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US Monthly Headline News March 2022 - Page 3
David D. Kirkpatrick and Stuart A. Thompson

The online world of adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory sprang into action almost as soon as Senator Josh Hawley tweeted his alarm: that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Biden administration’s Supreme Court nominee, had handed down sentences below the minimum recommended in federal guidelines for possessing images of child sexual abuse. “An apologist for child molesters,” the QAnon supporter Zak Paine declared in a video the next day, on March 17, asserting without evidence that Democrats were repeatedly “elevating pedophiles and people who can change the laws surrounding punishment” for pedophiles.
Andrew Tarantola

Google's Threat Analysis Group announced on Thursday that it had discovered a pair of North Korean hacking cadres going by the monikers Operation Dream Job and Operation AppleJeus in February that were leveraging a remote code execution exploit in the Chrome web browser. The blackhatters reportedly targeted the US news media, IT, crypto and fintech industries, with evidence of their attacks going back as far as January 4th, 2022, though the Threat Analysis Group notes that organizations outside the US could have been targets as well. "We suspect that these groups work for the same entity with a shared supply chain, hence the use of the same exploit kit, but each operate with a different mission set and deploy different techniques," the Google team wrote on Thursday. "It is possible that other North Korean government-backed attackers have access to the same exploit kit."
By Whitney Wild, Annie Grayer and Melanie Zanona, CNN

(CNN) More than 80 officials from law enforcement and federal agencies have testified to the House committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, including members of the Secret Service, in what investigators believe will be the most extensive review yet of security failures that led to the US Capitol breach. The House select committee's so-called "blue team" is focused on understanding the threats leading up to attack, how intelligence was shared among law enforcement and their preparations. In addition to depositions, the team has thousands of documents from more than a dozen agencies that other security reviews didn't have, two committee aides tell CNN. While much of what the Democrat-led committee has made public so far has centered around the plotting by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election, aides and lawmakers say this behind-the-scenes review might lead to the bulk of their legislative recommendations and have the most lasting impact.
BY JAKE THOMAS

Texts messages show Virginia Thomas, conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, used her connections to urge a key Trump administration official to block Joe Biden from taking the White House, according to The Washington Post. The texts, obtained by the Post and CBS News, were among over 2,000 that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows provided the House committee investigating the January 6 attack. The 29 messages show Meadows was receptive to appeals from Thomas, who repeated conspiracy theories circulating in conservative circles following the election. "Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! ... You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America's constitutional governance at the precipice," Thomas wrote in a text on November 10, 2020, after media organizations projected Biden the winner of the race, according to the Post. "The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History."
By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

(CNN) Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was discharged from a Washington, DC, hospital Friday morning a week after he was admitted for what a court spokesperson described as an infection. Thomas, 73, entered Sibley Memorial Hospital last Friday after experiencing flu-like symptoms.
BY EWAN PALMER

Questions have been raised about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after a top prosecutor who investigated Donald Trump's financial dealings said the former president was guilty of "numerous" felonies and condemned a decision not to indict him. A number of legal experts have reacted to the revelations made in Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz's resignation letter, who quit abruptly in February amid reports that Bragg would not be moving forward with a criminal case against Trump over allegations of felony tax fraud by the Trump Organization. In Pomerantz's resignation letter, obtained by The New York Times, the prosecutor criticized Bragg's decision to not push forward with the probe against Trump and feared that the DA's hesitation will "doom any future prospects" of prosecuting the former president for crimes he is alleged to have committed.
Ewan Palmer

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been put in an "untenable position" with regards to the ongoing criminal investigation into Donald Trump's business dealings, following the "scathing" resignation letter from his former prosecutor, according to experts. On Wednesday, The New York Times published the letter from prosecutor Mark Pomerantz, who quit as special assistant district attorney in February amid reports Bragg had doubts about pushing forward with prosecuting the former president and paused the grand jury investigation needed to indict him. In the bombshell letter, Pomerantz, one of the top prosecutors working on the investigation into alleged tax fraud by The Trump Organization, said that the former president was "guilty of numerous felony violations" with regards to his "false" financial statements. Pomerantz also hit out at Bragg for not seeking criminal charges against Trump even though the district attorney's predecessor who started the investigation, Cyrus Vance Jr., urged the department to seek an indictment "as soon as reasonably possible" because of the evidence against the former president. "The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes—he did," Pomerantz wrote.
Republicans are hoping a Gingrich-style "Commitment to America" agenda will make sure they don't get caught flat-footed if — perhaps when — they take power. That's not their only challenge, though.
By Sarah Ferris and Olivia Beavers


PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — House GOP leaders are readying an agenda that their members can all get behind if, or perhaps when, they retake the majority this fall. Translating that unity into floor votes will be the real challenge. But first come the vows that they’ll be prepared for January, when it’s increasingly likely that the GOP will hold at least one chamber of Congress and Republicans insist they won’t be caught legislatively flat-footed. They’re planning bills on policies like inflation, border security and energy independence — a “grand plan,” in the words of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), that they hope will seal their win against Democrats this fall.
Peony Hirwani

