“Jeanine Pirro is yet another nominee being put in a position of enormous power to serve the interests of Donald Trump. The Fox News host has repeatedly denied the results of the 2020 election, justified pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, and called for January 6 prosecutors to be investigated. This is not indicative of a qualified US Attorney, but rather a Trump collaborator who will serve Trump, not the American people.

This president must not be allowed to install corrupt prosecutors who will advance his interests at the expense of the American public and our freedom.”

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

One day in late May 2024, lawyer Zina Bash spent 6 1/2 hours working on a case against Facebook parent company Meta on behalf of the state of Texas. She reviewed draft legal filings. She participated in a court-ordered mediation session and then discussed the outcome with state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In her previous job as senior counsel on Paxton’s leadership team, that labor would have cost Texas taxpayers $641.

But Bash had moved to private practice. Paxton hired her firm to work on the Meta case, allowing her to bill $3,780 an hour, so that day of work will cost taxpayers $24,570.

In the past five years, Paxton has grown increasingly reliant on pricey private lawyers to argue cases on behalf of the state, rather than the hundreds of attorneys who work within his office, an investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica found. These are often attorneys, like Bash, with whom Paxton has personal or political ties.

In addition to Bash, one such contract went to Tony Buzbee, the trial lawyer who successfully defended Paxton during his 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges. Three other contracts went to firms whose senior attorneys have donated to Paxton’s political campaigns. Despite these connections and what experts say are potential conflicts of interest, Paxton does not appear to have recused himself from the selection process. Although he is not required to by law, this raises a concern about appearing improper, experts who study attorneys general said.

Paxton appears to have also outsourced cases more frequently than his predecessors, available records show. And he’s inked the kind of contingent-fee contracts, in which firms receive a share of a settlement if they win, far more often than the attorneys general in other large states, including California, New York and Pennsylvania. Since 2015, the New York and California attorneys general have awarded zero contingent-fee contracts; Pennsylvania’s has signed one. During that period, Paxton’s office approved 13.

One of those was with Bash’s firm, Chicago-based Keller Postman, at the time known as Keller Lenkner, which she joined as partner in February 2021 after resigning from her job at the attorney general’s office. Paxton had signed a contract with the company two months earlier to investigate Google for deceptive business practices and violations of antitrust law. A little more than a year later, Bash’s firm won a state contract to work on the Meta litigation, alleging its facial recognition software violated Texans’ privacy. This time, Bash was the co-lead counsel.

Meta, which called the lawsuit meritless, settled the case for $1.4 billion in the summer of 2024. It was a windfall for Keller Postman. The firm billed $97 million, the largest fee charged by outside counsel under Paxton’s tenure. Bash’s work alone accounted for $3.6 million of that total.

Bash, a former U.S. Supreme Court clerk, said in a statement she is honored the attorney general’s office partnered with Keller Postman based on the firm’s “first-rate attorneys and extensive experience.”

“We have a record of taking on the most significant litigation in the country against the most powerful defendants in the world,” Bash said.

Keller Postman did not respond to a request for comment.

There is little to stop Paxton, or any other occupant of his office, from handing these contracts out. The attorney general can award them without seeking bids from other law firms or asking anyone’s permission.

Asked to provide competitive-bid documents for the contingent-fee contracts it has awarded, the attorney general’s office said it had none because state law “exempts the OAG from having to do all of the solicitation steps when hiring outside counsel.”

Given the high-profile nature of representing an attorney general and the potential for a big payday, many qualified firms would be eager to compete for this work, said Paul Nolette, a professor of political science at Marquette University who studies attorneys general.

“I’d be curious to know what the justification is for this not going on the open market,” Nolette said.

Paxton declined interview requests for this story. He has publicly defended the practice of hiring outside law firms, arguing that his office lacks the resources in-house to take on massive corporations like tech companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

“These parties have practically unlimited resources that would swamp most legal teams and delay effective enforcement,” Paxton told the Senate finance committee during a budget hearing in January.

A spokesperson for Paxton said in a statement that the outside lawyers hired by the office are some of the best in the nation. With the contingent-fee settlements to date, more than $2 billion, the state “could not have gotten a better return on its investment,” the statement said.

Chris Toth, former executive director of the National Association of Attorneys General, questioned why so much extra help is needed. Outside counsel is appropriate for small states, he said, that “only have so many lawyers with so many levels of expertise.”

The Texas attorney general’s office, one of the largest in the country, has more than 700 attorneys.

“Large states typically don’t hire outside counsel,” Toth said. “They should have the people in-house that should be able to go toe-to-toe with the best attorneys that are out there.”

When a Texas attorney general previously made a practice of giving lucrative contracts to private counsel, it didn’t end well.

Dan Morales was the last Democrat to hold the office. He became embroiled in scandal after he used outside firms to help secure a $17 billion settlement in Big Tobacco litigation in 1998.

Republicans, including then-Gov. George W. Bush, blasted the $3.2 billion payout to the outside lawyers as exorbitant. Their attacks grew more intense when Morales sought to steer $500 million of that sum to a lawyer, a personal friend, who did very little work on the case. Morales pleaded guilty in 2003 to related federal corruption charges. He served 3 1/2 years behind bars.

John Cornyn, the Republican who succeeded Morales in 1999, criticized his predecessor’s handling of the tobacco case during his campaign for the office. In an interview for this story, Cornyn said he never hired outside counsel as attorney general because he focused on recruiting talented in-house lawyers that he felt could handle all the office’s cases.

Paxton is challenging Cornyn, now a four-term U.S. senator, in next year’s Republican primary.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Republican who led the office after Cornyn, appears to have rarely used private lawyers. The attorney general’s office was able to produce records for only part of Abbott’s 12-year term because state law allows the files to be deleted after so many years. The office signed nine outside counsel contracts between 2010 and 2014, all pro bono or for hourly rates rather than contingency. Abbott did not respond to an interview request.

Paxton also seldom outsourced cases during his first five years in office. Through 2019, he awarded only nine outside counsel contracts, all pro bono or hourly rate. The most expensive contract capped fees at $500,000 — far less than $143 million the state paid to the two firms, including Bash’s, that handled the Meta case.

He changed course in 2020.

That summer, the attorney general’s office was gearing up to file its first case against Google. It related to allegations that the company monopolized the online advertising market, raising costs for advertisers, who increased the price of their products for average consumers as a result. Paxton initially had no plans to hire outside counsel for the litigation, three former deputy attorneys general told the Tribune and ProPublica.

But before the case was filed, the attorney general’s office was thrown into upheaval. At the end of September, seven of Paxton’s senior advisers reported him to the FBI, concerned his relationship with an Austin real estate investor had crossed the line into bribery and corruption. State House members would later impeach Paxton on counts related to the accusations; state senators eventually acquitted him. The federal criminal investigation into Paxton did not result in any criminal charges.

Over fall 2020, each of the lawyers in his office who had accused Paxton of wrongdoing quit or was fired. That included Darren McCarty, the head of civil litigation who was supposed to lead the Google litigation before he reported his boss to the FBI. He resigned on Oct. 26.

Less than two months later, on Dec. 16, Paxton signed contracts with The Lanier Law Firm and Keller Postman to investigate Google. They filed the lawsuit against the tech giant in federal court the same day.

Paxton replaced the lawyers who complained to the authorities. The staffing of the antitrust and consumer protection divisions, which would have handled these cases, remained constant at more than 80 employees in the following years. Yet Paxton continued to outsource lawsuits against large corporations to private lawyers.

Under Keller Postman’s contract, the firm would be paid only if it secured a settlement or won at trial. These contingent-fee cases have the potential to be far more profitable for the outside firms than those in which they bill at a regular hourly rate. In a successful case, the contracts say that firms are paid either a percentage of a settlement or the sum of hours billed by the firm times four, whichever is less.

In the Meta case, Keller Postman was entitled to 11% of the state’s settlement, a share that totaled $154 million. But because the firm’s fees and expenses totaled $97 million, it billed that sum.

In multiple legislative sessions, Paxton has testified that outsourcing was the only way his office could stand toe-to-toe with corporate titans.

If Paxton has a shortage of qualified in-house attorneys, Cornyn told the newsrooms, that’s because of the damage the whistleblower scandal did to the reputation of the attorney general’s office as a home for ambitious young lawyers.

“He’s a victim of his own malfeasance and mismanagement because people did not want to work for him anymore,” Cornyn said. “And if you run off your best lawyers because you engage in questionable ethical conduct, then you’re left with very few options. But this shouldn’t be a way to reward bad behavior.”

Former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said he was surprised Paxton began hiring contingent-fee outside lawyers only after the scandal, since those contracts, with their potential for high profits, are tougher to ethically defend.

“I would have thought it would have been the other way around — that he got more careful after he got the whistle blown on him,” said Goddard, a Democrat. “But it looked like he got more reckless.”

Paxton’s style of procurement also benefited Buzbee, the man who successfully defended him during his impeachment trial, which stemmed from allegations the whistleblowers raised.

The attorney general chose to skip most of the proceedings, so for the 10 days of trial in the Texas Senate, his most vociferous advocate was the loquacious Buzbee. The pair sat side by side when the attorney general did attend.

A little more than a year later, Paxton hired The Buzbee Law Firm to pursue an antitrust suit against the investment firms BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard that accuses the companies of manipulating the coal market in a way that allegedly increased electricity prices for Texans. The firms deny wrongdoing.

Buzbee is a successful litigator and one of Houston’s most famous plaintiffs’ attorneys. Among other victories, he won settlements for victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and $73 million for Gulf of Mexico oil drillers in a 2001 antitrust case. But he’s known primarily for personal injury work, not antitrust litigation.

His firm, one of two hired for this latest attorney general’s office contingent-fee case, could collect 10% of any judgment or settlement. The case is in its early stages, though the Trump administration in May filed a brief in the case in support of Texas.

Buzbee downplayed the potential for a big payday in an email to the newsrooms and argued there is no buddy system at play, noting he believed other law firms also interviewed with Paxton’s office for the job. (The attorney general’s office did not confirm this.) He said his firm has to pay for significant expenses up front, without any guarantee of payment.

“The current arrangement may be a good deal for other lawyers, but in all candor, it’s not for me,” Buzbee said, adding that his normal hourly rate is $2,250. “Frankly, the only reason I’m even doing it is that I am proud to represent the state in such a landmark case.”

The connections between Paxton and the lawyers he has hired also extend to other firms. The attorney general’s office hired the firm Norton Rose Fulbright, one of the largest in the country with more than 3,000 lawyers on staff, to work on separate Google cases for the state, focusing on consumer protection allegations.

The attorney general’s office has awarded three contracts to the firm since 2022 for cases against the tech giant. Three times during that period, Joseph Graham, the firm’s lead counsel on the Google litigation, contributed $5,000 to Paxton’s campaign for attorney general. Twice, the donations came within 16 days of Graham signing one of the firm’s contracts with the attorney general.

The firm and its attorneys have contributed $39,500 to Paxton’s campaign since he took office. Neither Graham nor Norton Rose Fulbright responded to requests for comment.

Mark Lanier, founder of The Lanier Law Firm, which the state hired to work on a separate Google case, is a large donor to Texas elected officials. He has contributed $31,000 to Paxton’s campaigns since 2015. The largest contribution, for $25,000, came six months after Lanier signed his firm’s Google contract.

The Lanier contract is slightly different from the others the attorney general’s office awarded, in that the firm’s payment is partially based on a basic hourly rate but it could also be paid more if it wins the case, as in the contingent-fee model. Lanier noted in an emailed statement to the newsrooms that he took a reduced fee on this case and maintained that the attorney general’s office needed the kind of firepower his team can bring against an opponent like Google.

“The Texas AG office and its lawyers are good, but specialists are needed in a war like this. And it is a war,” Lanier wrote. “It would be irresponsible to pursue Google on behalf of Texans without bring[ing] the fullest resources you can.”

A competitive, open process for awarding contracts can be a strong defense against accusations of favoritism, Goddard said.

Unlike some other states, Texas does not require these contracts be put out to competitive bid.

Florida, for example, has one of the most robust laws in the country for procuring outside counsel, requiring the attorney general to explain in writing why a contingent-fee contract is necessary. It also mandates most contracts be put out to competitive bid and caps contingent-fee payouts at $50 million.

Texas has no such cap.

It also has virtually no method for state lawmakers to truly supervise this kind of practice. State law mandates only that the attorney general notify the Legislature when his office awards a contingent-fee contract, and certify that no in-house lawyers or private attorneys at an hourly rate can handle the task. Paxton has done so in boilerplate two-page letters that all say outside attorneys are needed because of the “scope and enormity” of the cases.

If lawmakers are concerned about these contracts, there is no mechanism for them to challenge Paxton’s determination that private counsel is needed.

Having lawyers bid for work would eliminate the appearance of impropriety that hangs over Paxton’s hires, Goddard said.

“A couple look like paybacks, which is extraordinarily improper, in other words to award a contract to someone who’s a major contributor or has recently left your office,” he said. “All of those would not be allowed in our state.”

Officials in other states have said they can still secure big wins for their constituents without relying on private firms.

California, for example, reached a $93 million settlement with Google in 2023 over claims that the company was clandestinely tracking users’ locations. A year earlier, in a case with similar allegations, Oregon and Nebraska led a 40-state coalition that won a $392 million settlement against the company. Texas was not part of this suit.

The latter agreement required Google to make new privacy disclosures to consumers, restricted its ability to share users’ location information with advertisers and required the company to prepare an annual report detailing how it was complying with the settlement terms.

Doug Peterson, the Republican attorney general of Nebraska at the time, said negotiating the financial penalty — Nebraska’s share was $11.9 million — was a secondary goal of the settlement.

“The most important thing we’re trying to do is to stop the bad behavior,” Peterson said.

McCarty, one of the attorney general employees who blew the whistle on Paxton, said private lawyers can be talented, but they have an incentive to fixate on the financial portion of settlements — which is tied to their compensation — rather than enforcement provisions that may best protect a state’s residents.

“Government enforcers, especially in the antitrust context, can focus on more effective solutions,” McCarty said.

Norton Rose Fulbright has yet to send its final billing records to the attorney general’s office but is likely to be rewarded handsomely. The firm helped the state secure a $1.38 billion settlement with Google in May. Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the Texas settlement, which has not been finalized, will contain no new restrictions on the company’s practices.

Under the terms of its contracts, the firm’s fees could exceed $350 million.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Zach Despart, The Texas Tribune.

Shortly after President Donald Trump’s second term began, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi joined Trump in taking steps to punish and intimidate news outlets that have covered him and his administration unfavorably. We’re documenting her efforts in this regularly updated report.

Read about how Trump’s appointees and allies in Congress are striving to chill reporting, revoke funding, censor critical coverage and more here.

This article was first published on April 28, 2025.

April 25, 2025 | U.S. attorney general rescinds journalists’ protection from federal subpoenas

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April 25, 2025 | U.S. attorney general rescinds journalists’ protection from federal subpoenas

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a memo released on April 25, 2025, directed the reversal of Biden-era policies that protected journalists from having their records seized or being forced to testify amid leak investigations.

Under President Donald Trump’s first administration, the Department of Justice secretly obtained or attempted to obtain records from After these subpoenas were made public, Biden administration Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in July 2021 that he was changing the department’s policies to prevent such seizures of journalists’ records.

Less than four years later, Bondi justified the revocation of that policy as necessary to thwart leaks that she said jeopardize the DOJ’s ability to “uphold the rule of law, protect civil rights, and keep America safe.”

“I have concluded that it is necessary to rescind Merrick Garland’s policies precluding the Department of Justice from seeking records and compelling testimony from members of the news media in order to identify and punish the source of improper leaks,” Bondi wrote in her April 25 memo. “This Justice Department will not tolerate unauthorized disclosures that undermine President Trump’s policies, victimize government agencies, and cause harm to the American people.”

Bondi noted, however, that there will still be procedures in place to ensure such measures are only used when “essential” to successfully investigating or prosecuting the source of sensitive leaks. The language of the new policy had not been made public as of publication.

Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the Tracker is a project, condemned Bondi’s decision and criticized members of Congress who did not prioritize passing a federal shield law in 2024 that would have protected journalists from such subpoenas.

“Every Democrat who put the PRESS Act on the back burner when they had the opportunity to pass a bipartisan bill codifying journalist-source confidentiality should be ashamed,” FPF Advocacy Director Seth Stern wrote in a statement. “Everyone predicted this would happen in a second Trump administration, yet politicians in a position to prevent it prioritized empty rhetoric over putting up a meaningful fight.”

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This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/04/28/pam-bondi-targets-journalists-leakers-as-u-s-attorney-general/feed/ 0 529966 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/21/human-rights-attorney-wolfgang-kaleck-on-double-standards-in-international-law-from-russia-to-u-s/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/21/human-rights-attorney-wolfgang-kaleck-on-double-standards-in-international-law-from-russia-to-u-s/#respond Fri, 21 Mar 2025 12:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=728e041d97e92e9be838c5bd6f077b09
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! Audio and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/03/21/human-rights-attorney-wolfgang-kaleck-on-double-standards-in-international-law-from-russia-to-u-s/feed/ 0 520692 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/14/eric-adams-u-s-attorney-5-doj-lawyers-quit-refuse-to-drop-corruption-case-against-nyc-mayor/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/14/eric-adams-u-s-attorney-5-doj-lawyers-quit-refuse-to-drop-corruption-case-against-nyc-mayor/#respond Fri, 14 Feb 2025 16:07:35 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=1e19ce0798cb9853910cbb9d0fd37b43
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/14/eric-adams-u-s-attorney-5-doj-lawyers-quit-refuse-to-drop-corruption-case-against-nyc-mayor/feed/ 0 513904 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/14/you-dont-have-to-comply-u-s-attorney-5-doj-lawyers-quit-refuse-to-drop-case-against-nyc-mayor/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/14/you-dont-have-to-comply-u-s-attorney-5-doj-lawyers-quit-refuse-to-drop-case-against-nyc-mayor/#respond Fri, 14 Feb 2025 13:14:59 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=8583420b6cd681fca886c7dc49fa5072

The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and five high-ranking Justice Department officials resigned Thursday to protest the Trump administration’s order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Danielle Sassoon, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in her resignation letter that dropping the case against Adams would violate her duty to uphold the law fairly and consistently. A top Justice Department official ordered the charges against Adams dropped earlier in the week, citing the case’s impact on the mayor’s ability to help with the administration’s immigration crackdown as it expands raids and deportations. After Sassoon resigned in protest, Justice Department officials moved the case from New York to the Public Integrity Section in the Criminal Division, which led to five more prosecutors resigning. Meanwhile, Adams met with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to discuss the possible reopening of an ICE office inside New York’s Rikers Island jail. “Clearly he knows that he has to get on board; otherwise, he may be on a train to some federal prison,” says Ron Kuby, a longtime criminal defense and civil rights attorney based in New York who has been following the case closely. He says that while the mass resignations have illustrated that it’s possible to stand up to the Trump administration’s abuses, Adams is likely safe for now. “This is effectively going to be the end of the case once the administration finds somebody sufficiently spineless to actually file the papers,” says Kuby.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/02/14/you-dont-have-to-comply-u-s-attorney-5-doj-lawyers-quit-refuse-to-drop-case-against-nyc-mayor/feed/ 0 513890 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/16/pam-bondi-trumps-attorney-general-pick-has-history-of-corporate-lobbying-and-election-denial/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/16/pam-bondi-trumps-attorney-general-pick-has-history-of-corporate-lobbying-and-election-denial/#respond Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:07:49 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=d585931272b7ade13bc7eb14b87c7538
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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In her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, refused to answer Democrats’ questions about maintaining the Department of Justice’s independence from the president and pursuing his personal vendettas. Bondi also avoided directly answering questions about Trump’s vow to pardon January 6 defendants and refused to say Trump definitively lost the 2020 election. “Bondi clearly has a comfort level with basing her prosecutorial discretion on whether someone has power and influence, and whether they’re willing to give her a taste of that,” says The American Prospect’s David Dayen, who explains how such abuse of power could dangerously expand the ability of the president to go after political enemies.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/16/pam-bondi-trumps-attorney-general-pick-has-history-of-corporate-lobbying-and-election-denial-2/feed/ 0 509915 https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/15/new-york-attorney-general-launches-investigation-of-guardianship-providers/ https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/15/new-york-attorney-general-launches-investigation-of-guardianship-providers/#respond Wed, 15 Jan 2025 12:00:00 +0000 https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-guardianship-investigation-letitia-james-nygs by Jake Pearson

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating about a half dozen guardianship organizations and how they manage the health and financial affairs of hundreds of elderly and infirm New Yorkers deemed incapable of looking after themselves, according to people familiar with the matter.

The inquiry, which is being conducted by lawyers in the office’s charities bureau, follows a yearlong series by ProPublica that revealed how some guardians neglected the vulnerable clients entrusted to their care, while others used their court-appointed positions to enrich themselves at their wards’ expense.

Judges often rely on guardianship companies to care for the so-called unbefriended, people who don’t have friends or family able to look after them. Oversight of these guardians, however, is scant, with officials rarely visiting wards to check on their care. Meanwhile, the courts that appoint the guardians rely largely on financial paperwork to determine a person’s well-being. That dynamic, the news organization found, has resulted in fraud, abuse and neglect of the state’s most vulnerable.

Among the groups investigators are scrutinizing is New York Guardianship Services, which was featured in ProPublica’s work, said one of the people familiar with the state probe, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive law enforcement action.

ProPublica found NYGS had failed to meet the needs of more than a dozen people entrusted to its care, including an elderly woman whom the company placed in a dilapidated home with rats, bedbugs and a lack of heat. NYGS collected $450 a month in compensation from the woman’s limited income while stating in reports to the court that her living situation was “appropriate” — even as internal company records and her own emails showed that she’d repeatedly complained about the conditions.

After ProPublica’s first story was published, a judge ordered NYGS to pay back that ward $5,400, representing about a year’s worth of fees, writing that the company had provided “minimal services, if any” during that time.

In another instance, ProPubica reported that the company collected monthly fees from an elderly man even after he’d left the country — and also after he died.

Company executives have declined to answer questions about specific clients but previously told ProPublica that NYGS was accountable to the court and that its work was scrutinized by examiners, who are empowered to raise any issues.

But ProPublica’s investigation found that there are too few examiners in the system to provide timely and thorough oversight. There are just 157 examiners responsible for reviewing the reports of 17,411 New York City wards, according to the court’s most recent data. And there are roughly a dozen judges to check their work. As a result, ProPublica found that annual assessments detailing wards’ finances and care can take years to complete, depriving judges of critical information about people’s welfare.

The courts have similarly taken a light touch to vetting guardianship providers. ProPublica found that though NYGS presented itself as a nonprofit, it hadn’t registered as such with state and federal authorities.

The attorney general’s investigation is not the office’s first foray into the guardianship world. A decade ago, the same unit investigated a nonprofit guardian called Integral Guardianship Services, ultimately finding the group had improperly loaned its top officials hundreds of thousands of dollars while its wards unnecessarily sat in nursing homes, according to court records. To settle the case, Integral agreed to various reforms, paid back the loans and brought on a management consultant, the Harvard Business School Club of New York, to review its systems, operations and finances.

Even so, Integral shut down just a few years later, stranding hundreds of wards whose cases were absorbed by other nonprofit groups and private lawyers. Among them was NYGS, which was founded, in part, by Integral’s former director of judicial compliance, Sam Blau, who wasn’t named in the attorney general’s lawsuit. Other Integral employees also remained in the guardianship business, starting their own groups or working as court-appointed fiduciaries, court and tax records show.

Some of those successor businesses are now among the entities state investigators are examining, the people familiar with the attorney general’s investigation said.

NYGS executives Sam and David Blau did not respond to an email seeking comment. Neither did the attorney general’s office.

News of the attorney general’s investigation comes as court administrators and Albany legislators face increased pressure to fix the guardianship system. Court officials have said they need more money to address the problems and announced last fall that they were appointing a dedicated special counsel, as well as a statewide coordinating judge, to oversee reforms.

Advocacy groups have mounted their own lobbying campaign, pressing Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders to commit $15 million annually to support a statewide network of nonprofits experienced in handling government contracts to serve the unbefriended. Another proposal, put forth by an advisory committee to the state court system, has advocated for the creation of a $72 million independent statewide agency to serve as a public guardian.

It’s not clear what Hochul, a Democrat, foresees for guardianship ahead of the upcoming legislative session. She’ll present the executive budget later this month. Last year’s $229 billion spending plan included just $1 million to fund a statewide guardianship hotline. A spokesperson for her office did not respond to questions about her funding plans or for comment on the AG’s probe.

Guillermo Kiuhan, an attorney for the former NYGS ward who has since died, said he was encouraged to hear the company may have to answer for what he said was outright theft. He has been trying to get NYGS to reimburse the ward’s heirs for the thousands of dollars the company took as compensation while his family provided for his care in Colombia. So far, the efforts have been unsuccessful. The Blaus didn’t respond to questions about Kiuhan’s claims.

“We are very frustrated,” he said in an interview. “Hopefully this is an opportunity to get the authorities involved … and not have more people with the same problem.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Jake Pearson.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2025/01/15/new-york-attorney-general-launches-investigation-of-guardianship-providers/feed/ 0 509737 https://grist.org/indigenous/julian-aguon-indigenous-attorney-fighting-climate-justice-worlds-highest-court-icj/ https://grist.org/indigenous/julian-aguon-indigenous-attorney-fighting-climate-justice-worlds-highest-court-icj/#respond Mon, 16 Dec 2024 09:45:00 +0000 https://grist.org/?p=654915 Julian Aguon wore a dark blue suit and garland made of white coconut fronds, brown hibiscus tree bark, and brown cowry shells. Under the arched ceilings and chandeliers of the Peace Palace in The Hague, he stepped to the podium to make his case to the International Court of Justice. 

“The right to self-determination is a cornerstone of the international legal order,” Aguon told the 15 judges who make up the court. “Yet climate change, and the conduct responsible for it, has already infringed the right to self-determination for the many peoples of Melanesia.” 

The International Court of Justice, or ICJ, normally hears disputes over lands and waters between countries, but sometimes it takes on cases of broader global resonance. This was one of them: Aguon was arguing on behalf of Pacific island nations thousands of miles away that hope to hold accountable the countries most responsible for climate change. The 42-year-old attorney from Guam spent five years working toward this moment, along with his co-counsel, Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh. Now, he sought to underscore what was at stake. 

“The peoples of Melanesia live exceptionally close to the Earth, and thus feel the vandalism visited upon it acutely,” he said. “Moreover, theirs represents living, breathing alternative imaginations — imaginations other than the one that has brought this planet to the brink of ecological collapse. Thus, ensuring they are able to live and thrive in their ancestral spaces is of the utmost importance, and not only for themselves, but for all of humanity.”

Aguon grew up on Guam, the son of a plumber and a social worker. His childhood consisted of playing in jungles with his cousins, where elders warned them to avoid anything metal in case it was leftover ordnance from World War II; family gatherings to pray the rosary in the Chamorro language; and absorbing a cultural devotion to serving one’s community. His dad worked short stints for various employers, including at a naval ship repair facility, and died of pancreatic cancer when Aguon was 9. Aguon has wondered if his death was related to U.S. military pollution.

At the time, his father’s death led his family to disintegrate, and Aguon buried himself in books like The House on Mango Street, the story of a Chicana girl growing up in Chicago — a coping mechanism that deepened his empathy and drive for justice. A quote from James Baldwin resonates with Aguon today: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”

“Grief so often has an isolating effect that it need not have,” Aguon told Grist. “I feel like my grief has been a bridge that I’ve walked across to get to other people.”

In the 1990s, when Aguon was a kid, a massive typhoon hit Guam. The windows and sliding glass door in his home shattered, and Aguon, his brother, sister, and mother propped a mattress up in their living room and hid behind it. Aguon remembers tracing the mattress’ embroidered flowers with his finger as the family waited for the winds to pass. Years later, he would read a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that predicted the coming of even stronger cyclones.

“At that moment I was like, ‘Wow, we’ve already been through so much,’” he said. How much more extreme would the storms get? How much more would his community have to endure? “I had a really shocking sense of the scale.”

The case before the ICJ, led by Aguon’s law firm, Blue Ocean Law, hopes to establish legal consequences for nations that have driven climate change, and illuminate what obligations those countries owe to people harmed. 

The court is being asked to provide an advisory opinion to clarify the legal obligations of countries under existing international law. Aguon describes it as a request for an objective yardstick by which to measure those countries’ actions, which could open the door to a new era of climate reparations.

After Aguon and Wewerinke-Singh exited the courtroom last week, they joined a press conference before the palaceʻs marble staircase near its front entrance. Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu’s top climate official, told reporters that the island nation deliberately chose Blue Ocean Law to represent them at the ICJ because the Indigenous-led firm would not only represent them legally, but culturally. 

“This is a case about our identity as Pacific Islanders, our human rights as citizens of this planet, and the responsibilities that states have to ensure our human rights and our cultural identity and our essence and our future is protected,” Regenvanu said. 

If the ICJ delivers the advisory opinion Vanuatu is seeking, Aguon hopes Indigenous peoples will be able to leverage that opinion in climate-related lawsuits against their governments and file human rights complaints against both countries and corporations. Given the climate impactsIndigenous peoples are already experiencing, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

---

In the summer of 2010, then-28-year-old Aguon was just a year out of law school and was looking for a job after finishing up a clerkship with Guam’s Supreme Court. He wanted to work in international and human rights law, but no firms specialized in that on Guam, the largest island in the Pacific region of Micronesia that’s home to about 160,000 people. Well-established lawyers on the island discouraged him from trying to start a new firm from scratch: Why not work for a few years, get some more experience, they suggested. 

“They were right, in some ways,” Aguon said. “I did lack experience, but I didn’t necessarily need the experience that they had, because I wanted to do something different.” 

What he envisioned was a law firm that could advocate on behalf of Indigenous peoples in the Pacific: communities like the Marshallese, which are still fighting for justice after decades of U.S. nuclear testing; like the people of Tuvalu, where rising seas are threatening to eliminate entire islands; and the Chamorros, like Aguon, where an ever-expanding American military presence increasingly stresses the island’s lands and waters.

Read Next

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To accomplish that, Aguon would need to be licensed to practice law in multiple countries. He spent months studying for and passing bar exams not only on Guam, but also in the Marshall Islands and Palau. He opened a solo law practice in 2010 in a tiny office in the village of Hagåtña, Guam’s capital. At first he worked locally, providing legal counsel to Guam’s Legislature and defending the island government’s plans for an Indigenous-only vote on the island’s political status. As his workload grew and his clientele expanded, he opened up Blue Ocean Law in 2014, and began to hire staff attorneys who saw the law the way he did: as a tool for social change that is both severely limited and potentially emancipatory. 

“We are a small team of activist lawyers, social change lawyers,” Aguon said. His colleagues include his ICJ co-lead Wewerinke-Singh, who has worked on climate litigation across multiple regions and U.N. courts; Alofipo So’o alo Fleur Ramsay, a Samoan attorney whose environmental justice work in Australia and in the Pacific has earned her chiefly orator titles from two villages in Samoa; and Watna Mori, a Melanesian lawyer from Papua New Guinea whose expertise in human rights and environmental law extends to advocacy for legal systems that value Indigenous knowledge systems.

Blue Ocean Law now includes seven attorneys, whose work spans Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, the three major regions of the Pacific. 

Over the next decade, Aguon argued for Guam’s right to self-determination before a U.S. federal appeals court in Honolulu, defending the island’s effort to limit a vote on Guam’s political status to Indigenous Chamorros. (Chamorro is also spelled CHamoru, but Aguon prefers the former). He lost, and Guam has yet to schedule a vote.

But Aguon is still proud of one aspect of the judges’ decision, which recognizes a legal distinction between racial and ancestry classifications. “From now on, for all Indigenous peoples living under U.S. rule, there is now a case that formally and comprehensively disentangles those two concepts, which means that Native peoples throughout the country can cite it to argue that some ancestral classifications are not the same as racial classifications,” he said.

After losing in federal court, Aguon and his team took their advocacy on behalf of the people of Guam to the United Nations. The island is still formally recognized by the U.N. as a colony, and first became an American military outpost at the turn of the 20th century. For decades, the U.S. refused to grant Chamorros U.S. citizenship, and instead forced them to live under a carousel of capricious naval governors who banned everything from the Chamorro language to interracial marriage to whistling. 

“Law is the vocabulary of the powerful in so many instances,” Aguon said. “The U.S. military was probably my greatest teacher in that regard.”

