Former Trump lawyer given censure in Colo. over 2020 election lies
DENVER — Jenna Ellis, a former attorney for Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and a prominent conservative media figure, has been censured by Colorado legal officials after admitting she made repeated false statements about the 2020 presidential election.
Ellis acknowledged making 10 “misrepresentations” on television and Twitter during Trump’s fight to stay in power after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, according to the censure from the office of attorney regulation counsel in Colorado, where Ellis is from. The statements include claiming on Jeanine Pirro’s Fox News show on Dec. 5, 2020, that “we have over 500,000 votes (in Arizona) that were cast illegally” and telling the conservative network Newsmax on Dec. 15 that Trump was “the true and proper victor.”
On November 20, 2020, Ellis appeared on the Newsmax show of former Trump spokesman Sean Spicer and said: “With all those states (Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia) combined, we know that the election was stolen from President Trump and we can prove that.”
Ellis was one of several prominent conservative voices who, in the final weeks of 2020, echoed Trump’s lies that the election was stolen from him. Those falsehoods helped fuel the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Respondent, through her conduct, undermined the American public’s confidence in the presidential election, violating her duty of candor to the public,” wrote Bryon M. Large, the disciplinary judge in the case.
Ellis is based in Washington,
D.C., but is from Colorado and has also practiced in the state. Through her attorney, Michael Melito, she stipulated to both the findings that she’d made misrepresentations and the censure.
Purported cartel apology:
A letter claiming to be from the Mexican drug cartel blamed for abducting four Americans and killing two of them condemned the violence and said the gang turned over to authorities its own members who were responsible.
In a letter obtained by The Associated Press through a Tamaulipas state law enforcement source, the Scorpions faction of the Gulf cartel apologized to the residents of Matamoros where the Americans were kidnapped, the Mexican woman who died in the cartel shootout, and the four Americans and their families.
“We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” the letter reads, adding that those individuals had gone against the cartel’s rules, which include “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”
Drug cartels have been known to issue communiques to intimidate rivals and authorities, but also at times like these as public relations work to try to smooth over situations that could affect their business.
John Paul II debate: Fallout from a TV report alleging that St. John Paul II covered up clergy sex abuse cases escalated Thursday, with Poland’s Catholic Church and lawmakers defending him as one of the greatest Poles ever and the government “inviting” the U.S.
ambassador for talks.
A report this week on TVN24, which is owned by the U.S. company Warner Bros. Discovery, named three priests whom John Paul allegedly moved around during the 1970s after they were accused of abusing minors. At the time, he was still Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, the head of the church in Krakow in southern Poland.
John Paul is revered in the predominantly Roman Catholic country for his role in helping bring down communism, and the TVN report ignited a national debate at a time when the Polish Church has been undergoing a reckoning with its record of clergy sexual abuse.
Visa, Mastercard gun plan:
Visa and Mastercard paused their decision to start categorizing purchases at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and Second Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would
inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases.
The decision is, at the same time, also a defeat for gun control groups. There had been hope that categorizing credit and debit card purchases would allow authorities to potentially see red flags — like significant ammunition purchases — before a mass shooting could happen.
After Visa and Mastercard announced their plans to implement a separate merchant category code for gun shop purchases, the payment networks faced significant opposition from the gun lobby as well as conservative politicians. A group of 24 GOP state attorneys general wrote a letter to the payment networks threatening legal action against Visa and Mastercard if they moved forward with their plan.
There are also bills pending in several state legislatures that would ban the tracking of purchases at gun shops, which would have
made it even more difficult for Visa and Mastercard to implement the categorization.
Buying US submarines:
Australia will purchase U.s.-manufactured, nuclear-powered attack submarines to modernize its fleet, a European official and two people familiar with the matter said Thursday, amid growing concerns about China’s influence in the Indo-pacific region.
The purchase agreement for up to five Virginia-class submarines will be announced Monday when President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meet in San Diego for talks on the 18-month-old nuclear partnership known by the acronym AUKUS. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter ahead of the announcement.
The AUKUS agreement, announced in 2021, paved the way for Australia to
get access to nuclear-powered submarines, which are stealthier and more capable than conventionally powered boats.
Concert stampede: A third person has died after being injured in a stampede after a weekend concert by the rapper Glorilla in western New York, police said Thursday.
Aisha Stephens, 35, of Syracuse, was the only person who remained hospitalized following a Sunday evening performance by the Memphis, Tennessee, rap star and Finesse2tymes at the Rochester Main Street Armory. She died Wednesday night.
Two other women, Rhondesia Belton, 33, of Buffalo, and Brandy Miller, 35, of Rochester, also died and several people were injured after being caught up in a crush of concertgoers who surged toward the exits after the show.
Police said the stampede may have been triggered by unfounded fears of gunfire.