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☆ From Pizzagate to the 2020 Election: Forcing Liars to Pay or Apologize
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Michael J. Gottlieb can never remember the exact amount — it’s $148,169,000— that a jury ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to pay the Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. “Don’t waste your time being angry at those who did this to me and my daughter,” said Ms. Freeman 65, who with her daughter Ms. Moss, 39, was falsely accused by Mr. Giuliani of aiding an imagined plot to steal the 2020 presidential election. “We are more than conquerors.”Less than a decade ago, the two women would have struggled to find a lawyer. But Mr. Gottlieb, a partner at the firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher and a former associate counsel in the Obama White House, represented them for free. Mr. Gottlieb has also represented the owner of the Washington pizzeria targeted by “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorists as well as the brother of Seth Rich, a young Democratic National Committee staff member whose 2016 murder ignited bogus theories implicating his family.

Persons: Michael J, Gottlieb, Rudolph W, Giuliani, Ruby Freeman, Shaye Moss, ”, Freeman, Moss, “, Willkie Farr, Gallagher, Obama, “ Pizzagate, Seth Rich, Meryl Governski Organizations: House, Washington, Democratic National Committee, Protect Democracy Locations: Georgia

☆ ‘My Heart Sank’: In Maine, a Challenge to a Book, and to a Town’s Self-Image
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Rich Boulet, the director of the Blue Hill Public Library, was working in his office when a regular patron stopped by to ask how to donate a book to the library. “You just hand it over,” Mr. Boulet said. The book was “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters,” by the journalist Abigail Shrier. “If I’m being totally honest, my heart sank when I saw it,” Mr. Boulet recalled. Blue Hill delivered a 35-point victory for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2020 presidential race.

Persons: Rich Boulet, Mr, Boulet, ”, Abigail Shrier, ” Mr, Blue Hill, Joseph R, Biden Organizations: Blue, Public Locations: Blue

☆ Cast as Criminals, America’s Librarians Rally to Their Own Defense
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During 12 years as a youth librarian in northern Idaho, Denise Neujahr read to and befriended children of many backgrounds. Members of a local church waved signs with images of hellfire and used a bullhorn to shout Bible verses and accusations about sin and pedophile “groomers” in the library. Parents had to escort the teens inside that night, and the library beefed up security. But the next month police arrested a protester outside the doors who was carrying a knife and a loaded gun. youth and their parents, said she was told the group’s funding was in danger.

Persons: Denise Neujahr, ”, groomers, Ms, Neujahr, L.G.B.T.Q Locations: Idaho

☆ From Bush v. Gore to ‘Stop the Steal’: Kenneth Chesebro’s Long, Strange Trip
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-21 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | More About Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In January 2001, Kenneth Chesebro was a mild-mannered Harvard lawyer toiling for Al Gore during the 2000 presidential election recount battle. Two decades later, on Jan. 6, 2021, he joined the mob outside the Capitol, reborn as a MAGA-hatted kingpin. On Friday, Mr. Chesebro’s journey took another turn, when he pleaded guilty in a criminal racketeering indictment in Fulton County, Ga., and agreed to testify against former President Donald J. Trump and other co-defendants, including Rudolph W. Giuliani and several other top Trump aides. Mr. Chesebro’s trial, which had been scheduled to begin Monday, will no longer go forward. Liberal lawyers from his former life had hoped it would provide clues to an enduring mystery: What happened to “The Cheese?’’

Persons: Kenneth Chesebro, toiling, Al Gore, MAGA, Donald J, Trump, Rudolph W, Giuliani, Chesebro, Trump’s, Joseph R, Biden, Chesebro’s Organizations: Harvard, Capitol, Trump, Liberal Locations: Fulton County ,, Georgia

☆ Sandy Hook Families Say Alex Jones Cannot Hide Behind Bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | More About Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families who won historic defamation damages against the Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told a federal bankruptcy judge in Houston on Tuesday that Mr. Jones should not be allowed to use his Chapter 11 filing to evade $1 billion-plus verdicts made against him. If the judge rules in the families’ favor, Mr. Jones would likely be working the rest of his life to pay the debt. Mr. Jones spent years spreading lies that the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was a hoax aimed at gun control. Families of 10 victims sued him for defamation, and in trials in Texas and Connecticut were awarded about $1.4 billion in damages. As the cases went to trial, Infowars declared bankruptcy, and Mr. Jones declared personal bankruptcy late last year.

