Not Dead Yet
A unanimous Nevada Supreme Court reinstated criminal charges against six people who were allegedly involved in President Trump’s 2020 fake electors scheme. The case had previously been dismissed on grounds that it had been filed in the wrong county.
The six defendants — which include state GOP chairman Michael McDonald, vice chair Jim Hindle and the Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid — were all quietly given preemptive pardons by President Trump a week ago. None of them have been charged federally.
Decision On Halligan by Thanksgiving
I was in court yesterday for the joint hearing in the James Comey and Letitia James cases over the challange to Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan’s appointment as interim U.S. attorney. U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie gave no indication that she thinks Halligan was lawfully appointed, but she didn’t tip off what remedy she is leaning toward. You can read my full report here.
Trump DOJ Struggles To Defend Maureen Comey Lawsuit
After Maureen Comey, the respected federal prosecutor who was fired for being the daughter of Trump nemesis James Comey, sued for wrongful termination, the Justice Department struggled to find lawyers to defend the case.
Maureen Comey’s home office — the Southern District of New York — recused itself, and several other DOJ components declined to defend the lawsuit.
After the NYT first reported the internal dynamics yesterday, the Justice Department notified the judge in the case that “the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York agreed to accept reassignment of this matter.” That would be John Sarcone III, one of the toadier Trump interim U.S. attorneys, who was already rejected by the judges of the district but who serves on indefinitely with a new title.
The Retribution: Eric Swalwell Edition
Bill Pulte is at it again.
The director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency has made a criminal referral of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on bogus mortgage fraud allegations.
Swalwell figured prominently in both of Trump’s impeachments, making him a prime target for the president’s campaign of retribution. Swalwell joins New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Federal Reserve Board Gov. Lisa Cook, becoming the fourth Democrat to face a criminal referral from the eager-to-please Pulte.
In a major coverup, internal government watchdogs were fired en masse in recent weeks after looking into whether Pulte had improperly accessed the personal mortgage records of prominent Democrats.
Swalwell has long expected to face a vengeance-driven prosecution from the Trump DOJ.
More Trouble in Pulte World
Senior Fannie Mae officials were ousted after sounding the alarm that a confidant of Bill Pulte provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor, the AP reports.
FBI Agent of Chaos
Garrett Graff on “the slow public unraveling of Kash Patel’s tenure director as FBI director”:
There was literally nothing in Kash Patel’s background to indicate he was going to be a good FBI director. He was a grifting conspiracist with no meaningful executive management or leadership background, who knew little about the bureau or its traditions, and had never served a day in the military or worked as an FBI agent nor as an intelligence or law enforcement officer. Unlike every modern FBI director before him, he’d never served in a Senate-confirmed role before.
Trump’s First Nominee For Attorney General
NYT: “For all the public furor over [Matt] Gaetz — who always asserted that he broke no laws even as the House Ethics Committee found that he violated Florida’s statutory rape laws — little attention has been given to the story of the girl, how she came to be exploited and how she has coped with what happened to her and the ensuing political scandal.”
Trump DOJ Moves To Block CA Redistricting
The Trump DOJ is seeking to intervene in an existing lawsuit challenging California’s new congressional districts map and block its use in the midterms. In a bitter historical irony, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division — with a storied history of protecting minority voters from discrimination — is claiming that the California map is an “unlawful racial gerrymandering” because it favors Latino voters.
While it doesn’t explicitly say it’s fighting discrimination against white voters, the Trump DOJ argues that the new map “was adopted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color in violation of Section 2 of the VRA.” Using Section 2 to stymie minority representation turns the Voting Rights Act on its head.
Venezuela Watch
- The 20th unlawful U.S. strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats on the high seas killed 4 people in the Caribbean.
- The secret OLC memo from the Trump DOJ blessing the unlawful air strikes that have killed 80 people is based in part on a slew of false premises from the White House about cartels being terrorist organizations engaged in an armed conflict with the United States, the NYT reports.
- The family of a Colombian fisherman killed in September in a U.S. strike in the Caribbean wants justice.
Only the Best People
Racist comments in a group chat sank the nomination of White House staffer Paul Ingrassia, 30, to lead the Office of Special Counsel, but he’s now failing upward to become deputy general counsel at the General Services Administration.
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