In a major 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has finally addressed the expansive regulatory use of executive agencies to create law through interpretation.  The 40-year-old Chevron ruling granted the executive agencies of government the ability to interpret laws and apply restrictions/regulations based on their own rules and definitions therein.

The Supreme Court put the judicial branch back into the equation by ruling that courts will decide what laws apply when the legislation is ambiguous on detail.  This shift in prior precedent could have major ramifications.  [MORE AT SCOTUS BLOG]

In another big case, the court ruled in favor of Joseph Fischer a Pennsylvania police officer charged in the January 6th protest with “obstructing an official proceeding.”  [FULL RULING HERE]

The law at the center of Fischer’s case is 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), and as noted by Julie Kelly, “The statute … has been applied in roughly 350 J6 cases; it also represents two of four counts in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s J6-related criminal indictment of Donald Trump in Washington.”

Julie Kelly – […] In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the “c2” subsection is tethered to the “c1” subsection that addresses tampering with a record, document, or “object.”

Roberts was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Amy Coney Barrett authored the dissent (!) joined by Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

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It looks like the Lawfare case against President Donald Trump is not going to happen prior to the election.  Considering that Fani Willis met with Mary McCord prior to filing this case against Trump, we can directly trace the origin of the Georgia case to congress and the White House.

The appellate court in Georgia is currently reviewing the professional conduct of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.   As the court is deciding whether to disqualify Ms. Willis from the cases (very likely), the court has suspended all further action by Fulton County against any of the defendants.

[Source Link]

The Lawfare community (McCord, Weissmann, Eisen and MSNBC, CNN et al) are apoplectic at this decision by the court.

WASHINGTON – A Georgia appeals court has halted all pretrial proceedings in Donald Trump’s Atlanta-based criminal case while a three-judge panel considers whether to disqualify the lead prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The order issued Wednesday effectively confirms that the sprawling racketeering case against Trump and more than a dozen codefendants — charging them with an attempt to corrupt Georgia’s 2020 election results — will not come before a jury in 2024.

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When the extreme leftists cannot get their way by manipulating the legal system through Lawfare, they come unglued.

The tribal leadership of Norm Eisen, Mary McCord, Andrew Weissmann and the larger Lawfare community have been waging an open media campaign against Florida Judge Aileen Cannon because in the Jack Smith documents case Judge Cannon is not giving them what they want.

It’s somewhat personal to the Lawfare crew because from the outset it has appeared that Eisen, McCord and Weissmann write the briefs and motions that Jack Smith files with the court.  If the Lawfare effort is being rejected, dismissed or diluted by Judge Cannon, the Lawfare tribe takes it personal and make appearances on leftist media networks, broadcasts and social media telling their followers to file judicial complaints against her.

In response to what the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals calls an “orchestrated campaign,” Chief Judge William Pryor of the 11th CCA has published a blistering order [SEE HERE], informing the clerk of the court not to accept any more complaints and to trash them.

[SOURCE pdf]

Making matters worse for the Lawfare pearl clutchers, Chief Justice Pryor tells the court’s clerk not to even respond to the complaints, just publish this order.  In the larger message the 11th CCA is essentially telling the Lawfare activists to knock it off, and this approach can have profoundly negative implications for Jack Smith’s ability to use the appeals court as a tool to target Judge Cannon.

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President Trump delivers remarks after Judge Juan Merchan delivered some of the most ridiculous instructions in the history of jury instructions.

Judge Juan Merchan told jurors they do not have to agree unanimously on each of the 3 counts charged.  The jury can have 4 members agree to guilt on each of the three counts and the judge will accept that as 12 decisions for guilt overall.  There’s no way these types of instructions will pass appellate court review; but that’s not the purpose of the Lawfare that Judge Merchan is participating in.  WATCH:

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Showcasing the political intents of the Biden administration to arrest and jail his political opposition, the campaign of Joe Biden thought it would be a good idea to hold a press conference outside the New York City courthouse where closing arguments are taking place.  The Biden team thought it would be a good idea to showcase the politics of the prosecution; go figure.

Supporting the effort was the washed-up actor Robert De Niro, known in acting circles as Hollywood’s tallest midget (video below). The actor was heckled by the pro-Trump supporters near the courthouse and the Biden campaign team was visibly frustrated.  Things just didn’t go well for them. The whole event was really goofy.  WATCH:

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Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Lara Trump delivered remarks to the media following the rather silly Biden campaign effort.

NEW YORK – […] Anti-Trump protesters and supporters of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee got into a scuffle outside Manhattan Supreme Court during dueling press conferences by the 2024 campaigns for Trump and President Biden — the latter of which featured a fired-up Robert De Niro speaking to a crowd of dozens.

Inside the courthouse, defense lawyer Todd Blanche told the jury of seven men and five women that Trump’s longtime lawyer-turned-star-prosecution-witness Michael Cohen was “the GLOAT. He’s the greatest liar of all time.” (read more)

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HatTip The Gateway Pundit – These remarks by former Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant are somewhat shocking to hear said out loud.

Governor Phil Bryant: “I’m the campaign finance director for Donald Trump in Mississippi, so we raise money. I’ve talked to a number of very wealthy individuals that God has blessed that say I can’t give money to Donald Trump because the FBI will show up at my door.”

One of the more sad, albeit predictable, aspects to the politicization of American justice institutions is that there’s less and less shock associated with the dropping of pretenses.  Many people on these pages and in the discussions across the internet warned several years ago that downstream from the weaponized government was going to be an end-point era where all trust was dissolved.  We are essentially at that point now.

