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‘Smell of Desperation’: Legal Experts Slam State and Federal Republicans Pushing to Discipline or Derail DA Fani Willis

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Warning of possible violence and “civil war,” an allegation of “Nazism,” and calling to pass laws and hold hearings, Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level are working to delegitimize, derail, discipline, or defund Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her prosecution of Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants. Some legal experts are calling it “dangerous,” and “a recipe for constitutional crisis.”

“Do you want a civil war? I don’t want a civil war. I don’t want to have to draw my rifle,” Georgia Republican state Senator Colton Moore told Steve Bannon, as Raw Story reported (video below). “I want to make this problem go away with my legislative means of doing so, and the first step to getting that done is defunding Fani Willis of any Georgia tax dollars.”

Moore added, “it’s just like Nazi Germany. I mean, they want to call us the Nazis and their actions are Nazism.”

Moore is not alone.

READ MORE: ‘She’s Bringing It’: Legal Expert Explains Why Hearing ‘Could’ve Been Worse for Trump’ but ‘Not Sure How’

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the “Republican-led effort to reprimand District Attorney Fani Willis after she brought charges against former President Donald Trump in Fulton County is poised to expand, as state and federal lawmakers pursue new efforts to sanction the prosecutor.”

“State Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch said in an interview that Republican leaders could hold legislative hearings into whether Willis is using ‘her position in a political manner’ after accusing Trump and his allies of a complex conspiracy.”

Trump and his co-defendants are all charged with racketeering, or RICO, related to alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which Willis calls a “criminal enterprise.” Trump faces 13 charges, as does his former attorney Rudy Giuliani. Other defendants face a variety of charges.

“We believe she is definitely tainted,” Gooch says of Willis. “She’s politicizing this, and we want to make sure these people get a fair trial and a fair shake.”

He told the AJC “that he sees Senate Bill 92, a new law that empowers a state panel to investigate and oust wayward prosecutors, as a powerful ‘tool in the toolbox’ that Trump’s allies can deploy to delve into Willis’ use of public resources.”

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), known for wearing an assault rifle lapel pin, co-sponsoring the federal vigilante “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and calling the January 6 insurrection a “normal tourist visit,” now “wants to use an upcoming appropriations bill to slash federal funding for Willis, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and federal special counsel Jack Smith. Each is a top prosecutor in one of the four cases Trump is currently facing.”

Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene “is among the GOP members who urged the House Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation into how much her office receives in federal dollars and whether it has interacted with White House officials,” the AJC also reports.

Legal experts are waving the red flag.

READ MORE: Tennessee House Speaker Silences One Expelled Democrat, Pushes Another

“It’s the smell of desperation: attacking prosecutors when a defendant has no defense to stand on,” says professor of law Joyce Vance, the well-known MSNBC legal analyst former U.S. Attorney. “But in Georgia, it’s being taken to new and dangerous levels. Impossible to view this as anything other than an effort by Georgia GOP to place Trump above the law.”

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin adds, “GA legislators are now openly and loudly discussing how to punish Fani Willis. Why? Because she dared to come for the king.”

“Keep your eyes on how they deploy SB 92 once October comes,” Rubin adds.

Georgia Public Broadcasting has called SB 92 the “divisive district attorney oversight bill,” which “would create a commission with power to remove district attorneys.”

Criminal law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick, pointing to that new law, writes: “Publicly stating that your new commission to discipline and remove prosecutors is an easier way to interfere in the Trump prosecution doesn’t seem like it will help your side of the pending constitutional litigation over that commission.”

READ MORE: ‘Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow’ Didn’t Indict Trump, ‘Regular People’ Did: Fox News Host Destroys ‘Two-Tiered’ Justice Claims

Professor of law at the Georgia State University College of Law, Anthony Michael Kreis, says: “To be clear: Three institutions and three juries determined crimes may have happened here: the January 6th Committee, the United States DOJ, a federal grand jury, the Fulton DA, and two Fulton County grand juries— plus a federal court ruling on the crime-fraud exception.”

