An anonymous tipster contacted the FBI just days after the attack and told investigators that they were aware prior to the insurrection that …
Alerta de Google: fbi
Day: December 24, 2022
(NewsNation) — A University of Idaho professor is suing a TikTok user who accused her of playing a role in the stabbing deaths of four students.
First reported by The Argonaut, the University of Idaho’s student newspaper wrote that Ashley Guillard of Texas claims to have solved several murders “using tarot cards and other readings.” Guillard, who has over 106,000 followers on TikTok, has now turned her attention to the killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20. The four students were found dead in a rental home near campus Nov.13. Goncalves, Mogen and Kernodle were roommates. Chapin and Kernodle were dating.
People have not yet named a suspect, but have cleared a number of people. Because of a lack of information about what happened, rumors and online speculation about the case have been swirling. One of the victims’ neighbors told NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield he went to police on his own accord to submit his DNA to make online sleuths who suspected him leave him alone.
In her own videos, Guillard accused Rebecca Scofield, a history professor at the University of Idaho, of ordering the “execution” of the four students. Guillard, without evidence, claims Scofield was, or at least wanted, to be romantically involved with one of the victims.
According to the Argonaut, a cease-and-desist letter was sent to Guillard on Nov.29, about five days after the videos started, demanding she take down the videos. Scofield, the Argonaut wrote, says she was in Oregon with her husband visiting friends when the students died. She also said that none of the victims was ever in her class, and she does not remember meeting them.
Scofield’s lawsuit, according to the Idaho Statesman, says Guillard “decided to use the community’s pain for her online self-promotion.” Now, the lawsuit said, Guillard’s TikTok videos caused Scofield significant emotional distress. The professor has had to install a security system and cameras at her residence, and now fears for her life, the complaint says.
“These untrue statements … further compound the trauma that the families of the victims are experiencing and undermine law enforcement efforts to find the people responsible in order to provide answers to the families and the public,” Wendy J. Olson, Scofield’s attorney, said in an email to the Statesman.
Meanwhile, Guillard has made videos saying she’s going to “win” the lawsuit, and that Scofield will regret filing it.
“I’m actually gleaming with excitement,” Guillard said. “I cannot wait to present my ideas in court.”
PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has thrown out Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her defeat in the Arizona governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs, rejecting her claim that problems with ballot printers at some polling places on Election Day were the result of intentional misconduct.
In a decision Saturday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, who was appointed by then-Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, found that the court did not find clear and convincing evidence of the widespread misconduct that Lake had alleged had affected the result of the 2022 general election.
The judge said Lake’s witnesses didn’t have any personal knowledge of intentional misconduct.
“The Court cannot accept speculation or conjecture in place of clear and convincing evidence,” Thompson said.
Lake, who lost to Hobbs by just over 17,000 votes, was among the most vocal 2022 Republicans promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. While most of the other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake has not. Instead, she asked the judge to either declare her the winner or order a revote in Maricopa County.
Lawyers for Lake focused on problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County, home to more than 60% of Arizona’s voters. The defective printers produced ballots that were too light to be read by the on-site tabulators at polling places. Lines backed up in some areas amid the confusion.
County officials say everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted, since ballots affected by the printers were taken to more sophisticated counters at the elections department headquarters. They are in the process of investigating the root cause of the printer problems.
Lake’s attorneys also claimed the chain of custody for ballots was broken at an off-site facility, where a contractor scans mail ballots to prepare them for processing. They claim workers at the facility put their own mail ballots into the pile, rather than sending their ballots through normal channels, and also that paperwork documenting the transfer of ballots was missing. The county disputes the claim.
Lake faced extremely long odds in her challenge, needing to prove not only that misconduct occurred, but also that it was intended to deny her victory and did in fact result in the wrong woman being declared the winner.
Her attorneys pointed to a witness who examined ballots on behalf of her campaign and discovered 14 ballots that had 19-inch images of the ballot printed on 20-inch paper, meaning the ballots wouldn’t be read by a tabulator. The witness insisted someone changed those printer configurations, a claim disputed by elections officials.
County officials say the ballot images were slightly smaller as a result of a shrink-to-fit feature being selected on a printer by a tech employee who was looking for solutions to Election Day issues. They say about 1,200 ballots were affected by turning on the feature and that those ballots were duplicated so that they could be read by a tabulator. Ultimately, these ballots were counted, officials said.
A person who takes public opinion polls testified on behalf of Lake, claiming technical problems at polling places had disenfranchised enough voters that it would have changed the outcome of the race in Lake’s favor. But an expert who was called to testify by election officials said there was no evidence to back up the pollster’s claim that 25,000 to 40,000 people who would normally have voted actually didn’t cast ballots as a result of Election Day problems.
