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Hillary Clinton’s use of private email server among ‘gravest’ offenses to transparency, judge says

Federal Judge Royce Lamberth says Judicial Watch should be allowed to demand documents and additional testimony into whether Hillary Clinton's use of a private email system was a deliberate effort to thwart the Freedom of Information Act; reaction from Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

A conservative group won a court victory this week when a federal judge ordered more fact-finding in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth assailed Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state as “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”
Conservative group Judicial Watch had filed a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the State and Justice departments, alleging that Clinton’s email practices represented a deliberate effort to violate the FOIA, Politico reported.
On Friday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton praised Lamberth’s ruling, telling Fox News it showed the court was “not terribly convinced” that former FBI Director James Comey adequately investigated Clinton’s use of the private server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
As a result of the judge’s ruling, “Some people like Mrs. Clinton potentially will have to answer further questions,” Fitton said.
On Thursday, Lamberth ordered the State and Justice departments to work with Judicial Watch on a discovery plan to determine whether Clinton used the server to circumvent FOIA requirements, the Hill reported.
President Trump and Republicans have repeatedly slammed Clinton’s use of the private email server, arguing in part that the practice potentially placed classified government information at risk.
Clinton was found to have deleted emails that she said were personal and not related to her State Department work. Comey announced during the 2016 presidential campaign that Clinton’s handling of emails was “extremely careless” but did not warrant criminal charges.

Trump condemns 'disgraceful' 9th Circuit, dubbing it rubber-stamp for his foes

In lengthy and fiery comments to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, President Trump excoriated the liberal-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as a "disgrace" hours after an Obama-appointed federal judge there issued a nationwide injunction against his newly announced emergency restrictions on asylum claims.
The president vowed immediate action and said he was "going to put in a major complaint" about the appellate court, based in San Francisco, without elaborating.
He also broadly criticized the increasingly common practice of individual federal judges bringing unilateral halts to executive branch policy, which has already happened more than two dozen times under the Trump administration. The president specifically cited the Ninth Circuit's injunction against his ban on travel from several Muslim-majority nations, which was ultimately ruled a constitutional exercise of presidential authority this year by the Supreme Court.
"You go to Ninth Circuit and it's a disgrace, and I'm going to put in a major complaint. Because you cannot win, if you're us, a case in the Ninth Circuit," Trump said. "Every case gets filed in the Ninth Circuit. ... We get beaten, and then we end up having to go to the Supreme Court -- like the travel ban -- and we won. We're gonna have to look at that."
He added: "That's not law. That's not what this country stands for."
When pardoning the National Thanksgiving Turkey earlier in the day, Trump joked, "Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee your pardon will not be enjoined by the Ninth Circuit. Always happens."
U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, who was nominated by President Obama in 2012 to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a temporary restraining order late Monday against Trump's plan to refuse asylum to immigrants who cross the southern border illegally if they do not arrive at a port of entry.
TRUMP SNUBS HARRIS, FEINSTEIN AND APPOINTS SEVERAL REPUBLICAN JUDGES TO NINTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
"Whatever the scope of the President's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," Tigar wrote.
Trump took aim at Tigar in his comments on Tuesday and predicted he would win an appeal in the case at the Supreme Court, where conservatives command a narrow majority. Republicans have argued that presidents have plenary authority over immigration, and can close the southern border with Mexico for national security reasons if they wanted.

"You cannot win, if you're us, a case in the Ninth Circuit."
— President Trump

"This was an Obama judge, and I'll tell you what, it's not going to happen like this anymore," Trump said. "Everybody that wants to sue the U.S. -- almost -- they file their case in the Ninth Circuit, and it means an automatic loss. No matter what you do, no matter how good your case is. And the Ninth Circuit is really something we have to take a look at, because it's not fair."
He added: "People should not be allowed to immediately run to this very friendly circuit and file their case. It's a disgrace, in my opinion, what happens with the Ninth Circuit. We will win that case in the Supreme Court of the United States."

