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    Judge Declines To Recuse From Trump 2024 Ballot Case

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
      -
      7
      Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at the 2022 Student Action Summit at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida. [Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

      On Monday, the Colorado judge overseeing a challenge to keep Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot refused to step down from the case after donating to numerous anti-Republican PACs.

      The lawsuit, filed by the left-wing donor backed organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), seeks to remove Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, alleging he took an oath to the Constitution and then engaged in “insurrection” by encouraging the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. 

      Colorado District Judge Sarah Wallace, an appointee of Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, began the trial Monday saying that she has “no specific memory” of the donations.

      “Prior to yesterday, I was not cognizant of this organization or its mission,” Wallace said. “It has always been my practice, whether I was entirely successful or not, to make contributions to individuals, not PACs.”

      She assured litigants that she has “formed no opinion whether the events of Jan. 6 constituted an insurrection.”

      Wallace donated $100 on Oct. 15, 2022 to the Colorado Turnout Project, a PAC that was formed to oppose Republicans who “refused to condemn the political extremists who stormed the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021,” according to Federal Election Commission data. 

      Wallace also has earmarked close to $1,500 in other ActBlue donations for Democrats since 2016, including $100 to Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign on Nov. 10, 2022, per FEC data.

      Trump’s lawyer, former Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, said during his opening statement Monday that the lawsuit was “anti-democratic” and a “case of lawfare that seeks to interfere with the presidential election.”

      Last week, Wallace tossed Trump’s effort to have the case dismissed, rejecting his claim that Congress determines ballot eligibility, not the courts. She also rejected an earlier effort to have the case dismissed on First Amendment grounds.

      Longtime Trump Supporter Ditches Ex-President, Endorses GOP Rival

        By
        Madeleine Jackson
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        9
        Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

        A longtime Trump supporter is cutting ties with the former President, instead choosing to endorse Nikki Haley to become the Republican nominee.

        Andrew Stein, the son of the late publishing giant Jerry Finkelstein, served as the president of the New York City Council as a Democrat before crossing party lines to support Trump in the past two elections.

        However, in a scathing Wall Street Journal op-ed on Friday, Stein made it absolutely clear that he was moving on from Trump and holds serious concerns about the former president’s ability to be reelected.

        Mediaite has more:

        “Mr. Trump’s poll numbers show him with a clear path to the Republican nomination and rising ahead of Joe Biden. Given his mounting legal troubles, however, today’s polling may prove irrelevant. If Mr. Trump is found guilty of some of the charges against him, voters would have to choose between an old felon and an old fool,” Stein wrote in the Journal.

        While making the case that Trump is an electoral liability, Stein also argued that Haley is best positioned to win over independents.

        “Ms. Haley is likely to have a broader appeal than Mr. Trump for independents and suburbanites, especially women,” Stein wrote, adding:

        The Democrats hope he wins the nomination and is convicted of felonies, leading him to lose the presidential election. Republicans need to consolidate around Ms. Haley so they have a credible nominee who can take on any Democrat.

        House Elects New House Speaker

          By
          Madeleine Jackson
          -
          1

          On Tuesday the House officially elected a new Speaker of the House, ending the nearly monthlong stalemate.

          Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was in his second term as vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, won the Speaker’s gavel in a 220-209 vote over Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), officially cementing himself as successor to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

          “It is the honor of a lifetime to have been elected the 56th Speaker of the House,” Johnson said in a post to X, adding later, “As Speaker, I will ensure the House delivers results and inspires change for the American people. We will restore trust in this body. We will advance a comprehensive conservative policy agenda, combat the harmful policies of the Biden Administration, and support our allies abroad. And we will restore sanity to a government desperately in need of it. Let’s get back to work.”

          “A man of deep faith, Mike epitomizes what it means to be a servant leader. A deeply respected constitutional lawyer, Mike has dedicated his life to preserving America’s great principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said in her speech nominating Johnson on Wednesday.

          Trump Targets Former Chief Of Staff After Report Undermines 2020 Election Claims

            By
            Madeleine Jackson
            -
            1
            Office of Congressman Mark Meadows, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

            The walls are closing in on Donald Trump…

            The former President who is facing a litany of federal charges stemming from his alleged interference in the 2020 election pushed back on Tuesday’s ABC News report that former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows took an immunity deal to testify to a grand jury.

            Jonathan Karl reported that Meadows spoke with special counsel Jack Smith’s team at least three times this year:

            The sources said Meadows informed Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump’s prolific rhetoric regarding the election.

            According to the sources, Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being “dishonest” with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

            “Obviously, we didn’t win,” a source quoted Meadows as telling Smith’s team in hindsight per Karl’s report, which strikes at the heart of both the federal and Fulton County case against Trump for criminally conspiring to defraud the American people that a free and fair election was “rigged.”

            Trump took to Truth Social and suggested that while he didn’t think Meadows was the sort to lie to prosecutors to get “IMMUNITY.”  He then passively aggressively suggested Meadows was among  “weaklings and cowards” that make a deal and are “so bad for the future our Failing Nation.”

