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Family of Isaac Hayes Sues Trump Over Playing Hit Song

By
Madeleine Jackson
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5
Gage Skidmore Flickr

The family of late soul singer Isaac Hayes is suing former President Donald Trump for using the icon’s music at his rallies, Isaac Hayes III announced last week.

 The filing accused the former president and the Republican Nation Committee of “willfully and brazenly” engaging in 134 counts of copyright infringement.

A letter to Trump and his campaign from the Georgia-based law firm Walker & Associates reads:

Our firm has been retained by the family and Isaac Hayes Enterprises, who own the copyright to the musical composition and recording “Hold On (I’m Coming)” (the “Song”). It has come to our attention that you or the campaign have authorized the illegal public performance of the Song on multiple occasions during various rallies for your political campaign without authorization from the copyright holder, despite being asked repeatedly not to engage in such illegal use by our client.

Upon information and belief, you, your campaign, and/or the RNC and other parties have willfully and brazenly engaged in copyright infringement in violation of several provisions of Title 17 U.S.C., including § 501, of the Copyright Act of 1976, as amended, over one hundred times. We have attached for your convenience a non-exhaustive list attached hereto as Exhibit A. As we prepared this letter, there was an additional use in Montana just two nights ago, even with your office apparently aware that you had no permission. We and the family hereby demand that you cease the continual infringement of our copyright and stop all unauthorized use of the Song.

The suit further demands Trump pay $3 million, stop using the song, and to remove any campaign multimedia of the song being played at rallies. Hayes’ estate also demanded Trump issue a statement acknowledging he played the song without permission.

Vance Accepts VP Debate Challenge

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2

    It’s on…

    Thursday morning, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance announced he has accepted Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s debate challenge.

    “The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already,” Vance posted in response to Walz. “Not only do I accept the CBS debate on October 1st, I accept the CNN debate on September 18th as well. I look forward to seeing you at both!”

    The Oct. 1 vice presidential debate will take place after the first planned debate between Harris and former President Trump, which is currently scheduled for Sept. 10 and will be hosted by ABC News.

    Vance told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday that CBS News had reached out to his team hours before. CBS said in a statement that it offered the two running mates four dates: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8.

    “We want to actually look at the debates, look at the moderators, talk about the rules a little bit,” he said. 

    “I strongly suspect we’re going to be there on October the 1st, but we’re not going to do one of these fake debates where they don’t actually have an audience there, where they don’t actually set the parameters in a way where we can have a good exchange of ideas. In other words, we’re not going to walk into a fake news media garbage debate. We’re going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it.”

    “I think it’s important for the American people to actually see us discuss our views. If you look at the way that we’ve run this campaign, Donald Trump and I are giving every media interview. We’re talking to every audience that we can get in front of because our vision is so clear,” he told Ingraham.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Google Executives Face Consequences After Censoring Trump Assassination Attempt Photo

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1

    Google admitted to censoring recent searches for photos of the Trump assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) launched an investigation into Google after its autocomplete search results did not register the assassination attempt against Trump on July 13. In a letter, Sen. Marshall questioned the company over the search function, asking about its algorithm and what decisions were made in the aftermath of the attack on Trump. 

    In its response to the senator, Google Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy, US and Canada Mark Isakowitz listed the policies that guide the autocomplete function. 

    “We do not allow predictions that can be interpreted as accusations against individuals or groups of serious malevolent acts, where there is a lack of well-established or expert supporting evidence,” he said. 

    However, Marshall told Fox News Digital in a statement on Wednesday that Google’s search autocomplete function was still omitting Trump assassination attempt results as of his public inquiry to the company on July 28. 

    Senator-Marshall-Response-Autocomplete-08-2024Download

    “Google is now openly admitting that they were blocking and eliminating search prompts regarding the assassination attempt on President Trump,” the senator told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. “Most shocking is their bizarre written defense that Trump’s assassination attempt was a ‘hypothetical act of political violence’ even up to the point of our public inquiry on July 28th.”

    The company explained in its letter to him, “In the immediate aftermath of the horrific events in Butler, PA, these systems were still in place and predictions related to the assassination attempt failed to appear. We recognize that these out-of-date systems led to an inadequate user experience.” 

    Sen. Marshall still wasn’t satisfied by Google’s response.

    “In response to this letter, I am demanding that Google’s top executives testify under oath before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee,” the Kansas senator said. “Under oath, they won’t be able to hide behind an algorithm or get away with corporate double-speak.” 

    According to Marshall, the committee is “launching a full investigation into Google’s litany of offenses.” He added that it is “time for accountability and consequence.”

