Attorney General Pushed to Undermine Prosecutors

The threat posed by Attorney General William Barr's partisan stewardship of the Department of Justice extends beyond the damage he has inflicted upon the rule of law. His ceaseless defense of limitless presidential power and his unmitigated obstruction of Congress has shaken to its core the bedrock principle of separation of powers.
His persistent intervention in criminal cases involving the president and his cohorts and his meddling in the affairs of the Antitrust Division to punish Trump resisters, stands in stark contrast to his lack of active participation in matters unrelated to Mr. Trump and highlights the corrupt nature of his interest. His corrupt motivation is further exposed by his revival of concluded investigations into the actions of those who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election, the so-called "Deep State".
Those who have raised an alarm, including hundreds of former federal prosecutors, are dismissed by Mr. Barr as "conspiracy theorists". While he masquerades as a conservative man of the law and a pillar of rectitude, he has marshaled military forces of masked origin to assault peaceful protesters to serve the political posturing of the president.
Mr. Barr's unethical and lawless behavior, if not criminal, at least warrants his impeachment and disbarment.

Clayton Wants a New Job

"The White House has said the decision to nominate Mr. Clayton [as USAttorney for SDNY] was intended to find another job for [him] in order to accommodate his request to be closer to his family in New York ". NYTimes, 6/26, p.18
"So Jay wants a job closer to home. Yeah, let's see, we could make him Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank there. Or, maybe put him in charge of the regional response to the corona virus, maybe he can bring the curve back into line with the national average. That'll take some of the shine off of Cuomo. Hey, how about having him head the local office of the FBI where he can launch an investigation of the US Attorney's office.
Those jerks think they're so independent that they can indict friends of the president. Better yet, let's announce that Geoffrey Berman has resigned and that Jay will be replacing him. He is a lawyer, right? No trial or criminal law experience? No problem, we'll let him know who to charge and who to cut loose. All he has to do is follow Bill's directions. You know, someone better call Berman and tell him he's resigned."

What to Do With Statues

Statues erected to glorify, in contrast to those created solely as expressions of art, are latter day extensions of primitive, religious idolatry. The ancients built and worshipped earthly representations of their imagined gods and gods, as we know, cannot have flaws.
My proposal; let our artists continue to sculpt forms that capture and convey the beauty and spirit of nature and humankind. Let us refrain from memorializing individuals by carving their likeness in stone or bronze. The attempt to eternalize and lionize figures of the past, with the hope of future notice and admiration, is bound to run afoul of historic fact and human frailty. Better that the stories of extraordinary personages be told by historians able to marshal and reveal facts, add perspective and contribute to the store of knowledge passed to successive generations.

DC Circuit Court Rules Flynn Case Must Be Dismissed

Justice and the rule of law are precariously on trial in the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. A bizarre 2 to 1 ruling of a panel of that court has stripped a federal trial judge, Emmett Sullivan, of his jurisdiction to determine whether a motion to dismiss a criminal case, that of confessed felon Michael Flynn, should be granted. The majority held, in substance, that Judge Sullivan must rubberstamp the dismissal without an opportunity to evaluate the evidence, the law and the reasons behind the novel request made by a patently corrupt Attorney-General who has demonstrated, on multiple occasions, that his first and only allegiance is to Donald Trump.  

Instead of allowing Judge Sullivan to make an informed decision and then reviewing its correctness on appeal, the majority has rendered meaningless the legal requirement that a dismissal may be obtained only "with leave of the court" and, in an unprecedented departure from normal process, has short-circuited appellate review. The attorney appointed by Judge Sullivan to represent the public interest, a role normally filled but abandoned by the Department of Justice, must immediately seek redress from an en banc panel of all the active judges of the DC Circuit Court. If that body fails to undo the outlandish ruling of the two judges, rendered over a stinging dissent of the third judge, a petition for a writ of certiorari must be filed with the Supreme Court. The outcome will determine whether this nation will continue to adhere to the rule of law or will become an autocracy ruled by a tyrant.

Berman Firing

Apparently President Trump and Attorney General Barr continue to subscribe to the outdated notion that dreadful things may be done late on a Friday without incurring unwelcome media attention. Not so any longer.
The attempted corrupt firing of Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who, unlike the Attorney General, has refused to act as a Trump surrogate, has set off yet another firestorm engulfing this administration. The attempt to punish a prosecutor for moving against Trump allies, and to thwart other ongoing investigations must not be allowed to succeed. Congress must launch an immediate investigation, attorneys working under Berman must express their outrage, the public must raise a storm of protest and the media must keep an ongoing focus on this patent assault on the rule of law.

Republicans Announce Police Reform

At a time when bipartisanship is needed more than ever, President Trump and Senator Lindsey Graham, in announcing their pallid responses to police abuse of black citizens, persisted in their untruthful assault on the nation’s only black president.
Their specious claim, that the Obama administration did nothing to prevent racial inequities in policing, is not merely false, it is grossly hypocritical. President Obama, in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown, created a task force of experts to examine and recommend changes to policing in the 21st century. That body issued reports which made major proposals for reform, none of which were acted upon by Mr. Trump (though his just issued executive order borrows some concepts from those proposals),
The Obama Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division launched  numerous investigations into police abuse of minorities, threatened or brought lawsuits and exacted consent decrees which required significant reforms. The Trump administration effectively dismantled the Civil Rights Division and discontinued the use of consent decrees.
President Obama, by executive order, foreclosed the transfer of surplus military equipment by the Pentagon to local police departments.Mr. Trump reversed that order.
Mr. Trump blatantly encouraged police officers to roughly handle those they arrest. Mr. Trump, Sen. Graham, stop lying and dividing, start producing.

