Category: Latest News

The feds say he’s an extremist leader who directed rioters. He also had top-secret clearance and worked for the FBI, attorney says.

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Navy veteran Thomas Edward Caldwell led a band of the Oath Keepers extremist group to Washington on Jan. 6 to storm the U.S. Capitol, federal prosecutors allege, helping to mastermind a violent plot to stop lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory.

But Caldwell’s attorney, Thomas K. Plofchan, says he isn’t just a retired lieutenant commander. Caldwell also had a top-secret security clearance and served as a section chief for the FBI after leaving the armed forces in 2009, Plofchan said.

Those details were revealed in a motion filed Monday asking a judge to release Caldwell from custody, citing his long military career and ability to pass vetting for the high-security clearance. His attorney also said that Caldwell has disabilities from his military service that would have prevented him from storming the Capitol. Continue reading.

5 takeaways from Day 2 of Trump’s impeachment trial

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Democratic House impeachment managers on Wednesday began formally laying out their case that President Donald Trump incited the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. They are allowed 16 hours, spread over two days, to make their arguments.

Below are some takeaways from Day 2 of the Senate impeachment trial.

1. The new video

Before Tuesday’s proceedings, the House impeachment team sent word that its presentation would include never-before-seen video. Continue reading.

As oceans rise, Democrats put all hands on deck for climate change

White House and congressional Democrats agree moving away from fossil fuels, creating green jobs are top priorities

As the 117th Congress enters its second month and the Biden administration fills out its Cabinet, Democrats in the executive and legislative branches of the federal government are in agreement that climate change deserves swift attention and in alignment that legislation to support the transition from fossil to clean energy is a good place to begin.

Even President Joe Biden’s nominees for director of national intelligence, secretary of Agriculture, Treasury secretary and deputy Defense secretary, not traditionally posts with ecological focuses, described climate change as a critical issue.

If there was doubt that the Senate under Democratic control would approach climate change as an all-hands-on-deck threat, Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., aimed to lay it to rest on Feb. 3, calling the warming globe “the existential threat of our time.” Continue reading.

DOJ asks Trump-appointed US attorneys to resign

The Justice Department on Tuesday asked US attorneys appointed by former President Donald Trump to submit their resignations, a turnover that spares two top prosecutors in Delaware and Connecticut overseeing two sensitive Trump-era investigations.

The resignations are effective February 28, US attorneys were told on a conference call with acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson, according to two Justice officials familiar with the matter. A number of acting US attorneys who aren’t Senate confirmed or who were appointed by the courts are expected to remain in their posts until a Biden appointee is approved by the Senate, prosecutors were told Tuesday.

Delaware US Attorney David Weiss has been asked to remain in office, where he is overseeing the tax probe of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. John Durham, appointed as special counsel by former Attorney General William Barr to reinvestigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, will also continue his work, but he is expected to resign as US attorney in Connecticut, a Justice official said. Continue reading.

Using Connections to Trump, Dershowitz Became Force in Clemency Grants

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The lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, who represented the former president in his first impeachment trial, used his access for a wide array of clients as they sought pardons or commutations.

WASHINGTON — By the time George Nader pleaded guilty last year to possessing child pornography and sex trafficking a minor, his once strong alliances in President Donald J. Trump’s inner circle had been eroded by his cooperation with the special counsel’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s team and its connections to Russia.

So as Mr. Nader sought to fight the charges and reduce his potential prison time, he turned to a lawyer with a deep reservoir of good will with the president and a penchant for taking unpopular, headline-grabbing cases: Alan M. Dershowitz.

Mr. Dershowitz told Mr. Nader’s allies that he had reached out to an official in the Trump administration and one in the Israeli government to try to assess whether they would support a plan for Mr. Nader to be freed from United States custody in order to resume a behind-the-scenes role in Middle East peace talks, and whether Mr. Trump might consider commuting his 10-year sentence. Continue reading.

Opinion: My fellow Republicans, convicting Trump is necessary to save America

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Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, represents Illinois’s 16th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Winston Churchill famously said, “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” All Americans, but especially my fellow Republicans, should remember this wisdom during the Senate’s trial of former president Donald Trump.

I say this as a lifelong Republican who voted to impeach Trump last month. Virtually all my colleagues on the right side of the aisle took the opposite path. Most felt it was a waste of time — political theater that distracted from bigger issues. The overwhelming majority of Senate Republicans appear to feel the same way about conviction.

