Category Archives: US Politics

Senator ‘disappointed’ in staffer allegedly filmed having sex in hearing room

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Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland – due to retire in 2025 – said Aidan Maese-Czeropski is ‘no longer a Senate employee’

The US senator Ben Cardin said he is “angry” and “disappointed” in a now-former staffer who allegedly recorded himself having sex in a Capitol Hill hearing room.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Maryland Democrat declined to elaborate on either the ex-staffer or the episode, video of which was leaked. But Cardin said he considered the entire sequence “a breach of trust”.

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Joe Biden unharmed as vehicle collides with presidential motorcade

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Secret Service indicate collision was accident in rainy conditions as president left campaign HQ in Delaware

A sedan hit a sport-utility vehicle in Joe Biden’s motorcade on Sunday night in Delaware, causing no injuries in what officials said appeared to be a car accident rather than an intentional act.

The president’s motorcade was preparing to take Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, to their residence in Wilmington after a campaign dinner with staffers and volunteers. Biden had stepped out on to the street when a crash could be heard down the street from Biden and his protective Secret Service detail.

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Judge temporarily bars removal of Confederate memorial in Virginia

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Restraining order issued after a group filed a lawsuit and a letter that was signed by more than 40 Republican congressmen

A Confederate memorial was blocked on Monday from being removed from Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia, with a court order setting back the push to remove symbols that commemorate the Confederacy from military-related facilities.

A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order barring removal of a memorial to Confederate soldiers at the nation’s foremost military cemetery. A group called Defend Arlington, affiliated with a group called Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a lawsuit Sunday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, seeking the restraining order. A hearing has been scheduled for Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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DeSantis political woes deepen after chief strategist for Super Pac resigns

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Jeff Roe, who led Never Back Down, said he was stepping down from the $269m fund, just weeks before Iowa caucus

Florida governor Ron DeSantis political woes have deepened further in the wake of the surprise resignation of a chief strategist at a leading campaign fund dealing yet another blow to the right-winger’s rapidly waning 2024 presidential hopes.

Jeff Roe, the chief strategist for the DeSantis-backing Super Pac Never Back Down, said he was stepping down from the massive, $269m fund that was billed as a novel application of campaign finance laws that prevent the integration of a Pac and its spending with a candidate’s campaign.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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‘He’s dog-whistling’: Trump denounced over anti-immigrant comment

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Former president said undocumented immigrants are ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ at political rally on Saturday

Donald Trump is facing a backlash for repeating a remark at a political rally on Saturday where he said undocumented immigrants to the United States are “poisoning the blood of our country”.

The former US president’s comments were the latest example of his campaign rhetoric that seemed to go beyond the lies and exaggerations that are a trademark of his stump speeches and instead go into territory of outright extremism or racism. In November he was widely condemned for calling his opponents “vermin”, language that echoed that used historically by dictators and authoritarians.

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Republican royalty to liberal heroine: Liz Cheney finds an anti-Trump niche

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The ex-congresswoman is unapologetically conservative, but her decision to put democracy before party has made her an unlikely heroine

It was a moment that a visitor from the year 2010 might have found impossible to comprehend. As Liz Cheney, arch-conservative and daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, walked on stage in deeply liberal Washington, the audience applauded and cheered for a full 45 seconds.

“They’re standing, Liz, wow!” exclaimed moderator Mark Leibovich, a journalist and author. “You could probably be elected to Congress from the District of Columbia if they had representation.”

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Rudy Giuliani dismisses $148m damages verdict as ‘absurd’ as former election workers praise decision – as it happened

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Moss went on to thank the court and jury for listening to her and her mother’s experience in the aftermath of Giuliani’s defamatory statements.

Her voice broke slightly when she added: “I know I won’t be able to retire from my job with the county like my grandma did, but I hope having taken these very big steps towards justice, I can make her proud.”

The lies Rudy Giuliani told about me and my mommy after the 2020 presidential election have changed our lives and the past few years has been devastating.

The flame that Giuliani lit with those lies and passed to so many others to keep that flame blazing changed every aspect of our lives – our homes, our family, our work, our sense of safety, our mental health. And we’re still working to rebuild.

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Multimillion-dollar ruling against Giuliani shows cost of spreading election lies

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As the 2024 election approaches, the $148m judgment against a key Trump ally sends a message that falsehoods have consequences

The judge had already decided Rudy Giuliani defamed the two former Georgia election workers, the question was just how much that cycle of lies and ensuing harassment should cost him.

A jury declared on Friday that it was worth an eye-popping $148m, far beyond expectations and a major blow to the former New York mayor and key Donald Trump ally.

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Rudy Giuliani ordered to pay $148.1m in damages for lies about election workers

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Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, from Atlanta, received threats after Trump ally falsely accused them of trying to steal election

A Washington DC jury has ordered Rudy Giuliani to pay $148.1m to two Atlanta election workers after he spread lies about them, one of the most significant verdicts to date seeking accountability for those who attempted to overturn the 2020 election.

The verdict follows a four-day trial in which Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, her daughter, gave haunting details about the harassment and threats they faced after Giuliani falsely accused them of trying to steal the election in Georgia. The women, who are Black, described how they fled, are afraid to give their names in public, and still suffer severe emotional distress today. Their lawyers asked the jury to award them each at least $24m in damages. Giuliani’s attorney said earlier this week that awarding the plaintiffs their sought damages would be a “death penalty” and would be "the end of Mr Giuliani”.

