[Judicial Watch] Judicial Watch announced today that lawyers for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her former Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills have asked the Court of Appeals to overturn a U.S. District court order granting Judicial Watch’s request for their depositions about Clinton’s emails and Benghazi attack records. Lawyers for Clinton and Mills filed a "Petition for Writ of Mandamus" earlier today.
The Clinton request comes in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit that seeks records concerning "talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack" (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01242)). Judicial Watch famously uncovered in 2014 that the "talking points" that provided the basis for Susan Rice’s false statements were created by the Obama White House. This Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit led directly to the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015.
On March 3, 2020, Judge Lamberth granted Judicial Watch’s request to depose Clinton about her emails and Benghazi attack documents. The court also ordered the deposition of Mills and two other State Department officials. Additionally, the court granted Judicial Watch’s request to subpoena Google for relevant documents and records associated with Clinton’s emails during her tenure at the State Department.
In December 2018, Judge Lamberth first ordered discovery into whether Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server was intended to stymie FOIA; whether the State Department’s intent to settle this case in late 2014 and early 2015 amounted to bad faith; and whether the State Department has adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s request. The court also authorized discovery into whether the Benghazi controversy motivated the cover-up of Clinton’s email. The court ruled that the Clinton email system was "one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency." The State and Justice Departments continued to defend Clinton’s and the agency’s email conduct.
Judge Lamberth overruled Clinton’s and the State and Justice Department’s objections to limited additional discovery by first noting:
Discovery up until this point has brought to light a noteworthy amount of relevant information, but Judicial Watch requests an additional round of discovery, and understandably so. With each passing round of discovery, the Court is left with more questions than answers.
Additionally, Judge Lamberth said that he is troubled by the fact that both the State Department and Department of Justice want to close discovery in this case:
[T]here is still more to learn. Even though many important questions remain unanswered, the Justice Department inexplicably still takes the position that the court should close discovery and rule on dispositive motions. The Court is especially troubled by this. To argue that the Court now has enough information to determine whether State conducted an adequate search is preposterous, especially when considering State’s deficient representations regarding the existence of additional Clinton emails. Instead, the Court will authorize a new round of discovery...
With respect to Clinton, the court found that her prior testimony, mostly through written sworn answers, was not sufficient:
The Court has considered the numerous times in which Secretary Clinton said she could not recall or remember certain details in her prior interrogatory answers. In a deposition, it is more likely that plaintiff’s counsel could use documents and other testimony to attempt to refresh her recollection. And so, to avoid the unsatisfying and inefficient outcome of multiple rounds of fruitless interrogatories and move this almost six-year-old case closer to its conclusion, Judicial Watch will be permitted to clarify and further explore Secretary Clinton’s answers in person and immediately after she gives them. The Court agrees with Judicial Watch ‐ it is time to hear directly from Secretary Clinton.
"This desperate act is yet another attempt by the Clinton machine to delay truth and accountability for her email conduct and how it impacted the people’s ’right to know’ under FOIA," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2020 00:00 ||
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#1
I was so hoping my initial headline read was correct: "Lawyers for Hillary Clinton Ask Appeals Court to Order Her to be Deported."
#2
A writ or order of mandamus is an extraordinary court order because it is made without the benefit of full judicial process, or before a case has concluded. It may be issued by a court at any time that it is appropriate, but it is usually issued in a case that has already begun.
Generally, the decisions of a lower-court made in the course of a continuing case will not be reviewed by higher courts until there is a final judgment in the case. On the federal level, for example, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1291 provides that appellate review of lower-court decisions should be postponed until after a final judgment has been made in the lower court. A writ of mandamus offers one exception to this rule. If a party to a case is dissatisfied with some decision of the trial court, the party may appeal the decision to a higher court with a petition for a writ of mandamus before the trial proceeds. The order will be issued only in exceptional circumstances.
Dodged a Democrat Bullet there, Florida
[Sun-Sentinel] A police report about an apparent drug overdose in a Miami Beach hotel room overnight Thursday says that one of the three men present in the room was former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum ‐ along with three small plastic bags containing suspected crystal meth.
The incident could mark a sudden end to Gillum’s political star ‐ which shone brightly for many Democrats even after he lost the 2018 election for governor.
#14
what happened to Allen West? He would be a great republicn candidate in fla.
Posted by: Chris ||
03/14/2020 18:23 Comments ||
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#15
Sorry. Allen West. No thanks. Until DeSantis really messes up his numbers he's a shoe in for re election right now. On the dem side I'm thinking we'll see Donna Shalala (ugh!) or Nikki Fried (ugh^2!)
