Judge Rules Naughty Bits Off Limits At Trump Dossier Trial
Judge Rules Naughty Bits Off Limits At Trump Dossier Trial https://digitalalabamanews.com/judge-rules-naughty-bits-off-limits-at-trump-dossier-trial/
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors cannot present evidence to a jury about the most salacious parts of a flawed dossier alleging connections between former President Donald Trump and Russia at an upcoming trial of an analyst who served as a primary source for that report.
Igor Danchenko is scheduled to go on trial next week in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on charges of lying to the FBI. Special Counsel John Durham says Danchenko was a primary source of information in a dossier about Trump prepared by British spy Christopher Steele at the request of Democrats during the 2016 presidential campaign.
The indictment alleges that Danchenko’s primary source of information was actually a Democratic operative named Charles Dolan, a public relations executive who volunteered for Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. Prosecutors say the FBI would have been able to judge the veracity of the dossier more accurately if Danchenko had admitted his primary source was a Clinton supporter.
The dossier most famously includes allegations that Trump engaged in salacious sexual activity with prostitutes at a Moscow hotel that was purportedly bugged by Russian intelligence — raising the possibility that Russians had information they could use to blackmail Trump.
Trump had called the dossier fake news and evidence of a political witch hunt against him.
The five specific counts in the indictment don’t charge Danchenko with lying about his sourcing for the sex allegations. Still, prosecutors wanted to present testimony at trial that they said would have shown that Danchenko lied about his sourcing for those allegations just as he lied about other aspects of his sourcing,
Danchenko’s lawyers objected. They say the testimony would be highly prejudicial and would confuse the jury.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga agreed with the defense. Specifically, he said the testimony that the government planned to introduce wouldn’t actually prove Danchenko lied.
“(G)given the low probative value of these allegations, they are not admissible … as they are substantially outweighed by the danger of confusion and unfair prejudice,” Trenga wrote.
The ruling is another setback for Durham’s case. At a hearing last week, Trenga rejected a motion from Danchenko’s lawyers to toss out the case entirely. But in doing so, he said it was “an extremely close call” and said jurors may well be persuaded by Danchenko’s defense.
Danchenko’s lawyers have called the case an example of prosecutorial overreach and have said that the answers Danchenko gave to the FBI were all technically true, even if they weren’t particularly illuminating.
Also in Tuesday’s ruling, Trenga denied — at least for now — a request from the government that Danchenko be barred from arguing to jurors or presenting evidence that the prosecution is politically motivated.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Case
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Case https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-mar-a-lago-case/
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump filed an emergency request Tuesday with the Supreme Court asking that the justices intervene in the case involving classified records that he kept at Mar-a-Lago after leaving office.
In its filing, Trump’s legal team asked the high court to allow the special master to review classified documents seized by federal agents from Trump’s Florida estate.
In doing so, Trump’s attorneys asked the Supreme Court to vacate part of the federal appeals court ruling issued on Sept. 21 by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said the Justice Department could resume using classified documents taken from Mar-a-Lago in its criminal investigation.
“This unwarranted stay should be vacated as it impairs substantially the ongoing, time-sensitive work of the Special Master,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the filing Tuesday. “Moreover, any limit on the comprehensive and transparent review of materials seized in the extraordinary raid of a President’s home erodes public confidence in our system of justice.”
The unanimous ruling last month by the three-judge panel, the former president’s lawyers said, effectively compromised “the integrity of the well-established policy against piecemeal appellate review” and ignored “the District Court’s broad discretion without justification.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Justice Department to file a response to Trump’s request by Oct. 11 at 5 p.m. The court won’t act before receiving that response, meaning the lower court ruling remains in place for now.
To get what he wants, Trump would need five justices to agree with him. Although the court has a 6-3 conservative majority, including three justices he appointed, Trump has not fared well in other such emergency applications, including his attempt to prevent White House documents from being handed over to the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and his bid to avoid financial records being disclosed to prosecutors in New York.
Trump’s team argued in Tuesday’s filing that the 11th Circuit “lacked jurisdiction to review” or “stay” the district court’s order “providing for the Special Master to review materials seized from President Trump’s home, including approximately 103 documents the Government contends bear classification markings.”
“This application seeks to vacate only that portion of the Eleventh Circuit’s Stay Order limiting the scope of the Special Master’s review of the documents bearing classification markings,” they said.
The Sept. 21 ruling by the federal appeals court came in response to an appeal filed by the Justice Department over the ruling earlier in the month by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, that temporarily barred the department from reviewing and using the seized materials for investigative purposes.
Cannon appointed Special Master Raymond J. Dearie, a senior U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York, to review all of the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. The Trump team had proposed Dearie, and Justice officials had previously signaled their approval for him as a potential arbiter to determine if any of the documents are protected by attorney-client or executive privileges.
The request before the Supreme Court comes just days after the National Archives informed the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that some records from the Trump White House have still not been turned over in compliance with the Presidential Records Act.
Several days after the FBI’s search at Trump’s Florida property, a receipt of items recovered by agents showed that they found a trove of top secret and other highly classified documents. Federal agents removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some that were labeled secret and top secret.
Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.
Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News Digital.
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Trump Sues CNN For $475M, Defamation https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-sues-cnn-for-475m-defamation/
By Associated Press
Published: October 4, 2022, 3:25pm
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in Wilmington, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward)
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday sued CNN, seeking $475 million in damages, saying the network had defamed him in an effort to short-circuit any future political campaign.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., focuses on the phrase “The Big Lie” about Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud that he says cost him the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
CNN said it had no comment on the lawsuit.
Trump repeatedly attacked CNN as president, which resonated with his conservative followers. He has similarly filed lawsuits against big tech companies with little success. His case against Twitter for knocking him off its platform following the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection was thrown out by a California judge earlier this year.
Numerous federal and local election officials in both parties, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the election fraud he alleges.
Trump’s lawsuit claims “The Big Lie,” a phrase with Nazi connotations, has been used in reference to him more than 7,700 times on CNN since January 2021.
“It is intended to aggravate, scare and trigger people,” he said.
In a statement Monday, Trump suggested that similar lawsuits would be filed against other news organizations. And he said he may also bring “appropriate action” against the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. The lawsuit comes as he is weighing a bid for the presidency in 2024.
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Stillman Names Finch Assistant AD For Compliance Facilities & Game Operations
Stillman Names Finch Assistant AD For Compliance, Facilities & Game Operations https://digitalalabamanews.com/stillman-names-finch-assistant-ad-for-compliance-facilities-game-operations/
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TUSCALOOSA, AL — Stillman College on Tuesday announced that Nicholas Finch has been named the college’s assistant athletics director for compliance, facilities and game operations.
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Stillman College Director of Athletics Terrance Whittle said Finch comes the college after a decade of work in sports media, including a four-year stint in college athletics at the University of West Alabama.
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Finch, a native of Toddtown in Clarke County, has made a name for himself as an award-winning sports journalist and athletic communications professional. He said in a statement that he is excited to put his game management background to work as he enters the world of athletic compliance.
“I am excited for this incredible opportunity to join the Stillman College staff,” Finch said. “Education is one of my personal core values and I will take pride in making sure our student-athletes are attaining their educational goals while staying competitive in their respective fields of play. I want our student-athletes to know that what they do in athletics and in the classroom are equally important,”
Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Finch is a 2007 graduate of Clarke County High School and went on to earn his undergraduate degree in integrated marketing communications from the University of West Alabama in 2013.
He then embarked on a career in print journalism, working as the sports editor of the Choctaw Sun-Advocate in Gilbertown.
Finch was later hired as a staff reporter and sports editor at The Demopolis Times and Blackbelt Gazette in 2015, before joining the University of West Alabama athletics department in 2017.
During his time in Livingston, Finch served as the primary contact for UWA men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s track and field, men’s and women’s golf, women’s volleyball and softball.
What’s more, Finch also worked as a broadcaster for UWA athletics — a role he has continued in with Stillman College baseball, softball and volleyball in 2022 through the Black College Sports Network and HBCU League Pass Plus.
Finch moved to Tuscaloosa last year and briefly worked with the University of Alabama School of Social Work and Paul W. Bryant High School before joining the staff at Stillman College.
Finch and his wife, Whitney — a teacher with Tuscaloosa City Schools — live in Tuscaloosa.
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Auburn Football: Bryan Harsin Says Freshman Kicker is Ready
Auburn Football: Bryan Harsin Says Freshman Kicker “is Ready” https://digitalalabamanews.com/auburn-football-bryan-harsin-says-freshman-kicker-is-ready/
Auburn football Sep 24, 2022; Auburn, Alabama, USA; Auburn Tigers place kicker Anders Carlson (26) kicks the game winning field goal during the first overtime against the Missouri Tigers at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
For nearly ten years, the Auburn football has had a starting kicker with the last name “Carlson.” Following Daniel Carlson’s insanely successful career on the Plains, spanning from 2014-2017, he was replaced by his younger brother Anders in 2018.
Towards the end of last season, the Tigers faced trouble when Anders Carlson tore his ACL in his non-kicking leg during the Mississippi State game. Backup Ben Patton took over last year, but this year the Auburn football team welcomed true freshman kicker Alex McPherson.
Younger brother of Evan, who is currently kicking in the NFL, Alex McPherson hails from Fort Payne, AL, and was the #1 kicker in the recruiting class of 2022. He holds the state record for a 61-yard kick as a high-schooler.
It is expected that he will take over next season after Anders Carlson moves on from Auburn, but is it possible that he sees the field this season?
Though Anders has missed only two field goals this season–one against Missouri and one against LSU–this is no small thing, and he is only 3-9 on kicks over 30 yards since the Ole Miss matchup last season. However, both head coach Bryan Harsin and quarterback Robby Ashford voiced their support of Anders to the media, per Auburn Undercover:
“Alex is ready, but Anders still has our full support,” Harsin said. “And this week is going to be a great week to get back on track and be consistent in the Georgia game.”
It’s very likely that the Tigers won’t risk an injury to McPherson or a blow to Carlson’s confidence by switching up the depth chart ahead of the Deep South’s Biggest Rivalry matchup against Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs this weekend, but it’s nice to know that such talent is waiting in the wings should we need him to take the field.
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Donald Trump Reportedly Pitted His Then-Wife Marla Maples Against Ex Ivana Over Pizza Hut Commercial
Donald Trump Reportedly Pitted His Then-Wife Marla Maples Against Ex Ivana Over Pizza Hut Commercial https://digitalalabamanews.com/donald-trump-reportedly-pitted-his-then-wife-marla-maples-against-ex-ivana-over-pizza-hut-commercial/
October 4, 2022 at 3:51pm PM EDT
Donald Trump, Marla Maples Frances M. Roberts/Newsmakers/Newscom/The Mega Agency.
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The Donald Trump–Ivana Trump–Marla Maples love triangle might have lasted far longer than people could have ever imagined. Maggie Haberman’s new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, shares a story about the former president not letting his then-wife know that he filmed a provocative Pizza Hut commercial with ex Ivana until after it was completed.
Donald Trump, who had a highly publicized affair with Maples while married to Ivana, was completely comfortable with the script that teased a post-divorce affair with his ex. He says, “it’s wrong” in the ad while Ivana quips, “but it feels so right.” Of course, they are talking about the stuffed-crust pizza, but that certainly didn’t make Maples feel much better.
The former duo filmed the commercial at Trump Tower while Maples was thousands of miles away at Mar-a-Lago — she had no clue what her husband was up to. When he did confess that he worked with Ivana while she was out of town, Maples had a severe reaction to the news. Donald Trump recalled the story to Nick Ribis, the chief executive of the Trump casino empire at the time, and Alan Marcus, a consultant, about how she took the news. “The poor kid,” he said in Haberman’s book. “I started to tell her, and she got sick. She said she had to go.” Maples reportedly went to the restroom to “puke her f**king guts out.”
Donald Trump seemed to have no problem keeping that information from his wife until he absolutely felt like she needed to know — and perhaps his ego didn’t mind the idea of two women fighting over him. Even though Maples was wrong to engage in an affair with a married man (who should have honored his vows to Ivana) in the first place, she probably worried that he might go back to Ivana because they shared so much history together, including a Pizza Hut commercial.
Before you go, click here to see all the celebrities who have admitted to cheating on their partners.
