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    Trump documents trial judge sets first hearing; Georgia grand jury set to weigh 2020 election charges – live

    From 1h agoThe first hearing before US District Judge Aileen Cannon in the federal criminal case against Donald Trump will be on 18 July, according to a court order.As California considers implementing large-scale reparations for Black residents affected by the legacy of slavery, the state has also become the focus of the nation’s divisive reparations conversation, drawing the backlash of conservatives criticizing the priorities of a “liberal” state.“Reparations for Slavery? California’s Bad Idea Catches On,” commentator Jason L Riley wrote in the Wall Street Journal, as New York approved a commission to study the idea. In the Washington Post, conservative columnist George F Will said the state’s debate around reparations adds to a “plague of solemn silliness”.Roughly two-thirds of Americans oppose the idea of reparations, according to 2021 polling from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and 2022 polling from the Pew Research Center. Both found that more than 80% Black respondents support some kind of compensation for the descendants of slaves, while a similar majority of white respondents opposed. Pew found that roughly two-thirds of Hispanics and Asian Americans opposed, as well.But in California, there’s greater support. Both the state’s Reparations Task Force – which released its 1,100-page final report and recommendations to the public on 29 June – and a University of California, Los Angeles study found that roughly two-thirds of Californians are in favor of some form of reparations, though residents are divided on what they should be.When delving into the reasons why people resist, Tatishe Nteta, who directed the UMass poll, expected feasibility or the challenges of implementing large programs to top the list, but this wasn’t the case.“When we ask people why they oppose, it’s not about the cost. It’s not about logistics. It’s not about the impossibility to place a monetary value on the impact of slavery,” said Nteta, provost professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
    It is consistently this notion that the descendants of slaves do not deserve these types of reparations.
    Read the full story here.More than 1,5000 amendments were filed to the FY2024 defense authorization bill, which is projected to hit the House floor this week. At issue is whether the House will take up the hard-right amendments, with the weight falling once again on Speaker Kevin McCarthy.Some of the most closely watched amendments relate to abortion, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) funding, and transgender troops, according to Politico’s Playbook.McCarthy will need to navigate between the demands of his most conservative members – three of whom serve on the House rules committee – and the need for Democratic votes in order to get a bill ultimately signed into law, Playbook writes. It continues:
    In the past, House leaders typically have told the hard right to pound sand, knowing they weren’t going to vote for the final bill anyway. But after pissing off conservatives during the debt limit standoff, McCarthy looks poised to make a different calculation this time.
    Facing heavy criticism from the House Freedom Caucus and other conservatives, McCarthy is under pressure to give on a number of high-profile issues touching defense policy, Punchbowl News writes. It says:
    Every ‘culture war’ provision from the Freedom Caucus that’s added to the base legislation will cost Democratic votes. It will also make GOP moderates unhappy.
    The House rules committee is scheduled to mark up the FY2024 defense authorization bill, the annual bill setting Pentagon priorities and policies, today.The bill, which is expected to hit the floor later this week, has been signed into law 60 years straight. But this year, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and GOP leaders are confronting a legislative landmine as the far-right House Freedom Caucus push for dozens of proposed changes to the legislation.Adam Smith, the head Democrat on the House armed services committee, said he was worried about a flurry of “extreme right-wing amendments” attached to the bill and that he wasn’t “remotely” confident the bill will pass this week.Smith told the Washington Post he was concerned about GOP measures on “abortion, guns, the border, and social policy and equity issues”. Without the controversial amendments, Smith predicted that well over 300 House members would vote for the bill. With them, “you lose most, if not all, Democrats,” he told Politico’s Playbook.Iowa’s state legislature is holding a special session on Tuesday as it plans to vote on a bill that would ban most abortions at around six weeks of pregnancy, when most people don’t yet know they are pregnant.The state is the latest in the country to vote on legislation restricting reproductive rights after the overturning of Roe v Wade last year, which ended the nationwide constitutional right to abortion.Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, called for the special session last week, vowing to “continue to fight against the inhumanity of abortion” and calling the “pro-life” movement against reproductive rights “the most important human rights cause of our time”.Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled legislature will debate House Study Bill 255, which was released on Friday and seeks to prohibit abortions at the first sign of cardiac activity except in certain cases such as rape or incest.Iowa’s house, senate and governor’s office are all Republican-controlled, and the bill faces few hurdles from being passed.Read the full story here.The first hearing before US District Judge Aileen Cannon in the federal criminal case against Donald Trump will be on 18 July, according to a court order.Trump was charged with retention of national defense information, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, which means his case will be tried under the rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.Cipa provides a mechanism for the government to charge cases involving classified documents without risking the “graymail” problem, where the defense threatens to reveal classified information at trial, but the steps that have to be followed mean it takes longer to get to trial.The process includes the government turning over all of the classified information they want to use to the defense in discovery, like any other criminal case, in addition to the non-classified discovery that is done in a separate process.Trump’s lawyers argued the amount of discovery – the government is making the material available in batches because there is so much evidence and it has not finished processing everything that came from search warrants – meant that they could not know how long the process would take.Trump’s lawyers wrote:
    From a practical manner, the volume of discovery and the Cipa logistics alone make plain that the government’s requested schedule is unrealistic.
    Donald Trump asked the federal judge overseeing the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case to indefinitely postpone setting a trial date in court filings on Monday and suggested, at a minimum, that any scheduled trial should not take place until after the 2024 presidential election.The papers submitted by Trump’s lawyers in response to the US justice department’s motion to hold the trial this December made clear the former president’s aim to delay proceedings as their guiding strategy – the case may be dropped if Trump wins the election.The filing said:
    The court should, respectfully, before establishing any trial date, allow time for development of further clarity as to the full nature and scope of the motions that will be filed.
    Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis launched the investigation in early 2021, after Donald Trump tried to overturn his election defeat in Georgia by calling Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, and suggesting the state’s top elections official could help him “find 11,780 votes”, just enough needed to beat Joe Biden.The investigation expanded to include an examination of a slate of Republican fake electors, phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the weeks after the 2020 election and unfounded allegations of widespread election fraud made to state lawmakers, according to AP.About a year into her investigation, Willis asked for a special grand jury. At the time, she said she needed the panel’s subpoena power to compel testimony from witnesses who had refused to cooperate without a subpoena. In a January 2022 letter to Fulton county superior court chief judge, Christopher Brasher, Willis wrote that Raffensperger, who she called an “essential witness”, had “indicated that he will not participate in an interview or otherwise offer evidence until he is presented with a subpoena by my office”.That special grand jury was seated in May 2022, and released in January after completing its work. The panel issued subpoenas and heard testimony from 75 witnesses, ranging from some of Trump’s most prominent allies to local election workers, before drafting a final report with recommendations for Willis.Portions of that report that were released in February said jurors believed that “one or more witnesses” committed perjury and urged local prosecutors to bring charges. The panel’s foreperson said in media interviews later that they recommended indicting numerous people, but she declined to name names.Here’s a bit more on the grand jury being seated today in Atlanta, Georgia, that will probably consider charges against Donald Trump and his Republican allies for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.The new grand jury term begins today in Fulton county, and two panels will be selected at the downtown Atlanta courthouse, each made up of 16 to 23 people and up to three alternates. One of these panels is expected to handle the Trump investigation.Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will preside over today’s court proceedings, CNN reported. McBurney oversaw the special grand jury that previously collected evidence in the Trump investigation, and he is also expected to oversee the grand jury tasked with making charging decisions in the case.Good morning, US politics blog readers. A grand jury being seated today in Atlanta is expected to consider charges against former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis launched the investigation in early 2021, shortly after Trump tried to overturn his loss by calling Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and suggested the state’s top elections official could help him “find 11,780 votes”.A special grand jury previously issued subpoenas and heard testimony from about 75 witnesses, which included Trump advisers, his former attorneys, White House aides, and Georgia officials. That panel drafted a final report with recommendations for Willis.The new grand jury term begins today in Fulton county, which includes most of Atlanta and some suburbs. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney will swear-in two grand juries, one of which is expected to hear evidence in the Georgia elections case.Willis, an elected Democrat, is expected to present her case before one of two new grand juries being seated. The panel won’t be deciding guilt, only if Willis has enough evidence to move her case forward and who should face indictment. Willis has previously indicated that final decisions could come next month.Here’s what else we’re watching today:
    Joe Biden is meeting with other Nato leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania, where Russia’s war in Ukraine will top the agenda.
    The House rules committee is scheduled to mark up the FY2024 defense authorization bill today. The legislation is set to hit the floor later this week, with final passage currently envisioned for Friday.
    The House will meet at noon and at 2pm will take up multiple bills, with last votes expected at 6.30pm
    The Senate will meet at 10am and vote on several nominations throughout the day. There will be classified all-senators briefing with defense and intelligence officials on how AI is used for national security purposes. More

