Capitol rioter who was pardoned by Donald Trump is jailed for life for child sex attacks

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/capitol-rioter-who-pardoned-donald-36824827

Civil Discourse – Maduro & Venezuela: What Happens Next – Joyce Vance

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Maduro & Venezuela: What Happens Next

And, a very special Substack Live Sunday morning

By Joyce Vance, Jan 03, 2026

This morning, Donald Trump explained, in a rambling press conference along with others in his administration, that the overnight strike in Venezuela was executed to arrest President Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. In other words, it’s not the kind of new hostilities, if you buy the administration’s line, that would require notice to or a declaration from Congress.

This approach, although it’s what I suggested in this morning’s post we should expect, leaves me with a major question: if the U.S. was just going in to Venezuela to arrest a defendant in a criminal case, which has now been done, why is it necessary to stick around to run the country? That is exactly what Trump said this morning that we’d be doing. “We’re going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” the President said.

Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted: “The idea that Trump plans to now run Venezuela should strike fear in the hearts of all Americans. The American people have seen this before and paid the devastating price.”

Tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m. ET, I’ll host a Substack Live with Jake Sullivan, who served as Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor from 2021 to 2025, and Jon Finer, Biden’s Deputy National Security Advisor. We’ll answer your questions about what comes next. Make sure you’re subscribed to Civil Discourse to get a notice when we go live—a free subscription will work for that. And leave any questions you have for us in the comments. Jake and Jon have a fantastic new podcast, The Long Game, that drops every Friday.

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The new indictment:

The superseding indictment against Maduro, Flores, and four others was unsealed this morning. It contains three counts and a hefty amount of narrative. It is, as prosecutors say, a speaking indictment:

• Count One: Narcoterrorism Conspiracy; Title 21, United States Code, Section 960a; and Title 18, United States Code, Section 3238
• Count Two: Cocaine Importation Conspiracy; Title 21, United States Code, Section 963; and Title 18, United States Code, Section 3238
• Count Three: Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices; Title 18, United States Code, Sections 924(c)(l)(A), 924(c)(l)(B)(ii), 3238, and 2
• Count Four: Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices; Title 18, United States Code, Sections 924(0) and 3238

You can read the superseding indictment here. It’s signed by Trump’s new U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, which means it was obtained no earlier than August of this year. It involves fewer defendants than the original 2020 indictment, which named 15 defendants, including Maduro. That could mean that some of the original defendants have become cooperators. We don’t know the details yet, but we will likely learn more in the course of detention hearings, which should follow shortly on the heels of the arraignment.

The superseding indictment adds additional allegations against Maduro and names his wife as a defendant for the first time. The basis for the indictment remains the same: Maduro and his co-defendants used government power to protect and promote drug trafficking crimes. The government alleges that “This cycle of narcotics-based corruption lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States.”

To prevail on the “narcoterrorism” count (that label doesn’t appear in the statute), the government will have to prove that the defendants trafficked in illegal drugs, “knowing or intending to provide, directly or indirectly, anything of pecuniary value to any person or organization that has engaged or engages in terrorist activity.” This begs the same question raised by Trump’s earlier efforts to deport Venezuelans, who he claimed were part of the Tren de Aragua gang (it turned out many of them weren’t), and the justification for so-called kinetic strikes that have killed more than 100 people to date. The administration’s justification is that drug cartels are terrorist forces attacking the United States. Now we’ll see how that holds up in court.

Even if the government prevails on the legal argument, the indictment doesn’t offer much insight into how the government intends to tie Maduro to Tren de Aragua and other cartels and gangs. It offers more detail about FARC activity from 2018 and 2019. But prosecutors aren’t required to reveal all of their evidence in an indictment, simply enough to put a defendant on notice of the charges they have to defend against. Assessment of the strength of the government’s case will have to wait until defense lawyers file preliminary motions.

Maduro could be facing life in prison if he is convicted. The two drug counts carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, and mandatory minimum sentences of 20 years on Count One and 10 years on Count 2. The firearm charges carry a 30-year minimum prison term.

Will Congress do anything?

A Senatevotewill take place next week on a bipartisan war powers resolution to block Trump from engaging in further hostilities against Venezuela. It was already in the works, but there will be an increased sense of urgency around it now. Along with Schumer, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, and California Senator Adam Schiff, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul has signed on as a co-sponsor. The resolution is privileged, which means Senate Majority Leader John Thune will not be able to prevent it from coming to the floor. The resolution only needs a simple majority to pass the Senate.

