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Thread: Asshole Politician of the Day

  1. #451
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    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/al...?ocid=msedgdhp

    Karma got him State Rep. Will Dismukes was originally accused of supporting the KKK. Now hes been charged with theft and corruption.

    A GOP lawmaker in Alabama who faced backlash for attending a KKK grand wizard's birthday celebration last month and was forced to resign as pastor of his church has now been charged with felony theft, prosecutors announced Thursday.

    State Rep. Will Dismukes of Prattville turned himself in to authorities and was charged with first-degree property theft after more than $2,500 was siphoned from a flooring company he worked for between 2016 and 2018, prosecutors said.

    Dismukes was later released on bail.

    Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey announced the charge at a press conference Thursday and said a warrant was issued for Dismukes' arrest earlier in the day.

    "The alleged amount is a lot more" than the $2,500 minimum needed for the charge, said Baily, whose office received a complaint on May 20 from a local business.

    “After countless hours of investigation, which consisted of witness interviews, obtaining bank records, and gathering other evidence, a decision was made by myself and prosecutors in my office, along with these investigators, that probable cause existed” to file criminal charges, Bailey said.

    The allegations were brought by the owners of Weiss Commercial Flooring Inc., where Dismukes worked before he was elected to the Alabama state legislature, WSFA-TV 12 reported. Weiss declined to comment to Fox News.

    First-degree theft carries a penalty of two to 20 years in prison in Alabama, in addition to fines.

    "We expect our elected officials, regardless of party, to follow the laws of our state and nation," Terry Lathan, the chairwoman of the Alabama Republican Party, wrote on Twitter. "No one is immune to these standards. It is very disappointing to hear of these allegations. This is now a legal matter and it must run its course."

    Dismukes previously generated a firestorm of controversy when he posted a photo on Facebook of himself celebrating the birthday of KKK leader and Confederate Army Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on the same day that the state honored the legacy of the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

    Dismukes refused to resign from his political post amid bipartisan backlash and instead offered an apology to his constituents. He was ousted as pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church.

  2. #452
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    https://apnews.com/d52ae7fa15ce2653302e194854ce3657

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Tuesday’s elections (all times local):

    10:40 a.m.

    A Republican congressional candidate in Connecticut has abruptly ended his campaign on the day of his primary election following his arrest on a domestic assault charge.

    The state Republican Party says Thomas Gilmer was arrested late Monday and dropped out of the race because of “the severity of the accusations.” The party had endorsed Gilmer over his primary opponent.

    Wethersfield police say Gilmer was charged on a warrant with first-degree unlawful restraint and second-degree strangulation and posted a $5,000 bond. He is expected to appear in court Tuesday. Gilmer’s campaign website was down, and he could not immediately be reached for comment.

    The 29-year-old Gilmer, of Madison, was competing against Justin Anderson, of East Haddam, a lieutenant colonel in the Connecticut Army National Guard who served two combat tours in Afghanistan. The winner of the race in November will face U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, a Democrat who is favored to win reelection to represent a district spanning eastern Connecticut.

  3. #453
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    https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/l...ng-3-car-wreck

    OLDSMAR, Fla. -- An Oldsmar city leader is accused of driving under the influence and causing a three-vehicle pileup.

    On Wednesday, August 12 at around 10:30 a.m., the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office responded to a multiple-vehicle crash on West Hillsborough Avenue and Race Track Road. A witness called 911 and told dispatch a red Tesla was traveling erratically and then rear-ended another vehicle. The crash caused the victim's vehicle to rear-end the car in front of it, HCSO said.

    Upon arrival, deputies say 59-year-old Linda Norris was slurring her words and her movements appeared "unstable." Inside her vehicle, deputies found an open container of Fireball whiskey and two additional, but closed, bottles in her purse.

    Norris, who is the vice mayor and city council member of Oldsmar, could not pass the field sobriety tests and refused to give a breath sample, HCSO said.

    Deputies arrested Norris and charged her with driving under the influence - third conviction and refusal to submit to testing.

    No one was seriously hurt in the three-vehicle wreck, HCSO said.

    Oldsmar mayor Eric Seidel released the following statement:

    "Based on what the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has posted online, we are disappointed to learn of Linda’s reported conduct. However, we are just now learning of the event and do not know any additional details at this time."

  4. #454
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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/el...ssible-censure

    Mayor Steve Ly of Elk Grove, CA accused of Harassment.

    In a 4-0 vote, the Elk Grove City Council members decided not to censure the city’s mayor.

    Instead, they’ve referred the matter to the Sacramento County Grand Jury for investigation and directed staff to bring a proposed policy with guidelines/criteria for considering future censure situations.

    Elk Grove does not have a formal policy on censure actions.

    Original Story Below

    ELK GROVE, Calif. (KTXL) — Elk Grove City Council members are deciding whether to censure the city’s mayor after multiple women accused him of harassment and bullying.

    “Enough is enough,” said Elk Grove Unified Board Member Nancy Chaires Espinoza.

    Espinoza said the nightmare began six years ago when she ran against Steve Ly for public office.

    “He saves his worst behavior for women and it’s just not acceptable,” Espinoza said.

    But despite losing to Ly, she said he continued to intimidate her online.

    “It’s just not fair. It’s just not right that women not be able to participate freely and contribute to their communities because we have to fear Mr. Ly making things up about us, trying to impugn our character,” Espinoza said.

    Espinoza’s story is one that’s shared by other women, like Linda Vue, Ly’s former campaign manager.

    “During that time, it was very toxic and I think by halfway, I knew that he wasn’t someone that I wanted to work with,” Vue said.

    She sounded the alarm back in June, accusing her former ally of pressuring her to take down social media posts that criticized him.

    “He holds the highest seat in the city and people look up to him,” Vue said. “The legacy that he is leaving is very shameful.”

    Before city council members voted on whether or not censure him for his actions, about 100 community members got on the phone to make their voices heard, some defending the mayor.

    “I hope you all see that these women are clearly opponents and out to get the mayor and they’re using dirty tactics,” said one caller.

    At one point, Mayor Ly took a moment to defend himself when the city’s vice mayor suggested he resign.

    “You know, I just want to highlight the fact that the people put me here,” Ly said.

    Hours earlier, his accusers say they got an identical email asking to “sit down and find a way to move forward and heal.”

    But they say he never apologized to them directly or promised permanent policy change to prevent similar behavior, which is something his accusers are demanding.

    “This is way beyond politics as usual. It’s petty and vindictive,” Espinoza said. “It’s unprofessional and worse, it’s a distraction from the jobs that we’re all supposed to be doing in public service.”

    If the mayor is censured, it would not carry a formal penalty nor will it remove him from office. A censure is considered a public show of disapproval acknowledging wrongdoing.

    The mayor released a statement in response to the accusations against him, which can be read in full below. He has also put forward the idea to form an ethics commission.

  5. #455
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    .

    GREGG COUNTY, Texas (KLTV) - A Gregg County commissioner along with three others have been arrested on charges in connection with an organized vote harvesting scheme during the 2018 Democratic primary election.

