Category: Latest News

Capitol rioter claims he was ‘duped’ by Trump, lawyer says

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The attorney for Anthony Chansley, the so-called QAnon Shaman who made rounds on social media for his outlandish outfit during the Capitol riot, is blaming former President Trump for his client’s involvement. 

“He regrets very, very much having not just been duped by the president but by being in a position where he allowed that duping to put him in a position to make decisions he should not have made,” Al Watkins, a lawyer for Chansley, told Missouri’s NBC-affiliated television station KSDK.

Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, was arrested on Jan. 9 for his role in the riot. At the time, Chansley told NBC News he saw nothing wrong with his actions.  Continue reading.

House Ways & Means Committee reviews recommendations to deliver racial justice in Minnesota

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Yesterday, the Minnesota House Ways and Means Committee reviewed the House Select Committee on Racial Justice’s report to the Legislature. Rep. Rena Moran (DFL – Saint Paul), who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, and Rep. Ruth Richardson (DFL – Mendota Heights) served as co-chairs of the Select Committee.

The final version of the report, which the Select Committee approved in December, was released today. It calls on the Legislature to act to dismantle racism through a series of policy recommendations in areas such as economic development, housing, education, public safety, health and human services, and environmental justice.

“It’s time for the Minnesota Legislature to deliberately and thoughtfully devote the capacity we have to address the significant, numerous, and urgent inequities Black, Indigenous, and people of color continue to face,” Rep. Moran said. “It’s about undoing past and present inequities in our laws and practices and working toward building a state and future that positions Minnesota to lead the nation in achieving racial equity.”

Continue reading “House Ways & Means Committee reviews recommendations to deliver racial justice in Minnesota”

House formally sends impeachment to Senate, putting Trump on trial for Capitol riot

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House Democrats on Monday sent to the Senate their single impeachment article against former President Trump, officially putting him on trial for his role in the deadly mob attack on the Capitol earlier in the month.

The ceremonial delivery — a somber cross-Capitol march performed by the nine Democratic House members who will prosecute the case — was a legal formality. The House had impeached Trump 12 days ago, and Senate leaders have agreed to postpone the start of the public trial until the week of Feb. 8.

The timeline itself has been strategic, allowing the newly seated President Biden some breathing room to install several top Cabinet officials and advance the debate over another massive package of coronavirus relief before the Senate becomes consumed by the highly contentious impeachment trial.  Continue reading.

Biden DOJ nixes last-minute Trump administration memo on LGBTQ rights

A Supreme Court ruling last June concluded that a half-century-old prohibition on sex discrimination in employment applies equally to discrimination against gay and lesbian workers as well as those who are transgender.

The Justice Department has taken its first major step under President Joe Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s resistance to expansion of rights accorded to LGBTQ Americans.

Greg Friel, the lawyer just named to oversee the Justice Department’s civil rights division on a temporary basis, issued a directive Friday revoking a 22-page memorandum a Trump appointee released earlier this week taking a cramped view of a major Supreme Court decision last year that longstanding federal law protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination at work.

In withdrawing the parting-shot memo from the prior administration, Friel said the stance taken in the memo conflicted with a first-day executive order Biden issued promising a vigorous battle against discrimination based on “gender identity or sexual orientation.” Continue reading.

Conservatives are accidentally telling on themselves with their new complaint about Biden

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President Joe Biden’s inaugural speech won praise from many observers, who appreciated his calls for unity and his unflinching but still optimistic assessment of the problems the country faces and the path forward. But many Republicans and conservatives lashed out against Biden in the days that followed, picking up on what others might have assumed were innocuous passages and using them as a source of outrage.

The talking points quickly became quite common on the right, revealing disturbing trends in right-wing thought.

On Fox News, Guest Dan Henninger said of Biden’s speech: Continue reading.

Trump is gone, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is keeping up the cult

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President Biden had been on the job for not quite 28 hours when Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, announced in a video clip from the Capitol basement, sans mask, that she had “just filed articles of impeachment on President Joe Biden.”

She filed these articles “on” him based on things he allegedly did years before becoming president, because his very “residing in the White House is a threat to national security.”

Republicans love to say that Democrats were out to get Donald Trump from the start because one of their members, Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.), first filed impeachment articles 11 months after Trump took office. Now we have H. Res. 57, “Impeaching Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States, for abuse of power…” — filed on Biden’s first full day in office. Continue reading.

An FAA Employee And QAnon Follower Was On The FBI’s Radar. Then He Stormed The Capitol.

Kevin Strong reportedly believed that the insurrection on Jan. 6 would lead to World War III.

A Federal Aviation Administration employee who subscribed to the QAnon conspiracy theory was already under FBI investigation when he took part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, federal authorities disclosed this week.

The FBI initiated an investigation into Kevin Strong, a FAA employee in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 30, a week before the Capitol siege. A witness told the FBI that Strong believed he had “Q clearance” and that World War III was going to occur on Jan. 6. Strong, the witness said, hung a “WW1WGA” flag at his home, and believed QAnon would cover the cost of a truck he recently purchased.

Strong is now facing federal charges. An affidavit from FBI Special Agent Erin Norwood states that there is probable cause that Strong violated a law that makes it a crime to enter a restricted building without lawful authority with intent to impede or disrupt the orderly conduct of government, as well as a law that makes it illegal to disrupt the orderly conduct of a session of Congress. Continue reading.

Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General

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Trying to find another avenue to push his baseless election claims, Donald Trump considered installing a loyalist.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.

The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.

The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed? Continue reading.

Judge says Treasury must give Trump 72 hours before releasing tax info to Democrats

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A federal judge on Friday issued a temporary order that will require the Treasury Department to give former President Trump‘s personal lawyers 72 hours notice before providing Trump’s tax returns to House Democrats.

Judge Trevor McFadden, a judge in federal district court in Washington, D.C., appointed by Trump, directed the Treasury Department and IRS to provide Trump’s personal lawyers with the three-days notice before providing the former president’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The order lasts until Feb. 5. Continue reading.

Real estate agent charged in Capitol riot blocked from using PayPal for donations

Jenna Ryan was charged last week after federal authorities said she breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.

A Texas real estate agent who took a private jet to the riot at the U.S. Capitol is blocked from using PayPal to accept donations, the company said.

Jennifer Ryan, who goes by Jenna Ryan on social media, was charged last week after federal authorities said she breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 with other supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

The Dallas-based realtor was charged with disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful entry. Continue reading.