Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
Entries by emptywheel
Buried in DOJ’s Absolute Immunity Response, a Comment on Trump’s Suspected Zenith Crimes
/48 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, emptywheel, January 6 Insurrection, Mueller Probe/by emptywheelDOJ’s response to Trump’s claim of absolute immunity is substantially a discussion of an indictment that describes actions Trump took as a candidate, often with those outside government, in ways that usurped the authorities reserved to states and Congress.
But at several points in the filing, DOJ invites review of other potential crimes, crimes conducted at the zenith of Presidential power, but crimes that may — must — otherwise be illegal, if no man is above the law.
Mike Flynn Invites DOJ to Review Judge Emmet Sullivan’s Non-Exoneration
/42 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, Mueller Probe/by emptywheelAfter Trump pardoned Flynn in November 2020, Judge Emmet Sullivan wrote a carefully crafted opinion noting he was dismissing Flynn’s prosecution not because Flynn was innocent, but because Trump’s pardon mooted it. DOJ is now relying on that opinion in a bid to dismiss Flynn’s claims of malicious prosecution.