Washington (AFP) - A US judge dismissed Tuesday a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his alleged role in the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Washington federal judge John Bates accepted a US government's stance that Prince Mohammed, who was designated prime minister of Saudi Arabia in September, enjoys immunity in US courts as a foreign head of state.
Bates said the civil suit filed by Khashoggi's widow Hatice Cengiz and his activist group DAWN made a "strong" and "meritorious" argument that Prince Mohammed was behind the murder.
But he ruled that he had no power to reject the US government's official stance, submitted in a formal statement to the court on November 17, that the prince had immunity as a foreign leader.
Even if the prince was named prime minister just weeks ago, the US government's executive branch "remains responsible for foreign affairs, including with Saudi Arabia, and a contrary decision on bin Salman’s immunity by this Court would unduly interfere with those responsibilities," Bates said.
He said the "credible" allegations of the murder, the timing of prince's being named prime minister, and timing of the US government's submission, left him with "uneasiness."
But Bates said he had no other choice in the case.
Prince Mohammed has been the kingdom's de facto ruler for several years under his father King Salman.
One of the prince's most vocal critics, Khashoggi was a journalist and activist based in the United States when he traveled to Turkey with his fiancee to obtain documents for their marriage from the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
After he entered the consulate Khashoggi was seized and murdered by a team of agents of the Saudi regime, his body dismembered and disposed of.
Activists seeking to hold the crown prince accountable for the Khashoggi murder voiced dismay.
"Today is a dark day for victims of transnational repression," said Khalid Aljabri, a US-based doctor and son of a former Saudi intelligence official.
US President Joe Biden "has put dissidents at greater risk while confirming to dictators that his human rights policy is nothing but hot air."
A Saudi court in 2020 jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing.
Last year, Biden declassified an intelligence report that found Prince Mohammed had approved the operation against Khashoggi, an assertion Saudi authorities deny.
The murder deeply strained ties between Washington and Riyadh.
But driven by the needs of Middle East politics, particularly the threat from Iran, and Saudi Arabia's power over oil markets, Biden traveled to the country in July in a move seen as partially aiming to put the murder case behind.
Nevertheless, while there Biden made mention of it in his talks with the crown prince, calling the murder "outrageous."
The fine that the Trump Organization will be forced to pay in the New York case is not tax-deductible, quipped New York Times reporter Susanne Craig about the recent 17 guilty verdicts. She went on to explain that listening to the trial it became very clear that the idea that only CFO Allen Weisselberg got the fringe benefits were not believable.
This happens amid the possibility that the Manhattan District Attorney could levy a case he'd been criticized for putting aside, which could result in a $250 million fine. In this case, it is no more than $1.7 million.
Former FBI general counsel and NYU law school professor, Andrew Weissmann explained that the charges specifically focused on the company and not Donald Trump himself. The DA did not pursue Trump as an individual despite him directing the company.
"But there is a big 'however,' which is that, in the proof at trial, as the government said in its summation, included proof that Donald Trump knew of this wide-ranging, as you said, 15-year conspiracy, that was ongoing in the two Trump Organizations," he explained. "And, frankly, the idea that it would have been ongoing for 15 years in a small company and it was happening behind his back, when his own company and he were benefitting from it which seems, you know, laughable. I think that's part of the reason that the jury came back, you know, so quickly here."
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Former U.S. Attorney, Harry Litman explained that the conviction here will likely make the New York attorney general's case broader.
Attorney General Letitia James released a statement saying, "We can have no tolerance for individuals or organizations that violate our laws to line their pockets. I commend Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his team for their successful prosecution of the Trump Organization, and I was proud to assist in this important case. This verdict sends a clear message that no one, and no organization, is above our laws."
Her state charges against the Trump Organization include a charge for CFO Allen Weisselberg as well around insurance fraud.
Former federal prosecutor Shanlon Wu recalled that Bragg had previously dropped the case against Trump as an individual, leading to the resignation of top prosecutors Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz who believed that a case could be made.
"Sure the case is significant but Trump will spin it - as did his defense counsel - as being all his CFO Alan Weisselberg's fault who pled guilty to tax fraud and happily took his sweet-heart of 5 months jail followed by probation," said Wu.
Harry Litman agreed with Wu, noting that Bragg targeting Trump is likely on the horizon.
