Robert Mueller adds a cyber crime prosecutor to the team. Now we're cooking with gas.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has added a veteran cyber prosecutor to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes. 

Ryan K. Dickey was assigned to Mueller’s team in early November from the Justice Department’s computer crime and intellectual-property section, said a spokesman for the special counsel’s office. He joined 16 other lawyers who are highly respected by their peers but who have come under fire from Republicans wary of some of their political contributions to Democrats.

Dickey’s addition is particularly notable because he is the first publicly known member of the team specializing solely in cyber issues. The others’ expertise is mainly in a variety of white-collar crimes, including fraud, money laundering and public corruption, though Mueller also has appellate specialists and one of the government’s foremost experts in criminal law.

You just know this information is sending a cold chill up Trump's back.

Keep in mind that Dickey is not an investigator, but rather a prosecutor.

This likely means that Mueller has already accessed some of Trump's computer records, and campaign emails, and has pieced some troubling things together.

And you know from his recent tweets that Trump is really feeling the pressure.

The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018

Yeah, I don't think the word "collusion" is the best descriptor for what they are looking for.

I think the more accurate terms are "conspiracy" and "obstruction."

As evidence of Trump's increasing concern his GOP buddies have ramped up attempts to undermine the Special Counsel investigation in a number of ways, as HuffPo reports: 

Last Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who once had a famously bumpy relationship with Trump, backed the president’s close friend and ally, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), in a dispute with the FBI and Department of Justice. The DOJ hadn’t wanted to hand over certain investigatory documents to Nunes, who supposedly stepped down from the Russia investigation last April after he was caught being fed intelligence reports on White House grounds by officials who wanted to shield the president. 

The same day, Fox News and other right-wing media hyped an anonymously sourced New York Post story that suggested Mueller’s grand jury contains too many black people. “Right-wing media’s offense-as-defense approach to protecting Trump has been a consistent drumbeat, but at a few intervals it can flare up,” noted Laura Keiter, the communications director at Media Matters for America, a progressive group that tracks conservative disinformation in the media. “We’re seeing it intensify right now — in part because of the feedback loop between right-wing media and congressional Republicans that are acting on right-wing media narratives; and, in part due to the increased pressure on Trump.” 

Also on Wednesday, Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman whom Mueller has charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., money laundering and a variety of other federal crimes, launched a stunty (and likely doomed) lawsuit against the special counsel, alleging that his investigation is overbroad and improperly authorized. 

On Friday, two Senate Republicans — Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) — sent a letter to the Justice Department and FBI asking for an investigation into Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the notorious dossier on then-candidate Trump. Graham once called Trump a “kook” who was “unfit for office” and “the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican Party.” He may have had a change of heart. 

Republicans in the House are diving into text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page to investigate whether the pair interacted with reporters. Strzok served on Mueller’s team and was removed over the summer after the special counsel learned that Strzok and Page exchanged text messages that were critical of a number of politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Trump. There’s nothing explicitly wrong with officials privately discussing their views on politicians, and text messages the two exchanged may have been part of an effort to cover up a romantic affair they were having. (Regardless, Mueller removed Strzok from his team long before issuing his first indictment in the matter.) 

Although he’d laid off attacking presidential rival Hillary Clinton for a short period after the election, Trump has ramped up attacks on the woman he had branded “Crooked Hillary” as his own legal issues have built up. He’s repeatedly called for the Justice Department to investigate her — even since becoming president. And recently the FBI seems to have listened. Despite an expiring statute of limitations, the FBI field office in Little Rock, Arkansas, has reopened an investigation into pay-for-play allegations surrounding the Clinton Foundation. The investigation into the charity had previously been shut down by career prosecutors due to a lack of evidence. But one witness — evidently sympathetic to a Clinton Foundation inquiry — told The Hill it was “extremely professional and unquestionably thorough.” And the Daily Beast reported last week that the FBI, ”acutely aware” of Trump’s demands, is also taking another look at Clinton’s handling of email during her tenure as secretary of state. 

I think we all knew this was going to get ugly, and now ugly it has become.

Robert Mueller's Russian investigation is now focusing on Trump Jr..

Don't let them take me Dad, don't let them take me!

Courtesy of Buzzfeed:  

Federal prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller are focusing keenly on the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and are trying to determine his intent when he attended a controversial June 9, 2016, meeting with a Russian lawyer, according to a source familiar with the investigation. 

