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☆ Schiff says Trump broke the law, declines to reveal specific criminal referrals ahead of Jan. 6 meeting
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Sunday that the House Jan. 6 committee has evidence that former President Donald Trump broke the law, but he declined to get specific about the criminal referrals it could make ahead of the panel's final meeting on Monday. “But I can tell you that our process has been to look meticulously at the evidence and compare it to various statutes. These potential recommendations are not necessarily reserved to Trump and could also include referrals to other government agencies or the House Ethics Committee. Schiff reiterated that he thinks the former president “violated multiple criminal laws” and should be prosecuted like any other American who breaks the law. Is it a criminal referral to another branch of government, or is it better that the Congress police its own?” he said, adding that the panel has considered censure and ethics referrals.

☆ Hutchinson says he’ll decide 2024 run early next year: Trump has ‘accelerated everyone’s timeframe’
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-18 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Asa Hutchinson, an outspoken Republican critic of former President Donald Trump, said Sunday that Trump’s early 2024 re-election announcement has fast-tracked potential GOP challengers’ timeframes for declaring their own bids. In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Hutchinson said Trump has “accelerated everyone’s timeframe” after he launched a campaign last month to reclaim the Oval Office. Hutchinson, who is leaving the gubernatorial office next month and mulling a 2024 presidential campaign, said he expects he'll make a decision in the "first part" of 2023. Hutchinson also took aim at Florida Gov. Hutchinson added, “I mean, any leader, former president that says suspend the Constitution is tearing at the fabric of our democracy."

☆ D.C. Bar panel tentatively finds Giuliani likely committed ethics violation with false election claims
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A panel of the Washington, D.C., Bar on Thursday made a tentative, non-binding determination that former President Donald Trump’s ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani likely violated at least one professional conduct rule during his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Pennsylvania. The panel declined to specify what charge Giuliani likely had violated. It will release a final decision later after hearing recommendations related to what sanction Giuliani should receive, assuming the preliminary finding stands. A New York appellate court suspended Giuliani’s law license last year, saying he made “demonstrably false and misleading” statements about the 2020 election while serving as Trump’s lawyer. Giuliani’s D.C. law license was temporarily suspended after the New York decision.

☆ Iran ousted from U.N. women's rights commission amid crackdown and executions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Dan De Luce | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Abigail-Williams-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Eight members voted against the resolution and 16 abstained. “The commission is the premier U.N. body for promoting gender equality and empowering women,” she said. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, during a meeting to remove his country from membership in the Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday. Yuki Iwamura / AFP - Getty ImagesIran, which ranks 143rd among 146 countries in the World Economic Forum's global gender gap index, was voted onto the commission by secret ballot. The vote to oust Iran from the commission came days after the country carried out a second known execution of a prisoner detained and convicted amid the nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is introducing legislation Wednesday aimed at cracking down on money laundering in cryptocurrency. The Senate Banking Committee, which includes Warren, is holding a hearing Wednesday on the FTX debacle and aftermath. The bill would designate providers of digital asset wallets as money service businesses, bringing them under the authorities of the Bank Secrecy Act, which fights money laundering in the financial system. Further, it would prohibit financial institutions from dealing with services that blend the cryptocurrencies of users together, obscuring their origins. Warren has been an outspoken critic of FTX prior to Bankman-Fried’s indictment.

President Joe Biden signed legislation Tuesday to codify federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in a ceremony at the White House. Biden also quoted directly from a 2012 interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press" in which he came out in public support of same-sex marriage ahead of then-President Barack Obama. The legislation Biden signed was drafted by a bipartisan group led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay person elected to the Senate. President Joe Biden signs the Respect for Marriage Act on the South Lawn of the White House on Tuesday. The amendment included language saying that religious organizations would not be required to perform same-sex marriages and that the federal government would not be required to protect polygamous marriages.

☆ Sinema's switch to independent driven by ‘political aspirations,’ Sen. Bernie Sanders says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to leave the Democratic Party was driven by “political aspirations for the future in Arizona," Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday. “I happen to suspect that it’s probably a lot to do with politics back in Arizona," Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union." Along with fellow centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Sinema held strong negotiating power on Democratic priorities in the evenly divided Senate. “She is a corporate Democrat who has, in fact along with Senator Manchin, sabotaged enormously important legislation,” said Sanders, a prominent progressive lawmaker. Sinema's announcement to register as an independent came just days after Democrats reached a 51-49 Senate majority following Sen. Raphael Warnock’s victory in the Georgia runoff election, which expanded the party's narrowest of majorities.

☆ Democrats losing in rural America because ‘we are very bad at messaging,’ says Sen. Jon Tester
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said Sunday that he thinks his party’s “very bad” messaging cost them support in rural America in the November midterm elections. He also said he doesn’t think Democrats talk about their accomplishments that appeals to rural voters “near enough,” citing the bipartisan infrastructure law that passed Congress last year. “It’s going to help rural America big time, when it comes to broadband and electrical distribution and roads and bridges. “We didn’t talk about it from a rural perspective.”In order for Democrats to get the message out to rural America, Tester said, it needs to be a “concentrated effort” because they have been “very bad” at delivering it thus far. Biden earned his lowest lower numbers among rural voters (29%) and independents (28%).

The family of U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died hours after defending the Capitol on Jan. 6, refused to shake hands with the two top Republican members of Congress at a Tuesday ceremony. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell holds out his hand for a handshake with Charles Sicknick, the father of fallen U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, during a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Dec. 6, 2022. Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images“We got together and said we’re not going to shake their hands,” Gladys Sicknick, mother of the late officer, told NBC News. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. Khater admitted that he sprayed two officers in the face with chemical irritant: Sicknick and Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards.

The chairman of the House Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., expects the panel to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, he told reporters Tuesday. “We have made decisions on criminal referrals,” Thompson said. Thompson later told reporters that he thinks there is “general agreement” on the panel that referrals will be issued. The panel has been conflicted over whether to issue refer its findings to the Justice Department. Thompson told reporters in June that "we do not have authority" when asked whether the panel ruled out potential criminal charges for the former president.

But first: The results from five counties will help tell us if Democrat Raphael Warnock is on track to win tonight’s Senate runoff in Georgia. Warnock got 56.9% of the vote in Cobb when he won the Jan. 2021 runoff, and he got just under that last November (56.8%). And in Gwinnett, Warnock got 60.6% of the vote in the 2021 runoff, compared with 58.9% last month against Walker. In rural Chattooga — one of NBC News’ “County to County” counties — Warnock got just 20.5% when he won the 2021 runoff, and he got less than that in the November general election (19.8%). Data Download: The number of the day is … $7.79 billionThat’s how much money was spent on political television, radio and digital ads this entire cycle (starting the day after the 2021 Georgia Senate runoff through today’s runoff), per AdImpact.

☆ Alito jokes about Black Santa and Ashley Madison during Supreme Court arguments
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Justice Samuel Alito joked about Black Santa, children in Klan robes and dating websites as the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case weighing a web designer's bid to avoid working on same-sex weddings because she is a conservative evangelical Christian. David Zalubowski / AP fileEric Olson, the Colorado solicitor general, said that the Black Santa wouldn’t have to follow through with the request since KKK outfits are not protected characteristics under accommodation laws. Alito quipped, “You do see a lot of Black children in Ku Klux Klan outfits, right? Kagan, who is Jewish, jumped in to confirm that Alito was correct, which drew laughter from those in attendance. Conservative justices on the high court appeared sympathetic toward the web designer’s bid as they heard arguments for more than two hours Monday.

