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AP Photos: This is what it looks like as winter blasts the US into a deep freeze
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated 3:31 PM CST, January 17, 2024
Winter turned its icy glare on the U.S. this week, blanketing cities and states from east to west with snow and sending temperatures into an Arctic spiral.
In Buffalo, New York, residents trekked through at least 18 inches of new snow that fell on top of the three feet that had arrived over the weekend. Heavy lake-effect snow shut down city hall, canceled school in several districts and led to travel bans across multiple suburbs.
Footprints appear on a residential street after at least 18 inches of new snow fell overnight - on top of the three feet that arrived over the weekend in Buffalo, N.Y., Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)
An elderly man warms his hands by the fire he created across the street from a homeless encampment under a major interstate freeway Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
A motorist is pushed through the snow Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A snowstorm blanketed the area with up to eight inches of snow and frigid temperatures. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Ken Whitehead clears the sidewalk outside Blues City Cafe as snow falls on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024 in Memphis, Tenn. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP)
Graphic designer Emily Brewer shovels out her driveway in order to drive to work in Sioux City, Iowa, early on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Ice forms on a truck's wheel as temperatures dropped below freezing, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Conroe, Texas. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Silvestre, 6, of Washington, sleds over a snow bump on the hill at the U.S. Capitol, as schools are closed due to a winter storm, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/united-states-winter-weather-photo-gallery-cfcf2bc41af9e55fc5ea75baf5269a5b
AP Photos: This is what it looks like as winter blasts the US into a deep freeze
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated 3:31 PM CST, January 17, 2024
Winter turned its icy glare on the U.S. this week, blanketing cities and states from east to west with snow and sending temperatures into an Arctic spiral.
In Buffalo, New York, residents trekked through at least 18 inches of new snow that fell on top of the three feet that had arrived over the weekend. Heavy lake-effect snow shut down city hall, canceled school in several districts and led to travel bans across multiple suburbs.
Footprints appear on a residential street after at least 18 inches of new snow fell overnight - on top of the three feet that arrived over the weekend in Buffalo, N.Y., Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)
An elderly man warms his hands by the fire he created across the street from a homeless encampment under a major interstate freeway Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
A motorist is pushed through the snow Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. A snowstorm blanketed the area with up to eight inches of snow and frigid temperatures. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Ken Whitehead clears the sidewalk outside Blues City Cafe as snow falls on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024 in Memphis, Tenn. (Mark Weber/Daily Memphian via AP)
Graphic designer Emily Brewer shovels out her driveway in order to drive to work in Sioux City, Iowa, early on Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Ice forms on a truck's wheel as temperatures dropped below freezing, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Conroe, Texas. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Silvestre, 6, of Washington, sleds over a snow bump on the hill at the U.S. Capitol, as schools are closed due to a winter storm, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/united-states-winter-weather-photo-gallery-cfcf2bc41af9e55fc5ea75baf5269a5b
Mitt Romney: Some Trump Supporters Are 'Out Of Touch With Reality'
The senator said he has "a hard time understanding" why Trump's legal issues don't "seem to be moving the needle" with more voters.
By Taiyler S. Mitchell
Jan 17, 2024, 06:35 PM EST
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called out the majority of Iowa Republican caucus voters who baselessly believe that President Joe Biden did not win the 2020 election legitimately.
“I think a lot of people in this country are out of touch with reality and will accept anything Donald Trump tells them,” Romney, who announced in September that he is not seeking reelection, told CNN journalist Manu Raju on Wednesday.
About 65% of Iowa caucusgoers said they believe former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, according to entrance poll data.
[...]
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mitt-romney-trump-supporters-reality_n_65a84785e4b041f1ce648b6f
AP sports photos of the year 2023 capture unforgettable snippets in time from the games we love
By PAUL NEWBERRY
Updated 11:01 PM CST, December 25, 2023
They are snippets in time, unforgettable snapshots that gloriously capture the soaring euphoria and gut-wrenching agony of the games we love, not to mention the randomness of a moment that might’ve gone unnoticed otherwise.
There are the Kansas City Chiefs, dunking head coach Andy Reid with a jug-full of frigid drink after their stirring Super Bowl triumph over the Philadelphia Eagles, fulfilling what has become a rite of passage in all gridiron celebrations.
And the Vegas Golden Knights, gathered in a giant group hug behind the net after capturing the NHL’s Stanley Cup championship, the glittering ice beneath their skates littered with discarded gloves.
Toni Eggert and Sascha Benecken of Germany celebrate winning the men’s doubles race at the Luge World Championships in Oberhof, Germany, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Rory McIlroy reacts after his shot from the rough on the 14th hole during the third round of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Los Angeles Country Club on Saturday, June 17, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Players from Bourton Rovers compete during the annual traditional River Windrush soccer match, which has been taking place for over 100 years, in the Cotswolds village of Bourton-on-the-Water, England, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. The event sees two teams of six from Bourton Rovers Football Club play a 30 minute soccer match in the usually calm river water. Goalposts are set up in the river and players attempt to score as many goals as possible, whilst getting all spectators as wet as possible in the process. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Fans known as “The Richies” cheer as Australia’s Usman Khawaja celebrates with making 100 runs against South Africa during the second day of their cricket test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023. “The Richies” are an homage to former Australian cricket player and broadcasting legend Richie Benaud. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Racers in T-Rex costumes participate in the first set of heats during the “T-Rex World Championship Races” at Emerald Downs, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023, in Auburn, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/ap-sports-pictures-2023-ee23619fc5ae905ddaaa185dcec180e1
The Trump Trials: One Angry Man
Story by Devlin Barrett, Perry Stein • 1h
Welcome back to The Trump Trials, our weekly update on the hectic pace of the 45th president’s many criminal and civil cases. Last week saw Donald Trump enter not one but two courtrooms, as he tried to raise his voice above the drumbeat of judicial decision-making.
Have questions on the upcoming trials? Email us at perry.stein@washpost.com and devlin.barrett@washpost.com and check for answers in future newsletters.
Okay, let’s get started.
Sign up to get The Trump Trials newsletter in your email inbox every Sunday
https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/the-trump-trials/
What’s ahead
Try, try again: Trump is scheduled to face his second defamation trial from writer E. Jean Carroll. That trial, in Manhattan federal court, may last about a week and is limited to deciding what additional damages Trump should pay.
In May, a jury concluded that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a luxury department store in 1996 and defamed her in 2022. It awarded $5 million in damages. The question to be decided now is how much more he should have to pay for a separate instance of defamation.
We are also waiting for the federal court of appeals in D.C. to rule on Trump’s claims that he cannot be prosecuted over events related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol because he is shielded by presidential immunity and his Senate acquittal when he was impeached. More on that below.
Here’s a recap of last week’s action in all four criminal cases (and updates in the civil cases where relevant).
1. D.C.: Federal case on 2020 election
The details: Four counts related to conspiring to obstruct the 2020 election results.
Planned trial date: March 4.
What happened: Trump’s first court appearance of the week came in Washington, when he attended the appeals hearing over his claims of presidential immunity. The hearing produced a memorable exchange in which Judge Florence Y. Pan said Trump’s view of the law would make him immune from prosecution even if he ordered Navy SEALs to execute a political riva
It is unusual for defendants to attend their own appeals court argument (partly because they are often in prison). In this instance, the former president appeared to be trying to have the last word, even with judges deciding his fate.
He sat stone-faced through the hearing but spoke to reporters afterward, predicting “bedlam” if the cases against him derail his bid for president. And he’d be back in court again before the week was over.
Visual story: How Trump makes his court appearances seem like campaign stops
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/13/trump-campaign-trail-trial-iowa/
2. Georgia: State case on 2020 election
The details: Trump faces 13 state charges for allegedly trying to undo the election results in that state. Eighteen people were charged alongside Trump. Four of them have pleaded guilty.
