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By Andrew Goudsward

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. Justice Department officials during President Donald Trump's administration took part in a decision to reduce prosecutors’ recommended prison sentence for Trump adviser Roger Stone in 2020, a watchdog report published on Wednesday found.

The report by the department's internal reviewer found that the top federal prosecutor in Washington D.C. at the time, Timothy Shea, showed “ineffectual leadership” in his handling of the case, but did not conclude that officials committed misconduct or were influenced by politics.

The Justice Department’s unusual decision to ease its initial sentencing recommendation for Stone, a longtime associate of Trump, became a political flashpoint.
Four prosecutors assigned to the case withdrew and one later told a congressional committee that his office received pressure from senior department officials who feared Trump.

Stone was convicted of obstruction, witness tampering and lying to Congress during its investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison, but Trump later pardoned him.
By Barbara Sprunt, Claudia Grisales

U.S. Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle resigned from her job, according to a statement released by the White House.

President Biden thanked Cheatle for her service, saying "she has selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation throughout her career in the United States Secret Service."

Biden cited the work of an independent review commission that was launched this weekend to investigate theassassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., on July 13.

"The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions," the statement reads. "We all know what happened that day can never happen again. As we move forward, I wish Kim all the best, and I will plan to appoint a new Director soon."

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas also thanked Cheatle for her service.
By Melissa Quinn

Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris secured the support of at least 27 state delegations by Monday evening — surpassing the majority of Democratic delegates she will need to win the Democratic presidential nomination. If those endorsements hold, delegations will officially nominate Harris for president during a virtual roll call early next month, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Her presidential campaign raked in more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, the campaign said early Tuesday. Harris launched her campaign after President Biden ended his bid for reelection and endorsed her mid-day Sunday.

The eye-popping haul includes money raised across Harris' campaign, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees, and underscores the vice president's enormous financial advantage over any potential challengers for the Democratic nomination.

The campaign said earlier it took in $81 million in the 24 hours after Mr. Biden dropped out. It was the largest amount of money raised in a 24-hour span in presidential history, according to Team Harris.
From CNN's David Wright

The Biden-Harris campaign has formally amended filings with the Federal Election Commission to rename its principal committee, hours after President Joe Biden made his announcement that he would withdraw from the race.

On Sunday, the campaign committee filed paperwork with the FEC, which noted that the “committee name is different than previously reported,” re-designating the committee as “Harris for President.”

The committee also filed a letter with the commission stating: “Vice President Harris is now a candidate for United States President in the 2024 election and will henceforth be conducting campaign activities only in pursuit of that office.”

Remember: Control of the campaign war chest, however — totaling $95.9 million at the end of June — depends on whether Harris remains on the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.

According to a statement from the Campaign Legal Center, those funds would be directly available to the Democrats’ presidential ticket for use in the general election only if Harris is the party’s nominee or vice presidential nominee.
The Roberts Court has violated its own logic with the ruling on executive immunity. Donald Trump is the beneficiary.
By Sarah Chayes

Democrats in Congress have been developing proposals for the reform of the Supreme Court for years—and this week, we learned that President Joe Biden is warming to the idea. Although a series of controversial cases recently decided by the Court has given new impetus to this movement, the need for an overhaul lies less in the rulings’ seeming rightward swing and more in the pretexts the justices have used to reach them. The Court’s reasoning is becoming more and more incoherent as the conservative majority tosses aside even its own recent jurisprudence in order to serve ideological dogma.

This month’s Supreme Court decision granting presidents at least presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for much of what they do in office is a case in point.
By MJ Lee, CNN

Washington CNN — The Democratic National Committee is moving ahead with its controversial plan to virtually nominate President Joe Biden ahead of the Democratic convention in Chicago next month – ignoring the growing calls from some of the party’s elected officials to ditch that strategy given the serious ongoing debate about whether the president should continue to seek a second term.

According to an email sent to members of the convention rules committee within that was obtained by CNN, the committee will proceed with a previously scheduled meeting on Friday to deliberate – and begin to set in motion – the steps and timeline for virtually nominating Biden.

