Saturday, March 11, 2017

New Attorney General Jeff Sessions cleans house by requesting the resignation of the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama Administration.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has asked the remaining 46 chief federal prosecutors left over from the Obama administration to resign, including Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara who had been asked to stay on in November by then President-elect Donald Trump. 

A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed the resignation requests applied to Bharara. However, it was not immediately clear if all resignations would ultimately be accepted. 

Bharara was unsure where he stood because he did not know if the person who contacted him was aware that Trump had asked him to remain in office, according a source familiar with the matter. Bharara's office handles some of the most critical business and criminal cases passing through the federal judicial system. 

U.S. attorneys are political appointees, and the request from Trump's Justice Department is part of a routine process. Not every new administration replaces all U.S. attorneys at once. 

Bharara met with Trump in Trump Tower on Nov. 30. Afterward, Bharara told reporters the two had a "good meeting" and he had agreed to stay on.

Now some will argue that this is business as usual, but really it's not eve close.

So WHY would the Trump administration eject all of these clearly qualified professionals all at once which threatens the country's ability to prosecute ongoing cases?

Well this might be a hint.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:

A trio of watchdog groups has asked the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to investigate whether President Trump has received payments or other benefits from foreign governments through his business interests in violation of an obscure clause in the U.S. Constitution. 

The request, sent by letter Wednesday morning to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, is a novel strategy by ethics critics who have been pressing Trump to comply with the Constitution’s “emoluments clause,” which prohibits top officials from receiving payments or favors from foreign governments. Trump’s business empire stretches across the globe. The letter was sent six weeks after one of the groups filed a lawsuit in federal district court making a similar claim.

Gee, what another coinky dink.

So would the Trump administration really fire all of these prosecutors simply to stop one of them from investigating them?

I don't believe we even have to ask that question.

46 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:19 AM

    1. THREAD. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but @realDonaldTrump is consolidating his power. He and Bannon are getting stronger. (1/15)

    https://twitter.com/peterdaou/status/840387899996680192

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous7:27 AM

      "Bannon has explicitly said that the fury of the opposition is perceived as validation of success. FRICTION GIVES THEM TRACTION."
      "is at a fever pitch now, but could STILL fizzle. GOP leaders have ABDICATED their duties, cravenly covering for Trump."

      RESIST!

      Delete
  2. Anonymous6:37 AM

    I'm beginning to think the plan is just to fire everybody who works for the Federal Government (except maybe in the DoD) and never bother to replace them. Can they do that?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous7:27 AM

      Who knows? If they do, the country will all but cease to exist. I suppose they'll always keep a few employees to make sure that all of the GOP members of Congress and all the members of the Trump administration get paid. The rest of us, the GOP doesn't care if we're here or not.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  3. Anonymous6:44 AM

    As with your Rachel post yesterday, Gryph, about Pence lying about Flynn, they're going to replace everyone with their own kind and there will be no prosecution of anything nor anyone unless it's someone standing up to them. What's next, public hangings as a warning to those who resist?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:23 AM

    There go the people who care about the Constitution or, let's face it, have actually read it.
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:41 AM

      MAGA my keester, Besglemom!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:19 AM

      It is not like they aren't replaced with other attorneys. This is, as Gryph said, business as usual for new administrations.

      Delete
    3. Leland9:24 AM

      MAGA? Sorry, but I don't speak text message.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous10:35 AM

      Leland -
      Nothing to do with text messages. It's an acronym for Trump's campaign slogan, 'Make America Great Again'

      Delete
  5. Anonymous7:41 AM

    WAR CRIME? SON and DAUGHTER ARE GOING TO DIE NOW.
    "Not only has he promised to bomb these countries beyond recognition, he promised to take their oil. Since George W. Bush's Iraq war, Trump has given dozens of interviews where he stated that he would "take the oil."

    http://crooksandliars.com/2017/03/trump-begins-his-war-oil

    cruZZer>" let see if sand can glow in the dark"
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6vMnJwzqHw

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous8:25 AM

      Since trump doesn't seem to understand anything about nuclear weapons, how does he plan to get their oil if it is radioactive.

      Let's see how many trump supporters volunteer to sign up!!

      Delete
  6. Anonymous7:43 AM

    Here is how Jeff plans to waste our tax dollars:

    Jeff Sessions Will Consider A Special Prosecutor...To Investigate Obama-era DOJ


    In the face of calls to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the ties between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russian officials, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that he would consider having a special prosecutor, but not to investigate Trump's Russian connections.

    He told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that he may name a special prosecutor to look into supposed Justice Department scandals during Obama's presidency.

