CFTC Launches Investigation Into Jump Trading As Crypto Scrutiny Rises
OEIS The Private Eye:
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) launched an investigation into Jump Trading, a prominent Chicago-primarily based completely firm known for its vital characteristic within the cryptocurrency sector. This probe, whereas now not indicating any wrongdoing, specializes in Jump’s actions in crypto buying and selling and investment.
Jump Trading Faces Regulatory Hurdles
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining Jump’s characteristic within the cryptocurrency sector, investigating its buying and selling and investment actions, as reported by Fortune.
This investigation, which doesn’t indicate any misconduct, follows a tumultuous length of three years for Jump. Known for its dominance in algorithmic buying and selling, Jump had modified into a serious player in crypto markets, but confronted challenges after being linked to varied cyber incidents and market downturns.
Therefore, Jump has reduced its crypto operations, including divesting two prominent initiatives and conserving a distance from the bound to initiate a diagram Bitcoin ETF.
The company confronted vital setbacks, initiating with a $325 million hack on Wormhole, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform centered on linking assorted blockchains. Additionally, after FTX collapsed in November 2022, it became disclosed that Jump confronted losses nearing $300 million as a leading market maker on the defunct crypto exchange.
In conjunction with to the controversy, Jump came upon itself all all over again in controversy all thru the SEC’s lawsuit in February 2023 against Terraform Labs and its founder, Form Kwon, the creator of the failed TerraUSD stablecoin. The SEC alleged in its complaint that a U.S. buying and selling firm had covertly supported Terra’s peg all thru a device-fall down in 2021, with subsequent reports figuring out the firm as Jump.
While the SEC accused Terraform and Kwon of fraud for misleadingly claiming the peg’s natural restoration, no costs were filed against Jump.
In March 2023, the Justice Department initiated a prison case against Kwon. An linked to the SEC lawsuit, the complaint referenced Jump as a “U.S.-primarily based completely proprietary buying and selling firm” occupied with sustaining Terra’s peg but did now not instruct any wrongdoing or press costs against the firm.
SEC And CFTC’s Defend close Lead in Enforcement Actions
Over the outdated couple of years, each and every the CFTC and its counterpart, the U.S. Securities and Trade Commission (SEC), beget intensified their efforts to pursue lawful actions against entities within the cryptocurrency sector. In fresh years, they’ve initiated more than one enforcement actions concentrated on crypto companies equivalent to Binance and FTX.
The CFTC’s inquiry into Jump’s crypto operations marks the newest investigation by a federal agency, though it stays unclear if costs are being conception to be. Now not like the SEC, which regulates securities, the CFTC oversees noteworthy of Jump’s actions in derivatives, from crypto property to former commodities.
CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam hinted at doable upcoming enforcement actions all thru his speech on the Milken Conference in Might perhaps well perhaps additionally, indicating that cryptocurrency companies might perhaps perhaps well additionally peaceable watch for yet every other spherical of regulatory scrutiny.
Examine the forefront of digital research in our Latest News & Blog. Study expert analyses, technological advancements, and key industry insights that keep you informed and prepared in the ever-evolving world of digital forensics.
When we are getting married, we no longer often ever dangle of one thing esteem unfaithfulness, affairs and lies from the facet of our spouses. Nonetheless existence typically has other plans for us and sends us the bad other folks, and it makes us handiest stronger. Our currently’s protagonist is a lady, 35, who wished to know the truth about her husband’s constancy. And the reaction of her dangle body to a kiss in conjunction with her major other helped her to notify his unfaithfulness in part.
Private investigator for cheating spouse: Aubrey and Impress have consistently been having a turbulent relationship.
Aubrey, 35, wrote a letter to our editorial and shared her valid-existence story that will likely well well cancel any drama maker shout with envy. The woman confessed that her attitude to the sizzling subject in her family is barely definite, and he or she sooner or later feels relieved.
Aubrey admitted spending 2 years being torn by doubt and suspicions towards her major other, Impress. And her sudden revelation made her existence extra silent, though she uncovered a essentially imperfect truth concerning the person, with whom she spent a major amount of years together.
Aubrey wrote, “Hi Incandescent Aspect! I desire to part my unimaginable story of how my dangle body reaction turned a clue to what become as soon as going on with my husband for the previous 2 years. Impress and I in actuality were married for 10 years now, he become as soon as the fundamental man I ever fell in esteem with. Impress has consistently been a very no longer easy person to take care of, very secretive, however I cherished him with all my heart and I had an noteworthy have faith in him as a partner.”
“I below no circumstances doubted his faithfulness, up till no longer too long previously, when Impress started behaving in a very uncommon skill. There were some crimson flags in his behavior that I factual couldn’t ignore. Luminous him for over 10 years, I clearly realized that the commerce in him become as soon as big.”
Private investigator for cheating spouse: Aubrey suspected that Impress become as soon as having a romance with one other lady.
Aubrey wrote, “So, I started suspecting that my husband has been having an affair for the previous 2 years. Nonetheless I couldn’t prove it. His conspiracy become as soon as high stage.”