"Just on the evidence in the trial, not only was the Trump stuff part of it," said Litman. "But it was actually joined at closing by the defense. In other words, you can see this, and law authorities will see this as a likely determination by a jury of Trump's involvement in the overall scheme."
Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen also explained that he has spoken to the DA over a dozen times about exactly this.
The next question is whether the IRS will also take up the case. As Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation at NYU Daniel Shaviro explained, it will be difficult to see how the Trump Org. could be considered innocent of federal tax fraud while being guilty of state-level charges. James has made a referral to the IRS already.
"But arguably of greater interest would be federal and state tax fraud (and other) charges against Trump himself," Shaviro said.
Legal commentator Bradley Moss quipped, "You know who doesn’t have a corporation named after him that was convicted of tax fraud? Joe Biden."
Not only did Weisselberg score the benefits, but so did Trump's own children.
Watch video below or at this link.
Trump Org guilty www.youtube.com
A leading investigator into the John F. Kennedy assassination says that he has revealed new evidence linking Lee Harvey Oswald to the CIA.
Journalist and author Jefferson Morley claims the CIA holds documents showing Oswald was involved in an intelligence operation in the summer of 1963, about three months before Kennedy's murder, which could reshape the historical understanding of the assassination, reported The Daily Beast.
“We’re talking about smoking-gun proof of a CIA operation involving Lee Harvey Oswald,” Morley said.
The CIA has never admitted any involvement with Oswald, a former Marine and Fidel Castro supporter who briefly defected to the Soviet Union, and Morley claimed he was involved in a CIA operation intended to discredit American supporters of the Cuban communist leader.
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“This is an extraordinarily serious claim, and it has profound implications for the official story,” Morley said.
Morley's claims are based on files created by the late CIA agent George Joannides, who worked with anti-Castro exile groups, and he said 44 more documents are still being retained by the agency that could offer more evidence about the operation.
President Joe Biden set a deadline of next week for the CIA and FBI to release all their documents related to the Kennedy assassination, and Morley announced his findings at an event hosted by the nonprofit Mary Ferrell Foundation, which archives materials about the murder.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a former constitutional law professor, blasted U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) on Monday for trying to derail the Respect for Marriage Act with a "religious liberty" amendment that had already failed in the U.S. Senate, telling him and his colleagues who claim there is no emergency for same-sex marriage, "I'm not going to accept assurances from people who are working to overturn the right of gay people to get married in America."
Roy's amendment is identical to one offered by U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), which failed to pass. The far-right Texas GOP lawmaker appeared before the House Rules Committee to try to convince Democrats to allow debate on his amendment, which he admitted would likely fail. But should it pass, it would also likely kill the Respect for Marriage Act, forcing the legislation to be debated and voted on again in the Senate, where the clock is running out.
Democrats are trying to get the marriage protection bill complete and sent to President Joe Biden before Republicans officially take the House majority next month. It needs a final vote of approval from the House.
The Respect for Marriage Act is designed to protect same-sex marriages should the U.S. Supreme Court strike down rulings like Obergefell. 35 states still have laws on the books, including some constitutional amendments, banning same-sex marriage. In those states, should Obergefell be struck down, the bans would likely go into immediate effect.
House Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-MA), slammed Republicans for mocking Democrats' claim that LGBTQ Americans and same-sex couples are facing an emergency after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a call for cases that could strike down the rights to contraception, same-sex intimacy, and same-sex marriage.
Congressman Roy is a member of the Judiciary Committee, which has said: "If there’s anything we need, it’s more people like Justice Thomas."
"I'm sorry that my friends don't think this is an emergency," Chairman McGovern told the committee. "I have constituents that think it's an emergency, and quite frankly are frightened out of their mind by the behavior of the Supreme Court after the Dobbs decision," striking down Roe v. Wade.
"And so, look, I mean, this may not be a big deal to some of my friends on the other side of the aisle," McGovern added. "I assure you it is a big deal to many of us on this side of the aisle."
Rep. Roy told the committee that a lawmaker in Finland was prosecuted for opposing same-sex marriage, trying to use that claim as a pretext to fear monger about what he claims is a loss of religious liberty in America, all in an attempt to grant far-right Christians special rights to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
"Again, I reiterate, a Member of Parliament was prosecuted in Finland for a statement made in defense of traditional marriage made 20 years ago," Roy claimed. "Is this where we're headed? Is this the direction that this country is going? Because if it is, we're going to be shredding what little there is the fabric holding us together in a union in which we can agree to disagree."
