Live data from Hacker News

FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

apnews.com

181–190 of 1001 posts

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#181

The arrest itself (not necessarily the charges) is best described as a publicity stunt. If you want to charge a lawyer or judge or anyone unlikely to run of a non-violent crime, you invite them to the station: > “First and foremost, I know -- as a former federal prosecutor and as a defense lawyer for decades – that a person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if…

Public displays of executive power and disregard for political and legal norms is slightly more than a publicity stunt. They are related ideas but come on. Like describing a cross burning as a publicity stunt. This is a threat.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#182

The arrest itself (not necessarily the charges) is best described as a publicity stunt. If you want to charge a lawyer or judge or anyone unlikely to run of a non-violent crime, you invite them to the station: > “First and foremost, I know -- as a former federal prosecutor and as a defense lawyer for decades – that a person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if…

No, a "publicity stunt" is not the best way to describe this latest escalation in the Trump administration's campaign to destroy the rule of law in America. It may be deliberately flashy, but that phrasing very much undersells the significance of the executive attacking the judiciary.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>They cannot arrest you for putting "drug dealer" on your tax forms as your job since you are compelled to answer that question honestly. They recently forced their way to into IRS records, so that is no longer true either.

But they wanted to get intel on suspected illegals. They just cannot use the data provided to the IRS as evidence. They have to get separate evidence.

Separate evidence for ...?

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#184

The arrest itself (not necessarily the charges) is best described as a publicity stunt. If you want to charge a lawyer or judge or anyone unlikely to run of a non-violent crime, you invite them to the station: > “First and foremost, I know -- as a former federal prosecutor and as a defense lawyer for decades – that a person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if…

Can you imagine being a law enforcement officer bringing a case before a judge that you previously arrested on a flimsy pretext in order to intimidate them? That's going to be awkward.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It's applying reality to your abstract question. Almost no one disagrees with enforcing federal immigration law. The pushback has to do with the illegal manner in which it's happening in reality. One of the most pernicious memes among the pseudo-intellect crowd is isolating an event from its context and then saying "see, not a problem in isolation!" But these things are not happening in isolation. With high enough le…

[flagged]

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#186
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if this is intended to be a hypothetical but there is no IRS form where "Drug Dealer" is the correct answer. Drug dealing income would be disclosed as "Other income". If you volunteer "drug dealer" my guess is they could use it against you. Similar to showing up at FBI headquarters and shouting "I'm a drug dealer!"

> I'm not sure if this is intended to be a hypothetical but there is no IRS form where "Drug Dealer" is the correct answer. What else would you put in the Occupation field at the end of the form?

Merchant? Salesman? Deliveries? Distributor? Client services? Sales?

That field isn't actually used for anything other than determining if you are eligible for tax breaks like the school teacher deductable.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#187

At the moment we don't have a lot of the facts. All we seem to have at this moment is a (since deleted?) post from the head of the FBI. There's a ton of context that is missing. Like what does "intentionally misdirecting" mean? Does that mean saying "he went that way" when he really went in the opposite direction? Does it mean not answering questions about this person, or being obtuse? I'd also like to know more of t…

[flagged]

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#188

The arrest itself (not necessarily the charges) is best described as a publicity stunt. If you want to charge a lawyer or judge or anyone unlikely to run of a non-violent crime, you invite them to the station: > “First and foremost, I know -- as a former federal prosecutor and as a defense lawyer for decades – that a person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if…

It is a statement that the current regime wants to discourage judicial independence. A judge is not an agent of ICE or the feds; they have undergone study and election and put in a position where their discretion has the weight of law. It's frankly disgusting to see how little separation of powers means to Republicans.

Re: FBI arrests judge accused of helping man evade immigration authorities

#189

Intentionally misdirecting a federal investigation is a crime.[1][2] Pretty straightforward accusation. "Our legal system provides methods for challenging the Government's right to ask questions—lying is not one of them." — Justice Harlan [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_false_statements [2] https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual...

There was no "misdirecting" here. The judge truthfully told the agents they wouldn't be allowed to detain someone in the middle of a hearing without exceptional permission, at which point they all left, apparently didn't even bother to watch the courthouse doors, and upon their return had the judge arrested for not detaining a man it wasn't her job or legal authority to detain.
Post reply on HN