Tag: Trump election fraud lie

Capitol cop beaten with a skateboard by Florida music student during Trump’s insurrection: prosecutors

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Grady Douglas Owens, a 21-year-old music student in Winter Park, FL, remains held in jail on some of the most serious charges filed among the hundreds arrested in connection with the January 6 Capitol riot.

Boyle over the head with a skateboard during the melee at the Capitol. Boyle suffered a concussion and a finger injury from the attack, its report stated.

Owens was denied bail Friday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Irick. The FBI complaint shows that he faces charges of assaulting an officer, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, along with the trespassing and obstruction charges faced by other protesters. Owens faced up to 36 years in prison. Continue reading.

Oath Keepers founder, associates exchanged 19 calls from start of Jan. 6 riot through breach, prosecutors allege

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Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, his deputy and three members who guarded Roger Stone exchanged nearly 20 phone calls over three hours on Jan. 6, coinciding with the first assault on police barricades protecting the U.S. Capitol and spanning the time the three members breached the building, prosecutors charged Thursday.

In a new indictment adding previously charged Stone guards Joshua James, 33, of Arab, Ala., and Roberto Minuta, 36, of Prosper, Tex., to an Oath Keepers conspiracy case that now has 12 defendants, prosecutors bluntly laid a path to Rhodes and a person they said he put in charge of his group’s operations that day.

Prosecutors identified that individual only as “Person 10.” Rhodes in interviews has said he tapped a former Army explosives expert and Blackwater contractor nicknamed “Whip” as on-the-ground team leader. Continue reading.

Florida firm hired to oversee Maricopa County, Arizona vote audit promoted Trump’s debunked election fraud lies

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Once a deep red state that was synonymous with the GOP conservatism of Sen. Barry Goldwater and his successor, Sen. John McCain, Arizona has evolved into a swing state where Democrats won the 2020 presidential election and now occupy both of its U.S. Senate seats. Democrats have fared especially well in Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix — and the Arizona State Senate has hired a technology company to oversee a recount of 2020 general election ballots in that county. According to the Arizona Republic, that company, the Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, has a history of promoting bogus election fraud claims.

Arizona Republic reporters Andrew Oxford, Jen Fifield and Ryan Randazzo explain, “Cyber Ninjas will lead a team that includes three other firms as part of a $150,000 contract the Senate has awarded to conduct an unprecedented audit of the election results in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county. But a deleted Twitter account that appears to belong to Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan suggests he has already made up his mind about the security of Arizona’s elections. It includes a litany of unsubstantiated allegations about fraud in the last election.”

A Twitter post that Logan shared in late 2020, according to the Arizona Republic reporters, read, “I’m tired of hearing people say there was no fraud. It happened, it’s real, and people better get wise fast.” And Logan, they add, “also appears to have shared posts by Sidney Powell, an attorney who supported former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results, and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories about the last election.” Continue reading.

Mother of injured DC officer unloads on the GOP after Trump claims Capitol rioters were ‘hugging and kissing’ police

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Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon this Monday, the mother of a DC Police officer who was brutally assaulted during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 said that she and her family are outraged at former president Donald Trump’s claim that the rioters posed “zero threat” and were even “hugging and kissing” police.”

“For us, for our family, and for each and every police officer that I know that Michael’s in touch with constantly, it’s outrageous. It’s so dehumanizing. It’s so devaluing,” Terry Fanone said.

“The thing that is so profound is after [Trump] made those statements, the silence that followed — and where was the outrage from other people who were there … and the silence to me implies indifference, and I could be wrong, but indifference and complicity,” she said. Continue reading.

Trump Lawyer Who Urged Executing Pence Seeks GOP Chair

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Lin Wood, the far-right, pro-Trump attorney who lost multiple lawsuits attempting to overturn the 2020 election, has announced he is running to be chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, the Post and Courier reported on Monday.

“My decision to run for the office was heavily influenced by my well known desire to reform local and state political parties and return power to the people,” Wood told the paper. “Here, I want to return power and control of the South Carolina Republican Party to the members of the party.”

Wood is now well-known for filing lie-filled legal challenges alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election, with zero evidence to back them up. Continue reading.

Accused Capitol rioter arrested in T-shirt reading ‘I was there’ with Trump’s photo, insurrection date

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When police showed up at Garret Miller’s Dallas home earlier this year to arrest him on charges that he had participated in the Capitol riot, his wardrobe spoke for itself.

The 34-year-old unemployed man, who allegedly forced his way into the U.S. Capitol building and threatened a congresswoman and a police officer, was clad in a T-shirt emblazoned with a photograph of former president Donald Trump and text declaring: “I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021.”

New details of his Jan. 20 arrest were revealed this week in court documents as prosecutors urged a judge not to release him before his trial, noting that he allegedly admitted to bringing a gun into the Capitol during the deadly insurrection. Police also found an array of weapons and gear in Miller’s house, prosecutors said, including a grappling hook, ropes, body armor, night vision goggles, a crossbow and arrows, and multiple firearms with ammunition. Continue reading.

Sean Hannity calls for voter suppression in 5 more states: ‘This has nothing to do with race’

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Following passage of voter suppression bills by Republicans in Iowa and Georgia, Fox News personality Sean Hannity is now calling for his viewers to demand similar measures in five additional states.

“Now we turn to an important story on election integrity, and it matters. People ask me, ‘Hannity, what can I do?’ Well, first, if you live in Georgia, if you live in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, you want to work with your state legislatures,” he argued.

Four of the five states Hannity listed have Republican legislatures, with only Nevada controlled by Democrats. Continue reading.

Delta faces boycott threats for stance on new Georgia voting law

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Social media users said they would no longer give the airline their business

Georgia’s new voting law, which puts barriers in place for absentee and mail-in voting and makes it illegal for third-party groups to hand out food and water to voters in line, has earned widespread criticism from Democrats and voting rights advocates. President Biden called it “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”

Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, on the other hand, put out a statementon Friday saying the bill — which was signed into law Thursday night — had “improved considerably during the legislative process” and noted some elements for praise.

That statement from CEO Ed Bastian has prompted a #BoycottDelta trend on social media. Continue reading.

Two Capitol Police officers sue Trump for ‘physical and emotional injuries’ suffered in riots

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Two Capitol Police officers who battled the mob of Donald Trump supporters that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 are suing the former president for the physical and emotional injuries they say they suffered in the attacks.

In a federal suit filed Tuesday in D.C., Officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby allege that for months, Trump rallied the insurrectionists with baseless election fraud claims that eventually culminated in the breach of the Capitol that left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer. About 140 police officers were injured, according to the police union, and two officers who had been on duty at the Capitol that day later died by suicide. 

“Both United States Capitol Police Officers reported for duty on January 6, 2021, without any suspicion that they would soon become the targets of Trump’s followers,” according to the suit. Continue reading.

Former Trump chief of staff calls ex-President’s Capitol riot claims ‘manifestly false’

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The former chief of staff to ex-President Donald Trump on Saturday pushed back against his former boss’ recent attempt to whitewash the history of the January 6 Capitol riot. 

Mick Mulvaney, who stepped down as Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland after the insurrection, called Trump’s comments that his supporters were “hugging and kissing” police officers and posed “zero threat,” despite widespread violence, “manifestly false.”

“I was surprised to hear the President say that. Clearly there were people who were behaving themselves, and then there were people who absolutely were not, but to come out and say that everyone was fine and there was no risk, that’s just manifestly false — people died, other people were severely injured,” Mulvaney told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “Newsroom.” Continue reading.