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Category: Law/Crime

U.S. investigating Americans who worked with Russian state television

U.S. investigating Americans who worked with Russian state television

The New York Times reports: The Department of Justice has begun a broad criminal investigation into Americans who have worked with Russia’s state television networks, signaling an aggressive effort to combat the Kremlin’s influence operations leading up to the presidential election in November, according to American officials briefed on the inquiry. This month, F.B.I. agents searched the homes of two prominent figures with connections to Russian state media: Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector and critic of American…

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Infiltrating the far right

Infiltrating the far right

Donald Trump is promising to pardon people convicted of crimes related to the attack on the Capitol. “What the far right is hearing is ‘Violence against our political opponents is not something that should be criminalized,’ ” a former F.B.I. agent said.https://t.co/xVmdBUnWnR pic.twitter.com/La2cDDGIGP — The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 20, 2024 David D. Kirkpatrick writes: Colton Brown, who lived with his father and stepmother in a single-story house outside Seattle, earned about fifty thousand dollars a year as an assistant…

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Prominent conservative former federal judge, Michael Luttig, endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy

Prominent conservative former federal judge, Michael Luttig, endorses Harris, calls Trump a threat to democracy

CNN reports: Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative legal scholar put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush, is endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump, whose candidacy he describes as an existential threat to American democracy. It will be the first time Luttig, a veteran of two Republican administrations, has voted for a Democrat. “In the presidential election of 2024 there is only one political party and one candidate for…

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Election deniers secretly pushed rule that would make it easier to delay certification of Georgia’s election results

Election deniers secretly pushed rule that would make it easier to delay certification of Georgia’s election results

By Doug Bock Clark This story was originally published by ProPublica Georgia’s GOP-controlled State Election Board is poised to adopt a rule on Monday that would give county election board members an additional avenue to delay certification of election results, potentially allowing them to throw the state’s vote count into chaos this fall. A former Fulton County election official who submitted an initial draft of the rule told ProPublica that she had done so at the behest of a regional…

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Experts: Pro-Trump officials could face ‘severe’ punishments if they refuse to certify election

Experts: Pro-Trump officials could face ‘severe’ punishments if they refuse to certify election

Salon reports: Pro-Trump local election officials may try to slow down the certification of election results in November based on unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud – but legal experts say those efforts alone won’t secure the White House for the former president. Instead, legal experts say they’re more concerned about the role of state legislatures and the Trump-friendly Supreme Court coming to Trump’s aid as he sows the kind of discord and doubt in the nation’s electoral processes that…

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How Trump would use the military against riots, crime and migrants

How Trump would use the military against riots, crime and migrants

The New York Times reports: During the turbulent summer of 2020, President Donald J. Trump raged at his military and legal advisers, calling them “losers” for objecting to his idea of using federal troops to suppress outbreaks of violence during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd. It wasn’t the only time Mr. Trump was talked out of using the military for domestic law enforcement — a practice that would carry profound implications for civil liberties and…

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UAW brands Donald Trump and Elon Musk as ‘scabs’ — then hits them with federal labor charges

UAW brands Donald Trump and Elon Musk as ‘scabs’ — then hits them with federal labor charges

The New Republic reports: Donald Trump is already receiving pushback after threatening striking workers in his trainwreck interview with Elon Musk on Monday night. “I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.’” In…

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U.S. said to consider a breakup of Google to address search monopoly

U.S. said to consider a breakup of Google to address search monopoly

The New York Times reports: Google was found last week to have violated antitrust law by illegally maintaining a monopoly in internet search. Now discussions over how to fix those violations have begun. Justice Department officials are considering what remedies to ask a federal judge to order against the search giant, said three people with knowledge of the deliberations involving the agency and state attorneys general who helped to bring the case. They are discussing various proposals, including breaking off…

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Majority of Republicans support Supreme Court reforms in Biden’s proposal, poll finds

Majority of Republicans support Supreme Court reforms in Biden’s proposal, poll finds

