After President Trump dismantled a voter fraud commission, its vice-chairman, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, filed criminal charges against two people he says voted illegally in the 2016 election. Kobach obtained prosecutorial power in 2015 and is the only secretary of state in the nation with such authority. He has filed charges against 15 others–mostly cases in which U.S. citizens allegedly voted in more than one jurisdiction.
Browsing: Elections 2016
Federal prosecutors are trying to convict 200 people in Inauguration Day protests that turned violent. A jury cleared the first half-dozen defendants after one of their attorneys urged them to protect the “rights of free speech.”
The president tweeted that the “legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets [sic] go FBI & Justice Dept.” A president’s directing a particular investigation — especially of a former political rival — would be viewed by most officials in law enforcement as improper.
The Justice Department has identified more than six members of the Russian government involved in hacking the Democratic National Committee’s computers and swiping sensitive information that became public during the 2016 presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions insists in appearance before Senate Intelligence Committee, “I am not stonewalling. I am following the historic policies of the Department of Justice.”
President’s supporters fear that a long probe of last year’s election will overshadow the White House agenda for months. Trump friend Chris Ruddy says the president may fire special counsel Mueller.
So says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who attended a briefing by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The briefing occurred a day after Rosenstein chose former FBI director Robert Mueller to lead the probe.
FBI director James Comey said his work wouldn’t be influenced by politics, yet he spoke publicly about the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails while not disclosing a simultaneous probe of Donald Trump’s campaign.
In a critique of the Trump administration’s first 100 days in office, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University complains that the president and Attorney General Jeff Sessions talk about a “nonexistent crime wave.”
Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign, says he is being made a political scapegoat in the probe of possible ties between Trump associates and Russia.