News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

---

Mayorkas' Impeachment Failed & More

Appeals Court: Trump is Not Immune from Prosecution in 2020 Election Interference Case

federal appeals panel ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump can face trial on charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, rejecting the former president’s claims that he is immune from prosecution.

The decision marks the second time in as many months that judges have spurned Trump’s immunity arguments and held that he can be prosecuted for actions undertaken while in the White House and in the run-up to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. But it also sets the stage for additional appeals from the Republican ex-president that could reach the U.S. Supreme Court. The trial was originally set for March, but it was postponed last week and the judge didn’t immediately set a new date.

“We conclude that the interest in criminal accountability, held by both the public and the Executive Branch, outweighs the potential risks of chilling Presidential action and permitting vexatious litigation,” the judges wrote.

The trial date carries enormous political ramifications, with the Republican primary front-runner hoping to delay it until after the November election. If Trump defeats President Joe Biden, he could presumably try to use his position as head of the executive branch to order a new attorney general to dismiss the federal cases or he potentially could seek a pardon for himself.

The appeals court took center stage in the immunity dispute after the Supreme Court last month said it was at least temporarily staying out of it, rejecting a request from special counsel Jack Smith to take up the matter quickly and issue a speedy ruling.

The legally untested question before the court was whether former presidents can be prosecuted after they leave office for actions taken in the White House related to their official duties.

The Supreme Court has held that presidents are immune from civil liability for official acts, and Trump’s lawyers have for months argued that that protection should be extended to criminal prosecution as well.

House Fails to Impeach Mayorkas

The House of Representatives let Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas off the hook for the border crisis created under his watch in a historic 216-214 vote against impeachment.

Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO) and Tom McClintock (R-CA) announced before the vote they would vote against impeachment. They were joined by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) in voting with unified Democrats.

After the vote was decided, Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) voted nay, but only for procedural reasons so that the House may vote on the measure again at some point.

Gallagher expressed concerns with impeachment Tuesday morning in a closed-door Republican Conference meeting.

Buck, who announced last year this would be his final term and has openly expressed a desire to work for msnbc or CNN, and McClintock, who last year told Breitbart News Daily he believes the impeachment is unconstitutional, were seen as immovable.

Despite arm twisting on the House floor by multiple members of Republican leadership and senior members, Gallagher also cast his ballot with Democrats.

Moore, who remarkably serves as a member of House leadership, cast his vote against impeachment at the last second, minutes after the previous final vote and moments before the gavel crashed down.

DHS Chief Mayorkas: Americans Killed by Illegals ‘Should Not Be Politicized’

In a long profile by the Post, Mayorkas is featured as a victim of attacks by Republican lawmakers. This week, House Republicans fell just shy of the majority needed to approve articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, though leadership has vowed to try again.

One of the reasons House Republicans have sought to impeach Mayorkas, as the Post notes, is the federal government’s inability to protect Americans from illegal immigration. Last year, for example, Mayorkas recalled having to face Angel Mom Elisa Tambunga.

Tambunga’s 71-year-old mother, Maria Tambunga, and her 7-year-old daughter, Emilia Tambunga, were killed in a Texas crash caused by a human smuggler from the United States-Mexico border that was trafficking 11 illegal aliens into the country.

Maria Tambunga was bringing her granddaughter Emilia Tambunga home from a play date at the time of the fatal crash.

During the congressional hearing last year, Mayorkas recalled making a vague apology to the Angel Family. Elisa Tambunga, though, said the apology did not cut it and met with Mayorkas after the hearing, showing him a video of her daughter following the crash.

“I shared a very, very, very private video of my daughter after the crash,” Tambunga told the Post. “And I made him watch it and I said, ‘Don’t you dare look away. You need to see what’s happening.’ And he watched it. And from that moment, I saw [a] human come out, I saw emotion come out. It hit him.”

Mayorkas acknowledged to the Post that the Tambunga case is “just extraordinarily tragic” and followed up saying that losses like the Tambunga family have suffered “should not be politicized.”

The remark comes as Mayorkas refused to face Angel Families last month who told their stories before the House Homeland Security Committee and blamed his actions at the southern border for each of their daughters’ deaths.

Guilty: Disgraced Ex-Baltimore District Attorney Marilyn Mosby Convicted of Mortgage Fraud

Disgraced former Baltimore District Attorney Marilyn Mosby sobbed in court Tuesday as she was convicted of mortgage fraud — a verdict that could carry decades in prison.

