I have previously expressed my skepticism over the claims of James Comey that he had a right to remove memos from the FBI and leak them to the media through a friend. As I have previously written, Comey was in clear violation of FBI rules and may have knowingly removed classified material. According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, there is growing evidence to suggest that Comey not only violated FBI guidelines (which is clear) but that he violated federal law in the removal and disclosure of classified material. Indeed, it may come down to simple math. Four of the memos that Comey removed are now believed to be classified. He reportedly gave four memos to his friend to leak to the media. That would suggest that at least one memo given to Columbia University Professor Daniel Richman was classified.
Category: Politics
There is an interesting controversy brewing at Fordham University, which has been sued by students over the failure of the school to recognize their pro-Palestinian group. The group is called the Students for Justice in Palestine and the university overturned the student government in recognizing it. Fordham has fought the students for more than two years. Now that the university is in court, it has made a curious offer: it will recognize the group if they use a name other than “Students for Justice in Palestine.”
Continue reading “Fordham Sued By Students Over Refusal To Recognize Pro-Palestinian Group”
Attorney Charles Harder has issued a “cease and desist” letter on behalf of his client President Donald Trump. The letter is addressed to author Michael Wolff and the president of the book’s publisher, but is clearly putting Steve Bannon on notice of a possible defamation action for his statements in the forthcoming book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.” The letter alleges violation of confidentiality rules and defamation in the forthcoming book, “Fire and Fury” by Michael Wolff. The threat of legal action is highly dubious and the suggestion of a prior restraint order or injunction would go against decades of precedent. It also leaves the worst possible optics of trying to stop the release of a book (and suggesting that Bannon is releasing bona fide confidential information).
Continue reading “Trump Lawyer Hits Author With Cease and Desist Letter Over Bannon Comments”
I have previously written about my objections to Antifa and its anti-free speech values, including academics legitimizing efforts to violently curtail free speech on our campuses. Germany has banned an Antifa website as an extremist organization. That has not stopped Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, from posing with the handbook of the Antifa movement and giving the group a proud shout out. As Democrats seek a new identity and purpose after the debacle with Hillary Clinton, this is a worrisome signal. The Democrats will hand over another election if they simply try to run on being anti-Trump and pro-Antifa.
Continue reading “DNC Deputy Chair Gives Shout Out To Antifa”
I have previously written about the reckless claims of commentators and congressmen for the impeachment or removal of President Donald Trump. Some based these calls on tweets posted by Trump, including comments on the NFL protests. When calls for impeachment began to wane, many turned to the 25th Amendment. Now, the former ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush Richard Painter has declared that Trump can be removed on the basis for removal under the 25th Amendment — a dangerous and unsupportable interpretation of the constitutional standard.
Continue reading “Bush Ethics Lawyer: Trump’s Nuclear Button Tweet Is Sufficient For Removal”
For free speech advocates, there was another chilling development last week in the expanding censorship of social media and the criminalization of speech in the West. The government is investigating Beatrix von Storch (the deputy leader of far-right party AfD) for a tweet posted on New Year’s Eve in which she accused police of appeasing “barbaric, gang-raping Muslim hordes of men.” The statement was barred on Twitter and Von Storch and others were barred on Twitter and Facebook. Once again, raising the free speech concerns is not an endorsement of such offensive posts. Rather, the Germans have taken their controversial speech regulations and have extended them to social media — forcing these companies to become active players in the censoring of political speech. People may have no objection (and even relish) the crackdown on the AfD but the implications for speech is far greater than these individuals.
