DC reporter for
@reuters
on crime and justice. Ex-
@usatoday
. Data, documents and "convoluted KGB style back-door" stuff. 202-527-9709, brad.heath
@tr
.com
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.com
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More:
A federal judge wants every attorney whose name was on court filings seeking to overturn Michigan's presidential election results in the "Kraken" suit there to show up for a sanctions hearing on July 6.
Montana's governor says his state did many of the things Texas said make an election illegal but Texas didn't sue them because Trump won, "underscoring, of course, that this is less about election integrity than it is about attempting to overturn the will of the electorate."
Guys, under the president's unemployment plan, nobody gets the $300 in federal aid unless their state agrees to come up with $100. He's trying to shoehorn this through disaster aid programs and the relevant law requires a 25% state match. No match, no federal aid.
NEW from
@Reuters
: Federal prosecutors have offered an ominous new assessment of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, saying they had "strong evidence" that "the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials."
A federal judge won't delay tomorrow's hearing on President Trump's lawsuit to overturn the election he lost i n Pennsylvania because most of his lawyers quit. His remaining lawyer - who's also a radio host - will have to go it alone and is "expected to be prepared."
The president's call with Georgia election officials is hard to listen to. We spend billions of dollars to make the president the best-informed person on Earth, but the information he's parroting about the election is total bullshit.
That report about a massive error rate with Dominion voting machines in a rural Michigan county? Total nonsense.
Antrim County recounted its ballots - they're on paper - by hand today and found the machines counted accurately.
A federal judge has ruled that Donald Trump's lawsuit against Twitter cannot go forward in Florida, ruling that "status as President of the United States does not exclude him from the requirements of the forum selection clause in Twitter's Terms of Service."
The FBI documents released yesterday confirm that he government began wiretapping Carter Page a month after he left the president's campaign, and that the surveillance was approved by four judges, all of whom found probable cause to believe he was working as a Russian agent.
Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC. Ask her how that worked out - she did better with Crazy Bernie. Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!
Trump's Facebook lawsuit is filed in federal court in Florida. Facebook's terms of service requires that "any claim, cause of action, or dispute you have against us" be filed in federal court in northern California or San Mateo County state court.
The shirtless man with furs and a horned hat photographed on the Senate dais during the Capitol siege, Jacob Chansley, has been charged with unlawful entry. He told the FBI he came to D.C. "at the request of the President that all 'patriots' come to D.C."
๐คฆโโ๏ธ Wisconsin's response to Sidney Powell's lawsuit points out that the Dominion voting machine she says were part of a big election-rigging plot weren't used in most of the counties she's complaining about, and in the two that did use them, Trump won.
The Trump administration argued court Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells.
The Mar-a-Lago special master is telling Trump's lawyers to say once and for all whether they really think the FBI planted evidence during its search, as the former president has publicly alleged.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia's voting systems manager, is just exasperated. "It has all gone too far." A technician in Gwinnett County was told he should be hung for treason. The Secretary of State's wife is getting "sexualized threats."
"It has to stop."
Georgia Secretary of State: "There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half truths and misinformation, and frankly they are misleading the president as well. "
DOJ filed a lawsuit today against ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone saying he owes nearly $2 million in unpaid taxes and penalties and that he and his wife used an LLC to "shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle."
Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell says she has "4 cases with massive evidence of fraud pending" at the Supreme Court.
Not one of them is currently listed on the court's public docket.
Rod Blagojevich did not sell the Senate seat. He served 8 years in prison, with many remaining. He paid a big price. Another Comey and gang deal! Thank you to
@LisaMarieBoothe
who really โgetsโ whatโs going on!
@FoxNews
President Trump's lawyers have filed a new brief explaining why it should get a restraining order to block Pennsylvania from certifying the election results, and it starts off a lot like the others in that it misspells the name of the governor.
Twitter's lawyers told a federal court yesterday that nothing in the "Twitter Files" cited by Donald Trump actually show that the social media platform was a tool of government censorship.
To recap: Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, is suing Twitter because a fake cow was mean to him on the internet. (He's also suing the fake cow.)
