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Jan. 6 Panel Warns of Contempt Charges Against Two More Trump Allies

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Jan. 6 Panel Warns of Contempt Charges Against Two More Trump Allies

WASHINGTON — The Home committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol mentioned on Thursday that it could take into account contempt of Congress costs towards two extra allies of former President Donald J. Trump for refusing to adjust to its subpoenas.

The potential costs towards Peter Navarro, a former White Home adviser, and Dan Scavino Jr., a former deputy chief of workers, might end in jail time and a hefty high-quality, and should be accepted by a vote of the Home. The committee mentioned it could maintain a public vote on whether or not to suggest the costs on Monday.

The committee’s actions present how more and more annoyed prime investigators have turn out to be with a few of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, a few of whom have refused to take a seat for interviews or flip over paperwork at the same time as tons of of different witnesses — together with prime officers within the Trump White Home — have voluntarily complied.

The committee issued a subpoena in February to Mr. Navarro, who has spoken overtly of his involvement in what he calls an “operation” to maintain Mr. Trump in workplace after he misplaced the 2020 election. He has mentioned he wouldn’t adjust to the committee’s subpoena, citing Mr. Trump’s invocation of government privilege over White Home supplies whereas he was in workplace.

On Thursday, he referred to as the committee’s announcement an “unprecedented partisan assault on government privilege.”

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“If President Trump waives the privilege, I’d be blissful to testify. It’s untimely for the committee to pursue felony costs towards a person of the very best rank throughout the White Home for whom government privilege undeniably applies,” Mr. Navarro mentioned. “Till this matter has been settled on the Supreme Courtroom, the place it’s inevitably headed, the committee ought to stop its ways of harassment and intimidation.”

The committee has sought Mr. Scavino’s testimony since September, when it issued him a subpoena. Mr. Scavino was in touch with Mr. Trump and others who deliberate the rallies that preceded the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, and he met with Mr. Trump on Jan. 5 to debate tips on how to persuade members of Congress to not certify the election for President Biden.

He additionally promoted the Jan. 6 “March for Trump” on Twitter, encouraging individuals to “be part of historical past,” and posted messages to Twitter from the White Home that day, based on the panel.

In January this 12 months, Mr. Scavino sued Verizon searching for to cease the corporate from turning over his cellphone information to the committee. Stanley Woodward, a lawyer for Mr. Scavino, declined to remark.

A contempt of Congress cost carries a penalty of as much as a 12 months in jail. A advice from the panel would ship the matter to the complete Home, which might then should vote to refer the cost to the Justice Division.

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The one goal of the Home investigation to have been criminally charged with contempt of Congress up to now is Stephen Ok. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s onetime prime adviser. That case, which is tentatively set to go to trial in July, has been slowed down lately in arguments over whether or not Mr. Bannon can defend himself by claiming he was merely following the recommendation of his legal professionals when he declined to reply to the committee’s subpoena.

In December, the Home additionally really helpful that Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s ultimate chief of workers, face felony contempt of Congress costs for his personal refusal to cooperate with the committee’s investigation. The Justice Division has not but determined whether or not to pursue felony costs towards Mr. Meadows, who turned over hundreds of paperwork to the committee however in the end refused to take a seat for an interview.

The potential contempt costs come because the committee is keeping off a litany of lawsuits from witnesses searching for to dam its subpoenas. In response to 1 such go well with, the committee on Thursday laid out extra of the case it’s constructing, immediately linking the storming of the Capitol to the profitable fund-raising effort by the Republican Nationwide Committee and the Trump marketing campaign that was constructed on false claims that Democrats had stolen the election from Mr. Trump.

In a submitting in federal courtroom in Washington, the committee gave its most detailed assertion but of why it believes the joint fund-raising effort was not only a plan to dupe donors into sending the Trump marketing campaign and the R.N.C. hundreds of thousands, but in addition a number one reason behind the mob assault on Congress.

In a 57-page doc, the committee outlined how, within the weeks after Mr. Trump misplaced the election, his marketing campaign and the R.N.C. raked in tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} sending out fund-raising appeals that referred to as Mr. Biden’s victory “illegitimate” and inspired supporters to “battle,” together with a number of messages despatched the identical day the Capitol was attacked.

