Landry, Jeff AMB gov
no merri
HE IS GOV ALSO GREENLAND
see trump judge doughty -->5th circuit vulnerable ~ Biden regs vxr --> ALITO
2010 POW, coup, traitor pending
LOUISIANA
mofo kid killer cancer alley, OFFSHORE OIL BAN
JOK landrieu
ali alexander, piper Raga rolf pal
SOC MEDIA BIAS BS AG
an 6 26
Trump envoy invites kids in Greenland to come to America for chocolate chip cookies - Alternet.org
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AN 1 26
One of President Donald Trump's ambassadors is trying to downplay his second job, but another former diplomat is issuing a warning.
It's rare for the governor of a state to take on a second job, but that's what Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) did when he agreed to be Trump's "Ambassador to Greenland." There is no official position of ambassador to Greenland, as Greenland is a territory of Denmark. Still, Trump wanted it, and Landry was happy to comply as a special envoy.
Now he's trying to spell out how he can do both jobs at once. Speaking to The Washington Post, he explained that he's not an ambassador, in that he lives and works in Greenland, as others do.
“Look, I think that the titles can somewhat be misleading,” he began. “I look at my job under this as almost like a representative of the United States and the state of Louisiana, to see what kind of economic opportunities there could be with trade in Greenland and Louisiana.”
He said in a December episode of "The Will Cain Show" that since summers in Louisiana are so horrible, Greenland is looking like a great tourist destination for those in his home state.
Thus far, his side hustle has consisted of talking about the U.S. and Greenland on television.
“They tell me they like to hunt, they like to fish, they like to have a good time,” Landry said in a Fox News interview. “I’m like, ‘Y’all belong in Louisiana.’”
“We should go to Greenland and say, ‘Hey, what kind of opportunities would you like? What are we doing? What can we offer you that Europe is not?” he added when speaking on CNBC.
The Post told a story about a Trump fan from Greenland who attended the inauguration and Turning Point USA inaugural ball. The report described him as the type of person that one would imagine the administration reaching out to. No one has.
But neither has Per Berthelsen, a member of Greenland's parliament. Aaja Chemniz, a Greenlandic member of Parliament in Denmark, chairs the Greenland committee. She hasn't heard from Landry either.
"As of last week, Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hadn’t heard from Landry, either. Nor had Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), his Democratic counterpart. Nor Jesper Moller Sorensen, the Danish ambassador to the United States. Nor Jacob Isbosethsen, the Greenland representative to the United States and Canada."
Landry said he replied to some emails from people in Greenland. But, he told Fox, “I’m not interested in going to an embassy and talking to diplomats."
"I haven’t gotten directly on the phone yet,” he told the Post. “There can be a language barrier, me and the U.S., let alone me and Greenlandic or Danish.”
He also wasn't at the meeting between Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland. During their hour-long conversation, the Post said that Landry's name never came up once.
The day after the meeting, Landry said he went to Washington to meet with Rubio. He also said that he has chatted with the governor of Alaska about going on a trip to Greenland at some point.
When the Post asked whether he was still the special envoy, Landry assumed he was.
“As far as I know, he hasn’t dismissed me,” Landry said.
His plan is to have a kind of “culinary diplomacy,” to win over Greenlanders who have been hostile to the U.S. after Trump's threats.
“They catch a lot of fish there,” he said. “Maybe we can teach them how to make a Greenland version of gumbo.”
“You think gumbo is going to want to make them be purchased?” asked Rufus Gifford, who was President Barack Obama's ambassador to Denmark. “You’re in for a rude awakening.”
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AN 1 26
Danish leaders are on edge after President Donald Trump invaded Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro. A top Trump insider posted on X that Greenland might be next.
Mere hours after Trump's attack on Venezuela, right-wing podcaster Katie Miller, who is married to top Trump advisor Stephen Miller, posted a map of Greenlandon X with the U.S. stars and stripes across the land.
"SOON," she wrote.
The Guardian explained that the territory is "mineral-rich," making it appealing to Trump's ongoing efforts to secure rare-earth minerals and oil from other countries. Greenland is part of the NATO alliance.
The Guardian quoted Copenhagen’s ambassador to the U.S., Jesper Møller Sørensen, who reposted Miller’s comments, saying, "Just a friendly reminder about the US and the Kingdom of Denmark: We are close allies and should continue to work together as such. US security is also Greenland’s and Denmark’s security. Greenland is already part of NATO. The Kingdom of Denmark and the United States work together to ensure security in the Arctic. The Kingdom of Denmark has significantly boosted its Arctic security efforts - in 2025 alone, we committed USD 13,7 bn that can be used in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Because we take our joint security seriously."
"And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark," he added.
The Guardian noted that when Trump named former Gov. Jeff Landry (R-La.) as a "special envoy to Greenland," the Louisianan called it an "honor" to work on "mak[ing] Greenland a part of the US."
On Saturday, Landry celebrated Trump's arrest of Maduro.
“Having served as a sheriff’s deputy and AG, I have seen the devastating effects of illegal drugs on American families. With over 100k opioid-related deaths annually, I am grateful to see a President finally take real action in the war on drugs,” he posted on X.
“Thank you @realDonaldTrump for holding individuals like Maduro accountable," he added.
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SEE BAILEY RAGA SOC MEDIA BIAS BS bench slap acb 6 24
wren pac
no climate legis pledge? Jeff Landry (LA-03) CC TP BB
bossie cupvc but not direct?
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an 12 25
President Donald Trump's Sunday night decision to name Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) as his administration's new special envoy to Greenland is already making waves around the world.
Trump posted late Sunday to his Truth Social account that Landry "will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World," and that the Louisiana governor "understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security." Landry appears to accept the role, though he posted on his official X account that his new "volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S." would not intrude on his ongoing responsibilities in Baton Rouge.
Simon Marks, who is a contributor to the United Kingdom-based iPaper, quipped that Landry's role advancing U.S. efforts in Greenland's capital city of Nuuk "won’t be easy, since so far there is limited appetite for non-stop flights between the two cities." He also observed that Trump's announcement has caused a significant amount of consternation for Denmark, which has dominion over Denmark and controls its military and foreign policy (though Greenland has its own parliament).
"Land borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Parilament chairman Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement. "You cannot annex other countries. Not even with an argument about international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders … We expect respect for our territorial integrity."
Marks went on to note that Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called Landry's appointment "unacceptable" and that he was "deeply angered" upon learning of Trump's announcement. Ken Howery, who is the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark (and a co-founder of PayPal) has reportedly been summoned to Copenhagen to discuss Landry's appointment.
Trump's announcement that he was putting Landry in charge of the United States' diplomatic efforts in Greenland comes as his administration continues to threaten Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, which Trump recently admitted was about "getting land" and "oil rights." Marks wrote that "Trump is indicating that his expansionist tendencies are back in vogue, especially with regard to worldwide locations that are rich in natural resources."
The iPaper columnist hypothesized that if Venezuela is about oil, Trump's efforts in Greenland may be about mineral resources. He reminded readers that Greenland was rich in 25 of 34 minerals classified as "critical raw minerals" by the European Commission.
Click here to read Marks' full column in iPaper.
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anomaly? Rep goes home to be AG, flanks buddy caldwell, pal of his asst try philips?!}:
actually lost to more trad gop when redistricting b/c of pop outflow from katrina and rita
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promoted to primary 6/16 on cancer, EJ, katrina, Jindal, AG, Jan 6?
see LA 2
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see trump judge doughty -->5th circuit vulnerable ~ Biden regs vxr --> ALITO
partner in crime Mizzou Bailey, target of LEO?!
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An election partnership that Wilcox helps lead has even stopped advertising a service that allows local officials to report false voting information online, for fear of conservative backlash — a sign of broader concerns of those who work to safeguard elections as America nears another round of presidential voting.
Experts say a campaign of legal and political pressure from the right has cast efforts to combat rumors and conspiracy theories as censorship. And as a result, they say, the tools and partnerships that tried to flag and tamp down on falsehoods in recent election cycles have been scaled back or dismantled. That's even as threats loom from foreign governments and artificial intelligence, and as former President Donald Trump, who still falsely claims to have won the 2020 contest, is likely to use the same tactics again as he pursues the White House in 2024.
Added Wilcox: "Everybody is gun-shy."
"Open season"
As Nina Jankowicz sees it, the opening salvo came in the spring of 2022, when a right-wing campaign quickly snuffed out a Department of Homeland Security initiative called the Disinformation Governance Board.
POLITICS
She joined DHS to fight disinformation. She says she was halted by... disinformation
Jankowicz, who has written books about Russian information operations and online harassment, was tapped to lead the board. The federal government described it as a working group, without "any operational authority or capability," tasked with coordinating efforts to identify false and misleading claims and share facts about security concerns, from elections to natural disasters.
But the combination of the board's ominous-sounding name and DHS's poor efforts to communicate its purpose made it catnip for right-wing influencers, who quickly seized on the board and Jankowicz herself as avatars of a nefarious plot to censor Americans.
"The Biden Administration's decision to stand up a 'Ministry of Truth,' is dystopian in design," said now-House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., shortly after the board was announced. "The government has no role whatsoever in determining what constitutes truth or acceptable speech."
Supporters of former President Donald Trump look at merchandise ahead of his rally in Hialeah, Fla., this week. Trump continues to falsely claim he won the 2020 election, fueling conspiracy theories around the voting process.
Ricardo Ardeuengo/AFP via Getty Images
After a barrage of death threats and abuse, Jankowicz resigned, and DHS scrapped the board altogether. Jankowicz told NPR that the timid effort by the federal government to defend her or push back against the allegations sent a clear message.
"That showed ... that it was open season on researchers, on civil servants, on anyone who was working in this space," Jankowicz said.
Amid that furor, in May 2022, the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana filed a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of colluding with social media companies to censor conservative speech, by pressing platforms to take action on misleading posts about COVID-19 and elections.
Supreme Court to hear court ban on government contact with social media companies
This July, a Trump-appointed federal judge ruled the government had likely violated the First Amendment and issued a sweeping injunction blocking agencies' communications with platforms about most content. The injunction was narrowed by an appeals court, before being put on hold last month by the Supreme Court, which is slated to hear the case this term.
Pressure is coming from Congress as well, where the House Judiciary Committee's Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, led by GOP Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a Trump ally, is conducting its own probe into alleged collusion between the Biden administration and tech companies to unconstitutionally shut down political speech.....
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4 25 an
'Not a defense': Republican facing ethics charges pushes overhaul of ethics investigations
Julie O'Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator
Gov. Jeff Landry is pushing for dramatic changes to the Louisiana Board of Ethics’ investigation process that was used to charge him in 2023 with breaking the state ethics code. The changes Landry seeks would make it easier for subjects of an ethics complaint – like he is – to avoid charges or a probe into their alleged wrongdoing.
The proposed modifications are part of a sweeping rewrite of the state ethics code for elected officials and public employees in House Bill 397, sponsored by Rep. Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia.
Beyond making it harder to bring ethics charges, the legislation also loosens limits on elected officials and state employees’ state travel, weakens restrictions on government contracts with public servants and their families, and reduces requirements for elected officials and political candidates’ public disclosure of financial interests.
The proposal cleared its first major hurdle Wednesday when the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee allowed it to go to the floor without any objection or amendments.
Stephen Gelé, Landry’s private lawyer who handles ethics and campaign finance concerns for the governor, helped craft the legislation. He presented the bill alongside Beaullieu in the House committee.
Gelé is also one of the attorneys defending Landry against ethics board’s charges for not disclosing flights Landry took on a political donor’s plane to and from Hawaii. The ethics board and Landry, through Gelé, are still in negotiations about the appropriate punishment for the governor’s alleged violation.
In an interview Wednesday, Gelé said the bill would not affect Landry’s existing ethics case because its changes would only apply to future cases.
Beaullieu said he brought the bill after hearing complaints about the ethics board’s investigations being “overly aggressive.” Gelé has previously accused the ethics board of bullying people who face complaints.
If the legislation passes, the ethics board would have a far higher threshold to clear for launching an investigation into potential ethical misconduct.
Under the bill, an elected official or public employee would be able to avoid an investigation into misconduct if they had “already cured any potential violation” – a standard that critics said was vague and difficult to understand.
The person facing the investigation could also ask a district court judge to limit or shut down an ethics board probe if the alleged target or a witness in the case might experience “annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, undue burden or expense” as a result of the inquiry, according to the bill.
The ethics board would also have to justify an investigation, making the case that the agency’s “limited resources” should be spent on a particular alleged misconduct claim over other cases.
Likewise, a district judge would only be able to seek relevant information for a case if it’s deemed cost effective for the state, and “the importance of the information sought outweighs the burden of producing the information.”
Steven Procopio, president of the nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, called the proposed rewrite problematic. The changes would give too much leverage to the person facing misconduct allegations, he said.
“If someone has committed a violation of the ethics code, embarrassment is not a defense,” said Procopio, whose organization advocates for transparency and fairness in state government.
Barry Erwin, policy director for the nonpartisan Leaders for a Better Louisiana, agreed with Procopio. He complained the proposed new process features too many obstacles before the ethics board could launch an investigation.
Erwin and Procopio also expressed concerns about the two-thirds vote that would be needed from ethics board members multiple times before any single probe into misconduct could take place.
Elected officials now have more control over the board than they have had in years. Landry pushed the legislature in 2024 to upend the makeup of the ethics board membership and give him more influence over it.
The board used to consist of 11 positions, filled by the governor and legislators from lists of nominees provided by the state’s private university and college leaders. The higher education administrators were involved to insulate the board from political pressure.
Landry and lawmakers passed a law last year that eliminated the private college leaders’ nominees. They also expanded the board to 15 seats, which the governor and legislators fill directly. The governor now picks nine members, and the Senate and House pick three members each.
This means the governor could potentially block an ethics board investigation through his nine appointees under the new legislation. Only five members need to vote against an investigation for it to be killed.
Another portion of Beaullieu’s legislation targets the issue that got Landry in trouble with the ethics board – private plane travel. The bill would allow state officials to report trips on private planes as if they are the equivalent of purchasing a business class or coach airplane ticket on a commercial flight.
