Nadler Jud Comm

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6 26 2x

ref gothamist

In a dramatic incident captured on video, U.S. Department of Homeland Security police Wednesday handcuffed one of Rep. Jerry Nadler aides in the congressmember's Manhattan office, which is in the same federal office building as an immigration courthouse.

In the video, which was shared with Gothamist and filmed by a person who was monitoring activity in immigration court, DHS officers entered Nadler’s district office and accused staff members of “harboring rioters.” A Nadler staffer is seen crying and being handcuffed. Another officer is at a door trying to enter a private area of the office while a staffer asks for a warrant.

DHS later said in a statement that “one individual” — the woman seen being handcuffed — had blocked police from performing a security check they intended to do based on information there were protesters in the lawmaker’s office. Later that day, protesters gathered outside of the federal building, demonstrating against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. [vid]

The staff member was not arrested and not charged with any crime, both Nadler's office and a DHS spokesperson confirmed. In a brief telephone interview, the staffer who'd been handcuffed said that “everything resolved” and declined to comment further.

Initially, Nadler’s office would not comment on what led up to the chaotic incident. But after Gothamist broke the story Friday, the congressman posted a statement on X.

“While no arrests were made and the situation was quickly deescalated, I am alarmed by the aggressive and heavy-handed tactics DHS is employing in New York City and across the country," the statement said. "The decision to enter a congressional office and detain a staff member demonstrates a deeply troubling disregard for proper legal boundaries."

Two people who were at the courthouse to monitor ICE activity said the confrontation came after ICE officers threatened to arrest them and other advocates, and a Nadler staffer invited the advocates inside.

Nadler’s office is on the sixth floor in the same Varick Street building as federal immigration court, which is on the fifth floor. The building also houses DHS and other federal offices.

{Last week, Robert Gottheim, Nadler’s co-chief of staff, confirmed there was no arrest but otherwise declined to comment on the unusual event that resulted in federal agents entering the office of a Democratic member of Congress, accusing office staffers of criminal wrongdoing and handcuffing a staffer.}:

The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between Democratic lawmakers and the executive branch over federal immigration enforcement, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Rep. LaMonica McIver arrests earlier this month in connection with protests outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark.

There have been an increasing number of arrests at immigration courthouses across the country in recent days. The Trump administration, promising the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history, announced in January it would no longer treat venues such as courthouses and schools as “protected” sites off-limits to immigration enforcement.

At another immigration courthouse in the city, at 290 Broadway, ICE officers last week arrested a 20-year-old Bronx high school student after an immigration judge dismissed the student’s pending deportation case. The student, from Venezuela, is the first New York City public school student to be detained by ICE during Trump’s second term, according to the city education department.

Hours after the confrontation involving the Nadler staffers and DHS police, around 6:30 p.m., police arrested nearly two dozen demonstrators they allege blocked traffic outside the building, an NYPD spokesperson said.

In the demonstration, mutual aid volunteers assisting immigrants tried to block ICE vans transporting detained immigrants from leaving the building, according to organizers. Eighteen protesters were issued criminal summons, and five people were arrested and charged, the NYPD spokesperson said.

In the video of the confrontation at Nadler’s office, the handcuffed staff member says that there were constituents present in the office for a meeting. Those constituents later identified themselves in interviews with Gothamist as immigrant rights advocates monitoring activities in the building, including outside the federal immigration courtrooms.

The video does not capture any interactions between Nadler’s staff and DHS police before the staffer was handcuffed. But two advocates who were present as the events unfolded described officers questioning people as they left immigration court and threatening advocates as they intervened. Both people asked Gothamist not to use their names, saying they fear retaliation by the federal government.

The advocates said they were outside an immigration courtroom where plainclothes ICE officers were questioning people as they were leaving their court appearances. The advocates said they were advising the immigrants of their rights. The officers, in turn, threatened the advocates with arrest for loitering, according to the two advocates who spoke with Gothamist.

According to the two advocates, ICE officers then arrested one of the advocates in the courthouse; DHS did not respond to further inquiries about what transpired. Then, the two advocates said, a Nadler staffer invited them and a third advocate up to the lawmaker’s office, which is on the floor above the courthouse. They were there for about 20 minutes before the DHS police entered, the two advocates said.

