Labour calls for suspension of UK training and funding of Nigerian police


Emmanuel Akinwotu West Africa correspondent
Tue, 24 November 2020

Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Labour has called for the UK government to consider suspending the funding and training of security forces in Nigeria, where protests against a notorious police unit were brutally suppressed last month.

Kate Osamor, the MP for Edmonton, said she had serious concerns about a lack of oversight of the UK’s role, especially in relation to the special anti-robbery squad (Sars), which was disbanded in October after allegations of killings and abuse.

The same month, protests against police abuses were brutally suppressed by the Nigerian police and military, which have been authorised to purchase at least £127m-worth of UK registered arms since 2008.

Dozens of protesters were killed, including at least 12 people gunned down by soldiers in Lagos, according to Amnesty International. Despite widespread outrage, the army and Nigerian authorities have denied responsibility, dismissing reports of fatalities and claiming footage showing soldiers at the scene was manipulated. Authorities have also set about clamping down on prominent protesters, critics and media which broadcasted abuses.

Labour is also calling for “independent investigations into the allegations against Sars units, as well as military, security and policing forces responsible for attacks on protesters, that could lead to targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions against responsible individuals”, Osamor tweeted on Tuesday.

At a debate in parliament on Monday night, MPs pressed the government to adopt “individualised sanctions such as travel bans and asset freezes” against individuals accused of abuses.

After initially stating that Sars officers had not received UK support, the UK minister for Africa, James Duddridge, said the unit had received “strategic assistance” and training alongside personnel from the wider Nigerian police force as part of a programme that ran from 2016 to March this year.

Osamor, who heads the Commons all-party parliamentary group on Nigeria, said: “The government now needs to come clean and explain how and why that funding took place in the first place. They owe it to the many who have been killed by Sars units to explain who made the decision to fund those units and why.”

There were “serious concerns about the level of oversight attached to government funding in this area”, she added. “Amnesty International and several other international human rights organisations have been very clear that Sars have been directly involved in extrajudicial killings, torture and corruption. The UK government either knew that and decided it would fund Sars anyway or didn’t know where UK funding was going.”

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said: “It is important that the police in Nigeria respect human rights. We have been working with Nigeria to support reforms to ensure this happens”.

The spokesperson did not confirm whether the government had knowingly provided training to Sars officers and whether assistance or funding to the army or police had ever been reviewed on account of human rights abuses.

A judicial panel has been set up to in Lagos to investigate action by security forces during the October protests, but it has been met with cynicism in Nigeria, where there is a history of government inquiries leading to no prosecutions. Statements by Nigerian ministers defending security personnel accused of abuses and discrediting media reports of recent killings have appeared to undermine ongoing inquiries.

Chi Onwurah, who heads the APPG for Africa, said the UK should press authorities to fully investigate recent abuses. “We need clear, honest, verifiable messages from the Nigerian authorities and a credible investigation to build public trust.

“The enduring influence and consequences of the colonial period on Nigerian institutions, including the police, does give the UK a responsibility to do all we can to support the Nigerian people in reforming those institutions,” she said.

A freedom of information request by the Campaign Against Arms Trade has revealed that the College of Policing, a professional body for police in England and Wales, trained Nigerian security forces last year.

Related: Black lives matter everywhere. That's why the world should support the #EndSARS movement | Chibundu Onuzo

Since 2015, £43m of weapons have been licensed to Nigeria. UK arms export licensing criteria requires the government to review a licence “if there is a clear risk that the items might be used for internal repression”.

“The government claims that it has a rigorous and robust arms export policy, but, in reality, it routinely arms human rights abusing regimes and police forces across the world,” Andrew Smith from CAAT said. “The UK has a long history of looking the other way whole abuses are being inflicted.”

Thousands of mostly young people took the streets of Nigeria last month in the largest protest movement in years, sparked by footage of killings by Sars officers. The government dissolved the unit on 11 October but the protests continued.

Efforts had been made to reform the Nigerian police force, which was founded by UK governing authorities during colonial rule. Yet according to Isa Sanusi, a spokesperson for Amnesty International Nigeria, its violent origins are still evident in its “emphasis on protecting those in authority and use of force in all aspects of law enforcement”.

UK
Universities Told To Teach White Privilege And 'Allyship' In Anti-Racist Training

Léonie Chao-Fong
·News reporter, HuffPost UK
Tue, 24 November 2020

University staff and students should be given anti-racist training to improve their awareness of “white privilege, fragility and allyship”, universities have been told.

Training should be given in understanding racial “microaggressions” to tackle racial harassment on university campuses, in guidance published by Universities UK (UUK).

The group, which represents vice-chancellors, has called on senior leaders and governing bodies to acknowledge that racism exists in universities and higher education.

