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US Monthly Headline News May 2023 - Page 2
Story by David Edwards

Fox News host Arthel Neville asked Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) why Republicans were not investigating the millions of dollars Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner made while Donald Trump was president.

Burchett and House Republicans have spent months looking into money paid to the Biden family while now-President Joe Biden was vice president. They claim that the Biden family was paid $10 million by foreign entities while he was vice president.

"When the Biden family went to mob school, I believe they fell asleep during the money laundering because it is very clear where the money is coming from, the communist Chinese and many of our enemies across this world," Burchett said on Sunday.

Neville wondered why the Trump family did not face the same scrutiny from Republicans.
Story by ashoaib@insider.com (Alia Shoaib)

The Pentagon leak suspect Jack Teixeira was preparing for what he envisioned would be a violent "race war," according to The Washington Post.

Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member, was arrested last month in connection with the leak of dozens of top-secret Pentagon documents about the war in Ukraine and other national security issues.

The Washington Post said it uncovered his racist views and suspicion of the government by interviewing several of his close friends and reviewing previously unpublished videos and chat logs.

"He used the term 'race war' quite a few times," a close friend of Teixeira's, who spoke to the Post on the condition of anonymity, said.

"He did call himself racist – multiple times," the friend said. "I would say he was proud of it."

The Post obtained a video of Teixeira shooting a semiautomatic rifle, using antisemitic and antiblack language, and saying his response is to "mag dump."
Story by Tim Dickinson

When neo-Nazi Jon Minadeo II encounters children on the video chat platform Omegle, one of two things typically goes down. Either: Minadeo subjects the kid to a torrent of abusive slurs like “f-agg-t”; “k-ke”; and the n-word. Or: He coaxes the child into making a heil Hitler salute, and attempts to groom them into adopting, and even promoting, his rancid ideology of racism and antisemitism.

Whatever the case, Minadeo creates a spectacle. The white supremacist live-streams these video chats for the grotesque amusement of his followers, and to rake in cash from fan donations.
Story by Thomas Kika

Latin American truck drivers are reportedly planning a service boycott of Florida in response to Governor Ron DeSantis's new legislation concerning migrants.

Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border are once again in the national spotlight after Title 42 expired this week. Enacted by former President Donald Trump in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the measure allowed for the rapid expulsion of undocumented migrants found crossing into the U.S. on the grounds that doing so would help prevent the spread of the virus. It came to an end, along with all other remaining pandemic emergency protocols, on Thursday, leading to concern from some that it would lead to a spike in crossings at a time when various crises have already led to an overall surge in migrants seeking entry into the U.S.
Story by Jennifer Bowers Bahney

“Free Speech Absolutist” Elon Musk is being skewered for bowing to the whims of the Turkish government by agreeing to censor some posts ahead of the country’s elections.

Twitter Global Governance alerted users today, “In response to legal process and to ensure Twitter remains available to the people of Turkey, we have taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey today.”

“It takes less than two seconds to see that Musk’s framework — I’m a free speech absolutist … unless anybody threatens to shut off Twitter access, in which case, I’m for or against whatever they want — is laughably unworkable,” tweeted journalist Derek Thompson.
Story by Zack Beauchamp

At Donald Trump’s CNN town hall on Wednesday, the former president took a series of policy positions that felt extreme even by contemporary Republican standards.

“In little over an hour, Donald J. Trump suggested the United States should default on its debts for the first time in history, injected doubt over the country’s commitment to defending Ukraine from Russia’s invasion, dangled pardons for most of the Capitol rioters convicted of crimes, and refused to say he would abide by the results of the next presidential election,” the New York Times wrote in a fair summary of the evening.

There is every reason to think that this kind of talk reflects what a second Trump administration would be like. As the Times notes, there has been a concerted behind-the-scenes effort in MAGA world to ensure that Trump will face fewer roadblocks in enacting his agenda in 2025 than he did in 2017 — starting with gutting the federal bureaucracy and replacing thousands of nonpartisan employees with Trumpists.
Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix

Jeremy Brown, a self-described Oath Keepers member and lauded 20-year U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, was sentenced on Friday in Tampa to more than seven years in federal prison on weapons charges related to a federal investigation into his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol.

The 48-year old Brown was found guilty in December by a federal jury on six of 10 counts related to possessing illegally registered guns, explosives, and a classified Defense Department document.

Brown is one of more than 950 people who have been charged in connection with the attack at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.

However, January 6 was never mentioned during his six-day trial last year, despite the fact that it was his arrest on accusations of trespassing near the U.S. Capitol and engaging in disorderly conduct, both federal misdemeanors, that led to the federal trial in Tampa.
Story by Tommy Christopher

Fact-checkers had a field day with ex-President Donald Trump’s CNN town hall, but one stood out by ticking through a whopping 20 false or misleading claims.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins moderated a CNN town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire Wednesday night that devolved into a chaotic spectacle of attacks, falsehoods, and abuse that sparked a barrage of criticism and recriminations at the network.

The pace and volume of Trump’s lies were such that post-show anchor Jake Tapper could not stop commenting on it. Seconds after the town hall ended, Tapper immediately remarked on the fact that from the very first minute, Trump began spewing lies about the 2020 election.

And a few minutes later, he punctuated correspondent Sara Murray’s game first attempt at a fact-check by exclaiming there were “more lies than I can count!”
Story by Steve Benen

While the details of federal budgetary policy, the broad outline of the debt ceiling crisis is relatively straightforward: The narrow House Republican majority has a series of far-right demands they accept Democrats in the Senate and the White House to accept. If President Joe Biden and his allies refuse to pay the ransom, GOP leaders say they’ll use the debt ceiling to crash the economy on purpose.

There’s growing chatter, however, about a provocative alternative in which Biden could work around Congress to free the hostage. Circling back to our recent coverage, the 14th Amendment solution is sometimes derided as a “gimmick,” but it’s rooted in a relatively straightforward reading of the constitutional text, which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States ... shall not be questioned.”
Story by Zoë Richards and Alexandra Bacallao and Ryan Nobles and Kyle Stewart

Aformer prosecutor who once oversaw the Manhattan District Attorney Office’s investigation into former President Donald Trump frustrated House Republicans on Friday by repeatedly saying during a deposition that he would not answer their questions about the DA's probe.

Mark Pomerantz spent roughly six hours with members of the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee, which is investigating Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's prosecution of Trump.

In a his opening statement, obtained by NBC News, Pomerantz blasted the inquiry as “political theater” and condemned the panel's use of a subpoena to compel his participation.

“This deposition is for show,” Pomerantz said. “We are gathered here because Donald Trump’s supporters would like to use these proceedings to attempt to obstruct and undermine the criminal case pending against him, and to harass, intimidate, and discredit anyone who investigates or charges him.”