While both wings of the UniParty apparatus in DC played together in the creation of the post 9-11 surveillance state, it was the Obama administration who added the weaponization knob based on political ideology.

Weaponizing the DOJ and FBI via the Intelligence Community (2012 and beyond) was an outcropping of the previous weaponization of the IRS and regulatory system (2009 to 2012).  When I discuss this issue with people, I like to draw attention to the Obama and Eric Holder continuum.

The National Security Division of the DOJ (DOJ-NSD) was created by Eric Holder specifically to function as a weaponized agency, using FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) as the tool for the surveillance and targeting.  While the NSD system was being put into place (2009/2010), Main Justice requested the CD ROMs from the IRS containing the Schedule-Bs of every 501(c-4) political organization.  The DOJ quickly settled the class action lawsuit brought by conservative groups.

With the spotlight on the Cincinnati office (Louis Lerner), Obama moved his Chief of Staff Jack Lew into position as Treasury Secretary.  The DOJ under Eric Holder then moved away from using the IRS and began to using the NSA database (weaponized FISA-702 authority) in 2012.

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This is a good overall encapsulation by Julie Kelly and to a lesser extent Steve Bannon about what Judge Aileen Cannon is doing with the Jack Smith “documents” case in Florida.

Kelly notes accurately {See Background} that Judge Aileen Cannon is somewhat limited on what she can do about the federal government case due to the DOJ using the false pretense of “national security” to control how the judicial branch can interact with the lawfare construct of the executive branch.  The Lawfare crew intentionally created the “national security” angle to control all sides of the case and limit the release of information to the public.

Judge Cannon has recently been releasing and un-redacting documents and motions filed in the case to allow disinfecting sunlight and transparency to enter. This approach undercuts the prosecution manipulation, the DOJ does not like it.   Julie Kelly outlines some of the details that Cannon’s releases have highlighted.  {Direct Rumble Link}

At the 12:00 minute mark, Steve Bannon highlights his anger as he rails against congress and the staff of multiple committees who participate in the willful blindness and pretending game.

After noticing how congress is mute about the revelations that Cannon is providing, Bannon notes the republicans are essentially anti-Trump and controlled opposition, which is essentially accurate…. However, he’s just now noticing this?

It is a little annoying to see Mr. Bannon discuss outrage as a manipulative tactic {Chaffe and Countermeasures}, considering the years of outrage traps laid by the republicans in the Deep State against President Trump.  The latest effort by congress pretending not to notice, and then staying quiet, is not exactly a surprise.

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Judge Juan Merchan has openly targeted President Trump on behalf of the clients for the judge’s daughter Loren Merchan. Ms Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based progressive political consulting firm who represents the interests of Democrat politicians.

NEW YORK – Donald Trump was held in contempt by Justice Juan Merchan Tuesday morning for social media posts and other statements the former president made that violated a gag order imposed in his Manhattan criminal case.

The judge ordered Trump to pay a $9,000 fine — $1,000 for each violation. And he warned Trump that additional violations could land him in jail.

“Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment,” the judge wrote in an eight-page decision. (more)

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I’m catching up on perspectives from the talking head class about the ridiculous “hush money” legal case in New York City.  As I watched the review by Jonathan Turley, I noticed the video caught someone on the livestream.

Serendipitous timing – SEE HERE

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If you have followed law and politics for any length of time, you have probably heard of “speaking indictments.” That’s where the prosecution will write an indictment or court motion with very granular -yet perhaps not pertinent- details of a case against a suspect that highlights a much bigger picture than a singular perspective against the individual defendant.  The intent is to make the public aware of the details within a case by making them part of the court record.

In the Special Counsel Jack Smith constructed Lawfare case against Donald Trump, what is generally called “the documents case”, involving the raid on Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s attorney, Christopher Kise, did something similar to a speaking indictment with an extensive court motion on January 16, 2024.   The 68-page motion is a comprehensive “speaking motion” which outlines a great deal of the fraud and Lawfare manipulation by the special counsel. [SEE DOCUMENT HERE]

In response to the filing, using the pre-established legal narrative about needing to control “national security” information [SEE HERE], the Jack Smith team (essentially Lawfare operatives like Weissman, Eisen and McCord) redacted large portions of the Trump motion specifically to stop the public record from showing the outline.   However, two days ago, April 22nd, Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed and more importantly ‘unredacted’ the motion.

[READ THE DETAILS HERE]

Keep in mind, back in the beginning of the pre-trial discovery phase -in response to the filing by Trump- Jack Smith gave the judge the opinion of the DOJ [SEE HERE] toward discovery and documents.  As noted, and summarized well by Julie Kelly:

To clear up any confusion as to what Special Counsel Jack Smith sought to conceal in classified documents case, this is what Smith told Judge Cannon in Feb 2024 in response to Trump’s motion to compel discovery from numerous govt agencies:

1) Defendants are not entitled to discovery of internal government correspondence and memoranda, or to documents that are otherwise privileged.

2) The Court Should Deny Defendants’ Requests for Evidence of ‘Improper Coordination with NARA’ and of ‘Bias and Investigative Misconduct.’

3) The Court Should Deny Defendants’ Requests for Evidence Related to Trump’s Security Clearance With The Department of Energy.

4) The Court Should Deny Defendants’ Requests for Evidence Related to Secure Facilities at President Trump’s Residences.

5) The Court Should Deny Defendants’ Requests for Production of Materials Concerning the Search of Mar-a-Lago.

AND FINALLY:

6) Defendants’ Request for Unredacted Discovery of Materials Should Be Denied.

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