Category Archives: Washington, DC

‘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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Blow to Trump as court upholds most of gag order in election interference case

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Federal appeals court rules Trump free to speak about special counsel Jack Smith but maintains other restrictions

Donald Trump may now assail the special counsel who brought the federal criminal case against him over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, in addition to being free to criticize the judge, the justice department, the Biden administration and the case as politically motivated.

The former president remains barred, however, from attacking potential trial witnesses, court staff or the special counsel’s staff, as well as the family members of any court staff or the special counsel’s staff.

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Activists calling for Gaza ceasefire begin hunger strike outside White House

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Activists including Cynthia Nixon say they are launching five-day fast ‘to showcase the actions of President Biden’

Leftwing activists including the actor Cynthia Nixon, famous for her role in Sex and the City, have begun a hunger strike outside the White House aimed at pressing Joe Biden into demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

The five-day fast was launched to coincide with what had been the scheduled end of a four-day truce in Israel’s military offensive into the Palestinian coastal territory, during which the Palestinian group Hamas released dozens of hostages. Israel has also released several batches of Palestinian prisoners, most of them women and minors. The truce was later extended by a further two days following mediation from Egypt and Qatar.

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January 6 rioter found guilty after judge calls defence argument ‘gobbledegook’

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Taylor James Johnatakis was found guilty of seven charges for his role in 2021 attack to stop Biden from being certified as president

A January 6 rioter who represented himself using “sovereign citizen” arguments – which a judge called “bullshit” and “gobbledegook” – was found guilty on Tuesday.

Taylor James Johnatakis, 39 and from Kingston, Washington, will be sentenced later.

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Democratic leadership says ceasefire protest ‘exceeded a peaceful demonstration’ and commends police amid activist criticism – as it happened

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Another video posted online appeared to show Capitol police officers rolling their bikes over candles that were laid out to mourn the 11,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes.

In a caption accompanying the video, Jewish Voice for Peace Action said:

“Last night, in DC Jews and allies carried out a vigil and a nonviolent, moral act of civil disobedience to call on Democrats to support a ceasefire to save Palestinian and Israeli lives. Within moments, police brutally assaulted peaceful protestors, injuring over 90.”

“Every hour of this horrific bombardment, more Palestinians are killed. Every hour, the lives of the hostages hang in the balance. Every hour increases the risk of a broader regional war, endangering the lives of millions of people across the entire region.

We the base of the Democratic party are here to say if you care about Palestinians, if you care about Israelis, if you care about Jews, if you care about humanity, we need you to call for a ceasefire, a hostage exchange, a deescalation, and to chart a path toward freedom and safety for all. Instead of heeding our call for a ceasefire, police violently attacked nonviolent protesters with pepper spray.”

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Protesters urging Gaza ceasefire accuse Washington police of violence

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Ceasefire Now Coalition says 90 activists injured by police using violent tactics to break up protest outside DNC headquarters

Protesters against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza were locked in a battle of words with Washington police on Thursday after accusing officers of violently breaking up a demonstration on Capitol Hill that organisers insist was peaceful.

Leaders of the Ceasefire Now Coalition said 90 of their activists were injured in confrontations that took place after they staged a candlelit vigil outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters on Wednesday evening.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene claims Democrats failed to defend House from Capitol rioters

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Extremist Republican says in book ‘not one Democrat was willing to stay to defend the chamber’ but claim rejected as ‘patently false’

In a new book, the extremist Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claims no Democrats stayed in the House chamber on January 6 to help defend it against rioters sent by Donald Trump to block the certification of Joe Biden’s election win – a claim one Democrat who did stay labeled “patently false”.

Greene’s book, MTG, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

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‘No ceasefire!’: tens of thousands march for Israel in Washington DC

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Speakers from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer to Republican House speaker Mike Johnson greeted crowds

Tens of thousands of Israel supporters gathered in Washington DC on Tuesday to show support for its war against Hamas, declare their opposition to a ceasefire and decry a global rise in antisemitism.

Massed ranks of demonstrators bearing placards and draped in Israeli flags gathered in the capital’s National Mall amid ultra-tight security and under clear blue skies in an event designed, at least partially, as a riposte to large recent US rallies demanding an immediate halt to Israel’s military offensive.

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Donald Trump pushes for live broadcast of his trial over election subversion

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Ex-president’s attorneys request live coverage of proceedings, but a rule prevents broadcasting of federal trials

Donald Trump’s attorneys have requested authorization for live, in-courtroom television coverage of his trial on charges that he conspired to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss so that the former commander-in-chief can publicly argue that the proceedings are unfair.

The legal filing late on Friday, citing unsubstantiated allegations that Trump is the victim of persecution by the Biden White House, supports efforts by news organizations to provide live television coverage from inside the trial, which is scheduled to begin in March 2024.

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‘No ceasefire, no votes’: tens of thousands attend pro-Palestinian rally in Washington DC

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Protesters call on Biden to demand ceasefire in Israel-Gaza conflict and end military aid to Israel

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters marched through downtown Washington DC on Saturday in what organizers hoped was the largest US demonstration of its kind since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza after Hamas attacked the country last month.

The crowd waved Palestinian flags, carried posters and chanted slogans during the National March on Washington: Free Palestine, which took place alongside similar events across the US and elsewhere in the world.

