I will have the honor of appearing today as part of the confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee for Loretta Lynch, nominee to serve as United States Attorney General. Below is my written testimony for the hearing today.
Continue reading “Turley Testimony In Senate Confirmation Hearing Of Loretta Lynch”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
It is unfortunately not surprising that anything that the CIA does should be considered suspect. When the CIA recently came under fire for allegedly spying on Senate computers, no one, except the Senators who were spied on were surprised. Now that Director John Brennan has completed his internal “investigation” into the matter, the truth has come out. John Brennan says he and the CIA did nothing wrong! Continue reading “The CIA’s Whitewash Investigation of Itself”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
After what was declared to be prosecutorial misconduct, the Washington Supreme Court reversed a jury conviction of Odies Delandus Walker. The defendant was convicted as being an accomplice to first degree murder, first degree assault, first degree robbery, solicitation, and conspiracy after a robbery at a Lakewood Walmart.
In closing arguments during trial, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office showed the jury a PowerPoint presentation having over one hundred of a total of approximately two hundred fifty slides having headings such as “DEFENDANT WALKER GUILTY OF PREMEDITATED MURDER,” including one slide having a booking photograph of Walker altered to have “GUILTY BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT” superimposed in boldfaced red letters over his photograph. Additional photographs presented included those of Walker and his family juxtaposed with those of the murder victim emblazoned with inflammatory captions.
Walker asked the court to address if such actions violated his right to a fair trial due to the prejudicial nature of the presentation.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
It is always tragic when anyone is killed. It doesn’t matter if it is accidental or intentional. The tragedy of someone dying is universal. However, when the person killed by a Cleveland Police Officer is a 12-year-old, tragic just doesn’t seem to describe it correctly. You will probably recall the recent case out of Cleveland, Ohio where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by Officer Timothy Loehmann.
Tamir Rice was shot while playing in a Cleveland park. A citizen called 911 and suggested that a juvenile was pointing a gun, which was probably a toy, at people in the park. When Officer Loehmann and his partner answered the call they saw Tamir playing on a swing with the “weapon” in the waistband of his pants. Released videos suggested that Officer Loehmann fired at Tamir within 1-2 seconds of arriving at the park. That same video evidence also shows police throwing Tamir’s 14-year-old sister to the ground and handcuffing her.
When I first heard about the November 22nd, 2014 incident, I was shocked that a 12 year could be gun downed by a police officer. Even the recent stories about the police killing suspects in New Mexico, Missouri, New York City, to name a few, did not prepare me for this killing. Tamir was a 12-year-old child.
When the videos came out and when the truth about Officer Loehmann surfaced, I realized that Officer Loehmann was unfit for duty as a police officer anywhere and the Cleveland Police Department was negligent in hiring an unstable young man to patrol its streets. The decision to hire Officer Loehmann initiated the sad outcome in November. Continue reading “The Sad and Negligent Decision to Hire Officer Timothy Loehmann”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The Justice Department announced a new policy directive issued by Attorney General Eric Holder prohibiting the practice of the federal government adopting local asset forfeiture cases to the federal level. Adoption allows local law enforcement agencies the ability to utilize broad and powerful federal forfeiture and seizure laws that offer greater ability to take assets than what similar state laws would provide.
This comes as a reversal of a decades old policy of “Equitable Sharing” where the federal government would allow local law enforcement agencies the ability to use federal agencies and law to take assets in situations where state law would not permit such seizures.
The former policy had essentially the effect of hiring out the federal government in exchange for a “piece of the action.” The US would retain twenty percent of the assets and remand the remaining eighty percent to the states. With the exception of seizures relating to “public safety” such as firearms and explosives cases, this new policy change effectively could shut the door on what has been widely criticized to be a form corruptive abuse against citizens.
Continue reading “U.S. Attorney General Halts Controversial Asset Forfeiture Program”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty, (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
In our sometimes upside down world, it can seem that the lives and secrets of our intelligence service employees and their agencies are worth more than the lives and physical and mental well-being of the countless prisoners who were tortured by the CIA . That is the same torture that was authorized and approved at the highest levels of our government.
Let’s also not forget the many instances of allegedly criminal activity by large banks and their employees that resulted in civil fines or no action at all, notwithstanding the lives that were shattered in the meantime.
Recently it was disclosed that the Department of Justice and the FBI have recommended that Gen. David Petraeus be criminally prosecuted for allegedly passing his classified CIA email account and exposing state secrets to the biographer/author he was having an affair with. This is the very same Department of Justice, along with the Obama Administration that claims it did not have enough evidence to file charges against admitted torturers and those that authorized the torture and destruction of evidence. Continue reading “An Upside Down World of Justice”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The instances of reported abuse of our country’s laws by our Intelligence services seems never-ending. The National Security Agency, or NSA is at the top of the list when it comes to violations of our laws and even its own rules and procedures that are allegedly designed to protect our privacy.
Pursuant to a court order in a case brought by the ACLU, the NSA is required to provide a list of its abuses on a quarterly basis. Of course, the NSA redacts most of what it puts in its own disclosures. Continue reading “NSA Abuses Never End”
By Darren Smith Weekend Contributor
The intrigue after the fallout generated by State Supreme Court holding the state, and essentially the legislature, in contempt for failing to adequately address their constitutionally mandated funding of primary education, the legislature refused to allocate time to allow Barbara Madsen, the Chief Justice, to give the State of The Judiciary Address.
Legislators claimed, among other issues, it was due to the historical lack of attendance by members and not an insult directed at the Supreme Court.
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)- Weekend Contributor
It should not surprise any of the regular visitors to this blog that I have written many articles detailing the abuses of many of the Big Banks and the resulting fines that they have paid on multiple occasions. When a taxpayer reads about Billion dollar settlements being paid by Banks and financial companies as a result of a Justice Department investigation, they probably assume that the entire amount of the fine is being paid.
Those very same taxpayers may be surprised to learn that in many cases, the Banks are able to deduct from their taxes up to 75% of the fines and settlements made with the Justice Department. Continue reading “Just How Much of Big Bank Fines Are Actually Paid and Who Profits?”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In another showing of international support for the activities in revealing to the public the abuses of the NSA, whistleblower Edward Snowden, journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras each received the Carl von Ossietzky award in Berlin today.
The award is bestowed to honor those who exhibit extraordinary civic courage or commitment to the spread or defense of human rights.
Continue reading “Snowden, Greenwald, And Poitras Receive Prestigious Human Rights Award In Berlin”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Weekend Contributor
This past week’s news reports of the Senate report on the CIA Torture program were both distressing and enlightening. I was dismayed to not only read what the full extent of the CIA’s Torture program was, but also when I read pundits and former CIA officials claim that rectal rehydration was merely a medical procedure! I was further discouraged when commenters on this blog made claims that waterboarding and other torture tactics were either necessary or what the devils deserved.
Very few pundits or commenters seem to care if the so-called Enhanced Interrogation techniques were legal or ethical when the CIA resorted to them shortly after 9/11. This “debate” over the actions taken in our name by the CIA has gone from a report based on the CIA’s own words to denials that the techniques were torture, to claims that great intelligence value was gained using the torture and claims that it was a biased report written by Democrats. Continue reading “The CIA Lost Its Soul and Took Ours With It”
We have another story of a thief likely to receive a lump of coal for Christmas. This time the Whoville is located in Saco, Maine where a video shows a woman allegedly stealing a Christmas Wreath from a headstone in a cemetery.
Police reports indicate at least fifteen wreaths stolen from various graves at Laurel Hill Cemetery. After a previous incident, a family member of one of the deceased placed a wildlife camera on a tree to record any future thefts. The camera proved worthy in its capture of a Grinch in the act.
But that was not the ending of this Christmas Story.
Continue reading “Trouble in Whoville III: How The Grinch Grave Robbed Christmas”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
The Banksters are at it again. You may recall an article that I wrote in March of 2013 which detailed a plan agreed to by the Bank of England and the FDIC which would allow banks to grab depositors funds in order to avoid a bank failure. The prime example given in that article was a similar plan that was put into action in Cyprus. Similar plans were on the books elsewhere, but the Cyprus grab had actually been activated.
Now it seems that the joint FDIC-Bank of England agreement from December of 2012 was not enough to make the Banksters whole in the event that their derivative gambling went south. The idea has gone global and it puts all of our deposits, and even our pension investments at risk! Continue reading “Bail-Ins and Empty Pockets”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
Now that we have celebrated Thanksgiving, I was struck by the news that Congress is considering legislation that would grant large tax breaks to corporate citizens and actually remove tax breaks for the poor and the middle class.
‘ “This Congress seems willing to give huge tax cuts to big businesses—who are already doing better than ever—but somehow can’t prevent tax increases on 50 million working Americans that will occur when expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit expire,” Harry Stein, the Associate Director for Fiscal Policy at American Progress Action Fund, told ThinkProgress. “This is a great deal for CEOs and a terrible deal for struggling families.”’ Nation of Change Continue reading “Corporate Greed”
The Grand Jury in Missouri appears to have rendered its decision in the shooting investigation Michael Brown. It is expected to be announced shortly. Below is my column in USA Today.