Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Emma Peel

Mark Follman

@markfollman.bsky.social

Senate questionnaire reveals that Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, got an early career boost from… being in a DEI program.

Very interesting given that Trump campaigned against DEI as “Marxist” and racist and has shut it down across the federal government www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/u...

Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI Pick, Offers New Life Details in Senate Questionnaire

In the form, Kash Patel said he had participated in an American Bar Association program that promotes diversity. He also played down his role in the Benghazi investigation.

www.nytimes.com

January 22, 2025 at 12:14 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

southpaw

@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social

What if there’s a public health emergency? Or a drug recall? We won’t hear from agencies we pay for, which Congress created to protect the public, because the Trump White House needs time to conduct a political purge.

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1.bsky.social · Jan 22

The Trump admin has instructed federal health agencies — including the FDA, CDC, and NIH — to pause all external communications, such as health advisories, weekly scientific reports, updates to websites and social media posts. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Trump officials pause health agencies’ communications, citing review

The agencies are charged with making decisions that touch the lives of every American and are the source of crucial information to health-care providers.

www.washingtonpost.com

January 22, 2025 at 7:52 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

@theradr.bsky.social

As the mighty @jaclynf.bsky.social says,

COMMUNITY IS THE ANTIDOTE TO FASCISM

transcrypt.bsky.social @transcrypt.bsky.social · Jan 22

With respect and empathy: can we stop with the fear? As a liberal, I getting tired of quivering liberals. It’s kind of how we lost this fight in the first place.

January 22, 2025 at 6:43 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Tim Onion

@bencollins.bsky.social

Strap the rocket to her back and get out of her way.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jan 22

AOC 🔥🔥🔥

January 22, 2025 at 7:58 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Jonathan V. Last

@jvl.bsky.social

Cuban-AOC 2028

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · Jan 22

The Democratic Party needs to get out of this woman's way.

Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · Jan 22

AOC: I don’t care what Elon Musk is doing behind the presidential seal, but in this country we hate Nazis. Kind of like a foundational defining thing. Two of the foundational things about American history is that we beat the confederates and we beat the Nazis.

January 22, 2025 at 7:38 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Aquilino A. Gonell

@sergeantaqgo.bsky.social

Each email and call log is a different violent rioter who assaulted me in the tunnel. If you are defending these people who brutally assaulted the police, maybe you ARE NOT a supporter of the police and the rule of law to begin with. If you did you would want accountability.

January 22, 2025 at 2:45 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Elle

@elleisanisland.bsky.social

In Italy, they know what they saw. Here's elon strung upside down in the same square where they hung mussolini's corpse upside down in 1945

A white body suit filled with garbage, with a photo of musk's face, hung from the metal fencing a gate outside of piazzale Loreto, where Mussolini's body was displayed in 1945

January 22, 2025 at 7:42 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Greg Greene (he/him/his)

@greene.haus

🎯: “No ‘process of national reconciliation’ can begin when poor losers, whose preferred candidate loses an election, are glorified for disrupting a constitutionally mandated proceeding … and doing so with impunity.”

southpaw @nycsouthpaw.bsky.social · Jan 22

Former DC District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell’s disgusted response to DOJ’s January 6th dismissals and Trump’s EO is well worth reading. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

II.
DISCUSSION
Courts have limited power when the federal government decides to stop prosecuting a
criminal defendant. See, e.g., Wayte v. United States, 470 U.S. 598, 607-08 (1985) (recognizing
the government's broad prosecutorial discretion); United States v. Fokker Servs. B.V., 818 F.3d
733, 742 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (recognizing same prosecutorial discretion in "decisions to dismiss
pending criminal charges"). At the same time, the Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit have both
recognized that the "leave of court" requirement in Rule 48(a) "obviously vest[s] some discretion
in the court." Rinaldi v. United States, 434 U.S. 22, 29 n.15 (1977); United States v. Ammidown,
497 F.2d 615, 620 (D.C. Cir. 1973) (noting that this rule "gives the court a role in dismissals
following indictment"). This discretion is granted in part to "guard[] against abuse of prosecutorial
discretion." Ammidown, 497 F.2d at 620. To ensure that the government's request for dismissal
of criminal charges "sufficiently protects the public," the government may be required to submit
"a statement of reasons and underlying factual basis," which must be "substantial" to justify the
dismissal and not "a mere conclusory statement." Id.
Here, the government's cursory motion provides no factual basis for dismissal. Instead,
the single paragraph explanation included in the one-page dismissal motion cites "as the reason
for this dismissal," only a presidential proclamation "dated January 20, 2025, Granting Pardons and Commutation of Sentences for Certain Offenses Relating to the Events at Or Near the United
States Capitol on January 6, 2021." Gov't's MTD at 1. This cited proclamation, inter alia, directs
4

