Tag: civil disobedience

India, world’s largest democracy, leads global list of internet shutdowns | CNN Business

CNN
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India imposed the highest number of internet shutdowns globally in 2022, a new report has revealed, in what critics say is yet another blow to country’s commitment to freedom of speech and access to information.

Of 187 internet shutdowns recorded worldwide, 84 took place in India, according to the report published Tuesday by Access Now, a New York based advocacy group that tracks internet freedom.

This is the fifth consecutive year the world’s largest democracy of more than 1.3 billion people has topped the list, the group said, raising concerns about India’s commitment to internet freedom under its current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The responsibility of Indian states for the majority of shutdowns globally is impossible to ignore and a deep problem on its own,” the report said. “Authorities in regions across the country are increasingly resorting to this repressive measure, inflicting shutdowns on more people in more places.”

Nearly 60% of India’s internet shutdowns last year occurred in Indian-administered Kashmir, where authorities disrupted access due to “political instability and violence,” according to the report.

In August 2019, the BJP revoked the autonomy of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two federally administered territories, bringing the region under greater control of New Delhi. The unprecedented decision sparked protests and the government has frequently restricted communication lines since, a move rights groups say is aimed at quashing dissent.

Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, authorities in the states of West Bengal and Rajasthan imposed more shutdowns than other Indian regions in response to “protests, communal violence and exams,” according to the report.

India has the world’s second largest digital population, following China, with more than 800 million internet users. The internet has become a vital social and economic lifeline for large swathes of the population and connects the country’s isolated rural pockets, with its growing cities.

The disruptions “impacted the daily lives of millions of people for hundreds of hours in 2022,” the report said.

The Access Now report comes at a time when India’s commitment to freedom of speech and expression is under increasing scrutiny.

In January, the country banned a documentary from the BBC that was critical of Modi’s alleged role in deadly riots more than 20 years ago. Indian tax authorities raided the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai in the weeks that followed citing “irregularities and discrepancies” in the broadcaster’s taxes.

But critics of the government were not convinced, instead calling the raids “a clear cut case of vendetta” and accused the BJP of intimidating the media.

Last week, police in New Delhi arrested a senior opposition politician for allegedly “disturbing harmony” after he misstated the Prime Minister’s middle name, a move Modi’s critics likened to “dictatorial behavior.”

In recent years, the government has repeatedly justified blocking internet access on the grounds of preserving public safety amid widespread fears of mob violence.

While the country was in the middle of its general election in 2019, with more than 900 million people eligible to vote, some Indians were denied access to the internet for days at a time as they prepared to cast their ballots.

Authorities said the blocking was “a precautionary measure to maintain law and order,” leading many critics to question India’s grand exercise in political freedom during the world’s largest election.

During a nearly year-long protest by angry farmers in 2021 over controversial new pricing laws, the Indian government blocked internet access in several districts after violent skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and police.

Some individual shutdowns have been challenged in the courts, and there is an effort to change the country’s laws to make such blackouts more difficult to impose.

Last year saw more internet shutdowns worldwide than ever before, Access Now said, prompting the group to raise fears of “digital authoritarianism” as governments continue the trend.

Apart from India, other countries that saw internet shutdowns last year include Ukraine, Iran and Myanmar.

During Russia’s invasion of it neighbor Ukraine, the Kremlin cut internet access at least 22 times, according to Access Now, engaging in “cyberattacks and deliberately destroying telecommunications infrastructure.”

The Iranian regime responded to protests ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini by imposing 18 shutdowns – a move Access Now called “a further escalation of its repressive tactics.”

Myanmar, which in 2021 saw the junta remove its democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saw seven internet blackouts, according to the report. The Southeast Asian country continues to be rocked by violence and instability, while many are grappling with shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies

The “military persisted in keeping people in the dark for extended periods, targeting areas where coup resistance is strongest,” the report said.

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February 28, 2023
As criticism grows louder, Mexico’s president accuses protesters of narco links | CNN

CNN
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Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has dismissed concerns about his plan to shrink the country’s electoral watchdog on Monday, accusing protesters of links to drug traffickers.

Images of a mass protest in Mexico City on Sunday showed tens of thousands of people wearing pink – the color of the National Electoral Institute (INE), which oversees elections and has been accused of partisanship by López Obrador.

Many protesters held signs that read: “Hands off the INE.”

Speaking during his daily morning press conference on Monday, López Obrador mocked the placards, saying what they meant was, “hands off corruption.”

“According to them, privileges are not touched, the narco-state is not touched,” he added, claiming without evidence that protest leaders “have been part of the corruption in Mexico, they have belonged to the narco-state.”

Mexican lawmakers last week approved a bill backed by the president to slash the budget of the agency, which could lead to an 85% reduction in its staff as well as the closure of several local offices. Lorenzo Córdova, who heads INE, said on Twitter that the move can “seriously affect future electoral processes.”

Electoral officials warn the change will affect their ability to run free and fair elections ahead of the 2024 general election, when Lopez Obrador, who is limited to a six-year term, is expected to anoint a successor.

More broadly, moves to limit independent agencies like the INE have raised fears of the return of practices seen when Mexico was run by an autocratic single-party for decades prior to 2000.

López Obrador has argued that the plan to slash the agency’s budget will save millions of dollars and make voting more efficient.

The president swept into power in 2018 promising to tackle inequality and poverty, and has constantly criticized INE’s high-ranking officials’ salaries and accused the institution of allowing fraud in previous elections.

But Will Freeman, a Latin America studies fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, warned that López Obrador’s remarks on Monday were “inflammatory, reckless, and just as dangerous for democracy as the reform of the INE that brought over 100,000 Mexicans to the streets.”

“We should be concerned in any country where you see an incumbent president shaking up the electoral administration, while there’s really no force left standing in opposition to push back,” Freeman said.

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February 27, 2023
GOP grapples with how to control Trump — again | CNN Politics

CNN
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GOP leaders are sending warnings that they want former President Donald Trump to play by the rules and put his party above his own interests as he embarks on a third campaign – that is, to behave in a way he rarely, if ever, has before.

Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel gave the clearest sign yet on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that 2024 GOP White House candidates will have to pledge to back the party’s presidential nominee if it isn’t them – or risk being banned from the debate stage.

“I think it’s kind of a no-brainer, right?” McDaniel told Dana Bash, adding that formal criteria haven’t yet been established for the first debate in August. “If you’re going to be on the Republican National Committee debate stage asking voters to support you, you should say, ‘I’m going to support the voters and who they choose as the nominee,’” McDaniel added.

