Yearly Archives: 2024

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s assembly speaker is not calling his proposal for medical marijuana dead, but he says it’s not going to happen this year.

Speaker Robin Vos told reporters Thursday there are too many different views of marijuana to find a consensus on a strict-medical only plan.

“I think we have now seen, unfortunately, people who from the very beginning have said that they have concerns that this will lead to widespread recreational marijuana and many of my colleagues on the other side continue to say that that is their goal which of course that's their right,” Vos said.

Vos’ plan would create five state-owned marijuana dispensaries that would sell non-smokable marijuana to people with 15 specific health conditions.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate, specifically, don’t like the idea of state-owned pot shops.

“I still think we have the votes in the Assembly to pass it,” Vos added. “I've not had anybody come to me who was a supporter and say they have changed their position. But when we see that the Senate wants to have a more liberal version than one that we're willing to pass, it probably doesn't leave us enough time with the waiting days of the session to get an answer that both chambers can adopt.”

Democrats in Wisconsin have made no secret of their support for fully legal, recreational marijuana and never signed on to Vos’ plan either.

Wisconsin remains one of just 12 states without a medical marijuana law. Wisconsin is one of 26 states that has not legalized recreational marijuana.

Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial date, in a case involving porn actress Stormy Daniels, will be March 25.

A New York judge rejected a request to dismiss the case from Trump. He faces charges in multiple states while commanding the lead for the Republican nomination in the presidential race.

His lawyers, appearing before Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, said the case will interfere with his campaign to return to the White House. Trump has three other prosecutions unresolved, one of which involved a district attorney under heavy scrutiny in Georgia on Thursday.

Trump’s defense lawyer, Todd Blanche, said the president should not be spending the next two months in preparation for a trial when he should be on the campaign trail. Trump, after the decision, said he would be in court during the day and “campaigning during the night.” It echoes previous statements he has made.

This New York case, with a prosecution led by District Attorney Alvin Bragg, was the first for the former president to be charged with a crime. Others followed in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C.

Trump and his legal team say no crime was committed. Prosecutors say he falsified internal records kept by his company, hiding the true nature of payments that involve Daniels ($130,000), former Playboy model Karen McDougal ($150,000), and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen ($420,000). Prosecutors say the money was logged as legal expenses, not reimbursements.

Reportedly, the payments kept quiet accusations of sexual affairs, including birth of a child.

Cyrus Vance Jr., whom Bragg followed into the office, declined to pursue the case. The charges are punishable by up to four years in prison.

A former friend of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis testified Thursday that Willis' romantic relationship with a special prosecutor started years before Willis hired him to lead the election interference case against Donald Trump.

Robin Bryant-Yeartie, a friend since college and former Fulton County District Attorney's Office employee, said that Willis began a romantic relationship with Nathan Wade in 2019 shortly after they met at a judicial conference.

Wade, who took the stand after Bryant-Yeartie, said the relationship with Willis started in March 2022, after he had been hired in November 2021.

The conflicting testimony during a contentious legal hearing Thursday comes as Judge Scott McAfee looks to determine if Willis should be removed from the case.

In August 2023, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and 18 others, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former state Republican Party Chair David Shafer, on charges they tried to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

Bryant-Yeartie testified that she had a falling out with Willis when she resigned from the Fulton County District Attorney's Office.

Judge Scott McAfee has yet to decide if Willis can continue on the case. The hearing is expected to resume Thursday afternoon and could go into Friday.

The morning hearing was tense, filled with objections from multiple lawyers representing the different parties.

(The Center Square) – The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says the legislature has done what the Wisconsin Supreme Court suggested and passed new maps. Now, he says it’s time for the court fight over redistricting to stop.

Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly and Wisconsin Senate on Tuesday approved Democrat Gov. Tony Evers’ preferred maps. The vote is part of a strategy to head off maps that do even more damage to Republicans in the state from the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told reporters that strategy is aimed not just at getting the least-worst maps for Republicans but is also aimed at getting on with the 2024 elections and avoiding a multi-million-dollar court battle.

“To actually be and we begin the campaign talking about ideas and why our side is better for Wisconsin, I think that is a better answer than drawn out court battles and going through millions of dollars of taxpayer expense when there's really no need to do so,” Vos said.

The legislature sent Evers the maps Tuesday, which means he has until Tuesday to sign them.

If he does, Vos said, the entire fight in front of and about the Wisconsin Supreme Court would then end.

“Once we pass the maps, more or less, the lawsuits stop. There's no need for us to try to do an appeal to the Supreme Court because the legislature has adopted a map. It's been signed by the governor. There's no need for us to go through this process to say that Janet Protasiewicz is biased, and we need a Caperton decision, because she won't be deciding on the maps,” Vos explained. “So, I think a lot of the things that we have for the potential to go to the U.S. Supreme Court with and win on are no longer viable. Which is why if the governor signs the map, I am supremely confident that that is the map that we will run on in November.”