Delaware Democrat Chris Coons, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Defense Appropriations, issued a statement that read, “This military action is the next stage in President Trump’s incoherent and arguably illegal Venezuela operation. In recent briefings to Congress, senior administration officials said they were focused on combatting (sic) drug trafficking, not regime change, and made clear they had no plan for what would happen if Maduro was removed or overthrown. This was clearly false, and furthermore, a military operation to capture and overthrow a president – even an illegitimate one – is an act of war that must be authorized by Congress. Not only has the Trump administration not sought congressional approval, they did not even notify members of either party in Congress until after the strike had concluded. Protecting democracy should not be done through illegal means.”

Editor’s Note: The featured image at top was generated by WP AI. Below is also the embedded column/article for easy access. –DrWeb

Maduro & Venezuela: What Happens Next by Joyce Vance

And, a very special Substack Live Sunday morning Read on Substack

Maduro & Venezuela: What Happens Next by Joyce Vance

And, a very special Substack Live Sunday morning

Letters from an American – November 24, 2025 – Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American, November 24, 2025

By Heather Cox Richardson, Nov 24, 2025

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie of South Carolina today dismissed the indictments of former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that President Donald J. Trump’s appointment of Lindsey Halligan as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia was invalid.

Trump had demanded the indictment of the two. When he was FBI director, Comey had refused to drop an investigation into Trump’s then–national security advisor Mike Flynn, who had lied to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian operative before Trump took office. James had successfully sued Trump, several of his children, and the Trump Organization for fraud, and when the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Erik Seibert, said there was not enough evidence to indict them, Trump forced him out of office and replaced him with Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and Trump aide.

Within days, Halligan obtained a grand jury indictment for Comey, charging him with lying to Congress, and another for James, charging her with alleged mortgage fraud. As David Kurtz points out in Talking Points Memo, the indictments were widely understood to be targeted prosecutions of those Trump considered enemies.

By law, after a Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney leaves the job, the attorney general can appoint an interim U.S. attorney for 120 days. If the position still has not been filled, the right to make another interim appointment goes to the district court, which has sole authority over the position until the Senate confirms a president’s nominee. This provision prevents a president from making an end run around the Senate’s duty to advise and consent by making consecutive 120-day appointments.

The Trump administration attempted to thwart this law. Trump appointed Seibert the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia on January 21, and as the 120-day deadline approached, he nominated Seibert for the position. The district judges voted unanimously to keep Siebert on as the interim U.S. attorney as his nomination proceeded. But then Siebert declined to prosecute Comey and James, and Trump forced him out, pushing Attorney General Pam Bondi to put Halligan into his place as a new interim appointment.

Today, Currie found that Halligan’s appointment violated not only the law, but also the appointment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which requires the president to obtain the “advice and consent of the Senate” for such appointments. That unlawful appointment means that all of Halligan’s actions undertaken as a U.S. attorney are invalid. Because she was the only prosecutor to sign off on the Comey and James prosecutions, they, too, are invalid.

Currie wrote that if the indictments were to stand, “the Government could send any private citizen off the street—attorney or not—into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the Attorney General gives her approval after the fact. That cannot be the law.”

After the judge’s decision, Comey posted a video saying that while the case mattered to him personally, “it matters most because a message has to be sent that the president of the United States cannot use the Department of Justice to target his political enemies. I don’t care what your politics are. You have to see that as fundamentally un-American and a threat to the rule of law that keeps all of us free.” He called for Americans to “stand up and show the fools who would frighten us, who would divide us, that we’re made of stronger stuff, that we believe in the rule of law, that we believe in the importance of doing things by the law.”

Attorney General Bondi said the government will “be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal.”

Shut down by the courts, Trump is turning to military justice to enforce his will.

Since six lawmakers released a video last week reminding servicemembers that they must refuse to carry out unlawful orders, Trump and his loyalists have continued to insist that such a reminder is “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR… punishable by DEATH!”

Their argument appears to be that by reiterating the law, the lawmakers implied that Trump has issued unlawful orders and therefore that they made troops question their orders and thus directly attacked the chain of command. It’s a convoluted argument, one that administration officials are using to claim that the lawmakers’ reminder that troops must not obey an unlawful order is actually encouragement not to obey lawful orders.

Administration officials insist that the lawmakers’ video is an attack on Trump because all of his orders have been lawful, although lawyers, lawmakers, and military personnel have expressed concerns about the legality of the administration’s deadly strikes on civilians in small boats near Venezuela.

