#just security

[hale-my-nathan]

Trump Weird News-Trump Commits War Crimes, Violates UN Charter?

[imkeepinit]

DOJ Will Use Trump's Continued Embrace of Jan. 6 Rioters to Prove Its Case

Analyzing the department's argument that former President Trump's statements about January 6 rioters can show he had the requisite criminal

One way the government says it will prove Trump’s “motive and intent” across the different charges is by pointing to his actions after he left office. Despite Trump’s “knowledge of the violent actions at the Capitol,” he “has never wavered in his support of January 6 offenders.,” the Special Counsel writes. Trump has described the rioters as “great patriots,” said he was “inclined to pardon many of them” (possibly including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who has been convicted of seditious conspiracy and other serious charges and sentenced to 22 years in prison), and described January 6 as “a beautiful day.”

[joe-england]

State Department Reorganization Guts Human Rights Diplomacy

The State Department Reorg Guts Human Rights Diplomacy

"Congress should urge Secretary Rubio to modify the proposed plan in ways that would sustain bipartisan U.S. efforts to advance democracy an

"How the Proposed State Department Reorganization Guts U.S. Human Rights Diplomacy"

[joe-england]

When Law Firms Cave To Authoritarian Tactics

When Law Firms Cave To Authoritarian Tactics

Just Security Article – BTH Vol. 3.3.c

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Meet some of the violent Jan. 6 rioters Donald Trump keeps calling 'hostages'

Trump has made his defense of those incarcerated in Capitol attack cases a central piece of his 2024 campaign. Many are accused of assaultin

Ryan J. Reilly at NBC News:

WASHINGTON — The way former President Donald Trump tells it, the men and women who stormed the Capitol because they believed his lies about the 2020 presidential election are "hostages" and “unbelievable patriots” who are being mistreated by the justice system.

But an NBC News review of hundreds of cases against Jan. 6 defendants found that just 15 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack are currently being held pretrial at the order of federal judges. That number of pretrial detainees has decreased in recent months, as more and more Jan. 6 defendants have taken plea deals or been found guilty, and as federal judges have been hesitant to hold new arrestees in pre-trial custody more than three years after the attack. Though Trump said on Jan. 7, 2021, that “those who broke the law” during the Capitol riot would “pay,” he has made his defense of incarcerated Jan. 6 defendants a major plank of his 2024 campaign. Trump has called Jan. 6 detainees “hostages” and even opens rallies by playing a recording from the “J6 Prison Choir.” Trump has said he’ll pardon “a large portion” of the rioters “very early on” if he wins in 2024 and recently vowed to “free the Jan. 6 Hostages” as one of his “first acts as your next President.” More than 1,350 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, and prosecutors have secured more than 950 convictions. Low-level defendants routinely receive sentences of probation, but about 500 have received periods of incarceration.

The overwhelming majority of those charged have been released before trial. NBC News identified 15 defendants who have not been convicted or entered a plea who are currently incarcerated; seven of them are among the 27 Jan. 6 defendants being held at the D.C. Department of Corrections, as Just Security reported. (Trump hasn’t clearly defined who he is referring to, but those who have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a federal judge in the United States are, by definition, not “hostages.”) In most of those cases, a judge found overwhelming evidence that the defendants had committed criminal acts of violence against law enforcement.  Others had fled from authorities, either as law enforcement attempted to take them into custody or when they were out on release after their initial arrest. Two are being held while they are evaluated for mental health issues.

Ryan J. Reilly writes in NBC News that 15 pretrial detainees related to the January 6th Insurrection are ordered held by a judge because of their record of violent crimes, even as insurrection-inciter Donald Trump continues to baselessly call these domestic terrorists "hostages."

[authorkims]

American Autocracy Threat Tracker

American Autocracy Threat Tracker

A comprehensive catalog of the autocratic threat to democracy based on former President Donald Trump and his associates’ autocratic plans an

A Timeline of the Government's Response on Jan. 6, 2021 - American Oversight

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The Special Rapporteur's report is out. “The cost of torture is the annihilation of the rights of victims of terrorism.” It’s no secret that torture is the rot at the core of the military commissions. Ní Aoláin’s press conference clearly and powerfully captures what that means for 9/11 victims and family members. Here’s how she put it in her report:

The SR unequivocally states that the systematic rendition and torture at multiple (including black) sites and thereafter at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba—with the entrenched legal and policy practices of occluding and protecting those who ordered, perpetrated, facilitated, supervised, or concealed torture—comprise the single most significant barrier to fulfilling victims’ rights to justice and accountability. In her view, the use of torture was a betrayal of the rights of victims.

…

Systematic torture cannot be hidden from all of those whose human rights are impacted by its use. The practice of systematic torture goes to the heart of the now available justice for victims. It must be recognized as such.

[Just Security]