Job openings, quits in U.S. up near record high in February

A "now hiring" sign is seen outside a fast-food restaurant in Wilmington, Calif., on January 27, 2021. The Labor Department said Tuesday that hiring increased while quits remained at an elevated level in February. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

March 29 (UPI) -- U.S. companies hired nearly 6.7 million people last month and people quitting their jobs remained at an elevated level -- nearly 4.4 million, the Labor Department said in its monthly report Tuesday.

The report said 4.352 million quit their jobs in February, well over the 3.439 million who voluntarily left their jobs at the same time in 2021.

The department said that there were 11.3 million job openings by the end of February, which changed little from January and was slightly down from December.

Officials said that retail saw the largest number of quits with 74,000, followed by durable goods manufacturing at 22,000 and state and local government education at 14,000.

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The report said more than 75,000 were hired in construction in February to lead all sectors while hiring remained steady in all four regions of the country. Hiring decreased by 29,000 in the information sector.

Tuesday's report -- known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS -- is separate from the department's monthly jobs report. Earlier this month, the department's jobs report showed close to 700,000 new hires were added in February. The department will release its jobs report for March on Friday

"The labor market is still raring to go with strong employer demand and increased worker mobility," Daniel Zhao, senior economist at the job review site Glassdoor, told The Washington Post. "We're still seeing very strong job openings and quits, as well as layoffs at record lows."

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Hiring has held steady, increasing in February to 6.689 million, from 6.426 million in January. Hiring reached 6.705 million last November.

Those numbers remain above the 6.028 million hired at this point in 2021.

"Over the 12 months ending in February 2022, hires totaled 77 million and separations totaled 70.6 million, yielding a net employment gain of 6.4 million," the Labor Department said in the report.

RELATEDRecord 4.5 million U.S. workers quit their jobs in November, figures show

"These totals include workers who may have been hired and separated more than once during the year," the department said.

FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE INC.

UnitedHealth to acquire LHC Group in $5.4 billion deal

UnitedHealth building in Minnesota. Photo courtesy of UnitedHealth.

March 29 (UPI) -- UnitedHealth, the largest healthcare insurance company in the United States, announced Tuesday that it intends to purchase LHC Group, a leader in home healthcare services, for approximately $5.4 billion.

The transaction, in which UnitedHealth said it would pay $170 in cash for each share of LHC stock, is expected to close later this year.

Based in Lafayette, La., and founded in 1994, LHC Group employs 30,000 people in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The deal will combine LHC Group with UnitedHealth's Optum health services company.

The companies produced a video about the deal as part of the announcement.

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"LHC Group's sophisticated care coordination capabilities and its warm, human touch is so important for home care, and will greatly enhance the reach of Optum's value-based capabilities along the full continuum of care, including primary care, home and community care, virtual care, behavioral health and ambulatory surgery," said Dr. Wyatt Decker, the CEO of Optum Health, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth.

LHC Group chairman and CEO Keith G. Myers said in a joint statement with Optum Health that "working together as organizations committed to caring for the most vulnerable in society will help us more effectively and efficiently deliver high quality and increasingly value-based care in the home.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued UnitedHealth in an antitrust action to block its $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare, Inc. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia along with the attorney generals from New York and Minnesota.

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Applebee's franchise exec fired after leaked email about gas prices, wages

An Applebee's franchise executive was fired after sending an email to managers saying high gas prices could allow them to pay lower wages. Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI | License Photo

March 29 (UPI) -- An executive for a Midwest Applebee's franchise has been fired after suggesting in a leaked email that higher gas prices could turn the labor market in employers' favor.

Wayne Pankrantz, who was director of operations for Apple Central LLC, said in the widely distributed email on March 9 that high gasoline prices will put pressure on employees' disposable income -- and that could present an opportunity for managers to lower wages as employees seek more hours.

He wrote: "Most of our employee base and potential employee base live paycheck to paycheck. Any increase in gas price cuts into their disposable income. As inflation continues to climb and gas prices continue to go up, that means more hours employees will need to work to maintain their current level of living."