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/14/2020 18:49 Comments ||
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#16
West is the guy who ticks all the right boxes and doesn't even make the run off. Please spare us all.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/14/2020 18:51 Comments ||
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#17
Must have been incoherent that he couldn't pull up his pants between the 911 call and the help arriving.
#8
#6 LOL. Maybe it's time for them to call on their seconds to actually deliver remarks. AOC for Sanders, and, well, I dunno who for Biden. Hunter, maybe?
Posted by: Matt ||
03/14/2020 13:01 Comments ||
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Yesterday I first saw the rumour that in 2018 Trump fired the entire CDC pandemic response team, so no doubt you, too, dear Reader, are seeing your friends and relations with TDS begin to get overexcited by the idea. Here is the answer.
[Factcheck.org] As the COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... has spread around the world, a number of politicians, news organizations and public figures have made the false claim that the Trump administration cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s anti-pandemic work in over 40 countries to just 10. The CDC told us that’s not true.
The claim appears to have been based solely on outdated news reports from early 2018 that said the CDC was preparing to dramatically reduce its work helping to prevent infectious-disease epidemics. Those reports said much of that work on the Global Health Security Agenda, a pact between over 60 nations that began in 2014, had been funded by a five-year, nearly $600 million supplemental package that was dwindling. That one-time funding, which Congress originally appropriated in response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014, ran out at the end of September 2019.
Continued on Page 49
[Red State] The White House has announced that President Donald Trump has been tested for the Wuhan coronavirus, despite having no symptoms, out of an excess of caution because he had exposure to at least two people who have been diagnosed with the virus.
One of those people was the Brazilian president’s press secretary who tested positive in the days after he met Trump and the other was Nestor Forster, Brazil’s chargé d’affaires in Washington. But neither had symptoms when they met with Trump. So it’s not clear if they had it when they met with the president and it’s less likely if they were asymptomatic that they will transmit it, although still possible.
#2
When off script SloJoe seems to babble memorized sound bites strung together in a loud word salad, or stare with stare with the confused grandpa look before being aide-rushed away. He seems only capable of prepared and scripted remarks with avoidance of questions now. I hope someone going forward is scrutinizing his ears for devices to help him interact al fresco with the press. Key hint, is he allowed close enough for something to be noticed?
[BREITBART] The Washington Post’s fact-checker column slapped former Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Failed seeker of the Democratic presidential nomination on multiple occasions, vice president under Barack Obama, giving it a last try in his dotage for 2020... ’s White House campaign with four Pinocchios for its misleading attack ad about President Trump’s comments about the coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... , writing it presents "a false narrative that does not reflect the event as it occurred."
The Biden ad accuses President Trump of dismissing the deadly illness as a "hoax" during a recent campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... Washington Post fact-checker Meg Kelly explained the video clip is a "blatant" misrepresentation of the president’s remark.
"At the 10-second mark [of the ad], the camera shows a tight shot of the president saying ’coronavirus’ and then cuts to a wide shot where [Trump] says, ’this is their new hoax.’ Both clips are from Trump’s Feb. 28 campaign rally in North Charleston, S.C., but he never said ’coronavirus, this is their new hoax.’ Rather, Biden’s ad clipped a large part of Trump’s speech to make it seem as though he had," Kelly writes. "Ultimately, the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak, the fact that Trump had clarified his comments on the matter before the ad was released, and the blatant way the Biden camp isolated his remarks about the American Dream pushed us to Four Pinocchios."
"Campaigns must be willing to make their case without resorting to video manipulation," she added.
A Biden aide sidestepped the Post’s refutation of the ad and instead resorted to an ad hominem attack against the president, calling him the "most dishonest president in American history."
"We don’t trust his next-day cleanup attempt, and he has made many comments in that same vein. And the claim that the American Dream was ’dead’ in the final year of the B.O. regime ‐ during the longest streak of job growth in American history ‐ is categorically untrue and another reminder of Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s deep cynicism," Rapid Response Director Andrew Bates said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2020 00:00 ||
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[WASHINGTONEXAMINER] House Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi Congresswoman-for-Life from the San Francisco Bay Area, born into a family of professional politicians. On-again-off-again Speaker of the House. It's not her fault when they lose, but it's her accomplishment when they win. Noted for her heavily botoxed grimace and occasional senior... uhhh... moments... said Friday evening that she had reached a deal with the Trump administration to pass a coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... economic package, ending an intense weeklong series of negotiations. The House is expected to vote and pass the legislation later Friday night.
The earliest a bill could be signed into law is Monday, when the Senate returns.
"We are proud to have reached an agreement with the Administration to resolve outstanding challenges, and now will soon pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act," Pelosi wrote in a letter to fellow wardheelers.
"This legislation is about testing, testing, testing," she wrote.