Ron Perlman has slammed Ted Cruz’s line of questioning for Ketanji Brown Jackson at one of the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The Texas senator posed a question to Ms Brown Jackson on critical race theory, a buzzword for the country’s conservatives, at Tuesday’s hearing by asking if she believed babies were racist. He specifically pointed to a book called Antiracist Baby by Dr Ibram Kendi and highlighted an illustration depicting a child with a header that said one should “confess when being racist”. Soon after the hearing, Perlman hit out at Mr Cruz. “Hi Ted, Ron here,” the actor said in a video posted on Twitter. “Listen, I know how tempting it is to appeal to the real lowest form of humanity here in the United States, the bottom feeders, people who pride themselves on hatred and un-education and inability to read and inability to understand the difference between true patriotism and the bulls*** you’re selling.
Kate Riga

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) got what they set out to achieve in their performances during Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings Wednesday: airtime on Fox News.  The four hectored her, with raised voices and constant interruptions, on her record of sentencing people in possession of child pornography. Their theatrical intent was clear at the time: many repeatedly asked questions that she’d already answered, and cut her off when she tried to explain the complicated process of sentencing those crimes. Hawley asked repeatedly if Jackson “regrets” her sentences, picking out lines from a handful of cases he thought sounded damning for her. Graham slapped the dias, and dramatically stormed from the chamber when his time concluded. Cruz appeared to check his mentions on Twitter after shouting at Jackson and trying to prevent the next questioner, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), from taking over.
BY CHLOE FOLMAR

U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) was found guilty Thursday of lying to the FBI about an illegal contribution to his campaign in 2016. Fortenberry was convicted of one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements after he was interviewed twice by FBI agents investigating Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire who made a $30,000 contribution to Fortenberry's campaign, The Associated Press reported. He faces up to five years in prison and fines for each count, according to the AP. Sentencing is slated to take place on June 28.
Trump may regret this move it opens him up to discovery, possibly a counter suit and they could find something he may not like.

Trump sues Hillary Clinton, DNC and others, alleging conspiracy to link his campaign to Russia
By Marshall Cohen and Katelyn Polantz, CNN

(CNN) Former President Donald Trump filed a sprawling federal lawsuit on Thursday against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and 26 other people and entities that he claims conspired to undermine his 2016 campaign by falsely tying him to Russia. The lawsuit names a wide cast of characters that Trump has accused for years of orchestrating a "deep state" conspiracy against him -- including former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials, the retired British spy Christopher Steele and his associates, and a handful of Clinton campaign advisers. "Under the guise of 'opposition research,' 'data analytics,' and other political stratagems, the Defendants nefariously sought to sway the public's trust," says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida. "They worked together with a single, self-serving purpose: to vilify Donald J. Trump." Over 108 pages, the lawsuit rails against many of Trump's political opponents and highlights the grievances that he has complained about for years. It claims Democrats and government officials perpetrated a grab bag of offenses, from a racketeering conspiracy to a malicious prosecution, computer fraud and theft of secret internet data. The lawsuit asks for more than $24 million in costs and damages. The suit also contains some factual inaccuracies and some of the same grandiose or exaggerated false claims that Trump has made dozens of times.
Donald Trump sues Hillary Clinton over 2016 Russian collusion allegations
By Jan Wolfe and Jonathan Stempel

WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - Donald Trump on Thursday sued his rival in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Hillary Clinton, and several other Democrats, alleging that they tried to rig that election by tying his campaign to Russia. The lawsuit covers a long list of grievances the Republican former president repeatedly aired during his four years in the White House after beating Clinton, and comes as he continues to falsely claim that his 2020 election defeat by Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud. "Acting in concert, the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty," the former president alleged in a 108-page lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida. The suit alleges "racketeering" and a "conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood," among other claims.
Timothy Evans

The Republican senators who attempted to smear Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her confirmation hearing this week are being denounced by The Washington Post editorial board for their "clownish" behavior. In a scathing editorial, the newspaper writes: "During the hearings, Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) have congratulated themselves for declining to treat Judge Jackson the way Democrats handled the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh. In fact, by the most relevant measures, Mr. Graham and a handful of other Judiciary Committee Republicans have handled themselves worse." Graham's attempt to paint the judge as friendly to child pornographers obviously was hollow, the editorial points out, as demonstrated by sentences Jackson meted out in cases that have come before her. The paper also singled out Graham's attack on Jackson's work defending detainees at Guantánamo Bay - after saying he wouldn't do exactly that. Other Republicans were singled out in the editorial for their obvious posturing.
The first Black woman nominated to the court will likely be confirmed soon.
By Rick Klein,Averi Harper, and Alisa Wiersema

