Politics
GOP questions impartiality of new Trump special counsel
Republicans are elevating questions concerning the impartiality of Jack Smith, the particular counsel appointed by Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland to supervise the probe into former President Donald Trump’s dealing with of labeled paperwork and refusal to simply accept the outcomes of the 2020 election.
GOP lawmakers notice that Smith performed a job within the IRS’ focusing on of conservative nonprofits through the Obama period and level to the work and political donations of his partner.
“Joe Biden’s DOJ’s particular counsel Jack Smith is compromised,” mentioned Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. “The corrupt weaponization and politicization of Biden’s DOJ should be stopped.”
Smith started his profession as a prosecutor in 1994 as an assistant district lawyer in New York. In 1999, he joined the Justice Division as an assistant U.S. lawyer, the place prosecuted police and political corruption.
REPUBLICANS ACCUSE BIDEN OF WEAPONIZING DOJ AFTER TRUMP SPECIAL COUNSEL APPOINTMENT
Smith left the DOJ in 2008 to work for the Worldwide Felony Courtroom within the Netherlands, however he returned in 2010 because the lead of the division’s public integrity part. Within the function, Smith was charged with overseeing the federal authorities’s efforts to fight corruption.
Republicans say it was in that place that Smith turned concerned within the IRS’ focusing on of conservative teams. On the time, the Supreme Courtroom had simply overturned federal prohibitions on political spending by firms, labor unions and nonprofits.
Democrats and progressives frightened that call successfully legalized affect peddling and pushed the Obama administration to take motion. In line with a 2013 report by the U.S. Treasury’s inspector common, the IRS unfairly scrutinized and delayed purposes for tax-exempt standing by a whole lot of conservative nonprofits.
ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND NAMES SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE TRUMP ON MAR-A-LAGO DOCUMENTS, JAN. 6
A 2014 investigation into the scandal by the Home Judiciary Committee purported to reveal Smith’s involvement. A witness who served within the DOJ on the time instructed the Judiciary Committee that Smith had met with then-IRS head Lois Lerner in 2010.
The witness mentioned the dialog detailed “how the IRS might help within the legal enforcement of campaign-finance legal guidelines towards politically energetic nonprofits.”
“Jack Smith was searching for methods to prosecute the harmless People Lois Lerner focused through the IRS scandal,” mentioned Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who’s slated to guide the Home Judiciary Committee subsequent Congress. “And folks suppose him serving as particular counsel received’t be political?”
Smith has denied that the assembly with Lerner was nefarious. He instructed the Home Judiciary Committee throughout its probe that the assembly was a part of an effort to study extra concerning the function that nonprofits had been taking part in within the political system.
“I can let you know that we [the DOJ’s public integrity section] didn’t open any investigations because of these discussions and that we definitely, as , haven’t introduced any circumstances because of that,” Smith instructed the Judiciary Committee in 2014.
Republicans don’t purchase the argument, nonetheless. Aside from the IRS scandal, GOP lawmakers query Smith’s impartiality due to the work of his spouse, Katy Chevigny.
Chevigny, a documentary filmmaker, has donated cash to Democrats in recent times. In September 2020, she donated $1,000 every to Biden’s presidential marketing campaign and an excellent PAC engaged on his behalf. She additionally donated $150 to Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s 2008 marketing campaign for the Michigan Home of Representatives.
TRUMP INVESTIGATION PROVES GARLAND RUNNING A BIDEN ‘PROTECTION RACKET’: JARRETT
Tlaib received that race and was elected to Congress in 2018, the place she turned a vocal proponent of impeaching former President Donald Trump.
Chevigny additionally co-produced a documentary about Michelle Obama in 2020. The movie, titled “Changing into,” was billed as a behind-the-scenes view of the previous first woman as she launched into a nationwide guide tour for her memoir.
A New York Occasions’ assessment of the documentary referred to as it “stagey” and “scripted “with “selective biographical moments” that painting Obama positively.
“You simply can’t make these things up,” mentioned Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., noting the doable conflicts of curiosity.