Trump Jr. has acknowledged that he was looking for negative information about Hillary Clinton when he, as well as Jared Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, met with the lawyer. But he claimed he did not receive any useful opposition research. 

The source familiar with the investigation said that prosecutors have been trying to determine exactly what information was provided and are scrutinizing Trump Jr.’s statements about the meeting. 

Requesting or accepting anything of value for a presidential campaign from a foreign national violates federal election law, legal experts told BuzzFeed News.

Of course none of this will lead to actual imprisonment because Trump will DEFINITELY have his pardon pen out and at the ready for his son.

Now if this were Eric he might just let them take him, but this is Donnie Junior!

However I wonder how long these prosecutors could have to sweat Junior before he cracked like a two bit prison snitch?

Let's face it these Trump boys are soft from a life of extravagance and excess.

Just one night in a county jail and Junior would be giving up family secrets like an automatic Pez dispenser.

Unlike the man he is investigating Special Counsel Robert Mueller lets his actions do the talking.

Courtesy of NPR: 

Robert Mueller has made no public comment since he was named to lead the Department of Justice investigation into Russian interference in last year's election. 

Instead, he has let his actions do the talking. The former FBI director and decorated U.S. Marine has submitted a budget and quietly hired an all-star team that includes 15 Justice Department prosecutors. And, a spokesman for Mueller said, he's not done bringing on new lawyers. 

That has gotten the attention of supporters of President Trump, who recently made an attack ad calling the investigation a "rigged game" and blasting the special counsel for hiring at least four lawyers who have donated to Democrats.

But don't expect Mueller to mount a defense. He does his talking in the courtroom, not on social media. 

Mueller has not described the scope of what his team will examine. 

But members of Congress and other lawyers involved in the probe described the main lines of inquiry as: Russian meddling in the presidential election; whether anyone inside the United States conspired to help; and whether any wrongdoing has been committed in the surprise firing of FBI Director James Comey, who said he believed he was let go to relieve pressure on the Russia probe.

Many of the legal experts that Mueller has hired are the top in their field.

Courtesy of WaPo:  

Mueller has hired 16 lawyers to work with him. Together, the team is a formidable collection of legal talent with experience prosecuting national security, fraud and public corruption cases, arguing matters before the Supreme Court and assessing complicated legal questions.

In other words if Donald Trump has not started sweating bullets yet, he soon will be.

My prediction is that Trump will try to find someway to fire Mueller, but that it will ultimately back fire on him.  

Donald Trump cannot find any good lawyers to represent him in the Russia investigations.

Courtesy of Yahoo News:

Top lawyers with at least four major law firms rebuffed White House overtures to represent President Trump in the Russia investigations, in part over concerns that the president would be unwilling to listen to their advice, according to five sources familiar with discussions about the matter. 

The unwillingness of some of the country’s most prestigious attorneys and their law firms to represent Trump has complicated the administration’s efforts to mount a coherent defense strategy to deal with probes being conducted by four congressional committees as well as Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. 

The president’s chief lawyer now in charge of the case is Marc E. Kasowitz, a tough New York civil litigator who for years has aggressively represented Trump in multiple business and public relations disputes — often with threats of countersuits and menacing public statements — but who has little experience dealing with complex congressional and Justice Department investigations that are inevitably influenced by media coverage and public opinion. 

Before Kasowitz was retained, however, some of the biggest law firms and their best-known attorneys turned down overtures when they were sounded out by White House officials to see if they would be willing to represent the president, the sources said. 

Among them, sources said, were some of the most high-profile names in the legal profession, including Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly; Ted Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; Paul Clement and Mark Filip of Kirkland & Ellis; and Robert Giuffra of Sullivan & Cromwell.

I find it not at all surprising that law firms want to stay well clear of Donald Trump and his sinking ship of a presidency.

And yeah he is certainly not going to listen to his attorneys, because clearly he doesn't listen to ANYBODY.

Can you imagine being Trump's lawyer and finally getting him to agree not to testify only to wake up the next day and find that he had spilled his guts on Twitter, leaving your defense shattered and completely ineffective?

Hell you don't have to imagine it because that has been his presidency almost every single day since the inauguration.

