Rubio vs. Albanese Case Could Trigger Unexpected Consequences

The US is imposing sanctions against a senior UN official focused on the human rights of Palestinians, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday. ⚖️🌍

In a post on X, Rubio said he was imposing the sanctions against Francesca Albanese, who holds the title of UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, “for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (International Criminal Court) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” 🔴📜

The announcement is the latest effort by the US to punish those looking into alleged crimes committed by Israel as the war in Gaza continues. ⚔️🇵🇸

President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February authorizing punitive measures against the ICC because of its “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.” 🏛❌

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Thursday urged “the prompt reversal of U.S. sanctions against” Albanese.

“UN Special Rapporteurs, along with other parts of the human rights ecosystem, address – by their nature – sensitive and often divisive issues, that are of international concern,”

he said in a statement. 🌍🔍

“Even in face of fierce disagreement, UN Member States should engage substantively and constructively, rather than resort to punitive measures,”

Türk said. 🌐💬

“Attacks and threats against Special Procedures mandate holders, as well as key institutions like the International Criminal Court, must stop,”

he said.

“The solution is not less, but more, debate and dialogue on the very real human rights concerns they address.” 🗣

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan and four other judges. ⚖️

Rubio said in a separate statement that the sanctions against Albanese are being applied under that executive order.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also commended the move. 🇮🇱💬

Rubio said Albanese “has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries.” 💼📜

He said neither Israel nor the US is party to the treaty that established the ICC, “making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.” 🌍⚖️

#rubio #albanese #case #israel #khan

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Transcripts of the Epstein Case Should Come to Light 📜⚖️

Transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to the sex-trafficking indictments of the sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, include the testimony of just two law enforcement witnesses, the Department of Justice has said, as it argues for the documents’ release. 🔓

Top justice department officials disclosed in a filing late on Tuesday in New York City federal court that separate grand juries convened to consider the criminal investigations of Epstein and Maxwell, and had heard from only two witnesses. 🏛

The revelation was made in the course of court wrangling over whether the transcripts of the proceedings should be unsealed, amid the continuing furor over the Epstein scandal which has roiled Trump’s second term. 🌪

The Trump administration is urging the two federal judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell grand juries, Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer, to release the testimony, in an attempt to calm the uproar. 😠

The decision jarred with the previous stance of senior administration figures, including Trump himself and the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who had hyped the expected release of more details of the New York financier’s businesses, travels and associations, including a possible list of his financial clients, which all further stoked conspiracies around the well-connected Epstein. 🕵️‍♂️

Tuesday’s submission states that the grand jury tasked with considering the criminal case against Epstein heard only from an FBI agent when it met in June and July 2019. 👮‍♂️

A similar grand jury for Maxwell heard from the same FBI agent and a New York police department detective when it met in June and July 2020 and in March 2021.

The memorandum was signed by Jay Clayton, US attorney for the southern district of New York, and included the names of Bondi and deputy attorney general Todd Blanche. ✍️

Epstein took his own life in a federal jail in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges, officials say, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell’s links to famous people, such as royals, presidents and billionaires, including Trump. 🌐💰

#transcripts #epstein #case #trump #maxwell #engelmayer

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JD Vance Is Particularly Intent on Dealing With the Jeffrey Epstein Case ⚠️📂

Four days after JD Vance reportedly asked top Trump administration officials 🏛 to come up with a new communications strategy for dealing with the scandal around the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ⚖️, he appears to have put his foot in it, sparking a new round of online outrage 💬 even as he tried to defuse the furor.

In an interview with Fox News 📺 broadcast on Sunday, the vice-president tried to deflect criticism of the administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files 📄 by blaming Democrats 🗳.

He accused Joe Biden of doing “absolutely nothing” about the scandal when he was in the White House 🏠.

“And now President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years,” he said. Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted ⚖️ of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse multiple minor girls 🚫 and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison during the Biden administration.

If Vance’s attempt to switch public blame onto Democrats was the big idea to emerge from his strategy meeting with attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel 🕵️, which according to CNN he convened at the White House last week, then their efforts appear to have backfired 🔄.

Clips of Vance smearing Democrats quickly began to circulate on X 📱. “We know that Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with leftwing politicians and leftwing billionaires (…) Democrat billionaires and Democrat political leaders went to Epstein island all the time. Who knows what they did,” he said.

Vance also repeated Trump’s previously debunked claim ❌ that Bill Clinton had visited Epstein’s private island dozens of times. Clinton has acknowledged using Epstein’s jet ✈️, but denied ever visiting his island 🏝.

“Fine. Release all the files,” was the riposte from Bill Kristol 🗨, the prominent conservative Never Trumper who urged the documents to be made public with “no redactions of clients, enablers, and see-no-evil associates”.

The director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has passed documents 📑 to the justice department claiming the Obama administration maliciously tried to hurt Trump by linking Russian interference in the 2016 election to him 🇷🇺.

Obama has dismissed Trump’s call for his prosecution as weak and ridiculous 🙄.

