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Marry Chiwenga (R) with her husband, Constantino (C), in August 2018. Photograph: Wonder Mashura/AP
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When Attorney General William Barr speaks, he represents the DOJ and all the agencies it oversees. The problem is that Bill Barr’s recent anti-encryption agitating doesn’t reflect the views of the people he oversees. While Barr is trying to turn the public against Apple by suggesting it protects terrorists and murderers, FBI employees are worried his words and actions will harm them more than help them.
The Wall Street Journal spoke to people in the FBI and DOJ who aren’t convinced Barr’s doing the right thing by taking a hardline stance on encryption. [Non-paywalled version here.]
Some senior FBI officials say privately they are worried that Mr. Barr’s sharp tone could undermine relationships with technology companies they have worked hard to develop, people familiar with the matter said.
The bureau relies on close partnerships with tech firms in a range of investigations, with companies complying with legal requests for data and troubleshooting technical obstacles that agents may struggle with, current and former officials said.
Pushing Apple is unproductive. It damages relationships while gaining absolutely nothing for the DOJ and FBI. Apple has already given the FBI all the information it can pull from the Pensacola shooters’ accounts. Breaking encryption simply isn’t an option — not when it leads directly to reduced security for the rest of Apple’s customers.
Many in the FBI realize this. Barr just doesn’t seem to care. If Barr continues to push his anti-encryption agenda, he not only risks reducing cooperation from tech companies but also the trust of the people who work for him. Barr says Apple’s not doing enough to help investigations. Internally, the FBI disagrees.
Some FBI officials were stunned by Mr. Barr’s rebuke of Apple, the people familiar with the matter said, and believe the Pensacola case is the wrong one to press in the encryption fight, in part because they believed Apple had already provided ample assistance to the probe.
Barr’s ultimate goal may be another courtroom showdown. Others in the FBI would prefer precedent to outside help from phone-cracking companies. Barr has aligned himself with those officials. But the ones pushing for precedent seem unaware of how much collateral damage the FBI itself might suffer if things don’t work out the way Barr wants them to.
[Former DHS Secretary Michael] Chertoff said a court ruling against the Justice Department could limit access to widely available forensic tools that allow investigators to get into phones in some situations, for instance. “It’s not clear to me why this fight is advantageous to anybody,” he said.
Barr and those like them so firmly believe they’re in the right, they’re seemingly incapable of considering the negative consequences of their actions. Precedent that safeguards people’s phones against encryption-breaking efforts works against the government, restricting its access to outside assistance. But even if the FBI gets the precedent it wants, the nation as a whole will be less secure because encryption will be compromised severely and permanently. Barr and his anti-encryption buddies are willing to sacrifice everyone else’s security for their own ends. That’s not just selfish. It’s also dangerous.
Attorney General Barr’s Anti-Encryption Efforts Aren’t Supported By Many FBI Officials
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The actions of that day, by these gallant students in Soweto – who were protesting against the imposition of the teaching of all subjects in Afrikaans in their schools (largely regarded by the black majority of that country as the language of oppression), as well as against all other repressive apartheid laws – further galvanized other students throughout that country to fearlessly stand up.
Such valiant actions by what many would have regarded as mere children – who would have been expected to be more concerned with simplistic issues as courtship, dating, and the latest fashion trends, music and movies – and the subsequent, brutal and horrendous response by security forces, signalled the internationalization of the fight against apartheid – thereby, moving the liberation struggle to a whole new advanced level.
In fact, what these students did, is widely believed to have been the real catalyst that led to the eventual global imposition of tighter restrictions, and increased pressure, on the apartheid regime – resulting in the freedom of the majority of South Africans in 1994.
Even today, 44 years after such brave acts by those students – who dared confront the guns and bullets of the heinous apartheid regime, yet knowing and comprehending fully well the death and destruction they would face – that day (16 June) is commemorated globally as World Youth Day.
However, what we have so tragically witnessed over the decades is the apparent dilution and emasculation of this day – as today’s young people are no longer being taught and inculcated the real spirit of the revolutionary students of South Africa in 1976, who dared stand up against their own repressive, savage, and sadistic regime, which had wantonly brutalized not only themselves but also their parents, through heinous ruthlessness and laws.
These students had witnessed how the majority of their compatriots had been subjected do a degrading and inhuman livelihood, whilst a very few at the top enjoyed lavish lifestyles. They had seen how the majority were forced to struggle and toil each and every day for a paltry wage, just to put food on the table, whilst their oppressors could afford world-class buffets – seemingly without breaking a sweat.
They had been unwilling witnesses to their parents’ sobbing heart-rending tears, as they could not afford to provide them with decent education – yet, children of those in power would be attending some of the most expensive, and best-equipped schools in the land, which opened up unending opportunities for their futures. Whilst, on the other hand, the suffering majority’s children were trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty.
