Officer killed in US Capitol car-ramming attack
Officer killed in US Capitol car-ramming attack.....»»
Man killed, wife wounded in Antipolo gun attack
A man was killed while his wife was wounded in a shooting in Antipolo City, Rizal on Wednesday night......»»
Trump, in Iowa, demands release of those jailed for 2021 Capitol attack
Donald Trump calls those jailed in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack 'hostages' and says they had been mistreated by the Biden administration.....»»
Indian money lender dies in Maguindanao del Sur ambush
Gunmen shot dead an Indian moneylender in an attack on Sunday afternoon along a busy stretch of a highway in Buluan town in Maguindanao del Sur, not too distant from the capitol of the province......»»
EU, U.S. unite to support Israel
European Union and United States leaders met in Washington Friday to show their united stance in supporting Israel’s war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “We stood together to support the brave people of Ukraine in the face of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s aggression. We’re standing together now to support Israel in the wake of Hamas’s appalling terrorist attack,” US President Joe Biden said at the White House. “These conflicts show democracies must stand together,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told reporters as she and European Council chief Charles Michel met Biden. “Today, the world faces enormous challenges. And today, more than ever, the world needs a strong EU-US alliance to tackle these challenges,” Michel said. EU leaders were looking for reassurance of continued US support for Ukraine, which is fighting to repel the Russian invasion launched in February 2022. That reassurance was evident Thursday when Biden urged Americans to back a $106 billion aid package including military assistance for Ukraine and Israel. The US is by far the biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine. Aid to Israel and Ukraine, however, faces hurdle as the US Congress has been paralyzed for more than two weeks divided Republicans, who hold the majority in the House of Representatives, failed for a third time to elect a new House speaker. Congress also faces a 17 November deadline to act on the budget, so as to avoid a possible government shutdown. House crisis In the 17 days since US House speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a rebellion by right-wing hard-liners from within his own party, no other Republican has been able to muster enough votes to replace him, sparking one of the worst institutional crises Washington has seen in decades. The US legislature is unable to perform even basic functions like funding the government and addressing growing national security concerns. The party dropped Ohio conservative Jim Jordan, chairman of the influential Judiciary Committee, in a secret ballot Friday after he again failed to secure victory on the House floor on his third attempt. Despite backing from former president and leading 2024 Republican hopeful Donald Trump, Jordan was defeated by 25 colleagues from his own side who joined every Democrat to deny him the gavel for the third time in four days. Lawmakers told reporters as they left Capitol Hill for the weekend they would hold a “candidate forum” to choose a new standard-bearer on Monday, with several hopefuls expected to be announced on Sunday. WITH AFP The post EU, U.S. unite to support Israel appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Gag Trump, prosecutor asks court
Former United States president Donald Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric have gotten prosecutors threatened and may influence jurors and witness testimony, a special counsel argued in seeking a gag order on him. Special Counsel Jack Smith made the request on Friday ahead of Trump’s trial for election subversion. Smith enumerated Trump’s menacing comments posted on social media since his 1 August indictment for allegedly upending the results of the 2020 US election in a concerted effort that led to the violent 6 January 2021 attack by his supporters on the Capitol. “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” read one of Trump’s posts. Trump, who is running for president in next year’s election, also labeled trial judge Tanya Chutkan a “fraud” and “Trump-hating,” Smith’s office a “team of thugs” and Washington “filthy and crime-ridden” with a population “over 95 percent anti-Trump,” Smith added. Trump’s statements “could have a material impact on the impartiality of the jury pool while simultaneously influencing witness testimony,” Smith’s filing with the Washington federal court stated. “It is clear that the threats are prompted by the defendant’s repeated and relentless posts,” the filing added. The ex-president is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims that he won the November 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty, and has formally asked Chutkan to recuse herself from the case, accusing her of bias against him. WITH AFP The post Gag Trump, prosecutor asks court appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Biden urges ‘national unity’ 22 years after 9/11
