Tag: Trump election fraud lies

Republicans increasingly look to ballot initiatives as way to enact voting measures

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Voting rights advocates say they fear the efforts in three states will prove successful and spread to others where such initiatives are legally possible.

Republicans seeking to change state voting laws in the face of opposition from Democratic governors or unwilling legislatures are zeroing in on another path — enacting fresh restrictions via ballot initiatives.

In Michigan and Pennsylvania, key battlegrounds that President Joe Biden flipped back blue in 2020, as well as in Massachusetts, Republicans are at the beginning stages of a lengthy process to put proposed limits directly to the voters.

Voting rights advocates who connect the moves to the proliferation of restrictive voting laws advanced in states where the GOP enjoys total control say they fear those efforts will prove successful and spread to other states where such initiatives are legally possible. Continue reading.

Suspect Tries to Compare Capitol Riot to Last Year’s Violence in Portland, Ore.

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Right-wing news media and Republican politicians have often made the comparison. Now, in a narrow legal context, a judge will consider the argument.

The comparison has become a staple among right-wing figures in the news media and Republican politicians: The attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 was really no different than the unrest last year that accompanied months of racial justice protests. Any discussion of the first should — out of fairness, they have said — make reference to the second.

Now, for the first time, a federal court is poised to consider the merits of that argument, albeit in a narrow legal context.

The move comes in the case of Garret Miller, a Dallas man charged with storming the Capitol and facing off with officers inside. Last month, Mr. Miller, 34, raised what is known as a selective prosecution defense, claiming that he had been charged with violent crimes because of his conservative beliefs while dozens of leftist activists in Portland, Ore., had similar charges stemming from last year’s violence reduced or dismissed. Continue reading.

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.

Lawmakers reach deal on bipartisan commission to investigate Jan. 6

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House negotiators have reached an agreement on the parameters of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the “facts and circumstances” surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the House Homeland Security Committee announced Friday.

Why it matters: The formation of a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission had been delayed for months, after some Republicans insisted that the scope of the investigation be expanded to include violence by far-left protesters last summer.

Details, according to the House Homeland Security Committee: Continue reading.

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

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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.

Dominion files $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News

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Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit on Friday seeking $1.6 billion in damages against Fox News, arguing that the network knowingly spread misinformation about the company’s role in nonexistent voter fraud.

Why it matters: This is the first time Dominion has sued a media company in its efforts to collect billions in damages from pro-Trump figures who have pushed baseless conspiracy theories about its voting machines.

  • Dominion has previously sued Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, and the pro-Trump MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. All have appeared as guests on Fox News. Continue reading.

McConnell would have happily considered finding Trump guilty, were it not for Mitch McConnell

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You could feel it coming, the unseeable tsunami on its way as you watched the water receding from the bay.

“There’s no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking” the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday, shortly after the majority of his Republican caucus voted against convicting the former president in his second impeachment trial. “No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

Boats were left stranded as the sea withdrew. McConnell himself had voted against convicting Trump, so all of his rhetoric about the former president’s culpability was clearly leading to that most political of words: But. Continue reading.

Dozens charged in Capitol riots spewed extremist rhetoric

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In a text message, a radicalized Trump supporter suggested getting a boat to ferry “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River into the waiting arms of their members in time for Jan. 6, court papers say.

It wasn’t just idle talk, authorities say. Investigators found invoices for more than $750 worth of live ammunition and for a firearm designed to look like a cellphone at the Virginia home of Thomas Caldwell, who’s charged with conspiring with members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group in one of the most sinister plots in the U.S. Capitol siege.

Right-wing extremists, blessed by Donald Trump, were unleashed last month, and their menacing presence has reignited the debate over domestic extremism and how law enforcement should be handling these groups. Continue reading.

In Viral House Floor Speech, Rep. Phillips Appeals to the Better Angels of His Colleagues and Country

Phillips: “I’m not here this evening seeking sympathy – rather to make a public apology.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) joined a special order hour organized by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to share their experiences of January 6, 2021, when Congress was subject to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that led to the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and the first breach of the institution since the War of 1812.

WATCH: 

Continue reading “In Viral House Floor Speech, Rep. Phillips Appeals to the Better Angels of His Colleagues and Country”

Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell

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Voting company Smartmatic on Thursday filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, some of the network’s top hosts, Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell for starting a “disinformation campaign” against the company.

Why it matters: This is the second voting company to file a lawsuit against Giuliani and Powell, following Dominion Voting Systems’ two $1.3 billion defamation lawsuits against the pro-Trump lawyers.

  • Dominion warned Fox News last month that lawsuits were imminent. 
  • In comparison to Dominion, which was used in several states, Smartmatic machines were only used in Los Angeles County. Continue reading.