Do you know what former Obama lawyers are doing to protect us & how to help? Required reading.

This is a group of former administration lawyers and constitutional litigators who are taking critical action, but it requires an engaged and informed public. Please sign up for their email list!

Here is what they are and what they are doing:

What is United to Protect Democracy?
United to Protect Democracy is a nonpartisan nonprofit with an urgent goal: to hold the President and the Executive Branch accountable to the laws and longstanding practices that have protected our democracy through both Democratic and Republican Administrations. We have seen an unprecedented tide of authoritarian-style politics sweep the country that is fundamentally at odds with the Bill of Rights, the constitutional limitations on the role of the President, and the laws and unwritten norms that prevent overreach and abuse of power. The only limits to prevent a slide away from our democratic traditions will be those that are imposed by the Courts, Congress, and the American people.

Who Are We?
United to Protect Democracy was conceived by a group of former White House and Administration lawyers and experienced constitutional litigators, all with a deep understanding of how the federal government works. As we were the ones tasked with implementing and enforcing the norms that have constrained presidential power for decades, we know what those guardrails are and when those in power may be tempted to violate them. As we defended past presidents against legitimate oversight and illegitimate attacks, we also know how to leverage tools outside government to prevent the exploitation of power within it. One thing that we know about those tools, however, is they require an engaged public—they require all of us to unite to make them effective.

What Will United to Protect Democracy Do?
We will monitor, investigate, report on, organize and litigate against any action taken by the Executive Branch that could erode the rules, practices and freedoms that underpin our ability as a self-governing people to hold our leaders accountable. In short, we will unite with Americans from all backgrounds to use every tool at our disposal to protect our democracy.
https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/about/


This is an email they just sent March 8:
In recent days, there have been numerous reports of White House conversations with the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) that raise serious questions about whether the White House is interfering with the traditional independence of those agencies. Any interference in the independent exercise of law enforcement is a profound threat to our democracy.

You signed up for this list to find out about threats to our democracy and what we can do about them. So we’ve prepared a full briefing — just as we would have done for White House staff — on what rules have historically governed White House communications with law enforcement agencies. The full memo is at the bottom of this email; it makes a few key points:

• For forty years, across Republican and Democratic Administrations, White Houses have abided by written policies to prevent the act or appearance of the White House inappropriately interfering in law enforcement functions.
• Reported contacts by the current White House Chief of Staff, the White House Counsel, and other political staff at the White House appear to violate these long-standing policies.
• In order to demonstrate commitment to protecting the traditions of American democracy and upholding the rule of law, the Trump White House must publicly issue a policy on agency contacts that makes clear it will abide by decades of policy and democratic norms.

Since an informed public is an autocrat’s worst enemy, the first thing we need to do is educate more Americans about these rules.

If you know people who would appreciate the briefing below and more like it please forward this email to them and ask them to sign up to unite with us here:

https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/

If enough of us share it, we’ll demonstrate that Americans care about these rules, we’ll build pressure on the White House to abide by them, and we’ll give reporters (who we’re also sharing this with) even more cause to ask the White House to disclose its policy to address our concerns.

But that's not all. We are also filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out just what contacts governed by this policy have taken place, and will continue to do so to ensure these longstanding norms are followed.

The outpouring of support we’ve seen for Protect Democracy’s mission has been inspiring — demonstrating that countless Americans are concerned about threats to our democracy and are prepared to stand up and protect it. Let’s share the memo and grow that movement.

In hope,
The United to Protect Democracy Team

NOTE: The briefing they are referring to is too long to copy here. They will send it if you sign up for their email list. If anyone knows a way to attach a PDF, I could make it into one. I don't know how to do that on DU. But this is some very important stuff.

Edit: Just realized I overlooked a link to the entire brief in the (very long) email:
White House Communications with the DOJ and FBI
https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org/agencycontacts/?ct=t%28Agency_Contacts_Email_GROUP+B%29

Edited to add this article for more info:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/obama-trump-lawyers-worst-case-235280

Obama lawyers form 'worst-case scenario' group to tackle Trump

Fearful the new administration will abuse its power, the former president’s lawyers are uniting to fight back.

