Latest news with #electionfraud
Reuters
18 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Trump ally Lindell wins appeal in lawsuit over $5 million 2020 election contest
July 23 (Reuters) - Donald Trump ally and chief executive Mike Lindell on Wednesday persuaded a U.S. appeals court to throw out a judge's order requiring him to pay $5 million to a software developer who said he debunked Lindell's 2020 election fraud claims. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said an arbitration panel improperly interpreted the rules of a contest Lindell set up and oversaw challenging anyone to disprove his claims that Trump won the election. The appeals court panel reversed, opens new tab a federal judge who last year confirmed the arbitrators' 2023 award to Robert Zeidman. A lawyer for Zeidman, Brian Glasser, in a statement said the 8th Circuit's ruling contradicted the 'unanimous contrary decision of three arbitrators who heard all the evidence, including one appointed by Mr. Lindell.' MyPillow general counsel Jeremiah Pilon in a statement welcomed the court's ruling for Lindell, "especially considering the extraordinary rarity of arbitration award reversals." Lindell was among many Trump allies who advanced claims of fraud in the 2020 election that were rejected by multiple courts. In 2021, Lindell created the 'Prove Mike Wrong' challenge as part of an effort to establish that Democrat Joe Biden owed his election win over Trump to foreign interference. Contestants were asked to prove data on 11 files provided by Lindell were not 'related to' the election. The private judges overseeing the challenge did not declare a winner. Zeidman later convinced an arbitration panel, opens new tab that he deserved the $5 million award. Circuit Judges James Loken, Lavenski Smith and L. Steven Grasz concluded on Wednesday that the arbitration panel improperly amended the contest's contract terms, putting new obligations on Lindell concerning the data at issue. 'Fair or not, agreed-to contract terms may not be modified by the panel or by this court,' the appeals court said.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Paterson councilman again seeks pretrial relief in 5-year-old election fraud case
PATERSON — For the second time in four years, Councilman Alex Mendez is trying to get the election fraud charges pending against him wiped away through New Jersey's pretrial intervention probationary program, known as PTI. The state Attorney General's Office has rejected Mendez's PTI application — just as it did in 2021 — but the councilman is appealing that decision, officials said. Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed has said he will decide on the appeal on Sept. 10, according to officials. Mohammed was the judge who denied Mendez's appeal in 2022 regarding the initial election fraud case filed by the Attorney General's Office."There is a strong societal need to deter candidates for public office from unlawfully submitting voter registration applications and mail-in ballots they know to be materially false," Mohammed wrote in his previous ruling on Mendez's PTI application. "In short, the court finds that there is a societal need to have a fair and untainted election," the judge wrote. Defendants who successfully complete PTI — which is monitored by New Jersey probation officers — can emerge with clean criminal records. But in most cases, accused criminals cannot get PTI unless the prosecutors agree to it. Allege Mendez team stole mail-in ballots, trashed votes Mendez's most recent PTI application focused on the superseding charges that the attorney general's prosecutors filed against the councilman. Those accusations say investigators have witnesses, video and photos of wrongdoing by Mendez and his campaign workers, including allegations they stole mail-in ballots from people's mailboxes, trashed votes for his opponent and replaced them with Mendez votes. The superseding charges expanded the case to include other defendants: the councilman's wife, Yohanny, and campaign workers Omar Ledesma and Iris Rigo. Officials said Mendez's co-defendants also are seeking PTI. Mendez, who officials said appeared in court on July 21, did not respond to messages seeking his comments on his PTI application. William McKoy, Mendez's opponent in the 2020 City Council election that triggered the charges, called Mendez's PTI application 'disingenuous' and 'despicable.' McKoy cited the extensive evidence that the Attorney General's Office has said it has against Mendez. 'There's no question of his guilt,' McKoy said. 'The only question is whether he's going to be man enough to take responsibility for his behavior.' Bribery indictment against developer and influencer Mendez this month has come under scrutiny as the result of a separate federal indictment filed by the United States Attorney's Office accusing real estate influencer Cesar Pina of making $50,000 in bribes to a Paterson official for help in trying to get a development project approved by the city zoning board. Pina allegedly paid the city official with cash, checks, campaign contributions and bogus real estate commissions in exchange for the official's influence over the Paterson zoning board to get approvals to convert a long-vacant school building on Totowa Avenue into 60 apartments, the indictment said. Mendez, who repeatedly has professed his innocence of all accusations, used a building then owned by Pina as his campaign headquarters in 2024. Mendez is the only elected official in Paterson who works in real estate, political insiders have said. This article originally appeared on Paterson councilman seeks pretrial relief in election fraud case Solve the daily Crossword
Russia Today
4 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Trump endorses Gabbard's ‘Russiagate' coup claims
US President Donald Trump has praised National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard for 'exposing' a coup plot against him by the administration of former President Barack Obama. On Friday, Gabbard unveiled over 100 pages of newly declassified documents detailing what she described as a coordinated effort by senior Obama-era officials – spearheaded by Obama himself – to politicize intelligence and falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election. The operation led to the launch of the years-long Trump-Russia collusion probe known as 'Russiagate,' which Gabbard described as 'a years-long coup against [Trump].' In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump hailed Gabbard and her team as 'fantastic on prosecuting Obama and the 'thugs' who have just been unequivocally exposed on highest level Election Fraud.' Trump, who has long rejected allegations of Russian ties as fake and unproven, congratulated Gabbard and urged her to 'keep it coming!!!' .@DNIGabbard: 'We had, in President Obama and his leadership team, people who did not want to accept the will of the American people in electing Donald Trump in 2016 — and therefore cooked up this treasonous conspiracy to… effectively launch a years-long coup against the sitting… Gabbard's disclosures include documents indicating Obama ordered officials to discard prior intelligence assessments that found no evidence of Russian involvement in Trump's campaign or victory and replace them with new claims blaming Russia that were based on discredited sources and fabricated data. She said these false claims were then leaked to the media. The result, she argued, led to the two-year probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which found evidence of Russian interference but did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Trump's team and Moscow, as well as Trump's impeachments, indictments, and escalating tensions with Russia. White House deputy press secretary and presidential aide Harrison Fields said on Fox News the documents were the 'predicate' for a decade of attacks on Trump. He labeled the Obama presidency 'the most corrupt we've ever seen' and criticized the mainstream media for pushing the Russiagate story. Fields noted that Gabbard's announcement coincides with an ongoing probe into the Russiagate hoax but declined to elaborate. The documents name several officials Gabbard alleges participated in the 'conspiracy,' and she vowed to hand all evidence to the Justice Department, warning that 'no matter how powerful, every person involved… must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Maga and Jeffrey Epstein: the truth about Donald Trump and conspiracy theories
Donald Trump has thrived on conspiracy theories – 'birtherist' lies that Barack Obama was born outside the US; the lunacies of the Q-Anon movement; false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. All centred on the idea that the 'deep state' was lying to, and thus cheating, ordinary people. Mr Trump was their tribune. It's hard not to feel schadenfreude now that he's at the sharp end of a theory that he at times encouraged and allies eagerly pushed: claims that the prison death of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein might not be suicide after all, and that wealthy and well-connected associates were trying to hush up connections to the financier. Mr Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, promised that 'truckloads' of documents would help reveal the truth and claimed that a client list was 'sitting on my desk right now'. Then, abruptly, the department of justice said that the financier's death was not murder, that no more files on the investigation against him would be released, and that there was no list of 'clients'. The administration says that Ms Bondi was referring to general files on the case. In short: many of those who promoted the idea that vast, vile secrets were being concealed now claim that there are no secrets at all – with no clear explanation for their volte-face. The result has been uproar in the Maga movement, with far-right politicians and media figures including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Laura Loomer and Alex Jones among the unsatisfied. Mike Johnson, speaker of the House and a key ally, said that the justice department should 'put it out there'. Mr Trump attempted to dismiss the story as 'boring', before attacking his own supporters as 'weaklings' for '[buying] into this 'bullshit''. Then, hours after a Wall Street Journal report that he sent a 'bawdy' letter to Epstein – which he denies – he told Ms Bondi to seek the release of grand jury testimony on the sex-trafficking case. Epstein's crimes are fact, not a 'hoax', and it's also fact that he had repeated contact with high-profile figures, including Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Mr Trump himself – who once remarked of the financier: 'Terrific guy … It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' The files need not suggest, let alone confirm, any wrongdoing to embarrass anyone mentioned in them: highlighting the association is enough. At the heart of all Maga conspiracies lies another kernel of truth: that the rich and powerful often get away with exploiting vulnerable people through connections to the state. Yet Trump voters fail to see how that relates to the administration's broader actions. They are unmoved by his reverse Robin Hood budget legislation, which snatches from the poor to give to billionaires – like those in his cabinet. It's less visceral than Epstein's crimes, and its brazenness may, counterintuitively, make it less viral. Many on the right blame imaginary weather modification, rather than the global heating caused by fossil fuel dependence, for Texas's deadly floods. Conspiracy theories give those who feel powerless a sense of power; of knowing something that others can't see. Even so, the truth revealed by the Epstein scandal – that ordinary Americans are deeply angry at the unfairness and abuses created by elites – is worth heeding, and demands a better political and economic response. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Maga and Jeffrey Epstein: the truth about Donald Trump and conspiracy theories
Donald Trump has thrived on conspiracy theories – 'birtherist' lies that Barack Obama was born outside the US; the lunacies of the Q-Anon movement; false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. All centred on the idea that the 'deep state' was lying to, and thus cheating, ordinary people. Mr Trump was their tribune. It's hard not to feel schadenfreude now that he's at the sharp end of a theory that he at times encouraged and allies eagerly pushed: claims that the prison death of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein might not be suicide after all, and that wealthy and well-connected associates were trying to hush up connections to the financier. Mr Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, promised that 'truckloads' of documents would help reveal the truth and claimed that a client list was 'sitting on my desk right now'. Then, abruptly, the department of justice said that the financier's death was not murder, that no more files on the investigation against him would be released, and that there was no list of 'clients'. The administration says that Ms Bondi was referring to general files on the case. In short: many of those who promoted the idea that vast, vile secrets were being concealed now claim that there are no secrets at all – with no clear explanation for their volte-face. The result has been uproar in the Maga movement, with far-right politicians and media figures including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Laura Loomer and Alex Jones among the unsatisfied. Mike Johnson, speaker of the House and a key ally, said that the justice department should 'put it out there'. Mr Trump attempted to dismiss the story as 'boring', before attacking his own supporters as 'weaklings' for '[buying] into this 'bullshit''. Then, hours after a Wall Street Journal report that he sent a 'bawdy' letter to Epstein – which he denies – he told Ms Bondi to seek the release of grand jury testimony on the sex-trafficking case. Epstein's crimes are fact, not a 'hoax', and it's also fact that he had repeated contact with high-profile figures, including Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and Mr Trump himself – who once remarked of the financier: 'Terrific guy … It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' The files need not suggest, let alone confirm, any wrongdoing to embarrass anyone mentioned in them: highlighting the association is enough. At the heart of all Maga conspiracies lies another kernel of truth: that the rich and powerful often get away with exploiting vulnerable people through connections to the state. Yet Trump voters fail to see how that relates to the administration's broader actions. They are unmoved by his reverse Robin Hood budget legislation, which snatches from the poor to give to billionaires – like those in his cabinet. It's less visceral than Epstein's crimes, and its brazenness may, counterintuitively, make it less viral. Many on the right blame imaginary weather modification, rather than the global heating caused by fossil fuel dependence, for Texas's deadly floods. Conspiracy theories give those who feel powerless a sense of power; of knowing something that others can't see. Even so, the truth revealed by the Epstein scandal – that ordinary Americans are deeply angry at the unfairness and abuses created by elites – is worth heeding, and demands a better political and economic response.