Thompson had previously dismissed eight of the 10 claims Lake raised in her lawsuit. Among those was Lake’s allegation that Hobbs, in her capacity as secretary of state, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer engaged in censorship by flagging social media posts with election misinformation for possible removal by Twitter. He also dismissed her claims of discrimination against Republicans and that mail-in voting procedures are illegal.
Hobbs takes office as governor on Jan. 2.
Earlier on Friday, another judge dismissed Republican Abraham Hamadeh’s challenge of results in his race against Democrat Kris Mayes for Arizona attorney general. The court concluded that Hamadeh, who finished 511 votes behind Mayes and hasn’t conceded the race, didn’t prove the errors in vote counting that he had alleged.
A court hearing is scheduled Thursday to present results of recounts in the races for attorney general, state superintendent and for a state legislative seat.
My Opinion: And the House Democrats should support them in this. It is more and above the Politics: #FBI is the direct threat to Democracy and to the USA.
House Republicans suggest investigation into FBI in vein of 1970s Church Committee ino.to/5azhfhV
2022-12-24T19:26:55Z
Kari Lake speaks during a right-wing gathering known as America Fest, an event organized by Turning Point USA, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 20, 2022. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart/File Photo
An Arizona judge on Saturday rejected defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s effort to overturn the results of her election loss in the state’s governor race.
The order by Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson was filed on Saturday.
Lake was one of the most high-profile Republican candidates in the midterm elections to embrace former Republican President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020.
Earlier this month, Lake sued Arizona elections officials to challenge the counting and certification of the November electoral contest and ask to be declared the winner despite a lack of evidence of voter fraud.
Her lawsuit targeted Lake’s Democratic opponent, Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, currently Arizona’s secretary of state, along with top officials in Maricopa County.
In November, Trump-backed Lake lost the governor’s race to Hobbs but refused to concede and continued making unconfirmed claims about election improprieties on her Twitter feed.
The order on Saturday confirmed the election of Hobbs and said it did not find any “clear and convincing” evidence of misconduct that impacted the outcome of the election.
Lake tweeted on Saturday that she would appeal the ruling.
The findings in the order were in line with judgments against Abe Hamadeh and Mark Finchem, the unsuccessful Republican candidates for attorney general and secretary of state, respectively, who also challenged their losses.
In her lawsuit, Lake had called on the state court to declare her the winner of the governor’s race, or alternatively throw out the results and require Maricopa County to conduct a new election. The suit claimed “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election” in Maricopa, the state’s most populous county.
Lake, a former television news anchor, was one of a string of Trump-aligned Republican candidates who lost battleground state races in the midterm elections.
During her campaign, Lake vowed to ban the state’s mail-in voting, which conspiracy theorists falsely claimed was vulnerable to fraud, sowing distrust about the safety of a voting method used by hundreds of thousands of Americans.
ATLANTA (AP) — A special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election in Georgia appears to be wrapping up its work, but many questions remain.
The investigation is one of several that could result in criminal charges against the former president as he asks voters to return him to the White House in 2024.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who began investigating nearly two years ago, has said she will go where the facts lead. It would be an extraordinary step if she chooses to bring charges against Trump himself.
“Even if he’s acquitted by a jury, for him to face trial and to have a public trial with evidence on the record would be an epic thing for American history,” Georgia State University law professor Clark Cunningham said.
Here’s what we know as the special grand jury appears to be winding down:
WHAT’S THE LATEST?
Over about six months, the grand jurors have considered evidence and heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including high-profile Trump associates and top state officials. A prosecutor on Willis’ team said during a hearing in November that they had few witnesses left and didn’t anticipate the special grand jury continuing much longer.
The grand jurors are expected to produce a final report with recommendations on potential further action. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s supervising the panel, will review the report and recommend to the court’s chief judge that the special grand jury be dissolved. The judges of the county Superior Court will then vote on whether to let the special grand jurors go or whether more investigation is necessary.
The special grand jury cannot issue indictments. Willis will decide whether to go to a regular grand jury to pursue criminal charges.
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION?
For more than a year after opening the investigation, Willis revealed little. But, ironically, once the special grand jury began meeting in June, its proceedings shrouded in mandatory secrecy, hints about where the investigation was headed began to come out.
That’s because whenever Willis wanted to compel the testimony of someone who lives outside Georgia, she had to file paperwork in a public court docket explaining why that person was a “necessary and material witness.” Additionally, anyone fighting a summons had to do so in public court filings and hearings.
