Category Archives: DOJ, DC and inside the Beltway

More Legal Cases Still to Come Over the SCOTUS Roe Ruling

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There is no denial that the Federal government has overt abortion activists including beyond the White House, it goes to the Department of Justice and sadly even to the Department of Defense.

Wasting no time, Merrick Garland, the U.S. Attorney General took to Twitter to expose his advocacy for abortion.

“The Supreme Court has eliminated an established right that has been an essential component of women’s liberty for half a century – a right that has safeguarded women’s ability to participate fully and equally in society. And in renouncing this fundamental right, which it had repeatedly recognized and reaffirmed, the Court has upended the doctrine of stare decisis, a key pillar of the rule of law." AG Garland “The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Court’s decision. This decision deals a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States. It will have an immediate and irreversible impact on the lives of people across the country. And it will be greatly disproportionate in its effect – with the greatest burdens felt by people of color and those of limited financial means." Attorney General Garland His full published statement is found here.

Garland, like the few Justices on the Supreme Court…just need to read aloud the text of the U.S. Constitution where it refers to a Constitutional right…we’re waiting.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/companies-offering-abortion-travel-benefits-us-workers-2022-06-24/

Meanwhile…there is General Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense….yeesh…but read on…

Axios reported –>

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday that the Pentagon is working to ensure that members of the military, their families and its civilian employees will still have access to “reproductive health care” after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Why it matters: The Defense Department currently does not have a policy to accommodate service members or employees who are seeking an abortion but are stationed in a state that has outlawed abortion, Politico reports.

  • Federal law currently allows military medical facilities to provide abortions only in cases of rape, incest or if a woman’s life is in danger, while the military’s health program is allowed to cover abortions at private facilities for those same reasons only.

What they’re saying: “Nothing is more important to me or to this Department than the health and well-being of our Service members, the civilian workforce and DOD families,” Austin said in a statement on Friday.

  • “I am committed to taking care of our people and ensuring the readiness and resilience of our Force. The Department is examining this decision closely and evaluating our policies to ensure we continue to provide seamless access to reproductive health care as permitted by federal law,” he added.

The big picture: The court’s decision may further strain the military’s recruitment efforts — already hampered by low employment and other factors — as potential recruits may fear being stationed in states that have banned abortions, according to Bloomberg.

  • Women make up around 20% of the military’s 1.3 million-member active-duty force, and 95% of them are of reproductive age, according to Stars and Stripes citing department statistics.

Then..one of the first messages I received was a headline article from Associated Press predicting the stockpiling of abortion pills…imagine the looming black market on those. Then VOX weighed in –> Medication abortion, or taking a combination of the drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, is an increasingly common method for ending pregnancies in the United States. Reasons vary and overlap: Some women lack access to in-person abortion clinics; others prefer to end pregnancies in the comfort of their own home. Others seek out the pills because they cost far less than surgical abortion. (…)

small but growing number of reproductive experts have been encouraging discussion of an idea called “advance provision” — or, more colloquially, stocking up on abortion pills in case one needs them later.

It’s an idea that has merit: Mifepristone has a shelf life of about five years, misoprostol about two, and both drugs work better the earlier in a pregnancy you take them. In states that are ramping up abortion restrictions, there’s often a race against the clock to access care. In Texas, for example, if you don’t realize until eight weeks in that you’re pregnant — which could be only a couple of weeks after a missed period — you would have already passed the state’s new legal deadline for obtaining abortion pills. But if you had already stored them in your home, or your friend or neighbor had, then you’d be able to take them.

Now…let’s take a look at corporations that have made pledges to pay for abortion expenses…then consider when the lawsuits begin for corporations paying in kind for wanted pregnancies and full term, real birth for planned and wanted babies…will that be considered? Ah…but read on. It is still going to be ugly going forward.