The email, which has since spread online, was first circulated among employees -- including some who quit their jobs after seeing it.

RELATEDJob openings, quits in U.S. up near record high in February

"The individual has been terminated by the franchisee who owns and operates the restaurants in this market," Kevin Carroll, chief operations officer at Applebee's, said in an emailed statement to CBS News.

Carroll added that Pankrantz's email was "the opinion of an individual, not Applebee's." He said that the company's employees "are the lifeblood of our restaurants, and our franchisees are always looking to reward and incentivize team members, new and current, to remain within the Applebee's family."

Scott Fischer is director of communications for Apple Central, which is located in Kansas City, Mo., and has 47 Applebee's restaurants in the Midwest. He called the email "embarrassing."

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Meanwhile, Applebees's Facebook page on Tuesday included criticism of Applebee's as some people attached links to the leaked email by Pankrantz.

Applebee's, founded in 1980, is owned by Dine Brands Global, Inc., which also owns the IHOP brand.

The parent company says it has over 3,400 restaurants combined in 16 countries and approximately 350 franchisees.

N.Y. AG says she has 'significant evidence' Trump Organization misstated asset values

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James said it has uncovered "significant evidence" that the Trump Organization misstated property values for decades to falsely inflate Donald Trump's net worth. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

March 29 (UPI) -- The New York attorney general's office said it has "uncovered significant evidence" that the Trump Organization relied on misleading valuations of its real estate assets to "secure economic benefits" for more than a decade.

In a court filing late Monday, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the company owned by former President Donald Trump used misleading valuations and "other misrepresentations" to secure benefits such as "loans, insurance coverage and tax deductions -- on terms more favorable than the facts warranted.

"These misrepresentations appear to have been aimed at portraying Mr. Trump's net worth and liquidity as higher than the true facts warranted, to secure economic benefits to which Mr. Trump might not otherwise have been entitled," the filing states.

In one instance, the Trump Organization's 2010-2012 statements "collectively valued" rent-stabilized apartment units owned at $49.59 million, more than 66 times the $750,000 total value an outside appraiser assigned to the units, according to the filing.

In a period spanning 2012-2016, the Trump Organization's financial statements said Trump's triplex apartment in Trump Tower in Manhattan "exceeded 30,000 square feet, and valued the apartment at up to $327 million based on those dimensions," the filing said.

However, in 2017 -- Trump's first year as president -- the filing noted that the company "slashed the apartment's value by two-thirds, sizing the residence at just under 11,000 square feet," consistent with the figure specified in the offering plan for the building.

Monday's filing came in response to an appeal by the Trump Organization and Trump of an order by a Manhattan state court judge directing his adult children Donald Trump Jr., who runs the business along with his brother Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, who previously served as a company executive, to hold interviews with James' investigators.

RELATEDJudge says Trump 'likely' committed felonies in efforts related to Jan. 6 Capitol attack

The filing also notes that from 2011 to 2013, Ivanka Trump held an option to buy the Trump Park Avenue penthouse, where she lived, for $8.5 million, while the Trump Organization valued the unit at up to $25 million.

Similarly, in 2014 she acquired an option to buy a larger apartment for $14.3 million when the ensuing year's statement lowered the apartment's value from its previously assigned $45 million.

James, who has concurrent civil and criminal investigations into the Trump Organization ongoing, said that she issued the subpoenas to "help reach a final determination about whether there has been civil fraud" committed in connection with the asset valuations as well as "who may be responsible for such fraud."

Lawyers for Trump and his children earlier this year argued that testimony in the civil case could be used against them in the criminal case, and that allowing such testimony without providing protections that New York law would require if they testified before a grand jury in a criminal case would set a "dangerous precedent."

James' office, however, countered that "civil subpoenas do not compel appellants to provide information that may be used against them in a future criminal case."

