Trump Revokes Administration Ethics Rules On His Way Out The Door – NPR
Trump Revokes Administration Ethics Rules On His Way Out The Door – NPR

President Trump exits the Oval Office and walks to the South Lawn of the White House on Oct. 1, 2020. As he leaves the White House for the final time, Trump has rescinded rules prohibiting members of his administration from lobbying agencies where they worked for five years.

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President Trump exits the Oval Office and walks to the South Lawn of the White House on Oct. 1, 2020. As he leaves the White House for the final time, Trump has rescinded rules prohibiting members of his administration from lobbying agencies where they worked for five years.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

In one of his final acts in office, in the wee hours of the night, President Trump revoked Executive Order 13770, an order on ethics he signed when he first took office, freeing the way for people who have served in his administration to cash in with lobbying gigs.

When Trump signed the order on Jan. 28, 2017, he hailed it as a fulfillment of his campaign promise to “drain the swamp.” Among other things, it banned administration officials from lobbying the agencies where they worked for a full five years after the termination of their employment.

“It’s a two-year ban now, and it’s got full of loopholes, and this is a five-year ban,” Trump boasted at the time, joking that the people standing around him for the signing ceremony had one last chance to get out before the order took effect and limited their options.

Trump’s reversal isn’t unprecedented. In the final weeks of his presidency, former President Bill Clinton revoked his administration’s ethics order, something he was criticized for doing. One of the people who knocked that move was none other than candidate Donald Trump. “He rigged the system on his way out,” Trump said of Clinton’s move in a 2016 statement.

Trump has now done the same thing he was so critical of five years ago.

This comes as Trump issued more than 140 pardons and commutations on his way out, including lending a hand to friends, Republican donors and a rapper who endorsed his 2020 campaign. Trump, however, did not pardon himself or his adult children in that raft of clemency actions.

Aides to President-elect Joe Biden say he will sign an order today requiring those serving in his administration to agree to an ethics pledge. It has become standard for presidents to issue ethics guidelines via executive order in their early days in office.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958710562/trump-revokes-administration-ethics-rules-on-his-way-out-the-door

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What You Need to Know About Maya and Meena Harris and Kamala Harris’ Stepchildren – Newsweek
What You Need to Know About Maya and Meena Harris and Kamala Harris’ Stepchildren – Newsweek

On Wednesday, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in alongside President-elect Joe Biden at the inauguration.

Surrounding the 2020 election, some of Harris’ family members, like her niece Meena and sister Maya, have been incredibly active and vocal in the vice president–elect’s run.

Here’s a quick rundown of the Harris family tree:

Sister

Maya Harris

Harris’ 53-year-old younger sister is no stranger to politics. During Harris’ presidential run, her sister was the campaign chairwoman. She also served as an adviser to former first lady and Senator Hilary Clinton during her 2016 presidential run, according to The Washington Post. Previously, Maya Harris was the executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and a vice president at the Ford Foundation, whose mission is “to reduce poverty and injustice, strengthen democratic values, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement,” according to its website.

Maya Harris was one of the family members that the vice president–elect thanked in her acceptance speech in November, along with her husband and stepchildren.

Vice President–elect Kamala Harris, her husband Douglas Emhoff and her sister Maya Harris prior to her delivering a campaign speech at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair on August 10, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Alex Wong/Getty

Niece

Meena Harris

Harris’ niece has been particularly outspoken during her aunt’s vice presidential campaign and leading up to her inauguration, whether she was celebrating a rainy rally or coming to Sasha Obama’s defense. Meena Harris is also a lawyer and the CEO of the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign, which “brings awareness to social and cultural causes” according to its website, by creating and supporting content from various organizations including the Essie Justice Group and Black Futures Lab.

Harris has also authored two children’s books Ambitious Girl and Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea, inspired by her mother and aunt.

Stepchildren

Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, lawyer Doug Emhoff. Both Cole and Ella Emhoff were from Emhoff’s first marriage to producer Kerstin Emhoff (née Mackin). Both the Emhoff children refer to Harris as “Momala.” The siblings were recently interviewed by The New York Times to discuss their family dynamic. Ella described the parenting style between the three as positive. “They have good communication between the three of them. They are really a unit, like a three-person parenting squad. It’s really cool,” she said.

Cole Emhoff

The elder Emhoff sibling is a graduate of Colorado College. He appears to have followed in his mother’s footsteps and pursued a career in the entertainment industry. According to his LinkedIn, he’s an executive assistant for the production company Plan B, which has recently produced the Jon Stewart–directed Irresistible.

