Biden's Lawyers Protested Hur Report

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 15, 2024 · 5:43 PM PST

2024/02/15 · 17:43

May your foes rue the day they were born, Dark Brandon!

The Republicans are back at their dirty tricks and Merrick Garland let them have all the ammunition they wanted. Jim “who needs to pass a bill just because I’m a lawmaker” Jordan and the rest of the Republican lackeys on the Hill plan to hold hearings featuring their new favorite Trump fluffer Robert Hur.

Apparently this could have been avoided, because Biden’s lawyers forcefully protested the travesty that is the Hur report, according to the Washington Post.

President Biden’s top attorneys exchanged confrontational letters with top Justice Department officials before and after last week’s explosive report from special counsel Robert K. Hur, contending that Hur’s comments “openly, obviously, and blatantly violate Department policy and practice.”

Garland did not directly respond to these letters. Instead, he charged Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer with defending the report.

“The identified language is neither gratuitous nor unduly prejudicial because it is not offered to criticize or demean the President,” Weinsheimer wrote to Biden’s legal team. “Rather, it is offered to explain Special Counsel Hur’s conclusions about the President’s state of mind in possessing and retaining classified information.”

Well, that aged like milk, didn’t it Brad? But what is the real reason Garland let the report language stand?

Under the department’s regulations, Garland would have had to notify Congress if he made changes to the report.

That’s right—Merrick Garland would have had to go to Congress to change the report, and that would have been a whole thing. Seems to me Biden’s attorneys had it right when they wrote directly to Garland, comparing it to Comey’s statement on not charging Hillary Clinton:

“Mr. Hur’s criticism of President Biden mirrors one of the most widely recognized examples in recent history of inappropriate prosecutor criticism of uncharged conduct,” Biden’s lawyers wrote. “The FBI and DOJ personnel’s criticism of uncharged conduct during investigations in connection with the 2016 election was found to violate ‘long-standing Department practice and protocol.’”

The buck stops with Garland on this, but spare some ire for Garland’s career lackey Brad. He truly deserves it:

Weinsheimer called the comparison between Hur and Comey “inapt” in part because they held different government positions with different powers. “Special Counsel Hur’s report is readily distinguishable from Director Comey’s press conference,” he asserted.

The only comfort in this situation is that the Republicans currently running the Judiciary Committee lack the skills needed to fully seize this opportunity Garland’s DOJ has handed them on a silver platter.

Former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe exposes Hur

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday February 11, 2024 · 5:08 PM PST

2024/02/11 · 17:08

On today’s “Jack” podcast, co-host/Former FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe aired his knowledge and (mostly negative) opinions about Special Counsel Robert Hur, and it was eye opening.

The segment about Hur begins about an hour an 28 minutes into the podcast with a clip from episode 7, the week that Hur’s appointment was announced a little more than a year ago (They are currently on episode 63.)

The entire segment (and the weekly podcast) are well worth listening to, but I will try to distill what McCabe says into bullet points.

What McCabe said last year:

Hur was part of the Trump DOJ leadership team.
Hur was Rod Rosenstein’s “point man” for the Mueller investigation and as such he and Rosenstein “presumably very carefully and quietly curtailed the investigation.” He was involved in keeping the investigation “in a lane.”
There was a lot of “questionable or uncomfortable bleed over” between White House politics and DOJ operations.

McCabe’s current points about the Hur investigation:

The Special Counsel is supposed to follow DOJ policies re: not impugning the character and reputation of people who are not being charged with crimes outside of the facts of the case. Hur crosses the line in his statements about Biden’s supposed memory issues and other things.
The report creates headlines and then contradicts itself by saying there is “insufficient evidence” to support ideas such as that Biden “willfully detained” classified material.
The part about the recording with the ghostwriter in which Biden mentions classified documents being stored nearby is especially (and seemingly purposely) misleading. Hur states in several places that these documents are about policies related to Afghanistan but then much further along in the report Biden never says what classified materials he was talking about and classified information isn’t included.
The materials related to Afghanistan were found in a different place years later.
The conclusions Hur draws were not related to the facts contained in the report.
The real reason Biden wasn’t indicted isn’t because he is “old and cute” but because of the lack evidence and also that Biden would likely have successful defenses.
The appointment of Hur seems like a misstep by Merrick Garland. If Garland wanted to seem non-partisan he should have chosen a Republican who didn’t serve in the Trump administration.

