‘No Kings' Rallies Draw Massive Crowds in US as Clashes Hit LA
Anti-Trump activists, including labor unions and civil-rights groups, organized the nationwide demonstrations under the banner of 'No Kings,' denouncing what they say are Trump's authoritarian tendencies — and the parade being held on his 79th birthday.
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27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump administration to seek federal charges against people snared in DC crackdown, sources say
By Sarah N. Lynch and Ned Parker WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration this week ordered federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., to be more aggressive in pursuing criminal cases against people arrested as part of a crackdown in the nation's capital, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The move marks an escalation of Trump's push against what he has described as a wave of crime and homelessness in Washington, in which the Republican president has already called up hundreds of National Guard troops and temporarily taken over the Democratic-led city's police department. The head of the criminal division of the Washington, D.C., U.S. Attorney's office, Jonathan Hornok, on Monday told prosecutors to charge as many federal cases as possible against people arrested in the sweeps, a move that could both strain the court system and raise the stakes for criminal defendants because convictions for federal crimes can carry weighty sentences, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal department matters. While many of the U.S. federal prosecutors in that office focus on higher-level offenses such as terrorism and fraud, the Washington office plays a dual role in prosecuting both federal and local crimes. In a post on X on Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that since Trump's takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department began, there have been 465 arrests made for a variety of offenses, including homicide, narcotics, and firearm offenses. It was not clear how many of these could be eligible for federal charges. "In line with President Trump's directive to make D.C. safe, U.S. Attorney (Jeanine) Pirro has made it clear that the old way of doing things is unacceptable. She directed her staff to charge the highest crime that is supported by the law and the evidence," a spokesperson for Pirro's office said on Tuesday. Dozens of prosecutors have voluntarily left the Washington U.S. Attorney's office since Trump took office in January, while others have been fired. The orders could place additional stress on federal law enforcement agents including those from the FBI who are already stretched thin because they have been ordered to participate in nightly rotational shifts to patrol the capital's streets. That could leave them less time and resources to help do the follow-up investigations that will be required to support criminal charges, such as interviewing witnesses, canvassing for CCTV footage or following up to obtain DNA evidence, which is often required to win a conviction in D.C. for unlawful firearm possession cases. The U.S. Attorney's office is planning to bring in about 20 people from the Department of Defense on Monday to serve as special assistant U.S. attorneys to help prosecute the misdemeanor cases, a spokesperson confirmed.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump wants to get rid of mail-in voting. It's become an increasingly important part of American elections.
More and more voters, including Republicans, have been opting to cast their ballots through the mail. President Trump on Monday said he would lead a movement to get rid of mail-in voting, based on the false claim that they lead to widespread fraud. 'ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING,' he wrote in a post on Truth Social in which he also railed against voting machines used across the country. Trump wrote that he would be signing an executive order to 'to help bring HONESTY' to next year's midterm elections, but didn't share any details on what that order might include or what legal authority he would rely on to issue it. The Constitution gives states the power to control their own elections within the confines of laws set out by Congress. The president does not have the ability to unilaterally change voting laws. Trump has a long history of opposition to mail-in voting, also known as absentee voting. False claims about mail ballots being rife with fraud are central to his unfounded belief that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him. 'We gotta stop mail-in voting and the Republicans have to lead the charge,' Trump told reporters at the White House Monday. 'If you [end] mail in voting, you're not gonna have many Democrats get elected.' It is true that Democrats voted by mail in much larger numbers than Republicans during the 2020 election, but that discrepancy was largely attributable to the unique circumstances of the COVID pandemic, along with Trump's persistent criticism of the practice in the months before Election Day. Historically, mail ballots have not given either party a strong partisan advantage. The GOP also closed, or in some states even flipped, the mail-in voting gap during last year's presidential race. Trump's renewed focus on mail-in voting seemed to come after his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their summit in Alaska last week to discuss a potential end to the war in Ukraine. 'Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting,' he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in his first interview after the summit. During the Fox News interview, he also falsely claimed that the U.S. is 'the only country in the world' that allows mail-in voting because it's so rife with fraud. In fact, dozens of countries permit at least some voters to cast their ballots through the mail. Growing importance There has been limited use of absentee ballots since the earliest days of the United States, but the practice has become much more common in recent decades. The share of ballots cast by mail during presidential election years doubled between 2000 and 2016, reaching 21% during Trump's first successful presidential run, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Four years later, concerns about COVID infection and more permissive absentee ballot rules caused the use of mail-in voting to spike dramatically. More than 40% of ballots cast in the 2020 race were sent through the mail. Mail-in voting declined to 29% of all ballots last year, but that was still well above any previous non-pandemic year on record. Every state allows mail-in voting to a certain extent, but access to absentee ballots varies a lot. Some states require anyone who wants to vote by mail to provide a valid excuse for why they're unable to cast their ballot in person. About two dozen states allow anyone to apply for a mail-in ballot without providing a reason. A handful of states conduct what are known as 'all-mail' elections, where people can still vote in person if they choose, but ballots are automatically sent to all registered voters. States can also have very different rules for when absentee ballots must be requested, when they must be received and when they can be counted. Fraud in American elections is exceedingly rare, regardless of how votes are cast. Experts have found that mail-in ballots do have a slightly elevated rate of fraud compared to in-person voting, but the overall numbers are far too low to have had a meaningful effect on any election, let alone a presidential race in which more than 150 million ballots are cast. A database of known electoral fraud incidents compiled by the staunchly conservative Heritage Foundation found just 378 cases of mail-in voting fraud in the U.S. since 1982, a time period in which more than 1.2 billion votes were cast in presidential elections alone. GOP attitudes shifting Trump's opinion of mail-in voting hasn't changed, but that's not the case with members of his party. Republican voters have almost completely flipped their views on the practice over the past few years. Less than one in five GOP voters said they were confident that mail-in ballots were counted accurately in the wake of Trump's loss in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. After his victory last year, however, 72% of Republicans said they had faith that mail-in votes were fairly counted. Confidence among Democrats also shifted, dropping from 95% in 2020 to 78% last year. It remains to be seen what will happen to public opinion in the wake of Trump's new attacks on mail-in voting. It's also unclear how much, if at all, he might be able to limit access to absentee ballots through executive action. Any steps he does attempt to take will likely face an immediate legal challenge.
