Meese Schools Garland on the Limits of His—and Smith’s—Authority.

A MOST FASCINATING amicus curiae brief was filed at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday that could have an existential threat to alleged Special Counsel Jack Smith’s ongoing persecution of 45th President Donald Trump. It involves legal research I most admire: that which goes beyond a well-crafted brief designed simply to persuade, but which additionally invokes  esoteric and clearly applicable yet overlooked law that suddenly makes the legal conclusion clear as day. In other words, it’s what I wish I had come up with. The brief can be read here. It appeared at the Court last week after Smith submitted a writ of certiorari asking it to rule on the issue of presidential immunity (which itself was premature given the matter has yet to weave through inferior courts and provide Trump process he is due.) Writ of cert. is here.

The amicus brief, penned by former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III (under Ronald Reagan) and law professors Steven Calabresi and Gary Lawson, posits that Smith’s appointment to his special counsel position lacks legal or constitutional authority and therefore, Smith has no standing to represent the U.S. in federal court against Trump. This would mean Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Smith over a year ago exceeded the scope of either man’s authority. If Smith has no such authority to pursue this persecution, it further means that the four felony charges Trump was indicted for last August, relating to his election challenge and the events of Jan. 6, 2021 at the Capitol, should be nolle prossed immediately. 

Meese’s amicus brief frames the question presented to the Court masterfully: “Whether private citizen Jack Smith lacks authority to represent the United States, which jurisdictional requirement must exist at all stages of litigation, and which cannot be waived, in filing his Petition for a Writ of Certiorari in this Court?” And Meese affirmatively answers his own question in an unambiguous negative. Smith wasn’t even appointed by the president or confirmed by the Senate. It’s not that special counsels are per se unlawful, the brief clarifies: 

“What federal statutes and the Constitution do not allow, however, is for the Attorney General to appoint a private citizen, who has never been confirmed by the Senate, as a substitute United States Attorney under the title ‘Special Counsel.’ That is what happened on November 18, 2022. That appointment was unlawful, as are all the legal actions that have flowed from it, including citizen Smith’s current attempt to obtain a ruling from this Court.”

I wish I came up with that!

My Government, the Thief

IT’S EASY to call the U.S. a government a den of thieves if you’re a middle-middle to upper class American who pays confiscatory income taxes to the loathed and corrupt Internal Revenue Service. It is if you’re a rich Russian, too.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged yet more money to the corrupt government of Ukraine, consisting of $1 billion in military and other financial aid. To slap Russian Vladimir Putin in the face and rub salt into the wound, Blinken said that included in the package is $5.4 million in seized assets which appear to belong to a Russian oligarch. Blinken has also apparently directed that sum be earmarked for Ukraine’s veterans’ services.

In a characteristically arrogant statement, Blinken declared, “Those who have enabled Putin’s war of aggression should pay for it.” But being America’s top diplomat, it is disconcerting for him affirmatively nix peace talks that Beijing has tried to broker. Blinken is okay with the status quo given he has not only ruled out a negotiated settlement, but a possible ceasefire as well. This, despite the fact the world has known Ukraine was unprepared for a ‘counteroffensive’ that was built up in newsrooms around the world. The hallowed New York Times reported recently that U.S. officials are disappointed Kiev has become so “casualty averse.” 

The seized Russian funds that have apparently already been transferred to Ukraine are reported to belong to an oligarch named Konstantin Malofeyev, who is a banking, telecommunications, and media tycoon. This is believed to be the case because Attorney General Merrick Garland boasted that $5.4 million in Malofeyev’s purloined assets had been turned over to the State Department to “remediate the harms of Russia’s unjust war.” He further bragged that “while this represents the United States’ first transfer of forfeited Russian funds for the rebuilding of Ukraine, it will not be the last.” Whether Garland was virtue-signaling or feeling very generous with money that is not his to give is not clear. 

AFP said Malofeyev was “indicted in April 2022 for violating sanctions related to the 2014 Russian-backed secession war in Ukraine’s Donbas region and its takeover of Crimea.” The U.S. seized money Malofeyev held in a Texas bank. This ought to be adjudicated by a tribunal of proper jurisdiction lest the U.S. be guilty of larceny. Just being an indicted rich Russian isn’t sufficient for such a taking. (It’s  sort of a variation on, IMO, unconstitutional but still allowed civil asset forfeiture.)

Garland’s Latest Dilatory Tactic

Image: credit.

ORDINARILY, it might be welcomed news that a special counsel was appointed in a matter where a governmental official is suspected of wrongdoing, but on Friday, when Attorney General Merrick Garland announced he had appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss to the probe into Hunter Biden, the report was received by some with utter disbelief. Garland’s act of unmitigated gall and unbridled arrogance makes a mockery of a just and unbiased system of justice. (We dodged a metal bullet when Garland didn’t get to the Supreme Court, but we took a rubber one when Biden named him A.G.) 

Weiss, Garland said, will be responsible for the “ongoing investigation” into Hunter Biden and “any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.” Weiss has already been burying the Biden story in his home state of Delaware, but thought it might be nice to be named special counsel in additionto his regular duties as a U.S. Attorney, and Garland felt it might be “in the public interest” to go ahead with the hare-brained idea. That he is not independent nor accountable by all appearances didn’t seem to matter. 

The announcement was made after reports surfaced that talks on the failed Hunter plea deal came to a standstill. Prosecutors and Hunter, with help from his attorneys, had hammered out a remarkable deal last month whereby Hunter would plead guilty to relatively minor tax charges in exchange for a diversion agreement giving full immunity from prosecution on these or any other matters in the future—something no prosecutor in his or her right mind would ever offer, nor any judge approve. In fact, that’s what happened. The judge in the case, when querying the parties, learned the breadth and depth of the immunity from prosecution that was about to be approved, denied the request, and ordered the parties to negotiate something reasonable. Hunter pleaded not guilty in the interim. The negotiations have reportedly been ongoing, without success, so now it appears the case will be set for trial. (It won’t. The Bidens have too much to lose.) The documents in the failed plea agreement were released last week, here.

The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) has been overseeing the investigation into Hunter’s foreign business dealings and blasted the Weiss appointment as “part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup.” On Thursday, he said his committee plans to subpoena Biden family members, including Joe and Hunter. 

House Judiciary Chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) echoed Comer’s belief.  Jordan’s spokesman, Russell Dye, said, “David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it.” He added, “We expect the Department [of Justice] to fully cooperate with our investigation, including not interfering with the 11 transcribed interviews we have requested.” He concluded he hoped Weiss would uphold his earlier commitment to testify before the committee in late September or early October.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) concurred, saying “This action by Biden’s D.O.J. cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption. If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel?”

Despite being a Trump appointee, Weiss has shown himself to be biased: he intends to refile charges, if any, in California or Washington, D.C., forum-shoppers’ paradise for corrupt Dems. Interestingly, Garland and Weiss seemed to have a difference of opinion on whether Weiss had the broad range of authority needed without Friday’s appointment.

The legality and propriety of Garland’s appointment is in serious doubt. The statute authorizing such an appointment clearly states a special counsel shall be from outside government, which Weiss clearly is not. Furthermore, it insults taxpayers who will be compensating him for not one, but two jobs under essentially the same parameters—double-pay, if you will. It is Joe Biden who a truly independent special counsel should be appointed to investigate, not Hunter. Hunter simply needs to be prosecuted by law enforcement for his alleged crimes the same as any other American, and receive due process like everyone else.

Chris Wray: The “R” After His Name Stands for ‘Reprobate.’

HO HUM. ANOTHER DAY, another Congressional hearing (this time the House Judiciary Committee), another pol off the hook. Such was the case again on Wednesday when F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray (a Republican—sort of) took the hot seat.

Of course not all members were adversarial, like Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), whose name Zoe Lofgren may ring a bell from managing one of 45th President Donald Trump’s impeachments. Lofgren accused her G.O.P. colleagues of “engaging in conspiracy theories” to delegitimize the the Bureau “without any evidence,” a favorite blame-game among her ilk.

She’s wrong, of course, but why let the truth stand in the way of an untrue accusation? She just doesn’t remember the recent opinion in Missouri v. Biden or the findings from the Twitter Files that fly in what should be the very red faces of the bureaucrats who so enthusiastically censored any opposing views. Writing for The Federalist, Tristan Justice helpfully has provided Rep. Lofgren with the mounting pile of evidence to this effect, here. 

On questioning, Wray simply blew Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) off on the topic of Jan. 6th. He dismissed the notion that undercover agents were involved in any way by calling the allegation “ludicrous.” (There were, and it’s been well documented.)

The fact he refused to answer anything further may have told the Committee everything they needed to know. While it can be true the F.B.I. must, at times, keep matters of ‘humint’ under wraps, one would think that time has come and gone even though American citizens still sit in a D.C. jail awaiting trial. When Rep.  Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) asked Wray, “How many individuals that were FBI employees were in the Jan. 6th entry of the Capitol?” Wray replied, I really need to be careful here about were we have or have not used confidential human sources.” And so it went.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) inquired about the agency’s attempt to locate a suspected pipe bomber who had left devices at both the DNC and RNC Thomas Massie on Jan. 6th.  About two months ago, Massie and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) asked to be briefed on the F.B.I.’s failure to track the suspect’s vehicle down after it had been identified. Massie and Jordan had been tipped off by a whistleblower that the F.B.I. was derelict in its duty in failing to follow up on perfectly good leads. In a characteristic noncommital answer, Wray said he didn’t talk about ongoing investigations. Fair enough, perhaps, but as Massie pointed out, it’s been 900 days.

Based on a new interim report issued on Monday by the House Judiciary’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, it appears that the F.B.I. colluded with the Security Service of Ukrainian to flag social media posts of Americans for ‘partners’ in Silicon Valley to censor to further the government’s desired narrative. (More here.)

Wray’s response to inquiries into this was just that the Ukrainian Security Service had been a “longstanding good partner” of the F.B.I., despite the fact it has been found to be notoriously compromised by the Kremlin. (Russian collusion, anyone?) The full interim report is here.

Remarkably, Wray admitted to surveillance of Catholic parishes in the U.S. that prefer Latin masses. Apparently a F.B.I. Special Agent named Kyle Seraphin disclosed that the Richmond Division thought it could prevent ‘white supremacy’ by doing so. House Republicans wrote to Wray about this in April. Jordan asked Wray, “Do you think priests should be informants inside the church?”” Wray conceded the fact the F.B.I. may have engaged in such surveillance, but seemed to suggest it was all okay because it didn’t result in any investigative action.

Then there was the Bureau’s raid on and arrest of a ‘pro-life’ activist, ultimately acquitted. Wray said he wouldn’t “second-guess” the agents on the ground. Roy asked if that wasn’t exactly what his job was.

When Wray was asked if he thought the D.O.J. should rescind a memo it issued targeting concerned parents at school board meetings, Wray passed the buck to the A.G., but said the F.B.I. conducted itself properly. An interim staff report by House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee in March concluded there was no legitimate basis to have done this.

Wray also admitted the F.B.I. got Americans’ records from Bank of America without a warrant, and apparently, other banks, as a routine practice. Again, it was a whistleblower who revealed they had a “huge list” of Americans’ financial transactions on credit and debit cards used near the Capitol around Jan. 6th.

Massie asked about similar overly-broad records regarding gun purchases. Wray said he thought it was legal for business ‘partners’ to report or share info with the agency.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) read a transcript of Hunter Biden’s email threat to get paid that referenced Joe. Gaetz asked Wray if it wounded like a shake-down to him. Wray demurred in answering. When asked if he was protecting the Bidens, Wray said, “absolutely not.”

