Just in case you missed this succinct Brit summation.
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https://justthenews.com/++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
RINO Romney will help get Judge Jackson into SCOTUS. Should he do so it would complicate, and possibly doom, his re-election.
Confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson Hanging by a Constitutional Thread
By
A.R. HOFFMAN
As the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson enter their final phase this week, early predictions of smooth senatorial sailing have given way to the recognition that her acceding to the Supreme Court, while more likely than not, will be a nailbiter.
The senatorial arithmetic has become tight for the White House and Judge Jackson herself. Senate Democrats will have to resort to an obscure parliamentary maneuver called a “motion to discharge” to spring Judge Jackson from a Judiciary Committee that is deadlocked 11 to 11.
Adding to the drama, one member of the committee, Senator Padilla, a Democrat, was marooned in California after his flight was grounded for what Senator Durbin called a “medical emergency on the airplane.” Mr. Durbin added that this mishap “could have happened to any of us,” and the vote was held with Mr. Padilla’s participation later in the afternoon.
If the motion to discharge is passed, all that will stand before Judge Jackson and the Supreme Court seat of her former boss, Justice Stephen Breyer, will be securing the votes of 51 senators. That reality, while still likely, is hardly a given, with uncertainties on both sides of the political aisle outstanding at the 11th hour.
Every Democrat save Senator Sinema has pledged to support Judge Jackson. The Arizonan is yet to join her fellow moderate, Senator Manchin, in backing President Biden’s pick. Last year, Senators Sinema and Manchin supported all 42 of the president’s judicial nominations.
Ms. Sinema would no doubt be facing much more heat for her reticence if Senator Collins, a Republican, had not already pledged to support Judge Jackson, noting, “I have concluded that she possesses the experience, qualifications, and integrity to serve as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.”
Ms. Collins was one of the three Senate Republicans who eight months ago voted to confirm Judge Jackson to the District of Columbia Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals.
Of the two other members of that triad, Senator Murkowski has, like Ms. Sinema, not indicated which way she’ll vote. She faces a tough re-election fight, in large part due to her voting twice to impeach President Trump.
Senator Graham has taken a different tack, emerging as one of Judge Jackson’s chief antagonists during these confirmation hearings. He has called her the “preferred pick of the radical left,” an “activist to the core,” and “a bridge too far.”
While Ms. Collins’s support supplies the White House with needed breathing room, if both Senators Murkowski and Sinema withhold support then a 50-50 tie would result. Vice President Harris would then cast the decisive 51st “yea.”
As the Sun has reported, this confirmation by the narrowest of margins would be unprecedented ground. No Supreme Court nominee has ever been rubber stamped by a ballot from the vice president. While the Supreme Court is unlikely to tell the Senate how to conduct its business — the Constitution ordains that each house may determine the rules of its proceedings — the question of whether a tie breaking vote is permissible is not exactly settled.
In 2020, a Harvard Law professor, Laurence Tribe, a liberal lion, wrote in a Boston Globe op-ed article that “while the vice president has the power to cast a tie breaking vote to pass a bill, the Constitution does not give him the power to break ties,” when it comes to Supreme Court nominations. The “him” referred to was Vice President Pence.
Mr. Tribe urged that “you don’t need to take my word for it” but instead averred that “Alexander Hamilton said the same thing way back in 1788.” Earlier this year, the professor told RealClear Politics that “I doubt that I would reach a new conclusion upon reexamining the matter.”
A “yea” vote from either one of Senators Murkowski or Sinema would save Judge Jackson from the headache of breaking precedent even before she issues her first Supreme Court opinion. Justice Breyer’s 87 “yea” votes in 1994 will certainly not be repeated by his protégé.
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How many teeth must be pulled to get information from the Biden Justice Department?
Grassley: Justice Department Silence Speaks Volumes
Prepared Floor Remarks by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Justice Department Silence Speaks Volumes
This week, news reports made public a May 2019 subpoena from the Justice Department.
That subpoena requested financial records relating to Hunter Biden as part of the Department’s criminal investigation into his activities.
Notably, that subpoena also requested records relating to James Biden, Devon Archer and Eric Schwerin.
That subpoena sought records relating to companies that Senator Johnson and I discussed in our Biden report.
