Time For DOJ To Step Up

It’s called criminal contempt.

An attorney for Trump has instructed former advisers, including Mark Meadows, Kash Patel, Dan Scavino and Steve Bannon, not to comply with the Jan. 6 committee’s document subpoenas.

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Author: craigcrawford

Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.

55 thoughts on “Time For DOJ To Step Up”

  1. Ya know, when clients come to me and try to get me to tell them it’s OK to do something that is contrary to a court’s order in their cases, I am clear – as an officer of the Court I cannot counsel them to act in contempt of an order of the Court and that if I did I would face a contempt order from the judge and possible sanctions from the state bar and I advise them that if they do not follow the Court’s orders, they will likely be facing a contempt order from the judge.  I’m not exactly sure that the same rules apply to Congressional subpoenas, but if the lawyer advising dumbass’ former advisers to ignore the Congressional subpoenas, which I assume are lawful and authorized by some law about Congress’ subpoena power, and that attorney is licensed and practices in DC, I would be concerned about action by the DC bar.    

  3. Serious question here – what do you do with the various people who are FB friends or other social media links who have died? This is like “do I delete people out of my Rolodex or do I leave the card in it so I can reflect on them whenever it flips to their name?”
     
    I have come to realize that I am outliving a few people who were part of my life.

  4. WaPo on the topic.

    An attorney for former president Donald Trump, in a letter reviewed by The Washington Post, instructed former advisers, including Mark Meadows, Kash Patel, Dan Scavino and Stephen K. Bannon, not to comply with congressional investigators who have requested information about their activities related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

    The group of former White House aides were subpoenaed last month by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, seeking records and testimony by midnight Thursday. The bipartisan panel is investigating the storming of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob trying to stop the certification of Biden’s electoral college win, an attack that resulted in five deaths and left some 140 members of law enforcement injured.

    Trump’s legal team argued in the letter, which was first reported by Politico, that records and testimony related to Jan. 6 are protected “from disclosure by the executive and other privileges, including among others the presidential communications, deliberative process, and attorney-client privileges.”
    * * * 
    The letter was a continuation of Trump’s efforts to use “executive privilege” to resist any cooperation with the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, banking on a legal theory that has successfully allowed presidents and their aides to avoid or delay congressional scrutiny for decades. President Biden, however, has indicated he will likely share with Congress information about Trump’s activities on Jan. 6 if asked.
    [ . . . ]

    The throw everything against the wall and see if anything sticks approach.
    A question – who is the author of the letter and why isn’t the author identified?
    A comment – you have to be an executive to claim executive privilege.  The advisers can’t assert the privilege. I’m a little vague on this, but again, I do not believe that the advisers can assert Presidential communications or deliberative process objections – I believe those objections would have to be raised by Dumbass.

    One way or another, this is going to end up in court.

     

  5. Quite a few dead people on my stuff…..I just leave em where they are…..
     
    By the way, don’t know if you’ve ever actually heard a scared rabbit, but it is a chillingly horrid sound.

  6. Text messages still there right where they left off.   To die, to sleep, perchance to dream….

  9. Query: so next step House vote next week (or can they phone it in now) to hold them in contempt? 

    that and the debt ceiling vote should make for an interesting few days. 

    Former Trump Aides Could Face Contempt Charges as Jan 6 Committee Deadline Passes (newsweek.com)

    The men had until midnight on Thursday to hand over documents relating to January 6 to the committee, after being subpoenaed in September. It remains unclear if they have cooperated with the committee now that the deadline has passed.
    […]
    “I believe this is a matter of the utmost seriousness and we need to consider the full panoply of enforcement sanctions available to us, and that means criminal contempt citations, civil contempt citations and the use of Congress‘s own inherent contempt powers,” Raskin said.

    Raskin said the decision would ultimately fall to the committee’s chair, Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, who has previously said he will seek to enforce subpoenas in the courts if necessary.