Professor David Richardson, chair of the advisory group, said: “It is my firm belief that UK universities perpetuate institutional racism.

“This is uncomfortable to acknowledge but all university leaders should do so as a first step towards meaningful change.

“Too often Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and staff have been failed. While they may have heard positive words, they have seen little action. That needs to change now.”

Training in white privilege, white fragility, white allyship and microaggression should be provided to both staff and students at universities, according to the guidance.

Universities should also introduce reporting systems for incidents of racial harassment, sanctions for breaches in online behaviour and share data on reported incidents with senior staff and governing bodies, it adds.

The report said the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement had “shone a stark light” on racial inequalities within higher education.

It added: “The sector cannot reach its full potential unless it benefits from the talents of the whole population, and individuals from all ethnic backgrounds can benefit equally from the opportunities it provides.

“These developments reinforce the need to act now.”

Professor Nishan Canagarajah, vice-chancellor of the University of Leicester and member of the advisory group, said: “It is not acceptable that students at the same institution can have a completely different experience at university just because of their background.

“This report is timely and relevant – students from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are clearly being let down, and it is a wake-up call to higher education to show we cannot ignore this issue any longer.”

The recommendations by UUK follow a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last year that found an “alarmingly high rate” of racial harassment on university campuses.

The report found that nearly a quarter of ethnic minority students had experienced racial harassment at university.

Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive at the EHRC, said: “It is vital that universities make absolutely clear that any form of racial harassment is wholly unacceptable.”

“We welcome this guidance from Universities UK and are pleased to see that they have taken forward a number of our recommendations.

“This leadership could go a long way to help universities become inclusive environments where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential through education.”

YouTube bans far right-wing OAN channel for a week

Tue, 24 November 2020

According to YouTube policy, OAN has two more strikes before it is kicked off the social media network

YouTube stopped One America News Network, one of US President Donald Trump's favored channels, from posting new videos for a week for falsely claiming Covid-19 has a cure, the social media network said Tuesday.

The popular Google-owned site also temporarily stopped OAN from making money from content already online, spokesperson Ivy Choi said.

"After careful review, we removed a video from OANN and issued a strike on the channel for violating our COVID-19 misinformation policy, which prohibits content claiming there's a guaranteed cure," Choi said in a statement.

This is the first time that YouTube has clamped down on OAN, a small, far-right and fiercely partisan outlet that has refused to recognize Joe Biden's victory in the November 3 presidential election and has spread lies about electoral fraud.

According to YouTube policy, OAN has two more strikes before being kicked off the social media platform.

OAN will also have to prove that it has solved the problems to YouTube's satisfaction if it wants to be able to monetize its videos again.

"Since early in this pandemic, we've worked to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation associated with COVID-19 on YouTube," Choi said.

Since February YouTube has pulled 200,000 dangerous or misleading videos on the subject, the company said.

YouTube, which has seen an increase in viewership as people remain at home due to the pandemic, has been promoting authoritative information channels -- of which OAN is not one.

Angry with alleged "censorship" of conservatives on popular social media sites and even upset with Fox News, tens of thousands of Trump supporters are switching to smaller far-right outlets such as OAN and Newsmax.

Trump has encouraged viewership. "Try watching @OANN . Really GREAT!" he tweeted on November 16.

Several Democratic senators led by Bob Menendez wrote to YouTube on Tuesday asking them to remove videos that spread election disinformation

juj/ch/st

William Barr’s Lame-Duck Execution Spree Is Unprecedented

By AUSTIN SARATNOV 24, 2020

Executioner. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would continue to carry out executions in the days and weeks leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, with the last one now scheduled just five days before Biden takes office on Jan. 20, 2021. This bloodthirsty decision is another and particularly grotesque way in which President Donald Trump and his Justice Department are defying the norms and conventions for modern presidential transitions.

The Death Penalty Information Center reports that the last time an outgoing administration did anything remotely similar was more than a century ago, in 1889. At that time Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to be elected president after the Civil War and the only president ever to have served as an executioner (when he was the sheriff in Erie County, New York), permitted three executions to proceed in the period between his electoral defeat and Benjamin Harrison’s inauguration in March 1889.

Since then, every outgoing administration has halted the federal death penalty during the transition period. Trump and Attorney General William Barr are not merely failing to engage in a merciful pause: They are rushing to execute persons who might be spared by a new administration.

Indeed, the Biden administration intends to try to abolish the federal death penalty and provide incentives for states to abolish it as well. A spokesperson reaffirmed this intention on Saturday: “The president-elect opposes the death penalty, now and in the future, and as president will work to end its use.”