Pomerantz also said it would be improper for him to provide information about an ongoing investigation.
Story by David McAfee

Tucker Carlson once devised a plan to "threaten" Fox News staffers for purportedly damaging the network's brand by criticizing former president Donald Trump, according to texts newly revealed by the Daily Beast.

Carlson is gearing up for a potential legal battle over his contract with Fox News, which separated itself from the former top host shortly after the network reached a massive settlement in the lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over defamation in connection with coverage of the 2020 presidential election.
Story by Meaghan Ellis

Aformer Trump White House adviser is shedding light on his questionable behavior toward young women who worked around him during his time in office.

According to The Daily Beast, Alyssa Farah Griffin — the former director of strategic communications for the Trump administration — is sharing her firsthand experience regarding things she'd personally seen during her time working in the West Wing.

Griffin, who now appears as a co-host on ABC's "The View," hopes her accounts will make other women think twice before working with Trump. “Listen, the man’s the former commander-in-chief, he’s currently far and away the Republican frontrunner for president, and I think the American public needs to know who Donald Trump is,” Griffin explained.
Story by Jared Gans

Afederal judge has blocked former President Trump from being questioned under oath as scheduled later this month in lawsuits brought by two former FBI staffers.

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page filed lawsuits after Strzok was fired and Page resigned from their positions in 2018 following the revelation of text messages they sent that were critical of Trump. Strzok sued for wrongful termination while Page sued for violation of privacy, with both alleging they were targeted because they were working on the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia following the 2016 presidential election.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson initially ruled in February that Trump and FBI Director Christopher Wray could sit for depositions in the case, with strict restrictions on their length and subject matter.
Story by Shanthi Rexaline

There was no surprise here as, expectedly, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a Senate bill to prohibit the use of a federally-adopted central bank digital currency, or CBDC.

What Happened: "The legislation I signed today makes Florida the first state in the nation to protect individuals from government surveillance in their personal finances through a CBDC," said DeSantis on Twitter.

The governor clarified that the move was meant to protect consumers against the efforts to impose a CBDC, which would shift purchasing power from consumers to the government. "Florida is siding with individual consumers," he added.
Story by Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing growing pressure to show progress in their investigations, House Republicans on Wednesday detailed what they say are concerning new findings about President Joe Biden’s family members and their finances. Meanwhile, though, in a new report Republicans conceded that no evidence has emerged that the president engaged in misconduct or illegal activity.

The smoking gun, according to the GOP, is recently obtained financial records connected to the president’s son Hunter Biden, brother James Biden and a growing number of associates who received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania. They suggest, without evidence, that the payments were part of a wide-ranging scheme to enrich themselves off the family name.

To help them get here, Congressional Republicans relied on more than 150 suspicious-activity reports as a roadmap to follow what they call the Bidens’ complicated money trail.

‘Congressman Comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called “investigations” with legitimacy.’ — Ian Sams, White House
Story by By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge Friday temporarily blocked the appointment of four state court judges in the majority-Black county that is home to Mississippi's capital city — appointments that drew protests from local residents who said white state officials were stomping on civil rights.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate issued the temporary restraining order at the request of the NAACP, and he set a May 22 hearing to consider extending the order.

The national civil rights organization, its Mississippi chapter and its local chapter in Jackson filed a federal lawsuit April 21, hours after Gov. Tate Reeves signed laws to expand state policing in the capital city of Jackson, establish a court with an appointed judge and authorize four appointed judges to work alongside the four elected circuit court judges in Hinds County.
Story by Adam Rawnsley

Jeffrey Clark and Michael Flynn were leading figures in Donald Trump’s efforts to carry out a coup d’etat in 2020 and 2021. The result was mob violence, deaths at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., an array of criminal investigations and lawsuits, and what one former senior Trump aide went on the record to call “the worst day for the Republican Party since Lincoln’s assassination.”

In any other era, scandals like that would be enough to send those men off into immediate political retirement. But this isn’t one of those eras.
Story by Brad Reed

Several members of the Kansas Republican Party are up in arms over a new plan by some officials to remove its own minority, women's and youth groups from positions of party leadership.

The Wichita Eagle reports that the plan to remove the groups from the state party's executive board "would enhance the power of chairman Mike Brown, who won his position by just two votes earlier this year."

The plan's supporters, however, argue that the move is not a power grab but is rather a way to remodel the state party to be more like the Republican National Committee that features "only... members elected by county precinct committee people."

However, representatives from the groups that could be excluded are not happy about the proposal in the slightest.
Opinion by Kali Holloway

For four decades, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has extolled the importance of “personal responsibility.” He has chastised those who “make excuses for black Americans” and argued there is a need to “emphasize black self-help.” He has denigrated affirmative action programs on the grounds that they “create a narcotic of dependency” where there should be “an ethic of responsibility and independence.” He bemoans the “ideology of victimhood” that allows the marginalized to “make demands on society for reparations and recompense.”

In light of recent revelations that Thomas has been showered by billionaire Harlan Crow with over two decades’ worth of getaways on superyachts and private jets and various other gifts, none of which he ever reported, the jurist’s long con of principled advocacy for Black self-reliance and opposition to white largesse has finally run its course. Turns out, Thomas was never against reparations—he just wanted them for himself. He is and always has been precisely what he wrongly accuses Black folks of being.

It’s been a con run by a self-serving fabulist all along. In 1980, Thomas caught the attention of the incoming president, Ronald Reagan, with a speech in which he used the “welfare queen” stereotype against his own sister. “She gets mad when the mailman is late with her welfare check. That is how dependent she is,” Thomas told an audience of fellow Black Republicans. “What’s worse is that now her kids feel entitled to the check too. They have no motivation for doing better or getting out of that situation.” A 1991 Los Angeles Times investigation found Thomas’s sister was, in fact, an underpaid single mother who used the social safety net during a brief rough patch; her children weren’t the entitled layabouts depicted by Thomas, either.
Story by David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

In Republican Governor Ron DeSantis‘ “Free State of Florida,” as of July 1 it will be illegal for physicians and other medical professionals to refuse to treat unvaccinated patients. It will be illegal to mandate vaccines. It will be illegal to mandate the wearing of masks. It will be illegal to require a “vaccine passport.”

But, also in Ron DeSantis’ “Free State of Florida,” it will be legal for a physician or other medical professional to refuse to treat a patient who is LGBTQ for a “specific health care service” if it violates their “conscience.” And legal for insurance companies to refuse to cover patients who are LGBTQ for a “specific health care service” again, if it violates their “conscience.”

