Below is my column on The Hill newspaper on the significance (and coverage) of the Washington Post story that President Donald Trump is not a target of the Mueller investigation but only a subject of the investigation. None of this means that the risks for Trump in a sit down interview do not remain high. Even as a subject, he could be accused of false statements — a concern with a President known to go “off script” in meetings.
EPA administrator Scott Pruitt was adamant in his disastrous interview with Fox’s Ed Henry that he was unaware of the controversial raises given to two aides and that he attempted to find out which officials were responsible. The interview not only did not sit well many viewers, it clearly did not sit well with people at the EPA and the White House. The Washington Post is reporting that he personally instructed agency staff to approve raises for two top aides who had previously served under him in Oklahoma, The Post reports that two EPA officials and a White house official confirmed that Pruitt not only knew of the raises but instructed underlings to approve them.
After declaring that Democrats who want her to be quiet are sexist, Hillary Clinton is back on her speaking tour blaming her defeat on everyone from the James Comey, self-hating women, Russians, Bernie Sanders, and misogynists for her defeat. Everyone except herself. Now Clinton has added “Pizzagate” to the lengthening reasons for her defeat.
Clinton continues (with Nancy Pelosi) to be the rallying cry for independents and Republicans moving into the midterm elections. Clinton has been told that she is hurting Democratic efforts to retake Congress but has refused to yield to the calls of various Democratic leaders as we discussed earlier. In the meantime, Clinton now stands alone among former presidential candidates who have uniformly become more popular after their losses. Clinton is the only one who has become even more unpopular. The reason is likely her unsuccessful effort to shift the blame for her loss against the second more unpopular person to ever run for the White House. In the meantime, Clinton has warned that, with Trump, “I Don’t Think We’ve Seen The Bottom Yet” Those are chilling words for Democrats growing increasingly alarmed over her impact on marginal voters needed to retake Congress.
California reached a milestone recently in its immigration laws: the state has now given over one million illegal or undocumented immigrants driver’s licenses. Passed in 2013 by sponsor Luis Alejo, Assembly Bill 60 required the California Department of Motor Vehicles to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants as long as they can prove their identity and residence within the state. As of March 31st, some 1,001,000 undocumented immigrants have received licenses. The state has reached this goal at a time when it is on a collision course with the Trump Administration on immigration enforcement as well as some of its own cities. The result is rising rhetoric on both sides and an inevitable court fight.
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the curious timing of a legal defense fund for Andrew McCabe — started and closed before the release of a report on his conduct. With the sentencing of the first Mueller defendant, Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, there are obvious questions of why people like Flynn and van der Zwaan should face prison for single false statements while McCabe is accused of lying four times, including twice under oath. Mueller’s office insisted that anyone who lies to investigators deserves to be sentenced and punished, but that standard appears to change be somewhat fluid when a former high-ranking FBI official is implicated. Nevertheless, I can certainly understand McCabe’s interest in a legal defense fund given the ongoing IG investigation and addition of a prosecutor to the team. However, the money was raised before donors could know the full account of the allegations against McCabe. Moreover, McCabe can use this money for any legal needs as he enters private life.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “The Curious Case of The Andrew McCabe Legal Defense Fund”
For a number of years, I have been writing about the lack of due process for our students and faculty in cases of alleged sexual harassment or assault in colleges or universities. (For prior columns, click here and here and here). This problem grew far worse under the Obama Administration when Russlynn Ali, then assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, issued a “Dear Colleague” letter that effectively forced schools to strip away basic due process protections from internal proceedings. Various faculties objected, though they were largely ignored by administrators who feared losing federal funds or appearing “soft” on sexual harassment claims. Now, 23 Cornell Law School law professors have signed a letter denouncing such failures in a recent case. Unfortunately, some 41 law professors at Cornell opted not to join in the effort.
There is an interesting disclosure in the filing this week by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last August expanded the mandate for Mueller in allowing him to pursue collusion allegations against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort as well as criminal conduct linked to his controversial dealings with Ukraine. The expansion shows not only the close supervision by Rosenstein but the care taken by Mueller not to exceed his mandate, which was already quite broad. The disclosure comes in the week with the first scheduled sentencing of a Mueller defendant. Warning: the story below contains foul language.