The changing nature of America’s death penalty politics is also reflected in the fact that the number of executions carried out at the state level has declined to the lowest number since 1983. This year, even the most pro–death penalty states have to some degree recognized the significant health risks associated with carrying out executions during the pandemic and stopped them. All told, seven men have been executed in five different states (Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas), with South Carolina scheduled to carry out one more before the end of the year.

At the same time, the Trump administration has moved full speed ahead with the federal death penalty. Trump and Barr have ignored the threat of COVID-19 and gone ahead with executions, forcing lawyers, religious advisers, and victims’ family members to risk their health if they choose to be present.

They carried out seven executions in a three-month period last summer. If all goes according to the administration’s newly announced plan, it will make history in yet another way.

It will be the first time that the federal government ends up carrying out more executions (10) in a single year than are carried out in all the states which retain capital punishment (8). Those 10 executions would be the most carried out by the federal government since 1896, when Cleveland’s second administration put 16 people to death.

Moreover, like many of the Trump administration’s policies and actions, the federal death penalty’s revival is inflected with racial discrimination and arbitrariness.

A Department of Justice study conducted in 2000 found significant racial disparities in the department’s own handling of capital charging decisions. It reported that from 1995 to 2000, minority defendants were involved in 80 percent of the cases federal prosecutors referred to the department for consideration as capital prosecutions. In 72 percent of the cases approved for prosecution, the defendants were persons of color.

The study also found that white defendants were twice as likely as members of racial minorities to be offered a plea deal with life in prison as the punishment.

Citing his concern about patterns of racial discrimination and other problems in the death penalty system, President Barack Obama ordered another review of the federal death penalty, but it was not completed before he left office.

Today racial minorities constitute 52 percent of the inmates awaiting execution at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, a figure only slightly lower than the 55 percent found on state death rows.

But race is not the only source of arbitrariness in the federal system. Geography plays a key role as well in both charging and sentencing decisions. From 1995 to 2000, 42 percent of the 183 federal death cases submitted to the attorney general for review came from just five of the 94 federal districts. And federal death verdicts, like those in the states, are concentrated in states that were claimed by the former Confederacy. Three of them—Texas, Missouri, and Virginia—account for 40 percent of the total.

These facts, as well as the unprecedented nature of the Trump administration’s current execution plans, led three Democratic U.S. senators and one member of Congress to ask Barr on Nov. 13 to suspend federal executions “so the incoming Biden-Harris administration can evaluate and determine the future use of the death penalty by the federal government.”

Four days later, the Congressional Black Caucus joined this push to halt federal executions. The caucus noted what it called the “senseless and unnecessary risk to innocent persons charged with carrying out federal executions” during the current pandemic that “will make any scheduled execution a tinderbox for further outbreaks and exacerbate concerns over the possibility of miscarriage of justice.”

They got their response last week when Barr announced his intention to move ahead with already-scheduled executions and to carry out still more in the administration’s waning days.

With these plans, the administration not only thumbs its nose at precedent, it also reveals yet again its true character. New York Times columnist Linda Greenhouse rightly summed it up when she called the Trump years “mean.​” As she observed, “There’s a meanness to the ​man and to the policies issued from the sycophantic bubble that passes for his administration.” There could be nothing meaner than Barr’s petty final-days decision to carry out these executions.

Malaysia orders full probe on Top Glove's work and housing condition after Covid-19 outbreak

On Nov 23, Malaysia's National Security Council decided that Top Glove must close its factories in stages.PHOTO: EPA-EFE

PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia's Labour Department has been told to give their full focus on probing working and housing conditions at Top Glove factories after an outbreak of Covid-19 among its factory workers led to the country's largest active Covid-19 cluster.

The cluster around the company's factory and dormitory area in the town of Meru alone contributed 1,511 out of the 1,623 cases recorded in the Selangor state on Tuesday (Nov 24), according to the health ministry. That's 93.1 per cent of the state's total.

Since Nov 7, the cluster recorded a total of 4,036 positive cases.


Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri M Saravanan said the National Security Council (NSC) had decided to go "full force" to stop the spread of the virus in the cluster that had originated from the world's largest disposable glove manufacturer after more than two thousand employees tested positive for Covid-19.

"We are not merely sending a team to check on the conditions at Top Glove. It will be the entire Labour Department.

"We will complete everything within a week and will put everything in black and white.

"This is a matter of life and death of vulnerable workers, which must be contained now itself - no two ways about it, " said Saravanan.

Saravanan, who had visited Top Glove's plant several days prior with the Labour Department officers, said the workers' housing conditions were deplorable.

"I have visited the hostels and the conditions are terrible. My officers were ordered to go in full force as this is a big, vulnerable migrant workers colony. If we don't act, this cluster might get out of control.

