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Tag: U.S. Politics

  • Special counsel Jack Smith provides fullest picture yet of his 2020 election case against Trump in new filing

    Special counsel Jack Smith provides fullest picture yet of his 2020 election case against Trump in new filing

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    (CNN) — A federal judge in Washington, DC, has released the most comprehensive narrative to date of the 2020 election conspiracy case against Donald Trump, outlining what special counsel Jack Smith describes as the former president’s “private criminal conduct.”

    The 165-page document comes from Smith’s office and is the fullest accounting yet of evidence in the election subversion case against Trump.

    Throughout the document, Smith argues that the actions Trump took to overturn the election were in his private capacity – as a candidate – rather than in his official capacity, as a president. That argument flows from the Supreme Court’s decision in July, which granted the former president sweeping immunity for official actions but left the door open for prosecutors to pursue Trump for unofficial steps he took.

    ”At its core, the defendant’s scheme was a private one,” prosecutors wrote in the motion. “He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office.”

    The filing weaves together what prominent witnesses told a federal grand jury and the FBI about Trump, along with other never-before-disclosed evidence investigators gathered about the former president’s actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021.

    Releasing the motion, which was previously filed under seal, is the latest major development in Smith’s longstanding effort to prosecute Trump for actions he took to overturn the 2020 election, even as the former president is seeking a second term in a tight race with Vice President Kamala Harris. The case, which has already reached the Supreme Court once, has repeatedly been delayed as Trump has attempted to push off the prosecution until after the next month’s election.

    The document is broken into four sections. The first section lays out the case prosecutors said they would attempt to prove at trial, including a summary of evidence; the second section gives US District Judge Tanya Chutkan a roadmap for how to assess which actions are official – and therefore potentially covered by immunity – and which are not; the third section walks through how the principles should apply in Trump’s case; the fourth is a brief conclusion that asks Chutkan to rule that the actions described are not protected by immunity and that Trump “is subject to trial on the superseding indictment.”

    Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called Smith’s narrative “falsehood-ridden” and “unconstitutional” in a statement provided to CNN after the former president’s team had fought the unsealing of the document.

    “Deranged Jack Smith and Washington DC Radical Democrats are hell-bent on weaponizing the Justice Department in an attempt to cling to power. President Trump is dominating, and the Radical Democrats throughout the Deep State are freaking out. This entire case is a partisan, Unconstitutional Witch Hunt that should be dismissed entirely, together with ALL of the remaining Democrat hoaxes,” Cheung said.

    Campaign operative said ‘Make them riot’

    Prosecutors describe an effort by Trump operatives to “create chaos” in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election when the voting looked to be going for Joe Biden.

    In Philadelphia, prosecutors allege campaign operatives sought to create confrontations at polling places and then “falsely claim that his election observers were being denied proper access” as a predicate to claim fraud.

    Prosecutors also raised the fracas at the Detroit Counting Center, pointing to evidence that a campaign staffer, upon learning a heavy incoming batch of votes leaned Biden, asked for “options to file litigation” even if (it) was “itbis[sic}.”

    The same campaign operative said “make them riot” when told that protests at the counting center were heading in the direction of the so-called Brooks Brothers Riot that disrupted the 2000 Florida count between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

    Prosecutors frame Trump conversations with Pence as ‘running mates’

    Even as they face a high bar for introducing evidence from former Vice President Mike Pence, Smith’s team sought to do so by framing a series of interactions between the two as conversations between “running mates,” where Pence tried to convince Trump he needed to accept his electoral defeat.

    They include a November 7, 2020, conversation where Pence allegedly told Trump that he should focus on how he revived the Republican Party, as well as Pence’s recollection of a Trump meeting with campaign staff, during which Trump was told the prospects of his election challenges looked bleak.

    At a November 12 lunch, Pence told Trump that he didn’t have to concede but he could “recognize process is over,” prosecutors said, and during a November 23 phone call, Trump allegedly told Pence that one of his private attorneys were skeptical about the election challenges.

    As part of those private conversations, prosecutors say, Pence “tried to encourage” Trump “as a friend” after news networks called the election for Biden. In other interactions, Pence encouraged Trump to consider running for reelection in 2024. Those interactions, prosecutors argued, were not at all related to Trump’s official duties as president.

    “The content of the conversations at issue – the defendant and Pence’s joint electoral fate and how to accept the election results – have no bearing on any function of the Executive Branch,” they wrote in the filing.

    Trump told family ‘it doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election’

    Prosecutors allege they have a witness who will testify that Trump told family members “it doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.”

    The witness, Smith’s team said in the filing, will testify that he was aboard Marine One when then-President Trump made the statement to his wife Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

    Prosecutors did not name the official in the filing, but they said he was the director of Oval Office operations. “He witnessed an unprompted comment that the defendant made to his family members in which the defendant suggested that he would fight to remain in power regardless of whether he had won the election,” prosecutors wrote.

    At the time, Ivanka and Jared were White House employees, serving as advisers to the president; and Melania was first lady.

    However, prosecutors claim that the conversation aboard Marine One was “plainly private” and had nothing to do with the Trump family’s official government responsibilities.

    “The defendant made the comment to his family members, who campaigned on his behalf and served as private advisors (in addition to any official role they may have played),” prosecutors wrote.

    Trump told advisers he would declare victory

    Prosecutors say that Trump was told by advisers that the 2020 vote likely would not be finalized on Election Day and that he could misleadingly look ahead in the ballot count on election night only to fall behind once all of the ballots were counted. Nonetheless, Trump told his advisers that he would claim victory before the ballots were fully counted, prosecutors say.

    One private political adviser, three days before Election Day 2020, described Trump’s plan as: “He’s going to declare victory. That doesn’t mean he’s the winner, he’s just going to say he’s the winner,” according to the filing.

    That adviser, not identified by name by prosecutors, also described the Democratic lean of the mail ballot vote “a natural disadvantage” and said “Trump’s going to take advantage of it. That’s our strategy.”

    Trump sought to ‘perpetuate himself in power’

    Smith’s office stressed the private and political nature of Trump’s actions around the 2020 election.

    “The executive branch,” prosecutors wrote, “has no authority or function to choose the next president.”

    That argument appeared designed for federal appeals courts, including the Supreme Court, that have placed a heavy emphasis in recent years on the historical understanding of the separation of powers.

    In other words, Smith is arguing that Trump’s effort to overturn the election was necessarily private because the Constitution gives a president no official authority for choosing his successor.

    “The defendant’s charged conduct directly contravenes these foundational principles,” the motion reads. “He sought to encroach on powers specifically assigned by the Constitution to other branches, to advance his own self-interest and perpetuate himself in power, contrary to the will of the people.”

    White House staffer ‘P9’ details planning meetings

    Prosecutors focus in particular in the filing on what Trump learned from a White House staffer referred to in the filings as “P9,” as they try to show that Trump was well aware he had lost the election as he pressed on with the reversal schemes.

    The person, identified only as “P9,” appears to have personally had discussions over the phone about the fake electors strategy with Trump, and had repeated text conversations with other people in the campaign about how the strategy was “crazy” or “illegal,” according to the filing.

    When Trump told the staffer he would not pay the private lawyer spearheading his legal challenges unless the challenges were successful, the staffer told Trump that the private attorney would never be paid. That prompted a laugh and a “we’ll see” from Trump, the filings said. (The private attorney is identified by prosecutors as co-conspirator 1, who CNN has previously identified as Rudy Giuliani.)

    In a follow up conversation, the White House official told Trump that Giuliani would not be able to prove his false claims in a court and Trump told the staffer, “The details don’t matter.”

    The brief lays out several other interactions between the White House staffer and Trump in which Trump was told that the election fraud claims wouldn’t hold up in court.

    Prosecutors say they would call election officials in battleground states at Trump trial

    In the filing released Wednesday, prosecutors identify witnesses they hope to call at a trial to testify against Trump – including election officials in battleground states and his White House deputy chief of staff.

    The prosecutors say they also want to show a jury at trial Trump’s campaign speech on January 4, 2021, in Georgia, and his campaign speech on the Ellipse on January 6, 2021, just before the riot at the US Capitol.

    And, they’d like to show the jury tweets that they say can prove Trump was driving the public campaign of fraud in the election, as he knew there was none that was widespread enough to overturn his loss. They argue those tweets weren’t part of Trump’s official work as president.

    At trial, prosecutors say they would like to call the only other adviser to Trump who had access to his Twitter account to testify that Trump was sending tweets on January 6, 2021, that would put pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the counting of the electoral votes at the Capitol. The person is described as White House deputy chief of staff.

    “The Government will elicit from Person 45 at trial that he was the only person other than the defendant with the ability to post to the defendant’s Twitter account, that he sent tweets only at the defendant’s express direction, and that person 45 did not send certain specific Tweets” – specifically a tweet Trump sent that said Pence didn’t have the courage to block the certification of the vote.

    That type of testimony would allow prosecutors to assert in court they have evidence of a moment like this:

    “At 2:24 p.m., Trump was alone in his dining room,” prosecutors write in the filing, “when he issued a Tweet attacking Pence and fueling the ongoing riot: ‘Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!’”

    FBI experts can testify about how Trump used his phone on January 6, prosecutors say

    FBI experts have mapped out what Trump was doing on his phone while the US Capitol riot unfolded, Smith said.

    An FBI Computer Analysis Response Team forensic examiner can testify about “the news and social media applications” on Trump’s phone, Smith wrote in the filing, “and can describe the activity occurring on the phone throughout the afternoon of January 6.”

    Those logs show that Trump “was using his phone, and in particular, was using the Twitter application, consistently throughout the day after he returned from the Ellipse speech.”

    Smith said that three unidentified witnesses are also prepared to testify that on the afternoon of January 6, the television in the White House dining room where Trump spent much of the day was “on and tuned into news programs that were covering in real time the ongoing events in the Capitol.”

    That testimony would allow prosecutors to show a future jury what Trump saw unfolding on TV while he made comments and posted online that afternoon.

    Prosecutors lean on Hatch Act to bolster Trump charges

    Smith is again using the Hatch Act – which limits the political activities of federal employees – to bolster their 2020 election subversion charges against former President Donald Trump.

    Prosecutors said in a new filing that the Hatch Act allows White House staffers to “wear two hats,” separating out their official conduct to serve the public from their political conduct to help a candidate.

    Therefore, even if some of Trump’s alleged wrongdoing occurred on White House grounds and in front of White House staff, he doesn’t have immunity because that fell under the “political” umbrella, Smith’s team wrote.

    “When the defendant’s White House staff participated in political activity on his behalf as a candidate, they were not exercising their official authority or carrying out official responsibilities,” prosecutors wrote. “And when the President, acting as a candidate, engaged in Campaign-related activities with these officials or in their presence, he too was not engaging in official presidential conduct.”

    Bill Barr decided to speak out against Trump’s election lies after seeing him on Fox News

    Then-Attorney General Bill Barr decided in 2020 to publicly rebut Trump’s false claims that the election was rigged after watching Trump spread these lies on Fox News, prosecutors say.

    “On November 29, [Barr] saw the defendant appear on the Maria Bartiromo Show and claim, among other false things, that the Justice Department was ‘missing in action’ and had ignored evidence of fraud,” prosecutors wrote.