The former president, who signed a loyalty pledge in 2015, responded with his typical hubris on Sunday, despite recent polling showing that enthusiasm for him among the GOP isn’t what it used to be. “President Trump will support the Republican nominee because it will be him,” a campaign spokesperson told CNN in response to McDaniel’s prediction there’d be a loyalty pledge required of candidates.

Trump has already said that whether he would back someone other than himself as the 2024 Republican nominee would depend on who the candidate was. Given that he is attacking his potential primary rivals, especially high-flying Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the potential for new party splits is growing.

Ever since Trump took control of the GOP with his 2016 nomination and victory, the party has almost always capitulated to his unruly instincts and crushing of rules and conventions – most notoriously appeasing his extremism during two impeachments. Many GOP lawmakers amplified his false claims of electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election and whitewashed his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.

Yet Trump’s intervention in last year’s midterm elections, when many of his election-denying acolytes lost in swing states and helped to quell a Republican red wave, highlighted how his own priorities may diverge from his party’s. Some Republican leaders blame Trump and the way he alienates more moderate, suburban voters for the party’s disappointing performances when they lost the House in 2018, the Senate and White House in 2020 and fell short of expectations in 2022, even though they flipped the House. As a result, some top GOP donors and opinion formers have argued that it’s time for the party to move on from a candidate who is radioactive with many voters and who could thwart their chances of defeating President Joe Biden in an expected reelection bid. It remains to be seen if this view is shared among Trump’s longtime base.

Questions about whether Trump would support DeSantis as nominee – or anyone else who might beat him – stemmed from a radio interview with Hugh Hewitt earlier this month.

“It would depend. I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016 during the debate. … It would have to depend on who the nominee was,” Trump said.

It would be a nightmare scenario for the GOP if Trump were to lose the party’s nominating contest next year but spend the general election railing against the party’s presidential pick. Even small defections among Trump’s devoted grassroots political base could be critical in the kind of swing state races that decided the last two presidential elections.

Trump acts as if he is entitled to his third consecutive spot at the top of the Republican Party’s presidential ticket. But that assumption will face a new test this week when DeSantis, whom Trump has already accused of disloyalty for considering a White House run, promotes and releases a new book in a rite of passage for potential presidential candidates.

Trump has also lashed out at Nikki Haley, who served as his ambassador to the United Nations and has launched a 2024 bid rooted in calls for a new generation of American political leadership. Both Trump and Haley are scheduled to speak at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, DC. DeSantis, meanwhile, is scheduled to attend events in Texas and California.

While requiring debate candidates to sign a pledge to support the nominee would be a show of party unity and would, in effect, be an attempt to box Trump in, it would hardly be enforceable should the ex-president not win the nomination. Given that Trump already falsely claimed the 2020 general election, which he lost fair and square, was marred by voter fraud, it’s hardly far-fetched to believe he may trash any nomination process that he doesn’t win.

But McDaniel said on CNN that she was sure that all the candidates would sign such a pledge, noting Trump had signed on in the 2016 race and raising the leverage that the party has in getting all of the candidates on board.

“I think they all want to be on the debate stage. I think President Trump would like to be on the debate stage. That’s what he likes to do,” McDaniel told Bash.

The RNC head, who just won her own contested reelection, also warned that the GOP has lost big races in the midterms “because of Republicans refusing to support other Republicans. And unless we fix this in our party, unless we start coming together, we will not win in 2024.”

McDaniel may also have a problem beyond Trump, since some possible GOP 2024 contenders have warned that following his role in inciting a mob attack on Congress in one of the most damaging blows to US democracy in modern times, the ex-president is no longer fit to carry the party’s banner or for the presidency.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said on CBS this month that Trump had “disqualified himself and should not serve our country again as a result of what happened” on January 6, 2021. But Hutchinson did not say whether he would decline to endorse Trump if he were the nominee. Another possible anti-Trump candidate, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, suggested to Hewitt this month that he would support the ex-president if he was the party’s nominee but later said on Twitter, “Trump won’t commit to supporting the Republican nominee, and I won’t commit to supporting him.”

One reason why the question of whether Trump would endorse a nominee other than himself in 2024 is so topical is because of some early signs that the former president might not have quite the hold on his party as he once did. His campaign hasn’t exactly caught fire since he launched it last fall. Some recent polls, while too far out from primary voting to be decisive, suggest that DeSantis is closely matched with Trump – even if other candidates like Haley and potential candidates like ex-Vice President Mike Pence trail in single figures.

After his bumper reelection win in Florida in November, DeSantis is seen by some party figures as representative of Trump’s populist, cultural and “America First” principles without the indiscipline and scandal that follows the ex-president. The Florida governor has adopted Trump’s pugilistic partisan style, telling Fox News host Mark Levin on Sunday that he had made “the Democratic Party in our state, basically, a rotten carcass on the side of the street.”

It remains a question, however, how DeSantis would stand up to Trump’s searing attacks on a debate stage. And many once vaunted candidates – like former Govs. Jeb Bush of Florida and Scott Walker of Wisconsin – have looked strong in theory, only to see their campaigns flame out when they hit the trail.

Still, McDaniel’s message on Sunday shows the depth of party concern that an untamed Trump could again severely impair the Republican Party’s hopes of winning the White House and control of Congress.

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February 27, 2023
Media organizations ask Congress for access to January 6 footage | CNN Politics

CNN
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CNN, along with a group of other media organizations, has signed on to a letter calling for congressional leaders to grant access to security footage from inside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Fox News’ Tucker Carlson access to the material earlier this month.

In a Friday letter on behalf of the press coalition to McCarthy, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, attorney Charles Tobin called on Congress to release all the security footage showing the attack on the Capitol.

“Without full public access to the complete historical record, there is concern that an ideologically-based narrative of an already polarizing event will take hold in the public consciousness, with destabilizing risks to the legitimacy of Congress, the Capitol Police, and the various federal investigations and prosecutions of January 6 crimes,” Tobin said in the letter.

Advance Publications, ABC News, Axios, CBS News, Scripps, Gannett, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and ProPublica are the other media organizations joining CNN on the letter.

The request comes after Carlson announced on his show that he had been granted “unfettered” access to “44,000 hours” of surveillance footage from inside the Capitol on January 6. CNN previously reported that McCarthy did not consult with his House GOP leadership team or with Jeffries before deciding to give Carlson access.

In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, McCarthy justified the decision by saying, “I promised.”

“I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public. I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment,” the California Republican told the Times.

McCarthy has faced significant pressure from his right flank to relitigate the work of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, insurrection. The now-defunct January 6 panel got access to all the security footage from US Capitol Police during its investigation, but it did not release some footage for security reasons. A source familiar with the committee’s work told CNN that the unreleased footage was considered sensitive material because it showed top officials moving through the US Capitol when they evacuated to safety.