“Within the future, he came dwelling from work and I kissed him as smartly-liked. To my shock, shapely after the kiss, I started vomiting. And roughly 30 minutes after the vomiting episode, I started sneezing heavily.”
“This become as soon as a very no longer easy bunch of symptoms, and at first, I didn’t join the kiss itself with this chain of my body reactions. Nonetheless all my symptoms weren’t some indispensable sickness. It turned out I become as soon as having an allergic reaction to my husband’s mistress.”
Private investigator for cheating spouse: Aubrey had a severe allergic reaction which led her to a imperfect discovery.
Aubrey wrote, “Later that evening, I had a rash on my pores and skin, and along with the different symptoms, it pointed to me having an hypersensitivity. I am allergic to cinnamon and all my relations, in conjunction with my husband, know about it. There has below no circumstances been even a little little bit of bakery with cinnamon in our dwelling. Furthermore, Impress has below no circumstances been a fan of cinnamon, too. So, it has consistently been easy for us every to withhold an allergen-free atmosphere for me in our household.”
“Cinnamon become as soon as the supreme thing I in actuality have ever been severely allergic to. And I become as soon as puzzled about where the hypersensitivity trigger arrive from. I then linked the kiss and the allergic reaction and concluded that my husband become as soon as drinking one thing that integrated cinnamon. It become as soon as uncommon, because, as I talked about, he wasn’t a fan of it, and he did know about my hypersensitivity. He couldn’t have forgotten about it in an instantaneous, as warding off cinnamon turned a behavior in our dwelling.”
“After which I started digging in.”
Private investigator for cheating spouse: Aubrey’s revelation become as soon as unsightly and relieving at the the same time.
Aubrey talked about, “I suspected that Impress become as soon as having an affair now extra troublesome than ever. I at as soon as remembered a minute bakery shut to Impress’s office and a magnificent lady that become as soon as the owner of this bakery. When I visited Impress’s office, I consistently passed this bakery and noticed this lady striking spherical with the company and smiling radiantly at all individuals who came in.”
“Cinnamon, bakery, a posh and natty bakery-owner, the shut intention of the bakery to Impress’s office. All of these at as soon as formed a solved puzzle in my head. I confronted my husband on that very day when I spotted who his mistress become as soon as. I requested him a advise place a question to, which likely didn’t even need an resolution, and he confirmed, with a trembling train, that he did have an affair with that lady. He requested about how I guessed, and I advised him about my minute investigation.”
“Changed into out, Impress visited his mistress in her bakery earlier that day when I had an hypersensitivity. He ate some cinnamon rolls that were original in her menu, some special ones that she wished him to train his notion on. He tried them to please her, and then he came dwelling and kissed me.”
Aubrey wrote, “My story might likely well well appear unhappy for many, however I need to confess that I essentially feel entirely relieved, joyful and free, now that I do know the truth. Living for 2 years with suspicions and no longer being ready to prove one thing and to spoil up with my dishonest husband become as soon as drinking me from internal. Now I’m free, and I am prepared for a original, mountainous and real esteem in my existence, where there’ll be no need for me to play an unintentional Sherlock sport again. Wish me factual luck!”
And here’s but one other story just a few lady with wide-detective abilities. The woman came in the future of a tampon in her boyfriend’s room and outdated it to safe out if he become as soon as dishonest on her or no longer. Read extra to be taught the intention in which a long way the girl’s wittiness has gone in search of the truth.
Money can be both a good support for the family and an apple of discord between the spouses. Our today’s protagonist is a woman, 33. She has shared a story with us how a big sum of money that she owns has become a reason why she wants to divorce her husband now. The woman is desperate, because she instantly revealed what kind of person her beloved husband is, and this revelation is far from pleasant for her.
OEIS Cheating Spouse Private Investigator: Helen has shared her complicated story with us.
Helen, 33, has recently written a letter to our editorial, where she shared her story, that led to very negative consequences for her happy family life. The woman started her letter, saying, “My husband Jake and I have been happily married for over 5 years now. This marriage is not the first for both of us. I went through a painful divorce in the past, and Jake lost his ex-wife to cancer 3 years ago. I can say that our family life has been happy, and I’ve been in love with Jake since the day we met. I sincerely believed that he loved me, too, for who I am. But the recent events in our family shattered my belief very much.”
Helen explained, “My ex-husband, Ian, is a successful businessman. He owns a big law company and is doing very well in terms of professional life, and his income is very decent. Ian cheated on me with a friend of mine, and this was the reason why we divorced. He did feel guilty of what he did to me, especially because at the time of his cheating we both were going through a tough period in our life, because I had a stillbirth and we both were suffering a lot from this.”
Helen added, “Because of his feeling of guilt, Ian initiated a payment of a big sum of money to me and, what is more, he insisted on supporting me financially after we divorced, so each month on a certain day he gave me a sum that would cover all my living needs and I still would have some money left after I covered all my living costs from this monthly sum.”
OEIS Cheating Spouse Private Investigator: Helen confessed that she didn’t spend her money wisely.