What started with a GOP promise of turning the temperature down is becoming a broader effort to dial it up -- and to light new fires in familiar places. With a second full day of questions coming Wednesday at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Republican senators have so far played to long-running culture wars in sometimes obscure but nonetheless intentional ways. Searing attacks from GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have centered on her sentencing of child porn offenders and drug kingpins to her defense of terrorist suspects and her knowledge of and familiarity with critical race theory. "Do you agree with this book that is being taught to kids, that babies are racist?" Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked Jackson in one of the most strange and tense exchanges of a long day Tuesday.
By Dominick Mastrangelo

The editorial board of The Washington Post said Thursday that the Senate Republicans have treated President Biden's Supreme Court nominee Kentanji Brown Jackson worse than Senate Democrats treated then-nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. "During the hearings, Republicans such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) have congratulated themselves for declining to treat Judge Jackson the way Democrats handled the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh," the Post's editorial board wrote on Wednesday. "In fact, by the most relevant measures, Mr. Graham and a handful of other Judiciary Committee Republicans have handled themselves worse."
By Allie Malloy, Kevin Liptak and Maegan Vazquez, CNN

(CNN) The United States will welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russia's aggression, a senior administration official announced Thursday. "To meet this commitment, we are considering the full range of legal pathways to the United States," the official said, which includes US refugee admissions program, parole and immigrant and non-immigrant visas. More than 3.5 million refugees have now fled Ukraine, according to data from the UN refugee agency released on Tuesday. A vast majority of those refugees have fled to Ukraine's western neighbors across Europe. The official said the White House will not have to ask Congress to expand the current cap on annual refugees, which is set at 125,000 for fiscal year 2022, because it is more of a "long-term commitment" and there will be other avenues for many of those Ukrainians to enter the United States.

United States sanctions over 400 Russian elites, Duma members, and defense companies in coordination with the European Union and G7; U.S. has now sanctioned over 600 targets. G7 and EU announce sanctions evasion initiative to prevent circumvention and backfilling of our unprecedented sanctions; continue to blunt Central Bank of the Russian Federation’s ability to deploy international reserves including gold President Biden is in Europe to continue our historic coordination with allies and partners on all aspects of our response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, including imposing further severe costs on those enabling President Putin’s war of choice. Today, the United States is sanctioning over 400 individuals and entities comprised of Russian elites, the Duma and more than 300 of its members, and defense companies, aligning and strengthening our sanctions in close coordination and partnership with the EU and G7.
By Caroline Vakil

Infowar host Alex Jones failed to appear for a Wednesday deposition related to the lawsuit filed against him by families of victims in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which Jones had falsely labeled as a hoax. Jones did not appear for his court-ordered deposition on Wednesday due to medical conditions his doctors observed on Monday, his attorney Norman Pattis said in court filings, according to The Associated Press. However, his lawyers acknowledged that his daily website show had been broadcast on Tuesday.
Bob Brigham

The star prosecutor who came out of retirement to investigate former President Donald Trump for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office blasted the lack of prosecution of the former president in a resignation letter obtained by The New York Times. "One of the senior Manhattan prosecutors who investigated Donald J. Trump believed that the former president was 'guilty of numerous felony violations' and that it was 'a grave failure of justice' not to hold him accountable, according to a copy of his resignation letter. The prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted his resignation last month after the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, abruptly stopped pursuing an indictment of Mr. Trump," the newspaper reported. Pomerantz, a prominent former federal prosecutor, said Bragg's non-prosecution decision was “contrary to the public interest." Carey R. Dunne, also a senior prosecutor on the case, resigned the same day, raising questions by legal experts.
‘We’re a greater nuclear power,’ former president who previously praised Putin as ‘smart’ tells Fox Business
Martin Pengelly in New York

If Donald Trump were still president, he told Fox Business on Monday, he would threaten Russia with nuclear submarines. Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, who is therefore dealing with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s status as a nuclear-armed power has shaped the US response, particularly in Biden’s reluctance to take steps, such as a Nato-implemented no-fly zone over Ukraine, that might lead to direct armed confrontation with Russia. Such caution cuts little ice with Trump. “I listened to him constantly using the N-word, that’s the N-word, and he’s constantly using it: the nuclear word,” Trump told Fox Business on Monday.
Martin Pengelly in New York

The Alabama Republican congressman Mo Brooks said on Tuesday Donald Trump asked him to “rescind” the 2020 election, remove Joe Biden from the White House and reinstate Trump. The extraordinary statement came in an angry response to a withdrawn endorsement in a US Senate race. Trump was angered that Brooks was insufficiently toeing his line on calling the 2020 election a fraud. Brooks’ statement is likely to be of interest to the January 6 committee. The panel is investigating Trump’s lie about electoral fraud in his defeat by Biden, efforts to marshal members of Congress to object to election results, a rally near the White House on 6 January 2021 which Trump and Brooks addressed, and the deadly attack on the US Capitol that followed.
Analysis by Brandon Tensley, CNN