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the status of the Russian investigation and a look back at the various crimes alleged over the year. A brief search of mainstream media found roughly 5000 stories referring to “bombshell” developments. However, the status has changed little over the year. That could, of course, change. We do not know what Special Counsel Robert Mueller had in terms of new evidence. That did not stop many from declaring conclusive evidence supporting charges over the year despite the paucity of evidence. While we have had four indictments or pleas, but the charges are been notably removed from the core purpose of the Russian collusion investigation. The point of the column is not that new charges are unlikely but that there is little public evidence supporting such charges at the end of 2017. CNN reported yet another “bombshell” discovery this week: George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that Russia had “political dirt” on Hillary Clinton in May of last year. However, there has to be more than knowledge of such hacking (or even a desire to use the results of hacking) to support even a collateral criminal charge. We could certainly reach that point in 2018 but the evidence remains sketchy on specific criminal acts tied to Trump or his closest aides related to Russia.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “A Year Later, An Investigation In Search Of A Crime”
Like many football fans, Republican Rep. Milo Smith is fed up with the protests by NFL players during the anthem. However, while many fans are staying away from games (setting record low attendance numbers), Smith wants to require NFL owners to reimburse fans who object to the protests. While I have expressed my own opposition to any demonstrations during the national anthem, I have previously stated that the ultimate decision rests with the team owners. Like any business owner, a NFL owner can insist that employees refrain from protests during employment hours and activities. However, this legislation would raise serious legal concerns and would likely not survive a legal challenge.
It has long been known that China has helped North Korea evade international sanctions while professing faithful compliance with United Nations resolutions. Now, U.S. spy satellites reportedly captured photos of Chinese ships illegally selling oil to North Korean boats on dozens of occasions. China has again professed innocence.
Continue reading “US Spy Satellite Captures Chinese Ships Illegally Selling Oil To North Korea”
For the last year, I have been criticizing over-wrought and at times irresponsible legal analysis proclaiming “slam dunk” criminal cases and long-sought “smoking gun” discovery sealing the fate of President Donald Trump or his close associates. This includes months in which legal analysts referred to the crime of collusion despite there being no such crime. Unfortunately, this trend continues with the recent interview of Jill Wine-Banks, a former Watergate prosecutor, who told MSNBC that Trump’s recent tweets can constitute “obstruction of justice, witness intimidation, and it’s obstructing justice by saying to agents you better not dig too deep, you better not find anything because I will attack you.” I can see little support for such a position in the criminal code or past cases.
Despite a recent order from the Supreme Court lifting lower court injunctions on the travel ban, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Travel Ban 3.0 is little more than a bad sequel with the same unconstitutional theme. I have previously written that I view the controlling precedent as favoring President Trump on the travel ban. While I respect this three-judge panel and their analysis, the opinion did little to change my mind on that legal point. The panel correctly put the ruling on hold pending a review by the Supreme Court, so we are not set for the long-awaited showdown in Washington on these legal issues.
Continue reading “Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Travel Ban 3.0”
The University of Virginia has reversed a decision of VA student council to refuse to recognize a conservative student organization because it catered to conservative students. This absurd decision was based, according to Ty Zirkle, UVA student council’s vice president for organizations, on a strained reading of state law. The decision was in sharp contrast to other groups which cater to shared viewpoints. The concern should be with the selective application of this perceived rule by the student council.
Despite the threat that the Administration was “taking names” of any country that voted to condemn the move of the United States embassy to Jerusalem, Some 128 countries voted to do so. Only nine voted “no” with another 35 countries abstaining, including Mexico and Canada. Our allies of France and England joined in voting for the resolution. The nine negative votes came from US, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo.
The testimony of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe appears to have gone long but came up short on details. According to sources on the Committee, McCabe stated that he could not recall critical details on the famous dossier that was funded by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The dossier contained information given to a former British spy by Russian government and other sources, including salacious details against then candidate Donald Trump. I have repeatedly stated that I do not agree that the current facts warrant the calls for the firing of McCabe. However, some of the gaps in his testimony are likely to trigger a new round of subpoenas to dive deeper into these issues.
Continue reading “McCabe Testimony Triggers New Round Of Congressional Subpoenas”
President Donald Trump recently entered into the national debate over the NFL protests by criticizing football players taking a knee before games during the national anthem. Some were enraged and called for his impeachment — a call that I previously discussed as unfounded and dangerous. I saw no reason why the President was out of line in giving his opinion on the controversy. There is however an even more pressing matter involving an American professional athlete that would warrant a strong and public statement from President Trump. He is New York Knicks player Enes Kanter who is the subject of an abusive charge in Turkey for allegedly insulting its blood-soaked authoritarian leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Trump should publicly support Kanter and his right to exercise free speech — a right that Erdogan has curtailed in Turkey in his crackdown on dissidents and journalists alike.