The letter notably states that “no virtual voting will begin before August 1” – a new decision that appears aimed at addressing the fury inside the party that was prompted by reporting from CNN and other outlets that some Biden allies have been quietly pushing to fast-track the virtual roll call.
Sara Dorn Forbes Staff

President Joe Biden is facing a new onslaught of doubts about his electability from within his own party after a brief reprieve following Saturday’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., became the 20th federal Democratic lawmaker—and the most prominent one—to call for Biden to step aside in the race on Wednesday, lifting the temporary freeze on public calls for Biden’s withdrawal in the aftermath of the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend.

Biden was also hit with a damning new poll Wednesday from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that found 65% of Democrats want him to drop out of the race to allow the party to select a different candidate, including nearly half of Black Democrats, 64% of Hispanic Democrats and 75% of Democrats under the age of 45.
By Ana Faguy, BBC News, Washington

As American voters start to familiarise themselves with Donald Trump's newly announced vice-presidential candidate Ohio Senator JD Vance it is nearly impossible to avoid his memoir.

Written in 2016, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, tells the story of Mr Vance's upbringing in Middletown, Ohio, to parents who were from the Appalachians in eastern Kentucky.

It explored his first-hand experience of the poverty and addiction of poor, white communities and became a bestseller just as Trump rose to power.

Eight years later, the book has become a new political lightning rod in the 2024 presidential race. Critics say it shows a lack of understanding. Others say it captures the life perfectly.
By Reuters

WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) - The United States received intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, CNN said on Tuesday, and a U.S. official said the Secret Service shared details of an increased threat with the Trump campaign.

The White House declined to comment, but said there were no indications that the suspected shooter in Saturday's attempted assassination of Trump had any foreign or domestic accomplices.

Iran said the accusations against it were "unsubstantiated and malicious." U.S. officials have for years worried that Tehran would retaliate against Trump for his ordering of the January 2020 killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.

“As we have said many times, we have been tracking Iranian threats against former Trump administration officials for years, dating back to the last administration," said Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
Story by Katherine Fung

Judge Aileen Cannon is facing renewed calls for her removal after she dismissed the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump in Florida.

Legal commentators are calling for Cannon to be removed from her position as a federal judge after she delivered a stunning blow to Special Counsel Jack Smith on Monday, finding that his appointment was improper because it was not based on a specific federal statute and because he was not named to the position by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann told MSNBC that even though the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court could remedy Cannon's dismissal, her ruling also presented "an opportunity for the 11th Circuit to remove Judge Cannon if they think that this is a particularly frivolous ground."

"Raise your hand if you agree Aileen Cannon should be EXPELLED from the bench and Jack Smith should immediately appeal to the 11th Circuit!!" attorney Joe Gallina said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically,” Trump told RFK Jr. on the phone
By NANDIKA CHATTERJEE

A video leaked on X shows a phone conversation between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump in which the GOP nominee expressed his shared concerns regarding vaccines.

RFK Jr.’s son posted and later deleted the video in which Trump appears to repeat his old claims that childhood vaccines can be dangerous to babies, a belief that, in addition to being false, falls directly in line with RFK Jr.’s conspiracy theory that such vaccines can lead to autism, Axios reported.

Trump told Kennedy that he would “love” for him to “do something" with his campaign because “it would be so good for you and so big for you."

"Something's wrong with that whole system. And it's the doctors, you find," Trump told Kennedy regarding the vaccines.
Menendez is the first senator to be convicted of acting as a foreign agent.
By Aaron Katersky and Meredith Deliso

Sen. Bob Menendez was found guilty on all counts Tuesday in his federal corruption trial.

Federal prosecutors in New York alleged the New Jersey Democrat accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars, mortgage payments and more in exchange for the senator's political clout. Three New Jersey businessmen who were also charged, along with the governments of Egypt and Qatar, were the alleged recipients. Two of those co-defendants, Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, were also convicted of all counts they faced.

The jury deliberated for about 13 hours over three days.

Menendez pleaded not guilty to 16 federal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction.
Some Republican judges are protecting Trump from the crimes he commits against America.
Boxes of classified documents were found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
By Katherine Faulders

The classified documents case against former President Donald Trump has been dismissed by Judge Aileen Cannon.

