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Experts: Federal Judge ‘Goes All School House Rock on DOJ’ in ‘Stunning Rebuke’ Ordering Handover of Mueller Docs

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Judge Certifies House Investigation Is a Legitimate Impeachment Inquiry – and Says ‘DOJ Is Wrong’

The Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Friday afternoon ordered the Department of Justice to hand over the unredacted Mueller report and underlying materials requested by the House Judiciary Committee months ago. The 75-page ruling by Judge Beryl Howell (photo) is a being called a “stunning rebuke” to the DOJ that is leaving some experts surprised and even somewhat shocked.

The ruling also destroys the fallacious argument made by President Trump and Republicans that the House impeachment inquiry is not an actual impeachment. Judge Howell says it absolutely is. Republicans, including administration officials, have refused to respond to requests by the House for documents, and even subpoenas commanding testimony, claiming because the full House did not vote on holding the impeachment inquiry it is, as some on the right claim falsely, a “witch hunt” that can be ignored.

They are wrong.

Judge Howell has successfully accomplished several things. She delivers effective explanations deriding the DOJ’s arguments, she effectively certifies the House’s impeachment inquiry, and she  shows just how amateur – or inept – the Barr DOJ has become.

Experts are taking to Twitter, citing passages of Judge Howell’s scathing ruling.

Marcy Wheeler, a journalist and expert on civil liberties and national security offered this excellent insight:

Here Wheeler mentions a ruling cited by the judge, saying Howell is going to use it to “invoke as much pain on DOJ … as she can.”

But this might be Wheeler’s best comment: Judge Howell “goes all School House Rock on DOJ, which apparently needs a basic lesson in American history.”

And here the judge suggests the the DOJ’s infamous opinion/memo that claims a sitting president cannot be indicted, is not valid. Wheeler’s comment certainly seems correct:

Politico reporter Kyle Cheney points to where Judge Howell blows up the GOP’s claim that the House impeachment inquiry is not valid. She calls the Republican talking points “cherry-picked and incomplete.”

NBC News’ Tom Winter points to where the judge explains that the needs of the House Judiciary Committee outweigh the DOJ’s claims of the need for secrecy:

Here, attorney Luppe B. Luppen, a noted commentator and a writer at Yahoo News, highlights this interesting comment from the judge: “…then-candidate Trump may have received advance information about Russia’s interference activities…”

National Observer reporter Caroline Orr calls Judge Howell’s ruling a “stunning rebuke” and notes Howell doesn’t mince words: “DOJ is wrong,” the judge writes.

Politico’s Andrew Desiderio sums it all up quite well:

 

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‘Let Me Finish – Peter Let Me Give You the Facts’: Psaki Slams Doocy Over False Fox News Framing of Gas Prices

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March 7, 2022

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took off the gloves Monday afternoon, pummelling Fox News propagandist Peter Doocy left and right over his false framing of the increase in gas prices, and urging him to let her deliver the facts even though, she said, “I know that can be inconvenient, but I think they’re important in this moment.”

“It sounds like you guys are blaming Putin for the increase in gas prices recently,” a combative Doocy out of the gate told Psaki. “But weren’t gas prices going up anyway because of post-pandemic supply chain issues?”

Citing outside analysts Psaki told Doocy “there’s no question” the increase in gas prices “is a direct result of the invasion of Ukraine.”

Despite having his false framing shot down Doocy pressed ahead.

“So you say that you’re going to do everything that you can to reduce the impact that high gas prices have on Americans. We’re asking other countries to think about maybe pumping more oil. Why not just do it here?”

“Well,” Psaki continued her education of Doocy, “to be very clear federal policies are not limiting the supply of oil and gas to the contrary –” she said as Doocy interrupted her. “Let me finish – to the contrary, let me finish.”

“Peter, let me, let me give you, let me give you the facts here,” Psaki urged, “and I know that can be inconvenient, but I think they’re important in this moment.”

After more back-and-forth she added: “We have actually produced more oil, it is at record numbers and we will continue to produce more oil – there are 9000 drilling permits that are not being used. So the suggestion that we are not let allowing companies to drill is inaccurate. The suggestion that that is what is hindering or preventing gas prices to come down is inaccurate.

“Would President Biden rescind his executive order that halts new oil and natural gas leases on public lands?” Doocy asked.

