Sarah Burris is a long-time veteran of political campaigns, having worked as a fundraiser and media director across the United States. She transitioned into reporting while working for Rock the Vote, Future Majority and Wiretap Magazine, covering the Millennial Generation's perspective during the presidential elections. As a political writer, Burris has had bylines at CNN, Salon.com, BNR, and AlterNet and serves as a senior digital editor for RawStory.com.
The Times explained that genomes show the link to those who came down with the virus back in February.
President Donald Trump has been celebrating his decision to shut down some travel from China, though not all travel. A whopping 430,000 people have traveled from China to the United States since the coronavirus crisis.
"There were 1,300 direct flights to 17 cities before President Trump’s travel restrictions. Since then, nearly 40,000 Americans and other authorized travelers have made the trip, some this past week and many with spotty screening," the Times reported.
Yet, the president didn't stop flights from Europe until March 11, over a month after his soft-shutdown of flights from China.
“People were just oblivious,” said Adriana Heguy, a member of the team at the N.Y.U. Grossman School of Medicine.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis slapped back at U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) over his threats of contempt of Congress, which she called "unreasonable" and "politically motivated," new reports show.
"Your primary complaint appears to be that we did not complete the production of your extensive document demands (including five categories of documents over a four-year period) in less than two months," Willis snaps. "That demand is unreasonable and uncustomary and would require this government office to divert resources from our primary purpose of prosecuting crime."
Willis is responding directly to a March 14 letter from the House Judiciary Committee, which Jordan chairs, threatens an invocation of contempt of Congress if she does not hand over the demanded documents by March 28.
Jordan subpoenaed Willis in February, citing a whistleblower's allegations that Willis' office misused federal funds. The demand is not related to the Trump investigation, but Jordan previously requested documents related to that case.
Willis meanwhile has denied the claims of the whistleblower, whom she describes as a "holdover employee" fired for cause, CNN reports.
“The courts that have ruled found no merit in these claims," Willis told CNN in a statement. "We expect the same result in any pending litigation.”
On Monday, Willis told Jordan she would not subvert his investigation but did not intend to be sidetracked from her office's primary purpose.
"Let me be clear, while we are abiding by your subpoena in good faith and with due diligence, we will not divert resources that undermine our duty to the people of Fulton County to prosecute felonies committed in this jurisdiction," Willis said.
"We will not shut down this office's efforts to prosecute crime - including gang activity, acts of violence and public corruption - to meet unreasonable deadlines in your politically motivated 'investigation' of this office."
Former Justice department official Jeffrey Clark's lawyer argued that his client should not be forced to testify at a disciplinary hearing because he would be shamed on MSNBC.
Attorney Harry MacDougald made the argument at a bar hearing Wednesday that could see Clark disbarred for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
"I understand, Chair, that there may be an elegant solution that takes into account the reasoning of the chair and Mr. Fox's concerns to make a record while avoiding us all being on MSNBC for no good reason," MacDougald said.
The attorney said he wanted D.C. Bar officials to provide their questions ahead of time.
"And so that would avoid both the blanket assertion problem, the adverse inference problem, the appeal problem, and the MSNBC problem," MacDougald insisted.
However, D.C. Bar Chair Merril Hirsh said he was inclined to have Clark testify, and D.C. Bar attorney Hamilton Fox agreed.
"I mean, the short answer, Mr. Chair, is that I'm not prepared to do it the other way. This has just sprung on me," Fox remarked. "But I'm not sure that that would satisfy the results."
In the end, Clark took the stand and invoked a multitude of privileges.
"Fifth Amendment privilege, executive privilege, deliberative process privilege, law enforcement privilege, attorney-client privilege," he repeatedly said.
Clark became a notable figure due to his involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. After President Donald Trump lost the election to Joe Biden, Clark proposed leveraging the Justice department to challenge the election outcome.
Despite a lack of evidence to support claims of widespread electoral fraud, Clark suggested sending a letter to Georgia state officials, falsely stating that the Justice department had identified significant concerns that could impact the election results.
This move was in direct opposition to the conclusions of federal and state authorities, who confirmed the election's integrity. Clark's actions led to a crisis within the Justice department, with top officials threatening to resign en masse if he were appointed as the acting Attorney General. This showcased a stark division within the Department over the response to the election results.
“What Mr. Clark was attempting to do was essentially a coup at the Justice Department,” Fox said Wednesday.
Watch the video below from the D.C. Bar or click here.
But for Donald Trump Jr., Trump Tower will always be his “boyhood home.”
Trump Jr. so described the 58-story skyscraper on Manhattan’s East 57th Street and Fifth Avenue — the thoroughfare on which his father former President Donald Trump boasted he could shoot someone and get away with it — in a campaign cash-grab sent out Wednesday.
“The radical anti-Trump Attorney General in New York wanted to seize my boyhood home,” Trump Jr. declared. “She wanted to get her hands on Trump Tower, and take control of one of the most iconic buildings in American history.”
Trump Jr. then asked for $5 to “Save America” from President Joe Biden.
The former president’s namesake of course is referring to the New York civil court case brought by Attorney General Letitia James, in which Trump and his sons were found liable for inflating the value of their assets to defraud lenders and investors.
During the months-long trial — which resulted in the half-billion dollar ruling from Justice Arthur Engoron — experts testified there was “no question” the price of the triplex at the top of the Manhattan tower was inflated.
Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg also testified the penthouse was listed at 30,000 square feet, though he knew it was really 10,000, but “he didn’t notice it because there were other items he was more worried about.”
Trump Tower is also where adult film star Stormy Daniels has said she was invited in 2006 to join the then-real estate mogul after the pair had sex.
This would not be Trump’s lone alleged affair the same year his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron, as was reported last year by the New York Times.
Former Playboy model Karen McDougal said she and the former president had an affair that saw her spending time in his Trump Tower and a golf tournament where he met Daniels, the report notes.
These alleged sexual encounters with Trump are now at the center of the criminal hush money case Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to bring to court next month.
A Trump Tower doorman is also named in Bragg’s criminal complaint against Trump — who has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records — over claims that books were cooked ahead of the 2016 presidential election to hide salacious stories. Bragg contends Dino Sajudin was paid $30,000 to keep mum about a since-discredited claim that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock.
These details may be why Trump Jr.’s heartfelt plea was subjected to some light ridicule on social media Wednesday.
“Look how they seized my boy(hood home),” quipped journalism professor A.J. Bauer, along with an image of the fictional “The Godfather” mobster Vito Corleone.
“That’s so ... weird,” replied @BitsofWords. “Is Trump joining the Backstreet Boys?…boyhood. I don’t like this word and how it’s used here, not one bit.”
Bauer shot back, “To say nothing of ‘She wanted to get her hands on Trump Tower.’”