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Supreme Court rules in favor of January 6 riot participant on obstruction case

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Tasos Katopodis / Stringer / Getty Images

Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former police officer who joined the Capitol rioters in a case involving obstruction charges.

The 6-3 vote secured victory for “Joseph Fischer, who is among hundreds of defendants in the Jan. 6 indictment — including former President Donald Trump — charged with obstructing an official proceeding in connection with their efforts to block Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory.” NBC News reports.

Essentially, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors overstepped the bounds of obstruction law by charging him as a member of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Section 1512(c)(2) was enacted in 2002 after the Enron scandal as part of Sarbanes-Oxley Act. According to this text, “it is a crime to ‘corruptly’ obstruct, impede, or interfere with official congressional inquiries and investigations, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.”

This right was used in the criminal proceedings of January 6 insurgentsBut Fischer, like other rioters, argued that the U.S. Justice Department had overstepped its authority by amending “a charge that once criminalized the destruction of documents to also cover the conduct of those who stormed the Capitol that day.”

Fischer was previously employed in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a policemanand a four-minute video from that day “in which he can be heard shouting ‘attack’ and is seen struggling with police officers.” Prosecutors also allege Fischer sent threatening text messages, including one which read, “Take the Democrat congress to the gallows… you can’t vote if they can’t breathe lol.” Moreover, when the FBI tried to arrest him, he “shouted obscenities at agents and his own police chief and tried to hide the phone he was using to record the events at the Capitol.”

Supreme Court Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for majority “interpret the law narrowly, stating that it applies only where the defendant’s actions have compromised the integrity of the evidence.”

“It would be odd to conclude that, by closing the Enron loophole, Congress actually buried in the second part of the third subsection of Section 1512 a general provision that goes far beyond the document destruction and similar scenarios that prompted the legislation in the first place,” he wrote. Roberts.

“The better conclusion is that subsection (c)(2) was designed by Congress to cover other forms of evidence and other means of challenging its integrity or availability beyond those that Congress specified in (c)(1).” Roberts uninterrupted.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the conservative majority and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in a dissenting opinion. In her dissenting opinion, Barrett wrote: “The case that Fischer could be prosecuted for ‘obstructing, influencing or obstructing an official proceeding’ appears clear and closed.” So why does the Court rule in a different way?… Because it simply cannot imagine that Congress meant what it said.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a press release expressing disappointment with the ruling, but said the “vast majority” of insurrectionists accused of participating in the events of January 6 “will not be affected by this decision.”

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Politics and Current

During the NABJ-WHYY panel, Harris showed us once again that she won’t let Trump define the conversation.

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Kamala Harris, NABJ-WHYY conversation, theGrio.com

“Sometimes your adversaries will try to turn your strength into weakness,” she said. “Don’t let them. Don’t let them.”

In that moment, she’s portrayed her joy and laughter as strengths, and Trump as someone who would attempt to idiot her and all of us into pondering they weren’t strengths. She’s portraying Trump as a thief of joy — almost a cartoonish Grinch-like villain — but without actually or overtly saying anything provocative. The Trump campaign is filled with attempts to attract Harris into ridiculous conversations, corresponding to whether immigrants eat pets in Springfield, Ohio. Harris has been steadfast throughout her campaign in refusing to let Trump frame the conversation or select the setting of the moment. She’s not here to reply to his madness. She’s running her own race.

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She then responded to Gaynor’s query by adding more commentary on the subject of joy. “I find joy in the American people,” she said. “I find joy in the optimism… I find joy in the ambition of the people.” She listed several places where she found joy, poetically linking each with the words, “I find joy in…” It was the type of repetition you would possibly expect from a black preacher. She ended the list with, “I find joy in believing that the true measure of a leader’s strength is not who you knock down, but who you lift up.”

All of this jogged my memory that it is a campaign based on optimism, not pessimism, regret, anger and fear-mongering.

At one point she was asked about Springfield, Ohio, home to immigrants Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance falsely accused of eating pets. She didn’t let Trump lead the conversation. When asked about the city, she modified the subject to people. She said it was school picture day they usually needed to evacuate the kids. She began talking about the kids. Harris again insisted on fascinated by people and refused to follow Trump’s conversation. Watch her do that during the race — it’s clearly her selection. Harris is deliberate in avoiding responding to Trump. She doesn’t follow the conversation into the mental gutter he wants to guide her to. Instead, she comes across as a babbling old geezer, and she’s above the argument and above him.


This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Stevie Wonder Hits Tour in Battleground States for Election

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Stevie Wonder, new track, unity, DNC


Stevie Wonder is embarking on a 10-city U.S. tour to coincide with the upcoming presidential election.

