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Four weeks.
That’s how long the Environmental Protection Agency has to “promptly perform a search and produce the documents” in its possession that underpin Administrator Scott Pruitt’s claim that human activity is not a “primary contributor” to the climate crisis, and any studies that support that assertion.
The directive comes from a federal court order (pdf), issued Friday, which smacks down the EPA’s efforts to reject a FOIA request from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The group first filed that request on March 10, 2017—that’s a day after Pruitt, speaking in his official capacity, said on CNBC: “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”
Beryl Howell, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, dismissed the EPA’s characterization of the FOIA request as “an interrogation” with “simply a reach too far.” Instead, she wrote, it was a fair request that reasonably describes the records sought and creates no undue burden, so the EPA is not legally justified in its lack of compliance.
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She further noted that “EPA’s strained attempt to raise an epistemological smokescreen will not work here to vade its obligations under the FOIA,” and: “EPA’s apparent concern about taking a position on climate change is puzzling since EPA has already taken a public position on the causes of climate change.”
She added:
Howell also ordered the agency to finish up its search for related records by July 2, 2018 and to disclose them to PEER. She gave the agency an additional week to explain to the group its rationale for withholding any documents.
“The beauty of FOIA is that a government agency can run but ultimately can’t hide,” stated PEER senior counsel Paula Dinerstein. “This suit forces EPA to determine whether Mr. Pruitt’s statements had a factual basis or were full of hot air.”
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A two-year investigation into President Donald Trump’s charity by New York State culminated on Thursday in a lawsuit alleging “persistently illegal conduct” including violations of campaign finance laws and tax regulations, and illegal coordination with Trump’s 2016 campaign to benefit his presidential run.
“As our investigation reveals, the Trump Foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality,” Barbara D. Underwood, New York’s attorney general, wrote. “This is not how private foundations should function and my office intends to hold the foundation accountable for its misuse of charitable assets.”
Underwood accused the Trump family of using the foundation’s funds to settle claims against Trump’s real estate empire and purchase a $10,000 portrait of Trump, as well as funneling money to the 2016 campaign.
In addition to filing the lawsuit—which demands that the Trump Foundation be dissolved and that Trump and his children Eric, Donald Jr., and Ivanka be barred from leading nonprofits in New York; and seeks $2.8 million in damages—Underwood sent referrals to the IRS and the Federal Election Commission {FEC) for potential further legal action against Trump.
The purchase of the portrait for one of Trump’s golf clubs constituted a “self-dealing transaction,” according to the attorney general, and violated tax laws.
The investigation also revealed coordination between the Trump campaign and the foundation regarding funds raised for the campaign. Although charitable organizations are “prohibited from participating or intervening in any political campaign on behalf of a candidate,” according to Underwood’s lawsuit, the Trump Foundation raised $2.8 million for the campaign in early 2016.
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Trump campaign staffers—including former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski—then took control of the funds, dictating “the manner in which the foundation would disburse those proceeds, directing the timing, amounts and recipients of the grants.”
“Mr. Trump’s wrongful use of the foundation to benefit his campaign was willful and knowing,” concluded Underwood.
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The Trump administration and its open hostility toward Americans living in poverty were the target of the Poor People’s Campaign’s latest day of coordinated actions on Monday, with economic justice advocates marching on federal agencies and allies across the nation rallying at state capitals.
The Poor People’s Campaign began its final week of demonstrations before the movement’s March on Washington, scheduled for this Saturday. Organized by Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis, both of whom were arrested for protesting on the steps of the Supreme Court last week, the campaign is a revival of the work Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was focusing on when he was assassinated in 1968.
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On Saturday, supporters of the movement will march against “systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism,” all of which it says are part of the “war on the poor.” The march will cap off the 40 days of action which the group began on May 13.
On Monday, dozens of supporters paid visits to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to protest Trump’s worsening of the crisis of inequality in healthcare, housing, and environmental policy in the U.S. in the 17 months since he became president.
