07 October 19
The key to the funding issues is simple: A great number of people like and come to RSN - however most ignore the fundraising appeals.
This is a large list with many subscribers, most have been here a long time. What we need to run the organization efficiently should be very easy to raise with an audience of that size.
We have to get you in the game.
Marc Ash
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Founder, Reader Supported News
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07 October 19
Barbara McQuade, American Constitution Society
McQuade writes: "The whistleblower complaint regarding President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine raises concerns about Barr's performance of his duties as attorney general. At the very least, by failing to recuse himself from the matter, Barr is undermining the credibility of the Department of Justice."
In August, a whistleblower filed a complaint with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community describing a series of acts that included a July 25 telephone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The whistleblower alleges facts suggesting that Trump attempted to use $391 million in U.S. military aid to Ukraine as leverage to get Zelensky to agree to investigate Joe Biden, a candidate to unseat Trump in the 2020 election.
During the call, Trump suggested that Zelensky work with Trump’s private attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, as well as Barr on the investigation. “I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call, and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call, and we will get to the bottom of it,” Trump said, according to the summary. The Department of Justice has issued a statement that Barr, in fact, did not talk to anyone in Ukraine about this matter or any other subject. Even so, the inclusion of Barr’s name in the report created a conflict that should have caused him to recuse himself from the matter.
Pursuant to the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998, the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community must investigate an internal complaint and determine whether it is credible and of “urgent concern.” IG Michael Atkinson concluded that this complaint met both requirements, and passed the complaint and his findings to the acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. Under the statute, the DNI “shall” forward the complaint to the congressional intelligence committees upon such a finding. Instead, acting DNI Joseph Maguire went to the White House and the Department of Justice for advice about how to proceed, undermining the very purpose for whistleblower laws. In other words, the acting DNI went to the very subjects of the whistleblower’s complaints to ask if the complaint should be shared with Congress.
ALSO SEE:
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The legal team that represented Epstein in 2008 included Kirkland & Ellis’s Jay Lefkowitz, former independent counsel Ken Starr, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, as well as Roy Black and Gerald Lefcourt.
With Barr recusing himself because of his work at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm, new deputy attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, would normally be assumed to be taking over the oversight of the case. However, Rosen also once worked at the same law firm.
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, the former Florida U.S. Attorney at the tine of Epstein’s case who helped him secure the infamous plea deal that saw him sentenced to only 13 months in prison, is also a Kirkland & Ellis veteran.
Another potential conflict for Barr, although he did not mention it to reporters, is that his father once hired a then-20-year-old Epstein to teach calculus and physics when he was headmaster of the Dalton School, the Daily Mail reported.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska had questioned Barr about the Epstein case during his confirmation hearing at the beginning of the year.
“On this particular case, will you commit to making sure that there is a full and thorough investigation into the way that DOJ handled the Epstein case?” Sasse asked Barr before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January.
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