"The Labour Department will ensure the employers are held responsible for worker conditions and dire action will be taken according to the law, " said Saravanan.

In photos and video clips provided by the minister, the hostels look overcrowded and unsanitary.

In July, two Top Glove subsidiaries were slapped with an import ban by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) over allegations of forced labour.

In reply, on Oct 24, Top Glove said it has resolved issues highlighted by the US Department of Labour (DOL).

In an issued statement, Top Glove said it was working closely with the authorities to fight the pandemic.

"Top Glove wishes to assure our customers we are working closely with the authorities through this period towards ensuring the continued safety and well-being of our employees and local community, which remains our utmost priority, " the statement read.

It added that the company would continue adhering to the Covid-19 preventive rules on a stringent basis.

"Disinfection exercises at our premises and accommodation are also conducted regularly, with all the necessary precautionary measures strictly in place, " the statement further read.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Malaysia logs second-day of record coronavirus daily cases due to Selangor's Top Glove cluster

World's biggest glove maker shuts 28 Malaysia factories after Covid-19 infections

Top Glove currently employs over 21,000 workers nationwide.

It has 28 factories in the district of Klang, the epicentre of the Teratai cluster.

On Nov 23, the NSC decided Top Glove must close its factories in stages after Covid-19 was found breaching the worker's circle.

The cluster first emerged on Nov 7 and now has 4,036 cases. From the total, over 80 per cent are foreign workers.

The once busy and overcrowded Meru town, where several Top Glove factory units are located is now like a ghost town.

Local residents in the area say they are scared to leave their homes as the area has recorded over 1,000 Covid-19 positive cases.

Single mother of two, S. Ganeswary who earns a living cleaning houses said she is scared of stepping out of her house because of the high number of Covid-19 positive cases in the area.

"I take every precaution possible like wearing a mask and washing my hands regularly, but there is still the nagging feeling that I too can get infected, '' she added.

R. Letchumi, 69, who is a cleaner in an iron products company located next to one of the Top Glove factories, says that she prays very hard before going to work daily.

"I pray that Covid-19 will spare me and my husband who is ill at home currently, '' she added.

The Top Glove factory next to her work place is one of the premises closed after some of its workers tested positive for Covid-19.

Izzat Nazni, 20, who also lives in Taman Seri Meru said the Top Glove situation has made residents in the area wary of foreigners.

"It is not a nice thing but people have become frightened of foreign workers in the area," said Izzat, who helps his mother in her kueh supply business.

He added there are many foreign workers who work in other nearby factories who rent houses in the area he stays in.

According to Izzat, whenever foreign workers pass by on their way to work, the neighbourhood's local residents quickly move away and look at them with suspicion.

"I suppose it's because everyone is frightened, '' he added.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Malaysia set for 'slow' U-shaped recovery as coronavirus risks mount

Malaysia govt may ask King to declare emergency to delay by-elections in Perak and Sabah

Meanwhile, Meru assemblyman Mohd Fakhrulrazi Mohd Mokhtar urged authorities to stop operations at all Top Glove plants in the area.

Currently, only 16 premises stopped while 12 more were operating at a reduced capacity.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said employers must ensure there is ample space for workers to practice social distancing at the workplace as well as in the hostels.

"For example, there should not be any bed sharing. Bathrooms must also not be shared by too many workers and kept very clean at all times, '' said Santiago.

He urged the Human Resources Ministry to come down hard on employers who do not meet Covid-19 protective measure standards imposed on hostels and dorms.

"Enough time has been given and the government must ensure the formulated accommodation guidelines are implemented with immediate effect, '' he added.

Kapar MP Datuk Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid said factory operators must also inform authorities immediately if an employees test positive.

"They must not try to fix the problem on their own," added Abdullah Sani.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Monday that all 28 Top Glove plants in the Kapar area will be closed in stages for mass testing and the quarantine of its workers.

The Glorious Rise And Fall Of Sidney Powell’s Trump Campaign Gig

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 19: Attorney Sidney Powell speaks to the press about various lawsuits related to the 2020 election, inside the Republican National Committee headquarters on November 19, 2020 in Washington

By Matt Shuham TPM
November 23, 2020 

Sidney Powell lasted barely one Scaramucci as a member of President Donald Trump’s legal team, but boy was it a wild ride.

The right-wing lawyer best known for defending former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn went out in a blaze of glory, asserting in a monologue at the Republican Party’s headquarters Thursday that a global cabal of communists had conspired with Democrats to steal President Donald Trump’s second term from him.

"We will not be intimidated…We are going to clean this mess up now. President Trump won by a landslide. We are going to prove it. And we are going to reclaim the United States of America for the people who vote for freedom."—Sidney Powell pic.twitter.com/8KCEOGuL7w
— GOP (@GOP) November 19, 2020

Within three days, she was tossed overboard by the two attorneys who’d taken the stage with her.

