Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said during an interview over the weekend that President Joe Biden would have probably rather have been criminally charged in Special Counsel Robert Hur&#8217;s investigation rather than have Hur&#8217;s report come out and say that he was effectively not competent to stand trial.
Christie made the remarks during a Sunday interview with Kristen Welker on NBC News&#8217; &#8220;Meet The Press&#8221; while talking about Hur&#8217;s report, which said that Biden willfully retained classified material but charges could not be brought because Biden had serious memory problems.
&#8220;Former Attorney General Eric Holder said this about the report, &#8216;Way too many gratuitous remarks and it&#8217;s flatly inconsistent with longstanding DOJ traditions,'&#8221; Welker said. &#8220;Did this report cross any lines for you?&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t think so,&#8221; Christie responded. &#8220;And, look, I did this, as you know, for seven years as the U.S. attorney in the fifth-largest office in the country. The fact is they had to give the reasons why they weren&#8217;t prosecuting when you start off the report by saying that he &#8216;willfully and knowingly retained classified documents.&#8217; Well, that&#8217;s a violation of the law.&#8221;
&#8220;So the question, then, for the prosecutor is, &#8216;Then why aren&#8217;t you bringing charges?'&#8221; Christie continued. &#8220;And he gave two reasons essentially. One was President Biden&#8217;s memory, lack of memory, his condition, and secondly, was that President Biden cooperated. Once documents were discovered, he let them go in and do whatever they needed to do to get those documents, retrieve them, as opposed to what President Trump did.&#8221;
When asked if he agreed with former President Donald Trump&#8217;s claim that Biden not being prosecuted was proof of a two-tiered justice system, Christie responded: &#8220;No, because in fact if there was a two-tiered system of justice, what would have happened would have been they just would have announced that they weren&#8217;t prosecuting him and they wouldn&#8217;t have given any of the reasons.&#8221;
&#8220;I have to tell you the truth: In one respect I think the Biden White House would have been happier if he had been charged than for that report to have come out in the midst of a reelection campaign,&#8221; Christie said. &#8220;The fact is: When you&#8217;re questioning what 70-some percent of the American people are already questioning – whether Joe Biden is too old for the job – and now you have an independent counsel, a special counsel, appointed by his own justice department, concluding that he couldn&#8217;t bring a trial for that reason, that&#8217;s much more damaging, politically, than whether people would have agreed or disagreed with him being charged.&#8221;
&#8220;And, look, in the end, this is the problem,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;Both of these candidates are people who are being questioned for their competence and being questioned for their character. And that&#8217;s a problem for the American people.&#8221;
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Trump’s NATO comments are ‘consistent with his love for dictators’: Full Chris Christie interview" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eh3RWEhe818?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Chris Christie Attends Town Hall Event In New Hampshire

Chris Christie: ‘Biden White House Would Have Been Happier If He Had Been Charged’ Instead Of Hur’s Report Coming Out

Chris Christie

Eric Holder

Meet the Press

NBC News

Race hustling is good money if you can get it — the key is not to be sued while you&#8217;re doing it.
That&#8217;s good news for former Attorney General Eric Holder. He isn&#8217;t being sued, but the bad news is that Starbucks is facing legal action after it instituted several &#8220;diversity&#8221; policies that he recommended following his &#8220;racial equity audit.&#8221; Critics claim that the coffee retailer engaged in racial discrimination.
On Friday, The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/starbucks-hired-eric-holder-to-conduct-a-civil-rights-audit-the-policies-he-blessed-got-the-coffee-maker-sued/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Starbucks hired Covington &amp; Burling — a top-of-the-line law firm in D.C. where Holder is senior counsel — to conduct &#8220;civil rights assessments.&#8221; Holder&#8217;s task came after an infamous 2018 incident at a Philadelphia store where employees called the cops on two black men who had not purchased anything but wanted to use the restroom. They refused to leave after their request was denied. Starbucks vowed to do better and wanted to get to the bottom of what to change.
So, Holder was brought in to get the job done and tell Starbucks how to be a better ally, apparently. He and his team published a report that recommended strategies like &#8220;tying executive pay to diversity targets, setting spending goals for &#8216;diverse suppliers,&#8217; and launching a mentorship program for &#8216;BIPOC&#8217; employees,&#8221; according to The Free Beacon. 
Now, the National Center for Public Policy Research — a Starbucks shareholder — is suing the company for allegedly violating civil rights and discriminating on the basis of race. 
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Starbucks isn&#8217;t alone in these sorts of &#8220;diversity, equity, and inclusion&#8221; policies. The Free Beacon reports other major companies have propped up fellowships and positions that exclude whites.
As for Holder&#8217;s recommendations, attorney Adam Mortara is dumbfounded that any lawyer would tell a company to behave this way. 
&#8220;I’m stunned that a law firm would have counseled any company to do this,&#8221; Mortara said. &#8220;What could possibly be the justification?&#8221;
Indeed, per the Beacon, Holder&#8217;s report did not address the legality of his suggested policies. According to the outlet, Holder has charged upwards of $2,000 per hour for similar work elsewhere.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

UNITED STATES – SEPTEMBER 7: Former Attorney General Eric Holder attends the official White House portrait unveiling ceremony for former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, September 7, 2022.

Eric Holder Was Paid To Tell Starbucks How To Be More ‘Diverse,’ And Now It’s Being Sued.

Eric Holder Was Paid To Tell Starbucks How To Be More 'Diverse', And Now It's Being Sued.

