Latest news with #JeffreyToobin
CNN
17-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Jeffrey Toobin: ‘Disgrace and outrage' that DOJ fired Comey's daughter
Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey was fired from her role in the Southern District of New York. Jeffrey Toobin says the firing is political and a disgrace to the office and others should quit in protest.
CNN
17-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Jeffrey Toobin: ‘Disgrace and outrage' that DOJ fired Comey's daughter
Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor and the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey was fired from her role in the Southern District of New York. Jeffrey Toobin says the firing is political and a disgrace to the office and others should quit in protest.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Toobin: Suspending habeas corpus would be ‘such a wild step'
Former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin weighed in on the White House considering suspending habeas corpus, or the right to challenge the legality of detention, amid President Trump's crackdown on immigration. In an appearance on CNN Friday evening, Toobin said pausing the legal principle would be 'such a wild step,' despite significant losses the Trump administration has faced in court over its efforts to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants. 'Talking about suspending habeas corpus is such a wild step. The only time a president has done it unilaterally without the authorization of Congress was Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, when Congress wasn't even in session and couldn't ratify what he was doing,' Toobin said on CNN's 'AC360.' He was reacting to remarks by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller earlier Friday, when Trump's chief immigration policy architect told reporters that the White House is 'actively looking at' suspending the principle. 'Well, the Constitution is clear — and that of course is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' Miller said at the time. 'So, it's an option we're actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.' Toobin said on Friday that habeas corpus 'goes back to the Magna Carta in the 13th century. The idea that someone in custody has the right to go to court to challenge their incarceration, that is so basic to Anglo-American law.' 'And that's one reason why suspending habeas corpus is considered such an extreme, extreme step,' he told host Anderson Cooper the interview, first highlighted by Mediaite. 'This is an example of how losses in court is causing this administration to escalate its rhetoric. And we'll see where it goes.' The Constitution says the legal principle may not be suspended 'unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.' The principle allows those who are in custody to challenge the legality of being held in custody — helping prevent indefinite and unlawful imprisonment. Habeas corpus has allowed migrants to challenge their forthcoming deportations that the administration has instituted under the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law. The writ of habeas corpus has been suspended four times: during the Civil War, in eleven South Carolina counties overrun by the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction, in two Philippines provinces during a 1905 insurrection and in Hawaii following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, according to the National Constitution Center. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beg Your Pardon? Katie Asks Lawyer and Author Jeffrey Toobin About Presidents' Clemency
Presidential pardons have been in the news as of late. Ever wonder how pardons started and how they've evolved? My friend Jeff Toobin has a new book out called The Pardon: The Politics of Presidential Mercy that could not be timelier. I asked one of the smartest legal minds of my generation why he zeroed in on this centuries-old practice and what he discovered in the process. Jeffrey Toobin: It was basically Alexander Hamilton's idea at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Hamilton wanted a strong chief executive who could dispense mercy but also exercise political power, as the King of England did, by using pardons. I struggle with this question, but my answer is no. There will always be pressures — in all branches of government — to put more people in prison. But the pardon is a chance to let people out — and more people should be out. I just wished presidents used the pardon power in a better way. For starters, it failed on its own terms. It didn't bring the country together; it just added Ford to the list of Watergate villains. But in a larger sense, it sent the message that powerful people would never be held accountable, and that's a message that unfortunately has endured. There have been bad pardons by presidents of both parties. Bill Clinton's pardon of the fugitive Marc Rich was a low point, and so was Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter and five other Biden relatives. George H.W. Bush's pardon of the Iran-Contra defendants was wrong, in my view, but there is no question that Donald Trump's pardons in both in first and second term were the worst in American history. $28 at Without doubt, it's Trump's pardon of the 1,500 rioters at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. They were unrepentant criminals, many of them violent, who attempted to overthrown America's most important election. Those pardons will endure as a stain on American democracy and American history. It would take an amendment to the Constitution, which is nearly impossible to do. Because there is no check and balance on the pardon power, pardons operate as X-rays into the souls of presidents. Presidents reveal themselves by those they decide to pardon — and not to pardon. The post Beg Your Pardon? Katie Asks Lawyer and Author Jeffrey Toobin About Presidents' Clemency appeared first on Katie Couric Media.