However Trump certainly better find somebody more inexperienced than the guy who sues tabloids on his behalf because Special Counsel Robert Mueller has assembled a crack team of investigators and prosecutors:

He already has picked three former colleagues from his last job as a partner at the Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr law firm: Aaron Zebley, who also was Mueller’s FBI chief of staff; Jeannie Rhee, a former DOJ attorney; and Quarles, who got his start in Washington some four decades ago as an assistant Watergate prosecutor. 

But Mueller’s biggest hire to date was Weissmann, who is taking a leave from his current post leading the Justice Department’s criminal fraud section. The two men have a long history together at the FBI, where Weissmann served as both the bureau’s general counsel from 2011 to 2013 and as Mueller’s special counsel in 2005. 

Weissmann’s prosecution record includes overseeing the investigations into more than 30 people while running the Enron Task Force, including CEOs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling. And while working in the U.S. attorney’s office in the eastern district of New York, he tried more than 25 cases involving members of the Genovese, Colombo and Gambino crime families. 

Watergate, fraud, Enron, the Gambino family?

Oh damn, this guy is certainly not fooling around!

And another piece falls into place.

.@StevenTDennis-Kislyak says they are pushing trump to release Russian mobsters @PreetBharara convicted #trumprussiahttps://t.co/aBJ7Ej9CYz

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) March 12, 2017

Yep, just a giant coincidence that Preet Bharara was one of the federal prosecutors to suddenly lose his job the other day.

Bharara aslo hinted on Twitter that a possible reason he was fired was because he was investigating Trump himself.

By the way, now I know what the Moreland Commission must have felt like.

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) March 12, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

The Moreland Commission was established in July of 2013 by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and charged with rooting out corruption in the state government. However, the group was disbanded by the governor within a year because, Reuters said, it was coming too close to exposing Cuomo’s own shady dealings. 

“Wow,” tweeted David Corn of Mother Jones. “Moreland Commission was created by Cuomo to probe NYS corruption & then disbanded by him. Is Bharara implying he was probing Trump?”

It seems to me that there were a number of reasons that Trump and his Russian puppet masters would have wanted Bharara removed from office.

And what better way to hide the fact that he was the target but to fire ALL of the federal prosecutors appointed by President Obama at the same time?

One of the federal prosecutors that Trump tried to get rid of refused to go gentle into that good night. So he got fired.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Preet Bharara, the crusading U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was asked to submit his resignation letter Friday, along with the 45 other U.S. Attorneys held over from the Obama administration, has yet to do so, a federal law enforcement official tells The Daily Beast.

Since receiving the letter demanding his resignation Friday afternoon, Bharara has yet to speak to the press or to his full office. Friday evening, the law enforcement official said, Bharara told his section chiefs that he’d yet to submit the requested letter and may instead challenge Sessions to fire him.

Hey we may have another Sally Yates on our hands.

As it turned out Bharara did indeed refuse to hand in his resignation, so Trump did what Trump does best.

I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired. Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) March 11, 2017

To be clear Trump just had his Attorney General fire a federal prsoecutor who was in the middle of investigating his potentially illegal ties to Russia.

And if that was not scandalous enough, guess who else Bharara is in the middle of investigating?

Courtesy of the New York Daily News:   

The feds are conducting an “ongoing criminal investigation” of Fox News Channel and whether Rupert Murdoch’s company hid from investors the payments it made to employees who alleged they were sexually harassed, an attorney alleged in court Wednesday. 

Attorney Judd Burstein — who is representing former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros in a suit against the cable news network and its ex-chairman Roger Ailes — said one of his other clients had received a subpoena on Monday to testify before a federal grand jury. 

“I was told by the U.S. attorney’s office there is an ongoing criminal investigation, relating to these allegations, all of these allegations,” Burstein said, referring to the avalanche of sexual harassment claims that resulted in Ailes’ departure from the network he built.

Wait for it......

The subpoena, issued by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office, noted “alleged violations of criminal law by Fox,” Burstein said. 

BANG!

That's right folks the same federal prosecutor that was likely investigating Trump's ties with Russia was also investigating criminal charges against Fox News.

And now he has been shitcanned. 

Not in a million years would all of this be a believable piece of fiction writing, and yet it is happening right now in real life.

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.

Seattle refuses to prosecute cop who punched handcuffed woman in the face breaking her eye socket. Federal prosecutors to review the incident.