Planned trial date: None yet.
What happened last week: A lawyer for one of Trump’s co-defendants alleged in a court filing that District Attorney Fani T. Willis had an improper relationship with a private practice lawyer she hired to prosecute the Trump case. Willis has yet to file her response to the claims but is expected to do so soon.
The allegations apparently stem from a sealed divorce case, and it’s not yet clear what the facts are, or whether the specifics of any such conduct would amount to an ethical problem, rather than a public embarrassment, for a prosecutor and her employee. Stay tuned, because the judge signaled Friday he is likely to hold a hearing on the issue next month.
3. Florida: Federal classified documents case
The details: Trump faces 40 federal charges over accusations that he kept top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago — his home and private club — and thwarted government demands to return them.
Planned trial date: May 20.
What happened: Prosecutors filed notices saying which FBI agents they plan to call as expert witnesses to describe evidence found on the phones of Trump’s co-defendants, Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira. That evidence includes not just what was on the phones, but where those phones were at key moments. This week, we should see a motion from Trump’s side about what types of evidence they still want prosecutors to hand over to them for review.
4. New York: State hush money case
The details: 34 charges connected to a 2016 hush money payment.
Planned trial date: March 25.
Last week: The criminal case was quiet, as usual. But down the street, the months-long civil trial brought by the New York attorney general finally reached closing arguments, which were overshadowed by Trump denouncing the entire proceeding from the defense table.
“What’s happened here, sir, is a fraud on me,” Trump angrily told Judge Arthur Engoron, claiming that Engoron had an “agenda” against him.
“Please control your client,” Engoron urged Trump’s lawyer, to no avail.
As a legal strategy, Trump’s speech did him few favors. But in both this and the D.C. appeals court argument, the former president appears to have made the calculation that he should be where the news is, and do his best to shout down his critics, if only in the court of public opinion.
Question Time
Q. In the New York civil case over his business valuations, Trump has claimed he was denied a jury trial. Is that true?
A. Engoron has said New York law doesn’t allow Trump to have a jury trial for the types of claims at issue in the trial. Trump’s legal team could have challenged that in court but did not pursue that path. Our colleague Shayna Jacobs reports that Engoron repeated again last week his view that the relief sought in the case was “all equitable” and therefore not properly subject to a jury trial.
Nerd word of the week:
Bench trial: A trial without a jury in which the verdict is delivered by a judge from the bench. The law says some types of legal claims should only be reviewed by a judge, but there are also a number of reasons a defendant might want to face a judge rather than a jury: Police officers accused of wrongdoing sometimes prefer to take their chances with a judge; white-collar defendants may think they have better odds with a judge reviewing complex financial statements; or their trial strategy may hinge on a nuanced legal argument.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-trump-trials-one-angry-man/ar-AA1mXFJ9?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=b45a35be242c45ee97afa46a8d031fae&ei=33
https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/the-trump-trials/
Normandy American Cemetery
Overview
For questions regarding the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 2024, please contact us at dday80@abmc.gov.
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located in Colleville-sur-Mer, on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 as the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II.
The cemetery site, at the north end of its half mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing, in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial, are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.
The memorial consists of a semicircular colonnade with a loggia at each end containing large maps and narratives of the military operations; at the center is the bronze statue, “Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves.” An orientation table overlooking the beach depicts the landings in Normandy. Facing west at the memorial, one sees in the foreground the reflecting pool; beyond is the burial area with a circular chapel and, at the far end, granite statues representing the United States and France.
In 2007, the Normandy Visitor Center opened. The $30 million visitor center was dedicated by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) on June 6, 2007 during the commemoration of the 63rd Anniversary of D-Day. The center is sited in a wooded area of the cemetery approximately 100 meters east of the Garden of the Missing.
Learn more about the architecture, exhibits, inscriptions, and the project team.
Normandy is ABMC's most visited cemetery, receiving more than one million visitors each year.
To plan a site visit, a visit to a relative's grave, request a group visit, special tour, or wreath laying ceremony, please contact NormandyVisits@abmc.gov.
Due to security concerns, the pathway from Normandy American Cemetery to the beach was closed to the public in 2016. However, public beach access is available nearby.
The flag lowering ceremony is held one hour before the cemetery closes to the public.
For questions, please contact us at NormandyVisits@abmc.gov.
British D-Day veteran celebrates turning 100
By Danica Kirka, The Associated Press
D-Day veteran Bill Gladden speaking at his home in Haverhill, England, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Alastair Grant/AP)
LONDON — British D-Day veteran Bill Gladden turned 100 on Saturday, a day after his niece threw a surprise birthday party for him. It was a big fuss he didn’t really expect, though the old soldier had tears in his eyes long before he caught sight of a cake decorated with a replica of his uniform and the medals he earned.
But Gladden isn’t focused on his birthday this year, big as it is. He’s looking six months down the road.
That’s because the event he really wants to attend is the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings on June 6.
It may be the last of the big events marking the beginning of the end of World War II in Europe because so few of the 850,000 troops who took part remain. Gladden wants to be there to honor those who are gone — to remind people that victory did not come cheap.
“If I could do that this year, I should be happy,’’ he told The Associated Press from his home in Haverhill, eastern England, where he still lives on his own. “Well, I am happy now, but I should be more happy.”
D-Day veteran Bill Gladden show off a painting, of they type of glider he was in when he landed in Normandy and a snap of parachute which he later embroidered, at his home in Haverhill, England, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Alastair Grant/AP)
A dispatch rider with the 6th Airborne Reconnaissance Regiment, Gladden landed behind the front lines on D-Day, June 6, 1944, in a wooden glider loaded with six motorcycles and a 17,000-pound (7,700-kilogram) tank. The unit was part of an operation charged with securing bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal so they could be used by Allied forces moving inland from the Normandy beaches.
Based in an orchard outside the village of Ranville, Gladden spent 12 days making forays into the surrounding countryside to check out reports of enemy activity.
On June 16, he carried two injured soldiers into a barn that was being used as a makeshift field hospital. Two days later, he found himself at the same barn, his right ankle shattered by machine gun fire.
Lying on the grass outside the hospital, he read the treatment label pinned to his tunic:
“Amputation considered. Large deep wound in right ankle. Compound fracture of both tibia and fibula. All extension tendons destroyed. Evacuate.”
Gladden didn’t lose his leg, but he spent the next three years in the hospital as doctors performed a series of surgeries, including tendon transplants, skin and bone grafts.
After the war, Gladden married Marie Warne, an army driver he met in 1943, and spent 40 years working for Siemens and Pearl Insurance. They had a daughter.
These days he’s more likely to talk about how proud he is of his family than he is to reminisce about D-Day. But his wartime story is preserved in a scrapbook that includes a newspaper clipping about “the tanks that were built to fly,” his drawings and other memorabilia.
There’s also a scrap of parachute left behind by one of the paratroopers who landed in the orchard at Ranville. As he lay in the hospital recovering from his wounds, Gladden painstakingly stitched his unit’s shoulder insignia into the fabric.
The edges are frayed and discolored after eight decades, but “Royal Armoured Corps” still stands out in an arc of red lettering on a yellow background. Underneath is a silhouette of Pegasus, the flying horse, over the word “Airborne.”
“These are the flashes we wore on our battledress blouses,” says the caption in neat block letters.
Nothing has faded from memory though. At his party, people celebrated his service and offered a booming happy birthday chorus.
“I just think he’s a legend, what he’s been through, what he’s seen, what he’s done,’’ said his niece, Kaye Thorpe. “He’s just amazing, and he’s still bright as a button on top.’
