Catherine Herridge Fired by CBS News
Several CBS News reporters were caught up in layoffs at Paramount Global that claimed 800 jobs, including one who is embroiled in a high-stakes First Amendment fight — and another who has reportedly weathered HR probes over his workplace behavior, The Post reported.
Catherine Herridge — an award-winning senior correspondent whose First Amendment case is being closely watched by journalists nationwide — was among the hundreds of employees at CBS parent Paramount who got pink slips on Tuesday, sources told The Post.
The carnage provoked outrage from the rank-and-file at CBS, with some focusing their ire on Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, who pulled down $32 million in total compensation last year despite the company’s ever-shrinking financial profile.
“Everybody in the newsroom is pissed that Bob Bakish is making over $30 million and he’s making these cuts,” one insider fumed.
Elsewhere, some suspected the layoffs were more than just cost-cutting. Sources said Herridge had clashed with CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews — a sharp-elbowed executive who was investigated in 2021 over favoritism and discriminatory hiring and management practices, as revealed by The Post.
Sources said CBS News’ Washington bureau, where Herridge covered national security and intelligence, was hit particularly hard.
Among the other Washington casualties, sources said, was CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues, who was subjected to HR probes over his workplace behavior, including an alleged incident in which he dressed down a female colleague in a “20-minute rant.”
When the incident was investigated in 2021, insiders said, Ciprian-Matthews — who insiders have accused of promoting minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists — attempted to “blame” the female correspondent and eventually gave Pegues a promotion.
That’s despite prior allegations that Pegues had been “lashing out” and “bullying” younger female reporters who “outworked” him, a former CBS manager told The Post.
“She got rid of her enemies under the guise of budget cuts,” one source said of Ciprian-Matthews after Tuesday’s layoffs. “She cleared the deck and she had to sacrifice some others like Pegues.”
Wendy McMahon, Ciprian-Matthews’ boss, had defended the executive over her handling of the HR probe involving Pegues.
“Any claims of discriminatory behavior are simply false,” McMahon, president and CEO of CBS News, Stations and CBS Media Ventures, told The Post at the time.
A source said CBS News, which employs just under 2,000 people, got hit with 20 job cuts altogether.
Also among those laid off on Tuesday was Christina Ruffini, a political correspondent who has been featured on “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Sunday Morning.” Pamela Falk, CBS News correspondent for the United Nations based in New York, was also laid off, according to sources.
Herridge may soon be held in contempt of court for not divulging her source for an investigative piece she penned in 2017 when she worked for Fox News and be ordered to personally pay fines that could total as much as $5,000 a day.
A source close to the situation said Fox News is paying for Herridge’s legal counsel.
Herridge’s departure comes as the journalist faces heat for not complying with US District Judge Christopher Cooper’s order to reveal how she learned about a federal probe into a Chinese American scientist who operated a graduate program in Virginia.
The scientist, Yanping Chen, had been investigated for years on suspicions she may have lied on immigration forms related to work on a Chinese astronaut program, according to Herridge’s report.
Chen has since sued the government, saying details about the probe were leaked to damage her reputation. She pushed the court to hold Herridge in contempt and make her personally pay daily fees, which could range from $500 to $5,000, rather than allowing CBS or Fox to do so.
Last August, the judge ruled that Chen’s need for the evidence “overcomes Herridge’s qualified First Amendment privilege.” First Amendment advocates have pushed back, arguing that journalists can perform their public service function only if they are able to protect the identities of their confidential sources.
Former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris in every swing state by narrow but expanding margins, according to a new poll.
The survey of likely American voters from AtlasIntel has revealed that the Republican nominee is favored to win in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania as the 2024 Presidential Election heads into its final days.
Four of the states are polling outside the margin of error.
In Arizona, Trump holds his widest margin — with a 52.3% to 45.8% lead over Harris.
In Nevada, AtlasIntel projects the former president has a 51.2% to 46% edge over the current veep.
In North Carolina — where both candidates campaigned Saturday —Trump holds a 50.5% to 47.1% lead.
In Georgia, the Republican is leading 50.1% to 47.6% over the Democrat.
Several of the swing states are within the poll’s two point margin of error.
In Michigan, 49.7% for Trump and 48.2% for Harris.
In Pennsylvania, 49.6% for Trump and 47.8% for Harris.
And the closest contest is Wisconsin — 49.7% for Trump and 48.6% for Harris.
Trump leads overall 49% to Harris’ 47.2%, according to the poll.
AtlasIntel boasts in its poll that it was the most accurate in the 2020 election cycle — accurately predicting every swing state within the margin of error.
More than 75 million Americans have already cast their ballots as of the Sunday before Election Day.
That’s over 48% of the total number who voted in 2020 (154.6 million), indicating that early and mail-in voting has become increasingly popular methods to vote and become a new normal in American politics.
In the 2022 midterms, nearly half of voters chose to do so early, far surpassing pre-pandemic numbers.
In Georgia, more than 4 million have already voted — marking nearly 80% of the state’s total 2020 turnout, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early vote tracker.
North Carolina’s early voting turnout reflects a similar margin — more than 4.4 million have cast their ballots, accounting for 80% of the 2020 count in the battleground state.
Around 100 million people voted early, either in person or via mail, in 2020.
While former President Trump railed against mail-in voting for years, he and the GOP have since encouraged their supporters to vote early (while still challenging certain mail-in voting provisions in courtrooms across the country).
Of those who have cast their vote so far in states that report party registration data, Democrats hold a slight lead — 37.9% to 36.2% — per UF’s count.
Swing States
The final New York Times/Siena College before the election offered no clear front-runner in the 2024 presidential contest; the poll had six out of seven battleground states as toss-ups.
Polls at this point in the election usually show favorability to one candidate or another, but this year is different. The recent results are similar to the many others previously reported on this election cycle, which have shown tight battlegrounds since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race, with most results within the margin of error.
In the poll, released two days out from Election Day, Former President Donald Trump obtained a sizable four-point lead in Arizona and a one-point lead in Michigan. Harris had leads of one point in Georgia and three points in Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. They were tied in Pennsylvania.
Harris saw gains among two of her core constituencies, black and Hispanic voters. Among black voters, she saw a total share of 84%-11%, from 80%-14% last round. Among Hispanic voters, she led 56%-35%, compared to 55%-41% from the last round.
Trump saw gains among non-college-educated white voters.
One result from the poll showed a disconnect from others this season — the state that consistently has given the worst results for Democrats, Nevada, showed Harris with one of her biggest leads yet in this recent poll.
However, pollster Nate Cohn cautioned that this poll could be repeating history by underestimating Trump.