Vos said he is also confident that Wisconsin Republicans can win under Evers’ maps. He said Republicans have better candidates and a better message.

Evers’ maps would give Democrats a decided advantage in November, if not flip the legislature from Republican-controlled to Democrat-controlled.

Evers on Tuesday said he would sign the maps if Republicans passed them unchanged.

Special counsel Jack Smith asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject former President Donald Trump's request to delay his Washington D.C. case on charges of election interference.

On Monday, Trump filed an emergency motion with the nation's highest court to pause an appeals court ruling that rejected his claims of presidential immunity. Smith told the high court there was no reason for a stay in the case. Smith wants the Supreme Court to allow Trump's election interference case to move ahead.

"Delay in the resolution of these charges threatens to frustrate the public interest in a speedy and fair verdict – a compelling interest in every criminal case and one that has unique national importance here, as it involves federal criminal charges against a former President for alleged criminal efforts to overturn the results of the Presidential election, including through the use of official power," Smith's team wrote.

Trump's defense team said anything other than a stay would result in "irreparable" harm to Trump.

"Conducting a months-long criminal trial of President Trump at the height of election season will radically disrupt President Trump’s ability to campaign against President Biden – which appears to be the whole point of the Special Counsel’s persistent demands for expedition," Trump's team wrote in Monday's filing.

Smith wants the D.C. case to move forward, whether the Supreme Court wants to take it up or not. And he wants it done fast.

"If, however, this Court believes that applicant's claim merits review at this time, the government respectfully requests that it treat the application as a petition for a writ of certiorari, grant the petition, and set the case for expedited briefing and argument," prosecutors wrote. "An expedited schedule would permit the Court to issue its opinion and judgment resolving the threshold immunity issue as promptly as possible this Term, so that, if the Court rejects applicant’s immunity claim, a timely and fair trial can begin with minimal additional delay."

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court dealt Trump's defense a major blow when it said he doesn't have presidential immunity to protect him from charges of election interference.

Smith's team of federal prosecutors charged Trump with four federal counts related to contesting the 2020 election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. The charges include conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction, and conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one's vote counted, according to the indictment. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Judge Tanya Chutkan previously delayed the trial date indefinitely. It had been set for March 4, the day before Super Tuesday. The judge has yet to set a new date for the trial.

In its second vote attempt in exactly a week, the U.S. House on Tuesday night impeached Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who becomes the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history.

Mayorkas was impeached largely along party lines by a vote of 214-213, with three Republicans voting with 210 Democrats against.

As more than 10 million illegal border crossers entered the country in three years and a record number of known or suspected terrorists have been apprehended under Mayorkas’ watch, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, MD, R-Tenn., led the charge to impeach him.

Green filed the resolution to impeach Mayorkas on two counts alleging high crimes and misdemeanors, after holding over a dozen hearings and releasing multiple reports detailing how Republicans contend he was derelict in duty and created a national security crisis.

Article 1 states Mayorkas violated his oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and to well and faithfully discharge the duties of his office, has willfully and systemically refused to comply with Federal immigration laws.”

Article 2 states he violated his oath “to well and faithfully discharge the duties” because he “knowingly made false statements, and knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security of his office.”

“Congress has taken decisive action to defend our constitutional order and hold accountable a public official who has violated his oath of office," Green said after Tuesday's vote. "The House Committee on Homeland Security’s investigation and subsequent impeachment proceedings demonstrated beyond any doubt that Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and systemically refused to comply with the laws of the United States and breached the public trust. As a result, our country has suffered from an unprecedented border crisis that has turned every state into a border state, causing untold suffering in communities across our country.”

Green also urged the Senate “to do the right thing and remove Secretary Mayorkas from office following a thorough trial.”

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, countere: "This baseless impeachment will do nothing to secure the border – Republicans have admitted as much. Instead of providing the Department of Homeland Security the resources it needs or working together towards a bipartisan solution, they have rejected any solution for the sole reason that they can have a political wedge issue in an election year."

The Democratic-led Senate is expected to acquit Mayorkas. Democrats have argued Mayorkas’ failures do not constitute high crimes and misdemeanors, calling it a sham and political ploy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, said, “For nearly a year the House Homeland Security Committee has taken a careful and methodical approach to this investigation and the results are clear: from his first day in office Secretary Mayorkas has willfully and consistently refused to comply with federal immigration laws fueling the worst border catastrophe in American history. He has undermined public trust through multiple false statements to Congress, obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland security, and violated his oath of office.

“Alejandro Mayorkas deserves to be impeached and Congress has a constitutional obligation to do so. Next to a declaration of war, impeachment is arguably the most serious authority given to the House and we have treated this matter accordingly. Since the secretary refuses to do the job that the Senate confirmed him to do, the House must act.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Mayorkas' impeachment trial will begin this month.

