I’m sorry. It’s just stupid that anyone in D.C. believes that. Robert Mueller has the power to compel Donald Trump to appear in front of any of his three, count ’em, three Grand Juries.
This is settled law having been decided in Jones v. Clinton by a unanimous ruling of the United States Supreme Court.
Allowing Clinton to testify by deposition was merely a courtesy.
Likewise if Donald Trump refuses the courtesy of Robert Mueller to testify by sworn deposition, his physical appearence in front of the Grand Jury may be compelled at which point he has 2 choices-
Answer the questions put to him truthfully OR
Plead the Fifth Amendment.
Answering untruthfully makes him guilty of perjury.
This is black letter Law!
Speculation that Mueller is going to let Trump skate testifying and is rushing his case on Obstruction so it can procede without Trump’s testimony demonstrates both a short memory and a limited understanding of the Law.
The only thing that could prevent it is not the Law, but political calculations that somehow Trump is so “popular” that it would cause backlash against Mueller (and maybe Democrats) that would prevent the administration of justice.
Folks, if we have gone that far already it’s time to polish up your passports and run, don’t walk, to the nearest border because the Constitutional Government of the United States of America doesn’t exist anymore.
I’m not advocating this. Chris Matthews & Co. are ignorant idiots.
Like many small time petty crooks, Carlo didn’t like to work and wasn’t good at holding a job. Not only was he lazy, he wasn’t smart. He made mistakes as a bookie and his co-workers had to keep an eye on him.
He was the guy who married Connie Corleone and abused her, using one episode of abuse to lure Sonny into the trap where he died.
Look folks, there has just been too much news this week to keep up with our Late Night friends’ humorous commentary and if you’re like me you could use a giggle or two.
Monday
Third Month Mania: Bracket of Bullshit
Tuesday
Panda
Yesterday
Ryan
I’ve highlighted my three favorite, “Third Month Mania: Bracket of Bullshit”, “Panda”, and “Ryan”. Stephen had worked with Jean Baptiste on a song about Ryan’s accomplishments but couldn’t come up with any (unfortunately it’s Twitter only and I couldn’t figure out how to embed it for you). Seth of course wasted his entire Monday monologue talking about his wife giving birth in the lobby of their apartment hours before. Congratulations to the Meyers on their new addition.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
President Franklin Roosevelt dies; The American Civil War begins with the attack on Ft. Sumter; Yuri Gagarin is the first man to fly in space; Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on its first mission; Late night TV host David Letterman born.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
The worst tempered people I have ever met were those who knew that they were wrong.
The rumbling started weeks ago when the GOP rats started abandoning the ship of state known as congress (How many now? 40?), so there was no surprise when Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) announced that he was going over the side rather than endure the embarrassment of having to hand over the gavel on January 2 to a Democratic Speaker. Yes, we heard his excuse that his children are in their teens and he no longer wants to be a “weekend dad.” We can all see through that smoke. He knows that, even if he won reelection, his party would been in the minority and that is too much for this arrogant fraud to bear.
Shed no tears for the “zombie-eyed granny starver” as our witty friend Charles Pierce calls him, Ryan isn’t exactly going to the poor house. Au contraire. From Uncle Charlie:
(H)e’s going back to Janesville to be the Dad he’s always wanted to be, home to his 5,786-foot Georgian mansion on Courthouse Hill, and its 13 rooms, six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, the little house on the Wisconsin prairie that Ryan was able to afford because he married money, the one that’s on the National Register of Historic Places. Paul Ryan has somehow amassed a fortune of between four and seven million dollars without holding any job except “Congressman” for the past 20 years.
(By the way, the Dad concerns somehow were muted back in 2012. If things had broken differently, Ryan would be in his sixth year as vice-president of the United States and, of course, he would not be planning to succeed President Romney because there would be high-school plays he couldn’t miss.)
Now, he’s coming home to the district he’s avoided like the plague ever since the current midterm election cycle began. Last weekend, for example, he had to put his full-time Dad job on hold in order to go to Texas and raise money. I’m sure they had to drag him onto the airplane to go to Houston. I’m sure they’ll have to pry him out of the family manse to raise more money as we get closer to what may be a Republican cataclysm in November, the way they had to pry him out a couple of days ago for a quick trip to Georgia to raise some money there, too, and the way they had to pry him out to go to Savannah, or Texas.
