TV News LIES

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has been arrested for "assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer," the Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday — the latest in a series of high-profile clashes between immigration officials and Democratic politicians.

The charges stem from an episode at a federal courthouse in the city, where Lander and his wife said they were serving as advocates for defendants in immigration court.

Kat Capossela, Lander's mayoral campaign press secretary, told NBC News in an email that “Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE,” a reference to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, after “escorting a defendant out of immigration court." And Lander's wife, Meg Barnette, during a press conference shortly after her husband’s arrest, criticized the Trump administration's handling of cases involving immigrants.

In a brief statement on social media detailing the charges against Lander, the Department of Homeland Security said: "It is wrong that politicians seeking higher office undermine law enforcement safety to get a viral moment. No one is above the law, and if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will face consequences."

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A federal jury has found that businessman Mike Lindell defamed Eric Coomer, a former employee of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, and is ordering him to pay roughly $2.3 million in damages.

That amount falls far short of the $62.7 million award requested by Coomer, in part because the jury rejected a number of the claims that Lindell and his company were responsible for comments made by others on platforms he controlled.

“We’re thrilled with the verdict,” said Coomer’s attorney, Charles Caine. He described having mixed emotions, “in the sense that (Coomer)’s been through a lot and he’s still going to be looking over his shoulder.”

“Generally, what this verdict says is … individuals who are singled out can get vindication in the courthouse. And hopefully this serves as deterrence for individuals working on our elections from being targeted."

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As tanks and soldiers paraded through the streets of Washington on Saturday, several million people around the country turned out to protest against the excesses of Donald Trump’s administration.

The protests, dubbed “No Kings”, rook place at about 2,100 sites nationwide, from big cities to small towns. A coalition of more than 100 groups joined together to plan the protests, which are committed to a principle of nonviolence.

This week, Trump has deployed national guard and US marine troops to Los Angeles to crack down on protesters who have demonstrated against his ramped-up deportations, defying state and local authorities in a show of military force that hasn’t been seen in the US since the civil rights era.

Interest in the Saturday protests rose as a result, organizers said, including at a site near Trump’s south Florida Mar-a-Lago estate.

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Protesters at “No Kings” events in Culpeper, Virginia, and San Francisco, California, have been struck by motorists, according to local news reports.

The protests are taking place at about 2,000 sites nationwide, from big cities to small towns. A coalition of more than 100 groups planned the protests, which are committed to a principle of nonviolence.

Police in the northern Virginia city of Culpeper identified 21-year-old Joseph R Checklick Jr as the motorist there. No injuries have been reported; police said that they have filed reckless driving charges against Checklick, and that more charges may be filed. Organizers estimated that more than 600 protesters showed up in the town of 21,000.

In San Francisco, at least four “No Kings” protesters in San Francisco were struck by a motorist who then fled the scene, according to NBC News. Law enforcement detained the individual, and stated that the protesters suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

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More than a month after one federal judge halted a portion of President Trump's executive order related to voting, another judge on Friday ruled that additional provisions of the order need to pause as well.

The decision from U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper, in the District of Massachusetts, affirmed a pause on one of the most controversial parts of the order, which would require that people provide documents that prove their citizenship, like a passport, when they register to vote using the national registration form.

But Casper also blocked a provision aimed at barring states from counting mail ballots postmarked by Election Day but that election officials receive after.

The judge noted that states have the power to set the rules for their elections, according to the Constitution, not the president.

"The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections," Judge Casper, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote.

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Political pundit Tucker Carlson doubled down on his criticism of Israel’s strikes against Iran, rebuking several media figures, including his former colleagues at Fox News, over what he described as their push for President Trump to engage in the region.

“Who are the warmongers? They would include anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran,” Carlson wrote in a post on the social media platform X.

“On that list: Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson. At some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now,” he continued.

Hannity and Levin both work for Fox News, which is owned by Murdoch. Perlmutter is the former CEO of Marvel, and Adelson is a well-endowed GOP donor who co-hosted a January reception with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in honor of Trump’s campaign win.

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The House of Representatives narrowly approved legislation Thursday to eliminate the next two years of federal funding for public media outlets.

It did so at the direct request of President Trump, who has accused NPR and PBS of bias against conservative viewpoints as part of his broader attacks on the mainstream media.

The measure passed largely along party lines, 214 to 212, with two key Republican lawmakers switching their votes from "no" to "yes" to push it over the finish line.

The legislation is the first request by the Trump administration for Congress to claw back money it already has approved through annual spending bills. The bill reflects a list of cuts totaling $9.4 billion that were requested by the Office of Management and Budget. The bulk of the cuts — $8.3 billion — are to foreign aid programs addressing global public health, international disaster assistance and hunger relief.

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