Trump's legal defeats pile up while his attacks on Georgia's election system raise GOP concerns

 

President Donald Trump speaks before pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Washington, as first lady Melania Trump watches.

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President-elect Joe Biden introduces key foreign policy and national security nominees and appointments at the Queen Theatre on November 24, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. As President-elect Biden waits to receive official national security briefings, he is announcing the names of top members of his national security team to the public. Calls continue for President Trump to concede the election as the transition proceeds. 

Trump supporters pressuring Republicans over election

Christopher Krebs, senior official performing the duties of the under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing concerning the roles and responsibilities for defending the nation against cyber attacks, on Capitol Hill, October 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. 

Former Trump official reacts to Trump's 'farcical' election claims

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 26: President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Thanksgiving on November 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump had earlier made the traditional call to members of the military stationed abroad through video teleconference. (Photo by Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images)

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trump called pennsylvania hearing rudy giuliani diamond dnt lead vpx_00000320.

Trump makes baseless voter fraud claims via speakerphone.

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 01: Michael Flynn, former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, leaves following his plea hearing at the Prettyman Federal Courthouse December 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged Flynn with one count of making a false statement to the FBI. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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President Donald Trump speaks before pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkey, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Washington, as first lady Melania Trump watches.

Trump touts 'America First' during turkey pardoning event

Hear Smerconish's theory behind Trump's 64-second briefing

keilar sot

Keilar calls out Rubio for attacking Biden's Cabinet over their education

Adam Kinzinger 11 25

'Because it's right': Why a GOP lawmaker dismisses Trump's fraud claims

Biden says he would meet with Trump if Trump asked

President-elect Joe Biden introduces key foreign policy and national security nominees and appointments at the Queen Theatre on November 24, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. As President-elect Biden waits to receive official national security briefings, he is announcing the names of top members of his national security team to the public. Calls continue for President Trump to concede the election as the transition proceeds. 

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Trump Georgia

Trump supporters pressuring Republicans over election

Christopher Krebs, senior official performing the duties of the under secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate in the Department of Homeland Security, testifies during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing concerning the roles and responsibilities for defending the nation against cyber attacks, on Capitol Hill, October 19, 2017 in Washington, DC. 

Former Trump official reacts to Trump's 'farcical' election claims

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 26: President Donald Trump speaks in the Diplomatic Room of the White House on Thanksgiving on November 26, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump had earlier made the traditional call to members of the military stationed abroad through video teleconference. (Photo by Erin Schaff - Pool/Getty Images)

'I'm the President of the United States!': Trump flips out on reporter

CNN analyst Hoenig.

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trump called pennsylvania hearing rudy giuliani diamond dnt lead vpx_00000320

Trump makes baseless voter fraud claims via speakerphone

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 01: Michael Flynn, former national security advisor to President Donald Trump, leaves following his plea hearing at the Prettyman Federal Courthouse December 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged Flynn with one count of making a false statement to the FBI. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Trump announces pardon for Michael Flynn in tweet

Hear Biden's message to those who've lost loved ones

(CNN)President Donald Trump found himself trapped in an election riddle of his own making Friday -- continuing to push false claims that the election was a "total scam," even after another humiliating court rebuke in Pennsylvania, while insisting that his supporters should turn out in Georgia's January Senate runoff elections despite concerns about fraud that he has sown.

With the eyes of the political universe focused on turning out voters in Georgia -- where the two runoff elections will determine which party controls the US Senate -- the President's relentless attacks on the state's voting apparatus, its tabulating process and its Republican secretary of state are prompting handwringing among GOP strategists and state leaders who fear those attacks are eroding confidence in elections at a time when they need to turn out as many of their voters as possible to reelect Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue on January 5 and hold onto their firewall against a Democrat-controlled House and White House.