Related story Donald Trump Reportedly Wanted to Dress as Superman After Beating Covid, According to Bombshell New Book
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Stratolaunch Talon-A To Integrate With SkyRange Hypersonic Program
Stratolaunch Talon-A To Integrate With SkyRange Hypersonic Program https://digitalalabamanews.com/stratolaunch-talon-a-to-integrate-with-skyrange-hypersonic-program/
, /PRNewswire/ — Stratolaunch, LLC is pleased to announce they have been added to the Test Resource Management Center’s (TRMC) Integration Innovation Inc. (i3) team to demonstrate the SkyRange airborne test assets capability by tracking the first Talon-A hypersonic flight.
The Test Resource Management Center SkyRange program will demonstrate capability of its airborne test assets by tracking the first Stratolaunch Talon-A hypersonic flight.
Test Resource Management Center Director George Rumford (left), U.S. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota (center), and Stratolaunch CEO and President Dr. Zachary Krevor (right) unveiled the Talon-A vehicle replica and explained its role in the SkyRange program at the UAS Summit and Expo 2022 event on Oct. 4, 2022.
The SkyRange program is developing, operating, and integrating advanced sensors and capabilities for a fleet of air-vehicle systems that will support hypersonic test and evaluation. The program’s test architecture includes both MQ-9 Reapers and RQ-4 Global Hawks allowing for a broad range of data capture on a variety of mission scenarios that will enable decision-making for high-speed system testing and fielding. This unique capability will increase national high-speed systems flight test capabilities and frequency, and ultimately enable leap-ahead technologies for our nation’s warfighter.
Stratolaunch’s hypersonic flight test service is centered around its Talon-A, a reusable autonomous hypersonic testbed vehicle which provides a flexible test architecture for hypersonic flights and experimentation. During the Talon-A’s maiden hypersonic flight, it will operate as a high-speed vehicle, which TRMC SkyRange assets will acquire, track, and otherwise support to validate developmental instrumentation payloads.
“We’re excited for the opportunity to provide the SkyRange program an operational application with our first Talon-A hypersonic flight,” said Dr. Zachary Krevor, President and Chief Executive Officer for Stratolaunch. “This mutually beneficial partnership will increase the pace and reduce cost of testing, which is critical to hypersonic system technology development.”
About Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch’s mission is to advance high-speed technology through innovative design, manufacturing, and operation of world-class aerospace vehicles. For the latest news and information, visit www.stratolaunch.com and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
About Integration Innovation Inc. (“i3”)
Headquartered in Huntsville AL, i3 is a 100% team member owned company, and is a national leader in providing innovative technical and engineering solutions to a broad customer base across the U.S. DoD. i3’s specialty areas include hypersonic wind tunnel development; UAS system integration and flight operations; missile and aviation engineering and logistic services; electronic warfare and electromagnetic effects analysis; C5ISR engineering services; cybersecurity; and virtual training, simulation & serious game development. For more information, please refer to www.i3-corps.com.
SOURCE Stratolaunch
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Ron Johnson Again Says Jan. 6 Was Not An 'armed Insurrection' Adds 'protesters Did Teach Us' How To Use Flagpoles As Weapons | CNN Politics
Ron Johnson Again Says Jan. 6 Was Not An 'armed Insurrection,' Adds 'protesters Did Teach Us' How To Use Flagpoles As Weapons | CNN Politics https://digitalalabamanews.com/ron-johnson-again-says-jan-6-was-not-an-armed-insurrection-adds-protesters-did-teach-us-how-to-use-flagpoles-as-weapons-cnn-politics/
CNN —
Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson repeated his claim Tuesday that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was not an “armed insurrection,” adding however, that protesters “did teach us how you can use flagpoles, that kind of stuff, as weapons.”
“There weren’t thousands of armed insurrectionists. I asked the question of the FBI agent at a hearing on this, I said, ‘How many firearms were confiscated either in the Capitol or on Capitol ground?’ I didn’t know the answer. For all I know it was going to be a thousand. No, zero. Zero,” Johnson said at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee in Wisconsin, according to a video posted online by an NBC reporter at the event.
Johnson added that “protesters did teach us how you can use flagpoles, that kind of stuff, as weapons. But to call what happened on January 6 an ‘armed insurrection,’ I just think, is not accurate,” he added.
In a statement to CNN Tuesday, Johnson campaign spokesperson Alexa Henning said the senator was comparing the methods used by racial justice protesters in the summer of 2020 with the January 6 rioters.
“The senator was referring to – and his full quote shows – the actions of the rioters in the summer of 2020,” Henning said. “He acknowledges the left wing rioters know how to use flagpoles and other metals objects and water bottles as weapons. But there is a distinction between that and an armed insurrection. In summer 2020, leftists used bricks, water bottles, flagpoles, fireworks, Molotov cocktails, anything but a gun as a weapon to destroy cities but the media didn’t cover them as ‘violent’ or ‘armed.’ When protesters during January 6 used a flagpole, all of a sudden the types of objects they’d been using all summer were now considered part of an ‘armed’ insurrection. He is in no way condoning this action. He’s commenting on the hypocrisy of the situation.”
Henning also passed along a full transcript of Johnson’s remarks and a link to Twitter videos of protesters using flagpoles during anti-racist protests in 2020. According to the transcript provided by the campaign, Johnson said, “summer protesters did teach us all how we can use flagpoles, that kind of stuff as weapons.”
Johnson has repeatedly downplayed the seriousness of January 6 riot at the Capitol.
In the months following the insurrection, Johnson cast doubt on reports surrounding the riot, telling a conservative radio host last year, “those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law,” and later telling Fox News, “The fact of the matter is even calling it insurrection, it wasn’t.”
In an interview on Monday, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, his Democratic opponent in the key November Senate race, criticized Johnson for his statements about January 6.
“I won’t be lectured about crime from somebody who supported a violent insurrection that left 140 officers injured – one was stabbed with a metal stake, and another was crushed in a revolving door – it’s very hypocritical for Ron Johnson to want to bring up crime,” Barnes told MSNBC.
US Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, in his testimony before the House Select Committee on January 6 in late July, said rioters used flagpoles against Capitol Police as weapons.
“A baseball bat, a hockey stick, a rebar, a flagpole, including the American flag, pepper spray, bear spray. So you name it. You had all these items and things that were thrown at us and used to attack us. Those are weapons,” he said.
Video from the committee also featured rioters beating Capitol Police with flagpoles.
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Dow Rallies More Than 1500 Points In Two Days S&P 500 Posts Best 2-Day Gain Since 2020
Dow Rallies More Than 1,500 Points In Two Days, S&P 500 Posts Best 2-Day Gain Since 2020 https://digitalalabamanews.com/dow-rallies-more-than-1500-points-in-two-days-sp-500-posts-best-2-day-gain-since-2020/
Stocks continue their rally into the close
The major averages posted their second consecutive day of gains, continuing their rise all the way into the close on Tuesday, helped by the spike in Twitter shares.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 825.43 points, or 2.8%, to 30,316.32. The S&P 500 added 3.1% to 3,790.93, and the Nasdaq Composite was up 3.3% to 11,176.41.
— Tanaya Macheel
Twitter resumes trading, jumps above $51 per share
Shares of Twitter extended their gains after a multi-hour pause in trading as Elon Musk has filed his letter to complete the deal at its original price.
The stock was trading near $51.81 per share, up more than 21% for the session and well above the $49.23 where it had been paused for most of the afternoon.
Under the terms of the deal, Elon Musk will have to pay $54.20 per share for the social media company. The market price implies that there is still some skepticism that the buyout will be completed.
— Jesse Pound
Dollar index falls back to 110
One factor helping equity markets on Tuesday could be a slightly weaker dollar, which is falling for the fifth-straight day.
The DXY US Dollar Currency Index was down 1.5% in afternoon trading at 110.06. The index was trading as high as 114.78 last week, when there was concern about a failure of the UK government bond market.
The British pound and the euro were each more than 1% against the dollar on Tuesday. The greenback was also down against the Japanese yen.
—Jesse Pound, Gina Francolla
S&P 500 poised to hit record not seen since at least 2000, Susquehanna says
Ninety-seven percent of S&P 500 stocks are up for the third time in the past five trading days. If that holds through the close, it would be the first time since at least 2000 that the broader market index has seen such strength at the stock level.
Investors typically watch the 97% marker because it can signal a pull back coming, according to Susquehanna. Excluding this past week, this week marked the first time since Aug. 25, 2015 that 97% of S&P 500 components were up in two of the previous five trading days.
— Alex Harring
October a ‘make-or-break’ month for the bear market, says eToro’s Cox
Callie Cox, eToro U.S. investment analyst, said that while this week’s rally feels “a bit like a panic,” it could be setting up for another bounce similar to the rally earlier this year off June lows.
“The bulls are back in force after a rough few weeks,” Cox said. “However, it’s interesting to think that we’ve only seen this magnitude of a rally in the depths of bears, or shortly after a bottom.”
“One has to wonder if we’re setting ourselves up for a mirror of July’s rally,” she added. “Either way, this month feels like a make-or-break for the bear market. We’re getting the regular slate of economic data – including updated jobs and inflation data – the start of earnings season, the final stretch before mid-term elections and a Fed meeting,” after October.
She also warned that “good volatility is still volatility, and it can trick you into making snap decisions with your portfolio.”
— Tanaya Macheel
Stocks making the biggest moves midday: General Motors, Illumina and more
These are some of the stocks making the biggest moves during midday trading on Tuesday.
Travel stocks — Shares of airline and cruise line stocks surged Tuesday and were among leaders in the S&P 500. Norwegian Cruise Line jumped 13%. Royal Caribbean and Carnival gained 12% and 11%, respectively. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines each advanced more than 8%.
Illumina — The biotech stock jumped more than 9% after SVB Securities upgraded Illumina to outperform from market perform.
General Motors — Shares of automaker General Motors gained 7% after the company announced sales rose 24% in the third quarter, rebounding from 2021 when supply chain issues hindered production.
Twitter, Rivian and Poshmark were also among the biggest movers.
Read the full list of stocks moving midday here.
— Tanaya Macheel
Market bounce nearing technical resistance levels, strategist says
The market’s two-day rally has brought the S&P 500 back up to a potential area of resistance, according to Janney technical analyst Dan Wantrobski.
The broad market index was trading at 3,771 on Tuesday afternoon after closing below 3,600 on Friday. But that quick bounce could soon hit a technical ceiling.
“For the S&P 500, watch for a potential resistance range of 3800-4000 on further rally efforts,” Wantrobski said in a note to clients. :Beyond that, the declining 200-day MA … currently resides at 4200- and we would note that this offered stiff resistance to the June rally just a few months ago.”
If this week’s rebound doesn’t hold, there is some major downside possible from here, according to Wantrobski.
“Continue to watch for first support within the 3500-3600 zone, followed by 3100-3200 (which we would consider a wash-out range given the extremes in sentiment we have already experienced),” he said.
— Jesse Pound, Michael Bloom
100% of institutional investors polled by Evercore ISI expect a recession
Every institutional investor surveyed by Evercore ISI on Oct. 3 expects the U.S. will fall in to a recession — 89% seeing it in 2023 and 11% in 2022.
(The silver lining for investors is that that expectation means, by definition, that a recessionary outlook is already reflected in current prices.)
Investors’ consensus end-of-2022 forecast for the S&P 500 came in at 3490, or 5% below Monday’s close of 3678. Consensus fed funds were pegged at 4.00% — below market expectations, according to Evercore ISI founder and head of economic research Ed Hyman.
Core consumer price index inflation, excluding food and energy, was forecast at 4.2% by the end of 2023 by those surveyed, or about a percentage point above the public market consensus.
— Scott Schnipper
Twitter shares pop on report that Elon Musk plans to go through with company buyout deal at $54.20
Twitter shares rallied more than 12% after Bloomberg News reported that Tesla’s Elon Musk planned on proceeding with a buyout of the company for $54.20 per share. The stock was then halted for news pending.
Click here to read more.
— Fred Imbert
European stocks rally
U.S. stocks weren’t the only ones surging Tuesday.
The Stoxx 600 index, which tracks a broad swath of European stocks, popped 3.1% on the day — marking its biggest one-day gain since March. Travel and leisure names led the gains, rising 6.1%. Tech and industrials also advanced 5% and 4.2%, respectively.
The German Dax surged 3.8%, while France’s CAC 40 soared 4.2% — its best day since March.
