#department of justice

[joyflameball]

DON'T LET THIS GO OUT OF CIRCULATION. ADD MORE ONTO IT. QUEUE IT. DON'T LET THIS SITE FUCKING FORGET. THIS TRIAL COULD HAVE MASSIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE WHOLE INTERNET.

EDIT:

Originally I linked an MSN article. I was unaware they're not a trustworthy source, but many lovely people in the notes pointed it out and pointed out that the article I linked had issues, linking much better sources.

Here's an excellent addition to the post by @/thesoulofthebeautiful:

Also, I saw a lot of people freaking out in the notes like "Oh shit, is Google gonna get completely taken down????" No. It won't. Google's a trillion dollar company, this won't completely destroy it. What it'll hopefully do is keep them from having Google be the default engine EVERYWHERE. If Google loses, that is a good thing. This WILL shake up the internet, but it won't be the end.

Cool? Cool. Here's a Destiel meme:

IF YOU REPOST THIS MEME, LINK THE SOURCES

#cassie rambles #google #department of justice #doj #google v doj #anti capitalism

[whosurisold]

If you believe the gQp repigliKlan cult attack on women just began - then YOU have NOT been paying attention

#democrats #republicans #donald trump #democracy #doj #government #trumpchumps #scotus #ivanka trump #department of justice #women’s rights #women #melaniatrump #erictrump #donjrtrump #tiffanytrump #laratrump #nicole wallace #rachel maddow #jen psaki

[reasonsforhope]

Note: They're saying "alleged" because that's what journalists are supposed to do until there's a conviction. ABC isn't trying to cast doubt, they're trying to follow professional standards and also not get sued for libel.

"Former President Donald Trump, bent on staying in power, undertook a sweeping "criminal scheme" to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including repeatedly pushing lies about the results despite knowing that they were correct, and doubling down on those falsehoods as the Jan. 6 riot raged, a sweeping federal indictment alleges.

This is the third indictment faced by the former president, who -- as the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race -- continues to insist that the vote was rigged.

Prosecutors say the alleged scheme, which they say involved six unnamed co-conspirators, included enlisting a slate of so-called "fake electors" targeting several states; using the Justice Department to conduct "sham election crime investigations"; enlisting the vice president to "alter the election results"; and doubling down on false claims as the Jan. 6 riot ensued -- all in an effort to subvert democracy and stay in power.

The six alleged co-conspirators include several attorneys and a Justice Department official.

The sweeping indictment, based on the investigation by special counsel Jack Smith, charges Trump with four felony counts: conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights...

In the history of the country, no president or former president had ever been indicted prior to Trump's first indictment in April."

-via ABC News, August 1, 2023

WE FUCKING DID IT

#trump #jack smith #donald trump #trump indictment #united states #us politics #gop #election 2024 #mike pence #department of justice #justice system #good news #hope #jan 6 #jan 6 insurrection #insurrection

[sher-ee]

A miscarriage of justice at the hands of Merrick Garland.

#department of justice #merrick garland #america #failure #democrats #republicans #jan 6th #insurrection #donald trump #justice #vote blue

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

New details have emerged of plans by Trump allies to dismantle democracy under a second Trump administration by packing the Department of Justice with Trump loyalists and shrinking the independent scope of the FBI. The plans, as detailed by Reuters, seek to craft a DOJ to advance conservative agendas, heavily curtail civil liberties, and impede investigations into corruption by Trump and his allies.

The plans laid out by Trump allies to convert the FBI into a politically charged conservative attack dog come from the authoritarian aspirations of Project 2025, a sprawling network led by conservative think tanks that comb through existing law to find loopholes and precedent for Trump—or any conservative president—to enact extreme right-wing policies and consolidate power at a moment’s notice.

Trump allies plan to nuke consent decrees, a sort of contractual oversight agreement between the Department of Justice and local police departments, to curb civil rights abuses. They also want to downgrade the FBI’s access to the attorney general, instead making the FBI head report to two politically installed assistant attorneys general.

Steve Bradbury, who served as transportation secretary under Trump and who spoke with Reuters about these plans, claimed in backward fashion that the DOJ acting independently from the president’s wishes poses a “recipe for abuse of power.”

“Whenever you have power centers ... that have enormous resources, coercive power and investigative tools at their disposal, and they are presumed to be independent of any control down the chain of command from the president, that is a recipe for abuse of power,” Bradbury told Reuters.

