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kpete

kpete's Journal
kpete's Journal
May 22, 2019

D.C. Circuit just called for a response to the petition for rehearing en banc in the McKeever case

BREAKING: The D.C. Circuit just called for a response to the petition for rehearing en banc in the McKeever case about grand jury disclosures.






https://twitter.com/BrianneGorod/status/1130986136875225088
https://twitter.com/BrianneGorod/status/1130986627403264005
https://twitter.com/BrianneGorod/status/1130991261899513856


For more on why this matters, read my latest in
https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2019/05/14/inherent-authority-to-inform-our-democracy/?slreturn=20190421203505

Congress has good arguments that it should be able to get the Mueller grand jury materials pursuant to that exception, but some commentators have argued that McKeever prevents Congress from getting these materials until there’s a formal impeachment proceeding. And even if those commentators are wrong, McKeever’s implications extend far beyond the big-ticket investigations of presidents and other federal officials who might be impeached. There are many cases where the public would benefit from disclosure of grand jury information—for example, in an environmental or discrimination case, or in a case of historic significance. Prior to McKeever, district court judges had authority to disclose such materials; now, in the D.C. Circuit, they do not.

Fortunately, McKeever may not be around for long. McKeever filed a petition last week asking the full D.C. Circuit to hear the case and overturn the panel decision. This is the quintessential case where such review by a full court of appeals is appropriate because the panel’s decision not only conflicts with its prior decision in the Watergate case, but also because it conflicts with the decisions of other courts of appeals. That means that whether a district court can disclose grand jury material will turn, in part, on where in the country it sits. There’s no reason that the answer to such an important question should turn on geographic happenstance, which is why the existence of a conflict with other circuits is a prime reason why courts grant petitions like the one McKeever filed.

As McKeever said in his filing with the court, “the question presented in this case is important” because grand jury “disclosures can vindicate important public value values of transparency and historical understanding, and they advance public confidence in the judicial system;” it’s particularly important now. Hopefully, the full D.C. Circuit will take this opportunity to correct the three-judge panel’s mistake.

May 22, 2019

Thousands of immigrants forced into solitary confinement by ICE for being physically disabled or gay

Thousands of immigrants forced into solitary confinement by ICE

Watch NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez join Chris Jansing with his exclusive report about the thousands of immigrants that have been forced into solitary confinement by ICE – not for breaking any rules, but for being physically disabled or gay.


VIDEO (after ad)
https://www.msnbc.com/stephanie-ruhle/watch/thousands-of-immigrants-forced-into-solitary-confinement-by-ice-60040261961?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

May 21, 2019

Justice Dept will give House SOME Intel Mueller probe material if Schiff drops Barr contempt threat

The Justice Department on Tuesday said it would provide the House Intelligence Committee with some materials related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as long as the panel dropped its threat to pursue an “enforcement action” against Attorney General William Barr.

The department made the offer in a three-page letter to Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) one day before the committee is slated to vote on what he has described as an “enforcement action” against Barr. Schiff has not said what shape the action would take.


The Justice Department has said it would allow the full committee to review a less redacted version of the first volume of the report — the section discussing Russian interference in which Schiff’s panel is primarily interested — and identify an initial tranche of materials the committee is demanding that it would prioritize for review and disclosure to the committee.

On Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said the department is willing to “expedite” access to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information identified by the committee as a priority if the panel confirms that it will not move forward on a vote on an enforcement action.




https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/444833-doj-offers-house-intel-some-mueller-materials-if-schiff-drops-barr

May 21, 2019

Either this is Bullshit or we are screwed: Mueller's team expressed reticence to him testifying...

