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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas raised a question Thursday that goes to the heart of Special Counsel Jack Smith's charges against former President Donald Trump. The high court was considering Trump's argument that he is immune from prosecution for actions he took while president, but another issue is whether Smith and the Office of Special Counsel have the authority to bring charges at all. "Did you, in this litigation, challenge the appointment of special counsel?" Thomas asked Trump attorney John Sauer on Thursday during a nearly three-hour session at the Supreme Court. Sauer replied that Trump's attorneys had not raised...

WASHINGTON - Robert Hur will arrive on Capitol Hill this week intent on turning down the political temperature surrounding his report on President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, according to people familiar with his preparations. That won’t be easy. Hur, the special counsel appointed early last year to look into the Biden documents case, is expected to face intense grilling from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle Tuesday when he appears before the House Judiciary Committee, where the president’s allies are bracing for a new round of questions about Biden’s mental acuity. In a 345-page report last month, Hur,...

At their weekly news conference, several Republican House leaders wrongly claimed the special counsel report into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents found the president was mentally unfit to stand trial. The report said no such thing. Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report ultimately concluded “the evidence is not sufficient to convict” Biden and that “no criminal charges are warranted.” The report did refer numerous times to what it characterized as Biden’s “limited” and “poor” memory. Those observations were included, Hur wrote, because they factored into his decision about whether he could convince a jury that Biden had acted “willfully” to...

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report revealed President Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified information, indicating a pattern of carelessness dating back to at least 2010. The report highlighted a significant cognitive decline in Biden, making his handling of classified materials politically damaging. “Classified information of any kind may only be reviewed or discussed in secured locations, and never in a public place such as on a train,” Cynthia Hogan wrote. “The [classified briefing] books must remain in your custody, or that of your cleared staff, at all times unless they are in your safe. Classified material must be returned to your...

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) argued that Robert Hur, the Special Counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the classified documents probe of President Joe Biden is a Republican who “intended” to raise concerns about Biden’s age with the “kind of age-discriminatory and age-insulting remarks” about President Biden in the report. Raskin said, “[T]his Republican special counsel said that Joe Biden had been completely forthcoming and cooperative and they’re not bringing any criminal charges against him. He did take some gratuitous slaps at Joe Biden because of his age, and a lot...

WASHINGTON - The White House is hitting back against House Republicans and their impeachment inquiry into the president by demanding that GOP lawmakers withdraw their subpoenas targeting Biden family members and administration officials. In a letter obtained by NBC News, White House counsel Richard Sauber called the requests for information and interviews “unjustified,” and characterized the overall impeachment inquiry as “illegitimate.” The letter, dated Friday, was addressed to House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “Your latest steps follow an irresponsible set of subpoenas and requests for interviews that you launched last week, directed to...

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Friday on “CNN News Central” that Republicans had “legitimate questions” about Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint David and Weiss as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Tapper said, “I think there are some legitimate questions about this whole situation. First of all, I do think it’s fair to question why would U.S. Attorney Weiss be appointed to special counsel. Usually, a special counsel comes– is an outside attorney. Now, it has happened before, Durham came from inside, and the attorney general has the right to do that, but it is odd.”

On Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger said that while Republicans didn’t like the plea deal U.S. Attorney David Weiss attempted to reach with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter earlier in the year, “I don’t really understand what it is they’re complaining about” with Weiss being named as special counsel in the Hunter Biden case by Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier in the day, “since they’re getting what they want.” And they “just want to complain.”

CNN anchor Dana Bash said Friday on “Inside Politics” that Attorney General Merrick Garland appointing David Weiss as a special counsel overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden could keep Republicans investigating the president’s son “at bay.” Partial transcript as follows: PRISCILLA ALVAREZ: But again, this is a White House that is facing increasing pressure when it comes to the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Republicans have slammed the president over all of these legal proceedings and also so much has flirted with a potential impeachment inquiry. Now when that has come up, the White House stance has been that it is...

Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the discretion of special counsel Jack Smith amid growing attacks on the prosecution and the Justice Department. While he wouldn’t comment on the indictment of former President Trump directly, he said Wednesday that Smith’s work is a reflection of the Justice Department’s obligation to “independence and accountability.” “When I appointed Mr. Smith, I did so because it underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to both independence and accountability,” Garland said. “Mr. Smith is a veteran career prosecutor. He has assembled a group of experienced and talented prosecutors and agents who share his commitment to integrity and...

Special counsel Jack Smith is delivering his first remarks Friday afternoon after a federal indictment against former President Trump over his handling of classified documents after leaving office was unsealed Friday. The indictment charges Trump with 37 counts, including allegations of attempting to block the government from recovering classified documents at his private Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in November 2022 that Smith would serve as special counsel for the documents probe as well as another into allegations of attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) is set to join electrification nonprofit organization Rewiring America as a senior counsel. In a news release, Rewiring America said that Abrams, a former House Minority Leader in her home state of Georgia, will use her new role to help launch a national awareness campaign and also a network of communities working together to help Americans go electric. Abrams will also guide the nonprofit organization as it continues to build the tools and capacity to connect citizens and communities in the U.S. to machines, installers, Inflation Reduction Act incentives, and jobs in the...

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday expressed his support of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of a special counsel to investigate President Biden’s potential mishandling of classified documents from his time as vice president. “We now have special prosecutors on for both of these situations, very serious people,” Schumer said in an appearance on CNN, discussing both the Biden documents case and that of former President Trump. “We should let it play out,” he added. “We don’t have to push them in any direction or try to influence them. That’s all I’m going to say. Let the special...

MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade said Thursday on “Chris Jansing Reports” that she believed former President Donald Trump is more likely to get criminally charged because Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert Hur as special counsel to oversee the investigation into President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. McQuade said, “They both begin with the idea that classified information is supposed to be handled in appropriate ways. There are rules about those things, and failure to do so can violate a number of different statutes. So I imagine in those ways, they...

DEVELOPING: Justice Department Seeking to Question Mike Pence in its Criminal Investigation Into January 6 The New York Times reported: The Justice Department is seeking to question former Vice President Mike Pence as a witness in connection with its criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter. (Snip) President Trump will likely move to block Pence’s testimony by invoking executive privilege.

Attorney General Merrick Garland reportedly plans to name a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump, though he has yet to name such counsel to investigate President Joe Biden or his son, Hunter. Update: Garland named John L. Smith as special counsel Friday afternoon in a televised press statement. According to LinkedIn, Smith is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division at U.S. Department of Justice — one of the most highly politicized, left-wing departments within the agency. Hunter Biden acknowledged in December 2020 that he had been under federal investigation for possible tax violations. Since...

Former President Donald Trump wanted to name Sidney Powell as the special counsel to investigate the presidential race, the former CEO of Overstock.com said in a court filing Thursday. Powell, a lawyer who helped Trump’s attempt to find fraud in the 2020 election, was in the Oval Office in December 2020 along with former Gen. Michael Flynn and Overstock’s Patrick Byrne to discuss the outlandish election claims, according to court papers filed in the Southern District of Florida. During the meeting, Trump and Powell discussed alleged FBI reports of “foreign interference” in the election involving SolarWinds and the hacking of...

The prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden needs special counsel protections in the wake of damning whistleblower allegations, former Attorney General Bill Barr says. Barr made the explosive remarks in the wake of allegations that FBI agents wrongly labeled accurate information about President Joe Biden's son as false. “I think, probably, it’s time for Merrick Garland to give the current U.S. attorney in Delaware the protections and the authority of the special counsel under the department’s regulations,” Barr told CBS News, adding, “I think, to provide additional assurance and to deal with the appearance of a potential conflict between the administration and...

I despise the institution of independent prosecutor, or “special counsel” as the current iteration is known in federal regulation. I am thus sympathetic to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s insistence, in Senate testimony on Tuesday, that the Biden investigation — which the administration disingenuously minimizes as if it implicated only the president’s son, Hunter — is in the capable hands of the Biden Justice Department, with no need to appoint a special counsel.

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” network contributor Daniel Goldman announced he was entering the race to be attorney general of New York. Goldman, who was the lead Trump impeachment investigator for Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on the House Intelligence Committee, emphasized his experience of working on “the front line fighting for the rule of law.”