Judge Denies Trump's Bid to Delay Defamation Suit From Woman Alleging Rape

 https://time.com/5877213/donald-trump-defamation-lawsuit-delay-denied/

 A New York judge knocked down President Donald Trump’s bid to delay a lawsuit from a woman who accused him of rape, ruling in a decision released Thursday that the presidency doesn’t shield him from the case.

Pointing to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the president isn’t immune from a New York prosecutor’s criminal investigation, Manhattan judge Verna Saunders said the same principle applies to E. Jean Carroll’s defamation suit, in which Trump’s lawyers have argued that the Constitution bars presidents from being dragged into lawsuits in state courts.

“No, it does not,” Saunders wrote.

The decision allows Carroll — who’s seeking Trump’s DNA as potential evidence — to keep pursuing her suit. She says he slurred her in denying her claim that he raped her in the 1990s.

 

 

Multi-thousand Belz wedding: Police open criminal investigation

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/284847

Israeli police have decided to open a criminal investigation following the mega-wedding that hosted thousands last night (Wednesday) at the headquarters of the Belzer Rebbe’s grandson in Jerusalem, held in a closed hall in Jerusalem, in violation of the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.

Although police were on hand for the occasion, they refrained from intervening in the event.

Participants were instructed not to carry devices that could document the ceremony into the hall, and an official order was presented to wear masks.

 

 

 

Did Floyd Protests Lead to a Virus Surge? Here’s What We Know

 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-protests.html

 

For more than two months, the authorities had been urging New Yorkers to stay indoors and keep their distance from others. But after the police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, tens of thousands of New Yorkers poured into the streets, day and night, to protest police brutality and racism.

Epidemiologists braced for a surge of new coronavirus cases. But it has not come yet.

On May 27, the day before the protests began in New York City, some 754 Covid-19 cases were diagnosed, according to the city’s Department of Health. That was the last time the city recorded more than 700 cases on a single day.

 By the end of the first week of protests, the city was recording slightly more than 500 cases a day. By the end of the second week of protests, the case counts were in the low 400s or high 300s a day. They’ve continued to drop slightly. According to revised numbers the city released on Wednesday, the last time New York City recorded more than 300 cases was on June 23.

“We’ve been looking very closely at the number of positive cases every day to see if there is an uptick in the context of the protests,” Ted Long, executive director of the city’s contact tracing program, said. “We have not seen that.”

Ex-acting AG Sally Yates defends FBI investigation into Flynn, calls Barr move to drop charges 'highly irregular'

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/05/politics/sally-yates-testimony-capitol-hill/index.html

 

Yates clashed with Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham over the FBI's interview of Flynn in January 2017. The South Carolina Republican charged that the FBI had moved to close its counterintelligence investigation into Flynn, before relying on allegations surrounding the Logan Act -- an obscure law that private citizens cannot interfere in foreign affairs -- but Yates argued that the interview was necessary to determine why Flynn had "neutered" then-President Barack Obama's administration sanctions against Russia in his calls with Kislyak.

Yates said that the recommendation to close the Flynn case came "before they knew about the conversations" between Flynn and Kislyak.

"They were absolutely material to a legitimate investigation," Yates said of the interview with Flynn. "Interviewing General Flynn was right at the core of the FBI's investigation at this point to try to discern what are the ties between the Trump administration and the Russians."

 

 

Yates says Obama, Biden didn’t influence Flynn investigation

 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/05/sally-yates-obama-biden-flynn-investigation-391817

 Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told lawmakers Wednesday that neither President Barack Obama nor Vice President Joe Biden attempted to influence the FBI’s investigation of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn during a January 2017 Oval Office meeting with top national security officials.

The testimony counters repeated insinuations by President Donald Trump and his top allies that Obama and Biden took a leading role in steering an investigation into the incoming national security adviser, a charge Trump has used to claim he was the victim of an unspecified crime he has dubbed “Obamagate.”