Smith was appointed by Garland final week to supervise the investigation into Trump’s retention of labeled paperwork after leaving the White Home and whether or not the previous president tried to hinder the investigation. He’s additionally accountable for probing whether or not Trump or different entities tried to hinder the peaceable switch of energy after the 2020 election.
Garland mentioned he selected Smith for the function, partly, due to his unimpeachable integrity.
“All through his profession, Jack Smith has constructed a repute as an neutral and decided prosecutor, who leads groups with vitality and focus to comply with the details wherever they lead,” mentioned Garland.
Politics
Alabama lawmakers advance bill that could lead to prosecution of librarians
Alabama lawmakers on Thursday advanced legislation that could see librarians prosecuted under the state’s obscenity law for providing “harmful” materials to minors, the latest in a wave of bills in Republican-led states targeting library content and decisions.
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-28 for the bill that now moves to the Alabama Senate. The legislation comes amid a soaring number of book challenges — often centered on LGBTQ content — and efforts in a number of states to ban drag queen story readings.
ALABAMA LAWMAKERS ADVANCE BILLS ENSURING BIDEN APPEARS ON NOVEMBER BALLOT
“This is an effort to protect children. It is not a Democrat bill. It’s not a Republican bill. It’s a people bill to try to protect children,” Republican Rep. Arnold Mooney, the bill’s sponsor, said during debate.
The Alabama bill removes the existing exemption for public libraries in the state’s obscenity law. It also expands the definition of prohibited sexual conduct to include any “sexual or gender oriented conduct” at K-12 public schools or public libraries that “exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities.”
Under the process laid out in the bill, a librarian in a public library or public K-12 school could face a misdemeanor charge if the librarian fails to remove material or cease conduct that violates the state’s obscenity law within seven days of receiving a written complaint from the public.
Opponents argued that proposal would threaten librarians with criminal prosecution at the whims of community members who disagreed with their decisions on books and programs.
“This process will be manipulated and used to arrest librarians that you don’t like, and not because they did anything criminal. It’s because you disagree with them,” Rep. Chris England, a Democrat from Tuscaloosa, said during debate.
Craig Scott, president of the Alabama Library Association, said libraries already have longstanding procedures for reviewing the suitability of content and for the public to submit challenges if they disagree with a decision.
“Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?” Scott said in a phone interview. He predicted the state will lose “lawsuit after lawsuit” if the bill becomes law.
A judge in July temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a similar law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors.
Scott, who began his career in 1977, said he has never seen anything like the current climate. He said the Gadsden Public Library where he works has seen one person — who eventually obtained a role in library governance — challenge 30 books. Most of the book challenges are related to books with content about gender identity. But they also have included a book about a boy who wants to become a ballet dancer, he said.
“We are for the entire community. We have to be. We’ve got some books in here that are far right. We’ve got some books on the far left. But the library is for the entire community. We’ve got to stay in the middle as best we can, and they want to push us way off to the far right,” Scott said.
Republican Rep. David Faulkner, who worked on a substitute version of the bill that was approved by the House, disputed that the bill could have wide-ranging impact. He said courts have long interpreted what is obscene material.
The law takes away immunity that K-12 and public libraries had under the obscenity law, but it puts limits on when prosecutions could occur, Faulkner said.
“It’s only going to be a misdemeanor, and it’s only if, after knowing about the material, they didn’t do anything about it,” he said.
Rep. Neil Rafferty, a Democrat from Birmingham, said he was concerned that the bill’s language would allow someone to “target and harass people who might be dressed up in a Halloween costume” or wearing summer clothing that someone considered too revealing.
“I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it’s easily going to be abused,” he said.
Politics
California battery storage increasing rapidly, but not enough to end blackouts, Gov. Newsom says
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that California continued to rapidly add the battery storage that is crucial to the transition to cleaner energy, but admitted it was still not enough to avoid blackouts during heat waves.
Standing in the middle of a solar farm in Yolo County, Newsom announced the state now had battery storage systems with the capacity of more than 10,000 megawatts — about 20% of the 52,000 megawatts the state says is needed to meet its climate goals.