“Across these final polls, white Democrats were 16 percent likelier to respond than white Republicans. That’s a larger disparity than our earlier polls this year, and it’s not much better than our final polls in 2020 — even with the pandemic over,” he wrote. “It raises the possibility that the polls could underestimate Mr. Trump yet again.”
The poll spoke with 7,879 likely voters across the battleground states, including 1,025 in Arizona, 1,004 in Georgia, 998 in Michigan, 1,010 in Nevada, 1,010 in North Carolina, 1,527 in Pennsylvania, and 1,305 in Wisconsin from Oct. 24 to Nov. 2. The margin of error was 3.5% in each state poll.
With all the uncertainty from polls, voters are looking elsewhere for signs of who is likely to pull ahead. Some have turned their attention to betting odds, while others are reading into the stock market’s performance.
The senior Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission blasted Vice President Kamala Harris’ “Saturday Night Live” debut as a “clear and blatant effort” to evade the Equal Time rule.
Brendan Carr stressed that the FCC’s “equal time” requirements mandate opposing candidates to get the same air time, and alleged that NBC “structured this appearance in a way that evades these requirements” by timing it so close to Election Day.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule. The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election,” Carr wrote on X.
“Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
Harris, 60, made a surprise appearance on SNL and came face-to-face with her impersonator Maya Rudolph in the show’s cold open where she urged sought to encourage voters to back her on Nov. 5 and poked fun at her boisterous laugh.
“I’m gonna vote for us,” Rudolph quipped.
Kamala Harris talks to Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/AJuW7aO7VM
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) November 3, 2024
“Any chance you’re registered in Pennsylvania?” Harris joked in response.
The segment lasted just under three minutes. NBC is licensed by the FCC for broadcast television, which gives them access to a limited spectrum and means that they are subject to more stringent rules.
Given the Equal Time rule, SNL’s executive producer Lorne Michaels indicated in an interview published earlier this month that he wouldn’t bring on either former President Donald Trump or Harris to the program.
“You can’t bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions,” Michaels told The Hollywood Reporter. “You can’t have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated.”
Carr is one of four FCC commissioners who serve under Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Technically there are two Democrats and two Republican FCC commissioners but Rosenworcel is a Democrat.
Back in the 2016 election cycle, the FCC explained that it would enforce the Equal Time rule against SNL over Trump’s appearance on the comedy program. Other presidential candidates took advantage of that opportunity at the time.
This was also the case when Hillary Clinton appeared on SNL as well.
Federal law does not require networks to give candidates the exact same type of appearance, but it does require “comparable time and placement.”
“Kamala Harris has nothing substantive to offer the American people, so that’s why she’s living out her warped fantasy cosplaying with her elitist friends on Saturday Night Leftists as her campaign spirals down the drain into obscurity,” spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.
“For the last four years, Kamala’s destructive policies have led to untold misery and hurt for all Americans. She broke it, and President Trump will fix it.”
The U.S. Department of Defense announced this week that it is moving military assets to the Middle East to deter continued Iranian aggression against the U.S. and Israel after Iran vowed this week to hit Israel following last week’s strikes in Iran.
The Pentagon ordered the deployment of “additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several U.S. Air Force B-52 long-range strike bombers to the region.”
The forces will arrive in the region in the coming months as the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group prepares to leave the region.
“These deployments build on the recent decision to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system to Israel as well as DoD’s sustained Amphibious Ready Group Marine Expeditionary Unit (ARG/MEU) posture in the Eastern Mediterranean,” a statement said.
Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said that the movements demonstrated the “flexible nature of U.S. global defense posture and U.S. capability to deploy world-wide on short notice to meet evolving national security threats.”
The statement added that the U.S. would respond if Iran or its terrorist proxy groups throughout the region targeted U.S. personnel or interests.
The repositioning of U.S. forces comes after Iran signaled this week that it would now respond to Israel’s limited strike on Iranian military and missile production facilities last week after it initially sought to downplay the incident because it wanted to avoid escalating a military conflict against a far superior opponent.
Iranian state-controlled media highlighted remarks from two top officials this week who said that they would respond after Israel struck the country following Iran’s decision to fire 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
“Iran’s response to the Zionist aggression is definite,” said General Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). “We have never left an aggression unanswered in 40 years. We are capable of destroying all that the Zionists possess with one operation.”
Gholamhossein Mohammadi Golpayegani, head of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office, said that Iran would deliver a “fierce, tooth-breaking response.”
Analysts say that Iran is stuck between a rock and a hard place because if it does not respond, it will appear weak and lose credibility with its allies and terrorist proxy groups. Not responding will also embolden opposition groups in the country that are gaining popularity as the country increasingly sours on the regime.
However, if Iran responds, it risks provoking a much greater response from Israel after the nation has repeatedly proven that it has significant military and technological advantages over Iran. Israel wiped out Iran’s air defenses during its strikes last week, allowing the Israel Air Force (IAF) to operate freely over Iranian airspace.
“We hit its underbelly,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The boastful talk by the Iranian regime’s heads cannot conceal and compensate for the fact that Israel now has greater freedom to operate in Iran than ever before.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel has directly conveyed to Iran that if it launches a response, Israel will “mount a far more aggressive attack in return.”
Iran is also considering having one of its proxies launch a strike against Israel believing that going that route will protect it from an Israeli response.
Kamal Kharrazi, Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations head, said on Friday that the Islamic regime now possesses the technological capabilities to create a nuclear weapon.
Iran already has enough enriched uranium that — if it decided to break out — could build a weapon in roughly a week, assuming that they have technological abilities.
“We now have the technical capabilities necessary to produce nuclear weapons,” he claimed. “We are ready for war but we do not want to escalate because we have currently proven our ability to deter from doing so.”
“The matter is up to the Israelis – if they really want to continue, we will respond to them,” he continued. “Our missile capabilities are clear to everyone and everyone believes in them, and we have proven that during our operations.”
Regional media reports and government statements have confirmed that Israeli naval forces have captured an alleged senior Hezbollah official in a daring raid launched from the Mediterranean sea on Friday.
The man described as a high-ranking Hezbollah operative has been identified as Imad Amhaz. Commandos on speed boats reportedly landed on a Lebanese beach and snatched him from a cabin in the early morning hours.
“A sizable force, suspected to be Israeli, stealthily touched down on the shores of Batroun in northern Lebanon, roughly 87 miles from the Israeli border, with the intent of snatching a high-ranking terrorist operative from his hideaway in a cabin,” Israel’s YNet news details, adding that the raid involved 25 Israeli elite troops.
Lebanese national broadcaster National News agency separately described that an “unidentified military force” carried out a “sea landing” at a beach at Batroun, south of Tripoli.
The commando group “went with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, kidnapping a Lebanese man… and sailing away into the open sea on a speedboat,” NNA added.
Lebanese media is only saying that the man that was nabbed was a “student” of a maritime institute in Lebanon.