President Joe Biden called Monday for Americans to unite despite bitter political differences as the United States marked the 22nd anniversary of Al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks. Bells were rung and the names of nearly 3,000 people were read out in somber ceremonies in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania where the hijacked planes struck. "Let's honor September 11 by renewing our faith in one another," said Biden, speaking at a US military base in Anchorage, Alaska as he traveled back from a trip to India and Vietnam. "We must never lose our sense of national unity, so let that be the common cause of our time." Speaking in front of a huge flag, Biden added that "terrorism, including political and ideological violence, is the opposite of all we stand for as a nation." His speech comes as the United States is increasingly polarized, with tensions likely to increase as Biden, a Democrat, heads into a likely election rematch next year with Republican former president Donald Trump. Trump has been indicted four times since April, including for efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, with the 6 January 2021 Capitol attack by his supporters still fresh in the public's memory. 'Never forget' In New York, Vice President Kamala Harris and current and former mayors joined victims' families at the 9/11 memorial on the site of the World Trade Center twin towers brought down by two aircraft flown by hijackers. The names of the more than 2,600 who died in New York were read out by family members and young relatives not alive at the time of the attack. "I wish I had a chance to really know you. Everyone in the family misses you. We will never forget," said the grandson of firefighter Allan Tarasiewicz, who was killed at age 45 during rescue operations at the World Trade Center. At the Pentagon in Washington, where the attackers plunged a third aircraft into the headquarters of the US military, a sailor rang a ship's bell for each of the 184 killed there. And in western Pennsylvania, where a fourth hijacked plane apparently heading toward Washington was forced to crash, bells were rung for each of the 40 passengers and crew who died. "September 11 made America a nation at war, and hundreds of thousands stepped up to serve our country in uniform," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Pentagon ceremony. "I know that it aches to remember this milestone year after year... The men and women of the Department of Defense will always remember." Across New York City, in Congress and elsewhere, a moment of silence was held to mark the attack, plotted by Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who was found and killed nearly a decade later by US Navy Seals in a raid on his hideout in Pakistan. Biden noted in his speech that he himself had given the order for bin Laden's successor Ayman al-Zawahiri to be sent to the "gates of hell" last year in an airstrike in Afghanistan. "The soul of America is the fortitude we found in the fear of that terrible September day," he added. "The terrorists believed they could bring us to our knees, bend our will, break our resolve. But they were wrong, they were dead wrong." The post Biden urges ‘national unity’ 22 years after 9/11 appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Trump rants on judge’s early trial date
Former United States president Donald Trump angrily reacted to a judge’s decision to set the date for his election subversion conspiracy trial to 4 March 2024. Trump and his lawyers were hoping for a 2.5-year delay or April 2026 trial but US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan’s chosen date declared in a Monday hearing in Washington is the eve of “Super Tuesday,” when more than a dozen states will pick between Trump and one of his rivals to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. “Today a biased, Trump Hating Judge gave me only a two-month extension, just what our corrupt government wanted, SUPER TUESDAY. I will APPEAL!” he said on his social network Truth Social, although trial dates are usually not appealable. “Setting a trial date does not depend on the defendant’s professional obligations so Mr. Trump will have to make a date work,” Chutkan said. The case before Chutkan accuses Trump of conspiracy to defraud the US and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — the 6 January 2021 joint session of Congress that was attacked by a mob of Trump supporters. He is also accused of seeking to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims he won the 2020 election. Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges in an early August court appearance and was not required to attend Monday’s procedural hearing. The frontrunning Republican nominee for next year’s presidential election is now facing a busy legal calendar. He is to go on trial in New York later in March on charges of paying election-eve hush money to a porn star. His trial for allegedly mishandling top secret government documents is in May in Florida. Trump and 18 co-defendants also face racketeering charges in Georgia over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election result in the southern state and are due to enter pleas at an arraignment next Wednesday. The judge presiding over the Georgia case has not yet set a firm date for that trial to begin. The 61-year-old Chutkan, who was appointed by former Democratic president Barack Obama, has handed down some of the stiffest sentences to participants in the attack on the US Capitol, and Trump has accused her of being “highly partisan” and “very biased.” Chutkan also has a legal history with Trump — she ruled against him in a November 2021 case, notably declaring that “presidents are not kings.” WITH AFP The post Trump rants on judge’s early trial date appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Trump arrested in Georgia racketeering case
