Is this our first documented case of an actual ballot cast in the name of a verified dead person in the Philly region during the 2020 election? Note: The man was caught and charged by authorities. He also cast the fraudulent ballot for Trump.
BREAKING: Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses GOP Congressman Mike Kelly's bid to throw out every mail ballot cast in the state -- this was the case that led to Wednesday's quickly stayed order barring further certification of state results.
In other news, 15 Philly mob members and associates -- including underboss Steven Mazzone and a guy nicknamed "Tony Meatballs" -- indicted in biggest LCN RICO case in city in years.
BREAKING: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rejects last-minute suit from Republican state House Reps led by Daryl Metcalfe to roll back certification of the vote. This leaves the Texas challenge before SCOTUS as the only active court challenge to the state's results.
NEW: Seven Pa. lawyers involved in Trump’s legal fight to overturn the 2020 election are hit with state ethics complaints. The disciplinary board was also notified of a pending complaint against lawyer Jenna Ellis, now working with Mastriano campaign.
Philly DA's Office says "there is a strong showing of likelihood of [Meek Mill's] conviction being reversed" due to allegations that arresting officer lied on the stand. Prosecutors say they are unopposed to rapper being released from prison while he appeals. Story TK.
BREAKING: Former Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks, now with Browns, and ‘Black-ish’ TV writer Damilare Sonoiki indicted by feds on insider trading charges
BREAKING: Philadelphia will pay $9.25M to protesters over police use of tear gas and rubber bullets during 2020 unrest
via
@oonagoodinsmith
and
@EllieRushing
While it was unclear just how many ballots statewide would now be thrown out, the number is likely to be vanishingly small. The ruling only applies to mail voters who IDs weren't verified before Tuesday. In Philly that number was roughly 2,100.
“IF TRUMP TELLS US TO STORM THE F— CAPITAL , IMA DO THAT THEN!" Pittsburgh-area QAnon adherent said on Facebook.
He did, feds say, and was arrested for it this morning.
With Saturday protests expected to draw thousands, Philly police fear "blue flu." Officers calling in sick are doing so to show solidarity with Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna, now facing assault charges for allegedly beating a protester w/
@wbender99
UPDATE: "The storm is here," tweeted self-styled pickup artist and expert in "female psychology" Pat Stedman while storming the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The FBI arrested him today at his parents' house, where he lives with his wife and newborn.
w/
@anna_orso
Now Rudy saying lots of people from Camden came to Philly to vote.
"It happens all the time. It's about as common as people getting beaten up at a Philadelphia Eagles basketball game."
BREAKING: Philly police Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna applauded by crowd of fellow officers as he leaves to turn himself in on charges of allegedly beating protestor
UPDATED: One of the justices called what Rep. Mike Kelly was proposing - having the court throw out all the votes and appoint the state leg to choose the victor - as an "arguably unconstitutional" "legislative putsch."
NEW: A server at a Philly restaurant has been ordered to pay $84M for leading a massacre of 600 civilians during Liberian civil war.
Moses Thomas, however, remains unrepentant. "Let them go to hell and kiss my ass,” he said in response.
What began 5 years ago with the TV-ready announcement of Donald Trump’s presidential ambitions from the escalator of his ritzy Manhattan high-rise, ended Saturday with an aging lawyer shouting conspiracies & vowing lawsuits from a NE Philly parking lot - in sight of a crematorium
UPDATE: Trump's lawyers spoke in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Holmesburg — a venue the president mistook earlier on Twitter for Center City’s ritzy Four Seasons Hotel. w/
@oonagoodinsmith
via
@phillyinquirer
Board of Elections in Montgomery County, PA, where Biden won by 27 points, votes 2-1 to certify results in party line split.
Joe Gale dissents. "I believe the US Sup should review the travesty that has happened in Pennsylvania," he says
A legal brief filed in Philly four years ago in a case alleging hacked voting machines accused the plaintiff of stoking fears of a 'hijacked' election, spreading baseless conspiracy and seeking to fundraise off the case
The author? Donald Trump's campaign
Two brothers, both named Willie Singletary, are arrested in separate crimes. Neither of them is former Philly Traffic Court Judge Willie Singletary, their brother, who also has four other siblings named "Willie." via
@Vellastrations
State Republicans, led by state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R., Butler) and some of Trump's planned presidential electors file yet another last-minute suit w/ the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court seeking to force Wolf/Boockvar to withdraw certification of the state's election results.