Washington (CNN) If confirmed, Ketanji Brown Jackson would be the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court. However, many Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are wasting no time embracing the kind of bad-faith scrutiny often reserved for women and Black nominees -- beneficiaries of affirmative action, in one GOP senator's parlance. Some Republicans, lacking a coherent strategy, are pressing Jackson for her views on The 1619 Project and the children's book "Antiracist Baby" (because "critical race theory"), though neither has anything to do with the job she's being considered for. Others are trying with great effort to cast the nominee as weak on crime by distorting her past work defending Guantanamo Bay detainees and her sentencing in child pornography cases. This wafer-thin opposition is revealing.
Her experience and accolades are making it hard for Republicans to find a line of attack that sticks. Their questions prove it.
By Ja'han Jones

On the second day of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republicans made clear with their ineffective questions that they have no salient arguments to justify keeping her off the court. Jackson is about as unimpeachable a candidate as one could hope for. As a Washington Post graphic laid out so clearly, if confirmed, she’d have more expansive experience working across the judicial field than anyone else sitting on the Supreme Court. She’s been confirmed by the Senate three times previously. She’s been endorsed by organizations as varied as the Fraternal Order of Police and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In many ways, she embodies the instruction many Black parents give their kids to be twice as good as their competition if they hope to receive the accolades they deserve. So, given all this, how are Republicans attacking her? Clumsily.
By Alex Aronson

Of all the grasping-at-straws attacks we watched Republican senators level against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in her first two days of hearings for confirmation to the Supreme Court, their complaints that Jackson is the product of “dark money groups on the left” were perhaps the most grasping. These grievances are more than a little hard to take coming from the Senate GOP, whose own ruthless dark-money judicial politics have been a driving force behind the court’s present legitimacy crisis. On the right, private groups—led by the unabashedly partisan Federalist Society—have tightly controlled judicial nominations since at least the second Bush administration. Bush-era documents produced during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, for example, revealed that the Federalist Society ran a secret “judicial umbrella” group, which included not only other anonymously funded outside groups like the Heritage Foundation, but also lawyers inside the Bush White House responsible for the president’s judicial selections.
Imaginary children have been a focal point of GOP attacks on the Supreme Court nominee. This strategy is hardly new.
Natasha Lennard

On Tuesday, the second day of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked the esteemed jurist whether she believed that “babies are racist.” It was a low point that came early on in the contemptible GOP questioning. Cruz displayed large printouts from a children’s book, “Antiracist Baby” by Ibram X. Kendi, which is taught in Georgetown Day School, where Jackson is on the board of trustees. Whether it is a good pedagogical tool or not, “Antiracist Baby” is not about babies being racists or being told that they are racists. Presumably, since Cruz can read, he knows this. Yet he nonetheless asked the judge, “Do you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that babies are racist?” She sighed, paused, and tilted her head, exasperated.
Justin Baragona

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) promised on Monday that the Senate confirmation for Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson “won’t be a circus.” And yet, by Wednesday afternoon, the conservative lawmaker had thrown overdramatic fits and dramatically stormed off for two straight days after contentious Q&A sessions with President Joe Biden’s pick for the high court. During his second go-round with Judge Jackson, the South Carolina senator once again used his time to air well-worn right-wing grievances, particularly over the way Democrats have supposedly mistreated conservative judicial nominees. At one point, he suggested that Jackson, a Black woman, should be happy about how “easy” her confirmation process has been. Referencing the 2003 filibuster of Bush nominee Janice Rogers Brown, who is Black, to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Graham huffed that “if you are a person of color, a woman, supported by liberals, it is pretty easy sailing.”
By Joe DePaolo

Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) believes a number of his GOP colleagues were “off course” in their attacks of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing. Speaking to the Washington Post, the Utah senator took a shot at the Republican senators who went after Jackson. “It struck me that it was off course, meaning the attacks were off course that came from some,” Romney told the Post. “And there is no ‘there’ there.” Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has been widely condemned for saying Jackson ‘endangers children’ with her record on cases involving child porn. Hawley’s claims have been thoroughly dismissed by independent fact checkers. “It’s Hawley, right?” Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said. “Take that for what it’s worth.”
By Clare Foran, CNN

(CNN) President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is facing another round of questions from lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the third day of her historic confirmation hearings. So far during the hearings, Jackson has defended her record amid sharp questioning from Republican senators on her judicial philosophy, her legal record and past defense work and support for her nomination from left-wing groups. Jackson has refuted claims from Republicans that she is weak on crime by stressing her concern for public safety and the rule of law, both as a judge and an American.
By Bill McCarthy

The aftermath of the attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, was captured on video and in photos showing that it was an actual attack. A Pentagon spokesperson called OAN host Pearson Sharp’s claims “ridiculous.” Several independent experts who spoke to PolitiFact agreed that it was completely without merit. Russian officials have conceded the attack occurred.
By Candice Ortiz

