#special investigative unit

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Brandi Buchman at HuffPost:

Now that Donald Trump has won the White House for a second time, the path ahead seems clear for him to brush off key federal criminal indictments that have dogged him for years while potentially delaying other cases he faces in state court. By securing the presidency, he can use the awesome powers of the executive to seemingly shield from scrutiny any illegal conduct that he would deem part of his “official” duties. When the U.S. Supreme Court enshrined immunity for official acts of former presidents and “at least presumptive immunity” for acts on the outer perimeter of official duties, the majority did so amid the dissent of the three liberal justices.

When reading her dissent aloud from the bench in July, Justice Sonia Sotomayor had bristled: “Ironic isn’t it? The man in charge of enforcing laws can now just break them.” When writing her dissent, which was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Kentanji Brown Jackson, she concluded that the court had henceforth created a “law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding.” And now Trump is heading back to that “law-free zone.” Here’s the state of his ongoing cases and how they will likely proceed:

The Jan. 6 Case

Special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal prosecution of Trump for his alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, is likely first on the chopping block, considering that Trump has both vowed to fire Smith in “two seconds” and threatened to throw him “out of the country.” Trump faces four felony charges in the Washington, D.C., case: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and, for his alleged intimidation of voters, conspiracy against rights.

Trump has vowed for over a year to see the federal insurrection case dismissed. He has argued that Smith’s appointment is unconstitutional and that he has been vindictively prosecuted. Most important, he has argued that his conduct on and before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was official and therefore protected by presidential immunity. The Supreme Court found in July that former presidents cannot be charged for any “official” conduct but that anything that falls beyond the scope of “official” duties is fair game. This decision forced Smith to revise Trump’s indictment before presiding U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

Chutkan signed an order on Oct. 28 that granted Trump until Nov. 21 to file a motion explaining why the case should be dropped on presidential immunity grounds, and Smith’s team did not oppose that request. Before his victory, Chutkan was in position to weigh both arguments and decide which changes would stay or go based on the immunity ruling. As of October, deadlines in the case were still set for well into December. Trump was widely expected to appeal any ruling that did not wipe away the charges anyway, eventually putting the matter back before the Supreme Court, but now all of that looks to be essentially moot. Under Justice Department policy established in the 1970s, sitting presidents cannot be indicted because it would interfere with their duties. The election interference case is expected to be dropped as soon as Trump is inaugurated. The only thing standing in the way of that outcome is an attempt by the judge to reject any dismissal effort by the Justice Department or, if Smith is fired, an attempt by Congress to see the special counsel restored.

The Classified Documents Case

Trump was accused of hoarding classified records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after he left the White House in 2021. The 37-count case was dismissed less than two weeks after the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling because U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon found that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not have authority to appoint Smith to prosecute Trump. The decision was controversial, and Smith appealed, citing decades of contrary legal precedent. Oral arguments for the appeal haven’t been scheduled yet. Once Trump takes office, he needs only to turn to prosecutors at the Justice Department and encourage them to drop the case. Notably, ABC News reported shortly before Election Day that Trump had floated the idea of Cannon replacing Garland as attorney general.

State Cases

Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after a jury in New York determined he made illegal sought to conceal hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 election. Trump is scheduled for sentencing in this matter on Nov. 26 before Judge Juan Merchan. But because presidents don’t have the authority to interfere with or stop state prosecutions, there’s not much Trump can do to make the case disappear during his presidency. However, his sentencing will likely be delayed indefinitely — or at least until 2029, when his term in office would end.

Trump still faces eight felony charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly criminally conspiring to overturn the state’s election results and engaging in a racketeering conspiracy with a slew of his allies and advisers that state prosecutors say were hellbent on advancing bogus electoral slates for Trump — even after it was clear Democrat Joe Biden had won the presidential vote in Georgia.

The case was thrown off track this year after Trump’s co-defendant Michael Roman alleged that Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis had an improper romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the lawyer Willis tapped to lead the probe into the alleged conspiracy. Arguments on whether Willis should be disqualified do not get underway at the Georgia Court of Appeals until December, and a decision could take months. With Willis declared as winner in her reelection bid Tuesday night, the indictment is expected to stay on ice.

While Donald Trump won, not all of his legal problems will go away entirely, as he could continue to face state charges.

As for federal crimes, Trump will be let off scot free.

[justdreamsandmusic]

''SCP Foundation USA Sites''

just something for fanfiction and so on

[seonghwadyke]

real

[skullfaggot]

i've decided your safeword is the law & order svu intro and i'm not stopping until you can say it all the way through

[favficbirthdays]

Happy Birthday

Kiryuin Sakon Zeroemon (31st October)

Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit

[irascible-iridescent]

I do enjoy the Jean as a character and his dynamic with Harry makes me crazy, on the other hand I hate Jean fans here

[ciaossu-imagines]

Oddly enough, I don’t have too many polyships for Special 7! I flipped a coin between the two I do have and used this prompt for headcanons on a polyship between Ichinose/Reader/Seiji! I hope ya’ll enjoy, my loves!

