Category: Bad Politicians

William Barr on the Mueller Report

Posted on April 23, 2019 in Bad Politicians, Politics, Trump

Attorney General William Barr gave a controversial press conference hours before releasing the Mueller report. Like we can’t read the report for ourselves? He’s had nearly a month to put out his own narrative on the report and then embed that narrative in the minds of the American public. Because of this and because of conflicting and overblown media reports, I really do recommend reading the report on your own. If not the full report, at least read the summaries at the beginning of each volume and the conclusions at the end of each volume.

Here are a few highlights from Barr’s take on the report:

  1. Barr uses “collusion” and “coordination” interchangeably in his press conference, which is unusual for a lawyer of his caliber. They’re generally much more careful with terminology, and collusion is not a legal term (Mueller even states that in his report).
  2. While Mueller laid out a pretty solid path to indict on obstruction, Barr says he doesn’t think the evidence is sufficient to charge Trump.
  3. Barr says:
    “As you will see, the Special Counsel’s report states that his “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.””
    But this leaves out contextual information. Here’s that full sentence from the report:
    “Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”
  4. Barr says, correctly, that we know:
    • The Russian government interfered in our elections through a social media campaign to sow disinformation and discord.
    • The GRU hacked into U.S. servers and stole documents and emails, which they later publicized.
  1. Barr also says Russia didn’t have the knowing or intentional cooperation of Trump or his campaign, or any other American for that matter. However,the report clarifies that to meet the requirements of coordination would require an agreement, tacit or expressed.
  2. Barr says that there’s not enough evidence to establish Trump committed obstruction of justice, despite all the evidence Mueller lays out. According to the report, Mueller actually declined to prosecute based on DOJ norms, and specifically says the evidence does not clear Trump and if it did, he would say so.
    • In neither his letters nor his statement does Barr give the reason Mueller gave for not deciding to prosecute. It wasn’t because he didn’t think there were crimes; it was because of DOJ guidelines around indicting a sitting president.
  1. Barr only mentions the bolded part below, ignoring the remaining supporting information for obstruction of justice:
    • “…the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference. But the evidence does point to a range of other possible personal motives animating the President’s conduct. These include concerns that continued investigation would call into question the legitimacy of his election and potential uncertainty about whether certain events—such as advance notice of WikiLeaks’s release of hacked information or the June 9, 2016 meeting between senior campaign officials and Russians—could be seen as criminal activity by the President, his campaign, or his family.”
  1. In his press conference, Barr goes into a lengthy defense of Trump, and even says if he did obstruct it was because he was frustrated over the investigation (let’s see how that excuse works for your everyday criminal).
  2. Barr also says the White House cooperated with the investigation fully and completely, even though about 182 pages of the Mueller report is about obstructive actions, Trump refused to sit down for an interview, and he said he didn’t recall about 30 times in his written answers.
  3. I‘m not clear if Barr means to say that Trump believes this investigation was propelled by his political enemies and fueled by illegal leaks or if that’s what Barr himself believes. It’s not clear in his speech or his transcript. Either way, it’s a weird thing for an attorney general to say.
  4. Barr makes no mention of the plea deals and convictions that came from the investigation.
  5. Barr implies that because there was no crime of conspiracy or coordination, Trump couldn’t be guilty of obstructing justice. Mueller directly contradicts that in the report, saying:“In addition, the President had a motive to put the FBI’s Russia investigation behind him… But the evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns.”

This is Joe Arpaio

Posted on January 9, 2018 in Bad Politicians

After Trump said he’d pardon Joe Arpaio last year, I wrote Trump a note every day for a month, each time describing just one of Arpaio’s misdeeds. In honor of today’s announcement that Arpaio is running for Senate, here’s a compilation of all the notes I wrote. These are only the ones that were easy to verify; I have a list nearly this long that I haven’t had time to research yet. This man does not belong in Congress.