Howard Stern fumed at the easing of mask mandates in certain states, warning that Republican “wackos are winning!” On Wednesday’s episode of The Howard Stern Show, mask mandates were the hot topic of discussion. “The reason they’ve lifted these mask mandates is because we gave into this small minority of people who are completely out of their fucking mind, who think masks are some sort of prison sentence,” Stern lamented. Co-host Robin Quivers chimed in to say, “the government is tired of fighting with people who want to get sick and die.” Stern agreed. He then referenced their interview earlier in the week with comedian Jon Stewart, in which they discussed division in America.
By Candice Ortiz

Hillary Clinton and journalist Anne Applebaum have speculated that Fox News host Tucker Carlson is “getting information from someone with ties to Russia” and acting as “a conduit for the Russian government.” On Monday’s episode of You and Me Both with Hillary Clinton, the two chatted about concerns with the Russian government’s use of Carlson’s content. Clinton asked, “How do you think Russia views somebody like Tucker Carlson and the other Trump apologists?” Applebaum, a prominent writer for The Atlantic, replied, “The role of the Trump apologist is truly interesting. For me, it invokes the left-wing apologists for communism in the last century. I think their behavior comes out of something similar- their dislike of their own country, of the United States, the nature of modern America is so strong that they are looking for alternatives anywhere. Even if those are autocratic.”
By David Ovalle and Charles Rabin

Local governments in Florida rarely declare states of emergencies. Miami Beach, using the standard of “clear and present danger of a riot or other general public disorder,” has previously employed such declarations for hurricanes, a global pandemic and the catastrophic collapse of a condo tower in neighboring Surfside. So the decision to elevate spring break crowd control into a community emergency has earned quick backlash from critics who charged that city leaders are overreacting, again, to large — mostly Black — crowds that have mostly been peaceful so far during this year’s gathering.
JESSICA GRESKO and SCOTT BAUER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out Wisconsin state legislative maps that were preferred by the state's Democratic governor and selected by Wisconsin’s top court, making it unclear what the boundaries will be for the fall election. But while the justices in an unsigned opinion threw out voting maps the Wisconsin Supreme Court had selected for the State Assembly and Senate, they left in place state congressional maps. The state's highest court selected the maps from a range of options after lawmakers and the governor couldn't agree. Republicans had complained that Gov. Tony Evers’ maps moved too many people to increase the number of Assembly districts with a majority of Black and Hispanic voters from six to seven in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act.
By Brian Fung, CNN

Washington (CNN Business)Microsoft (MSFT) has confirmed it was breached by the hacker group Lapsus$, adding to the cyber gang's growing list of victims. In a blog post late Tuesday, Microsoft said Lapsus$ had compromised one of its accounts, resulting in "limited access" to company systems but not the data of any Microsoft customers. "Our cybersecurity response teams quickly engaged to remediate the compromised account and prevent further activity," Microsoft said in the post. The disclosure comes after Lapsus$ claimed credit for compromising Okta, the widely used digital identity management firm. On Tuesday evening, following an investigation into those claims, Okta acknowledged that hundreds of its customers may have been affected by a breach in January linked to one of Okta's outside contractors. Lapsus$ previously claimed to have breached chip giant Nvidia. Nvidia confirmed a breach to CNN earlier this month following Lapsus$'s claim.
Asha C. Gilbert | USA TODAY

Hillsong Church co-founder Brian Houston has agreed to resign from his position as global senior pastor amid complaints of inappropriate conduct with two women. According to a statement from the church's board on Friday, the two complaints stem from incidents that occurred within the last 10 years. The board was aware of the allegations when Houston stepped down in January to focus on fighting the charge of concealing child sex abuse. "These issues are now public, and therefore we would like to share with you the details," the statement said. The first incident involved inappropriate text messages to a member of staff from Houston "approximately a decade ago."  The staff member resigned after the incident and the board said he was under the influence of sleeping tablets, which he was dependent on.
By Tom Kertscher

Tenn. Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrong about Ketanji Brown Jackson and critical race theory. A Republican senator claimed that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said judges should use critical race theory in making their decisions. Jackson would be the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court if confirmed by the Senate. Critical race theory is a collection of ideas about systemic bias and privilege. Conservative elected officials have moved to bar critical race theory in public schools or state agencies, even when it isn’t being used. The attack on Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, came from Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. In a Fox News interview during a break on the second day of Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings, Blackburn said Tennessee residents have concerns about Jackson and parental rights.
By Melinda Henneberger

