Report: 2 Seattle police officers broke law during DC riots

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SEATTLE — Two Seattle police officers who were in Washington, D.C., during the Jan. 6 insurrection were illegally trespassing on Capitol grounds while rioters stormed the building, but they lied about their actions, a police watchdog said in a report released Thursday.

“They were both standing in the immediate vicinity of the Capitol Building in direct view of rioters lining the steps and climbing the walls,” the Office of Police Accountability said in its report, citing video evidence. “OPA finds it unbelievable that they could think that this behavior was not illegal, contrary to their claims at their OPA interviews.”

After the release of the OPA report, Chief Adrian Diaz said he will hold accountable any Seattle Police Department officer involved in the insurrection, including disciplinary action up to and including termination. He said he would make a decision within 30 days. Continue reading.

Senator’s Photos From Capitol On Jan. 6 Show Violent Insurrection Wreckage

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The pictures show yet again that the deadly riot at the Capitol was no “normal tourist visit,” as one Republican lawmaker previously put it.

Shattered glass. Overturned chairs. Broken furniture. This was some of the wreckage at the Capitol after the violent riot of Jan. 6, captured in newly released photos from a Democratic senator.

“I took these exactly six months ago – the morning after the insurrection,” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown tweeted Wednesday, noting it was the first time he was sharing the footage. “This is what I saw in the Capitol.”

On Jan. 6, an armed mob of hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol where lawmakers were set to certify the results of the U.S. presidential election, which President Joe Biden had won. Five people died in the riots, including a Capitol Police officer.  Continue reading.

Kraken Lawyer Tells Judge ‘Any Attempt To String Cite [Caselaw] Would Be Insulting To All Involved’

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Listen, Judge. We’ve got cases backing us up. You wouldn’t believe how many cases we’ve got over here. In fact, it’s so many cases that I’m not even going to waste your time by pointing them out. 

While that sounds like something that a pro se litigant might have written, in this case it was Stefanie Lambert Juntilla, the local counsel for the Michigan Kraken lawsuit. A motion had been filed asking the court to take judicial notice of the Michigan legislature’s report debunking the facially bonkers election fraud claims that gave rise to the Kraken suits. Juntilla responds that the court should ignore the report because the legislature admits that the report is not “exhaustive” and a rogue member of the Michigan House claims that she — and she alone, apparently — is “in receipt of evidence reflecting systematic election fraud in Michigan that occurred in the November 2020 election.”

Italian space lasers? No… but apparently it’s Taiwan and Germany now?

Which brings Juntilla to this gem: Continue reading.

Reporters point to a simple sign that Trump’s social media lawsuit is ‘unserious’

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It took Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) just “minutes” to begin fundraising off of what some are calling the former president’s “frivolous” lawsuits against Twitter, Facebook, and Google.

Politico’s Sam Stein posted this text from the joint Trump-RNC fundraising committee:

Continue reading.

Mike Lindell’s lawsuit that he vowed would put Trump back into the White House already facing court setbacks

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Trump-loving MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has been saying this week that former President Donald Trump will be returned to the Oval Office next month — a claim that even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) shot down this week for being outlandish.

One of Lindell’s purported weapons in his war to put Trump back in the White House is a lawsuit that he filed against Dominion Voting Systems that he claimed would expose the company’s supposed role in stealing the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

According to Reuters judicial reporter Brad Heath, however, Lindell’s big lawsuit is already facing setbacks in court. Continue reading.

Rudy Giuliani suspended from practicing law in D.C. court

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The D.C. Court of Appeals has temporarily barred Rudolph W. Giuliani from practicing law, following a similar decision in New York.

A committee of judges in New York determined last month that Giuliani was unfit to keep practicing law after he “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large” while representing former president Donald Trump and the Trump campaign in connection with their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

A day after the ruling, disciplinary counsel in D.C. recommended suspending Giuliani’s license in D.C. until the New York case is resolved. On Wednesday the D.C. Court of Appeals agreed. Continue reading.

Arizona secretary of state asks AG for a criminal investigation into election interference by Trump

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has asked her state’s attorney general to investigate election interference from President Donald Trump and his allies.

The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday that Hobbs believes the communications “involve clear efforts to induce supervisors to refuse to comply with their duties,” which she thinks could have violated Arizona law. 

She went on to cite a report from last week that text messages and voicemails came from surrogates of Trump’s, Rudy Giuliani and then ultimately from the White House itself.  Continue reading.

‘It sickens me’: Longtime GOP voter disgusted by the ‘corrupt and ridiculous’ Republican antics in Arizona

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The Republican Accountability Project describes itself as an initiative tasked with “defending the accessibility, integrity, and competitiveness of American elections.” This Tuesday, the group uploaded a video to YouTube featuring “Julie” from Prescott, Arizona, who described herself as a former Republican and Army veteran who worked for the federal government for 34 years.

“I love my country. I loved being a Republican. I was a Republican for 40 years. I voted in every election as long as I was stateside during that 40 years,” Julie said. “And I believed and still believe in the principles and the ideals of the Republican Party, which are smaller government and lower taxes, balanced budgets and free trade and all those things.”

“I still believe in those, but as of this day, I am a Democrat because I could not stay in a party that was committed to one person, to his bidding and his appeasement. And I just couldn’t do it. So I left the party because they left me and I am now a Democrat,” she continued.  Continue reading.

Trump sues Big Tech CEOs

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Former President Donald Trump, who has complained about censorship by social media giants, filed class-action lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook CEO Mark ZuckerbergTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

Why it matters: It’s the latest escalation in Trump’s yearslong battle with Twitter and Facebook over free speech and censorship. Trump is completely banned from Twitter and is banned from Facebook for another two years. 

Details: Trump announced at an 11am press conference Wednesday that he is the lead class representative in a lawsuit being filed with the Southern District of Florida. Continue reading.

Mike Lindell made an insane election conspiracy diagram that has to be seen to be believed

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Former Trump national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn posted a photo of himself with Mike Lindell and others at an event on Tuesday only to prompt questions about what was behind him.

The men stood in front of a whiteboard that had a photo of Donald Trump’s head, floating in the middle. A series of lines, arrows, photos, names and a list of random thoughts swirled around it.

The arrows include things like: Andrew Whitney —-> Ben Carson —-> President Trump. Continue reading.