“The House impeachment managers will present the articles of impeachment to the Senate following the state work period. Senators will be sworn in as jurors in the trial the next day. Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray will preside,” Schumer said Tuesday night.

The first attempt to impeach Mayorkas failed last week after three Republicans voted with Democrats: U.S. Reps. Tom McClintock of California, Ken Buck of Colorado, and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin. Gallagher has since said he is not running for reelection.

After missing last week’s vote, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, who is battling cancer, returned to Washington, D.C. With his vote, the House was able to impeach despite four members being absent. Two Florida Republicans, Reps. Brian Mast and Maria Elvira Salazar, and two Democrats, Reps. Lois Frankel (Florida) and Judy Chu (California), were not present to vote.

Chu said she tested positive for COVID-19 and would have voted against impeachment. Mast said he and Frankel were stuck at the Palm Beach International Airport. Salazar has not yet released a statement about her absence.

Johnson has appointed impeachment managers including Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming. After the vote, Hageman said, “Mayorkas willfully disregarded his oath to uphold our laws and repeatedly lied to Congress about his role in the border crisis and censorship of US citizens – the House held him accountable. As an impeachment manager, I will help make this case to the Senate.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s election managers say as long as there is a house number and a street name, absentee voting witness slips don’t need a city, the state, a zip code or anything else.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission clarified the rule for absentee ballot witnesses address information.

The commission told clerks to error on the side of counting ballots and issued five specific clarifications as to when ballots are not to be rejected.

An absentee ballot may not be rejected if:

The witness’s street number, street name, and municipality are present, but there is neither a state name nor a ZIP code provided;The witness’s street number, street name, and ZIP code are present, but there is neither a municipality nor a state name provided;The witness’s street number and street name are present and match the street number and street name of the voter, but no other address information is provided;The witness certification indicates that the witness address is the same as the voter’s address with any or any combination of the following words: “same,” “same address, “same as voter,” “same as above,” “see above,” “ditto,” or by using quotation marks and/or an arrow or line pointing to or from the voter address.”

The clarifications come after a Dane County judge struck down Wisconsin’s law on absentee ballot addresses, saying the law was inconsistent.

That judge told the Elections Commission to instruct local election clerks how to handle absentee ballot witness slips that are missing part of the witnesses’ address.

Republicans said the judge’s ruling opened-up another opportunity for fraud.

State Rep. Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, said it again.

“I am deeply concerned about the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s decision to issue guidance on incomplete witness addresses on absentee ballot certificates,” Maxey said. “The Commission had two clear options: either pass an emergency rule for the normal legislative process or listen to an appointed judge in Dane County. Unfortunately, they chose to sidestep the legislative process by issuing guidance.”

Maxey said lawmakers could have clarified the law, and the Elections Commission could have clarified the absentee ballot envelope. But he said the Commission chose to go its own way.

“I hope the Commission decides to reconsider its actions and uphold the integrity of our electoral process,” Maxey added. “I’m very disappointed the commission doesn’t take election integrity as seriously as the people of Wisconsin.”

President Joe Biden addressed the nation late Thursday to respond to news that the special counsel tasked with investigating his handling of classified documents had chosen not to charge him, but also questioned his mental capacity.

The blockbuster special counsel report, while clearing Biden, sparked questions about Biden’s mental fitness when it called him an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden is 81 years old.

“The special counsel released his findings today about their look into my handling of classified documents,” Biden said. “I was pleased to see he reached the firm conclusion that no charges should be brought against me in this case. This was an exhaustive investigation going back more than 40 years, even into the 1970’s when I was still a United States Senator.”

During the remarks, Biden blamed his staff for the handling of classified documents and attempted to dispel questions about his memory.

As The Center Square previously reported, Special Counsel Robert Hur said Thursday that he found evidence that Biden "willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen" but said the evidence "does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."

The nearly 400-page report said Biden did not commit a crime but that he was careless with the documents.

"We conclude that no criminal charges are warranted in this matter," the report said. "We would reach the same conclusion even if Department of Justice policy did not foreclose criminal charges against a sitting president."

Former President Donald Trump faces charges for the same allegations of mishandling classified documents, one of his multiple indictments across several states. Former Vice President Mike Pence was also not charged though he did hold on to classified documents and then return them after leaving office.

Biden came under investigation for the same allegations after federal authorities found classified documents stored at his home in Delaware as well as one of his offices in Washington, D.C.

“I was especially pleased to the Special Counsel make clear the stark distinction and difference between this case and Mr. Trump’s case,” Biden continued.

Biden argued he more readily handed over any documents and cooperated with federal authorities while Trump did not. Biden said he cooperated completely with the investigation and gave a five-hour interview in person with the special counsel.