According to more from eyewitnesses of the strange episode:
He was taken from student housing near the Batroun institute, but was a resident of the Shia-majority town of Qmatiyeh further south, said the acquaintance who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security concerns.
He was completing courses to become a sea captain, the source told AFP, adding that the man was in his thirties and was well known by the teaching staff at the center.
But the IDF has called the man a “significant source of knowledge” for Hezbollah’s naval force. It’s expected that Amhaz will be detained and interrogated in a military prison.
“He was taken to Israel to be questioned by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504 — which specializes in HUMINT, or human intelligence — on Hezbollah’s naval operations,” Times of Israel subsequently reported.
UN peacekeeping forces in South Lebanon have entered the controversy, amid conflicting reports they may have prevented the Lebanese armed forces from responding to the raid (which UNIFIL firmly denies) on Lebanon’s sovereign territory and its citizens:
Lebanese journalist Hasan Illaik, who first reported on the raid, cited anonymous Lebanese military officials as saying the operation was apparently carried out in coordination with the German Navy operating within UNIFIL forces, to prevent the Lebanese Navy from interfering.
Meanwhile, some Lebanese sources say that the kidnapped man is innocent, and not affiliated with Hezbollah, and that the IDF kidnapped a regular Lebanese citizen. Video also captured the raid:
🚨BREAKING 🚨 An Israeli commando kidnapped a Lebanese licensed boat officer, believing he was a high-ranking Hezbollah official, in a “daring operation” yesterday in Batroun north Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/BraFMuTdmy
— Hala Jaber (@HalaJaber) November 2, 2024
Israel’s military has further said that “The operative has been transferred to Israeli territory and is currently being investigated.”
The Associated Press has acknowledged that the occupation of the kidnapped man is murky and uncertain, amid continuing speculation: “Three Lebanese judicial officials told AP the incident occurred at dawn Friday, adding that the captain might have links with Hezbollah.” The report added: “The officials said an investigation is looking into the man is linked to Hezbollah or working for an Israeli spy agency and an Israeli force came to rescue him.”
Scotland Yard has recommended that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) consider bringing criminal charges against comedian Russell Brand over historic sexual abuse allegations.
Following a 13-month inquiry during which he was interviewed by police three times, Russell Brand may soon face prosecution. According to The Telegraph, the Metropolitan Police have passed a file to the CPS recommending they charge the British comedian and former actor.
The investigation against Brand was promoted by a 2023 joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4 saw multiple women anonymously accuse him of sexual assault, rape, and other abuse from 2006 to 2013.
At the time of the allegations, Brand was employed by BBC Radio 2, Channel 4, and worked as a film actor in Hollywood.
Although Brand has admitted to having a promiscuous past, he has strenuously denied any criminal wrongdoing and has suggested that the investigation and potential charges are politically motivated over the anti-establishment narratives he puts forward online on issues such as the Chinese coronavirus, the war in Ukraine, among others.
Commenting on the case, Detective Superintendent Andy Furphy said per the Daily Mail: “Our investigation continues and a file has now been passed to the CPS.
“We have a team of dedicated officers providing specialist support to the women who have come forward.
“We are committed to investigating sexual offences, no matter how long ago they are alleged to have taken place.”
In a separate statement, the Met said: “Following an investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches in 2023, the Met received a number of reports of sexual offences from women in London and elsewhere in the country.
“As part of the investigation, a man in his forties has been interviewed by officers under caution on three separate occasions.”
Kemi Badenoch has been selected as the next leader of the so-called Conservative Party after beating out former immigration minister Robert Jenrick on Saturday.
The Telegraph reported that Badenoch, the London-born, Nigerian-raised MP for North West Essex, received 53,806 votes to Jenrick’s 41,318, confirming that centrism continues dominating the Tory Party’s political landscape.
Jenrick had attempted to model himself off of Brexit leader Nigel Farage, advocating for Britain to leave the deportation-blocking ECHR, stressing the importance of English identity, and even praising the British Empire.
On the other hand, Badenoch tacked to the centre during the leadership contest to replace failed PM Rishi Sunak at the party’s helm after its embarrassing defeat to Labour in July.
She has faced criticism over her previous advocacy for more immigration to the UK, including increased numbers of visas given to students and workers, and for refusing to commit to leaving the ECHR.
Badenoch is, however, seen as an “anti-woke crusader” within the party and has been praised for her forceful condemnation of Critical Race Theory and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Who is the real Kemi Badenoch?
Find out for yourself. pic.twitter.com/R8HxPfpEeu
— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) November 2, 2024
Announcing her victory on Saturday, chairman of the 1922 Committee Bob Blackman declared that it represented “another glass ceiling shattered,” referencing Badenoch’s status as the first black leader of either major party in Britain.
“It is the most enormous honour to be elected to this role, to lead the party that I love. The party that has given me so much. I hope that I will be able to repay that debt,” Badenoch said.
“Our party is critical to the success of our country but to be heard we have to be honest. Honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip. The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party and our country the new start that they deserve. It is down to get down to business, it is time to renew. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.”
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which is seeking to supplant the Tories as the country’s main right-wing party, criticised Badenoch’s “record of failure.”
Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice MP said: “Kemi Badenoch is another in a long line of Tory politicians who say one thing and do another.
“Kemi Badenoch was front and centre of a Government that failed Britain. She said nothing while Rishi Sunak hit hard-working people with record immigration, the small boats crisis, the highest taxes for seventy years, record NHS waiting lists and sky-high crime.
“Instead of standing up for Britain whilst in Government, she stood up for her own career prospects and chauffeur-driven cars. She has failed the British public before and she will fail them again as leader of the Conservative Party.”
A shocking new poll claims Vice President Harris is leading Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by three points in reliably conservative Iowa.
The final survey of the 2024 race for the White House from the famed Des Moines Register newspaper puts the Democratic nominee at 47% over Trump at 44%, in what one pollster described as a “stunning reversal” for the Republican.
“It’s hard for anybody to say they saw this coming,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co, the company that conducted the poll. “She has clearly leaped into a leading position.”
Trump held a four point lead over Harris in September in the same poll, and in June had a whopping 18 point lead over President Biden, before the incumbent dropped out of the race.
The poll of 808 likely voters was done between Oct. 28 and Oct. 31, and had a margin of error of 3.4%.
National polls have consistently put the two candidates at near deadlock.
Trump won Iowa in both 2020 and 2016.
Women and independent voters appeared to be driving the late turn toward Harris in the Hawkeye State, the pollster told the outlet, with 56% of women going for the vice president and 52% of men supporting the GOP candidate.