Nearly two years ago Congressman Roy appeared to threaten that if Democrats won the January, 2021 Georgia runoff election, taking control of the Senate, which they did, Republicans would declare civil war.
Congressman Raskin blasted Roy, saying, "he posed the question of whether we're headed in the direction of Great Britain where he reports a case, which I'm unaware of, about someone being apparently prosecuted or punished for, I don't know, anti-gay speech or something. I don't know what he's referring to there. But I can guarantee you that there's nobody who's been prosecuted, for saying that they're opposed to the Obergefell decision, where they're opposed to same-sex marriage that's perfectly covered by the First Amendment."
"In fact, you can say you're opposed to our Constitution, which Donald Trump said yesterday, I think, and that's completely within his First Amendment rights. Of course, you can't incite a violent insurrection against the government as President of the United States, which is moving from speech to action, but he's made himself clear that he's opposed to the Constitution of the United States."
"I don't know whether there are any American cases, Mr. Roy, that you were referring to but if there is one, I would love to hear about it," Raskin offered.
"I would be far more reassured by our colleagues who keep telling us," Raskin continued, "not to worry about the Armageddon of the Supreme Court overturning the Obergefell decision and trying to strip away the right of gay people to get married in America, if they also told us they were opposed to that."
"But it seems like the people who keep telling us not to worry about Armageddon are the same people who are trying to make Armageddon erupt. So if any of them would say, 'Well, don't worry, Justice Thomas didn't really mean it,' or, 'he doesn't have the kind of influence with Alito and the other justices that we think he has, but in any event, I'm with you in standing up for Obergefell,' then I could feel a little bit better, but I'm not going to accept assurances from people who are working to overturn the right of gay people to get married in America."
You can watch the entire discussion below or at this link.
A top election official in Texas who was briefly a part of Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election resigned this Monday, The Guardian reports.
Despite being part of Trump's legal team, Secretary of State John Scott later said that he believes Joe Biden was the legitimate winner in 2020.
"Right away, Scott was tasked with trying to give Texas voters confidence in election results and the ability to cast a ballot after Republicans passed a sweeping new voting law just weeks before his appointment," The Guardian's report states. "But those efforts got off to a bumpy start during Texas’s first-in-the-nation primary as voters struggled to navigate new mail voting requirements, resulting in counties throwing out nearly 23,000 mail ballots."
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Scott’s office said there were no major issues during the November midterms. “By listening directly to the concerns of local election officials, voters, and grassroots activists from across the political spectrum, I was able to understand how to better educate Texas voters about their most sacred civic duty,” he said in his resignation letter.
Scott plans to return this his career as a lawyer. Scott previously claimed that his office regularly received threats from election deniers and was in contact with local election officials who were also receiving threats.
Read the full report at The Guardian.
During the 2022 midterms, countless pundits predicted that if Republicans flipped the U.S. House of Representatives, investigating President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, would be high on their list of priorities. Republicans did flip the House, where they will have a small majority of around six seats in 2023. And sure enough, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky (the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee) is promising in-depth investigations of the president’s son.
Veteran columnist/author and Never Trump conservative Mona Charen examines MAGA Republicans’ obsession with Hunter Biden in an article published by The Bulwark on December 6. The 65-year-old Charen, who worked in the Reagan White House during the 1980s and was a speechwriter for First Lady Nancy Reagan, is not a Hunter Biden fan. But she is much more critical of former President Donald Trump and his many allies in the GOP, and she finds MAGA Republicans’ obsession with Hunter Biden laughable in light of the many lines the former president has crossed.
“Hunter Biden seems to be corrupt,” Charen writes. “He traded on his father’s name. He has abused drugs and engaged in other unsavory practices. He’s a mess. But there is nothing relevant to public policy or civic virtue here. President Biden is hardly the first president to have troubled family members. But Joe Biden didn’t hire Hunter at the White House, and if there is any evidence of the president using official influence on Hunter’s behalf, we haven’t seen it. The Department of Justice under President Trump opened an investigation into Hunter Biden. President Biden has left it alone. It’s ongoing.”
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Trump’s Republican supporters, Charen argues, have “a deep psychological need for the Hunter Biden story,” which is a distraction from the many lines the former president has crossed.
