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‘Zero Credibility’: Legal Experts Blast ‘Religious Zealot’ Bill Barr for Politicizing Trump’s Poor Pandemic Performance

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Attorney General Bill Barr is getting blasted for a highly-partisan interview he gave to Fox News. Barr’s role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer is seen as sacrosanct by the American people, who believe the wall between the head of the Dept. of Justice and politics should never be cracked.

The AG attacked the press for waging a “jihad” against Trump’s promotion of an unproven malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to battle COVID-19, despite it not having been approved, or even appropriately tested for that purpose. And he described President Donald Trump’s early handling of the impending coronavirus pandemic as “statesman-like,” which is false. Numerous reports show Trump was far more aware of how fatal the coronavirus could be and just how much it could disrupt the globe.

“The politicization of decisions like hydroxychloroquine has been amazing to me,” Barr told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “Before the president said anything about it, there was ‘fair and balanced’ coverage of this very promising drug, and the fact that it had such a long track record that the risks were pretty well known, and as soon as he said something positive about it, the media’s been on a jihad to discredit the drug. It’s been quite strange.”

“It’s very disappointing,” Barr also said, “because I think the president went out at the beginning of [the coronavirus pandemic] and really was statesmanlike, trying to bring people together, working with all the governor. Keeping his patience as he as he got these snarky, gotcha questions from the White House media pool and the stridency of the partisan attacks on him has gotten higher and higher.”

That’s false. The media has worked to inform the public that the drug can be dangerous, and even deadly, when inappropriately used. And reporters have tried to let the public know that reports of the drug’s supposed success in treating the deadly virus has been mostly anecdotal.

Here’s one portion of the interview:

Many legal experts are furious.

CNN Legal Analyst, former federal and state prosecutor:

Former SDNY Federal Prosecutor:

Attorney and commentator:

Managing editor, Lawfareblog:

Attorney, columnist, pundit:

CNN Chief National Security Correspondent:

MSNBC Justice & Security Analyst, former DOJ spokesman:

Former Justice Department prosecutor:

Conservative think tank scholar:

Professor at the U.S. Naval War College:

Supreme Court reporter for The Economist:

 

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FRAUD

FEC Closes Case on International ‘Coordinated Attempt’ to Steal Black Americans’ Votes for Clinton to Help Trump

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4 years ago

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June 7, 2021

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The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has quietly closed the file on a five-year old election fraud case, confirming a “coordinated attempt” by an international 4chan-based group that set up a website masquerading as an official Hillary Clinton campaign site that targeted Black Americans to try to get them to “cast” their vote for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate online, to help elected Donald Trump.

There is no online voting in U.S. elections.

The website also tried to profit off the venture, soliciting “campaign” donations, which is illegal since they had no affiliation with the Clinton campaign.

It is not known how many people believed they cast their ballot for Clinton online, at votehillaryonline.com, nor is it known how much money was collected through the election fraud scam. An FEC’s Second General Counsel report reveals the main focus of the website (screenshot image below), as one user in a Discord chat said, was “to trick African-Americans ‘into thinking that they can vote at home,’ hopefully resulting in a ‘Trump landslide.'”

“The results of the investigation show that the primary purpose of the Website was to deceive minority voters into thinking that they could vote for Clinton on the Website rather than at a polling place, thus, potentially helping Donald J. Trump to win the 2016 Presidential election,” the FEC report reads.

It noted “the investigation confirmed the existence of a coordinated attempt, likely from outside the United States, to interfere with American voters.”

The Daily Beast adds, “FEC investigators combed through reports by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the final report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller for signs that the fake site could be linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll farm responsible for carrying out much of Russia’s election meddling, but found no connections.”

The FEC was unable to identify the perpetrators and recommended closing the case, taking no further action.

 

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FRAUD

‘Should Be Disbarred’: Internet Furious After Sidney Powell Insists ‘No Reasonable Person’ Would Have Believed Her

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4 years ago

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March 22, 2021

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“Tell this to the families of the murdered Capitol Police officers”

Attorney and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell for months insisted then-President Donald Trump won re-election, that it was stolen from him, and spun an outrageous tale involving a government supercomputer switching votes to Joe Biden amid a communist plot involving Cuba, George Soros, China, Venezuela, the Clinton Foundation, Antifa, dead Hugo Chávez, and Dominion and Smartmatic voting machine companies.