    Hewitt: Now let me switch to the Department itself, Mr. Attorney General. It had a bad eight years. I’m a proud veteran of the Department of Justice, as you are. But the IRS case, the Fast and Furious case, Secretary Clinton’s server, the Department of Justice came under great criticism. How about an outside counsel, not connected to politics, to review the DOJ’s actions in those matters with authority to bring charges if underlying crimes are uncovered in the course of the investigation, and just generally to look at how the Department of Justice operated in the highly-politicized Holder-Lynch years?

    Sessions: Well, I’m going to do everything I possibly can to restore the independence and professionalism of the Department of Justice. So we would have to consider whether or not some outside special counsel is needed. Generally, a good review of that internally is the first step before any such decision is made.

    Hewitt: Will you be looking at the IRS investigation specifically, because that left many of us thinking that the Department of Justice had laid down for a terrible abuse of political power?

    Sessions: It does. That circumstance raised a lot of questions in my mind, and when I was in the Senate. So it is a matter of real concern to me.

    Claims that the Obama administration used the IRS to go after conservative groups, which Sessions described as "a matter of real concern," of course, have been widely debunked.

    Maybe Sessions should consider listening to the majority of Americans who think the Justice Department should have a special prosecutor look into the connections between the Russian government and the Trump campaign rather than launch yet another investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails or whether Obama persecuted the Tea Party.

    http://crooksandliars.com/2017/03/jeff-sessions-will-consider-special

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Leland9:27 AM

      "Maybe Sessions should consider listening to the majority of Americans who think the Justice Department should have a special prosecutor look into the connections between the Russian government and the Trump campaign rather than launch yet another investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails or whether Obama persecuted the Tea Party."

      Ain't gonna happen! They KNOW what could be discovered.

      Delete
  7. Anonymous7:52 AM

    What I find interesting in regard to all that is going on around us/America is that no one is standing up to Trump from the left! Trump and his appear to be moving along, step by step, very methodically and slowly destroying our country.

    Where are the REAL resisters and apposition? I don't see one - just a lot of chit chat.

    The media is feeding Trump's side for all it's worth - to include MSNBC (except for Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell).

    I no longer have pride in my country and many around me (friends and family) feel exactly the same. Time to look at moving somewhere else for those that can afford it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous7:59 AM

    Each day, the dystopian world as described in, "The Handmaid's Tale," is becoming more of a reality than fiction for women. The entire Russian Trump connection I believe will be proven true but at great cost to the country and its constituents. I read that twitter thread this morning and I find it disheartening at the very least yet a challenge to take up in another. There may be civil war over this yet - only time, truth and people with the spine to stand up to what is happening will affect what may yet come. I have hope for the future but only if we throw out the current government officials from the Administration, through Congress, down through the states and their legislatures and start over with a clean, vetted slate. #Resist

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous8:00 AM

    What does it matter when the whole administration is working for the russians anyway?
    ============================================

    Trump’s Mar-a-Lago is heaven — for spies

    The president’s semi-public Florida retreat doesn’t follow the same strict background check protocol as the White House, creating an espionage risk.

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-mar-lago-security-risk-espionage-235950

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous8:06 AM

    We Compared Obama’s Words To Trump’s And The Result Will Make You Sad

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/barack-obama-donald-trump-quotes_us_579a155fe4b02d5d5ed489ce?jc91c1mj1jxajor=&

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    1. Anonymous9:43 AM

      "“When I look at myself in the first grade and I look at myself now, I’m basically the same,” said Trump"

      "“At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfill their dreams,”<O

      “I’m reading the Ed Klein book on Hillary Clinton,” he said. “And I’m reading the book on Richard Nixon that was, well, I’ll get you the exact information on it. I’m reading a book that I’ve read before, it’s one of my favorite books, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ which is one of the greatest books of all time.”“I mean, Obama thinks it’s the number one problem of the world today. And I think it’s very low on the list. So I am not a believer ... unless somebody can prove something to me, I believe there’s weather. I believe there’s change, and I believe it goes up and it goes down, and it goes up again. And it changes depending on years and centuries, but I am not a believer, and we have much bigger problems.”

      Delete
  11. Anonymous8:16 AM

    Well as you said, this is actually business as usual, with every new administration.

    Try again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leland9:43 AM

      But he also said no one had replaced ALL at the same time. If he EVER gets control of the courts, we are DEAD.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:49 AM

      He's alredy in control. The district in Seattle was stopped in their actions against Trump's latest ban....the first time they were able to make it work, not this time though. Ruling came down from a Trump appointee!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous4:43 PM

      Leland, you are ridiculous.

      Delete
  12. Anonymous8:28 AM


    Former Bush Ethics Official Says Russian Spies Are “Running Around The West Wing”

    "It’s the KGB agents running around the West Wing or the national security council."

    As Donald Trump repeatedly spews the bogus “deep state” claim that Obama administration holdovers are secretly trying to bring down the new White House, one former ethics lawyer under George W. Bush is saying it’s the new administration that appears to be behind a covert operation to undermine the United States.

    In an interview on CNN on Friday night, Bush ethics lawyer Richard Painter said the current situation in the White House is “complete chaos” and says he is worried that the White House has “KGB agents running around the West Wing.”

    Video:

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/11/bush-ethics-official-russian-spies-running-west-wing.html

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    1. Anonymous10:19 AM

      If and when the current administration exits the White House, the place will have to have to be completely rewired. I don't trust Bannon's crew and I don't trust the KGB - they like to have wires everywhere.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:05 AM

      And, the White House will have to be fumigated upon his exit! Which will hopefully occur prior to the end of his term!

      Delete
  13. Anonymous8:29 AM


    Malcolm Nance Calls Trump Out On AM Joy: He’s A Dangerous “Conspiracy Theory President”

    "We've got a very serious problem here. This man may be in a position where he will start causing true harm to American democracy."

    Counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance pulled no punches on Saturday morning, telling Joy Reid of MSNBC’s AM Joy that Donald Trump is a “conspiracy theory president” who has no business being in control of America’s nuclear arsenal.

    Nance’s comments came after Reid asked him whether any previous president has “actively worked to undermine the trust of government from within” by using alt-right conspiracies to inform his decision-making.

    Video:

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/11/malcolm-nance-calls-trump-joy-dangerous-conspiracy-theory-president.html

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:34 AM

    ...Before Trump made his wiretap allegations against the former president, he blamed Obama for the leaks that have plagued his administration.

    The mass firings come less than a day after Sean Hannity viewer Trump watched the Fox News host call for a purge of everyone who worked against him in government. Fox News and conservative websites are fueling Trump’s paranoid mentality.

    It is not unusual for presidents to replace the US attorneys with their own appointees, but most presidents outside Clinton in 1993, do this gradually. They also don’t gut the attorneys at the Justice Department days after accusing the former administration of wiretapping them.

    The Friday massacre style dismissal reeks of Trump administration paranoia. The Trump administration believes that holdovers from the previous administration are the problem.

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/10/trump-fires-46-remaining-attorneys-fear-obamas.html

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous8:35 AM

    US Attorney Preet Bharara Will Not Submit Resignation, Will Force Trump to Fire Him

    ...Well, it now appears that Bharara is going to force Trump’s hand regarding this move by Sessions.

    According to CNN, sources close to Bharara state that he feels “blindsided by the move” and that he was given “no notice whatsoever.” Therefore, he is going to make Trump fire him and he won’t be handing in his letter of resignation.

    Meanwhile, Trump personally let two US attorneys know that he won’t accept their resignations. One is Rod Rosenstein, who is currently going through a confirmation to be come the new deputy attorney general. The other is Dana Boente, the acting deputy attorney general.

    Watch the report above, via CNN.

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/us-attorney-preet-bharara-will-not-submit-resignation-will-force-trump-to-fire-him/

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous10:17 AM

      The two remaining ones who will be asked to stay on must be true Trumpies.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  16. Anonymous8:36 AM

    Maddow: ‘It is Impossible’ That Mike Pence Didn’t Know About Michael Flynn’s Turkish Dealings

    ...As Maddow noted, there is just no way that this was the first time Pence had been made aware of Flynn’s dealings with Turkey.

    “It is impossible this is the first Mike Pence has heard of it,” Maddow exclaimed. “Mike Pence was the head of the transition, while all of those news stories of Mike Flynn being on the Turkish government’s payroll were breaking.”

    She continued, “He was the head of the transition when Mike Flynn was being vetted for the National Security Adviser job. He was the head of the transition when Congress formally notified the head of the transition that Mike Flynn appears to be on a foreign government’s payroll. He was the head of the transition when Mike Flynn’s personal lawyers came and told the transition that Mike Flynn maybe needed to register as a foreign agent.”

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/maddow-it-is-impossible-that-mike-pence-didnt-know-about-michael-flynns-turkish-dealings/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous8:37 AM

    Don Lemon: Was Asking for Attorney Resignations Trump’s Reaction to Hannity’s Call for ‘Purge’?

