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US Monthly Headline News March 2022 - Page 1
Travis Gettys

A federal judge found that Donald Trump "more likely than not" committed crimes in a bid to remain power, setting off a variety of reactions from legal experts. Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California issued a 44-page ruling Monday ordering former Trump legal adviser John Eastman to turn over emails he had sought to shield from the House select committee, and the judge found that both he and the former president had likely engaged in obstruction of justice. "Dr. Eastman and President Trump launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history," the judge wrote. "Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower—it was a coup in search of a legal theory. The plan spurred violent attacks on the seat of our nation’s government, led to the deaths of several law enforcement officers, and deepened public distrust in our political process." The ruling stunned observers.
Travis Gettys

The House select committee expects to soon fill in one final piece of the puzzle about the planning for the Jan. 6 insurrection. Congressional investigators will hear testimony next week they expect will reveal the connections between the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys militia groups, and after that April 5 deposition lawmakers will have obtained all the major evidence from all the crucial moments, reported The Guardian. "From its nondescript offices boarded up with beige boards and wood-paneled conference rooms with blinds always drawn, the select committee has spent the last eight months working in color-coded teams in an attempt to untangle Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election results," wrote the newspaper's Hugo Lowell.
Matthew Chapman

On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Lead," anchor Jake Tapper tore apart former President Donald Trump's claim that the Russian invasion of Ukraine wouldn't have happened had he been elected to a second term. "Former President Donald Trump and his allies have been engaging in quite a bit of revisionist history about this matter," said Tapper, playing a clip of Trump saying, "It is so sad. This would have never happened if we had the Trump administration. There was no chance this would happen. And I know [Vladimir Putin] well. And this was not something that was going to happen at all." Tapper proceeded to spell out exactly why this claim is nonsense. "Trump, of course, failing to mention his own actions and inactions, and that of his administration that may have enabled Putin in many ways, instead of calling out Russia's decades of invasion, in Georgia in 2008, annexing Crimea in 2014," said Tapper. "Trump in this day seems to find room to even praise Putin as a genius for the brutal attack. Even some of Trump's foreign advisers wonder if his approach may have empowered the Russian president on the world stage."
Graham Kates

Investigators for New York Attorney General Letitia James' probe into Donald Trump and the Trump Organization's finances are seeking documents from a second accounting firm that did work for the company, according to a document filed in a New York State court. On March 10, James' office requested that the Trump Organization provide written consent for the firm RSM US LLP "to disclose tax documents" to the attorney general. It is not clear what work RSM has done for the company, or for how long the firm counted the Trump Organization as a client. A spokesperson for RSM said in an email that the firm could not answer questions about the attorney general's request. "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on legal or regulatory matters," said Kimberly Bartok, the company's spokesperson. The request for documents from RSM was sent less than a month after James' office revealed in a court filing that another accounting firm, Mazars USA, had recanted financial statements from a decade of work for the Trump Organization.
Is Tucker Carlson useful idiot or Russian asset or something far more sinister?

Josephine Harvey

Fox News host Tucker Carlson offered a warning on Monday about the repercussions of removing Russian President Vladimir Putin from power, and suggested that Islamic extremists would somehow get hold of the country’s nuclear weapons and use them on Americans. “So, Russia has a large and restive population of Islamic extremists. Do we think it’s possible that with no one running the country ― because of course we have no chosen successor to Putin ― is it possible, if we did that, that one of those 6,000 nuclear weapons might wind up in the hands of some anti-American terror group and be used against our civilian population here?” he asked. “A nuclear weapon! Well, it’s not just possible, it’s likely.” Carlson has made a habit of defending Putin, even after the Russian dictator made moves to invade Ukraine. Since the war began, Carlson has become a favorite for rebroadcasts on Russian propaganda channels for blaming President Joe Biden for the invasion, parroting Kremlin propaganda and spreading conspiracy theories justifying the invasion of Ukraine.
Kate Dore, CFP®

President Joe Biden released his 2023 federal budget request on Monday, calling to hike the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, a proposal floated by the administration last year. The higher rates apply to married couples filing together with taxable income over $450,000, heads of household above $425,000, single filers making more than $400,000 and $225,000 for married taxpayers filing separately, according to the Treasury Department. You calculate taxable income by subtracting the greater of the standard or itemized deductions from adjusted gross income. If enacted, the change may hit higher earners beginning after Dec. 31, 2022, and income thresholds may adjust for inflation after 2023.
By Kate Sullivan, CNN

CNN — President Joe Biden on Tuesday is set to sign into law a bill that would make lynching a federal hate crime after Congress approved the legislation earlier this month with overwhelming bipartisan support. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022 is named after a 14-year-old Black boy from Mississippi who was brutally murdered by a group of White men for allegedly whistling at a White woman in 1955. His murder sparked national outraged and was a catalyst for the emerging civil rights movement. The legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois and only three Republicans – Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Chip Roy of Texas – voted against the bill. The legislation then passed the Senate by unanimous consent. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said at the time that Congress had tried and failed more than 200 times to outlaw lynching and that the new legislation was “long overdue.”
Tom Porter

