Today's news in a nutshell
July 19th edition
ELECTIONS
Georgia Residents to File Lawsuit on Monday at 1:30 PM Contesting the Fraudulent Results of the Georgia Senate Elections
WE CAUGHT THEM: Audit Documents Were Created Last Week for Georgia Election Audit Completed in November Only After Our FOIA Request
COVID
Ted Cruz: ‘Hell NO’ to Forcing Vaccinated to Mask Up
weather incidents
Enormous Bootleg Fire sends smoke entire length of Oregon
FINANCE
Robinhood seeks up to $35 bln valuation in mega U.S. IPO
Robinhood Markets Inc is targeting a valuation of up to $35 billion in its initial public offering in the United States, the company revealed in a filing on Monday, setting the stage for one of the highly anticipated stock market listings of the year.
BYDIN ADMIN
In a first under Biden, detainee transferred out of Guantanamo Bay
President Joe Biden's administration said on Monday that it had transferred its first detainee from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a Moroccan man who had been imprisoned since 2002, lowering the population at the facility to 39.
WORLD
France
China
Two dams in China's Inner Mongolia collapse after torrential rain
Two dams in China's northwestern region of Inner Mongolia have collapsed after torrential rain, the water ministry said on Monday, highlighting the safety risks posed by ageing infrastructure during the summer flood season.
The dams, in the Inner Mongolian city of Hulunbuir, collapsed on Sunday afternoon. They had formed reservoirs with a combined water storage capacity of 46 million cubic metres, the Ministry of Water Resources said.
People living downstream were evacuated, with no casualties reported, it said.
The ministry said that on average, 87 millimetres of rain fell in Hulunbuir over the weekend and as much as 223 millimetres at the Morin Dawa monitoring station.
US and allies accuse China of global hacking spree
Investigation: Governments Around the World Infected Phones with ‘Pegasus’ Spyware
Egypt
Egypt finds ancient military vessel, Greek graves in sunken city
Europe Covid
COVID-19: 60% of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus have been double-jabbed, says Vallance
It comes as figures show most regions of England now have more coronavirus patients in hospital than at any point since mid-March.
TRUMP
THE EPOCH TIMES
Man Who Breached Capitol on Jan. 6 Sentenced to Eight Months in Jail
A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to eight months in jail on Monday.
Paul Hodgkins, 38, of Tampa, Florida entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 at approximately 2:50 p.m. He was seen about 10 minutes later wearing a “Trump 2020” shirt and waving a flag with the same message on it, walking among the desks in the Senate well, taking selfie photographs with his cell phone, and donning, at one point, white latex gloves.
Hodgkins, who exited the Capitol after about 25 minutes inside, was also sentenced to 24 months of supervised release after serving the jail time and paying a special assessment of $100 and $2,000 in restitution.
Defense attorneys pushed for no jail time, noting Hodgkins had no prior criminal record and was not accused of being violent while in the Capitol.
Patrick Leduc, one attorney, asked the judge to be “merciful” and claimed Hodgkin’s actions were not materially different than Anna Morgan-Lloyd, 49, who was sentenced last month to probation.
Hodgkins was the first participant in the U.S. Capitol breach to be sentenced for a felony. Morgan-Lloyd pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss largely rejected the defense’s arguments.
Hodgkins entered the Capitol bearing ski goggles and rope, indicating he expected clashes with law enforcement, the judge said.
“I don’t know whether he thought there was going to be an assault on the Capitol or not, but he came that day prepared to defend his position and to engage in whatever needed to be done, even if it placed him at the center of the conflict … He didn’t end up there by accidental curiosity,” said Moss, an Obama nominee who worked as a government lawyer during the Clinton administration.
“It was obvious as he approached the Capitol that he was participating in an ongoing attack to impede the certification of the election … To make matters worse Mr. Hodgkins stood next to the dais of the United States Senate, in the well of the Senate, and raised the red flag that said “Trump 2020″ in large white letters. The symbolism of that act is unmistakable. He was making a claim on the floor of the United States Senate, not with an American flag, but with a flag declaring his loyalty to a single individual over the nation. That act captured the threat to democracy that we all witnessed that day.”
Members of Congress, as well as Vice President Mike Pence, were evacuated on Jan. 6 after the Capitol was breached through broken windows and other avenues. The evacuees, who were evacuated before Hodgkins entered the chamber, were in the process of certifying electoral votes. They eventually reconvened and certified Democrat Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election.
Prosecutors had recommended Hodgkins be sentenced to 18 months in jail, the midpoint of sentencing guidelines as calculated by the U.S. Probation Office.
“Yes, Mr. Hodgkins did not participate in the physical violence or the destruction, but he surely participated in the grave danger to our democracy,” assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky told the judge. The recommended sentence would help bolster respect for the law, she offered, describing the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 as being done to “subvert the election and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.”
