Headlines for 4-27-2023
🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson
🗽There is no power greater than a community discovering the truth and taking action to ensure it never happens again
The New York Times: Newsmax Ratings Climb After Tucker Carlson’s Exit at Fox: Newsmax, the niche conservative news channel that has long played David to Fox News’s Goliath, has seized on Tucker Carlson’s shock dismissal from its rival network and declared itself the true TV home for right-wing Americans. Viewership of Newsmax remains far below that of Fox News. But its audience at certain hours has doubled, and in some time slots tripled, in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Carlson’s exit — an abrupt spike that has turned heads in conservative circles and the cable news industry. On Monday evening, Eric Bolling’s 8 p.m. Newsmax program drew 531,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. One week earlier, it had 146,000. On Tuesday, Mr. Bolling’s audience grew to 562,000 viewers, equal to about 80 percent of Anderson Cooper’s CNN viewership that evening. Newsmax’s other prime-time shows also experienced big jumps.
POLITICO: DeSantis rivals are enjoying his feud with Disney. Here are the Republicans who’ve lashed out.: As Gov. Ron DeSantis grows his fight against Disney, some 2024 presidential candidates are lashing out at the Florida governor for his yearlong feud with the entertainment giant. On Wednesday, Disney sued DeSantis and his hand-picked oversight board for allegedly retaliating against the company and violating Disney’s First Amendment rights, among other claims. The feud started after DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law, where, shortly after, Disney issued a statement saying the bill “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”
NPR: Some state lawmakers say Tennessee expulsions highlight growing tensions: While the two Tennessee Democrats are now back in their seats, lawmakers in other parts of the country worry the debacle over decorum may foreshadow what's to come in their own state legislatures. Wednesday, Montana's House voted to formally punish state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Democrat who spoke out against a move to ban gender-affirming care for minors using controversial language. Republicans say she broke the rules of decorum and have barred her from attending or speaking during House session the rest of the legislative term. But Jake Grumbach, a professor of political science at the University of Washington, says what's happening in legislatures now has a lot more to do with national partisan battles than the specific politics of Georgia, Tennessee, Montana or any other state. "We're now seeing a huge amount of national tug of war over the direction of the country happening at the state level because that's where the political opportunities are," he says.
ABC News: E. Jean Carroll says Harvey Weinstein, #MeToo movement made her come forward about Trump: E. Jean Carroll returned to the witness stand on Thursday in her federal battery and defamation lawsuit against former President Donald Trump. Defense attorney Joe Tacopina suggested Carroll had political motives for filing her suit. He showed the jury an email that contained a draft excerpt from the book Carroll wrote. One chapter refers to her alleged rape by Trump. The trial is expected to last about five days. The nine-member jury of six men and three women is weighing Carroll's defamation and battery claims and deciding potential monetary damages. This week's trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time while facing numerous legal challenges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House and possible attempts to interfere in the Georgia's 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said Monday she would decide whether to file criminal charges against Trump or his allies this summer.
The Washington Post: Four key flaws in Trump’s classified-document defense: Donald Trump’s unceasing efforts to recast the investigation into his retention of documents with classification markings after leaving the White House took on a new front this week. Attorneys working for the former president sent a letter on Trump’s behalf to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio). “A legislative solution by Congress is required to prevent the [Justice Department] from continuing to conduct ham-handed criminal investigations of matters that are inherently not criminal,” the legal team wrote near the start of the letter. Over the course of the next eight pages, they presented their case, both for the improper nature of the probe and of Trump’s innocence. But on at least four key points, the letter is deeply flawed as a defense.
CNBC: Abortion pill mifepristone is banned or restricted in some states despite Supreme Court ruling: The abortion pill mifepristone is either banned or restricted to varying degrees in 27 states despite a Supreme Court decision that — for now — maintains Food and Drug Administration regulations allowing easy access to the medication. The Supreme Court, acting on an emergency basis, last week blocked lower federal court orders that had imposed severe restrictions on mifepristone even in some states where abortion remains legal. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit against the FDA by a coalition of doctors who oppose abortion. That group wants to force the agency to pull mifepristone from the market entirely. The Biden administration is opposing that effort. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is now scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on May 17. The side that loses at the appeals court is certain to ask the Supreme Court to take the case to make a final determination on the legality of the FDA rules.