    They continued, “[Barr] decided it was time to speak publicly in contravention of the defendant’s false claims, set up a lunch with a reporter for the Associated Press, and made his statement.”

    This was the December 1, 2020, statement in which Barr infamously said the Justice Department had looked into potential election irregularities but didn’t find any widespread fraud that could’ve tipped the results. This was a major move by Barr, a lifelong Republican who at the time was a staunch Trump ally.

    Barr’s name is redacted in the filing, and he is referred to as “P52.” But P52 is described as the “attorney general,” and Barr was the attorney general at that time.

    Barr resigned just before Christmas 2020.

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  • Georgia’s heartbeat law ruled unconstitutional, abortion services to resume statewide

    Georgia’s heartbeat law ruled unconstitutional, abortion services to resume statewide

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    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled Monday afternoon Georgia’s heartbeat law which bans abortions at six weeks of pregnancy is unconstitutional.  The Georgia’s Living Infants Fairness and Equality (LIFE) Act, bans most abortions the moment “a detectable human heartbeat” is present. 

    Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will become the heart. That process could take place as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, before many pregnancies are detected. 

    Georgia is one of fourteen states where such abortion bans are enforced. As a result, abortions can resume beyond six weeks in Georgia until 22 weeks of pregnancy.

    Here is a portion of McBurney’s ruling: 

    “While the State’s interest in protecting “unborn” life is compelling, until that life can be sustained by the State — and not solely by the woman compelled by the Act to do the State’s work — the balance of rights favors the woman.”

    The Republican majority in the General Assembly passed the Living Infants and Equality (LIFE) Act in 2019. The law bans abortion in Georgia after a fetal heartbeat appears. The law included exceptions for rape, incest, and “medical emergencies,” defined as a life-threatening condition or threat of irreversible physical impairment to the mother.

    Consequently, federal courts blocked the law from taking effect until 2022, after the United States Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

    Georgia Democrats are celebrating the victory while preparing for the possibility McBurney’s ruling will be subject to appeal. 

    “Today’s decision is a critical victory for reproductive freedom in Georgia, reaffirming that politicians have no place in our personal medical decisions. While I am encouraged by this ruling, the work to restore reproductive freedom is far from over. Courts alone cannot protect our rights.

    United States Representative Nikema Williams, D-Georgia, speaks during a press conference on Saturday, June 1, 2024 in Decatur, Georgia. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    We need federal protections for the right to make decisions about our bodies and futures now more than ever. I will continue fighting in Congress to ensure that everyone, no matter their zip code, has access to the full range of reproductive healthcare, including abortion.”

    The reproductive rights group SisterSong filed a lawsuit challenging the law. They won an initial ruling by McBurney in November 2022 declaring the ban unconstitutional. However, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed McBurney’s decision one year later. The body sent the case back to Fulton County Superior Court, leading to Monday’s decision.

    McBurney says women cannot do the State’s work

    Additionally, McBurney’s order says “until that life can be sustained by the State — and not solely by the woman compelled by the Act to do the State’s work — the balance of rights favors the woman.” 

    Georgia State Senator Sonya Halpern, D-Atlanta, speaks inside the Georgia Senate chambers on Monday, February 26, 2024. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    “Today’s ruling is a win for women across Georgia, who once again have the right to make decisions about their own bodies,” says Georgia State Senator Sonya Halpern. “While we know this decision will likely face appeal, this moment offers hope to countless women who deserve the dignity and freedom to make their own healthcare choices. We will continue to fight to defend these rights for women across our state.”

    Republicans promise to keep fighting for abortion restrictions

    Governor Brian Kemp, who signed the bill into law on May 7, 2019, issued the following statement:

    “Once again, the will of Georgians and their representatives have been overruled by the personal beliefs of one judge. Protecting the lives of the most vulnerable among us is one of our most sacred responsibilities, and Georgia will continue to be a place where we fight for the lives of the unborn.”

    Unlike other states, Georgia does not have a mechanism allowing initiatives to appear on a ballot. As such, there are at least ten states that have the option to codify abortion access into their state’s constitution. However, Democrats have continually fought to make abortion access a central issue heading into November’s elections. 

    On the other hand, McBurney’s ruling also says that Georgia’s heartbeat bill induces women into a legal fight. According to his order, Georgia’s abortion ban makes women the inherent property of the State. Why? Their access to care is, “decided by majority vote.” McBurney continues, “Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have.”

    A cautionary tale regarding abortion bans

    Georgia’s abortion ban was held to harsh scrutiny as the story of Amber Nicole Thurman received more notoriety. Thurman, 28, went to Piedmont Henry Hospital in suburban Atlanta with signs of sepsis in August 2022. She had taken USDA-approved  mifepristone and misoprostol to end her pregnancy. It took 20 hours for doctors to intervene with a dilation and curettage procedure. That procedure had become a felony under Georgia’s abortion ban with few exceptions. Thurman passed away. First reported by ProPublica, Thurman’s ordeal is the first publicized case of a woman dying as a result of Georgia’s abortion ban. 

    Georgia State Representative Dar’Shun Kendrick poses for a photograph outside of the House Chamber inside the Georgia State Capitol on February 22, 2024. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    “Finally a judge that understands that life and liberty are paramount to our democracy,” says Georgia State Representative Dar’shun Kendrick, a Democrat representing State House District 95, which contains portions of Lithonia plus DeKalb, Gwinnett and Rockdale Counties. Life and liberty for the mother [are] first and foremost.”

    What’s next?

    Vice President Kamala Harris has called for codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law. Conversely, former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, supports leaving the abortion issue to the states.

    A portrait of Debra Shigley on April 13, 2024, in Alpharetta, Georgia. (Photo by: Kevin Lowery)

    “I applaud this ruling, and this is a win because abortion is once again legal in Georgia today,” says Debra Shigley, a candidate for Georgia State House District 47. “Will it be tomorrow? We can expect an appeal from the State, and possible temporary suspension of the ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court.

    This fight for our reproductive rights is still very much ongoing no matter how the Georgia Supreme Court rules. Republicans including, [Speaker Pro Tempore] Jan Jones, have made their intent very clear. We know exactly what their playbook will be in the next legislative session. That is exactly why we need to elect pro-choice candidates to ensure reproductive freedom in Georgia.”

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  • Special counsel files evidence under seal against Trump in election subversion case

    Special counsel files evidence under seal against Trump in election subversion case

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    (CNN) — Filings from special counsel Jack Smith laying out never-before-seen evidence in the election subversion case against Donald Trump – including interview transcripts and notes from an investigation that counted among its witnesses former Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows – are now in the hands of a federal court.

    It will now be up to District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine how much of that evidence the public gets to see and when they will be able to see it.

    Prosecutors filed the documents under seal as of 4:40 p.m. ET, according to Peter Carr, the special counsel office’s spokesman.

    The court submissions could eventually provide Americans with the most comprehensive view they’ll ever get of Smith’s case alleging that Trump conspired to defraud the United States in his efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral loss.

    The filings are expected to include grand jury transcripts, the FBI’s formal notes from witness interviews and documentary evidence, as part of an effort by prosecutors to argue that their reworked indictment can survive under the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.

    The Supreme Court ruling has required the prosecutors to convince Chutkan – and likely, higher courts – that Trump was not acting in his official capacity when he and his supporters took various actions, culminating in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, to stave off his 2020 defeat.

    It is likely the filings will dig into Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence – conduct that the Supreme Court indicated might be covered under immunity. The brief is also likely to lay out what investigators have learned about the circumstances of the January 6, 2021, Ellipse rally, while potentially providing more detail about endeavors by Trump and his allies to convince state officials to block certification of the 2020 results.

    They have also indicated plans to file a version with proposed redactions – also under seal – that could ultimately be posted to the court’s public docket.

    Smith previously secured permission to file a brief as long as 180 pages – four times the normal page length. That brief does not include the “substantial” numbered exhibits prosecutors plan to attach to their arguments that will offer up key evidence. The footnotes alone citing their various exhibits would account for more than 30 pages of the main brief, prosecutors have said.

    The former president vehemently opposed the plan to file the Smith immunity brief now, as his lawyers equated the brief to the types of special counsel reports that aren’t released until after the work of a special counsel is done.

    Chutkan, in a Tuesday opinion explaining why she would greenlight the prosecutors’ filing plan, leaned on the Supreme Court’s own language in its July immunity ruling, which said Trump had absolute immunity for conduct related to his “core” executive branch duties. For other official acts as president, a “presumptive” immunity can be overcome if prosecutors can show that criminalizing such conduct would not interfere with the functions of the executive branch, according to the high court’s 6-3 ruling.

    Chutkan said Tuesday that the Supreme Court had directed her to “conduct a ‘close’ and ‘fact specific’” analysis “of the indictment’s extensive and interrelated allegations.’”

    “It anticipated that the analysis would require briefing on how to characterize ‘numerous alleged interactions with a wide variety of state officials and private persons,’ … and supplementing other allegations with ‘content, form, and context’ not contained in the indictment itself,” Chutkan wrote of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

    Trump will have the opportunity to respond to the prosecutors’ brief with a filing due October 17.

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    Katelyn Polantz, Tierney Sneed and CNN

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  • Sources: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted

    Sources: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted

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    NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges that are still sealed, according to two people familiar with the matter.

    The charges against Adams, a Democrat, were still sealed late Wednesday, according to the people, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

    The indictment was first reported by The New York Times. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.

    “I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”

    The indictment marks a stunning fall for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.

    For much of the last year, Adams has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations into top advisers producing a drumbeat of subpoenas, searches and high-level departures that has thrust City Hall into crisis.

    He had repeatedly said he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing, dismissing speculation that he would face charges as “rumors and innuendo,” and vowing as recently as Wednesday afternoon to stay in office.

    “The people of this city elected me to fight for them, and I will stay and fight no matter what,” Adams said.

    The federal investigations into his administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.

    At the time, Adams insisted he followed the law and said he would be “shocked” if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally. “I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team we’ve got to follow the law,” he told reporters at the time.

    Days later, FBI agents seized the mayor’s phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. The interaction was disclosed several days later by the mayor’s attorney.

    Then on Sept. 4, federal investigators seized electronic devices from the city’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, deputy mayor of public safety, first deputy mayor and other trusted confidantes of Adams both in and out of City Hall.

    Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments.

    A week after the searches, Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced his resignation, telling officers that he didn’t want the investigations “to create a distraction.” About two weeks later, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced that he would retire at the end of the year.

    Adams himself insisted he would keep doing the city’s business and allow the investigations to run their course.

    Over the summer, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Adams, his campaign arm and City Hall, requesting information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.

    Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president, a largely ceremonial position.

    He was elected mayor in 2021, defeating a diverse field of Democrats in the primary and then easily beating Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, in the general election.

    After more than two years in office, Adams’ popularity has declined. While the city has seen an increase in jobs and a drop in certain categories of crime, the administration has been preoccupied with efforts to find housing for tens of thousands of international migrants who overwhelmed the city’s homeless shelters.

    There has also been a steady drip of accusations and a swirl of suspicion around people close to the mayor.

