Trump engaged in ‘criminal effort’ to overturn 2020 election

 

Special counsel report found Trump engaged in ‘criminal effort’ to overturn 22020 election

By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch

January 14, 20253:53 AM PST Updated 27 min ago

Special Counsel Jack Smith's signature is seen on a revised indictment in the 2020 election subversion case against Donald Trump after U.S. prosecutors obtained the indictment in Washington, U.S., August 27, 2024. U.S. Department of Justice/Handout via REUTERS/, opens new tab

• Summary
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• Smith's report details Trump's alleged election obstruction, document retention
• Trump's cases dropped due to DOJ policy against prosecuting sitting presidents
• Courts reject Trump's attempt to block report release before his return to office

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith concluded that Donald Trump engaged in an "unprecedented criminal effort" to hold on to power after losing the 2020 election, but was thwarted in bringing the case to trial by the president-elect's November election victory, according to a report published on Tuesday.

The report details Smith's decision to bring a four-count indictment against Trump, accusing him of plotting to obstruct the collection and certification of votes following his 2020 defeat by Democratic President Joe Biden.

It concludes that the evidence would have been enough to convict Trump at trial, but his imminent return to the presidency, set for Jan. 20, made that impossible.

Smith, who has faced relentless criticism from Trump, also defended his investigation and the prosecutors who worked on it.

"The claim from Mr. Trump that my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable," Smith wrote in a letter detailing his report. After the release, Trump, in a post on his Truth Social site, called Smith a "lamebrain prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the election."

Trump's lawyers, in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland made public by the Justice Department, called the report a "politically-motivated attack" and said releasing it ahead of Trump's return to the White House would harm the presidential transition.

Much of the evidence cited in the report has been previously made public.

But it includes some new details, such as that prosecutors considered charging Trump with inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol under a U.S. law known as the Insurrection Act.

Prosecutors ultimately concluded that such a charge posed legal risks and there was insufficient evidence that Trump intended for the "full scope" of violence during the riot, a failed attempt by a mob of his supporters to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election.

The indictment charged Trump with conspiring to obstruct the election certification, defraud the United States of accurate election results and deprive U.S. voters of their voting rights.

Smith's office determined that charges may have been justified against some co-conspirators accused of helping Trump carry out the plan, but the report said prosecutors reached no final conclusions.

Several of Trump's former lawyers had previously been identified as co-conspirators referenced in the indictment.

A second section of the report details Smith’s case accusing Trump of illegally retaining sensitive national security documents after leaving the White House in 2021.

The Justice Department has committed not to make that portion public while legal proceedings continue against two Trump associates charged in the case.

Smith, who left the Justice Department last week, dropped both cases against Trump after he won last year’s election, citing a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president. Neither reached a trial.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. Regularly assailing Smith as "deranged," Trump depicted the cases as politically motivated attempts to damage his campaign and political movement.

Trump and his two former co-defendants in the classified documents case sought to block the release of the report, days before Trump is set to return to office on Jan. 20. Courts rebuffed their demands to prevent its publication altogether.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who presided over the documents case, has ordered the Justice Department for now to halt plans to allow certain senior members of Congress to privately review the documents section of the report.

Prosecutors gave a detailed view of their case against Trump in previous court filings. A congressional panel in 2022 published its own 700-page account of Trump’s actions following the 2020 election.

Both investigations concluded that Trump spread false claims of widespread voter fraud following the 2020 election and pressured state lawmakers not to certify the vote, and ultimately, also sought to use fraudulent groups of electors pledged to vote for Trump, in states actually won by Biden, in a bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden's win.

The effort culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed Congress in a failed attempt to stop lawmakers from certifying the vote.

Smith's case faced legal hurdles even before Trump's election win. It was paused for months while Trump pressed his claim that he could not be prosecuted for official actions taken as president.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority largely sided with him, granting former presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution.

The Rise of Trump’s Thugs? - Thom Hartmann

The Rise of Trump’s Thugs?

Trump has long admired dictators who weaponize civilian gangs to crush dissent. Will his next chapter involve unleashing his own militias to terrorize the American public?

