alternet--2020-12-30--Former DOJ civil rights lawyer explains why Trump’s worst pardon is the one we aren’t hearing about

Over the last two weeks , President Donald Trump has been met with heightened criticism for his flurry of pardons which many have described as a blatant abuse of power .
Many of Trump 's most controversial pardons , including his son-in-law Jared Kushner 's father , Charles Kushner , Roger Stone , and Paul Manafort , have made headlines , but former DOJ lawyer Alex Busansky , in an op-ed for the Washington Post , explains what he considers to be Trump 's worst pardon , to date .
According to Busansky , Trump 's decision to pardon Stephanie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mohr 's name has not been mentioned much in the reports highlighting Trump 's pardons , the publication argues that her crime is insulting to the ongoing civil rights battle against police brutality and inequality .
Mohr , a police officer for the Prince George 's County Police Department , found herself at the center of controversy when she violated a homeless man 's civil rights .
The former officer served more than 10 years behind bars following a police brutality case where she unleashed her K-9 on the homeless man .
While @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an officer who participated in police brutality , Busansky highlighted a number of aspects in the case that suggest otherwise .
`` A police sergeant later testified that he was approached by Mohr 's supervising officer who said , `` Hey Sarge , we got a new dog .
Mind if it gets a bite ? ''
The sergeant gave consent , and Mohr set her dog to attack Mendez , an undocumented immigrant whose only crime was seeking a safe place to eat and sleep .
Mohr testified that she was doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ victim needed `` only 10 stitches . ''
Think about that : only 10 stitches .
Mohr disregarded her training to give her dog a taste of flesh and blood . ''
Despite Mohr 's claims , Busansky emphasizes `` this was no accident or split-second mistake .
It was a willful and deliberate act of police brutality '' and it was not Mohr 's first offense .
With all of the evidence stacked against Mohr , Trump disregarded facts and pardoned her anyway -- signaling a blatant disregard for the law and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

Over the last two weeks, President Donald Trump has been met with heightened criticism for his flurry of pardons which many have described as a blatant abuse of power. Many of Trump's most controversial pardons, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort, have made headlines, but former DOJ lawyer Alex Busansky, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, explains what he considers to be Trump's worst pardon, to date.
According to Busansky, Trump's decision to pardon Stephanie Mohr is likely his worst. Although Mohr's name has not been mentioned much in the reports highlighting Trump's pardons, the publication argues that her crime is insulting to the ongoing civil rights battle against police brutality and inequality.
Mohr, a police officer for the Prince George's County Police Department, found herself at the center of controversy when she violated a homeless man's civil rights.
The former officer served more than 10 years behind bars following a police brutality case where she unleashed her K-9 on the homeless man. While Mohr has insisted that she was not an officer who participated in police brutality, Busansky highlighted a number of aspects in the case that suggest otherwise.
Busanksy writes:
"A police sergeant later testified that he was approached by Mohr's supervising officer who said, "Hey Sarge, we got a new dog. Mind if it gets a bite?" The sergeant gave consent, and Mohr set her dog to attack Mendez, an undocumented immigrant whose only crime was seeking a safe place to eat and sleep. Mohr testified that she was doing her job as trained, and the victim needed "only 10 stitches."
Think about that: only 10 stitches. Mohr disregarded her training to give her dog a taste of flesh and blood."
Despite Mohr's claims, Busansky emphasizes "this was no accident or split-second mistake. It was a willful and deliberate act of police brutality" and it was not Mohr's first offense. With all of the evidence stacked against Mohr, Trump disregarded facts and pardoned her anyway -- signaling a blatant disregard for the law and the consequences Mohr faced for her actions.


alternet--2020-12-30--Louisiana GOP Congressman-elect Luke Letlow dies after battle with COVID-19

Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow has passed away after being hospitalized with COVID-19 .
On Tuesday , Dec. 29 , the newly elected congressman 's spokesperson released a statement on his Facebook page confirming his death .
`` Congressman-elect Luke Letlow , 41 , passed away this evening at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport due to complications from COVID-19 , '' Letlow spokesman Andrew Bautsch said .
Bautsch also included remarks on behalf of Letlow 's family saying they : `` appreciate the numerous prayers and support over the past days but asks for privacy during this difficult and unexpected time . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ after he was hospitalized at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe , La .
On Dec. 23 , it was announced that he had been transferred to Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport Academic Medical Center in Shreveport where LSU Health Sciences Center Chancellor G.E .
Ghali confirmed he was in stable condition and being treated with `` Remdesivir and steroids as part of his regiment therapy , '' according to The New Star .
However , over the next several days , his condition worsened .
In the wake of Letlow 's death , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ condolences on social media .
With a number of photos he had taken with Letlow , Rep. Garrett Graves ( R-La . )
tweeted , `` Luke Letlow is now with our Creator , but his premature departure from this world is a huge loss to Louisiana and America .
Just weeks ago , voters overwhelmingly chose Luke to represent them in Congress . ''
He added , `` They saw what so many of us know of Luke - kind , smart , quick-witted , God-fearing , hard-working , honest and just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to working with him in our small delegation in Washington .
This news is hard and words can not express my sorrow right now ... '' New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell ( D ) also weighed in via Twitter saying , `` '' We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Congressman-elect Luke Letlow .
He was a promising young leader who loved Louisiana deeply .
Our prayers go out to his family and loved ones . ''
Details about Letlow 's funeral arrangements have yet to be announced .
According to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law , `` a special election will now take place to elect someone to represent the state 's 5th Congressional District . ''

Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow has passed away after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
On Tuesday, Dec. 29, the newly elected congressman's spokesperson released a statement on his Facebook page confirming his death. "Congressman-elect Luke Letlow, 41, passed away this evening at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport due to complications from COVID-19," Letlow spokesman Andrew Bautsch said.
Bautsch also included remarks on behalf of Letlow's family saying they: "appreciate the numerous prayers and support over the past days but asks for privacy during this difficult and unexpected time."
Letlow's death comes almost two weeks after he was hospitalized at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe, La. On Dec. 23, it was announced that he had been transferred to Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport Academic Medical Center in Shreveport where LSU Health Sciences Center Chancellor G.E. Ghali confirmed he was in stable condition and being treated with "Remdesivir and steroids as part of his regiment therapy," according to The New Star.
However, over the next several days, his condition worsened.
In the wake of Letlow's death, a number of other lawmakers offered their condolences on social media. With a number of photos he had taken with Letlow, Rep. Garrett Graves (R-La.) tweeted, "Luke Letlow is now with our Creator, but his premature departure from this world is a huge loss to Louisiana and America. Just weeks ago, voters overwhelmingly chose Luke to represent them in Congress."
He added, "They saw what so many of us know of Luke - kind, smart, quick-witted, God-fearing, hard-working, honest and just a good guy. I looked forward to working with him in our small delegation in Washington. This news is hard and words cannot express my sorrow right now..."
New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell (D) also weighed in via Twitter saying, ""We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Congressman-elect Luke Letlow. He was a promising young leader who loved Louisiana deeply. Our prayers go out to his family and loved ones."
Details about Letlow's funeral arrangements have yet to be announced. According to CNN's outline of Louisiana state law law, "a special election will now take place to elect someone to represent the state's 5th Congressional District."


alternet--2020-12-30--Voting machine company behind so many surprise wins this year raises some questions