But this isn’t a waste of time. It’s a matter of accountability. If the GOP doesn’t take a stand, the chaos of the past few months, and the past four years, could quickly return. The future of our party and our country depends on confronting what happened — so it doesn’t happen again. Continue reading.

‘Its Own Domestic Army’: How the G.O.P. Allied Itself With Militants

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Actions taken by paramilitary groups in Michigan last year, emboldened by President Donald J. Trump, signaled a profound shift in Republican politics and a national crisis in the making.

LANSING, Mich. — Dozens of heavily armed militiamen crowded into the Michigan Statehouse last April to protest a stay-at-home order by the Democratic governor to slow the pandemic. Chanting and stomping their feet, they halted legislative business, tried to force their way onto the floor and brandished rifles from the gallery over lawmakers below.

Initially, Republican leaders had some misgivings about their new allies. “The optics weren’t good. Next time tell them not to bring guns,” complained Mike Shirkey, the State Senate majority leader, according to one of the protest organizers. But Michigan’s highest-ranking Republican came around after the planners threatened to return with weapons and “militia guys signing autographs and passing out blow-up AR-15s to the kiddies on the Capitol lawn.”

“To his credit,” Jason Howland, the organizer, wrote in a social media post, Mr. Shirkey agreed to help the cause and “spoke at our next event.” Continue reading.

Lawyer for Rioter Accused of Pinning D.C. Cop With Shield Calls Trump ‘Un-Indicted Co-Conspirator’

He’s not the first alleged Capitol rioter to try the “Blame Trump” defense, but this Connecticut man might be the most aggressive yet.

Patrick Edward McCaughey III, 28, was charged last month with a slew of crimes, including assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, for his role in the siege. Specifically, he is accused of pinning a police officer against a doorway with a riot shield. But in a Monday motion for his release, his lawyers allege former President Donald Trump is “somewhat of a de facto un-indicted co-conspirator in this case” and thus his client should not be totally blamed for the violent incident. 

The motion adds that the 28-year-old came to the Capitol with his father to support Trump and “to implore his Representatives in Congress to investigate the many outstanding allegations of election fraud before they voted to certify the electors for President Biden.” Prosecutors allege McCaughey, who is being held in custody pending trial, is seen in photos and videos pinning an officer between a police riot shield and a Capitol door as he tried to storm the building—even as the cop cried out in pain. Continue reading.

Trump Claimed Election ‘Rigged’ Or ‘Stolen’ Over 100 Times Ahead Of Capitol Riot

Then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed more than 100 times that Democrats had “rigged” or “stolen” the 2020 election ahead of January’s deadly insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, a HuffPost analysis found.

In reviewing all of Trump’s tweets and speeches between Election Day on Nov. 3 and the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, HuffPost mapped out the rhetoric his followers absorbed as their defiance against President Joe Biden’s win mounted.

Over the course of those two months, Trump ― the most powerful politician in the country and, arguably, the entire world ― lied that the election was rigged at least 68 times and that it was stolen or in the process of being stolen at least 35 times. He made claims of voter fraud and ballot-counting irregularities more than 250 times, specifically making baseless claims that voting machines tossed or changed votes at least 45 times. Continue reading.

Trump Is Calling Us to Fight!’: Georgia Teen Charged in Capitol Riots

Prosecutors allege Bruno Cua—who recently got busted for allegedly blaring his horn from a MAGA-themed truck in his hometown—was at the front of the pack.

Federal prosecutors on Monday unsealed charges against a MAGA-loving Georgia teen who allegedly shoved a police officer to enter the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot and encouraged his social media followers for days to show up to Washington, D.C., to “fight.”

Bruno Joseph Cua, 18, was arrested Friday and charged with several crimes—including assault on a federal officer and civil disorder—for his role in the unprecedented siege. In a criminal complaint, prosecutors allege that after encouraging his social media followers for almost two weeks to support former President Donald Trump and protest against the election, the Georgia teenager stormed the Capitol.

The Milton, Georgia, resident is seen in several photos and videos at the Capitol wearing a MAGA hat and a sweatshirt adorned with an eagle—including a New Yorker video showing a slew of rioters fighting their way onto the Senate floor. Continue reading.