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US Monthly Headline News August 2023 - Page 1
Story by Navdeep Yadav

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) accused Donald Trump‘s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, of breaching ethical boundaries over a Saudi investment deal.

What Happened: The House Oversight Committee Chairman, in an interview with CNN, said that Kushner "crossed the line of ethics" as he accepted a $2 billion investment from the Saudi government for his private investment firm, six months after leaving the White House.

"I've been vocal that I think that what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics," Comer said.
Story by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Two leading, highly-credentialed conservative constitutional law professors say the U.S. Constitution already “disqualifies former President Donald Trump” from holding office, including being President, because of his “participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.”

In a 126-page University of Pennsylvania Law Review paper published Wednesday, University of Chicago Law School Professor William Baude, and University of St. Thomas School of Law Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, introduce their work by writing:

“Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids holding office by former office holders who then participate in insurrection or rebellion. Because of a range of misperceptions and mistaken assumptions, Section Three’s full legal consequences have not been appreciated or enforced. This article corrects those mistakes by setting forth the full sweep and force of Section Three.”
Carrie Johnson

Prosecutors in the office of special counsel Jack Smith are proposing that a federal judge in Washington, D.C., set a start date of Jan. 2, 2024, for former President Donald Trump's trial on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The government lawyers estimate the case could last about four to six weeks.

"Most importantly, a January 2 trial date would vindicate the public's strong interest in a speedy trial—an interest guaranteed by the Constitution and federal law in all cases, but of particular significance here, where the defendant, a former president, is charged with conspiring to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election, obstruct the certification of the election results, and discount citizens' legitimate votes," they wrote in a new filing.
The new ProPublica report reveals a higher number of unreported gifts from billionaire benefactors than was previously known.
By Andrew Zhang

Democratic lawmakers revived their calls for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign from his position Thursday after a new ProPublica report revealed he had taken more unreported luxury vacations funded by billionaires than was previously known.

“Justice Thomas has brought shame upon himself and the United States Supreme Court with his acceptance of massive, repeated and undisclosed gifts,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said on X, formerly known as Twitter. “No government official, elected or unelected, could ethically or legally accept gifts of that scale. He should resign immediately.”

As the high court continues to see record-low public approval and a Democratic-led effort to impose ethics reforms, ProPublica reported Thursday that wealthy benefactors have gifted Thomas at least 38 destination vacations, 26 private jet flights, multiple VIP passes to sporting events and two resort stays during his time on the court — a higher number of billionaire benefactors than was previously reported. Ethics experts, ProPublica reported, said the failure to disclose travel and sports could amount to a legal violation.
Story by Matthew Chapman

Many of the most far-right House Republicans truly believe the propaganda and extremism that they promote – in stark contact to other for whom it's just an act to get votes, a former RNC researched said Thursday.

In an interview on the Aaron Rupar Show, Justin Higgans argued the true far-right believers — who have lately been causing fractures and divisions among GOP power caucuses — often end up tanking their own careers with their own inability to compromise.

"A lot of Tea Party members, a lot of House Freedom Caucus members — that includes Ron DeSantis, he was one of those folks — don't believe what they're saying," Higgans told Rupar.

"So they will use these issues and, specifically, the two examples that come to mind are Mick Mulvaney and Mark Meadows. They use these talking points, they use the grassroots energy to advance themselves. Jim Jordan being a third. They advance themselves up the ranks, up the cable news shows, sometimes they become Chief of Staff of the White House."
Story by Tatyana Tandanpolie

An FBI agent's supervisor told him to halt an investigation into Rudy Giuliani and cut ties with any informants who reported on the corruption of former President Donald Trump's associates in August 2022, a 22-page whistleblower complaint obtained by Insider shows. The 14-year veteran of the bureau, whose tenure includes a long-term assignment to Russia-centered counterintelligence, alleged in the statement that his bosses interfered with his work in "a highly suspicious suppression of investigations and intelligence-gathering" seeking to shield "certain politically active figures and possibly also FBI agents" who were tied to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs.