The House January 6 Committee is investigating whether former President Donald Trump used burner phones to communicate as the attack on the Capitol unfolded on January 6, 2021, The Washington Post reported. According to the report there is a gap of more than seven hours in the official White House call logs from January 6. The gap is puzzling, as it corresponds to the time when several top Republicans are extensively reported to have talked to the president by phone as pro-Trump rioters were attacking Congress. The article was reported by the Post's veteran investigative reporter Bob Woodward and White House correspondent Robert Costa.
By Dave Goldiner New York Daily News

Former President Trump is suspected of using disposable so-called “burner” phones as the Jan. 6 attack unfolded after official White House logs reportedly show a shocking more than a seven-hour gap in his official communications that day. No calls were placed or received by Trump on his official phones from 11:17 am to just before 7 pm, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing documents turned over to the congressional committee investigating the attack. Trump is known to have called several allies during that time as a violent mob of his extremist supporters stormed the Capitol, raising suspicions that the logs were altered or he deliberately used other phones to cover his tracks.
Michael Medved

Vladimir Putin has done incalculable harm to the people of Ukraine and to his fellow Russians, but he may have inadvertently done the United States a favor by placing American divisions in a more realistic, reasonable perspective. In an era when political partisans view their opponents as implacable enemies, he's shown the United States what a real enemy looks like.

In light of the barbaric and reckless behavior of the Russian invaders and their authoritarian leaders, even the worst excesses of Democrats or Republicans, Trumpers or progressives, look mild by comparison. The ferocious intra-party denunciations of recent months suddenly seem dated and antique, with the flavor of a distant America and a very different world. A few months ago, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gleefully ripped Republican leader Kevin McCarthy as "an evil imbecile" while conservative writer Matt Walsh classified the "Democrat Party" as "this really evil institution that stands for evil things."
By Sandra Gonzalez, CNN

CNN  — Will Smith has issued an apology for striking presenter Chris Rock at Sunday’s Academy Awards. In a post on Instagram on Monday afternoon, Smith called his behavior “unacceptable and inexcusable.” “Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally,” he wrote. “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.”  Smith added in his post that, “Violence in all forms is poisonous and destructive.” He also included in his note an apology to “the Academy, the producers of the show, all the attendees and everyone watching around the world,” as well as the family of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams and those involved with the film for which he won his best actor award on Sunday.
Florida GOP lawmakers frequently cited the Littlejohns’ lawsuit as they debated the bill during the recent legislative session.
By Andrew Atterbury and Gary Fineout

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s fight over contentious LGBTQ legislation — dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by opponents — had its genesis nearly two years ago, not in the halls of the state Legislature but in a September conversation between a Tallahassee mother and her 13-year-old teen. The teen, according to a federal lawsuit, said they “might be non-binary” and wanted to change their name ahead of the upcoming school year to one that fit a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth. The mother, January Littlejohn, and her husband said “no,” but allowed the then-13-year-old to use a “nickname” at middle school while the parents continued to use the teen’s birth name at home. Littlejohn also emailed the teen’s math teacher to stress her opposition to the child changing their name.
Dan Mangan

The New York Attorney General Office's probe of the Trump Organization has "uncovered significant evidence" suggesting that the company's financial statements for more than a decade relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets, the office said Tuesday in a court filing.
Meryl Phair

On Monday, the Washington Post released an investigation into Ted Cruz's involvement with Donald Trump between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021. The report outlines the Texas senator's plan to keep the then president in power and provides a detailed timeline of Cruz's actions leading up to the capital riot. Cruz's activity during this time is relevant to the ongoing House committee investigation of the U.S. Capitol attack looking at how Trump's allies collaborated with members of Congress. The House committee is specifically interested in the senator's interactions with Trump lawyer John Eastman. The attorney wrote legal memos regarding stopping election certification and mentioned that Cruz, a Republican, would be able to play a pivotal roll in overturning the results. Soon after the 2020 election, Trump contacted Cruz over a phone call where the senator agreed to argue his case of a fraudulent election, starting a month's long collaboration between the two republican politicians.
MSN

Internal White House records from the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol that were turned over to the House select committee show a gap in President Donald Trump's phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes, including the period when the building was being violently assaulted, according to documents obtained by CBS News' chief election & campaign correspondent Robert Costa and The Washington Post's associate editor Bob Woodward. The lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes — from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. — on Jan. 6, 2021 means there is no record of the calls made by Trump as his supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, battled overwhelmed police and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety.
By Maegan Vazquez, Kevin Liptak and Alex Marquardt, CNN

CNN  — President Joe Biden reiterated on Monday that he was not announcing a change in US policy when he had said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power” – a remark that caught American and international officials off-guard, sending the White House into clean-up mode over the weekend. “I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn’t remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn’t continue to do bad things,” Biden said in response to a question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins at the White House. “But it doesn’t mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way.” Two days after Biden’s return from Europe, the improvised comment made at the end of an address in Warsaw about Putin – “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” – has hovered over the White House.
A federal judge said Monday that former President Donald Trump and right-wing attorney John Eastman may have been planning a crime as they sought to disrupt the January 6 congressional certification of the presidential election. CNN's Paula Reid reports
Sarah Whitten

