Pompeo A GOP/American Treasure. Make America Unique Again.

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Pompeo must be in any GOP administration. He see clearly what Xi and China are about and is very clear eyed.  Contrast his interview with Mark Levin and the inanities of Biden and, if you believe Biden is deserving of being president for one more day,  then you need to go to a therapist.

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Merrick Garland’s Cheap Talk

He has an obligation to prove the Hunter Biden probe wasn’t tainted by politics.

By Kimberley A. Strassel

Attorney General Merrick Garland had a lot to say last week about the Justice Department’s Hunter Biden investigation. But talk is cheap. Mr. Garland has an obligation to prove his assertions of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s authority in that probe. If he can.

The attorney general was insistent in a Friday press conference that Justice Department brass hadn’t interfered in the probe into Joe Biden’s son, and that Mr. Weiss was “given complete authority to make all decisions,” including “to prosecute any way in which he wanted to and in any district in which he wanted to.” He said Mr. Weiss had never asked him for special-counsel authority, even as he claimed the Delaware prosecutor has “in fact more authority” than that of a special counsel.

Mr. Garland’s statements are completely at odds with testimony from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. That investigator says prosecutors working for Mr. Weiss wanted to charge Hunter with felony tax offenses in the District of Columbia and California. But he says Mr. Weiss surprised him and others in an October 2022 meeting by saying he was “not the deciding official on whether charges are filed,” and explained that the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney for the capital, Matthew Graves, wouldn’t allow charges to proceed. Mr. Shapley said that Mr. Weiss “stated that he subsequently asked for special counsel authority from Main DOJ at that time and was denied that authority” and was “told to follow the process.”

Mr. Shapley documented this exchange in an email he sent to his supervisor—who was also at the meeting and who verified Mr. Shapley’s account of it in the email. Mr. Shapley says he later found out that Mr. Weiss had been blocked from pursuing charges in California by another Biden appointee, Martin Estrada. The New York Times this week confirmed the California episode—although it buried that confirmation deep in a story about these “competing accounts.”

The Times seemed more interested in fogging the air, suggesting the whole thing may come down to “miscommunication” or “clashing substantive judgments among agencies over how best to pursue a prosecution.” Expect more such obfuscation from Mr. Garland’s defenders and the Justice Department itself. But don’t be taken in. There are only two relevant questions here, both of which will have documented answers. First, is it true that the president’s appointed attorneys refused to bring charges against the president’s son in their districts, defying a team that had spent years building a case? Second, was Mr. Weiss ever given formal authority to bring those charges on his own?

The answer to the first question already looks to be yes, and it alone constitutes a scandal. If the team appointed to investigate Hunter wanted cases prosecuted in certain jurisdictions, and those cases failed to proceed on the say-so of Biden appointees, it destroys Mr. Garland’s claims that the case was insulated from politics. And no one will have to rely solely on Mr. Shapley’s word or emails, already partly backed by the Times reporting. His attorneys provided the names of others present at that October meeting, and they’ll testify. Assuming the U.S. attorneys did block the effort, there will be an extensive document trail: travel vouchers by those who presented the cases in Washington and California, documents from those presentations, emails about the decision. The department might try to block production of those documents from Congress, but federal inspectors general are now also on the case.

Then to the second question about Mr. Weiss’s own authority. U.S. attorneys can’t file charges wherever they please; they have jurisdictions. Mr. Garland’s claim that Mr. Weiss had even “more authority” than a special counsel with the ability to file “in any district” is bizarre—unless Mr. Weiss was formally given such power. As Sol Wisenberg, a former associate and deputy independent counsel, explained on Twitter, to file elsewhere Mr. Weiss would “need some kind of letter from Garland (or an [associate attorney general]) naming Weiss as a special or poo-bah counsel authorized to file charges in the relevant district.” He emphasizes that “Garland cannot give that authority verbally,” there needs to be a “written delegation.”

So where is it? It is simply nonsensical for Mr. Garland to claim Mr. Weiss has unlimited authority—to go outside the rules that govern every U.S. attorney—without showing such a writ of power. And note that the plea deal Mr. Weiss negotiated with Hunter’s team—specifying just two misdemeanor tax charges—was filed in . . . Delaware.

The department needs to answer other questions. Mr. Garland insists Mr. Weiss never asked for “special counsel” authority, but did he ask for something else—like “special attorney” status? Is it possible the request never made it to Mr. Garland but was blocked by those below him? Even if there is a document providing special powers, what’s the date? Was Mr. Weiss initially overruled and given the authority only after whistleblowers went to Washington, or after the statute of limitations for charges kicked in?

The evidence is stacking up that the Weiss probe was rigged to fail. It’s no longer enough for Mr. Garland to mouth reassurances. Let’s see some evidence.

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Sunday. a group of friends joined us to hear The Savannah Wind Symphony.  It was totally inspiring and during the entire program I had chills.

I wore my Marine Cap and thought were I running for political office, God forbid, I would not run on a slogan of "Make America Great Again."  Why? Because I have never been convinced America was great because we embraced segregation.  

Rather my campaign message would be "Make America Unique Again." America is unique because we have the "Bill of Rights, because government serves "We The People," because our rights and freedoms come from God. These three "unique" gifts  must never be thrown away.  We must forever defend them and elect Jurists who protect them as Scotus is currently doing and in keeping with the WSJ Editorial (A landmark for Racial Equality.)

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