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“There’s proof that quite a few defendants charged with violations associated to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and others current on the Capitol grounds that day had been motivated by false claims in regards to the election,” Douglas N. Letter, the final counsel of the Home, wrote within the submitting. “In truth, many defendants in pending felony circumstances recognized President Trump’s allegation in regards to the ‘stolen election’ as a motivation for his or her actions on the Capitol.”

For months, the committee’s investigators have examined whether or not a spread of crimes had been dedicated, together with two particularly: whether or not there was wire fraud by Republicans who raised hundreds of thousands of {dollars} off assertions that the election was stolen, regardless of realizing the claims weren’t true, and whether or not Mr. Trump and his allies obstructed Congress by making an attempt to cease the certification of electoral votes. In latest civil courtroom filings, the committee has begun laying out a few of what investigators contend is proof of criminality.

The committee’s submitting got here in response to a lawsuit filed by the Republican Nationwide Committee that seeks to dam Salesforce.com, a vendor that helped the R.N.C. ship emails, from complying with a subpoena from the panel searching for details about how the Trump marketing campaign and the R.N.C. could have used emails to unfold lies in regards to the election.

The R.N.C. is asking a federal decide to order a preliminary damage to thwart the Home committee.

Even after Election Day and Mr. Biden’s victory, the joint fund-raising effort by the Trump marketing campaign and the R.N.C. continued, repeatedly making false claims that the election had been stolen, the committee mentioned. The organizations despatched out greater than 400 totally different fund-raising appeals within the first month after the election alone — and tons of extra would comply with.

“The choose committee is anxious about experiences displaying that the postelection stolen election claims, and associated claims that the election might be reversed, had been a big motivating issue for the donors that contributed to President Trump’s fund-raising efforts,” the Home committee wrote in its courtroom submitting.

Mr. Trump and the Republican Social gathering raised $255.4 million over about eight weeks after the election as he sought to undermine and overturn the outcomes with unfounded accusations of fraud. When fund-raising started to fall off after the Electoral School licensed the election for Mr. Biden on Dec. 14, 2020, the Trump marketing campaign and the R.N.C. doubled down on their false claims of fraud, the committee mentioned.

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The organizations later turned to soliciting cash via claims that the election might be overturned through the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress.

“Each single Patriot from throughout the Nation should step up RIGHT NOW if we’re going to efficiently DEFEND the integrity of this Election,” the Trump marketing campaign and the R.N.C. mentioned in a single e mail on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Video: Harris and Walz Hold First Campaign Rally Together

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Video: Harris and Walz Hold First Campaign Rally Together

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transcript

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Harris and Walz Hold First Campaign Rally Together

Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly announced running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, went on the attack against the Trump-Vance Republican ticket during a raucous rally in Philadelphia.

“To his former high school students, he was Mr. Walz. And to his former high school football players, he was Coach. And in 91 days, the nation will know Coach Walz by another name: Vice President of the United States.” “Thank you, Madam Vice President, for the trust you put in me, but maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy. Now, Donald Trump sees the world a little differently than us. First of all, he doesn’t know the first thing about service. He doesn’t have time for it because he’s too busy serving himself. Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD [Vance] studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community. Come on. That’s not what middle America is. And I got to tell you, I can’t wait to debate the guy.”

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Kristen McDonald Privet wins Dem primary for Rep Dan Kildee's open blue Michigan seat

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Kristen McDonald Privet wins Dem primary for Rep Dan Kildee's open blue Michigan seat

State senator Kristen McDonald Privet was declared the winner of the Democratic primary for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District. 

Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., announced in 2023 that he would not be seeking re-election, leaving the seat he’s represented since 2012 up for grabs this cycle.

The primary race saw three candidates competing for the nomination: Kristen McDonald Privet, Matt Collier and Pamela Pugh. .

KEY PRIMARIES IN 4 STATES ON TUESDAY TO SET TABLE TO NOVEMBER SENATE, HOUSE SHOWDOWNS

Rep. Dan Kildee is leaving Congress at the end of the current term (Getty Images)

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Collier previously served as the mayor of Flint, Michigan in the late 1980s.

Pugh currently works as president of the Michigan State Board of Education. 

McDonald Privet currently serves as the first female state senator to represent the Great Lakes Bay Region.

The state senator also served as executive director of Michigan Head Start, chief of staff for Michigan’s Department of Education, and vice president of the Skillman Foundation.