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President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democrat in 28 years to win the Peach State, and Trump has been casting doubt about Georgia's election results for weeks now. He's made wild claims in his public remarks, retweeted attorneys and allies who have called for overturning the state's election results, and described the statewide audit -- which was a hand recount of every ballot -- as "meaningless" because of his objections to the signature-verification process. After Georgia certified its results, which confirmed Biden's victory in the state, the Trump campaign requested another recount, which is unlikely to reverse his loss.

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Trump ratcheted up those attacks when speaking to reporters on Thanksgiving even as he touted his upcoming visit to campaign in Georgia on December 5, claiming without evidence that he was "robbed" with "fraud all over the place" and calling Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger "an enemy of the people."

When asked by a reporter why he would expect GOP voters to have confidence after what he described as an illegitimate election and turn out for Loeffler and Perdue, Trump said he had warned the two senators: "Listen you have a fraudulent system ... you have to be very careful."

But on Friday, he backtracked as he tweeted a Newsmax story that said his supporters are considering an election boycott in Georgia over fraud claims. After falsely calling the November election a "scam" that he's hoping to overturn, he encouraged people to "get out and help David and Kelly, two GREAT people."

Trump's rhetoric, and the way it could undermine Georgia's electoral system, have been troubling to Republican strategists like Alice Stewart, a CNN contributor and native Georgian, who noted that bedrock Republican issues, including maintaining the conservative majority on the Supreme Court -- and preventing Democrats from court packing and enacting liberal policies like the Green New Deal -- will hinge on Republicans defending both Senate seats.

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"Without a doubt, if this continues, it's going to be a problem," Stewart said of Trump's baseless allegations about voting in Georgia. "I think every legal and legitimate vote should be counted, but at this stage of the game, to claim there's widespread voter fraud, this claim that there is an election hoax — we need to see some evidence. We need to see what he's talking about."

"Otherwise, he needs to drop it and move on, because it's not helpful to the process," Stewart said, noting that she and many of her family members in Georgia voted for Trump because they support his policies.

Republican donor Dan Eberhart called on lower-level Republican leaders to "step up or step out right now" and openly challenge Trump's claims before it does irreparable harm to their party.

"The party and the Republicans need to be focused on making (Senate Majority Leader) Mitch McConnell stronger right now, which is winning these two seats in Georgia, and then we need to be focused on winning the next election, taking the house back in 2022, and they can't do that if Trump has frozen everything," Eberhart said Friday night on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."

"These Republican senators, Republican congressmen, Republican governors, they're afraid of the Trump tweet and I think we need to get over that," he said.

The challenge facing Republicans was evident Saturday in Georgia where Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel tried to allay concerns from GOP voters about Trump's fraud claims, insisting the runoff election is "not decided."

"If you lose your faith and you don't vote and people walk away -- that will decide it," McDaniel told an unsettled crowd at a meet-and-greet in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta.

Still not accepting the inevitable

Trump made another perplexing about-face Friday. After stating on Thursday night that he would leave the White House in January if Biden's victory is certified by the electoral college, he made the absurd claim on Twitter that "Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous '80,000,000 votes' were not fraudulently or illegally obtained," even though Trump's own authority expires on January 20 when his term ends and his team hasn't been able to offer any credible evidence of fraud.

Trump's own appointee, Chairman of the US Election Assistance Commission Ben Hovland, rejected the premise of Trump's tweet Friday night. (The Commission is charged, in part, with testing and certifying voting machines and works closely with election officials around the country).

"Those 80 million votes that President-elect Biden has have been confirmed. They have been confirmed by the men and women who run our elections across the country," Hovland said on "Erin Burnett OutFront." "We have certified results in a number of states now, and again the people who run our elections have said that those are the totals."

"I believe the President and his allies have one win and 38 losses, they have failed to provide evidence of any widespread fraud to the courts," he added of Trump's court battles. "Clearly Joe Biden has won this race — the election officials who run our elections have said that — and that's how our democracy works."

Biden won 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232, and has now become the first presidential candidate to win more than 80 million votes -- posting a margin of more than 6 million over Trump.

