While some legal experts have insisted such concealment is clearly a criminal matter that must be charged, they were conspicuously silent when Hillary Clinton faced a campaign concealment allegation...thehill.com/opinion/judici… ...Last year, the FEC fined the Clinton campaign for funding the Steele dossier as a legal expense. The campaign had previously denied funding the dossier and buried the funding in the campaign’s legal budget. jonathanturley.org/2022/03/31/fec…

Hallie Biden has just been named as the third Biden who received money from Chinese interests in the initial "suspicious activity reports." The inclusion of Hallie with Hunter and James Biden reaffirm the view of a family influence peddling enterprise...
jonathanturley.org/2022/11/10/was… ...Apologists are already objecting that influence peddling is perfectly legal. Indeed, it is a virtual cottage industry in D.C. However, it is also a raw form of corruption that is being largely ignored by the media...

Ranking member Plaskett is attacking the witnesses in today's Twitter Files hearing. It is part of an overall scorched Earth strategy against anyone who testifies on censorship The two witnesses were given access to the Twitter Files but Plaskett is dismissing them. ...While opposing any effort to determine the scope of censorship efforts by the government. Plaskett is launching a diatribe against Musk. He is getting off light. At my hearing, witnesses were called "Putin lovers" and insurrectionists sympathizers. jonathanturley.org/2023/02/12/is-…

The second case is before the Court and Roberts is pressing Prelogar on why the two students are not injured and whether, if the program is struck down, it could help them with a rewrite of the program. ...Gorsuch agreed with Prelogar and hit the use of the universal vacatur by the lower court. Eventually, with some audible laughter, the Chief Justice and others noted that this was an argument outside of the merits.

Solicitor General Prelogar is doing (as usual) an excellent job in oral argument on the Biden loan forgiveness. However, she is facing considerable skepticism from Chief Justice Roberts that this was ever intended by Congress... ...Roberts is a key vote for the Biden Administration. Even Justice Sotomayor has noted that the size of the giveaway would seem to favor the Court looking at it as "major question", triggering the major question doctrine...

In anticipation of today's arguments on the Biden loan bailout, CNN reporter Devan Cole questioned the role of a Court composed of "nine relatively wealthy people" who "didn’t live the experiences of the people that benefit from the president’s debt relief program"... ...I suppose that is why we should insist on courts composed of lumberjacks to rule on forestry regulations and death row inmates to rule on capital punishment cases...

The decision stop funding of the GDI is laudable, but many questions remain on efforts to combat "disinformation." jonathanturley.org/2023/02/20/the… We are engaged in a game of Whac-a-Mole with the Administration where we hit a disinformation board and a disinformation index pops up. ...NED insists that they were not directed to fund the Index and had other donors but it is unclear if the Administration was informed of the grant. It is also unclear whether federal money went to other disinformation efforts...

James Clapper hit Politico for distorting his infamous letter on the Hunter Biden laptop. foxnews.com/media/james-cl… He insists that, shortly before an election, they were merely raising the possibility that it might be Russian disinformation in a letter signed by 50 high ranking… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… ...Of course, that is the very profile of disinformation that was used by Twitter and other companies to censor others. When scientists and pundits stated that they were offering alternative views on covid or elections, they were censored or suspended...

The collective demand is for trillions in California alone with additional trillions demanded from Congress in a national reparations program. Democrats will now have to render a decision on committing real money on reparations to show that this was not jonathanturley.org/2023/02/13/a-b…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… ...California Gov. Gavin Newsom's Reparations Task Force has called for $223,000 per person. While San Francisco's African American Reparations Advisory Committee wants to give $5 million to each eligible Black resident.

In yesterday's heated hearing with former Twitter executives, it was the testimony of Anika Collier Navaroli that proved the most enlightening and chilling on what she repeatedly called the “nuanced” standard used by her and her staff on censorship...
jonathanturley.org/2023/02/09/fre… Navaroli: “Instead of asking just free speech versus safety to say free speech for whom and public safety for whom. So whose free expression are we protecting at the expense of whose safety and whose safety are we willing to allow to go the winds so that people can speak freely.”