Former US president Donald Trump was arrested at a Georgia jail on Thursday on racketeering and conspiracy charges for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the southern state. During a brief session lasting less than 30 minutes, the 77-year-old Trump was booked on 13 charges at Atlanta's Fulton County Jail, according to records published by the sheriff's office. Trump's height was listed by the jail as six foot three inches (1.9 meters), his weight as 215 pounds (97 kilograms) and his hair color as "Blond or Strawberry." Other defendants in the racketeering case who have surrendered to the Georgia authorities in recent days have had a mugshot taken. The billionaire has been criminally indicted four times since April, setting the stage for a year of unprecedented drama as he tries to juggle multiple court appearances and another White House campaign. In posts on his Truth Social platform shortly before leaving his New Jersey golf club for the flight to Atlanta, Trump said he was being arrested for "having the audacity to challenge a RIGGED & STOLLEN (sic) ELECTION." "This is yet another SAD DAY IN AMERICA!" he added. Trump was able to dodge having a mugshot taken during his previous arrests this year: in New York on charges of paying hush money to a porn star, in Florida for mishandling top secret government documents, and in Washington on charges of conspiring to upend his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. But Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat said standard procedure in Georgia is to take a defendant's photograph before they are released on bond -- set at $200,000 in Trump's case. The arrest comes one day after Trump spurned a televised debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, featuring eight of his rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination -- all of whom lag well behind him in the polls. He still stole the spotlight, though, with all but two of the candidates saying they would support him as the party's nominee even if he were a convicted felon. During a pre-recorded interview with former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson -- which aired on social media at the same time as the debate -- Trump dismissed the criminal cases filed against him as "nonsense." Trump said the Justice Department had been "weaponized" under Biden to hamstring his White House bid. Court dates in election race A tight security perimeter was set up for Trump's booking at the Fulton County Jail, which is under investigation for a slew of inmate deaths and deplorable conditions. Fani Willis, the Fulton County district attorney who filed the sweeping racketeering case, had set a deadline of noon (1600 GMT) on Friday for Trump and the other 18 defendants to surrender. Trump and 11 others have turned themselves in so far. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows surrendered on Thursday and was released on $100,000 bond. Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump's personal lawyer when he was in the White House and vigorously pushed the false claims that Trump had won the 2020 election, was booked and released on Wednesday. John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who is accused of drawing up a scheme to submit a false slate of Trump electors to Congress from Georgia instead of the legitimate Biden ones, has also been booked and released. A few dozen supporters of the former Republican president gathered outside the jail, including Sharon Anderson who spent the night in her car. "I think this is a political persecution and now that's turned into a political prosecution," Anderson told AFP. Trump is the first US president in history to face criminal charges. His various trials, if they take place next year, may coincide with the Republican presidential primary season, which begins in January, and the campaign for the November 2024 White House election. Special counsel Jack Smith has proposed a January 2024 start date for Trump's trial on charges of conspiring to overturn the last election with a lie-fueled campaign that culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters. Trump's attorneys have countered with a suggested start date well after the election -- April 2026. Willis, the Georgia district attorney, initially proposed that the racketeering case begin in March next year, the same month Trump is scheduled to go on trial in New York on charges of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels. On Thursday, after one of the defendants asked for a speedy trial, she proposed that it begin for all 19 in October of this year, a move met with an immediate objection from Trump's lawyers. The Florida case, in which Trump is accused of taking secret government documents as he left the White House and refusing to return them, is scheduled to begin in May. The post Trump arrested in Georgia racketeering case appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
The legal woes of Donald Trump
Former US president Donald Trump is facing four criminal indictments, all filed since March -- with the Republican frontrunner in the 2024 White House race possibly navigating a series of trials as he campaigns. On Thursday, he was formally arrested on 13 counts in the southern state of Georgia in connection with his alleged efforts to interfere with the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has already been indicted in federal court in connection with election interference in multiple states, and over his handling of classified documents, making him the first former US president to face federal criminal charges. The twice-impeached Trump has also been charged in New York with making election-eve hush money payments to a porn star. Here are the key cases involving the 77-year-old one-term president -- and others that could materialize: Georgia election meddling Trump stands accused in Georgia of pressuring state officials to overturn Biden's election victory -- incidents that were also referred to in a federal indictment. Evidence includes a taped phone call in which he asked Georgia's then-secretary of state to "find" enough votes to reverse the result. Fulton County's top prosecutor Fani Willis has charged Trump with 13 felony counts including violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced And Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as six conspiracy counts over alleged efforts to commit forgery, impersonate a public official and submit false statements and documents. Eighteen co-defendants also were indicted, including Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, for pressuring local legislators over the result after the election, and Trump's White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows. 2020 election interference Special Counsel Jack Smith had already slapped Trump with four federal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, as well as conspiracy to obstruct and obstruction of an official proceeding -- the January 6, 2021, meeting of a joint session of Congress held to certify Biden's election victory. He is also charged with conspiracy to deny Americans the right to vote and to have one's vote counted. The indictment mentions six co-conspirators but none are identified -- Trump, currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is the only named defendant. Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress met to certify the presidential election results. Before what was ultimately a deadly attack, Trump delivered a fiery speech urging the crowd to "fight like hell." Classified documents Trump, in another indictment brought by Smith, is accused of endangering national security by holding onto top secret nuclear and defense documents after leaving the White House. Trump kept the files -- which included records from the Pentagon, CIA, and National Security Agency -- unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida and thwarted official efforts to retrieve them, according to the indictment. Trump was initially charged with 31 counts of "willful retention of national defense information," each punishable by up to 10 years in prison. A count was added related to a classified document "concerning military activity in a foreign country." He also faces charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, and other offenses. The federal judge in the case has set a trial date of May 20, 2024, at the height of the presidential campaign. Stormy A New York grand jury indicted Trump in March over alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors say the money was paid prior to the 2016 election to silence Daniels over claims she had a tryst with Trump in 2006 -- a year after he married Melania Trump. Late in the campaign, Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a payment of $130,000 to Daniels in exchange for her pledge of confidentiality, prosecutors said. That case, in which he faces 34 felony counts, is due to go to trial next March, in the middle of the Republican primary election season. Other probes Trump was found liable in a civil case for sexually abusing and defaming a former magazine columnist, E. Jean Carroll, in 1996, and ordered to pay her $5 million in damages. In New York, state Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil suit against Trump and three of his children, accusing them of fraud by over-valuing assets to secure loans and then under-valuing them to minimize taxes. James is seeking $250 million in penalties as well as banning Trump and his children from serving as executives at companies in the city. Trump has denied all wrongdoing. The post The legal woes of Donald Trump appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Musk says X will scrap ‘block’ feature
Elon Musk said Friday that his social media company X would scrap a feature that allows users to block posts from specific accounts. "Block is going to be deleted as a 'feature', except for DMs," Musk posted, indicating the option would still be available for "direct messages" between users of the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter. The feature is used to restrict interaction with specific accounts on the platform. Musk has repeatedly cited a desire for free speech as motivating his changes and lashed out at what he sees as the threat posed to free expression by changing cultural sensitivities. Since the tycoon bought the social media platform for $44 billion last October, its advertising business has collapsed, in part because of its looser approach to blocking hate speech, and the return of previously banned far-right accounts. According to the nonprofit organization the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), hate speech has flourished on the platform. X has disputed the findings and is suing the CCDH. In December, Musk reinstated former US president Donald Trump's Twitter account, although Trump has yet to return to the platform. The ex-president was banned from Twitter in early 2021 for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a group of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. X recently reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after his account was suspended, according to media reports. Last fall, West, who now goes professionally by Ye, posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and Musk suspended the artist from the platform. The post Musk says X will scrap ‘block’ feature appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Musk offers monetary legal aid for users in trouble at work over X posts
Elon Musk on Saturday said his social media company X would provide monetary legal aid to users who face blowback from their bosses over posts on the platform. Users, including many celebrities and others in the public eye, have occasionally found themselves in hot water with their employers over controversial things they have posted, liked, or retweeted on the platform, which was formerly known as Twitter. "If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill," he wrote on the site. "No limit. Please let us know." Musk gave no details on how users could claim their money. Since the tycoon bought the social media platform for $44 billion last October, its advertising business has collapsed, in part because of its looser approach to blocking hate speech, and the return of previously banned far-right accounts. Musk has repeatedly cited a desire for free speech as motivating his changes and lashed out at what he sees as the threat posed to free expression by changing cultural sensitivities. According to nonprofit organization the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), hate speech has flourished on the platform. X has disputed the findings and is suing the CCDH. In December, Musk reinstated former US president Donald Trump's Twitter account, although Trump has yet to return to the platform. The ex-president was banned from Twitter in early 2021 for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a group of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. X recently reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after his account was suspended, according to media reports. Last fall, West, who now goes professionally by Ye, posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and Musk suspended the artist from the platform. The post Musk offers monetary legal aid for users in trouble at work over X posts appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Trump indicted for trying to overturn 2020 US election
Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday over his efforts to upend the results of the 2020 US election -- the most serious legal threat yet to the former president as he campaigns to return to the White House. It is the third criminal indictment of the 77-year-old Trump since March and charges him with three counts of conspiracy and one count of obstruction. Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is already scheduled to go on trial in Florida in May of next year for allegedly mishandling top-secret government documents. The new charges, two of which carry maximum sentences of 20 years in prison, raise the prospect of Trump being embroiled in more legal proceedings at the height of what is expected to be a bitter and divisive presidential campaign. The indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith accuses Trump of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding -- the 6 January 2021, joint session of Congress held to certify Democrat Joe Biden's election victory. Trump is also accused in the 45-page indictment of seeking to disenfranchise American voters with his false claims that he won the November 2020 presidential election. "Shortly after election day -- which fell on 2 November 2020 -- the Defendant launched his criminal scheme," the indictment, handed down by a grand jury in Washington, said. "The purpose of the conspiracy was to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud," it said. Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor at the Hague, said the January 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters was "an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy." "It was fueled by lies," Smith told reporters in brief remarks. "Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the US government -- the nation's process of collecting, counting and certifying the results of the presidential election." Part of that plan, the indictment alleges, was to have then-vice president Mike Pence use his role as presiding officer over the January 6 joint session to throw out several states' votes. Pence ultimately refused, issuing a public statement saying that he did not believe the Constitution allowed him that power. As Trump's supporters later stormed the US Capitol, where Pence was in hiding, Trump tweeted that his vice president "didn't have the courage to do what should have been done." White House silence The White House on Tuesday maintained silence on Trump's historic indictment. Biden, who is seeking reelection next year, continued his beach vacation in Delaware, dining out with First Lady Jill Biden before seeing the film "Oppenheimer." Trump's campaign, meanwhile, issued a blistering statement, comparing his prosecution to "Nazi Germany in the 1930s" and stating that he had followed "advice from many highly accomplished attorneys" -- a likely line of defense at trial. The indictment mentions six co-conspirators but none are identified and Trump, who is to be arraigned on Thursday, is the only named defendant. The case is expected to be heard by US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of former Democratic president Barack Obama. Smith said he is seeking a "speedy trial." Trump furious Trump lashed out at the special counsel, calling him "deranged" and accusing him of issuing "yet another Fake Indictment" to "interfere with the presidential election." "Why didn't they do this 2.5 years ago?" Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. "Why did they wait so long? "Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign," he said. "Prosecutorial misconduct!" Trump has repeatedly attacked the investigation as a political "witch hunt" by the Department of Justice. Besides the classified documents charges, the former president also faces a criminal trial in New York for allegedly paying election-eve hush money to a porn star. Georgia prosecutors are also looking into whether Trump illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 election outcome in the southern state. As president, Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for seeking political dirt on Biden from Ukraine and over the events of January 6 but he was acquitted by the Senate both times. Pence, who is competing against Trump in the Republican primary, said on Twitter -- now rebranded as X -- that Tuesday's indictment "serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States." The post Trump indicted for trying to overturn 2020 US election appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Trump took secret docs, put national security at risk: indictment