    According to Attoney General Ken Paxton?s office, Gregg County commissioner Shannon Brown, Marlena Jackson, Charlie Burns, and DeWayne Ward were arrested. A press release said to increase the pool of ballots needed to swing the race in Brown?s favor, the group targeted young, able-bodied voters to cast ballots by mail by fraudulently claiming the voters were ?disabled,? in most cases without the voters' knowledge or consent. Under Texas election law, mail ballots based on disability are specifically reserved for those who are physically ill and cannot vote in-person as a result.

    The release said in total, the state filed 134 felony charges against the four defendants, including engaging in organized election fraud, illegal voting, fraudulent use of an application for a mail-in ballot, unlawful possession of a mail-in ballot, tampering with a governmental record, and election fraud. Penalties for these offenses range from six months in state jail to 99 years in prison.

    ?It is an unfortunate reality that elections can be stolen outright by mail ballot fraud. Election fraud, particularly an organized mail ballot fraud scheme orchestrated by political operatives, is an affront to democracy and results in voter disenfranchisement and corruption at the highest level,? said Attorney General Paxton. ?Mail ballots are vulnerable to diversion, coercion, and influence by organized vote harvesting schemes. This case demonstrates my commitment to ensuring Texas has the most secure elections in the country, and I thank the Gregg County Sheriff and District Attorney for their continued partnership. Those who try to manipulate the outcome of elections in Texas must be held accountable.?

    A grand jury returned indictments on 23 felony counts against Commissioner Brown, 97 felony counts against Marlena Jackson, eight felony counts against Charlie Burns, and six felony counts against DeWayne Ward. The Office of the Attorney General was assisted by the Gregg County Sheriff?s Office during the investigation. The Texas Attorney General will prosecute this case alongside the Gregg County District Attorney.

    According to a joint press release from state Sen. Bryan Hughes and state Rep. Jay Dean, 366 mail ballot applications, all based on disabilities, were requested in Precinct 4, while a total of 12 were located in all other Gregg County precincts. While Kasha Williams defeated Brown by more than 20 votes in in-person voting, 73 percent of thte 366 mail ballot votes were cast for Brown, who won the election by five votes.

    ?Voting by mail is an important tool for our over-65 and disabled citizens. Mail-in ballots are also most vulnerable to cheating and fraud. We must protect Texas election integrity and we will.? said Senator Hughes.

    ?The alleged account of voter fraud appears so clearly to be a problem in our districts, but we are encouraged by the attention it has brought to the issue, both here and statewide, and by the opportunity to fix this problem,? Dean said.


    https://www.kltv.com/2020/09/24/greg...esting-scheme/

  6. #456
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    https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/mon...e-allegations/

    PORTLAND, Ore. (Portland Tribune) — E.D. Mondain? announced that he will not run for reelection as president of the Portland NAACP — following explosive allegations that he sexually abused three men attending his church and emotionally abused others.

    The extensive report, written by Alex Zielinski of the Portland Mercury, describes Mondain? as engaging in unwanted sexual contact with several men who were under his sway as senior pastor at Celebration Tabernacle, a Pentecostal church in North Portland.

    The abuse happened in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, according to the Mercury.

    PDX NAACP members say president gave improper mayor endorsement
    Other parishioners depicted Mondain? as a cult of personality who maintained strict control over worshipers, controlling who they could date or marry and even ordering the beating of those who disobeyed him. He is also accused of dipping into the till at his nonprofit’s youth training restaurant, now known as Po’Shines Cafe.

    “Mondain? told me that I was chosen by God to take care of [him] because I had suffered sexual and physical abuse in the past… so I had the strength to endure more of it,” one man told the Mercury, using a pseudonym. “In my eyes, God had literally put me there to shore this important man up. The moment when you think God is telling you something, everything is justifiable.”

    One man said the sexual abuse happened at age 14 — another said it happened more than 2,000 times.

    On Thursday, Oct. 15, Mondain? denied the allegations during a brief online press conference. He did not take any questions.

    “I submit to you that it would be pointless in trying to defend such egregious allegations,” he said. “Nearing two decades ago, I was part of a relationship that ended poorly… That appears to be the basis for the unfounded allegations recently published.”

    Mondain? will not step down ahead of the November 21 chapter election for the Portland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, but said he will not run for a second term.

    The Portland Tribune is a KOIN 6 News media partner

    “What you’re witnessing is the manifestation of the current trend of cancel culture, which seeks to destroy anyone who does not fall in line,” he said. “My hope is this distraction in no way interrupts the important work of eradicating racism in our city and nation.”

    Before his apparent downfall, Mondain? maintained close relationships with many of the city’s elected leaders — appearing at events with Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty — and often lent his prespective to local media.

    The Tribune first broke the news of allegations of financial misconduct and bullying against Mondain? in November 2019. Earlier this year, Rise Up PDX announced a slate of five candidates running for positions on the local branch’s executive leadership committee. Sharon Gary-Smith is running for the post of chapter president.

    Not a good look dude.

  7. #457
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    https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...as-prison-camp

    Congrats to you for your post election home

    SAN DIEGO ?

    Former Rep. Duncan Hunter will serve his 11-month sentence for conspiring to misuse campaign funds at a West Texas prison camp, his attorney said Friday.

    Hunter is due to report to Federal Correctional Institute La Tuna on Jan. 4. The prison is in the El Paso suburb of Anthony, on the Texas-New Mexico state line. He will serve in its adjacent minimum-security satellite camp, according to CQ Roll Call.

    Hunter?s attorney, Devin Burstein, on Friday confirmed the report that Hunter had been assigned to the facility.

    Hunter fought a 60-count indictment for more than a year before pleading guilty to a conspiracy charge in December.

    His wife, Margaret Hunter, pleaded guilty in June 2019 of conspiring with her husband to misuse more than $250,000 in campaign money on personal expenses such as travel, groceries, fast food and private school tuition.

    Alan Ellis, a defense attorney who writes the Federal Prison Guidebook, told Roll Call he suspects Hunter is being sent to a facility 10 hours away to get him away from his sphere of influence ? something he said is common for high-profile prisoners.

    FCI La Tuna also is where former Los Angeles County Sherriff Lee Baca is serving a three-year sentence for obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.

    Hunter?s criminal charges in August 2018 came two-plus years after the Federal Election Commission and The San Diego Union-Tribune questioned Hunter in April 2016 about expenditures his campaign had reported ? a series of video-game purchases and a payment to his children?s private school.

    According to the indictment, the Hunters relied for years on campaign contributions to pay routine family expenses like dental bills, home repairs and fast-food meals. They also used it for exotic vacations, private-school tuition, plane tickets for Margaret?s mother to to and from Poland and for flight for a pet rabbit.

    Immediately after the indictment, Hunter said the charges were the result of a ?deep state? conspiracy among ?partisan Democrat prosecutors? and denied any wrongdoing. He continued denying the charges after his wife pleaded guilty and agreed to work with prosecutors.

