We have previously discussed rising cases of politically motivated violence, including attacks on people wearing MAGA hats. In Delaware, two women reached a particular low point by stealing the hat of a 7-year-old and then screaming profanities, ripping up signs, and one assaulting an individual in a parking lot near the Democratic National Convention on Thursday. The Delaware police hit Olivia Winslow, 21, and Camryn Amy, 21, with an array of well-earned charges, though one charge remains unclear in terms of the relevant conduct. What is remarkable about the videotape is the sense of utter entitlement to attack those with opposing views.
Category: Politics
We previously discussed whether the niece of President Donald Trump, Mary Trump, committed defamation in her recent tell-all book with a passage claiming that President Trump used a surrogate to take his SAT exam to gain entrance to the Penn’s Wharton School. Mary Trump has been hit by criticism that the person identified as fraudulently taking the test had not even met Donald Trump until after he started taking classes at Penn, according to his widow. In response, Mary Trump released a secret recording of President Donald Trump’s sister, retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry (left), The recording does contain the allegation and the question is whether it is enough legally if indeed the story was false. Continue reading “Mary Trump Releases Recording Of Trump Sister As Source For SAT Allegation” 
There is an interesting ruling in the ongoing saga over Stormy Daniels and the Trump Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). A California court ordered President Donald Trump to pay $44,100 to Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, to cover her legal fees regarding her nondisclosure agreement. The amount is trivial but the symbolism could not be greater. The decision is based on the view that not only was Daniels the prevailing party in the dispute but that President Trump cannot claim that he was a non-party to the NDA or by extension the controversy. Continue reading “Court Orders President Trump To Pay Stormy Daniels’ Attorneys Fees”
Politicians are continuing to promise trillions of dollars in free education, housing subsidies, universal health care and other programs. Recently, BET founder Robert Johnson called for $14 trillion in reparations alone. Kamala Harris has a $10 trillion climate plan. On the Republican side, President Trump has shown little restraint in spending throughout his term while cutting revenue (and borrowing at a record rate). It is not surprising therefore that, last month, the United States passed the long-discussed red line for economists. Our debt is now greater than than our gross domestic product. In June, we passed $25.5 trillion in debt and this figure may be overly conservative. It is now roughly $27 trillion. Yet, neither party seems a bit concerned as this political ship of fools floats toward a collision with economic reality.
Continue reading “$26,578,000,000,000: U.S. Debt Passes Redline at 106 Percent Of GDP”
Steve Bannon, a former adviser to President Trump, was arrested today with three other suspects after the Justice Department charged fraud connected to an online fundraising campaign worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The campaign, “We Build the Wall,” was said to have raised over $25 million. It is worth noting that the Justice Department has continued to investigate or prosecute various Trump supporters under Attorney General Bill Barr despite calls by Democratic members and commentators to impeach him.
Goodyear Tire company is under fire this week for a listing of acceptable and unacceptable symbols or attire in the workplace. President Trump has railed against the inclusion of MAGA hats as “unacceptable” and called for a boycott. I do not agree. I think it is appropriate to ban political endorsements or symbols in a business but there is a legitimate concern over what is deemed “acceptable.” The touchstone of free speech protections is content neutrality and Goodyear appears to be enforcing a viewpoint preference. The question is whether, as a private business, it has an obligation to be neutral. Continue reading “Rubber Hits The Road: Goodyear Under Fire For Listing Of Unacceptable Symbols”
Where Shakespeare is credited in writing “Much To Do About Nothing,” the Senate may have achieved credit for writing “nothing about much.” It is remarkable about how comparably little can be said in 1000 pages. The Senate Intelligence Committee released report yesterday on its own Russian investigation. I have been plowing through the report but what was most striking thus far is how little really new material the Senate was able to uncover. Indeed, it notes that it did not even look into the basis for the claims of the Steele dossier, which was used and widely cited for the early allegations of collusion. One of the few notable points is that the Report states that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked closely with a known Russian intelligence officer and that he “represented a grave counterintelligence threat” due to that relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik. Yet, the Report is largely descriptive of known allegations with few concrete conclusions or original disclosures. It confirms and adds details on Russian interference with the election, but it does not materially add new information on key areas where some of us hoped the Committee could gain greater access.
