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‘Gross Abuse’: Merrick Garland’s Former Constitutional Law Professor Is Now Blasting Him
Attorney General Merrick Garland is under fire from the left, and now, even from his own former Harvard constitutional law professor, after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s final report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents included what experts say were partisan remarks about the President that violated Dept. of Justice practice.
“Merrick Garland will be one of the greatest Attorneys General in American history, bar none. As my brilliant con law student, a principled prosecutor, and later a superb DC Circuit judge, he has displayed integrity, courage, fair-mindedness, and humanity,” wrote Laurence Tribe, on January 6, 2021, upon the announcement Biden would appoint Garland as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Now a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, Tribe taught constitutional law at Harvard Law for decades. In addition to Garland, among his most famous students and research assistants are Barack Obama, Ted Cruz, John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Jamie Raskin, and Adam Schiff.
Tribe appears to have since soured on his former student’s leadership of the U.S. Dept. of Justice.
On Sunday, Tribe pointed to this passage from a Politico article: “The president believes the special counsel investigating his handling of classified documents went beyond his remit. And part of the blame is being placed on the AG.”
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Tribe added, “As it should be. I’ve long respected my friend and former student Merrick Garland but he has bent too far backwards in order to avoid seeming pro-Biden.”
Tribe also cited an Associated Press report from Sunday: “Bob Bauer, as Biden’s personal lawyer, rightly ‘raised concerns over the inclusion of these details to both Hur and Garland.’ Garland should’ve granted Bauer’s appeal because Hur’s report violated DOJ ‘norms that work to avoid prejudicing the public against people who are not charged with a crime.'”
On Friday, professor of law, frequent MSNBC legal analyst, and former top DOJ official Andrew Weissmann wrote, “It was entirely foreseeable Rob Hur would pull a Comey in his report. Garland was [100%] right to have appointed a Special Counsel but wrong to pick Hur and to think only a Republican could fit the bill.”
Tribe responded: “It’s time we invented a verb for that kind of move. I propose we call it ‘garlanding’ or ‘pulling a garland.'”
On Sunday, Tribe reposted video of former Judge of the United States Court of Appeals, J. Michael Luttig repeatedly calling the Hur report “an abuse of power.” Tribe commented: “It was indeed. A gross abuse, and one the Attorney General should have intervened to correct.”
This is not the first time Tribe has criticized Garland. There are more than half-a-dozen times Tribe directly or indirectly leveled criticism at the Attorney General, largely surrounding what some see as an extremely lengthy delay in bringing criminal charges against Donald Trump.
For example, Tribe pulled this quote from this piece: “The languid pace at which AG Merrick Garland pursued January 6 cases must count as a but-for cause of the overlap between the litigation calendar and the political calendar.”
“He just needs to step on the accelerator,” Tribe wrote in August of 2022.
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In November of 2022, Tribe wrote: “Good morning, Merrick Garland. You awake?”
Just days later: “Yes. Time’s up, DOJ. I know that Merrick Garland, who has devoted his life to the rule of law, will do the right thing. But that requires him to indict now. Even waiting till the Dec. 6 runoff would be wrong, and there’s no excuse for delaying things by naming a special counsel.”
One year ago in February: “If AG Garland isn’t interested in how the Barr/Durham Crime spree has perverted justice and degraded DOJ, then the Department’s IG should follow the smelly trail and expose its putrid source.”
In June of last year: “Great journalism has shown Garland and Monaco well-intentioned but profoundly unwise in slow-walking the investigation into Trump and those around him. Their fear of looking political backfired badly. Whether the harm was irreparable remains to be seen.”
The following month: “The J6 House Committee is the reason AG Garland was finally forced to appoint Special Counsel Jack Smith. Without the great work of that Committee, Merrick Garland might’ve hemmed and hawed forever.”
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During one of several rants outside the courtroom Monday during his New York trial for alleged criminal business records falsification, election interference, and “hush money,” Donald Trump repeatedly complained falsely that the judge overseeing the case was appointed by “Democrat politicians.”
Trump is well-acquainted with New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
Merchan was the judge who presided over the trial of Trump’s former Chief Financial Officer, Allan Weisselberg, who was convicted. He also presided over the fraud and money-laundering trial of former Trump 2016 campaign CEO and senior White House counselor Steve Bannon.
“We have a corrupt judge, and we have a judge who’s highly-conflicted,” Trump, nearly yelling, told reporters Monday afternoon. “And he’s keeping me from campaigning. He’s an appointed, New York judge, he’s appointed.”
