Department of Justice
December 1, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
President Trump’s pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation is Kashyap “Kash” Patel, a man Trump describes as “a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and ‘America First’ fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People.” The FBI and establishment media didn’t like it. “Every day, the men and women of the FBI continue to work to protect Americans from a growing array of threats,”
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November 21, 2024 — John Hinderaker
In the least surprising breaking news of 2024, Matt Gaetz has announced that he is withdrawing from consideration as Trump’s Attorney General. Conspiracy theories are legion, and some are hailing what would appear to be a fiasco as one more sign of Trump’s genius. The Senate seat that will be vacated by Marco Rubio figures in some of these speculations. I think the truth is simpler. Gaetz’s announcement comes a
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November 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Some years ago, I heard that Matt Gaetz had been accused of having sex with an underage girl. Much later, I understood that the claim had turned out to be false and had been dropped. But now, following Gaetz’s nomination as Attorney General, it has reappeared in the guise of a House Ethics Committee investigation and attendant newspaper leaks. Headlines have been full of salacious references to sex with a
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November 14, 2024 — Scott Johnson
I like to turn to the oracular Bob Dylan writing in William Blake’s prophetic mode for commentary on Matt Gaetz: All and all can only fall With a crashing but meaningless blow No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden There’s no avoiding the sound from the Gaetz of Eden. Otherwise, pretty good. Yesterday Gaetz resigned from the House effective immediately, just ahead of the possible release of the
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November 13, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Most of President-Elect Trump’s nominations have been excellent, but selecting Rep. Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General is, to put it politely, a puzzler. Gaetz obviously lacks the stature normally expected in that role, and his history is checkered. Liberal commentators interpreted Gaetz’s appointment as a sign that Trump will seek revenge against the Democrats who tried to bring him down and send him to prison. I don’t know whether
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October 24, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
On October 21, the congressional task force released Interim Staff Report: Investigating the Stunning Security Failures on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. The detailed report charges the Secret Service with inadequate planning and concludes that “the tragic events of July 13 were preventable.” The task force shows no interest in shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ background and associations long before he nearly killed Donald Trump. The same is true of the
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October 18, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
James Boasberg and Tanya Chutkan are worthy contenders for anybody’s list of worst judges in America. So is federal judge Emmet Sullivan, a 1991 appointee of George H.W. Bush to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Sullivan United States District Judge for the District of Columbia. In due course he would encounter Gen. Michael A. Flynn, President Trump’s pick for national security advisor.
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October 16, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, Frontpage pick for worst judge in America, is a member of the DC District Court. The presiding judge of that circuit is James E. Boasberg, appointed in 2010 by the composite character president David Garrow described in Rising Star: The Making of Barack Obama. In 2014, Chief Justice John Roberts appointed Boasberg to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and from January 2020 to May 2021 Boasberg
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June 16, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
“An Arkansas prosecutor on Friday said a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent was justified when he fatally shot the Little Rock airport director during a raid in March,” CBS News reports. “Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones said in a letter to ATF that no charges in the shooting would be filed after reviewing the Arkansas State Police investigation of the shooting of Bill and Hillary Clinton National
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April 28, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
In One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General, William Barr reveals his service for the CIA and his admiration for Rod Rosenstein, Robert Mueller and current FBI boss Christopher Wray. Barr also makes it clear that Obama and Biden were not in John Durham’s “crosshairs,” which calls to mind an episode not covered in the memoir. In the Ruby Ridge siege of 1992, the FBI deployed massive military
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December 28, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
Colorado’s decision to ban Donald Trump from the state’s primary ballot, is “legally untenable” and “is going to end up as a grievance that helps him,” claims former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, author of One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General. Back in his law school days, Barr applied for an internship with the Central Intelligence Agency, was admitted to the program, and continued to work
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December 17, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
“I’m in charge of the National Security Division at the Department of Justice. We are responsible for investigating and prosecuting terrorists, spies and the wide range of threats posed by our most capable and dangerous nation-state adversaries.” Thus spake Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, back on October 5. Here are samples from his 2,000-plus-word speech at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law: The
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December 16, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
Congress has extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), The Hill reports, keeping “the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers” in place until April. Those who approved the move, including some California Republicans, might recall the case of Kevin Clinesmith, a lawyer with the FBI’s National Security and Cyber Law division. In August of 2020 Clinesmith pleaded guilty to altering an email to show that U.S. Navy veteran Carter
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November 16, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley
The US Census Bureau conducts the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) and has been sending out letters using “a scientific process to selected addresses, including yours, from all addresses in the United States.” As recipients learn, “your address cannot be replaced.” Crime often goes unreported, the letter explains, so “a Census Bureau representative will come to your home or call to interview you and other household members, aged 12 or
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August 30, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
In a Tuesday night letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), the Department of Justice denied permission for two subpoenaed FBI special agents to testify before Congress in the GOP investigation of potential Biden family corruption. The letter, obtained by the Washington Examiner, can be viewed below. Jordan issued subpoenas on Aug. 21 to FBI special agents Thomas Sobocinski and Ryeshia Holley of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office,
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August 20, 2023 — Elizabeth Stauffer
We were all appalled to hear in June that Hunter Biden had received a sweetheart plea deal from U.S. Attorney David Weiss. Under that agreement, Hunter would plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of tax evasion and enter into a pretrial diversion agreement on a felony charge of possession of a firearm by a user of illegal drugs. As we know, the deal fell apart in spectacular fashion at the
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July 26, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Judge Noreika has imposed “conditions of release” for Hunter Biden, and they make for comical reading given the farce of Hunter Biden’s business acumen and work history. (Snapshot below.) Can you believe it—the judge is insisting that Hunter stay clean and sober (no alcohol at all!), submit to random drug tests, and enter a drug treatment program. (I think this might make an even dozen rehabs he’s tried?) I’d love
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