Monday, April 29

LAW ENFORCEMENT

Georgia Election Law Expert Explains 5 Key Things As Fulton County Charges Donald Trump With Racketeering, Other Felonies
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LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLITICS

Georgia Election Law Expert Explains 5 Key Things As Fulton County Charges Donald Trump With Racketeering, Other Felonies

Fulton County charges Donald Trump with racketeering, other felonies – a Georgia election law expert explains 5 key things to know. An Atlanta, Georgia, grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump on Aug. 14, 2023, charging him with racketeering and 12 other felonies related to his alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state. Eighteen of Trump’s allies and associates, including former Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, were also indicted for racketeering and other felony charges for their alleged involvement in the scheme. This marks Trump’s fourth indictment in five months – and the second to come from his efforts to undo the election results that awarded the presidency to Joe Biden. Fani Willis, the district ...
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For Keeping Secret Documents, Trump’s Prosecution Is Lawful, Constitutional, Precedented, Nonpartisan And Merited
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LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLITICS

For Keeping Secret Documents, Trump’s Prosecution Is Lawful, Constitutional, Precedented, Nonpartisan And Merited

Why Trump’s prosecution for keeping secret documents is lawful, constitutional, precedented, nonpartisan and merited. Donald Trump and his allies have responded with a variety of objections to his federal indictment, brought in June 2023 by special counsel Jack Smith. The federal charges – the first against a former president – listed 37 counts of obstruction of justice and wrongful retention of classified documents after Trump left office in January 2021. Trump pleaded not guilty. The objections made by Trump and his allies: The former president simply cannot be charged, the indictment is political “weaponization” of the justice system, the charges are groundless and the charges are unfair. The unfairness claim often involves a comparison to Hillary Clinton, Trump’s 2016 presidential op...
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Unique Linguistic Fingerprints Led To Unabomber’s Capture
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IN OTHER NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT

Unique Linguistic Fingerprints Led To Unabomber’s Capture

How the Unabomber’s unique linguistic fingerprints led to his capture. Can the language someone uses be as unique as their fingerprints? As I describe in my forthcoming book, “Linguistic Fingerprints: How Language Creates and Reveals Identity,” that was true in the case of Theodore Kaczynski. Kaczynski, who was known as the Unabomber, died in a North Carolina prison on June 10, 2023, reportedly by suicide. Kaczynski had been a math prodigy and a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, before he withdrew from society and declared war on the modern world. From a remote cabin in Montana, he sent a number of explosive devices through the mail. In other cases, he planted them. Between 1978 and 1995, 16 of his bombs killed three people and seriously injured nearly two dozen more...
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Trump’s Fate Will Be Decided By 12 Citizen Peers, In A Hallowed Tradition Of US Democracy — Not A Jury Of Ex-Presidents
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LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLITICS

Trump’s Fate Will Be Decided By 12 Citizen Peers, In A Hallowed Tradition Of US Democracy — Not A Jury Of Ex-Presidents

A jury of ex-presidents? No, but Trump’s fate will be decided by 12 citizen peers, in a hallowed tradition of US democracy. It is not the federal government that will hold Donald Trump’s future in its hands. It will be 12 jury members in his eventual trial. Trump appears in federal court on June 13, 2023 for his arraignment and the formal presentation of the charges lodged against him in a 37-count indictment released on June 9, 2023. Trump’s defenders have alleged that the indictment is a politically motivated “witch hunt” by the Biden administration and that any conviction would thus be discredited. But like all federal defendants, Trump will be protected by the Sixth Amendment’s right to a jury trial. That right, to have a jury of 12 citizens render judgment on his case, protects Tru...
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Right-Wing Extremist Group Proud Boys Convicted Of Seditious Conspiracy
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IN OTHER NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT

Right-Wing Extremist Group Proud Boys Convicted Of Seditious Conspiracy

Proud Boys members convicted of seditious conspiracy – 3 essential reads on the group and right-wing extremist white nationalism. Four members of the right-wing extremist group called the Proud Boys were convicted on May 4, 2023, on charges of seditious conspiracy and other charges in connection with their efforts to lead an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Those convicted include the group’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio. Several scholars have written for The Conversation U.S. about the group, its ideologies and other elements of the right-wing extremist push for white nationalism. Here we spotlight three examples from our archives. 1. Who are the Proud Boys and what do they want? “Proud Boys have identified themselves as ‘Western chauvinists’ who focus on opposing political...
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Could The Firings Of Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson Mean The End Of Hyperpartisan Cable News Networks
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IN OTHER NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT

Could The Firings Of Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson Mean The End Of Hyperpartisan Cable News Networks

The firings of Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson doesn’t mean the end of hyperpartisan cable news networks. Television host Sara Haines of ABC’s “The View” spoke for many viewers when she celebrated the departure of right-wing television host Tucker Carlson from the Fox News Network. “I am happy to know someone like him no longer has the platform he had built,” she exclaimed. Similarly, CNN anchor Don Lemon’s ouster on April 23, 2023 – the same day as Carlson’s – generated an equal amount of celebration from conservatives. One of them was Nikki Haley, the presidential candidate and former governor of South Carolina, whom Lemon had previously described as a woman past her prime when she launched her 2024 campaign. Lemon’s dismissal is “a great day for women everywhere,” Haley exclaimed. In ...
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The Threat Posed By Militias – Oath Keepers Convictions Shed Light On The Limits Of Free Speech
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LAW ENFORCEMENT

The Threat Posed By Militias – Oath Keepers Convictions Shed Light On The Limits Of Free Speech

The verdicts in a high-profile, monthslong trial of Oath Keepers militia members were, as one defense lawyer acknowledged, “a mixed bag.” Leader Stewart Rhodes was found guilty on Nov. 29, 2022, of the most serious charge – seditious conspiracy – for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and was acquitted on two other related charges. One of Rhodes’ four co-defendants, Kelly Meggs, was also convicted of seditious conspiracy. All five on trial were found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding, namely Congress’ certification on Jan. 6, 2021, of the 2020 presidential election results. The convictions for seditious conspiracy – a rarely used, Civil War-era charge typically reserved in recent decades for terror plots – are the most significant yet relating to t...
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Stopping Domain Name Hijacking And Domain Name Theft
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT

Stopping Domain Name Hijacking And Domain Name Theft

Domain hijacking, or domain theft, occurs when a person improperly changes the registration of a domain name without permission from the original registrant. A domain can be hijacked for several reasons: to generate money through click-through traffic, for resale to the proper owner or a third party, to add value to an existing business, for malicious reasons, or to achieve notoriety. The costs of domain hijacking are significant. According to Symantec, a security-software company, in 2012, the economy lost $400 billion as a result of incidents of domain hijacking and related crimes. A variety of domain names have been hijacked in recent years, including the U.S. Marines, The New York Times, Twitter, Google, The Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and Craigslist. Once a domain is hijacked, i...
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After A Minneapolis Death A Relic Of The ‘War On Drugs’ No-Knock Warrants, Face Renewed Criticism
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IN OTHER NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT

After A Minneapolis Death A Relic Of The ‘War On Drugs’ No-Knock Warrants, Face Renewed Criticism

Protests in Minneapolis over the death of a 22-year-old man during a police raid have reignited debate over the role of so-called “no-knock warrants.” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a moratorium on the practice, in which police obtain permission to enter a premises unannounced, and often accompanied by heavily armed SWAT teams. As a former police officer, I took part in no-knock raids. Often they offered little return – my team ended up empty-handed, with no real criminal evidence. I now teach criminal justice and police ethics and have observed that the use of no-knock warrants has increasingly become a concern for those demanding criminal justice reform. Obtaining a ‘no-knock’ can be a low bar No-knock warrants are an exception to the “knock and announce” rule, a common law polic...
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State prosecutors and voters – not the feds – can hold corrupt officials accountable
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LAW ENFORCEMENT

State prosecutors and voters – not the feds – can hold corrupt officials accountable

Two high-ranking officials with ties to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hatched a plot in 2013 to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey, a town adjacent to the George Washington Bridge – the busiest bridge in the world. The reason for targeting the mayor: his refusal to endorse Christie for reelection. To inflict pain on the mayor, the aides ordered lane closures on the bridge under the guise of a sham “traffic study,” causing massive backups – with school buses idling in traffic for hours and emergency vehicles and ambulances blocked. A public uproar ensued. The press swarmed, the plot unraveled and the state legislature began an investigation, as did the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. Two aides were charged and convicted under a federal wire-fraud statute for misusing fede...
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