Arizona Senate President Karen Fann received a personal phone call from Donald Trump the week before the January 6th insurrection, according to new emails released on Friday.
"On Friday, the Arizona Senate released to American Oversight more than 500 pages of records related to the sham 'audit' of ballots cast in Maricopa County. The records include the emails of Senate President Karen Fann, and were released in response to American Oversight's public records requests regarding the partisan operation," the watchdog group announced.
"Fann's emails indicate frequent contact with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and even a 'personal call' from former President Donald Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, as Trump and his lawyers were working to overturn the results," the group noted.
Arizona reporters focused on an email Fann sent on December 28th.
"I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy [Giuliani] over the past weeks trying to get this done. I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud," Fann wrote, even though there was zero evidence of any fraud.
KPNX-TV reporter Brahm Resnik and Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts both flagged the email.
Oh, gee, isn't this nice? @FannKfann basking in the glow of having "full support" from Rudy Giuliani and "a perso… https://t.co/KKBQO8NPcI— Laurie Roberts (@Laurie Roberts) 1622844683.0
NEW: We obtained 507 pages of records related to the Arizona sham audit. In Dec., as Donald Trump worked to overtu… https://t.co/EppgNorrzm— American Oversight (@American Oversight) 1622839619.0
One of the young children killed at the Nashville, Tennessee private Christian school shooting on Monday was the daughter of the school's pastor, reported The Daily Beast on Monday.
Six people in total were killed in the attack, including three children aged eight and nine, and three faculty.
"The student, one of six people killed alongside the shooter at the Covenant School, was identified by police as Hallie Scruggs. Her father is Chad Scruggs, Covenant Presbyterian Church’s pastor, the Nashville Presbytery confirmed to CBS News," reported AJ McDougall and Emily Shugerman. "Hallie was the Scruggs family’s youngest child, according to a memorial post by a self-described sister church, Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The post said that Chad Scruggs had graduated from Presbyterian Church in America’s Covenant Theological Seminary with a master of divinity degree in 2007."
"According to its website, the Covenant School was founded in 2001 as a ministry of the church, and the two share an address. Chad Scruggs, who did not immediately return a request for comment by The Daily Beast, is also identified as an ex-officio member of the school’s board of trustees on the site," said the report.
"The other ex-officio member of the board listed is Katherine Koonce, the 60-year-old school head and another victim of Monday’s shooting," the report added.
The shooter involved in the attack, who was killed at the scene, has been identified as 28-year-old Audrey Hale. Initial reports identified Hale as a woman, but police have stated Hale in fact identifies as a transgender man. Hale reportedly had a "manifesto" that referenced another location as well as Covenant School.
Former President Donald Trump is facing a very likely indictment by prosecutors in Manhattan for bookkeeping fraud related to his $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to prevent 2016 voters from learning about their alleged affair. He also faces serious legal liability from an elections investigation in Georgia and two federal cases being probed by special counsel Jack Smith.
But even with just the Manhattan investigation, there is no guarantee the charges will stop at an accounting misdemeanor. On MSNBC Monday, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance told anchor Ari Melber that other charges are possible out of that grand jury.
"How do prosecutors try to build beyond only campaign finance?" Because then ... it hangs or falls on the jury's view of the criminal intent or motivation in that window, in that October window, whereas if there's anything else, Joyce, I mean, business records, tax, other things that were mischaracterized, are those potential counts in New York as well?"
"The short answer is, there are other possible charges," said Vance. "I don't think it has to have been exclusively motivated by the campaign. That wouldn't make any sense in the real world. People have dual motivations all the time, and one of the early rulings in the John Edwards trial, which was for similar charges, albeit federal, suggested that a dual motivation was acceptable. You know, that's not directly on point, Ari, but it's a pretty good indication.
Specifically, argued Vance, "there could be, for instance, a tax avoidance motivation that would violate New York state law."
"There are a lot of other possibilities," said Vance. "We're working in the blind because we don't know what evidence the Manhattan D.A. has elicited from witnesses in front of his grand jury. But it's possible that there could be additional charges we just don't know about yet as well."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Joyce Vance says more charges could be coming for Trump www.youtube.com
Tempers flared at the Tennessee state Capitol on Monday as lawmakers gathered in the aftermath of a shooting at a Nashville private school that killed six people including three children, The Tennessean reports.
Three faculty members were also killed in the shooting at The Covenant School, a Christian private, according to The Metro Nashville Police Department. The shooting suspect, a 28-year-old Nashville woman was fatally shot by police, The Associated Press reports.
According to The Tennessean’s Melissa Brown, Republicans sought to pause regularly scheduled legislative debate in both chambers and Democrats called for toughening gun laws as they slammed their political opponents for promoting expanded access to firearms.
A tense exchange erupted between Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville after Mitchell slammed Republicans for identifying as "pro-life" while supporting expanded access to firearms.
Sexton gaveled Mitchell down, saying he’d gone off the "welcoming and honoring" agenda item.
"I'll tell you one thing: There's six people today I can't welcome and honor anymore into this hallowed house," Mitchell said, according to the report.
"Y'all just think about those six people and think if your guns are worth it."
State Sen. Heidi Campbell during a visit to the reunification center was with a mother who learned her child was killed.
"I heard her primal scream," Campbell said.
"It was a day that the minutes seemed like hours. It took several hours for us to reunify them with their children. It did not have to happen. We have a horrible gun problem in our country."
The children killed in the shooting were identified by police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 8 or 9 years old, and the adult victims were identified as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
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