Company
Benefit(s) Offered
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N)
The company told employees it would pay for their travel to states that allow legal abortions, according to a memo seen by Reuters. read more
Citigroup Inc (C.N)
The bank has started covering travel expenses for employees who go out of state for abortions because of newly enacted restrictions in Texas and other states, becoming the first major U.S. bank to make that commitment. read more
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc will cover travel expenses for its U.S.-based employees who need to go out of state to receive abortion or gender-affirming medical care starting July 1. read more
Meta Platforms Inc. (META.O)
Meta said in statement it intends to offer travel expense reimbursements, to the extent permitted by law, for employees who will need access to out-of-state healthcare and reproductive services.
Yelp Inc (YELP.N)
The crowd-sourced review platform will extend its abortion coverage to cover expenses for its employees and their dependents who need to travel to another state for abortion services. read more
Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O)
The second-largest U.S. private employer told employees it will pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses yearly for non-life threatening medical treatments, among them elective abortions. read more
Levi Strauss & CO
The apparel company will reimburse travel expenses for its full- and part-time employees who need to travel to another state for healthcare services, including abortions. read more
United Talent Agency
The private Hollywood talent agency said it would reimburse travel expenses related to women’s reproductive health services that are not accessible in an employee’s state of residence. read more
Tesla Inc (TSLA.O)
Tesla’s Safety Net program and health insurance includes travel and lodging support for its employees who may need to seek healthcare services that are unavailable in their home state, according to the company’s 2021 impact report. (https://bit.ly/3beSOOQ)
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O)
Microsoft said it would extend its abortion and gender affirming care services for employees in the United States to include travel expense assistance. read more
Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O)
Starbucks said it will reimburse U.S. employees and their dependents if they must travel more than 100 miles from their homes to obtain an abortion. read more
Netflix Inc (NFLX.O)
Netflix said it will offer travel reimbursement for U.S. employees and dependents who travel for cancer treatment, transplants, abortion and gender-affirming care through its U.S. health plans.
Mastercard Inc (MA.N)
Mastercard said it will fund travel and lodging for employees seeking abortions outside their home states from June, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. read more
Kroger Co
Kroger said it will provide travel benefits up to $4,000 to facilitate access to several categories of medical treatments and a full range of reproductive health care services, including abortion.
Uber Technologies Inc
Uber said its insurance plans in the United States cover a range of reproductive health benefits, including pregnancy termination and travel expenses to access healthcare.
DoorDash Inc
DoorDash said it will cover certain travel-related expenses for employees who face new barriers to access and need to travel out of state for abortion-related care.
Lyft Inc (LYFT.O)
Lyft said its U.S. medical benefits plan includes coverage for elective abortion and reimbursement for travel costs if an employee must travel more than 100 miles for an in-network provider.
Bank of America Corp
The bank said it will reimburse employees and their dependents for the cost of traveling to receive reproductive healthcare, including abortions.
Deutsche Bank AG
The bank said it is updating its U.S. healthcare policy to cover travel costs for any medical procedure, including abortion, that is not offered within 100 miles of an employees’ home, according to a source familiar.
American Express Co
American Express said it will cover travel and other related expenses for employees and their dependents if they need abortion or gender-affirming treatment that is not available where they live.
Block (SQ.N)
The payments company said it will cover expenses for U.S. employees who must travel more than 100 miles for abortions starting July 1, a source familiar with the matter said.
Macy’s Inc
Macy’s said it made the decision to expand its benefits program to provide travel reimbursement for colleagues to receive the medical care needed and will abide by existing laws and legal standards.
Walt Disney Co
Disney said the company’s benefits will cover the cost of employees who need to travel to another location to access care, including to obtain an abortion, it said. read more
Gucci
Gucci said in May it will cover travel expenses of U.S. employees who need access to health care not available in their home state. The company also has said it will match employee donations to Planned Parenthood.
Bank of Nova Scotia
Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest bank, said it will pay for travel costs for U.S. employees in states that restrict access for abortions. Its U.S. employees have access to abortion coverage under its medical plan.
And they called Vietnam veterans baby killers….

It IS a Cognitive Problem, WH Staff Actions Prove it

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It is yet another historical cover-up by the Left. Frankly it is terrifying on many fronts. It also proves, Joe Biden is not in charge of…anything.

***

NOTE the all CAPS….iceberg ahead ladies and gentlemen…25th Amendment? Re-election…really?

SECTION 3. Whenever the President transmits to the Presi-
dent pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to
discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he
transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such
powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as
Acting President.  ( who transmits the declaration exactly and who writes it…..and how is it written…)

DW: Many politicians are given cheat sheets by their staff to remember talking points and to help them stay on schedule, but observers noticed that President Joe Biden’s notecard on Thursday was filled out with a little more detail than normal.