Who is the one who would go up to a random elder in a coffeeshop and ask them about their life?

This would have to be Seiji and possibly you. Seiji has a great deal of respect for his elders and, while a bit awkward, he really is more of an extrovert than Ichinose, who really does try to avoid a lot of small talk and, unless he had to, wouldn’t really approach a stranger.

Who hates checking out books because checking them out means interacting, and that is always awkward?

This is Ichinose. He doesn’t like having to check out books, partially because of the interacting but mostly because he has a bad habit of never returning them on time. Sometimes he forgets but really, it’s normally because his life gets really busy and his schedule is not at all regular.

Who is the one to use toilet paper as tissues and carries it around all day?

Ichinose does this and sometimes Seiji and possibly even you. Seiji prefers to have tissues on hand and he tries really hard to remember to grab one of those pocket packs, but he sometimes forgets to put them in his pocket and he’d rather use toilet paper than just sneeze without some sort of coverage. Ichinose is too cheap to buy tissues when toilet paper does the exact same job.

Who is the one who carries around $100 just in case there is some apocalypse, and they need to buy gear?

This would have to be you. Seiji carries a modest amount of cash in case of an emergency, but the thought of a potential apocalypse doesn’t really occur to him as something to carry cash for. Ichinose prefers card to cash and only has small bills, which is also a great excuse for not being stuck with the bill when he gets roped into dinners out with everyone from work.

Who is the one who points with their chin?

Ichinose is really bad for this, no matter how many times Seiji or you or anyone else tells him it’s rude. He’ll try for a little bit not to do it if it’s you that points it out, but he only lasts so long because it’s just force of habit to him, honestly.

Who is the one who takes pictures of their food and instagrams it?

It would have to be you. Ichinose has no social media presence whatsoever and really kind of finds the whole idea of it a bother, while Seiji takes horrible pictures and really just wants to eat his food and enjoy it.

Who is the one who reads fanfiction daily?

This is another one that is mostly you. You can get Ichinose into fanfiction though, if you introduce it to him for something you know he enjoys or a show you watch together. He’ll act like he’s not at all interested but reads any fics you send him, initially just to see why you enjoy them so much and later because he kind of begins to really enjoy them too.

Who is the one to write fanfiction?

It would have to be you, if you write fanfiction, or nobody.

Who is the one who cosplays?

While you can convince Ichinose to read fanfic with you, Seiji would be the one who is totally okay with cosplaying with you. It seems fun to him, and it makes you happy and he’s happy to be able to just take part in one of your hobbies.

Who is the one who likes to quote movies, books, and songs in conversations?

I feel like Ichinose quotes obscure shit out of the blue, though infrequently, just to kind of see if anyone will get it or to be mildly annoying.

Who is the one to burst out into song randomly?

This would have to be you. Ichinose tends to whistle more often though, especially while doing domestic chores. Seiji can and will sing if requested but he doesn’t really enjoy it and honestly isn’t overly fantastic at it.

Who is the one who secretly uses their neighbour’s WiFi?

Secretly? Not so much. Ichinose will readily admit he’s been stealing Wi-Fi from his neighbour for years. Why not? They’re already paying for it, he doesn’t want to pay for it, and to him it’s not really hurting anything.

Who is the one who safety pins friendship bracelet strings to their clothing so they could have something to do if bored?

This would have to be you or nobody. If it is something you’d do, my lovely reader, I feel like Seiji would be so down for making friendship bracelets with you and would happily wear any that you made him. Hell, even Ichinose wears the ones you make him, if only to make you happy.

Who is the one who played/plays an obscure instrument just to be different?

I personally don’t headcanon Seiji as playing any instrument and don’t know if the harmonica counts as an obscure instrument, because that’s what I headcanon Ichinose being able to play.

Who is the one who puts bajillions of stickers on their door/wall?

Seiji used to do this during his preteen years but did grow out of it like most people grow out of their phases. If you like to do it, he’ll gift you stickers for your collection but personally, he thinks it’s a bit childish. Ichinose plain out doesn’t care either way. If they make you happy and they’re not hurting anyone, go all for it, in his opinion.

Who is the one who likes to rewatch the same movies?

Both Seiji and Ichinose fall into this. They’re both a little boring in that way. They have their favourite shows or movies and because their work schedules don’t leave them a lot of time, they find themselves watching things they already know they like instead of potentially wasting time on something that they don’t enjoy.

Who is the one who uses bootlegs to watch their favourite movies/TV shows?