That is inconsistent with reports of at least two whistleblowers, one of whom is facing the wrath of the U.S. government. Dual American-Israeli citizen, Dr. Gal Luft, worked for CEFC, the same company as Hunter did, and did the same type of work. Hunter used the F.B.I. to leak classified data to C.C.P.-linked CEFC for kickbacks. Luft did not. Both violated Foreign Agents Registration Act. One was indicted this week. The other lives freely at the White House.

This Is the House McCarthy Builds.

MSM just as soon retire as old news the Hunter Biden story after his little plea deal whitewashing his very dark and disturbing past. It turns out Hunter was parading around again like a celebrity at the White House on Thursday night at a formal dinner for the visiting Indian Prime Minister. (Please tell me India isn’t compromised by the Biden family, too!)  

Friday was a new day. The U.S. House of Representatives, some in the G.O.P. anyway, have been in a productive mood since Kevin McCarthy became House Speaker. Maybe it’s coincidence; maybe not. Maybe it will continue; maybe not. But Friday yielded the release of a disturbing report that contains allegations from two whistleblowers on interference in the Hunter Biden investigation that resulted in his two extremely minor misdemeanor tax charges he is about to plead guilty to. 

While it’s true allegations against Hunter for influence peddling, unregistered foreign agency, and money laundering are far more serious offenses that Hunter has yet to be charged with, the taxes and gun matters weren’t insignificant. After all, an ordinary American without political ties quite possibly wouldn’t have received the same consideration. In Hunter’s case, though, no one wanted to dig too deep lest Joey’s name, or his ‘Big Guy’ moniker, keep resurfacing, likely requiring an unwelcome further inquiry. The hope is to push the plea deal through and get the judge to sign off on it quickly so it can just all go away. But it may not.

It turns out, the whistleblowers claim there had been an effort to charge felony tax violations instead, and that Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss was shut down in his attempt to bring charges in two jurisdictions. Key searches were further allegedly abandoned. Maybe there was a legitimate and rational reason to forego felony charges and further searches. And perhaps Weiss decided himself not to charge in another jurisdiction. These prosecutorial decisions, however, should be explained beyond Merrick Garland’s flat out and incredible denials any mischief was afoot. Garland is probably lying.

The House of Representatives has been doing the deep dig into what happened since the D.O.J. and Garland refuse to. They heard closed-door testimony on Thursday that revealed, not just the mischief that was afoot, but that Joey, a/k/a “the Big Guy,” was, in fact, very involved in his son’s overseas business deals, contrary to his previous insistence to the contrary. Simply put, it appears Joey lied. More specifically, the House Ways and Means Committee took evidence that the Hunter  (then code-named “Sportsman”) IRS-based investigation, opened in November of 2018, and involved a “foreign-based amateur online pornography platform,” according to whistleblower Gary Shapley, who sat for a six-hour deposition with the committee on May 26th. Further, Weiss had wanted to bring federal changes against him in the Central District of California and in Washington, D.C. last year, but was denied by Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys Martin Estrada and Matthew Graves. 

A second whistleblower, thus far anonymous, claims the investigation, spanning 2014 to 2019, found Hunter and his ‘associates’ received about $17.3 million from Ukraine, Romania, and China. About $8.3 million was Hunter’s alone. Investigators had wanted felony charges for his having evaded $2.2 million in taxes. By the way, there is no statute of limitations on tax evasion, so it can wait, whereas the other matters have probably had the statute of limitations run. 

As for Joey Biden, a/k/a the Big Guy, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf allegedly discouraged investigators from proceeding with questioning about his involvement, averring there was “no specific criminality,” whatever that means. She also allegedly tipped off the Bidens about an impending search of Hunter’s storage facility. All the while Garland testified under oath to Congress earlier in the year that Weiss hadn’t been denied authority to bring charges outside the friendly jurisdiction of Delaware.  Weiss had also sought to be appointed special counsel in the case at least twice, according to both whistleblowers. Each time, the Biden Justice Department denied the request. 

