https://twitter.com/triviapotus/status/1280446208519987200
Presidential Trivia @triviapotus

#OTD in 1865, Lincoln assassination conspirators Herold, Powell, Atzerodt, and Surratt were executed.

http://famous-trials.com/lincoln/2163-home

6:19 AM · Jul 7, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln#Conspirators'_trial_and_execution

Conspirators' trial and execution


Trial of the conspirators, June 5, 1865

Scores of persons were arrested, including many tangential associates of the conspirators and anyone having had even the slightest contact with Booth or Herold during their flight. These included Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder in Mrs. Surratt's house; Booth's brother Junius (in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater owner John T. Ford; James Pumphrey, from whom Booth hired his horse; John M. Lloyd, the innkeeper who rented Mrs. Surratt's Maryland tavern and gave Booth and Herold weapons and supplies the night of April 14; and Samuel Cox and Thomas A. Jones, who helped Booth and Herold cross the Potomac. All were eventually released except:

Samuel Arnold
George Atzerodt
David Herold
Samuel Mudd
Michael O'Laughlen
Lewis Powell
Edmund Spangler (a theater stagehand who had given Booth's horse to Burroughs to hold)
Mary Surratt

The accused were tried by a military tribunal ordered by Johnson, who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln's death:

Maj. Gen. David Hunter (presiding)
Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace
Brig. Gen. Robert Sanford Foster
Brev. Maj. Gen. Thomas Maley Harris
Brig. Gen. Albion P. Howe
Brig. Gen. August Kautz
Col. James A. Ekin
Col. Charles H. Tompkins
Lt. Col. David Ramsay Clendenin

The prosecution was led by U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, assisted by Congressman John A. Bingham and Major Henry Lawrence Burnett.

The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from Edward Bates and Gideon Welles, who believed that a civil court should have presided, but Attorney General James Speed pointed to the military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and that martial law was in force at the time in the District of Columbia. (In 1866, in Ex parte Milligan, the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational. ) Only a simple majority of the jury was required for a guilty verdict, and a two-thirds for a death sentence. There was no route for appeal other than to President Johnson.


Execution of Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt on July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington City

The seven-week trial included the testimony of 366 witnesses. All of the defendants were found guilty on June 30. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison. Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang, five jurors signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson refused to stop the execution; he later claimed he never saw the letter.

Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7. Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.[96] O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson. Spangler, who died in 1875, always insisted his sole connection to the plot was that Booth asked him to hold his horse.

John Surratt stood trial in Washington in 1867. Four residents of Elmira, New York, claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15; fifteen others said they either saw him, or someone who resembled him, in Washington (or traveling to or from Washington) on the day of the assassination. The jury could not reach a verdict and John Surratt was released.

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https://twitter.com/CarterLibrary/status/1280442757031624705
Jimmy Carter Library @CarterLibrary

On his 75th birthday President Carter was asked to name the most important thing he had ever done. Without hesitation, he replied, "Marrying Rosalynn." http://bit.ly/2GMkqrs

Happy 74th Anniversary to Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter! They were married in Plains, GA, on July 7, 1946.





6:05 AM · Jul 7, 2020

https://nypost.com/2020/07/06/oxycontin-maker-purdues-jonathan-sackler-65-dies-of-cancer/

Jonathan Sackler, one of the owners of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, has died, the company confirmed.

Sackler died June 30, according to a court filing. He was 65 and the cause of death was cancer.

He was the son of Raymond Sackler, one of the brothers who bought drug company Purdue Frederick in 1952, and served as an executive and board member for the company that was later renamed Purdue Pharma. Like other members of the Sackler family, he has stepped off the board of the company in recent years, though family members retain ownership.

The company is seeking bankruptcy protection as part of an effort to settle nearly 3,000 lawsuits brought against it by state and local governments that blame the company for sparking the opioid crisis that has killed more than 400,000 Americans since 2000. Hundreds of the lawsuits also name family members.

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https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1280210654339702784
The Lincoln Project @ProjectLincoln

The Lincoln Project and Abe stand with @BubbaWallace and @NASCAR.



2:42 PM · Jul 6, 2020

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1280158562891599873
Joe Biden @JoeBiden

We can’t afford four more years of Donald Trump.

Embedded video

11:16 AM · Jul 6, 2020

https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/rex-huppke/ct-dogs-deserve-pet-dying-death-meaning-huppke-20200706-cfxe2ncrvbgszoufgsf6kc5nd4-story.html


Tribune columnist Rex Huppke's dog, Zoe. (Rex Huppke / Chicago Tribune)

By REX HUPPKE
CHICAGO TRIBUNE

JUL 06, 2020 AT 9:08 AM

If I had to choose between spending time with one good dog or five good people, I’d pick the dog every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

That may sound anti-social, but it’s a pragmatic choice, driven by data.

People, even the good ones, have more flaws than dogs. People, even the good ones, struggle to love without conditions. And dogs, at least the ones I’ve known, talk less than humans while managing to say more.

We bipedal ape-descendants don’t deserve dogs, yet they accept and adore us. Then they leave, always far too soon. And we are stuck with our dumb human flaws, and a dog-sized hole in our day-to-day.

I had to say farewell to a good dog last week, on a pantingly hot July 3 afternoon. She had cancer and there was nothing we could do these past couple months except love her and spoil her and give her approximately a million behind-the-ear scritches and wait until she let us know it was time to go.

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https://twitter.com/NYGovCuomo/status/1279845278095421441
Andrew Cuomo @NYGovCuomo

Reminder: If you get a call from NYS Contact Tracing — Answer the phone!

Our Contact Tracing force is working every day to help stop the spread.



2:31 PM · Jul 5, 2020

https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1279818813882548230
Michael McFaul @McFaul

According to reporting including @MeetThePress , Trump called Putin 6 times in 2 months - March 30th, April 9th, April 10th, April 12, May 7th, June 1 ! That would be a crazy number of calls to any foreign leader. But to Putin? What on earth were they discussing? So strange.

12:45 PM · Jul 5, 2020

https://www.rferl.org/a/election-monitors-find-unprecedented-levels-of-fraud-in-russian-vote-on-extending-putin-s-rule/30704791.html


A woman wears a face mask with the message "No To Putin" during a protest against the constitutional amendments in St. Petersburg on July 1.

July 03, 2020 15:29 GMT

By Matthew Luxmoore - Radio Free Europe (Calling on in transit... )

MOSCOW -- The day President Vladimir Putin declared victory in a vote on constitutional changes that pave the way for him to rule Russia until 2036, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it a "triumphal referendum on confidence" in the former KGB officer, who has already spent over two decades in power.

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Kremlin critics were struck by the retroactive portrayal of the vote as a plebiscite on support for Putin. His name was almost completely absent from promotional material and TV reports urging Russians to vote on a package of over 200 constitutional amendments -- despite the fact that a clause allowing Putin to reset term limits was among the most consequential of them.

They also alleged that the high turnout and support reflected in official results were engineered to conform with targets set down well in advance by Putin's aides.

"The updated 'results' are fake and a huge lie," said opposition politician Aleksei Navalny, who had called on his supporters to boycott the vote. "They have nothing in common with the opinion of Russia's citizens."

Claims of fraud quickly began mounting.

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