Sidney Powell Paid For Georgia Election Machine Examination Upon ‘Threat’, Her Lawyer Says
Sidney Powell Paid For Georgia Election Machine Examination Upon ‘Threat’, Her Lawyer Says
Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)
Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor charged with breaching election machines in Georgia, had nothing to do with the breach, save for paying for it after the fact, and only because the forensic firm that did it threatened to dump the data online, her lawyer said in a recent court filing.
Ms. Powell was charged as part of the election interference case against former President Donald Trump that was brought on Aug. 14 by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It alleges that the efforts of President Trump and 18 others, including Ms. Powell, to challenge the 2020 election results amounted to a racketeering conspiracy.
Ms. Willis has accused Ms. Powell of participating in the alleged conspiracy and conspiracies to commit computer trespass, computer theft, computer invasion of privacy, election fraud, and defrauding the state.
The charges are tied to a Jan. 7, 2021, incident in which personnel of data forensic company SullivanStrickler copied data from election machines and computers in Coffee County, Georgia.
The lawyer for Ms. Powell, Brian Rafferty, has vehemently denied the allegations and is seeking dismissal of the charges.
Mr. Rafferty has argued that examination of the machines wasn’t a crime because it was authorized by the Coffee County Election Board. Even if the board didn’t ultimately have the authority to allow the examination, the people involved operated under the belief that their action was authorized. For their actions to be criminal, they would have to have been undertaken with a knowing lack of authority.
Further still, however, Ms. Powell didn’t organize or participate in the incident, Mr. Rafferty asserted.
“There are no communications of any kind between Ms. Powell and any of the alleged coconspirators or unindicted coconspirators that evince any agreement by Ms. Powell to have SullivanStrickler personnel to travel to Coffee County or to contract for their services for Coffee County—much less to do so for any illegal purpose,” he said in a Sept. 28 filing.
Ms. Powell challenged the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona, but she never represented President Trump, he said.
“It cannot be disputed that Ms. Powell went her own way following the election, and she never reached an agreement on a course of action with any indicted or unindicted coconspirator,” he said.
She did share evidence used in her lawsuits, all of which failed, with President Trump and his aides, and she advised him on his authorities in case of foreign interference in the election, Mr. Rafferty acknowledged.
“All those substantive communications, limited as they were, effectively ended by December 19, 2020,” he said.
He also acknowledged that “Defending the Republic Inc., a non-profit Ms. Powell founded, paid a bill from SullivanStrickler,” but he added that it did so only upon the company’s “threat to post information publicly online after its technicians apparently collected data from Coffee County machines.”
SullivanStrickler didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“Ms. Powell did not request that trip; she did not even know of that trip—much less authorize it,” Mr. Rafferty said.
“Accordingly, she did not agree with anyone to undertake the collection of Coffee County data—even though it was done with permission of Coffee County officials—and the State has no evidence she conspired with anyone to violate any law.”
Ms. Powell and another defendant, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, asked for a speedy trial, which is scheduled to commence on Oct. 23. Other defendants will be tried separately, though it’s not clear when. Several defendants are also trying to have the case removed to a federal court. In some of the latest developments, lawyers for President Trump informed the court that they will not joint the removal effort.
President Trump is facing another indictment for his election challenges in a federal court in the District of Columbia. He’s also fighting charges of illegal retention of defense information in Florida and more charges in New York for allegedly fraudulent bookkeeping entries. In a separate civil suit targeting his businesses, a New York judge recently ordered his businesses in the state dissolved.
President Trump has denounced the legal cases against himself as politically motivated efforts to interfere with his 2024 presidential run.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 10/02/2023 – 19:00
Huge fireball spotted in England night sky after lighting strike
A lightning strike caused a large gas explosion in England on Monday followed by a huge fireball visible in the night sky from miles away.
The fire erupted after lighting hit a gas tank at a food waste recycling plant in Oxfordshire.
The Severn Trent Green Power Plant at Cassington, north of Oxford, told Fox News Digital the lightning strike hit a digester tank, causing one of its biogas tanks to catch fire.
3 ILLINOIS DEPUTIES SUFFER BURNS WHILE DISPOSING OF DYNAMITE IN NEIGHBORING WISCONSIN
“Thankfully no one has been hurt and we are working with the emergency services to make sure the site is safe so that we can assess the damage as soon as possible,” the company said.
BBC News reported that multiple fire engines, police vehicles and ambulances responded to the plant, which processes food waste into biogas.
“It is believed that lightning struck gas containers at the site during bad weather this evening, causing a large fire,” the Thames Valley Police department wrote on social media.
Jack Frowde, 34, who works at Oxford University, told the news outlet: “I was sitting in my kitchen when the whole room lit up with a brilliant white light, then followed by a huge crack which sounded like really heavy thunder.