Beaullieu’s proposal also eases restrictions on legislators’ travel for state business on private planes provided by political donors or outside organizations.
Legislators were previously only allowed to accept flights on private planes for public speeches if they were traveling within the United States or Canada.
If the bill is approved, they will be able to accept private plane travel for government business anywhere in North America or the U.S. territories, including locations in the Caribbean, as long as they are making a public speech, participating in a panel discussion or making a media appearance.
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
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12 24
Disinformation Governance Board,
andrew ferguson
clarence clerk
mcconnell mafia liar
solic genl virginia AG disinfo bd
rICHMOND, Va. ( abc 7News) — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is leading a group of 20 State Attorneys General who are preparing to take legal action against President Joe Biden’s new Disinformation Governance Board, which was unveiled at a time when Elon Musk announced he was trying to purchase Twitter.
“It seems like some people in the Biden administration probably took George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Fourand they thought the Ministry of Truth was somehow a model when in reality, it was a warning to all of us, which is one of the bedrock principles of this country is your first amendment, and it should be protected and the federal government has such broad power that it shouldn't be in the position of a policing speech,” Miyares told 7News.
“I think it could have a chilling effect on what I call the marketplace of ideas. And the one thing about Americans is we feel like we have the freedom to debate and discuss and that's healthy for democracy. The federal government shouldn't be weighing in and possibly having a chilling effect on free speech. And the second is, there's no authority statutorily for them to create this new governing board.”
The Virginia Attorney General is also concerned about the credibility of President Biden’s appointee who is leading the board, Nina Jankowicz, a Virginia resident.
Miyares is calling her a far-left activist who isn’t neutral, and in a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Miyares went as far as calling Jankowicz the “Mary Poppins of disinformation” referring to a TikTok video she published of herself singing a Poppins’ styled song.
“When Rudy Guiliani shared bad intel from Ukraine,” she said. “Or win TikTok influencers say COVID can’t cause pain. They’re laundering disinfo and we really should take note. And not support their lies with our wallet, voice, or voice. Oh!”
Nina Jankowicz on TikTok
Miyares is also concerned with what she said about some parents in Loudoun County, labeling some as dis-informers.
"Critical Race Theory has become one of those hot button issues that the Republicans and other dis-informers who are engaged in disinformation for-profit frankly, there are plenty of media outlets that are making off of it too,” said Jankowicz. “I live in Virginia. In Loudoun County, that's one of the areas where people have really honed in on this topic.”
“The third issue of concern on this is the fact that they claim this is going to be somehow an even-handed review of communications out in the public sphere, and then they appoint the person that's going to be, by all accounts, the referee of what’s fair, an individual that has directly attacked Virginians,” said Miyares. “She went after and criticized heavily concerned parents that were attending school board meetings bringing up a variety of different concerns, including in Loudoun and she was calling them peddlers of misinformation.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is defending the work the Disinformation board is doing.
"What it will do is gather together best practices in addressing the threat of disinformation from foreign state adversaries from the cartels and disseminate that information to the operators,” said Mayorkas.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on CNN
And Mayorkas is defending Jankowicz.
“They say she is not neutral,” said CNN’s Dana Bash. “Your response?”
Read the letter from AG Miyares to DHS Secretary Mayorkas:
AG Miyares to DHS Secretary Mayorkas by Don Parker on Scribd
“Imminently qualified,” Mayorkas replied. "A renowned expert in the field of disinformation.”
“And neutral?” asked Bash.
“Absolutely so,” replied Mayorkas.
AG-Miyares-to-DHS-Secretary-Mayorkas#from_embed
rokita morrisey etc etc yost wilson reyes paxton landry schmidt
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https://www.mediamatters.org/qanon-conspiracy-theory/key-qanon-influencer-hosts-missouri-ag-promote-case-has-limited-governments
no lnx audio vid?
Key QAnon influencer hosts Missouri AG to promote case that has limited government's ability to discuss misinformation with tech platforms
WRITTEN BY ALEX KAPLAN
PUBLISHED 08/04/23
On August 1 and 2, QAnon influencer Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, who was a key figure behind the conspiracy theory’s spread on social media, hosted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and allowed him to promote thecase Missouri v. Biden, which has resulted in a judge barring President Joe Biden’s administration from interacting with social media platforms regarding possible misinformation.
Diaz was reportedly one of the three key figures who popularized QAnon online and organized a 2018 QAnon rally in Washington, D.C.
On July 4, a federal judge issued an injunction in Missouri v. Biden, barring the federal government from contacting platforms and asking to remove misinformation. The judge in the case, which focuses on whether the government is constitutionally allowed to contact social media platforms to request removal of alleged misinformation, repeated right-wing claims that social media platforms have censored conservative voices — which have been repeatedly debunked.An appeals court has currently stayed that injunction.
Diaz hosted Bailey for an August 1 interview on Twitter Spaces — which has become a popular place for previously suspended accounts that owner Elon Musk reinstated, including Diaz, to spread misinformation on the platform. During the interview, Bailey told Diaz that the lawsuit was “the most important First Amendment suit in at least a generation,” and Diaz said she had been “kind of pounding the pavement” regarding the lawsuit.
Beginning of Tracy Diaz’s Twitter Space with Andrew Bailey
AUGUST 1, 2023
Audio
SHARE
CitationFrom an August 1, 2023, Twitter Space hosted by Tracy Diaz
TRACY DIAZ (HOST): OK, hi everyone. Thanks for joining us today. I’m super excited about this Space.I’ve had several Spaces about this case, and I’m really honored to be joined by Attorney General Andrew Bailey from Missouri to work with us on this. They’ve never done a Space before. I sent the invite for them to speak. They have my phone number. So if you have a problem, attorney general, just shoot me a text real quick and I will work with you to get this up and running. We have a couple questions from folks really eager to hear your perspective on things. And it’s going to be good stuff for sure.
…
So thanks for being here today. Super awesome of you to spend the time. Everybody in this Space is very interested in this case.
…
ANDREW BAILEY (MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL): Yeah, well, first of all, thank you so much for having me on and the opportunity to chat with you. And this is the most important First Amendment suit in at least a generation.
…
But, you know, again, this [is]frightening stuff, and we're not going to let Joe Biden destroy the First Amendment.
DIAZ: Which is awesome. And, you know, I’ve been kind of pounding the pavement on this.
At the end of the Twitter Space, Diaz asked Bailey to say something “hopeful about the outcome” of the lawsuit to her followers.
End of Tracy Diaz’s Twitter Space with Andrew Bailey
AUGUST 1, 2023
Audio
CitationFrom an August 1, 2023, Twitter Space hosted by Tracy Diaz
TRACY DIAZ (HOST): Really gracious of you to give us a half hour of your time today. We're about three minutes out. Is there anything that you would like to say to all the folks here listening and who will listen to this after we’re done about, you know, being hopeful about the outcome of this or keeping faith in the Justice Department, at least for the litigation of this case and what it means?
ANDREW BAILEY (MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL): Well, we’re not going to let up. Again, we’re going to continue to fight to preserve the First Amendment right to free speech in America. You know, at the end of the day,I served in the United States Army in the war on terror and took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. I was willing to put my life on the line to do it. Took that fight to the battlefield in the war on terror. That’s an oath I’ll never give up and it’s a fight I’m proud to be leading on behalf of the state of Missouri in the courtrooms across this nation, in the state of Missouri today.
DIAZ: Thank you so much. This has been really awesome. I really appreciate your time. All of us in here are following this daily. And a lot of people are really invested in it because it’s so important. So I appreciate you being here. Really, really awesome.
BAILEY: Well, thanks for having me on. Look forward to giving an update here in the coming days, weeks, and months.
Bailey also appeared on Diaz’s podcast on August 2, when Diaz complained that she had been banned from multiple platforms, and asked for how to “rectify what’s happened.” In response, Bailey expressed concern about “how many listeners do you have that were deprived of the information that you would have gotten to them.”
Video
CitationFrom the August 2, 2023, edition of Dark to Light
TRACY DIAZ (HOST): But me, I was censored off of Twitter. I’ve been censored off of Facebook. I’ve been debanked. I’ve been all — I can’t use PayPal. I’m censored. What — if this goes the way we think it will and you win, what does the everyday American — how can they rectify what’s happened to them, based on the [UNINTELLIGIBLE]?
ANDREW BAILEY (MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL): Well, first of all, we can all celebrate the fact that we get our First Amendment right to free speech back. I mean, I think that was my tweet on July 4, like happy birthday, America, you get your First Amendment free speech back and we’ll keep fighting to do that. The wall of separation between tech and state is absolutely essential to protect all of our rights.
And, you know, whether there’s class certification or not, it is a nationwide injunction, and we’ll keep pushing forward with that nationwide injunction. It’s the state of Missouri v. Biden, Louisiana is on board and certainly there are private plaintiffs, but all Americans who have been censored on Big Tech social media platforms and any American — it’s not just those speakers who have been censored. That’s the important thing to remember, too. You might have been speaking, but how many listeners do you have that were deprived of the information that you would have gotten to them? It's the hearers of the information. And so it’s an exponential number of individuals whose constitutional rights to say and hear what they choose, absent government censorship, those rights have been violated, and that’s why the nationwide injunction is so important, and we’ll keep fighting to achieve that objective.
DIAZ: This is the most important civil rights case in modern history, hands down. There’s no doubt about it. I was saying it the day you filed the complaint and people are finally starting to catch up with how important this is. Attorney general, thank you so much for joining us today.
BAILEY: Thank you so much for having me on.
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bench slap acb 6 24
ref the hill
federal judge blocked Bidenadministration officials Tuesday from communicating with social media companies, astwo Republican state attorneys general challenge the legality of the administration’s efforts to curb disinformation.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, [ vax for rx workers?!]who was appointed by former President Trump, granted a preliminary injunction barring a wide swath of officials from theDepartment of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Justice, the State Department and the FBI from communicating with the companies.
The Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri are suing the administration over what they describe as a “campaign of censorship,” in which the Biden administration allegedly “coordinated and colluded with social-media platforms to identify disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content.”
They argued that administration officials’ public and private communications with social media companies about removing content related to COVID-19 vaccines and public health measures, election integrity and other topics violated the First Amendment.
The attorneys general pointed to various calls by the 2020 Biden campaign and later the Biden administration, as well other Democratic lawmakers, to reform Section 230 over the spread of disinformation, which the lawsuit characterized as “threats” and a “campaign of pressure.”
Section 230 waives social media companies’ liability for content posted on its platforms by third parties.
They also cited efforts by the Biden administration to work with social media companies to rein in COVID-19 and election disinformation, which the suit described as “collusion.” [fauci said deworm no work, tho no causal link]
Under the injunction, Biden administration officials cannot email, call, send letters, text or meet with social media companies “for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms,” Doughty ruled.
However, Biden administration officials are still permitted to communicate with the platforms about criminal activity, national security threats,threats to public safety [but not health?]and posts “intending to mislead voters about voting requirements and procedures.”
TAGS BIDEN ADMINISTRATIONFIRST AMENDMENTFREE SPEECHJOE BIDENSOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMSTERRY DOUGHTY
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180 fix 7 23
https://www.rawstory.com/cancer-alley-louisiana-epa-grist/
...The 2020 federal court ruling on Schmitter’s case gave communities in Louisiana’s St. James and St. John the Baptist parishes hope that Title VI could finally help limit pollution in their backyards. Together, their complaints alleged a number of negligent actions by state regulators, including a failure to curb cancer-causing emissions that violate federal safety standards and to consider pre-existing pollution when permitting new industrial plants. A formal resolution of their cases would have likely addressed these concerns.
The draftagreements that Grist obtained include sweeping measures to change the way the state of Louisiana approves new industrial facilities, like folding community involvement into critical moments of the decision-making process and requiring officials to prove, both before and after plants begin operating, that their emissions will not disproportionately harm people of color. In Louisiana, majority-Black communities are exposed to at least 7 times the emissions, on average, as predominantly White communities in industrial areas.
“We were hoping to get systemic change,” said Kimberly Terrell, a research scientist at the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, who worked on the complaints. “For decades, people have been fighting against individual polluters and individual facilities, but when the decision-making process itself is flawed, you need something that seeks to improve it.”
Louisiana officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite progress with the agreements, testimony in Louisiana’s legal filings suggests that, at some point during the negotiation process, things between state and federal officials began to sour. Then, in late May, thestate’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, sued the EPA.
The case hinged on the EPA’s ability to pursue actions based on “disparate impacts,” or the idea that a policy or agency decision can disproportionately harm a specific group of people, regardless of whether or not that harm is intentional. These standards have always been unpopular with some state officials who view them as evidence of federal agencies meddling in matters beyond their authority. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is sympathetic to these concerns, ruling in numerouslandmark cases over the past few years to vastly restrict the powers of federal regulators.
But multiple lawyers that Grist interviewed argued that Louisiana’s legal arguments would have ultimately been unlikely to undermine Title VI, raising the question of why the EPA appears to have preemptively conceded on the matter.
“It was unripe — there was no action by the EPA that Louisiana could challenge,” said Kron. “So it seems like a strange lawsuit for [the federal government] to take as a serious enough threat to just undo this whole process that’s been going on for over a year.”
Environmental advocates and residents in Louisiana also decried the decision to close the complaints.
“I often feel like our communities are left to fight on our own,” said Joy Banner, an activist and long-time resident of the region. “It’s disappointing when we have organizations at the federal level who aren’t willing to step in to fight along with us for our basic human right to survive.”
EPA spokesperson Khanya Brann told Grist that the agency remains “fully committed” to improving the environmental conditions in the communities that filed the complaints....
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G.O.P. Targets Researchers Who Study Disinformation Ahead of 2024 Election
A legal campaign against universities and think tanks seeks to undermine the fight against false claims about elections, vaccines and other hot political topics.
By Steven Lee Myers and Sheera Frenkel
June 19, 2023
On Capitol Hill and in the courts, Republican lawmakers and activists are mounting a sweeping legal campaign against universities, think tanks and private companies that study the spread of disinformation, accusing them of colluding with the government to suppress conservative speech online.
