Trump Checks His Executive Privilege, Decides Yes, He's KING!
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Trump Checks His Executive Privilege, Decides Yes, He's KING!
We got us a real live constitutional crisis!
Time to fire up that shredder, kids! Poppy Trump has invoked executive privilege over the entire Mueller Report, so now we have to delete poor Evan's eight-million-word liveblog . DOH! Bill Barr followed through on his threat to ground the House and send it to bed without its 448-page bedtime story if Chairman Jerry Nadler proceeded this morning with a Judiciary Committee vote to hold the Attorney General in contempt of Congress. Which he did. Yesterday, Barr was willing to show a whole 12 of the 41 members of the Committee a less-redacted report, as long as they promised never to talk about it with anyone on the House Intel Committee. But now that is ILLEGAL because the entirety of the report -- including the 90 percent that has already been published unredacted -- is covered under a warm, fluffy blanket of privilege.
Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote to Nadler this morning:
We are disappointed that you have rejected the Department of Justice's request to delay the vote of the Committee on the Judiciary on a contempt finding against the Attorney General this morning. By doing so, you have terminated our ongoing negotiations and abandoned the accommodation process with respect to your April 18, 2019 subpoena of confidential Department of Justice materials related to the investigation conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, III.
Okay, buddy. Boyd can posture for the court all he likes as to who walked away from the table first, but he's still sending a letter claiming that several hundred pages which the White House agreed to publish are now secret because Donald Trump waved his magic privilege wand.
Unfortunately, rather than allowing the negotiations to continue, you scheduled an unnecessary contempt vote, which you refused to postpone to allow additional time for compromise.
Accordingly, this is to advise you that the President has asserted executive privilege over the entirety of the subpoenaed materials. As I indicated in my letter to you last night, this protective assertion of executive privilege ensures the President's ability to make a final decision whether to assert privilege following a full review of these materials.
Meanwhile, back at the Judiciary Committee, the initial vote on the markup for the Barr contempt citation was 22-12 in favor. Womp womp. Looks like Bill Barr's threat to withhold information he'd already acknowledged the members had a right to see might have backfired.
“This is not a step we take lightly,” Rep. Jerry Nadler said as the House Judiciary Committee moves to hold Attorne… https: //t.co/tjmEnmG1mF
— POLITICO (@POLITICO) 1557325287.0
Sometimes heroes wear capes. Sometimes they're a 5-foot-4 Jewish grandfather from Brooklyn with a penchant for sweater vests. It's a weird world.
Speaking of weird, get a load of Congressman HeeHaw, who knows that HILLARY IS THE REAL COLLUSION.
Dems are afraid of what the AG will find regarding FISA abuses at DOJ, including how the Russia investigation began… https: //t.co/UM3WmhFGDJ
— Rep. Doug Collins (@Rep. Doug Collins) 1557326651.0
PEW PEW! Ranking Member Doug Collins makes words real good like. Republican Steve Chabot is also sure that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were making secret love babies with Vladimir Putin and Christopher Steele, and Bill Barr is just about to find out about it.
.@RepSteveChabot accuses Hillary Clinton of being the real colluder, rewrites history by saying the FBI tried to he… https: //t.co/cZr7JKtfnB
— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1557326464.0
GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko excoriated the Democrats for engaging in week after week of "political theater" -- guess she didn't get the memo that the GOP looooves the theatah, they just want Hillary Clinton on the marquee. Jim Jordan cited all the career FBI officials Trump fired as evidence of a DEEP STATE conspiracy. And Matt Gaetz suggested that Nadler could read the "less redacted" version of the report out on the floor of the House instead of going after Bill Barr if he really cared about justice. Which is ... ummm. They're still yammering, but we're going to cut them off. Especially you, Matt!
Okay, just one more.
.@RepSwalwell: "I ask my colleagues, look at the person you're going to such great lengths to protect! Look at this… https://t.co/2scIi8LdgZ
— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1557331763.0
YUP. We probably shouldn't have elected the worst person in America as president. Thanks, electoral college!
LOCK THEM UP.
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It's gonna be trench warfare. Please click here to buy your Wonkette some MREs.
Trump Checks His Executive Privilege, Decides Yes, He's KING!
Knock on your door in 3, 2, ...
Uh huh. There's an article in THE ATLANTIC that gives an angle on Barr I hadn't considered. I'd been thinking he's just one more Trump sycophant. "The Dangerous Ideas of Bill Barr" suggests that he's not a truckling minion, not an invertebrate trembling with fear at the thought of displeasing his orange master. Instead, he's motivated, he's a fanatic, a man who genuinely believes the President should be unaccountable, above the law, that Presidential power should be increased and centralized until the other branches of government essentially cannot check him. And he's going balls out to bring that state of affairs about.If he succeeds …Starting to look to me as if the only sure way to get rid of the orange wannabe tyrant is to vote him out of office in 2020 so resoundingly that no-one sane can doubt he was removed according to Hoyle. For that to happen all attempts at voter suppression should -- must be -- harshly and sharply nipped in the bud, and all possible ways to assist legitimate voters to reach the polls and cast their ballots should be employed. Forestall further Russian meddling? Of course. But it ain't gonna be the Trump administration that does so.Impeach and/or indict William Barr too, if you want America to remain America. Steve Mnuchin into the bargain. I'm no legal expert, but isn't there legitimate cause that Trump and Barr can't override?Maybe not. In which case -- oh, shit.