Business

Courts

Starbucks

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/eric-holder">Eric Holder</a>, who served as attorney general during the Obama administration, offered a scenario where he would support <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/pardon">pardoning</a> former President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump">Donald Trump</a>.
The issue arose during an interview that aired Sunday with Margaret Brennan, moderator of CBS News&#8217;s &#8220;Face the Nation,&#8221; as Trump faces charges in a documents-related case. Some polling shows that most Americans <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4055163-most-americans-support-trump-pardons-if-hes-convicted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support a pardon</a> if Trump is convicted.
&#8220;I want to ask you to put on your attorney general hat again, would you counsel President [Joe] Biden or the next president, whoever that is, to consider a pardon of the 45th president of the United States, either before or after a theoretical conviction?&#8221; Brennan asked.
&#8220;I think I&#8217;d tell the president — the next attorney general — you know, to let the system do its work, try the cases, see what the results are. And then treat that convicted president or anybody else who was convicted as any other person would be treated,&#8221; Holder said.
&#8220;Pardons generally are for people who express remorse and then who have done things that show that they have turned their lives around,&#8221; Holder added. &#8220;If those kinds of determinations can be made with regard to the former president or anybody else who was convicted, yeah, I would support that. In the absence of something like that, I don&#8217;t think that would be a wise thing to do.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When asked if the next president should pardon former President Trump if he&#39;s convicted in any case, former AG <a href="https://twitter.com/EricHolder?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EricHolder</a> says, &quot;Pardons are generally for people who express remorse.&quot;
&quot;In the absence of something like that, I don&#39;t think that would be a wise thing to do.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/rKEDwQ9THU">pic.twitter.com/rKEDwQ9THU</a>
&mdash; Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1675529191574437888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In a case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, Trump has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-turns-himself-in-to-authorities-at-miami-court">pleaded not guilty</a> to 37 federal charges, including 31 alleged violations of the Espionage Act for the “willful retention” of national defense information, as well as charges related to obstruction and making false statements.
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Trump, now engaged in a 2024 campaign for president, may also face charges stemming from Smith&#8217;s inquiry into efforts geared toward <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pence-does-not-remember-any-pressure-from-trump-to-urge-governors-to-find-2020-election-fraud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fighting the outcome of the 2020 election</a>. Trump broadly denies any wrongdoing and claims he is the target of a “witch hunt.”
Some GOP candidates for the 2024 presidential nomination <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/2024-candidates-weigh-in-on-whether-they-would-pardon-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have indicated they would support</a> a pardon, while others have been more hesitant or outright rejected the idea.
Trump also faces state-level charges in the New York hush-money <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-delivers-feisty-mar-a-lago-speech-after-new-york-arraignment">case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg</a>. Charges in a 2020 election-focused inquiry in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fulton-da-responds-to-trump-attacks">Georgia may soon follow</a>. Although a president can only pardon federal offenses, there is room for the governor or other executive officials <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/05/02/donald-trump-pardon-00094636" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to issue pardons on the state level</a>.

Obama Attorney General Shares View On Pardoning Trump

Eric Holder Shares What It Would Take For Him To Support A Trump Pardon

Donald Trump

General

Pardon

Politics

&#8220;Got an ex who buys or sells guns illegally?&#8221;
The official Twitter account of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) suggested that Americans spend Valentine&#8217;s Day ratting out their former — or current — partners who may have violated firearms laws.
&#8220;Valentine&#8217;s Day can still be fun even if you broke up. Do you have information about a former (or current) partner involved in illegal gun activity? Let us know, and we will make sure it&#8217;s a Valentine&#8217;s Day to remember! Call 1-888-ATF-TIPS or email ATFTips@atf.gov,&#8221; the tweet read.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Valentine&#39;s Day can still be fun even if you broke up. Do you have information about a former (or current) partner involved in illegal gun activity? Let us know, and we will make sure it&#39;s a Valentine&#39;s Day to remember! Call 1-888-ATF-TIPS or email ATFTips@atf.gov. <a href="https://t.co/OdDIPdIzkr">pic.twitter.com/OdDIPdIzkr</a>
&mdash; ATF HQ (@ATFHQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/ATFHQ/status/1493208813670965248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The responses began pouring in almost immediately — but instead of reporting their ex-boyfriends or ex-girlfriends, a number reported their ex-President Barack Obama and their ex-Attorney General Eric Holder for their involvement in the disastrous gun-tracking effort known as <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/obama-relents-in-fight-over-fast-and-furious-documents-221741">Operation Fast and Furious</a>.
&#8220;I do. Ex president, actually. His name was Barack Obama. Ran a bunch of illegal guns to the Mexican cartels,&#8221; radio host Jesse Kelly <a href="https://twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/status/1493225812497256449">tweeted</a>. &#8220;That what you’re looking for? Or you just worried about hunting down some poor guy with a sawed off?&#8221;
&#8220;Yeah……… I like to report Barack Obama for the fast and furious operation!!!&#8221; Luke Rudkowski <a href="https://twitter.com/Lukewearechange/status/1493257655560908804">agreed</a>, adding for good measure, &#8220;Also #AbolishTheATF.&#8221;
Tennessee Congressional candidate Robby Starbuck added President Joe Biden to the mix, <a href="https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1493277807664934915">tweeting</a>, &#8220;Hi @ATFHQ — I’d like to report Barack Obama and Joe Biden who oversaw guns being run to Mexican Cartels who then used the guns to kill people. I’m sure you’ll knock their door down, right?&#8221;
Several reported President Biden&#8217;s son <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-threatens-on-guns-if-you-willfully-falsify-a-record-well-find-you-hunter-biden-allegedly-did-that/">Hunter</a> over his own <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/sources-secret-service-inserted-itself-into-case-of-hunter-bidens-gun-477879">alleged violations</a> of <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/breaking-secret-service-intervened-in-hunter-biden-gun-incident-lied-on-background-check-form-report-says/">federal firearms laws</a>.
&#8220;Dear The ATF, I would like to report my ex, Hunter Biden who was involved in an illegal gun activity. Happy Valentine&#8217;s Day Hunter. Signed, The Second Amendment,&#8221; attorney Matthew Kolken <a href="https://twitter.com/mkolken/status/1493278799622033412">tweeted</a>.
&#8220;You mean like Hunter Biden?&#8221; Jack Posobiec <a href="https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1493278996884299782">asked</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You mean like Hunter Biden? <a href="https://t.co/Hz5vGejeuW">https://t.co/Hz5vGejeuW</a> <a href="https://t.co/l33dQleH3C">pic.twitter.com/l33dQleH3C</a>
&mdash; Honkmaster Poso 🎺 (@JackPosobiec) <a href="https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1493278996884299782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 14, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;How about we discuss you guys doing nothing about Hunter Biden lying on his 4473 about habitual drug use and criminal behavior?&#8221; John Cardillo <a href="https://twitter.com/johncardillo/status/1493278614158196742">added</a>.
&#8220;Hunter Biden lied on a Form 4473 to purchase a gun he wasn&#8217;t legally allowed to possess. Is that still a crime, or is it okay if you&#8217;re the corrupt, crackhead son of the president?&#8221; The Federalist&#8217;s Sean Davis <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1493250728978223112">asked</a>.
Still others simply reported the ATF itself.
&#8220;What if it’s your own government for a gun-running op called Fast and Furious? Weren’t you guys involved in that?&#8221; nationally-syndicated radio host Dana Loesch <a href="https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1493254199374721026">asked</a>.
&#8220;I know this person that massacred 70 people in Waco and ran illegal guns to Mexican drug cartels that were used to kill a US border patrol agent,&#8221; Greg Price <a href="https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1493255043423813643">added</a>. &#8220;Her name is the ATF.&#8221;
And the mocking continued:
&#8220;The feds are out here trying to weaponize vindictive exes (pardon my pun),&#8221; Noam Blum <a href="https://twitter.com/neontaster/status/1493280429171949568">tweeted</a>.
&#8220;Can we fire everyone in the federal government and start over?&#8221; David Marcus <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueBoxDave/status/1493279277957226501">asked</a>.
&#8220;This is basically an invitation to SWAT an ex you don&#8217;t like. So incredibly dangerous,&#8221; Young Americans for Liberty <a href="https://twitter.com/YALiberty/status/1493276350593085444">pointed out</a>. &#8220;Abolish the ATF.&#8221;
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COP26 Adaptation, Loss and Damage – Day Nine

