All posts tagged: Contempt

The Elites And Their Contempt

The Elites And Their Contempt

Authored by Rev. John F. Naugle via The Brownstone Institute, Last week, I was unexpectedly hit with a post-lockdown trauma response. While driving to a baseball game days before the NFL Draft came to Pittsburgh, I passed a digital highway sign instructing me to avoid nonessential travel. Suddenly, memories of empty highways with signs instructing drivers to “Stay Safe and Stay Home” came flooding back to me. As the week developed, it began to occur to me that the parallels were deeper than my subjective emotional response. Road closures intensified, rendering my beloved city of Pittsburgh less and less functional. Even sidewalks were closed.  Entire parking garages were emptied and abandoned. Pittsburgh’s “most visited museum,” the Kamin Science Center, has been closed to the public for weeks because it was within the footprint of the upcoming event. For the actual days of the draft, Pittsburgh Public Schools were shuttered as if a blizzard had rendered travel impossible. How do I walk to PNC Park? The attempt by local officials to trigger hysteria in the populace …

Appeals Court Terminates Criminal Contempt Proceedings Against Trump Admin

Appeals Court Terminates Criminal Contempt Proceedings Against Trump Admin

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), An appeals court has put a stop to criminal contempt proceedings initiated by a district judge against the Trump administration. District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia, stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington on March 16, 2023. Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via AP An appeals court has put a stop to criminal contempt proceedings initiated by a district judge against the Trump administration. In a brief, unsigned order on April 14, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated a previous order by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, and ordered him to terminate the contempt investigation he launched in December. “Today’s decision by the DC Circuit should finally end Judge Boasberg’s year-long campaign against the hardworking Department attorneys doing their jobs fighting illegal immigration,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X. The contempt proceedings stemmed from the deportation of illegal immigrants—suspected gang members—to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, …

Contempt Of Court: Justice Sotomayor Suggests Justice Kavanaugh Is An Uninformed Elitist

Contempt Of Court: Justice Sotomayor Suggests Justice Kavanaugh Is An Uninformed Elitist

Authored by Jonathan Turley, Justice Brett Kavanaugh is accustomed to unrelenting personal attacks from the left that began with his nomination to the Court. This week, however, the ad hominem insults came not from cable programs but a colleague.  Justice Sonia Sotomayor used an appearance at the University of Kansas School of Law to level a personal dig at Kavanaugh as an out-of-touch elitist. I have long criticized the growing number of public statements by justices on controversial subjects and cases, including Justice Sotomayor. However, this appearance represented a new low in lashing out at a colleague as effectively blinded by his own privilege. In her comments, Sotomayor raised Kavanaugh’s concurrence in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo: “I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour… Those hours that they took you away, nobody’s paying that person. And that makes a difference between a meal for him and his kids that night and maybe just cold …

Supreme Court clears the way for Bannon contempt case to be dismissed : NPR

Supreme Court clears the way for Bannon contempt case to be dismissed : NPR

Steve Bannon was a prominent figure in President Trump’s first administration. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to dismiss the criminal case against Steve Bannon, the Trump ally, over his failure to testify before Congress about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Bannon was a prominent figure in President Trump’s first administration. He was known for a variety of legally questionable activities, including his guilty plea to fraud charges arising from his “We Build The Wall” nonprofit. He spent four months in prison after defying a subpoena from the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Before serving prison time, Bannon asked the Supreme Court to intervene, but the high court ignored his appeal back then. On Monday, the court sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, vacating the lower court ruling. Bannon had asked the Supreme Court to vacate his prior conviction because he did not “willfully” defy the subpoena, a necessary requirement to be found guilty of …

“No president is above the law”: Ex-Judges, legal scholars sound off on Trump’s “contempt” of courts

“No president is above the law”: Ex-Judges, legal scholars sound off on Trump’s “contempt” of courts

A panel of four retired judges and legal scholars on Thursday decried President Donald Trump‘s “contempt” for the nation’s judiciary, describing the Trump administration’s attacks on federal judges as “very dangerous.” The event, titled “An Unprecedented Attack: Federal Judges Threatened with Impeachment for Blocking Executive Power,” was held by the legal advocacy group Speak Up for Justice. The panel discussion came on the heels of Trump’s high-profile remarks on the Supreme Court, after it voted 6-3 to overturn the president’s tariff policy last Friday. He called the majority a “disgrace to our nation” and “very unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution.” “The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” Trump said in remarks at the White House. The pressing concern for the panel, however, was the ongoing efforts to impeach two federal judges. The first is Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who …