Dominion and Smartmatic both sued her for defamation.

Now, in response to Dominion’s $1.3 billion lawsuit, Powell is trying to get it dismissed – by blaming anyone who believed her.

Buzzfeed News’ senior reporter Zoe Tillman posted the details: Powell is claiming “no reasonable person would conclude” those “were truly statements of fact.”

“Powell argues she can’t be liable if the information she based her ‘opinions and legal theories’ on were actually unreliable,” Tillman adds, “comparing herself to reporters who get 1A protection when they cite sources; but she later also makes clear she disputes that her info was ‘false.'”

It was just three weeks ago that her final cases were dropped – by the U.S. Supreme Court, which threw them out. In other words, she expected the nation’s highest court to believe her arguments, but says in response to being sued that “no reasonable person” should have.

Twitter quickly buried her in mockery, but some are absolutely furious, like this woman who says Powell thinks America “is a toy–to be played with, snapped in half, and then discarded as soon as it no longer charms.”

Here’s how others are responding:

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FRAUD

New Right-Wing ‘Election Integrity’ Project Chair Is Attorney Who Was Part of Trump’s Call to Brad Raffensperger

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4 years ago

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March 16, 2021

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A new right-wing “election integrity” project is being headed by Cleta Mitchell, an attorney who took part in the notorious call on which former President Donald Trump threatened and badgered Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to reverse the election results in that state. The new “multi-million dollar National Election Protection Initiative” was announced by right-wing astroturf group FreedomWorks via an “exclusive” to Newsmax.

“Election integrity is the most important issue to the conservative movement,” FreedomWorks said in a statement to Newsmax. “The outcome of the 2020 presidential election and its associated legal battles underscore the need for conservatives to engage at all levels in fighting for secure elections that generate confidence.”

As the Washington Post reported in January, Mitchell was an “early backer” of Trump’s false claims about election fraud and a stolen election. Shortly after the election was called for Biden, Mitchell claimed that Georgia’s recount was a “total sham,” tweeting, “Happy to be considered a nut job because I believe in the rule of law.”

On the Raffensperger call, Mitchell said that Trump’s legal team had been “formally and informally” contacting Georgia election officials “for weeks.” State election officials on the call repeatedly told Trump, Mitchell, and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that their claims were based on false information.

In January, Right Wing Watch reported that Mitchell signed a Dec. 30 letter from right-wing movement leaders urging Senate Republicans to “protect the republic” by contesting electoral votes from battleground states won by Biden.

To launch her new project, Mitchell appeared Sunday on the Newsmax program “Save the Nation,” hosted by FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon, where she claimed that the 2020 election had caused Americans to lose confidence in the nation’s elections and would lead to a totalitarian government (see video below).

Mitchell dismissed longtime progressive efforts to protect voters from voter suppression, charging that they are ploys to “wipe out” election safeguards. Mitchell called H.R. 1, a voting-rights and democracy-reform bill that passed in the House and is now being considered in the Senate, an attempt to “rig” elections in Democrats’ favor. Mitchell urged right-wing activists to “hammer” their senators to oppose the legislation.

In addition to opposing federal voting rights legislation, FreedomWorks’ efforts appear to be targeting the same battleground states cited in the right-wing leaders’ Dec. 30 letter: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. FreedomWorks’ list also includes North Carolina.

Before Mitchell began volunteering with Trump’s post-election efforts, she represented “a who’s who of prominent Trumpworld people” in recent years, the Daily Beast reported in January. Mitchell’s clients have included Trumpism strategist Steve Bannon and the right-wing True the Vote, an organization that has a track record of opposing mail-in ballots, challenging voter registrations, and advocating for voter ID laws. Mitchell was reportedly involved in a project to “protect” Trump and attack Democrats that right-wing activist Ginni Thomas presented to the secretive Council for National Policy in 2019. Mitchell resigned as a partner at the law firm of Foley & Lardner after a recording of the call with Raffesnperger became public.

 

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

Image: Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour via Flickr 

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