FTC sues Intuit to stop ads claiming TurboTax is 'free' 

The Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against TurboTax owner Intuit, calling on a judge to force the company to stop running ads that claim the tax filing software is free. Photo by Mike Mozart/Flickr

March 29 (UPI) -- The Federal Trade Commission has sued Intuit, alleging it has deceived consumers for years by marketing its TurboTax tax filing software as free and subsequently charging most users.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday, asks a federal court to "put an immediate halt to Intuit's false advertising" in which the company frequently uses the word "free" to advertise its produc

"TurboTax is bombarding consumers with ads for 'free' tax filing services, and then hitting them with charges when it's time to file," Samuel Levine, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement. "We are asking a court to immediately halt this bait-and-switch, and to protect taxpayers at the peak of filing season."

In its complaint, the FTC cites one ad in which an auctioneer repeatedly says the word "free," a second "in which a court stenographer recorded a legal proceeding in which 'free' was the only word used," and another "in which an exercise class instructor chants 'free' while leading a group workout."

"In several ads, the word 'free' is repeated over 40 times in a 30-second ad," the complaint states.

The FTC, however, alleges that the "freemium" version of TurboTax is only available to users with what Intuit describes as "simple" tax returns while others are required to upgrade to paid versions of TurboTax.

Additionally, the definition of a "simple" return changes yearly, the FTC said. In 2021, Intuit identified simple returns as ones that can be filed on a Form 1040 with limited attached schedules.

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The suit alleges that about two-thirds of tax filers were unable to use TurboTax's free product in 2020.

It also notes that until 2021, TurboTax was offered for free online to taxpayers with $39,000 or less in adjusted gross income as part of the IRS Free File program, a public-private partnership formed in 2002 that allows low-income Americans to file their taxes for free online.

Intuit issued a statement responding to the lawsuit on Monday, saying that the claims made by the FTC are "simply not credible" while noting that nearly 100 million Americans have filed their taxes for free with TurboTax in the past eight years, including 17 million in 2021, up from 11 million in 2018 before the ad campaign launched.

"Far from steering taxpayers away from free tax preparation offerings, our free advertising campaigns have led to more Americans filing their taxes for free than ever before and have been central to raising awareness of free tax prep," said Kerry McLean, executive vice president and general counsel for Intuit.

McLean also noted that the FTC's lawsuit did not take into account the fact that Intuit complied with IRS requirements while part of the Free File program.

"The fact that Intuit complied with the rules and regulations of one government agency, but is now being targeted by another, demonstrates a significant disconnect," McLean said. "With the FTC's action, companies will be much less willing to enter into public-private partnerships with the government that benefit consumers."

Edmonton school board trustee Nathan Ip vying for NDP nomination in effort to unseat Madu


Edmonton Public School Board trustee Nathan Ip is joining the race for the provincial NDP nomination in Edmonton-South West.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Edmonton Public School Board trustee Nathan Ip is joining the race for the provincial NDP nomination in Edmonton-South West.

Labour and Immigration Minister Kaycee Madu currently represents the riding — the only UCP MLA who holds a seat in the city. While the NDP has not yet scheduled a date for its vote, Ip is now one of four candidates vying for the nomination, along with Chand Gul, Mohammad Ali Kamal, and Ben Acquaye.

Making the announcement at the legislature Tuesday, Ip said he’s running to protect publicly funded education, help build new schools, and provide leadership that serves community needs.

“I am concerned about the direction our province is heading, and the challenges that we face as a community,” said Ip, who flagged cuts to funding supports that impact vulnerable learners, and education funding that doesn’t keep pace with growth under the UCP government.

“We can do better,” he said.

The three-term trustee said he is the only candidate with the experience to defeat Madu.

Madu said he looks forward to running in the 2023 election against whomever the NDP ends up nominating.

“I am optimistic that the people of South West would vote in our community’s best interests — ultimately, they are the ones who decide who represents them,” he said.

When asked what he thinks it means that four people are seeking the NDP nomination, Madu said, “we live in a democracy, and I think the more people the merrier.”

If nominated, Ip plans to continue as a school board trustee and to take an unpaid leave of absence during next year’s election campaign, a Tuesday news release said.

