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    Anti-Communist hysteria, J. Edgar Hoover and a guy in the KKK: David Cay Johnston explains why a judge just shot down Trump

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory
    October 08, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    J. Edgar Hoover -- (History Channel)

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    David Cay Johnston, DCReport @ RawStory

    Donald Trump’s bid to withhold his tax returns from a grand jury failed on Monday in large part thanks to flyers handed out more than a half-century ago protesting the fatal LAPD shooting of an unarmed black man.


    The 1919 Palmer raids and the 1950s House Committee on Un-American Activities—the discredited witch hunt for supposed communist subversives in the civil rights movement, unions and Hollywood – play supporting roles in thwarting Trump’s efforts to evade criminal investigation. There is even a brief walk-on part for a Ku Klux Klansman, who asserted a First Amendment right to urge violence against African Americans.

    Such are the strange ways that the law weaves through American history, tying radicals long ago to the self-absorbed radical now in the White House.

    Trump proposes a sweeping doctrine with no support in the Constitution's text or history.

    For the moment, Trump’s tax returns remain secret while his lawyers appeal the ruling dismissing his lawsuit. Trump seeks to quash a subpoena for eight years of tax returns.

    Mazars USA, which does Trump’s accounting, raised no objection when subpoenaed Aug. 1 by a Manhattan grand jury investigating Trump’s hush money payments to a porn star and a Playboy centerfold.

    But Trump’s lawyers filed suit in federal court trying to stop the grand jury subpoena of Mazars. The Trump lawyers asserted a “bad faith effort to harass the president by obtaining and exposing his confidential financial information.”

    The lawyers also made sweeping claims that Trump, his Trump Organization, his family and associates are all immune from criminal investigation so long as he holds office.

    Judge Victor Marrero of Federal District Court in Manhattan dismissed the Trump complaint, finding it “repugnant” to our Constitution.

    Trump Unlikely to Win on Appeal

    On appeal, Trump is unlikely to prevail, only to delay the grand jury. We can expect a backup strategy, too, to further delay the criminal inquiry once the federal courts finish with Trump’s legally nonsensical claims. More on that in a moment.

    What escaped mainstream news coverage was the legal basis for Judge Marrero’s 75-page decision, a carefully articulated and nuanced walk through the concept of federalism in criminal cases.

    Under our Constitution, the states and the federal government are equal except where Washington is specifically given supremacy.

    The federal courts have no business interfering in state criminal prosecutions with very narrow exceptions, Judge Marrero wrote. He repeatedly cited a  Supreme Court case, argued in 1969 and decided two years later, known as Younger v. Harris.

    Under Younger and some other cases, Trump will be able to run to the federal courts for relief only if he is convicted of a crime. But during the investigative and trial stages, the Supreme Court has consistently held, suspects and defendants must be turned away by the federal courts.

    John Wesley Harris was a California Progressive Labor Party organizer who was “arrested for distributing insurrectional literature,” as the House Un-American Activities Committee put it.

    The leaflets protested the official handling of the fatal 1966 shooting of Leonard Deadwyler, who was stopped for speeding as he raced to get his pregnant wife, who apparently was in labor, to a hospital.

    Officer Jerold Bova, who later rose to LAPD captain, said his gun accidentally discharged when the car “lurched.” The widow said the car never moved.

    Evelle Younger, a former FBI agent who was then Los Angeles County district attorney, prosecuted Harris for “criminal syndicalism.”

    Such laws became common after the original Red Scare and the so-called Palmer Raids began in 1919.  President Woodrow Wilson’s Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, led raids on opponents of World War I, as well as people who advocated for unions and civil rights. Exploiting official fear of a Bolshevik revolution helped J. Edgar Hoover rise to create the forerunner of the FBI in 1924 and to run the bureau as his personal fiefdom until his death in 1972.

    State criminal syndicalism laws essentially made it a crime to advocate ideas opposed by the government. For five decades this assault on the First Amendment right of free speech and assembly was upheld by the courts.

