DOJ Wants To Overturn Watergate & Places Presidents Above The Law
Dear Friends & Neighbors,
William Barr, Attorney General (Presented at: WindermereSun.com)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
Unbelievable!!! On Tuesday, October 8, 2019, the White House attempted to obstruct Congress’ impeachment investigation by having the State Department blocking critical witness in Congress’ impeachment inquiry from testifying about President Donald Trump’s effort in pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals and potentially tie critical military aid to those investigations. Furthermore, the Department of Justice (DOJ) tried to block the release of the remaining redacted materials of the Mueller report and underlying evidence from Congress, arguing that if Watergate were happening today, DOJ should have been able to prevent the release of grand jury evidence to Congress and to the public. In essence, the DOJ is trying to overturn the Watergate case of Nixon era (when grand jury was allowed to turn over evidence to congressional investigators as part of an impeachment inquiry). So, William Barr is basically saying that Richard Nixon should not have been impeached.
Excerpt, below, in italics, is from slate.com
The precedent in question rests on the 1974 case Haldeman v. Sirica.
In March 1974, shortly after Congress initiated its impeachment inquiry of President Richard Nixon, then-Chief Judge John Sirica, ordered materials from the Watergate grand jury turned over to Congress in what would come to be known as the “Watergate road map” for impeachment. Defendants accused of and eventually convicted for trying to cover up Watergate argued that Rule 6(E) of the federal code governing grand juries, which lays out limited exceptions that allow the disclosure of grand jury materials, prevented the release. Sirica ruled that an impeachment, as a judicial proceeding, qualified as one of those exceptions and thus the materials had to be released to Congress.
“It seems incredible that grand jury matters should lawfully be available to disbarment committees and police disciplinary investigations and yet be unavailable to the House of Representatives in a proceeding of so great import as an impeachment investigation,” Sirica noted in his ruling. The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit at the time refused to block Sirica’s ruling. Just this year, in a separate case called McKeever v. Barr, the D.C. Circuit Court upheld Haldeman v. Sirica, saying that it read the case “as fitting within the Rule 6 exception for ‘judicial proceedings.’ ”
So the case law appears settled. But Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department is still seeking to prevent the release of that material to Congress, citing the 6(E) exception and newly arguing the old position of the Watergate criminals: that impeachment is not a judicial proceeding.
Ultimately, the DOJ’s position would place the president essentially above the law: The DOJ has held that the president can’t be indicted, and if Congress can’t access evidence of presidential malfeasance as part of an impeachment inquiry, then there would virtually be no legal mechanism for holding him to account.
Rachel Maddow looks at the latest developments in the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry, including a letter from the White House refusing any cooperation with Congress in the inquiry, and new details from the whistleblower about a shocked reaction from a White House insider to Trump’s Ukraine call, in the video “Trump Showing Desperation In Defying Impeachment Inquiry, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC“, below:
The battle over the president’s tax returns took another turn Monday. We discuss what it means with WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein, in the video “Judge Calls Trump Lawyers’ Legal Argument In Tax Return Fight ‘Repugnant’, The 11th Hour, MSNBC“, below:
Rachel Maddow reviews the checkered history of former Attorney General Ed Meese, whose anti-obscenity crusade made receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump that much more ironic, in the video “Ed Meese An Unlikely Recipient Of Honor… Except By Trump, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC“, below:
Tom Hamburger, national security reporter for the Washington Post, talks about what is known about an IRS whistleblower who has raised alarm that audits of Donald Trump or Mike Pence’s taxes, which should be insulated from politics, have been subject to pressure from a Treasury Department political appointee, in the video “IRS Whistleblower: Political Taint In Trump Or Mike Pence Audits: WaPo, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC“, below:
Greg Miller, national security reporter for the Washington Post, talks with Nicolle Wallace about Mike Pence’s argument that he had no idea about the subtext of the message he was delivering to Ukrainian President Zelensky, and the growing amount of reporting on the opportunities Pence had to be better informed, as well as his responsibility to do so, in the video “Mike Pence Strains Credulity With ‘Obliviousness’ Defense, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC“, below:
Rep. Mike Quigley wonders why more Trump officials haven’t blown the whistle on Trump’s actions around Ukraine. Quigley asks, “How could you stand by when this was happening and not raise a flag?” Lawrence also discusses with Mieke Eoyang and Josh Lederman, in the video “Intelligence Committee To Trump Officials: Why Aren’t You The Whistleblower? The Last Word, MSNBC“, below:
Rachel Maddow reports on the latest developments in the Trump Ukraine scandal, including that Mike Pence is being investigated as part of the Trump impeachment inquiry, and notes that for all the rapidly developing new details, Trump’s core offense is clear and simple and evident by Trump’s own public behavior, in the video “At Heart, Trump Ukraine Scandal Simple, Impeachable, Uncontested, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC“, below:
Brett McGurk, former Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, talks with Rachel Maddow about the peril Donald Trump subjects the United States to with rash decisions and erratic foreign policy like his abrupt decision to abandon Kurdish allies in Syria in deference to a Turkish invasion, in the video “Erratic Trump Endangers US Personnel, World Standing: Brett McGurk, Rachel Maddow, MSNBC“, below:
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com
Any comments, suggestions, concerns regarding this post will be welcomed at [email protected]
We Need Fair Value of Solar
~Let’s Help One Another~
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
www.kiva.org/team/sunisthefuture
www.facebook.com/sunisthefuture