Ella Emhoff

The younger Emhoff is a student at Parsons in Brooklyn, New York. She regularly posts different art and knitting projects on Instagram. In the New York Times interview, she said that she hoped her father would take up knitting as part of his new role as second-gentleman.

Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-family-sister-niece-children-maya-meena-emhoff-cole-ella-1562747

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Trump’s last-minute pardons include Bannon, Lil Wayne and scores of others – CNN
Trump’s last-minute pardons include Bannon, Lil Wayne and scores of others – CNN

By Pamela Brown, Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins, CNN

Updated 1:30 AM ET, Wed January 20, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/trump-pardons-commutations-list/index.html

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Hannity blasts McConnell, ‘spineless Republicans’ joining Democrats’ repudiation of Trump – Fox News
Hannity blasts McConnell, ‘spineless Republicans’ joining Democrats’ repudiation of Trump – Fox News
Video

Hannity blasts McConnell over reported consideration of impeachment

‘Hannity’ host says Kentucky senator should leave leadership if he cannot ‘lead’ the Trump-friendly GOP

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s days in leadership will be numbered if he allows Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. a free hand to litigate President Trump’s impeachment, Sean Hannity said Tuesday. 

“In November, the president won more votes by far than any other Republican in the history of our great republic, nearly 75 million nationwide,” the “Hannity” host told viewers. “Now soon-to-be Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and a handful of other long-serving establishment Republicans are trying to reassert control of the GOP, and their playbook is sadly all too predictable.

“Instead of picking up the mantle and promoting the president’s bold America First agenda, they are cowering in fear, wilting under the pressure from the media mob, liberal Democrats, and Big Tech companies,” he continued. “Many spineless Republicans are joining forces with their Democratic friends to repudiate all things Trump.”

Earlier Tuesday, McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor that the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, in which five people died, was “provoked” by the president and “other powerful people.”

MCCONNELL SAYS TRUMP ‘PROVOKED’ CAPITOL RIOT AS SENATE WEIGHS ANOTHER IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

“So Mitch McConnell, I’m all ears,” Hannity responded. “Tell the American people exactly what part of the president’s speech that you thought was violent. Was it when he urged his followers to peacefully and patriotically march to the capitol so their voices could be heard?

“Do you like this ‘snap impeachment’ process? Do you feel it’s thorough and fair and constitutional? Do you think it’s just? And do you think you want to be validating what the House of Representatives rammed through in a week without even any knowledge of those people that apparently, we are discovering, were part of a plan that was well-orchestrated to entice people to do this and get involved in this themselves?”

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Hannity concluded that McConnell “would have more credibility now, with his new eagerness to reestablish the Republican moderates and establishment wing of the party and repudiate President Trump if he were consistent. But ultimately, this is why Americans voted for Donald Trump and not 17 other establishment Republicans [in 2016].”

The host reminded viewers that “freedom is a fragile thing. It’s never more than one generation away from extinction. This cannot, my fellow American citizens, happen on our watch. You know why? Because our children and our grandchildren deserve better, and Mitch McConnell, if you’re not going to fight, we deserve better.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-blasts-mcconnell-spineless-republicans-joining-democrats-repudiation-of-trump-trumpism

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DOJ will not criminally charge Sen. Richard Burr for stock trades he made after getting Covid intelligence – CNBC
DOJ will not criminally charge Sen. Richard Burr for stock trades he made after getting Covid intelligence – CNBC

The Justice Department will not criminally charge Sen. Richard Burr in connection with stock trades that the North Carolina Republican executed on the heels of being briefed about Covid-19 last year, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic rocked the U.S. economy.

The probe of Burr had included the highly unsusual seizure of his cell phone by the FBI in May, and led to his stepping aside as chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee that same month.

“Tonight, the Department of Justice informed me that it has concluded its review of my personal financial transactions conducted early last year,” Burr said in a statement Tuesday night.

“The case is now closed. I’m glad to hear it. My focus has been and will continue to be working for the people of North Carolina during this difficult time for our nation,” Burr said.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

But a DOJ official confirmed to NBC News that the investigation was closed.

The news came on President Donald Trump’s last night in office.

The closure of the probe puts an apparent end to a controversy that erupted last March, as the coronavirus pandemic’s first wave began slamming the United States.

Burr was one of several senators who raised eyebrows from stock trades made in their accounts that came after they received information that warned of the potential effects of Covid, but before the pandemic began spreading rapidly.

But unlike the other senators, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, Dianne Feinstein of California, and Oklahoma’s James Inhofe, Burr did not deny that he decided to sell the stock himself, or that concerns about coronavirus were his primary motivation for the sale.

Only Burr was the subject of a sustained criminal investigation by DOJ for his stock trades. The other three, who like Burr had denied any wrongdoing, were told in May that they would not face criminal charges.

Members of Congress are legally barred from using nonpublic information they obtain through their official positions in order to personally profit off the stock market.

The STOCK Act that codified this ban was signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, after passing the Senate in a 96-3 vote. Burr was one of the three “nay” votes on that law

As Intelligence chairman, Burr was given access in January and February in 2020 to classified intelligence reports which contained stark warnings about the coronavirus. 

On Feb. 13 last year, Burr unloaded stock shares worth $630,000 to $1.7 million, with 33 individual trades made on that single day. The shares he sold represented a significant portion of his financial portfolio.

One week later, stock markets began plunging over fear that the pandemic would cripple the global economy. The bellwhether Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 30% of its value in the weeks following Burr’s trades.

 ProPublica reported that on the day Burr sold his stocks, his brother-in-law Gerald Fauth himself sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of stock.

Fauth was appointed by Trump in 2017 to a seat on the three-member National Mediation Board, a federal agency that helps facilitate labor relations for the transportation industry.

At the time of the ProPublica report, Burr’s attorney Alice Fisher told the news outlet that Burr “did not coordinate his decision to trade” with Fauth.

“From the outset, Senator Burr has been focused on an appropriate  and thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate,” Fisher said at that time.

Burr in late March had said, “I relied solely on public news reports to guide my decision regarding the sale of stocks.”

“Specifically, I closely followed CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus at the time,” he said.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/doj-will-not-charge-sen-richard-burr-for-covid-stock-trades.html

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Trump won’t hand Biden the nuclear football. Here’s how the handoff will happen. – NBC News
Trump won’t hand Biden the nuclear football. Here’s how the handoff will happen. – NBC News
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Trump tells people he’s decided to pardon Steve Bannon as one of his final acts in office – CNN
Trump tells people he’s decided to pardon Steve Bannon as one of his final acts in office – CNN

By Pamela Brown, Paul LeBlanc and Kaitlan Collins, CNN

Updated 11:32 PM ET, Tue January 19, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/steve-bannon-pardoned-by-trump/index.html

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McConnell pressures Democrats to keep Senate filibuster – Associated Press
McConnell pressures Democrats to keep Senate filibuster – Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of his final acts as majority leader, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is pressuring Democrats to keep the filibuster — the procedural tool that liberals and progressives are eager to to do away with so President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative priorities can be approved more easily over GOP opposition.

McConnell has told Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer that retaining the legislative filibuster is important and should be part of their negotiations for a power-sharing agreement in the narrowly divided Senate.

Schumer and McConnell met Tuesday to begin hammering out the details of organizing the chamber, which will be split 50-50, with Democrats holding the majority once three new senators are sworn in Wednesday and Kamala Harris is inaugurated as the vice president.

“Leader McConnell expressed his long-held view that the crucial, longstanding and bipartisan Senate rules concerning the legislative filibuster remain intact, specifically during the power share for the next two years,” McConnell spokesman Doug Andres said.

Andres said discussions on “all aspects” of the arrangement will continue.

Normally, a divided chamber would produce a resolution to equally share committee seats and other resources. But McConnell is driving a harder bargain by inserting his demand that Schumer keep the filibuster procedure in place.

Schumer faces pressure from the progressive flank to end the filibuster, but he has not committed to doing so.

A Schumer spokesman, Justin Goodman, said that the Democratic leader “expressed that the fairest, most reasonable and easiest path forward” was to adopt an organizing agreement similar to a 2001 consensus between the parties, the last time the Senate was evenly divided, without “extraneous changes from either side.”

The group Fix Our Senate criticized McConnell for trying to prevent procedural changes. The group said in a statement that McConnell wants to keep the filibuster because he knows it is “the best weapon he has” to prevent Democrats from delivering on Biden’s priorities.

“Senate Democrats must swat away this absurd attempt to undermine their majority and kneecap the Biden agenda before it even has a chance to get started,” the group said in a statement.

The modern filibuster rules essentially require a super-majority threshold, now at 60 votes, to cut off debate in the Senate and bring legislative bills or other measures to a vote.

The practice was changed as a way to wind down long-running speeches and debates, notably during the start of World War I, but quickly became a tool employed by minority factions to halt legislation that had majority support.

Opponents of civil rights staged several filibusters, including the longest in modern Senate history. Sen. Strom Thurmond, D-S.C., spoke against a 1957 civil rights bill for 24 hours and 18 minutes.