“For seven years, the right has been explaining, excusing, avoiding, and eventually cheering the most morally depraved figure in American politics,” Charen emphasizes. “That takes a toll on the psyche. You can tell yourself that the other side is worse. Or you can tell yourself that the critics are unhinged, suffering from ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’ whereas you are a man of the world who knows nobody’s perfect. But then Trump will do what he always does — he’ll make a fool of you.”
Charen continues, “You denied that Trump purposely broke the law when he took highly classified documents to Mar-a-Lago and obstructed every effort to retrieve them. And then, what does Trump do? He admits taking them! You scoff at the critics who’ve compared Trump with Nazis. And then, what does he do? He has dinner with Nazis! And fails to condemn them even after the fact. You despised people who claimed Trump was a threat to the Constitution, and then, Trump explicitly calls for ‘terminating’ the Constitution in order to put himself back in the Oval Office.”
Republicans who are obsessed with Hunter Biden, Charen writes, have “provided succor and support” to a former president “who has encouraged political violence since his early rallies in 2015, has stoked hatred of minorities through lies, has used his office for personal gain in the most flagrant fashion, has surrounded himself with criminals and con men, has committed human rights violations against would-be immigrants by separating children from their parents, has pardoned war criminals, has cost the lives of tens of thousands of COVID patients by discounting the virus and peddling quack cures, has revived racism in public discourse, and attempted a violent coup d’état.”
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“They know it,” Charen writes. “It gnaws at them. That’s why the Hunter Biden story is their heart’s desire. But here’s something else they need to meditate on: Even if everything they’re alleging about Joe Biden were true — even if he did pull strings to help his son and even profited unjustly thereby — it still wouldn’t amount to a fraction of what Trump did.”
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Choosing between a pastor and a former football star, voters in Georgia will decide Tuesday on a seat in the US Senate in an election with high stakes for Joe Biden's presidency.
Democratic senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, who is backed by former president Donald Trump, will clash in a hotly contested runoff after neither of the African American candidates earned more than 50 percent in the November 8 midterm election.
With Warnock, 53, and Walker, 60, running neck and neck, Biden has urged Georgians to turn out and vote Democrat. "It really is critical," the president has said.
Even though Democrats have already retained control over the Senate in last month's vote, albeit just barely, this election is nonetheless decisive for Biden.
Republicans see the Georgia Senate seat as a chance to boost their ability to block Biden's policies, having won back control of the House of Representatives.
With 700 days to go before the 2024 presidential election, Republicans hope to stymie Biden's momentum, after his party performed much better than expected in November.
For Democrats, on the other hand, a Warnock victory would help consolidate their paper-thin Senate majority and allow them to wield greater influence in key congressional committees.
It would also significantly curb the power of centrist Democratic senator Joe Manchin, who has already blocked several major Biden initiatives in the first two years of his term.
Determined to win the race, Democrats have called on their top guns: former president Barack Obama, the most charismatic leader in the Democratic Party, campaigned in Atlanta last week.
And in yet another sign of how high the stakes are, some 400 million dollars have already been spent in this campaign, making the Georgia race the most expensive in all of the midterms.
Some 1.9 million people have already voted early, many of them likely Democratic voters, while Republicans are expected to turn out in force on Tuesday.
With the two candidates running head to head, according to most recent polls, the outcome is hard to predict.
Historically a Republican state, Georgia took America by surprise when voters chose Biden over Trump in the 2020 elections and then sent two Democrats to the Senate two months later in another runoff.
This time, while both of the candidates are natives of Georgia, the men are polar opposites.
Born the eleventh of 12 children to a former soldier and preacher father and a mother who worked in the cotton fields, Warnock, 53, grew up in poverty.
Even after his election, Warnock remained as senior pastor in an Atlanta church where slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr once preached. Warnock holds a doctorate in theology.
Walker is a latecomer to politics with his 2022 Senate run.
The 60-year-old conservative is considered one of the best players in the history of American college football -- a near-religious institution in the South -- and holds several records.
Walker, who is staunchly anti-abortion, even in cases of rape, has been the subject of several recent scandals, having been accused of paying for abortions of two women he had relationships with.
© 2022 AFP
Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's plans to pursue the impeachment of President Joe Biden and members of his administration are being greeted with a cold-shoulder by his Republican Party counterparts in the U.S. Senate, reports Politico.
