Marcy Wheeler's Blog

Lindsey Halligan Even Failed Failing

Remember how I argued that DOJ might actually be trying to get no-billed in the Jim Comey case? I argued that if the case were charged, it could put Todd Blanche, especially, in a really awkward position.

These leaks make it far more likely that Lindsey the Insurance Lawyer will get no-billed (meaning they’[d] vote against indicting Comey). And that may be the point. Indeed, her law license may be among a handful that get saved in the process.

Consider how this would look to Todd Blanche.

Blanch...

Stephen Miller Implies He Intended for Trump’s Nutjobs to Kill Democrats

Less than a week after copying a Joseph Goebbels speech to mythologize Charlie Kirk, Stephen Miller is trying to gin up outrage because Gavin Newsom’s trollish Xitter account called him, accurately, a fascist.

Because Stephen Miller’s expression of outrage about the use of inflammatory language — even the use of the word fascism — necessarily involved Miller projecting his own actions onto someone else, it led him to go on Hannity and confess he has been engaged in stochastic terrorism for year...

The Shutdown Will Make Trump’s Theory of Government–ICE but No Healthcare–Visible

Yesterday, at 5:46PM, the Senate rejected a cloture vote on the Democratic continuing resolution, which in addition to funding government, would extend healthcare support and prohibit impoundment. It was a party line vote.

Yesterday, at 6:41PM, the Senate rejected a cloture vote on the Republican continuing resolution. Three Democrats voted with 52 Republicans in favor:

Catherine Cortez MastoJohn FettermanAngus King

Rand Paul voted with Democrats against.

And so, at midnight, nonessential fu...

May Solidarity and Speech Defeat Pardons and Tanks

The site was bolloxed last night and most of the day so I didn’t even get to tailor the videos showing that the kidnapping of Ras Baraka on May 9 was premeditated, but I did want to alert you to this opinion from Reagan appointed senior judge William Young, ruling that Trump’s retaliation against immigrants who speak out for Palestinian rights violates the First Amendment.

The entire 161-page opinion is fashioned as a response to an anonymous postcard Judge Young received while presiding on this...

“She Wants to Grab Him:” The Premeditated Detention of Ras Baraka

Judge Jamel Semper in the LaMonica McIver case has released the videos associated with her motion to dismiss for congressional immunity. 

Video F strongly suggests that someone female ordered Ricky Patel — the person who ultimately arrested Ras Baraka — to “grab” the Mayor even before he was told he was trespassing. 

0:45, Ricky Patel says, “I’m going to walk right to the Mayor now.”

1:06 of Video F, Ricky Patel says, “you know me, I’m not saying no to shit.”

At 2:14, someone else says, “She wan...

Butt Cracks and Beer Bellies: Is Trump Failing on Immigration because ICE Creates Negative Spectacle?

Is the spectacular nature of Stephen Miller’s ICE goons — and the ease with which that can go viral — one of the reasons Miller’s core issue is weighing Trump down?

Greg Sargent has been focused on Trump’s collapse on immigration for months, encouraging Dems to attack on it. And G. Elliott Morris has been tracking the details of that in polling, which also goes back months.

A new report from Gallup out this week finds a significant increase in the public’s liberal attitudes on immigration. The h...

Will Jim Comey’s Prosecution Prove Kash Patel Lied to Senate Judiciary Committee?

As I mentioned here, ABC reported that the lie charged in the Jim Comey indictment pertains to whether he authorized Dan Richman to share information anonymously, not whether he authorized Andrew McCabe to do so.

Sources told ABC News that “PERSON 1” is Clinton and “PERSON 3” is Richman, a longtime law professor who — as ABC News previously reported — met with federal prosecutors last week after being subpoenaed in the matter.

Charlie Savage has the best piece on the likely theory of the indictm...

Fridays with Nicole Sandler

And here’s the picture of Scattery Island I referenced. Here’s a story about Moneypoint halting coal burning.

Listen on spotify (transcripts available)

Listen on Apple (transcripts available)

The post Fridays with Nicole Sandler appeared first on emptywheel.

Will Ted Cruz Go to Prison for the Lies He Told as Part of the Jim Comey Indictment?

Let’s talk about all the lies that someone at EDVA would have to wade through to actually convict Jim Comey.

Lindsey Halligan’s disclaimer of signing the Comey indictment

First, there’s the weirdness with the indictment itself. As NBC and WaPo reported from the courtroom, Lindsey Halligan actually handed the magistrate judge, Lindsey Vaala, two charging documents. When Vaala asked what was going on, Halligan said she did not see the second one. Vaala noted that she had signed the document.

There...

Mainstream Press Confesses They Missed the Other Politicized Prosecutions

In her reply memo arguing she is entitled to legislative immunity in conjunction with her oversight visit to Delaney Hall on May 9, which led to assault charges after ICE unlawfully arrested Ras Baraka, LaMonica McIver described the charges against her this way:

The indictment charges a sitting Member of Congress for conducting oversight of a controversial ICE facility and for continuing to undertake that oversight in the face of ICE obstruction that included deliberate delays, deception, an arm...