Rep. Greene fined for going maskless in Capitol
House Sergeant-at-Arms William Walker has leveled $48,000 in fines against Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for refusing to wear a mask in the House chamber. In a letter obtained by The Hill, Walker notes 20 times in the past six months in which the performative representative flouted the House mandate.
“I will continue my stand on the House floor against authoritarian Democrat mandates, because I don’t want the American people to stand alone,” she reportedly said in statement.
Greene convincingly won the 14th Congressional District in Georgia last November with fewer than 230,000 votes. The conspiracy-theory-pushing Republican was stripped of her committee assignments in February due to “appalling” conduct. Among her more absurd claims is that space lasers may be responsible for wildfires.
The House mask mandate was imposed in July 2020. Significant fines were enacted following the Jan. 6 insurrection when GOP members of Congress refused to mask up while hiding alongside Democrats in the U.S. Capitol as activists loyal to Donald Trump tried to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
Greene, who boasts she is not vaccinated, lashed out on Twitter following a report of her being fined.
—New York Daily News
Top Ga. official's book details Trump’s pressure to alter election
ATLANTA — Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, was sitting at his kitchen table with his wife when President Donald Trump called with an urgent demand: Change the election results.
Details of that famous call in January are the centerpiece of Raffensperger’s book published Tuesday, “Integrity Counts.” Raffensperger refused Trump and upheld Georgia’s vote count, earning him the scorn of many Republicans whose values he thought he shared.
Raffensperger’s book, released on this year’s Election Day, makes clear how he views Trump’s badgering for him to “find” nearly 11,780 votes — one more than he needed to overcome his deficit to Democrat Joe Biden. Raffensperger’s account of the call could be used as part of ongoing criminal investigations and congressional hearings.
Trump’s phone call is now being reviewed by a Fulton County grand jury to consider whether to bring charges against him that could include criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, intentional interference with performance of election duties, conspiracy and racketeering.
“For the office of the secretary of state to ‘recalculate’ would mean we would somehow have to fudge the numbers. The president was asking me to do something that I knew was wrong, and I was not going to do that,” Raffensperger writes.
Raffensperger hasn’t yet been subpoenaed, but his book is the most thorough summary he’s provided of what he might say.
Raffensperger writes that Trump’s intentions were clear when he said that he and Ryan Germany, general counsel for the secretary of state’s office, were taking a “big risk” if they didn’t report purported fraud.
“President Trump is using what he believes is the power of his position to threaten Ryan and me with prosecution if we don’t do what he tells us to do. It was nothing but an attempt at manipulation,” Raffensperger writes.
—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NC Democrats shun new House member, a Jan. 6 participant
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina House Democrats walked out of Monday night’s session before Republican Donnie Loftis was sworn in as the chamber’s newest member.
The Gaston County Republican Party selected Loftis, a 30-year Army veteran and former county commissioner, to complete the term of Rep. Dana Bumgardner, who died in October.
Democrats, in walking out, were objecting to Loftis because of his participation in protests at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — protests that devolved into a violent riot. Loftis posted on social media then that he “got gassed three times and was at the entrance when they breached the door.”
“My Oath of Enlistment has the phrase ‘both foreign and domestic.’ We didn’t think it would actually be domestic,” Loftis wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Loftis told Raleigh TV station WRAL in late October — after being selected for the House — that his involvement was strictly peaceful.
“I had absolutely zero involvement in the rioting and categorically condemn the storming of our Capitol building that day,” he told the station.
On Jan. 6, people shattered doors and windows, overran police trying to protect the Capitol and forced the evacuation of both chambers of Congress. Some chanted “Hang, Mike Pence,” a reference to the vice president who presided over the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory over Donald Trump.
Loftis, a Bronze Star recipient, declined requests for an interview from reporters after his swearing-in ceremony.
“I am honored to be serving District 109,” Loftis said before celebrating with friends and families.
—The News & Observer
2 families get settlement over leaked Kobe Bryant crash photos
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $2.5 million settlement for two families suing over the unauthorized sharing of photos of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash, in which their loved ones also were killed.
Matthew Mauser will receive $1.25 million and siblings J.J. Altobelli and Alexis Altobelli will share another $1.25 million. Mauser’s wife, Christine, and the Altobellis’ mother, father and younger sister — Keri, John and Alyssa — died in the Jan. 26, 2020, crash that also killed Bryant, his daughter Gianna and three others.
The Altobellis and Matthew Mauser filed separate federal lawsuits against the county alleging they suffered emotional distress after a Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters took and shared crash scene photos for purposes outside law enforcement.
The lawsuits mirror one filed by Vanessa Bryant, the widow of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant, who lost her husband and 13-year-old daughter in the crash. In a deposition made public last month, Bryant revealed how Sheriff Alex Villanueva pledged to her personally that no one would take photographs of her family.
In addition to Bryant’s lawsuit, the surviving family members of Sarah Chester and her 13-year-old daughter, Payton, who also died in the crash, have sued over the crash scene photos. Sarah’s husband, Christopher Chester, along with their sons, Riley and Hayden, filed suit in December citing emotional stress.
—Los Angeles Times
