I’m sorry to have to add to our “And Then They Came For…” series on today’s BradCast. [Audio link to full show follows below.]
First it was “And Then They Came For the Judges…” last month, as Trump’s goons arrested, hand-cuffed and frog-marched Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan off to face criminal charges, alleging she helped a migrant evade arrest by ICE in her courthouse. She is now challenging that indictment with a motion last week arguing she enjoys absolute immunity for official acts, citing the U.S. Supreme Court‘s absurd — but binding — “Presidential Immunity” ruling in Trump v. United States last year.
Next it was “And Then They Came for the Mayors…” last week, after Trump’s goons hand-cuffed and frog-marched Newark, New Jersey Mayor Ras Baraka off to jail, ridiculously charging him with “criminal trespass” after he arrived at a private facility contracted by ICE as a detention center, which the Mayor says the company doesn’t have proper city permits to operate. After his dubious arrest, Trump’s former defense lawyer turned Acting U.S. Attorney for NJ, Alina Habba declared Baraka’s guilt on social media, claiming: “NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW”.
But, on Monday, she dropped all charges against Baraka and announced new charges instead against NJ’s Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver. Habba had previously claimed the Representative had “body slammed” one of the masked federal agents who had shown up to arrest Baraka last week during a scrum when supporters had surrounded him. Apparently, McIver refused to plead to a lesser charge, so an 8-page indictment [PDF] was filed yesterday on two counts of felony assault, including “assaulting, impeding and interfering with law enforcement” during the incident.
The first-term Congresswoman decries the charges as “purely political” and vows to fight them. I suspect she will win and that her charges will also soon be dropped, just as Baraka’s were. But we’ll see.
We’re joined today by attorney (and former Republican) KEITH BARBER, who has been covering these matters over at DailyKos, where he writes under the name of “KeithDB”. He has reviewed much of the publicly available video of the incident in Newark, reviewed the charging document against McIver, released this afternoon, and sees a lot of problems with the federal government’s case — and the prosecutor overseeing them. “Alina Habba couldn’t find her way around a court room with the help of GPS,” he tells me.
Barber says he has seen no evidence of a “body slam” by McIver, and is critical of the public statements made by Habba about both the Baraka and McIver arrests. He explains the remarks are in violation of DoJ rules and guidelines “designed to protect the due process rights of the defendant.”
He also describes both of the incidents as nothing less than “fascism” meant to intimidate those who would stand up to Trump. “This is a tyranny of an autocratic President, something that the founders of the United States of America worked hard [to avoid] when they developed the Constitution, to make sure that this country did not have an autocratic President. We had a bad history with kings, and we didn’t want another king in this country with a different name.”
Barber charges that Trump is “using the powers of his office to suppress opposition” and, he argues, his thuggery IS WORKING. Tune in for much more on that and all of the above!…
NEXT… While Trump’s team of incompetent law enforcement officials are rounding up those who would oppose his mass, unlawful detention and deportation regime, the head of his own Dept. of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, literally does not know the meaning of habeas corpus as guaranteed by the Constitution. A stunning exchange today in the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee with Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) reveals that Noem believes “Habeas corpus is a Constitutional right that the President has to be able to remove people from this country.”
As it turns out, it means almost the precise opposite of that, as we discuss.
THEN… A few thoughts on Paramount Global owner Shari Redstone‘s pressure on CBS News and 60 Minutes to settle Trump’s pathetic $20 billion lawsuit against the venerable investigate news program regarding an interview last year with Kamala Harris that Trump didn’t like. But the pressure from Redstone to settle the suit — so that the Trump Administration might approve a pending Paramount merger with Skydance Media — comes after Redstone hypocritically declared two years ago, at an award ceremony celebrating Freedom of the Press, “that press freedom is never guaranteed, that it must constantly be defended, and that it often comes at a significant cost, both personal and professional.”
FINALLY… Desi Doyen joins us for our latest Green News Report, with news on internal agency warnings about FEMA‘s lack of preparedness ahead of hurricane season, which begins in less than two weeks; The good news of Trump’s flip-flop on his previous blockade of a major offshore wind project in New York; and China rising as America falters under the incompetent leadership of our new, and already failed, Presidential regime…
And then they kept disobeying court orders:
(AP News).
And then the military became the police (Defense Department accepts Boeing 747 from Qatar for Trump’s use).
(Clue?)
The two links above:
https://apnews.com/article/trum...10e3d3d267bcd6
https://blogdredd.blogspot.com/...-police-8.html