Navaroli just explained the Twitter standard and it is chilling: “Instead of asking free speech versus safety to say free speech for for whom and public safety for whom... ..."So whose free expression are we protecting at the expense of whose safety and whose safety are we willing to allow to go the winds to protect so we can speak freely." Rep. Stansbury responded “Exactly”...

The thrill kill coverage is raging again with the buzz around the new book on indicting Trump. news.yahoo.com/book-reveals-t… There is little discussion of how the book shatters professional norms and practices... ...Manhattan District Attorney Bragg is trying to make a case against Trump despite his early skepticism. His office objected to former special assistant DA Mark Pomerantz rushing out a book on the still active case...

The video is out on the Tyre Nichols incident. The first video shows Nichols on the ground and an officer kicking him in what appears to be his head. ...Another video show the officers screaming repeatedly "give me your hands" as they strike him. There seemed a distinct lack of action to immobilize Nichols given the multiple officers.

The 911 tape was just played. It is perfectly bizarre. Pelosi is clearly trying to convey alarm without angering DePape who tells him to put the phone down... ...Pelosi is trying to convey who he is by referencing the Capitol Police and his wife. The operator at one point says that he should call back if there is a problem. Pelosi quickly tries to keep her on the line...

Riddle me this: why can the Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby answer basic questions about classification rules but not the White House Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre? ...Both appear in the press room to answer questions and Kirby had no difficulty answering questions about the rules regarding the removal of classified documents from SCIFs. No mantra on sending reporters to counsel for the President.

The refusal of Karine Jean-Pierre to answer any question on classified documents lacks any cognizable legal or logical rationale. She just refused to answer whether the Administration thinks other former elected officials should take care in checking for classified documents. ...Why does the media have to ask legal counsel whether the Administration thinks former officials should take care to check for any classified documents improperly held in their home?

Classified documents have now reportedly been found at the home of former Vice President Michael Pence. It is a good thing that a "jury of your peers" is not literal or the court might have to strike the entire pool in D.C. for cause... foxnews.com/politics/vice-… ...It seems the most disqualifying question in voir dire for jury selection is "do you have classified material at home?" Half the jury may walk out of the courtroom...

The NY Times ran an Orwellian piece on how the Chinese surveillance and censorship offers “its own kind of freedom." It is the latest embrace on the left of speech controls. jonathanturley.org/2023/01/05/the… That includes praise from academics for Chinese controls. jonathanturley.org/2022/11/11/chi… ...Here is the NYT piece titled “China Helped Raise My American Kids, and They Turned Out Fine." It is amazing how liberating the lack of liberty can be. It is right up there with the satirical movie "Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb"...

When asked if Biden should have "regrets," Rep. Ro Khanna just told Fox said "why can't we have a process to make sure classified documents aren't removed or to make sure a member of Congress is not removing this?" We do ... ...Khanna called for "reforms" but the standards are clear. Members like then Sen. Biden are not allowed to remove classified documents. They sign papers to that effect. While they are not strip searched, that process have existed for decades...

The FBI is reportedly debating a research of Biden's other residences and locations. Months after the first discovery of classified material, the Justice Department is taking a remarkably laid back approach to securing any other possible documents... ...Since there is no objection to the search, it is hard to understand the position of the FBI. This comes after reportedly declining to take conduct the prior searches and continue to rely on counsel, who missed material in earlier searches... jonathanturley.org/2023/01/16/all…

Jean-Pierre was just asked what the President meant what he says that he has "no regrets." That is clearly not a question for counsel but she refused to answer the question and referred again to the White House counsel... jonathanturley.org/2023/01/20/i-h… ...However, that treats the President like a criminal defendant speaking through counsel even when he has spoken publicly on the case...