    Harris asked the federal courts to stop the state-level prosecution. Like Trump, Harris lost.

    In a 1965 case, Dombrowski v. Pfister, the Supreme Court held that “the mere possibility of erroneous initial application of constitutional standards by a state court will not ordinarily constitute irreparable injury warranting federal interference with a good-faith prosecution.”

    This explains why Trump’s lawyers claimed bad faith by the Manhattan district attorney, a claim that Judge Marrero found to be baseless.

    The high court took up Younger v Harris even though in 1969 the Supreme Court declared criminal syndicalism laws unconstitutional. The case involved an Ohio KKK leader who advocated violence against African Americans, speech protected by the First Amendment unless it instigated acts of violence.

    Even though the Supreme Court had already found Ohio’s criminal syndicalism law invalid, it took the California case to solidify its history of rulings that people who claim abuse by state prosecutions cannot seek relief from the federal courts except under the most extraordinary circumstances.

    The Supreme Court held in Younger v. Harris that the “Federal courts will not enjoin pending state criminal prosecutions except under extraordinary circumstances where the danger of irreparable loss is both great and immediate.”

    The decision against Harris specified two very limited circumstances under which the federal courts might intervene in a state criminal investigation and prosecution. One was harassment or bad faith prosecution, which violates the suspect’s Constitutional rights. The other was any circumstance specifically authorized by Congress.

    Justice Hugo Black, writing for the majority, began the decision noting: “Since the beginning of this country's history, Congress has, subject to few exceptions, manifested a desire to permit state courts to try state cases free from interference by federal courts. In 1793, an Act unconditionally provided: ‘[N]or shall a writ of injunction be granted to stay proceedings in any court of a state....’”

    Not a single case since Younger has authorized federal court interference in state prosecutions.

    Again and again, Judge Marrero cited Younger and related cases in dismissing the Trump complaint as legal nonsense.

    “Consider the reach of the President' s argument,” the judge wrote. “The President's special dispensation from the criminal law's purview and judicial inquiry would embrace not only the behavior and activities of the President himself” but many others.

    Immunity for Everyone

    Trump seeks to “immunize the misconduct of any other person, business affiliate associate, or relative who may have collaborated with the President in committing purportedly unlawful acts and whose offenses ordinarily would warrant criminal investigation and prosecution of all involved.”

    Judge Marrero agreed that “subjecting the President to some aspects of criminal proceedings could impermissibly interfere with or even incapacitate the President's ability to discharge constitutional functions. Certainly, lengthy imprisonment upon conviction would produce that result.” However, “that consequence would not necessarily follow every stage of every criminal proceeding.”

    Trump, the judge wrote, proposes a “sweeping doctrine [that] finds no support in the Constitution's text or history, or in germane guidance charted by rulings of the United States Supreme Court.”

    Indeed, Judge Marrero noted that “the only thing truly absolute about presidential immunity from criminal process is the Constitution' s silence” on the matter.

    So, there it is in all its judicial irony: Trump, a man with no regard for our Constitution and who daily abuses the powers of his office, inches closer to being held accountable for his conduct before assuming office because of official abuses of people who advocated unpopular ideas.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

    We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

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    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.


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    Discord bans subreddit accused of manipulating GameStop stock price to ruin hedge funds: report

    Matthew Chapman
    January 27, 2021

    On Wednesday, The Verge reported that the networking platform Discord has banned the server for r/WallStreetBets, the community on Reddit that has bragged about manipulating the stock market.

    r/WallStreetBets gained national attention this week after a campaign to aggressively buy up shares in GameStop, the nationwide video game retailer, after learning that several large Wall Street hedge funds were short-selling the stock due to the chain's financial struggles. The campaign dramatically drove up the price of GameStop shares, wiping out millions of dollars in value at these hedge funds at a stroke.

    According to Discord, the ban has nothing to do with the efforts to hurt hedge funds, but rather ongoing violations of hate speech policies.