The “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour, titled after Wonder’s latest politically themed single, will happen it stops in key states, reports. The 25-time Grammy Award winner will kick off the tour on October 8 on the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with stops in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Greensboro, Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, before wrapping up on October 30 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The official announcement says the tour calls for “joy over anger, kindness over resentment, peace over war.” It also notes that “as a special thank you,” Wonder will offer quite a lot of free tickets to “those in our communities who are already working tirelessly to mend the broken heart of our nation.”

The tour announcement comes a month after Wonder gave an electrifying performance and speech on the Democratic National Convention on “the importance of action.”

“It’s time to understand where we are and what it’s going to take to win: win the broken hearts, win the disappointed, win the angry souls — now is the time,” the legendary singer told the group.

“This is the moment to remember, when you tell your kids where you’ve been and what you’ve done… We have to choose courage over complacency. It’s time to stand up!” he said, changing his tone to an appeal, “and go vote!” He then launched into his 1973 classic, “Higher Ground.”

Stevie Wonder’s “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour dates are listed below:

  • October 8: Pittsburgh, PA, PPG Paints Arena
  • October 10: New York, New York, Madison Square Garden
  • October 12: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wells Fargo Center
  • October 15: Baltimore, Maryland, CFG Bank Arena
  • October 17: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro Coliseum
  • October 19: Atlanta, Georgia, State Farm Arena
  • October 22: Detroit, Michigan, Little Caesars Arena
  • October 24: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fiserv Forum
  • October 27: Minneapolis, Minnesota, Target Center
  • October 30 Grand Rapids, Michigan, Van Andel Arena


This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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Politics and Current

Michael Eric Dyson slams congresswoman Nancy Mace’s claims he flirted with her in text, accuses her of trying to ‘exploit the situation’

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‘You Are a Sorry, Sick Soul’: Michael Eric Dyson Rips Into Rep. Nancy Mace

Michael Eric Dyson has slammed suggestions that he was flirting with Congresswoman Nancy Mace after she accused him of calling her a racist in an interview with CNN last month.

The interview with the South Carolina lawmaker and Vanderbilt professor made headlines after Mace repeatedly mispronounced Vice President Kamala Harris’ name during the interview and refused to correct herself. Dyson never called her a racist on air, but he explained why her behavior was problematic.

“When you disrespect Kamala Harris by saying you can call her whatever you want, I know that’s not your intention, that’s the history and legacy of white disregard for the humanity of black people,” Dyson told Mace in the interview.

'You're a pathetic, sick soul': Michael Eric Dyson slams congresswoman Nancy Mace's claims he flirted with her in text, accuses her of trying to 'exploit the situation'
Michael Eric Dyson (left) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina)

During a congressional hearing Thursday, Mace showed her fellow lawmakers a screenshot of a message Dyson sent her that included a photograph the pair took after a CNN interview that portrayed them as flirtatious.

“He says in this piece, after he called me a racist on CNN, ‘Don’t tell anyone we look good together,’ and he sent me a kissy face emoji,” the South Carolina lawmaker said at a hearing Thursday. “Then the guy says I’m gorgeous in all these pictures. I don’t think he’s that bothered by how someone pronounces Kamala. And if we’re going to have that standard, it has to be applied to both sides, not just one or the other.”6

Dyson posted a response on Instagram, fuming over Mace’s behavior during the hearing. He read the entire exchange with Mace and explained that he was joking about how united they looked in photos taken after the CNN interview, given their very different political positions.

“I’m not hitting on Nancy Mace. This is a woman trying to take advantage of a situation, trying to pretend I’m trying to hit on her,” Dyson said. “You’re trying to generate meanness and cruelty because you’re so bitter about getting your ass kicked that night because I told you that night what you were doing was wrong,” he said of Mace.

He also condemned Mace’s characterization of the intentions behind the lyrics as “malicious”, “misleading” and ultimately “racist”.

“Your attempt is sad and pathetic, but your bigoted and racist attempt will fail,” Dyson noted. “There was no attempt to do anything other than be nice to you, but you have proven to be what I said you are not — a cruel, white supremacist racist who is incapable of accepting the generosity and kindness of a black man. You are a pathetic, sick soul.”

While some web users found the text flirtatious, others got here to Dyson’s defense.

“This is a very strategic framing of this interaction for her to do exactly this. Why didn’t she share the entire exchange?” one person said.

“She’s clearly trying to extend her 15 minutes of shame on TV. Time to let it go,” one other comment read.


This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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