The demonstration coincided with widespread outrage over the Trump administration’s forcible separation of thousands of children from their families—an issue that campaigners railed against outside HHS, which is responsible for the care of unaccompanied children who have immigrated to the U.S. Protesters also expressed anger on behalf of the 3.2 million Americans who have no health insurance. The demonstrators were reportedly barred from entering the building.
A number of policies making housing less affordable for the poor, put forward by HUD secretary Ben Carson—who was under fire in recent months for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on office furniture—were the subject of the protest outside HUD, where campaigners blocked traffic. Carson proposed tripling rent for Americans who rely on government housing subsidies, halted investigations into fair housing violations, and removed anti-discrimination language from his agency’s mission statement.
The Campaign was joined by Friends of the Earth at the EPA, where protesters called for administrator Scott Pruitt to be fired. Pruitt’s aggressive rollback of laws aimed at combating water and air pollution is likely to disproportionately affect poor Americans, according to numerous scientific studies.
Local Poor People’s Campaign chapters across the country organized, for the sixth week in a row, actions at their state capitols. Campaigners spoke out against mass incarceration, homelessness, and low wages for working Americans struggling to support themselves and their families amid skyrocketing housing prices.
“We live in a country now where we’re treating corporations like people and people like things,” said Barber on Democracy Now! on Friday. “We live in a country where we say banks are too big to fail, but then we let human beings fail…And as Joseph Stiglitz says—the Nobel Peace Prize economist—not only are they immoral, we have to look at the cost of inequality. It is costing us people. It is costing us our moral fiber. And it is doing great injury to our democracy.”
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is reiterating her warnings about what’s at stake with President Donald Trump picking his Supreme Court nominee “off a pre-approved extremist list,” while progressive groups get ready to gather on the courthouse steps in Washington, DC on Monday night to show they’re ready “to fight back.”
Trump is expected to make the announcement from the White House at 9pm about who he’s chosen to fill the seat left by the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy.
In a Monday afternoon tweet, Warren said that all those on the right-wing list have “shown their willingness to side with the wealthy and powerful over the rights of women, workers, voters, and minorities.”
Given the stakes, more than a dozen advocacy groups including Indivisible, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights have organized a rally to #SaveSCOTUS, with their action set to begin 30 minutes after Trump makes his announcement.
The Supreme Court heading further right, the groups state, will “ensure that Trump’s extreme views are imposed on our country not just for four or eight years, but for decades to come. We can’t sit back and let that happen.” Their call-to-action adds:
As the “Constitutionally-protected right to safe and legal abortion has never faced a greater threat”—despite American voters’ overwhelming support for it—reproductive rights groups are sounding the alarm and pointing to the records of the two people who are reportedly the top contenders—Judges Thomas Hardiman and Brett Kavanaugh.
Some groups are also mobilizing to put pressure on Senate Democrats—with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer the target of a rally Monday evening in his homestate of New York.
“Trump is committed to placing an extreme ideologue on the court, who could endanger environmental protections, overturn Roe v. Wade, and undermine protections for people with pre-existing conditions,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth.
“If the Senate confirms Trump’s nominee, we will be stuck with a court that sides with big corporations over the American people,” he continued. “The air we breathe, the water we drink, and the future of our planet is at risk. Any senator who is serious about protecting the environment and fighting climate change must vote against confirmation. Senate Democrats must use everything in their power to keep Trump’s dangerous nominees off the Supreme Court.”
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Just the latest corporation to spark privacy concerns over worker surveillance efforts, Walmart has patented audio technology that would allow the retail giant to eavesdrop on conversations among employees and between clerks and shoppers, to measure employee performance.
According to the patent document filed with the U.S. government, Walmart is calling the invention “listening to the frontend.” The patent reads, in part:
In addition to capturing conversations, according to the patent, Walmart’s spy system could also track the length of lines at the checkout counter, how many items are scanned, and the number of bags employees use. Although the technology could, for example, determine if a line is too long and more cashier lanes need to open, Ifeoma Ajunwa, an assistant professor at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School, told BuzzFeed News, “There’s a lot of potential for misuse.”
