Monday, November 23, 2020
Rudy Giuliani: Sidney Powell not part of Trump’s legal team
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rudy-giuliani-sidney-powell-not-part-of-trumps-legal-team
President Trump’s campaign on Sunday distanced itself from Sidney Powell, saying that the lawyer who has been alleging voter fraud in the November election is “not a member of the Trump Legal Team.”
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own,” said Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, in a statement. “She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”
No further details or clarification was offered.
Trump campaign cuts ties with attorney Sidney Powell after bizarre election fraud claims
Perhaps Sidney Powell has gone too far even for Rudy Giuliani this time.
The Trump campaign’s legal team has moved to distance itself from the firebrand conservative attorney after a tumultuous few days in which Powell made multiple incorrect statements about the election voting process, unspooled complex conspiracy theories and vowed to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” lawsuit.
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump legal team. She is also not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity,” Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, said in a statement on Sunday.
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Chris Christie calls Trump's legal team a 'national embarrassment'
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/22/politics/chris-christie-donald-trump-election/index.html
A staunch ally of Donald Trump said Sunday it was time for the President to end his futile gambit to overturn the results of the election.
Dershowitz: Trump has 'constitutional paths' to pursue in court cases, will likely come up short
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dershowitz-trump-election-legal-fight-sunday-morning-futures
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Sunday that while President Trump has a number of legal theories he can pursue in his efforts to swing the 2020 election result in his favor, it does not appear likely that these efforts will be successful.
Dershowitz, who was on Trump’s legal team during his impeachment, told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that there are several avenues that Trump could take, but that even those options currently appear limited in their ability to secure an election victory.
Judge's devastating question for team Trump
President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani made a rare appearance as an advocate in a courtroom this week in a baseless and hopeless effort to invalidate Joe Biden's victory.
Trump questions why Biden forming cabinet as his legal team continues voter-fraud fight
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-biden-forming-cabinet-legal-team-voter-fraud
“Why is Joe Biden so quickly forming a Cabinet when
my investigators have found hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes,
enough to 'flip' at least four States, which in turn is more than enough
to win the Election?” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Yitzchok Avinu was the least successful of the Avos -Why? Rav Yakov Kaminetsky
אמת ליעקב בראשית פרק כה פסוק יט
פרשת תולדות
(יט) ואלה תולדות יצחק בן אברהם וגו'1.
Who Is Sidney Powell? Meet Trump’s New Top Conspiracy Theorist.
Topline
As President Donald Trump tries to sue his way to a second term, lawyer Sidney Powell has satiated his appetite for implausible conspiracy theories and seemingly baseless vote-rigging allegations, vaulting the former prosecutor and frequent Trump defender from the Fox News pundit circuit to the outgoing president’s inner circle.
Key Facts
Powell joined Rudy Giuliani’s legal team to help overturn Trump’s electoral losses, and has reportedly earned Trump’s attention for her willingness to openly endorse the fact-free idea that voting machine manufacturers and election software companies rigged the election in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor.
The former prosecutor landed in Trump’s orbit after casting herself as a chronicler of corruption at the Justice Department, writing missives about how Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump’s relationship with Russia was actually a shadowy effort to undermine him.
Greenblatt-Kaminetsky Heter: Does Aharon Friedman need Heter Meah Rabbonim to remarry?
This saga has continued for way too long. At this point Tamar has claimed to have successfully annulled her marriage to Aharon Friedman and remarried without obtaining a Get. Her major supporters in this perverse and ignorant operation - the Kaminetskys have official declared that the heter to remarry without a Get is invalid. So have the many gedolim and poskim who have been consulted - except for Rabbi Nota Greenblatt who bizarrely clings to the heter he gave without investigating any of the facts - solely because Rabbi Kaminetsky asked him to give the heter. And now even though Rabbi Kaminetsky acknowledges he was wrong - Rabbi Greenblatt refuses to retract the heter.
update;
Rabbi Akiva Eiger (Simon 1 of Even HaEzer Siif 10 ): R' Akiva Eiger brings from a teshuva of the Maharashal that if a woman insists she is not married (contrary to the claim of the husband) then he can marry without a heter meah rabbanon.
