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Calista241's JournalEx-FBI lawyer spared prison for altering Trump-Russia probe email
Source: Politico
The only person charged in the Justice Department's investigation into the origins of the probe of former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and its ties to Russia was spared prison time for altering an email used to support a surveillance application.
Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, 38, received the sentence of 12 months probation and 400 hours community service from U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg Friday during a video hearing.
Clinesmith admitted that in June 2017 he sent an altered email to an FBI agent that indicated a target of court-ordered FBI surveillance, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, was "not a source" for the Central Intelligence Agency. The statement, passed along as the FBI was applying for a third extension of surveillance of Page, made Page's actions seem more suspicious by downplaying his past cooperation with the CIA.
Clinesmith insisted that he thought the statement was true at the time and only altered the message to save himself the hassle of procuring another email from the CIA. Prosecutors contested that claim, arguing that the FBI lawyer intended to mislead his colleague, but Boasberg sided with the defense on that point.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/29/fbi-lawyer-trump-russia-probe-email-463750
Trump lawyer: Manhattan DA won't charge former president
Source: Politico
Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has indicated he does not currently plan to charge the Trump Organization with crimes related to allegations of "hush money" payments and real estate value manipulations, according to a personal lawyer for Donald Trump.
Ronald Fischetti, a New York attorney who represents the former president, said on Monday that in a meeting last week, he asked Vance’s team for details on charges they were considering.
According to Fischetti, members of Vance’s team said they were considering bringing charges against the Trump Organization and its individual employees related to alleged failures to pay taxes on corporate benefits and perks. It has been widely reported that those perks included cars and apartments and appear to only involve a small number of executives.
“We asked, ‘Is there anything else?’” Fischetti told POLITICO. “They said, ‘No.’”
“It’s crazy that that’s all they had,” he added.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/28/trump-lawyer-manhattan-da-wont-charge-496768
Clarence Thomas Suggests Federal Marijuana Laws May Be Unconstitutional While Balking About Case the
Source: Law and Crime
Clarence Thomas Suggests Federal Marijuana Laws May Be Unconstitutional While Balking About Case the Supreme Court Didn’t Take
Justice Clarence Thomas disagreed with the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari — that’s a refusal to hear — a tax case Monday, and the conservative justice’s statement strongly suggests he believes any federal marijuana ban is unconstitutional.
The case is Standing Akimbo, LLC v. United States, in which the owners of a Colorado marijuana dispensary appealed an unfavorable tax decision that treated them differently from other business owners. The Internal Revenue Code does not allow a tax deduction or credit for expenses incurred by establishments whose business model “consists of trafficking in controlled substances” in violation of federal or state law. Despite marijuana being legal for both medical and recreational use in many states, it remains a controlled substance under federal law. As a result, business that dispense marijuana are denied tax benefits that would be available to other businesses.
Thomas began his statement disagreeing with the Court’s refusal to hear the case by commenting that the legal landscape with regard to marijuana has changed dramatically in the past 16 years. In 2005, the Court held in Gonzales v. Raich that Congress could prohibit the cultivation and use of marijuana — even when done entirely within one state’s borders — to avoid causing a “gaping hole” in Congress’ “closed regulatory system.” Since then, however, many states have legalized both medicinal and recreational cannabis use.
The result is that the federal government now has what Justice Thomas called a “half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana.”
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/clarence-thomas-suggests-federal-marijuana-laws-may-be-unconstitutional-while-balking-about-case-the-supreme-court-didnt-take/
SCOTUS Rules Against Plaintiffs Branded by Credit Agencies with 'Scarlet Letter of Our Time'; Thomas
Source: Law & Crime
SCOTUS Rules Against Plaintiffs Branded by Credit Agencies with ‘Scarlet Letter of Our Time’; Thomas Joins Liberals to Dissent
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 Friday against thousands of plaintiffs whose names were incorrectly identified by credit-reporting agencies as potential criminals. The justices held that the plaintiffs had not suffered sufficiently concrete harms to support Article III standing — in other words, they could not redress their grievances in federal court.
The case is TransUnion v. Ramirez, and it is a class action lawsuit against the credit reporting giant TransUnion over the agency’s misuse of a government list of suspected criminals. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) creates a list of known and suspected terrorists, drug traffickers and other high-profile criminals—all of whom are prohibited from participating in the U.S. financial system.
A group of plaintiffs sued TransUnion claiming that it falsely labeled 8,185 U.S. citizens as terrorists. The lead plaintiff was Sergio Ramirez, who, while attempting to purchase a car from a Nissan dealership, was told in front of his family that his name was on a list of suspected terrorists. TranUnion appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that he and other plaintiffs lacked the legal right to bring the lawsuit because they had suffered no actual harm.
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Kavanaugh’s opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett. The Court ruled that Ramirez and the other 8000+ plaintiffs had no Article III standing to wage a lawsuit, because the class had not suffered the physical, monetary, or reputational harm necessary to support a federal lawsuit.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/supreme-court/scotus-rules-against-plaintiffs-branded-by-credit-agencies-with-scarlet-letter-of-our-time-thomas-joins-liberals-to-dissent/
Supreme Court Restricts Police Powers To Enter A Home Without A Warrant
Source: NPR
The U.S. Supreme court ruled Wednesday that police cannot enter a home without a warrant when pursuing someone for a minor crime.
By a largely unanimous vote, the court declared that police violated the rights of a California man by pursuing him into his garage for allegedly playing loud music while driving down a deserted two-lane highway late at night.
Writing for the court majority, Justice Elena Kagan said that police had no right to enter the man's home without a warrant for such a trivial offense.