After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law on Monday, the Walt Disney Company condemned the legislation and vowed to help have it repealed. “Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,” the company said in a statement. “Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that.” Disney’s public opposition to the new law comes after CEO Bob Chapek was criticized for not speaking up sooner and with more fervor ahead of the bill passing through the Florida Senate. Employees staged a walkout in protest of the company’s lackluster initial response and Disney has been rushing to make amends with its staff and the LGBTQA+ community ever since.
A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump “more likely than not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress.
By Kyle Cheney, Josh Gerstein and Nicholas Wu

A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump “more likely than not” attempted to illegally obstruct Congress as part of a criminal conspiracy when he tried to subvert the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” U.S. District Court Judge David Carter wrote. Carter’s sweeping and historic ruling came as he ordered the release to the House’s Jan. 6 committee of 101 emails from Trump ally John Eastman, rejecting Eastman’s effort to shield them via attorney-client privilege. Eastman used the email account of his former employer, Chapman University, to discuss political and legal strategy related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election and had sued the select committee to prevent them from obtaining the emails from the school.
By Katelyn Polantz, CNN Reporter, Crime and Justice, Reporter, Crime and Justice

CNN — A federal judge said Monday that former President Donald Trump and right-wing attorney John Eastman may have been planning a crime as they sought to disrupt the January 6 congressional certification of the presidential election. “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021,” Judge David Carter wrote Monday. Carter, a federal judge in California, ordered Eastman to turn over 101 emails from around January 6, 2021, that he has tried to keep secret from the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack.
"That meant the world to me. And maybe the world might not like how it went down, but for me, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Tiffany Haddish said of Will Smith smacking Chris Rock
By Charmaine Patterson and Mia McNiece

Tiffany Haddish is sharing her thoughts on Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards, explaining why she found the controversial moment "beautiful." "When I saw a Black man stand up for his wife. That meant so much to me," Haddish, 42, told PEOPLE at the Governors Ball following the ceremony. During the show, Smith, 53, walked on stage and hit Rock, 57, after Rock made a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith's hair. Haddish, who starred in 2017's Girls Trip with Jada, continued, "As a woman, who has been unprotected, for someone to say, 'Keep my wife's name out your mouth, leave my wife alone,' that's what your husband is supposed to do, right? Protect you." "And that meant the world to me. And maybe the world might not like how it went down, but for me, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives."
By Devan Cole and Tina Burnside, CNN

CNN  — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed legislation banning certain instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, approving the controversial measure that opponents have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law. HB 1557, titled the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, was given final passage by Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature earlier this month. The law is set to take effect in July. The legislation set off a social and political firestorm in Florida when it was introduced by Republican lawmakers in January. Its passage comes as conservatives around the country are pushing a host of bills that would further marginalize members of the LGBTQ community. DeSantis, a staunch conservative with a history of supporting anti-LGBTQ causes, previously approved legislation targeting LGBTQ Floridians, including an anti-trans sports ban last year. “We will continue to recognize that in the state of Florida, parents have a fundamental role in the education, health care and well-being of their children. We will not move from that,” DeSantis, a Republican, said during Monday’s bill signing. DeSantis’ move was met with immediate backlash from LGBTQ advocates, including the Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that works on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth.
Police in St. Louis classified the incident as a murder-suicide, but a relative of Paris Harvey, 12, and Kuaron Harvey, 14, said the shooting was a “freak accident.”
By Marlene Lenthang

Two young cousins from Missouri were livestreaming when one fatally shot the other before killing herself, police and a relative of the victims said. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department identified the children involved as Paris Harvey, 12, and her cousin Kuaron Harvey, 14, both of St. Louis. Officers responded to a call about a shooting in the 1000 block of Spruce Street on Friday at 2 a.m., according to the department. The "victim and suspect were located inside a residence suffering from puncture wounds," police said. Both were pronounced dead at the scene. Police classified the incident as a murder-suicide, but family members say it was a tragic accident.
By Maegan Vazquez and Kevin Liptak, CNN

CNN — Two days after President Joe Biden’s return from Europe, one improvised comment about Russian President Vladimir Putin hovers over the White House: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” The White House and Biden himself have swiftly tried to downplay the President’s comment, which was made at the end of a capstone address in Warsaw. The administration and allies say Biden wasn’t calling for regime change to remove Putin from power. Rather, they argue that Biden was saying Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over neighboring nations. The comment, which came at the very end of a two-country visit to Europe meant to reinforce alliances, wasn’t planned and surprised aides who were watching Biden’s speech on television or at the event site. And the words hadn’t been something Biden raised as potentially including in his speech – previously, US officials were adamant that changing the government in Moscow wasn’t one of their objectives. In closed-door meetings earlier in the week, Biden told fellow leaders at NATO that he did not want to escalate the West’s confrontation with Russia.
McKenzie Sadeghi | USA TODAY  