The judge ruled that special counsel Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional.

"The Superseding Indictment is DISMISSED because Special Counsel Smith's appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution," she wrote.
By  MICHAEL BIESECKER, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, JIM MUSTIAN and MICHAEL BALSAMO

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 20-year-old man who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump first came to law enforcement’s attention at Saturday’s rally when spectators noticed him acting strangely outside the campaign event. The tip sparked a frantic search but officers were unable to find him before he managed to get on a roof, where he opened fire.

In the wake of the shooting that killed one spectator, investigators were hunting for any clues about what may have drove Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, to carry out the shocking attack. The FBI said they were investigating it as a potential act of domestic terrorism, but the absence of a clear ideological motive by the man shot dead by the Secret Service led conspiracy theories to flourish.

“I urge everyone — everyone, please, don’t make assumptions about his motives or his affiliations,” President Joe Biden said in remarks Sunday from the White House. “Let the FBI do their job, and their partner agencies do their job. I’ve instructed that this investigation be thorough and swift.”

The FBI said it believes Crooks, who had bomb-making materials in the car he drove to the rally, acted alone. Investigators have found no threatening comments on social media accounts or ideological positions that could help explain what led him to target Trump before the Secret Service rushed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee off the stage, his face smeared with blood.
Originalism is BS used by the right to hijack the Constitution.

Opinion by Paul Rosenberg

In her new book, “The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back,” Madiba K. Dennie critiques the legal doctrine known as "originalism," calling it a movement born out of opposition to the school desegregation mandated by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. Her argument is broadly compatible with those made by Eric Segall in "Originalism as Faith" (Salon story here) and Erwin Chemerinsky in "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism" (interview here). But in characterizing originalism as a “trap” and situating it historically, Dennie's analysis cuts deeper into the harm caused by originalist doctrine, without sacrificing nuance, rigor or scope.

Beyond that, to call originalism a “trap” is to imply something about freedom, and about what the U.S. Constitution actually promises. Dennie, deputy editor at the legal commentary outlet Balls and Strikes and a former counsel at the Brennan Center, advances an alternative, "inclusive" interpretation of the Constitution, rooted in the Reconstruction amendments and the Brown decision's forward-looking approach, also found in such famous cases as Loving v. Virginia, Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges — all of which have been opposed by so-called originalists.
The president was taken to the hospital and is "fine," a spokesperson said.
ByIvan Pereira

Donald Trump was rushed off stage during an election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday after a possible assassination attempt on the former president.

Secret Service agents swarmed Trump and ducked behind the podium. Blood could be seen on his right ear of Trump as agents surrounded him and led him off the stage to a waiting vehicle to whisk him away.

Trump is "fine," a spokesperson said. The alleged shooter is dead, as well as at least one bystander, according to Butler County District Attorney Richard A. Goldinger.
CBS News

President Biden targeted the expansive far-right policy agenda known as Project 2025 in a rousing campaign stop in Detroit on Friday night as he sought to quell calls that he withdraw from the presidential election.

The president lambasted the multi-pronged initiative that was crafted by conservative think tanks, claiming it is "run and paid by Trump people, his top policy people."

"You heard about it? It's a blueprint for a second Trump term that every American should read and understand," Mr. Biden told more than 2,000 people at Renaissance High School.

Former President Donald Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and his campaign have worked to distance themselves from Project 2025. Trump has gone as far as to call some of the proposals "abysmal."

"I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it," he wrote on social media on Thursday. "The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said."
Carl Gibson

One of the most ominous pieces of former President Donald Trump's agenda in a potential second term is a massive playbook dubbed "Project 2025." And one leading scholar of far-right regimes around the world says Trump's recent attempts to distance himself from it is a telltale sign of his authoritarian cult-of-personality leadership style.

Last week, Kevin Roberts — president of the far-right Heritage Foundation, which is the key organization behind Project 2025 — hinted at political violence against anyone who may dissent against a second Trump administration. During a radio interview, Roberts proclaimed that the United States was in the midst of a "second American Revolution" that he promised would be "bloodless, if the left allows it to be."