An officer is heard in the video of the encounter claiming the handcuffed Nadler aide, seen crying, had pushed a DHS officer. Another officer is also seen entering an area of the lawmaker’s office, over the objections of a Nadler aide, who asked for a warrant before acceding to the demand.

The advocates said they did not witness any staff member pushing a DHS officer. They said the aide who was handcuffed had declined the officer entry to a more private part of the office. The courthouse as well as the government offices are generally open to the public.

The video shows the handcuffed staff member asking officers, “What’s your problem?” She adds, without further clarifying, “They’re here for a meeting. They’re constituents.”

A DHS officer urged her, “Do not resist. Stop resisting.”

The DHS statement on Thursday made no mention of Nadler’s office harboring rioters, as the DHS officer claims in the video. Thursday’s statement said that DHS officers were responding to information that protesters were inside Nadler’s office. Out of concern for Nadler’s employees, the statement said, the officers went to the lawmaker’s office “to ensure the safety and wellbeing of those present.”

The statement said the officers “were granted entry and encountered four individuals,” but did not specify who the four were. After stating their intent to conduct a “security check,” the statement said, one of the individuals became “confrontational and physically blocked” access to the office and had to be detained in the hallway in the federal building. But the statement says that no arrests were made and all “were released without further incident.”

*Ben Feuerherd contributed reporting.

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AN 6 25

During his first presidency, Donald Trump spent a lot of time fighting with conservative appointees who resisted parts of his agenda — from John Bolton (national security adviser) to Jeff Sessions (U.S. attorney general) to Rex Tillerson (secretary of state) to Gen. John F. Kelly (White House chief of staff). Trump's third White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, even ended up endorsing presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

But Trump's second presidency is much different. This time, he made a point of surrounding himself with hardcore MAGA loyalists—who, the Washington Post's Philip Bump argues in his June 2 column, are making a concerted effort to bully and intimidate opponents and create a climate of fear.

Trump, Bump warns, has a "range of dishonest actors" at his disposal. And they range from White House adviser Stephen Miller to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to immigration czar Tom Homan.

"What President Donald Trump wants is to put big deportation numbers on the scoreboard," Bump explains. "Recent reporting suggests that senior administration officials, including adviser Stephen Miller, are leaning on DHS to remove more people, faster. Trump’s 2024 campaign promised to focus on removing the massive population of criminal undocumented immigrants in the U.S. But, in part because his claims about the scale of the problem have consistently been hyperbolic, the (Trump) Administration is instead resorting to deporting just about anyone it can conceivably fit into the system."

IFrame Content

Bump notes that the intimidation tactics of Trump and his allies range from the arrests of Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) and Judge Hannah Dugan to DHS agents accusing Rep. Jerry Nadler's (D-New York) staff of "harboring rioters" and even handcuffing a Nadler staffer.

"In San Diego," Bump observes, "heavily armed immigration officers conducted a raid at a restaurant. When observers attempted to halt the arrests, the federal agents allegedly used a stun grenade against the crowd. That incident was perhaps the most extreme of a number of tense, aggressive encounters between immigration officials and the public over the past four months…. It also seems clear that some agents understand they won’t be held accountable for their actions."

Bump adds, "Detaining a staffer in member of Congress' office in search of 'rioters' from a nonexistent riot doesn't comport with a liberal democracy."

Nadler told the New York Times, "The Trump Administration is really using totalitarian or even authoritarian practices. We have to fight them. We don't want to be a fascist country."

Bump laments, "This is the reality. Immigrants are cast as dangerous when they aren't. Governmental power is abused without accountability. All of it at Trump’s whim — very much to Nadler's 'authoritarian' point."

*Philip Bump's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required)

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an 12 24

no lnx

alternet-

'Pit bulls of retribution': Swalwell braces for Trump admin after 'gross abuse'

Matt Laslo,Alexandria Jacobson and Raw StoryDecember 11, 2024

A new watchdog report released Tuesday revealed that the Department of Justice under the first Donald Trump administration secretly obtained phone records for members of Congress, journalists, government staffers and incoming FBI director nominee Kash Patel — actions the top House Judiciary Democrat exclusively told Raw Story are a "gross abuse" of power worthy of investigation.

