“Biden sued Byrne, a staunch Trump ally who has repeatedly promoted Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, over his claims that Biden reached out to the Iranian government in 2021 offering to have his father, President Joe Biden, “unfreeze” $8 billion in Iranian funds in exchange for a bribe.
U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, a California-based judge who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, issued his ruling on Friday and formally entered the judgment Wednesday.
Wilson wrote that the court “found that ample evidence supported a finding that Defendant knew the story to be false” yet continued to make the same claims publicly while court proceedings were underway.
“This was not a product of excusable neglect but rather of coordinated strategy,” Wilson wrote, adding that Byrne relied on sources that were “unreliable or biased” against Biden and that Byrne was “motivated to defame” Biden because of “hostility and anger toward” Biden and his family.
“Overall, in the totality of circumstances, by far the most plausible explanation is that Defendant is not credible, fabricates awesome and farfetched narratives to garner attention in the media, and fabricated the defamatory story at issue in this case to damage Plaintiff’s reputation,” Wilson wrote.”
“In a major policy shift, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are being instructed to end “most” vehicle stops nationwide, effective immediately.
According to multiple federal sources, ICE agents will cease making traffic stops, which have played a significant role in the agency’s operations till now. A federal source told Fox News that ICE will continue conducting vehicle stops only for those considered to be the most egregious targets with serious or violent criminal histories.
This comes after two people were killed in ICE officer-involved shootings in Maine and Texas last week.”
Due to European military dependence on the US, Europe has been deferential to the US. They let the US use their land and facilities even for wars they disagreed with.
Defending Europe is not a driver of US spending. Europe spending more is good, but it won’t make the defense of the US and its interests cheaper. If the relationship is too damaged, it will make it more expensive.
Trump has a long history of defending accused sex predators. He doesn’t just defend them in an innocent until proven guilty sort of way, but says people should vote for them* and insults the accusers. He vigorously defends the accused as if he knows they must be innocent.
Trump’s overzealous anti-DEI push in the military that has led to the canceling of promotions of mostly nonwhite straight males, may be hurting the military by decreasing the number of quality nonwhite straight males who want to serve in the military, as well as hurting their morale.
It looks like Ukraine will be given permission to produce Patriot missiles, but likely not the best kind which they most need to protect their cities from Russian ballistic missiles.
It could take a long time to actually start producing missiles.
Career prosecutor and FBI man say that these professional roles used to not notice much when a new president came in. Trump changed that. He used the justice system to protect his friends and attack his political opponents. Trump is corrupting justice and weakening US democracy.
Jack Smith prosecuted Trump because the facts supported prosecution. If they didn’t support that, he wouldn’t have brought that. He’s a career prosecutor who cares about the law, not a partisan actor.