Voters 65 and older are also backing the Democrat, with senior women going for Harris by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
More than 553,000 voters have already cast ballots in Iowa, with 220,140 Republicans showing up to vote vs 219,085 Democrats, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
A Georgia judge has dismissed a Republican lawsuit attempting to prevent counties from operating election offices over the weekend to accept hand-delivered absentee ballots.
The GOP plaintiffs argued that Fulton County’s decision to open the election offices on Nov. 2 and 3 where voters could hand-deliver absentee ballots directly to registrars was unsupported by state law and violated rules requiring that ballot boxes be locked after early voting, which ended Friday.
Plaintiffs said the lack of poll watchers to observe the absentee (or mail-in) ballot intake by local election officials compromised election integrity.
During a court hearing on Nov. 2, Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer denied the emergency petition filed by the Republican plaintiffs late on Nov. 1, finding that state law allows for voters to hand-deliver absentee ballots directly to registrars and that no ballot drop boxes were open at the election offices that Fulton County decided to keep open over the weekend.
The Republican plaintiffs argued that all ballot drop boxes should be locked after the end of the early voting period, while also suggesting that county election offices should not be used as places where election workers accept hand-delivered absentee ballots after early voting ended.
The petition asked for the judge to approve a “Temporary Restraining Order, Preliminary Injunction, and Permanent Injunction providing that Defendants, as well as their officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and any persons acting in active concert or participation with them shall … [n]ot permit persons to hand-return their absentee ballots in violation of O.C.G.A. § 21-2-382 and O.C.G.A. §21-2-385; to wit; not accept absentee ballots in drop boxes on November 2 and 3, 2024 anywhere within Fulton County, Georgia.”
Attorney Alex Kaufman, representing the Republican plaintiffs, argued during Saturday’s hearing that there are no provisions in O.C.G.A. §21-2-385 (Procedure for voting by absentee ballot; advance voting) that allow hand-delivery to the registrar.
The judge disagreed, reading out the language of the relevant section: “Such envelope shall then be securely sealed and the elector shall then personally mail or personally deliver same to the board of registrars or absentee ballot clerk.”
“That seems to indicate that personal delivery to the registrar, and not to a drop box, is kosher,” Farmer said, adding, “more than kosher—lawful.”
Kaufman then contended that keeping the offices open to accept in-person absentee ballots ran afoul of another section of the Georgia Code relating to geographic dispersement of locations where ballots can be submitted, prompting a rebuttal from the judge, who aid that this provision only refers to drop boxes.
Later in the hearing, Kaufman cited the fact that the last-minute weekend extension of the election office meant Republican poll watchers did not have the opportunity to apply to observe the activities involving the hand-delivered ballots.
Nadine Williams, director of the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections, said during the hearing that the elections offices where hand-delivered ballots are being accepted over the counter are not polling locations and poll watchers have never been allowed to observe these places.
Kaufman also asked Williams: “And so you contend that you have voluntary Fulton County monitors and that that’s a sufficient safeguard, is that your position?” This prompted the judge to intervene and say that this would require Williams to make an unwarranted legal conclusion.
Ultimately, the judge decided to deny the Republican plaintiffs’ petition, saying he found no violation of Georgia Code for a voter to hand-return their absentee ballots over the counter at the election offices. He added that the absence of open drop boxes at those locations further merited dismissal.
Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez said that by mid-afternoon Saturday, fewer than 30 ballots had been received at the four locations.
A 60-year-old male has been arrested for beating a Trump supporter inside a New York grocery store over the victim’s “Trump 2024” hat, police say.
The suspect, Robert Yott, allegedly targeted the Trump supporter over his “Trump 2024” hat and repeatedly punched the victim in the head and face, leaving the Trump supporter with broken teeth and a bloodied mouth, the report said.
“On [November 1], around 10:00 a.m., the Village of Bath Police Department was dispatched to a fight at the Tops Friendly Markets,” a press release from The Village of Bath Police Department said. Bath is a small town located in Steuben County.
“It was determined that Robert Yott, age 60, of Bath, initiated a confrontation with a stranger inside Tops, after becoming aggressive over the fact that the stranger was wearing a Trump 2024 hat,” police said.
“Mr. Yott punched the victim in the mouth and head several times, causing the victim’s teeth to be broken and mouth bloody,” the press release continued. “Mr. Yott was not known to the victim and this appears to be a random act of violence.”
Following the assault, Yott was arrested and charged with one count of assault in the second degree and fourth degree criminal mischief.
“Mr. Yott was arrested and charged with one count of Assault in the Second Degree, a Class D Felony, and Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree, a Class A Misdemeanor,” the department said. “Mr. Yott was processed and transported to Steuben County Jail where he is currently awaiting CAP arraignment.”
Numerous supporters of former President Donald Trump have been targeted and attacked for their political views.
In June, for example, an 82-year-old man in Massachusetts was allegedly assaulted by a 27-year-old male for holding a Trump sign, police said.
In April, a 64-year-old man from New Jersey was allegedly assaulted with a sledgehammer and was hospitalized for significant injuries to the head. The suspect, 36-year-old Michael Gonzales, was charged with attempted murder over the assault. The victim, Rocky Granata, was known for driving around New Jersey in a vehicle covered with pro-Trump and MAGA messages, reports indicate.
President Joe Biden raised eyebrows on Saturday while he was stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.
Biden, who has often capitalized on his ties to Scranton, Pennsylvania, during political campaigns, was attempting to help Harris over the line with just a few days left until the November 5th general election. While speaking to the crowd, he riffed on the Democratic Party’s political nemeses — MAGA Republicans — and said that they were “the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the a**.”
Biden: MAGA Republicans “are the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the ass.”pic.twitter.com/sflWWrAPMc
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 2, 2024
“But I’m serious,” Biden said, baring his teeth. “These are the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the a**.”
“He’s intentionally trying to hurt Harris and no one can convince me differently at this point,” Meghan McCain commented on the video.
He’s intentionally trying to hurt Harris and no one can convince me differently at this point. https://t.co/aueRQkJxCZ
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) November 2, 2024
“Smack in the ass. . . Huh,” Ned Ryun added.
Smack in the ass. . . Huh. https://t.co/ejP8yOmLQ2
— Ned Ryun (@nedryun) November 2, 2024
“Biden is constantly preaching violence. He’s a weak, old, coward. And was always a miserable punk,” radio host Mark Levin said.
Biden is constantly preaching violence. He’s a weak, old, coward. And was always a miserable punk. https://t.co/U7uGJF8OQ4
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) November 2, 2024
“This must be the young, joyful, Democrat unity we’ve been hearing so much about. These people are freaking nuts!!!!” another added.
“If you’re wondering why @KamalaHarris let Biden anywhere near a microphone, it’s because they’re losing PA so badly they rolled the dice sending ‘Scranton Joe’ back in there. Oops,” another commented.
