Top election security expert fired by Trump confirms he spoke with special counsel
A top election security official who was fired by President Donald Trump weeks after the 2020 election has confirmed to CNN that he was interviewed in recent months by the special counsel investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the election.
2023-07-26 09:15
Ohio voters to decide whether to protect abortion rights in November
By Joseph Ax Voters in Ohio will decide in November whether to enshrine the right to abortion in
2023-07-26 08:49
FEC asked to investigate flower shop's $500,000 contribution to super PAC backing Suarez's 2024 bid
A government watchdog group is asking federal regulators to investigate a $500,000 contribution to a super PAC backing Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s presidential bid by a shop selling artificial flowers
2023-07-26 06:26
Head of US cybersecurity agency sees progress on election security, with more work needed for 2024
The head of the nation’s cybersecurity agency says efforts to protect the nation’s election systems have grown exponentially since the 2016 presidential election, but more is needed to defend the integrity and resiliency of the election process ahead of next year’s vote
2023-07-26 05:17
Ecuador police storm jails to free guards held hostage
The security operation comes after inmates in at least five jails took dozens of prison guards hostage.
2023-07-25 23:57
Pakistan Poll Watchdog to Charge Khan for Contempt Next Week
The Election Commission of Pakistan will frame charges against former Prime Minister Imran Khan next week after he
2023-07-25 21:59
Powerful right-wing radicals are testing democratic checks and balance in both Israel and the US
White House criticism of Israel after its right-wing coalition embarked on a plan to target judicial power is bringing a new kind of turbulence to one of America's oldest friendships.
2023-07-25 12:26
Ramaswamy slated to headline South Carolina county GOP fundraiser in return to early voting state
Biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy is slated to headline a GOP fundraiser in South Carolina as he returns to campaigning in the first-in-the-South primary state
2023-07-25 12:15
US Supreme Court faces 'outright defiance' from Alabama
It was a legitimate surprise when the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court ordered Alabama's conservative-dominated state government last month to redraw its congressional map and include either a second majority-Black congressional district or something quite close to it.
2023-07-25 06:59
Florida’s New Slavery Curriculum Sparks DeSantis Rebuke From 2024 Rival Hurd
Will Hurd said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, his rival for the Republican presidential nomination, should take responsibility for
2023-07-25 06:49
Special counsel scrutinizing February 2020 meeting where Trump praised US election security protections
Special counsel Jack Smith's office has asked former US officials about a February 2020 Oval Office meeting where then-President Donald Trump praised improvements to the security of US elections, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
2023-07-25 04:21
How prosecutors could charge Trump with racketeering in Georgia case
The Georgia prosecutor investigating Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state is reportedly weighing a racketeering indictment against the former president and others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could rely on evidence tied to Mr Trump’s infamous call to the state’s top elections official to “find” votes for him, as well as the breach of voting machines by a group of Trump-connected operatives, according to The Guardian, citing two people briefed on the matter. Prosecutors are reportedly reviewing a racketeering indictment including statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass. An indictment is expected within the first two weeks of August. The office has been investigating efforts to overturn election results in the state and the baseless allegations of widespread election fraud that fuelled them, adding to a long list of investigations and other legal consequences facing the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination for president and his allies who rejected 2020 results. Ms Willis’s investigation is separate from the federal probe under US Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating a broader effort from Mr Trump and his allies to reverse election results in states Mr Trump lost to Joe Biden, culminating in a pressure campaign around Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify electoral college results during a joint session of Congress on 6 January, 2021. A grand jury in the Fulton County case was seated on 11 July. Ms Willis has made a career out of high-profile cases involving charges of racketeering– typically used to break up organised crime – including indictments against more than two dozen people connected to a sprawling Atlanta hip-hop empire, 38 alleged gang members, and 25 educators accused of cheating Atlanta’s public school system. Georgia’s racketeering statute requires prosecutors to show the existence of an “enterprise” with a pattern predicated on at least two other “qualifying” crimes. Evidence in the case is unlikely to be revealed until an indictment is unsealed, but a charge involving influences witnesses could look to Mr Trump’s phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Mr Trump suggested that he “find” him 11,780 votes – enough to swing the election in the state. For the computer trespass charge, in which prosecutors would need to show that defendants used a computer or network without permission to interfere with a program or data, prosecutors could turn to the breach of voting machines in Coffee County. That breach involved a group of people working under former Trump-connected attorney Sidney Powell to copy voting machine data at the county’s election office. That data from Dominion Voting Systems machines was uploaded to a password-protected website in a spurious, failed effort to prove that the 2020 election was rigged against Mr Trump. The Independent has requested comment from the Fulton County District Attorney’s office. Roughly one year into her investigation, Ms Willis took the unusual step of asking for a special grand jury to rely on its subpoena power to compel testimony from witnesses who otherwise would not be willing to talk with prosecutors. That special grand jury was seated in May 2022 and concluded its work in January 2022 after hearing from roughly 75 witnesses before dissolving in January. A partially released report from the special grand jury shows that jurors unanimously agreed that “no widespread fraud took place” in Georgia’s election following interviews with election officials, analysis and poll workers. Mr Trump also faces criminal charges in Manhattan stemming from hush money payments allegedly made to silence stories about his alleged affairs in the lead up to the 2016 election. Mr Trump and his adult children also face a likely trial from a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by the New York Attorney General’s office alleging a years-long fraud operation. A federal judge in Florida has also set a trial date of 20 May, 2024 on charges surrounding the alleged mishandling and illegal retention of dozens of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property. The former president has repeatedly characterised the multiple investigations against him, including the January 6 probe, as a politically motivated “hoax” and an attempt to “steal” the 2024 election from him. On 23 July, Mr Trump published several posts on his social network Truth Social, once again calling the special prosecutor “deranged”. He claimed that investigations into him were a “coordinated HOAX,” pointing to the probe into allegations of collusion between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russia. Mr Trump also went after President Joe Biden, claiming without providing evidence that he’s a “criminal” before going on to call him “the most corrupt and incompetent President in United States history”. “Get smart, Republicans, they are trying to steal the Election from you!” he wrote before referring to Democrats and federal and state prosecutors as “monsters” who are “destroying our country”. Read More Trump classified documents trial will be six months before 2024 election as Jan 6 cases close in - latest Who is Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who could take down Trump Georgia grand jury sworn in to consider Trump charges over attempts to upend 2020 election Trump, January 6 and a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election: The federal investigation, explained
2023-07-25 03:26