Persons: Sandy Hook, Alex Jones, Jones, Christopher Lopez, Infowars, Jones’s, Chris Davis, Veronique De La Rosa, Noah Pozner Organizations: Sandy Hook Elementary Locations: Houston, Sandy, Newtown, Conn, Texas, Connecticut

☆ The Question After Every Mass Shooting: How Much Do We Deserve to Know?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | More About Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Shortly after the shooting, Colleen Murphy, executive director and general counsel of Connecticut’s Freedom of Information Commission, received a call from a state legislator convinced that the filmmaker Michael Moore was seeking crime scene photos of the children. But Ms. Murphy told the lawmaker that her office, which fields all public records requests, had received no such inquiry. Some Sandy Hook families interpreted Mr. Moore’s remarks as “a horrific campaign to make the crime scene photos public,” Jennifer Hensel, whose 6-year-old daughter Avielle Richman died, wrote in The New Haven Register. “We cannot stand the thought of seeing the graphic depiction of our child’s death promoted to serve anyone’s political purposes.”Mr. Moore publicly clarified his view that no one should release photos without the families’ permission. Yet even today those requesting Connecticut homicide-related records must demonstrate that the release does not constitute an “unwarranted invasion of privacy.”

Persons: Colleen Murphy, Michael Moore, Murphy, Moore, Columbine ”, Mamie Till, Emmett Till, Sandy Hook, Moore’s, ” Jennifer Hensel, Avielle Richman, Mr Organizations: Information Commission, Columbine, JET, New Haven Register, The Hartford Courant Locations: Colorado, Mississippi, Hartford, The Connecticut

☆ Suspecting Clandestine Plots Behind Every Door
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | More About Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

UNDER THE EYE OF POWER: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy, by Colin DickeyThe Memorial Day pancake breakfast in Blue Hill, Maine, is hosted by the Oddfellows, an 18th-century craftsmen’s guild turned community service organization, related to the Freemasons. While there this spring, I pondered the elderly members pouring coffee and selling raffle tickets to fund college scholarships. How bizarre, even funny, that this group was once perceived as a threat to America. History bristles with examples of citizens and their elected leaders hijacking public discourse by tarring — sometimes literally — perceived enemies of the American project. Unfortunately, we have willfully forgotten most of this warped history, rendering us constantly surprised by the next imagined peril.

Persons: Colin Dickey The, ” Colin Dickey, Ben Franklin, —, ” Dickey, tarring —, McCarthy, zealotry Organizations: American, Freemasons Locations: Blue Hill , Maine, America

☆ $1 Billion Federal Agency Seeks a Boss Who Will Show Up for Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-07 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Recent inspector general reports document waste, absenteeism, contracting irregularities, workplace misconduct and sexual harassment at an agency with an annual budget of $1.3 billion. Some 17 agency employees knew about Mr. Blanton’s misconduct but did not report it. Failures of the Capitol Police Board (the architect is one of three voting members) and Mr. Blanton’s failed response contributed to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, according to a Senate report. “The report is filled with errors, omissions, mischaracterizations, misstatements and conclusory statements lacking evidence,” he said. “Problem after problem after problem,” Thomas J. Carroll III, a former acting architect of the Capitol, told investigators.

Persons: Blanton’s, Alexandria Ocasio, House Cannon, Blanton, “, ”, ” Thomas J, Carroll III Organizations: Capitol, House, Capitol Police Board, Committee Locations: Cortez, New York

☆ Preaching Tolerance Abroad, as Hatred Surges at Home
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Elizabeth Williamson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A year ago, Deborah Lipstadt, newly confirmed as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, attended a White House reception and reintroduced herself to President Biden as he passed by. “I know who you are,” Dr. Lipstadt recalled the president telling her. “And you have a big job.”Mr. Biden was right, but for reasons neither of them fully imagined. “My predecessors could go to countries and say, ‘You have a problem, and we take this seriously, and you should take it seriously.’ I can’t do that. I have to go and say, ‘We have a problem.’”

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