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After initially focusing on the surprisingly lopsided results of the senatorial election in Kentucky , DCReport broadened our scope to look at the electronic vote-counting software and electronic voting systems that we rely on to tally our votes .
This prompted us to raise questions about Electronic Systems & Software ( ES & S ) , America 's largest voting machine company .
What we found was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ES & S .
Voting results in three states that saw surprising majorities by vulnerable incumbent Republican senators—Maine , North Carolina and South Carolina—were almost all tabulated on ES & S machines .
Trump and his inept legal team have barely mentioned ES & S , focusing almost exclusively on Dominion Voting Systems .
Rudy Giuliani , Sydney Powell and Fox hosts have been making such bold and naked claims against the ES & S competitors , without any substance or evidence , that Fox News , NewsMax and OAN have all been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their claims and correct a number of egregious factual errors .
Team Trump has been so vigorous in going after Dominion that it prompted us to look into how ES & S operates .
What we have found so far is far from comforting .
Counties that used ES & S equipment in the 2020 elections .
( Verified Voting ) Concerns about the reliability of vote-counting software are not new , dating back to the 1980s .
Having the ability to audit votes , and making sure ballots are counted properly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ computer scientists , politicians and election officials .
In December 2019 , Democratic lawmakers sought answers from those top three voting machine vendors which `` facilitate voting for over 90 % of all eligible voters in the United States . ''
Three separate letters were sent to the private equity firms who `` reportedly own or control each of these vendors , with very limited 'information available in the public domain about their operations and financial performance . '
`` In the second letter , addressed directly to the McCarthy Group , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ S , lawmakers wrote that `` voting machines are reportedly falling apart across the country , as vendors neglect to innovate and improve important voting systems , putting our elections at avoidable and increased risk . ''
In requesting details about the ownership of ES & S , the lawmakers specifically noted `` we are particularly concerned that secretive and 'trouble-plagued companies , ' owned by private equity firms and responsible for manufacturing and maintaining voting machines and other election administration equipment , 'have long skimped on security in favor of convenience , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'prone to security problems ' . ''
DCReport placed numerous calls and emails to ES & S at its headquarters on John Galt Boulevard in Omaha .
Only once was the phone answered by someone who would not put us through saying `` they are not going to be able to talk to you. ''
.
DCReport was directed to ES & S 's website .
DCReport submitted the form repeatedly but got no reply .
Our democracy now relies on private companies , which build proprietary electronic systems , to reliably count @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if not crucial , to understand who is behind these companies as a standard to ensure election integrity .
Without such knowledge , we run the risk that zealots , or investors with a financial stake in who wins elections , or those susceptible to bribery , have an incentive to use subtle software programming techniques to deliberately miscount votes to guarantee an outcome .
In close elections , software code that invalidates or miscounts a mere sliver of ballots can change the outcome .
One of our concerns is ES & S @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as uncovered in June 2018 by McClatchy newspapers .
For at least 11 years , the voting equipment and software company curried favor with election officials by paying for trips to Las Vegas , tickets to shows and gifts .
`` As many as a dozen election officials '' attended a meeting in Las Vegas , with a number of them accepting airfare , lodging , and meals , McClatchy reported .
A company spokeswoman told McClatchy that the junkets were `` immensely valuable in providing customer feedback .
One of our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is how we achieve that . ''
Marci Andino , the current executive director of the South Carolina State Election Commission , received more than $ 19,000 worth of flights , hotels and meals from ES & S since 2009 , according to South Carolina Ethics Commission disclosure forms .
Andino 's influence extends beyond the Palmetto State .
She is also a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission 's Standards Board and has testified on election issues .
She is a former President of the National Association of State Election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an election official tied to a voting company creates concerns about conflicts .
DCReport also looked into the careers of some key ES & S executives .
What we found is concerning .
Kathy Rogers , ES & S 's senior vice president for government affairs , landed at ES & S after controversy over her work as a Georgia state elections official .
She opposed legislation trying to ensure vote counts could be verified .
In 2019 , The New Yorker wrote about her actions in `` How Voting-Machine Lobbyists Undermine the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a bill requiring a verifiable paper record of each ballot , introduced in the Georgia legislature at the urging of election-integrity advocates , failed after the state 's elections director , Kathy Rogers , opposed it , '' the magazine reported .
Georgia used ES & S machines in 2018 but now relies on Dominion equipment .
Georgia 's 2018 gubernatorial race is noteworthy because it was overseen by Brian Kemp , who was then in charge of Georgia elections as secretary of state .
That year , Kemp also ran for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a conflict of interest that he dismissed .
Kemp won a narrow victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams , but only after his office blocked 53,000 voter registration applications using a `` strict '' name matching protocol comparing state records to voter registration forms .
Registrations were tossed if , for example , a person used a first name , middle initial and last name , on one form , but then used all three names in full on another .
This invalidated a huge number of voter registration applications under Kemp 's policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ judge declared that Georgia had to implement a completely new voting system in time for the 2020 elections , replacing what the judge called `` unsecure , unreliable and grossly outdated technology . ''
Kemp tried to keep using the ES & S equipment for future elections , prompting Peach State Democrats to assert cronyism in the Kemp administration .
In January 2019 , the Georgia Democratic Party challenged the integrity of voting machines that did not create an auditable paper trial , a policy he pursued through the creation of the Secure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Commission .
The Democrats demanded a delay on recommendations for a new voting system `` following the discovery that a leading vendor under consideration , whose machines are currently being investigated in a lawsuit due to errors in the 2018 election , has deep connections to Brian Kemp 's office '' .
That vendor was ES & S .
The deep ties were due to Kemp having hired a longtime associate who was a registered lobbyist for ES & S .
As Politico characterized it at the time : `` Georgia likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
It also reported that `` Critics argued that the bill appeared to be written with one vendor in mind : the voting technology giant Election Systems & Software , whose former top lobbyist , is now Kemp 's deputy chief of staff . ''
How many other states are conducting elections on `` grossly outdated '' or otherwise unreliable ES & S technology in 2018 and in 2020 ?
This is an issue we are still investigating .
In Georgia , it was Brad Raffensperger , a Republican who succeeded Kemp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dominion Voting Systems as the new elections vendor .
The most recent Georgia election seems to be the first election in recent Georgian history not marred by voting-machine controversy other than Trump 's nakedly false claims of vote stealing and corruption aimed at Republican Raffensperger .
The 2020 voting took place on a new system with an auditable paper ballot system .
Three recounts , including an audit requiring `` roughly 5 million votes in that contest to be recounted by hand '' and as Secretary of State Raffensperger stated , showed results @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have now counted legally cast ballots three times , and the results remain unchanged , '' Raffensperger said .
Furthermore , a Judge declared Trump 's legal team produced `` precious little proof '' in their pleadings .
ES & S 's revolving door policy means its lobbyists taking top government official positions as well as government political appointees becoming ES & S executives .
One of these is Chris Wlaschin , who left the Trump Administration in March 2018 .
He was the chief information security official in the Health & Human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he landed at ES & S as `` its new vice president of systems security responsible for the company 's security efforts . ''
Wlaschin abruptly left the Trump administration after HHS Secretary Alex Azar received a letter from a lawyer representing two HHS executives .
The letter asserted that Wlaschin had improperly removed the pair and citedan eye-popping false claim Wlaschin used to justify disciplinary action .
`` Mr. Wlaschin has stated that my clients were removed from their positions in order to protect an ongoing OIG investigation , '' wrote lawyer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ General for the National Security Community .
`` You can , therefore , imagine the shock and surprise of my clients when they were both recently advised , unequivocally and categorically , by senior investigators from the HHS OIG , that neither of them are currently or were at any time in the past under investigation '' by the inspector general 's office , McCullough wrote .
The letter was dated March 12 , 2018 .
Wlaschin 's resume says he joined ES & S the next month .
The integrity of voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ audit vote counts , has been the subject of public debate for more than four decades .
But most of the recent attention has been focused on one company , Dominion Voting Systems , most recently because of frivolous lawsuits filed by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and others .
But is that simply a distraction .
We think the issue of who counts our votes , how they are counted , and what ties the companies selling these systems have to politicians deserves more attention .
Politicians who must win @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , must not be able to exert influence on the companies we rely on to tally our votes .
We need serious scrutiny over our elections so we can be assured that they represent the will of the people , not of the politicians themselves , and the companies they hire to process our ballots .