    Trump Hush Money Judge Responds To Latest Recusal Request

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    The New York judge who oversaw former President Trump’s criminal trial refused the latest request to recuse himself from the case over his daughter’s work for Democrats. 

    It marks the third time that Judge Juan Merchan has refused to recuse himself, insisting there is no conflict and that he will remain on the case as it proceeds to sentencing in September. 

    “Stated plainly, Defendant’s arguments are nothing more than a repetition of stale and unsubstantiated claims,” Merchan wrote in his ruling.

    Despite being denied twice, Trump’s lawyers once again filed for Judge Merchan to recuse himself after Presdient Biden ended his re-election bid.

    “Your Honor’s daughter has a long-standing relationship with Harris, including work for political campaigns. She has obtained — and stands to obtain in the future — extensive financial, professional, and personal benefits from her relationship with Harris,” Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in their request. 

    But the judge spurned the accusation that he has a conflict, noting that a state ethics advisory committee last year provided guidance that he didn’t need to step aside.  

    “This Court now reiterates for the third time, that which should already be clear – innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create. Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required,” Merchan wrote.

    The judge has, however, received a warning for making $35 total in political contributions to the Biden campaign and two liberal-leaning groups, including one called “Stop Republicans.” Though the donations occurred before Merchan took on Trump’s hush money case, ethics rules bar New York judges from making political contributions. 

    “The acting Justice has consistently and recklessly displayed his personal bias against President Trump throughout the case, including issuing an illegal, unconstitutional, and election-interfering Gag Order against the President and his campaign, and admitting
    constitutionally prohibited ‘evidence’ at trial,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. “The Highly-Conflicted Judge should have long ago recused himself from this case.”

    Union Files Charges Against Trump And Musk Claiming ‘Worker Intimidation’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Tuesday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed federal labor charges against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and tech tycoon Elon Musk.

    The union alleged former President Trump and Elon Musk attempted to “intimidate and threaten” workers during their Monday evening interview on X.

    “I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.”

    Federal law protects workers who go on strike from being fired, and it is illegal to threaten to do so, the UAW asserted.

    “When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.

    Following allegations of unfair labor practices, Musk’s SpaceX has directly challenged the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board in a move experts warned could hobble the agency charged with investigating allegations brought by employees, unions and employers.

    “Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” Fain said.

    “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”

    The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO), a federation of 60 national and international labor unions, posted their own criticism of the conversation on X, saying, “Scab recognize scab.”

    UAW which endorsed Vice President Harris last month in the upcoming presidential election has had a rocky relationship with Trump for years.

    Following the video’s release, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called Fain “a puppet for the Democrat Party who is sadly not serving the millions of hardworking union laborers across the country who are supporting President Trump because they know he will protect their jobs and put them first.”

    Report: FBI Investigating Trump Campaign Hack

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Image via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The FBI has confirmed it’s investigating after the Trump campaign said it was hacked and some internal documents were leaked.

    “We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter,” the agency said in an email, declining to respond to other questions from The Hill.

    An Iran-baked group “sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign from the compromised email account of a former senior advisor,” the company said.

    The confirmation of the investigation is a shift for the FBI, which said over the weekend only that it was aware of the hacking allegations through news reports.

    U.S. agencies have thus far failed to comment on the claims that Iran was responsible for the hack, even as recent intelligence community reports have noted growing Iranian efforts to influence the U.S. election.

    “This is something we’ve raised for some time, raised concerns that Iranian cyber actors have been seeking to influence elections around the world including those happening in the United States,” John Kirby, the White House’s national security communications adviser, told reporters Monday. 

    “These latest attempts to interfere in U.S. elections is nothing new for the Iranian regime, which from our vantage point has attempted to undermine democracies for many years now.”

    A report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released last month noted Iranian efforts designed to “fuel distrust in U.S. political institutions and increase social discord.”

    “The IC has observed Tehran working to influence the presidential election, probably because Iranian leaders want to avoid an outcome they perceive would increase tensions with the United States. Tehran relies on vast webs of online personas and propaganda mills to spread disinformation,” the report states, including being particularly active on exacerbating tensions over the Israel-Gaza conflict.

    Intelligence agencies have also warned of an Iranian assassination plot targeting top U.S. officials like Donald Trump.

    Trump Returns To Twitter – Now X

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Photo via Pixabay images

    Former President Donald Trump’s official X account is back…for now.