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“There’s potential for mission creep where it’s more like, ‘as a cashier you’re too friendly, you’re talking too much, and therefore not moving people along, so let’s penalize you,'” Ajunwa explained. “Even though the technology is presented as interested in one thing, the fact that it has the potential for both things to be captured is of concern.”
While the patent claims that “tracking performance metrics for employees to ensure that the employees are performing their jobs efficiently and correctly can aid in achieving these costs savings [for the company] and increases in guest satisfaction,” Ajunwa said that “several studies have shown that there is a psychological impact of pervasive surveillance,” pointing to findings that it can actually “lead to this opposition feeling, where employees view the employer not as benevolent, but as dictators. And it can impact that attitude toward the higher-up and can lead to resistance.”
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“This Big Brother-style surveillance feels icky, especially from a retail giant known for its terrible abuses of its underpaid employees,” Splinter noted, but although the patent is raising privacy and labor rights concerns, Ajunwa warned that Walmart has a legal leg to stand on and likely wouldn’t even have to notify employees.
“Frankly, as long as the employer can make an argument for why the surveillance is necessary for a business purpose as opposed to a discriminatory purpose, there’s no law that says consent is required,” she said—and a union may be able to negotiate a contract requiring disclosure and potentially even other rules about the system, but Walmart is notorious for union-busting through surveillance, intimidation, and retaliation.
This appears to be a major development for the retail work environment, but BuzzFeed pointed out that similar surveillance systems have long been used “in call centers, where calls are recorded and reviewed, and employees are rated based on what they say and what the outcome of the call was.” Others compared the technology to patents that Amazon secured in February for a wristband that could be worn by warehouse employees to monitor where their hands go when they pack boxes, a development that alarmed privacy and workers’ advocates.
In a statement to BuzzFeed, Walmart declined to divulge any plans to develop and implement its patented surveillance tool. “We’re always thinking about new concepts and ways that will help us further enhance how we serve customers,” the company said, “but we don’t have any further details to share on these patents at this time.”
“Walmart is the country’s largest employer, which means technology like this, if implemented, would have an impact on millions of Americans,” Splinter highlighted. “It seems we don’t need an authoritarian state to monitor our every thought—our biggest corporations are happy to do it for us.”
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As the #MeToo movement continues to expose the sexually abusive, exploitative, and violent behavior of men in positions of political and corporate power in America, a new report published by the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Tuesday found that the United States is among the 10 most dangerous countries in the world for women, in large part due to its high levels of sexual violence.
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Based on a survey of nearly 550 experts on women’s issues from a variety of professions—including health workers, academics, development professionals, and journalists—the report found that the U.S. is the 10th most dangerous nation for women on the planet, behind Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and several other nations.
“The United States ranked as the 10th most dangerous country for women, the only Western nation to appear in the top 10,” according to the report, which is based on surveys conducted after the #MeToo movement began to grow rapidly last October.
When experts were asked “which was the most dangerous country for women in terms of sexual violence including rape, sexual harassment, coercion into sex, and the lack of access to justice in rape cases,” the U.S. was ranked third.
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The U.S. was also ranked sixth in non-sexual violence, which includes domestic and psychological abuse:
“We try to sell that we are a country of freedom and also of safety, but there are a lot of people in our country that are not safe, and victims of sex assault and domestic violence are certainly in that group,” Abby Honold, a sexual assault survivor and activist in Minneapolis, concluded in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
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More than 700 direct actions are planned in cities and towns across the country on Saturday, as Americans rally against President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, the forcible separation of families, and the imprisonment of children.
A list and map of events with start times and details is available at MoveOn.org.
“Donald Trump and his administration have cruelly separated thousands of children from their families. Now they’re jailing families—and they haven’t yet reunified the families already brutally torn apart,” wrote the Families Belong Together coalition. “But we won’t allow it to continue. On June 30, we’re rallying in Washington, D.C., and around the country to tell Donald Trump and his administration to permanently end the separation of kids from their parents. End family internment camps. End the ‘zero-humanity’ policy that created this crisis. And reunify the children with their parents.”