The claim: President Joe Biden said there is a 'new world order'
References to a “new world order” have spread on social media amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the term gained significant traction after it was used by President Joe Biden in a speech in March. “Now is a time when things are shifting,” Biden told a crowd of CEOs at the Business Roundtable's quarterly meeting on March 21. “There’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it.  And we’ve got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it.” Within hours of his remarks, #NewWorldOrder was trending on Twitter. A flurry of posts suggested Biden’s usage of the phrase confirms the existence of a decades-old conspiracy theory that global elites will take over the world and establish an authoritarian one-world government.
Julia Davis

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine pitted Russia against most of the world, leaving Kremlin propagandists yearning for any tidbits of pro-Russian sentiment in the United States. These days, state television draws on a bounty of translated quotes almost exclusively from two Western voices: Tucker Carlson of Fox News and former U.S. President Donald J. Trump. They have a plan to reward them both: Carlson with a highly-coveted interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Trump with a freebie PR campaign designed to light his path back to the White House.
By Lisa Respers France and Stephanie Elam, CNN

CNN  — Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, which did not appear to go over well with her husband Will Smith. While presenting the award for best documentary, Rock joked, “Jada I love you, ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.” The camera cut to Pinkett Smith, who rolled her eyes as she sat next to Smith.
Hannah Ward-Glenton

You win some, you lose some
Donald Trump has invested in countless properties over his lifetime, spanning everything from one-bedroom condos and local casinos to the dizzying heights of the Trump Towers and world-famous golf clubs. But bearing the Trump name isn’t always a ticket to success, and some properties have hemorrhaged cash along the way. Click or scroll through to discover Trump’s biggest real estate wins and losses.
Khaleda Rahman

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has blocked a young activist on Twitter for tweeting about the FBI's probe into him—less than a year after he agreed to stop blocking constituents on the social media platform to end a lawsuit. Olivia Julianna, 19, said she was blocked from viewing tweets on Paxton's personal account, @KenPaxtonTX, last week. "I was born and raised in this state and I have the right to speak to and about Texas' elected officials. This is a blatant violation of my constitutional rights," Julianna, who works as a political strategist with Gen Z for Change, a coalition of creators and activists fighting for progressive change, wrote in a tweet. "I've been responding under his tweets for a while with articles talking about his FBI investigation and other issues I believe the voters of Texas have a right to know," Julianna, who is based in Houston, told Newsweek.
Reuters

March 27 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is giving "serious thought" to building a new social media platform, the billionaire said in a tweet on Saturday. Musk was responding to a Twitter user's question on whether he would consider building a social media platform consisting of an open source algorithm and one that would prioritize free speech, and where propaganda was minimal. Musk, a prolific user of Twitter himself, has been critical of the social media platform and its policies of late. He has said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to free speech principles.
Details are few, but it sounds like one bad bug
By Steve Huff

Earlier this month, we learned about the zero-day Chrome exploit that state-sponsored hackers based in North Korea were able to access for just over a month before a patch was issued in mid-February. In that case, the hackers were able to fool the unwary with compromised real websites and sites they'd spoofed by securing similar domain names. Now, for the second time that we know of in 2022, there's another Chrome zero-day and Google is rolling out yet another fix. A new stable channel desktop Chrome update for Windows, Mac and Linux became available Friday. In a Chrome Releases Blog post (found via Bleeping Computer) Google explains that there is one security update in the release, for zero-day exploit CVE-2022-1096, first reported to the company by an anonymous tip on March 23. The zero-day is a weakness in Chrome's JavaScript engine that can be used by hackers to inject their code into your browser. It's exactly the kind of thing that malicious actors love to use against their targets. Google won't provide much more information other than admitting there have already been attacks leveraging this zero-day weakness.
By Kevin Liptak, CNN

Warsaw, Poland (CNN) At nearly the same moment President Joe Biden declared him a "butcher," Vladimir Putin's missiles began falling in Lviv, Ukraine. Sending black smoke and flames billowing into the air, and injuring at least five people, the strikes on a fuel depot pierced what had been relative calm in the western hub city that had seen relatively little of the war that has engulfed the nation. The target hardly seemed coincidental. Biden was 250 miles away, visiting Ukrainian refugees in bitter cold at Poland's national stadium. He heard pleas from young mothers to pray for the men -- husbands, fathers, brothers -- they had left behind. "We Ukrainian mothers are ready to strangle (Putin) with our bare hands," said a woman whose son remained to fight. Gathering up a small girl wearing a pink coat and pigtails, Biden told her he wanted to take her home.
Tom Boggioni

In an interview with Rolling Stone's Andrew Cohen, historian Jeff Shesol said he has no doubt that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni Thomas are in "lockstep" when it comes to believing Donald Trump should still be in the White House and claimed they see what they are doing as a "holy war." With Cohen writing, "You don’t need to be a legal expert to know that one spouse shouldn’t sit in judgment in a case in which the other spouse is a witness — or a suspect. That’s as classic a conflict of interest as one can imagine and by refusing to acknowledge it Justice Thomas has brought great discredit on himself and his colleagues on the Court," he asked the author of “Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs The Supreme Court,” what he thinks is going on after revelations about Ginni Thomas' texts urging overturning the 2020 presidential election results.
Bob Brigham