A birthday cake specially designed and made for D-Day veteran Bill Gladden surprises birthday party in Haverhill, England, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Alastair Grant/AP)
For men like Bill Gladden, though, there was no I in D-Day. Even as he celebrated his 100th birthday, somehow it wasn’t just about him. Instead, he echoed the words of many who survived the invasion.
“When you think of all those young lives that lay in those cemeteries abroad, the Allies and us won the war but (victory) was a very expensive one, life-wise,’’ he said. “Because so many youngsters died.’’
Associated Press writers Mayuko Ono and Alastair Grant contributed
https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2024/01/14/british-d-day-veteran-celebrates-turning-100/
https://apnews.com/article/dday-veteran-birthday-100-28523e59141702a391d990aadb0f71da
Biden’s kicking off 2024 by delving into some of the country’s darkest moments
By WILL WEISSERT and ZEKE MILLER
Updated 6:43 PM CST, January 3, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is starting the campaign year by evoking the Revolutionary War to mark the third anniversary of the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and visiting the South Carolina church where a white gunman massacred Black parishioners — seeking to present in the starkest possible terms an election he argues could determine the fate of American democracy.
On Friday, Biden will travel to near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington and the Continental Army spent a bleak winter nearly 250 years ago. There, he’ll decry former President Donald Trump for the riot by a mob of his supporters who overran the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Three days later, the president will visit Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, where nine people were shot and killed in a June 2015 white supremacist attack.
Biden’s kicking off 2024 by delving into some of the country’s darkest moments rather than an upbeat affirmation of his record is meant to clarify for voters what his team sees as the stakes of November’s election. During both events, he will characterize his predecessor as a serious threat to the nation’s founding principles, arguing that Trump — who has built a commanding early lead in the Republican presidential primary — will seek to undermine U.S. democracy should he win a second term.
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-2024-democracy-threat-national-traumas-66167f70a167592c23067180fbe55910
Of course there were 'innocent' bystanders....but at a safe distance of course.
Let's not any more entertain too much the thought that most at the Capitol, on that fateful day, were innocent bystanders
Are you suggesting these are a few of those innocent bystanders??
Three Years Since the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/36-months-jan-6-attack-capitol-0
Correct link for: A timeline of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — including when and how Trump responded
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1069977469/a-timeline-of-how-the-jan-6-attack-unfolded-including-who-said-what-and-when
A timeline of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack — including when and how Trump responded
UPDATED JANUARY 5, 20244:25 PM ET
By Kat Lonsdorf, Courtney Dorning, Amy Isackson, Mary Louise Kelly, Ailsa Chang
Left to right: President Donald Trump speaks at the Stop the Steal rally. A member of a pro-Trump mob shatters a window with his fist from inside the U.S. Capitol building after breaking in. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi presides over a joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College vote count.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images; Jon Cherry/Getty Images; Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images
January 6, 2021, was a Wednesday. A joint session of Congress was set to convene in the U.S. Capitol to certify Joe Biden's electoral vote win. Meanwhile, thousands of Donald Trump supporters gathered near the White House to hear him speak at noon ET.
Tensions were high on Capitol Hill. Protesters swarmed lawmakers outside.
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., was exasperated as protesters surrounded him on the steps of the Russell Senate Office Building at around 11:30 a.m.
Republican senators are being swarmed by Trump protesters on the Hill. Here’s an exasperated @SenToddYoung saying he won’t vote against certifying the election.
— Rebecca Tan (@rebtanhs) January 6, 2021
“I took oath under God... does that still matter in this country?” pic.twitter.com/9nQEbt9Okl
Hundreds of convictions, but a major mystery is still unsolved 3 years after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Matthew Graves, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia spoke to reporters on Thursday saying “much work has been done to hold members of the mob responsible for the crimes they committed.” Graves gave a sweeping presentation as the third anniversary of the riot at the Capitol will be marked on Saturday. (Jan. 4)
By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Updated 12:52 PM CST, January 5, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of far-right extremist groups https://apnews.com/article/capitol-siege-proud-boys-donald-trump-congress-government-and-politics-a8baa24af07b20ab792f4ef6f4481fac
Former police officers. https://apnews.com/article/alan-hostetter-police-chief-capitol-riot-trial-a24e4f88d2b01dd750f8a958f55a71b8
An Olympic gold medalist swimmer. https://apnews.com/article/klete-keller-olympic-swimmer-capitol-riot-5d9767e13d2fb15c1d8ae2d04c99a12d
And active duty U.S. Marines. https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-active-marines-guilty-abate-hellonen-4abc44bade2e66bd9c04dc143460f7cd
They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, .. https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege .. riot in the three years since the stunned nation .. https://apnews.com/article/photos-election-jan6-trump-washington-f69b5f03316eaef2044d520bc7ffe49a .. watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.
" for additional links:
https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-jan-6-criminal-cases-anniversary-bf436efe760751b1356f937e55bedaa5 "
Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over.
“We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.
What to know:
* What’s happening: It’s been three years since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot when the nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.
* Fast forward: Now, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are making the anniversary a political rallying cry during two separate political events Saturday ahead of this year’s election.
* Criminal cases: Authorities are working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices.
Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the day before the Capitol attack. And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences.
The cases are playing out at the same courthouse where Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack.
“The Justice Department will hold all Jan. 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under the law, whether they were present that day or otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday. He said the cases filed by Graves and the special counsel in Trump’s federal case, Jack Smith, show the department is “abiding by the long-standing norms to ensure independence and integrity or our investigations.”
A look at where the cases against the Jan. 6 defendants stand:
BY THE NUMBERS
U.S. Attorney for the District of Colombia Matthew Graves speaks about the unfolding of the January 6 attack on the Capitol during a presentation ahead of this year's third anniversary in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
U.S. Attorney for the District of Colombia Matthew Graves speaks about the unfolding of the January 6 attack on the Capitol during a presentation ahead of this year’s third anniversary in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database.
Only two defendants have been acquitted of all charges, and those were trials decided by a judge rather than a jury.
About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison. The longest sentence was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump, a Republican, to Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Many rioters are already out of prison after completing their sentences, including some defendants who engaged in violence. Scott Fairlamb — a New Jersey man who punched a police officer during the riot and was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced for assaulting law enforcement — was released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody in June.
ALL EYES ON THE SUPREME COURT
Defense attorneys and prosecutors are closely watching a case that will soon be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court that could impact hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants. The justices agreed last month to hear one rioter’s challenge to prosecutors’ use of the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, which refers to the disruption of Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.
More than 300 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with the obstruction offense, and so has Trump in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Lawyers representing rioters have argued the charge was inappropriately brought against Jan. 6 defendants.
The justices will hear arguments in March or April, with a decision expected by early summer. But their review of the obstruction charge is already having some impact on the Jan. 6 prosecutions. At least two defendants have convinced judges to delay their sentencings until after the Supreme Court rules on the matter.
RIOTERS ON THE LAM
Dozens of people believed to have assaulted law enforcement during the riot have yet to be identified by authorities, according to Graves. And the statute of limitations for the crimes is five years, which means they would have to be charged by Jan. 6, 2026, he said.
Several defendants have also fled after being charged, including a Proud Boys member from Florida who disappeared while he was on house arrest after he was convicted of using pepper spray gel on police officers. Christopher Worrell, who spent weeks on the lam, was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison.
The FBI is still searching for some defendants who have been on the run for months, including a brother-sister pair from Florida. Olivia Pollock disappeared shortly before her trial was supposed to begin in March. Her brother, Jonathan Pollock, is also missing. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, who is accused of thrusting a riot shield into an officer’s face and throat, pulling an officer down steps and punching others.
Another defendant, Evan Neumann, fled the U.S. two months after his December 2021 indictment and is believed to be living in Belarus.
