The Full Belmonte, 8/4/2022
“AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — For years, bombastic far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ranted to his millions of followers that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, that children weren’t killed and that parents were crisis actors in an elaborate ruse to force gun control.
Under oath and facing a jury that could hit him with $150 million or more in damages for his false claims, Jones said Wednesday he now realizes that was irresponsible and believes that what happened in the deadliest school shooting in American history was ‘100% real.’
Jones’ public contrition came on the final day of testimony in a two-week defamation lawsuit against him and his Austin-based media company, Free Speech Systems, brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis. Their son was a first grader who was among the 20 students and six teachers killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.
‘I unintentionally took part in things that did hurt these people’s feelings,’ said Jones, who also acknowledged raising conspiracy claims about other mass tragedies, from the Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombings to the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, ‘and I’m sorry for that.’
But an apology isn’t enough for Heslin and Lewis. They said Jones and the media empire he controls and used to spread his false assertions must be held accountable.
‘Alex started this fight,’ Heslin said, ‘and I’ll finish this fight.’
The parents testified Tuesday about a decade of trauma, inflicted first by the murder of their son and what followed: gun shots fired at a home, online and telephone threats, and harassment on the street by strangers, all fueled by Jones and his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via his website Infowars.
A forensic psychiatrist testified the parents suffer from ‘complex post-traumatic stress disorder’ inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a child abuse victim.
At one point in her testimony, Lewis looked directly at Jones, who was sitting barely 10 feet away.
‘It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this — that we have to implore you, to punish you — to get you to stop lying,’ Lewis told Jones.
Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax involving actors aimed at increasing gun control.
Now, Heslin and Lewis are asking the jury in Austin for $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They will also ask the jury to assess additional punitive damages.
Jurors began considering damages Wednesday. Once they determine whether Jones should pay the parents compensation for defamation and emotional distress, it must then decide if he must also pay punitive damages. That portion will involve a separate mini-trial with Jones and economists testifying to his and his company’s net worth.
Jones’ attorney asked the jury to limit damages to $8 — one dollar for each of the compensation charges they are considering — and Jones himself said any award over $2 million ‘would sink us.’” Read more at AP News
“The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to admit Sweden and Finland into NATO, endorsing an expansion of the alliance that supporters believe would send a message condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 95-1 vote made the United States the 23rd of NATO’s 30 members to ratify the proposed addition, which leaders in Helsinki and Stockholm began to contemplate this spring in response to Russia’s aggressive cross-border campaign.” Read more at Washington Post
“Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former deputy counsel Patrick Philbin have been subpoenaed in the federal criminal probe of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Philbin and Cipollone were both key witnesses to former President Donald Trump's actions in the last days of his presidency, and these developments could suggest the Department of Justice’s probe could be aiming straight for Trump. This is also significant because, unlike the House probe, the DOJ could bring criminal charges against former Trump administration officials if it sees fit. The probe could also survive a shakeup in November if Republicans win the House and shut down the select committee’s investigation.” Read more at CNN
“As Rudolph W. Giuliani comes under intensifying scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, another legal threat is quietly fading: the criminal inquiry into his ties to Ukraine during the presidential campaign.
The investigation, conducted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the F.B.I., has examined whether Mr. Giuliani illegally lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Ukrainian officials who helped him impugn Joseph R. Biden Jr., then expected to be the Democratic presidential nominee.
But after nearly three years, that inquiry into Mr. Giuliani, the former personal lawyer to Donald J. Trump, is unlikely to result in charges, two people with knowledge of the matter said.” Read more at New York Times
“Election officials implored law enforcement to protect them from threats and harassment ahead of the November midterms.
