President Donald Trump holds a press conference at the White House in Washington on April 3, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Democrats

By Jack Phillips April 7, 2021 Updated: April 7, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Ten more House Democrat lawmakers joined a lawsuit accusing former President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and several groups of allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol.

The suit was filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), alleging that Trump and Giuliani’s respective speeches incited the breach. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C., while the Proud Boys, Warboys, and Oath Keepers were also named as defendants.

The Democrat House members who joined the lawsuit (pdf) include Reps. Karen Bass (Calif.), Maxine Waters (Calif.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Steve Cohen (Tenn.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.), Veronica Escobar (Texas), Hank Johnson (Ga.), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), and Pramila Jayapal (Wash.).

The suit claims Trump and Giuliani “conspired” with the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys to “incite an assembled crowd to march upon and enter the Capital of the United States for the common purpose of disrupting, by the use of force, intimidation, and threat.”

“The insurrection at the Capitol was a direct, intended, and foreseeable result of the Defendants’ unlawful conspiracy,” the lawsuit stated. “The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence. It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”

Cohen recalled having “difficulties falling and staying asleep … difficulties with his digestion” after the Jan. 6 breach. He also claimed he  “became jumpy whenever he heard a loud or unfamiliar noise in his home.”

Escobar said she had “violent nightmares” and sought professional treatment.

Thompson, meanwhile, said that he is filing the suit to hold Trump “accountable … that he so blatantly planned.”

Trump in January was impeached in the House of Representatives over the Jan. 6 incident before the Senate voted to acquit him.

His impeachment lawyers said Democrats presented a flawed case before the Senate.

“Burden of proof was on them, and they didn’t meet their burden of proof,” said attorney Bruce Castor. Trump, meanwhile, said the second impeachment was part of the “greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.”

“No president has ever gone through anything like it,” the former commander-in-chief remarked. “It continues because our opponents cannot forget the almost 75 million people, the highest number ever for a sitting president, who voted for us just a few short months ago,” he said, while adding at the time that his Make America Great Again movement “has only just begun.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Giuliani’s office and Trump’s team for comment.

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas poses for the official group photo at the U.S. Supreme Court in the District of Columbia on Nov. 30, 2018. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Constitutional Rights

By Jack Phillips April 5, 2021 Updated: April 5, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appeared to signal that Big Tech firms could be regulated after Facebook and Twitter suspended President Donald Trump earlier this year.

Thomas, considered a conservative on the high court, made the point during a 12-page submission as the Supreme Court issued an order that rejected a lawsuit over Trump’s blocking of certain Twitter users from commenting on his posts before his account was taken down. The Supreme Court said the lawsuit ultimately should be dismissed as Trump isn’t in office anymore and was blocked from using Twitter, coming after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against Trump.

“Today’s digital platforms provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech, including speech by government actors. Also unprecedented, however, is control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties,” Thomas wrote Monday (pdf). “We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.”

Thomas also noted there are arguments suggesting digital platforms such as Twitter or Facebook “are sufficiently akin to common carriers or places of accommodation to be regulated in this manner.”

Thomas made reference to the respective owners of Facebook and Google by name—Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.

“Although both companies are public, one person controls Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), and just two control Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin),” he wrote.

Thomas agreed that Trump’s Twitter account did “resemble a constitutionally protected public forum” in certain aspects, he noted that “it seems rather odd to say that something is a government forum when a private company has unrestricted authority to do away with it,” possibly referring to Twitter’s ban against Trump following the Jan. 6 incident.

“Any control Mr. Trump exercised over the account greatly paled in comparison to Twitter’s authority, dictated in its terms of service, to remove the account ‘at any time for any or no reason,’” he added. “Twitter exercised its authority to do exactly that.”

Thomas then said that modern technology isn’t easily addressed by existing laws and regulations. But he warned that the Supreme Court may “soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.”

“The Second Circuit feared that then-President Trump cut off speech by using the features that Twitter made available to him,” Thomas said. “But if the aim is to ensure that speech is not smothered, then the more glaring concern must perforce be the dominant digital platforms themselves. As Twitter made clear, the right to cut off speech lies most powerfully in the hands of private digital platforms. The extent to which that power matters for purposes of the First Amendment and the extent to which that power could lawfully be modified raise interesting and important questions.”

Thomas noted that Big Tech firms have a vast amount of power over the flow of information—even books. He said it does not matter that Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and others are not the only ways in which to distribute speech as long as their power to do so is unequaled.