The Hill reports: Most Republicans support the policy proposals in President Biden’s plan to reform the Supreme Court, according to a new USA Today/Ipsos poll. Biden outlined a three-pronged approach to reforming the high court in a speech last month, calling for a binding code of conduct, 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices, and a Constitutional amendment declaring no one — not even the president — is above the law. The latest poll shows 70 percent of Republicans support…

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Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, are turned away from ERs despite federal law

Dozens of pregnant women, some bleeding or in labor, are turned away from ERs despite federal law

The Associated Press reports: Bleeding and in pain, Kyleigh Thurman didn’t know her doomed pregnancy could kill her. Emergency room doctors at Ascension Seton Williamson in Texas handed her a pamphlet on miscarriage and told her to “let nature take its course” before discharging her without treatment for her ectopic pregnancy. When the 25-year-old returned three days later, still bleeding, doctors finally agreed to give her an injection to end the pregnancy. It was too late. The fertilized egg growing…

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We’re entering an AI price-fixing dystopia

We’re entering an AI price-fixing dystopia

Rogé Karma writes: If you rent your home, there’s a good chance your landlord uses RealPage to set your monthly payment. The company describes itself as merely helping landlords set the most profitable price. But a series of lawsuits says it’s something else: an AI-enabled price-fixing conspiracy. The classic image of price-fixing involves the executives of rival companies gathering behind closed doors and secretly agreeing to charge the same inflated price for whatever they’re selling. This type of collusion is…

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Georgia’s election board is out of control. Can anything be done?

Georgia’s election board is out of control. Can anything be done?

  Lisa Rubin writes: On Tuesday night, as Democrats cheered Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s debut as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, something considerably less joyful was going down in Atlanta. As my colleague Ja’han Jones explained, Georgia’s State Election Board, a five-member body controlled by fervent Donald Trump loyalists, adopted a rule allowing local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results — a task that, pursuant to Georgia statutory law, has long been understood to…

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What the Supreme Court left unsaid about Trump’s criminal immunity

What the Supreme Court left unsaid about Trump’s criminal immunity

Politico reports: When the Supreme Court set out to decide Donald Trump’s bid for presidential immunity, the justices were aiming to establish “a rule for the ages.” Instead, the court left a muddle that both Trump and his prosecutors now hope to exploit — and their efforts may send the case hurtling right back to the justices, perhaps within months. The July 1 immunity ruling was widely viewed as a major victory for Trump because it declared him “absolutely immune”…

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Israel has created its own Abu Ghraib — and the world is silent

Israel has created its own Abu Ghraib — and the world is silent

Lubna Masarwa and Peter Oborne writes: It’s been just over 20 years since CBS News published the sobering photographs that proved the US army was carrying out unspeakable crimes against Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Rape. Degradation. Homicide. Torture, both psychological and physical. Sexual humiliation. The revelations of US barbarity were greeted with horror around the world and played a major role in turning opinion against the Iraq War. In recent days, it has become all too clear that…

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The Google antitrust ruling is huge, but we don’t know what it really means yet

The Google antitrust ruling is huge, but we don’t know what it really means yet

Fortune reports: Yesterday’s Google antitrust ruling was historic. It may be kind of obvious to most people that a company handling 90% or more of search queries in the U.S. is a monopolist, but it’s nonetheless a big deal for a judge to rule as such—and to confirm that Google was therefore breaking antitrust rules when it shored up that outsized position by paying billions to Apple, Samsung and other players to make Google Search the default on their devices….

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North Carolina and Michigan investigating Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC after voter data complaint

North Carolina and Michigan investigating Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC after voter data complaint

CNBC reports: The North Carolina Attorney General’s Office said Monday that it is eyeing a political action committee created by billionaire Elon Musk following a complaint to the state election board over the PAC’s collection of personal data while failing to help users register to vote as promised. The North Carolina Board of Elections later Monday told CNBC that it has opened an investigation of Musk’s America PAC. “North Carolina law makes it a crime for someone to fail to…

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