A main event in Washington, D.C. is expected to draw tens of thousands of marchers, two days after thousands of women marched to Capitol Hill and nearly 600—including Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—were arrested for demonstrating in the Hart Senate Office Building.
Organizers are asking attendees to wear white as a symbol of unity and solidarity.
Smaller protests are planned in all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and in front of the U.S. embassy in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Trump administration’s practice of separating families began last month after Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented a “zero tolerance” policy under which all adults who cross the U.S.-Mexico border without passing through an official port of entry are prosecuted. Following Trump’s signing of an executive order last week—only after the policy sparked international outrage—Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will no longer separate families.
More than 2,000 children remain in detention centers without their parents, and the Trump administration is planning to detain families together indefinitely while adults await immigration trials.
Dozens of social justice groups were mobilizing their ranks to participate in the Families Belong Together protests this week, including Planned Parenthood, Win Without War, and National Nurses United.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have both spoken out against the Trump administration’s practice of separating families, citing the grave psychological damage being done to both children and parents who have been forcibly separated—many after fleeing violence in their home countries.
The United Nations has also denounced the practice as well as the indefinite detention of families, which is a violation of international humanitarian law.
On Twitter, the Families Belong Together coalition applauded the tens of thousands of Americans planning to march on Saturday, and urged the public to continue fighting the Trump administration’s anti-immigration agenda in the weeks and months ahead.
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In writings and speeches over just the past several months, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have made no secret of their desire to overthrow the Iranian government.
“It should be abundantly clear that Secretary Pompeo, who called for bombing Iran instead of negotiations, is no friend of the Iranian people.”
—Jamal Abdi, National Iranian American Council
According to a Reuters report published on Saturday, their desire may finally be converting into concrete action, now that the two ultra-hawks have a firm grip on America’s foreign policy apparatus.
“The Trump administration has launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest and help pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups,” Reuters reported, citing anonymous U.S. officials familiar with the effort. “More than half a dozen current and former officials said the campaign, supported by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton, is meant to work in concert with U.S. President Donald Trump’s push to economically throttle Iran by re-imposing tough sanctions.”
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The new initiative—which the White House refused to discuss with Reuters—comes just weeks after Pompeo unveiled what critics described as a wildly unrealistic set of demands that Iran must meet if it wishes to engage in nuclear discussions with the United States. In May, Trump officially violated the seven-nation Iran nuclear accord, but Iran has worked in concert with European nations to keep the deal alive and has repeatedly stated that it is not developing nukes and has no desire to do so.
The White House’s deliberate “pressure” campaign was also revealed just 24 hours before Pompeo is set to deliver a speech in California on Sunday that is benignly titled “Supporting Iranian Voices.”
Far from what its title would suggest, National Iranian American Council (NIAC) vice president for policy Jamal Abdi argued in a statement that Pompeo’s speech is a blatantly cynical effort to “exploit” Iranian-Americans with the goal of advancing the Trump administration’s aggressive regime change push.
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“What President Trump and Secretary Pompeo want is to exploit Iranian Americans and co-opt the Iranian people to provide legitimacy for the Trump administration’s Iraq War redux for Iran,” Abdi said. “Just as the Bush administration cultivated a few Iraqi exiles and talked about human rights to provide legitimacy for a disastrous invasion of Iraq, the Trump administration appears intent on using Iranian exiles to advance dangerous policies that will leave the Iranian people as its primary victims.”
“It should be abundantly clear that Secretary Pompeo, who called for bombing Iran instead of negotiations, is no friend of the Iranian people,” Abdi added. “As Americans, we have a vital role to play in ensuring our democratically elected government does not start wars on false pretenses or destroy lives in our names. As Iranian Americans, our voices are particularly vital when it comes to the U.S. government’s efforts regarding our ancestral homeland. We will not be exploited or silenced at this critical moment in history.”
In an article for the New York Review of Books on Friday, NIAC president Trita Parsi echoed his colleague’s assessment of Pompeo’s planned speech, calling it “part of a deliberate policy of escalating tensions with Iran, targeting its economy, and supporting Iranian opposition groups—all for the purpose of pressuring and destabilizing Iran.”
