XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: bks@panix.com   
      
    | ...   
    | But last week, federal prosecutors failed to secure an   
    | indictment against the lawmakers, who include Senators Mark   
    | Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and four House members. Indeed,   
    | the grand jury unanimously rejected the indictment--a major   
    | embarrassment for Trump and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S.   
    | attorney in Washington, D.C., a central player in Trump's   
    | efforts to prosecute his enemies. As NBC News' Ryan Reilly   
    | notes, it's rare for grand juries not to indict, so the   
    | inability to persuade even one juror represents a   
    | remarkable implosion.   
    |   
    | Yet details of how this indictment came together should   
    | caution us against letting Trump and Pirro's   
    | pie-in-the-face antics distract from how grave an abuse of   
    | power this truly was--and continues to be.   
    |   
    | Here's what happened: After the FBI communicated with the   
    | Democratic lawmakers, prosecutors in Pirro's office reached   
    | out to them to follow up. Slotkin's attorney, Preet   
    | Bharara, directly asked prosecutors what statute the   
    | Democrats had allegedly violated to prompt the criminal   
    | inquiry, according to sources familiar with these   
    | discussions. The prosecutors could not name any statute,   
    | the sources told me.   
    |   
    | "What is the theory of criminal liability?" is the question   
    | that was posed to the prosecutors, one source said, adding   
    | that "no answer was forthcoming."   
    | ...   
      
      
       --bks   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)