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ COVID-19 policies will now be enshrined in state law as the Governor signed bills that will make permanent bans on vaccine and mask mandates as well as give a shield to doctors who deviate from other medical professionals,” Florida Politics reports.
Story by LGBTQNation

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed the “Protections of Medical Conscience Act,” a law that allows healthcare providers or payors to deny service on the basis of “a conscience-based objection,” including any ethical, moral, or religious beliefs. The bill provides no definition for what constitutes a “moral” or “ethical” belief.

The law seeks to protect health care providers and payers from the “threat of discrimination for providing conscience-based health care.” However, advocates worry it’ll be used to deny LGBTQ+ people gender-affirming care, HIV-prevention medication, and other essential and life-saving care.
Story by Sky Palma

Two new Holocaust-themed textbooks have been rejected by Florida’s state education department and another book was forced to change a passage about the Hebrew Bible in order to be approved by the state, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

As JTA points out, the rejection of the books comes as Florida cracks down on "woke indoctrination" in a campaign against materials of a certain ideological origin that deal with race and gender -- now the policy is affecting Jewish topics as well.

One of the rejected Holocaust textbooks was called “Modern Genocides,” and the other was an online learning course titled “History of the Holocaust" intended for high school students.
“If you don’t say that you think Ukraine should win the war, I don’t know where you stand with Putin,” the former governor said.
By MATT BERG

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called former President Donald Trump a “coward” and a “puppet of Putin” for refusing to say that Ukraine should win in its war against Russia.

During a CNN town hall Wednesday night, Trump said it wasn’t wise to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal, since that would make negotiating with him more difficult. When asked about the comment Thursday morning, Christie said he strongly disagrees.

“I think he’s a coward and I think he’s a puppet of Putin,” Christie, a Republican weighing a presidential run, told radio host Hugh Hewitt. “I don’t know why, to tell you the truth, but I can’t figure it out, but there’s no other conclusion to come to.”
Story by Matthew Chapman

During his town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump advocated for the the U.S. to default on its debt — something he called unthinkable when he was president himself. And he advocated for slashing government funding as the only option of preventing this, something that would be almost equally devastating to the economy.

Speaking to political analyst David Chalian on Thursday, CNN anchor Jake Tapper laid out just how catastrophic this is — and how damaging it is for Trump to even talk about it.

"There was, policy-wise, a lot of things that he said yesterday that were stunning," said Tapper. "One of them was when he said something very different about the U.S. defaulting on its loans than he used to say when he was president. When he was president, the government should never default on loans, always raise the debt ceiling. Congress voted to do so when he was president with no spending cuts. That's not his position now. Take a listen."
Story by Matthew Chapman

Former President Donald Trump was ordered by a Manhattan Supreme Court Judge to submit to a meeting giving him instructions on how to comply with an order restricting him from using evidence in his criminal case to attack witnesses, reported the Associated Press on Thursday.

"Judge Juan Manuel Merchan scheduled the hybrid hearing — the former president on a TV screen, his lawyers and prosecutors in court — to go over the restrictions with Trump and to make clear that he risks being held in contempt if he violates them," reported Michael R. Sisak. "The case is continuing in state court even as Trump’s lawyers seek to have it moved to federal court. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is considering the transfer request, issued an order this week setting paperwork deadlines and a hearing for late June."

"Merchan, still in charge while that drama plays out, agreed to instruct Trump on the rules by video, rather than in person, after a prosecutor reminded him last week that bringing Trump to court would present mammoth security and logistical challenges," said the report.
A federal jury in New York found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation in Carroll's civil case.
By Dareh Gregorian

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday officially signaled plans to appeal the $5 million jury verdict this week that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.

In a filing in federal court in Manhattan, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina said Trump was appealing the dollar amount and "all adverse orders, rulings, decrees, decisions, opinions, memoranda, conclusions or findings" from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the civil trial.

Trump ripped Kaplan on social media Wednesday, labeling the "Clinton appointed Judge" a "terrible person" and "completely biased."

"The whole Rigged Hoax is yet another TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE, a continuation of the greatest political Witch Hunt of all time!!!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social site.
Story by Gideon Rubin

House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) during a news conference Wednesday morning touted the findings of a congressional probe linking President Joe Biden to millions of dollars in payments from China and Romania to members of his family.

But despite his proclamations to the contrary, Comer didn’t produce any damaging evidence against the president, and he heard about it during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.

“You don’t actually have any facts to that point,” host Steve Doocy told the far-right congressman.

“And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn’t profit is — there’s no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”
Story by Charlie Nash

Many audience members at CNN’s town hall with former President Donald Trump on Wednesday were “disgusted” and “bewildered” by the spectacle, but were told to be respectful and not to boo, according to a report.

“The floor manager came out ahead of time and said, Please do not boo, please be respectful. You were allowed to applaud,” claimed Republican political consultant Matthew Bartlett in an interview with Puck News senior political correspondent Tara Palmeri on Thursday.

“And I think that set the tone where people were going to try their best to keep this between the navigational beacons, and that if they felt compelled to applaud, they would, but they weren’t going to have an outburst or they weren’t going to boo an answer,” he said.

Bartlett claimed that, while many in the audience applauded and cheered the former president, “there were also people that sat there quietly disgusted or bewildered.” He estimated that while around half of the audience expressed vocal support for Trump, the other half sat in silence. Bartlett also alleged that Trump repeatedly “lost the audience” when he spoke about topics like January 6 or the results of the 2020 election, despite the appearance on CNN that the audience was consistently on his side.
Story by Jonathan Dienst and Courtney Copenhagen

Another round of federal grand jury subpoenas went out this week in connection with the corruption investigation into Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey.

Two sources familiar with the matter said at least one powerful New Jersey politician — North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco — was among those who received a subpoena.

A North Bergen spokesman said, “As they always have, Mayor Sacco and the Township of North Bergen will comply with any inquiry they receive from law enforcement and will cooperate fully.”

For months, Menendez has been under criminal investigation as to whether he and his wife improperly took cash and gifts from the owners of IS EG Halal, an Edgewater, New Jersey, halal meat business.

The senator and the company’s owners have denied any wrongdoing.
Story by Tatyana Tandanpolie

Fox News host Steve Doocy shot down Rep. James Comer's, R-Ky., claims that President Joe Biden and his family conducted an "influence peddling scheme" Thursday morning.

During an interview with the GOP House Oversight chairman on "Fox & Friends," Doocy broke down Comer's alleged evidence of Biden's wrongdoing.

"I know the Republicans said that the smoking gun were these financial records that you were able to subpoena and got your hands on," Doocy told the representative. "And your party, the Republican investigators, say that that's proof of influence peddling by Hunter and James [Biden]."

"But that's just your suggestion. You don't actually have any facts to that point. You've got some circumstantial evidence," Doocy continued, adding "And the other thing is, of all those names, the one person who didn't profit is — there's no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally."
David Edwards

'I didn't say that!' Jim Jordan clashes with Dem after he's accused of wanting to defund FBI
David Edwards

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing about the POLICE Act, which cracks down on crimes by immigrants, Dean said the committee should also be focused on recent mass shootings.