    Then, in December, Hunter decided to plead guilty in order to spare his children the spectacle of a trial, he said. Initially he was scheduled to begin serving his time in May but that was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Hunter left Congress in January and his seat in the 50th District has been vacant since. Former Republican Congressman Darrel Issa and Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar are in a tight race to replace him.

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    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-54742096

    Jeremy Corbyn of the UK Labour party has been called out for his rants.

    Labour's decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn risks "chaos" and could cost the party the next election, one of the ex-leader's most powerful allies has said.

    Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, warned: "A split party will be doomed to defeat."

    Mr Corbyn was suspended after he refused to retract his claim that the scale of anti-Semitism in Labour had been "dramatically overstated" .

    This followed a critical report on the problem during his time as leader.

    The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found Labour responsible for three breaches of the Equality Act:

    Political interference in anti-Semitism complaints
    Failure to provide adequate training to those handling anti-Semitism complaints
    Harassment, including the use of anti-Semitic tropes and suggesting that complaints of anti-Semitism were fake or smears
    Mr Corbyn's successor as leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said the publication of the report, on Thursday, marked a "day of shame" for Labour and promised to implement its recommendations.

    In his response to the EHRC's findings, Mr Corbyn said he had "acted to speed up, not hinder the process" of dealing with complaints, but the scale of anti-Semitism within Labour had been "dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party".

    Labour suspends Corbyn over anti-Semitism reaction
    What does the Labour anti-Semitism report say?
    Kuenssberg: Corbyn's suspension exposes old divides
    Shortly afterwards Labour general secretary David Evans suspended Mr Corbyn, with the party saying this had happened "in light of his comments" and "his failure to retract them subsequently".

    The suspension will remain in place while an internal investigation into his remarks is carried out.

    Sir Keir said he had been "very disappointed in Jeremy Corbyn's statement and appropriate action has been taken, which I fully support".

    But Mr Corbyn, Labour leader from 2015 until April this year, appealed to the party to reinstate him.

    Mr McCluskey, whose union - one of Labour's biggest financial backers - has already reduced its funding for the party since Sir Keir took over, said: "This was a day for our party to move forward as one to defeat the evil of anti-Semitism.

    "However, the decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn has threatened that opportunity."

    He called the decision "an act of grave injustice which, if not reversed, will create chaos within the party and in doing so compromise Labour's chances of a general election victory".

    Mr McCluskey called on Sir Keir "to work across the party on a fitting and unifying way forward, to unite our party behind the implementation of the EHRC's important recommendations".

    And he urged members "angered by this suspension not to leave the party but to support moves to find a better way through".

    But Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge said: "[The suspension] is the right decision following Corbyn's shameful reaction to the EHRC report."

    Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "We welcome the decision of the Labour Party to suspend Jeremy Corbyn.

    "Having presided over the descent of a proudly anti-racist party into a party that broke equalities law in its treatment of Jews, his shameless comments today showed that he remains part of the problem and is an obstruction to the resolution of the issue."

    And Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "Jeremy is a thoroughly decent man, but he has an absolute blind spot and a denial when it comes to some of these issues."

    But groups on the left of the Labour movement attacked the decision to suspend him.

    The Socialist Campaign Group said it "firmly" opposed the move, adding: "We will work tirelessly for his reinstatement."

    And Momentum, among Mr Corbyn's strongest backers, called him a "lifelong, dedicated anti-racist", saying: "[His suspension] is a massive attack on the left by the new leadership and should be immediately lifted in the interests of party unity."

    For the Conservatives, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has written to Sir Keir, saying he "seemingly found it much harder to find the moral character and backbone to do what was right" while serving in the shadow cabinet under Mr Corbyn.

    The EHRC launched its investigation last year after receiving a number of complaints from organisations and individuals, including the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism and the Jewish Labour Movement.

  9. #459
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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/in...nty-executive/

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — Another Sacramento County Public Health employee is speaking out about what she says is aggressive and abusive behavior toward women, specifically Black women, by county Executive Navdeep Gill.

    As the stakes for public health have gotten even higher with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, Sacramento County employees say that needed spending is being delayed and a bad environment allegedly created by Gill has degraded even further with racist and sexist behavior.

    Allegations sent to Board of Supervisors detail harassment by Sacramento County Executive Navdeep Gill
    “Personally, to me, he just slandered me in the meetings, which was totally unprofessional. If there was a problem with me going to the union and there was a problem with me going to the board, then that should have been addressed with my supervisors, as well as with me,” said Pamela Harris, Sacramento County director of nursing and Department of Health Services division manager. “But instead, he chose in an unprofessional way to bring these issues that he had to his executive team, which was totally inappropriate. If any of us as managers had done that, we would have been reprimanded for that.”

    Harris is one of the people who signed onto the letter calling for Gill’s resignation or removal that was emailed to the board late Monday.

    In addition to being attacked herself, she claimed she’s witnessed Gill screaming at the county’s Black, female public health officer, Dr. Olivia Kasirye.

    In writing, Dr. Kasirye told FOX40 the following.

    Nav Gill made it clear to me from the beginning of this pandemic that he was not pleased with my request to declare a Health Emergency. From then on, through intimidation and manipulation, he created blocks at every step in issuing Health Officer Orders. He withheld resources despite our multiple requests for funding, and sought to silence me and alienate me. All this caused me a lot of anxiety, and were it not for support from the Public Health staff and County Counsel, I would not have been able to do my job. I was also disturbed to find out that there had been discussions of getting rid of me, even though I had not done anything worth being terminated for. After the Board meetings in August, several former staff members contacted me and related similar treatment that had forced them to leave the County service. I am coming forward now because I have seen the impact of his leadership on not just me, but our ability to provide services to our community in the middle of a crisis.

    DR. OLIVIA KASIRYE, SACRAMENTO COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER
    Gill refused to go on camera Tuesday, instead opting to send FOX40 the following statement.

    “When you’re taking resources away from this community because you’re angry with the people at the head, that’s unacceptable behavior,” Harris said. “People suffer when he does not give us the things that we need. They suffer.”

    FOX40 heard back about all this from supervisors Phil Serna and Patrick Kennedy Tuesday night, who said Gill’s alleged pattern of behavior continues to be very troubling and they stand by their earlier calls for him to resign.

    On Tuesday, Supervisor Sue Frost said via a statement, “Claims of racism and sexism are big allegations that I take very seriously. However, I have not seen any evidence of such claims, and cannot legally publicly comment on specifics of personnel matters.”

    Sacramento County supervisors, candidates call for resignation of county executive after meeting flouted virus guidelines

  10. #460
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    https://www.miamiherald.com/news/pol...247094007.html

    . Gov. Ron DeSantis has drafted “anti-mob” legislation that would expand Florida’s Stand Your Ground law — a move that critics say will allow armed citizens to shoot suspected looters or anyone engaged in “criminal mischief” that disrupts a business.

    Lawyers say it’s just one of the many troubling aspects of the draft bill being pushed by the Republican governor in response to police-brutality protests that erupted across Florida and the United States this summer.

