Nate Bear Do Not Panic The US has openly announced its intention to dismantle the International Criminal Court and liberal journalists who for years have screeched about the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump have had absolutely nothing to say. Neither the New York Times or the Washington Post (which maintains a “democracy in […]
Austin Sarat ScheerPost When the Congress of the United States appropriates funds for a particular purpose, it is the president’s job to expend those funds as directed by Congress. Seems simple enough. While disputes have arisen from time to time when presidents have either refused to spend such funds or redirected them to other purposes, […]
It appears that two outgoing Republican senators are prepared to tank the nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, who hold Blanche’s future in their hands, are particularly concerned with the status of President Trump’s $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” a controversial move to provide financial assistance to anyone who feels they’ve been attacked for supporting the president. Cornyn noted in Blanche’s most recent confirmation hearing that even though Blanche claimed the fund was dead, there was no written agreement to actually kill it. Now, he’s demanding it in writing.“What I want is the written document to say the same thing he did in his sworn testimony in front of the Judiciary Committee, and, as you recall, what he said is the weaponization fund is dead. He said the audit immunity basically doesn’t extend to parties beyond the lawsuit, and it doesn’t also extend to future actions by federal agencies other than the IRS,” Cornyn said on Monday. “That’s what we’re trying to get them to agree to, which is again what his sworn testimony was. So I don’t know why they’re—I don’t know why they’re so reluctant to do that when he’s already sworn to it.”Tillis, too, said he wants changes to the settlement agreement with the IRS, which created the $1.776 billion slush fund and gave the Trump family immunity from future IRS audits. Tillis previously threatened to block Blanche’s nomination unless he met with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. Blanche did so earlier this month, but survivors said the meeting was “demoralizing,” as Blanche continued to avoid answering their questions. “It just felt like more political posturing and using survivors the way that we’ve been used as political pawns,” Epstein survivor and anti-human trafficking educator Elizabeth Stein said at the time.Cornyn and Tillis’s “no” votes would effectively kill Blanche’s nomination, as he needs the support of all 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee to move forward. As of right now, it looks like he won’t get it. The Senate Judiciary is planning to vote to advance Blanche’s nomination on Thursday.
The Department of Justice’s own witness is undermining its case against David Hearn, the former Olympic canoeist charged with vandalizing and damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.According to court documents, a grand jury witness for the government said that the pool was damaged before Hearn even approached it. NBC News reports that this witness was the only person who testified about damage to the pool.Hearn, who has pleaded not guilty, maintains that “the condition of the Reflecting Pool was the same after I stepped away from the water as it was before I got there,” and that he only touched a part of the pool’s detached coating. President Trump claims that vandals used a knife or blade to cause a “gash” in the pool’s lining, but has no evidence to back up his claim.Hearn has been charged with destruction of property, a felony, and accused of causing $1,000 worth of damage to the pool. His lawyers question the evidence behind that claim, noting that the alleged cost is the necessary threshold to charge him with a felony. At least three other people have been charged with misdemeanors related to incidents at the pool.Hearn’s lawyers said that the government’s main witness testimony “established that the pool had substantial preexisting damage requiring repair before any alleged conduct by Mr. Hearn.”“The government’s only witness on that element testified that the property was already deteriorated, that the identified repairs would have been needed even without Mr. Hearn’s alleged conduct, and that he could not quantify any loss caused by that conduct,” they continued. “Consequently, the grand jury’s indictment of Mr. Hearn is hard to explain. Mr. Hearn needs to learn whether the grand jury was properly instructed that the charge required him to have caused over $1,000 in damages, when the testimony failed to establish that he caused any damage at all. So does this Court.”It would seem like the government’s case may soon fall apart, just like the pool lining, which was likely damaged by President Trump in the first place.
A prominent Colombian activist left the United States after he was arrested by immigration agents and detained for over a month in an ICE jail. Franklin Humberto Coral Garrido, known as Beto Coral, was a frequent online critic of far-right President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump ally, in the run-up to Colombia’s election.
In a memo obtained by The New York Times in June, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed for Coral’s deportation and accused the activist of undermining U.S. foreign policy and interfering in Colombia’s democratic process by supporting current Colombian leftist President Gustavo Petro and attacking de la Espriella.
Coral arrived in the United States in 2015 on a tourist visa and had a pending asylum application.
“The treatment I received was inhumane,” says Coral of his time in ICE custody. He says that while in detention, he was beaten, denied food and water, and kept in solitary confinement.
“The problem that Marco Rubio and the Trump administration has,” explains Elizabeth Shaw, one of Coral’s attorneys, is that Coral’s opinion “is against what they are in support of.”
A prominent Colombian activist left the United States after he was arrested by immigration agents and detained for over a month in an ICE jail. Franklin Humberto Coral Garrido, known as Beto Coral, was a frequent online critic of far-right President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, a Trump ally, in the run-up to Colombia’s election.
In a memo obtained by The New York Times in June, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio pushed for Coral’s deportation and accused the activist of undermining U.S. foreign policy and interfering in Colombia’s democratic process by supporting current Colombian leftist President Gustavo Petro and attacking de la Espriella.
Coral arrived in the United States in 2015 on a tourist visa and had a pending asylum application.
“The treatment I received was inhumane,” says Coral of his time in ICE custody. He says that while in detention, he was beaten, denied food and water, and kept in solitary confinement.
“The problem that Marco Rubio and the Trump administration has,” explains Elizabeth Shaw, one of Coral’s attorneys, is that Coral’s opinion “is against what they are in support of.”
The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed BreakThrough News last week, demanding the independent online news outlet hand over internal communications and financial records. BreakThrough News says it’s being targeted over its coverage of U.S. mass deportations, ICE abuses, Cuba and Palestine solidarity and U.S. foreign policy.
“They’re attempting to criminalize dissent and an independent press,” says BreakThrough News journalist Rania Khalek, comparing it to the McCarthy-era campaign against left-wing groups. “Everybody who cares about a free press and cares about free speech should be alarmed about an attack like this.”