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/don-lemon-was-asking-for-attorney-resignations-trumps-reaction-to-hannitys-call-for-purge/

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous8:37 AM

    Matthews: Comey Publicly ‘Unable to Say the Truth’ on Wiretapping Because He Knows He’ll Get Fired

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/matthews-comey-publicly-unable-to-say-the-truth-on-wiretapping-because-he-knows-hell-get-fired/

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous8:39 AM

    Michael Flynn attorney: White House counsel knew about security adviser’s Turkey connections

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/michael-flynn-attorney-white-house-counsel-knew-about-security-advisers-turkey-connections/

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    1. Anonymous10:15 AM

      But Mike and Don deny that they knew anything. Do are president and vice president have serious memory issues or do they simply lie all the time?
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  20. Anonymous8:47 AM

    During an AM Joy panel on Donald Trump’s allegations that he he’s being wiretapped by Barack Obama, host Joy Reid pointed out that the president is kept in a state of constant paranoia by his closest advisers who are feeding him conspiracy theories as facts so they can push their agenda.

    After law professor Rosa Brooks suggested that Trump is either “nuts” or is only dimly aware of what is going on around him, the MSNBC host said there was more to it, adding the “Bannonites” are behind Trump’s wild claims.

    “I think actually that is a very important point to make because you do have a president who is surrounded by sort of an alt-state and that is Bannonites — I don’t know what you call them,” Reid explained. “They want this Christian white nationalistic ethno-state, I guess. And people like Steve Bannon, people like Sebastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller. There is a core of people around Donald Trump who want him to keep believing conspiracy theories, who want him to essentially believe President Obama can wiretap him from Hawaii or wherever he happens to be.”

    Security analyst Malcolm Nance took it a step further, pointing out how dangerous it is having a “conspiracy theory president.”

    “We have a conspiracy theory president and I’m not even sure whether you can put those three words together in a tangible sentence and use the word president,” Nance stated. “He seems to be buying every crazy idea that’s out there. Now, granted, the man can’t seem to tell the truth about anything.”

    “This is dangerous and, as much as is sounds amusing, he controls 4,000 atomic weapons,” Nance continued. “He controls the levers of power in the United States. if he’s going out with Steve King and other in Congress and saying that the president of the — the former president of the united states wiretapped a conversation he had a few weeks ago with the president of Australia, I mean we have got a very serious problem here.”

    Watch the video below via MSNBC:

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/joy-reid-trump-is-surrounded-by-white-nationalists-like-bannon-who-want-him-believing-in-conspiracy-theories/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:14 AM

      Maybe the Bannonites in the White House should all move to, well, Poland or another eastern European country where most of the population is lily white. We'd be rid of a lot of lunatics and maybe the country could start to function again. And, if they were in, say, Poland we wouldn't have to worry about the possibility that they might lead to the start of a nuclear war. I don't think Poland has any nuclear weapons. . . .
      Beagle mom

      Delete
  21. Anonymous9:00 AM

    Donald Trump is now living in fear

    http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/donald-trump-is-now-living-in-fear-895473731944

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    1. Anonymous9:49 AM

      I don't believe it for a second. Everything is going Trump's way! There is not enough action in countering and stopping him. There is no one actively doing it - the Dems are assuredly quiet and it worries the Hell out of me. What is going on?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous3:36 PM

      If he is living in fear it is because he is paranoid.

      Then again, those ruskies do find ways to eliminate those that are no longer useful.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous9:05 AM

    FBI assigns fewer agents to Russian election interference than to Clinton emails

    The FBI reportedly has fewer people investigating Russia's election meddling than it had on the probe of Hillary Clinton's emails, and is conducting the investigation at a leisurely pace.
    (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

    CNN reports troubling new details of the FBI investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, including possible ties between Vladimir Putin’s government and Donald Trump’s election team.

    The network quotes a source who states that there are “five to 10 fewer” agents assigned to the Russian investigation than there were on the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. There were 24 investigators looking at Clinton’s emails, so only 15 to 20 agents are tasked with determining whether a foreign power is actively subverting the U.S. government.

    Despite the implications of that scenario, CNN also reports that the manpower deficit is in part due to the belief that unlike the election inquiry that had a deadline date, and that “there is no such time pressure” with the Russia probe.

    http://shareblue.com/fbi-assigns-fewer-agents-to-russian-election-interference-than-to-clinton-emails/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:11 AM

      Very disturbing but not a bit surprising, is it?
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  23. Business as usual doesn't work for the majority of the American people.

    You will painfully see.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous10:01 AM

    I$$A>
    "“We’ll go on to somebody who doesn’t have a pending lawsuit. Next!”

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/watch-darrell-issa-mocks-woman-at-town-hall-who-claims-she-was-battered-by-one-of-his-staffers/

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous10:09 AM

    ACLU RESIST:
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/10/the-aclu-s-class-on-how-to-resist-president-trump.html

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous12:22 PM

    Janet Reno.

    ReplyDelete

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