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Trump Jan. 6 indictment: The statutes

Trump Jan. 6 indictment: The statutes

Lawfare analysts write: The indictment released today by the Jan. 6 grand jury in Washington charges former President Donald Trump with four felony counts: two for obstruction of an official proceeding, one for conspiracy to defraud the United States, and one for conspiracy against rights. These are among the more straightforward crimes the special counsel could have charged; they are commonly used by prosecutors in a variety of contexts, and they avoid some of the legal pitfalls that would have…

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Fitch highlighted Jan. 6 insurrection with Treasury ahead of U.S. downgraded credit rating

Fitch highlighted Jan. 6 insurrection with Treasury ahead of U.S. downgraded credit rating

Reuters reports: Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to fiscal concerns, a deterioration in U.S governance, as well as political polarization reflected partly by the Jan. 6 insurrection, Richard Francis, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters on Wednesday. In a move that took investors by surprise, Fitch downgraded the United States to AA+ from AAA on Tuesday, citing fiscal deterioration over the next three years and repeated down-to-the-wire debt ceiling negotiations that threaten the government’s ability to…

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Trump is charged under civil rights law used to prosecute KKK violence

Trump is charged under civil rights law used to prosecute KKK violence

The Washington Post reports: A carload of White men who attacked an interracial couple with rocks and bricks. A member of the Ku Klux Klan who built a cross, wrapped it in sheets soaked in gas and oil and instructed two others to set it ablaze in front of the home of a family of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. A social media influencer who spread misinformation aimed at preventing people from voting. And now, a former president of the…

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Even Trump’s indictments haven’t shattered the deadlock between the parties. Here’s why

Even Trump’s indictments haven’t shattered the deadlock between the parties. Here’s why

Ronald Brownstein writes: Former President Donald Trump’s mounting legal jeopardy is raising a stark political question: can anything break the sustained electoral stalemate that has left the country divided almost exactly in half between the Republican and Democratic coalitions? Trump is facing a swarm of criminal accusations unprecedented for an active presidential candidate, much less a former president. But during this ordeal, his lead in the 2024 GOP presidential primary has solidified. And while polls have highlighted some clear warning…

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Trump charged in probe of Jan. 6, efforts to overturn 2020 election

Trump charged in probe of Jan. 6, efforts to overturn 2020 election

The Washington Post reports: A grand jury indicted former president Donald Trump on Tuesday for a raft of alleged crimes in his brazen efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election — the latest legal and political aftershock stemming from the riot at the U.S. Capitol two and a half years ago. The four-count, 45-page indictment accuses Trump of three distinct conspiracies, charging that he conspired to defraud the U.S., conspired to obstruct an official proceeding and conspired against…

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Trump’s indictments are having diminishing returns for his political fundraising

Trump’s indictments are having diminishing returns for his political fundraising

Politico reports: Donald Trump’s legal troubles have created windfalls for his political fundraising in the past. And his team has not been shy about using various investigations, indictments and court appearances to turbocharge his donor base. But new data filed with the Federal Election Commission by WinRed, the premiere GOP donation processor used by Trump and most other Republican candidates, shows that trend may be ebbing. The former president’s fundraising did not spike as high after his second indictment in…

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The Middle East deal that Biden’s considering is a bad idea

The Middle East deal that Biden’s considering is a bad idea

Fred Kaplan writes: President Joe Biden is exploring the possibility of a big deal in which Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel, Israel reopens talks with Palestinians, and the U.S. signs a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has described the deal as “a game changer for the Middle East, bigger than the Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel”—as long as tight restrictions on Israeli settlements are a condition. Certainly, the package is intriguing….