            “I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? ” Trump wrote:

            I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith. BUT, when you really think about it, after being hounded like a dog for three years, told you’ll be going to jail for the rest of your life, your money and your family will be forever gone, and we’re not at all interested in exposing those that did the RIGGING — If you say BAD THINGS about that terrible “MONSTER,” DONALD J. TRUMP, we won’t put you in prison, you can keep your family and your wealth, and, perhaps, if you can make up some really horrible “STUFF” a out him, we may very well erect a statue of you in the middle of our decaying and now very violent Capital, Washington, D.C. Some people would make that deal, but they are weaklings and cowards, and so bad for the future our Failing Nation. I don’t think that Mark Meadows is one of them, but who really knows? MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

            Trump then added:

            Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless. He certainly didn’t say that in his book!

            Politico’s Kyle Cheney also noted that in Trump’s attack, the former President may have also violated the gag order imposed in the case.

            Jenna Ellis Takes Plea Deal In Georgia Election Case

            By
            Madeleine Jackson
            -
            4
            Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

            Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis became the fourth defendant to plead guilty in the Georgia election interference case on Tuesday.

            According to reports from ABC News, Ellis is pleading guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

            Recently, defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell, and Scott Hall took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants.

            Ellis, who described herself as part of an “elite strike force team” of attorneys combating unfounded claims of election fraud, pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

            “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post election challenges,” a tearful Ellis told the judge.

            “How do you plead to aiding and abetting false statements and writings,” Fulton County prosecutor Daysha Young asked.

            “Guilty,” Ellis responded.

            She was sentenced to five years of probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution and write a letter of apology to Georgia citizens.

            In August, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted former President Trump and 18 others for trying to overturn his 2020 defeat in Georgia.

            Trump Supporter Sentenced To Prison Over Voting Memes

              By
              Madeleine Jackson
              -
              6
              Image via Pixabay

              A Trump supporter has been sentenced to seven months in prison after he was convicted of election interference over social media posts.

              Douglass Mackey was accused of a “scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote,” after a Twitter account he ran under the handle “Ricky Vaughn” posted memes in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. One image showed a black woman standing in front of an “African Americans for Hillary” sign and said “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”

              The Justice Department said around 4,900 unique telephone numbers texted the hotline although it was unclear how many were participating in the joke rather than trying to cast their ballots.

              Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey suspended Mackey from the platform.

              Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly, an Obama appointee, sentenced Mackey, claiming that his actions were “nothing short of an assault on our democracy” and amounted to attempts “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” people from exercising their right to vote according to Courthouse News Service.

              “Voting is the right that secures all other rights we hold dear,” Department of Justice Attorney Erik David Paulsen said. “They were committing fraud, one that was aimed at one of our most sacred rights in our democracy.”

              Prosecutors also took aim at Mackey for derogatory posts he had made toward black people and women, but Donnely said her sentence did not have to do with his political beliefs. “You are not being sentenced for your political beliefs or for expressing those beliefs,” she said.

              James Lawrence, an attorney for Mackey, previously said in an interview with The Daily Wire that his memes were satirical and were therefore not relevant to the law he purportedly violated. Mackey faced as many as 10 years in prison.

              Some have contended that Mackey’s right to free speech had been violated in a politically motivated case by the Biden administration. “It’s a three-fer: the prosecutorial creation of a crime Congress has not prescribed, the trivialization of civil-rights law, and the intrusion of government as a monitor of political speech,” former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy wrote in an opinion piece for National Review.

              Far-right Billionaire Peter Thiel Revealed as FBI Informant

                By
                Madeleine Jackson
                -
                4

                Far-right billionaire investor Peter Thiel was revealed as an FBI informant as recently as 2021, according to a new report from Insider.

                Insider reports:

                In order to be added to this database, multiple layers of approval are typically required, and only those able to provide “valuable information … on a recurring basis” are given CHS status. Once admitted to the CHS database, informants are then given a code name and a serial number to categorize reports.

                The source added that Thiel’s status as an FBI informant is meant to be a way for the billionaire to distance himself from the MAGA movement, which has repeatedly assailed both the FBI and the US Department of Justice in response to investigations focused on former President Donald Trump. Johnson told Insider that he believes Thiel is primarily informing on foreign governments’ attempts to cement themselves within Silicon Valley. Johnson added that Thiel was explicitly told to not inform on former President Donald Trump or other US political figures.

                Peter Thiel, who was the first outside investor in Facebook, became influential within the Republican Party in 2016, when he pledged $1.25 million to elect Trump and endorsed him at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Thiel then served on then-President-elect Trump’s transition team. And in the 2022 midterm elections, Thiel backed MAGA US Senate candidate and ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author JD Vance with a $10 million super PAC donation. Vance went on to attack the FBI, falsely accusing agents of wiretapping his phone. Thiel also put $15 million toward a super PAC backing Arizona Republican US Senate candidate Blake Masters, who went on to lose the general election to incumbent Senator Mark Kelly (D-Arizona).

