Tag Archives: 2021

Newswire: DOJ court brief hints at possible
federal indictment of Donald Trump

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 Insurrectionist mob attacks U. S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021


By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice have stated that inciting imminent private violence is not part of a president’s official responsibilities, the strongest indication yet that criminal charges are being considered against former President Donald Trump.
In a case involving police officers who want to sue Trump, the federal appellate court in the District of Columbia asked the Department of Justice to weigh in on the matter.
“Such incitement of imminent private violence would not be within the outer perimeter of the Office of the President of the United States,” the DOJ wrote in a memo to the court.
Trump asserted that he can’t be sued for his role in organizing his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Lawmakers and Capitol Police officers have filed a lawsuit claiming that Trump incited the attack by falsely claiming in a speech that the 2020 election had been stolen and urging his supporters to march on the Capitol.
The civil division of the Department of Justice filed a 23-page brief with the court of appeals, requesting that the court allow the lawsuit to move forward.
The DOJ said Trump’s incitement of the deadly insurrection fell outside the scope of his presidential powers and therefore disqualifies any immunity argument.
The U.S. Supreme Court has previously decided that the Constitution protects presidents from being sued for their official actions.
“The District Court correctly rejected Trump’s categorical assertion ‘that whenever and wherever a President speaks on a matter of public concern he is immune from a civil suit,” the DOJ insisted.
“Speaking to the public on matters of public concern is a traditional function of the Presidency, and the outer perimeter of the President’s office includes a vast realm of such speech.
“But that traditional function is one of public communication. It does not include incitement of imminent private violence of the sort the district court found that the plaintiff’s complaints have plausibly alleged here.”
The lawsuits allege that Trump’s speech was responsible for inciting the attack, which the DOJ said begs the question of whether it is within the scope of his presidency to update his supporters on the results of the 2020 election.
In a ruling made last year, Federal District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta allowed the lawsuits against the former president to proceed.
The judge concluded that Trump’s various communications leading up to and including January 6 amounted to a “call to action” and that he urged his supporters should “fight like hell” to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump’s attorneys have appealed that ruling to the D.C. Circuit. They claimed presidents have always been protected from legal action for statements made in the course of their official duties because such statements are considered “speech on matters of public concern.”
Several Democratic lawmakers and Capitol Police officers have joined forces to file a lawsuit against Trump over the attack on January 6. Other groups not involved in the appeal, such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, are also named as defendants in the lawsuits.
By its very nature, “such conduct plainly falls outside the President’s constitutional and statutory duties,” the DOJ wrote.
As such, it cannot be squared with the President’s customary role of addressing the nation on vital issues, they argued.
The President has “extraordinary power to speak to his fellow citizens and on their behalf” in his role as the nation’s leader and head of state.
“But that traditional function is one of public communication and persuasion, not incitement of imminent private violence,” the DOJ continued.
“To extend immunity to such incitement would contradict the ‘constitutional heritage and structure’ that have informed and justified the doctrine of presidential immunity.

 

Newswire: Chairman Thompson says classified tapes House Speaker McCarthy turned over to Fox News has ‘serious national security implications’

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Chairman Bennie Thompson with Vice-Chair Liz Cheney