Lisa Johnson 
lijohnson@postmedia.com

The Superdeath of God

Stefan Bolea, 

Babes-Bolyai University

ACADEMIA

Letters

1. Deaths of God

In The Essence of Christianity (1841), Feuerbach argues that theology is disguised anthropology, claiming that the human being has created God in his own image and likeness. He notes, however, that there are circumstances where the existence of God is no longer “a living truth” (Feuerbach 1841/ 1989, 203): “Where … the fire of the religious imagination is extinct …there the existence [of God] becomes a dead, self-contradictory existence” (Feuerbach 1841/ 1989, 203).

Secularization brings along the death of God, which probably hides the death of the human being: the end of theology highlights the end of anthropology. We no longer believe (we only believe we believe) in the divinity (and the humanity) of the human being. We have “retired” from numinosity like Nietzsche’s last pope. 

Feuerbach seems to think that the construction of anthropology is still possible upon the ruins of theology. One can see the human being either as an enemy and vanquisher of God, or as an ally of Him, a consubstantial entity, who shares his creative traits and attributes. In the latter case, the human being is an anointed “mini-God”, the authorized servant of a powerful master. In the former instance, the godless nihilist desires to become something else entirely, perhaps a Nietzschean “superman” or a Cioranian “not-man”. 

Max Stirner seems to prefigure this line of thought in The Ego and Its Own (1844): “At  the entrance of the modern time stands the ‘God-man’. At its exit will only the God in the God-man evaporate? And can the God-man really die if only the God in him dies? They did not think of this question, and thought they were finished when in our days they brought to a victorious end the work of the Enlightenment, the vanquishing of God: they did not notice that man has killed God in order to become now- ‘sole God on high’…God has had to give place, yet not to us, but to – man. How can you believe that the God-man is dead before the man in him, besides the God, is dead?” (Stirner1844/ 1995, 139) 

Man has killed God in order to become God (a satanic complex, if we read nihilism though the lenses of religious psychology): “God is dead, therefore I am God”/Deus est mortuus, ergo ego sum Deus. But if we understand Stirner correctly, this is only part of the story: the God-man will only have died after the combined deaths of God and the human being. 

"God has died and his death was the life of the world”/ Gottistgestorben und sein Todwar das Lebender Welt, enigmatically wrote the post-Schopenhauerian philosopher Philipp Mainländer in his Die Philosophie der Erlösung (1876/ 1996, 108). He also argued that although "we have existed in God” (1876/ 1996, 108), we “no longer are in God”, because we have moved from the world of destroyed “unity” [Einheit] to a universe of multiplicity [Vielheit].The passage from transcendent unity to immanent multiplicity is, in Mainländer’s vision, the secret of the creation of the world. 

Leaving these aside, Feuerbach argued that when the religious “Fire” is extinct, the existence of God becomes “dead”, and Stirner imagined that the death of God is a prequel to the God of man (what if Stiner's Ego also dies after the death of the “God-man”?). Furthermore, Mainländer is not mainly interested in cosmogony: in the macabre ending of Die Philosophie der Erlösung he changes the focus from God (and I include the human being in the definition/constitution of God) to death. Therefore, the question of divinity (and mankind) becomes insignificant in the context of the absolute hegemony of death, Schopenhauer’s nihil negativum reaching its nuclear point: “Nothing will be anymore, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing! – O, this glance in the absolute emptiness! –”/

Nichts mehr wird sein,
Nichts, Nichts, Nichts! –
O dieser Blick in die absolute Leere!
– (1886/ 1996, 511).

https://www.academia.edu/63664606/The_Superdeath_of_God

As Consumers Pay, Oil CEOs Refuse to Testify to Congress About Soaring Prices

"While Americans struggle with high gas prices, these companies are doing victory laps, showering their already wealthy executives and shareholders with billions in stock buybacks and bonus compensation," said one watchdog group. "They should be ashamed."


A pedestrian walks past a gas station advertising gas prices on March 25, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

JULIA CONLEY

COMMON DREAMS

March 29, 2022

As people across the United States face record-high gas prices—compounded by rising grocery bills and prices for other essentials—executives at three major oil companies are refusing to testify before Congress about what their firms could do to lessen the burden on U.S. households, leaving Democratic lawmakers and consumer advocates to condemn the companies for profiting amid lower and middle-class people's financial pain.

