Texas judge’s gift of Bible to Amber Guyger draws complaint from atheist group

An atheist group that has counted Ron Reagan Jr. among its members says it was inappropriate for a judge to give a Bible to Amber Guyger, the former Dallas police officer who convicted this week of murdering a neighbor last year.
The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) – the atheist group for which the 61-year-old son of former President Ronald Reagan has appeared in television ads – filed a formal complaint Thursday with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, FOX 4 of Dallas-Fort Worth reported.
The Wisconsin-based group objected to Judge Tammy Kemp giving one of her Bibles to Guyger after the former officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison Wednesday for the shooting death of Botham Jean, a 26-year-old accountant.
“You just need a tiny mustard seed of faith,” Kemp said to a tearful Guyger, handing the Bible to her before the convicted former officer left the courtroom. “You start with this.”
Kemp also hugged Guyger – as did a brother of the murder victim, in actions that some observers said showed compassion for the newly convicted defendant.

State District Judge Tammy Kemp gives former Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger a hug before Guyger leaves for jail, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in Dallas. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP, Pool)

But in a letter Thursday to the Texas commission, the atheist group objected to what it termed the judge’s “proselytizing actions,” saying they “overstepped judicial authority,” and were “inappropriate” and “unconstitutional.”
“It is perfectly acceptable for private citizens to express their religious beliefs in court,” the letter states later, “but the rules are different for those acting in a governmental role.”
In a separate Twitter message, FFRF attorney Andrew L. Seidel further explained the group’s position.
“We need more compassion in our criminal justice system,” Seidel wrote, “but here, compassion crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot impose their personal religion on others.”

“We need more compassion in our criminal justice system, but here, compassion crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot impose their personal religion on others.”
— Andrew L. Seidel, attorney, Freedom from Religion Foundation

Seidel is the author of “The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American.”
Neither the group nor Seidel appeared to demand punishment for the judge. Their messages seemed aimed only at drawing attention to a “possible violation” of rules of judicial conduct.
However, another group – the Texas-based First Liberty Institute, which supports religious freedom – came to the judge’s defense.
“We should all be thankful the law allows Judge Kemp’s actions,” said Hiram Sasser, legal counsel for the First Liberty Institute. “We stand with her and will gladly lead the charge in defending her noble and legal actions.”

“We should all be thankful the law allows Judge Kemp’s actions. We stand with her and will gladly lead the charge in defending her noble and legal actions.”
— Hiram Sasser, legal counsel for the First Liberty Institute

Guyger claimed she mistakenly entered Jean’s apartment, one floor above hers, thinking it was her own home, and shot Jean because she believed he was an intruder in her apartment.
But on Tuesday, a jury decided that Guyger, 31, was guilty of murder. Guyger had been a member of the Dallas force for nearly five years.
Also on Thursday, the atheist group posted a Twitter message objecting to Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin’s support of “Bring Your Bible to School Day,” saying the Republican governor’s stand was “narrow-minded and totally inappropriate.”