The Democrat served in office from 2015 until she lost her 2022 reelection bid after being indicted on perjury and mortgage fraud charges related to the withdrawal of funds from the city’s Deferred Compensation Plan.

Prosecutors believe that in May 2020, Mosby took advantage of the CARES Act — the first coronavirus relief bill — by seeking a $40,000 withdrawal from her city retirement account, reported the Baltimore Sun.

Though she blamed the withdrawal on financial setbacks supposedly suffered due to the pandemic, Mosby’s salary had actually increased by $10,000 to a total of $248,000 that year, according to the local publication.

According to her indictment, Mosby received $36,000 from the retirement compensation account, then put it towards purchasing a rental property in the Orlando, Florida, area.

“But prosecutors say in purchasing that property, she lied about having a federal tax lien and falsely said the property was a second home, which lowered the interest rate,” the Sun reported.

Mosby, 44, was indicted on both the perjury and mortgage fraud charges in January 2022, and was found guilty of the perjury in November 2023.

McDonald’s Shares Tumble After Executives Acknowledge Price Inflation

McDonald’s executives have finally acknowledged that their $18 Big Mac meals and other inflated prices are putting off lower-income customers.

“We certainly know consumers are more wary or weary of pricing,” Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden told investors during a Monday earnings call.

The transcript of the conversation, which Business Insider obtained, also revealed that CEO Chris Kempczinski said that McDonald’s customers — especially those making less money — are placing smaller orders than in previous years.

During an October earnings call, company executives told investors that the price increases “largely hadn’t put customers off,” according to the Insider analysis.

According to Borden, menu prices increased by around ten percent in 2022 and again in 2023.

A Big Mac burger, a medium beverage, and a medium fry meal now costs $18 in some locations, up $10 from 2018 when former President Donald Trump was in office, Breitbart News reported in November 2023.

“Where you see the pressure with the U.S. consumer is that low-income consumer,” Kempczinski said during the recent call. “Call it $45,000 and under. That consumer is pressured.”

“From an industry standpoint, we actually saw that cohort decrease in the most recent quarter, particularly, I think, as eating at home has become more affordable.”

Hey! Go tell people where there should go buy their meat and groceries ASAP!
Morons!  

Dem Sen. Bennet: Expect ‘More and More’ Iran Proxy Attacks Even with Today’s Strike, Efforts to Deter Did Nothing

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) reacted to a U.S. strike that killed a leader of an Iranian proxy group connected to the fatal attacks on U.S. soldiers by stating that “we should expect more and more and more” attacks from Iranian proxies and this strike won’t deter them by itself. He also stated that deterrence efforts have so far failed to improve things in the Middle East.

Bennet said, “Well, what I know is we should expect more and more and more out of this out of Iran and their proxies. And it’s going to be very important for us to act in a way that deters the Iranians and makes sure that this dispute — this war that is happening between Israel and Hamas is not something that’s going to spill out into the broader region. And every single day, Iran’s proxies are testing us and testing us and testing us and they need to know that we are going to respond to that and that we are paying attention to what they’re doing. So, this is not something that you can deter in one day or even one week or I would say even one month. We have to be vigilant about this day after day after day, and that’s — I think that’s what you are seeing today.”

Co-host Kailey Leinz then asked, “Well, but as you see these proxy groups continuing to conduct attacks in the Red Sea and against U.S. forces, is there any real sign that things are improving, that deterrence efforts are even starting to work, even if they haven’t worked entirely? What does the intelligence suggest?”

Bennet responded, “I would not say things are improving. I’d say this is a dangerous moment in the Middle East. I’d say that the Iranian proxies are trying to decide how to gain the most advantage in this war as they can, and, as I said, we’re going to have to be vigilant. And, in my view, we’ve got to get to a place where we can begin to figure out how to have a negotiation about a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian people that can begin to create some order in this part of the world. That’s not going to happen today or tomorrow, but I think that the United States of America can’t take our eye off that goal. And, in the meantime, we’ve got to make sure that we don’t allow this to escalate into a wider war.”

MIDDLE EAST

---

Several Articles

U.S. Drone Strike in Baghdad Kills High-ranking Militia Commander

A U.S. drone strike hit a car in the Iraqi capital Wednesday night, killing three members of the powerful Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a high-ranking commander, officials said.

