The fallout from Rep. Lauren Boebert's humiliating ouster from a Denver theater after she aggravated fellow playgoers by vaping, dancing in her seat, taking flash pictures and engaging in mutual groping with her date may not be over.
According to a report from Newsweek, the normally attention-seeking Colorado Republican may have run afoul of a Colorado ordinance designed to clamp down on public lewdness that, if taken to the extreme, is punishable by fines and up to six months in prison – along with being classified as a sex offender.
Boebert, who has since apologized profusely for her actions a week ago while in the audience of a "Beetlejuice" performance, runs the risk that she could be charged with 18-7-301 of the Colorado criminal code.
As Newsweek's Nick Mordowanec wrote, the law stipulates that "public indecency is a petty offense sex crime ' but does tend "to carry lighter penalties, though, such as 10 days in jail and/or up to $300 fines, in addition to potential probation, community service or mandatory counseling."
But there is an outside chance of a sex offender designation that could be placed upon the 36-year-old who recently became a grandmother if she is convicted.
The report states, "In most cases, such crimes don't lead to individuals being classified as sex offenders. The law also differs from indecent exposure, which involves an individual knowingly exposing their genitals to satisfy sexual desires. Lawyers have a difficult time proving public indecency, however, due to the broadness of the statute and the relative nature surrounding the act. Matthew Hand, a Denver-based criminal attorney, says that the law 'is vague and overreaching.'"
In an interview with Newsweek, Hand explained, "Although a theater is a crowded public setting where 'a lewd fondling' could be prosecuted as public indecency, it is unlikely that brief groping, over the clothes, while seated in a dark theater, would lead to conviction. The acts need to have been 'reasonably expected to be viewed' by others, and a jury must be convinced of that beyond a reasonable doubt."
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) recently purchased up to $250,000 worth of stock in telecommunications technology company Qualcomm Inc., a federal defensecontractor, while serving on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and activelyblocking hundreds of military nominations and promotions, new congressional financial disclosures indicate.
Qualcomm and its subsidiaries have been the recipient of several dozen defense and homeland security contracts during the past two decades, according to federal contracting records reviewed by Raw Story.
Among these is a Department of the Army contract with Qualcomm Intelligent Solutions, worth nearly $11.7 million with the possibility of growing to $30.4 million, related to a government program exploring "innovative, energy-efficient, and reliable computer architectures that can address the intelligence community’s large-scale data-analytic applications."
The Senate Armed Services Committee on which Tuberville sits has jurisdiction over "military research and development," among a host of other responsibilities.
Tuberville spokesman Steven Stafford did not reply to a question about whether it's a conflict of interest for Tuberville to invest in defense contractor stocks while serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He also did not respond to a question about whether Tuberville, in principle, supports or opposes any of the several bills introduced this year that would either ban, or limit, members of Congress and their spouses from personally trading stocks. Tuberville has previously described the idea as "ridiculous".
"Senator Tuberville has long had financial advisers who actively manage his portfolio without his day-to-day involvement," Stafford wrote in an email to Raw Story.
Asked to name the financial advisers, he did not respond.
Tuberville's Qualcomm stock purchase is not the first time the senator has bought or sold defense contractor stocks since joining the U.S. Senate in 2021.
Earlier this year, he separately bought and sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Qualcomm shares. Tuberville also has five-figure stock holdings in defense contractors Honeywell International and Lockheed Martin Corp., according to his most recent annual personal financial disclosure.
More recently, Tuberville has made headlines for blocking the nominations or promotions of hundreds of senior members of the U.S. military in protest of a government policy that provides funding for servicemembers and their dependent children who cross state lines to obtain abortions.
'Ethically preposterous'
A government ethics watchdog took a dim view of the latest stock trade by Tuberville, whose months-long blockade of nominations and promotions for high-level military officers stems from his objection to a Biden administration policy that allows military personnel to charge the government for travel related to obtaining an abortion.
"Senator Tuberville being a member of the Armed Services Committee and investing in defense contractors is ethically preposterous and a textbook example of a conflict of interest," Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, senior government affairs manager with the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan group that exposes conflicts of interest in the government, told Raw Story.
"The senator’s personal financial position is directly tied to the financial position of specific companies that receive billions of dollars in taxpayer funded government contracts," Hedtler-Gaudette said. "I can’t think of anything more inappropriate and unethical than that, especially given the role that the Armed Services Committee plays in authorizing defense spending toplines and priorities around specific defense projects and programs."
Tuberville's personal investments have proved problematic for him in other regards.