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Binder of classified material on Russia reportedly went missing in final Trump days

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CNN and New York Times report disappearance of 2,700 pages of classified material that caused alarm in US intelligence circles

A 10in-thick binder containing nearly 3,000 pages of highly classified material related to the investigation of Russian election interference as well as links between Moscow and Donald Trump went missing in the final days of his presidency, CNN and the New York Times reported.

CNN said the disappearance raised alarms in the American intelligence community because “some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed”.

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US Congress passes stripped-down measure to release UFO records

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National Archives directed to collect reports but measure gives government departments broad authority to keep them secret

If the truth about UFOs is out there, the American government doesn’t want you to see it yet.

Just months after US space agency Nasa appointed a research director of unidentified anomalous phenomena, and promised more transparency about what it knows, the US Congress has acted to throttle the flow of information that ultimately reaches the public.

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Satanic Temple condemns vandalism of its statue by Christian military veteran

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Michael Cassidy arrested over tearing down of satanic altar – symbol of humanism and anti-authoritarianism – at Iowa capitol

The leader of an organization whose satanic altar at Iowa’s state capitol was torn down by a Christian military veteran Thursday has dismissed the vandalism as “a real act of cowardice”.

“There’s a certain point at which we need some adults in the room to tell people what … liberal, democratic values are; what they’re value is; why we uphold them; what they’re good for; and they need to stand up for these values or we are going to further degenerate in our polarism towards autocracy,” the co-founder of the Satanic Temple, Lucien Greaves, told CNN’s NewsNight on Thursday.

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Rudy Giuliani defamation trial: jury deliberating on damages for former election workers – as it happened

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Michael Gottlieb, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, said that he will not provide the jury with a number for damages to be paid, Law & Crime’s Brandi Buchman reports.

Instead, he said that they must reach that number by weighing the humiliation, indignity and suffering Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss experienced based on the evidence provided.

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Biden condemns impeachment inquiry: ‘a baseless political stunt’

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House Republicans rally behind investigation authorized by party-line vote as Democrats stand united in opposition

The House on Wednesday authorized the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, with every Republican rallying behind the politically charged process despite lingering concerns among some in the party that the investigation has yet to produce evidence of misconduct by the US president.

The 221-212 party-line vote put the entire House Republican conference on record in support of an impeachment process that can lead to the ultimate penalty for a president: punishment for what the constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors”, which can lead to removal from office if convicted in a Senate trial.

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House votes to formally authorize Biden impeachment inquiry

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Republicans have failed to produce evidence showing president financially benefitted from family business dealings

The House voted Wednesday to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, even as Republicans have failed to produce evidence showing that the president financially benefitted from his family’s business dealings.

The House voted on partisan lines, 221-212 to launch the inquiry. The vote came hours after the president’s son, Hunter Biden, defied a subpoena to appear for a closed-door deposition with House members. Instead choosing to hold a press conference on Capitol Hill, Hunter Biden reiterated his willingness to testify publicly, an offer that House Republicans have rejected.

This story was amended on 13 December 2023 to accurately reflect the House votes for the inquiry to 221-212.

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Clarence Thomas pressured to recuse himself from Trump immunity case

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Senate Democrats argue justice poses potential conflict of interest because his wife has previously supported Trump’s election lies

Senate Democrats are pressuring the supreme court justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from deciding whether Donald Trump has immunity from prosecution for alleged crimes he committed while president.

Democrats have argued that Thomas poses a potential conflict of interest because his wife, Ginni Thomas, has previously supported Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen, the Hill reported.

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‘I was terrorized’: 2020 election worker testifies at Giuliani defamation trial

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Ruby Freeman’s testimony is at center of trial to determine how much in damages Giuliani will have to pay to her and her daughter

Ruby Freeman sobbed on the witness stand. The former election worker said she is afraid to tell anyone her name, has been driven from her home and was terrorized with threatening phone calls and letters after Rudy Giuliani, a key Trump ally and the former New York mayor, spread lies about her in 2020.

Freeman began her testimony in federal court on Wednesday by introducing herself to the jury as “Lady Ruby”, saying the name was “special, unique and classy”. But, she says, she’s stopped using the name because she fears what would happen if someone were to recognize her. When she goes out, she wears sunglasses and a mask.

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Giuliani defamation trial: election worker testifies ex-Trump lawyer’s 2020 lies ruined her life – as it happened

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The Giuliani defamation trial is one of the first tests of the many prongs pro-democracy groups are using in the courts to try to hold purveyors of election lies accountable.

Several lawsuits use anti-defamation laws in civil lawsuits against big names who joined with Trump to deny the results of the 2020 election, including Giuliani, Mike Lindell and Dinesh D’Souza.

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Special counsel to disclose Trump’s phone data at election interference trial

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Filing suggests experts could connect former president’s tweets with the movements of January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol

Special counsel prosecutors indicated on Monday they will call three expert witnesses at Donald Trump’s trial over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election who could potentially show how January 6 rioters moved on the Capitol in response to the former president’s tweets.

The witnesses, according to a three-page filing, involve two experts on geolocation data to show the crowd’s movement during and after Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, and an expert on cellular phone data to testify about when and how Trump’s phone was being used, including over the same time period.

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Giuliani caused ‘perpetual nightmare’ for 2020 election workers, jury told

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Georgians are seeking $15.5m-$43m in damages from former New York City mayor for his false statements about ballot counts

Rudy Giuliani “disgraced” the names of two Atlanta election workers as part of a call to action, causing them to suffer a “perpetual nightmare” since December 2020, attorneys representing the two women said during opening statements in a closely watched defamation trial.

“It was vicious,” Von DuBose, a lawyer representing Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, two Black election workers from Georgia, told an eight-person jury seated on Monday. “He used their names as a cornerstone of a call to action.”

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