Category: Trump Administration

Rudy Giuliani is desperately begging Trump to help as feds close in — and is being ignored: report

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Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who was a central figure in two separate scandals that twice resulted in former President Donald Trump’s impeachment, is reportedly being ignored as he begs his one-time boss for help.

The Daily Beast is reporting that Giuliani and his allies have been sending frantic pleas for help after the FBI raided the former New York mayor’s apartment earlier this spring.

Trump, however, has refused to come to Giuliani’s rescue, which has led to “simmering frustrations” among Giuliani’s allies. Continue reading.

Capitol rioter banned from having firearms was just busted on gun charges after killing a mountain lion

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An accused Capitol rioter shot and killed a mountain lion after he was released from jail — and was prohibited from possessing firearms.

Patrick Montgomery was allowed to return home to Colorado after he allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and kicked a police officer, but federal prosecutors have filed a motion to revoke his release after he posed for a photo with the 170-pound mountain lion he killed, reported the Washington Post.

“Given that Montgomery has repeatedly and flagrantly violated both state and federal law while on pretrial release in this case — including by possessing and using a firearm — the Government respectfully requests that the Court revoke his release pending trial,” prosecutors said in the motion. Continue reading.

Democrats confront reality on voting rights: Congress probably isn’t coming to the rescue

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Asked about the path to enact new voting-rights laws, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has repeatedly offered a pat reply: “Failure is not an option.”

Faced with a barrage of new state laws aiming to restrict voting outside Election Day — pushed by Republican legislatures egged on by former president Donald Trump’s false claims of rampant fraud — most Democrats agree with Schumer that the need for a federal backstop is essential.

But failure is very much an option — it is, in fact, the most likely one. Continue reading.

Capitol Police faced equipment shortage during Jan. 6 attack

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Rioters in many cases had more, and better, protective equipment than the officers they were fighting

A Capitol Police officer who fought off rioters for hours in a Medieval-style battle at the Capitol on Jan. 6 returned home ready to crash. But before bed, the officer had to shower off all the chemical irritants the embattled officers were assaulted with that day.

“My body was burning,” the officer said. “The parts of your body that were covered with clothes are now getting this mace water all over you. You have to shower. Your body burns. You lay in bed and you’re just on fire all over.”

Three Capitol Police officers talked to CQ Roll Call under the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the department’s failures regarding equipment for Jan. 6, when hundreds of pro-Trump insurrectionists stormed the Capitol in a violent attempt to prevent the certification of President Joe Biden’s election. Continue reading.

Trump’s comments on Maricopa County election recount are ‘unhinged,’ Arizona Republican official says

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An Arizona Republican who heads up the county elections department that is the target of a GOP audit of the 2020 election results condemned former president Donald Trump for continuing to push false claims of electoral fraud months after his defeat and called his recent comments “unhinged.”

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called on Republicans to stop supporting Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud and slammed the former president for falsely accusing Maricopa County of deleting an elections database.

“This is unhinged,” Richer tweeted, adding that he was “literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now. We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country.” Continue reading.

Climate Change Data Kept Secret Under Trump Shows Crisis Becoming ‘More Extreme’

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The Trump Administration reportedly suppressed important information issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

It’s believed that the administration, which was in office for four years, kept the EPA’s Climate Change Indicators page frozen for the duration of its time running the US. The page showed an updated assessment of how the planetary emergency is affecting the country and other parts of the world.

However, the Biden administration finally relaunched the page on Wednesday, May 12, with the data that showed that the country was experiencing more heat waves, that its ocean and lake temperatures were rising and that US coasts are seeing sea levels continue to rise.

It also said that the US wildfire season is peaking earlier, Common Dreams reports. Continue reading.

Trump officials used secret terrorism unit to question lawyers at the border: documents

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Taylor Levy couldn’t understand why she’d been held for hours by Customs and Border Protection officials when crossing back into El Paso, Texas, after getting dinner with friends in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in January 2019. And she didn’t know why she was being questioned by an agent who’d introduced himself as a counterterrorism specialist.

Levy was part of the legal team representing the father of a girl who’d died the previous month in the custody of the Border Patrol, which is part of CBP. “There was so much hate for immigration lawyers at that time,” she recalled. “I thought that somebody had put in an anonymous tip that I was a terrorist.”

The truth was more troubling. Newly released records show that Levy was swept up as part of a broader than previously known push by the administration of President Donald Trump to use the federal government’s expansive powers at the border to stop and question journalists, lawyers and activists. Continue reading.

Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s ties to opioid crisis revealed by HBO ‘The Crime of the Century’ filmmaker

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According to documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, America’s opioid crisis — as bad as it continues to be — was on the precipice of becoming much worse under the administration of former president Donald Trump.

Appearing on the Daily Beast’s “The New Abnormal” podcast with host Molly Jong-Fast, the man behind the “Going Clear” expose of Scientology described what he discovered when looking into how Big Pharma helped create a massive addiction problem.

Talking about his “The Crime of the Century ” documentary for HBO, Gibbs brought up both Trump’s involvement and also linked former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the crisis. Continue reading.

Republicans’ conflicting message: Embracing Trump election lie is key to prominence, just stop asking us about it

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The Republican Party’s contorted response to Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen was on stark display as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stood in the White House driveway.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) had helped engineer the ouster Wednesday of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as the No. 3 House Republican leader for saying former president Trump’s claim of a stolen election was a lie. Yet he insisted later that day, “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election.”

In fact, the majority of Republicans — spurred on by Trump and party leaders who for months have been spreading falsehoods and sowing doubts — say in polls that they still question the legitimacy of the election. Trump has continued to spread his lie, writing on his blog on Tuesday that he lost in “an election rigged and stolen from us.” Continue reading.

Cheney seen as merely first victim of Trump election attacks

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Former President Trump‘s false charge that the election was stolen has rattled the core of the GOP, sparking a nasty clash over who commands the soul of the party.

The baseless claims have launched a splinter group of disgruntled Republican officials and toppled a conservative icon, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who was ejected this week from the leadership ranks.

Cheney and party unity are unlikely to be the only casualties of Trump’s assault on last year’s election, however, according to a growing chorus of historians, political scientists, legal experts, pundits, and state and federal lawmakers. Continue reading.