Tag: Justice Department

Categories
GOP Justice Department Religion

Garland Goes NUCLEAR On Republican For Accusing Him Of Religious Discrimination

Attorney General Merrick Garland went off on Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday when the congressman suggested that the Justice Department discriminates against Catholics who are opposed to abortion.

Van Drew began by remarking, “The two-tiered system of justice is clear and it’s clear to the American public. And the buck stops with the man in charge. That man is you. The actions of the DOJ are on you. The decline of Americans trust in our federal law enforcement is on you. The political weaponization of the DOJ is on you. Attorney General, I need a simple yes or no to the following. Just yes or no because we don’t have much time. Do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists, yes or no?”

The AG replied,  “Let me answer what you’ve said in that long list of-“

“Attorney General, I control the time. I’m gonna ask you to answer the questions I ask,” Van Drew insisted.

Garland: “You’ve controlled the time by asking me a substantial number of things and I –”

Van Drew:  “I didn’t ask you those things, I made a statement. Attorney General, through the chair I ask you, do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists? Answer the question.”

“I have no idea what traditional means here, let me just-” Garland insisted before Van Drew cut him off again.

“Catholics! Catholics that go to church.”

Garland: “May I answer your question? The idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous! So absurd!”

Garland’s family fled from Russia due to anti-Semitism, and the fact that Van Drew would ask such a question clearly infuriated him.

Van Drew continued to press.

“Mr. Attorney General, it was your FBI that did this. It was your FBI that was sending — and we have the memos, we have the emails –were sending undercover agents into Catholic churches.”

The AG replied, “Both I and the director of the FBI have said that we were appalled by that memo.”

Mediaite notes that Van Drew was clearly referring to recent convictions of pro-life Catholics who blockaded family planning clinics:

Garland and Van Drew continued to spar over the DOJ’s treatment of religious Catholics. The former’s DOJ has been criticized for its zealous prosecution of pro-life activists. Last week, two 70+ year old women were found guilty of being “engaged in a conspiracy to create a blockade at the reproductive health care clinic to prevent the clinic from providing, and patients from receiving, reproductive health services.”

Here’s the video:

 

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Crime January 6 Justice Department

J6 Rioter Facing Quadrupled Prison Sentence After Calling Prosecutors A ‘Clown Show’

A New York man convicted for taking part in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol could soon be facing a long time in prison as the result of an angry tirade he directed at federal prosecutors after he was convicted.

Frank Giustino was originally sentenced to three weeks incarceration for actions, but is now likely to get four months because he couldn’t keep his big mouth shut.

Scott MacFarlane of CBS News reports that Giustino showed “no remorse for his conduct on January 6” and instead presented “himself as the victim,” all the while referring to “the prosecution as a ‘clown show’ and a ‘nuisance.'”

“Giustino’s behavior in Court further evinces his belief that the attack on the Capitol was righteous… necessitating a sentence that will deter him from similar conduct,” prosecutors argue.

While it’s rare for prosecutors to call for an increase in a sentence, Giustino appears to have given then exactly the proof they need that an enhancement is justified.

Giustino previously proved his complete lack of respect for the law by firing his attorney and demanding that he be allowed to represent himself even though the judge in the case informed him that a lawyer could help him negotiate a lower sentence.

 

Categories
Crime Donald Trump

Next Indictment From Jack Smith Will Include 30-45 Charges Against Trump: Report

Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith is preparing to file what’s known as a “superseding indictment” against failed former president Donald Trump in the coming weeks, and the filing could include up to 45 new charges against the ex-president, according to Andrew Feinberg of The Independent.

The new indictment would include even more serious charges than the ones Trump is already facing.

The team of federal prosecutors working under Special Counsel Jack Smith is currently prepared to add an “additional 30 to 45 charges” in addition to the 37-count indictment brought against Mr Trump on 8 June, either in a superseding indictment in the same Florida court or in a different federal judicial district. In either case, they would do so using evidence against the ex-president that has not yet been publicly acknowledged by the department, including other recordings prosecutors have obtained which reveal Mr Trump making incriminating statements.

Smith is also planning to bring charges against several of Trump’s attorneys, including those who helped him spread lies about the 2020 election being stolen, which would include Rudy Giuliani, who has met with Justice Department investigators about what role he played in attempts to overturn the last presidential election.

A source familiar with the matter has said Mr Smith’s office will “most definitely” bring some charges against Mr Giuliani for his work on Mr Trump’s behalf in the weeks between the November 2020 election and the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol.