  1. Did you know that a botched SWAT raid under Arpaio resulted in a family home burning down and that the SWAT team intentionally forced the family’s puppy back into the house (which it was trying to flee) where it burned to death? The house and all its contents were destroyed, and the SWAT team laughed at the family’s anguish over the puppy. The team thought they were going after a major gun smuggler, but all they found in the house was an antique rifle and a handgun.
  2. Did you know that Joe Arpaio failed to investigate incest and rape charges throughout his tenure, and that he improperly cleared such charges throughout his time as sheriff, allowing teenage girls to continue getting raped? One of these cases resulted in a $3.5 million settlement when they botched an investigation into the rape of a 13-year-old girl. They failed to arrest the suspect, who then continued to sexually assault the girl again and again. His office either inadequately investigated or completely ignored over 400 sex-crime cases between 2004 and 2007 because he was too busy trying to do ICE’s job.
  3. Did you know that during Joe Arpaio’s tenure, his bad behavior cost Maricopa County $100s of millions?
    • The county paid $140 million in legal fees and settlements for wrongful death, civil rights, and abuse of power cases against him.
    • The racial profiling case, which resulted in his contempt conviction, cost the county $70 million.
    • He mishandled $100 million in county funds. I’ll do the math for you. That comes to $310 million dollars. For one guy. This is not a good guy.
  1. Did you know that in Joe Arpaio’s tent city, he forced prisoners to live in extreme conditions where the temperatures inside the tents got up to 145 °F and the outside temps got as low as 41 °F. He only gave them underwear and jail jumpsuits to wear, and forced them to sleep on the cold, hard ground. In the blazing heat, prisoners had limited relief from the heat and limited access to (warm) water. You wouldn’t treat an animal this way, and the only way you can do it to people is to dehumanize them. The dude is a sadist. It’s no wonder that they’re finally breaking the tent city down, but it’s a travesty that it was ever erected in the first place and that it ran for 24 years.
  2. Did you know that Joe Arpaio set up webcams in his jails so people all around the world could go online and watch other people while they were getting booked and in holding waiting for trial? Did you know that one of the web cams had a view of the women’s toilet until they filed a lawsuit over it? And that a court made him take those webcams down? Not all of these people were guilty, and that’s why multiple courts found he was violating the constitutional rights of these arrestees. Arpaio says the webcams were a deterrent to crime, though the crime rates have fluctuated pretty consistently throughout his tenure.
  3. Did you know that in one 3-year period during George W. Bush’s time in office, there were 2,150 federal lawsuits against Joe Arpaio and hundreds more in Maricopa County courts? That’s FIFTY times more than the number of suits during the same period for NY, Chicago, Houston, and LA prisons COMBINED. This wasn’t about Obama persecuting Arpaio. Arpaio was sued under 3 presidents, and the investigation that nailed Arpaio started under Bush and was adjudicated by Bush and Clinton judges.
  4. Did you know that Joe Arpaio had a costly vendetta against Maricopa County officials just because they were critical of him? Did you know he arrested a County Supervisor on nearly 200 charges that were all thrown out? That supervisor was just one of 10 county officials harassed by Arpaio. The county ended up settling all 10 cases and paying out millions in settlements. The county’s insurance company was threatening to drop them by then from having to pay for all of Arpaio’s cases.
  5. Did you know that a former BYU football player died in a struggle with guards under Joe Arpaio (even though the guard was warned he was cutting off the victim’s air supply)? And that Arpaio was complicit in destroying evidence in that case? Maricopa County had to pay $8.25 million to the victim’s family.
  6. Did you know that in 2008 (under Bush, not Obama just to be clear), a federal judge found the conditions in Arpaio’s jails to be unconstitutional and inhumane, calling them grossly inadequate? They had to force Arpaio to make sure inmates had access to their prescribed medications and to medical care. They had to force him to give inmates access to toilets, soap, toilet paper, and edible food. This came just after all jails in Arpaio’s jurisdiction lost their accreditation. Remember we’re talking about inmates who haven’t even had a trial yet.
  7. Did you know that under Joe Arpaio, a paraplegic arrested for possession of marijuana was restrained so hard that the guards broke his neck and he lost much of the use of his arms? He got an $800,000 settlement from Joe’s office.