    The first ad, posted at 2:54 am, included a voiceover from Ronald Reagan and was captioned, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president? Our economy is shattered. Our border has been erased. We’re a nation in decline. Make the American Dream AFFORDABLE again. Make America SAFE again. Make America GREAT Again!”

    Another ad was published at 3:00 am and read, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you. I just happen to be standing in their way and I’m never moving. We will Make America Great Again!”

    Musk and Trump will talk live on X at 8 pm ET and Musk has already addressed the technical issues that have plagued past events – including the glitchy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) presidential campaign last spring.

    “Am going to do some system scaling tests tonight & tomorrow in advance of the conversation,” Musk wrote on X ahead of the event.

    Trump had been banned from Twitter, which Musk bought for a staggering $44 billion and renamed X, after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

    Trump has only posted once since Musk restored his Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump, as the former president reserves his social media usage for Truth Social, which he owns. In August of 2023, Trump post his Fulton Country jail mugshot with a link soliciting donations.

    Report: Trump To Sue Justice Department For $100M For ‘Political Persecution’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

    Bringing out the big guns…

    Former President Donald Trump plans to sue the Department of Justice (DOJ) for $100 million, claiming the FBI’s 2022 raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate was a blatant act of “political persecution.”

    During the infamous raid, federal agents discovered over 100 classified records as they executed a search warrant at Trump’s Palm Beach property.

    Trump denied the 40 criminal counts related to his handling of the documents. Special Counsel Jack Smith claims he actively obstructed the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials, including those related to nuclear secrets and national defense capabilities.

    Trump’s legal team argues the raid was executed with “clear intent to engage in political persecution,” according to a memo obtained by Fox News reporter Brooke Singman.

    The lawsuit, led by Trump attorney Daniel Epstein, alleges that the DOJ’s actions constituted “tortious conduct” against the former president, citing “intrusion upon seclusion, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process.”

    Epstein argues that the decisions made by Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray were “inconsistent with protocols” and driven by an agenda to “injure President Trump.”

    Epstein’s filing also argues: “The FBI’s conduct in the raid… constitutes a severe and unacceptable intrusion that is highly offensive to a reasonable person.

    Epstein further claims that the raid and subsequent indictment were part of a broader scheme to interfere with Trump’s political ambitions, describing it as “very accurate and precise election interference.”

    The DOJ has 180 days to respond to Epstein’s notice before the case moves to federal court. 

    Report: Internal Trump Campaign Documents Leaked

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2

    On Saturday, former President Trump’s campaign confirmed to Fox News that some of its internal communications were hacked. 

    Politico contacted the campaign after the news outlet started receiving internal Trump documents. 

    The outlet reported that it began receiving emails from someone identifying themselves as “Robert” using an anonymous AOL account on July 22, just days after the Republican National Convention ended and Trump announced Vance as his running mate. 

    “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from,” the person reportedly told Politico when reporters asked how “Robert” obtained the documents. “Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”

    “These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process,” said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign.

    “On Friday, a new report from Microsoft found that Iranian hackers broke into the account of a ‘high ranking official’ on the U.S. presidential campaign in June 2024, which coincides with the close timing of President Trump’s selection of a Vice Presidential nominee,” he added. 

    Cheung noted that the hack allegedly by Iran came, “after recent reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump around the same time as the Butler, PA tragedy.”

    He added: “The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House. Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”

    The documents sent to Politico included a 271-page “dossier” the Trump campaign had put together on his eventual running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, that dated back to February, the outlet said. 

    It included Vance’s past stances on issues, statements and previous criticisms of Trump in a section called “POTENTIAL VULNERABILITIES.”

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

    Trump’s Plane Forced to Make Emergency Landing in Montana After ‘Mechanical Issue’

      By
      Madeleine Jackson
      -
      1

      Former President Donald Trump’s private airplane was forced to make an emergency landing in Billings, Montana, on Friday after it suffered a mechanical issue.

      Scripps reported:

      The plane of former president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump landed in Billings, Montana Friday afternoon. Photos and video sent in by a viewer show the plane land and taxi down the runway.

      According to the Billings Airport, Trump’s plane landed in Billings after a mechanical issue. He is expected to take a private plane from there to the Bozeman Airport. Secret Service is doing a complete sweep of the airport here before that takes place

      Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account after landing in Billings but he did not address the apparent issue with his aircraft.

      “I just landed in a really beautiful place: Montana. So beautiful, flying over and you just look down and that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Trump said. “I’m here to do some fundraisers and most important to support Tim Sheehy who’se running for the U.S. Senate and we think he’s going to do really well. We’re going to have a rally. And it’ll be a lot of fun.”

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