The court's ruling came in the case of Arthur Lange, who was playing loud music in his car late one night, at one point honking his horn several times. A California highway patrol officer, believing Lange was violating a noise ordinance, followed him and when the motorist slowed to enter his driveway, the cop put on his flashing lights.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/23/999913516/supreme-court-restricts-police-powers-to-enter-a-home-without-a-warrant
Cobb, DeKalb recover legal costs in Trump election lawsuit
Source: AJC
Two metro Atlanta counties have won legal fees in an election lawsuit brought by former President Donald Trump.
Election officials in Cobb and DeKalb counties sought the fees in a Trump lawsuit that sought to overturn the presidential election in Georgia. A hearing on those requests was set for this Friday.
But last week the Cobb County Board of Elections received $15,554 to cover its legal costs through June 1, the county’s attorney confirmed. Trump’s attorney confirmed the DeKalb County’s fees also were reimbursed, though he did not say who reimbursed them, and the amount was not immediately available.
DeKalb sought $6,105 in fees in a motion filed in February. An attorney for DeKalb County confirmed its motion was withdrawn, but declined to comment further.
Read more: https://www.ajc.com/politics/election/trump-pays-cobb-dekalb-legal-costs-in-georgia-election-lawsuit/WVONVSVHLVEHPAZRTVEPOJKRY4/
Macy Gray Says "It's Time" For A New American Flag That Represents "All Of Us" In Juneteenth Op-Ed
Source: Deadline
The Grammy winner went on to address President Biden, Vice President Harris and members of Congress directly. “The American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief. God bless those believers, they can have it. Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect,” she wrote. “It no longer represents democracy and freedom. It no longer represents ALL of us. It’s not fair to be forced to honor it. It’s time for a new flag.”
Gray subsequently gave a visual breakdown of our current flag, suggesting that while there have long been 50 stars on it, there should be 52. In her opinion, an extra pair of stars should go to Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, which she noted have been “lobbying for statehood” for decades.
“Both have been denied, since statehood would allow each territory’s elected officials seats in the house. Assuming D.C. reps would be African-American and Puerto Rican reps would be Hispanic, the ultimate assumption is that these elected officials would be Democratic,” Gray wrote. “That alone is racist.”
Then, there are the flag’s white stripes, which were intended to represent “purity and innocence,” according to The Smithsonian. “America is great. It is beautiful. Pure, it ain’t,” wrote Gray. “It is broken and in pieces.”
Read more: https://deadline.com/2021/06/macy-gray-calls-for-new-american-flag-juneteenth-op-ed-1234778330/
Officers, sergeants resign en masse from Portland's Rapid Response Team crowd control unit
Source: The Oregonian
Officers who serve on the Portland Police Bureau’s specialized crowd control unit, known as the Rapid Response Team, voted to resign from the team during a meeting Wednesday night then alerted the chief’s office, a police lieutenant and the mayor’s office have confirmed.
The unprecedented move by officers and sergeants to disband their own team came a day after a team member, Officer Cody Budworth, was indicted, accused of fourth-degree assault stemming from a baton strike against a protester last summer. A year ago, about 70 members comprised the team.
A team lieutenant called Chief Chuck Lovell to inform him the members of the team, who serve voluntarily in the assignments, voted to resign due to perceived lack of support from City Hall and from the district attorney over the past year during more than 100 consecutive nights of protest coverage, according to the mayor’s office and officers.
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“Our RRT members do not volunteer to have Molotov cocktails, fireworks, explosives, rocks, bottles, urine, feces and other dangerous objects thrown at them,” wrote Daryl Turner, then president of the union. He noted that the team members volunteer for the work without any specialty pay.
Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/06/officers-sergeants-with-portlands-rapid-response-team-resign-from-the-specialized-crowd-control-unit.html
Bipartisan infrastructure pitch gains steam on Capitol Hill as Biden weighs in from Europe
Source: Washington Post
A bipartisan group of senators sketching out an infrastructure proposal expanded their base of support on Wednesday, even as they continue to haggle over how to pay for billions of dollars in new spending in line with President Biden’s vision for a massive overhaul of the nation’s public works system.
The initial framework, written by the likes of Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and seven other senators, falls far short of the sweeping infrastructure proposal that Biden has pitched yet aims to try to satisfy the president’s hunger for bipartisanship.
But their efforts received a big boost on Wednesday when 10 more senators joined the original 10 and said they supported the still-unreleased blueprint of a deal. The group includes 10 Republicans, nine Democrats, and one independent who caucuses with the Democrats. All told, they account for one-fifth of the entire U.S. Senate.
That, senators say, marked an attempt to prove publicly that this is a proposal that can win broad approval on Capitol Hill, even as an increasingly agitated progressive coalition is urging Biden to ditch his bipartisanship efforts and move onto Democratic-only efforts that would likely be much more expansive.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/16/congress-infrastructure-white-house/
So, 10 Repubs are onboard.
Fed holds rates steady, but raises inflation expectations sharply and makes no mention of taper
Source: CNBC
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday sharply raised its expectations for inflation this year and brought forward the time frame on when it will next raise interest rates.
However, the central bank gave no indication as to when it will begin cutting back on its aggressive bond-buying program, leaving investors to watch for Chairman Jerome Powell’s press conference on clues about when tapering will begin.
As expected, the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee left its benchmark short-term borrowing rate anchored near zero. But officials indicated that rate hikes could come as soon as 2023, after indicating in March that it saw no increases until at least 2024. The so-called dot plot of individual member expectations pointed to two hikes in 2023.
Though the Fed raised its headline inflation expectation to 3.4%, a full percentage point higher than the March projection, the post-meeting statement continued to say that inflation pressures are “transitory.”
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/16/fed-holds-rates-steady-but-raises-inflation-expectations-sharply-and-makes-no-mention-of-taper.html
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