In 2021, Insider reported that Tuberville violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 by failing to properly disclose more than 130 stock trades that, taken together, were worth as much as $3.56 million.
Since then, dozens of other federal lawmakers have similarly violated the STOCK Act with late or otherwise incomplete disclosures.
Donald Trump is being denounced for his antisemitic message attacking "liberal Jews who voted to destroy America" by not voting for him, at the start of Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year. Republicans have remained largely silent as "liberal Jews" trends on social media. The ex-president's remarks came just days after President Joe Biden warned that antisemitism has "risen to record levels."
Haaretz, the century-old Israeli newspaper with an international readership, called Trump's remarks "an ominous warning to American Jews in honor of Rosh Hashanah, retreading well-worn territory of dual loyalty tropes and conflating support for Israel and American Jews."
" Trump has frequently targeted Jewish Americans for not voting for him, including imploring them to 'get their act together before it’s too late,' earning widespread condemnations for 'Jewsplaining,'" the paper observed, adding: "Trump’s opinions of American Jews, however, have deteriorated into stereotypes for decades – touching on tropes of wealth, power and status."
Trump's post on Truth Social begins: "Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives! Let's hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year!"
It continues, "Wake Up Sheep. What Natzi /Anti Semite ever did this for the Jewish people or Israel?"
Trump's post then lists a series of items, among them, moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and recognizing Israel's sovereignty over settlements in Judea, all of which have not been uniformly embraced by "the Jewish people."
The Jerusalem Post adds that the ex-president's "post also rejected accusations that Trump is antisemitic, writing sarcastically that Trump is 'clearly one of the greatest antisemites of our time' in light of his achievements."
The paper notes that, separately, Trump has "denied connection with antisemites after meeting hosting Kanye West and white nationalist Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes at his Mar-a-Lago resort in November."
Republicans have ignored Trump's remarks, which also received little notice in the mainstream media, but criticism on social media has been swift.
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan observed, "Even by Trumpian antisemitic standards, this is pretty disgusting. And on Rosh Hashanah. We have normalized a very old school, very familiar type of antisemitic fascism in this country. It’s scary stuff."
Sherrilyn Ifill, the former President & Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) wrote: "That tens of millions would even consider this man to lead the U.S. is grave and alarming. That so many of our vital institutions appear agnostic about it is so disappointing."
Jim Stewartson, an Emmy-winning producer wrote a lengthy post on the social media site X, saying "this is nothing short of a Nazi movement—all the way to the top," and concluding: "We must start treating Nazis like Nazis again."
Brett Meiselas, the co-founder of the anti-Trump SuperPAC MeidasTouch wrote: "There's never been a scarier time to be a Jew in America. This is truly horrifying, Nazi shit."
Attorney Daniel Uhlfelder observed, "In celebration of Rosh Hashanah Trump calls Jews sheep who need to wake up if they think he is a Nazi or Antisemitic. Yes, this is real."
Steve Vladeck the attorney and New York Times best-selling author wrote: "Just a little casual anti-Semitism from the leading Republican candidate for the presidential nomination—ON ROSH HASHANAH. It’ll get totally ignored by the press, his Republican opponents, and everyone except the 'liberal Jews'—who’ll all get a little more nervous."
Professor of political philosophy, social justice, and the Director of the Norman and Bernice Harris Center for Judaic Studies, Dr. Ari Kohen wrote: "Yes, it’s insulting. Sure, it’s nonsensical. But, also, a lot of the people who pay attention to Trump on 'Truth Social' are one or two 'truths' away from trying to harm people like me who spent the past two days in synagogue."
Former Obama campaign and administration official Tim Fullerton asked, "Why is this not being called out for the anti-Semitic garbage that it is? Why is this not being discussed by every media outlet?"
Reacting to the continuing fallout for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) after closed circuit video showed her vaping, acting out and engaging in mutual groping with her date before being booted from a performance of the "Beetlejuice" musical at a Denver theater, MSNBC contributor Katty Kay claimed the embattled Colorado Republican's effusive apology over the weekend demonstrates she's worried about her political future.
With "Morning Joe" co-panelist Johnathan Lemire describing Boebert's actions including "explicit groping" -- much to the dismay of co-host Mika Brzezinski -- Kay noted Boebert's effusive apology and pointed out that it was completely out of character for the lawmaker who normally courts controversy.
That apology, she asserted, was a sign that Boebert knows her latest exploits are not going down well with her constituents -- particularly in light of her close call win in the 2022 midterm election.
"I'm just glad that I'm not the one being asked to describe what groping means," she quipped before digging in.
