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Category: Law/Crime

Jack Smith: Trump immunity bid a ‘license’ to commit crimes

Jack Smith: Trump immunity bid a ‘license’ to commit crimes

The Daily Beast reports: Special counsel Jack Smith warned in a new filing Saturday that ex-President Donald Trump’s bid for immunity could “license Presidents to commit crimes to remain in office.” The brief lodged in the D.C. Court of Appeals came in response to the ex-president’s claims that he is immune to prosecution for his efforts to undo his 2020 defeat because he survived an impeachment proceeding in the Senate, and because his plotting fell within the powers and duties…

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Kremlin says it has list of Western assets to be seized if Russian assets are confiscated

Kremlin says it has list of Western assets to be seized if Russian assets are confiscated

Reuters reports: The Kremlin on Friday warned the West that it had a list of U.S., European and other assets that would be seized if G7 leaders decided to go ahead and confiscate $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank reserves. Leaders of the Group of Seven major industralised nations will discuss a new legal theory that would enable the seizure of frozen Russian assets when they meet in February, two sources familiar with the plans and a British official…

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Benjamin Netanyahu’s war crimes

Benjamin Netanyahu’s war crimes

Hafiz Rashid writes: As 2023 comes to a close, grim numbers in Gaza are piling up, where Israel’s bombardment and invasion have thus far killed more than 20,000 people, including 8,200 children and 6,200 women. Those dire statistics lay alongside the grievous outcome of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed—including 36 children—and nearly 250 Israelis were taken hostage by Hamas, again, including about 30 children. But beyond the dismal casualty statistics, we’re ending…

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Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election

Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election

CNN reports: Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail. So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress,…

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A fake Trump elector in Michigan told prosecutors of regret, anger

A fake Trump elector in Michigan told prosecutors of regret, anger

The New York Times reports: One of the Republicans in Michigan who acted as a fake elector for Donald J. Trump expressed deep regret about his participation, according to a recording of his interview with the state attorney general’s office that was obtained by The New York Times. The elector, James Renner, is thus far the only Trump elector who has reached an agreement with the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, which brought criminal charges in July against…

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Ex-GOP student leader’s links to Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a neo-Nazi web site

Ex-GOP student leader’s links to Jan. 6 Capitol riot and a neo-Nazi web site

USA Today reports: The young man is seen running with the crowd of Trump supporters toward the U.S. Capitol early in the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021. He wears a thigh-length dark blue coat, his face almost fully covered with a mask. The bill of an off-white baseball cap pokes out of the hood of his gray sweatshirt. At 2:35 p.m. and 20 seconds, a security camera inside the Capitol captures the man as he steps across the threshold of…

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Trump is not the only reason to fix this uniquely dangerous law

Trump is not the only reason to fix this uniquely dangerous law

Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith write: The Insurrection Act is a dangerous centuries-old federal statute that authorizes the president, with few restraints, to deploy the U.S. military inside the United States to suppress threats the president perceives to the constitutional order. Commentators have recently proposed tightening the law following reports that former President Donald Trump and his advisers are planning to use it aggressively for law enforcement and to quell domestic disturbances if Mr. Trump is once more elected. This…

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How Biden is enabling human rights violations by Israel and obstructing the application of U.S. law

How Biden is enabling human rights violations by Israel and obstructing the application of U.S. law

Vox reports: The recent high-profile killings of three Israeli hostages, two women in a Gaza church, and 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members have raised new global alarm at Israel’s targeting of civilians amid its war in Gaza. The deaths came as part of its ground assault, and as it continues a bombing campaign that even staunch Israel ally President Joe Biden has called “indiscriminate.” Yet, he continues to push for additional, essentially unconditional aid to Israel — despite the fact that some foreign affairs experts…

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The cruelty and futility of Israel’s starvation blockade on Gaza

The cruelty and futility of Israel’s starvation blockade on Gaza

Alexander B. Downes writes: Immediately after Hamas’s terrorist attack of Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,200 Israelis, Israel imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it’s all closed,” as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant put it. For weeks, supplies into Gaza were reduced to a trickle. Although the recent cease-fire increased the number of trucks carrying aid to about 150 per day, that is a drop in the bucket compared to…

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U.S. and Europe eye Russian assets to aid Ukraine as funding dries up

U.S. and Europe eye Russian assets to aid Ukraine as funding dries up

The New York Times reports: The Biden administration is quietly signaling new support for seizing more than $300 billion in Russian central bank assets stashed in Western nations, and has begun urgent discussions with allies about using the funds to aid Ukraine’s war effort at a moment when financial support is waning, according to senior American and European officials. Until recently, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen had argued that without action by Congress, seizing the funds was “not something that…

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What may follow from Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that Trump is not eligible for primary ballot

What may follow from Colorado Supreme Court’s decision that Trump is not eligible for primary ballot

  The Colorado Supreme Court, having agreed that Trump engaged in insurrection, ruled in a 4-3 decision that Trump is disqualified from the presidency. Therefore, he is not eligible to be on the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado. Trump’s lawyers have already stated they plan to appeal the decision. Former federal prosecutor, Harry Litman, outlines the various ways in which the U.S. Supreme Court may rule if it takes up the case.   Discussion between Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin…

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America has a McGonigal problem

America has a McGonigal problem

Mattathias Schwartz writes: The case of Charles McGonigal is bigger than one corrupt FBI agent. In fact, it’s bigger than the entire FBI. The legal case against Charles McGonigal, the FBI’s former New York counterintelligence chief — a scandal that launched a thousand conspiracy theories — is beginning to wind down. Last week, a judge in the Southern District of New York sentenced McGonigal to 50 months in prison; a second judge in Washington, DC, is expected to sentence McGonigal…

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Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state’s 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution

Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state’s 2024 primary ballot for violating the U.S. Constitution

NBC News reports: In a bombshell decision, Colorado’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that former President Donald Trump’s candidacy in the state’s primary next year is prohibited on constitutional grounds. The first-of-its kind ruling stems from a lawsuit that focused a little-known provision in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Similar challenges in other states have proven unsuccessful. “A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of…

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Clarence Thomas’ money problems and his wealthy benefactors

Clarence Thomas’ money problems and his wealthy benefactors

ProPublica reports: In early January 2000, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was at a five-star beach resort in Sea Island, Georgia, hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. After almost a decade on the court, Thomas had grown frustrated with his financial situation, according to friends. He had recently started raising his young grandnephew, and Thomas’ wife was soliciting advice on how to handle the new expenses. The month before, the justice had borrowed $267,000 from a friend to buy…

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U.S. has collected intel that could be used to judge the legality of Israel’s conduct of war

U.S. has collected intel that could be used to judge the legality of Israel’s conduct of war

Politico reports: While American officials say they are not making judgments in real-time about whether Israel is abiding by the laws of war, the U.S. has gathered intelligence that might allow it to make such assessments. The U.S. has collected intelligence and formulated detailed assessments related to both Israel and Hamas military movements and tactics in Gaza since the war began in October, according to two people familiar with the intelligence. That has included data on targeting by both sides,…

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The history behind Jack Smith’s Trump-Supreme Court gambit

The history behind Jack Smith’s Trump-Supreme Court gambit

Aaron Blake writes: The question of Donald Trump’s criminal jeopardy could be headed to the Supreme Court sooner rather than later. That’s after special counsel Jack Smith on Monday requested that the court conduct an expedited review of Trump’s claims to “absolute” immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct in office. The court quickly signaled it will consider the petition and asked Trump’s team to respond by next week. One way to read that request is that Smith felt this issue…

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