The California GOPer, whose bid to become the new House Speaker is not a sure thing, has been threatening to go after the president as well as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as he tries to round up enough votes among far-right members of his caucus, but Republicans in the Senate are pouring cold water on his plans, with at least one GOP senator dismissing his plans outright.
As Politico's Jordain Carney wrote, "While House GOP leaders feel intense pressure from their Donald Trump-aligned base and colleagues to impeach President Joe Biden or a top member of his Cabinet, many of the party’s senators want nothing to do with it," adding that any impeachment would die in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
According to the report, key Republican senators are serving notice that they want nothing to do with any impeachment trials and that they believe they will be counterproductive and could hurt the party in 2024.
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"Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a close ally of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), said he 'hadn’t really given any thought' to impeaching Biden or a Cabinet official," the report states, noting that Cornyn added he sees no impeachable offenses that need to be taken up.
Senate GOP leadership member John Thune (R-SD) was more to the point, explaining, "I think there is a legitimate need for oversight … but, I mean, I think it needs to be focused on some specific areas.”
According to Politico's Carney, "It’s an ongoing pattern for Republican Senate leaders, who have mostly tried to avoid the pitfalls of Trump-related probes. While House GOP leadership has leaned hard into publicly pushing back on the Democratic-run panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, their Senate counterparts have largely sidestepped tangling with the select committee."
Senior GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA) outright dismissed McCarthy's plans for the upcoming House session, telling Politico, "I can’t do anything about what the House does.”
You can read more here.
By Nathan Layne
CUMMING, Ga. (Reuters) - With Republican influence in the U.S. Senate on the line, two dozen party faithful gathered in an Atlanta suburb on Sunday for the final stretch of a get-out-the-vote effort aimed at electing former football star Herschel Walker.
Conservative activist Scott Presler told the group to make sure the targets of their door-knocking had a plan to vote in person on Tuesday or to submit their absentee ballots on time in the runoff between Walker and his Democratic opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock.
"I'm here with you because I understand the gravity of this election," Presler said.
A lot is at stake in the battleground state race, the most expensive in the 2022 cycle, with total spending of nearly $400 million, campaign finance data shows.
Democrats secured effective control of the Senate in the Nov. 8 general election, while Republicans won the U.S. House of Representatives.
A Warnock victory would give his party an outright majority of 51 seats in the upper chamber and a measure of sway over committees and judicial appointments. A Walker win would boost Republicans' chances of blocking President Joe Biden's agenda.
More than 1.85 million Georgians have already cast a ballot during an early voting period, which closed on Friday, according to the Secretary of State's office, and the state set multiple single-day records for early voting last week.
The early vote is expected to have leaned Democratic, political experts from both parties say, meaning the Walker campaign goes into Tuesday with a sizeable deficit. Republicans, however, tend to vote in bigger numbers on Election Day.
Recent polling shows Warnock slightly ahead of Walker, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, but the difference has been close to or within the margin of error.
"The person that wins this election is the person with the best ground game and the best efforts to turn out their base once again," said Republican strategist Julianne Thompson. "It is going to be a nailbiter."
The surge in early voting is a sign that both campaigns have employed effective get-out-the-vote strategies, with Walker eating into Warnock's advantage as last week wore on, said Fred Hicks, a veteran Democratic strategist in Atlanta.
Hicks estimates that Warnock has a cushion going into Tuesday of about 130,000 votes, based on his analysis on turnout by voters who participated in this year's primaries.
It is not an insurmountable lead, Hicks said, noting that while Warnock edged past Walker in the Nov. 8 election by 49.44% to 48.49%, Walker won Election Day by some 220,000 votes.
"Senator Warnock cannot have that happen again and win," Hicks said.
ADVANTAGE WARNOCK
The Senate runoff is the second in Georgia in two years. Warnock, a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Atlanta church civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. led, first won his seat in a runoff in January 2021.
To excite the base, Warnock last week solicited help from the likes of singer-songwriter Dave Matthews, who joined a rally, and former President Barack Obama, who sought to paint Walker as unfit for office in a speech that went viral.
Walker appeared at a campaign rally with Republican Governor Brian Kemp, a popular figure in the state who easily won re-election last month. Kemp, who kept his distance during the general election, has also lent his campaign infrastructure to Walker, providing an operational boost.