Courtesy of the Seattle Times:  

Federal prosecutors say they will review an incident in which a Seattle police officer punched and seriously injured a handcuffed, intoxicated woman, after King County prosecutors said Friday they won’t charge the officer. 

Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for acting U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes, said her office will look at the June 22 incident involving Officer Adley Shepherd for a possible federal criminal civil-rights violation. 

The decision comes after King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced that his office would not seek a state felony charge against Shepherd, 38, a nine-year department veteran, for punching Miyekko Durden-Bosley in the back of his police cruiser.

This case is a little different than what we have all seen lately on the news.

For one the woman lived, and two the cop that injured her is black not white. 

However even though race may not the issue this time around the unnecessary use of force most certainly is an issue.

Just take a look at the video of the arrest. (Punch is at the 2:50 mark.)

It is clear from the tape that the woman, was intoxicated and being quite disruptive.

However it is also clear that the police officer struck her in anger and NOT because he was trying to subdue her or in fear of personal injury. She had her hands locked behind her back for fuck's sake.

And once again there is video to prove that something terribly wrong happened, and STILL the Seattle prosecutor did not do his job.

That has to make ALL of us wonder just how many miscarriages of justice are happening every day where there is no video and nobody ever even knows they happen?

Yes cops need to be outfitted with cameras. That is step one.

But then when prosecutors see on those tapes that the police did something like this, they need to respond appropriately.  THAT is step two.

The Feds would like to send conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza to the big house for up to 16 months. Sounds a little light to me.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

The U.S. government wants conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza to be sentenced to as much as 16 months in prison, following his guilty plea to a campaign finance law violation. 

In a Wednesday court filing, federal prosecutors rejected defense arguments that D’Souza was “ashamed and contrite” about his crime, had “unequivocally accepted responsibility,” and deserved a sentence of probation with community service. 

D’Souza, 53, admitted in May to illegally reimbursing two “straw donors” who donated $10,000 each to the unsuccessful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign in New York of Wendy Long, a Republican he had known since attending Dartmouth College in the early 1980s. 

The government said a 10- to 16-month prison sentence was appropriate for D’Souza, and necessary to deter others from abusing the election process, including “well-heeled individuals who are tempted to use their money to help other candidates.” 

It also said D’Souza waited to “the last possible moment” prior to trial before admitting guilt, and then went on TV shows and the Internet to complain about being “selectively” targeted for prosecution, and having little choice but to plead guilty. 

“Based on the defendant’s own post-plea statements, the court should reject the defendant’s claims of contrition on the eve of sentencing,” prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan said in the filing.

Wait, you mean going on Fox News and claiming you are being persecuted by the Federal government is NOT a good idea while also telling a judge that you were wrong and will accept full responsiblity?

Who knew?

Boy that Sarah Palin curse is a doozy, isn't it?

.@SarahPalinUSA WELL, I'VE GOT THE LOOKS AND SHE'S GOT THE BRAINS: 2,000 people coming to hear us in Phoenix today pic.twitter.com/8VhJ3C7d7W
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 4, 2014

Indicted former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, had the opportunity to protect his wife from prosecution, but threw her under the bus instead.

As you all know former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnnell, has been indicted on charges of accepting over $140,000 in loans and gifts.

What you may NOT have heard is that he was given the opportunity of pleading guilty to one charge, that had nothing to do with corruption, to protect his wife.

He did not take it, this courtesy of CNN:  

McDonnell rejected a plea deal that would have spared his wife criminal charges, according to a source familiar with criminal case. 

The source characterized McDonnell's decision as "throwing his wife under the bus." 

The McDonnell team asserted that they did not believe the Justice Department could get a conviction against McDonnell at trial based on the evidence they had, the source added.

You know I have been writing about the GOP's War on Women, but until now I did not realize that it included their own wives as well. 

I mean come on!

The Justice Department is not going to indict somebody in Bob McDonnell's position unless they feel they have a pretty damn strong case. Which means that thanks to the ex-Governor's arrogance there is a very good chance that this decision will see both he and his wife serving concurrent prison terms.

You know I recognize that I am nothing more than a simple heathen, but unless I really hated my wife I would do just about anything to protect her, the mother of my children, from prison.

Yet this devout Roman Catholic has no problem betting his wife's fate on the incompetence of the Federal Prosecutor and on the sympathy of the jury.