Demonstrators with signs that read in Spanish: "No more Caravans", and "Let's save Tijuana, no more caravans," stand under an statue of indigenous Aztec ruler Cuauhtemoc to protest the presence of thousands of Central American migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday. (AP)

During his confirmation hearings earlier this year, Associate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was asked by Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy about the constitutionality of individual federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions against presidential action -- a phenomenon that has attracted scrutiny after district court judges unilaterally brought temporary halts to Trump's travel ban and other initiatives. Kavanaugh demurred, saying he could not discuss potential pending issues before the Supreme Court. (Justice Clarence Thomas had suggested taking action against the injunctions in a dissent this year.)
Separately, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in October that the 28 nationwide federal injunctions issued by individual judges during the Trump administration so far constitute an unprecedented "judicial encroachment."
WATCH: MIGRANT CARAVAN CLASHES WITH RESIDENTS OF TIJUANA
"It is emphatically not the duty of the courts to manage the government or to pass judgment on every policy action the Executive branch takes," Sessions said. "In the first 175 years of this Republic, not a single judge issued one of these orders."
Trump's new asylum policy was designed to prevent many members of the Central American migrant caravans -- many of whom have arrived at the U.S. border and clashed with locals in Mexican border towns -- from illegally flooding into the U.S., and was intended to instead direct them to legal crossings for expedited and orderly asylum reviews.

Central American migrants, part of the Central American caravan trying to reach the United States, continue their journey as they prepare to leave Mexicali, Mexico, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018. Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month on the road, and with many more months likely ahead of them while they seek asylum in the U.S. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A joint statement by Homeland Security and the Justice Department said the Supreme Court had already shown the president had the legal right to restrict asylum.
"Our asylum system is broken, and it is being abused by tens of thousands of meritless claims every year," the departments said. "We look forward to continuing to defend the Executive Branch's legitimate and well-reasoned exercise of its authority to address the crisis at our southern border."
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, speaking Tuesday at the border, vowed to appeal the Ninth Circuit's ruling immediately.  "Let me be clear: this court from a chamber in San Francisco has replaced the president’s judgment with regard to the fully delegated authority to determine what is a true national security threat to our nation’s sovereignty," Nielsen said, arguing that the ruling will "unequivocally make the United States less secure."
"We will follow all laws and judicial rulings, but we will also be appealing it as quickly as possible," she added. "I have no doubt we will be successful."
Nielsen added that DHS has confirmed that there are at least 500 criminals and known gang members in the caravan, and that "most of the caravan members" plan to make "frivolous" claims of asylum in the hopes of disappearing while their claims are pending.
"Wanting a job is not a basis for asylum under U.S. law," Nielsen said. "Wanting to be united with your family is not a basis for asylum under U.S. law."
WATCH: TUCKER CARLSON DISCUSSES WHY MIGRANT CARAVAN IS RECEIVING A HOSTILE RECEPTION IN TIJUANA
The legal standard for obtaining asylum in the U.S. is strict, and ordinarily requires that people from foreign countries demonstrate they face serious, legitimate risks of persecution by their government if they remain in their homeland.
Not all forms of persecution are relevant for asylum consideration. Under federal law, applicants must demonstrate that their risk for persecution is based on their national origin, race, religion, political views or membership in a particularly vulnerable social class -- a category that was expanded in 2014, when the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that domestic abuse could form the basis for an asylum claim. The Trump administration reversed that expansion this year.
Around 3,000 people from the first of the caravans have arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego, California. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday that it closed off northbound traffic for several hours at the San Ysidro crossing to install movable, wire-topped barriers after reports that some migrants were planning to rush through the lanes.

Central American migrants, part of the Central American caravan trying to reach the United States, continue their journey as they leave Mexicali, Mexico, Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018. Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month on the road, and with many more months likely ahead of them while they seek asylum in the U.S. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

As of Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said it had referred 107 people to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — people who had sought asylum between official crossings since Trump's order went into effect. Officials didn't say whether those people's cases were still progressing through other, more difficult avenues left to them after the proclamation.
MIGRANT CARAVAN JUST OUTSIDE U.S. IS HARBORING AT LEAST 500 CRIMINALS, DHS SAYS, AS CARAVAN CLASHES WITH MEXICAN LOCALS
More than 500 criminals are traveling with the migrant caravan that’s massed on the other side of a San Diego border crossing, homeland security officials said Monday afternoon.
The asylum clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act says that anyone who arrives to the U.S. may apply for asylum based on a well-founded fear of persecution, regardless of where they arrive. Tigar said Trump's policy flatly contradicted that law passed by Congress.