Later, on his Truth Social platform, Trump posted that he had "nothing to do with" Project 2025 and had "no idea who is behind it," even though he "wish[ed] them luck."

"I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," Trump wrote, though he did not elaborate on which parts of Project 2025 he found "ridiculous and abysmal."
Carl Gibson

A leading expert on far-right, oppressive governments around the world is warning that former President Donald Trump would usher in fascism in the United States if he wins a second term this fall.

In a detailed interview with Guardian reporter Alice Herman, scholar and author Ruth Ben-Ghiat — a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University whose work focuses on fascism — said November's election represents a "democratic emergency" with Trump as the GOP's presumptive nominee. She said his openly stated plans to be a "dictator" on "day one" combined with the Supreme Court's recent ruling guaranteeing presidents absolute criminal immunity for "official acts" is a recipe for authoritarianism.

"At its most basic, authoritarianism is when the executive branch of government domesticates or overwhelms or politicizes the judiciary, critiques and tries to silence the press, and when the leader has a party that he’s made into his personal tool, and in general, seeks to remove or neutralize any threats to his power," Ben-Ghiat said. "Authoritarianism is about replacing the rule of law with rule by the lawless."
Thom Hartmann

They’re already explicitly gunning for journalists like me who write for Raw Story (which, along with The New Republic, Daily Kos, Alternet, Common Dreams and others, regularly publish my articles), CNN, The Washington Post, and Reuters, according to an astonishing new investigative report published yesterday at Raw Story.

Trump’s self-described “Secretary of Retribution,” Ivan Raiklin, already reportedly has a hit list of 350 “deep state” individuals he says they intend to try to assassinate by tricking police into attacking their homes with SWAT teams.

Raiklin posted a video to X, which has now gotten more than 10 million views, saying:
Story by Sofia Sutter

The first person identified from a century-old mass grave of victims in the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 is a Black World War I veteran, Tulsa’s mayor announced Friday.

C.L. Daniel served in the U.S. Army and was likely no older than 25 when he died during the deadly riot, according to forensic investigators who identified him this week.

About 300 people were killed by a racist mob and more than 1,000 Black-owned homes and businesses were destroyed on May 31 and June 1, 1921.

The city of Tulsa launched an investigation into 120 unmarked graves in 2021, and researchers began combing through the gravesites to identify people who had been buried during the riot in Tulsa’s prosperous Greenwood District, known as “Black Wall Street.”
Daniel was born in Newman, Georgia, to Thomas Daniel and Amanda Merriweather Daniel. His mother was a widow by 1910 and had to provide for her seven sons.

Daniel was stationed at Camp Gordon in Chamblee, Georgia, during the war and was honorably discharged after nine months and 16 days. He spent 19 days in a base hospital, possibly for a leg injury, according to Phoebe Stubblefield, an anthropologist at the University of Florida involved in Daniels’ identification.
By Steve Contorno, CNN

CNN — Donald Trump has lately made clear he wants little to do with Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that has attracted considerable blowback in his race for the White House.

“I have no idea who is behind it,” the former president recently claimed on social media.

Many people Trump knows quite well are behind it.

Six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation. Four individuals Trump nominated as ambassadors were also involved, along with several enforcers of his controversial immigration crackdown. And about 20 pages are credited to his first deputy chief of staff.

In fact, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to “Mandate for Leadership,” the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.

Dozens more who staffed Trump’s government hold positions with conservative groups advising Project 2025, including his former chief of staff Mark Meadows and longtime adviser Stephen Miller. These groups also include several lawyers deeply involved in Trump’s attempts to remain in power, such as his impeachment attorney Jay Sekulow and two of the legal architects of his failed bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Cleta Mitchell and John Eastman.

To quantify the scope of the involvement from Trump’s orbit, CNN reviewed online biographies, LinkedIn profiles and news clippings for more than 1,000 people listed on published directories for the 110 organizations on Project 2025’s advisory board, as well as the 200-plus names credited with working on “Mandate for Leadership.”
Alayna Treene Kate Sullivan
By Alayna Treene, Steve Contorno and Kate Sullivan, CNN

CNN — Former President Donald Trump on Friday sought to distance himself from a closely aligned conservative group’s plans to radically reshape the federal government and American life should the former president win a second term.

