Media

Comey and McCabe Leap From The Moral High Ground Into The Trump Abyss

jonathanturley Bizarre, Columns, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media, Politics

440px-Comey-FBI-PortraitAndrew_McCabe_official_photoBelow is my column in USA Today on the rapid demise of James Comey and Andrew McCabe, who have fulfilled the very stereotypes drawn by President Donald Trump.  Comey continues to spin the controversy over his book as fulfilling what he saw as a need for ethical leadership (i.e., Comey himself).  Comey acknowledged that he never asked Mueller if he should wait on the book.  Why? If you are so committed to the FBI and this investigation, why would you not ask about the possibly deleterious effects of a tell-all book (which discussed both public and nonpublic evidence).  Clearly the book was not helpful to the investigation, but that did not matter to Comey who saw the greater need as advancing himself as the personification of virtue and ethics — while cashing in on the first tell-all book from a former FBI Director.

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“I Apologize To You For The Mess”: Leading Gay Rights Lawyers Burns Himself To Death In New York Park Protest

jonathanturley Environment, Lawyering, Media, Politics

Statue_at_Metairie_CemeteryThis weekend, the New York bar lost one of its most accomplished lawyers, David Buckel, 60.  Buckel reportedly burned himself to death in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Saturday morning. Buckel was the lead attorney in the lawsuit brought by Teena Brandon, a transgender man who was raped and slain in 1993 in Nebraska. The case inspired the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry.”  He left a suicide note reading “I am David Buckel and I just killed myself by fire as a protest suicide. I apologize to you for the mess.”

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After The Inspector General Report, Questions Grow Over The Lack Of A Criminal Referral For McCabe

jonathanturley Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics

McCabeJustice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has released his watchdog report on the conduct of former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and it is scathing.  As I discussed in an earlier column, McCabe took the unprecedented step of a top former FBI officer of asking for donations on GoFundMe and racked in more than half a million dollars.  He notably raised the money and then closed the site not long before the release of the report showing that he repeatedly made false statements to investigators as well as Comey.  It was like creating a victim fund before police concludes whether you were attacked or the attacker.  Horowitz did not convey any doubt as to McCabe being the culprit.  He and his career staff found that McCabe not only lied but did so to advance his personal — the public’s — interest. If that is the case, it only magnifies the concerns over the treatment of McCabe as opposed to the Trump officials (like Michael Flynn) who he once investigated.  The fact that he had the audacity to raise a half million dollars before the facts were made public only heightens these concerns.

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Mr. President, Beware Of The Wolf Trap

jonathanturley Columns, Congress, Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society
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NPS.gov

Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the greatest danger for President Donald Trump in the raids on his personal attorney’s office, home, and hotel room.  Michael Cohen’s real threat may be as bait — either by design or default.  It is the perfect Wolf Pit and Trump could prove the ultimate prize if he is not restrained in his reaction to the raid.  The most significant blows for his Administration has been the result of Trump’s responses to events.  The most obvious was his disastrous decision to fire Comey in the middle of the Russian investigation.  Already, the Cohen raid has reportedly pushed Trump away from speaking with Mueller.  Cohen has already maximized the damage to himself and his client. He may now have derailed the effort of Trump’s D.C. legal team to prepare him for a sitdown with Mueller on four categories.  At the same time, Trump is reportedly back to threatening that he might fire Mueller or Rosenstein or Sessions.  Despite the overwhelming view of experts and Republican leaders that such a move would highly damaging to his Administration and could trigger impeachment proceedings, there is still a palpable fear that that Trump could take such a self-defeated course.

Here is the column:

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