Kate Hyde, a writer and commentator, flagged that Biden revealed the back of his notecard, showing instructions for how to act and to whom he should ask questions during meeting union and private sector leaders to discuss the new Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership.

Biden began the meeting by saying he was “disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s decision released Thursday that upheld the Second Amendment and struck down a New York concealed carry law. As the video shows, one side of the card was written in what appears to be his own handwriting, while the other side had text with step-by-step instructions on what to do while in the room.

Image

Thanks to a Getty Image of the incident, readers can see that the text reads as follows:

Offshore Wind Drop-By Sequence of Events

  • YOU enter the Roosevelt Room and say hello to participants
  • YOU take YOUR seat
  • Press enters
  • YOU give brief comments (Minutes)
  • Press departs
  • YOU ask Liz Shuler AFL-CIO President a question
  • Note: Liz is joining virtually.
  • YOU thank participants.
  • You depart.

In reaction to the photo, Greg Price, a conservative digital strategist, sarcastically remarked, “Joe Biden isn’t senile, guys. His handlers just have to give him step by step directions for every single thing that he does.”

Popular Twitter user and podcast host Comfortably Smug tweeted, “Holy s*** This is unreal”

 

This is not the first time that Biden has been caught using a notecard with verbatim instruction. In late March, Biden was photographed with talking points on what to say about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Biden had to have ‘I was not articulating a change in policy’ written verbatim on a notecard so he wouldn’t screw it up… and he still screwed it up,” the GOP’s Jake Schneider tweeted.

 

Biden has made it a habit to mess up certain talking points, only to have the White House walk back his statements.

During that same press conference where Biden got busted with Putin talking points, the commander-in-chief was asked point-blank about several foreign policy gaffes relating to Russia. While in Europe in late March, the president appeared to tell U.S. troops that they were headed to Ukraine, suggested that the U.S. might retaliate with a chemical weapon if Russia used one first, and alluded to the possibility of regime change in Russia.

Each time, the White House had to issue clarifications after the president’s comments — but when Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Biden about the clarifications, he appeared to be completely unaware that his team had amended any of those statements, asking Doocy, “What’s getting walked back?”

Doocy asked Biden if he was “worried that other leaders in the world are going to start to doubt that America is ‘back’ if some of these big things that you say on the world stage keep getting walked back?”

“What’s getting walked back?” Biden responded.

“Just in the last couple days … it sounded like you told troops they were going to Ukraine, it sounded like you said it was possible the U.S. would use a chemical weapon, and it sounded like you were calling for regime change in Russia, and we know …” Doocy said before Biden interrupted.

The president interjected, denying that had happened at all, “None of the three occurred.”

According to the Baltimore Sun, the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was to launch a “formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors, including Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Biden’s plan for climate change.”

That fact might get overshadowed by the president’s instruction list.

 

DOJ Garland Envoy in Ukraine, a Possible CoverUp Happening?

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Garland makes surprise visit in Ukraine source

Umm…Interesting timing…understand the size and bona fides of this envoy and why would Attorney General Merrick Garland himself need to go to Ukraine? I submit it is due in part to the Biden Crime family and that laptop….could it be that something is about break or is there some evidence that requires sequestering…..

But you decide and read on….

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Visits Ukraine, Reaffirms U.S. Commitment to Help Identify, Apprehend, and Prosecute Individuals Involved in War Crimes and Atrocities

Garland meets with Ukrainian Prosecutor General; Announces Counselor for War Crimes Accountability

“There is no hiding place for war criminals. The U.S. Justice Department will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.”

In a meeting with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland commended the efforts of the Ukrainian people to defend democracy and uphold the rule of law, and announced additional U.S. actions to help Ukraine identify, apprehend, and prosecute those individuals involved in war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.

“The United States stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s continued aggression and assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Attorney General Garland. “America – and the world – has seen the many horrific images and read the heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and death that have resulted from Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine.”

