Tag: Crime

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Crime Donald Trump Justice Department

Jack Smith Is About To Get Trump’s ‘Trove Of Secrets’

A court filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith makes it clear Smith is demanding that failed former president Donald Trump either “put up or shut up” regarding whether or not he wants to use a specific legal defense in the 2020 election interference case brought against him by the Department of Justice, according to a former U.S. Attorney.

Barbara McQuade, who served as U.S. Attorney for Eastern District of Michigan in the Obama administration, notes in an article she wrote for MSNBC that the motion is to the point and could prove devastating for Trump’s legal team and his overall defense.

In a motion filed this week, the special counsel asked Judge Tanya S. Chutkan to order Trump to provide formal pre-trial notice of any intent to rely on advice of counsel as a defense in the federal election interference case. According to the motion, Trump and his lawyers have ‘repeatedly and publicly’ stated an intent to assert the defense at trial. The Dec. 18 exhibit list deadline, Smith argues, is the time for Trump to put up or shut up.

If Trump uses the defense, McQuade explains, he’ll lose the protections found in the attorney-client provisions of the law, which means he could then be forced to turn over any and all documents between him and his lawyers, which is about as risky as it gets when dealing with a criminal case.

Smith’s demand is important because this defense would trigger two significant consequences — a waiver of attorney-client privilege and a duty to produce all documents related to the advice. Until now, Trump has been able to have it both ways — protect testimony and documents from disclosure as privileged, while also claiming that his conduct was lawful because he simply relied on what his lawyers told him.

Those documents could prove especially damning, as they might well show exactly how Trump planned and carried out his attempted coup that culminated in the horror of January 6, 2021.

No matter what happens with the motion in the long run, McQuade concludes, it will force Trump to make a decision that could send him to prison for decades.

Regardless of whether Smith’s motion succeeds, at some point Trump will have to decide whether asserting what may be a flimsy defense is worth sharing his trove of secrets.

Will he or won’t he? We’re about to find out.

 

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Crime GOP

Stephen King Gives ‘Jimmy’ Jordan A Brutal Fact-Check On The Issue Of Crime

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) got supremely swatted down by best-selling author Stephen King on the issue of crime, and the result was perfectly on-point, especially since Jordan’s party is on the verge of shutting down the federal government to pretend they’re doing something other than wasting time and taxpayer money on bogus investigations.

On Tuesday, Jordan took the House Judiciary Committee on the road, to the city of Chicago so Republicans could grandstand and claim Democrats are to blame for all of the crime taking place in the United States.

After the hearing, Jordan posted this on Twitter:

That led King to respond with a pointed reminder of what’s actually behind the rise in violent crime.

For example, consider the issue of mass shootings in the U.S., which are increasing rapidly in 2023, according to a recent report from the BBC.

There have been more than 470 mass shootings across the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed. Their figures include shootings that happen in homes and in public places.

For each of the last three years there have been more than 600 mass shootings – almost two a day on average.

How can anyone blame those numbers on any political party or ideology? It’s the proliferation of guns that makes it easier for gun crimes to take place. Fewer guns would mean fewer deaths, much the same way fewer cars on highways reduces the number of fatal auto accidents. That’s just common sense.

Even worse is the fact that Jordan has no solutions to the problem he’s trying to blame on others. He’s just trying to make political hay while more people die of gunshot wounds each and every day in this country

The terror found in Stephen King’s novels is no match for the craven and heartless posturing from mindless, self-serving political hacks like Jim Jordan and his ilk.

 

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Crime Fox News GOP

MT Greene May Have Committed A Federal Crime With Comments She Made During An Interview

During an appearance on Fox “News,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) made some comments that may come back haunt her in a major way if the Justice Department decides to investigate her for endangering U.S. national security.

Greene was a guest on Laura Ingraham’s show, HuffPost reports, when she began talking about classified document she viewed regarding President Joe Biden.

Greene said she read a document inside a SCIF ― a sensitive compartmented information facility ― related to bribery allegations Republicans have made against President Joe Biden but have yet to provide evidence for.

So far so good for Greene, but she should have stopped talking right then. She didn’t. Instead, she began describing the document.

Since the document was shown in a SCIF, that means the FBI considered it to be sensitive and not for public consumption.

Greene then made matters even worse with what she said and did next.

“This is a document that all of America should be able to see, but the FBI is stonewalling us and they would only let us see it in a SCIF,” she said. “Well what I did after reading the document is I made notes when I walked out and I went up to the table.”

Greene also held those notes up to the camera, where anyone could have gotten a screenshot of them.