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“You know who appointed him? Democrat politicians. He’s appointed.”
Trump repeated his baseless claims Merchan is “corrupt” and “conflicted,” adding, “he ought to let us go out and campaign and get rid of this scam.”
Trump is incorrect about Judge Merchan’s background: he was not appointed by “Democrat politicians.”
In 2006, Republican New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Merchan to his first judicial post, to the New York City Family Court. In 2009, Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau appointed Merchan as Acting Justice to the Supreme Court of New York. Pfau was appointed to her first judicial post by Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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Trump also appeared to suggest appointed judges are somehow suspect – despite frequently bragging that he himself appointed three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, not to mention 234 judges in total he appointed to the federal bench.
Some legal experts believe a system where judges are appointed rather than elected serves justice better.
“The quality of justice suffers when politics invades the judicial sphere, casting doubt on the impartiality of case outcomes and eroding public confidence in our nation’s system of justice,” an article at the American Bar Association reads.
Watch Trump below or at this link.
Trump yelling about the judge pic.twitter.com/IJJUzMALcG
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 13, 2024
Former Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen in damning testimony Monday told jurors about Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s fears in 2016 when the “Access Hollywood” tape dropped, and what his real concerns were about the bombshell audio that nearly ended his nascent political career.
Cohen revealed that in 2015 when the then-real estate magnate announced he was running for president, Trump told him, “Be prepared. There’s going to be a lot of women coming forward,” according to Courthouse News.
Cohen told jurors that in 2016 “he caught wind of the fact that adult film star Stormy Daniels was shopping her story that she had sex with Trump a decade prior. Cohen said that he was concerned about the impact it could have on Trump’s presidential campaign, particularly after the release of the infamous Access Hollywood tape.”
“At this time, Mr. Trump was polling very, very low with women,” Cohen testified, adding that Trump “said to me, ‘This is a disaster.’”
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“‘Women will hate me. Guys, they may think it’s cool. But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.’”
Cohen also revealed from the witness stand that he had asked Trump how his wife, Melania Trump, was taking the news about Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who Trump allegedly paid hush money to then falsified his business records to hide the transactions in an effort to influence the election, according to prosecutors.
“How long do you think I’ll be on the market for? Not long,” Trump told Cohen, according to his former attorney.
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania,” Cohen said. “This was all about the campaign.”
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins called that a “Remarkable moment.”
The Daily Mail adds, “Asked if Trump was angry during this frantic period of damage control that could surface the Stormy Daniels story, Cohen said ‘Yes. Because there was a negative story that could impact the campaign as a result of women.’ ”
Watch MSNBC’s report below or at this link.
‘He wasn’t thinking about Melania, this was all about the campaign’@mitchellreports and @KatyTurNBC are joined by a legal panel to discuss Michael Cohen’s testimony focusing on the hush money payment and the “Access Hollywod” tape in former President Trump’s criminal trial. pic.twitter.com/rcohWqqybS
— MSNBC Reports (@MSNBC_reports) May 13, 2024
READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’
Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.
Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”
“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.
One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.
“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”
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Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”
“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”
“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”
“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.
In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.
Listen to a short clip below or at this link.
ICYMI: @realDonaldTrump joined @NickKayal & @DawnStensland sharing his perspective on Title IX…
Watch below or listen on @Audacy pic.twitter.com/wzx0QxKPJ7
— Talk Radio 1210 WPHT (@1210WPHT) May 10, 2024
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Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’
‘Grave Danger’: Trump’s ‘Raw Display’ of Power at Court Alarms Conservative
‘He Wasn’t Thinking About Melania’: Cohen Reveals Trump’s Fears in ‘Hush Money’ Testimony
Trump Wails His Judge Was Appointed by ‘Democrat Politicians’ – That’s False
Trump Wails His Judge Was Appointed by ‘Democrat Politicians’ – That’s False
‘He Wasn’t Thinking About Melania’: Cohen Reveals Trump’s Fears in ‘Hush Money’ Testimony
‘Grave Danger’: Trump’s ‘Raw Display’ of Power at Court Alarms Conservative
Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’
‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students
OPINION8 hours agoJohnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’
OPINION5 hours ago‘Grave Danger’: Trump’s ‘Raw Display’ of Power at Court Alarms Conservative
News3 hours ago‘He Wasn’t Thinking About Melania’: Cohen Reveals Trump’s Fears in ‘Hush Money’ Testimony
News45 mins agoTrump Wails His Judge Was Appointed by ‘Democrat Politicians’ – That’s False