To protest Pompeo’s speech in California, NIAC ran a full-page letter (pdf) in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times arguing that “a U.S.-sponsored regime change in Iran (in the image of Iraq) will not bring about democracy in Iran but rather destabilize the country and put democracy out of the reach of the Iranian people.
“Iran’s only chance to achieve a sustainable democracy that reflects the wishes of its people comes from a process driven by the people of Iran, for the people of Iran. In short, change must come from inside of Iran—not from Washington or anywhere else,” the letter concludes.
In an address to a group of diplomats on Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani—apparently referencing the U.S. “pressure” campaign—sharply warned Trump against attempting to “incite” chaos inside of Iran.
“America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars,” Rouhani said.
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As tensions between Saudi Arabia and Canada continue to soar after the Canadian Foreign Ministry dared to condemn the kingdom’s imprisonment of dissidents and human rights activists, a verified Twitter account connected to the Saudi government tweeted a graphic on Monday that appeared to threaten Toronto with a 9/11-style attack.
“With hundreds of billions in arms deals from the U.S. and U.K., the Saudi regime is being given carte blanche to threaten anyone and everyone with violence.” —Ben Norton
The image—which was deleted after it sparked widespread outrage—showed an Air Canada jet flying in the direction of the 1800-foot CN Tower, invoking memories of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center that killed thousands, including 26 Canadians.
Overlaying the image was the quote, “He who interferes with what doesn’t concern him finds what doesn’t please him.”
After deleting the initial tweet and replacing it with a graphic without the Canadian jet, the Saudi account apologized for posting the “inappropriate” image and implausibly claimed that the message behind the graphic—which was clear as day to most observers—was misinterpreted.
“The U.S. must be clear in condemning repression, especially when done by governments that receive our support.”
—Sen. Bernie Sanders
The Saudi account insisted that the Canadian jet flying toward CN Tower was supposed to represent Riyadh’s expulsion of the Canadian ambassador, who was kicked out following Canada’s criticism of Saudi Arabia’s notoriously appalling human rights record. Saudi Arabia’s Media Ministry later shut down the infographic account and said it is investigating the matter.
Journalists and other commentators from Canada and around the world were wholly unimpressed by Saudi Arabia’s explanation and apology.
Highlighting the well-known fact that 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers were Saudi citizens, German political scientist Marcel Dirsus offered the Saudi government some free PR advice: “If you represent a kingdom which brought forth the majority of 9/11 attackers, don’t use a plane flying into a tower in North America when you have a disagreement with Canada. It doesn’t help.”
The Saudi-connected Twitter account’s apparent threat against Canada comes amid an intensifying conflict between the two nations over the kingdom’s continued imprisonment of activists who speak out against its ongoing human rights violations—many of which are financed by Western nations, including Canada and the United States.
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Ben Norton, a reporter and producer with The Real News, argued that the Saudis’ increasingly belligerent behavior stems from the fact that the U.S. and the U.K. have continued to funnel weaponry into the kingdom even as it commits atrocities at home and in Yemen.
“With hundreds of billions in arms deals from the U.S. and U.K., with Trump sword-dancing with Saudi royals, and with the corporate media fawning over dictator Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi regime is being given carte blanche to threaten anyone and everyone with violence,” Norton argued.
In a statement that came 24-hours after the spat between Canada and Saudi Arabia began, the Trump administration made clear that it has no intention of standing behind Canada’s criticism of Saudi crimes.
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“Canada and Saudi Arabia are both close allies of the United States. I refer you to the Canadian and Saudi Ministries of Foreign Affairs for further information,” a State Department official wrote in an email to the Huffington Post.
Trump—who has embraced the Saudis with even more enthusiasm than previous American presidents—has been completely silent on the conflict.
After Canada refused to back down from its criticism of Saudi human rights violations, the kingdom announced that it is freezing all new trade with Canada and suspending scholarships of the approximately 16,000 Saudi students currently studying at Canadian schools.
