Chances of Police Reform Deal Quickly Dim
Washington Post: “After the release of a video on Friday showing Memphis police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols, 29, earlier this month, there were hopes that Congress might once again begin negotiating how to reform policing practices, as anger grew over the death of another Black man following a violent encounter with local law enforcement.”
“But by Monday, any optimism for a big legislative deal seemed to have been squashed.”
Lindsey Graham Floats Compromise on Qualified Immunity
“Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is floating a possible compromise on what was one of the key holdups in the negotiations surrounding policing reform legislation after the death of George Floyd in 2020,” The Hill reports.
“The death of Tyre Nichols, 29, at the hands of police in Memphis earlier this month has sparked a renewed push for policing reform legislation. But one of the main obstacles to an agreement between Republicans and Democrats has long been the issue of qualified immunity.”
GOP Lawmakers Ignore Matt Schlapp’s Assault Charges
“In just over one month, the Conservative Political Action Coalition is set to hold a large gathering of influential Republicans at its annual conference near Washington, DC,” Insider reports.
“Dozens of GOP members of Congress are likely to attend, if previous years offer any indication, and the conference’s chief organizer — American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp — has already begun to roll out scheduled speakers.”
“That’s despite Schlapp being the subject of a $9.4 million lawsuit: a man who worked as a mid-level staffer on Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign has accused Schlapp of sexually assaulting him after a night of drinking in October.”
Police Reform Back on the Agenda
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) plans to reintroduce a version of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act as early as this week and negotiations between him and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) on police reform could resume thereafter, Politico reports.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) told ABC News the bipartisan group that tried and failed to negotiate a bill last year should try again, calling their effort “the right starting point.”
Paul Pelosi Attack Suspect Has No Remorse
“The man accused in the attack of Paul Pelosi, the husband of the former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made a disturbing surprise phone call to a California television station on Friday and said that he had no remorse about his actions last October,” the New York Times reports.
“He suggested that he regretted not causing more harm.”
Said David DePape: “I want to apologize to everyone. I messed up. What I did was really bad. I’m so sorry I didn’t get more of them. It’s my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared.”
Man Who Pepper Sprayed Officer Gets Nearly 7 Years
“A federal judge sentenced the Pennsylvania man who pepper sprayed U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick on Jan. 6, 2021, to six years and eight months in prison Friday, saying he found his assault on outnumbered officers inexusable,” WUSA reports.
Video Shows Struggle for Hammer During Pelosi Attack
“Video released publicly Friday shows the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fighting for control of a hammer with his assailant during a brutal attack in the couple’s San Francisco home last year,” the AP reports.
Politico: “The break-in and attack stunned San Francisco and reverberated through national politics, punctuating a torrent of violent rhetoric directed at Nancy Pelosi and other elected officials.”
Inside Trump’s Killing Spree
Rolling Stone: “In that moment, he became the ninth of 13 people executed in the final six months of the Trump administration — more federal executions than in the previous 10 administrations combined. Of the 13, six were put to death after Trump lost the election, his Justice Department accelerating the schedule to ensure they would die before the incoming administration could intercede. Before Trump, there had been only three federal executions since 1963; in January 2021, Trump oversaw three executions during a single four-day stretch.”
“Two years before that stretch, Trump had signed perhaps the lone broadly popular major initiative of his presidency: a bipartisan criminal-justice reform bill. By 2020, however, his political calculus had changed. As he geared up for another election, Trump White House sources say, the president was telling advisers that carrying out capital punishment would insulate him from criticism that he was soft on crime. And in his attorney general, Bill Barr, a longtime death-penalty advocate, he had the perfect accomplice.”
Peter Navarro’s Contempt Trial Delayed for Months
“A federal judge on Friday delayed the contempt of Congress trial for former Donald Trump adviser Peter Navarro, likely for months, to allow for additional pre-trial debate over the role executive privilege could play when the case goes to a jury,” CNN reports.
Paul Pelosi Attack Video to Be Released
“Video and audio recorded last year during the attack on Paul Pelosi will be released Friday, after a California court ruled the district attorney’s office must make the materials public,” CNN reports.
Proud Boys Were Expecting a ‘Civil War’
“The month before the riot at the U.S. Capitol, members of the Proud Boys were growing increasingly angry about the outcome of the 2020 election and were expecting a ‘civil war,’ a former member told jurors on Tuesday as he took the stand in the seditious conspiracy case against the group’s former leader,” the AP reports.
Prosecutor Says Trump Charging Decisions Are ‘Imminent’
The Georgia prosecutor investigating former President Donald Trump and his allies for possible criminal interference in that state’s 2020 presidential election told a judge Tuesday that decisions on whether and whom to charge in the probe “are imminent,” CNBC reports.
“Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis cited that plan during a hearing in Atlanta, where she urged the judge to keep sealed for now a final special grand jury report that was assembled to gather evidence and hear testimony for that investigation.”
Oath Keepers Convicted of Seditious Conspiracy
“A jury on Monday convicted four members of the extremist group the Oath Keepers of seditious conspiracy,” NBC News reports.
“Prosecutors said the four defendants — Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo — used a ‘perverted version of American history’ to justify their actions on Jan. 6, 2021.”
Ex-FBI Official Took Payments from Russian Oligarch
“A former high-level FBI official has been indicted on charges that he conspired to violate U.S. sanctions on Russia by taking secret payments from a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, in return for investigating a rival oligarch,” the New York Times reports.
“The former official, Charles McGonigal, who had been the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division in New York before he retired in 2018, had supervised and participated in investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Mr. Deripaska, the government said.”
Man Who Breached Pelosi’s Office Found Guilty
Richard “Bigo” Barnett — the self-described “fucking idiot” who was photographed with his feet up on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk during the January 6 Capitol riot — was found guilty on all counts, CBS News reports.
It took the jury barely two hours to come to a decision.
North Carolina Auditor Charged in Hit-and-Run
North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood (D) is charged with fleeing the scene of an accident, WRAL reports.
Judge Won’t Dismiss Contempt Charges Against Navarro
“A federal judge declined Thursday to dismiss the criminal contempt of Congress charge brought against former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for his failure to comply with a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol,” CNN reports.
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