If you’re wondering why @KamalaHarris let Biden anywhere near a microphone, it’s because they’re losing PA so badly they rolled the dice sending “Scranton Joe” back in there.
Oops. https://t.co/BoXOTIKywe
— IT Guy (@ITGuy1959) November 2, 2024
Biden landed himself in hot water earlier in the week for referring to former President Donald Trump’s supporters as “garbage” in reaction to a comedian’s joke during Trump’s rally last week at Madison Square Garden.
Tony “Kill Tony” Hinchcliffe, well known as a roast comedian, made a crack about Puerto Rico being an island “made entirely of garbage,” prompting outrage primarily from Democrats. Biden, counting himself among the outraged, said, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
The White House and legacy media worked overtime to unring the bell, trying to claim that he had meant to say that their rhetoric demonizing others was “garbage.” Even the official White House transcript was altered, over the objections of official stenographers.
Actor Harrison Ford has revealed he will be backing Kamala Harris for the presidency with just days until the election.
The 82-year-old star said in a dramatic black-and-white clip he would be backing the vice president and tore into Donald Trump.
The Indiana Jones actor said: ‘I’ve been voting for 64 years, never really wanted to talk about it very much, but when dozens of former members of the Trump administration are sounding alarms, saying ‘for god sake don’t do this again’, you have to pay attention.
‘They’re telling us something important, these aren’t soft people. They are governors, generals, standing up against the leader of the party they spent their lives advocating for.’
Ford explained in some cases people will be voting Democrat for the first time in their life over fears of Trump winning the race to the White House.
He continued: ‘For many of them, this will be the first time they’ve ever voted for someone who doesn’t have an R next to their name.
“I’ve got one vote — same as anyone else — and I’m going to use it to move forward. I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris” – Harrison Ford on why he’s endorsing Kamala Harris and Tim Walz pic.twitter.com/3hlSENqvk1
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 2, 2024
‘They know this really matters, the truth is this – Kamala Harris will protect your right to disagree with her about her policies or her ideas.
‘As we have done for centuries, we’ll debate them. We’ll work on them together, and we’ll move forward.’
‘The other guy, he demands unquestioning loyalty, says he wants revenge. I’m Harrison Ford. I’ve got one vote – same as anyone else – and I’m going to use it to move forward. I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris.’
In another clip released in collaboration with the Harris campaign, Ford said that he didn’t agree with them on every policy, nor does he think they’re perfect.
He added: [But] these two people believe in the rule of law. They believe in science. They believe that when you govern, you do so for all Americans.
‘They believe that we are in this together. These are ideas I believe in. These are people I can get behind.’
The Star Wars actor noted he was frustrated with aspects of the country but warned: ‘The other guy, he spent four years turning us against each other while embracing dictators and tyrants around the world.
‘That’s not who we are. We don’t need to make America great again. Come on, we are great, but what we need is to work together again. What we need is a president who works for all of us again.’
Addressing those who remain undecided on how to vote, he added: ‘If you’re still on the fence, here’s a good thing to look at: Who’s trying to scare you into voting for them?
‘Who’s trying to make you look at your neighbors with anger, suspicion, hatred, and who is encouraging you to build something with the people around you? It would be really nice to move forward.’
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib publicly refused to endorse Vice President Harris during a rally in Detroit — a critical decision that could tip the scales against Democrats in Michigan.
The move carries significant electoral implications, with Michigan part of the Democrats “blue wall” of must-win states in the 2024 presidential election.
A Trump triumph there would hamper Harris’ chances of winning the White House.
Tlaib, a member of the House’s far-left “Squad,” is upset with the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel.
The only Palestinian-American in Congress, she has been openly supportive of Hamas during her time in office and has been censured by her colleagues for defending Hamas and calling for the destruction of Israel.
Tlaib, one of the last major Democrats who has withheld her endorsement from the top of the ticket, steered clear of Harris-Walz during a United Auto Workers union rally on Friday and instead offered a general plea to get out the vote, the Detroit News reported.
“Don’t underestimate the power you all have,” she said.
“More than those ads, those lawn signs, those billboards, you all have more power to turn out people that understand we’ve got to fight back against corporate greed in our country . . . We’ve got to make sure that the nonpartisan part of the ballot gets filled in.”
Tlaib was joined on stage by fellow squad member, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with UAW boss Shawn Fain, both of whom endorsed Harris and sang her praise.
In September Tlaib told far-left journalist Mehdi Hasan that when constituents came to her saying they could not support Harris she told them “there’s other people on this ballot that support a ceasefire. There’s other people on this ballot that can protect our community.”
Tlaib has not made any endorsement in the 2024 race so far, but far-left anti-war candidates like Jill Stein and Cornel West will appear on Michigan’s presidential ballot.
Michigan, which has a large and influential Muslim community, has been at the center of an uncommitted movement of voters who are refusing to back Harris because of Israel’s war in Gaza and their belief that she has been too supportive of the Jewish state while vice president.
About 57% of American Muslims said they believed Hamas “was justified in attacking Israel as part of their struggle for a Palestinian state,” according to a survey from Cygnal.
A massive hacking scandal that has engulfed Italy is now threatening to spill beyond its borders, sucking in Israel, the Vatican, the United Kingdom and Lithuania.
New claims have been made via police wiretaps that foreign powers were among those using a Milan-based private investigative firm to penetrate state security databases with the aim of obtaining secret information about financial activity, private bank transactions and police investigations.
Italian intelligence firm Equalize, which allegedly hacked information on thousands of people including politicians, entrepreneurs, athletes and even musicians, is accused of working for Israeli intelligence and the Vatican, police wiretaps leaked to Italian media show.
Members of the hacking network, including Nunzio Samuele Calamucci — the man prosecutors accuse of orchestrating the scheme — met with two Israeli agents at the firm’s office in Milan in February 2023 to discuss a task worth €1 million, according to the leaked wiretaps.
The job was a cyber operation against Russian targets, including President Vladimir Putin’s unidentified “right-hand man,” and unearthing the financial trail leading from the bank accounts of wealthy figures to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. The information was then supposed to be passed on to the Vatican.
It’s unclear from the leaked documents why Israeli intelligence and the Vatican were involved with the controversial Milan firm and what their reasons were for soliciting information on Russian targets, but their presence in the dossier has dramatically expanded the scope of Italy’s sprawling investigation.
According to the wiretaps, the Israelis suggested a partnership to exchange information, offering “all of the original documents” from the EU’s so-called Qatargate scandal, which involved allegations that people linked to the European Parliament accepted money or gifts in exchange for doing the Gulf state’s bidding in Brussels.
They also offered the Italian firm information that could help one of Equalizer’s alleged clients, the Italian energy giant Eni, with information on the “illicit trafficking of Iranian gas with Italian companies.”