Justice Department and Homeland Security representatives testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee about the behavior targeting them. Most of the menacing communications have come from people angry about President Biden’s 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump, they said, but some come from people accusing them of voter suppression or other issues.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski and two of her staffers were killed in a car crash Wednesday. Walorski, who was 58, represented Indiana's 2nd Congressional District and had previously served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives. The congresswoman also served as the top Republican on the House Ethics Committee, a spot that put her in line to become chair of the panel if the GOP retakes the House majority in the upcoming midterm elections. News of her death sent shockwaves through the House, with representatives from both sides of the aisle honoring her for her civic service. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has ordered flags at the Capitol to be flown at half-staff in her memory.” Read more at CNN
“The smaller version of his ‘Build Back Better’ plan hashed out by Senate Democrats would reduce federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. In addition, the CBO calculated that increasing the Internal Revenue Service budget would generate $204 billion in new revenue from cracking down on tax avoidance, something that wasn’t included in the official deficit score. When that’s factored in, the CBO analysis is in line with the $300 billion in deficit reduction claim initially made for the bill by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. The bill, if passed, would among other things mark an unprecedented American effort to fight global warming. But there’s just one problem: Kyrsten Sinema. A major beneficiary of Wall Street largesse, the Arizona Democrat may be positioning herself along with 50 Senate Republicans to blow up the historic deal unless she gets changes that favor big corporations and fund managers.” Read more at Bloomberg
Data: Axios research. Table: Kavya Beheraj/Axios
“At least six of the 10 House Republicans who voted for former President Trump's impeachment last year won't return next Congress — and that number is expected to rise, Axios' Andrew Solender reports.
Why it matters: The bleak political future for those who broke with the ex-president over Jan. 6 underscores how inhospitable the party has become to Trump critics.
The latest: Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) lost his primary yesterday to Trump-backed former HUD official John Gibbs. He's the second to have lost, after Tom Rice (R-S.C.).
Four of the Republicans aren't even trying for reelection and instead announced plans to retire.
What's next: Trump-backed Harriet Hageman is favored to beat Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the Jan. 6 committee vice chair, in an Aug. 16 primary.” Read more at Axios
Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder, in Bemidji, Minnesota in September 2020. Photograph: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
“MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a fervent Donald Trump ally, says he has poured $35-40m into a wide crusade – a wave of lawsuits to get rid of voting machines that he faults for Trump’s defeat, a new movie about voting fraud, and a hefty legal stable – to promote charges that the 2020 election was riddled with fraud, despite a flood of contrary evidence.
In his frenetic quest to dispense with electronic voting equipment that he has often charged are defective, Lindell is hosting a two-day ‘Moment of Truth’ summit on 20 and 21 August in Missouri, that he expects will draw 200 federal and state officials and staff, as well as hundreds of representatives from groups nationwide who have investigated election fraud this year and in 2020.
On a related front to boost his cause, a small segment of the summit will feature 10 conservative sheriffs who have become increasingly active in fighting purported election fraud, who Lindell told the Guardian he invited so they would have “a platform to get their voices heard”.
One leading voice is slated to be former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who runs the rightwing Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). The organization hosted a July meeting in Las Vegas that Lindell attended and publicized via a TV operation he owns, and has taken the unorthodox step of making monitoring election fraud its top priority, which Mack has dubbed a ‘holy cause’.
The upcoming Lindell summit underscores the growing roles of him and his allies in a sprawling network waging a multi-front war to push Trump’s ‘big lie’ about the 2020 elections, and mobilize activists to ramp up their scrutiny of the fall elections as poll workers and poll watchers. These moves could curb voting rights and intimidate voters, say election watchdogs.
The ‘big lie’ network has been bolstered by other multimillionaires including Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock, and at least $1m from a Donald Trump political action committee.
Byrne co-founded the America Project with retired army Lt Gen Michael Flynn just a few months after they attended a meeting with Trump in December 2020, where wild schemes to overturn Joe Biden’s win were discussed. He has boasted of pouring $3m into a self -styled ‘election integrity’ drive to hunt for potential fraud by training activists in poll watching and canvassing.
Non-partisan election spending analysts warn of threats to democracy in the new voting blitzes that mega-donors who promote Trump’s ‘big lie’ are underwriting.
‘Mega-donor spending, long associated with Super Pacs and non-profits, is now also aimed at shaping even how our elections are administered,’ said Sheila Krumholz, who leads OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign money. ‘Election administration is critical infrastructure in a democracy and should not be determined by partisan power-brokers.’