Thom Hartmann Jan 9 One of the most common characteristics of rule by an authoritarian who’s taken over a democracy is his use of unofficial civilian paramilitary groups and militia gangs to terrorize or even kill his political opponents. Back in the day, Hitler had his Brownshirts, Mussolini his Blackshirts. The practice has since become far more widespread — routine, almost — as we can see across multiple formerly democratic nations taken over — by election — during the past three decades: — Putin uses a nationwide biker gang called the Night Wolves, who terrorize and often kill people who speak out against him. He also used the Wagner Group for these purposes against high-profile political and business targets. — In India, Narendra Modi is supported by a rightwing gang known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) which is alleged to even lynch Modhi’s religious critics. — Rodrigo Duterte, in the Philippines, had a group known as The Death Squad who murdered his political opponents, usually claiming they were drug dealers (police killed the actual drug dealers). — Erdoğan’s Turkish goons are called the Ülkü Ocakları, aka the Gray Wolves, who often burst into homes in the middle of the night to beat suspected dissidents and journalists. — In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro had multiple rightwing groups who intimidated and killed people who offended him, the Escritório do Crime or Crime Office being the most notorious. — Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro’s paramilitary rightwing thugs are a group called the Colectivos, famous for assaulting people in broad daylight, kidnappings, and even burning people out of their homes. — In Hungary, Viktor Orbán relies on several civilian vigilante groups to terrorize gays, liberals, immigrants, and Roma people: The Hungarian Guard (Magyar Gárda), Outlaws' Army (Betyársereg), and the Legio Hungaria. Which raises the question: Does Trump plan to do the same as the rightwing authoritarians he has so often visited, praised, and sought to emulate in other ways? After all, he already considers himself part of the international strongman club: Jair Bolsonaro fled to Mar-a-Lago when he was accused of sedition and Trump just invited him to his inauguration; Bob Woodward says Trump has been having private phone conversations with Putin for at least the past two years (as has, reportedly, Musk); Orbán visited Mar-a-Lago just a few weeks ago; Trump has often praised Modi (calling him a “total killer”); and expressed admiration for Duterte, who he said did “an unbelievable job on the drug problem.” And he already has three major (and dozens of minor) white supremacist militia groups who openly support him: — At Enrique Tarrio’s trial for sedition at the Capitol, the federal prosecutor, Conor Mulroe, was blunt: “The Proud Boys were lined up behind Donald Trump and willing to commit violence on his behalf. … These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it.” — The Three Percenters have provided security for Trump’s rallies and many members were involved in the 2020 insurrection attempt. — Oath Keepers provided personal security for Roger Stone and Alex Jones on January 6th, as well as for Trump at rallies in Texas, Minnesota, and Washington, DC. Is this why Trump is planning to let so many violent January 6th rightwing gang members out of prison?

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The man who helped roll back abortion rights-Leonard Leo

 https://www.npr.org/2024/11/24/nx-s1-5199049/federalist-society-conservative-supreme-court The man who helped roll back abortion rights now wants to 'crush liberal dominance'.

Leonard Leo may not be a household name, but odds are most people in the country know his signature achievement:

Leo was a key architect of the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court that rolled back the federal right to an abortion.

The conservative activist advised President-elect Donald Trump during his first term on the nominations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The three picks gave conservatives their 6-3 majority on the high court. And all of them voted to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision.

For decades, as a leading figure in the Federalist Society and other conservative legal groups, Leo identified and promoted the careers of lawyers and law clerks who shared his views of the constitution.

The Matt Gaetz Report Is a Reminder That Investigations Actually Matter

 Two damning investigations are a stark reminder of what we stand to lose. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/12/matt-gaetz-ethics-report-clarence-thomas-harlan-crow.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=article&utm_content=twitter_share via @slate

New permit needed as of today for Canadians flying to UK, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland

 

New permit needed as of today for Canadians flying across the pond

A digital pre-screening requirement is now in effect for short-term travellers to the U.K.

Gwyneth Egan · CBC News · Posted: Jan 08, 2025 8:39 AM PST | Last Updated: January 8

Without an ETA, travellers could be turned away and sent back to Canada, says Wayne Smith, the director of the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University. (Jane Robertson/CBC)

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Starting today, Canadians with short-term travel plans to England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland will need an electronic travel authorization — or an ETA.

Travellers planning to visit the United Kingdom for less than six months will be asked to submit information such as their passport details, dates of travel and modes of transportation, which will be reviewed by authorities.

The digital pre-screening is new for Canadians flying to the U.K., but a similar system has been in place since 2016 for people from several other countries who travel by air to Canada.