In a post to his social media site, Trump claimed, “I know nothing about Project 2025,” the name given to a playbook crafted by the Heritage Foundation to fill the executive branch with thousands of Trump loyalists and reorient its many agencies’ missions around conservative ideals.

“I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump continued on Truth Social. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

The post comes days after the president of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, drew widespread backlash from Democrats for saying in an interview that the country was “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Project 2025 — widely viewed by conservatives as a blueprint for Trump’s second term transition — is run by several former Trump administration officials and includes many policy priorities that are aligned with those of the former president, especially as they relate to cracking down on immigration and purging the federal bureaucracy by making it easier to dismiss civil servants and career officials.
Story by Amanda Marcotte

Steve Bannon has been in prison just over a week, and already one can see the strain on MAGA world, lost without their boss man to tell them what to think. Bannon's absence from the scene may be the single best explanation for why some of the loudest trolls on the right are now griping at Donald Trump for pretending he isn't tightly entwined with the notorious Project 2025. Talia Jane at the New Republic reports that Infowars host Alex Jones is leading the charge to castigate Trump, not for his 34 felony convictions, but for temporarily pretending to be moderate in order to win the presidential election.

“Trump gets told by his advisers and people who really just don’t want competition in his new White House," Jones complained on Monday's show. "Oh God, these are radicals, sir. You’ve got to come out and distance yourself."

Jones and his audience appear to understand that Trump was flat-out lying when he posted on Friday, "I know nothing about Project 2025." It's not just that a sea of reporters immediately established the intricate web of interactions between Trump and his former and likely future staffers who are running Project 2025, or that the organizers of Project 2025 have been upfront that theirs is the playbook for how a second Trump term will look. It's also that Trump lies about everything, to the point where his claim he knows "nothing" about Project 2025 may as well have been an admission that it is, as it seems to be, the true Republican Party platform.
Story by Ed Pilkington

If you want to know where Clarence Thomas wants to lead the ultraconservative majority supreme court, look for the words “in an appropriate case” in his concurring opinions.

In June 2016 the US supreme court delivered a ruling on a relatively obscure aspect of patent law. It attracted little press attention, and even less notice was given to a short concurring opinion from Thomas.

Just two paragraphs long, Thomas’s opinion in Cuozzo Speed Techs v Lee set out his opposition to the Chevron doctrine, a legal precedent tangentially related to the case that had stood as settled law for decades. Chevron was a critical prop for federal agencies as they worked to protect the American people from pollution, workplace injuries and other public harms.

Thomas didn’t like the way Chevron granted federal experts leeway to reasonably interpret ambiguous laws – he claimed that was a legal “fiction” – and so in his concurring opinion he invited any interested party to challenge the precedent. “In an appropriate case,” he said, “this court should reconsider that fiction of Chevron and its progeny.”
Story by Ewan Palmer

Donald Trump's claims he has "nothing" to do with the conservative Project 2025 received further scrutiny after the think tank behind the policy plan was revealed to be hosting two events at the Republican National Convention.

The Heritage Foundation, which wrote the 900-page guideline on how the next conservative administration could overhaul the government and have federal workers replaced with Republican loyalists, has been signed on as a sponsor at the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, later this month, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Heritage Foundation is set to hold a day-long "policy fest" in Milwaukee on July 15, the first day of the convention where Trump will be confirmed as the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee. On July 17, The Heritage Foundation is listed as hosting a social event at Uncle Buck's, per the RNC's calendar. Newsweek has contacted Heritage Foundation for comment via email.
They talk about Biden but what about Trump?

Try to make any sense of what Donald Trump said.

Donald Trump gave a particularly incoherent speech during a recent rally, as he rattled through a lengthy list of odd grievances that didn’t quite ring true, devoid of some very necessary segues.

In front of a crowd of about 700 people (although Trump claimed it was 45,000) in Doral, Florida, on Tuesday, the former president hit all of the normal beats of his campaign trail speeches, and then some.