Donald Trump took his revenge tour to Georgia on Saturday as he seeks vengeance against Republicans who did not help him staff in office despite losing the 2020 election. The former president is backing former Georgia Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) in his campaign against GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) in his campaign against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Dawn White of 11 Alive news in Atlanta reported "former President Donald Trump has arrived to the 'Save America' rally in Commerce, GA. more than an hour late. The crowd is still here." Trump threatened his supporters would boycott the November general election if Perdue loses the primary to Kemp.
Bob Brigham

Donald Trump traveled to Commerce, Georgia on Saturday to rally his MAGA base against the top incumbent Republican in the Peach State. "I've covered more than two dozen Trump rallies around the nation. This is the smallest crowd I've seen at a rally of his in Georgia since he won the 2016 election -- significantly smaller than the crowd in Perry in September," Atlanta Journal-Constitution political reporter Greg Bluestein noted. Trump is backing former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) in his campaign against GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) in his campaign against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. "This crowd is hardly applauding. Not the same sort of enthusiasm I’ve seen at other Trump rallies," Bluestein reported.
In a resignation letter published in the New York Times, prosecutor Mark Pomerantz claimed the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is abandoning its investigation into former President Trump. MSNBC Legal Analyst Jill Wine-Banks shares why the case could still be moving forward.
By Molly Crane-Newman New York Daily News

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision not to seek an indictment against Donald Trump was “misguided and completely contrary to the public interest,” said a prosecutor who probed the ex-president for almost three years. Mark Pomerantz made the stunning declaration in his resignation letter to Bragg on Feb. 23 that was published Wednesday by the New York Times.
By Curtis Brodner

NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A prosecutor who resigned last month after the Manhattan District Attorney dropped a criminal case against former President Donald Trump described failure to pursue charges as a ‘grave failure of justice’ in a resignation letter obtained by The New York Times. Two prosecutors, Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, resigned after Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg dropped a case against former President Donald Trump for falsifying business records — a felony in New York State. “The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did,” Pomerantz wrote in his resignation letter.
Antonio Fins Palm Beach Post

In emails, rallies and broadcast interviews, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted he would have prevented Russia's brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine if he were still in the Oval Office. The boasting, however, overlooks Trump's sordid Ukraine policy, which was mired in scandal and led to a constitutional crisis. Namely, an impeachment that drew a field of Floridians into the spotlight, from Rudy Giuliani to Boca Raton businessman Lev Parnas, to Congresswoman Val Demings to former Attorney General Pam Bondi. In interviews, officials and experts who closely watched what transpired in 2019 question whether Trump aggravated what was already a volatile international affairs challenge on the European continent by withholding military aid, roping Ukraine into domestic U.S. politics, guilt-by-association smearing of the country's new president and denigration of the NATO alliance.
Sonam Sheth and Nicole Gaudiano

Former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told Insider that then President Donald Trump's behavior with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was "absolutely appalling." She was referring, in particular, to Trump's conduct as he was carrying out a months-long pressure campaign to strong-arm Zelenskyy into launching politically motivated investigations targeting the Bidens ahead of the 2020 US election. While doing so, Trump withheld nearly $400 million in vital military aid to Ukraine and dangled a White House meeting that Zelenskyy desperately wanted. Yovanovitch also pointed to the infamous July 2019 phone call between Trump and Zelenskyy that was the catalyst for his first impeachment in 2019. It was "very clear that the President of the United States was trading his office for a personal or political favor, rather than working in our national security interest to help strengthen a partner country," Yovanovitch told Insider. "This was our official US policy. He was holding up security assistance that Congress had voted for, and pressuring Zelenskyy, a new and untried president, to 'do us a favor, though.'"
Analysis by Marshall Cohen, CNN

Washington (CNN) The Russian invasion of Ukraine didn't just happen out of nowhere. Russian President Vladimir Putin has ratcheted up tensions with the West for the better part of the last decade -- he annexed Crimea, meddled in US elections, poisoned an ex-spy on British soil, and more. Nearly every step of the way, former President Donald Trump parroted Kremlin talking points, excused Russian aggression and sometimes even embraced it outright. It's easy to forget that a few years ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wasn't known for his steely wartime leadership, but for getting dragged by Trump into the US political scandal that led to Trump's first impeachment. Experts say Trump's actions weakened Ukraine, divided NATO, emboldened Putin and helped get us to where we are today. And even with Trump no longer in office, his impact lives on in the form of Putin-friendly commentary in conservative media and from some Republican lawmakers.
By Tracy Wilkinson, Sarah D. Wire

The last time (and maybe the first time) most Americans heard of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president was at the center of a scandal that would lead to the impeachment of then-President Trump. Trump in 2019 threatened to hold up weapons deliveries to Ukraine — caught even then in a simmering war with Russian proxies — unless Zelensky helped him dig up political dirt on rival Joe Biden. Today, the shadow of that scandal lingers. How much did Trump’s toying with Ukraine, cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and, ultimately, Trump’s acquittal on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress influence Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine?
The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska on Saturday resigned from office after a California jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national. In a letter to the House, Fortenberry said he was resigning from Congress, effective March 31. "It has been my honor to serve with you in the United States House of Representatives," he said in the letter. "Due to the difficulties of my current circumstances, I can no longer effectively serve." Fortenberry's resignation letter opened with a poem, "Do It Anyway," that's associated with fellow Catholic Mother Teresa. One line from the poem says: "What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway."
Nyamekye Daniel