Tesla is topping, Strategas says
Tesla may be hitting a peak, even as the broader market rallies, according to Strategas Technical and Macro Research.
“We’re in the camp TSLA is topping and rallies should be used to reduce exposure,” Strategas partner Chris Verrone wrote in a Tuesday note.
Verrone said Tesla’s underperformance compared to the S&P 500 is “in step with what the trend has been all year.” The stock is down about 27.6% so far in 2022.
Meanwhile, he said it is notable the rates are down around 40 basis points in recent days. At the same time, he doesn’t see a relative advantage in Ark.
— Alex Harring
Poshmark deal provides validation for secondhand retail, but be wary of a rally among its rivals
Poshmark’s acquisition by Korean internet company Naver has sparked a rally among its rivals that also sell secondhand apparel and other goods. Both RealReal and ThredUp gained more than 19%, luxury-brand focused Farfetch rose nearly 12% — and even eBay and Etsy shares are getting a bump.
Naver is scooping up Poshmark for $1.2 billion, which is less than half its January 2021 IPO price.
Investors who are hoping for more consolidation in the sector should tread carefully. Many of the names are heavily shorted. In a research note, Jefferies analyst Ashley Helgans said the deal backs the notion that resale is a “fast-growing and attractive LT industry.” But it also highlights how much pureplay e-commerce companies have sold off, she said.
At the end of the day, Helgans said she expects many acquirers will be looking for companies that have a history of profitability or at least “the clearest path” to it.
—Christina Cheddar Berk
S&P 500 heads for biggest 2-day rally since 2020
The S&P 500 is up more than 5% in the first two sessions of October, putting the broader market index on pace for its biggest two-day rally since 2020.
Energy has been the big outperformer during this stretch, rising 9.1%. Marathon Oil, APA and Devon are also among the S&P 500’s best performers week to date, gaining more than 13% each.
But it’s not just energy. The other 10 S&P 500 sectors are also up sharply during these past two days. What’s more, just four stocks in the S&P 500 are lower this week.
— Fred Imbert
Adam Parker says we’re underwriting a recovery that’s ‘a little too optimistic’
Trivariate Research’s Adam Parker says investors may be “a little too optimistic” on a 2023 recovery.
“I’ve been sort of warming to this idea in the last two to three weeks that the consensus view that we get a bottom and then recovery in 2023 might be wrong,” Parker said Tuesday on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street.
“We might have just a slower decline from a very strong nominal GDP now, and maybe 2024 numbers are a little bit below ’23, and maybe we’re underwriting a recovery that’s maybe a little too optimistic right now,” he added.
The CEO and founder at Trivariate Research advised investors to keep an eye on overstocked inventory levels in apparel, industrials and other sectors as they head into corporate earnings reporting season next week.
Parker also advised investors seek out stocks that have “relative estimate ...
Oath Keepers Founder: Be ready To Fight After Trump Loss
Oath Keepers Founder: Be ‘ready To Fight’ After Trump Loss https://digitalalabamanews.com/oath-keepers-founder-be-ready-to-fight-after-trump-loss-2/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was discussing how to push President Donald Trump to go further in his fight to cling to power, according to messages shown to jurors Tuesday in his U.S. Capitol attack trial.
Prosecutors used Stewart Rhodes’ messages and recordings of him speaking from November 2020 to try to show that he had been working behind the scenes for two months to try to stop the transfer of presidential power before his followers attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Rhodes and four associates are facing charges of seditious conspiracy for what authorities allege was a detailed, drawn-out plot to keep Biden out of the White House that included putting armed teams on standby outside of Washington. Tuesday was the first full day of testimony in the high-stakes case that’s expected to last several weeks.
The five defendants are the first people arrested in the Jan. 6 attack to stand trial for seditious conspiracy — a rarely used Civil War-era charge that can be difficult to prove. Rhodes’ attorneys have said their defense will focus on Rhodes’ belief that Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act and call up the militia to support his bid to stay in power.
The messages were revealed during testimony of an FBI agent investigating the insurrection. In several messages sent around Nov. 7, 2020 — the day that The Associated Press and other news outlets called the election for Biden — Rhodes pressed others to refuse to accept the results and “bend the knee” to what he saw as an illegitimate administration. In one message, Rhodes urged his followers to get their “get your gear squared away” and be “ready to fight.”
In another — sent to a group called “FOS” or “Friends of Stone” that included Trump ally Roger Stone — Rhodes urged his fellow Oath Keepers to think of the ways early Americans had resisted the British.
“We are now where the founders were in March, 1775,” he wrote. He implored them to “step up and push Trump to finally take decisive action.”
“The final defense is us and our rifles,” Rhodes wrote to the group. “Trump has one last chance, right now, to stand. But he will need us and our rifles too.”
The evening of Nov. 9, Rhodes held a conference call with more than 100 of his followers to discuss the plan. It was secretly recorded by someone on the call and sent to the FBI.
Rhodes urged people on the call to go to Washington and let Trump know that “the people are behind him,” according to a recording played to jurors. Rhodes expressed hope that left-wing antifa activists would start clashes because that would give Trump the “reason and rationale for dropping the Insurrection Act.”
“So we have a chance to get President Trump to fight as Commander in Chief. If you’re going to have a fight, guys, you want to start now while he’s still Commander in Chief,” Rhodes told the group.
Rhodes said they would have some of their “best men bolstered up outside” — or “quick reaction forces” that he said would be “awaiting the president’s orders.” It needed to be that way because that gives you “legal cover,” Rhodes said on the call.
Rhodes’ attorney sought to show that prosecutors are cherry-picking messages from hundreds of chats on his phone. Defense attorney Phillip Linder pressed the FBI agent over whether he ever saw Rhodes encourage anybody to do anything illegal before prosecutors objected to the question.
“All we have is bombastic language,” Linder said.
Rhodes’ lawyers have said they will argue that their client can’t be guilty of seditious conspiracy because all of his actions were in anticipation of orders he expected were coming from Trump under the Insurrection Act. Even though Trump never did, Rhodes’ lawyers say he was merely lobbying the president to invoke the law, which gives the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary, and what qualifies as military force.
On trial with Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, are Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers; Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper; Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia, and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group.
Prosecutors showed jurors several items found at Caldwell’s home, including a notebook with writing about things like “comms” and “lookouts.” The FBI agent said that “was all indicative to us of some sort of an operation.”
Caldwell’s attorney, David Fischer, pressed the agent on whether the government has any witnesses who claim Caldwell had a plan to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. The agent said it did not.
___
For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Oath Keepers Founder: Be ready To Fight After Trump Loss
Oath Keepers Founder: Be ‘ready To Fight’ After Trump Loss https://digitalalabamanews.com/oath-keepers-founder-be-ready-to-fight-after-trump-loss/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours after Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was discussing how to push President Donald Trump to go further in his fight to cling to power, according to messages shown to jurors Tuesday in his U.S. Capitol attack trial.
Prosecutors used Stewart Rhodes’ messages and recordings of him speaking from November 2020 to try to show that he had been working behind the scenes for two months to try to stop the transfer of presidential power before his followers attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Rhodes and four associates are facing charges of seditious conspiracy for what authorities allege was a detailed, drawn-out plot to keep Biden out of the White House that included putting armed teams on standby outside of Washington. Tuesday was the first full day of testimony in the high-stakes case that’s expected to last several weeks.
The five defendants are the first people arrested in the Jan. 6 attack to stand trial for seditious conspiracy — a rarely used Civil War-era charge that can be difficult to prove. Rhodes’ attorneys have said their defense will focus on Rhodes’ belief that Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act and call up the militia to support his bid to stay in power.
The messages were revealed during testimony of an FBI agent investigating the insurrection. In several messages sent around Nov. 7, 2020 — the day that The Associated Press and other news outlets called the election for Biden — Rhodes pressed others to refuse to accept the results and “bend the knee” to what he saw as an illegitimate administration. In one message, Rhodes urged his followers to get their “get your gear squared away” and be “ready to fight.”
In another — sent to a group called “FOS” or “Friends of Stone” that included Trump ally Roger Stone — Rhodes urged his fellow Oath Keepers to think of the ways early Americans had resisted the British.
“We are now where the founders were in March, 1775,” he wrote. He implored them to “step up and push Trump to finally take decisive action.”
“The final defense is us and our rifles,” Rhodes wrote to the group. “Trump has one last chance, right now, to stand. But he will need us and our rifles too.”
The evening of Nov. 9, Rhodes held a conference call with more than 100 of his followers to discuss the plan. It was secretly recorded by someone on the call and sent to the FBI.
Rhodes urged people on the call to go to Washington and let Trump know that “the people are behind him,” according to a recording played to jurors. Rhodes expressed hope that left-wing antifa activists would start clashes because that would give Trump the “reason and rationale for dropping the Insurrection Act.”
“So we have a chance to get President Trump to fight as Commander in Chief. If you’re going to have a fight, guys, you want to start now while he’s still Commander in Chief,” Rhodes told the group.
Rhodes said they would have some of their “best men bolstered up outside” — or “quick reaction forces” that he said would be “awaiting the president’s orders.” It needed to be that way because that gives you “legal cover,” Rhodes said on the call.
Rhodes’ attorney sought to show that prosecutors are cherry-picking messages from hundreds of chats on his phone. Defense attorney Phillip Linder pressed the FBI agent over whether he ever saw Rhodes encourage anybody to do anything illegal before prosecutors objected to the question.
“All we have is bombastic language,” Linder said.
Rhodes’ lawyers have said they will argue that their client can’t be guilty of seditious conspiracy because all of his actions were in anticipation of orders he expected were coming from Trump under the Insurrection Act. Even though Trump never did, Rhodes’ lawyers say he was merely lobbying the president to invoke the law, which gives the president wide discretion to decide when military force is necessary, and what qualifies as military force.
On trial with Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, are Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers; Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper; Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia, and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group.
Prosecutors showed jurors several items found at Caldwell’s home, including a notebook with writing about things like “comms” and “lookouts.” The FBI agent said that “was all indicative to us of some sort of an operation.”
Caldwell’s attorney, David Fischer, pressed the agent on whether the government has any witnesses who claim Caldwell had a plan to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6. The agent said it did not.
___
For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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North Korean Missile Launch Raises Alarm In Washington
North Korean Missile Launch Raises Alarm In Washington https://digitalalabamanews.com/north-korean-missile-launch-raises-alarm-in-washington/
A roadside screen in Sapporo in Hokkaido, on Oct. 4, 2022, shows a news report on North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years.
Kyodo via AP Images
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration responded on multiple levels Tuesday to North Korea’s latest long-range ballistic missile launch, reaching out to allies in the region on diplomatic and military fronts, and at the leader level by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The missile was fired late Monday, flying over Japan early on Tuesday morning before landing in the Pacific Ocean.
This latest North Korean missile test — the 23rd one so far this year — was different because it marked the first time in five years that a North Korean missile had been fired directly over Japan. Residents in northern prefectures awoke to sirens and directions to take cover.
On Tuesday morning, Biden spoke to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to reinforce America’s “ironclad commitment to Japan’s defense,” and recognize the launch “as a danger to the Japanese people,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
The presidential call followed Monday night conversations held by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken with their Japanese and South Korean counterparts, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke by phone with his counterparts in Tokyo and Seoul, according to Pentagon readouts of the call.
A unifying thread running through all the official readouts of phone calls was the word “ironclad,” which is how each of these U.S. officials described America’s commitment to the defense of Japan and South Korea.
This commitment and its military alliances were audible and visible Tuesday in the skies above northeastern Asia.
In airspace over the Yellow Sea off the Korean peninsula, the U.S. and South Korea conducted joint aerial flight and precision targeting exercises on Tuesday in response to the missile launch. The training exercise included firing at a target on an uninhabited island.
A similar joint exercise was held for U.S. Marine Corps fighters and Japan air self-defense fighters, Jean-Pierre said at the White House.
While the exercises Tuesday were held specifically in response to the latest missile launch, they also served to strengthen trilateral coordination in the face of a threat that keeps growing, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
“Every time [North Koreans] do one of these launches, some are successful. Some are not. Some are only partially successful. But each time they do this, they learn. They get better. They get more capable,” Kirby said on Fox News Tuesday.
“That’s what makes us want to stay vigilant, and make sure that we’ve got the capabilities ourselves in the region to defend our national interest and those of our allies,” he said.