This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.
After initially focusing on the surprisingly lopsided results of the senatorial election in Kentucky, DCReport broadened our scope to look at the electronic vote-counting software and electronic voting systems that we rely on to tally our votes. This prompted us to raise questions about Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S), America's largest voting machine company. What we found was a revolving door between government officials and ES&S.
Voting results in three states that saw surprising majorities by vulnerable incumbent Republican senators—Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina—were almost all tabulated on ES&S machines.
Trump and his inept legal team have barely mentioned ES&S, focusing almost exclusively on Dominion Voting Systems.
Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell and Fox hosts have been making such bold and naked claims against the ES&S competitors, without any substance or evidence, that Fox News, NewsMax and OAN have all been threatened with litigation unless they fully retract their claims and correct a number of egregious factual errors.
Team Trump has been so vigorous in going after Dominion that it prompted us to look into how ES&S operates. What we have found so far is far from comforting.
Owned by a private equity firm, ES&S has been elusive about identifying the people in its ownership.
A number of ES&S executives and lobbyists have ties to top GOP election officials and politicians.
The ES&S executive in charge of the security previously worked in the Trump administration as a government executive at Health and Human Services before leaving under a cloud.
Forty of the 50 states use ES&S to cast & count some of their votes.
Of the 25 states Trump won, all but 3 either partially or fully relied on ES&S machines. The states where Trump won that didn't use ES&S machines were Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Alaska.
Counties that used ES&S equipment in the 2020 elections. (Verified Voting)
Concerns about the reliability of vote-counting software are not new, dating back to the 1980s. Having the ability to audit votes, and making sure ballots are counted properly, has long been a major concern of computer scientists, politicians and election officials.
In December 2019, Democratic lawmakers sought answers from those top three voting machine vendors which "facilitate voting for over 90% of all eligible voters in the United States."
Three separate letters were sent to the private equity firms who "reportedly own or control each of these vendors, with very limited 'information available in the public domain about their operations and financial performance.' "
Elections at Risk
In the second letter, addressed directly to the McCarthy Group, the private equity firm that owns ES&S, lawmakers wrote that "voting machines are reportedly falling apart across the country, as vendors neglect to innovate and improve important voting systems, putting our elections at avoidable and increased risk."
In requesting details about the ownership of ES&S, the lawmakers specifically noted "we are particularly concerned that secretive and 'trouble-plagued companies,' owned by private equity firms and responsible for manufacturing and maintaining voting machines and other election administration equipment, 'have long skimped on security in favor of convenience,' leaving voting systems across the country 'prone to security problems'."
DCReport placed numerous calls and emails to ES&S at its headquarters on John Galt Boulevard in Omaha. Only once was the phone answered by someone who would not put us through saying "they are not going to be able to talk to you.". DCReport was directed to ES&S's website. DCReport submitted the form repeatedly but got no reply.
Understanding the Software
Our democracy now relies on private companies, which build proprietary electronic systems, to reliably count our votes. It seems reasonable, if not crucial, to understand who is behind these companies as a standard to ensure election integrity. Without such knowledge, we run the risk that zealots, or investors with a financial stake in who wins elections, or those susceptible to bribery, have an incentive to use subtle software programming techniques to deliberately miscount votes to guarantee an outcome. In close elections, software code that invalidates or miscounts a mere sliver of ballots can change the outcome.
One of our concerns is ES&S providing junkets and gratuities to election officials, as uncovered in June 2018 by McClatchy newspapers. For at least 11 years, the voting equipment and software company curried favor with election officials by paying for trips to Las Vegas, tickets to shows and gifts.
"As many as a dozen election officials" attended a meeting in Las Vegas, with a number of them accepting airfare, lodging, and meals, McClatchy reported. A company spokeswoman told McClatchy that the junkets were "immensely valuable in providing customer feedback. One of our key results is customer satisfaction, and this is how we achieve that."
Marci Andino, the current executive director of the South Carolina State Election Commission, received more than $19,000 worth of flights, hotels and meals from ES&S since 2009, according to South Carolina Ethics Commission disclosure forms.
Andino's influence extends beyond the Palmetto State. She is also a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's Standards Board and has testified on election issues. She is a former President of the National Association of State Election Directors (NASED). To have an election official tied to a voting company creates concerns about conflicts.
Executives with Political Ties
DCReport also looked into the careers of some key ES&S executives. What we found is concerning.
Kathy Rogers, ES&S's senior vice president for government affairs, landed at ES&S after controversy over her work as a Georgia state elections official. She opposed legislation trying to ensure vote counts could be verified.
In 2019, The New Yorker wrote about her actions in "How Voting-Machine Lobbyists Undermine the Democratic Process."
"In 2006, a bill requiring a verifiable paper record of each ballot, introduced in the Georgia legislature at the urging of election-integrity advocates, failed after the state's elections director, Kathy Rogers, opposed it," the magazine reported.
Georgia used ES&S machines in 2018 but now relies on Dominion equipment.
Georgia's 2018 gubernatorial race is noteworthy because it was overseen by Brian Kemp, who was then in charge of Georgia elections as secretary of state. That year, Kemp also ran for governor while overseeing his own election, a conflict of interest that he dismissed.
Kemp won a narrow victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams, but only after his office blocked 53,000 voter registration applications using a "strict" name matching protocol comparing state records to voter registration forms.
Kemp's Conflicts
Registrations were tossed if, for example, a person used a first name, middle initial and last name, on one form, but then used all three names in full on another. This invalidated a huge number of voter registration applications under Kemp's policy.
After Kemp won, a federal judge declared that Georgia had to implement a completely new voting system in time for the 2020 elections, replacing what the judge called "unsecure, unreliable and grossly outdated technology." Kemp tried to keep using the ES&S equipment for future elections, prompting Peach State Democrats to assert cronyism in the Kemp administration.
In January 2019, the Georgia Democratic Party challenged the integrity of voting machines that did not create an auditable paper trial, a policy he pursued through the creation of the Secure, Accessible & Fair Election or SAFE Commission.
The Democrats demanded a delay on recommendations for a new voting system "following the discovery that a leading vendor under consideration, whose machines are currently being investigated in a lawsuit due to errors in the 2018 election, has deep connections to Brian Kemp's office". That vendor was ES&S. The deep ties were due to Kemp having hired a longtime associate who was a registered lobbyist for ES&S.
As Politico characterized it at the time: "Georgia likely to plow ahead with buying insecure voting machines." It also reported that "Critics argued that the bill appeared to be written with one vendor in mind: the voting technology giant Election Systems & Software, whose former top lobbyist, is now Kemp's deputy chief of staff."
How many other states are conducting elections on "grossly outdated" or otherwise unreliable ES&S technology in 2018 and in 2020? This is an issue we are still investigating.
In Georgia, it was Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who succeeded Kemp as the elections overseer, who announced Dominion Voting Systems as the new elections vendor.
A Clean Election
The most recent Georgia election seems to be the first election in recent Georgian history not marred by voting-machine controversy other than Trump's nakedly false claims of vote stealing and corruption aimed at Republican Raffensperger.
The 2020 voting took place on a new system with an auditable paper ballot system. Three recounts, including an audit requiring "roughly 5 million votes in that contest to be recounted by hand" and as Secretary of State Raffensperger stated, showed results as close as imaginable.
"We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged," Raffensperger said. Furthermore, a Judge declared Trump's legal team produced "precious little proof" in their pleadings.
ES&S's revolving door policy means its lobbyists taking top government official positions as well as government political appointees becoming ES&S executives.
One of these is Chris Wlaschin, who left the Trump Administration in March 2018. He was the chief information security official in the Health & Human Services Department. A few weeks later he landed at ES&S as "its new vice president of systems security responsible for the company's security efforts."
HHS to ES&S
Wlaschin abruptly left the Trump administration after HHS Secretary Alex Azar received a letter from a lawyer representing two HHS executives. The letter asserted that Wlaschin had improperly removed the pair and citedan eye-popping false claim Wlaschin used to justify disciplinary action.
"Mr. Wlaschin has stated that my clients were removed from their positions in order to protect an ongoing OIG investigation," wrote lawyer I. Charles McCullough, a former Inspector General for the National Security Community.
"You can, therefore, imagine the shock and surprise of my clients when they were both recently advised, unequivocally and categorically, by senior investigators from the HHS OIG, that neither of them are currently or were at any time in the past under investigation" by the inspector general's office, McCullough wrote.
The letter was dated March 12, 2018. Wlaschin's resume says he joined ES&S the next month.
The integrity of voting systems, and especially the ability to audit vote counts, has been the subject of public debate for more than four decades. But most of the recent attention has been focused on one company, Dominion Voting Systems, most recently because of frivolous lawsuits filed by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and others. But is that simply a distraction.
We think the issue of who counts our votes, how they are counted, and what ties the companies selling these systems have to politicians deserves more attention. Politicians who must win elections, in order to wield power, must not be able to exert influence on the companies we rely on to tally our votes. We need serious scrutiny over our elections so we can be assured that they represent the will of the people, not of the politicians themselves, and the companies they hire to process our ballots.