Central American migrants look through the border structure expecting top make an illegal crossing into the U.S., seen from the Mexican side where the border meets the Pacific Ocean, Friday, Nov. 16, 2018. As thousands of migrants of asylum-seekers converge on the doorstep of the United States, what they won't find are armed American soldiers standing guard, that's because U.S. military troops are prohibited from carrying out law enforcement duties. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

But the Executive Branch has considerable authority in determining the scope of potential asylum claims. Earlier this year, Sessions used his authority as head of asylum courts to rule that domestic violence and gang-related attacks no longer necessarily can form the basis of an asylum claim.
TRUMP DOJ SHARPLY LIMITS ASYLUM CLAIMS, SAYING SYSTEM IS OVERWHELMED WITH FRAUD
Declaring that his decision "restores sound principles of asylum and long-standing principles of immigration law," Sessions indicated that the move would help reduce the backlog of asylum claims that has risen sharply in recent years -- with many of the claims illegitimate.
"The vast majority of the current asylum claims are not valid," Sessions said in remarks this summer. "For the last five years, only 20 percent of claims have been found to be meritorious after a hearing before an immigration judge."
Sessions added that the system is simply overwhelmed with claims, and that bogus applications are crowding out legitimate ones.

Jonathan Turley: Michael Cohen made a big mistake thinking he could avoid prison by turning on Trump

President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen – who prides himself on being a street-wise fixer and hustler – ran into a problem he couldn't fix Friday when he was denied the "get out of jail free" card he desperately sought in return for admitting his crimes.
Cohen is scheduled to be sentenced next week for his guilty pleas to multiple counts of business and tax fraud. He also pleaded guilty to making an excessive contribution to the Trump campaign and to making false statements to Congress regarding Trump’s business dealings in Russia.
Federal prosecutors in New York City and Special Counsel Robert Mueller – who is investigating whether President Trump and/or members of his presidential election campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election – filed sentencing memos Friday recommending prison time for the former Trump lawyer.
According to a sentencing memo from the New York prosecutors, Cohen built his entire professional life through a “pattern of deception” and unrivaled greed.
Cohen’s belated effort to cooperate with prosecutors without a formal agreement was an effort to play Mueller the way he played Trump – making himself useful in the hope of becoming indispensable.
But it looks like this time Cohen will come up one hustle short.
In the 1961 movie classic “The Hustler,” a young pool shark named Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) sought to topple legendary veteran Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) in a high-stakes pool game. A smug Fast Eddie bragged to Minnesota Fats that he “didn’t leave much” on the table, but the seasoned Minnesota Fats dryly responded “you left enough.”
By declaring himself a redemptive sinner, Cohen clearly thought that he had left little on the table to deny him a zero jail time sentence. Earlier, he decided to give up on a chance for a pardon from President Trump and made the play for Mueller.
Cohen publicly implicated Trump in campaign finance violations in the payment of hush money to women Trump allegedly had affairs with (affairs Trump denies).
Cohen apparently thought that delivering on Trump would wipe away a lifetime of deception and fraud. Instead, prosecutors grudgingly accepted a modest reduction in sentencing, but still demanded a “substantial term of imprisonment.”
Cohen is now looking at the loss of this law license, business and freedom. He could spend as much as five years in prison for what the government described as “Cohen’s extensive, deliberate, and serious criminal conduct.”
Cohen ultimately lacked two essential things to make this hustle work.
First and foremost, he lacked credibility. In an earlier column, I called Cohen’s play for no jail time a plea of leniency bordering on lunacy.

Cohen is now looking at the loss of this law license, business and freedom. He could spend as much as five years in prison for what the government described as “Cohen’s extensive, deliberate, and serious criminal conduct.”

