Category: Trump Administration

Bill Barr is desperately trying to rehab his image as the dirty truth comes out

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Former Attorney General Bill Barr’s record leading the U.S. Justice Department is coming into clearer light as Merrick Garland takes the reins of the agency, and new revelations are bringing the much-maligned Trump acolyte under new scrutiny. It’s now clear that under his watch, DOJ obtained the communication records of multiple journalists, a disturbing use of government power that is supposed to face stringent restrictions. Some argue it should never happen at all. The news was revealed when the new administration contacted the journalists to inform them of what happened.

And the public has also learned that Barr’s DOJ sought to force Twitter to unmask an anonymous account critical of California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, a close Trump ally. Shortly after Garland was sworn in as attorney general, DOJ dropped the subpoena against Twitter.

So how is the former attorney general reacting to the new administration airing his dirty laundry? From all appearances, it looks like he’s trying to launder his reputation by anonymously giving Trump administration scoops to reporters. Continue reading.

Republicans try but can’t escape Jan. 6

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Republicans would really like to move beyond Jan. 6, but it’s not going very well. 

Four months into the Biden administration, as GOP leaders are racing to shift the focus away from the violent attack by a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol, they’re being forced to confront the rampage at every turn.  

Democrats are charging ahead with plans for deep-dive investigations into the assault. Continue reading.

Former Trump campaign staffers file lawsuit in Ohio on the strength of the former president’s Big Lie

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In Stark County, Ohio, a continuation of the fight over the 2020 presidential election is in full swing although the right-wing arguments are founded on a Big Lie. According to Talking Points Memo, former Trump campaign staffers have filed a new lawsuit focused on allegations of “misconduct by the county board of elections.”

The problems began back in December when the Stark County Board of Elections voted in favor of investing $1.5 million for the purchase of new voting equipment from Dominion Voting Systems. However, in March the Republican-led Stark County Board of Commissioners pushed back with a vote opposing the purchase of 1,450 machines after received an influx of complaints from Trump supporters.

“They believe the election was stolen from Trump and we should stand by Trump and the Dominion machines have been known to be hacked,” Commissioner Richard Regula said to the Canton Repository. “It’s been the most calls I’ve ever received as a county commissioner. … I had 17 voicemails in one day.” Continue reading.

In echo of Arizona, Georgia state judge orders Fulton County to allow local voters to inspect mailed ballots cast last fall

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A Georgia state judge on Friday ordered Fulton County to allow a group of local voters to inspect all 147,000 mail-in ballots cast in the 2020 election in response to a lawsuit alleging that officials accepted thousands of counterfeit ballots.

The decision marks the latest instance of a local government being forced to undergo a third-party inspection of its election practices amid baseless accusations promoted by President Donald Trump that fraud flipped the 2020 contest for President Biden.

The inspection in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, is likely to proceed differently than an audit underway in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Republican state senators ordered county election officials to hand over equipment and ballots to a private company called Cyber Ninjas for examination. That process has come under widespread criticism for lacking security measures and failing to follow the rigorous practices of government recounts. On Thursday, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) urged local officials to toss their machines after the audit is complete because their security is now in doubt. Continue reading.

Legal intrigue swirls over ex-Trump exec Weisselberg: Five key points

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Donald Trump’s longtime chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg faces escalating legal jeopardy on multiple fronts over questionable financial activity linked to the former president and the Trump Organization.

Weisselberg is reportedly the subject of a criminal tax probe by the New York attorney general and an overlapping inquiry by the Manhattan district attorney, whose offices have begun coordinating efforts.

The investigative pace seems to have quickened in recent months. Many details still remain unknown, including the breadth of Weisselberg’s potential wrongdoing and the possible evidence he could give to prosecutors on Trump and his business dealings.  Continue reading.

Chinese American Group Sues Trump For Slurs It Says Triggered ‘Racial Violence’

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Trump’s “outrageous conduct” resulted in an “unmistakable” trend of attacks on Asian Americans, the suit states.

The Chinese American Civil Rights Coalition has sued former President Donald Trump for his attacks on China and his Asian slurs, accusing him of sparking a spike in violence against Asian Americans.

“Defendant’s extreme and outrageous conduct indeed has caused members of the Plaintiff organization, and to a large extent Asian Americans, emotional distress, and resulted in an unmistakable rising up trend of racial violence against Chinese Americans and Asian Americans from New York to California,” said the federal suit, filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York by the nonprofit civil rights group.

It seeks $1 for each American of Asian or Pacific Island heritage, which would amount to about $22.9 million in damages. Continue reading.

GOP efforts to downplay danger of Capitol riot increase

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Attempts to whitewash the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection and cast the rioters as sympathetic characters are becoming increasingly common among Republican members of Congress.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) this week said it was a “false narrative” to say “there were thousands of armed insurrectionists breaching the Capitol,” while Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said the rioters charged with crimes were facing overly harsh treatment in jail and questioned why Congress isn’t also investigating liberal protests over racial justice last year that at times turned violent.

Other Republicans in recent days have falsely claimed the rioters weren’t armed and questioned whether people in the mob were really former President Trump’s supporters. One GOP lawmaker compared one image of the Capitol breach to a “normal tourist visit.”

New analysis reveals one key reason Trump lost Arizona — and deflates his claim of ‘rigging’

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About 75,000 Republican-leaning voters in Arizona’s two most populous counties did not vote to re-elect President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, according to an analysis of every vote cast by a longtime Arizona Republican Party election observer and election technologists familiar with vote-counting data.

The analysis from Maricopa and Pima Counties underscored that the Arizona state Senate’s ongoing audit of 2.1 million ballots from Maricopa County’s November 2020 election was based on a false premise—that Democrats stole Arizona’s election where Trump lost statewide to Joe Biden by 10,457 votes.

“I am continuing my analysis of why Trump lost in Arizona,” Benny White, a former military and commercial pilot who has been a Republican election observer for years in Pima County and was part of the research team, saidin a May 10 Facebook post. “Bottom line: Republicans and non-partisans who voted for other Republicans on the ballot did not vote for Trump, some voted for Biden and some simply did not cast an effective vote for President.” Continue reading.

Amazon suspends work on construction site after seventh noose is found

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Local and state police, and the FBI, are treating the incidents in Windsor, Conn., as potential hate crimes.

Amazon has suspended work on a fulfillment center in Windsor, Conn., after numerous nooses were found at the construction site in the past month, company officials and investigators say.

The site will remain closed until security measures have been implemented, Amazon told The Washington Post on Friday. The FBI and Connecticut State Police are helping local police with the investigation into the incidents, which are being treated as potential hate crimes. The e-commerce giant is offering a $100,000 reward for information that helps identify the responsible party.

Windsor police officers had been patrolling the site when the seventh noose was discovered early Wednesday afternoon, the department said in a news release. Employees in the area were interviewed, and the rope collected and taken to the state lab for analysis. The work site has no surveillance cameras, and hundreds of workers for various contractors come and go on-site each day. Continue reading.

Republicans lose patience with Arizona election audit

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PHOENIX — A growing chorus of Arizona Republicans is calling on the GOP-controlled state Senate to end an audit into Maricopa County’s 2020 election results that is increasingly relying on disproven conspiracy theories to challenge President Biden’s victory here.

The audit, ordered by a state Senate majority that has bought into former President Trump’s big lie about the results of the election he lost handily, is on hold until Monday. It has already dragged on well past the estimated time auditors said it would take to recount the county’s ballots.

But some Republicans say they hope it does not continue after embarrassing revelations that supposedly bombshell allegations by auditors who have perpetuated Trump’s lies were in fact errors made by the auditors themselves. Continue reading.