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Sam Berger Profile picture
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10 Oct, 3 tweets, 1 min read
Conservative court packing in one chart.
Conservatives’ stealth court-packing plan

Step 1: Steal seats by blocking confirmation of judges until WH and Senate are under conservative control.

Step 2: Change the rules to appoint the most partisan conservative judges at breakneck speed. americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
Here's McConnell bragging about it on Fox.

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More from @SamBerger_DC

Sam Berger Profile picture
5 Aug
How should the next president hold Trump admin accountable?
A 3-step plan:
1. AG orders top-to-bottom review of DOJ politicization
2. Then career officials make decisions on investigations w/o political influence
3. Each agency does corruption review /1
americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
There are good faith concerns that have been raised about investigating Trump officials. But here are some reasons why they don't override the need to defend the rule of law. /2
What about setting a bad precedent? The bad precedent is Trump using DOJ as a political weapon - the question is how we respond. And failing to hold the Trump administration accountable will lead to further attacks on the rule of law. /3
Read 5 tweets
Sam Berger Profile picture
21 Jan
From @maxbergmann and me: Trump's team argues he did nothing wrong.

But House Judiciary and GAO make clear he broke multiple laws in the course of his Ukraine shakedown: (1) bribery; (2) honest services fraud; and (3) the Impoundment Control Act. /1 americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
criminal bribery: Trump sought something of personal value (the announcement of investigations into his political opponents) in exchange for an official act (a White House meeting and the provision of military assistance), and he did so corruptly. /2
docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/…
honest services fraud: Trump participated in a bribery scheme and utilized foreign wire communications to do so, such as by pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on their July 25 phone call. /3 docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/…
Read 6 tweets
Sam Berger Profile picture
30 Dec 19
Big takeaway is Trump WH knew the hold was illegal: (1) Pentagon warned them, they ignored it; (2) they tried to preemptively blame the military for it; and (3) they scrambled to put together an absurd legal argument to justify it.

More on each:
nytimes.com/2019/12/29/us/…
(1) DoD's budget person "notified the [WH] budget office that either $61 million of the money would have to be spent by Monday, Aug. 12 or it would be lost." Not spending the $ in time was illegal. But Trump told Mulvaney to continue the hold.
(2) On Sept 10, a WH official preemptively tried to shift the blame in a lengthy email to DoD suggesting the WH was not responsible if the $ couldn't be spent in time. DoD's response: "You can’t be serious."

The WH was trying to cover its tracks b/c the hold was illegal.
Read 5 tweets
Sam Berger Profile picture
18 Nov 19
New emails from Sondland provide more evidence that Trump's call w/ Zelensky was intended to seal the deal on extortion efforts he had been orchestrating through Guiliani, Sondland and others.
wsj.com/articles/lawma…
July 10: Sondland makes clear to Ukraine in a WH meeting that they will only get the U.S. support they need if they open investigations into Trump's political opponents. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
July 13: Sondland texts WH staff about call w/ Trump to seal the deal: “Sole purpose is for Zelensky to give Potus assurances of ‘new sheriff’ in town. Corruption ending, unbundling moving forward and any hampered investigations will be allowed to move forward transparently.”
Read 10 tweets
Sam Berger Profile picture
13 Oct 19
The WP story on Sondland's testimony contains a number of bombshells. Remember, Sondland was a point person for Trump's Ukrainian quid pro quo. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
He's reportedly going to confirm the first quid pro quo, saying he worked for "the 'deliverable' sought by Trump: a public statement from Ukraine that it would investigate [Biden]. In exchange...the president would grant Ukraine’s new president a coveted WH audience."
He is also reportedly going to suggest military aid may have been part of the quid pro quo. "Sondland will hold out the possibility that Trump wasn’t truthful in his denial of a 'quid pro quo' as well as an alternative scenario in which the president’s interest in the scheme
Read 6 tweets
Sam Berger Profile picture
10 May 19
.@ezraklein: "if you want to break the concentrations of power in American politics, the place to start is with the power of political institutions to frustrate the public’s demands for change."

We @amprog have some thoughts on how to do so:
vox.com/policy-and-pol…
Start with HR 1, a historic piece of legislation that expands access to the ballot, reduces the influence of big money in our politics, and imposes stronger ethics requirements on public officials.
americanprogress.org/press/statemen…
There are some ways to build on the fantastic reforms in HR 1: steps like DC statehood, providing publicly financed democracy dollars to the American people, and preventing U.S. subsidiaries of foreign corporations from spending $ in our elections.
americanprogress.org/issues/democra…
Read 6 tweets

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