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    Fox News may face lawsuit over Tucker Carlson’s January 6 conspiracy theory

    Experts say conservative network Fox News could face a “a fairly strong” lawsuit from a man who Tucker Carlson repeatedly accused of working as a government agent and carrying out the January 6 insurrection.Carlson, who was fired from the network in April, repeatedly alleged that Ray Epps was a secret government agent who coordinated the January 6 riots, the New York Times reported.Epps, a Trump supporter and former marine, has been at the center of a far-right conspiracy theory after an article by a rightwing website argued that he was spared from criminal charges because of his covert role.Carlson and other rightwing figures, including members of Congress, have latched onto the false theory that Epps was a government agent involved in whipping up the January 6 attack.In almost 20 episodes of his talkshow, Carlson reiterated the conspiracy theory that Epps was an undercover operative who “helped stage-manage the insurrection”.Carlson repeatedly argued that Epps was recorded on camera urging others to enter the Capitol, but never entered the building himself.In one 10-minute video posted to YouTube, Carlson claimed that it was “highly strange” that Epps hadn’t been arrested and alluded that the Times’ coverage on Epps was attempting to “cover something up”.Epps has been questioned by the January 6 committee, and could still face charges as the investigation continues, the Times reported. He and his wife have received death threats and fled from their home in Arizona, fearing for their safety, according to the Associated Press.Michael Teter, a lawyer representing Epps, sent Fox News network a cease-and-desist letter, demanding an on-air apology and a retraction of the conspiracy theory, the Times reported.Teter told the Times that Fox did not respond to their suit, and a lawsuit is being prepared against the network.Experts have said that Epps’ potential case against Fox News could have standing and become a real issue for the conservative news network.David D Lin, an attorney at Lewis and Lin LLC Internet Law Counsel, told the Guardian that Epps’ lawsuit against Fox could be viable and present a potential issue for the network.“I think there is a lot of potential risk here to Fox and they need to take the claims very seriously,” said Lin to the Guardian, adding that Carlson could be personally liable depending on if the lawsuit includes him.Siddartha Rao, a lawyer at Romano Law PLLC, called the potential suit “a fairly strong claim”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Based on the facts that have been reported, I think it’s gonna look like Tucker Carlson at least recklessly disregarded the truth when he made his statements about Mr Epps,” said Rao, adding that Epps will have to demonstrate how his reputation has been damaged by the theories.Rao noted that given that Epps did attend the January 6 riots, the focus of his legal team may be on Carlson’s conspiracy theory of Epps’ being a federal agent.Unlike Dominion, which is a business, Epps is a private individual who will have to meet a lower standard for defamation suits compared to a public figure or government official, said Lin.“In a sense, it could be much easier for him to pursue a defamation claim against Fox News,” said Lin, adding that Epps needs to prove the statements made on Fox are false and caused damage to his reputation and financial damage.Lin added that if a lawsuit moves forward, Fox News could argue that statements made about Epps were an opinion or that the claims would be regarded as obviously false to listeners.Rao noted that while the lawsuit will likely be against Fox, Carlson could face consequences as an individual, depending on his arrangement with Fox.“There might be claims from Fox to come out against Carlson,” said Rao, given that the alleged defamation happened during his show.Fox News and Tucker Carlson could not be reached by the Guardian for an immediate comment. More