alternet--2020-12-30--UN human rights experts condemn Trump’s Blackwater pardons: 'An affront to justice'

The long list of people who President Donald Trump pardoned this month ranges from cronies like Paul Manafort ( Trump 's former 2016 campaign manager ) and Charles Kushner ( father of White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner ) to four ex-employees of the private security firm Blackwater who had been serving time in prison for the killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad 's Nisour Square in 2007 .
And a group of human rights experts for the United Nations , according to Reuters , are denouncing the Blackwater pardons as a violation of international law .
The four former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Slatten , Dustin Heard , Paul Slough and Evan Liberty .
While Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder , the other three were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter .
Blackwater 's former CEO , Erik Prince , is the brother of Betsy DeVos , secretary of education in the outgoing Trump Administration .
Jelena Aparac , who chairs a UN working group on the use of mercenaries , said , in an official statement , `` Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour @ @ @ @ @ @ @ According to the UN group , allowing private security contractors to `` operate with impunity in armed conflicts '' is a violation of international law .
And the group stressed that under the Geneva Conventions , war criminals must be held accountable for their actions even if they are working as private security contractors .
`` These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level , '' the group said in an official statement .

The long list of people who President Donald Trump pardoned this month ranges from cronies like Paul Manafort (Trump's former 2016 campaign manager) and Charles Kushner (father of White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner) to four ex-employees of the private security firm Blackwater who had been serving time in prison for the killing of Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's Nisour Square in 2007. And a group of human rights experts for the United Nations, according to Reuters, are denouncing the Blackwater pardons as a violation of international law.
The four former Blackwater employees who Trump pardoned were Nicholas Slatten, Dustin Heard, Paul Slough and Evan Liberty. While Slatten was convicted of first-degree murder, the other three were convicted of voluntary and attempted manslaughter.
Blackwater's former CEO, Erik Prince, is the brother of Betsy DeVos, secretary of education in the outgoing Trump Administration.
Jelena Aparac, who chairs a UN working group on the use of mercenaries, said, in an official statement, "Pardoning the Blackwater contractors is an affront to justice and to the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families."
According to the UN group, allowing private security contractors to "operate with impunity in armed conflicts" is a violation of international law. And the group stressed that under the Geneva Conventions, war criminals must be held accountable for their actions even if they are working as private security contractors.
"These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level," the group said in an official statement.


alternet--2020-12-30--Nashville bomber's ex-girlfriend warned authorities of planned attack last year: report

The former girlfriend of the Nashville bomber reportedly warned law enforcement officials last year that he was building bombs inside his RV trailer , according to a new report that has surfaced .
According to the Tennessean , the woman conducted a live interview from her home on August 21 , 2019 , where she told Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officers her ex-boyfriend Tony Warner `` was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence . ''
The woman 's former attorney , Raymond Throckmorton III , also expressed concerns about the man 's actions claiming that he `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' and `` knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb , '' according to a report filed by the Nashville Police Department .
MNPD spokesman Don Aaron also released a statement to the publication regarding the woman 's claims .
`` She related that the guns belonged to a 'Tony Warner ' and that she did not want them in the house any longer , '' Aaron said in a statement to the publication .
But despite receiving the tip about Warner , law enforcement officials claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to search his home .
`` At no time was there any evidence of a crime detected and no additional action was taken , '' Aaron said .
`` No additional information about Warner came to the department 's or the FBI 's attention after August 2019 . ''
`` They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property , '' Aaron said of officers ' unsuccessful efforts to search Warner 's premises .
Aaron also claimed later that day `` the FBI reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found no records on Warner at all . ''
On Aug. 28 , 2019 , the U.S. Department of Defense also confirmed that `` checks on Warner were all negative . ''

The former girlfriend of the Nashville bomber reportedly warned law enforcement officials last year that he was building bombs inside his RV trailer, according to a new report that has surfaced.
According to the Tennessean, the woman conducted a live interview from her home on August 21, 2019, where she told Metropolitan Nashville Police Department officers her ex-boyfriend Tony Warner "was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence."
The woman's former attorney, Raymond Throckmorton III, also expressed concerns about the man's actions claiming that he "frequently talks about the military and bomb-making," and "knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb," according to a report filed by the Nashville Police Department. MNPD spokesman Don Aaron also released a statement to the publication regarding the woman's claims.
"She related that the guns belonged to a 'Tony Warner' and that she did not want them in the house any longer," Aaron said in a statement to the publication.
But despite receiving the tip about Warner, law enforcement officials claim they still did not have probable cause to search his home.
"At no time was there any evidence of a crime detected and no additional action was taken," Aaron said. "No additional information about Warner came to the department's or the FBI's attention after August 2019."
"They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property," Aaron said of officers' unsuccessful efforts to search Warner's premises. Aaron also claimed later that day "the FBI reported back that they checked their holdings and found no records on Warner at all."
On Aug. 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense also confirmed that "checks on Warner were all negative."


alternet--2020-12-31--Pro-Trump lawyer demands to know if John Roberts was involved in Antonin Scalia's death

On Wednesday , pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood took to Twitter to attack Chief Justice John Roberts , suggesting a wild conspiracy theory that he may have been involved in , or had advance warning of , Justice Antonin Scalia 's death in 2016 .
`` You are recorded discussing Justice Scalia 's successor before date of his sudden death , '' said Wood .
`` How did you know Scalia was going to die ? ''
For good measure , Wood also threw in allegations based on the QAnon hoax : `` Are you a member of any club or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? ''
This is not the first time Wood has directed his ire at Roberts , who has repeatedly refused to intervene in the ballot counting process in states .
Last week , he tweeted a demand for Roberts to resign .
Wood , who has represented a number of high-profile right wing clients and has been involved in unsuccessful lawsuits alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election , has increasingly aggravated even members of President Donald Trump 's campaign with his behavior — particularly his suggestion that Republicans should boycott the Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loyalty to Trump .

On Wednesday, pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood took to Twitter to attack Chief Justice John Roberts, suggesting a wild conspiracy theory that he may have been involved in, or had advance warning of, Justice Antonin Scalia's death in 2016.
"You are recorded discussing Justice Scalia's successor before date of his sudden death," said Wood. "How did you know Scalia was going to die?"
For good measure, Wood also threw in allegations based on the QAnon hoax: "Are you a member of any club or cabal requiring minor children as initiation fee?"
This is not the first time Wood has directed his ire at Roberts, who has repeatedly refused to intervene in the ballot counting process in states. Last week, he tweeted a demand for Roberts to resign.
Wood, who has represented a number of high-profile right wing clients and has been involved in unsuccessful lawsuits alleging voter fraud in the 2020 election, has increasingly aggravated even members of President Donald Trump's campaign with his behavior — particularly his suggestion that Republicans should boycott the Georgia Senate runoffs to ensure the incumbents' loyalty to Trump.


alternet--2020-12-31--CNN reporter works over Donald Trump Jr's 'fact-free' defense of 'incessant liar' dad