If the reports are accurate, this subpoena is yet another stake in the heart of totally unsubstantiated claims made by the liberal media and Democrats that our Biden report was Russian disinformation.
Today, I’m going to speak about a matter directly related to the recent news.
Specifically, the Biden Justice Department’s failure to answer fundamental questions relating to the Hunter Biden criminal investigation.
I’ve asked serious ethical questions of the Justice Department that the Department refuses to answer.
In fact, the Department has actually publicly contradicted itself.
Here’s one example.
On March 31, 2021, Senator Johnson and I wrote to Attorney General Garland.
Our letter noted that Hunter Biden had a close association with Patrick Ho, an individual who’s associated with the communist Chinese government and its intelligence services.
Patrick Ho was also charged and convicted of international bribery and money laundering offenses relating to his work for companies connected to the communist regime.
After his arrest, his first call was reportedly to James Biden, President Biden’s brother.
Hunter Biden reportedly represented Patrick Ho for one million dollars.
In our letter, we noted that a Justice Department federal court filing said they had FISA information on Patrick Ho.
Not only did they possess that information, the Department informed the court that they intended to use it to prosecute him.
Senator Johnson and I asked the Justice Department for that FISA information as well as FISA information for other Chinese nationals linked to Hunter Biden.
In response, the Justice Department stated the following:
“Unfortunately, under the circumstances described in your letter, we aren’t in a position to confirm the existence of the information that is sought (if it exists in the Department’s possession).”
If it exists in the Department’s possession.
Simply put, that’s not a true and accurate statement.
Unless the Department’s statement to federal court in the Patrick Ho matter wasn’t true and accurate.
So, on November 15, 2021, we asked Attorney General Garland to explain this discrepancy.
No response to-date.
Both statements can’t be true. Either the Department possesses the information or it doesn’t.
Attorney General Garland, what’s your answer?
It doesn’t end there.
On February 3, 2021, and March 9, 2021, Senator Johnson and I asked Attorney General Garland if Nicholas McQuaid is recused from the Hunter Biden criminal case.
McQuaid works in the Department’s Criminal Division but worked with Hunter Biden’s criminal attorney before joining the Department.
This poses a clear conflict of interest.
Attorney General Garland has refused to answer to-date.
On June 29, 2021, Senator Johnson and I asked Attorney General Garland whether Susan Hennessey, a National Security Division employee, is recused from the Durham investigation.
Before working at the Department, she made negative public comments about the Durham investigation.
In Attorney General Garland’s July 13, 2021, response letter he failed to answer our questions.
However, at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s October 27, 2021, oversight hearing, the Attorney General said she “has nothing whatsoever to do with the Durham investigation.”
Although this statement doesn’t fully answer our questions, such as whether she’s been formally recused from the matter, it’s more than what we were provided in the Department’s letter response.
Likewise, the Justice Department said that Margaret Goodlander “has no role in Mr. Durham’s investigation.”
She’s married to Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan worked for the Clinton presidential campaign.
While there, he peddled the false Alfa Bank story about the Trump Organization having a secret back-channel with the Russian bank.
Those false allegations were reviewed as part of Crossfire Hurricane.
Now, with all that said, let’s take stock of where we are.
On the one hand, Attorney General Garland has publicly said Susan Hennessey and Margaret Goodlander have no role in the Durham investigation.
On the other hand, Attorney General Garland refuses to say the same for McQuaid and the Hunter Biden criminal case.
Why?
Why won’t Attorney General Garland say that McQuaid has no role in the criminal case involving the president’s son?
This is a fundamental ethical question.
Our letters have provided Attorney General Garland the opportunity to hit the ball out of the park. Instead, he doesn’t even try to swing.
What’s the Biden Justice Department hiding?
This blatantly inconsistent treatment has cast a cloud over the Hunter Biden criminal case.
Just imagine if this fact pattern involved President Trump and his sons.
You wouldn’t hear the end of it from my Democratic colleagues and the media.
Yet, not a sound from them in this case.
The American people are rightly skeptical of how the Justice Department is handling the Hunter Biden criminal case.
And the secrecy and lack of public transparency will only increase that skepticism.
I won’t stop doing good government oversight on this issue.
The American people deserve answers, one way or the other.
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