NEWS: Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has expressed reticence to him testifying publicly in front of the House Judiciary Committee, according to sources familiar with the matter. His team has expressed that he does not want to appear political. w/@LauraAJarrett @jeremyherb



https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1130867182445977605





I am hoping that "Mueller's team" is a single DOJ rat, not Mueller himself, but perhaps hope is a passing fancy of mine, kp

May 21, 2019

Miami Candidate's Campaign Workers May Have Tampered With Absentee Ballots



In one message, a campaign worker posted an image of a ballot and joked that it had been stolen. In another text, someone took a photo of a ballot and wrote "Byebye." In a third message, someone instructed a campaign worker to "tear up the ballot good."

.............

A source with knowledge of the thread said the people involved, who are in most cases identified only by phone numbers, had been gathered by a local campaign consultant to canvass District 5, which stretches across Spanish-speaking parts of mainland Miami and onto Miami Beach. Like Diaz de la Portilla, multiple people in the text-thread did not answer phone calls. New Times also asked the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office whether prosecutors are looking into the leaked images, but did not receive a response.

On May 11, 2018, someone posted an image of a ballot that had been sent to an address on NW First Street. The worker then wrote in Spanish: "Stolen, hahahaa. I did not give it to the lady but what do we do if she voted for Zoraida????"

New Times reached a woman at that phone number. When the woman was asked about the text-thread, she immediately hung up.



WAY WAY WAY MORE:
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/alex-diaz-de-la-portilla-campaign-discussed-ballot-tampering-whatsapp-transcript-shows-11177865
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1130618707573661696
May 20, 2019

Counsel for House Committees informed SDNY judge that Trump just lost challenge in District of D.C.


NEW: That was fast.

Counsel for the House Committees informed the SDNY judge that Trump just lost his similar challenge in the District of D.C.

Oral arguments in the Trump v. Deutsche case coming to NYC on Wednesday. @CourthouseNews

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1130594889538953225
May 20, 2019

BOOM: Mehta goes on to conclude that "Congress's motives are off limits"

Mehta goes on to conclude that “Congress’s motives are off limits,” so long as the focus of the probe stays within the body’s broad remit to investigate. “It is not the court’s role to decipher whether Congress’s true purpose in pursuing an investigation is to aid legislation or something more sinister such as exacting political retribution,”


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wcOqhrV6_3hCJMhpWQ-qeSjaiZJaUGVJ/view (p 19 of 41)
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/judge-trump-mazars-subpoena
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/20/judge-upholds-dem-subpoena-for-trump-financial-records-1335370

May 20, 2019

Judge rules in favor of subpoena issued by House Oversight Committee for Trumps Financial records

BREAKING: A federal judge in DC will not block a House subpoena to Trump's accounting firm — expect a quick notice of appeal from Trump's lawyers https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6019022/20-19-Opinion-House-v-Trump.pdf … More shortly.



https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1130576729611919360



New: District Judge Amit Mehta has just ruled in favor of a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee for Trump's financial records from the accounting firm Mazars.

District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday ruled in favor of a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee for President Trump's financial records from the accounting firm Mazars.

In a 41-page-long opinion, Mehta found that "President Trump cannot block the subpoena to Mazars."

Trump's attorneys had argued that the subpoena, issued by Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), was unconstitutional because it wasn't tied to legislation. But attorneys for the House said that the records will help strengthen ethics and disclosure laws and see if Trump is in compliance with the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

"These are facially valid legislative purposes, and it is not for the court to question whether the Committee’s actions are truly motivated by political considerations," Mehta wrote.


MORE:
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1130578985144991744

May 20, 2019

More sanctity of life:

HOUSTON — The U.S. government says a 16-year-old teenager from Guatemala died Monday at a Border Patrol station in South Texas, becoming the fifth death of a migrant child since December.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that Border Patrol apprehended the teenager in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley on May 13. The agency says the teenager was found unresponsive this morning during a welfare check.

The agency did not say why the teenager had been detained for a week, but said he was "due for placement" in a facility for youth operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A 2-year-old child died last week after he and his mother were detained by the Border Patrol.


https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/05/20/us/ap-us-immigration-migrant-deaths.html?partner=IFTTT

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