The twist to this story is that his wife DID attempt to protect her husband, and face the charges on her own without including him.  But remember, HE was the Governor, and ultimately HE is the one responsible.

Did he attempt to protect HER when given the chance? No he did not.

Damn this guy is cold!

DC's oldest charter school charged with falsifying data concerning disabled students in order to funnel millions into the pockets of operators.

Courtesy of Nonprofit Quarterly:

The burgeoning scandal involving the Options Public Charter School is an all-in-one composite of everything that might go wrong with private, for-profit “educators” trying to make more than a buck from public education under the guise of charter school management. To wit: 

Federal investigators charged that managers of Options diverted millions of dollars to for-profit companies they ran through a Medicaid fraud scheme. The federal investigation is still underway regarding how Options may have exaggerated the number of students with disabilities it enrolled and the services the school provided them in anticipation of federal Medicaid reimbursement. 

Jeremy Williams, a senior official working for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, the entity that oversees charters—and who was responsible for “rooting out financial wrongdoing,” according to the Post—allegedly took $150,000 from the managers of Option Public Charter School to help them “evade oversight and take millions of taxpayer dollars for themselves.” He allegedly funneled inside information to the Options managers, alerting them to “surprise” inspections and other oversight issues. In August, Williams left the board, joining a Virginia-based company he owns, which allegedly received over $100,000 in fees from one of the for-profit companies owned and run by the Options managers. 

A local television news personality, J.C. Hayward of CBS-affiliate WUSA (Channel 9), had an ownership interest in one of the companies contracted to manage Options and was paid $8,500 to attend company board meetings. Hayward was also board chairwoman of Options and signed contracts that provided hundreds of thousands of dollars to Exceptional Education Services (EES), one of the two for-profit companies controlled by the Options managers, in which she was recognized as a part owner, having received 10 percent of the company’s shares. WUSA put Hayward on leave after the allegations about Options arose. 

EES was originally a for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Options, which meant that all EES profits were supposed to go to the school, but in 2012 the Options managers and Hayward transferred EES ownership from Options to themselves personally. 

After the Options managers took full personal ownership of EES, they hired a subcontractor for busing Options students but charged Options a 77 percent markup for the service (a $45,000 markup on top of the subcontractor’s cost of $31,000 a month), plus a $100,000 “ridership bonus.” 

The Options Form 990 for July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012, indicated that the salary of Options “CEO” Dr. Donna Montgomery was $254,679, a decent salary for a charter school principal. According to the Post, Montgomery allegedly received compensation of $660,000 from Options and EES, plus another $212,000 from the other company the Options executives ran, EEMC. 


And if you think all of THAT was bad, get a load of this comment from the company's lawyer.
 
The lawyer representing the for-profit management company offered the “it’s well known common practice” defense. “These related-party transactions between for-profit management companies and the nonprofit public charter schools are not only appropriate and lawful, but the same arrangements exist with several other public charter schools,” said A. Scott Bolden, though he didn’t identify those other nonprofit charter schools pursuing the Options model.

In other words, EVERYBODY is doing it.

It is no secret that I dislike the concept of charter schools, unless they are located in regions with a serious public school deficit.

They drain tax dollars from public schools, cherry pick the high performing students to inflate their test scores and by comparison make the public schools appear to be performing poorly, and cut corners at every opportunity in order to increase their profit margin.

In other words they are everything that a school is NOT supposed to be.

Any time you put making a profit over providing education, this is going to be the result.

Republicans constantly trumpet the "fact" that private enterprises do a better job of providing services than to government or public entities, but that it really just wishful thinking on their part, and there is little data to back up such a contention.

However on the flip side, we have numerous cases just like this one.

(Original story in the Washington Post.)

Whoa Nelly! Alaska domestic terrorist Schaeffer Cox turns the crazy up to 11.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

Acting as his own legal representative, convicted militia leader Schaeffer Cox filed an appeal with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month, claiming that he is the victim of government misconduct. 

In a document he sent from federal prison in Illinois to the San Francisco-based court, Cox claims that federal officials lied, withheld key information, failed to supervise informants, tampered with evidence and witnesses and set up a sting to entrap him. 

Cox said he was the innocent victim of the same prosecution team that mishandled the case against the late Sen. Ted Stevens and others, but his court-appointed attorney won’t raise the issues he wants to pursue. 