McConnell gutted the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in 2017, a breathtaking move that enabled the Senate to easily confirm the first of three justices that President Donald Trump nominated to the high court with simple majority votes.

It’s unclear the Democrats would even have support from their ranks to undo the legislative filibuster, which would require a vote in the Senate.

But McConnell is not willing to take any chances and is forcing Schumer into a negotiation that could delay organizing the Senate.

The Republican leader has also been talking privately with Republican senators about the importance to resolving the issue now, as part of the power-sharing talks with Democrats. McConnell sent an email Monday to senators outlining his concerns, as first reported by National Review.

Without agreement on this and other matters, the Democrats’ ability to control committees and other aspects of Senate business may also be delayed as talks between McConnell and Schumer drag on.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-mitch-mcconnell-kamala-harris-filibusters-f8b51c0cdded4324f2e78cb74c936c88

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Writing a speech for Biden can be hell. And that was before the inaugural. – POLITICO
Writing a speech for Biden can be hell. And that was before the inaugural. – POLITICO

For higher-profile remarks, he’d obsessively rehearse portions until he committed them to memory. And at times through the various iterations of outlining remarks, Biden could grow downright ornery.

“I would never say this,” Biden once snapped at an aide, aghast over the prepared remarks he was reviewing, according to a person in the room during a speech prep session last year. “Where did you get this from?’”

The aide explained that Biden had just said it in a public speech a couple of weeks earlier.

Such are the hallmarks and unpleasantries that are the sausage-making of speech writing with Biden.

Whether it’s his second stump speech on the same day in Michigan or a nationally televised address, there are few tasks in politics that Biden takes more seriously than speaking. And, perhaps, the struggles he had with speech in his childhood explains why.

On Wednesday, Biden, the boy who grew up talking with a stutter, will deliver an inaugural address that carries more weight than any of the speeches he has obsessed over in the past.

“He is well aware this is the most important inaugural speech since Lincoln,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who is a close Biden ally.

Biden’s address, which is supposed to run between 20 and 30 minutes, is expected to reprise themes he’s hit on since he entered the presidential race in April 2019, including bringing back the “soul of the nation,” and a pledge to be president for all Americans, even those who didn’t vote for him.

But unlike some of those past versions, there is heightened urgency to Wednesday’s address. Confronting multiple crises, including a pandemic and the economic fallout from it, Biden needs bipartisan support to push an ambitious agenda through Congress. A powerful inaugural address is seen as one step toward bringing more naysayers to his side, those close to him say.

Longtime aides and advisers expect the inaugural address to traverse territory that Biden has covered over the course of his nearly 50-year public career, while highlighting an agenda that offers up hope to a country ravaged by disease, economic struggles, and violent political insurrection.

While the process behind developing Biden’s speeches can be grueling (one longtime adviser jokingly suggested creating a support group for Biden speech writers), there is a method to it. Biden has maintained a core team of loyal advisers around him who have grown to learn how to parse when the president-elect is just riffing and when he really wants his thoughts committed to paper.

Biden has grown comfortable with chief speech writer Vinay Reddy and senior adviser Mike Donilon, who have helped him thread his narratives in a simple, grounded way. The president-elect has also leaned on Tony Blinken, his secretary of state designate, to help with the speech writing process. Incoming chief of staff Ron Klain is in the mix as well.

For his speeches, Biden receives advice — solicited and unsolicited — from a wide cast of luminaries, which in the past has included historian Jon Meacham. However, two people with knowledge of the preparations said Meacham has not taken part in shaping the inaugural speech.

“I do know there is a lot of attention going toward the speech,” said Democratic National Committee Finance Chair Chris Korge. “He’s going to turn the page and move forward for all Americans.”

The inaugural address will be Biden’s biggest audience since he delivered an acceptance speech on Nov. 7. It will be the most high-stakes speech since the one he delivered at the August Democratic National Convention, when disinformation was raging about his mental acuity. Biden’s team at the time said they were prepared for Republicans — namely President Donald Trump — to seize on any phrase Biden garbled.

“People were nervous,” said a confidant who spoke with Biden in the days before the convention speech, which was delivered from Wilmington, Del. “But Joe had labored over it and at one point, he said, ‘I’m going to make the ancestors proud. I’m going to make mom and dad proud.’”

Cedric Richmond, the Louisiana congressman who just stepped down to take a senior role in the Biden White House, said now, just like in August, people failed to give Biden due credit.

“People have always underestimated his ability to rise to a challenge,” said Richmond. “No matter what, he’s always risen to the occasion.”