“I wrote down everything that I had just read so that I could come out and tell the American people what I read,” she said.

If indeed the guilty almost always confess, it certainly seems that Marge did just that, and on national television, which raised more than a few eyebrows, beginning with Mark Zaid, an attorney who specializes in national security.

Others also suggested that Greene had just broken federal law, ironically for almost the same thing her lord and savior, Donald Trump, has been indicted for.

 

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Crime GOP Sex Scandals

Lauren Boebert May Be Charged With A Sex Crime Under Colorado’s Lewdness Statute

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s lewd behavior at a Denver theater performance of a musical last week may soon result in her being charged with a sex crime under Colorado law.

According to Newsweek:

Colorado law states that public indecency is committed when a person performs certain acts in a public place, or in a place where the public is likely to see, including lewdly fondling or caressing another individual. Sexual intercourse; lewd exposure of the body but not the genitalia, with the intent to arouse or satisfy a sexual desire; and knowingly exposing one’s genitals to the view of another, under the circumstances in which such conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm, are considered public indecency, as well.

According to statute 18-7-301 of the Colorado criminal code, public indecency is a petty offense sex crime punishable by fines and up to six months in prison for more serious offenses. It tends to carry lighter penalties, though, such as 10 days in jail and/or up to $300 fines, in addition to potential probation, community service or mandatory counseling.

Boebert and her date were caught on video sexually fondling each other, with the man grabbing at her breasts while the congresswoman placed her hand on his crotch.

Does their behavior fall under the Colorado statute? Possibly, but Denver defense attorney Matthew Hand says the indecency law is “vague and overreaching.”

“To be blunt, not all intimacy is intercourse, and lewdness is in the eye of the beholder.”

Even if Boebert isn’t formally charged, the political price she’ll have to pay may be the final straw in what was already projected to be difficult reelection bid for the Colorado Republican, with polls showing her losing favor among voters in her district.

Ironically, Boebert’s ex-husband was convicted of a sex crime in 2004 after he exposed his penis to two underage girls in bowling alley.

In January 2004, when Jayson Boebert was 24, he was arrested for exposing himself to two young women at a Colorado bowling alley. His future wife Lauren Roberts (as she was then known), who was 17 at the time, was also present and was told she was no longer welcome at the bowling alley.

Jayson Boebert pled guilty to “public indecency and lewd exposure” after that incident, according to The New York Post, and was sentenced to four days in jail with a subsequent two years on probation.

No wonder Lauren fell in love with Jayson, huh?

 

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Congress GOP

Right-Wing Activist Says He Has Evidence Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘Committed A Crime’

As she watches one vote after another fail to elevate House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to Speaker of the House, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) must wonder if she has backed the wrong horse.

Greene has resorted to attacking her GOP colleagues in the House, as if that will do anything other than alienate them even further, with Mediaite noting:

Greene lit into her colleagues while talking with reporters in the Capitol.

“If my friends in the Freedom Caucus, Matt Gaetz and others will not take the win when they have it, they’re proving to the country that they don’t care about doing the right thing for America,” she began.

“They’re proving to the country that they’re just distractions. And that’s that’s not what we need to do as a party. That’s why Republicans fail. And I’m really tired of it,” Greene concluded in a clip from Right Side Broadcasting.

As you’d expect, Greene’s comments weren’t well-received by some on the right wing of her party.

For example, Ali Alexander, organizer of the extreme right “Stop the Steal” movement, who is threatening to destroy Greene by handing over evidence of a crime the congresswoman has reportedly committed.

On Telegram, Alexander wrote:

“I will not suffer this harlot. I will not be taught vows and loyalty, commitment from a whore! You have got me mistaken for some damn fool, and a fool, Ali Alexander has never been called.”

And then things got really interesting, with Alexander making his claim of a crime committed by Greene:

“In the coming days I’m going to reveal that Marjorie Taylor Greene, in my summation and the summation of lawyers, committed a crime. That crime is going to be handed to the state of Georgia, and the state of Georgia will decide whether they adjudicate that crime or not. The House Ethics Committee and House Rules [Committee] must expel Marjorie Taylor Greene when this evidence comes to light.

“Ho, go home! I am done with you. You are lukewarm, I am spitting you out of my mouth. You played me, and no more. Everyone will know about your drunken night, because the consultants who have drunk with you will have to choose whether they fear me or whether they fear you, and they fear me, Marge. They fear me a lot more than they fear you.”

Granted, Alexander may just be blowing smoke, but if he does indeed have proof of a crime by Marge, let’s hope he makes good on this threat and shares it with the world.