Dem
54
Ties
2
GOP
44
Our focus right now is mostly on the election results, but we can't entirely ignore the courts, because there's still so much going on. These people just can't stop breaking the law.
Bench Slapped: Federal Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui granted two former FBI agents' motion to dismiss on November 2 and threw out criminal charges brought by the DoJ for allegedly making inconsistent statements in Congressional testimony, which is AG Todd Blanche's go-to accusation when no actual crimes have been committed.
FBI agents Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides, both decorated FBI agents who have served under presidents of both parties, were Trump targets because they were part of the Foreign Influence Task Force, which was created to combat Russian interference in U.S. elections. The agents had cast doubt on the veracity of a report involving Hunter Biden and his laptop and concluded, along with most other agents, that it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. But Blanche didn't want to risk another humiliating defeat from a grand jury, so he filed a criminal complaint instead. Taking that route means a judge must make a finding of probable cause before the case can move forward. That didn't go very well. With other former FBI agents in the courtroom, such as Brian Driscoll (aka, "The Drizz," who tried to protect agents from the DOGE purge), Judge Faruqui laid into the government attorneys for an hour. He dismantled every aspect of the case and found no probable cause for any of it. He personally apologized to the agents for having been dragged through the process and concluded, "What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization."
Our Take: Once again a federal judge has brought the hammer down on the DoJ for its political persecutions of innocent government officials. Faruqui said the case was clearly rushed so it could be filed before the midterms, to make a splash with voters. "There was simply no other event on the calendar except one—the midterms," he said. "I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar." The DoJ's losing streak continues. We'll see if they take the hint anytime soon.
Rock You Like a Hurricane: The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Donald Trump's enforcer in the Sunshine State, has resigned. Jason Reding Quinones, the architect of the so-called grand conspiracy theory that tried to wrap in 2020 election denialism with the 2016 Russia investigation, wasted enormous resources abusing his power and going after former government officials who were not sufficiently subservient to Trump. After coming up empty and losing people like Joseph DeGenova, another nutjob who ran into uncomfortable legal realities, Quinones' incompetence finally caught up with him. On his watch, almost half the office quit and he had to bring in military lawyers to fill the gaps.
Our Take: Another rat has jumped the sinking ship. Let's hope the exodus continues. Quinones had no business leading the U.S. Attorneys' office and hopefully this baseless persecution of those officials assigned to Crossfire Hurricane and other efforts to combat foreign influence in our elections will finally stop. No charges have been filed against anyone, just endless subpoenas, searches and harassment. It's yet another shameful and blatant abuse of power. The Florida Bar should investigate Quinones and revoke his law license.
Triple Bogey: The judge overseeing the case over the Washington, DC, golf course has really reached the end of her rope. U.S. District Judge for D.C. Ana Reyes has accused the DoJ of lying to her about the status of the project multiple times and of deliberately stonewalling her efforts to find someone with direct knowledge of the plans for the course. She has already enjoined any further work or modifications to the existing course, including tree removal. But now she wants to know whether DoJ or park officials misled her about the plans to remove 400 trees that were cut down while the injunction was in place. She intends to appoint ex-prosecutor Jessie Liu as a special master to investigate the government's conduct. The parties have a chance to weigh in before she makes it official.
Our Take: Well, this just got real. Readers may recall that Jessie Liu is a former U.S. Attorney for D.C. and was nominated by Trump to be an Associate Attorney General before she was forced out for being insufficiently MAGA. This type of investigation is a precursor to holding administration officials in contempt if it's found that they violated ethics rules or lied to the court. Reyes took this step at the end of a long and contentious hearing where she was given the run-around by DoJ lawyers, including Stanley Woodward, who were flippant and disrespectful. Not a great way to avoid a finding of contempt, but these guys really like to push the envelope.
Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them:: U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, whose attempt to prosecute protesters at a Broadview detention facility (the Broadview Six case) fell apart spectacularly due to grand jury misconduct, has been ordered to testify in a hearing to determine whether he made false statements to the judge about the origins of the case. U.S. District Judge April Perry, another judge at the end of her rope, ordered Boutros to testify at a Nov. 16 hearing regarding statements he made in court filings denying any communication with the White House regarding charging decisions.