The thing that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee most seem to mind about Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, is what I most admire. I refer, of course, to her service as a federal public defender. That she’ll God willing be the first Supreme Court justice with that experience is pretty stunning. If confirmed, she’ll be the first justice since Thurgood Marshall to have spent any significant time representing indigent criminal defendants. She was only in that job for two years. But even that brief experience sets her apart as someone who ever had a job representing the destitute and despised. And she will be the only one on that court who has as a result of that experience sat in jails interviewing clients who otherwise would have faced a system already stacked against them all alone.
Manafort was stopped from flying to Dubai, according to Miami police.
By Tom Winter, Jonathan Dienst and Dareh Gregorian

Former Trump campaign chairman and presidential-pardon recipient Paul Manafort was blocked from leaving the country Sunday because his U.S. passport was not valid, a Miami-Dade police spokesperson told NBC News on Wednesday. Manafort, 72, was attempting to fly from Miami to Dubai on a 9:10 p.m. Emirates airline flight when he was denied boarding because of an issue with his passport, the police spokesperson said, confirming a Knewz.com report. The spokesperson said Customs and Border Protection officials on the scene denied his boarding. A CBP spokesman declined comment, saying, "For privacy reasons, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is unable to discuss a specific individual’s arrival or departure into or from the United States."
Opinion by Richard N. Bond

(CNN) As the 2022 primary season gets underway, those of us who have long opposed former President Donald Trump may finally begin seeing an end to his reign over the Republican Party. Just consider the current realities Trump faces. His legal woes and their attendant distractions have not gone away. Investigations in New York and Georgia continue, and a court filing outlining potential evidence of criminal conspiracy by the January 6 House select committee also looms large. (Trump denies wrongdoing in all.) Meanwhile, Trump, once the master of social media with more than 88 million Twitter followers and 35 million on Facebook before the insurrection, has had disastrous results in creating his own online platforms. He terminated his blog, "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump," after 29 days due to what aides describe as lack of readers and negative press. His recently announced social media network, Truth Social, has suffered from an inept rollout involving technical glitches and a 13-hour site outage.
By Caroline Kelly, CNN

(CNN) Madeleine Albright, the first woman US secretary of state, who helped steer Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War, has died. She was 84 years old. Her death was confirmed in an email to staff of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm founded by Albright. Albright was a central figure in President Bill Clinton's administration, first serving as US ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the nation's top diplomat in his second term. She championed the expansion of NATO, pushed for the alliance to intervene in the Balkans to stop genocide and ethnic cleansing, sought to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, and championed human rights and democracy across the globe.
Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden departed for Brussels on Wednesday for emergency talks with European leaders about the war in Ukraine, carrying with him plans for more sanctions that sources said include members of the Russian parliament. Biden's trip includes talks in Brussels with NATO and European leaders and a visit to Warsaw for consultations with Polish President Andrzej Duda. Western leaders have grown increasingly concerned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use chemical weapons or otherwise escalate tactics four weeks into an invasion where his troops have failed to capture a single major Ukrainian city.
By Angie Teo and Stanley Widianto

JAKARTA, March 23 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the next G20 summit in Indonesia later this year and received valuable backing from Beijing on Wednesday in a pushback to suggestions by some members that Russia could be barred from the group. The United States and its Western allies are assessing whether Russia should remain within the Group of Twenty major economies following its invasion of Ukraine, sources involved in the discussions told Reuters. But any move to exclude Russia would probably be vetoed by others in the group, raising the prospect of some countries instead skipping G20 meetings, the sources said. Russia's ambassador to Indonesia, which currently holds the rotating G20 chair, said Putin intended to travel to the Indonesian resort island of Bali for the G20 summit in November.
By Caroline Vakil

Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) on Tuesday expressed — and then walked back — opposition to the Supreme Court ruling that legalized interracial marriage. Braun was on a conference call with reporters from Indiana, discussing court rulings he viewed as federal overreach, according to The Times of Northwest Indiana. The news outlet shared a clip of his remarks in which he was asked whether he would consider it to be judicial activism or legislating from the bench if the Supreme Court strikes down the right to an abortion. zAThe court is set to rule on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban later this year, with many expecting the 6-3 conservative court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that enshrined abortion rights.
By Alexander Bolton

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday grew increasingly combative in his line of questioning of Ketanji Brown Jackson, asking President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee about her religious faith, her defense of Guantánamo Bay prisoners and whether she was aware of what he said were left-wing attacks on his preferred nominee to the court. Graham has been seen as a swing GOP vote on Jackson given his support for previous Democratic judicial nominees, but he has signaled he is likely to vote “no” on this nomination. The Republican senator has also made it clear he disliked Democratic questioning during confirmation hearings for former President Trump's Supreme Court nominees and has repeatedly sought to underscore a double standard in how nominees from different presidents are treated.
Christopher Wilson

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson began her second day of Supreme Court nomination hearings by defending herself against Republican accusations she had been too lenient when sentencing child porn offenders. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., used the first round of questioning Tuesday morning to let Jackson rebut the charges, which senators had mentioned in Monday’s opening session of the hearings. Two of the committee’s members — Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. — referred to cases where Jackson issued sentences on child porn offenders in her time as a federal judge, while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., encouraged his colleagues to pursue that line of questioning.
David G. Savage, Nolan D. McCaskill

