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Hundreds of cases, including Trump’s, will be affected if the top court strikes down the government’s use of an ‘obstructing an official proceeding’ charge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Supreme Court will strike down the use of a key federal law in the Biden administration’s ongoing prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants and in the process shut down the government’s case against hundreds of defendants, legal experts predict. If the top court finds an Enron-era obstruction law—18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c)—is being used improperly against the defendants, their charges are likely to be thrown out. At issue is the evidence-tampering provision that appears in...

I am a former assistant U.S. attorney, worked on two Supreme Court confirmations, and clerked for two federal appellate judges. I have reviewed the indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in the documents case against former President Donald Trump, and have serious concerns with the way this case is being framed in the public and with some aspects of the way the prosecution itself is being conducted. Here are six major issues I see that need to be addressed by the special counsel’s team. 1. Interplay Between the Espionage Act and the Presidential Records Act Others have already spoken...

The special counsel named by the Biden administration to investigate Donald Trump oversaw a Justice Department unit rebuked by the Supreme Court for its prosecution of a prominent Republican and was linked by Congress to the IRS scandal that targeted conservative groups. Jack Smith, a war crimes prosecutor in The Hague and former chief of the DOJ public integrity section, was named Friday by Attorney General Merrick Garland to take over two investigations of Trump related to Jan. 6 and classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago. In 2014, the House Oversight Committee concluded that during Smith's earlier stint at DOJ he...

Federal prosecutors on Thursday moved to drop their corruption case against former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, bringing to a close a case that gripped the state capital, tarnishing the former governor’s reputation and the state’s.

If you had any doubt whether or not Obama’s politicized DOJ was deliberately targeting conservative elected officials, this should confirm your suspicions. The US Supreme Court overturned a convictionin June against former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell for bribery. This was extremely significant, because the decisionwas unanimous — even all the liberal justices on the court agreed the criminal charges were a sham. Writing the opinion for the court, Chief Justice Roberts saidthe prosecutors had taken an overly broad interpretation of federal bribery law, and that if the court had allowed the conviction to stand, it would have made it extremely...

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated former Gov. Bob McDonnell's conviction on corruption charges Monday morning. The decision was unanimous, according to SCOTUSblog, which is tracking opinion releases this morning in Washington, D.C. The court overturned a decsion that rose out of the U.S. District Court in Richmond, then was affirmed by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The nut of the government's case against McDonnell, and his wife Maureen, was this: In taking some $177,000 in gifts and loans from businessman Jonnie Williams, and then setting meetings Williams sought to gain legitimacy for a controversial dietary supplement, the McDonnells engaged...

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz speaks with the media before addressing the Family Foundation of Virginia's 30th annual gala at the Greater Richmond Convention Center Saturday, November 14, 2015. (Alexa Welch Edlund) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in Richmond to boost his presidential bid in the commonwealth, said Saturday that the terrorist attacks in Paris underscore the threat the Islamic State poses to the United States."I want to express solidarity with the people of France, with the people of Paris - all across America, Americans are lifting them up in our prayers, we are standing with our friends and...

The Post reports, “A federal appeals panel court on Thursday unanimously affirmed the public corruption convictions against former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, writing in an 89-page opinion that the onetime Republican rising star ‘received a fair trial and was duly convicted by a jury of his fellow Virginians.'” Of most relevance and interest to other pols, McDonnell’s attorneys argued he had not performed any “official acts” in exchange for bribes. The court nixed that complaint: The appeals court panel disagreed, asserting that the government had “exceeded its burden” of proof on the topic of official acts. The opinion cited...

A question I often am asked is: "Who would you bet on to win the presidency?" Personally, I don't bet on politics, but here's my current take on the 2016 presidential race—with, of course, the caveat that we don't know which campaigns will turn out the best in terms of organization, strategy, tactics, or execution, much less which candidates will step on land mines along the way. The Democratic nomination appears fairly straightforward. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now the prohibitive favorite. If her early stumbles during her book tour, or remarks like the one she made about...

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was sentenced today to two years in prison for public corruption. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said McDonnell must report to prison on Feb. 9. Spencer said he was moved by the support for the former governor, but "a price must be paid. Unlike Pontius Pilate, I can't wash my hands of it all. A meaningful sentence must be imposed." Earlier, McDonnell addressed the court, asking that Spencer show him and his wife, Maureen, mercy. "I stand before you a heartbroken and humbled man," he said. The sentence could be seen as a victory...