UPDATED: Philly police announce Inspector Joseph Bologna suspended ‘with intent to dismiss,' hours after a new accusation of excessive force w/
@aubreyjwhelan
via
@Phillyinquirer
So far this reads like a laundry list of claims that have been previously rejected by PA courts in other cases: fights over ballot curing, disputes over satellite election offices and mail ballot dropboxes.
As expected, Philly's elex board voted to reinstate the process this morning
“Republicans targeted Philadelphia — and only Philadelphia — to force us to conduct a procedure that no other county does” -- Seth Bluestein, sole GOP commissioner. w/
@Elaijuh
Prepare for Philly’s vote count to take longer than we initially expected.
Elections officials are poised to reinstate the labor-intensive and time-consuming poll book reconciliation process that they voted last week to remove.
With
@jeremyrroebuck
:
BREAKING: PA Supreme Court upholds decisions allowing some 8,300 mail ballots in Philly to be counted.
"While failures to include a handwritten name, address or date ... [are] technical violations of the Election Code, [they] do not warrant wholesale disenfranchisement."
While in Philly, Harris makes a surprise stop in North Philly to address campaign workers a training session for campaign volunteers working on behalf of Shapiro, Fetterman.
"What you guys are doing here in PA is going to affect the whole country."
Camille Cosby statement: "Bill Cosby was labelled as guilty because the media and accusers said so…period. Are the media now the people’s judges and juries? Since when are all accusers truthful?"
Dozens of Philly judges double as landlords but several didn’t follow the same laws their courts are charged with upholding, an Inquirer analysis found.
via
@juliana_f_reyes
+
@rw_briggs
Camille Cosby has just issued a blistering statement calling for a criminal investigation of DA Kevin Steele and blaming a scandal-hungry media and "perjured testimony" from Andrea Constand for her husband's conviction.
Law enforcement received an alert Thursday to be on the lookout for a mother, son, and another man from Virginia Beach traveling to Philly to "straighten things out" where votes were being counted w/
@cs_palmer
,
@MikeNewall
,
@wbender99
Who boy... First question from Judge Brann for Trump campaign is a doozy: "At bottom, you’re asking this court to invalidate some 6.8 million votes, thereby disenfranchising every single voter in the Commonwealth. Can you tell me how this result could possibly be justified?"
It also bases its request for withdrawing certification in part on an affidavit from Jesse Morgan, the USPS hauler who's made waves in conservative circles with his claims he was ordered to drive illegally filled-in ballots from NYC to PA.
UPDATE: Trump's lawyers spoke in the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Holmesburg — a venue the president mistook earlier on Twitter for Center City’s ritzy Four Seasons Hotel. w/
@oonagoodinsmith
via
@phillyinquirer
BREAKING: A federal appellate court has upheld the Boyertown School District’s policy allowing transgender students to use school bathrooms and locker rooms that conform with their gender identity.
Delaware County in PA, which Biden carried 27 points, certifies its results (save one state house race tied up in court.) Lots of talk about the threats board members + elex staff have been subjected to.
Trump campaign response calling one of Trump’s own judicial appointees and two other Republican appointed judges part of an “activist judicial machinery.”
.
@RudyGiuliani
and me on Third Circuit’s opinion:
The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud.
We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature.
On to SCOTUS!
Sonoiki, a Harvard educated former investment banker, was "brazenly" passing along insider information to Kendricks from 2013-2015, US Attorney McSwain says. Heads up on mergers and acquisitions
BREAKING: The father-son duo behind Philly's iconic cheesesteak spot Tony Luke’s get nearly 2 years in prison for tax crimes unearthed in a messy family row
UPDATE: Despite the flurry of court activity in Pennsylania, none of it appeared capable of casting enough votes into doubt to deliver Trump a reelection victory. w/
@Elaijuh
@maddiehanna
Trump announces "big press conference" today from his legal team in Philly. But ... there's a big difference between the first-announced venue the Four Seasons hotel in Center City and what he quickly changed it to .... this similarly named building in the Northeast
Philly Proud Boys prez Zach Rehl will remain in custody until at least May 4, after DC judge gives his lawyer more time to respond to gov motions to keep him detained. He's been at the FDC in Philly since his arrest 3/17 despite a stayed judicial order OKing him for house arrest.