Roll Call: Push for Supreme Court ethics code gets bipartisan boost: A pair of senators announced bipartisan legislation Wednesday to require the Supreme Court to adopt an ethics code within a year, in the wake of reports that Justice Clarence Thomas did not disclose luxury trips or a real estate transaction with a billionaire GOP donor. The bill from Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, is the first bipartisan measure on the issue introduced in either chamber since ProPublica reports earlier this month spotlighted the relationship between Thomas and Harlan Crow. The measure also would require the Supreme Court to designate an official to handle ethics complaints and publish any steps taken in response, as well as allow the marshal of the Supreme Court to contract with federal agencies to conduct ethics investigations.
The Washington Post: A second firm hired by Trump campaign found no evidence of election fraud: Former president Trump’s campaign quietly commissioned a second firm to study election fraud claims in the weeks after the 2020 election, and the founder of the firm was recently questioned by the Justice Department about his work disproving the claims. Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were “all false,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. Block said he recently received a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith’s office and met with federal prosecutors in Washington, but he declined to discuss his interactions with them. Block said he contemporaneously sent his findings disputing fraud claims in writing to the Trump campaign in late 2020.
The Hill: Fox News to hand over additional documents in Smartmatic case: Fox News has agreed to provide additional documents and legal materials from the recent case it settled with Dominion Voting Systems to Smartmatic, a second voting systems company that is suing the network for defamation. “We will produce the materials as quickly as we are able to,” Fox lawyer Winn Allen said during a hearing in New York, CNN reported. Smartmatic is seeking more than $2 billion from Fox, accusing it of maliciously giving Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani a platform to air false claims about the 2020 presidential election and its software. A trial in the Smartmatic case is likely months or years away, but Fox lost its first bid to toss the company’s suit, allowing it to move onto discovery.
The New York Times: Schumer Urges End to Single-Judge Divisions in Texas: Senator Chuck Schumer urged the chief judge of the Northern District of Texas on Thursday to end an assignment system for the courts there that he said effectively allowed parties to pick their judge. In a letter sent on Thursday afternoon to Chief Judge David C. Godbey, Mr. Schumer, the majority leader, signaled that Congress may step in if the federal courts do not make swift changes. At more than 96,000 square miles, the Northern District of Texas is one of the largest districts in the country and has an unusual case assignment system. A handful of judges, several appointed by President Donald J. Trump, are each assigned to a single division or hear cases split between just two judges, meaning that they hear most, if not all, cases filed in a particular court. Some of the highest-profile cases, many with wide-ranging implications for national policy, have gone through those courts, including ones involving health care, L.G.B.T.Q. rights and immigration.
The Associated Press: Kansas legislators impose sweeping anti-trans bathroom law: Republican legislators in Kansas have enacted what may be the most sweeping transgender bathroom law in the U.S. on Thursday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of the measure without having a clear idea of how their new law will be enforced. The vote in the House was 84-40, giving supporters exactly the two-thirds majority they needed to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s action. The vote in the Senate on Wednesday was 28-12, and the new law will take effect July 1. At least eight other states have enacted laws preventing transgender people from using the restrooms associated with their gender identities, but most of them apply to schools. The Kansas law applies also to locker rooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers.
The Washington Post: Despite outrage from some, Congress reluctant to act on Supreme Court ethics: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s “respectful” rejection of an invitation to testify before a Senate committee, and a recycled statement of ethical guidelines from all nine justices, drew condemnation Wednesday from government watchdog groups and many Democratic members of Congress. But the Senate’s top Republicans staunchly defend the court, and neither the White House nor some key Democrats in Congress seem eager to push past against the court’s self-oversight. From the senior justice, the embattled Clarence Thomas, to the court’s 10-month rookie, Ketanji Brown Jackson, all nine justices signed a statement about their existing approach to ethics that was sent to the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday along with Roberts’s letter. The statement said that from recusals to investigations to speaking engagements, the court has to be seen as different from lower courts, where Congress’s intervention is more appropriate.
