WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden Thursday commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were placed in home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, and granted pardons for 39 individuals with convictions for nonviolent crimes.
“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. He noted many of the 1,500 were serving long sentences that would be shorter under current laws, policies and practices.
As the Biden administration winds down, it’s the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern day history.
The president added that his administration will continue to review clemency petitions before his term ends on Jan. 20. There are more than 9,400 petitions for clemency that were submitted to the White House, according to recent Department of Justice clemency statistics.
“As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses,” Biden said.
Those 39 people who received pardons included 67-year-old Michael Gary Pelletier of Augusta, Maine, who pleaded guilty to a nonviolent offense, according to the White House, which provided brief biographies of the pardoned individuals.
After his conviction, Pelletier worked for 20 years at a water treatment facility and volunteered for the HAZMAT team, assisting in hazardous spills and natural disasters. He now grows vegetables for a local soup kitchen and volunteers to support wounded veterans.
Another pardon was granted to Nina Simona Allen of Harvest, Alabama.
Allen, 49, was convicted of a nonviolent offense in her 20s, the White House said. After her conviction, she earned a post-baccalaureate degree and two master’s degrees and now works in the field of education. Additionally, she volunteers at a local soup kitchen and nursing home.
Hunter Biden pardon
The clemency action came after the president gave a full pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, on gun and tax charges and any other offenses, from 2014 until December. The president previously stated he would not pardon his son, but changed his mind because he said his son was constantly targeted by Republicans.
Additionally, advocates and Democrats have pressed Biden to exert his clemency powers on behalf of the 40 men on federal death row before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Democrats have pushed for this because Trump expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term.
The co-executive directors of Popular Democracy in Action, a progressive advocacy group, Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper, said in a joint statement that Biden should “not stop now.”
“Thousands more of our people who have been wronged by an unjust system are still waiting for freedom and compassion,” they said.
Those with nonviolent offenses who were pardoned by the president, according to the White House:
Alabama
Nina Simona Allen
California
Gregory S. Ekman
Colorado
Johnnie Earl Williams
Connecticut
Sherranda Janell Harris
Delaware
Patrice Chante Sellers
District of Columbia
Norman O’Neal Brown
Florida
Jose Antonio Rodriguez
Illinois
Diana Bazan Villanueva
Indiana
Emily Good Nelson
Kentucky
Edwin Allen Jones
Louisiana
Trynitha Fulton
Maine
Michael Gary Pelletier
Maryland
Arthur Lawrence Byrd
Minnesota
Kelsie Lynn Becklin
Sarah Jean Carlson
Lashawn Marrvinia Walker
Nevada
Lora Nicole Wood
New Mexico
Paul John Garcia
New York
Kimberly Jo Warner
Ohio
Duran Arthur Brown
Kim Douglas Haman
Jamal Lee King
James Russell Stidd
Oklahoma
Shannan Rae Faulkner
Oregon
Gary Michael Robinson
South Carolina
Denita Nicole Parker
Shawnte Dorothea Williams
Tennessee
James Edgar Yarbrough
Texas
Nathaniel David Reed III
Mireya Aimee Walmsley
Lashundra Tenneal Wilson
Utah
Stevoni Wells Doyle
Virginia
Brandon Sergio Castroflay
Washington
Rosetta Jean Davis
Terence Anthony Jackson
Russell Thomas Portner
Wisconsin
Jerry Donald Manning
Audrey Diane Simone
Wyoming
Honi Lori Moore
Last updated 1:50 p.m., Dec. 12, 2024
Ariana Figueroa
Ariana covers the nation’s capital for States Newsroom. Her areas of coverage include politics and policy, lobbying, elections and campaign finance.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the results of the 2024 election in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 7, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son from federal gun and tax crimes —and any other offenses over a nearly 11-year period — has drawn outrage from Republicans, while only a few Democrats have criticized the outgoing president.
In a lengthy Sunday night statement, Biden laid out his reasoning for reversing his long-stated position that he would not give his son a pardon. He argued that Hunter Biden was unfairly targeted by Republicans and noted that investigations began in December 2020, shortly after Biden won the presidential election.
The pardon would cover offenses which Hunter Biden “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” the executive grant of clemency signed by Biden said.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said.
Trump and Jan. 6
President-elect Donald Trump took to his social media site, TruthSocial, where he called the move “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Trump questioned whether Biden’s pardon would include the 29 inmates held in the District of Columbia jail for offenses related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Of those, 27 are charged with assaulting law enforcement after Trump riled up his supporters to overturn the presidential election he lost.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump wrote.
With the move, Biden joined Trump and former President Bill Clinton in pardoning family members.
Trump granted 143 pardons during his first term and so far Biden has granted 26 pardons, including his son’s. Former President Barack Obama granted 212 pardons.
Advocates and Democrats have pressed Biden to exert his clemency powers on behalf of the 40 men on federal death row before his term expires in January. The push comes as Trump is set to return to the White House. The former president expedited 13 executions of people on federal death row in the last six months of his first term.
The co-executive directors of Popular Democracy in Action, a progressive advocacy group, Analilia Mejia and DaMareo Cooper, said in a joint statement that Biden should “provide the same compassion he gave his son and pardon the 10,000 clemency petitions on his desk.”
“The President has the power to provide clemency to thousands of people who have been wronged by the laws governing the judicial system and the political considerations that engendered them,” they said.