Trump to send Pelosi a letter 'daring' her to hold impeachment inquiry vote

The White House will send House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a letter on Friday "daring" her to hold a vote on Democrats' impeachment inquiry into President Trump, Fox News has confirmed.
The letter will say the White House won't comply with the Democrats' investigation because Pelosi hasn't codified the probe with a formal vote on the House floor. Its tone will be consistent with that of the letter House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., sent to the speaker on Thursday, Fox learned.
In his letter, McCarthy called on Pelosi to end the impeachment inquiry until “equitable rules and procedures” are set up.
“Unfortunately, you have given no clear indication as to how your impeachment inquiry will proceed -- including whether key historical precedents or basic standards of due process will be observed,” McCarthy wrote. “In addition, the swiftness and recklessness with which you have proceeded [have] already resulted in committee chairs attempting to limit minority participation in scheduled interviews, calling into question the integrity of such an inquiry.”
McCarthy referred to reports that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was limiting Republicans' ability to ask questions during Thursday’s testimony by former U.S. envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned last week.
Pelosi shot back at McCarthy, saying that "existing rules of the House provide House committees with full authority to conduct investigations for all matters under their jurisdiction."
She later tweeted: "The fact that the [House Republicans'] loyalty is to Trump and not to the Constitution is not going to slow down or impair our ability to keep the republic of our founders envisioned."
The letter prompted a response from President Trump, who tweeted Thursday: "Leader McCarthy, we look forward to you soon becoming Speaker of the House. The Do Nothing Dems don’t have a chance!"
House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump after a whistleblower complaint suggested the president took part in a quid pro quo scheme during a July 25 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, using $400 million in military aid as leverage to induce officials there to investigate Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden, his son Hunter and their business dealings in that country.
Trump has said his call with President Volodymyr Zelensky was "perfect." On Thursday, he repeated his contention that the Democrats' investigation "the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country."
Trump said there "wasn't anything said wrong" in his phone call with Zelensky and called the impeachment probe a "Democrat scam."
He later tweeted that, as president, he has an "absolute right, perhaps even a duty, to investigate or have investigated corruption, and that would include asking or suggesting other countries to help us out!"
Schiff made a formal request on Sept. 10 to transmit the whistleblower complaint to Congress. Trump has said Schiff is a "lowlife" who should resign.
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.

Ukraine top prosecutor says Biden-linked Burisma case will be reviewed

Ukraine’s top prosecutor said Friday that his office is "conducting an audit" of closed cases that had been previously investigated, including the probe involving the energy giant Burisma, where Hunter Biden had served on the board.
Ruslan Ryaboshapka, the country's prosecutor general, said at a news conference that his office was instructed to review cases that have been closed, fragmented or investigated earlier to make sure they were fairly and thoroughly handled. He said no one attempted to influence him to call for the new investigations.
DOCUMENTS HEIGHTEN SCRUTINY ON BIDEN-UKRAINE DEALINGS, INDICATE HUNTER MAY HAVE MADE 'MILLIONS'
His comment came as the Trump White House fights an impeachment inquiry that involves allegations that President Trump used military funding as part of a "quid pro quo" proposal with Kiev to investigate Biden and his father, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump has denied wrongdoing. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who participated in a scrutinized phone call with Trump in July, said he never felt pressure from Trump.
Trump's key focus has been how Hunter Biden, who reportedly knew little about the energy business and the country, ended up on Burisma’s board while his father was vice president under Barack Obama. The elder Biden later pressured Ukraine to oust a prosecutor who had been looking into the company's founder, though Biden allies say this intervention was driven by corruption concerns.
Ryaboshapka is considered a reformer and “the father of the anti-corruption strategy in Ukraine,” a former associate told the Washington Post. Another peer called him an “honest person” but expressed doubts that he has the ability to weed out corruption in the country.
"Being a good guy is not always enough,' the source said.

Impeachment Squad Cartoons

GOP veterans of Clinton’s impeachment urge caution on Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some have regrets. A few can’t talk about it. Others would do it all again.

But the Republicans who carried out President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998 are unanimous in urging caution and restraint as Congress embarks on yet another impeachment struggle, this time over accusations that President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden, and his son.

The impeachment veterans of two decades ago were thrust into a seismic political event that was sober and circus-like at the same time. It opened a new, angry chapter of American politics that strained Washington institutions that were stronger then than now. They urge a pause in the tribalism of the Trump era.

“You’ve got a race to judgment, people apparently have already made up their minds, and I don’t think there’s a lot of openness about this. And I think there should be,” said former Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Fla., one of 14 House impeachment “managers” who presented the case against Clinton to the Senate.

“People ought to wait before they make judgment on whether or not there’s even an impeachable offense out here to be considered until all the facts are on the table,” He added. “That’s not been the case for a number of congressmen on both sides of the aisle that I can see.”

The managers during Clinton’s impeachment were all solidly conservative white men. Most are out of politics. A few are judges. Some do some lobbying, while others have simply retired. The chairman, Henry Hyde of Illinois, died in 2007.

The best-known is Lindsey Graham, a former Air Force prosecutor who was among those most aggressively gunning for Clinton. In 1999, speaking from the well of the Senate, the South Carolina congressman made the case: “Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office. Impeachment is about restoring honor and integrity to the office.”