The New York Times: Efforts to Restrict Transgender Health Care Face Pushback in Three States: Republican efforts to restrict gender-transitioning treatment hit roadblocks in three states on Wednesday. Kansas lawmakers failed to override the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that would have banned the care for minors, the Justice Department sued Tennessee over its new ban and a Missouri judge temporarily blocked the enforcement of an emergency rule that would have restricted treatment for transgender children and adults. Across the country, transgender rights have emerged this year as a defining legislative issue, with Republicans enacting sweeping new restrictions in states they control. At least 11 states have passed laws or policies in recent months that ban or significantly limit the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and transition surgery for people under 18. In just the past few weeks, new bans have been signed into law in Idaho, Indiana and North Dakota, with similar policies still under consideration in other states. But L.G.B.T.Q. rights groups have criticized the policies as bigoted attacks that go against best medical practices.
The Washington Post: Trump can’t stop Pence from testifying to Jan. 6 grand jury, court rules: Donald Trump cannot block his former vice president from testifying before a grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The ruling helps clear the way for Mike Pence to speak under oath about the pressure Trump put him under to declare the 2020 election results invalid. While Trump could seek to further forestall that testimony by appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, other people in the president’s orbit have testified after similar losing battles in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The reasoning behind Wednesday’s order remains under seal; the decision was issued by a panel that included two Obama appointees and one Trump appointee.
CBS News: Trump attorneys reveal new details about recovered documents and say Justice Dept. should "stand down" on probe: Lawyers for former President Donald Trump sent a letter to Congress on Wednesday urging the Justice Department to "stand down" in its investigation into the former president's handling of sensitive records after he left the White House, according to a copy of the letter reviewed by CBS News. The correspondence — from attorneys Timothy Parlatorre, Jim Trusty, John Rowley and Linsdey Halligan — offers a possible preview of the Trump team's defense of the former president as he faces the possibility of criminal prosecution by special counsel Jack Smith after documents with classified markings from Trump's time in office were recovered at his Florida residence. The attorneys lay the blame for the transfer of the classified documents not on their client, but on "inconsistent" White House practices for handling sensitive records. They accuse federal investigators of going outside the norms by shutting down what they describe were cooperative talks in order to put Trump on the defensive.
POLITICO: Supreme Court’s new ethics declaration stops short of concrete action: Chief Justice John Roberts’ snub of Dick Durbin on Tuesday was accompanied by a less-noted rarity: a declaration signed by all nine justices on their ethics practices. The “Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices” seemed designed to quell rising calls for ethics reform at the high court. But it didn’t break much new ground, and it stopped well short of adopting an enforceable code of conduct that critics have been clamoring for. Instead, the unusual statement — the first of its kind in three decades — showed a court that is often ideologically fractured banding together to present a united front in the wake of recent controversies surrounding some of its members. The justices’ message is the same as it largely has been in the past: Trust us. Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, was a bit less confrontational, but said the high court’s response further demonstrates the need for court-reform legislation. “I am surprised that the Chief Justice’s recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious,” Durbin said. “It is time for Congress to accept its responsibility to establish an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court, the only agency of our government without it.”
The Hill: Florida Senate approves law change that clears path for DeSantis 2024 bid: Senate Republicans in Florida passed an election law overhaul on Wednesday that would allow Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to run for president without having to resign from his position, bypassing the state’s resign-to-run rule. The bill, SB7050, passed the Florida Senate on a party-line vote, 28 to 12, and now heads to the House. The larger package includes a number of notable changes to state election practices, including allowing political organizations to file finance reports less often and increasing the rate at which local election officials have to remove dead and eligible voters from voter rolls.
Washington Post: Trump is racking up GOP endorsements, even amid criminal jeopardy: Former president Donald Trump, fighting criminal charges in New York and multiple other ongoing investigations by federal and local prosecutors, is pitching Republican elected officials to get behind him as the inevitable nominee — and many of them are buying it. He returns to New Hampshire on Thursday heralding some 50 endorsements in the state, according to his campaign, building on broader support he’s amassed in recent weeks, a reversal of fortunes since his last visit, in January. Trump and top advisers are consolidating support among congressional Republicans and prominent figures in early primary states through a personal-relationship-based charm offensive, strengthened by survey results showing Trump widening his advantage over his foremost rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Trump’s team has shown extensive polling to would-be endorsers and, according to a person who has been asked for an endorsement, made the argument that “we’re going to win, so you should be with us now.” Like others, this person spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks.