Trump, in contrast, has not appeared with the football icon in Georgia after several Republicans warned his presence could turn off moderates, including in the crucial Atlanta suburbs.
Walker's campaign has been plagued by accusations that he abused girlfriends in the past and paid for their abortions, undercutting his anti-abortion stance. Recently, he has faced allegations that he maintains his primary residence in Texas, not Georgia. Walker has denied the charges.
In a CNN poll of 1,886 registered voters released on Friday, Warnock lead Walker by four percentage points, 52% to 48%. A poll released on Thursday by Emerson College and the Hill also showed Warnock ahead, by two percentage points.
Warnock has held a clear financial advantage, with money pouring in from super PACs and out-of-state supporters.
During the runoff election, outside groups have spent more than $43 million on advertisements and other expenses in support of Warnock or in opposition to Walker, according to campaign finance data compiled by OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. That compares to the $28 million spent in support of Walker or opposition to Warnock.
The spending differential is evident to Republican strategist Brian Robinson, who said every time he uses Google or YouTube he sees ads supporting Warnock, while his wife, a staunch Republican, has received mail about abortion rights.
"They have enough to go beyond just turning out their base," he said of Democrats. "They have enough money to try and persuade people."
(Reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Gerry Doyle)
On Monday, The Washington Post reported that billionaire media tycoon Rupert Murdoch will be deposed as part of a $1.6 billion defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.
"The lawsuit alleges that the network purposely aired false claims about Dominion’s role in the 2020 presidential election to boost ratings and fight off competition from more-conservative-leaning television networks," reported Jeremy Barr and Rachel Weiner. "According to the filing, Murdoch’s deposition will be conducted remotely, via videoconference."
"Rupert Murdoch is the highest-profile person to be deposed by lawyers for Dominion, which has spent the past few months hauling in network executives, producers and hosts to answer questions about whether they knew that claims made about Dominion technology on Fox’s airwaves were false," said the report. "Many of the most egregious comments were made by unpaid guests, including Donald Trump-affiliated attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, though some were echoed by Fox hosts including Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs, who no longer works for the company."
This comes after Rupert Murdoch's son, Fox Corp. executive chair Lachlan Murdoch was deposed earlier today.
"Dominion lawyers have also deposed prominent Fox hosts including Sean Hannity, Pirro and Tucker Carlson, as well as former on-air personalities, including Shepard Smith," said the report. "In doing so, lawyers for the election technology company have attempted to probe the internal culture and reporting practices of the highest-rated cable news network. The company has also obtained reams of internal communications sent by Fox employees and executives."
Dominion also has a separate lawsuit proceeding against MyPillow CEO and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, who has claimed without a shred of evidence that Dominion's equipment flipped votes from Trump to Joe Biden.
According to the Boston Globe, a Quincy man is in custody after an alleged racially-motivated vehicle ramming attack that severely injured an Asian man.
"At his arraignment Friday afternoon, a Quincy District Court judge ordered John Sullivan, 77, of Quincy, to be held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Wednesday," reported Nick Stoico. "The victim, 38-year-old George Ngo, suffered multiple injuries and a concussion and is recovering at home, according to his sister, Desiree Thien."
"Thien and her three children were leaving the post office on Washington Street with Ngo shortly before 11 a.m. when Sullivan allegedly began shouting racial slurs at the family, she said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon," said the report. "Authorities say Sullivan was driving in the area of the post office and exchanged words with pedestrians who said he was driving too fast. Thien said she and her brother did not say anything to Sullivan as he parked his car near the post office, but as he got out of the vehicle, Sullivan allegedly began shouting slurs at them. Thien said Sullivan told the family to 'Go back to China,' and she told him she was calling the police."
"The family stood in front of Sullivan’s car and took photos of it after he went inside the post office. The confrontation escalated when he returned a few minutes later and continued shouting slurs at the family as he got back into his car, Thien said. Sullivan then started the car and accelerated toward her and her brother, she said. Ngo pushed Thien out of the way, she said," the report continued. "Thien said Sullivan abruptly hit the brakes, throwing Ngo from the hood and onto the ground near the intersection with Foster Street. Once Ngo returned to his feet, Sullivan 'hit my brother one more time, which sent him flying into the construction ditch,' Thien said."