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Column: Finally, Tim Walz puts teachers in their place: the national spotlight

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Column: Finally, Tim Walz puts teachers in their place: the national spotlight

As the daughter of a gun-owning, gun-control-supporting veteran and progressive social studies teacher whose calm, exasperatingly informed, “bulls—”-calling rebuttal of political speeches predated the recent media trend of “live fact-checking” by several decades, I find myself personally thrilled by Kamala Harris’ decision to select Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Not only do the two men share the same devastating “you can’t be serious” sense of humor, it’s about damn time K-12 teachers got the respect and political prominence they deserve.

Teachers are the unsung heroes of democracy and Walz, who taught social studies for nine years at Mankato West High School, is a walking, gone-viral-talking reminder of that.

A reminder this country sorely needs.

Famous people love to praise their favorite educators from podiums, in interviews or while receiving awards. Remember when Tom Hanks outed his drama teacher after winning best actor for “Philadelphia,” which spawned the film “In & Out”?

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And certainly Hollywood loves a good teacher story — from “Welcome Back, Kotter” to ”Abbott Elementary,” “Dead Poets Society” to “Precious,” the importance of educators is regularly celebrated onscreen with pathos and passion. Indeed, as the small-town teacher/football coach who became advisor to his school’s first LGBTQ club, and a former NRA member who became a gun-control advocate after the 2018 Parkland school shooting, Walz himself has a backstory that seems an easy sell in any pitch meeting: ”Friday Night Lights” meets “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Still, teachers, particularly those at public schools, remain absurdly underpaid and overwhelmed, their profession honored by a national appreciation day and little else, unless you count a higher burnout rate than any other profession.

Here’s hoping Walz will help change that. As he said in his first campaign rally with Harris in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, while introducing his wife, Gwen, “a 29-year public school educator”: “Don’t ever underestimate teachers.”

Obviously, he brings many other things to the ticket. He is a six-term congressman and a two-term governor who leaped into national prominence in recent weeks with take-downs of former President Donald Trump and GOP vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, whom Walz famously referred to as “just weird.”

“These are weird people on the other side,” Walz said in an interview on MSNBC. “They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. That’s what it comes down to, and don’t get sugarcoating this: These are weird ideas.”

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Whether clad in a suit or a “Dad hat” and T-shirt, he talks to people rather than at them and seems capable of making his case in a way that is both deeply informed and easily understood. His remarks went viral because they eschewed political jargon and explained the situation with same “come on now” ease that he used to deliver a tutorial on how to change out a burned-out headlight harness on a 2014 Ford Edge.

Which is precisely what the best teachers do.

If there is anyone who can deliver large amounts of complicated information in a way that educates and inspires a large group of disparate, distracted and fractious individuals, it’s a teacher.

Anyone who has stood in front of a classroom of high school students at pretty much any hour of the school day knows there is no tougher constituency, or audience, in the world.

You need someone to stare down bratty antics or blow up misinformation? As Walz has already proved, a good teacher can do it midsentence, without blinking, before returning to a lecture on westward expansion.

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The hours of prep, the verbal facility needed to get and keep students’ attention, the vision to see both the entire class and the individual student, the patience to handle the inevitable disruptions, the diplomacy involved in many parental interactions, not to mention the increasing responsibility for classroom safety: Is it any wonder that teachers experience twice the amount of stress of the general workforce?

Walz has said he decided to go into politics after he took a group of students to a rally for then-President George W. Bush and they were asked to leave because one of the students had a John Kerry sticker. As origin stories go, it’s a great anecdote, but teaching was far from just a stepping stone for Walz. In office, he’s continued to champion public education as a key to maintaining a successful democracy.

After Harris announced Walz as her vice-presidential pick, he was quickly endorsed by both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

“Walz successfully passed legislation providing free school meals to every Minnesota student, ensuring no child will have to learn on an empty stomach,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in a statement. “He increased education spending by billions of dollars, raised teacher pay, enacted paid family and medical leave for all families, provided unemployment insurance to hourly school workers, and expanded the collective bargaining rights of Minnesotans.”

The media will, no doubt, lean into Walz’s experience as a football coach — in 1999 he helped Mankato West win a state championship and political wonks love a good sports metaphor. But coaching a team involves harnessing a preexisting love of the sport. Being a teacher means showing up day after day to help a group of people, who often would rather be anywhere else, learn the things they need to know.

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Whether it’s the danger of banning books and restricting women’s right to choose, or how to change a burned-out headlight harness.

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