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US axes website for reporting human rights abuses by US-armed foreign forces

(www.bbc.com)
763 points tartoran | 4 comments | 23 Oct 25 14:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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mikeyouse ◴[23 Oct 25 14:35 UTC] No.45682307[source]▶
> Tim Rieser, former senior aide to Senator Leahy who wrote the 2011 amendment mandating information gathering, told the BBC the gateway's removal meant the State Department was "clearly ignoring the law".

We're in a really bad place... with a servile congress, it turns out there aren't really any laws constraining the executive branch. When everything relies on "independent IGs" for law enforcement inside executive branch departments, and the President can fire them all without consequence or oversight, then it turns out there is no law.

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Joeri ◴[23 Oct 25 15:18 UTC] No.45682838[source]▶
When a different side takes control of the justice department they may choose to go after all those who broke the law by order of this president. The president might be protected from consequences according to the supreme court, but those answering to the president are not.

This administration has set the standard that the justice department can be weaponized against political enemies. The ratchet only goes one way in American politics, presidents never relinquish the powers claimed by their predecessors.

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dirtyoldmick[dead post] ◴[23 Oct 25 15:22 UTC] No.45682894[source]▶
[flagged]
1. luddit3 ◴[23 Oct 25 15:49 UTC] No.45683266[source]▶
He prosecuted his own son.
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2. nomdep ◴[23 Oct 25 15:54 UTC] No.45683323[source]▶
... and pardoned the moment it was declared guilty.
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3. jayd16 ◴[23 Oct 25 16:01 UTC] No.45683428[source]▶
So the exact opposite of political prosecution, then?
4. bmelton ◴[23 Oct 25 16:23 UTC] No.45683737[source]▶
If you assume that Biden had influence on the prosecution, then we should not forget that the original deal posed by the DOJ was for Hunter to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges for which he would have received 2 years probation, and pre-trial diversion on the federal gun charges.

The judge threw this out, but those are pretty generous terms for what penultimately amounted to guilty charges on 6 felonies and 6 misdemeanors (before all charges were pardoned.)