The effort has encumbered its targets with expansive requests for information and, in some cases, subpoenas — demanding notes, emails and other information related to social media companies and the government dating back to 2015. Complying has consumed time and resources and already affected the groups’ ability to do research and raise money,according to several people involved.
They and others warned that the campaign undermined the fight against disinformation in American society when the problem is, by most accounts, on the rise— and when another presidential election is around the corner. Many of those behind the Republican effort had also joined former President Donald J. Trump in falsely challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
“I think it’s quite obviously a cynical — and I would say wildly partisan — attempt to chill research,” said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director ofColumbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute,an organization that works to safeguard freedom of speech and the press.
The House Judiciary Committee, which in January came under Republican majority control, has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers — only some of which have been made public. It has threatened legal action against those who have not responded quickly or fully enough.
A conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee’s accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants.
Targets include Stanford, Clemson and New York Universities and the University of Washington; the Atlantic Council, the German Marshall Fund and the National Conference on Citizenship, all nonpartisan, nongovernmental organizations in Washington; the Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco; and Graphika, a company that researches disinformation online.
In a related line of inquiry, the committee has also issued a subpoena to the World Federation of Advertisers, a trade association, and the Global Alliance for Responsible Media it created. The committee’s Republican leaders have accused the groups of violating antitrust laws by conspiring to cut off advertising revenue for content researchers and tech companies found to be harmful.
A House subcommittee was created to scrutinize what Republicans have charged is a government effort to silence conservatives. Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
The committee’s chairman, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a close ally of Mr. Trump, has accused the organizations of “censorship of disfavored speech” involving issues that have galvanized the Republican Party: the policies around the Covid-19 pandemic and the integrity of the American political system, including the outcome of the 2020 election.
Much of the disinformation surrounding both issues has come from the right. Many Republicans are convinced that researchers who study disinformation have pressed social media platforms to discriminate against conservative voices.
[The Spread of Misinformation and Falsehoods
The Titanic Truthers of TikTok: On the app, long-established facts about the 1912 disaster are being newly litigated as musty rumors merge with fresh misinformation and manipulated content.
A Global Effort: A group of scholars introduced an international panel to study online misinformation, inspired by the way scientists documented the global effect of carbon emissions.
A Hub for Conspiracy Theories: The Denver airport is a magnet for tall tales inspired by the paranormal — and an experiment into whether, sometimes, institutional fabulism can just be fun.
Climate Lies: In 2021, Google said that it would stop running ads alongside content that denied climate change. But a report shows that one of its platforms, YouTube, has continued to profit from videos pushing misinformation on the topic.]
Those complaints have been fueled by Twitter’s decision under its new owner, Elon Musk, to release selected internal communications between government officials and Twitter employees. The communications show government officials urging Twitter to take action against accounts spreading disinformation but stopping short of ordering them to do, as some critics claimed.
Patrick L. Warren, an associate professor at Clemson University, said researchers at the school have provided documents to the committee, and given some staff members a short presentation. “I think most of this has been spurred by our appearance in the Twitter files, which left people with a pretty distorted sense of our mission and work,” he said.
Last year, theRepublican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana sued the Biden administration in U.S. District Court in Louisiana, arguing that government officials effectively cajoled or coerced Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms by threatening legislative changes. The judge, Terry A. Doughty, rejected a defense motion to dismiss the lawsuit in March.
The current campaign’s focus is not government officials but rather private individuals working for universities or nongovernmental organizations. They have their own First Amendment guarantees of free speech, including their interactions with the social media companies.
The group behind the class action, America First Legal, named as defendants two researchers at the Stanford Internet Observatory, Alex Stamos and Renée DiResta; a professor at the University of Washington, Kate Starbird; an executive of Graphika, Camille François; and the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, Graham Brookie.
If the lawsuit proceeds, they could face trial and, potentially, civil damages if the accusations are upheld.
Mr. Miller, the president of America First Legal, did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement last month, he said the lawsuit was “striking at the heart of the censorship-industrial complex.”
The researchers, who have been asked by the House committee to submit emails and other records, are also defendants in the lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana. The plaintiffs include Jill Hines, a director of Health Freedom Louisiana, an organization that has been accused of disinformation, and Jim Hoft, the founder of the Gateway Pundit, a right-wing news site. The court in the Western District of Louisiana has, under Judge Doughty, become a favored venue for legal challenges against the Biden administration.
The attacks use “the same argument that starts with some false premises,” said Jeff Hancock, the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, which is not a party to any of the legal action. “We see it in the media, in the congressional committees and in lawsuits, and it is the same core argument, with a false premise about the government giving some type of direction to the research we do.”
The House Judiciary Committee has focused much of its questioning on two collaborative projects. One was the Election Integrity Partnership, which Stanford and the University of Washington formed before the 2020 electionto identify attempts “to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters or delegitimize election results without evidence.” The other, also organized by Stanford, was called the Virality Project and focused on the spread of disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines.
Both subjects have become political lightning rods, exposing the researchers to partisan attacks online that have become ominously personal at times.
In the case of the Stanford Internet Observatory, the requests for information — including all emails — have even extended to students who volunteered to work as interns for the Election Integrity Partnership.
A central premise of the committee’s investigation — and the other complaints about censorship — is that the researchers or government officials had the power or ability to shut down accounts on social media. They did not, according to former employees at Twitter and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, who said the decision to punish users who violated platform rules belonged solely to the companies.
No evidence has emerged that government officials coerced the companies to take action against accounts, even when the groups flagged problematic content.
“We have not only academic freedom as researchers to conduct this research but freedom of speech to tell Twitter or any other company to look at tweets we might think violate rules,” Mr. Hancock said.
The universities and research organizations have sought to comply with the committee’s requests, though the collection of years of emails has been a time-consuming task complicated by issues of privacy. They face mounting legal costs and questions from directors and donors about the risks raised by studying disinformation. Online attacks have also taken a toll on morale and, in some cases, scared away students.
In May, Mr. Jordan, the committee’s chairman, threatened Stanford with unspecified legal action for not complying with a previously issued subpoena, even though the university’s lawyers have been negotiating with the committee’s lawyers over how to shield students’ privacy. (Several of the students who volunteered are identified in the America First Legal lawsuit.)
The committee declined to discuss details of the investigation, including how many requests or subpoenas it has filed in total. Nor has it disclosed how it expects the inquiry to unfold — whether it would prepare a final report or make criminal referrals and, if so, when. In its statements, though, it appears to have already reached a broad conclusion.
“The Twitter files and information from private litigation show how the federal government worked with social media companies and other entities to silence disfavored speech online,” a spokesman, Russell Dye, said in a statement. “The committee is working hard to get to the bottom of this censorship to protect First Amendment rights for all Americans.”
The partisan controversy is having an effect on not only the researchers but also the social media giants.
Twitter, under Mr. Musk, has made a point of lifting restrictions and restoring accounts that had been suspended, including the Gateway Pundit’s. YouTube recently announced that it would no longer ban videos that advanced “false claims that widespread fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past U.S. presidential elections.”
Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation for The Times. He has worked in Washington, Moscow, Baghdad and Beijing, where he contributed to the articles that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2021. He is also the author of “The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin.” @stevenleemyers • Facebook
Sheera Frenkel is a prize-winning technology reporter based in San Francisco. In 2021, she and Cecilia Kang published “An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination.” @sheeraf
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What we know about Judge Terry Doughty, who blocked Biden's COVID vaccine mandate and drilling ban
Greg Hilburn
Lafayette Daily Advertiser
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty
Louisiana U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who in the past six months has blocked President Biden's nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers and lifted Biden's ban on new federal leases for oil and gas drilling, doesn't consider himself political.
"There's no question I'm conservative, but my decisions are never about politics," Doughty told USA Today Network Wednesday, a day after ruling against the vaccine mandate. "I call them like I see them. I just look at the cases and try to follow the law."
Doughty, 62, a Republican nominated by former President Trump in 2017 and confirmed by the Senate in 2018 on a 98-0 vote, began his career as "a country lawyer" in Rayville, a small town of fewer than 4,000 people in northeastern Louisiana.
He still lives outside the town on a row crop farm owned and managed by his wife, commuting daily to his Western District office in Monroe, the commercial hub of the region.
Doughty, a Louisiana Tech University and LSU Law School graduate, served nine years as an elected state district judge before his appointment to the federal bench.
He said his support has been bipartisan throughout his career, noting Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards wrote a letter of support for his nomination to the federal bench when President Obama was in office.
Read the order: Judge Doughty's order blocking Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers
Doughty said his appointment as a federal judge was his "dream job. I love coming to work every day," he said.
Doughty said he follows traditional news outlets like newspapers and TV, but he's not on any social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, which insulates him from both fierce critics and ardent supporters.
"I got off Facebook as soon as I didn't have to run for elective office anymore," he said.
Federal judges have lifetime appointments.
Vaccine ruling: Protecting 'liberty interests of the unvaccinated'
On Wednesday Doughty issued a nationwide injunction on a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers at providers who accept Medicare and Medicaid.
Doughty ruled on the lawsuit led byRepublican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and joined by 13 other states, but Doughty added a nationwide injunction in his ruling.
In his decision, Doughty wrote the Biden Administration doesn't have the authority to bypass Congress in issuing such a mandate.
Louisiana Attorney General: Vaccine mandate halt a 'major win'
Follow this story: Louisiana Supreme Court to hear Ochsner COVID-19 vaccine mandate case
"If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands," he wrote. "If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency.
The emergency regulation issued Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services would have required staff at providers that participate in the programs to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Dec. 6 and be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022.
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It would have covered more than 17 million health care workers, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Drilling ban: No 'rational explanation'
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Last summer Doughty lifted the Biden administration’s moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal land and waters.
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That paved the way for a $192 million lease sale in November for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, the first auction since Biden issued his ban in January to combat climate change.
Drilling ban: 'A win for the entire country': Louisiana oil advocates celebrate decision on moratorium
Doughty’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed in March also filed by Landry and officials in 12 other states, but it applies nationwide.
“The omission of any rational explanation in cancelling the lease sales, and in enacting the Pause, results in this Court ruling that Plaintiff States also have a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of this claim,” he wrote.
The Biden administration has appealed the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans
Greg Hilburn covers state politics for the USA TODAY Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter @GregHilburn1.
How Michael P. Farris Tried to Block 2020 Election Outcome - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
no lnx
Christian Conservative Lawyer Had Secretive Role in Bid to Block Election Result
Drafts of a lawsuit filed with Supreme Court by Texas’ attorney general in December had been circulated by the leader of an anti-abortion group.
Michael P. Farris was one of a team of conservative lawyers who reached out to several state attorneys general to encourage them to challenge the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in court.
By Eric Lipton and Mark Walker
Oct. 7, 2021
WASHINGTON — One of the nation’s most prominent religious conservative lawyers played a critical behind-the-scenes role in the lawsuit that Republican state attorneys general filed in December in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election of President Biden, documents show.
The lawyer, Michael P. Farris, is the chief executive of a group known as Alliance Defending Freedom, which is active in opposing abortion and gay rights. He circulated a detailed draft of the lawsuit that Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, ultimately filed against states including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin in an effort to help President Donald J. Trump remain in office.
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Mr. Paxton filed the lawsuit on Dec. 7, after making some changes but keeping large chunks of the draft circulated by Mr. Farris.
An additional 17 Republican attorneys general filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting Mr. Paxton’s lawsuit. Within four days, the matter was rejected by the court.
But Mr. Farris’s role highlighted how religious conservatives supported Mr. Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to retain power by blocking certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.
“Please find a much-improved version of the complaint attached,” Mr. Farris wrote in an email onNov. 30 to the chief deputy attorney general in South Carolina,one of several Republicans whom Mr. Farris and a team of other conservative lawyers were trying to convince to file the lawsuit. “I will call you and update you on the alternatives.”
The email, obtained via an open records request by The New York Times and researchers at Mount Holyoke College, included a detailed 42-page legal complaint, accusing the states of violating the Constitution by changing the rules related to absentee ballots and other election details without formal approval from state legislatures.
The complaint Mr. Farris sent had conveniently left the identification of the Republican attorney general’s office that would ultimately file the litigation blank, instead writing “000 Street Ave, Capitol City, ST 00000, (111) 222-3333, fsurname@oag.StateA.gov, Counsel of Record.”
Thumbnail of page 2
Read the document
Here is the draft lawsuit that Michael P. Farris, chief executive of a group known as Alliance Defending Freedom, sent to the South Carolina attorney general, as he searched for a Republican state attorney general willing to file the lawsuit with the Supreme Court.
Read Document Page 2 of 46
Mr. Farris’s involvement in the effort, which has not previously been reported, came as part of a broad push by religious conservatives to get Mr. Trump re-elected. Their role intensified after the pandemic hit in early 2020 and states began to loosen absentee ballot rules, which the religious conservatives feared would lead to a surge in participation by liberal voters.
Mr. Farris made a name for himself in the 1980s as the founder of a legal group that successfully pushed states nationwide to allow children to be taught at home, based on a belief that only through home-schooling, away from secular influences in public schools, could a broad Christian movement rise in the United States.
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At the Alliance Defending Freedom, Mr. Farris has helped drive the organization’s campaign against abortion and gay rights, including the lawsuit litigated by Mr. Farris’s team that sought to defend the right of a Colorado cake shop to refuse to sell a wedding cake to a gay couple, a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Farris declined a request for an interview, but in an email he confirmed his role in the postelection effort, saying his involvement was not a part of his work at the Alliance for Defending Freedom, a nonprofit group that is prohibited under federal law from playing any role in a political campaign.
“While it’s true that I care about this issue on a personal level, it is not something that ADF works on in any capacity,” he wrote. “As President and CEO, my charge is to focus on ADF’s mission, which is to protect Americans’ God-given freedoms. I have nothing to say about the details of the way forward on the issue of election integrity other than the hope that all Americans take the issue seriously.”
A spokesman for Mr. Paxton did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Farris had not been a fan of Mr. Trump before his election, and publicly urged other conservative Christians to vote for another Republican candidate in 2016.