Critics Blow Up ATF Over Report Your Ex Valentine — Barack Obama, Hunter Biden Hardest Hit

Barack Obama

Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF)

Gun Control

Hunter Biden

The fact that the state of Texas has successfully enacted a law protecting unborn children with a detectable <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chris-cuomo-suggests-babies-dont-have-a-heartbeat-at-6-weeks-heres-what-science-says">fetal heartbeat</a> from abortion has sent left-wingers into paroxysms of anger and outrage. A mere week after Texas enacted a pro-life fetal heartbeat law, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department had sued to try to overturn it. Lawsuits are the currency of our constitutional system, the way that good laws are upheld and tyrannical ones dashed on the Constitution — but they’re not good enough for many on the Left; many left-wing activists want to see pro-life advocates thrown in jail.
The pulse of left-wing rage coincided with the Texas heartbeat law. For the first time in decades, judicial activists on the Supreme Court failed to abort a pro-life law before it could take effect — touching off calls for legal retribution against pro-life lawmakers. “Maybe [former Special Counsel Robert] Mueller will look into” whether there’s “collusion” between pro-life lawmakers and “far-Right” members of the U.S. Supreme Court, said MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace; specifically, she hoped he would investigate “<a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1435355161178820608">whether it’s a crime</a>.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
MSNBC’s Wallace: “Maybe Mueller will look into” whether Republican states are “colluding” with the Supreme Court against abortion <a href="https://t.co/MgAiMKcV5g">pic.twitter.com/MgAiMKcV5g</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1435355161178820608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 7, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Unfortunately, Wallace’s comments do not merely expose left-wingers’ desire to jail any public official — including members of the Supreme Court — who does not do their bidding. (So much for “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/21/politics/trump-roberts-judges-judiciary/index.html">judicial independence</a>.”) They expose the ease with which those on the Left weaponize the legal system to harass Americans who act on their pro-life convictions. Elected allies of the abortion lobby have a decades-long history of exploiting the full power and resources of the federal government to spy on average American citizens, convincing them to sign away their own First Amendment rights, and even prosecuting them for dubious-sounding charges that carry very real jail sentences.
One of the most recent example comes from New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), a far-Left progressive who rose to fame by persecuting the NRA and for writing the report on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-fall-of-andrew-cuomo-how-an-empire-built-on-fear-came-crashing-down">Governor Andrew Cuomo’s alleged sexual harassment</a>. But her office has been involved in harassment of another kind, against evangelical Christian members of the <a href="https://rockny.org/">Church at The Rock</a> and its pastor, Rev. Kenneth Griepp.
Members of that congregation spend a few hours every Saturday morning as <a href="https://sidewalkadvocates.org/">sidewalk counselors</a> outside the Choices abortion facility in Jamaica, Queens. If women entering the facility consent, parishioners will listen to the women’s troubles, pray with them, and offer to help pregnant women find the resources they need to carry their children to term.
The New York Attorney General’s office seemingly colluded with the abortion facility to shut down these acts of compassion. The office launched a yearlong investigation into the counselors five years ago, under the scandal-plagued AG <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-democrat-ny-ag-schneiderman-resigns-after-hank-berrien">Eric Schneiderman</a>. He used taxpayer funds to install and mount surveillance cameras on the abortion facility, and to equip abortion facility workers with bodycams to monitor pro-life advocates for any potential legal violation. The investigation continued under Schneiderman’s successors, Barbara Underwood and James.
After several years, they basically came up with bupkis.
Nonetheless, with her office that deeply invested, James <a href="https://freebeacon.com/courts/new-york-ag-snooped-on-pro-life-activists/">prosecuted</a> the counselors for forms of harassment and obstructing the entrance. Some of the charges are laughably off-base. The AG <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/18-2454/18-2454-2021-03-10.html">accused</a> a sidewalk counselor of obstructing the entrance to an abortion facility when an abortion facility escort stepped in front of a woman to block the counselor from talking to her. One counselor told abortion facility workers to repent because “the people who went to work on 9/11 didn’t know what was going to happen that day, you never know when you’re going to die.” James cited several examples of this run-of-the-mill Christian statement as a threat of “force.”
James asked the courts for a preliminary injunction, an order legally compelling the sidewalk counselors to stop helping women. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals last month refused to grant it, noting she “failed to establish a likelihood of success on the merits as to most claims.”
James’ legal crusade “looks to all the world that this is a targeting of pro-life activists who happen to be persistent and effective,” Stephen Crampton, senior counsel at the Thomas More Society, <a href="https://freebeacon.com/courts/new-york-ag-snooped-on-pro-life-activists/">told</a> The Washington Free Beacon. “So, the dirty work here is done by the state and not the clinic itself.”
It wouldn’t be the first time.
The most egregious example may be the Obama Justice Department’s federal case against Mary Susan Pine. Pine felt such intense regret over her own abortion that she tries to convince other women not to make the same mistake she made. On the anniversary of her abortion, a car stopped at a West Palm Beach abortion facility and agreed to receive a pamphlet from Pine.
Attorney General Eric Holder filed a federal lawsuit against Pine for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, signed by Bill Clinton in 1994. Holder made no effort to interview the “victims,” and he allowed the abortion facility to destroy its surveillance footage of the incident.
A federal judge not only laughed Holder out of court, but accused the Obama administration of colluding with the abortionists to “violate Ms. Pine’s right to free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
“The [c]ourt is at a loss as to why the [g]overnment chose to prosecute this particular case in the first place,” ruled the late federal Judge Kenneth Ryskamp, a <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Kenneth_Ryskamp">Reagan appointee</a>. “It is rather curious that the Department of Justice was able to meet with the [abortion facility] staff and police officers the very next day after the alleged violation occurred.”
“The [c]ourt can only wonder whether this action was the product of a concerted effort between the [g]overnment and the [abortion facility], which began well before the date of the incident at issue, to quell Ms. Pine’s activities,” he <a href="https://www.jillstanek.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/OrderGrantingSJ011312.pdf">ruled</a>.
Ultimately, the DOJ dropped the case and paid Pine <a href="https://lifelegaldefensefoundation.org/federal-judge-hits-the-brakes-on-another-face-case/">$120,000</a>. Unfortunately, she was the exception, rather than the rule. In many cases — including one involving an 80-year-old man — the defendants simply backed down from the David vs. Goliath battle and signed consent decrees. Curiously, the Obama administration <a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/files/documents/Letters/20160927_FACEActResponse.pdf">consistently sought</a> to bar sidewalk counselors from standing closer than 18-to-25 feet from the facilities’ entrance. The Supreme Court unanimously <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-1168_6k47.pdf">struck down</a> excessive free-speech barriers around abortion facilities in a 2014 decision (McCullen v. Coakley, written by Chief Justice John Roberts).
Notably, the justices unanimously ruled that sidewalk counselors engage in “caring, consensual conversations” with abortion-minded women. Pro-life advocates “consider it essential to maintain a caring demeanor, a calm tone of voice, and direct eye contact during these exchanges,” all nine justices said, because the pro-life advocates believe compassion is “a much more effective means of dissuading women from having abortions than confrontational methods such as shouting or brandishing signs, which in petitioners’ view tend only to antagonize their intended audience.”
Yet Letitia James has kept prosecuting these “caring” people as a top priority, as have Democrats since at least the 1990s.
During their <a href="https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/dj-two/">co-presidency</a>, Bill and Hillary Clinton launched an investigation dubbed “Violence Against Abortion Providers Conspiracy” (VAAPCON), which performed <a href="https://nypost.com/2000/07/02/pro-lifers-as-terrorists/">deep surveillance</a> on pro-life leaders and organizations. After months of tapping their phone lines and rifling through their mail (it was the 90s), it found absolutely nothing. After a brief respite under President George W. Bush, federal persecution returned during the Obama administration. Along with Tea Party groups, the IRS harassed pro-life organizations applying for non-profit status. And the administration again targeted sidewalk counselors.
In 2012, FBI agents appeared at the home of a pro-life advocate named Andy Moore, a native of New Zealand, and asked him to name names or potentially face deportation. Moore had been reported for an unspecified noise violation (no charges ever came of it). He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-bnaS8JjF0">told me</a> that the agents asked him questions like, “What affiliations do you have, including church groups?” They noted that Moore, who was at that time not yet a U.S. citizen, could be deported to his native New Zealand, helpfully telling him, “You wouldn’t want to be apart from your wife and newborn.” Critics said it sounded as though the federal government threatened him with deportation unless he helped agents compile another <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLBRL0-Mxuo">intelligence dossier of the pro-life movement</a>.
The desire to punish the most effective pro-life advocates pulsated through Democrat-dominated states like California. When undercover journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt shared candid video footage exposing Planned Parenthood officials’ apparent violation of numerous laws (including profiting from the sale of aborted body parts and performing the illegal partial birth abortion procedure), the government filed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/journalists-charged-15-felonies-undercover-videos-amanda-prestigiacomo">15 felony charges</a> … against the journalists. The case was opened under then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris and continued under her successor, Xavier Becerra, who is now secretary of Health and Human Services.
Now, Harris and Becerra join Merrick Garland in wielding the full power and resources of the Biden administration against those who threaten the abortion industry’s bottom line. Their extremism threatens the rights of pro-life advocates nationwide. And their politicization of routine criminal investigation threatens us all.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Via Getty Images

