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‘Vast Evidence That Donald Trump Committed Crimes’: Former DOJ Official Pushes Merrick Garland to Re-Look at Mueller Probe

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In a column for USA Today, a former prosecutor in the Department Of Justice’s Public Integrity division urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to re-open former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Donald Trump.

According to Noah Bookbinder, who currently serves as the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), recent revelations about ex-AG Bill Barr’s handling of the Mueller report are cause to take another look at it and possibly expand upon it.

Linking to a report that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson “… blasted the Trump Justice Department for misleading the court about the nature of its internal deliberations before concluding that then-President Donald Trump had not obstructed former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election,” Bookbinder said that should open the door for the DOJ to investigate obstruction not only by Trump but also Barr.

“Many of us have long suspected that Barr deliberately set out to spin the contents of the Mueller report and manufacture bogus legal analysis in order to protect Trump from facing consequences for the crimes laid out in the report. We now have proof that Barr did exactly that,” the ex-prosecutor charged before noting that, now that Trump is out of office and not protected by a Justice Department policy that limited going after a sitting president, he is fair game.

Quoting a letter signed by 1,000 former federal prosecutors who wrote, “the conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting president, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice,” Bookbinder pointed out that a roadmap to investigating Trump further already exists.

“The principle that no one is above the law is not self-enforcing. Justice can only be served if law enforcement agencies are willing to pursue justice against anyone who violates the law–regardless of the office they hold. There is no greater threat to the rule of law than failing to hold accountable the most powerful among us,” he wrote before adding, “Neither Mueller nor Barr made a final decision as to whether Trump should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice because DOJ policy precluded that outcome as long as he was president. Now that Trump is no longer president, the department needs to decide whether he will be prosecuted, and Attorney General Merrick Garland should let the American people know how that decision will be made.”

Hammering home his point, he concluded, “There is vast evidence that Donald Trump committed crimes. Time, and litigation, have removed both the legal protection he had as president and the illusory claims of exoneration spun by Barr. Now is the moment for America to see equal justice in action. It’s time to finish what Mueller started.”

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CRIME

Linda Sun Arrested By FBI, Accused of Working for China and Blocking Taiwan Access to NY Gov

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Linda Sun, New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff, was arrested Tuesday morning on charges that she was acting as an unregistered agent on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sun and her husband, Chris Hu, had their home raided in July by the FBI, though any information about why was kept sealed until Tuesday. Sun is accused of being an unregistered Chinese agent, and using her position to promote Chinese interests, as well as alien smuggling and visa fraud, according to CNN.

She allegedly blocked Taiwanese delegations from being able to access New York officials, while setting up meetings with Chinese delegations and the state government. Sun also worked on certain public statements from politicians in order to make them more in line with the CCP’s views, according to the Associated Press.

Hu faces charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and bank fraud, as well as a misuse of identification, the AP reported. Hu is a businessman who owns and operates several businesses, including a Queens liquor store, Golden Capital Group LLC, Medical Supplies USA LLC and a seafood import/export business called Foodie Fisherman LLC, according to the New York Times and Gothamist.

READ MORE: Trump Took Millions From China, Saudi Arabia, Other Foreign Governments While President: Report

Sun and Hu received business opportunities in China, along with other perks including luxury goods, event tickets, a job for one of Sun’s relatives and Nanjing-style salted ducks for Sun’s parents, according to ABC News.

“The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

Sun was fired by Hochul’s office in March 2023 after her office found “evidence of misconduct,” Hochul’s press secretary, Avi Small, told CNN.

Sun had been working in the New York state government since 2012, when she was hired by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration as a liaison to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, according to Politico.

 

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CRIME

Texas Senator Says More Uvalde Cops Need To Face Criminal Charges Over Shooting

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After two Uvalde cops were charged over their botched response to the mass shooting at Robb Elementary, a Texas state senator says more officers should be charged.

Former Police Chief Pete Arredondo and then-officer Adrian Gonzalez were charged on felony counts of child endangerment, according to the San Antonio Express-News. The May 24, 2022 shooting was Texas’ worst; 19 children and two teachers were killed.

Uvalde cops were criticised for not stopping the shooting earlier, particularly when camera footage was released showing officers standing in a hallway while the shooting continued.