As a longtime connoisseur of Ryan’s public fakery, I may never decide what about him I find the most nauseating—the retrograde policies that he gussies up as concern for the poor and downtrodden, or the wet-eyed phony sincerity with which he sells them. Even in his press conference on Wednesday, Ryan expressed disappointment that, in his two decades in Congress, he didn’t get to fully gut Medicaid and Social Security.
Entitlement reform is the one thing, the one other great thing I spent most of my career working on. I’m extremely proud of the fact that the House passed the biggest entitlement reform bill in the history of the House of Representatives. Do I regret that the Senate did not pass this? Yes. But I feel, from all the budgets that I’ve passed, normalizing entitlement reform, and the House passing entitlement reform, I’m very proud of that fact. But of course, more work needs to be done. And it really is entitlements. That’s where the work needs to be done. And I’m going to keep fighting for that.
This would include, of course, “reforming,” probably out of existence, the Social Security survivor’s benefits that got him through high school and college before he could line up at the federal trough for the rest of his adult life. He is, however, very proud of the grotesque tax bill he managed to pass.
So who will replace the Fraud from Janesville? More from Charlie on the race in WI-01:
There’s a spirited Democratic primary between ironworker Randy (Iron Stache) Bryce and Cathy Myers, a member of the school board in Janesville. The only announced Republican candidate is….wait for it…a crazy-assed white supremacist named Paul Nehlen, whom Ryan crushed in a primary two years ago, and who made the news recently by being suspended by Twitter for a racist post about Megan Markle. From Newsweek:
In the tweet, he superimposed a picture on Markle’s image of the reconstructed appearance of Cheddar Man, an ancient Briton who experts now believe was dark skinned after conducting DNA tests on his 9,000-year-old remains.
It would be great if every respectable Republican in the district ran and hid and left Nehlen as the party’s standard-bearer in the race to replace Paul Ryan.
Republicans are now scrambling amongst themselves over who will take the party reins in January. There’s Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) waiting in the wings if they don’t get booted in the coming “blue wave.” but, hey, there’s always the class clowns like Steve King (R-IA) and Louie Gomert (R-TX).
Well, so long, Paul. Don’t let the door smack your derriere on the way out.
The letter from Boente to Associate Deputy Attorney General Scott Schools is dated Jan. 2, when Boente was still acting head of the Justice Department’s national security division. In the letter, Boente requests legal representation or reimbursement of his legal fees and says he doesn’t believe that he is either a target or a subject of Mueller’s inquiry.
Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government. [..]
Trump fired Comey in May 2017, citing inaccurate testimony that Comey made before Congress about the FBI’s investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state. Trump told NBC News at the time that the Russia investigation played no role in his decision to dismiss Comey, who at the time was in charge of the inquiry.
Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he informed Boente — who at the time was his boss — about two discussions he had with Trump about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, one of them the March 30 conversation and the other occurring on April 11.
Comey testified that in the March 30 conversation, Trump complained that the Russia investigation was “a cloud” that was “impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country” and asked whether Comey could “lift the cloud” by declaring publicly that Trump wasn’t under investigation.
Boente, a holdover from the Obama administration, was briefly acting attorney general early last year, succeeding Sally Yates, whom Trump fired for refusing to enforce his immigration-related travel restrictions.
After Jeff Sessions was confirmed as attorney general in February 2017, Boente became acting deputy attorney general, eventually overseeing the Russia investigation when Sessions recused himself. Boente, who remained U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, stepped down from the Justice Department in October after he was asked to make way for a successor chosen by Trump.
The Washington Post confirmed that Boente has been interviewed by the special counsel’s office and turned over handwritten notes that could be evidence in the ongoing investigation into whether President Trump obstructed justice.
The interview is significant, because it shows how Mueller is exploring whether the president obstructed justice and keying in on conversations Trump had with his former FBI director about the probe involving his presidential campaign. It also shows the extent to which Mueller has gone to corroborate Comey’s account. [..]
Boente, though, is not an eyewitness to Trump and Comey’s interaction. He can only corroborate that what Comey told him lines up with what the former FBI director wrote in his memos and later told Congress.
Comey has said publicly that he relayed to Boente a March 30, 2017, conversation in which Trump complained to him that the “cloud” of the investigation into whether his campaign coordinated with Russia was interfering with his ability to govern, and that he hoped they could publicize the fact that he was not personally under investigation.
At that time, Mueller had yet to be appointed, though the FBI was investigating the matter. Boente was then the acting deputy attorney general and was overseeing the investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself. In that role, he signed a controversial, secret court application to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser. [..]
