Alex Acosta let the cat out of the bag: the Justice Department knew all about the Jeffrey Epstein Florida plea deal — Robert Willman

Jeffrey Epstein was being protected. The process and communications that accomplished it, and who did it, are not yet known.

The media has reported none of this, although the court documents are available and Robert Willman provides references to them.

Another case of a double standard of justice. Now the question is how far will it go, or will it be buried with the rest of the bodies.

Sic Semper Tyrannis
Alex Acosta let the cat out of the bag: the Justice Department knew all about the Jeffrey Epstein Florida plea deal

Robert Willman

Publius Tacitus — DOJ IG, Horowitz, Fails to Admit What He Proves

IG Horowitz is adopting a very narrow legal interpretation while opting to give DOJ and FBI officials the benefit of the doubt. In other words, unless he was presented with "documents" or "testimony" that political bias was influencing decisions, Horowitz decided to assume that everyone was acting in good faith. I suspect this was introduced into his draft by DOJ and FBI reviewers who were alarmed at the obvious conclusion an objective reader would reach if they only read the facts-the DOJ and FBI were crooked…

When I worked with the CIA we used to call this No Shit Analysis. Thank you Captain Obvious. Why in the world would you assign the same people who were working on the Hillary Clinton investigation on the Trump/Russia Collusion investigation when both cases were still active? This is more than a problem of appearance. This is circumstantial evidence of an attempted political coup. I give Horowitz credit for at least putting this fact on the record. But his refusal to call this out for what it is can be attributed to his caution of not appearing to be partisan....

Sic Semper Tyrannis
DOJ IG, Horowitz, Fails to Admit What He Proves

Publius Tacitus

Alexander Mercouris — Here’s the Justice Department memo that led to Comey being sacked (full text and analysis)

Revealing.

The Duran
Here’s the Justice Department memo that led to Comey being sacked (full text and analysis)
Alexander Mercouris

Alex Emmons — With James Comey Gone, These Three FBI and DOJ Officials Are Running the Russia-Trump Probe

It will be some time before a new FBI director is appointed and approved by the US Senate. In the meanwhile, the investigation will proceed. Here are the key players.

The Interecept
With James Comey Gone, These Three FBI and DOJ Officials Are Running the Russia-Trump Probe
Alex Emmons

Pam and Russ Martens — Secret Recordings Emerge in Clinton Foundation Probe

Looks like a battle between the FBI and DOJ is raging.

Wall Street On Parade
Secret Recordings Emerge in Clinton Foundation Probe

Pam and Russ Martens

Zero Hedge — John Podesta's Best Friend At The DOJ Will Be In Charge Of The DOJ's Probe Into Huma Abedin Emails

More stuff of banana republics.

An administration investigating itself is like a company policing itself.

Zero Hedge
John Podesta's Best Friend At The DOJ Will Be In Charge Of The DOJ's Probe Into Huma Abedin Emails

Tyler Durden

See also

Hacked Podesta Email Reveals Clinton Foundation "Coercing" Saudi Billionaire For Millions Of Dollars

See also

Moon of Alabama
The FBI's Clinton Investigation Is Wider Than Assumed

Pam Martens — Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied

Martens suggests that the Obama DOJ acted politically to obstruct FBI investigations of the Clintons.

Wall Street On Parade
Clintons Are Under Multiple FBI Investigations as Agents Are Stymied

Pam Martens

Alex Emmons — Major New Court Ruling Says “Even The President” Can’t Declare Torture Lawful

In a robust ruling in favor of Abu Ghraib detainees, an appellate court ruled Friday that torture is such a clear violation of the law that it is “beyond the power of even the president to declare such conduct lawful.”

The ruling from a unanimous panel of judges on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstates a lawsuit against a military contractor for its role in the torture of four men at the notorious prison in Iraq.

Last June, a district court ruled that a “cloud of ambiguity” surrounds the definition of torture, and that despite anti-torture laws, the decision to torture was a “political question” that could not be judged by courts.

That ruling echoed the widely discredited legal theories of the Bush administration, which argued that the war on terror gave the president the inherent authority to indefinitely detain and torture terror suspects, and conduct mass surveillance on Americans’ international communications.

But the Fourth Circuit soundly rejected that theory, saying that the United States has clear laws against torturing detainees that apply to the executive branch.…

The Intercept
Major New Court Ruling Says “Even The President” Can’t Declare Torture Lawful
Alex Emmons

Dean Baker — If Uber Succeeds in Monopolizing the Market Then Obama is Supposed to Regulate His Former Political Adviser

The Washington Post reported that Uber is deliberately trying to drive Lyft, its major competitor out of the market, by having temporarily low rates and subsidies to drivers. If the Post's reporting is accurate, and barriers to entry prevent new companies from effectively competing with Uber, then the company is engaging in classic anti-competitive tactics. This is the sort of activity that is supposed bring intervention from the Justice Department, since Uber will be charging higher prices if it succeeds in eliminating Lyft.