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale corrected Donald Trump Jr. 's claims about his plans for covering Joe Biden 's presidency .
President Donald Trump 's eldest son retweeted an excerpt from an article published by The Atlantic , where Dale said he did n't expect fact-checking the president-elect to be a `` 24-hour , seven-day-a-week job '' as it had been cataloging the outgoing chief executive 's lies — which Trump Jr. twisted into an admission of bias .
`` CNN 'fact checker ' admitting that he 's pivoting from fact checking Biden to focusing on 'online disinformation , ' AKA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ internet + 'congressional leaders ' which will almost undoubtedly = congressional Republicans in practice , '' Trump Jr. tweeted .
Dale , however , called out the president 's son for spreading online disinformation .
`` Not at all what I said ; no 'pivot , ' '' Dale responded .
`` What I said : Since Biden — like every non-Trump Republican in the 2016 field and potential 2024 field !
— lies way less frequently than Trump , there 'll be time in the Biden era to *also* fact check others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` CNN will rigorously fact check President Biden , '' Dale added .
`` It 's just objective and obvious fact that it takes less time to fact check basically everyone in politics than it takes to do Trump , a staggeringly incessant liar .
If you choose to call me biased for stating that fact , feel free . ''

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale corrected Donald Trump Jr.'s claims about his plans for covering Joe Biden's presidency.
President Donald Trump's eldest son retweeted an excerpt from an article published by The Atlantic, where Dale said he didn't expect fact-checking the president-elect to be a "24-hour, seven-day-a-week job" as it had been cataloging the outgoing chief executive's lies — which Trump Jr. twisted into an admission of bias.
"CNN 'fact checker' admitting that he's pivoting from fact checking Biden to focusing on 'online disinformation,' AKA CNN code for Republicans who use the internet + 'congressional leaders' which will almost undoubtedly = congressional Republicans in practice," Trump Jr. tweeted.
Dale, however, called out the president's son for spreading online disinformation.
"Not at all what I said; no 'pivot,'" Dale responded. "What I said: Since Biden — like every non-Trump Republican in the 2016 field and potential 2024 field! — lies way less frequently than Trump, there'll be time in the Biden era to *also* fact check others in addition to the president.'
"CNN will rigorously fact check President Biden," Dale added. "It's just objective and obvious fact that it takes less time to fact check basically everyone in politics than it takes to do Trump, a staggeringly incessant liar. If you choose to call me biased for stating that fact, feel free."


alternet--2020-12-31--Criminal Trump pardoned personally thanked the president at holiday party in Florida

Roger Stone , the close ally and informal adviser to Donald Trump , bragged on Monday that he had personally thanked the president for pardoning him last week .
`` My wife and I both had the opportunity to thank the president personally for righting the injustice of my conviction in a Soviet-style show trial , which featured the epic bias of the judge who withheld exculpatory evidence from my defense , misconduct by the jury forewoman and substantial misconduct by the prosecutors , '' Stone told ABC News about his encounter with Trump on Sunday night .
According to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in passing while going to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach , Florida .
He and his wife , Nydia Stone , were guests of Newsmax publisher Christopher Ruddy .
Although the White House declined to comment on the matter , a source who was in the dining room — which had roughly 100 people in it — shared a picture of Trump interacting with Stone by patting the convicted felon on the shoulder .
Trump 's decision to pardon Stone was not entirely unexpected .
As Salon 's Heather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's sentence days before he was supposed to report to prison in July .
Stone had intimated in an interview with journalist Howard Fineman that he could `` play Judas '' against Trump .
`` I think we might have expected a full pardon , but since there was reportedly so much resistance within the administration , Trump may have decided that commutation before the election , and then pardon afterward looked like a reasonable compromise , '' Parton wrote .
There is no evidence to support any of Stone 's claims about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stone was convicted in November 2019 of obstruction of justice , witness tampering and making false statements .
In February , Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison , although he was able to achieve a number of delays when it came to actually being incarcerated .
There is some debate within the legal community about whether accepting a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt .
In the 1915 Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States , the court wrote that a pardon `` carries an imputation of guilt ; acceptance a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ford later used this quote to justify pardoning his predecessor , President Richard Nixon , who was facing criminal charges related to his involvement in the Watergate scandal .
Yet pardons do not legally establish that a person is either guilty or acknowledging guilt , with President George H. W. Bush famously pardoning former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger because he believed that official 's conviction in the Iran-Contra scandal had amounted to `` the criminalization of policy differences . ''
Salon spoke with Stone in 2017 about his alleged connections to Russia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact or coordination with Russians involving the 2016 presidential election .
When this reporter asked Stone , after the political operative was the victim of a hit-and-run , why he had sent him a text message saying that he suspected it might have been perpetrated by someone who did not want him to testify about the Russia investigation , Stone insisted that there were a number of `` false statements '' by members of the House that he wanted to correct .
Stone is also an inflammatory figure because of his association with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 he was photographed flashing an allegedly white supremacist hand signal with members of the Proud Boys , the same radical right group that Trump encouraged to `` stand back and stand by '' during one of his debates with President-elect Joe Biden .
Stone told this reporter at the time that `` we reject the claim that is a symbol of bi [ g ] otry and we specifically denounce White Supremacy . ''
In September Stone urged Trump to declare martial law if he lost the 2020 presidential election and has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stop the Steal , '' a movement that accuses Democrats of stealing the election from Trump despite being unable to prove their claims .
The Trump campaign has lost all 59 of the fraud-related cases it has brought to court ( some presided over by Republican and Trump-appointed judges ) , only winning a case that involved a procedural question .
Trump 's own attorney general William Barr admitted after investigating voter fraud accusations that there was no reason to believe Biden had not legitimately won the election .
The Supreme Court also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have no merit , three of whom were judges appointed by Trump himself .
Salon reached out to Stone for this article but he declined to comment .

Roger Stone, the close ally and informal adviser to Donald Trump, bragged on Monday that he had personally thanked the president for pardoning him last week.
"My wife and I both had the opportunity to thank the president personally for righting the injustice of my conviction in a Soviet-style show trial, which featured the epic bias of the judge who withheld exculpatory evidence from my defense, misconduct by the jury forewoman and substantial misconduct by the prosecutors," Stone told ABC News about his encounter with Trump on Sunday night. According to Stone, he ran into the president in passing while going to the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. He and his wife, Nydia Stone, were guests of Newsmax publisher Christopher Ruddy. Although the White House declined to comment on the matter, a source who was in the dining room — which had roughly 100 people in it — shared a picture of Trump interacting with Stone by patting the convicted felon on the shoulder.
Trump's decision to pardon Stone was not entirely unexpected. As Salon's Heather Digby Parton wrote after Trump commuted Stone's sentence days before he was supposed to report to prison in July. Stone had intimated in an interview with journalist Howard Fineman that he could "play Judas" against Trump. "I think we might have expected a full pardon, but since there was reportedly so much resistance within the administration, Trump may have decided that commutation before the election, and then pardon afterward looked like a reasonable compromise," Parton wrote.
There is no evidence to support any of Stone's claims about supposed judicial misconduct during his trial. Stone was convicted in November 2019 of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and making false statements. In February, Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison, although he was able to achieve a number of delays when it came to actually being incarcerated.
There is some debate within the legal community about whether accepting a pardon constitutes an admission of guilt. In the 1915 Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States, the court wrote that a pardon "carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it." President Gerald Ford later used this quote to justify pardoning his predecessor, President Richard Nixon, who was facing criminal charges related to his involvement in the Watergate scandal. Yet pardons do not legally establish that a person is either guilty or acknowledging guilt, with President George H. W. Bush famously pardoning former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger because he believed that official's conviction in the Iran-Contra scandal had amounted to "the criminalization of policy differences."
Salon spoke with Stone in 2017 about his alleged connections to Russia, during which he adamantly denied any contact or coordination with Russians involving the 2016 presidential election. When this reporter asked Stone, after the political operative was the victim of a hit-and-run, why he had sent him a text message saying that he suspected it might have been perpetrated by someone who did not want him to testify about the Russia investigation, Stone insisted that there were a number of "false statements" by members of the House that he wanted to correct.
Stone is also an inflammatory figure because of his association with radical right groups and causes. In 2018 he was photographed flashing an allegedly white supremacist hand signal with members of the Proud Boys, the same radical right group that Trump encouraged to "stand back and stand by" during one of his debates with President-elect Joe Biden. Stone told this reporter at the time that "we reject the claim that is a symbol of bi[g]otry and we specifically denounce White Supremacy." In September Stone urged Trump to declare martial law if he lost the 2020 presidential election and has subsequently taken a leading role in "Stop the Steal," a movement that accuses Democrats of stealing the election from Trump despite being unable to prove their claims.
The Trump campaign has lost all 59 of the fraud-related cases it has brought to court (some presided over by Republican and Trump-appointed judges), only winning a case that involved a procedural question. Trump's own attorney general William Barr admitted after investigating voter fraud accusations that there was no reason to believe Biden had not legitimately won the election. The Supreme Court also unanimously found that Trump's fraud claims have no merit, three of whom were judges appointed by Trump himself.
Salon reached out to Stone for this article but he declined to comment.