Continue reading “Senate Intelligence Report Is Long On Pages And Short On Intelligence”
I testified in the Senate about the erosion of free speech and rise of violence on our campuses and in our streets. Antifa and related groups have succeeded in advancing anti-free-speech agendas as students and faculty justify attacks on those with opposing views. An example of the growing intolerance can be found in an editorial at the Daily California by staff writer Khaled Alqahtani. The August 12th column calls for violent resistance and denounced notions of civility in the public debate over racial and economic justice.
Below is my column in the Hill on the announced criminal plea by former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith and the continued calls by Democratic leaders to end the John Durham investigation. This week I discussed the call of Andrew Weissmann, one of the top prosecutors with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, for DOJ lawyers to refuse to help in the investigation despite his own conflict of interest. When the Clinesmith plea was announced, Weissmann proceeded to deride the charge and make spurious legal and factual claims about its basis. The Weissmann call for DOJ lawyers to hinder this investigation is unprofessional and unwarranted but hardly uncommon in this rage-filled environment.
Here is the column: Continue reading ““Gosh Almighty”: Democrats Call to End Durham Investigation Despite Proven Criminal Conduct”
There was a curious moment this weekend when a member of Congress, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D., N.J.) called upon New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to use a grand jury to investigate criminal charges against President Donald Trump and U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy for “the subversion” of the upcoming election. From a Madisonian perspective, a member of Congress calling for a grand jury to investigate wrongdoing by a federal agency is like a NASA calling up NOAA to explore Mars. Pascrell is a sitting member in a house, controlled by his own party, with the constitutional authority of oversight over the postal service. Our system of separation of powers commits this question to the political branches rather than criminalizing political disputes.
Three years ago, I wrote a column questioning the constitutional and practical effect of gun control reforms pushed through after the Las Vegas massacre, including limits on the capacity of magazines. The moves were being oversold in the media as reforms that would make such attacks less likely or deadly while also ignoring the constitutional standard for the review of such measures. Now, one of those reforms, California’s ban on high-capacity gun magazines, has been struck down by a panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Notably, the magazine laws were one of the most promising areas of gun control laws after the Court’s 2008 decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller. Indeed, while I doubted its efficacy, I thought that limits on magazines could potentially pass constitutional muster under Heller with a properly crafted and supported law.
Continue reading “The Ninth Circuit Strikes Down California’s Ban On High-Capacity Magazines”
The media is alight today after the publication of a piece in Newsweek by Chapman University Professor John C. Eastman that raised the question of whether Sen. Kamala Harris is a citizen and eligible to be Vice President. She is. The courts have long recognized that individuals born in the United States are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment. In fairness to Professor Eastman and Newsweek, this has been a debate that has been raised during prior elections over candidates ranging from Chester Arthur to Barack Obama to John McCain. Continue reading “Yes, Kamala Harris Is Eligible For Vice President”
I have been critical recently of the torrent of lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) during the Trump Administration. The over 400 lawsuit represent a shift from the prior careful litigation strategy of the ACLU, which was once as concerned with creating bad precedent as it was creating good precedent. While the ACLU has had some major wins, it has also lost many of these cases. The latest loss was a case rejected by U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg based on a claim that the postage on mail-in ballots constitute a type of poll tax.
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the effort of New York Attorney General Letitia James to forced the dissolution of the National Rifle Association (NRA). The decision of James to seek the clearly unwarranted dissolution of the nation’s largest gun rights organization is consistent with her past politicalization of office. The case itself is important and raises serious questions of excessive spending by officers of the NRA. While there are other organizations that have not received this level of attention over spending, the record of the NRA is worthy of scrutiny and possible injunctive relief. However, James undermined the credibility of the case by demanding dissolution to pander to Democratic voters. It is all too familiar to those of us who have criticized James in the past for her use of the office for political grandstanding.
Here is the column: Continue reading “The NY Attorney General’s Effort To Dissolve The NRA For Self-Dealing Is A Self-Indictment”
I recently wrote a column concerning a pattern of willful blindness by the media as new evidence emerges of serious wrongdoing by the FBI in the origin and continuation of the Russian collusion investigation. The latest information comes from the Senate Intelligence Committee which released a declassified briefing report to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2018 on the Steele dossier’s Primary Sub-source. It is hard to read the document linked below and not conclude that the FBI misled the Congress on the subject. This occurred after the FBI misled the FISA court, including the submission of falsified documents to continue the surveillance.