    Thompson was asked about former Trump officials refusing subpoenas in an interview with The Guardian newspaper on July 21 and replied: “We will pursue it in court.”
    If Congress votes to hold someone in contempt, they could then make a referral to the executive branch for criminal prosecution. A person convicted could be sentenced to a month or longer in prison. Congress could also ask the federal courts to enforce the subpoena, but both processes would take time. Contempt is designed to coerce the witness into cooperating.
    Raskin threatened sanctions against those refusing to cooperate with the committee during an appearance on MSNBC on October 2, saying the subpoenas were “legally mandatory.”
    “If you get one of these subpoenas, that is not an optional thing,” he said, adding that Congress “can coerce your cooperation through criminal contempt or civil contempt or what’s called the powers of Congress where we can call people before Congress and fine them and use our own sanctions.”

  11. Jimmy Kimmel and Trevor Noah Mock Fox News’ 25th Anniversary ‘Circle Jerk’ (thedailybeast.com)

    Thursday, Oct. 7 marks exactly 25 years since Fox News first hit cable boxes everywhere. And Jimmy Kimmel was not going to let the occasion pass without shouting out the network’s major milestone in his late-night monologue.
    “That’s right,” Kimmel said. “Fox News is now old enough to rent a car, fill it with immigrants, and claim it’s heading to your grandma’s house to bury her alive.”
    Noting that they’ve been “celebrating all day over at Mordor,” the host shared a clip of the “little birthday circle jerk” that Fox & Friends held at a diner in Greenville, South Carolina, earlier in the day. “Turns out they’re pretty excited about this special day.”
    Asked why it was “so important” to celebrate the big anniversary, one woman instead ranted about supposedly diseased immigrants coming across the border. “Are they bringing hoof-in-mouth disease in here to the United States?” she wondered aloud. In turn, her interviewer helpfully added, “Not to mention COVID…”
    “Well, happy birthday Fox!” Kimmel said, laughing. “If that isn’t Fox News in a nutshell, I really don’t know what is. I mean, that sums it all up right there.” He concluded, “Think whatever you like about Fox News, I guess with all the problems we have in the country right now, sometimes it’s just nice to turn on a channel and escape reality, you know?”
    The Daily Show, meanwhile, took a different approach, putting out an epic montage of Fox’s worst on-air sexual harassment moments to mark a quarter-century on TV.

    trevor’s last night

    Happy 25th anniversary, Fox News! Here’s to 25 more (sexual harassment and defamation lawsuits)!

  12. Nobel peace prize 2021: journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov win – live | World news | The Guardian

    Nobel committee awards the 2021 peace prize to journalists from Philippines and Russia for ‘efforts to safeguard freedom of expression’

    ressa:

    …I have – we have – all along said this since 2016, that that we are fighting for facts.
    And when we live in a world where facts are debatable, when the world’s largest distributor of news prioritises the spread of lives laced with anger and hate, and spreads it faster and further than facts, then journalism becomes activism.
    And that’s the transformation that we’ve gone through in Rappler … How do we do what we do? How can journalists continue the mission of journalism? Why is it so difficult to continue telling the community telling the world? What the facts are, right?
    So in a battle for facts, I guess what this just shows is that that the Nobel Peace Prize committee realised that a world without facts means a world without truth and trust.

  13. Eugene Robinson asks the question we hope we don’t have to find out the answer to (WaPo):

    How dumb can a nation get and still survive?

    … Idiotically, we seem determined to find out.

    Great little read. I love Eugene’s columns.

  14. How dumb can a nation get and still survive?

    well, eugene, we passed the 1st hurdle.  we endured a bloated buffoon for 4 years and had the sense not to invite him back to the WH.  that was pretty dumb to install him to begin with but we survived it…  sorta.

  15. We didn’t install him.   He was installed by others as part of their mission.  
    For that madder, bush also lost….as part of a different “their” mission.

  16. See the source image

    Boiling Frogs

    Watch for signs of distress in their eyes.
    Calm their terror and suppress their cries.
    Sooth their fears; they’ll adapt
    As their strength is all sapped;
    In the end they’ll succumb to your lies.