McCabe does also note in a spirit of full disclosure that Hur was personally involved in several of the aspects of McCabe’s firing. As you probably remember, McCabe, who stepped into the Acting Director of FBI role after the Comey firing, was himself fired for opening an investigation into Trump. The firing occurred just before McCabe retired. It was a transparent effort to punish him by depriving him of his pension. The DOJ also tried and failed to indict McCabe on (forgive the pun) trumped-up charges. McCabe sued for his pension and eventually reached a settlement with the US government.

I am sure more dirt will turn up about hatchet man Hur in the coming days. Meanwhile, Garland seems to be coming under increasing fire for his naivety about just how low Trump and his loyalists will go to get and keep power in Washington.

Washington Post Outs Hur as Hatchet Man

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday February 10, 2024 · 2:21 PM PST

2024/02/10 · 14:21

Joe Cool is tan, rested and ready to take on Trump!

While the New York Times continues to fill their front page with concern-trolling stories about Biden’s supposed “memory issues,” the paper that broke the Watergate story quickly works their superior sources to take us into the room where Hur interviewed Biden.

Emerging from the interview, Biden and his team felt the sessions had mostly gone as expected. ...

The shock of Biden’s lawyers is evident in a letter they wrote in response to the report. “At the outset of the interview, you recognized that the questions you planned to ask ‘relate to events that happened years ago,’ but nonetheless expressed your hope that the president would ‘put forth [his] best efforts and really try to get [his] best recollection in response to the questions we ask,’” Biden’s attorneys wrote. “It is hardly fair to concede that the president would be asked about events years in the past, press him to give his ‘best’ recollections, and then fault him for his limited memory.”

All that, however, was in the future. For the moment, Biden’s lawyers felt the interview had gone as well as could be expected.

As other excellent diaries have pointed out, Hur’s report is just one in a long series of hatchet jobs by Republicans seeking to use their office for partisan political gain.

I for one, am mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! After attempting to slog through Ross Douthat’s pathetic page 1 NYT editorial “The Question is Not if Joe Biden Should Step Aside. It’s How,” I cancelled my New York Times subscription, explaining to them that their editorial slant led me to put the money toward Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

After the last two days it is clear to me that we need Joe Biden to finish the job.

Sticking with Joe, the best President since FDR

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 09, 2024 · 5:25 AM PST

2024/02/09 · 05:25

So a Trump devotee was tasked with writing a report about President Biden, and in the report he alleged that our President has significant memory issues.

Our President. The one who pushed through an infrastructure bill and managed to avoid a recession while actually bringing gas prices down to 2020 levels. The one who has saved Ukraine from being taken over by Vladimir Putin, while strengthening our foreign alliances. The one who comes up with witty quips on the fly to take down right-wing media.

So what is our response? For too many, it is wailing that the sky is falling and publicly calling for Joe Biden to step down from running for a second term, I guess so that the second place finisher (checks notes) Dean Phillips will take over. Or hey, maybe we can convince Marianne WIlliamson to jump back in the race and run against Trump.

“Surely there is a way to bring in a better candidate,” you say. Well actually, over the past 15 or so years, many of us Democrats have worked hard to make our primary process more Democratic—meaning that the person who gets the most votes is the person at the top of the ticket. So it’s Joe Biden, unless he drops out, in which case (correct me if I’m wrong) he can swing his votes to someone else in the primary. I guess some heavier hitter could drop into the process, but ballots are already printed so things would get messy. Democrats would get embroiled in an internal battle right at the moment that we need to be turning our energy towards building a coalition to defeat Trump.