The Untold Story Of The Government’s Long History Of Persecuting Pro-life Americans

Abortion

Department of Justice

Letitia James

Nicolle Wallace

Pro-Life Movement

Former Attorney General Eric Holder urged Democrats to &#8220;use the power&#8221; of their U.S. Senate majority to pack the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary.
“It is painfully clear Democrats and progressives are uncomfortable with the acquisition and use of power, while Republicans and conservatives never have been,” Holder said during a virtual conference on judicial reform hosted by the <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/brookings-institution/">Brookings Institution</a>. &#8220;Our courts badly need reforms.”
“The Republicans have abused their power to give themselves an unfair advantage,” Holder later added. “It is necessary and totally appropriate to add seats.”
Holder has been an advocate for court-packing for quite some time. In 2019, for instance, <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/433124-holder-says-next-dem-president-should-consider-packing-courts">he said</a> during a discussion at Yale Law National Security Group that the next Democrat president should pack the court.
&#8220;In response to a question, Attorney General Holder said that given the unfairness, unprecedented obstruction, and disregard of historical precedent by [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans, when Democrats retake the majority they should consider expanding the Supreme Court to restore adherence to previously accepted norms for judicial nominations,” said Patrick Rodenbush, spokesperson for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
A <a href="http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2019/voters_favor_term_limits_for_supreme_court_but_no_more_members">Rasmussen poll recently</a> indicated that Americans would rather see term limits on the Supreme Court before they see court-packing.
Last year, however, an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/academic-study-encourages-scotus-packing-no-political-fallout-for-democrats">academic study</a> from political scientist Aaron Belkin of San Francisco State University and James Druckman of Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research openly encouraged Democrats to pack the Supreme Court, asserting the party would face little political fallout, if any. The study was funded by the progressive group Take Back the Court, which has openly championed court packing as a solution to a conservative judiciary.
In the study, participants were asked to choose between two hypotheticals: a “status quo” scenario and a scenario in which a Democratic Party candidate proposes court-packing to “bring greater balance to the court” while the Republican Party candidate laments how it would be “a threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rights of all Americans by radical liberals trying to change the rules so a few cities in New York and California can impose their will on the rest of us.” According to the study, scenario two had almost no impact on people’s choices.
Even the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her colleague Stephen Breyer have denounced the proposition of court-packing. Speaking with <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/24/744633713/justice-ginsburg-i-am-very-much-alive?utm_term=nprnews&amp;utm_campaign=politics&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NPR</a>, Ginsburg criticized past attempts to pack the Supreme Court, such as when President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to do so in the 1930s.
“Nine seems to be a good number,” the justice said. “It’s been that way for a long time. I think it was a bad idea when President Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the Court.”
Despite Eric Holder&#8217;s passion, court-packing will likely fail, given that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/joe-manchin-new-era-of-bipartisanship">has said</a> he would oppose it along with the push to end the filibuster.