Now a senator, Graham seems to be part of the defense rather than the prosecution

“I have zero problems with this phone call” with Zelenskiy, Graham said on CBS’ “Face The Nation.”

The only Clinton prosecutor remaining in the House is Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, a 41-year veteran of Congress who is retiring at the end of next year. He insists charges that Trump abused his office are nowhere near being proven.

In 1998, independent counsel Ken Starr offered up two vanloads of testimony and evidence, effectively dropping the full case for impeachment in Congress’s lap.

“I think that Starr’s report, which said that the president may have committed impeachable offenses, obligated the Judiciary Committee and the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry to see if that was the case,” Sensenbrenner said in an interview. Congress had removed judges in comparable perjury cases, he said.

History is calling again, this time with accusations that Trump abused his power to help his political fortunes.

Sensenbrenner in July aggressively questioned special counsel Robert Mueller, whose report didn’t find criminal wrongdoing by the president in Russia’s 2016 election interference but spelled out 10 instances in which Trump may have obstructed the probe. Mueller didn’t indict Trump, citing Justice Department guidelines against charging a sitting president. Nor did he say whether impeachment could be a remedy.

“You didn’t use the words ‘impeachable conduct’ like Starr did,” Sensenbrenner told Mueller. “Even the president is innocent until proven guilty.” Mueller said his mandate didn’t include offering opinions on other remedies like impeachment.

McCollum, who left Congress to lose a 2000 Senate campaign but staged a political comeback as Florida’s attorney general, cautions that lots of facts, testimony and evidence have yet to surface. The investigation into Trump’s festering scandal is in its opening stages.

“There are really a lot more questions than there are answers,” McCollum said, adding that so far he sees “just a really weak case.”

Democrats say they already have their “smoking gun,” having obtained the transcript of Trump’s call with Zelenskiy, and accuse Republicans of downplaying a clear-cut abuse of presidential power.

Former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, a Democrat who served in the House from 1965 to 1999 during both the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon and the impeachment of Clinton, has said he’d vote to both indict and convict Trump if he were in Congress. Hamilton said he’s “deeply concerned” that more Republicans have not publicly favored impeachment proceedings against Trump or even spoken out against his actions with Russia and Ukraine.

Trump’s call was “certainly egregious conduct” because it was for personal gain, Hamilton said.

“If his conduct is acceptable, then we have lowered the bar on what the office and public trust really means,” Hamilton said. “If we legitimize the kind of behavior that he has exhibited, then our political system is going to be greatly reduced.”

Aside from Graham and Sensenbrenner, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison is the only one of the 1998 impeachment managers remaining in political office. Hutchison was re-elected by a landslide last year.

“The facts have to be developed,” Hutchinson told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on Saturday, in little-noticed remarks that amount to apostasy in today’s GOP. “The allegations raised should be taken seriously.”

Three of the other former managers are now on the bench. Former Rep. Ed Bryant, R-Tenn., is a federal district court judge, while Charles Canady, R-Fla., and James Rogan, R-Calif., serve on state courts.

Rogan cheerfully responded to an email seeking an interview but said he couldn’t comment.

“I would like to help you, but I fear I am rather hamstrung by our Canons of ethics,” Rogan said. “Not only am I precluded from discussing anything related to the current situation, I am precluded from saying anything that might be interpreted that way (such as giving advice).”

Then there’s former Rep. Bob Inglis, a Republican from South Carolina who wasn’t an impeachment manager but forced a Judiciary Committee discussion on easily the most vulgar accusation levied against Clinton for his conduct. He seemed almost sheepish when encountered in the Capitol recently.

“We made a mistake” impeaching Clinton, Inglis said, adding that the substance of the matter “wasn’t so very consequential.”

“I can say that now, in retrospect — I didn’t think that at the time — but I think that was because I was probably sort of blinded by my dislike of President Clinton, you know, and wanting to stop him,” Inglis said. “So there may be some similarities there in this scenario.”