The woman continues her story, saying, “With that amount of money that Ian gave me, I could easily spend time not working at all, just traveling or doing other things for my pleasure. But I didn’t want to live such a life, and I do have a job at a big enterprise and I earn a decent amount, too. My husband Jack knew only about my income from my work, and I kept it a secret that I’ve been receiving some support from my ex.”
Helen revealed, “I’ve always spent money on my husband, buying him nice things and what not. I bought him a new car, some expensive watches for his collection and many other things. He never asked me about this explicitly, all of that was my will and I did this because I just wanted to please him, because I loved him. I spoiled his family, buying expensive presents for his parents, my in-laws and even for his cousins. When we visited them, I always came with my hands full of various nice surprises for them. I paid for Jack’s sister’s education, and I helped his brother to pay his rent many times. I thought that was accepted with gratitude, but I was so mistaken.”
OEIS Cheating Spouse Private Investigator: Helen revealed her secret to her husband and since then things changed.
The woman wrote, “Once, Jake came to me and complained that his mom needed an urgent medical treatment, which was very expensive. He said that his parents didn’t have this sum and asked me if I could help. This was the time when I revealed to him that I have had this support from my ex and that I have a necessary sum to cover his mom’s treatment. I was eager to help, their pain was my pain, too. I acted out of a good will only, and the price I had to pay for my own kindness, was too high in the end.”
Helen revealed, “When Jake heard about the real sum of money that I own, he changed instantly. He started to be quite weird about it and his behavior was appalling. Many times, he’s referred to my money as our money and insisted that I must use ’our money’ to buy him the luxury car he’s dreamt of having. He also started to insist that we must get a new house together and has said instead of getting him a small birthday gift that I should fund a trip for him to see the world. He wanted to travel with his whole family, and he asked me to pay for this trip, because ’That would be a really nice and decent present that will reflect how much you love me and my parents.’”
The woman added, “So I finally decided I’d have a talk with him, after all his demands. I told him honestly that it was basically really inappropriate to find out I have this money and start making demands. I explained that I have no problems using my finances for our relationship, but that Jake shouldn’t automatically expect that I’m going to put out money on all things he wants to buy and on trips for his whole family. Jake seemed very ashamed and agreed that it was a really bad thing to do, and he got carried away and got a bit too excited. I told him I understood, but to do that was extremely disrespectful to me and the time we’ve shared together because his behavior really made me feel like all of a sudden my money was what mattered.”
OEIS Cheating Spouse Private Investigator: Things got even worse, and the family is falling apart.
Helen wrote, “For a little while it seemed all was well between us, Jake never mentioned my money again and he stopped producing his demands. Then the other day we were having a small argument over something that turned into a bigger argument, and he said, ’Well, you don’t even want to use what you have for us, so maybe you’ve never really cared about me.’ After that, he got really quiet as though he knew that was a really inappropriate thing to say, and we didn’t talk for 3 days. I was really angry, I was going to talk things through with him.”
The woman added, “However, this already was the relationship fatality. Jake went too far and told about my money to many people with whom we both communicate, despite me asking him to keep the money quiet. He was telling them that I was really rich and could afford tons of things. I found out about that accidentally, and this was the last straw.”
The woman said, “I asked him to move out the next day. Of course, Jake has been calling me many times, texting me and even paying me unwanted visits. I’m desperate, and I feel torn. On one hand, I still love him and want to give him a chance in our relationship. But on the other hand, I can’t ignore the fact that he told people about my money, that was what I specifically asked him not to do. I trusted him so much. Yeah, I’ve lost a 5-year marriage and am probably going to lose a few friends as well.”
And here’s yet another mind-stirring confession from a woman, who broke a family and took a husband away from his wife and kids. She expected a paradise with her SO, but her life took a very intricate and unexpected turn.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Senate Democrats launch investigation into Trump’s reported offer to oil executives of regulatory rollback in exchange for donations
Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to oil executives that if they donated $1bn to his campaign, he would roll back environmental regulations, if elected.
The joint investigation by the Senate budget and finance committees is targeted at the petroleum firms whose top executives were said to have attended that April dinner.
“Time and time again, both Mr. Trump and the US oil and gas industry have proved they are willing to sell out Americans to pad their own pockets,” finance committee chair Ron Wyden and budget committee chair Sheldon Whitehouse said in a joint statement.
Here’s more:
As Mr. Trump funnels campaign money into his businesses and uses it as a slush fund to pay his legal fees, Big Oil has been lobbying aggressively to protect and expand its profits at the expense of the American taxpayer.And now, emboldened by impunity, Mr. Trump and Big Oil are flaunting their indifference to U.S. citizens’ economic well-being for all to see, conferring on how to trade campaign cash for policy changes. Such potential abuses must be scrutinized.
The supreme court allowed South Carolina’s Republican-drawn congressional map to stay, at least for now, after the panel’s conservative majority ruled against a lower court’s finding that they discriminated against Black voters. The decision, which Joe Bidencalled “wrong”, was authored by Samuel Alito, a conservative justice who was yesterday revealed to have flown a flag associated with Christian extremism at a vacation property. It was the second rightwing banner to have reportedly been displayed at one of his homes, prompting the House’s top Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, amongothers, to call for him to recuse himself from cases dealing with January 6. Alito has not commented on whether he will do that.
Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to roll back environmental regulations if oil executives raise $1b for him.
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Biden and attorney general Merrick Garland both declined to comment on Alito’s flag preferences.
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Elena Kagan, a liberal supreme court justice, dissented from the conservative ruling in the South Carolina case, and warned it would undermine future attempts to challenge racial gerrymanders.
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Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, squabbled with Biden after Senate Democrats tried and failed again to pass a bill to tighten immigration policy.
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Louisiana’sRepublican-dominated legislature moved to restrict abortion medication – which the Biden campaign blamed on Trump.
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In a just-released statement, Joe Biden decried the supreme court’s ruling earlier today that South Carolina’s Republican leaders do not need to redraw their congressional map, despite claims that it excludes Black voters.
“The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy. Key to that right is ensuring that voters pick their elected officials – not the other way around. The Supreme Court’s decision today undermines the basic principle that voting practices should not discriminate on account of race and that is wrong,” the president said.
“This decision threatens South Carolinians’ ability to have their voices heard at the ballot box, and the districting plan the Court upheld is part of a dangerous pattern of racial gerrymandering efforts from Republican elected officials to dilute the will of Black voters.”
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Senate Democrats tried once again this afternoon to pass legislation tightening immigration policy, with the goal of curbing the flow of people crossing the southern border. But, just as when they first tried to move the legislation in February in a gambit to win approval of a new military aid infusion for Israel and Ukraine, the attempt failed, thanks to the opposition of Republicans who say they want even stronger anti-immigration measures.
Congressional Republicans do not care about securing the border or fixing America’s broken immigration system. If they did, they would have voted for the toughest border enforcement in history. Instead, today, they put partisan politics ahead of our country’s national security.
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By blocking the bipartisan border agreement, Republicans in Congress said no to legislation that would hire more Border Patrol Agents, add more immigration judges and asylum officers to process cases in months and not years. They said no to new technology to detect and stop fentanyl from entering the United States, and no to resources to go after drug traffickers. They rejected an agreement that would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border when the system is overwhelmed.
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson alleged that Biden and his allies in the Senate are faking concern for immigration, and just want to shore up support before November’s election.
After more than three years of claiming the situation at our southern border was not a crisis while millions of illegals poured in, Congressional Democrats are attempting to throw an election year Hail Mary to cover for their embrace of President Biden’s open border policies. In the absence of a substantive legislative solution, Senator Schumer should join House Republicans in demanding President Biden reverse course and use his executive authority to finally secure the border and protect American families.
Left unmentioned by both parties were the well-documented efforts by Donald Trump to torpedo the legislation earlier this year, reportedly so he could campaign on frustration over immigration.
Another issue Democrats face is that the party isn’t united on how to handle immigration. Yesterday, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal and Nanette Barragán, leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the bill “inhumane”:
This framework, which was constructed under Republican hostage-taking, does nothing to address the longstanding updates needed to modernize our outdated immigration system, create more legal pathways, and recognize the enormous contributions of immigrants to communities and our economy.
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While the investments in asylum officers and immigration judges are welcome and needed, these alone cannot address the negative effects of a new Title 42-like expulsion authority that will close the border and turn away people seeking asylum without due process. Such a policy will be a boon to cartels who prey on migrants and would do nothing to address the root causes of migration – which will continue to send immigrants to the border. It is worth remembering that under Donald Trump, such a policy was not only declared unlawful by the courts, but it also led to increases – not decreases – in illegal border crossing.
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At a press conference today, attorney general Merrick Garland repudiated a claim by Donald Trump that the federal agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida two years ago were given the authority to kill him.
The former president made the allegation in a fundraising email, but the attorney general said it was an “extremely dangerous” distortion of the department’s policies, which were also followed when Joe Biden’s home was searched for classified material:
Attorney General Garland on former President Trump's claim that the Justice Department had authorization to kill him during the Mar-a-Lago raid: "That allegation is false and it is extremely dangerous." pic.twitter.com/mAEfeCejwF
And here’s a recap of what exactly Trump was alleging:
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Louisiana’s Republican-dominated state legislature has moved to further tighten access to two prescription drugs used in medication abortion, the Associated Press reports.
Here’s more on the move, which comes as we await a ruling from the US supreme court on whether mifepristone, one of the drugs targeted by the new Louisiana law, can remain available nationwide:
Two abortion-inducing drugs could soon be reclassified as controlled and dangerous substances in Louisiana under a first-of-its-kind bill that received final legislative passage Thursday and is expected to be signed into law by the governor.
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Supporters of the reclassification of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly known as “abortion pills”, say it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions. Numerous doctors, meanwhile, have said it will make it harder for them to prescribe the medicines they use for other important reproductive healthcare needs, and could delay treatment.
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Louisiana currently has a near-total abortion ban in place, applying both to surgical and medical abortions. The GOP-dominated legislature’s push to reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol could possibly open the door for other Republican states with abortion bans that are seeking tighter restrictions on the drugs.
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Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime to use them to induce an abortion in most cases. The bill would make it harder to obtain the pills by placing them on the list of Schedule IV drugs under the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law.