Responding to the rising tensions between Canada and Saudi Arabia, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Monday called the Saudi government’s behavior “outrageous” and highlighted the necessity of speaking out about the human rights violations of nations that receive political and military backing from the West.
“The U.S. must be clear in condemning repression, especially when done by governments that receive our support,” Sanders concluded.
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Accusing Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee of attempting a “cover-up” after yet another woman came forward late Sunday and accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault—an allegation the GOP has reportedly known about for nearly a week—Democrats demanded the confirmation process be put on hold until federal investigators complete a full probe of the womens’ claims while progressive critics went further and called for his impeachment from the judicial seat he currently holds.
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“Enough already. A second credible allegation and numerous supporting accounts of Judge Kavanaugh’s behavior in college make it crystal clear that Judge Kavanaugh owes it to our country to withdraw immediately.”
—Rep. Pramila Jayapal
“If Republicans have blocked an FBI investigation, bullied Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford, and tried to ‘plow right through’ and put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court—all while holding onto credible information about a second sexual misconduct claim—then this isn’t a confirmation,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote on Twitter. “It’s a cover-up.”
Shortly after Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow reported for The New Yorker that Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of Kavanaugh’s, has accused the judge of sexual assault, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)—the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee—sent a letter to committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (D-Iowa) calling for “an immediate postponement of any further proceedings related to the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh.”
“I also ask that the newest allegations of sexual misconduct be referred to the FBI for investigation, and that you join our request for the White House to direct the FBI to investigate the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford as well as these new claims,” Feinstein added.
Other Democrats went a step further than Feinstein on Sunday, calling the new accusation against Kavanaugh more evidence of a “pattern” of unacceptable conduct and demanding that the judge withdraw his nomination immediately.
Democrats’ call for Kavanaugh to step aside was echoed by women’s rights groups, which organized a national #BelieveSurvivors walkout and moment of solidarity set to take place Monday afternoon.
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“Brett Kavanaugh must withdraw immediately,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement on Sunday. “We believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and we believe Deborah Ramirez. Brett Kavanaugh was unfit to serve before these latest allegations, now there can be no question that he must not serve on the highest court in the land.”
“Brett Kavanaugh should be impeached—not promoted. Unfortunately, Republican Senators are continuing to do everything they can to undermine the women who have come forward and to defend Kavanaugh.”
—Heidi Hess, CREDO
“Brett Kavanaugh should be impeached—not promoted,” added CREDO Action co-director Heidi Hess. “Unfortunately, Republican Senators are continuing to do everything they can to undermine the women who have come forward and to defend Kavanaugh. In fact, they knew about Ramirez’s allegations last week, and instead of ensuring a full investigation, did everything they could to rush through his confirmation. This behavior confirms the misogyny at the core of the Republican Party.”
Republicans haven’t exactly been quiet about their intention to suppress serious sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh and move ahead with his confirmation without a federal probe.
In a speech to the right-wing Values Voter Summit last Friday—after Republicans reportedly learned about the second allegation against Kavanaugh—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told his audience of evangelical Christian conservatives to “keep the faith” and rest assured that the GOP is going to “plow right through” the serious accusations.
Just hours after the second sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh were made public on Sunday, the White House released a statement highlighting Kavanaugh’s denial of the new allegation and selectively quoting from The New Yorker‘s reporting in an effort to discredit Ramirez’s account.
President Donald Trump piled on the defense of Kavanaugh on Monday, calling the sexual assault allegations “totally political.”
While Kavanaugh insisted in a statement to The New Yorker that Ramirez’s allegation is nothing more than a “smear” and claimed that people who knew him at the time “know that this did not happen,” Ronan Farrow defended his reporting in an appearance on ABC‘s “Good Morning America” on Monday, characterizing Kavanaugh’s denial as a blatant misrepresentation of the facts.
“It is not accurate to say that those who knew him at the time dispute this,” Farrow said. “We talked to a roommate—from the time, that was living with him when this alleged incident took place—who said he was indeed frequently drunk, that he took part in activity that made him unsurprised by this claim, and that he found this woman credible.”
Watch:
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