“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own,” the Trump campaign said in a statement Sunday. It was signed by Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, the two Trump lawyers who had yelled, harangued and astral-projected alongside Powell in that crowded RNC conference room.

Powell has put on a brave face, saying in a statement later Sunday that she never billed the campaign for her services, and that she was still planning on filing an “epic” lawsuit to prevent a Joe Biden presidency.

She signed the statement with a hashtag, “#KrakenOnSteroids,” that beckoned to happier times: On Thursday, after she had finished the legal equivalent of a flat-Earther convention alongside Powell and Giuliani, Ellis wrote that her fellow campaign lawyers had, in fact, “RELEASED THE KRAKEN.”
.@RudyGiuliani and @SidneyPowell1 RELEASED THE KRAKEN!
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) November 19, 2020

From The Fever Swamps To Primetime

Powell represented the clearest, most direct connection between the Trump campaign and the vast network of conspiracy theorists whose claims about voter fraud and rigged elections have fueled Trump’s grievances for months.

For example, over the weekend she boosted a Twitter thread from Dave Hayes, a QAnon conspiracy theorist who goes by “The Praying Medic” because he claims to communicate with God.

According to the Praying Medic thread she retweeted, Powell has received “an avalanche of first-hand, eyewitness testimony from hundreds of patriots” which, eventually, will be used make the indisputable case that Donald Trump really won the election. (“Somehow, patriots neutralized election rigging” in 2016, The Praying Medic clarified.)

On-stage with Giuliani and Ellis, Powell walked through another QAnon community favorite — the assertion that voting machine vendor Dominion Voting Systems rigged the election for Biden. Powell asserted the company’s software was “created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez to make sure he never lost an election.”

As evidence, she cited to a single affidavit from someone who claimed they observed votes being manipulated in Venezuela using a software called Smartmatic. The affiant wrote that Dominion relies upon software “that is a descendant of the Smartmatic Electoral Management System,” and that the 2020 U.S. elections were “eerily reminiscent” of Venezuela’s 2013 presidential election.

A spokesperson for Dominion characterized Powell’s claims as “not physically possible.” And while the affiant Powell cited is still anonymous, the case in which they were involved — an effort to prevent Georgia from certifying the election results — was rejected by a federal judge a few hours after the RNC press conference.

“We see on social media people talking about ‘blockbusters’ and ‘krakens,'” Gabriel Sterling, Voting Systems Manager for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, told reporters Monday. “I want to remind everybody that krakens are myths.”

‘Hopefully This Week…’

By the time Powell took the stage Thursday, she’d already cycled through one round of internet conspiracy theories.

In a Nov. 6 interview with Lou Dobbs — two days before the network’s first reference to Powell as a Trump campaign lawyer — she referred to a theory about “Hammer & Scorecard,” a purported supercomputer scheme that would have been able to flip massive amounts of ballots.

“That would’ve amounted to a massive change in the vote that would’ve gone across the country and explains a lot of what we’re seeing,” she said.

The theory fell out of fashion a few days later, when The Daily Beast noted that the man pushing it, Dennis Montgomery, had a decades-long history of securing huge paydays based on nonsense theories — such as when Montgomery convinced the U.S. government that he was able to decode messages to Al Qaeda hidden in al Jazeera broadcasts.

And Powell’s more recent assertions of widespread fraud — for example, that there are “thousands” of co-conspirators across several states, as she claimed on Saturday — go well beyond what’s been claimed in various courts.

So far, neither the Trump campaign nor Powell have tried to convince a judge under penalty of perjury that seedy voting software, communists, bribery or widespread, systematic fraud are to blame for Trump’s loss. And neither responded to TPM’s questions Monday.

But victory is just around the corner!

On Saturday, Powell told Newsmax that “hopefully this week, we will get it ready to file.”

That sounds suspiciously like what she’s already been saying for weeks.

On Nov. 10, an archived version of her website shows, Powell asked patriots for donations for urgent election litigation: “Over $500,000 must be raised in the next twenty-four hours for these suits to be filed. Millions more will need to be raised to ensure victory.”

Two weeks later, though her name still isn’t attached to any litigation, Powell kept asking for money. “The future of our Republic,” she assures donors, “is at stake.”

Tierney Sneed contributed reporting.

Controversial Academic Named To Census Panel In Waning Days Of Trump

This April 5, 2020, photo shows a 2020 census letter mailed to a U.S. resident in Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau needs more time to wrap up the once-a-decade count because of the coronavirus, opening the possibility...

By Tierney Sneed
November 23, 2020 5:02 p.m.