ABC News: Fox News to turn over more evidence in Smartmatic defamation suit, including Murdoch documents: In the wake of its historic $787 million settlement with Dominion, Fox News will now turn over additional evidence as part of the ongoing $2.7 billion defamation case it is facing from Smartmatic, lawyers for both sides said in court on Wednesday. Fox has agreed to turn over depositions, exhibits, and "all of the responding documents" related to a number of individuals at the company-- including Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, an attorney for Smartmatic, Edward Wipper, said in court. The resolution between the two parties came as attorneys for Smartmatic and Fox were back in court on Wednesday for a motion hearing in the case. The depositions and exhibits come from the Dominion case. The parties agreed that Fox will turn over documents relating to four individuals: Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch, News Corp co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, Fox's chief legal counsel Viet D. Dinh and SVP of Fox Corp. Raj Shah.
The Hill: DeSantis calls Disney lawsuit ‘political’: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday criticized the move by Disney, one of the most influential companies in the state, to sue the governor, arguing the suit has no merit and it is politically motivated. “I don’t think the suit has merit, I think it’s political,” DeSantis told reporters at a news conference in Israel. Disney filed its lawsuit against DeSantis earlier this week, continuing a long-standing dispute between the company and the governor. The suit, which alleges that DeSantis is harming its business operations, comes as a board appointed by the governor to oversee Disney voted this week to void development contracts that the company made.
Roll Call: Senate panel airs fallout from Supreme Court abortion decision: The Senate Judiciary Committee dove into the partisan divide on abortion policy Wednesday in the aftermath of last year’s Supreme Court decision that overturned a constitutional right to an abortion. Amanda Zurawski, one of the Democratic witnesses, testified about her own near-death experience in a Texas hospital after suffering complications that were fatal to her unborn daughter, Willow. Zurawski said she had to wait for days to enter septic shock before her doctors would treat her. Wednesday’s hearing comes days after a Supreme Court ruling allowing the common medication abortion drug mifepristone to remain on the market while a challenge to its availability plays out in the lower courts. During Wednesday’s hearing the ranking member of the panel, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., accused Democrats of the “barbaric” position of “basically declaring war on the unborn,” by trying to codify the right to an abortion.
The Guardian: Tucker Carlson is gone but ex-booker’s lawsuit could be a sting in the tail: Tucker Carlson’s abrupt departure from Fox News sent shock waves through the American political and media landscapes and immediately many US pundits linked it to the huge settlement the rightwing channel had just reached with Dominion Voting Systems. But there is another legal case involving Carlson, his show and Fox that is also now gaining attention in the wake of his firing: one that casts a brutal spotlight on the internal culture of Carlson’s show and some of its top executives, with claims of bullying, antisemitism and sexism. The former journalist and booker said as much in her statement after Carlson’s abrupt firing: “This is a step towards accountability for the election lies and baseless conspiracy theories spread by Fox News,” Grossberg said in a statement, “as well as for the abuse and harassment I endured.”
CNN: Special counsel investigating January 6 interested in former Fox News producer’s audiotapes, her lawyer says:Special Counsel Jack Smith has expressed interest in audio tapes recorded by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg while she worked at the right-wing network, her lawyer said. Grossberg attorney Gerry Filippatos told CNN on Wednesday that he has given a spreadsheet to the special counsel’s team, detailing the nearly 90 audiotapes in Grossberg’s possession. Talks are underway for a subpoena, so Grossberg can turn over the material to Smith’s team of federal prosecutors, who are investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. “We’re in the process of negotiating a targeted subpoena for Abby’s electronic data, so they can have what they want,” Filippatos said.
To connect with People Power United, follow us at:
Website: https://www.peoplepowerunited.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peoplepowerunited
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PeoplePowerUni
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peoplepoweruni/
If you love the work we do and want to support, please consider pledging a future subscription. It’s only $5 a month and you won’t be charged unless we enable payments. People Power United champions progressive values, putting people over profits, and is a grassroots group committed to increasing voter registration and participation.
Join us! As a subscriber to the People Power United you will be notified of current issues, upcoming events, and calls to action. Please note we do not share data with anyone. We use the sign-up information to share current issues, events and calls-to-actions only.