"You know, it's kind of rare to hear Lauren Boebert be sort of vaguely apologetic about anything," she continued. "She doesn't do it very much but I guess when you've just won your election by five votes [note: Boebert won by 546 votes] you need to make sure that you hang on to all of the votes you possibly can, which I suppose is why she's sort of changed her tune."
"I mean, I was -- it's kind of a change of character for her to come out in anything other than defiant mode so I think she realizes this doesn't go down particularly well with people in her district, " she added.
"Her seat is not safe and this comes at a moment where she's one of the rabble-rousers in the house with [Reps.] Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz and others trying to push to impeach President Biden and shut down the government," added Joe Scarborough. "So she has more time perhaps to attend family-friendly shows in Denver with a male companion which she's overly friendly with."
The Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C, oozes exclusivity and Republicanism — a place where conservative lawmakers, lobbyists, bureaucrats and the like may relax in a private and decidedly “press free zone” just steps from Congress.
Three former GOP members of Congress — John Shimkus of Illinois, Jeff Denham of California and Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey — liked it so much that they used excess campaign money to pay for bills at the club, including dues, a Raw Story review of federal records indicates.
Attorney Brett Kappel, an expert in election law, said the spending violates a federal prohibition against the personal use of campaign funds.
“The concern with former members using excess campaign funds to pay their dues at the Capitol Hill Club is that they are deriving a private benefit from donor funds that were never intended to be used for that purpose,” Kappel said. “That concern is greatly magnified if the former member is now a lobbyist and is using excess campaign funds to benefit his or her lobbying firm and its clients.”
The Federal Election Commission’s definition of “personal use” of campaign cash includes “dues, fees or gratuities at a country club, health club, recreational facility or other nonpolitical organization, unless they are part of the costs of a specific fundraising event that takes place on the organization's premises.”
The Federal Election Commission stated its position about payments to the Capitol Hill Club in a 2019 agreement with former congressman Cliff Stearns, who left office in 2013.
Stearns admitted that more than $4,100 he had spent at the Capitol Hill Club from 2014 to 2017 for "membership fees and club expenses" was improper. He agreed to personally repay his campaign committee, and Stearns and his committee agreed to pay a $6,900 federal fine, according to FEC records. Stearns was a registered lobbyist during that time.
“Stearns was neither a candidate nor a Federal officeholder at the time the disbursements were made, and the expenses would have existed irrespective of Stearns's position as a former officeholder,” the agreement between Stearns and the FEC stated. “Therefore, these disbursements made to the Capitol Hill Club were made for Stearns's personal use.”
Shimkus, Denham and LoBiondo each registered as lobbyists after leaving office.
Volunteers for Shimkus, the ex-congressman’s campaign committee when he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2021, has this year paid $2,000 to the Capitol Hill Club this year for what it labeled a “501c7 Donation.” The club is indeed what the IRS calls a nonprofit “social and recreational club,” as organized under section 501(c)(7) of the federal tax code.
It’s uncertain, though, if the “donation” amounted to paying dues, which would apparently be a violation of campaign law, or if Shimkus received anything else of value from the transaction. Raw Story’s repeated messages to Shimkus for comment were not answered.
Shimkus is listed as a lobbyist on the KBS website and is also listed in the company’s July filing with Congress disclosing its lobbying activity. The former congressman has this year represented the interests of Ameren Corp., a power generation company.
Denham, who served in Congress from 2011 to 2019, spent $900 of leftover campaign cash at the Capitol Hill Club in 2021 and 2023. His FEC filing listed the purpose as “dues.”
Denham also became a lobbyist, now working for Dentons. His clients include the social media giant TikTok, Inc., according to federal records.
LoBiondo, who served from 1995 to 2019, spent $500 in 2021 for “membership dues” at the Capitol Hill Club. After leaving office, he started LoBo Strategies. Although he said in a 2019 story in The Press of Atlantic City that he would be a consultant, not a lobbyist, LoBiondo filed lobbying disclosures from 2020 to 2022. He terminated his registration in October of last year.
Neither Denham nor LoBiondo responded to Raw Story’s request for an interview. The Capitol Hill Club also did not respond to a request for comment.
The Capitol Hill Club has long been popular with Republican politicians. A Raw Story analysis of Federal Election Commission records showed that in the first half of 2023 alone, campaign money paid for almost $1 million worth of meals, meeting space, and catering for politicians and political action committees at this redoubt of the right wing.
Then-Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) speaks before the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2018. Courtesy: C-SPAN
Election law experts said these kinds of Capitol Hill Club expenses do not run afoul of the law because the expenses can be seen as part of the job for sitting members of Congress or someone actively seeking elected office through fundraisers and other campaign activities.