    The Manhattan District Attorney brought charges against six people – including a former police captain long close with Adams – over an alleged scheme to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor’s campaign by manipulating the public matching funds programs in the hopes of receiving preferential treatment from the city. Adams was not accused of wrongdoing in that case.

    Adams’ former top building-safety official, Eric Ulrich, was charged last year with accepting $150,000 in bribes and improper gifts in exchange for political favors, including providing access to the mayor. Ulrich pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges.

    In February, federal investigators searched two properties owned by one of Adams’ close aides, Winnie Greco, who had raised thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the city’s Chinese American communities and later became his director of Asian affairs. Greco hasn’t commented publicly on the FBI searches of her properties and continues to work for the city.

    When agents seized electronic devices from Caban, the former police commissioner, in early September, they also visited his twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who runs a nightlife consulting business.

    Agents also took devices from the schools chancellor; his brother Philip Banks, formerly a top NYPD chief who is now deputy mayor for public safety; their brother Terence Banks, who ran a consulting firm that promised to connect businesses to government stakeholders; and from First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who is David Banks’ domestic partner.

    All denied any wrongdoing.

    While those investigations swirled, federal authorities also searched the homes of newly named interim police commissioner, Thomas Donlan, and seized materials unrelated to his police work. Donlon confirmed the search and said it involved materials that had been in his possession for 20 years. He did not address what the investigation was about, but a person familiar with the investigation said it had to do with classified documents dating from the years when Donlon worked for the FBI. The person spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about that investigation.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump-backed Georgia State Election Board mandates ALL paper ballots be hand-counted in 2024 Elections

    Trump-backed Georgia State Election Board mandates ALL paper ballots be hand-counted in 2024 Elections

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    The Georgia State Election Board approved a rule that forces poll workers to count paper ballots by hand. The measure passed 3-2 Friday. Despite the new rule flying against the advice of the Attorney General’s office, the Secretary of State’s office and a group of county election officials. 

    Here is how the new rules would work: three poll workers hand count ballots, sorting them into stacks of fifty ballots until all have been counted. The three workers must arrive at the same total. If that number doesn’t match those recorded on the voter check-in system, the electronic voting machines and the scanner recap forms, the poll manager is to determine the reasons for inconsistency. If possible, the workers and the poll manager must correct the errors.

    Attorney General Chris Carr warned of possible illegal condct. In his letter, he says:

    “The Board has no authority to promulgate rules regarding the classification or retention of documents,”and promulgation of the rule would very likely go beyond the scope of the Board’s authority and be subject to challenge as invalid.

    Full Chris Carr letter to State Election Board

    The fallout from 2020 continues to persist

    In August, former President Donald Trump praised the three officials that would eventually affirm the measure. 

    “They’re on fire. They’re doing a great job.” “Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King, three people are all pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory,” Trump said.

    Janelle King, a member voting in favor of the new rule, argued that the board was “creating more stability in our election process”. She believes they are providing election officials the room to ensure that the final results are accurate.

    On August 15th, Georgia Secretary of State (and the previous administrator of Georgia’s elections) Brad Raffensperger lampooned the proposed rules.

    “Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers,” Raffensperger said in a news release.

    These actions are a result of a series of actions taken by Trump allies over the past three years. Their goal since Trump lost in 2020 has been to fundamentally reshape election administration in Georgia. After Raffensperger refused to ‘find 11,780 votes’, the Georgia Legislature stripped him of his powers. In August 2024, the Georgia State Election Board voted for Attorney General Carr to investigate the Fulton County government. This request has been long on the minds of MAGA Republicans and Donald Trump alike. 

    Democrats and some Republicans are fighting back

    Democrats said during an August press conference that these moves could sow chaos and uncertainty following the elections. 

    “What is unfolding in Georgia is nothing less than an effort to subvert democracy and move us backward,” U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, said Monday during a news conference at the state Capitol. “We must not allow our State Election Board to be taken over by Donald Trump.”

    Two Georgia Republicans and a non-profit organization filed a lawsuit challenging anti-democratic rules passed by the MAGA members of the State Election Board (SEB).

    “These misguided, last-minute changes from unelected bureaucrats who have never run an election and seem to reject the advice of anyone who ever has could cause serious problems in an election that otherwise will be secure and accurate,” Raffensperger said in a statement released on August 15.

    Also, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia Sued the State Election Board for taking similar stances.

    The final day to register to vote in the 2024 Presidential Election in Georgia is Monday, October 7th. Early voting in Georgia begins on October 15.  The earliest possible date new rules could take effect if passed is October 14, which is just 22 days before the General Election. 

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  • U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett leads ‘clapback’ conversation on MAGA, voting rights, and Black lives during CBC week

    U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett leads ‘clapback’ conversation on MAGA, voting rights, and Black lives during CBC week

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    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Everyone hears the discussions centered on the importance of voting. Plus, everyone shares the challenges with convincing some Black and African-Americans to vote. But, the ‘Make America Great Again’ wing of the Republican Party is making Black Americans and immigrants the faces of illegal voting. During the 53rd Annual Legislative Conference at Congressional Black Caucus Weekend, Angela Rye moderated a conversation led by U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett about how to deal with MAGA, respond to their attacks, among other topics. 

    This action of responding to the opposition during a debate is classically known as ‘the clapback.’

    U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett speaks at a panel discussion during the 53rd Annual Legislative Conference on Friday, September 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo Courtesy: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    Joining Crockett and Rye were Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, the Senior Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas and Christian D. Menefee, the chief civil lawyer for Harris County, Texas which is where Houston is located. 

    “If I am supposed to be a representative of a group of people, and I allow somebody to walk all over me, then that’s like I’m saying it’s okay to walk over my people,” explained U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. Have you seen [U.S. Congresswoman] Marjorie [Taylor Greene] lately?” 

    A Texas-sized story about the right to vote

    First, the prominent Crystal Mason shared her experience of being wrongfully convicted for voting while on supervised release in Dallas. In 2016, she provisionally cast her ballot during the presidential election after completing her federal jail sentence. But, the State of Texas prosecuted Mason for the crime of “illegal voting,” the act bars someone who “votes or attempts to vote in an election in which the person knows [they are] not eligible to vote.” 

    Mason said the state considered her ineligible to vote at the time but was still convicted in March 2018 and sentenced to serve five years in state prison. 

    Crystal Mason speaks at a panel discussion during the 53rd Annual Legislative Conference on Friday, September 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo Courtesy: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    “You have got to realize: the judge, the D.A., the prosecutor, and their elected officials, and this is why it is so important to vote,” explains Mason. “I grow weary. You know, ‘my God, why me?’ Why me? Say, ‘why not? You’re the prime example of rehabilitation.’ So this is why I matter in this fight.”

    Mason has had the ability to converse with her Pastor, Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, the Senior Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett throughout her ordeal. Crockett, who herself has famously taken on MAGA Republicans, implored the capacity crowd to understand first the ways MAGA values Black lives. Secondly, Crockett explains why Vice President Kamala Harris, and Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, are the prosecutors MAGA are afraid of. 

    “One of the issues that I have right now is having to deal with people that take issue with the Vice President, because she is a former prosecutor,” explains Crockett. “Y’all, we need the findings of the world, this is one of the good ones. So was our vice president. You can’t sit there and skip the DA race, because that’s how we end up with the Crystal Masons. 

    Angela Rye speaks at a panel discussion during the 53rd Annual Legislative Conference on Friday, September 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo Courtesy: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    That’s how we end up with our brothers, our sisters, our cousins, all being incarcerated for little or nothing and getting the highest amount of time. Y’all got to think through this! It’s one of the reasons that they’re constantly going after our access to the ballot box. This country is actually browning, and it is scaring them, and so they want to make sure that they can take away your voice.”

    There is another gentleman, Hervis Rogers. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused him of voting while on parole in the 2020 Presidential Election. Texas Republicans tried to make two Black people the face of illegal voting in the state. That is intentional. Why? They attempted to associate corruption, illegal voting, illegal registrations with Black and Brown people, and it’s an intentional strategy to try to undermine the right to vote. 

    “But make no mistake, what you’re seeing in Texas right now is something that will spread throughout the country if we put the wrong person in the White House,” says Merritt. [Also] if we put the wrong folks in Congress. In some other jurisdictions, y’all got it sweet. It’s real hand to hand combat dealing with these folks.”

    Vote for every position on the ballot, not just for President

    Willis supported Crockett’s point of individuals entering the ballot box, voting for the highest office in the land, and then walking out. She characterized those actions as ‘a disgrace’. Willis also says there are so many things of consequence that can be traced to who does not vote. 

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sits on a panel discussion during the 53rd Annual Legislative Conference on Friday, September 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo Courtesy: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    “I tell people all the time I had no intentions of being a controversial D.A.,” says Willis. “I didn’t know that it was controversial to say that ‘everyone is equal under the law,’ but apparently people are okay with prosecutors that are okay with just putting Black young men in jail, but don’t hold everyone accountable to the law.”

    In Georgia, Florida and Texas, for example, individuals can review anybody’s voting record and registration status if they know that person’s name, date of birth and county of residence. Willis won her election in 2020. Since then, her office has charged rapper Young Thug and former President Donald Trump under Georgia’s RICO statute. During her time in D.C., she addressed her naysayers. However, Willis made one point crystal clear.

    “The first level of intimidation is, what can they call you,’ explains Willis. “So they’ll call you the D.E.I. D.A. they’ll call you a thot. They’ll call you very, very ugly things. And I’ve been called all of them, but I was taught long ago ‘it ain’t what you call me is what I answer to.’ So we as people cannot be reactive to every ignorant insult, because you’re dealing with ignorant people.”

    The charge

    Beyond the clapback, the call to strategize, organize and mobilize voters was heard loud and clear. In his church, Haynes gives people a membership card in one hand and a voter registration card in the other hand. The Pastor also let everyone know there is no perfect candidate. But, it’s up to the collective to push the right candidate. 

    “We saw on Tuesday that if Kamala Harris was a white male, this wouldn’t be a race,” said Haynes. “It would be over. Period.  And yet, this country still has an issue with whiteness. And so as a consequence, we have a responsibility to work 10 times as hard as we do in our individual lives. We’ve got to do it as a collective.” 

    Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, Senior Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, speaks at a panel discussion during the 53rd Annual Legislative Conference on Friday, September 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo Courtesy: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

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  • Speaker Mike Johnson’s next steps on government funding fight could determine whether he gets to keep leading the House GOP

    Speaker Mike Johnson’s next steps on government funding fight could determine whether he gets to keep leading the House GOP

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    (CNN) — Speaker Mike Johnson has a decision to make.

    With the election looming and another government funding deadline just around the corner, the speaker must find a way in the next several days to both govern for the country, avoid a shutdown that could cost his members in swing districts and keep the right flank of his party pacified enough to not imperil his own political future.

    It’s a tightrope he’s walked time and time again in government funding showdowns in the last year, on Ukraine aide and when it came to reauthorizing a key national security program, but this time the course Johnson charts could determine whether he can stay atop his leadership post after the election.