Hunter Biden’s federal charges stem from a 2018 gun purchase. He lied on a form by checking a box that affirmed he was not using illegal drugs, but he did then use drugs while owning the firearm.
A federal jury convicted him in June and the gun charges carried a possible prison sentence.
Hunter Biden also pleaded guilty to separate federal tax charges in California.
Target for Republicans
Over the course of Biden’s presidency, House Republicans have held hearings and inquiries into the finances of the Biden family, focusing on Hunter Biden in an attempt to broadly stick corruption charges to the president. No evidence has shown any wrongdoing by the president.
But the pardon gave fresh ammunition to Biden critics, who noted it contradicted what the president had long promised.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, in a statement said Sunday that Biden “has lied from start to finish about his family’s corrupt influence peddling activities.”
“The charges Hunter faced were just the tip of the iceberg in the blatant corruption that President Biden and the Biden Crime Family have lied about to the American people,” Comer said. “It’s unfortunate that, rather than come clean about their decades of wrongdoing, President Biden and his family continue to do everything they can to avoid accountability.”
Many Republicans criticized Biden for reversing his long-standing stance that he would not pardon his son.
“President Biden insisted many times he would never pardon his own son for his serious crimes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, said on social media. “But last night he suddenly granted a ‘Full and Unconditional Pardon’ for any and all offenses that Hunter committed for more than a decade! Trust in our justice system has been almost irreparably damaged by the Bidens and their use and abuse of it.”
Selective Democrats object
Democrats in Congress have largely remained silent about the pardon, but some, including Ohio’s Greg Landsman and Arizona’s Greg Stanton, criticized the move.
“As a father, I get it,” Landsman wrote on social media. “But as someone who wants people to believe in public service again, it’s a setback.”
Stanton in a social media post wrote that while he respected Biden, “I think he got this one wrong.”
“This wasn’t a politically-motivated prosecution,” he said. “Hunter committed felonies, and was convicted by a jury of his peers.”
Colorado U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet wrote on social media that “President Biden’s decision put personal interest ahead of duty and further erodes Americans’ faith that the justice system is fair and equal for all.”
Michigan U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, chair of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote on social media that the president’s decision to pardon his son was wrong.
“A president’s family and allies shouldn’t get special treatment,” Peters said. “This was an improper use of power, it erodes trust in our government, and it emboldens others to bend justice to suit their interests.”
On CNN, Maryland U.S. Rep. Glenn Ivey said that he had “mixed views” about the pardoning.
“I know that there was a real strong sentiment in, you know, wanting to protect Hunter Biden from unfair prosecution,” he said. “But this is going to be used against us when we’re fighting the misuses that are coming from the Trump administration.”
Trump pardons
Trump himself granted controversial pardons, including of Paul Manafort, a former campaign official who was convicted of tax and bank fraud and alleged interference by Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
He also pardoned Roger Stone, who was convicted on charges of lying to Congress about his knowledge of Russian efforts to discredit former first lady and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.
Trump also pardoned his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, who was charged with tax evasion and retaliating against a federal witness, who was the elder Kushner’s brother-in-law. Trump on Saturday announced his intent to appoint Kushner as the next U.S. ambassador to France.
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Ariana Figueroa
Ariana covers the nation’s capital for States Newsroom. Her areas of coverage include politics and policy, lobbying, elections and campaign finance.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
The Democratic National Committee will move forward with a virtual nomination vote for its presidential candidate as soon as Aug. 1, after its Rules Committee approved the process on Wednesday.
The DNC has been moving forward with plans to hold a virtual nomination roll call since well before President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place.
The pre-convention vote is necessary to avoid potential legal pitfalls that could arise if the DNC waits to formally nominate its candidate until during its convention in late August, since some states have deadlines to place candidates on their ballots before or during that week.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said at the beginning of the Rules Committee’s meeting the party is striving to “execute this nomination with transparency, with fairness and efficiency.”
“Many of you have probably seen the reporting that Vice President Harris has received the expressed support from the majority of pledged delegates and might wonder what that means for this process,” Harrison said.
“Delegates are free to support who they choose and we are glad that they are engaging in this important moment in history,” Harrison said. “As a party we have an obligation to design and implement a fair nomination process for delegates to officially express their preferences through a vote resulting in eventually an official nominee of the Democratic Party who will go on to the top ballot in November.”
Multi-step process
Under the process adopted during the panel’s meeting, Harris as well as other presidential hopefuls have from July 25 through July 27 at 6 p.m. Eastern to register their intent to seek the nomination with the DNC Convention secretary.
Candidates then have until July 30 at 6 p.m. to meet the requirements, including collecting at least 300 signatures from DNC delegates with a maximum of 50 of those people representing any one state.
DNC Rules Committee Co-Chair Leah D. Daughtry said during the live-streamed meeting that if only one presidential candidate qualifies, she expects the virtual roll call would take place on Aug. 1.
If more than one candidate qualifies, Daughtry anticipates the virtual roll call would take place on or around Aug. 3.
Democrats will still hold a ceremonial roll call of the states from the floor of the United Center in Chicago during their convention week, but have argued for months they must certify their nominee beforehand.
‘Consistent with our values’
Minyon Moore, chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, said the party has “the guideposts and the expertise in place to ensure that we will do this right and in a manner that is consistent with our values as Democrats.”
“We understand that this is an unprecedented situation but I’m confident that we will find a path forward together,” Moore said.
DNC outside counsel Pat Moore said the virtual roll call will provide an avenue for all 4,699 delegates to cast a vote for the presidential nominee.