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

Mississippi Democratic Congressman Bennie Thompson revealed that some of the 41,000 hours of video footage from the January 6, 2021, insurrection that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) turned over to Fox News included classified material that could threaten national security.
In an exclusive 65-minute interview with Let It Be Known, a live daily news show put on by the National Newspaper Publishers Association, Thompson, the head of the January 6 Commission, said he wanted to see what document McCarthy signed with Fox News to transfer the footage.
“There are serious national security implications, a lot of what we saw and did not share with the public as a committee,” Thompson said in a no-holds-barred discussion with Black Press reporters on the program. “There are safeguards in place, and some of this material is privileged,” he continued.
“You can’t just open the store and let someone come in and clean it out. We want to see what document was executed for that transfer of information. I chaired the [January 6] committee, and I can tell you that there is clearly information in there that we choose not to put in the public arena because of its sensitivity.”
The bold and unusual move by the House speaker of handing over such information reportedly comes after McCarthy faced intense pressure from his right flank to relitigate the work of the House select committee.
\While it took an unprecedented 15 rounds of voting for McCarthy to win the speakership, one of the reasons Republicans relented was because he vowed to hold hearings on the Capitol riot.
Thompson noted that the cause for alarm rose further when McCarthy gave the classified information to Carlson, the most outspoken Fox host, to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
“You turn the tapes over to a guy who was the cheerleader of lies being told, and even when he knew what he was saying was wrong, he kept saying it,” Thompson railed.
“I don’t know what it means from a journalistic standpoint, we can have differences of opinion, but when facts say something different and are irrefutable, and you try to promote alternate situations, that’s not journalism,” he continued.
“You turn this kind of information to these people who have been proven in a court of law not to tell the truth about a subject they had already acknowledged in court. Fox News has turned this information over to the courts in a lawsuit, and now that same Fox News has access to information about January 6. The speaker should have said, ‘I can’t let you have this.’ But he did.”
While Thompson doesn’t expect McCarthy to pay the price for his action, he stated his belief that he, a Democrat and African American, most certainly would have it been him who turned over classified information.’ “I, and every other member of Congress, take an oath that you are not supposed to release that kind of information,” Thompson declared. “If you do, you have violated the oath of office and broken the law.”
Thompson, who led the investigation into the January 6 insurrection, called it challenging to work with Republicans like McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and others.
“I think Speaker McCarthy, because of his challenge to become speaker, made so many off-the-record commitments to become the speaker that he can’t say no to certain people,” Thompson asserted.
“He can’t say no to Marjorie Taylor Greene or some of those other folks. So it took him too long to become the speaker. Every time a vote was taken, they [negotiated, and ultimately McCarthy got the number he needed. Still, it’s clear that he had to give up all authority and power inherent in a traditional speakership to get [the job].
“So, I’m not surprised he gave this information to Fox News. They’ve been in his corner promoting an alternate reality, which is part of the payback to the Fox Network.”

Newswire : Sentenced to prison, Capitol rioter who used Confederate Flag ‘weapon’ against Black officer is ‘sorry’

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 Kevin Seefried carries a Confederate flag as he protests in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. | Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

By Bruce C.T. Wright, NewsOne

A man sentenced to three years in prison time for wielding a Confederate Flag as a “weapon” against a Black U.S. Capitol police officer during the insurrection Jan. 6, 2021, says he is “deeply sorry” for his treasonous ways.
Kevin Seefried was excoriated during his sentencing Thursday as a judge reminded the Capitol rioter of the significance of racist optics behind his actions on that fateful day in American history, according to the Washington Post.
During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden explained to Seefried how “deeply offensive” it is to “use a Confederate flag … as a weapon against an African American officer.”
McFadden seemingly expressed doubt at Seefried’s insistence that he was unaware of the racist history of the Confederate flag.
“Even putting aside the racist connotations, which you said you did not intend,” McFadden told Seefried his actions were nonetheless “appalling” considering the insurrection that was aimed at preventing Joe Biden’s election from being certified in a failed effort to restore Donald Trump’s presidency under false pretenses.
The “African American officer” McFadden referenced is Eugene Goodman, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who famously fought back and lured the domestic terrorists and right-wing extremists storming the Capitol away from U.S. Senators and toward backup help.
From the Washington Post: “Seefried jabbed repeatedly at Goodman with the flag and chased him up a flight of stairs, according to the trial testimony. Goodman said Seefried refused to leave and demanded to know where the lawmakers were. When Goodman was joined by reinforcements, Seefried berated the officers for “protecting … liars and thieves.”
Of course, now that Seefried has been brought to justice, he has changed his tune significantly. He said he only brought the Confederate flag to the Capitol because it had been hanging outside of his home
Seefried said he did not intend to represent white supremacy or insurrection, merely a spirit of protest, by bringing to Washington a Confederate flag that had previously hung outside his home in Delaware.
“I never meant to send a message of hate,” Seefried said in court before claiming he was “deeply sorry for my part in Jan. 6, 2021.”
To be clear, the Confederate flag remains a controversial symbol that was at times strategically used to directly challenge and intimidate Black people demanding equality and justice.
Notably, Trump defended the Confederate flag when he was president as a poll in 2020 found that most democratic voters viewed it as a symbol of anti-Black racism.
It was decidedly in that context that Seefried both illegally entered the U.S. Capitol and threatened Officer Goodman with his Confederate flag.

Eutaw City Council considers buying a fire truck and wrestles with water system problems in Boligee

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Mayor and Eutaw City Council members hold up Audit Report for September 30, 2022, which was approved in a Special Called Meeting on August 3, 2200
Proposed firetruck the City of Eutaw plans to inspect

    On August 9, 2022, the Eutaw City Council held a work session with the Mayor and members of the City Council of Boligee over continuing problems of water leakage, pressure and quality in the Town and a regular meeting where they considered the purchase of a fire engine.