"House Republicans have set their sights on defunding and abolishing federal law enforcement agencies," she asserted. "This is a hypocrisy. It's an oxymoron, what we're participating here."

"Remember, Chairman Jordan has said he wants to use the power of the majority to cut funding for the DOJ and the FBI," Dean remarked. "Matt Gaetz, Mr. Gaetz, the gentleman from Florida, wants to abolish the ATF."
Story by Mini Racker

Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, held a press conference on Wednesday to detail the latest updates in his investigation of Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The evidence so far does not directly implicate President Biden, but does suggest his son may have profited off of his famous name.

Records of Hunter Biden’s activities also echo the foreign business dealings of the family members of another President. While in office, former President Trump remained connected to the Trump Organization, even as he passed control of the company to his two sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. Though Trump’s team said the business would not enter any new overseas deals during his term, his family members continued to engage in business abroad. Meanwhile, Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, continued to pursue financial interests in foreign countries.
Story by Matthew Chapman

Legal experts believe that former President Donald Trump's CNN town hall at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire gave fresh evidence to every one of the three ongoing criminal cases against him, reported Salon on Thursday.

The ongoing criminal cases against Trump — not including the bookkeeping fraud case over the Stormy Daniels hush payment, which has already been charged by Manhattan prosecutors — are the election interference probe in Georgia, the federal January 6 investigation, and the federal investigation of classified documents stashed at Mar-a-Lago — all of which came up during the town hall under the questioning of moderator and CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins.
Story by Khaleda Rahman

Former president Donald Trump's interest in a younger staffer raised alarm in the White House and he "openly" behaved inappropriately, a former Trump administration official has told Newsweek.

Olivia Troye, who was an adviser to former vice president Mike Pence and his lead staffer on the White House coronavirus task force, said Trump's behavior was common knowledge among senior staff.

Her remarks come after two other former Trump staffers accused him of sexual harassment while in the White House. They spoke out in television interviews after a jury on Tuesday found the former president liable for sexually abusing and defaming journalist E. Jean Carroll. Trump denied the allegations and, on Truth Social, called the verdict "A DISGRACE" and a "CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!" His attorney said he would appeal.
Story by Philip Bump

The last time a president was engaged in a real primary campaign was 1980, when President Jimmy Carter was challenged by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). Thanks to the advantage of incumbency, Carter was renominated — only to lose the general election. In part because of that, subsequent presidents have had to survive only one primary, with their parties helping to clear the path to renomination to avoid spending the summer before the general election weakening their candidate with infighting.

That wasn’t enough to get Trump reelected in 2020. So here he is, trying again, a guy who held the job previously now trying to get it back.

On Wednesday night, that brought him to New Hampshire for a “town hall” event hosted by CNN. For a bit over an hour, Trump did what Trump does. But the atmosphere was not sober or thoughtful. It was raucous, energized, obviously allied with Trump. And why not? More than 365,000 New Hampshirites voted three years ago to give Trump a second term in office. Pick a group of 200 residents of the state who say they plan to vote in the Republican primary and you’re going to get nearly 200 people who have voted for Trump before.
Story by rcohen@insider.com (Rebecca Cohen,Madison Hall)

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — who accepted lavish gifts and luxury vacations from a billionaire for years — signed off on a Supreme Court opinion Thursday arguing that a law prohibiting taking bribes is too vague to be fairly enforced.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a concurring opinion — on which Thomas signed off — that a federal anti-bribery law wasn't clear enough.

The case involved Joseph Percoco, a former aide of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who was accused of taking money from a local developer and convicted in 2018 of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
Story by Kerry Breen

ANew York district attorney said that she will seek to vacate the convictions and charges of over two dozen people who allegedly sold drugs to undercover officers in her region after a conviction review unit found a "pattern of inconsistencies, errors and disclosure issues" in the operation.  

Miriam E. Rocah, the district attorney for Westchester County, about an hour outside of New York City, said in a news release Wednesday that a criminal investigation into the Mount Vernon Police Department's Narcotics Division had begun after "secretly-recorded conversations among various" officers and complaints from the public came to light. Mount Vernon is part of Westchester County. The district's Conviction Review Unit, which Rocah established, also examined the cases in a seperate investigation.  
Story by Connor Surmonte

An alleged Jeffrey Epstein coverup is set to explode after a new appeals court ruling “paved the way” for the release of buried grand jury records, RadarOnline.com has learned.

In a sudden development to come 17 years after Epstein faced minor charges in Palm Beach, Florida, for suspected sex crimes, a Wednesday appeals court ruling determined the judge at the time was mistaken in ruling he could not release grand jury records about the 2006 inquiry.

The court has now reportedly sent the case to Circuit Judge Donald W. Hafele, who, per the court’s instructions, will determine which of the 2006 grand jury records can be released to the public.

“A full accounting of what happened and how it occurred is significant to the victims because they don’t want it to happen to anyone ever again,” said Palm Beach attorney Spencer Kuvin. “There was a huge amount of secrecy.”
In two rulings the court delivered a blow to the Justice Department's efforts to root out public corruption.
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court delivered a double blow to federal prosecutors Thursday by throwing out the corruption convictions in two cases, including one concerning an ex-aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who was convicted of taking a bribe from a real estate developer.

The court in a 9-0 vote threw out Joseph Percoco's conviction for accepting the $35,000 payment when managing Cuomo’s re-election campaign in 2014. In doing so, the justices narrowed the scope of a federal anticorruption law.

The court ruled that Percoco’s conduct was not covered by the federal law that requires that “honest services” be provided to the public. He was not working for the government at the time, so he had no duty to provide honest services, the court said.

In a separate ruling in a related case, the court threw out a Buffalo real estate developer’s wire fraud conviction in another blow to federal prosecutors. The court unanimously ruled for Louis Ciminelli, who the government alleged had sought to rig the bidding process for redevelopment contracts in the city.
Story by klong@insider.com (Katherine Long)

The Republican pollster Ryan Tyson, who is expected to be the political director of Gov. Ron DeSantis' presumptive presidential bid, was deeply enmeshed in a major Florida political-corruption scandal that has resulted in criminal charges for five people, two of whom have been convicted.

At the center of the scandal are "ghost candidates" — those drafted to run purely to siphon votes from an opposing party in close races.

After receiving money from a nonprofit affiliated with the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Tyson funneled $600,000 to a dark-money group, Grow United, that supported three ghost candidates running for Florida's Senate, according to court records. The candidates had no political experience and did not campaign. One candidate was paid $44,000 to run.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) spent an evening together at the Treasury Department, where they said they were allowed to view bank transactions that they say proves President Joe Biden's family was being given cash from foreign countries. The problem they've run into is in showing that evidence and proving it.

