[Townhall] Democrat Senator Bob Menendez is about to go on trial for corruption in New Jersey and a federal judge has ordered he physically remain in the court room throughout the entire process.
Irritated, Menendez filed a request to the court asking if he could leave for votes in the Senate. Federal prosecutors did not mince words when issuingtheir opposition to the request and reminded him he isn't above the law simply because he is a U.S. Senator.
"After being indicted twice for depriving the people who elected him of their right to his honest services, defendant Robert Menendez now demands that this Court disrupt his criminal trial so that he can perform his duties as a United States Senator. Defendant Menendez was indicted in 2015 and 2016 for bribery, conspiracy, honest services fraud, false statements, and violating the Travel Act. Those indictments allege a seven-year bribery conspiracy in which he traded the power of his public office for a lavish lifestyle that included private jet rides and vacations in Paris and the Caribbean," they wrote in a response. "The only reason defendant Menendez’s trial is scheduled for September 2017, almost two-and-a-half years after he was first indicted by a grand jury, is because he has spent that time pursuing a meritless argument that the Constitution immunizes him from prosecution--an argument that has been rejected by every judge to have considered it. Now he seeks to use his status as a United States Senator to pick and choose the dates on which his criminal trial will be conducted."
"This is not the first time defendant Menendez has sought special treatment from this Court. At defendant Menendez’s very first appearance, he asked to be exempted from the routine requirement that defendants surrender their personal passports because of his status as a United States Senator," the response continues. "This case began with defendant Menendez being treated like any other defendant, and it should end that way....only a United States Senator can try to hide behind the very office he corrupted to avoid accountability to the public for his actions."
#1
Following in the footsteps of another Bob: the Torch
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/26/2017 9:30 Comments ||
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#2
I'm thinking that there's a line in the Constitution the prevents law enforcement and the military from preventing congresspersons from traveling in pursuant to their duties. IIRC.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/26/2017 17:15 Comments ||
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[The Hill] Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted President Trump over his pardon of former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, arguing it "undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law."
"Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge’s orders," McCain said in a statement.
"The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions."
Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt after he disobeyed a federal judge’s order to stop racially profiling individuals suspected of illegally entering the U.S.
As for her description of the motion sensor evidence about prisoners in Laos, McCain’s response at the hearing was that this data was in a 1974 report that the committee had read but was still classified, so “I cannot discuss it here. … We hope to get it declassified.”
The question to the senator now is: What happened to that report and what happened to the pilots who belonged to those authenticator numbers? Intelligence sources in Washington say the report was never declassified. It became clear over the months of hearings and sparrings that the primary goal of the Kerry-McCain alliance was to clear the way for normalization of relations with Vietnam. They did it in two ways — first, by regularly praising Hanoi for its “cooperation” in the search for information about the unaccounted-for prisoners and then by minimizing and suppressing the volume of evidence to the contrary that had been unearthed by the committee’s staff investigators.
Recasting the issue
Kerry and McCain also tried, at every opportunity, to recast the issue as a debate about how many men could still be alive today, instead of the real issue at stake: How many men were alive in 1973 after the 591 were returned? Although much evidence was kept out of the committee’s final report in January 1993, enough of it, albeit watered down by the committee’s majority, was inserted by the determined staff to demonstrate conclusively that all the prisoners had not come home. Still, if the reader didn’t plow through the entire 1,223-page report but scanned just the brief conclusions in the 43-page executive summary at the beginning, he or she would have found only a weak and pallid statement saying that there was “evidence … that indicates the possibility of survival, at least for a small number” after the repatriation of 1973. On page 468 of the report, McCain provided his own personal statement, saying that “we found no compelling evidence to prove that Americans are alive in captivity today. There is some evidence — though no proof — to suggest only the possibility that a few Americans may have been kept behind after the end of American’s military involvement in Vietnam.”
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
08/26/2017 11:28 Comments ||
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#8
Back to your cave, bat!
/channeling Fred Sanford
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/26/2017 11:48 Comments ||
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#9
McCain is a fool. The Sheriff enforced the law until the issuance of an idiotic extra-judicial ruling by a traitorous judge directed that it is now illegal to enforce the law, criminalizing the judge's political opponents...the President using his legal pardon rights the wrong and enforces the rule of law once again...if Hillary would have won, this would've turned into a tinderbox issue.
[FOXNEWS] The upcoming bribery trial for New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez could have damaging consequences for his party whether or not he's convicted, by sidelining him from Congress just as Democrats gear up to fight the Trump agenda.
The senator is now pleading with a federal judge to alter the trial schedule on certain days so he can return to Washington to vote.
So far, however, the court has rejected these requests, which the Trump Justice Department has decried as a bid for "special treatment."
The timing of the trial, set to begin Sept. 6, is critical. It would fall as Congress returns from the August recess and Republicans prepare to vote on President Trump’s legislative agenda -- potentially covering everything from tax reform to health care to the budget and debt ceiling.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2017 00:00 ||
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#1
Should Menendez get convicted, Gov. Christie would appoint a new Senator to replace Menendez and thus the Pubs would pick up another seat giving them 52. I think the Pubs could have 60 votes and still be hamstrung and flummoxed to do anything. If anyone is interested Indictment of M & M. It does seem that egregious behavior occurred on the taxpayer dime or millions. I wouldn't mind a few nights in the Caribbean such as these two enjoyed although Mrs. JohnQC wouldn't approve.
[WSJ] WASHINGTON--Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any, former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, according to people familiar with the matter.
The effort to seek out hackers who were believed to have stolen Mrs. Clinton’s emails, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, was led by a longtime Republican activist, Peter W. Smith. In correspondence and conversations with his colleagues, Mr. Smith portrayed Mr. Flynn as an ally in those efforts and implied that other senior Trump campaign officials were coordinating with him, which they have denied. He also named Mr. Flynn’s consulting firm and his son in the correspondence and conversations.
