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Thursday, March 14, 2024

Judge Dismisses Six Counts in Trump’s RICO Case in Georgia

Townhall: The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Georgia election interference case has dismissed some of the charges against the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, dealing a damaging blow to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Judge Scott McAfee, who’s also presiding over the disqualification proceedings facing Willis, wrote in a nine-page court order Wednesday that six of the charges filed in the grand jury indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump (Townhall). Wall Street Journal: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled prosecutors hadn’t properly laid out their legal claims in the indictment, allowing Trump to successfully challenge the wording of the charges. In total, 35 counts remain in the indictment, and McAfee said Willis can refile the six tossed ones with more specificity. Against Trump specifically, Wednesday’s ruling removes three of the 13 felony counts he faced—leaving 10 pending, including racketeering. All original 19 defendants pleaded not guilty; four have since taken plea deals (Wall Street Journal). Legal Fellow Anna Bower: The charges dismissed from the indictment include counts 2, 5, 6, 23, 28, and 38. They relate to alleged efforts by Trump and others to solicit violations of oaths of office from state officials like Brad Raffensperger and former GA House Speaker David Ralston (X).

House Passes Bipartisan Bill Forcing ByteDance To Divest From TikTok, China Warns Lawmakers

National Review: A bipartisan coalition of House members voted Wednesday to pass a bill that would effectively force the Chinese parent company of TikTok to sell the video-sharing platform or face a ban in U.S. app stores. The bill passed 352 to 65, with 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voting against it. The legislation is now headed to the Senate, where it is expected to face a more difficult path. President Joe Biden said he would sign the bill should it reach his desk, even though his 2024 reelection campaign created a TikTok account last month (National Review). Townhall: China is warning that a ban on TikTok would “come back to bite the United States.” The message was delivered Wednesday by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang. “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” Wang said, according to AFP… “In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang added (Townhall).

Trump Asks New York Court To Postpone Trial Until Supreme Court Rules on Presidential Immunity

National Review: The lawfare campaign has been humming for a couple of years. The Supreme Court cases are a prime example. It’s only March, yet the justices have already had to intervene twice in 2024 electoral politics. It’s the dream of progressives: If they win the cases, the public is denied the right to elect leaders the Left opposes; if they lose the cases, they agitate to pack the Supreme Court and turn it into a super-legislature that imposes the progressive policy wish list (National Review). NBC: Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys are asking the judge presiding over his impending criminal trial in New York to delay the trial until after the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling on the scope of presidential immunity. If granted, the 11th-hour long-shot bid filed on Thursday would delay the trial, which is scheduled to start March 25, by several weeks, if not months. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records tied to a hush-money payment to an adult film star toward the end of his 2016 campaign (NBC).

Canada Attempts To Crack Down on Free Speech

Do not be so naïve to think this cannot happen in the United States. Free Press: There is no freedom at all without freedom of expression. Free speech is the essential freedom from which our other rights flow. It’s a right that we have taken for granted in the West. But a new wave of hate speech laws has changed that. In English-speaking countries with long traditions of free expression—countries like Canada, Britain, and Ireland—this most basic freedom is under attack. Take Canada. Civil liberties groups north of the border are warning a new bill put forward by Justin Trudeau’s government will introduce “draconian penalties” that risk chilling free speech. The law would allow authorities to place a Canadian citizen under house arrest if that person is suspected to commit a future hate crime—even if they have not already done so. The legislation also increases the maximum penalty for advocating genocide from five years to life (Free Speech). Vigilant Fox: This is not satire. Proposed bill C-6 says: “Everyone who commits an offense under this act … is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for life.” It gets worse. The new bill bribes citizens to snitch on their fellow Canadians (X).