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, had invited the CEOs of EOG Resources Inc., Devon Energy Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp. to testify next week, only to be rebuffed Tuesday by the executives, who have personally profited off gas prices which averaged $4.24 per gallon on Monday.

"I invited these companies to come before the committee and make their case, but apparently they don't think it's worth defending," Grijalva said in a statement Tuesday. "Their silence tells us all we need to know—that cries for more drilling and looser regulations are nothing more than another age-old attempt to line their own pockets."

Since oil and gas prices began rising earlier this year as traveling and commuting increased, and went up further following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, the fossil fuel industry has claimed the Biden administration should release more permits for drilling on public lands and accelerate approval of permits for building energy infrastructure, with the American Petroleum Institute pushing for what Grijalva called "a domestic drilling free-for-all" earlier this month.

Lawmakers including Grijalva have argued that the companies could easily stabilize gas prices immediately, considering the billions of dollars in profits EOG Resources, Devon Energy, and Occidental Petroleum raked in last year.

Instead, watchdog group Accountable.US said Tuesday, Occidental Petroleum planned to use $3 billion for stock buybacks in 2022, while Devon Energy gave nearly $2 billion in share buybacks and dividends to shareholders last year. EOG Resources gave CEO William R. Thomas a $150,000 raise in 2021, making his total compensation $9.8 million.

"We want to work with them to reduce gas prices, but it seems as though they're too busy taking in record profits while refusing to pass savings on to consumers," said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), a member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) sarcastically expressed empathy for the "spineless" executives who refused to testify before Grijalva's committee.

"It is hardly surprising that EOG Resources, Devon Energy, and Occidental Petroleum are dodging accountability by refusing to testify in Congress," said Kyle Herrig, president of watchdog group Accountable.US. "While Americans struggle with high gas prices, these companies are doing victory laps, showering their already wealthy executives and shareholders with billions in stock buybacks and bonus compensation. They should be ashamed."

Grijalva noted that while the industry has used the Russian invasion of Ukraine to call for even more freedom to drill for oil and gas, fossil fuel companies hold leases on 26 million acres of land.

"These same companies already have over 9,000 approved permits they can use whenever they want," Grijalva told Public News Service on Tuesday. "And the very companies with thousands of acres of existing leases and hundreds of unused permits are the same ones shouting that they need more land for drilling."

According to Accountable.US, the three companies refusing to speak to Grijalva's committee "are among the top leaseholders of public lands oil and gas leases with 4,114 leases covering nearly 1.5 million acres."

Companies including BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Shell have also been invited to testify at upcoming hearings on their business practices and impacts on consumers. In February, board members from the four companies refused to testify about the firms' climate pledges.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted last week that oil prices dropped in recent days, but no savings were passed onto consumers.

"The bewildering incongruity between falling oil prices and rising gas prices smacks of price gouging and is deeply damaging to working Americans," Schumer said last week. "The Senate is going to get answers."

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'Possible Coverup' Alleged as Jan. 6 Logs Show 457-Minute Gap in Trump Calls

"Nixon had an 18.5-minute gap in his White House tapes," noted one watchdog group. "Trump has a 7.5-hour gap in phone logs from January 6th."

Then-President Donald Trump shushed journalists before signing legislation on June 5, 2020 in Washington, D.C. 

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

JAKE JOHNSON

COMMON DREAMS

March 29, 2022

Internal White House documents handed over to a House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack show a gap of seven hours and 37 minutes in former President Donald Trump's call logs from that day, raising suspicions that Trump allies are illegally concealing his phone records from lawmakers.

The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and CBS News' Robert Costa reported Tuesday that "the lack of an official White House notation of any calls placed to or by Trump for 457 minutes on January 6, 2021—from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m.—means the committee has no record of his phone conversations as his supporters descended on the Capitol, battled overwhelmed police, and forcibly entered the building, prompting lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to flee for safety."

"The 11 pages of records, which consist of the president's official daily diary and the White House switchboard call logs, were turned over by the National Archives earlier this year to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack," noted the news outlets, which obtained the documents.