Biden will speak at a time when there is a show of force in the nation’s capital, with the center of the district shuttered to the public and thousands of armed troops roaming the streets to stave off the kind of deadly unrest that unfolded inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6.

But Matt Teper, who worked as a speechwriter for Biden in the Obama White House, predicted Biden would spend little to no time talking about Trump specifically.

“The most important thing tomorrow is probably his tone,” Teper said. “American carnage [the theme of Trump’s inaugural address] keeps coming up in every conversation, but nobody wants to hear that. He needs to give people a sense of looking forward. There’s a president in charge right now. As long as he projects all that, then that’s a success.”

Christopher Cadelago and Marc Caputo contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/19/joe-biden-inaugural-speech-lincoln-460506

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Dem Rep. Cohen’s smearing of National Guard was ‘pretty outrageous’: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp – Fox News
Dem Rep. Cohen’s smearing of National Guard was ‘pretty outrageous’: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp – Fox News
Video

Ga Gov. Brian Kemp: ‘Outrageous’ for Dem Rep to question National Guard motives

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp discusses the widely panned remarks by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., on ‘The Story.’

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has slammed a Democratic congressman’s remarks suggesting pro-Trump National Guardsmen would harm President-elect Joe Biden as “completely outrageous.”

In an interview with “The Story” Tuesday, Kemp told host Martha MacCallum the thousands of guardsmen deployed by Georgia and other states to help secure the inauguration were “great patriots.”

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., faced bipartisan condemnation on Monday after he told CNN that the large number of “White males” in the Guard raised the possibility that they “might want to do something.”

“The [National] Guard is 90 some-odd% male, and only about 20% of White males voted for Biden,” Cohen said. “You’ve got to figure that in the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative … they’re probably not more than 25% of the people there protecting us that voted for Biden. The other 75% are in the large class of folks that might want to do something.”

25,000 NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS DEPLOYED TO CAPITOL AS BIDEN INAUGURATION LOOMS

GOV. BRIAN KEMP: I saw that clip and I thought to myself, “That’s pretty outrageous.” He doesn’t know the Georgia National Guard like I do. I remember vividly back this summer [at] two, three o’clock in the morning, walking around the square of the Georgia State Capitol shaking every Guardsman’s hand … [who was] protecting this building during civil unrest. It was as diverse a group as you’ve ever seen in your life, and they were there to do one thing and that was to follow orders, to protect the Capitol and protect property in the city of Atlanta and state assets at that time. These are good people …

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I just think that is completely outrageous, and I’ve seen a lot about the vetting process as well. That is a normal proccess that goes on … Our Georgia National Guard, it’s unbelievable what they’ve been doing …

They’ve done incredible work in the pandemic, helping with testing … food banks, now they’re helping us with vaccine administration. These are great patriots.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-steve-cohen-smear-national-guard-outrageous-brian-kemp

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Oath Keeper Suspects Charged With Conspiracy – The New York Times
Oath Keeper Suspects Charged With Conspiracy – The New York Times

Mr. Caldwell had advised militia members to stay in a particular Comfort Inn in Washington’s suburbs, according to messages cited in court documents, advising that it offered a good base to “hunt at night” — apparently meaning looking for antifa-style left-wing protesters to fight. Ms. Watkins apparently rented a room there under an assumed name, an F.B.I. agent said.

Mr. Caldwell appeared virtually in federal court in Virginia on Tuesday, pledging to fight the charges against him. In arguing for release on bond, Mr. Caldwell pointed to his age as well as underlying medical issues and the threat of the coronavirus, noting that he relied on a machine at night to help with sleep apnea. A judge declined the request.

Federal investigators also recovered audio recordings of Ms. Watkins’ voice during the riot from the Zello cellphone app, which acts like a walkie-talkie, speaking to other people thought to be Oath Keepers. “We have a good group,” she said early in the riot, according to the charging document. “We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan.” An unknown male responded, “We’ll see you soon, Jess. Airborne.”

An unidentified man said later, “You are executing citizen’s arrest. Arrest this assembly; we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud.” Ms. Watkins responded that she and others were under the main dome of the Capitol, and another unknown male voice encouraged her to continue, saying this was what they “trained for.”

The group they are accused of being part of, the Oath Keepers, is a far-right militia-style organization founded by military and law enforcement veterans that professes to believe that a shadowy globalist cabal is plotting to take away Americans’ rights.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/oath-keepers-capitol-riot.html

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Justice Dept. won’t charge Sen. Burr over stock sales – WRAL.com
Justice Dept. won’t charge Sen. Burr over stock sales – WRAL.com

By ERIC TUCKER and MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Burr said Tuesday that the Justice Department has told him it will not prosecute him over stock sales made during the coronavirus pandemic, ending an insider trading investigation that led him to at least temporarily step aside from a powerful committee chairmanship last year.

