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jamie raskin
Raskin Slams Trump DOJ Threat to Prosecute Local Officials Over Immigration Enforcement
"It's laughable that the party that once prided themselves on being champions of state and local government are now trampling state and local authority," said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.).
Jan 23, 2025
The top Democrat on the U.S. House Judiciary Committee issued a statement Thursday condemning the Trump administration's threat that state and local officials could be criminally prosecuted for refusing to cooperate with the president's planned immigration crackdown, which is already drawing legal action and vows of opposition from advocacy groups and communities across the country.
"This policy will lead to chaos, division, and protracted litigation that will unnecessarily cost both state and federal taxpayers huge amounts of money that could be used to keep America safe," wrote Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who also argued that the "federal government doesn't own the states."
Raskin's comments were in response to a Tuesday memo from Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to Justice Department employees that was obtained by The Washington Post.
"Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands," wrote Bove, who stated that the supremacy clause of the Constitution and other legal authorities "require state and local actors to comply with the executive branch's immigration enforcement initiatives."
The memo also makes mention of a "Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group" which will identify state and local policies and laws that are inconsistent with White House immigration initiatives.
On Monday, his first day in office, Trump announced sweeping changes to U.S. immigration enforcement via executive actions, including attempting to end birthright citizenship, reinstating his "Remain in Mexico" policy, suspending refugee resettlement, and moving to restrict federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities.
In response to the memo, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that the move is a "scare tactic," according to The Los Angeles Times. Bonta said that his team is reviewing the memo and will be "prepared to take legal action if the Trump administration's vague threats turn to illegal action."
Raskin challenged the memo for its "failure to cite any authority for this proposition."
"The Constitution and Supreme Court precedents make clear that the 10th Amendment and constitutional federalism protect state and local government and their officials from being 'commandeered' by the federal government as instrumentalities to carry out its policies," he wrote.
"It's laughable that the party that once prided themselves on being champions of state and local government are now trampling state and local authority by commandeering state and local governments to serve a federal agenda," he added.
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Raskin Says Alito Must Recuse After Private Call With Trump
"Alito claims it was to help a former clerk get a job," wrote one legal commentator. "Doesn't matter. Federal law requires Alito now be DISQUALIFIED from the Trump stay petition."
Jan 09, 2025
Following the revelation that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had a private phone call with Trump the day before Trump's legal team petitioned the Supreme Court to halt his sentencing in his New York "hush money" case, Congressman Jamie Raskin was among those Thursday who called for Alito's recusal from the high profile case.
ABC News first reported the call between Trump and Alito, which took place Tuesday, and that Alito subsequently claimed concerned one of Alito's former law clerks, who is seeking a job in the new administration. "William Levi, one of my former law clerks, asked me to take a call from President-elect Trump regarding his qualifications to serve in a government position," Alito explained to ABC News in a statement.
On Wednesday morning, Trump's legal team filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court to pause his sentencing in New York court on on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection to hush-money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
Alito said that he and Trump did not discuss Trump's emergency request.
Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, denounced the call as a "breach of judicial ethics" in a statement Thursday, adding "especially when paired with his troubling past partisan ideological activity in favor of Trump, Justice Alito's decision to have a personal phone call with President Trump—who obviously has an active and deeply personal matter before the court—makes clear that he fundamentally misunderstands the basic requirements of judicial ethics or, more likely, believes himself to be above judicial ethics altogether."
Trump's legal team also appealed to the New York Court of Appeals to postpone the sentencing, which was rejected Thursday, a day after a state appeals court in New York also rejected the request. The sentencing is slated to take place on Friday.
Other court watchers also blasted Alito for the phone call.
President of the watchdog Accountable.US Caroline Ciccone urged Alito to recuse himself from all upcoming cases in which Trump is a named party. "In addition, Congress should investigate Alito's—and other justices'—lapses in judicial ethics in order to strengthen the Court's lax code of conduct. Anything less would confirm what so many already fear: that the Court has become overtly political and a playground for the powerful," she wrote.
"Alito claims it was to help a former clerk get a job. Doesn't matter. Federal law requires Alito now be DISQUALIFIED from the Trump stay petition," wrote Tristan Snell, a lawyer and legal commentator, on Wednesday.
