Category: Latest News

Now out of office, Trump may have to face tax questions

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However his impeachment trial ends, Trump faces an IRS decision on a massive refund and may no longer be able to conceal his tax returns

Once his impeachment trial concludes and former president Donald Trump returns to his business, he will face some obvious challenges, such as declining real estate income and investigations from New York authorities.

But he may also have to finally face two tax issues that have been simmering in the background, either of which experts say could carry significant consequences should they materialize now that he is out of office.

One is a massive income tax refund Trump received before entering office, according to the New York Times, one that has quietly been under a years-long review by the Internal Revenue Service and a little-known congressional panel, the Joint Committee on Taxation. Continue reading.

Republican Senators Joke About Trump’s Deadly Incitement To Rioters

On the second day of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, House managers presented evidence to support the charge of incitement to insurrection on which Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on January 13.

Republican lawmakers are treating the proceedings as a joke, ignoring the evidence of the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters that left five dead and deriding the entire thing as a “political stunt.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday tweeted a video of herself walking toward the Senate chamber for the second day of the trial. Continue reading.

Justice Dept. leaders repeatedly stymied requests for search of Giuliani’s records

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Justice Department political leaders repeatedly stymied efforts by federal prosecutors in Manhattan to obtain a search warrant last year for the digital records of Rudolph W. Giuliani, former president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, frustrating career government attorneys and effectively leaving the decision to the incoming Biden administration, people familiar with the matter said.

The move, first reported Wednesday by CNN, ultimately may have a limited impact on the ongoing federal investigation of Giuliani, as officials said prosecutors simply could renew their request. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a case that remains politically sensitive.

Still, the passage of time is unhelpful to any investigation, as documents could be destroyed and witnesses’ memories may fade. And the matter will present a critical first test for President Biden’s Justice Department, where officials are trying to separate the institution from political matters and restore public faith that it will enforce the law impartially. Continue reading.

How Right-Wing Radio Stoked Anger Before the Capitol Siege

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Shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other talk radio stars promoted debunked claims of a stolen election and urged listeners to “fight back.”

Two days before a mob of Trump supporters invaded the United States Capitol, upending the nation’s peaceful transition of power and leaving at least five people dead, the right-wing radio star Glenn Beck delivered a message to his flock of 10.5 million listeners: “It is time to fight.”

“It is time to rip and claw and rake,” Mr. Beck said on his Jan. 4 broadcast. “It is time to go to war, as the left went to war four years ago.”

A former Fox News host, Mr. Beck had speculated for weeks about baseless claims of voter fraud in the presidential race. He told listeners that Donald J. Trump had taught conservatives that “you don’t have to cower anymore, you don’t have to back down when ridiculed into oblivion. You can fight back.” Continue reading.

Biden holds first call as president with China’s Xi Jinping

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President Biden on Wednesday evening held his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office, raising thorny issues including human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.

The big picture: Ahead of the call, senior administration officials offered reporters the most detailed portrait to date of Biden’s policies toward China, and how they will build on — and diverge from — Donald Trump’s approach.

Driving the news: “President Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan,” according to a White House readout of the call. Continue reading.

The Memo: New riot footage stuns Trump trial

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Shocking new footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection was presented in the Senate chamber Wednesday, dismantling the idea that the second impeachment trial of former President Trump would produce no fresh information.

The presentation packed an enormous emotional punch. Its impact was visceral, even as most Americans need no reminder of a day that was a low point in the nation’s history.

Clips shown by Democratic impeachment managers revealed Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) narrowly escaping the mob and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) breaking into a run in the Capitol’s halls after apparently being urged to change direction by a police officer.

The officer in question was Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police, who has already won praise for diverting the mob of Trump supporters away from the Senate chamber at considerable risk to himself. Continue reading.

Conservative breaks down Fox News’ repeated promotion of lies and disinformation

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In the weeks leading up to the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building, opinion hosts at Fox News were more than happy to promote then-President Donald Trump’s bogus and debunked claims of widespread voter fraud. Never Trump conservative Max Boot, in a February 9 column for the Washington Post, slams the right-wing cable news outlet for pushing lies and disinformation in the weeks after the 2020 election — and for continuing to do it.

“Donald Trump is now on trial in the Senate for inciting a violent insurrection, but what about his collaborators?,” Boot writes. “Fox ‘News,’ Newsmax, One American News, and other right-wing outlets relentlessly pushed the ‘Big Lie’ that led to this attack. On January 4, for example, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson accused ‘virtually every power center on Earth’ of working ‘tirelessly.… to bypass voters and get Joe Biden to the White House’…. Where is the accountability for right-wing propagandists like Carlson, who recklessly splashed around the lighter fluid that ignited on January 6?

Fox News is presently facing a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit from voting technology provider Smartmatic for promoting the debunked conspiracy theory that its technology was used to help Biden steal the election. The lawsuit specifically mentions Fox News hosts Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo as well as Lou Dobbs, whose show on Fox Business was abruptly canceled last week. Continue reading.

GOP aide’s friends texted her right-wing conspiracy theories as she hid from Capitol rioters

GOP aide Leslie Shedd barricaded herself in her office as pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But as she prayed for her safety, friends were texting her right-wing disinformation as the attack unfolded, according to an account published by VICE.

“As friends and family texted to make sure she was safe, two claimed in separate conversations that the rioters were really left-wing agitators in disguise, not the Trump supporters who’d flocked by the thousands to a rally where the president claimed the election was stolen from him. A third floated a conspiracy theory involving the Capitol Police,” VICE’s Cameron Joseph reports. 

One friend texted Shedd that the people storming the Capitol were really “BLM and antifa people” disguised as Trump supporters.  Continue reading.

New security video shows harrowing details of Capitol attack

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The House Democrats prosecuting former President Trump‘s impeachment case unveiled harrowing new video footage on Wednesday, lending a new glimpse of just how close the rioters came to former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. senators as they breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The new footage, released on the second day of Trump’s Senate trial, takes advantage of Capitol security cameras positioned around the complex, depicting both the violent intentions of the mob and the heroics of several Capitol Police officers, including Eugene Goodman, who diverted the mob away from senators on the chamber floor. 

“This is now effectively a riot.”

The videos are meant to drive home the Democrats’ argument that the former president purposefully stirred up his supporters with claims of a stolen election and then encouraged them to march on the Capitol to block the vote certifying the victory of his opponent, President Biden.  Continue reading.

Biden announces new Pentagon task force on China

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President Biden used a visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday to announce a new department-wide task force to “chart a strong path forward on China-related matters.”

Why it matters: Biden is emphasizing early in his tenure that China will be a top priority.

What he’s saying: Biden said the task force would review U.S. “strategy and operation concepts, technology, force posture” and more to produce policy recommendations within a few months. Continue reading.