Trump’s attorneys move to quash Georgia election fraud report – National & International News – MON 20Mar2023

Trump’s attorneys move to quash Georgia election fraud report.

Military pilots, ground crew have higher cancer rates.

Confidence in banks shaken worldwide after SVB closure.

NATIONAL NEWS

Trump’s attorneys move to quash Georgia election fraud report

Over the weekend, former President Trump posted an all-caps rant claiming he was going to be arrested on Tuesday (tomorrow) in connection with a New York criminal probe of his 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump called on his supporters to protest his arrest, but so far, the response has been underwhelming. 

However, Trump’s attorneys filed a motion today to attempt to head off a much more consequential criminal case in Georgia. This was the wide-ranging special grand jury probe that investigated attempts by Trump and his inner circle to interfere with the certification of the results of Georgia’s 2020 Presidential election. Over seven months, the panel heard testimony from about 75 witnesses, including Trump aides and high-ranking Georgia Republicans.

A wide-ranging investigation

Trump himself was not called to testify. However, the panel heard recordings of three phone calls in which Trump pressured high-ranking Georgia officials to overturn the election.

One of these was the infamous Jan. 2, 2021 call in which Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the 11,000 votes needed to overturn Biden’s Georgia win. Another was a call to Georgia’s Republican House Speaker David Ralston, now deceased, in Dec. 2020. During the call, Trump asked Ralston to call a special House session to appoint a slate of fake pro-Trump electors. In the third call, Trump grilled an investigator in Raffensperger’s office about unfounded allegations of election irregularities. 

Aside from the phone calls and the fake electors scheme, the panel also examined efforts by unauthorized individuals to access voting machines in the state as well as harassment of election workers.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who led the probe, previously said the criminal conduct she was investigating included “solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration.”

Trump’s team make nothing burger a something burger

The motion Trump’s attorneys filed today calls for any evidence derived from the special grand jury’s final report be “suppressed as unconstitutionally derived and any prosecuting body be prevented from its use”.

Norm Eisen, a legal expert at the Brookings institute, said Trump’s attorneys were “throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks”. The filing itself is interesting because previous statements by Trump’s legal team indicated they weren’t especially concerned about the Willis probe. Today’s filing suggests they are, in fact, very concerned.

DA Willis has not yet announced any charges in the case, but says decisions are “imminent”. However, several members of the grand jury have spoken out in the press since the panel concluded its work. Their comments suggest that they recommended indictments against several individuals, though none have said whether Trump is one of them.

CNN is also reporting, citing an anonymous source, that the DA is considering racketeering and conspiracy charges in the case. Trump also recently lauded bills advanced in the Georgia legislature that would create an oversight committee with the power to remove elected district attorneys who commit “willful misconduct” in office, or fail to prosecute certain crimes. Trump’s supporters have attempted to paint Willis’ investigation as a political witch hunt, despite nearly all the witnesses being Republicans.

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Military pilots, ground crew have higher cancer rates

A yearlong Pentagon study reveals higher rates of certain cancers among military pilots and ground crew. The study included 900,000 service members who flew or worked on military aircraft between 1992 and 2017. Compared to the general population, air crews had a 24% higher rate of all cancers while ground crews were 3% higher. Because of gaps in the data, cancer rates are likely to be even higher.

Air crews showed an 87% higher rate of melanoma and a 39% higher rate of thyroid cancer. Male air crew had a 16% higher rate of prostate cancer and women had a 16% higher rate of breast cancer. Studies have also found higher rates of melanoma and breast cancer among commercial flight crews. 

Ground crews had a 19% higher rate of brain and nervous system cancers, a 15% higher rate of thyroid cancer and a 9% higher rate of kidney or renal cancers. Women also had a 7% higher rate of breast cancer. 

There was some good news. Military members had higher cancer survival rates than the general population, for which the study credited  regular medical screenings and military fitness requirements. Also, air crews had lower rates of bladder and colon cancers while both ground and air crews had far lower rates of lung cancer than the general population.

Because this study couldn’t control for things like genetics and lifestyle factors, the results don’t prove a causal link between military aviation and cancer. However, aviation crews have long sought an explanation for high rates of cancer they’d observed among their colleagues. They want the Pentagon to examine environmental factors such as exposure to jet fuels and solvents used in maintenance as well as sensors and radar systems.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Confidence in banks shaken worldwide after SVB closure

Yesterday, the Swiss government brokered a deal to entice Swiss banking giant to buy out its troubled competitor Credit Suisse. Ultimately, UBS purchased Credit Suisse, worth about $8 billion, for just $3 billion. The Swiss central bank further sweetened the deal for UBS by ponying up over $100 billion in insurance. The buyout became necessary to save Credit Suisse when the bank’s plan to borrow $54 billion last week failed to calm depositors and investors.

The historic deal came 10 days after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank rattled the markets. Markets still remain shaky days after with investors wondering which bank will fold next. Last week, a coalition of big name banks stepped in to shore up First Republic Bank, a regional lender in New York. Banks like Citigroup, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley chipped in $30 billion to restore confidence in First Republic.

New reporting has it that the Federal Reserve had concerns about SVB’s finances going back four years before it collapsed. When the Fed embarked on its program of raising interest rates to curb inflation last year, they were well aware that doing so might destabilize the bank.

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