Continue reading “Filing: Rosenstein Expanded Mueller’s Mandate in 2016”
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Even the Home Secretary has been accused of hate speech for criticizing immigrant workers. South Africa now appears to have crossed the Rubicon of speech criminalization with a two-year sentence for a white woman, Vicki Momberg, who espoused racist statements in a confrontation with a police officer. The prosecution is being heralded as the start of a new era for speech prosecutions.
Continue reading “South African Sentenced To Two Years For Racist Comments”
Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the push for new legislation to Robert Mueller. I supported the appointment of a Special Counsel and still believe that Mueller must be allowed to complete his work. However, this legislation would do little in terms of real protection while putting at risk a major piece of precedent from the Supreme Court.
Here is the column:
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who is a member of the House Oversight Committee, revealed late last week that former Deputy FBI Director was accused of lying not once but four times in the still withheld Inspector General’s report. My column today in the Hill newspaper will discuss this disclosure and the timing of McCabe in securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions through a GoFundMe page.
There is an interesting controversy in New York where people are irate that Brooklyn Museum selected a distinguished academic as curator over its African art collection. Kristen Windmuller-Luna, 31, holds a Ph.D. in African art history from Princeton University and has been a lecturer at Columbia University and Metropolitan Museum of Art. That is a pretty stellar resume but people are focused on one other aspect about Windmuller-Luna . . . she is white. Rather than respond that it does not select curators or artists on the basis of the race, the Museum issued a pleading response that it is seeking to address the complaints. However, the complaint is that, no matter how qualified Windmuller-Luna may be, she should have been barred due to her race from consideration.
Continue reading “Brooklyn Museum Under Fire For Hiring White Curator For African Art Collection”
After a year of blaming sexism for her defeat, Hillary Clinton argued this week that people begging her to stop her public appearances are themselves sexist despite former supporters among those objecting to the negative impact that she is having on efforts to regain power. Even her most passionate supporters like Sen. Claire McCaskill have publicly rebuked her. Clinton refuses to acknowledge polls from before her nomination showing that she was the most unpopular candidate to run for president in history. Nevertheless, Democratic members and power brokers forced through the nomination — ultimately losing to the second most unpopular candidate to ever run, Donald Trump. Virtually any other leading Democrat would have likely won the election but Clinton has struggled to blame others — including self-hating women — for her loss.
Continue reading “Clinton: People Calling For Me “To Go Away” Are Sexist”
Below is my column in The Hill newspaper on why a separate and independent investigation of the FBI’s conduct is warranted. My support for the investigation is not because I believe that criminal charges will likely be brought. Rather, I have never seen our country more divided and I cannot imagine any way for us to get beyond this poisonous political environment without full and complete investigations with public disclosure of the findings. As I have stated in interviews, I comment Attorney General Jeff Sessions in not only giving this matter to the Inspector General but ordered U.S. Attorney John Huber to assist in the investigation. The combination of the U.S. Attorney and the Inspector General is likely to expedite the investigation and maximize the options for the Justice Department — including the option reserved by Sessions to eventually order the appointment of a Special Counsel. Critics of Sessions are missing the import of the joint investigation. He has selected a line prosecutor from outside of the Beltway to review the conduct of FBI officials, including James Comey and Andrew McCabe. Huber adds prosecutorial experience and powers to the ongoing IG investigation.
Faith Linthicum, a labor and delivery nurse at Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center in California, has been forced on leave for writing on Facebook that Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man who was fatally shot by police, “deserved it for being stupid.” This is the latest example of employees being fired for expressing their views outside of work, including prior controversies involving nurses. Update: the hospital has fired Linthicum.
Below is my column in USA Today on the call of former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens for the repeal of the Second Amendment. It was a moment of honestly that young protesters should heed in fighting for real change. So long as this is a protected individual right, there are serious limits on how much that right can be curtailed. It is time for an honest debate in this country. Stevens called the right a “relic of the 18th Century.” Of course, one person’s relic is another person’s rifle.
Here is the column: