Misrule of Law

A survey of the week’s news highlights for the Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

Thanks to Instapundit (here)!

Biden’s weaponization of DOJ and FBI, including calls for Judge Boasberg’s impeachment

Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Jim Jordan,  Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, have been relentlessly investigating the abuses of the Biden DOJ and FBI in the so-called “Arctic Frost” matter. What they have found is that in early 2022, Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, approved the request of FBI Director Christopher Wray to open a secretive criminal investigation involving more than 150 individuals, based on the submission of certificates of electors’ votes for Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin in the disputed 2020 election. 

The premise of Arctic Frost was shocking because the submission of dual slates of electors was done to preserve legitimate legal challenges, and (as reported by The Federalist) was identical to the scenario that “occurred in Hawaii in 1960, when Nixon was certified the victor while Kennedy’s legal challenge to the outcome remained pending.” The conduct was not criminal, or fraudulent; it was consistent with historical precedent.

But it gets worse. It was reported that Sen. Grassley released documents showing that Special Counsel Jack Smith “issued nearly 200 subpoenas in his sweeping Arctic Frost-linked case against President Donald Trump related to the 2020 election and the events of January 6, 2021, seeking records on more than 400 Republican personalities and groups.” News reports indicate that

The records Smith subpoenaed included “communications with media companies such as CBS, Fox News, Fox Business, Newsmax, Sinclair, and others,” Grassley’s office said, as well as “communications with White House advisors” such as Stephen Miller, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, senior adviser Dan Scavino, Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump, and others….

On top of this, the subpoenas also related to communications with “any member, employee or agent of the Legislative Branch of the U.S. Government.”

The list of subpoena targets compiled by Grassley’s staff shows Smith demanding information from financial institutions, conservative groups, Republican organizations, and Trump-allied entities….

Recently-declassified revelations related to Arctic Frost chronicle the 2022 lawfare assault against Trump and MAGA world, as criminal inquiries – which would soon lead to criminal charges – spun into high gear as Trump leaned toward running for president again.

New evidence shows that Wray, Garland, and then-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco signed off on the launch of the Arctic Frost inquiry into Trump related to the Capitol riot.

But it gets even worse. Arctic Frost was aimed at a bigger target than the abusive Crossfire Hurricane operation. Biden’s DOJ was trying to take down the entire Republican leadership. Sen. Grassley has released records showing that Jack Smith’s team collected cell phone data from nearly a dozen Republican Senators, including Sen. Ted Cruz. The subpoenas were issued by the Trump-hating rogue judge James Boasberg, whose lawless overreach has previously been overturned by the Supreme Court. Incredibly, Boasberg’s blitzkrieg of subpoenas was accompanied by a gag order forbidding the cell phone providers from informing their customers of the subpoenas! In the case of subpoenas directed to communications by Senators, such a gag order is illegal. The Federalist explains that a federal statute “bans gag orders on the collection of Senate data and communications, and requires notice to the Senate to give it the opportunity to stop any subpoenas on separation of powers grounds. The statute also requires that courts stop those subpoenas if the Senate opposes them.”

Judge Boasberg brazenly violated federal law in his zeal to authorize secret, dragnet surveillance of Republican Senators. The revelation prompted numerous calls for Boasberg to be impeached.

All of the DOJ attorneys who prepared the illegal subpoenas are no longer employed there. Outraged Republican Senators are demanding Watergate-style hearing to ensure accountability, but so far House Speaker Mike Johnson is silent regarding his response to the bombshell expose of Democratic treachery. Let the hearings begin!

More judicial insurrection by rogue judges

Rogue judges have been busy in recent weeks. Many inferior federal judges act like they were elected President, except that they were never elected to anything. For the most part, they were partisan hacks appointed by Obama or Biden. They are supposed to apply the law impartially, but they behave like left-wing legislators—or radical political activists–wearing black robes. These brazen scofflaws see themselves as the Resistance to President Trump’s MAGA agenda. Most of the rulings will eventually be overturned by appellate courts, but they delay the Trump 2.0 agenda and require the DOJ to expend considerable resources litigating in federal court.   

Susan Illston, a San Francisco judge appointed by Bill Clinton, blocked the Trump administration from firing federal workers during the government shutdown orchestrated by New York Sen. Chuck Schumer. Some observers believe that this is “yet another instance of a court blocking executive actions, despite a Supreme Court decision meant to limit such stays.”  

Sarah Ellis, an Obama appointee in Chicago, ordered U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino to wear a body camera in interactions with the public, and to personally deliver updates to her at 6:00 pm each weekday. This followed a lengthy interrogation of Chief Bovino by Judge Ellis is her courtroom, to which Judge Ellis had summoned him. Ordering an executive branch official to make house visits like a Door Dash delivery boy is an insult to Article II. This is part of the Left’s attempt to nullify border enforcement in blue states and cities, which consider themselves “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens.

According to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompasses Illinois, Judge Ellis entered this order “on her own motion,” meaning that she initiated the action without being asked to do so by any of the parties. The 7^th Circuit stated:

The [district] judge justified this order by stating that she had seen videos that led her to question whether the [previously-issued] TRO was being obeyed. The order was not, however, a response to any motion by counsel for the plaintiffs (and the videos to which the judge referred apparently do not deal with behavior involving any of the plaintiffs).The federal defendants seek a writ of mandamus with respect to this aspect (and only this aspect) of the district court’s rulings. We issued a stay of the order requiring Chief Bovino to appear and report daily, and we now GRANT the petition for mandamus.

Judge Ellis’s ruling was highly unusual. Federal judges only have jurisdiction over specified types of “cases and controversies” presented by parties having standing. District judges are not “roving” arbiters of right and wrong empowered to enjoin executive branch officials as they see fit. The 7^th Circuit, which had already stayed the absurd edict commanding Chief Bovino to report in person to her chambers each day, like an errant school boy, went further and granted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s petition for a writ of mandamus.  This was accompanied by an epic smack down:

While this litigation presents very challenging circumstances, the district court’s order has two principal failings. First, it puts the court in the position of an inquisitor rather than that of a neutral adjudicator of the parties’ adversarial presentations. Second, it sets the court up as a supervisor of Chief Bovino’s activities, intruding into personnel management decisions of the Executive Branch. These two problems are related and lead us to conclude that the order infringes on the separation of powers. (Emphasis added.)

Translation: The district court went totally off the rails. I suspect that a repeat performance by Judge Ellis will lead to an even more dramatic rebuke by the 7^th Circuit.

Elsewhere, the Ninth Circuit panel decision staying Judge Karin Immergut’s ruling that President Trump cannot deploy the National Guard to Portland will be reheard by the entire Ninth Circuit (referred to as “en banc”). The 9^th Circuit also lifted the stay, restoring Judge Immergut’s injunction. The U.S. Supreme Court is going to have to sort this out. Soon.

Other mischief: Federal district judges in bright-blue Massachusetts and Rhode Island “have ordered the Trump administration to use contingency funds to cover SNAP [food stamp] benefits starting tomorrow,” according to news reports. The Massachusetts judge, Indira Talwani, was appointed by Obama. The Rhode Island judge, John McConnell, was also appointed by Obama. Cynics observed that “There are more than 600 serving federal district judges across the United States. Democrats managed to find two of the 600+ to “order” the executive branch to divert $5 billion in money set aside for natural disaster relief to partially fund food stamps for November.”

(Law professor Jonathan Turley reminds us that Indira Talwani previously enjoined the Trump Administration from cutting off Planned Parenthood funding. Judge Indira Talwani’s earlier order was set aside by three Biden appellate judges. She is not just a scofflaw; she is a serial scofflaw.)  

Of course, leftist media outlets celebrated the rulings like trained seals. A careful reading of the Constitution entrusts the appropriation authority to Congress, but apparently Obama appointees view themselves as unburdened by the Constitution, and superior to Congress. This smacks of arrogance and tyrannical disregard of the separation of powers.

The Wall Street Journal notes that

Government lawyers in both cases countered that they weren’t allowed to use contingency money for SNAP since the program’s appropriation for the new fiscal year has lapsed as a result of the shutdown. Tapping contingency funds, the government argued, would also take away money meant for other emergencies such as natural disasters. Any decision to divert funds from other sources, it said, was up to the agency.