Specifically, Attorney General Garland announced the launch of a War Crimes Accountability Team to centralize and strengthen the Justice Department’s ongoing work to hold accountable those who have committed war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. This initiative will bring together the Department’s leading experts in investigations involving human rights abuses and war crimes and other atrocities; and provide wide-ranging technical assistance, including operational assistance and advice regarding criminal prosecutions, evidence collection, forensics, and relevant legal analysis. The team will also play an integral role in the Department’s ongoing investigation of potential war crimes over which the U.S. possesses jurisdiction, such as the killing and wounding of U.S. journalists covering the unprovoked Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“There is no hiding place for war criminals. The U.S. Justice Department will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” said Attorney General Garland. “Working alongside our domestic and international partners, the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable every person complicit in the commission of war crimes, torture, and other grave violations during the unprovoked conflict in Ukraine.”

To lead this effort, the Attorney General has tapped Eli Rosenbaum to serve as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability. Rosenbaum is a 36-year veteran of the Justice Department who previously served as Director of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which was primarily responsible for identifying, denaturalizing, and deporting Nazi war criminals. In his role as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability, Rosenbaum will coordinate efforts across the Justice Department and the federal government to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. Rosenbaum will be joined in his work by other prosecutors from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP), including Acting Section Chief Hope Olds and prosecutors Christian Levesque, Christina Giffin, and Courtney Urschel.

In addition, the Justice Department will provide additional personnel to expand its work with Ukraine and other partners to counter Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion. Among other things, the Department will provide Ukraine an expert Justice Department prosecutor to advise on fighting kleptocracy, corruption, and money laundering. In addition, it plans to deploy two expert attorneys from the Office of International Affairs (OIA) – one to a U.S. Embassy in Europe, and another to a U.S. Embassy in the Middle East – in support of the Department’s KleptoCapture Task Force. These senior attorneys will work closely with their counterparts in EU member states and Middle Eastern countries to facilitate mutual legal assistance and extraditions relating to Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion, including with respect to designated Russian oligarchs who have supported the Russian regime and its efforts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty.

Attorney General Garland announced the KleptoCapture Task Force in March to further leverage the Department’s tools and authorities against efforts to evade or undermine the economic actions taken by the U.S. Government in response to Russian military aggression. Since then, the task force has facilitated the seizure of superyachts of two sanctioned individuals with close ties to the Russian regime; dismantled Russian criminal networks; and enforced sanctions violations, among other actions.

Component(s):
Criminal – Human Rights and Special Prosecution Section
Criminal – Office of International Affairs
Office of the Attorney General
Press Release Number:
22-649

Benny Thompson/Liz Cheney Call Holding on Line 3

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Actually, there are a few additional details that have surfaced. They include:

  1. A group had entered the Cannon House Office building earlier in the day and were causing some chaos, so the Capitol Police asked them to leave. Apparently they did.
  2. The group was there allegedly to film only aggressive questioning on select Republican congress members in the House.
  3. None apparently had visitor badges on, which then leads to unauthorized entry. You know, that same pesky charge of many January 6th people, some still in jail.
  4. California Congressman Adam Schiff is known to be the coordinator of this plot…a comedy skit perhaps?
  5. Deep into the building actually….the 6th floor at 8:30pm.

But read on as Fox News describes it.

The U.S. Capitol Police arrested a group of staffers with CBS’s “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” after they allegedly illegally entered a U.S. House of Representatives office building on Thursday night, Fox News has learned.

The group of nine people were arrested in the Longworth House Office Building after being escorted out of the Jan. 6 committee hearing earlier in the day because they did not have proper press credentials, according to sources.

The same group resurfaced later on Thursday night after the Capitol complex was closed to public visitors and Fox News is told that they took videos and pictures around the offices of two Republican members of Congress, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy R-Calif. and Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. (Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy as well)

A senior source in the U.S House of Representatives told Fox News that the following individuals associated with Stephen Colbert’s show were arrested:

  • Jake Plunkett
  • Allison Martinez
  • Tyrone Dean
  • Stephen Romond
  • Nicoletta Green
  • Brendan Hurley
  • Robert Smigel
  • Josh Comers
  • David Feldman

The group was unescorted and charged with illegal entry to House office buildings after hours.