For years, Republicans have claimed that Biden was on the take from China because his son helped negotiate 20 percent of the sale of a mine to a Chinese company. Greene claimed she saw the Bidens had a "web" of LLCs that they were getting money through, including Burisma, which at no time was ever owned or run by any Biden family members. His son Hunter was merely on the board.

As the GOP has desperately tried to tie Biden to his version of Hillary Clinton's Benghazi hearings, it's proved unsuccessful. But worse, according to Washington Post columnist Philip Bump, it only highlights questions about Donald Trump's administration.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) admitted that there might not be a "there" there in the GOP's probe. Speaking to Fox Business on Wednesday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) confessed there will never be any proof of their claims. "You're not gonna get necessarily hard proof," Johnson told Maria Bartiromo.
Story by Daniel Kline

Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger does not want to play Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' game or abide by his narrative. The Mouse House boss isn't looking for a fight, but he's also not walking away from one.

Iger has made it very clear that his company was never looking to take on the governor, even when it objected to legislation that many of its employees found deplorable. DeSantis, however, has used Walt Disney's (DIS) - Get Free Report public opposition to his so-called "don't say gay" legislation, an objection raised by Iger's predecessor Bob Chapek, as a way to make the company a foil in his "war on woke" marketing campaign.

Disney's current CEO tried to make it clear to DeSantis that his company wasn't going to be a pawn in a game of political posturing during its second-quarter earnings call. He tried to make it very clear that Disney wasn't looking for a handout or to get around regulation, but that it was looking to continue operating in the way that it has.
The former president stuck to his claims that the 2020 election was "rigged" against him.
David Knowles·Senior Editor

At a Wednesday night town hall with Republican and undecided voters in New Hampshire, former President Donald Trump continued to peddle false claims that voter fraud cost him victory in the 2020 election, stood by his assertion that "stars" have historically been allowed to sexually abuse women and encouraged congressional Republicans to allow the U.S. to default on its debt.

CNN's decision to give Trump a platform at St. Anselm College for his 2024 presidential campaign has drawn scathing criticism, including from retired D.C. Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was injured after Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to block the peaceful transition of power following Trump's loss to Joe Biden.
Story by By FARNOUSH AMIRI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing growing pressure to show progress in their investigations, House Republicans on Wednesday detailed what they say are concerning new findings about President Joe Biden's family and their finances.

The smoking gun, according to the GOP, is recently obtained financial records connected to the president's son Hunter Biden, brother James Biden and a growing number of associates who received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania. They suggest, without evidence, that the payments were part of a wide-ranging scheme to enrich themselves off the family name.
Annie Grayer Jeremy Herb Sara Murray
By Annie Grayer, Alayna Treene, Jeremy Herb and Sara Murray, CNN

Washington CNN — House Oversight Chairman James Comer laid out new details to support allegations that members of Joe Biden’s family including his son Hunter received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania including when Biden was vice president, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

New bank records cited in the memo were obtained by the committee through a subpoena and include payments made to companies tied to Hunter Biden. Republicans also alleged that Hunter Biden used his familial connections to help facilitate a meeting in 2016 between a Serbian running for United Nations Secretary-General and then-national security adviser to the vice president Colin Kahl.

The foreign payments raise questions about Hunter Biden’s business activities while his father was vice president, but the committee does not suggest any illegality about the payments from foreign sources. The bank records by themselves also do not indicate the purpose of the payments that were made.
Story by Allister Heath

There is only one winner from Vladimir Putin’s monstrous war on Ukraine, and that is the Chinese Communist Party. To our eternal shame, Xi Jinping has spectacularly outwitted the West, drastically expanded his global influence, and turned Russia into a Chinese protectorate in all but name.

Russia was meant to have collapsed by now. Britain, America and Europe’s gambit was that drastic trade, financial and technological sanctions, a cap on the price of Russian seaborne oil, and substantial help to Ukraine would be enough to defeat Moscow. It hasn’t worked. For all of the sacrifices of the Ukrainian people, the war has reached a stalemate, at least until Kyiv’s counter-offensive.
Story by LGBTQNation

Rachel Maddow recently castigated Trump family members and former Trump administration officials for their willingness to speak at an upcoming event alongside virulent antisemites.

The out MSNBC anchor explained that appearing at the same event with people who believe “Hitler was fighting the good fight” will be former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, former Trade Director Peter Navarro, former chief of staff to Acting Defense Secretary Kash Patel, and former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), who was chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
Story by By MAYSOON KHAN, Associated Press/Report for America

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Three companies accused of falsifying millions of public comments to support the contentious 2017 federal repeal of net neutrality rules have agreed to pay $615,000 in penalties to New York and other states, New York's attorney general said Wednesday.

The penalties come after an investigation by the New York state Office of the Attorney General found the fake comments used the identities of millions of consumers, including thousands of New Yorkers, without their knowledge. “No one should have their identity co-opted by manipulative companies and used to falsely promote a private agenda," said New York Attorney General Letitia James in an announcement Wednesday.

Two of the California-based companies, LCX Digital Media and digital marketing company Lead ID, LLC., were hired by the broadband industry to enroll consumers in a campaign to support repeals to Obama-era net neutrality rules. Instead, they each independently fabricated responses for 1.5 million consumers. The third, marketing company Ifficient Inc., supplied more than 840,000 fake responses.
By SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh off a White House meeting with no serious breakthrough on the debt limit standoff, President Joe Biden is launching a new phase of his pressure campaign against House Republicans as he makes his case that lawmakers should lift the nation’s borrowing authority without any strings attached.

Biden will travel to Valhalla, New York, on Wednesday to argue that a measure passed by House GOP lawmakers that would lift the debt limit for about a year while curbing some federal spending would impose cuts for veterans care, educators and other domestic priorities. The area is represented by first-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, whose district Biden won in 2020.

The White House will use the trip to trumpet what it says is economic progress under the Democratic president — pointing to the number of jobs created during his term and a fresh focus on domestic manufacturing — while warning that an unprecedented debt default would threaten millions of jobs and raise the prospect of a recession.
Story by Dasha Burns and Jonathan Allen

CINCINNATI — Former Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday that he and then-President Donald Trump "could have done a better job" keeping the federal debt in check.

"The trillions of dollars that we appropriated for families and businesses and health care in this country during Covid — it's what government's for during a time of national emergency," Pence said. "But let me stipulate ... we could have done a better job of controlling spending under our administration."

His assessment, delivered in an exclusive interview, came at the same time President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., clashed in face-to-face negotiations over how to avoid a federal default.

