Share this page!

Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
Twitter logo
5 May, 4 tweets, 1 min read
New today: We're STILL unpacking what went down at DOJ at the end of the Mueller investigation

A judge now says a secret memo to Bill Barr about not prosecuting Trump for obstruction must be released to @CREWcrew

cnn.com/2021/05/04/pol…
Judge Amy Berman Jackson reviewed lots of documents, found lots of misdirection from DOJ
-Barr's team was already working on telling Congress DOJ wouldn't prosecute Trump when appointees Steve Engel, Ed OCallaghan finalized a memo that was supposed to advise the AG on what to do
-DOJ lawyers in court trying to keep the memo secret told the judge it was legal/policy discussions, thus, able to be redacted under the law.
ABJ says it wasn't just deliberative, it was strategy too. DOJ was pretending in court it wasn't, she wrote
-AND she calls out Barr for how, to Congress, he pinned his decision-making on consultation with DOJ legal advisers
"The fact that [Trump] would not be prosecuted was a given," Judge Jackson wrote.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Katelyn Polantz

Katelyn Polantz Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @kpolantz

Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
9 Apr
Breaking tonight: DOJ has now given the greenlight for plea deals in at least some of the lower-profile Capitol riot cases.

Expect some of the 350+ cases to start moving now in court cnn.com/2021/04/08/pol…
Next week marks 100 days since the insurrection, and it's now one of the most sprawling and intensive criminal investigations in American history.
Yet the crush of defendants and evidence in such an unusual set of cases created a logjam in court.
Flipping defendants was already in the works this week, per a court filing and my reporting yesterday.

But leadership at DOJ hadn't signed off on making deals w defendants to plead guilty. (Likelihood is that lots will go that route) cnn.com/2021/04/07/pol…
Read 6 tweets
Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
18 Mar
Guilty verdict of Michael Flynn’s former lobbying partner Bijan Kian, for illegally and secretly working for Turkey in 2016, will stand, 4th Circuit rules.

A trial judge had thrown out the jury verdict and ordered a new trial—but that was the wrong call, the appeals court says
The 4th Circuit said a jury was able to conclude that Kian and a Dutch-Turkish contact of his had conspired to work for Turkey and did not disclose the work to DOJ. 
The court noted that it would “refrain from drawing conclusions with respect to Flynn’s alleged participation.”
What this means, in the big picture:
-Big win for DOJ in efforts to enforce FARA
-A reminder that Flynn Intel Group was advocating for Turkey’s interests in 2016–just as Flynn was about to become Trump nat sec adviser
-Flynn’s still got his pardon, and it covers the Turkey stuff
Read 4 tweets
Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
19 Feb
In the Capitol riot cases, judges have split on whether to keep defendants in jail before trial. That’s not unusual, given how the system works and the charges that are being used—but it’s a surprise to many people tuning into these cases cnn.com/2021/02/19/pol…
This report from 2018 really digs into the numbers on pretrial detention in the federal judiciary—and the reasons people are detained following an arrest. uscourts.gov/sites/default/…
I didn’t realize until reading this report how skewed the numbers are for Hispanic defendants being detained—and that’s bc immigration cases present more of a risk the person could flee the country, making detention far more likely for people arrested on immigration charges
Read 14 tweets
Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
17 Feb
NEW reporting on Roger Stone and the Proud Boys:

Prosecutors investigated them in 2019 re: Stone's Instagram post about the judge in his case. Proud Boys leaders including Enrique Tarrio were subpoenaed for grand jury testimony. No charges resulted.

cnn.com/2021/02/17/pol…
"They asked me about if I had anything to do about posting that. They were asking me if Stone has ever paid me, what he's ever paid me for," Florida Proud Boys head Tyler Ziolkowski told CNN this week.
Roger Stone's ties to the Proud Boys are still in the news following the Jan 6 Capitol riot.
This 2019 investigation, which hasn't been revealed before, shows prosecutors already looked into some aspects of the far-right organization's leaders' ties to Stone.
Read 6 tweets
Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
14 Nov 20
To sum up where things stand: Trump had a very bad Friday in court with his election cases. They're headed for more action next week cnn.com/2020/11/14/pol…
Some notable points in the recent election court filings that were overshadowed by the bluster and the rulings against Trump:
- The new 3rd Circ decision cuts out some claims Trump was trying to make in PA--putting his weak case in an even worse position cnn.com/2020/11/14/pol…
In lawsuits in PA and WI from private individuals trying to block the election results, they promise evidence of fraud--but say it doesn't exist yet! From the filings: "This evidence will be shortly forthcoming when the relevant documents are final and available"
Read 17 tweets
Katelyn Polantz Profile picture
4 Nov 20
NEW: Judge Emmet Sullivan is so angered by the US Postal Service's inability to sweep its facilities for ballots yesterday afternoon, following a court order to do so, that he said he will want answers under oath from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.
Sullivan ordered USPS to have inspectors sweep facilities between 12:30-3 yesterday, and they didn't. They went back in for sweeps after 4, notifying the judge late of the failure. So today we have a series of hearings about what happened, and how many ballots aren't delivered.
This was our overview from the weekend about the oversight Sullivan and Judge Stanley Bastian in Washington state have given the USPS on a daily basis in recent days: cnn.com/2020/10/30/pol…
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @kpolantz has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @kpolantz!

Read all threads by @kpolantz