BREAKING NEWS
International Criminal Court Issues War Crimes Arrest Warrant for Putin as Trump, DeSantis Accused of ‘Support’ for Russian President
The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in The Netherlands on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, alleging war crimes related to his illegal war against Ukraine. The Republican Party’s two presidential frontrunners, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, this week were accused of offering “support” for the Russian President.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.
Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of” unlawfully deporting children from Ukraine and bringing them to Russia, the ICC said, ABC News reports.
“The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children,'” The Associated Press also reports.
A United Nations investigation led to a report alleging Russia has committed a “wide range of war crimes,” ABC News adds, along with possible crimes against humanity.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday issued a warning on the direction of the Republican Party’s presidential frontrunners.
“I worry that DeSantis and Trump’s support for Putin and opposition to Ukraine is part in partial [sic] of a broader lack of enthusiasm for democracy and self-governance,” Murphy said, according to The Hill.
The Hill notes Trump “praised Putin as Russia was about to invade Ukraine last year, saying that Putin was a ‘genius’ who was going to go into Ukraine as a ‘peacekeeper.'”
DeSantis this week called Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine a mere “territorial dispute.”
Trump on Thursday issued a statement on video downplaying Putin’s actions, saying Russia is not a threat to the United States, but some Americans he described as “horrible, USA-hating people.”
Trump says Russia is not a threat, our greatest threat is our American representatives, we need to reevaluate the purpose of NATO, and most of the people in the State Dept, DOD and Intel Services need to be fired so he can put the right people in. pic.twitter.com/9PC6PrONM9
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 16, 2023
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Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial have notified the ex-president’s attorneys they have a recording of him and a witness. The notification comes in the form of an automatic discovery form, CBS News reports, which “describes the nature of the charges against a defendant and a broad overview of the evidence that prosecutors will present at Trump’s preliminary hearing or at trial.”
CBS reports prosecutors have handed the recording over to Trump’s legal team.
It’s not known who the witness is, nor are any details known publicly about what the conversation entails, or even if it is just audio or if it includes video.
READ MORE: ‘Likely to Be Indicted Soon’: Trump Might Face Seven Different Felonies, Government Watchdog Says
According to the article’s author, CBS News’ Graham Kates, via Twitter, prosecutors say they also have recordings between two witnesses, a recording between a witness and a third party, and various recordings saved on a witness’s cell phones.
Manhattan prosecutors disclosed to Trump a recording of him and a witness in his criminal case. pic.twitter.com/EIz3bvpEkj
— Graham Kates (@GrahamKates) May 26, 2023
Trump is facing 34 felony counts in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case related to his allegedly unlawful attempt to hide hush money payoffs to a well-known porn star by falsifying business records to protect his 2016 presidential campaign.
See the discovery form above or at this link.
Image via Shutterstock
Former Special Counsel John Durham, who recently ended his four-year investigation into the FBI’s decision to launch an investigation into Russia’s attack on the 2016 election and any possible connection Donald Trump or his campaign had to those efforts, will testify before the Republican-majority House Judiciary Committee next month.
The Durham report, widely-panned by legal experts but praised by GOP partisans, was the culmination of an investigation many believe was started to appease then-President Donald Trump. Trump Attorney General Bill Barr secretly elevated Durham to Special Counsel status in October of 2020, effectively to allow his investigation to continue regardless of the result of the following month’s presidential election.
Durham ended up indicting just three people. He lost two cases and the third pleaded guilty to a minor charge.
Washington Post columnist Philip Bump published an analysis earlier this month titled, “Durham’s probe ends as it began: Pointing at trees to obscure the forest.”
But Durham’s report gives fodder to the far-right.
National security and legal experts have torn the Durham report apart, with some noting his investigation directly conflicts with findings from a DOJ Inspector General and the then-GOP majority Senate Intelligence Committee’s report.
Fox News reports Durham “will testify in front of the House Judiciary Committee about his report in June, a source has told Fox News on Friday.”
“The hearing will happen on Wednesday, June 21,” Fox adds. “The day before, Durham will appear before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door briefing.”
Republican Ron DeSantis will officially launch his 2024 presidential campaign in an event with a billionaire mogul who represents some elements of what conservative America greatly opposes: Big Tech, and clean and renewable energy.
The Florida Republican Governor, who has spent months traveling the country, will sit down with Musk and David Sacks on Wednesday, NBC News reports, when he is expected to formally announce his White House run. Musk is a Big Tech giant, the owner of the social media platform Twitter, the head of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, CEO of the space exploration company SpaceX, and founder of the electric vehicle public transportation company The Boring Company.
He is also the world’s second richest person.
“Musk and DeSantis will host an event on Twitter Spaces, the site’s platform for audio chats, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. It will be moderated by David Sacks, a tech entrepreneur who is a Musk confidant and DeSantis supporter,” NBC adds. “That same evening, the campaign will release a launch video, and DeSantis will begin visiting several early states after Memorial Day.”
It’s unclear why DeSantis is choosing to let the momentum wane by pausing travel for several days.
Appearing to confirm his participation, Musk retweeted a Fox News reporter’s tweet announcing the Wednesday evening event. “Twitter Spaces” is also now trending.
Musk is a highly-polarizing figure, but he has publicly suggested he supports a DeSantis presidency.
“My preference for the 2024 presidency is someone sensible and centrist,” Musk tweeted in November. Asked by a Twitter user if he would support a DeSantis run, Musk tweeted one word: “Yes.”
DeSantis is far from centrist. He has hammered together what some call one of the most extreme and authoritarian state governments in modern America.
One year ago in April Vox alleged, “Ron DeSantis is following a trail blazed by a Hungarian authoritarian,” doing, “The Florida governor isn’t doing ‘competent Trumpism.’ He’s inventing American Orbánism.”
“By operationalizing the culture war into a set of concrete policies, DeSantis has transformed the nation’s third most populous state,” TIME’s Molly Ball wrote last week. “What was once the butt of jokes about gators and retirees is now the swaggering, Southern-tinged Free State of Florida—where men are men, woke is broke, and business is booming; 1,200 net new residents arrive every day.”
And the headline on a March piece at The Atlantic reads: “How Did America’s Weirdest, Most Freedom-Obsessed State Fall for an Authoritarian Governor?”
And an April opinion piece by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat of Florida, in the Sun Sentinel reads: “Ron DeSantis’ anti-choice extremism will keep hurting Florida’s women and girls.”
MSNBC also announced the event on-air.
Watch below or at this link.
BREAKING: Ron DeSantis to announce he is running for president during a Twitter Spaces discussion with Elon Musk on Wednesday night, sources familiar with the plans tell NBC News. pic.twitter.com/e3qkU4wEhh
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 23, 2023
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BREAKING NEWS3 days agoProsecutors Tell Trump They Have a Recording of Him and a Witness: Report
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