There is an interesting legal challenge in Cambridge where an independent Senate candidate has alleged that Democratic city leaders have improperly used their authority to try to shutdown his campaign against Mass. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Specifically at issue is a bus featuring campaign slogans parked in the lot of an apartment building owned by Shiva Ayyadurai. Ayyadurai’s signs poke fun at Warren’s disputed claim that she is Native American. Ayyadurai whose family came from India has posted signs proclaiming “Only A REAL INDIAN Can Defeat The Fake Indian.” City officials ordered the signs removed, though the basis for the action is hardly self-evident. Ayyadurai has filed a free speech challenge in federal court.
Category: Media
I (and many others) have cautioned the President for over a year that his tweets and public comments are underlying his case (and litigation like the immigration challenges) in federal court. Now the Justice Department has used the President’s latest comments in a call-in to “Fox and Friends” as eviscerating efforts to claim privilege over documents on his behalf in the review of the material seized from his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. While opposing counsel like Democratic state attorneys general have used Trump’s comments against his Administration and the Justice Department has struggled to defend against such use, this is the first time that his own Justice Department is using the President’s comments effectively against his interests. In the meantime, it was revealed yesterday that the FBI seized 16 different cellphones from Michael Cohen.
I have the honor today of giving the 2018 Thomas M. Kerr, Jr. Lecture on Law and American Society at Carnegie Mellon University. My lecture will be on The Rise and Fall of Free Speech in the West and will be held in Gregg Hall (Porter Hall 100) on Thursday, April 26th from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Continue reading “Turley To Give The 2018 Thomas M. Kerr, Jr. Lecture At Carnegie Mellon University”
MSNBC host Joy Reid is reported on the Daily Beast (where she appears as a columnist) to have reaffirmed her earlier claim that hackers “fabricated” old blog posts to make her appear homophobic. The claim is alarming whether true or false. It true, archiving website The Wayback Machine was either compromised or a party to the deception. If false, Reid has lied to the media in a major story involving her own conduct. The company has issued a denial that it was in any way compromised or responsible for the comments.
Continue reading “MSNBC Host Joy Reid Claims Hackers “Fabricated” Her Alleged Homophobic Comments”
We have followed the rapid destruction of the secular government and civil liberties in Turkey under the authoritarian rule of Erdogan. Erdogan used a failed coup to push his effort to create a de facto Islamic regime and to complete his work in arresting his critics, including forcing the resignation of thousands of secular academics, and suspending all civil liberties in a proclaimed state of emergency. Previously, Erdogan threatened the United States if it didn’t handIslamic cleric Fethullah Gulen over to him and that a failure to yield to his demands would be a “big mistake.” Now he is taking hostages. Erdogan is suggesting that he will not turn over pastor Andrew Brunson (who was arrested in 2016) unless we turn over Gulen for likely torture and execution. Erdogan, who has destroyed the once free press of Turkey as well as secular institutions, is leaving no doubt as to his achieving tyrannical rule in the once modern Islamic nation.
I previously wrote that President Donald Trump has the curious skill of bringing out the worst in his critics. In the last two weeks, two of Trump’s greatest critics have not only faced their own investigations into leaks by the Inspector General (and McCabe is now the subject of a criminal referral for prosecution), they are increasingly at odds with one another. It is clear that either Comey or McCabe is offering a false account of leaks from the Justice Department. With McCabe now promising defamation lawsuits and the possibility of a prosecution, this could get much worse before it gets better.
Continue reading “Liar, Liar, DOJ On Fire? Comey and McCabe Offer Sharply Conflicting Accounts”
We recently discussed the bizarre statement from D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) that Jewish bankers controlled the weather. White’s stupefying stupidity became an international sensation, which he did not help with his apology: “I have spoke [sic] to leader and my friends at Jews United for Justice and they are helping me to understand the history of comment [sic] made against Jews.” Putting aside the need for a refresher, White sought to mollify his critics with a visit to the Holocaust Museum which has made the situation only worse with bizarre questions and an early departure.
Below 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.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Comey and McCabe Leap From The Moral High Ground Into The Trump Abyss”
Below is my column on the Comey book and ABC interview. Comey continues to paint the book as a calling for him to supply an account of ethical leadership — himself — as opposed to cashing in on a tell-all book. The book and the interview speak for themselves.
Continue reading “Comey’s Tell-All Book Tells All You Need To Know About Comey”
Ok, I admit that I am a Bears fan and this could be the only way to get Tom Brady out of the next session, but doesn’t this picture look a tad familiar? Check out this picture: Tom Brady Or here in his hoodie: Tom Brady. With our new young quarterback scheduled to face the Patriots this year, it is close enough for me.
Continue reading “Did Stormy Daniels Just Implicate Tom Brady?”
This 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.”
Justice 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.
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the danger of President Donald Trump firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Reports still indicate that Trump is pushing to fire Rosenstein — a move that would seriously undermine both his political and legal position.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Bang, Bang, Boom: The Risks Of Firing Rod Rosenstein”
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:
Yesterday, it was disclosed that Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman recused himself in the probe of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen before the raids on his home, office, and hotel. The recusal raises obvious concerns and a range of theories. Given the overarching public interest in this investigation, Berman should disclose the general basis for the recusal.
Continue reading “A Plot Thickens: Berman Recused Himself From Cohen Investigation”