During his bid for the speakership, McCarthy vowed to hold hearings on the security failures that led to the Capitol getting overrun, and he told the select committee to preserve all of its records for potential future review by the newly empowered GOP majority.

Carlson has been a prominent promoter of January 6 conspiracy theories and has devoted significant airtime to boosting false claims that liberal “deep state” partisans within the FBI orchestrated the insurrection as a way to undermine former President Donald Trump.

Some Republican lawmakers had hoped to review the material themselves, likely to look for footage to support their controversial claims about the January 6 attack.

Democrats have criticized McCarthy’s decision to give Carlson access to the security footage.

Jeffries said in a letter to colleagues that the move “represents an egregious security breach that endangers the hardworking women and men of the United States Capitol Police, who valiantly defended our democracy with their lives at risk on that fateful day.” Schumer told his Senate colleagues in a letter that the disclosure “poses grave security risks to members of Congress and everyone who works on Capitol Hill.”

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February 25, 2023
West Virginia brothers who brought bats to the US Capitol on January 6 sentenced | CNN Politics

CNN
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Two West Virginia brothers who brought bats to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, were sentenced Thursday by a federal judge in Washington, DC.

Eric Cramer, 43, who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a restricted area and tried to grab a baton from a police officer, was sentenced to eight months in prison. His brother, Country Cramer, 38 – who entered the Capitol for two minutes on January 6 – was sentenced to 45 days of home detention after pleading guilty to unlawfully parading or picketing.

The brothers traveled together to DC to support members of Congress who were contesting the certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote in several states, according to their plea agreement.

While at the Capitol, Eric Cramer – wearing a gas mask throughout the day and carrying with him a baseball bat – grabbed an officer’s baton and attempted to pull it from his hands before another officer came forward and Cramer backed away, the judge said during the hearing.

Eric Cramer posted a photo on Facebook of a police baton which, he wrote, he took “from the cop that hit me with it … so I guess that’s my trophy,” according to court documents.

Judge Randolph Moss told Eric Cramer the Justice Department could have charged him with a felony for interfering with law enforcement officers and that the baseball bat – though there is no evidence it was ever used as a weapon – concerned him greatly.

Someone carrying a baseball bat, Moss said, was likely “engaging in threatening behavior unless they’re walking up to the plate.”

“It is just more and more disturbing the more I see,” Moss said of the Capitol attack. “It was one of the most regrettable days in our country.”

Before being sentenced, Eric Cramer apologized for his actions and said he understood how the bat could be seen as threatening, adding that he only brought it for protection after seeing how violent some protests had become over the previous year.

“I know in my heart though that I was not there for negative anything,” Eric Cramer told the judge.

According to investigators, the FBI received a tip from a classmate of Eric Cramer’s daughter, after she posted a photo of Cramer’s Facebook post bragging about the baton. “MY DAD YALL,” his daughter allegedly wrote, adding a rock-and-roll emoji along with one of an American flag.

Prosecutors did not mention the baton during the sentencing Thursday and the plea agreement does not say whether the baton in the photo was stolen from an officer.

Country Cramer brought a miniature baseball bat with him, which he told the judge he kept in his backpack while on Capitol grounds.

Country Cramer told the judge, “Had I known how the day would have turned out on the 6th, I would have never of came.” He said he brought the small bat and wore a helmet because he expected to walk back to their car in the dark that night and “that can be a little scary” – citing past violent protests.

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February 23, 2023
Peru offers $13,000 to families who lost loved ones in protests | CNN

CNN
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Peru’s government is offering families who lost a relative during nationwide protests between December 8 and February 10 around $13,000 in financial support, according to a decree published by the official newspaper “El Peruano” on Tuesday.

Each family will be granted approximately $13,000 US dollars (50,000 nuevos soles), while the injured will receive half this amount, or $6,500 US dollars (25,000 nuevos soles), according to the decree.

The payments have been categorized as financial help for civilians and policemen and are not considered as reparations, the decree adds.

Amnesty International criticized the government for not taking responsibility for the deaths in a statement.

“Economic assistance to the people killed and injured is a duty by the State due to the families’ patrimonial affectation but does not exempt (the state) of the responsibility to look for truth, justice, and reparation for the victims for the abuse of their human rights,” it wrote on Twitter.

As CNN first reported, Peruvian families have demanded reparations for deaths and injuries around the protests since former President Pedro Castillo was impeached and arrested in December. His removal from office sparked the demonstrations amid deep dissatisfaction over living conditions and inequality in the country.

There has been at least 60 protest-related deaths, according to Peru’s Ombudsman’s office, including one police officer. Most of those deaths happened outside Lima. As of February 22, seven people died in Apurimac, ten in Ayacucho and twenty in Puno for example, according to the same organization.

The government’s announcement comes after a preliminary report released by Amnesty International accused Peruvian authorities of acting with “a marked racist bias” in its crackdown on the protests last week.

The human rights group also accused Peruvian security forces of using firearms with lethal ammunition “as one of their primary methods of dispersing demonstrations, even when there was no apparent risk to the lives of others” – a violation of international human rights standards.

CNN reached out to the Ministry of Defense and Interior for comment on the Amnesty International report and the allegations of excessive use of force against protesters. The Ministry of Defense declined to comment and told CNN there is an ongoing investigation by Peru’s Prosecutor Office with which they are collaborating.

A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry also declined to comment, highlighting the ongoing investigation by the prosecutor’s office.

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February 23, 2023
Proud Boy testifies in sedition trial about far-right group being the ‘tip of the spear’ on January 6 | CNN Politics

Washington
CNN
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The sole Proud Boy to plead guilty to seditious conspiracy in connection to the US Capitol riot testified on Wednesday that members of the far-right organization believed the country was barreling toward revolution and that they were the “tip of the spear.”

Jeremy Bertino, a top lieutenant to Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, testified as part of a cooperation deal that he struck with prosecutors against Tarrio and four other members of the Proud Boys charged with conspiring to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

“We had a big fight on our hands. It was going to be an uphill battle, and everyone had turned against us,” Bertino testified. “My belief was that we had to take the reins and pretty much be the leaders that we had been building ourselves up to be.”

His testimony allowed prosecutors to show jurors how the events of January 6, 2021, unfolded in the mind of a top member of the organization as he watched it online from his North Carolina home, sending messages to his “brothers” about targeting then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and assuring them that members of the far-left group Antifa weren’t there to stop them.

Some of the messages featured in court were from defendants in the case, whom Bertino said he would “take a bullet for.” But Bertino and the five defendants – Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola – rarely made eye contact during the testimony.

There was not a premeditated or specific plan to storm the Capitol, Bertino testified, adding that getting the Proud Boys to communicate and work together was like “herding cats.” The Proud Boys had several group messages from the days before the riot where members mentioned descending on the Capitol building, according to exhibits shown by prosecutors.