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    Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred over 2020 election, DC panel recommends

    Rudy Giuliani’s law license should be revoked over his work on a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results on behalf of then president Donald Trump, a Washington DC attorney ethics committee has recommended.He now faces being disbarred in the capital after the review panel late on Friday condemned the lawyer and ex-politician for aggressively pursuing the false assertions Trump made about his defeat by Democratic rival and now US president Joe Biden.Giuliani “claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence”, wrote the three-member panel in a report that details the errors and unsupported claims the former mayor of New York City made in a Pennsylvania lawsuit seeking to overturn the election result.Between the November 2020 election day and the January 6 insurrection by supporters of Trump at the US Capitol, Giuliani and other Trump lawyers repeatedly pressed claims of election fraud that were untrue and almost uniformly rejected by federal and state courts.He is the third lawyer who could lose his ability to practice law over what he did for Trump: John Eastman faces disbarment in California, and Lin Wood this week surrendered his license in Georgia.“Mr Giuliani’s effort to undermine the integrity of the 2020 presidential election has helped destabilize our democracy,” wrote the panel members, Robert Bernius, Carolyn Haynesworth-Murrell and Jay Brozost.“The misconduct here sadly transcends all his past accomplishments,” they wrote. “It was unparalleled in its destructive purpose and effect. He sought to disrupt a presidential election and persists in his refusal to acknowledge the wrong he has done.”Giuliani has already had his New York law license suspended for false statements he made after the election. The Washington review panel’s work will now go to the DC court of appeals for a final decision.Ted Goodman, a political adviser to Giuliani, called for support from Washington lawyers and criticized the panel’s work as “the sort of behavior we’d expect out of the Soviet Union”.Giuliani ran a short and disastrous campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2008 election.The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting. More

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    Armed man wanted for role in Capitol attack arrested near Obama’s house

    A man armed with explosive materials and weapons, and wanted for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, was arrested late on Thursday in the Washington DC neighborhood where the former US president Barack Obama lives, law enforcement officials said.Taylor Taranto, 37, was spotted by law enforcement officials a few blocks from the former president’s home and fled, though he was chased by Secret Service agents. Taranto has an open warrant on charges related to the insurrection, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.They said Taranto also had made social media threats against a public figure. He was found with weapons and materials to create an explosive device, though one had not been built, one of the officials said.No one was injured. It was not clear whether the Obamas were at their home at the time of the arrest.Washington’s Metropolitan police department arrested Taranto on charges of being a fugitive from justice. The explosives team swept Taranto’s van and said there were no threats to the public.Taranto was a US navy veteran and a webmaster for the Republican party in Franklin county, in Washington state, according to the Tri-City Herald newspaper. He told the newspaper in an interview last year that he was volunteering for the Republican party.It was not clear what, exactly, Taranto is accused of doing in the 2021 riot, where supporters of then president Donald Trump smashed their way into the Capitol, beat police officers and pursued leading politicians, while also invading a congressional chamber in a vain effort to overturn Trump’s defeat at the 2020 presidential election before Joe Biden’s victory being certified by Congress.More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol attack. More than 600 of them have pleaded guilty, while approximately 100 others have been convicted after trials decided by judges or juries. More than 550 riot defendants have been sentenced, with over half imprisoned. More

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    Top Georgia official to meet special counsel investigators over Trump’s 2020 election plot – live