    “It allows for vigilantes to justify their actions,” said Denise Georges, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor who had handled Stand Your Ground cases. “It also allows for death to be the punishment for a property crime — and that is cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly.”

    The draft legislation put specifics behind DeSantis’ pledge in September to crack down on “violent and disorderly assemblies” after he pointed to “reports of unrest” in other parts of the country after the high-profile death of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white Minneapolis police officer.

    The proposal would expand the list of “forcible felonies” under Florida’s self-defense law to justify the use of force against people who engage in criminal mischief that results in the “interruption or impairment” of a business, and looting, which the draft defines as a burglary within 500 feet of a “violent or disorderly assembly.”



    Other key elements of DeSantis’ proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in “violent or disorderly assemblies,” make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets.

    Duration -:-
    Protester hit by car during protest in downtown Miami
    A 26-year-old protester who was documenting the street protest with about 10 more people was hit by a car. Fire rescue treated her, and she will be fine. By Samuel Navarro / For the Miami Herald
    DeSantis, whose crackdown mindset mirrors that of President Donald Trump, announced he would push such legislation in the heat of the 2020 presidential election as he tried to deliver Florida to Trump, who lost reelection but won Florida by nearly four points.

    Shortly after the announcement, a DeSantis’ administration attorney circulated a draft version of the bill — titled “anti-mob legislation draft” — to the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, according to emails and a copy of the bill draft obtained by the Herald/Times as part of a public records request. The governor’s office sent the same draft bill to the House Judiciary Committee, House spokeswoman Jenna Sarkissian said.

    “It’s clear that the Trump beauty pageant is still going on with governors and senators, who all want to be the next Trump. And the governor is clearly a very good contestant,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, a former federal prosecutor and Democratic state legislator who was a critic of the Stand Your Ground law, when it first passed in 2005.

  11. #461
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    DeSantis is in the Running for Dictator of the USA in 2024.

    Umm this could lead to this, Riots at State Capitals We accuse other countries of this shit in past administrations.






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    https://fox40.com/news/your-local-el...not-conceding/

    WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — A presidential transition process typically begins months before Inauguration Day, however this year that process is delayed due to the Trump administration’s legal challenges to election results.

    “You want to make sure the incoming leadership is fully read into the threats that are going on around the world,” said Chris Lu, Director of the 2008 Obama transition team.

    Lu says delaying a proper presidential transition has real world consequences.

    “What’s happening right now from theTrump administration goes beyond abnormal. It really is troubling from a national security perspective. It is a violation of norms,” said Lu.

    Trump campaign sues Michigan to block certification of Biden win
    The General Services Administration (GSA), an agency that helps facilitate the basic functions of the federal government, typically provides incoming administrations with office space and financial resources to begin work. So far, the agency administrator has not certified Joe Biden as the incoming president.

    The GSA sent Presidents-elect Trump and Obama letters certifying their transitions just hours after their projected wins. Both of those races, however, did not see major legal challenges.

    Democrat Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia called the hesitancy from GSA “completely senseless.”

    “I am leading an effort of senators… to reach out to GSA and say for God sakes just put the country first over being afraid of your boss,” said Kaine.

    He added, the GSA could recognize Joe Biden as the winner of the election while the Trump campaign continues to pursue lawsuits.

    President-elect Joe Biden names Ron Klain as White House Chief of Staff
    Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia says if the transition begins after the Electoral College certifies Biden’s win, that should allow enough time for a smooth transition.

    “There’s going to be a little bit of time here…I think it’s the 14th of December, by the 14th we should know,” said Manchin.

    He says many of the Trump campaign’s lawsuits delaying the transition are frivolous.

    “They won congressional seats, they won senate seats they weren’t supposed to. You just can’t, because it’s all on one ballot, you just can’t pick and choose and say that was fraud and this is not,” said Manchin.

    “Why don’t we have the counting done before we worry about the transition team,” said Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa of California.

    LaMalfa says it’s within the Trump campaign’s rights to make sure every ballot is counted. Once a winner is clear and official, he says the transition can continue.

    “There will be ample time to put something together…post certification, post litigation time,” said LaMalfa.

    Georgia to conduct a full recount of election ballots by hand
    Mike Leavitt, Utah’s former governor and 2012 transition director for Mitt Romney, says a delay isn’t ideal but it is manageable.

    “It does not mean that the incoming administration can’t be planning and doing whatever they can to be ready,” said Leavitt.

    He says the Trump administration can work with the Biden team, even as election lawsuits continue.

    “Look, we can do both of these things at the same time. This doesn’t have to be a big political collision,” said Leavitt.

    In a statement, a GSA Spokesperson said:

    “The GSA Administrator does not pick the winner in the Presidential election… the GSA Administrator ascertains the apparent successful candidate once a winner is clear based on the process laid out in the Constitution.”

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    https://fox40.com/news/national-and-...itical-nature/

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The words spoken by America’s top military officer carried a familiar ring, but in the midst of a chaotic week at the Pentagon, they were particularly poignant.

    “We are unique among militaries,” said Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator. We do not take an oath to an individual.”

    Milley was speaking Wednesday at the dedication of an Army museum in a week that saw President Donald Trump fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper and install three staunch loyalists to senior Pentagon policy positions. The abrupt changes have raised fears about what Trump may try to do in his final two months of office — and whether the military’s long held apolitical nature could be upended.

    Milley’s comments, made as he stood alongside Esper’s successor, acting defense chief Christopher Miller, reflected a view he has long been passionate about: the military’s unequivocal duty to protect and defend the Constitution — what he called the “moral north star” for everyone in uniform.

    But his message in a time of turmoil — Trump has refused to concede his election loss — was unmistakable: The military exists to defend democracy and is not to be used as a political pawn. “We take an oath to the Constitution,” Milley said, adding that every service member “will protect and defend that document regardless of personal price.”

    Trump’s motives for the Pentagon shakeup are unclear, but it has created a great deal of unease within the building. Was he simply striking out at Esper and others he deemed not loyal enough? Is there a broader plan to enact policy changes that Trump could tout in his final days as commander in chief? Or, in the most extreme scenario, would Trump try to get the military to help him stay in office beyond Inauguration Day?

    Milley has pushed back against that last possibility, telling Congress that “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. military.” He said service members must not get involved in the transfer of power after an election.

    Trump had grown increasingly angry with Esper, who openly disagreed with his desire to use the active-duty military during the civil unrest in June. Esper also had worked with military leaders to talk Trump out of complete troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan.

    If the motive is to hand Trump some quick policy changes, then filling top jobs with more amenable loyalists will help — particularly in any effort to impede the smooth transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden. Accelerating troop withdrawals may also be a goal — but there is a fairly limited pool of other options.

    Swift and radical changes in Trump’s final 10 weeks are unlikely in a building that prides itself on exhaustive planning. The Pentagon is a massive bureaucracy and doesn’t turn on a dime. And while the department is rooted in the democratic bedrock of a civilian-controlled military, the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are powerful presidential advisers with decades of experience, and armed with documents detailing the potential consequences of national security actions.