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The supreme court has allowed South Carolina’s Republican-drawn congressional maps to stay, at least for now, after the panel’s conservative majority turned away a request from challengers that they be thrown out for discriminating against Black voters. The decision was authored by Samuel Alito, a conservative justice who was yesterday revealed to have flown a flag associated with Christian extremism at a vacation property. It was the second rightwing flag to have reportedly been displayed at his properties, prompting the House’s top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, amongothers, to call for him to recuse himself from cases dealing with January 6. Alito has not commented on if he will do that.
Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to roll back environmental regulations if oil executives raise $1bn for him.
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Joe Biden and attorney general Merrick Garland both declined to comment on Alito’s flag preferences.
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Elena Kagan, a liberal supreme court justice, dissented from the conservative ruling in the South Carolina case, and warned it would undermine future attempts to challenge racial gerrymanders.
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Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to oil executives that if they donated $1bn to his campaign, he would roll back environmental regulations, if elected.
The joint investigation by the Senate budget and finance committees is targeted at the petroleum firms whose top executives were said to have attended that April dinner.
“Time and time again, both Mr. Trump and the US oil and gas industry have proved they are willing to sell out Americans to pad their own pockets,” finance committee chair Ron Wyden and budget committee chair Sheldon Whitehouse said in a joint statement.
As Mr. Trump funnels campaign money into his businesses and uses it as a slush fund to pay his legal fees, Big Oil has been lobbying aggressively to protect and expand its profits at the expense of the American taxpayer.And now, emboldened by impunity, Mr. Trump and Big Oil are flaunting their indifference to U.S. citizens’ economic well-being for all to see, conferring on how to trade campaign cash for policy changes. Such potential abuses must be scrutinized.
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House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has become the highest-ranking Democrat to call for supreme court justice Samuel Alito to recuse himself over the two rightwing flags reported to have flown over his properties.
At a press conference today, Jeffries called on Alito, a conservative stalwart on the court, to step back from cases concerning the January 6 insurrection, and warned that the party could work to pass legislation imposing an enforceable code of ethics on the court:
.@RepJeffries: "Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas are totally out of control…In the case of Samuel Alito, he definitively needs to recuse himself from any matter pending before the United States Supreme Court that has to do with the January 6th violent insurrection." pic.twitter.com/JrxMSnXdKp
The justices still have not released their opinion on Donald Trump’s petition for immunity from the federal charges brought against him for attempting to overturn the 2020 election – which culminated in his supporters’ attack on the US Capitol.
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The supreme court’s conservative supermajority has turned back a challenge to South Carolina’s congressional maps on the grounds that they were a racial gerrymander.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservatives rejected a lower court ruling that found the state’s Republican leadership had undertaken an “effective bleaching” of a congressional district, by drawing lines to exclude Black voters.
The decision’s effect is to deny Democrats the potential opportunity to pick up a seat in a state as they aim to retake the majority in the House in November’s elections.
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The supreme court will in a few minutes release its latest batch of opinions.
We do not know how many they will release, or which cases, but there are several key issues pending the before the court, including conservative attempts to limit access to abortion pill mifepristone, and to strike down a Biden administration policy that requires federally funded hospitals perform the procedure in emergencies, even in states where abortion is banned.
The justices are also considering Donald Trump’s petition for immunity from charges related to attempting to overturn the 2020 election, as well as a challenge to South Carolina’s congressional maps. Here is more on the latter:
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The New York Times found conservative supreme court justice Samuel Alito’s New Jersey vacation home flying the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which dates back to the Revolutionary War, and has been adopted by far-right Christians:
It’s the second controversial flag found outside an Alito residence. Last week, the Times reported that shortly before Joe Biden took office, Alito’s home in Virginia flew an upside-down American flag, which had been adopted as a symbol by those who believed Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
Alito told the Times his wife had put that flag up after a dispute with their neighbor, but he declined to comment about the banner found at his vacation home in New Jersey. Here’s more on this:
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Conservative supreme court justice Samuel Alitoflew a rightwing Christian flag carried by insurrectionists on January 6 outside a vacation home, the New York Times reported yesterday. The story came a week after the Times revealed that a different flag associated with Donald Trump’s election lies appeared outside his suburban Washington DC residence shortly before Joe Biden took office. The justice blamed his wife for the first episode, and had no comment on the flag flown outside the New Jersey vacation property, but to top Democrats, it is clear that Alito needs to step back from cases involving the attack on the Capitol and the 2020 election. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate judiciary committee, made the demand, while calling the flag “apparent ethical misconduct”, and progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the matter should be investigated.
Meanwhile, the supreme court is scheduled to, at 10am ET, issue another batch of decisions. There is no telling which cases they may weigh in on, but pending on their docket is Trump’s attempt to be granted immunity from prosecution for his 2020 election meddling attempt as well as twocases dealing with access to abortion that came after the court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022 – with an opinion Alito authored.
Biden is spending much of the day with Kenyan president William Ruto, who is on an official visit to Washington DC. The president hosts the East African leader for a state dinner in the evening – the first for any African leader since George W Bush dined with Ghana’s John Kufuor in 2008.
