Remember Matt Whitaker?
Matt was, briefly, Attorney General, after being installed to replace Jeff Sessions who was finally forced out after enduring all manner of verbal abuse from Donald Trump.
Whitaker was technically in charge of the Mueller probe for several months, an absurd outcome for any number of reasons, not the least of which was that Whitaker had a long track record of deriding the special counsel probe publicly.
His February testimony before the House Judiciary Committee was an epic farce, right down to Matt’s spectacles, through which he peered while delivering nervous zinger after nervous zinger under pressure from irritated lawmakers.
Again – because this can’t be emphasized enough – Whitaker is on the same page with Trump when it comes to pretty much everything the President has ever said about anything, to a degree that goes well beyond sycophantic.
In July of 2016, for instance, Whitaker, wrote an Op-Ed for USA Today called “I would indict Hillary Clinton.” In May of 2017, he wrote an Op-Ed for The Hill called “James Comey served faithfully, but the president made the right decision“. In June of 2017, Whitaker told WMAL radio that Trump did not obstruct justice by firing Comey. Two months later, Whitaker penned an Op-Ed for CNN called “Mueller’s investigation of Trump is going too far“.
In other words, Matt wasn’t just a sycophant. Matt wanted an important job – right up until he got one, that is, at which point he panicked, and demonstrated a propensity to sweat profusely whenever anybody asked questions about Mueller. Mercifully, William Bar took the reins before Whitaker was hauled up to Capitol Hill for any further questioning.
Well, on Tuesday evening, Matt showed up on state television and said, quote, “Abuse of power is not a crime”. Here’s the clip:
“[Democrats] cannot even tell the American people what this case is about right now”, Whitaker went on to assert.
That, obviously, is a lie. The case is about Donald Trump withholding nearly $400 million in congressionally-approved military aid from Ukraine in order to compel the country’s new government to open politically-motivated investigations into Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and an alleged Democrat conspiracy around the 2016 election.
Does that clear it up?
(Incidentally – or not – Matt doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to identifying potential wrongdoing)
It’s also worth noting that Whitaker, in his infinite wisdom, just tacitly acknowledged that Trump abused his office.
Great job, Matt! Now just implicate the president on national television another three-dozen times and you’ll be a regular Rudy Giuliani.
Ted Lieu was kind enough to remind Whitaker that “Article II of the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon was Abuse of Power”.
“Also, the Framers intended Impeachment to be a remedy for Abuse of Power”, Lieu went on to chide, adding that “soliciting a foreign nation to get dirt on your American political opponent is illegal”.
Only the best people in Trumplandia.
Crime de la crime!
Whitaker comes in for one play, fails to pick up the blitz, goes back to the bench.
Pelosi on trump: All roads lead to Putin
However, many roads also lead to hitler
The other day I was looking into how trump has survived by using carry forwards as a way to apparently dodge taxes and how he has recently signed legislation related to carry forwards, tweaking the IRS and DOJ as needed, while the GOP looks the other way — well, for some reason out of the blue I was reminded of how the nazis financed their pre- WWll war chest — and looks as if they provided the blueprint for trump tax evasion-like mechanisms — but of course, who wants to be accused of lynching trump and suggesting he’s an evil monster that wants to steal as much money as possible? After all, it’s people like this that are just carry out the wishes of the people and there are no crimes to pay for.
See: In the wake of the Great Depression, this hidden money creation stimulated the German economy. The German Deutsche Gesellschaft für öffentliche Arbeiten AG brought into circulation Öffa bills worth 1.26 billion Reichsmark. In general, the duration of a bill was three months but it could be prolonged to five years.[3]
Economically, this meant an expansion of the money supply. As this would tend towards increasing inflation, Hans Luther agreed to only a small volume.
Kurt von Schleicher’s second cabinet decided to expand the Öffa bill scheme. Öffa bills could now be issued by other (mostly public) financial institutions such as the Deutsche Verkehrskreditbank AG which had issued Öffa bills worth 1 billion Reichsmark. After becoming Chancellor in January 1933, Adolf Hitler wanted to extend the scheme to the German re-armament, Hans Luther disagreed, and he was replaced on 16 March 1933 by Hjalmar Schacht. Schacht instituted the Mefo bills, a similar system to the Öffa bills.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oeffa_bills
May Mafia Don – and all his henchm-persons – “get all that they truly deserve”. Far be it for a neighbour to jusge what it is that they do actually deserve. However, the initials RICO would be a clue….
You have to keep this whole impeachment thing in perspective and remember, this is about mafia-like power and control and abuse of power, backed by the GOP. This is why Pelosi is going super slow, because these are criminals that are good at what they do and they have ways and means to be above the laws and subvert the Constitution — and use DOJ and other govt entities as allies to fight any process related to actual justice.
Thus, it’s best to take the concept that there is no crime very seriously. Please show me the statute and laws related to abuse — I’m still looking at various things, but, we all need clear and defined objectives here. One issue hanging around is obstruction, but where’s the laundry list of crimes — not articles of Impeachment, but exactly what crimes — which mafia figure did what and when? We all love the inquiry and investigations, but we need a far better case to be laid out.
I just read the following and it serves as a serious wake up call:
nullum crimen sine lege: “There can be no crime without a law”
insufficient causes
“The President . . . shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors
the clause in Article II that outlines the President’s power to grant pardons for “Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment”
Curtis contended that it wouldn’t make sense for these clauses to exempt “Cases of Impeachment” from “Offenses against the United States” or “The Trial of all Crimes” unless cases of impeachment referred to criminal offenses.
That is, these clauses confirmed that impeachable offenses belonged to a subcategory of crimes: those so important and “so high that they belong in this company with treason and bribery.”
Curtis transitioned from this textual argument into his second, structural argument: an impeachment proceeding is a criminal trial. That is, the assembled senators sitting before him weren’t sitting as a legislature that could define the law but as a criminal court that had to interpret existing law. “Mr. Chief Justice, I am here to speak to the Senate of the United States sitting in its judicial capacity as a court of impeachment, presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States, for the trial of the President of the United States,” Curtis declared.
https://harvardlawreview.org/2018/12/high-crimes-without-law/
==> Show me the law!
There is no constraint on the House in terms of Bills of Impeachment. They can vote out a bill for any action or inaction of a president, say for walking his dog without a lease. Statute may be quoted to support the case but it is buttressing to the argument since there is no statute involved simply because it is not a criminal proceeding but a political one. This is a judgement call and the acceptance of that call is the removal of a president from power not jail time or fines.
I personally would have preferred an election to decide this but a bill of impeachment on this act, at least, will suggest to future occupiers of this office that serving your needs over using powers that have been granted to you to serve the needs of the nation could have import.
Not to say that this doesn’t happen all the time but this shit is way to blatant.
What is a miracle? A miracle is the next elected (or any) government clarifying, defining and making into law actions such as those being carried out by Trump and associates against the people of the United States such that the gray areas are crystal clear.