Eni confirmed in a statement that it had hired Equalize for “an investigative assignment to support its strategy and defense in various criminal and civil cases” but said it was not aware of any illicit activities by the company.
Task force, assemble!
Italian politicians are up in arms about the mega hack-for-hire.
Ivan Scalfarotto, a senator from the opposition centrist Italia Viva party, told POLITICO that the role of foreign actors in the scandal added “a further worrying dimension to a phenomenon that presents strategic risks for the country.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that the “unacceptable” hack, which intended “to blackmail, attack or pressure” politicians, and the hackers’ connections beyond national borders made it “much more serious.”
Tajani has ordered the creation of a task force to protect his ministry and Italy’s embassies abroad.
Other countries are likely to be pulled into the Italian investigation.
Calamucci, who previously boasted of penetrating the Pentagon with the Anonymous hacktivist collective, frequently referenced dozens of hackers working for him in Colchester, England. The firm also made use of servers in the United States and Lithuania, where they felt they were less vulnerable, according to leaked documents.
Prosecutors have ordered the seizure of a server in Lithuania and are evaluating whether to make a request to investigators in the U.K., according to reports in Italian media.
Four suspects who are currently under house arrest in relation to the case attended a hearing in Milan on Thursday, but refused to answer the judge’s questions.
Antonia Augimeri and Paolo Simonetti, lawyers for former police investigator Carmine Gallo, who is a partner in Equalize, and IT consultant Calamucci, said Gallo intended to oppose the charges but would be able to have a “fruitful” discussion with investigators only when he had seen all the legal documents.
Calamucci is “willing to clarify his position” as soon as a complete picture of the investigation is outlined, the lawyers said. Some of the allegations raised against him “are empirically unfeasible,” the lawyers added.
An upstate man whose beloved squirrel was cruelly killed by the state said he was treated like a “terrorist” when 10 government agents descended on his home during a five-hour raid.
Mark Longo, whose pet P’nut captured the hearts of 3 million social media users, was stunned when a convoy of vehicles carrying officials from the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health arrived at his Pine City home Wednesday.
They served him with a surprise warrant allowing them to snatch away P’nut the squirrel and Fred, a raccoon he’d taken in.
“They treated me like I was a terrorist. They treated this raid as if I was a drug dealer. They ransacked my house for five hours,” Longo told The Post Saturday.
“They asked my wife, who is of German descent, what her immigration status was. They asked if I had cameras in my house. They wouldn’t allow me to go to the bathroom without a police escort, who then checked the back of the toilet to see if I was hiding anything there.”
But worse than all of that, they delivered his gray fur baby to its death.
The state claimed it had to euthanize both animals Friday so that they could be tested for rabies — because the squirrel sunk its teeth into the hand of an official during the disturbing raid. The test results are not yet known.
Longo, 34, cared for “P’Nut” for more than seven years, rescuing him when his mother was hit by a car.
“We rehabbed him for eight months, we released him for a day and a half, but he ended up getting attacked. He never developed the instincts to survive outside,” Longo told The Post.
P’nut slept in his own room in their house in Pine City, just south of Elmira, NY.
Fred arrived four months ago, after being dropped off at their front door, and split time between an outdoor enclosure and a room in their residence.
P’nut and Fred were targeted, and not other animals living on the 350-acre property, because they lived indoors.
P’nut was a star on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Even Elon Musk paid tribute to him on X today.
One post said, “President @realDonaldTrump will save the squirrels” and another lamented, “Government overreach kidnapped an orphan squirrel and executed him.”
“My phone is blowing up from people around the country saying how much they loved P’nut,” Longo said. “I have people who call me and cry more than I do.”
The Connecticut native moved to upstate New York last April to start “P’Nut’s Freedom Farm,” a nonprofit animal rescue he operates with his wife, Daniela. The sanctuary is home to 300 rescue animals.
He also has an OnlyFans account under the name “Squirrel Daddy,” and insisted it was separate from his animal rescue work. “That’s just me, completely separate. It actually just made enough money for us to start this organization.”
Longo was stunned that the gang of so-called government conservationists searching his home Wednesday kept him from tending to his other animals during their raid.
“I was not even allowed to fill their water,” he said.
Longo explained it is illegal to house a squirrel and raccoon, but he didn’t have the “heart” to keep them outside.
The DEC said in a statement obtained by WETM that the raid was in response to complaints about Fred, the raccoon, but Longo claimed they used him as an excuse to get P’nut.
“The only time I ever talked to the DEC prior to this was when they got complaints from anonymous people on the internet for P’nut about five or six months ago and that was before Fred,” he said. “They used Fred as their go-to to get into my house.”
The DEC claimed P’nut bit one of its officials on the hand during the raid, but Longo said he did not witness that and that the officials’ hands were heavily protected.
“I watched everybody put gloves on before they entered my house. They had gloves that you get an eagle to land on,” he said.
Longo is demanding an investigation into the claim they were checking the animals for rabies, and filing a motion to get the medical records of the officials in his house to see if they actually got tested for the disease.
“P’nut and Fred did not have rabies or I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now. I’ve been around them long enough, played with them, cared for them and I didn’t foam at the mouth,” he said.
Longo, who only found out his animals were put down through his local news station, said the state must answer for its actions.
“Why was there so much force brought to my house for a racoon and a squirrel?” he asked.
“We have so many other things that we need to focus on. We use our government to do this s–it when we can’t even fix the problems we have in daily human life.”
One elected official blasted state government for its over-the-top response.
“With all the crime in our migrant shelters, good to know we have the time and resources for a squirrel swat team,” scoffed City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island). “I can’t wait to meet the new senior advisor to the governor, Elmer J. Fudd.”
State Sen. Thomas O’Mara, who is Longo’s state representative, said he has reached out to the DEC and Chemung County Department of Health and has been stonewalled on getting an answer about who authorized the decision to euthanize Peanut.
“Everything else our government looks the other way on as far as illegal immigrants but then come down on someone harboring a squirrel,” said state Senator Thomas O’Mara. “It just highlights the priorities of the government we have in New York State, frankly. It’s disturbing and we need answers from both the state DEC and the Chemung County department of Health.”
Ken Girardin, research director at the conservative watchdog Empire Center for Public Policy, said that the raid that ultimately led to Peanut’s death demonstrates how the DEC is “arguably the most powerful state agency.”
“They have sweeping authority that, as this case shows, allows them to enter private homes and seize private property with what appears in this case to be questionable justification,” he said, adding, “Some of the blame falls on New York state lawmakers, who haven’t provided adequate oversight.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson says Republicans have an ambitious plan to reshape and shrink federal government if they win the election. That vision includes a plan to deport tens of thousands of federal bureaucrats from Washington and relocate them to middle America.