Trump attacked President Joe Biden for his weak performance in the presidential debate last month, and for many of his policies. He dropped Kamala Harris’s name more than a few times, arguing that it doesn’t matter who the Democrats’ candidate is, he will beat anyone in a “thundering landslide.”
Story by Aila Slisco

Articles of impeachment have been filed against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the U.S. House just one day after two senators pushed for a federal criminal investigation of Thomas, alleging ethics violations.

Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced on Wednesday that she had introduced articles of impeachment for Thomas and fellow conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, accusing both of failing to disclose gifts and reimbursements and refusing to recuse themselves in cases in which they had conflicts of interest.

"Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito's pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement.

"Justice Thomas and Alito's repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law," she added. "Congress has a legal, moral, and democratic obligation to impeach."

MAGA leaders are openly plotting Donald Trump’s 2024 “revenge administration.” MSNBC’s Ari Melber reports on vows, pledges, and confessions about extreme agendas from the right.
Story by Nicholas Liu

Threats of political revenge are commonplace among Donald Trump and his supporters. Now a former official in the Trump administration is threatening to retaliate against those who challenged Trump's 2020 election claims, the Associated Press reported.

”We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said in a recent interview with Steve Bannon, referring to the 2020 presidential election. “We’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”

Patel's zeal for Trump landed him in the administration's National Security Council, and he served briefly as chief of staff to acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller. In his final months in office, Trump considered installing Patel as the deputy director at either the FBI or CIA to strengthen his control of the intelligence committee, but was forced to scotch the plan after CIA Director Gina Aspel and Attorney General Bill Barr threatened to resign.

“Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency,” Barr wrote in his memoir.
By Pastor Bethany Nass Cseh

Dear Christian friends,

While I am deeply grateful for your friendship and our sibling-hood, I feel I must warn you about what I see in our country regarding Christian Nationalism. There is a sinister influence taking place in our churches and this country and it’s affected us Christians the most. Like black mold slowly growing in the forgotten corner of your damp rental, we didn’t notice until it seemed too late. We felt it — the wheeze, the itchy skin, the headache, the red eyes and stuffy nose and lethargy. We chalked it up to the crud or allergies, all the while the mold spread behind bed frames, dressers and end tables. It sunk into the walls, infecting the drywall. But one day after your landlord came to visit, the mold disappeared. Behind a fresh coat of paint, it seemed locked away and you could get back to life. Some of your symptoms even dissipated. Every month or so your landlord showed back up and threw another coat on your walls but no matter how much paint covered the mold, it was still there growing stronger.

The quest for power and control has long dominated our Churches, blaspheming the name of Jesus. This sinister force has seduced many pastors and Church leaders for generations, whispering convincing words like, “Take and eat. You’ve earned it. You deserve it. No one will know. You’re in charge. You’re God’s best.” The Church is the vulnerable gathered, the wounded held, the forgotten included, the poor, lonely, hungry, desperate brought in to belong and be reminded they are loved. But when pastors and leaders are seduced by power and control, the Church becomes a den of robbers and a safe-house for thieves, stealing Jesus from the most vulnerable. And no matter how many coats of paint are used to hide and cover up this insidious evil, it’s been leaking out and collaborating with other forms of power and control.
The prevailing wisdom that foreign leaders should stay neutral in U.S. politics could be out of date in an increasingly polarized setting.

By Nahal Toosi

As the leaders of NATO countries arrive in Washington this week, one may be smirking more than usual.

Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán, an enfant terrible of the alliance. has bucked long-standing diplomatic tradition by taking sides in the U.S. presidential race. He’s openly backing Republican Donald Trump and dramatically expanding his ties to the U.S. right.

American conservatives, meanwhile, are flocking to Hungary for conferences. Some are saying Orbán’s increasingly dictatorial rule — he calls it “illiberal democracy” — should be a model for America.

Given incumbent President Joe Biden’s recent debate debacle, Orbán is likely pleased with his bet. But is it really smart for him, or any foreign leader, to take the risk of favoring one political party when dealing with the United States?