Okay, but Bellemer is great at finding bootlegs and supplies Ichinose and you with them if you want them. To Seiji, it’s too much like stealing and he’ll prefer paying for television or outright buying DVD’s and he’ll always have a brief frown on his face whenever you or Ichinose use bootlegs.

Who is the one that writes on their arm to remind themselves to do something?

Neither man does this. Ichinose actually has a pretty amazing memory and doesn’t really forget things too often while Seiji uses a day planner or a calendar app.

Who is the one who owns dozens of pencils but is too lazy to sharpen them?

I feel like Seiji goes through pencils quickly but not because he’s lazy and doesn’t want to sharpen them but because he breaks them fairly quickly or ends up misplacing them or lends them to people who never return them.

Who is the one who uses YouTube for their music because they don’t want to buy/download anything?

Oh, but this is another way that Ichinose is cheap. He doesn’t get paying for a music subscription when YouTube has the music he wants to listen to on there for free, with only the minor inconvenience of the occasional ad.

Who is the one who always wears the same shoes?

You would expect that this would be Ichinose but it’s really not. It’s either Seiji or you. Seiji has two sets of shoes exactly, dress shoes for work and more casual and quite beat up sneakers for his days off. Ichinose actually owns more shoes than him but that’s only because Ichinose has bad feet…his arch is weird and it’s hard to find good shoes for his feet, so he tends to grab shoes whenever he can find good pairs that keep his feet comfortable and don’t hurt.

Who is the one to do asks like this?

It’s probably you, though both men would be good sports about doing them with you if you ever ask them to.

[mfaculty]

Ready to reskill and advance your analytical prowess? Join our Intermediate Analytic Investigations course on Udemy today!

Elevate your skills and upskill your career. Enroll now: #Analytics #SkillDevelopment

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Brandi Buchman at HuffPost:

A four-part appendix detailing more about former President Donald Trump’s alleged criminal attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election hit the public record on Friday. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved the public release on the federal criminal docket in Washington, D.C., late Thursday, following weeks of Trump requesting to keep the appendix out of the public eye. Trump told the judge on Oct. 10 he needed more time to weigh his “litigation options” if she decided to admit the source materials publicly, arguing they could be damaging to jurors and the integrity of the case. Chutkan agreed to give him one week to respond and make his arguments at blocking the release. He filed a last-ditch motion early Thursday asking for more time, but was denied.

The appendix is split into four parts with sensitive information redacted. The four volumes total more than 1,800 pages. Volume I is mostly transcripts of interviews with witnesses who testified before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. There is a new detail in this first volume that stands out, however: testimony before the Jan. 6 committee from a White House valet to Trump. The valet told the committee that on Jan. 6, when Trump was preparing to watch playback of his speech as violence erupted, Trump asked him if his “speech was cut off.” The valet told the committee that he tried to explain to Trump that it had been. [...]

The version published in March by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), the chair of the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, redacted the section where the valet tells investigators that after Trump said “let’s go see” when he was told that his speech was cut off, the valet took off Trump’s outer coat, got a television ready for him and handed him a remote. “And he starts watching it. And I stepped out to get him a Diet Coke, come back in, and that’s pretty much it for me as he’s watching it and like, seeing it for himself,” the valet testified, according to Smith’s version.

The Republican version of the transcript also redacted when congressional investigators next asked the valet: “So, you set up the TV. Did you set it up for him to watch his speech or live coverage of what was happening at the Capitol?” “Typically, that’s — a lot of times he’s in that back dining room a lot,” the valet said. The contents of the transcript with the valet cut off here in Smith’s appendix once investigators asked the valet if he knew, in fact, whether Trump was watching the events at the Capitol. Volume I also contains a previously public transcript in which Jan. 6 committee investigators ask a witness about whether Trump’s Jan. 6 speech draft was something his staffers categorized as “political” or “official.”

[...] Another transcript in the first volume features testimony from Greg Jacob, former Vice President Mike Pence’s legal counsel. The transcript in the Smith appendix redacts Jacob’s name, but a side-by-side comparison by HuffPost of the Jan. 6 committee transcript and the one Chutkan published Friday, confirms it is him. Here the material Smith attaches to his immunity arguments zeroes in on testimony in which Jacob told the Jan. 6 committee about attempts by Trump darling and “coup memo” author John Eastman to convince Pence and Pence’s staff that a vice president had the constitutional authority to count slates and object to them. This meant, according to Eastman, that anything in the existing legislation that governed the count, like the Electoral Count Act, was unconstitutional.

[...]

Volume II is heavily redacted and primarily features tweets from Trump in which he said there had been pervasive voter fraud in battleground states and called on state and election officials to address it. In tweets from November 2020, including on and around Election Day, Trump calls on the Supreme Court to decide the outcome or alleges that fraud in those battleground states is an “unsolvable problem.” The records show how officials including Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt were forced to directly rebut Trump’s bunk claims online but often with demonstrably less effect on social media, given Trump’s reach on Twitter.

