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For all of you out there wondering what "High Crimes & Misdemeanors" means and whether or not there has to be an 'underlying crime' let me help you out here.

Last week I moderated a CLE on Impeachment and you are welcome to the fruits of my labors on that topic. A basic rule of legal interpretation is that you cannot define a legal term using information not yet in existence at the time the term was used. At the time the Constitution was debated and adopted, there was no federal criminal code, much less the US Code we have today.

So, last night, Dave Kelley, whom I have known for my entire adult life, told @AriMelber that the OLC memos were "just a policy" and "policies can be bent or broken". I went to sleep thinking he was just trolling Trump. 1/ I woke up this morning realizing that the Kelley I've known for 35+ years has always been incredibly cautious in his public statements and does not pull pranks on TV. What the hell was that? 2/

Thread from a former Federal Prosecutor: No one is mentioning what a big undertaking a wiretap is. The wire(s?) that were up on Carter Page would have been a HUGE lift in terms of manpower and resources. This is not something you undertake lightly. If you read the Carter Page FISA wiretap applications and orders you will see sections in each relation to "minimization" procedures. Minimization is the process by which agents are to listen to the first few seconds of a call to determine either the ID of the other caller

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So, I read all the Carter Page FISA docs. A couple take aways: 1) In order to get a wiretap warrant renewed you have to show that it's producing info that is helpful to your investigation. 2) The renewal applications keep getting longer and longer. That should mean that the fruits of the existing wire are being recited in the redacted portions of the renewal applications. 3) Whatever is in those redacted parts was enough to convince 4 different GOP appointed Federal Judges. I know nothing about the other 3, but Ray Dearie

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So, I read the new criminal complaint that came out today in connection with the arrest of Maria Butina. Some observations: It's a Complaint not an Indictment which means this information has not yet been presented to the Grand Jury. The two most common reasons to proceed via Complaint is 1) when you have to quickly arrest someone and there is no time to go to the GJ, you arrest, quickly draw up the Complaint which is used at arraignment, and then go to the GJ after, or 2)when the person has already flipped

Thread here. I used to be a federal prosecutor. I read the Russian hacking indictment the day it came out. It details crimes by BOTH Russian GRU officers and American citizens. It is irrelevant whether they US persons knew they were dealing with GRU. THAT IS A RED HERRING! You can commit a crime where the other side of the transaction is an undercover cop or agent. All that matters is that you knew you were committing a crime and believed you were dealing with other criminals.