    “I don’t think he thinks about his speakership first. I think he thinks about the (future) of the country first. But let’s be honest. With him, it’s a very difficult needle to thread,” Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan, told CNN.

    While many of his allies are bullish on House Republicans’ chances to keep the House in November, they acknowledge there are still a lot of variables that need to play out. If Republicans keep the House, Johnson will need to secure  218 votes to become the speaker in January, a major lift if Johnson once again has a slim or even shrunken majority.

    Johnson for his part has maintained widespread popularity. Even many of the Republicans who once privately questioned whether Johnson was too green for the job have argued he’s grown quickly into it, taking on his right flank and surviving leadership challenges his predecessor could not weather.

    “It’s just hard from my standpoint no matter how this fight goes if we come back into the majority, it would be tough to make the argument that he shouldn’t be speaker,” said Rep. Drew Ferguson, a Republican from Georgia.

    There is also the potential that Republicans lose the House. Then, Johnson would need to convince a majority he’s still up for the job of leading the conference as minority leader, an easier mathematical problem that requires just a simple majority vote but one that could be complicated by a challenger if Republicans lose in a landslide.

    “When you lose the Superbowl by two touchstones, you fire the coach,” one GOP aide lamented on Johnson’s future if Republicans lose big.

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a key critic to Johnson, warned she didn’t see Johnson sticking around if Republicans lose the House.

    “That’s to be determined, but, you know, based on things that I’ve heard, and I’m not naming names, naming members, I don’t see that happening,” she said.

    On Wednesday, Johnson announced he was pulling the GOP spending bill that would have funded the government for six months and included the SAVE Act, legislation that requires proof of citizenship to register to vote. The bill was on the cusp of failure after at least eight House Republicans said publicly they wouldn’t support it. But Johnson said that he would continue trying to build support for the bill.

    “We’re in the consensus building business here in Congress. With small majorities that’s what you do,” Johnson told reporters.

    But while Johnson maintained he planned to keep whipping the votes on the plan, there is no indication that the dynamics will change, forcing the Louisiana Republican to at some point consider his other options.

    Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia speaks to media outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2024. (Sipa USA/Sipa USA/Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA via CNN Newsource)

    A date that could matter (a lot) for Johnson

    If Johnson needs to build bipartisan consensus to get a funding bill across the finish line as he has had to do time and time again, Democratic leaders warn he’ll need to drop the SAVE Act from being tied directly to the funding bill. But whether Johnson will relent on the six-month spending bill remains to be seen in part because it could unlock a much easier path for his future.

    Punting another spending showdown until March could insulate Johnson from having to pass a massive end-of-year spending bill in December and then turn around and convince hardliners that he should keep the speaker’s gavel.

    Keeping the House might give him a victory to campaign on, but there are several Republicans including Greene who challenged Johnson’s speakership in the spring and who have already publicly registered their displeasure with Johnson.

    “I think it’s going to be really difficult for him,” Greene told CNN about Johnson’s chances of winning the gavel again if he cuts a spending deal with Democrats. “Eleven of my colleagues voted with me for a motion to vacate. However, you’re seeing a good number of my colleagues that weren’t part of that eleven now turning on him with a CR and SAVE Act because they know the writing on the wall.”

    Getting Democrats to sign onto a March deadline would be a hard sell for Johnson. Many Democrats want to clear the deck for a potential Harris administration, and the Biden administration has warned that a six-month continuing resolution could have devastating effects on military preparedness and even the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is facing a $12 billion shortfall going into the new fiscal year. A December funding bill would also provide Biden his last opportunity to include other legacy items that often ride along on a massive end-of-year spending bill.

    The next several days will be critical for Johnson to navigate carefully.

    “I think he’s doing the best job that he can, small margins that we have. It’s such a tight schedule. I mean, to me, it’s the job that he has I would not want,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Republican from Texas, told CNN.

    The next several weeks could play out in several ways. Johnson could opt to quickly pivot after Wednesday to a plan to move a short-term spending bill until March that drops the SAVE Act in an effort to win over Democratic votes.

    On the other hand, Senate Democrats could act swiftly to force Johnson’s hand by offering a short-term spending bill that goes just to December and dare Johnson to reject it and risk a shutdown just months before an election.

    “He’s in the majority so he’s gotta figure out what the right combination is,” Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, told CNN of Johnson’s calculation. “It’s kind of like a Rubik’s cube.”

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  • New rules from GOP-majority election board could cause disarray in battleground Georgia

    New rules from GOP-majority election board could cause disarray in battleground Georgia

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    Atlanta (CNN) — The once-wonky Georgia State Election Board has burst into the limelight this year as a new Republican majority – made up of a retired obstetrician, a former state senator who put out feelers for a Trump administration job and a right-wing media personality – push ahead with new rules that could create chaos in November.

    The reshaping of the election board in one of the most critical battleground states of 2024 highlights how some Republicans who cast doubt on the 2020 presidential election results have now taken on prominent roles driving election rules and, in some areas, overseeing elections.

    With less than two months before Election Day, three Republicans on the five-member board are pushing through new rules that could jeopardize election certification, particularly if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the state, election experts and voting rights groups said.

    “We can’t be doing this at the last minute because it creates chaos. And chaos undermines confidence in our elections, full stop,” said Sarah Tindall Ghazal, the lone Democrat on the board. She has kept a low profile since she was appointed in 2021 but has recently emerged in the press to try to counter the election board’s sharp right turn.

    The board is set to consider another slate of new rules at its September 20 meeting.

    “They’re not taking the advice of attorneys, they’re not taking the advice of election administrators – who are really critical in this whole calculus – and they’re certainly not listening to anybody who doesn’t think that the elections are rigged,” she said of the three Republicans driving the raft of rule changes.

    The five-person election board was once led by Georgia’s secretary of state. But after 2020, former President Donald Trump fought to overturn his loss in the Peach State, pressuring Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the thousands of votes Trump needed to win. Raffensperger refused, and in the aftermath, the GOP-led state legislature removed the secretary as a member of the board.

    “The state election board is a mess,” Raffensperger told reporters recently.

    Defending the changes

    Republican Janelle King, a media personality and the newest member of the board, has also become its most vocal defender. She was appointed in May by Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns and has since shrugged aside criticism and ethics complaints that the board’s recent moves have generated.

    “I don’t care because I know we haven’t done anything wrong,” King told CNN in an interview. “This is a method of trying to weaken the Republican side by making it seem like we’re out here trying to steal elections. There’s no win for me to steal the election for anybody.”

    King insisted she does not believe the 2020 election was stolen. But she has backed several of the board’s new rules, including a controversial change allowing partisans who serve on local election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results.

    The state election board in Georgia does not certify the results of any election. But it makes rules that guide election administrators and the local boards that certify results before they are sent up to the secretary of state and then the governor. The state election board also investigates election irregularities.

    King and other Republicans have argued recent rule changes are necessary to ensure vote counts are accurate and local election board members have the information they need to feel confident certifying the vote.

    “The concerns around these rules creating chaos, I do not see that happening at all,” King said.

    Rick Jeffares, a former Republican state senator, also joined the board this year. He was appointed by Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, one of the 2020 pro-Trump fake electors.

    When he joined the board, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Jeffares had spread claims on social media, which have since been removed or made private, around the 2020 election about Democrats cheating and dead people voting.

    Jeffares has continued to court controversy by floating his name for a possible role in a future Trump administration.

    “I said if y’all can’t figure out who you want to be the EPA director for the south-east, I’d like to have it,” Jeffares told The Guardian.

    He later told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution it wasn’t a formal ask and, “I didn’t talk to anyone in the Trump administration.”

    Jeffares didn’t respond to an interview request from CNN.

    Janice Johnston, a retired obstetrician who has spread falsehoods about the 2020 election, joined the board in 2022. At a recent MAGA-branded event – Trump campaign signs behind her – Johnston remarked on her senior status on the newly reshaped board.

    “It’s a relatively young board,” Johnston told the crowd. “Now I’m second in seniority, which is shocking because it’s just been a couple of years.”

    Johnston also attended a Trump rally in Atlanta last month where the former president applauded the three Republicans, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honestly, transparency and victory.”

    Johnston did not respond to CNN’s request for an interview.

    Rapid rule changes spook election officials

    The board is now led by a longtime Waffle House executive, John Fervier, an independent who was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp but has voted against the most controversial rules pushed by the board’s Republican majority. He’s warned the three Republicans that some of their moves could be legally precarious and pushed them, unsuccessfully, to abandon an effort to try to reopen investigations into the 2020 election.

    The seemingly partisan – and sheer amount – of activity from the board so close to November has raised alarms across the state.

    “On election night, the most important thing we’re doing is getting results out. This is going to delay that,” Deirdre Holden, the supervisor for elections and voter registration in Paulding County, said of the board’s new rules at a recent training for election officials. “And it’s not going to be the state election board they are yelling at, its’s going to be our local offices and we already take enough scrutiny.”

    A statewide association of election workers wrote an open letter to the board imploring it to stop passing rule changes so close to the election.

    A Democrat state senator also filed an ethics complaint against King, Jeffares and Johnston, as did Cathy Woolard, a Democrat and the former chair of the Fulton County Board of Elections.

    “We are having a partisan split on every single issue. Election boards should be very predictable, plodding, not partisan,” Woolard said in an interview. “We should be boring.”

    Asked whether the board had pushed ahead with enough changes to potentially swing an election, Woolard said, “Oh sure. I think they’ve done enough to cause chaos in election training in 159 counties. They have created openings for people to say they have a reason not to certify an election.”

    Over the weekend, a top official in the secretary of state’s office looked to reassure wary members of the public. “We are confident certification will be completed by November 12,” Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling posted on X.

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  • Inside Kamala Harris’ yearslong crash course in foreign diplomacy

    Inside Kamala Harris’ yearslong crash course in foreign diplomacy

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    Washington (CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris has met more than 150 world leaders since becoming vice president. But a July sit-down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu felt different.

    Coming days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and as Democrats were coalescing around her candidacy, perhaps no other sit-down would garner as much attention or carry as much weight.

    “We have a lot to talk about,” she said, before dismissing reporters — the exact same words Biden used to begin his own meeting. But Harris’ were delivered in a manner that said something entirely different.

    The moment, which amounted to Harris’s debut on the world stage as the Democratic standard-bearer, captured the complicated dynamics that have colored her foreign policy ambitions, and offered a preview of the type of statesmanship she would pursue as president.

    By virtue of her position as vice president to a commander in chief whose “first love” was foreign policy, according to his aides, Harris had little room over the past three-and-a-half years to stake out her own distinct doctrine or worldview.

    Instead, she has hewn closely to the views of her boss, even as she’s become more involved over time in the US response to various roiling global conflicts. In meetings and on trips abroad, she’s acted as a clean-up artist and bearer of bad news on behalf of Biden, traditional roles for a vice president.

    Republicans, led by Donald Trump, have argued Harris sat alongside Biden as the world went up in flames. They point to her assertion, made during an interview on CNN, that she was the last person in the room as Biden was deciding to go ahead with his planned US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ended in chaos and deadly violence.

    Harris said in the interview that she was comfortable with Biden’s decision and praised the president’s “courage” in making it. On the campaign trail, she’s argued that Trump’s “chaotic actions” as president led to “catastrophic consequences” in Afghanistan.