Trump has provided no evidence to support the claim, and Yates said under oath that Obama’s only interest in Flynn was to ensure that it was safe to share sensitive national security information with the incoming administration while the FBI was probing concerns that Flynn was attempting to undermine sanctions leveled by Obama in response to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jerusalem mayor: Anti-Netanyahu protests more dangerous than huge Haredi wedding

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/citing-health-woes-jerusalem-mayor-raps-anti-netanyahu-protests/

 “We must enforce the rules. But it isn’t fair. Every Thursday and Saturday there are more serious violations. Is the entire area of Balfour [the street Netanyahu lives on in the Rehavia neighborhood] free of coronavirus? When it comes to a Haredi area, there are headlines and photos right way. I certainly don’t support it, but let’s not enforce things selectively,” Lion told the Kan public broadcaster.

 

 

Gantz to haredim: Draft Law in exchange for preventing elections

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/284813

 Blue and white chairman Benny Gantz has recently begun holding meetings with senior members of the haredi parties in which he proposed an agreement on the Draft Law in the outline agreed upon by the haredim, in exchange for them pressuring Netanyahu not to deteriorate the political situation and lead to elections, Channel 12 News reported.

According to the report, Gantz was prepared to pass the Draft Law in the outline that the haredim wanted, so that the draft quotas would be set by the government and not in the Knesset.

In addition, Gantz agreed to amend the law so that if the haredim do not meet the draft quotas that will be set, the law will not expire but will return to the Knesset.

Breaking Down Trump's Recent Virus Remarks | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Trump Repeatedly Insists COVID-19 Will "Disappear" | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Trump Talks Tik Tok to Distract from the Real Agenda - Setting Up Election Interference Narrative

He Predicted a Trump Win in 2016. What's His Forecast For 2020? | NYT Opinion

Right now, polls say Joe Biden has a healthy lead over President Trump. But we’ve been here before (cue 2016), and the polls were, frankly, wrong. One man, however, was not. The historian Allan Lichtman was the lonely forecaster who predicted Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016 — and also prophesied the president would be impeached. That’s two for two. But Professor Lichtman’s record goes much deeper. In 1980, he developed a presidential prediction model that retrospectively accounted for 120 years of U.S. election history. Over the past four decades, his system has accurately called presidential victors, from Ronald Reagan in ’84 to, well, Mr. Trump in 2016.

Biden will beat Trump, says historian who predicted every presidential race since 1984

 https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/05/biden-will-beat-trump-says-historian-who-predicted-every-race-since-1984.html

 

• Historian Allan Lichtman has announced his pick for 2020: Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
• Lichtman’s prediction model looks at 13 different categories, dubbed the “Keys to the White House,” that have more to do with the record of the incumbent party occupying the White House than the nominees themselves.
• “The keys predict that Trump will lose the White House,” Lichtman said in an op-ed video for The New York Times.

 

 

‘Republican AOC’ Laura Loomer gains steam in congressional run

 https://nypost.com/2020/04/18/republican-aoc-laura-loomer-gains-steam-in-congressional-run/

 “She’s the Republicans’ AOC,” longtime GOP strategist Roger Stone gushed to The Post. “She’s young. She’s energetic. She’s feisty. She’s anti-establishment, and she has an enormous national following, as does AOC, which can help finance a congressional race.”

Critics have frequently labeled Loomer’s commentary racist and Islamophobic. After news emerged that Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in a terrorist attack in New York City that killed eight people, was an Uber driver, Loomer called for the creation of ride-share apps that would not employ Muslims. She told The Post the remark was intended to “raise awareness” about vetting drivers and that she was “not sorry” about it.

 

Far-right activist Laura Loomer banned from Uber, Lyft for anti-Muslim tweets

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-activist-laura-loomer-banned-from-uber-lyft-for-anti-muslim-tweets/

‘Proud American Jew’ complains the companies hire Islamic extremists, refuses to ride with Muslim drivers