    As yet, military commanders have gotten no new orders. And top military leaders — including Milley — are counseling patience and stability. They are projecting an America that remains a strong and reliable world power, where things remain steady.

    Most are watching Afghanistan as a possible bellwether. Trump has long talked about getting troops home for the holidays, while military leaders have urged for a more methodical withdrawal that gives them time to get equipment out and to apply pressure on the Taliban during peace talks. Fulfilling the goal of pulling all troops out could be Trump’s final fist pump as commander in chief.

    Over nearly four years, Milley and his predecessor, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, have been able to curb or shape White House impulses in matters of war. They successfully argued against pulling all U.S. forces out of Syria, and they slowed troop withdrawals in Afghanistan to preserve America’s negotiating status with the Taliban and keep an eye on resurging Islamic State militants. Milley joined Esper in persuading Trump not to use active-duty troops to quash civil unrest.

    But on other policy matters, Pentagon leaders saluted and marched forward. They found ways to use Defense Department money to help build Trump’s promised wall on the southern border, created his much-wanted Space Force, sidestepped an explicit ban on the Confederate flag and backed away from changing bases named after Confederate generals. Esper also carried Trump’s message on increasing defense spending to NATO allies, with modest success. The move for more allied spending was a continuation of a push by the Obama administration.

    The abrupt personnel changes this week, however, have amped up the anxiety of civilian and military staff in the five-sided building. In addition to replacing Esper with former National Counterterrorism Center director Miller, Trump installed loyalists Anthony Tata in the undersecretary for policy job and Ezra Cohen-Watnick as the acting intelligence undersecretary. James Anderson, who had been acting undersecretary for policy, and Joseph Kernan, who was undersecretary for intelligence, both resigned Tuesday.

    Miller also brought in his own chief of staff, Kash Patel, who was among the small group of aides who traveled with Trump extensively during the final stretch of the campaign. And he has brought in Douglas MacGregor, a fervent voice for an Afghanistan withdrawal, as a senior adviser.

    Miller has said little about his plans. During his first meetings with top defense leaders this week, he took time to lay out his biography — it includes his service as an Army Green Beret and a stint as the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for special operations. He has joined video calls, including on the pandemic, and has spoken to combatant commanders.

    Wednesday’s opening of the National Museum of the U.S. Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was his first public event, and he used it to talk about his enlistment and pride in military service. Flanking him were Milley, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville. All spoke and Trump’s name and the election were never mentioned.

    Its all Trump

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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/media...-trump-tweets/

    Newsmax to get Far Right Viewers that don't believe Trump lost the 2020 election

    On Monday, as President Trump sought to make the case — without evidence — that the election he lost to former vice president Joe Biden was fraudulent, he found a message he liked on little-watched cable news network Newsmax.

    Follow the latest on Election 2020
    Trump liked what Newsmax was saying so much that he tweeted three clips from the network in three minutes. One featured a Republican spokeswoman, who said that “Joe Biden did not win this election. President Trump did.” Another featured a Republican congressman, who spoke while an on-screen graphic declared that “IT ISN’T OVER YET.” In the third, a Trump booster talked about dead people voting.

    The claims made in the clips did not pass muster on Twitter, which affixed a “this claim about election fraud is disputed” warning on each one.

    But, they provided valuable and free publicity to Newsmax, which has been trying to break into the cable news big leagues since launching in 2014. During the campaign, the president has encouraged his Twitter followers to watch his rallies in Florida and Pennsylvania on Newsmax. “Getting ready to land in Florida,” he wrote last month. “BIG CROWD! Live on various networks: @OANN, @cspan, @newsmax and others!!!” Fox News covered the rallies sparingly — or not at all.

    It’s been an uphill battle for Newsmax, which began as a Web portal in 1998. The network attracted just 21,000 total viewers over the course of a week this summer, according to Nielsen research data, compared with 1.9 million Fox News viewers during the same period, though it has achieved gains recently.

    The network is upping its attacks on Fox lately, smelling blood in the water after many conservatives, including the president, criticized Fox News for being the first news outlet to call Arizona for Biden, leading to something of a rift in the cozy, long-standing relationship.

    On Tuesday, after showing viewers that Trump had tweeted Newsmax clips, an anchor said, “The president seems to be changing his tune on which network to go to."

    Businessman Christopher Ruddy, who founded Newsmax, has emphasized his friendship with the president. During a CNN interview on Sunday, Ruddy said that Trump “is very disappointed in Fox News,” mentioning the performance of Fox News anchor Chris Wallace in moderating the first presidential debate as well as the network’s electoral forecasts.
    Unlike Fox News, which called the election for Biden on Saturday along with all major news outlets, Newsmax still has not made a call. On Tuesday, Newsmax critically covered an editorial decision made by Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto to cut away from a Monday press briefing by Trump’s reelection campaign, saying that he “can’t in good countenance continue showing you this” unless the campaign provides evidence to back up its voter fraud allegations. A Newsmax anchor said the decision showed that Fox, along with the rest of the media, was “jumping right into the tank for the left.” Later in the morning, an anchor asked rhetorically, “what happened to ‘fair and balanced?,’" mocking the network’s longtime slogan. Another Newsmax host criticized Fox’s ”unwillingness, their lack of curiosity, to get to the bottom of what’s going on” with the election.

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    https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/17/trum...erminated.html

    What the hell is this Chris Krebs gets fired over not fitting in Trump's propaganda. But Krebs was going to leave anyway along with Trump on Inauguration. What is the fucking point of firing somebody that was going to be out of a cabinet seat in January.

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Tuesday on Twitter that he has “terminated” top U.S. cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs.

    In a pair of tweets, Trump said that Krebs gave a “highly inaccurate” statement about the security of the 2020 presidential election.

    Trump, who has not yet conceded to president-elect Joe Biden, alleged that the election was riddled with “massive improprieties and fraud.” Twitter labeled the president’s tweets with a warning citing the claim about election fraud is disputed.

    Krebs, who heads the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is responsible for leading the effort to protect U.S. elections. He has previously said that there is no evidence the elections were compromised by foreign interference.

    On Election Day, Krebs called on Americans to be patient and “to treat all sensational and unverified claims with skepticism.”Regardless of the outcome here, there is a common bond that is stronger than political affiliation and that is that we are all Americans,” Krebs said during a November 3 press conference, adding, “keep calm and vote on, and after today, keep calm and let them count on.”

    Read more: No signs of hacks on computers used to record and tally votes, says top U.S. election protection official

    Earlier on Tuesday, Krebs tweeted from his government account, “On allegations that election systems were manipulated, 59 election security experts all agree, in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.”

    Less than an hour after Trump tweeted about his firing, Krebs wrote from his personal Twitter account that he was “honored to serve.”
    He is the latest Trump administration official to depart on the heels of the election.

    “I’m proud of the work we did at CISA,” Krebs told NBC News on Tuesday night after the firing. “I’m proud of the teammates I had at CISA. We did it right.”