However, the burgeoning ‘big lie’ ecosystem seems to have other priorities: it includes nonprofits such as the Texas-based True the Vote, which co-sponsored the CSPOA Las Vegas summit in July, and has teamed up with another sheriffs’ group, Protect America Now, run by Arizona sheriff Mark Lamb, to form an alliance to police this year’s voting for fraud.
Another influential activist with strong fundraising ties on the right is Cleta Mitchell, a former Trump campaign lawyer who has spearheaded numerous ‘election integrity’ summits in key swing states and is a leading figure at the Conservative Partnership Institute, to which Trump’s leadership Pac last year gave $1m.
Mitchell participated in Trump’s infamous call on 2 January 2021 with the Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, where Trump urged him to ‘find’ 11,870 votes to block Biden’s win there. Mitchell was subpoenaed last month by a special grand jury in Georgia investigating whether Trump’s call and other related efforts broke state laws.
The ‘big lie’ advocates have spent tens of millions of dollars pushing baseless claims of widespread election fraud in 2020 as they have built an infrastructure of loyalists in swing states to be poll watchers and poll workers, and helped enact new laws in 18 states since 2021 that include new limits on absentee voting and other measures to make voting more difficult.
Despite powerful evidence presented to the House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, including former attorney general Bill Barr’s comments that he told Trump there was no evidence of significant fraud in 2020, and numerous studies showing that voting fraud is historically small, the pro-Trump network seems to be growing.” Read more at The Guardian
The destroyed barrack at a prison in Olenivka, an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces, in eastern Ukraine. The UN is to investigate the killings there. Photograph: AP
“The UN is setting up a fact-finding mission to investigate the killing of dozens of prisoners of war at a prison in a Russian-occupied region of eastern Ukraine that Moscow and Kyiv accuse each other of carrying out.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, told reporters he did not have authority to conduct criminal investigations but could conduct fact-finding missions, and terms of reference were being prepared for the governments of Ukraine and Russia to approve. The mission was set up in response to requests from Russia and Ukraine.
Russia claimed that Ukraine’s military used US-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by Russian-backed separatists. The attack killed 53 Ukrainian PoWs and wounded another 75, separatist authorities and Russian officials said.
The Ukrainian military denied carrying out any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka. The intelligence arm of the Ukrainian defence ministry claimed in a statement on Wednesday to have evidence that local Kremlin-backed separatists colluded with the Russian FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency, and mercenary group Wagner to mine the barrack before “using a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room”.
The Ukrainian military on Tuesday likewise claimed that the barrack had been blown up from the inside, citing the nature of damage which it said was inconsistent with Russian claims that Ukraine had shelled the building. It was not immediately possible to verify these claims.
The US, meanwhile, believes Russia is preparing to fabricate evidence pointing the finger at Ukraine.
A US intelligence official told the Associated Press that recently downgraded classified material showed that Russian officials might plant ammunition from medium-ranged high mobility artillery rocket systems, or Himars, as evidence that the systems provided by the US to Ukraine were used in the attack.” Read more at The Guardian
“SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — After infuriating China over her trip to Taiwan, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met South Korean political leaders in Seoul on Thursday but avoided making direct public comments on relations with Beijing and Taipei that could further increase regional tensions.
Pelosi, the first House speaker to visit Taiwan in 25 years, said Wednesday in Taipei that the American commitment to democracy in the self-governing island and elsewhere ‘remains ironclad.’ In response, China on Thursday began military exercises, including missile strike training, in six zones surrounding Taiwan, in what could be the biggest of their kind since the mid-1990s.