“Well, 90% of them happen on private lands, as I’m sure you know, and there are 9000 unused approved drilling permits. So I would suggest you ask the oil companies why they’re not using those if there’s a desire to drill more.”

Having totally struck out, Doocy insisted on asking even more questions.

“Would President Biden ever undo this executive order that stopped the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline?” he asked.

“Are you suggesting that would solve the gas prices issue?” Psaki inquired.

“Well, do you think that that would maybe affect prices faster than getting the whole country off of fossil fuels?” Doocy, who is not an energy expert or an economist, wondered.

“I actually don’t think it would,” Psaki said. “Keystone was not an oil field. It’s a pipeline. Also the oil is continuing to flow in just through other means. So it actually would have nothing to do with the current supply imbalance.”

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‘Well to Put It in Full Context, Peter’: Psaki Kicks Off Week Smacking Down Doocy With Truth Cocktail

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November 29, 2021

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki kicked the week off with a Monday briefing and wasted no time correcting Fox News’ Peter Doocy, who had used a wholly out-of-context question to falsely attack President Joe Biden.

“Before Joe Biden was president he said the COVID travel restrictions on foreign countries were ‘hysterical,’ ‘xenophobia’ and ‘fear mongering.’ So what changed?” Doocy demanded.

“Well, I would say first to put in full context, Peter, what the President was critical of was the way that the former President put out, I believe, a xenophobic tweet, and had and how he, what he called the coronavirus, and who he directed it at. The President has not been critical of travel restrictions. We have put those in place ourselves. We put them in place ourselves in the spring, but no he does not believe – he believes we should follow the advice of health and medical experts. That’s exactly what he did, and putting in place these restrictions over the weekend.”

In fact, as Politifact noted in March of 2020, “Biden has not directly said that the restrictions were xenophobic.”

“Around the time the Trump administration announced the travel restriction, Biden said that Trump had a ‘record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering,'” Politifact added. He did not call travel restrictions “hysterical,” “xenophobia,” or “fear mongering.”

Here’s that Biden tweet from Feb. 2020:

Politifact added that “Biden used the phrase ‘xenophobic’ in reply to a Trump tweet about limiting entry to travelers from China and in which Trump described the coronavirus as the ‘Chinese virus.'”

Here’s that tweet, from March 2020:

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Psaki Shuts Down Doocy: Donald Trump Was ‘Suggesting People Inject Poison Into Their Veins’

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August 11, 2021

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Despite Fox News spending the better part of a year injecting anti-vaxx hysteria into America, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy on Wednesday tried to blame President Joe Biden for the “vaccine hesitancy” that exists almost exclusively among Republicans.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was not having any of it, and was forced to remind Doocy and America of the time Trump suggested injecting “disinfectant” into the veins of human beings to cure COVID-19:

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out, in a minute,” Trump said in April of 2020. “Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection, inside, or almost a cleaning, ’cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. You’re going to have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me.”

Doocy, in a clearly pre-written speech designed to be replayed on Fox News programming, told Psaki that “last year around this time the previous administration was rushing to get a vaccine authorized, and the-now president said, ‘I trust vaccines, I trust scientists, but I don’t trust Donald Trump, and at this moment the American people can’t either.'”

“Well,” Psaki replied, “I think it’s safe to say he still doesn’t touch trust Donald Trump, so that hasn’t changed, but he does trust scientists, he does trust data experts, and he does trust the people leading the CDC, the FDA – which is the gold standard of approval for vaccines, I’d also note because this question often comes up, that the President has repeatedly given credit to scientists and experts from the prior administration, even as recently as just a few weeks ago, for their role in moving the vaccine forward.”

Doocy, refusing to concede to facts, retorted that “at the time, when Donald Trump is out there saying ‘we’re gonna have a vaccine in the next couple of weeks, next couple months,’ and Joe Biden is out on the campaign trail saying, ‘Don’t trust Donald Trump,’ did that create any kind of vaccine hesitancy?”

Many Americans at the time said they would not trust the vaccine because they believed Trump would force the FDA to approve a vaccine too soon, just so he could get re-elected. His own  White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, in the middle of September all but promised the vaccine would be approved by the end of that month.

“Not that we’ve seen in the data. I would note that at the time, just for context, the former president was also suggesting people inject versions of poison into their veins to cure COVID. So I think that’s a relevant point.”

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