President Barack Obama had another very bad week. It was only because former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was convicted on eleven of fourteen counts of corruption that Mr. Obama didn't walk away with the Worst Week honors. President announced during his pre-taped interview with Chuck Todd (to help mark the beginning of the Todd era on Meet the Press) that he would be addressing the nation on Wednesday night on his strategy for dealing with ISIS/ISIL/IS. Remember, a couple of weeks ago he told a presser that he had no strategy to do that which was about as dumb a...

A former rising star in the Republican Party, former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was red-faced and sobbing Thursday after a jury convicted him and his wife on multiple counts related to influence-peddling while he was in office. After more than a month of sometimes soul-baring testimony, the federal jury issued guilty verdicts on 11 counts against McDonnell, while clearing him on two others. His wife, Maureen, was convicted on nine while cleared on four. The charges involved gifts the couple received from a businessman, including a Rolex watch, a $15,000 check for their daughter’s wedding and other items that are...

[Vanity] Please list recent governors and members of the U.S. House and Seante who have done worse than abuse $120,00 worth of power. Please provide one or two lines on their unprosecuted criminal conduct.

John and Scott have commented on the indictment of Gov. Rick Perry. As they note, it fits a pattern of politically motivated indictments of prominent Texas Republicans. The Perry indictment also fits a pattern of harassment via the legal process of prominent Republican governors: Sarah Palin, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, and now Perry. What do these four have in common? Why, they all are (or were) potentially viable candidates for the national office. Invocation of the legal process against Christie may well be warranted. (So too with Bob McDonnell, whom I didn’t include in my list because, although once vaguely...

Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen are facing a slew of federal corruption charges, but as they appeared in court for the first time today, reports emerged that the Republican politician once rejected a plea deal that would have spared his wife entirely... The plea agreement Mr McDonnell rejected last year, according to the Washington Post, would have required him to acknowledge only that he filed an incomplete mortgage application when he failed to list money he had borrowed from Mr Williams. For Mr McDonnell, once considered a possible presidential running mate in 2012, a political future...

"We are broke," confessed former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's wife Maureen in an email to his staff, and "have an unconscionable amount in credit card debt." Let's assume for the sake of argument that this is true. Does it exonerate the McDonnells from the very-serous allegations of accepting gifts in return for using the governor's office to dish out special treatment? Of course not. And yet... it might serve as at least a partial explanation as to why someone who seemed to be a rising star in politics would risk throwing it all away.

Earlier this month, Bob McDonnell became former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. On Tuesday, he became indicted former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Just days after he left office, the Republican and and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, were charged in federal court with more than a dozen counts related to the tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and loans they accepted from a wealthy Virginia businessman. (The ex-governor maintained on Tuesday that he had done nothing illegal.) The fact that the McDonnells were under scrutiny from prosecutors was no secret. Stories about the investigation, and the relationship between the McDonnells and...

<p>New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell were the first victors in the Tea Party wave, riding fresh conservative enthusiasm--and outrage over Obamacare--to victory in November 2009. The left, predictably, is trying to link Christie's bullying scandal and McDonnell's corruption indictment to that Tea Party support. The truth, however, is that they dumped their Tea Party principles and supporters long ago.</p>

If the prosecutors' case in United States v. Robert F. McDonnell and Maureen G. McDonnell is correct, the corrupt acts of the 71st governor of Virginia and his wife had their beginning even before Bob McDonnell took the oath of office. Virginia's new First Couple allegedly hoped to start cashing in before they officially became the First Couple. News reports give readers the basic outline of the prosecution, but one has to read the indictment itself -- it's just 43 pages -- to grasp the full extent of the McDonnells' alleged corruption. The gist of the case is that the...

Republican political consultant and former White House aide Ed Gillespie announced his plan to run for U.S. Senate in Virginia Thursday morning. He will run against incumbent Mark Warner, a Democrat. Gillespie previously served as chairman of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's 2009 campaign and as a Republican National Committee chairman. He also co-founded government relations firm Quinn Gillespie and Associates. However, he faces a challenge of name recognition -- or lack thereof. "I don't think anybody in Virginia knows who Ed Gillespie is," said Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat representing Fairfax County. "I'll bet you if you check name...