Two Democratic members of Congress. then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (R-CA), were targeted in the report, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

"My suspicion alert level is at the highest, considering it was me and another Democrat who the president, President Trump would routinely call out all the time, either in his tweets or his public statements," Swalwell told Raw Story on Tuesday. "That's what he was willing to do in his first administration, where there were guardrails in place and serious [pushback] around him. It's very concerning as to what he'll be willing to do with unserious people around him who are seeking to be pit bulls of retribution."

Swalwell said targeting Congress members and staff is "incredibly concerning" and will be more so with the incoming administration of Trump loyalists as "any guardrails that were in place last time are gone now with this new team," he said.

ALSO READ: Trump allies promise revenge as Dems ram through Biden judges

"Once you start going after like individual members who are critical of the president, you better be damn sure you have the goods, and it was clear that Schiff and I had done nothing wrong, and it was just a way to try and find something on us, to indict or embarrass us," Swalwell said.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the current top Democratic ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, exclusively told Raw Story that the Department of Justice investigation intended to have a "chilling effect."

"It's a gross abuse and ought to be investigated, although with Trump coming in, he's not gonna investigate it," said Nadler, who announced he would drop out of the Democratic House Judiciary race and endorsed Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).

Schiff, who was sworn into the Senate on Monday, joined current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for a press briefing on Tuesday. He said that pre-emptive pardons were not necessary for himself or other members of the January 6 committee, but he did not take questions from reporters about the report.

NOW READ: Trump is taking the mask off after lying to us for more than a year

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an 7 24

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) threw cold water on Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) after he claimed the media was "colluding" against conservatives.

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Jordan contended that the Global Alliance for Responsible Media had conspired with its members to avoid advertising on conservative outlets.

"They came together, agreed to limit advertising on certain platforms and news outlets that millions— millions of Americans choose to read, watch, and listen to," Jordan claimed. "They collude to make sure that no other advertisers support any news outlets, platforms, or creators that these massive companies don't agree with."

"And these people do not like conservatives," he insisted. "They will use their cartel to eliminate competition based on internal biases of these massive companies, and they will deprive Americans of the content that they actually want to consume."

Nadler pointed out that Jordan's hearinghad "nothing to do with antitrust laws, since the majority's allegations wither under even the most basic antitrust analysis."

"This is instead another dangerous effort by the majority to bully companies into promoting and supporting far-right extremist views, views that brands understandably do not want to be associated with," Nadler explained. "In this case, the majority seeks to undermine companies' First Amendment rights and to make it harder for them to avoid monetizing online and offline harm through advertising."

The Democratic lawmaker noted that advertisers wanted to avoid "funding of terrorist organizations, the promotion and distribution of foreign propaganda materials, and the promotion and distribution of racist, hateful, and discriminatory content."

Nadler pointed out that Republicans wanted to force advertisers to run ads on "platforms like Twitter, now known as X, True Social, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire, even though those sites are rife with adult content, hate speech, false information, misinformation, and racist and violent propaganda."

EXCLUSIVE:Trump's 'secretary of retribution' has a 'target list' of 350 people he wants arrested

The congressman told Jordan that The Daily Wire, run by Republican witness Ben Shapiro, had generated $220 million in revenue last year.

"His website has over 15 million followers across his main social media handles, including on sites that are members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, known as GARM, the target of today's hearing," Nadler said. "This hardly sounds like the victim of a conspiracy to suppress content."

"Under the direction of the chair, the committee is abusing its oversight authority," he added. "The Republicans are so committed to the belief that conservative content, in quotes, is being censored, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they will do anything to undermine the efforts of platforms to moderate their own content, which the Supreme Court recently affirmed is an exercise of their First Amendment rights."

Watch the video below from the House Judiciary Committee.

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AN 1123

David Weiss, who was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel to oversee the Department of Justice's investigation into Hunter Biden, recently testified under oath that his investigation has not been obstructed in any way by the Biden administration.

The House Judiciary Committee — chaired by Trump acolyte Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — recently brought in Weiss for questioning in relation to the ongoing Hunter Biden investigation, which Republicans argue is being hamstrung by the White House. But the Washington Post reported Wednesday that Weiss' testimony silenced those rumors.