The DNC waiting until the in-person convention to officially certify its presidential nominee, he said, would open the party up to lawsuits.
“Make no mistake, we have strong legal arguments in response to any such claims and we’re prepared to make them,” Pat Moore said. “But we also have opponents who are willing to make specious arguments and drag out the process in an effort to confuse voters and muddy the waters. And in some states, we will face an unfriendly judiciary.”
Pat Moore said that ensuring the DNC formally nominates its presidential and vice presidential candidates ahead of any state deadlines is about ensuring voters in every state have their ballots counted in November.
“Past is precedent: Trump and Republicans have already made it 100% clear that they will challenge the validity of the results if they lose on Election Day,” Pat Moore said.
“If we take chances with state processes and deadlines, Republican groups could make the same argument to challenge Democratic votes in the post-election setting, arguing that our nominee should never have been on the ballot in the first place,” Pat Moore added. “We should not and must not give them that opportunity.”
JENNIFER SHUTT
Jennifer covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include congressional policy, politics and legal challenges with a focus on health care, unemployment, housing and aid to families.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race Sunday, he said in a letter posted to social media, creating an unprecedented vacancy atop the Democratic ticket one month before he was scheduled to officially accept his party’s nomination.
In a followup post less than 30 minutes later, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place as the Democratic nominee.
Biden’s withdrawal came after a weeks-long pressure campaign from party insiders following a disastrous June 27 debate performance against GOP candidate former President Donald Trump.
The move throws an already-unusual presidential race into further chaos, and it was not immediately clear Sunday how Democrats would choose a replacement for Biden in November’s election, though Harris would have a strong claim to lead the ticket.
Biden praised Harris as “an extraordinary partner” in the administration’s accomplishments.
Biden, who has been fighting a COVID-19 infection at home in Delaware since last week, was not specific about his reasons for stepping aside, but said he believed it was in the country’s best interest.
“It has been the great honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote in the one-page letter. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”
Biden, 81, appeared frail and confused at several points throughout the debate, leading to worries among elected Democrats and the party’s voters that he was no longer up to the task of governing or contesting Trump’s bid to win back the White House.
As several congressional Democrats called for him to quit the race, others asked that he ramp up his public schedule and include more unrehearsed appearances that could demonstrate his fitness.
But a more robust schedule of news interviews, press conferences and campaign rallies did not sufficiently quiet the Democratic voices saying Biden’s candidacy was likely to throw the presidential race to Trump – whom Biden and others have described as an existential threat to U.S. democracy – and deeply handicap Democrats in other races up and down November’s ballot.
On Friday, Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico brought the number of senators calling on Biden to drop out to four. A day earlier, Montana Sen. Jon Tester said Biden should drop his reelection campaign and that Democrats should hold an open nomination process at their Chicago convention next month.
In the U.S. House, 29 Democrats had called for Biden to withdraw from the race by the end of the day July 19.
In a post following the announcement to his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said Biden was “never” fit to serve as president.
“Crooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve – And never was!” Trump wrote. “He only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t – And now, look what he’s done to our Country.”
More details of announcement
In the letter, Biden praised his administration’s accomplishments over three-and-a-half years, saying he’d worked to make “historic investments” in the country, lowered prescription drug costs, nominated the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court and “passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world.”
“Together we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Biden wrote. “We’ve protected and preserved our Democracy. And we’ve revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.”
Biden said he would “speak to the Nation later this week” about the decision.
He praised Harris and other supporters.
“For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected,” he wrote. “I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.”
In follow-up posts, Biden said he was endorsing Harris and added a fundraising link.
“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,” he said. “And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
Trump gains in polls
The about face in what was to be a 2020 presidential election rematch leaves Democrats searching for a new candidate as Trump, who promises authoritarian-style leadership, has gained support in recent polls.
With just 107 days until Election Day, Biden’s move marks the latest date in modern presidential history that a candidate has withdrawn from the race.
President Lyndon Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not seek reelection that year, leaving Democratic delegates to decide on a replacement – ultimately Vice President Hubert Humphrey – at the party’s convention that summer in Chicago.
Harris appears to be in a strong position to replace Biden as the party’s standard bearer, though questions remain about how the process will play out and who would become the vice presidential nominee.
Democrats praise decision
Reaction poured in shortly after the Sunday afternoon announcement, with Democrats largely praising Biden’s record and calling his decision courageous.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that he understood Biden’s decision to step out of the race was “not easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first.”
“Joe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he is a truly amazing human being,” the New York Democrat said.
Several Republicans called for Biden to resign his office.
“If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,” House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X. “He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.”
A crescendoing chorus to step down
Biden faced calls for him to abandon his reelection bid from congressional Democrats, even as he tried to stabilize the debate aftershock by holding a series of campaign rallies, sitting down for interviews and holding a press conference at the annual NATO conference.
Democratic lawmakers largelypresented a public front of support for Biden in statements and passing interviews in the U.S. Capitol hallways with reporters.
What began as a trickle of dissent from rank-and-file Democrats — beginning with Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and a handful of doubtful senior House Democrats — steadily grew to a torrent by Friday.
50-year career in Washington
Biden’s exit marks the closure of a long, storied career in Washington, including 38 years in the U.S. Senate, featuring stints leading the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees, and eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama.