WHAT ABOUT THE PIPE BOMBER?
One of the biggest remaining mysteries surrounding the riot is the identity of the person who placed two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the day before the Capitol attack. Last year, authorities increased the reward to up to $500,000 for information leading to the person’s arrest. It remains unclear whether there was a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot.
Investigators have spent thousands of hours over the last three years doing interviews and combing through evidence and tips from the public, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.
“We urge anyone who may have previously hesitated to come forward or who may not have realized they had important information to contact us and share anything relevant,” he said in an emailed statement on Thursday.
The explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, but officers didn’t find them until the next day. Authorities were called to the Republican National Committee’s office around 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. Shortly after, a call came in for a similar explosive device found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.
Video released by the FBI shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the DNC and separately shows the person walking in an alley near the RNC before the bomb was placed there. The person wore black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.
___
This story has been corrected to show that the Supreme Court justices will hear arguments in March or April, not that they won’t.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Colombia Matthew Graves speaks about the unfolding of the January 6 attack on the Capitol during a presentation ahead of this year's third anniversary in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
🔗 https://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-jan-6-criminal-cases-anniversary-bf436efe760751b1356f937e55bedaa5
President Joe Biden lambastes Trump for Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a day ‘we nearly lost America’
President Joe Biden warns that Donald Trump’s efforts to retake the White House in 2024 pose a grave threat.
Speaking before the 3rd anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots, Biden said that was the day “we nearly lost America — lost it all.” (Jan. 5)
Published 4:28 PM CST, January 5, 2024
02:42
Biden lambastes Trump
https://apnews.com/video/donald-trump-2021-united-states-capitol-riot-united-states-government-riots-democracy-a4b5c270298b457da8b9fde3eea8c925
2023 -- THE YEAR IN PHOTOS
AP’s most memorable photos of 2023
In 2023, AP photographers captured images of conflict, ambition, the quest for excellence and the struggle to survive. These are the top photos of the year.
AP photos reveal intensity, insecurity and inequality in 2023 as world altered by climate change
Punishing heat that hovered and hung on much longer than usual. Flash floods that washed away large swaths of land and life. And wildfires that burned much of the year, leaving a wake of smoke and charred earth.
The toll of disasters propelled by climate change in 2023 can be tallied with numbers — thousands of people dead, millions of others who lost jobs, homes and hope, and tens of billions of dollars sheared off economies.
But numbers can’t reflect the way climate change is experienced — the intensity, the insecurity and the inequality that people on Earth are living.
Associated Press photographers around the world captured moments in 2023 that collectively tell that story, one of a changing world.
'View the photos by selecting the link:'
https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/climate-photos-2023/index.html
INTENSITY
In so many skies, there was smoke, seen in the distance and breathed up close. From Canada to Greece to Hawaii, wildfires raged, consuming land while the flames fanned a thick haze that traveled around the globe. So intense were the wildfires in Canada that they released several times more air pollution than the entire country usually does in a year, working against world efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions, which fuel climate change.
There was also intense heat and desperate efforts to find relief — during a year on track to be the warmest in recorded history. In China, two little girls held small fans in front of their faces, while in Romania a father and daughter delighted in the mist of a public fountain. In Switzerland, a man walked toward the Rhone Glacier, which is melting like so many other glaciers worldwide.
And there was rain, that caused destruction. After Storm Daniel unleashed a torrent from the sky, floods in Libya killed more than 11,000 people, with several thousand others missing. In India, a woman wailed after a landslide washed away houses, leaving family members trapped under rubble. In the U.S., two people waded through water in a laundry mat after major flooding.
[...]
INSECURITY
In so many places, floods, powerful storms and heat waves wiped out supplies of food. That led to hunger, forced people to migrate in search of sustenance and increased pressure on governments to respond.
In India, a woman cooked in her flooded home while her husband prayed, a scene of both devastation and resilience. In neighboring Pakistan, people waited in the rain to receive food distributed by volunteers outside a camp for internally displaced migrants — as Cyclone Biparjoy ominously approached. In Zimbabwe, a woman worked a field of millet, a cereal that is more resistant than other crops to changes in temperature.
In Argentina, men fished amid many floating carcasses of fish killed by drought and multiple heat waves that jacked up river temperatures and dried out landscapes across areas of South America. A hemisphere away, seemingly endless heat imperiled sheep herding, central to the culture of Navajo in the U.S. Farther west, in Alaska, men worked fishing boats with the knowledge that this year’s catch could be much less than last year’s, as climate change is upending their livelihood.
[...]
INEQUALITY
In every place that climate change made its mark, inequality was made worse. Desperation could be seen in the eyes of Pakistani children, standing in the mud and looking through a window while it rained at a camp set up for internally displaced people. It gripped people in Kenya who must go deeper and deeper to access groundwater, as periodic drought has plagued East Africa.
On the other side of the African continent, in a coastal community in Senegal, desperation was felt by women who say they have had to turn to prostitution, thanks to depleted fish populations from climate change and fallout from an offshore gas drilling project.
In Malawi, coffins with people killed during heavy rains from Cyclone Freddy lay in the mud while family and friends, standing under a large tent, said goodbye.
In India, where floods frequently forced evacuations, a displaced farmworker, squatting over dirt, washed her face. In Sri Lanka, a man stood in debris from his home, destroyed by erosion. On this day, the seas were calm, but as the planet continues to warm, more storms are ahead.
[...]
https://projects.apnews.com/features/2023/climate-photos-2023/index.html
A look at the more than 100 influential figures who died in 2023
By BERNARD McGHEE
Updated 5:30 PM CST, December 31, 2023
https://apnews.com/article/deaths-2023-d87db779f2b68d310774c558302b7a8c
HAPPY NEAR YEAR..and..Watch New Year's 2024 celebrations from around the world
Dec. 31, 2023
As they rang in 2024, revelers and spectators from Sydney to Paris to Times Square marveled at the fireworks shows and light displays that lit up the skies across the globe.
https://www.nbcnews.com/video/watch-new-year-s-2024-celebrations-from-around-the-world-201176645934
Exclusive: Recordings, emails show how Trump team flew fake elector ballots to DC in final push to overturn 2020 election
Marshall Cohen, Zachary Cohen, Jeremy Herb and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 4:47 PM EST, Thu December 28, 2023
03:51
Hear audio of pro-Trump attorney describing fake electors plan
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics/recordings-trump-team-fake-elector-ballots/index.html
Two days before the January 6 insurrection, the Trump campaign’s plan to use fake electors to block President-elect Joe Biden from taking office faced a potentially crippling hiccup: The fake elector certificates from two critical battleground states were stuck in the mail.
So, Trump campaign operatives scrambled to fly copies of the phony certificates from Michigan and Wisconsin to the nation’s capital, relying on a haphazard chain of couriers, as well as help from two Republicans in Congress, to try to get the documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence while he presided over the Electoral College certification.
The operatives even considered chartering a jet to ensure the files reached Washington, DC, in time for the January 6, 2021, proceeding, according to emails and recordings obtained by CNN.
The new details provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the chaotic last-minute effort to keep Donald Trump in office. The fake electors scheme features prominently in special counsel Jack Smith’s criminal indictment against the former president, and some of the officials who were involved have spoken to Smith’s investigators.
The emails and recordings also indicate that a top Trump campaign lawyer was part of 11th-hour discussions about delivering the fake elector certificates to Pence, potentially undercutting his testimony to the House select committee that investigated January 6 that he had passed off responsibility and didn’t want to put the former vice president in a difficult spot.
These details largely come from pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was an architect of the fake electors plot and is now a key cooperator in several state probes into the scheme. Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to a felony conspiracy charge in Georgia in connection with the electors’ plan, and has met with prosecutors in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin, who are investigating the sham GOP electors in their own states.