“A person always could choose to avoid the toll bridge or train and instead swim the Charles River or hike the Oregon Trail,” he wrote. “But in assessing whether a company exercises substantial market power, what matters is whether the alternatives are comparable. For many of today’s digital platforms, nothing is.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) arrives at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 27, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Politics

By Masooma Haq April 6, 2021 Updated: April 6, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Senator John Kennedy (R-La.) says that the Biden infrastructure bill proposed by Democrats is actually a welfare and reparations bill that follows the agenda of the progressive Green New Deal, rather than infrastructure.

“This is a Green New Deal, welfare, and reparations bill. Being charitable, less than 10 percent of the bill is devoted to infrastructure and we don’t even know what the projects are, you know who picks and projects? Speaker Pelosi, Senator Schumer, and President Biden,” Kennedy told Fox News on Tuesday.

“Now one need not be clairvoyant to see that their projects are going to end up in New York and California and blue states,” said Kennedy. “So, there you have it—you’ve got a political slush fund.”

Kennedy also criticized the bill’s massive price tag, urging Democrats to make an effort to get GOP input.

“Now, will they work with us? I hope so, I hope they do. I will do old-man backflips if they’ll work with us, but I don’t have my hopes up.”

The Green New Deal Kennedy referred to was introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) with the main objective being to achieve economic and racial justice in the United States.

Her 2019 resolution states, “clean air and water, healthy food, access to nature, a sustainable environment, and the promotion of justice and equity by stopping oppression of ‘indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, and youth” are the priorities of the bill.

The Deal also aims “to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers.”

Although Biden’s infrastructure plan would spend less on each item, it will nonetheless fund many of the Green New Deal’s objectives like non-fossil fuel energy, transportation, childcare, agriculture, housing, schools, broadband, water supply, and land protection.

Some of the proposals in Biden’s infrastructure package that don’t have an estimated price tag, but are part of the Green New Deal agenda, include calling on Congress to:

• Tackle long-term unemployment and underemployment through a new subsidized jobs program.
• Eliminate sub-minimum wage provisions in section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act and expand access to competitive, integrated employment opportunities and fair wages for workers with disabilities.
• Ensure all workers have a free and fair choice to join a union by passing the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and guarantee union and bargaining rights for public service workers.
• Tie federal investments in clean energy and infrastructure to prevailing wages and require transportation investments to meet existing transit labor protections.
• Provide the federal government with the tools it needs to ensure employers are providing workers with good jobs—including jobs with fair and equal pay, safe and healthy workplaces, and workplaces free from racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination and harassment.
• Take immediate steps to spur the construction and rehabilitation of homes for underserved communities.
• Pass the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which calls for the creation of a new federal tax credit that will produce new equity investment dollars for the development and renovation of 1-4 family housing in distressed urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods.
• Quadruple support for the Manufacturing Extensions Partnership—increasing the involvement of minority-owned and rurally-located small-and-medium-sized enterprises in technological advancement.
• Ensure that new jobs created in clean energy, manufacturing, and infrastructure are open and accessible to women and people of color.
• Invest in job training for formerly incarcerated individuals and in improving public safety.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks to reporters in Washington on April 21, 2020. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Donald Trump

By Zachary Stieber April 7, 2021 Updated: April 7, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) did not request a pardon from him.

“Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon,” Trump said in a statement.

“It must be remembered that he has totally denied the accusations against him,” he added.

Citing two anonymous sources, the New York Times claimed in a recent report that Gaetz asked the White House for preemptive pardons for himself and others.

A spokesperson for Gaetz said that the sources were conflating Gaetz’s public call last year for Trump to pardon a slew of people.

“Entry-level political operatives have conflated a pardon call from Representative Gaetz—where he called for President Trump to pardon ‘everyone from himself, to his administration, to Joe Exotic’—with these false and increasingly bizarre, partisan allegations against him,” the spokesman said. “Those comments have been on the record for some time, and President Trump even retweeted the congressman, who tweeted them out himself.”

Gaetz is reportedly being investigated for possibly paying a minor girl for sex. The Florida representative has vehemently denied the accusations.

“First, I have never, ever paid for sex. And second, I, as an adult man, have not slept with a 17-year-old,” he wrote in an op-ed this week.

Gaetz said he is not a monk and is enjoying monogamy. He is engaged.