    The work session considered the problems of the City of Eutaw Water System providing water to two hundred customers in the Town of Boligee. Because of leakages in the main water line and problems in the Town, the system pressures cannot be maximized. In other cases breakdowns in key transmission lines have led to “brown looking water” and other quality problems for Boligee users.

    Eutaw Mayor Latasha Johnson said, “We do not want to cut off water for the Town of Boligee. We are spending most of our water repair funds on the old lines to and in Boligee. We want to give you the water transmission system back and just sell you water, but we know you cannot afford to run your system by yourself. It is too small to be financially viable.”

    The Mayor went on to explain that Eutaw applied to ADEM and USDA for assistance. “We were awarded a $3.5 million dollar loan and grant combination, where half was a grant and half a loan, but we cannot afford to take on additional debt, especially since most of the money would be spent in Boligee. We cannot raise the water rates for our customers to help Boligee. We need a 100% grant to help all the people on our system.”

    At the actual Eutaw City Council meeting, the council voted to turn down the $3.5 million loan and grant offer from ADEM because the matching requirement of a $1.75 million loan was more than the City could afford at this time. “We hope to reapply for these funds in the future, but we feel ADEM, USDA and other agencies need to recognize the unique situation of our water system serving two rural communities, with a majority of low-income residents that cannot afford higher water bills for debt servicing,” said Mayor Johnson.

    Also on the regular Eutaw City Council agenda was an informational item with two invoices for $11,431 for repairs to the system in recent months, all expended in Boligee. “We hope to recover this money from Boligee, but we know this is a strain on them, which is why we need more grant funds to repair and update our joint system,’ said Jonson.

    In another information item on the agenda was the issue of charging the Greene County Water System for water it gets from Eutaw and the need to renegotiate an outdated contract to supply water to the catfish plant.

    Another major item on the Eutaw City Council agenda was consideration of a request from the Fire Department to purchase used 2006 Pierce Quint 75 fire truck with a forty-foot ladder that could reach the second and third story of homes and apartments in Eutaw.

    Fire Chief Bennie Abrams and Assistant Chief Brandon Broach explained that the City had one certified fire truck with a 24-foot ladder and one old truck that was a “hose wagon”. They said they were looking into buying a used truck, the 2006 Pierce Quint with a forty-foot ladder, which has a list price of $275,000.

    They explained that the Eutaw Fire Department had $150,000 donation from a citizen toward purchase of the truck but needed a commitment from the City Council for the additional $125,000, so they could travel to New Jersey to inspect the truck and negotiate the best price. “We do not need to go to look at the truck, if we cannot actually buy it, if we feel it would meet our needs,” said Broach.

    City Financial Advisor, Ralph Liverman said the Eutaw Fire Department has two accounts, one with $207,770, including the $150,000 donation and one with $27,000 for operations. Liverman also said he was planning to place $50,000 for purchase of a new fire truck in the Capital Improvements Account for the coming FY2022-23 budget. Liverman said he felt the city had the funds to purchase the truck if it passed inspection.

    After questions from the council members on other equipment needs of the Fire Department and other needs to be funded by the Capital Improvements budget, the Council voted to approve travel for the two fire officials to inspect the truck and report back about the plan to purchase it.

    In a special called meeting on August 3, 2022, the Eutaw City Council voted to accept the Audit Report for September 30, 2021, prepared by Harbin and Stough, CPA firm in Tuscaloosa. The 53-page detailed audit will be helpful to the city in securing grant funding and laying the basis for future audit reports.

    In other business, the Eutaw City Council:
• Approved travel for Mayor, council members and staff to travel to
various training and annual conferences.
• Approved an adjustment in the annual Municipal Business License fee from $12 to $14 per business.
• Approved the Policy and Procedures manual for city fees.
• Approved payment of Bills and Claims for July 2022

Greene County High School Graduating Senior, 2021

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NOTICE

The Greene County Democrat staff invites all Greene County High School graduating seniors, 2021, to come to the Democrat’s office, with white shirts/tops, to get their graduation photos taken for the newspaper.  The deadline for the photos is Friday, May 14, 2021. 

Office hours are Monday – Friday 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. 

Students may also  make individual appointments with 

Mrs. Barbara Amerson Hunter at 205-372-3373, or submit a photo to bamerson1345@bellsouth.net