He continues, warning: “If, despite that, legislators believe DA Willis should be removed for malfeasance, then they’re simply arguing to replace home rule with their own political judgment. That’s not countenanced by the Georgia Constitution or the rule of law. It’s a recipe for constitutional crisis.”

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‘Deeply Fascist’: Massive Banner of Trump on Government Building Sparks ‘North Korea’ Vibes

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A massive banner of President Donald Trump is now hanging from the outside of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s building in Washington, D.C., opposite a banner of President Abraham Lincoln. Several critics are suggesting the hanging is fascist or authoritarian, with some saying it is giving off North Korea vibes.

“Looming down from the pillared front of the neo-classical facade is an enormous, brooding picture of President Donald Trump, adapted from his official presidential portrait,” The Independent reported. “The picture of Trump is reminiscent of portraits of leaders hanging from public buildings, often seen in dictatorships, monarchies, and in descriptions in George Orwell’s 1984 of ‘Big Brother.'”

Progressive nonprofit People For the American Way posted a photo of the USDA building with the Trump banner, also saying it is “echoing authoritarian dictatorships.”

“This is deeply fascist,” observed Democracy advocate, Army combat vet, and podcaster Fred Wellman.

READ MORE: ‘None of That Is True’: RFK Jr. Fact-Checked Repeatedly in Heated Senate Hearing

“Trump is spending $92 million on a birthday military parade and plastering his face on the sides of government buildings. Washington, DC is becoming Pyongyang, North Korea,” podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen noted.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted photos of the banners being installed, while suggesting that President Trump’s policies have been good for farmers — a controversial opinion given his tariff and trade wars, and program cuts.

The Bulwark’s Tim Miller wrote: “Its interesting that these freedom loving MAGA alpha males want to institute this deeply creepy 3rd world culture where we have a national daddy that must be obeyed.”

Political analyst Rachel Bitecofer warned Trump is “going to go full Putin.”

“Welcome to North America’s North Korea!” exclaimed Russell Drew, a self-described amateur historian and political junkie.

See the social media posts above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Bootlicking’: Johnson Ripped for Shrugging Off Trump Ethics Oversight

 

Image: Public Domain photo via Wikimedia

 

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‘None of That Is True’: RFK Jr. Fact-Checked Repeatedly in Heated Senate Hearing

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Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lashed out as he was repeatedly corrected by U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who accused him of breaking his confirmation hearing promises to the committee, during a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Secretary Kennedy repeatedly interrupted Senator Murphy, forcing the Connecticut Democrat to declare that “none” of what RFK Jr. had said was true.

“You … promised Chairman Cassidy that the FDA would not change vaccine standards from ‘historical norms,’ but what happened as soon as you were sworn in?” Senator Murphy declared. “You announced new standards for vaccine approvals that you proudly referred to in your own press release as a radical departure from current practice, and experts say that that departure will delay approvals. You also said specific to the measles vaccine that you support the measles vaccine, but you have consistently been undermining the measles vaccine. You told the public that the vaccine wanes very quickly, you went on the Dr. Phil’s show, and said that the measles vaccine was never fully tested for safety. You said there’s fetal debris in the measles vaccine.”

Kennedy interjected: “All true. All true,” he insisted. “You want me to lie to the public?”

READ MORE: ‘Bootlicking’: Johnson Ripped for Shrugging Off Trump Ethics Oversight

“None of that is true,” Murphy replied.

“Of course it’s true,” Kennedy said.

After more back and forth and an interjection from the Republican Chair, Murphy continued:

“Just this morning in front of the House of Representatives, you also said that you, in fact, would not recommend that kids get vaccinated for measles, you said you would just lay out the pros and cons. So this is the summation of everything that you have said to compromise people’s faith in the measles vaccine, in particular, is contrary to what you said before this committee.”

“You said you support the measles vaccine,” Murphy added, “but then you have laid out a set of facts that are contested, and I will submit information for the record from experts who contest what you have said about the vaccine, and the result is to undermine faith in the vaccine. It’s kind of like saying, ‘Listen, I think you should swim in that lake, but, you know, the lake is probably toxic, and there’s probably a ton of snakes and alligators in that lake, but I think you should swim in it.'”