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Republican House speaker Mike Johnson wants to invite Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give an address to Congress, but is waiting to hear from Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. Perhaps the Democrat will make his decision known today.
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The House is expected to vote on Republican-backed legislation to repeal a Washington DC law allowing non-citizens to vote in its local elections.
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Key events
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Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Closing summary
The supreme court allowed South Carolina’s Republican-drawn congressional map to stay, at least for now, after the panel’s conservative majority ruled against a lower court’s finding that they discriminated against Black voters. The decision, which Joe Bidencalled “wrong”, was authored by Samuel Alito, a conservative justice who was yesterday revealed to have flown a flag associated with Christian extremism at a vacation property. It was the second rightwing banner to have reportedly been displayed at one of his homes, prompting the House’s top Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, amongothers, to call for him to recuse himself from cases dealing with January 6. Alito has not commented on whether he will do that.
Here’s what else happened:
Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to roll back environmental regulations if oil executives raise $1b for him.
Biden and attorney general Merrick Garland both declined to comment on Alito’s flag preferences.
Elena Kagan, a liberal supreme court justice, dissented from the conservative ruling in the South Carolina case, and warned it would undermine future attempts to challenge racial gerrymanders.
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, squabbled with Biden after Senate Democrats tried and failed again to pass a bill to tighten immigration policy.
Louisiana’sRepublican-dominated legislature moved to restrict abortion medication – which the Biden campaign blamed on Trump.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Biden calls supreme court’s ruling on South Carolina congressional map ‘wrong’
In a just-released statement, Joe Biden decried the supreme court’s ruling earlier today that South Carolina’s Republican leaders do not need to redraw their congressional map, despite claims that it excludes Black voters.
“The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy. Key to that right is ensuring that voters pick their elected officials – not the other way around. The Supreme Court’s decision today undermines the basic principle that voting practices should not discriminate on account of race and that is wrong,” the president said.
“This decision threatens South Carolinians’ ability to have their voices heard at the ballot box, and the districting plan the Court upheld is part of a dangerous pattern of racial gerrymandering efforts from Republican elected officials to dilute the will of Black voters.”
Here’s more on the court’s finding:
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Biden, Johnson squabble after GOP torpedoes Senate immigration bill
Senate Democrats tried once again this afternoon to pass legislation tightening immigration policy, with the goal of curbing the flow of people crossing the southern border. But, just as when they first tried to move the legislation in February in a gambit to win approval of a new military aid infusion for Israel and Ukraine, the attempt failed, thanks to the opposition of Republicans who say they want even stronger anti-immigration measures.
In a statement following the vote, Joe Biden accused the GOP of indifference to the issue of border security:
Congressional Republicans do not care about securing the border or fixing America’s broken immigration system. If they did, they would have voted for the toughest border enforcement in history. Instead, today, they put partisan politics ahead of our country’s national security.
By blocking the bipartisan border agreement, Republicans in Congress said no to legislation that would hire more Border Patrol Agents, add more immigration judges and asylum officers to process cases in months and not years. They said no to new technology to detect and stop fentanyl from entering the United States, and no to resources to go after drug traffickers. They rejected an agreement that would give me, as President, a new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border when the system is overwhelmed.
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson alleged that Biden and his allies in the Senate are faking concern for immigration, and just want to shore up support before November’s election.
After more than three years of claiming the situation at our southern border was not a crisis while millions of illegals poured in, Congressional Democrats are attempting to throw an election year Hail Mary to cover for their embrace of President Biden’s open border policies. In the absence of a substantive legislative solution, Senator Schumer should join House Republicans in demanding President Biden reverse course and use his executive authority to finally secure the border and protect American families.
Left unmentioned by both parties were the well-documented efforts by Donald Trump to torpedo the legislation earlier this year, reportedly so he could campaign on frustration over immigration.
Another issue Democrats face is that the party isn’t united on how to handle immigration. Yesterday, Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal and Nanette Barragán, leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the bill “inhumane”:
This framework, which was constructed under Republican hostage-taking, does nothing to address the longstanding updates needed to modernize our outdated immigration system, create more legal pathways, and recognize the enormous contributions of immigrants to communities and our economy.
While the investments in asylum officers and immigration judges are welcome and needed, these alone cannot address the negative effects of a new Title 42-like expulsion authority that will close the border and turn away people seeking asylum without due process. Such a policy will be a boon to cartels who prey on migrants and would do nothing to address the root causes of migration – which will continue to send immigrants to the border. It is worth remembering that under Donald Trump, such a policy was not only declared unlawful by the courts, but it also led to increases – not decreases – in illegal border crossing.
While Donald Trump has already effectively clinched the Republican presidential nomination, the Guardian’s Jason Wilson reports that rightwing lobbyists are working behind the scenes to cement deeper ties between GOP lawmakers and groups supporting the ex-president’s agenda:
A powerful, rightwing lobbying group is promoting a hard-right policy agenda and cementing ties between the Republican party and the far right at at least 21 events involving senators, members of Congress, and both junior and senior political aides, documents obtained by the Guardian show.