The strike came on a main thoroughfare in the Mashtal neighborhood in eastern Baghdad. A crowd gathered as emergency response teams picked through the wreckage. Security forces closed off the heavily guarded Green Zone, where a number of diplomatic compounds are located, amid calls for protesters to storm the U.S. embassy.

Two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said that a senior Kataib Hezbollah commander was targeted in a U.S. strike on Wednesday in Iraq. They were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Two officials with Iran-backed militias in Iraq said that one of the three killed was Wissam Mohammed “Abu Bakr” al-Saadi, the commander in charge of Kataib Hezbollah’s operations in Syria. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to journalists.

The strike came amid roiling tensions in the region and days after the U.S. military launched an air assault on dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in retaliation for a drone strike that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan in late January.

Netanyahu, in English, Rejects Hamas Demands: ‘Peace and Security Require Total Victory’

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an English version of his earlier remarks to the Israeli media in Hebrew on Wednesday evening, rejecting the idea that Hamas would be allowed to use hostage negotiations to survive the war it started.

Netanyahu’s response came after details of a Hamas counter-offer emerged in ongoing negotiations over a deal to release the Israeli hostages — roughly 136, at least 32 of whom are believed to be dead — in exchange for a pause in the fighting in Gaza.

Hamas wants Israel to withdraw its military completely from Gaza and to stop the fighting — conditions that Israel will not accept. It is also demanding the release of thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists serving long sentences, among other conditions.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank had already met with Netanyahu earlier Wednesday by the time Netanyahu delivered his address.

Netanyahu’s statement was therefore as much for American consumption as for Israeli consumption.

IDF Releases Evidence of Payments Directly from Iran to Hamas

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released evidence Tuesday that it said showed direct payments from Iran to the Hamas terrorist organization and its leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

This evening, we are publishing some of the intelligence information found there by our forces – indicating a direct “connection” from Iran to Hamas and more so – to Yahya Sinwar. We found official Hamas documents from 2020 detailing the funds transferred by Iran between the years 2014 and 2020 to Hamas and to Sinwar. More than one hundred and fifty million dollars were transferred from Iran to Hamas. This is another example of how Iran exports terror across the Middle East. The terror that Iran exports and produces is a global problem. The intelligence information we find, we pass on to our partners around the world for verification.

In the same subterranean space, we also found a safe with banknotes and bags containing more than twenty million shekels in cash, as you can see in the blue and black bags addressed to a clear location [see above]. These amounts join tens of millions of shekels we located during the war in Hamas tunnels in cases filled with millions of dollars. This is a recurring phenomenon – large sums of cash, kept in organized compounds underground for the personal use of senior Hamas officials. Hamas leaders invested the money in their personal survival and that of their families underground.

It has long been known that Iran funds and arms Hamas, but the IDF chose to declassify direct evidence to show the role played by the Iranian regime, and to show the personal greed of Hamas’s leaders at a time when many Gazans are relying on aid for their basic necessities.

The IDF also wanted to show its penetration of Hamas’s physical infrastructure underground in the former stronghold of Khan Younis, where the terrorist leadership is thought to be hiding.

Iran-Linked ‘Suicide Plane’ Attack Kills U.S. Kurdish Allies in Syria

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led coalition of fighters in Syria allied with the United States, announced on Monday an attack, apparently by Iran-backed militias from Iraq, on an American base killed at least six of their fighters.

In addition to evidence linking them to the attack, the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq” – a nebulous name used by several mostly Shiite Iranian-backed militias in the country – independently claimed responsibility, claiming they used drones to attack the base in Deir ez-Zor, Syria.

The attack is the latest in a series of dozens of attacks attributed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq or the Iranian government directly on American positions in the Middle East. The Pentagon has documented over 160 drone strikes, missile assaults, and other attacks on U.S. assets in Syria and Iraq since the October 7 terrorist assault on Israel by the Iran-backed Sunni jihadists of Hamas.
...
America still maintains an estimated 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 in Syria intended to aid local forces in protecting against a resurgence by the Islamic State. Iranian proxies have most fervently targeted them, succeeding in killing Americans on January 28 in a strike on the border between Syria and Iraq. Three Americans died in that drone attack, also attributed to the “Islamic Resistance in Iraq.”

The attack on the SDF appears to be part of the same campaign. According to the Kurdish news outlet Rudaw, a “suicide plane” targeted a training camp at an American base.