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Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani and Arizona 'fake electors' charged with state crimes

(NBC News) A state grand jury in Arizona on Wednesday indicted Trump aides including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and Boris Epshteyn, as well as so-called "fake electors" who backed then-President Donald Trump in 2020, after a sprawling investigation into the alleged efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election in the state. Trump is described as “Unindicted Coconspirator 1” in the indictment, which includes charges of conspiracy, fraud and forgery. Also among those charged in Arizona is Kelli Ward, who served as chair of the Arizona GOP during the 2020 election and the immediate aftermath.

Tom of Temecula

'Missing in action': Analyst sees Trump's 'family man' defense killed by Melania's absence

(Raw Story) The failure of Melania Trump to make an appearance at the Manhattan courtroom where her husband Donald is facing 34 felony counts related to paying off an adult film star is hurting his defense in multiple ways. That's a claim made by analyst Amanda Marcotte in her column for Salon, where she said that the former first lady's absence is likely crippling a line of defense his lawyers would like to use to gain some sympathy from jurors.

BumRushDaShow

Johnson: Republicans 'don't have a functioning majority' in the House

(The Hill) Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) joined Jesse Watters Wednesday to discuss the massive foreign aid package that recently passed both chambers, and the difficulties Republicans have faced getting immigration-related reforms passed with a Democratic Senate and President Biden in office. Watters pushed back on the Speaker, saying Republican representatives are frustrated because while they hold a majority in the House, they aren’t getting what they want, which is increased border security measures. “Well, that’s not true. We don’t have a functioning majority,” Johnson countered. “When you can only lose one vote, if one person has a different idea, we don’t.”

RandySF

Democratic Donations Surge

(Political Wire) Democratic donors gave a total of $151 million to House and Senate races through the ActBlue fundraising platform in the first quarter of 2024,” Punchbowl News reports. “The ActBlue data reveals an increase from the same point four years ago, indicating growing Democratic grassroots support as the 2024 election season heats up.”

KS Toronado

Thursday TOONs

Zorro

'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president

(ABC News) In the summer of 2019, only hours after an Iranian rocket accidentally exploded at one of Iran's own launch sites, senior U.S. officials met with then-president Donald Trump and shared a sharply detailed, highly classified image of the blast's catastrophic aftermath. The image was captured by a U.S. satellite whose true capabilities were a tightly guarded secret. But Trump wanted to share it with the world -- he thought it was especially "sexy" because it was marked classified, one of his former advisers later recalled to special counsel Jack Smith's investigators, according to sources familiar with the former adviser's statements.

LiberalFighter

Rare visit by House speaker to campus escalates tension at Columbia

(Washington Post) House Speaker Mike Johnson and his Republican colleagues were met with boos, laughs and pro-Palestinian chants after parachuting into one center of the roiling protest movement against Israel’s war against Hamas: Columbia University in New York City.

Nevilledog

The Republicans Who Want American Carnage

(The Atlantic) Tom Cotton has never seen a left-wing protest he didn’t want crushed at gunpoint. On Monday, the Arkansas senator demanded that President Joe Biden send in the National Guard to clear out the student protests at Columbia University against the Israel-Hamas war, which he described as “the nascent pogroms at Columbia.” Last week, Cotton posted on X, “I encourage people who get stuck behind the pro-Hamas mobs blocking traffic: take matters into your own hands. It’s time to put an end to this nonsense.” He later deleted the post and reworded it so that it did not sound quite so explicitly like a demand for aspiring vigilantes to lynch protesters.

BumRushDaShow

The man who audited Trump's social media company misspelled his own name in 14 different ways

(Business Insider) The accountant hired to audit former President Donald Trump's social media company seemed to have a lot of trouble spelling his name, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. Ben F Borgers, the founder and managing partner of the accounting firm BF Borgers, spelled his name in 14 different ways in regulatory filings, the Financial Times reported, citing data it had reviewed from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Some variations, like Ben F Brogers and Ben F orgers, appeared to be minor spelling mistakes. But others, like Blake F Borgers and Ben F Vonesh, were entirely different names.

bigtree

NYT reporter says their nonstop coverage of Biden's age is retribution

(Politico) According to interviews with two dozen people on both sides who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject, the relationship between the Democratic president and the country’s newspaper of record — for years the epitome of a liberal press in the eyes of conservatives — remains remarkably tense. The newspaper carries its own singular obsession with the president, aggrieved over his refusal to give the paper a sit-down interview that Publisher AG Sulzberger and other top editors believe to be its birthright.

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17 states challenge federal rules entitling workers to accommodations for abortion

14 min ago - Updated 7:00 PM EDT, April 25, 2024 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Republican attorneys general from 17 states filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging new federal rules entitling workers to time off and other accommodations for abortions, calling the rul ... (AP)

Prosecutor to appeal against Texas woman's acquittal over voting error

40 min ago - Thu 25 Apr 2024 15.37 EDT A Texas prosecutor will appeal against a court ruling tossing out a five-year prison sentence for a woman who unintentionally tried to vote while ineligible in the 2016 election, an unexpected move that continues one of the ... (The Guardian)

US VP Harris Hosts Kim Kardashian to Discuss Criminal Justice Reform

1 hr ago - April 25, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris hosted reality-television star Kim Kardashian at the White House on Thursday to discuss criminal justice reform, after the Biden administration granted clemency to ... (US News and World Report/Reuters)