"I am, and have been, the decision-maker on this case," Weiss said. "At no time was I blocked, or otherwise prevented from pursuing charges or taking the steps necessary in the investigation by other United States Attorneys, the Tax Division or anyone else at the Department of Justice."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York), the ranking member on the committee, called Weiss' testimony a "waste of time."

"[Weiss] was very clear that no one told him what to prosecute and what not to prosecute. He made all those decisions himself, and he said that before," Nadler said. "And I mean, [Republicans] tried to get him to say anything, but they just go over and over and over again the same thing."

House Republicans disagreed with that sentiment, insisting that Weiss' testimony wasn't credible and that questions still lingered about political pressure from the White House on the DOJ's investigation into the president's son.

"The important thing is that he has no answers for why he would offer a misdemeanor plea bargain with no jail time to someone who committed felonies and exclude all unknown or yet-to-be-investigated crimes," Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) said. "It’s that lack of explanation that leads us to all the other questions of whether he was influenced by others or in consultation with others."

Hunter Biden is set to go to trial in 2024 on charges relating to gun possession and filing false statements after a plea agreement fell apart earlier this year. Weiss was appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 to be US Attorney for the US District Court in the District of Delaware. President Biden has kept him in that position.

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https://truthout.org/articles/gaetz-wants-reading-of-pledge-of-allegiance-before-judiciary-committee-meetings/

no lnx

wednesday, Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz introduced a new amendment to the House Judiciary Committee hearing rules, which would require lawmakers to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before each meeting.

Gaetz’s proposal was likely aimed at embarrassing Democrats on the committee, who opposed the requirement.

The pledge has been used as a political weapon numerous times in U.S. history,to label those who don’t participate or who oppose its use as unpatriotic.

Nativists and white supremacists have also used the pledge to attack people they deem “un-American” based on their race or immigration status.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (R-New York), who previously chaired the Judiciary Committee, objected to Gaetz’s proposal.

“I don’t know why we should pledge allegiance twice in the same day to show how patriotic we are,” Nadler said.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy addresses the media outside his office at the U.S. Capitol on January 24, 2023, in Washington, D.C.

NEWS | POLITICS & ELECTIONS

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By Chris Walker , TRUTHOUTFebruary 1, 2023]

Predictably, Gaetz and other committee members fired back, noting that Nadler and others aren’t always on the House floor when the pledge is recited. Nadler responded by saying that there is documentation of him saying the pledge many times.

Later that day, after the Judiciary Committee’s hearing, Gaetz attacked Nadler on social mediafor opposing his amendment. “The Pledge of Allegiance is not a waste of time,” Gaetz said on Twitter. The account representing the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked Nadler and Democrats for opposing the idea.

During the meeting, however, Rep. David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) turned the issue on its head. Cicilline proposed adding wording to Gaetz’s amendment on reciting the pledge specifying that no person “who supported an insurrection against the United States in any way” should be invited to read the pledge before the committee.

Republicans voiced their disdain for the idea, interpreting it as an attack on some members’ votes against certifying the 2020 presidential election on January 6, 2021, the day the Capitol was attacked by a mob of loyalists to former President Donald Trump. Gaetz claimed that Democrats “may be disqualifying [their] own members” through such an amendment, perhaps referring to the fact that Democrats have voted against certifying electors in previous presidential elections (though not nearly in the same numbers as Republicans in 2021).

Cicilline said it was “interesting” that Gaetz’s mind went in that direction, since his proposed amendment was referring to people in general, not solely lawmakers.

“I think we should all agree that no one who participated in insurrection should lead the Judiciary Committee in the Pledge of Allegiance, so it shouldn’t be complicated to accept this amendment,” Cicilline said, adding:

This pledge is an affirmation of your defense of democracy and the Constitution. It’s hard to take that claim seriously if in fact, an individual in any way supported an insurrection against the government.

Cicilline’s amendment was ultimately defeated, while Gaetz’s amendment, requiring that the Pledge of Allegiance be read before each committee hearing, was passed.

Had Cicilline’s amendment passed, it likely wouldn’t have been enforced, as it would have given power to determine whether or not someone is an insurrectionist to the Judiciary Committee Chair, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Only one person in the U.S. so far has been successfully barred from holding future office for violating the insurrectionist clause of the 14th Amendment — former Cowboys for Trump leader Couy Griffin, who helped coordinate the attack on the Capitol.