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“His candidacy is the antithesis of everything we set out to achieve,” Mr. Farris wrote in a Washington Post opinion column in June 2016.
But Mr. Farris and other religious conservatives later told their followers that Mr. Trump had proven them wrong with his appointments of conservative judges, his efforts to block any federal spending on abortions, and his willingness to support efforts by certain business owners to discriminate against homosexuals.That included the Colorado cake shop, which won the right to refuse to sell to wedding cakes to gay couples — in a legal argument that the Trump Justice Department supported.
Religious groups were active in publicly challenging the outcome of the November election from the start — even as a much more secretive campaign was underway, involving Mr. Farris and others, such as Mark D. Martin, the dean at Regent University School of Law, a self-described Christian institution.
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Mr. Martin, the former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, and Mr. Farris were both involved, emails obtained by The Times show, in attempts to recruit a Republican attorney general to file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court to further the efforts by allies of Mr. Trump.
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Drafts of the lawsuit were also sent to the Louisiana attorney general, Jeff Landry, a Republican. But the most intensive efforts appear to have targeted South Carolina and Texas, the emails suggest, as conservative activists tried to convince South Carolina’s attorney general, Alan Wilson, to serve as the lead plaintiff.
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Among those Mr. Farris pressed to file suit was Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s attorney general.
“Mike Farris, who is the President and CEO of the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly Alliance Defense Fund) will be sending over reports, perhaps as early as this evening,” said one Nov. 27 email to Mr. Wilson,sent by conservative activist and author Don Brown,referring to reports examining the presidential election results and ongoing challenges.
Three days later, Mr. Farris wrote to Mr. Wilson’s office, with a draft of the lawsuit he wanted Mr. Wilson to consider filing in U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Farris then spoke with Mr. Wilson about the possible lawsuit, according to the emails.
“We have been having constant conversations with other state AGs and state AG staffs,” Mr. Wilson wrote in a Dec. 3 email, also obtained via an open-records request. “Had a follow-up conversation with Mike Farris yesterday morning prior to him flying back to Texas. Mike was very accommodating and knowledgeable about the legal issues raised in the pleading.”
But Mr. Wilson raised objections to the legal arguments with Mr. Farris, he said, questioning whether one state had the right to sue another state over election procedures or what it might be reasonable to ask the Supreme Court to do as a “remedy” for such a legal dispute, given that it involved the outcome of the presidential election.
“There were other issues that have been raised that have been difficult to overcome but our staff along with other states are still working through the issue,” Mr. Wilson said.
Not discouraged, the team of conservative activists intensified their efforts to enlist Mr. Paxton, who within days moved forward with his suit on behalf of the State of Texas.
“Our Country stands at an important crossroads,” the complaint filed by Mr. Paxton said in its opening argument. Those words were lifted verbatim from the draft Mr. Farris had sent, as was a subsequent passage asserting that “either the Constitution matters and must be followed, even when some officials consider it inconvenient or out of date, or it is simply a piece of parchment on display at the National Archives. We ask the Court to choose the former.”
Jim Rutenberg contributed reporting.
assholery trifecta: DACA, sedition, intervenor OCTrust
STEVE MARSHALL Attorney General of Alabama [raga rolf?]Edmund G. LaCour Jr. (AL Bar No. 9182-U81L) Solicitor General Thomas A. Wilson (AL Bar No. 1494-D25C) Deputy Solicitor General STATE OF ALABAMA OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 501 Washington Ave. Montgomery, AL 36130 Telephone: (334) 242-7300 Fax: (334) 353-8400 Edmund.LaCour@AlabamaAG.gov Thomas.Wilson@AlabamaAG.gov Counsel for Proposed Defendant-Intervenor State of Alabama [additional counsel listed on signature page] UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF OREGON EUGENE DIVISION KELSEY CASCADIA ROSE JULIANA, et al., Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, et al., Defendants. Case No. 6:15-cv-01517-AA
PROPOSED DEFENDANT-INTERVENORS: STATES OF ALABAMA, ALASKA, ARKANSAS, GEORGIA, INDIANA, KANSAS, LOUISIANA, MISSISSIPPI, MISSOURI, MONTANA, NEBRASKA, NORTH DAKOTA, OHIO, OKLAHOMA, SOUTH CAROLINA, TEXAS, UTAH, AND WEST VIRGINIA’S REPLY
[:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{**:{RAGA leaders were also involved in :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{Texas AG Ken Paxton's [lawsuit filed last month in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the presidential election results in the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, }:claiming changes made to accommodate voters in the COVID-19 pandemic were unlawful. Among those signing on to the suit were RAGA's Hunter [okla, quit 2021] , Landry [LOUISUANA] , Marshall [alabama], Moody, Reyes, Schmitt and Wilson, as well as the Republican AGs ofArkansas,Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia.]]
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{{In July 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General from nine other states, includingMarshall, plus Idaho Governor Butch Otter, in threatening the Donald J. Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy that had been put into place by president Barack Obama. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery, III subsequently reversed his position and withdrew his participation from the proposed suit on August 31st. Slatery went further to urge passage of the DREAM Act.[5][6] The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats against Trump includedLawrence Wasden of Idaho, Leslie Rutledge of Arkansas, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, :{Jeff :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{Landry:(style="background-color:#cc0000;"):}: of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morriseyof West Virginia.}}:
https://republicanags.com/2021/06/15/republican-ags-prevail-in-lawsuit-against-biden/
JUNE 2021
A federal court today granted a coalition of 13 Republican AGs,led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a major win against the Biden Administration’s attempts to disrupt the American energy industry. The court’s preliminary injunction will prevent the federal government from implementing the Biden ban on oil and gas lease sales on federal lands. The court’s action reinforces Constitutional limitations, will preserve thousands of jobs, and prevent energy costs from soaring.
“This is a victory not only for the rule of law, but also for the thousands of workers who produce affordable energy for Americans,” said Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. “We appreciate that federal courts have once again recognizedPresident Biden is completely outside his authority in his attempt to shut down oil and gas leases on federal lands.”
“Today’s injunction shows the power of our nation’s Republican attorneys general and their ability to halt harmful actions being handed down by the Biden Administration,” saidRAGA Chairman South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson. “This is a victory for Americans who have seen gas prices double since President Biden took office, and the Biden Administration should take note before they try to implement policies through the back door.”
“His letter to President Trump on the legal issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act is not only in poor taste but also uninformed. A federal court has already ruled that the ACA is unconstitutional. It is critical the Supreme Court finish its review,” wroteLouisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, RAGA’s chairman.
It was not the only time Landry waded into health care to advance Trump’s interests. In March he secured for his state 400,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine, the now-discredited COVID-19 treatment hawked for months by Trump.
see LEC:
James Trey Phillips
Louisiana Attorney General's Office
1885 North Thrid Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Phone: 225.326.6708
ramirezt@ag.state.la.us
Louisiana Attorney General’s officecoordinates behind the scenes with Koch lobbyists Hunton & Williams o In January 2015,9so caldwell, before landry)] representatives of the Koch connected lobbying firm Hunton & Williamsas well as George Mason Law & Economics Center independently emailed Louisiana Assistant Attorney General Trey Phillips to invite him to a briefing entitled “Clean Air Act: Clean Power or Power Play?” featuring presentations from Peter S. Glaser, Robert L. Glicksman, Jason S. Johnston, Roger R. Martella, and Richard O. Faulk about the Clean Power Plan. Glaser, Johnston, Martella, and Faulk do not believe the Clean Power Plan is on firm legal standing. George Mason University has also accepted millions of dollars in funding from Koch brothers foundations and Charles Koch is a member of the George Mason Mercatus Center’s Board of Directors.
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JAMES TREY PHILLIPS is an assistant attorney general with the Louisiana Department of Justice and serves as the director of the Public Protection Division. Some of the matters handled by the Attorney General’s Public Protection Division are civil and/or criminal investigations and prosecutions brought under the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act (including securities matters, investment and mortgage repair scams), various antitrust/anti-monopoly cases, contractor fraud, price gouging cases and environmental matters. The Public Protection Division is comprised of the following sections: Consumer Protection, Insurance Receivership, HUD/Housing Discrimination and Tobacco Settlement Litigation and enforcement. Mr. Phillips, a Lake Providence native, received his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University, graduated from Mississippi College School of Law (J.D.) and earned his LL.M. (taxation) at the University of Denver School of Law. Early in his career,
Mr. Phillips was an assistant attorney general in the Litigation Division with both Attorney General William Guste and Attorney General Richard Ieyoub. Later, Mr. Phillips worked for several years as an assistant district attorney with then District Attorney James D. “Buddy” Caldwellin the 6th Judicial District, parishes of East Carroll, Madison and Tensas. During this period, Mr. Phillips also served as a special assistant attorney general representing the State of Louisiana in both federal and state court litigation. Mr. Phillips has also maintained a limited private practice of law in the area of plaintiff’s personal injury. After several years in Memphis, Tennessee, prosecuting drug asset forfeiture matters for the Tennessee Department of Safety, Mr. Phillips returned to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office in February, 2008.
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huffpo
...The ACORN campaign marked the GOP’s open embrace of white grievance politics and a venomous brand of dirty tricks tailored for a post-truth digital age. It also brought MonCrief, who did not respond to a request for comment sent to her personal email, together with O’Keefe, whose voter fraud disinformation she has promoted on Twitter. And she’d soon join forces with Alexander. In 2012, she attended his Blog Bash with O’Keefe. In Louisiana two years later, they all zeroed in on Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), a three-term incumbent entering a runoff with a strong Republican challenger in Bill Cassidy.
O’Keefe had gone after Landrieu before, in 2010, when he illegally entered her office with two associates, both of whom were disguised as telephone repairmen and one of whom asked to access the “central box” of the phone system as part of an attempt to “orchestrate a conversation” about phone calls to Landrieu’s staff that O’Keefe would capture on video. He was arrested and pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of entering federal property under false pretenses. In late 2014, O’Keefe returned to Louisiana. He was, he said, “working on a big story.” He wasn’t alone. Gavin McInnes,who two years later wouldfound the Proud Boys,was also there, doing “undercover work” for O’Keefe. McInnes claimed to have infiltrated Landrieu campaign headquarters.
The Black Conservatives Fund soon released an undercover “sting” video that the group claimed showed the father of Landrieu’s chief of staff, a Black mayor of a small city in Louisiana, encouraging voter fraud. The speaker, who did not appear on camera, was making an obvious joke at a Landrieu event about voting twice, a harmless crack on the campaign trail. But Alexander and the Black Conservatives Fund spun it into a voter fraud conspiracy focused on the mayor. Alexander, who went by Ali Akbar at the time, and the Black Conservatives Fund emailed a press release to local journalists and political bloggers, accusing the mayor of undermining the “integrity of our voting process.”
“Immediately after” the release went out, according to a local political blogger, the Republican Party of Louisiana emailed its own statement condemning the mayor, an original copy of which HuffPost obtained. The party and Alexander appeared to be coordinating.
“The Democrat machine has once again been exposed for its efforts to mislead, cheat and steal when it comes to elections,” wrote Jeff Landry, who at the time was the head of the Republican Party of Louisiana’s “Voter Integrity Program.”
Landry, a former tea party congressman running for state attorney general, was a notable participant in the effort to smear Landrieu and a fitting person to apply the GOP’s imprimatur to voter fraud disinformation. The climate change denialist was financed by the fossil fuel industry and the Koch brothers.
Roger Villere, the chairman of Republican Party of Louisiana at the time, issued a similar condemnation a few hours later. Alexander, who had also targeted Black voters with a misleading robocall about Landrieu, posted a picture on Facebook around this time of himself with Villere in the governor’s mansion in Baton Rouge. Villere and the Republican Party of Louisiana did not return requests for comment.
Three days after the sting, Alexander posted another picture ― a celebratory one on Instagram of himself with O’Keefe in Baton Rouge’s Crowne Plaza Hotel, where Cassidy would soon have his election night party after beating Landrieu.
“Provocateurs at large,” Alexander wrote.
In 2015, Landry won his race for Louisiana attorney general, and Alexander found work as the digital director for Louisiana Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne’s gubernatorial campaign. Dardenne lost his primary, but that hardly slowed Alexander’s ascent. With his network, experience and aptitude for dirty tricks, he was well-positioned for the calamitous next phase of Republican politics.
Twitter-Enabled Authoritarianism
In 2016, Trump ushered the GOP into a new era of social media-fueled extremism. Alexander, who had already started to shed his Muslim last name, adapted quickly. He joined a ring of propagandists and white nationalists orbiting Steve Bannon, chief executive of Trump’s campaign. The Mercer-funded Milo Yiannopoulos became a friend. So did Breitbart writer Mike Mahoney, the founder of an eco-fascist organization now deemed a potential domestic terrorism threat. At some point, Alexander also fell in with Marcus Epstein, an ethno-nationalist reactionarywith a violent past who collaborates closely with prominent white nationalists and has high-level Republican contacts, and Jeff Giesea, an understudy to billionaire Peter Thiel who has funded white nationalists in the past.
But his closest colleague at the time was Lucian Wintrich, who would soon become the White House correspondent for The Gateway Pundit, a pro-Trump disinformation outlet that has pushed voter fraud lies, promoted Stop the Steal and published propaganda from the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia group whose members were involved in the storming of the Capitol. (In January, an Oath Keeper and two people associated with the militia were charged with criminal conspiracy for participating in the attack.)
With Wintrich, Alexander launched a dead-end media startup and staged a pro-Trump anti-immigrant art show in New York where the British Yiannopoulos gave a speech about “American values” and bathed in a tub of pig’s blood. McInnes arrived in his gang’s black-and-yellow uniform and recruited attendees into his organization.
In 2017, Wintrich and Alexander again caught the eye of extremism researchers when they hosted a podcast with Matt Colligan, who had marched with a tiki torch at the Charlottesville rally. During the podcast, Alexander jokingly threw up a “sieg heil.” Colligan hoisted a Nazi flag behind him on screen, which prompted laughter from Alexander. When a woman who claimed to be Jewish called into the podcast to complain, Alexander mocked her.