    A source with knowledge of the firing told NBC News Krebs found out the news via Twitter and that it was upsetting for him because he took the work seriously.

    Several sources close to Krebs told NBC News in recent days that it was a matter of “when, not if” Krebs would be fired. They expected him to continue to push back on the president’s misinformation about the election to the end and not “lay low.”

    “He’s been on death watch,” said a person close to Krebs.

    Last week, Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper via Twitter and replaced him with Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

    On the heels of Esper’s removal, a Trump administration official told CNBC’s Eamon Javers that “I assume FBI and CIA are next,” referring to FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel.

    The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The latest revelation comes as Trump has rejected the results of the U.S. presidential election. Other top administration officials, such as Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have publicly insisted that the election is not over.

    —NBC News contributed to this report

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    http://da.lacounty.gov/media/news/pa...ed-voter-fraud

    . Two men have been charged in a 41-count criminal complaint for allegedly submitting thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications on behalf of homeless people, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced today.

    Carlos Antonio De Bourbon Montenegro (dob 9/9/67), aka Mark Anthony Gonsalves, and Marcos Raul Arevalo (dob 3/15/86) were each charged in case BA491333 with one count of conspiracy to commit voter fraud, eight counts of voter fraud, four counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument and four misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit.

    Montenegro faces an additional 10 counts of voter fraud, seven counts of procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, two counts of perjury and five misdemeanor counts of interference with a prompt transfer of a completed affidavit.

    The case was filed for warrant on November 12.

    Arraignment is scheduled today in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

    Montenegro allegedly submitted more than 8,000 fraudulent voter registration applications between July and October 2020. The defendant also is accused of falsifying names, addresses and signatures on nomination papers under penalty of perjury to run for mayor in the city of Hawthorne.

    If convicted as charged, Montenegro faces a possible maximum sentence of 15 years and eight months in state prison, while Arevalo faces a possible maximum sentence of seven years in prison.

    The Public Integrity Division is prosecuting the case.

    The case remains under investigation by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office, FBI, Covina Police Department and the California Secretary of State’s Office assisted in the initial investigation.

    Apparently there is a voter fraud allegation from Los Angeles County. But in this case it's in relation to a mayoral race in Hawthorne, CA. Nothing to to do with the Presidential election.

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    https://www.koat.com/article/sen-lin...tion/34717733#

    CHARLESTON, S.C. —
    Three attorneys have filed an ethics complaint against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, accusing the South Carolina Republican of pressuring a Georgia elections official to toss out legally cast absentee votes in the presidential race.

    In a complaint filed Wednesday with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, Claire Finkelstein, Richard Painter and Walter Shaub “urge the committee to investigate whether Senator Graham suggested that Secretary Raffensperger disenfranchise Georgia voters by not counting votes lawfully cast for the office of president.” They also “demand clarity as to whether Senator Graham has threatened anyone with a Senate investigation of the Georgia vote tally and or taken steps to initiate such an investigation.”

    The complaint also requests that Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “be recused from any investigation or other Senate matter relating to alleged irregularities in the 2020 election” while any probe of his comments is ongoing.

    The complaint stems from comments by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who said this week that Graham asked him whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, a question Raffensperger interpreted as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes. Raffensperger told The Washington Post he’s faced rising pressure from fellow Republicans who want to see Democrat Joe Biden’s narrow lead in the state reversed.

    The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Georgia, where Biden leads President Donald Trump by 0.3 percentage points. There is no mandatory recount law in Georgia, but state law provides that option to a trailing candidate if the margin is less than 0.5 percentage points. It is AP’s practice not to call a race that is – or is likely to become – subject to a recount.

    Election officials have said a hand recount has turned up more than 5,000 votes in four counties that weren't previously counted but won't alter the overall outcome of the race, in which nearly 5 million votes were cast in the state. Officials have said the margin between Trump and Biden will be about 12,800 votes when those previously uncounted votes are accounted for.

    When Georgia voters return an absentee ballot, they have to sign an oath on an outer envelope. County election office workers are required to ensure the signature matches the one on the absentee ballot application and the one in the voter registration system, Raffensperger has said.

    “He asked if the absentee ballots could be matched back to the envelope,” Raffensperger told The Associated Press this week, of his conversation with Graham. “I thought that then Sen. Graham implied for us to audit the envelopes and throw out ballots of counties who had the highest frequency error rate of signatures, and I told him that’s something that we couldn’t do.”

    Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop called the attorneys “longtime vocal critics” of both Graham and Trump, adding, “Their complaint should be viewed in that light.” Painter has called Graham “Putin’s favorite senator,” while Finkelstein said this week Trump “will likely be indicted” after leaving office.

    Schaub, the former head of the federal Office of Government Ethics, complained in 2017 about Graham’s tweets that he said improperly promoted Trump International Golf Club.

    When asked about the conversation with Raffensperger, Graham said Monday that he was “trying to find out how the signature stuff worked” and that Raffensperger “did a good job of explaining to me how they verify signatures.”

    Asked about Raffensperger’s interpretation that he was suggesting legally cast ballots should be thrown out, Graham said, “That’s ridiculous.”
    Trump — who has made unfounded claims of widespread voting irregularities and fraud — and his campaign have repeatedly taken to social media to criticize Raffensperger and the way the state’s hand tally was being conducted. Once the hand tally is complete and the results certified, the losing campaign can request a recount, which would be done using scanners that read and tally the votes.

    County election officials were instructed to complete the count by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. The deadline for the state to certify election results is Friday.

    ___

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    https://fox40.com/news/local-news/de...d-pornography/

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — An employee of the state legislature was arrested on a child pornography charge, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Tuesday.

    Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office public information officer Sgt. Rod Grassmann told FOX40 that in February a social media company flagged a pornographic picture showing someone underage on one of its user’s accounts, alerting the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

    “Because of the digital age, we’re able to track people and their activities much better than in the past,” Sgt. Grassmann explained.

    Investigators came to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force and created a search warrant, according to Grassmann.

    The investigation led them to 28-year-old Brandon Martinez Bratcher. He turned himself in Monday and is facing a felony charge of possessing child pornography.

    “The internet connection came out of the State Capitol,” Grassmann said.

    Bratcher was a legislative assistant working for Assistant Speaker Pro Tem Rebecca Bauer-Kahan with the State Assembly.

    Her office declined an on-camera interview but sent FOX40 a statement that reads: “We were stunned to learn of these disturbing charges. Once we learned of the investigation he was immediately placed on administrative leave.”

    Grassmann said officers with the California Highway Patrol served a search warrant at Bratcher’s home and they’re still investigating.

    “There could be additional charges depending on additional evidence,” Grassman said. “Sexually exploited children is a huge issue in this country and in this area. We take that very seriously.”

    Bratcher is scheduled for an arraignment Wednesday afternoon.

    Jail records show Bratcher is no longer in custody. FOX40 reached out to him by email Tuesday for a comment but has not yet heard back.

