The Retribution: Russia Probe Edition
The NYT had previously hinted at the reason behind the abrupt August resignation of former Virginia Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert as interim U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, but now the newspaper has compiled a fuller accounting of what happened.
Gilbert was forced to resign or be fired, the NYT reports, for refusing to can the top career prosecutor in his office, who had found insufficient evidence to pursue a cockamamie theory for investigating the investigators of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
The flimsy allegation is that the investigators themselves mishandled classified documents. FBI Director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino have seized on burn bags at FBI headquarters that contained classified documents from the case as evidence that senior officials were destroying documents to cover up or protect the former investigators. The more benign and plausible explanation – that the classified materials remain stored in digital form on FBI servers and destroying paper copies is a routine security measure – has been disregarded in favor of elaborate conspiracies that salve President Trump.
The case landed in Gilbert’s office ostensibly because his district includes a FBI classified document storage facility, but that appears to be at least in part a pretext for finding a more favorable jury pool outside of DC or Northern Virginia.
Gilbert was ordered by DOJ higher-ups to open an investigation into the matter shortly after taking over the post, but he “told his superiors that he did not believe there was sufficient evidence to justify a grand jury investigation,” the NYT reports.
From there things “quickly escalated,” as Gilbert put it in a memorable social media post of a meme from Will Farrell’s Anchorman:
Frustrated by that answer, aides to Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, blamed a senior career attorney in the office who they believed had swayed Mr. Gilbert: Zachary Lee, a veteran prosecutor with more than two decades of experience involving public corruption and narcotics, among other issues.
Justice Department officials ordered Mr. Gilbert to replace Mr. Lee with Robert Tracci as his deputy, these people said. After Mr. Lee was demoted, senior department officials suspected Mr. Gilbert was still primarily consulting Mr. Lee, whom they came to view as a holdover from the Biden administration, though he had been hired during the George W. Bush administration and promoted during the first Trump administration, these people added. At one point, Mr. Blanche spoke directly to Mr. Gilbert and offered him more resources to pursue the case, according to one person familiar with the events.
When Gilbert still didn’t bend, he was told he’d be fired, at which point he resigned.
Tracci is now the acting U.S. attorney, and Lee has left the office, according to the NYT.
The new revelations about Gilbert surprisingly stiff spine – he’s a longtime GOP politician who has walked the party line, to say the least, for years – is another striking example of the weaponization of the Justice Department. It’s an especially remarkable incident because Gilbert had been nominated for the permanent position, but resisted going along to get along and was forced out after just a month on the job.
The Retribution: Jack Smith Edition
House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan on Tuesday sent a letter to former Special Counsel Jack Smith seeking his to testimony. Jordan is seizing on yet another conspiratorial pretext for investigating the investigators: The GOP-driven news that Smith obtained toll records of the phone calls of some GOP lawmakers around Jan. 6, 2021 as part of his investigation into the failed coup attempt.
Jordan’s move came the same day that video of some of Smith’s first public remarks about his work in the Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago investigations – in an interview last week in London with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann – were widely disseminated.
The Worst of the Worst: ‘I Love Hitler’
Politico has the receipts from a Telegram group chat among leaders of the Young Republicans group who exchanged racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic private messages with abandon between early January and mid-August of this year.
US Revokes Visas Over Charlie Kirk Comments
On the same day President Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Charlie Kirk at the White House, the State Department announced it had revoked the visas of six people who had posted anti-Kirk screeds on social media.
US Lawlessly Attacks 5th Caribbean Boat
President Trump announced on social media another U.S. strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off of Venezuela, claiming the strike killed six men. Trump provided no evidence for the allegations that it was a drug-smuggling boat and very little other information about the attack. The administration continues to provide next to no legal rationale for the unprecedented series of attacks.
Since Mr. Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, started the operation last month, a broad range of legal specialists have called the premeditated and summary extrajudicial killings illegal,” Charlie Savage notes. “They noted that the military cannot lawfully target civilians — even criminal suspects — who do not pose a threat in the moment and are not directly participating in hostilities.”
In related news, CNN reports on how the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has sidelined the lawyers at the Pentagon, including by applying political litmus tests to top JAG leaders, while pushing the legal limits of military action:
One recent flashpoint for the role of US military lawyers has been the series of strikes on boats in the Caribbean, with multiple current and former JAGs telling CNN that the strikes do not appear lawful. Lawyers specializing in international law within DoD’s Office of General Counsel have also raised concerns about the legality of the strikes, sources familiar with the matter said.
Responding in a statement to CNN, the Pentagon spokesperson threw down a gauntlet (emphasis mine):
The War Department categorically denies that any Pentagon lawyers with knowledge of these operations have raised concerns regarding the legality of the strikes conducted thus far because they are aware we are on firm legal ground. … “No lawyer involved has questioned the legality of the Caribbean strikes and instead advised subordinate commanders and Secretary Hegseth that the proposed actions were permissible before they commenced.
Your occasional reminder that the strikes on alleged drug cartel boats combined with the increased deployment of U.S. military assets to the region seem largely designed as a saber-rattling exercise against Venezuela.
‘Strap Up Cowboy’: A Major Scandal in Any Other Era
A state judge in Florida issued a restraining order against Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) barring him from coming within 500 feet of his former girlfriend, a state GOP committee woman who is also the reigning Miss United States. The judge in his ruling called her “a victim of dating violence.”
Lindsey Langston ended the relationship earlier this year after the married Mills was linked to alleged assault of a third woman in Washington, D.C. Mills allegedly continued to contact her after the breakup and threatened to blackmail her with nude photos, NBC News reports:
Mills is alleged to have sent a series of harassing communications to Langston in May and June, which are cited in the judgment, including a message he wrote to Langston on May 15 that she “may want to tell every guy you date that if we run into each other at any point. Strap up cowboy[.]”
Mill did not comment on that latest developments.
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