Biden Justice Department
September 10, 2023 — John Hinderaker
On Thursday evening our time, I was on Sky News Australia’s U.S. Report, hosted by James Morrow. We talked about the sentencing of Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio to 22 years in prison, two years longer than the maximum penalty prescribed by law, for participation in an “insurrection” that he missed. We contrasted that with the 10-year sentence, half of the presumptive punishment, for an arsonist/murderer who was engaged in
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September 7, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I sought to draw attention to the Biden Department of Justice’s advocacy of leniency in the case of Montez Lee, the Minnesota citizen sentenced to 10 years in prison for setting a fire that killed a man during the George Floyd riots that devastated Minneapolis. I set forth the underlying facts of the case in “Felony murder in a good cause” (January 18,2022) and several subsequent posts. Byron York now
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August 29, 2023 — Scott Johnson
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has set Donald Trump’s trial date on four counts of election-related misconduct for trial commencing March 4, 2024 — the day before the Super Tuesday slate of Republican election primaries. “The public has a right to a prompt and efficient resolution of this matter,” Judge Chutkan said, according to the New York Times story on the hearing yesterday. The overriding consideration in a criminal case
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August 21, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Tristan Leavitt is president of Empower America and an attorney representing the whistleblowers in the matter of Hunter Biden. He commented on the leaked emails and resulting stories in Politico and the New York Times over the weekend in a long Twitter thread which I have embedded below. The thread is unrolled and posted for easy reading in the Thread Reader app here. Leavitt explains in his first two tweets:
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August 20, 2023 — John Hinderaker
A considerable number of emails and other documents have been leaked to Politico and the New York Times; I take it that these are the same materials, although this may not be entirely clear. And insiders have leaked off the record to both of these organizations. In their articles, the two news organizations highlight different elements of the documents. One of Politico’s most interesting revelations is that the Biden Department
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August 19, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Andrew McCarthy’s weekly NRO column elaborates on “The chicanery of the Hunter Biden plea deal.” I find that McCarthy’s columns provide analysis that is available nowhere else (and he is a natural teacher to boot). Unfortunately, however, NRO keeps his columns behind its paywall. It occurs to me that someone might want to contribute the funds necessary to liberate them. It would be a public service. McCarthy’s column this week
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August 17, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I supported President Trump until January 6, 2021. However, when Trump made it clear that his endgame was urging his supporters to go up to Capitol Hill and “make your voices heard” to urge Vice President Pence to “do[] the right thing” — “[b]ecause if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election” — and reject the certification of the electoral college results, I got off the train.
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August 14, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Holman Jenkins took up the absurdity of David Weiss’s appointment as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case by Attorney General Garland this past Friday. In the conclusion of his Wall Street Journal column Jenkins turned to the 2024 election: The elder Mr. Biden’s avoidance of the press, if that’s his campaign strategy, will be viable against one opponent only: the now thrice-indicted Mr. Trump. The president’s supporters in the
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August 12, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of United States Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden yesterday. The Department of Justice has posted Garland’s statement here. Why Weiss? That is a difficult question to answer honestly in public. Indeed, Garland took no questions — ignoring a reporter who asked why Weiss had been elevated to special counsel if he had “ultimate authority” to prosecute,
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August 11, 2023 — John Hinderaker
There were two developments today in the Biden Department of Justice’s faux prosecution of Hunter Biden. The DOJ filed a document suggesting that Hunter is now bound for trial, following the collapse of his plea bargain before Judge Maryellen Noreika: “After the hearing, the parties continued negotiating but reached an impasse. A trial is therefore in order,” prosecutors said in their Friday filing. *** Later Friday, prosecutors suggested they could
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August 8, 2023 — Scott Johnson
There must be a good answer to the challenge raised by Kim Strassel in her weekly Wall Street Journal column this past Friday. Addressing the indictment of President Trump elicited by Krazy-Eyez Killa Jack Smith, Strassel seeks to understand how far the charge of conspiring to defraud the government — the charge brought under 18 U.S.C. § 371 — can be extended (link omitted): A politician can lie to the
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August 6, 2023 — Scott Johnson
I highly doubt that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is cognizant of the art of esoteric writing by the classic practitioners of political philosophy who sought to guard themselves against persecution by the political authorities. Arthur Melzer calls such esoteric writing Philosophy Between the Lines in his brilliant book of that title. We have every reason to believe that Secretary Blinken is on board with the positions of the Biden
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August 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Krazy-Eyez Killa Jack Smith and his superiors have elicited an indictment of President Trump that leads with a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Andrew McCarthy addresses the Supreme Court case law that belies this charge in “Anti-indictment and pro editorial” (supporting NR’s editorial “This Trump indictment shouldn’t stand,” both behind NRO’s paywall). Not having followed Supreme Court cases beside the ones we have discussed on Power Line,
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August 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Krazy-Eyez Killa Jack Smith announced the election-related indictment of Donald Trump yesterday. Listening to his brief statement (text here, video below), I learn that it was just unsealed. Killa must have had it ready to go for some time. He appears to have had it filed and unsealed in response to the testimony of Devon Archer before the House Oversight Committee the day before. Something tells me that the indictment
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July 30, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
Even Osama bin Laden recognized that President Joe Biden wasn’t a particularly bright man. In May 2012, the West Point Counter Terrorism Center released a series of translated, declassified documents seized during the U.S. raid that killed bin Laden. In a May 2010 letter to a colleague, bin Laden explained why he was calling for the assassination of then-President Barack Obama. He wrote: Obama is the head of infidelity and
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July 30, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Politico has just posted the first straight news story on the Department of Justice’s letter to the judge in Devon Archer’s fraud case. Having been convicted of fraud and lost his appeal, Archer is subject to execution of the sentence imposed on him following trial. Department lawyers were at work on Saturday seeking an order setting a date for Archer to report to prison: On Saturday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office
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July 28, 2023 — Scott Johnson
The best explanation of the proposed Hunter Biden plea deal that went south before Judge Noreika this week comes in Will Scharf’s Federalist column “How A Federal Judge Turned The Tables On Hunter Biden’s Sweetheart Plea Deal.” The subhead adds: “Judge Noreika knew lawyers were trying to paint her into a corner and hide the ball while forcing her to rubber-stamp their absurd bargain.” I have argued that the deal
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