Garland supports holding Russia accountable for war crimes
The Moscow-based Ippolitov-Livshitsin-Skvortsova-Brayman-Yermolenko bribery charged with racketeering
Starting in at least 2017, the indictment says, the defendants used a global network of shell companies and bank accounts to acquire and ship advanced electronics and equipment to Russia that can be used for “quantum computing, hypersonic and nuclear weapons development and other military and space-based military applications.”
The indictment accuses seven defendants of acting on behalf of two Moscow companies that the prosecutors say work for the Russian intelligence services.
The items included in the indictment were a chip set of 45 advanced semiconductors, a $45,000 low noise cesium synthesizer, and high-quality spectrum analyzers used in electronic testing. Many are so-called dual-use devices that can be employed for military or civilian purposes.
The United States imposed sanctions on the people involved in the illegal activities, following the invasion ofUkraine by Russia in February.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control stated that those being targeted were members of the war machine of the Russian Federation. The charges were announced on Tuesday by Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn.
In addition to Mr. Grinin, a 47-year-old Moscow resident, the Justice Department identified the defendants as Alexey Ippolitov, 57, of Moscow; Boris Livshits, 52, a former Brooklyn resident now living in St. Petersburg, Russia; Svetlana Skvortsova, 41, of Moscow; Vadim Konoshchenok, 48, of Tallin, Estonia; Alexey Brayman, 35, of Merrimack, N.H.; and Vadim Yermolenko, 41, of Upper Saddle River, N.J.
The defendants face various conspiracy, fraud and money laundering counts, and could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison apiece if convicted of the most serious charges. Four of them remain at large.
Mr. Brayman, a permanent U.S. resident from Israel, and Mr. Yermolenko, an American citizen, were charged with racketeering on Tuesday.
Mr. Brayman was released on a $150,000 bond and subject to conditions that included turning in his passports and wearing an electronic monitoring device. David Lazarus said that Mr. Brayman was entitled to the presumption of innocence.
Mr. Yermolenko was released after posting a $500,000 bond partially secured by his house. Nora Hirozawa, a lawyer for Mr. Yermolenko at his arraignment, declined to comment.
The Crimes of the Kremlin against Ukraine: A U.S. War Crime against Humanity, and the 2016 Ukrainian Invasion
Mr. Konoschenok, who the US believes is an officer of the Federal Security Service in Russia, was arrested last week in Estonian and is awaiting a decision about his deportation. Estonian authorities found 375 pounds of U.S.-made ammunition in a search of a warehouse he has used, the Justice Department said.
Vice President Harris told reporters on Saturday that the U.S. has determined that the actions of the Russian military inUkraine constitute war crimes and must be held accountable.
“We reserve crimes against humanity determinations for the most egregious crimes,” he said. These acts are part of a systematic attack on the civilians of Ukraine by the Kremlin.
While the latest crimes against humanity determination is significant, it remains largely symbolic for now. No specific consequences or the ability to prosecute the Russians involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity will be given by it. However, it could provide international bodies such as the International Criminal Court, which work to hold perpetrators accountable, with evidence to effectively try to prosecute those crimes.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian, Harris made a announcement. The Biden administration is trying to show their commitment to the sovereignty of Ukraine and unity among western allies who have provided billions of dollars in aid, funding and weapons to combat Russia’s aggression. Biden is going to Poland on Monday.
The War on Crimes in Ukraine: Why the U.S. is Willing to Support it Despite the Dark Days in Ukraine, Replied by the Secretary of State
As a young lawyer and later as the head of the California Department of Justice, Harris knew the importance of gathering facts and holding them up against the law.
In her speech, delivered inside the famed Bayerischer Hof hotel in Munich, Harris laid bare some of what could be used as evidence of Russia’s crimes against humanity. The instances that were outlined are specific to news clips and official reports.
According to the White House fact sheet, the US has provided $30 million over the last four years to support the investigation of war crimes. The administration is asking for more money from Congress to help with this issue.
Let us Renew our Commitment to Accountability in the face of these Facts. She asked that they renewed their commitment to the rule of law. “As for the United States, we will continue to support the judicial process in Ukraine and international investigations because justice must be served. Let us all agree, on behalf of all the victims, known and unknown: Justice must be served.”
Harris, in her speech Saturday, pledged that the US would “strongly support” Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” touting the Ukrainian people’s resolve and resilience.