‘Europe’s political landscape is shaped by two men who hold it in contempt: Trump and Putin’

‘Europe’s political landscape is shaped by two men who hold it in contempt: Trump and Putin’

In their own way, a Russian and an American are shaping the Europe of tomorrow. As the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year, Vladimir Putin continues to fuel a sense of a lasting threat hanging over Europe. Meanwhile, another year of unfettered Trumpism in the White House has deepened the ideological divide between Europe and the United States. Europeans have drawn their lessons from this almost simultaneous double pressure. They have begun to rearm after spending too long reaping the dividends of the end of the Cold War. They also now realize how urgent it is to achieve at least some strategic autonomy from a US that has become hostile to them. Whatever the uncertainties of current events, Europe’s political landscape remains fundamentally shaped by two men who hold it in contempt. The cordial exchanges at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February did nothing to resolve the underlying dispute dividing the West. When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in his speech that the US does not want “allies to be shackled by …

Contempt of Court | David Cole, Daniel Drake

Contempt of Court | David Cole, Daniel Drake

Since the Trump administration began its strategy of indefinitely detaining people it has targeted for deportation, federal judges across the country and ideological spectrum have been rejecting their efforts, ordering that detainees be released or given bond hearings in more than 1,600 cases. Yet Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have repeatedly defied or ignored the judiciary, and in recent weeks dozens of judges have warned that the government has, in the words of District Judge Mike Davis, “stretch[ed] the legal process to the breaking point in an attempt to deny noncitizens their due process rights.” This week I wrote to David Cole to ask him what courts, Congress, and the people can do to stop an executive branch meting out violence with impunity. Since Trump’s second election, Cole—a former national legal director of the ACLU who has been writing about the law for the Review since 2004—has written thirteen articles for us about the growing threat the administration presents to democracy, from the Supreme Court’s failure to adhere to precedent in order to reach conservative …

If Someone In Your Life Is Quietly Working Against You, They Often Do These 11 Undermining Things

If Someone In Your Life Is Quietly Working Against You, They Often Do These 11 Undermining Things

We would all like to think that the people closest to us only have the best intentions. We want to believe that our co-workers talk kindly about us to others, that our partner does little things to make us happy, or that our family members share stories about us to look back fondly on our childhood. But just like anything in life, there’s always an exception because, unfortunately, there will always be someone who either wants your life or is angry about your success. It’s likely that someone you know secretly resents you, and sniffing them out isn’t always easy. Whether it’s purposely giving you bad advice or disrespecting your boundaries, if someone in your life is quietly working against you, they often do these undermining things. But it’s important to not just sit idly by and take it; instead, notice the ways a person like this is trying to make your circumstances worse, and remove them from your life. If someone in your life is quietly working against you, they often do these 11 …

Clintons agree to testify in House Epstein investigation ahead of contempt vote

Clintons agree to testify in House Epstein investigation ahead of contempt vote

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (L) and former President Bill Clinton arrive on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on January 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. In today’s inauguration ceremony Donald J. Trump becomes the 45th president of the United States. Getty Images Former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, will testify in a congressional investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a staffer said on Monday. The decision could head off a planned vote in the Republican-led House of Representatives to hold the two prominent Democrats in contempt, which could lead to criminal charges. The House Oversight Committee recommended last week that they be held in contempt for refusing to testify about their relationship with Epstein. The Clintons had offered to cooperate with the panel but had refused to appear in person, saying the investigation was a partisan exercise aimed at protecting Republican President Donald Trump. “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care. But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. …

Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein probe ahead of contempt vote

Bill and Hillary Clinton agree to testify in House Epstein probe ahead of contempt vote

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Angel Ureña, a spokesperson for Bill Clinton, responded in a post Monday to a letter from House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., saying the Clintons had “negotiated in good faith” and that Comer “had not.” “They told you under oath what they know, but you don’t care,” Ureña wrote. “But the former President and former Secretary of State will be there. They look forward to setting a precedent that applies to everyone.” It was not immediately clear when and where the Clintons will testify. In a statement Monday night, Comer said that while attorneys for the Clintons said they agreed to the terms, “those terms lack clarity yet again and they have provided no dates for their depositions.” “The only reason they have said they agree to terms is because the House has moved forward with contempt. I will clarify the terms they are agreeing to and then discuss next …