A month later, Alexander and Cernovich attended the wedding of neo-Nazi collaborator Posobiec, a protégé of convicted felon and Trump consigliere Roger Stone. As HuffPost first reported in December, Posobiec was also a confidant of Donald Trump Jr. Amplified heavily on Twitter by an infamous Kremlin-directed account, Posobiec has repeatedly promoted a book by Russian neo-fascist Aleksandr Dugin that lays out a plan to topple American democracy through racial tension and disinformation. In October, HuffPost emailed, called and texted Posobiec to ask about his promotion of Dugin’s book and whether he had ever “taken any money from Russia, any foreign government or a cut-out.” Posobiec did not respond.
In the summer of 2017, Alexander teamed up with the far-right propagandist to speak at a “Rally for Peace” in front of the White House that kicked off with a Trump supporter shouting, “It’s time to put George Soros in the gas chamber!”The rally, which also featured Wintrich and Cernovich, attracted a contingent of Proud Boys, one of whom gave a spit-flying speech about the media that had an audience member screaming about “communist scum!” Handling security were the 211 Bootboys, an ultranationalist skinhead crew that has engaged in gang assaults, sometimes with the Proud Boys. Stone called in over Posobiec’s phone to address the crowd.
By the end of that year, Alexander and Stone were hanging out together.The two posed for a photo at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where Alexander turned up for a quarterly meeting of theYoung Republican National Federation, acting as the chairman of the organization’s Louisiana chapter. A few days later, as part of a secret retreat with top donors, the Republican Attorneys General Association booked Mar-a-Lago’s Teahouse dining room for an event that Louisiana’s Jeff Landry reportedly attended.
Alexander’s social media star was on the rise. In 2018, Kanye West promoted him on Twitter, where Alexander had taken to singling out Jewish members of the media in a way that he insisted couldn’t be anti-Semitic, given his own claims of Semitic heritage. He also tweeted what appeared to be a lynching threat at former CIA Director John Brennan, an outspoken Trump critic. Like Trump, Alexander abused Twitter blatantly. But Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey nevertheless sought out the views of the extremist influencer.
In February 2018, Alexander revealed on Instagram that he and Dorsey had been “talking for the past several months” about how people with “different beliefs” could coexist on Twitter. Alexander meant conservatives. Specifically, he meant far-right influencers like himself and Stone, who’d been booted from Twitter in 2017 for abusive and menacing tweets about CNN news anchors and contributors. Bad actors on the political right often use false claims of “conservative censorship” to pressure social media companies to take a hands-off approach to disinformation and extremism, and Alexander indicated that he brought up Stone’s suspension with Dorsey. In a Breitbart interview, Alexander claimed that he and Dorsey discussed problems “disproportionately affecting conservatives” on the platform and that the Twitter CEO “stressed that mistakes had been made and Twitter needs to serve everyone going forward.” In August 2018, Dorsey quietly sought Alexander’s advice about whether to ban bigoted far-right conspiracist Alex Jones from the site.
“I was introduced to him by a friend, and you know, he’s got interesting points,” Dorsey would later say of Alexander. “I don’t obviously agree with most. But I think the perspective is interesting.”
It’s unclear how Alexander met Dorsey, and Twitter declined to answer any of HuffPost’s questions. A year before his photo with Dorsey, however, Alexander claimed in a private meeting with White Jr., the journalist from Louisiana, that he knew influential higher-ups at the social media company. “He told me he had friends in Twitter corporate,” White told HuffPost. “He didn’t give me any specific names.”
Alexander’s next piece of subversion drew on Stone for inspiration. In 2016, Stone, who would carve out a role for himself that year as a backchannel for WikiLeaks and Guccifer 2.0, a Twitter account that American intelligence investigators and cybersecurity experts had already accurately assessed was run by Russian military intelligence, had created a “Stop the Steal” slogan, fundraising website and 527 advocacy group. The apparent objective: erode voter trust in a Republican primary in which Trump looked like a long shot.
Later, in a general election Trump also seemed fated to lose, Stop the Steal played up fabricated claims of a rigged election and morphed into a project to send Republicans to “monitor” polling places in communities that Democratic leaders in battleground states who sued over “voter intimidation” tactics pointed out had large populations of marginalized group.
But Stone’s effort paled in comparison to what Alexander would eventually pull off. First, though, the young Republican had to field test the idea for himself. In 2018, at Posobiec’s urging, according to Alexander, he decided to marry the Stop the Steal slogan to his own on-the-ground activism.
Alexander saw an opportunity in Florida, where a tight U.S. Senate race between Democrat incumbent Bill Nelson and the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott, had gone to a mandatory recount after absentee and provisional ballots narrowed Scott’s lead. Republicans were apoplectic. Scott talked about “unethical liberals” trying to “steal this election.” Trump alleged “election fraud.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) circulated a conspiracy theory about unmarked vehicles moving fake ballots in the dead of night.
Alexander took to the street. He gathered angry Trump supporters outside the Broward County Supervisor of Elections to protest the recount. The Proud Boys turned out. So did Stone, who’d participated in and claimed to have orchestrated a similar spectacle in 2000 ― the “Brooks Brothers riot,” during which a mob of white Republican operatives tried to force their way into Miami-Dade County polling headquarters and put a halt to the recount in that year’s presidential election.
Alexander’s far-right network also showed up. Pearson, the young conservative activist from Alexander’s past, tweeted to promote the protest and commended Posobiec, Proud Boys influencer Joe Biggs, and Republican operative Scott Presler, formerly the lead activism strategist for anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America, for “descending onto Florida.” With hislogistical know-how, Presler was an important ally for Alexander. A year earlier, Presler — who, according to his Facebook, later became a regional field director for the Republican Party of Virginia — had organized a nationwide “March Against Sharia” that attracted neo-Nazis, other racist extremists and anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and Proud Boys.
Alexander’s Broward County Stop the Steal event also proved irresistible to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who appeared outside the election center to cause a ruckus and spread disinformation on Twitter about “fraudulent ballots.” Even the Republican National Committee got involved, tweeting, “We cannot let lawyers and special interests from Washington steal this election.” When Scott emerged victorious, Alexander took credit.
In early 2019, Alexander launched a MAGA influencer site, Culttture, with Trump’s favorite meme-smith, Logan “Carpe Donktum” Cook, who has glorified violence against the media. Alexander said the idea came to him after LSD “rewired” his brain. The site made an initial splash by sending Alexander, Islamophobic Republican congressional candidateLaura Loomer and far-right subversive Jacob Wohl, who was arrested last October for running a robocall scheme targeting Black voters with false election information, to Minneapolis to generate fodder for an Alexander-directed propaganda reel about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). In Periscope videos, they falsely depicted parts of the city as being under sharia law and claimed to need a “massive” security team in order to travel safely. The best way to support them, Alexander told followers, was through “money, money, money, money, money and then prayer.”
Alexander caused another stir that year during a birther smear campaign against Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. “She’s not an American Black. Period,” he tweeted, echoing his description of Obama a decade earlier. The racist message got a boost on Twitter from Trump Jr., who later deleted his retweet.
A month later, Alexander scored an invite to the White House for Trump’s “social media summit.” The gathering of digital extremists was a murderers’ row of pro-Trump trolls and propagandists. Alexander had finally arrived.
Alexander was also building his own coalition. In October, he traveled to the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort for the American Priority Conference, which brought together figures ranging from GOP heavyweights like Trump Jr. and Gaetz to the usual crew of henchmen: Posobiec, O’Keefe, Cook, Presler and others. In the Trump resort, Alexander gathered some of his fellow travelers for a photo-op.
These were Trump’s digital soldiers. But next to Alexander in his trademark sunglasses was a real one: Tarrio. A bullet-headed felon who’d attended the Unite the Right rally, the Cuban-American Tarrio was a street fighter who’d gone on to succeed McInnes as national chairman of the Proud Boys. Under Tarrio’s command, the neo-fascist gang has acted as a personal security force for Stone. The Proud Boys were seemingly at Alexander’s disposal as well. And the Republican operative had big plans.
“Goebbels and Lenin, smart men, evil men,” Alexander said that year. “But they have nothing on me in terms of social engineering.”
Ali Alexander with Scott Presler, Enrique Tarrio, Mike Cernovich, Logan Cook and several Stop the Steal accomplices at the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort for the American Priority Conference in 2019.]
Stop The Steal 2020
On Sept. 7, 2020, Alexander and Posobiec primed their social media followers for a new Stop the Steal campaign. In a Periscope broadcast, Alexander declared his intention to build the digital “infrastructure” for the anti-democratic movement and talked about sending Trump supporters to election centers in case a “physical presence is needed,” according to Right Wing Watch. That same afternoon, Posobiec, who has over 1 million followers on Twitter, posted that “#StopTheSteal 2020 is coming” in a since-deleted tweet uncovered in an investigation by the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab.
As soon as it became clear on Nov. 4 that Trump would likely lose the election, Alexander swung into action on social media, claiming that his young political mentees had convinced him: “They said, ‘Ali, if you could change the world ― or save the world ― and you had that opportunity to do it, why wouldn’t you?’ And I felt this rush of conviction, you know, because I’m a Christian.”
The daughter of Amy Kremer, a tea party organizer, launched a Stop the Steal Facebook page. Posobiec and other far-right friends of Alexander promoted it. The page quickly gained over 360,000 members, some of whom talked about murdering Democrats and starting a civil war. Within days, Facebook had shut it down.
Twitter, however, permitted Alexander’s extremism, which he didn’t camouflage.He called the platform his “public diary” and his “call to action.” On Nov. 9, he tweeted, “Republicans choose who wins the Electoral College. We don’t have to lie down.” Alexander urged GOP state legislatures to “only send Republican Electors to the College,” seemingly advocating that they defy the popular vote and overturn the most secure election in American history. Mocking Alexander with the Proud Boys slogan, another Twitter user pointed out that, “Such a fascist coup would provoke a civil war. Why don’t you fuck around and find out?” Alexander retweeted the ominous prediction with his own message: “Thanks for the invite, bitch.”
Several other Twitter users, presumably followers of Alexander, replied to the message with what appeared to be endorsements of insurrection and civil war. One promoted a logo of Anticom, a far-right group whose members espouse fascism and guerrilla warfare against the political left and have shared detailed bomb-making instructions online.
For the next two months, Dorsey and Twitter executives did next to nothing to prevent Alexander from growing his movement on their platform, aside from temporarily blocking the link to his Stop the Steal website. But that didn’t last long, according to Alexander.
“I used my relationships with Twitter to get that reversed,”he told the Epoch Times, a far-right conspiracy and propaganda outlet that promoted Stop the Steal and false claims of voter fraud. (Twitter declined to respond.)
Stop the Steal was scary from the start. The first rally took place on Nov. 4 in Phoenix outside the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. Alexander organized the event on Twitter with Gosar, who has been photographed with Proud Boys and reportedly attended Oath Keepers meetings, and Cernovich, who has for many years used Twitter to sow disinformation that has inspired threats and violence.Gosar would later acknowledge Cernovich’s seminal role in launching Stop the Steal, comparing the far-right propagandist to Rosa Parks.
In November, Gosar ― “the spirit animal of Stop the Steal,” according to Alexander ― did not respond to a request from HuffPost seeking information about his involvement in the protest movement and his connections to extremists. Later that month, the leader of an Arizona chapter of the Oath Keepers claimed in a video that Gosar had met with his group “a couple of years ago” and told them he believed the United States had already entered another civil war. “We just haven’t started shooting yet,” Gosar reportedly said.
In March, HuffPost reached out again to Gosar’s digital director, Jessica Lycos, who appears to double as a press secretary, to inquire one more time about the radical congressman’s troubling associations. (Gosar also met privately in 2018 with Steve Bannon and foreign ultranationalist leaders, including racists and Islamophobes with ties to violent extremists.) Lycos replied with an email that she tried to put off-the-record.
“Sounds like your story is already completely written. What do you need me for?” Lycos wrote. “Rep. Gosar is of course none of those things but you’re not interested in hearing that. Good luck!”
HuffPost requested a third time to speak to Gosar and asked Lycos to clarify what she meant by “none of those things.” She did not respond.
At the Phoenix rally, Cernovich and Gosar gave speeches to a large, angry crowd similar to the mob that rioted in Washington in early January. It was a mix of MAGA extremists, armed militia members and QAnon believers. They chanted “stop the steal.” They threatened reporters. The protesters grew so hostile that election workers needed a police escort to their cars at the end of the night. At one point, militia members barged into the elections center. No arrests were made.
Alexander recruited hundreds of protesters on Twitter within minutes of launching Stop the Steal, but the Phoenix rally also showed signs of more advanced planning and financial backing.
“This wasn’t just a grassroots swelling of citizens,” local attorney Tom Ryan, who specializes in election law, told HuffPost. “These people had pre-manufactured signs.”
A second night of protest in Phoenix summoned Jones, who Alexander tweeted was “getting a jet.” Jones, known for spreading lies that led to death threats against the parents of children murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, showed up to bellow to the mob about the coming war against Trump’s opponents. “They will be in their goddamn bunkers when we come for them!” he shouted. “They will be hiding. They will pay. They will be destroyed.”
Jacob Chansley, known as the “Q Shaman” for his horned fur hat and Norse tattoos, was at that rally. Though reportedly jobless, Chansley nevertheless found the means to travel to Washington in January. He stormed the Capitol with a spear, tracing a throughline of violence back to Stop the Steal’s genesis.
A third night of protest in Phoenix featured Trump family insider and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. On Nov. 4, he was one of the first people to promote the rally, using slick material branded with his affiliate’s name, Turning Point Action. The affiliate reportedly paid a sprawling network of teenagers, including some minors, to pump out disinformation, much of it about voter fraud.
At a Nov. 18 Stop the Steal event in Atlanta, Alexander appeared with Fuentes, Jones and Tarrio outside the Georgia State Capitol,along with a mob of Trump supporters.
“Who is going to be ready to storm the Capitol with us in a couple minutes?!” Alexander shouted through a megaphone.
“Peacefully,” Jones reminded Alexander.