These students had had enough of living in ramshackle houses, whose roofs even leaked during the rainy season – as their parents could not afford decent dwellings, due to the economic disenfranchisement of the majority – yet, those of the political elite, and their cronies, lived in palaces and mansions, that were only comparable to those they watched on television as belonging to the world’s rich and famous.
“Enough is enough!”, I am sure they told themselves – and decided that only they, as the youth, had the power to change the situation in their country… once and for all. They refused to blindly and sheepishly accept that this was their fate, and would be the life of the majority of their country’s people for generations and generations to come.
They had to take a firm stand, not only for their parents – whom they loved so much, and fully appreciated the tribulations they were facing each day, at the hands of their cold-hearted and callous regime – but, also as a guarantee for their own brighter future…full of prospects and opportunities irregardless of what one wanted to become – as opposed to those apartheid days when the only way out of the dungeons of poverty was probably becoming a musician.
Therefore, when they finally decided to face off against their repressive regime – fully cognisant of the heavy-handed and fierce response they would encounter – nothing was going to stop them, except death itself.
The choice for these students was straightforward – it was either they suffered a slow, but equally agonizing death, as slaves and second-class citizens in their own motherland, or they faced the devil himself, and either die quickly, or vanquish him…once and for all – finally freeing themselves, and their parents, from the shackles of subjugation.
It certainly was not a simple decision to make, but – I am sure – it was one they absolutely were sure was the right one to make.
However, today, this true spirit of revolution is kept hidden from our youth – simply because our current leaders, especially here in Zimbabwe, are made from the same mould as the colonial and apartheid oppressors of yesteryear – and as such, would never want to raise another generation similar to the “Class of 1976”. They are terrified of such a prospect.
That is why, even though we in Zimbabwe commemorate 16 June as “World Youth Day”, this has, however, been confined to such issues is child marriages, child abuse (especially on the domestic front), access of sanitary wear for the girl child, and other such issues.
As much as all these issues are obviously of paramount importance, and should never be trivialized or placed in the backseat, the issues of socio-political dynamics prevailing in this country need to also take centre-stage. If this country is to have any hope for a brighter tomorrow, our youth should be even more politically savvy and revolutionary than those of 1976 – as the “people’s enemy” of yesteryear was more conspicuous by his or her skin colour than the “people’s enemy” of today, who looks just like you and me.
In fact, the “people’s enemy” that the majority are faced with today, is our former liberator, and so can easily continue to pretend as “having our best interests at heart” – yet, he or she already morphed, in true “Animal Farm” style, into the likeness and image of our erstwhile colonial and apartheid oppressor. The only difference between the oppressor of yesteryear, and that of today, is the skin colour.
As such, Zimbabwe desperately needs a breed of “16 June 1976 youth”, who are not brainwashed into believing that – just because they have a so-called “Children’s Parliament” and “Junior City Councils”, or the enactment of cosmetic laws against child abuse, then all is well.
No, it is not!
We now need a thinking youth – who can fully understand, and adequately explain, why his or her parents are unable to pay their school fees, or send them to the best schools, or buy them sufficient essential school material, or even provide them with decent meals.
We need a youth who thinks beyond his or her own narrow domain of dating, chatting on social media, and listening to music – but, a real “leader of tomorrow”, who comprehends what is truly happening in the country, and where this is all going – unless they courageously immediately put a stop to it.
They should know that if their parents are suffering today – yet, the situation only started seriously deteriorating one or two decades ago – then they have an even grimmer future ahead…which will make the tough times we are facing today, appear as if they were actually a “paradise on earth”. Our youth have no future at all!
The only hope that they have is to take their heads out of the cloud of deception they currently exist in and realize the gravity of the situation this country is under. That is why it was so refreshing to learn about the resoluteness and heroism of Njube High School students when they demonstrated against the suffering in this country.
Just as I had lost all hope in this generation of youth – believing them to be nothing but empty vessels, with no vision, wisdom, or purpose – these Njube students reignited that hope, that indeed, the revolutionary spirit still exists.
Nonetheless, real change can never come through one act of bravery, but now is the time to spread this spirit to all our youth. Just as in the apartheid days, those Soweto students were not inculcated this spirit by their government – as that would have been downright insane, for the oppressor to teach the oppressed to wake up and rise up.
As most of us may have watched in such movies as “Sarafina”, teachers and parents play a very pivotal role in educating and enlightening our children. This should not be limited to narrow and shallow concepts of mathematics, science, and so forth – but, broader issues that will raise their awareness on their socio-political history, and current affairs, as well as the way forward in breaking these shackles of poverty and oppression.
That is why I do not have enough words to commend the Njube High School teacher who showed beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was truly visionary, by instilling in his students the sense of responsibility for this country’s wellbeing, the welfare of their parents, and protecting their own futures.