  20. Looking to combine their passion for cycling and environmentalism, the always eco-thinking Danes are taking their old wind turbine blades and upcycling them into bike shelters.
    90% of the population owns a bike. , a third of all Danes ride a bike to work at least one time a week, while a quarter of all trips less than 3.5 miles are by bike. With so many cyclists, bike lockup shelters are a much needed feature of the Danish city and townscape.

    Furthermore

  22. Yeah…  this is a game of chicken.  And if Merrick Garland doesn’t make sure the trumpkins know who their daddy is…  he will be the one who clucked first.

  23. Hey, old man, that fitting is right purty.  what’s it made of and how strong is it?  Or is it a prototype for castings or something similar?  Curious minds and all that.

  24. Bobs doohicky thingy reminds me of my neighbors weekly treasure hunt.
    He goes to the auction and buys pallet loads of returned items.. sometimes he gets good stuff in one box and then the next a big WTF is this. I helped him unload todays haul. fiber cable and a service panel box for it (trash), something that says ducts on box, plastic use unknow (trash), A pc computer tower  still in box, A couple of somethings unknow, metal (recycle/trash).
    In short my neighbor is part of the grass roots industry that has sprung up to handle all that crap you buy online and return.
    An interesting article from The Atlantic about it, but they didn’t even grasp half of what all happens. 
    Jack

  25. Jack, I learned that our former receptionist/secretary does that.  She just got a pallet of returns from Amazon – no idea what she has, but I’mm going to start stalking her website and see if she’s getting any good crap in.

  26. Pogo –
    It’s 3-D printing  Lee Ware the glass blower is teaching himself  . He’s working up the 3-D drawings for my connectors.  The injection molds can be made from them .
    That took one and a half hours to print.
    It’s a bio-degradable plastic made from corn starch.  The interior is a honey comb. 
    I’ve repaired my full blown model , I made 12 years ago. 
    Putting it up in my little sisters backyard tomorrow.
     
    I feel like a 14 year-old girl at the Ed Sullivan Theater in 64′.
     
     

  29. Pogo-
    One other thing about this system, I made this on an 1 1/2 ” scale , but if these parts are scaled down to 1/2 ” pipe.
    One could make really round domes with lots of struts , really cheaply .
    Full blown “Bucky Fuller”  stuff. 

  30. pogo, might this have been a biden pat on the back or prime the pump to help soften up your senator’s intransigence?

    the hill:

    West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) says the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is providing $53.5 million for the state’s broadband. 

    In an announcement on Thursday, Manchin said the Citynet will be given $53,513,114 from the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) over the next 10 years with a goal of expanding broadband access to residents across the state. 

  31. cbob, once used in a structure how quickly will these parts biodegrade?  IOW what’s their shelf life in how many years of bad  weather

  33. hurray hurray, monday is indigenous peoples day!

    A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2021 | The White House

    Since time immemorial, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians have built vibrant and diverse cultures — safeguarding land, language, spirit, knowledge, and tradition across the generations.  On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, our Nation celebrates the invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples, recognizes their inherent sovereignty, and commits to honoring the Federal Government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations.

    Our country was conceived on a promise of equality and opportunity for all people — a promise that, despite the extraordinary progress we have made through the years, we have never fully lived up to.  That is especially true when it comes to upholding the rights and dignity of the Indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began.  For generations, Federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures.  Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.  We also recommit to supporting a new, brighter future of promise and equity for Tribal Nations — a future grounded in Tribal sovereignty and respect for the human rights of Indigenous people in the Americas and around the world.

    […]

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 11, 2021, as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.  I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.  I also direct that the flag of the United States be displayed on all public buildings on the appointed day in honor of our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who contribute to shaping this Nation.  

  34. Biden issues first-ever presidential proclamation for Indigenous People’s Day | TheHill

    President Biden on Friday issued the first presidential proclamation marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day, aiming to commemorate the “invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples.” 

    Indigenous Peoples Day will be observed alongside congressionally established Columbus Day on Oct. 11.