The legislation is meant to help people whose lives or jobs have been upended by the epidemic by providing benefits for idled workers, added food stamp funding, and boosted unemployment insurance. It also would increase coronavirus testing and give states funding for healthcare.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who led the administration's efforts, spoke 13 times over the course of the day regarding the deal, most recently at 5:48 p.m. on Friday evening, according to Pelosi front man Drew Hammill.
Earlier Friday, President Trump said there was no deal.
"We just don't think they're giving enough," Trump said during a news conference at the White House on the pandemic.
Trump said his administration, led by Mnuchin, was still negotiating with the Democrats, led by Pelosi.
"We could have something, but we don't think they're giving enough. They're not doing what's right for the country," Trump said when asked about the coronavirus economic package.
[FOXNEWS] The White House and congressional Republicans have poured cold water on the House Democrats' coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... legislation to provide economic relief to Americans, signaling there won’t be immediate broad bipartisan support for the pending bill unless it undergoes changes.
One senior administration official said the White House has "serious concerns" with the measure put forth by Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2020 00:00 ||
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[AMERICANTHINKER] In old movies, before movies became overtly political, Hollywood writers were adept at creating utterly meaningless speeches for their political characters. These speeches sounded good but meant nothing. Think of a whole speech filled with various iterations of the line from Toy Story ‐ "To infinity and beyond" ‐ which seems aspirational but is actually nonsense. Much the same can be said about Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Old, boring, a plagiarist, fond of hair sniffing and grabbing the protruding parts of women, and not whatcha call brilliant... 's grand announcement that he has a plan to combat the coronavirus ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... Hidden behind his banal platitudes was something more disturbing: when Biden moved on from criticizing Trump's actions for minimizing the coronavirus's impact, he offered a plan that's essentially a carbon copy of everything Trump has already said or done. Either Biden has become more of a dullard than anyone realized, which is worrisome, or he thinks the American people are incredibly stupid, which is insulting.
A subdued Biden, his head swinging rhythmically from one TelePrompter to another, portentously announced that the coronavirus requires a national response. He said people have to change their behaviors, wash hands, self-quarantine, and stop hugging and hand-shaking. He promised to put Americans' health and safety first.
Stop me if you've heard this before...
Oh, you have? You're correct. It's precisely (a) what Trump has been saying and (b) what everybody else has been saying.
But wait! There's more.
Biden announced that he has a committee of experts advising him and that he will "lead by science." It's unclear what he thinks the alternative is. Magic? The Black Arts?
Biden then moved in for the kill, like an old dog gumming a worn out chew toy:
Downplaying it, being overly dismissive, or spreading misinformation is only going to hurt us and further advantage the spread of the disease. But neither should we panic or fall back on xenophobia. Labeling COVID-19 a foreign virus does not displace the accountability for the misjudgments that have been taken thus far by the Trump administration.
[POWERLINEBLOG] Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'... ’s campaign has just completed one of the most remarkable turnarounds in political history. So how has Biden responded? By reshuffling his campaign team and picking a new campaign manager.
The Washington Post reports:
Former vice president Joe Biden has named Jen O’Malley Dillon as his new campaign manager, a major shake-up that comes just as the party’s leading candidate plans a major organizational expansion to prepare for the general election, according to a person familiar with the decision.
The move is intended to quell concerns that have been raised in recent weeks by senior Democratic strategists about the leadership structure of the Biden campaign, which has been beset by underwhelming fundraising, scant staffing resources and organizational miscues during the early nominating contests.
The campaign shuffle is an acknowledgment that while Biden has had a remarkable recent run of victories ‐ at least 15 of the past 21 contests ‐ his operation was not up to the challenge posed by President Trump if Biden wins the nomination.
Is it the campaign that’s not up to the challenge posed by Trump or is it the candidate? Is it the campaign that was responsible for underwhelming fundraising or was it the candidate? Was it the campaign that flopped in Iowa and New Hampshire or was it the candidate?
[TOWNHALL] The left's reaction to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ...Failed seeker of the Democratic presidential nomination on multiple occasions, vice president under Barack Obama, giving it a last try in his dotage for 2020... 's rude exchange with a union worker in Michigan is a case study on liberal hypocrisy and propaganda.
You'd have to be living in a cave not to recognize that something is way off with Biden. He's always been strange, but he's getting noticeably worse. His rhetorical recklessness is a feature, not a bug.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/14/2020 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
03/14/2020 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
Biden is way off plumb. Moreover, he is so crooked, he has to screw his socks on in the morning.
#6
When he was a stand over guy in Delaware, back in the day, he would go around with a list of people to beat up.
I am waiting for him to (try to) slug someone.
And how many times did he get punched in the head, anyway?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.