The management of Uber is either not aware of the law or counting on its political power to ensure that the law is not enforced. Uber hired David Plouffe, President Obama's top political strategist, to a top position in 2008.

Beat the Press
If Uber Succeeds in Monopolizing the Market Then Obama is Supposed to Regulate His Former Political Adviser
Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C

Mica Rosenberg — Top U.S. officials rejected push to prosecute HSBC: lawmakers' report

Senior U.S. Department of Justice officials overruled internal recommendations to prosecute global bank HSBC Holdings Plc for money-laundering violations because of concerns about the stability of the financial system, according to a congressional report released on Monday.…

Business Insider
Top U.S. officials rejected push to prosecute HSBC: lawmakers' report
Mica Rosenberg | Reuters

Stephen Gandel — Mortgage Exec At the Heart of Financial Crisis Escapes Charges

Mozilo walks with only a hefty fine, not all of which he paid himself.

Fortune
Mortgage Exec At the Heart of Financial Crisis Escapes Charges
Stephen Gandel, senior editor

Cronyism, corruption, use whatever noun along those lines you want. That's our government and the brazen actions of our officials, past and present!

Eric Holder Returns As Hero To Law Firm That Lobbies For  Big Banks

Well, if you still had any doubts as to why Eric Holder, as Attorney General, did not prosecute one single bank executive for the inumerable acts of fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, tax evasion, lwire and mail fraud or, lying under oath, here's why...he was preparing for his very lucrative career outside of government.

That career would be working for a law firm that LOBBIES FOR BIG BANKS.

And our leaders lecture other countries about corruption. What a fucking joke. We are all fools.

Robert Reich — Whatever Happened to Antitrust?

Last week’s settlement between the Justice Department and five giant banks reveals the appalling weakness of modern antitrust.

The banks had engaged in the biggest price-fixing conspiracy in modern history. Their self-described “cartel” used an exclusive electronic chat room and coded language to manipulate the $5.3 trillion-a-day currency exchange market. It was a “brazen display of collusion” that went on for years, said Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

But there will be no trial, no executive will go to jail, the banks can continue to gamble in the same currency markets, and the fines – although large – are a fraction of the banks’ potential gains and will be treated by the banks as costs of doing business.

America used to have antitrust laws that permanently stopped corporations from monopolizing markets, and often broke up the biggest culprits.

No longer. Now, giant corporations are taking over the economy – and they’re busily weakening antitrust enforcement....

Because "free markets." How does that follow? Doesn't have to.

And it's not just the big banks. It's also pharma, insurance, you name it.

The result is economic power, economic rent extraction, prices higher than they would be in a competitive market, higher "profits"and higher corporate share to worker share.

Welcome to neoliberalism.

Robert Reich
Whatever Happened to Antitrust?

Eric Zeusse — Obama Lied About His Intent to Prosecute Wall Street Banksters

Shilling for Wall Street (donors).

Global Research
Obama Lied About His Intent to Prosecute Wall Street Banksters
Eric Zeusse

CNBC.com staff — Throw away the key! Pols want bad bankers jailed

Some bipartisanship on one thing anyway.

CNBC Net Net
Throw away the key! Pols want bad bankers jailed
CNBC.com staff

Bill Black — Three Passages From Akerlof & Romer’s 1993 Article That Should Have Prevented The Crisis

This is the first installment of a series of articles about the media, finance industry, political, and Department of Justice (DOJ) reaction to Michael Lewis’ new book about high frequency trading (HFT). The media ballyhooed the book as if it were an amazing revelation of a fact of surpassing importance. The industry demonized the book and Lewis. DOJ immediately announced it had begun a criminal investigation and the SEC it had multiple investigations pending. Whether the industry or Lewis is correct about HFT practices (which he asserts are lawful) is unimportant for some purposes. My series will focus on the difference between the frenzied DOJ, political, and media reaction to Lewis’ criticism of allegedly lawful HFT practices and the “yawn” reaction of these same groups to the vastly more damaging criminal frauds runs by our elite financial leaders that caused the financial crisis is astronomical, ludicrous, and disastrous. Similarly, the reaction of these three groups to the finding by multiple investigations that 16 of the largest banks in the world committed crimes by setting LIBOR rates through frauds and cartels (the largest cartel, by several orders of magnitude, in history) was less than a yawn, as I described in prior articles.