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    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michi...b695be82fe1b4d

    The two Republicans on Michigan’s Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially refused on Tuesday to certify the county’s election results, which show former Vice President Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump.

    But they suddenly reversed their decision after hours of phone calls from the public lambasting them for trying to exclude predominantly Black Detroit from the certification.

    The board first deadlocked at 2-2 with the Republicans voting against certifying the results and Democrats voting to certify. It would have been an unprecedented move by a local board to refuse to certify an election result as part of a scheme to overturn the outcome.

    This ultimately aborted move came as Trump continues to falsely claim that voter fraud cost him the election without providing any evidence or specific, provable allegations of fraud. Trump has filed over 20 lawsuits challenging the election results, with disastrous results so far. He has repeatedly lost in court because he can present no evidence of fraud.

    The two Republican board members ― Monica Palmer and William Hartmann ― initially stated that their refusal to certify Wayne County’s results was due to minor discrepancies in absentee poll book matches, according to The Detroit News. Similar minor discrepancies have never stopped the local board from certifying elections in the past.

    “There is no reason under the sun for us to have not certified this election,” Board Vice Chairman Jonathan Kinloch, one of the board’s two Democrats, said. “I believe that politics made its presence known here today.”

    After the initial vote, the board of canvassers heard from angry members of the public, who accused the two Republicans of racism for trying to exclude votes from Detroit, which is approximately 80% Black.

    Palmer, one of the Republicans on the Wayne County board, initially suggested that she would only certify “communities other than Detroit” that are within the county — suburbs that are predominantly white.

    Hartmann, meanwhile, has shared racist memes, including about Detroit residents, and has promoted Trump’s disproven conspiracies about voter fraud on his social media accounts.

    “As the process moves to the state level, eligible Black voters and others across Wayne County, who overcame tremendous obstacles to vote this season, are being rendered, second-class citizens,” Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement.

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    Leading Michigan Democrats denounced the Republicans’ initial refusal to certify the results before they changed their votes.

    “In refusing to approve the results of the election in Wayne County, the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers have placed partisan politics above their legal duty to certify the election results,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) said in a statement Tuesday night.


    After hearing from the public, Palmer and Hartmann reversed their votes and the board unanimously certified the county’s election results while also calling on Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) to conduct a review of poll book discrepancies.

    While this episode ultimately ended with the votes upheld, it demonstrates a Republican Party, from the president on down to local officials, willing to discard the election results and steal the 2020 election, specifically by invalidating votes cast by Black Americans.

    The initial action by the GOP board of canvassers members was part of a scheme, promoted by Trump’s campaign, involving local and state-level Republicans on local canvassing and elections boards refusing to certify election results in jurisdictions where Biden won. In doing so, they believe, they could throw the certification decision to Republican-controlled state legislatures that could then choose Trump as the winner, even though he lost the popular vote to Biden by almost 3%. Republican legislative leaders have, however, said that they will play no role in the theft of the election.

    Trump praised the initial refusal to certify the Wayne County results in an inaccurate tweet claiming that the certification for statewide Michigan results had been refused.

    “Wow!” Trump tweeted. “Michigan just refused to certify the election results! Having courage is a beautiful thing. The USA stands proud!”

    The board reversed the decision six minutes later.

  21. #471
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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ying-election/

    This Shit has nothing to do with election results its all about Trump wanting a Jonestown in the USA.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...ying-election/ DETROIT — President Trump called a GOP canvassing board member in Wayne County who announced Wednesday she wanted to rescind her decision to certify the results of the presidential election, the member said in a message to The Washington Post on Thursday.

    “I did receive a call from President Trump, late Tuesday evening, after the meeting,” Monica Palmer, one of two Republican members of the four-member Wayne County canvassing board, told The Post. “He was checking in to make sure I was safe after hearing the threats and doxing that had occurred.”

    The call came after an hours-long meeting Tuesday in which the four-member canvassing board voted to certify the results of the Nov. 3 election, a key step toward finalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

    Trump has also invited leaders from Michigan’s Republican-controlled state legislature to meet with him on Friday afternoon in Washington, according to a person familiar with those plans.

    The Republican-controlled state legislature could, in theory, step in to award Michigan’s 16 electoral votes, if the state’s board of canvassers does not certify a winner. Earlier this week, Michigan’s Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) said that Biden is the president-elect, and that an effort to award Michigan’s electoral votes to Trump “not going to happen,” according to the news outlet Bridge Michigan.

    The Detroit News reported that Shirkey is among those set to meet with Trump. Shirkey’s office did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.

    For now, Trump’s interventions seemed unlikely to change the course of events in Michigan. Biden is winning the state by a wide margin, more than 148,000 votes. The state’s board of canvassers is still scheduled to hold a hearing Monday to certify the results.

    But Trump’s actions in Michigan showed how he has used the prestige and platform of the presidency in an unprecedented ways in the election’s aftermath -- including by reaching out directly to the officials who must certify Biden’s victories.

    The president has now spent two weeks making false claims on Twitter, and filing lawsuits that have generally gone nowhere in the courts. On Thursday, his campaign dropped its lawsuit seeking to block Michigan’s results -- a sign, perhaps, that they believe their most likely path to success is a political one, persuading the state’s elected Republicans to award Trump a state he lost.

    In affidavits signed Wednesday evening, the two GOP members of the board allege that they were improperly pressured into certifying the election and accused Democrats of reneging on a promise to audit votes in Detroit.

    Here’s what happened when Rudolph Giuliani made his first appearance in federal court in nearly three decades

    In an interview, Palmer estimated that she talked with Trump for about two minutes Tuesday. She said she felt no pressure to change her vote. Palmer has said she received messages threatening her and her family during and after the tense Tuesday meeting.

    His concern was about my safety and that was really touching. He is a really busy guy and to have his concern about my safety was appreciated,” she told The Post.

    Asked if they discussed the presidential vote count, she said: “It’s hard for me to describe. There was a lot of adrenalin and stress going on. There were general comments about different states but we really didn’t discuss the details of the certification.”

    Asked again about possible pressure from such a call, Palmer said: “It was not pressure. It was genuine concern for my safety."

    William Hartmann, the other Republican on the board, has signed a similar affidavit, according a person familiar with the document. Hartmann did not respond to a message from The Post.

    Jonathan Kinloch, a Democrat and the board’s vice chairman, told The Post that it’s too late for the pair to reverse course, as the certified results have been sent to the secretary of state in accordance with state rules. He lashed out at the Republicans over their requests.

    Do they understand how they are making us look as a body?” he said. “We have such an amazing and important role in the democratic process, and they’re turning it on its head.”

    Also on Thursday, the Trump campaign dropped a lawsuit it had filed in federal court to block Michigan from certifying its election results. In explaining the move, Trump’s lawyers said — incorrectly — that the Wayne County board had voted not to certify the county’s results.

    The Secretary of State’s Office, which handles Michigan elections, has said that — after the Wayne County board voted to certify the election results Tuesday — the decision is now out of their hands, according to news reports.