Igros Moshe (E.H. 2:2): Question: In the case of a moredes (rebellious wife) who obtained a civil divorce as well as many thousands of dollars in the settlement from the secular court and refused to accept a Get in order to torment her husband. Is it possible to permit the husband to remarry without first obtaining permission from 100 Rabbis? Answer: Concerning the case of a moredes who obtained a civil divorce and also $30,000 cash as well as the house and furnishings which she sold for $20,000. The secular court judge blocked her access to $20,000 of the $30,000 that the husband is required to pay and made the access conditional on her accepting the get that is required by the halacha and which she has already agreed to do and which was arranged in Seattle. The letter writer was made the agent to divorce her. However when he returned to Portland and notified the woman that he had the Get in his hand, she reneged on the deal and said that she did not want to free her husband under any circumstances and that she will never accept the Get because she wants to torment him. There is no question even if we don’t believe that she caused the fights between but he was the one who started them and that led to her trying with a lawyer in civil court to obtain a secular law. But since she agreed to take accept the Get and then reneged in order to torment him – she is considered a moredes since she has no interest in living with him as his wife and she also doesn’t want to divorce him. This is explicitly stated in Shulchan Aruch (E.H 77:20), If she rebels against him in order to torment him and she declares that she is tormenting him because of the wrongs he did to her or because he cursed her or because he fought with her - then she has the full status of a moredes. The Rema concludes that after 12 months if he wants to divorce her she must accept the Get even against her will or else he is given permission to marry another women. So surely in this case where she started the fight and then went to civil court to get a secular divorce. Regarding the question of whether he needs a heter of 100 Rabbis. From the language of the Rema is would seem that he permitted the husband of a moredes to remarry even if there is no heter of 100 Rabbis because it is not mentioned either in the Rema or the commentaries. The Maharshdam (E.H. 120) states that Rabbeinu Gershom never applied the cherem to a case of moredes. It would seem that his view is that the husband should not be allowed to remarry unless a number of years have passed so it is clear that she is a moredes. I saw in the Otzer Poskim (E.H. 1:73.24) where Rabbi Akiva Eiger is cited and other Achronim that permit remarriage in such a case even with a heter of 100 Rabbis. Nonetheless, l’chatchila it is best to obtain a heter of 100 Rabbis and that is the accepted practice. However if it is impossible to obtain one – as you write – then he can remarry without the heter of 100 Rabbis since it has now been 5 years that she left her husband and extracted $50, 000 from him in civil court and agreed to accept the Get and it was written according to her wishes and then she reneged in order to torment him. Such a case is rarer than the circumstances cited by the Maharshdam and others. The husband should deposit the Get and have it guarded until she comes and receives it from the agent.
Rav Menashe Klein has a long teshuva (Misheh Halachos vol 14 1-11) where he states very clearly that a husband does not have to give his wife a get if she goes to secular court without the permission of beis din. He says this is the view of the majority of achronim - including the Maharsham (7:159) and Rav Moshe Feinstein. He also says that the husband does not need a heter meah rabbonim if his wife goes to secular court without permission - but that it is best for her sake to deposit a get with beis din because she might eventually withdraw from the secular court. None the less he notes it is the custom today to deposit a get with beis din when receiving a heter meah rabbonim [This is also the view of Rav Moshe Sternbuch (4:301)] Thus he claims the majority of achronim permit a man to remarry with a heter meah rabbonim if they deposit a get with beis din - to be given when the wife renounces the rulings of the secular court. If there is no heter meah rabbonim then there is no need to give a get. Thus there is no difference between the view of Rav Moshe Feinstein and Rav Moshe Sternbuch in this matter.
Rav Gestetner
[to be continued]
Secret plans helped Brooklyn synagogue pull off massive, maskless wedding
A Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn planned the wedding of a chief rabbi’s grandson with such secrecy it was able to host thousands of maskless celebrants without the city catching on.
Despite a surge in COVID-19 cases, guests crammed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the Yetev Lev temple in Williamsburg for the Nov. 8 nuptials — stomping, dancing and singing at the top of their lungs without a mask in sight, videos obtained by The Post show.