    Harris herself has shown little daylight between herself and her boss. Asked directly during an August CNN interview – twice – whether she would be doing anything differently than the current president on the Middle East, Harris offered few specifics beyond pointing to a long-negotiated hostage and ceasefire deal.

    “No,” she told Dana Bash. “I – we have to get a deal done. Dana, we have to get a deal done.”

    Yet for all the close ties between Biden and Harris on the world stage, there are some signs she would not act entirely as a carbon copy of her former boss’s approach. As vice president, she has been a booster for important allies that Biden did not have time to lavish his full attention upon. And she has been a louder voice for causes that haven’t always received the full spotlight of the presidency — in particular the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

    Israel

    Harris’ unusual step of delivering remarks following her July meeting with Netanyahu was a move she would not likely have made were Biden still running for a second term. White House officials made a concerted decision to allow her short statement to stand as the only substantive comment following Netanyahu’s visit.

    While reiterating her steadfast support for Israel – as she had done every time the issue arose over the previous 10 months – she also struck an urgent tone on the plight of the Palestinians.

    “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering,” Harris said outside her ceremonial office, next door to the White House, “and I will not be silent.”

    Senior White House officials – even as they insisted that there was no daylight between the president and vice president when it comes to Middle East policy – have more readily acknowledged over the last year that their respective tones when discussing the Israel-Hamas war were, in fact, distinct.

    “They have different styles, is the reality, when it comes to expressing themselves,” one senior Biden adviser said earlier this year on how the president and Harris tended to publicly discuss the ongoing conflict.

    As a result, the vice president’s public statements criticizing Israel’s handling of the Gaza conflict and lamenting the plight of Palestinian civilians had, more than once since the onset of the war, raised questions about whether Harris was on a different page from Biden.

    Harris herself has been sensitive to that scrutiny. As one senior Democrat close to the vice president put it, Harris “understands that there’s a perception that she is left of (Biden) on Israel.”

    Privately, this Democrat said, the vice president has insisted that she believes it is possible to be both “strongly pro-Israel” and capable of articulating the belief that “this fight is not with the Palestinian people.”

    Last December, the vice president also traveled to the Middle East to attend a climate summit – and juggled multiple high stakes meetings and calls with Arab leaders amid heightening tensions, marking her foray into wartime diplomacy and forcefully sending a message of restraint.

    As the Israel-Hamas war has unfolded, Harris has displayed a genuine desire to take the pulse of the Arab American community in the US, sources familiar with her engagements said.

    Harris has made phone calls to Arab American leaders in the US to understand their perspective and to listen to their criticism of the Biden administration’s policy approach to the conflict, explained two sources. Some have been shocked to receive a call from the vice president, they said.

    A Harris aide said that as vice president, she has “strongly condemned Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack on October 7, denounced atrocious acts of sexual violence, advocated relentlessly to bring the hostages home, and worked to ensure Israel remains a secure, democratic and Jewish state.”

    Learning on the job

    Harris did not enter the job with vast experience on the world stage. Both her advisers and foreign officials she’s interacted with say Harris managed to take what was essentially a supporting role and turn it into a crash course in foreign diplomacy. One former senior adviser described the vice president taking home massive briefing books and often peppering staffers with questions as she was briefed on multiple foreign policy issues.

    She began, some said, rather scripted and uncertain but emerged within her first year in office a more confident voice. In meetings, she can appear alternatively warm – searching for commonalities over food or family – and steely, as she holds a firm line on US policy.

    Harris advisers argue nothing could have better prepared her to step onto the global stage, should she to win the election in November, than her time as vice president.

    They point to her travels abroad, meetings with world leaders and the time that she has spent with Biden navigating a number of major foreign policy crises – including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza – as giving her a certain gravitas that she did not have when she was first seeking the presidency in 2020.

    Harris has visited 21 countries in her current role, according to an aide, and met with more than 150 world leaders — including China’s President Xi Jinping, with whom Biden has long sought to cultivate more stable ties.

    “There’s no better preparation to be president of the United States than what the vice president has done over the past three-and-a-half years,” a senior administration official said.

    Still, Harris has not always been the first phone call for foreign leaders or officials looking to get a line into the White House. Others on Biden’s team, including his secretary of state and national security adviser, have been seen as more central to American decision making, according to diplomats.

    As she heads toward November’s election on a swell of Democratic momentum, some foreign governments are looking to know her better.

    In the run-up to this month’s United Nations General Assembly, the yearly marathon of diplomacy that brings a parade of foreign leaders to New York, dozens of countries have been reaching out in hopes of setting up a meeting with Harris, multiple US officials said. Some countries have even offered to accommodate or change their schedules to lock in a meeting with her.

    Harris currently does not plan to travel up to New York for the assembly, a source familiar with the plans said. As she has done in previous years, it’s possible she will take time to meet with foreign leaders who are visiting the US for the UN gathering in Washington, DC.

    US diplomats said it would be to her benefit to sit down with world leaders, but they also understand her team is deciding whether she can afford to be off the campaign trail.

    “Every second she is not in Michigan or Pennsylvania is a loss. It is a cost-benefit analysis,” said one US official.

    Among those who have worked most closely with Harris on foreign policy matters over the past three-and-a-half years and seen as the vice president’s foreign policy brain trust are Phil Gordon, her national security adviser; Rebecca Lissner, her principal deputy national security adviser; and Dean Lieberman, her deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

    One stalwart of the Biden national security brain trust – with whom Harris held periodic lunch meetings to discuss foreign affairs – suggested this week he would not stay on for a potential Harris presidency.

    “All I’m looking at right now is the balance of this administration, in January,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the conclusion of a news conference in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. “And I can tell you, from having spent some time over the last week on bit of a break with my kids, I will relish having a lot more time with them.”

    When asked where the vice president’s foreign policy views may ultimately differ from Biden’s, her advisers insist that so long as she is in her current job, they would decline to address what they see as “hypothetical policy questions.”

    “She remains the vice president of the United States and stands by the Biden-Harris administration policies,” Lieberman said. That is certainly the case, he added, when it comes to the vice president’s views on the Israel-Hamas war.

    Ukraine

    A month after Russia invaded Ukraine, Harris was dispatched to NATO’s eastern flank on a reassurance mission – one that also came with some sensitive diplomatic smoothing-over. Moments before she took off for Poland, a rift had emerged between Warsaw and Washington over the transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine.

    Aboard Air Force Two, Harris took a phone call from Biden, making sure she was up to speed on the matter. In meetings with leaders, both in Poland and a later stop in Romania, Harris sought both to assert American support for Ukraine and its NATO allies while avoiding any public spat.

    For a foreign policy novice with aspirations for higher office, the war in Ukraine was a rigorous introduction to wartime diplomacy.

    Days before the 2022 invasion by Russia, Harris met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference and discussed with him the latest American intelligence about what might be coming. She has met with Zelensky six times in total since the war began.

    “The Zelensky meeting was a pivotal moment in her journey of leading on foreign policy,” said Nancy McEldowney, who served as national security advisor to Harris from 2021 to early 2022.

    “In that meeting, we conducted an unprecedented exchange of detailed intelligence,” McEldowney recalled of the hourslong meeting. “We laid out all of the information, and then talked about what it meant and talked about how the Ukrainians could respond.”

    Speaking at the Munich Security Conference the following year in 2023, Harris said Russia had committed crimes against humanity.

    Still, while Harris attended the Munich forum as the top Biden administration official twice and met with Zelensky each time, the Ukrainians were frustrated both times when they learned that she was being sent instead of Biden, sources said. In their view, there was no evidence that Harris was – at either time – deeply involved in US policymaking when it came to the war.

    During Harris’s meeting with the Ukrainians at Munich in 2024, one private message she delivered was that the US urged the Ukrainians to stop hitting Russian energy inside of Russia, sources said. This was not the first time the Ukrainians had heard the message from US officials, but Harris delivered the message empathically and they were not thrilled, sources said.

    Today, Ukrainian officials don’t know exactly what to expect from a Harris presidency if she wins the election.

    “They don’t see her as solid as Biden when it comes to supporting Ukraine. Their best bet is that she will uphold that status quo of US support,” said one source close to the Ukrainians.

    “Vice President Harris has been a strong proponent of enduring US support for Ukraine and has repeatedly expressed an unwavering commitment to support the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Russia’s brutal aggression. She has vowed to continue to support Ukraine and impose costs on Russia,” an aide to the vice president said.

    Personal touch

    As the US sought to repair the relationship with France after the rollout of a submarine deal that didn’t include the old European ally, the Biden administration sent a number of high-ranking officials to Paris: Blinken, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and then climate envoy John Kerry. The Biden administration then decided to send Harris as the final visitor, which a European official described as a very successful crescendo.

    Harris spent four days in the country and developed a “good personal relationship” with French President Emmanuel Macron, the official said.

    “At the time she was perceived to not have much experience, but she gave off a really good impression,” the official said. “She displayed what is rare in high-level politicians: She took her time.”

    Indeed, unlike Biden – who rarely departed from his schedule of meetings to take in any culture during his trips abroad – Harris made time for a quintessentially Parisian pursuit: Shopping.

    Stopping at the E. Dehillerin, the famous cookware shop on Rue Coquilliere near the Louvre, Harris declared she needed some pots for her Thanksgiving meal.

    Pointing to the racks of copper ware, she inquired – in French – whether they had a smaller model: “Comme ça, mais plus petit?”

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  • Women’s leadership and power take center stage in the 2024 Presidential Election

    Women’s leadership and power take center stage in the 2024 Presidential Election

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    The usual phrase heard between now and Election Day will be, “this is the most important election of our lives.” With sixty-three days remaining, the 2024 Presidential Election could become a referendum on the power of women. Yes, at the ballot box and in elected office. 

    RepresentWomen is an organization that believes in a democracy with gender-balanced representation in appointed and elected government offices. It held an event at the Hubbard Inn during the 2024 Democratic National Convention. It was designed for attendees to meet currently elected women in different levels of government. Also, women who are running for elected positions were also in attendance. The meeting highlighted the importance of women in leadership. Plus, the event emphasized the need for women in state houses. 

    RepresentWomen says they have an outsized focus on state legislatures because statehouses are the epicenters of American democracy right now. For example, when Roe was overturned on June 2022 by the U.S. Supreme Court, the ruling ushered in a patchwork of abortion rules. As a result, every southern state, except Virginia, has a form of an abortion ban in effect. In states like Mississippi and Texas, their attorneys general have proposed a surveillance program to monitor the periods of and the whereabouts of pregnant women. 

    Maya Harris appears during an event by RepresentWomen on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at the Hubbard Inn in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    The Inspirations

    Maya Harris is most well known as Vice President Kamala Harris’s younger sister. However, at 29, she was named Dean of the University of California Hastings College of the Law and Lincoln Law School of San Jose. Since then, Harris served as a senior policy advisor for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Emily’s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital. 

    “She needs everyone in this room fighting right alongside her,” said Maya Harris. “So, in addition to all of the important work to be supported through these two organizations, because you are absolutely right. We are on a mission, and we need to elect women up and down the ticket in every state in this country. We must get this job done to elect Kamala Harris President United States, and we need all of you to do it.”

