Trump says Facebook is trying to deny him his ‘day in court’
Former President Donald Trump said his lawsuit against Facebook Inc. over its suspension of his account after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot should stay in Florida because a new state law could help his case.
Facebook and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg are trying to transfer the suit to the company’s home turf in California to dodge the new — but stalled — law that bars social media platforms from suspending accounts of political candidates, Trump said in a filing late Tuesday in federal court in Miami.
“Facebook’s goal is to wholly deprive” Trump and other plaintiffs of “their day in court,” according to the filing.
Trump sued Facebook, Twitter Inc. and Google’s YouTube over the suspension of his accounts in the days after a mob of his supporters — incited by false claims of voter fraud that were spread on social media — violently attacked the Capitol. The moves severed Trump’s access to tens of millions of voters.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
—Bloomberg News
Florida bill would make it a crime to get within 30 feet of police
MIAMI — To argue against Florida legislation that would make it a crime to get too close to police, former public defender Keon Hardemon left his seat at the Miami-Dade County Commission dais Tuesday and walked the floor with a tape measure.
“This isn’t good legislation,” Hardemon said from the second row of the chambers after measuring roughly 30 feet from where his fellow commissioners sat. “This is about maintaining control, really, of communities. ... If an officer is telling you from this distance, 'Back up, you’re too close,’ then what’s too far?”
Commissioners sided with Hardemon, rejecting a resolution endorsing state legislation by Rep. Alex Rizo, R-Hialeah, that would create a misdemeanor offense for staying within 30 feet of officers for the purpose of provoking or harassing them.
Rizo said he’s open to debate on the appropriate buffer between police and citizens in his bill, which requires a warning before someone could be charged under the 30-foot provisions. Whatever the distance, he said that Florida law should allow an officer to tell someone to “step back” during a confrontation or when someone is trying to provoke an officer.
“Can’t we just tone the temperature a bit?” Rizo said in an interview. “Whatever you’re doing, do it at a distance. Whether it’s yelling or filming.”
—Miami Herald
Gov. Whitmer will veto Michigan GOP's school voucher proposal
DETROIT — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will veto the latest effort by legislative Republicans to create a school voucher system in Michigan, a new proposal that may skirt a constitutional ban on using public money to fund private education.
Bills fast-tracked in the House and Senate on Tuesday create a system where private donors would give money to specially created organizations, which in turn would divvy up the funds for qualified students to use for educational purposes. However, all of those contributions would be entirely tax deductible, resulting in hundreds of millions less in tax revenue, according to legislative projections.
"The bill would reduce state revenue by as much as $500 million in the first year it was effective, with the potential for the revenue loss to increase 20% per year in later years," states an analysis conducted by the nonpartisan Senate Fiscal Agency.
In a statement, Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy did not directly say the legislation violated the Michigan Constitution. But he suggested the potential tax deductions from the bills violate the spirit of the constitutional provision.
Supporters of the measure — and voucher plans more broadly — argue the measures give parents more control over the future of their child's education.
—Detroit Free Press
R. Kelly was on suicide watch after NY conviction, lawyer says
CHICAGO — R&B singer R. Kelly was on suicide watch following his conviction on racketeering charges in New York, his lawyer told a federal judge in Chicago on Wednesday.
In the first court hearing since a jury found Kelly guilty three weeks ago, attorney Steve Greenberg said the U.S. Bureau of Prisons placed the singer on suicide watch for some time but that has since been lifted.
Placing a recently convicted prisoner under increased monitoring is common in the federal prison system and Greenberg did not say that Kelly had expressed any actual desire to harm himself.
Greenberg also said Kelly has told him he’s in the process of revamping his legal team in the New York case — which which underwent a dramatic shake-up in the weeks leading up to trial — but that Greenberg and his partner Michael Leonard believe they will stay on as lead counsel in Kelly’s Chicago cases.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber set an Aug. 1 jury trial for Kelly and his two co-defendants, longtime associates Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown. The trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is expected to last three or four weeks.
Kelly, 54, was convicted on Sept. 27 of racketeering conspiracy charges alleging he used his music career to further a criminal enterprise. The jury found him guilty of 12 individual illegal acts, including sex with multiple underage girls as well as a 1994 scheme to bribe an Illinois public aid official to get a phony ID for 15-year-old singer Aaliyah so the two could get illegally married.
—Chicago Tribune