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has made it known that he will vote against confirming President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman to sit on the nation’s highest judicial bench. As GOP leader in the U.S. Senate, McConnell’s announcement was not a surprise to many, although Jackson most likely will not need his vote. McConnell claimed on Twitter on March 24 that his decision was nonpartisan. Some say it may be because of another bias. “I went into the Senate’s consideration of Judge Jackson’s nomination with an open mind,” McConnell said in a March 24 tweet. “But after studying the nominee’s record and watching her performance this week, I cannot and will not support Judge Jackson for a lifetime appointment to our highest Court.”
The Jan. 6 select committee has evidence that Eastman expected Justice Clarence Thomas to back his dubious legal theory to block Joe Biden's victory.
By Kyle Cheney

Ginni Thomas’ unfettered access to Donald Trump’s chief of staff — and potentially others in his West Wing — raises new questions about another figure at the center of Trump’s gambit to subvert the 2020 election: attorney John Eastman. Eastman spent the final weeks of Trump’s presidency driving a strategy to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory, a plan that relied on legal theories so extreme the Jan. 6 select committee says they could amount to criminal conspiracy and fraud.
Yelena Dzhanova

A Minnesota teacher who was detained by Russian forces while trying to flee Ukraine has been released. Tyler Jacob, a 28-year-old teacher from Winona, Minnesota, was held by Russian soldiers in custody but is now back with his family, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who represents Minnesota, said in a statement on Friday. Klobuchar said that she had reached out to the State Department for assistance with returning him to the United States. "Over the last two weeks, my team and I have been in close contact with his family, the State Department, and the U.S. embassy in Moscow working towards this outcome, and I am grateful that we were able to help bring him to safety," Klobuchar said.
Kevin Breuninger

President Joe Biden on Saturday said Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” ratcheting up international pressure and further uniting NATO allies against Putin over his invasion of Ukraine. “A dictator, bent on rebuilding an empire, will never erase the people’s love for liberty,” Biden said at the end of a sweeping speech in Poland. “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, for free people refuse to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.” “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said.
Ravie Lakshmanan

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday moved to add Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab to the "Covered List" of companies that pose an "unacceptable risk to the national security" of the country. The development marks the first time a Russian entity has been added to the list that's been otherwise dominated by Chinese telecommunications firms. Also added alongside Kaspersky were China Telecom (Americas) Corp and China Mobile International USA. The block list includes information security products, solutions, and services supplied, directly or indirectly, by the company or any of its predecessors, successors, parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates. The FCC said the decision was made pursuant to a Binding Operational Directive (BOD) issued by the Department of Homeland Security on September 11, 2017 that barred federal agencies from using Kaspersky-branded products in their information systems.
Tom Boggioni

According to a report from the Daily Beast's Will Sommer, a man whose namer popped up in the texts sent by Ginni Thomas to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has a long history of spinning fantastical conspiracy theories that grew more and more extreme to the point where he was banished from InfoWars by host Alex Jones. As the report notes, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is now facing increasing scrutiny over her part in the Jan 6th insurrection, mentioned Steve Pieczenik during her flurry of texts, exhorting Meadows to examine some of his election claims. According to Sommers, Pieczenik has a long history of histrionic claims that range from calling mass shootings false flags to stating that he once arrested Pope Francis. According to the report, "Thomas appeared to have wholly embraced Pieczenik’s off-the-wall claims in her texts, including the idea that Trump’s election defeat was really a ruse meant to entrap Democratic voter fraudsters."
Ginni Thomas name-checked Steve Pieczenik, a little-known conspiracy theorist, in texts to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about overturning the 2020 election.
Will Sommer

As Ginni Thomas, a prominent conservative activist and the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, made the case to overturn the election to a top adviser to former President Donald Trump in the days after the 2020 election, she cited several conspiracy theories popular with the president’s most deluded supporters. In her messages, published Thursday by CBS News and the Washington Post, Thomas urged then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to look into the claims of Steve Pieczenik, a little-known conspiracy theorist whose ideas are often too crazy for even Alex Jones. Thomas appeared to have wholly embraced Pieczenik’s off-the-wall claims in her texts, including the idea that Trump’s election defeat was really a ruse meant to entrap Democratic voter fraudsters. “If you believe what Steve Pieczenik has to say, you have completely lost all touch with reality,” said Jordan Holmes, a comedian who follows InfoWars and its guests, including Pieczenik, on his Knowledge Fight podcast.
Ditching machine tabulators and replacing them with people counting votes by hand has become a new fixation on the right.
By Zach Montellaro

Trump supporters are pushing to prohibit machine counting of ballots in future elections around the country, which election officials say could make vote-counting slower, more expensive and — most importantly — less accurate. Legislators in at least six states this year have introduced proposals to prohibit the use of ballot tabulating machines. Local jurisdictions in Nevada, New Hampshire and elsewhere have also been considering similar measures. The proposals stem from baseless conspiracy theories stoked by former President Donald Trump since the 2020 election, in which he and others contended that election machines around the country were hacked and votes were flipped.
Philip Bump

