Monday, 2 April 2018, WASHINGTON, DC - The Washington Post has been under direct attack by the United States Government among originally print-based newspapers most notably with the New York Times throughout the duration of the present presidential administration. All concerned with affairs of State including the judiciary and doubtless many who are not both at home and even abroad doubtless are familiar with at least the most recurrent themes and content of the President's official statements under his full and sole authority as holder of the Office of the President of the United States of America spread far and wide by his every public use of Twitter to communicate directly to tens of millions of people thereafter subject to unlimited amplification and further dissemination.
No matter in any case here because one could be expected to take judicial notice of the fact that all in the position of or associated with the ownership and control of publication, editorial and all other work necessary to the composition and distribution of the Washington Post including all of its content are fully aware of each and every threat and attempted intimidation directed by the President of the United States at the Washington Post which in this case to the best of our knowledge would ultimately be at the single person of Mr. Jeff Bezos.
The editorial board of the Ninth Amendment believes that even much earlier but certainly now with the frequency and intensity of those official unretracted threats from the highest office holder of the United States Government admittedly intended to harass, inhibit and restrain the press in this case the Washington Post regardless of whether it be by calling it out by name or in any other identifiable way or its owner Mr. Bezos or another asset or enterprise of his most recently it being Amazon all of which in the instant case are equally noxious to the Constitution being attempts at prior restraint the most abhorrent form of censorship under the First Amendment.
Here it might be considered of even more pernicious intent than the most seminal adjudicated case of notorious U.S. Government prior restraint because it ultimately is directed not just at restraining some specific news or editorial items of publication but more fundamentally at destroying the entire publication of the Washington Post by destroying the asset base of its ownership. The willingness of the President to use this type of tactic against a publication has been demonstrated before in his capacity as a private citizen himself publicizing such results in private litigation but most recently just last week on occasions when the President wrongly used his official statements (in this case unsurprisingly lies although that is largely irrelevant) as weapons to directly reduce the net worth of Mr. Bezos by causing for a time at least the stock price of Amazon to drop.
This is an implicit intimidation, threat or restraint directed at least in part as any similar act of the President's now must be taken to be similarly against the Washington Post in its place among that most sacrosanct of institutions in this nation being the press recognized as essential to the survival of democracy as established under the United States Constitution:
This is very clearly defined in Supreme Court case law, most prominently in the Pentagon Papers case. As Justice Hugo Black explained in his concurrence: “Both the history and language of the First Amendment support the view that the press must be left free to publish news, whatever the source, without censorship, injunctions, or prior restraints. In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government.”
"The Washington Post Stories That Preceded Trump's Tweets Against Amazon" by Marc Fisher, Tim Meko and Kevin Schaul, 5 April 2018, The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/trump-tweets-amazon-washington-post/?utm_term=.073f2d4e8cc0 Graphics
"Trump Attacks Amazon Again After Washington Post Runs Unflattering Story" by Benjamin Hart, 31 March 2018, New York Magazine Daily Intelligencer http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/trump-attacks-amazon-again-after-post-runs-negative-story.html
"Trump Attacks Amazon, Again, Over U.S. Postal Rates" by Reuters Staff, 31 March 2018, Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-trump/trump-attacks-amazon-again-over-u-s-postal-rates-idUSKBN1H70MC?il=0
"Donald Trump Attacks Amazon's 'Post Office Scam' On Twitter -- Again" by Jamie Ducharme, 31 March 2018, TIME Magazine http://time.com/5223501/donald-trump-amazon-post-office-twitter/ Video 1:28
Related: Corrupt FCC Chair Agit Pai OKs Sinclair Broadcasting "Trump TV" Nationwide Local News Dominance
https://youtu.be/_fHfgU8oMSo Video 1:38
"Trump Tirade Is Culmination Of Immigration Frustration" by Michael D. Shear, The New York Times, 11 May 2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/us/politics/trump-nielsen-immigration.html
Quote 1 [Adapted]: WH Special Asst. Kelly Sadler Mocks Sen. McCain For Opposing CIA Haspel 10 Nov 2018
Quote 2 "Morning Joe" Scarborough: Analysis Of Above Comment Coming From The Trump WH 11 Nov 2018