Conservatives have long called to dismantle the FBI following investigations into Russian collusion with Trump’s 2016 campaign and indictments by the DOJ of participants in the January 6 Capitol riot. Trump allies want to reduce the scope of the FBI’s investigative authority, leaving the department to focus solely on “large-scale crimes and threats to national security,” from which insurrection and sedition by conservatives are, naturally, excluded. A January report by the National Institute of Justice found far-right extremism has continued to outpace all other forms of domestic terrorism since 1990.

Plans to dramatically alter the DOJ to act as an extension of conservative ambitions rather than an independent agency follow a similar pattern to Trump’s overhaul of the Supreme Court and packing conservative judges throughout the federal circuit as president—changes that led to the overturning of Roe after Trump left office and a continuation of attacks on LGBTQ+ freedoms and civil rights today. If reelected, Trump’s allies would replicate that process at the Department of Justice.

#us politics #news #republicans #donald trump #conservatives #gop #trump administration #project 2025 #fbi #department of justice #authoritarianism #fascisim #reuters #the new republic #2024 #Steve Bradbury #National Institute of Justice #civil liberties #corruption

[socialjusticeinamerica]

👏

#live nation #ticket master #monopoly #concert tickets #DOJ #department of justice

[deadpresidents]

American Bonaparte: Napoléon's Great-Nephew in the President's Cabinet

In June 1815, Napoléon Bonaparte’s bid for continued military glory in Europe was crushed by allied British and Prussian troops at the Battle of Waterloo. Following his surrender, the former Emperor of France had hoped that the British might allow him to live the remainder of his life in exile in the United States. However, Napoléon had already escaped exile once before (from the Mediterranean island of Elba) and once again rallied the French around him in a last-ditch effort to conquer the European continent prior to Waterloo. Unwilling to risk another vanishing act, the British instead banished Napoléon to one of the most isolated places in the world – the remote island of Saint Helena, in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, between Africa and South Africa – for the rest of his life.

Some of the Bonaparte family did eventually reach the United States, however. In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-1921), the American-born grandson of Napoléon’s youngest brother, Jérôme, as the U.S. Secretary of the Navy. A year later, Roosevelt shifted Bonaparte from the Department of the Navy to the Justice Department. For the rest of Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency, the great-nephew of the man responsible for the Napoléonic code was the United States Attorney General – America’s top law enforcement official – where he helped establish the Bureau of Investigation, better known today as the FBI.

#History #Napoleon #Napoleon Bonaparte #Battle of Waterloo #Waterloo #France #U.S. Government #Jérôme Bonaparte #Charles Joseph Bonaparte #Theodore Roosevelt #TR #President Roosevelt #Roosevelt Administration #Cabinet #Presidential Cabinets #Cabinet of Theodore Roosevelt #U.S. Attorney General #U.S. Secretary of the Navy #Attorney General #Bonaparte #Bonaparte Family #Executive Branch #Cabinet Secretaries #French History #FBI #FBI History #Federal Bureau of Investigation #DOJ #Department of Justice #Justice Department

[thecitynative]

A two year review finished by the DOJ shows Minneapolis Police's widespread discrimination against it's Native & Black residents. The review also shows excessive/deadly force, the use of force following stops, and discrimination against those with behavioral health disabilities. The CDC & 2019 Census data released show that Native people suffer from police deaths 2.2 % higher than white people and 1.2 % higher than black people. Here is the report

This is really scary

#native tumblr #native issues #native rights #native lives matter #minneapolis #department of justice #police brutality #killer cops #blacklivesmatter

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

#republican assholes #traitor trump #crooked donald #traitor #resist #maga morons #Trump prosecution #department of justice

[simply-ivanka]

Jim Jordan slaps AG Merrick Garland with subpoena over alleged DOJ surveillance of Congress https://nypost.com/2023/12/19/news/jordan-slaps-ag-garland-with-subpoena-over-alleged-doj-surveillance-of-congress/

#corruption #department of justice #trump #ivanka #trump 2024 #president trump #americans first #repost #america first #donald trump #america #democrats

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

#us politics #2022 #memes #shitpost #republicans #conservatives #donald trump #mar a lago #sedition #treason #classified documents #top secret documents #fbi #fbi raid #department of justice

[whosurisold]

until now - never again

#democrats #republicans #donald trump #trumpchumps #ivanka trump #doj #scotus #democracy #government #department of justice #president joe biden #vp kamala harris #ali velshi

[onlytiktoks]

#tiktok #apple #anti trust #anti trust lawsuit #antitrust law #lawsuit #monopoly #capitalism is the worst #capitalism is evil #capitalism kills #capitalism #anti capitalist #capitalist hell #capitalist dystopia #capitalist bullshit #capitalism is hell #capitalism is a scam #capitalism is a disease #us govt #us government #federal government #department of justice

[originalleftist]

Read This. Sign This. Share This.