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Sullivan has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including civil rights violations, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, reckless driving, and fleeing the scene of a motor vehicle collision. “I don’t know any reason why someone would do this,” Thien told the Globe. “I just know they must be very miserable and filled with anger and hatred in order to do that to someone they don’t know.”
Anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in recent years, driven in part by people who wrongly believe that Asian people are responsible for infecting the United States with the COVID-19 virus. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed a landmark bill that devotes more resources to preventing and prosecuting hate crimes.
Conservatives in the Senate appear to be concerned that their GOP counterparts in the House aren't likely to support any legislative solutions over the course of the next two years, The Washington Post reported Monday.
It's the last few weeks of the legislative session and Republicans in the House have begun listing off their top priorities for 2023, which seem exclusively dedicated to holding hearings about Hunter Biden, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the 2020 election conspiracy, the impeachment of Joe Biden, a hearing investigating the Jan. 6 investigation, and a growing list of other issues.
It's the 11th-hour, The Post acknowledged, but Senators are trying to come up with a bipartisan bill that can help "Dreamers," extend Title 42 for another year until new "regional processing centers" can be provided, and another bill that will work on a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented farmworkers.
"Sens. Michael F. Bennet (D-CO) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) ...have not reached a deal yet but are hoping to get to one before the end of the lame duck session in December, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who, like others in the story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation candidly.
IN OTHER NEWS: 'Not good for Trump': Legal expert says court ruling 'utterly demolished' the former president
There is a concern that a federal judge could end Barack Obama's program that helped protect "Dreamers" from being deported. They're the children who were brought to the U.S. by their parents when they were very young, were educated in the United States and don't know their home of origin. There are about 2 million Dreamers that face the issue and the conservatives working on the bill would also allocate money for border security, hiring more officers and pay raises for Border Patrol agents. The Congress has allocated funding to hire more agents over the course of the past several years, but they've had a difficult time recruiting and retaining people, NPR reported in 2019.
The Post reported that two sources close to conservatives say that they've yet to whip the Senate to see if their bill would pass. Senators are skeptical that the House GOP would be willing to make a deal on immigration since they failed to do it in 2018 due to the right wing of the party.
"Half a dozen Republican members have privately expressed the need for farmworkers to fill jobs in their rural communities, but know that even that bipartisan measure will probably face a blockade by staunch conservatives," recalled The Post.
Meanwhile, the House has two immigration bills they're set to vote on this week, but neither is expected to be taken up in the Senate.
Some House Republicans are trying to find Democrats that they can work with to come to some kind of solution.
“I’m looking for partners, and it’s been very difficult in this political environment to find partners that want to have a real conversation. But we’re still able to do it,” said Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) before referring to the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act he worked on with home-state colleague Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX).
A busy early voting period wrapped up Friday with more than 1.8 million Georgians having cast in-person votes in the runoff pitting Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock against Republican Herschel Walker.
A large turnout is also expected at the polls Tuesday as Georgia voters have their last opportunity to settle a high-stakes election that is far outperforming turnout in runoffs in 2016 and 2018, but lags behind a pair of Senate runoffs in January 2021 when more than 1 million absentee ballot votes spurred Democratic challengers Warnock and Jon Ossoff to upsets over Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
Some counties opened early voting sites a few days before Thanksgiving, but the numbers began to soar over the holiday weekend when the Georgia Supreme Court allowed voting on Saturday and continued through the week in Georgia’s 159 counties. Most polls suggest the race is a dead heat.
Under Georgia’s 2021 state election law, county officials were legally only required to offer one week of advanced voting for the runoff. In contrast, the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff was held two months after the general election, offering three weeks of early voting and many more opportunities to turn in absentee ballots.
While the early voting period for the Nov. 8 general election came off with few reports of long lines across Georgia, the abbreviated runoff window saw long lines at the polls in the heavily populated metro Atlanta area and other population centers in the state.
It took about 40 minutes on Friday before Clayton County apartment manager Bree Garrett could cast her vote for Warnock. She said it was worth the wait since Warnock will be an ally for the next six years as she worries about the direction of political policies and court cases heading into the presidential election in 2024.
The Democrats’ candidates in statewide races didn’t fare well on Nov. 8, with Republicans winning or retaining seats for governor, secretary of state, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
“This (Nov. 8) didn’t go the way I wanted it to so that makes this runoff even more meaningful since it gives Rev. Warnock a full term and keeps someone in office who will protect my rights,” Garrett said.