Biden’s presidency was punctuated with major economic wins for Democrats, beginning with nearly $2 trillion to combat the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
His leadership with a Democratic majority in Congress resulted in substantial nationwide infrastructure investments, drove financial incentives to tackle climate change and revive the U.S. global role in semiconductor manufacturing, and strengthened flagging tax enforcement.
However, low approval ratings followed Biden throughout his presidency as Americans aimed their frustrations over inflation at the White House and assigned blame for record numbers of border crossings as a divided Congress – after Democrats lost their House majority in the 2022 midterms – failed to pass immigration restrictions negotiated with the administration.
Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war also hurt his support among young and progressive voters as Israel’s continued offensive against Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip killed tens of thousands of civilians. Protesters against the U.S. supply of weapons to Israel interrupted dozens of Biden’s reelection campaign events through 2024.
Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.
JACOB FISCHLER
Jacob covers federal policy as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Based in Oregon, he focuses on Western issues. His coverage areas include climate, energy development, public lands and infrastructure.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Just after a 20-year-old shooter made an attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life last Saturday, a host of Republicans rushed to blame Democrats and the media for the shooting.
They include Ohio U.S. Senator and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno. They also include Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
All rushed to judgment in the hours after the shooting. Some did so even before the shooter’s identity had been released. Yet four days later, the shooter’s motives are unknown and even the basics about his politics remain vague.
But one fact seems clear. The two most prominent Ohio players in the post-shooting blame game have in the past compared Trump to the most noxious fascist of them all — Adolph Hitler.
Spokespeople for Vance and Moreno didn’t respond to requests for comment on statements the two made about Trump, whom they were against before they were for.
On Saturday, just two hours after a 20-year-old took shots at Trump, Vance took to X to blame Biden.
“Today is not just some isolated incident,” he wrote. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
In February 2016, Vance sent a text message to a former Yale Law School classmate in which he made an even starker comparison about Trump.
Vance said he’d been going “back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he’s America’s Hitler.”
In saying — repeatedly — that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” the former president clearly rhymed with Hitler, who several times used the same metaphor to attack Jews and any other “race” that he considered inferior to “Aryans.” Of Jewish men who “allow” Jewish women to marry Christians, Hitler said, “He poisons the blood of others but preserves his own blood unadulterated.”
It might seem that some of the rhetoric stems from Trump’s own words and actions. It might also seem that the rush to blame others for the shooting was really an attempt to bully people from speaking publicly about Trump’s anti-democratic conduct.
But to Moreno, the GOP challenger to Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, blame for last week’s shooting lies with the media and Democrats.
“They’ve been calling (Trump) Hitler for eight years,” Moreno said in a recording that his campaign posted on X. “The shooter is 20 years old. From the time he was 12 years old, they’ve been telling him (Trump) is the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler. If you could take a shot at Adolph Hitler in 1935, would you be a good person or a bad person? That’s how (the shooter) viewed it. That’s on them. It’s on them, meaning the Democrats, and also on the mainstream media.”
But on Moreno’s Twitter account in 2016, Moreno himself comparing Trump to Hitler. In a now deleted post, the future Senate candidate retweeted a poll featuring Trump and Hitler, and he appended a comment.
“He attacked immigrants, tries to silence the press, & appeals to the darkest part of human nature,” it said.
Moreno didn’t say to which man he was referring. But his use of the present tense is telling, given the fact that Hitler was 70 years dead at that point.
Moreno’s spokeswoman was asked for examples of the press comparing Trump to Hitler for the past eight years. She was also asked whether Moreno worried that blaming press and political opponents for Trump’s attempted assassination would paint targets on their backs, given all the armed, unstable people there are.
She didn’t respond.
MARTY SCHLADEN
Marty Schladen has been a reporter for decades, working in Indiana, Texas and other places before returning to his native Ohio to work at The Columbus Dispatch in 2017. He’s won state and national journalism awards for investigations into utility regulation, public corruption, the environment, prescription drug spending and other matters.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
A Manhattan jury made history Thursday when it convicted Donald Trump of 34 felonies. They relate to how he paid a porn star to stay quiet just before the 2016 election — and his actions cast doubt on Trump’s legitimacy during his one term as president.
Despite now being a felon, Trump is for the third time the GOP nominee. Most of Ohio’s Republican leaders reacted with outrage to his conviction, while the governor didn’t have much to say, and the one statewide Democrat said the jury had spoken.
Sen. J.D. Vance is on the shortlist to be Trump’s vice presidential pick and he took to the airwaves to call Trump’s prosecution political, and to say a lot of other stuff as well. On X Thursday, Vance falsely accused the Democratic Party of inventing a crime just to prosecute Trump and he made reference to a conspiracy theory with anti-semitic overtones.
“This decision is a disgrace to the rule of law and our Constitution,” Vance wrote. “Dems invented a felony to ‘get Trump,’ with the help of a Soros funded prosecutor and a Biden donor Judge, who rigged the entire case to get this outcome. This isn’t justice, it’s election interference.”
Actually, as the jury found, it was Trump who committed election interference. And legal experts pointed out that Trump’s lawyers helped pick the jury, put on witnesses and had input in the jury’s instructions. Trump himself could have taken the witness stand, but chose not to.
Speaking from the White House Friday, President Joe Biden criticized Trump supporters for claiming that the justice system was rigged against Trump without providing any concrete evidence.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a likely contender for the GOP nomination to be governor in 2026, also slammed the proceedings that ended in Trump’s conviction.