Notably, Trump himself could be barred from holding office in the future under the insurrectionist clause. Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has promised that the organization will seek to have Trump listed as an insurrectionist under the terms of the 14th Amendment.

In an open letter to Trump in November, Bookbinder warned that if Trump announced another presidential run, CREW would take appropriate action to bar him “based on [his] engaging in the insurrection that culminated on January 6, 2021.”

“The evidence that you engaged in insurrection as contemplated by the Fourteenth Amendment — including by mobilizing, inciting, and aiding those who attacked the Capitol — is overwhelming,” Bookbinder wrote, weeks before Trump announced his 2024 presidential run.

CHRIS WALKER

Chris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, and is based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on the American people.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/matt-gaetz-buried-in-mockery-after-nadler-shuts-down-his-impeachment-tantrum-is-he-crying-yet/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/trump-is-bulldozing-democracy-and-democrats-have-no-plan-to-stop-him/

take senate abol fillib

"When Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court," Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts _{tweeted over the weekend}_, a call supported by House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York.

brenda? wineapple says Johnson impeach legit vs // lost cause BS , turley sp gop witness that aj impeach // for political impeach, trap law

https://kpfa.org/episode/upfront-december-4-2019/

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/impeachment-endgame-buckle-up-its-gonna-get-uglier/

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...So it looks like it’s going to be up to Republican members on the committee to make his case for him. Judging from what we’ve heard from various prominent Republicans over the weekend, we can expect that this next phase will see a ratcheting up of resistance to the proceedings and more antics from the backbenchers on the Judiciary Committee. They have some real characters who are ready to turn this into a wild and crazy trip down the rabbit hole.

We don’t yet know how Nadler plans to run the hearings but I think everyone hopes he follows Schiff’s example. A draft of possible impeachment proceedings from September indicates that Nadler plans to allow committee staffers “designated by the chairman and ranking member” to “ask questions of witnesses for a total of one hour, equally divided across the parties (in addition to the normal questions from members),” so it’s likely that the hearings will at least have an hour or so of meaningful exchanges.

But that’s going to be tough. This committee is one of the most rancorous in the House and it has twice as many members as the Intelligence Committee. Many of them are showboating egomaniacs on a good day. Both Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, who were highly combative during the Intelligence Committee hearings, also sit on Judiciary, so we can expect more of their red-meat performances. And we can be sure that Trump’s most loyal guard dog, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, along with borderline crackpot Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, will be looking for ways to upend the proceedings.

As Judiciary member Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told Fox News on Sunday, “it’s a bunch of brawlers sometimes on the Judiciary Committee, so it should get pretty hot and under the collar as we go along. I don’t think things have been done the way they’ve been done in the past, Mike, and so it causes some rancor and it should be pretty — much more feisty, I would say than the Intel Committee was.”

Nadler has his hands full, to say the least. But if anyone thinks that the circus atmosphere will be over once the House votes on impeachment and it moves to the more staid and dignified Senate, they should think again. Republican senators are behaving little better than Gaetz and Gohmert. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has vowed to call Hunter Biden to testify on the premise that “we’re not going to live in a country where only one party gets investigated.” (Which must have made Bill Clinton shake his head in wonderment, considering that Graham was one of the House managers of his impeachment trial.)

But Graham has to battle another Southern senator for the role of most outrageous Trump defender. That would be Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who has been currying favor with Trump by appearing on the Sunday shows making rash claims about Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election.

Ben Rhodes

@brhodes

Republicans literally spreading Russian disinformation manufactured on some troll farm. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1201183435554992129 …

Aaron Rupar

@atrupar

.@SenJohnKennedy: Dr Hill is entitled to her opinion

TODD: When does opinion become fact?

K: I believe reports Poroshenko worked for Clinton

T: My goodness, you just did exactly what the Russian op is trying to get Americans to do! Are you worried you've been duped?

K: No.

Embedded video

This is crazy talk, but it’s very likely where the impeachment process is headed both in the House and the Senate. The most sober and dignified part of the process is probably behind us, unfortunately.

Heather Digby