Thomas Brunell — a controversial redistricting researcher who was floated and then withdrawn from consideration to lead the Census Bureau earlier in the Trump administration — has been named to an advisory committee for the census, according to a person familiar with the appointment.

The installation of Brunell — who published a book in 2008 called “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America” — ratifies concerns that the census is being politicized even in the waning days of the Trump administration.

The committee Brunell is being named to, the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, meets once or twice a year usually and gives recommendations for how the Census Bureau should carry out its key functions. Brunell’s term on the committee will last until November 2023.

When word got out Brunell was being considered in 2017 to lead the Bureau, his apparent lack of relevant statistical or government experience drew criticisms from census stakeholders, including the civil rights community.

Brunell’s expertise has been used in Republicans redistricting efforts, according to 2017 Politico story about his name being floated for the director job. He’s also been critical of measures like sampling that the Census Bureau has looked into to improve its enumeration of hard-to-count communities.

Brunell is currently a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The Bureau confirmed Brunell’s appointment in a statement Wednesday that called him a “well-recognized scholar in electoral studies, legislative redistricting, and the usage of census data.”

Additionally, the statement announced that that William Clark, an associate dean at the Pennsylvania State University Graduate School, had been named to the panel.


Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) is a D.C.-based investigative reporter. She focuses on voting rights and previously covered health care for TPM.

4 New Takeaways From The Falwell Imbroglio

TPM Illustration/Getty Images/Liz Gorman
By Josh Kovensky
|
November 18, 2020 

TPM published an exclusive account on Tuesday of Jerry and Becki Falwells’ relationship with Giancarlo Granda, their real estate business partner who says he carried on sexual liaisons with the couple over an eight-year period.

Earlier revelations about Granda’s involvement with the Falwells — in which he said he would have sex with Becki as Jerry watched — contributed to Jerry Falwell Jr.’s downfall from his position as president of Liberty University.

Jerry denies his involvement in the liaisons in no uncertain terms, and accuses Granda of trying to extort him. TPM attempted to secure an on-the-record interview with the Falwells about the relationship, but the Falwells broke off contact after Jerry sued Liberty.

It’s a long and twisted story that brought Granda and the Falwells from a 2012 encounter at a Miami pool to their present recriminations. Here are key takeaways.

1. The Sex Continued After They Were Found Out.

Granda claims that he had sex with Becki in August 2018.

But by that point, the fact — and weirdness — of Granda’s relationship with the Falwells was already public knowledge. Buzzfeed’s Aram Roston had broken the initial story in May of that year, revealing that the Falwells had “offered” Granda a share in a Miami Beach property worth millions within a year of meeting the then-21-year-old part-time student.

Back in 2018, the rest was left to speculation. But as Granda himself now says, the speed with which he became a business partner with the Falwells was a giveaway.

“That’s why the cover story never worked,” Granda told TPM. “C’mon.”

But even after Roston and other reporters had started to publish stories on the relationship, Granda engaged in another liaison with them while visiting the Falwells’ Virginia estate in August 2018. He says that they were all “addicted” to the risky behavior.

Jerry disputes this in a lawsuit filed against Liberty University last month, saying that the sexual relationship was only between Becki and Granda and that it only lasted from 2012 to 2014.

2. Granda Says Michael Cohen Was Among The First To Notice Something Was Going On.

At least one person, very early on, noticed that something was funny about Granda’s relationship with the first family of evangelical Christianity, Granda says.

It was Michael Cohen, who Granda encountered while on a September 2012 visit to Liberty University.

While on a tour of campus with Cohen and Donald Trump, Granda remembers Cohen gesturing towards Granda, and asking a Falwell associate, “Who’s that guy?”

“He’s a business partner of the Falwells,” the associate replied.

“Huh,” Cohen nodded.

Cohen would go on to play a key role as a fixer for Jerry Jr., helping him get rid of risque photos of Becki in 2015. Months later, Falwell endorsed Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, granting the future president a base of support in the GOP that few expected him to have.

Granda remembers little of Cohen’s involvement in the episode, though he does recall Becki telling him that Cohen was going to “take care” of opponents in a lawsuit over their investment.

3. The Falwells Have A Taste For The Finer Things In Life.

If you find yourself in the Falwells’ inner circle, Granda claims, you’ll be introduced to a world of fine liquor, expensive travel, and lavish celebrations.

Becki’s preferred drink is vodka and Baileys, per Granda, while Jerry prefers tequila or rum — either Casamigos, the George Clooney tequila brand, or Bacardi Oakheart, no longer in production.

Needless to say, the Falwells’ indulged their lavish ways while Jerry was running a university which banned dancing, alcohol consumption, and private mingling between the sexes.