    […]

    The president, in a separate proclamation acknowledging Columbus Day, recognized the millions of Italian Americans who “continue to enrich our country’s traditions and culture and make lasting contributions to our Nation.” But Biden also acknowledged “painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities.” 

    “It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them,” he wrote. 

  36. worth reading

    Opinion | Herd immunity is approaching. What that means now. – The Washington Post

    John M. Barry is the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History” and distinguished scholar at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

    In the near future, likely before Christmas, 90 percent or more of the U.S. population will have considerable — but not perfect — immunity to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
    Close to 70 percent of Americans have had at least one vaccine dose, while a very substantial if not precisely known percentage of the unvaccinated have recovered from infection. The so-called herd immunity target will be achieved. But what will this actually mean?
    [continues]

  37. Patd-
    We trim houses now with PVC , and one can paint it to shield it from the ultraviolet rays. 
    My idea was to make these things , and have tarp makers sew the outer skin . Disaster  shelter stuff , but 40 or 50 feet in diameter.  It could go up in hours. 
    Or one can cover the outside with expanded metal lath , and  spray gunite concrete on it. 
    This is the way we make swimming pools. 
    Once that sets up .  The shell  becomes the structure , and this system lets you make really thick interior. surfaces with spray foam in between. 
    Ain’t no hurricane gonna blow these things down. 
    I spent a great deal of time rolling this marble around my head.  

  38. wapo:

    Former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon has told the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that he cannot comply with the panel’s sweeping request for documents and testimony.
    But the committee said two other Trump advisers — former chief of staff Mark Meadows and national security aide Kash Patel — are “engaging with the committee,” despite President Trump’s requests that they cite executive privilege for matters having to do with presidential decision-making.
    “While Mr. Meadows and Mr. Patel are, so far, engaging with the Select Committee, Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former President,” the committee’s leaders said in a joint statement issued Friday afternoon.
    […]
    “The Select Committee fully expects all of these witnesses to comply with our demands for both documents and deposition testimony … we will not allow any witness to defy a lawful subpoena or attempt to run out the clock, and we will swiftly consider advancing a criminal contempt of Congress referral,” said the statement signed by Chairman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
    [continues]

  39. Wow !

    Indigenous Peoples’ Day, aiming to commemorate the “invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples.” 

     
    This will drive the “Bag of rats ” crazy.
     

  40. Columbus Day
    When Chris got to Cuba on his second trip , he saw some gold on the locals. 
    He declared that each local had to bring him a “Hawks Bell” of gold.  Now that’s about the size of an acorn. If you failed , they cut off your nose. 
     
    Don’t get me started about the Spanish Conquest  of the New World. 

     
     

  41. If you ever visit a “Spanish Mission” . 
    Remember  these places were run by the Catholic Church .
     And as we have just seen in France , their management style has never been all that great. 

  42. patd,  perhaps so.  Citynet – the phone/internet provider and IT guys for our office.  Broadband via fiberoptic cable is in the process of being installed around here – you can see the multicolored plastic conduit poking up alongside the roads from East Bumfuck to Elkins along Routes 25 and 33.  And not a moment too soon I might add.
    Yeah, Bob, that Columbus feller was capable of being a bit ruthless from what I’ve read.  
     
    Oh, and good on Bennie Thompson – what he’s saying refutes Rick Wilson’s latest comments about sources saying the Select committee would not pursue the recalcitrant folks subpoenaed and nothing would come of those who did not comply.  I was listening to Joyce Vance while I was picking up lunch for Mrs. P and she noted that of all the folks subpoenaed, Bannon has the least colorable claim to make for executive privilege or consultation to shield documents and testimony since he was not a member of the executive branch and Dumbass as a former executive cannot invoke the privilege.

  43. Speaking of Dumbass….(WaPo)

    President Biden rejected former president Donald Trump’s request to block documents from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the White House said on Friday, likely setting up a legal and political battle.