The people familiar with the matter said Boente also gave to Mueller notes he had made about his own conversation with Comey.
Jed Shugerman, Fordham University law professor, talks with Rachel about what conclusions can be drawn from exclusive documents obtained by TRMS.
Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel about new reports about Donald Trump’s desire to fire his way out of the Russia investigation, and the significance of new TRMS reporting that Boente had been summoned to speak to Robert Mueller’s investigators.
The Video may seem a little off topic but that’s because Trump was completely off topic, raving about how unfair it was that his Button Man who happens to be a member of the Bar (but probably not for long) Michael Cohen got served with a Search Warrant, at least 3 of them as a matter of fact. It’s not at all true FBI Agents busted down his door, he rents office space from another firm and his Landlords, when presented with the proper papers, opened the door and let them in as they are legally compelled to do.
The significance of the pictures however, is the reaction of all that Pentagon Brass being used as props for bad, and spittle flecked, Reality TV. They came to talk about our response to the latest Syrian Chemical Strike and are not amused.
Nor should they be because there is in fact very little we can do about it from a Military standpoint as was pointed out in a piece from Max Fischer titled America’s Three Bad Options in Syria published by The New York Times on Wednesday, April 10th, 2018.
In a general way Fischer categorizes our choices as-
Limited Punitive Strikes
Arming Anti-Government Forces
Massive Ground and Air Intervention
As defined by Fischer Limited Punitive Strikes include all the conventional options that have been generally discussed, symbolic Missile Strikes, attacks on Command and Control facilities that might kill a few Syrian Colonels, and direct Anti-Personnel Strikes against Syrian and Iranian Troop Concentrations (as far as I know Iran has nothing to do with the Chemical Attacks but we hate them and they helped the Syrians who we also hate and we hate them and think we can push them around and by the way we hate them).
The problem with that as Fischer points out is-
Such action is meant to impose a modest cost on Mr. Assad or to send a message that future chemical weapons use will not be tolerated. At the same time, it is meant to avoid any risk of changing the course of the war, which could lead in unanticipated directions — like embroiling the United States in a larger conflict, or collapsing the Syrian government, which could, in turn, spread chaos that would risk millions of lives.
But past efforts at these kind of strikes have failed for two reasons. First, they do not change Mr. Assad’s calculus because, to Mr. Assad, this war is a matter of personal and national survival. If he believes chemical weapons are necessary to his survival, he will abandon them only in the face of some threat to his survival greater than the benefit he thinks they offer him. That requires an existential threat, which the United States is unwilling to impose because of the risks.
Second, Mr. Assad’s Russian and Iranian allies can easily help him absorb the costs imposed by such strikes. If the United States bombs another Syrian runway, Russian contractors can simply pave Mr. Assad a new one. It’s not exactly a game-changer for him.
I’ve seen suggestions from other sources that the Iranians on their own could indeed escalate the conflict in ways the United States might find undesirable such as unleashing a Hezbollah/Hamas attack on Israel (and their IRBMs which don’t have to have nuclear ordinance to be effective can target every square inch with great accuracy), close the Straights of Hormuz, make the positions of U.S. Troops in Iraq undefendable, little things.
Fischer describes Arming Anti-Government Forces as the Obama Policy which is already a deal breaker as far as Trump is concerned. It also has several drawbacks-
The problem with this strategy is that Mr. Assad’s Russian and Iranian allies are able to escalate in turn, matching and exceeding any American bid. The Americans send guns; the Iranians send a combat brigade. The Americans send missiles; the Russians install an artillery unit. Russia and Iran can simply do more, giving them control over what military planners call “the escalation ladder.”
One that he doesn’t mention is that advanced weapons systems given or sold to militant groups of dubious allegiance more frequently that not end up being used against U.S. Troops in the field, not against Washington’s desired targets. It’s easy to forget (though I haven’t) that Daesh had operational M1A1 Abrams Tanks straight from Iraqi armories.
Finally there is Massive Ground and Air Intervention. Fischer thinks it highly likely this will have very negative Regional and International effects, up to and including armed conflict in Europe between the U.S. and Russia.
These strikes would only be enough to work if they deliberately create one of two risks that the United States has strained to avoid. The first risk is that of collapsing the Syrian government, which would exacerbate Syrian suffering by throwing millions more lives into chaos and most likely prolong the war. The second risk is of a direct military confrontation with Russia, a nuclear-armed power with the ability to escalate hostilities rapidly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, putting millions of non-Syrians at risk.