[...]
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/28/politics/recordings-trump-team-fake-elector-ballots/index.html
The worst 10 things Trump has said in 2023
Story by Adam Nichols • 11h
In a year dominated by Donald Trump's assorted outbursts, it can be hard to keep up with what’s been said.
The Guardian, in an attempt to “keep track of all the racist, unhinged, authoritarian comments by the former president,” on Wednesday published a rundown of the top 10 outrageous things he said in 2023.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/27/worst-things-that-trump-has-said
On the list:
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
Vermin
“We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” he said during a speech in November.
Links to Adolf Hitler’s tactic of dehumanizing his opponents followed immediately.
Poison
"Nobody has ever seen anything like we’re witnessing right now … It’s poisoning the blood of our country,” he told the National Pulse in September. He repeated the phrase in December. Critics said the phrase was straight out of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Dictator
In December, Trump was asked by Fox News’ Sean Hannity if he would promise not to “abuse power as retribution?” He responded, “Except for day one”, then added: “I love this guy. He says, ‘You’re not gonna be a dictator, are you?’ I say, ‘No, no, no – other than day one.’
Retribution
The dictator and retribution theme wasn’t new. In March, he told CPAC: “In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”
Death
In September, Trump lost his temper at then-chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley over comments he made to China suggesting he’d guard against attack by Trump, the former president called it, “An act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!
Courts
2023 was the year of the courts for Trump, with 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions. He ominously warned his prosecutors, "If you go after me, I’m coming after you!"
Indict
Despite him claiming his criminal charges were targeted against him by his enemies, Trump has said he would use exactly that tactic. He told Univision in November, “Of course … yes: If I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say go down and indict them, mostly they would be out of business. They’d be out. They’d be out of the election.”
Animal
It’s an attack that was aimed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who in April filed 34 charges over Trump’s 2016 payments to Stormy Daniels. “He is a Soros-backed animal who just doesn’t care about right or wrong,” Trump said.
Whack job
“She’s a whack job,” Trump said about E.Jean Carroll hours after she won a defamation claim against him. She sued him again.
All-out war
Throughout 2023, in fact since the 2020 election, Trump has been complaining about his opponents’ war on democracy.
In December, in Iowa, he said: “That’s why it was one of the great presidencies, they say. Even the opponents sometimes say he did very well … but we’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-worst-10-things-trump-has-said-in-2023/ar-AA1m66Yq?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=a8fd2bcd0c3c4fccc5479976c61f3331&ei=15
The Worst President in History
Three particular failures secure Trump’s status as the worst chief executive ever to hold the office.
By Tim Naftali
President Donald Trump has long exulted in superlatives. The first. The best. The most. The greatest. “No president has ever done what I’ve done,” he boasts. “No president has ever even come close,” he says.
But as his four years in office draw to an end, there’s only one title to which he can lay claim:
Donald Trump is the worst president America has ever had.
In December 2019, he became the third president to be impeached. Last week, Trump entered a category all his own, becoming the first president to be impeached twice. But impeachment, which depends in part on the makeup of Congress, is not the most objective standard. What does being the worst president actually mean? And is there even any value, at the bitter end of a bad presidency, in spending energy on judging a pageant of failed presidencies?
[...]
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/trump-worst-president-history/617730/
MORE. Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election
"hap0206
Re: fuagf post# 457277
Saturday, December 23, 2023 11:58:41 AM
Post# of 457311
Got a link for that ??"
"newmedman
Re: hap0206 post# 457292
Saturday, December 23, 2023 12:07:42 PM
Post# of 457311
👇️here, try this one.🖕"
https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/download
Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Volume I of II
Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III
Submitted Pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c)
Washington, D.C.
March 2019
[...]
U.S. Department of Justice
INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME I
This report is submitted to the Attorney General pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 600.8(c), which
states that, “[a]t the conclusion of the Special Counsel’s work, he . . . shall provide the Attorney
General a confidential report explaining the prosecution or declination decisions [the Special
Counsel] reached.”
The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and
systematic fashion. Evidence of Russian government operations began to surface in mid-2016.
In
June, the Democratic National Committee and its cyber response team publicly announced that
Russian hackers had compromised its computer network. Releases of hacked materials—hacks
that public reporting soon attributed to the Russian government—began that same month.
Additional releases followed in July through the organization WikiLeaks, with further releases in
October and November.
In late July 2016, soon after WikiLeaks’s first release of stolen documents, a foreign
government contacted the FBI about a May 2016 encounter with Trump Campaign foreign policy
advisor George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had suggested to a representative of that foreign
government that the Trump Campaign had received indications from the Russian government that
it could assist the Campaign through the anonymous release of information damaging to
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That information prompted the FBI on July
31, 2016, to open an investigation into whether individuals associated with the Trump Campaign
were coordinating with the Russian government in its interference activities.
That fall, two federal agencies jointly announced that the Russian government “directed
recent compromises of e-mails from US persons and institutions, including US political
organizations,” and, “[t]hese thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election
process.” After the election, in late December 2016, the United States imposed sanctions on Russia
for having interfered in the election. By early 2017, several congressional committees were
examining Russia’s interference in the election.
Within the Executive Branch, these investigatory efforts ultimately led to the May 2017
appointment of Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III. The order appointing the Special Counsel
authorized him to investigate “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016
presidential election,” including any links or coordination between the Russian government and
individuals associated with the Trump Campaign.
As set forth in detail in this report, the Special Counsel’s investigation established that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election principally through two operations.
First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents.
The investigation also identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign.
Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump
presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit
electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
Below we describe the evidentiary considerations underpinning statements about the
results of our investigation and the Special Counsel’s charging decisions, and we then provide an overview of the two volumes of our report.
The report describes actions and events that the Special Counsel’s Office found to be
supported by the evidence collected in our investigation. In some instances, the report points out the absence of evidence or conflicts in the evidence about a particular fact or event. In other instances, when substantial, credible evidence enabled the Office to reach a conclusion with
confidence, the report states that the investigation established that certain actions or events
occurred. A statement that the investigation did not establish particular facts does not mean there was no evidence of those facts.
In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted
a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of “collusion.” In so doing,
the Office recognized that the word “collud[e]” was used in communications with the Acting
Attorney General confirming certain aspects of the investigation’s scope and that the term has
frequently been invoked in public reporting about the investigation. But collusion is not a specific
offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal
criminal law. For those reasons, the Office’s focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability
was on conspiracy as defined in federal law. In connection with that analysis, we addressed the
factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign “coordinat[ed]”—a term that appears
in the appointment order—with Russian election interference activities. Like collusion,
“coordination” does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood
coordination to require an agreement—tacit or express—between the Trump Campaign and the
Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking
actions that were informed by or responsive to the other’s actions or interests. We applied the term
coordination in that sense when stating in the report that the investigation did not establish that the
Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.
* * *
The report on our investigation consists of two volumes
[...]
https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/download
AP PHOTOS: Rivers and fountains of red-gold volcanic lava light up the dark skies in Icelandic town
By The Associated Press
Updated 11:28 AM CST, December 19, 2023
Rivers of lava spewed from a fissure in the mountainside, snaking downwards and erupting in fountains of red and gold molten rock when the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted this week in a fishing town in southwestern Iceland.
The fiery liquid illuminates the smoke-filled sky in Grindavik, a small fishing town just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik.
The eruption began Monday night, but it was no surprise: The area has been active for two years, with thousands of small earthquakes heralding the near-certain awakening of the volcano.
1/10
3/10
[...]
https://apnews.com/article/iceland-volcano-photos-e86eb9f25ed1c3182b2c55881f76433a
Will the eruption of the volcano in Iceland affect flights and how serious is it?
