Key takeaways: The Durham report concluded that the FBI rushed into the investigation and relied too heavily on raw and unconfirmed intelligence. The only criminal…
Posts published in “Politics”
North Carolina is set to vote on Tuesday on a controversial 12-week abortion ban that has been vetoed by Governor Roy Cooper. The Republican Party's new supermajority in the legislature has made it difficult for Democrats to fight the ban, and if the override is successful, the ban will go into effect on July 1. Abortion-rights advocates are prepared to fight the bill, and the vote will be a crucial moment for the future of abortion access in the state.
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss a way to break the logjam on the debt ceiling and avert a potential economic calamity. The White House has indicated that Biden is open to making changes to the budget, but will not accept any cuts to Social Security or Medicare. If an agreement is not reached by June 1, the U.S. could face a default on its debt, a situation that could have devastating economic consequences.
Noelle Dunphy, a former aide of Rudy Giuliani, has filed a lawsuit in New York alleging that Giuliani offered to sell presidential pardons for $2 million and discussed plans to overturn the 2020 election results. Dunphy also alleges that Giuliani sexually assaulted and harassed her, refused to pay her wages, and made offensive remarks. She is seeking $10 million in damages, and Giuliani has not commented on the allegations. The lawsuit comes as Giuliani faces a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan for his role in the Trump administration.
A Florida elementary school teacher is under investigation by the state Department of Education after she showed her fifth-grade students a Disney movie featuring an openly gay character. Jenna Barbee, the teacher, believes the investigation is an example of discrimination against the LGBTQ community. She said she showed the movie as a “brain break” in between students’ standardized testing and that she had no intention of offending anyone. The state Department of Education has not yet commented on the investigation.
Attorney General William Barr has granted special counsel status to John Durham, the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation. Durham's report concluded that the Justice Department and FBI had "failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law" in their investigation, though much of the information disclosed in the report had already been made public. This special counsel status gives Durham the authority to complete his work without being easily fired, and his report is likely to be the last major report from the Trump-era Justice Department.
John Durham's four-year investigation into the FBI's conduct during the 2016 presidential election has concluded with the release of a 300-page report. The report found that the Justice Department and FBI "failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law" when it came to the events of the 2016 campaign. It also stated that the FBI's actions were negligent, but not the result of intentional misconduct or political bias. The report has been met with mixed reactions from both sides of the political aisle.
On Monday morning, two staff members at Rep. Gerry Connolly’s (D-VA) district office in Fairfax were attacked by a person armed with a baseball bat. The suspect is now in police custody and both members of Connolly’s team were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Connolly praised his staff as “the best team in Congress” and the Fairfax Police Department is currently investigating the incident.