    From 2h agoDonald Trump has now been indicted twice, first by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly falsifying business documents, and the second time by special prosecutor Jack Smith over the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. While the former president has said he will not relent from his latest campaign for the White House even if convicted, a guilty verdict on any of those charges would nonetheless be a huge development.Yet it’s possible neither trial is resolved before the November 2024 general election, where Trump could appear on ballots nationwide, assuming he wins the Republican nominating contest.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that his trial in federal court over the Mar-a-Lago documents may be delayed until next spring:
    Federal prosecutors in the classified documents case against Donald Trump have asked for a tentative trial date in December, but the complex nature of the US government’s own rules for using such secrets in court, and expected legal challenges, could delay the trial until at least the spring of 2024.
    Trump was charged with retaining national defense information, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, which means his case will be tried under the rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.
    The statute was passed in the 1980s to protect the government against the “graymail” problem in national security cases, a tactic where the defense threatens to reveal classified information at trial, betting that the government would prefer to drop the charges rather than risk disclosure.
    That Joe Biden makes gaffes and misstatements when speaking in public is nothing new. But as he stands for a second term in office, Republicans are seizing on every mistake to press their case that the 80-year-old president is in no position to serve another four years.GOP-aligned Twitter accounts were quick to jump on Biden this morning after he incorrectly said Iraq when referring to Ukraine in remarks to reporters. So, too, were some Republican lawmakers, like Missouri’s senator Josh Hawley:Bloomberg News reports this isn’t the first time he’s made that particular mistake:As he left the White House for Chicago, Joe Biden shared his views on how the weekend rebellion against President Vladimir Putin in Russia has affected his grip on the country – and also made yet another gaffe:So just what is “Bidenomics”?According to the White House, “It’s an economic vision centered around three key pillars”, specifically “Making smart public investments in America, empowering and educating workers to grow the middle class [and] promoting competition to lower costs and help entrepreneurs and small businesses thrive.”“While our work isn’t finished, Bidenomics is already delivering for the American people. Our economy has added more than 13 million jobs – including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs – and we’ve unleashed a manufacturing and clean energy boom,” the White House said in a fact sheet distributed today, also noting the drop in inflation and rise in small business activity.The president is scheduled to make a speech outlining these accomplishments at 1pm Eastern Time in Chicago, setting the stage for them to be a key part of his re-election campaign.Despite all that, Biden struck a curious tone when taking questions from reporters at the White House this morning when asked about the term – which isn’t all that different from the “Reaganomics” moniker used to refer to former Republican president Ronald Reagan’s policies.Here’s the exchange, as captured by the Hill:Joe Biden may be planning to campaign on his economic record, but polls indicate that argument may not work for many Americans.Biden’s approval rating has been underwater for almost two years, but Americans are particularly distrustful of his handling of the economy. Consider this survey from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released last month.Its data shows the president’s approval at a typically low 40% – but when it comes to his handling of the economy, it’s even worse, with only 33% of American adults approving of what he’s done so far.Joe Biden is on his way to Chicago right now from Washington DC to make what his administration is billing as a major speech on his economic accomplishments, but as he left the White House, the president took time to call out a conservative Republican senator.The target was Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, who tweeted this morning about how happy he was that his state would receive money to expand broadband access from a $42bn federal government program:But that program is paid for by the national infrastructure overhaul Congress approved with a bipartisan vote in 2021 – which Tuberville did not vote for.That fact clearly did not escape Biden’s social media team, who invited the lawmaker to attend a public event with the president:While Donald Trump could still face charges over the January 6 attack, Reuters reported yesterday on a newly released report that shows US security agencies failed to see the insurrection coming:A new report detailing intelligence failures leading up to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol said government agencies responsible for anticipating trouble downplayed the threat even as the building was being stormed, in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.The 105-page report, issued by Democrats on the Senate homeland security committee, said intelligence personnel at the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other agencies ignored warnings of violence in December 2020.Such officials then blamed each other for failing to prevent the attack that ensued, which left more than 140 police officers injured and led to several deaths.Donald Trump has now been indicted twice, first by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg for allegedly falsifying business documents, and the second time by special prosecutor Jack Smith over the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. While the former president has said he will not relent from his latest campaign for the White House even if convicted, a guilty verdict on any of those charges would nonetheless be a huge development.Yet it’s possible neither trial is resolved before the November 2024 general election, where Trump could appear on ballots nationwide, assuming he wins the Republican nominating contest.The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports that his trial in federal court over the Mar-a-Lago documents may be delayed until next spring:
    Federal prosecutors in the classified documents case against Donald Trump have asked for a tentative trial date in December, but the complex nature of the US government’s own rules for using such secrets in court, and expected legal challenges, could delay the trial until at least the spring of 2024.
    Trump was charged with retaining national defense information, including US nuclear secrets and plans for US retaliation in the event of an attack, which means his case will be tried under the rules laid out in the Classified Information Procedures Act, or Cipa.
    The statute was passed in the 1980s to protect the government against the “graymail” problem in national security cases, a tactic where the defense threatens to reveal classified information at trial, betting that the government would prefer to drop the charges rather than risk disclosure.
    Good morning, US politics blog readers. Special counsel Jack Smith has already brought federal charges against Donald Trump over his involvement in hiding documents at Mar-a-Lago, but his investigation of the former president is far from over. Smith was tasked by attorney general Merrick Garland to also look into Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection and the wider effort to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and new details have emerged of the direction of those inquiries.Smith’s investigators will be interviewing Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger today in Atlanta, the Washington Post reports, while Rudy Giuliani has already spoken to them, according to the Associated Press. The two men played starkly different roles in the legal maneuvers Trump attempted in the weeks after his election loss, with Raffensperger resisting entreaties from the president to stop the certification of Biden’s victory in Georgia, and Giuliani acting as a proxy for the president in his pressure campaign. We’ll be keeping our eyes open to see if more details of the investigation emerged today.Here’s what else is going on:
    Biden is heading to Chicago for a speech at 1pm Eastern Time on “Bidenomics” – the accomplishments in employment and wages he intends to campaign on as he seeks another term in the White House.
    A judge appeared disinclined to move to federal court the case brought against Trump by the Manhattan district attorney for allegedly falsifying business records, denying the former president another opportunity to have the charges dismissed.
    White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton will take questions from reporters sometime after 9.30am. More

