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‘You Have a Credibility Problem’: Judge Scorches Fox News Lawyer in Pre-Trial Hearing – Report

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A judge blasted a Fox News attorney in a pre-trial hearing of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the right-wing cable channel, essentially accusing the defense of blocking access to information in the case.

Tuesday’s blowup happened when Dominion’s attorneys raised the issue that Fox News was late to nail down exactly who are considered corporate officers of Fox News, “which is critical to discovery procedures in civil litigation,” The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple reports in a series of tweets.

Fox News submitted the names of Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Joe Dorrego, and President/Executive Editor Jay Wallace.

But on Easter Sunday Fox News added Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman of Fox Corporation to the list. Dominion’s attorneys told the judge that adding Murdoch at the last minute was problematic, because they had not conducted discovery interviews with Murdoch since he wasn’t listed as a corporate officer.

READ MORE: Dominion Wins ‘Blockbuster Victories’ Against Fox News – Last Legal Issue Will Be Decided by a Jury: Report

“From the beginning of this suit, said the Dominion lawyer, they have been blocked from securing key discovery documents relating to Rupert Murdoch,” Wemple adds.

“This alone has meant that we are missing a whole bunch of Rupert Murdoch documents alone that we otherwise would have been entitled to,” Dominion’s lawyer told the judge. “And yet they didn’t tell us this for two years and we would ask at a minimum that by tonight or tomorrow morning that they could give us an explanation because it is very troubling that this is where we are.”

Wemple adds that “Judge Davis told a Fox lawyer, ‘You have a credibility problem’ and ‘I need to be comfortable that when you make representations to me, that they’re true.’ This wrinkle could have affected his previous rulings in the case and concluded, ‘Okay, all right — we’ll deal with it.'”

Last week The Washington Post’s Jeremy Barr tweeted how Dominion had been trying to get Rupert Murdoch and his son, Fox Corporation executive chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, to testify.

READ MORE: ‘Ever-Worsening Spiral of Lies’: Fox News Faces Potential ‘Financial Death Penalty’ Says Former Prosecutor

At The Washington Post Tuesday afternoon, Barr reports Judge Davis “barred Fox from arguing to the jury that there was news value in broadcasting the claims of election fraud made by Trump lawyers in fall 2020. If such a suggestion is made in court, ‘I would have to tell the jury that newsworthiness is not a defense to defamation,’ Davis said.”

Trial attorney Max Kennerly appeared to mock the Fox News attorney in response to Wemple’s tweet: “On the eve of trial, after two years of denying it, Fox News’ lawyers suddenly disclosed that one of the corporate officers of Fox News is a guy named ‘Rupert Murdoch.’ It was an oopsie, an oversight, anybody could’ve overlooked that Rupert dude. Uh huh. Sure.”

 

Image by RosieTulips via Flickr and a CC license

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White House Mocks GOP With ‘Worst Person You Know’ Meme After Matt Gaetz Blames McCarthy for Shutdown

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In a rare move the Biden White House on Wednesday mocked House Republicans with a popular internet meme to highlight remarks made by U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz that show how the Florida Republican  is blaming the impending, likely shutdown of the federal government on Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Congressman Gaetz specifically says “We cannot blame Joe Biden” and “We cannot blame House Democrats” for it.

Gaetz, who did not vote to hand McCarthy the gavel back in January, for weeks has increasingly been targeting the House Speaker. Last week he threatened he would get McCarthy removed as Speaker, going as far as to say he was “out of compliance.” On Tuesday a reporter found a resolution with links to Gaetz declaring the Office of the Speaker “vacant” on a baby changing table in a House restroom.

Fox News’ Liz Elkind reported on Gaetz’s comments via social media, “MATT GAETZ pins shutdown on McCarthy: ‘We will have a government shutdown and it is absolutely Speaker McCarthy’s fault. We cannot blame Joe Biden for not having moved our individual spending bills. We cannot blame House Democrats. We can’t even blame Chuck Schumer in the Senate.”

READ MORE: ‘Brazen and Misguided’: Schumer Decimates Tuberville’s ‘Act of Desperation’ – and Threatens to Hold Senators in DC

The White House reposted them, and the “worst person” meme, known as the “Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point.” The meme was published in 2018 by Clickhole. a satirical website.

The federal government will shut down in 10 days if Speaker McCarthy cannot pass legislation to keep the government funded after September 30. That legislation will need to be acceptable to the Senate, and President Joe Biden. House Republicans, intent on stripping funding for Ukraine, defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations, along with the Dept. of Justice and FBI, are digging in their heels amid “chaos” and “infighting.” Some have called it a GOP “civil war.”

See the White House’s post below or at this link.

 

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‘Brazen and Misguided’: Schumer Decimates Tuberville’s ‘Act of Desperation’ – and Threatens to Hold Senators in DC

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Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer took strong action on Wednesday, slamming U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, vowing to get several officers in the U.S. Armed Forces confirmed to top posts, and threatening that if the Georgia Republican lawmaker who has blockaded well over 300 military promotions does not release his holds he will hold Senators in D.C. over the weekend.