Biden also argued the headlines about his willful retention of documents are misleading.

The special counsel made note of Biden’s poor memory in the report, saying the president could not remember key events such as the details of when he was vice president or when his son died.

Biden made a point to address those concerns late Thursday.

“How in the hell dare he raise that,” Biden said. “Frankly, when I was asked the question I thought to myself it wasn’t any of their damn business. Let me tell you something.

“I don’t need anyone to remind me when he passed away,” Biden said, arguing that he was managing the Israel-Hamas crisis while dealing with the special counsel’s interview.

“The bottom line is the matter is now closed,” Biden said.

Reporters immediately questioned Biden about his memory Thursday evening after his remarks.

“My memory is fine,” Biden responded, before pointing to his accomplishments since taking office.

Notably, while answering a question from a reporter about the Israel-Gaza conflict, Biden appeared to call Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the president of Mexico.

Biden's political opponents online immediately responded to that blunder in what is the first of likely months of ongoing attacks on his mental fitness.

"Joe Biden is unfit for the office of the presidency," U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, late Thursday. "President el Sisi is the President of Egypt not Mexico."

When asked why he should be the Democrat to take on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, Biden said he is the most qualified.

“I did not break the law,” Biden said to reporters. “Period.”

The DOJ report lays out Biden's mishandling of classified documents but said ultimately mitigating factors prevented a formal legal charge.

"Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen," Hur said. "These materials included (1) marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and (2) notebooks containing Mr. Biden's handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods. FBI agents recovered these materials from the garage, offices, and basement den in Mr. Biden's Wilmington, Delaware home."

One of those mitigating factors, according to the special counsel report, was that jurors would be sympathetic to Biden's poor memory.

"In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse," the report said. "He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended ('if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?'), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ('in 2009, am I still Vice President?')"

President Joe Biden won't be charged with a crime over his handling and sharing of classified documents.

The 388-page Justice Department report found that Biden was careless with classified documents, but didn't commit a crime.

Read the full report here:

President Joe Biden won't be charged with a crime for his handling and sharing of classified documents, but the report clearing him of wrongdoing raises questions about his memory.

The 81-year-old President is seeking another four-year term. After years of gaffes, on and off the campaign trail, the 388-page special counsel report highlights Biden's trouble remembering things, including the year his son died.

"In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden's memory was worse," according to the report. "He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended ("if it was 2013 - when did I stop being Vice President?"), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began ("in 2009, am I still Vice President?"). He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died. And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he 'had a real difference' of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Eiden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama."

That's not the only time Biden's memory is mentioned in the report.

"Mr. Biden's memory was significantly limited, both during his recorded interviews with the ghostwriter in 2017, and in his interview with our office in 2023," according to the report.

Another part said jurors would be sympathetic given Biden's memory.

"Given Mr. Biden's limited precision and recall during his interviews with his ghostwriter and with our office, jurors may hesitate to place too much evidentiary weight on a single eight-word utterance to his ghostwriter about finding classified documents in Virginia, in the absence of other, more direct evidence," according to the report.

That was repeated elsewhere in the lengthy report.

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," according to the report. "Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness."

(The Center Square) – One of the Republicans in charge of the legislature’s audit committee made strong accusations for against Gov. Tony Evers’ administration over nearly $100 million in COVID-19 relief interest.

Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Green Bay, on Tuesday grilled the Secretary of the Department of Administration, Kathy Blumenfeld, over an audit from December of last last year that shows the state accrued $97.2 million in interest on the $3 billion the federal government sent Wisconsin as part of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in the American Rescue Plan.

Wimberger and other Republican lawmakers say the $97 million should be returned to the state’s general fund.

But Blumenfeld and the Evers’ Administration wants to keep the money in a special account, which Wimberger said the governor wants to spend on his own.

“It just seems like the things that the DOA is doing is over the edge. It's beyond awful. And who is personally responsible, and whether the agency is responsible, I guess it's up in the air,” Wimberger said during a hearing.

“We feel confident in our position,” Blumenfeld told lawmakers. “These funds were received by the federal government, and therefore they belong to the federal appropriation. We don’t feel like we have the statutory authority to transfer them to the general fund.”

Blumenfeld said she and the DOA are waiting for clarification as to how the money can be spent.

Republican lawmakers have been advocating for years to have some control over how Wisconsin spends its federal money. Those calls ramped up after the pandemic, and a string of questions about how the Evers Administration spent the billions of dollars the state received.

Wimberger said allowing the governor to hoard all of Wisconsin’s federal money is dangerous.

“If the federal government can give the state money, and the governor is in control of all the money that's given by the federal government, and then can accrue interest in a way that is untouchable by the legislature or the there's no power of the person anymore, there is essentially a shadow government where the executive branch has control of not only federal money but in an untouchable interest account to the tune of $100 million dollars in growing so far,” Wimberger said.