As court challenges to the 2020 election failed, members of the Proud Boys – who saw themselves as the “foot soldiers of the right” – began to believe the country was headed toward an “all-out revolution,” Bertino testified.

“I felt it coming,” he said.

The Proud Boys believed that the government was controlled by “commies,” he testified, and they began to turn against the police, whom the group increasingly saw as their enemy. Everybody in the organization felt “desperate,” including Tarrio, Bertino told the jury.

“His tones were calculated,” Bertino said of Tarrio. “Cold, but very determined. He felt the exact same way that I did.”

Members also were inspired by then-President Donald Trump’s reference to their organization in a 2020 presidential debate, where he told the group to “stand back and stand by.” Bertino testified that there were “nonstop requests for membership” after the debate, specifically from people who wanted to attend rallies, and that the group did less vetting of new members to keep up with applications.

During cross examination, Bertino said that he thought the Proud Boys had a goal to stop the 2020 election but had no knowledge of how that goal would be achieved.

“I didn’t have a direct idea of where they were going, how they were going to get there.”

Bertino was not in Washington, DC, on the day of the riot because he was at home recovering from a stab wound he suffered during a previous pro-Trump rally, but he testified that he watched on a livestream video. He saw the mob as starting the “next American revolution,” and told others Proud Boys he was brought to tears during the attack.

“I was happy, excited, in awe and disbelief that people were doing what they said they would do,” Bertino told the jury. When the crowd descended on the Capitol building, “it meant that we influenced people, the normies, enough to make them stand for themselves and take back their country and take back their freedom,” he said.

In chats to other Proud Boys, Bertino encouraged members to move forward, telling them that he could see the Capitol building on a livestream and that no members of Antifa would be at the building to stop the pro-Trump mob.

Bertino also messaged: “They need to get peloton” – which he testified was a misspelled reference to Pelosi. “She was the talking head of the opposition and they needed to remove her from power,” he said.

By the evening of January 6, Bertino grew angry at Trump supporters for leaving the Capitol building, he told the jury.

“The way I felt at the moment, if we give that building up, we were giving up our country,” Bertino testified. He sent encrypted messages to other Proud Boys members, saying that “we failed,” and “Half measures mean nothing,” and, referring to lawmakers inside the Capitol, “Fuck fear: They need to be hung.”

“Once they took that step, there was no coming back from it,” Bertino testified Wednesday. “And they decided basically to balk and walk away after creating all that chaos down there.”

“The revolution had failed,” he continued, “because the House was still going to go on and certify the election.”

Bertino told the jury that after January 6, he tried to delete what he saw as incriminating messages on his phone and he wasn’t fully truthful with FBI agents when they asked him about the Capitol attack.

“I guess it’s a natural instinct to protect yourself and protect those you love,” Bertino testified.

“I love them,” he said of the five defendants. “I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to them. Still don’t.”

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February 23, 2023
Steve Bannon’s ex-lawyers sue him over nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal bills | CNN Politics

CNN
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A law firm that represented former Donald Trump strategist Steve Bannon during his fight against a subpoena from the House January 6 committee and other cases is suing Bannon for nearly $500,000 in unpaid legal bills.

The lawsuit states that Davidoff Hutcher & Citron LLP worked for Bannon from November 2020 through November 2022 and represented him on several high-profile cases, including investigations into Bannon’s crowdfunding border-wall effort and the subpoena from the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.

“This action simply seeks payment of an outstanding bill for legal services rendered in the amount of $480,487.87 in addition to scheduling a hearing on the reasonable attorneys’ fees DHC is contractually entitled to as the prevailing party in this litigation,” the law firm wrote.

Bannon’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

While Trump pardoned Bannon in the federal border wall case, the Manhattan DA’s office announced an indictment last year charging Bannon with state charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering related to the effort. Bannon has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The lawyers representing him in that case – from a different firm – have sought to withdraw from representing him and said there were “irreconcilable differences.” Bannon is due in court next week to update the judge on his efforts to find new lawyers.

In his criminal case related to the House January 6 investigation, a jury convicted Bannon of failing to turn over documents and appearing for testimony last summer. Bannon has appealed his contempt of Congress conviction for defying the committee’s subpoena.

Robert Costello, an attorney at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, had represented Bannon opposite the House subpoena, but became a witness in the case so Bannon had a different legal team at trial.

The Davidoff firm said in the lawsuit that its “bills for fees and expenses totaled $855,487.87. Defendant paid only $375,000.00 of the total bill leaving a total of $480,487.87 outstanding.”

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February 23, 2023
Capitol rioter who tweeted threat to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez sentenced to 38 months in prison | CNN Politics

CNN
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A Texas man was sentenced to more than three years in prison Wednesday for assaulting police officers during the US Capitol riot and threatening Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter shortly after the attack.

Garret Miller, 36, pleaded guilty in December to charges related to his conduct on January 6, 2021. He was arrested weeks after the riot – on Inauguration Day – while wearing a shirt that said: “I was there, Washington, D.C., January 6, 2021.”

According to court documents, Miller brought gear with him to DC, including a rope, a grappling hook and a mouth guard, and prosecutors said he was “at the forefront of every barrier overturned, police line overrun, and entryway breached within his proximity that day.” Miller was detained twice during the riot, according to court documents.

When he left the Capitol building, he took the fight to Twitter, according to court documents. In response to a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez calling for then-President Donald Trump’s impeachment, Miller responded: “Assassinate AOC.”

“At the time that I tweeted at the Congresswoman, I intended that the communication be perceived as a serious intent to commit violence against the Congresswoman,” Miller said in court documents as part of his guilty plea. He also levied threats against the officer who shot and killed a pro-Trump rioter during the melee, according to court documents, saying that he wanted to “hug his neck with a nice rope.”

Clint Broden, Miller’s laywer, said in a statement to CNN that the sentence “ultimately reflects Judge Nichols careful consideration of the case,” and said that his client “has expressed his sincere remorse for his actions.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of Garret Miller’s guilty plea.

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February 22, 2023
House January 6 investigator says it’s ‘likely’ 2020 election subversion probes will produce indictments | CNN Politics

Washington
CNN
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The top investigator on the House committee that probed the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack said Wednesday it is “likely” that the Georgia and federal investigations into efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election will produce indictments.

Timothy Heaphy told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Erin Burnett OutFront” that “unless there is information inconsistent, which I don’t expect, I think there will likely be indictments both in Georgia and at the federal level.”

In Georgia, the foreperson of the Atlanta-based grand jury that investigated former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election told CNN on Tuesday that the panel is recommending multiple indictments and suggested “the big name” may be on the list.