Read Next

The Air Force wants to blow up toxic military waste on a beach in Guam

Julia Kane

His firm has advised the Marshall Islands’ government on its legal options as it continues to contend with the legacy of U.S. nuclear tests. Aguon and his colleagues have also worked with organizations and legislatures in Pacific countries like Fiji to consult on the risks of deep-sea mining.

Aguon’s team has filed complaints about human rights violations by the U.S. military against the Chamorro people with the United Nations, prompting three U.N. rapporteurs to issue a joint letter in 2021 criticizing the U.S. for denying the Chamorro people their right to self-determination. 

Just last month, Blue Ocean Law filed a complaint with the U.N. Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples on behalf of youth from Palau who say U.S. militarization in their islands is violating their rights, including their right to freely consent to what happens on their land. 

“We’re consistently taking on the U.S. empire in all of these cases,” Aguon said.

---

In 2006, the same year that Aguon went to law school, the U.S. military proposed a massive expansion of its presence on Guam, deciding to move its Marine Corps base to Guam from Okinawa after local opposition to the soldiers’ presence became impossible to ignore. (At the heart of the anti-military protests were concerns about American soldiers’ sexual violence against Okinawan women and girls, including the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old by two Marines and a Navy sailor.)

Between the 8,000 service members, their 9,000 dependents, and the tens of thousands of construction workers and other staff needed to create more facilities for the new base, the military estimated there would be an influx of 80,000 people on Guam, increasing its population at the time by more than half. “It’s good for the strategic interests of America,” retired Marine Corps Major General David Bice told the Guam Chamber of Commerce in 2007. “It’s good for our friends in the Pacific, and it’s also good for Guam.” 

The community balked. Aguon felt that the military used language to obfuscate rather than illuminate the reality of their impact on Guam. For example, “live-fire training” was a euphemism that could refer to anything from machine gun firing to large-scale bombing practice. “Environmental impact” encompassed the destruction of cultural sites dating back more than 1,000 years. “Readiness” referred to the military’s ability to respond to threats, but it wasn’t always clear whether the Indigenous people were among those the U.S. cared about protecting.

“The law is about hyper-vigilance, hyper-attentiveness to how language is being used and deployed,” Aguon said. “Often it is being weaponized against people most in need of this protection.” 

Litigation and community protests forced the Department of Defense to shrink its military relocation to 5,000 troops, and change the location of its planned firing range. The new Marine Corps base opened last year, and a machine-gun practice range is being built adjacent to a federal wildlife refuge.

Aguon sees the law as a single tool among many to push back against this entrenched militarism that he sees echoed around the world, from Honolulu to Gaza. To him, what will ultimately effect change is solidarity. 

“We’re up against such huge, gigantic, colossal forces,” Aguon said. “I’m casting my net of hope in that direction, that the peoples of the world — from the ground up — can really find more effective ways to confront these forces that we’re up against.”

In 2017, Aguon sat in Straub Hospital in Honolulu and held the hand of a longtime mentor, Marshallese leader Tony de Brum, who is known internationally for his global leadership in fighting climate change. De Brum had served as a father figure after Aguon’s dad passed and helped inspire his passion for climate justice. “Give them hell,” de Brum said, before he too died. Four years later, Aguon was named a Pulitzer finalist for a screed on climate change in the Pacific: “To Hell With Drowning.”

---

When Vanuatu asked for his law firm’s help with its climate change case five years ago, Aguon hadn’t ever argued before the ICJ and wasn’t intimately familiar with the particularities of its proceedings. 

The ICJ only accepts cases brought by U.N. member states, and because the U.S. never relinquished Guam, the island territory doesn’t have the right to file cases there. The same is true for countless Indigenous nations throughout the world whose borders are missing from most maps: The highest court in the United Nations doesn’t have a seat for them, and so their voices are rarely heard. That echoes other venues of the U.N., where Indigenous peoples are often left out of key negotiating rooms because their nations don’t have U.N. member state status and they lack representation within their colonial governments.

“The ICJ proceedings are more state- and international-organizations-focused, less people centered, where engagement by civil society is quite restricted, and Indigenous peoples do not have a direct pathway for engagement in the court,” said Joie Chowdhury, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law who has also assisted on the climate case. That’s in contrast to other U.N. legal venues like the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, she said. “So there is no easy pathway for Indigenous peoples’ engagement, and especially in this case, that would be important given their tremendous knowledge and expertise in climate change and biodiversity.” 

Sometimes, nongovernmental organizations may intercede, as in this ICJ case where a dozen were approved to participate. In addition to representing Vanuatu, Aguonʻs team is also representing the Melanesian Spearhead Group, a nongovernmental organization that consists of Melanesian Pacific island states. The organization also includes the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, which represents the Indigenous Kanak people of New Caledonia who are fighting for independence from France.

Bringing a case before the ICJ requires specific knowledge and meaningful funding, and often parties are represented by a cottage industry of attorneys who specialize in the ICJ and are familiar with its proceedings. This is only the second time that a Pacific state has sought an advisory opinion from the ICJ. The last time was in 1996, when the Marshall Islands asked the judges to weigh in on whether detonating or threatening to use nuclear weapons violated international law. The judges said that it may be legal in extreme cases of self-defense. 

“Many of these countries that have never argued before the ICJ before are actually not just coming to argue their case, but leading from the front,’” said Chowdury from the Center for International Environmental Law. “It is showing and demonstrating to the world that this is an avenue of justice.”

Just getting on the court docket is a challenge and, in this case, required getting a resolution approved by the U.N. General Assembly. The case was originally launched in 2019 by law students at the University of the South Pacific, who took a ground-up approach to persuading U.N. General Assembly members in the Pacific and beyond to formally request an ICJ advisory opinion. As their campaign grew, Aguon found himself and his staff providing input at all hours of the day every time a word or comma changed in the draft that circulated among U.N. delegates.

The case morphed into the largest-ever in ICJ’s history. Overall, 97 countries and 12 nongovernmental organizations are urging the court to weigh in on what major polluting countries owe to the peoples and nations who have been harmed by their relentless carbon emissions. Aguon spoke on the first day, but oral arguments were scheduled for the first full two weeks of December. It’s not clear when an opinion will be rendered.

In the meantime, Aguon hopes that not only the court but the world will pay attention to the stories that the case is revealing about the cost of climate change to Pacific peoples. During the press conference near the entrance of the Peace Palace, he told the story of one of the villages he visited when collecting witness testimony for the case.

“There is a village at the mouth of a river in the Gulf province of Papua New Guinea, that is on the move again. The people of Vairibari, whose ancestors have lived along the banks of the Kikori River Delta since time immemorial, have already moved four times due to sea level rise. This will be their fifth and final relocation. Final, because there is simply no more inland to go,” Aguon said. 

“A planning committee has been formed to handle the logistics. Among other things, the villagers are debating about how best to relocate the remains of their deceased relatives, because storm surges have already begun washing away the dead. The people of Vairibari want nothing more than to stay. But climate change is making that option all but impossible.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline This Indigenous attorney is fighting for climate justice in the world’s highest court on Dec 16, 2024.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Anita Hofschneider.

]]> https://grist.org/indigenous/julian-aguon-indigenous-attorney-fighting-climate-justice-worlds-highest-court-icj/feed/ 0 506224 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/common-cause-statement-on-matt-gaetzs-nomination-as-attorney-general/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/common-cause-statement-on-matt-gaetzs-nomination-as-attorney-general/#respond Wed, 13 Nov 2024 23:08:41 +0000 https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/common-cause-statement-on-matt-gaetz-s-nomination-as-attorney-general Today, President-elect Donald J. Trump announced his intention to nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz as U.S. Attorney General.

Statement of Common Cause President & CEO Virginia Kase Solomón

The nomination of Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as Attorney General represents a serious threat to the fair and equal enforcement of the law in our nation. Gaetz is wholly unqualified for the post in addition to being an election denier and far-right extremist. This move is both shocking and alarming. Matt Gaetz’s record proves he has no place in any position within the Department of Justice, an institution dedicated to upholding the rule of law. We call on every Senator to put country before party and reject this nomination.

Rep. Gaetz has consistently worked against democracy and accountability. On January 6th, he supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election and has since continued to shield those who attempted to subvert our democratic processes. His anti-voter agenda includes pushing legislation that would strip eligible voters from the rolls, even threatening government shutdowns to enforce voter suppression.

Beyond that, his rhetoric and actions reveal a troubling history of encouraging violence against racial justice protesters and promoting dangerous white supremacist ideologies. This is not a candidate who values equality, justice, or the rights of all Americans.

The role of Attorney General is to uphold civil and voting rights protections and ensure fair justice for all. This nomination marks the first major pro-democracy struggle of Trump’s second administration. Senate Republicans must demonstrate their commitment to democracy and the rule of law by rejecting this extreme nomination.

Matt Gaetz is one of the most extreme and unsuitable choices for this role, and Senate confirmation is not assured. We call on Senators from both parties to stand with the American people and protect our democratic institutions by ensuring Matt Gaetz never reaches this role.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/common-cause-statement-on-matt-gaetzs-nomination-as-attorney-general/feed/ 0 501887 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/aclu-attorney-lee-gelernt-on-how-rights-groups-are-preparing-to-fight-trumps-mass-deportations-2/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/aclu-attorney-lee-gelernt-on-how-rights-groups-are-preparing-to-fight-trumps-mass-deportations-2/#respond Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:31:07 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=3b09b9a9b8de91dd7727ec44726c9bdf
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/aclu-attorney-lee-gelernt-on-how-rights-groups-are-preparing-to-fight-trumps-mass-deportations-2/feed/ 0 501830 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/aclu-attorney-lee-gelernt-on-how-rights-groups-are-preparing-to-fight-trumps-mass-deportations/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/aclu-attorney-lee-gelernt-on-how-rights-groups-are-preparing-to-fight-trumps-mass-deportations/#respond Wed, 13 Nov 2024 13:15:14 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=dd692b764f45ed020283b9c9f006999d

Immigrant rights lawyers are preparing to fight back against Donald Trump’s plans to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history once he takes office again in January. The president-elect has already named some leading anti-immigration figures for his incoming administration who will lead the plan, including former ICE head Tom Homan and his longtime aide Stephen Miller. Trump’s picks were central in family separations, the Muslim ban, attacks on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and other anti-immigrant policies during the first Trump administration. Trump is also reportedly planning to greatly expand immigrant detention in private for-profit prisons, and during the campaign he spoke of invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to speed up deportations. “We have been preparing nearly a year for this,” says attorney Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, who argued some of the most high-profile immigration cases during the first Trump administration. He stresses that while groups like the ACLU will challenge the Trump administration in the courts, “it needs to be a national effort” to prevent abuses. “We are not opposed to basic immigration reform, but this cannot be a situation where we’re just going after immigrants left and right.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/11/13/aclu-attorney-lee-gelernt-on-how-rights-groups-are-preparing-to-fight-trumps-mass-deportations/feed/ 0 501822 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/28/teaser-who-should-be-the-next-attorney-general/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/28/teaser-who-should-be-the-next-attorney-general/#respond Sat, 28 Sep 2024 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=30c53ab5bc5ec2fc90b2ba2b90028c3d Our hearts go out to the people impacted by Hurricane Helene and their anti-government governments, who will be replaced one day with public servants, which is what this conversation is about. To help those who are impacted, there’s a resource on where to donate in the show notes. (Do not choose the Red Cross, for reasons explained in the show notes). Thank you. 

Thank you to everyone who joined our live taping with Laboratories of Autocracy and Saving Democracy author David Pepper, who is not just a democracy warrior, but also the mastermind behind the new podcast series Project 2025: Up Close and Personal. Picture this: short, terrifying vignettes with a cast so star-studded, you'd think it was Hollywood's last gasp before a fascist takeover—J. Smith-Cameron, Fisher Stevens, Richard Schiff, Morgan Fairchild, Omid Abtahi, and many more! We previewed "Chapter 2" of the series–it’s the audio equivalent of a cold sweat. You can listen to it [here].

Democrats have been playing defense for so long, they've forgotten what offense looks like. "There are two million uncontested races out there," David pointed out, which is about as comforting as knowing JD Vance’s particular brand of weird fills the halls of power in Republican hostage states. David also shared the story of how he got a call out of the blue from Vice President Kamala Harris last spring, to discuss ways to fight back. Thanks to the audience Q&A, he shared who he thinks should be her Attorney General—should she win, of course.

Want to make that dream a reality? Join the fight! Gaslit Nation hosts phonebanks with Sister District every Wednesday at 6 p.m. RSVP [here]. Join our next live taping on Tuesday October 1st at 12pm ET with Greg Palast, discussing his new film Vigilantes Inc: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen. Bring your questions on all the ways Russian-backed MAGA is trying to steal the election, their plans if they lose, and ways to protect the vote. 

Come As You Are Weekly Political Salons! Join us every Monday at 4 PM ET via Zoom! Let’s share frustrations, ask burning questions, seek support, and help shape Gaslit Nation. Everyone’s voice matters—whether you’re a political junkie or just finding your voice, you belong here! Recordings available exclusively on Patreon.

Upcoming Virtual Live Tapings:

• October 1 at 12 PM ET: Join investigative journalist Greg Palast to discuss his new film Vigilantes Inc: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen

• October 24 7pm ET: How to Make a Podcast workshop – we need your voice! 

All these events, access to our Victory Chat and Art is Survival Chat, ad-free shows, bonus episodes, Q&As, and more await at Patreon.com/Gaslit at the Truth-Teller level and higher. Annual discounts available!

Show Notes:

How To Help After Hurricane Helene https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2024-09-26-how-to-help-hurricane-helene-victims-where-to-donate

The Red Cross Won’t Save Houston It has proven itself unequal to the task of massive disaster relief. We need a new kind of humanitarian response. https://slate.com/business/2017/08/dont-give-money-to-the-red-cross-we-need-a-new-way.html

This content originally appeared on Gaslit Nation and was authored by Andrea Chalupa.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/28/teaser-who-should-be-the-next-attorney-general/feed/ 0 495533 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/27/u-s-attorney-general-merrick-garland-announces-charges-against-three-iranian-operatives-for-hacking-trump-campaign-september-27-2024/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/27/u-s-attorney-general-merrick-garland-announces-charges-against-three-iranian-operatives-for-hacking-trump-campaign-september-27-2024/#respond Fri, 27 Sep 2024 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=78feeb9c23604c02beaf8f7f01883dee Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced today that three Iranian operatives have been charged with hacking Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as part of what the Justice Department says was a sweeping effort to undermine the former president and erode confidence in the U.S. electoral system.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met face-to-face with former President Donald Trump today, despite rising public tensions between the two over Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion and amid the U.S. presidential election.
• The U.S. announced an agreement with the Iraqi government to conclude the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by next year.
• Vice President Kamala Harris is making her first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, aiming to confront immigration, one of her biggest vulnerabilities ahead of the November election.
• Prisoner rights advocates sued the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, seeking to stop the agency from using a rule intended to keep ex-felons off prison grounds as a tool to suppress constitutionally protected protests and speech.

The post U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announces charges against three Iranian operatives for hacking Trump campaign – September 27, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/27/u-s-attorney-general-merrick-garland-announces-charges-against-three-iranian-operatives-for-hacking-trump-campaign-september-27-2024/feed/ 0 495457 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/17/surreal-u-s-attorney-in-charge-of-trump-almost-shooting-is-haitian-american-and-we-are-here-for-it/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/17/surreal-u-s-attorney-in-charge-of-trump-almost-shooting-is-haitian-american-and-we-are-here-for-it/#respond Tue, 17 Sep 2024 07:33:52 +0000 https://www.commondreams.org/further/surreal-u-s-attorney-in-charge-of-trump-almost-shooting-is-haitian-american-and-we-are-here-for-it

Because things right about now can always get weirder, it turns out the Florida U.S. Attorney handling the case of the latest sick white guy inspired by hateful GOP lies about pet-eating Haitians to go hiding in the bushes to take down Trump with an AR-15 is one Markenzy Lapointe - the first Haitian-born American lawyer, and first black guy, to serve as a U.S. Attorney. We love the smell of irony and karma in the morning.

The alleged "assassination attempt," though the perp didn't fire any shots, took place at Trump's West Palm Beach golf course a couple of days after both lying authoritarian scumbags on the GOP presidential ticket re-iterated their claims that "illegal aliens" from Haiti are eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, which is def speaking truth to power and house-pets except it's all racist fiction. The migrants are here legally, and no pets have been harmed or consumed in the making of this absurd campaign lie.

That hasn't stopped the two white boys with shit for brains from doubling down on what Vance already conceded on TV is a tall ugly tale, which has now seen Haitians being terrorized, schools receiving at least 33 bomb threats and Springfield officials having to evacuate schools, cancel "CultureFest" and close multiple city offices. After Vance admitted to "creating" his own furry lies, he tried also charging that immigrants are spreading HIV and TB too. Nope. More faux hillbilly lies - about his own constituents, yet.

#OHNoYouDont, said the Ohio-based Red, Wine, and Blue that's organized against the hate and fear. They've now been joined by Lapointe, Haitian-born U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and lead prosecutor of Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon after a Secret Service guy spotted his gun in the bushes where he'd waited 12 hours to claim his 15 minutes of tawdry fame, hopefully taking a moment to thank Trump for revoking gun restrictions for people with mental illness.

Lapointe, 55, was born in Port-au-Prince. He came to the U.S. as a 16-year-old who spoke no English with his mother, a street vendor with no formal education and four other kids; they all shared a cramped two-bedroom apartment in Liberty City. Lapointe worked through high school and skipped his graduation to begin boot camp after signing up for the Marines. A reservist, he was called up to serve in the Gulf War - "I felt a tremendous debt to America (as) an immigrant" - before earning finance and law degrees at Florida State.

Lapointe was nominated by Biden in 2022 and has worked with Jack Smith on the classified documents case; he calls his journey "surreal" and "blessed." Trump might not agree on the blessed part, but he's already fundraising on the latest alleged effort to get rid of him, charging, "There are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us." We can relate. For now, we can also savor the fact of a Haitian immigrant whose job is both to protect and prosecute him. One sage: "Sweet like justice, Karma is a queen."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Abby Zimet.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/17/surreal-u-s-attorney-in-charge-of-trump-almost-shooting-is-haitian-american-and-we-are-here-for-it/feed/ 0 493751 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/13/crimean-journalist-faces-continued-harassment-in-jail-rights-group-attorney-say/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/13/crimean-journalist-faces-continued-harassment-in-jail-rights-group-attorney-say/#respond Fri, 13 Sep 2024 14:08:09 +0000 https://cpj.org/?p=416654 Berlin, September 13, 2024—Ahead of Crimean journalist Remzi Bekirov’s next expected hearing on October 2, CPJ expressed concern at reports that Russian prison authorities are harassing him with strict scrutiny and placements in solitary confinement.  

Bekirov, who is an ethnic Crimean Tatar from Ukraine’s Russian-occupied region of Crimea, was a correspondent for independent Russian news website Grani and reported on Russian authorities’ raids and trials of Crimean Tatars for Crimean Solidarity’s YouTube channel before he was sentenced to 19 years in prison in March 2022.

“The harsh treatment of Remzi Bekirov in prison is indicative of the plight of jailed Crimean Tatar journalists whom Russian authorities punish with lengthy prison terms on fabricated terrorism charges in retaliation for their reporting on human rights abuses in the occupied Crimea,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Russian authorities must immediately release Remzi Bekirov and all other jailed Ukrainian journalists and ensure their safe return to their homeland.”

Bekirov is imprisoned at a penal colony in Russia’s southern Siberia region of Khakassia on charges of organizing the activities of a terrorist organization and “preparing for a violent seizure of power,” according to his lawyer, Emil Kurbedinov, who spoke to CPJ, and Crimean Solidarity, a human rights organization that reports on politically motivated cases. The IK-33 colony is located in the region’s capital, Abakan, more than 4,000 km from his home in Ukraine’s Crimea.

Bekirov “receives heightened scrutiny,” including strict monitoring of his correspondence, regular cell searches, and being placed in solitary confinement five times since his transfer to IK-33 in August 2024, Kurbedinov told CPJ, adding that Bekirov was in solitary as of September 13.

CPJ’s email to the press office of Russia’s Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments requesting verification and details about Bekirov’s treatment did not receive a response. CPJ’s call to the Crimean branch of the Russian Ministry of Interior did not go through.

Kurbedinov said Bekirov appeared particularly frightened during their recent meeting, which a prison administrator monitored. Kurbedinov said Bekirov’s detention far from Crimea is harmful and “intentional,” making visits from family and attorneys difficult.

Since Russian authorities cracked down on independent media in Crimea after annexing the peninsula in 2014, many have engaged in “citizen journalism,” particularly focused on human rights issues affecting Crimean Tatars.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/09/13/crimean-journalist-faces-continued-harassment-in-jail-rights-group-attorney-say/feed/ 0 493190 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-rights-lawyer-yu-wensheng-08282024151554.html https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-rights-lawyer-yu-wensheng-08282024151554.html#respond Wed, 28 Aug 2024 19:20:00 +0000 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-rights-lawyer-yu-wensheng-08282024151554.html Read the story in Mandarin: 人权律师余文生案开庭　王宇前往旁听被带走

 

Prominent Chinese rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan stood trial on Wednesday in the eastern city of Suzhou for "subversion" amid tight security that saw another prominent attorney taken away by police ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing.

Yu and Xu were initially detained in April 2023 on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" – a charge frequently used to target peaceful critics of the Communist Party – en route to a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing. Brussels has lodging a formal complaint over the incident.

But the pair are now being put on trial for the more serious charge of "incitement to subvert state power" at the Suzhou Intermediate People's Court. Court proceedings were observed by diplomats from 10 countries, the rights website Weiquanwang reported, without giving details.

The trial comes amid tight security across China ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which runs Sept. 4-6 in Beijing. A prominent rights attorney, Wang Yu, was detained by police in Suzhou shortly after arriving in the city on the first day of Yu's trial, her husband Bao Longjun told RFA Mandarin.

"Wang Yu called me around 7 o'clock this morning," Bao said. "She said she had just left Suzhou station [to meet with a client who is a rights activist], but police blocked him from leaving home."

"I called her again at 10 a.m. but nobody picked up, and I haven't been able to get in touch with her since," he said.

In a later phone call with RFA Mandarin, Bao said police had escorted Wang to meet up with him in the northern city of Handan, where she was released from custody.

‘Key personnel’

President Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote address at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation next week, setting out proposals for "building a high-level community with a shared future for China and Africa," Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong told a news conference last week.

The security measures target critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party known as "key personnel," according to a Beijing resident who gave only the surname Guo for fear of reprisals.

"Security has been very strict in our residential community lately, and they're saying they have to guard against key personnel," Guo said. "I know something big is happening in Beijing."

According to state media and official websites, the term "key personnel" applies to anyone posing a potential threat to public order, national security or disease control and prevention policies, and means an individual is targeted for "monitoring, prevention measures and management by police."

Represented Falun Gong

Yu is a prominent rights attorney who has represented members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, as well as many fellow rights attorneys in the wake of a July 2015 crackdown on public interest law firms and associated rights activists. 

He served an earlier four-year sentence for "subversion" that ended in 2021.

Xu has repeatedly spoken out on her husband's behalf, and was threatened with prosecution after meeting with French officials in 2018 about her husband's case.

Rights groups have warned that both were at risk of torture to elicit a “confession” during detention.

Yu and Xu are being represented by defense attorneys Ge Wenxiu and He Wei at the two-day trial, Weiquanwang reported.

24-hour surveillance

Meanwhile, authorities in Beijing are holding Zhou Shifeng, the former director of the Beijing Fengrui law firm that was shuttered following the July 2015 crackdown, under close surveillance, prompting him to flee the capital for his hometown in Henan province.

"They're about to hold the China-Africa Forum in Beijing, and security guards were put on duty downstairs from Zhou Shifeng's home," his friend Zhang Ning told RFA Mandarin on Wednesday.

"There were private security guards, state security police, and officers from the local police station, five people on each eight-hour shift," Zhang said. "Shifeng had to tell them where he was going, and the state security police would drive him there and escort him."

Zhang said Zhou had eventually chosen to leave the capital and return to his hometown in Anyang city, Henan, in the hope of evading further official attention.

Police have also been closely watching independent political commentator Wu Qiang since late July, according to a friend of his who gave only the surname Li for fear of reprisals.

"There are two police vehicles stationed in the residential community where Wu Qiang lives, 24 hours a day," Li said. "They follow him whenever he goes out."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Qian Lang for RFA Mandarin.

]]> https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/china-rights-lawyer-yu-wensheng-08282024151554.html/feed/ 0 490862 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/28/latino-rights-groups-urge-doj-to-investigate-tx-attorney-general-for-raiding-homes-of-lulac-leaders-2/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/28/latino-rights-groups-urge-doj-to-investigate-tx-attorney-general-for-raiding-homes-of-lulac-leaders-2/#respond Wed, 28 Aug 2024 14:40:05 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=1829e62ddb1cc4678849be75f5cb93a0
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/28/latino-rights-groups-urge-doj-to-investigate-tx-attorney-general-for-raiding-homes-of-lulac-leaders-2/feed/ 0 490831 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/28/latino-rights-groups-urge-doj-to-investigate-tx-attorney-general-for-raiding-homes-of-lulac-leaders/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/28/latino-rights-groups-urge-doj-to-investigate-tx-attorney-general-for-raiding-homes-of-lulac-leaders/#respond Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:39:46 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=5ea93fc9cbcdedafe1d9bc5598635f8b

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing accusations he is using his office to suppress Latino voters in the state. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the country’s oldest Latino civil rights group, is calling on the Justice Department to investigate Paxton over a series of police raids on the homes of LULAC members, state lawmakers and other community leaders in the San Antonio area last week. Previously, Paxton had tried and failed to shut down the Houston-based and immigrant-led civil rights group Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (FIEL) by claiming it engaged in electioneering. We’re joined by the director of FIEL, Cesar Espinosa, and the CEO of LULAC, Juan Proaño, who both share how their organizations have been impacted by the attorney general’s harassment and intimidation. Proaño calls the targeting of Latino leaders and organizations a pattern of “blatant discrimination” and says, “We see these as tactics essentially for Republicans to stay in control of the government in Texas.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/28/latino-rights-groups-urge-doj-to-investigate-tx-attorney-general-for-raiding-homes-of-lulac-leaders/feed/ 0 490822 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases/#respond Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:48:46 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=e7a0aea24242d1fa2c80c378a616088d
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases/feed/ 0 490510 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases-3/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases-3/#respond Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:48:46 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=e7a0aea24242d1fa2c80c378a616088d
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases-3/feed/ 0 490511 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases-2/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases-2/#respond Mon, 26 Aug 2024 12:30:34 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=bd7aa22564d8b815b5fb95885df4c7a4

A federal judge in Kentucky has thrown out felony charges against two former Louisville police officers for their roles in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Instead, the judge ruled that Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, is legally responsible for her death because he fired his gun to fend off intruders, after plainclothes police officers broke down the couple’s front door and barged in just after midnight. Taylor was a Black 26-year-old emergency medical technician and aspiring nurse. Since then, only one officer has been found guilty of playing a role in Taylor’s death, admitting to falsifying a no-knock warrant that claimed police had evidence of drug dealings taking place in Taylor’s home. No drugs were ever found and the two cops who fatally shot Taylor have never been charged. This lack of accountability is part of a “systematic pattern of disrespect” of Black women, says civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Breonna Taylor’s family. Crump also discusses the latest developments in the cases against police officers accused of excessive force in the widely publicized deaths of Tyre Nichols in Tennessee and Roger Fortson in Florida.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/08/26/how-many-more-attorney-ben-crump-on-latest-in-breonna-taylor-tyre-nichols-roger-fortson-cases-2/feed/ 0 490540 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/24/tragic-beyond-proportions-attorney-ben-crump-on-sonya-masseys-killing-and-police-cover-up-2/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/24/tragic-beyond-proportions-attorney-ben-crump-on-sonya-masseys-killing-and-police-cover-up-2/#respond Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:03:06 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=9569db1b7ca0301c4c6620884b645f71
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/24/tragic-beyond-proportions-attorney-ben-crump-on-sonya-masseys-killing-and-police-cover-up-2/feed/ 0 485493 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/24/tragic-beyond-proportions-attorney-ben-crump-on-sonya-masseys-killing-and-police-cover-up/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/24/tragic-beyond-proportions-attorney-ben-crump-on-sonya-masseys-killing-and-police-cover-up/#respond Wed, 24 Jul 2024 12:46:28 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=a58056787b13d5c87762791e9e67d963

The family of Sonya Massey is demanding justice after they say authorities tried to cover up her fatal shooting by a sheriff’s deputy in Springfield, Illinois, by initially claiming it was “self-inflicted.” Police body-camera footage showed this was a lie. The 36-year-old mother of two was shot dead in her own home on July 6 after she called 911 for help. “This is the worst police shooting video that I’ve seen. It is so senseless,” says Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing the family. “[Massey] needed a helping hand. She did not need a bullet to the face.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/24/tragic-beyond-proportions-attorney-ben-crump-on-sonya-masseys-killing-and-police-cover-up/feed/ 0 485473 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/22/attorney-diana-buttu-on-historic-icj-ruling/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/22/attorney-diana-buttu-on-historic-icj-ruling/#respond Mon, 22 Jul 2024 18:11:42 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=570c6462612affa412f3b39241d2303b
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/22/attorney-diana-buttu-on-historic-icj-ruling/feed/ 0 485132 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/22/icj-rules-israels-occupation-of-west-bank-jerusalem-gaza-is-illegal-attorney-diana-buttu-explains/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/22/icj-rules-israels-occupation-of-west-bank-jerusalem-gaza-is-illegal-attorney-diana-buttu-explains/#respond Mon, 22 Jul 2024 12:47:27 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=3521edd0819a5cad1d6991e4fbd6d264

The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.” This is one of the most significant rulings issued by an international court on the matter since Israel’s military occupation of the territories began in 1967. We speak with Palestinian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu on the historic ruling and what impact it could have on Israel. “The court makes it clear not only that Israel’s occupation is illegal, but it also says that all countries around the world have an obligation to make sure that Israel doesn’t get away with it,” says Buttu. “It’s up to the international community now to put sanctions on Israel to end this military occupation.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/22/icj-rules-israels-occupation-of-west-bank-jerusalem-gaza-is-illegal-attorney-diana-buttu-explains/feed/ 0 485103 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/16/a-georgia-appeals-court-set-a-december-hearing-for-arguments-whether-to-allow-fulton-county-district-attorney-fani-willis-to-continue-prosecuting-the-trump-election-interference-case-july-16/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/16/a-georgia-appeals-court-set-a-december-hearing-for-arguments-whether-to-allow-fulton-county-district-attorney-fani-willis-to-continue-prosecuting-the-trump-election-interference-case-july-16/#respond Tue, 16 Jul 2024 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=c09e351d8a6aed83bfd648c39826bbff Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• A Georgia appeals court set a December hearing for arguments whether to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the Trump election interference case.
• As the war in Gaza continues to grind on, health officials in the enclave are sounding the alarm about a concerning spike in skin diseases.
• President Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail for the first time since the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
• Donald Trump’s pick for his vice-presidential running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, was once a vocal critic of the former president and is now a staunch MAGA Republican. Meanwhile, Democrats sounded the alarm over Vance’s track record, with President Biden calling him ‘a clone of Trump.’
• Governor Gavin Newsom signed several new bills into law this week, including one aimed at easing the financial burden for Californians recovering from addiction and mental health treatment.
• The UC Berkeley Labor Center released an updated tool this week, compiling data on who gets paid low wages in California.
• Unhoused and formerly unhoused Oakland residents spoke out today across from Oakland City Hall, addressing Oakland’s rising homelessness crisis.

The post A Georgia appeals court set a December hearing for arguments whether to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the Trump election interference case – July 16, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/16/a-georgia-appeals-court-set-a-december-hearing-for-arguments-whether-to-allow-fulton-county-district-attorney-fani-willis-to-continue-prosecuting-the-trump-election-interference-case-july-16/feed/ 0 484248 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/03/judge-denies-texas-attorney-generals-efforts-to-use-consumer-protection-law-to-shut-down-a-migrant-shelter/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/03/judge-denies-texas-attorney-generals-efforts-to-use-consumer-protection-law-to-shut-down-a-migrant-shelter/#respond Wed, 03 Jul 2024 16:00:00 +0000 https://www.propublica.org/article/judge-denies-paxton-effort-shut-down-annunciation-house by Alejandro Serrano and Robert Downen, The Texas Tribune, and Vianna Davila, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

An El Paso judge on Tuesday denied Texas’ efforts to shut down a migrant shelter network that Attorney General Ken Paxton claimed was violating state law by helping people he suspected of being undocumented immigrants.