Those individuals, according to the statement, explicitly included "anyone in the White House and any former or current associates of President Trump." The complaint was leaked and posted to a Substack newsletter in mid-July after being originally prepared for Senate Judiciary Committee staffers. The whistleblower, the name of whom the outlet is withholding because he is still an FBI employee and seeking protections from Congress, said he was motivated to file the complaint by a desire to improve the federal agency because of its power to hold "policymakers accountable, whether they're on the left or the right." He added, "This is a decision point. Are we going to do public corruption or not?"
Story by David McAfee

Donald Trump's lawyer in the Washington D.C.-based election conspiracy case may have already violated a criminal rule in that jurisdiction, according to legal experts on Wednesday.

Trump attorney John Lauro has been seen on numerous morning and cable news shows discussing the case, a tactic that has already been criticized by those saying the former president wants to try that case in the court of public opinion --- and not in a courtroom. That media appearance schedule is also at the heart of an alleged rule violation, according to former Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Weissmann.

"It is not clear why Trump's lawyers have not already violated the DC court's Criminal Rule 57.7(b)(1) & (3), which prohibit the media blitz they have engaged in this past week," Weissmann wrote in a post on Wednesday. "I wd not be surprised if the Court and govt raise this at Friday's DC hearing on the protective order."
Story by Tatyana Tandanpolie

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced he suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell, a Black Democrat and elected prosecutor for Orange and Osceola counties, on the grounds that she failed to pursue stronger charges in serious cases.

The 2024 presidential candidate took a brief break from his campaign to return to the Florida Capitol and announce Worrell's suspension with Attorney General Ashley Moody and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass at his sides, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.

"Prosecutors have a duty to faithfully enforce the law," DeSantis said in the announcement. "One's political agenda cannot trump this solemn duty." DeSantis declared that Federalist Society member Andrew Bain, an Orange County judge who is also Black, will serve as state attorney for the 9th Judicial Circuit in Worrell's absence.
CBS News

At least six people were killed on the Hawaiian island of Maui as wind-fueled wildfires tore through the area, Maui Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. announced. Hundreds of buildings have also been damaged or destroyed.

"We are still in a search and rescue mode, and so I don't know what will happen to that number," Bissen said.

The mayor didn't provide details about the circumstances surrounding the deaths, saying the death toll was confirmed just before a news conference with officials. He said several other people were unaccounted for but may be people who are in vehicles who haven't gone into a shelter.

Over 2,100 people were using the five shelters that have been opened on the island, and some of them — along with a number of hotels — lost power, Bissen said.
Story by Marita Vlachou

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the now-defunct House Jan. 6 committee, described what she found particularly “unsettling” in the indictment accusing Donald Trump of conspiring to subvert his 2020 election defeat.

Lofgren told CBS News said she was surprised to learn from the indictment that Trump’s confidantes were seriously considering invoking the 1792 Insurrection Act, which would have authorized him to deploy the military against Americans to stay in power.

“I didn’t realize how close we came to Trump ordering the military into American cities,” Lofgren said. “That’s pretty chilling. If he had succeeded there would have been demonstrations.” “Very unsettling,” she continued.
Story by Tommy Christopher

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis hit back at “derogatory and false” attacks by ex-President Donald Trump, telling staff in a leaked email not to respond or comment on them.

DA Willis and her office’s grand jury investigation of Trump’s effort to overturn election results in Georgia — seen by many as a significant legal threat to Trump — is reportedly poised to deliver indictments within the very near future on over a dozen charges.

That fact might have something to do with the barrage of unhinged attacks on Willis that Trump has thrown her way, some of which made it into a campaign ad this week.
Story by Noah Alcala Bach

As the sun sets over Riverside Drive in Southeast Austin, a cluster of state troopers hits the streets — at one point, five Department of Public Safety SUVs sit at an intersection. They make one traffic stop after another, the gold Texas-shaped emblems on their doors reflecting their red and blue emergency lights.

Paul Ramos, 56, volunteers at Tacos La Sabroza, a food truck next to a Shell station at the corner of East Riverside Drive and Montopolis Drive, in exchange for food. Night after night, Ramos says he sees state troopers pulling people over. “What I see is they pull over Hispanics but they don’t just pull them over, they tell them to get out, they take pictures of their tattoos or they start from bottom to top searching their cars,” Ramos said. “It pisses me off.”
Free speech is no longer free speech in Florida. Will DeSantis do the same for America if he becomes president?