Yahoo
27 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump weaponization czar urged New York Attorney General James to resign over mortgage probe
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's political weaponization czar sent a letter urging New York Attorney General Letitia James to resign from office 'as an act of good faith' four days after starting his mortgage fraud investigation of her. Then he showed up outside her house. Ed Martin, the director of the Justice Department's Weaponization Working Group, told James' lawyer on Aug. 12 the Democrat would best serve the 'good of the state and nation' by resigning and ending his probe into alleged paperwork discrepancies on her Brooklyn townhouse and a Virginia home. 'Her resignation from office would give the people of New York and America more peace than proceeding," Martin wrote. "I would take this as an act of good faith.' Then last Friday, Martin turned up outside James' Brooklyn townhouse in a 'Columbo'-esque trench coat, accompanied by an aide and New York Post journalists. He didn't meet with James or go inside the building. A Post writer saw him tell a neighbor: 'I'm just looking at houses, interesting houses. It's an important house.' James' lawyer Abbe Lowell shot back on Monday, telling Martin in a letter his blunt request for James' resignation defied Justice Department standards and codes of professional responsibility and legal ethics. The Justice Department 'has firm policies against using investigations and against using prosecutorial power for achieving political ends,' Lowell wrote. 'This is ever more the case when that demand is made to seek political revenge against a public official in the opposite party.' 'Let me be clear: that will not happen here,' Lowell added. Lowell also blasted Martin's visit to James' home as a 'truly bizarre, made-for-media stunt' and said it was 'outside the bounds' of Justice Department rules. He included an image from security camera footage showing Martin, in his trench coat, posing for a photo in front of James' townhouse. He said Martin looked as if he were on a 'visit to a tourist attraction.' The Associated Press obtained copies of both letters on Tuesday. A message seeking comment was left for Martin's spokesperson. James' office declined to comment. The letters were the latest salvos in a monthslong drama involving Trump's retribution campaign against James and others who've battled him in court and fought his policies. James has sued the Republican president and his administration dozens of times and last year won a $454 million judgment against Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he lied about the value of his assets on financial statements given to banks. An appeals court has yet to rule on Trump's bid to overturn that verdict. Earlier this month, the AP reported, the Justice Department subpoenaed James for records related to the civil fraud lawsuit and a lawsuit she filed against the National Rifle Association. Martin's investigation stems from a letter Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi in April asking her to investigate and consider prosecuting James, alleging she had 'falsified bank documents and property records." Pulte, whose agency regulates mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cited 'media reports' claiming James had falsely listed a Virginia home as her principal residence, and he suggested she may have been trying to avoid higher interest rates that often apply to second homes. Records show James was listed as a co-borrower on a house her niece was buying in 2023. Lowell said records and correspondence easily disproved Pulte's allegation. While James signed a power-of-attorney form that, Lowell said, 'mistakenly stated the property to be Ms. James' principal residence," she sent an email to her mortgage loan broker around the same time that made clear the property 'WILL NOT be my primary residence.' Pulte also accused James of lying in property records about the number of apartments in the Brooklyn townhouse she has owned since 2001. A certificate of occupancy issued to a previous owner authorized up to five units in the building, where James lives and has rented out apartments. Other city records show the townhouse has four units, a number James has listed in building permit applications and mortgage documents. On Aug. 8, Bondi appointed Martin, a former Republican political operative, to investigate. Martin, the current U.S. pardon attorney and former acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., is also investigating mortgage fraud allegations against Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. Schiff's lawyer called the allegations 'transparently false, stale, and long debunked." Lowell said it appears the working group Martin leads 'is aptly named as it is 'weaponizing'" the Justice Department "to carry out the President's and Attorney General's threats.' Solve the daily Crossword