#Nex Benedict #Oklahoma #Trans Rights #Hate Crime #Republican Fascists #Department of Justice #Justice For Nex

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Recently unsealed court documents suggest that prosecutors in Donald Trump’s classified documents case have even more damning evidence that he tried to obstruct the government’s attempts to retrieve the documents.

According to supporting documentation for a motion filed by Trump’s legal team, the government subpoena for Mar-a-Lago’s security footage seemingly led Trump to try to cover up the relocation of the classified documents. Trump was notified of the subpoena in a June 2022 call with one of his attorneys, which probably prompted Trump to tell staffers to evade security cameras when moving boxes thereafter—or so concluded the district judge who oversaw the grand jury in the case.

“The government has provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the June 24, 2022 phone call may have furthered the former president’s efforts to obstruct the government’s investigation,” Judge Beryl Howell wrote in 2023.

The damning detail is just one of many revelations that have come out of hundreds of pages of court documents that were unsealed Tuesday. Howell’s opinion also described how four more documents with classified markings were discovered on Trump’s property, stashed away in his bedroom, even months after the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.

Howell also found that prosecutors provided sufficient evidence that Trump had “intentionally concealed the existence of additional documents” in order to mislead the government and impede the FBI’s investigation.

Trump faces 42 felony charges in the case related to illegally retaining national security documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice. But the judge overseeing the case has been dragging her feet for months. Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely delayed the trial earlier this month, purportedly over issues about how to handle classified evidence. Legal analysts worry that these delays could be the Trump-appointed judge’s way of surreptitiously dismissing the trial altogether.

#us politics #news #republicans #conservatives #donald trump #gop #trump administration #2024 #the new republic #classified documents #mar a lago #obstruction of justice #Judge Beryl Howell #fbi #department of justice #Judge Aileen Cannon

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

Sea, can you explain the LiveNation - OVG scenario?

This is a summary of the Justice Department’s argument.

The Justice Dept. argues that Live Nation/ Ticketmaster operates as a monopoly that locks venues and artists into exclusive contracts. The result is higher ticket prices for consumers (and the lawsuit was partly a result of the debacle of Taylor Swift’s tickets in the USA).

The complaint specifically mentions Oak View Group. As we know, Oak View is Irving Azoff’s business with ownership of major new arenas (including the Manchester Co-op). Azoff owns artist management (Full Stop Management), a performance right group (Global Music Rights). Apparently Azoff founded Oak View after a 2-year noncompete expired (with TM, since Azoff had been Ticketmaster’s CEO). Oak View now operates a huge business in concessions.

In the DOJ complaint:

“According to the complaint, Live Nation-Ticketmaster has unlawfully maintained monopolies in several concert promotions and primary ticketing markets and engaged in other exclusionary conduct affecting live concert venues, including arenas and amphitheaters. The complaint further alleges that Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s exclusionary practices fortify and protect what it refers to as its “flywheel.” The flywheel is Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s self-reinforcing business model that captures fees and revenue from concert fans and sponsorship, uses that revenue to lock up artists to exclusive promotion deals, and then uses its powerful cache of live content to sign venues into long term exclusive ticketing deals, thereby starting the cycle all over again. Live Nation-Ticketmaster’s anticompetitive conduct creates even more barriers for rivals to compete on the merits. Specifically, Live Nation-Ticketmaster engaged in a variety of tactics to eliminate competition and monopolize markets:

Relationship with Oak View Group: Live Nation-Ticketmaster exploits its longtime relationship with Oak View Group, a potential competitor-turned-partner that has described itself as a “hammer” and “protect[or]” for Live Nation. In recent years, Oak View Group has avoided bidding against Live Nation for artist talent and influenced venues to sign exclusive agreements with Ticketmaster. For example, Live Nation has scolded Oak View Group multiple times for trying to compete. In one instance, Live Nation asked, “who would be so stupid to . . . play into [an artist agent’s] arms,” and on another occasion, Live Nation stated, “let’s make sure we don’t let [the artist agency] now start playing us off.”