“This is critical to how we achieve 100% clean energy by 2045,” Newsom said. “Batteries allow us to use clean energy captured by solar and other renewable sources at all times of the day, especially when solar generation drops after the sun goes down.”
The ultimate goal, he said, is to slow climate change.
“As the hots get hotter, the drys get drier, the wets get wetter, simultaneous droughts, and rain bombs, we have to address these issues with a ferocity that is required of us and we’re doing just that in California,” he said.
Asked by reporters if California now had enough battery storage so that residents no longer had to worry about blackouts during times of high power use, Newsom laughed.
“We have a lot of work to do still in moving this transition, with the kind of stability that’s required,” the governor said. “So no, this is not today announcing that blackouts are part of our past.”
Battery storage installations work by receiving excess solar and wind power and releasing it later, especially from 4 to 9 p.m. when the state’s grid is most under stress.
Last year, Newsom appointees voted to extend the operation of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant another five years to bolster the reliability of Calfornia’s grid and avoid rolling blackouts. The aging nuclear facility and its twin reactors had been scheduled to shut down.
In August 2020, a major heat event fueled by the climate crisis forced some of the state’s first rotating power outages in decades, as the ongoing transition to green energy lagged behind demand. Californians narrowly avoided rolling blackouts in 2022 as a record-breaking heat wave broiled almost every corner of the state for days.
Politics
911 call transcript details Democratic Minnesota state senator’s alleged burglary at stepmother's home
When the stepmother of Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell reported a home break-in around 4:45 a.m. Monday, she said she was armed with “a little steak knife” after finding an intruder next to her bed, according to a 911 call transcript obtained by Fox News Digital Thursday.
Mitchell’s stepmother told a dispatcher the intruder ran downstairs to the basement of her home in the 700 block of Granger Road in Detroit Lakes, and she didn’t know if the person was “breaking out the back window.”
Mitchell was found and arrested at the home after police arrived and allegedly found her wearing all black with a flashlight covered with a black sock nearby. She was charged with first-degree burglary.
When the dispatcher asked if the caller got a good look at the intruder, she responded: “No, it was completely dark. I tripped over ’em. Ah, he was on the floor next to my bed. He ran downstairs into my basement.”
DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR CLAIMS SHE WAS CHECKING IN ON ILL LOVED ONE DURING ALLEGED BURGLARY
The caller also told the dispatcher she had grabbed “a little steak knife.” Throughout the call, she only referred to the intruder as “he” and never suggested she knew who had entered her home.
Mitchell denied the burglary allegation in a Facebook post Tuesday, claiming she went to check on “a loved one” with Alzheimer’s after learning of medical information which caused her “grave concern.”
READ THE 911 CALL TRANSCRIPT: MOBILE USERS, CLICK HERE
According to the 911 call transcript, the dispatcher asked the caller if she could hear anyone breaking out the window in the basement.
“I’m not hearing anything right now,” she responded. “Maybe the window is already open down there. There’s a basement — a drop window that can crank open. I don’t know.”
According to a criminal complaint, responding officers found that a black backpack belonging to Mitchell was propping open a basement window. Inside the backpack, officers found a laptop belonging to the stepmother, who told officers that she never gave it to Mitchell.
Mitchell acknowledged she entered through a window and told investigators she was trying to get her late father’s ashes, photos, a flannel shirt and other items of sentimental value, the criminal complaint said. Mitchell claimed her stepmother had stopped speaking to her after her father’s death and refused to give her the items.
DEMOCRATIC MINNESOTA STATE SENATOR CHARGED WITH FIRST-DEGREE BURGLARY AFTER BREAKING INTO STEPMOTHER’S HOUSE
“I know I did something bad,” Mitchell is quoted as saying in the complaint.
In Mitchell’s Facebook post, the state senator said she entered the home but did not explain why she apparently entered through a window in the dark early morning hours.
“Unfortunately, I startled this close relative, exacerbating paranoia, and I was accused of stealing, which I absolutely deny,” Mitchell wrote.
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Mitchell, of Woodbury, has represented District 47 since she was elected to the state Senate in 2022. She was previously a meteorologist for KSTP-TV and Minnesota Public Radio and serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard.
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