RTRS - U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT INSPECTOR GENERAL FINDS OPENING OF FBI PROBE INTO TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISERS WAS LEGITIMATE, PROPERLY AUTHORIZED -CONGRESSIONAL SOURCE
This is the Supreme Court order denying the request by Rep.
@MikeKellyPA
and others to invalidate Pennsylvania's presidential election. That's the whole thing. It was denied by the full court with no public dissents.
Why it's complicated right now: There are still tons of ballots left to count in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In all of those states, we expect *many* more ballots remain to be counted from areas that supported Clinton in 2016.
18 U.S.C. ยง 922(d)(1) makes it a federal crime to sell a firearm to a person who is under felony indictment.
And 18 U.S.C. ยง 922(n) makes it a federal crime for a person under indictment to ship or transport a firearm.
The curious thing about the Nunes memo is that it doesn't actually accuse the FBI or DOJ of violating any particular law. There are legal standards for warrant applications, material omissions, etc., but it doesn't reference them.
Recap:
- Courts in AZ and NV find no election fraud, after letting Trump & co. put on evidence
- WI Sup. Ct. majority says throwing out an election is pretty brazen, in bad sign for Trump
- MI court nixes "purportedly emergent" Trump case
- 11th Cir. befuddled by Kraken jujitsu
The Third Cir. has rejected Trump's appeal. Decisively.
"Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here."
The hearing is actually on three separate requests for sanctions - by Detroit; Michigan's governor and secretary of state; and a voter who intervened in the case. It's open to the public and will be on Zoom.
Hi Scott. Longtime fan. The reason this argument never makes it to CNN is that it's ridiculous, and many of the people making this claim know it. The mysterious "dumps" are large counties reporting their vote totals. It's that simple.
We are starting to see the "good stuff" now. Are data anomalies enough to show the election was "probably" stolen? I don't know. But watch how this argument never makes it to CNN. That's your dog not barking.
Among other things, this is the case in which lawyers for ex-Trump attorney Sidney Powell claimed she can't be sanctioned because she never signed the pleadings, even though she electronically signed them.
NEW: Multiple Trump campaign officials tell
@reuters
the president's strategy for staying in power despite losing the election is to persuade state legislatures to do what their voters did not and simply declare him the winner.
Ohio filed an amicus brief in Texas' SCOTUS suit. It says what Texas is asking the court to do - throw out the election in other states - "would undermine a foundational premise of our federalist system."
Seventeen states filed a brief in the Supreme Court just now in support of Texas' request that the justices throw out the results of the presidential election in four other states that didn't support President Trump.
The City of Detroit has responded to Sidney Powell's longshot lawsuit trying to overturn the results of Michigan's presidential election. "A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness breathes out lies. Few lawsuits breathe more lies than this one."
Big pro-authoritarian energy in Trumpland today:
The president's (recently pardoned) former national security adviser, Mike Flynn, shared a message encouraging President Trump to "temporarily suspend the Constitution," impose martial law and "silence the destructive media."
The Trump campaign released that 234-page stack of affidavits from poll watchers in Detroit tonight. So far, it's mostly allegations that they couldn't get as close as they wanted to the counting, couldn't re-enter the room after they left, etc. Pretty standard election stuff.
Trump's Twitter lawsuit also is filed in Florida. Twitter's terms of service - which courts generally enforce - require that "all disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco County."
President Trump's lawyer just told a federal appeals court that Congress doesn't have the power to investigate whether the president engaged in money laundering.
Aaron Van Langevelde, Republican member of Michigan's board: "It's not complicated. It's very simple. We're required to canvass the returns and determine the result." He says there's no authority for the board to audit or delay the results.
The board, he says, must certify.
A lot of this brief is people in glass houses casting stones. It argues that allowing absentee ballots to arrive after Election Day undermines faith in democracy. But Kansas and Mississippi, which both signed on, also count mail-in ballots that arrive late.
D.C.'s acting U.S. attorney says he has assembled a team of prosecutors whose only job is to bring sedition and conspiracy charges "related to the most heinous acts" when a mob of President Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Dominion Voting Systems says ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell "evaded service of process for weeks," forcing it to take "extraordinary measures to effect service, including hiring private investigators and pursuing Powell across state lines."
