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Category: Law/Crime

Member of Oath Keepers conspiracy was ‘awaiting direction’ from Trump before Capitol attack, prosecutors say

Member of Oath Keepers conspiracy was ‘awaiting direction’ from Trump before Capitol attack, prosecutors say

BuzzFeed News reports: Hours before day three of former president Donald Trump’s impeachment trial was set to begin on Thursday, federal prosecutors offered new evidence that a member of the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy charged with planning an assault on the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was “awaiting direction” from Trump. Jessica Watkins, an Army veteran and, according to court papers, a member of the Oath Keepers militia group, is accused of participating in a conspiracy to assault the Capitol…

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Tuberville says he informed Trump of Pence’s evacuation before rioters reached Senate

Tuberville says he informed Trump of Pence’s evacuation before rioters reached Senate

Politico reports: Sen. Tommy Tuberville revealed late Wednesday that he spoke to Donald Trump on Jan. 6, just as a violent mob closed in on the the Senate, and informed the then-president directly that Vice President Mike Pence had just been evacuated from the chamber. “I said ‘Mr. President, they just took the vice president out, I’ve got to go,’” Tuberville (R-Ala.) told POLITICO on Capitol Hill on Wednesday night, saying he cut the phone call short amid the chaos….

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Republicans warned about Trump and violence … five years ago

Republicans warned about Trump and violence … five years ago

Steve Benen writes: As a Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump went to unusual lengths to express his comfort with violence. Indeed, as House impeachment managers were eager to remind senators today, the Republican at times seemed to encourage violence toward protesters before he became president, and echoed the rhetoric while in office. But what’s easy to forget is that Trump’s GOP rivals in the 2016 race recognized the dangers posed by his style of politics. The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel…

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Impeachment video reveals a true American horror story

Impeachment video reveals a true American horror story

James Poniewozik writes: Impeachment trials of American presidents are rare. They are almost by definition grave and serious. But the proceeding against former President Donald J. Trump was likely the first to include a parental advisory for graphic violence. Beginning Wednesday’s presentation, which included never-before-seen video of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead House impeachment manager, began with a warning: “We do urge parents and teachers to exercise close review of what young people…

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Georgia prosecutors open criminal investigation of Trump phone call

Georgia prosecutors open criminal investigation of Trump phone call

The New York Times reports: Prosecutors in Fulton County have initiated a criminal investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to overturn Georgia’s election results, including a phone call he made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in which Mr. Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to help him reverse his loss. On Wednesday, Fani Willis, the recently elected Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County, sent a letter to numerous officials in state government, including Mr. Raffensperger, requesting that…

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Trump Justice Department sought to block search of Giuliani records

Trump Justice Department sought to block search of Giuliani records

The New York Times reports: In the final months of the Trump administration, senior Justice Department officials repeatedly sought to block federal prosecutors in Manhattan from taking a crucial step in their investigation into Rudolph W. Giuliani’s dealings in Ukraine, delaying a search warrant for some of Mr. Giuliani’s electronic records, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The actions by political appointees at the Justice Department in Washington effectively slowed the investigation as it was gaining momentum last…

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My fellow Republicans, convicting Trump is necessary to save America

My fellow Republicans, convicting Trump is necessary to save America

Rep. Adam Kinzinger writes: Winston Churchill famously said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” All Americans, but especially my fellow Republicans, should remember this wisdom during the Senate’s trial of former president Donald Trump. I say this as a lifelong Republican who voted to impeach Trump last month. Virtually all my colleagues on the right side of the aisle took the opposite path. Most felt it was a waste of time — political theater…

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Over a dozen Capitol rioters say they were following Trump’s directions

Over a dozen Capitol rioters say they were following Trump’s directions

ABC News reports: With former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial starting today, Senate Democrats are focused on trying to tie a direct line between Trump’s rhetoric and the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. An ABC News investigation into the nearly 200 accused rioters facing federal charges for their alleged involvement at the Capitol — based on court filings, military records, interviews, and available news reports– found that at least fifteen individuals who stormed the building…