Although the case centered around immigration, it was one of more than a dozen instances ProPublica and The Texas Tribune recently identified in which Paxton’s office has aggressively used the state’s powerful consumer protection laws to investigate organizations whose work conflicts in some way with his political views or the views of his conservative base.

Two weeks ago, lawyers for the Texas attorney general’s office argued to state District Judge Francisco Dominguez that El Paso-based Annunciation House should be closed, accusing the 46-year-old nonprofit of violating laws prohibiting human smuggling and operating a stash house.

Dominguez ruled on Tuesday that the state’s claim, “even if accepted as true, does not establish a violation of those provisions,” according to the order. He ruled that the state laws are preempted by federal law and “unenforceable.”

Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

“The volunteers of Annunciation House have a lot of work to do, and they just continue to do it. They can just do it more at peace today than they did yesterday,” said Jerry Wesevich of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, who represents the shelter network. “There is some relief at knowing that the court agreed with their view of the law.”

Paxton’s office initially sought records from Annunciation House about the shelter’s clients in February. Officials from the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division showed up on the nonprofit’s doorstep, demanding to come inside and search its records, including all logs identifying immigrants who received services there going back more than two years.

Consumer protection laws give attorneys general broad legal authority to request a wide range of records when investigating businesses or charities for allegations of deceptive or fraudulent practices. Attorneys general like Paxton, however, have increasingly used their powers to also pursue more political investigations, experts told the news organizations.

The attorney general’s office previously confirmed to the news organizations that no consumer complaints had been filed against Annunciation House. Complaints aren’t required to launch an investigation.

In the case of Annunciation House, the attorney general gave the shelter director, Ruben Garcia, one day to turn over the documents. The news organizations found this to be an unusual practice: ProPublica and the Tribune identified several other cases in which the Consumer Protection Division sent its requests for records by mail and gave organizations weeks to respond.

Garcia’s lawyer told the state its deadline did not give the shelter enough time and asked a judge to determine which documents shelter officials were legally allowed to release. Interpreting that as noncompliance, Paxton’s office filed a countersuit to shutter the shelter network.

Wesevich and another lawyer representing an organization Paxton’s office investigated using the consumer protection law said they believe he launched the investigations to harass their clients and to cause a chilling effect among organizations doing similar work. Both said the attorney general’s demands violate the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech, association and religion, and the Fourth Amendment, which offers protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

In his ruling on Tuesday, Dominguez said that Paxton’s “predetermined efforts” to shut down the nonprofit were “substantially motivated by his retaliation against Annunciation House’s exercise of its First Amendment right to expressive association.” He also said the investigative document the state agency gave to Annunciation House, demanding access to the nonprofit’s records, violated the Fourth Amendment.

Annunciation House opened its first shelter at a Catholic church nearly 50 years ago. The nonprofit primarily serves people who are processed and released into the U.S. by immigration officials. Garcia communicates regularly with Border Patrol and other federal agencies that ask for help finding shelter for people who turn themselves in to authorities or are apprehended but have nowhere to go while their cases are processed.

Paxton’s decision to sue Annunciation House came against the backdrop of a yearslong effort by right-wing Christian groups and figures to paint immigrants as part of a Democratic plot to undermine American Christianity — despite a large percentage of migrants being Christian.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, echoed those claims in a speech at the Republican Party of Texas’ convention in May, telling delegates that immigrants were part of a plan by the “Marxist, socialist left” to “take God out of the country.” At the same convention, Paxton’s wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, also claimed that Republicans were in the middle of a battle “against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

Far-right Catholics have mobilized against groups such as Catholic Charities, branding it an “enemy of the people” and calling for the defunding of bishops who assist migrants. In a 2022 interview with the right-wing group Church Militant, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claimed that Catholic Charities’ work was proof of “Satan controlling the church.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by .

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/07/03/judge-denies-texas-attorney-generals-efforts-to-use-consumer-protection-law-to-shut-down-a-migrant-shelter/feed/ 0 482367 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/06/12/the-pacifica-evening-news-weekdays-june-12-2024-house-votes-to-hold-attorney-general-merrick-garland-in-contempt-for-not-handing-over-biden-audio/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/06/12/the-pacifica-evening-news-weekdays-june-12-2024-house-votes-to-hold-attorney-general-merrick-garland-in-contempt-for-not-handing-over-biden-audio/#respond Wed, 12 Jun 2024 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=df93a841d4c80653d860d2f30245a063 Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• House votes to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for not handing over Biden audio.
• Biden heads to G7 summit in Italy, signs security agreement with President Zelensky.
• New report shows inflation continued to slow in May, could lead to interest rate cut.
• Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other diplomats work to secure Gaza ceasefire agreement.
• Immigration rights advocates push for Daca to be made permanent ahead of program’s anniversary.
• San Francisco Supervisors adopt sanctuary city resolution for trans people.
• Virginia NAACP to sue local school district for renaming schools after Confederates.

The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – June 12, 2024 House votes to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for not handing over Biden audio. appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/06/12/the-pacifica-evening-news-weekdays-june-12-2024-house-votes-to-hold-attorney-general-merrick-garland-in-contempt-for-not-handing-over-biden-audio/feed/ 0 479288 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/30/texas-attorney-general-is-increasingly-using-consumer-protection-laws-to-pursue-political-targets/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/30/texas-attorney-general-is-increasingly-using-consumer-protection-laws-to-pursue-political-targets/#respond Thu, 30 May 2024 10:00:00 +0000 https://www.propublica.org/article/ken-paxton-consumer-protection-laws-political-targets by Vianna Davila

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

The men knocked on the door of a two-story, red-brick building in downtown El Paso one chilly morning in February. When a volunteer answered, they handed her a document they said gave them the right to go inside and review records kept by Annunciation House, a nonprofit that for decades has served immigrants and refugees seeking shelter.

An employee phoned Ruben Garcia, the nonprofit’s director and founder, who was at one of the organization’s other properties. Feeling a calling to do more to help immigrants and other people experiencing poverty, Garcia was part of a small group that formed the nonprofit in the 1970s. He’s since become an unofficial historian of the migration patterns and political response to immigration and immigrants.

But in his nearly five decades helming the nonprofit, Garcia had never encountered a situation like this. Standing on the organization’s doorstep were officials sent there by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Consumer Protection Division. They were demanding to come inside and search the nonprofit’s records, including all logs identifying immigrants who received services at Annunciation House going back more than two years.

“Is this a warrant?” Garcia recalls asking the group, which included an assistant attorney general and a law enforcement officer from the state agency.

It wasn’t. Still, the letter the men presented stated that the attorney general’s office had the power to immediately enter the building without one.

Consumer protection laws give attorneys general broad legal authority to request a wide range of records when investigating businesses or charities for allegations of deceptive or fraudulent practices, such as gas stations that hike up fuel prices during hurricanes, companies that run robocalling phone scams and unscrupulous contractors who take advantage of homeowners.

But attorneys general have increasingly used their powers to also pursue investigations targeting organizations whose work conflicts with their political views. And Paxton, a Republican, is among the most aggressive. “He’s laying out kind of like the blueprint about how to do this,” said Paul Nolette, an expert in attorneys general and director of the Les Aspin Center for Government at Marquette University.

An analysis by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune shows that in the past two years, Paxton has used consumer protection law more than a dozen times to investigate a range of entities for activities like offering shelter to immigrants, providing health care to transgender teens or trying to foster a diverse workplace.

Not a single one of the investigations was prompted by a consumer complaint, Paxton’s office confirmed. A complaint is not necessary to launch a probe.

The analysis is possibly an undercount. The attorney general’s office said it has not consistently maintained a list of the Consumer Protection Division’s demands to examine records and would need to review individual case files to determine how many requests had been sent. The agency also fought the release of certain records requested under Texas’ Public Information Act, citing exceptions for anticipated litigation.

Paxton’s office did not respond to requests for comment or to detailed questions. It also did not reply to a request to speak with the Consumer Protection Division’s chief.

Two attorneys representing nonprofits that Paxton recently targeted said they believe he launched the investigations simply to harass their clients and to cause a chilling effect among organizations doing similar work. Both said the attorney general’s demands violate the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech, association and religion, and the Fourth Amendment, which offers protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

The political weaponization of consumer protection divisions by Paxton and other attorneys general appears to be “a core violation” of constitutional laws that runs counter to what these divisions were established to do, said Georgetown Law professor Michele Goodwin.

The offices were intended to protect the public, Goodwin said. “Instead,” she added, “what is taking place in these times are efforts that undermine the civil liberties and the civil rights of people who are the public in those states and the people who are in those states who are seeking to aid and assist the public.”

In the Annunciation House case, the attorney general’s office went even further by showing up at the nonprofit’s door and demanding to immediately review documents rather than sending its requests for records by mail and giving organizations weeks to respond, as it often has in other cases ProPublica and the Tribune examined.

Paxton’s office then denied the nonprofit’s request for additional time to determine what information it was legally required to turn over, prompting Annunciation House to sue. In response, the attorney general’s office argued in court documents that the nonprofit had forfeited its right to operate and publicly accused it of acting as a stash house for immigrants he alleges are in the country illegally.

The attorney general’s move to shutter Annunciation House drew swift rebuke from political and religious leaders, who said his characterizations of the nonprofit were a dangerous misrepresentation of the charity. Paxton’s actions also sparked concern as far away as the Vatican. In a recent interview with CBS News, Pope Francis called Paxton’s efforts “madness, sheer madness.”

“The migrant has to be received,” the pope said on the television news program “60 Minutes.” “Thereafter you see how you’re going to deal with them. Maybe you have to send them back. I don’t know. But each case ought to be considered humanely, right?”

Annunciation House primarily serves people who are processed and released into the U.S. by immigration officials. Garcia communicates daily with Border Patrol and other federal agencies that regularly ask for help finding shelter for people who turn themselves in to authorities or are apprehended but have nowhere to go while their cases are processed.

In March, an El Paso state district judge temporarily blocked the attorney general’s efforts to obtain Annunciation House’s records and said the state must go through the court system to continue the investigation. “There is a real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined,” the judge wrote in his order.

Even when Paxton doesn’t get speedy access to the documents he wants, he often publicizes these typically confidential cases, putting out news releases that draw headlines and build support among his base of hard-line conservatives.

The simple act of publicizing that he is pursuing an organization can cause irreparable harm, said Jerome Wesevich, an attorney who represents Annunciation House.

“Someone has to say what is the line between a legitimate investigation and harassment,” Wesevich said.

As the Annunciation House case progresses through the courts, Paxton has continued his public attacks on the nonprofit. On May 8, Paxton announced in a press release that he had filed a court injunction to stop what he called Annunciation House’s “systemic criminal conduct.” He then issued a warning to other nonprofits that assist immigrants, saying that those that are “complicit in Joe Biden’s illegal immigration catastrophe and think they are above the law should consider themselves on notice.”

He again called for the charity to be shut down.

Evolving Power

The consumer protection cases that Paxton and like-minded attorneys general are pursuing today are virtually unrecognizable from the historically bipartisan and apolitical ones their counterparts undertook even 20 or 30 years ago, said James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general.

“The people that the laws were designed for were working-class people who were getting ripped off when they bought a used car,” said Tierney, who directs the attorney general clinic at Harvard Law School. While many attorneys general still do that work, consumer protection laws are also increasingly “being used to obviously move social agendas.”

The push to protect consumers was among numerous social movements that began to materialize in the 1960s and 1970s as Americans demanded more government action in areas like civil rights and environmental justice. As a result, states began to adopt laws that gave attorneys general the ability to investigate potential fraudulent activity by businesses.

Federal and state institutions also started encouraging attorneys general to think of themselves as representing not only the state but also the people who lived there. “This shift was significant because by serving as the representatives of individuals and groups allegedly harmed by corporate conduct, AGs essentially became a form of class-action litigator,” Nolette, the Marquette professor, wrote in his book, “Federalism on Trial.”

Initially, attorneys general focused consumer protection investigations in their own states. By the 1980s, however, the scope of the investigations began to change as the attorneys general offices started to work across state lines to target large industries.

Perhaps the most notable example is the decision by all 50 state attorneys general to sue tobacco companies in the 1990s. They successfully argued the industry misled consumers about the dangers of cigarettes and other tobacco products and intentionally marketed them to children. The lawsuits resulted in billions of dollars in settlement money. More recently, attorneys general across the country pursued similar multistate suits against the opioid industry and pharmaceutical supply chain.

The power of attorneys general continued to grow through the decades as Congress passed measures that empowered states to enforce federal law and the courts interpreted ambiguities in the law in such a way that made it easier for states to sue under federal statutes.

A number of other court decisions unrelated to consumer protection further changed the role of attorneys general. As states found it easier to bring cases that are similar to class-action suits, the Supreme Court issued rulings in the early 2010s that made it harder for private litigants to do so. The decisions essentially drove those cases to attorneys general, Tierney said.

A 2014 Supreme Court decision that lifted limits on individual campaign contributions raised the stakes of attorneys general campaigns and created “a funnel for dark money to flow into every AG race,” Tierney said.

“The machine is up and running,” Tierney said, “and will continue to run unless someone figures out how to stop it.”

Stretching the Boundaries

Although Paxton has used consumer protection law to investigate a wide range of organizations with which he disagrees politically, he has perhaps most aggressively pursued those that provide or support gender-affirming care for minors.

Over the past two years, his office has launched at least six investigations into hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and an LGBTQ+ advocacy and support group, often demanding records that include sensitive patient information.

These investigations came amid a growing wave of conservative initiatives in Texas and across the country that have worked to chip away at the rights of transgender people. At least 25 states ban gender-affirming care for minors in some way, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Texas was not among those states when, in August 2021, then-state Rep. Matt Krause, a Republican who the same year launched an investigation into school library books that dealt with topics like sexuality and race, wrote to Paxton asking for an opinion on whether gender-affirming care for children amounted to child abuse. In February 2022, Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion that said it did.

Days later, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who authorized such treatment for their children, a move that spurred both condemnation — including from families, medical professionals and the White House — and fear across the state and country. These investigations are on hold following several court rulings.

As Abbott ordered the state agency to go after parents, Paxton began launching investigations into organizations that provide or support gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

One of those targeted entities was Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. In May 2023, one of Paxton’s Consumer Protection lawyers sent a letter to the hospital demanding documents related to the use of puberty blockers and counseling for transgender youth. Three weeks later, the same lawyer sent a letter seeking similar records from Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. In a news release announcing the investigation, Paxton said his office was examining whether the facility was “unlawfully” providing gender transition care.

At the time that the letters were sent to the hospitals, a law preventing transgender minors from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapies was working its way through the Legislature. The law ultimately passed, but it did not go into effect until Sept. 1.

Dell Children’s did not respond to an interview request. Texas Children’s Hospital declined to comment for this story.

In the months that followed, Paxton went even further. He began to investigate organizations outside of Texas for their connections to gender-affirming care: Seattle Children’s Hospital in Washington state; QueerMed, a telehealth clinic based in Georgia; and PFLAG Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based national nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ people and their families.

Seattle Children’s Hospital sued the attorney general in December to block the release of any patient records, arguing that handing them over would violate federal and state health care privacy laws. The hospital said in legal filings it had no staff that treated transgender children in Texas or remotely.

Paxton has not answered questions about why he decided to investigate out-of-state facilities, but in court filings in the Seattle case, the attorney general’s office argued it has the right to investigate the hospital and other organizations registered to do business in Texas. The demand letter sent to the hospital asked for records related to the facility’s gender-affirming treatment of children who reside or used to reside in Texas. (The news organizations filed a public information request for the investigative letter Paxton sent to QueerMed, but the attorney general’s office is fighting its release, citing exceptions when information is related to pending or anticipated litigation.)

What seems to unite all three cases is that the attorney general’s office under Paxton “is going to use consumer protection law to stretch the boundaries of what they can do to try to make transgender care as minimal as possible in Texas,” said Colin Provost, an associate professor of public policy at University College London whose research has included how attorneys general in the U.S. work together to enforce consumer protection laws.

Paxton and Seattle Children’s reached a settlement in April. As part of the deal, the hospital agreed to withdraw its Texas business license. In exchange, Paxton dropped his demand for records.

QueerMed founder Dr. Izzy Lowell declined to comment for this story. But the doctor said in an interview with The Washington Post that Paxton’s push to access transgender youths’ medical records was “a clear attempt to intimidate providers of gender-affirming care and parents and families that seek that care outside of Texas and other states with bans.”

PFLAG sued Paxton’s office in February after the attorney general demanded its records. In court filings, Paxton alleged that the nonprofit had information about medical providers in the state that may have been committing insurance fraud. The attorney general accused health care professionals of providing gender-affirming care but disguising it as treatment for an endocrine disorder.

A Travis County district court judge issued an injunction in March that temporarily blocked the state’s access to the records. In her ruling, she wrote that failing to stop the attorney general from getting these records could result in PFLAG and its members suffering harm, including limitations on their First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights. Paxton appealed her ruling. The 3rd Court of Appeals, which is hearing the case, has issued a temporary order protecting PFLAG from Paxton’s demands for records.

Karen Loewy, a lawyer with Lambda Legal, which is representing PFLAG, said she remains baffled by the attorney general’s decision to use the state’s consumer protection law to investigate organizations like PFLAG, which provides resources to chapter support groups in the state.

“There's no consumer fraud happening here at PFLAG’s hands,” Loewy said.

Yet, she said, the attorney general appears to believe that he can send these demands to anyone his office thinks has information related to an investigation. In a court filing in response to PFLAG's lawsuit, Paxton’s office admitted it does not believe the nonprofit is violating the state’s consumer protection law, known as the Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The attorney general, however, argued in the filing that it can demand records of anyone, “not just those suspected of a violation.”

"The way in which the AG’s office has argued this already shows that they think that their power is unlimited,” Loewy said.

Sending a Message

Just as Paxton’s campaign against transgender care for minors has sent a chill through the network of people who provide this medical care, the impacts of the attorney general’s investigation of Annunciation House are reverberating throughout the community of people who work with migrants.

On Friday, Annunciation House’s lawyers filed a motion to throw out the attorney general’s case. Aside from arguing that Paxton’s claims about the organization are unfounded, the nonprofit said in the legal filings that the probe has caused harm that is “not only imminent, it is ongoing.”

Immediately after the attorney general officials showed up at the nonprofit’s offices in February, three Annunciation House volunteers quit, including the woman who answered the door. They worried the situation was “more unpredictable” than they could handle, Garcia said.

According to court records filed by Annunciation House attorneys, some volunteers have received threatening phone calls. The filings also state that the city of El Paso started stationing security guards at all of the nonprofit’s shelters “around the clock” to protect the people who are staying there.

“It’s scaring people from wanting to volunteer with us,” Garcia said. “It’s scaring people from wanting to work with the refugees.”

Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, an El Paso-based nonprofit that works with Annunciation House and provides legal services to immigrants and refugees on both sides of the border, has not lost volunteers, but the organization’s executive director, Marisa Limón Garza, said people were rattled by the fact that employees from Paxton’s office showed up at a fellow nonprofit’s door demanding access.

“If it’s a letter in the mail, that’s one thing,” Limón Garza said. “But coming and trying to access the space, that’s a different level of state intervention that definitely sends a chilling effect. It sends a message.”

That message changed how Las Americas operates. It updated its security and technology systems at a cost of $25,000, money the nonprofit’s leadership hadn’t planned to spend, Limón Garza said. The organization also better secured its internal files, got new cellphones and laptops, and added new intercom and doorbell screening systems.

It no longer allows walk-ins.

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by by Vianna Davila.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/30/texas-attorney-general-is-increasingly-using-consumer-protection-laws-to-pursue-political-targets/feed/ 0 477201 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/15/defense-attorney-ron-kuby-on-trump-criminal-trial-representing-climate-pro-palestine-protesters/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/15/defense-attorney-ron-kuby-on-trump-criminal-trial-representing-climate-pro-palestine-protesters/#respond Wed, 15 May 2024 14:13:12 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=c5131b0795521a0305835b403f564c32
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/15/defense-attorney-ron-kuby-on-trump-criminal-trial-representing-climate-pro-palestine-protesters/feed/ 0 474697 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/15/defense-attorney-ron-kuby-on-trump-criminal-trial-representing-climate-pro-palestinian-protesters/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/15/defense-attorney-ron-kuby-on-trump-criminal-trial-representing-climate-pro-palestinian-protesters/#respond Wed, 15 May 2024 12:11:38 +0000 http://www.radiofree.org/?guid=aa0dfcbaa5ff473046d3601bb9489d68

In the historic criminal hush money election fraud trial of former President Donald Trump, New York prosecutors are wrapping up their case charging Trump with falsifying business records in an illegal effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. On Tuesday, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen admitted he misled the Federal Election Commission about hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. In cross-examination, defense attorneys tried to suggest Cohen was motivated by vengeance against Trump. “He’s the one who has firsthand knowledge of the actual deal that he and Donald Trump struck in order to pay the hush money, create a phony retainer, and ultimately falsify the business records,” says criminal defense lawyer Ron Kuby. “The boss betrayed him. And now he, indeed, is out for revenge.” Kuby says Trump and his right-wing allies are using the trial as a backdrop for politics, and discusses the possibility of Trump serving prison time. Kuby is also representing climate crisis activists arrested at Citibank headquarters in New York City during Earth Week last month and pro-Palestinian activists arrested at recent protests at Fordham University and SUNY Purchase. “I tend to view these struggles … as perennial struggles with each generation kind of rising up to do their part,” Kuby says. “I just have mad respect for the young people who are literally risking their education, their careers and their futures to stand up for the planet, to stand up against the slaughter in Gaza.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/05/15/defense-attorney-ron-kuby-on-trump-criminal-trial-representing-climate-pro-palestinian-protesters/feed/ 0 474781 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/19/cpj-others-warn-against-censorship-attempt-from-former-brazilian-attorney-general/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/19/cpj-others-warn-against-censorship-attempt-from-former-brazilian-attorney-general/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:59:11 +0000 https://cpj.org/?p=381047 The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) joined eight other press freedom organizations in an April 19 statement urging the Brazilian Supreme Court to dismiss the case against journalist André Barrocal filed by former attorney general Augusto Aras.

Aras filed a defamation case against Barrocal in response to the reporter’s July 2020 article about Aras’s performance, which was published in Carta Capital Magazine. The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) rejected the case, and Aras has now appealed to the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

The signatory press freedom organizations trust that the Federal Supreme Court will reject this unfounded attempt to silence public criticism and criminalize journalism in Brazil.

Read the joint statement here.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/19/cpj-others-warn-against-censorship-attempt-from-former-brazilian-attorney-general/feed/ 0 470666 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/19/somali-authorities-investigate-media-rights-group-freeze-its-accounts/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/19/somali-authorities-investigate-media-rights-group-freeze-its-accounts/#respond Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:33:38 +0000 https://cpj.org/?p=380758 Kampala Uganda, April 19, 2024—Somali authorities should drop all criminal investigations against the Somali Journalists Syndicate and desist from weaponizing the judicial system to obstruct the work of the media rights organization, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday.

Two commercial banks, Premier Bank and Dahabshil Bank International told the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) on April 13 and April 17, respectively, that they had suspended the organization’s accounts on orders from the Banadir Regional Court, whose jurisdiction includes the Somali capital Mogadishu, according to copies of the banks’ emails reviewed by CPJ.

On April 15, IBS Bank orally informed SJS officials in Mogadishu that it had suspended the organization’s accounts, also citing court orders, according to Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the syndicate’s secretary general, who spoke to CPJ via email and messaging app.  

Abdalle told CPJ, that as of April 19, SJS and its lawyers have not officially received copies of the court’s suspension orders. However, Abdalle said the organization independently acquired, through its sources, a copy of the court’s directive to Premier Bank. In the April 9 letter, which SJS republished with a statement on April 14, the court said that the suspension order was in response to a report submitted by Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General, alleging that Abdalle and “his media organization used a fake media license to open the account and conduct illegal press activities while the organization named Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) is not registered.” The letter also authorized the attorney general to investigate SJS on these allegations and asked the banks to cooperate with this inquiry.

In an April 16  statement published on Facebook, Somalia’s Office of the Attorney General confirmed that it had submitted a report to the court, reiterated the allegations that SJS registered its accounts with “fake documents,” and said that the organization had breached sections of Somalia’s penal code that criminalize defamation, without specifying whom the organization was accused of defaming. The statement said that the attorney general would file charges against SJS once the investigations were concluded.

“The investigations into the allegations of criminal offenses by SJS are apparent acts of retaliation and the latest attacks on an organization that has been staunchly vocal about Somalia’s poor press freedom record,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Muthoki Mumo, in Nairobi. “Somali authorities should stop the legal harassment of the syndicate and reform the country’s laws to scrap criminal defamation, in line with international and regional standards on freedom of expression.”

SJS is under investigation for allegedly breaching sections of the penal code that punish the falsification of documents and certificates with up to 64 months in prison and impose a prison term of up to three years for defamation convictions, according to the statement by the attorney general, which does not state whether any specific SJS official would be criminally liable for these offenses. The organization is also accused of contravening sections of Somalia’s press law that require media outlets and training organizations to register with the ministry of information or face fines and prosecutions.

Abdalle said that the freeze on the SJS bank accounts was already having a “significant impact” on SJS’ work, but the organization remains “committed to advocating for press freedom, the safety of journalists, and human rights.”

He added, “We are actively engaging our legal team to address this matter, but our efforts can only succeed if the rule of law is upheld.”

CPJ has documented previous incidents targeting the organization, including  the arbitrary detention of the Syndicate’s staff, including Abdalle, and the organization’s human rights secretary Mohamed Ibrahim Osman Bulbul. In September 2023, cyberattacks temporarily knocked the organization’s website offline.

The office of the attorney general did not respond to CPJ’s queries sent via email; and Attorney General Sulayman Mohamed Mohamoud did not respond to requests for comment sent via messaging application or answer CPJ’s calls.

In their emails responding to CPJ’s queries, Premier Bank Head of Operations, Mahad Ahmed Mohamed, and Dahabshil Bank International’s Head of Operations, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamoud, declined to comment on the account suspensions.

Mahad said that Premier Bank is restricted from disclosing client information by “strict privacy laws and ethical banking standards.” Mohamed told CPJ to consult the bank’s email to SJS for detailed information.

IBS Bank did not immediately respond to an email from CPJ requesting comment.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

]]> https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/19/somali-authorities-investigate-media-rights-group-freeze-its-accounts/feed/ 0 470625 https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/18/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/ https://www.radiofree.org/2024/04/18/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/#respond Thu, 18 Apr 2024 16:37:53 +0000 https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/missouri-attorney-general-subpoenas-media-matters-after-report-on-x/

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a civil investigative demand, a form of subpoena, to Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Media Matters for America on March 25, 2024, for documents related to its reporting about the social platform X. A day later, Bailey filed a lawsuit in Missouri circuit court seeking to enforce his demand, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

On Nov. 16, 2023, Media Matters published a report written by its investigative reporter Eric Hananoki that found advertisements for major brands appeared next to pro-Nazi posts on X. Following the report’s publication and a post on X by owner Elon Musk that appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory, several major companies paused their advertising on the platform.

The report touched off a firestorm of response from X and from Republican politicians across the country. X filed a lawsuit on Nov. 20 against both Media Matters and Hananoki, alleging that they had manipulated the platform’s algorithms to produce the report’s findings in order to harm X’s relationship with advertisers. (Media Matters filed a motion to dismiss X’s suit in March 2024.)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also cited allegations of algorithm manipulation in a probe he initiated into “potential fraudulent activity,” issuing his own civil investigative demand on Dec. 1, 2023, that Media Matters turn over documents related to its reporting on X. Media Matters sued to block that demand and was granted a preliminary injunction against Paxton in April 2024.

Bailey opened his investigation into Media Matters on Dec. 11, 2023, alleging that it appeared to have used the “coordinated, inauthentic activity” described in X’s lawsuit “to solicit charitable donations from consumers.” He said that his office would look into whether this violated Missouri’s consumer protection laws, “including laws that prohibit nonprofit entities from soliciting funds under false pretenses.” Bailey instructed the nonprofit to preserve all records related to the case.

Three days later, Bailey announced that he and then-Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry (now serving as governor) had sent letters to several major companies that paused their advertising on X, including Apple, Disney, IBM and Sony, informing them of the investigation into Media Matters.

Bailey then issued a civil investigative demand similar to Paxton’s and petitioned a state court to enforce it, arguing that given Media Matters’ response to Paxton, it was unlikely to comply by his April 15 deadline.

Bailey’s demand included requests for Media Matters’ 2023 and 2024 donation records, documents associated with Hananoki’s reporting and materials “related to generating stories or content intended to cancel, deplatform, demonetize, or otherwise interfere with businesses located in Missouri, or utilized by Missouri residents,” among other records.

“My office has reason to believe Media Matters used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to bully advertisers into pulling out of X, the last social media platform dedicated to free speech in America,” Bailey said in a news release. “If there has been any attempt to defraud Missourians in order to trample on their free speech rights, I will root it out and hold bad actors accountable.”

The organization has objected to Bailey’s demand in full. Media Matters President Angelo Carusone told Ars Technica, “This Missouri investigation is the latest in a transparent endeavor to squelch the First Amendment rights of researchers and reporters; it will have a chilling effect on news reporters.”

In a response to Bailey’s announcement of the suit on X, Elon Musk wrote: “Much appreciated! Media Matters is doing everything it can to undermine the First Amendment. Truly an evil organization.”

Carusone, in the Ars Technica article, countered: “Far from the free speech advocate he claims to be, Elon Musk has actually intensified his efforts to undermine free speech by enlisting Republican attorneys general across the country to initiate meritless, expensive, and harassing investigations against Media Matters in an attempt to punish critics.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Journalist Ben Camacho was sued by the City of Los Angeles for the second time on Jan. 16, 2024, in an attempt to hold him and an activist group financially liable in a related suit over the release of police headshots.

Camacho, a reporter and photo editor for the nonprofit community journalism outlet Knock LA, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had previously filed a public records lawsuit against the city after the Los Angeles Police Department refused to release the personnel headshots of officers.

As part of a settlement agreement in September 2022, the city provided Camacho a printed roster of sworn officers, a flash drive containing 9,310 officers’ photos and a letter explaining that officers working in undercover assignments had been excluded from the disclosures.

After the photos were published online in March 2023 by the activist group, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, Camacho said it quickly became apparent that there were more images disclosed than the LAPD had wanted. On March 28, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, a police union, sued the city demanding that it recover the headshots. A week later, a group of rank-and-file officers filed a class-action suit seeking damages for negligence.

The city, in turn, filed its first suit against Camacho and the activist group on April 5 in an attempt to force the return of the photographs and the destruction of any copies. The latest lawsuit seeks to have Camacho and Stop LAPD Spying Coalition held financially liable for the damages sought in the negligence class-action suit.

Camacho told the Tracker that he believes Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is pursuing the cases against him without clear support from the mayor or city council.

“This is an elected official who isn’t afraid to ignore First Amendment-protected activity, this is someone who is pro-government secrecy, this is someone who is anti-transparency,” Camacho said. “And she’s also not afraid to go after the California Public Records Act.”

Feldstein Soto lobbied in 2023 for an amendment to the public records act that would make identifying information — including photos — of public employees exempt from disclosure. Camacho told the Tracker that such an exemption would enable the LAPD to operate as secret police. The proposal did not come to a vote in 2023 but could be reintroduced.

In a post on social media, Camacho called the new lawsuit “another stain on the office she holds.”

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

U.S. News & World Report was issued two subpoenas on Jan. 9, 2024, by the city attorney for San Francisco, California, seeking information about its hospital rankings and related business dealings.

For more than three decades, the digital media company has produced multiple such rankings, including its Best Hospitals Honor Roll, Best Hospitals by Specialty and Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll. It also licenses out “badges” with those rankings to interested hospitals.

The subpoenas order U.S. News to answer written questions and produce documents pertaining to the rankings and U.S. News’ relationships with various health care providers.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu first demanded answers about the media company’s process for ranking hospitals in a letter in June 2023, citing his authority under the California Business and Professions Code to investigate potentially unlawful business practices. Chiu alleged that the rankings had come under scrutiny for what he described as their “poor and opaque methodology.”

In a lawsuit filed on Jan. 23, 2024, U.S. News defended its methodology, noting that detailed reports on how the ranking is compiled are published each year. The suit requested protective orders to prevent the city attorney’s office from enforcing the subpoenas and asked that the media company be awarded attorney’s fees and costs.

“The Subpoenas make clear that the City Attorney is using governmental process to engage in viewpoint discrimination—and, indeed, is proceeding as though he holds censorial (or editorial) authority over how U.S. News performs its journalistic work ranking hospitals,” attorneys for U.S. News wrote. “It is flatly unconstitutional for the City Attorney to harass U.S. News due to his differing views on these rankings; his mounting harassment must be put to a stop.”

In a statement shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Chiu said it was “ironic” that U.S. News was claiming that its speech has been chilled “when the purpose of the company's lawsuit is to chill and impede a legitimate government investigation.”

“Despite U.S. News’ stated commitment to transparency, the company has spent months evading tough questions about its undisclosed financial links to the hospitals it ranks,” Chiu said. “U.S. News is not above the law, and its bullying litigation tactics will not deter us from standing up for patients and consumers.”

In its filing, however, U.S. News stated that it responded to Chiu’s initial letter — explaining its well-documented methodology and raising concerns about the potential infringement of its rights — and did not receive any additional communications from his office for nearly six months.

“The City Attorney’s actions pose a fundamental threat to our First Amendment rights and set a dangerous precedent for all media platforms and news organizations,” the lawsuit argues. It added that if Chiu's actions are allowed to stand, “any journalistic enterprise that provides analyses or opinions to the public—analyses or opinions that elected officials may wish to fault—may for that reason be subject to subpoena and investigation.”

A hearing in the case is scheduled for April 23.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

U.S. News & World Report was issued two subpoenas on Jan. 9, 2024, by the city attorney for San Francisco, California, seeking information about its hospital rankings and related business dealings.

For more than three decades, the digital media company has produced multiple such rankings, including its Best Hospitals Honor Roll, Best Hospitals by Specialty and Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll. It also licenses out “badges” with those rankings to interested hospitals.

The subpoenas order U.S. News to answer written questions and produce documents pertaining to the rankings and U.S. News’ relationships with various health care providers.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu first demanded answers about the media company’s process for ranking hospitals in a letter in June 2023, citing his authority under the California Business and Professions Code to investigate potentially unlawful business practices. Chiu alleged that the rankings had come under scrutiny for what he described as their “poor and opaque methodology.”

In a lawsuit filed on Jan. 23, 2024, U.S. News defended its methodology, noting that detailed reports on how the ranking is compiled are published each year. The suit requested protective orders to prevent the city attorney’s office from enforcing the subpoenas and asked that the media company be awarded attorney’s fees and costs.

“The Subpoenas make clear that the City Attorney is using governmental process to engage in viewpoint discrimination—and, indeed, is proceeding as though he holds censorial (or editorial) authority over how U.S. News performs its journalistic work ranking hospitals,” attorneys for U.S. News wrote. “It is flatly unconstitutional for the City Attorney to harass U.S. News due to his differing views on these rankings; his mounting harassment must be put to a stop.”

In a statement shared with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Chiu said it was “ironic” that U.S. News was claiming that its speech has been chilled “when the purpose of the company's lawsuit is to chill and impede a legitimate government investigation.”

“Despite U.S. News’ stated commitment to transparency, the company has spent months evading tough questions about its undisclosed financial links to the hospitals it ranks,” Chiu said. “U.S. News is not above the law, and its bullying litigation tactics will not deter us from standing up for patients and consumers.”

In its filing, however, U.S. News stated that it responded to Chiu’s initial letter — explaining its well-documented methodology and raising concerns about the potential infringement of its rights — and did not receive any additional communications from his office for nearly six months.

“The City Attorney’s actions pose a fundamental threat to our First Amendment rights and set a dangerous precedent for all media platforms and news organizations,” the lawsuit argues. It added that if Chiu's actions are allowed to stand, “any journalistic enterprise that provides analyses or opinions to the public—analyses or opinions that elected officials may wish to fault—may for that reason be subject to subpoena and investigation.”

A hearing in the case is scheduled for April 23.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Dec. 1, 2023, demanded that Media Matters for America turn over what the media watchdog called a “sweeping array” of materials related to its reporting, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

Media Matters sued on Dec. 11 to block the “civil investigative demand,” an administrative subpoena that is part of a probe launched Nov. 20 by Paxton into what his office characterized as “potential fraudulent activity” under the Texas Business Organizations Code and the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The probe followed the Nov. 16 publication of a Media Matters report that found advertisements for major brands appeared next to pro-Nazi posts on X, formerly known as Twitter. Several major companies paused their advertising on the platform shortly after the report and following a post on X by owner Elon Musk that appeared to endorse an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

Paxton, a Republican, said he was “extremely troubled” by allegations that the progressive, Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit had manipulated data on X. “We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” he added.

The allegations of data manipulation were contained in a Nov. 20 lawsuit filed by X against Media Matters and senior investigative reporter Eric Hananoki in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. X’s suit alleged that the group and Hananoki, who wrote the story, manipulated the platform’s algorithms to produce feeds in which advertisers’ posts appeared next to pro-Nazi content, with the intent of harming X’s relationship with advertisers.

The suit sought unspecified damages and asked a judge to order Media Matters to remove the report from its website and social media accounts.

Media Matters President Angelo Carusone, in a statement after Musk filed the suit, said, “This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence. Media Matters stands behind its reporting.”

In its suit against Paxton, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where Hananoki lives and works, Media Matters said that the Texas attorney general demanded “a sweeping array of materials from Media Matters and Hananoki, including documents and communications about their research and reporting.”

The suit called the investigation “retaliatory” and an “extraordinarily invasive intrusion into Plaintiffs’ news gathering and reporting activities [that] is plainly intended to chill those activities.”

Media Matters accused Paxton of violating the plaintiffs’ First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights, as well as its rights under reporters shield laws in Maryland and Washington, D.C., and asked the court to permanently block the investigation.

Carusone, in a Dec. 17 interview with MSNBC about the suit against Paxton, said, “In some respects, it was really our only path because the alternative would be to do nothing and have him continue to barrel ahead with this investigation, which he says could be both civil and criminal.”

Carusone told the Tracker in a phone interview that Paxton’s investigation added a “layer of unpredictability” in terms of “what could be exposed and what information somebody could get access to, and the process for that.” He added that the probe “leads to a culture, internally, of self-censoring.”

Paxton’s office did not reply to an emailed request for updates on the investigation.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 11, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey opened his own investigation into Media Matters. In a letter to the watchdog group, he alleged that it appeared to have used the “coordinated, inauthentic activity” described in X’s lawsuit “to solicit charitable donations from consumers,” and that his office would look into whether this violated Missouri’s consumer protection laws, “including laws that prohibit nonprofit entities from soliciting funds under false pretenses.” Bailey instructed the group to preserve all records related to the case.

Three days later, Bailey announced that he and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry had sent letters to several major companies that paused their advertising on X, including Disney, IBM and Sony, informing them of the investigation into Media Matters.

Bailey’s office told the Tracker in a Jan. 4, 2024, email that there were no further updates in the investigation.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote today on a watered-down resolution on aid to Gaza. Though the resolution originally called for an immediate ceasefire, the United States repeatedly pushed for the vote to be delayed and the resolution’s language weakened before agreeing to support it. In the meantime, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 20,000, while an additional 500,000 now face hunger and starvation. Ahead of today’s Security Council session, we speak to Ahmed Abofoul, a Gaza-born and now Hague-based attorney with ‎the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq, who calls out the “double standards” of U.S. support of Israel’s actions in Gaza, as compared to its mobilization of international enforcement mechanisms against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The American government is complicit in this genocide. There is blood of Palestinian children on their hands.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Journalist Emilie Raguso, who operates the crime and safety news site The Berkeley Scanner, was barred from attending a press conference on Nov. 29, 2023, with Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. Three days later, the DA’s office announced that Raguso’s exclusion from the media list was an “oversight” and that she was “welcome” at future press events.

Raguso told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that though she launched The Scanner in 2022, she has covered the district attorney’s office for more than a decade. But after she published an article in January including criticisms of Price, her office made it clear that it was displeased with Raguso’s coverage.

Raguso said that she was one of the few journalists who attended Price’s first press conference in March, and that everything had seemed to go normally.

“Afterward, people started getting in touch with me, saying, ‘She wanted to throw you out of that press conference,’” Raguso said, adding that she believed it was because of her prior reporting. “Fortunately some people who worked for her at the time were able to convince her that that was not appropriate.”

Throughout the summer, Raguso said she was removed from the DA’s media list multiple times, but was readded when she raised the issue. In October, she was told that the list — and her request to be included — was under review.

When Raguso learned from other journalists that Price was to hold a press conference on the morning of Nov. 29, she planned to attend.

“I thought there was a possibility they wouldn’t let me in, but I didn’t think it was a strong possibility because they don’t have a legal reason to do that,” Raguso said.

When Raguso arrived at the press conference, she was barred at the door due to unspecified “safety issues.” Raguso said that two individuals from the DA’s office recognized her as press but said that her credentials provided by the Oakland Police Department were insufficient. She added that nearly half a dozen other journalists were allowed in that day without being asked to show their credentials, and some without even signing a check-in sheet.

This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

After his home in Gaza was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in October, Palestinian human rights lawyer Raji Sourani joins us from Cairo. He says Israel is enacting a “new Nakba” in its war on Gaza, and the expulsion of all Palestinians from their homeland is the clear end goal of the Israeli state. “They want us out, out of Palestine, out of Gaza, out of the West Bank,” says Sourani. “This is genocide, this is ethnic cleansing, and these are first-class war crimes.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

"He sent a message on WeChat Moments around Nov. 4 that his daughter's grandmother had passed away," U.S.-based rights activist Xiang Li told RFA Mandarin. "This was the last public message he sent [and it] showed that he was in Jilin at the time."

"Shortly after he posted the message, he was incommunicado and I haven't managed to get in touch with him in more than two weeks," Xiang said.

A person familiar with the case who declined to be named for fear of reprisals said Tang had been detained en route to his mother-in-law's funeral on Nov. 6, and is currently being held by state security police at a hotel in Yanbian city.

Tang has a round-the-clock detail of state security police sleeping in the same room and eating all meals with him, they said.

He was taken into custody again because someone "disclosed information about Tang" on social media, the person said.

Xiang said the daring flight of ethnic Korean dissident Kwon Pyong by jet ski from the eastern province of Shandong might have heightened tensions around Tang, too, although the two men aren’t associated with each other.

"Maybe state security police in Jilin were made nervous by that escape, which caused an international sensation," Xiang said. "Tang Jitian is a human rights lawyer and dissident whom they regard as very important."

When he was released after more than a year of police detention on Jan. 14, 2023, Tang showed up in his birthplace in Jilin instead of his home in Beijing, an increasingly common practice for recently released political prisoners.

"I'll try to keep doing what I can keep doing, but ... I can't say any more right now," Tang told RFA at the time, saying it was "inconvenient" to speak, a phrase often employed by people targeted for official surveillance.

Tang's license to practice as a lawyer was revoked in 2010 after he campaigned for direct elections within the state-run Lawyers' Association, and represented practitioners of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.

He has been barred from leaving China to visit his daughter in Japan, who is on life support in a Tokyo hospital after contracting meningitis.

"If he is incommunicado, that must mean he has been forcibly disappeared, and that the state security police must have detained him," Xiang said.

Sedatives overdose

Meanwhile the teenaged son of detained rights lawyer Yu Wensheng has been sent to hospital after being left alone in the family home following his parents' detention in April.

Yu Zhenyang was taken to hospital after taking an overdose of sedative medication, fellow lawyer Liang Xiaojun told RFA Mandarin.

"When I got there, he didn't say anything to me, just sat there on the hospital bed," Liang said. "There were nurses and policemen there beside him."

"The policeman told me he had taken some sedatives and then started to feel unwell while on a bus in Mentougou," he said. "He told the driver he felt unwell and the driver called the police, and they sent him to the hospital."

Yu Zhenyang was treated and was recovering, Liang said.

"His mental state was quite good – he was drinking water, and he was on a drop – he looked okay," he said. "Maybe it was sleeping pills and he took a little too many."

Fellow rights attorney Wang Yu, who has been keeping an eye on Yu Zhenyang since he was left alone, said the overdose took place on the young man's 19th birthday, which he spent alone. 

"They said he turned 19 on [Nov. 18]," Wang said. "He was alone and in a very sad mood."

"He went out to eat alone and took nine tablets in one go," she said. "He started to feel unwell on the bus home."

She called on the Chinese authorities to release Yu Wensheng and his wife on bail pending trial to allow them to take care of Yu Zhenyang.

Canada-based family friend Zhao Zhongyuan said Yu Zhenyang has had a tough time since both parents – father Yu Wensheng and mother Xu Yan – were detained on suspicion of "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in April, en route to meet with European Union diplomats in Beijing.

Xu has reportedly been charged with "incitement to subvert state power."

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin.

Former President Donald Trump lashed out from the witness stand at the judge and prosecutor in his New York civil fraud case Monday. He could be forced to dissolve much of his real estate empire and bar his family from doing business in New York. “The scene was pretty incredible to witness,” says Lauren Aratani, reporter for the Guardian US who is covering the trial. The court is now determining how much the Trumps must pay in damages as the case enters the penalty phase.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

• News

Marcellus Williams, Facing Execution Despite DNA Evidence of His Innocence, Sues Missouri Governor and Attorney General for Dissolving Board of Inquiry Examining the Case and Moving to Set an Execution Date

Gov. Mike Parson violated the law when he dissolved board without a report.

Press Release 08.24.23 By Innocence Staff

Marcellus Williams. (Image: Courtesy of Marcellus Williams’ legal team)

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The post Marcellus Williams, Facing Execution Despite DNA Evidence of His Innocence, Sues Missouri Governor and Attorney General for Dissolving Board of Inquiry Examining the Case and Moving to Set an Execution Date appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Justin Chan.

As President Biden meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the White House today, several progressive Democrats have announced plans to boycott Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress. This comes after Biden invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the United States this year despite recently criticizing the makeup of Netanyahu’s far-right Cabinet as “one of the most extremist” he has seen. The visits from Israeli leadership are an attempt to “normalize apartheid,” says Palestinian human rights attorney Noura Erakat, who compares today’s U.S. support of Israel to the nation’s support for South African apartheid. “The United States is complicit and a pillar of Israeli apartheid in its provision of unequivocal financial, diplomatic and military support.” Erakat also applauds the efforts of activists and politicians who have shifted Democrats’ sympathies more toward Palestine than Israel, according to a recent Gallup poll.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The incipient campaign to unseat a reformist district attorney in California just became official: A new political committee was launched to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, according to public registrations. The recall committee launched just seven months after Price, whose jurisdiction includes Oakland and other East Bay communities, took office.

Price is one of more than a dozen reform-minded prosecutors who have faced recalls or attempts to restrict their discretion in recent years — part of a backlash to criminal punishment reforms and fearmongering over crime by police and their political allies.

“They were threatening to recall her when she was running for the seat,” said Cat Brooks, co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Police Terror Project, which endorsed Price last year. “Unfortunately in the Bay Area and in other places in the country, this is the new political tactic,” she said. Brooks added that the campaigns follow a pattern: first, character assassination and right-wing attacks, and then a recall.

Price’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The committee registration lists the phone number for Reed & Davidson LLP, a law office based in Los Angeles that serves as a treasurer for political committees. The law office did not respond to a request for comment.

Price, a civil rights attorney, was elected in 2022 on a reform platform that focused on rehabilitation and addressing police misconduct and corruption within the office. She promised to end use of the death penalty, stop charging kids under 18 as adults, establish a conviction integrity unit, and expand services for victims of gun violence.

In a story that has become familiar to prosecutors across the country who campaigned on reforming the criminal justice system, Price’s opponents began to attack her proposed policies before she took office in January. An online petition for her recall started circulating in February.

The Oakland Police Officers’ Association has blamed her office for worsening crime. And her handling of two high-profile cases of children killed fueled intense internal and public criticism.

Two prosecutors resigned from Price’s office in recent months after she decided not to lengthen sentences for defendants in two cases where children were shot and killed, one by a stray bullet. At least two dozen other prosecutors and investigators have left the office since Price was elected. Several of the departed staffers went to work for San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins — who is widely seen as being close to police and was herself appointed last year after campaigning to successfully recall a reformist prosecutor.

Price’s critics point to the departures as evidence of her failures, but turnover is typical when a new prosecutor takes office. Brooks said, “The hype-up that this is because Pamela is somehow so problematic and that’s why there’s turnover is absolutely ludicrous.”

California has seen several recall campaigns in recent years after reform prosecutors won office from San Francisco to Los Angeles. In San Francisco, District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled, and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón survived a second recall attempt. The attacks on reform-minded prosecutors play up individual cases to highlight what critics say is incompetence in the offices of prosecutors like Price, Boudin, and Gascón.

The visceral criticisms of Price have taken hold just seven months into her first term in office and made it difficult for observers to distinguish impartial criticism from backlash to the reform movement writ large. In the cases of both Price and Boudin, proponents of tough-on-crime policies have drawn a link between criminal justice reform and crimes against Asian Americans.

“All of this was happening under [Nancy] O’Malley,” Brooks said, referring to the previous Alameda County district attorney. Part of the backlash to the criminal justice reform movement is a law-and-order drum beat that capitalizes on and manipulates people’s fear and pain, Brooks said. “It’s a bunch of false flags,” she added. “Unfortunately, that is a tactic we know that the right uses to prevent solidarity.” 

Since the reform prosecutor movement took off in the mid-2010s, more than 30 bills in at least 17 states have tried to strip power from prosecutors whose policies address efforts to reform the criminal justice system. State lawmakers, often in rural areas, have sought to limit the power of prosecutors elected on reform platforms in far-away cities.

The lines betweensubstantive criticism of elected prosecutors and efforts to undermine their authority have become blurred.

While prosecutors across the political spectrum should be accountable to their constituents, criticism of prosecutors like Price and her peers has been amplified within a larger project to oppose popular criminal justice reform, said Anne Irwin, founder and director of the pro-reform group Smart Justice. “The nascent recall effort in Alameda County is absolutely reflective of a national Republican playbook,” Irwin said.

“The nascent recall effort in Alameda County is absolutely reflective of a national Republican playbook.”

There are parallels to St. Louis, San Francisco, and Philadelphia, where lawmakers impeached Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner last year, she added. Ideological differences typically drive resignations under tough-on-crime and reform prosecutors alike, but the media did not cover staff departures or internal office drama until reform-minded candidates started winning office.

“What’s remarkable is that there has been almost no coverage of how an elected prosecutor runs their office until progressive prosecutors were elected,” Irwin said. “Then all of a sudden, there is intense scrutiny, much of it drummed up by the folks who are backing a recall, to make a case that the progressive prosecutor is a bad manager. But can any of us look back in history and point out whether or not any other tough-on-crime prosecutors in the ’80s or ’90s were good managers?”

Voters in Alameda County watched Boudin’s recall play out. More than a year later, they saw that the recall didn’t make San Francisco a cleaner or safer place, Irwin said. Unlike San Francisco, Alameda County has less money and more people directly impacted by mass incarceration. Those factors could make a recall effort in Alameda County more of an uphill battle.

“The entire Bay Area, including Alameda County, is realizing that the recall of Chesa Boudin was a false promise,” she said. “That will impact how Alameda County voters approach a recall effort against DA Price. There will be a lot more skepticism about a recall of the district attorney being the panacea.” 

Price’s 2022 election was in part response to a push among Oakland residents for reforms to the criminal justice system they said were long overdue. Price beat a more moderate candidate and became the first Black prosecutor with support among communities most impacted by crime. She declined corporate PAC money and raised more than $1 million for her campaign.

Price’s predecessor and 2018 opponent, Nancy O’Malley, had beenaccused of misconduct and workedagainst some criminal justice reform efforts. Police unions heavily backed O’Malley’s 2018 reelection campaign against Price. She retired in 2021.

As Price implemented the reforms she ran on, pushback was swift. One prosecutor resigned over Price’s reluctance to enhance sentencing in the stray bullet case and said Price’s office had mistreated victims in Asian American Pacific Islander communities. Another said she had neglected victims of violent crime.

Families of victims have also issued criticisms of Price, saying her office hasn’t implemented strict-enough sentences. Outlets including the New York Post and the Berkeley Scanner, a conservative independent outlet, have amplified criticism of Price’s office and publicized resignation letters from prosecutors who left her office.

The resignations fueled more public criticism that linked Price’s policies to crime in Oakland, which reached 100 homicides for the first time in a decade in the years before she was elected. Within her first six months in office, conservative media began to attack Price’s approach to reform. A recent headline in the national conservative outlet Washington Examiner blared: “Soros-backed prosecutor continues to go easy on murderers.”

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Akela Lacy.

As Georgia prosecutors pursue increasingly aggressive tactics against Cop City protesters, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr intervened to double down on domestic terrorism charges against a legal observer, previously unreported meeting minutes reveal.

Thomas Webb Jurgens, a legal observer from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is facing charges of domestic terrorism after being swept up in arrests made back in March at the forest-turned-construction-site outside Atlanta where activists have been protesting a multimillion-dollar police training center for more than a year.

But when Dekalb County’s district attorney called to drop charges against Jurgens, who was wearing bright green clothing to identify him as a legal observer at the time of his arrest, Carr, a conservative Republican with a Federalist Society pedigree, overruled the objections.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, Director Michael Register, an appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, reported the exchange at a Georgia Board of Public Safety meeting in April. After confirming the state planned to pursue controversial racketeering charges against those arrested following a concert at the site on March 5, Register added that “Dekalb County wanted to drop the charges on the attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center who was arrested from this incident, and the Attorney General said no.”

After the concert in the park on March 5, a group of black-clad provocateurs broke away and began damaging construction equipment and throwing Molotov cocktails at police, according to law enforcement officials’ statements. The website Defend the Atlanta Forest, which activists have used for public communication, acknowledged that “a separate protest group with hundreds of people marched to the forest” during the group’s “week of action” concert, in response to the killing of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán at the hands of police in January.

“Police retaliated viciously by raiding the entire forest, arresting at least 35 people at the nearby music festival, including people with no connection to or awareness of the action on the other side of the nearly 600 acre forest,” activists wrote.

Police charged 23 people after arrests at the event. Most are facing domestic terrorism and state racketeering charges, which are being prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office.

Carr has held a series of increasingly powerful institutional and politically appointed positions in Georgia’s Republican firmament, beginning with work as general counsel for the Koch-backed Georgia Public Policy Foundation, then as chief of staff for former Sen. Johnny Isakson, culminating in a 2016 appointment to succeed Sam Olens as Georgia’s attorney general. Carr has since won two statewide elections as attorney general and is widely expected to run for higher office.

Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature took a swipe at the autonomy of local prosecutors this year when Senate Bill 92 created the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, a statewide oversight council aimed at reining in locally elected prosecutors who engage in the “willful and persistent failure to carry out statutory duties.” Initially conceived as a reaction to prosecutorial failures in the Ahmaud Arbery case, Republican lawmakers more recently appeared to be motivated by a progressive prosecutor in Clark County — home of the University of Georgia college town Athens — who had begun refusing to prosecute minor drug cases.

Other Democratic district attorneys around the state have objected to the new commission, suggesting that it is designed to punish prosecutors who refuse to enforce the state’s newly empowered abortion laws or, in the case of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump and alleged 2020 election interference conspirators.

Register’s comments suggest that decisions about prosecuting protesters on serious charges like racketeering or domestic terrorism are coming from the state’s Republican officeholders and not necessarily local law enforcement officials in overwhelmingly Democratic metro Atlanta counties.

The Southern Poverty Law Center did not respond to inquiries seeking comment. Jurgens’s attorneys, however, did.

“We are appreciative of GBI Director Register for bringing into the public light that the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office correctly wanted to dismiss the charges against our client Tom Jurgens,” said his attorneys L. Burton Finlayson and Andrew Hall. “Tom is not a domestic terrorist. Tom is a locally-raised, University of Georgia undergraduate and Law School graduate (‘Double-Dawg’), practicing Georgia attorney who was working as a volunteer legal observer to ensure that all [protesters’] constitutional and civil rights were protected. Ultimately, we believe (and hope) that cooler heads among the prosecution team will prevail and that, upon a sober examination of the facts, all charges against him will be dismissed.”

Earlier this month, apparently under the direction of Carr, police arrested three organizers of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund on charges of money laundering and charity fraud. The warrants for their arrest were sworn out by a GBI agent and not local law enforcement officials, describing them as “domestic violent extremists” as designated by the Department of Homeland Security. The term has become a flashpoint in the case. While the Department of Homeland Security used the phrase in a May 24 security bulletin referring to protests in Atlanta, the department — for the second time — denied using the term as a formal designation for the Cop City activists.

A spokesperson for Carr refrained from comment for this story. A spokesperson for the GBI acknowledged Register’s comments, noting that it was his practice to provide updates about major activities around the state to other law enforcement leaders.

The office of DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston also abstained from commenting directly on the protest case “because we cannot comment on an open case,” a spokesperson said. But her office did have something to say about the process.

“Domestic terrorism is one of only a handful of charges for which the state and county have concurrent jurisdiction,” Boston’s spokesperson said. “Early on, our office decided to join the multijurisdictional task force on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in order to protect the people of DeKalb County and represent their interests. While the Attorney General can prosecute these cases without input from the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney, DA Boston and our team continue to advocate for charging decisions that align with the alleged actions of each individual defendant, as well as the mission and values of the DeKalb DA’s office.”

Register’s comments to the Georgia Board of Public Safety are somewhat more expansive than other statements made about law enforcement’s response to Cop City protests, possibly because these staid meetings of the state’s senior law enforcement officials — usually held somewhere other than a metro Atlanta location — are rarely covered by the media and generally draw little public attention.

In previous comments to the board from March 9, four days after the protest arrests at the Cop City site, Register described the incident from law enforcement’s perspective in detail. Police reacted to approximately 150 people walking up a cleared Georgia Power corridor through the forest, he said, who “had protective clothing on and some had shields made out of 55 gallon drums. The officers had to retreat across the roadway to a fenced in area and into another fenced in area to lock themselves in. The subjects came into the construction site and were using fireworks to shoot at the officers and throwing objects, such as rocks, at the officers. While a portion of the subjects was doing this, the other individuals went to various pieces of equipment and burned two four-wheelers and a front-end loader, a trailer, as well as the cameras that caught the assault.”

Of the 23 people arrested by the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol that night, only Jurgens and another protester, Jack Beaman of Decatur, were from Georgia, Register emphasized, according to the meeting minutes. “21 were from out of state and out of those, 2 were from out of country — Canada and France. Director Register stated the Bureau worked with its federal partners, as well as the State Department to contact their counterparts in Canada and France on these two individuals to dig a little deeper on them.”

Activists’ answer to this line of thought has been to suggest that police have deliberately targeted out-of-state protesters for prosecution, releasing people with local addresses after detaining them during demonstrations to inflate the perception of “outside agitators” spurring violence.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by George Chidi.

As Georgia prosecutors pursue increasingly aggressive tactics against Cop City protesters, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr intervened to double down on domestic terrorism charges against a legal observer, previously unreported meeting minutes reveal.

Thomas Webb Jurgens, a legal observer from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is facing charges of domestic terrorism after being swept up in arrests made back in March at the forest-turned-construction-site outside Atlanta where activists have been protesting a multimillion-dollar police training center for more than a year.

But when Dekalb County’s district attorney called to drop charges against Jurgens, who was wearing bright green clothing to identify him as a legal observer at the time of his arrest, Carr, a conservative Republican with a Federalist Society pedigree, overruled the objections.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, Director Michael Register, an appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, reported the exchange at a Georgia Board of Public Safety meeting in April. After confirming the state planned to pursue controversial racketeering charges against those arrested following a concert at the site on March 5, Register added that “Dekalb County wanted to drop the charges on the attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center who was arrested from this incident, and the Attorney General said no.”

After the concert in the park on March 5, a group of black-clad provocateurs broke away and began damaging construction equipment and throwing Molotov cocktails at police, according to law enforcement officials’ statements. The website Defend the Atlanta Forest, which activists have used for public communication, acknowledged that “a separate protest group with hundreds of people marched to the forest” during the group’s “week of action” concert, in response to the killing of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán at the hands of police in January.

“Police retaliated viciously by raiding the entire forest, arresting at least 35 people at the nearby music festival, including people with no connection to or awareness of the action on the other side of the nearly 600 acre forest,” activists wrote.

Police charged 23 people after arrests at the event. Most are facing domestic terrorism and state racketeering charges, which are being prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office.

Carr has held a series of increasingly powerful institutional and politically appointed positions in Georgia’s Republican firmament, beginning with work as general counsel for the Koch-backed Georgia Public Policy Foundation, then as chief of staff for former Sen. Johnny Isakson, culminating in a 2016 appointment to succeed Sam Olens as Georgia’s attorney general. Carr has since won two statewide elections as attorney general and is widely expected to run for higher office.

Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature took a swipe at the autonomy of local prosecutors this year when Senate Bill 92 created the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, a statewide oversight council aimed at reining in locally elected prosecutors who engage in the “willful and persistent failure to carry out statutory duties.” Initially conceived as a reaction to prosecutorial failures in the Ahmaud Arbery case, Republican lawmakers more recently appeared to be motivated by a progressive prosecutor in Clark County — home of the University of Georgia college town Athens — who had begun refusing to prosecute minor drug cases.

Other Democratic district attorneys around the state have objected to the new commission, suggesting that it is designed to punish prosecutors who refuse to enforce the state’s newly empowered abortion laws or, in the case of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump and alleged 2020 election interference conspirators.

Register’s comments suggest that decisions about prosecuting protesters on serious charges like racketeering or domestic terrorism are coming from the state’s Republican officeholders and not necessarily local law enforcement officials in overwhelmingly Democratic metro Atlanta counties.

The Southern Poverty Law Center did not respond to inquiries seeking comment. Jurgens’s attorneys, however, did.

“We are appreciative of GBI Director Register for bringing into the public light that the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office correctly wanted to dismiss the charges against our client Tom Jurgens,” said his attorneys L. Burton Finlayson and Andrew Hall. “Tom is not a domestic terrorist. Tom is a locally-raised, University of Georgia undergraduate and Law School graduate (‘Double-Dawg’), practicing Georgia attorney who was working as a volunteer legal observer to ensure that all [protesters’] constitutional and civil rights were protected. Ultimately, we believe (and hope) that cooler heads among the prosecution team will prevail and that, upon a sober examination of the facts, all charges against him will be dismissed.”

Earlier this month, apparently under the direction of Carr, police arrested three organizers of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund on charges of money laundering and charity fraud. The warrants for their arrest were sworn out by a GBI agent and not local law enforcement officials, describing them as “domestic violent extremists” as designated by the Department of Homeland Security. The term has become a flashpoint in the case. While the Department of Homeland Security used the phrase in a May 24 security bulletin referring to protests in Atlanta, the department — for the second time — denied using the term as a formal designation for the Cop City activists.

A spokesperson for Carr refrained from comment for this story. A spokesperson for the GBI acknowledged Register’s comments, noting that it was his practice to provide updates about major activities around the state to other law enforcement leaders.

The office of DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston also abstained from commenting directly on the protest case “because we cannot comment on an open case,” a spokesperson said. But her office did have something to say about the process.

“Domestic terrorism is one of only a handful of charges for which the state and county have concurrent jurisdiction,” Boston’s spokesperson said. “Early on, our office decided to join the multijurisdictional task force on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in order to protect the people of DeKalb County and represent their interests. While the Attorney General can prosecute these cases without input from the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney, DA Boston and our team continue to advocate for charging decisions that align with the alleged actions of each individual defendant, as well as the mission and values of the DeKalb DA’s office.”

Register’s comments to the Georgia Board of Public Safety are somewhat more expansive than other statements made about law enforcement’s response to Cop City protests, possibly because these staid meetings of the state’s senior law enforcement officials — usually held somewhere other than a metro Atlanta location — are rarely covered by the media and generally draw little public attention.

In previous comments to the board from March 9, four days after the protest arrests at the Cop City site, Register described the incident from law enforcement’s perspective in detail. Police reacted to approximately 150 people walking up a cleared Georgia Power corridor through the forest, he said, who “had protective clothing on and some had shields made out of 55 gallon drums. The officers had to retreat across the roadway to a fenced in area and into another fenced in area to lock themselves in. The subjects came into the construction site and were using fireworks to shoot at the officers and throwing objects, such as rocks, at the officers. While a portion of the subjects was doing this, the other individuals went to various pieces of equipment and burned two four-wheelers and a front-end loader, a trailer, as well as the cameras that caught the assault.”

Of the 23 people arrested by the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol that night, only Jurgens and another protester, Jack Beaman of Decatur, were from Georgia, Register emphasized, according to the meeting minutes. “21 were from out of state and out of those, 2 were from out of country — Canada and France. Director Register stated the Bureau worked with its federal partners, as well as the State Department to contact their counterparts in Canada and France on these two individuals to dig a little deeper on them.”

Activists’ answer to this line of thought has been to suggest that police have deliberately targeted out-of-state protesters for prosecution, releasing people with local addresses after detaining them during demonstrations to inflate the perception of “outside agitators” spurring violence.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by George Chidi.

As Georgia prosecutors pursue increasingly aggressive tactics against Cop City protesters, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr intervened to double down on domestic terrorism charges against a legal observer, previously unreported meeting minutes reveal.

Thomas Webb Jurgens, a legal observer from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is facing charges of domestic terrorism after being swept up in arrests made back in March at the forest-turned-construction-site outside Atlanta where activists have been protesting a multimillion-dollar police training center for more than a year.

But when Dekalb County’s district attorney called to drop charges against Jurgens, who was wearing bright green clothing to identify him as a legal observer at the time of his arrest, Carr, a conservative Republican with a Federalist Society pedigree, overruled the objections.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, Director Michael Register, an appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, reported the exchange at a Georgia Board of Public Safety meeting in April. After confirming the state planned to pursue controversial racketeering charges against those arrested following a concert at the site on March 5, Register added that “Dekalb County wanted to drop the charges on the attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center who was arrested from this incident, and the Attorney General said no.”

After the concert in the park on March 5, a group of black-clad provocateurs broke away and began damaging construction equipment and throwing Molotov cocktails at police, according to law enforcement officials’ statements. The website Defend the Atlanta Forest, which activists have used for public communication, acknowledged that “a separate protest group with hundreds of people marched to the forest” during the group’s “week of action” concert, in response to the killing of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán at the hands of police in January.

“Police retaliated viciously by raiding the entire forest, arresting at least 35 people at the nearby music festival, including people with no connection to or awareness of the action on the other side of the nearly 600 acre forest,” activists wrote.

Police charged 23 people after arrests at the event. Most are facing domestic terrorism and state racketeering charges, which are being prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office.

Carr has held a series of increasingly powerful institutional and politically appointed positions in Georgia’s Republican firmament, beginning with work as general counsel for the Koch-backed Georgia Public Policy Foundation, then as chief of staff for former Sen. Johnny Isakson, culminating in a 2016 appointment to succeed Sam Olens as Georgia’s attorney general. Carr has since won two statewide elections as attorney general and is widely expected to run for higher office.

Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature took a swipe at the autonomy of local prosecutors this year when Senate Bill 92 created the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, a statewide oversight council aimed at reining in locally elected prosecutors who engage in the “willful and persistent failure to carry out statutory duties.” Initially conceived as a reaction to prosecutorial failures in the Ahmaud Arbery case, Republican lawmakers more recently appeared to be motivated by a progressive prosecutor in Clark County — home of the University of Georgia college town Athens — who had begun refusing to prosecute minor drug cases.

Other Democratic district attorneys around the state have objected to the new commission, suggesting that it is designed to punish prosecutors who refuse to enforce the state’s newly empowered abortion laws or, in the case of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump and alleged 2020 election interference conspirators.

Register’s comments suggest that decisions about prosecuting protesters on serious charges like racketeering or domestic terrorism are coming from the state’s Republican officeholders and not necessarily local law enforcement officials in overwhelmingly Democratic metro Atlanta counties.

The Southern Poverty Law Center did not respond to inquiries seeking comment. Jurgens’s attorneys, however, did.

“We are appreciative of GBI Director Register for bringing into the public light that the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office correctly wanted to dismiss the charges against our client Tom Jurgens,” said his attorneys L. Burton Finlayson and Andrew Hall. “Tom is not a domestic terrorist. Tom is a locally-raised, University of Georgia undergraduate and Law School graduate (‘Double-Dawg’), practicing Georgia attorney who was working as a volunteer legal observer to ensure that all [protesters’] constitutional and civil rights were protected. Ultimately, we believe (and hope) that cooler heads among the prosecution team will prevail and that, upon a sober examination of the facts, all charges against him will be dismissed.”

Earlier this month, apparently under the direction of Carr, police arrested three organizers of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund on charges of money laundering and charity fraud. The warrants for their arrest were sworn out by a GBI agent and not local law enforcement officials, describing them as “domestic violent extremists” as designated by the Department of Homeland Security. The term has become a flashpoint in the case. While the Department of Homeland Security used the phrase in a May 24 security bulletin referring to protests in Atlanta, the department — for the second time — denied using the term as a formal designation for the Cop City activists.

A spokesperson for Carr refrained from comment for this story. A spokesperson for the GBI acknowledged Register’s comments, noting that it was his practice to provide updates about major activities around the state to other law enforcement leaders.

The office of DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston also abstained from commenting directly on the protest case “because we cannot comment on an open case,” a spokesperson said. But her office did have something to say about the process.

“Domestic terrorism is one of only a handful of charges for which the state and county have concurrent jurisdiction,” Boston’s spokesperson said. “Early on, our office decided to join the multijurisdictional task force on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in order to protect the people of DeKalb County and represent their interests. While the Attorney General can prosecute these cases without input from the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney, DA Boston and our team continue to advocate for charging decisions that align with the alleged actions of each individual defendant, as well as the mission and values of the DeKalb DA’s office.”

Register’s comments to the Georgia Board of Public Safety are somewhat more expansive than other statements made about law enforcement’s response to Cop City protests, possibly because these staid meetings of the state’s senior law enforcement officials — usually held somewhere other than a metro Atlanta location — are rarely covered by the media and generally draw little public attention.

In previous comments to the board from March 9, four days after the protest arrests at the Cop City site, Register described the incident from law enforcement’s perspective in detail. Police reacted to approximately 150 people walking up a cleared Georgia Power corridor through the forest, he said, who “had protective clothing on and some had shields made out of 55 gallon drums. The officers had to retreat across the roadway to a fenced in area and into another fenced in area to lock themselves in. The subjects came into the construction site and were using fireworks to shoot at the officers and throwing objects, such as rocks, at the officers. While a portion of the subjects was doing this, the other individuals went to various pieces of equipment and burned two four-wheelers and a front-end loader, a trailer, as well as the cameras that caught the assault.”

Of the 23 people arrested by the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol that night, only Jurgens and another protester, Jack Beaman of Decatur, were from Georgia, Register emphasized, according to the meeting minutes. “21 were from out of state and out of those, 2 were from out of country — Canada and France. Director Register stated the Bureau worked with its federal partners, as well as the State Department to contact their counterparts in Canada and France on these two individuals to dig a little deeper on them.”

Activists’ answer to this line of thought has been to suggest that police have deliberately targeted out-of-state protesters for prosecution, releasing people with local addresses after detaining them during demonstrations to inflate the perception of “outside agitators” spurring violence.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by George Chidi.

As Georgia prosecutors pursue increasingly aggressive tactics against Cop City protesters, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr intervened to double down on domestic terrorism charges against a legal observer, previously unreported meeting minutes reveal.

Thomas Webb Jurgens, a legal observer from the Southern Poverty Law Center, is facing charges of domestic terrorism after being swept up in arrests made back in March at the forest-turned-construction-site outside Atlanta where activists have been protesting a multimillion-dollar police training center for more than a year.

But when Dekalb County’s district attorney called to drop charges against Jurgens, who was wearing bright green clothing to identify him as a legal observer at the time of his arrest, Carr, a conservative Republican with a Federalist Society pedigree, overruled the objections.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, Director Michael Register, an appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, reported the exchange at a Georgia Board of Public Safety meeting in April. After confirming the state planned to pursue controversial racketeering charges against those arrested following a concert at the site on March 5, Register added that “Dekalb County wanted to drop the charges on the attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center who was arrested from this incident, and the Attorney General said no.”

After the concert in the park on March 5, a group of black-clad provocateurs broke away and began damaging construction equipment and throwing Molotov cocktails at police, according to law enforcement officials’ statements. The website Defend the Atlanta Forest, which activists have used for public communication, acknowledged that “a separate protest group with hundreds of people marched to the forest” during the group’s “week of action” concert, in response to the killing of environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán at the hands of police in January.

“Police retaliated viciously by raiding the entire forest, arresting at least 35 people at the nearby music festival, including people with no connection to or awareness of the action on the other side of the nearly 600 acre forest,” activists wrote.

Police charged 23 people after arrests at the event. Most are facing domestic terrorism and state racketeering charges, which are being prosecuted by the state attorney general’s office.

Carr has held a series of increasingly powerful institutional and politically appointed positions in Georgia’s Republican firmament, beginning with work as general counsel for the Koch-backed Georgia Public Policy Foundation, then as chief of staff for former Sen. Johnny Isakson, culminating in a 2016 appointment to succeed Sam Olens as Georgia’s attorney general. Carr has since won two statewide elections as attorney general and is widely expected to run for higher office.

Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature took a swipe at the autonomy of local prosecutors this year when Senate Bill 92 created the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, a statewide oversight council aimed at reining in locally elected prosecutors who engage in the “willful and persistent failure to carry out statutory duties.” Initially conceived as a reaction to prosecutorial failures in the Ahmaud Arbery case, Republican lawmakers more recently appeared to be motivated by a progressive prosecutor in Clark County — home of the University of Georgia college town Athens — who had begun refusing to prosecute minor drug cases.

Other Democratic district attorneys around the state have objected to the new commission, suggesting that it is designed to punish prosecutors who refuse to enforce the state’s newly empowered abortion laws or, in the case of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the potential prosecution of former President Donald Trump and alleged 2020 election interference conspirators.

Register’s comments suggest that decisions about prosecuting protesters on serious charges like racketeering or domestic terrorism are coming from the state’s Republican officeholders and not necessarily local law enforcement officials in overwhelmingly Democratic metro Atlanta counties.

The Southern Poverty Law Center did not respond to inquiries seeking comment. Jurgens’s attorneys, however, did.

“We are appreciative of GBI Director Register for bringing into the public light that the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office correctly wanted to dismiss the charges against our client Tom Jurgens,” said his attorneys L. Burton Finlayson and Andrew Hall. “Tom is not a domestic terrorist. Tom is a locally-raised, University of Georgia undergraduate and Law School graduate (‘Double-Dawg’), practicing Georgia attorney who was working as a volunteer legal observer to ensure that all [protesters’] constitutional and civil rights were protected. Ultimately, we believe (and hope) that cooler heads among the prosecution team will prevail and that, upon a sober examination of the facts, all charges against him will be dismissed.”

Earlier this month, apparently under the direction of Carr, police arrested three organizers of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund on charges of money laundering and charity fraud. The warrants for their arrest were sworn out by a GBI agent and not local law enforcement officials, describing them as “domestic violent extremists” as designated by the Department of Homeland Security. The term has become a flashpoint in the case. While the Department of Homeland Security used the phrase in a May 24 security bulletin referring to protests in Atlanta, the department — for the second time — denied using the term as a formal designation for the Cop City activists.

A spokesperson for Carr refrained from comment for this story. A spokesperson for the GBI acknowledged Register’s comments, noting that it was his practice to provide updates about major activities around the state to other law enforcement leaders.

The office of DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston also abstained from commenting directly on the protest case “because we cannot comment on an open case,” a spokesperson said. But her office did have something to say about the process.

“Domestic terrorism is one of only a handful of charges for which the state and county have concurrent jurisdiction,” Boston’s spokesperson said. “Early on, our office decided to join the multijurisdictional task force on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in order to protect the people of DeKalb County and represent their interests. While the Attorney General can prosecute these cases without input from the Office of the DeKalb County District Attorney, DA Boston and our team continue to advocate for charging decisions that align with the alleged actions of each individual defendant, as well as the mission and values of the DeKalb DA’s office.”

Register’s comments to the Georgia Board of Public Safety are somewhat more expansive than other statements made about law enforcement’s response to Cop City protests, possibly because these staid meetings of the state’s senior law enforcement officials — usually held somewhere other than a metro Atlanta location — are rarely covered by the media and generally draw little public attention.

In previous comments to the board from March 9, four days after the protest arrests at the Cop City site, Register described the incident from law enforcement’s perspective in detail. Police reacted to approximately 150 people walking up a cleared Georgia Power corridor through the forest, he said, who “had protective clothing on and some had shields made out of 55 gallon drums. The officers had to retreat across the roadway to a fenced in area and into another fenced in area to lock themselves in. The subjects came into the construction site and were using fireworks to shoot at the officers and throwing objects, such as rocks, at the officers. While a portion of the subjects was doing this, the other individuals went to various pieces of equipment and burned two four-wheelers and a front-end loader, a trailer, as well as the cameras that caught the assault.”

Of the 23 people arrested by the Atlanta Police Department and the Georgia State Patrol that night, only Jurgens and another protester, Jack Beaman of Decatur, were from Georgia, Register emphasized, according to the meeting minutes. “21 were from out of state and out of those, 2 were from out of country — Canada and France. Director Register stated the Bureau worked with its federal partners, as well as the State Department to contact their counterparts in Canada and France on these two individuals to dig a little deeper on them.”

Activists’ answer to this line of thought has been to suggest that police have deliberately targeted out-of-state protesters for prosecution, releasing people with local addresses after detaining them during demonstrations to inflate the perception of “outside agitators” spurring violence.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by George Chidi.

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A year after persuading Texas lawmakers to buy millions of child identification kits that had no proven record of success, a businessman with a troubled history found an in with the state's attorney general.

Last fall, Kenny Hansmire was tapped by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton to be part of a coalition to combat opioid abuse that Paxton declared would “be the largest drug prevention, education, abatement and disposal campaign in U.S. history.”

Riffing off the name of a popular book about Texas football, Paxton announced the Friday Night Lights Against Opioids coalition and pilot program. The initiative would distribute 3.5 million packets at high school football games that contain a powder capable of destroying opioids when mixed with water.

Paxton didn’t provide a price tag for the effort or explain Hansmire’s exact role, but he said a partnership with the businessman’s National Child Identification Program would be important to the program’s success.

A former NFL player, Hansmire has persuaded leaders in multiple states to spend millions of dollars purchasing inkless fingerprinting kits on the promise that they could help find missing children. Texas alone allocated $5.7 million for kits over the past two years. An investigation published last month by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found little evidence of the kits’ effectiveness and showed that the company exaggerated missing child statistics in its marketing.

The investigation also revealed that Hansmire has twice pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sanctioned by banking regulators in Connecticut in 2015 for his role in an alleged scheme to defraud or mislead investors.

Paxton has been a key ally for Hansmire. In 2020, he signed a letter to then-President Donald Trump urging him to get behind ultimately unsuccessful legislation that would approve the use of federal money to pay for the child identification kits. Hansmire later honored the attorney general at a Green Bay Packers game for his support.

For the opioid initiative, Paxton worked to connect Hansmire with Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who oversees the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars the state is set to receive after settling lawsuits with pharmaceutical companies over their roles in the opioid crisis.

Paxton discussed the initiative with Hegar, asking him to speak with its leaders, including Hansmire. On multiple occasions, Hansmire “called Comptroller Hegar to ask for funding for the Friday Night Lights program,” said the comptroller’s spokesperson, Chris Bryan.

Hegar, a Republican former state legislator who served with Paxton in the Texas Senate, declined to entertain Hansmire’s requests and explained that funding decisions will follow a formal approval process that is still being developed, Bryan said. He did not respond to additional questions.

Hansmire’s financial stake in the opioid initiative is unclear. He did not respond to questions about his role or about his requests for funding from the comptroller. He has previously defended himself and his company, asserting that the fingerprinting kits have made a difference in missing child investigations and that he resolved his financial and legal troubles.

Over the years, Hansmire has successfully leveraged his relationships with professional and college football teams in promoting his fingerprinting kits, honoring allied lawmakers and attorneys general at high-profile events such as football games.

While unveiling the opioid program last October, Paxton stood flanked by Hansmire and other former NFL players. Among them: NFL Hall of Famers Mike Singletary, who played for the Chicago Bears, and Randy White, a former Dallas Cowboy. White later participated in the launch of a similar program in Delaware alongside the state’s lieutenant governor. And last month, Mississippi’s attorney general announced the distribution of 500 free “Family Safety Kits.” Each included a child ID kit from Hansmire’s company and a drug disposal packet, which was provided by North Carolina-based DisposeRX. The company, which is also involved in the Texas and Delaware programs, lists Hansmire’s National Child ID Program as an official partner on its website.

Neither Singletary nor representatives for White or DisposeRX responded to requests for comment.

Paxton also did not respond to multiple requests for comment and to detailed questions from ProPublica and the Tribune. The news organizations requested records from Paxton’s office that could show the cost of the opioid initiative, the scope of the work and the breakdown of compensation for the companies involved. In response, the attorney general’s office released some emails, including one that contained an August 2022 letter from Paxton to Hansmire proposing to partner on the initiative. The office has fought the disclosure of other records that include communications with a lawmaker about potential legislation and claimed that it has no record of written agreements or expenditures related to the Friday Night Lights Against Opioids program.

Last month, the attorney general became one of only three state officials in Texas history to be impeached. He has been temporarily suspended while he awaits a trial in the Texas Senate on charges that include bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. (Those charges are not related to the opioid program.)

The impeachment vote in the Texas House was the culmination of a probe by the lower chamber’s General Investigating Committee. In a memorandum, the panel said the inquiry was initiated by Paxton’s request for $3.3 million to cover a negotiated settlement he announced in February with four former top aides.

Those aides sued Paxton in 2020 under the state’s whistleblower law, arguing that they were illegally fired after reporting their boss to the FBI for alleged misdeeds, including bribery and leveraging the power of his office to help a political donor.

Paxton has denied wrongdoing and has dismissed his impeachment as politically motivated.

The week after Paxton announced the proposed settlement of the suit against him, state Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican, filed a bill that would transfer $10 million to the attorney general from the opioid settlement fund.

Also a supporter of Hansmire’s, Campbell authored legislation in 2021 that led to the approval of $5.7 million to provide child ID kits to elementary and middle school students across the state. (State lawmakers had been set to approve additional money this year to purchase kits, but budget negotiators nixed the funding following publication of the ProPublica-Tribune investigation.)

In this case, Campbell’s bill would direct funding to Paxton that he could use “for the purpose of prevention, education, and drug disposal awareness campaigns to include providing at-home drug disposal kits and abatement tools for children- and youth-focused populations across this state.”

A new 14-member council led by Hegar is responsible for doling out the bulk of the opioid settlement funding, though lawmakers can allocate some of the money through legislation.

A week before Campbell filed her opioid bill, Hansmire’s longtime business partner, Mark Salmans, registered a new company with the state called Friday Night Lights LLC. Little information is publicly available about the company.

Campaign finance records show Salmans has donated $6,500 to Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, since late 2019. That includes a $1,000 donation to the attorney general the week after the Friday Night Lights Against Opioids announcement. He has not donated to Campbell, according to records from the same time period. Salmans and the Paxtons did not respond to questions about the new entity or their roles in the program.

Campbell also didn’t respond to questions. Her bill, which died in committee, came after both Paxtons publicly criticized Hegar for being slow to distribute the opioid settlement money. Neither Paxton mentioned the Friday Night Lights Against Opioids initiative while doing so.

“My main concern is that if we wait to use that money, we’re missing the opportunity to help people that need the help and we’re missing the opportunity to really save lives,” Ken Paxton said at a hearing in response to questions from Campbell less than two weeks before she filed her bill. Hegar has defended the pace, noting that the nature of the council’s work is unprecedented and that it needs to establish a clear, fair and transparent process to get the money out.

At a legislative hearing in late January, Hegar pointed to the sweeping corruption scandal that plagued the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas during its first few years as a reason to ensure a more deliberate process. The state agency came under fire a decade ago for doling out tens of millions of dollars in grants to politically connected applicants through a process that lacked proper scientific review. The scandal, which raised concerns about conflicts of interest and lax oversight, resulted in various resignations and reforms.

“The point is, we’re taking a slower approach to make sure we get it right,” Hegar told Angela Paxton. “That entire board was wiped away because the process that was put into place was not very thorough, and all of their reputations were tarnished.”

At the October news conference where Paxton announced the Friday Night Lights Against Opioids initiative, Hansmire explained that it would employ the model pioneered by his child identification company, which got its start by distributing kits at college and professional football games.

He also linked the initiative to his child identification company by repeating the incorrect statistic he’s used to promote the company’s fingerprinting kits. Hansmire asserted that, “out of 800,000 children that are reported missing every year, 200,000 of those have an opioid issue.”

He didn’t cite a source for the figures, but they appear to come from an old Department of Justice study that was co-authored by David Finkelhor, the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Finkelhor previously told ProPublica and the Tribune that the 800,000 figure Hansmire was using from the 24-year-old study was no longer accurate and overstated the scale of the missing children problem, in part because it included children who were missing for benign reasons such as spending the night at a friend’s house or coming home late from school. Using the inflated and outdated figure to then suggest that a quarter of those children have opioid-related problems is simply wrong, Finkelhor said.

The Department of Justice study estimated that 292,000 children who ran away or were kicked out of their homes in 1999 were “using hard drugs.” Finkelhor said the study referred to anything aside from marijuana — not just opioids — as a hard drug. He said he is not aware of anyone who formally tracks “opioid issues” among missing or runaway children.

Experts say that beyond being premised on incorrect statistics, the promotion of disposal packets as a solution for the opioid epidemic is a misguided use of resources, in large part because prescription opioids can be safely disposed of in multiple ways. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the best way to dispose of most medications, including opioids, is to drop them off at a drug take-back site. If that’s not an option, they should either be flushed down the toilet or be thrown in the trash, depending on whether they are on the FDA’s flush list.

Pushing disposal packets is a good way for a politician or legislator “to appear to be addressing the opioid crisis without actually doing anything that would upset industry,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, medical director for the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University.

Paxton and Hansmire didn’t respond to questions about the effectiveness of the packets. But Paxton said during the October news conference that it was his “hope and prayer that this program will aid in fighting the opioid epidemic that has claimed far too many young lives across our great state.”

The attorney general’s original plan was to distribute the 3.5 million disposal packets at high school football programs across Texas in the latter part of last year. But Brian Polk, chief operating officer of the Texas High School Coaches Association, said the inaugural distribution was smaller than envisioned.

Polk, whose organization partnered with Paxton on the initiative, couldn’t remember exact numbers but said in an interview that about 10 school districts received 3,000 packets each. A much larger distribution is expected this fall, but plans are still being finalized, Polk said.

Paxton did not respond to questions about Polk’s comments or whether unsuccessful efforts to tap opioid settlement money contributed to the smaller-than-planned distribution.

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Jeremy Schwartz, of ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, and Carla Astudillo, of The Texas Tribune, contributed reporting.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Kiah Collier.

Yu and Xu were detained last month en route to a meeting with European Union officials in Beijing, prompting calls for their release from Brussels.

U.S.-based rights lawyer Wang Qingpeng said there are now fears that Yu and Xu may be tortured in order to elicit a "confession," given the amount of international attention generated by their arrests.

"The authorities will be concerned about how this case looks ... and about international attention," Wang said. "A lot of lawyers have been warned off representing Yu Wensheng and his wife."

"Many lawyers have been tortured already, including Xie Yang, Wang Quanzhang, Chang Weiping and Zhou Shifeng," he said. "We have reason to believe that Yu Wensheng and Xu Yan could also be tortured, so as to avoid further outside attention and attempts at rescue."

"There could be further [and more serious charges] to come, for example, 'incitement to subvert state power,' which is impossible to predict right now," Wang said.

Chinese courts almost never acquit political prisoners, and the charge Yu and Xu currently face generally leads to jail terms of up to five years.

Lawyers warned

A friend of the couple who asked to remain anonymous said Yu's brother received notification of his formal arrest on May 21.

"According to what I have learned, Yu Wensheng has put up a great deal of resistance to the authorities since his detention," the friend said. "His brother has also said [their detention] is unacceptable."

Police informed Yu's brother of the change of status on Sunday, but had refused to give the family anything in writing, the brother said.

"His brother tried to get a photo of the notification of arrest, but the police stopped him," they said. "Now Yu Wensheng's family need to find a lawyer to help him, but a lot of lawyers have been warned off doing this by the authorities."

They said police had also told the family not to try to find their own lawyer to represent the couple.

Another person familiar with the case, who gave only the surname Shi, confirmed the friend's account.

"They wouldn't let their [18-year-old] kid instruct a lawyer, and the police were also telling people that Yu Wensheng didn't want a lawyer, and that Xu Yan had already hired two lawyers," Shi said. 

"Then the police visited the law firms [that might potentially represent Yu and Xu] and put pressure on them -- the Beijing municipal judicial affairs bureau also stepped up the pressure, threatening the law firms that they would fail their annual license review," he said. 

"I don't know whether they actually revoked any licenses or not -- we won't know until early June," Shi said.

Son alone

A friend of the couple who gave only the surname Qin said he is worried about their situation, and also about their son, who is living alone in the family home under strict police surveillance, with no contact with the outside world.

"It has destroyed this family, and their kid is still so young with nobody around to take care of them -- it's wrong to arrest both husband and wife together," Qin said.

The European Union lodged a protest with China after police detained veteran rights lawyer Yu Wensheng and his activist wife Xu Yan ahead of a meeting with its diplomats during a scheduled EU-China human rights dialogue on April 13.

“We have already been taken away,” Yu tweeted shortly before falling silent on April 13, while the EU delegation to China tweeted on April 14: “@yuwensheng9 and @xuyan709 detained by CN authorities on their way to EU Delegation.”

“We demand their immediate, unconditional release. We have lodged a protest with MFA against this unacceptable treatment,” the tweet from the EU’s embassy in China said, referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

We hear from civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit this year on behalf of the family of Malcolm X against the FBI, the CIA, New York City and state, the NYPD and the District Attorney’s Office for concealing evidence of their involvement in Malcolm X’s 1965 assassination.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Zhou, who headed the now-shuttered Beijing Fengrui Law Firm that was targeted in a July 2015 crackdown on human rights lawyers, was released at the end of a seven-year jail term for subversion last September, but -- like other prominent rights lawyers -- has never fully regained his personal freedom.

"There were three of them watching him in shifts and hiding in his residential community [to spy on him]," a person familiar with the matter told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday. "He had to get their approval if he wanted to travel any kind of distance, and also anyone who wanted to visit him had to get their approval, too."

Zhou has now been forced to leave the city for his birthplace of Anyang in the central province of Henan, the person said.

The person said the authorities appear to regard Zhou as a threat because he repeatedly spoke out about the actions of former vice minister of public security Sun Lijun, who was handed a suspended death sentence in September 2022 for taking bribes, manipulating the stock market and illegal possession of firearms.

The Changchun Intermediate People's Court said Sun had used his influence to seek gains for others and illegally accepted money and property worth 646 million yuan.

He had also displayed "extremely inflated political ambition” and very poor political integrity," as well as making “groundless criticisms” of the party's policies, and spreading political rumors, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.

"Sun unscrupulously cultivated personal followers and interest groups to obtain personal political gains," it said. "He also seriously undermined party unity and compromised political security."

Political retribution?

Zhou had repeatedly accused Sun and his faction of wrongdoing, the person familiar with the matter said.

"So he was criticized and persecuted by the Sun Lijun political faction," the person said, adding that Sun had always seen the 2015 crackdown on Fengrui as a form of political retaliation for his whistleblowing over Sun.

Zhou had continued to write to the ruling Communist Party's disciplinary arm following his release, as well as the State Council's complaints department and the Supreme People's Procuratorate, complaining about failure by the state to follow due legal process, the person said.

While Zhou's letter to the public prosecutor was ignored, the letter he sent to the State Council complaints department was forwarded to state security police in the northern port city of Tianjin, who were the targets of that complaint.

U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said Zhou's complaints are unlikely to garner any response from Beijing.

"The Supreme Court may have promised it would process all [complaints] letters, but it actually doesn't respond to such cases," Teng said. 

He said that while Sun Lijun played a major role in the nationwide arrests, detentions and travel bans imposed on around 300 rights attorneys across China in 2015, he wasn't the driving force behind it.

"The decision on the July 2015 crackdown came from the highest echelons of the Chinese Communist Party," he said.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gao Feng for RFA Mandarin.

We speak with investigative reporter Liliana Segura about the remarkable case of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, whose execution is set for May 18. Oklahoma’s Pardon and Parole Board on Wednesday denied Glossip clemency even though Oklahoma’s own Republican attorney general has sought to vacate Glossip’s conviction. Glossip has always maintained his innocence. The case dates back to 1997, when Glossip was working as a motel manager in Oklahoma City and his boss, Barry Van Treese, was murdered. A maintenance worker, Justin Sneed, admitted to beating Van Treese to death with a baseball bat, but claimed Glossip offered him money for the killing. The case rested almost entirely on Sneed’s claims, and no physical evidence tied Glossip to the crime. Sneed, in exchange for his testimony, did not get the death penalty. “From the beginning, the evidence in this case was weak,” says Segura, a senior reporter for The Intercept who has been following the case since 2015.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse on Thursday urged the top policymaking body for U.S. federal courts to refer Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the attorney general, citing the lack of immediate action from the high court amid fresh evidence that the right-wing judge violated disclosure laws.

"It would be best for the chief justice to commence a proper investigation, but after a week of silence from the court and the latest disturbing reporting, I'm urging the Judicial Conference to step in and refer Justice Thomas to the attorney general for investigation," the Rhode Island Democrat said in a statement.

The senator's call came shortly after ProPublicarevealed that a company owned by billionaire real estate mogul and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow bought property from Thomas in a deal that the justice did not disclose. The Thursday piece built on ProPublica's bombshell story last week detailing years of luxury trips that Thomas took on Crow's dime without disclosing them—reporting that sparked calls for Thomas' resignation or impeachment.

But with impeachment unlikely given Republican control of the House, Democratic lawmakers have demanded that conservative Chief Justice John Roberts launch an investigation into Thomas' apparent disclosure law violations—something the high court's top judge has failed to do in response to other Thomas scandals, including his decision not to recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election even though his wife was actively involved in efforts to overturn the results of that contest.

Thomas, who has worked to weaken federal transparency laws, also previously failed to disclose his wife's income from right-wing organizations.

In a statement last week, Thomas claimed he was "advised" by colleagues that the gifts from and trips with Crow—which included cruises on the billionaire's superyacht and private jet flights over a period of two decades—amounted to "personal hospitality" that shouldn't be reported.

Whitehouse on Thursday urged Congress to pass his Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, which would strengthen recusal standards and disclosure rules on the high court and establish a clear process for investigating misconduct.

The Supreme Court, which has outsized power that it has recently used to roll back basic freedoms, is currently the only U.S. federal court without a binding code of ethical conduct.

According toProPublica, Crow's purchase of property from Thomas and his relatives "marks the first known instance of money flowing from the Republican megadonor to the Supreme Court justice."

"The Crow company bought the properties for $133,363 from three co-owners—Thomas, his mother, and the family of Thomas' late brother, according to a state tax document and a deed dated Oct. 15, 2014, filed at the Chatham County courthouse," ProPublica noted. "The purchase put Crow in an unusual position: He now owned the house where the justice’s elderly mother was living. Soon after the sale was completed, contractors began work on tens of thousands of dollars of improvements on the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, which looks out onto a patch of orange trees. The renovations included a carport, a repaired roof, and a new fence and gates."

"A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires justices and other officials to disclose the details of most real estate sales over $1,000," the outlet added. "Thomas never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties. That appears to be a violation of the law, four ethics law experts told ProPublica."

Whitehouse said in response that "Justice Thomas told us that he didn't disclose free vacations on a superyacht and private jet because it was personal hospitality from a friend and that's just what friends do."

"Well, friends don't also buy your properties and deck them out for your family members to continue living in," the senator added. "And if all of this was on the up and up, why didn't Justice Thomas disclose it to the American people as the law clearly requires? The Supreme Court justices are so deeply ensconced in a cocoon of special interest money that they can no longer be trusted to police themselves without proper process."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jake Johnson.

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Liliana Segura.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

An Alaska Superior Court judge has dismissed a sex abuse case against former acting state Attorney General Clyde “Ed” Sniffen. In an order Friday, Judge Peter Ramgren sided with Sniffen’s lawyer, who argued too much time had passed for him to be charged with the alleged 1991 crime.

A grand jury indicted Sniffen in September on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor by an authority figure, based on his alleged sexual relationship with a then-17-year-old student. Sniffen was 27 at the time and a coach for the West Anchorage High School girls’ mock trial team.

While Alaska state law currently has no statute of limitations for felony sexual abuse of a minor, Ramgren dismissed the charge based on the argument that the law was different in 1991, when a five-year statute of limitations was in place.

The alleged victim, Nikki Dougherty White, learned of the dismissal Saturday morning by email. She called the ruling a “huge disappointment.”

“A huge sense of being let down by the court system,” she said.

White said that despite the dismissal, she does not regret going public with her story in January 2021, after she learned Sniffen had been appointed attorney general by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Sniffen resigned as the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica prepared to publish an article about the allegations.

“Because the truth is important. And because Alaska has too long been a place that favors abusers, that does not provide a safe space for victims, for women, for girls. For anybody who doesn’t fit, you know, the white male profile,” White said in a phone interview.

“The Alaska judicial system isn’t built for us and it doesn’t protect us,” she said.

Sniffen pleaded not guilty to the charges. He could not be reached for comment Saturday. His attorney, Jeffrey Robinson, was out of state Saturday for a professional obligation and had just received the judge’s order on Saturday afternoon, he wrote in an email.

“I’ve not had any time to review it,” Robinson wrote.

The special prosecutor in the case, Gregg Olson, said Saturday that no decision has been made on whether the state will appeal the order.

Another Superior Court judge, Erin Marston, presided over the case in January when Sniffen’s attorney argued it should be dismissed on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired and that the long delay between the alleged abuse and the filing of charges violated Sniffen’s right to due process.

Marston on Jan. 26 rejected a motion to dismiss the case related to alleged due process violations. Ramgren replaced Marston as the case judge on Feb. 7 due to Marston’s retirement. Ramgren was appointed to the bench in 2019 by Dunleavy.

In his Friday order, Ramgren wrote that a five-year statute of limitations was in place for the crime of sexual abuse of a minor at the time of the alleged offense, May 1991. The Legislature reduced or removed time limits to charge people for certain crimes in 1992 and again in 2001, the judge wrote, but he concluded those changes did not apply to Sniffen’s case.

“The court finds the applicable statutes and legislative history indicate these changes cannot be applied to the alleged offenses,” Ramgren wrote. “For that reason, the statute of limitations governing Mr. Sniffen’s conduct has expired and he cannot be subject to indictment.”

Sniffen led the state Department of Law, as Alaska’s top lawyer and legal adviser to the governor, for roughly five months in 2020 to 2021. His predecessor, Kevin Clarkson, resigned as attorney general when the newsrooms reported Clarkson had sent hundreds of unwanted text messages to a junior colleague.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday accused House Republicans of an "unlawful incursion" into New York authorities' investigation of former President Donald Trump, who is expected to face criminal charges over a 2016 pre-election hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

In a letter to Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Bryan Steil (R-Wis.), and James Comer (R-Tenn.)—respectively the chairs of the House Judiciary, Administration, and Oversight Committees—the Manhattan DA's general counsel Leslie Dubeck wrote that the lawmakers' request earlier this week for confidential information pertaining to the Trump probe amounted to "an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution."

Dubeck wrote that the GOP lawmakers' Monday letter demanding that Bragg turn over communications and other documents related to the investigation "only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene."

"Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry," Dubeck continued. "The district attorney is obliged by the federal and state constitutions to protect the independence of state law enforcement functions from federal interference."

The reply from Bragg's office came just before news broke that the Manhattan grand jury tasked with considering possible criminal charges against the former president is not expected to convene again until at least Monday of next week.

Trump set off a firestorm over the weekend by claiming on his social media platform that he would be arrested on Tuesday and urging his supporters to mobilize in response. The arrest did not take place as the former president and 2024 candidate predicted, but the post did lead to a flood of donations from his right-wing political supporters.

As Insiderreported, Trump "raised $1.5 million in the three days after he claimed on Truth Social that he'd be arrested."

"The resulting average of $500,000 a day," the outlet noted, "is almost double the daily average from the weeks before and after he announced his bid for the White House in November."

In addition to requesting documents and testimony from Bragg, Jordan on Wednesday wrote letters demanding communications and other materials from two former prosecutors who previously led the Trump hush-money investigation.

As The Washington Postsummarized on Thursday: "Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, was paid $130,000 by Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer," to stay quiet about an alleged affair.

"Trump reimbursed [Cohen] after becoming president, in installments that were designated legal fees," the Post added. "Bragg (D) has declined to give details of the investigation. But he is believed to be considering charges related to the payments that would include falsifying business records, possibly in commission of another, campaign-related crime. It is up to him to decide whether to ask the grand jury to vote on charging Trump with a crime."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Jake Johnson.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Saturday that former President Donald Trump's efforts to undermine his prosecutorial authority won't be tolerated.

In a memo to colleagues, Bragg wrote that "we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York."

"Our law enforcement partners will ensure that any specific or credible threats against the office will be fully investigated and that the proper safeguards are in place so all 1,600 of us have a secure work environment," Bragg continued.

"As with all of our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and fairly, and speak publicly only when appropriate," he added.

"We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York."

Bragg's email didn't specifically name Trump, referring only to the "public comments surrounding an ongoing investigation by this office."

But it came just hours after the former president and leading 2024 GOP candidate claimed on his social media platform that he "will be arrested" on Tuesday and called on his supporters to "protest" and "take our nation back."

Trump is expected to be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a criminal case involving hush money paid to women who alleged sexual encounters with the former president, but its timing remains uncertain.

In a follow-up post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: "It's time!!! We are a nation in steep decline... We just can't allow this anymore. They're killing our nation as we sit back and watch. We must save America! Protest, protest, protest!!!"

None

— (@)

Trump's call to action echoed how, six weeks after losing the 2020 presidential election, he fired off a tweet encouraging his supporters to join a "big protest" in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. "Be there, will be wild!" he wrote. Hundreds of far-right extremists came and—after Trump told them to march from a rally near the White House to the Capitol—ransacked the halls of Congress in a bid to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden's win. Several people died as a result of the insurrection, which was precipitated by Trump and his Republican allies' ceaseless lies about voter fraud.

Mother Jones' D.C. bureau chief David Corn noted that Trump has recently "excused or dismissed the violence of January 6."

"He is an authoritarian willing to (again) use violence for his own ends," Corn tweeted. "That is a threat to the nation."

Trump started priming his supporters for unrest more than a year ago. At a January 2022 rally in Texas, the ex-president promised to pardon January 6 rioters if he wins in 2024 and called for protests if prosecutors investigating his effort to subvert the 2020 election and other alleged crimes attempt to bring charges.

"If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had... in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt," Trump told a crowd of his supporters 14 months ago.

On Saturday, HuffPost's senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte asked if high-ranking Republicans had anything to say about Trump's most recent threats.

"If a new round of political violence occurs, McCarthy should absolutely shoulder some of the blame."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other right-wing lawmakers quickly made it clear that they're siding with Trump over the rule of law.

Trump is expected to be charged in connection with payments his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to buy the silence of adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal—both of whom say they had affairs with Trump—at the height of the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen has testified that at Trump's direction, he organized payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and McDougal. According to Cohen, the Trump Organization reimbursed him $420,000 and categorized it as a legal fee. Trump's former fixer pleaded guilty to federal campaign violations in 2018.

Trump has so far evaded charges but that could soon change, as Manhattan prosecutors are expected to accuse Trump of overseeing the false recording of expenses in his company's internal records.

McCarthy on Saturday described Bragg's probe as "an outrageous abuse of power by a radical D.A. who lets violent criminals walk as he pursues political vengeance against President Trump."

"I'm directing relevant committees to immediately investigate if federal funds are being used to subvert our democracy by interfering in elections with politically motivated prosecutions," he tweeted.

According to MSNBC's Hayes Brown:

By the time he fired off his own tweet, McCarthy had presumably seen Trump calling his supporters into the streets, echoing the incitement of violence against Congress two years ago. The speaker lived through that experience and witnessed firsthand the effect of Trump's words. And yet he opted to pretend otherwise in the weeks and months after the January 6 attack as he flew to Mar-a-Lago in supplication. In handing over unvetted security footage from the attack to a far-right propagandist last month, McCarthy is once again complicit in trying to whitewash the assault. If a new round of political violence occurs, McCarthy should absolutely shoulder some of the blame.

McCarthy was far from alone. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), for example, baselessly declared: "If they can come for Trump, they will come for you. This type of stuff only occurs in third world authoritarian countries."

The GOP's current framing of ongoing investigations into Trump as political "witch hunts" is not new. McCarthy and others reacted in a similar manner when the FBI in early August searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort and removed boxes of documents as part of a federal probe into the ex-president's handling of classified materials.

In New York, meanwhile, law enforcement and security agencies at all levels are reportedly preparing for the possibility of a Trump indictment as early as this week.

If indicted, Trump would become the first U.S. president to face criminal charges in or out of office. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, has vowed to keep campaigning regardless of whether he's arrested.

The New York Times reported that if "Trump is arraigned, he will almost certainly be released without spending any time behind bars because the indictment is likely to contain only nonviolent felony charges."

However, the Manhattan D.A.'s hush money probe is just one of many pending cases against Trump. The twice-impeached former president is also facing a state-level criminal investigation in Georgia over his efforts to overturn that state's 2020 election results, as well as federal probes into his coup attempt and his handling of classified government documents.

As The Associated Press observed, it's not clear when the other investigations into Trump "will end or whether they might result in criminal charges."

"But they will continue regardless of what happens in New York," the outlet noted, "underscoring the ongoing gravity—and broad geographic scope—of the legal challenges confronting the former president."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Saturday on his social media platform that he "will be arrested" on Tuesday and implored his supporters to "protest" and "take our nation back," sparking fears of additional right-wing violence.

Trump's call to action was reminiscent of how, six weeks after losing the 2020 presidential election, he took to Twitter to urge his supporters to join a "big protest" in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. "Be there, will be wild!" he wrote. Hundreds of far-right insurrectionists showed up and, after Trump told them to march from a rally near the White House to the Capitol, stormed the halls of Congress in a bid to prevent lawmakers from certifying President Joe Biden's win. Multiple people died as a result of the failed coup, which was fueled by Trump and his Republican allies' incessant lies about voter fraud.

Trump is expected to be indicted by a Manhattan grand jury in a criminal case involving hush money paid to women who said they had sexual encounters with the former president, but its timing is unclear.

Just before 7:30 am ET on Saturday, Trump baselessly declared on Truth Social: "Illegal leaks from a corrupt and highly political Manhattan district attorney's office... indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven... the far and away leading Republican candidate and former president of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. Protest, take our nation back!"

Alluding to Trump's prior use of social media to provoke the Capitol attack, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked, "Will Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube allow him to use their platforms to incite riots?"

Mother Jones' D.C. bureau chief David Corn, meanwhile, noted that Trump has recently "excused or dismissed the violence of January 6."

"He is an authoritarian willing to (again) use violence for his own ends," Corn tweeted. "That is a threat to the nation."

As HuffPost's senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte pointed out, "The coup-attempting former president... began inciting civil unrest if prosecutors came after him more than a year ago."

At a January 2022 rally in Texas, Trump promised to pardon January 6 rioters if he wins in 2024 and urged huge protests if prosecutors investigating his effort to subvert the 2020 election and other alleged crimes try to bring charges.

"If these radical, vicious, racist prosecutors do anything wrong or illegal, I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protest we have ever had... in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta, and elsewhere because our country and our elections are corrupt," Trump told a crowd of his supporters 14 months ago.

According toThe New York Times:

Early Saturday morning, there was little evidence yet that Mr. Trump's new demand for protests had been embraced by extremist groups.

But Ali Alexander, a prominent organizer of "Stop the Steal" rallies after the 2020 election, reposted a message on his Telegram channel on Saturday suggesting that he supported mass protest to protect Mr. Trump.

"Previously, I had said if Trump was arrested or under the threat of a perp walk, 100,000 patriots should shut down all routes to Mar-a-Lago," Mr. Alexander wrote. "Now I’m retired. I'll pray for him though!"

Lacking the platform provided by the White House or the machinery of a large political campaign, it is unclear how many people Mr. Trump is able to reach, let alone mobilize, using his Truth Social website.

After the FBI in early August searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago palace and removed boxes of documents as part of a federal probe into the ex-president's handling of classified materials, many anonymous and some well-known reactionaries called for "civil war" on Twitter, patriots.win, and elsewhere.

Three days later, Ricky Shiffer, a Trump loyalist with suspected ties to a far-right extremist group and an unspecified connection to the January 6 insurrection, was shot and killed by police after an hourslong standoff. Shiffer, wielding an AR-15 and a nail gun, allegedly attempted to break into the FBI's Cincinnati office and fled to a nearby field when he was unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, Trump continued to lie about the Mar-a-Lago search on Truth Social, sparking an "unprecedented" surge in threats against FBI personnel and facilities.

As Dáte noted on Saturday morning, many people downplayed warnings issued ahead of the January 6 assault.

"Many of Trump's core supporters want authoritarianism," the journalist tweeted. "They believe in neither democracy nor the rule of law."

As the Times reported:

Although prosecutors working for the [Manhattan] district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, have signaled that an indictment of Mr. Trump could be imminent, there was no immediate indication as to why the former president appeared confident that he would be arrested Tuesday. People with knowledge of the matter have said that at least one more witness is expected to testify in front of the grand jury, which could slightly delay any indictment.

Three people close to Mr. Trump said that the former president's team had no specific knowledge about when an indictment might come or when an arrest could be anticipated. One of those people, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said that Mr. Trump's advisers' best guess was that it could happen around Tuesday, and that someone may have relayed that to him, but that they also had made clear to one another that they didn't know a specific time frame.

Trump is expected to be charged in connection with payments his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal—both of whom alleged affairs with Trump—in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen has testified that at Trump's direction, he orchestrated payments totaling $280,000 to Daniels and McDougal. According to Cohen, the Trump Organization reimbursed him $420,000 and classified it as a legal fee. Trump's former fixer pleaded guilty to federal campaign violations in 2018.

Trump has so far evaded charges but that could soon change, as prosecutors are expected to accuse Trump of greenlighting the false recording of expenses in his company's internal records.

Citing five unnamed officials familiar with the matter, NBC Newsreported Friday that local, state, and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility of a Trump indictment as early as next week.

If indicted, Trump would become the first U.S. president to face criminal charges in or out of office. Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, says that he will keep campaigning regardless of whether he is arrested.

The Manhattan D.A.'s hush money probe is just one of Trump's many legal woes. The twice-impeached president is also facing a state-level criminal investigation in Georgia over his efforts to overturn that state's 2020 election results, as well as federal probes into his coup attempt and his handling of classified government documents.

Nevertheless, Trump is still seen as the front-runner to win the GOP's 2024 nomination.

David Aronberg, the state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, said Saturday morning that if Trump is indicted in New York, "there will be protests here," warning: "You have to worry about potential violence."

He pointed out that questions remain as to whether Trump would surrender to New York authorities or face extradition. Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another authoritarian demagogue who is widely considered Trump's leading rival for the GOP's 2024 nomination, "has to sign off [any] extradition orders," said Aronberg.

The Times noted that if "Trump is arraigned, he will almost certainly be released without spending any time behind bars because the indictment is likely to contain only nonviolent felony charges."

However, The Associated Pressreported that it is not clear when the other investigations into Trump "will end or whether they might result in criminal charges."

"But they will continue regardless of what happens in New York," the outlet explained, "underscoring the ongoing gravity—and broad geographic scope—of the legal challenges confronting the former president."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Kenny Stancil.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump may soon face criminal charges in connection with the payment of hush money to the adult entertainer Stormy Daniels, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing four unnamed "people with knowledge of the matter."

According to the Times, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office extended an offer for Trump to testify next week before a grand jury considering the evidence in the prospective case against the twice-impeached ex-president, who is seeking the Republican nomination for 2024.

As Times reporters William K. Rashbaum, Ben Protess, and Jonah E. Bromwich noted:

Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close; it would be unusual for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, to notify a potential defendant without ultimately seeking charges against him.

In New York, potential defendants have the right to answer questions in the grand jury before they are indicted, but they rarely testify, and Mr. Trump is likely to decline the offer. His lawyers could also meet privately with the prosecutors in hopes of fending off criminal charges.

Any case would mark the first indictment of a former American president, and could upend the 2024 presidential race. It would also elevate Mr. Bragg to the national stage, though not without risk.

At issue is a $130,000 payment made to Daniels—an adult film star who claims she had an affair with Trump—by former fixer Michael Cohen during the last days of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump subsequently reimbursed Cohen for the payment. Cohen has not yet testified before the grand jury, but is expected to do so on an undetermined date.

"Trump has faced an array of criminal investigations and special counsel inquiries over the years but has never been charged with a crime, underscoring the gravity of Mr. Bragg's inquiry," the Times trio wrote.

The journalists further asserted that "Bragg could become the first prosecutor to charge Mr. Trump, but he might not be the last," noting that the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Georgia is investigating whether the former president interfered in the 2020 election.

"And at the federal level, a special counsel is scrutinizing Mr. Trump's effort to overturn the election results, as well as his handling of classified documents," the reporters added.

Mark Pomerantz—one of two prosecutors involved with the Manhattan district attorney's investigation of the ex-president who resigned in protest last year—wrote in his new book, People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account, that "we developed evidence convincing us that Donald Trump had committed serious crimes" involving his finances and business practices.

"As we put the facts together, many of us came to believe that we had enough evidence to convict him, and we could present a solid case in court that would lead to a guilty verdict," Pomerantz related.

He continued:

I believe that Donald Trump is guilty of numerous felony violations of the penal law in connection with the preparation and use of his annual statements of financial condition. His financial statements were false, and he has a long history of fabricating information relating to his personal finances and lying about his assets to banks, the national media, counterparties, and many others, including the American people.

Asked in a recent CBS "60 Minutes" interview what he would advise Bragg in regard to Trump, Pomerantz replied: "This was a righteous case. You should bring it. It's important. And if you made the wrong decision, make a better decision."

Bragg retorted that "after closely reviewing all the evidence from Mr. Pomerantz's investigation, I came to the same conclusion as several senior prosecutors involved in the case, and also those I brought on: More work was needed. Put another way, Mr. Pomerantz's plane wasn't ready for takeoff."

Separately, a New York jury last December found two subsidiaries of the Trump Organization, Trump's company, guilty on all counts of criminal tax fraud. The former president's organization was subsequently ordered to pay a $1.6 million penalty for what a judge called "systemic, egregious fraud."

Also last December, the former congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the Trump's "Big Lie" unanimously voted to recommend federal criminal charges against the former president and some of his associates in connection with the insurrection. Given Trump's 2024 presidential run, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Brett Wilkins.

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For decades, lawyers at the Thomas More Society have backed provocateurs and long shot causes in hopes of winning severe restrictions on abortion in the U.S.

As others in the anti-abortion movement distanced themselves from clinic protestors accused of trespassing, vandalism and sometimes violence, the Thomas More Society defended them in civil and criminal court. The legal nonprofit once sided with a Wisconsin pharmacist who refused to fill a birth control prescription on religious grounds.

More recently, the Chicago-based organization has embraced a far different but equally divisive undertaking — relentlessly questioning the integrity of elections. Leaping into the 2020 “Stop the Steal” frenzy, which was consistently discredited, the Thomas More Society aggressively pursued scores of lawsuits and complaints across the country.

Yet for all the scrutiny given to election denialism and its champions — including Rudy Giuliani, Mike Flynn and Sidney Powell, former advisers to President Donald Trump — the significant role played by the Thomas More Society has received little attention.

One of its strategists, Phill Kline, tried to convince state legislatures in swing states to hold off on certifying Joe Biden’s electors, a maneuver that drew the notice of the House Jan. 6 committee. Kline is the former attorney general of Kansas whose law license was suspended indefinitely a decade ago by the state Supreme Court over ethical violations. Interviews and records examined by ProPublica show how closely aligned Kline has been with the Thomas More Society.

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the fight over abortion is increasingly playing out at the state level and local elections for legislators and judges have taken on added weight. “That’s why it’s doubly important for pro-life advocates to ensure the integrity of state and local elections,” one of the group’s attorneys wrote in an op-ed last summer.

Thomas More’s role in the push to change election law should not be underestimated, say abortion rights groups familiar with the legal society’s tactics and record.

An examination by ProPublica of Thomas More’s 2020 election-law initiative shows it helped fuel skepticism over President Joe Biden’s victory and the fairness of elections in numerous states.

The legal machinations haven’t led to big victories in court so far, and in fact Thomas More’s efforts have sometimes drawn ridicule from the bench. In one such rebuke, a judge concluded that the real goal of a Thomas More attorney’s request was “the undermining of a democratic election for President of the United States.”

But these persistent legal challenges mirror the approaches used in the fight over abortion: Never stop pushing for the cause in court or legislatures. Play the long game.

Ilyse Hogue, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, does not doubt the willingness of the Thomas More Society or other anti-abortion forces to stick with a strategy for years, even decades, until they’re successful.

“One win erases a dozen losses,” she said. “We saw that time and again on abortion.”

Other anti-abortion groups have likewise become more involved in influencing voting laws. The Election Transparency Initiative is a project, in part, of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which works to elect anti-abortion lawmakers. The initiative, established in early 2021, targeted federal voter rights legislation for defeat. In recent months, it successfully lobbied Ohio lawmakers to enact a strict voter photo ID law.

Through its efforts, the Thomas More Society raised its profile in Republican circles and broadened its appeal beyond its foremost cause of outlawing nearly all abortions. Contributions to the Thomas More Society jumped 82% between 2019 and 2020 to nearly $17.4 million, financial documents filed with the IRS show. (The organization does not release the names of its donors.)

Initially, the group — which is run by staunch Catholics and named for a Catholic saint and lawyer — focused on defending people in the anti-abortion movement. Its most well-known cause was the decades long defense of Joe Scheidler, founder of the Pro-Life Action League, against the National Organization for Women.

NOW accused him and others of conspiring to close down clinics through extreme measures, including blockades and mob violence; it sought a permanent injunction forbidding the groups from engaging in illegal conduct. Lawyers for Thomas More made three trips to the U.S. Supreme Court in the clash, ultimately winning a 2006 decision in which the court held that the protests couldn’t be barred under extortion or racketeering statutes.

Lawyers for the society, in recent years, also have brought legal action opposing vaccine mandates, gay marriage and transgender rights. Then came Trump and an obsession among his followers with proving that he lost due to election fraud, and a new mission emerged.

Long before the Thomas More Society and Kline joined together on election law, they had a different kind of relationship. Kline was a client.

Kline needed help in Kansas, beginning in about 2010, fighting professional misconduct charges arising from his investigation of abortion clinics as attorney general and later as a county district attorney. The state Supreme Court ultimately suspended his law license indefinitely in 2013 for 11 violations of professional conduct rules, including misleading a judge and grand jury.

Kline considered the case against him to be political and denied acting unethically. Throughout the struggle, he had a key ally from Chicago: attorney Tom Brejcha, president of the Thomas More Society. According to a 2014 press release, the Thomas More Society underwrote Kline’s appeal of his suspension. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider it.

“We’ve known Phill Kline. He’s been a client of ours for a long time. We respect him terribly, ” Brejcha said in a 2020 webinar.

Kline, who now teaches law at the evangelical Liberty University, told ProPublica he approached the society in 2018 about working together to publicize alleged election vulnerabilities. “He brought it to us. We adopted it,” Brejcha is quoted saying in the Catholic publication Our Sunday Visitor.

At the time, the integrity of voter rolls was very much in the news. Early in 2018, Trump had disbanded a controversial White House commission he’d set up to investigate voter fraud after numerous state election agencies refused to supply requested voter information. The president made baseless claims that millions of ballots were cast illegally in 2016, causing him to lose the popular vote.

At the society, Brejcha and Kline agreed on a contract that covered 2018 through 2021, Kline said. They called their initiative the Amistad Project, a reference to an 1839 mutiny aboard a slave ship of that name. References to slavery are common in the anti-abortion movement, where the historical denial of personhood to Black people is likened to not treating a fetus as a person. Kline had already been working on a project called The Amistad Journey in his anti-abortion efforts and later incorporated a for-profit company by that name in January 2020, listing his home as its principal office.

An IRS form shows the Thomas More Society paid Kline’s firm more than $1.4 million in consulting fees in 2020. Kline said the fees were for the full length of the contract and helped cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses, including payments to contractors he employed.

The society declined repeated requests from ProPublica for an interview or to answer specific questions. It provided a three-page memo, however, highlighting some of its strategic initiatives and stating: “The core traditional values that the Thomas More Society fights to protect — the right to life, family values, and religious liberty — can be preserved only if elections are fair and secure.”

In the 2020 webinar, Brejcha described the society’s crossover into election lawyering as “a natural progression” of its work opposing what it considers government abuse of religious freedom, such as the forced closing of churches during COVID-19 lockdowns. “We are nonpartisan, we’re bipartisan, but we want the laws to be enforced so that the democratic process is not distorted and destroyed,” he said.

As director of the election project for Thomas More, Kline couldn’t argue the legal cases himself because of his ethical violations in Kansas, but he oversaw investigators and analysts, hired litigators and devised strategies.

Together, the society and Amistad moved aggressively. They targeted cities, counties, county commissioners, mayors, governors and election officials for legal action, focusing on key states Trump lost in 2020 — Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Minnesota.

Asked whether his work regarding elections had any relationship to his moral objections to abortion, Kline said in an email to ProPublica, “Only in the general sense that any unjustified disparate treatment under the law represents an assault on the inherent value of the individual.”

One of the Amistad Project’s chief arguments in 2020 was that election officials in swing states adopted pandemic-related measures — such as the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots — that disproportionately aided turnout in Democratic strongholds. The society contended that those local governments placed their “thumb on the scale” by accepting tens of millions of dollars in private grants for election administration from a nonprofit backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The money was awarded to communities across 47 states to pay for more staff, training, equipment and outreach to voters on how to safely cast their ballots.

“We have a corporate oligarchy that’s trying to control this election process,” Kline alleged on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Dec. 14, 2020.

After receiving complaints unconnected to the Amistad Project, the Federal Election Commission reviewed the grants last year and determined that Zuckerberg did not violate campaign finance laws, concluding that the grants were awarded to many jurisdictions and did not suggest any partisan motive.

In case after case over the Zuckerberg grants, judges found no merit in the arguments presented by lawyers associated with Kline and Thomas More. They were subjected to often stinging rebukes.

In tossing one of the Amistad Project’s suits in Wisconsin, U.S. District Judge William C. Griesbach wrote that they offered “only a political argument” and “their brief is bereft of any legal argument” that would support their claim.

Another Wisconsin judge, in state court, rejected the Thomas More Society’s lawyer’s characterization of the grants as “election bribery,” calling the assertion “ridiculous.”

Likewise, a federal judge in Iowa ruled in a case brought by the Thomas More Society that “the record contains no evidence” supporting accusations that the grants “pose an actual risk of shaping the outcome of any election or of favoring any particular party or candidate.”

Kline said he strongly disagreed with the judges’ opinions and believed the cases were valid.

In Wisconsin, the uproar over the grants became a central element of a taxpayer-funded, partisan review of the 2020 election, led by Trump supporter Michael Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice. Erick Kaardal, a Thomas More Society attorney, worked closely with Gableman, who was appointed by the speaker of the state Assembly, a Republican.

Much of Gableman’s final report, released in March 2022, echoed the society’s assertions about private election grants and one of its other chief concerns: the validity of some votes from nursing homes. The state Assembly speaker later shut down the inquiry and Gableman got a job with the Thomas More Society.

Despite the court losses, the society considers its assault on the Zuckerberg funds to be a major success because it “blazed the trail” for two dozen states to ban private funding of election administration, according to the memo Thomas More provided.

The organization also considers its efforts to ban ballot drop boxes in Wisconsin a success. It did not win through court action, but as increasing attention was paid to the drop boxes, the state Supreme Court ruled their use unlawful. Five cities embroiled in suits brought by Thomas More then abandoned their support for the boxes and the cases were dismissed.

In a slew of related legal actions in Wisconsin and other states, the Thomas More Society also raised the possibility that some nursing home residents had been able to vote despite having been declared mentally incompetent; challenged signature verifications for absentee ballot applications; and questioned COVID-19 restrictions that limited some large gatherings, such as campaign crowds, but not others, such as Black Lives Matter protests.

Kaardal filed at least 18 administrative complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, beginning shortly before the 2020 election. Two are still pending and the others were denied, dismissed or withdrawn, according to the commission.

Kaardal also filed at least seven lawsuits against the agency, beginning just before the 2020 election. Only one is still pending; the rest were voluntarily dismissed or ended in defeat, according to the commission.

He did not respond to requests for comment.

One Democratic member of the bipartisan elections commission thought the Thomas More Society “nitpicked issues” in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

Said Mark Thomsen: “My overall sense is they filed things that were redundant and repetitive and served no legitimate purpose, in my mind, other than trying to wear down the staff and waste precious resources.”

Plenty of names associated with Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 results are well known by now. Kline’s is not one of them.

But records and interviews show he played a prominent role, working largely behind the scenes, in attempting to stall the certification of Biden’s victory.

In the weeks leading up to the Capitol insurrection, Kline led a group of investigators and litigators working out of a northern Virginia hotel, trying to prove that unlawful activity had influenced the election.

In a Dec. 1, 2020, press conference, Kline talked about Amistad’s efforts to uncover fraud, saying it had attorneys “in virtually every swing state that are working on our behalf.”

Trump’s legal team was making similar efforts, and that team included Jenna Ellis, a former Thomas More Society attorney. Kline told ProPublica that the Amistad Project did not coordinate with Trump’s group, and the Jan. 6 committee revealed no evidence to the contrary.

But records do show Kline and the Trump camp communicated with each other. Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik told the committee that Kline briefed Giuliani on an allegation about a postal truck carrying completed ballots across state lines, a claim that was later debunked by postal inspectors working with the FBI.

“Amistad shared the results of its investigations and analysis with numerous organizations who requested it, including the media,” Kline told ProPublica.

Kline pushed hard on the idea that state legislatures could ask Congress to delay the electoral certification to allow for time to investigate whether laws were faithfully followed.

The Amistad Project produced an eight-page report titled “Set in Stone?” in which it argued that the “only Electoral College deadline specifically required by the Constitution is noon on January 20,” which is Inauguration Day. The memo stated that all other deadlines — including the Jan. 6 date for certifying election results — were established long ago in federal law for ease of travel and are “largely not relevant to a time when electors do not have to ride horses to Washington, D.C. to vote.”

“For the sake of American democracy and to strengthen our fraying social fabric, it is preferable to address the fraud issues before determining who is the next President. The investigations will be rigorous and continue whether or not the Electoral College vote is held December 14,” the report states.

In late November 2020 in Michigan, which Biden won, Amistad attorney Ian Northon petitioned the state Supreme Court to take control of all ballots to allow for a “constitutionally sound audit of lawful votes” and give the state Legislature time “to finish its constitutionally-mandated work to pick Michigan’s electors.”

The state’s high court refused. Northon then tried to help a set of unauthorized Republican electors enter the Michigan state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign documents purporting to certify Trump the winner. They were blocked by police.

Talking to reporters that day, Northon said: “I’m representing a charity called the Amistad Project, it’s a 501(c)(3), and it’s affiliated with another charity called the Thomas More Society out of Chicago. We filed several preelection lawsuits on election integrity.”

But Kline and Northon told ProPublica that Northon was not, in fact, working for Amistad at that moment. Northon said that he was called to the state Capitol by several lawmakers who were clients and were locked out of the building. They had previously joined an Amistad suit he handled. “I tried to help them talk to the police,” he said in an emailed response. “That does not mean I was acting on behalf of Amistad, I wasn’t.”

On Jan. 2, 2021, Kline hosted a conference call with 300 state legislators in an “attempt to disseminate purported evidence of election fraud,” according to a subpoena issued to him by the Jan. 6 committee.

The briefing included Giuliani; John Eastman, the attorney behind the theory that Vice President Mike Pence could reject the Electoral College results; White House trade adviser Peter Navarro; economist John Lott; and Trump, who reportedly told the lawmakers they were more important than the courts and had the power to change the results.

That evening, Kline sent an email to participants on the call encouraging them to sign on to a joint letter to Vice President Mike Pence urging him to postpone the counting of the electoral vote. The letter asked for at least 10 days.

Jan. 6 committee records show Kline asked those willing to sign the letter to reply to a woman who worked for a communications firm founded by Mark Serrano, a paid consultant to Trump’s 2020 campaign. Serrano had touted legal efforts supported by Thomas More on Bannon’s podcast, in December 2020, when he talked about a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., regarding “the ecosystem that caused this fraud on a massive level to take place.”

Bannon applauded that action. The judge, however, was not as pleased.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg later fumed that Kaardal, the Thomas More Society attorney, filed in the wrong court and failed to even serve the complaint to his adversaries in the suit. The judge also expressed shock at the scope of the request — to have numerous state and federal election laws declared unconstitutional and an injunction issued that would prevent Pence and Congress from ratifying the electoral votes in key battleground states.

In denying the request, Boasberg ruled that it relied on “a fundamental and obvious misreading of the Constitution.”

“It would be risible were its target not so grave: the undermining of a democratic election for President of the United States.”

In its final report, the Jan. 6 committee did not cite the Thomas More Society or the Amistad Project by name. But it lumped Kline in the same bucket as Giuliani, Powell, Eastman and Trump attorney Cleta Mitchell — saying that in response to Congressional subpoenas, none offered any proof of widespread fraud.

“Not one of them provided evidence raising genuine questions about the election outcome,” the report states. “In short, it was a big scam.”

Though subpoenaed, Kline did not testify before the committee, a congressional source confirmed. The committee, which had a Democratic majority, was disbanded this year as Republicans reclaimed control of the House.

Kline told ProPublica that he gave the committee over 12 gigabytes of data, including 107,563 pages of documents, in response to the subpoena. “I do not believe the committee reviewed these materials, as they declined to schedule an interview with me, where I was happy to discuss the materials,” he said in an email.

He added that he agrees with the committee’s assessment that there was not sufficient proof of fraud to overturn the election. “That generally is the case, but that doesn’t mean there’s not evidence that requires further investigation and effort and I believe there is.”

The society and Kline no longer have a formal contract. The society’s election integrity initiative is now headed by its Executive Vice President Thomas Olp.

In January of last year, Brejcha wrote that his group will continue to work with and support Amistad but touted “decisive new initiatives.”

“Rest assured,” he added, “we mean to press this cause of election integrity to the hilt, as is our trademark.”

Going forward, the team plans to work on various election fronts, including preventing ineligible people from voting, according to the memo the society provided to ProPublica. The memo expressed concerns that noncitizens and other people who don’t have the right to vote might sway a close election, even though there is no evidence that demonstrates widespread voter fraud in modern elections. In Wisconsin, the Thomas More Society is also challenging the ease of obtaining absentee military ballots.

Kline, meanwhile, is aligned with the American Voters’ Alliance, a nonprofit led by his daughter, Jacqueline Timmer. It is pushing “model legislation” to states that would radically alter how elections are handled.

The 23-page blueprint calls on legislatures to set up bipartisan standing committees that would issue a report recommending whether to certify election results. These panels would have the power to investigate elections, determine whether laws were broken, force local officials to fund forensic audits “by disappointed candidates,” stay election results when appropriate and even place localities into receivership to ensure elections are run properly.

Kline told ProPublica that U.S. elections are “among the least transparent and accountable in the world.”

“So far,” he said, “the proper steps have not been taken.”

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Huang's lawyer turned up at Sichuan's Bazhong Prison on Wednesday in a bid to visit his client, but was turned away by the authorities, Huang's mother Pu Wenqing told friends via the WeChat messaging app on Wednesday evening.

Huang, now in his late fifties, has been identified by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as one of 10 citizen journalists in danger of dying in detention.

He has repeatedly denied the charges against him and has refused to "confess," making him vulnerable to mistreatment and deprivation of rights and privileges in prison.

Later, Bazhong municipal police officers followed up with a visit to the lawyer at his hotel, Pu wrote in comments seen by a person in Chengdu who declined to reveal their identity for fear of reprisals.

"The reason was that the last time a lawyer had visited [Huang], they took photos inside the prison and posted them online," the person told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.

"The lawyer checked into a hotel in Bazhong city on the night of Feb. 7, and four police officers from the local police station turned up there and harassed them," the person said.

An employee who answered the phone at the Bazhong Prison on Thursday hung up the phone as soon as they heard the name Huang Qi.

Further calls to the same number rang unanswered during office hours.

Calls to Pu's number also rang unanswered on Thursday.

Another friend of Huang's who asked to remain anonymous said Pu is currently under close surveillance, surrounded by officials and unable to leave her home.

"Huang Qi's lawyer has never met with her, and ... petitioners [fellow rights activists] have also been unable to visit her," the friend said.

Pu, who is in her late eighties, said she was told by her doctor in June 2022 that her lung cancer was spreading to her liver, and called on the ruling Chinese Communist Party to allow her to visit her son in prison before she dies.

She said at the time she was living under surveillance by the state security police, who insisted on escorting her to every medical appointment.

The last time she was able to speak with Huang via video call was Nov. 24, 2022, according to the overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders network's Twitter account. A Jan. 28, 2022 meeting was abruptly cut off two minutes in, after she tried to discuss Huang's defense lawyers with him.

‘Leaking state secrets’

A court in the southwestern province of Sichuan handed down a 12-year jail term to Huang, a veteran rights activist and founder of the Tianwang rights website, on July 29, 2019.

Huang was sentenced by the Mianyang Intermediate People's Court, after it found him guilty of "leaking state secrets overseas."

Huang's lawyers and Pu have said all along that the case against Huang was a miscarriage of justice, even allowing for the traditionally harsh treatment of dissidents in China.

Chen Tianmao, a former police officer accused alongside Huang, has said the authorities in Sichuan's Mianyang city "faked" documents to use against Huang, as well as torturing Chen, Huang and a third defendant Yang Xiuqiong in a bid to force a "confession" out of them.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders tweeted on Nov. 24 that Huang had also submitted a number of official complaints over his case to the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate via the prison.

Huang's Tianwang website had a strong track record of highlighting petitions and complaints against official wrongdoing, and injustices meted out to the most vulnerable in society, including forced evictees, parents of children who died in the devastating 2008 Sichuan earthquake, and other peaceful critics of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gu Ting for RFA Mandarin.

"The guidelines are distinct from those for entering Israel, which are normally applied at Ben Gurion Airport and other ports of entry," explained HRW—whose own Israel and Palestine director, Omar Shakir, was denied an entry permit under the new rules. "A West Bank permit holder without an Israeli entry visa has no legal authorization to enter Israel, nor occupied East Jerusalem."

HRW deputy Middle East director Eric Goldstein said in a statement that "by making it harder for people to spend time in the West Bank, Israel is taking yet another step toward turning the West Bank into another Gaza, where two million Palestinians have lived virtually sealed off from the outside world for over 15 years. This policy is designed to weaken the social, cultural, and intellectual ties that Palestinians have tried to maintain with the outside world."

HRW interviewed 13 people last year "who detailed difficulties they have faced for years entering or remaining in the West Bank and their concerns about how the new guidelines will affect them."

"Ayman," who was born in Europe in the mid-1990s to a Palestinian father from the West Bank and a European mother, has lived in the West Bank most of his life. However, because he has no Palestinian identification card, he has relied upon visas in his European passport to remain in the West Bank and fears the new regulations could endanger his ability to remain in Palestine.

"Palestine for me is home," as "my childhood, schools, classmates, friends, extended family, relatives, and all the memories I have are all here," he told HRW, and yet "I am in Palestine as a tourist, as a European citizen."

"Israel's duties as an occupying power require it to facilitate foreigners' entry to the West Bank in an orderly manner."

"I may lose the right to visit," Ayman added. "I won't be able to visit as a tourist either according to these regulations."

HRW asserted that "while countries have wide discretion over entry into their sovereign territory, international humanitarian law requires occupying powers to act in the best interest of the occupied population or to maintain security or public order."

"There are no apparent justifications based on security, public order, or the best interests of Palestinians for how significantly Israeli authorities restrict volunteers, academics, or students from entering the West Bank or Palestinians' loved ones from remaining on a long-term basis," the group argued.

"By excessively restricting Palestinian families' ability to spend time together, and blocking the entry of academics, students, and nongovernmental workers who would contribute to social, cultural, political, and intellectual life in the West Bank, Israel's restrictions fall afoul of its duty, which increases in a prolonged occupation, to facilitate normal civil life for the occupied population," HRW continued.

"Israel's duties as an occupying power require it to facilitate foreigners' entry to the West Bank in an orderly manner," HRW added. "Subject to an individualized security assessment and absent compelling reason of law, Israeli authorities should at minimum grant permits of reasonable duration to foreigners who would contribute to life of the West Bank, including the family members of Palestinians and those working with Palestinian civil society, and residency to immediate relatives."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams and was authored by Newswire Editor.

The Supreme Court is back in session and once again has taken cases that could result in major anti-regulatory wins. In the next few months, Supreme Court rulings could gut the Clean Water Act, kill off affirmative action, and undermine tribal sovereignty. While the pipeline of right-wing jurists built by operatives like longtime Federalist Society executive Leonard Leo has been well-documented, less attention has been paid to another key part of the strategy to expand corporate rights: state attorneys general and the cases they craft, often in concert with corporate law firms, to push forward constitutional changes. It’s the parallel track that makes all those judgeships really pay off.

When Ken Paxton was first announced as Texas attorney general-elect in 2014, he listed Leo as part of his transition team. Now Paxton, who declined to comment for this story, is up for reelection for the second time since taking office. Although his Democratic challenger, Rochelle Garza, is proving to be a bigger threat than anyone expected, Paxton is still favored to win despite the fact that no attorney general has been more beleaguered by scandal.

Paxton has been under indictment on securities fraud charges the entire time he’s been in office; he pleaded not guilty but has yet to stand trial. In 2020, Paxton’s deputy attorneys general, along with several other senior staffers, blew the whistle on their boss, accusing him of bribery and abuse of office. The FBI is investigating the allegations, which Paxton has denied, and the whistleblowers were subsequently fired in what they alleged in a complaint was an act of retaliation. Paxton argued that Texas’s whistleblower protection law didn’t apply to him, but so far the courts have not agreed. He’s now asking the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in. Meanwhile, he recently made headlines after a process server accused him of fleeing his home to avoid being served a subpoena for an abortion case. Paxton tweeted that he fled because he was trying to avoid “a stranger lingering outside.”

The attorney general may have legal woes, but he also has an outsize hand in shaping the law. He is a key element of a right-wing judicial operation that aims to dismantle protections for the environment, marginalized groups, and workers while expanding rights for corporations and Christian churches. In his seven years in office, Paxton has successfully fought the federal government over immigration policy, fishing limits, pollution permitting, the EPA’s mercury rule, voter ID laws, and trans rights. A case he is arguing before the Supreme Court this week — Haaland v. Brackeen — is a window into how it all works.

Trojan Horse

The case calls into question the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, a law that passed with unanimous support in 1978 to combat a history of forced family separation in the United States. First there was the Indian boarding school period, from the late 1860s to the 1940s, which saw Native children sent across the country to live in boarding schools, where their names were changed, their hair was cut, and they were no longer allowed to speak Indigenous languages. That was followed by the Indian Adoption Project, a U.S. government program that lasted well into the 1960s and incentivized the removal of Native children from their homes to be placed with white Christian families. By the mid-1970s, nearly a third of Native kids had been separated from their families and tribes. ICWA was drafted as a solution, making it harder to terminate Native parental rights and establishing placement preferences for kids: first with extended family, then members of the same tribe, then members of any tribe, and then non-Native families.

ICWA went relatively unchallenged for decades but became a target of conservative legal groups beginning with the 2013 Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The case involved a young girl, the white couple who wanted to adopt her, her birth mother (who supported the adoption), and her biological father, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation who invoked ICWA to fight for custody. The adoptive couple argued that far from protecting anyone from discrimination, ICWA actually discriminated on the basis of race, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by applying different child welfare policies to Native families. That argument didn’t hold, but the adoptive couple won the case anyway on narrow technical grounds.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., where the justices are scheduled to hear arguments from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Haaland v. Brackeen.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

If ICWA is found to be race-based, it could call into question all of Indian Law, from certain cultural allowances to broad-reaching land and water rights.

RAGA has had “an enormously distorting effect on U.S. law.”

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Amy Westervelt.

“Jim Schultz and his wealthy backers, like the police union, are spending millions of dollars to sow division and fear.”

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Akela Lacy.

The Golden State’s office of the attorney general announced Wednesday that it had sent letters to seven top plastic bag manufacturers, asking them to substantiate claims that their bags are recyclable. They have two weeks to respond or could face a legal injunction and fines.

“Let’s see the evidence,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a press conference in San Francisco. The probe builds on an ongoing investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry, which his office says has orchestrated a decades-long “deception campaign” to convince the public that plastics are recyclable.

Single-use, non-recyclable plastic bags have been banned in California since 2016, when Senate Bill 270 went into effect statewide. The law allows paper or reusable plastic bags, with the stipulation that reusable plastic bags be able to withstand at least 125 uses and be recyclable in the state. The attorney general’s office is now concerned that plastic bag manufacturers are flouting this law by continuing to produce and sell “reusable” plastic bags that are falsely marketed as recyclable.

“Most Californians are under the impression that plastic bags are recyclable,” Bonta said in a statement, attributing this perception to the “chasing arrows” recycling symbol that’s featured on “most every bag we get from the store.” (A separate California law will ban these symbols on non-recyclable materials starting in 2024.) However, Bonta added, “there’s a good chance that most, if not all, these bags are not actually recyclable in California.”

This is because California has some of the country’s most rigorous regulations around the chasing arrows and the term “recyclable.” Under state law, companies can only claim their products are recyclable if they’re widely collected by recycling programs that serve at least 60 percent of the state’s population, then sorted and ultimately turned into new products. Environmental advocates say plastic bags fail on all three fronts.

“Bags aren’t being recycled anywhere,” said Jan Dell, an independent chemical engineer and founder of the advocacy group The Last Beach Cleanup. According to an analysis she conducted in 2020, California only has the capacity to process 1 percent of its waste from plastic films and bags.

California residents can’t recycle plastic bags through their curbside recycling programs, as virtually none of the state’s material recovery facilities will accept them. Companies have argued around this by adding “store drop-off” to their recycling labels, with the idea that consumers could gather their plastic bags and drop them off at a Wal-Mart or some other participating retailer. In theory, the bags would then be picked up and reprocessed at a more specialized facility.

The reality, Dell said, is that “very, very, very few bags are collected in the very, very, very few bins” that have been set up statewide. She’s contested an industry group’s claim that there are more than 18,000 retail locations offering them; while an online directory lists 52 drop-off bins in Orange County, Dell could only find 18 when she tried to visit them. “There is no store drop-off system,” she told Treehugger last year.

What little plastic may be collected through these programs is unlikely to be turned into new plastic products. Recycled plastics tend not to be price-competitive with virgin plastics, and plastic bags in particular must usually be “downcycled” into lower quality material like drainage pipes.  

Meanwhile, more than half of Californians erroneously believe that plastic bags are OK to put in their curbside bins, in part because they feature the misleading chasing arrows symbol. These misplaced bags are known as a recycling “tangler” — they clog machinery in recycling facilities, making it harder to process legitimately recyclable materials and even posing safety hazards to workers.

On Wednesday, Bonta said he would remain open to evidence that plastic bags are recyclable. But if Novolex, Revolution, Inteplast, and the four other manufacturers can’t provide substantiation, his office could file an injunction “preventing the illegal production of plastic bags to be used in California.” It could also charge the companies “multi-millions of dollars” in civil penalties for having broken state law.
Novolex said in a statement to Plastics News that it’s reviewing the AG’s letter. The six other companies and two industry trade groups, the American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance and the Plastics Industry Association, did not respond to Grist’s request for comment.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The plastics industry says its bags are recyclable. California’s attorney general wants proof. on Nov 4, 2022.

This content originally appeared on Grist and was authored by Joseph Winters.

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This article is co-published with The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsroom that informs and engages with Texans. Sign up for The Brief Weekly to get up to speed on their essential coverage of Texas issues.

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine has opened an investigation into whether southern border state governors misled immigrants as part of what he called a “political stunt” to transport them to Washington.

Racine told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune his office is examining whether immigrants were deceived by trip organizers before boarding buses for Washington, including several hundred who were bused from Texas under instructions from Gov. Greg Abbott and dropped near the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris. Racine’s office has the authority to bring misdemeanor criminal charges or to file civil fraud cases.

Racine said that in interviews with his investigators, arriving immigrants “have talked persuasively about being misled, with talk about promised services.” He offered no specifics about the inquiry, including whether it is being handled by his office’s criminal or civil divisions. The attorney general’s office declined to answer further questions.

Various state and federal laws could apply to transporting immigrants across state lines. Racine’s office could look into whether anyone committed fraud by falsely promising jobs or services, whether there were civil rights violations or whether officials misused taxpayers’ money.

Racine’s investigation comes after weeks of escalating tensions between some Republican governors and the Biden administration over immigration policy. In April, Abbott began busing to Washington immigrants who had been processed and released by federal immigration officials, and he later expanded the initiative to New York and Chicago. To date, more than 12,000 immigrants have been relocated from border towns.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has followed Abbott’s lead and bused 2,170 immigrants to Washington on 60 buses, according to Ducey’s spokesperson, C.J. Karamargin. Most of them, he said, had said they hoped to relocate to New York, New Jersey or Florida.

Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking reelection, turbocharged the issue and moved it to the forefront of a national debate on Biden’s immigration policies. He sent two charter flights to Martha’s Vineyard carrying Venezuelan immigrants who had arrived in Texas. Local officials in Texas have said they were not consulted.

The immigrants and their advocates said that passengers on the charter flights had been told they would be given jobs and support. A sheriff in Texas has opened a criminal investigation into whether Florida officials violated the law by recruiting the migrants from a Texas shelter.

Racine’s involvement ratchets up the pressure on the governors over their actions.

Elected as a Democrat, Racine criticized the Republican governors for using “people as props. That’s what they’ve done with the immigrants.”

Racine’s office can prosecute certain misdemeanors, and felonies are handled by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. But its highest profile work has been bringing civil fraud lawsuits against nonprofits and businesses. In May, it reached a $750,000 settlement in a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, alleging that it had abused donors’ funds by overpaying for rentals at the Trump International Hotel.

The governors have said they have done nothing wrong in transporting immigrants to “sanctuary cities” that may be better equipped to care for them. They say they want the rest of the nation to share the burden of what they call the Biden administration’s open border policies.

Abbott, who is also campaigning for reelection, said that he had had immigrants bused from Texas to Harris’ residence in D.C. to call attention to border security, saying on Twitter, “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job and secure the border.”

In a statement to ProPublica and the Tribune, Abbott’s press secretary, Renae Eze, denied that any trickery has been involved in Texas’ migrant transportation program, which has now sent 8,200 people to Washington on over 195 buses, 3,200 to New York City on over 60 buses and 920 to Chicago on over 15 buses.

“These Democrat elites in our nation’s capital know nothing about Texas’ busing operations. These migrants willingly chose to go to Washington, D.C., having signed a voluntary consent waiver available in multiple languages upon boarding that they agreed on the destination. And they were processed and released by the federal government, who dumped them in small Texas border towns,” she wrote.

DeSantis’ office did not respond, but the governor has said he intends to transport more immigrants out of Florida. Ducey’s spokesperson said Arizona is working with a regional health center to ensure that immigrants are well-treated and get to their final desired destinations. Ducey has said he will continue busing migrants to Washington until he leaves office in January.

Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, an advocacy group, said that some immigrants who were sent from Texas to Harris’ residence in Washington have told his team they were misled about their final destination. The immigrants believed they were bound for Union Station, the city’s central transportation hub, where many hoped to connect with family or trains and buses to other locations. Instead, he said, they were dropped off at about 6 a.m. in an unfamiliar spot, where a church group quickly organized to pick them up.

“I think they are being tricked and being used,” Garcia said.

Since the spring, buses have arrived almost daily at Union Station, where immigrants can now seek support from a new city Office of Migrant Services. So far, Texas taxpayers have spent about $14 million on migrant transportation, according to state records. Buses into Washington have continued in recent days, with several additional arrivals at the vice president’s residence.

Meanwhile, Florida procurement records suggest that the state transportation agency intends to continue using charter air services to transport immigrants out of the state until June 30. The vendor chosen for the charter flights is run by a state Republican donor.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s inspector general is examining Florida’s use of money from COVID-19 funds to finance its migrant transportation program, Politico reported. DeSantis’s office says it used the money properly.

Kirsten Berg contributed research.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Marilyn W. Thompson and Perla Trevizo.

Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• U.N. Security Council debates Russian war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine
• Senate Republicans filibuster Disclose Act which aimed to shine a light on dark money in politics
• President Biden promises federal aid to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Fiona
• Donald Trump claims presidents can declassify documents by thinking about it
• Sonoma teens urge mental health support for young people confronted by wildfires and other climate disasters

Image: justflix, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The post Russia could be headed to International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine; Senate Republicans block bill to eliminate dark money in politics; Attorney General Bonta launches first of its kind state gun violence prevention program: The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – September 22, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

"Huang’s current situation in the detention center remains unknown," the Free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing campaign said in a statement on its Github page.

It said that while Huang's family had hired defense attorney Wan Miaoyan to represent her, police had presented a letter signed by Huang terminating the lawyer's instruction.

When Wan tried to visit Huang at the detention center, the request was denied on the basis of COVID-19 control and prevention measures.

"Huang has been represented by a government-appointed lawyer(s) since then," the campaign said, adding that she is still being held incommunicado, meaning family and friends have no way of knowing how she is doing in detention.

"This is a very worrying situation," it said. "[It] raises suspicions that Huang was coerced into making this decision."

Police transferred Huang and Wang's cases to the Guangzhou municipal prosecution service on March 27. Both face charges of "incitement to subvert state power."

Huang is being held at the Guangzhou No. 1 Detention Center after being transferred from the No. 2 Detention Center, while Wang was held in solitary confinement "for interrogation," activists said.

Huang had planned to leave China via Hong Kong on Sept. 20, 2021 for the U.K., where she planned to take a master's degree in development with a prestigious Chevening Scholarship.

Wang, who is a labor and healthcare rights activist, had planned to see her off on her journey. But both were detained before she could board her flight.

'Supplementary investigation'

A friend of Huang's who gave only the name Tom said he was very surprised that Huang had apparently dismissed her attorney.

"Firstly, the lawyer hired by her family is a good friend of hers," he said. "He was also her lawyer when she was initially arrested."

"Under what circumstances did she make this decision? Was it voluntary? What sort of physical and mental state was she in? We have no way of knowing," Tom said.

Since Huang and Wang's cases were sent to the prosecutor in March, they had twice been sent back for "supplementary investigation" due to lack of evidence, with the case once more sent to the prosecution in mid-August, he said.

He said Wang was in solitary confinement for the first five months, with no contact with anyone outside the facility.

"His mental and physical state was very poor at that time, because he was so depressed," Tom said. "He was sent back [to the detention center] after that, and may be recovering a little now ... at least he's slightly better off than during those five months in solitary confinement."

Human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang, who was himself held in long-term, incommunicado detention from July 2015, said sending cases back for "supplementary investigation" is a common delaying tactic in such cases.

"This practice has a very obvious impact on the rights and interests of the detainees," Wang told RFA. "The long-term and indefinite detention of detainees is itself a kind of punishment, which is seriously damaging to them."

"This sort of physical and psychological damage is obviously a violation of the rights and interests of criminal suspects," he said.

Calls for protection

The overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network called along with dozens of other rights groups for Huang and Wang's rights to be protected in detention.

"We, the undersigned civil society groups, call on Chinese authorities to respect and protect their rights in detention, including access to legal counsel, unfettered communication with family members, their right to health and their right to bodily autonomy," the groups said in a Sept. 19 statement marking the anniversary of Huang and Wang's detention.

"We ... call for their release and for authorities to allow them to carry out their work and make important contributions to social justice," CHRD said.

"We are deeply worried about [Huang's] physical and mental health, and reiterate that incommunicado detention is a grave violation of international law," it said.

It said some 70 friends and acquaintances of Huang and Wang had been summoned for questioning by police across China, with some of them interrogated for up to 24 hours, or repeatedly interrogated.

"The police also coerced and threatened some individuals to sign false statements admitting that they had participated in training activities that had the intention of ‘subverting state power’ and that simple social gatherings were in fact political events to encourage criticism of the government," it said.

Before being targeted by the authorities in 2019, Huang had been an outspoken member of the country's #MeToo movement, and had carried out a survey of sexual harassment and assault cases among Chinese women working in journalism.

Huang was present at a million-strong protest in Hong Kong on June 9, 2019 against plans to allow extradition to mainland China, and was detained for "picking quarrels and stirring up trouble" in October 2019, before being released on bail in January 2020, a status that often involves ongoing surveillance and restrictions on a person's activities.

Her travel documents were also confiscated after her return, preventing her from beginning a law degree in Hong Kong the fall of 2019.

Huang had previously assisted in the investigation and reporting of a number of high-profile sexual harassment allegations against professors at Peking University, Wuhan University of Technology, Henan University and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

Wang started to work in rural development after graduating in 2005, before joining the Guangzhou Gongmin NGO in 2014 and director and coordinator for youth work.

In 2018, he started advocacy and legal support work on behalf of workers with occupational diseases, and was a vocal supporter of China's #MeToo movement.

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin.

In her 20 years at the Innocence Project, Ms. Morrison was an extraordinary force for justice. She helped free dozens of innocent people from wrongful conviction, was an incredible collaborator and leader, and pushed our legal system toward greater accuracy and equity — and she balanced it all while being a mother. We are proud to call her Judge Morrison from now on.

Ms. Morrison will add the much-needed perspective of a person who has seen, firsthand, the failings of the criminal legal system to the federal bench. 

Earlier this year, the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson prompted many writers and scholars to acknowledge the rarity of criminal defense experience among our nation’s federal judges. In addition to being the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, Judge Jackson is just one of two Supreme Court justices with such a background. 

Though much has been written about Judge Jackson’s historic nomination to the Supreme Court, one point that was often overlooked is why the federal bench, and every level of the criminal legal system, benefits from the inclusion of this unique perspective and from greater diversity of thought and perspective. 

Research shows that diverse groups are better decision makers than homogeneous groups, as they engage in more rigorous scrutiny of the facts and produce more accurate and innovative outcomes. Indeed, the Harvard Business Review has noted that “[w]orking with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance.” This analysis is important to federal judicial decision making, where, according to a 2019 Center for American Progress report, more than 73% of federal judges are men and 80% are white. Additionally, the federal bench is also largely made up of former prosecutors: the ratio of prosecutors to defense attorneys on the bench today is almost four to one, according to the Cato Institute.

Thus, the nomination and confirmation of attorneys like Judge Morrison — a woman who dedicated her career to the representation of people who were wrongfully convicted — will bring an unusual and important perspective to the bench and, in so doing, “sharpen” the decision-making process.

Relatedly, it is important to have people from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences serve on the federal bench because those experiences can and do deepen understanding of the issues that come before the court. To be sure, identity does not predetermine how a judge will rule in any given case; however, it can make them more aware of the variety of lived experiences in America. For example, research shows that having at least one woman on an appellate court panel significantly increases the likelihood that the male judges on that panel will find for plaintiffs in cases involving sexual harassment and discrimination, according to the the Center for American Progress. Similarly, the presence of at least one Black judge on a panel increases the likelihood that the non-Black judges on the panel will find for plaintiffs claiming violations of the Voting Rights Act and in affirmative action cases.

Judge Morrison’s experience — of exposing and challenging the failures of the criminal legal system, including deeply entrenched racial bias and police and prosecutorial misconduct — is vitally important to judicial decision-making because she has seen, through her work at the Innocence Project, the flaws and cracks in our legal system up close time and time again.

We are confident that Judge Morrison will bring these much-needed perspectives to the bench and that her experiences, her humility, and her relentless commitment to ensuring equal justice for all will make her an exceptionally fair jurist.

If our criminal legal system is truly to become a beacon of justice, it is imperative that more women like Judge Morrison, more people of color, and more people with criminal defense  backgrounds serve on the bench.

The post Former Innocence Project Attorney Nina Morrison Became a Judge This Week. Here’s Why It Matters to the Criminal Legal System. appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Justin Chan.

Mexican authorities arrested former Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam on Friday for his failure to conduct a thorough investigation into the disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in 2014. This came a day after a truth commission formed by current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the students’ disappearance was a “crime of the state.” The students had been traveling in Iguala when their buses were intercepted by local police and federal military forces in September 2014; some of their remains were found later. Dozens of soldiers and police officers are also expected to face charges. With a high-level official being held accountable in the case, there is hope “that there will be justice, and we will finally know what happened to these 43 students,” says Andalusia Soloff, independent journalist who has reported on the Ayotzinapa case since its inception and published a graphic novel about the disappeared students.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

Fighting back against what critics called "absolutely insane" and "outrageous overreach," suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday over Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' attempt to oust him from elected office.

"Even though Ron DeSantis is governor, the First Amendment still has meaning, Florida's constitution still has meaning, and elections and democracy still have meaning."

Citing Warren's support for a pair of joint statements from the national network Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) about abortion rights and healthcare for transgender people, DeSantis earlier this month issued a suspension order for Warren and appointed Susan Lopez as the prosecutor for Florida's 13th Judicial Circuit, which covers Hillsborough County.

In a video statement posted on Twitter, Warren said that he came to Tallahassee early Wednesday to challenge DeSantis' "blatant abuse of power."

"The governor has broken two laws," he explained. "He's violated my First Amendment rights by retaliating against me for speaking out on abortion and transgender rights, and he's violated the Florida Constitution by removing me from office without any legal justification, throwing out the results of a fair and free election."

"We filed a lawsuit to make sure that even though Ron DeSantis is governor, the First Amendment still has meaning, Florida's constitution still has meaning, and elections and democracy still have meaning," Warren declared, echoing the language of his complaint.

The complaint states that "Warren brings this lawsuit to confirm that the First Amendment still applies even though DeSantis is the governor of Florida and that the Constitution of the state of Florida means what the courts say it means, not whatever DeSantis needs it to mean to silence his critics, promote his loyalists, and subvert the will of the voters."

In response to Warren's Wednesday appearance on CNN to discuss the development, DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske said: "It's not surprising Warren, who was suspended for refusing to follow the law, would file a legally baseless lawsuit challenging his suspension. We look forward to responding in court."

FJP executive director Miriam Krinsky on Wednesday reiterated the network's support for Warren, applauding him "for taking legal action to vindicate the interests of the voters in his community, who twice supported the commonsense reforms he campaigned on and has implemented over the past six years."

Blasting the suspension as "nothing more than an authoritarian takeover of the office motivated by the governor's own political agenda," she said that DeSantis—who is widely expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024—fired Warren "for being transparent with his community about the values and priorities that guide him as he exercises well-established prosecutorial discretion and for making decisions that other prosecutors in Florida implement every day."

"If these are grounds for removal, we'd be hard-pressed to find any elected prosecutor whose job is safe from the governor's tyrannical whims," she added. "This craven power grab undermines the freedom of the people of Florida, which Gov. DeSantis frequently claims to be committed to defending. We hope the court recognizes this abuse of power for what it is and acts immediately to vindicate the rights of the Hillsborough County community and reinstate Andrew Warren to his role as their duly elected state attorney."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came under fire Thursday for suspending Andrew Warren over the state attorney's pledges not to prosecute people for violating restrictions on abortion or gender-affirming care.

Citing the state constitution, DeSantis dismissed Warren for alleged "neglect of duty." The governor's suspension order references the ousted prosecutor's support for a pair of joint statements from the national network Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP).

In addition to announcing Warren's suspension, DeSantis appointed Susan Lopez as new the chief prosecutor for the 13th Judicial Circuit that covers Hillsborough County.

DeSantis—who has recently faced criticism for his attacks on abortion, LGBTQ+, protest, and voting rights—is up for reelection this year and widely expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, which Warren noted in his statement blasting the suspension.

"Today's political stunt is an illegal overreach that continues a dangerous pattern by Ron DeSantis of using his office to further his own political ambition," said Warren. "It spits in the face of the voters of Hillsborough County who have twice elected me to serve them, not Ron DeSantis."

County residents "have the right to elect their own leaders—not have them dictated by an aspiring presidential candidate who has shown time and again he feels accountable to no one," Warren added. "Just because the governor violates your rights, it doesn't mean they don't exist."

FJP executive director Miriam Krinsky called Warren's suspension "an unprecedented and dangerous intrusion on the separation of powers and the will of the voters," adding that "the independence of the prosecutor—and the autonomy to decide whom and what to charge with inherently limited resources—has been a hallmark of the American criminal legal system."

While condemning DeSantis for his "outrageous overreach" and "blatant power grab," Krinsky also made clear that the network stands with Warren, who she said "was elected and reelected because of his commitment to smart justice and public safety."

Reporter Paul Blest also highlighted voter support for Warren as well as the lack of local support for DeSantis, who narrowly won the governorship in 2018 but lost Hillsborough County—which includes Tampa—by nine points.

