Ok 6th appellate court had wrong link for oral arguments in Fox/Croft Whitmer fednapping hoax.
Croft atty up 1st. He will discuss court's decision to prevent jury from seeing hundreds of incriminating comms btw FBI handlers and informants that demonstrated the entrapment scheme
Croft atty: "The judge really put the bar down on that."(There were roughly 200+ messages the defense wanted to enter into evidence. Judge said no.)
Croft points to appellate court ruling that supports disclosure of those messages to jury. "It is made for this case, where entrapment is so critical where you do have communication between govt agents."
2 Trump, one Biden judge on the panel btw.
Judge asks which messages should have been admitted. "All 3 informants?" Referring to Dan Chappel, Steve Robeson, and Jenny Plunk.
"Yes your honor."
Chappel and Robeson were primarily responsible for luring the targets into the trap, paying for food/booze/lodging, scheduling "training" camps and most importantly, organizing the "reconnaissance" trip to Whitmer's summer cottage in Sept 2020.
One judge (who apparently didn't read brief) compares the informants to a drug dealer off the street.
Croft atty points to informants' deep role, Chappel paid $50k (it was more) and notes 3,500 texts btw Chappel and his FBI handler, Jayson Chambers.
One was Chambers telling Chappel to orchestrate another fednapping plot in VA against Ralph Northam. "Mission is to kill the governor specifically," Chambers advised Chappel. This was to entrap a 70-year-old disabled Vietnam vet.
Judge Jonker (the trial judge) denied admitting almost all of those texts into evidence.
Croft: "This would have made the difference" btw a guilty and not guilty verdict.
Fox atty up now. He will discuss juror misconduct and Judge Jonker's refusal to hold a hearing to investigate jury misconduct.
This is related to accusations one juror told his co-workers he hoped to get on the jury after he received jury summons and wanted to convict Croft and Fox.
The juror also reportedly was tied to BLM. He became the foreman.
Jonker conducted in-chambers interview with juror, who denied accusations. Jonker then denied motion to hold "Remmer" hearing to involve defense attorneys
It does not appear that appellate attorneys will discuss Jonker's rare decision to set a timer on testimony of a key government witness--one of the co-defendants who pleaded guilty.
Jonker, GWB appointee, clearly had his thumb on the scale to help DOJ get a conviction.
Judge: If we agree with you on the Remmer hearing, what's the remedy?
Atty: A new trial
Now up--Nils Kessler, US Atty who prosecuted case.
Judge directs Kessler to "spend your time on hearsay" claims (which relates to messages denied to jury.) Oh.
Kessler argues concealed messages were irrelevant bc the jury still found Fox and Croft were "predisposed" to commit the fednapping.
Judge: "Isn't that not quite, right? The case law suggests it's a sliding scale. The more you are induced, the less predisposed you need to be. They are related, they're not separate."
BINGO.
Kessler explains that inducement requires "excessive pressure, repeated solicitation..."
Judge Larsen (Trump) interrupts: "But that's their point...the jury never heard all these statement, repeated pressure, that if they would have come in, they would have seen...this is their argument...the government informants pounding on them, 'make a plan, make a plan, you're just sitting around, you're all talk no action, make a plan.' Surely that's relevant?"
Kessler: "Theoretically, yes." LOL
Larsen and Kessler getting into it.
Larsen: "Our case law says things like encouragement, friendship." (This was KEY to Chappel entrapping Fox, whom he considered a father figure. Something like 10,000 messages btw Chappel and Fox.)
Nessler: It has to be more than friendship.
Larsen: That's not what the case law says.
Even the Biden judge (Davis) asks about judge's "blanket" denial of messages. (I will post separately.)
Now Judge Readler (Trump) is reading aloud two of the messages from FBI informants not allowed into evidence.
"There's a lot of stuff about 'we need to keep moving, we need to keep the plan going, come on guys," and "we are running out of time."
Kessler, whose mouth is becoming increasingly dry, claims those plans came from Adam Fox--the broke guy who lived in the basement of vacuum repair shop in Grand Rapids with no running water or toilet.
Chappel on at least 4 occasions offered Fox a credit card with a $5k limit (courtesy of the FBI) Fox said no.
OOF.
Larsen and Kessler at it again. Kessler claims Jonker's decision to conceal messages from informants that didn't specifically regurgitate what an FBI agent said is consistent with a ruling in their circuit.