U.S. Marines Dispatched to Embassy in Haiti

NBC: A new team of Marines has been sent to Haiti to help protect the American Embassy, the U.S. military said Wednesday, a day after the beleaguered Caribbean nation’s prime minister announced his resignation following months of rising unrest and gang violence. The U.S. Southern Command said in a statement that a fleet anti-terrorism security team was deployed to the embassy in the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The Marines are in the country to “maintain strong security capabilities at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and conduct relief in place for our current Marines, a common and routine practice worldwide,” the statement said. The statement added that the embassy remains open, although only limited operations continue, including “supporting Haitian-led efforts to secure a peaceful transition of power” (NBC). Washington Post: This month gangs attacked two prisons, freeing thousands of criminals, and assaulted the international airport, the main seaport and at least a dozen police stations. Bodies have accumulated in the streets of the capital with no government workers to take them away (Washington Post).

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Sends Reinforcements to Florida Coast To Block Haitian Migrants

Newsweek: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced the deployment of “over 250 additional officers and soldiers” from the Florida State Guard, Division of Emergency Management and law enforcement agencies amidst concern the political situation in Haiti could spark a new wave of irregular immigration (Newsweek). Ron DeSantis: For quite some time, the State of Florida has been dedicating significant resources to combat illegal vessels coming to Florida from countries such as Haiti. Given the circumstances in Haiti, I have directed the Division of Emergency Management, the Florida State Guard, and state law enforcement agencies to deploy over 250 additional officers and soldiers and over a dozen air and sea craft to the southern coast of Florida to protect our state. No state has done more to supplement the (under-resourced) U.S. Coast Guard’s interdiction efforts; we cannot have illegal aliens coming to Florida (X).

Report Shows Biden Spent at Least $77 Million on DEI Initiatives in 2022, 2023

Daily Wire: President Joe Biden’s State Department privately disclosed to Congress that it spent $77 million taxpayer dollars on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts in the last two years — and it plans to eclipse that total in the final year of Biden’s first term. The administration was forced by a provision in last year’s spending bill to disclose to Congress exactly how much it has spent on DEI. That private report, obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire, shows Biden has spent $77 million in 2022 and 2023 on DEI-related initiatives. Meanwhile an undisclosed amount of “central funds” are used to pay for 12 full-time employees in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Constance Mayer enjoys an annual salary of nearly $180,000) (Daily Wire).

Jim Jordan Issues Subpoena to DHS Secretary Mayorkas To Obtain ICE Information

Just the News: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Wednesday subpoenaed Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In writing to Mayorkas, Jordan pointed to his panel’s prior interviews with ICE officials about the surge in illegal immigration across the southern border and noted that several personnel could not answer questions about documents on the administration’s policies. He further highlighted his past attempts to secure the information on a voluntary basis, which he said went ignored (Just the News). House Judiciary GOP: Chairman Jim Jordan subpoenas DHS Secretary Mayorkas for ICE data, documents, and communications. America faces a migrant crisis at the southern border and DHS failed to fully comply with the Committee’s requests for over four months. Unacceptable (X).

Pentagon Employee Wants to Repeal the Second Amendment, Open the Border and Pack the Supreme Court

Post Millennial: In the newest video from James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group, a Department of Defense employee was heard saying that the Second Amendment should be repealed, only the government should have guns, and that the Supreme Court needs to be packed. “I think we should repeal the Second Amendment and take the guns all away,” said Jason Beck, who works in Total Force Requirements & Sourcing Policy in the office of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (Post Millennial). James O’Keefe: Associate Director in the Office of the Secretary of Defense says, “Why not just have an open border?” “Tear down the wall” (X).

10.

Young Pop Star Olivia Rodrigo Distributes Abortion Pills at Concert

National Review: Olivia Rodrigo, a former star actress on Disney Channel, is promoting abortion access on her “GUTS” concert tour and working with local pro-abortion groups to distribute free abortion pills. Rodrigo, 21, performed in St. Louis, Missouri on Tuesday. The venue hosted booths run by the Missouri Abortion Fund and Text Right By You, a “youth-focused text line connecting Missourians to abortion care, birth care, adoption and parenting supports, birth control, and information about their rights.” The singer is donating a portion of proceeds from ticket sales to support her new initiative called “Fund 4 Good,” which is dedicated to ensuring “an equitable and just future for all women, girls and people seeking reproductive health freedom” (National Review). Pop Base: Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour in St. Louis handed out free Plan B pills to fans who wanted them, from the Missouri Abortion Fund (X).