The order comes amidst a civil case brought by former FBI agent Douglas DePodesta against Boutros, FBI Director Kash Patel and Todd Blanche. The suit alleges that Boutros falsely claimed to the White House that DePodesta was engaged in a conspiracy to tank the case with his sister-in-law, who represents one of the Broadview Six defendants. DePodesta was the former Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago FBI office and claims that he was pressured to investigate the case after Boutros met with Patel and Blanche in DePodesta's office. This claim contradicts Boutros' statements to the Perry. Stanley Woodward inserted himself in these proceedings as well, and asked the judge to "clarify" her order. Perry called the request "cagey" and a delay tactic and wrote in her Nov. 2 order that "generally, attorneys appreciate the opportunity to provide evidence that they have not lied to the court, and the court wanted to provide that opportunity to these prosecutors."
Our Take: Wow, wow, wow. How many times can we say "unprecedented" and "out of bounds" and "against all ethical and prosecutorial guidelines"? Woodward and the DoJ are just openly challenging and flouting the court's authority and taking a mocking tone while doing it. And it sounds like Boutros is just blatantly lying to the court and trying to cover it up. As a reminder, these people are not consigliere for mafiosi. They are supposed to be representing the people of the United States and enforcing laws on our behalf. We can't lose sight of their degradation and misconduct.
In an interesting development, AUSA William Hogan, one of the attorneys called to testify along with Boutros, has hired his own counsel, who asked for a week's delay in the hearing until Nov. 23 to prepare his client because it's "possible" the government's interests "may not be aligned" with his. That sounds like someone ready to spill the tea. Stay tuned.
Hoppin' John: The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the Supreme Court leak of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. It's being headed up by Jeanine Pirro, who has sent grand jury subpoenas to Court employees. She's assigned one of her top
croniesprosecutors, Carlton Davis, to the case. He was in charge of the failed prosecution of six Democratic lawmakers who made a video reminding military personnel of their right to refuse illegal orders. Neither he nor Pirro could say what law was broken by leaking the opinion.Our Take: This one is a real head-scratcher. Whose score is this settling? Anti-abortion groups? The Court is not going to want Pirro poking her nose into its business, especially when the Court did its own investigation and came up with bupkis (supposedly), because everyone knows the leak came from Justice Samuel Alito's office. Perhaps this is to appease the MAGA conspiracy theorists who are convinced the leak came from a liberal office. But you can bet that Chief Justice John Roberts is going to do his best to shut all this down. If he's not successful, grab your popcorn, because this oughta be quite the show.
The Last Frontier: Attorney General Todd Blanche has doubled down on his bogus lawsuit against the state of Alaska. He has now sent what are called "target letters" to some election officials, and at least one voting rights group attorney. These letters are typically sent before the recipient is indicted. Marc Elias, an attorney who has been at the forefront of many significant legal cases challenging Trump's actions to overturn the 2020 election, and his overreach in his second term, was sent one of these letters. In response, he said, "We will not be intimidated by a sham investigation. We are going to keep working around the clock to support our clients and make sure President Trump and his party enjoy a well-deserved beating at the ballot box."
Our Take: Once again, Trump's subservient DoJ is just abusing the prosecutor's office to punish a political adversary. Not surprisingly, none of the target letters mentions what crime has allegedly been committed. And we've seen how much trouble the DoJ lawyers have in trying to secure an indictment against innocent people. It just got even more difficult, because, as we note above, a preliminary review of ballots that have been cast in Alaska show that if the Senate election goes to ranked choice voting, that will actually help Mary Peltola. As it turns out, most voters who ranked Dan J. Sullivan Jr. first ranked Peltola second, not the incumbent Sullivan. So, there goes the theory that voters were confused by the two Sullivans. But, more importantly, it's still not a crime to recruit a candidate with the same name as another candidate.
And with that, court is adjourned. (Z)