Such action would severely strain the Military capability of the U.S. which has degraded considerably in the 16 years of the endless, undefined, illegal, and unwinnable War of Terror. It is by no means a sure thing that we would win.
But I have a modest proposal!
Why don’t we get out? Completely. Now.
In the 70+ years we’ve been mucking around the Middle East we’ve never, ever won (except Desert Storm and that was a special case, with limited aims, and it could be argued that we didn’t even win that one). In fact, we’ve made things worse.
Oil isn’t what it once was and our strategic interest in the territory is considerably diminished.
Why don’t we just leave and let them duke it out themselves? Oh sure, it would be bloody and chaotic, but we’ve had 70 years of bloody and chaotic with no end in sight.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we’re not too hungoverwe’ve been bailed outwe’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:00am (ET) (or whenever we get around to it) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.
This Day in History
President Harry Truman relieves Gen. Douglas Mcarthur of his command in Asia; Napoleon Bonaparte banished to Island of Elba; American soldiers liberate first Nazi concentration camp; Idi Amin deposed as Uganda’s President; Apollo 13 blasts off.
Breakfast Tunes
Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac
War should be made a crime, and those who instigate it should be punished as criminals.
It’s hard to keep up with all the news that has been dropping the last few weeks as Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation gets closer to Donald Trump and his inner circle.
Politico reported late Thursday, the noose tightened around Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort when Mueller seized his banks accounts and five phone numbers last year. That news came after Manafort’s defense attorneys criticized the government for withholding too many details about how warrants were obtained.
The previously unknown move against the bank accounts was revealed in a list of search and seizure warrants prosecutors submitted to a federal court in Washington after Manafort’s defense team complained that the government was withholding too many details about how the warrants were obtained.
The new filing also indicated that Mueller’s investigators have been pressing on with their work in recent weeks despite the pair of indictments pending against Manafort and a detailed indictment in February of the Russia-based Internet Research Agency and a dozen Russian nationals for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
On March 9, the special counsel’s office obtained a search warrant for information related to “five telephone numbers controlled by AT&T,” the prosecution said. It did not reveal who the numbers belonged to, although it said some information about the search was given to Manafort’s defense on Wednesday, so presumably there is some connection to the veteran political consultant who held a top role in the Trump campaign for several months in 2016.
Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort has trouble in his own house. According to court documents, one of Manafort’s former employees led an FBI agent to a storage locker filled with paperwork on Manafort’s businesses and finances. The person’s name is redacted from the filings. But he’s now at the center of a fight over evidence that could play a significant role in the government’s case against Manafort. [..]
The agent describes meeting with “a former employee of Davis Manafort Partners, and a current employee of Steam Mountain, LLC, which is a business currently operated by Paul Manafort.” The employee, whose name is redacted throughout the affidavit, told the FBI agent that he “performs a variety of functions for Manafort and his companies as directed by Manafort,” and was salaried.
That employee moved boxes of files from one storage unit to a second, larger storage unit in Alexandria. On May 26, 2017, just nine days after Rod Rosenstein named Bob Mueller special counsel, the person whose name was redacted led the FBI agent to the storage facility. The facility’s manager gave the FBI agent a copy of the lease for the storage unit.
“The lease identifies [REDACTED] as the occupant of Unit 3013, and also identifies Paul Manafort as a person with authorized access to Unit 3013,” the application says. “Rick Gates is listed as an alternate point of contact for the lease.”
The person whose name was redacted also gave the FBI agent “a key to the lock on Unit 3013 and described the contents of Unit 3013,” according to the affidavit. That person also gave the FBI agent “written consent” to search the storage unit, and opened it for the FBI agent.
The FBI agent then looked into the storage unit and saw about 21 boxes of documents, as well as a filing cabinet. One box was marked as containing expenses, paid bills, invoices, and legal complaints. Another box said it contained “Ukraine Binders,” as well information about ballot security, Georgia, research, and “Ukraine Campaign.” [..]
Though the name of the Manafort employee who showed the storage unit to the FBI was redacted in the affidavit, another exhibit Manafort’s lawyers filed appears to have that person’s name unredacted. The affidavit said the person who showed the FBI the storage unit was listed on the lease as the “occupant” of the storage unit. Manafort’s lawyers also filed the lease with the court as part of their motion to suppress the storage unit evidence. [..]
Manafort’s lawyers are arguing that the former employee didn’t have the authority to let the FBI agent look inside the storage unit.