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Why the American far right loves Bashar al-Assad

Why the American far right loves Bashar al-Assad

Leila Al-Shami and Shon Meckfessel write: On April 1, 2023, a conference was held in Lyon, France, under the title “Syria and Its Allies on the March Towards a Multipolar World.” It was held by Egalite et Reconciliation (Equality and Reconciliation), a think tank founded by Alain Soral, a former member of France’s right-wing National Front party (rebranded in 2018 as the “National Rally”). Soral was imprisoned in 2019 for racism, antisemitism and Holocaust denial. The syncretic think tank he…

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Niger coup: Why some people want Russia in and France out

Niger coup: Why some people want Russia in and France out

BBC News reports: In a sign of growing hostility towards the West since the coup in Niger, a businessman proudly shows off his outfit in the colours of the Russian flag in the traditional heartland of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. Since the coup, there has been a war of words between the military and the West. Mr Bazoum was a staunch ally of the West in the fight against militant Islamists, and was a strong economic partner as well. Niger…

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‘Project 2025’: A plan to dismantle U.S. climate policy for next Republican president

‘Project 2025’: A plan to dismantle U.S. climate policy for next Republican president

The Guardian reports: An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged. Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22m endeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch. Called the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, it is meant to guide the first…

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NATO planes watched as three civilian ships ran Russia’s naval blockade of Ukraine

NATO planes watched as three civilian ships ran Russia’s naval blockade of Ukraine

Forbes reports: A trio of civilian cargo ships—one each from Israel and Greece plus one with Turkish-Georgian registration—ran the Russian blockade in the Black Sea on Sunday and anchored at one of Ukraine’s grain ports on the Danube Delta. Twenty-two days after Moscow canceled a deal with Kyiv—which had allowed Ukraine safely to export tens of millions of tons of grain—and then threatened to halt maritime traffic to Ukrainian ports, the world has called the Russians’ bluff. “Reports of three…

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Inside the Wagner Group’s armed uprising

Inside the Wagner Group’s armed uprising

Joshua Yaffa writes: On May 20th, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, stood in the center of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, and recorded a video. The city once housed seventy thousand people but was now, after months of relentless shelling, nearly abandoned. Whole blocks were in ruins, charred skeletons of concrete and steel. Smoke hung over the smoldering remains like an early-morning fog. Prigozhin wore combat fatigues and waved a Russian flag. “Today, at twelve noon, Bakhmut was…

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Twitter threatens legal action against nonprofit that tracks hate speech

Twitter threatens legal action against nonprofit that tracks hate speech

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk has over the last year threatened legal action against tech competitors, employees and people who use Twitter, which he owns. Now he is also taking aim at an organization that studies hate speech and misinformation on social media. X Corp., the parent company of the social media company, sent a letter on July 20 to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that conducts research on social media, accusing the organization of…

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Georgia judge skewers Trump’s bid to derail potential charges

Georgia judge skewers Trump’s bid to derail potential charges

Politico reports: A state judge in Georgia has rejected Donald Trump’s bid to derail his potential prosecution for attempting to subvert the 2020 election results. In a nine-page ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said it’s simply too soon for Trump or his allies to seek to prohibit Georgia prosecutors from continuing to investigate him — in large part because he hasn’t been indicted yet. “[W]hile being the subject (or even target) of a highly publicized criminal investigation…

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Former business partner says Hunter Biden sold ‘illusion’ of access to Joe Biden, source says

Former business partner says Hunter Biden sold ‘illusion’ of access to Joe Biden, source says

CNN reports: Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee on Monday that his former business partner, Hunter Biden, was selling the “illusion” of access to his father, according to a source familiar with the closed-door interview, the latest development in the Republican-led congressional investigations into the president’s son. The source also reiterated that Archer provided no evidence connecting President Joe Biden to any of his son’s foreign business dealings. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat on the panel who sat through…

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Trump’s ‘Save America’ PAC has spent more than $40 million on legal costs this year for himself, others

Trump’s ‘Save America’ PAC has spent more than $40 million on legal costs this year for himself, others

The Washington Post reports: Former president Donald Trump’s political group spent more than $40 million on legal costs in the first half of 2023 to defend Trump, his advisers and others, according to people familiar with the matter, financing legal work that has drawn scrutiny from prosecutors about potential conflicts of interest between Trump and witnesses. Save America, the former president’s PAC, is expected to disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending in a filing expected Monday, said the people…

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