It becomes a potential problem, however, when a former member continues to dip into excess campaign money to pay the club, which also means access to the powerful people inside.
Members of the Capitol Hill Club have included presidents, vice presidents, congressmen and governors, and, as the club’s website notes, “The Eisenhower Lounge alone boasts 458 elephants of the Club’s collection as well as an 1887 Steinway.”
It’s also the ultimate conservative safe space, too, as pictures, video and audio recordings are strictly forboden.
Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday afternoon with host Jen Psaki, a positively giddy Neal Katyal applauded the job new "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker did in her interview with Donald Trump, claiming she got him to make a confession that should make special counsel Jack Smith very pleased.
According to the former solicitor general, Welker used just enough flattery to lure the former president into admitting that it was his decision alone to try and overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
In a clip shown by Psaki, Welker asked, "The most senior lawyers in your own administration and in your campaign told you that after you lost more than 60 legal challenges that it was over. Why did you ignore them and decide to listen to a new outside group of attorneys?”
After Trump admitted he "didn't respect them," he later added, "You know who I listen to? Myself. I saw what happened, I watched that election, and I thought the election was over at 10 o’clock in the evening. My instincts are a big part of it. That’s been the thing that’s gotten me to where I am -- my instincts."
Welker pressed, "Just to be clear, were you listening to your lawyers’ advice, or were you listening to your own instincts?” to which the former president replied, "Oh, sure. It was my decision. I listened to some people. Some people said that."
After watching the clip, a smiling Psaki commented, "So, this is interesting, because they've been using this advice of counsel arguments. So, what did you think about that exchange?"
An equally smiling Katyal replied, "So, Jen, anyone who is any critic of Kristen Welker on 'Meet The Press' who's like, 'Oh, she's not making news,' she just made huge news this morning."
"Because Donald Trump's defense to January 6th has been one basic thing, which is, I relied on the advice of my lawyers. I didn't have bad criminal intent. It is my lawyers who were telling me to do this," he explained. "And she got him through a masterful interviewing, and playing to his ego, to go, ''Oh no, I did it all myself.'"
"And if you're Jack Smith this morning, you're going, 'Thank you, that's what I always thought, and yes, you hired these kind of cockamamie crazy lawyers, but at the end of the day, this was you, through and through,'" he added. "This demonstrates his culpability right there and then and I think makes this case that Judge [Tanya] Chutkan has going to trial on March 4th a lot easier."
To some political observers, the new interview --where Trump talked over his questioner and received little pushback -- was yet another debacle that led American Enterprise Institute scholar and Atlantic contributor Norman Ornstein to declare it was a huge error in judgment.
According to Ornstein, "Oy. Trump says the Capitol Police testified against Nancy Pelosi, and then burned all the evidence. Lie upon lie upon lie. Unchallenged by Welker. Every word out of his mouth is a lie, and he talks over any questioner. Just a colossal mistake to showcase this sociopath."
After viewing clips from the "Meet the Press' interview, media critic Dan Froomkin complained, "In these clips, Trump utters about 30 different lies, and there's zero pushback from Kristen Welker, who instead calls him 'fired up' and 'defiant' – and 'the president.' This is, actually, worse than the CNN town hall in terms of normalizing a maniac."
Popular Sirius XM host Michelangelo Signorile chimed in with, "Even with a taped interview Welker lets Trump get away with calling Jack Smith 'deranged' and a 'lunatic.' That bullsh*t needs to be checked. She failed, and still let him push propaganda he repeats over and over."
"OMG. I just heard Kristen Welker tell viewers they can go to NBC’s website for a 'fact check' of the Trump interview. It would be better if Trump was fact checked live, directly to his face during the interview. But, no, too many anchors just don’t know how to do that. Shameful," Trump critic Victor Shi wrote before adding, "What we just saw is honestly an insult to viewers. If Trump can’t be fact checked live on air, during a one on one interview, then maybe that’s a sign that the person interviewing hasn’t done a good enough job preparing? I’m at a true loss of words for our media. Embarrassing."
Conservative Atlantic columnist Tom Nichols knocked a teaser for the interview by quoting new host Welker. He wrote: "'Fired up about a lot of these issues and is obviously trying to draw a sharp contrast with President Biden' and he really wants that UAW endorsement, and... Good Lord. Trump isn't 'trying to draw contrasts,' he tried to subvert the Constitution to stop Biden from taking office."
