From Courthouse News reporter Adam Klasfeld.
Casual erosion of transparency by Trump's @TheJusticeDept.
In an automated message, the DOJ announces they've shut down their main press email and are now forcing reporters to fill out their online form. pic.twitter.com/xlvWvn9IFC
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) November 8, 2018
The DOJ statement reads:
Thank you for contacting the Department of Justice’s Office of Public Affairs
Beginning October 22, 2018, inquiries submitted to this mailbox will no longer be checked.
To submit an inquiry, please go to www.justice.gov/media. Inquires made via this form will be checked every 30 minutes from 9:00am – 6:00pm, Monday through Friday, excluding Federal holidays.
If you are a media outlet writing a story on a deadline, outside of normal business hours you must call 202-514-2000 and ask for the Night Duty Officer to get a message to a spokesperson for comment or to request assistance.
Under no circumstances should you include in your story that the Department of Justice did not return a request for comment if you did not call the night duty officer to try and get in touch with a Department spokesperson.
According to a Daily Beast article, the leader of a white Nationalist group that calls itself Identity Evropa Patrick Casey tweeted out he was at the White House. Members of Casey’s group “marched in the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.”
The leader of a white nationalist group whose members marched in the Charlottesville white supremacist rally visited the W.H., according to pics he posted online.
Sources tell The Daily Beast he could not have reached the location by himself or on a tour. https://t.co/JrmUp5hiWj
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 8, 2018
White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters emailed The Daily Beast that Casey “was one of more than twenty-five thousand people who came to the White House Fall Garden Tour, which is open to the public. Free tickets are made available to anyone who wants to attend.”
Though Casey’s post was dated Wednesday, Walters’ explanation suggests that he visited the White House on either October 20 or 21, when the Fall Garden Tour was held. That would explain Casey’s access to the White House’s south front. Sources familiar with how the Trump White House operates had told The Daily Beast that Casey could not have reached the location in which he was pictured on the kind of tour that occurs more commonly than the garden ones.
Daily Beast; Nov 7 2018
In the last episode of ICYMI Stupid People Round Up brought us the story about the lawsuit brought against the Motel 6 employees conspired with agents from Homeland Security and ICE who were using illegal means of obtaining personal papers without a warrant and Motel 6 agreed to pay up to $7.6 million.
Now we have the case of Greyhound Faces Suit Over Border Patrol Searches brought to us by Courthouse News.
Here's the story. According to the suit, immigration agents call raids on Greyhound buses "immigration dumpster diving" because passengers are mostly Latino/non-white.https://t.co/3M6O0az0nU
— Helen Christophi (@helenchristophi) November 9, 2018
OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) – Greyhound lets U.S. Border Patrol agents conduct immigration raids of its mostly Latino customers aboard its buses after they are trapped inside, a woman claims in a class action lawsuit filed Thursday in Oakland.
California resident Rocio Cordova alleges Greyhound Lines voluntarily lets armed and uniformed immigration agents onto its buses to conduct sweeps without a warrant, who target the buses because of the company’s “disproportionately” non-white clientele.
…
Referring to these sweeps as “immigration dumpster-diving,” Customs and Border Protection agents “commonly lay in wait until after all the passengers are aboard and trapped within the confines of the bus,” blocking aisles and bus doors so passengers can’t exit after a raid begins, according to the Alameda County Superior Court complaint.
…
One video shows agents detaining a Jamaican woman visiting her granddaughter in the United States while the other shows agents arresting a 12-year-old Miami resident from Trinidad.
But Greyhound says it is not their fault, saying in a statement they had “called on Congress ‘to change the law’ that allows agents to conduct warrantless raids on its buses,” denying they “voluntarily” allow agents to board, “but that it doesn’t stop them so as not to risk the safety of passengers and drivers.”
““Greyhound does not coordinate with CBP, nor do we support these actions,” the statement reads. “That is why we are calling on Congress to change the law and will support positive efforts to do so,” adding that they “do not coordinate with CBP, nor do we support these actions.”
