Tag: Testimony

Sen. JD Vance Says East Palestine Ohio ‘May Have Been Poisoned to Facilitate the Rapid Movement of Freight’ After NTSB Chair Confirms 2023 Controlled Chemical Explosion Was ‘Unnecessary’

Kaitlin Housler
JD Vance

U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) questioned National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy on the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine last year during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing entitled, “National Transportation Safety Board Investigations Report” on Wednesday.

On February 3, 2023, 50 train carriages, 10 of which were carrying hazardous materials, derailed in East Palestine. Hundreds of residents evacuated as a result of a controlled burn of noxious vinyl chloride that Norfolk Southern carried out on February 6 to stop an explosion.

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Family-Owned Business Owner Reveals How Lobbyists Derailed Passage of Bill That Would Prohibit Online Payment Systems from Freezing Users’ Funds

Kaitlin Housler
Your American Flag Store

James Staake, founder and CEO of Your American Flag Store, recently testified in front of the Tennessee House Commerce Committee in support of HB 0846, a bill that would prohibit online payment systems from freezing a user’s funds without prior warning.

The bill, according to its text, would “prohibit an online payment system from freezing the funds of a user without first providing the user with a 90-day written notice of the online payment system’s intent to freeze the user’s funds,” designating a violation as an unfair or deceptive act or practice pursuant to the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977.

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Physicist Testifying at Disbarment Trial of Trump’s Former Attorney John Eastman Discusses Report That Found 130,000 Instances of ‘Voter Fraud’ in Nevada

Rachel Alexander

Physicist and auditor John Droz testified all day Thursday in the ongoing disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional scholar, John Eastman. California Disciplinary Court Judge Yvette Roland, who contributed to Democrats while on the bench, spent a large portion of the day successfully attempting to keep Droz’s investigative reports into the 2020 election and his testimony from being admitted into evidence. Some of his testimony that was struck from the record afterward discussed a report that attorney Jesse Binnall delivered to Congress, laying out what he found as 130,000 incidents of voter fraud in Nevada’s 2020 election.

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Computer Programmer Testifies to Arizona Senate Election Committee About Voting Machine Manipulation

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Senate Election Committee heard testimony Monday from computer programmer Clinton Eugene Curtis about how susceptible voting machines are to manipulation. Curtis, a Democrat who previously worked as a programmer for NASA, DOD and other defense agencies, famously testified in 2007 to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee about how he programmed voting machines so he could manipulate them without being detected. 

His presentation began with a clip of his 2007 testimony to Congress, where he said it only took 100 lines of code to change the results of an election. He said county election officials would not be able to detect it, unless they had access to the source code or could compare the count to the paper ballot count. He showed a second video clip, which compiled statements by prominent Democrats expressing their concerns on how voting machines are hackable. 

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Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee Reveals Almost Half the Ballots Ran Through Maricopa County Tabulators Failed

Rachel Alexander

The election committee of the Arizona Senate held a hearing on Monday featuring the results of an investigation into Maricopa County’s 2022 midterm election conducted by the election integrity group We the People AZ (WPAZ). Commissioned by outgoing Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott), the group submitted public records requests to Maricopa County Elections Department to obtain the data. The leader of WPAZ, Shelby Busch, testified to the committee chaired by State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) that 464,926 ballots fed into tabulators on Election Day in Maricopa County, 217,305 were rejected, which is nearly a 50 percent failure rate.

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Bannon Contempt Case May Open Door for GOP to Compel Hunter Biden Testimony

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Reacting to the conviction of former White House adviser Steve Bannon on contempt charges Friday, Republicans and activists said Democrats were selectively enforcing the law and could expect a backlash should the GOP take the House in November.

Tea Party Patriots Action Honorary Chair Jenny Beth Martin told “Just the News, Not Noise” that the prosecution of Bannon could set a precedent of using congressional committees to go after political enemies.

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Senator Blackburn Joins Fellow Republican Senators in Calling on Attorney General Garland to Testify on School Board Memo

Kaitlin Housler

On Tuesday, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting that he return to the committee to provide additional testimony regarding his school board memo, according to a press release.

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Top House Antitrust Lawmakers Held Meeting with Facebook Whistleblower

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David Cicilline and Ken Buck

Top lawmakers in the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee met with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, who chairs the subcommittee, and Republican Rep. Ken Buck, who serves as ranking member, held a meeting with Haugen to discuss Facebook and issues related to social media competition, Politico first reported, citing two sources. A person familiar with the matter confirmed the meeting to the DCNF, and said the lawmakers also discussed potential antitrust reforms, as well as matters related to privacy and social media algorithms.

Buck and Cicilline worked together to advance a series of antitrust bills targeting major tech companies out of the House Judiciary Committee in June, and have both advocated for breaking up Facebook and other large platforms. The antitrust bills are currently set to reach the House floor in November.

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Pennsylvania Leaves Schools in the Lurch on Enforcement of Masking, Quarantine Policies, Educators Say

The Center Square
Teacher up front, giving lecture to students in a school classroom

A number of Pennsylvania educators said Thursday the Department of Health hands down COVID-19 mitigation orders and doesn’t back them up when it comes to enforcement, leaving schools in a difficult spot.

Michael Bromirski, superintendent of Hempfield School District in Lancaster County, told the Senate Education Committee that since pandemic mitigation rules lifted earlier this summer, school districts no longer handle quarantine orders for students exposed to the virus after the department told them it’s the state’s responsibility – and authority – to do so.

Except, parents rarely receive such instructions, generating confusion and frustration.

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US Lawmakers Delay Mueller Testimony by One Week

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by Reuters   Former special counsel Robert Mueller will testify before two U.S. House of Representatives committees on July 24, one week later than originally scheduled, the chairmen of the panels said in a statement on Friday. Mueller, who investigated Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has agreed to appear for “an extended period of time,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said. Mueller had been scheduled to appear for two-hour public hearings before each panel. The earlier uncertainty presented a distraction for Democrats, who have billed Mueller’s testimony as a potential watershed moment that could focus attention on segments of his 448-page report that raise troubling questions about President Donald Trump’s efforts to impede the federal investigation. The Judiciary Committee also sought to interview former Mueller aides Aaron Zebley and James Quarles behind closed doors. But Rep. Steve Cohen told reporters they would not appear after the Justice Department directed them not to. Judiciary Committee members balked at the unofficial, earlier arrangement for Mueller, because many of the panel’s less senior lawmakers would not get time to ask questions. “Everyone on the committee wants an opportunity to examine Mr. Mueller,”…

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Turkish Court Orders Andrew Brunson Released After Four Witnesses Recant Testimony

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by Chuck Ross   A Turkish court on Friday convicted American pastor Andrew Brunson of terrorism charges but ordered his release from house arrest, a decision that will allow him to return back to the U.S. During a court hearing, four government witnesses retracted their statements that Brunson had aided two organizations, the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and the network of supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Brunson, 50, was arrested in October 2016 on claims that he supported the two groups. He was sentenced to three years in jail on Friday but released due to time served. The Turkish court also relaxed a travel ban against Brunson, allowing the North Carolina native to return home. Brunson and his wife had operated Christian churches in Turkey for 23 years until his arrest. Brunson’ case touched off a bitter diplomatic dispute between the U.S. and Turkey. The Trump administration pushed its Nato ally to release Brunson, arguing that the charges against him were bogus. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected those requests, saying publicly that he was using Brunson as a bargaining chip to force the U.S. to extradite Gulen, who is living in exile in Pennsylvania. The Trump administration…

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