This morning, the administration escalated its attacks on the lawmakers. The social media account of the “Department of War” posted that the department is investigating Captain Mark Kelly, a retired Navy officer who is now a Democratic senator from Arizona and who participated in the video, after “serious allegations of misconduct.” It suggested that Kelly, a retired Navy officer, could be recalled to active duty “for court-martial proceedings or administrative measures.”

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: November 24, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson

#cameronMcgowan #easternDistrictOfVirginia #formerFbiDirector #heatherCoxRichardson #jamesComey #lawfulOrders #letitiaJames #lettersFromAnAmerican #markKelly #newYorkAttorneyGeneral #november242025 #pamBondi #southCarolina #substack #uSAttorney #uSDistrictCourt

Pennsylvania families fight Trump Justice Department subpoenas for their trans kids’ private medical records

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/pennsylvania-families-fight-doj-subpoena

Disney, Fox & Fubo Lawyers Clash In NY Court As Venu Sports Antitrust Lawsuit Goes Before Judge
#Legal #News #Antitrust #Disney #FoxCorp #Fubo #Lawsuit #USDistrictCourt #VenuSports #Warnerbrosdiscovery

https://deadline.com/2024/08/disney-fox-fubo-warner-bros-discovery-antitrust-lawsuit-1236032379/

Judge Rules Google Violated Antitrust Law In Its Dominance Over Search
#News #Politics #Antitrust #Google #USDistrictCourt

https://deadline.com/2024/08/google-antitrust-u-s-district-court-judge-1236031814/

Another reason NOT to mine in the American #Southwest! If we need "critical minerals," than RECLAIM THEM FROM CIRCUIT BOARDS AND BATTERIES!

Is the Southwest too dry for a mining boom?

Critical minerals for the #CleanEnergy transition are abundant in the Southwest, but the dozens of mines proposed to access them will require vast sums of water, something in short supply in the desert.

by Wyatt Myskow, Inside Climate News

Jan 28, 2024

"To understand mining in the U.S., you have to start with the #MiningLaw of 1872. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law as a way to continue the country’s development westward, allowing anyone to mine on federal lands for free. To do this, all one needs to do is plant four stakes into the ground where they think there are minerals and file a claim. Unlike other industries that make use of public lands—such as the oil and gas industry—no royalties are paid for the minerals extracted from the lands owned by American taxpayers.

"The #SanCarlosApache tribe has fought for years to stop #ResolutionCopper’s proposed mine. It would be built on top of #OakFlat, a #SacredSite to the Apache and other #Indigenous communities, and a habitat of rare species like the endangered Arizona #HedgehogCactus, which lives only in the #TontoNationalForest near the town of #Superior. The fate of the mine now rests with the #USDistrictCourt in Arizona after the grassroots group #ApacheStronghold filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing its development would violate #NativePeople’s religious rights.

"But for communities located near the mine and across the #PhoenixArizona metropolitan area, the water it would consume is just as big of an issue.

"Throughout the mine’s lifespan, Resolution estimates it would use 775,000 acre feet of water—enough for at least 1.5 million Arizona households over roughly 40 years. And experts say the mine would likely need far more.

"'By pumping billions of gallons of groundwater from the #EastSaltRiver alley, this project would make Arizona’s goal for #stewardship of its scarce #groundwater resources unreachable,' one report commissioned by the San Carlos Apache Tribe reads. In one hydrologist’s testimony to Congress, water consumption was estimated to be 50,000 acre feet a year—about 35,000 more than the company has proposed drawing from the aquifer.

"The Resolution #CopperMine isn’t the only water-intensive mining operation being proposed. Many of what the industry describes as 'critical minerals,' like #lithium and copper, are found throughout the Southwest, leading to a flurry of mining claims on the region’s federally managed public lands.

“Water is going to be scarcer in the Southwest but the mining industry is basically immune from all these issues,” said Roger Flynn, director and managing attorney at the #WesternMiningActionProject, which has represented tribes and environmental groups in mining-related lawsuits, including the case over Oak Flat."

Read more:
https://grist.org/drought/is-the-southwest-too-dry-for-a-mining-boom/

#WaterIsLife #SaveOakFlat #Arizona #RioTinto #CopperMining #CorporateColonialism #ClimateChange #ExtremeDrought

A U.S. District Court judge Wednesday ordered the city of Houston to immediately stop enforcing a decades-old law that required Food Not Bombs to request permission before feeding more than five people on any property within the city.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2024/02/15/477544/u-s-district-court-judge-wednesday-orders-houston-to-stop-ticketing-food-not-bombs/

#Houston #News #CharitableFoodServices #FoodNotBombs #FoodNotBombsHouston #USDistrictCourt