A rebuke in Pennsylvania

The dearth of evidence supporting Trump's fraud claims was once again illuminated in the opinion of a three-judge panel for the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals Friday that denied the Trump campaign's request to refile its lawsuit challenging the results in Pennsylvania, where Biden enjoys a margin of more than 80,000 votes.

"Calling an election unfair does not make it so," Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote for the panel. "Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here."

Highlighting the gulf between the inflammatory charges that Trump and his allies have made outside the courtroom and the flimsy allegations that appear in their court filings, Bibas noted that the Trump campaign never alleged that "any ballot was fraudulent or cast by an illegal voter."

"It never alleges that any defendant treated the Trump campaign or its votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or its votes," Bibas wrote. "Calling something discrimination does not make it so."

The three-judge panel also called the Trump campaign's efforts to negate Pennsylvania's certification of votes "unprecedented," adding that the campaign's claims have "no merit."

"Tossing out millions of mail-in ballots would be drastic and unprecedented, disenfranchising a huge swath of the electorate and upsetting all down-ballot races too," the opinion said.

Though the defeat added to the Trump campaign's humiliating tally of more than 30 courtroom losses or withdrawals in their effort to challenge the election results, the President's attorney Jenna Ellis said on Twitter that their team was moving on to the Supreme Court.

Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who co-chaired the bipartisan 2013 Presidential Commission on Election Administration, said the Supreme Court taking up the case would be a welcome development to put an end to Trump's counterproductive efforts to unravel democracy.

"We should only hope that he takes this case in Pennsylvania up to the Supreme Court, because that will explode the other myth that judges are just going to lay down for him and do his bidding, because they are Republican judges," Ginsberg said on "Erin Burnett OutFront" Friday.

"What his followers will see, once he is out of office, is that there were a lengthy string of losses, losses, losses and that in effect is going to be part of his legacy when we look back at this."

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN's Donald Judd and Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.

NaijaGistReporters

Posted by Admin November 28, 2020

Bank Documents Expose How Dangote Wired Funds To NPA’s Bala Usman During 2015 General Elections

In the heat of the 2015 general elections in Nigeria, Aliko Dangote transferred N200m to a bank account run by Hadiza Bala Usman, a BringBackOurGirls activist, who has been the Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority since 2016.

According to Peoples Gazette, the transactions were sent in two tranches from two different bank accounts of Dangote to Usman’s account with Access Bank.

Usman received the first N100m transfer on February 6, 2015; while the second N100m came through three days later on February 9. 

The transfers carried ambiguous descriptions that made it difficult to conclude their purpose.

Since November 3, neither Dangote nor Usman clarified the purpose of the transactions to the newspaper despite multiple requests for comments. 

Dangote’s spokesperson, Tony Chiejina, declined to confirm or deny his principal initiated the transfers.

But Usman pointedly denied knowledge of the transactions despite being told of the date, amount and the specific bank account with which the funds were received.

“I am not aware of any such payments made to my account,” she told Peoples Gazette.

Even though Dangote and Bala Usman declined to clarify the transactions, at least two sources close to the APC campaign told the newspaper that the N200m was part of the campaign donations channelled to the opposition campaign through proxies like the NPA boss.

Usman largely restricted herself from partisan politics during the 2015 elections. 

She was widely known at the time as a key voice in the #BringBackOurGirls campaign for which she was profiled by the Financial Times and other Western media outlets.

Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s former military ruler, was seeking a return to power in the election that was initially scheduled for February 14, 2015 but when the exercise was postponed on February 8, Buhari’s allies flooded the country with claims that the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party was trying to starve them of funds. 

The APC was reported to have exhausted its campaign war chest before the elections were extended for another six weeks until March 28. 

The APC was, however, able to sustain the campaign until its victory on March 28, buoyed by alarming rates of insecurity, ineptitude and corruption that characterised the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Sources told Peoples Gazette that Usman’s rapid rise through political ranks, first as Chief of Staff to Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna and later as MD of NPA was largely as a result of her political mobilisation for the then-opposition party.