This is new. Federal prosecutors have said for the first time in a court filing that Cohen committed campaign finance crimes "in coordination with and at the direction of" President Trump.
This is new. Federal prosecutors have said for the first time in a court filing that Cohen committed campaign finance crimes "in coordination with and at the direction of" President Trump.
The City of Detroit has filed its motion seeking sanctions - including disbarment proceedings - for "Kraken" lawyers Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, who they said brought "false and frivolous claims while seeking relief with massive implications for our democracy."
Shutdown update: The Trump administration appears to have gone out of its way to keep the attraction in the federally owned building that houses the Trump hotel open and staffed with National Park Service rangers.
A Maryland man arrested on federal interstate threats charges after saying he wanted to exterminate Hispanics wrote: "I thank God everyday President Donald John Trump is President and that he will launch a Racial War and Crusade" against people who aren't white.
A federal judge has rejected ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell's argument that "no reasonable person" would believe her election-fraud claims were statements of fact.
Dominion's suits against her, Giuliani and MyPillow will go forward.
A
@reuters
investigation found eight attempts since 2020 to gain unauthorized access to election equipment - all of them by Republican officeholders or activists bent on proving Trump's false claims that the election he lost was rigged.
The ballots are not signed. They have been separated from the signed envelopes lest peopleโs votes be revealed. The Trump campaign is demanding that Georgia do something that is impossible to do.
The brief also argues that executive officials shouldn't be able to mess with voting rules. But Texas -- the plaintiff in this case, the state they're supporting -- did that very thing. The governor used executive power to extend the early voting period, among other things.
President Trump's lawyers have filed a new motion in Pennsylvania making clear that they only want to block the state from certifying the results of the presidential election, which they claim was fraudulent. It can certify the other races, decided on the same ballots, they say.
One little thing about Sidney Powell's Georgia "Kraken" lawsuit, courtesy of a helpful emailer.
She argues that the state's certification of its Dominion equipment is "undated."
It's not - it's online. The date is just obviously cropped out in the one filed with her lawsuit.
Some news: The DEA has suspended an agent who was in the crowd, armed, outside the U.S. Capitol as a mob of Trump supporters besieged it, the first known case of authorities examining the conduct of a fellow federal agent during the deadly riot.
The president has previously said he had ordered that some of these documents be declassified and his Justice Department persuaded a federal court that he had no idea what he was talking about.
I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!
Here's the Supreme Court order rejecting Texas' attempt to throw out the results of the presidential election in four other states. The court declines to hear it; the only dispute is a technical one over the manner by which it is killed.
It's over.
Litigation in the era of Trump:
DOJ says the president had nothing to do with its decision to fire former FBI agent Peter Strzok. His lawyers respond by quoting President Trump's remarks last week taking credit for firing him and others.
Here's the amicus brief, which is led by Missouri.
This is the product of a lot Republicans in a lot of states using their offices to try to throw out the votes of millions of people in other states who failed to support President Trump.
President Trump personally asked Georgia's governor "to call a special session of the state legislature to get lawmakers to override the results and appoint electors that would back him."
This is an extraordinary thing for a U.S. president to even attempt.
Pressuring Kemp is โthe latest example of Trumpโs extraordinary personal effort to overturn Bidenโs win [and] comes as his legal team has met with resounding failure... On Friday, the president and his allies suffered legal defeats in six states.โ
Ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell encourages "all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure." She says there shouldn't be a Senate runoff.
She says we need to have voter ID and paper ballots. Georgia has both of those things.
A *lot* of this brief is an argument that the 17 states that are not GA, MI, PA and WI don't like the voting rules that were adopted in GA, MI, PA and WI because they don't think they're rigorous enough. It'd be, err, unprecedented, to let states sue each other for that.
NEW: President Trump has named more members of his private clubs to top posts in his administration. Presidents traditionally hired friends and allies; Trump is the first modern president to award government jobs to his customers.
Lawyers for Trump and his political allies are airing their farfetched claims of election-fraud before the Senate this morning. What they're not saying: They tried to make these claims in court and judges uniformly rejected all of them.