“In an act of desperation, Sen. Tuberville is trying to use a procedural step to overcome his own holds,” Majority Leader Schumer wrote on social media Wednesday afternoon, before delivering a floor speech. “You read it right. His own holds.”

“He is trying to make himself the gatekeeper of which officers are promoted or languish,” Schumer added. “We can’t allow this to continue. We’re taking action.”

On the floor of the Senate he added: “We cannot allow Senator Tuberville to decide which of our dedicated and brave service members get promoted and which get to languish. Which military families are able to settle in their new posts, and which must remain in limbo. We cannot we should not allow that to be the case.”

READ MORE: Tuberville Refuses Responsibility but Says He’s Blocking 300 Military Promotions Because ‘We’re Not a Communist Country’

“So I have just filed cloture on the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, and the Army Chief of Staff. These men should have already been confirmed. They should already be serving in their new positions,” Schumer said. “The Senate should not have to go through procedural hoops just to please one brazen and misguided senator.”

“But this is where we are. In the end, the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to overcome Senator Tuberville’s blockade of these three nominees by voting for cloture then the Senate will overwhelmingly vote to confirm them,” he vowed. “And these three honorable men will finally be able to assume their positions and the abortion policy that Senator Tuberville abhors will remain in place. Senator Tuberville will have accomplished nothing.”

It is rare for a Senate Leader to target one member of the body, and even more rare to do so by name, but Senator Tuberville’s blockade, which he began in February, has harmed military readiness, according to multiple top Pentagon officials and former officials.

Tuberville has said he has blocked at least 319 military promotions, which require Senate confirmation, in response to the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members who need to travel out of state to obtain abortion health care services. Many GOP-majority states have imposed abortion bans, forcing out-of travel.

READ MORE: ‘Years to Recover’: Tuberville’s 300+ Military Holds to Have Long Impact Says Top Biden Navy Pick

But Schumer’s reference to “gatekeeper,” and later, in his floor speech saying, “which of our dedicated and brave service members get promoted,” may also refer to Tuberville’s unprecedented personal attacks on individual officers awaiting promotion.

Last month the Georgia freshman Republican Senator targeted over 20 individual U.S. Military officers, promoting an attack on their remarks supporting diversity and equity programs, or even, in one case, blasting one officer for their “celebration” of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Tuberville, who denied holding up hundreds of promotions is having a damaging effect on the military and morale, also has said he is blocking these promotions because the Biden administration is “woke.”

Recently, Tuberville told Bloomberg News each military officer’s promotion takes two hours of voting by the Senate, which could take them up individually despite his block. Tuberville falsely said voting on all the promotions would take “no time at all” to complete.

READ MORE: ‘A Nazi Movement—All the Way to the Top’: Critics Denounce Trump’s Antisemitic Attack on ‘Liberal Jews’

Watch Majority Leader Schumer below or at this link.

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‘Knock It Off’: Matt Gaetz Thinks Merrick Garland Should Tell the President to Not Allow Hunter Biden at State Dinners

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U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) challenged the Attorney General of the United States on Wednesday, wanting to know if he has ever told the President of the United States to “knock it off” and stop allowing his son, Hunter Biden, to come to the White House and attend State Dinners. The Florida Republican made his remarks during a House Judiciary Committee on alleged politicization and weaponization of the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

“I guess I’m just wondering, Mr. Attorney General, has anyone at the Department told President Biden to knock it off? With Hunter?” Congressman Gaetz, a far-right Republican rumored to be weighing a run for governor of Florida, asked Merrick Garland.

“I mean, you guys are charging Hunter Biden on some crimes, investigating him on others, you got the President bringing Hunter Biden around to State Dinners,” charged Gaetz, who is currently pushing for the House to defund the FBI, Special Counsel Jack Smith, and to remove Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. “Has anyone told him to knock it off?”

READ MORE: Trump Worried He Will Lose Secret Service Protection and Have to Wear ‘One of Those Jumpsuits’ if He Goes to Jail: Report

Attorney General Garland, a former federal appeals court judge and chief judge, replied, “Our job in the Justice Department is to pursue our cases without reference to what’s happening in the outside world –” before Gaetz cut him off.

“Just yes or no: have you done that?” Gaetz demanded to know.

“That is what –” Garland began, before Gaetz again interrupted.

“So it’s a no?” the Congressman asked.

“No one that I know of has spoken to the White House about the Hunter Biden. case –” AG Garland replied before again being interrupted.

On social media observers lambasted Rep. Gaetz.

READ MORE: ‘This Is Stupidity’: House Republican Slams McCarthy and His ‘Clown Show’ of ‘Lunatics’ as Clock Ticks Toward Shutdown

“This exchange is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of DOJ,” said one user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Gaetz seems to believe that DOJ is the President’s attorney. Garland correctly understands that this is not DOJ’s role and further understands that DOJ doesn’t exist to tell a President how to parent.”

Another wrote: “This is why impeachment is a loser for the Republicans. Attacking a father who has buried two children to abandon a third child is something most Americans will find repugnant, regardless of Hunter’s crimes, and R’s will look heartless rather than judicially-minded.”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘A Nazi Movement—All the Way to the Top’: Critics Denounce Trump’s Antisemitic Attack on ‘Liberal Jews’

 

 

 

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