Much as Pence acknowledged the Trump administration's role in accumulating debt, he criticized Biden for "runaway federal spending" in his two-plus years in office and said it is up to the president to strike a deal that averts an economic crisis.
Story by Ken Meyer

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) was pressed on whether he intends to investigate Donald Trump’s family amid his accusations against President Joe Biden’s family.

Comer held a press conference on Wednesday to lay out his accusations that Biden and his son Hunter received millions of dollars from foreign entities. While the investigation gravitates around the Biden family’s business dealings and the argument that Hunter profiteered off of his family name, the probe has yet to implicate the president in any illegalities, nor has it proven a detriment to U.S. policies of national interests.

As Comer took questions, a reporter brought up his declared interest in addressing influence peddling, and she noted that Trump and his family “have benefitted while he was in office, since leaving office, from a number of countries.” “Are you investigating those businesses as well?” The reporter asked.
Story by Matthew Chapman

AHouse Republican investigation led by Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) has been trying to link President Joe Biden and his family to accusations of essentially accepting bribes from foreign countries. But Politico reports they have yet to deliver the goods — and are under pressure to do so, at the risk of their probe losing steam and legitimacy.

"The Oversight Committee chair’s pivotal moment comes in the form of a long-planned press conference on his panel’s investigation into President Joe Biden, his son Hunter who’s already facing a federal investigation, and other family members. Comer’s move follows weeks of doubt, including from some within his own party, that the Kentucky Republican can back up his promises to find a smoking gun that would tie the president to the private affairs of his relatives," Politico reported.
Story by Alex Griffing

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) campaign credit card purchased an “internet domain for Kanye West’s still unannounced 2024 presidential bid” at the direction of alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday.

Political reporter Roger Sollenberger broke the story and noted that Yiannopoulos “was reimbursed for ‘domain transfer’ by the West campaign the same day for $3,000 above cost, according to receipts obtained by The Daily Beast and a person with knowledge of the events.”

Anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West rehired Yiannopoulos as “director of political operations” earlier this month, five months after he was booted from the job after infighting led to the controversial figure’s ouster. Yiannopoulos previously interned for Greene and figured prominently in the meeting between former President Donald Trump, Kanye West, and Neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes last November at Mar-a-Lago.
Story by Ken Meyer

The regional director of the Texas Department of Safety poked a huge hole in claims put forth by right-wingers who have doubted the reported neo-Nazi affiliations of the Allen Premium Outlets shooter.

Hank Sibley held a press conference on Tuesday to give an update into the ongoing investigation of Mauricio Garcia, the deceased 33-year-old former security guard who carried out the massacre. After addressing Garcia’s expulsion from the military over mental health concerns and the investigation into his weapons, the Texas DPS official said “we don’t know” what was the motive behind the shooting.

“We do know that he had Neo-Nazi ideation,” Sibley added. “He had patches, he had tattoos, even his signature verified that. That’s one thing we do know. We’re trying to get into his computer and on social media and find out whether he had anything that he publicized.”
Opinion by Law Ware

Another day, another ethics complaint against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

In 1991, when President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to succeed retiring Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, we learned during the confirmation hearings about the alleged sexual harassment that Anita Hill endured while they both worked at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The evidence against him was overwhelming and persuasive, but despite very convincing testimony given by Hill to the Senate Judiciary Committee, he was still appointed to the Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48, what was then considered the narrowest of margins. That is damning. But seeing how Brett Kavanaugh was appointed on a vote of 50-48, an even narrower margin in 2018, despite clear evidence of sexual harassment, it seems to be par for the course.
Story by sbhaimiya@insider.com (Sawdah Bhaimiya)

A Black former Tesla contract worker who was awarded $3.2 million in damages in a racial harassment case against the company is seeking a retrial, saying that the use of "poisonous messaging" tainted the proceedings.

Owen Diaz, who was hired as an elevator operator at Tesla's Fremont, California factory via an agency in 2015, was originally awarded $137 million in 2021 for his case against the company.

Diaz told the court in 2021 that colleagues verbally abused him and told him to "go back to Africa," according to CNBC. He also said that racist graffiti could be found in the bathrooms of the factory.
Story by Devlin Barrett, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Shayna Jacobs, Perry Stein

Rep. George Santos, the freshman Republican congressman whose myriad falsehoods became both a scandal and a national punchline, was charged with a host of financial crimes in court papers unsealed Wednesday.

Santos, 34, surrendered to federal authorities in the morning and is expected to appear in a federal courthouse in Central Islip, on Long Island, later Wednesday. Officials said he has been charged with fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and false statements. The congressman and his lawyer did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Santos stands accused of defrauding prospective donors to his campaign and the state of New York, as well as making false statements to the House Committee on Ethics. He faces seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of lying to the House of Representatives on financial forms.
Story by Julia Rock

Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas has abandoned his own stated principles and changed his position on one of America’s most significant regulatory doctrines. Why? A dark money network of conservative billionaires is making his family rich.

Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas changed his position on one of America’s most significant regulatory doctrines after his wife reportedly accepted secret payments from a shadowy conservative network pushing for the change. Thomas’s shift also came while he was receiving lavish gifts from a billionaire linked to other groups criticizing the same doctrine — which is now headed back to the high court.
Story by Martin Pengelly in New York

The former House January 6 committee member Liz Cheney released an attack ad against Donald Trump in New Hampshire on the eve of his appearance there in a controversial CNN town hall. Related: Trump to participate in CNN town hall, one day after sexual abuse verdict

“There has never been a greater dereliction of duty by any president,” Cheney warns in the ad, which focuses on Trump’s incitement of the deadly Capitol attack on 6 January 2021. “Donald Trump has proven he is unfit for office. Donald Trump is a risk America can never take again.” Trump incited the attack by his supporters in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Nine deaths have been linked to it. Thousands of arrests have been made and hundreds of convictions secured – some for seditious conspiracy.
Story by Nick Reynolds

Several states are moving to enact legislation cracking down on paramilitary organizations after a years-long rise in organized political violence across the United States.

In Oregon—where members of movements such as Antifa have regularly clashed with right-wing militant groups in cities like Portland—lawmakers recently proposed legislation to expand the state's definition of "civil disorder" in terms of unlawful paramilitary activity, both in response to recent activity in the state as well as incidents like the right-wing takeover of the state's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016.

In New Mexico, Democratic lawmakers recently introduced the Unlawful Private Paramilitary Activity Act, a sweeping bill banning paramilitary organizations from performing drills with weapons in a group of three or more people. The measure also outlaws civilian-led "security" functions of groups like the Oath Keepers, which were involved in the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Story by Ed Mazza

Stephanie Grisham, who served as White House press secretary under Donald Trump, said she witnessed the then-president’s sexual harassment firsthand.

She told CNN that she had to try to protect one staffer in particular that Trump would request accompany him on trips.

