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    Report: House Task Force Releases Scathing Assassination Disclosure

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Americans still want answers…

    On Monday, the House Task Force investigating the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania released its initial findings.

    Lack of adequate planning, a narrow field of vision for local snipers, the absence of a unified command post and fragmented communication were among the main findings in the 53-page report that examined how 20-year-old shooter Matthew Crooks was able to climb atop a building with a line of sight to Trump and fire at him. 

    “Although the findings in this report are preliminary, the information obtained during the first phase of the Task Force’s investigation clearly shows a lack of planning and coordination between the Secret Service and its law enforcement partners before the rally,” the report said.

    U.S. Secret Service (USSS) personnel at the event “did not give clear guidance” to state and local authorities about how to manage security outside of their hard perimeter, nor was there a central meeting between USSS and the law enforcement agencies supporting them the morning of the rally – two findings presented as key failures in the 51-page report.

    The House Task Force investigating the attempts on Trump’s life is expected to release its final report by Dec. 13.

    Read the interim report in its entirety:

    5d5fdc40-house-task-force-trump-interim-reportDownload

    Crooks’s bullet came within inches of killing the former president and injured his ear. Shots also killed one rally attendee and seriously wounded two others. 

    The latest report also detailed information about Crooks’ autopsy report and the chain of events that led to release of the remains to the Crooks’s family. The Butler County Coroner’s office released the remains after the FBI concurred that no additional evidence was necessary, the report said. 

    The autopsy report found that Crooks died from one gunshot wound to the head, found negative results for alcohol or drugs of abuse, but was positive for antimony, selenium, and lead. Heightened levels of lead could have been due to time spent at the shooting range, the Allegheny County Chief Medical Examiner said.

    The House force is made up of a bipartisan group of lawmakers and has also been assigned to investigate the September apparent assassination attempt on Trump in at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida. 

    “The Task Force will continue to rigorously investigate the July 13 assassination attempt in the coming months,” the report said, adding that it is “in the process of conducting more than 20 transcribed interviews of federal officials and others who may have knowledge relevant to the events of July 13.” 

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    President Trump is the only one who stood up for working families, and the DC elite want him destroyed. Kamala is raising over $1 Billion to crush his campaign. Will you chip in $3 before the day ends? — JD Vance

    Supreme Court Responds To Michael Cohen Appeal

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    The Supreme Court will not get involved.

    On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to revive Michael Cohen’s lawsuit seeking damages for retaliation during his prison sentence.

    Cohen’s lawsuit comes after the former Trump “fixer” began serving his sentence for federal election finance crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Due to health reasons that would be exacerbated by the virus, Cohen’s prison term was furloughed, and he was temporarily sent to home confinement. 

    Officials later ordered him back to prison after he raised issue with a release condition asking him to waive his ability to criticize then-President Trump

    A federal judge ruled to release Cohen again and said the former president’s ex-fixer suffered unconstitutional retaliation for wanting to critique Trump on social media and in a book. However, the judge later dismissed Cohen’s claim for damages over the incident. 

    The Hill reports:

    “As it stands, this case represents the principle that presidents and their subordinates can lock away critics of the executive without consequence,” Cohen wrote in his request for the justices to hear his case.  

    Trump attorney Alina Habba said in the former president’s brief to the court that Cohen’s complaint is “entirely devoid of merit.” She also added a question over whether Cohen’s claim is barred by presidential immunity, which the justices declined to weigh. 

    Cohen testified as a star witness in the Manhattan district attorney’s criminal case against his former boss, which ended in a conviction in May, and took the stand in an earlier civil fraud trial against Trump and his business.  

    In a previous interview with The Hill, Cohen said his appeal to the justices was about deterrence. His experience, he said, was “merely a practice run” for the sweeping retribution Trump has vowed in a potential second term. 

    “Donald has opened up a Pandora’s box for future Trump 2.0s acting in the same autocratic manner,” Cohen said. “This writ of certiorari will be part of the process that would prevent any other U.S. citizen ever from being imprisoned because they refused to waive their First Amendment right or because they express criticism.”  

    The type of relief Cohen sought against Trump, various officials involved and the federal government itself for violating his constitutional rights is known as a Bivens claim. Over the past 44 years, the Supreme Court has turned away a dozen such lawsuits – making the ex-fixer’s request an uphill fight. 

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    President Trump is the only one who stood up for working families, and the DC elite want him destroyed. Kamala is raising over $1 Billion to crush his campaign. Will you chip in $3 before the day ends? — JD Vance

    Supreme Court Rejects Challenge To Special Counsel’s Access To Trump Twitter Data

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    4
    Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge by social platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to court rulings that forced the platform to turn over data on former President Trump’s account to special counsel Jack Smith. 

    Early last year, Smith obtained a secret warrant for Trump’s account on X, where Trump posted constantly during his White House term, as part of prosecutors’ federal election interference investigation.

    X was prohibited from informing the former president about the warrant. It only became public last summer, after Trump was charged with four felonies in the case. He pleaded not guilty. 

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    The company challenged the order, arguing the records were potentially covered by executive privilege and not being able to tell Trump violated the First Amendment. Court filings show X at one point was fined $350,000 for not timely turning over Trump’s data.

    X brought its fight to the Supreme Court, hoping to prevent the process from happening again, insisting most similar challenges never reach the high court and the case was a “rare opportunity” to review the issue. 

    “If the Court does not grant this petition, it could be decades (if ever) before it gets another clean vehicle to resolve the important and recurring questions presented,” X wrote in its petition. 

    The Supreme Court declined to take up X’s appeal in a brief, unsigned order.

    “If review of the underlying legal issues were ever warranted, the Court should await a live case in which the issues are concretely presented,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. 

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