Federal prosecutors unsealed a wide-ranging indictment of Donald Trump on Friday, accusing the former US president of endangering national security by holding on to top secret nuclear and defense documents after leaving the White House. The 76-year-old Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, took hundreds of classified government documents in cardboard boxes to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the 49-page charge sheet said. Trump kept the files -- which included records from the Pentagon, CIA, and National Security Agency -- unsecured at Mar-a-Lago, which regularly hosted large social events, the indictment said. On at least two occasions, Trump showed classified documents on US military operations and plans to people not cleared to see them at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, it said. Trump faces 37 separate counts in the indictment including 31 counts of "willful retention of national defense information" relating to specific documents. A conviction on each count carries up to 10 years in prison. "We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone," said Special Counsel Jack Smith, who brought the historic indictment against Trump, the first former US president ever to face federal criminal charges. "Laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced," Smith said, adding that he would seek to ensure that Trump receives a "speedy trial." Other charges facing the twice-impeached Trump include conspiracy to obstruct justice, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, withholding a document or record, which also carries a potential 20-year sentence, and making false statements. Trump's personal aide, Walt Nauta, was named as a co-conspirator, and charged with six counts for helping Trump hide documents, which were kept at various locations in Mar-a-Lago, according to the indictment, including a ballroom, a bathroom, Trump's bedroom, and a storage room. "The classified documents Trump stored in the boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries," the indictment said. Other records dealt with US nuclear programs and potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack along with plans for retaliation, it said. "The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources," according to the indictment. Trump hater Trump is to appear in court in Miami at 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Tuesday for the first hearing in the case. According to US media, the case will initially be handled by Aileen Cannon, 42, a Trump-appointed judge who made rulings favorable to the former president during a court review of documents seized in an August 2022 FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. A trial is not expected to begin for several months and there is nothing to prevent Trump from pursuing a second term in the White House while facing charges. According to the indictment, Trump directed his aide Nauta to conceal boxes containing documents from the FBI and his own attorney and suggested to his lawyers at one point that they hide or destroy documents being sought. The indictment also recounted a conversation between Trump and one of his attorneys about the documents in which the former president reportedly said "Wouldn't it be better if we just told them we don't have anything?" Trump responded to the indictment with a string of posts on his Truth Social platform, calling Smith, the special counsel, "deranged" and a "Trump hater." "Under the Presidential Records Act, I'm allowed to do all this," Trump said. "There was no crime." In a defiant video Thursday, Trump also declared his innocence and framed the indictment as election interference by a Justice Department "weaponized" by President Joe Biden. "They come after me because now we're leading in the polls again by a lot against Biden," Trump said. Biden said Friday that he would have no comment on the case and has had no contact with Attorney General Merrick Garland, who appointed Smith as special counsel to conduct the Trump probe. "I have not spoken to him at all and I'm not going to speak with him," Biden told reporters. Trump was already the first former or sitting president to be charged with a crime, indicted in New York in March in a case involving election-eve hush money payments to a porn star who said she had an affair with him. Smith is also looking into whether Trump should face charges over the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol by his supporters. And Georgia prosecutors are investigating whether Trump illegally attempted to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome in the southern state. The post Trump took secret docs, put national security at risk: indictment appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
FBI routinely accessed Americans’ private communications
The FBI frequently abused a restricted database of Americans' personal communications, looking up the names of crime victims and participants in Black Lives Matter protests and the 2021 Capitol assault, documents released Friday showed. The Federal Bureau of Investigation accessed the database 278,000 times in recent years with often no justification, according to declassified opinions from the secretive Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court. The database includes private emails, text messages, and other communications that the National Security Agency says it sweeps up when it is spying on foreigners. Although the FBI is supposed to tap the NSA database only when investigating a foreign intelligence issue, the court opinions showed they used it casually for domestic cases. Agents ran random searches in domestic drug and gang investigations, the 2020 protest over the police murder of African American George Floyd, and the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Donald Trump supporters. In one case an agent ran a query into the database on 19,000 donors to a congressional election campaign. In each of the cases, there was no foreign intelligence or domestic crime justification for the FBI accessing the database, the intelligence court said. The documents were released as Congress debates the renewal of Section 702, a law that allows the NSA to access US-hosted internet accounts to surveil foreign intelligence targets. A number of lawmakers say it needs revision to better protect the personal information of Americans. Intelligence agencies worry that could crimp their activities, but legal rights experts and Democrats said the revelations showed