City Of Hope Spirit Of Life Gala 2019 – Inside

Eric Holder Urges Dems To Pack The Supreme Court

Court Packing

Supreme Court

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and others slammed former Attorney General Eric Holder for falsely claiming that moving to confirm a judge to an open court seat is “court packing.”
Holder, who served as attorney general under former President Barack Obama, claimed on Monday that the Senate moving to confirm Jones Day associate Kathryn Mizelle to a federal court seat constituted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/camp-how-the-left-is-trying-to-gaslight-americans-on-court-packing">court packing</a>.
“THIS is court packing,” Holder said, reacting to a tweet reporting that Mizelle’s confirmation is scheduled for committee vote on Thursday. The question of court packing has gained significant national attention in recent weeks as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has repeatedly refused to say whether he would push to add more seats to the Supreme Court if elected.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
THIS is court packing. <a href="https://t.co/RveKSiAxD7">https://t.co/RveKSiAxD7</a>
&mdash; Eric Holder (@EricHolder) <a href="https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/1315820459133407233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Cruz accused Holder of lying about court-packing is in order to deceive people of what the term really means.
“Webster’s defines ‘lie’: intransitive verb: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive,” Cruz wrote.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Webster’s defines “lie”:
intransitive verb
: to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive <a href="https://t.co/3h6N4jazqm">https://t.co/3h6N4jazqm</a>
&mdash; Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1315839749362520070?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Washington Examiner Justice Department reporter Jerry Dunleavy made a similar statement, contending that Holder was “lying” about what court packing actually means.
“Obama’s attorney general is claiming that nominating judges to existing vacancies &amp; confirming them is court packing. Obama’s attorney general is lying,” Dunleavy said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Obama’s attorney general is claiming that nominating judges to existing vacancies &amp; confirming them is court packing. Obama’s attorney general is lying. <a href="https://t.co/6P2bF8Nogw">https://t.co/6P2bF8Nogw</a>
&mdash; JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1315827012028821504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“It literally is not,” Natural Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
It literally is not. <a href="https://t.co/3KtNhnyqL0">https://t.co/3KtNhnyqL0</a>
&mdash; Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) <a href="https://twitter.com/baseballcrank/status/1315841493924483073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Seung Min Kim, White House reporter for The Washington Post, also criticized Holder’s use of the term.
“No. Filling existing vacancies in the judiciary is not court-packing. It wasn&#8217;t court-packing when Republicans said it during the Obama administration and it&#8217;s not court-packing when Democrats say it now,” Kim said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
No. Filling existing vacancies in the judiciary is not court-packing. It wasn&#39;t court-packing when Republicans said it during the Obama administration and it&#39;s not court-packing when Democrats say it now. <a href="https://t.co/BDGp79XyVO">https://t.co/BDGp79XyVO</a>
&mdash; Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) <a href="https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/1315820946381565952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The idea of court packing originated under former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he threatened to stack the Supreme Court justices favorable to his agenda in order to secure court victories. The idea has been heavily criticized by lawmakers and pundits across the political spectrum as deadly to the integrity of the judicial system.
Democratic lawmakers and left-wing pundits have called for Biden and Democrats to pack the Supreme Court should Biden win the election in retribution for President Donald Trump and Republicans in the Senate pushing to confirm <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gold-standard-american-bar-association-awards-amy-coney-barrett-highest-rating-ahead-of-confirmation-fight">Amy Coney Barrett</a> to the Supreme Court. Trump nominated Barrett to the Supreme Court after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from cancer last month.
Biden has consistently refused to commit one way or the other on the proposal to pack the court. On Friday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-joe-biden-voters-dont-deserve-to-know-if-im-going-to-pack-supreme-court">Biden</a> said that voters do not “deserve” to know whether he will try to pack the Supreme Court with friendly justices until after he is elected. As The Daily Wire reported:
<blockquote>Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told a local news reporter on Friday afternoon that voters do not deserve to know whether he will pack the Supreme Court if he wins the upcoming the election.
“Sir, I’ve got to ask you about packing the courts and I know you said yesterday you aren’t going to answer the question until after the election, but this is the number one thing that I’ve been asking about from viewers in the past couple of days,” the reporter said to Biden.
“Well, you’ve been asked by the viewers who are probably Republicans who don’t want me continuing to talk about what they’re doing to the court right now,” Biden responded.
“Well sir, don’t the voters deserve to know—” the reporter pressed.
“No, they don’t,” Biden responded.</blockquote>

President Obama Announces Resignation Of Eric Holder

Ted Cruz, Others Rip Obama’s Attorney General For ‘Lying’ Over ‘Court Packing’ Claim