READ MORE: Listen: Uvalde School Massacre Was God’s Plan Says Texas AG Ken Paxton – ‘Life Is Short’

Democratic Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez  said that the charges against Arredondo and Gonzalez were not enough. Gutierrez represents District 19, which includes Uvalde.

“If they’re going to indict those two officers, they need to indict the 13 DPS troopers in that hallway,” Gutierrez told the Express-News. “That’s very disturbing to me.”

Almost 400 law enforcement officers had responded to the shooting, the Express-News reported, including 28 officers from the Uvalde PD.

During the shooting, Arredondo and Gonzales were among the first officers to enter the building in the first few minutes of the incident. The incident started at 11:29 a.m., when the shooter crashed near a funeral home, fired on the employees, then entered onto the school campus, according to the official timeline from the Uvalde Police’s internal investigation.

At 11:30, police were dispatched; the shooter entered the building at 11:33 and started firing. At 11:35, four officers, including Gonzalez and Arredondo, entered the building. Approximately a minute later, officers opened the unlocked door to the classroom, and were fired upon and injured. At 11:38 a.m., Arredondo ordered the officers to retreat.

At 11:55 a.m., as the shooting continued, Arredondo ordered police to clear the rooms surrounding the classrooms and start to negotiate with the shooter. Police finally entered the classroom nearly an hour later, at 12:50 p.m., and took down the shooter. During this wait, Arredondo was waiting for someone to bring him keys to the door, mistakenly thinking the classroom was locked.

Police inaction during a school shooting is sadly not uncommon. In 2018, former officer Scot Peterson was acquitted for not acting to stop the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Footage showed Peterson was on the scene, but was standing outside the building as the shooting continued.

A federal judge also dismissed a lawsuit against Broward County officials including the sheriff for not protecting the students at the school. The judge ruled that though the 14th Amendment requires police to protect those in custody, there is no police duty to protect people not in custody, according to CNN.

In that shooting, 14 students and three teachers were killed; another 17 victims were wounded.

 

 

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CRIME

Seattle Police Didn’t Provide Access to Lawyers 96% of the Time: Report

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The Seattle Police Department violated the law and didn’t give people under 18 access to a lawyer when it was supposed to 96% of the time, according to a new report released Friday by the city’s Office of the Inspector General.

The OIG audited the Seattle Police Department on its compliance with two laws, a city-level law called the MiChance Dunlap-Gittens Ordinance and a similar state law, RCW 13.40.740. The laws require police give those under 18 years old access to a public defender before the youth waives their right to remain silent. Police also must provide attorney access when requesting consent for a search, according to the OIG.

The OIG examined 89 arrests and found 50 cases where the laws applied. In those cases, access to an attorney was only provided twice. The OIG broke the interactions into four categories: Custodial Interrogation, which made up half of the cases; Consent to Search, 3 cases; Detained and Questioned, 7 cases; and Arrested, No Evidence of Questioning, 15 cases. Both of the instances where attorney access was provided were in this last category.

READ MORE: DOJ Report Says Louisville Police Needlessly Use Tasers & Dogs on Civilians

In an appendix, the OIG laid out eight recommendations, including updating the Seattle Police Department’s policy manual, requiring officers to “make a good faith effort” to check the age of the person detained, and to perform regular internal audits on whether or not the law is being followed by officers.

SPD’s chief operating officer, Brian Maxey, said it was sometimes difficult to determine if someone is legally a minor, according to the Times, but admitted that “in some instances there are clear gaps in officers’ understanding of the laws and inconsistencies in practice.”

The law is named for MiChance Dunlap-Gittens, a high school senior shot in 2017 following a botched sting operation. King County sheriff’s detectives investigating a homicide attempted to create a sting to catch a suspect. Dunlap-Gitten was killed when he attempted to flee. The suspect the detectives were after also fled, but was caught by a SWAT team that night, according to the Seattle Times. However, neither teenager was involved at all in the homicide under investigation.

Dunlap-Gittens’ death led to a $2.5 million ruling against King County in 2020. In addition to the victim’s family receiving the money, the sheriff at the time apologized and promised to make her officers wear body cameras and use dash cameras, according to the Times. Shortly following the settlement, the Seattle City Council passed the ordinance. A similar ordinance also went before the King County Council. A year later, RCW 13.40.740 passed the State Legislature.

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