Senator Murphy went on to challenge Secretary Kennedy, asking him point-blank, “Are you recommending the measles vaccine or not?”

Kennedy replied that during his confirmation he would “tell the truth,” and have “radical transparency.”

“Are you recommending the measles vaccine?” Murphy again asked.

“I am not going to just tell people that everything is safe and effective. If I know that there’s issues, I need to respect people’s intelligence,” Kennedy replied.

READ MORE: Trump to Middle East: ‘You’re the Envy of the World’

“You’re answering the question. I think you’re answering the question,” Murphy concluded, calling Kennedy’s remarks “really dangerous for the American public and for families in this country.”

Professor of Medicine and Surgery Dr. Jonathan Reiner, weighed in, saying: “The measles vaccine has 60 years of safety and efficacy data and was tested in a placebo controlled trial. There are no fetal parts in the vaccine. It doesn’t wane quickly. Sec Kennedy consistently misstates the facts about this vaccine. No amount of scientific data will convince him otherwise. It’s an obsession.”

Watch the video below or at this link:

READ MORE: GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples

 

 

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‘Bootlicking’: Johnson Ripped for Shrugging Off Trump Ethics Oversight

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Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says he has no concerns about any potentially unethical or unlawful actions being taken by President Donald Trump, arguing that Trump is acting “in the open.” Defending his decision not to pursue oversight, Johnson baselessly claimed that aggressive investigations into then-President Joe Biden were justified because his allegedly concealed actions were integral to what the Speaker called the “Biden Crime Family.”

Johnson’s top three committee chairmen were tasked with investigating President Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and on his watch a formal impeachment investigation was opened. The committees in part relied on a former FBI source who later admitted he had made up the lies about President Biden and his son.

Speaker Johnson on Wednesday was asked whether he is “equally concerned about President Trump’s family’s business dealings, especially given the fact that he is in a region now where his family has billions of dollars in investments in Doha, Saudi Arabia, and the fact that he has a crypto business now, where he’s auctioned off access to the White House for the highest bidder in his meme coin?”

“Look,” Johnson replied, “there are authorities that police the executive branch, ethics rules. I’m not an expert in that. My expertise is here in the House, okay?”

READ MORE: Trump to Middle East: ‘You’re the Envy of the World’

“I will say that the reason that many people referred to the Bidens as the ‘Biden Crime Family’ is because they were doing all this stuff behind curtains in the back rooms,” Johnson alleged. “They were trying to conceal it, and they repeatedly lied about it, and they set up shell companies into a family was all engaged in getting all on the dole.”

“Whatever President Trump is doing is out in the open, they’re not trying to conceal anything,” Johnson insisted.

NBC News’ Chief Capitol Hill Correspondent Ryan Nobles, who had asked the initial questions, informed Speaker Johnson that “the investment in the meme coin, those folks, are not transparent. We do not know who those people are.”

But Johnson vowed ignorance, while insisting that others have oversight responsibilities.

“I don’t know anything about the meme coin thing. I don’t, don’t know. I can just tell you that, I mean, President Trump has had nothing to hide. He’s very upfront about it, and and there are people who watch all the ethics of that, but, I mean, I’ve got to be concerned with running the House of Representatives, and that’s what I do.”

READ MORE: ‘Wild Negative Coattails for Trump’: Omaha Elects Its First Black Democratic Mayor

“Congress has oversight responsibility, but, um, I think, so far as I know, the ethics are all being followed, so…”

Critics blasted the Speaker.

“Congratulations to @SpeakerJohnson for making Chapter 15 of Profiles in Sycophancy!” said U.S, Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL), mocking the Speaker. “Can’t believe it took you this long. ‘It’s not crime if it’s out in the open except for the memecoins I don’t understand’ isn’t a legal opinion. It’s bootlicking.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: GOP Plan Redefines Dependent Child as ‘Under 7’—But Adds Loophole for Married Couples

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