The grand jury met for about seven months in Atlanta and heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including some of Trump’s closest advisers from his final weeks in the White House.

Now that the grand jury is finished, it’s up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to review the recommendations and make charging decisions. Willis’ decisions in this case will reverberate in the 2024 presidential campaign and beyond.

Trump, who has launched his 2024 campaign for the White House, denies any criminal wrongdoing.

At the federal level, special counsel Jack Smith is overseeing parts of the criminal investigation into the Capitol attack and has subpoenaed members of Trump’s inner circle. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Smith had subpoenaed the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner for testimony.

“I think it could be very important,” Heaphy said of the pair’s potential testimony.

“They were present for really significant events. The special counsel will want to hear about the president’s understanding of the election results and also what happened on January 6. And they both had direct communications with him about the events preceding the riot at the Capitol,” he said.

The special counsel has a massive amount of evidence already in-hand that it now needs to comb through, including evidence recently turned over by the House January 6 committee, subpoena documents provided by local officials in key states and discovery collected from lawyers for Trump allies late last year in a flurry of activity, at least some of which had not been reviewed as of early January, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN at the time.

“He will not stop because of a family relationship, because of purported executive privilege,” Heaphy said of Smith. “He believes that the law entitles him to all of that information, and he’s determined to get it.”

Ivanka Trump and Kushner previously testified to the House select committee, which expired in January after Republicans took control of the House. The panel had referred the former president to the Justice Department on four criminal charges in December, and while largely symbolic in nature, committee members stressed those referrals served as a way to document their views given that Congress cannot bring charges.

This story has been updated with additional information Wednesday.

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February 22, 2023
Lawyers for Proud Boys member take steps to subpoena former President Trump in seditious conspiracy trial | CNN Politics

CNN
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Lawyers for a Proud Boys member on trial for seditious conspiracy related to his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol are taking steps to subpoena former President Donald Trump to testify as a witness for the defense.

It’s a longshot bid as judges have previously rejected subpoenas for Trump and arguments that rioters were obeying his orders in other trials of January 6 defendants. Trump’s lawyers also wouldn’t accept service of any subpoena for him unless they had extensive discussions about it first, according to a source familiar with the matter, and they have not decided on a Proud Boys trial subpoena.

The Justice Department has not indicated in court, or in the email to defense attorneys, whether it plans to try to quash this subpoena.

But DOJ has informed defense lawyers they can contact Trump’s attorney Evan Corcoran, according to an email reviewed by CNN. If he refuses to accept service, the Justice Department said they can reach out to the Secret Service’s Miami field office to facilitate the process, or ask the court to order the US Marshals Service to serve the subpoena.

The subpoena asks for Trump to come to the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, on March 1, but bringing Trump into court is likely an uphill battle. Trump’s attorneys also could move to quash the subpoena, and federal prosecutors still have the ability to argue that his testimony isn’t relevant to the ongoing trial.

A federal prosecutor on the case declined to comment.

Norman Pattis, a lawyer who represents defendant Joseph Biggs, announced the subpoena in court last week and asked for the government’s assistance in serving the subpoena. Pattis told CNN on Wednesday that he had reached out to Corcoran about the subpoena and has not received a response. Pattis added that he also has reached out to the Secret Service in Miami.

CNN has reached out to Corcoran for comment.

Biggs and his four co-defendants are on trial for their alleged participation in the January 6 US Capitol insurrection, and all five have pleaded not guilty.

Attorneys for the five defendants in this case, including Biggs, previously asked a federal judge to allow them to argue to a jury that Trump ordered their clients to storm the Capitol on January 6. District Judge Timothy Kelly rejected the argument, saying that Trump did not have the authority to order a mob to storm the Capitol.

Pattis told CNN that serving Trump with the subpoena is “the first of many steps” in the process of getting the former president to testify in the high-profile sedition trial. Pattis also said he anticipates lawyers for Trump will move to stop the subpoena.

“I presented to the United States government a signed subpoena requiring the presence of Donald J. Trump at the Proud Boy trial sometime in March,” Pattis said on his podcast “Law and Legitimacy” last week. “We’re hoping that Mr. Trump – ambitious as he is – recognizes that this is an opportunity for him to begin to explain to the public his position on ‘Stopping the Steal.’”

“We have drawn the line,” Pattis continued. “We have asked Mr. Trump to join us, and our position is, Mr. President, you urged patriots to stop the steal in 2020 and early 2021. We have a simpler request: Take the stand.”

Pattis added that they want to question Trump on the period between November 3, 2020 and January 6, 2021.

Pattis has not said publicly what he would hope to elicit from Trump’s testimony, but several defense lawyers representing Proud Boys members have argued during this trial that their clients were called to action by the former president when he told the far-right group to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 presidential debate, and that the Proud Boys believed they were acting at his behest on January 6.

“You see Trump, President Trump, told them the election was stolen. It was Trump that told them to go [to the Capitol]. And it was Trump that unleashed them on January 6,” Sabino Jauregui, the attorney for former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, told jurors during his opening statement last month.

“It’s too hard to blame Trump,” Jauregui said. “It’s too hard to bring him in here with his army of lawyers. … Instead, they go for the easy target. They go for Enrique Tarrio.”

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February 22, 2023
Protests across Israel as Netanyahu’s government introduces bill to weaken courts | CNN

Jerusalem
CNN
—

Tens of thousands of protesters blocked roads in cities across Israel during demonstrations Monday, hours before the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced a controversial judicial overhaul bill.

Demonstrators in Jerusalem turned the streets around the Supreme Court and Knesset into a sea of Israeli flags, which organizers were handing out before the event began.

Among the protesters were a few dozen women dressed in long red dresses and white head coverings, like handmaids in the Margaret Atwood novel “The Handmaid’s Tale,” along with drummers, horn-blowers and at least one juggler balancing an Israeli flagpole on his nose.

The Jerusalem demonstration was visibly smaller than one in the same location a week earlier, but still appeared to number about 75,000 people an hour and a quarter after it was scheduled to begin, crowd control expert Ofer Grinboim Liron told CNN. Liron is the CEO of Crowd Solutions, a company that specializes in crowd dynamics at events and venues.

Protesters had begun to disperse by 4:30pm local time (9:30am ET), a CNN team there observed. The demonstration had largely finished early evening local time in Jerusalem.

But soon after, chaotic scenes emerged inside the Knesset as the session to officially debate the bill for its first reading in parliament began.

Many opposition lawmakers from former Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party raised Israeli flags in the chamber, some draping them over their shoulders, and shouted over government lawmaker Simcha Rothman as debate began. Knesset security took flags away from lawmakers and escorted some out of the chamber.