Story by Sky Palma

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended the state attorney for Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, saying she routinely failed to implement mandatory minimum sentencing for gun crimes and drug trafficking offenses, according to reports.

DeSantis also accused Monique Worrell of allowing juvenile defenders to avoid serious charges and jail time, saying she has been has been “clearly and fundamentally derelict” in her duties.

An executive order signed by DeSantis and Secretary of State Cord Byrd says Worrell “systematically” allowed criminals to avoid jail time, either by dropping charges or declining to prosecute them with all available evidence, adding that she has been “both neglect of duty and incompetence." Orlando Judge Andrew Bain has been appointed to replace her. Her suspension is effective immediately.
Story by Bailey Richards

The works of William Shakespeare are now being censored in some Florida schools amid confusion stemming from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new book-challenge law, HB 1069, which has spawned an uptick in book bans and increased scrutiny surrounding schools' education materials.

After the Florida governor approved and promoted the legislation last week, media specialists said that the English playwright’s works — many of which are longtime staples of American high school curriculum — would likely be deemed unfit for classroom use, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.

HB 1069 requires Florida schools to remove any media containing the state’s definition of “sexual conduct,” a category that also includes required materials for the College Board’s Advanced Placement Literature exam, per the outlet. Now, after over a month of conflicting interpretations of the law, the state has said that Shakespeare's works are fit for classrooms, according to the outlet. Despite this, districts are handling the news differently across the state.
Story by Tatyana Tandanpolie

Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer connected to then-President Donald Trump, first outlined a scheme to install false slates of electors to overturn the 2020 election in a previously secret internal campaign memo prosecutors have signaled forms a key segment in the timeline of the Trump team's effort's transformation into a criminal conspiracy.

The existence of the Dec. 6, 2020, memo was revealed in Trump's latest criminal indictment last week, though details about its contents were unclear. The New York Times obtained a copy of the communication, which shows that Chesebro knew at the outset that he was presenting "a bold, controversial strategy" that the Supreme Court would "likely" reject in the grand scheme.

He argued that the plan would home in on claims of voter fraud and "buy the Trump campaign more time to win litigation that would deprive Biden of electoral votes and/or add to Trump's column." The strategy would have involved the false Trump electors going through the same motions in mid-December as real electors. On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence could then count those slates of votes rather than the certified ones for President Joe Biden.
Story by S.V. Date

WASHINGTON ― Republicans complaining about a “two-tiered” justice system might find the evidence they’re looking for in prosecutors’ treatment of their own de facto leader: Donald Trump.

From the lack of a cash bail requirement to the ability to keep his passport, to the absence of any sanctions for his attacks against judges and prosecutors, to his successful avoidance of the humiliation of a mug shot, the coup-attempting former president has been afforded remarkable deference in all three of his felony prosecutions to date.

Last week, Trump even posted the statement: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” ― but has yet to suffer any consequences.

“Most defendants who enter the federal criminal justice system do so with a knock and a warrant at 6 a.m.; handcuffs and possibly shackles; removal of cell phones, belts, shoelaces and wallets; mug shots and fingerprints; and some form of bail package,” said Danya Perry, a former federal prosecutor and now a defense lawyer. “They also face serious consequences if they issue threats or tamper with witnesses once released.”
Trump may have the 1st amendment right to lie to the American people, but he does not have the right to attempt a coup. Attempting a coup is a traitorous act and should be treated as such and those defending a coup and the coup plotters should be treated as the traitors they are.


House Speaker Kevin McCarthy defended former President Donald Trump, while in Central California on Thursday, the day that Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony counts, stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Story by charity.nelson@blavity.com

The Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, has been receiving threatening messages ahead of her decision to either indict former Donald Trump or not. It is being speculated that Willis will indeed indict the country’s 45th president which Atlanta News First reports has prompted a barrage of threats being sent to her office.