Defeating Trump is the most important thing for us to do. We aren’t going to do it by equivocating about our candidate, a person we know is qualified to be president because he is currently doing it. And yes, he is assisted by staff, as all presidents are, but he is the one in the room where it happens and he is usually the one making it happen!

So take a lesson from the Trumpers! Be loyal! Be fierce! Fight back hard! Give til it hurts. Leave it all on the field and let’s win this thing!

Thanks for the love. Now give it to Joe!

RFK Jr. Goes Full Spoiler

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 09, 2023 · 7:23 AM PDT

2023/10/09 · 07:23

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 14: Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits "Fox & Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on July 14, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images) — RFK Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has dropped out of the Democratic primary race and launched an Independent/Third Party bid for the presidency, according to the AP.

Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce Monday that he will drop his Democratic bid for president and run as an independent or third-party candidate...

While independent/third party candidates do muddy the waters in jurisdictions without ranked choice voting, current polling indicates that this move is more likely to harm the chances of Donald Trump, as Kennedy appeals to Republicans far more than Democrats.

A member of one of America’s most famous Democratic families, the 69-year-old Kennedy was running a long-shot Democratic primary bid but has better favorability ratings among Republicans.

No word yet on whether Larry David plans to incorporate a “Cheryl as First Lady candidate” storyline into art-imitates-life series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Amy Cooper, Democratic Donor

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday May 26, 2020 · 1:46 PM PDT

2020/05/26 · 13:46

Amy Cooper is shown on viral video calling New York City police on a Black man who asked her to put her dog on a leash Memorial Day at Central Park. — Amy Cooper confronting Christian Cooper for trying to get her to check her privilege. Instead she doubled down.

The (racist) call is coming from inside the house. According to The Independent, Amy Cooper is a frequent donor to Democratic candidates.

...campaign contribution information — with donations to Democrats such as Barack Obama, Pete Buttigieg, and John Kerry — leaked online appears to suggest that Amy actually identifies as a liberal. This matters, because in this political era, during this most critical US Presidential election, it is necessary that we understand and recognize that white violence transcends party lines and political ideology.

Of course, like most white people, Cooper does not believe she is a racist.

"I'm not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way," she said, adding that she also didn't mean any harm to the African American community.

Most white people have a cartoon image of a racist in their heads that involves membership in the KKK and frequently dropping the “N” word into casual conversation. The fact is, being raised in a racist society takes its toll on all of us. There is no Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-like procedure to remove racist thoughts and impulses from the minds of even the most well-meaning white people.

How do we keep ourselves (and our kids, if we have them) from pulling an Amy Cooper act (or worse)?

The path to transformation is self-education and adoption of anti-racist action. There are tons of resources available. A lot of us think anti-racism education is a one and done sort of thing. It isn’t. We actually need to do a lot of reading and thinking for the rest of our lives and we’re never gonna stop making mistakes and we’re never gonna be done.

Just as racism takes a toll of people of color through thousands of micro-aggressions, we can do our part to dismantle systemic racial oppression through anti-racist actions large and small.

One action you can take today is to donate to Fair Fight, Stacy Abram’s organization.

Don’t just check your privilege. Use it.

Poll

1381 votes Show Results

How surprising is Amy Cooper's Dem connections?

1381 votes Vote Now!

How surprising is Amy Cooper's Dem connections?

Stunning.

152 votes

Not that surprising really.

442 votes

Not at all surprising.

758 votes

My answer is in the comments.

29 votes

Stephen King wants higher taxes

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday April 30, 2012 · 5:51 AM PDT

2012/04/30 · 05:51

Move over, Warren Buffet! Stephen King has stepped up and joined the Occupy movement in demanding higher taxes for the rich!