The jury is set to begin deliberations Monday in the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization, which is accused of a sweeping, 15-year scheme to compensate top executives of former President Donald Trump’s company off the books. The 15-count indictment charges the company and longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg with scheming to defraud, tax fraud and falsifying records. Trump Organization lawyers outlined their case that the prosecution’s star witness in the criminal trial, Weisselberg, committed his crimes to benefit himself. Other executives were compensated with similar perks, they said, and were paid bonuses as independent contractors, saving the company payroll taxes. “Donald Trump is explicitly sanctioning tax fraud.

Trump’s post came after Twitter CEO Elon Musk promoted a series of tweets Friday revealing internal documents about how the company handled a New York Post article about Hunter Biden in 2020. While he said he “vehemently disagrees” with the former president’s statement, Turner did not directly answer the question, even after host Margaret Brennan pressed repeatedly. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a vocal opponent of Trump who serves on the House Jan. 6 committee, called Trump's statement “insane." Meanwhile, Democrats swiftly rebuked Trump’s statement shortly after it was posted. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he “vociferously” condemns Trump’s remarks and urged his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same.

Closing arguments are beginning Thursday in the tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization, which is accused of a sweeping, 15-year scheme to compensate top executives of former President Donald Trump’s company off the books. After lawyers wrap up up arguments, the 12-person jury is set to begin deliberations Monday. Although he said Trump and his sons knew of the perks he received because they would sign the checks, they were unaware of any fraud. Former CFO Allen Weisselberg leaves the courtroom during a trial at the New York Supreme Court in New York on Nov. 17. The New York attorney general’s office is also suing the company, Trump and his oldest children last month, alleging they had overstated the company’s financial assets by billions of dollars.

☆ Right-wing operatives sentenced to 500 hours of voter registration for 2020 election robocall scheme
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A pair of right-wing provocateurs were sentenced Tuesday to spend 500 hours registering voters after pleading guilty to telecommunications fraud in connection with robocalls made before the 2020 election. Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were also sentenced to two years of probation and 12 hours a day of electronic monitoring for six months, according to prosecutors in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. “These two individuals attempted to disrupt the foundation of our democracy," prosecutor Michael O’Malley said in a statement. Last year, New York Attorney General Letitia James sought $2.7 million in penalties over robocalls allegedly aimed at suppressing the Black vote ahead of the 2020 election. Burkman and Wohl gained attention for several unsuccessful schemes to attack opponents of former President Donald Trump with false accusations of sexual misconduct and other criminal activity.

☆ Blinken: U.S. must speak out 'clearly' in support of people's rights to protest amid Iran crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday, voiced his support for the protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini amid Tehran's crackdown on peaceful demonstrations. Blinken commented on the "extraordinary courage" of women in Iran who have been "standing up, speaking up, speaking out for their basic rights." "That’s not at all the case, and to misunderstand their own people is at the heart of the problem that they’re facing," Blinken said. "But the most important thing we can do is to speak out very clearly ourselves in support of the people’s rights to protest peacefully." Blinken also took aim at Russian President Vladimir Putin over energy supply cuts in Ukraine caused by Russia’s heavy bombardment of the country’s infrastructure.

☆ Trump doesn't have 'absolute immunity' over efforts to overturn 2020 election, judge says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A federal judge on Monday rejected former President Donald Trump’s argument that he has “absolute immunity” in response to a lawsuit alleging he committed civil rights violations in his attempts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results. "For these reasons, the court concludes that former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit." NBC News has reached out to attorneys for Trump and the Republican National Committee for comment. “The court is also cognizant that the individual plaintiffs are Black voters who are particularly targeted by former President Trump’s baseless allegations of election fraud,” he continued. The case was filed before the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, while the then-president was challenging election results in numerous states.

