Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School. From 2010 to 2017, she served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She also served as vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and co-chaired the Terrorism and National Security Subcommittee. McQuade previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Detroit for 12 years.
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The same arguments used to defend Michael Flynn could be used against the prosecution of FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith. Yet Flynn’s supporters have remained silent.
The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is flawed in many ways, but one of its weakest arguments is that the investigation of Flynn was not properly “predicated.”
The House Judiciary Committee should take a prosecutor’s perspective, considering what goal impeachment will serve in drafting articles.
Following recent attacks in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio, we have seen a renewed call for domestic terrorism laws to give federal law enforcement the same types of tools that are available to combat violent acts committed by international terrorists. Proposed bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate will help the FBI confront domestic terrorism on the terms it favors—left of boom.
The two of us tend to agree on most things. Perhaps it is a result of our similar backgrounds, as career federal prosecutors who worked in the field and came up through the ranks to be United States attorneys. We often compare notes in our current roles as MSNBC analysts, trying to digest and explain complicated news in a thoughtful way.
What does it mean for a criminal defendant to “flip”?
Last week, President Donald Trump slammed the practice of calling cooperating defendants to testify against others in exchange for a reduced sentence, often called “flipping.” This practice is commonplace in our criminal justice system, and prosecutors rely on it to access valuable testimony and ultimately convict defendants at the highest levels of criminal organizations.
Despite President Trump’s rhetoric of law and order, his “zero tolerance” policy on immigration ignores what may be the most important component of effective law enforcement—prosecutorial discretion.