Clift, Eleanor

---

an 11 24

lnx

alternet-logo

Biden must use 'preemptive pardons' to protect these 6 people Trump singled out: columnist

President Joe Biden signs an Executive Order on protecting personal data, Wednesday, February 28, 2024, in the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

Alex HendersonNovember 26, 2024Frontpage news and politics

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) has been warning that Pam Bondi — former Florida attorney general and President-elect Donald Trump's new nominee for U.S. attorney general — will likely be all in on Trump's "revenge" campaign if confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Klobuchar, during a late November interview, told ABC News, "Does it concern me that revenge would be part of her mission? Of course it does."

During an August 2023 appearance on Fox News, Bondi threatened, "The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted... The investigators will be investigated."

READ MORE:'Build your army': Trump’s Pentagon pick wants Christian nationalist 'boot camps' for kids

Journalist Eleanor Clift shares Klobuchar's concerns. Her solution: President Joe Biden must exercise his "preemptive pardon" powers while he still has a chance.

In a November 26 opinion column for the Daily Beast, Clift argues, "Trump knows how the game works, and he's been upfront for months about using every lever of government to seek retribution from those who he believes wronged him. His choice for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is an election denier who should be disqualified on that alone. Instead, she is expected to lead the charge purging the DOJ of anyone who worked on prosecuting Trump, while also wasting taxpayer money to dig up alleged fraud from the 2020 election."

Clift continues, "Trump has threatened many of his adversaries, and he will soon have the power to make good on his threats. President Biden must act and use his pardon power to safeguard a lengthening list of people who are on the receiving end of Trump's threats. They will say they've done nothing wrong, and they're right. Preemptive pardons are problematic, a get-out-of jail free card when you haven't committed a crime. But they're needed now that President-elect Trump is gearing up his revenge tour."

Clift cites special counsel Jack Smith as a likely target of Trump's "revenge" campaign.

READ MORE: 'Appalling': George Conway has a prediction about 'spineless' GOP senators

"Before he leaves office, Biden should pardon Liz Cheney, a profile in courage who we haven’t heard from since the election, and Nancy Pelosi, another unafraid leader and favorite target of Trump," Clift argues. "Then, the two generals deserve pardons: Mark Milley, who said he fears being recalled into service so Trump can court-martial him, and John Kelly, Trump's longest serving chief of staff who said Trump is a fascist."

Clift adds, "Also in the crosshairs are Adam Kinzinger, the former GOP congressman who served on the 1/6 committee, and Senator-elect Adam Schiff, who oversaw Trump's impeachment and is the butt of Trump’s nasty nicknames."

READ MORE: 'Build your army': Trump’s Pentagon pick wants Christian nationalist 'boot camps' for kids

Eleanor Clift's full Daily Beast column is available at this link (subscription required).

---

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mask mandate for domestic travelers was struck down on Monday by a federal jurist who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. The decision is the latest in a string of blows to President Joe Biden's efforts to curb transmission of the coronavirus.

The CDC last week extended the rule until May 3rd.

Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida wrote in a 59-page ruling that the CDC exceeded its authority in requiring passengers on airlines and any other "conveyance" of public transportation to wear masks to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Mizelle – whom the American Bar Associated dinged as "not qualified" after she was installed by Trump at the age of 33 – said that passengers who refused to comply and were "forcibly removed from their airplane seats, denied board at the bus steps, and turned away at the train station doors" had their rights against "detention and quarantine" violated.

"The Mask Mandate is best understood not as sanitation, but as an exercise of the CDC's power to conditionally release [from what?] individuals to travel despite concerns that they may spread a communicable disease (and to detain or partially quarantine those who refuse). But the power to conditionally release and detain is ordinarily limited to individuals entering the United States from a foreign country," she proclaimed.

“Wearing a mask cleans nothing,” Mizelle opined, even as cases are once again rising in pockets throughout the country, such as in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has re-instituted a mask mandate. The virus has also been spreading in the nation's capital, infecting White House officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California).

Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas, blasted Mizelle's order in a Monday afternoon tweet.

"This is both a big deal and a truly preposterous (nationwide) injunction. The CDC’s statutory authority is specifically directed at preventing the spread of communicable diseases across state lines," he wrote. "Where else is such spread more likely to occur than transport hubs like airports?"

omg

https://www.alternet.org/2020/11/mcconnell-judges/

raw

on Wednesday, The Daily Beast examined the "dangerous" record of 33-year-old Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, one of the final judicial nominees to be forced through by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans — and her complete lack of qualifications for the job, beyond her high-powered conservative connections.

"One of five judicial nominees waved through by the lame duck Senate in a final vote before lawmakers left town for Thanksgiving, Mizelle's confirmation is themost galling," wrote Eleanor Clift. "Mizelle is only eight years out of law school (University of Florida), and the ABA's standard for a lifetime seat is 12 years of legal experience. She has had four distinguished clerkships, including one for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, but her only trial experience is as an intern before she graduated from law school. She will take her seat on the Eleventh Circuit for the Middle District of Florida having never tried a case — civil or criminal — as a lead attorney or co-counsel."

Very few judges are ever confirmed to the federal bench in their early 30s, noted Clift. "Mizelle joins that exclusive club because she is a well-connected Washington lawyer with conservative cred who travels in the right circles. At Jones Day, President Trump's favorite law firm, where she has been an associate since last year, Mizelle's profile page highlighted her successful representation of the Chamber of Commerce in fending off a demand from the AFL-CIO for greater worker protections during the COVID crisis."

"She is married to Chad Mizelle, who faced similar questions about his youth and inexperience last year when his friend and ally at the White House, Stephen Miller, smoothed the way for him to become the acting general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security, leading DHS' legal office of 2,500 attorneys just six years after graduating from law school," wrote Clift. "Apart from her skimpy experience, concerns about Kathryn Mizelle's ideology are at the core of Democratic opposition, and they originate with her tenure at the Justice Department in 2017 and 2018 supervising litigation handled by the Civil Rights Division. It was a time when many voting rights and LGBT protections were being rolled back."