☆ Maricopa County report rebuffs claims by Republicans who sowed doubt on election integrity
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Officials in Arizona's largest county are blaming prominent Republicans for sowing doubt about a secure alternative for voters who encountered malfunctioning vote tabulation machines on Election Day. Maricopa County issued a report on the voting glitches Sunday, a day before it is set certify the results of the November election and a week after the state's Republican attorney general's office demanded answers on widespread voting machine glitches on Election Day. Some GOP politicians and pundits swiftly seized on those issues to push misleading or false information. Lake, who lost to Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, attacked Maricopa County officials over both the technical issues on Election Day and the prolonged vote count. Last week, Maricopa County confirmed that Bill Gates, the chairman of the county’s board of supervisors, had been moved to an undisclosed location for his safety following threats on social media related to the midterm elections.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., on Sunday criticized Donald Trump for dining with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and white supremacist Nick Fuentes, during a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at the former president's Mar-a-Lago club in Florida last week. “Well, he certainly needs better judgment in who he dines with,” Comer said in an interviews on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” "I know that he’s issued a statement. Pressed on whether he condemns Trump’s actions, Comer said he would not take a meeting with “that person,” nor Ye. Trump, who described the dinner held on the back patio as “quick and uneventful," is facing backlash for dining with Ye and Fuentes. Chris Christie, who was once a Trump ally, was among a handful of Republicans who jabbed Trump for hosting Fuentes.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Tuesday testified before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible interference in the 2020 presidential election. Graham's office said in a statement he testified for just over two hours and answered the grand jury's questions. “Out of respect for the grand jury process he will not comment on the substance of the questions.”The Supreme Court earlier this month rejected Graham's request to quash a subpoena from the grand jury in the Georgia probe. Willis' office is probing a pair of post-election phone calls Graham made to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his staff. Graham denied having made such a suggestion, saying he was trying to understand the state’s process for verifying ballot signatures.

“Because invalidation of the Title 42 Orders will directly harm the States, they now seek to intervene to offer a defense of the Title 42 policy so that its validity can be resolved on the merits, rather than through strategic surrender,” the states said in their filing Monday. Sullivan cited the Administrative Procedures Act in his ruling, and characterized Title 42 as “arbitrary and capricious.” The Biden administration indicated that it won’t oppose Sullivan’s order in a court filing last week, but requested a temporary delay in lifting Title 42. In his order, Sullivan granted the request with “great reluctance.” Title 42 is set to come to an end on Dec. 20, taking effect on midnight Dec. 21. Lee Gelernt of ACLU, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs seeking to lift Title 42, pushed back against the GOP states seeking to keep the rule in place in a statement to NBC News. The Biden administration has faced pushback from both parties for its handling of Title 42.

☆ Maricopa County elections official moved to 'undisclosed location' for his safety following social media threat
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

A top elections official in Maricopa County, Arizona, has been moved to an undisclosed location for his safety following threats on social media related the midterm elections, the county confirmed to NBC News on Monday. The official, Bill Gates, the chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Election workers like Gates have experienced a rise in threats following the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump’s election lies. No one has been disenfranchised,” Gates told reporters in downtown Phoenix on Election Day, following reports of equipment problems. “We have hiccups,” Gates told NBC News at the time.

House Democrats swiftly pushed back at Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in response to his threat to strip them of their committee assignments if he is elected as speaker. After Republicans narrowly won back control of the House in the midterm elections, McCarthy this weekend doubled down on his pledge to remove several prominent House Democrats from their committee assignments if he becomes speaker. McCarthy said he would not allow Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., to serve on their committees. “He will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator,” Schiff said when asked about McCarthy’s vow to remove him from the House Intelligence Committee. Removing Democrats from their committee assignments would require a vote of a majority of the House.

☆ Colorado's Jared Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor, addresses 'horrific' shooting at an LGBTQ club
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Summer-Concepcion-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Summer Concepcion | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Jared Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor in the United States, on Sunday decried Saturday's “horrific” deadly shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub. “This is horrific, sickening, and devastating,” Polis, a Democrat, said in a statement addressing the attack at Club Q. He is the second out LGBTQ person to be elected governor of a state, after Gov. Before his career in politics, Polis was a tech entrepreneur and amassed a fortune worth nearly $400 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In addition to being Colorado's first openly gay governor, he is also the state's first Jewish governor.

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