What stopped me in my tracks in the new lawsuit filed on behalf of former president Donald Trump was a reference to internal discussions at the Democratic National Committee that, the suit alleges, show that there was an effort within the DNC to “damage Republican presidential candidates’ credibility with voters.” The startling thing wasn’t that line, an attempt to make utterly run-of-the-mill political-campaign activity seem nefarious. It was, instead, that as Trump and his lawyers were trying to make a case for how the investigation into possible links between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia were a product of a conspiracy helmed by Hillary Clinton and her aides, they were citing these particular documents.
MSN.com

Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani who was previously convicted on campaign finance charges, pleaded guilty Friday to a wire fraud conspiracy charge that resulted from his work at a startup insurance company he co-founded. Federal prosecutors accused 50-year-old Parnas of duping investors in Fraud Guarantee, a company he established in Florida with a co-defendant, David Correia, who previously pleaded guilty. Parnas appeared by video in front of U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan and said "between approximately 2012 and 2019 I agreed with another person to give false information" to potential investors.
By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

(CNN) The FBI is offering a $15,000 reward for information on a January 6 fugitive accused of assaulting multiple officers during the attack on the US Capitol, who the agency has been trying to arrest since June. Jonathan Daniel Pollock -- one of a group of Floridians accused of attacking police at the Capitol -- faces multiple charges including assaulting several officers, theft of government property and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. Pollock is one of only a small group of people who went on the run after being charged in the Capitol riot and have yet to be apprehended by authorities. According to court documents, Pollock took several weeks off to travel to DC around January 6. Coworkers told investigators that when Pollock returned, he initially bragged about his involvement in the riot.
The conservative activist and wife of a Supreme Court justice said in a November 2020 email that Republicans weren't doing enough to help Trump and needed to be "out in the streets."
By Scott Wong

WASHINGTON — Shortly after the 2020 election, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent an email to an aide to a prominent House conservative saying she would have nothing to do with his group until his members go “out in the streets,” a congressional source familiar with the exchange told NBC News. Thomas told an aide to incoming Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks, R-Ind., that she was more aligned with the far-right House Freedom Caucus, whose leaders just two months later would lead the fight in Congress to overturn the results of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. The RSC was long representative of the most conservative House members, but in the past several years, it has been replaced by the tea party-driven Freedom Caucus.
Ginni Thomas had urged then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to tell Donald Trump to "stand firm" and not concede the 2020 election.
By Dareh Gregorian

Democrats on Friday called on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6 after it was revealed that his wife had texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging him to challenge Donald Trump's election loss. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said that in light of reports of the text messages traded between Ginni Thomas and Meadows after the 2020 election, "Justice Thomas' conduct on the Supreme Court looks increasingly corrupt." "Justice Thomas participated in cases related to Donald Trump's efforts to rig and then overturn the 2020 election, while his wife was pushing to do the same," Wyden said. He added that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from “any case related to the January 6th investigation, and should Donald Trump run again, any case related to the 2024 election.” A recusal that broad would be unprecedented, particularly in light of the large number of ongoing criminal and civil cases related to the riot.
Deepa Shivaram

An annual Pride Week celebration in Austin schools is breaking state law, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said this week, marking the state's latest move to confront LGBTQ rights. The school district said the events will nevertheless continue. Every year, the Austin Independent School District plans a series of events to celebrate LGBTQIA+ students, highlighting "the district's commitment to creating a safe, supportive and inclusive environment." The events this year started Monday and culminate Saturday with a "PRIDE out" party. Each day of the week is assigned a theme, including knowing your rights, creative expression and Pride history. Pride and Ally stickers and flags are handed out as well. The events line up with National LGBTQ Health Awareness Week.
Indoctrinating kids where is the Republican outrage, if a democrat was doing, this Republicans would be outrage but since it is a Republican, they are good with it.

By Andrea Blanco For Dailymail.Com
Daily Mail

A California mother was left horrified by a video of her preschooler daughter and her classmates chanting 'We want Biden out' during a President's Day lesson. Christina McFadden, of Norco, said the private Turning Point Christian School was 'indoctrinating' her daughter and her 5- and 4-year-old classmates against the Democrat president. 'The teacher is indoctrinating her students. Everybody has a right to believe in what they want and my daughter wasn't given that opportunity,' McFadden told local news station KTLA. 'And especially at that age, I don't even think that she can comprehend to make an informed decision on who and what she should believe in.'
Comes after reports of text messages of her exchange with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Eric Garcia

Sen Ron Wyden and Rep Ilhan Omar called for more action against Justice Clarence Thomas after a report that his wife Virginia “Ginni” Thomas and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows messaged repeatedly to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
By Emily Brooks

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) both said Friday that Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) should resign from Congress in light of his being convicted on three felony charges connected to his statements to the FBI about illegal campaign contributions. “He had his day in court. I think if he wants to appeal, he can go do that as a private citizen,” McCarthy said in a press conference Friday from House Republicans’ annual policy retreat in Florida. McCarthy said he texted Fortenberry on Thursday night and plans to talk to him today.
By Cameron Jenkins

