Monday, June 28, 2021

Election 2020: Rudy, Rudy, Rudy!

Who would have thought there would be so much material on a Monday morning?

Let's start with Da Caller, which posts ‘It Was All Bulls–t’: Bill Barr Details His Thoughts On Trump’s Election Claims. Rebecca Downs at Town Hall, Excerpt Published in The Atlantic Provides Insight into Barr's Take on Election Fraud Claims: 'All Bulls**t'. 'Bonchie' at Red State, Bill Barr Leaves No Doubt After Profanity-Laced Exit From Trump Orbit 

This is obviously not going to sit well with a lot of Republicans nor is this going to give them confidence that Barr did everything he could to root out FBI and DOJ corruption while serving in his position as attorney general. After all, the much-ballyhooed Durham investigation continues to go absolutely nowhere while people that allegedly committed crimes spend their time on CNN blasting out political partisanship (i.e. Andrew McCabe).

Sundance at CTH, Predictably Bondo Barr Covers The Rot

There is a specific irony of Bill Barr using Wayne County, Michigan, as “no evidence” of ballot fraud while simultaneously admitting no other area other than Wayne county has voting precincts that do not count ballots. Only in Wayne county do the 662 precincts deliver ballots to a central counting facility. The Wayne County process itself is designed specifically to make ballot fraud easier…. The former AG says move along, move along, nothing to see here… “that’s what they do.”

The timing of this article release to coincide with the DOJ challenging election reforms in Georgia, combined with the Arizona audit finishing up their initial hand recount and verification of ballots, does not seem coincidental.

Mediaite is upset that Trump Attacks ‘RINO’ Bill Barr Over ‘Bullsh*t’ Election Fraud Claims: ‘A Disappointment in Every Sense of the Word’. Leah Barkoukis at Town Hall, Trump Responds to Barr's Take on Election Fraud Allegations in Brutal Statement

My own feelings about Barr are complex. I believe he volunteered for the AG position because he saw how deeply politicized the DOJ had become. I believe he tried to reform it, but failed; the rot is too deep for one man to clean up in a few months. Regarding the possibility of election fraud; he presumably told his "underlings," who remained "deep staters to look into it. They probably scoffed and told him it was all on the up and up. And then took jobs with the CNC or CNN.

Regarding how Biden’s DOJ Sues Georgia Over Voting Law (Wa Free Bee). Mike La Chance at LI posits DOJ Lawsuit Against Georgia Over Voting Law May Backfire

George Washington University Law Professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley sat down with “Fox & Friends” Saturday to analyze the DOJ lawsuit.

“I’m highly skeptical and I think they may ultimately regret this move. It could indeed clarify this issue in a way the Biden administration does not want,” Turley said.

Turley raised questions over the merit of the lawsuit citing similarities between Georgia and other states such as Delaware. “But, this is a very dubious case in my view. Because the Georgia law has great overlap with other states like Delaware” he said.

Turley also mentioned the popularity of requiring identification when going to the polls to vote, a key component of the Georgia voting law. “Voter identification as an example is extremely popular with voters And you now see a lot of democratic members beginning to say really, ‘we are not questioning that anymore.’” he added.

Scott Powell at Am Think thinks (no, not yet) Election Integrity is The Firewall That Keeps America Free. Human Events declares ‘VICTORY’ as Judge Allows Part of Fulton County Election Lawsuit to Proceed. Matt Margolis at PJ Media, The Maricopa County Audit Completed Paper Ballot Examination. Here's What Happens Next "If you’re expecting to hear the finding any time soon, you’ll have to be patient. According to Ken Bennett, the Arizona Senate liaison, we can expect to learn the findings of the audit as early as the end of July or as late as Labor Day." According to Gateway Pundit, BREAKING UPDATE: HISTORY MADE AS FINAL ARIZONA BALLOT INSPECTIONS COMPLETED – Huge Preliminary Report Expected Monday When True Number of Ballot Totals Announced. OK, it Monday. Let's here it. 

On the political prosecution of Rudy Guiliani, Thomas Farnnan at TNP analyses The Persecution Of Rudy Giuliani. Better know legal scholars are also concerned. Jonathon Turley on Da Hill calls it  Politics by other means? Giuliani suspension should worry all lawyers

The 33-page opinion is damning and embarrassing; in all likelihood, it will result in Giuliani’s eventual disbarment. It also is deeply concerning in its heavy reliance on Giuliani’s statements out of court. While lawyers have been disciplined for out-of-court statements in some cases, this suspension seems primarily a judgment on Giuliani’s public advocacy. The court states that when he uses “his large megaphone, the harm is magnified. ... One only has to look at the ongoing present public discord over the 2020 election, which erupted into violence, insurrection and death on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, to understand the extent of the damage that can be done when the public is misled by false information about the elections. The AGC [Attorney Grievance Committee] contends that respondent's misconduct directly inflamed tensions that bubbled over into the events of January 6, 2021 in this nation's Capitol.”

Such rhetoric leaves the impression that the investigators and the court itself were eager to impose judgment on Giuliani for the Capitol riot and other unrest through a bar action. In an actual case for incitement, such a causal connection would be rejected by any court as a violation of free speech. Many lawyers can be accused of fanning unrest or even violence, in cities ranging from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Ore., through their declarations on subjects ranging from police shootings to election fraud.

