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Warren: America Needs Legislation To Allow Indictment Of The President

Warren: America Needs Legislation To Allow Indictment Of The President

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday set out to change a decades-old rule which allows a U.S. president to abuse power in any number of ways without being held accountable.

In a Medium post titled “No President Is Above the Law,” the Massachusetts Democrat called on lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow for the indictment of a sitting president—a measure that would have allowed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to act on his decision not to exonerate President Donald Trump.

“Donald Trump believes that he can violate the law, and he believes that the role of the Department of Justice is to help him get away with it,” Warren wrote. “That’s not how our country is supposed to work.”

Warren’s newest proposal came two days after Mueller delivered a statement to the press about his report on Trump’s 2016 campaign and his alleged attempts to obstruct justice during Mueller’s two-year investigation. The special counsel reiterated that he was not confident that the president did not commit a crime, but pointed to a Watergate-era statute which prohibited him from bringing charges against Trump.

“Mueller’s statement made clear what those of us who have read his report already knew: He’s referring President Trump for impeachment, and it’s up to Congress to act,” wrote Warren. “But impeachment isn’t supposed to be the only way that a president can be held accountable for committing a crime. That’s why I’ve got a plan to make sure that no president is above the law.”

Under Warren’s plan, Congress would pass legislation clarifying that the Department of Justice (DOJ) can indict a sitting president. The new law would negate a determination made by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel in 1973 that a criminal case against the president would be detrimental to the country, leaving Congress only with the option of impeachment in the case of criminal wrongdoing.

“Yes, Congress has a constitutional obligation to impeach the president when he violates the law,” Warren said. “But lawyers for previous presidents have used this constitutional duty to argue that the only way the president can be held accountable for criminal behavior is through impeachment.”

“Congress should make it clear that the president can be held accountable for violating the law, just like everyone else,” she added.

Warren also called for amendments to obstruction of justice statutes. The new laws would make it clear that actions including Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey and his alleged offer to pardon former lawyer Michael Cohen if he lied to Congress on his behalf, would constitute indictable offenses.

“Most people agree that these laws apply to the president, but some partisan extremists, like Attorney General Bill Barr, have argued that they don’t,” Warren wrote.

Barr, Warren argued, “disgraced himself” when he disobeyed a congressional subpoena to release the unredacted Mueller report and vehemently defended the president in his summary of Mueller’s findings. If elected president, the senator wrote, she would appoint an attorney general and other agency officials who would reverse the DOJ’s 1973 opinion and “who [know] their job is to objectively advise the executive branch on what it can and cannot do under the Constitution.”

“Our democracy only works if everyone can be held accountable,” wrote Warren. “These changes will make sure that’s the case for generations to come.”

5 Signs FIFA Was Always Corrupt

5 Signs FIFA Was Always Corrupt

Is this the end of FIFA?

Probably not. The game is too popular and has too much money in reserves.

Besides, this isn’t really FIFA’s fault — as FIFA’s president Sepp Blatter said, he “cannot monitor everyone all of the time.” But he did promise to address these issues when he said, “It has to stop here and now.”

In total, 14 FIFA officials and sports marketing executives have been arrested and face extradition to the U.S. to stand trial. Meanwhile, Blatter is up for re-election Friday and is still the odds-on favorite to win.

Here are five reminders that we already knew FIFA, the largest sports organization governing the world’s most popular sport, was corrupt.

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1. Loretta Lynch was on the case back in Brooklyn.

Before she was attorney general, Loretta Lynch was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. Seven years ago, alongside the FBI, Lynch and her team began to peel back the layers of the corrupt practices of the global sports organization. The 47-count indictment she nailed to FIFA’s door included racketeering, wire fraud, and money-laundering conspiracies—all of which occurred over two decades and “used the banking and the wire facilities of the U.S. to distribute their bribe payments,” she said in a recent press conference.

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2. Grantland called it.

In 2011, Grantland published a thorough review of FIFA’s history, focusing on the organization’s ability to blindside the masses with its irresistible product: soccer.

“Should it matter to soccer fans if FIFA is corrupt? By almost any measure the game is thriving, with more fans in more corners of the world, every day. If the combined audience for just the final two rounds of the 2010 World Cup were a country, it would be, by far, the most populous nation on Earth. Most of these fans seem to be enjoying themselves, so if a cabal of scheming old men in Zurich happens to be pulling strings behind the scenes, why should the rest of us worry?”

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3. John Oliver already gave FIFA a red card.

“Just think about it. Its leader is infallible. It compels South American countries to spend money they don’t have building opulent cathedrals, and it may ultimately be responsible for shocking numbers of deaths of people in the Middle East.”

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4. There’s an Italian movie about this. And it’s hilariously accurate.

A hotshot referee is relegated to a low-tier league in Sardinia after caught taking bribes on a high-stakes game. He finds himself among the soccer-obsessed world of these small-town footballers, where daily life seems to depend on the outcome of the game. L’arbitro is a parable about the beautiful game. The lesson: Money corrupts.