“Suppression, concealment, false statements and use of known perjured testimony are the hallmarks of this prosecution team and of this present case,” Cox wrote. 

Cox wants to have his case returned to U.S. District Court in Alaska and asked that a new attorney, Robert John of Fairbanks, be appointed to represent him.

Can you believe this schmuck is trying to link his case to the Ted Stevens case in order to suggest it was mishandled? I am no fan of Uncle Ted, but he deserves better than to have his name associated with this crybaby.

As many of you remember Cox has a history of conflicts with his attorneys, and always seems to believe they are working against him. Almost like he is a paranoid schizophrenic or something.

And it may just be that his attorney has similar concerns.  

After Cox filed his appeal, dated Dec. 4 and received by the appeals court Dec. 11, it appears that his attorney in Seattle filed a separate document with the court, seeking a competency hearing. That motion was filed with the court “under seal,” meaning it is not available for public review.

His own attorney asked for a competency hearing?

Just how far off the deep end has Cox gone?

Cox claims that he became a target of the so-called “Polar Pen” investigation set up by the Justice Department to sniff out corruption among Alaska politicians. 

According to Cox, the two key federal attorneys prosecuting his case took their names off of future legal filings about his case three months after he was arraigned, “once it became apparent that the misconduct would be made public,” he wrote. 

He said his attorney, Suzanne Elliott, is not familiar with the federal investigation of political corruption in Alaska and won’t take on the feds. 

Writing about himself as the “Movant,” he said that his attorney is “adamantly disinclined to raise appellant’s issues in regard to the denial of admissibility of evidence Movant needed to assert entrapment, prosecutorial misconduct” and other violations, he charged.

Well hello psychotic break. 

Now this "Polar Pen" investigation that Schaffer is speaking of is the nickname given to the investigation into the Alaska political corruption probe that focused on the oil industry, fisheries, and prisons for profit programs up here.

Essentially it was the program that brought down the Corrupt Bastards Club.

So Cox seems to be claiming that HE was a target of this investigation due to his closeness to certain political types, who were also the target of the investigation.

In a note to his appeal, Cox said he admits “to letting his ego run away with him and becoming full of himself. Rubbing shoulders with state senators, representatives and other political leaders coupled with having hundreds of followers come to his rallies was heady territory for a 24-year-old home-schooled political newcomer. And it was not well handled.”

Now of course I think that Schaeffer Cox is completely out of his damn mind.

However it is worth noting that he DID rub shoulders with Rep. Don Young, Joe Miller, and, of course, Sarah Palin.

So the question remains, even if Cox is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, is there information on these individuals still rattling around in that pointy head of his that would be of use to in future investigations?

Might be, but if there is then it would seem likely that the Feds already know most of it.

And the rest? Well the rest is so marinated in paranoia who would believe it?

If possible I like to end the day on an upbeat note. Nothing is more gratifying to me this day then the possibility that FINALLY Don Young will face justice.

Courtesy of Politico:  

The House Ethics Committee will launch full-scale investigations into two veteran lawmakers, Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) in its first major probes of the 113th Congress. 

Reps. Michael Conaway (R-Texas) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member of the Ethics Committee, announced on Tuesday that investigative subcommittees will be created to handle the Andrews and Young probes. 

Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) and Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) will oversee the Young investigation, while Reps. Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Pedro Pierlusi (D-P.R.) will handle the Andrews probe. 

There is more at the link about Congressman Andrews but I am far more interested in the probe into unethical behavior by Don Young. It is not a partisan thing, rather it is an Alaskan thing.

Young was a target of federal investigators in an Alaska corruption case but has never faced any criminal charges. 

However, the Ethics Committee has been reviewing since 2011 whether Young violated contribution limits for the legal defense fund associated with that criminal probe. 

Conaway and Sanchez acknowledged in their statement announcing the Young investigation that the Ethics Committee “received a referral from the Justice Department regarding Representative Young’s expenses and travel costs for certain trips which were the subject of the Committee’s ongoing review. The Committee has received the referral without prejudice or presumption of as the merit of the allegations.” 

I have a list of Alaska politicians that I want to see indicted and sent to federal prison. It, of course, contains Sarah Palin, Ted's son Ben Stevens, and Don "Coconut Road" Young. 

Honestly I don't expect Palin to EVER face federal charges (Rumor has it she made a deal to avoid them) and I don't think the Feds even care about Stevens anymore.