Ted Cruz

Daily Wire Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer, who is a constitutional attorney by training, has the following op-ed today at the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-15/william-barr-attorney-general-donald-trump">Los Angeles Times</a>.
Many have been all too quick to make Atty. Gen. William Barr out to be a reflexive toady for President Trump. Just last week, the New York City Bar Association took the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-trumped-up-case-of-bar-v-barr-11578699265?mod=opinion_lead_pos2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="2">extreme</a> step of <a href="http://documents.nycbar.org/files/Exercising_Congressional_Oversight_AG_Barr_01082020.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="3">writing to congressional leaders</a> to investigate Barr for political bias. And last month, he came under blistering criticism for <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/barr-thinks-fbi-may-have-acted-bad-faith-probing-trump-n1098986" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="4">defending the Trump campaign</a> and characterizing the FBI’s Russia investigation into the 2016 election as bogus.
Slate has <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/12/bill-barr-lying-inspector-general-horowitz-report.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="6">accused</a> Barr of using the Department of Justice as “a personal law firm for Trump.” Vox has <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/12/9/21003334/inspector-general-horowitz-barr-durham" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="7">bewailed</a> “the department’s politicization under Barr.” The Daily Beast has <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-barr-exposed-as-horowitz-report-dismisses-trumps-conspiracies-and-clears-trumps-enemies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="9">lamented</a> how Barr has “become another of Donald Trump’s personal lawyers.” The New York Times has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/09/us/politics/barr-durham-ig-report-russia-investigation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="10">noted</a> that the attorney general had “reprised his role as a vocal defender of President Trump.”
Perhaps none of these media outlets recall the time when then-Atty. Gen. Eric Holder famously described himself as President Obama’s “<a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/politico44/2013/04/eric-holder-im-still-the-presidents-wingman-160861" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="12">wingman</a>.” Curiously, Holder actually took to the Washington Post to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-holder-william-barr-is-unfit-to-be-attorney-general/2019/12/11/99882092-1c55-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="13">decry</a> Barr’s ostensible self-debasement as an unfortunate “instrument of politics.”
Holder’s hypocrisy aside, the newfound stance in favor of a strongly independent attorney general among liberals is misguided as a matter of constitutional interpretation and ahistorical as a matter of American custom.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 1 of the Constitution states that “[t]he executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.” The power is vested not in numerous sources, but solely in the president. The president maintains plenary authority over the entirety of the executive branch.
The “unitary executive theory,” which Democrats routinely excoriate, comes from the plain text of the Constitution. As Atty. Gen. Barr <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-william-p-barr-delivers-19th-annual-barbara-k-olson-memorial-lecture" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="18">recently said</a> during his remarks at the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention, the notion of the unitary executive “is not ‘new,’ and it is not a ‘theory.’” On the contrary, he continued, “[i]t is a description of what the Framers unquestionably did in Article II of the Constitution.”
Throughout American history, attorneys general have intuited and acted upon their non-independent subordination to presidents of the United States. In “<a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-0530-9.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="20">Conflicting Loyalties: Law and Politics in the Attorney General’s Office, 1789–1990</a>,” the scholar Nancy V. Baker explored the historical nature of the attorney general’s position. Baker devoted entire book sections to “The Attorney General as a Legal Adviser” and “The Attorney General as a Policy Advisor.” She observed that “before he became an administrator” of a sprawling Department of Justice bureaucracy, “the attorney general assumed the role of the advisor to the president.” What’s more, the attorney general’s “responsibility” to serve in such an advisory capacity “has antecedents in seventeenth-century England.”
Indeed, the role of the attorney general as a top presidential advisor has been a recurring theme throughout American history. When President Lincoln’s attorney general, Edward Bates, <a href="https://archive.org/stream/suspensionofwrit00unit/suspensionofwrit00unit_djvu.txt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-reader-unique-id="22">famously wrote to Congress</a> in 1861 to defend Lincoln’s unilateral suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, he did so not as a neutral arbiter of legal principle, but as Lincoln’s top legal advisor who shared his superior’s ultimate policy aim of a Union victory in the Civil War.
<a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-01-15/william-barr-attorney-general-donald-trump">Read the rest of the piece here.</a>

RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hammer-america-is-better-off-for-having-bill-barr">America Is Better Off For Having Bill Barr.</a>

Attorney General William Barr

Hammer At The ‘Los Angeles Times’: Attorney General Barr Is Not Simply A Trump Shill.

Constitution

Law Enforcement

Los Angeles Times

William Barr

The New York Times and The Washington Post admitted that mass immigration and changes in demographics were a significant reason that Democrats took complete control of Virginia last week.
Democrats now control the governor&#8217;s seat, both chambers of the state&#8217;s legislature and the lieutenant governor&#8217;s seat for the first time in nearly 30 years.
Following the Democrats&#8217; dominate night in Virginia, The New York Times admitted that years of mass immigration are starting to radically change the electoral map &#8220;from Richmond to Atlanta, Houston, Denver and elsewhere and Democrats are starting to breach Republicans’ firewalls in elections.&#8221;
The New York Times <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/11/10/ny-times-tidal-wave-mass-immigration-hands-virginia-democrats/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Not long ago, this rolling green stretch of Northern Virginia was farmland. Most people who could vote had grown up here. And when they did, they usually chose Republicans.
The fields of Loudoun County are disappearing. In their place is row upon row of cookie-cutter townhouses, clipped lawns and cul-de-sacs — a suburban landscape for as far as the eye can see. Unlike three decades ago, the residents are often from other places, like India and Korea. And when they vote, it is often for Democrats.
&#8230;
Once the heart of the confederacy, Virginia is now the land of Indian grocery stores, Korean churches and Diwali festivals. The state population has boomed — up by 38 percent since 1990, with the biggest growth in densely settled suburban areas like South Riding. One in 10 people eligible to vote in the state were born outside the United States, up from one in 28 in 1990. It is also significantly less white. In 1990, the census tracts that make up Mr. Katkuri’s Senate district were home to about 35,000 people — 91 percent of them white. Today, its population of 225,000 is just 64 percent white.
“It’s a totally different world,” said Charles Poland, 85, a retired history professor whose family has lived in Loudoun County for four generations. His family farm is now dotted with subdivisions filled with four and five-bedroom homes that sell for $750,000. The family legacy is a road named Poland. “If my parents came back today, they wouldn’t recognize the place. The changes came like a tidal wave.”</blockquote>
The Washington Post essentially <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-virginia-republicans-confront-a-fearful-electoral-future/2019/11/09/2bbdc7aa-026b-11ea-8bab-0fc209e065a8_story.html">reported</a> the same thing following last week&#8217;s election results:
<blockquote>Virginia now stands as a fearful avatar for Republicans of what the nation’s unrelenting demographic and cultural changes mean for the party, as the moderate-to-liberal urban and suburban areas grow and more conservative rural areas lose ground. Similar shifts are starting to hit such states as North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia and Texas, as minority populations increase and white college-educated voters continue to turn away from the Republican brand.</blockquote>
The Wall Street Journal&#8217;s Kimberley Strassel <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/eric-holder-takes-virginia-11573167564">noted</a> that another significant factor that went into the Democrats&#8217; electoral sweep in Virginia was former Democrat Attorney General Eric Holder&#8217;s redistricting program in which he used the legal system to get Virginia&#8217;s congressional districts redrawn in a manner that was favorable for Democrats.
&#8220;While most prominent Democrats spent the months following Donald Trump’s election plotting future runs, Mr. Holder was launching the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, committed to domination of electoral map making through the courts and legislatures,&#8221; Strassel wrote. &#8220;The NDRC spent its first years aggressively litigating legislative maps it didn’t like, to great success. Virginia’s election was the first test of the electoral piece of Mr. Holder’s strategy, and it will now serve as the model by which Democrats attempt to gain redistricting power in 11 other key states next year.&#8221;
&#8220;The NDRC claims its efforts are aimed at simple &#8216;fairness in the electoral system.&#8217; It says it’s working to overturn gerrymanders that &#8216;disenfranchise&#8217; voters,&#8221; Strassel continued. &#8220;Don’t be fooled. Mr. Holder’s group has never engaged in blue states where Democrats routinely draw maps to disadvantage Republicans, such as Maryland, Massachusetts or New Jersey.&#8221;
Strassel concluded: &#8220;Democratic groups threw at least $54 million at Virginia—an unprecedented sum in an election that didn’t feature a single federal office—outspending Republicans by some $12 million. Outside groups accounted for at least $22 million of the Democratic effort, nearly four times what they spent in 2015. Three billionaires—Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer and George Soros—and their organizations spent more than all outside Republican contributors combined.&#8221;