    RepresentWomen follows Shirley Chisholm’s example

    The keynote speaker was U.S. Representative Barbara Lee. Lee, a Democrat from California, represents the 12th Congressional District which encompasses Oakland. She was the first Black woman north of Los Angeles to be elected to the California legislature in 1990. Lee’s inspiration to run for office came from a visit by Shirley Chisolm, the first Black American  woman to run for President, to her college campus. Lee, at the time, was not interested in joining any political party or registering to vote. 

    “So she took me to task and made me register to vote,” explained Lee. “She also told me that she had something to contribute. Like what? You know, I’m out here struggling, trying to make ends meet and trying to work to make my community better as a community worker.  Like I said, ‘with the Black things, right?’ So what happened, though, she forced me to register, but I did. I ended up going back to talking to my professor. Then, I worked in Shirley’s campaign at the Mills College campus. I got an A in the class, I registered to vote, and I went to Miami as a Shirley Chisholm delegate.”

    U.S. Representative Barbara Lee, D-California, appears during an event by RepresentWomen on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at the Hubbard Inn in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    Benchmarks and Goals

    Based on the conversations during the convention, RepresentWomen are pushing for the following additional resources to support candidates:

    1. Training and guidance on implementing ranked choice voting and public financing campaigns at the local and state levels.
    2. Connections to other organizations and advocates working on these issues to facilitate collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
    3. Research and data on the benefits of ranked choice voting and public financing in increasing women’s representation in elected office.
    4. Funding and financial support to help candidates and organizations pursue these policy changes.
    5. Advocacy and lobbying efforts at the state and federal level to promote legislation enabling ranked choice voting and public financing.

    The key is for RepresentWomen to leverage its expertise, network, and resources to empower candidates and organizations working to create the systemic changes necessary for more women to succeed in running for office.

    What is ranked choice voting?

    Voters can list candidates on their ballots by order of preference. They can rank as many candidates as they want without fear that ranking others will hurt the chances of their favorite candidate.  All first choices are counted and if a candidate receives more than half (50 percent plus one vote) of the first choices, that candidate wins, just like in any other election. 

    If there is no majority winner after counting first choices, the election will be decided by an “instant runoff.” 

    The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as their top choice will have their next choice counted. 

    This process continues until there’s a majority winner or a candidate won with more than half of the vote.

    Just two states — Maine and Alaska — have switched to ranked choice voting for both statewide and presidential elections. New York City also utilizes ranked choice voting. Democrats have said it best aggregates candidates and their converging interests. As a result, the city has women as the majority in the city council for the first time in its history. 

    “Local elections are the worst, where only a few 100 people come out to vote, and so you have people that don’t have the majority of support,” says Laura Murphy, the Assistant Majority Leader in the Illinois State Senate. “And what happens is that you prevent women — particularly women of color — being able to win those seats. So when you can rank those choices, you have a better opportunity for winning and being successful.”

    Women in office yields results

    New York State Senator Samra Brouk appears during an event by RepresentWomen on Tuesday, August 20, 2024 at the Hubbard Inn in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

    New York State Senator Samra Brouk represents the 55th District, which contains portions of Rochester. Brouk worked on Stacey Abrams’s campaign in rural Georgia, in 2018. She says Abrams’ ability to connect with people on issues like health care and criminal justice reform inspired her. This experience motivated Brouk to bring similar efforts to upstate New York. Eventually, Brouk would run for State Senate in 2022. Brouk emphasizes the value of women in elected office. She highlights studies that show women and women of color are better at understanding the needs of their constituents. Lastly, she advocates for more women in leadership roles nationwide.

    “I’m a firm believer that the more women we have in elected office, the better off we are as a country,” says Brouk. “And in fact, there are actual studies that show when women and women of color are in positions of power, they are better able to  collaborate and work together with their colleagues, even across the aisle, to affect change.”

    There are 18 state senates in across the country don’t have a Black woman elected to a state’s upper chamber. RepresentWomen has the data, but they also have the solution: leveraging connections and networks to run for public office. Also, advocating for the solutions in the systemic changes. Brouk says representation matters.

    “Truly understand the voices and the needs of the people that they represent,” says Brouk. “So whether it’s in New York, Oklahoma or Georgia, we need to make sure that more women are getting into these positions to be able to put forward the agenda that most Americans actually want to see.”

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  • Biden says Netanyahu not doing enough to secure hostage and ceasefire deal as he nears presenting a final proposal

    Biden says Netanyahu not doing enough to secure hostage and ceasefire deal as he nears presenting a final proposal

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    Washington (CNN) — President Joe Biden said Monday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas and added he is “close” to presenting a final deal to negotiators working to strike a hostage and ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

    “We’re very close to that,” he said when asked by CNN if he was planning to present a final proposal.

    The president’s comments came as he was returning to the White House to huddle with American officials who have been working to secure a deal that would pair a release of hostages held in Gaza with a pause in the fighting.

    Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, was also planning to attend the meeting before joining Biden for a campaign event in Pittsburgh.

    The hostage release efforts gained new urgency over the weekend with the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah, including the Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.

    The deaths have sparked outrage inside Israel, leading to enormous protests and a nationwide strike Monday. Demonstrators have called on Netanyahu to put aside political ambitions to strike an agreement that would allow hostages to be released.

    Asked Monday whether Netanyahu was doing enough to reach an agreement, Biden said simply: “No.”

    His one-word answer kept with Biden’s reluctance to criticize Netanyahu in public, but nonetheless reflected deep frustrations inside the White House at how the Israeli leader has handled the conflict and the hostage talks.

    A senior Israeli source criticized Biden’s statement, saying: “It is remarkable that President Biden is trying to pressure Prime Minister Netanyahu, who agreed to both the president’s proposal on May 31st and to the American bridging proposal on August 16th, and not Hamas’s leader Sinwar who continues to oppose any deal.”

    “The president’s statement is also dangerous because it comes days after Hamas executed 6 hostages, including an American citizen.”

    A US official responded to that criticism by saying, “The president has been clear that Hamas is responsible for killing Hersh and the others and Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes. He is also calling for urgency from the Israeli government in securing the release of the missing remaining hostages.”

    American officials said the deaths of the six hostages over the weekend would likely apply new pressure on Netanyahu to reach an agreement, though the officials also said it raised questions about how serious Hamas is toward striking a deal.

    Asked Monday how the new deal being finalized would be different than other failed proposals, Biden responded: “Hope springs eternal.”

    Biden, who spoke Sunday with Goldberg-Polin’s parents, said his message to them was “we’re not giving up, we’re going to continue to push as hard as we can.”

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  • Ex-election workers want Rudy Giuliani’s apartment, Yankees rings in push to collect $148M judgment

    Ex-election workers want Rudy Giuliani’s apartment, Yankees rings in push to collect $148M judgment

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Two former Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against Rudy Giuliani asked a court Friday to award them the cash-strapped former New York City mayor’s apartment and other property as they ramp up efforts to collect on the staggering debt.

    Lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss urged the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to force Giuliani to turn over his Madison Avenue apartment, any remaining cash and some of his prized New York Yankees memorabilia, including three World Series rings and a signed Joe DiMaggio shirt.

    Freeman and Moss also staked a claim to about $2 million Giuliani has said Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign owes him and they sought to take control of another Giuliani property — his Palm Beach, Florida, condominium — through another legal mechanism known as receivership.

    Freeman and Moss, the mother and daughter targeted by Giuliani in the wake of Trump’s 2020 election loss, are looking to chip away at what the ex-mayor owes them following the collapse last month of his bankruptcy case, which had paused collection.

    If Giuliani does not turn over his property in a timely fashion, Freeman and Moss’ lawyers said they will see other remedies to wrest control, citing his history of “evasion, obstruction, and outright disobedience.”

    “That strategy reaches the end of the line here,” lawyer Aaron Nathan wrote.

    Giuliani spokesperson Ted Goodman criticized Friday’s filing as a step “designed to harass and intimidate the mayor” while he’s appealing the “objectively unreasonable” judgment.

    “This lawsuit has always been designed to censor and bully the mayor, and to deter others from exercising their right to speak up and to speak out,” Goodman said. He contends that the “the justice system has been weaponized” against Giuliani “and so many others for strictly partisan political purposes.”

    Giuliani, a longtime Trump ally, filed for bankruptcy last December just days after the eye-popping damages award to Freeman and Moss. The women said Giuliani’s unfounded attacks on them after Trump narrowly lost Georgia to Joe Biden led to death threats that made them fear for their lives.

    As Giuliani’s bankruptcy case played out, Freeman and Moss’ lawyers accused him of using the process as a “bad-faith litigation tactic” and a “pause button on his woes.” Creditors accused him of flouting bankruptcy laws and potentially hiding assets.

    Troubled by Giuliani’s repeated “uncooperative conduct,” self-dealing, and a lack of transparency, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane decided in July to dismiss the case. Lane labeled Giuliani a “recalcitrant debtor” and said he had thumbed his nose at the bankruptcy process while seeking to shield himself from the defamation judgment and other debts.

    Among Lane’s concerns were that Giuliani funneled his income — including at least $15,000 a month from his now-canceled talk radio show — into companies he owned; never reported any income from those entities; failed to disclose that he had started promoting his own “Rudy Coffee” brand; and was late to disclose a contract he has to write a book.

    The bankruptcy dismissal cleared the way for Giuliani’s creditors – chief among them Freeman and Moss – to pursue legal remedies to recoup at least some of the money they’re owed. It also freed Giuliani to pursue his appeal of the defamation verdict.

    Soon after the bankruptcy case ended, Freeman and Moss’ lawyers said they filed paperwork regarding the judgment, placed liens on Giuliani’s New York and Florida properties and sent him a subpoena demanding information about his assets. Giuliani had not responded to the subpoena as of Friday, the lawyers said.

    Giuliani has been trying to sell his Manhattan co-op apartment for more than a year, amid mounting debt and legal woes. Initially listed for $6.5 million in July 2023, the asking price has since fallen to $5.7 million. During the bankruptcy case, he said the Palm Beach condominium had been appraised at $3.5 million.

    In addition to his homes, cash and Yankees mementos, Freeman and Moss are also seeking to take about two dozen of Giuliani’s watches, a diamond ring, costume jewelry, a TV, various items of furniture and a 1980 Mercedes-Benz SL500.

    The items, including autographed Reggie Jackson and Yankee Stadium pictures, would then be auctioned off with proceeds going to Freeman and Moss, their lawyers said. All told, the property and cash the women are seeking could be worth somewhere north of $10 million – a sizeable sum, but just a small fraction of what they are owed.

    The potential loss of his possessions is one of a host of legal woes consuming the 80-year-old Giuliani, the former federal prosecutor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate who was once heralded as “America’s Mayor” for his calm and steady leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

    In July, he was disbarred as an attorney in New York after a court found he repeatedly made false statements about Trump’s 2020 election loss. He is also facing the possibility of losing his law license in Washington, D.C., after a board in May recommended that he be disbarred.