Specific charges against Rehl remain under seal and an FBI spokesperson in the city declined to comment. He is expected to make a first appearance in federal court in Philly on Friday.
Camille Cosby on husband's conviction: "Once again, an innocent person has been found guilty based on an unthinking, unquestioning, unconstitutional frenzy propagated by the media and allowed to play out in a supposed court of law. This is mob justice, not real justice."
Pennsylvania Supreme Court denies U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly's bid for a stay its previous order throwing out his bid to disqualify all mail-in ballots cast in Pennsylvania while he appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Of the largely white group of reporters, prosecutors, accusers and court staff in her husband's case: "This is a homogeneous group of exploitive and corrupt people, whose primary purpose is to
advance themselves professionally and economically at the expense of Mr. Cosby’s life."
Like Cosby's spokesman did before, Camille Cosby likens her husband's conviction to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till and other racial injustices stretching back to slavery.
BREAKING: Pa. jury finds Bill Cosby GUILTY in lone criminal sex assault case to emerge from allegations of dozens of women that say he drugged and assaulted them
Stephen J. Miller, the statistician who provided the analysis of PA “voting irregularities” that’s been put forth as evidence in GOP suits seeking to overturn the election, now distancing himself from his own findings.... sort of? Good story from
@fparises
@wbender99
@MikeNewall
obtained an email one police captain in W. Philly sent to staff warning that not showing up Saturday puts fellow officers at risk for serious injury. “it may feel like punishment to the administration, it really only punishes other officers.”
Trump releases June 9 letter from former EDPA US Attorney Bill McSwain seeking his support by for governor and claiming Bill Barr shut him down on investigating election irregularities
Letter link here:
Background here:
Luzerne County’s Board of Elections passes the motion 3-2 to certify the vote. Tait, Ouellette and Serniak, all Democrats, voted yes. Gould and Dombroski-Gebhardt, both Republicans, voted no.
The ruling prompted Sen. Pat Toomey to become one of only four GOP Senators now to unequivocally acknowledge Biden as the winner. He described the judge as "a longtime conservative Republican" and "a fair and unbiased jurist."
@phillydotcom
Perks Kendricks allegedly gave Sonoiki including cash bribes, Eagles tickets and arranging for Sonoiki to visit the set of an unnamed pop star's music video.
Montgomery County’s jail tested every inmate for COVID-19 — and found 30 times more cases than previously known. What does that suggest for other corrections facilities in region? w/
@AESteele
via
@phillyinquirer
Gov. Tom Wolf has mobilized the National Guard to Philadelphia in response to the civil unrest that has erupted following the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., a spokesperson for the guard said Tuesday.
BREAKING: Former Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks, now with Browns, and ‘Black-ish’ TV writer Damilare Sonoiki indicted by feds on insider trading charges
Also... Rudy undercutting his own legal case at press conference:
"The president [was] way ahead on Election Night...in Pennsylvania. Somehow we lost Pennsylvania. We have statisticians ready to testify that that’s just statistically impossible. But that’s just speculation.”
Catching up on a few cases during this break in the Johnny Doc trial. This -- from Philly Proud Boys Prez Zach Rehl's new lawyer -- might be the most amazing single line I've seen in a legal filing.
BREAKING: Nation's first supervised injection site will open in South Philly next week, organizers say after final green light from judge w/
@aubreyjwhelan
BREAKING: White House expected to nominate Jacqueline C. Romero today to become the next U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia.
Romero, a longtime civil litigator in the office, is the first woman ever nominated by a president to fill the role.
Fed judge in Philly orders Philly Proud Boys president Zach Rehl released on house arrest pending trial on Capitol riot charges BUT grants gov's request to stay the order pending review by a judge in DC. This means Rehl, for now, will remain in custody for at least a few days.
Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano went to the White House after Wednesday’s maskless Gettysburg event with Giuliani. But was pulled from meeting with the president after testing positive for the coronavirus,
@houseofbuddy
reports.
Trump dumps lawyers hours before pivotal hearing in Pennsylvania. But one post on his new attorney's blog might draw the president's ire. It begins: “Joe Biden has successfully claimed the role of the 46th president of the United States”
Obligatory Rudy dig at Philly DA Larry Krasner: "They have a DA that releases criminals all the time. That's why the city is so dangerous."
He paused while talking about Detroit "irregularities" to make this jab. He really, really, really hates Philly.