The documents offer previously unreported details of Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) trainings and “bootcamps” for congressional staff at CPI’s sprawling Maryland ranch, and lavish, star-studded retreats for members of Congress – mostly members of the far-right Freedom caucus – at a string of Florida resorts.
They also show how CPI, widely described as the “nerve center of the Maga movement”, enlisted its own network of affiliated organizations along with like-minded far-right organizations – some classified as hate groups by experts – as well as individual extremists to promote anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-vaccine policies, along with others premised on the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump.
The revelations raise further questions about the powerful influence exercised on Capitol Hill staffers by the well-heeled NGO, and the extent of its successes in moving Republican elected officials even further to the right.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Attorney general Garland says Trump claim the justice department was authorized to kill him during Mar-a-Lago search is ‘extremely dangerous’
At a press conference today, attorney general Merrick Garland repudiated a claim by Donald Trump that the federal agents who searched his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida two years ago were given the authority to kill him.
The former president made the allegation in a fundraising email, but the attorney general said it was an “extremely dangerous” distortion of the department’s policies, which were also followed when Joe Biden’s home was searched for classified material:
Attorney General Garland on former President Trump's claim that the Justice Department had authorization to kill him during the Mar-a-Lago raid: "That allegation is false and it is extremely dangerous." pic.twitter.com/mAEfeCejwF
Attorney General Garland on former President Trump’s claim that the Justice Department had authorization to kill him during the Mar-a-Lago raid: “That allegation is false and it is extremely dangerous.” pic.twitter.com/mAEfeCejwF
And here’s a recap of what exactly Trump was alleging:
Joe Biden’s re-election campaign says Donald Trump is to blame for the move by Louisiana Republicans to tighten access to abortion medication.
From spokesperson Lauren Hitt:
This Louisiana bill also creates a registry, on which every single person who is prescribed abortion medication will be listed – truly state monitoring of pregnancies.
This Louisiana bill also creates a registry, on which every single person who is prescribed abortion medication will be listed – truly state monitoring of pregnancies.
The Biden campaign has banked on rising public support for access to abortion to translate into votes for the president in November. Here’s more on the latest opinion polls on the issue:
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Louisiana Republicans move to tighten access to abortion medication
Louisiana’s Republican-dominated state legislature has moved to further tighten access to two prescription drugs used in medication abortion, the Associated Press reports.
Here’s more on the move, which comes as we await a ruling from the US supreme court on whether mifepristone, one of the drugs targeted by the new Louisiana law, can remain available nationwide:
Two abortion-inducing drugs could soon be reclassified as controlled and dangerous substances in Louisiana under a first-of-its-kind bill that received final legislative passage Thursday and is expected to be signed into law by the governor.
Supporters of the reclassification of mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly known as “abortion pills”, say it would protect expectant mothers from coerced abortions. Numerous doctors, meanwhile, have said it will make it harder for them to prescribe the medicines they use for other important reproductive healthcare needs, and could delay treatment.
Louisiana currently has a near-total abortion ban in place, applying both to surgical and medical abortions. The GOP-dominated legislature’s push to reclassify mifepristone and misoprostol could possibly open the door for other Republican states with abortion bans that are seeking tighter restrictions on the drugs.
Current Louisiana law already requires a prescription for both drugs and makes it a crime to use them to induce an abortion in most cases. The bill would make it harder to obtain the pills by placing them on the list of Schedule IV drugs under the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law.
The investigation into the 11 April dinner comes a day after Trump attended a Houston lunch to ask oil executives for more campaign money.
Trump attended the invitation-only meeting at Houston’s ritzy Post Oak hotel. The lunch was organized by three major oil executives, and came only a week after severe thunderstorms hit the Houston area.
Climate advocates in Texas have condemned Trump’s pleas to the oil industry as the state struggles with extreme weather exacerbated by the climate crisis.
“Houstonians are staring at Trump in disbelief as he flies in to beg big oil for funds just days after the city’s climate disaster,” said Alex Glass, communications director at the climate advocacy organization Climate Power, and a former Houston resident.
The 11 April dinner was reportedly called an “energy round table”, the Times reported.
Executives from major oil companies including ExxonMobil and EQT Corporation were in attendance.
The event was organized by oil tycoon Harold Hamm, the Washington Post first reported. Hamm and others are reportedly organizing another fundraiser for Trump later this year, which is expected to bring high donations.
Here’s more from the Times:
Over a dinner of chopped steak, Mr. Trump repeated his public promises to delete Mr. Biden’s pollution controls, telling the attendees that they should donate heavily to help him beat Mr. Biden because his policies would help their industries.
“That has been his pitch to everybody,” said Michael McKenna, who worked in the Trump White House but did not attend the event in Florida.
Mr. McKenna said the former president’s appeal to the fossil fuel industry could be summed up as: “Look, you want me to win. You might not even like me, but your other choice is four more years of these guys,” referring to the Biden administration. He added, “The uniform sentiment of guys in the business community is ‘We don’t want four more years of Team Biden.’”
The Senate Democrats’ investigation into Trump’s alleged quid-pro-quo suggestion to oil executives stems from an 11 April dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the New York Times reported.
