Clarence Thomas must be impeached over revelations of megadonor gifts, says AOC – live

Martin Pengelly

Democrats and campaigners outraged by a party switch that gives Republicans a veto-proof majority in the North Carolina state house have hit out at their former colleague.

Tricia Cotham’s decision to change parties is “a deceit of the highest order”, the state Democratic party chair, Anderson Clayton, told reporters on Wednesday.

“It is a betrayal to the people of Mecklenburg county with repercussions not only for the people of her district but for the entire state of North Carolina.”

Cotham, the Associated Press reports, is “a 44-year-old former teacher and assistant principal who served in the [state] house for nearly 10 years through 2016 before returning in January”.

Cotham “switched because, she said, the Democratic party and her Democratic colleagues were no longer willing to accept different viewpoints.

“The ‘modern-day Democratic Party has become unrecognizable to me’, Cotham said. ‘If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do, they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.’”

The AP continues: “Cotham said the turning point for her to consider a switch came when people started criticizing her for using the American flag and praying-hands emojis on social media and on her vehicles.

“‘It’s been very clear to me this was about control on day one at the legislature,’ she said. ‘They picked the wrong chick for that.’”

North Carolina has a Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. The state senate already had a Republican veto-proof majority.

As the AP puts it, “Whether the switch by Cotham will soon result in further abortion restrictions in the nation’s ninth-most populous state remains unclear, given her support for abortion rights during her earlier stint in the general assembly.”

Cameron Pruette, of the the LGBTQ Democrats of Mecklenburg county, said: “Hurt voters deserve to know right now where [Cotham] stands on abortion access in this state. Will she protect trans kids?”

Martin Pengelly

Apropos of the reported threats to the judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal case, J Michael Luttig, the retired conservative judge and sometime adviser to Mike Pence who came to national prominence with testimony to the House January 6 committee, has warned the former president he risks a gag order over his attacks on the judge in his New York criminal case.

“There is no court that would want to impose a gag order on a president of the United States,” Luttig told Axios.

But “if the former president forces the Manhattan criminal court, the court will have no choice”.

Luttig’s words would’ve carried weight even before his January 6 testimony, given his status as a senior voice in conservative legal circles deemed unlucky never to have reached the supreme court.

In New York on Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts relating to his hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels.

Prior to his arraignment, he stoked controversy with inflammatory social media posts about the case, the Manhattan district attorney and calls for protest in his support.

On Tuesday the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, warned the former president to “refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence and civil unrest”.

He also told a Trump lawyer: “I don’t share your view that certain language is justified by frustration.”

Hours later, in a speech at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump called Merchan “a Trump-hating judge”; attacked the judge’s family; and went after the Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg (“a criminal”); the DA of Fulton county, Georgia (“a local racist Democrat”); the justice department special counsel Jack Smith (“a radical-left lunatic known as a bomb-thrower”); and other foes.

Mike Scotto, a former Rackets Bureau Chief for the Manhattan DA, told Axios: “A gag order is used to protect the defendants’ rights to a fair trial and also the government’s rights to a fair trial, so that the potential jurors don’t learn anything about the case that they’re not going to learn in court.”

Here’s more from Judge Luttig, about Trump:

New York congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has called for conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s impeachment.

AOC’s calls follow reports that Thomas failed to disclose luxury gifts that he accepted from Republican billionaire, Harlan Crow, a megadonor to conservative organizations.

“This is beyond party or partisanship. This degree of corruption is shocking – almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached,” she tweeted.

“Barring some dramatic change, this is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights,” she added, referring to chief conservative justice John Roberts.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a anti-vaccine activist and Democrat has filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.

The 69-year old son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, will be challenging president Joe Biden as a Democrat.

Kennedy has a history of spreading myths surrounding vaccines and has had his activism work be described as misleading and dangerous by public health experts and even members of his own famous family.

In 2021, Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, told the Associated Press that her brother is “completely wrong on this issue and very dangerous.”

In 2020, the revenues of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine charity, Children’s Health Defense, doubled to $6.8 million, the Associated Press reports.

Kennedy has advocated for unproven Covid-19 treatments including the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that was championed by former president Donald Trump, as well as the parasitic drug ivermectin.

For over twenty years, Clarence Thomas has accepted multiple luxury trips from Harlan Crow, a Republican real estate developer and megadonor, according to a new ProPublica investigation.

The report found that the conservative justice frequently travels internationally on Crow’s luxury 162ft yacht, often wearing custom polo shirts gifted by Crow to commemorate the trips which included scuba diving in Indonesia and a cruise in New Zealand.

Thomas also flies on Crow’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet. At one point, Thomas even used the plane for a three-hour trip from Dallas to Dulles to New Haven, Connecticut before flying back on the same day on February 11, 2016. ProPublica found no reports of Thomas making any public appearances on that day.

Thomas has also visited the Bohemian Grove, an exclusive all-male retreat in California with the Texas businessman.

The justice also frequently visits Crow’s private resort in the Adirondacks known as Camp Topridge. In addition to being served by private chefs, Thomas has mingled with top Republican executives at these retreats. In July 2017, Thomas was accompanied by “major Republican donors and one of the leaders of the American Enterprise Institute, a pro-business conservative think tank,” the investigation found.

Despite accepting these luxury trips for over two decades, Thomas has not listed them on his financial disclosures, according to the report.

Crow and his wife denied wielding any political influence over Thomas via these luxury trip offerings.

“The hospitality we have extended to the Thomas’s over the years is no different from the hospitality we have extended to our many other dear friends… We have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” Crow said.

ProPublica found that Crow has donated over $10m in publicly disclosed political contributions. He has also donated to groups that conceal their donors and once said, “I don’t disclose what I’m not required to disclose.”

Despite Crow’s denials, ethics experts have criticized Thomas’ lack of transparency surrounding the disclosure of these luxury offerings.

“When a justice’s lifestyle is being subsidized by the rich and famous, it absolutely corrodes public trust,” Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel of the watchdog group CREW, told ProPublica.

Good morning US politics readers. A new investigation by ProPublica has found that conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas accepted multiple luxury trips from Harlan Crow, a Republican real estate developer and megadonor.

For over twenty years, Thomas has “accepted luxury trips virtually every year” from Crow without disclosing them, the report found. In addition to taking trips to Indonesia and New Zealand on Crow’s superyacht, Thomas regularly flies on the Texas businessman’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet and spends a week every summer at Crow’s private Adirondacks resort.

According to ethics law experts interviewed by ProPublica, the absence of these luxury trips on Thomas’ financial disclosures appears to violate a law that requires justices to disclose most gifts they receive.

Crow pushed back against the findings and denied wielding any political influence through these luxury trip offerings.

“My wife Kathy and I … have never asked about a pending or lower court case, and Justice Thomas has never discussed one, and we have never sought to influence Justice Thomas on any legal or political issue,” he said.

In its investigation, ProPublica found that Crow has donated over $10m in publicly disclosed political contributions. He has also donated to groups that conceal their donors and once said, “I don’t disclose what I’m not required to disclose.”

As we bring you the latest on today’s US politics, here are other key developments today:

• Rightwing legal activist Leonard Leo has been accused of misusing $73m from nonprofit groups and may be funneling the money illegally into his businesses.

• Anti-vaccine activist and Democrat Robert F Kennedy Jr is running for president against Joe Biden, joining self-help author Marianne Williamson, who declared her candidacy last month.