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, hit back Tuesday against Republican claims that she was lenient toward criminal defendants, including those convicted of possessing child pornography. She also promised to serve as an "even-handed" justice who would be independent and impartial. In response to questions from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Jackson described child pornography as a "sickening and egregious crime" that she had to deal with regularly as a sentencing judge. She said that, as a mother with two daughters, she found it disturbing that this sexual abuse of minors circulates on the internet. She rejected the allegation from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that she favored light treatment for these defendants. "Nothing could be further from the truth," she said. During sentencing hearings, she said she made sure "the children's voices" are heard. She said she not only sent these defendants off to prison but also prohibited them from using computers and the internet for decades.
The hearings for Biden's Supreme Court pick air all week on ABC News Live.
By Libby Cathey andEmily Shapiro

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, faces up to 11 hours of grilling Tuesday on Day 2 of her four-day confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jackson, 51, who currently sits on the nation's second most powerful court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is being questioned by each of the committee's 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats over two days. On Thursday, senators can ask questions of the American Bar Association and other outside witnesses.
Yun Li

Famed investor Carl Icahn said Tuesday an economic downturn could be on the horizon and he is loaded on protection against a steep sell-off in the market. “I think there very well could be a recession or even worse,” Icahn said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell Overtime” to Scott Wapner. “I have kept everything hedged for the last few years. We have a strong hedge on against the long positions and we try to be activist to get that edge... I am negative as you can hear. Short term I don’t even predict.” The founder and chairman of Icahn Enterprises said surging inflation is a major threat to the economy, while the Russia-Ukraine war only added more uncertainty to his outlook.
Andrew Stanton

Couy Griffin, the founder of "Cowboys for Trump" who on Tuesday was convicted of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 riot, slammed GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for missing his trial. After his ruling on Tuesday, Griffin addressed supporters and media outside of the courtroom, where he denounced the conviction and called out several Republican lawmakers for not showing up to the trial. "I know Marjorie Taylor Greene personally," he said. "I didn't see Marjorie one time around this trial right here that's affecting January 6. I didn't see Louie Gohmert here. I didn't see Matt Gaetz." He went on to question if the lawmakers believe "they're too good to come down to the federal place where all of this is taking place, or going to the jail where those guys are still locked up."
By Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) Hackers associated with Russian internet addresses have been scanning the networks of five US energy companies in a possible prelude to hacking attempts, the FBI said in a March 18 advisory to US businesses obtained by CNN. The FBI issued the notice days before President Joe Biden publicly warned that Kremlin-linked hackers could target US organizations as the Russian military continues to suffer heavy losses in Ukraine and as Western sanctions on the Kremlin begin to bite. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said during Monday's White House briefing that Russia had been conducting "preparatory activity" for cyber attacks, which she said could include scanning websites and hunting for software vulnerabilities." There are at least 18 US companies in other sectors, such as defense and financial services that were subjected to the scanning, the FBI said.
By Clare Foran, CNN

(CNN) President Joe Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, defended her judicial record Tuesday as she faced intense questioning from Republican senators during the second day of her historic confirmation hearings. Republicans have attempted to portray the nominee as weak on crime by zeroing in on some of her past defense work and have raised questions over her judicial philosophy as they warn against activism, and prescribing policy outcomes, from the bench. During Tuesday's hearing, Jackson addressed and disputed those criticisms by stressing her concern for public safety and the rule of law, both as a judge and an American. She argued that she approaches her work in an impartial way and that personal opinions do not play a role.
Alex Sherman

BuzzFeed is shrinking its money-losing news organization, the company announced Tuesday, amid what people familiar with the matter describe as broader investor concern that the division is weighing down the company. Several large shareholders have urged BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti to shut down the entire news operation, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private. BuzzFeed declined to comment. BuzzFeed News, which is part of its content division, has about 100 employees and loses roughly $10 million a year, two of the people said. The company, which also has advertising and commerce divisions, said Tuesday its full-year content revenue grew 9% in 2021 to $130 million.
By John Kruzel

President Biden's Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson called the high court's landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade recognizing a constitutional right to abortion “settled law,” noting it has been repeatedly reaffirmed by the court and “relied upon.” Under questioning from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Jackson was asked if she agreed with statements that Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett made about abortion law precedent during their confirmation hearings. Kavanaugh, during his hearing, said Roe “is settled as a precedent of the Supreme Court” and had been “reaffirmed many times” over the intervening decades, most prominently by the court’s 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Feinstein noted.
By Richard Albert, Opinion Contributor