Woodward and Costa continued:

The records show that Trump was active on the phone for part of the day, documenting conversations that he had with at least eight people in the morning and 11 people that evening. The seven-hour gap also stands in stark contrast to the extensive public reporting about phone conversations he had with allies during the attack, such as a call Trump made to Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah)—seeking to talk to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.)—and a phone conversation he had with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

The House panel is now investigating whether Trump communicated that day through backchannels, phones of aides or personal disposable phones, known as 'burner phones,' according to two people with knowledge of the probe.

One unnamed lawmaker on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, which is working to discern Trump's activities during the assault that he helped provoke, told the Post and CBS that the panel is probing a "possible coverup" of official White House phone records from that day.



Throughout his four-year tenure in the White House, Trump often used his personal cellphone as well as his aides' phones to speak to allies and outside advisers, bypassing official channels of communication. The former president also had a habit of tearing up schedules, memos, and other official records, a likely violation of federal law.

In a statement to the Post and CBS late Monday before their story went to press, Trump insisted that he "no idea what a burner phone is."

"To the best of my knowledge I have never even heard the term," said the former president, who has attempted to obstruct the January 6 panel's investigation at every turn.

In a federal court filing earlier this month, the select committee accused Trump and his allies of engaging in "a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States" as they attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

On Monday, a federal judge argued that Trump "more likely than not" committed felony obstruction of Congress by attempting to subvert congressional certification of President Joe Biden's victory.

Hours after the federal judge's ruling, the House January 6 panel recommended that the Biden Justice Department pursue criminal contempt of Congress charges against former Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, both of whom have refused to comply with the committee's investigation.

"It is good that the House January 6 Committee is taking its job very seriously and moving to refer for contempt charges those who won't cooperate with subpoenas," said Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Investigating an insurrection is deadly serious, and the Justice Department and all of us should be treating it so."

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Federal prosecutors are zeroing in on a single Trump tweet that may have been the catalyst for right-wing extremists to join the Capitol riot

ssheth@businessinsider.com (Sonam Sheth) 



Prosecutors are looking at a December Trump tweet as a call to action for far-right extremists.

Trump urged supporters to attend the Jan. 6 rally, tweeting: "Be there, it will be wild!"

The January 6 panel is gathering evidence to prove the tweet was in part a catalyst for the riot.

Federal prosecutors are zeroing in on a December 2020 tweet from then President Donald Trump that may have been a call for far-right actors to converge on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, The New York Times reported.

"Big protest in D.C. on January 6th," Trump tweeted on December 19. It was the first time he announced the "Save America" rally, which took place at the Ellipse in Washington, DC, less than two miles from the US Capitol. "Be there, will be wild!" the tweet said.

Prosecutors believe far-right and extremist groups immediately interpreted Trump's message as a call to action for them to head to the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election that day, The Times said.

According to court filings and interview records compiled by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot, multiple people associated with far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys started communicating with each other on messaging apps and gathering arms and protective gear.

By The Times' accounting, prosecutors have included examples of these actions in at least five criminal cases charging extremists with an array of crimes in connection to the Capitol riot, including seditious conspiracy. And according to the report, both the Justice Department and the House select panel are gathering more evidence that shows Trump's initial December 2020 tweet announcing the rally was a "powerful catalyst" for his supporters to head to the Capitol on January 6.

A number of defendants in the Justice Department's sprawling Capitol riot probe have blamed Trump for "inspiring" and inciting the deadly siege at the Capitol.

"The boss of the country said, 'People of the country, come on down, let people know what you think,'" a defense lawyer for Proud Boys member Dominic Pezzola, who has been charged with conspiracy in connection to the riot, previously told Reuters. "The logical thinking was, 'He invited us down.'"

Earlier this month, the select committee said in a court filing that it believes Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election violated several US laws.

Specifically, the panel said that the evidence it's gathered so far suggests Trump tried to obstruct an official proceeding, conspired to defraud the United States, and engaged in common law fraud.

The legality of Trump's actions and statements leading up to and on the day of the Capitol riot has also been called into question by more than one federal judge.