Such remarkable work now needs to urgently be carried out by all parents and teachers to our children. They are with us most of the time – in our homes, and in our classrooms – and as such, we have no excuse whatsoever in failing.
We neither should teach violence, nor savagery – but, peaceful resistance, the likes of which we so proudly witnessed with the Njube High School, and Soweto students. History has always shown that the oppressor is the only one who believes in violence – as he or she has everything to fear.
However, as the valiant sons and daughters of apartheid South Africa showed us on 16 June 1976, when confronted with repression and hopelessness, the only thing we need to fear is fear itself – as we have so much more to gain by fervently and fearlessly standing up against any regime or junta, no matter how ruthless it is.
That’s why this went down in history and is today commemorated throughout the world – as only a coward is soon forgotten, but the daring will always be remembered.
The struggle for positive peaceful and democratic change in Zimbabwe should not be – and can never be – relegated to political and civic society leaders alone – as that has never yielded results, anywhere in the world – but, a deliberate concerted effort by every peace-loving, prosperity-aspiring, forward-thinking, and development-oriented member of this country.
There is no one who does not have a pivotal role to play. Each one of us – young or old, teacher or student, worker or unemployed, employer or employee, man or woman, educated or uneducated, leader of an organization or ordinary citizen – is a crucial part of the whole body of peaceful resistance and change.
As a failure to do so would be a failure on us all as the people of Zimbabwe.
° Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice activist, writer, author, and speaker. Please feel free to WhatsApp/call: +263733399640, or +263715667700, or calls only: +263782283975 or +263788897936, or email: [email protected]
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* The Ohio Bar has denied an applicant for bar admission in part because of her student loan debt. [Forbes]
* A man who recovered money in a racial discrimination case was allegedly discriminated against when trying to deposit his settlement check. Sounds like he may have another lawsuit. [Buzzfeed News]
* Some commentators are noting how Lev Parnas’ strategy is similar to the one employed by Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen. [NPR]
* An ex-CIA lawyer has stated that the Soleimani hit was a homicide under US law. [Daily Beast]
* The man charged in murdering prominent lawyer Randy Gori has pleaded not guilty. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
* A Wisconsin man who was wrongfully convicted has been sworn in as an attorney of the Wisconsin Bar. [Wisconsin Public Radio]
Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.
Parliament Invites Public Comment on Constitution Amendment Bill
Parliament yesterday published the following self-explanatory notice:
This communication serves to inform you that on Friday, 17 January 2020, the Speaker of the National Assembly gazetted the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 2) Bill, H.B. 23, 2019.
Section 328 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe provides that:
“(3) A Constitutional Bill may not be presented in the Senate or National Assembly in terms of section 131 unless the Speaker has given at least ninety days’ notice in the Gazette of the precise terms of the Bill.
(4) Immediately after the Speaker has given notice of a Constitutional Bill in terms of subsection (3), Parliament must invite members of the public to express their views on the proposed Bill in public meetings and through written submissions, and must convene meetings and provide facilities to enable the public to do so.”
In compliance with this constitutional provision, and as part of public consultations meant to enhance participatory democracy, the Parliament of Zimbabwe is inviting comments on the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 2) Bill, H.B. 23, 2019 for consideration by the relevant Committee(s).
All comments must be submitted to the following e-mail addresses: [email protected] or [email protected].
Alternatively, written submissions can be sent to: Parliament of Zimbabwe, Corner Third Street and Kwame Nkrumah, P.O Box CY 298, Causeway, Harare.
All submissions must be received on or before Friday, 17 April 2020.
Targeted public and stakeholder consultations on this very important Bill will be conducted in due course on dates to be advised.
For any clarification, you may get in touch with Mrs Luciah Nyawo, Assistant Clerk of Parliament, on email [email protected]
Relevant Documents Downloadable on Veritas’ Website
The Bill, [link] including the official explanatory memorandum..
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.
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An audit report into sales of state land in Harare, which was done by a commission of inquiry led by Supreme Court judge Tendai Uchena, recommended that former President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace should be prosecuted along with many others.
The inquiry investigated the acquisition and sale of state land in the city and other urban areas since 2005.
Other prominent figures recommended for investigation include former local government minister Ignatius Chombo, secretary in the same ministry George Mlilo, former minister Nyasha Chikwinya, businessman and president of the Confederation of Southern African Football Associations Philip Chiyangwa and former legislator Shadreck Mashayamombe.
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) chairperson Loice Matanda-Moyo said Thursday that the commission had received a copy of the audit report and that investigations would start soon.
“We hope investigations will start on Monday after we have agreed on the cases that ZACC and the police will be investigating,” she said.
The former First Lady is accused of grabbing stands at a farm north of the city and transferring ownership into names of her relatives without payment.
