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ABUSE OF POWER

‘Retaliatory Abuse’: Legal Experts Slam Barr DOJ for Opening ‘Politically-Motivated’ Criminal Inquiry Into John Bolton

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The Dept. of Justice is opening a criminal inquiry into John Bolton, allegedly to determine whether or not he disclosed classified information in his book, which discusses his 17 months serving as President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor.

“The department has convened a grand jury, which issued a subpoena for communications records from Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Mr. Bolton’s memoir, ‘The Room Where It Happened,'” The New York Times reports.

Legal experts, many of whom oppose Bolton for not warning the public about Trump when he was in the administration but waiting so he could publish his book, nevertheless say it looks like “retribution” and a political prosecution of the President’s critics.

The Trump administration tried to stop publication of the book, claiming Bolton had not been granted notice that his pre-publication review had been completed. Bolton has claimed he went through proper procedures and denies he published any classified information.

“Mr. Trump has made clear that he wants his former aide prosecuted,” The Times notes. “He said on Twitter that Mr. Bolton ‘broke the law’ and ‘should be in jail, money seized, for disseminating, for profit, highly Classified information.’ He has also called Mr. Bolton ‘a dope,’ ‘incompetent ‘and the book ‘a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad.'”

Trump has tweeted about Bolton more than two dozen times.

Legal experts are weighing in.

MSNBC Justice & Security Analyst, former chief spokesperson for the DOJ:

Former federal prosecutor:

CNN legal analyst, former federal and state prosecutor:

Former attorney in the Office of General Counsel of the National Security Agency, now Executive Editor of Lawfare:

Founder and award-winning editor at Talking Points Memo:

Professor in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, CNN contributor:

Attorney, analyst, author:

Former Deputy Legal Director at ACLU, current director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University:

Former CIA intelligence officer, current Georgetown University School of Foreign Service lecturer and NBC News national security and intelligence analyst:

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ABUSE OF POWER

Trump Fires Another Inspector General During Latest Friday Night News Dump: Report

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May 15, 2020

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On Friday, Politico reported that Steve Linick, the inspector general of the State Department, has been fired.

Linick, a former official of the Justice Department, was appointed to the inspector general position by President Barack Obama in 2013. According to Politico, “he played a minor role in the House of Representatives’ impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump, ferrying a trove of documents to lawmakers that had been provided to the State Department by Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer.”

He will be replaced by Ambassador Stephen Akard, who previously headed the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions.

In recent months, Trump has fired several inspectors general, particularly those who have been involved in investigating misconduct accusations against his administration, sparking fears of retaliation.

 

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ABUSE OF POWER

‘We May See an Accomplice’: Ex-FBI Official Warns Barr Could Try to Indict Obama Team to Win the 2020 Election

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May 12, 2020

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MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace poured cold water on the latest Republican talking points about the tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory they’ve concocted called Obamagate.

Speaking with former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi and former White House acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, Wallace noted that if the Trump team tries to go after Barack Obama, they’re going to end up taking down some Republicans along with them.

“The person who warned Donald Trump not to put Mike Flynn on any of the lists on key national security posts wasn’t a Democrat, it wasn’t Obama,” recalled Wallace. “It was Chris Cristie, Chris Christie was fired as head of the transition for not putting Mike Flynn on the list for any important national security position. Fact, Chris Christie was punished by Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, they dumped the transition books which didn’t have Mike Flynn’s name on any of the lists because he, too, shared concerns about whether Mike Flynn was suitable for a national security position. So, there’s a pretty inconvenient little wrinkle in Donald Trump’s fantastical delusions about Mike Flynn and Chris Christie didn’t think he belonged in a national security post, either.”

In an NBC News editorial, Figliuzzi wrote that the president is likely headed into a campaign where he will be flinging conspiracy theories aimlessly in effort to save his own skin.

“We’re heading toward a period of time that’s going to be quite ugly. Where he’s going to certainly imply and want people to infer that President Obama and Vice President Biden engaged in a conspiracy against him to gin up the Russia hoax and the case against Flynn,” said Figliuzzi. “On a worst-case scenario, we may see an accomplice in this mess, the attorney general of the United States who might go to attempt to charge or smear in some official way, perhaps even to call a grand jury, where we see former officials, prior administration officials attacked, in an attempt to ruin them.”

Related –
Watch: Fox News Host Ends Segment After Attorney Destroys Fake Obamagate ‘Scandal’ in 4 Words Right Before Her Eyes

While there’s no precedent of a new president indicting the previous president, that would set a complicated precedent if former Vice President Joe Biden wins in 2020. If Trump tries to indict Obama, it would open the door for Biden to indict Trump if he wins.

He went on to explain how important to focus on the “fact vs. fiction” aspect of the story and call out the conspiracy theories. Both the Federalist article and Trump are clutching their pearls about “the notion that because the intelligence community was briefing the Obama administration” while he was still president, explained Figliuzzi. Because “Obama said this concerns me because we’re about to give classified briefings to the incoming administration, please tell me whether we can trust Flynn to give them the intelligence briefings, the intel community went out and looked at this.” That’s the so-called “scandal” the White House thinks is such a problem.

Meanwhile, the latest Harvard-Harris poll shows that 53 percent of Americans still believe what the Christopher Steele Dossier said was accurate. A Pew poll cited 72 percent of Americans anticipate Russia or some other foreign government will likely try to hack the 2020 election. That while 51 percent of the Americans surveyed who said Trump had encouraged election interference, the NPR/PBS/Marist Poll revealed.

Watch the video below:

 

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ABUSE OF POWER

Emergency Coronavirus Support Checks Delayed So Trump’s Name Can Appear

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April 14, 2020

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President Donald Trump wanted his name to appear on tens of millions of paper checks the Treasury Dept. is sending to help support Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin obliged, even though it will delay delivery of the checks, desperately needed by many to pay for food and rent, by several days.

It is the first time any President’s name will appear on any IRS disbursements.

“The unprecedented decision, finalized late Monday, means that when recipients open the $1,200 paper checks the IRS is scheduled to begin sending to 70 million Americans in coming days, ‘President Donald J. Trump’ will appear on the left side of the payment, The Washington Post reports. “It is standard practice for a civil servant to sign checks issued by the Treasury Department to ensure that government payments are nonpartisan.“

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