By Edward-Isaac Dovere
02/23/17 0

Rachel Maddow Perfectly Explains Why The People Will Have To Bring Down Trump Themselves

With all of the Congressional investigations being controlled by Republicans affiliated with the Trump campaign, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow showed why it would be up to the people and the press to find the answers on the Russia scandal that could bring down Trump.

Maddow said,

Does this mean that we are finally going get access to what he knows? That we are finally going to get hear what backs this up? Is the Senate Intelligence Committee going to call him and have him testify like NBC reported late last week? Well, we called the Senate Intelligence Committee tonight, and they told us no, probably not. The press secretary to the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee told us, ‘It is not at all likely. At least, not at this moment.’ Christopher Steele is back. He’s alive. He’s out there. You guys investigating this wanna talk to him?

So far, it is us as American citizens. It is us in the press who are connecting the dots on this story, who are figuring this out. Do we have any reason to believe that any government official investigation into this scandal is doing the same? Honestly, it is a DOJ controlled by a Trump campaign official, or it’s two intelligence committees each controlled by a Trump, campaign official. Support your free press. It is really starting to feel like we’re going to have to do this ourselves."

The statements from the Republicans leading the intelligence committees that they will look at Trump’s allegation that Obama wiretapped him strongly suggest that the Congress can’t be trusted to do an independent investigation. With Jeff Sessions looming over the DOJ, it is unlikely that the FBI will be able to conduct an independent investigation.

If you want to understand why Democrats are demanding a special prosecutor, look no further than who is overseeing the investigations.

There is a giant scandal hanging over this White House. It is the kind of scandal that ruins a president and his party.

Republicans have a vested interest in protecting Trump.

They might be able to bury this scandal in Congress, but they can’t stop the free press and the American people from uncovering and spreading the truth.

Includes videos.

http://www.politicususa.com/2017/03/08/rachel-maddow-perfectly-explains-people-bring-trump.html

President Donald Trump is the most powerful cornered animal in the world (Guardian)

For all his inconstancy of character, Donald Trump is a master manipulator. He rose to political prominence by slandering Barack Obama. He rode the birther myth as far as it would go – before brazenly jettisoning it with the insistence that it was all the handiwork of Hillary Clinton.

Now once again, he seeks to buoy his political fortunes by attacking Obama. Perhaps what is so striking about the tweets is not their desperation, but their cynicism. In exclaiming “This is McCarthyism!”, Trump said something deeply revealing – only about himself. McCarthyism was never in the first instance about wiretapping. It was about defaming public officials with charges of treason without a shred of evidence. Sounds familiar, no?

Equally revealing was Trump’s tweet: “I’d bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” As Trump well knows, a good lawyer can make a case out of anything.

In the 1970s, after the justice department accused the Trump Corporation of racially discriminatory rental policies, Trump hired Roy Cohn. This was a man who, as a young lawyer, had assisted Joseph McCarthy’s red-baiting. On Trump’s behalf, Cohn countersued the government for $100m, a tactic Trump absorbed and has practiced throughout his career: when on the defensive, attack.

Concerned about congressional investigations into contact between his campaign and the Russians? Make a groundless charge of wiretapping against Obama and insist that the allegations be included in the investigations.

MOre:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/06/president-donald-trump-most-powerful-cornered-animal-world?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=216338&subid=20993289&CMP=GT_US_collection

A sincere request to those posting stuff you are watching on TV...

Thread titles such as "XXX just dropped a bombshell", "XXX is on fire", "I can't believe what XXX just said", etc., with no other info are ... frustrating, to say the least, and leave many without a clue.

Not all of us are glued to MSNBC all day. I do not have television. I need to wait till it is online to watch and sometimes there is not enough info posted to make searching easy. Sometimes the post does not even list whose show you are watching.

I know it can be very exciting to see real journalism on such critical topics as we are facing now, but PLEASE put enough context that we know what you are talking about so:
1. we are not totally clueless what you are talking about, are not left out, and can join the discussion, and
2. we have enough info to know if we want to go search for the segment, and to find it easily if we do want to search for it.