"Secret Origins Of The Trump Investigation: Code Name Crossfire Hurricane" by Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos, The New York Times, 16 May 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/crossfire-hurricane-trump-russia-fbi-mueller-investigation.html
"Here's Your Unclassified Briefing On Secret Government Code Names" by Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, The New York Times, 16 May 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/us/politics/fbi-code-names-investigations-crossfire-hurricane.html
"Secret FBI Source For Russia Investigation Met With Three Trump Advisers During Campaign" by Robert Costa, Carol D. Leonnig,, Tom Hamburger and Devlin Barrett, with contributors Alice Crites, Shane Harris, Rosalind S. Helderman, Ellen Nakashima and Matt Zapotosky, The Washington Post, 18 May 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-fbi-source-for-russia-investigation-met-with-three- trump-advisers-during-campaign/2018/05/18/9778d9f0-5aea-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html? Videos 1:58 3:49
"F.B.I. Used Informant To Investigate Russia Ties, Not To Spy, As Trump Claimed" by Adam Goldman, Mark Mazzetti and Matthew Rosenberg, with contributors Nicholas Fandos, Sharon LaFraniere, Katie Benner and Eileen Sullivan, The New York Times, 18 May 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/politics/trump-fbi-informant-russia-investigation.html
"Trump's Lawyer And Chief Of Staff Appear At Briefings On F.B.I.'s Russia Informant" by Nicholas Fandos And Katie Benner, with contributors Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, Adam Goldman, Thomas Kaplan and Charlie Savage, The New York Times, 24 May 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/us/politics/fbi-informant-russia-congress-briefings.html
"Inside Black Cube And Its Work To Scuttle The Iran Deal" MSNBC Richard Engel On Assignment, 25 May 2018 (Indicted Netanyahu Team Iran Trump Hire Mossad Israeli IDF Black Cube" Creeps" Ilegally On US Soil Stalk Surveil Harass Threaten US Citizens Obama Aides Wives Parents Little Children Violate US / International Law)
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/inside-black-cube-and-its-work-to-scuttle-the-iran-nuclear-deal-1242299971972?playlist=associated Video 11:22
"Trump Aides Reportedly Hired An Israeli Intelligence Firm To Dig Up Dirt On Obama's Iran Deal Team" by Rosie Peper, Business Insider, 7 May 2017
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-team-hired-israeli-intelligence-to-spy-on-obama-iran-deal-black-cube-2018-5?
"How Far Did Trump Allies Go To Discredit Supporters Of The Iran Deal" by Paul Waldman, The Washington Post, 7 May 2018
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/05/07/how-far-did-trump-allies-go-to-discredit-supporters-of-the-iran-deal/? Video 2:35
"Israel Intel Firm Denies It Was Hired To Discredit Obama Officials" by Oliver Holmes, The Guardian, 7 May 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/07/israel-intel-firm-black-cube-trump-obama-iran-nuclear-deal
"Opponents Of Iran Deal Hired Investigators To Dig Up Dirt On Obama Aide" by Roman D. Shear and Ronan Bergman, The New York Times, 7 May 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/07/us/politics/iran-deal-benjamin-rhodes-black-cube.html
WaPo Raves Nakasone "Will Head" NSA And U.S. Cyber Command (Pending Nakasone Confirmation)
Interested readers can go to the Washington Post article linked to here below about the Trump administration nominee Army Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone to be Director of the NSA and US Cyber Command (CyberCom) especially in the context of the fraught relationship set out in the top portion of the post directly above it the article stood out as being an uncharacteristically uncritical article for the Washington Post to publish not offering any notable independent critique of the nominee.
It article linked to below also could be read as if Mr. Nakasone already held the new position because although it did note he was not yet confirmed the article easily could be confused as some congratulatory press release prepared by the Pentagon's press office. No aspersions whatsoever are intended as to the nominee nor the reporter moreover in recognition that in certain areas especially such as intelligence / national security a publication may have to adhere to different standards as to the source's degree of editorial control so as to remain in good standing to publish and maintain the best public access possible in areas of especial sensitivity which otherwise might not be reported at all.
Army Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone, expected to become the next head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, at a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing on March 1. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News)
o https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/incoming-nsa-chief-has-a-reputation-for-winning-all-the-important-fights-russia-will-be-his-biggest-test-yet/2018/03/31/ee943ef0-23d6-11e8-badd-7c9f29a55815_story.html?utm_term=.4ac12411fb13
Copyright 2018 Martin P. All World Rights Expressly Reserved (no claim to images)
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