Larsen: Oh come on, really?
She says she reads the texts btw informants and agents as "we need to make a plan."
Judge Readler asks who was responsible for attempting to execute the "plan" before Election Day over fears Whitmer might be appointed to Biden cabinet and get Secret Service protection.
Kessler claims one of the cooperating witnesses did it. This is provably FALSE.
Appellate atty back up. He is asked about Nessler's claim a co-defendant who pleaded guilty brought up the Secret Service matter.
Atty says he doesn't know (not good) but it demonstrates an interest in who established the timeline which resulted in Oct 2020 arrest.
Atty tells judges the missing messages "highlights the conduct of the government agents" and represent the difference between acquittal and conviction.
"It was going on relentlessly."
"There's got to be fairness and there wasn't here. I think this case needs to be reversed and sent back for a new trial for that reason."
2nd atty addresses judge Q about who brought up timing related to Whitmer possible cabinet nomination.
He points to evidence proving Dan Chappel, the lead informant, raised the pre-election date.
I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea for a DOJ atty to lie to an appellate court?
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Hearing now for Judicial Watch lawsuit in killing of Ashli Babbitt.
There IS a settlement in the case.
Also her husband, Aaron, is a plaintiff.
They are suing the US government under federal torts claim act for assault, negligence, negligent supervision (of shooter Lt. Michael Byrd), negligent training, and wrongful death.
Plaintiffs on behalf of Ashli are seeking $30 million .
The settlement is not yet finalized so cannot be announced.
Holy shit -- the judge is Ana Reyes, the crazy Biden appointee. She is SCREAMING at both sides about who knew what about the proposed settlement.
This relates to a former attorney on the case.
DOJ: "Our intention is to settle this case." Terms have been sent to Babbitt's representatives.
She is again berating one of the plaintiff's attorneys.
This outrageous piece demonstrates what the Trump DOJ is up against not just in the media but within the ranks of the DOJ and federal judges.
First--shame on Barrett for whitewashing the evil Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) mob which is not a "student group" but a campus terror organization that has called for the destruction of both Israel and western civilization INCLUDING THE U.S.
CUAD has terrorized students and administrators at Columbia and Barnard College for over a year; at least one CUAD event featured a member of the PLO. (The event was banned on campus so the wannabe Hamasters conducted the panel virtually.)
But of course only at the NYT is the real villain the Trump DOJ--specifically Emil Bove, a top DOJ official who ordered an investigation into CUAD after masked student terrorists stormed a Barnard building in February and attacked a security guard.
Bove instructed prosecutors to compile a list of CUAD members--but he was once again met with defiance by DOJ lawyers. (This also happened when Bove sought to drop the indictment against NY Mayor Eric Adams.)
"The prosecutors were told by superiors that Mr. Bove was seeking a list so the information could be shared with immigration agents, these people said. Inside the civil rights division, prosecutors came to fear that their criminal investigation was a pretext to facilitate an intimidation and deportation campaign by the Trump administration against student protesters, these people said.
Prosecutors refused to compile such a list that could be given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, these people said."
Now once upon a time, career government lawyers refusing to follow orders from a superior to investigate a known campus terror group seeking the destruction of the U.S. and involved in an anti-Semitic movement across the U.S. perhaps funded by our enemies would receive widespread condemnation in the press.
Bove sought a search warrant for CUAD's Instagram account including nonpublic data. Now this sort of thing was NEVER contentious when the DOJ sought (and received) Pres Trump's X data or when the FBI systematically sought social media data for thousands of Americans related to its Jan 6 investigation.
But seeking data on a radical campus terror group threatening the destruction of the US and Israel among other nations? THAT IS JUST A BRIDGE TOO FAR for career DOJ lawyers. (Instagram actually suspended CUAD's account in March for violating its policies.)
According to DAG Todd Blanche, "the warrant application focused on Columbia University Apartheid Divest included a photograph from C.U.A.D.’s social media of an inverted triangle symbol used by Hamas to designate targets for violence, which was spray-painted on Columbia property along with red paint designed to look like blood.”
Back to Barrett's piece: "While civil rights prosecutors conducted the investigation that Mr. Bove had demanded, they often pushed back against specific steps that he wanted taken, these people said, arguing that they were either not justified by the available facts or contrary to law and past practice, or both."