On this day 50 years ago, Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Within one year, 30 states had ratified it, fueling hopes that the ERA would soon become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But a half-century later, the ERA is mired in legal uncertainty. The Supreme Court of the United States could ultimately strike it down as unconstitutional. The ERA is short but important. It declares that “equality of rights under law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” The ERA would give Congress the power to defend and promote sex equality, for instance, by fighting intrusive abortion restrictions, closing the gender pay gap and punishing unjust sex-based discrimination by federal, state and local government actors.
By The Kansas City Star Editorial Board

Even before it was Missouri Showboat Josh Hawley’s turn to question Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at her confirmation hearing on Monday, our junior senator had succeeded in getting himself name-checked by two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Eat your heart out, Ted Cruz. Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois and Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal both approvingly quoted a piece by Andrew McCarthy, of the conservative National Review, whose Monday column noted that Hawley’s spurious attack on the nominee as a coddler of pedophiles “appears meritless to the point of demagoguery.” Yes, that’s our senator. And unlike Hawley, McCarthy has years of experience in actually trying child porn cases.
The Missouri Republican meant to make Judge Jackson look awful. He denigrated himself in the process.
By Steve Benen

As Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings approached, Senate Republicans boasted about how responsible they’d be. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, for example, the process “will be thoroughly respectable, quite different from the way the Democrats treated Clarence Thomas, quite different from the way the Democrats treated Brett Kavanaugh.” It came on the heels of related rhetoric from Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I think you’re not going to find Republicans getting in the gutter like the Democrats did with Kavanaugh,” the Iowa senator claimed.
By Maegan Vazquez, Donald Judd and Sean Lyngaas, CNN

(CNN) President Joe Biden on Monday urged private sector partners to strengthen their cyber defenses immediately, pointing to "evolving intelligence" that suggests Russia could conduct malicious cyber activity against American companies and critical infrastructure. While the Biden administration has been warning the nation of the prospect of cyber attacks by Russia for months, most recently as a response to the economic restrictions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, the President's statement suggests "evolving intelligence" has heightened the threat. The details of exactly what that intelligence is remain unclear, but deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said during Monday's White House briefing that Russia had been conducting "preparatory activity" for cyber attacks, which she said could include scanning websites and hunting for software vulnerabilities.
By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — An elected official from New Mexico went to trial Monday with a judge — not a jury — set to decide if he is guilty of charges that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol grounds on the day a pro-Trump mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. That’s not the only unusual feature of the case against Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, whose trial in Washington, D.C., is the second among the hundreds of people charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. Griffin is one of the few riot defendants who isn’t accused of entering the Capitol or engaging in any violent or destructive behavior. He claims he has been selectively prosecuted for his political views. Griffin, one of three members of the Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico, is among a handful of riot defendants who either held public office or ran for a government leadership post in the 2 1/2 years before the attack.
The right claims it hates cancel culture except they do not, RINO is how republicans cancel their own. If you do not go along with party line, you are a RINO. In the GOP if you think for yourself you are a RINO.

An insult once reserved for Republican moderates has been weaponized
By David Siders

In speeches, ads and on social media, it is fast becoming the defining smear of the 2022 primary campaign season: RINO. The acronym — short for ‘Republican-In-Name-Only’ — is hardly new. But former President Donald Trump’s frequent use of the term has given it a new life, weaponizing a description once largely reserved for party moderates and turning it into a slur to be avoided at all costs. The mushrooming of the insult is measurable. In 2018, during the last midterm election, RINO barely registered as a mention in TV ads, according to an analysis compiled for POLITICO by the ad tracking firm AdImpact. But so far in 2022, candidates have already spent more than $4 million on TV ads employing RINO as an attack, in races ranging from House and Senate contests to state House races.
Brent D. Griffiths,Oma Seddiq

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin kicked off Monday's historic Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson by taking a thinly-veiled swipe at Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, went after Hawley over the Missouri senator's recent claim on Twitter that he'd "noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson's treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children." "These baseless charges are unfair. A conservative National Review columnist called claims brought by one of my colleagues, 'meritless to the point of demagoguery," Durbin said in his opening statement. "They fly in the face of pledges my colleagues made that they would approach your nomination with civility and respect."
Bill Allison

(Bloomberg) -- Former President Donald Trump endorsed two dozen additional candidates in February, but his political action committee didn’t donate to them or any other candidates he’s backing, according to its latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. After taking in $3.5 million and spending just $1.2 million, Trump’s Save America ended February with $110 million in the bank. Thanks to his prodigious and unprecedented post-presidential fundraising, Trump has amassed a bigger war chest than any of the GOP party committees that are focused on the midterms, but for a second straight month didn’t donate any of it to other Republicans.
Yelena Dzhanova

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday said Republicans will remove Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff from the House Intelligence Committee if the GOP secures a majority in the November midterm elections. McCarthy, the top House Republican, said during a press conference that Schiff's presence and contributions politicized the committee. Schiff currently serves as the panel's chair. "Why is he still chair of the committee and why is he still even on the committee? In a new Congress, if it's a new majority, he will not be," McCarthy said.
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