The long waits to cast ballots during the Senate runoff also reignited the finger-pointing between Georgia’s Republican secretary of state officials, who claim that record turnout proved that the 2021 election law overhaul doesn’t make it harder to vote. Meanwhile, Democrats and voting rights organizations claim the long lines are a sign of voter suppression created by the Republican lawmakers’ election law overhaul that meant fewer days for voters to come out and made it harder to meet deadlines to vote by mail.
On Sunday, Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, executive director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund, spent two hours in line at Rome’s recreation center, one of Floyd County’s two early voting sites that opened for a four hour block on the weekend.
It has been a hectic leadup to the runoff as Yaqoob Mahmood’s group mobilizes voters in support of Warnock, complicated by the condensed period and confusion caused by the state and national Republican Party unsuccessfully fighting to prevent counties from opening polls to Saturday advanced voting.
Still, she said that Asian-American voters are responding to the call to vote and is optimistic of replicating the Democrats’ success in the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff when Warnock and Ossoff were elected.
“Typically, Republican voters tend to show up on Election Day, and Democrats are lagging behind,” Yaqoob Mahmood said. “But because we’ve had such a shortened window for early voting, we know that our numbers will continue through Election Day. And we’ll make sure that we get everyone out to vote by Tuesday.”
Before heading to their designated polling place on Tuesday, Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger suggests checking online for wait times. A number of counties post that information, including Cobb, Clayton, Forsyth, Richmond, Gwinnett, Fulton, and DeKalb. Georgians can find their designated precinct location and find other voting information on the Secretary of State’s My Voter Page.
“Georgia’s voting system is working well,” Raffensperger said. “While some Counties are seeing more voter turnout than they anticipated, most have found a way to manage voter wait-times, and I appreciate the election officials and workers across Georgia who are doing their level-best to accommodate our record turnout.”
On Thursday night, Warnock and Walker wound down their bitter and expensive campaigns with large crowds attending rallies that featured prominent party figures.
Warnock’s re-election bid received a second visit to Atlanta within several weeks from former President Barack Obama while Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham attended a Woodstock rally on Walker’s behalf.
Obama and the senator from South Carolina noted the significance of races, even if it no longer determines the balance of power in Congress. With Warnock’s victory, Democrats would hold 51 Senate seats, allowing them more leeway in close votes on legislation, and also prevent Republicans from securing a filibuster-proof majority in the next election cycle.
Graham noted that a 50-50 split means Senate committees are evenly divided.
“If it’s 51-49, they have one more vote on every committee than us,” he said on Thursday.
“The bottom line is it really changes the structure of the Senate, but it’s not about 51 it’s about (Walker). They dropped $170 million on this guy’s head. This is the nastiest campaign I’ve seen in my entire life.”
Aside from some extended wait times, there are also issues cropping up again over absentee ballots and vote tabulation, both issues unresolved from the 2020 presidential election. There were rampant, unfounded allegations that massive voter fraud cost Republican Donald Trump the presidency to Joe Biden. The fallout led Georgia’s GOP lawmakers to reshape the election rules by tightening deadlines for absentee ballots, banning around-the-clock absentee drop boxes, and requiring more timely election results reporting.
Last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia continued their legal fight against the Cobb County Board of Elections for failing to mail out ballots to more than 1,000 voters for the second time this election cycle.
This follows earlier legal action just one month ago when Cobb County had failed to send absentee ballots to voters for the general election.
In the Nov. 8 general election, Cobb extended the deadline to receive ballots until Nov. 14 after election officials said that procedural errors resulted in the count failing to send the vote-by-mail ballots. The civil rights organizations were asking a judge on Friday to require the county to extend the absentee deadline to Dec. 9, the same deadline as for military and overseas ballots, and for the county to deliver ballots to homebound voters and notify affected voters of the changes.
“For the second time in a matter of weeks, many Cobb County voters are on the verge of disenfranchisement because they have not yet received their absentee ballots,” said Rahul Garabadu, senior voting rights attorney at the ACLU of Georgia. “And again, we are seeing the effects of Georgia’s anti-voter law, SB 202, which shortened the runoff cycle by more than half. The law has hampered elections administrators’ ability to do their job, and burdened eligible voters’ access to the ballot box. We’re back in court today to make sure that voters who did everything right are able to make their voices heard during this election.”
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
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