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Hundreds arrested as US Jews protest against Israel’s Gaza assault

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Protesters in Washington demand ceasefire, marking rift in community as Anti-Defamation League condemns demonstration

Leftwing Jewish activists campaigned against Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza this week in Washington, culminating in protests that have seen hundreds arrested for civil disobedience outside the White House and Congress.

But groups like the Anti-Defamation League have dismissed the actions as unrepresentative of fellow Jews, signalling a growing rift in the community as the war in the Middle East continues to claim thousands of lives.

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Rightwing group behind regressive US state laws to face protest at DC gala

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Rights groups to rally outside event, calling on corporations to cut ties with American Legislative Exchange Council

A broad coalition of opponents to the rightwing corporate agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) will hold a rally on Wednesday night outside a glitzy gala event to celebrate the secretive group’s 50th anniversary.

Environmentalists, gun reform campaigners, union leaders and voting rights activists will protest outside the $750-a-ticket event at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, calling on corporations to cut ties with Alec – a tax-exempt group behind a slew of regressive state laws including the stand your ground gun legislation, right-to-work labor policies and so-called critical infrastructure protections that criminalize protest against fossil fuel polluters.

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Tech leaders agree on AI regulation but divided on how in Washington forum

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Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai, Sam Altman and others gathered for ‘one of the most important conversations of the year’

A delegation of top tech leaders including Sundar Pichai, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman convened in Washington on Wednesday for a closed-door meeting with US senators to discuss the rise of artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated.

The discussion, billed as an “AI safety forum”, is one of several meetings between Silicon Valley, researchers, labor leaders and government and is taking on fresh urgency with the US elections looming and the rapid pace of AI advancement already affecting peoples’ lives and work.

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US to argue Google abused power to monopolize internet search as antitrust trial begins

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Outcome could reshape how public accesses and interacts with the internet, or embolden Google to pursue tighter grip on the market

The watershed antitrust trial pitting the US government against Google begins on Tuesday in a Washington district court, as the government is set to make its case that the tech giant illegally abused its power to monopolize internet search. It is the biggest test of antitrust law in decades, and the first such case against Google to go to trial.

Big tech companies and regulators are closely watching the trial, which could force a shift in how the industry is allowed to operate. Its outcome could reshape how the public accesses and interacts with the internet, or embolden Google to pursue an even tighter grip on the market.

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‘Racism is still with us’: celebration of King’s 1963 speech shadowed by racist attack

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Martin Luther King’s family decried the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, the overturning of Roe and gun violence in the US

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s legendary I Have a Dream speech, his son and granddaughter have decried continuing racial violence and hatred in the US, lamenting that the civil rights leader’s call for equality and justice has yet to be fulfilled.

Speaking a day after a vast crowd gathered in the nation’s capital in an echo of the 28 August 1963 march on Washington at which King made his famous remarks, his eldest son, Martin Luther King III, warned of a resurgence of hate crimes. Violence against minorities was “unconscionable” and “unacceptable”, he said.

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US government seeks 33 years for ex-Proud Boys leader over Capitol attack

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Request for Enrique Tarrio sentence comes as another convicted member of far-right group goes missing days before court date

The US justice department is seeking 33 years in prison for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy in one of the most serious cases to emerge from the attack on the US Capitol, according to court documents.

The harsh sentence request came as it emerged that Christopher Worrell, another member of the extremist group, has disappeared, days before he was due to be sentenced on Friday

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Crowds gather under stormy skies for glimpse of Trump in court – again

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Road closures and a huge police presence meant Trump slipped into court out of public view – but onlookers made their voices heard

After hearing that Donald Trump would appear at a federal courthouse in downtown Washington to answer charges filed against him for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Joan Batista made plans to be outside, celebrating what she viewed as the former president’s long overdue comeuppance.

But when she arrived at the E Barrett Prettyman US courthouse, what she saw bothered her. City trucks equipped with snow plows blocked roads, hundreds of police monitored the building’s entrances and reporters from all around the world ringed its perimeter, hoping for a glimpse of the former president.

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Trump arraignment key takeaways: four charges and a swift return date

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The ex-president was hit with four felony counts over efforts to overturn the election, and another hearing is due this month

Donald Trump’s third arraignment took place in a Washington courthouse on Thursday, the usual throng of media and smattering of protestors outside.

But as routine as a Trump indictment may seem to the public eye, this was the first time the former president has faced accountability for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

Conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.

Conspiracy against rights.

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Trump pleads not guilty to January 6 charges and claims arraignment is ‘sad day for America’ – as it happened

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In the minutes after the Trump indictment was filed in federal district court in Washington, conservative commentators rapidly scrambled to his defense. Rightwing pundits lined up to compare the charges to “criminalizing thoughts” and the dropping of “fifteen dozen” atomic bombs – and that was just on Fox News.

Rightwing TV channel Newsmax, which has drained some of Fox News’s audience in recent months, brought on Rudy Giuliani, an unnamed co-conspirator in Tuesday’s indictment, who railed for seven minutes about Hillary Clinton’s emails and Biden being a “crooked president”.

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Rudy Giuliani should be disbarred over 2020 election, DC panel recommends

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Washington DC committee recommends revoking former New York City mayor’s law license over attempt to overturn election

Rudy Giuliani’s law license should be revoked over his work on a failed lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results on behalf of then president Donald Trump, a Washington DC attorney ethics committee has recommended.

He now faces being disbarred in the capital after the review panel late on Friday condemned the lawyer and ex-politician for aggressively pursuing the false assertions Trump made about his defeat by Democratic rival and now US president Joe Biden.

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