The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, recently released a report unappealingly titled “Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation.” In its bureaucratic prose, larded with acronyms and unnamed actors, it lives up to its dreary title. (Oddly, the Mueller Report, by contrast, whatever…
Tag: Donald Trump
The Ukrainian Impeachment
For most Americans the Ukraine is a former member of the U.S.S.R., the home of Nikita Khrushchev and the site of terrible battles between Russian and German forces during World War II. More recently we have come to learn that it seems to be governed alternately by pro-Russian and anti-Russian kleptocracies in which bribery and…
Mueller stumbles off stage
Democrats are justifiably frustrated that the ballyhooed testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday added nothing to his published 448 page Report. Democratic members of both the Judiciary Committee in the morning and the Intelligence Oversight Committee in the afternoon had obviously prepared for the big show, assigning different subjects to various members. They…
It’s Mueller Time 2: Obstruction
Recently in It’s Mueller Time!,” I discussed the Meuller Report’s treatment of the issue of whether President Trump or his campaign criminally conspired with the Russians during the 2016 campaign (“Russian Collusion”). I relied on Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the principal conclusions of the report. Since then the full report with very limited required…
It’s Mueller Time!
Saturday Night Live will continue Alec Baldwin’s ham-handed send up of Donald Trump but it doesn’t look like Robert DeNiro will long reprise his role as a menacing Robert Mueller. The Special Counsel has filed his final report and closed shop on his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and, particularly, of whether…
Trump ouster plot is bureaucratic overreach
Cape Cod Times, March 7, 2019 Contrary to the assertion in your March 2 editorial, “When is a coup not a coup?” the plotting by a group of career bureaucrats below Cabinet level at the Justice Department and FBI to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove a president they deplore is not part of their…
The Indictment of Roger Stone
On January 24th Roger Stone, a long time political activist and ally and confidante of Donald Trump was indicted at the urging of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller on 1 count of Obstructing a Congressional Investigation by failing to turn over subpoenaed records and lying about their existence, five counts of False Statements to Congress and one…
Donald Trump, “The Manchurian Candidate?”
On January 11 Americans were horrified to read a front page story in the New York Times headlined, “FBI Opened Inquiry Into Whether Trump Was Secretly Working on Behalf of Russia.” Unfortunately, only about half were horrified that a few civil servants at the top of the FBI, on record as looking for ways to derail…
The President and the Chief Justice: No Big Deal
The hearts of the chattering classes have been all aflutter this week over an exchange between President Trump and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts this week. The President criticized what he described as an “Obama judge” for a ruling against the administration’s attempt to bar migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum….
CNN vs. Trump
A shorter version of this sentiment appeared on November 29. 2018 as “CNN and Acosta Will Have a Lot to Answer For Later” in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. The case brought by CNN against the White House over suspension of the “Hard Pass of correspondent Jim Acosta will likely not be decided tomorrow…
Birthright Citizenship: A Primer
President Trump proposes to end the long-accepted concept of “Birthright Citizenship” by executive order. Contrary to most current commentary, there is a legitimate case to be made that he has that authority. It is not a good or persuasive argument, however, and it contradicts conservative political and judicial principles. The concept of citizenship, as it…
Press’s united front just bolsters Trump claims
Cape Cod Times, August 21, 2018 President Trump is not “a self-styled demagogue,” as you describe him (“Trump, tweets and the truth,” Our View, Aug. 16). By definition, a “self-styled demagogue” is one who calls himself a demagogue. I know what you meant, but that’s how these #fakenews things get started. Worse, the Cape Cod…
MonkfishOnCape 