What is perhaps most striking is communication from Hunter’s iCloud account. According to Shapley, there was a message from a Chinese businessman, constituting direct evidence of the Big Guy’s personal involvement and interest in Hunter’s overseas business ventures. Shapley recounted:

“[W]e obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, where Hunter Biden wrote: ‘I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father,’”

The New York Post, which has consistently had the most thorough coverage of the story over the years, especially reporter Miranda Devine, explains: 

“Zhao, of Harvest Fund Management, is a Communist Party official and his fund was associated with BHR Partners, an investment fund Hunter that co-founded in 2013 12 days after he joined his Vice-President Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

“Hunter held onto his 10% stake in BHR Partners through at least part of his father’s first year in office as president and the White House and Hunter’s representatives have refused any transparency into his alleged divestment.

“The BHR venture was the first of two major Biden family dealings in China. Through the second with CEFC China Energy, Hunter and first brother James Biden received $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018, according to a Washington Post review of laptop records. A May 2017 email about the CEFC deal referred to Joe Biden as the “big guy” due a 10% cut and an October 2017 document listed Joe Biden as a participant on a call about CEFC’s attempt to buy US natural gas.”

Clearly, nothing has changed at the D.O.J., despite what Durham and others have recently assured the public. The White House occupant (and family) is corrupt, enriching itself at the expense not just of taxpayers but of the national security, if reports are to be believed. The entire executive branch is therefore suspect. The legislative branch is a mixed bag, with the Senate backing the executive and the House only barely behind McCarthy. The Judiciary, too, is a gamble. But what McCarthy can do, beyond continuing the investigations aßnd illuminating hearings is to demand more testimony and document production. Keep subpoenaing and if anyone stonewalls, hold them in contempt of Congress day-after-day until they comply. The D.O.J. may not help, but hopefully a judge can if it comes to that. Contempt may be the only remedy McCarthy has at this point, and he must use it.

Durham’s “Sobering Findings”: A Cause for a Bender?

THE DURHAM REPORT DROPPED on May 12th, after four years of alleged work by independent counsel, John Durham, and his team. In fairness, though, it is difficult to drag one’s feet for so long that the statute of limitations run on all the myriad crimes and ethical transgressions committed by Hillary Clinton, her campaign, and her co-conspirators. God bless John, though, he did it! His report, called “Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns,” found that there was no predicate, reasonable or otherwise, to investigate 45th President Donald Trump, just as he proclaimed over his first term in the White House. 

Durham had been called to testify Tuesday and Wednesday before the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees with a teeny G.O.P. majority and Dems having questions to ask behind closed doors, and in the public hearing. Durham reiterated that Crossfire Hurricane had been wholly unwarranted and that there was no collusion found between Trump, his campaign, and Russia.“The FBI was too willing to accept and use politically funded and uncorroborated opposition research such as the Steele Dossier,” he said. (Clinton’s campaign funded Steele’s ‘dossier.’)

Several F.B.I. agents, Durham testified, had actually apologized to him for how the Trump investigation was run. “Our findings were sobering. I can tell you, having spent 40 years plus as a federal prosecutor, they were particularly sobering to me,” he noted. Durham also hinted that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had some skeletons in his closet with respect to the scam perpetrated on Trump. It seems Schiff and most everyone else knew the allegations against Trump were not only false, but known by the participants to be false from the outset, but were promulgated anyway, without correction or regard for the truth. Overall Durham’s testimony wasn’t particularly illuminating, leaving independent journalist Matt Taibbi asking the following probative questions, unlikely to ever be answered, on his Substack: 

1.Why were former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, along with FBI officials Bill Priestap, Peter Strzok, and Kevin Clinesmith, and others allowed to refuse cooperation? 2. Where is Mifsud? 3. Why were “omissions” or “misstatements” by FBI officials and/or their sources treated as such, and not as criminal lying, as would likely have happened in Robert Mueller’s investigation? 4. Why was Halper’s name kept out of the report? What other “informant” activity was obscured? And ‘5. Why did you punt on the hack?

