Bolton's Revelations About Trump

He was willing to testify. The Democrats just rushed ahead and impeached without calling him to testify first.

But really, what he writes in his book is no big deal. Nothing that he has to say would have changed the result.

Or maybe the Democrats rushed ahead with impeachment without calling him to testify first.

If my memory serves, Bolton lawyered up, stating he had to be subpoenaed first. And then openly defy the subpoena as per Trump's instructions & entourage did. It would have been another Court case and time consuming maneuver. Since the sham leadership in the Senate had already said they wouldn't convict Trump any way, there was no point to subpoena Bolton for his testimony.

Well, yes. But that's the way the system works.



Hardly a sham. We have real leaders in the Senate, on the Republican side at least.

It's true that there was no point to the impeachment. The President did nothing wrong.

But if the Democrats had wanted Mr. Bolton to testify, they could have pursued it.

I am concerned this type of "Testimony by Court Order" is the Republican legacy. It's now been shown to be an effective way thwart any accountability to Congress. It worked once.

It will work again. Only next time it may or may not be in Republican favor.

This is not how it should have been done, gone is an honorable way to legislate.

I don't really see the problem. If a future Congress chooses to pursue their claims in court, future courts will settle the issue then.

We knew that going in Mitch announced it up front and he knows that he could be charged with witnss tampeing, a felony, when he leaves office.
To think that Trump is off the hook, he will probably be charged and convicted of felonies after hes no longer president.
Hes merely a well connected ignoramus.

Outlawing the Democratic Party will put an end to their abuse of the law to conduct witch hunts against people who disagree with them.

Actually you should read the Federalist and several documents commenting on political parties.
The Constitution is, as you may know, silent on them. So why outlaw one or the other. Why not all??

reccommening such a dumb action would, I believe, be in violation of the first amendment of our Constitution.

You may look it up about from where political parties derive

Because only one of these parties abuses the law to conduct witch hunts against people who disagree with them.



The First Amendment does not prevent outlawing a party that abuses the law to conduct witch hunts against innocent people.

But he won't, he's weak-minded.........it's sad, but you shouldn't engage him as if he's grounded or educated..........please help him or ignore him.

The only weak-minded and uneducated person here is you.

this entire thread is a steaming pile of horseshit.

The firstAmendment of our Constitution is SILENT regarding political parties. The right to present grievances is free of any party involvements.

I really believe Glitterbag when she states that youre quite a bit down the brightness scale. Maybe you shine out a lumen or two.

U.S. judge rules against Trump administration's request to block Bolton's book

Basically it's a "why close the barn door after the horses are gone" ruling. Nevertheless, it's coming out Tuesday for everyone else to buy.

Why waste your money? The lies will be repeated about 200 times a day on CNN.

My IQ is 170. That's a lot smarter than you and glitterbag.

Powerful US attorney who investigated Trump associates refuses to step down after Barr tries to push him out
By Erica Orden, Kara Scannell and Evan Perez, CNN

Updated 12:02 PM ET, Sat June 20, 2020

Washington (CNN)In a fast-escalating crisis Friday night, Attorney General William Barr tried to oust Geoffrey Berman, the powerful US attorney for the Southern District of New York who has investigated a number of associates of President Donald Trump, but Berman defied him by refusing to step down.

In an extraordinary statement sent roughly an hour after Barr said Berman was set to leave the office, Berman said he had learned of his purported exit from a press release.

"I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate," Berman said. "Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption."

The standoff opens up a fresh crisis at the Justice Department, places the leadership of the most prominent federal prosecutors office outside Washington in a precarious position and again raises questions about Barr's willingness to steer the department to suit Trump's political agenda.

Berman's rebuttal came about an hour after the Department of Justice announced Trump intends to nominate Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has never been a prosecutor.

A Justice Department official told CNN that Berman was offered other positions at Justice, including the head of the civil division, where assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt abruptly announced his departure this week. Berman declined.

A second source with knowledge of the matter said Berman was asked to resign and refused. Barr asked Berman to resign in an in-person meeting in New York on Friday, the source said.

Berman, before walking into his office in downtown New York Saturday morning, told reporters, "I issued a statement last night, I have nothing to add to that this morning. I'm just here to do my job."

The timing of the move, announced after 9 p.m. ET, immediately raised questions about the circumstances regarding Berman's departure.
Any forced ouster of Berman is likely to draw scrutiny inside the US attorney's office and among career prosecutors. He has been the US attorney for Manhattan since 2018, and under his leadership, his office prosecuted Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, is investigating top Trump confidante Rudy Giuliani and indicted the former New York mayor's associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman.

Tensions between the New York and Washington offices have grown with Berman and Barr butting heads over the handling of some cases, including the indictment of Turkish bank Halkbank.

Last fall, Justice Department officials discussed replacing Berman with Ed O'Callaghan, a senior official, but then prosecutors indicted the Giuliani associates, a move that appeared to extend Berman's tenure.

Trump and Barr have long taken issue with the office's handling of various cases, but people close to the office believe its string of extremely high-profile investigations -- including those of Cohen, Giuliani and Jeffrey Epstein -- may have deterred Justice officials from pushing out Berman because his exit would have been certain to cause an uproar and charges of political interference. For the last several months, however, largely due to the coronavirus pandemic, the office has had a relatively quiet period, and some believe Barr seized that opportunity to oust Berman.