the Attorney General "to pursue [the] dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending
indictments against individuals for their conduct related to the events at or near the United States
Capitol on January 6, 2021." See PROCLAMATION, (Jan. 20, 2025) (capitalization in original), available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/granting-pardons-and-
commutation-of-sentences-for-certain-offenses-relating-to-the-events-at-or-near-the-united-
states-capitol-on-january-6-2021/. The only reason provided for this instruction, as set out in the
Proclamation's introduction, is the assertion that this action "ends a grave national injustice that
has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of
national reconciliation." Id.
No "national injustice" occurred here, just as no outcome-determinative election fraud
occurred in the 2020 presidential election. No "process of national reconciliation" can begin when
poor losers, whose preferred candidate loses an election, are glorified for disrupting a
constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity. That merely raises
the dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of
law. Yet, this presidential pronouncement of a "national injustice" is the sole justification provided in the government's motion to dismiss the pending indictment. See Gov't's MTD.
Having presided over scores of criminal cases charging defendants for their criminal
conduct both outside and inside the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, which charges were
fully supported by evidence in the form of extensive videotapes and photographs, admissions by
defendants in the course of plea hearings and in testimony at trials, and the testimony of law
enforcement officers and congressional staff present at the Capitol on that day, this Court cannot
let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement. The pr…

2021, present no injustice, but instead reflect the diligent work of conscientious public servants,
including prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and dedicated defense attorneys, to defend
our democracy and rights and preserve our long tradition of peaceful transfers of power-which,
until January 6, 2021, served as a model to the world—all while affording those charged every
protection guaranteed by our Constitution and the criminal justice system. As to these two
defendants specifically, both admitted their criminal conduct under oath, after consultation with their attorneys, and pursuant to plea agreements to which they agreed. Bluntly put, the assertion
offered in the presidential pronouncement for the pending motion to dismiss is flatly wrong.
Still, the D.C. Circuit has cautioned that a district court judge has "no power" "to deny a
prosecutor's Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss charges based on a disagreement with the prosecution's exercise of charging authority." Fokker, 818 F.3d at 742; id. at 737 ("It has long been settled that the Judiciary generally lacks authority to second-guess those Executive determinations, much less
to impose its own charging preferences."). Despite finding that the sole reason relied upon by the
government to dismiss the charges in this case—i.e., an incorrect assertion in the presidential
proclamation-is neither substantial nor factually correct, the government's view of the public
interest does not clearly fall within the types of reasons found to provide legitimate grounds to
deny the government Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss charges. See United States v. Flynn, 507 F.
Supp. 3d 116, 130-31 (D.D.C. 2020) (collecting examples where a government motion to dismiss should be denied as not serving "legitimate prosecutorial interests," because the motion "was a sham or deception," "was based on 'acceptance of a bribe, personal dislike of the victim, and
dissatisfaction with the jury impaneled,'" or was meant to favor "politically well-…

Nothing about the government's reasoning for dismissal warrants entry of dismissal with
prejudice, however. Dismissal with prejudice is a complete adjudication of the matter and would
bar any further prosecution of defendants for their offense conduct at issue. See Bd. of Trs. of the
Hotel & Rest. Emps. Local 25 v. Madison Hotel, Inc., 97 F.3d 1479, 1489 n.20 (D.C. Cir. 1996);
Brown v. Amtrak Corp., No. 03-7003, 2003 WL 22433755, at *1 (D.C. Cir. Oct. 27, 2023) (*A
dismissal 'with prejudice' is a final judgment on the merits which bars further litigation between
the same parties." (citing Madison Hotel, 97 F.3d at 1489 n.20)); Reed v. Farley, 512 U.S. 339, 368 (1994) (Blackmun, J., dissenting) ("The dismissal with prejudice of criminal charges is a
remedy rarely seen in criminal law, even for constitutional violations."). This result would be
improper here, particularly when defendants' own admissions of criminal conduct, including
throwing smoke bombs at law enforcement officers who were trying valiantly to prevent rioters
from entering the Capitol Building, provides ample basis for criminal prosecution. See also Thorp
v. District of Columbia, 142 F. Supp. 3d 132, 145 (D.D.C. 2015) (noting that dismissal with prejudice "reflect[s] on the merits of the underlying action" (quoting Brown v. Carr, 503 A.2d
1241, 1245 (D.C. Cir. 1986), and citing Kenley v. District of Columbia, 83 F. Supp. 3d 20, 42 (D.D.C. 2015)). Instead, the government's reliance on a policy assertion made in the presidential
proclamation that such prosecutions should not be continued warrants only "render[ing] the
proceedings a nullity and leav[ing] the parties as if the action had never been brought," Magliore
v. Brooks, 844 F. Supp. 2d 38, 46 (D.D.C. 2012) (quoting Thoubboron, 809 A.2d at 1210), which is achieved by granting the government's motion to dismiss without prejudice, see id.

January 22, 2025 at 7:44 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Pam Hemphill (Pamtifa)

@pamhemphill53.bsky.social

Thank you IdahoStateman Newspaper for sharing my story!
www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/c...