“I looked out of the kitchen window and it was as if the sky was pulsating orange,” she added. “I ran to the back to capture the orange glow as it faded after about 20 seconds.”
https://www.foxnews.com/world/huge-fireball-spotted-england-night-sky-lighting-strike
White House ignores reporter pointing out there is ‘no seat’ for a disabled journalist as Biden celebrates ADA
A reporter’s question about having no seat for disabled journalists in the press briefing room was ignored by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.
During the latest press conference, a reporter asked Jean-Pierre about the lack of accommodations for journalists with disabilities. This came on the same day President Biden celebrated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“Karine, about disability. There’s no seat here in this room for disabled journalists,” the reporter remarked.
Jean-Pierre ignored the comment and instead moved on to a question regarding there being any conversations between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The reporter again said, “This room has no seat for a handicapped journalist,” as the press secretary left the podium at the end of the briefing and was ignored.
Another reporter could be heard saying, “Thank you for asking that,” as the press secretary left the room.
The ADA, which was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, prohibited the discrimination of Americans based on disabilities in all public and private places open to the general public including jobs, schools and transportation.
“For more than 61 million Americans living with a disability, these laws are a source of opportunity, meaningful inclusion, participation, respect and, as my dad would say is the most important of all, dignity, to be treated with dignity, ensuring that the American Dream is for all of us, not just for some of us. A bulwark against discrimination and the path to personal independence. And for our nation, these laws are a testament to our character as a people, the triumph of values over selfishness,” Biden said on Monday.
In a statement from the White House on Friday, Biden also declared October 2023 as National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
ADVOCATES FOR THE DISABLED SAY VOTERS WITH DISABILITIES LACK ACCESS TO THE POLLS
In 2021, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that daily briefings would include an American Sign Language interpreter to be more inclusive. This followed previous criticism of the Trump administration for failing to provide sign language interpreters for daily COVID-19 briefings.
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“The president is committed to building an America that is more inclusive, more just, and more accessible for every American, including Americans with disabilities and their families,” Psaki said at the time.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media.
Supreme Court declines to hear bid to disqualify Trump from 2024 election over alleged Jan. 6 role
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a case challenging former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on 2024 election ballots because of his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. The long-shot bid to bar Trump, 77, from running for office cites the 14th Amendment’s “Disqualification Clause,” which prohibits…
Controversial zero-bail policy takes effect in Los Angeles, allowing non-violent criminals to go free
Los Angeles County enacted a new rule on Oct. 1 this week which immediately releases non-violent offenders back on the streets instead of holding them in jail until their arraignment.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/02/controversial-zero-bail-policy-takes-effect-in-los-angeles/
Fifth Circuit Court Rules Against Biden’s ATF In Ghost Gun Case
Fifth Circuit Court Rules Against Biden’s ATF In Ghost Gun Case
The Fifth Circuit has partially granted, but essentially denied, the government’s motion to cancel a district court’s injunctions in the Firearms Policy Coalition’s lawsuit (VanDerStok v. Garland) challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “frame or receiver” rule. The injunctions will now only apply to two plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
LEGAL ALERT: The Fifth Circuit has partially granted the government’s motion to vacate the district court injunctions in our lawsuit challenging the ATF’s frame or receiver” rule, saying the injunctions will no longer apply to non-partieshttps://t.co/qcBmmWGKrv pic.twitter.com/cw1VBeAMs3
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 2, 2023
The case involves so-called “ghost guns,” weapons that are sold in ready-to-assemble kits. President Biden has pushed hard to require background checks and serial numbers for buying sets of gun parts under the pretext that these are ‘readily convertible’ and, therefore, firearms. The ruling today means the plaintiffs, Defense Distributed and Blackhawk Manufacturing Group (incorporated, doing business as 80 Percent Arms), can sell every kind of ghost gun kit to their customers while the courts review ATF’s 98-page rule.
“Fourth and finally, courts should be able to review ATF’s 98-page rule, and the decades of precedent it attempts to change, without the Government putting people in jail or shutting down businesses.” pic.twitter.com/phiuw83BNV
— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 2, 2023
Since the plaintiffs, Distributed and Blackhawk Manufacturing, were the only ones permitted to sell ghost gun kits, this essentially grants them a monopoly on selling the kits nationwide. The government, by implementing this rule, has essentially crushed the industry. But they’ve now inadvertently established a monopoly in the process.
Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson explains more on this:
“These are the kinds of accidents integral to Executive and agency overreach in the federal courts. Should have stayed out of the People’s business. Someone will have to break the bad news to Kamala and her lackeys in the new WH Office of Gun Violence Prevention.”
Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t even two weeks into her new role as ‘Gun Czar‘ and has already been delivered a blow as Biden’s war on guns has been squarely pointed at ‘ghost guns.’
Remember this:
It’s likely that anti-gunner organizations like Giffords and Everytown and their billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg will be displeased with Defense Distributed being allowed to sell ghost gun kits again.