Iceland volcano eruption live: Watch as it erupts near Grindavik
10:08:40
‘He’s becoming crazier’: Christie blasts Trump for remarks on Putin, immigrants
Trump gets “worse and worse by the day,” Chris Christie said.
'Putin denounces ‘persecution’ of Trump and calls Musk ‘outstanding’
It wasn’t just Trump who former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie criticized Sunday. | Win McNamee/Getty Images
By Kelly Garrity
12/17/2023 11:11 AM EST
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie laid into Donald Trump on Sunday, after the former president quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin and also claimed immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” during a New Hampshire rally Saturday.
Trump gets “worse and worse by the day,” Christie said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“He’s becoming crazier. And now he’s citing Vladimir Putin as a character witness, a guy who is a murderous thug all around the world,” the Republican presidential hopeful said Sunday.
Trump pulled inspiration from Putin during a rally in Durham, New Hampshire, on Saturday, quoting the Russian leader saying that the indictments against Trump undercut the United States’ position on the world stage as an exemplar of democracy. The former president also told the crowd that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” as a deal over border security hangs in the balance in Congress.
“He’s disgusting,” Christie said. “And what he’s doing is dog-whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy and from the conflicts around the world.”
It wasn’t just Trump who Christie criticized Sunday. He also slammed the members of Congress who have endorsed Trump in his attempt to retake the White House, and he knocked former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for saying that Trump is still fit to serve.
“You’re telling me that someone who says that immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country, someone who says Vladimir Putin is a character witness is fit to be president of the United States, was the right president at the right time? Nikki Haley should be ashamed of herself,” Christie said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/17/crazier-christie-blasts-trump-remarks-putin-immigrants-00132177
All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts
POLITICO MAGAZINE
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
March/April 2017
What is the real story of Donald Trump and Russia? The answer is still unclear, and Democrats in Congress want to get to the bottom of it with an investigation. But there’s no doubt that a spider web of connections—some public, some private, some clear, some murky—exists between Trump, his associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections.
There’s nothing inherently damning about most of the ties illustrated below. But they do reveal the vast and mysteriously complex web behind a story that has vexed Trump’s young presidency from its start—and is certain to shake the White House for months to come.
'Select the link for the graphics':
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/connections-trump-putin-russia-ties-chart-flynn-page-manafort-sessions-214868/
1. Trump and Putin, via Administration Officials
...
2. Trump and Putin, via Michael Flynn
...
3. Trump and Putin, via Campaign Advisers
...
4. Trump and Putin, via Paul Manafort
...
5. Trump and Putin, via Business Ties
...
6. Trump and Putin, via Felix Sater
...
7. Trump and Putin, via Trump Family Members
.
All of Trump’s Russia Ties, in 7 Charts
POLITICO MAGAZINE
By MICHAEL CROWLEY
March/April 2017
What is the real story of Donald Trump and Russia? The answer is still unclear, and Democrats in Congress want to get to the bottom of it with an investigation. But there’s no doubt that a spider web of connections—some public, some private, some clear, some murky—exists between Trump, his associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These charts illustrate dozens of those links, including meetings between Russian officials and members of Trump’s campaign and administration; his daughter’s ties to Putin’s friends; Trump’s 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant; and his short-lived mixed martial arts venture with one of Putin’s favorite athletes. The solid lines mark established facts, while dotted ones represent speculative or unproven connections.
There’s nothing inherently damning about most of the ties illustrated below. But they do reveal the vast and mysteriously complex web behind a story that has vexed Trump’s young presidency from its start—and is certain to shake the White House for months to come.
'Select the link for the graphics':
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/03/connections-trump-putin-russia-ties-chart-flynn-page-manafort-sessions-214868/
1. Trump and Putin, via Administration Officials
...
2. Trump and Putin, via Michael Flynn
...
3. Trump and Putin, via Campaign Advisers
...
4. Trump and Putin, via Paul Manafort
...
5. Trump and Putin, via Business Ties
...
6. Trump and Putin, via Felix Sater
...
7. Trump and Putin, via Trump Family Members
.
Jury awards $148 million in damages to Georgia election workers over Rudy Giuliani’s 2020 vote lies
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Updated 3:22 PM CST, December 15, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury awarded $148 million in damages on Friday to two former Georgia election workers who sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation over lies he spread about them in 2020 that upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
The damages verdict follows emotional testimony from Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, who tearfully described becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Republicans as they tried to keep then-President Donald Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
Giuliani had already been found liable in the case and previously conceded in court documents that he falsely accused the women of ballot fraud. Even so, the former New York City mayor continued to repeat his baseless allegations about the women in comments to reporters outside the Washington, D.C., courthouse this week.
Giuliani’s lawyer acknowledged that his client was wrong but insisted that Giuliani was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. The defense sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the two women counting ballots
The judgment adds to growing financial and legal peril for Giuliani, who was among the loudest proponents of Trump’s false claims of election fraud that are now a key part of the criminal cases against the former president.
Giuliani had already been showing signs of financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of Trump. His lawyer suggested that the defamation case could financially ruin the former mayor, saying “it would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”
And Giuliani is still facing his biggest test yet: fighting criminal charges in the Georgia case accusing Trump and 18 others of working to subvert the results of the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in that state. Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.
Jurors in the defamation case heard recordings of Giuliani falsely accusing the election workers of sneaking in ballots in suitcases, counting ballots multiple times and tampering with voting machines. Trump also repeated the conspiracy theories through his social media accounts. Lawyers for Moss and Freeman, who are Black, also played for jurors audio recordings of the graphic and racist threats the women received.
The women’s lawyers asked for at least $24 million for each woman in defamation damages alone. They also sought compensation for their emotional harm and punitive damages.
On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives as hateful messages poured in. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks. Her mother described strangers banging on her door and recounted fleeing her home after people came with bullhorns and the FBI told her she wasn’t safe.
“It’s so scary, anytime I go somewhere, if I have to use my name,” Freeman said, gasping through her tears to get her words out. “I miss my old neighborhood because I was me, I could introduce myself. Now I don’t have a name, really.”
Defense attorney Joseph Sibley told jurors they should compensate the women for what they are owed, but he urged them to “remember this is a great man.”
An attorney for Moss and Freeman, in his closing argument, highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating the false conspiracy theory asserting the workers interfered in the November 2020 presidential election. Attorney Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse on Monday, in which Giuliani falsely claimed the women were “engaged in changing votes.”
“Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our client’s names out of his mouth,” Gottlieb said. “Facts will not stop him. He says he isn’t sorry and he’s telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him.”
The judge overseeing the election workers’ lawsuit had already ordered Giuliani and his business entities to pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees.
In holding Giuliani liable, the judge ruled that the former mayor gave “only lip service” to complying with his legal obligations while trying to portray himself as the victim in the case.
https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-2020-election-georgia-defamation-moss-freeman-6f6446c4f5224f521db8ff7763fb12d1
It’s the Beginning of the Disastrous End for Rudy Giuliani
AMERICA'S MAYOR
Jose Pagliery
Political Investigations Reporter
Rudy Giuliani screwed up his professional license in 2021.
This is the year of his financial ruin. Next year could end with him in prison.
Updated Dec. 14, 2023 4:46PM EST
Published Dec. 14, 2023 4:31AM EST
Rudy Giuliani, the disgraced politician once known as “America’s Mayor” and now known as a punchline, is about to face the most disastrous court ruling of his life—and it will only get worse from there.