Hodgkins later addressed the court directly. “I am truly remorseful and regretful for my actions in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021,” he said, adding that he regretted the damage the breach caused and how it “hurt” America.
A group of protesters enter the Senate Chamber in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
“Although I know that I did not or would I ever engage in acts of assault, vandalism, or theft, I’ve also thought … that the company of us who remained calmer in our protests may have made others feel emboldened to carry out the destruction that occurred,” he said.
The Florida man said he traveled to the nation’s capital to support former President Donald Trump and participated in a march that ended at the Capitol when he saw people entering the Capitol. He followed and eventually made it to the Senate chamber.
“This was a foolish decision on my part that I take full responsibility for,” he said. “I do not, I will not make any excuse,” he added.
Hodgkins said he acknowledges Biden as the president of the United States. He also said he has voluntarily given up alcohol, completed volunteer hours, and started going to church since being charged.
If sentenced to jail, Hodgkins foresaw losing his rental home and his job at an auto shop.
The judge said he appreciated the statement, which he described as “sincere.” He said Hodgkins appeared to try to exert a “calming influence” on fellow breachers.
Leduc told The Epoch Times last month that Hodgkins pleaded guilty because he realized he made a mistake and wanted “to accept responsibility” for what he did.
“He understands what he did was wrong. He feels terrible about it,” Leduc said.
Leduc told the court that prosecutors’ attempts to blame his client for the actions of other breachers were flawed. He noted that prosecutors have brought no domestic terrorism charges, undercutting the government’s claims about what happened on Jan. 6.
If the Capitol breach was an example of domestic terrorism, then so would riots in 2020 that caused widespread damage in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Portland, Oregon, he argued.
Moss interjected, indicating how he would soon rule.
“There were people who were storming through the halls of the Capitol saying ‘Where’s Nancy.’ There were people who were threatening the lives of members of Congress. There were members of Congress who fleed fearful for their lives. That is more than a simple riot,” he said, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“The fact that Congress, chambers of Congress, were empty during the most solemn act in our democracy, of certifying who the next president will be, by an angry mob of people … that is not an exercise of First Amendment rights by any measure.”
Arizona Senate President: State’s 11 Electors Cannot Be Recalled After Maricopa Audit
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, said the state Senate doesn’t have the ability to recall electors for the Nov. 3, 2020, election, after a fellow Republican lawmaker called for new elections.
Fann told One America News Network (OANN), which has been covering the audit of Maricopa County, that the upper chamber has the ability to provide auditors with the materials they need—including through the use of subpoenas—but the certification of electors is a different matter.
“The Senate body—we do not have the authority to do that. So, this is what we have said, and I want to make this very clear on the record,” the Republican state leader said on July 16.
Fann’s comments came as former President Donald Trump issued a statement declaring that the audit revealed there were irregularities and fraud that would have swayed the election in his favor last year. On July 15, the Senate held a hearing in the midst of a months-long review carried out by Florida-based tech firm Cyber Ninjas and teams told lawmakers they discovered discrepancies.
Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, told senators that auditors couldn’t find any record of Maricopa County sending more than 74,000 mail-in ballots and also discovered that around 18,000 people voted, but were taken off voter rolls “soon after the election.” He also noted that there were “11,326 people who were not on the voter rolls on Nov. 7, 2020, but appeared on the rolls on Dec. 4, 2020, and 3,981 people who voted after registering after Oct. 15, 2020.”
After the hearing, some Republican senators called for Arizona’s 11 electors—who went for Biden—to be recalled.
“A new election must be conducted. Arizona’s electors must not be awarded fraudulently & we need to get this right,” Sen. Wendy Rogers, a Republican, wrote in a pair of Twitter posts last week.
But Fann, in her OANN interview, said that the Senate in this situation only has “the ability to subpoena information because we make laws,” noting that they’re “entitled to have the information to determine how to write those laws.”
“That’s why we are successful in court, and that’s what we’re doing. It’s all about election integrity. It’s not about the Trump–Biden race. It’s not about the Kelly–Martha McSally race,” Fann remarked, referring to the 2020 presidential election that saw the inauguration of President Joe Biden, as well as the U.S. Senate race that was won by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
Following the hearing, Maricopa County officials and Democrats such as Secretary of State Katie Hobbs claimed that the audit team and Senate Republicans are incompetent and said their findings shouldn’t be taken seriously.
For months, Maricopa County executives and Republican senators were embroiled in a legal tug-of-war over the county’s ballots and election equipment. Ultimately, a judge ruled that the Senate does indeed have the subpoena power to carry out the audit, which began in April.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, a Republican, said in a statement after the hearing that “what we heard today represents an alternate reality that has veered out of control since the November General Election” and “Senate leadership should be ashamed they broadcast the half-baked theories of the ‘Deep Rig’ crowd to the world today.”
Rogers’ office didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.
Correction: A previous version of this article inaccurately described Sen. Fann’s position. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
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