alternet--2020-12-31--Donald Trump's vilest legacy

Donald Trump's vilest legacy

Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to reelect Donald Trump – 46.8 percent of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – do n't hold Trump accountable for what he 's done to America .
Their acceptance of Trump 's behavior will be his vilest legacy .
Nearly forty years ago , political scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there .
The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ here because others have done it and got away with it .
The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities .
But America 's most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity .
In 2008 , Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy .
The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs , savings , and homes .
Yet no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail .
In more recent years , top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ family who own it , knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing .
Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers .
Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe .
Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans .
Here , too , they 've got away with it .
These windows remain broken .
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land , wielding a wrecking ball @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – American democracy .
The message ?
A president can obstruct special counsels ' investigations of his wrongdoing , push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals , fire inspectors general who find corruption , order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas , flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents , refuse to release his tax returns , accuse the press of being `` fake media '' and `` enemies of the people , '' and make money off his presidency .
And he can get away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ electorate will even vote for his reelection .
A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet , according to polls , be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him .
Not only has he shattered the norm for presidential pardons – usually granted because of a petitioner 's good conduct after conviction and service of sentence – but he 's pardoned people who themselves shattered windows .
By pardoning them , he has rendered them unaccountable for their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in order to protect him ; his son-in-law 's father , who pleaded guilty to tax evasion , witness tampering , illegal campaign contributions , and lying to the Federal Election Commission ; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians , including women and children ; Border Patrol agents convicted of assaulting or shooting unarmed suspects ; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of fraud , obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations .
It 's not simply the size of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Wilson and Kelling .
It 's the willingness of society to look the other way .
If no one is held accountable , norms collapse .
Trump may face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office , possibly including criminal charges .
But it 's unlikely he 'll go to jail .
Presidential immunity or a self-pardon will protect him .
Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue against indictment , in any event .
No former president has ever been convicted of a crime .
The mere possibility of a criminal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brawl across the nation .
Congress may try to limit the power of future presidents – strengthening congressional oversight , fortifying the independence of inspectors general , demanding more financial disclosure , increasing penalties on presidential aides who break laws , restricting the pardon process , and so on .
But Congress – a co-equal branch of government under the Constitution – can not rein in rogue presidents .
And the courts do n't want to weigh in on political questions .
The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents .
The giant windows he 's broken are invitations to a future president to break even more .
Nothing will correct this unless or until an overwhelming majority of Americans recognize and condemn what has occurred .

Most of the 74,222,957 Americans who voted to reelect Donald Trump – 46.8 percent of the votes cast in the 2020 presidential election – don't hold Trump accountable for what he's done to America.
Their acceptance of Trump's behavior will be his vilest legacy.
Nearly forty years ago, political scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist George Kelling observed that a broken window left unattended in a community signals that no one cares if windows are broken there. The broken window is thereby an invitation to throw more stones and break more windows. The message: Do whatever you want here because others have done it and got away with it.
The broken window theory has led to picayune and arbitrary law enforcement in poor communities. But America's most privileged and powerful have been breaking big windows with impunity.
In 2008, Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail.
In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family who own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.
Here, too, they've got away with it. These windows remain broken.
Trump has brought impunity to the highest office in the land, wielding a wrecking ball to the most precious windowpane of all – American democracy.
The message? A president can obstruct special counsels' investigations of his wrongdoing, push foreign officials to dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being "fake media" and "enemies of the people," and make money off his presidency.
And he can get away with it. Almost half of the electorate will even vote for his reelection.
A president can also lie about the results of an election without a shred of evidence – and yet, according to polls, be believed by the vast majority of those who voted for him.
Trump's recent pardons have broken double-paned windows.
Not only has he shattered the norm for presidential pardons – usually granted because of a petitioner's good conduct after conviction and service of sentence – but he's pardoned people who themselves shattered windows. By pardoning them, he has rendered them unaccountable for their acts.
They include aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in order to protect him; his son-in-law's father, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election Commission; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians, including women and children; Border Patrol agents convicted of assaulting or shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations.
It's not simply the size of the broken window that undermines standards, according to Wilson and Kelling. It's the willingness of society to look the other way. If no one is held accountable, norms collapse.
Trump may face a barrage of lawsuits when he leaves office, possibly including criminal charges. But it's unlikely he'll go to jail. Presidential immunity or a self-pardon will protect him. Prosecutorial discretion would almost certainly argue against indictment, in any event. No former president has ever been convicted of a crime. The mere possibility of a criminal trial for Trump would ignite a partisan brawl across the nation.
Congress may try to limit the power of future presidents – strengthening congressional oversight, fortifying the independence of inspectors general, demanding more financial disclosure, increasing penalties on presidential aides who break laws, restricting the pardon process, and so on.
But Congress – a co-equal branch of government under the Constitution – cannot rein in rogue presidents. And the courts don't want to weigh in on political questions.
The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away with it he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents. The giant windows he's broken are invitations to a future president to break even more.
Nothing will correct this unless or until an overwhelming majority of Americans recognize and condemn what has occurred.


alternet--2020-12-31--Republicans have a friend in the company that counts their votes