Political commentator Keith Olbermann singled out Welker, writing, "So here’s the boast @jparkABC deleted Now: @NBCNews - delete Kristen Welker’s @kwelkernbc ’s career as host of @MeetThePress Or at least: change the name of the show to more accurately reflect her work: @MeetTheStenographer."
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger added, "Allowing Trump to lie on @MeetThePress and leaving 'fact checking' to the website is not how we should be treating a man who launched an insurrection. It’s 2023, we should have learned this lesson over 7 years. Ratings aren’t worth our democracy."
"Chris Licht always knew that someday he’d be vindicated. He just didn’t realize it would be so soon," wrote conservative lawyer George Conway.
South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem has been engaged in a "years-long clandestine" extra-marital relationship with former top Trump aide Corey Lewandowski, according to the Daily Mail. Governor Noem, who celebrated her 30th wedding anniversary last year, is 51 and has three children. Now she is the target of critics who are blasting what they see as her "hypocrisy."
"Married South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, 51 – who stresses her belief in 'family values' – and Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski, who is also married, began carrying on in 2019, if not before," the Daily Mail reported.
Noem is rumored to be a possible top Trump vice presidential pick. She endorsed the ex-president, currently facing 91 criminal felony charges, in his re-election bid just last week.
Governor Noem has been at the forefront of anti-LGBTQ legislation and attacks, including on transgender children and same-sex marriage.
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples constitutionally have the same rights and responsibilities as different-sex couples, Noem's spokesperson said she "believes marriage is a special bond between a man and a woman."
During her 2018 run for governor Noem told South Dakota Public Broadcasting, “My relationship with the Lord is my foundation in all things. As a result, the values I hold according to biblical principles impact my decisions: we are called to love, but we're also instructed to stand for truth. I'm hopeful my leadership reflects that.”
She has supported a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. In 2021 she signed into law legislation allowing South Dakotans to use their religious beliefs to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
In February, Noem signed into law a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender minors. Last year she signed a law "restricting transgender women and girls from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity in public schools and post-secondary institutions," according to ABC News.
The Daily Mail on Friday, citing "multiple sources," reported it had "uncovered evidence of Lewandowski and Noem's fling: Dozens of trips that mixed business with pleasure, private flights and luxury resort stays."
"Neither denied the affair when asked by DailyMail.com. The Governor issued a statement attacking us for the timing of the article, while Lewandowski did not respond to a request for comment."
"The pair met up Friday for a Trump campaign rally in Rapid City, South Dakota, but were careful to have no public interaction – despite being close for years," the Daily Mail also reported, adding they "were made aware of a pending story about their relationship."
"The two were first suspected of being romantically involved in 2021, but Noem scornfully dismissed the story as 'total garbage and a disgusting lie' at the time."
Noem "won the governorship in 2018 promising to uphold the wholesome family values that she said South Dakotans have 'long embraced'," according to the Daily Mail. "Defending 'traditional marriage', which she defined as 'a special, God-given union between one man and one woman', was particularly important to her," and "was the foundation for her beliefs, policy priorities and the ideals she lives by, said Noem, who has a son and two daughters with her husband Bryon who she married in 1992."
Critics blast Noem's family values claims.
Republican former U.S. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, now a CNN Senior Political Commentator pointed to the Daily Mail story and wrote: "Sick and disturbing."
Civil rights attorney, Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic clinical instructor, and transgender rights activist Alejandra Caraballo pointed to the Daily Mail's article and wrote on social media, "The family values people are at it again."
"Governor Kristi Noem, who is against same-sex marriage, has received awards in the past for championing 'family values,'" notes journalist Yashar Ali. "She can’t remain faithful in her own marriage but thinks same-sex couples shouldn’t be allowed to get married."
Michael Musto, longtime journalist and commentator, wrote on social media: "Hey, @GovKristiNoem. Will you still be promoting 'family values', praising God, and demonizing queer people?"
"Listen," said Charlotte Clymer, the activist, writer, and former Human Rights Campaign press secretary. "I don’t care what other folks consensually do in their relationships because it’s none of my business. The problem is when conservatives like Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski make the private lives of others, like LGBTQ people, their business. The hypocrisy is nasty."
"My, apparently, highly controversial view is that 'family values' -- that is, recognizing the value of family is in its necessary foundation for a healthy society -- is nowhere better expressed, and finds no greater advocacy, than in the LGBTQ community," she added.
The Daily Mail's exclusive also includes this anecdote.
"In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Noem and Lewandowski became virtually inseparable companions on the Trump campaign trail," the Mail reported. "By then, their relationship was an open secret at the White House and among high-level GOP lobbyists and political consultants."