But, Granda says, there was always an exception for the Falwells, as they traveled to Miami or Greece, or as they threw booze-filled, expensive wedding celebrations for their children.

4. Granda Says Jerry Was More Deeply Involved.

Jerry Jr., son of the preacher man himself, was more involved in the sexual liaisons than has previously been reported, Granda says.

Namely, according to Granda, Jerry would have sex with his wife after Granda and Becki finished having sex.

Granda also showed TPM material from a January 2019 Facetime video in which Becki Falwell is nude and Jerry follows, watching as Becki carries on a conversation with Granda.

Jerry strenuously denies this, and has done so in a lawsuit filed against Liberty University last month. There, he accused Granda of lying about Jerry’s role as part of an extortionate threat, and says that while Becki had an affair with Granda that went from 2012 to 2014, Jerry was never involved.

Read the article here. LONG READ

Gun Advocate, Author Of ‘More Guns, Less Crime,’ Gets Justice Department Job

John Lott Jr. author of "More Guns, Less Crime" speaks to the crowd during a gun rights rally at the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford Conn. on Saturday April 20, 2013. 

The Connecticut Citizens Defense League 

By Matt Shuham November 24, 2020 

A conservative gun advocate and vocal Trump supporter who’s spread falsehoods about the 2020 election has landed a job at the Justice Department, Politico first reported Tuesday.

John Lott, author of the book “More Guns, Less Crime,” has spent years advocating for widespread gun ownership and against firearms restrictions. He’s now a senior adviser for research and statistics at the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, a grant-writing office that doles out billions of dollars per year.

It’s not clear whether the position is a political appointment, which President-elect Joe Biden could replace, or a civil service position with protections beyond January.

Lott is also a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, Politico noted. He falsely claimed on Facebook earlier this month that there had been “Massive vote fraud in Pennsylvania,” and has kept up his pro-Trump commentary on social media despite reportedly leaving his former job for the DOJ last month.

“NPR is pretty much Pravda at this point,” he said of the outlet’s coverage of the “March for Trump” event held in D.C. earlier this month. Lott added, falsely, that “a million plus people” had been present for the event.

Neither Lott nor the Justice Department returned TPM’s requests for comment, but Lott’s Facebook page now says he is “Senior Advisor for Research and Statistics” at the Justice Department.

Lott came to the DOJ from the the Crime Prevention Research Center, a pro-gun group he founded in 2013. Politico noted the group’s board includes Trumpy media personalities like former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and the Trump-supporting musician and NRA board member Ted Nugent.

Lott was replaced as president of CPRC by Andrew Pollack, a gun activist whose daughter was killed in the shooting massacre at a Parkland, Florida high school in 2018. Pollack wrote the forward to a book of Lott’s published earlier this year, “Gun Control Myths: How politicians, the media, and botched ‘studies’ have twisted the facts on gun control.”

Lott’s commentary has at times strayed from the gun debate to voter fraud alarmism.

In 2017, for example, he was a witness at a meeting of President Donald Trump’s so-called “elections integrity” commission, a few months after falsely asserting there had been “massive” vote fraud with absentee ballots in the North Carolina gubernatorial election. At the panel, Lott trolled Democrats by pitching a background check system for voting.

“If they don’t believe that it suppresses people’s ability to defend themselves, would we believe that using this system would suppress being able to go and vote?” he said.


Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM’s New York office covering corruption, extremism and other beats. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.

Former Spy Chief Ric Grenell Resurfaces As Foot Soldier In Trump’s War On Reality

Former Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell speaks to the news media during a press conference by members of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., outside Clark County Election Department on November 5, 2020

By Matt Shuham November 19, 2020 


Six months ago, Ric Grenell was the nation’s top intelligence official and had access to some of the most highly sensitive information on the planet.

Now, he’s wailing on Twitter about President Donald Trump’s loss in Nevada, alleging electoral fraud on a scale so widespread that it would flip the state to Trump — just without any evidence whatsoever to back up the claim.

“It is unacceptable in this country to have illegal votes counted, and that is what’s happening in the state of Nevada,” Grenell, clad in a “Team Trump” jacket, told reporters in Las Vegas two days after Election Day.

Grenell refused to answer questions while also chastising reporters for asking the campaign for evidence of the outlandish voter fraud claims it was making.

“All of your questions about the details are legitimate questions … and they should be asked of Clark County,” he said.

“What’s your name!” the press shouted at Grenell as he left the mics.

“Listen, you’re here to take in information,” he replied. Cue press corps laughter. A few minutes later, the crew fled the scene, shutting a van door in the face of MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff as he asked for evidence.