The Women's March is calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after the release of text messages showing his wife, Ginni Thomas, pushed for then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to stick to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. "The revelations that Ginni Thomas advocated for the overthrow of our democracy are disqualifying — not just for her as a human being of any decency, but for her husband Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas," Women's March Executive Director Rachel O' Leary Carmona said in a statement. "From the day he was nominated to the Court, Thomas has always acted less like a reasonable jurist and more like his wife — that is to say a professional conservative activist," Carmona added. "He is hopelessly compromised, conflicted, and corrupt, and he must be impeached IMMEDIATELY."
By Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) The alleged plotters who wanted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 also had a goal to disrupt a possible Joe Biden presidency, one of the men told a federal court this week. "We wanted to cause as much of a disruption as possible to prevent Joe Biden from getting into office," Ty Garbin said in court Wednesday. Garbin is one of two people originally charged in a federal indictment in connection to the kidnapping plot who testified against the remaining co-defendants. Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta face federal charges of conspiring to kidnap the Democratic governor. Fox, Croft and Harris face additional charges of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction including explosive devices, according to court documents. Croft and Harris are also charged with possessing destructive devices, counts added in a second indictment last April. All have pleaded not guilty.
Ewan Palmer

Donald Trump said he spent more than $24 million dollars and lost business dealings while fighting allegations his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race. The former president made the claim in a lawsuit filed against his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, a number of other Democrats, and leading FBI officials claiming they orchestrated an "unthinkable plot" to accuse him of working with Russia in order to rig the election in his favor. The suit was filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Florida more than five years after Trump beat Clinton in the 2016 election. The document claims that Trump sustained "significant injuries and damages" such as defense costs, legal fees and related expenses defending against the Democrats' "tortious actions, false accusation, and overall fraudulent scheme to discredit and delegitimize him" ahead of the 2016 election.
Justin Baragona

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) dramatically stormed out of Tuesday’s confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, capping off a half-hour “festivus” of grievance by melting down over his desire for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to remain open indefinitely. Graham, who has already voted twice to confirm Jackson to the federal bench, devoted much of his Q&A session on Tuesday to both airing a host of conservative grievances and seemingly finding any reason to justify not voting to place Jackson on the Supreme Court. Apparently, Jackson’s previous work representing detainees at Guantánamo Bay as a public defender was just the opening Graham—an extreme war hawk—needed.
Roland S. Martin

Sen. Lindsey Graham stormed out of Tuesday’s confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson after melting down over his desire for the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to remain open indefinitely.
By Seung Min Kim and Marianna Sotomayor

As Ketanji Brown Jackson this week sat through several days of hearings in her bid to join the Supreme Court, Democrats proudly took turns reflecting on the historic example she sets and the need for the judiciary — much like other institutions — to better reflect the diverse public it serves. At the same time, some Republicans repeatedly suggested that the first Black female high court nominee was soft on crime and questioned whether critical race theory — an academic framework centered on the idea that racism is systemic — influenced her thinking as a judge. The disparate treatment underscored the extent to which race hovered over the four grueling days of Jackson’s confirmation hearings this week, serving as both a source of ebullience for the judge’s supporters and an avenue for contentious questions that sometimes carried racial undertones.
Jason Lemon

Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said this week that he wants popular Fox News host Tucker Carlson "held to account" for taking Russian President Vladimir Putin's "side" in the internationally condemned invasion of Ukraine. The Republican Kinzinger has repeatedly slammed Carlson over his remarks about Putin and Russia, accusing the Fox News host of aligning with the Kremlin. Clips of the Fox News host and his show have repeatedly been used by Russian state-run media in the lead up to the invasion and amid the ongoing war.
Josephine Harvey

Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday parroted Russian propaganda linking Hunter Biden to Ukrainian biolabs that was disseminated by the Kremlin to justify its invasion of Ukraine. Earlier on Thursday, Russia’s Defense Ministry released a colorful diagram that claims to prove that President Joe Biden’s son was involved in funding a secret U.S. bioweapons plot in Ukraine. Several commentators predicted the claim would end up on Fox News, where Hunter Biden theories are ever-popular. Julia Davis, a columnist for The Daily Beast who monitors Russian media, suggested it was crafted with hopes of getting a Fox News feature.
Tresa Baldas, Arpan Lobo | Detroit Free Press

A second convicted kidnap plotter took the stand Thursday with explosive testimony, telling jurors he joined the plan to snatch Gov. Gretchen Whitmer because he was on a suicide mission. "I was hoping that I would be killed in the process," Kaleb Franks testified. "I no longer wanted to live." Franks explained that he had mentally fallen apart following the deaths of three family members in one year: his mom, stepdad and stepbrother. He did not say how they died, only that he was looking for an escape, and so he joined a scheme that he believed would lead to his death.
Andrea Michelson

Fast food wrappers and containers from eight different restaurant chains were found to contain PFAS, or "forever chemicals," at soon-to-be illegal levels, in an investigation published by Consumer Reports Thursday. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are notoriously long-lasting. The chemicals don't naturally break down in the environment, and they can build up in the body over time. Long-term exposure to PFAS has been linked to an increased risk of some cancers, immune system suppression, and problems with fetal development.
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