Prosecutors had investigated for months whether the North Carolina Republican and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee had exploited advance information when he unloaded as much as $1.7 million in stocks in the days before the coronavirus caused markets to plummet.

“The case is now closed,” Burr said in a statement. “I’m glad to hear it. My focus has been and will continue to be working for the people of North Carolina during this difficult time for our nation.”

His lawyer, Alice Fisher, described the investigation as a “thorough review” and said Burr, who has said he will not seek reelection when his term ends in 2022, would remain focused on “the safety and security of North Carolinians and the United States as a whole.”

A Justice Department spokesman confirmed it would not bring charges but declined further comment. The New York Times was first to report on the decision to not bring charges.

The investigation escalated in May when the FBI obtained a search warrant to seize a cellphone from Burr. The day after that action became public, Burr said he would step aside as Intelligence Committee chairman while the FBI investigation was ongoing. It is unclear whether he will retake the role as the panel’s top Republican now that he has been cleared.

Democrats are set to take control of the Senate on Wednesday, and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner will become the panel’s chairman.

Burr said he was told Tuesday, the last night of President Donald Trump’s term. He had occasionally angered Trump and his family as he investigated the president’s ties to Russia, especially when he called Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. in to testify before the committee for a second time in 2019.

Burr, who was first elected to the Senate in 2004 and chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee as it conducted its own investigation into Russian election interference in the 2016 presidential election, has denied wrongdoing in the well-timed stock sales. His lawyer has said he had actively cooperated with the investigation. He had also called for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his actions.

Senate records show that Burr and his wife sold between roughly $600,000 and $1.7 million in more than 30 transactions in late January and mid-February, just before the market began to dive and government health officials began to sound alarms about the virus. Several of the stocks were in companies that own hotels.

Burr has acknowledged selling the stocks because of the coronavirus but said he relied “solely on public news reports,” specifically CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of Asia, to make the financial decisions.

The Justice Department last year separately closed without charges investigations into stock trading by multiple other senators, including Dianne Feinstein of California, Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, according to people familiar with notifications sent to the senators. They, too, had come under scrutiny for transactions made in the weeks before the coronavirus sent markets downhill.

____

Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.wral.com/justice-dept-wont-charge-sen-burr-over-stock-trades/19480748/

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Trump doesn’t mention Biden in farewell address that glosses over Capitol riot and Covid deaths – CNBC
Trump doesn’t mention Biden in farewell address that glosses over Capitol riot and Covid deaths – CNBC

The president’s speech also made just one reference to the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol by a swarm of his supporters — an event that left five dead and spurred the House to impeach him for a second time.

“All Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated,” Trump said in the speech.

He has denied any responsibility for the invasion. But earlier Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that the mob was “provoked by the president and other powerful people.”

Trump faces an impeachment trial in the Senate.

Trump in the video praised his administration’s efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, saying the U.S. “outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy that we built. Without the foundations and footings, it wouldn’t have worked out this way.”

Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. topped 400,000 deaths from Covid, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Roughly one-quarter of those deaths were reported in the last five weeks alone.

“We grieve for every life lost, and we pledge in their memory to wipe out this horrible pandemic once and for all,” Trump, whose term ends Wednesday, said in his address.

Trump, who regularly accused media of being “the enemy of the people” and campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp” in D.C., also dedicated a sizeable portion of the address to warning against “political censorship and blacklisting.”

“Shutting down free and open debate violates our core values and most enduring traditions,” said Trump, who was permanently banned from Twitter following his initial reaction to the riot at the Capitol.

“Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning,” he said.

But it’s unclear whether that movement will include Trump — at least as a candidate for elected office. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed earlier Tuesday that if Trump is convicted after his impeachment trial “there will be a vote on barring him from running again.”

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/trump-farewell-address-no-biden-mention-glosses-over-covid-deaths-capitol-riot.html

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Latest on Biden’s inauguration and Trump’s last full day in office: Live updates – CNN
Latest on Biden’s inauguration and Trump’s last full day in office: Live updates – CNN

Two uniforms stolen from a US Army soldier’s car Tuesday morning led to an alert to law enforcement in the Washington area though authorities said it “was not a targeted theft,” according to a copy of the alert obtained by CNN and Anne Arundel County Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Kam Cooke.

The alert was sent out of an abundance of caution due to the security precautions surrounding Wednesday’s inaugural, according to the notification.  