It's "kind of like doing a pre-approval for a credit card," said Wayne Smith, the director of the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Research at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

'It allows all the governments to be more interconnected and talking to one another and sharing information,' says Wayne Smith. (CBC)

The system will run applicants' information through a worldwide database before granting approval, Smith told CBC P.E.I.'s Island Morning. 

"It allows all the governments to be more interconnected and talking to one another and sharing information," he said. 

"It creates a much more secure security blanket for everyone involved." 

A growing trend 

Electronic travel authorizations are becoming more common around the world.

"This will be prevalent globally in a few years," Smith said. 

Twenty-seven countries in the EU are expected to launch a similar system by the end of this year. Smith said he fully expects to see ETAs implemented in the U.S. during Donald Trump's presidency, too.

The new ETA requirement to travel to the U.K. isn't the first of its kind. This country has had a similar requirement for people from several other countries flying into Canada since 2016. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

The system is meant to assist with concerns about immigration and refugee status, he said. 

"You could check if someone has, for example, gone to three different countries and claimed refugee status. Or you can check… if they've come and actually been denied visas in other places before, if people have overstayed their visas in other countries," Smith said.

"All those things will now be... caught before the person even leaves their home country."  

'The price of travelling'

The application costs £10, or about $18 Cdn. But there's no guarantee those prices will remain at that level. Since tourists are the ones paying the application fees, Smith said politicians can easily raise the costs. 

"Once they're in the system and they're paying for the system, all of a sudden I could see those things rising quite dramatically," he said. 

"People wouldn't necessarily blink at paying $50 for that — it's the price of travelling." 

Another possibility Smith said wouldn't surprise him is that the fees could take on dynamic pricing, with certain times of the year being more expensive to travel than others. 

• U.K. competition watchdog probing use of 'dynamic pricing' in Oasis ticket debacle

• What is 'dynamic pricing,' and why are Oasis fans furious about it?

Accessibility is also concern, said Smith. 

"I have a 78-year-old mother that hates technology in every single way, and so something like this would be a real barrier to her travelling," he said. 

"All these things can be very frustrating to a lot of people and make travel inaccessible." 

Smith said travel agents are making a comeback, and helping people submit their ETA applications is another service they could offer. 

A word of advice

Approvals for ETA applications can take as little as 10 minutes, said Smith, but that doesn't mean people should take the risk of waiting for their flight to land before submitting their application.

Without the authorization, travellers could be turned away and sent back to the country they came from, he said. 

"I would highly recommend anyone do this multiple weeks before you go, just like any other visas," Smith said. "Make sure you have everything, that you have copies of things, that you take a screenshot of your approval." 

Once an authorization has been approved, it will last for two years and can be used as many times as desired during that time. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gwyneth Egan

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg - Thom Hartmann

Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg (wearing a $900,000 watch) announced yesterday morning that across their over-7-billion-user-strong social media empire — Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp — they’ll be dialing back on fact-checking. They’re also preparing to promote more “political” content (among other changes that support those two moves, like no longer filtering out trash-talking queer people or immigrants, and moving what’s left of their Trust & Safety team from liberal California to conservative Texas).

Here’s the problem: Republican politicians rely on lies, distortions, and falsehoods to sell most of their policies and candidates.

They must do this because the reality of their actual goals (cut billionaire taxes, increase pollution, gut worker and consumer protections, defund schools and medical care, privatize and cut Social Security and Medicare, subsidize oil companies, outlaw abortion, etc.) are so repellent to most Americans.

Read More

Alberta Insider: $1-billion spent on inactive well cleanup

Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail

A report released this week shows that between the oil and gas sector, the Alberta government’s site-rehabilitation program and the industry-funded Orphan Well Association, more than $1-billion was spent in 2023 on cleaning up inactive wells in the province.

Obviously, with a spend as large as that, it must have made a massive dent in the approximately 80,000 inactive wells in the province, right?

Well, according to the Alberta Energy Regulator’s annual liability monitoring report released Thursday, only about five per cent of Alberta’s inactive wells were rehabilitated.

Just an oil drop in the bucket.

Each year, the AER requires the oil and gas sector in Alberta to spend a certain amount on cleaning up inactive wells and pipelines. Last year, that figure was set at $700-million.