“This verdict is likely to be overturned. It is not the first unjust verdict, and it is why we have courts of appeals,” he said on X. “The aptly named (Manhattan District Attorney) Alvin Bragg picked his defendant and campaigned on prosecuting him — disreputable and unethical conduct that tarnished the justice system.”
When it comes to courts of appeal, Yost has had his own difficulties. A panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ruled that Yost was improperly blocking signature gathering for a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that would reduce immunities the state has have from being sued. Yost on Thursday said he’d seek a ruling from the entire court.
Some of the AG’s critics have accused him of stalling.
He refused to approve a summary of the ballot language, which supporters need if they’re to gather 420,000 verified signatures from registered voters in time for the measure to make the November ballot. Yost is refusing to answer questions about a similar maneuver in 2019 that helped kill a voter-initiated repeal of a law at the center of the biggest bribery scandal in Ohio history.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is likely to vie with Yost for the gubernatorial nomination. Like many other Ohio Republicans, he, too, said he was outraged over Trump’s conviction for having an extramarital tryst with a porn star, paying to silence her in order to improperly influence an election and then falsifying business records to cover it all up.
“This quote from President Trump is ultimately the truth of the matter: ‘The real verdict is gonna be Nov. 5, by the people,’” Husted said on X. He then reposted that while saying further, “If you are mad about it, do something about it by donating, volunteering and voting.”
Ever merciless, some commenters reminded the lieutenant governor that he was roundly booed at a 2020 Trump rally in Vandalia as he encouraged attendees to wear masks at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump played a lead role in politicizing mask wearing and downplaying a scourge that has killed nearly 1.2 million Americans.
Ohio’s top elections official also rushed onto social media to defend a newly minted felon who tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and thereby steal the votes of 81 million Americans.
“Partisan prosecutor,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose said on X. “Activist judge. Sham trial. Bogus verdict. It’s a sad day in America when a political party is so afraid of losing its grip on power that they’re willing to abuse justice to game an election. This will not stand.”
One wag also pointed out that a jury had just found that Trump falsified numerous business records to further his conspiracy and that as Secretary of State, LaRose is in charge of Ohio’s business records. It’s unclear what — if anything — LaRose would have done if the former president faked them here in the Buckeye State.
Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, who is challenging Democrat Sherrod Brown for Ohio’s other Senate seat, was also vociferous in his support of the only ex-president to also bear the title “felon.”
“Today is a dark day for American democracy,” Moreno said on X. “Joe Biden and his leftwing allies engaged in election interference to prosecute their top political opponent on bogus charges. This verdict is representative of a banana republic, not a democracy. Sherrod Brown and DC Democrats should be ashamed of this weaponization of our justice system.”
His statement ignores the fact that the Biden Justice Department declined to prosecute Trump on the charges of which the New York jurors found him guilty. It also ignores the fact that the Biden Justice Department is prosecuting the president’s own son and a sitting Democratic senator.
Brown, his Democratic opponent, is facing a hard reelection in a Republican-leaning state. When asked to comment on Trump’s conviction Friday, Sen. Brown stuck to general principals.
“I’m not a lawyer or a judge but I’ve said from the beginning that no one is above the law,” he said in an email. “Ultimately this is up to the legal system to sort out and for the American people to decide in November.”
Gov. Mike DeWine’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. He’s a Republican who got on Trump’s bad side early in the pandemic, when DeWine implemented health orders that were recommended by experts.
MARTY SCHLADEN
Marty Schladen has been a reporter for decades, working in Indiana, Texas and other places before returning to his native Ohio to work at The Columbus Dispatch in 2017. He’s won state and national journalism awards for investigations into utility regulation, public corruption, the environment, prescription drug spending and other matters.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Loveland, Ohio– Here is the virtual tour of the White House you’ve been hearing about.
First Lady Jill Biden launched a new virtual tour of the White House. The White House, Google Maps, and Google Arts & Culture have collaborated to create a new virtual tour of the White House using Google Street View technology. It will live on WhiteHouse.gov/VirtualTour, as well as on both Google Maps and the Google Arts & Culture page.
“Since day one of this Administration, the First Lady has worked to open the doors of the White House wider and wider, using technology and digital platforms to bring the “People’s House” to as many people as possible. Not everyone can make the trip to Washington, DC to tour the White House, so she is bringing the White House to them. We especially hope teachers everywhere can use this in their classrooms as a new interactive tool to educate their students about the White House – both past and present,” said Elizabeth Alexander, Communications Director for the First Lady.
This is the first Google virtual tour of the White House with available Spanish translation and audio captions for those with disabilities. Audio captions were narrated by White House Social Secretary Carlos Elizondo. The opening video on the virtual tour of the President and the First Lady is the same video that plays at the White House Visitors Center, so those who come for the virtual tour will get the same experience and message as those who come in-person.
TAKE THE TOUR
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The holiday theme at the White House in 2004 was “A Season of Merriment and Melody” which featured holiday songs that have been favorites for generations of Americans.
These photos were taken by Loveland Magazine Managing Editor David Miller during a Holiday Open House during the administration of George W. Bush in 2004.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly been criticized as slow to respond to a widely expected U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended the nationwide right to an abortion, signed an executive order Friday that could preserve some access to abortion in states where the procedure remains legal.
Biden in a White House speech also brought up the case of a 10-year-old rape survivor from Ohio who was forced to travel out of state to access abortion care in Indiana, questioning if that’s actually the will of a majority of the state’s residents.