    "The server has been on our Trust & Safety team's radar for some time due to occasional content that violates our Community Guidelines, including hate speech, glorifying violence, and spreading misinformation. Over the past few months, we have issued multiple warnings to the server admin," said Discord in a statement. "To be clear, we did not ban this server due to financial fraud related to GameStop or other stocks. Discord welcomes a broad variety of personal finance discussions, from investment clubs and day traders to college students and professional financial advisors."

    Bernie Sanders, with mittens pic, raises $1.8 million for charity

    Agence France-Presse
    January 27, 2021

    The Inauguration Day photograph of a mitten-clad, glamor-defying Bernie Sanders perhaps was not the most flattering image of the US senator, but it has become a remarkably charitable one.

    The 79-year-old lawmaker from the northeastern state of Vermont announced Wednesday he has raised $1.8 million for charity over the past five days through sales of merchandise featuring him wearing knit mittens and a parka at President Joe Biden's January 20 swearing-in.

    The image launched a thousand memes and made the earnest and seemingly cantankerous two-time presidential candidate even more of an internet star than he already was.

    "Jane and I were amazed by all the creativity shown by so many people over the last week, and we're glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need," Sanders said in a statement.

    "But even this amount of money is no substitute for action by Congress," he said, referring to efforts to pass a massive coronavirus pandemic rescue package.

    "I will be doing everything I can in Washington to make sure working people in Vermont and across the country get the relief they need in the middle of the worst crisis we've faced since the Great Depression."

    Sanders's office said the groups receiving charitable funds include the Vermont operations of Meals on Wheels and the Vermont Parent Child Network.

    The initial run of the "Chairman Sanders" merchandise sold out 30 minutes after the items -- including sweatshirts and T-shirts -- were made available online Thursday. There is now a weeks-long backlog of orders.

    The image of a cross-legged Sanders wearing a light blue mask and seated alone at the inauguration was captured by AFP photographer Brendan Smialowski.

    According to Sanders' office, as part of the licensing agreement to put the image on apparel and stickers, Getty Images, the agency that distributes AFP images in the United States, will donate its proceeds from the license to Meals on Wheels America.

    Smialowski has been impressed by the various iterations of his frame online.

    "The internet is like a wild animal, tough to predict and hard to tame," he said.

    "While I never expect or strive for my work to go viral or get memed, it doesn't surprise me in the sense that the internet and social media are unpredictable. Anything is possible."

    Feds indict three Oath Keepers on 'conspiracy to obstruct Congress': report

    Matthew Chapman
    January 27, 2021

    On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced the indictment of three militia figures affiliated with the far-right Oath Keepers group, on charges of conspiracy to obstruct Congress.

    The three defendants are Jessica Marie Watkins and Donovan Ray Crowl of Champaign County, Ohio, and Thomas Caldwell of Clarke County, Virginia. They face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

    "According to the indictment, the three defendants initiated their communications and coordination in November 2020 and continued through on or about Jan. 19, 2021, when Caldwell was arrested," said the DOJ announcement. "The exchanges vary in topics from a call to action to logistics, including lodging options, coordinating calls to discuss the plan, and joining forces with other Oath Keeper chapters. On Dec. 31, 2020, Caldwell posted, 'THIS IS OUR CALL TO ACTION, FREINDS! SEE YOU ON THE 6TH IN WASHINGTON, D.C. ALONG WITH 2 MILLION OTHER LIKE-MINDED PATRIOTS.' In a subsequent post on Jan. 2, 2021, Caldwell stated, 'It begins for real Jan 5 and 6 on Washington D.C. when we mobilize in the streets. Let them try to certify some crud on capitol hill with a million or more patriots in the streets. This kettle is set to boil…'"

    Allegations about Crowl released by federal officials last week following his arrest suggested he was preparing for "literal war."

    The Oath Keepers are a nationwide paramilitary organization, including many retired and active military and law enforcement, which has broadly been implicated in the assault on the Capitol that left five dead.

     
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