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5. The Simpsons foreshadowed these arrests last season.

Of course, with almost preternatural social awareness, the hit television series The Simpsons had already ribbed FIFA for its history of corrupt practices. This clip is from a March 2014 episode entitled, “You Don’t Have To Live Like A Referee.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIj4c7dJsQ8

 

Photo: PAN photo via Flickr

 

Christie Comments On Bridge Scandal Case At Mississippi Campaign Event

Christie Comments On Bridge Scandal Case At Mississippi Campaign Event

By Melissa Hayes, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.) (TNS)

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) told reporters in Mississippi that he’s now been cleared in the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal by three different investigations and if defense attorneys want to subpoena him, they can.

Christie took questions from reporters after attending a campaign event for Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R-MI) at a restaurant in Flowood, Miss., Tuesday afternoon.

Christie said he’s now been cleared by a legislative committee that was headed by Democrats, an internal investigation conducted by an attorney he hired, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He said all three came to the same conclusions “that I had nothing to do with this.”

“All you can do is tell the truth, and that’s what I’ve done and what I’ll continue to do,” he said, appearing on a video stream of the event, which aired live on social media.

The event marked the first time Christie has spoken to reporters since his former deputy chief of staff and an appointee at the Port Authority were indicted Friday on charges they conspired to close the lanes in an act of political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, who declined to endorse Christie’s re-election bid in 2013. The indictments came as another Christie ally at the Port Authority pleaded guilty to two charges related to the lane closures as part of a plea deal for cooperating with federal authorities.

Christie, who is considering a presidential bid, is attending events in Mississippi and Louisiana Tuesday. He campaigned for Bryant in 2011 and Christie made an appearance for him last year amid a busy schedule of events as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

Christie was asked whether the event also served as a campaign stop for his potential presidential candidacy.

“Oh heck, if it was a campaign stop for me, Bryant would be talking a lot more than me,” Christie said. “I’d have him telling people in Mississippi what he thinks of me. So no, this is really about Phil.”

Christie said he supported Bryant’s candidacy in 2011 and was in Mississippi Tuesday to urge voters to give him a second term — and also raise money for the state GOP.

“Believe me, if I come down here for campaign stuff for me you’ll know exactly what that looks like and feels like,” Christie said. “This is campaign stuff for my friend Phil Bryant.”

A reporter also asked Christie how his “moderate policies” would affect his potential presidential candidacy, a remark that drew a quick response from the governor.

“Which moderate policies on social issues are you talking about?” Christie asked. “You know, I’m pro-life, I vetoed Planned Parenthood funding in my state five different times, I vetoed a clip reduction.”

The reporter interjected, “What about gay marriage.”

“I vetoed the gay marriage bill in New Jersey and fought it all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court, so I don’t know which moderate social issues you’re all talking about,” Christie said.

The reporter asked again, “So you’re against gay marriage?” Christie replied, “I have always been, yes.”

The governor often faces questions about whether his views are conservative enough to win him a presidential nomination. He attributes his image of being too moderate to governing a Democratic state in the Northeast.

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr

Senator Robert Menendez Pleads Not Guilty To Corruption And Bribery Charges

Senator Robert Menendez Pleads Not Guilty To Corruption And Bribery Charges

By James Queally, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) pleaded not guilty to corruption and bribery charges in Newark, N.J., on Thursday, once again dismissing the long-expected accusations as little more than political gamesmanship.

Menendez and Salomon Melgen, 61, entered not guilty pleas one day after they were indicted on charges of conspiracy, bribery, and fraud. The longtime New Jersey senator’s relationship with Melgen, a wealthy Florida ophthalmologist, has been under scrutiny for years.

In a 95-page indictment unsealed Wednesday, federal prosecutors claimed Menendez accepted nearly one million dollar in gifts, expensive vacations, and campaign contributions from Melgen, and in return, used his political influence to advance the doctor’s business interests and help his girlfriends attain travel visas.

Speaking briefly outside a federal courthouse in downtown Newark, Menendez once again vowed to fight the charges.

“For nearly three years, the Justice Department has pursued allegations based on spears launched by political opponents trying to silence me,” the Democrat told reporters Thursday afternoon. “Now they have laid out their case, we will finally have an opportunity to respond on the record, in court, with the facts.”

Menendez was ordered to surrender his personal passport over objections, and was released on his own recognizance, according to a Justice Department spokeswoman. He was not ordered to turn over his Senate passport.

Melgen posted $1.5 million bond and was released after also agreeing to ground his personal plane, the spokeswoman said.

A status conference hearing was scheduled for April 22, and the trial will begin in Newark on July 13.

In addition to his brief statement in Newark, Menendez also touted his achievements and previous role as a witness in a federal corruption case in New Jersey in a two-minute video released Thursday morning.

“It saddens me that our system of justice has already failed at its most basic level, by leaking information and peddling rumors,” he said, referring to the allegations in the indictment as “completely false.”

Menendez will not relinquish his Senate seat, but said Wednesday he would temporarily step down as the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Photo: www.glynnlowe.com via Flickr