“It comes as no surprise that my political opponents want to sensationalize and criminalize my prior sex life just as I am getting engaged to the best person I’ve ever known. It is regrettable that the battle of ideas should thus become so personal. But then again, when your ideas suck, you need to stoop this low,” he added.

The updates came after a former Air Force officer, Bob Kent, admitted to being part of a group that tried to press Gaetz’s father, former Florida Sen. Don Gaetz, for $25 million in return for making his son’s “future legal and political problems go away.”

Kent said what happened was not extortion and that there was never any threat involved.

Rep. Gaetz has described what Kent and others did as attempted extortion and said his dad wore a wire as part of a federal probe into the matter

The FBI declined to comment to The Epoch Times and the Department of Justice has not returned inquiries.

Documents published last week outlined the alleged extortion scheme. They included an email from assistant U.S. Attorney David Goldberg confirming to Don Gaetz’s lawyer that he was cooperating with the FBI.

A former Gaetz staffer came forward on Monday to accuse the FBI of approaching him with “baseless” claims as he attested to Gaetz’s character.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detain a man during an operation in Escondido, Calif., on July 8, 2019. (Gregory Bull/AP Photo) Immigration & Border Security

By Janita Kan April 6, 2021 Updated: April 7, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

Attorneys general from Texas and Louisiana on Tuesday took the Biden administration to court alleging that it is refusing to take custody of illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes after the administration set rules narrowing its immigration enforcement priorities.

The states are seeking to block two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memorandums issued early in the administration that established “interim enforcement priorities.” These priorities include narrowing immigration enforcement to three categories: individuals who have been engaged in or suspected of terrorism or espionage; immigrants who crossed into the United States illegally on or after Nov. 1, 2020; and individuals convicted of an “aggravated felony.”

The attorneys general argue that the memoranda failed to prioritize detention of criminal aliens with final orders of removal, criminal aliens convicted of drug offenses, or criminal aliens convicted of crimes of moral turpitude.

The result of implementing the two memoranda, the lawsuit argues, has led to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rescinding detainer requests related to incarcerated criminal aliens, not issuing detainer requests for illegal aliens subject to mandatory removal, and the release of such individuals from federal detention facilities in Louisiana and Texas.

“As a consequence, dangerous criminal aliens are being released into local communities,” the lawsuit (pdf) argues.

The states say the refusal to detain criminal aliens who have committed drug offenses of crimes of moral turpitude violates federal law. To ensure public safety, the states have taken measures to keep some of the criminal aliens in custody in response to the situation at the expense of state taxpayers, they said.

“President Biden’s outright refusal to enforce the law is exacerbating an unprecedented border crisis. By failing to take custody of criminal aliens and giving no explanation for this reckless policy change, the Biden Administration is demonstrating a blatant disregard for Texans’ and Americans’ safety,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement.

“Law and order must be immediately upheld and enforced to ensure the safety of our communities. Dangerous and violent illegal aliens must be removed from our communities as required by federal law.”

The states are asking the court to declare parts of the memoranda unlawful, block the enforcement of part of the memoranda, and force federal authorities to take custody of the criminal aliens.

The White House and ICE press offices did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The first memo (pdf) was issued on Jan. 20 and acted as interim guidelines for DHS agencies to follow while a review of policies and practices concerning immigration enforcement took place. The guidelines essentially focused all enforcement actions to the three categories as well as issue a 100-day pause on deportations.

At the time the department justified its decision, saying that “DHS cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons unlawfully in the United States” due to limited resources.

“Rather, DHS must implement civil immigration enforcement based on sensible priorities and changing circumstances,” the memo stated.

The second memo (pdf) was issued on Feb. 18 as additional guidance to the Jan. 20 memo and also required ICE officers to obtain pre-approval from managers to arrest some illegal immigrants if they do not fall within the three categories. The Feb. 18 memo is expected to last for three months in which DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is expected to issue new enforcement guidelines for the department.

“By focusing our limited resources on cases that present threats to national security, border security, and public safety, our agency will more ably and effectively execute its law enforcement mission,” ICE Acting Director Tae Johnson said in a statement at the time.

The 100-day suspension on deportations order has been blocked by a federal court indefinitely after Paxton sued the Biden administration. The judge found that the Lone Star state would be harmed by the moratorium. Follow Janita on Twitter: @janitakan

“TRUMP’S BIG LIE” IS REALLY THE “LEFT’S BIG HIDE” (OF THE TRUTH)!

