They’ve left the WaPo and moved to Reason. Eugene explains why.
Category Archives: Law
The “Intelligence” Community
Gee, it’s almost as though they’re not only rawly political, but blitheringly incompetent. The country’s in the very best of hands.
Elon’s Tesla To Mars
Short answer, yes, but only because he doesn’t plan to land.
The Mueller Farce
It’s time to end it:
n a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 7, current FBI Director Christopher Wray consistently deflected questions regarding these types of conflicts by deferring to ongoing investigations being conducted by the Justice Department’s inspector general. He also continued to stonewall on providing information on the FBI’s use of the Steele dossier and the FISA warrant it helped generate, citing vague national security concerns.
We are left with an appearance of an unacceptable degree of political prejudice and a troubling series of unanswered questions. It is dangerous to subject the office of the president to a gravely biased investigation undertaken with a reckless spirit. Should further evidence of untoward bias emerge, Americans may conclude that the justice system itself is illegitimate, with all that entails.
The most prudent move would be to suspend the special counsel investigation until the Justice Department inspector general’s office and other watchdogs can conclude their investigations into possible illegitimate or illegal actions taken by members of Mueller’s team. Then Congress must be given time to review the conclusions of the internal investigations as well as conclude their own ongoing inquiries. The stakes are too high to allow a clique of politicized government agents to destroy the integrity of the investigative apparatus, and damage the office of the presidency.
I wish this were something new, but I think this kind of corruption goes back a quarter of a century, when the Clinton gang came into national power.
Strzok
It occurs to me that the texts/emails likely reveal something much more serious than a simple love of Clinton or hatred of Trump. Perhaps they actually provide evidence of a conspiracy to help the former and hurt the latter. e.g., “Yeah, they fu**ed up, but I’ll make sure that none of Clinton’s people have any problems with this email thing.” Or “Don’t worry, we’ll come up with something impeachable on Trump.”
Either or both of these would both destroy the prevailing media narratives. The former would require the investigation into her server be reopened, and the latter would so taint the investigation that it would not be possible for it to be used against Trump. In fact, it would help him, bolstering his own claims of bias and double standards.
[Update early afternoon]
Kim Strassell writes that Mueller and the FBI are obstructing justice. And more from Byron York on the dossier.
And Kurt Schlichter writes that “liberals” (and by “liberals,” he means leftists) have turned the FBI into a disgrace.
Car Safety
How much it’s changed in sixty years.
My grandmother hated to wear a seat belt; she was afraid it would trap her in the car in a crash. I always felt unsafe without one.
The FBI’s Obvious Bias
Yes, at a minimum, those texts have to be released to the public. There can be no question now that there is rot and corruption at the bureau (and I think it goes back to the nineties, with the Clintons). It may be that it is institutionally incapable of policing itself, and it’s the FBI itself (including Mueller) that needs an independent investigator.
But this should cause us to look back at the 90s scandals, in which the Clintons got away with so much, in a new light. I’ve been looking for the entire original Starr report on the Vince Foster “suicide” from an original source (i.e., a government web site) and cannot find it. All I see is this from the WaPo. Which (conveniently) doesn’t contain footnotes or appendices. Including the Knowlton appendix.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Well, well, well…Clinton aides went unpunished for making false statements to the FBI.
Punishment is for the little people, like Republican lieutenant generals.
[Wednesday-morning update]
Hugh Hewitt: Time for an independent investigation of the Justice Department and FBI.
It’s long overdue.
[Bumped]
[Update a couple minutes later]
Aaaaaand, a Mueller deputy was Ben Rhodes personal attorney, and represented the Clinton (Crime Family) Foundation. But I’m sure he can be completely impartial in the investigation of Republicans.
[Update a while later]
And then there’s this.
MUST READ: devastating misconduct complaint filed against #AndrewWeissmann in 2012 with New York Bar. Allegations of falsifying evidence, concealing exculpatory documents &c He was then Deputy Director/General Counsel of Mueller's FBI. https://t.co/frm0mMRcPT
— Stephen McIntyre (@ClimateAudit) December 6, 2017
[Update a while later]
Peter Strzok’s story will hurt the credibility of the federal government at the worst possible time. He’s like the Zelig of the whole thing. Everywhere you look, he’s there:was increasingly politicized under Mueller and Comey
Yes, it’s good that Mueller removed Strzok when he discovered the text messages. No, Strzok is not solely responsible for the conclusions reached in either investigation. But his mere presence hurts public confidence in the FBI, and it does so in a way that further illustrates a persistent and enduring national problem: America’s permanent bureaucracy is unacceptably partisan.
Unfortunately, it’s only unacceptable to one party. The other one thinks it’s exactly the way it should be.
[Update late morning]
The FBI was increasingly politicized under Mueller and Comey. You don’t say.
[Update a few minutes later]
The double-crossing FBI agent must be held accountable.
He’s no rogue; it’s not just him.
An Interesting New Wrinkle In The Flynn Case
Over at Instapundit:
Did the prosecution tell Flynn’s lawyer that their main witness against him was removed for bias? Since Strzok led the interview and his testimony would be needed to establish untruthfulness, he is a critical witness not just a prosecutor. If not disclosed, would this not be a Giglio violation? This is the kind of misconduct that can get a case dismissed and a lawyer disbarred. It is a Constitutional violation. This has bothered me since I heard about it.
This stinks on dry ice.
I were Flynn’s lawyer, I’d petition the court to withdraw the plea on the grounds it was made on false information (that Mueller had a credible witness to Flynn’s lying). And I’d request that it be done with prejudice, and that prosecution be sanctioned. And if that’s successful, it would be grounds for demands from Republicans for Mueller’s replacement, and perhaps an end to the probe entirely, since it continued to be a dry hole.
Out Of Town
I was driving up to San Francisco yesterday, and today I’m at the Foresight Vision Weekend. There was a session on longevity (including cryonics) this morning, and now there’s a panel on blockchain and it’s potential applications. One of the panelists says that one app he’s woring is with a company that wants gas stations in space. I’ll have to talk to him later.
The Steinle Case
I’ve wondered from the beginning why the prosecution was so stupid as to attempt to convict him of first-degree murder. They never had a case (and probably not even for a manslaughter charge, though they could maybe get him for negligent or reckless homicide, but I’m not familiar with CA law about that).
Anyway, Sarah Rumpf explains the ways they screwed up. And as many have noted, the real issue was that he should never have been in the country to do this