Sally Yates: Trump would 'likely be indicted on obstruction' if he wasn't president

Being president is what saves President Trump from being indicted for obstruction of justice, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said Sunday. On NBC’s “Meet the Press," Yates said if the Office of Legal Counsel hadn’t determined that sitting presidents can’t be indicted, Trump would likely have faced charges stemming from the findings in special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report released this month.

“I have been a prosecutor for nearly 30 years. I can tell you I personally prosecuted obstruction cases on far, far less evidence than this,” Yates said. “And, yes, I believe if he were not the president of the United States, he would likely be indicted on obstruction.” Although she said Mueller provides legal defenses for some of the potential acts of obstruction in the report, Yates added that “there are several incidents that he described to which special counsel Mueller really couldn't point to significant or factual legal defenses.” Yates cited the sections on former White House counsel Don McGahn as particularly damning. Mueller’s team found that McGahn was told by Trump to find a way to get Mueller fired, but McGahn refused the order. Further, Mueller's investigators determined that when news of the order broke, Trump pressured McGahn to deny it was true. Yates served as deputy attorney general under former President Barack Obama from 2015-2017, and briefly as acting attorney general for 10 days in 2017 until she was dismissed over her objection to an executive order restricting travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/sally-yates-trump-would-likely-be-indicted-on-obstruction-if-he-wasnt-president

New Mexico county to block Democratic governor from releasing migrants in its backyard

A New Mexico official who serves as commissioner of a county near the U.S.-Mexico border said Sunday the state's Democratic governor has not responded to a request to redeploy National Guard troops and that he is moving to block migrants from being released in his county because of a lack of resources. Couy Griffin, the chairman of the Otero County Commission, said Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office has been silent since the board voted April 18 to declare a state of emergency. "We've had no response from our governor," Griffin said in a Fox News interview Sunday morning.

Former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez said the southern region of the state is running out of room in local communities to take in tens of thousands of migrants who are being released from federal custody each month. "There is no more capacity any more they're giving to the local community — Las Cruces, Otero county giving it to Yuma, here in El Paso. At one point, they have to bus them to other locations that can absorb them. It just is impossible," Martinez said. Griffin vowed to "push very hard" against migrants being relocated and released in Otero County, which is home to about 65,000 people. He said the commission is planning to vote on a resolution that would block people who illegally crossed from Mexico to the United States from being bused from El Paso to his county. "The hypocrisy in what is going on today … is Santa Fe, which declares to be a sanctuary county, their mayor recently said, 'We don't want them here.' They are not going to receive them in Santa Fe county, but yet they will raise the funds so you all can put them in your backyard. My position, if you'll declare yourself a sanctuary county put them on the plaza and let them live there," Griffin said.

Local officials from the state's southeastern county had given the governor one week to take emergency action and said they will consider suing the state if nothing happens in that time. It's been 10 days since they requested help. The county wants National Guard troops that Gov. Lujan Grisham's Republican predecessor, Susana Martinez, had sent to the region last April to be deployed again. Lujan Grisham pulled the 118 troops as well as those from other states who had been working with Customs and Border Protection on the southern border. Martinez said Sunday the Guard's assistance had allowed agents to return to the field from administrative duties and other tasks, as well as highway checkpoints that were closed late last month.

The El Paso Border Patrol sector includes all of New Mexico's border and has seen the second-highest number of families arriving at, and illegally crossing, the southern border since October. From Oct. 1, 2018, through March 31, agents in the El Paso region apprehended 53,000 people who claimed to be traveling with a family member. Only the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas saw more members of families arrested: 78,000. The other seven sectors along the southwest border saw anywhere from approximately 500 to 25,000 family members. Earlier this month, Yuma, Ariz., a city on the border, became the first to declare a state of emergency because it lacks the resources to handle the influx of people being apprehended and released from federal custody.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/new-mexico-county-to-block-democratic-governor-from-releasing-migrants-in-its-backyard

Roy Moore to appear in federal court for Sacha Baron Cohen lawsuit

Controversial former Senate candidate Roy Moore will appear in U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia Monday to argue against a motion to change the venue of a lawsuit he filed against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime, and CBS. Moore sued Cohen last year after the actor tricked Moore into flying to Washington and accepting a fake award commemorating Israel. During the segment, Cohen was disguised as Gen. Erran Morad, a purported Israeli terrorism expert and a character on Cohen’s show “Who is America,” which aired on Showtime. Cohen, channeling the persona of Morad, demonstrated to Moore a fake device that he said could be used to detect sex offenders. Cohen waved the wand over Moore and it began beeping. Cohen said it must be faulty, but it didn’t beep when waved over another man. Moore said he was not a pedophile and ended the interview.

Moore, a former judge from Alabama lost the 2017 special election to replace then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. His campaign was dogged by accusations of sexual misconduct, including that he initiated a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl when he was in his 30s. The 72-year-old is poised for yet another Senate run in 2020 in what could be a rematch against Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. Moore is suing, along with his wife, “As a direct and proximate result of Defendants and their agents’ extreme, outrageous and malicious defamatory conduct.” They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $95 million.

In a press release announcing that Moore will be appearing in court Monday, his lawyer Larry Klayman argued that Cohen, Showtime, and CBS are attempting to move the case to New York because they think they will have a “a more favorable venue given the leftist slant of the judiciary” in that district.

“The Defendants can try to run to New York City where they obviously believe that a leftist jurist will be more inclined to dismiss the case, but they cannot hide from the egregiousness of their cheap and vile acts,” Klayman wrote. “I am confident that Judge Hogan will see through this charade and allow the case to go to a jury of the parties' peers in the place where this case belongs, the District of Columbia.”

Cohen duped a number of political figures during the course of the show, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Sarah Palin, and others.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/roy-moore-to-appear-in-federal-court-for-sacha-baron-cohen-lawsuit