Giuliani is poised to get hit with a multimillion dollar ruling against him in D.C. over his baseless accusations of election fraud against two poll workers. After that civil trial concludes, he’ll turn around and begin preparing for a criminal trial in Atlanta, where he’s facing many of the same racketeering charges he once wielded as a federal prosecutor against mobsters in New York. And throughout it all, Giuliani has a long list of creditors, from former associates to contractors, who are also hounding him for money.
For Giuliani, 2023 will likely end in penniless defeat. But 2024 could be even worse—it could actually end with him in prison.
At the moment, the most immediate problem for Giuliani is his defamation suit. A jury in the nation’s capital has spent all week hearing about how the conspiracy-crazed attorney ruined the lives of two Georgia poll workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother and daughter whom Giuliani falsely accused of secretly plotting to sabotage Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
[...]
https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-the-beginning-of-the-disastrous-end-for-rudy-giuliani
Jurors deciding how much Giuliani must pay for lies in a Georgia election workers’ case
A trial set to get underway in Washington on Monday will determine how much Rudy Giuliani will have to pay two Georgia election workers whom he falsely accused of fraud while pushing Donald Trump’s baseless claims after he lost the 2020 election. (Dec. 11)
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Updated 4:23 PM CST, December 14, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jurors began deliberating Thursday to decide how much Rudy Giuliani must pay two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies about them that led to a barrage of racist threats and upended their lives.
https://apnews.com/article/rudy-giuliani-georgia-election-workers-defamation-trial-0151222465923e9dcad489adb7661f0a
The jury left for the day without announcing a decision and were expected to resume deliberations at Washington’s federal courthouse Friday morning.
Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, are seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages over Giuliani’s false claims accusing them of ballot fraud while the former New York City mayor was fighting to keep Republican Donald Trump in the White House after the November 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
The potential hefty damages come at the same time Giuliani is gearing up to defend himself against criminal charges .. https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-georgia-election-investigation-indictment-41b182ce7d9c135f8993691b49ae10f3 .. stemming from his legal representation of Trump. Giuliani’s lawyer told jurors the damages the women are seeking “would be the end of Mr. Giuliani.”
In his closing argument, an attorney for Moss and Freeman highlighted how Giuliani has not stopped repeating the false conspiracy theory asserting the workers meddled in the 2020 presidential election. Attorney Michael Gottlieb played a video of Giuliani outside the courthouse earlier this week repeating the false claims about his clients. Giuliani had previously conceded in court documents that he made public comments falsely accusing the women of ballot fraud.
“Mr. Giuliani has shown over and over again he will not take our client’s names out of his mouth,” Gottlieb said. “Facts will not stop him. He says he isn’t sorry and he’s telegraphing he will do this again. Believe him.”
Giuliani’s attorney acknowledged that his client was wrong, but insisted that he was not fully responsible for the vitriol the women faced. He sought to largely pin the blame on a right-wing website that published the surveillance video of the women counting ballots.
Gottlieb described Freeman and Moss as “heroes,” adding that “after everything they went through, they stood up and said, ‘no more.’” He also read from a chapter in Giuliani’s book on leadership where the former mayor said his father told him never to be a bully. The lawyer said: “If only Mr. Giuliani had listened.”
“The lies in this case became a sustained, deliberate, viral campaign, the purpose of which was to overturn an election and have these statements rocket around the world millions and millions of times,” Gottlieb said.
The women’s lawyers are asking for at least $24 million for each woman in defamation damages alone. They’re also seeking compensation for their emotional harm and punitive damages. Gottlieb asked the jury to send a message to other powerful people with the amount they award.
“Facts matter. Truth is truth and you will be held accountable,” he said.
Giuliani’s lawyer has said any award should be much less, describing the damages the women are seeking as the “civil equivalent of the death penalty.” Attorney Joseph Sibley told jurors they should compensate the women for what they are owed, but urged them to “remember this is a great man.”
“I want you to send a message to America, we can come together in compassion and sympathy,” he said.
His lawyer has argued there is no evidence Giuliani himself encouraged the harassment. Sibley told jurors that right-wing website Gateway Pundit was “patient zero” in spreading the conspiracy theory about the women, and said Giuliani was sued because he is “patient deep pockets.”
“Just because these things happened — and they did happen — doesn’t make my client responsible for them,” Sibley said.
Giuliani’s defense rested Thursday morning without calling a single witness after the former mayor reversed course and decided not to take the stand. Giuliani’s lawyer had told jurors in his opening statement that they would hear from his client but after his comments outside court, the judge barred him from claiming in testimony that his conspiracy theories were right.
Giuliani’s lawyer said his client was not testifying because Freeman and Moss had “been through enough.” His testimony also could have been used against him in the criminal case in Georgia.
On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman recounted receiving a torrent of hateful and threatening messages after they became the targets of the conspiracy theory pushed by Giuliani and other Trump allies.
The women told jurors the lies made them fear for their lives and described how they remain scared to go out in public years later.
Despite already being held liable in the case, .. https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-georgia-election-workers-defamation-lawsuit-9b561a195fb74d991abc89d1b6587d66 .. Giuliani repeated his false claims about the women earlier this week.
On Monday, he told reporters outside the courthouse that everything he said about the women was “true,” again accusing them of “engaging in changing votes.”
The case is among mounting legal and financial woes for the man once celebrated as “America’s mayor” ... https://apnews.com/article/giuliani-trump-election-indictments-georgia-eb2ff2ca7a94f9f80e95e897584c8e7d .. for his leadership after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Giuliani is among 19 people charged in Georgia in the case accusing Trump and his allies of working to subvert the state’s 2020 election results.
Giuliani has pleaded not guilty and characterized the case as politically motivated.
https://apnews.com/article/rudy-giuliani-georgia-election-workers-defamation-trial-069f1b5ce3c743ef8c0891dde0b660b2
Big divisions loom over fossil fuels as COP28 talks head into final phase
By David Stanway, Gloria Dickie and Kate Abnett
December 10, 2023 11:43 AM CST Updated 5 hours ago
0:47
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/big-divisions-loom-over-fossil-fuels-cop28-talks-head-into-final-phase-2023-12-10/
Summary
* More than 80 countries pushing for deal that includes fossil fuel phase-out
* Countries still considering a range of options
* Pledges at summit only close a third of 2030 emissions gap if fully met
DUBAI, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The president of the COP28 climate summit on Sunday urged negotiators to work harder to find consensus on a proposed first-of-its-kind deal to phase out the world's use of fossil fuels, as the two-week conference entered its final stage.
The talks in Dubai have highlighted deep international divisions over the future role of oil, gas and coal that are complicating efforts by nearly 200 countries to hash out an agreement before the summit's scheduled end on Dec. 12.
A coalition of more than 80 countries including the United States, the European Union and small island nations are pushing for an agreement at COP28 that includes language to “phase out” fossil fuels, the main source of greenhouse gas emissions that scientists blame for global warming.
They are coming up against tough opposition led by the oil producer group OPEC and its allies.
Seeking a breakthrough on Sunday, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber took the unusual step of convening a 'majlis' - an Arabic term for a communal gathering - where delegations could speak in a different forum to the formal forward-facing plenary hall.
"We are now in the end game," Jaber said. "I hope that you won't let me down."
Speaking in a circular configuration, delegations restated their positions, but it was not immediately obvious that the forum had yielded a shift in positions.
OPEC had issued a letter to its members and backers on Dec. 6 asking them to oppose any language targeting fossil fuels in a COP28 deal, and observers in the negotiations told Reuters that some of those delegations appeared to be heeding the call.
[...]
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/big-divisions-loom-over-fossil-fuels-cop28-talks-head-into-final-phase-2023-12-10/
A leaked OPEC letter shows the oil cartel’s worry over the COP28 climate talks, environmentalists say
1 of 14 ...