In addition to the laundry list of federal charges Trump is facing, he is also expected to be indicted in Fulton County, Georgia by District Attorney Fani Willis, who is also looking into efforts by Trump and his surrogates to have him declared the winner despite the fact that President Joe Biden won in an electoral landslide.

That probe, which is being conducted by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, is expected to result in multiple indictments which could be unveiled as early as next month. Ms Willis, who last year oversaw a special purpose grand jury probe into efforts by Mr Trump and his allies to reverse his loss to Mr Biden in Georgia, is reportedly considering indictments against the ex-president, his former attorney, top Republican figures in the state, as well as Mr Trump’s final White House chief of staff, ex-North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows.

In his home state of New York, Trump has already been indicted for falsifying business records to hide hush money payments made to adult film Stormy Daniels. And his company, the Trump Organization, is also being put under the microscope by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is expected to use civil charges to dismantle the company and dissolve its assets.

 

Categories
Congress GOP Justice Department

WATCH: Jim Jordan’s ‘Weaponization’ Witness Gets Humiliated When Asked About His Revoked Security Clearance

This hasn’t been a very good day for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Jordan’s committee held a hearing this morning regarding the so-called “weaponization” of the Justice Department against failed and indicted former president Donald Trump, and his first “whistleblower” was quickly discredited with a line of questioning about why he lost his security clearance when he worked for the FBI.

The witness/whistleblower, Steve Friend, who served as an agent in the Miami FBI office was asked by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), “You … claim that your top secret security clearance was improperly revoked. Yet an independent investigation concluded that you demonstrated a number of security concerns, which included that you refused to execute a court-ordered arrest warrant, and when you downloaded documents from intelligence systems to an unauthorized removable flash drive.”

Friend said nothing, so Wasserman Schultz continued:

“The cherry on top could be your unauthorized recording of executive management, which, as I’m sure you know, violates Florida law, along with your unsanctioned interviews with Sputnik News, established by the Russian government in 2014 and fully owned by the Kremlin and Putin’s cronies.”

The congresswoman concluded her remarks by noting, “I think it’s clear who is weaponizing government.”

Jordan’s other witness, FBI agent Marcus Allen, also lost his security clearance because he refused to share information with fellow agents regarding January 6 suspects who were under investigation.

It’d be tempting to call Jordan’s bogus hearings a dog and pony show, but that would be an insult to dogs, ponies, and shows.

 

Categories
Abuse of Power Justice Department Supreme Court

Clarence Thomas Is Now A Step Closer To Being Criminally Referred To The DOJ

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas is a step closer to being criminally referred the U.S. Department of Justice for expensive trips and other perks he received from a top Republican donor, some of which were valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last week, ProPublica revealed the connections between Thomas and billionaire megadonor Harlan Crow.

One of the trips Thomas took was to Indonesia.

IN LATE JUNE 2019, right after the U.S. Supreme Court released its final opinion of the term, Justice Clarence Thomas boarded a large private jet headed to Indonesia. He and his wife were going on vacation: nine days of island-hopping in a volcanic archipelago on a superyacht staffed by a coterie of attendants and a private chef.

If Thomas had chartered the plane and the 162-foot yacht himself, the total cost of the trip could have exceeded $500,000. Fortunately for him, that wasn’t necessary: He was on vacation with real estate magnate and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, who owned the jet — and the yacht, too.

But there were many other jaunts around the globe for Justice Thomas and his wife, Ginni, who worked to try and overturn the results of the 2020 election so that Donald Trump could remain in office despite having lost in a landslide to President Joe Biden.

The Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has written a committee of federal judges who oversee matters related to members of the judiciary and is requesting a formal criminal referral of Thomas to the Justice Department, noting:

Campaign Legal Center respectfully requests that the Judicial Conference exercise its authority pursuant to 5 U.S.C. § 13106(b) and refer Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Attorney General because there is “reasonable cause to believe” that he “willfully failed to file information required to be reported” under the Ethics in GovernmentAct (“EIGA”).

Specifically, Justice Thomas’ public statement on April 7, 2023, and recent news reporting, confirm that for over twenty years he did not file required gift disclosures of private plane and yacht travel from one individual. There is reasonable cause to believe that the omissions were willful because Justice Thomas (1) previously reported private plane travel from the same individual in compliance with the law, but stopped the disclosures after negative media attention; and (2) has a history of omitting significant information from his financial disclosure reports.

Thomas has served on the Supreme Court since 1991.