“He one time had one of my other deputies bring her back so that they could look at her ass, is what he said to him,” she said. “I sat down and talked to her at one point, asked her if she was uncomfortable. I tried everything I could to ensure she was never alone with him.”
Story by Rebecca Shabad and Liz Brown-Kaiser and Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON — Republican donor Harlan Crow on Monday wrote in a letter to the Senate Finance Committee that he will not provide a list of gifts he gave Justice Clarence Thomas, the subject of recent calls for the conservative judge to step down.

Crow conveyed that decision to Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Monday, which a representative for Crow provided to NBC News. Wyden spokesperson Ryan Carey also confirmed to NBC that the committee had received the letter.

"We have serious concerns about the scope of and authority for this inquiry. As you are aware, the Committee’s powers to investigate are not unlimited," the letter from Crow's lawyer, Michael D. Bopp, said.

The Senate Finance Committee, Bopp argued, lacks a legislative purpose in its request for the list of gifts, saying that the "Supreme Court has explicitly stated that Congress has no authority to engage in law enforcement investigations or to conduct investigations aimed at exposing citizens private affairs for the sake of exposure."
Story by Brad Reed

Former President Donald Trump has an unprecedented number of detractors who served in his own administration, ranging from former Attorney General Bill Barr to former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

Miles Taylor, another Trump critic who worked for the former President, wrote on Twitter Tuesday that one Trump cabinet official even went so far as to describe the former president as "evil."

"I’ll never forget an ex-Trump cabinet member telling me: 'He is truly the most evil person I have ever met,'" Taylor wrote. "We cannot make this mistake again."
Story by Gabriella Ferrigine

Attorneys for Georgia GOP Chairman David Shafer claimed that he should not face charges of the 2020 fake elector scheme because he was acting at the behest of lawyers working for former President Donald Trump.

Shafer's legal team, in a letter sent to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis last week, argued that their client was following "repeated and detailed advice of legal counsel" when he assembled a group of "contingent" Georgia electors and acted as one himself, thereby "eliminating any possibility of criminal intent or liability."

Willis and a team of prosecutors are embroiled in an ongoing investigation into efforts to flip the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Willis opened the investigation in early 2021 after the revelation of a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In the call, Trump suggested that the election official could "find" the 11,780 votes needed to overturn the state election. CNN reported that she plans to announce possible charges against the former president and his supporters sometime this summer.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday responded the $5 million judgment issued against him for his civil liability in the case by E. Jean Carroll. According to his all-caps Truth Social post, he still doesn't know who she is.

"I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHO THIS WOMAN IS. THIS VERDICT IS A DISGRACE - A CONTINUATION OF THE GREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME!" Trump said.
David Jackson | USA TODAY

A federal jury found former President Donald Trump liable Tuesday in a civil case for a 1996 sexual abuse and battery of E. Jean Carroll and said he should pay her $5 million in damages, a verdict that could further complicate the former president's election bid in 2024. The jury, which deliberated fewer than three hours, also found Trump liable for defamation.

Carroll, a professional writer, sued Trump for defamation, saying he lied about a 1996 sexual assault in a New York City department store and disparaged her character in doing so. Trump, who has denied Carroll's claims, said on his Truth Social website that the trial involved a "False Accusation" and he would "not speak until after the trial."
Jurors will begin deliberating E. Jean Carroll's civil case against the former president on Tuesday
Ryan Bort

Donald Trump wants you to know that in the civil rape lawsuit jurors will begin deliberating on Tuesday, he is the real victim.

“Waiting for a jury decision on a False Accusation where I, despite being a current political candidate and leading all others in both parties, am not allowed to speak or defend myself, even as hard nosed reporters scream questions about this case at me,” the former president wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “In the meantime, the other side has a book falsely accusing me of Rape, & is working with the press. I will therefore not speak until after the trial, but will appeal the Unconstitutional silencing of me, as a candidate, no matter the outcome!”

This is a lie. Trump has had every opportunity to defend himself in the trial. His legal team informed Judge Lewis Kaplan last week, however, that they would not be presenting any defense. A day later, Trump whined about the case to reporters overseas, teasing that he would “probably” attend the trial and that he was returning to the United States early in order to “confront” Carroll, whom he called a “disgrace.”
MSNBC

The civil rape trial against Donald Trump from E. Jean Carroll is going to the jury. Trump denies all allegations against him. MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent Ari Melber reports on the closing arguments from both Carroll’s lawyer and Trump’s lawyer.
Story by Ty Roush, Forbes Staff

Marucio Garcia, the 33-year-old gunman who killed at least eight people at a Dallas-area mall Saturday, was wearing a patch that read “RWDS”—short for “Ring Wing Death Squad”—a phrase dating back to the 1970s that investigators say has become popular among right-wing extremist groups in recent years.

Key Facts
The phrase originated during Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime in the 1970s and 1980s, when his right-wing government would assemble death squads to kill Pinochet’s liberal opponents, according to the New York Times.

Patches and stickers with “RWDS” emerged during the mid-2010s, according to the Anti-Defamation League, as the phrase was seen among extremists during a “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Following the Charlottesville rally—which resulted in the death of one woman after a white supremacist drove into a crowd of counterprotesters—a number of Facebook groups emerged with names referencing “Right Wing Death Squad,” though many were subsequently banned, according to the New York Times.
Story by Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles police department has made many mistakes during its tumultuous history, but few may compete with an administrative error its own union officials are calling “a blunder that is just epic”: the inadvertent exposure of dozens of officers working undercover to investigate national security breaches, drug cartels and other dangerous criminal enterprises.

The mistake arose when the city responded to a public records request by releasing the names, photographs and badge numbers of more than 9,000 officers – close to the entire force. The department assured the journalist who had fought and won a legal battle to obtain the records that “images of officers working in an undercover capacity … are not included”. But that turned out not to be true.

None of the officers – undercover or otherwise – were given advance warning or offered an opportunity to raise objections to their information becoming public. Many of them have reported threats to themselves and their families and have told the police union they are so fearful for their safety they are considering quitting the force.

BUENA VENTURA LAKES, Fla. (AP) — A former city commissioner in central Florida accused of being a “ghost candidate" in a 2022 county commission race has been arrested on several campaign finance charges.

Former Kissimmee Commissioner Carlos Irizarry Sr., 67, of Buena Ventura Lakes, was arrested Friday on eight counts of willful certification of false or incomplete campaign treasure’s reports and six counts of deliberate failure to report campaign expenditures as required, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a news release.

State investigators said they began looking into Irizarry last year following allegations that he was paid to enter the Osceola County Commission District 4 race to affect its outcome. Kissimmee and Osceola County are located immediately south of Orlando.
Story by Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian

The New York state judge presiding over the criminal hush money case against Donald Trump issued an order Monday restricting the former president from posting about some evidence in the case on social media.