                Trump Hesitant Over Scalise’s Leadership Abilities Due To Health Concerns

                  By
                  Madeleine Jackson
                  -
                  2

                  During a recent interview, former President Trump was hesitant to outwardly support Rep. Steve Scalise for House Speaker after the Louisiana Congressman won the GOP nomination on Wednesday.

                  Scalise, who is recovering from blood cancer, faces an uphill battle to officially secure the gavel as he can only afford to lose four votes.

                  Trump, who publicly endorsed Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to serve as Speaker, told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on his radio show that he likes both Jordan and Scalise, but that Scalise “is in serious trouble from the standpoint of his cancer. 

                  “I mean, he’s got to get better for himself. I’m not talking about even country now. I’m saying got to get better. And this is tremendous stress. All of the things that you hear about and things that you don’t want to get involved in from the standpoint of getting well,” Trump said in the interview.

                  The former president said Scalise is going through “very, very serious cancer therapy,” and he also cited the “aftereffect” of the congressman getting shot and seriously wounded in 2017 during a congressional baseball game practice.

                  “These treatments, they drain you of strength, supposedly,” Trump said. “It’s like a draining of strength. And we need tremendous strength both inside and out, because we have radical left, lunatics like Nancy Pelosi and Schiff and all these crazy people that are so bad for our country.”

                  Asked if Scalise’s health was the only reason Trump endorsed Jordan for the role, Trump demurred, praising both men. But he also acknowledged the dynamics within the party may make it difficult for either representative to secure enough votes to become Speaker.

                  “I think it’s going to be very hard, maybe in either case, for somebody to get you know, if you lose four votes, you can’t get it,” Trump said. “I think Steve will lose far more than four, and I think probably Jim will, too. And then you end up in one of these crazy stalemates. It’s a very interesting situation.”

                  ‘Young Turks’ Founder Announces Presidential Campaign

                    By
                    Madeleine Jackson
                    -
                    5
                    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

                    “Young Turks” founder Cenk Uygur is challenging Joe Biden.

                    On Wednesday, the progressive commentator announced on this talk show that he is running for president simply saying “Biden is not going to win.”

                    “[Biden] is not going to win,” Uygur said during the announcement. “It should not have been me, it should have been somebody else, but unfortunately it was not anyone else. There’s only four months left. We must change course. He has at best a 10 percent chance of winning. I’m running as a proxy. I am running to win. But I am also running as a proxy for any other candidate.” 

                    The progressive media host has called for Biden to drop out of the race, stating repeatedly that democracy is on the line, referring to former President Trump’s 2024 run. 

                    “We have got to get Biden out of the race,” Uygur said. “Thank you for winning in 2020. But if he loses this time around, it’s not just his problem, it’s all of our problems. I actually think democracy is on the line, and so if it takes me running, that’s what I’m gonna do.

                    However, Uygur has a big obstacle to overcome in his run for the White House. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Uygur immigrated to the U.S. at 8 years old. He believes that the Constitution’s “Natural Born Citizen” clause will not prevent him in his effort, believing that he can win the battle in the Supreme Court.

                    “I have lawyered up,” Uygur said. “I have the same lawyer [Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)] used in both of his presidential runs. And my guess is I’m going to have some strong allies in this. Arnold Schwarzenegger. I’m going to the Supreme Court. Either I’m going to win or I’m going to lose. Now this case is on our side. The precedent is definitely on our side. So, what are you going to do, brother?“ 

                    “Marianne Williamson has been in there but unfortunately, she hasn’t broken through,” Uygur said. “I have nothing but respect for her courage and her policies, but at this point, we’re not at progressives versus establishment. We’re at four months left, and things must change. Otherwise, we’re almost definitely going to lose to Trump.”

                    Recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. switched his affiliation from Democrat to Independent after seeing little support.

                    Nikki Haley Passes DeSantis in Latest New Hampshire Poll

                    By
                    Madeleine Jackson
                    -
                    5

                    The Republican primary field is shifting…

                    A new poll of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire showed former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley— not Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — running second in the first primary state.

                    Haley beat DeSantis 19 percent to 10 percent in a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA TODAY survey released on Wednesday morning.

                    But they both remain far behind the frontrunner, Donald Trump. The former president leads his Republican rivals with 49 percent support in the poll of 500 likely GOP primary voters that was conducted after the second debate and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

                    But Trump remains immovable atop the field. And no other candidate cracked double digits in the Suffolk/Globe/USA TODAY survey. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie notched 6 percent support, while entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott got roughly 4 percent apiece. Former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum trailed even further behind, with just 1 percent each.

                    The poll comes days before GOP candidates will descend on New Hampshire next week, starting with the former president on Monday and most of the rest of the field at a weekend cattle call hosted by the state GOP.

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