  8. Did you know that Joe’s guards refused to take an inmate with Crohn’s to a doctor when we was vomiting and shitting blood? By the time they got help, he had lost 4 pints of blood. This would’ve been avoided if they would’ve just given him his prescribed maintenance meds, which can hold Crohn’s at bay. Instead, this inmate has to live with a much worsened condition for the rest of his life. It would’ve cost the county less to give him his pills than it did to perform the 4 surgeries that were required because he didn’t get his pills.
  9. Did you know that in 2007 Joe Arpaio arrested two journalists who have a history of reporting on Arpaio’s lawsuits and prison conditions? The charges were dropped, the journalists sued, and Maricopa County was once more responsible for a multi-million dollar payout ($3.75 million). Just another abuse of power case for Arpaio.
  10. Did you know that Joe Arpaio came up with a publicity stunt that involved creating a murder plot against himself and framing at 18-year-old for plotting his murder? Except that 18-year-old was later exonerated and Maricopa County ended up having to pay him $1.6 million AFTER holding him in jail for 4 years. Interesting note: Entrapment is very hard to prove in AZ and is rarely used as a defense. They had so much evidence for entrapment, the jury barely had to deliberate.
  11. In an earlier note about Arpaio, I described an $8.25 million settlement because two of Arpaio’s deputies cut off an inmate’s air supply, killing him despite warnings that they were killing him. Did you know that, according to sworn testimony, the two deputies responded to the nurse’s warnings with “Who gives a f*ck?” and “Who gives a sh*t?” Arpaio later promoted those two deputies, giving a clear signal that killing inmates is acceptable behavior in his jails.
  12. Did you know that Felix Torres was picked up for riding his bike to work on the wrong side of the street, arrested for an outstanding warrant for driving without a license, and after being denied his medicine, he died from a bleeding ulcer while jailers ignored his calls for help? The jail staff knew he had ulcers, yet denied him his medicine, and the prison medical staff even gave him drugs that make ulcers worse. Maricopa County paid out $1 million in that lawsuit.
  13. Did you know that guards at one of Arpaio’s jails denied diabetic Deborah Braillard her insulin for three days? And that when she had seizures, vomiting, and diarrhea (on herself and others), they refused medical treatment because they just thought she was a junkie coming down from her high? Inmate after inmate implored guards to help her. She suffered for 60 hours before she fell into a diabetic coma and later died, still chained to her hospital bed even though she had been officially released. Did you also know that her daughter had to make the decision of whether to take Deborah off of life support? And that guards told her daughter that Deborah got what she deserved? For a minor drug offense, the death penalty. Deborah’s autopsy showed she had no illicit drugs in her system, and Arpaio’s office tried to cover it up. This cost Maricopa County over $5 million in legal fees. By the time this case was settled, Arpaio’s office had paid out so much in legal settlements so many times that their insurance agency raised their deductible from $1 million to $5 million.
  14. In a 2009 interview with Steven Colbert, Arpaio said, “The Republic did a poll last week, ‘Who’s your hero?,’ and I beat out Tillman. I beat out all these guys. I’m not bragging. I’m just saying.” He was referring to Pat Tillman! Yes, that Pat Tillman. The Arizona Cardinals star who gave up his football career to join the Army Rangers and who was later killed in Afghanistan. That guy was a true American hero. Obviously, Pat Tillman was the winner of the poll, but Arpaio was a runner-up. It’s kind of crazy that those two would be put in the same league.
  15. Did you know that one of Joe Arpaio’s inmates lost her baby because she was denied immediate medical attention? Ambrett Spencer experienced pain so severe that she passed out, but still it took 4 hours to get her to the hospital where she delivered her dead baby girl. Her pain was from placental abruption, which babies often survive if their mothers go immediately to a hospital. Hospital employees ignored the jail guard’s orders and brought Spencer her baby so she could at least see her daughter before the funeral. She’s not the only one to lose a baby under Arpaio’s watch.
  16. Did you know that the water well in the Maricopa County facility where pregnant women are jailed was infested with mice and mice feces from at least 2005 to at least 2009? Did you know that Joe Arpaio also cut his inmates’ nutrient and calorie intake to unhealthy levels, even though he also had them working on chain gangs? And that he frequently fed them moldy bread and bologna? I get that jail shouldn’t be Club Med, but they’re paying the price for their crimes; we don’t need to poison them on top of it.
