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.
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Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the reported investigation of former FBI Director James Comey for his removal and leaking of memos related to the Russian investigation. The release of the memos already contradicts critical aspects of Comey’s explanation for his leaking of the information. What is troubling is that many have worked mightily to avoid the clearly unprofessional aspects of Comey’s conduct. Comey could well be accurate in his account of Trump and justified in his concerns over Trump’s conduct but that does not excuse the actions that he has exhibited in both the leaking of the memos and the timing of his book. Comey’s best-selling book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, could prove tragically ironic if Comey showed a higher loyalty to himself in responding to his own firing rather than the investigation that he once headed. In the very least, there remains a serious question of Comey’s priorities in these matters.
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, 
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on the referral of the Inspector General of the Justice Department of criminal charges against former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. Unlike most referrals, this comes after an extensive investigation of McCabe where the IG, and the Office of Professional Responsibility, made unprecedented recommendations against McCabe after concluding that he lied repeatedly for his own personal interest. It also follows a public statement by former FBI Director James Comey and McCabe’s account is untrue. That will put a great deal of pressure on U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jessie Liu, who President Trump appointed in July 2017. Given the charges against others, like Flynn, McCabe is in a particularly bad position for such a referral. It now appears that McCabe 
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The Democrats continue to go “all in” on immigration in resisting enforcement, supporting sanctuary cities, and opposing increased deportations. This however may be an issue that Trump is right about politically as a wedge for voters and the Democratic party. A new 
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.”
I will be speaking this morning at the plenary session of the Sixth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference of the Federalist Society. The panel on The Deregulatory Landscape will be composed of myself, the Hon. W. Neil Eggleston, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP (and former Obama White House Counsel); Todd Gaziano, Director, Center for the Separation of Powers, Pacific Legal Foundation; Philip A. Hamburger, Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; and Prof. Jonathan Turley, J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law, George Washington University. The panel will be moderated by the Hon. Greg Katsas, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. The panel will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 at the Mayflower Hotel and 