The Anne Arundel County Police sent out the “criminal intel alert” describing the soldier’s Army fatigue and military dress uniforms that were lifted out of his unlocked car in the Washington suburb.

Cooke emphasized to CNN that the theft “was not targeted.” Cooke said that other vehicles on the block were also broken into, including the victim’s mother’s car.

“Someone was going down the street shaking the handles of vehicles and got into a few of them,” Cooke told CNN. 

This week, the FBI warned other law enforcement agencies that QAnon adherents discussed acting as National Guard soldiers in Washington to try and infiltrate President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The alert also comes on the heels of hundreds of pro-Trump extremists that invaded the US Capitol earlier this month in an attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election win. 

The unidentified soldier’s credentialed clothing was inside a suitcase that was inside his car that he happened to leave unlocked, Cooke said. Cooke did not confirm the soldier’s name, if his or her name was sewed onto the stolen articles of clothing, or if the soldier was involved with security at the US Capitol.

As a part of protocol, Cooke said, this matter was passed along to Maryland’s Fusion Center and to the Anne Arundel County intelligence officers to handle the ongoing investigation. 

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-inauguration-dc-security-01-19-21/h_1e9c5dcbcfbb855e90c6b96fecf5dbb1

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12 National Guard Members Removed From Inauguration Duties Amid Extremist Threats – The New York Times
12 National Guard Members Removed From Inauguration Duties Amid Extremist Threats – The New York Times

General Austin added later, “We can do a better job of screening the folks we bring in.”

The F.B.I. investigation into the Capitol rampage, still in its very early stages, has identified at least six suspects with military links out of the more than 100 people who have been taken into federal custody or the larger number still under investigation. They include a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas, an Army officer from North Carolina and an Army reservist from New Jersey. Another person who served in the military was shot and killed in the assault.

The military’s examination of its ranks is a turning point for the Pentagon, which has a history of downplaying the rise of white nationalism and right-wing activism, even as Germany and other countries are finding a deep strain embedded in their armed forces.

Federal officials are vetting thousands of National Guard members arriving to help secure the inauguration. Of the 25,000 Guard personnel who are in Washington, any who will be near Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris will receive additional background checks, a standard procedure to counter insider threats that was also taken before Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

In addition to the National Guard members, the Pentagon plans to deploy about 2,750 active-duty personnel in support of the event. About 2,000 of them will perform ceremonial duties in military bands, color guards and a salute-gun battery, and serve as sentries and ushers.

The remaining 750 are members assigned to specialized units dealing with chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological threats; bomb squad technicians; medical personnel (including those conducting coronavirus testing in support of the attending physician of Congress); and logistics and communications support personnel.

Coast Guard helicopters and vessels will be in the air and nearby waterways.

Air Force fighter jets stationed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland will be aloft over the region. The air space over the Capitol, the National Mall and the rest of the city will be even more restricted than usual, Pentagon officials said.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/national-guard-capitol-biden-inauguration.html

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Mitch McConnell: Capitol Hill mob was ‘provoked’ by Trump – CNN
Mitch McConnell: Capitol Hill mob was ‘provoked’ by Trump – CNN

By Alex Rogers and Clare Foran, CNN

Updated 3:51 PM ET, Tue January 19, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/mitch-mcconnell-rioters-provoked/index.html

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Democrats race to push Biden’s agenda after transition delays, GOP infighting – NBC News
Democrats race to push Biden’s agenda after transition delays, GOP infighting – NBC News
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Biden to propose sweeping immigration bill on first day in office – CNN
Biden to propose sweeping immigration bill on first day in office – CNN

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/biden-immigration-bill/index.html

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Wyoming Republicans censure Cheney over Trump impeachment vote – Fox News
Wyoming Republicans censure Cheney over Trump impeachment vote – Fox News
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Wyoming’s Carbon County Republican Party voted unanimously to censure Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for voting with nine other House Republicans to impeach President Trump on charges of “incitement of an insurrection.”

That censure resolution has been submitted to be considered by the Wyoming Republican Party’s State Central Committee.

“Representative Cheney has violated the trust of her voters, failed to faithfully represent a very large majority of motivated Wyoming voters, and neglected her duty to represent the party and the will of the people who elected her to represent them,” the resolution states.

The Wyoming GOP has already condemned Cheney for the vote and demanded she “explain” her vote at its next meeting.

“By announcing her decision to vote for impeachment Representative Cheney denied President Trump due process; she judged the ‘evidence’ before it was presented and refused to listen to the arguments made,” the Wyoming GOP said in a statement last week.

WASHINGTON REPUBLICAN WHO BACKED TRUMP IMPEACHMENT FACES BACKLASH BACK HOME

An online petition to recall Cheney on Change.org also has more than 33,000 signatures.

