If a candidate runs under a marijuana legalization party, and there is documented evidence that he had no interest in pursuing the party’s platform (was simply running to siphon votes), would voters have grounds to sue him for Honest Services Fraud?
In addition to that, if there were evidence of a nationally coordinated scheme to run fraudulent candidates in this way (rather than organic, individual choices by candidates) could that constitute racketeering?
I am not a lawyer, but after viewing Judge Amy Berman Jackson's unredacted memo, I think it is pretty clear that Merrick Garland is not protecting Bill Barr.
The parts that I have highlighted here are the parts that were previously redacted; Garland agreed to unredact this.
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Unredacted: Jackson's clear opinion that Barr's DOJ was intentionally dishonest, concealing the content of the OLC memo and misrepresenting its purpose to the court.
Recurring theme here: Jackson exposed the OLC memo for what it was - part of a political PR strategy.
Unredacted: The memo was crafted - at Bill Barr's request - to "recommend" that Barr make a judgement call about Mueller's report.
Why? Because the underlying motivation behind the memo was, "getting a jump on public relations."
Did the GOP use fraudulent candidates to control the Minnesota state Senate?
The Republican Party currently maintains a majority in the MN Senate by a single vote: 35-34.
It appears they leveraged the growing popularity of two marijuana parties to hold on to power.
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In 2018, two marijuana legalization parties broke the popularity barrier to achieve Major Party status under MN state law.
This allowed them to appear on statewide ballots without needing to collect signatures - but it also meant they lost control over who ran under their name.
Leading up to the 2020 election, as early as June, MN journalists were seeing a trend - candidates running for Senate under these two parties, who had no experience, weren’t even particularly active on the issue, and who appeared to be quite Republican.
“Money laundering is a crime that makes other crimes possible. It can accelerate economic inequality, drain public funds, undermine democracy, and destabilize nations — and the banks play a key role.”
“The Trump administration has made it even harder to hold executives personally accountable, under guidance by former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein that warned government agencies against “piling on.”
How to Actually Prosecute the Financial Crimes of the Very Rich
“I quit the DOJ because I no longer wanted to participate in a system this permissive.”
Paul E. Pelletier
Former federal financial-crimes prosecutor
Two days after Biden was inaugurated, I said that, as long as we can root out dark money and opaque funding sources in our political system, Dems would be in a great position to win in 2022.
I still believe this, which is why I have spent so much time bringing attention to it.
Dark money vehicles are also responsible for funding and coordinating most of the astroturf style propaganda operations that continue to divide us against each other and erode confidence in our government.
The network has also repeatedly facilitated online and offline harassment campaigns against perceived enemies, often leading to real-world harm, including attacks and assaults.
Sorry, it’s that Obama was an “Arab,” not a Nigerian Muslim terrorist (that was said about Obama many times too, but that isn’t what was said in this clip).
This was 13 years ago.
And here is how Liz Cheney handled the seething anger engendered toward Obama and Dems over the idea he was born in Kenya. She justified & basically encouraged it.