“Does anyone believe that it’s Ohio’s majority view that that should not be able to be dealt with? Or in any other state in the nation? A 10-year-old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child?” Biden said. “I can tell you that I don’t. I can’t think of anything that’s much more extreme.”
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine declined to comment on the state law’s impact in the case this week, saying he had read about it in the paper. He did say he found it “gut-wrenching” that a man raped a child.
Biden, who began his speech from the White House’s Roosevelt Room more than 30 minutes late by talking about the morning’s jobs report, said the fastest way to reestablish nationwide protections for abortion is by voting in November’s midterm election.
“Based on the reasoning of the court, there is no constitutional right to choose — the only way to fulfill and restore that right from women in this country is by voting,” Biden said. “We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice House to codify Roe at federal law.”
Biden acknowledged the frustration and anger many abortion rights advocates and Democrats expressed after he gave a speech the day of the Supreme Court decision, calling on Americans to vote on the issue in November.
He doubled down on that message during his remarks Friday, saying the Supreme Court opinion in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, “made clear it will not protect the rights of women.”
“It’s my hope and strong belief that women will in fact turn out in record numbers to reclaim the rights that have taken from them by the court,” Biden said, opting not to call on men, who are needed for pregnancy to take place, to turn out at the ballot box.
Executive order
Biden’s executive order would direct the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary to make sure abortion medication “is as widely accessible as possible,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The president has also “asked the Chair of the Federal Trade Commission to consider taking steps to protect consumers’ privacy” when seeking information about abortion services and will request HHS “consider additional actions” to protect “sensitive information related to reproductive health care.”
As part of those efforts, the administration has posted websites to try to help patients protect information their cell phones may store about reproductive health care and about the type of health care records that are protected under the federal law known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
The White House is hoping to combat misinformation that has become more common since the Supreme Court’s ruling, with Biden directing the HHS secretary, the attorney general and chair of the Federal Trade Commission “to consider options to address deceptive or fraudulent practices, including online, and protect access to accurate information.”
The executive order, Biden said, would direct the federal government to look into tech privacy.
“Now when you use a search engine, or the app on your phone, companies collect your data, they sell it to other companies and even share it with law enforcement,” Biden said. “There’s an increasing concern that extremist governors and others will try to get that data off of your phone, which is out there in the ether, to find what you’re seeking, where you’re going and what you’re doing with regard to health care.”
House to vote on abortion access
The Democratic-controlled U.S. House is set to vote on two bills next week addressing abortion access, though it’s unlikely either will get past the U.S. Senate’s legislative filibuster.
The first bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, would reestablish a nationwide right to an abortion. The second bill, the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022, would block state governments from making abortion travel illegal and protect health care providers in states where the procedure remains legal.
Congress is also slated to have a series of hearings on the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, including next week in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as well as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions panel.
Washington state Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the HELP panel, said in a written statement Friday following Biden’s speech that while the executive order is an important step, the “fight is far from over.”
“The reality is that the President’s executive authority is limited — so the surest way to protect every woman’s right to abortion is electing two more pro-choice Democratic senators and protecting our pro-choice majority in the House so that we can codify Roe,” Murray said.
U.S. Congressman Brad Wenstrup issued the following statement today:
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a direct violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and their right to self-governance. Unfortunately, President Putin has shown no signs of backing down from his unprovoked, unjustified war, and I pray for the innocent people Putin puts in harm’s way.
I have recently been on zoom calls with members of Ukrainian military leadership and members of Ukraine’s Parliament, and I applaud the bravery of the Ukrainian people and their leaders.
President Zelensky has refused to leave Ukraine and has stayed with his military
The Ukrainian people have demonstrated on the world stage an incredibly strong will to fight for their freedom, and Ukrainian President Zelensky’s courage in the face of Putin’s evil has been remarkable. I believe the United States must continue to work with our NATO allies and European partners to provide any needed lethal aid and humanitarian support to Ukraine without delay.
In 2005, Vladimir Putin gave a speech in which he said that the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century and it is clear to me he wants to reestablish that evil empire. Putin’s war is one that is a fight between democracy and authoritarianism, freedom versus oppression. The West is more united now than in recent decades, and I am tremendously encouraged by the actions taken by so many freedom-loving nations around the world.
Although sanctions take time to implement, and President Putin has, unfortunately, shown that he is prepared for them, I am pleased to see the United States and our allies sanction Russia, Putin, and the oligarchs who empower him. We have targeted the Russian Central Bank and removed select Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which is the high-security network that connects thousands of financial institutions around the world.
Some of the new sanctions, especially involving Russia’ Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, were the same sanctions that the previous administration had in place, but President Biden removed them, helping President Putin.
The world must know that Russia’s actions exclude them from any legitimate seat in the international community. That is why I introduced H. Res. 947, a bipartisan resolution that reaffirms the House of Representative’s unequivocal backing of the Ukrainian people, our commitment to working with our allies and partners to ensure Ukraine is equipped to defend itself, and unwavering support for a secure, democratic, and independent Ukraine.
On March 2, 2022, I voted in favor of H. Res. 956, which expresses the House’s support for the people of Ukraine, demands an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of Russian forces, and backs the continued use of sanctions to fully isolate the Putin regime.
To that end, I have cosponsored legislation aimed at making further invasion prohibitively costly to President Putin and the Russian Federation, such as the Never Yielding Europe’s Territory (NYET) Act (H.R. 6742) and continue to call on President Biden to nominate a U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine without any further delay. The Biden Administration must also recommit itself to American energy independence and stop purchasing Russian oil and gas.