After visiting Taiwan, Pelosi and other members of her congressional delegation flew to South Korea — a key U.S. ally where about 28,500 American troops are deployed — on Wednesday evening, as part of an Asian tour that included earlier stops in Singapore and Malaysia. After South Korea, Pelosi will travel to Japan.” Read more at The Guardian
“China is following through on its promise to punish Taiwan for hosting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during her congressional visit to Asia this week. The country fired multiple missiles toward waters near northeastern and southwestern Taiwan and has begun exercises that Chinese state media claims simulate an air and sea "blockade" around the island. The display has already caused disruption to flight and ship schedules, and is causing unease among nearby powers like Japan. Taiwan, meanwhile, is bracing for further retaliatory attacks from China, which has long laid claim to the self-governing island. The Taiwanese government says it plans to strengthen security against cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns.” Read more at CNN
“KHIMKI, Russia (AP) — Brittney Griner arrived in court Thursday for closing arguments in her cannabis possession trial, nearly six months after the American basketball star was arrested at a Moscow airport in a case that has reached the highest levels of U.S.-Russia diplomacy.
Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Although a conviction appears almost certain, given that Russian courts rarely acquit defendants and Griner has acknowledged having vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage, judges have considerable latitude on sentencing.
Lawyers for the Phoenix Mercury center and two-time Olympic gold medalist have pursued strategies to bolster Griner’s contention that she had no criminal intent and that the canisters ended up in her luggage due to hasty packing. They have presented character witnesses from the Russian team that she plays for in the WNBA off-season and written testimony from a doctor who said he prescribed her cannabis for pain treatment.” Read more at AP News
“Little reward | US President Joe Biden’s expectation after his visit to Saudi Arabia that oil producers would act to cool prices was dashed after OPEC+ nations announced a token supply increase yesterday. The hike of 100,000 barrels a day — just 1/1000th of global demand — offers little respite for consumers suffering the inflationary squeeze of energy costs.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Australia’s new government rejected plans for a major coal project near the Great Barrier Reef, a sharp change in policy in one of the biggest exporters of the polluting fossil fuel.” Read more at Bloomberg
Gerhard Schröder asked ‘how would it help anyone if I were to personally distance myself from Vladimir Putin?’ Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters
“The former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has come under fire for a private meeting held with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, after he travelled on holiday to Moscow to meet him.
Schröder told German media in a lengthy interview he had nothing to apologise for over his friendship with Putin, whom he met last week during a visit to the Russian capital.
Schröder has come under fierce criticism for his business links to the Russian state-run gas company Gazprom. He was one of the driving forces behind the construction of two Baltic Sea pipelines to carry gas to Europe, one of which was mothballed after the invasion of Ukraine. The other, Nord Stream 1, is only delivering 20% of the level of gas expected.” Read more at The Guardian
“The U.S. has brought sanctions against former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who has long been rumored to have a romantic relationship with Vladimir Putin. Kabaeva is thought to have had at least three children with Putin; the Treasury Department says the sanctions are meant to ‘impose severe costs for those who support President Vladimir Putin's war.’” Read more at NPR
“Lives Lived: With Mo Ostin at the helm, Warner Bros. Records and its affiliates signed pivotal artists including Frank Sinatra, Joni Mitchell and Madonna. Ostin died at 95.” Read more at New York Times
“The N.F.L. appealed the six-game suspension of Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson on Wednesday, according to a league spokesman.
The league challenged the penalty issued Monday by a third-party disciplinary officer as a result of a hearing over accusations that Watson had engaged in sexually coercive and lewd behavior toward two dozen women he hired for massages. The N.F.L. is arguing for an indefinite suspension with the option of reinstatement after a year, according to a person with knowledge of the league’s appeal who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The league also recommended a fine and treatment for Watson and cited concerns over his lack of remorse in the brief it filed Wednesday, the person said.” Read more at New York Times
“Talk of lawsuits between the breakaway Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series and the PGA Tour has been just that. Until now.
As first reported in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, 11 LIV golfers are suing to challenge their PGA Tour suspensions. The group includes Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau.
Three other LIV golfers — Talor Gooch, Matt Jones and Hudson Swafford — joined in the lawsuit because they are seeking a temporary restraining order so they can play in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The other golfers are Abraham Ancer, Jason Kokrak, Carlos Ortiz, Pat Perez, Ian Poulter and Peter Uihlein.” Read more at USA Today