“Peacefully,” Alexander snickered. “Do not let antifa infiltrate.”
Once inside the building, some Trump supporters didn’t want to leave, figuring they could shut down the certification of the Georgia vote. Biden had won the state by a slim enough margin to trigger a hand audit of the results, which was underway at the time of the rally. The certification deadline was two days away. One Trumpist, who understandably viewed Jones as the leader of the group, approached wide-eyed with an idea.
“They certify the vote here, right?” said the man, who wore a stars-and-stripes cowboy hat.
“Yeah,” Jones grunted.
“We’re inside,” the man told Jones. “Let’s not leave!”
Oddly deferential, Jones turned to Alexander.
“We’re not the left, we’re not going to democratize ideas,” Alexander snapped at the man. “Listen to me, we’re going to stop the steal. But first we’re going to stop the certification.”
It was too soon. Too small. Too few people.
A Growing Insurrection
Alexander kept organizing at a feverish pace. He put together numerous events in other states, many of which attracted extremists and militia members. He tapped into his network for help, including Kremer, who now runs Women for America First, an organization created to oppose Trump’s impeachment. Jenny Beth Martin, the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, an influential dark money conduit for the GOP that Alexander’s Blog Bash site listed as a sponsor, co-host and supporter of the event over the course of several years, had signed on early and was speaking at Stop the Steal rallies. Prominent conservative pundit Michelle Malkin, who’d been on the board of Alexander’s National Bloggers Club, got involved, enthusiastically spreading Stop the Steal propaganda and speaking at at least one rally.
Malkin already had well-documented connections to the white supremacist movement.In early 2020, American Renaissance, a prominent white supremacist publication, began syndicating Malkin’s columns. She endorsed Patrick Casey, the leader of American Identity Movement, a now-defunct neo-Nazi and white nationalist organization, and Fuentes, as well as other far-right extremists who have routinely expressed anti-Semitic and white nationalist views. She spoke at Fuentes’ 2020 America First Political Action Conference.
Afterward, she went on “Red Ice,” a white power radio show, to warn of changing demographics and “multicultural rot.” She didn’t stop there. She created a reading list with Yiannopoulos for “America First” activists that included towering anti-Semitic texts such as “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and “Culture of Critique” by Kevin MacDonald, who has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the “neo-Nazi movement’s favorite academic.”
By the time Alexander’s Stop the Steal movement surged to life, Malkin, who refers to herself as the “mommy” to Fuentes’ “groyper” followers and regularly socializes with fascists, had, by any definition, embraced far-right extremism. She was a big name, with a big platform.
But it was the junior influencers who helped Alexander with local Stop the Steal promotion and organizing. One of them, Michael “Mike Tokes” Coudrey, emerged as a key lieutenant.
“There would be no #StopTheSteal movement without @MichaelCoudrey,” Alexander tweeted the day before the Capitol attack.
Like Alexander, Coudrey had had legal problems, beginning when he was a minor. As an adult, he was arrested in 2017 on a felony charge of obtaining property under false pretenses after allegedly lying on a credit application at a used car dealership in Las Vegas so he could purchase a 2008 Dodge Caravan with a small down payment. Coudrey entered a nolo contendere plea to a reduced charge of petit larceny in 2019. By then, he was reinventing himself as a pro-Trump social media performer. Trump retweeted Coudrey last year after he pushed hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure.
White nationalist Bryden Proctor, Stop the Steal organizer Mike Coudrey and white nationalist Tim Gionet.]
Last year, Andy Stepanian, an activist and communications consultant for nonprofits, revealed that Coudrey, who did not respond to requests for comment, was apparently running a private Twitter group in 2019 and beyond that appeared to include multiple far-right activists who would go on to be Stop the Steal co-organizers. Several Trump insiders also appeared to be part of the group, including Richard Grenell, Trump’s then-acting director of national intelligence who spread baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
“Does the Huffington Post still exist?” Grenell asked when HuffPost reached him for comment.
Yet another important colleague of Alexander’s was Ed Martin, the former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, who appears friendly with Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia. Martin, who has expressed support for QAnon, handled Stop the Steal organizing in Washington. The day before the attack, he tweeted a photo of himself with Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). They were smiling and holding a “Stop the Steal” sign.
Martin and Alexander had joined forces before, in 2014, on behalf of Chris McDaniel, a tea party candidate for Senate in Mississippi with a history of making inflammatory remarks about women and minorities and whose talk-radio show website promoted the League of the South, a violent neo-Confederate organization. A strategist for McDaniel told CNN in 2018 that the politician “has never endorsed the League of the South and has nothing to do with them.” But McDaniel, who reportedly delivered the keynote address at a 2013 event staged by a chapter of another neo-Confederate group, had accepted donations from a League of the South member, the attorney for an imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who died in prison after murdering a civil rights activist. When McDaniel lost in the Republican primary, he falsely claimed the election was stolen. So did Ted Cruz.
Alexander had two Stop the Steal trial runs in Washington before the Capitol attack. On Nov. 14, he staged the “Million MAGA March,” promotional material for which had spread widely among violent extremist groups. During the election, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and instead issued a “stand back and stand by” directive to the Proud Boys. “Somebody’s gotta do something about antifa and the left,” the president said, using language that thrummed the blood of far-right extremists.
“Trump basically said to go fuck them up! [T]his makes me so happy,” wrote Joe Biggs, a high-ranking Proud Boy who was connected to Alexander on Venmo, a money-sharing app that creates public friends lists of users who have communicated via phone.
“[T]here are not enough jail cells to house everybody that is coming,” Alexander said in a Periscope broadcast, Right Wing Watch first reported.
On the appointed day, thousands of Trump supporters poured into D.C., including several battalions of Proud Boys, some of whom wore bulletproof vests. Before the rally, Biggs, who was arrested last month for storming the Capitol, told his followers to “buy ammo [and] clean your guns.”
Other groups such as Oath Keepers, Patriot Prayer and American Guard also showed up, and when night fell, the far-right extremists mixed it up with counterprotesters. People were stabbed. Police recovered guns. But it was the number of Trump blackshirts in the streets that was so shocking. Hundreds upon hundreds of them. CJ Halliburton, an independent journalist who livestreams protests, filmed Alexander that night in their midst, smoking a celebratory cigar and sharing a toast with Tarrio.
Ali Alexander and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio toast in November 2020, after a Stop the Steal rally in Washington.]
Alexander spoke of “political revenge” and only grew more bellicose as insurrection approached. “I am willing to give my life for this fight,” he tweeted on Dec. 7, a message the Arizona Republican Party amplified on Twitter a few hours later. “He is. Are you?” the party asked.
Kelli Ward, the chair of the Arizona Republican Party, went on to speak at one of Alexander’s Stop the Steal rallies. Ward, who has a history of associating with other extremists and has also beenfunded by the Mercers, wanted to “cross the Rubicon.” She later refused to condemn the attack on the Capitol.
Alexander’s next Stop the Steal event in Washington took place on Dec. 12. Far-right extremists such as Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin — who urged his neo-Nazi followers to “Get out in the street. No Surrender.” — promoted it. Flynn spoke at a portion of the rally called the “Jericho March,” which had a website stating “globalists, socialists, and communists” were trying to “destroy” America through “fraudulent and illegal activities in this election.”
The Jericho March, as Flynn made clear in his speech, referenced a biblical battle during which Israelite soldiers marched around the Canaanite city of Jericho and blew trumpets until the city walls collapsed. The Israelites then stormed inside and massacred every living creature except a treasonous prostitute and her family. In the MAGA rendition of the tale, Congress was Jericho.
“We’re in a spiritual battle for the heart and soul of the country,” Flynn said, a flag of the anti-government Three Percenter militia flapping in front of him as, overhead, Trump buzzed the crowd in Marine One. “We’re going to knock those walls down.”
The rally attracted thousands more Trump supporters and resulted in more Proud Boys-led violence. Gang members marched in formation through downtown D.C. The Proud Boys reportedly assaulted passersby. They targeted Black churches and vandalized their property. Alexander began tweeting about 1776, a reference to the American Revolution.
On Dec. 29, Alexander appeared on Sean Hannity’s podcast to promote the upcoming Wild Protest. Conservative commentator Rose Tennent, who is affiliated with Moms for America, another organization involved in the Jan. 6 rally, was the guest host. “We can’t let it be said of us that we stood by and did nothing,” she said. “This is a hill we are willing to die on.”
The Wild Protest had come together, Alexander told her, with the “collaboration” of his Republican allies in Congress: Gosar, Mo Brooks and Andy Biggs, all of whom would object to certifying the Electoral College vote affirming Biden’s win. Brooks later denied that he had helped Alexander organize a rally, and he issued a statement saying he had “no recollection of ever communicating in any way with whoever Ali Alexander is.” But Brooks was featured on the Wild Protest website and, as a speaker at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, urged angry protesters to sacrifice their lives if necessary.
“Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America?!” he shouted.
Biggs, too, tried to distance himself from Alexander after the deadly attack.“Congressman Biggs is not aware of hearing of or meeting Mr. Alexander at any point — let alone working with him to organize some part of a planned protest,” Biggs’ spokesman told The Washington Post. On Dec. 13, however, Biggs and Alexander had appeared together as speakers at a small Moms for America rally in Washington. On Dec. 19, Alexander played a video message from Biggs during a Stop the Steal rally in Phoenix, at which Alexander and Biggs’ wife hugged.
During his appearance on Hannity’s podcast, Alexander was adamant that the three congressmen helped him conceive of his protest, an assertion he echoed on social media.
“They were like, ‘Ali, bring your people, we’ve had these rallies all across the country, two times in DC,’” he told Tennent. “They were like, ‘Bring those patriots here. Let our colleagues hear them outside before they vote.’”
Alexander tweeted a translation for his “people” the next day: “1776 is *always* an option,” he wrote, warning that if lawmakers certified the Electoral College vote, “everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building.”
A Powerful Republican Ally
On Jan. 5, Proud Boys and other extremists, including white supremacists on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist, flooded into Washington. Stone was spotted with an Oath Keepers security detail. That morning, Alexander tweeted that he was considering issuing an order to supporters to “occupy DC” until a “negotiated settlement” could be reached. “Stand back & stand by!” he tweeted.
A robocall went out that day encouraging “patriots” to march to the Capitol at 1 p.m. the following afternoon to “stop the steal.” The recording, unearthed by the watchdog group Documented, was paid for by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
RAGA, a national organization for Republican state attorneys general, is financed by big corporations and Republican megadonors, none more significant than Koch Industries, which in 2020 gave the group $375,000, according to IRS 527 filings reviewed by Documented. As a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization, RLDF can hide its donors. But it, too, is funded by Koch-backed organizations and other right-wing dark money groups. One of these donors demanded that the “March to Save America” robocall go out and made a contribution “contingent” upon its release, according to The New York Times.
In the months leading up to the Capitol attack,RAGA had also put out a series of propaganda videos that demonized racial justice protesters and liberals. One video used Soviet-style imagery to portray Democratic leaders in Congress as communist subversives. In official statements, RAGA said the political left was on a “mission to burn America down” and that a Biden-Harris administration would “destroy” the country. “JOIN THE FIGHT!” urged the Republican attorneys general.
It was, perhaps, no coincidence that the RAGA chairman in 2020 was Landry, the tea partier whose connection to Alexander went back at least to 2014, and the Black Conservative Fund’s “sting” on Mary Landrieu.
The two appeared to have stayed in touch.When Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, sued on Dec. 8 to block battleground states won by Biden from submitting their Electoral College votes, Alexander tweeted that “Some of us are hard at work behind the scenes too.” He mentioned only one name.
“I just thanked my friend @jefflandry,” he tweeted, using Landry’s personal Twitter handle.
Alexander seemed to have inside knowledge of RAGA’s plans. He noted that no “procedural vehicle” existed yet for other states to join Paxton’s suit but that an amicus brief was on its way. Sure enough, Landry and 16 other Republican attorneys general filed the brief on Dec. 9 in support of Paxton’s sham lawsuit. A day later, Landry signed on to the lawsuit in a motion to intervene that misspelled his own state’s name.
Landry shared some of Alexander’s extreme views. In RAGA statements and op-eds, the Louisiana attorney general warned of a “radical takeover” by Biden and Harris ― RAGA’s race-baiting propaganda focused heavily on America’s first Black, Asian and female vice president ― that would leave the nation “lawless, socialist, and jobless.” Landry wrote about “charging to the frontlines in order to save and defend America.”
Landry declined to answer any questions about his connection to Alexander. His spokesman, Cory Dennis, emailed HuffPost a one-line response: “The [Louisiana] Attorney General had no prior knowledge of, nor participated in, the robo call’s planning or execution.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry at a Jan. 22, 2020, news conference where it was announced that Republican attorneys general from 21 states submitted a letter to the Senate to reject the two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. ]
But RLDF’s involvement in the violent Jan. 6 protest was undeniable. The robocall mentioned a “March to Save America” website that Alexander highlighted in his Twitter profile and that listed 11 participating organizations. Three tied directly to Alexander: Stop the Steal, Wild Protest and the Black Conservatives Fund. The rest belonged to his partners. RAGA was the most troubling participant ― originally listed on the site before the more obscure RLDF was swapped in.
RAGA’s executive director at the time, Adam Piper, appears to have been acquainted with Alexander for more than a decade. Piper’s Twitter timeline, which is filled with years of anti-Obama rhetoric, shows him replying casually to Alexander and promoting the Republican operative’s account from 2009 to 2020. They both attended CPAC in 2009, when Alexander was making a name for himself as a tea party activist, and perhaps met there. Starting in early 2009, Piper also tweeted rabidly using #tcot, a tea party hashtag that allowed the nativist movement to organize and propagandize on Twitter, a precursor to the authoritarian MAGA network that coalesced around Trump on the platform in 2016.
At RAGA, Piper issued his own incendiary statements.On Election Day, he promised that a failure to thwart Biden and Harris would result in “complete annihilation.” In a press release two weeks later, he relied on selectively edited video of a street fight during Alexander’s November rally in Washington to suggest that “antifa” would run the United States if Harris and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer were allowed to take control of the Senate.
