Steve Bannon indicted in New York on financial fraud charges
Steve Bannon, former strategist to former President Donald Trump, Thursday surrendered to New York authorities on financial fraud charges. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. and New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the charges against Bannon, claiming the former strategist wrongly collected more than $15 million from US political donors under a “We Build the [...]
Whatever You Think of Garland, We Must Shield the Attorney General from Politics
We have all seen the firestorm of controversy over US Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland’s approval of a warrant application to search the home of former President Donald Trump. I personally have no doubts about Garland’s commitment to evenhanded justice and the rule of law. But these events demonstrate, more than ever, the urgent need [...]
Former White House aide to January 6 Committee: Trump knew rioters were armed
A former White House aide Tuesday told the US House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack that former US President Donald Trump encouraged January 6 election protesters to go to the US Capitol despite knowing that some were armed with weapons ranging from rifles to bear spray and spears. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to [...]
President Joe Biden Tuesday pardoned three convicted felons – Abraham Bolden Sr., Betty Jo Bogans and Dexter Jackson – and commuted the prison sentences of 75 others. The individuals granted clemency came at the recommendation of the Department of Justice’s pardon attorney. The first to be pardoned was Abraham Bolden Sr., a former Secret Service [...]
Brazil opposition leaders challenge presidential pardon granted to Daniel Silveira
Brazil’s opposition party Friday challenged President Jair Bolsonaro’s pardon of his political ally, Daniel Silveira, as unconstitutional. On Thursday, Bolsonaro pardoned Silveira who had been sentenced to 8 years and 9 months in prison for hate speech and “crimes of threat to the Democratic State of Law.” The Sustainability Network Party or Rede Sustentabilidade, Brazil’s [...]
Peru dispatch: Fujimori prison release uncertain after Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling
Anjana Meza is a JURIST Staff Correspondent in Lima, and a law student in the Facultad de Derecho, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. In recent weeks, Peru has undergone a measure of political-legal chaos. On March 17, the Constitutional Court of Peru overruled a lower court annulment of pardon for Peruvian ex-President Alberto Fujimori, and [...]
Natural Law and the United States Constitution: Still Vital Connections
Abstract: Ideas of Natural Law were crucial in drafting the US Constitution. These seminal ideas were made known to document “framers” largely by way of William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. The Commentaries represent the truest philosophic origins of America’s legal system. In these dissembling times of recurrent political manipulation, Blackstone’s work warrants [...]
The Boston Globe has a new series on Future Proofing the Presidency, making a case for prosecution of former President Donald Trump. Just for the record, in DC the basic Presidential criminality approach is: 1) The President gets an interpretation of the law from a lawyer somewhere such as in the Office of Legal Counsel [...]
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world….” -William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming Plus, ca’ change. “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” In world politics, anarchy is an old and continuing story. Chaos is not. But what are the precise differences? And why do [...]
One of the latest achievements of the criminal justice system is the acceptance of repentance, serf-reformation, and reconciliation, drifting from the classical concept of strict punishment as a measure against crime. The concept of providing amnesty emerged in the past as a means to correct any error in the judgment of courts, is now practiced [...]