“Those who have been grumbling that she was handed a juicy position like NPA even when she did not campaign with us have a minimal understanding of the role she played in 2015,” one of the sources said.

Usman’s account also reflected multiple transfers to other APC players, including Balarabe Abbas Lawal, El-Rufai’s cabinet secretary.

At least nine transactions worth nearly N400m went to Mr Lawal during the 2015 elections. 

Dangote himself has long endured allegations of oiling his vast industrial empire by keeping friends with people with policymakers and potential policymakers. 

Two weeks ago, the billionaire was widely criticised after his company received a special waiver to export its product through Nigeria’s land borders, which have been closed to all companies since August 2019.

NaijaGistReporters

Posted by Admin November 28, 2020

Donald Trump Gives Condition To Vacate White House

United States President, Donald Trump, says he will relinquish power if the Electoral College affirms Joe Biden’s win but he signals he may never formally concede defeat.

According to Bloomberg, the 74-year-old Republican candidate, who lost his re-election bid, also declined to say if he would attend Biden’s inauguration next year as is the custom for an outgoing President.

“I’ll be honest, I know the answer, but I just don’t want to say it yet,” he said, adding that it is “not right” that Biden has begun picking a cabinet.

Trump fielded questions from reporters on Thursday for the first time since his election defeat, speaking at the White House after a Thanksgiving teleconference with members of the military.

When asked by reporters gathered at the White House’s diplomatic room if he would physically leave the building should the Electoral College affirm Biden’s victory, Trump replied, “Certainly, I will, and you know that.” 

But he swiftly maintained that there was “massive fraud and massive rigging” in the election, insisting that the court cases challenging the election outcome will continue.

Trump was further pressed on whether he would ever acknowledge defeat but said it would “be a very hard thing to concede,” even if the Electoral College confirms Biden’s victory. 

“If they do, they’ve made a mistake,” he said. “This election was a fraud.”

The Electoral College electors in each state are due to vote on December 14. Certificates recording the electoral vote results in each state must be received by the President of the Senate no later than December 23. 

Biden is certified as the winner or leading in states totalling 306 electoral votes, well above the victory threshold of 270, while Trump got 232 electoral votes.

Trump acknowledged that the whole world is watching what becomes the fate of American democracy.

“The whole world is watching and the whole world is laughing at our electoral process,” he said

He, however, declined to say if he would seek the presidency again in 2024 as has been widely rumoured. 

“I don’t want to talk about 2024 yet,” he replied.

NaijaGistReporters

Posted by Admin November 28, 2020

Troops Foil Attempted Kidnap Of Passengers On Abuja-Kaduna Highway

Troops of Operation Thunder Strike under the auspices of the ongoing Operation Accord have foiled an attempted kidnap of passengers on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway by armed bandits.

Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

According to Aruwan, most of the bandits escaped with bullet wounds.

He said, “The troops on aggressive patrols engaged the armed bandits who dispersed in disarray while the troops pursued them off the road. Many of the bandits seems to escaped with bullet wounds. Troops are still trailing them and citizens will briefed on the development.

“The rest of the troops manned the road to ensure dissolution of the traffic that built up following their engagement. The Kaduna State Government apologizes to motorists and other road users who suffered delays as a result of the security response. The incoveniences were an unintended consequence of efforts to protect lives and property. 

“As at the time of this security update, traffic is flowing on both lanes of the highway, and the troops are sustaining aggressive fighting patrols to deny the criminals freedom of action.”

 NaijaGistReporters

Posted by Admin November 28, 2020

ASUU Agrees To Call Off Strike After Eight Months

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has agreed to call off its eight-month long strike.

The strike had crippled activities in public universities across Nigeria.

The union leadership reached the consensus during a meeting with the government team led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in Abuja, on Friday, PUNCH reports.

The decision comes after the Nigerian Government agreed to pay the striking lecturers N70bn and would be exempting them from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which was one of ASUU’s major demands.