The outlet reports that the emails Willis has received have been racially charged and derogatory. One such email Willis says she received August 28. It’s subject line read, “Fani Willis-Corrupt (N-word).” With the email body reading, “You are going to fail, you Jim Crow Democrat w***e.”
Story by Ryan Northrup

Anti-child trafficking movie Sound of Freedom has been a massive success at the box office, but one of the film's investors has now been arrested for child kidnapping. Directed by Alejandro Monteverde, Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caviezel as Tim Ballard, a former government agent who travels to South America to break up a child sex trafficking ring. The movie, which serves as a loose adaptation of real events, has been one of this summer's biggest box office surprises.
Story by Martin Pengelly in Washington

Rightwing Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis was widely condemned after he said that if elected to the White House, he would “start slitting throats” in the federal bureaucracy on his first day in power. The president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Tony Reardon, called the hardline Republican’s comment “repulsive and unworthy of the presidential campaign trail”.

The president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Everett Kelly, said: “Governor DeSantis’ threat to ‘start slitting throats’ of federal employees is dangerous, disgusting, disgraceful and disqualifying.”

Among commentators, the columnist Max Boot called DeSantis’s words “deranged” while Bill Kristol, founder of the Bulwark, a conservative site, said the governor was “making a bold play to dominate the maniacal psychopath lane in the Republican primary”. DeSantis is a clear second in the Republican primary but more than 30 points behind Donald Trump in most averages, notwithstanding the former president’s proliferating legal jeopardy including 78 criminal charges.
Story by Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army no longer has a Senate-confirmed leader as a Republican senator continues to block military nominations, a move military leaders on Friday said threatens readiness and undermines the retention of officers.

As retiring Chief of Staff of the Army General James McConville relinquishes command, this will be the first time in history the U.S. military will have two branches without a confirmed leader, the Pentagon said.
Story by Benzinga Neuro

Stefanie Lambert, a pro-Donald Trump Michigan attorney, has been charged with accessing and tampering with voting machines in the 2020 election, Associated Press News reports.

Lambert along with Matthew DePerno and former GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon were previously named by Attorney General Dana Nessel as having "orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators."

The charges come days after DePerno and Rendon were arraigned in connection with the case.

Michigan is among one of the three states where individuals are alleged to have compromised election systems while adopting and disseminating the unfounded claim by Trump that the 2020 election was unlawfully taken.
Joey Garrison | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON − A former business partner of Hunter Biden told the House Oversight Committee this week that Joe Biden never talked business when his son put the then-vice president on the phone with Hunter and other associates, according to a transcript of the testimony released Thursday.

The testimony of Devon Archer, who worked with Hunter Biden at the Ukrainian energy firm Bursima, undercut the build-up from the committee's chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who said this week Archer's testimony made Republicans' bribery allegations against Joe Biden "more credible."

"I think you have to understand that there was no business conversation about a cap table or a fee or anything like that," Archer said to the committee. "It was, you know, just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general about the geography, about the weather, whatever it may be."
Story by Komal Banchhor

Donald Trump's political action committee, Save America, has recently come under scrutiny as it prepares to disclose an astounding $40.2 million spent on legal expenses in the first half of 2023. As mentioned by Mint, the former President's legal battles have been mounting, and the staggering figure allocated for his defense, raises questions about the financial stability of his campaign.

According to Bloomberg, the $40.2 million expenditure was intended to defend not only Donald Trump but also his advisers and associates. The filing, scheduled for Monday, is expected to shed light on the specifics of these expenses. The anonymous sources familiar with the matter have confirmed this information, indicating the accuracy of the report.
Story by Ryan Chandler

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (Nexstar) — After eight years of delays and a change in venue, suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton appeared in a Harris County court Thursday morning in a securities fraud case against him.

Paxton faces felony charges and is accused of defrauding investors in a tech startup after being indicted in 2015. The suspended attorney general also faces an upcoming impeachment trial next month in the Texas Senate for a slew of misconduct allegations related to abuse of office.

“It’s a good day for Texas because it’s on the road to healing. It’s on the road to justice. Finally, something’s going to be done one way or another,” prosecutor Kent Schaffer said. The pretrial hearing lasted just nine minutes. Thursday’s developments were simple procedural matters to determine the logistics of a coming trial, yet lawyers on each side stressed the significance of reaching this moment.
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