This is not the first time that Alito has engendered this type of scrutiny. Last year, following revelations that flags carried by Trump supporters who took part in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol were seen flying outside Alito's homes, Alito faced calls to recuse himself from a case two cases: one dealing with Trump's claims of presidential immunity and another on the question of whether defendants who participated in the January 6, 2021 attempted insurrection should be charged with obstructing an official proceeding. Alito rejected the calls to step aside.
"Every federal judge and justice knows he or she must avoid situations such as this. Yet Justice Alito did not," said Raskin.
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Ethics Report Finds Matt Gaetz, Trump's First AG Pick, Paid for Sex With a Minor
"Keep in mind that Donald Trump believed that Gaetz was the most qualified person in America to be the chief law enforcement official in the United States," said one attorney.
Dec 23, 2024
Government ethics advocates on Monday voiced serious concerns over President-elect Donald Trump's judgment and transition process following the release of a congressional probe containing "substantial evidence" that, while in office, former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida—Trump's erstwhile pick for U.S attorney general—committed statutory rape against a minor, bought and used illegal drugs, and obstructed the investigation against him.
The bipartisan House Ethics Committee "determined there is substantial evidence that Rep. Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress" during his time in office, according to the panel's 37-page report.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, (D-Md.), the incoming ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, toldUSA Today on Monday that "it's a terribly damning report for any member of Congress and a humiliating one for someone who wanted to be considered as an attorney general of the United States."
The report says Gaetz made more than $90,000 in payments for what the committee believed were likely "sexual activity and/or illicit drug use," including $400 for sex with a 17-year-old girl who "had just completed her junior year of high school" at a July 15, 2017 party at the home of Christopher Dorworth, a former Republican state lawmaker in Florida who was once
named "legislator of the year" by the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. According to court filings viewed by Rolling Stone, Dorworth repeatedly sought the destruction of records related to the party.
The publication further states that the girl did not disclose her age to Gaetz—who was 35 at the time—nor did he ask. The girl also "acknowledged that she was under the influence of ecstasy during her sexual encounters" with Gaetz at the party and said she saw him "use cocaine" at the gathering. The panel found that Gaetz repeatedly used these and other illicit drugs.
The committee also found that Gaetz:
- Accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts;
- Arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent;
- Knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the committee's investigation of his conduct; and
- Acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House.
While the report states that all of the sexual encounters involving Gaetz were consensual, "at least one woman felt that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have 'impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.'"
One woman told the committee, "When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated."
Statutory rape and 20 instances of paying for sex, which Gaetz has vehemently denied. What was Gaetz thinking putting himself up for AJ? And for Trump “vetting“ team, malpractice if they didn’t know; fraud on Senate, country if they did know and tried to slide him through with no investigation
— Harry Litman ( @harrylitman.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 7:13 AM
The probe did not find that Gaetz broke federal sex trafficking laws, because although he "did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the committee did not find evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion."
Gaetz—who on Monday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the report's release on the grounds that he is now a private citizen—has repeatedly denied having sex with a minor.
"These claims would be destroyed in court—which is why they were never made in any court against me," he toldThe Hill on Monday ahead of the report's release—but after some of the findings were reported on late Sunday.
In a move widely seen as an attempt to prevent the public from ever seeing the report, Gaetz resigned from Congress on November 13, shortly after Trump announced him as the nominee for attorney general.
The Republican-controlled House Ethics Committee initially said on November 20 that it would not release the report on Gaetz, which widespread criticism. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) vehemently objected to releasing the report, arguing that doing so would set a "terrible precedent."
The following day, Gaetz said he would not accept Trump's nomination to head the U.S. Department of Justice. Trump subsequently tapped former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the top DOJ post.
The report on Gaetz has renewed focus on Trump's fitness for office.
As you read the House Ethics report about Gaetz, always keep in mind that Donald Trump believed that Gaetz was the most qualified person in America to be the chief law enforcement official in the United States.
— Ron Filipkowski ( @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 7:16 AM
"Matt Gaetz is the man Donald Trump would have had as attorney general of the United States of America," Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement. "Trump and his transition team are disregarding obvious red flags in announcing their planned Cabinet and top official nominees, seemingly relying on rabid loyalty to the incoming president as the primary selection criterion."
"The Gaetz report underscores the importance of the Senate independently and aggressively exercising its advise and consent function," Weissman added.
Lawyers for Good Government vice-chair Adam Cohen wrote on social media, "I don't care if Gaetz was some strategic sacrificial lamb pick."
"Trump now expects his other nominees to sail through," he added. "We need to challenge them all."
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