Likewise, Democratic members of Congress, attorneys representing Democratic campaigns and lawyers serving as legal analysts on television have challenged presidential elections regularly and unsuccessfully, including challenges made at the certification of the votes before Congress. Many refused to recognize the legitimacy of Trump's presidency following the 2016 election and made elaborately argued but ultimately false claims alleging, among other things, collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. This included lawyers who were accused of lying to the public, the media and even Congress in major controversies. Yet there was no cry to disbar the lawyers and members of Congress behind those claims or challenges.

At Breitbart, Alan Dershowitz weighs in Giuliani Law License Suspension: Equal Justice for All ‘Mortally Wounded’

Dershowitz warned of the “danger” of allowing Giuliani to be disbarred “without a hearing.” He argued that equal justice for all is now “mortally wounded.”

“I taught legal ethics for, I don’t know, 35 years at Harvard Law school. I think of myself as a leading expert on legal ethics. I’ve never ever seen a case where a lawyer was essentially disbarred … without a hearing,” Dershowitz outlined. “I mean, the most basic concept of due process is you don’t deprive somebody of his living, of his freedom, of his ability to work without a hearing. And then the criteria under which they suspended his law license is so vague. It says in the course of representing a client, a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of fact or law to a third person. In other words, if he goes on your show, or he goes on my podcast, or he goes on Fox or anywhere else, and he makes a statement which turns out to be false, and he had reason to believe it was false, he could be disbarred. Do you know how many lawyers we’d have left if we applied that standard across the board? … We have case after case after case where prosecutors, defense attorneys, lawyers of every kind, have made statements … which turn out to be untrue, and they’re never disbarred. And certainly not without a hearing. And so, this is a first. … The atmosphere is such today that if you defended President Trump in any way, they’re out to get you. And they’re certainly out to get Rudy Giuliani.”

“The idea of holding lawyers to this standard of truth-telling when they’re on television is a whole new ballgame. It will chill free speech. It will chill advocacy,” he added.

Host John Catsimatidis asked if the words “equal justice for all” are dead.

“I think they are mortally wounded,” Dershowitz replied. “I don’t think we’re seeing equal justice for all. I think we’re seeing selective justice. … When a prosecutor runs for office, like the attorney general of New York ran for office on the promise that she will get Donald Trump, is that equal justice? Or is that show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime?”

We have now entered an era when the winners of elections take the losers to trial and jail if possible, and destroy their careers. It is truly a dark era for justice. Comparisons to banana republics are not out of line. The Western Journal rerecounts how the FBI Ruins Innocent Man's Life After Leftist Neighbors Rat on Him for Being a Trump Supporter. Eric Utter at Am Think, Grandma charged with ‘parading’ at the Capitol told to denounce her whiteness. At Am Great Max Morton explains How I Got Classified as an Anti-Government Domestic Extremist. Probably me, too. 

So, let’s unpack this “anti-government domestic extremist” business. An integral part of the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is an intelligence community assessment published in March. Having spent some time in the intelligence community, I was puzzled as to how agencies with the mission of foreign intelligence collection—and which are statutorily and explicitly restricted from conducting domestic intelligence operations—are now writing Intelligence Community Assessments on U.S. citizens residing on U.S. soil. Notwithstanding the troubling legal aspects, the assessment also lacked evidence to back up its broad assertions that America’s greatest threat comes from domestic extremists.

The strategy document claims to focus on unlawful violence from domestic extremists that pose a threat to public safety. The reality is there isn’t that much politically motivated domestic extremist violence happening in United States. Sure, there are countless FBI-manufactured plots and Homeland Security fever dreams of internet chatter to scare the public. But if one excludes Black Lives Matter and Antifa, actual political violence incidents, in a country of 330 million people, is a statistical anomaly. The extremely rare occurrences—the report mentions six over a 26-year period (including a Black Lives Matter activist misidentified as an anti-government extremist—does not make a domestic terrorism pandemic.

Since our national security warriors need a domestic enemy, they have decided to focus on noncriminal (or, at best, pre-criminal) thoughts and intentions of that enemy. In other words, the national security apparatus plans to decide who will commit violence in the future, and then act against those individuals or groups to “disrupt” their plans.

Julie Kelly at Am Great notes how that "domestic extremist" Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls for Release of January 6 Surveillance Footage

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) sent a letter to top government officials seeking answers about the January 6 investigation and conditions in a D.C. jail specifically used to house Capitol defendants. Greene requests the release of at least 14,000 hours of surveillance footage captured by USCP security system on January 6 as well as the identity of the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt, an unarmed female veteran Trump supporter. “It is abundantly clear that there is a two-track justice system in the United States,” Greene wrote. Her letter can be found below . . .

Nick Arama at Red State  Reports Emails Show Biden Team Pressured Facebook to Censor the Trump Campaign. And, of course, they did. A giant in-kind campaign contribution. At TNP  Raheem Ksaam an Natalie Winters catch some hypocrisy from Pamela Karlan, The Ex-Zuckerberg Apparatchik Now Leading Biden’s Anti-Audit Push – Once Said Corporate-Backed Elections ‘Undermine Democracy’. It's always different when the other side does it. 

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