Posted by Admin November 28, 2020

Man Petitions Lagos Panel, Says Police Inserted Hot Iron Into His Private Part, Damaged His Ear Drum

One Omeli Humphery Darlington has submitted a petition to the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry against the Nigeria Police Force on how he was brutalised and assaulted in 2013.

Darlington explained to the panel how he was wrongly accused by his company, First Bank of Nigeria, arrested and tortured for days.

He stated that his ear drum had been damaged as a result of the torture by the police officers.

He said, "This allegation was a crime I know nothing about as all evidences clearly points to those involved. But First Bank Of Nigeria Plc had to instigate the Nigeria Police Force to subject me to (11days) illegal detention with torture, without any form of fair hearing till date.

"At first, (25/09/2013), I was taken to the Lion Building Police Station where I was detained for three days.

"I was discharged on the third day 27/09/2013, but on my way home, some of the First Bank Head Office Security Operatives ( 1. a MOPOL, 2. a spy police, 3. Mr. Okon, 4. Mr. Abidemi) kidnapped me, blindfolded me, and beat me up with different objects within reach. The Mobile Police man with them kept hitting my head with the butt of his gun till blood started gushing out from both sides of my ears.

"They tried to kill me so that it would look like I got lost on my way home but God intervened by using other citizens to rescue me (witnesses).

"The people who rescued me insisted that I should be taken to a nearby police station which happened to be the Ikoyi Police Station on the Lagos Island.

"Everyone joined to Ikoyi station where the masses handed me over to the police with the hope that I was safe but when we got inside, these set of First Bank operatives instructed the police to torture me to admit to a crime I know nothing about.

"The Ikoyi police officers (INSP. Adeleye Bashiru and his boys) proceeded to torture me that night based on the report made by First Bank Security operatives that I was a fraudster and a criminal who defrauded the bank of N355m.

"The officers tortured me by using iron rods to beat me on my joints saying I should take them to where I kept the money.

"Iron was inserted into my private part until i could no longer bear the pains and fainted."

He stated that the torture continued in the cell for seven days before the police eventually charged him to court on false charges.

He said he was arraigned before Mrs A.T Omoyele of Tinubu Senior Magistrate Court (II), Lagos, on charges of stealing, conspiracy and forgery without presenting an evidence before the court.

"I could not perfect my bail and had to be remanded at the Ikoyi Prison all through the period till I finish disposing my properties just to meet my bail conditions.

"My ear drum was damaged along the line from beating by the police (doctor's report attached) and I kept going to court till (24/02/2014) when the case against me was finally struck out for lack of diligent prosecution.

"It will interest you to know that I won a N500,000 judgment against the police in the rnforcement of my fundamental human rights suit I filled against the police and First Bank after my release. Unfortunately, the police in keeping with their position to deal with me has blatantly refused to pay the judgement debt till date," he added.

Darlington prayed the judicial panel to order the police to pay the sum awarded to him and other compensation to enable him have proper medical treatment as his health condition had degenerated.

NaijaGistReporters

Posted by Admin November 28, 2020

Elon Musk surpasses Bill Gates to become the world’s second-richest person as Tesla’s market cap inches closer to $500 billion

  After beating Mark Zuckerberg in world rich list ranking — the billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk has now leapfrogged Bill Gates to grab the world’s second-richest ranking.

Musk’s net worth rose more than $7.2 billion on November 23, driven by another surge in the Tesla share price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. The current net worth of Elon Musk stands at $127.9 billion.

This comes as one of the biggest gains in the ranking of the world’s 500 richest people — Musk has added over $100.3 billion to his net worth this year.

In January 2020, he ranked 35th, but the soaring Tesla share price has driven his ranking to surpass other billionaires in the world.

The jump in Musk’s fortune came as the shares of the electric car-maker Tesla soared as the electric car makers market cap neared $500 billion on Monday.

Gates would have been on the top, had it not been for his philanthropy.

 

~BusinessInsider~

~NaijaGistReporters~

Posted by Admin November 24, 2020