antifa and anarchist groups. Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, and Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23, were charged with terrorism crimes in allegedly trying to place a “shunt” on railroad tracks to cause a train to derail. Continue reading ““It’s Going Down”: The Justice Department Charges Two Women on Terrorism Charges”
Below is my column in USA Today on the implications of the appointment of U.S. Attorney John Durham as a Special Counsel. House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff and other Democrats have already denounced the move and called for the next Attorney General to consider rescinding the appointment. While Schiff previously called for legislation to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller to complete his work without interference from the Attorney General, he ramped up the rhetoric against Durham as leading a “politically motivated investigation.” Durham was previously praised by Democrats and Republicans alike as an independent, apolitical, and honest prosecutor. After insisting that the public has a right to see what has been uncovered over years of investigation by Mueller, they are now pushing to end the Durham investigation and forestall any final public report.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Barr’s Appointment Of Special Counsel Leaves Biden and Democrats In A Muddle”
Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page on Friday has filed a $75 million lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former high-ranking officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, and Andrew McCabe. The complaint includes eight claims that range from violations to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Federal Tort Claims Act, a Bivens claim, and Privacy Act. It is very well written, but it will be challenging given the discretionary authority of justice officials in some of these actions. For full disclosure, I previously discussed Page’s case with both Page and his counsel (particularly after a column on his case). I have been a critic of his targeting for years and have spoken with Page on the investigation. I view Page as a victim of an abusive federal investigation and ideally he should be afforded relief for his treatment. Federal case law however presents barriers for people in his position. If he were to prevail, it could create important precedent protecting citizens and civil liberties for the future.
Continue reading “Carter Page Files $75 Million Lawsuit Against The FBI, Comey, McCabe, and Others”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
I’ll go out on a limb and make a proposal, based mostly on anecdotal observations I have made during my adult life of both politicians and elected officials–there is a difference–and what these individuals have often gotten us into. I have come to the conclusion that among the various cultivars of politics, the two positions that for me have consistently remained the most benevolently virtuous, and least damaging to ordinary people, are not the high-profile, ostentatious seats in various houses of parliament, legislatures, or a presidency. They are often the more behind-the-scenes, yet foundationally necessary public service elected officials often known as Water District and Sewer District Commissioners.
They might not be the most well-known, which in itself is an admirable quality, but they serve for me as a model of how we would be as a society better off if politicians adopted the approach of these commissioners and not that of petty tyrants or worse that seem to be attracted to politics.
President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a pardon for his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn this week. As someone who has long opposed Trump’s pardons of Trump associates like Roger Stone and Joe Arpaio, I do not come easily to the idea of pardon for someone like Flynn. However, the strongest case for a pardon for Flynn was not made by his lawyers as much as his judge, the Honorable Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan’s continued controversial actions in the case could be cited as a credible, if not a compelling basis, for a pardon of Flynn. Continue reading “The Best Case For A Flynn Pardon May Be The Conduct Of The Court Rather Than The Defendant”