LewView of this powerful image? Lady Liberty is being rescued by the shadowy figure representing every single patriotic citizen of the United States of America! Keep the faith! She may be wounded and NEEDING ASSISTANCE but SHE IS FAR FROM DEAD and the truth is slowly coming out regarding the monumental betrayal of America, her citizens, and her FREEDOMS!

I will again suggest checking out the MeWe platform as that is where I re-discovered Mr. JovanHutton Pulitzer (after seeing him testify on television during the Georgia election hearings) – there you will find many incredibly intelligent, creative and logically thinking individuals representing the more traditional American values most of us were taught, acknowledge and support. Rather like going to a strange environment yet still feeling a comfortable sense of being at home.

“TRUMP’S BIG LIE” IS REALLY THE “LEFT’S BIG HIDE” (OF THE TRUTH)!

As the left continually calls obvious “2020 Election Fraud” just a BIG TRUMP LIE, while simultaneously attempting to suppress the legitimate growing evidence of its existence, those who previously trusted Main Stream Media can either acknowledge they have been deceived and recognize those FAKE NEWS SOURCES for what they are – ANTI-AMERICAN PROPAGANDA OUTLETS and seek alternative reputable news sources with a history of factual reporting, or,

they can continue to support and be deceived by such false information designed to assist in the demoralizing of our country’s population towards its Leftist planned demise. Those in the “MEDIA” who intentionally suppress truth and disseminate this false information as news are (in LewView opinion) “major-player traitors” to America and should be avoided like COVID-19! (loss of US citizenship and deportation to their “dream country” of choice wouldn’t be too far off track either considering the damage they have, and continue to do, to this nation.)

My best to you and yours, Lew……

of course others might interpret the image much differently (yes at first blush I also thought the shadow represented military action as well) – but either way, (as the military could arguably also be a representation of the US citizen) notice the rescuer is now [I would argue temporarily] holding the torch which is still burning………and will continue to burn in the hearts and minds of all patriots willing and dedicated to …….

but I digress.

KEEP THE FAITH! Still angers me greatly with the thought of how many good souls left this plane of existence with troubled thoughts of their beloved America falling to the Left before the truth escaped this new LEFT CENSORSHIP in OUR AMERICA.) later.

By Jack Phillips April 4, 2021 Updated: April 4, 2021 biggersmallerPrint

A bipartisan group of lawmakers said that fixing the U.S.-Mexico border crisis is the responsibility of the Biden administration and various federal agencies, adding that Congress has little power to act on immigration matters.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) said he’s not sure what Congress can do in the immediate future.

“I don’t know you need legislation. I think what we need is to make sure we get the people and the technology down there to stop it,” he said in an interview with The Hill over the weekend. “We also need to work with the other countries to make sure that they’re not sending folks up,” he said. “That’s how I would approach it.”

And dealing with the crisis “down there” is the responsibility “of the executive branch,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), according to the news outlet. “If they feel they need additional resources, obviously we’re here to help,” he said.

“There’s resources. There’s the question of standing up the places in Central America where people can apply [for asylum] directly,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said of things Congress can do.

It came after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said that after visiting the border last week, it’s time for Congress to take action and address the crisis.

Nearly 20 Republican senators traveled to the border late last month, with many blaming the massive surge in illegal immigration on President Joe Biden’s slew of executive orders that rescinded a number of Trump-era policies, including the “Remain in Mexico” protocal, construction of the border wall, allowing unaccompanied children and some families to stay in the United States for processing, and signaling support for granting increased avenues to citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants already in the United States.

“They need to go back to the policies that were working,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in an interview with The Hill.

Democratic Senate leaders, including Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told reporters last month that it’s unlikely that an immigration reform bill will be passed anytime soon, citing divisions in the House.

“I think Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi has discovered that she doesn’t have support for the comprehensive bill in the House,” Durbin told reporters. “And it indicates where it is in the Senate as well.”

Underscoring the severity of the crisis, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found numerous violations at an immigration detention facility in La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona.

“One detainee, who is a cancer patient, ran out of leukemia medication after the medical staff did not order a refill on time,” the OIG report (pdf) said. “Since the detainee did not hold the medication, he was not aware of when the medication was running out or how long it would take medical staff to obtain a refill.”

(Thanks JovanHutton Pulitzer – YOU ARE A TRUE PATRIOT and your work will bring AMERICA BACK TO WHERE IT SHOULD BE …. GUIDED BY THE WILL AND LEGITIMATE VOTE OF THE LEGAL AMERICAN CITIZEN!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!