  17. OK. This one cracks me up. Did you know that Joe Arpaio used taxpayer money to pay for a detective to accompany his “birther brigade” on a trip to Hawaii to track down Obama’s birth certificate? Oh wait. You investigated the birth certificate as well. It was a waste of money, right? We all know he was born here.
  18. Did you know that a federal investigation found that Joe Arpaio’s campaign to round up undocumented immigrants violated the 1st, 4th, and 14th amendment constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and legal residents? And that he was so focused on undocumented immigrants that he neglected violent crimes in Maricopa County at a time when violent crime rates increased significantly compared to similar counties? He compromised the safety and security of Maricopa County residents in his zeal to get rid of non-violent undocumented immigrants.
  19. Did you know that Joe Arpaio retaliated against his critics by having them arrested, investigated, or, in some cases, falsely charged? We know about the journalists and county officials he arrested, but he also did this to regular citizens—mostly brown-skinned ones, of course. According to a federal investigation, Arpaio “arrested individuals without cause, filed meritless complaints against the political adversaries of Sheriff Arpaio, and initiated unfounded civil lawsuits and investigations against individuals critical of MCSO policies and practices” In other words, he had no qualms about trying to ruin people’s lives in trying to keep them quiet.
  20. Did you know that one of Joe Arpaio’s deputies purposefully struck a Latino U.S. citizen with his patrol car, pinning him under the car and dragging him more than ten feet? The deputy was stopping the guy allegedly for a broken brake light, and refused to help him. The local fire department finally extracted the Latino man, who ended up with broken bones and burns, among other injuries. This is the type of behavior Joe instilled in his deputies on his mission to cleanse Maricopa County of undocumented immigrants. Also an interesting side note: According to an officer in Maricopa County, Joe recruited low-level officers to his anti-immigrant task force. Why? I’m glad you asked. Because senior-level officers knew that it was not only illegal but also unethical and immoral. These are the qualities Joe strove to instill in up and coming members of the police force.
  21. Did you know that one of Joe Arpaio’s deputies pulled over a guy for speeding, and when they guy asked why he was pulled over, the deputy forcibly removed him from his car, threw him to the ground, and then cuffed him? Of course, the guy who got pulled over was Latino, was arrested, and charged with speeding. All charges were dropped, probably because the poor guy was lacerated and bleeding, and had to go to a clinic for treatment. That’s never happened to me when I’ve been pulled over for speeding. Has it happened to you?
  22. Did you know that military veteran Marty Atencio was left to die in Joe Arpaio’s jail after he was tased by eight guards? Marty returned from the war with severe mental illness, which was noted in his arrest documents. He was mostly compliant during his arrest. In the security video showing the officers swarming Atencio, he doesn’t appear to be physically out of control; his family says he refused to remove his left shoe. So they tased him, and then they stripped him naked and left him motionless on the floor in solitary. He never woke up and his family had to make the decision to take him off of life support. The county ended up paying the family only $550,000, even though the coroner included “law-enforcement subdual” under cause of death.
  23. Did you know that Joe Arpaio’s guards cut off the air circulation to an inmate’s cell? And when that inmate later died in his bed (partly from overheating), his corpse was 109 degrees? This inmate was by no means a good guy, but he didn’t deserve to bake to death. No one does.
  24. Did you know that Joe Arpaio’s deputies roughed up pregnant women? In one case, a deputy stopped a 5-month pregnant (and US citizen) Latina as she pulled into her driveway. When she refused to sit on her hood, he pinned her arms behind her and slammed her stomach first into her car three times. He then sat her in his patrol car with no AC for a half an hour. He didn’t have a reason to pull her over aside from her race, so he made up an insurance citation, a charge that was dropped when she procured proof. Luckily the baby was OK, but other women weren’t so lucky.
  25. Did you know that because of Joe Arpaio’s focus on undocumented immigrants, the arrest rate in Maricopa County plunged even though the actual number of criminal investigations went up? Did you also know that deputies failed to meet the standard response time for life-threatening emergencies 67% of the time because they were too busy looking for undocumented immigrants? Like you, Arpaio did his constituents a disservice by focusing on the wrong problems and by stoking fear of “the other.” He actually got soft on real crime over time. Don’t be like Joe.