The tweets and retweets relate, in part, to Smith’s allegation that Trump was exacting a pressure campaign on election officials predicated on information he knew to be false and despite being told numerous times after Election Day that the election had been the most secure in history. Chris Krebs, former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, made that announcement on Nov. 13. Former Attorney General William Barr would declare publicly on Dec. 1 that there was no evidence of voter fraud. None of that deterred Trump from pursuing his conspiracy theories, according to prosecutors. This volume also shows tweets in which Trump calls on people to come to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, and not just the first time, Dec. 19, 2020, when he blasted out the invite to his “wild” rally. Smith’s appendix shows Chutkan that Trump sent out the call multiple times in December, including on Dec. 30, when he wrote, “JANUARY SIXTH, SEE YOU IN DC!”

[...] Volume III has sections from Pence’s book, “So Help Me God.” Prosecutors highlighted certain passages in which Pence’s describes trying to console a despondent Trump over his defeat and Pence’s own awareness at the time that if there had been any voter fraud, it wasn’t enough to cost Republicans the 2020 election. Other sections feature Pence’s recollection of Trump’s repeated calls to him on the eve of the U.S. Capitol attack. “You gotta be tough tomorrow,” Pence recalled Trump telling him. There are transcripts from court hearings in the third appendix, including a portion of one that took place in Arizona’s Maricopa County, where Trump and his cohorts peddled a fake elector scheme. Other transcripts come straight from political speeches Trump gave, including one on Jan. 4, 2021, when he endorsed Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue before a Georgia runoff election. Trump spent much of that rally talking about his own reelection campaign and claiming the presidential vote had been rigged.

[...] Volume IV contains information that is mostly already in the public record and was obtained through the House Jan. 6 committee. Much of this 384-page document is redacted and it doesn’t offer much new to pore over. There are letters and emails already on the record about the strategy to advance fake electors as well as Pence’s letter issued on Jan. 6, 2021, stating that he did not have unilateral authority to determine which electoral slates should be counted. It also includes a transcript of a town hall from May 2023 in which Trump defended his remarks made at the rally on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, and denied telling people to march to the Capitol that day. The next big deadline Trump must meet in the election subversion case arrives Nov. 7, when he must reply to the 165-page immunity brief special counsel Jack Smith filed on Oct. 2. When he does, it is expected that Trump’s lawyers will emphasize that Trump genuinely believed there was widespread voter fraud and that he acted with the interest of the nation first to reverse his defeat.

[...] The Supreme Court’s ruling granted presidents absolute immunity for their core acts and “presumptive” immunity for all other official acts. But actions outside of core acts are not given this protection.

On Friday, more January 6th-related evidence that Insurrection-Inciter Donald Trump and his allies tried to keep from being revealed came out in the open in a 4-part appendix totaling more than 1,800 pages by Judge Tanya Chutkan.

See Also:

AP, via The Guardian: Judge in Trump election interference case unseals trove of documents

[justdreamsandmusic]

[asknarashikari]

Ooops I forgot to add this to the Emu kissing Shinnosuke bit

*Emu suddenly appears out of nowhere in front of the reunited members of the SIU who were out on a drink together*

Shinnosuke: Tomari Shinnosuke.exe has stopped working

Gou: ...Doc, are you alright? Did you hit your head or something?

Kiriko: *already calling Poppy to come get Emu with an ambulance*

Genpachiro and Kyu: *just relieved Kiriko didn't break out the Boots of Doom and kick Emu's ass*

Rinna: *coaxes Emu into sitting down so she could check on him*

Chase: ....................

[endimpunityday]

Minute of Silence.

Interactive Session: Commemoration International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists 2024

10:40 - 11:00 am.

Minute of Silence led by H.E. Honorable Ourveena Geereesha Topsy-Sonoo, African Union Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression.

#commemoration, #interactivesession, #idei2024, #SafetyOfJournalists

[favficbirthdays]

Happy Birthday

Endo Rokusuke (16th August)

Special 7: Special Crime Investigation Unit

[tinyshe]

It's all fun and games until someone brings a nail gun to the party.

[gendergwend]

the trick of the Dresden Files is to put all of the hypothetically good cops in one place where they just deal with supernatural stuff, explicitly as punishment for being good cops. so, in the dresdenverse, all the dipshits who think they can change things from the inside but get drummed out or whittled down into the same terrified death machine as every other cop can instead fight monsters. obviously, this isn't the reading intended based on how Harry describes other cops. BUT, it's funny if I pretend this is what Butcher wanted us to think, and it makes all the cop-heavy books easier to read.

Dresden is being really vehement about his refusal to work for Marcone for someone who actively and enthusiastically works with the Chicago PD

"Oh, he's a crime lord, he brutalizes and kills people" I got bad news about your current employer, buddy