The synagogue’s stunning willingness to host a potential super-spreader event underscores what critics call the Hasidic community’s ongoing disregard and outright defiance of efforts to control the deadly coronavirus, which has killed nearly 25,000 people in New York City.
Ironically, the synagogue’s own president, R’Mayer Zelig Rispler, who openly urged Brooklyn’s Orthodox community to abide by coronavirus safety measures, died of COVID-19 last month at age 70.
Facing an Election Loss, President Donald Trump Turns to Raw Political Power to Try to Bend the Outcome
During his failed campaign to win another four years in office, President Donald Trump repeatedly used the power of his office to boost his chances, employing the White House as a campaign backdrop, having his Secretary of State give a campaign speech during an official diplomatic trip, and spreading baseless claims about voting fraud from behind the presidential seal.
Now he’s using his office to try to reverse his loss.
Pennsylvania judge throws out Trump lawsuit, clearing way for Biden win
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pennsylvania-judge-throws-out-trump-lawsuit-biden-win
Even if Trump had been able to successfully overturn the state’s vote tabulation and win Pennsylvania, the state’s 20 electoral votes would not have been enough to secure him re-election after Georgia confirmed Biden flipped the traditionally red state Friday.
Pennsylvania Republican senator says Biden won, after court deals blow to Trump
A Pennsylvania judge on Saturday threw out Donald Trump’s claims of widespread electoral fraud there, dealing a new blow to the Republican’s bid to overturn his loss in the US presidential election.
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Trump tries to drum out GOP election officials who won’t play his games
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/21/trump-gop-elections-challenge-438938
President Donald Trump has driven senators into retirement and tweeted wayward Republicans into primary defeat during four years leading the GOP. Now, as a lame duck, he’s launched a new campaign against GOP election officials who won’t bend to his will.
Trump’s drive to discredit the results of an election he lost has put him at odds with the Republican elected officials and administrators who oversaw the vote in key states — and called it what it was: a free and fair election. Being at odds with Trump doesn’t go over well in today’s Republican Party, and Trump has turned their political bases against them, even unleashing threats from his most rabid supporters.
Trump options narrow as Michigan backs Biden win
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-55025997
Two Republican legislators pledged to follow "normal process" in validating the vote after a White House meeting.
Earlier on Friday, Georgia dealt the US president another blow by certifying Mr Biden's razor-thin margin of victory.
The Democrat is set to take office on 20 January as the 46th US president.
Trump takes credit for Pfizer vaccine development, says Americans wouldn’t have one yet without his leadership
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-pfizer-vaccine-leadership
President Trump on Friday claimed the U.S. would not have a coronavirus vaccine on the way had he not been in the Oval Office to oversee its development.
Biden's margin of victory widens as Trump's subversion efforts grow more frantic
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/21/politics/donald-trump-joe-biden-transition/index.html
While most of GOP leadership continues to back Trump's efforts to contest those results, a growing number of veteran Republicans pushed back on Trump's tactics and expressed frustration about the transition being held up.
Friday, November 20, 2020
Romney rips Trump in late-night tweet, calls president's actions effort to ‘subvert’ will of people
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, took to Twitter late Thursday to rip President Trump, saying the president had failed to make “even a plausible case of widespread fraud or conspiracy before a court of law” pertaining to the 2020 presidential election.
Romney said earlier this month that he did not have a problem with Trump challenging the election results and told “Fox News Sunday” he once considered challenging the 2012 election results when he lost to President Obama.
He said he thought it was “appropriate for the president to make sure that the vote count has been done properly.”
How history judges sore losers: Donald Trump, be warned
Whether Trump eventually demonstrates the same dignity and graciousness is hard to say. He is beyond unconventional and his deepest base of supporters have a cultish affection enjoyed by few previous losing candidates. But no one gets to defy every convention.
By not leaving on a high note, he may find himself in a political purgatory that Thomas Dewey, the losing Republican candidate of 1944 and 1948, likened to the drunk who passed out at a wake. “If I am alive,” the man said, “what am I doing in this coffin? If I am dead, why do I have to go to the bathroom?”