Robert Smigel is known for being the voice of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Triumph The Insult Comic Dog's Creator Robert Smigel Is An Equal Opportunity Political Offender | Decider source

The U.S. Capitol Police told Fox News in a statement that it received a call for a disturbance in the Longworth House Office Building at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday and said that additional charges could be filed.

“On June 16, 2022, at approximately 8:30 p.m., U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) received a call for a disturbance in the Longworth House Office Building. Responding officers observed seven individuals, unescorted and without Congressional ID, in a sixth-floor hallway. The building was closed to visitors, and these individuals were determined to be a part of a group that had been directed by the USCP to leave the building earlier in the day,” the statement says. “They were charged with Unlawful Entry. This is an active criminal investigation, and may result in additional criminal charges after consultation with the U.S. Attorney.”

Insurrection? Released on bond? Provided a free lawyer? Has Colbert or Schiff been questioned? What about the Capitol police… Seize phone records? Will ‘Democracy survive’? Coup plotters?

Oh…never mind..already released.

 

 

Modern Day Nuremberg Required for Russian War Crimes

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Russia war crimes did not begin with the invasion of Ukraine, those with short memories should be reminded that all the same tactics were used in Syria and went unpunished. Shameful, but read on.

***

As Russia continues its assault on Ukraine, top Biden administration officials are working behind the scenes with the Ukrainian government and European allies to document a tsunami of war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces. But the sheer volume of the documented war crime cases could be too overwhelming for Ukraine’s justice system as well as for the International Criminal Court (ICC), raising questions of how many cases will be brought to trial and how many accused Russian war criminals could ultimately face justice.

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16.

An aerial view of crosses, floral tributes, and photographs of the victims of the battles for Irpin and Bucha that mark the graves in a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on May 16. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

“This is a Nuremberg moment in terms of just the sheer scale of the breach of the rules-based international order that has been perpetrated by Russia in this invasion,” said Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice. “Even the most well-resourced prosecutorial office would have a hard time grappling with the sheer scale of the criminality that’s been on display.”

The United States joined a slew of other Western countries and international institutions in devoting resources to help Ukraine document and collect evidence on as many alleged war crimes as possible, from Russian soldiers torturing, raping, and executing Ukrainian civilians to Russian armored units and air forces indiscriminately shelling civilian targets. Keep reading here.

Weapons experts from France are helping their Ukrainian counterparts collect evidence of possible Russian war crimes in the northern region of Chernihiv, Ukraine’s prosecutor general said on Friday.

The French Gendarmerie’s experts, including specialists in drone modelling, ballistics and weapons of mass destruction, have been collecting evidence at sites of destruction from Russian shelling.

They replaced group of gendarmerie forensic experts who arrived in mid-April to help establish what happened in Bucha, near Kyiv, where the killing of many civilians provoked a global outcry.

“It will soon be two months since (French experts) have been with us ‘on the ground’,” Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova wrote on her Facebook account.

“They work in the Chernihiv region and conduct research at sites destroyed by shelling,” she wrote. “These war crimes must be punished, and we are ready to do together everything to do
so.”

The Chernihiv region has been shelled frequently since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. Ukraine is also investigating potential war crimes by Russian soldiers in Chernihiv during their occupation in March.

Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected allegations of war crimes in what it calls a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies say Russia invaded its neighbor without provocation. source

***

Ukraine has identified several thousand suspected war crimes in the eastern Donbas region where Russian forces are pressing their offensive, Kyiv’s chief prosecutor said Tuesday.

“Of course we started a few thousand cases about what we see in Donbas,” prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague as she met international counterparts.

“If we speak about war crimes, it’s about possible transfer of people, we started several cases about possible transfer of children, adult people to different parts of the Russian Federation,” she said.

“Then, of course, we can speak about torturing people, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.”

Ukrainian authorities did not have access to Russian-held areas of Donbas, but they were interviewing evacuees and prisoners of war, Venediktova told the press conference at the headquarters of EU judicial agency Eurojust.

In total, Ukraine had identified 15,000 war crimes cases across the country since Russia’s invasion on February 24, she added.

Ukraine had identified 600 suspects for the “anchor” crime of aggression, including “high level of top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russian Federation,” the prosecutor general said.

Nearly 80 suspects had been identified for alleged war crimes that had actually taken place on Ukrainian soil, she added. source