Abolish Kristi Noem

The day after a federal agent shot Minneapolis mother-of-three Renee Nicole Good to death, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem quietly reinstated a policy that a federal judge blocked last month.

Congress members vowed to fight back.

On Dec. 17, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb found in favor of a dozen House Democrats who sued Noem and the agency she leads over a policy requiring seven days of advanced notice before visiting any immigration detention facility.

Noem signed a memo reinstating a virtually identical policy on Thursday, claiming to assert a different legal rationale.

[...]

Last month, Judge Cobb found that Noem’s advance notice requirement violated the explicit terms of an appropriations bill, Section 527, forbidding the agency from doing anything “to prevent” a “Member of Congress” or that Member’s designated staff “from entering, for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or otherwise house aliens.”

Noem planned to end-run that ruling by claiming that she would use only the funds allocated from Donald Trump’s mammoth spending bill, taunting lawmakers who visited ICE facilities in the wake of Good’s death.

  All Rise News

Unbelievable

Hundreds of National Guard troops could be deployed in the Chicago region as soon as today after a federal judge declined to issue an immediate order blocking President Donald Trump’s moves to activate Guard members over the objections of Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and scores of local officials.

The decision from U.S. District Judge April Perry, over strenuous objections from the Illinois attorney general’s office, came in a hearing hours after the state and the city of Chicago filed a lawsuit yesterday morning seeking to prevent the use of Guard forces from Illinois and Texas for what the White House claims is an effort to protect federal immigration personnel and facilities amid the Trump administration’s escalated deportation actions.

Attorneys for the federal government said during a brief court hearing yesterday afternoon that Texas National Guard units were in transit to Illinois and weren’t expected to “begin getting into position to perform federal protective missions until tomorrow at the earliest.” Illinois Guard members have been ordered to report today. The federal government is uncertain when it will be ready for its “federal protective mission,” Trump administration attorneys told Perry.

  Chicago Tribune Daywatch newsletter

Uncertain when it will be ready for its "protective mission"? I thought this was supposed to be an emergency action, and therefore legal.

Unfuckingbelievable. Was this judge afraid her house would be burnded down like the last one that crossed Trump?

She blusters through this with an attitude that you'd expect her to give a Democratic Senator.  She wants JB Pritzker "condemned" for not cooperating.  She says there's a 1000% increase in violent attacks against ICE officers.  Bullshit. Maybe from 1 attack to 3?  Countless illegal immigrants in 

Chicago.    

UPDATE 03:08 pm:

Neutral observers have noted that, at most, those actions led to a 2% increase in arrests in the District, which was already enjoying a significant drop in crime before the federal crackdown.

  Democracy Docket

Yes, she is an insufferable twat.  Like so many of Trump's administration.

“Eventually, you’re going to have to answer for your conduct in this,” [Dick Durbin (D -IL) said. “You won’t do it today, but one day you will.”

  Democracy Docket

She's betting she won't. And I wouldn't take that bet.

I don't know which came first, but that's the same thing she said to Dick Durbin about Chicago when he asked her a question she didn't want to answer.

UPDATE 10/08/2025:

January 6 revelations still coming

Former Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.), who staffed the Jan. 6 Committee until April, said on Friday that the White House switchboard connected with the phone of a rioter at the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection.

“You get a real ‘a-ha’ moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter’s phone while it’s happening,” said Riggleman, former senior technical adviser for the committee, according to a clip from CBS’s upcoming episode of “60 Minutes.”

When asked by host Bill Whitaker to confirm that someone in the White House was calling an insurrectionist during the riot, Riggleman said: “On January sixth, absolutely.”

[...]

“I only know one end of that call. I don’t know the White House end, which I believe is more important,” he said.

“But the thing is, the American people need to know that there are link connections that need to be explored more.”

  The Hill

And, Riggleman needs to sell a book. But, thanks for letting us know it now. Can't wait for the next Jan 6 hearings.

A group of employees who work for the internal watchdog at the Department of Homeland Security are calling on President Biden to remove their boss, saying they’ve lost hope the “ship will right itself.”

The request comes after numerous congressional panels have asked DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to step aside from various investigations after he failed to alert lawmakers in a timely manner that Secret Service text messages for Jan. 6 had been “erased.”

An anonymous letter shared by the Project on Government Oversight was signed by “concerned DHS OIG employees representing every program office at every grade level” who added that “for fear of retaliation, we cannot identify ourselves.”

  The Hill

UPDATE:

The Supreme Court falls victim to its own lack of accountability

We are confident that the marshal, Col. Gail Curley, is highly competent in her duties, which include overseeing the court’s tiny police force, paying out the justices’ salaries, and shouting “oyez.” But count us skeptical that she has the tools necessary to conduct an effective probe of the leak. That’s not her fault, but the court’s: For decades, SCOTUS has resisted adopting the bare minimum reforms necessary to implement and enforce ethics rules, confidentiality guarantees, and basic transparency necessary for maintaining and ensuring the public trust.

While the executive and legislative branches spent the last half-century establishing watchdogs to monitor and report misconduct in federal agencies, the Supreme Court did nothing. [...] And when critics in the press and legal academy point to court failures in transparency and housekeeping, from the shadow docket to spousal involvement in cases before the court, some of the justices opt to insult and threaten the critics, as opposed to putting their own house in order.

  Slate

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It wasn't a bug - it was a feature

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

South Carolina, you know what you have to do

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday to expand the authority of the Justice Department inspector general over opposition from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The committee voted 21-1 on the legislation, which would give the DOJ watchdog the authority to investigate attorneys within the department. Graham was the only senator to vote against the measure.

The vote sends it to the full Senate, where supporters acknowledge they don't know if it will get taken up for a vote in the face of opposition from Graham, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, and Attorney General William Barr.

  The Hill

Congress is broken.

Graham tried to change the legislation to require the attorney general to sign off on investigations into potential DOJ attorney misconduct.

Which would, of course, make it useless.

Graham noted that he had spoken with Barr about the legislation three times. He said the attorney general did not support his proposal either but DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz did.

No surprises there.

Flip the Senate, Ditch Mitch, etc.

And, oh yeah...impeach the motherfucker, again.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More on the Linick issue

Trump has given Congress 30 days' notice (as required by law) that he plans to fire State Department IG Steve Linick.  Apparently, the IG's decision to investigate Pompeo's use of staff for personal tasks such as walking his dog and picking up his laundry isn't the only thing Linick was looking into.

There’s a backstory here that has not yet gotten scrutiny — one that could make the firing appear even more corrupt.

House Democrats have discovered that the fired IG had mostly completed an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s widely criticized decision to skirt Congress with an emergency declaration to approve billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year.

[...]

In the spring of 2019, the Trump administration pushed through a plan for more than $8 billion in weapons sales, almost entirely to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

[...]

The move was condemned by lawmakers in both parties who have increasingly been turning on continued U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, which stretches back to the last administration and has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe. Congress subsequently voted to block the arms sales, with some Republican support, but Trump vetoed the effort.

[...]

The Democrats also raised questions about potential conflicts of interest surrounding a former State Department official who may have been obligated to recuse himself of involvement in the sale, given his previous role as a lobbyist for Raytheon Co., which made many weapons involved in the transfer.

[...]

Committee Democrats have also learned that the State Department was recently briefed on the IG’s conclusions in that investigation, aides say.

[...]

[T]he committee is now trying to establish what those conclusions were and what links they might have to the firing, the aides confirm.

[...]

The White House has confirmed Linick’s firing came at Pompeo’s request. Trump claimed he no longer has “confidence” in Linick, a thin justification that highlights Trump’s purging of officials exercising oversight on his administration.

[...]

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee — and its Senate counterpart — have launched an investigation into Linick’s firing. In letters to the State Department and the White House, they demanded documents be preserved and raised the possibility that the firing might have been an “illegal act of retaliation” against an unspecified ongoing IG investigation into Pompeo.

Importantly, the Democrats are also demanding a full accounting of any and all IG investigations into Pompeo that are ongoing — and thus could have been the basis for the firing.

[...]

To reiterate, we don’t know what the IG found on the arms sales, and it’s possible there’s no connection between that and his firing. But at a minimum, the firing of Linick, coming after the removal of numerous other IGs, already shows Trump’s efforts to purge the government of oversight and accountability on his administration are getting much worse.

  WaPo

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

He never heard of his Inspector General for the State Department.  You know, I can actually believe that.

UPDATE:

So maybe some staff member should do their grocery shopping, too.

UPDATE:

Impeach the motherfucker again

He is getting away with way too much.  Criminal neglience to say the least in his handling of the pandemic response.  Now this:

President Donald Trump intends to ignore provisions in the newly passed $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill intended to shore up Congress' oversight of the massive rescue program.

The legislation establishes a "special inspector general" to review and investigate loan decisions made by the treasury secretary as part of the coronavirus relief effort, an accountability measure that was a central part of Democrats' demands to shore up transparency in the bill. The provision requires the inspector general to notify Congress if he or she is "unreasonably refused or not provided" any information.

But in a signing statement issued shortly after he approved the bill, Trump says he'll be the last word on whether this provision is followed. "I do not understand, and my Administration will not treat, this provision as permitting the [inspector general] to issue reports to the Congress without the presidential supervision required" by Article II of the Constitution, Trump said in the signing statement.

Trump also indicated he would treat as optional a requirement in the bill that key congressional committees be consulted before Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of State or U.S. Agency for International Development spends or reallocates certain funds.

[...]

Trump, in his signing statement, is now suggesting that any legal requirement that an inspector general report to Congress is inherently improper without allowing for the president to make the ultimate decision.

[...]