Honduran Migrants

NYT, WaPo: Mass Immigration, Demographic Changes Fueled Democrat Wins In Virginia

Democratic Party

New York Times

Virginia

Washington Post

Former Attorney General Eric Holder argued on Monday that the Republican Party would cheat and try to suppress the vote in order to win the presidential election in 2020 and floated the possibility that President Trump would try to pull off unprecedented actions before leaving office.
&#8220;I&#8217;m convinced, but I&#8217;m going to work like hell to make sure that it happens,&#8221; Holder said on Power 105.1’s radio show &#8220;The Breakfast Club&#8221; when he was asked if he is convinced that Democrats are going to win the presidency.
&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be hard because the reality is that Republicans are going to cheat,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;They are going to try to keep people away from the polls, they are going to move polling places, they are going to do a whole variety of things that when we had the Voting Rights Act intact and a Justice Department who was concerned about it, we could prevent a lot of this stuff, but we don&#8217;t have those tools anymore.&#8221;
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Eric Holder predicts Republicans will cheat in 2020" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MydT_sodmVw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Holder, who is a close friend and ally of former President Barack Obama, served as his first attorney general. He was notably held in contempt of Congress during an investigation into the Operation Fast and Furious ATF gun-walking scandal, but was subsequently cleared of wrongdoing by Obama&#8217;s own Justice Department.
Following his time in the White House, Holder has been focusing his efforts on gerrymandering reform through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), a political action committee which he founded to redistrict Republican strongholds in swing states to help subsequently turn the states blue.
&#8220;We have got to be prepared for a tough fight, but a fight that we can win,&#8221; Holder said. &#8220;That&#8217;s the thing, people shouldn&#8217;t be so discouraged. This is not a time for despair, this is a time for action, and I think if you keep that as the way in which you are going to conduct yourself, we can win this fight.&#8221;
Holder further speculated that President Donald Trump would not only refuse to leave the White House if he was defeated in 2020, but questioned whether he would try to pardon his own administration from any potential wrongdoing.
&#8220;Bill Maher, I think, once said that Trump is not going to leave [the White House at the end of his term], and I thought to myself that&#8217;s ridiculous,&#8221; Holder said. &#8220;But as I thought about it, I&#8217;m thinking, you know, this guy with all the norms that he breaks through, I think he loses and then it will be interesting.&#8221;
&#8220;Between November and January when he would have to start packing and all that stuff, I wonder for instance, will he pardon himself? Will he try to do that? No one has ever done that, I don&#8217;t think you can do that,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;No one has even thought about doing something like that, and so will he pardon all the people in his administration? Will he pardon himself? That&#8217;s something that I wouldn&#8217;t take off the table.&#8221;
Holder is one of many Democrats who have been sounding the alarm on election security in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. While members of the Democratic Party and left-wing media have largely put forth that states like Georgia, Florida, and Texas would have gone to the Democratic candidates if not for Republican-led voter suppression, there has been no evidence to corroborate those claims.

2016 Democratic National Convention

WATCH: Eric Holder Sounds Alarm Over 2020 ‘Cheating,’ Worries Trump Might ‘Pardon Himself’