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    Two Georgia election workers cleared of wrongdoing in 2020 elections

    Two Atlanta election workers who were the subject of an outlandish conspiracy theory amplified by Donald Trump were formally cleared of all wrongdoing by the Georgia state election board this week.Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss were at the center of one of the most persistent lies spread by Donald Trump and allies after the 2020 election. Using selectively edited video footage, Trump and Rudy Giuliani claimed that Freeman and Moss removed ballots from suitcases underneath tables after counting had ended on election night and counted them. Georgia election officials immediately debunked the claim, saying security footage showed that counting had not ended for the evening when Freeman and Moss removed the ballots from secure ballot transport boxes.A 10-page report released on Tuesday affirms that conclusion and offers one of the most thorough debunking of the claim to date. It officially marked the closure of the state election board’s investigation into the matter.“All allegations made against Freeman and Moss were unsubstantiated and found to have no merit,” the report says.Investigators with the FBI, Georgia bureau of investigation (GBI), and secretary of state’s office interviewed election officials, Republican poll watchers, as well as Freeman and Moss to reach that conclusion. Workers had begun packing up around 10.30pm and planned to resume scanning ballots the next day, but were subsequently told by Richard Barron, then the director of elections in Fulton county, that they needed to keep counting until complete or the state advised them to stop. Ballots that were stored in secure ballot containers underneath tables were then taken out to continue counting.Republican poll watchers were never told that counting was over and that they needed to leave State Farm Arena, the report says. Instead, they left around 10.30pm when they were under the impression that counting was ending, telling investigators they had heard an election employee telling workers they were done for the night.Investigators also examined a social media post purporting to be from Freeman in which she confessed to election fraud. They found that the Instagram account was created by someone else who was impersonating Freeman. The report does not reveal who created the account.“This serves as further evidence that Ms Freeman and Ms Moss – while doing their patriotic duty and serving their community – were simply collateral damage in a coordinated effort to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election,” Von DuBose, a lawyer representing both women, said in a statement.Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, who drew Trump’s ire for defending the election results in Georgia, praised the report.“We remain diligent and dedicated to looking into real claims of voter fraud,” he said in a statement. “We are glad the state election board finally put this issue to rest. False claims and knowingly false allegations made against these election workers have done tremendous harm. Election workers deserve our praise for being on the frontlines.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionFreeman and Moss both faced vicious harassment because of the claims. They received death threats and Freeman, who is in her 60s, fled her home. Moss would only leave her home for work because she was so scared, she told Reuters in 2021. Her son, a teenager, also faced harassment and began failing in school.Both women testified to the US House committee investigating the January 6 attacks about the horror of the harassment.“I won’t even introduce myself by my name any more. I get nervous when I bump into someone I know in the grocery store who says my name. I’m worried about people listening. I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders. I’m always concerned of who’s around me,” Freeman said. “There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?”Joe Biden awarded both women the presidential citizens medal on January 6 this year.“Both of them were just doing their jobs until they were targeted and threatened by the same predators and peddlers of lies that would fuel the insurrection. They were literally forced from their homes, facing despicable racist taunts,” he said at the ceremony. “Despite it all, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss found the courage to testify openly and honestly to the whole country and the world about their experience to set the record straight about the lies and defend the integrity of our elections.” More