    In Georgia and Arizona, Giuliani is facing criminal charges over his role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election. He has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

    When he filed for bankruptcy, Giuliani listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts, including the $148 million owed to Freeman and Moss, almost $1 million in state and federal tax liabilities and money he owed lawyers. He estimated he had assets worth $1 million to $10 million.

    In his most recent financial filings, he said he had about $94,000 cash in hand at the end of May while his company, Giuliani Communications, had about $237,000 in the bank. A main source of income for Giuliani has been a retirement account with a balance of just over $1 million in May, down from nearly $2.5 million in 2022.

    In May, he spent nearly $33,000 including nearly $28,000 for condo and co-op costs for his Florida and New York homes. He also spent about $850 on food, $390 on cleaning services, $230 on medicine, $200 on laundry and $190 on vehicles.

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  • Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signals support for Supreme Court code of ethics in CBS interview

    Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson signals support for Supreme Court code of ethics in CBS interview

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    (CNN) — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated in an interview Sunday that she supports a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court, adding that such requirements are “pretty standard” for the federal judiciary.

    “From my perspective, I don’t have any problem with an enforceable code,” Jackson, the newest member of the high court, told “CBS News Sunday Morning” in an interview about her new memoir.

    “A binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges. And so I guess the question is, ‘Is the Supreme Court any different?’” Jackson said. “And I guess I have not seen a persuasive reason as to why the court is different than the other courts.”

    Asked whether she was considering supporting the idea, Jackson said she was “as a general matter.”

    Jackson is the latest justice to indicate an openness to an enforceable code of ethics at a time when the Supreme Court is facing heavy scrutiny — and near record low approval ratings — because of private jet flights and luxury travel accepted by some members of the court. President Joe Biden called for an enforceable code of conduct in late July.

    Jackson, Biden’s first and only nominee to the Supreme Court, declined to endorse any particular ethics policy.  She also declined to discuss Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been at the center of the court’s ethics controversies. Thomas initially failed to disclose trips and other gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, though the conservative justice has said he was following the court’s disclosure rules as he understood them at the time.

    The high court adopted its own code of conduct last year. But the measure, while historic, was heavily criticized by ethics experts because it included no way to enforce its requirements. Justice Elena Kagan, a member of the court’s liberal wing, defended the code of conduct this summer but also conceded it would be more effective if it included an enforcement mechanism.

    Jackson’s interview comes as she is promoting a new memoir, “Lovely One,” to be published Tuesday. She will also be speaking at events in New York, Washington and Atlanta this week.

    Critics of a binding code of ethics have pointed to concerns about how to enforce rules against members of a tribunal who are supposed to be the final word on the law. Some proposals, including one advanced by Senate Democrats, would create a panel of lower court judges to review ethics matters.

    “It really boils down to impartiality,” Jackson told CBS. “That’s what the rules are about. People are entitled to know if you’re accepting gifts as a judge, so that they can evaluate whether or not your opinions are impartial.”

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  • Can Beyoncé, Celine Dion and Foo Fighters stop Trump from using their music? It’s complicated

    Can Beyoncé, Celine Dion and Foo Fighters stop Trump from using their music? It’s complicated

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    (CNN) — The day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris to become the Democratic presidential nominee, CNN reported that Beyoncé had given her sign-off for the Vice President to use “Freedom” as her official campaign song. So, it was a seemingly antagonistic choice when the Republican nominee’s campaign played the same Beyoncé song as the backdrop of a recent social media video to showcase former President Donald Trump.

    From Celine Dion and Foo Fighters to Bruce Springsteen and Prince’s estate numerous artists over the years have objected to the use of their music by the Trump campaign. But depending on how and where their music is used, musicians may have grounds to take action beyond rebuking, according to legal experts.

    In Beyoncé’s case, it wasn’t just a social media post. The Trump campaign has also used her music during at least one rally this summer, even though Beyoncé endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 and is a longtime Democratic supporter.

    Her song “Texas Hold ‘Em” from the album “Cowboy Carter” was played at a Trump event on July 31 at the New Holland Arena in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, according to a video of the rally viewed by CNN.

    Beyoncé’s representatives did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. But last week, Rolling Stone reported her label threatened to send a cease-and-desist to the Trump campaign after they had used “Freedom” in the social media video, which was posted by Trump’s campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung.

    Shortly after Beyoncé’s team reportedly threatened legal action, the video was taken down.

    In a statement to CNN, Cheung said he used “Freedom” to provoke the opposing party.

    “The purpose of the post just proved the point that Democrats are all about banning things, including freedom. They fell for it hook, line, and sinker,” Cheung said.

    Isaac Hayes performs on the Open Air stage during the third day of the Big Chill music festival at Eastnor Castle Deer Park in the Malvern Hills on August 5, 2007 in Herefordshire, England.  (Jim Dyson/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

    Music licensing and approval

    Licensing music and obtaining rights and clearances is an expensive, complicated and litigious business. Movie studios regularly pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain the rights to a single song, while brands can pay millions to repeat a tune in commercials to help sell a product.

    Political campaigns are no exception.

    “A license is required for any use of music whether in a venue, convention, online via YouTube or social media platform,” attorney Heidy Vaquerano, a Los Angeles-based partner at the law firm Fox Rothschild who specializes in music, told CNN.

    Even if a license is obtained, artists may still be able to object to the use of their music by political campaigns.

    Just days ago, Foo Fighters said they did not authorize the Trump campaign to use their song “My Hero,” which was played at a rally in Arizona where Trump was joined by Robert Kennedy Jr., shortly after he endorsed the former president. A representative for Foo Fighters told CNN the band was not asked permission by the Trump campaign, and said any royalties received “as a result of this use will be donated to the Harris/Walz campaign.”

    Trump’s spokesperson, Cheung, told CNN, “We have a license to play the song.”

    But the band’s representative reiterated, “Foo Fighters were not asked permission, and if they were they would not have granted it.”

    There are some legal protections for artists around the use of their name, image or likeness. Even with a public performance license to play a song at a rally, the Trump campaign could be in violation of an artist’s publicity rights or a “false endorsement, where use of an artist’s work implies [an] artist supports the candidate,” Vaquerano said.

    In order for a political campaign to use an artist’s song on social media, the campaign would have to reach out to songwriters, the publisher and the artist’s label for approval, she added.

    When Trump ran in 2016 and 2020, Rihanna, Phil Collins, Neil Young, Pharrell, Rolling Stones, Adele, Guns N’ Roses and the estate of the Beatles all spoke out about Trump using their music. That pattern has continued this election cycle.

    Earlier this month, Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” was played at a Trump rally in Bozeman, Montana, along with a video of the star singing on the big screen. After videos surfaced on social media, the singer’s team spoke out.

    “In no way is this use authorized, and Celine Dion does not endorse this or any similar use…And really, THAT song?” her team posted on X.

    The estate of Isaac Hayes took things a step further, filing a copyright infringement suit against Trump for using the soul artist’s songs at rallies, also naming the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee and the National Rifle Association among the defendants.

    In the complaint, Hayes’ estate said Trump began using Hayes’ material as “outro” music at campaign events in 2020 and have continued to use his music in 2024, as seen in one of Trump’s recent posts on Truth Social in which Hayes’ song “Hold On, I’m Comin’” can be heard playing at a rally.

    According to court documents obtained by CNN, attorneys for the estate claim that the campaign has not “obtained a valid public performance license,” and are asking for “compensatory damages for the unauthorized use” of Hayes’ music. Hayes’ estate was granted an emergency hearing on the matter in federal court on September 3.

    “See you in court,” Hayes’ son posted on X.

    Trump has not publicly commented on the matter.

    Vaquerano believes that the Hayes estate has a viable case.

    “If the campaign did not obtain the necessary licenses,” the attorney said, “then each use of the music constitutes a new infringing use and the respective copyright owners would be entitled to statutory damages and actual damages for loss of sales, licensing, revenue or other provable financial loss caused by the use of the music in the Trump campaign.”

    Trump is known to be selective about music. Sources with first-hand knowledge told CNN that Trump chooses some of his rally songs himself. At his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, he’ll pick out the patio playlist on an iPad set up for guests at his dinners, according to these sources.

    Back on the stump, Trump may be well-served to stick with music by artists who have endorsed him, like Kid Rock.

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  • Harley-Davidson is dropping diversity initiatives after right-wing anti-DEI campaign

    Harley-Davidson is dropping diversity initiatives after right-wing anti-DEI campaign

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    New York (CNN) — Tractor Supply Co. John Deere. Now Harley-Davidson.

    Harley-Davidson said Monday that it’s ending diversity and other progressive initiatives at the company. Harley-Davidson is the latest major American brand to backtrack from DEI policies it had supported in recent years.

    Harley-Davidson faced pressure online from Robby Starbuck, a conservative activist who has successfully taken on DEI policies at several American companies.

    “We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community,” the company wrote in a statement posted on X.

    The company added that “we have not operated a DEI function since April 2024, and we do not have a DEI function today. We do not have hiring quotas and we no longer have supplier diversity spend goals.”

    But the company said it would review all sponsorships and outside organizations the company affiliates with, and the company will establish a central clearinghouse for approvals of those relationships. It also suggested it would drop some sponsorships, including LGBTQ+ Pride festivals, saying the brand going forward would focus exclusively on growing the sport of motorcycling. Harley-Davidson, based in Milwaukee, had previously been a longtime corporate member of the Wisconsin LBGT Chamber of Commerce.

    The company also said it would end its relationship with the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

    “We remain committed to listening to all members of our community,” the company said in the statement.

    Starbuck first posted on social media about the company less than a month ago.

    “It’s time to expose Harley Davidson,” Starbuck first posted on July 23, listing around 20 examples of how the company has “gone totally woke.” Among them: Harley-Davidson sponsored a bootcamp for LGBTQ entrepreneurs, donated to United Way and wants to increase its workforce diversity as it tries to grow its base of motorcycle riders.

    Elon Musk and other right-wing leaders amplified Starbuck’s social media posts.

    Harley-Davidson declined to comment to CNN.

    Harley-Davidson joins Tractor Supply and John Deere to backtrack on policies following pressure campaigns led by Starbuck.

    Tractor Supply recently announced it was eliminating jobs and goals focused on diversity, equity and inclusion; withdrawing its carbon emission reduction goals; and ending sponsorships for LGBTQ+ Pride festivals and voting campaigns. John Deere announced it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events and would audit all its training materials.

    On X Monday, Starbuck called it a “win for our movement” and hinted that he would target another company.

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  • Warnock to speak on Monday at Democratic National Convention

    Warnock to speak on Monday at Democratic National Convention

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    Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga) (above) believes The Stitch is more than just another real estate development taking place in downtown Atlanta. Much more in fact. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    Georgia Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock will be representing the state of Georgia at the Democratic National Convention later today. He will be among a who’s who of political stars, both past and present, that will be taking the stage in the United Center, including former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama, former United States President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, and current United States President Joseph R. Biden, who is slated to speak on Monday. 

    Democratic presidential nominee and current United States Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to accept her party’s nomination on Thursday night.

    Warnock, the Senior Pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church for the past 19 years, will speak today and will focus his speech on democracy and freedom, according to the Harris/Walz campaign. He will also be the speaker at the Georgia Delegation Breakfast earlier this morning.

