December 7, 2022 4:12 am
The Department of Justice has subpoenaed local election officials from several states, including in Allegheny County, asking for communications with or involving former President Donald Trump, his 2020 campaign aides and a list of allies involved in his efforts to try to overturn the results of the election. Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed officials in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania, asking for communications with or involving former President Donald Trump, his campaign aides and a list of allies involved in his efforts to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The requests, issued to Milwaukee and Dane counties in Wisconsin; Wayne County, Michigan; Maricopa County, Arizona; and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, are the first known subpoenas by Smith, who was named special counsel last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith is overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the violent storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s frantic efforts to remain in power. The subpoenas, first reported by The Washington Post, are the clearest indication yet that Smith’s work will include an examination of the fake electors that were part of Trump’s efforts to subvert the election count and certification. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday.
December 7, 2022 2:14 am
The man who allegedly caused a several hours long SWAT incident in Peters Township will face trial. Brandon Osborne, 31 of Clairton, faced his preliminary hearing on Tuesday and had a felony strangulation charge and misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief charges held for court. Victim testimony during the hearing stated that an argument began between her and Osborne, who had been staying with her temporarily, over information on her cell phone. Osborne wanted access and when he could not get it, destroyed two televisions and grabbed the victim by her collar causing her to nearly pass out and left brush burns around her neck. The victim was taken to Canonsburg Hospital for evaluation. Osborne fled the scene just after the victim escaped to call 9-1-1. Osborne turned himself into police the following day. Osborne is scheduled to be formally arraigned on January 19.
December 7, 2022 2:05 am
NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump’s company has been convicted of tax fraud for a scheme by top executives to avoid paying personal income taxes on perks such as apartments and luxury cars. As punishment, the Trump Organization could be fined up to $1.6 million. The guilty verdict Tuesday day came on the second day of deliberations in the only criminal trial to arise from the Manhattan district attorney’s three-year investigation of the former president and his businesses. Longtime Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg previously pleaded guilty to hatching the 15-year scheme. He testified at the trial in exchange for a promised five-month jail sentence.
December 7, 2022 1:09 am
WASHINGTON D.C. – A Uniontown man was one of the first Capitol breach defendants to be convicted at trial of assaulting police officers with pepper spray. According to the Department of Justice, Peter J. Schwartz, 49, and his wife Shelly Stallings, who pleaded guilty in August, traveled to Washington, D.C., and were around the area of the Lower West Terrace at the Capitol. Officials said Schwartz threw a folding chair at officers in a police line at around 2:28 p.m. and told a friend that he “started a riot” by “throwing the first chair.” Schwartz then stole police duffle bags full of pepper-spray canisters and gave them to other members of the mob, the Department of Justice said. The organization also said that he began spraying at any retreating police officer he could find. Schwartz followed officers up into the lower west terrace tunnel where he joined dozens of other rioters. They heaved against the police line, Schwartz showing another member of the mob how to operate the pepper-spray canisters, officials said. Schwartz was arrested in Uniontown on Feb. 4, 2021. Schwartz was convicted of four counts of felony assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon; interfering with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder; obstruction of an official proceeding; and related charges. The charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers using a dangerous weapon carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison, as does the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding. The charge of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled but is expected to take place in early 2023, officials said. (Photo: WPXI)
December 6, 2022 5:43 pm
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Five women who accuse Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them decades ago have filed a new lawsuit against the 85-year-old comedian – and this one calls NBC Universal, a studio and a production company complicit in the abuse. The lawsuit comes more than a year after Cosby left prison after his 2018 sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania was overturned. Earlier this year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $500,000 to a woman who said Cosby sexually abused her at the Playboy Mansion when she was a teenager in 1975. NBC says it won’t comment on legal issues. (Photo: AP)
December 6, 2022 3:50 pm
(AP) – A panel is calling for changes at the federal agency that oversees most of the nation’s food supply, saying revamped leadership, a clear mission and more urgency are needed to prevent illness outbreaks and to promote good health. But the report released Tuesday stopped short of recommending specific steps to take, instead offering several scenarios. The Reagan-Udall Foundation, a group separate from but closely tied to the federal Food and Drug Administration, said in a report that the agency leadership and culture must be restructured to better respond to food safety crises and chronic public health problems.
December 6, 2022 4:15 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Top House and Senate leaders have bestowed Congress’ highest honor on law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The Congressional Gold Medals were presented Tuesday in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, which was overrun that day nearly two years ago by supporters of then-President Donald Trump in a brutal and bloody attack. Four medals will be placed at the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Capitol and the Smithsonian Institution. President Joe Biden said a medal will be placed at the Smithsonian “so all visitors can understand what happened that day.”
December 6, 2022 4:14 am
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Kirstie Alley, a two-time Emmy winner who starred in the 1980s sitcom “Cheers” and the hit film “Look Who’s Talking,” has died. She was 71. Her death was announced Monday by her children on social media and confirmed by her manager. The post said their mother died of cancer that was recently diagnosed. She starred as Rebecca Howe on the NBC sitcom “Cheers” from 1987 to 1993, after the departure of original star Shelley Long. She had her own sitcom on the network, “Veronica’s Closet,” from 1997 to 2000. John Travolta, who starred with Alley in two “Look Who’s Talking” films, was among the stars who paid tribute to her online.
December 6, 2022 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Biden administration is actively searching for ways to safeguard abortion access for millions of women. But those efforts are bumping up against a complex web of strict new state laws enacted in the months after the Supreme Court stripped the constitutional right. After midterm elections there’s a renewed purpose at the White House to find ways to help women in states have virtually outlawed or limited the treatment, and to enforce policies already in place. But the administration is shackled by a ban on federal funding for most abortions, a conservative-leaning Supreme Court and a split Congress.
December 6, 2022 4:11 am
ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia voters are deciding the final Senate contest in the country. They’re choosing whether to reelect Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock or opt for Republican challenger Herschel Walker. Tuesday’s contest concludes a four-week runoff blitz that’s drawn a flood of outside spending to an increasingly personal fight. The outcome will determine whether Democrats have a 51-49 Senate majority or control a 50-50 chamber based on Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote. In last month’s general election, Warnock led Walker by 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast but fell shy of a majority, triggering the runoff. As polls opened Tuesday morning, a 40-degree wind chill and steady rain greeted voters in the Atlanta area.