Sure. Because — win or lose — the party you pick will likely try to protect you.
Opinion by The Sacramento Bee letter writers

Egregious betrayal
The Supreme Court has dealt a death blow to American democracy. Their ruling that shields presidents from prosecution is nothing short of a coronation. Our Founding Fathers would be outraged at this 6-3 coup that replaces our Republic with a monarchy. Our country was founded to escape an empire. Now, the court has created one.

“No one is above the law” is not etched in stone, but it’s the bedrock of our nation. This ruling isn’t just an unconscionable overstep, it’s an obvious abdication of duty.

Existential threat
The Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity was a coup by judicial fiat. It upended the foundation of our democracy: that no one is above the law. A corrupt president can now commit crimes with impunity, and use the presidential pardon power to enable his cronies to do the same.

Democrats (and Republican believers in democracy, if any are left in Congress) must enact term limits, reform and, yes, court expansion.

This court has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that without such action, all of our rights are on the chopping block.
A report from Republican Representative Jim Jordan has revealed transcripts of a former acting CIA Director saying he was "deeply concerned" by former President Donald Trump.
Opinion by Akhil Reed Amar

Forget Donald Trump. Forget Joe Biden. Think instead about the Constitution. What does this document, the supreme law of our land, actually say about ​​lawsuits against ex-presidents?

Nothing remotely resembling what Chief Justice John Roberts and five associate ​justices declared​ in yesterday’s disappointing Trump v. United States decision​. The Court’s curious and convoluted majority opinion turns the Constitution’s text and structure inside out and upside down, saying things that are flatly contradicted by the document’s unambiguous letter and obvious spirit.​

Imagine a simple hypothetical designed to highlight the key constitutional clauses that should have been the Court’s starting point: In the year 2050, when Trump and Biden are presumably long gone, David Dealer commits serious drug crimes and then bribes President Jane Jones to pardon him.

Is Jones acting as president, in her official capacity, when she pardons Dealer? Of course. She is pardoning qua president. No one else can issue such a pardon. The Constitution expressly vests this power in the president: “The President … shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States.”
Up to 25 House representatives could call for president to step aside. Plus, US expels more than 100 Chinese migrants
Mattha Busby

Good morning.

Joe Biden is to meet with Democratic governors today in an attempt to stave off growing discontent over his candidacy, with a congressional Democrat calling for him to withdraw from the presidential race.

Officials said Biden would seek to reassure the governors, and Capitol Hill leaders, that he is competent following his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump last week, amid concerns it has had a corrosive effect on his standing and is unlikely to turn around stagnant poll ratings in some battleground states.

Last night, the president provided a fresh justification for his weak performance at a Virginia campaign event. “I wasn’t very smart. I decided to travel around the world a couple times, going through around 100 time zones ... before ... the debate,” he said. “Didn’t listen to my staff and came back and nearly fell asleep on stage. That’s no excuse but it is an explanation.”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts gave what appeared to be a disturbing warning to the left.
Dan Ladden-Hall

The president of the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday declared that a new revolution is already underway in the U.S., appearing to warn Liberals that violence could erupt if they tried to stop it.

Kevin Roberts, whose uber-conservative think tank is behind the highly controversial “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Donald Trump presidency, made the comment during an appearance on Real America’s Voice. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said.

Heritage’s Project 2025 calls for a huge increase in presidential power as well as a transformation of the federal government, replacing existing staffers with an army of those loyal to Trump. Roberts has previously said he sees his organization’s role as “institutionalizing Trumpism.”
Story by Josephine Walker

Shortly after Supreme Court Justice John Roberts ruled in favor of giving Donald Trump immunity for crimes committed in an official capacity, an old clip resurfaced online of him saying during his 2005 Senate confirmation that the president is “fully bound” by the law and the Constitution. At the time, Roberts affirmed that not even the president is “above the law under our system.” The clip appears to contradict Monday’s 6-3 Supreme Court decision that Trump has immunity from some criminal prosecution for his role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Social media users were quick to call out the justice’s hypocrisy, with some asking if the Supreme Court itself is bound by the law. Trump’s legal team quickly seized on Roberts’ conflicting ruling, scoring a win when Manhattan prosecutors agreed to delay his sentencing in his case related to paying hush-money to adult video star Stormy Daniels until a different court can determine what is and isn’t an action committed in an official capacity.
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