"And just like that, the Congressional oversight provisions for the 1/2 TRILLION dollar Wall St slush fund (which were *already* too weak) are tossed away the day the bill is signed," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "This is a frightening amount of public money to have given a corrupt admin w/ 0 accountability."

[...]

"[M]y Administration will continue the practice of treating provisions like these as advisory and non-binding," he wrote.

  politico

Despot.

UPDATE:

That's easy:  money.

Another opportunity to destroy US democracy

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the landmark separation of powers fight over access to President Trump’s financial records on March 31, the court announced Friday.

The dispute involves separate efforts by House Democrats and New York state prosecutors to obtain years of Trump’s financial records and tax returns.

A blockbuster ruling on the extent of presidential immunity in the face of congressional oversight and state prosecutorial power is expected by late June, just months ahead of Election Day.

  The Hill

Congressional oversight has been strangled into a coma.

Surely there's a law covering this

It's the little finger that's the give-away...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Obama spying Trump doesn't care about - Part 2

Part 1

What happens when no one responsible is held accountable?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Executive Dumbass

Well, Bert may be wrong, but he gets my appreciation for failing punctuation in middle school.  If he got that far.

The Obama spying Trump doesn't care about

The movie referred to in this interview - "The Report" - is currently (December 2019) available on Amazon Prime.

UPDATE:  Part 2

Trump's OLC, like Trump, will say anything

Surely McGahn can be compelled to testify.  He can take the 5th if he doesn't want to answer certain questions.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Thanks, Lindsey

Has he seen himself giving this speech?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

A necessary act

More than two dozen progressive groups are asking House Democrats to investigate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process.

“Senate Republicans made a mockery of their constitutional responsibility to provide ‘advice and consent’ on the president’s nomination of Justice Kavanaugh, and the American people deserve to know how and why the process was such a sham,” the groups wrote in a letter to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

  The Hill

I think we know.

“The public is just as entitled to a thorough review of Justice Kavanaugh’s record now as it was before he was elevated to the Supreme Court and to know whether allegations against him of sexual assault and perjury have any factual basis,” they added.

True. And not only the sexual assault and perjury allegations, but the many complaints that had been lodged against him before he was seated on the Supreme bench.

The groups also asked for a review of Kavanaugh's personal financial debts that the White House attributed to purchasing baseball tickets and home improvements.

Yes, and who cleared that huge debt he had before he was nominated.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Oversight Committee works again

Under Republican control the past two years, it went into hibernation.  It has a lot of work to do.

On January 23, 2019, Chairman Cummings sent a letter to the White House requesting documents and interviews regarding significant failures in the security clearance process at the White House and the Transition Team. He requested interviews with every member of the White House Security Office, as well as documents “related to a security clearance or White House clearance granted to any White House employee or appointee for whom any White House Security Personnel Office personnel recommended an unfavorable adjudication decision” and documents relating to foreign contacts by Jared Kushner and a number of other White House officials.

  Committee on Oversight and Reform

Jared Kushner's application for a top secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The official, Carl Kline, is a former Pentagon employee who was installed as director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017. Kushner's was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said.

  NBC

Most corrupt administration ever.

They said the number of rejections that were overruled was unprecedented — it had happened only once in the three years preceding Kline's arrival.

[...]

After Kline overruled the White House security specialists and recommended Kushner for a top secret clearance, Kushner's file then went to the CIA for a ruling on SCI.

After reviewing the file, CIA officers who make clearance decisions balked, two of the people familiar with the matter said. One called over to the White House security division, wondering how Kushner got even a top secret clearance, the sources said.

[...]

The sources say the CIA has not granted Kushner clearance to review SCI material. That would mean Kushner lacks access to key intelligence unless President Trump decides to override the rules, which is the president's' prerogative.

If Trump ever looked at any intelligence or paid any attention to intelligence briefings, he would definitely give the information to Kushner. He may, however, simply give instructions to have it sent directly to Kushner.

Kushner's FBI background check identified questions about his family's business, his foreign contacts, his foreign travel and meetings he had during the campaign, the sources said, declining to be more specific.

[...]

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said the Trump White House attracted many people with untraditional backgrounds who had complicated financial and personal histories, some of which raised red flags.

[...]

The reasons for denying a clearance can include debts, a criminal past or questions about foreign entanglements. Anything in a person's background that could make them vulnerable to blackmail can be a factor.

[...]

The Washington Post, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter, reported last February that officials in at least four countries [United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico] had privately discussed ways they could manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.

Most corrupt administration ever.






Somebody said Mueller's Grand Jury met today.

UPDATE 1/25:

Somebody was right:  Roger Stone indicted and arrested.

House Dems go to work

The House Oversight and Reform Committee launched a sweeping investigation into how the [pharmaceutical] industry sets its prices, in what is being seen as one of the broadest drug pricing investigations in decades.

Rising drug prices have been a central concern for Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who has also vowed to bring pharmaceutical industry executives to testify in front of the committee.

  The Hill

Good. Now do universal health care.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No oversight in the era of Trump

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.