3/17/23 - Newsletter
"There won't be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DA's office," Joe Tacopina, Donald Trump's lawyer, told the Daily News today. District Attorney's Office staff coordinated security measures with NYPD intelligence officials this week ahead of a "possible indictment." The former president would be the first president in American history to be criminally indicted.
Fox News’ John Roberts also confirms:
CNBC: “New York law enforcement preparing for possible Trump indictment in porn star payoff case”
District Court Judge Beryl Howell ruled today that Trump's top attorney Evan Corcoran can be compelled to provide additional grand jury testimony about his conversations with Donald Trump and his closest advisors about the mishandling of classified documents and possible obstruction.
A source told CNN that DoJ “prosecutors have met the threshold for the crime-fraud exception for Corcoran."
Last June, Corcoran said that the Trump team had diligently searched the property. Weeks later, the FBI found hundreds of government records and classified material.
Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed 20 Mar-a-Lago staffers close to former President Donald Trump's inner orbit. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith to oversee the investigation of the classified documents found at MAL last summer. Yesterday, Trump aide Margo Martin appeared before a grand jury in Washington, DC.
Forbes: “Dozens Of Mar-A-Lago Staffers Subpoenaed In Trump Special Counsel Investigation, Report Says”
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, a Russian commissioner for children's rights, for committing war crimes of "unlawful deportation" and transferring children from Kremlin-occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia, judges in The Hague ruled today. Under Russian leadership, children have been stripped of their Ukrainian identities and placed into Russian homes.
AP News: "How Moscow grabs Ukranian kids and makes them Russians."
According to an official, the Department of Justice and FBI are investigating TikTok for allegedly spying on Americans' data. The DOJ is also reviewing "previously disclosed allegations that company employees spied on journalists."
The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration threatened TikTok to sell its stakes or face a permanent ban in the U.S. The push to ban the popular app, used by over 113 million Americans, comes from the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
TikTok has been negotiating privacy issues and data protection with the U.S. government for the last two years because of the app's Chinese internet parent company, ByteDance. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Congress next Tuesday.
GOP Madness
Republican state Rep. Stan McClain who represents Ocala, Florida, introduced House Bill 1069, further restricting education. The bill says that instruction and discussion of sexual education, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases "may only occur in grades 6 through 12" after state approval.
McClain also acknowledged (below) that it would ban younger girls from discussing their menstrual cycles with teachers or school officials. A March 2022 report by the Fuller Project revealed a surge in early puberty cases in boys and girls as young as eight-years-old. The bill passed (13-5) along party lines in the House Education Quality Subcommittee and will advance.
WaPo: “Florida bill would ban young girls from discussing periods in school"