In a wide-ranging interview this week with Just the News, Johnson said he and other GOP leaders wants to move federal agency offices, personnel and assets from the nation’s capital to bring them closer to the people they serve and farther from the monied special interests that often hijack policy and spending.
“There’s a lot of talk about uprooting, you know, these entrenched bureaucracies and putting them out elsewhere around the country,” Johnson told the John Solomon Reports podcast.
He explained such a re-invention of the monstrous federal bureaucracy with more than 2 million federal workers and contractors would integrate with former President Donald Trump’s plan to name billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to lead a government efficiency office and also tie to fiscal conservatives’ vision to eliminate federal bureaucracies and send monies to the states in the form of block grants.
Just how big has federal government become? Read this Congressional Research Service report.
The Louisiana Republican said the deportation of Washington bureaucrats would also create a natural shrinkage in the size and cost of government,
“That accomplishes a lot of important goals but the first would be that you don’t have all these career civil service law protected bureaucrats,” he said. “Some of them have been camped out of these agencies for decades. They’re nameless, faceless. We don’t know who to hold accountable,” he said.
Congressional vision
Johnson continued, saying “The idea is, if you move the agency to, you know, northern Kansas or southwest New Mexico, or wherever it is around the country, then some of the swamp dwellers they will not desire to follow the job to the new, less desirable location,” he added. “They love the swamp. You know they want to stay. They’ll turn them into lobbyist or something to stay in D.C.” The mass transfer and departure of bureaucrats then leads to a “business reorganization proposition” for federal government, he said.
“You’ve got agencies that you can scale down because you have empty cubicles and … almost all the agencies are bloated and inefficient,” he said. “So you can scale that down. And then in the cubicles that you do need to fill, we’ve had America First Policy Institute and some of our other think tanks that have been working to develop a notebook full of highly qualified, previously vetted, limited government conservatives who have expertise in these areas.”
Johnson’s comments were the most sweeping he’s made about a congressional vision for shrinking the budget and reshaping the budget. He said the process would take a “blowtorch” to the regulatory state and align government agencies in the aftermath of a historic Supreme Court ruling this summer that reversed a decades old “Chevron doctrine.” Under the new ruling, federal bureaucrats can’t make up or interpret their own regulations and simply must enforce those authorized by Congress.
“We have a once in a lifetime, yeah, once in a lifetime opportunity to really claw back article one authority to the legislative branch under the Constitution and have an administration that is in tune with that whole agenda. So look, I just think there’s almost unlimited potential in front of us, and we’ve got to seize that moment,” Johnson said.
If Republicans do win a majority in the House and Senate, it is likely to be slim, meaning Johnson’s government reorganization ideas would have to appeal to conservatives and moderates alike in his caucus.
One of the leading voices of the House conservative wing, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show Friday that he likes Johnson idea, but with some important caveats like first getting stay-at-home bureaucrats to come back to the office.
“Well, I would prefer an idea where we actually eliminated the bureaucracies and the agencies that need to go away. But here’s the thing: until you stop the telework epidemic the federal government has, it won’t work. So you’re gonna have to first stop that, then you then you can send them out,” Biggs said.
Right-to-work states
He also cautioned Congress not to send unionized federal workers to right-to-work states that give workers and employers more freedoms.
“They’re unionized,” he said of federal workers. “And that means, let’s say you’ve stuck something in Arizona, which is a right to work state, you’d be sending in all these unionized leftist federal bureaucrats to our state, and it would make it even harder to maintain.”
“So if you’re going to send them out, just send them out to a state that’s already deep blue. Send them to California for mercy sakes or or something like that,” he added.
On other issues, Speaker Johnson made clear a GOP-led Congress would be in lockstep with Trump’s already stated agenda to close the border, deport illegal aliens, reduce inflation, renew the Trump tax cuts that expire next year and rapidly improve national security in a turbulent world.
“I think within the hour of President Trump taking this oath of office, he’ll issue an executive order to secure that border,” Johnson said. “We’ll come behind that with legislative action to secure it, seal it up, and then we’ll work on having to deal with the fallout of everybody who was allowed in, and that’s a whole agenda thing.
“But immediately after the border is secured, we go to the economy, because the cost of living is unsustainable, unaffordable, and we know how to fix it … Then we’re going to do that and then somewhere you’re going to have an extension of the Trump era tax cuts,” he explained.
Of course, all of that must be preceded by Republicans winning the Senate, House and White House and Johnson winning another term as Speaker in a fractious GOP caucus. The answer those questions will be decided this month.
Top House Republicans are coalescing behind the House Administration Committee’s subpoena of Democratic fundraising giant ActBlue.
Republicans have accused the company of having insufficient donor verification standards. Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., has argued that the site is vulnerable to fraudulent and illegal foreign donations, though ActBlue has said it “rigorously protects donors’ security.”
“ActBlue has a lot of explaining to do, and Chairman Steil is right to demand answers on these very serious allegations of foreign funds being funneled through the platform,” Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm, told Fox News Digital.
“Just as we must protect the right to vote for American citizens, we must ensure our elections are free from foreign financial interference.”
House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., also credited Steil and pointed out that his accusations come amid reports that China and Iran are trying to influence the election.
“Malign foreign actors are attempting to hijack American elections through the Far Left Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue by tipping the scales in favor of Kamala Harris and Congressional Democrats,” Stefanik said. “It has never been more critical to ensure American elections are free from foreign manipulation.”
ActBlue did not require a card verification value (CVV) to be input for donations until recently, prompting a flurry of concern from Republican lawmakers and some GOP state attorneys general.
Steil sent multiple letters and requests for information to the platform, which has insisted it holds donor security to a high standard.
A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said he was “supportive” of the subpoena, adding, “Only American citizens should be participants in our elections, and this investigation is critical to ensure that our elections remain secure and shielded from foreign actors.”
Steil issued a subpoena Wednesday to ActBlue for “documents and communications related to ActBlue’s donor verification policies and the potential for foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China to use ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.”
ActBlue responded to Steil in a statement, “ActBlue has received Chairman Steil’s latest inquiry and will respond to address the continued inaccuracies and misrepresentations about our platform, as we have done previously. We rigorously protect donors’ security and maintain strict anti-fraud compliance practices. We have zero tolerance for fraud on our platform.”
But fellow Republicans on his committee are standing firm that the subpoena was necessary.
Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., the chair of the panel’s subcommittee on elections, told Fox News Digital, “In our investigation so far, we have found that loopholes in ActBlue’s insufficient security protocols may be exploited by bad actors, potentially leading to countries like China, Russia and Venezuela donating to campaigns in the names of Americans without their consent.”
“With the general election just five days away, Americans need to have confidence that our elections are secure and that there is no foul play involved,” she said.