Here is constitutional attorney Mark W. Smith breaking down what happened today:
Since this is a ruling in favor of the Second Amendment, we doubt Reuters, Bloomberg, and or any other left-leaning corporate media outlets will be reporting on this.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 10/02/2023 – 18:40
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fifth-circuit-court-rules-against-bidens-ghost-gun-rule
Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays creepy kidnapper in twisty NBC procedural ‘Found’: review
“Found” won’t hit you over the head with a preachy mallet and will. If early indications are indicative, it’s packed with enough surprises to keep viewers guessing week to week.
https://nypost.com/2023/10/02/mark-paul-gosselaar-plays-creepy-kidnapper-in-nbcs-found/
Girls soccer: No. 18 Livingston outpaces Bloomfield to stay unbeaten
Dina Bojkovic and Isabella Dilanni each had a goal and an assist to help lift Livingston, No. 18 in the NJ.com Top 20, to a 4-2 win over Bloomfield in Bloomfield.
North Carolina Gov. Cooper vetoes 2 more bills, but budget still on track to become law Tuesday
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed on Monday both an energy bill and the legislature’s annual regulatory reform measure, while allowing legislation directing more state government oversight of high school athletics to become law.
The measures were among those the General Assembly approved last month before it left Raleigh for a brief hiatus. A dozen had remained on the Democratic governor’s desk as of early Monday.
NORTH CAROLINA GOV. ROY COOPER SIGNS INTO LAW REPUBLICAN REVISIONS TO UPCOMING ABORTION RESTRICTIONS
The vetoed measures now return to the General Assembly, where Republicans hold narrow veto-proof majorities. Before Monday, Cooper had vetoed 16 bills this year, and Republicans had overridden all but two, which are still expected to be acted upon, possibly this month.
The governor can sign a bill he receives into law or veto it. Otherwise, a bill becomes law if he fails to act within 10 days. Cooper said Monday that he signed seven of the remaining bills and declined to sign three others.
The governor had already announced Sept. 22 his decision not to sign on one of those three bills, the two-year state budget bill, which now will become law effective Tuesday.
Cooper had said there were many spending and policy provisions within the budget that he strongly disliked. But several months ago, lawmakers set an enacted budget as the trigger necessary for Cooper’s administration to implement the expansion of Medicaid coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income adults. So by letting the budget become law, Medicaid expansion, which has been one of Cooper’s top priorities, will launch Dec. 1.
The energy bill that Cooper vetoed would encourage more nuclear energy in North Carolina by including that the power produced from nuclear plants and fusion energy be counted toward percentages of electricity that utilities like Duke Energy must generate from renewable sources.
The bill would relabel “renewable energy resources” needed to meet the portfolio standards as “clean energy resources.” Duke Energy already is proposing to state electricity regulators that some coal-fired plants going offline in the future be replaced with a smaller-scale nuclear plants.
Cooper’s veto message said the bill attempts to take the state off a “bipartisan path to removing carbon from our electric power sector in the most cost-effective way,” to the benefit of utility company profits. A 2021 law already is pushing Duke Energy toward eliminating carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 in part by increasing solar and wind-power generation.
“North Carolina should consider all pathways to decarbonize, rather than putting a thumb on the scale in favor of building new conventional generation,” Cooper wrote.
Senate Majority Leader Paul Newton of Cabarrus County, a former Duke Energy executive and bill sponsor, said Cooper’s “hardline opposition to nuclear power is a slap in the face to North Carolina’s energy industry.” The bill, Newton said, would help create a reliable electrical grid.
As for the legislature’s annual regulatory bill, Cooper called it “a hodgepodge of bad provisions that will result in dirtier water, discriminatory permitting and threats to North Carolina’s environment.”
Environmentalists have criticized the measure for certain state permitting changes that they say could assist the approval of a proposed natural gas pipeline that would enter the state from Virginia. Another provision would adjust state law about how waste management systems for hogs and other animals on farms are permitted.
GOP Rep. Jeff Zenger of Forsyth County, a regulatory reform bill sponsor, said Cooper “sided with radical, environmentalist, job crushing bureaucrats over the people of North Carolina” with the veto.
Cooper also cited a provision that blocked administrative rules from taking effect that describe good-faith efforts to engage minority-owned businesses and others considered “historically underutilized” in state contracting,
The governor also said he had allowed a bill to become law that would place more oversight by state education leaders upon the chief nonprofit body that manages high school sports beyond what was required in a 2021 consensus law. The language demanding more supervision of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association was inserted into an unrelated insurance regulation bill.
Cooper called the sports-governance changes “a solution in search of a problem” and said lawmakers should have let the 2021 law remain.
The governor signed into law a bill that both creates a computer science course requirement to graduate from high school and demands adult age verification on websites that publish sexually explicit material.
Another bill Cooper signed would raise criminal penalties against K-12 educators who commit certain sexual acts against students and educate children in upper grades through a video about what constitutes child abuse and neglect.
Volleyball: Superstitions, complete team effort keep Sparta’s undefeated campaign alive
It’s always a different feel when the Sparta volleyball team plays at Roxbury High School.