At a rally in Florida (to support collective bargaining and to express the socialist view that firing teachers with experience was sort of a bad idea), I pointed out that I was paying taxes of roughly 28 percent on my income. My question was, “How come I’m not paying 50?” The governor of New Jersey did not respond to this radical idea, possibly being too busy at the all-you-can-eat cheese buffet at Applebee’s in Jersey City, but plenty of other people of the Christie persuasion did.
Cut a check and shut up, they said.

If you want to pay more, pay more, they said.

Tired of hearing about it, they said.

Tough shit for you guys, because I’m not tired of talking about it.

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 26, 2010 · 4:50 AM PDT

2010/09/26 · 04:50

Now he tells us. David Stockman, Director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, basically repudiated Reaganomics on NPR yesterday. Here is the money quote, from the end of the interview:

The economy is weak because of our irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies over the last 10, 20 or even 30 years. [emphasis mine.] And it's going to keep getting weaker unless we face up to the problem. So, yes, it's the chicken and egg. If we cut spending and raise taxes, it may slow down the economy even more, but that's unfortunately the choice that we face.

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 23, 2010 · 2:30 PM PDT

2010/03/23 · 14:30

Wonkette, Politico and others are reporting on a Teabagger FAIL:

A tea party organizer angry over Rep. Thomas Perriello’s (D-Va.) vote in favor of health care reform published what he thought was the freshman member’s home address on a blog, in case any readers “want to drop by” and provide a “personal touch” to their views.

Rather than giving out Perriello’s address however, the tea party activist mistakenly printed the home address of the congressman’s brother. Perriello’s brother and wife have four children under the age of 8.

Poll

292 votes Show Results

Mike Troxel is

292 votes Vote Now!

Mike Troxel is

dumber than the average Teabagger

30 votes

smarter than the average Teabagger

25 votes

a representative of median Teabagger intelligence

108 votes

on track to become the poster child for Teabaggers enrolling their offspring at Liberty University

96 votes

a big juicy slice of Teabag pie (yum!)

33 votes

Epic FAIL-- Repub "Kos" crashes in hours!

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 13, 2009 · 1:38 PM PDT

2009/10/13 · 13:38

GOP.com, the Republican's new social networking site that launched today, was filled with glitches and crashed in hours, according to the Christian Science Monitor.

"[The new site] takes advantage of various online tools to connect Republicans and concerned Americans across the country to each other and party leaders, creating a larger, more informed, more organized, and more energized Republican community," Steele told the Associated Press today.

But early this afternoon, bloggers had found a mass of bugs and glitches, including repeated php problems. By 3:30 p.m. EDT, GOP.com slowed to a crawl, eventually shutting out users. The official cause? A network error.

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday August 06, 2009 · 3:21 PM PDT

2009/08/06 · 15:21

John Hughes, the hugely popular chronicler for the dignity and worth of working class kids with dreams, imagination, and ambition, died suddenly after a heart attack this morning. He was 59 years old. This diary is a tribute to him and his work. Follow below the fold.

notksanymore

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday July 12, 2009 · 6:50 PM PDT

2009/07/12 · 18:50

Sorry this isn't much of a diary but wanted to get the word out. This is a breaking wire story.

SEOUL, South Korea — (Reuters) — Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, has pancreatic cancer and the illness is life-threatening, the South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday, attributing the information to unidentified Chinese and South Korean intelligence sources.

Newer
Older

RSS

Biden's Lawyers Protested Hur Report

Former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe exposes Hur

Washington Post Outs Hur as Hatchet Man

Sticking with Joe, the best President since FDR

RFK Jr. Goes Full Spoiler

Amy Cooper, Democratic Donor

Stephen King wants higher taxes

Reaganomics Architect Trashes Reaganomics

Teabagger Fail: Attempt to Harass Rep. Tom Perriello

Epic FAIL-- Repub "Kos" crashes in hours!

John Hughes, Champion of Working Class, dies

Breaking: Kim Jong Il has Pancreatic Cancer?