She said all stands improperly acquired by Mugabe, Chombo and some local government officials at the farm must be recovered.
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Boom! Lawyered: Making a pedantic point.
Greenberg Traurig Partner Speaks Out: About the sexual harassment allegations.
This Dean Is A Jerk: There, I said it.
Bonus News! Yay, money.
According to data collected by Law School Transparency, which T14 law school gives the most discounts to students?
Hint: 87.5 percent of the students there receive some discount of their tuition, and the median discount is $27,000.
See the answer on the next page.
(Photo by Jabin Botsford – Pool/Getty Images)
I’m grateful to the Chief Justice. He did a good job. His demeanor was great; he maintained his patience. I thought it was unfair of him to direct that at both sets of counsels. It felt like collective punishment for isolated guilt.
— Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), responding on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom to the mild reprimand Chief Justice Roberts gave both sides the other day during the impeachment trial when Roberts reminded everyone, after a terse exchange between Jerry Nadler and Trump’s attorneys, that “they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
Michael Flynn (Photo by the Defense Department via Wikimedia)
“This Court should swiftly reject the government’s brazen attempt to punish Mr. Flynn for refusing to compose rather than sing.” So begins the latest motion filed by Michael Flynn’s melodramatic lawyer Sidney Powell, “paraphrasing an expression that Alan Dershowitz has used for decades.”
“Since November 2017 (and before), Mr. Flynn told the government the truth about every question it asked him,” she insists, swerving hard to avoid the giant whoppers he fed FBI agents that January about his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, while joking that the FBI probably knew exactly what he’d said because they were bugging Kislyak’s phone. Which … they were, so they knew he was lying. (Those parentheses are doing quite a lot of work here.)
Last week, Powell filed a motion to withdraw the former National Security Advisor’s 2-year-old guilty plea for making false statements to the FBI. She promises to brief the court real soon as to why her client is not guilty of conduct he’s now admitted to under oath on multiple occasions. But until then, she argues that he lacked the mens rea to commit the FARA violation he also admitted to in his plea but was never charged with, and, in the event the court does not accept the withdrawal of his guilty plea, deserves no jail time.
It’s … complicated. Hey, have you heard that Michael Flynn served in the military?
Powell argues that Flynn only realized in retrospect that he had falsely filled out the Foreign Agents Registration Act paperwork regarding his work for the Turkish government, and the real culprit is his prior counsel from Covington & Burling.
At the beginning of his cooperation, Mr. Flynn’s then-counsel and the government drafted a Statement of Offense. The government’s original draft contained language that would have Mr. Flynn claim that he “then and there knew” that the FARA filing made by Covington in March of 2017 was false. Mr. Flynn could not sign that assertion because it was not true. Instead, the parties agreed to remove that language.
Having belatedly realized his mistake, this highly decorated military man was thus unable to testify at the trial of his former partner Bijan Rafiekian. This severely damaged the government’s case against Rafiekian, which was built around Flynn’s testimony.
Unsurprisingly, this did not endear him to prosecutors, who have now withdrawn their recommendation that he receive no jail time. Also unsurprisingly, Powell would like the court to see Flynn’s reversal as honorable devotion to the truth, rather than welching on a deal and torpedoing the government’s case.
The reversal of its sentencing position is not only unjust, it is unlawful. If left unchecked, it will send a dangerous message to cooperators – give testimony consistent with the government’s theory of the case, regardless of veracity, or pay the price with your freedom.
Which is so unfair for a person who has served his country on the front lines!
On the one hand, Powell does have a point. At the December 18, 2018 sentencing hearing, prosecutors recommended a non-custodial sentence, saying that “the defendant had provided the vast majority of cooperation that could be considered.” The government declared his cooperation substantially complete a year ago, so it looks like retaliation to change their sentencing recommendation because he refused to cooperate more since then.
On the other hand, at that December 18 hearing an infuriated Judge Emmet Sullivan made it very clear that he was not content with Flynn’s cooperation, and told him to go cooperate a whole lot more if he wanted to stay out of the pokey. That was the hearing when Judge Sullivan asked prosecutors if they’d considered charging Flynn with treason.
Looking into the depths of his soul and discovering he didn’t really mean it when he attested to making “materially false statements and omissions” in his FARA paperwork is probably not what His Honor had in mind. Even for a man who spent decades in the military.
And it’s a safe bet that Powell’s yammering about prosecutor Brandon Van Grack trying to “force Mr. Flynn to lie for the government’s benefit” is not going to make Judge Sullivan less mad.
But perhaps he will be persuaded by five pages detailing Michael Flynn’s selfless devotion to the country through his decades of service. Were you aware that General Flynn was in the military? And that has to count for something, right?
US v. Flynn, Defendant’s Supplemental Sentencing Memo [Crim. No. 1:17-cr-00232-1 (D.D.C. Jan 22, 2020)]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.