As predicted in the column, the prosecutors played back Cohen’s own words when he threatened journalists, students, and others who were deemed as threats to Trump. For example, in 2015 Cohen threatened Daily Beast reporter Tim Mack for running a story critical of Trump.
On a recorded call, Cohen tells Mack: “Mark my words for it, I will make sure that you and I meet one day over in the courthouse and I will take you for every penny you still don’t have, and I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know. Do not even think about going where I know you’re planning on going. And that’s my warning for the day.”
Cohen then goes full mob heavy and warns the reporter to “tread very f------ lightly because what I’m going to do to you is going to be f------ disgusting. … Do you understand me? Don’t think you can hide behind your pen because it’s not going to happen. … I’m more than happy to discuss it with your attorney and with your legal counsel because motherf----- you’re going to need it.”
Prosecutors clearly did not buy the months of public spin by Cohen and his lawyer, Lanny Davis, including raking in almost $180,000 in donations on a GoFundMe page.
The page says: “On July 2, 2018 Michael Cohen declared his independence from Donald Trump and his commitment to tell the truth. .… Michael decided to put his family and his country first. Now Michael needs your financial help.”
On both Fox News and MSNBC, Davis said that Cohen’s moral epiphany came after watching the Helsinki news conference last July in which President Trump appeared to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin in believing Russia’s denial of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that Trump won.
“That shook up Mr. Cohen,” Davis said.
OK, so we are supposed to believe that when President Trump repeated his prior position on Russian interference in 2016 presidential election Cohen suddenly decided that it was time for him to tell the truth about his dealings with a porn star and a Playboy model.
This makes as much sense as mob boss Joe Valachi saying that he decided to flip on the Lucchese crime family after watching “The Sound of Music.”
The prosecutors stated that Cohen’s “description of his actions as arising solely from some ‘personal resolve’ – as opposed to arising from the pendency of criminal charges and the desire for leniency – ignores that Cohen first reached out to meet with (the special counsel) at a time when he knew he was under imminent threat of indictment in this District. As such, any suggestion by Cohen that his meetings with law enforcement reflect a selfless unprompted about-face are overstated.”
Cohen needed a Section 5K1.1 letter. That is what a fully cooperating witness receives when he has a deal with prosecutors. However, prosecutors state that Cohen made the “affirmative decision not to become” a true cooperating witness.
Without that letter, Cohen’s modest reduction in his sentence for cooperation has to be partially or wholly erased by two “enhancements” tied to his status as a lawyer and the sophistication of his fraudulent conduct.
The enhancements could still leave Cohen serving most of the five-year sentence. In other words, even with his cooperation, he still left enough for a “substantial” sentence of prison time.
In what Fast Eddie described as his “Church of the Good Hustler,” the only thing that matters in the end is putting balls in the right pockets. However, hubris is often the ruin of many a good player.
Fast Eddie told Minnesota Fats: “You know, I got a hunch, fat man. I got a hunch it’s me from here on in.”
Like Fast Eddy, Cohen was wrong. It never was his game. It was (and remains) Mueller’s game.

French Yellow Vest protesters tear gassed in violent clashes with riot police in Paris

A demonstrator wearing a yellow vest grimaces through tear gas Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018 in Paris. Crowds of yellow-vested protesters angry at President Emmanuel Macron and France's high taxes tried to march Saturday on the presidential palace, surrounded by exceptional numbers of police bracing for outbreaks of violence after the worst rioting in Paris in decades. (AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

PARIS - Heavily armed French police deployed tear gas and stun grenades against an army of Yellow Vests gathered in central Paris demanding Emmanuel Macron's head.
Up to 5,000 demonstrators gathered in the center of Paris Saturday morning, where they were met by some 8,000 police officers and at least 12 armored vehicles. More than 250 people have been arrested.
"We are not here to destroy Paris, we are here to tell Macron we are f--king fed up," said one protester before the clashes with the police began, adding that the people are protesting ever-increasing taxes on the working class.
French police, wearing riot gear, tried to stop and search protesters entering the Champs Elysees, but such efforts were eventually abandoned with the flow of thousands of demonstrators.
Police deployed tear gas and stun grenades after getting cornered, with some agitators starting to throw plastic bottles.
FRENCH STUDENTS JOIN MOUNTING FURY AFTER VIDEO EMERGES OF SCHOOL KIDS ON THEIR KNEES IN FRONT OF RIOT POLICE

Protesters threw back the tear gas and the police, only to escalate the clashes and pushback throw the authorities.
(AP Photo/Rafael Yaghobzadeh)

Protesters threw back the tear gas at the police, only to escalate the clashes.
Many protesters slammed the French media for portraying the protests as led by violent agitators and for siding with Macron's government.
"We are not black bloc [black clad anarchists], we are ordinary people voicing our anger," said a protester who did not want to be identified.
Shops and tourist destinations, including the Eiffel Tower, were to be closed and soccer matches were canceled as authorities looked to maintain order.
The U.S. Embassy requested that Americans in the French capital "keep a low profile and avoid crowds," the report said.
As a precaution, nearly 300 people were arrested ahead of Saturday's expected disturbances, the report said. Just a week earlier some 200 cars were torched and the famed Arc de Triomphe was vandalized as protesters expressed opposition to Macron's government, according to the report.
Rising fuel prices triggered the initial protests, but some officials claimed that "ultra-violent" demonstrators took advantage of the situation, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, Macron seemingly has gone missing as his government tries to curb the chaos caused by his unpopular gas-tax plan.
Macron swept into power in 2017, having emerged out of obscurity less than a year earlier. Espousing his own brand of centrism, he has presented himself on the world stage as a spokesman for multilateralism and internationalism against a nationalist wave moving through Europe.
While he has regularly been seen on world stages, including the United Nations and the U.S. Congress, his absence has been conspicuous this week, choosing to keep away from the limelight as his government attempts to deal with protesters' concerns.