It is also apparent that Young somehow managed to squirm out of the grasp of the FBI, which is why the Justice Department sent this to the Ethics Committee, so I guess I will just  have to be satisfied with the possibility of watching Congressman Young getting nailed on ethics charges which hopefully will lead to him finally losing his position as Alaska's sole Congressman.

And I know that by saying that I speak for a whole lot of my fellow Alaskans.

Alaska domestic terrorist Schaeffer Cox, and his merry crew of potential murderers, just lost all hope of ever seeing the outside of a prison again.

Francis "Schaeffer" Cox when he still thought he had a chance of beating the rap.

Courtesy of the Fairbanks Newsminer:

Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox and two others are again facing murder conspiracy charges, this time from federal prosecutors who say the three had a plan as far back as 2009 to kill federal officials, including TSA employees, border patrol agents and U.S. Marshals. 

A federal grand jury in Anchorage on Friday returned a new indictment against Cox, Coleman Barney of the North Pole area and Lonnie Vernon of Salcha, all members of Cox’s Peacemaker’s Militia. It’s the third federal indictment to be handed up against the three, who have been in jail on weapons charges since March. 

The charges are punishable by a maximum sentence of life in prison. They are scheduled to go to trial two weeks from today. 

The indictments being handed down by the Feds are absolutely rock solid, and they leave little doubt that Schaeffer, Barney, and Vernon were quite serious and dedicated to the idea of killing law enforcement officials, simply because they believed that they were sovereign citizens, and that placed them outside of the laws which govern Alaska and the United States of America.

Could you imagine being an attorney whose client was facing indictments such as this?

Between on or about August 2009, and continuing up to on or about March 10, 2011, in the District of Alaska, the defendants, FRANCIS SCHAEFFER COX, COLEMAN L. BARNEY, and LONNIE G. VERNON did knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully conspire and agree together and with other persons known and unknown to the grand jury to kill, with premeditation and malice aforethought, officers and employees of the United States, including law enforcement officers, while such officers are engaged in and on account of the performance of official duties, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1111 and 1114.

Their lawyers have already demonstrated their desperation by claiming that Cox was essentially kidnapped by one of the FBI informers. A charge so ridiculous on the face of it that it seems like something dreamed up on a half hour comedy sitcom, NOT an argument made by a lawyer whose client is facing life in prison.

They are being charged with sixteen counts altogether, and if convicted (And the Federal case is virtually airtight with several witnesses and reams of video and audio tape at their disposal), there is a good chance that nobody will ever have to worry about these three idiots ever again.

Personally I hope that these guys try to cop a plea.  There are much bigger fish that I would very much like to see tied to this "gang that couldn't shoot straight." So far they have kept mum, but I don't think that Francis or Coleman can stand the thought of what awaits them in prison, so there is still some hope.

(You can read the actual indictments by clicking here.)

Does the existence of the "vacuum on the Right" indicate that Sarah Palin still has a chance? No!

There is a new article this morning from Bernie Quigley of The Hill, in which he quotes the Washington Post's Dan Balz as follows:

A vacuum on the right has become one of the distinguishing features of the campaign for the GOP nomination. One by one, candidates have come calling for support. One by one, they have stumbled or have been found wanting by rank-and-file Republicans.

And then Quigley adds:

Newt Gingrich rises, in opposition to MSM. He appears the best option now to face Romney. But is his appeal broad enough, and can the professor appeal to plain folk? That is the question and that is the question that Sarah Palin should be asking this morning. Possibly she created "the vacuum on the right" when she got off the bus and took it back to Alaska. As per last night it is safe to say there is still time to get in simply because nothing else is working. And the failure of the other contenders works positively in her favor. 

It is a sentiment shared, of course, by the now rudderless Sea O'Pee, who are still desperately trying to figure out some way to raise enough money to buy billboards in order to convince Palin to jump back into the race. (They do realize we do not allow billboards in Alaska right?)

The Sea O'Pee folks can be excused somewhat, because they are certifiably nuts, but what is up with these so called "journalists" actually suggesting that Sarah Palin still has a shot at the nomination, and then, hang on I am trying not to choke on these words, the White House?

Let me clear up a few things for all of you out there who are either rubbing your hands together in glee at the thought, or jumping out of your skin at the very notion, of Sarah Palin reentering the race.

She ain't going to do it!