In the paperwork Willis filed seeking to compel testimony from some Trump associates, she said she wanted to know about their communications with the Trump campaign and others “involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Prominent Trump allies whose testimony was sought included former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as John Eastman and other lawyers who participated in Trump’s attempts to stay in power.
“We learned from the identity of the witnesses that this is a far-ranging conspiracy that she’s looking at,” said Norm Eisen, who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment and co-wrote a Brookings Institution report analyzing the “reported facts and applicable law” in the Fulton County investigation.
HAVE THERE BEEN SETBACKS?
A number of Trump advisers and allies fought Willis’ attempts to bring them in for testimony, but Willis prevailed in most cases.
“I think that augurs well for the pretrial skirmishing to come if she charges,” Eisen said.
Willis had a notable misstep when she hosted a fundraiser for a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor even as her investigation zeroed in on the state’s fake electors, including Burt Jones, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. McBurney said that created “a plain — and actual and untenable — conflict” and ruled that Willis could not question or pursue charges against Jones, who won election in November.
WHAT’S BEEN THE FOCUS OF THE INVESTIGATION?
The information that has come out publicly has indicated that Willis was looking at the following:
— Phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the wake of the 2020 election
— A group of 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate in December 2020 falsely stating that Trump had won the state and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors
— False allegations of election fraud made during meetings of state legislators at the Georgia Capitol in December 2020
— The copying of data and software from election equipment in rural Coffee County by a computer forensics team hired by Trump allies
— Alleged attempts to pressure Fulton County elections worker Ruby Freeman into falsely confessing to election fraud
— The abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta in January 2021
WHAT ABOUT THAT INFAMOUS PHONE CALL?
In a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the president suggested that the state’s top elections official, a fellow Republican, could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden.
A month later, Willis sent letters to Raffensperger and other top state officials instructing them to retain records because she was investigating “attempts to influence the administration of the 2020 Georgia General Election.”
Trump told Raffensperger he needed 11,780 votes, one more than Biden won. That was a mistake, Cunningham said, because the specific and transactional nature of that comment makes it hard to say he was just generally urging Raffensperger to look into alleged fraud.
But other legal experts have said prosecutors could struggle to prove criminal intent, which requires showing that actions were taken purposely, knowingly, recklessly or negligently.
WHAT CHARGES MIGHT BE CONSIDERED?
In her February 2021 letters to state leaders, Willis said she was looking into potential crimes that included “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”
Many believe Willis will pursue charges under the state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, commonly known as RICO. In a high-profile prosecution when she was an assistant district attorney, she used that law successfully to secure charges against Atlanta educators in a test cheating scandal. She has also used it more recently to target alleged gang activity.
The state RICO law, which is broader than the federal version, requires prosecutors to prove a pattern of criminal activity by an enterprise, which could be a single person or a group of associated individuals. It allows prosecutors to assert involvement in a pattern of criminality without having to prove that each person participated in every act.
Eisen said RICO seems “most commensurate with the nature of the people testifying and the questions that she wanted to ask.”
As the special grand jury was working, Willis informed some people that they were targets of the investigation, including Giuliani and the state’s 16 fake electors. It’s possible others received similar notifications but haven’t disclosed that publicly.
WHAT HAS TRUMP SAID?
The former president has consistently called his phone call with Raffensperger “perfect” and has dismissed the Fulton County investigation as a witch hunt.
Criminal defense attorney Drew Findling, part of Trump’s legal team in Georgia, in August said the focus on Trump “is clearly an erroneous and politically driven persecution.”
Trump allies have also denied any wrongdoing.
The barbaric shelling of Kherson is revenge on Ukrainians who fiercely resisted the invaders. Ukraine will be able to protect against this sort of tragedies when it receives a lot more prolonged-selection artillery and ammunition from partners.
“Barbaric shelling of Kherson by russian terrorists is not only yet another war criminal offense, but also revenge on its citizens who resisted the occupation and proved to the entire environment that Kherson is Ukraine. Ukraine will be ready to protect against this sort of tragedies if it has extra implies of counter-battery warfare, additional artillery and more long-array ammunition. As a result, russian murderers will be punished and pushed out from Ukraine,” Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov posted on Twitter.
Browse also: Dying toll in Russia’s strike on Kherson rises to ten
As documented, on the early morning of December 24, Russian troops shelled Kherson metropolis middle. Yaroslav Yanushevych, Head of the Kherson Regional Military services Administration, claimed that 10 civilians were killed and 55 far more ended up injured in the assault.
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Russia And Ukraine War Stated | Globe War 3 Consequences | Russia Ukraine Conflict Explained | Anushya Ma’am | Doubtnut In …
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