“Even assuming USDA had discretion to reallocate these funds, the question of how to allocate limited funds among multiple crucial safety-net programs, when there are insufficient funds, is one that the agency is empowered to make—not a federal court, and certainly not plaintiffs,” the government wrote in the Massachusetts case.

The administration also noted the operational challenges of calculating and making partial payments to millions of recipients on such short notice, a process that could take weeks, if it can be done at all.

These arguments fell on deaf ears. Meddling lower-court judges insist on countermanding the Trump administration. A judicial insurrection, in other words.   

What else?  Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, an 82-year-old Clinton appointee in Washington, D.C., issued a decision holding that President Trump’s executive order requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship in order to vote is unconstitutional.    

The Supreme Court is going to have to get busy overturning all of these crazy decisions. It wouldn’t hurt if Congress started impeaching some of the worst offenders—starting with Obama-appointed James Boasberg.

Comey’s friends in the swamp

Former FBI Director James Comey has deep roots in the Swamp. He has been indicted for lying to Congress about leaking confidential information to the press. His fellow Swamp dwellers support him. Under the auspices of the Washington Litigation Group, “over one hundred former high-ranking Department of Justice officials filed a brief opposing the retaliatory prosecution of James Comey.” The list of signatories to the “friend of the court” brief includes all the usual suspects, including Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder and former judge Michael “TDS” Luttig, as well as a host of has-beens, wannabes, and never-weres. The list of signatories is a useful guide of who not to hire in any GOP administration.

Comey is seeking to have his criminal case dismissed on the ground that his prosecution is “vindictive,” ignoring his own central role in the most aggressive campaign of lawfare (against President Trump and his team) in American history.

Autopen controversy

Finally, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has led a deep dive into the unprecedented use of the “autopen” by the non compos mentis Joe Biden while he was President. Comer’s committee concluded that “In the absence of sufficient contemporaneous documentation indicating that cognitively deteriorating President Biden himself made a given executive decision, such decisions do not carry the force of law and should be considered void.” This includes the record number of pardons that Biden issued as a lame duck. The committee noted that the Biden administration “left no record demonstrating President Biden himself made all of the executive decisions that were attributed to him.”

With a senile, disengaged President in office, and numerous documents bearing a mechanical facsimile of his signature, how are we to tell who was really in charge? As reported by The Federalist,

Ultimately, the committee report concluded that all of Biden’s executive actions signed by the autopen “without proper, corresponding, contemporaneous, written approval traceable to the president’s own consent” are “void.”…

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has asked the Department of Justice to “conduct a comprehensive review of all executive actions taken during the Biden presidency and scrutinize key Biden aides —Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal — who pleaded the Fifth Amendment during the investigation.” Attorney General Pam Bondi obliged. 

New York Post columnist Miranda Devine described the Comer committee’s report:

It paints a grim picture of a president cocooned by his wife, Jill Biden, son Hunter Biden and three Svengali-style aides — Anthony Bernal, Jill’s chief of staff whom she reportedly called her “work husband,” Annie Tomasini and Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House doctor who gaslit the American public with “grossly misleading” medical assessments and “recklessly never conducted a cognitive exam” of Joe.

All three invoked the Fifth Amendment when called to testify to the committee….

Comer has named Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti, Bruce Reed and Anita Dunn — and both chiefs of staff, Ron Klain and Jeff Zients — as the central members of what has been called the “American Politburo” that controlled the former president….

Donilon, Joe’s long-time “counselor” and campaign strategist, who had been with him for more than four decades, told the committee he stood to make a total of $8 million by keeping Joe in the 2024 presidential race, with a ­bonus if he was re-elected.

No wonder they wanted to keep Biden in the race. Only his disastrous debate performance exposed the scam. The cover-up of Joe Biden’s unfitness for office is one of the worst political scandals in American history. Miranda Devine correctly concludes that “Joe Biden and his American Politburo almost took down the country.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi has plenty on her plate already, but taking action to nullify the phony autopen actions cooked up by Biden’s cadre of handlers should be a top priority. Joe Biden was mentally incompetent to make the pardons and other decisions “authorized” by what amount to forged signatures.