Trump big lie 39 , CD3 DFL

Top private law firms plan ‘SWAT teams’ to fight voting restrictions in court

Top private law firms plan ‘SWAT teams’ to fight voting restrictions in court

First, it was the businesses. Now, it’s the bar.

More than a dozen of the country’s top law firms have committed to join forces to challenge voting restrictions across the country, adding legal might to the corporate pressure campaign opposing Republican-led attempts to overhaul elections in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s loss.

One of the effort’s leaders, Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison of New York, said Monday that 16 firms had signed on so far, including his. The lawyers will act like “SWAT teams” for legal action, he said. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale School of Management professor who is working to help mobilize corporate America against the restrictions, described the legal coalition as an “army of election law experts ready to dispatch at a moment’s notice.”

The group came together from conversations among major law firms about publicly taking a stand against restrictive voting laws like the one enacted in Georgia last month, as well as bills under consideration in Texas, Arizona, Florida and other states. Continue reading.

As Michigan G.O.P. Plans Voting Limits, Top Corporations Fire a Warning Shot

State Republicans pushing a new voting law are threatening to use a rarely invoked option to circumvent a promised veto by the governor. And Michigan businesses are trying to get out ahead of the issue.

At first glance, the partisan battle over voting rights in Michigan appears similar to that of many other states: The Republican-led Legislature, spurred by former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about election fraud, has introduced a rash of proposals to restrict voting access, angering Democrats, who are fighting back.

But plenty of twists and turns are looming as Michigan’s State Senate prepares to hold hearings on a package of voting bills beginning Wednesday. Unlike Georgia, Florida and Texas, which have also moved to limit voting access, Michigan has a Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who said last month she would vetoany bill imposing new restrictions. But unlike in other states with divided governments, Michigan’s Constitution offers Republicans a rarely used option for circumventing Ms. Whitmer’s veto.

Last month, the state’s Republican chairman told activists that he aimed to do just that — usher new voting restrictions into law using a voter-driven petition process that would bypass the governor’s veto pen. Continue reading.

Capitol Police Told to Hold Back on Riot Response on Jan. 6, Report Finds

Despite being tipped that “Congress itself is the target” on Jan. 6, Capitol Police were ordered not to use their most powerful crowd-control weapons, according to a scathing new watchdog report.

WASHINGTON — The Capitol Police had clearer advance warnings about the Jan. 6 attack than were previously known, including the potential for violence in which “Congress itself is the target.” But officers were instructed by their leaders not to use their most aggressive tactics to hold off the mob, according to a scathing new report by the agency’s internal investigator.

In a 104-page document, the inspector general, Michael A. Bolton, criticized the way the Capitol Police prepared for and responded to the mob violence on Jan. 6. The report was reviewed by The New York Times and will be the subject of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.

Mr. Bolton found that the agency’s leaders failed to adequately prepare despite explicit warnings that pro-Trump extremists posed a threat to law enforcement and civilians and that the police used defective protective equipment. He also found that the leaders ordered their Civil Disturbance Unit to refrain from using its most powerful crowd-control tools — like stun grenades — to put down the onslaught. Continue reading.

The great capitulation of Trump’s voter fraud crusade

The 2020 election is a case study in how unproved claims can be weaponized. For decades, former president Donald Trump’s party warned of significant voter fraud while successfully pushing policies such as voter ID. In 2016, Trump laid a predicate for contesting an election by suggesting there was massive fraud, even in an election he had won. By 2020, when Trump lost, it culminated in a huge portion of the electorate believing a “stolen election” theory for which there is vanishingly little actual evidence.

Some have done more than raise questions, though. They, like Trump and often in search of his allies’ support, have alleged actual massive fraud.

But now they’ve been asked to account for it. And crucially and increasingly, they have backed down. Continue reading.

Inside Trump’s private, revisionist, grievance-laden speech to the RNC

The Donald Trump Show was rekindled privately Saturday night at a Republican National Committee event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., with the former president delivering a speech heavy on his election grievances and with relatively little to say about the future of the GOP.