The controversial judicial reform bill has so far sparked weeks of public protests, a plea from President Isaac Herzog to delay for negotiations, and a rare intervention into Israeli domestic politics by US President Joe Biden.

Netanyahu’s coalition is seeking the most sweeping overhaul of the Israeli legal system since the country’s founding. The most significant changes would allow a simple majority in the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

The reforms also seek to change the way judges are selected, and remove government ministries’ independent legal advisers, whose opinions are binding.

US President Joe Biden has expressed concerns over the reforms, saying: “The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”

On Sunday, Netanyahu defended the judicial reform.

“Israel is a democracy and will remain a democracy, with majority rule and proper safeguards of civil liberties,” he said during an address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“All democracies should respect the will of other free peoples, just as we respect their democratic decisions.

“There’s been a lot of rhetoric that is frankly reckless and dangerous, including calls for bloodshed in the streets and calls for a civil war. It isn’t going to happen. There’s not going to be a civil war,” the Prime Minister added.

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February 20, 2023
Michigan election denier who has yet to concede her 2022 loss will chair state GOP | CNN Politics

CNN
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Michigan Republicans have chosen Kristina Karamo, who has yet to concede last year’s secretary of state race, as their next chair, putting an election denier at the head of the party in a crucial battleground state.

Karamo tweeted Sunday that she was “honored to lead the Michigan Republican Party.”

On the heels of the GOP’s midterm losses in Michigan last year, the state party backed Karamo at its Saturday night convention over Matthew DePerno, who had former President Donald Trump’s backing in the race. DePerno ran unsuccessfully for attorney general last year.

Trump congratulated Karamo on Truth Social Sunday, calling her a “a powerful and fearless Election Denier, in winning the Chair of the GOP in Michigan.”

“If Republicans (and others!) would speak the truth about the Rigged Presidential Election of 2020, like FoxNews should, but doesn’t, they would be far better off,” he said.

Karamo, a former community college professor, rose to prominence in Michigan after the 2020 election when she alleged to have witnessed fraud as a poll challenger during the state’s count of absentee ballots. She has falsely claimed Trump was the true victor in Michigan in 2020 and has spread the conspiracy theory that left-wing anarchists were behind the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Trump had backed Karamo in the 2022 secretary of state race, which she lost by 14 points to incumbent Democrat Jocelyn Benson.

A CNN review in November 2021 of Karamo’s podcast and writings on her now defunct personal website revealed her declaring herself an “anti-vaxxer” in 2020 even before the Covid-19 vaccine became a political flashpoint. She opposed teaching evolution and called public schools “government indoctrination camps.”

CNN’s KFile reported last year that Karamo called abortion “child sacrifice” and a “satanic practice.”

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February 20, 2023
Fox News executives refused to let Trump on-air when he called in during January 6 attack, Dominion says | CNN Politics

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump tried to call into Fox News after his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, but the network refused to put him on air, according to court filings from Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation case against the company.

The House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack did not know that Trump had made this call, according to a source familiar with the panel’s work.

The panel sought to piece together a near minute-by-minute account of Trump’s movements, actions and phone calls on that day. His newly revealed call to Fox News shows some of the gaps in the record that still exist, due to roadblocks the committee faced.

“The afternoon of January 6, after the Capitol came under attack, then-President Trump dialed into Lou Dobbs’ show attempting to get on air,” Dominion lawyers wrote in their legal brief.

‘He could easily destroy us’: See Tucker Carlson’s private text about Trump

“But Fox executives vetoed that decision,” Dominion’s filing continued. “Why? Not because of a lack of newsworthiness. January 6 was an important event by any measure. President Trump not only was the sitting President, he was the key figure that day.”

The network rebuffed Trump because “it would be irresponsible to put him on the air” and “could impact a lot of people in a negative way,” according to Fox Business Network President Lauren Petterson, whose testimony was cited by Dominion in the new filing.

Dobbs’ show on Fox Business – in which he routinely promoted baseless conspiracies about the 2020 election – was canceled a few weeks after the January 6 insurrection.

Fox News and its parent company have denied all wrongdoing and are aggressively fighting Dominion’s defamation lawsuit. In a previous statement, a Fox spokesperson claimed that Dominion “mischaracterized the record” in its court filing and “cherry-picked quotes” that were “stripped of key context.”

The most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives at Fox News privately ridiculed claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, despite the right-wing channel allowing lies about the presidential contest to be promoted on its air, damning messages contained in a Thursday court filing revealed.

Haberman describes ‘striking’ claim that stood out to her from court documents

The messages showed that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham brutally mocked lies being pushed by Trump’s camp asserting that the election had been rigged.

In one set of messages revealed in the court filing, Carlson texted Ingraham, saying that Sidney Powell, an attorney who was representing the Trump campaign, was “lying” and that he had “caught her” doing so. Ingraham responded, “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani].”

Court filings show Fox stars ridiculed Giuliani over 2020 election fraud claims

The messages also revealed that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, did not believe Trump’s election lies and even floated the idea of having Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham appear together in prime time to declare Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the election.

Such an act, Murdoch said, “Would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen.”

The court filing offered the most vivid picture to date of the chaos that transpired behind the scenes at Fox News after Trump lost the election and viewers rebelled against the channel for accurately calling the contest in Biden’s favor.

Dominion filed its mammoth lawsuit against Fox News in March 2021, alleging that during the 2020 presidential election the network “recklessly disregarded the truth” and pushed various pro-Trump conspiracy theories about the election technology company because “the lies were good for Fox’s business.”

Fox News has not only vigorously denied Dominion’s claims, it has insisted it is “proud” of its 2020 election coverage.

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February 19, 2023
Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien appears before federal grand jury | CNN Politics

CNN
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Former national security adviser Robert O’Brien is appearing Thursday before a grand jury in the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, where several Trump-related investigations are being conducted.

O’Brien had been subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith as part of investigations both into classified documents found at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the probe related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, CNN previously reported.

CNN spotted two grand juries meeting at the DC federal courthouse on Thursday – one of which has heard testimony related to the documents probe, while the other has been handling the investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to undermine the election results.

It is not clear which grand jury O’Brien is appearing in front of, or whether he is scheduled to testify before both grand juries. O’Brien identified himself to a CNN reporter but did not disclose any other details about his testimony.

O’Brien could have knowledge of how classified documents were stored at Mar-a-Lago because the National Security Council should be involved in handling those documents at the end of a presidency.

According to CNN reporting, O’Brien considered resigning over Trump’s response to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol but ultimately decided not to.

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February 16, 2023
Amnesty accuses Peruvian authorities of ‘marked racist bias’ in protest crackdown | CNN

CNN
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Amnesty International has accused Peruvian authorities of acting with “a marked racist bias” in its crackdown on protests that have roiled the country since December, saying “populations that have historically been discriminated against” are being targeted, according to a report released on Thursday.

Drawing on data from the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office, Amnesty says it “found that the number of possible arbitrary deaths due to state repression” were “disproportionately concentrated in regions with largely Indigenous populations.”

Amnesty also says that areas with majority indigenous populations have accounted for the majority of deaths since the protests began. “While the regions with majority Indigenous populations represent only 13% of Peru’s total population, they account for 80% of the total deaths registered since the crisis began,” Amnesty wrote.

The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the report, telling CNN that there is an ongoing investigation being carried out by the country’s public prosecutor office, with which they are collaborating.

“Not only have we delivered all the requested information, but we have supported the transfer of (the public prosecutor’s) personnel (experts and prosecutors) to the area so that they can carry out their work. The Ministry of Defense is awaiting the results of the investigations,” the ministry’s spokesperson added.

CNN also reached out to the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, for comment.

The Andean country’s weeks-long protest movement, which seeks a complete reset of the government, was sparked by the impeachment and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo in December and fueled by deep dissatisfaction over living conditions and inequality in the country.

While protests have occurred throughout the nation, the worst violence has been in the rural and indigenous south, which saw Castillo’s ouster as another attempt by Peru’s coastal elites to discount them.

“In a context of great political uncertainty, the first expressions of social unrest emerged from several of Peru’s most marginalized regions, such as Apurímac, Ayacucho and Puno, whose mostly Indigenous populations have historically suffered from discrimination, unequal access to political participation and an ongoing struggle to access basic rights to health, housing and education,” Amnesty wrote.

Protests have spread to other parts of the country and demonstrators’ fury has also grown with the rising death toll: As of Tuesday, at least 60 people have died in the violence, according to Peru’s Ombudsman’s Office, including one police officer.

Castillo’s successor, President Dina Boluarte, has so far refused to resign, while Peru’s Congress has rejected motions for early elections this year – one of the protesters’ main demands.

The human rights group accuses security forces of using firearms with lethal ammunition “as one of their primary methods of dispersing demonstrations, even when there was no apparent risk to the lives of others” – a violation of international human rights standards.

Amnesty says it documented 12 fatalities in which “all the victims appeared to have been shot in the chest, torso or head, which could indicate, in some cases, the intentional use of lethal force.”

There have also been instances of violence by some demonstrators, with the use of stones, fireworks and homemade slingshots. CNN has previously reported on the death of a policeman who was burned to death by protesters. Citing Health Ministry figures, Amnesty found that “more than 1,200 people have been injured in the context of protests and 580 police officers have been wounded.”

But overall, police and army have responded disproportionately, firing “bullets indiscriminately and in some cases at specific targets, killing or injuring bystanders, protesters and those providing first aid to injured people,” Amnesty said.

It cites the death of 18-year-old student John Erik Enciso Arias, who died in December 12 in the town of Andahuaylas, in the Apurímac region, where citizens had gathered to observe and film the protests. Erik’s death has been confirmed by the Peruvian ombudsman.

According to Amnesty, “videos and eyewitness accounts suggest that several police officers fired bullets from the rooftop of a building in front of the hill that day. State officials confirmed to Amnesty International the presence of police on the rooftop and the organization has verified footage showing that John Erik was not using violence against the police when he was killed.”

In another incident, as CNN has previously reported, Leonardo Hancco, 32, died after being shot in the abdomen near Ayacucho’s airport, where protesters had gathered with some trying to take control of the runway.

“Witnesses indicated that the armed forces fired live rounds for at least seven hours in and around the airport, at times chasing demonstrators or shooting in the direction of those helping the wounded,” Amnesty said of its investigation into the December 15 incident.

CNN has not verified the circumstances of each death as described by Amnesty.

The report also cites the death of 17 civilians, who were killed during a protest in the southeastern Puno region on January 9 “where a high percentage of the Indigenous population is concentrated,” it writes.

The city’s head of legal medicine told CNN en Español that autopsies of the 17 dead civilians found wounds caused by firearm projectiles.

“The Attorney General’s office itself declared that the deaths were caused by firearm projectiles, provoking one of the most tragic and disturbing events in the whole country,” Amnesty wrote.

“The grave human rights crisis facing Peru has been fueled by stigmatization, criminalization and racism against Indigenous peoples and campesino (rural farmworkers) communities who today take to the streets exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and in response have been violently punished,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas Director, said in a statement.

“The widespread attacks against the population have implications regarding the individual criminal responsibility of the authorities, including those at the highest level, for their action and omission to stop the repression.”

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February 16, 2023
Pence says he’s willing to take fight against DOJ subpoena in Trump probe to Supreme Court | CNN Politics

CNN
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Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he is willing to take his fight against a subpoena for his testimony in the Justice Department’s 2020 election subversion investigation all the way to the Supreme Court.

“I am going to fight the Biden DOJ subpoena for me to appear before the grand jury because I believe it’s unconstitutional and unprecedented,” Pence told reporters after making a speech in Iowa.

He said he expects former President Donald Trump to bring his own challenge to the subpoena that will raise executive privilege claims. Pence, however, intends to fight the subpoena under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which shields legislators from certain law enforcement actions targeting conduct related to their legislative duties.

While other witnesses have raised Speech or Debate Clause argument in efforts to resist subpoenas in the DOJ probe and in the other investigations into January 6, 2021, Pence plans to invoke the clause in relation to his role as president of the Senate – which is believed to be untrod legal ground.

In that role, he presided over Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.

“On the day of January 6, I was acting as President of the Senate, presiding over a Joint Session, described in the Constitution itself,” Pence said. “And so, I believe that that Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution actually prohibits the executive branch from compelling me to appear in a court, as the Constitution says, or in any other place. And we’ll stand on that principle and we’ll take that case as far as it needs to go, if need be to the Supreme Court of the United States, because to me, it’s – it’s an issue of the separation of powers.”

He said that over the last “several months,” his team had made it clear to the Justice Department that he believed the Speech or Debate Clause precluded a subpoena for his testimony.

CNN previously reported on Pence’s plans to raise claims under the Speech or Debate Clause.

Pence also noted that he has written and spoken publicly about the events leading up to the January 6 certification vote. But, he said, “if we were to accede to accept a subpoena for appearance before a grand jury or a trial, I believe that would diminish the privileges enjoyed by any future vice president, either Democrat or Republican. I simply will not do that.”

Pence first spoke publicly about his plans to fight the subpoena at an event in Minneapolis earlier Wednesday, saying that his fight was about ” separation of powers” and “defending the prerogatives that I had as president of the Senate.”