    “There is no legal mechanism for them to rescind their vote,” Tracy Wimmer, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), told The Washington Post. “Their job is done and the next step in the process is for the Board of State Canvassers to meet and certify.”

    For three hours, an obscure county board in Michigan was at the center of U.S. politics

    At the heart of the dispute is a last-minute compromise between Kinloch and the Republicans to seek a comprehensive audit of results in the Detroit area, where the GOP members said the votes were out of balance — meaning the poll book, the official list of who voted, didn’t match the number of ballots received.

    Palmer and Hartmann said in their affidavits that they believed they had a firm commitment to an audit. But Palmer says in her affidavit that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) later said she didn’t view their resolution asking for an audit as binding.

    “I felt misled,” Palmer told The Post earlier Wednesday, before signing the affidavit. “I stand firm in not certifying Wayne County without the audit.”

    Kinloch, though, said Palmer and Hartmann knew exactly what they were agreeing to Tuesday, and the board has yet to even formally ask Benson for the audit.

    Palmer “knew it wasn’t binding,” Kinloch said. “We just voted yesterday.”

    Kinloch said he and Palmer texted each other into the early hours of Wednesday, with the Democrat explaining he had support across the board for the request. But he said Palmer was aware he had not been able to directly reach the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday night.

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    https://news.yahoo.com/trump-pardons...211535691.html

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, ending a yearslong prosecution in the Russia investigation that saw Flynn twice plead guilty to lying to the FBI and then reverse himself before the Justice Department stepped in to dismiss his case.

    “It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon," Trump tweeted. “Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!”

    The pardon, coming in the waning weeks of Trump's single term, is part of a broader effort by the president to undo the results of a Russia investigation that shadowed his administration and yielded criminal charges against a half dozen associates. It comes just months after the president commuted the sentence of another associate, Roger Stone, days before he was to report to prison.

    A Justice Department official said the department was not consulted on the pardon and learned Wednesday of the plan. But the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, noted that the president has the legal power to pardon Flynn.

    The move is likely to energize supporters who have taken up Flynn as a cause celebre and rallied around the retired Army lieutenant general as the victim of what they assert is an unfair prosecution, even though Flynn twice admitted guilt. Trump has repeatedly spoken warmly about Flynn and, in an indication of his personal interest in his fate, asked then-FBI Director James Comey in February 2017 to end a criminal investigation into the national security adviser.

    In a statement, Flynn’s family thanked Trump “for answering our prayers and the prayers of a nation” by issuing the pardon.

    Democrats lambasted the pardon as undeserved and unprincipled. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an act of grave corruption and a brazen abuse of power," while Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said a “pardon by Trump does not erase” the truth of Flynn's guilty plea, “no matter how Trump and his allies try to suggest otherwise.”

    “The President’s enablers have constructed an elaborate narrative in which Trump and Flynn are victims and the Constitution is subject to the whims of the president," House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler said in a statement. “Americans soundly rejected this nonsense when they voted out President Trump. ”

    The pardon is the final step in a case defined by twists and turns. The most dramatic came in May when the Justice Department abruptly moved to dismiss the case, insisting that Flynn should not have been interviewed by the FBI in the first place, only to have U.S. District Justice Emmet Sullivan resist the request and appoint a former judge to argue against the federal government's position and to evaluate whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt for perjury.

    That former judge, John Gleeson, called the Justice Department's dismissal request an abuse of power and said its grounds for dropping the case were ever-evolving and “patently pretextual.”

    As Sullivan declined to immediately dismiss the prosecution, Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell sought to bypass the judge by asking a federal appeals court to direct him to drop the matter. A three-judge panel did exactly that, but the full court overturned that decision and sent case back to Sullivan.

    At a hearing in September, Powell told Sullivan that she had discussed Flynn's case with Trump but also said she did not want a pardon — presumably because she wanted him to be vindicated in the courts.

    Powell emerged separately in recent weeks as a public face of the Trump's efforts to overturn the results of his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden, but the Trump legal team distanced itself from her after she advanced a series of uncorroborated conspiracy claims.

    The pardon spares Flynn the possibility of any prison sentence, which Sullivan could potentially have imposed had he ultimately rejected the Justice Department's dismissal request. That request was made after a review of the case by a federal prosecutor from St. Louis who had been specially appointed by Attorney General William Barr.

    At issue in the prosecution was an FBI interview of Flynn, days after Trump's inauguration, about a conversation he had during the presidential transition period with the then-Russian ambassador.

    Flynn acknowledged lying during that interview by saying he had not discussed with the diplomat, Sergey Kislyak, sanctions that had just been imposed on Russia for election interference by the outgoing Obama administration. During that conversation, Flynn urged Kislyak for Russia to be “even-keeled” in response to the punitive measures, and assured him “we can have a better conversation” about relations between the countries after Trump became president.

    The conversation alarmed the FBI, which at the time was investigating whether the Trump campaign and Russia had coordinated to sway the election. In addition, White House officials were stating publicly that Flynn and Kislyak had not discussed sanctions, which the FBI knew was untrue.

    Flynn was ousted from his position in February 2017 after news broke that Obama administration officials had warned the White House that Flynn had indeed discussed sanctions with Kislyak and was vulnerable to being blackmailed. He pleaded guilty months later to a false statement charge.

    But last May, after years of defending the prosecution, the Justice Department abruptly reversed its position.

    It asserted the FBI had no basis to interview Flynn about Kislyak and that any statements he made during the interview were not material to the FBI's broader counterintelligence probe. The department also pointed to internal FBI notes showing agents had planned to close out the investigation weeks before interviewing Kislyak.

    Flynn, of Middletown, Rhode Island, was among the first people charged in Mueller's investigation and provided such extensive cooperation that prosecutors did not recommend any prison time, leaving open the possibility of probation.

    But the morning he was to have been sentenced, after a stern rebuke about his behavior from Sullivan, Flynn asked for the hearing to be cut short so that he could continue cooperating and earn credit toward a more lenient sentence.

    After that, he hired new attorneys — including Powell, a conservative commentator and outspoken critic of Mueller's investigation — who took a far more confrontational stance to the government and had tried to withdraw his guilty plea.

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    Belarus has an election dispute. The Current President of Belarus refuses to concede the election.

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    . White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is describing Monday’s Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden as the nation’s next president as just “one step in the constitutional process.”

    McEnany’s assessment is the latest example of White House officials declining to accept Biden’s victory.



    McEnany was asked Tuesday by reporters whether President Donald Trump now considers Biden to be the president-elect and whether he plans to invite him to the White House.

    She declined to provide such an acknowledgement, saying “the president is still involved in ongoing litigation related to the election. Yesterday’s vote was one step in the constitutional process, so I will leave that to him and refer you to the campaign for more on that litigation.”

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday broke his silence on the winner of the presidency after the Electoral College vote of 306 for Biden and 232 for Trump. McConnell said, “The Electoral College has spoken.”

    McEnany says she has not gotten the president’s reaction to McConnell

    https://ktla.com/news/politics/wh-sp...ional-process/

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