    Trump has claimed executive privilege in seeking to evade the committee’s demands for details about Trump and his aides’ activities during the Jan. 6 attack. But in the letter to the National Archives and Records Administration, the White House said Biden “determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States.”

    Trump responded with a letter of his own Friday that formally claimed executive privilege over about 50 documents requested by the select committee.

    At a White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden decision reflected the gravity of the attack.

    “The president’s dedicated to ensuring that something like that could never happen again, which is why the administration is cooperating with ongoing investigations,” Psaki said. “The president has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not warranted for the first set of documents from the Trump White House that have been provided to us by the National Archives.”

    In his letter to the National Archives on Friday, Trump argued that some records requested by the committee “contain information subject to executive privilege, including the presidential communications and deliberative process privileges.”

    Trump also makes a more sweeping claim to “protective assertion of constitutionally based privilege with respect to all additional records” that were requested.

    [ … ]

    This is going to be interesting.  Oh Mr. Garland, time to saddle up.

  45. The Mandan Villages –
    I was at the one, in my tractor trailer , where The Corps of Discovery  met their pregnant 16 year old guide, and her French  bum of a husband. 
    This was their first winter .
    So the National Park Service  had built one of their lodges.  A lot smaller than the real ones.  In it was a big bus tour, and their guide,  I walk in and stand next to him . We listen to the NPS girl in her Smoky Bear hat. 
    After that, I ask him does he know about the “Buffalo Bull Dance”,   his face lights up.  YES !
    The Mandan had a winter dance  in January on the first full moon . 
    All the young maidens  slept  with the old men , this lasted for 3 days. 
    It was all designed to draw the Buffalo near the villages. 
    When I wasn’t working in small towns , I  spent a lot of time in libraries  reading about The West . 
    The best book I ever read was in  Fallon Nevada  .
    “The Diary of Elijah Douglas Perkins”  A real 49’er , and he was true to his record of the trip.  He aged 10 years in 10 months. 
    God if I could  take you folks places , and I know it like the back of my hand. 
    When they got to Oregon , there was news of a huge dead whale on the beach , about 15 tuff miles Southwest ,  Lewis and Clark told their 17 year-old guide and new mother she could not go to see it.
    She informed them she was going to see that “Big Fish”. 
    She had her way .
    One last item ,  they all  voted on where to winter that fall.
    The first time  in American history   where a black man, an Indian , and a woman cast a ballot  with white men.  

  46. Turdnip is a citizen  now. 
    His shit stinks like the rest of us. 
     
    Garland , don’t worry about him .
    He’s going to make the right moves ,  but he knows where we are . 
    Mitch is going to pay for  his choice , and Garland has the hammer. 

  47. I played Mandan the town, but it was Feb. and I didn’t see much.

    Mandan won.

    That was where we drank all the whiskey.

    Yeah, I find myself trusting Garland.

  49. executive privilege –
    The entire theory of wing nut thinking about our laws are based on “Original Intent” .
    That is the Law was frozen  in 1798 .
    Well Nixon  was the first to invoke  this cow patty  as a legal theory. 
    If the wing nuts stand true to their thinking . 
    executive privilege is a fiction of legal thinking. 
     
     
     

  50. If Congress doesn’t  haul  these assholes in. Then we are lost.
     This all is a real Bag of Flamin’  Rats. 
    If I swim in it too much , I can’t do anything else .
    This is why I am trying to post about the Danes  making bike shelters out of turbine blades. 
    None of us can live in a “Flaming Bag of Rats”  all the time. 
    Our hearts will turn to ash. And our souls  will blow away.  

  51. Now watch the the circus ,
    One clown after, another, Taking the 5th .
    Now Biden and Garland  sends in the US Marshals to get the paper , and the phones  etc. 
    These guys are not that smart.  There will be huge amounts of damning data. 

  54. Now that it is fall many states are opening hunting season for deer, elk and other critters.  The Maryland NPR shared this today.  Open the picture and look at the “hunting” rifle.  That is not a deer rifle.  Once the bullets do the job you only have a pound of hamburger, not a roast.  There is no excuse to have assault rifles in the public.

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