“My fight is on the separation of powers. My fight against the DOJ subpoena very simply is on defending the prerogatives that I had as president of the Senate to preside over the Joint Session of Congress on January 6,” Pence told reporters in Minneapolis.

“For me this is a moment where you have to decide where you stand and I stand on the Constitution of the United States,” he added.

Pence is one of several former members of Trump’s inner circle whose testimony federal investigators have sought, as they scrutinize the events leading up to and during the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. That probe, as well as the federal investigation into Trump’s handling of documents from his White House that were found at Mar-a-Lago, have taken a more aggressive tack since special counsel Jack Smith took over both investigations.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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February 15, 2023
Pence to fight subpoena on separation of powers grounds because he was president of Senate | CNN Politics

CNN
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Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to fight a recent subpoena from the special counsel based on the grounds that he was president of the Senate at the time and therefore shielded from the order, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Pence is expected to address the subpoena and his response to it during a trip to Iowa on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with his plans.

Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump and his role in January 6, 2021, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. Special counsel Jack Smith’s office is seeking documents and testimony, the source said. Investigators want the former vice president to testify about his interactions with Trump leading up to the 2020 election and the day of the attack on the US Capitol.

The subpoena marks an important milestone in the Justice Department’s two-year criminal investigation, now led by the special counsel, into the efforts by Trump and allies to impede the transfer of power after he lost the 2020 election. Pence is an important witness who has detailed in a memoir some of his interactions with Trump in the weeks after the election, a move that likely opens the door for the Justice Department to override at least some of Trump’s claims of executive privilege.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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February 14, 2023
Washington Post: Trump campaign commissioned research that failed to prove 2020 election fraud claims | CNN Politics

CNN
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A research firm commissioned by former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign team to prove his electoral fraud claims instead failed to substantiate his theories, the Washington Post reported Saturday.

The Berkeley Research Group was commissioned to look into voting data from six states, according to the Post, and a source told the publication that the campaign team wanted about a dozen claims tested. People familiar with the matter told the publication that the findings did not match what the team had hoped for, and the findings were never released.

While some anomalies and “unusual data patterns” were found, the Post reported, they wouldn’t have made a difference to President Joe Biden’s victory.

The firm’s findings also refuted some of Trump’s voting conspiracies, including the identities of dead people used to vote and Dominion voting systems used to manipulate the outcome, the paper reported.

The research was conducted in the last weeks of 2020 and before the January 6 US Capitol attack, according to the Post. Two sources told CNN that the House January 6 committee looking into the role Trump played in inciting the insurrection did not know about the firm’s work.
Trump has continued to repeat his election lies as he focuses on his 2024 White House bid.

CNN previously reported that following two years of advice from allies and advisers to stop exhaustively relitigating the 2020 election, his first rally late last month showed an attempted forward-driven message of what he would aim to accomplish with a second term.

The former president has often pushed back on that advice, arguing that his message is strong enough as it is, and one source close to him told CNN his proclivity for focusing on the 2020 election will be tough to break because he still regularly hears from members of his base who believe so-called election integrity is an important talking point as he seeks reelection.

Another adviser said that despite the defeat of several Trump-backed midterm candidates who denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, Trump has said he does not believe their losses were tied to their election lies.

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February 11, 2023
Hackers interrupt Iran president’s TV speech on anniversary of revolution | CNN

The Islamic Republic marked the 44th anniversary of the Iranian revolution on Saturday with state-organized rallies, as anti-government hackers briefly interrupted a televised speech by President Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi, whose hardline government faces one of the boldest challenges from young protesters calling for its ouster, appealed to the “deceived youth” to repent so they can be pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader.

In that case, he told a crowd congregated at Tehran’s expansive Azadi Square: “the Iranian people will embrace them with open arms”.

His live televised speech was interrupted on the internet for about a minute, with a logo appearing on the screen of a group of anti-Iranian government hackers that goes by the name of “Edalate Ali (Justice of Ali).”

A voice shouted “Death to the Islamic Republic.”

Nationwide protests swept Iran following the death in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police.

Security forces have responded with a deadly crackdown to the protests, among the strongest challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution ended 2,500 years of monarchy.

As part of an amnesty marking the revolution’s anniversary, Iranian authorities on Friday released jailed dissident Farhad Meysami, who had been on a hunger strike, and Iranian-French academic Fariba Adelkhah.

On Sunday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued an amnesty covering a large number of prisoners, including some arrested in recent anti-government protests.

Rights group HRANA said dozens of political prisoners and protesters, including several prominent figures, had been freed under the amnesty but that the exact conditions of their release were not known.

Rights activists have expressed concern on social media that many may have been forced to sign pledges not to repeat their “offenses” before being released. The judiciary denied this on Friday.

HRANA said that as of Friday, 528 protesters had been killed, including 71 minors. It said 70 government security forces had also been killed. As many as 19,763 protesters are believed to have been arrested.

Iranian leaders and state media had for weeks appealed for a strong turnout at Saturday’s rallies as a show of solidarity and popularity in an apparent response to the protests.

On the anniversary’s eve Friday night, state media showed fireworks as part of government-sponsored celebrations, and people chanting “Allahu Akbar! (God is Greatest!).” However, many could be heard shouting “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic” on videos posted on social media.

The social media posts could not be verified independently.

Government television on Saturday aired live footage of the state rallies around the country.

In Tehran, domestic-made anti-ballistic missiles, a drone, an anti-submarine cruiser, and other military equipment were on display as part of the celebrations.

“People have realized that the enemy’s problem is not woman, life, or freedom,” Raisi said in a live televised speech at Tehran’s Azadi Square, referring to the protesters’ signature slogan.

“Rather, they want to take our independence,” he said.

His speech was frequently interrupted by chants of “Death to America” – a trademark slogan at state rallies. The crowd also chanted “Death to Israel.”

Raisi accused the “enemies” of promoting “the worst kind of vulgarity, which is homosexuality”.

Adelkhah, who had been in prison since 2019, was one of seven French nationals detained in Iran, a factor that has worsened relations between Paris and Tehran in recent months.

She was sentenced in 2020 to five years in prison on national security charges. She was moved to house arrest later but in January returned to jail. Adelkhah has denied the charges.

Meysami’s release came a week after supporters warned that he risked dying because of his hunger strike. He was arrested in 2018 for protesting against the compulsory wearing of the hijab.

In announcing Adelkhah’s release on Friday, the French foreign ministry called that her freedoms be restored, “including returning to France if she wishes.”

“Legally, her file is considered completed, and legally there should be no problem to leave the country, but this issue has to be reviewed. So … it is not clear how long it will take,” said her lawyer, Hojjat Kermani.

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February 11, 2023