wtf.... this is what the 3rd, 4th time DOJ's batted for Trump under Garland? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/do...defend-trump-defamation-suit-accuser-n1269917 Biden's Justice Department moves to defend Trump in defamation suit from accuser E. Jean Carroll Carroll has accused the former president of sexual assault and defaming her by saying it "never happened." The Biden administration's Justice Department filed court documents Monday that seek to defend former President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit. President Joe Biden criticized Trump on the campaign trail last year for using the department like his own "private law firm" in multiple instances, including in the case of E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s. In September, Trump's Justice Department filed documents seeking to represent Trump against Carroll's claim in federal court. Trump has denied Carroll's claim of sexual assault at a department store, saying "she's not my type" and it "never happened." Carroll, a onetime columnist for Elle magazine who included the allegations in a 2019 book, filed a defamation suit in 2019. In October, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the Trump administration's attempt to have the Justice Department represent him. The Justice Department argued in a brief filed Monday in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City that it should represent Trump, as nearly everything he said and did as president was a matter of government action. "Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public concern is undoubtedly part of an elected official's job," the brief states. "Courts have thus consistently and repeatedly held that allegedly defamatory statements made in that context are within the scope of elected officials' employment — including when the statements were prompted by press inquiries about the official's private life." The Justice Department lawyers wrote that Trump was "crude and disrespectful" in questioning Carroll's credibility and that comments attacking her appearance, impugning her motives and implying that she had made false accusations "were without question unnecessary and inappropriate." But, they said, they "all pertained to the denial of wrongdoing." Carroll responded in a statement: "As women across the country are standing up and holding men accountable for assault — the DOJ is trying to stop me from having that same right. I am angry! I am offended! I and my attorneys Robbie Kaplan and Joshua Matz are confident that Judge Kaplan's decision will be affirmed by the Second Circuit." Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement: "The DOJ's position is not only legally wrong, it is morally wrong since it would give federal officials free license to cover up private sexual misconduct by publicly brutalizing any woman who has the courage to come forward. Calling a woman you sexually assaulted a 'liar,' a 'slut,' or 'not my type,' as Donald Trump did here, is not the official act of an American president." Trump's legal team also responded to the Justice Department's move, saying that the suit "must be dismissed in a straightforward application of Congress’s decision not to waive sovereign immunity for defamation." "This is not a case where a president, without prompting, randomly targeted a private citizen. Rather, Carroll, a public figure, accused Trump of terrible misconduct 20 years earlier in a book and magazine article for which she sought maximum publicity," they added in court documents. "He denied her accusations in precisely the manner she expected. A short time later, she sued him for defamation."
#priorities https://gizmodo.com/doj-vows-to-hunt-down-whoever-let-the-public-know-how-l-1847066780 DOJ Vows to Hunt Down Whoever Let the Public Know How Little Billionaires Pay in Taxes After ProPublica published IRS records of the ultra-wealthy, Attorney General Merrick Garland says finding the leaker is "at the top of my list."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/11/biden-trump-hotel-documents/ Biden administration keeps long-sought Trump hotel documents under wraps The Trump administration blocked Democrats’ efforts to unearth documents related to his leased D.C. hotel. Not much has changed under Biden. Biden’s team has steadfastly defended some of the protections the Trump administration put in place to conceal Trump’s financial interests. The Justice Department under Biden is appealing a lower court judgment in favor of the congressional Democrats in their suit, another move by the agency to defend Trump-era legal positions. Biden’s General Services Administration, which holds the lease for the Trump International hotel, has provided only a portion of the documents Congress is seeking and asked that none of them be disclosed publicly. Government watchdogs say they are disappointed at the Biden administration’s unwillingness to hold Trump accountable for a unique — and in their view highly problematic — arrangement in which Trump’s administration managed a contract to a business entity he still owned and that his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, oversaw. Allowing Trump’s actions to go unscrutinized, advocates argue, would invite future presidents to repeat them. “We think it’s really important to learn as much as possible about that contract and how it was administered, and whether there were special favors for Donald Trump because he was the president,” said Noah Bookbinder, president and chief executive of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
"Attorney General Merrick Garland did not comment" Someone, wake up Joe and tell him what's going on with his DOJ. Officials and employees of the DOJ that did Trump's evil bidding need to be held to full account; including the possibility of criminal charges, termination, and disbarment. Also tell Joe to do something about citizen-education; so we stop trying to elect clowns, unqualified actors, criminals, racists, etc. into the most powerful position on the planet.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/14/judge-keeps-second-part-of-memo-on-mueller-report-secret.html Judge keeps second part of DOJ memo on Mueller report about Trump secret, for now A federal judge declined to order the Department of Justice to release the second part of a memo about the Mueller report written to former Attorney General William Barr. The memo argued that there was not enough evidence to prosecute then-President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she wanted to allow the DOJ time to follow through on an appeal of her decision ordering the release of the entire memo by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel. A federal judge declined Monday to order the Department of Justice to release the second part of a memo about the Mueller report written to former Attorney General William Barr, which argued that there was not enough evidence to prosecute then-President Donald Trump for obstruction of justice. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in a ruling that she wanted to allow the DOJ time to follow through on its appeal of her earlier decision ordering the release of the entire memo by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel. “While there may be some additional public benefit in revealing the contents of Section II, the Court will not deny the Department the opportunity to challenge its ruling in order to advance that interest at this time,” Jackson wrote in her new ruling, issued in U.S. District Court in Washington.