—

I interpret this as having 2 parts to the LN-OVG relationship.

First, OVG has abetted the LN-TM monopoly, by avoiding competitive bidding for concert promotion and talent negotiations. It means that OVG have encouraged their own artists and venues to go along with Live Nation’s contractual terms, serving as LN’s enforcer. If LN gets what it wants, they all benefit from the extra money.

Here’s a little history :

OAK VIEW WAS IDEALLY SUITED TO SERVE as Live Nation’s “hammer” because Azoff has been the music industry’s chief enforcer dating back to the 1970s, when he made his name as one of the most powerful men in rock music by displaying quick wits and a knack for the sort of details that might escape David Geffen. As the manager of Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Jimmy Buffett, and the Eagles, Azoff deftly wielded access to the era’s hottest musical acts to help political candidates get around post-Watergate campaign finance laws that capped the amount of cash they could accept from a single donor by hosting massive concert fundraisers. He was legendarily good at both supplying rock stars with drugs and hiding them from the authorities. (“Irving’s role was to keep us out of prison, basically,” recalled Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh in 2020.) And in 1970, he saved a Memorial Day concert festival from being shut down by a circuit court judge who deemed it an improper use of land zoned for agricultural use by rebranding the event as a cattle auction that would happen to feature live music from 30 bands.

Azoff spent the 1980s helming MCA Records, which spent much of that decade under an FBI investigation into organized-crime ties that was ultimately shelved at the personal direction of then-Attorney General Ed Meese. (One of several books on the investigation suggests that various MCA executives were somehow connected to Iran-Contra.)

During those same years, however, Azoff kept a wide array of side hustles in the concert and marketing businesses. He helped promote a Jackson family reunion tour alongside boxing promoter Don King that ended up getting him sued by the operators of the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles—a venue he would come to control when his buddy and longtime business partner Jim Dolan, scion of a New York cable industry fortune, acquired it in 2012; he launched a marketing firm with then-Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen in 1990 to capitalize on the company’s surfeit of valuable consumer data; and he worked on a radio syndication venture with Robert Kardashian, the famous O.J. Simpson attorney whose wife is still close friends with Azoff’s wife Shelli.

Around the turn of the millennium, the company now known as Live Nation was a voracious debt-financed rollup of a couple dozen regional concert promoters and 120 venues called SFX that was—perhaps simply as a ploy in its negotiations with Ticketmaster—threatening to launch its own ticketing service, and Azoff and Leiweke were tapped by oil billionaire Phil Anschutz to helm a potential SFX competitor that could lure away talent and venues from the emerging juggernaut; Azoff’s team wooed Britney Spears’s concert tour the following year, but it would never come close to rivaling the SFX footprint. In 2007, Live Nation announced it was going to allow its Ticketmaster contract to expire and was launching a competing ticketing service, leading Ticketmaster to begin talks to merge with Azoff’s upstart competitor AEG Live; the following year, Ticketmaster instead bought Azoff’s talent management company Front Line and appointed him as its new CEO. Azoff in turn immediately began talks to merge with Live Nation.

The reason why Live Nation can dominate the market is because OVG has created run-arounds with anti-trust laws designed to protect consumers. A new competitor firm comes around, OVG gets it shut down. Artists rebel against Live Nation, Azoff makes sure they have nowhere else to go. If the DOJ is investigating, Azoff invites the government officials to join his board— it’s always more lucrative on the business side.

Azoff (along with Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino) is also an old hand at using consumer data to jack up prices. “[H]e launched a marketing firm with then-Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen in 1990 to capitalize on the company’s surfeit of valuable consumer data; and he worked on a radio syndication venture with Robert Kardashian, the famous O.J. Simpson attorney whose wife is still close friends with Azoff’s wife Shelli.”

In short, Live Nation and Ticketmaster are able to monopolize the market because Irving Azoff played a big role in enabling it to skirt the antitrust laws, buy off competitors and government officials, and kill the competition.

Oh wait— last addendum.

Irving Azoff is why Harry Styles dated a Kardashian, why he’s friends with Cindy Crawford’s family, why he did an MSG residency and owns a bit of the Manchester Co-op, and why his best friend is Jeff Azoff. Irving is the explanation to the sentimental education and soul (or lack thereof?) of Harry Styles.

#live nation #Ticketmaster #department of justice #live nation antitrust #irving azoff #oak view group #26 May 2024