But civil rights division lawyers--who thankfully now are leaving en masse after the confirmation of Harmeet Dhillon--were not the only DOJ attorneys to defy Bove's request....
NEW: Records obtained by Sens Grassley and Johnson provide further proof DOJ/FBI was in cahoots with Biden WH on "Arctic Frost" investigation, the Jan 6 case against the president.
As I reported in the docs case, Biden WH general counsel Jonathan Su also was working with DOJ and NARA separably to concoct the documents case.
Biden WH turned over govt cell phones used by Pres Trump and VP Pence.
This is from dirty Wash FBI field office official Tim Thibault to others--including WFO chief Steven D'Antuono--about obtaining the devices.
Su arranged the pick up of the devices from Biden WH in May 2022. Again underscoring this is the same time Su was working with NARA to devise the classified documents case, meeting with NARA officials at WH.
Biden general counsel Su says he is the "point of contact" on the case. BTW Steven D'Antuono, former head of Wash FBI field office, retired after Republicans won in Nov 2022 and John Crabb was demoted by Trump DOJ in Feb 2025.
Last night, the DOJ filed its response to Jeb Boasberg's demand to prove the Trump adm did not defy his court orders related to the removal of Venezuelan illegals covered by the Alien Enemies Act (I also will get to a lot more of this in a separate thread and note his own discrepancies in the first temp restraining order next) on March 15.
As I have discussed here and in numerous interviews, the central dispute pertains to what Boasberg calls his "oral ruling" to turn around two planes already in the air carrying AEA illegals. The DOJ cites case law, jurisdiction, and Boasberg's own confusing orders as to why his verbal statement around 6:45pm on March 15--roughly 40 minutes before Boasberg's written minute order--is not controlling.
Note in particular the times the planes departed (this is from new DOJ filing)
While Boasberg now insists his two temporary restraining orders related to the president's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act--signed evening of March 14 and posted (and apparently enacted at the time) around 3pm on March 15--he CLEARLY stated TWICE n the rushed March 15 hearing that the first TRO covering the five unnamed illegal Venezuelans represented by the ACLU related to the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Not the Alien Enemies Act--the basis of the ACLU lawsuit and request for restraining order.
From March 15 transcript (Gelernt is ACLU atty):
EXCEPT that Boasberg's TROs earlier in the day (those statements above were made after 5pm) granted relief sought by ACLU under the Alien Enemies Act.
Not the INA.
Here is ACLU proposed order, which Boasberg granted at around 9:40am without any input or briefing by the DOJ:
Oral arguments about to begin before 3-judge panel of D.C. circuit court on Pres Trump's appeal of Jeb Boasberg's temporary restraining order halting deportation of illegal Venezuelans subject to the president's Alien Enemies Proclamation.
DOJ in the motion to appeal: "If this TRO were allowed to stand, district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action upon bare receipt of a complaint. District courts might next see fit to issue TROs restraining drone strikes, sensitive intelligence operations, or terrorist captures or extraditions. This Court should stay the district court’s unprecedented order."
DOJ calls Boasberg's orders "an unprecedented and enormous intrusion on the executive branch."
Boasberg's orders consisted of "second guessing" about the president's authority.
DOJ interrupted by Justice Millett (Obama) who pushes back against DOJ claims that this opens the door for a judge to frustrate other presidential powers including war powers.
Millett complains the Venezuelans were "rushed" on to planes and didn't have the chance to dispute their membership to TdA.
Millett asks DOJ atty is there are "any planes anywhere in the world" with individuals covered by Alien Enemies Act. DOJ says yes, that's his understanding.
Removal of Venezuelans under other laws are allowed--they both agree.
Millett: DOJ concern about ordering planes back and forth is "moot." Nothing we can do to remedy that now.
DOJ again argues Boasberg's oral "order" to return the planes did not control. Millett says that's a compliance issue at this point.
Boasberg out of the gate accuses DOJ of using "intemperate" and "disrespectful" language in responses to the judge.
He is lecturing the DOJ about its opposition to his alleged "verbal" order to turn around the planes.
"Did you think that was hypothetical or did you understand when I said do that immediately, you meant that."
Boasberg: "Either DHS sent someone who knew nothing about the facts not the law--that's what you are saying, no one told you about those flights?" (2 planes took off during the first part of the hearing.)
"I often tell my clerks before they go out into the world the most valuable thing they possess is their reputation." He admonishes DOJ atty to remember that.