Police Reform

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To:

•  oped@nytimes.com
  
  Gov. Andrew Cuomo has challenged the cities and counties of New York State to enact laws reforming (or perpetuating) their police agencies by April 1, 2021 or lose state funding. For New York City, which has the largest, and arguably most troubled, force in the state, this mandate poses an enormous challenge and grand opportunity.
  
  I propose that the city amend its charter to create a new agency empowered and charged to administer the policing function. This Police Commission, if you will, should be comprised of men and women representing the key stakeholders affected by the exercise of the police power. It must include public members appointed by community boards, police officers chosen by the rank and file of their unions and public officials selected by the mayor and presiding justices of the court. The commission should have nine unpaid members, five of whom must be named by a consensus of the community board in each borough, two by the police union membership and one each by the mayor and presiding justice.
  
  This body must be invested with the authority to set and oversee policing policies and practices, disciplinary procedures and range of punishment, hiring and training standards, budget formulation and equipment requirements and prohibitions. The commission must be provided with a paid, full-time staff, headed by an executive director of its choosing, to carry out the policies adopted by the commission and, with the aid of subpoena power, to investigate and report on instances of abuse and corruption. The commission should have authority to refer the findings it accepts to the state's attorney-general for prosecution when appropriate or to initiate disciplinary proceedings.
  
  The commission should meet regularly and hold frequent public hearings. It should propose further legislation delineating areas of public concern better removed from the policing function and delegated, instead, to other agencies best suited to address the needs of affected individuals.
  
  The police force would continue to be managed on a day to day basis by its hierarchy of ranking officers answerable to a police administrator chosen by, serving at the pleasure of and subject to the directives of the Police Commission. While the specific mechanics described here may well be modified and improved upon, it is essential that the basic concept, of a collaboratively led department with strong representation from affected communities be preserved and implemented.

Reforming the Police Department

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has challenged the cities and counties of New York State to enact laws reforming (or perpetuating) their police agencies by April 1, 2021 or lose state funding. For New York City, which has the largest, and arguably most troubled, force in the state, this mandate poses an enormous challenge and grand opportunity.

I propose that the city amend its charter to create a new agency empowered and charged to administer the policing function. This Police Commission, if you will, should be comprised of men and women representing the key stakeholders affected by the exercise of the police power. It must include public members appointed by community boards, police officers chosen by the rank and file of their unions and public officials selected by the mayor and presiding justices of the court. The commission should have nine unpaid members, five of whom must be named by a consensus of the community board in each borough, two by the police union membership and one each by the mayor and presiding justice.

This body must be invested with the authority to set and oversee policing policies and practices, disciplinary procedures and range of punishment, hiring and training standards, budget formulation and equipment requirements and prohibitions. The commission must be provided with a paid, full-time staff, headed by an executive director of its choosing, to carry out the policies adopted by the commission and, with the aid of subpoena power, to investigate and report on instances of abuse and corruption. The commission should have authority to refer the findings it accepts to the state's attorney-general for prosecution when appropriate or to initiate disciplinary proceedings.

The commission should meet regularly and hold frequent public hearings. It should propose further legislation delineating areas of public concern better removed from the policing function and delegated, instead, to other agencies best suited to address the needs of affected individuals.

The police force would continue to be managed on a day to day basis by its hierarchy of ranking officers answerable to a police administrator chosen by, serving at the pleasure of and subject to the directives of the Police Commission.

Gleeson Charges Justice Department With Gross Abuse In Flynn Case

Some in the media are mischaracterizing the role of former federal judge John Gleeson, who just filed a brief in opposition to the DOJ's motion to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. Mr. Gleeson is not a "neutral arbiter" charged with assessing the merits of the DOJ's motion. He was appointed to act as an advocate for upholding Flynn's conviction, a role the DOJ abandoned when it joined forces with Flynn's defense team.

What is significant about Mr. Gleeson's brief, is its assertion that the DOJ's motion to dismiss is pretextual and is, in fact, a politically motivated, corrupt attempt to spare an ally of President Trump from bearing the consequences of his confessed crimes. The sentencing judge, Emmet G. Sullivan, should deny the DOJ's motion to dismiss, impose an appropriate sentence and initiate an inquiry into the circumstances of the DOJ's misrepresentations to the court.

New York Should End the Curfew

Imposing a curfew in New York City was a mistake and it should be ended forthwith. The curfew has been counterproductive in several respects. It has increased violent confrontations between police and protesters, diverted police manpower that could be better utilized to prevent looting and has punished innocent persons who have business being on the street at night.
Instead of using thousands of officers to trail after, and ultimately entrap, protesters, a fraction of that force could be far more effectively deployed protecting businesses likely to be vandalized. The rest could be given much needed time off and the city budget would be spared the enormous cost of this unnecessary operation.

Barr Gave The Order

William Barr has been masquerading as Attorney General of the United States. Now he can be seen in his true role; President Trump’s Roy Cohn and Bull Connor in one person.
In his guise as Attorney General he has done everything his client, Mr. Trump could have wished for. He corruptly misdescribed the Mueller Report, falsely gave credence to Trump’s claim of FBI spying, initiated reinvestigation of the investigators, interfered to lighten the sentence facing Roger Stone and is attempting to clear an admitted felon, Michael Flynn.
Now he has taken charge of the defense of the White House against the threat posed by those protesting police brutality.
Leaving the “vicious dogs” in their pound, and without donning a police chief’s uniform, Mr. Barr directed an indefensible assault on peaceful protesters in order to clear a path for Mr. Trump to stride fearlessly through Lafayette Park for a photo op in front of a church he never attends holding a bible he never reads.