    Warnock has been a surrogate for both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the past, speaking on their behalf several times, including at a rally in Atlanta in late July. During that rally Warnock came out on stage with fellow Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff. 

    The themes for the four-day convention are “For the People,” “A Bold Vision for America’s Future,” “A Fight for Our Freedoms,” and “For Our Future.” 


    Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Donnell began his career covering sports and news in Atlanta nearly two decades ago. Since then he has written for Atlanta Business Chronicle, The Southern Cross…
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  • Your Voice: When it comes to mental health, what is your opinion on therapy and its importance to the Black Community?

    Your Voice: When it comes to mental health, what is your opinion on therapy and its importance to the Black Community?

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    Fredrick Hope Jr.

    Atlanta

    “I feel like it’s very much needed, especially in my community where we deal with a lot of crap, a lot of poverty, a lot of trauma, and a lot of gun violence. I mean, there’s a lot of negativity to me. I’m 44 years old, and just from my upbringing, man, I have witnessed over 300-400 kids that have died, and so, you know, I’m traumatized myself. I definitely know I need to be in some therapy just for the line of work I do. I’m a Violence Interrupter for an organization called Cure Violence Atlanta.”

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    Vincent Christie

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  • Fair Fight Action launches AI-powered chatbot to combat election disinformation in Georgia

    Fair Fight Action launches AI-powered chatbot to combat election disinformation in Georgia

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    Fair Fight Action is launching Peaches, an AI-powered chatbot that answers user-generated questions ranging from voter registration to voter challenges. The service is designed to combat election disinformation and misinformation in Georgia.

    “Peaches, Fair Fight Action’s new AI chatbot and voting assistant, is here to help Georgians overcome these challenges by providing an accessible, nonpartisan, and trustworthy source of election information in multiple languages,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Fair Fight Action CEO. “With Peaches, we’re not just providing information, we’re innovating to continue our work of empowering voters to navigate new, complex barriers designed to suppress their voices.”

    Peaches can answer questions such as polling locations and how to get registered to vote. It also references Peaches can answer questions in English, Korean, Spanish or Vietnamese. For example, a user can type a question such as, “When is early voting in Georgia”. Within seconds, Peaches will give the following answer:

    Early voting in Georgia for the upcoming elections will begin on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

    • In-Person Voting: You can vote early in person at designated locations in your county.
    • Optional Sundays: There may also be optional Sundays for early voting on October 20 and October 27, 2024.

    It’s important to check with your county elections office for specific early voting hours, as they can vary by location.

    Peaches only Georgia Voter Information

    The feature is only for Georgia residents.

    Fair Fight also warns Georgia voters about registering to vote with websites unaffiliated with Georgia’s My Voter Page. Recently, Elon Musk’s super Political Action Committee (PAC), called the AmericaPAC, is under investigation. Allegedly, Musk’s Super Pac is collecting voters’ personal information with the intention of inviting them to register to vote. However, Musk’s Super PAC is promoting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in battleground states. 

    Meanwhile, Fair Fight says  their AI chatbot, Peaches, will dispel the rumors that are pushed by “election integrity” activists. 

    “After Georgians turned out in historic numbers to vote in 2020, we’re facing new barriers to voting from laws like SB 202 and SB 189, and rising levels of disinformation that pose an unprecedented threat to our democracy,” said Groh-Wargo. 

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    Itoro N. Umontuen

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  • Kamala Harris outlines plans to build an “Opportunity Economy”

    Kamala Harris outlines plans to build an “Opportunity Economy”

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    RALEIGH, N.C. – The speech was billed as the first major economic address of her presidential campaign, and United States Vice President Kamala Harris did not disappoint. Addressing a small but vocal crowd of supporters at the Scott Northern Wake Campus of Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, the Vice President outlined a series of economic reforms designed to provide much-needed relief to those struggling through tough economic times.

    “This election is about two different visions for our nation,” Harris said as she began her remarks. “One, ours, is focused on the future, and the other is focused on the past. We see that contrast in many ways, including the way we see the economy. We sadly remember the millions of Americans who were out of work. We were facing one of the worst economic crises in history. And today, by virtually every measure, our economy is the strongest in the world.”

    Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice

    It was the first among many enthusiastic applause lines for Harris, who gave a detailed breakdown of the policy areas she plans to address as President of the United States, while also touting the success of the Biden/Harris administration. Harris spoke about the creation of 16 million new jobs, historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy, and the lowering of inflation to less than three percent during the Joe Biden presidency.

    “As president, I will be laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity. Together, we will build what I call an ‘opportunity economy.’ Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.”

    (Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice)

    Harris’ plans include several major policy initiatives, which include the following:

    ·      The elimination of medical debt impacting consumer credit scores

    ·      A ban on price gouging for groceries

    ·      A cap on prescription drug costs

    ·      A $25k subsidy for first time home buyers

    ·      A child tax credit that would provide $6k per child for families for the first year of a child’s life

    Prior to Harris’ speech, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, the Democratic Candidate for Governor, and current Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, each took the stage, both receiving raucous cheers from the audience.

    “Vice President Harris is here today to shed a bright light on the urgency of lowering costs and make life more affordable for the people of North Carolina,” said Stein, who is in a tight race with Republican candidate Mark Robinson, the current Lt. Governor.

    “I believe that if you work hard, where you come from should never limit how far you can go. To deliver on that promise, we must invest in our people and their future,” Stein added.

    (Photo by Julia Beverly/The Atlanta Voice)

    Cooper, who describes himself as a longtime friend and supporter of Harris, was on the short list for VP before taking himself out of the running. Harris ultimately choose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

    “I have been out there on the campaign trail and talking to people, and I have that 2008 feeling!” said Cooper, evoking memories of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, and sparking an additional round of cheers.

    “Vice President Harris has ignited a firestorm of excitement as we head into the final stretch of this election and today she has chosen us, North Carolina, to unveil key highlights of her economic agenda.”

    Cooper described Harris as tough, focused, and as someone who will fight for the people who need her.

    Several times during her speech, the crowd interrupted Harris to chant “We’re not going back! It was a line Harris used herself as she continued to contrast her plans with those of Donald Trump, and what she called his backward-looking agenda of Project 2025. On that point, the audience was in enthusiastic agreement.

    “If you want to know who someone cares about,” Harris said in closing, “look who they fight for. Now is the time to chart a new way forward.”

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    Carla Peay

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  • Biden announces $150 million in research grants as part of his ‘moonshot’ push to fight cancer

    Biden announces $150 million in research grants as part of his ‘moonshot’ push to fight cancer

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Joe Biden is zeroing in on the policy goals closest to his heart now that he’s no longer seeking a second term, visiting New Orleans on Tuesday to promote his administration’s “moonshot” initiative aiming to dramatically reduce cancer deaths.

    The president and first lady Jill Biden toured medical facilities that receive federal funding to investigate cancer treatments at Tulane University. Researchers used a piece of raw meat to demonstrate how they are working to improve scanning technology to quickly distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells during surgeries.

    The Bidens then championed the announcement of $150 million in awards from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Those will support eight teams of researchers around the country working on ways to help surgeons more successfully remove tumors from people with cancer. It brings the total amount awarded by the agency to develop breakthrough treatments for cancers to $400 million.

    Cancer surgery “takes the best surgeons and takes its toll on families,” Biden said. He said the demonstration of cutting-edge technology he witnessed would offer doctors a way to visualize tumors in real time, reducing the need for follow-on surgeries.

    “We’re moving quickly because we know that all families touched by cancer are in a race against time,” Biden said.

    The teams receiving awards include ones from Tulane, Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Washington and Cision Vision in Mountain View, California.

    Before he leaves office in January, Biden hopes to move the U.S. closer to the goal he set in 2022 to cut U.S. cancer fatalities by 50% over the next 25 years, and to improve the lives of caregivers and those suffering from cancer.

    “I’m a congenital optimist about what Americans can do,” Biden said. “There’s so much that we’re doing. It matters”

    Experts say the objective is attainable — with adequate investments.

    “We’re curing people of diseases that we previously thought were absolutely intractable and not survivable,” said Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

    Cancer is the second-highest killer of people in the U.S. after heart disease. This year alone, the American Cancer Society estimates that 2 million new cases will be diagnosed and 611,720 people will die of cancer diseases.

    Still, “if all innovation ended today and we could just get people access to the innovations that we know about right now, we think we could reduce cancer mortality by another 20 to 30%,” Knudsen said.

    The issue is personal enough for Biden that, in his recent Oval Office address about bowing out of the 2024 campaign, the president promised to keep fighting for “my cancer moonshot so we can end cancer as we know it.”

    “Because we can do it,” Biden said then.

    He said in that speech that the initiative would be a priority of his final months in office, along with working to strengthen the economy and defend abortion rights, protecting children from gun violence and making changes to the Supreme Court, which he called “extreme” in its current makeup during a recent event.

    Both the president and first lady have had lesions removed from their skin in the past that were determined to be basal cell carcinoma, a common and easily treated form of cancer. In 2015, their eldest son, Beau, died of an aggressive brain cancer at age 46.

    “It’s not just personal,” Biden said Tuesday. “It’s about what’s possible.”

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    The president’s public schedule has been much quieter since he left the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, making Tuesday’s trip stand out.

    Advocates have praised Biden for keeping the spotlight on cancer, bringing stakeholders together and gathering commitments from private companies, nonprofit organizations and patient groups.

    They say that the extra attention the administration has paid has put the nation on track to cut cancer death rates by at least half, preventing more than 4 million deaths from the disease, by 2047. It has done so by bolstering access to cancer treatments and reminding people of the importance of screening, which hit a setback during the coronavirus pandemic.

    “President Biden’s passion and commitment to this effort has made monumental differences for the entire cancer community, including those who are suffering from cancer,” said Jon Retzlaff, the chief policy officer at the American Association for Cancer Research.

    Looking ahead, Retzlaff said, “The No. 1 thing is for us to see robust, sustained and predictable annual funding support for the National Institutes of Health. And, if we see that through NIH and through the National Cancer Institute, the programs that have been created through the cancer moonshot will be allowed to continue.”

    Initiatives under Biden include changes that make screening and cancer care more accessible to more people, said Knudsen, with the American Cancer Society.

    For instance, Medicare has started to pay for follow-up colonoscopies if a stool-based test suggests cancer, she said, and Medicare will now pay for navigation services to guide patients through the maze of their cancer care.

    “You’ve already paid for the cancer research. You’ve already paid for the innovation. Now let’s get it to people,” Knudsen said.

    She also said she’d like to see the next administration pursue a ban on menthol-flavored cigarettes, which she said could save 654,000 lives over the next 40 years.

    Scientists now understand that cancer is not a single disease, but hundreds of diseases that respond differently to different treatments. Some cancers have biomarkers that can be targeted by existing drugs that will slow a tumor’s growth. Many more targets await discovery.

    “We hope that the next administration, whoever it may be, will continue to keep the focus and emphasis on our national commitment to end cancer as we know it,” said Dr. Crystal Denlinger, CEO of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a group of elite cancer centers.

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    Will Weissert, Carla K. Johnson and Associated Press

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