The judge just set a trial date for June 2024 for Hunter Biden. That puts the trial smack dab in the campaign season for President Biden...
...This is the best possible jurisdiction for any Biden to go to trial. However, this judge has previously sentencing someone who failed to pay roughly the same amount to two years in prison...
...District Judge Mark Scarsi is a respected, no-nonsense judge who is likely to move the case along. Scarsi was the managing partner of Milbank’s Los Angeles office and is a remarkably good fit for this tax case.
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As expected, Hunter Biden is seeking a do-over just as the House moves toward a contempt sanction. It confirms the cynical calculus made in holding the defiant presser and crashing the hearing this week...foxnews.com/politics/hunte…
...Why should the House issue a new subpoena when the first subpoena was entirely and undeniably valid? Moreover, why should it do that after you waited for the Committee to hold an entire hearing and vote to hold you in contempt?...
...Hunter is still mocking the process and acting as if he is entitled to dictate conditions for his appearance. After parading around Capitol Hill, he may now seek to appear and refuse to answer questions under the 5th Amendment...
Sen. Menendez is responding to the latest criminal charges against him related to gifts from Qatar. It is a bizarre scene. He is telling his colleagues that his second federal prosecution threatens all of them...
...It is a glimpse of his defense played out on the Senate floor. He dismissed the gifts as virtual trivialities. Menendez, as in the past, is unlikely to convince many. However, he has shown that nothing says success as much as a hung jury...jonathanturley.org/2023/09/27/the…
...Notably, his litany of actions taken against countries like Egypt is legally dubious. It is the accepting of the gifts as bribes that is the focus, not whether it produced uniform corrupt results. However, Menendez is also raising constitutional concerns over the charges...
DOJ's James Pearse was just questioned by the D.C. Circuit panel. Judge Pan and other judges on the panel are pushing the argument that the appeal should be treated as an improper interlocutory matter and simply dismissed. Notably, the Special Counsel wants a ruling.
...Judge Henderson has pushed the DOJ on the problem of opening the "floodgates" if they allow this prosecution for future presidents. Henderson noted that the DOJ warned previously that such prosecutions are necessarily or unavoidably "political" ...
...Judge Pan just asked Pearce whether the SC is arguing for a case-by-case judgment on when there is immunity. It sounds like that is precisely what the SC is arguing -- a position that could produce unease over the chilling effect on future presidents...
President Biden gave a powerful speech and the lessons that he raised about George Washington should resonate with all Americans. However, his defense of democracy would be stronger if he supported its practice by denouncing the effort to remove Trump from ballots...
...As I just wrote about, Democratic leaders have pushed for years to use the 14th Amendment to block not just Trump but 126 members of Congress. The Democratic party has barred other candidates from opposing Biden in states like North Carolina and Floridajonathanturley.org/2024/01/05/bal…
...I have praised Democrats (including judges) who have rejected this anti-democratic effort, including politicians who (unlike the President) have denounced this effort. It is also true that there are Republicans supporting this efforts...
Anti-Israel protesters just shutdown the California assembly and reportedly required members to flee. Some members denounced the protest as a move to “shut down the democratic process"...sacbee.com/news/politics-…
...The timing of the California protest is hardly optimal for Colorado counsel. The protest occurred just after the Trump team just filed with the Court to object to the ambiguity in how protests are classified as insurrections, citing other violent and disruptive protests.
...Obviously, Jan. 6th was far more damaging to our system and to the U.S. Capitol. However, the appeal to the Supreme Court asks for a discernible and bright line in how disruptive protests are treated for the purposes of 14th Amendment disqualifications, particularly without any prior action of Congress or related criminal conviction.
The office of Secretary of State Jena Griswald issued a statement that, since the appeal was filed with the Supreme Court, Trump's name will remain on the ballot "unless the U.S. Supreme Court declines to take the case or otherwise affirms the Colorado Supreme Court ruling."...
...This statement has appeared on a couple sites and raises a novel question of whether it could effectively avoid review by the Supreme Court by mooting the issue for the primary ballot if the court simply runs out the clock before Jan. 5th...
...At that point, some could argue that it would be moot if there would be no change of the ballot. Yet, it is clear that this issue will only repeat itself for the general election. The Court should rule, but the position could remove the urgency of a ruling before Jan. 5th...