“I will continue to talk to and hear from my constituents all over Wyoming,” Cheney told the Casper Star-Tribune after she voted last week. “But when it came down to it, the president the United States incited a mob to attack and interrupt the democratic process. And then, while the violence played out, the president refused to take steps to stop it. In my mind, those are absolutely high crimes and misdemeanors. There’s just simply no question. This was a vote that could not have anything to do with party or with politics.”

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is calling for a temporary halt to tours at the U.S. Capitol as the coronavirus continues to spread. (William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images)

Cheney is not the only Republican who voted for impeachment to face backlash – although she is the highest-ranking one. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., is facing criticism from her district’s conservative base. Washington state group Clark County Republican Women vowed to back a primary challenge to Herrera Beutler over the impeachment vote. Herrera Beutler’s district includes Clark County.

“If you cast this vote to impeach, you will never receive our support or votes again at any time in the future,” Clark County Republican Women said in a letter to Herrera Beutler. “Additionally, we will do everything in our power as the largest Republican Women’s organization in Washington State to recruit and elect a conservative candidate who will represent our values.”

LIZ CHENEY FACES BACKLASH FROM SOME GOP LAWMAKERS AFTER BACKING TRUMP IMPEACHMENT

Herrera Beutler responded by saying she took a stand for “my country and the United States Constitution.”

“A ruthless mob that uses violence to stop the Constitutionally-mandated counting of electoral votes is an attack on the U.S. Constitution itself. The President either wanted the mob he helped mobilize to take these steps, or he didn’t care enough about his job responsibilities to try to stop them as they hunted down his Vice President and beat Capitol police officers; either way, it’s impeachable. Let the political chips fall where they may,” Herrera Beutler said in a statement to Fox News.

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Trump is the only president in history to be impeached twice. The Senate is expected to pick up the impeachment trial after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

FOX Business’ Thomas Barrabi contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/liz-cheney-impeachment-republicans-herrera-beutler-wyoming

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Conspiracy Charges Filed Over Capitol Riot – The Wall Street Journal
Conspiracy Charges Filed Over Capitol Riot – The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—Prosecutors filed conspiracy charges related to the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, saying in a new complaint that three rioters had acted in an “organized and practiced fashion” and at one point appeared to suggest the possibility of gassing lawmakers in the tunnels below the building.

A search of the home of one of the three people also turned up directions for making explosives from bleach, according to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint.

The three were allegedly part of a group that approached the east side of the Capitol and tried to push their way through a set of center doors in between the House and the Senate wings as a separate mob of pro-Trump supporters battled a thin line of police officers on the west entrance during the riot. The complaint is among the first to charge multiple alleged members of the mob with conspiracy in connection with the events of Jan. 6.

Around eight to 10 people wearing helmets, reinforced vests and clothing with paraphernalia identifying themselves of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers moved in a tactical fashion and forced their way to the front of the crowd, a video cited in the complaint shows.

During the breach, one of the members allegedly communicated: “We have a good group. We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan,” the new complaint said.

Source Article from https://www.wsj.com/articles/first-conspiracy-charges-filed-over-capitol-riot-11611080191

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State Department accuses China of genocide against Uighur Muslims – Politico
State Department accuses China of genocide against Uighur Muslims – Politico

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pompeo’s statement.

In an interview on Fox News on Tuesday afternoon, Pompeo described China’s actions as “the stain of the century,” and said his declaration represented “simply a continuation of the work this administration has done to try and convince the Chinese Communist Party to cease this terrible, terrible set of human rights violations that have been taking place.”

The declaration by the State Department marks an escalation of the outgoing Trump administration’s pressure on the Chinese Communist Party, which has interned more than a million Uighurs in work and reeducation camps across the northwestern region. Pompeo’s statement will also force President-elect Joe Biden to either uphold or rescind the eleventh-hour action.

The declaration comes less than a week after the Department of Homeland Security effectively banned imports of all cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang over concerns of widespread forced labor in the agricultural sector, which U.S. officials say is akin to “modern day slavery.” The consequences of those bans will be far reaching, as an estimated 1 in 5 global cotton products contain fibers from Xinjiang.

The House of Representatives has passed an even stronger bill that would ban any imports from Xinjiang unless companies can prove forced labor was not used in their production. That bill stalled in the Senate amid a lobbying campaign from apparel and technology companies, but it remains unclear whether the legislation will have a better chance of passage with a Democratic-controlled Senate.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/19/china-uighur-muslims-state-department-pompeo-460376

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