Month: August 2024

Per CNN, the United States Justice Department said on Tuesday that a Pakistani national with ties to Iran was charged in a foiled plot to assassinate U.S. government officials on American soil, including former President Trump. The FBI investigated the alleged international murder-for-hire plot in the weeks before a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania nearly assassinated Trump at one of his campaign rallies.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a press release announcing the murder-for-hire case: “This dangerous murder-for-hire plot exposed in today’s charges allegedly was orchestrated by a Pakistani national with close ties to Iran and is straight out of the Iranian playbook.”

According to court documents unsealed Tuesday, the DOJ said that the Pakistani man, with alleged ties to the Iranian government, was seeking to carry out political assassinations, a case that prompted the US government to increase security for former President Donald Trump and other officials. FBI investigators believe that Trump and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot.

The suspect, identified as Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and working with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York. Merchant was arrested on July 12 — one day before a gunman narrowly missed killing Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania — while preparing to leave the United States, shortly after he met with purported hitmen who he believed would carry the murders but were actually undercover law enforcement officers. Merchant is currently in federal custody.

Court documents state that Merchant said that he wanted to target individuals in the United States who are “hurting Pakistan and the world, [the] Muslim world,” adding that “these are not just normal people.” As part of the plot, Merchant was seeking men to commit the actual assassinations, a woman to do “reconnaissance,” and around 25 people “who could perform a protest as a distraction after the murder occurred.” Merchant allegedly made plans to leave the U.S. on July 12, but he was intercepted by law enforcement officers, who arrested him and searched his residence.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in Tuesday’s press release: “For years, the Justice Department has been working aggressively to counter Iran’s brazen and unrelenting efforts to retaliate against American public officials for the killing of Iranian General [Qassem] Soleimani.” [Soleimani was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad, Iraq, in January 2020].

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Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday, August 6th that she has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her 2024 running mate on the Democratic ticket.

Harris said in a statement posted on social media:  “I am proud to announce that I’ve asked @timwalz to be my running mate. * One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep. It’s personal.  * He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, spending summers working on his family’s farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college, and become a teacher. He served as both the football coach and the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance. * I share this background both because it’s impressive in its own right, and because you see in no uncertain terms how it informs his record. He worked with Republicans to pass infrastructure investments. He cut taxes for working families. He passed a law to provide paid family and medical leave to Minnesotan families.* He made Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and as an avid hunter, he passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases. * But what impressed me most about Tim is his deep commitment to his family: Gwen, Gus, and Hope. Doug and I look forward to working with him and Gwen to build an administration that reflects our shared values. * Whether you are a supporter, a volunteer, a donor, a member of our staff, or your name is on the ticket: you are part of the people-powered campaign that is going to defeat Donald Trump. * We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election. * So let’s get to work. “

Walz, 60, was part of a rumored shortlist of vice presidential picks that included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Harris held in-person interviews with Walz, Shapiro and Kelly on Sunday. Other potential VP picks included Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The Minnesota governor wrote on social media after Harris’ announcement: “It is the honor of a lifetime to join [Kamala Harris] in this campaign. I’m all in. Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school. So, let’s get this done, folks!”  Walz is a former teacher, national guardsman and high school football coach who turned to politics in 2006 when he successfully ran for U.S. Congress as a Democrat in a historically Republican district. After 12 years in the House, Walz  won the 2018 Minnesota gubernatorial race.

Walz will hit the campaign trail with Harris for a five-day tour of seven battleground states, which commenced with a stop in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening.

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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced on Monday that Jenna Ellis, Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign attorney charged in Arizona as part of the fake electors scheme, has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for getting her charges dismissed.  Ellis is one of several former and current key aides to former President Trump who were charged in the case, including Rudy Giuliani, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump attorney John Eastman. All pleaded not guilty. Trump himself was not charged in the case.

AG Mayes shared a legal agreement that shows Ellis agreed to sit for interviews and turn over documents related to the scheme. The agreement also calls on Ellis to “testify completely and truthfully at any time and any place requested by the Arizona attorney general’s office”. Ellis signed the cooperation agreement Monday morning, according to the announcement, which said prosecutors are dropping the charges against her:  “This agreement represents a significant step forward in our case. I am grateful to Ms. Ellis for her cooperation with our investigation and prosecution. Her insights are invaluable and will greatly aid the state in proving its case in court.”

One month after the 2020 election, 11 Trump supporters convened at the Arizona GOP’s headquarters in Phoenix to sign a certificate claiming to be Arizona’s 11 electors to the Electoral College, though Biden won the state by 10,457 votes and state officials certified his electors. The state Republican Party documented the signing of the certificate in a social media post and sent it to Congress and the National Archives. Those accused of being “fake electors” and the others alleged to have been accomplices are charged with fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.

Ellis was also one of four defendants to take plea deals in the Georgia election interference case, in which Trump and 18 others pleaded not guilty last year to charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.  Ellis pleaded guilty in Georgia to one count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings in that state’s election subversion case, and resulted in five years’ probation, a fine and community service in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors.In addition to Ellis, Georgia defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Scott Hall also took cooperation deals in that case.

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At least four deaths have been confirmed as a result of Hurricane Debby, which made landfall today on Florida’s Big Bend at 7 a.m. ET as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds. The National Hurricane Center said that Debby was downgraded at 11 a.m. on Monday to a tropical storm, but its affects still continue to ravage the state as it moves inland with flooding rain, damaging winds and a life-threatening storm surge.

Debby, which made landfall as a Category 1 storm, touched down near Steinhatchee about 7 a.m. ET with winds estimated at 80 mph. After landfall, power outages skyrocketed to more than 300,000 utility customers in the Sunshine State, according to PowerOutage.us.

Officials confirmed two deaths in Dixie County, Florida, as Debby approached the coastline: a 38-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy, both from Crawfordville, were killed in a crash just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday on US Highway 19 after their car lost control and struck a guardrail. Additionally, a 13-year-old boy was also killed about 8 a.m. Monday after a tree fell on a mobile home in Levy County; and a fourth victim, a 64-year-old man from New Albany, Mississippi, died after the tractor-trailer he was driving on southbound Interstate 75 near the Tampa Bypass Canal lost control on the wet roadway, according to Florida State Troopers.

Forecasters continue to warn residents of life-threatening storm surges in Florida and major flooding across southeastern states, with downpours and flooding hitting Florida’s Gulf Coast hard, with more than 10 inches of rain in some areas. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for 61 counties expected to be affected by the storm. In a statement, his office said that 3,000 National Guard members have been mobilized.

The slow-moving storm is expected to dump extreme amounts of nearly 2 feet of rain on parts of Georgia and South Carolina by mid-week, with the National Hurricane Center is forecasting “potentially historic rainfall” across southeastern Georgia and South Carolina through Friday, causing widespread flash flooding and life-threatening conditions.

Governors in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina have all declared a state of emergency, and DeSantis shared in a statement: “I think what’s going to make this much different than what we had with Idalia is it is going to move very slowly once it enters Florida – it’s going to be southern Georgia, northern Florida – and it is just going to drop an inordinate amount of water on the north-central Florida region.”

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