Judiciary Committee processes Trump judicial nominees over Democrats’ objections

Senators returned to Washington Tuesday and immediately picked up where they left off — processing President Trump’s judicial nominees, over the objections of Democrats. The Judiciary Committee held a hearing for Paul B. Matey, nominated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and for four district court picks.

Mr. Matey’s nomination is particularly controversial because it marks another round in the fight over Senate traditions and courtesies and their abuse in the era of Mr. Trump. Mr. Matey is slated to fill a seat on the appeals court that’s traditionally ascribed to New Jersey. But that state’s senators, both Democrats, object to the president’s pick, and have withheld their “blue slips” to signify their opposition. “To say that my objections to this judge is just because they’re conservative is just not fair,” Sen. Cory Booker said, arguing he wasn’t properly consulted on Mr. Matey’s nomination. “Nobody has asked me what my objections might be.”

Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, countered that the White House reached out numerous times. “It’s clear the White House adequately consulted with the New Jersey senators regarding Mr. Matey’s nomination. The White House first reached out to the New Jersey senators in April 2017,” Mr. Grassley said. Mr. Grassley repeated his view that blue slips are about making sure consultation happens, and don’t carry veto power in his committee.

Mr. Booker said his objections to Mr. Matey concern his service as vice president and general counsel for University Hospital in Newark, where he worked from 2015 to 2018. Mr. Matey oversaw the hospital during a time where its grade consistently decreased and while it received numerous complaints about objects being left inside patients after surgeries, the New Jersey Democrat said. Sen. Patrick Leahy, Vermont Democrat, and Sen. Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, also probed Mr. Matey over his legal work advising former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose administration was riddled with scandals, most notably “Bridgegate,” where several lanes were shut down on the George Washington Bridge as political retaliation against a Democratic mayor who didn’t support Mr. Christie’s re-election. “I had no knowledge, involvement or participation in any of those events,” Mr. Matey said. Mr. Matey worked for Mr. Christie for roughly five years, first as his senior counsel and later as the governor’s deputy chief counsel.

The committee also heard from Jean-Paul Boulee for the Northern District of Georgia, James David Cain Jr. for the Western District of Louisiana, Damon Ray Leichty for the Northern District of Indiana, and J. Nicholas Ranjan for the Western District of Pennsylvania. The Senate currently has more than 40 judicial nominees awaiting confirmation votes. Republicans have said they hope to get them all confirmed during the lame-duck session before the start of the new Congress in January.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/13/judiciary-committee-continues-processing-donald-tr/

Feds close investigation of Bernie Sanders' wife

Federal prosecutors in Vermont have closed their investigation into a college land deal involving the wife of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and decided not to charge her, a spokesman for the couple said Tuesday. Jane Sanders was informed by the U.S. attorney’s office that she would not be charged, Sanders spokesman Jeff Weaver said. Jane Sanders is grateful the investigation is over. “As she has said from the beginning, she has done nothing wrong and Jane is pleased that the matter has now come to a conclusion,” Weaver said in an email.

U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Kraig LaPorte said he could not deny or confirm that an investigation took place. Federal investigators had been looking into the finances behind a real estate deal for the now defunct Burlington College, where Jane Sanders served as president from 2004 to 2011. In 2010, she had worked out a $10 million deal for the college to buy 32 acres of waterfront land in Burlington on Lake Champlain and a 77,000-square-foot former orphanage and administrative offices of Vermont’s Roman Catholic Church, which needed the money to settle a series of priest sex abuse cases.

Jane Sanders, a longtime political adviser to her husband, promised at the time that the deal would be paid for with increases in enrollment and about $2.7 million in donations. She left the school a year later. The enrollment increase and the promised donations didn’t happen and by 2014, the college had about $11 million debt. It sold much of the waterfront land and closed in 2016, with officials citing debt from the land deal as a major reason.

Weaver has said the allegations were politically motivated attacks. The initial complaint was filed in early 2016 by attorney Brady Toensing, who served as the Vermont campaign chairman for Donald Trump’s presidential run. Toensing sent a letter to federal authorities alleging that in 2010 Jane Sanders made fraudulent claims while seeking $10 million in financing for the real estate deal.

Toensing released a written statement Tuesday. “It is a shame Burlington College Students, the Catholic Diocese, hard-working Vermont tradesmen, and others lost so much as a result of Ms. Sanders’s misconduct, but I am pleased that the matter was professionally investigated and assessed,” he wrote. “Criminal standards are extremely high, but now that the investigation is over, I look forward to a full explanation from Senator Sanders and his wife about the financial discrepancies in her loan application and the Senator’s involvement in procuring the loan.”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/nov/13/jane-sanders-bernie-sanders-wife-wont-be-charged-l/

>>3891570

Think all of this changes now that he's in the clear, we'll have to watch, wait and see.