“There will be more dark days in Ukraine. The daily pain of war will continue, she said. “But if Putin thinks he can wait us out, he’s badly mistaken. Time isn’t on his side.
There have been recent questions about how much additional funding the US is going to give to the Ukrainian war effort with Republicans now in charge of the US House of Representatives. But Harris noted Saturday how many congressional leaders were at the conference in Munich. This included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republicans such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
They are here because they understand how important it is. These members have been vital in America’s support of Ukraine, and President Biden and I know that their support will continue, the vice president said.
“Any peace has to be consistent with the principles of the United Nations Charter. It is fundamentally against the interests of every other country around the world to wind up with a result that somehow indicates the seizure by force of territory, that validates that,” Blinken said during a discussion panel in Munich with Annalena Baerbock and Dmytro Kuleba, his respective German and Ukrainian counterparts.
“Because if we do that, we will open a Pandora’s box around the world, and every would-be aggressor will conclude that if Russia got away with it, we can get away with it. He said that it was not in anyone’s interest because it was a recipe for a world of conflict.
Also in Munich, CIA Director Bill Burns said Saturday that intelligence sharing with NATO allies has proved essential to supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
“It’s a two-way street. We’ve learned a lot from our NATO partners. Burns said in the panel discussion that they learned a lot from the Ukrainians. That, he said, “has been the kind of essential cement in the coalition that the president has organized.”
“We have also seen nations like North Korea and Iran send weapons in support of Russia’s brutal war. We are also troubled that Beijing has deepened its relationship with Moscow since the war began,” Harris said.
She said that any steps by China to provide lethal support to Russia would undermine the rules-based order and reward aggression.
CNN has reported that China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, will visit Russia this month, according to its Foreign Ministry, in the first visit to the country from a Chinese official in that role since Moscow’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
The ICC prosecutor’s meeting with the secretary of state: How the U.S. will work to protect national security in the case of crimes against Ukraine
The Secretary of State issued a statement on Saturday saying the US will work to hold those responsible to account, while emphasizing the importance of this designation. There is a person in the meeting.
The International Criminal Court is not a state party to a treaty. The country has the right to accept the court’s jurisdiction over alleged war crimes occurring in its borders. On Feb. 28, 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ICC prosecutor announced he would seek authorization to open an investigation into allegations of war crimes in Ukraine.
A meeting between Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, and Tony Blinken, U.S. deputy secretary of state, will take place this weekend in Munich, as tension rises between the two countries. This will be the highest level of contact between the U.S. and China since the security balloon incident.
The relationship between China and the U.S. has soured since February 4, when a Chinese balloon was shot down by the US.
Beijing insists that shooting the balloon down was an overreaction and a violation of international practice.
Garland’s appearance before the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee marks his first trip to Capitol Hill this year. In the recent months, investigations into President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have taken center stage.
Garland’s opening statement touched on topics like efforts to combat the rise of violent crime and hate crimes, work to protect reproductive freedom across the country, and the department’s accomplishments in partnering with the Ukrainian government against Russian aggression.
“Every day, the 115,000 employees of the Justice Department work tirelessly to fulfill our mission: to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights,” he said, lauding employees’ efforts to protect national security and “our country’s democratic institutions.”
I’ve continued on my pledge not to interfere with the probe, and it was Chuck that asked me about that, he asked me about it.
David C. Weiss, US Attorney in Delaware, has full authority to carry out the investigation and bring in another jurisdiction if it is necessary. Garland said Weiss “is not to be denied anything that he needs.”
He said that if President Biden’s son received payments from a foreign government as a way to influence the administration, it would be a national security problem.
Garland believes that if it was an agent of a foreign government, that would cause a national security problem.
The questions reflect Republican suggestions that the younger Biden had made lucrative business deals because foreign governments were attempting to get to his father.
Attorney General Mike Garland and his Senate Judiciary Committee-Testimonium on the Kamavanaugh Assassination
Garland agreed that we have to force tech platforms to give info, to search their own platforms for illegal drugs, and pledged that the committee has the Department of Justice’s support in efforts to reduce online sale of deadly drugs.
“I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I think Section 230 has become a suicide pact,” Durbin said, referring to a section of the Communications Decency Act that shields tech platforms from being sued over the content users post. We have told these companies that they are free of liability and have a responsibility for the deaths that result from it.
The attorney general added that the department supports “a better way to get the social media companies, whether it’s civil or criminal, to take these kinds of things off their platforms.”