As The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey reported Sunday, Trump’s speech reserved the heaviest and newest criticisms for the man who is currently the most powerful Republican in Washington, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.). Trump hit McConnell for not helping overturn the 2020 election and called him a “dumb son of a b—-,” while accusing him of being ungrateful for Trump’s appointment of McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, to his Cabinet.

Audio of the speech reviewed by The Post reveals that Trump at times went even further in going after his foes and revising electoral history, even lodging a suggestive attack involving former first lady Michelle Obama’s appearance. Continue reading.

Smartmatic says disinformation on Fox News about the election was ‘no accident.’

The election technology company Smartmatic pushed back on Monday against Fox News’s argument that it had covered the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election responsibly, stating that Fox anchors had played along as guests pushed election-related conspiracy theories.

“The First Amendment does not provide the Fox defendants a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Smartmatic’s lawyer, J. Erik Connolly, wrote in a brief filed in New York State Supreme Court. “The Fox defendants do not get a do-over with their reporting now that they have been sued.”

The brief came in response to motions filed by Fox Corporation and three current and former Fox hosts — Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs — to dismiss a Smartmatic lawsuit accusing them of defamation. Continue reading.

Kristen Clarke faced abuse for taking on Trump. Now she’s poised to lead Justice Department’s civil rights team.

President Donald Trump was waging his baseless assault on the presidential election results last fall when Kristen Clarke, head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, opened her inbox to a stream of vicious threats over her efforts to fight back and protect the rights of voters.

Openly misogynistic, littered with racial epithets, the messages were of the variety that seeks to debase and intimidate prominent minority women. “May you be found guilty by military tribunal and executed by hanging,” one email read.

Clarke, who is Black, posted it on Twitter. Continue reading.

Wake Up, GOP, Warns Liz Cheney: Trump Is Still Waging ‘War On The Constitution’

The Wyoming lawmaker also called the sex trafficking allegations against Matt Gaetz “sickening.”

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called on her party Sunday to move on from former President Donald Trump, saying in an interview on “Face The Nation” on CBS that he’s peddling his old lies and continuing to wage “war on the Constitution.”

In an incendiary speech Saturday at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for the Republican National Committee, Trump yet again baselessly claimed the election had been illegally stolen from him. He attacked former Vice President Mike Pence for lacking “the courage” to block voters’ choice of Joe Biden as president. He expressed no regrets about, nor remorse for, the deadly Capitol riot, The Washington Post reported.

“The former president is using the same language that he knows provoked violence on January 6th,” Cheney said of the speech. “As a party, we need to be focused on the future. We need to be focused on embracing the Constitution — not embracing insurrection.” Continue reading.

He heeded Trump’s call to fight. Now a Georgia teen awaits the consequences

ATLANTA — Long before he stormed the U.S. Capitol, Bruno Joseph Cua flashed warning signs he was headed for serious trouble in his hometown of Milton, Georgia.

Perched behind the wheel of his Toyota pickup with a Trump 2020 flag streaming from the truck bed, the 18-year-old harassed drivers whose vehicles showed support for Joe Biden or liberal causes.

He joined social media sites favored by the extreme right and filled up his feeds with screeds that became more strident following Trump’s Nov. 3 loss. He wrote of acquiring an assault-style weapon illegally. And when Trump called supporters to Washington Jan. 6 for his “Save America” rally, Cua was all in. Continue reading.

Watch this insane interview with Trump supporter who is clearly divorced from reality

Donald Trump so successfully pushed his “Big Lie” about election fraud that his supporters stormed the capitol on January 6th. And now, it seems, conservative lies about the insurrection have convinced some of his supporters that the riots never even happened.

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan on Saturday conducted a fascinating interview with Kinnet Ehring McSweeney at Trump National Doral.

“And I do believe that the election was stolen and I do believe it was a peaceful rally that day,” McSweeney said, when in fact the opposite is true. “And that, just because people who were in the capitol were wearing Trump shirts and Trump hats doesn’t necessarily make them Trump supporters — anybody can get one of those shirts.” Continue reading.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: