Jose Garcia
Jose Garcia's JournalGeorgia prosecutor on Trump case paid for trips with District Attorney Willis on his credit card, court filing shows
Source: CNN
The special prosecutor hired by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to pursue the criminal case against former President Donald Trump bought tickets for Willis to accompany him on at least two out-of-state trips, records released Friday show.
A Friday motion filed in Cobb County Superior Court by Joycelyn Wade in her divorce case with the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, includes copies of credit card statements that show he purchased airline tickets for him and Willis, including trips to Miami in October 2022 and San Francisco in April 2023.
Willis suggested in a court filing Thursday that Joycelyn Wade is using the divorce proceedings to harass the district attorney and damage her reputation and is “obstructing and interfering with an ongoing criminal prosecution.” Willis brought the sprawling racketeering indictment against Trump and his associates last year over their actions in Georgia following the 2020 election.
Willis said in her filing that Joycelyn Wade has been separated from her husband for more than two years and “has conspired with interested parties in the criminal election interference case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass and oppress District Attorney Willis.”
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/19/politics/fani-willis-divorce-documents-fulton-county/index.html
Happy MLK Jr. Day from RFK Jr.
RFK Jr. defends Kennedy administration wiretap of Martin Luther King Jr.
ATLANTA — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday defended his family’s role in authorizing government surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr., calling it a necessary step amid the political tensions of the Civil Rights era.
Kennedy’s provocative comments came as the independent presidential candidate was on a campaign trip to Atlanta on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
In an exclusive interview with POLITICO, Kennedy said that his father, Robert F. Kennedy — who authorized the wiretapping of King as attorney general — and President John F. Kennedy permitted the eavesdropping because they were “making big bets on King, particularly in organizing the March on Washington.”
“They were betting not only the civil rights movement but their own careers. And they knew that Hoover was out to ruin King,” said Robert Kennedy Jr., referring to J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director at the time.
Lead prosecutor in Georgia election subversion case under scrutiny over alleged affair with DA
Source: CNN
Fulton County, GA
CNN
—
When Nathan Wade was appointed lead prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case in 2021 to prosecute former President Donald Trump, some of his closest allies, lawyers in Cobb County where Wade practiced law, universally wondered, “Why him?”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had the largest staff of any judicial circuit in Georgia, including salaried lawyers with more experience as felony prosecutors. Wade had once been a prosecutor briefly, but mostly handled misdemeanors and never such a high-profile case.
More than two years later, questions are surfacing about Wade’s role. One of Trump’s co-defendants facing criminal charges over efforts to overturn the 2020 election has alleged in court papers that Wade is romantically involved with Willis and used money he billed the district attorney’s office for his work on the case to take her on lavish vacations.
While the filing didn’t include direct evidence of their romantic involvement, Willis was served this week with a subpoena to appear at a deposition in Wade’s divorce proceedings.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/nathan-wade-fani-willis-da-georgia-election-subversion-case/index.html
National Park Service scraps plan to remove Philadelphia statue after online firestorm
Source: USA Today
The National Park Service will no longer move forward with plans to permanently remove Pennsylvania founder William Penn's statue from a historical park, the agency said Monday.
Removing the statue, along with a replica of Penn's home, were among some of the changes planned for Welcome Park, a recreation area within Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, according to the Friday announcement.
After intense online criticism from concerned citizens and politicians alike regarding the proposed renovation plans, the agency has "withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period."
"The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned," according to NPS.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/01/08/william-penn-statue-removal/72152831007/
Federal judge OKs new GOP-drawn congressional map in Georgia
Source: CBS News
Washington — A federal judge in Georgia on Thursday approved a congressional map redrawn by the state's GOP-led legislature after its original voting lines were found to be crafted in violation of federal voting rights law.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones said in a 15-page order that the General Assembly "fully complied" with his October order that required the creation of a majority-Black congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta. His acceptance of the new map, which maintains Republicans' 9-5 edge for its congressional delegation, sets up the new bounds to be used in the 2024 election.
Jones also approved new legislative maps for state Senate and House districts, which he found were originally crafted in a racially discriminatory manner. The judge said in his earlier order that state lawmakers had to redraw two new Black-majority districts in Georgia's state Senate and five new Black-majority districts in its state House.
Jones had given the Republican-led General Assembly and governor until Dec. 8 to adopt redistricting plans that remedied the violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. State lawmakers convened for a special session in late November and passed the new congressional and legislative district lines, which were signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this month.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-congressional-map-republicans-federal-voting-rights-law/
Cardin staffer linked to sex tape leaves Senate
Source: Politico
A junior aide to Sen. Ben Cardin is no longer employed by the Senate, the Maryland Democrat’s office said Saturday, following news reports linking the staffer to a sex tape filmed in a Capitol Hill hearing room.
Portions of the tape were published by the Daily Caller on Friday showing two men having sex in the cavernous Hart Senate Office Building hearing room that has played host to Supreme Court nominees, 9/11 Commission meetings and former FBI Director James Comey’s blockbuster 2017 testimony on Donald Trump. The American Spectator previously reported that a Cardin staffer was involved.
Neither report named the staffer, but other conservative outlets identified one person seen in the video as Aidan Maese-Czeropski, a legislative aide to Cardin.
Cardin’s office, after not commenting yesterday on what it called a “personnel matter,” said in a statement first provided to POLITICO on Saturday morning that “Aidan Maese-Czeropski is no longer employed by the U.S. Senate.”
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/16/cardin-staffer-linked-to-sex-tape-leaves-senate-00132147
White House open to new asylum limits for Ukraine aid, source says
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is considering getting behind new restrictions on who can seek asylum and an expanded deportation process to secure new aid for Ukraine and Israel in a supplemental funding bill, a source familiar with discussions said.
The White House and U.S. Congress are racing to strike a deal that would deliver military aid to the two allied nations while discouraging illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border with only a week until lawmakers depart for a Christmas break.
Republicans have refused to approve more Ukraine funding without additional measures to reduce the record number of migrants attempting to cross the U.S. border illegally, leading to a complex negotiation pairing the largely unrelated issues.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking reelection in 2024, said on Wednesday that he would be willing to make significant concessions on border security as Senate Republicans rejected a Democratic aid package with $20 billion in border funding.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-open-new-asylum-limits-ukraine-aid-source-2023-12-07/
US Muslim leader: I was happy to see Gazans breaking the siege on Oct. 7
Source: Times of Israel
The founder and executive director of the Council on American–Islamic Relations said last month that he was “happy” to see Gazans “break the siege” on October 7, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists burst through the enclave’s border with Israel, massacred 1,200 people and took some 240 hostage.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on October 7,” Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) convention in Chicago, in footage published Thursday by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in,” he added, referring to the blockade Israel and Egypt enforced after Hamas took control of the strip in 2007, to prevent the terror group from importing weapons, materials and equipment for attacks.
The October 7 massacre, which came under cover of a massive barrage of rockets fired at Israel, saw terrorists overrun communities and slaughter those they found. Families were murdered as they huddled together in their homes or were burned to death. Victims, including children, were raped, tortured or mutilated. At an outdoor music festival, over 360 people were mowed down.
Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-muslim-leader-i-was-happy-to-see-gazans-breaking-the-siege-on-oct-7/
Susan Sarandon sorry for saying US Jews 'getting taste of what it feels to be Muslim'
Source: Times of Israel
Actress Susan Sarandon issues an apology for saying at a recent pro-Palestinian rally that US Jews fearing for their safety amid a spike in antisemitism “are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.”
“This phrasing was a terrible mistake, as it implies that until recently Jews have been strangers to persecution when the opposite is true,” she says in a statement.
“I deeply regret diminishing this reality and hurting people with this comment. It was my intent to show solidarity to the struggle against bigotry of all kinds, and I am sorry I failed to do so,” says Sarandon.
The actress was dropped by Hollywood talent agency UTA after her initial remarks.
Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/susan-sarandon-sorry-for-saying-us-jews-getting-taste-of-what-it-feels-to-be-muslim/
Court denies Jussie Smollett's request to toss conviction
Source: WGN
CHICAGO — The Appellate Court of Illinois has denied Jussie Smollett’s request to toss his conviction on disorderly conduct counts.
In 2021, Smollett was found guilty of five felony counts of disorderly conduct. The former ‘Empire’ actor was accused of paying two brothers to stage a racist and homophobic attack on him in January 2019 so that he could gain notoriety.
A panel of three judges issued the 2-1 decision.
A Cook County judge sentenced Smollett to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, $120,106 in restitution to the City of Chicago and a $25,000 fine. He spent six nights in jail and was freed on March 16, 2022 pending this appeal.
Read more: https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/decision-expected-in-jussie-smolletts-appeal-on-friday/
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