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Trump’s legal team, when arguing the opposite, repeatedly cites scholar who says there is a ‘solid basis’ for post-presidential impeachments

Trump’s legal team, when arguing the opposite, repeatedly cites scholar who says there is a ‘solid basis’ for post-presidential impeachments

Law & Crime reports: Donald Trump’s defense team was accused of flagrantly misrepresenting the work of a constitutional scholar when asserting that the former president’s impeachment is unconstitutional. Attorneys representing Trump filed a legal brief on Monday arguing that the U.S. Constitution only allows for the impeachment of sitting officials and therefore cannot be utilized against a president who has already left office. Similar to the House Impeachment Managers’ pre-trial filing, the brief relied heavily on a highly-regarded 2001 academic…

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Georgia Secretary of State’s office launches probe into Trump

Georgia Secretary of State’s office launches probe into Trump

Reuters reports: The Georgia Secretary of State’s office opened an investigation on Monday into former U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results, an official in the office told Reuters. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office had faced calls to open a probe after Trump was recorded in a Jan. 2 phone call pressuring Raffensperger to overturn the state’s election results based on unfounded voter fraud claims. “The Secretary of State’s office investigates complaints it receives,”…

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Breaking with GOP, top conservative lawyer says Trump can stand trial

Breaking with GOP, top conservative lawyer says Trump can stand trial

The New York Times reports: One of Washington’s leading conservative constitutional lawyers publicly broke on Sunday with the main Republican argument against convicting former President Donald J. Trump in his impeachment trial, asserting that an ex-president can indeed be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors. In an opinion piece posted on The Wall Street Journal’s website, the lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, who is closely allied with top Republicans in Congress, dismissed as illogical the claim that it is unconstitutional to…

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After record 2020 turnout, state Republicans want to make voting more difficult

After record 2020 turnout, state Republicans want to make voting more difficult

NPR reports: After an election that saw record voter turnout, with many of those voters casting their ballots early and by mail, some GOP state lawmakers are proposing a wave of new voting laws that would effectively make it more difficult to vote in future elections. The proposals come in the aftermath of the unprecedented onslaught of disinformation about the conduct of the 2020 election by former President Trump and some of his allies in the Republican Party. “Some folks…

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Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit poses a real threat to Fox News

Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion lawsuit poses a real threat to Fox News

CNN reports: “This is the definition of defamation.” That’s what CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates told Erin Burnett Thursday night when discussing Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, three of the network’s hosts (Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro), Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell. “When you are making statements that are knowingly false, and you make them with malice, and you actually tarnish reputations and it has a financial consequence — that’s why you have defamation…

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Did the Proud Boys help coordinate the Capitol riot? Yes, U.S. suggests

Did the Proud Boys help coordinate the Capitol riot? Yes, U.S. suggests

The New York Times reports: When Ethan Nordean, the “sergeant of arms” for the Seattle Proud Boys, led a mob of his fellow far-right nationalists on a winding march to the Capitol last month, an angry crowd had already gathered at the barricades, facing off against a small detachment of the Capitol Police. It was then, court papers say, that Mr. Nordean had a brief exchange with a young man in the throng wearing goggles, a battle helmet and head-to-toe…

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Fox News is sued by election tech company, Smartmatic, for over $2.7 billion

Fox News is sued by election tech company, Smartmatic, for over $2.7 billion

The New York Times reports: Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation and three of its popular anchors are the targets of a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed on Thursday by a company that became a prominent subject of discredited theories about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic, an election technology company, filed the suit in New York State Supreme Court against the Fox Corporation, Fox News, and the anchors Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. As part of the…

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‘He invited us’: Accused Capitol rioters blame Trump in novel legal defense

‘He invited us’: Accused Capitol rioters blame Trump in novel legal defense

Reuters reports: Emanuel Jackson, a 20-year-old Washington area man, was caught on video using a metal bat to strike the protective shields wielded by police officers as they tried to fend off rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Jackson, awaiting trial in federal court on assault charges, is now adopting a novel legal defense: seeking to pin the blame on Donald Trump, citing the former president’s remarks at a “Stop the Steal” rally shortly before the Capitol siege….

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