Garland was questioned about the lack of charges by Sen. Mike Lee after demonstrators protested for a while in front of the justices residences in the wake of the leaked opinion to overturn the abortion law.
The attorney general was not sure if the department brought any cases under the statute. Garland said the most important thing was his order to the US marshals to protect the justices after their draft opinion was leaked.
How the US Marshals handled the alleged assassination attempt against Kavanaugh has been scrutinized. According to information released by local law enforcement, the man who attempted the attack was caught after texting his sister and calling for help.
At least two senators brought up a controversy surrounding Ticketmaster after the service failed to process orders for Taylor Swift’s upcoming tour, leaving millions of fans unable to buy tickets or without their ticket even after purchase.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/01/politics/merrick-garland-senate-judiciary-committee-testimony/index.html
The Office of Legal Counsel and the Office of the Attorney General of the Department of Justice: Merrick Garland’s unannounced trip to Ukraine
Garland said that any concentrated industry is a “problem for competition” as he faced questions about the probe, and, quoting Swift, said the department knows “all too well” about the importance of industry competition. He told them that they approach their work with an idea that highly concentrated industries are a problem for competition.
Garland refused to commit to revisiting internal DOJ legal stances that have been rejected by federal judges, even though those stances were issued by the Office of Legal Counsel.
OLC opinions do not carry the legal weight of a ruling from a court, but are binding across the agencies of the executive branch. Critics of the OLC’s continued embrace of its positions – and particularly positions asserting sweeping executive privileges – say that it allows the White House to avoid scrutiny by lawmakers with years of litigation over congressional subpoenas.
There’s no effort to ask the OLC to fix their opinions because it seems like they’re flat out wrong by the determinations made by the judges.
Garland cited the resource constraints the OLC faces and suggested that the office was more likely to revisit a position if it was deemed unlawful by the Supreme Court, or perhaps a federal appeals court.
Garland, who once worked on DC’s federal appeals court, said there are a lot of judges who criticize OLC opinions and the Justice Department. “As a former judge, that’s perfectly appropriate for Article III judges to do, but we have to allocate our resources to cases where – which are active cases.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, according to a Justice Department official, his second trip to the country after Russia invaded a little more than a year ago.
Garland met with Ukranian President Vloydomyr Zelinsky to sign an agreement that would promote sharing of information about Russian atrocities against hospitals, schools, and other civilians in the Ukranian region since the start of the conflict one year ago.
The attorney general traveled to Ukraine in June to help find and prosecute people who committed war crimes. Garland announced during the trip that he was appointing Eli Rosenbaum to lead a Justice Department team to identify and prosecute war criminals.
Garland said that the United States supported the idea of creating a court to charge crimes of aggression.
“There are concerns that we have to take into account with respect to how that might deal with our own service members and other circumstances,” he continued. “We have to be sure that the appropriate guardrails are up. We support any investigation of war crimes, crimes against humanity or the potential for crimes against aggression.
The department has also brought over 30 indictments against sanctioned supporters of the Kremlin and Russian military, the department has said, some of which have directly implicated individuals in supporting the war in Ukraine.
Garland said in his remarks that the perpetrators of those crimes would not get away with it.
The attorney general said the United States has a long memory when it comes to war crimes, pointing to a years-long effort to identify and deport Nazi war criminals who fled to America. After World War II ended, about 130 such cases advanced.
Congress gave the DOJ the power to bring to justice other war criminals from other parts of the world if they are living or staying in America’s borders.
He detailed the areas of cooperation already in place with Ukraine and allies to keep track of evidence, provide forensic help and training, and even advise on environmental crimes that have harmed Ukrainians during the conflict. Garland said he would post a legal adviser from the U.S. to work in the country.
The meeting comes as investigators are combing through the rubble of disaster sites and exhumed graves to find evidence of abuse. As the war rages on, it comes as well. Garland and other American officials said part of the motivation for speaking now is to deliver a message that could reach Russians waging the conflict.
The attorney general pointed out that Robert Jackson led the effort to identify and prosecute people who were behind the crime of aggression.
A remark on his childhood experience in the U.S. Holocaust and his personal history at the end of his remarks during his first visit to the Holocaust
He pointed to some personal history at the end of his remarks. His grandmother made it into the U.S. before Nazis invaded their homeland. Two of her siblings perished in the Holocaust. What happened to survivors is still shrouded in mystery.
