Author: Data and Research Manager

Judge grills attorneys over suit challenging Michigan results

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A federal judge grilled attorneys involved in a lawsuit that sought to overturn Michigan’s election results during a hearing Monday over whether the lawyers should be sanctioned for their conduct in the case.

U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker posed pointed questions for the attorneys who made baseless claims in court that widespread election fraud caused former President Trump to lose the state to President Biden.

Parker appeared concerned that the affidavits submitted by the plaintiffs’ attorneys to support their election fraud claims may have violated the rules of professional conduct governing lawyers in federal court.  Continue reading.

Anti-vaxx nurse dies from COVID-19 in Louisiana

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A Louisiana nurse who questioned the safety of vaccines has died of complications from COVID-19.

Olivia Guidry, a registered nurse in the emergency department at Ochsner Lafayette General, died Saturday after being hospitalized for the coronavirus in the intensive care unit, reported The Advocate.

“Today is a sad day for my ER family and I,” her colleague Nick Berthelot postedon Facebook. “Your contagious laugh and smile will truly be missed Liv. Until we meet again sweet girl.” Continue reading.

DFL Debrief: Budgets Aren’t Actually Boring! ft. Majority Leader Ryan Winkler

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On this week’s episode of the DFL Debrief Podcast, we sat down with DFL House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler to discuss all things budget! DFLers managed to secure some big wins in this year’s budget despite intense opposition from Minnesota Republicans. Listen to the podcast here.

Lawyers retreat from pro-Trump election suit

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At a hearing on possible sanctions over the Michigan case, some attorneys downplayed their roles. 

The legal reckoning for attorneys who pushed former President Donald Trump’s spurious claims of election fraud advanced on Monday, with a federal court in Detroit holding a hearing on whether to impose sanctions over a suit filed last year seeking to decertify Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan and declare Trump the winner.

Two of the most prominent attorneys in the pro-Trump camp — Dallas-based Sidney Powell and Atlanta-based L. Lin Wood — are among the lawyers who brought the unsuccessful suit and whose conduct is under scrutiny by U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker.

Another pair of attorneys facing possible sanctions in the case, Emily Newman and Julia Haller, served in a variety of Trump administration posts but appear to have left government late last year to aid Powell in the post-election litigation. Continue reading.

Rep. Laurie Pryor (HD48A) Update: July 14, 2021

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Neighbors,

Thank you for joining Sen. Cwodzinski, Rep. Kotyza-Witthuhn and me for the District 48 virtual Town Hall on July 6. We answered your questions about the recently completed legislative session and the newly passed budget. As always, we always appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns and questions.

If you were unable to tune in to the town hall, you can watch here.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

The Minnesota Department of Health reports more than 3 million of our friends and neighbors have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Although the pace of vaccination has slowed, it is still vitally important to get your vaccine to guard against the highly contagious Delta variant showing up in communities across the country and in Minnesota. We owe it to ourselves and our communities to protect each other from the virus.

Continue reading “Rep. Laurie Pryor (HD48A) Update: July 14, 2021”

Adviser to pro-Trump GOP group sent out a newsletter ‘so racist’ it could ‘make a Ku Klux Klansman blush’: report

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Pro-Trump Republicans often engage in subliminal racism or “dog whistle” attacks — that is, code words that they will insist aren’t racist. But when Florida resident Rip McIntosh, an adviser to far-right Trumpista Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA, sent out a fundraising newsletter on April 29, there was nothing subtle or subliminal about the racism in the newsletter. 

In the newsletter, Talking Points Memo’s Nick R. Martin reports, someone going by the pen name E.P. Unum wrote that Blacks have “become socially incompatible with other races” and that “American Black culture has evolved into an unfixable and crime-ridden mess.” Martin described Unum’s rant as being “so racist it might make a ku klux klansman blush.”

According to Martin, the newsletter that McIntosh e-mailed, “also said White people aren’t racist but ‘just exhausted’ with Black people. It portrayed post-Civil War America as a 150-year-long ‘experiment’ to see whether Black people could be ‘taken from the jungles of Africa,’ enslaved, and then integrated into a majority-White society. It said that experiment had failed.” Continue reading.

DOJ reviewed reports of potential misconduct, complicity by officers responding to Capitol riot

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The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., said it is providing those reports at the request of multiple lawyers for the accused rioters.

The Justice Department has reviewed reports of alleged misconduct by police officers who responded to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and is preparing to share them with defense attorneys in the sprawling case, prosecutors revealed in a Monday filing. 

The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., said it is providing those reports at the request of multiple lawyers for the accused rioters. Those lawyers have inquired about allegations that some officers may have been “complicit in the January 6 Capitol Breach,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Regan wrote in the filing.

“We have received copies of investigations into officer conduct, have finished reviewing them, and plan to disclose the relevant materials shortly,” Regan wrote in under the heading “certain specific defense requests.” Continue reading.

‘Land of misfit toys’: Former GOP lawmaker drops the hammer on CPAC ‘freak show’ after ‘reprehensible’ Trump appearance

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Appearing on CNN’s “New Day,” former Republican congressman Charlie Dent (R-PA) hammered the annual CPAC gathering that took place in Texas this past weekend, bluntly calling the confab a “freak show” that is not representative of mainstream conservatism.

Speaking with hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar, Dent said he was both appalled and despondent at what he witnessed while noting that when he was still serving in the House, he refused to attend and be tainted by the extremism he saw there.

After watching a clip of a CPAC panel disparaging efforts to get Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, the former lawmaker went off — while also questioning the straw poll taken at the get-together that anointed Donald Trump as the attendee’s preference in the 2024 presidential election. Continue reading.

Fox News runs disclaimer across the screen while Trump lies about 2020 election in CPAC speech

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Former President Donald Trump continued to spread his 2020 election lies in this CPAC speech Sunday. But one thing was notably different: Fox News ran a disclaimer that he was lying.

While Fox has spent the past several weeks allowing their prime-time hosts to spread lies about the COVID-19 vaccine. The network appears to be drawing a line when it comes to the election.

“The voting system companies have denied the various allegations made by President Trump and his counsel regarding the 2020 election,” the screen says. Continue reading.

GOP bill for Capitol security cuts House version by two-thirds

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The Republican proposal would still largely reimburse the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police

A Republican proposal to address security costs from the Jan. 6 insurrection would largely reimburse the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police but cut roughly two-thirds from the House Democrats’ $1.9 billion version for other expenses.

The $632.9 million draft bill, obtained by CQ Roll Call and dated June 29, represents the latest milestone in the ongoing debate between Republicans and Democrats about how to cover costs associated with the attack on the Capitol and bolster security going forward.

But the GOP proposal likely won’t be the final agreement, with Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick J. Leahy saying it “doesn’t provide the necessary resources to appropriately secure the Capitol complex.” Continue reading.