After initially focusing on the surprisingly lopsided results of the senatorial election in Kentucky , DCReport broadened our scope to look at the electronic vote-counting software and electronic voting systems that we rely on to tally our votes .
This prompted us to raise questions about Electronic Systems & Software ( ES & S ) , America 's largest voting machine company .
What we found was a revolving door between government officials and ES & S .
Voting results in three states that saw surprising majorities by vulnerable incumbent Republican senators—Maine , North Carolina and South Carolina—were almost all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump and his inept legal team barely have mentioned ES & S , focusing almost exclusively on Dominion Voting Systems .
Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and Fox hosts have been making such bold and naked claims against the ES & S competitors , without any substance or evidence , that Fox News , NewsMax and OAN have all been threatened with litigation unless they fully retract their claims and correct a number of egregious factual errors .
Team Trump has been so vigorous in going after Dominion that it prompted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ S operates .
What we have found so far is far from comforting .
• Owned by a private equity firm , ES & S has been elusive about identifying the people in its ownership .
• A number of ES & S executives and lobbyists have ties to top GOP election officials and politicians .
• The ES & S executive in charge of the security previously worked in the Trump administration as a government executive at Health and Human Services before leaving under a cloud .
• Forty of the 50 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and count some of their votes .
• Of the 25 states Trump won , all but 3 either partially or fully relied on ES & S machines .
The states where Trump won that did n't use ES & S machines were Oklahoma , Louisiana and Alaska .
[ caption id= '' attachment_21864 '' align= '' aligncenter '' width= '' 620 '' ] Counties that used ES & S equipment in the 2020 elections .
( Verified Voting ) [ /caption ] Concerns about the reliability of vote-counting software are not new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Having the ability to audit votes , and making sure ballots are counted properly , has long been a major concern of computer scientists , politicians and election officials .
In December 2019 , Democratic lawmakers sought answers from those top three voting machine vendors which `` facilitate voting for over 90 % of all eligible voters in the United States . ''
Three separate letters were sent to the private equity firms who reportedly own or control each of these vendors , with very limited information available in the public domain about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the second letter , addressed directly to the McCarthy Group , the private equity firm that owns ES & S , lawmakers wrote , `` Voting machines are reportedly falling apart across the country , as vendors neglect to innovate and improve important voting systems , putting our elections at avoidable and increased risk . ''
In requesting details about the ownership of ES & S , the lawmakers specifically noted , `` We are particularly concerned that secretive and 'trouble-plagued companies , ' owned by private equity firms and responsible for manufacturing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration equipment , 'have long skimped on security in favor of convenience , ' leaving voting systems across the country 'prone to security problems ' . ''
DCReport placed numerous calls and emails to ES & S at its headquarters on John Galt Boulevard in Omaha .
Only once was the phone answered .
Someone who would not put us through said , `` They are not going to be able to talk to you . ''
DCReport was directed to ES & S 's website .
We submitted the form repeatedly but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relies on private companies , which build proprietary electronic systems , to reliably count our votes .
It seems reasonable , if not crucial , to understand who is behind these companies as a standard to ensure election integrity .
Without such knowledge we run the risk that zealots , investors with financial stakes in who wins elections or those susceptible to bribery have an incentive to use subtle software programming techniques to deliberately miscount votes to guarantee an outcome .
In close elections , software code that invalidates or miscounts a mere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One of our concerns is ES & S providing junkets and gratuities to election officials , as uncovered in June 2018 by McClatchy newspapers .
For at least 11 years , the voting equipment and software company curried favor with election officials by paying for trips to Las Vegas , tickets to shows and gifts .
`` As many as a dozen election officials '' attended a meeting in Las Vegas , with a number of them accepting airfare , lodging and meals , McClatchy reported .
A company spokeswoman told McClatchy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing customer feedback .
One of our key results is customer satisfaction , and this is how we achieve that . ''
Marci Andino , the current executive director of the South Carolina State Election Commission , received more than $ 19,000 worth of flights , hotels and meals from ES & S since 2009 , according to South Carolina Ethics Commission disclosure forms .
Andino 's influence extends beyond the Palmetto State .
She is also a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission 's Standards Board and has testified on election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the National Association of State Election Directors .
To have an election official tied to a voting company creates concerns about conflicts .
DCReport also looked into the careers of some key ES & S executives .
What we found is concerning .
Kathy Rogers , ES & S 's senior vice president for government affairs , landed at ES & S after controversy over her work as a Georgia state elections official .
She opposed legislation trying to ensure vote counts could be verified .
In 2019 , The New Yorker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Voting-Machine Lobbyists Undermine the Democratic Process . ''
`` In 2006 , a bill requiring a verifiable paper record of each ballot , introduced in the Georgia legislature at the urging of election-integrity advocates , failed after the state 's elections director , Kathy Rogers , opposed it , '' the magazine reported .
Georgia used ES & S machines in 2018 but now relies on Dominion equipment .
Georgia 's 2018 gubernatorial race is noteworthy because it was overseen by Brian Kemp , who was then in charge of Georgia elections as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kemp also ran for governor while overseeing his own election , a conflict of interest he disregarded .
Kemp won a narrow victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams , but only after his office blocked 53,000 voter registration applications using a strict name-matching protocol comparing state records to voter registration forms .
Registrations were tossed if , for example , a person used a first name , middle initial and last name , on one form , but then used all three names in full on another .
This invalidated a huge number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a federal judge declared Georgia had to implement a completely new voting system in time for the 2020 elections , replacing what the judge called `` unsecure , unreliable and grossly outdated technology . ''
Kemp tried to keep using the ES & S equipment for future elections , prompting Peach State Democrats to assert cronyism in the Kemp administration .
In January 2019 , the Georgia Democratic Party challenged the integrity of voting machines that did not create an auditable paper trial , a policy he pursued through the creation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or SAFE Commission .
The Democrats demanded a delay on recommendations for a new voting system `` following the discovery that a leading vendor under consideration , whose machines are currently being investigated in a lawsuit due to errors in the 2018 election , has deep connections to Brian Kemp 's office . ''
That vendor was ES & S .
The deep ties were due to Kemp having hired a longtime associate who was a registered lobbyist for ES & S .
As Politico characterized it at the time : `` Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting machines . ''
It also reported , `` Critics argued that the bill appeared to be written with one vendor in mind : the voting technology giant Election Systems & Software , whose former top lobbyist , is now Kemp 's deputy chief of staff . ''
How many other states are conducting elections on grossly outdated or otherwise unreliable ES & S technology in 2018 and in 2020 ?
This is an issue we are still investigating .
In Georgia , it was Brad Raffensperger , a Republican who succeeded Kemp @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dominion Voting Systems as the new elections vendor .
The most recent Georgia election seems to be the first election in recent Georgian history not marred by voting-machine controversy other than Trump 's nakedly false claims of vote stealing and corruption aimed at Republican Raffensperger .
The 2020 voting took place on a new system with an auditable paper ballot system .
Three recounts , including an audit requiring `` roughly 5 million votes in that contest to be recounted by hand '' and as Secretary of State Raffensperger stated , showed results @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have now counted legally cast ballots three times , and the results remain unchanged , '' Raffensperger said .
Furthermore , a judge declared Trump 's legal team produced `` precious little proof '' in their pleadings .
ES & S 's revolving door policy means its lobbyists are taking top government official positions as well as government political appointees are becoming ES & S executives .
One of these is Chris Wlaschin , who left the Trump administration in March 2018 .
He was the chief information security official in the Health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks later he landed at ES & S as `` its new vice president of systems security responsible for the company 's security efforts . ''
Wlaschin abruptly left the Trump administration after HHS Secretary Alex Azar received a letter from a lawyer representing two HHS executives .
The letter asserted that Wlaschin improperly had removed the pair and cited an eye-popping false claim Wlaschin used to justify disciplinary action .
`` Mr. Wlaschin has stated that my clients were removed from their positions in order to protect an ongoing OIG investigation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a former inspector general for the National Security Community .
`` You can , therefore , imagine the shock and surprise of my clients when they were both recently advised , unequivocally and categorically , by senior investigators from the HHS OIG , that neither of them are currently or were at any time in the past under investigation '' by the inspector general 's office , McCullough wrote .
The letter was dated March 12 , 2018 .
Wlaschin 's resume says he joined ES & S the next month .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ability to audit vote counts , has been the subject of public debate for more than four decades .
But most of the recent attention has been focused on one company , Dominion Voting Systems , most recently because of frivolous lawsuits filed by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and others .
But is that simply a distraction .
We think the issue of who counts our votes , how they are counted , and what ties the companies selling these systems have to politicians deserves more attention .
Politicians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to wield power , must not be able to exert influence on the companies we rely on to tally our votes .
We need serious scrutiny over our elections so we can be assured that they represent the will of the people , not of the politicians themselves , and the companies they hire to process our ballots .