Thank you.

Ben Carson Says People Pushed Out of Windows Get Unique Opportunity to Fly Through Air (Borowitz)

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—At a press conference on Tuesday morning, Ben Carson, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told reporters that people who are pushed out of windows are “extremely lucky” because they get “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly through the air.”

“Ever since the dawn of civilization, mankind has been enchanted by the dream of flight,” Carson said. “People who get pushed out of windows get to realize that cherished dream.”

“That’s what makes America a great country,” he continued. “People are pushed out of windows every day here.”

Carson said that, while he had never personally been pushed out of a window, “it’s on my bucket list.”

On a subject more pertinent to his new job at HUD, Carson said that people without housing “enjoy the rare satisfaction you can only experience by building your own dwelling out of cardboard.”

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/ben-carson-says-people-pushed-out-of-windows-get-unique-opportunity-to-fly-through-air?mbid=nl_170307_Borowitz&CNDID=49083371&spMailingID=10573917&spUserID=MTgzMjI2MTM1NTc2S0&spJobID=1120586644&spReportId=MTEyMDU4NjY0NAS2

Trump Nominee For Deputy AG Post Open To Appointing Special Counsel In Russia Probe

WASHINGTON ― Several Senate Democrats on Tuesday backed a longtime federal prosecutor nominated by President Donald Trump to fill the No. 2 position in the Justice Department, where he’d oversee the federal investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Rod Rosenstein, currently the top federal prosecutor in Maryland, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning he is open to appointing a special counsel to investigate Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election if necessary.

“I’m willing to appoint a special counsel ... whenever I determine that it’s appropriate based upon the policies and procedures of the Justice Department,” Rosenstein told the committee.

However, he didn’t commit to appointing a special counsel and said, at this point, he didn’t see a specific reason he couldn’t oversee such an investigation.

snip

Still, many Democrats had questions for Rosenstein about how he’d handle the ongoing Russia investigation. Saying political affiliation was “irrelevant” to his work, Rosenstein told the committee that he would ensure there were independent prosecutors conducting any investigation, including the Russia probe.

snip

Rosenstein, who said he had not had any conversations with Sessions about the Russia issue, said he is not yet in a position to decide whether a special prosecutor is necessary. But Rosenstein said he’d be willing to appoint a special counsel if necessary, based on the procedures at the Justice Department.

“If it’s America against Russia or America against any other country, I think everyone in this room knows which side I’m on,” Rosenstein said during the hearing.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she believes a special prosecutor is necessary. “There is a real danger, I believe, that the Department of Justice could become politicized,” Feinstein said.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/rod-rosenstein-trump-doj-russia_us_58bdb60be4b09ab537d588a3?section=us_politics

Reposting this because we all need something encouraging about how the world sees America right now

I was just reading the thread about people being embarrassed for America and how we appear to the rest of the world, and remembered this from the airport protests:

An Iraqi's feelings on the protests in America goes viral—this is what Americans are fighting for:
The protests and marches, the phone calls and visits to elected officials’ offices, are sometimes motivated by anger and frustration but always filled with one underlying fundamental truth—we love our country and what our country is supposed to be. Our country is a place where even fascistic-minded jerks can live freely, as long as they don’t hurt others. With our new orange-regime spewing out bile-filled foreign policy notices around the world, the resistance to neo-American fascism and white supremacy has gone into high gear—women’s marches have emboldened the airport protests and so on. It is not only the citizens and elected officials within the United States that have taken notice, millions—if not billions— around the world are watching what is happening in North America. TechCrunch senior editor John Shieber tweeted out something from a friend of his who works for the UN in Iraq:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/2/2/1629034/-An-Iraqi-s-feelings-on-the-protests-in-America-goes-viral-this-is-what-Americans-are-fighting-for

And this:

The story behind the viral photo of Muslim and Jewish children protesting at O'Hare

A Muslim and a Jewish father had never met before bringing their children to O'Hare International Airport Monday to join in a protest of President Donald Trump's immigration ban. But after a photograph showing their son and daughter interacting went viral, they decided to bring their families together next week for dinner to celebrate peace.