But one expert says not nearly enough is being spent by the industry to deal with the massive environmental liability, and he wants to see the AER force the sector’s hand.

“The point is the AER has no plan to get that money for those liabilities from profitable companies,” said Martin Olszynski, an associate professor and Chair in Energy, Resources and Sustainability at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law.

Speaking with The Globe’s energy reporter, Emma Graney, Olszynski pointed at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., a company that he said is “making money hand over fist” right now, and is responsible for about 20,000 of the province’s inactive wells.

While the AER says the cost of cleaning up the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells in the province is about $33.3-billion, Olszynski believes that number is low. And internal AER documents themselves suggest the environmental liability could be nearly triple that estimate, coming in closer to $88-billion.

Thursday’s AER report comes just a week after the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors, projected a 7.3-per-cent increase in the number of oil and gas wells being drilled in 2025.

“Hope is making a comeback in the oil patch,” said association CAOEC chief Mark Scholz last week in Calgary.

Of course, all good news in the industry these days is tempered by the shadow of the looming oil and gas emissions cap proposed by Ottawa and the 25-per-cent tariff U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has threatened to impose on imports.

Premier Danielle Smith has promised that her government intends to fight Ottawa over the proposed cap, which would limit emissions from the oil and gas sector to 35 per cent below 2019 levels.

Last week she announced a legal challenge and a sweeping list of proposed actions intended to press Ottawa into scrapping the emissions cap, including seizing data that Alberta oil and gas companies collect about greenhouse gases at their facilities, barring entry to energy facilities by federal officials and ensuring that no provincial entity helps Ottawa implement or enforce the cap.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.

e.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to attend inauguration of Donald Trump - MAGA God King

 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to attend inauguration of Donald Trump | CBC News

Premier Danielle Smith will attend the second inauguration of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump in January, her office has confirmed.

The move comes in the wake of threats from Trump, who has said he would impose 25 per cent tariffs if Canada and Mexico do not enact measures to tackle illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the United States.

Smith will be attending and hosted at several events leading up to the inauguration, according to press secretary Sam Blackett.

Mitch McConnell’s lamentable legacy

Mitch McConnell’s lamentable legacy

During Mitch McConnell’s first race for the Senate in 1984, President Ronald Reagan came to Kentucky and endorsed his good friend, “Mitch O’Donnell.” Vice President George H.W. Bush identified McConnell, incorrectly, as the mayor of Louisville.

Over the following four decades, no politician, Democrat or Republican, would make such a mistake again. And this week, McConnell stepped down as the longest-serving and one of the most historically important Senate leaders in history.

During his tenure as leader, McConnell secured passage of important bipartisan legislation. He negotiated compromises with the Obama administration that prevented a default on federal government debt; extended the George W. Bush-era tax cuts; and bailed out the financial services industry during the Great Recession. He worked with President Biden to get the Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPS Act and military aid to Ukraine through the Senate.

That said, as Michael Tackett implies in his new book, “The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party,” he has also caused considerable damage to democratic norms, practices and institutions.

While he was in college, McConnell wrote that the American government should insure “the BASIC RIGHTS OF ALL citizens, regardless of race, creed, or national origin.” He voted for Lyndon Johnson because Barry Goldwater opposed civil rights legislation.

In 2019 and 2020, however, McConnell refused to hold hearings on, let alone bring to the Senate floor, the Voting Rights Act passed by the House restoring the Department of Justice’s authority to “pre-clear” state voting laws that allegedly discriminate against people of color. McConnell insists that “nobody’s votes are being suppressed anywhere across America, in any of the states.” But in 2021, the Brennan Center for Justice identified 253 bills introduced, pending or passed that restrict voting access in 43 states.

In an op-ed published in 1973, McConnell claimed that “the lack of an overall limit on spending is an open invitation for special interests” to unduly influence candidates. We are “close” to being a “bought nation,” he added. He advocated excising the “cancer” of money in politics by publicly financing elections, limiting campaign contributions and mandating full disclosure by donors.

Two decades later, McConnell made an argument that, according to Tackett, became “the heart of his political identity”: Campaign spending is an act of free speech. He launched an all-out assault on the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. And he played a pivotal role in court challenges that resulted in Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision that paved the way for virtually unlimited and often undisclosed “dark money” political contributions from millionaires and billionaires in political action committees, operating under the fiction that they are not coordinating with candidates or political parties. Read More