After initially focusing on the surprisingly lopsided results of the senatorial election in Kentucky, DCReport broadened our scope to look at the electronic vote-counting software and electronic voting systems that we rely on to tally our votes. This prompted us to raise questions about Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S), America's largest voting machine company. What we found was a revolving door between government officials and ES&S.
Voting results in three states that saw surprising majorities by vulnerable incumbent Republican senators—Maine, North Carolina and South Carolina—were almost all tabulated on ES&S machines.
Trump and his inept legal team barely have mentioned ES&S, focusing almost exclusively on Dominion Voting Systems.
Team Trump has been so vigorous in going after Dominion that it prompted us to look into how ES&S operates. What we have found so far is far from comforting.
Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and Fox hosts have been making such bold and naked claims against the ES&S competitors, without any substance or evidence, that Fox News, NewsMax and OAN have all been threatened with litigation unless they fully retract their claims and correct a number of egregious factual errors.
Team Trump has been so vigorous in going after Dominion that it prompted us to look into how ES&S operates. What we have found so far is far from comforting.
Owned by a private equity firm, ES&S has been elusive about identifying the people in its ownership.
A number of ES&S executives and lobbyists have ties to top GOP election officials and politicians.
The ES&S executive in charge of the security previously worked in the Trump administration as a government executive at Health and Human Services before leaving under a cloud.
Forty of the 50 states use ES&S to cast and count some of their votes.
Of the 25 states Trump won, all but 3 either partially or fully relied on ES&S machines. The states where Trump won that didn't use ES&S machines were Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alaska.
[caption id="attachment_21864" align="aligncenter" width="620"]Counties that used ES&S equipment in the 2020 elections. ( Verified Voting )[/caption]
Concerns about the reliability of vote-counting software are not new, dating back to the 1980s. Having the ability to audit votes, and making sure ballots are counted properly, has long been a major concern of computer scientists, politicians and election officials.
In December 2019, Democratic lawmakers sought answers from those top three voting machine vendors which "facilitate voting for over 90% of all eligible voters in the United States."
Three separate letters were sent to the private equity firms who reportedly own or control each of these vendors, with very limited information available in the public domain about their operations and financial performance.
Elections at Risk
In the second letter, addressed directly to the McCarthy Group, the private equity firm that owns ES&S, lawmakers wrote, "Voting machines are reportedly falling apart across the country, as vendors neglect to innovate and improve important voting systems, putting our elections at avoidable and increased risk."
In requesting details about the ownership of ES&S, the lawmakers specifically noted, "We are particularly concerned that secretive and 'trouble-plagued companies,' owned by private equity firms and responsible for manufacturing and maintaining voting machines and other election administration equipment, 'have long skimped on security in favor of convenience,' leaving voting systems across the country 'prone to security problems'."
DCReport placed numerous calls and emails to ES&S at its headquarters on John Galt Boulevard in Omaha. Only once was the phone answered. Someone who would not put us through said, "They are not going to be able to talk to you." DCReport was directed to ES&S's website. We submitted the form repeatedly but got no reply.
Understanding the Software
Our democracy now relies on private companies, which build proprietary electronic systems, to reliably count our votes. It seems reasonable, if not crucial, to understand who is behind these companies as a standard to ensure election integrity. Without such knowledge we run the risk that zealots, investors with financial stakes in who wins elections or those susceptible to bribery have an incentive to use subtle software programming techniques to deliberately miscount votes to guarantee an outcome. In close elections, software code that invalidates or miscounts a mere sliver of ballots can change the outcome.
One of our concerns is ES&S providing junkets and gratuities to election officials, as uncovered in June 2018 by McClatchy newspapers. For at least 11 years, the voting equipment and software company curried favor with election officials by paying for trips to Las Vegas, tickets to shows and gifts.
"As many as a dozen election officials" attended a meeting in Las Vegas, with a number of them accepting airfare, lodging and meals, McClatchy reported. A company spokeswoman told McClatchy the junkets were "immensely valuable in providing customer feedback. One of our key results is customer satisfaction, and this is how we achieve that."
Marci Andino, the current executive director of the South Carolina State Election Commission, received more than $19,000 worth of flights, hotels and meals from ES&S since 2009, according to South Carolina Ethics Commission disclosure forms.
Andino's influence extends beyond the Palmetto State. She is also a member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission's Standards Board and has testified on election issues. She is a former president of the National Association of State Election Directors. To have an election official tied to a voting company creates concerns about conflicts.
Executives with Political Ties
DCReport also looked into the careers of some key ES&S executives. What we found is concerning.
Kathy Rogers, ES&S's senior vice president for government affairs, landed at ES&S after controversy over her work as a Georgia state elections official. She opposed legislation trying to ensure vote counts could be verified.
In 2019, The New Yorker wrote about her actions in "How Voting-Machine Lobbyists Undermine the Democratic Process."
"In 2006, a bill requiring a verifiable paper record of each ballot, introduced in the Georgia legislature at the urging of election-integrity advocates, failed after the state's elections director, Kathy Rogers, opposed it," the magazine reported.
Georgia used ES&S machines in 2018 but now relies on Dominion equipment.
Georgia's 2018 gubernatorial race is noteworthy because it was overseen by Brian Kemp, who was then in charge of Georgia elections as secretary of state. That year, Kemp also ran for governor while overseeing his own election, a conflict of interest he disregarded.
Kemp won a narrow victory over Democrat Stacey Abrams, but only after his office blocked 53,000 voter registration applications using a strict name-matching protocol comparing state records to voter registration forms.
Kemp's Conflicts
Registrations were tossed if, for example, a person used a first name, middle initial and last name, on one form, but then used all three names in full on another. This invalidated a huge number of voter registration applications.
After Kemp won, a federal judge declared Georgia had to implement a completely new voting system in time for the 2020 elections, replacing what the judge called "unsecure, unreliable and grossly outdated technology." Kemp tried to keep using the ES&S equipment for future elections, prompting Peach State Democrats to assert cronyism in the Kemp administration.
In January 2019, the Georgia Democratic Party challenged the integrity of voting machines that did not create an auditable paper trial, a policy he pursued through the creation of the Secure, Accessible & Fair Election or SAFE Commission.
The Democrats demanded a delay on recommendations for a new voting system "following the discovery that a leading vendor under consideration, whose machines are currently being investigated in a lawsuit due to errors in the 2018 election, has deep connections to Brian Kemp's office." That vendor was ES&S. The deep ties were due to Kemp having hired a longtime associate who was a registered lobbyist for ES&S.
As Politico characterized it at the time: "Georgia likely to plow ahead with buying insecure voting machines." It also reported, "Critics argued that the bill appeared to be written with one vendor in mind: the voting technology giant Election Systems & Software, whose former top lobbyist, is now Kemp's deputy chief of staff."
How many other states are conducting elections on grossly outdated or otherwise unreliable ES&S technology in 2018 and in 2020? This is an issue we are still investigating.
In Georgia, it was Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who succeeded Kemp as the elections overseer, who announced Dominion Voting Systems as the new elections vendor.
A Clean Election
The most recent Georgia election seems to be the first election in recent Georgian history not marred by voting-machine controversy other than Trump's nakedly false claims of vote stealing and corruption aimed at Republican Raffensperger.
The 2020 voting took place on a new system with an auditable paper ballot system. Three recounts, including an audit requiring "roughly 5 million votes in that contest to be recounted by hand" and as Secretary of State Raffensperger stated, showed results as close as imaginable.
"We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the results remain unchanged," Raffensperger said. Furthermore, a judge declared Trump's legal team produced "precious little proof" in their pleadings.
ES&S's revolving door policy means its lobbyists are taking top government official positions as well as government political appointees are becoming ES&S executives.
One of these is Chris Wlaschin, who left the Trump administration in March 2018. He was the chief information security official in the Health & Human Services Department. A few weeks later he landed at ES&S as "its new vice president of systems security responsible for the company's security efforts."
HHS to ES&S
Wlaschin abruptly left the Trump administration after HHS Secretary Alex Azar received a letter from a lawyer representing two HHS executives. The letter asserted that Wlaschin improperly had removed the pair and cited an eye-popping false claim Wlaschin used to justify disciplinary action.
"Mr. Wlaschin has stated that my clients were removed from their positions in order to protect an ongoing OIG investigation," wrote lawyer I. Charles McCullough, a former inspector general for the National Security Community.
"You can, therefore, imagine the shock and surprise of my clients when they were both recently advised, unequivocally and categorically, by senior investigators from the HHS OIG, that neither of them are currently or were at any time in the past under investigation" by the inspector general's office, McCullough wrote.
The letter was dated March 12, 2018. Wlaschin's resume says he joined ES&S the next month.
The integrity of voting systems, and especially the ability to audit vote counts, has been the subject of public debate for more than four decades. But most of the recent attention has been focused on one company, Dominion Voting Systems, most recently because of frivolous lawsuits filed by Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and others. But is that simply a distraction.
We think the issue of who counts our votes, how they are counted, and what ties the companies selling these systems have to politicians deserves more attention. Politicians who must win elections, in order to wield power, must not be able to exert influence on the companies we rely on to tally our votes. We need serious scrutiny over our elections so we can be assured that they represent the will of the people, not of the politicians themselves, and the companies they hire to process our ballots.