New Economic Perspectives
Three Passages From Akerlof & Romer’s 1993 Article That Should Have Prevented The Crisis
William K. Black | Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC

 

Jon Perr — For Obama, Chickens Come Home to Roost on Bush Torture Program

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney must be laughing their asses off. President Obama has a budding constitutional crisis on his hands, with a leading Senate Democrat accusing Obama's CIA director of spying on Intelligence Committee staff. But at the heart of the issue is a still-classified, 6,000 page report said to catalog abuses and deceptions perpetrated by the Central Intelligence Agency as part of President Bush's program of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques." Which means that five years after he put an end to Bush's regime of detainee torture, Barack Obama is facing the blowback from his decision to leave its architects unpunished.

PERRspectives

For Obama, Chickens Come Home to Roost on Bush Torture Program
Jon Perr

It's impossible that President Obama actually put an end to Bush's regime of detainee torture other than in PR if he has seen to it that no one is punished. That just means that the reign of torture goes back underground where it had been for decades. Now it not politically correct to publicize it anymore. Have the CIA and related sub rosa services running black ops been reined in? No way. And it is President Obama's responsibility.

Ryan J. Reilly — House Republicans Demand DOJ Platinum Coin Option Memo

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee have asked the Justice Department to turn over a memo that spells out the Obama administration's view of whether the so-called platinum coin option could avert a congressional fight over the debt ceiling limit.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder on Dec. 20, asking DOJ to turn over "all records within the custody and control of DOJ which relate to the coin issuance proposal," as first reported by The Hill.

The Huffington Post reported last month that the Justice Department has acknowledged the existence of an official Office of Legal Counsel memo on the platinum coin option. Supporters say the option would allow the Treasury Department to mint a platinum coin in any denomination, which then could be used to meet government obligations without the need for Congress to grant any additional spending powers. While DOJ acknowledged in a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that such a memo or memos existed, it also said the material was withheld because it was protected by attorney-client and deliberative process privileges and "not appropriate for discretionary release."

The Huffington Post
House Republicans Demand DOJ Platinum Coin Option Memo
Ryan J. Reilly

Kevin Gosztola — Interview with NSA Whistleblower Bill Binney: Afraid We’re Spreading Secret Government Around World

The FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency, and law enforcement, along with the NSA, are collecting information on Americans and then using that information to arrest people. “Parallel construction” is then used to “fabricate evidence” that is substituted with evidence that is subsequently collected legally and through mechanisms that have traditionally been an accepted part of criminal investigations.

In former senior NSA employee and whistleblower William Binney’s view, this is the “real problem.” It is occurring without a warrant and they can bring this information into court. He calls it the “planned program perjury policy right out of the Department of Justice.”

“They’re lying to the courts,” Binney explains. The government knows that they are lying when they say here is the evidence used to arrest these people. The information is also being shared with “foreign counterparts.” They’re telling “foreign counterparts” this is the evidence used to arrest people but the “counterparts” do not get to see the data because it is from NSA collection.

Essentially, this is the United States subverting not only its own justice system but justice systems around the world.

Binney served as a director of the NSA’s World Geopolitical and Military Analysis Reporting Group and was a senior NSA crypto-mathematician when he worked for the agency. He left the agency after the NSA began to collect data on Americans they should not have been collecting. The agency had also rejected a program called ThinThread, which would have enabled targeted information acquisition. ThinThread would have been employed by the NSA instead of the bulk data collection that occurs in violation of the privacy of citizens in America and around the world….

He also clarified his thoughts about how journalists had handled information from Snowden so far. He doesn’t see anything wrong with what they are doing and how they are exposing the information in stories.

“What they have been exposing should be public knowledge,” he declared. “Collecting all this information on individuals is what totalitarian states have done down through the centuries. That’s been their business.”

It is why German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose phone was tapped by the NSA, was upset. It is like what the Stasi did, what the KGB did, what the Gestapo and SS did and what Mao Zedong’s people did in China. It is a “totalitarian procedure.”

Binney argued, “If we accept this, then we’re accepting totalitarianism. We have to speak up against it.”

Firedoglake
Interview with NSA Whistleblower Bill Binney: Afraid We’re Spreading Secret Government Around World
Kevin Gosztola

Jed S. Rakoff — The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?

Five years have passed since the onset of what is sometimes called the Great Recession. While the economy has slowly improved, there are still millions of Americans leading lives of quiet desperation: without jobs, without resources, without hope.

Who was to blame? Was it simply a result of negligence, of the kind of inordinate risk-taking commonly called a “bubble,” of an imprudent but innocent failure to maintain adequate reserves for a rainy day? Or was it the result, at least in part, of fraudulent practices, of dubious mortgages portrayed as sound risks and packaged into ever more esoteric financial instruments, the fundamental weaknesses of which were intentionally obscured?

The New York Review of Books (Jan 9, 2014)
The Financial Crisis: Why Have No High-Level Executives Been Prosecuted?
Jed S. Rakoff | U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York
(h/t Ryan Harris in the comments)

Judge Rakoff is not going to let this die.