Committee member Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said, “The subpoena is critical for the committee to ensure federal campaign finance laws are not being violated, including laundering money into campaign coffers through inadequate security protections.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital, “Like the chairman, I have been concerned by the inadequate security protocols at ActBlue, who haven’t required CVV verification and allow for pre-paid cards for political donations.”
The accusations come at a critical time, with Election Day less than a week out.
The platform denied all GOP allegations of wrongdoing in a statement to Fox News before Steil’s subpoena, “These false claims about ActBlue have been discredited repeatedly by campaign finance experts. ActBlue protects donors’ information by maintaining a robust security program and fraud prevention measures, often beyond what is required by law.”
A law originally intended to protect black voters in the late 19th century is now a “powerful weapon” for the Biden administration to target its political opponents, one legal expert told the Caller.
The law is often wielded by the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) to target pro-lifers protesting abortion clinics, the Daily Caller first reported. Last year, the Conspiracy Against Rights charge was levied against Douglass Mackey for a 2016 social media post and former President Donald Trump over January 6.
“I was not aware of the Biden-Harris DOJ’s abuse of this harsh conspiracy against rights statute in these other contexts, but I am not surprised,” Stephen Crampton, Senior Counsel with the Thomas More Society, told the Caller in a statement.
Douglass Mackey, known online as “Ricky Vaughn,” was charged with election interference by the Biden-Harris DOJ in 2021. The DOJ alleged in a press release that he illegally used social media to “deprive” citizens of their right to vote during the 2016 presidential election.
Douglass Mackey Case and the Meme Defense Fund
President Donald Trump: “They’re putting Douglass Mackey in jail for sharing a joking meme about Hillary Clinton seven years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that.”
Background: On January 27, 2021, five days after Joe…
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) October 31, 2024
Jimmy Kimmel instructs viewers that if they’re voting for Trump they should vote late like Thursday or Friday.
Wasn’t Douglass Mackey sentenced to prison for doing something similar?
Will @TheJusticeDept investigate Jimmy Kimmel? pic.twitter.com/cfwDl94aIZ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) October 31, 2024
The charge stemmed from a complaint filed in Brooklyn which alleged Mackey “conspired” with other individuals to encourage supporters of Hillary Clinton to “vote” with text or on social media. One post stated: “Avoid the Line. Vote from Home,” and “Text ‘Hillary’ to 59925.”
Mackey was convicted of the Conspiracy Against Rights charge in 2023 and sentenced last October to seven months in prison.
“Given its expansive interpretation by the courts in years past, it has become a powerful weapon with which this corrupt administration can bludgeon its political opponents and instill fear in all who dare oppose them,” Crampton told the Caller.
Mackey received a bond by an appeals court and has not yet gone to prison, he stated in a Twitter post.
Ep. 38 The First Amendment is done. Douglass Mackey is about to go to prison for mocking Hillary Clinton on the internet. We talked to him right before his sentencing. Remember as you watch that this could be you.
TIMESTAMPS:
(3:12) The Hillary Clinton meme
(4:20) Hillary’s… pic.twitter.com/MLwz2SboGr— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 9, 2023
The Conspiracy Against Rights charge was originally a part of the Enforcement Acts passed between 1868 and 1870, according to the DOJ. Most of the legislation was repealed in 1894, but section 241 and 242 of 18 U.S.C. survived. The law was originally intended to protect recently-enfranchised black voters, according to Reuters. The Enforcement Acts are also colloquially known as the “KKK Acts.”
The law prohibits two or more people from “[conspiring] to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” from exercising their Constitutional rights. The charge carries hefty fines and up to ten years in prison.
“The Biden Justice Department is now using this [charge] against other political enemies,” Mackey wrote in his “Meme Defense Fund.”
Mackey’s case specifically has been pointed to as an example of politically motivated lawfare.
Individuals including Mackey noted that Jimmy Kimmel recently told his viewers that Trump voters should “vote very late” and on “Thursday or maybe Friday.”
Douglass Mackey was sent to prison for this. https://t.co/asYpjeh4pY
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) October 31, 2024
Mackey was not the only prominent individual charged under the law last year.
Special Council Jack Smith prosecuted former President Donald Trump on four counts of allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election results on January 6, 2021.
One of these counts included the Conspiracy Against Rights charge. The federal government alleged Trump violated the statute by “[conspiring] against the right to vote and to have one’s counted.”
….These revelations END the Sham J6 Civil Hoaxes and the lawless D.C. Case brought by Deranged Jack Smith, which has already been demolished by the United States Supreme Court’s Historic Immunity and Fischer Decisions. I called for everyone to act PEACEFULLY and PATRIOTICALLY,…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 26, 2024
The complaint claims that Trump “targeted a bedrock function” of the federal government. He was also charged with Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Proceeding.
Biden’s DOJ has a history of using the Conspiracy Against Rights law to enhance sentences.
An elderly woman, Paulette “Paula” Harlow, was one of several people sentenced to 24 months in prison this May for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the same Conspiracy Against Rights law.
I doubt anyone is surprised to hear that an arm of the government failed in its most fundamental mission, promised accountability, and solved the problem by issuing a ‘report’.
And that’s exactly the approach that the Secret Service took.
The Secret Service said Friday it has carried out multiple reforms since the July 13 assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and signaled that the agency has not dismissed any agents for the security failures that day, according to a copy of a final internal report to be sent to Congress and other agencies.
There’ll be accountability, the Secret Service promises, without actually delivering any accountability.
The report said it had identified “several instances of behaviors and acts by multiple employees that warrant review for corrective counseling and, potentially, disciplinary action,” and that they would be provided due process under the law.
“All individuals found in violation of policies will be held accountable,” the report said.
…Ronald L. Rowe, Jr., is now acting director and he has asked for additional funding and pledged to reform the agency.
Uh-huh.
The House issued a much more devastating report and there have been other reports to which Rowe responded by asking for a safe space.
The acting director of the Secret Service said Thursday he was concerned about the morale of his overworked agents, as he addressed an independent review that called for “fundamental reform” within the agency to prevent assassination attempts like the one in July that injured former President Donald Trump.
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, Ronald Rowe Jr. said he worried about the health and wellness of “demoralized” Secret Service agents who are being pushed to the brink and working long hours amid operational and policy changes.
“We are redlining our people,” Rowe said.
“We are asking them to do extraordinary things right now.”
We’re asking them to do their jobs which are a whole lot less difficult than the jobs of front-line combat troops, beat cops in dangerous cities or a variety of other security and military personnel.
In a separate written statement, Rowe said the agency was developing a “comprehensive” plan aimed at “driving a fundamental transformation” within the Secret Service.
He said the plan focuses on increasing and retaining the agency’s personnel, modernizing technology and building a training plan.
So the fundamental transformation is going to be more of the same. Watch our PowerPoint presentation, increase our budget and watch as things grow even worse.
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