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SCOTUS Could Leave Alabama With Two Black Districts. Or Zero.
SCOTUS Could Leave Alabama With Two Black Districts. Or Zero. https://digitalalabamanews.com/scotus-could-leave-alabama-with-two-black-districts-or-zero/
This is a column.
Twenty-five years ago, I was covering a Bessemer City Council meeting when a young Birmingham lawyer asked to introduce himself to the room. Artur Davis told the folks there that he was running for Congress in Alabama’s 7th District and that he’d appreciate their votes.
After the meeting, I introduced myself to Davis. I grew up in Thomasville, I told him.
“Thomasville, Georgia?” he asked.
“Thomasville, Alabama,” I answered.
He asked me what part of the state that was.
It’s in the 7th Congressional District, I said.
Davis was embarrassed and every time I met him after that he would seem to overcompensate. I’ve told that story many times, probably to Davis’ chagrin.
But Tuesday I wanted to shout it — at the nine justices sitting on the bench in Washington.
Because it illustrates a vulnerability the court’s conservative majority could soon use to weaken Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The question is what exactly does it mean to be “reasonably compact”?
And that answer could determine whether Alabama gets two majority Black congressional districts.
Or maybe none at all.
PREVIOUS: This is how the Voting Rights Act ends
The 7th District is an imperfect solution to a persistent problem — racism. It ensures Black people have representation by stretching and twisting district lines until it captures enough Black voters to guarantee a Black lawmaker will prevail.
But it’s big and messy, and it favors urban candidates over rural ones. It stretches so far and wide, grabbing pieces of three of the state’s five largest cities, that a candidate from one end can win without knowing much about the other.
That such a thing should be necessary in the first place is sad, but before the courts ordered the state to draw such a district, Alabama hadn’t had a Black congressman since Reconstruction, and we still haven’t had one anywhere else in the state.
The 7th District is a kind of political coping mechanism — compensating for racism rather than solving it.
In recent years, Republican legislatures have discovered that majority-minority districts can be useful to them, too. By packing as many Black voters into as few districts as possible, they can check the box for guaranteed minority representation, while minimizing the overall influence of Black Democratic voters.
The plaintiffs in Merrill v. Milligan say that is what Alabama lawmakers did. In Alabama, Black voters make up 27 percent of the population but have only 14 percent of the representation in Congress.
The state should draw a second majority-minority district — or at least another district with enough Black voters that it would be party competitive, the plaintiffs say.
At the center of this case is a precedent from 1986 called Thornburg vs. Gingles.
Gingles laid out three preconditions for a majority-minority district.
The first hurdle — and the one that matters here — is that the plaintiffs must prove that a minority population is “sufficiently large and geographically compact” enough for a new district.
And it was at this target that the conservative justices on the court directed most of their questions.
“So then the question is, why is this district not reasonably compact?” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said. “And I will be candid, for both sides, I don’t really know how to measure reasonably compact.”
At times, Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour meandered in his arguments, seeming to ask the court to gut the Gingles case much as the Dobbs decision struck through Roe v. Wade.
Whenever he did, he tried the patience of both conservative and liberal justices, and the conservatives repeatedly nudged him back to the issue of compactness.
Justice Samuel Alito called Alabama’s arguments “far-reaching.” Like Kavanaugh, he pushed the discussion back to what compact means, and he entertained an even narrower definition.
“It has to be reasonably configured,” Alito said, all but making LaCour’s argument for him. “And reasonably configured means something more than just compact. It means a district that is the type of district that would be drawn by an unbiased mapmaker.”
It’s unlikely that the court’s conservative majority will kill Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act but it might wound it too badly for it to be of much use. By making that hurdle in Gingles more difficult to clear, future plaintiffs would have a difficult time bringing more cases like this one.
The state’s attorney argued that there’s no way to draw a second geographically compact minority-majority district, and several of the justices seemed friendly to his argument.
But if this is the direction the court takes, it’s unclear where it stops.
Because I’ve seen the maps the plaintiffs have proposed.
If a proposed second district doesn’t meet the criteria of “compact,” the current 7th District certainly doesn’t, either.
To the contrary, the 7th District as it is now might be less compact than any in the plaintiffs’ proposed maps, and it’s only a matter of time before it’s a target, too.
And you don’t have to have grown up there to see it.
Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group, 2020 winner of the Walker Stone Award, winner of the 2021 SPJ award for opinion writing, and 2021 winner of the Molly Ivins prize for political commentary.
You can follow his work on his Facebook page, The War on Dumb. And on Twitter. And on Instagram.
MORE COLUMNS BY KYLE WHITMIRE
Alabama GOP chairman made the photo ID he used to vote
Alabama GOP chair refused to show license to vote. That became a problem for poll workers.
Alabama GOP chair’s family believed voter ID was mark of the beast, brother said in deposition
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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Dispute Local News 8
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Dispute – Local News 8 https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-mar-a-lago-dispute-local-news-8/
By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to step into the legal fight over the classified documents seized during an FBI search of his Florida estate, escalating a dispute over the powers of an independent arbiter appointed to inspect the records.
The Trump team asked the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
A three-judge panel from the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last month limited the special master’s review to the much larger tranche of non-classified documents. The judges, including two Trump appointees, sided with the Justice Department, which had argued there was no legal basis for the special master to conduct his own review of the classified records.
But Trump’s lawyers said in their application to the Supreme Court that it was essential for the special master to have access to the classified records to “determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records.”
“Since President Trump had absolute authority over classification decisions during his Presidency, the current status of any disputed document cannot possibly be determined solely by reference to the markings on that document,” the application states.
It says that without the special master review, “the unchallenged views of the current Justice Department would supersede the established authority of the Chief Executive.”
The FBI says it seized roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification markings, during its search. The Trump team asked a judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, to appoint a special master to do an independent review of the records.
Cannon subsequently assigned a veteran Brooklyn judge, Raymond Dearie, to review the records and segregate those that may be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. The Justice Department objected to Dearie’s ability to review the classified records, prompting the 11th Circuit to side with the department.
Trump’s lawyers submitted the Supreme Court application to Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency matters from Florida and several other Southern states. Thomas can act on his own or, as is usually done, refer the emergency appeal to the rest of the court.
____
Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter/etuckerAP
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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Dispute
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Dispute https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-mar-a-lago-dispute/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to step into the legal fight over the classified documents seized during an FBI search of his Florida estate, escalating a dispute over the powers of an independent arbiter appointed to inspect the records.
The Trump team asked the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and allow the arbiter, called a special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classification markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago.
A three-judge panel from the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last month limited the special master’s review to the much larger tranche of non-classified documents. The judges, including two Trump appointees, sided with the Justice Department, which had argued there was no legal basis for the special master to conduct his own review of the classified records.
But Trump’s lawyers said in their application to the Supreme Court that it was essential for the special master to have access to the classified records to “determine whether documents bearing classification markings are in fact classified, and regardless of classification, whether those records are personal records or Presidential records.”
“Since President Trump had absolute authority over classification decisions during his Presidency, the current status of any disputed document cannot possibly be determined solely by reference to the markings on that document,” the application states.
It says that without the special master review, “the unchallenged views of the current Justice Department would supersede the established authority of the Chief Executive.” An independent review, the Trump team says, ensures a “transparent process that provides much-needed oversight.”
The FBI says it seized roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification markings, during its search. The Trump team asked a judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, to appoint a special master to do an independent review of the records.
Cannon subsequently assigned a veteran Brooklyn judge, Raymond Dearie, to review the records and segregate those that may be protected by claims of attorney-client privilege and executive privilege. She also barred the FBI from being able to use the classified documents as part of its criminal investigation.
The Justice Department appealed, prompting the 11th Circuit to lift Cannon’s hold on investigators’ ability to scrutinize the classified records. The appeals court also ruled that the department did not have to provide Dearie with access to the classified records.
Trump’s lawyers submitted the Supreme Court application to Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency matters from Florida and several other Southern states. Thomas can act on his own or, as is usually done, refer the emergency appeal to the rest of the court.
Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Jessica Gresko contributed to this report.
Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter/etuckerAP
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Weigh In On Review Of Classified Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Weigh In On Review Of Classified Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-weigh-in-on-review-of-classified-documents-seized-from-mar-a-lago/
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the justices to review part of an appeals court order dealing with classified documents seized at his Florida estate in early August.
The appeal came days after a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said investigators could retain the classified documents and review them as part of a criminal investigation. The documents, the appeals court reasoned, belong to the government, not Trump.
Despite nominating three associate justices during his time in the White House – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – Trump’s record at the Supreme Court has been spotty, at best. The high court repeatedly brushed aside pro-Trump efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election, for instance.
Appeals: Court grants DOJ investigative access to Trump classified documents
District: Judge approves special master to review documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
The litigation stems from an Aug. 8 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, which came as part of a federal investigation into allegations he took classified documents from the White House when he left office. A district court prohibited authorities from reviewing 11,000 documents and appointed a special master to assess whether Trump could keep some of the papers out of the government’s hands.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally Aug. 5, 2022, in Waukesha, Wis.
The appeals court blocked a narrow but critical part of that decision, ruling that criminal investigators could continue to review – and would not have to turn over to the special master – about 100 documents that were marked as classified.
Two of the three appeals court judges were nominated by Trump. The third was nominated by former President Barack Obama. The decision was unanimous.
Because the case is filed on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, the justices could resolve the dispute relatively quickly – potentially within a matter of days.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump asks Supreme Court to weigh in on classified document fight
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Redwine Adds Doug Reynolds To Track And Field Staff
👟 Redwine Adds Doug Reynolds To Track And Field Staff https://digitalalabamanews.com/%f0%9f%91%9f-redwine-adds-doug-reynolds-to-track-and-field-staff/
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Head coach Stanley Redwine has announced the addition of Doug Reynolds to the track and field coaching staff on Tuesday (October 4).
Reynolds has coached four NCAA individual champions, one NCAA collegiate record holders and two Olympians. In addition, he has worked with three IAAF World Championship competitors, 53 NCAA D1 All-Americans, 26 individual conference champions and three conference athlete of the year recipients.
Reynolds comes to Kansas from Florida State University, where he was an assistant coach for a year.
Reynolds coached at New Mexico State from 2017-2021, where he served as the Director/Head Coach of Track and Field.
In 2020, Reynolds produced six WAC Champions on the indoor team in Lashir Tremble (60m, 200m), Brooke Wallace (400m dash), Jess Dominguez (3,000m), Telecia Briscoe (60m hurdles), and Keyarha Wilson (high jump). Reynolds also guided the 4x400m relay team to gold.
In the 2019 cross country season, Reynolds helped the Aggies to a combined four top-five finishes throughout the season, including a fourth-place finish for both the men and women at the WAC Championships.
During the 2019 outdoor season, six New Mexico State athletes qualified for the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds.
The Aggies posted a second-place finish as a team and eight individual titles went home with the squad. Reynolds guided the throwers when they swept the medals in the hammer throw at the WAC Championships. Mitchell’s first place finish also resulted in a program record mark of (60-98m, 200-0).
The Aggies finished second at the WAC Indoor Championships in 2019 with seven individual titles. Keosha Sanders (7.42) and Asjah Wallace (8.45) set program records for the 60m and the 60m hurdles, respectively, at the conference meet. Additionally, Wallace was named the meet’s outstanding track performer and the high point award winner.
At the WAC Outdoor Championships, NM State placed third at the WAC Outdoor Championships, the program’s best finish ever, in 2018. The Aggies walked away with the gold in three of the four throws events and had eight titles overall at the meet. Yemisi Oroyinyin took home the title for the shot put with a throw of 14.97m (49-1.5) while Taniya Mitchell posted a mark of 52.37m (171-10). All five of the NM State athletes that participated in the javelin scored for the Aggie squad with Alyssa Covarrubia taking the crown with 42.09m (138-1) and Aubrey Salas making the podium in third with a mark of 36.55m (119-11). Katara Nelson was named the meet’s Outstanding Track Performer and High Point Award winner when the senior won the 100m (11.41) and 200m (23.45) while also winning the 4x100m (46.11) and 4x400m (3:43.54) relays.
For his first indoor season with the Aggies, Reynolds had three athletes take home WAC individual titles at the 2018 WAC Indoor Championship including Lashira Tremble in the 60m (7.51), Tanisha Scott in the 200m (24.35), and Keyarha Wilson in the high jump (1.69m, 5-6.5). Tremble’s first-place finish also set an NM State indoor record for the event. In the throws, Yemisi Oroyinyin threw 13.78m (45-2.5) in the shot put and Taylor Stutely posted a mark of 16.23m (53-3) for a pair of runner-up finishes. As a team, the Aggies finished in third place.
During his first cross country season with the Aggies, Reynolds saw the women’s cross country team bring home the crown at the 2017 WAC Cross Country Championships. Crissey Amberg posted a runner-up finish at the meet and she joined Julia Yescas and Jess Dominguez on the All-WAC teams following the race. On the men’s side, four of the five Aggie runners who placed at the conference championship came away with All-WAC accolades following the team’s third-place finish.
Prior to New Mexico State, Reynolds was an assistant coach in charge of throws at the University of Alabama. His athletes began leaving their mark in the Tide’s record books in 2013. Freshman Elias Hakansson smashed the school records in both the weight throw and the hammer throw multiple times over the course of the indoor and outdoor seasons. Hakansson received SEC All-Freshmen honors for the indoor and outdoor seasons when he finished third in the weight throw at the SEC Indoor Meet and third in the hammer throw at the SEC Outdoor Championships. Hakansson closed out the season by earning First-Team All-America honors when he finished in eighth place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Reynolds earned the South Region Assistant Coach of the Year award from the US Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) in 2014 after impressive performances by his squad that year. At the 2014 SEC Indoor Championships, the Tide took home the gold and silver medals in the weight throw. The season was capped off with Hayden Reed winning the discus title at the NCAA Outdoor Championship and USA Track & Field meets.
At the 2016 SEC Outdoor Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Reynolds’ men’s discus team swept the medals for the first time in program history. It was also the Tide’s first gold medal in the event since 1987. Eight Alabama throwers placed on the men’s national top-20 rankings in either the discus, hammer throw, javelin or shot put during the 2016 season.
Reynolds joined Alabama’s staff as a throws coach after spending six seasons at Kentucky, where his student-athletes won nine SEC championships while also setting seven program records. In his first season with the Wildcats, Reynolds was named the 2006 NCAA Mideast Region Throws Coach of the Year.
In 2008, Reynolds coached Rashaud Scott to an NCAA title in the discus. Scott was one of two Wildcats that helped UK earn its best point total in the event in school history.
Reynolds also helped UK’s Colin Boevers to his second SEC discus title, and the program’s fourth-straight title in the event in 2011. That same year, Reynolds helped Boevers to a fourth-place finish in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
On his women’s team, Mary Angell was the 2011 SEC runner-up in the discus and competed at the USA Track & Field Championships. Under Reynolds’ guidance, Ashley Muffet earned four All-America honors, two SEC Commissioners Cups, two SEC championships and a 2009 SEC Outdoor Co-Field Athlete of the Year award.
Before he joined the Wildcat staff, Reynolds worked at the University of Arizona, Boise State University and the University of Kansas. Two of his star pupils – Jarred Rome (Boise State) and Scott Russell (Kansas) – competed in the summer Olympic games and took part in the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships. A six-time All-American at Boise State, Rome was a two-time United States outdoor champion in the discus. He also represented Team USA at the 2004 Olympics, where he finished in 13th place. Russell was a six-time All-American, who claimed five Big 12 titles in three different events. In 2002, Reynolds coached Russell to an NCAA title in the javelin throw. Russell went on to represent Canada at the 2008 Olympics, where he placed 10th in the javelin.
A graduate of Arizona, Reynolds earned national recognition as a Pac-10 champion in the discus, which also earned him a No. 1 NCAA ranking in the event. In 1996, he was the National Junior College Athletic Association shot put and discus champion and competed in both the 1997 and 1999 World University Games, where he took home a bronze medal in the discus. He competed at the 1999 and 2003 Pan American Games for the United States, where he was a finalist in the discus both years. During his career, Reynolds’ highest ranking was third in the country and 10th in the world in the discus throw.
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Around The Wiregrass https://digitalalabamanews.com/around-the-wiregrass-2/
OCT. 7
Club de Español will meet Friday, Oct. 7, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m., to speak and practice Spanish through low-pressure talk and games. Practiquen español con el mejor café y té de la ciudad. Busquen la bandera de la Universidad de Troy. Gratis, abierto a todos. Contacto: vossr@troy.edu.
OCT. 8
The Star Wonders anniversary will be held Saturday, Oct. 8, at 2 p.m. The location will be announced later. All groups, choirs and soloists are invited.
Grimes Gospel Lighthouse, 1512 County Road 25, Grimes, will host the following: Brenda Trawick of Echo, Oct. 8; Marc Cave of Southaven, Mississippi, Oct. 15; a local sing, Oct. 22; Oct. 29 James Williams and the Amazing Gospel Songbirds of Headland, Oct. 29; Michael McGowen of Dothan, Nov. 5; Lighthouse Trio, Nov. 12; David Frost of Ozark, Nov. 19; and a local sing, Nov. 26. Music starts at 7 p.m. A love offering will be taken. There will be no concerts in December. Call 334-983-4654 or 334-714-4658 for more information.
OCT. 11
The Dothan Chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) will meet at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11, at the Old Mill Restaurant located at the junction of Murphy Mill Road and U.S. Highway 231 North in Dothan. Latasha Hyatt, director of community programming for the G.W. Carver Interpretive Museum, will describe how the museum hosts informative and engaging exhibits and events, guided tours and field trips for all ages, and a wealth of African American history. Call Dr. Angela Allgood, president, Chapter 1609, at 334-803-0405 for more information.
Dothan Leisure Services will hold a Fall Break Camp Oct. 11-14. The camp fee is $20 per child. Camp will be held Tuesday-Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Activities include a field trip, Landmark Park’s reptile show, recreational games, as well as arts and crafts. Lunch and snack will not be provided; children should pack a cold lunch and snack daily. The Fall Break Camp will be held at Andrew Belle Community Center, Westgate Recreation Center, and Wiregrass Recreation Center. To reserve your child’s spot, please register online at www.dothanleisureservices.org/registration. For more information on the Fall Break Camp, contact John Milner at 334-615-3764 or jmilner@dothan.org.
OCT. 12
St. Paul AME Church, 5180 Highway 273, in Campbellton, Florida, will hold its annual fall revival Oct. 12-14. Services will begin at 6 p.m. each night. Evangelist will be Brother Christopher Brockington, member of Snowhill AME Church in Malone, Florida.
OCT. 14
The Moonlighters will play at Solomon Park, located at 1815 Choctaw St., in Dothan on Friday, Oct. 14, from 6-8 p.m. The event is free for all ages, and food vendors will be on site. Attendees can bring lawn chairs or blankets to enjoy and evening with Big Band favorites.
Club Français will meet Friday, Oct. 14, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m., to speak and practice French through low-pressure talk and games. Pratiquez français avec le meilleur café et thé en ville. Cherchez la bannière de l’Université de Troy. Gratuit, ouvert à tous. Contact: vossr@troy.edu.
S’mores & Snores presented by Dothan Leisure Services will be held at Eastgate Park on Oct. 14-15. The event includes overnight camping, food, campfire, s’mores and games. Cost is $20 per person. Visit dothanleisureservices.org/registration for more information.
OCT. 15
The Enterprise Aglow Community Lighthouse will meet Saturday, Oct. 15, at 10 a.m. at The Gathering Room, 217 S. Main St., in Enterprise. Guest speaker will be Dr. Susan Slusher from Enterprise. For more information, call 334-406-9683.
OCT. 17
Youth basketball registration for children ages 9 to 18 will be held online from Oct. 17-22 at www.dothanleisureservices.org. In-person registration will be held on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 9 a.m. to noon at the following Dothan Leisure Services locations: Andrew Belle Community Center, 1270 Lake St.; Walton Park, 122 Walton Park Drive; Westgate Recreation Center, 501 Recreation Road; Wiregrass Recreation Center, 620 Sixth Ave. Children living outside of the city limits of Dothan may participate if their city does not offer a basketball program. The fee is $40 per child; however, children that qualify for the free or reduced lunch program or Medicaid will receive a 50% discount on the registration fee. For more information, call 334-615-3700 or visit www.dothanleisureservices.org.
OCT. 19
The Fields of Faith rally will be held Wednesday, Oct. 19, on soccer fields at Westgate Park in Dothan. Guest speaker will be Willie Spears of Panama City Beach, Florida. Spears was a wide receiver on the 1999 championship team from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and later served as the school’s defensive coordinator. He spent 20 years in education and has written 11 books as well as weekly newspaper columns. Spears has also been featured on ESPN’s “First Take Your Take,” has done radio analysis, and worked in the entertainment industry for Disney Cruise Line. A tailgate party will be held from 5:40-6:25 p.m. with free food; praise and worship from 6:15-6:30 p.m.; and the rally from 6:30-7:50 p.m. Call 334-797-5620 or email dean@flowersinsurance.com for more information.
OCT. 20
The Dothan/Houston County Education Retirees will meet on Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Wiregrass Rehab Center. The meeting will begin at 11 a.m. with a buffet lunch for $15.50, payable at the door. Please call or text Karol at 334-790-0244 or Paulette 334-790-8682 to reserve your lunch (only lunches reserved will be available). Guest speaker will be Anita Gibson, AERA director. Flu shots will be available with your insurance card. Attendees are asked to bring food donations for local charity.
OCT. 21
Deutscher Club will meet Friday, Oct. 21, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m., to speak and practice German through low-pressure talk and games. Trainieren Sie Deutsch mit dem besten Kaffee und Tee der Stadt! Beim Troy-Universitätsbanner. Kostenlos, für alle zugänglich. Kontakt: vossr@troy.edu.
OCT. 22
The Wiregrass Black Chamber of Commerce will host a brunch on Oct. 22 from 10-11:30 a.m. and again from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Community Housing and Enrichment Center located at 1001 Montana St. in Dothan. There will be a voter registration drive sponsored by Black Voters Matter. The chamber supports businesses, nonprofits, churches and communities in eight Wiregrass counties: Pike, Henry, Houston, Covington, Coffee, Dale, Geneva, and Barbour.
A Young Eagles Rally with free airplane rides for kids ages 8-17 will be held Saturday, Oct. 22, at Enterprise Municipal Airport. Flights begin at 9 a.m. Registration is in-person only and starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 11:30 a.m. Contact Aubri Hanson at 601-329-1334 or acbarnet@hotmail.com for more information.
OCT. 25
The Rose Hill Senior Center presents Harlem Nights, a senior adult prom, on Tuesday, Oct. 25, from 6-8 p.m. at the Dothan Civic Center, located at 126 N. St. Andrews St. in Dothan. Admission is $20 per person. Tickets may be purchased at the Rose Hill Senior Center or online at https://secure.rec1.com/AL/dothan-al/catalog (click on the Seniors Link and then the Senior Prom link). For more information, call Nalarence Davis at 334-615-3740.
OCT. 28
The Tri-State Community Orchestra will present its Halloween Spooktacular concert on Friday, Oct. 28. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Cultural Arts Center, 909 S. St. Andrews St. in Dothan. Tickets are $10 for general admission seating and are available for purchase at the Cultural Arts Center Box Office, online at the TCO website, or at the door the night of the concert. The TCO is asking concert-goers of all ages to enjoy dressing up for the occasion and joining in the family-friendly costume parade that will be held at intermission. For more information, visit tristatecommunityorchestra.org or call 334-655-1066.
Club Italiano will meet Friday, Oct. 28, at Mural City Coffee Company, 6:30-8:30 p.m., to speak and practice Italian through low-pressure talk and games. Esercitate l’italiano con il miglior caffè e tè della città. Cercate la bandiera dell’Università di Troy. Gratuito, aperto a tutti. Contatto: vossr@troy.edu.
The Hawk-Houston Youth Enrichment Center Board of Directors invites local churches, former members of Hawk-Houston (Boys’ Club/Boys & Girls Club), and supporters to its second Pennies from Heaven community outreach luncheon and open house tour on Nov. 17, 12-1:30 p.m. The center, located at 329 Chickasaw St. in Dothan, is celebrating 58 years (1964-2022) of service the community, youth, and families. Attendees will see the recent renovations to the facility while enjoying and reminiscing the organization’s history from its archives of photos, news articles, and youth membership list. RSVP by Oct. 28. Call 334-792-4618 or call Dr. Walter H. Sims at 850-590-7111.
OCT. 31
The Rose Hill Senior Center will celebrate Halloween with Trunk or Treat on Monday, Oct. 31, from 9:30-11 a.m. Anyone 50 years old or older and who loves treats, can call the Rose Hill Center at 334-615-3740 for more information. The person attending the event with the best costume wins a prize.
NOV. 5
Dothan Leisure Services is calling all artists for Art in the Park on Saturday, Nov. 5 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Eastgate Park. Vendors may begin setting up their booths at 7:30 a.m. on the day of the event. Bring your own tables and tents to fit in a 10-foot by 10-foot booth. No electricity will be available. Any type of art medium is welcome. There is no charge to display or sell artwork, but registration is required at www.dothanleisureservices.org/registration.
ONGOING
The Dothan Ballroom Dance Club will be teaching basic Rumba lessons during the month of October at the Cultural Arts Center. Weekly lessons start at 6:30 p.m. in the Choreography Room. Cost is $2 per...
Pregnant Woman Claims GE Auburn Plant Unfairly Terminated Her
Pregnant Woman Claims GE Auburn Plant Unfairly Terminated Her https://digitalalabamanews.com/pregnant-woman-claims-ge-auburn-plant-unfairly-terminated-her/
A former General Electric Aviation employee has filed a federal workplace complaint against the Auburn plant, citing wrongful termination based on her participation in a labor organization.
Former manufacturing associate Brenyetta Talley, 31, said she worked at the Auburn plant for six years and won five awards during her employment. She claimed she made it known she was a union supporter and felt she was a “prime target.”
Talley’s job position required her to lift 50 to 60 pounds at various times throughout the day. After she told her employer that she was pregnant, she said she was denied opportunities for lighter assignments.
“When I told them that I cannot do that due to my pregnancy, it was ‘We can’t accommodate personal restrictions,’” Talley said in an interview. “It was just awful.”
Alabama has no state-specific protections against pregnancy discrimination, so employers must refer to federal guidelines. In 2022, Rep. Neil Rafferty (D-Birmingham) introduced the Alabama Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, but it did not move past committee.
Talley said the plant had light duty options, including at least one position Talley said she qualified for, where workers were able to sit down and check parts for defects. She added that she was never given a reason as to why she could not participate in light duty beyond the refusal to accommodate personal restrictions.
Talley had a job hiatus during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but returned to work in April 2021. From that point onward, she said, she faced unfair treatment from supervisors at the plant.
She claimed one supervisor in particular would walk up and down her manufacturing line an average of 10 times each day, unless Talley was absent.
“I couldn’t even walk off the line to go to the restroom without her timing me,” Talley said.
In the summer of 2022, she found out she was pregnant and was moved twice to different positions on the line.
“I’m vouchering time on parts I’m not even aware of, signed off on nor trained on,” Talley said, adding that she was forced to handle more than 350 parts without knowing whether they were right or wrong.
Three days after moving to her second position, which she felt unqualified for, Talley’s supervisor met her shortly after she clocked in.
“She placed her hand around my shoulder,” Talley said. “Her specific words were ‘I guess it’s pick on Bree day.”
A supervisor told her there were concerns about her being on her phone for too long. Talley said she had been on a call with her doctor. She was told she was being placed on an internal investigation, then was sent back down to work before finding out she was terminated just before 3:30 p.m.
“My termination paperwork was already typed up, I feel like, because there’s no way you can place someone on the investigation on the same day at 7:11 and conclude that investigation at 3:26,” she said. “You heard my voice when I said this is why I’m for the union and this is why I signed a union card.”
Talley filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board in August.
A spokesperson for IUE-CWA wrote that GE Auburn workers began their union campaign in the spring and officially filed their petition at the National Labor Relations Board office in Birmingham in August 2022. They are waiting on the board to set an election date.
A GE spokesperson wrote in a statement to AL.com that the company does not tolerate discrimination.
“GE is proud to employ more than 230 people at our Auburn facility, where we are committed to providing and upholding equal employment opportunity for all our employees,” the spokesperson wrote. “We have zero tolerance for unlawful discrimination or retaliation of any kind, and have a strong record of working with all employees across our global facilities, regardless of representational status.”
Sarah Swetlik is a gender and politics reporter at AL.com. She is supported through a partnership with Report for America. Contribute to support the team here.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.
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Prosecutors Collected 4 Terabytes Of Evidence In Steve Bannon Fraud Probe
Prosecutors Collected 4 Terabytes Of Evidence In Steve Bannon Fraud Probe https://digitalalabamanews.com/prosecutors-collected-4-terabytes-of-evidence-in-steve-bannon-fraud-probe/
Attorneys for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon were unable to convince a judge Tuesday that they should be given a year to go through four terabytes of data and documents collected by prosecutors in their investigation.
Instead, New York County Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan gave Bannon four months to file his first motions in the criminal fraud case.
Bannon was charged in September with money laundering, conspiracy and a scheme to defraud, for his alleged role in an organization that raised millions on the promise they would privately build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the indictment, Bannon and the group, called We Build the Wall, are accused of pocketing some of those donations. Their trial will be scheduled for November 2023, Merchan said Tuesday.
Bannon’s attorneys asked for a year to process the information, saying there’s “no possible way we can go over the materials” in just a few months, but Merchan gave them until February 6, 2023.
Bannon, who was ordered in September to surrender his passport and attend all hearings in the case, arrived in a green jacket and untucked black button-down shirt. He has been charged with two counts of money laundering in the second degree, two counts of conspiracy in the fourth degree, a scheme to defraud in the first degree and conspiracy in the fifth degree.
Asked by a CBS News reporter if he believed any We Build the Wall executives cooperated against him prior to his indictment, Bannon replied, “I don’t know.”
Bannon added that prosecutors “haven’t shown me anything yet.”
Steve Bannon outside a Manhattan criminal courtroom on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022.
Graham Kates
Bannon has entered a not guilty plea in the case and previously called the charges “nonsense.”
Bannon was indicted on federal charges in a similar case in August 2020 along with three other people associated with We Build the Wall. Bannon was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump in the federal case, in which two others, Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato, have entered guilty pleas. Proceedings for another defendant, Timothy Shea, ended in a mistrial and Shea will be retried, according to federal prosecutors.
An attorney for We Build the Wall, which also entered a not guilty plea in the New York case, said during the hearing Tuesday that the organization may not have enough funds to pay for his services.
Bannon’s indictment comes as criminal investigations hover over many in former President Donald Trump’s orbit.
Merchan is also presiding over the Trump Organization’s fraud and tax evasion case, which goes to trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Oct. 24. The company has entered a not guilty plea in the case. A block south is a civil court, where another judge has for three years overseen proceedings that led to a massive lawsuit filed on Sept. 21 by the New York attorney general, who is seeking $250 million and an end to Trump doing business in New York. The Trumps and their company deny the allegations in the lawsuit.
Two miles away, in federal court in Brooklyn, Thomas Barrack, a billionaire friend of Trump’s and 2016 inauguration committee chair, is currently on trial on charges of acting as an unregistered foreign agent in an effort to sway U.S. foreign policy in favor of the United Arab Emirates’ interests. Barrack denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.
The ornate stone lobby in that courthouse, the Raymond J. Dearie Atrium, is named for a semi-retired federal judge who was recently called upon to serve as a special master in a federal lawsuit filed by Trump. He sued the U.S. Department of Justice in August after it served a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, seizing White House files, some of which were labeled “Top Secret.”
Bannon was found guilty in July of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He could face up to two years in prison when he’s sentenced this month.
Federal investigators probing the Jan. 6 attack have subpoenaed more than 40 Trump allies and supporters, including several associated with the fundraising PAC Save America. No charges have been filed in connection with that investigation.
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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Halt DOJ Review Of Classified Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago
Trump Asks Supreme Court To Halt DOJ Review Of Classified Documents Seized From Mar-A-Lago https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-asks-supreme-court-to-halt-doj-review-of-classified-documents-seized-from-mar-a-lago/
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump filed an emergency appeal at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking it to temporarily block the Justice Department from reviewing classified documents seized at his Florida estate in early August.
The appeal came days after a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said investigators could retain the classified documents and review them as part of a criminal investigation. The documents, the appeals court reasoned, belong to the government, not Trump.
Despite nominating three associate justices during his time in the White House – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – Trump’s record at the Supreme Court has been spotty, at best. The high court repeatedly brushed aside pro-Trump efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election, for instance.
Appeals: Court grants DOJ investigative access to Trump classified documents
District: Judge approves special master to review documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
The litigation stems from an Aug. 8 FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, which came as part of a federal investigation into allegations he took classified documents from the White House when he left office. A district court prohibited authorities from reviewing 11,000 documents and appointed a special master to assess whether Trump could keep some of the papers out of the government’s hands.
The appeals court blocked a narrow but critical part of that decision, ruling that criminal investigators could continue to review – and would not have to turn over to the special master – about 100 documents that were marked as classified.
Two of the three appeals court judges were nominated by Trump. The third was nominated by former President Barack Obama. The decision was unanimous.
Because the case is filed on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket, the justices could resolve the dispute relatively quickly – potentially within a matter of days.
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Trump And GOP Defend Herschel Walker After Abortion Accusation Rocks Georgia Senate Race
Trump And GOP Defend Herschel Walker After Abortion Accusation Rocks Georgia Senate Race https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-and-gop-defend-herschel-walker-after-abortion-accusation-rocks-georgia-senate-race/
Former President Donald Trump and leaders of top GOP political organizations leapt to the defense of Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker on Tuesday, after a bombshell report accused the anti-abortion Republican of allegedly paying for a woman’s abortion years earlier.
“Herschel has properly denied the charges against him, and I have no doubt he is correct,” Trump said in a statement on his Twitter-like platform Truth Social.
The post from Trump, who has endorsed Walker and campaigned with him in Georgia, aligned with statements of support from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a PAC closely tied to Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Multiple anti-abortion groups also defended Walker on Tuesday.
Walker called the report “a flat-out lie” and vowed to file a defamation lawsuit against the news outlet by Tuesday morning. Spokespeople for Walker’s campaign have not responded to repeated questions about whether that lawsuit has been filed.
Scott Paradise, a spokesman for Walker’s campaign, tweeted that the candidate had a major fundraising boost in the wake of the Daily Beast’s story being published. Paradise did not share any specific fundraising data in those tweets.
The Daily Beast’s article Monday night marked the latest, and possibly largest, blow to the former NFL star’s scandal-plagued Senate bid, just weeks before the Nov. 8 midterm election.
It comes as Walker and his Democratic rival, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, appear to be neck-and-neck in polls in the key swing state. The Senate fight in Georgia, a purple state that President Joe Biden narrowly won over Trump in 2020, is one of several key races that could determine which party controls the Senate.
The Daily Beast quoted an anonymous woman who said she became pregnant when she and Walker were dating in 2009, when he was not married, and that he “urged her to get an abortion.” The report said the woman supported her claims with a receipt from the abortion clinic, a “get well” card from Walker and an image of a personal check signed by Walker.
The article spurred Walker’s own adult son Christian to speak out against him in a series of furious social media posts.
“You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence,” Christian Walker wrote.
But while Christian Walker appears to have disavowed his father’s Senate bid, the Republican Party’s leaders and institutions are standing by his campaign.
“Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats,” Trump said in his statement. The former president, whose 2016 campaign was also marred by personal scandals, said of Walker, “They are trying to destroy a man who has true greatness in his future, just as he had athletic greatness in his past.”
“It’s very important for our Country and the Great State of Georgia that Herschel Walker wins this Election,” Trump wrote. “With all that Herschel has accomplished, when you come from Georgia, and you see the name Herschel Walker when voting, it will be very hard to resist. Don’t!”
NRSC spokesman Chris Hartline said in a statement, “Democrats are losing in Georgia and are on the verge of losing the majority, so they and their media allies are doing what they always do — attack Republicans with innuendo and lies.”
“Democrats and the media have tried to stir up nonsense about what has or hasn’t happened in Herschel Walker’s past because they want to distract from what’s happening in the present,” Hartline said.
As a Senate candidate, Walker has called for a total ban on abortion, and he recently said he has “always been for life.”