Talk about desperate. It’s a good possibility Manafort’s lawyers are going to lose that argument.
Late yesterday afternoon the New York Times reported that Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen’s office and residences were raided by FBI early that morning based on warrants issued by a Manhattan federal judge at the request of federal prosecutors for the Southern District of NY.
Mr. Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, confirmed the raids. “Today, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York executed a series of search warrants and seized the privileged communications between my client, Michael Cohen, and his clients,” Mr. Ryan said. “I have been advised by federal prosecutors that the New York action is, in part, a referral by the office of special counsel, Robert Mueller.”
Mr. Sessions appointed the United States attorney for the Southern District, Geoffrey S. Berman, only in January. Mr. Berman is a former law partner of Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York mayor and a supporter of Mr. Trump.
The payment to the pornographic film actress, Stephanie Clifford, who is known as Stormy Daniels, is only one of many topics being investigated, according to a person briefed on the search. The F.B.I. also seized emails, tax documents and business records, the person said. Agents raided space Mr. Cohen uses in the Rockefeller Center office of the law firm Squire Patton Boggs, as well as a room Mr. Cohen is staying in at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue while his apartment is under renovation, the person said.
The searches are a significant intrusion by prosecutors into the dealings of one of Mr. Trump’s closest confidants, and they pose a dilemma for Mr. Trump. He has dismissed Mr. Mueller’s investigation as a “witch hunt,” but these warrants were obtained by an unrelated group of prosecutors. The searches required prior consultation with senior members of Mr. Trump’s own Justice Department. [..]
The seized records include communications between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, which would most likely require a special team of agents to review because conversations between lawyers and clients are protected from scrutiny in most instances.
Though Mr. Mueller’s team did not initiate the search, if prosecutors in Manhattan uncover information related to Mr. Mueller’s investigation, they can share that information with his team.
Since much of the evidence that the FBI seized included communications between a lawyer and his client, in this case Donald Trump. That would mean the bar for prosecutors to obtain the warrant was higher than usual. There needed to be more than just probable cause. Ken White of Reasonexplained
(I)t’s not just that the office thought that there was enough for a search warrant. They thought there was enough for a search warrant of an attorney’s office for that attorney’s client communications. That’s a very fraught and extraordinary move that requires multiple levels of authorization within the Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney’s Manual (USAM)—at Section 9-13.320—contains the relevant policies and procedures. The highlights:
The feds are only supposed to raid a law firm if less intrusive measures won’t work. As the USAM puts it:
In order to avoid impinging on valid attorney-client relationships, prosecutors are expected to take the least intrusive approach consistent with vigorous and effective law enforcement when evidence is sought from an attorney actively engaged in the practice of law. Consideration should be given to obtaining information from other sources or through the use of a subpoena, unless such efforts could compromise the criminal investigation or prosecution, or could result in the obstruction or destruction of evidence, or would otherwise be ineffective.
Such a search requires high-level approval. The USAM requires such a search warrant to be approved by the U.S. attorney—the head of the office, a presidential appointee—and requires “consultation” with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. This is not a couple of rogue AUSAs sneaking in a warrant.
Not all communications between a client and his lawyer are protected, If they were undertaken for the purpose of fraud—the so-called “crime-fraud exception” to the attorney-client privilege, it is then that the communications are fair game for prosecutors. White explains the necessity for an elaborate review process
The basic rule is that the government may not deliberately seize, or review, attorney-client communications. The USAM—and relevant caselaw—therefore require the feds to set up a review process. That process might involve a judge reviewing the materials to separate out what is privileged (or what might fall within an exception to the privilege), or else set up a “dirty team” that does the review but is insulated from the “clean team” running the investigation. Another option is a “special master,” an experienced and qualified third-party attorney to do the review. Sometimes the reviewing team will only be identifying and protecting privileged material. Sometimes the reviewing team will be preparing to seek, or to implement, a court ruling that the documents are not privileged.
Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti, speaking with MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, thinks Michael Cohen will take the 5th Amendment over his payment to Stormy Daniels and says the FBI raid would not have happened if Stormy Daniels had not come forward. Jill Wine-Banks, former Watergate prosecutor, and Ari Melber, lawyer and MSNBC host, also joined the conversation.
Tim O’Brien, journalist and Trump biographer, joined he discussion in the next segment.
We don’t know what the FBi was specifically looking for when it raided the premises. We don’t know what they found. Nor do we know how any evidence uncovered will impact any investigations, ongoing or future.