The special counsel is investigating potential coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.
Mr. Smith believed that some 33,000 emails that Mrs. Clinton said were personal and had been deleted had been obtained by hackers. Last year, in the final months of the presidential campaign, he made contact with what he said were five groups of hackers, two of which he believed were comprised of Russians, who claimed to have obtained the emails.
#4
Media leaks and the Comey-Mueller team effort gone wrong:
Wiki: [Steven] Hatfill became "the subject of a flood of news media coverage beginning in mid-2002, after television cameras showed Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in biohazard suits searching his apartment" and then Attorney General John Ashcroft named him "person of interest" in the investigation on national television.[1] Hatfill's home was repeatedly raided by the FBI, his phone was tapped, and he was extensively surveilled for more than two years; he was also fired from his job at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).[2] "At a news conference in August 2002, Hatfill tearfully denied that he had anything to do with the anthrax letters and said irresponsible news media coverage based on government leaks had destroyed his reputation".[1] Hatfill filed a lawsuit in 2003, accusing the FBI agents and Justice Department officials who led the criminal investigation of leaking information about him to the press in violation of the federal Privacy Act.[1]
Wiki's "Early Life and Education" (Mattoon, IL to Rhodesia, apartheid regimes and beyond) might provide some insights into why Hatfill was to become such a delightful suspect.
adding:
"The real killer surfaced when the FBI identified another military scientist, Bruce Edwards Ivins, as the man soley responsible. Ivins committed suicide. Hatfill sued the government and collected $4.6 million, while Comey and Mueller went on to greener pastures. Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, said that "Comey was absolutely certain that it was Hatfill."
The above is an excerpt from Rogue Spooks, The Intelligence Waar on Donald Trump, by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, page 35.
#7
Russian hackers? Give me a break. There was no need to hack her emails. Her server was unencrypted for 3 months. Anybody in the world could have come in to take a peak; no need for hacking.
Yes Senator Danforth, we're fully aware of the disconnect between President Trump and the so-called Republican party and what is now referred to as the 'D.C. Swamp.' In fact, that is precisely why President Trump was elected. Nothing at all wrong with your friendly reminder though. Certainly is encouraging to learn that you are remaining active in opinion politics. Keep up the great work.
#2
Considering the party leaders stand for, screwing voters over, getting theirs, expanding the swamp and generally being demoncrats... it isn't a bad thing that Trump doesn't represent what you stand for.
[The Hill] The private research firm behind a dossier full of incendiary allegations about President Trump is in the public crosshairs after the firm’s founder spent 10 hours behind closed doors with Senate investigators this week.
The firm, Fusion GPS, has become a political football in the increasingly complex investigations into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia.
Trump, backed by the Republican National Committee, has sought to discredit the firm by tying it to both Democrats and the Russian government and suggesting that the unsubstantiated material in the dossier helped spark the federal investigation into his campaign.
But Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is calling for founder Glenn Simpson to testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee, arguing that he has "potential knowledge" about "matters relating to Trump collusion with the Russian meddling [and] possible obstruction of justice."
Committee Republicans, meanwhile, are raising questions about any lobbying work that Fusion GPS may have done on behalf of Russian interests -- allegations that have linked the company to the 2016 meeting between a Russian government lawyer and members of Trump's campaign, including Donald Trump Jr.
Here are five things to know about Fusion GPS as lawmakers and special counsel Robert Mueller continue their investigations into Russian meddling in the presidential election.
#7
The only story is that about all of these boneheads falling all over themselves while trying to come up with a faked story about Russian collusion. Kind of like the drunk who lost his car keys somewhere in the dark but he is looking under the streetlight because that's where all the light is.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] President Trump's controversial election commission is set to hold its second meeting next month.
The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, led by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence, will meet at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., on Sept. 12 at 10 a.m., according to a notice in the Federal Register.
The first meeting, held in Washington, D.C., in July, was met with legal challenges from several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a complaint saying the meeting should be held in public. In response to an injunction sought by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a federal judge ruled that livestreaming the event, which was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, was sufficient.
On Thursday, Democrats renewed their calls for Trump to disband the commission. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Senator-for-life from New York, renowned for his love of standing in front of cameras. Schumer has been a professional politician since 1975, when disco was in flower. Senate minority leader as of 2017. , D-N.Y., said in the wake of the deadly Charlottesville protest, the government should work to "end the assault on voting rights."
"Many of us found the Election Integrity Commission distasteful when it was first created," Schumer said. "The president's recent failure to unequivocally condemn bigotry makes its rescission imperative."
The commission has also faced criticism after Kobach, a proponent of strict voter ID laws, requested voter data from every state and the District of Columbia, including the names, addresses, birthdays, the last four digits of Social Security numbers if they are available, voter history, and other personal information.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2017 00:00 ||
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[CNN] 1. Kasich is a weasel.
2. Hickenblooper is an American version of Pierre Trudeau.
3. A Kasich-Hickenblooper ticket would be an admission that there's no real difference between the two parties.
4.
5.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/26/2017 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Townhall] Democrat Senator Bob Menendez is about to go on trial for corruption in New Jersey and a federal judge has ordered he physically remain in the court room throughout the entire process. 
[The Hill] Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted President Trump over his pardon of former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday, arguing it "undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law."
[WSJ] WASHINGTON--Special counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any, former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have played in a private effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, according to people familiar with the matter.
[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] President Trump's controversial election commission is set to hold its second meeting next month.
Senator-for-life from New York, renowned for his love of standing in front of cameras. Schumer has been a professional politician since 1975, when disco was in flower. Senate minority leader as of 2017.
