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- President Biden on Roe vs. Wade giving us some 70’s “free love” vibes.
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Evidence of disgraced former president Donald Trump’s criminality surrounding the Big Lie (and its close cousin the Failed Coup) is the gift that keeps on giving (treason).
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California federal judge David O. Carter has determined Trump and his lawyers pushed claims of voter fraud he knew to be false in federal court and to the public in order to delay counting of state electoral votes past January 6, 2021. Conservative lawyer John Eastman was behind the legal strategy to fraudulently reject electoral votes, and he has fought tooth and nail to keep his emails from the House January 6 committee, asserting that they fall under the scope of attorney-client privilege. Judge Carter was tasked with reviewing the emails to determine whether Eastman’s assertions of privilege apply to the materials sought by the committee and whoops, they don’t.
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Attorney-client privilege has this fun little exception called the crime-fraud exception, which applies to documents and communication in furtherance of illegal or fraudulent conduct. In other words: Attorney-client privilege goes out the window if you’re using it to break the law. Crime? Fraud? Doesn’t sound like our boy Donald! Eight of Eastman’s communications, according to Judge Carter, fall under the crime-fraud exception, and four of them were documents “in which Dr. Eastman and other attorneys suggest that—irrespective of the merits—the primary goal of filing [the lawsuits] is to delay or otherwise disrupt the January 6 vote.” In one such email, Eastman states that merely having the case pending in the Supreme Court “...might be enough to delay consideration of Georgia.”
- The other four documents, writes Carter, demonstrate Trump and his attorneys knowingly pursued false claims in federal court in at least one lawsuit filed in Georgia, citing a December 2020 filing that falsely accused Fulton County, GA, of improperly counting votes from felons, unregistered voters, and the deceased. Disgraced former president Trump lashed out almost immediately in his favorite way with a childish screed on his own fake-Twitter company Truth Social, which is just about the only tech platform that will have him. “Who’s this Clinton appointed ‘Judge,’ David Carter, who keeps saying, and sending to all, very nasty, wrong, and ill informed statements about me on rulings, or a case (whatever!)....” he wrote. Classic, fully-losing-his-mind Trump.
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Just a few weeks ago it seemed like the January 6 Committee would be wrapping up its investigation shortly, but with each new piece of explosive evidence uncovered, it looks like they still have more to do.
Trump has tried to hide behind Executive privilege, attorney-client privilege, and myriad other smoke screens over the past few years. It turns out that if you do enough crimes, it’s not hard to nullify those privileges.
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Hysteria fans, there’s a new drop at the Crooked Store just for you. Feel and look your pettiest in brand new designs. We even have something for the ultimate drama-starters: babies. And of course, if you wake up every day to a wave of dread washing over you, we’ve got you covered. Can Old Navy say that? Definitely not.
Check it out at crooked.com/store.
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The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, James Ballard, spoke last Friday at an off-the-record, invitation-only forum held by megabank Citigroup, and open to clients, on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings in Washington. Bullard’s remarks touched on both monetary policy and financial stability during a turbulent week in the global economy. But reporters were not alerted to Bullard's speech. A voting Fed policy member speaking behind closed doors in front of Wall Street investors at a worldwide economic inflection point is not normal, and it’s really not ethical. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis called the discussion informal, said Bullard participated in the event in the past, and noted that he gave an interview to Reuters earlier in the day regarding the same matters, so they argued that the public had access to his views. But an attendee at the event who spoke on condition of anonymity said Bullard also suggested in his speech that, based on the history, the market response to the Fed’s rate adjustments had been less pronounced than expected given how much rates have increased. It’s not clear if Bullard’s speech violated the Fed’s communication rules (because no one knows exactly what was said), but experts agree his remarks cross the line.
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With less than a week to go before early voting begins, officials in Texas’ most populous county received a notice from the secretary of state that “inspectors” would be sent to observe vote counts for the general election, performing “randomized checks.”
Arizona’s fascist slate of midterm nominees have all signaled support for overhauling election rules and regulations, better known as structurally rigging elections for Republicans in perpetuity.
A U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan named Joshua Mast and his wife adopted a baby whom he said was a war orphan. The baby’s Afghan family is now suing to get her back, saying Mast abducted their child.
New documents obtained by the Washington Post signal that billionaire Elon Musk plans to fire 75 percent of Twitter’s workforce once his acquisition of the social network is finalized, which experts agree will leave Twitter users at risk of hacks and exposure to criminal content such as child sexual abuse videos. Just a deeply bad guy, if you ask me!
World Health Organization staffers in Syria alleged that their boss Dr. Akjemal Magtymova engaged in abusive behavior, corruption, and mismanagement of funds, after at least a dozen personnel complaints triggered one of WHO’s biggest internal probes in years.
This November, Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont will vote on ballot measures to amend their state constitutions’ provisions for involuntary, unpaid prison labor—slavery—as a criminal punishment.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans have already begun sidecar investigations of the Biden administration in anticipation of taking control of the lower chamber once again, including a probe into the FBI’s focus on “domestic violent extremism.” Basically House Republicans are saying, “Hey, leave our friends alone!”
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Book Bans Must Be Stopped
This is important. Freedom of expression protects our right to read, learn and share ideas free from viewpoint-based censorship—but recent legislative efforts across the country threaten that right.
Book bans in schools and public libraries—places that are central to our abilities to explore ideas, encounter new perspectives, and learn to think for ourselves—are unconstitutional—and we need your support to fight back. Sign up today if you’re with us.
The vast majority of book bans that are taking hold across the country—whether through legislative proposals or direct school district or board actions—specifically aim to remove books that are by and about communities of color, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized groups.
These book ban efforts work to effectively erase the history and lived experiences of women, people of color and LGBTQ people and censor discussions around race, gender and sexuality that impact young people’s daily lives. It’s wrong and it’s unconstitutional.
We all have a right to read and learn free from viewpoint-based or partisan censorship. Sign up today to help us fight for our right to read and learn.
Thank you for taking action,
The ACLU Team
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Giorgia Meloni, the far-right leader who made international headlines by becoming Italy’s first female prime minister-elect, and its first fascist head of state since Mussolini, is already off to a rocky start, and her tenure hasn’t even yet begun. Newly-released audio revealed that Silvio Berlusconi, who leads Italy’s center-right Forza Italia party, claims to have rekindled his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and blames Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Meloni responded yesterday by saying “I intend to lead a government with a clear and unambiguous foreign policy line. Italy is fully, and proudly, part of Europe and of NATO.” More surprisingly, she capped off that statement by concluding, “Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone will not be able to be a part of the government, even at the cost of not forming a government.” Yowza. Also, unexpected! Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, as is true of all far-right parties, is deeply nationalistic to the point of xenophobia, so the would-be prime minister pledging her allegiance to the E.U. and NATO, and furthermore that she would break up the coalition if other right-wing officials won’t follow her lead comes as something of a shock. It’s especially dramatic considering Meloni was slated to begin forming the government as early as…tomorrow.
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