On Monday, US District Judge David Carter said in a bombshell ruling that it's "likely" Trump committed felony obstruction of Congress on January 6.

"Disagreeing with the law entitled President Trump to seek a remedy in court, not to disrupt a constitutionally-mandated process," Carter wrote.

After "filing and losing more than sixty suits, this plan was a last-ditch attempt to secure the Presidency by any means," the ruling said, adding that the "illegality of the plan was obvious."

He was referring to a legally dubious plan by the conservative lawyer John Eastman, which Trump supported, that called for then Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject electoral slates from battleground states that Biden won.

Trump and Eastman "launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history," Carter wrote. "Their campaign was not confined to the ivory tower — it was a coup in search of a legal theory."

US District Judge Amit Mehta also ruled in a separate case last month that Trump can be sued over the Capitol riot and engaged in a "civil conspiracy" with key supporters and far-right groups.

The word "we" being "used repeatedly in this context implies that the President and rally-goers would be acting together toward a common goal," Mehta wrote. "That is the essence of a civil conspiracy."

Insider reached out to representatives for Trump for comment.

 Donald Trump and his allies are facing a flurry of legal challenges this year. Investigations into his company's finances are ongoing, along with others related to January 6. Here are the dates to watch out for this year. Former President Donald Trump has had a number of surprising legal victories ever since he left the White House — though his greatest potential battles are still looming.In November, Summer Zervos, who had accused Trump of sexual assault following her appearance on "The Apprentice," dropped her lawsuit against him before he was forced to sit for a deposition. At around the same time, a New York state judge dismissed a lawsuit from Michael Cohen seeking to have the Trump Organization reimburse his legal fees for work he did on Trump's behalf.But greater dangers loom. The Trump Organization is the subject of a sprawling investigation from the Manhattan district attorney's office and the New York attorney general's office into alleged financial misconduct.In Atlanta, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is weighing charges over his conduct in the 2020 election. Those investigations are proceeding as the Justice Department comes up on the five-year deadline to prosecute Trump over acts of possible obstruction that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III scrutinized as part of his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.Meanwhile, the Biden administration is sending a steady stream of Trump's White House records to the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. And Trump — along with many of his allies — face federal investigations and lawsuits stemming from the January 6 insurrection. Expect the judges in those cases to set court dates later this year.While Trump mulls whether to run for president again in 2024, 2022 is shaping up to be a year of legal headaches for the former president and his associates. Here's a timeline of the threats Trumpworld faces.

1/9 SLIDES © Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Scott Olson/Getty Images; Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images

2022 IS SHAPING UP TO BE A LEGAL NIGHTMARE FOR TRUMPWORLD. HERE'S A TIMELINE OF UPCOMING COURT CASES AND LEGAL OBSTACLES.

Donald Trump and his allies are facing a flurry of legal challenges this year.
Investigations into his company's finances are ongoing, along with others related to January 6.

Here are the dates to watch out for this year.

Former President Donald Trump has had a number of surprising legal victories ever since he left the White House — though his greatest potential battles are still looming.

In November, Summer Zervos, who had accused Trump of sexual assault following her appearance on "The Apprentice," dropped her lawsuit against him before he was forced to sit for a deposition. At around the same time, a New York state judge dismissed a lawsuit from Michael Cohen seeking to have the Trump Organization reimburse his legal fees for work he did on Trump's behalf.

But greater dangers loom. The Trump Organization is the subject of a sprawling investigation from the Manhattan district attorney's office and the New York attorney general's office into alleged financial misconduct.

In Atlanta, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is weighing charges over his conduct in the 2020 election. Those investigations are proceeding as the Justice Department comes up on the five-year deadline to prosecute Trump over acts of possible obstruction that former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III scrutinized as part of his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is sending a steady stream of Trump's White House records to the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. And Trump — along with many of his allies — face federal investigations and lawsuits stemming from the January 6 insurrection. Expect the judges in those cases to set court dates later this year.

While Trump mulls whether to run for president again in 2024, 2022 is shaping up to be a year of legal headaches for the former president and his associates. Here's a timeline of the threats Trumpworld faces.

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