#vance #epstein #case #democrats #obama

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Why Is the Bolton Case So Pernicious? ❓

🔠🅰️🔠🔠1️⃣

The search of former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton’s home and office is raising questions about whether the White House is flexing its law enforcement muscle to go after a frequent critic. 🕵️‍♂️

It also parallels an event that the president and his circle have highly criticized: the search for classified records at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. 🏛🔍

Bolton has become a fierce critic of President Trump since exiting the White House in September 2019 as national security adviser. He penned a book in 2020, titled “The Room Where It Happened,” that portrayed Trump as an erratic and uninformed leader. 📚😠

The Trump administration went to court in an effort to block its publication. It also ignited a criminal probe of Bolton. ⚖️🔥

Those dynamics left various figures thinking politics were at play in the administration’s decision to go after Bolton. 🤔

“We’re looking at this a little bit skeptically,” Chris Swecker, an agent for 24 years who served as an assistant director of the FBI under George Bush, said Friday in comments on Fox News. 🦊

Swecker, describing conversations with his colleagues, said he and others were critical of President Biden’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, saying “just because you have the authority and the discretion to do something like this, doesn’t mean you should.” 🚫

To some in Trump’s circle, the motivation is clear.

“That’s why Trump has put in these people at DOJ and FBI because these are all the faithful and the revenge tour is real,” a source close to the White House said. 😈

White House officials have pushed back on the suggestion that they are weaponizing law enforcement against Trump’s critics. 🛑

And Trump was adamant that he only learned of the search Friday morning from coverage on television. 📺 But he also emphasized he had a right to be involved if he wanted to, and he attacked Bolton as a “sleazebag” and a “low-life.” 😡

“I’m not a fan of John Bolton. I thought he was a sleazebag actually, and he suffers from major Trump Derangement System,” Trump said Friday in the Oval Office. “But so do a lot of people, and they’re not being affected by anything we do.” 🗳

Bolton is one of dozens of officials who appeared on Patel’s list of members of the so-called deep state at the end of his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters.” 📖

Democrats raised concerns during Patel’s confirmation hearing that he would use the agency to target Trump critics and opponents. ⚠️

#bolton #trump #patel #case #investigation #vance

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“NO ONE is above the law…,” Patel posted on social media Friday just as the Bolton raid was becoming public. 📢

While the FBI has not commented on the nature of the search, it appears Bolton’s book as well as broader concerns over classified records were the basis of the investigation. 📚🔍

Improper retention of classified records carries serious penalties under the Espionage Act, but Democrats and other critics of Trump suggested they believed there was a political motivation to the pursuit of Bolton. ⚖️😠

“Look, if Bolton did something wrong, no one’s above the law,” said Rep. Mike Quigley, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. He noted, as with the Mar-a-Lago case, an unsealed warrant and the presence of reams of classified documents offered validity to the search. 🗳

“But you know, the timing of this is very suspicious, and the fact that DOJ investigated him previously and found nothing to charge him with just tells you that I suspect that they know that even if they don’t have anything, they’re embarrassing him and they’re bringing great cost upon him.” 🤔

Many were also quick to note the overlap with Trump’s own Mar-a-Lago case, where the FBI discovered some 300 documents with classified markings in various locations in the Florida estate. 🏛📂

“Trump uses the actual crimes he committed and for which was duly convicted as his inspiration for the fictitious crimes for which he wields vindictive state power against American patriots exercising their rights and doing their jobs,” David Frum, a former GOP speechwriter who is now a critic of Trump, wrote on social platform X. 😡

Mike Davis, a Trump ally and head of the conservative Article III Project, posted on X that Democrats and Trump critics would look “silly when the search warrant becomes public.” 😏

“Do you really think the FBI executed a home raid simply because of John Bolton’s book?” Davis posted on X. ❓

Trump’s 2024 campaign was filled with grievances and complaints that the federal government had been weaponized against him after he was indicted in four separate criminal cases, including one over his handling of classified material after leaving office. ⚔️

While Trump during the campaign downplayed his intent to seek retribution if elected, he and his administration have targeted former government officials who have criticized him, including Bolton, by revoking their security clearances and terminating their security details. 🚫

Bolton, who has served in multiple Republican administrations, has been a regular presence on television critiquing Trump on foreign policy in particular, but also on a number of other issues including Trump’s handling of classified information. 📺🌐

Vance pledged the investigation into Bolton would be “deliberate” and follow the facts of the case. 🕵️‍♂️

“We’re going to be careful about that. We’re going to be deliberate about that, because we don’t think that we should throw people — even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically — you shouldn’t throw people willy-nilly in prison,” Vance told “Meet the Press” on Friday. ⚖️

#bolton #trump #patel #case #investigation #vance

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A Case of Plague Was Reported in California 😷

According to physicians, the patient could have been infected by a flea bite while camping near Lake Tahoe (located on the border of Nevada and California). 🏕

The causative agent of plague is present in many parts of California, including the highlands of El Dorado. 🏞

On average, seven cases of plague are reported each year in the country. Currently, this disease can be treated with antibiotics. 💊

#case #plague #california #disease

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