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the chairman of the NRSC, later came out with an even more forceful message, claiming Democrats “cranked up the smear machine” because Walker is winning.
“When the Democrats are losing, as they are right now, they lie and cheat and smear their opponents. That’s what’s happening right now,” Scott said, even though polling averages currently show Warnock beating Walker in a narrow contest.
“Herschel has denied these allegations and the NRSC and Republicans stand with him, and Georgians will stand with him too,” Scott said.
The Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-linked super PAC that has spent big on several key races, vowed to stand by Walker.
“We are full speed ahead in Georgia,” the PAC’s president, Steven Law, said in a statement. “This election is about the future of the country — Herschel Walker will make things better, Raphael Warnock is making it worse. Anything else is a distraction.”
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, accused “desperate Democrats and liberal media” of turning to “anonymous sources and character assassination.”
“This is an attempt to distract from Warnock’s record of failure resulting in rising costs and out of control crime,” McDaniel tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “Herschel Walker will deliver a safer and more prosperous Georgia, and the RNC will continue to invest in the Senate race.”
The reporting on Walker allegedly paying for an abortion arrived in an election cycle where abortion has become a top issue for many Democratic voters. The Supreme Court’s late-June ruling overturning Roe v. Wade re-shaped Democrats’ messaging, and appears to have galvanized voter registration among women and young voters.
Two major anti-abortion groups, which seek to end the procedure nationwide, said Tuesday that they are standing with Walker.
“Hershel Walker has denied these allegations in the strongest possible terms and we stand firmly alongside him,” said Mallory Carroll, spokeswoman for a super PAC linked to SBA Pro-Life America, in a statement.
Another group, National Right to Life, said, “The anonymous attack on Herschel Walker is just the latest in a series of attempted Democratic character assassinations going back to the allegations against Justice Clarence Thomas.”
“National Right to Life stands behind its endorsement of Herschel Walker,” the NRLF said, accusing Warnock of voting “to pay for thousands of abortions.”
“Herschel Walker wants to protect unborn children while Raphael Warnock wants to see them die through unlimited abortion,” NRLF said.
Meanwhile, an aide to incumbent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, stopped short of backing Walker.
“As he has said repeatedly throughout this campaign, the governor is laser focused on sharing his record of results and vision for his second term with hardworking Georgians, and raising the resources necessary to fund the advertising, ground game, and voter turnout operation needed to ensure Republican victories up and down the ballot on November 8th,” Kemp advisor Cody Hall said, NBC News reported.
Walker’s personal life has dominated coverage of his Senate campaign. His ex-wife Cindy Grossman accused him of threatening to kill her, and Walker confirmed on the campaign trail that he has more children than were previously known.
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Del McCoury Wins Big At 33rd Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards
Del McCoury Wins Big At 33rd Annual IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards https://digitalalabamanews.com/del-mccoury-wins-big-at-33rd-annual-ibma-bluegrass-music-awards/
The annual homecoming of musicians and industry leaders within the international bluegrass community (IBMA) gathered again in Raleigh, NC last week to celebrate and award the year’s best songs, albums, and players. Recognized yet again for his dynamic and immediately recognizable voice that has lent high, lonesome heart to over 30 records in his six-decade career, Del McCoury was crowned Male Vocalist of the Year for the fifth time. This is McCoury’s 19th IBMA award to date, maintaining the title of the most awarded artist in bluegrass history.
As with most things McCoury, it’s all in the family. Cody Kilby, guitar player for The Travelin’ McCourys (founded by his sons Rob and Ronnie, and longtime Del McCoury Band members, Jason Carter and Alan Bartram), was named Guitar Player of the Year for the first time in his career.
Largely regarded as a genre architect and wildly supportive of next-generation pickers, McCoury’s influence and impact were felt in every category of this year’s awards, and certainly in the World of Bluegrass music festival that tails the conference, of which tens of thousands of music fans from across the globe travel to attend. He first came on the bluegrass scene in 1963 playing with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys. In the 1980’s he found front-man success and began playing with his sons Rob and Ronnie McCoury (also founding members of The Travelin’ McCourys), relocating to Nashville. His influence and taste are as diverse and as varied as his namesake festival DelFest lineups—having collaborated with the likes of Phish, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Steve Earle, and countless expected and unexpected others.
At 83, McCoury refuses to slow down and why would he? Playing music with family—and friends who feel like family—to loving and appreciative fans continues to keep the bluegrass patriarch feeling young. The DMB tour rolls on with tour dates from mid-October to mid-November of this year, all while planning for DelFest 2023 which takes place annually over Memorial Day weekend in beautiful Cumberland, MD. A full list of remaining tour dates for 2022 is below. For more information on DelFest 2023, please visit www.delfest.com.
On tour:
Oct. 14 – Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que – Grovetown, GA
Oct. 15 – Bloomin’ Bluegrass – Farmers Branch, TX
Oct. 21 – Sellersville Theater – Sellersville, PA
Oct. 22 – Rams Head – Hammondsport, NY (co-bill with The Travelin’ McCourys)
Nov. 10 – Walhalla Performing Arts Center – Walhalla, SC
Nov. 11 – Renfro Valley Barn Dance – Mount Vernon, KY
Nov. 12 – Industrial Strenght Bluegrass – Wilmington, OH
Nov. 13 – Library Theater – Hoover, AL
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Musk Offers To End Legal Fight Pay $44B To Buy Twitter
Musk Offers To End Legal Fight, Pay $44B To Buy Twitter https://digitalalabamanews.com/musk-offers-to-end-legal-fight-pay-44b-to-buy-twitter/
Elon Musk is abandoning his legal battle to back out of buying Twitter by offering to go through with his original $44 billion bid for the social media platform.
The mercurial Tesla CEO made the offer in a letter to Twitter, which the company disclosed in a filing Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The offer comes just two weeks before Twitter’s lawsuit seeking to force Musk to go through with the deal goes to trial in Delaware Chancery Court.
In a statement, Twitter said it intends to close the transaction at $54.20 per share after receiving the letter from Musk.
Trading in Twitter’s stock, which had been halted for much of the day pending release of the news, resumed trading late Tuesday and soared almost 22% to $51.80.
Musk’s proposal is the latest twist in a high-profile saga involving the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms. Much of the drama has played out on Twitter itself, with Musk — who has more than 100 million followers — lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.
A letter from Musk’s lawyer dated Monday and disclosed by Twitter in a securities filing said Musk would close the merger signed in April provided that the Delaware Chancery Court “enter an immediate stay” of Twitter’s lawsuit against him and adjourn the trial scheduled to begin in two weeks.
By completing the deal, Musk essentially gave Twitter what it was seeking from the court — “specific performance” of the contract with Musk, meaning he would have to go through with the purchase at the original price. The contract Musk signed also has a $1 billion breakup fee.
Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University, said he’s not surprised by Musk’s turnaround, especially ahead of a scheduled deposition of Musk by Twitter attorneys starting Thursday that was “not going to be pleasant.”
“On the legal merits, his case didn’t look that strong,” Talley said. “It kind of seemed like a pretty simple buyer’s remorse case.”
If Musk were to lose the trial, the judge could not only force him to close the deal but also impose interest payments that would have increased its cost, Talley said.
What did surprise Talley is that Musk doesn’t appear to be trying to renegotiate the deal. Even a modest price reduction might have given Musk a “moral victory” and the ability to say he got something out of the protracted dispute, Talley said.
Neither Twitter nor attorneys for Musk responded to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Musk has been trying to back out of the deal for several months after signing on to buy the San Francisco company in April. Shareholders have already approved the sale, and legal experts say Musk faced a huge challenge to defend against Twitter’s lawsuit, which was filed in July.
Musk claimed that Twitter under-counted the number of fake accounts on its platform, and Twitter sued when Musk announced the deal was off.
Musk’s argument largely rested on the allegation that Twitter misrepresented how it measures the magnitude of “spam bot” accounts that are useless to advertisers. Most legal experts believe he faced an uphill battle to convince Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the court’s head judge, that something changed since the April merger agreement that justifies terminating the deal.
Legal experts said Musk may have anticipated that he would lose. Things haven’t been going well for him in court recently, with the judge ruling more frequently in Twitter’s favor on evidentiary matters, said Ann Lipton, an associate law professor at Tulane University. The judge’s denied several of Musk’s discovery requests, Lipton said.
It’s also possible that Musk’s co-investors in the deal were starting to get nervous about how the case was proceeding, she said.
Musk’s main argument for terminating the deal – that Twitter was misrepresenting how it measured its “spam bot” problem – also didn’t appear to be going well as Twitter had been working to pick apart Musk’s attempts to get third-party data scientists to bolster his concerns.
Twitter now has options in the case and doesn’t necessarily have to accept a new offer from Musk, said Robert Anderson, a law professor at Pepperdine University.
“Twitter could still be concerned that the same thing might happen again without some additional security,” Anderson said. “They’re going to want some assurance that the deal is going to happen right away.”
Columbia’s Talley said he would insist on Musk putting money into an escrow account until the deal is completed. Such an account could hold cash and/or Twitter shares, as a good-faith demonstration by Musk, Talley suggested.
Mysteriously, neither Musk nor Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal have written anything about the deal on Twitter, where many developments in the dispute have been aired. Many of Musk’s tweets in the past 24 hours have been about a divisive proposal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drawing the ire of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Musk argued in a tweet Monday that to reach peace Russia should be allowed to keep the Crimea Peninsula that it seized in 2014. He also said Ukraine should adopt a neutral status, dropping a bid to join NATO following Russia’s partial mobilization of reservists.
If the deal does go through, Musk may be stuck with a company he damaged with repeated statements denoucing fake accounts, Susannah Streeter, senior markets analyst for Hargreaves Lansdown in the United Kingdom, wrote in an investor note. “This is an important metric considered to be key for future revenue streams via paid advertising or for subscriptions on the site, and his relentless scrutiny of Twitter’s figures over the last few months is likely to prompt questions from potential advertising partners,” she wrote.
If Musk were to lose, among the remedies that would favor Twitter is a court order to go through with the deal. The Chancery Court last year forced private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. to go through with its $550 million buyout of DecoPac, a company based in Minnesota that calls itself the world’s largest supplier of cake decorating supplies to professional decorators and bakeries. The case was emblematic of the court’s common — though not uniform — resolution of enforcing contractual obligations on buyers.
Other options include Musk being forced to pay the breakup fee each side agreed to if deemed responsible for the deal falling through. Or he might have to pay off a larger amount without actually buying the company for $44 billion.
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Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.
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Exclusive: Banks Divert Gold Supply From India To China Turkey
Exclusive: Banks Divert Gold Supply From India To China, Turkey https://digitalalabamanews.com/exclusive-banks-divert-gold-supply-from-india-to-china-turkey/
A saleswoman displays a gold necklace inside a jewellery showroom on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya, a major gold buying festival, in Kolkata, India, May 7, 2019. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/File Photo
MUMBAI, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Gold-supplying banks have cut back shipments to India ahead of major festivals in favour of focusing on China, Turkey, and other markets where better premiums are offered, three bank officials and two vault operators told Reuters.
That could create scarcity in the world’s second-biggest market for gold, and force Indian buyers to start paying hefty premiums for supplies in the approaching peak-demand season.
Leading gold suppliers to India – which include ICBC Standard Bank, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) – usually import more gold ahead of festivals and store it in vaults.
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But vaults now hold less than 10% of the gold they did a year ago, the sources said on Tuesday.
“Ideally a few tonnes of gold should be there in vaults during this time of the year. But now we only have a few kilos,” said one Mumbai-based vault official.
JPMorgan, ICBC and Standard Chartered declined to comment.
In India, premiums over the international gold price benchmark have slid to $1-$2 an ounce, against around $4 this time last year.
Premiums were driven sharply lower by a now-closed loophole that led some Indian trading houses to import gold as lower-tariff platinum alloy, allowing some to even offer gold at a discount, Chanda Venkatesh, managing director of Hyderabad-based bullion merchant CapsGold, said.
That contrasts with the $20-45 premiums offered in top consumer China, helped by pent-up demand being released after COVID-related lockdowns, and $80 in Turkey, where gold imports have risen sharply against a backdrop of rampant inflation.
“Banks will sell where they will get a higher price,” said a Mumbai-based official with a leading bullion-supplying bank.
“Buyers in China and Turkey are right now paying a very high premium. There is no comparison when we equate it with the Indian market,” said the official, who declined to be named due to the bank’s policy.