reforms are needed. "The government has dramatically expanded its spying under Section 702 in ways never contemplated by Congress, but it's refusing to tell Americans what it's doing," said Patrick Toomey of the Americans Civil Liberties Union. Senator Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of Section 702, said the intelligence court documents showed "shocking abuses" of the law. "If Section 702 is to be reauthorized, there must be statutory reforms to ensure that the checks and balances are in place to put an end to these abuses," Wyden said. The issue arose nearly two decades ago when the US intelligence community realized it needed to tap into the email and phone accounts of foreign intelligence targets that were hosted on US-based computers. Both the NSA and the CIA are forbidden from spying on Americans or on foreigners inside the United States, so in 2008 Congress passed Section 702 to permit the NSA to access those US-hosted accounts. In doing so the NSA also collects emails and phone messages of US citizens and resident foreigners who communicate with the agency's targets, or even mention an NSA target. The post FBI routinely accessed Americans’ private communications appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Rape allegation against Trump heads to civil trial
A civil trial over an allegation that ex-president Donald Trump raped a prominent former American columnist three decades ago got underway Tuesday with jury selection. The writer E. Jean Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store and then defamed her after she went public with the allegation years later. Trump, who is facing a barrage of legal woes that threaten to derail his 2024 run for a second presidential term, has repeatedly denied the allegations. The start of the trial, which stems from a lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump, comes just weeks after Trump's historic arraignment on criminal charges related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star. Carroll, a former columnist for Elle magazine, says she was raped by Trump in the changing room at the luxury Bergdorf Goodman department store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996. The now-79-year-old said the attack came after Trump asked her for advice on buying a women's lingerie gift. Carroll, who was in court for the start of proceedings Tuesday, first made the allegation in an excerpt from her book published by New York Magazine in 2019. Trump responded then by saying he has never met her, that she was "not my type" and that she was "totally lying." Carroll initially sued Trump for defamation in 2019 but was unable to include the rape claim because the statute of limitations for the alleged offense had expired. But a new law took effect in November last year in New York that gave victims of sexual assault a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers decades after attacks may have occurred. Lawyers for Carroll filed a new suit that accused Trump of battery, "when he forcibly raped and groped" her. It also included defamation for a post that Trump made on his Truth Social platform in October where he denied the alleged rape and referred to Carroll as a "complete con job." Psychological harm The suit seeks unspecified damages for "significant pain and suffering, lasting psychological and pecuniary harms, loss of dignity and self-esteem, and invasion of her privacy." It also asks that Trump retracts his comments. Around a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. He has denied all the allegations and has never been prosecuted over any of them. No criminal prosecution can stem from the Carroll case but if Trump loses it will be the first time he has ever been held legally liable for an allegation of sexual assault. Trump has provided sworn testimony in the case and is not expected to take the witness stand during the trial as Carroll's lawyers have said they do not intend to call him. The trial in Manhattan is likely to last between one to two weeks. Trump became the first sitting or former president to have ever been charged with a crime when he was arrested in the hush-money case earlier this month. He pleaded not guilty to 34 counts related to the payment made just before the 2016 election that propelled him to the White House. Trump is also being investigated over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state of Georgia, his alleged mishandling of classified documents taken from the White House, and his involvement in the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. The post Rape allegation against Trump heads to civil trial appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
New US Capitol attacker pleads guilty – Noticieros Televisa
owner of a gym in new jersey Convicted this Friday for attacking a policeman in the January 6 attack capital Of United States of america.....»»
Officer killed in US Capitol car-ramming attack
Officer killed in US Capitol car-ramming attack.....»»
The Proud Boys leader describes the attack on the Capitol as a ‘mistake’ – Notikeros Televisa
Cuban American Enrique Tario, Leader Proud boysSaid that there are “seven” members of the group Driven for attack on United States Capitol They know that.....»»
Pelosi Announces Commission to Investigate US Capitol Attack
Washington DC / 15.02.2021 17:16:02 Is the president of Lok Sabha From the United States, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Announced the creation of an independent commission.....»»
Biden: Democracy is fragile
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Saturday that despite Donald Trump’s acquittal in the US Capitol insurrection trial the charges against him are not in dispute and the attack shows “democracy is fragile.” “While the final vote did not lead to a conviction, the substance of the charge is not in dispute,” […] The post Biden: Democracy is fragile appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»