BY SETH BORENSTEIN, SIBI ARASU, DAVID KEYTON AND JAMEY KEATEN
Updated 1:13 PM CST, December 9, 2023
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Veteran negotiators at the United Nations climate talks Saturday said that the push to wean the world from dirty fossil fuels had gained so much momentum that they had poked a powerful enemy: the oil industry.
Late Friday, multiple news sources reported that the leader of OPEC, the powerful oil cartel, wrote to member countries earlier this week urging them to block any language that would phase out or phase down fossil fuels. The news had the effect of a thunderclap, shining a light on host and petrostate United Arab Emirates, which clearly has oil interests but also wants to show the world that it can lead the conference toward a substantive result.
Environmental activists, still smarting after decades of soft power from oil interests keeping such discussions from seeing the light of day, smirked at signs that the mighty cartel was circling the wagons.
“I think they’re panicking,” said Alden Meyer, an analyst with climate think tank E3G “Maybe the Saudis can’t do on their own what they’ve been doing for 30 years and block the process.”
________
MORE ON COP28
FILE - Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attends a group photo at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Dec. 1, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
https://apnews.com/article/climate-changecop28petrobrasopec-ee884f650425ce918e5d8cd7fe96af3f
Brazil’s Lula takes heat on oil plans at UN climate talks, a turnaround after hero status last year
People walk near country's flags during the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
https://apnews.com/article/climate-negotiations-cop28-warming-fossil-fuels-7c8553b85082a6e4d33439add4d8f15a
At COP28, pageantry is over and negotiations get intense to save a planet in peril
Activists, including Eric Njuguna, of Kenya, center, demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
https://apnews.com/article/cop28-climate-summit-protests-ahmed-mansoor-alaa-abdel-fattah-79b2e3180385bb54ca1cc4b6cb4ae4d2
________
Protests at UN climate talks, from cease-fire calls to detainees, see ‘shocking level of censorship’
Former Ireland President Mary Robinson said, “They’re scared. I think they’re worried.”
Robinson, co-chair of the retired leaders group The Elders, is now a prominent climate campaigner. She said that OPEC is concerned “gives me hope.”
Last month she clashed publicly with the president of the COP28 negotiations, Sultan al-Jaber, who is also CEO of the Emirates’ national oil company. .. https://apnews.com/article/cop28-un-climate-talks-sultan-al-jaber-women-comments-94495fe0317f405933966c677c101f56
China’s climate envoy Xie Zhenhua called this year’s climate conference the “most difficult” of his long career. He said the contentious phase-out issue could be solved in one or two days.
Germany’s climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, suggested any call for blocking a deal would be felt most by small countries vulnerable of sea level rise caused by global warming.
“Right now, countries here are fighting for their lives. The small islands, and most countries here, are engaging very actively on this discussion in a real way,” she said in an interview. “And I think it is obviously not responsible to have a position that could mean — would mean — the life and death of many million people.”
But not all developing countries felt the same way.
“The development of our countries depends, in fact, on the use of fossil fuels,” said Niger’s Issifi Boureima, who’s executive secretary of the Sahel Region Climate Commission. “It’s not easy for countries like ours to accept a text that agrees to end fossils fuels today. It’s not easy, because what do we do after that?”
“I think that in the dynamic of multilateral diplomacy, we need to avoid egoism, egoism of the north towards the south.”
COP28 Director General Majid al-Suwaidi downplayed the OPEC letter, saying the UAE team running the climate conference has been meeting with negotiators to get an ambitious deal. The oil cartel has no formal link to the climate negotiations.
“I feel confident that we’re going to get a good result you’re going to be surprised about,” Suwaidi told The Associated Press.
OPEC didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Protestors Saturday in a flash mob briefly blocked the OPEC exhibit at climate talks, calling for an immediate phase-out of fossil fuels.
As discussions were happening about the letter and how to transition from fossil fuels, the world inched closer to deciding where next year’s climate conference will be held, a third state petrostate. Azerbaijan announced it would host COP29 in Baku, where one of history’s first oil fields sprung up. But U.N. officials said it wasn’t quite a done deal because the proper paperwork hasn’t been submitted.
The conference presidency has been crowing about deal after deal, .. https://apnews.com/article/cop28-climate-summit-agriculture-food-emissions-157aa69fc4b7ea2bad29c7597189e5a1 .. many of them involving hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars of pledges, but they’ve more nibbled the edges of the key issue of cutting emissions. When it comes to reducing the gases that cause climate change, a key group of scientists who analyze pledges, actions and potential temperature increases said in a report on Saturday that all the action hadn’t amounted to much.
“The COP28 Presidency has made a very big deal about a whole lot of voluntary initiatives, while adopting an ambiguous and weak position on the central issue of a fossil fuel phaseout,” Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, co-author of the report, said.
Saturday’s firestorm of controversy came as protests at the conference center in Dubai ramped up, with a “Global Day of Action” urging nations to move decisively to stop climate change and officials from various countries talked increasingly urgently at the official meetings. The OPEC letter has added fuel to their fury.
“With current policies, the planet is on track to a 2.9 (degree Celsius, 5.2 degree Fahrenheit above pre-industrial temperature) future. We cannot adapt to temperature rise that high; the loss and damage will be incalculable. It will be our death sentence,” Marshall Islands natural resources minister John Silk said.
“We will not go silently to our graves,” he said.
___
Associated Press journalist Olivia Zhang contributed.
https://apnews.com/article/cop28-climate-protests-opec-fossil-fuels-0085b295b9637adae16ddf8fed5e499a
It's great to see that Liz Cheney is definitely against Trump... and possibly helping Biden
"Top line Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is considering a third-party presidential run, she told multiple outlets Monday—but only if she’s certain it won’t draw votes from President Joe Biden and help elect former President Donald Trump, who she plans to campaign against regardless of whether her own name is on the ballot."
Liz Cheney weighs third-party US presidential run, says Trump threatens democracy
By Susan Heavey
December 5, 20239:24 AM CSTUpdated 2 hours ago
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney speaks during the Anti-Defamation League's "Never is Now" summit at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., November 10, 2022. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon Acquire Licensing Rights
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Republican former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of ex-President Donald Trump who co-chaired the congressional probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, said she is weighing a third-party bid for the White House in 2024.
In media interviews, Cheney said she was considering running for president next year as a third-party conservative candidate or on a bipartisan ticket that would include both a Republican and a Democrat. She cited Trump as a threat to democracy and the United States.
"We face threats that could be existential to the United States, and we need a candidate who is going to be able to deal with and address and confront all of those challenges," Cheney told the Washington Post in remarks published on Tuesday.
She said she planned to decide on a run in coming months.
Cheney, 57, who lost her re-election bid in 2020 amid a tide of pro-Trump sentiment in her party, served as the top Republican on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack by Trump supporters who wanted to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
She has kept her focus on the former president, echoing Biden in saying that another Trump presidency would threaten American democratic institutions.
"I happen to think democracy is at risk at home, obviously, as a result of Donald Trump’s continued grip on the Republican Party, and I think democracy is at risk internationally as well," she told the Post.
Cheney made similar remarks in interviews with USA Today and MSNBC coinciding with the launch Tuesday of her memoir, "Oath and Honor: a Memoir and a Warning." She could not immediately be reached for comment.
Despite Cheney's political setbacks, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has deep roots in the Republican Party and has cultivated a national network of donors that has enabled her to stockpile millions of dollars.
Trump remains the frontrunner in the 2024 race for the Republican presidential nomination despite indictments in four state and federal criminal cases, including one in Washington over his role in efforts to overturn his 2020 loss.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to carry out reprisals against those he perceives to have wronged him if elected again. Representatives for his campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/liz-cheney-weighs-third-party-us-presidential-run-says-trump-threatens-democracy-2023-12-05/