"'It became a joke,' says the Trump Administration employee who had first seen them at AMPFest."
"'Every time someone said something about how Kristi would be a savior to the conservative movement, someone else would say, 'Right, the savior that's f**king Corey Lewandowski'.'"
Donald Trump reportedly just threw a Hail Mary in an attempt to derail a New York trial that could affect his businesses.
Trump, who on Thursday said it is "so sad" that Justice Department officials didn't charge Hunter Biden with something that also implicates his president father, is trying to turn the civil case pursued by New York Attorney General Letitia James on its head, according to an exclusive piece by the Daily Beast Thursday.
"In a frantic last-minute attempt to derail a trial that threatens to destroy Donald Trump’s corporate empire, the former president’s lawyers have turned the heat on the judge overseeing this case — by suing him directly," the outlet reported.
"In an emergency court filing Thursday morning, attorneys for the former president and his associates cited an 'urgency' that required New York’s higher courts to step in. They want an appellate judge to commence an 'Article 78 special proceeding' against Justice Arthur F. Engoron, one that would force him to decimate a case brought by Attorney General Letitia James."
Trump's filing claims Engoron and James are trying to defy an appellate court ruling that could limit James' lawsuit against Trump, that claims he defrauded investors by overstating the Trump Organization's value.
“Although he has yet to perform his lawful duty, Justice Engoron plans to proceed with the trial of the Attorney General’s claims on October 2, 2023 — just nineteen days from the date of this petition,” attorneys Clifford S. Robert and Michael Madaio wrote, according to the news report.
The Daily Beast calls the filing "a rare move of aggression — particularly this close to trial, which starts on Oct. 2."
"But this has become Trump’s preferred strategy in recent months, a far-fetched gamble he’s currently trying against federal judges in Washington and West Palm Beach who remain utterly unswayed by his relentless attempts to violate their orders and delay cases," the article states.
"Trump’s lawyers filed a case before New York’s First Department appellate court, which has repeatedly weighed in on this Trump case and many others originating from Manhattan."
WASHINGTON – Who runs Washington, elected officials or the wealthy donor class?
It seems up for debate after Silicon Valley billionaires were given the dais, mics and taxpayer-funded security details, even as upwards of 60 U.S. senators were forbidden from speaking as they sat like pupils in the audience, scribbling notes during the Senate’s first ever Artificial Intelligence [AI] Innovation Forum.
While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gushed over the “historic” gathering of upwards of 20 tech CEOs, consumer advocates and ethicists, the bipartisan frustration from some of his Senate colleagues was palpable.
“I’m a U.S. senator and I don't get to ask questions,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) complained to Raw Story upon leaving the closed-door forums. “The people of Massachusetts did not send me here not to ask questions.”
It sets a “terrible precedent,” Warren contended. While they’re usually worlds apart, some Republicans agree with the progressive on that.
“The whole idea that we'd have like this big show and invite all these folks and close it to press and throw all these limits around it, I just think it's ridiculous,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Raw Story outside the forum he boycotted. “It also suggests that their opinion is somehow privileged, and we ought to really all be learning from them. What's really going on is they're talking about how to have us help them make money.”
The privilege was unmistakable.
While, say, AFL-CIO labor federation President Liz Shuler was only flanked by a couple staffers, Capitol Police officers shut down three-stories of public hallways in the Russell Senate Office Building – a public building – when Tesla CEO Elon Musk exited.
Senators walk through Senate Office Buildings alone or with a staffer or two. Musk was escorted through the highly secure building flanked by four Capitol Police officers – on top of his three, black suit and tie-donning private security detail – and then upward of 10 stood guard outside as he paused to talk to reporters before taking a Tesla to a meeting he said he had at the FAA.
Raw Story asked Schumer about Musk’s taxpayer-funded escort.
“Did you know Capitol Police were shutting down public hallways for these CEOs?”
“I did not,” Schumer said.
“And is it a good use of taxpayer dollars to have 10 Capitol Police officers escort Elon Musk out?”
“I leave safety issues up to Capitol Police,” Schumer replied.
Schumer quickly moved on to other questions, and requests for comment from the Capitol Police were not returned. But when Raw Story described the scene to Schumer’s fellow New Yorker, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), there was no hesitation.
“America is also an oligarchy. We talk about oligarchy from the perspective of Russia — America has an oligarchy,” Bowman told Raw Story. “What you just described is a clear example of that. Citizens United is a clear example of that. And that's why our H.R. 1, getting big money out of politics and dark money out of politics, is such a priority for us.”