IMPEACH!!!

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) is introducing new articles of impeachment against the illegitimate occupant of the White House, Joey Biden. (Read here.) These articles concern his failure to enforce immigration laws and secure the southern border. She may be underplaying her hand. Biden has not only failed to enforce immigration, he has, in fact, knowingly and recklessly violated them. Not only has he failed to secure the southern border, he has actually intentionally and fecklessly encouraged the breach of the border by illegal persons.When announcing her articles, Greene did acknowledge Biden was a direct threat to our national security and “has been working since Jan. 20, 2021, to systematically destroy this country.” She added he has also “willfully refused to maintain operational control as required by law.” She continued:

“Joe Biden has deliberately compromised our national security by refusing to enforce immigration laws and secure the southern border, allowed approximately 6 million illegals from over 160 countries to invade our country, [and] deprive Border Patrol of the necessary resources and policy sufficient to protect our country.”

She also acknowledged the fentanyl crisis in America. The drug, manufactured in China and smuggled here through the southern border, is the number one cause of death of Americans aged 18 to 45 today. That amounts to 300 people a day. She also recognized the frightening statistic of the roughly 85,000 unaccompanied illegal alien children the Biden regime literally lost inside our borders. It probably cannot be overly emphasized that in the first six months of Fiscal Year 2023, border patrol agents arrested 80 illegal aliens attempting to cross the U.S. southern border and two through the northern border who were all on the terrorist watchlist. This exceeds the number of terrorist watchlist alien encounters in the five years prior: from FY17 to FY21. Human trafficking through the border is a source of about $13 billion for cartel smugglers per the Homeland Security Investigations division of US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Border patrol seizures of fentanyl jumped 25 percent in March over the prior month and is worsening.. 

This week, Greene also introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves (responsible for persecution of J6 defendants and non-prosecution of crime in D.C.); F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray (weaponization of F.B.I.); U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland (weaponization of D.O.J.); and Secy. of the Dept. of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas (border crisis and its effects).

Biden Is Damned. But So Is the F.B.I..

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-Iowa) and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) claim Joe Biden, when he was Vice President, engaged in a “criminal scheme” to exchange money for favorable policy decisions. They cite an internal F.B.I. document containing evidence of the bribery. In a letter sent Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland and F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray, Grassley and Comer said: 

“We have received legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures. It has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions. It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.”

In a statement, Grassley and Comer added:

“We believe the FBI possesses an unclassified internal document that includes very serious and detailed allegations implicating the current President of the United States. The information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national. The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of  America to make money for himself.”

This isn’t the first time Grassley has suspected political bias has improperly influenced investigative decisions at the supposed premier law enforcement agency of the Unites States, especially when it comes to the Biden crime family. The Bureau hasn’t helped to quell those concerns by having refused to voluntarily provide responsive records or responses to congressional inquires related to politically sensitive investigations. 

While it’s doubtful anything will come from Comer and the Oversight and Accountability Committee’s investigation because the entrenchment of the Deep State is so deep within government, the illegitimate occupant of the White House is quite clearly compromised by foreign actors, even before this latest revelation. Kudos to the Committee, though, as it has subpoena’d Director Wray to appear on May 10th. Wray will be prepared with the ‘I don’t recall’ answers, but perhaps his testimony will lead to other witnesses that can help clinch the case of corruption.