In his order, Judge Juan Merchan largely sided with the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg by limiting what Trump can publicly disclose about new evidence from the prosecution before the case goes to trial.

Merchan's order said that anyone with access to the evidence being turned over to Trump's team from state prosecutors “shall not copy, disseminate or disclose” the material to third parties, including social media platforms, “without prior approval from the court."

It also singles out Trump, saying he is allowed to review sensitive "Limited Dissemination Materials" from prosecutors only in the presence of his lawyers, and "shall not be permitted to copy, photograph, transcribe, or otherwise independently possess the Limited Dissemination Materials."
Story by George Petras and Ramon Padilla, USA TODAY

The mass shooting in Allen, Texas, in which eight people died and seven were injured Saturday is the 22nd mass killing in the U.S. this year. That means 2023 could be one of the deadliest years in fatal shootings in recent history, in both number of victims and attacks.

The database maintained by USA TODAY, The Associated Press, and Northeastern University tracks all mass killings in the U.S. since 2006. It includes every mass killing from all weapons in which four or more people, excluding the offender, were killed within a 24-hour time frame.

The eight deaths at the Allen outdoor mall were the second-highest of such incidents in 2023. Eleven people were killed in a shooting in a ballroom dance studio in Monterey Park, California, on Jan. 21.
Story by Matthew Chapman

David Shafer, the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, now claims that his plot to stand as a fake elector should not be criminally charged because he was acting on the advice of former President Donald Trump's legal team, reported CNN on Monday.

"Specifically, Shafer’s attorneys say their client was relying on 'repeated and detailed advice of legal counsel' when he organized a group of 'contingent' electors from Georgia and served as one himself, thus 'eliminating any possibility of criminal intent or liability,' according to a copy of the May 5 letter," reported Zachary Cohen and Sara Murray. "The letter, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, comes as Willis and her team of prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are planning to make an announcement on possible charges against Trump or his allies later this summer."

This comes after reporting last week that eight of the 16 fake electors have accepted immunity deals from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Story by Philip Bump

Police have identified the man who shot and killed at least eight people at an outlet mall in Allen, Tex., over the weekend as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia. Garcia was killed at the scene, meaning that efforts to determine the motivation for his actions are slower to emerge. On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that, among other possible motivations, authorities were examining whether Garcia was motivated by white-supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs. Social media posts linked to Garcia reinforce this idea.

Sign up for How To Read This Chart, a weekly data newsletter from Philip Bump
For many people, this idea triggered an immediate negative reaction: How could someone with the name “Mauricio Garcia” — a Hispanic name — be a white supremacist? In some quarters, that The Post was offering such a possibility was somehow demonstrative of this newspaper’s purported interest in elevating unsupported racial claims.

In reality, the idea that someone named Garcia might be sympathetic to white-supremacist views is unexpected but not inexplicable. The Post has previously explored the ways in which non-White Americans at times ally with extremists who would seem to be their natural enemies. But the point can be made succinctly by considering two things: “White” is not as hard and fast a racial category as many assume, and “white supremacy” is about power as much as it is about race.
Story by Fred Kaplan

Exactly five years ago, Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal, in one of the dumbest moves of his presidency—the dumbest when it comes to foreign policy. This is not a partisan statement. It’s also true that President Joe Biden’s failure to reverse Trump’s misstep ranks as the most puzzling—and may prove to be most catastrophic—decision in his term of office so far.

But Trump’s move on May 8, 2018 set the stage for whatever disasters may come of it. By the time he pulled the plug, Iran was well on its way to dismantling its nuclear program. International inspectors, who were granted full access to suspect sites, said in all of their routine reports that Iran was in full compliance with the deal’s terms. Now the inspectors are gone, and Iran is closer to building an atom bomb than it ever has been.

Why did Trump abrogate the deal? First, he didn’t much like arms-control agreements of any sort. Second, he particularly distrusted Iran, a view bolstered by his friendship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (ignoring the fact that most Israeli military and intelligence officers supported the deal). Finally, and perhaps most significant: to Trump’s mind, nothing Obama ever did could be touted as a success, so the Iran deal—a resounding success by all objective measures—had to be pummeled as (in Trump’s oft-repeated words) “the worst deal ever.”
Story by Brad Reed

Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes is facing a prison sentence of up to 25 years for his role in inciting the violent attack on the United States Capitol building, but he thinks he deserves leniency for his years of running an "all-volunteer" organization.

As flagged by NBC News' Ryan Reilly, Rhodes argued in a court filing that a prison sentence of time served would be adequate for his conviction of seditious conspiracy last year.

The filing starts off by noting Rhodes' past military service where he was honorably discharged from the United States Army, as well as his post-military academic achievements.

However, the filing then went into less convention territory by touting Rhodes' founding of a militia that is best known for its plot to violently storm the Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
Story by Alejandro Serrano and Eleanor Klibanoff

In a surprise move days after the Allen mall shooting and hours before a key legislative deadline, a Texas House committee on Monday advanced a bill that would raise the age to purchase certain semi-automatic rifles.

The bill faces an uphill climb to becoming state law, but the vote marked a milestone for the proposal that relatives of Uvalde shooting victims have been pushing for months.

Several relatives of children who were killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting last year sobbed when the committee voted 8-5 to send it to the House floor. Republican state Reps. Sam Harless and Justin Holland joined with Democrats on the House Community Safety Select Committee to advance the bill.

Less than two hours earlier, some of the relatives of Uvalde victims had urged the committee chair, Rep. Ryan Guillen. R-Rio Grande, to give House BIll 2744 a vote before a key deadline Monday.
Story by asheffey@businessinsider.com (Ayelet Sheffey)

On Monday, the department announced that 615,000 borrowers in public service have received $42 billion in student-loan forgiveness since October 2021. That's a result of temporary reforms the department announced for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after ten years of qualifying payments.

As the department wrote in its press release, only about 7,000 borrowers had been approved for the program prior to its reforms. That's why it implemented a limited-time waiver that allowed past payments to count toward borrowers' forgiveness progress, including those that were previously deemed ineligible for relief. The waiver expired on October 31, 2022, and the department is continuing to process the forms that were submitted prior to that deadline.
Story by By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge said Monday he will order that the state elections commission reconsider a complaint filed against fake Republican electors who attempted in 2020 to cast the state's electoral ballots for former President Donald Trump.

But this time, Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington said, the commission must consider the complaint without the participation of one of its six commissioners who was also one of the fake electors.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, Republican commissioner Robert Spindell and those who brought the lawsuit ultimately all agreed that the complaint should be heard again without Spindell's participation.

Given that agreement, Remington said during oral arguments on Monday that he would write a written order as soon as next week to vacate the commission's unanimous rejection in March 2022 of the complaint against the fake electors and to require it to consider it again without Spindell.
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