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    January 6 rioter who attacked police officer with stun gun jailed for 12 years

    A California man who drove a stun gun into the police officer Michael Fanone’s neck during one of the most violent clashes of the January 6 riot was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 12 years in prison.Daniel “DJ” Rodriguez yelled, “Trump won!” as he was led out of the courtroom where the US district judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced him to 12 years and seven months behind bars for his role in the attack on Congress.Only two other January 6 defendants have received longer prison terms after hundreds of sentencings for Capitol riot cases.The judge said Rodriguez, 40, was “a one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property” at the Capitol.“You showed up in DC spoiling for a fight,” Jackson said. “You can’t blame what you did once you got there on anyone but yourself.”A body camera worn by Fanone captured the Metropolitan police officer screaming after Rodriguez shocked him with a stun gun while he was surrounded by a mob.Another rioter had dragged Fanone into the crowd outside a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, where police were guarding an entrance. Other rioters began beating Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after Rodriguez pressed the stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him.Fanone addressed the judge before she imposed the sentence. The former officer described how the January 6 attack prematurely ended his law enforcement career and turned him into a target for Trump supporters who cling to the lie that Democrats stole the 2020 election.Fanone left the courtroom in the middle of Rodriguez’s statement to the judge. He did not miss an apology from Rodriguez, who has been jailed for more than two years and will get credit for time served.“I’m hopeful that Michael Fanone will be OK some day,” Rodriguez said. “It sounds like he’s in a great deal of pain.”Fanone said he left the courtroom because he didn’t care to hear his assailant’s “rambling, incoherent” statement.“Nothing he could have said to me today would have made any difference whatsoever,” he said.Prosecutors recommended a 14-year prison sentence for Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty in February to charges including assaulting Fanone. They also sought a fine of nearly $100,000 to offset the cost of Fanone’s medical bills and medical leave.Fanone has written a book and testified in front of a House committee that investigated the insurrection, which disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Joe Biden’s victory.“Rodriguez’s criminal conduct on January 6 was the epitome of disrespect for the law; he battled with law enforcement at the US Capitol for hours, nearly costing one officer his life, in order to stop the official proceeding happening inside,” prosecutors wrote.Rodriguez pleaded guilty to four felony charges including conspiracy and assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon. He entered the guilty plea about two weeks before his trial was scheduled to start.On January 6, Rodriguez attended Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally before joining rioters who attacked police.“Rodriguez made his way to the front of the line of rioters battling the officers, yelling into his bullhorn at the beleaguered line,” prosecutors wrote.Rodriguez deployed a fire extinguisher and shoved a wooden pole at police before another rioter, Kyle Young, handed him what appeared to be a stun gun.Fanone was at the front of the police line when another rioter, Albuquerque Cosper Head, wrapped his arm around the officer’s neck and dragged him on to the terrace steps, then restrained Fanone while other rioters attacked him. Rodriguez shocked Fanone below the left ear of his helmet.Fanone managed to retreat and collapsed before he was taken to a hospital.Rodriguez entered the building and smashed a window with a pole before leaving Capitol grounds.Head was sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty to an assault charge.Young also was sentenced to more than seven years. Young grabbed Fanone by the wrist while others yelled, “Kill him!” and “Get his gun!”During an interview with FBI agents after his March 2021 arrest, Rodriguez said he had believed he was doing the “right thing” and that he had been prepared to die to “save the country”. He cried as he spoke to the agents, saying he was “stupid” and ashamed of his actions.In the days leading up to January 6, Rodriguez spewed violent rhetoric in a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang”.“There will be blood. Welcome to the revolution,” Rodriguez wrote a day before the riot.Rodriguez’s attorneys said he idolized Trump, seeing the the former president “as the father he wished he had”, as they sought a prison sentence of five years and five months.The same judge who sentenced Rodriguez convicted a co-defendant, Edward Badalian, of three riot-related charges and acquitted him of a fourth after a trial without a jury. Jackson is scheduled to sentence Badalian on 21 July.More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 riot. More than 700 have pleaded guilty or been convicted. Approximately 550 have been sentenced, more than half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to 18 years. More