NBC’s Jacob Soboroff chases down Trump campaign officials Ric Grenell and Matt Schlapp, pressing them for evidence of their claims of fraud in Nevada.
They provide none and pile into a van: pic.twitter.com/tZlFDDQSQT
— The Recount (@therecount) November 5, 2020

‘Fundamentally Undermining Faith In Democracy’

The rapid transition back to in-the-muck, norm-defying, alternate-reality-crafting, Trumpworld politics for Grenell is unprecedented for a former director of national intelligence, even for someone in a short-lived “acting” position.

But this is the sort of work that’s marked his long career in public life: the sharp-elbowed press person, waging rhetorical war against his clients’ enemies. Now, for Trump, those enemies are elections officials.

“I think he’s fundamentally undermining faith in democracy and our institutions, and he’s doing so in order to assuage, and keep in good graces with, President Trump,” said Mark Groombridge, who worked with Grenell at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations during the Bush administration.

Since hopping on the Trump train, the former friend said, Grenell has grown more acerbic.

“He’ll yell at people for very silly things,” he said. “ If you look at his Twitter feed now, it’s a constant rant on the mainstream media.”

Grenell’s latest kick has focused on Clark Country, Nevada’s largest, which he’s said “threw out 153k ballots” and is re-doing a county commission race because of “fraud.” If that race’s results can’t be trusted, he asserted Wednesday, “how are they so certain that that fraud didn’t bleed into all of the other races on the ballot?!”

The answer to that particular query is pretty straightforward, as a county spokesperson explained to Grenell on Twitter: There was a 10-vote difference in that county race and 139 discrepancies in total in the commission district. Biden won the Nevada by more than 33,000 votes, but the Trump campaign is still suing for all of Nevada’s electors.


Not accurate. We have referred cases of potential fraud to the state. We take such matters seriously. Today, the @ClarkCountyNV Commission opted to hold a special election in 1 race where there was a 10-vote difference & more than 10 discrepancies. It's not a question of fraud
— Erik Pappa (@epappa) November 17, 2020


‘Washington, D.C. Phony!’

Even as acting DNI, Grenell played politics with the job. A few days before the Senate confirmed his replacement, Grenell declassified the names of Obama officials involved in the “unmasking” of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn — a gift to the right-wing fever swamps.

John Sipher, who spent decades in the CIA Clandestine Service, called Grenell’s actions “a threat to our national security in the short run, and to the credibility and professionalism of our non-partisan national security structures in the long run.”

But since leaving government, he’s dug his trench in Trump’s war on the election, whiffing on some basic facts along the way.

On Nov. 1, for example, Grenell posted a photo of Joe Biden on a plane without a mask, calling Biden a “Washington, D.C. phony!” for his hypocrisy. The photo, turns out, was taken in 2019.Screenshot/archive.is

Ten days later, Grenell was duped by The Nation’s Ken Klippenstein into sending Veteran’s Day wishes to Bill Calley, the infamous war criminal who carried out the Mỹ Lai massacre.


Happy Veterans Day! pic.twitter.com/cotDkDUGs6

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) November 11, 2020



Fox News first reported in August that Grenell had been hired as a senior adviser to the Republican Party. FEC records show Grenell was paid a $45,000 for “management consulting” by the RNC in July and August.
‘He’s A Right-Wing Troll’

The RNC hiring news came the day after the Log Cabin Republicans, the GOP LGBT group, published a video in which Grenell called Trump “the most pro-gay president in American history.”

“My great honor!!!” Trump responded.


My great honor!!! https://t.co/kh2a5yumef

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2020



The following week, in a strange twist of fate, Grenell took a job as an adviser at the American Center for Law and Justice, the right-wing religious group led by Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow and founded by the homophobe Pat Robertson. ACLJ helped draft Defense of Marriage Act and opposed courts’ expansions of gay rights for decades, the Advocate noted.

“I have admired their work for years,” Grenell said of the organization in a press release.

Around the same time, Grenell added fuel to the “Russian collusion hoax” flame he kindled as acting DNI. Speaking at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 26, Grenell said he’d seen the Democrats’ case for “Russian collusion” first-hand as acting director of national intelligence — “and what I saw made me sick to my stomach.”

“The awful thing is he’s not an intelligence official,” Sipher said. “He’s a right-wing troll that Trump stuck in the position to do his bidding. He had no qualifications or experience.”

At the time, when a second Trump term seemed possible, speculation flew about Grenell’s prospects. Axios reported after his RNC speech that aides expected Grenell to be at the “front of the line” for top jobs, including national security adviser or secretary of state.

Now, Groombridge figures Grenell will have a prominent role in whatever post-presidency Trump plans Trump is cooking up.

Grenell, he said, “has passed the most important test for Trump World, and that’s loyalty.”



Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM’s New York office covering corruption, extremism and other beats. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.