What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[FunkMonk]

Some actual good news today:

The Army said it will not open an investigation into Lt Col Vindman.

The FBI will not be pursuing charges against former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Interesting to see the Government openly ignoring Donald's public statements.

Oh and Michael Avenatti is going to jail.

[The Minsky Moment]

There was FOIA litigation about the McCabe investigation.  It appears from the transcripts that the lawyers admitted to the judge in an ex parte discussion that the WH was involved in stringing matters out and the judge was none too pleased.

[Sophie Scholl]

3.8 Billion more to be diverted from Defense Spending to pay for the wall as it is deemed "necessary in the national interest." Awesome.

[The Minsky Moment]

I hope the Senate is pleased years from now when President Ocasio-Cortez gets to use her "emergency powers" to reassign appropriated funds to her pet projects.

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/us/politics/michael-flynn-prosecutors-barr.html

Barr Installs Outside Prosecutor to Review Case Against Michael Flynn, Ex-Trump Adviser

Amid turmoil in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, the attorney general has also sent outside prosecutors to review other politically sensitive cases.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General William P. Barr has assigned an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Trump's former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, according to people familiar with the matter.

The review is highly unusual and could trigger more accusations of political interference by top Justice Department officials into the work of career prosecutors.

Mr. Barr has also installed a handful of outside prosecutors to broadly review the handling of other politically sensitive national-security cases in the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, the people said. The team includes at least one prosecutor from the office of the United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, as well as prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen.

Over the past two weeks, the outside prosecutors have begun grilling line prosecutors in the Washington office about various cases — some public, some not — including investigative steps, prosecutorial actions and why they took them, according to the people. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.

The Justice Department declined to comment.

The intervention has contributed to a turbulent period for the prosecutors' office that oversees the seat of the federal government and some of the most politically sensitive investigations and cases — some involving President Trump's friends and allies, and some his critics and adversaries.

This week, four line prosecutors quit the case against Roger Stone Jr., Mr. Trump's close adviser, after Mr. Barr overruled their recommendation that a judge sentence him within sentencing guidelines. Mr. Barr's intervention was preceded by criticism of the original sentencing recommendation by Mr. Trump and praised by him afterward, and Mr. Barr on Thursday publicly asked Mr. Trump to stop commenting about the Justice Department.

The moves amounted to imposing a secondary layer of monitoring and control over what career prosecutors have been doing in the Washington office. They are part of a broader turmoil in that office coinciding with Mr. Barr's recent installation of a close aide, Timothy Shea, as interim United States attorney in the District of Columbia, after Mr. Barr maneuvered out the Senate-confirmed former top prosecutor in the office, Jessie K. Liu.

Mr. Flynn's case was first brought by the special counsel's office, who agreed to a plea deal on a charge of lying to investigators in exchange for his cooperation, before the Washington office took over the case when the special counsel shut down after concluding its investigation into Russia's election interference.

Mr. Flynn's case has been bogged down in recent months by his lawyers' unfounded claims of prosecutorial misconduct; a judge has already rejected those accusations. Mr. Flynn then asked to withdraw his guilty plea, which he first entered in December 2017. His case has become a cause célèbre for Mr. Trump's supporters.

On Tuesday, Mr. Barr and Mr. Rosen overruled career prosecutors' recommendation that a judge sentence Mr. Trump's friend Roger Stone Jr. to seven to nine years in prison after a jury found him guilty of witness intimidation and several false statements charges, in accordance with standard sentencing guidelines, and insisted on a lower recommendation.

After Mr. Trump complained that the sentence for Mr. Stone — who had refused to cooperate with prosecutors by telling the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, what he knew about Mr. Trump and WikiLeaks — all four career prosecutors quit the case.

Mr. Barr on Thursday gave an interview in which he publicly called on Mr. Trump to stop commenting on the Justice Department, saying it was making it impossible for him to do his job. But Mr. Trump said on Friday he had every right to tell the Justice Department what to do in criminal cases.

President Trump had nominated Ms. Liu for a top Treasury Department position in December, and she initially told her colleagues that she would stay on until her confirmation. But Mr. Barr then asked her to leave early, and she was given a temporary role at the Treasury Department, clearing the way for him to install Mr. Shea in her place.

[Barrister]

So, the entire case should have been turned over to an independent prosecutor from the very beginning, so as just to avoid the appearance of bias.  That's what Mueller was after all, though I think the Flynn case wasn't handled by Mueller.

The key however is who do you get to do so.

[Razgovory]

"Other politically sensitive cases" is the Southern District's investigation of Rudy Giuliani, right?

[The Minsky Moment]

"Other politically sensitive cases" is the Southern District's investigation of Rudy Giuliani, right?

The article mentions only the DC USAO office.
It is starting to look like an assault on the integrity of that office from main Justice.
SDNY not affected . . . so far.

BB these are not independent prosecutors.  One is a  US Attorney handpicked from another regional office, another is one of Barr's deputies.  It looks like "politically reliable" people are being brought in to ride herd over the DC USAO.

[Admiral Yi]

Up to now things have been more cartoonish than sinister.  The tone is starting to shift.

[grumbler]

The appointment of political commissars to ensure operations are carried out as the party wishes is a time-honored tradition.

[The Minsky Moment]

It does appear there are abuses and improprieties that are occurring in the President's efforts to probe the investigations into his crooked campaign people and advisors.

It is only a matter of time before there will have to be an investigation into the investigation of the investigations.

[DGuller]

I just that if good guys eventually win, then all these collaborators won't just be off to some cushy Fox News sinecure.  They all need to do hard time.

[Eddie Teach]

That's a good one, DG.

[Admiral Yi]

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

Trump sees Barr and raises.

[Admiral Yi]

The number of former DOJ officials calling on Barr to resign has increased from 1,100 to 2,000.