Exclusive: Biden opens first field office in Florida

1 hr ago - 6 hours ago President Biden's campaign is opening a field office in Hillsborough County to mobilize voters in a region where Republicans are gaining ground. Why it matters: This is Biden's first field office in Florida and a sign that he is serious a ... (Axios)

Alito complains 'special' Trump shouldn't be 'subject to criminal laws like anybody else'

2 hrs ago - David Edwards April 25, 2024 12:14PM ET U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito complained Thursday about the concept that a "special" former officeholder like Donald Trump could be expected to be "subject to the criminal laws just like anybody els ... (raw story)

Gaza-based militants attack Israeli forces preparing for US pier

2 hrs ago - Gaza-based militants launched mortar rounds on Wednesday at Israeli forces making preparations for the U.S.-led effort to establish a new maritime aid route for Gaza, according to three U.S. officials. No American equipment was damaged as the U.S.-le ... (Politico)

USC cancels main commencement ceremony as campus is roiled by protests

2 hrs ago - The University of Southern California canceled its main commencement ceremony, citing new safety measures put in place in the days since the Los Angeles school has been rocked by student-led protests against the war in Gaza. The university announced ... (Washington Post)

DOJ rebuffs GOP's second demand for Biden-Hur audio recordings

3 hrs ago - 04/25/24 3:46 PM ET The Justice Department on Thursday for a second time declined to turn over audio recordings of President Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, rejecting claims from GOP impeachment investigators that the recordin ... (The Hill)

Tesla driver in Seattle-area crash that killed motorcyclist told police he was using Autopilot

3 hrs ago - Tesla driver in Seattle-area crash that killed motorcyclist told police he was using Autopilot Authorities said they have not yet independently verified whether Autopilot was in use at the time of the crash. By: AP via Scripps NewsPosted at 8:41 AM, ... (Associated Press, via Scripps News and KTVQ)

Mike Pinder, Moody Blues Founding Keyboardist, Dead At 82

3 hrs ago - Mike Pinder, the last surviving original member of psychedelic rock of 1960s/70s prog rock band the Moody Blues has died at 82. The pioneering keyboardist/singer credited with helping to introduce the mellotron into the rock arena passed away on Wedn ... (Billboard)

"Wreak havoc": Text messages suggest a top Wisconsin Republican tried to suppress Black vote

4 hrs ago - Published April 25, 2024 11:59AM (EDT) Wisconsin GOP operative Carlton Huffman is blowing the whistle on what he claims was an effort to suppress Black votes ahead of the 2020 election. While unproven confessions from a disgraced figure accused of s ... (Salon)

Supreme Court seems poised to allow Trump's D.C. trial, but not soon

4 hrs ago - Supreme Court seems poised to allow Trump's D.C. trial, but not soon Updated just now April 25, 2024 at 3:16 p.m. EDT The Supreme Court appeared poised to reject Donald Trump's sweeping claim that he is immune from prosecution on charges of trying to ... (Washington Post)

Boeing problems lead Southwest to drop service to four airports

4 hrs ago - Southwest Airlines announced Thursday it will stop serving four airports due to delays in the delivery of jets from Boeing that the aircraft manufacturer had promised until its cutback in production earlier this year. The four airports are Bellingham ... (CNN)

Trump lawyer makes admission under questioning from Justice Coney Barrett

4 hrs ago - Justice Coney Barrett pressed Trump lawyer D. John Sauer during Supreme Court arguments on the distinction between official and personal acts alleged in the charges. ... (CNN)

Judge upholds $83m E Jean Carroll defamation verdict against Trump

5 hrs ago - Thu 25 Apr 2024 14.32 EDT A federal judge on Thursday upheld the verdict and award of more than $83m to the writer E Jean Carroll in a defamation case against Donald Trump after he called her a liar for accusing him of sexually assaulting her. Judge ... (The Guardian)

FTC awarding more than $5M in refunds to Ring customers over privacy settlement

5 hrs ago - 04/25/24 1:18 PM ET The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began distributing over $5 million in refunds to Amazon Ring customers on Tuesday, enforcing a settlement with the tech giant over claims that Ring failed to protect consumer privacy. The FTC cla ... (The Hill)

National Guardsman who set off FBI manhunt admits to spraying officers on Jan. 6

6 hrs ago - April 25, 2024, 12:16 PM EDT WASHINGTON — A former New Jersey National Guard police sergeant who went on the run in November, after the FBI came to arrest him in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, pleaded guilty on Thursday t ... (NBC News)

Yellen: Subpar U.S. growth may get revised up, inflation will ebb

6 hrs ago - April 25, 2024 11:49 AM EDT Updated an hour ago WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth for the first quarter could be revised higher and inflation will ease to more normal levels, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters on Thursda ... (Reuters)

Hundreds Arrested: Students Across U.S. Protest for Palestine as Campus Crackdown Intensifies

7 hrs ago - Student protests calling for university divestment from Israel and the U.S. arms industry have rocked campuses from coast to coast. The nonviolent protests, which have been characterized as “antisemitic” for their criticism of Israel, have ... (Democracy Now)

Net neutrality is back as FCC votes to regulate internet providers

7 hrs ago - Published 12:10 PM EDT, Thu April 25, 2024 Washington CNN — The US government on Thursday banned internet service providers (ISPs) from meddling in the speeds their customers receive when browsing the web and downloading files, restoring tough ... (CNN Business)