While it is important to pursue every available avenue for diplomacy in seeking to end this war, President Putin has thus far proven to be unwilling. I will continue to work with my colleagues here in Congress towards policies that punish President Putin for his aggression and provide the necessary weapons, assets, and humanitarian resources to the Ukrainian people to defend themselves and their nation against Russia. We must continue to put the pressure on President Putin until he ends his unjust war against Ukraine, and his troops are driven back into Russia.
In the big picture of the insurrection, the criminal charges against Alexander Sheppard are unremarkable.
Federal prosecutors say Sheppard arrived in Washington D.C. from Powell, Ohio after posting on Facebook that the election was “RIGGED.” He faces five charges, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. He wasn’t accused of violence or destruction, but of joining the throngs of about 2,000 people who comprised a mob that stormed the Capitol in an attempt to forcefully block the U.S. Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win.
Then-President Donald Trump and his allies hosted the Jan. 6, 2021 event, based on the central lie the election was fraudulently stolen from the incumbent. Trump said in a speech that day the attendees should “stop the steal” and “fight like hell” because they’re “not going to have a country anymore” if they don’t.
Sheppard, 21 at the time, was spotted in footage outside the House Speaker’s lobby just before a Capitol Police officer shot and killed Ashli Babbitt as she tried to climb through a transom window toward members of Congress.
In charging documents, prosecutors included a still photo from raw footage from a man named John Sullivan, who also breached the Capitol that day. About 80 seconds after the camera shows the included still frame of Sheppard — wearing a Trump red “Keep America Great” hat and navy blue hoodie, yelling at police officers blocking the door — Babbitt gets shot some 10 feet away.
Alexander Sheppard, pictured on right. Source: DOJ
A public defender representing Sheppard, who has pleaded not guilty, did not respond to inquiries, including whether Sheppard witnessed Babbitt’s shooting. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia declined comment.
The episode is a reminder of the way Ohioans pockmarked events around the Capitol on an infamously seditious, chaotic and politically violent day of American history. At least 38 Ohioans were accused of crimes in connection with the riots. Six have pleaded guilty, mostly for comparatively minor offenses.
The Ohio cohort’s alleged conduct ranges from conspiring to plan the event with the Oath Keepers (a paramilitary group), to waging hand-to-hand combat with police officers and wrestling down barricades outside, to smoking joints and carrying a bottle of bourbon around the seat of government.
Many of the suspects filmed and photographed themselves throughout the day, which prosecutors relied on heavily in bringing charges against the defendants. Several signaled allegiances to QAnon, a sprawling, online conspiracy theory whose believers essentially say the Democratic Party runs a massive, Satan-worshipping child sex trafficking ring that only Trump can thwart.
A review of court documents, raw footage and news coverage shows the range of conduct Ohioans took part in that day.
Oath Keepers and the ‘stack’
A still from footage of the riots in Washington D.C. captures Jessica Watkins, 38, seen with several people in Oath Keepers regalia, heading up the Capitol stairs. Screenshot from YouTube, credit Ford Fischer / News2Share.
Some of the most serious charges of the day accuse several Ohioans who are Oath Keepers of conspiring to plan the events of Jan. 6. The Oath Keepers are a right-wing, anti-government extremist group within the militia movement comprised mostly of former law enforcement and military members. Twenty one members from multiple states were charged with various offenses.
They were seen in matching combat gear in a “stack” formation (hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them) moving up the stairs toward the east side entrance of the Capitol. Prosecutors have accused them of conspiring to plan a Capitol raid as far back as November 2020. On Jan. 6, they wore matching combat fatigues and ballistic helmets. They were unarmed, but prosecutors have alleged they had a “quick reaction force” at the ready to deliver guns if needed. A lawyer representing one defendant, however, said in court filings the ‘force’ was one overweight, old man and called the government’s claim a gross overstatement.
Jessica Watkins, a Champaign County bartender, ran a small group she called the “Ohio State Regular Militia” — a subset of the Oath Keepers that folded in with the larger unit that day.
“To me, it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw until we started hearing glass smash,” she said of the raid in a January 2021 interview with the Ohio Capital Journal “That’s when we knew things had gotten really bad.”’
Watkins characterized her participation as non-violent. Footage has since emerged, identified by amateur internet sleuths “Capitol Terrorists Exposers” and later published by The New York Times, showing her and other Oath Keepers in a crowd trying to push past the Capitol Police into the U.S. Senate.
“Get in there! They can’t hold us!” Watkins yells in the footage.
Jessica Watkins was charged with conspiracy for her role in the Capitol attack, alongside other Oath Keepers in military-style garb. New footage shows Watkins (and others linked to the group) pushing against riot police on Jan. 6, contradicting claims by her defense counsel. pic.twitter.com/blfDeeYaP2
Also in the clash were Ohioans Donovan Crowl and Sandra Parker, according to prosecutors. Bennie Parker, Sandra’s husband, stayed in communication from outside the building. All have pleaded not guilty.
“So can I bring my gun?” Bennie Parker allegedly texted Watkins before the riot, charging documents state.
‘Kill the tyrannical government’
Douglas Wright, of Canton, in a photo prosecutors say they obtained from his Facebook page. Source: DOJ
David Mehaffie, of Kettering, Ohio, acted as a quasi-commander during one of the most brutal clashes between rioters and police during the siege, according to federal prosecutors. Police had formed a human barricade against a door at an exterior terrace at the Capitol complex.