Preet Bharara, a CNN senior legal analyst who was fired by Trump as US attorney for the Southern District shortly after Trump took office in 2017, told CNN's Don Lemon that the late-night announcement was a "highly irregular thing to do ... when there are all sorts of investigations swirling around."

"The President, his associates, there may be anger about the way that some of the prior investigations were conducted, with respect to his former lawyer Michael Cohen and others," he added.

Democrats on Capitol Hill immediately demanded answers.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the "late Friday night dismissal reeks of potential corruption of the legal process. What is angering President Trump? A previous action by this U.S. Attorney or one that is ongoing?"

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat, said "America is right to expect the worst of Bill Barr, who has repeatedly interfered in criminal investigations on Trump's behalf," adding that he would invite Berman to testify.

Long-running feud with SDNY

Trump has frequently clashed with the leadership of the prosecutors' office in New York and bristled at their investigations.

The President has been weighing replacing Berman since at least the middle of 2018, two people familiar with the matter told CNN, and Trump made references in private to replacing him since at least the summer of 2018, they said -- only a few months after Berman assumed the role.

Trump has grown progressively more upset with the office since it began its investigation into Cohen, and believed its investigation into Giuliani was meant to damage him politically, one person said.

In 2018, Trump lashed out after federal agents in New York raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room as part of an investigation by federal prosecutors who were examining a hush-money scheme involving Trump and adult film star Stormy Daniels, calling the searches "an attack on our country." Cohen later pleaded guilty to eight counts, including campaign-finance violations, and implicated Trump.

Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton writes in his forthcoming book that in 2018, Trump offered to help Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a Justice Department investigation into a Turkish bank, Halkbank, with ties to Erdogan that was suspected of violating US Iran sanctions.

Trump, according to Bolton, told his Turkish counterpart that the Southern District prosecutors "were not his people, but were Obama people," and the problem would be fixed when they were replaced by Trump. At the time, Berman had already been installed in New York office. Berman and the Justice Department brought a case against Halkbank in October 2019.

Before Clayton was nominated to the SEC post by Trump, he was a corporate lawyer at Sullivan & Cromwell. If confirmed, Clayton would be the first non-prosecutor to lead SDNY.

Barr and Clayton have known each other for years, the Justice official said, and Clayton was planning to leave to go back to NY. He expressed interest in the SDNY job, the Justice official said, and Barr agreed.

Barr said Trump has appointed Craig Carpenito, currently the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, to serve as the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York until Clayton is confirmed. Carpenito will begin the role on July 3.

Trump on firing of Geoffrey Berman: 'I'm not involved'
By Erica Orden and David Shortell, CNN

Updated 4:32 PM ET, Sat June 20, 2020

Barr says Trump has fired US attorney Berman

(CNN)Attorney General Bill Barr said in a letter Saturday that President Donald Trump had fired Geoffrey Berman, the powerful prosecutor atop the Manhattan US Attorney's office who has investigated Trump's allies, after Berman refused Barr's effort a day prior to oust him.

"Unfortunately, with your statement of last night, you have chosen public spectacle over public service," Barr said in his letter to Berman. "Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so."

But Trump said Saturday he wasn't involved with the decision.

"Well, that's all up to the attorney general. Attorney General Barr is working on that," Trump said on the South Lawn ahead of his departure for his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "That's his department, not my department. But we have a very capable attorney general so that's really up to him. I'm not involved."

The remarkable escalation comes after Barr tried to remove Berman on Friday, but Berman defied Barr by refusing to step down. In an extraordinary statement sent roughly an hour after Barr said Berman was set to leave the office, Berman said he had learned of his purported exit from a press release.

"I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate," Berman said.

Barr's letter Saturday noted that "by operation of law," Berman's current deputy, Audrey Strauss, will become Acting US Attorney, "and I anticipate that she will serve in that capacity until a permanent successor is in place."

On Friday evening, Barr said he intends to nominate as Berman's permanent successor Jay Clayton, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who has never been a prosecutor.

Barr's effort to push out one of the most powerful prosecutors in the country had begun to run into headwinds Saturday, with Republicans signaling little appetite to fight to confirm a new US attorney amid Democratic accusations that the move was an effort to shield Trump's associates from federal investigation.

Republicans on Capitol Hill were blindsided by the late Friday night effort by Barr to seek the ouster of Berman and showed little willingness to confirm a new nominee without Democratic support -- meaning there's a real possibility that the nomination of Jay Clayton to replace him could languish and Berman could stay at the post indefinitely.

The fast-moving developments seemed to catch by surprise Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump's and Barr's, who said Saturday he had not been told about the effort to fire Berman.

And in a significant announcement Saturday, Graham announced that he will honor tradition to let home-state senators sign off on a replacement for Berman's post, meaning that Democrats essentially have veto power over a replacement to a position considered the most powerful US attorney job in the country.

Berman, seemingly undeterred by the controversy, showed up to work Saturday morning, telling reporters: "I'm just here to do my job."

You have no idea about my "IQ" because I keep it to myself. The fact that you like to keep announcing yours as if its a feat of nature is really quite sad.
Still avoiding your general knowledge of the Constitution? Youve had sufficient time to employ Google .