India’s gold imports in September fell 30% from a year ago to 68 tonnes, while Turkish gold imports soared 543%. China’s net gold imports via Hong Kong jumped nearly 40% to a more than four-year high in August.
Indians will celebrate Dussehra, Diwali and Dhanteras in October, when buying gold is considered auspicious. After these festivals, the wedding season starts, which is one of the biggest drivers of gold purchases in India.
Thin vault stocks could force Indian buyers to pay hefty premiums to secure supplies, said a Mumbai-based bullion dealer with a bank.
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Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Additional reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Opinion | Trump Sued CNN For Defamation. Heres Where His Case Falls Apart.
Opinion | Trump Sued CNN For Defamation. Here’s Where His Case Falls Apart. https://digitalalabamanews.com/opinion-trump-sued-cnn-for-defamation-heres-where-his-case-falls-apart/
Did Donald Trump miss the news? Under Chris Licht, CNN’s new chairman and CEO, the network is embracing middle-of-the-road newscasting and has parted ways with high-profile staffers who spoke in blunt terms about Trump’s behavior in office.
If the former president is grateful, he’s not showing it. Trump filed suit against CNN on Monday, alleging that it has strived “to defame [Trump] in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically.” This culminated “in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election,” according to the complaint filed in a Florida federal court.
Trump is seeking $475 million in punitive damages. Like other Trump lawsuits, this one lacks substance — more bluntly, it’s garbage — with its only utility being as a guide to this country’s wide-ranging First Amendment protections. CNN, in earlier correspondence with Trump excerpted in the legal filing, told the former president’s counsel, “While we will address the merits of any lawsuit should one be filed, we note that you have not identified a single false or defamatory statement in your letter.”
Although Trump’s financial demands run to nine figures, the document behind them is a flimsy 29 pages. It takes issue with statements aired on CNN that accuse Trump of pushing the “big lie” and that characterize him with the “false … and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler.’ ” The most facially laughable of these, of course, is “Russian lackey,” which is not only an innocuous put-down but also rests, in part, on one of the most infamous moments in U.S. diplomatic history — when then-President Trump sided with Russia over U.S. intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
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The other allegedly “defamatory labels” are no such thing. Here are a few claims in the complaint, followed by explanations as to why they aren’t defamatory:
· Psychiatrist Allen Frances told then-CNN host Brian Stelter in August 2019, “Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin and Mao were in the last century.” Frances also said: “He may be responsible for many more million deaths than they were. He needs to be contained but he needs to be contained by attacking his policies, not his person. It’s crazy for us to be destroying the climate our children will live in. It’s crazy to be giving tax cuts to the rich that will add trillions of dollars to the debt our children will have to pay. It’s crazy to be destroying our democracy by claiming that the press and the courts of the enemy of the people.” Trump argues in his complaint that PolitiFact cited part of Frances’s statement as a “Pants on Fire” falsehood.
This was a dark moment for CNN. Stelter later admitted that he should have challenged Frances (he cited technical problems, saying he hadn’t heard the statement). But the unspecific nature of the commentary and the way it’s couched — that Trump “may be” responsible for the deaths — place it in the realm of rhetorical hyperbole. Shameless commentary isn’t always libelous. “I’m reasonably confident that a court would rule that, taken in context, that passage is an expression of opinion by Dr. Frances about the human toll of policies Trump pursued, which is protected by the First Amendment,” Lee Levine, a longtime media defense attorney, tells me by email.
· House Democrats in March 2019 likened aspects of Trump’s rise to Hitler’s, as CNN reported then. According to the suit, “the ‘reporting’ is nothing more than self-serving pronouncements by political opponents of [Trump] and their news proxy (and political participant), CNN.”
Read the statements in question, and it’s clear why they’re not remotely defamatory. For instance, House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) said, “Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor of Germany. And he went about the business of discrediting institutions to the point that people bought into it.” Clyburn also said: “Nobody would have believed it now. But swastikas hung in churches throughout Germany. We had better be very careful.”
To defame someone, you must make a false statement that purports to be a fact about that person. In this instance, Clyburn is speaking to historical parallels and political trends, not launching the sort of ad hominem attacks necessary to win a defamation claim.
· CNN host Jake Tapper said on a show in January 2022: “There is a reason Trump was in Arizona, to push the legislature to disenfranchise the state’s voters based on all of his deranged election lies.”
Those italics are in the lawsuit, apparently seeking to highlight the defamatory sting of Tapper’s remarks. Except they are no such thing. It’s well established that Trump has been told, again and again, that his claims about a stolen election are false. His persistence in airing these claims suggests that he’s lying, though Trump’s lawyers have said that he “subjectively believes that the results of the 2020 presidential election turned on fraudulent voting activity in several key states.”
Even if Trump believed his own statements, however, Tapper’s commentary would be protected as hyperbole — a valued commodity in a democratic society.
CNN’s lawyers will also likely argue that the challenged statements in the suit are, to a large extent, protected as assertions of opinion — the very doctrine that Trump deployed to get out of a lawsuit brought by a Republican strategist in 2016.
The complaint also argues that CNN has treated Trump’s claims of a stolen election differently from various claims by Democrats in recent election cycles. Set aside for a moment the fact that Trump’s claims have been more persistent, more egregious and more impactful, as we all saw at the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021. Even if CNN had treated Democratic claims of voter fraud more favorably, that would be protected First Amendment activity. Just think what would happen to Fox News if slanted reporting amounted to libel.
· Licht held a conference call in June 2022 in which he expressed low regard for the wording “big lie,” a term with Nazi origins. “Since then,” reads the complaint, “CNN’s on-air personalities — including John King, Jake Tapper, John Avlon, Brianna Keilar, and Don Lemon, among others — have continued to use the phrase in describing [Trump and Trump’s] questions of election integrity despite an apparent admonition from their Chief Executive Officer.”
So what? This is a management issue for CNN, not a legal one.
Calling presidents liars, even when they’re honest, is a great American tradition. Trump, the greatest liar in American political history, stands no chance of upending it.
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Another Shift For NH GOP Senate Candidate On 2020 Election
Another Shift For NH GOP Senate Candidate On 2020 Election https://digitalalabamanews.com/another-shift-for-nh-gop-senate-candidate-on-2020-election/
HUDSON, N.H. (AP) — Don Bolduc isn’t making a full about-face, but the Republican nominee for Senate in New Hampshire can’t seem to stop shifting his position about whether the 2020 presidential election was legitimate.
The retired Army general claimed during his primary campaign that the White House race was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Then, after Bolduc won the Sept. 13 vote, he said it wasn’t. By Monday, at a town hall in Hudson, he said he doesn’t know what happened.
“I can’t say that it was stolen or not. I don’t have enough information,” Bolduc said in response to a voter’s question. “But what I can say is that we have irregularity.”
Bolduc, running against Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November, told a second voter who pressed him on the issue that he believes the election was marred by fraud. Then Bolduc suggested that the only way to hold Democrat Joe Biden responsible for what Bolduc considers impeachable offenses as president is to acknowledge his win.
“We have to be able to say, whether we agree with it or not, a constitutional process was followed to put him in the White House so we can then hold him accountable,” he said.
FILE – Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., speaks to reporters after signing papers to file for reelection June 10, 2022, at the Secretary of State’s office in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Kathy McCormack, File)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Kathy McCormack
Trump has called Bolduc a “strong guy, though guy,” but did not formally endorse the candidate in the primary. Like many others who relied on Trump’s backing or encouragement to help secure a nomination, Bolduc now must try to appeal to a broader swath of the electorate in the general election.
Nearly two years after Trump’s defeat, there has been no evidence of widespread fraud. Numerous reviews in the battleground states where Trump disputed his loss have affirmed the results, courts have rejected dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies, and even Trump’s own Department of Justice concluded the results were accurate.
Through it all, Bolduc’s position has wavered.
During a debate in August, Bolduc was clear: “I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals, saying that Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by my oath,” he said. “I’m not switching horses, baby.”
But two days after the GOP primary, he told Fox News that had since done “a lot of research” on the topic. “I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive about this, that the election was not stolen,” Bolduc said.
One voter who questioned Bolduc on the topic Monday said he was unsatisfied with the candidate’s response, but the other said he has her vote.
“I’m done when these treasonous people in the White House, in our government,” said Mary Margaret Burke of Hampstead. “They need to go, and we need to make that happen.”
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter, https://twitter.com/ap_politics
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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BREAKING: Trump Defends Herschel Walker SLAMS Fake News Media And Democrats
BREAKING: Trump Defends Herschel Walker, SLAMS ‘Fake News Media’ And Democrats https://digitalalabamanews.com/breaking-trump-defends-herschel-walker-slams-fake-news-mediaand-democrats/
Former President Donald Trump released a statement slamming “Fake News Media” and the Democrats after Georgia Republican Candidate for Senate and former NFL star Herschel Walker was confronted with allegations that he paid for a then-girlfriend’s abortion in 2009.
Walker was also attacked by his son Christian Walker, who accused his father of lying and “making a mockery” of his family.
Trump said in the statement: “Herschel Walker is being slandered and maligned by the Fake News Media and obviously, the Democrats. Interestingly, I’ve heard many horrible things about his opponent, Raphael Warnock, things that nobody should be talking about, so we don’t.”
Trump continued by saying that Walker “has properly denied the charges against him, and I have no doubt he is correct.”
“They are trying to destroy a man who has true greatness in his future, just as he had athletic greatness in his past,” the former president said. “It’s very important for our Country and the Great State of Georgia that Herschel Walker wins this Election. With all that Herschel has accomplished, when you come from Georgia, and you see the name Herschel Walker when voting, it will be very hard to resist. Don’t!”
Walker had previously introduced Trump at a Cobb County rally in 2020, and Trump has endorsed Walker in his race for Senate—a seal of approval that
has proven to be valuable.“
Trump’s statements come after a report from the Daily Beast that claimed that a woman, unidentified due to privacy concerns, had “conceived a child while they were dating in 2009” and that he “urged her to get an abortion.”
“Walker responded to the attacks by releasing a statement on Monday night on Twitter stating that he would be suing the Daily Beast.
“This is a flat-out lie – and I deny this in the strongest possible terms,” Walker wrote.
“This is another repugnant hatchet job from a democrat activist disguised as a reporter who has obsessively attacked my family and tried to tear me down since this race started. He’s harassed friends of mine, asking if I fathered their children. He’s called my children ‘secret’ because I didn’t want to use them as campaign props in a political campaign.
“Now, they’re using an anonymous source to further slander me. They will do anything to hold onto power. It’s disgusting, gutter politics. I’m not taking this anymore. I planning to sue the Daily Beast for this defamatory lie. It will be filed tomorrow morning.”
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Man Who Crashed Into House Wanted In Murder Case: Mobile Police
Man Who Crashed Into House Wanted In Murder Case: Mobile Police https://digitalalabamanews.com/man-who-crashed-into-house-wanted-in-murder-case-mobile-police/
Billy Norwood, 49, was arrested and taken to the hospital for a non-life-threatening injury. Norwood will be transported to Metro Jail after he gets released…
Billy Norwood, 49, was arrested and taken to the hospital for a non-life-threatening injury. Norwood will be transported to Metro Jail after he gets released from the hospital.
by: Brett Greenberg
Posted: Oct 4, 2022 / 01:32 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 4, 2022 / 01:32 PM CDT
Billy Norwood, 49, was arrested and taken to the hospital for a non-life-threatening injury. Norwood will be transported to Metro Jail after he gets released…
Billy Norwood, 49, was arrested and taken to the hospital for a non-life-threatening injury. Norwood will be transported to Metro Jail after he gets released from the hospital.
by: Brett Greenberg
Posted: Oct 4, 2022 / 01:32 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 4, 2022 / 01:32 PM CDT
MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) — The Mobile Police Department has identified the man who led officers on a police chase and crashed into a home off Ryland Street late Monday night, according to a release from the MPD. Norwood hit an abandoned house at the 1300 block of Dr. M.L. King Avenue.
Billy Norwood, 49, was arrested and taken to the hospital for a non-life-threatening injury. Norwood will be transported to Metro Jail after he gets released from the hospital.
Norwood is previously wanted by the MPD and was considered to be “armed and dangerous” in connection to a Aug. 15 shooting that left one dead.
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