“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

Why Did Chief Justice John Roberts Decide to Speak Out Against Trump? | The New Yorker

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Revealed: Trump inauguration crowd photos were edited after he intervened

Of course he did.

Clinton’s expression grows increasingly bleak as she [catalogs] the bureaucratic chaos. For a start, many of the children are nonverbal; others don’t speak Spanish, but obscure Mayan languages. And all are confused and [traumatized.] Having been “[funneled] through a whole panoply” of Homeland Security agencies notorious for “very poor record keeping and incompetence”, many of which are privately run, some babies have been transported all the way from the border to Detroit and New York. Others have gone to foster care families; some parents have already been deported without their children. “You just could not even imagine a worse child-welfare tragedy.”

But surely Clinton must be aware that every media report and profile invariably describes her as a “[polarizing] figure”. Has she ever considered the possibility that her most effective contribution to healing the country’s divisions would be to withdraw from public life?

“I’m sure they said that about Churchill between the wars, didn’t they?” she flashes back sharply, a fraction too quickly for the line to sound spontaneous. “I mean, I’m not comparing myself, but I’m just saying people said that, but he was right about Hitler, and a lot of people in England were wrong. And Churchill was a pain. He kept popping up all the time.”

Hillary Clinton: ‘What is more uncivil than taking children away?’ | US news | The Guardian

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Over the course of 92 pages, Howell resoundingly rejected an attempt by Andrew Miller, a former associate of Trump confidante Roger Stone, to quash a subpoena to testify, explaining why the “scope of the Special Counsel’s power falls well within the boundaries the Constitution permits.”

Miller had argued that Mueller was not nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and therefore was unconstitutionally appointed as a “principal officer.” Howell found the claim unpersuasive in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison v. Olson, which upheld the constitutionality of provisions of a now-defunct federal statute creating an independent counsel, and subsequent court decisions. Instead, Howell found Mueller to be an “inferior officer” under the supervision of deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who took up the oversight of the Russia investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from it last year.

“His appointment, without presidential appointment and senatorial confirmation, thus did not violate the Appointments Clause,” Howell wrote.

Miller also claimed that Sessions’ “mere recusal” from the Russia investigation didn’t make Rosenstein the acting attorney general for purposes of tapping Mueller to lead the probe. But Howell didn’t buy that argument either, pointing to the fact that various federal statutes allow the attorney general to delegate the authority to appoint a special counsel to the deputy attorney general.

“Multiple statutes authorize the Special Counsel’s appointment, and the official who appointed the Special Counsel had power to do so,” Howell concluded, underscoring a point previously acknowledged by several prominent legal voices.

As questions swirl over Trump interview, judge guts potential defense strategy – CNNPolitics

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