As of midday Tuesday, the photograph taken by Chicago Tribune photographer Nuccio DiNuzzo and shared on Twitter by @ChiTribPhoto had been retweeted by other Twitter users more than 16,000 times. The two fathers said they have fielded calls from friends, acquaintances and national news outlets wanting to hear their story.

"It all happened pretty quickly," said Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, of Deerfield, who lifted his 9-year-old son, Adin, onto his shoulders Monday night when the boy asked for a better view of the crowd there to protest Trump's executive order that freezes entry of all refugees for 120 days and blocks entry for 90 days of citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

At about the same time, Fatih Yildirim had lifted his 7-year-old daughter, Meryem, onto his shoulders because she was getting tired of standing.

Adin was wearing his kippah, or yarmulke, while holding a sign that read "Hate has no home here." Meryem wore her black hijab while holding a sign that said "Love."

More- read it! It will make you feel good - promise:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-jewish-muslim-fathers-viral-photo-met-20170131-story.html

I couldn't get the photo to post. If someone else can, please post in a reply.

Rod Rosenstein: 'honorable' US attorney poised to be next Russia investigator (Guardian)

Monday 6 March 2017 07.00 EST
Last modified on Monday 6 March 2017 12.02 EST

As a young justice department lawyer, Rod Rosenstein was tapped to join Kenneth Starr’s Whitewater investigation into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate dealings. He showed an uncommon skill with public corruption cases, demonstrating a wisdom and sensitivity beyond his years, his supervisors said.

Snip

Sessions’ recusal could immediately put Rosenstein into a much higher-profile position than he might have imagined when he was nominated to serve as deputy attorney general. If confirmed, he would oversee any justice department investigation into Russian interference in the election – including any contacts between Russia and members of the Trump campaign.

Rosenstein, who is currently the US attorney in Maryland, was a surprising choice to serve as the No 2 official in Trump’s justice department, said Philip Heymann, who was Rosenstein’s law professor at Harvard, and later his boss in the Clinton justice department. Rosenstein has served in the Department of Justice for 26 years, including in the tax division, the public integrity section, and as an assistant US attorney in Maryland.

Rosenstein is a skilled prosecutor and “a straight shooter”, with a deep knowledge of the day-to-day workings of the department, but he did not seem particularly close to either Sessions or Trump, Heymann said.

“It surprises me that they didn’t pick somebody who was more partisan,” he said.

James Cole, who served for four years as Eric Holder’s deputy attorney general, also offered unqualified praise for Rosenstein’s skill and credibility.

Snip

In February, the Baltimore Sun, Rosenstein’s hometown paper, called him an “honorable” public servant with “wide bipartisan support” who was too good to sell his soul by taking a job in the Trump administration.

“Just don’t go there. Say ‘no’ to President Trump,” a member of the Sun’s editorial board advised Rosenstein in an open letter.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/06/rod-rosenstein-deputy-attorney-general-russia-jeff-sessions?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=216202&subid=20993289&CMP=GT_US_collection

Are people overlooking this in Comey asking DOJ to refute TRump Obama wiretap claim?

Haven't seen any discussion on this in DU Comey/Obama wiretop threads. DOJ might not be responding until someone replaces Sessions in Russia investigation. Don't know if Dana Boente can respond?

"Staffing issues in the upper ranks of the department stalled Comey’s request, per the Times:

“One problem Mr. Comey has faced is that there are few senior politically appointed officials at the Justice Department who can make the decision to release a statement, the officials said. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself on Thursday from all matters related to the federal investigation into connections between Mr. Trump, his associates and Russia."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fbi-james-comey-trump-wiretapping_us_58bc8548e4b0d2821b4edb91?10xp9z7s0y4eoecdi&&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Morning%20Email%20030617&utm_content=The%20Morning%20Email%20030617+CID_3cafe51a0841b95bb5906896ece21ab8&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=asked%20the%20Justice%20Department&

ACLU legal director live now talking constitutional issues; how they & we can fight Trump agenda