Piper, who did not respond to requests for comment, also “spearheaded” RLDF. After the revelation of the robocall, he insisted that RLDF and RAGA had “no involvement in the planning, sponsoring, or the organization” of the Jan. 6 rally. Five days later, he resigned without explanation.
Prior to the rally, Alexander had been in direct contact with Trump insider Caroline Wren, a top Republican fundraiser and former deputy to Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr.’s girlfriend and the former national chair of Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee for Trump’s reelection campaign. Wren had previously served as the national finance director of Trump Victory and the finance director for Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.). She had access to a deep pool of Republican dark money, bushels of which had flowed to hard-right candidates and organizations. To cite one example, Citizens for a Working America, a mysterious PAC, had paid Wren’s fundraising business handsomely in the past and, in 2012, spent almost $165,000 on behalf of Landry’s unsuccessful House reelection effort. In fiscal year 2018, the same PAC gave $930,000 to RAGA.
Wren “played a central role in bringing together the disparate group of activists planning events on Jan. 6,” according to The Wall Street Journal. She reportedly even suggested to Alexander that he reschedule his Wild Protest at the Capitol for 1 p.m. When contacted by HuffPost on Feb. 27, Wren requested that questions be emailed to her. She never responded to them.
In an appearance on Alex Jones’ show, however, Alexander offered a narrative about how the Jan. 6 megarally came together that supported The Wall Street Journal’s account.
“We were going to start at 9 or 10 a.m., and we were going to have 30 members of Congress with us. When the Trump campaign called and said, ‘Let’s combine all the events,’” Alexander said on the show. “They were like, ‘The president doesn’t want to stomp on your grassroots effort. What can we do for you?’”
On the morning of the insurrection, Alexander went on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily show to promote his Wild Protest one last time. The guest host that day was his Stop the Steal partner, Ed Martin. Alexander told Martin about another, more recent, call he said he’d received from the Trump inner circle.
“[Trump]’s in fighter mode, and today will determine which Republicans are going to suffer his wrath going forward,” Alexander explained. “I got a call last night from Kimberly Guilfoyle, and none of us are stopping. I know you’re not stopping, Ed. I’m not stopping. StoptheSteal.us is not stopping. The family is not stopping.”
Guilfoyle did not respond to a request for comment left via a cellphone linked to her name, or to questions HuffPost emailed to her through Alexandra Preate, a public relations executive and longtime friend who has also served as Steve Bannon’s spokeswoman.
The Aftermath
After the Capitol riot, the Stop the Steal team came undone. Martin, Posobiec and Gaetz spread disinformation about antifa causing the violence. Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar reportedly solicited preemptive presidential pardons. Charlie Kirk, who’d talked about “building up the infantry” and bringing in 80 busloads of protesters to “fight for this president,” held an excuse-laden press conference, his voice cracking. Numerous members of the Proud Boys were arrested, and the neo-fascist gang landed on Canada’s list of designated terrorist entities.
Alexander’s movement had helped upend the peaceful transfer of power for the first time since the Civil War. He reportedly went into hiding, claiming antifa was after him. Tech companies had finally started to deplatform him, which he likened to dying. “They got this close to having Ali Alexander commit suicide,” he said. But he managed to keep squeezing out livestreams. Four days after the insurrection, he broadcast from inside a vehicle rolling through the dark toward an undisclosed location. The next day, wearing the same clothes, he streamed from inside a building.He was the true victim here, he insisted. He compared himself to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. He compared himself to Jesus Christ.
“I had to be crucified from social media in order for social media to end,” he said. “And I will fucking end social media.”
Alexander barely acknowledged the Trump supporters who died in the Capitol attack. His soliloquies focused on him, his plight, his need for money. He claimed his life was in danger and that he required funds to pay his security team ― the same apparent ruse he’d used with Loomer and Wohl in Minneapolis. Over and over, he promoted his page on GiveSendGo.com, a Christian crowdfunding platform used by many far-right extremists. At first, Alexander wanted $40,000. The next day, he demanded $100,000, so he could “open Pandora’s box.” If he didn’t get the money, he said, “we’ll all die.” (He raised over $30,000 on GiveSendGo.)
When HuffPost contacted Alexander on Jan. 19 with an interview request, he refused to talk and accused this reporter of stalking, harassing and bullying him. “Find God,” he said. “God bless.”
A few hours later, he posted a new video on his Stop the Steal site asking for money. “Stop the Steal will not stop!” he vowed on Gab, a social media network favored by neo-Nazis.
Alexander had more rallies planned for March. He was targeting indoor venues in Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Texas. He talked about creating a new society exclusively for Trump supporters, about building MAGA megacities in the U.S. and South America, places where liberals would not be welcome.He wanted to “make lists” of his enemies. The only outcome left, he said, was “Civil War.”
“I’ve been licking my wounds but I’ve been plotting. I’ve been planning. I’ve been scheming,” Alexander told his followers. “Because we have to do away with this whole system.”
He craved revenge.
“The government outta be deathly afraid of us,” he said. “When I am ready … I will unleash a legion of angels to bring hell to our enemies. So rest assured in this, you know, the Lord says vengeance is his. And I pray that I am the tool to stab these motherfuckers.”
Fifteen years of activism ― of radicalization ― had honed him into a weapon. He was still a party man. It just happened to be Trump’s party now.
This piece has been updated to provide further clarity about O’Keefe’s illegal entry into Sen. Landrieu’s office in 2010.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Landry
Jeffrey Martin Landry, known as Jeff Landry (born December 23, 1970), is the Attorney General of Louisiana. On January 11, 2016, he succeeded Buddy Caldwell, the man whom he unseated in the runoff election held on November 21, 2015. Landry is also a former U.S. Representative for Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. Landry is a member of the Republican Party and the Tea Party Caucus.
Landry finished a strong second with 347,441 votes (32.7 percent) in the primary held on October 24. Leading the four-candidate field was the two-term incumbent Republican Buddy Caldwell, with 376,187 votes (35.4 percent). Democrat Geraldine "Geri" Broussard Baloney finished third with 187,332 votes (17.6 percent). Another Democrat, Isaac "Ike" Jackson of Plaquemine in Iberville Parish, finished fourth with 115,037 votes (10.8 percent); a second Republican, Marty Maley came in last with 37,787 votes (3.6 percent).[1] In the second round of balloting, Landry prevailed, 610,435 (56.3 percent) to Caldwell's 473,876 (43.7 percent).[2]
Contents
- 1 Early life, education, and military service
- 2 Pre-political career
- 3 2007 State senate election
- 4 U.S. House of Representatives
Early life, education, and military service
Landry's mother is a religion school teacher at Trinity Catholic School in St. Martinville in St. Martin Parish. His father is an architect and businessman. Jeff Landry received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (then known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana) in environmental and sustainable resources, with a minor in biology. He earned a JD degree from Loyola University New Orleans Law School.[3]
He served at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, during Operation Desert Storm. After eleven years of service in the Louisiana National Guard, he was discharged at the rank of sergeant. His military commendations include the Army Achievement and Army Commendation medals, National Defense and Overseas Training ribbons, and the Louisiana War Cross.[3][4]
Pre-political career
Landry is a former St. Martin Parish sheriff's deputy and a former police officer in Parks. He was formerly employed by the St. Martin Economic Development Authority. Just out of high school, he worked in the sugar cane fields. He is an attorney and small businessman in New Iberia.[3]
2007 State senate election
In the 2007 general election, he ran for Louisiana's 22nd Senate District when incumbent Republican State Senator Craig Romero was term-limited. In the general election, he faced Democrat Troy Hebert of Jeanerette in Iberia Parish. Hebert later declared himself an Independent. Hebert defeated Landry 51–49 percent.[5] At the time the district had a 3–1 Democratic majority.[3]
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
2010
See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana, 2010 § District 3
A lifelong Republican,[3] Landry jumped into the race after Democratic incumbent Charlie Melancon relinquished the seat to make an unsuccessful run for the Senate against David Vitter. Landry won his party's congressional nomination in a runoff election held on October 2, 2010. He defeated former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives Hunt Downer of Houma, 19,657 votes to 10,549 votes (65–35 percent). He won every parish in the district except for Downer's Terrebonne Parish.[6]
Landry participated in 2010 in Louisiana Tea Party movement rallies and carries the endorsement of that organization. The Third District voted 61–37 for U.S. Senator John S. McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election.[7] The Tea Party ran a "Down with Downer" campaign and referred to him as a Democrat (Downer had been a Democrat until 2001). Downer accused Landry of compensating a Tea Party organizer in return for the endorsement of the group. Downer ran advertising which accused Landry of misleading voters about Downer's position on abortion.[7]
Landry nearly won the GOP nomination outright in the August 28 closed primary, but he fell .9 of 1 percent short of the 50 percent plus one-vote threshold required for nomination in Louisiana. Therefore he and Downer entered the runoff contest. In the showdown, Landry won 79 percent in his own Iberia Parish, while Downer was held to 61 percent in Terrebonne. Landry polled more than 70 percent in the runoff in St. Mary, St. Martin, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, and St. James parishes.[6]
Landry soundly defeated his Democratic opponent, Ravi Kishan Sangisetty, an attorney from Houma, 108,957 votes (64%) to 61,909 (36%). He won all but two smaller parishes in the district, St. James and St. John the Baptist. He won Sangisetty's own Terrebonne Parish.[8] He became the second freshman Republican to represent the 3rd District since Reconstruction. Both candidates had pledged to reject congressional perks for themselves, including retirement and health care benefits. Landry said that Sangisetty's"choice of partyaffiliation and alliance with his Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, proves he supports the Washington Democrat's liberal agenda of increased taxes, government takeovers of private industry and dramatically liberal values."[9]
2012
See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana, 2012 § District 3
Louisiana lost a congressional district due to out-migration during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Landry's district was dismantled, and its territory split among three neighboring districts.[7] Landry was drawn into the same district as fellow Republican Charles Boustany of the neighboring 7th District. The new district retained Landry's district number—the 3rd—but geographically and demographically is more Boustany's district. Boustany was the choice of establishment Republicans, while the freshman Landry was a grassroots Tea Party candidate. Landry was endorsed by Citizens United. Landry led Boustany in third-quarter 2011 fundraising, $251,000 to $218,000. According to Federal Election Commission, Boustany led in cash-on-hand lead, $1.1 million–$402,000.[10] Landry carried the endorsement of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum political action committee.[11]
In the November 6 election, Landry trailed Boustany by 45,596 votes. Boustany led the five-candidate field with 139,123 votes (44.7 percent); Landry received 93,527 votes (30 percent). The Democrat Ron Richard procured 67,070 votes (21.5 percent), 7,908 votes (2.5 percent) and 3,765 votes (1.2 percent) were cast, respectively, for Republican Bryan Barrilleaux and the Libertarian Jim Stark. Because none of the five candidates received a majority, Boustany and Landry went into a runoff contest held on December 8.[12]
With 58,820 votes (60.9 percent), Boustany defeated Landry, who polled 37,764 ballots (39.1 percent). Landy prevailed in only three of the ten parishes in the revised district, all of which he then represented, including his home parish of St. Martin, his residence of Iberia, and St. Mary Parish.[13] His margin in those three parishes, however, was 30 percentage points over Boustany.[14]
Tenure
During his short tenure in Congress, Landry was known as a staunch advocate for the Oil and Natural Gas industry. He has heavily criticized President Obama saying,"Republicans continue to criticize the president for being anti-oil. He says that's not true, but his actions don’t match his rhetoric."[15]
Landry made national headlines by holding up a sign saying Drilling=jobs during Obama's national jobs plan speech in September 2011.[16][17] Regarding the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Landry opposed the liability cap on BP while supporting the Gulf Hurricane Protection Project.[18]
On June 4, 2012, Landry, in a radio program produced by the American Center for Law and Justice, said that the Obama administration was "granting special status or waivers to Muslims as they go through TSA screenings."[19] The Transportation Security Administration does not grant any religious exemptions to Muslims.
In July 2012, Landry made local headlines when he declared his opposition to the establishment of a minor field in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He wrote to the university's president, Dr. Joe Savoie, saying, "As our nation continues to struggle with high unemployment, higher education's primary mission should be ensuring current and future students have the tools necessary to compete in the 21st century economy." Landry also criticized the new minor as an unnecessary use of taxpayer funding.[20] Savoie refused to drop the course.
In a blog post, he said that the program "did not require budgetary allocations or divert resources from other areas." Savoie also explained, "Our desired posture is to be neither advocate nor adversary on controversial social issues of the day. Rather, our responsibility is to provide in an impartial manner an opportunity for investigation, analysis, and understanding."[21]
Committee assignments
- House Committee on Natural Resources
- House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure
- House Committee on Small Business
Caucus memberships
- Republican Study Committee
- Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus
- National Guard & Reserve Components Caucus
- Coast Guard Caucus
- General Aviation Caucus
- Tea Party Caucus
- Values Action Team
Personal life
Landry and his wife, the former Sharon LeBlanc, have one son, J. T. Landry (born 2004). Landry kept an apartment in Washington, D.C., while his wife and son resided in the district.[14]
Affiliations
Landry is a member of the Knights of Columbus, American Legion, American Bar Association, Iberia Parish Republican Executive Committee, Ducks Unlimited, and the National Rifle Association.[3]
From Washington to Baton Rouge
As he departed Washington, D.C., Landry said that his greatest disappointment is the failure of his party leadership to use effectively the House margin that it had received in the 2010 mid-term elections: "We missed some great opportunities and did not take advantage of the gift that the American people gave Republicans."[14]
Landry was critical of then Speaker John Boehner of Ohio for the failure to lower the debt and reduce government spending: "The responsibility for doing that was solely on the shoulders of the Speaker of the House. ... We went in under his guidance, under his words that we were not going to kick the can down the road anymore. I think we're finding out that we're running out of road to kick a can down."[14] Landry urged Boehner to reject any "fiscal cliff" proposals that would increase taxes.[14]
Landry also said that he will not in any way miss the wrangling over taxes and spending that has occurred in recent years at the end of each congressional session: "It's ridiculous. Every year that I've been here, there's a crisis at the end of the year. Basically, Congress and this administration have given the American people a crisis every Christmas now for the last three, four, five years." He said he has not ruled out anything in regard to a future role in politics: "I've learned that when I try to decide what doors are opened and closed without allowing the good Lord to do it—that becomes a train wreck. I believe that when one door closes, another door opens. You have to have a little grace and faith and find out where they are."[14] Landry's congressional legacy may center on the insertion of language which he managed to place into a bill that increases oil revenues to the Gulf Coast.[14]
On February 24, 2014, Landry announced his challenge to Caldwell, who was first elected in 2007 as a Democrat.[22] On July 28, 2015, the Louisiana Republican Party under chairman Roger F. Villere, Jr., formally endorsed Landry. Caldwell said that he would have "welcomed the endorsement, but we weren't counting on it. The state party has never endorsed me before ..."[23] Caldwell questioned Landry's qualifications for the position: "It's unnerving to me that the statewide Republican Party would even think about endorsing someone who has never tried a civil or criminal case in court. I'm not sure really what his qualifications are."[23]
On July 27 and 29, 2015, Landry hosted the statewide radio talk show The Moon Griffon Show, while host Moon Griffon was vacationing.
