deportation

Jack Smith told House committee he had ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ in cases against Trump

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Ex-special counsel testified in front of judiciary committee about aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump

Jack Smith, the former justice department special counsel who led the aborted federal prosecution of Donald Trump, told a congressional committee that he never spoke to Joe Biden about his cases, according to the transcript of a deposition

In his behind-closed-doors testimony to the House judiciary committee earlier this month, Smith defended the charges he brought against Trump for allegedly possessing classified documents and attempting to overturn the 2020 election, while warning of the consequences of allowing election meddling to go unpunished.

“Theoretically, what happens if there is election interference and the people who are responsible for that are not held accountable?” Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal asked.

“It becomes the new norm, and that becomes how we … conduct elections,” Smith replied, according to the transcript.

“And so the toll on our democracy, if you had to describe that, what would that be?” the congresswoman asked.

“Catastrophic,” Smith said.

Trump and his Republican allies have alleged that the former special counsel was a key figure in a justice department that Biden had “weaponized” against his predecessor. The Republican-controlled House judiciary committee earlier this year heard testimony from one of Smith’s top deputies, and months later subpoenaed the former special counsel for private testimony. Smith had offered to voluntarily testify in public, as special counsels typically do.

In questioning from Democratic congressman Dan Goldman, Smith said he operated without interference from Merrick Garland, the attorney general who appointed him, or any other top justice department officials. [ … ]

CONTINUE at source: Jack Smith told House committee he had ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ in cases against Trump

The evil at your door

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By Timothy Snyder

Individuals associated with the federal government have, in defiance of a court order and without a trial or any form of due process, deported hundreds of people from the territory of the United States to El Salvador, where they will be held indefinitely in a concentration camp.

1. This violated fundamental rights enumerated in the Constitution. Everyone in the United States has the right to a fair trial with due process of law. People who say things along the lines of “enemy combatants don’t have the right to due process” are wrong. And it is important to understand the implications of that position. Anyone can be named an “enemy combatant.” More fundamentally, once you accept any exception to the general rule, you are just inviting executive power to always use that exception, or make up another one. If you are a citizen and you are casting doubt on the importance of due process, remember this: you need due process in order to prove that you are a citizen.

2. The deportation was done in violation of a court order, according to a plan to undo the rule of law. This means that the action was not only specifically illegal, but designed as a challenge to the rule of law as such. Naturally, the individuals who chose to ignore a court order carefully selected the moment when they would do so. They chose a situation that they could characterize as us against them, the Americans against the foreigners, the regular people against the criminals. They are deliberately associating the law itself with people, the deportees, who they expect to be unpopular. This is a tactic, and historically speaking a very familiar one. In this way they hope to get popular opinion on their side as they ignore a court order. But if they succeed in making an exception once, it becomes the rule.

3. You do not know who was on those two planes to El Salvador. The individuals who arranged the deportation claim that the deportees were “foreign alien terrorists,” but we have no way of knowing whether this is true. They also claim that they were “monsters,” which is not true. We do not know the names of the human beings who were deported. We cannot therefore know whether they were foreigners or American citizens. As to whether they were terrorists: they were not convicted of any crimes, and so it is hard to know whether or how this would be true. There is no doubt that their rights were violated. But your rights have been violated as well. If you do not know the details about operations that forcibly remove human beings from the territory of the United States, you do not have a responsive government. And you are therefore at risk.

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