However, Cordova’s suit alleges that Greyhound’s own policy allows for giving agents use to “company break rooms for questioning passengers,” and that on the bus she was traveling on was pulled over and allowed four agents to board and question passengers, while one identified as a DACA recipient “was pulled off the bus and questioned for a half hour before the bus was allowed its journey.”
Because the company refuses to stop allowing the raids, Cordova is seeking an injunction to order the company to stop the warrantless raids, alleging the company is in violation of the California law Unruh Civil Rights Act, a “California law aimed at businesses that outlaws discrimination.”
According to the suit, after the above-mentioned videos were brought to the attention of some US Congressmen after going viral on social media, “23 members of Congress sent a letter to Greyhound’s chief executive warning the raids constituted “racial profiling” and “harassment.”
(On A Side Note: No word yet whether or not those 23 Congress members sent a letter to Homeland Security and ICE informing them their raids constituted “racial profiling” and “harassment,” or, you know, warrantless searches. //)
😮 Annnd that’s when the fight started….
Trump’s tariffs squeezed Canada. Now American beer is feeling the pinch. https://t.co/KkZ9IRD3NI
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 9, 2018
More than a month after the countries reached a provisional agreement for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, those tariffs are still in place.
Canadian industry has been bruised, but so have a number of U.S. businesses, including beer.
In a vivid example of how Trump’s trade tactics abroad can hurt business at home, the U.S. beer industry, which needs aluminum to make cans, is seeing costs rise.
Brewers say the math is simple: A cold can of beer requires a can, which requires aluminum. As tariffs roil the market, sending prices up, the cost of producing each can increases.
Washington Post; Nov 8 2018
Road Map Update
An aside update on the TNB story on the release of the sealed away grand jury report and then Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski’s final report and how he and his team were able to submit that to Congress via what was known as the Road Map comes this take on its release from former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega in a series of tweets.
The lead in teaser followed by few highlights.
Folks: Did you know the sealed Road Map that the Watergate prosecutors asked to be turned over to Congress on March 1, 1973 was not the only document the Watergate prosecutors produced that day? There was one more. It was public. And it was a blockbuster. What was it??? 1/
— Elizabeth de la Vega (@Delavegalaw) November 6, 2018
It was an indictment like no other. On March 1, 1973, Watergate prosecutors also charged seven Nixon aides in U.S. v. Mitchell. Adding substantial flesh to the Road Map’s bones, the indictment alleged a detailed narrative of the Watergate conspiracy and relevant law. 2/
As reported even then, though he wasn’t named, the allegations in the Watergate conspiracy case pointed to Nixon as a co-conspirator. In other words, just as Mueller has been doing, Watergate prosecutors brilliantly managed to speak clearly to the public through court filings. 3/
The named Watergate conspirators in U.S. v. Mitchell were: John Mitchell (Nixon’s former AG), H.R. Haldeman (Assistant to President), John Erlichman (President’s Assistant for Domestic Affairs), Charles Colson (President’s Special Counsel) and three more top WH/campaign aides. 4/
Specifically, the indictment alleged the means used to carry out the conspiracy included: directing Gordon Liddy to ask AG Kliendienst to help get Watergate burglars out of jail; destroying evidence; and soliciting and facilitating false/misleading testimony. Sound familiar? 7/
Last but not least, the indictment alleged the defs conducted the conspiracy by offering clemency to persons charged or under investigation: “[They] would make and cause to be made offers of leniency, executive clemency & other benefits to [Hunt, Liddy, McCord, Magruder].” 9/
In effect, on March 1, 1973, the Watergate team produced a two-part guidebook. If the submission to Congress was the Road Map, the U.S. v. Mitchell indictment was the travelogue. Together, they formed a brilliant presentation designed to ensure Congress could find its way. End/
Because Twitter has no edit feature, Vega makes note after the end, that the date ‘of course’ should be March 1, 1974
Here is a rolled out tweet via the read reader app.