Other senators were surprised to learn they wouldn’t be able to question the assembled witnesses – including the likes of Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates – but once informed, they just assumed Schumer gave deference to all the big-name speakers he assembled.
“Oh, well, that might have been a nod to some of the people who are here, so that they would not get challenged,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) told Raw Story.
Still, Lummis was pleasantly surprised by how informative the closed-door AI meeting was, including Musk’s warning to the Senate of the “civilization risk” AI poses.
“Which I was a term that I hadn't heard before,” Lummis said as she flipped through her notebook brimming with her studiously scribbled notes of the private forum. “He said, ‘AI is a double-edged sword and that we have to make sure we nurture the good side of that sword and find ways to address the bad side of that double-edged sword.’”
Lummis, like others, reported being introduced to many new concepts in the forum, like the need for AI audits (“I would have thought, as long as it’s open-source AI, that there's almost a natural audit function”) or that algorithms can reinforce discrimination (“how could an algorithm do that?”).
After missing all three all-Senate AI briefings that Schumer hosted over the summer, Lummis was “really glad” she went.
“I was worried about that, that it wasn’t gonna be worth the time because, you know, there's so many big names and so maybe it was going to be much ado about nothing because people wouldn't say things that were helpful to policymakers. They did,” Lummis said. “It was surprisingly, at least from my perspective, it was surprisingly helpful.”
Many Democratic attendees praised the private forum as well.
“It was pretty cordial. I thought there'd be a lot of sniping, and it really wasn't,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) told Raw Story as he left the the forum after listening to more than two hours of three-minute opening speeches from all those assembled on the dais.
While Schumer hosted the event, one of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s top lieutenants, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), was also pleased with how it went.
“I think rather than what’s said, I think the fact that that meeting’s occurred at all is probably the most significant,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told Raw Story. “Just because those people don't sit down and talk to each other. They're competitors, and so knowing of the interest of policymakers that, I think, will cause some additional conversations and that hopefully will be helpful.”
“But the problem is Congress is slow as a glacier at actually passing legislation,” Cornyn said. “And I don't think the technology is going to wait.”
AI surely won’t wait, and Senate critics say today they lost precious time in assessing where they agree and disagree with their own colleagues – an essential information gathering tool if a compromise is ever to be forged in these hyper-partisan times.
“There's no feeling in the room. Everything just passed by. There’s no interaction. No bumping against each other on any of these issues,” Warren of Massachusetts complained.
The other thing is, senators – some unwittingly – surrendered one of their biggest powers at the feet of these titans of Silicon Valley, because not a single tech CEO can commit perjury if they’re never sworn in.
“I'd prefer them all being under oath and testifying. That’s how you do it. We have a mechanism to gather information in Congress, we have hearings,” Sen. Hawley of Missouri lamented. “But if we're not going to do that, at least it should be open to the public.”
WASHINGTON — At least one Republican lawmaker admitted to reporters that she's worried impeachment efforts against President Joe Biden will backfire against her party.
Speaking with reporters on Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said:
"I was a little hesitant at first. My understanding is that it gives more subpoena power, or something ... It's a way to get the bank records and you know it shouldn't just be about Hunter [Biden] and James [Biden], it should be about Joe, too, and bank statements and credit card statements. All of the things that could show what was really going on."
She claimed the wire transfers for Hunter Biden, the president's son, and James Biden, the president's brother, could come "from Communist China."
"It's worthy of an investigation. I think he'll go down as one of the most corrupt people in American history," she said of the president.
She went on to say she wishes that she had more to show the press to prove her claim, "which is why I think the inquiry is important. So, we can get those bank records."
She then said that if Biden did nothing wrong she could show them all of his bank records and credit card statements. Thus far the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees haven't been able to gather any evidence that ties the president to anything illegal. Each time they come up short. The last one was the secure wire transfers that Mace mentioned. Republicans fought for the information from the Treasury Department declaring that it would prove corruption.
It didn't tie anything to the president, however.
When asked if she was worried that the impeachment could backfire, Mace acknowledged, "Always, and I've talked about that. There are risks, particularly to Republicans who won Biden districts or people in purple districts. Um, but this is not an impeachment vote. This is an inquiry, which gives us expanded, investigative power. Like expanded subpoena power."
Official impeachment inquiries require a vote of Congress, which some Democrats have argued Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) doesn't have. Legal analysts are curious how it will play out in court if the House attempts to obtain documents without an actual impeachment that has been voted on by Congress. It could ultimately pressure the GOP to hold a vote before they can obtain the documents they want.
Mace confessed that she doesn't believe the House is at a point where there is enough evidence to pass an impeachment.