In the primary, Landry amassed a strong showing principally in southwestern Louisiana, including his own St. Martin and Iberia parishes as well as Assumption, Lafayette, St. Mary, and Calcasieu. Caldwell carried most parishes in the primary.[1]
The endorsed Democratic Party choice in the race, Geri Broussard Baloney, an African-American lawyer from Garyville, endorsed Landry in the runoff against Caldwell because she said the state must change the way business is conducted in the attorney general's office. "Geri and I both know the Attorney General’s Office under Buddy Caldwell has been about rewarding the desires of a few, over the needs of the many," said Landry upon receiving her endorsement.[24]
Soon after taking office as attorney general, Landry became embroiled in a public dispute with newly-elected Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards over a lawsuit regarding the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which both political figures have opposed. Edwards said that the state will drop the appeal of a federal lawsuit to block implementation of Common Core. Edwards declared the lawsuit moot because of new federal legislation, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and a state legislative compromise agreed upon in 2015 in the last year of the Jindal state administration. Landry first replied that he would review the case and could proceed with the appeal to the federal court. Edwards wrote to Landry: "As in any case the client, not the attorney, should ultimately make the decisions on the course of action, and I have decided this case will not proceed."[25] A few days later, Landry announced that after having reviewed the matter he would defer to Edwards and drop the suit.[26]
References
1.
- "Results for Election Date: 10/24/2015". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
- "Results for Election Date: 11/21/2015". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
- "Meet Jeff". landryforlouisina.com. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- "Congressional GOP race hits boiling point". Daily Comet.
- "Louisiana general election returns, November 17, 2007". electionresults.sos.louisiana.gov. Retrieved October 10, 2010.
- "Louisiana congressional election returns, October 2, 2010". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- "Alex Isenstadt, "Jeff Landry wins Louisiana House runoff", October 2, 2010". politico.com. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- "Louisiana general election returns, November 2, 2010". Louisiana Secretary of State. Retrieved November 4, 2010.
- "Jeremy Alford, "Lacking primary challenge, Sangisetty campaigns on ideas:{":(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". houmatoday.com. September 28, 2010. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
- *http://www.politico.com/blogs/davidcatanese/1111/Citizens_United_goes_all_in_for_Landry_.html?showall*
- "Candidates endorsed by Eagle Forum PAC, October 31, 2012". eagleforum.org. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
- "Louisiana election returns, November 6, 2012". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
- "Louisiana general election returns, December 8, 2012". staticresults.sos.la.gov. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
- "Jeff Landry plans returns to Louisiana, December 23, 2012". Shreveport Times. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- Landry criticizes President Obama as "anti-oil", thehayride.com; accessed March 1, 2014.
- Shahid, Aliyah (September 9, 2011). "President Obama's jobs speech: GOP Rep. Jeff Landry of Louisiana holds sign 'drilling equals jobs:{':(style="padding-right:0.2em"):}:". Daily News (New York).
- "Jeff Landry makes national headlines", landry.house.gov; September 9, 2011.
- Kamen, Al (December 27, 2011). "Jeffrey M. Landry (R-La.)". The Washington Post.
- *American Center for Law and Justice speech*
- "Congressman Landry asks UL Lafayette president to remove new LGBT minor". KATC-TV. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
- "Noisemaker: UL prez addresses LGBT studies minor". theind.com. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
- [1], wdsu.com; accessed March 1, 2014.
- "La. GOP endorses Landry; AG Caldwell dismisses snub". The Shreveport Times. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
- Mark Ballard (November 2, 2015). "Democrat endorses Republican challenger in attorney general’s race". The Baton Rouge Advocate. Retrieved November 5, 2015.
- Greg Hilburn (February 6, 2016). "Gov. Edwards to AG Landry: Butt out". The Monroe News-Star. Retrieved February 10, 2016.
- "Landry drops fight with Edwards over Common Core lawsuit". The Monroe News-Star. Retrieved February 12, 2016.
External links
- Congressman Jeff Landry official U.S. House website
- Jeff Landry for Congress
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Profile at Project Vote Smart
- Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
- Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
- Jeff Landry profile at FactCheck.org
| United States House of Representatives | United States House of Representatives | United States House of Representatives |
|---|---|---|
Preceded by | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district 2011–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Legal offices | Legal offices | Legal offices |
Preceded by |
2016–present | Incumbent |
|
Current elected statewide political officials of Louisiana |
|
Attorneys general of the United States |
- 1970 births
- American military personnel of the Gulf War
- American people of French descent
- American police officers
- American Roman Catholics
- Businesspeople from Louisiana
- Living people
- Louisiana Attorneys General
- Louisiana lawyers
- Louisiana Republicans
- Loyola University New Orleans alumni
- Members of the United States House of Representatives from Louisiana
- People from New Iberia, Louisiana
- People from St. Martinville, Louisiana
- Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
- Tea Party movement activists
- United States Army soldiers
- University of Louisiana at Lafayette alumni
==
RAGA bs bio
Jeff Landry is the Attorney General of Louisiana and is dedicated to protecting our freedoms, our families, and the rule of law.
One of four children raised in a middle class, St. Martinville family - Jeff Landry grew up through Louisiana’s oil bust - teaching him personally the effects that a bad economy can have on a family, particularly in a small town.
Jeff watched his school teacher mother and architect father work hard and sacrifice even more to ensure their children had the best education possible. Greatly respecting these sacrifices, Jeff joined the Louisiana National Guard while still in high school. Understanding that hard work and determination will prevail over any bad situation - he awoke early each day to work in Louisiana’s sugar cane fields, as his first job out of high school.
Jeff worked his way through college as a police officer and a sheriff’s deputy. He experienced the necessity of protecting our communities and ensuring the law is faithfully executed by our elected officials, the Attorney General’s office, and the courts. As a veteran, he faithfully upheld the oath to protect our civil liberties while keeping our communities safe.
Jeff served as an aide in the Louisiana State Senate, where he learned firsthand that many solutions to our problems can be found from listening to the voices of the people not just from listening to the debate of politicians.
As a young entrepreneur, Jeff and a friend started an oil and gas environmental service company. Recognized for his success in business, Jeff was selected to serve as the Executive Director of the St. Martin Parish Economic Development Authority. As director, he was instrumental in recruiting a Fortune 500 company to the Parish. By leveraging local resources, he helped to create thousands of jobs and to spur the ever-increasing, pro-job growth economic energy corridor on Louisiana’s Hwy 90.
Understanding the importance of a quality education, Jeff at a later age went back to school - Law School, starting part-time at Southern University then finishing his law degree at Loyola University.
Upon earning his juris doctorate, Jeff returned to Acadiana - where as a business attorney in Lafayette, he spent his days in the legal trenches helping employers create jobs. Utilizing his background in economic development, Jeff helped small and large businesses navigate the complexities of our legal environment. He has argued cases in front of judges in South Louisiana.
In 2010, frustrated and determined that the country was headed in the wrong direction under leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Jeff successfully ran for Congress. In 2012 - facing a redistricting map that only included a fraction of his constituents - Landry ran again to highlight the problems caused by out-of-control spending and a federal debt threatening our nation's future.
For his decision to put conservative principles ahead of politics and by standing up to both parties, Jeff Landry was called the “only honest man in Washington” by the respected national newspaper The Examiner.
As a result of Jeff’s work, the National Journal ranked him as the 4th most conservative member of the entire United States House of Representatives during his time in Congress. At the same time, Jeff cast more bipartisan votes than any other Congressman from Louisiana - proving you can work across the aisle to get things done without compromising your principles.
Jeff is a veteran of Desert Storm and left the military with the rank of Sergeant. He received the Army Achievement Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, a National Defense Ribbon, an Overseas Training Ribbon and the Louisiana War Cross from his eleven years of service as a member of the Louisiana National Guard.
Jeff loves Louisiana’s natural resources. As an avid hunter and fisherman, he cherishes the rich heritage that Louisiana provides for those that enjoy the outdoors.
Jeff is a member of the National Rifle Association, Ducks Unlimited, American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, National Environmental Professionals, World Billfish Foundation, Knights of Columbus, and the American Legion.
Jeff earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental and Sustainable Resources with a Minor in Biology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana - knowledge he uses to support Louisiana’s energy industry.
Jeff is the son of Al and Edna Landry and the son-in-law of Tommy and Mary Carol LeBlanc, owners of a successful national tool business based in New Iberia.
Jeff and his wife, Sharon, are raising their son, J.T., in South Louisiana.
==
Drill here, drill now; not cap-and-trade
Cap and Trade, commonly called emissions trading, will have a devastating impact on the economies that depend on oil & gas. The people of South Louisiana who work hard in the oilfields and our nation running will be severely impacted by this policy.
A more realistic approach to global energy independence should allow a greater flexibility to harvest those resources that we have here in US while we move toward other sources of energy at the same time. We need to drill here, drill now.
Source: 2010 House campaign website landryforlouisiana.com, "Issues" , Nov 2, 2010
Voted YES on opening Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling.
- Congressional Summary:
- Makes available for leasing, in the 2012-2017 five-year oil and gas leasing program, outer Continental Shelf areas that are estimated to contain more than 2.5 billion barrels of oil; or are estimated to contain more than 7.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
- Makes the production goal for the 2012-2017 five-year oil and gas leasing program an increase by 2027 in daily production of at least 3 million barrels of oil, and 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
Proponent's Argument for voting Yes:
[Rep. Young, R-AK]: The Americans suffering from $4 a gallon gas today must feel like they're experiencing a sense of deja vu. In 2008, when gasoline prices reached a record high of $4.11 per gallon, the public outcry forced Congress to act. That fall, Congress lifted the offshore drilling ban that had been in place for decades. Three years later, most Americans would likely be shocked to learn that no energy development has happened in these new areas.
Opponent's Argument for voting No:
[Rep. Markey, D-MA]. In the first 3 months of this year, Exxon-Mobil made $10 billion off of the American consumer; Shell made $8 billion; BP made $7 billion. So what are these companies asking for? These companies are now asking that we open up the beaches of California, Florida & New England to drill for oil. People who live near those beaches don't want oil coming in the way it did in the Gulf of Mexico. Right now, those oil companies are centered down in the Gulf of Mexico. People are concerned because those companies have blocked any new safety reforms that would protect against another catastrophic spill. We have to oppose this bill because, first of all, they already have 60 million acres of American land that they haven't drilled on yet, which has about 11 billion barrels of oil underneath it and an equivalent amount of natural gas. This bill is just a giveaway to Exxon-Mobil and Shell.
Reference: Reversing Pres. Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act; Bill H.1231 ; vote number 11-HV320 on May 12, 2011
Voted YES on barring EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.
- Congressional Summary:Amends the Clean Air Act to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from promulgating any regulation the emission of a greenhouse gas (GHG) to address climate change.
- Excludes GHGs from the definition of "air pollutant" for purposes of addressing climate change.
- Exempts from such prohibition existing regulations on fuel efficiency, research, or CO2 monitoring.
- Repeals and makes ineffective other rules and actions concerning GHGs.
Proponent's Argument for voting Yes:
[Rep. Upton, R-MI]: This legislation will remove the biggest regulatory threat to the American economy. This is a threat imposed not by Congress, but entirely by the Obama EPA. This administration wanted a cap-and-trade system to regulate greenhouse gases, but Congress said no. So beginning in early 2009, EPA began putting together a house of cards to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide. The agency began with automobiles, declaring that their emissions endangered public health. That single endangerment finding has since been used by EPA to launch an unparalleled onslaught. The result, two years later, is a series of regulations that will ultimately affect every citizen, every industry, really every aspect of our economy and way of life.
Opponent's Argument for voting No:
[Rep. Waxman, D-CA]: This bill is a direct assault on the Clean Air Act. Its premise is that climate change is a hoax and carbon pollution does not endanger health and welfare. But climate change is real. It is caused by pollution, and it is a serious threat to our health and welfare. We need to confront these realities. American families count on the EPA to keep our air and water clean. But this bill has politicians overruling the experts at EPA, and it exempts our biggest polluters from regulation. If this bill is enacted, the EPA's ability to control dangerous carbon pollution will be gutted.
Reference: Energy Tax Prevention Act; Bill H.910 ; vote number 11-HV249 on Apr 7, 2011
Signed the No Climate Tax Pledge by AFP.
Landry signed the No Climate Tax Pledge
No Climate Tax Pledge: I pledge to the taxpayers of my state, and to the American people, that I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.
Sponsoring organizations: Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEU); National Taxpayers Union (NTU); Institute for Liberty Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen-leaders committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and intrusiveness of government is the best way to promote individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens to support restraining state and federal government growth and returning government to its constitutional limits. AFP is more than 1.6 million activists strong, with activists in all 50 states. AFP has 31 state chapters and affiliates. More than 70,000 Americans in all 50 states have made a financial contribution to AFP or AFP Foundation. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org
Source: AFP website 10-AFP on Nov 2, 2010
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