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    Ex-NSA employee sentenced to two weeks for US Capitol attack

    A former National Security Agency employee was sentenced to two weeks imprisonment for storming the US Capitol on January 6, with associates described by authorities as fellow followers of a white nationalist movement.Paul Lovley, 24, lived in Halethorpe, Maryland, and was an NSA information technology specialist before the riot on 6 January 2021, prosecutors said.On Tuesday US district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Lovley to 14 days behind bars, to be served over seven weekends, and three years of probation, a spokesperson for the US attorney for the District of Columbia said.Lovley pleaded guilty in February to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum six-month sentence.He was charged with four other men who prosecutors described as “members” of America First, a group led by the antisemitic internet personality Nicholas Fuentes, whose followers often call themselves “Groypers” or members of a “Groyper Army”.Joseph Brody, Thomas Carey, Jon Lizak and Gabriel Chase were the other men charged. The five, all in their early 20s, gathered at Lovley’s Maryland home on 5 January 2021 then went to Washington to attended Donald Trump’s “Save America” rally, at which the then president advanced his lie that his defeat by Joe Biden was the result of electoral fraud.After other rioters breached the Capitol, the five men entered the building through the Senate wing, joined the mob in pushing past police officers and went into a conference room for the office of the then House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors said. Brody broke off from the group and entered the Senate chamber while Lovley and the others remained outside.After leaving the Capitol, Brody lifted a metal barricade and appeared to use it to obstruct or assault an officer, prosecutors said. Before leaving Capitol grounds, the group went to an area where rioters destroyed and looted media equipment.“I am certain that I would not have even shown up if I had known that the day was going to turn into what it did beforehand,” Lovley wrote in a letter to the judge.Carey, Lizak and Chase pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor offense. Last Tuesday, Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Carey to three years of probation and 14 days of jail time. Chase is scheduled to be sentenced in July. A sentencing hearing for Lizak is set for October. Charges against Brody have not been resolved.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionOn Tuesday, David Walls-Kaufman, a 66-year-old DC-based chiropractor was sentenced to two months in jail by another US district judge, Jia M Cobb, for the same misdemeanor offense, the Washington Post reported.Walls-Kaufman faces a wrongful-death civil lawsuit filed by Erin Smith, the widow of the Capitol officer Jeffrey Smith. The lawsuit accuses Walls-Kaufman of assaulting Smith, who later killed himself.According to the Post, the suit says video footage shows Walls-Kaufman beating Smith with his own baton, resulting in a traumatic brain injury that eventually led to Smith’s suicide.More than 530 people have been sentenced for crimes related to January 6 and more than 1,000 arrests have been made. More