PHOENIX — Joshua Matthew Black said in a YouTube video that he was protecting the officer at the U.S. Capitol who had been pepper sprayed and fallen to the ground as the crowd rushed the building entrance on Jan. 6.
“Let him out, he’s done,” Black claimed to have told rioters.
But federal prosecutors say surveillance footage doesn’t back up Black’s account. They said he acknowledged that he wanted to get the officer out of the way — because the cop was blocking his path inside.
Russell J. Ramsland Jr. sold everything from Tex-Mex food to light-therapy
technology. Then he sold the story that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump
ADDISON, Tex. — Key elements of the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump took shape in an airplane hangar here two years earlier, promoted by a Republican businessman who has sold everything from Tex-Mex food in London to a wellness technology that beams light into the human bloodstream.
At meetings beginning late in 2018, as Republicans were smarting from midterm losses in Texas and across the country, Russell J. Ramsland Jr. and his associates delivered alarming presentations on electronic voting to a procession of conservative lawmakers, activists and donors.
Briefings in the hangar had a clandestine air. Guests were asked to leave their cellphones outside before assembling in a windowless room. A member of Ramsland’s team purporting to be a “white-hat hacker” identified himself only by a code name. Continue reading.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone on Friday slammed the “Senate Republican Caucus’ audit of the Maricopa County votes” for “[jeopardizing] the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” the Arizona Republic reports.
“The Senate Republican Caucus’ audit of the Maricopa County votes from last November’s election has no stopping point,” Penzone said in a statement. “Now, its most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.”
Penzone’s criticism comes after Maricopa County failed to provide “certain routers that the state Senate sought in its original subpoenas” of 2020 election material. According to the Arizona Republic, “the county has provided all 2.1 million voter general election ballots, voter information and election equipment in response to state Senate subpoenas,” but is warning of a “significant security risk to Sheriff’s Office law enforcement data” if the routers are released. Continue reading.
Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) over his effort to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her leadership position in the Republican Party.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace noted that Banks had deflected when asked about Cheney’s criticism of former President Donald Trump, who has claimed that the election was stolen from him.
“I’ve asked you two questions, Congressman,” Wallace said. “Why are you unwilling to discuss her criticism of President Trump?” Continue reading.
Attorney Marc Elias, who coordinates Democratic Party lawsuits to protect voting rights, blasted CBS News on Saturday.
“Senate committee to hold markup on controversial voting bill,” read a headline by CBS News.
“The Senate Rules Committee will hold a markup Tuesday of the For the People Act, a massive voting and elections bill. Democrats claim the bill is necessary to counter new voting restrictions being considered by multiple states, while Republicans decry it as federal overreach,” reported Grace Segers Continue reading.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) was caught on camera bragging that he “led the objections” on January 6 to try to overturn a free and fair election. Cruz has been highlighted, along with U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), as the top leaders who “amplified claims of election fraud” that “resulted in threats of violence against state and local officials around the country,” according to an ethics complaint filed by seven Democratic Senators.
Lauren Windsor, who describes herself as an undercover reporter for The Undercurrent and runs a site dedicated to helping victims of Project Veritas, pretended to be a far right wing voter and asked Senator Cruz why he “didn’t do more to fight for President Trump on January 6.”
Cruz on camera brags that he “led the objections but the Senate voted it down.” Continue reading.
The right-wing media apparatus, which is global in scale, has lately been making a fetish of something called “critical race theory” (CRT). This has prompted academics to defend it. It’s not a radical political ideology, they say. It’s merely a form of critical inquiry. It is not the boogeyman it’s being made out to be. There’s nothing to fear.
understand the need to defend critical race theory. Colleges and universities are beset on one hand by Republican fascists accusing scholars of indoctrinating students, on the other by anti-left liberals accusing the same of hostility toward freedom of speech. Meanwhile, administrations act more like corporations that privilege efficiency over research and teaching. It’s enough to think CRT is an appropriate hill to die on.
understand the need to defend critical race theory. Colleges and universities are beset on one hand by Republican fascists accusing scholars of indoctrinating students, on the other by anti-left liberals accusing the same of hostility toward freedom of speech. Meanwhile, administrations act more like corporations that privilege efficiency over research and teaching. It’s enough to think CRT is an appropriate hill to die on. Continue reading.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) was the organizer of an open letter by all living former Defense Secretaries against the military intervening in election disputes.
The revelation was made to Susan Glasser of The New Yorker by Eric Edelman, a friend of Cheney’s who served as an advisor to her father.
“Cheney’s rupture with the House Republican Conference has become all but final in recent days, but it has been months in the making. Edelman revealed that Cheney herself secretly orchestrated an unprecedented op-ed in the WashingtonPost by all ten living former Defense Secretaries, including her father, warning against Trump’s efforts to politicize the military,” Glasser reported. Continue reading.
Arizona officials involved with a Republican-commissioned recount of the November presidential election in the state’s largest county on Thursday brushed off concerns raised by the Justice Department this week, raising the possibility of a clash between state and federal authorities over the audit.
Pamela S. Karlan, who heads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote a letter to the president of the Arizona state Senate on Wednesday suggesting that the recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County by a private contractor may not comply with federal law, which requires that ballots be securely maintained for 22 months following a federal election.
“We have a concern that Maricopa County election records, which are required by federal law to be retained and preserved, are no longer under the ultimate control of elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors, and are at risk of damage or loss,” she wrote. Continue reading.