“If somebody’s the president of the United States and they do something that’s bad enough, then even their own followers are generally going to turn on them,” McCollum said. “And that’s not happened yet. It happened with Nixon. That did not happen with Clinton and that does not appear to me to be likely to be happening with Trump _ at least on the facts that are out there right now.”

__

Associated Press writer Andrew Selsky contributed from Salem, Ore.

Impeachment intensity: Trump decries ‘coup’ and ‘corrupt media’

President Trump just went there.
What’s happening now, he tweeted, is not impeachment, “it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!”
Leaving aside all the terrible things he says would follow his ouster, let’s be clear: This is not a coup.
Impeachment is a remedy contained in the Constitution after considerable debate by Alexander Hamilton and the other founders. Impeaching Donald Trump, especially on a party-line vote, may be dumb, reckless, blindly partisan or downright suicidal. But it is not a coup, even of the bloodless variety.
The president isn’t the only one using intemperate language. Maxine Waters, the left-wing Democratic congresswoman, responded to his “filthy talk” by declaring, “Impeachment is not good enough for Trump. He needs to be imprisoned & placed in solitary confinement.”
So much for due process or the formality of a trial. Waters is already picking out his jail cell.
I had barely finished writing these words when the president tweeted about the “Do Nothing Democrats,” saying they are “wasting everyone’s time and energy on [BS.”] Except he spelled it out.
Look, it’s hardly surprising that rhetoric is getting way overheated with the Democrats wielding a weapon that’s only been used against Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. But words matter, in political discourse as in life. And “coup” was no accident.
Trump obviously has every incentive to rouse his supporters by painting himself as the victim of dark forces, including the media and the Deep State.
And the critics can retire to their fainting couches when he retweets a phrase like “civil war.” Journalists use the term all the time, talking about a Republican civil war or Democratic civil war or some other war.
But coup is different, and so is calling for a congressman’s arrest. Trump yesterday called Adam Schiff a “lowlife” who should resign, saying he couldn’t carry Mike Pompeo’s “blank-strap.” (Suddenly jock is a dirty word?) He’s also ended a tweet about the House Intel chairman with: “Arrest for Treason?” (The supposed treason is that Schiff exaggerated Trump’s comments on the Ukraine call in what he said was a parody.)
Kamala Harris, trying to break into the news, is demanding that Twitter suspend the president’s account. There is zero chance of that happening, as the senator well knows. Can you imagine the backlash against the company, already accused of leaning left, for banning a commander-in-chief with 63 million followers?
Harris pointed to Trump’s postings in which he likened the intelligence whistle-blower to a spy and mentioned the word treason. “These tweets represent a clear intent to baselessly discredit the whistleblower and officials in our government who are following the proper channels to report allegations of presidential impropriety,” she wrote Twitter chief Jack Dorsey.
As for the fourth estate, the president told reporters he is largely dropping “fake” and will refer to them as the “corrupt media.”
Trump was teeing off on the Washington Post, but he was mistaken; the focus of his ire was a new book by two New York Times reporters, Michael Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis.
The Times story based on the book said that in private meetings Trump “often talked about fortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators, prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified, with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh. After publicly suggesting that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks, the president backed off when his staff told him that was illegal. But later in a meeting, aides recalled, he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down. That’s not allowed either, they told him.”
Trump ridiculed the story as a lie and said it was “stupid” to ask whether he’d ever said such things. (Davis tweeted that the White House did not deny the account when twice presented with the details.)
The president then declared that he would largely retire his “fake news” formulation in favor of “corrupt news”—which, he added for good measure, is “truly the enemy of the people.”
That’s the latest sign of Trump’s frustration, after years of negative coverage, in the midst of an impeachment inquiry.
But here’s the kicker. When Fox’s John Roberts asked Trump about a just posted New York Times story that the whistle-blower told Schiff’s staff about his complaint days before filing it, he said he couldn’t believe the paper had written it and that maybe it’s getting better. When the president views a story as more favorable, he miraculously upgrades his opinion of the press.

Schiff committee's reported contact with whistleblower a 'gift' to Trump, Tom Bevan says

President Trump may consider reported contact between the Ukraine whistleblower and Rep. Adam Schiff's, D-Calif., House Intelligence Committee as free reign to disparage the impeachment inquiry, according to Tom Bevan.
Schiff also appears to have not been completely forthright about said contact with the whistleblower in the past, the Real Clear Politics co-founder claimed Wednesday on "Special Report."
"This is a gift to Trump," he said.
"As everybody's racing to try and frame the narrative, this is a gift to Donald Trump in the sense that he can now muddy the waters and say 'look, this was a setup -- this was a fraud -- this is a hoax'."
Already, the president has called the impeachment inquiry over his transcribed phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a "hoax" and earlier Wednesday called Schiff a "fraud."
A spokesman for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., had acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that the whistleblower alleging misconduct in the White House had reached out to Schiff's panel before filing a complaint -- prompting President Trump, in an extraordinary afternoon news conference at the White House, to accuse Schiff directly of helping write the document.
Schiff had previously claimed in a televised interview that "we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower." A Schiff spokesperson seemingly narrowed that claim late Wednesday, telling Fox News that Schiff himself "does not know the identity of the whistleblower, and has not met with or spoken with the whistleblower or their counsel" for any reason.
"It shows that Schiff is a fraud. ... I think it's a scandal that he knew before," Trump said, as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto stood at an adjacent podium. "I'd go a step further. I'd say he probably helped write it. ... That's a big story. He knew long before, and he helped write it too. It's a scam."
On "Special Report," Bevan called the report "valuable" and also discussed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's apparent reticence to schedule a formal floor vote on impeachment.
He said Pelosi, D-Calif., has afforded herself maximum flexibility in that without the vote, her committees can issue subpoenas but the minority -- Republicans -- cannot petition for them.
On the flip side, he said, Republicans can tag the inquiry as mostly political because the San Francisco lawmaker has not taken the formal step of making it a "serious inquiry."
Fox News Gregg Re and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

Ilhan Omar says Trump 'terrified' of her 'intersectionality' as a woman, immigrant, Muslim

She's a woman, she's an immigrant and she's Muslim -- and that "intersectionality" of identities has President Trump "terrified," U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., claimed in a television appearance Wednesday night.
Omar, a member of the "Squad" of far-left congressional Democrats, made the remarks on the late-night comedy show, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee."
The freshman lawmaker, who came to the U.S. with her family from Somalia when she was a teenager, said she never imagined when she was a child that she would someday be part of an effort to impeach a U.S. president.
"A lot of people think we take joy in impeaching this president because we don't like him," Omar said. "But we take joy in making sure that when we say we're going to protect the rule of law, that the American people know that we are serious about that."

"A lot of people think we take joy in impeaching this president because we don't like him. But we take joy in making sure that when we say we're going to protect the rule of law, that the American people know that we are serious about that."
— U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

"I, however, am just always so happy when I think that Don Jr. is upset," host Samantha Bee told the congresswoman.
"That does slightly make me happy," Omar jokingly agreed.
While Omar often criticizes the president, she is also a frequent target of Trump's as well..
"Why do you think that the president focuses so much on you?" Bee asked.
"I think he is terrified by any women who are practicing 'Shine Theory,' who have each other's back," Omar responded, referring to a concept of mutual empowerment developed by American businesswoman Aminatou Sow and journalist Ann Friedman. "But for me, I think he is terrified at the fact that I sit on the intersectionality of many identities that he really despises: a woman, an immigrant, Muslim, refugee, and Punjabi in one beautiful package."
When asked how she felt about "perpetually being taken out of context" by her political opponents, Omar simply told Bee she "doesn't really care that much" about that because her critics "are just vilifying and dismissing my voice anyway."
"The fact that I live rent-free in their head doesn't mean they get to live rent-free in mine," Omar said.

"The fact that I live rent-free in their head doesn't mean they get to live rent-free in mine."
— U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

She later expressed how she thinks "rehabilitation" is possible for "white supremacists" like White House adviser Stephen Miller, adding that they could "use some light, some love, some joy" in their lives.
Previously, Omar vowed in July that she would continue being President Trump's "nightmare," after Trump said that Omar and her Squad colleagues should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came."