Trump reportedly told 20 oil executives that they should donate $1b to his campaign as they would save more than that amount in “taxes and legal fees” once Trump was elected as he would repeal Biden’s restrictions on drilling that hurt their industries.
The supreme court has allowed South Carolina’s Republican-drawn congressional maps to stay, at least for now, after the panel’s conservative majority turned away a request from challengers that they be thrown out for discriminating against Black voters. The decision was authored by Samuel Alito, a conservative justice who was yesterday revealed to have flown a flag associated with Christian extremism at a vacation property. It was the second rightwing flag to have reportedly been displayed at his properties, prompting the House’s top Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, amongothers, to call for him to recuse himself from cases dealing with January 6. Alito has not commented on if he will do that.
Here’s what else is going on:
Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to roll back environmental regulations if oil executives raise $1bn for him.
Joe Biden and attorney general Merrick Garland both declined to comment on Alito’s flag preferences.
Elena Kagan, a liberal supreme court justice, dissented from the conservative ruling in the South Carolina case, and warned it would undermine future attempts to challenge racial gerrymanders.
Www.oeisdigitalinvestigator.com: Senate Democrats launch investigation into Trump’s reported offer to oil executives of regulatory rollback in exchange for donations
Senate Democrats have launched an investigation into Donald Trump’s reported offer to oil executives that if they donated $1bn to his campaign, he would roll back environmental regulations, if elected.
The joint investigation by the Senate budget and finance committees is targeted at the petroleum firms whose top executives were said to have attended that April dinner.
“Time and time again, both Mr. Trump and the US oil and gas industry have proved they are willing to sell out Americans to pad their own pockets,” finance committee chair Ron Wyden and budget committee chair Sheldon Whitehouse said in a joint statement.
Here’s more:
As Mr. Trump funnels campaign money into his businesses and uses it as a slush fund to pay his legal fees, Big Oil has been lobbying aggressively to protect and expand its profits at the expense of the American taxpayer.And now, emboldened by impunity, Mr. Trump and Big Oil are flaunting their indifference to U.S. citizens’ economic well-being for all to see, conferring on how to trade campaign cash for policy changes. Such potential abuses must be scrutinized.
A former White House lawyer for Donald Trump says he should already be on trial for the classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago, the Guardian’s Robert Tait reports:
Donald Trump’s former White House lawyer has attacked Aileen Cannon, the judge handling the ex-president’s classified documents charges, for repeated delays, attributing her rulings to “incompetence” and “perceived bias” and saying the case should have already come to trial.
Ty Cobb, the luxuriantly whiskered attorney who served as Trump’s counsel during former FBI director Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, said decisions taken by Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge in the US district court in Florida, virtually guaranteed that the case would not be tried before November’s presidential poll.
In an interview with CNN, Cobb said Cannon had delayed on issues that most federal judges would have long since dealt with.
“I don’t think this case will move at all,” he said. “And I think the fact that she’s scheduling hearings, multiple hearings, sort of one or two motions at a time is compelling evidence of that. Most federal judges would have long ago ruled on all the pending motions.
“And frankly, this is a case that should’ve started trial yesterday or two days ago when the original trial date was set. This case could have easily gotten to trial. Only her incompetence and perceived bias has prevented that.”
Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace’s district is at the heart of the supreme court case in which the challengers to legislative maps drawn by the state’s Republican lawmakers argued that they constituted an illegal racial gerrymander.
Here’s what Mace had to say after the supreme court’s conservative majority today ruled against the challengers:
Today the Supreme Court affirmed what everyone in the state of South Carolina already knew: redistricting was not racially motivated and served in the best interest of constituencies of South Carolina. 🇺🇸#LowcountryFirst
Today the Supreme Court affirmed what everyone in the state of South Carolina already knew: redistricting was not racially motivated and served in the best interest of constituencies of South Carolina. 🇺🇸#LowcountryFirst
And here’s a recap of the decision, which could have ripple effects on congressional maps across the south:
Politico reports that Samuel Alito seemed brusque when he announced the opinion he authored that essentially allows South Carolina to use Republican-drawn congressional maps, even though challengers claimed they discriminated against African Americans:
Alito, who has been under fire in recent days over claims that the display of flags at his Virginia home and New Jersey shore house reflected bias and violated judicial ethics, delivered an unusually short, almost perfunctory summary of his opinion when the court announced its decisions from the bench Thursday morning.
Reporters in the court’s press room had only just begun to read the voting-rights ruling when he moved on to an unrelated, criminal-justice opinion he also wrote.
However, the court’s ruling, which was joined by all six conservative justices, did not completely end the challenge to South Carolina’s maps, Politico notes:
The high court’s ruling did not entirely foreclose the possibility that civil rights groups might eventually prevail in their challenge to the map on what Alito said was a distinct theory under the Voting Rights Act of diluting minority votes.
The majority ordered the case returned to the lower court for a fresh look at that issue by the panel that earlier ruled the map unconstitutional. All of those judges are Democratic appointees.
But with the state’s congressional primaries looming on June 11, and the lower court already having given the green light to use the legislature’s map this year, the chances of any changes in the map this year seem vanishingly remote.