‘Trying to rewrite history’: Boise woman guilty in Capitol riot rejects Trump pardon

Pamela Hemphill said she was “in a cult” and got out, and called pardons a slap in the face of police officers who were attacked.

www.idahostatesman.com

January 22, 2025 at 3:28 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Patti Olivier EPSTEIN FILES NEVER FORGET

@patti3333.bsky.social

THANK YOU
for posting....this made my day a bit brighter
IDAHO Pam Hemphill wont accept tRump Pardon

January 22, 2025 at 6:50 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

max tani

@maxtani.bsky.social

The problem for Dems who want to build their own new media ecosystem is the biggest pods for younger men are explicitly political only some of the time. The guests on these shows are mostly yapping about sports/gaming/comedy, then occasionally dipping into right-leaning politics.

January 22, 2025 at 7:04 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

🗽LOLGOP🗽

@thefarce.org

Elon's Nazi salute is as important as it is dangerous. As Marcy notes, this is only going to build tolerance for outward Nazism if Democrats fall into the trap of giving Republicans endless time to normalize Elon's fascism.

January 22, 2025 at 7:03 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Chris D. Jackson

@chrisdjackson.bsky.social

🚨BREAKING: @DouglasEmhoff reportedly confronted Bruce Fischer, Sen. Deb Fischer's husband, at the inauguration, saying, “Why would you try to shake my hand when you wouldn’t shake my wife’s hand?” This came after Fischer declined to shake VP Harris's hand but attempted to greet Emhoff.

🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

January 22, 2025 at 2:07 AM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Mrs. Betty Bowers

@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social

This is exactly what happened with Brett Kavanaugh. Any unflattering information was buried. It's called a background check, but is really just a tightly coordinated public relations campaign.

January 22, 2025 at 7:16 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Mike Masnick

@mmasnick.bsky.social

I'm even confused what the complaint from Elon is here. That writeup is accurate and unbiased. It is *simply true* that "the gesture was compared to a Nazi salute." The writeup isn't even taking a side. It's pointing out that people did compare it to such a salute. It also includes his denial.

onion person @junlper.beer · Jan 21

it’s becoming increasingly clear the goal of the far right is to defund and buy up every source of reliable information until there is no more objective reality to counter them

January 22, 2025 at 4:51 AM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Empire of Dirt ⌛️

@empireofdirt.bsky.social

bsky.app/profile/empi...

Empire of Dirt ⌛️ @empireofdirt.bsky.social · Jan 22

#Bishop Mariann Edgar #Budde speaks the gospel #truth and is immediately vilified by #Trump & his sycophant army. If more people fearlessly call out Trump in the way Bishop Budde has done with grace — the media & politicians are mostly feckless & cowering in his shadow — we can save our democracy.

MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · Jan 21

Wow. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde fearlessly calls out Trump and Vance to their faces. This is heroic.

(posting in 3 parts due to Bluesky's 1 minute limit)

January 22, 2025 at 7:24 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Swapna Krishna

@swapnakrishna.com

If you are a visa holder/temp resident in the U.S., and your child was born here and doesn't have a passport, GET A PASSPORT FOR THEM IMMEDIATELY. Like, make the appointment this week.

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/u...

Mr. Trump’s executive order indicates that in 30 days, all federal agencies will be required to confirm the immigration status of the parents before issuing documents like a passport.

January 22, 2025 at 5:49 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Ryan Mac 🙃

@rmac.bsky.social

Zuckerberg/Meta launched Threads as an alternative to Twitter/X, capturing a largely liberal userbase unhappy w/ Musk's management. Now that Zuckerberg is supporting the Trump presidency, his replies on Threads are just a deluge of dunks. It's like someone creating their own personal wedgie machine.

January 20, 2025 at 4:15 AM

Reposted by Emma Peel

The Tennessee Holler

@thetnholler.bsky.social

WATCH: “Scott — If I were you, and I were up in arms about Biden, the influence of foreign governments, etc… I would also be up in arms about (Trump’s crypto grift) — why aren’t you?”

@scottjenningsky has absolutely no answer for @abbydphillip here. The jig is up.

January 20, 2025 at 4:29 AM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Yashar Ali 🐘

@yasharali.bsky.social

Antony Blinken gets protestors outside of his home on his last night as Secretary of State.

January 20, 2025 at 4:11 AM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Brian Tyler Cohen

@briantylercohen.bsky.social

This is the GOP’s long con on full display.

January 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Amanda Marcotte

@amandamarcotte.bsky.social

The propaganda value of Twitter is diminishing, precisely because it's so obviously a firehose of right-wing disinfo. Smarter propagandists than Musk would understand that what you want is to buy people's trust before you start to fuck with them.

January 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Karl (sad trombone noise enthusiast)

@brainnotonyet.bsky.social

I have Been trying to tell people about schmitt and the new rights obsession for a reason and inevitably you get people looking at you like you are Charlie day in front of his string board.
The reality is they have never been subtle about why they love Schmitt or his guidance

January 19, 2025 at 8:38 PM

Reposted by Emma Peel

Dave Karpf

@davekarpf.bsky.social

The REAL Trump supporters would never watch from the national mall anyway.

It’s in the Capitol Rotunda. They know how to gain access to the Capitol Rotunda.