Florida-based writer and organizer Thomas Kennedy said that "Ron DeSantis continues his authoritarian crusade against anyone who opposes his assault on our rights by suspending Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, who recently said he would not prosecute people for not complying with Florida's recently enacted abortion ban."

In a move that critics warned would end Florida's status as "an oasis of reproductive care in the South," DeSantis signed the state's 15-week abortion ban in April, about two months before the U.S. Supreme Court ended the right to abortion on a national level.

DeSantis' suspension order notes that Warren is the only state attorney in Florida who signed on to FJP's statement that followed the high court's decision, which said in part that enforcing abortion bans "will erode trust in the legal system, hinder our ability to hold perpetrators accountable, take resources away from the enforcement of serious crime, and inevitably lead to the retraumatization and criminalization of victims of sexual violence."

The governor's order also attacks Warren for backing FJP's June statement which declares, "Bills that criminalize safe and crucial medical treatments or the mere public existence of trans people do not promote public safety, community trust, or fiscal responsibility."

Although, as DeSantis' order highlights, the Florida Legislature has not passed laws prohibiting gender-affirming care or trans people from using facilities such as bathrooms that align with their identity, the state may soon ban certain healthcare for LGBTQ+ youth.

The Florida Board of Medicine is set to meet Friday to review a proposal by the state Department of Health—which is under Desantis' control—to deny gender-affirming care to trans state residents under the age of 18.

Along with denouncing "DeSantis' assault on transgender Floridians, Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow stressed Thursday that "science, medicine, and evidence-based approaches have demonstrated time and time again that transition-related care is medically necessary and lifesaving care, and if this proposal is adopted, it will go against the recommendation of every major medical association."

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Jessica Corbett.

As protests continue across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, we speak with two leading legal scholars. Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert is co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and argued the landmark case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992, which upheld Roe v. Wade. She is the co-author of “Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.” Michele Goodwin is chancellor’s professor at University of California, Irvine School of Law and author of “Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.” Her new piece for The New York Times is headlined “No, Justice Alito, Reproductive Justice Is in the Constitution.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

As protests continue across the country in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, speak with two leading legal scholars. Kathryn “Kitty” Kolbert is co-founder of the Center for Reproductive Rights and argued the landmark case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1992, which upheld Roe v. Wade. She is the co-author of “Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom.” Michele Goodwin is chancellor’s professor at University of California, Irvine School of Law and author of “Policing The Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood.” Her new piece for The New York Times is headlined “No, Justice Alito, Reproductive Justice Is in the Constitution.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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By slashing inpatient psychiatric care, New York has left people with too few places to turn for treatment of serious mental health conditions, state Attorney General Letitia James said at a hearing held by her office Wednesday.

James called the hearing following reports by THE CITY and ProPublica on New York state’s failure to provide mental health care to children and adolescents. Our investigation found that state officials have closed nearly one-third of the beds for children in state-run psychiatric hospitals since 2014, under a “Transformation Plan” rolled out by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. During the same period, nonprofit groups shut down more than half of the beds in New York’s residential treatment facilities for kids, in large part because state payments were too low to keep the programs running.

“We’re at a crisis point, and we certainly need action,” James said at the hearing. “Emergency departments are overwhelmed by individuals who require more intensive psychiatric services but are unable to access necessary psychiatric inpatient beds or services in the community.

“When a child is in crisis,” James continued, “parents or caretakers have only two options: go to the ER or call 911. And too often, as we’ve seen in our office, they’ve had run-ins with the police that only make the situations that much worse. These children are waiting months and months for treatment.”

The lack of care is, in large part, a direct result of cost-saving measures and deliberate hospital bed closures made during the Cuomo administration, said James, who cited our reporting during the hearing.

In return for closing beds, state officials promised to expand access to outpatient and community-based mental health services that aim to keep kids safe at home. But those programs were never adequately funded, and providers say they can’t afford to hire or retain enough staff. According to a lawsuit filed in March, New York fails to provide community-based mental health services to the vast majority of children who are entitled to them under federal law. (The state officials named in the suit have not yet responded to the complaint.)

“Things are desperate out there,” testified Alice Bufkin, associate executive director for policy and advocacy at the Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York. “Children are presenting at younger and younger ages with serious mental illness. Families are blocked at every stage from finding care. Young people are cycling in and out of ERs and hospitals because they can’t get the care they need early.”

The problems are “driven by chronic underinvestment in the children’s behavioral health system,” both by New York state and by private insurance plans, which underpay mental health providers and fail to ensure access to preventive mental health care, Bufkin said.

In March, Rich Azzopardi, a spokesperson for Cuomo, told THE CITY and ProPublica that facility closures were part of a larger effort to shift funds out of hospital beds and into outpatient care. The Cuomo administration significantly increased investment in community-based mental health services, Azzopardi wrote.

During this year’s session, the New York Legislature approved funding increases for many mental health programs. However, several providers and advocates testified at the hearing that very little of the new money has been distributed, and that the increases, while valuable, will not go far enough to reverse decades of underfunding.

It can be all but impossible to access hospital care for kids experiencing mental health emergencies, said Ronald Richter, New York City’s former child welfare commissioner and the current CEO of JCCA, which runs residential programs for children in foster care in Westchester County. Kids in crisis are turned away by the Westchester Medical Center, Richter said. “These emergency rooms are unable to evaluate young people because they are overwhelmed. They are afraid to admit young people into their ERs because they have no place to discharge these young people to. There are simply not enough psychiatric beds for children who are suffering.”

From 2014 to 2021, New York closed 32% of its state-run hospital beds for kids, cutting the total from 460 to 314. The biggest reduction took place at the New York City Children’s Center, where the bed total was cut nearly in half — down to 92 in 2021. Meanwhile, in the first five years after the Transformation Plan’s launch, the number of mental health emergency room visits by young people on New York’s Medicaid program — the public health insurance plan that covers more than 7 million lower-income state residents — shot up by nearly 25%.

JCCA staffers sometimes resort to bringing kids to Bellevue, a public hospital in New York City, for a better chance that they will be evaluated or admitted, Richter said.

In response to Richter’s testimony, James noted that hospitals are legally required to evaluate and stabilize anyone who presents at the emergency room with a medical crisis, and she asked New Yorkers who are turned away for emergency mental health care to contact her office “so we can look at these complaints to determine whether individuals are complying with the law.”

“This hearing is about exploring potential areas of reform and informing my office for future investigations into allegations of inadequate mental health treatment or lack of parity,” James said.

In all, more than two dozen people testified at the hearing, including elected officials, health care providers and New York residents who said they couldn’t access mental health care when they or their children needed it.

Among them was a mother from Long Island named Tamara Begel, whom we identified in our reporting by her middle name, Rae. Begel’s son started cycling in and out of psychiatric emergency rooms after he attempted suicide at age 9. Most times, he was not admitted to an inpatient bed. When he was, he had to wait several days in the ER because all of the psychiatric hospital beds for kids were full. “The problems started way before COVID,” Begel said at the hearing.

During his most recent hospitalization, doctors said that Begel’s son needed care at a longer-term state psychiatric facility, but beds were full there too. He waited two months in a hospital unit designed for short-term stays, where he was assaulted by other patients and restrained multiple times, both physically and with injected medication, his mom testified.

“The system of care on Long Island in general has completely collapsed,” Begel told James. “Parents are at the breaking point because we cannot get the health care for our children. We need people to step in.”

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Abigail Kramer and Gabriel Poblete, THE CITY.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

A special prosecutor has charged Alaska’s former acting attorney general with three counts of sexual abuse of a minor for having sex with a 17-year-old girl he coached on a high school mock trial team in May 1991.

The charges were filed Friday in Alaska state court in Anchorage against Clyde “Ed” Sniffen, who served as acting attorney general from August 2020 to January 2021. Gov. Mike Dunleavy asked the Department of Law to appoint an independent investigator to review the case after the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica first reported in January 2021 that a woman had accused Sniffen of sexual misconduct.

Sniffen resigned as the newsrooms were preparing the article. In his resignation letter, Sniffen wrote that he had decided to step aside “after discussions with family, and for personal reasons.” Sniffen’s attorney declined comment and said he would not make his client available for an interview.

Dunleavy had appointed Sniffen as his permanent attorney general, subject to confirmation by the Legislature, days before his resignation. At that time, the governor said Sniffen “has a long and proven record of leadership within the Department of Law and I am proud to appoint him to serve as our state’s next Attorney General.”

Sniffen replaced former Attorney General Kevin Clarkson, who resigned after the Daily News and ProPublica reported he had sent hundreds of questionable texts to a female colleague. In his resignation letter, Clarkson wrote, “I regret that my actions and errors in judgment in interacting with a state employee have become a distraction to the good work and good people working in the state’s and your service.”

Nikki Dougherty White, now 48, told the news organizations that Sniffen first had sex with her during a mock trial team competition in New Orleans and continued their sexual relationship upon returning to Anchorage. Those allegations form the basis for the felony charges filed Friday.

White had come forward publicly for the first time after learning that Sniffen had been appointed attorney general.

Reached by phone Friday, special prosecutor Gregg Olson declined to discuss the details of the charges. White also declined to comment.

The Department of Law, in a statement issued late Friday, said: “Within 24 hours of learning of the allegations against Mr. Sniffen, this office acted to appoint a special prosecutor in the interest of justice, fairness, and transparency. Now that the charges have been filed, the special prosecutor will continue to make decisions independent from the Department of Law to bring the case to resolution.”

The Law Department statement continued: “The allegation that Mr. Sniffen took advantage of his authority to engage in sexual acts with the victim is disturbing and disappointing. As attorneys who work on behalf of the State to hold people accountable, we expect to be held to the same level of accountability. This further compels us to be advocates for victims, and more importantly, clearly emphasize our role is to ensure justice for every Alaskan.”

Anchorage police investigated the case, interviewing White and other former members of the mock trial team who joined Sniffen on the trip to New Orleans.

Friday’s criminal complaint, which was first reported by the Alaska Beacon, focuses on Sniffen’s alleged actions in Alaska, following the New Orleans trip. Sniffen is accused of having sex with White, who is identified by her initials in the complaint, three times between May 13 and May 28, 1991.

The complaint says the offenses took place at the homes of Sniffen’s friends and at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage. Sniffen was 27 years old at the time.

Under an Alaska law enacted in 1990, months before Sniffen and White traveled to New Orleans, it was illegal for an adult to have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old whom he or she was teaching, counseling or coaching. (In many other instances, the age of consent in Alaska is 16.)

Olson said the charges carry a maximum of five years in prison each. Because of the timing of the alleged offense, Sniffen would not be required to register as a sex offender if convicted, he said.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gao Feng.

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Anchorage Daily News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published.

More than a year after the acting Alaska attorney general suddenly resigned, the criminal investigation into his alleged sexual contact with a teenager decades ago is not complete, and two special prosecutors hired to look into the case have billed for less than two weeks’ time.

Nikki Dougherty White told the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica in January 2021 that Ed Sniffen began an illegal sexual relationship with her in 1991 when she was a 17-year-old high school student and Sniffen was the coach of her school’s mock trial team. Sniffen was 27 years old at the time.

Under Alaska law, it is a felony for an adult to have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old if the adult is the minor’s coach. (In most other cases, the age of consent in Alaska is 16.)

Sniffen resigned as the Daily News and ProPublica were preparing an article about the allegations.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who appointed Sniffen to the role, has said through a spokesperson that he was unaware of the allegations against Sniffen until the newsrooms began investigating White’s story. The governor then directed incoming Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor to “appoint a special outside counsel, independent of the Department of Law, to investigate possible criminal misconduct by Mr. Sniffen.”

Billing records obtained by the Daily News and ProPublica show two special prosecutors hired to look into the case have spent a combined total of 70.5 hours investigating the matter. As of Feb. 11, the state of Alaska had spent about $19,500 of a budgeted $50,000 on the investigation.

White, who has cooperated with the investigation, says she’s tired of waiting for answers.

“I feel like the state’s letting me down,” she said. “There doesn’t seem to be a high level of interest from the government in getting this right.”

A spokesperson for the state Department of Law referred questions to the independent prosecutor and said the department “is not involved in this investigation in any way and has no input or influence over the timing or status.” The special prosecutor, Gregg Olson, said this month that he cannot proceed until he receives a final report from the Anchorage Police Department.

“I anticipate that the investigation is near its conclusion,” said Olson, a retired state prosecutor who worked in the office of special prosecutions and as the district attorney in Bethel and Fairbanks. “But I don’t make any conclusions, form any opinions about a case until the investigation is complete.”

The Anchorage Police Department declined to answer questions about the investigation, which according to Olson is being handled by a detective within the Crimes Against Children Unit.

Sniffen has turned down repeated interview requests and, through his attorney, Jeffrey Robinson, would not say if he has cooperated in the investigation. Neither Olson nor the Department of Law spokesperson would say whether Sniffen has cooperated.

“Mr. Sniffen disputes any allegation of wrongdoing, and out of respect for the process undertaken by Mr. Olson, declines to comment any further,” Robinson wrote in an email.

Dunleavy appointed Sniffen to the attorney general position on Jan. 18, 2021, pending confirmation by the state Legislature. Sniffen was a longtime attorney for the Department of Law’s consumer protection unit but was unfamiliar to many Alaskans until he was named as the replacement for Attorney General Kevin Clarkson.

Clarkson had resigned in August 2020 after the Daily News and ProPublica revealed that he had sent hundreds of personal text messages to a junior state employee. (In his resignation letter, Clarkson acknowledged errors in judgment but characterized his texts to the woman as “‘G’ rated.”)

When Sniffen resigned, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Law said the new attorney general had determined that it would have been a potential conflict of interest for one of the state attorneys who had been working for Sniffen to investigate the case, and the state would “contract with special counsel to ensure an independent and unbiased investigation into any possible wrongdoing.”

That was 397 days ago.

The Department of Law originally selected former sex-crimes prosecutor Rachel Gernat to oversee the case. Gernat said at the time that she did not know Sniffen personally and was not a current or recent state employee.

Potential witnesses told the Daily News and ProPublica they were contacted for interviews in the first six months of 2021, and White said the investigation seemed to be moving swiftly.

White and her attorney, Caitlin Shortell, said they held multiple Zoom meetings with Gernat, providing additional details and the names of other potential witnesses.

“One thing that we heard from Rachael Gernat was that this case is astonishingly well corroborated despite the fact that it happened so long ago,” Shortell said. “That it is more well corroborated than cases that happened last month.”

Shortell said she doesn’t know what remains to be done in the investigation and that as far as she knows, “almost all of the witnesses were able to be contacted.”

But on June 8, 2021, while still under contract with the Department of Law, Gernat applied for a job within the agency.

“Based on that inquiry, I was replaced as the special prosecutor,” she wrote in an email to the Daily News and ProPublica. “This replacement was to avoid any appearance of bias and to ensure the confidence in the neutrality of the special prosecutor.”

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Olson replaced Gernat as special prosecutor a month later, on July 12, 2021. Gernat had worked 49 hours on the case.

The next day, Gernat emailed White’s attorney to inform her of the change, noting that the “investigation itself is coming to a conclusion.”

To White and her attorney, there has appeared to be little movement in the case since Gernat’s departure.

“It’s been months and months of nothing but radio silence,” White said. “It’s difficult to have gone through first the article, and then to go through the three intense interviews with the Anchorage Police Department, and then to have multiple calls with the previous prosecutor.”

“And I feel like now it’s just kind of gone into this void of nothing,” she said.

Olson said that after his initial request for the police to take additional steps in the investigation, he has been waiting too.

“Honestly I personally would have hoped that I was going to get this case, get the report, make a decision and move on,” he said. “I’m still waiting for that. Hopefully, it will happen soon.”

In 1991, when, according to White, she and Sniffen began a sexual relationship on a high school trip to New Orleans, the Alaska Legislature had recently changed state law to ensure that educators and other authority figures could not legally have sex with teenagers under their care or influence. The legislation was seen as closing a loophole that had been revealed two years before when an Anchorage teacher and newspaper columnist was charged with having a sexual relationship with one of his 17-year-old students. A judge at the time found there was no law against the relationship.

The Legislature amended the sexual abuse of a minor law in 1990 to make it a crime for a teacher, coach, youth leader or someone in a “substantially similar position” to engage in sexual activity with someone who they are teaching or coaching and who is under the age of 18.

That law took effect on Sept. 19, 1990, according to state law library records. A substantially similar version remains on the books today.

State prosecutors have used the law to file criminal charges against 12 people over the past five years, according to sex crimes data provided by the Alaska Court System.

One of the most recent cases, filed June 8, 2021, involves a village public safety officer accused of having sex with a high school student who had asked for a ride home from a party. The officer was 27 years old at the time; the alleged victim was 17.

Alaska State Troopers learned of the alleged crime when the VPSO confessed to another law enforcement officer and that officer reported the case as required by state law, according to charges filed in state court. The former officer has pleaded not guilty.

Another two cases resulted in convictions, two were dismissed and seven are awaiting trial.

Under current Alaska law, there is no statute of limitations on felony sexual abuse of a minor, although Gernat said at the time of her appointment that it can depend on the severity and timing of the offense. In one 2016 case, an Anchorage jury found a man guilty of sexually abusing a 16-year-old while acting as an authority figure, for abuse that occurred in 2005.

Asked if he had concluded whether any statute of limitations might apply to allegations against Sniffen, Olson said only, “I have not made any final legal determinations in the case.”

White said she does not regret going public with her story despite the delays. She is Athabascan and Alaska is her home state, she said, and when she heard Sniffen had been named as the state’s top law enforcement officer, she felt compelled to speak out.

“This means a lot to my family and I wouldn’t have been able to sit by and say, ‘Oh I just need to let this go,’” she said. “If Clarkson was drummed out for text messages to an adult woman, I felt that Sniffen had absolutely zero business sitting behind the desk of the attorney general.”

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Gao Feng.

On February 16, Minas Gerais state Attorney General Jarbas Soares Júnior filed a criminal complaint and a civil lawsuit against Herdy, according to the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview, a statement by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji), and court documents that CPJ reviewed.

The complaint and lawsuit stem from a January 30 article by Herdy, a reporter at the privately owned online news outlet UOL who often reports on politics and corruption, which alleged that Soares Júnior had requested that the state government include compensation for a project in the town of São Francisco, where several of his family members live, in a recent monetary settlement from a mining company.

Fernanda Fiorenzano, a press officer at the Minas Gerais state attorney’s office, told CPJ in an email that Herdy’s report was “offensive to the honor of the Attorney General” and that the criminal complaint sought to prosecute him for “crime against honor.” 

The Brazilian penal code defines three types of crimes against honor: slander, which can carry up to two years in prison; defamation, which carries up to one year; and injury, which carries up to six months. Soares Júnior’s complaint only references the broad crime against honor; prosecutors can decide which charges to pursue, or whether to drop the investigation.

“Prosecutors should not pursue criminal charges against Brazilian journalist Thiago Herdy, and the Minas Gerais attorney general should refrain from using criminal suits and the very office he oversees to retaliate against the press,” said Natalie Southwick, CPJ’s Latin America and the Caribbean program coordinator, in New York. “Journalists play a key role in ensuring transparency and accountability, and public officials must stop responding to allegations of wrongdoing by hiding behind Brazil’s outdated criminal defamation laws.”

Herdy told CPJ that he reached out to Soares Júnior several days before publishing his article; while the attorney general’s comments were included in his report, they did not address the alleged request to include the São Francisco project in the settlement.

On February 16, Soares Júnior posted on Instagram that he had filed a civil lawsuit and criminal complaint against “the journalist who threw my mother’s history and mine to the wolves.” Herdy said that another journalist told him about that Instagram post, but authorities had not formally notified him of any legal action as of February 22.

“It is an attempt at intimidation,” Herdy told CPJ. “Instead of responding to the core of the report, he [Soares Júnior] attacks the journalist. This is a well-known strategy. As attorney general, he is attacking a fundamental right for everyone, which is the right to information and freedom of the press.”

Herdy said that, in his 16 years of covering politics and corruption, this was the first time he had faced a criminal complaint over his work.

In its statement, Abraji said it was “extremely concerning” that “the head of the state’s prosecutor’s office uses the structure of his cabinet and the strength of his position to ask the very same prosecutor’s office to investigate and prosecute a reporter that wrote a piece about him.”

Brazilian authorities have repeatedly used the country’s outdated criminal defamation laws to pressure and harass journalists, according to CPJ research.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.

Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s attorney general and one of several Republicans in the state running for U.S. Senate this year, delivered an urgent message to the governor this month. In a legal opinion issued February 7, Brnovich concluded that due to the “unprecedented” policies of President Joe Biden, the state is experiencing an “invasion” in the form of people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico divide. Arizona is well within its rights to activate the “war powers” of the U.S. Constitution and respond with military force, Brnovich wrote, but it is up to Gov. Doug Ducey to give his troops the green light.

The following day, an analysis of the government’s own data by the organization Human Rights First painted a much different picture of the situation in Arizona, revealing that the people who would likely bear the brunt of a state offensive on the southern border are those fleeing violence and instability in some of Latin America’s most tumultuous places.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich speaks to reporters during a news conference at his office in Phoenix on Nov. 22, 2021.

Photo: Jonathan J. Cooper/Getty Images

“The only way for them to access protection is between ports of entry, and that means that they have to rely on cartels and organized criminal groups.”

Members of the Arizona National Guard listen to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey at the Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix on April 9, 2018.

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This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by Ryan Devereaux.

(Brownsville, Texas) Attorneys for Melissa Lucio today filed two separate motions to remove Judge Gabriela Garcia, who is assigned to Ms. Lucio’s case, and District Attorney Luis Saenz because two key members of Ms. Lucio’s original defense team now work for them. Assistant District Attorney Peter Gilman and Judge Garcia’s court administrator, Irma Gilman, previously represented Ms. Lucio at her 2008 trial. 

As her prior defense team, Mr. Gilman and Mrs. Gilman owe Ms. Lucio a continuing duty to cooperate with her current counsel, according to today’s filings in the 138th Judicial District Court of Cameron County. (Judge Motion at pp. 1-2. )(D.A. Motion at pp. 11-13.) Ms. Lucio, who is  scheduled for execution on April 27, 2022, was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the accidental death of her two-year-old daughter, Mariah. 

“Judge Garcia’s and D.A. Saenz’s roles in this case have the effect of obstructing Melissa Lucio’s access to evidence. As Ms. Lucio’s defense team at trial, Peter Gilman and Irma Gilman have a duty to cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s current counsel. But as long as D.A. Saenz is on the case, Peter Gilman’s conflict of interest prevents him from cooperating with Ms. Lucio’s current attorneys. And as long as Judge Garcia is on the case, Irma Gilman can’t cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s counsel because it would be a prohibited ex parte communication,” said Tivon Schardl, Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender for the Western District of Texas, and Melissa Lucio’s attorney.

“Texas law automatically disqualifies Judge Garcia and D.A. Saenz. And both circumstances constitute due process violations under the 14th Amendment,” Schardl added.

Melissa Lucio’s Motion to Disqualify or Recuse Judge Gabriela Garcia can be viewed here.

Melissa Lucio’s Motion to Disqualify the Cameron County District Attorney can be viewed here: here.

Ms. Lucio’s Motion to Disqualify or Recuse Judge Garcia states that Judge Garcia’s court administrator, Irma Gilman, worked on Ms. Lucio’s defense when she was a paralegal for Ms. Lucio’s lead trial counsel, Peter Gilman, her husband. (Judge Motion at p. 1.) The motion states that Mrs. Gilman necessarily learned confidential information while working as Mr. Gilman’s paralegal and that information, under Texas law, is imputed to Judge Garcia. (Judge Motion at p. 1.)

“Judge Garcia’s and D.A. Saenz’s roles in this case have the effect of obstructing Melissa Lucio’s access to evidence.”

Among other issues, the motion states, “Mrs. Gilman’s work on Ms. Lucio’s defense made her familiar with the files of defense counsel in Ms. Lucio’s trial. That knowledge makes Mrs. Gilman an important witness for Ms. Lucio as she investigates and presents grounds” for further litigation. (Judge Motion at p. 2.) If Ms. Lucio’s Motion to Disqualify or Recuse the Judge is granted, the judge will void the warrant for Ms. Lucio’s execution. (Judge Motion at pp. 7-8.)

In a separate motion, Ms. Lucio moves to disqualify District Attorney Saenz on the ground that Peter Gilman, who was Ms. Lucio’s lead defense attorney at her trial, now works for the District Attorney and has since 2009. Mr. Gilman’s dual role as an assistant district attorney and predecessor counsel for Ms. Lucio disqualifies the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office. (D.A. Motion at p. 4.)

The Motion to Disqualify the Cameron County District Attorney quotes the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, “’If a prosecuting attorney has formerly represented the defendant in the ‘same’ criminal matter as that currently being prosecuted, he is statutorily disqualified.’ This has been called the ‘hard and fast rule of disqualification’ because when [an attorney] switches sides ‘in the same criminal case [there] is an actual conflict of interest [that] constitutes a due-process violation, even without a specific showing of prejudice.’” (D.A. Motion at p. 4.)(citations omitted.)

’If a prosecuting attorney has formerly represented the defendant in the ‘same’ criminal matter as that currently being prosecuted, he is statutorily disqualified.’

The rules of legal ethics also impose on Mr. Gilman a duty to cooperate with Ms. Lucio’s new counsel, which includes reviewing Mr. Gilman’s files to determine whether the D.A.’s office violated Ms. Lucio’s right to a fair trial by suppressing evidence of her innocence. Mr. Gilman has a conflict of interest because his current boss, D.A. Saenz, has pursued a policy of non-cooperation with Ms. Lucio’s current counsel. (D.A. Motion at pp. 11-13.)

On February 8, 2022, Ms. Lucio filed a motion, which is still pending, to withdraw her execution date because she is innocent, among other grounds. Ms. Lucio, a Mexican-American from the Rio Grande Valley, is on death row despite forensic and eyewitness evidence that her daughter died from a head injury after a fall. Mariah’s death was a tragic accident, not a murder.

At the time of her arrest, Ms. Lucio had no record of violence. Thousands of pages of protective service records and recorded interviews with her children show that Ms. Lucio was not abusive.

Hours after her daughter died, and while pregnant with twins, Ms. Lucio was subjected to a five-hour, late-night, carefully orchestrated, and aggressive interrogation until, physically and emotionally exhausted, she agreed to say, “I guess I did it.”

Lacking any solid physical evidence or eyewitnesses, the prior District Attorney, Armando Villalobos, characterized Ms. Lucio’s acquiescence as a “confession” and prosecuted her for capital murder. D.A. Villalobos, who initially hired Peter Gilman, was corrupt: he is now serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for bribery and extortion, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ms. Lucio suffered a lifetime of sexual abuse, starting at just six years old, and domestic violence, which made her especially vulnerable to the intimidating, coercive, and psychological interrogation tactics that resulted in a false confession. Of the 67 women listed on the National Registry of Exonerations who were exonerated after a murder conviction, over one quarter (17/67) involved false confessions and nearly one third (20/67) involved child victims.

The post FILING: Texas Law Requires the Removal of Judge Garcia and District Attorney Saenz from Melissa Lucio’s Case appeared first on Innocence Project.

This content originally appeared on Innocence Project and was authored by Alicia Maule.

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Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• Senate hearing on For the People Act to expand voting rights and protections.
• President Joe Biden picks Vice President Kamala Harris to tackle nation’s immigration crisis.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom nominates Alameda County Assemblyman Rob Bonta for Attorney General.
• Senate confirms first transgender to cabinet post, Dr. Rachel Levine, as Assistant Secretary of Health.
• President Joe Biden calls for end to gender pay gap on Equal Pay Day.
• 700 janitors go on strike in San Francisco, demand better wages and protections.

Photo of Dr. Rachel Levine by The Office of Governor Tom Wolf.

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This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• Mass Shooting in Atlanta leaves 9 dead, most of Asian descent.
• Campaign pushes California Governor to appoint an AAPI lawmaker to Attorney General.
• Senate holds hearing on Equality Act, to extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ people.
• Senate moves forward with house voting rights bill and mulls filibuster to ensure it’s passage.
• Congress advances Equal Rights Act and Violence Against Women Act.
• San Francisco assemblyman proposes use of radar to detect speeders on the road.

Photo is a screenshot of House Democrats’ Equal Rights Amendment press conference.

The post Mass Shooting in Atlanta leaves 6 Asian women dead; Campaign pushes California Governor to appoint an AAPI lawmaker to Attorney General; Congress advances Equal Rights Act and Violence Against Women act – March 17, 2021 appeared first on KPFA.

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Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

• Democrats demand President Trump’s removal and impeachment, in wake of capital siege.
• Capitol police chief and senate sergeant of arms resign after Trump supporters storm capitol.
• 5 dead in wake of pro Trump insurrection at U.S. capitol.
• President-elect Joe Biden announces Attorney General and team to “restore integrity” to rule of law.
• United States and California hit record coronavirus deaths.
• California coronavirus vaccine commission convenes to ramp up vaccinations.
• Facebook and Twitter ban President Donald Trump’s social media accounts.

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This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• The body of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lays in state
• Both major party’s presidential campaigns attempt to appeal to voters of color
• Congressional Black Caucus announces legislative package aimed at closing racial divide
• Taylor family attorney calls on Kentucky attorney general to release grand jury evidence
• National Trust for Historic Preservation places Ohlone’s Shellmound site on list of America’s 11 Most Endandangered Historic Places

The post The body of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lays in state; Both major party’s presidential campaigns attempt to appeal to voters of color; Taylor family attorney calls on Kentucky attorney general to release grand jury evidence appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87
• Joe Biden and Kamala Harris launch Turn Up and Turn Out the Vote Virtual Bus Tour
• Critics allege political motives behind Trump’s announcement of Puerto Rican aid package
• Health and Human Services rewrites CDC’s coronavirus guidlines over objections of scientists
• Second wave of coronavirus infections sweeps across Europe
• UK slides toward nationwide lockdown to slow accelerating spread of covid-19
• India’s coronavirus cases and deaths spike ahead of next month’s start of Hindu festival season
• Firefighter dies battling CA wildfire sparked by pyrotechnic device used for gender reveal party
• New evacuation orders for growing Bobcat Wildfire in mountains NE of Los Angeles
• SF District Attorney Chesa Boudin launches Innocence Commission
• Health and Human Services rolls back anti-discrimination rules that protected transgender people

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• Speeches from Presidential candidate Joe Biden and President Donald Trump differ in visions.
• Progressive Democrat, Senator Ed Markey wins Massachusetts primary.
• Governor Gavin Newsom unveils details of eviction moratorium and coronavirus stats.
• San Francisco Mayor London Breed urges social distancing during Labor Day.
• Manslaughter charges filed against San Leandro police officer in fatal shooting.
• Firefighter dies battling wildfires in northern California.

The post Speeches from Presidential candidate Joe Biden and President Donald Trump differ in visions; Alameda County District Attorney files manslaughter charges against police officer in fatal shooting appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Speeches from Presidential candidate Joe Biden and President Donald Trump differ in visions.
• Progressive Democrat, Senator Ed Markey wins Massachusetts primary.
• Governor Gavin Newsom unveils details of eviction moratorium and coronavirus stats.
• San Francisco Mayor London Breed urges social distancing during Labor Day.
• Manslaughter charges filed against San Leandro police officer in fatal shooting.
• Firefighter dies battling wildfires in northern California.

The post Speeches from Presidential candidate Joe Biden and President Donald Trump differ in visions; Alameda County District Attorney files manslaughter charges against police officer in fatal shooting appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Attorney General William Barr scrutinized at House Judiciary hearing for using troops at protests.
• Senior National Guard Commander says troops used excessive force on protesters.
• Mayors urge funding for cities in next coronavirus relief bill, after Republican plan excludes it.
• President Donald Trump promotes false video about coronavirus, questions experts.
• California sues Trump administration’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count.
• San Francisco unions speak out against police killing of Sean Monterrosa in Vallejo.

Image by Bill Oxford on Unsplash.com

The post House Democrats grill Attorney General over troop deployment to quash protests; California sues Trump administration’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.

• Attorney General William Barr scrutinized at House Judiciary hearing for using troops at protests.
• Senior National Guard Commander says troops used excessive force on protesters.
• Mayors urge funding for cities in next coronavirus relief bill, after Republican plan excludes it.
• President Donald Trump promotes false video about coronavirus, questions experts.
• California sues Trump administration’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count.
• San Francisco unions speak out against police killing of Sean Monterrosa in Vallejo.

Image by Bill Oxford on Unsplash.com

The post House Democrats grill Attorney General over troop deployment to quash protests; California sues Trump administration’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census count appeared first on KPFA.

This content originally appeared on KPFA - The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.