2020 Election

The 57-year-old man from Aventura, Florida, who sent homemade pipe bombs to prominent Democrats prior to the 2018 midterm election, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday.
According to <a href="https://www.apnews.com/0ec32c260a5f458c83619f1734dbee8c">The Associated Press</a>, the man&#8217;s public defender told the court his client was &#8220;obsessed with President Donald Trump and grew to believe Democrats were to blame for damage to his van, which was plastered with Trump stickers and images of crosshairs superimposed over the faces of Trump opponents.&#8221;
In total, the pipe bomber (whose name is here withheld per Daily Wire policy) sent 16 devices to prominent Democrats and public figures, according to a March <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/cesar-sayoc-pleads-guilty-65-felonies-mailing-16-improvised-explosive-devices">press release</a> from the U.S Southern District of New York.
&#8220;[The man] designed the IEDs for use as weapons and mailed them understanding that they were capable of exploding and causing injuries and property damage,&#8221; reads the release. &#8220;In alphabetical order, [his] intended victims were former Vice President Joseph Biden, Senator Cory Booker, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN, Robert De Niro, Senator Kamala Harris, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former President Barack Obama, George Soros, Thomas Steyer, and Representative Maxine Waters.&#8221;
All of the devices failed to explode.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff did not believe that the man intended to kill his victims. &#8220;He hated his victims, he wished them no good, but he was not so lost as to wish them dead, at least by his own hand,&#8221; said the judge.
The man told the judge that he was &#8220;beyond so very sorry for what I did.&#8221; Among the reasons he gave for his lawless actions, the bomber cited mental health issues, steroid abuse, and failure to listen to the “love of my life,” his mother.
&#8220;I was in deep denial. I understand now that I have committed a very serious crime,&#8221; the man told the court. &#8220;With all my heart and soul, I feel the pain and suffering of these victims and I will be apologizing to them for the rest of my life.&#8221;
The Associated Press notes that the &#8220;psychiatric experts who examined [the man] at the request of the defense agreed that steroids influenced his behavior, particularly his delusions and obsessions.&#8221;
Ronald Lowy, a lawyer who represented the man on four separate cases dating as far back as 16 years, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&amp;v=GM5-5tomujU">told reporters</a> last October that his former client &#8220;doesn&#8217;t seem to recognize reality.&#8221;
&#8220;He would act emotionally and reactively without thinking, he would have trouble articulating concepts, he doesn&#8217;t live life in a normal way,&#8221; said Lowy. &#8220;He lives out of his vehicle. The signs of mental illness are clearly there. If you&#8217;re living out of your car for years, you&#8217;re sick.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50270/shapiro-media-have-double-standard-tragedy-adin-blumofe">SHAPIRO: The Media Have A Double Standard For Tragedy</a>

Authorities Arrest Suspect In Serial Mail Bombing Case In South Florida

Man Who Sent Pipe Bombs To Democratic Politicians Gets Serious Prison Time

Cory Booker

George Soros

Joe Biden

Maxine Waters

On Thursday, the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/doj-ap-phone-records.php">Columbia Journalism Review</a> reported on the results of a Freedom of Information Act request for documents related to the Obama Justice Department&#8217;s attempts to crack down on leaks to reporters which reveal that the Obama administration&#8217;s actions against the press &#8220;were broader than previously known.&#8221;
The report &#8212; which begins by warning against the threat the Trump administration poses to the freedom of the press &#8212; presents an alarming picture of the previous administration&#8217;s efforts to surveil the press and track down sources of leaks (h/t <a href="https://hotair.com/archives/2019/05/23/cjr-obama-admin-surveillance-reporters-far-extensive-previously-known/">Ed Morrissey</a>).
CJR&#8217;s report, authored by Ramya Krishnan and Trevor Timm, is based on a highly redacted 59-page <a href="http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6023116-DOJ-Report-on-AP-Subpoenas-Controversy.html">report</a> &#8203;by the Justice Department&#8217;s Office of Professional Responsibility completed Dec. 9, 2014 and obtained via FOIA request by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Freedom of the Press Foundation (where Krishnan and Timm work, respectively).
&#8220;In 2013, the Justice Department launched a brazen attack on press freedom, issuing sweeping subpoenas for the phone records of the Associated Press and several of its reporters and editors as part of a leak investigation,&#8221; the authors report. While those subpoenas have long been understood as &#8220;a massive intrusion into newsgathering operations,&#8221; they note, the recently unearthed 2014 report reveals that the subpoenas targeting AP &#8220;told only part of the story.&#8221;
The Office of Professional Responsibility&#8217;s report on the Obama Justice Department&#8217;s subpoenas of AP phone records reveals that &#8220;the DOJ&#8217;s actions against the AP were broader than previously known, and that the DOJ considered subpoenaing the phone records of other news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News,&#8221; the authors explain. The report also reveals &#8220;how narrowly the DOJ interprets the Media Guidelines, the agency&#8217;s internal rules for obtaining reporters&#8217; data.&#8221;
The Obama DOJ&#8217;s targeting of the AP came in response to May 2012 reports containing classified information about the CIA&#8217;s thwarting of a Yemen-based bomb plot. In early 2013, the Deputy Attorney General approved requests by the DOJ to subpoena AP telephone records in an attempt to uncover reporters&#8217; sources, prompting AP to complain that the DOJ had violated the Media Guidelines about how narrowly subpoenas for reporters&#8217; phone records should be drawn.
Though the DOJ defended its broad subpoenas, the Office of Professional Responsibility&#8217;s report reveals that ethics lawyers were troubled enough by the sequence of events to look into it and found that the department&#8217;s handling of the investigation was more expansive than previously known. CJR reports:
<blockquote>
The report, which was submitted to then&#8211;Attorney General Eric Holder in 2013, reveals that the leak probe was broader than previously understood. It reveals, for example, that, while the Justice Department obtained telephone toll records for 21 telephone numbers, the agency in fact issued &#8220;30 subpoenas to obtain telephone toll records for 30 unique telephone numbers.&#8221; The report reveals that those 30 subpoenas were intended to target seven reporters and editors, and covered a period of six weeks spanning April 1, 2012 to May 10, 2012.
The report also shows that, at least at one stage of their investigation, Justice Department attorneys considered subpoenaing the records of The Washington Post, The New York Times, and ABC News. What&#8217;s more, the report strongly suggests that the attorneys went so far as to obtain &#8220;telephone numbers and other contact information&#8221; for reporters and editors at those organizations who had worked on articles about the Yemen bomb plot. The report records, however, that the attorneys ultimately decided against issuing additional subpoenas.
</blockquote>
The Office of Professional Responsibility ultimately attempts to downplay the DOJ&#8217;s actions in ways Krishnan and Timm describe as &#8220;disturbing.&#8221; &#8220;Disturbingly, the report does not come close to explaining why the subpoenas targeted the trunk lines of major AP offices&#8212;lines which could potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across all of the AP&#8217;s newsgathering activities,&#8221; they stress. Instead, the report simply concludes by arguing that even though the DOJ targeted phone records that turned out to be unrelated to their investigation, &#8220;at the time when the subpoenas were sought, investigators had a factual basis for believing that those telephone numbers did relate to [AP] personnel.&#8221;
<a href="http://www.cjr.org/watchdog/doj-ap-phone-records.php">Read the Columbia Journalism Review&#8217;s full report here</a>.

Report: Obama Administration’s Actions Against Press Worse Than Previously Known

Associated Press

Freedom of the Press

Obama Administration

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