These Rules Are Made for Breakin’…

THE GOOD STATE OF TEXAS filed a lawsuit, Texas v. Garland, in federal court seeking to invalidate the Democrat’s Consolidated Appropriation Act’s passage on Feb. 15th due to the absence of a quorum, required by the Quorum Clause in Article I, § 5. Last week, ten good House Republicans drafted an amicus curiae brief seeking to overturn the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. Specifically, they claim that the House Dems violated the Constitution by approving the bill using proxy voting. The bill had been passed largely along party lines on a 225-201 vote. 

Despite wars, pestilence, famine, and economic ruin, there has never been a time in American history, outside of the Covid-19 pandemic, where proxy voting was ever used. But then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) authorized proxy voting in March of 2020 using Covid as a pretext. Proxy voting didn’t end until Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) replaced Pelosi as Speaker on Jan. 19th. 

It was under Pelosi that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 was passed on 12/23/22 and signed by the illegitimate occupant of the White House, Joey Biden, on 12/29/23.  The G.O.P. cried foul. It never became law, they maintain, because a majority of the House was not in the chamber to vote on it in person and accept the Senate’s amendments. The Good Ten Republicans got to work on their amicus brief, which can be read here. 

The Good Ten are Reps. Charles Roy (Tex.). H. Morgan Griffith (Va.), Andy Biggs (Az.), Andy Ogles (Tenn.), Harriet Hageman (Wy.), Clay Higgins (La.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Gary Palmer (Ala.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.), and John Rose (Tenn.).The Mountain States Legal Foundation filed the brief on the lawmakers’ behalf. Judge James Wesley, a Trump appointee, will hear the matter in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas Lubbock Division. As an initial matter, Texas sought a preliminary injunction enjoining the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 from taking affect unless and until it is declared constitutional. (It won’t be, IMO.) It’s a strong case. Typically such rules from the text of Constitution are upheld, being construed correctly as firm mandates, not mere suggestions.

There should be more lawsuits of this type. They are effective, establish important precedents, and may fashion appropriate remedies. Think of the ramifications if all proxy laws were overturned! (They won’t be, but…) 

What a Difference a Day Can Make2!

ON FRIDAY, three days after the announcement of Trump’s presidential candidacy, and one day after the G.O.P. announced its investigation into the Biden family, the Dems fought back and raised them one. The Biden regime’s D.O.J. and A.G. Merrick Garland will be conducting two (more) investigations into 45th President Donald Trump. Garland has also named a former federal prosecutor, Jack Smith, as Special Counsel for these criminal probes. 

The first investigation is to look at whether any person, including (read: especially) Trump, unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power after the 2020 presidential election, or in the certification of Democrat Joe Biden by the electoral college on Jan. 6, 2021. He will not, however, be involved in prosecuting those physically present at the Capitol on that day. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia’s office will continue prosecuting (read: persecuting) these people. The second investigation the D.O.J. is exploring is whether Trump broke the law and obstructed justice by removing documents from the White House and taking them to Mar-a-Lago where he resides in Palm Beach, Florida. 

Smith, a Democrat (obviously) has a history as a career prosecutor, and also served as chief prosecutor for the special court in the Hague, in the Netherlands. (The Hague is about the only tribunal that hasn’t weighed in on Trump.) He did an additional stint as an investigator into war crimes in Kosovo and served with the International Criminal Court (another tribunal that hasn’t charged Trump yet.)

A Trump spokesperson summed it up aptly and thusly: “This is a totally expected political stunt by a feckless, politicized, weaponized Biden Department of Justice.” Trump has the egotistical fortitude to withstand the constant assault on his character. That same ego that enables him to continue his work is also what allows him to blow off the forces that seek to destroy him. But he’s weary of it: “I have been going through this for six years — for six years I have been going through this, and I am not going to go through it anymore. And I hope the Republicans have the courage to fight this. I have been proven innocent for six years on everything —from fake impeachments to Mueller who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more? It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political.”

In the future, this time in history will be scoffed at for all its politicized investigations, prosecutions, and lawsuits, but not responsible governance.