"I've tried to be a sane voice, but if we don't show all the evidence to the American people how can they trust us?" she asked.
Former President Donald Trumptook to his Truth Social account on Wednesday morning to attack The New York Times, and brag about his recent interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, in a long-winded and rambling rant that involved Michael Jackson and the Panama Canal.
"Such dishonesty at The Failing New York Times," wrote Trump. "Recently I did an interview with Tucker Carlson, rather than the debate, which turned out to have more 'views,' at 265,000,000, than any interview ever done (The debate had 11,000,000). Second was the famous Oprah interview of Michael Jackson, which did far less."
"During the interview I talked about the Panama Canal, & how we so stupidly sold it back to Panama for one dollar, very sarcastically mimicking Crooked Joe Biden & how truly lost he is…." Trump added.
The first GOP debate in August actually had 12.8 million viewers, rather than 11 million, although this is still a steep drop from the first GOP debate of the 2016 presidential cycle, where Trump dominated the stage.
Additionally, the view count on Twitter does not reflect the number of individual users who have seen a tweet, and instead can include the same account viewing it in their feeds multiple times. What's more, to count as being "viewed," a video on Twitter simply has to have been scrolled over for a short time and not watched in its entirety.
Trump declined to participate in the first GOP debate in August, in part because he was already leading the field by more than 30 points, and in part because it would have required he sign a pledge committing to support the eventual nominee, which he has consistently refused to do.
He instead opted for the Carlson interview, during which he mocked the other candidates, reiterated his claim that the 2020 election was "rigged" without providing evidence, and complained that Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in "rhyme."
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) poked fun at the Republican party on an eventful Tuesday where House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) opened an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threatened to remove McCarthy as speaker.
Ocasio-Cortez took to X, retweeting a C-SPAN clip of Gaetz's threat against McCarthy. In the clip, Gaetz said that McCarthy needed to move faster than the "baby step" of opening the impeachment inquiry. He called for more progress or for McCarthy to step down as speaker.
"So let me get this straight: Republicans are threatening to remove their own Speaker, impeach the President, and shut down the government on September 30th - disrupting everyday people’s paychecks and general public operations. For what? I don’t think even they know. Chaos vibes," Ocasio-Cortez
wrote.
Gaetz, a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, has been pushing for Biden's impeachment over allegations the president’s son, Hunter Biden, used his father’s position as leverage in business deals. Despite a House investigation of the elder Biden poring over 12,000 pages of bank records, plus 2,000 suspicious activity reports,
according to The Hill, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing on behalf of the President.
Gaetz has been pressuring McCarthy on impeachment with a new rule allowing any House member to call a “motion to vacate.” Once such a motion is called, a vote happens to remove the speaker.
On Monday, Gaetz announced he would argue on the House floor in favor of booting McCarthy from the speakership; shortly after,
news leaked that McCarthy would likely open an inquiry this week. Soon after the leak was reported, McCarthy did.
Despite McCarthy opening the inquiry, Gaetz went ahead with his planned speech Tuesday.
“I rise today to serve notice, Mr. Speaker, that you are out of compliance with the agreement that allowed you to assume this role,” Gaetz said. “The path forward for the House of Representatives is to either bring you into total, immediate compliance or remove you.”
Gaetz told his fellow Republicans to block a continuing resolution that would fund the government past the September 30 deadline,
according to The New York Times. He said that if McCarthy were to call a vote on a continuing resolution, "it is going to be shot, chaser, continuing resolution, motion to vacate." He later told reporters that he would file a motion to vacate at the start of every legislative day, according to the Times.
Even if the House voted to impeach Biden—which itself is unlikely, given the slim Republican majority and the fact that a number of Republicans are against it—the Senate is unlikely to convict. A number of Republican senators told The Hill that without evidence, articles of impeachment would likely be dismissed before reaching the trial stage.
Representative Ken Buck (R-CO), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, a critic of past impeachment efforts, praised McCarthy for not holding a floor vote on opening the inquiry, instead sending it directly to the Oversight Committee.
"The House should be focusing on spending instead," Buck
said on MSNBC. "We have to make sure the government doesn't shut down. We have to get our job done. And I think taking this off the table and not having a distraction is a good move."
While Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has pushed for impeachment, she is against Gaetz's threats of a motion to vacate,
telling reporters Monday "I think that's the wrong thing to do."
So let me get this straight: Republicans are threatening to remove their own Speaker, impeach the President, and shut down the government on September 30th - disrupting everyday people’s paychecks and general public operations.
Then-Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) speaks before the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2018. Courtesy: C-SPAN