According to prosecutors, he left the scrum and spent 26 minutes above the fray “to coordinate the mob’s actions” by directing efforts and passing weapons around like stolen police shields.
“If you are going in, get on this side,” he yelled to rioters, according to footage obtained by prosecutors. “Push! Push!”
Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone would later say he was electroshocked in the fracas involving Mehaffie. A woman named Rosanne Boyland, a pro-Trump member of the mob, died after she was trampled amid the chaos, according to the Huffington Post.
Mehaffie pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. His lawyer did not respond to inquiries. Other Ohioans were accused of violence elsewhere on the Capitol grounds.
Cliff Mackrell pushed, shoved, struck at, and peeled a gas mask from the face of a Capitol Police officer outside the building to expose him to various chemical irritants like tear gas in the air, according to footage obtained by prosecutors.
“Whatever it takes take for my country,” he said in the footage, per the DOJ. He posted on Facebook later that day that it’s our “literal jobs as Americans to kill the tyrannical government.”
Facebook messages later obtained by law enforcement quote Mackrell, a Wellington, Ohio man, as saying his head hurts because he was hit 10 to 15 times with a baton.
Mackrell has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. His lawyer did not respond to an email.
“Yesterday wasn’t the end,” he said to the newspaper. “Yesterday was the first battle of the war. I promise you.”
In charging documents, prosecutors included a photo of him and other rioters with their hands on a metal barricade, seeking to overpower Capitol Police officers on the other side. In Facebook posts prosecutors say they obtained, Wright seemed to have foreseen clashes with law enforcement.
“WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGHT THE BLUE TOMORROW,” one message states (capitalization in the original).
“FROM WHAT I SEEN TONIGHT THE TEMPERS WILL BE UP TOMORROW AND POLICE LINES WILL BE BREACHED,” reads another.
Wright pleaded not guilty. His attorney did not respond to an inquiry.
Jared Hunter Adams, a Plain City, Ohio man, was accused of entering the building. Prosecutors say he brought two hunting knives to Washington D.C., but did not bring them with him into the building. They cited alleged comments from Hunter captured in footage as evidence to successfully quash a motion from Hunter to allow him to possess firearms while he awaits trial.
“Next time we won’t leave our guns at home,” he said on Jan. 6, per court documents.
Adams has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Joseph Roll Conte, declined to comment.
QAnon: Where we go one, we go all
Ohio woman Christine Priola, right, roamed the floor of the U.S. Senate during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. She currently faces several criminal charges stemming from the event. She has pleaded not guilty. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Some Ohioans publicly signaled their adherence to QAnon, the online conspiracy theory that exploded in popularity during the pandemic
A Piqua, Ohio woman named Therese Borgerding was photographed holding a large “Q” (in the theory, Q is a high ranking anonymous government official who leaves cryptic messages for followers about Trump’s looming purge of detractors from the federal government) sign. She has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer did not respond to an inquiry.
Timothy Allen Hart, a Dayton man, was photographed wearing a “Q” sweatshirt inside the building. Another, Ethan Seitz, saw a “militia” that “wants to storm the Capitol and take the building after Trump’s speech,” according to Facebook messages obtained by law enforcement included in charging documents. Along with posts stating that the people “will not allow our country to be stolen! #stopthesteal,” he posted a photo of himself the night before the riot from his hotel room.
The post states he’s in Washington D.C. and ends with QAnon’s unofficial mantra: “Where we go one, we go all.”
Another woman named Chrstine Priola was one of a smaller group of rioters who allegedly made it onto the floor of the U.S. Senate. Prosecutors say she wielded a sign reading “THE CHILDREN CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE” — QAnon followers often use vague references to protecting children as a coded means of attracting new followers. Shortly after the riot, Priola resigned from her role as a school therapist for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, according to Cleveland.com. She resigned in a QAnon-tinged letter stating she was “switching paths to expose the global evil of human trafficking and pedophilia, including in our government agencies and children’s services agencies.”
Priola has pleaded not guilty. Her attorney, Charles Langmack, noted that discovery (the trading of evidence between the defense and prosecution) is ongoing and declined further comment.
The partiers
James Matthew Horning smoking what prosecutors say is a marijuana cigarette. He was also photographed inside the Capitol. Source: DOJ.
The Jan. 6 mob contained violent extremists, Trump zealots, an Olympic swimmer, men in costume, and a number of people who seemingly flowed into the building with a crowd.
However, there’s some evidence that people used the mayhem simply to catch a buzz in a government building.
“F**k it, smoking a joint on the Capitol steps right now,” wrote James Matthew Horning, who attended the protests with his daughter, according to prosecutors.
In a Facebook comment thread provided by a tipster to the FBI, a person asked Horning why he attended the protests. Horning listed three reasons.
“To participate in anarchy, to smoke weed in government buildings, [but] the real reason was to intimidate congress,” he wrote in a post detailed in the documents. “They have a 9% approval rating. We accomplished that. Maybe they will work on that because they know we could have got them and have mercy”
Columbus men Robert Anthony Lyon and Dustin Thompson attended the event, the latter of whom was accused of trying to steal a coat rack on his way out the door. Thompson bailed on the coat rack and fled when confronted by police, according to prosecutors.
Lyon was allegedly found to have marijuana, pipes, and bourbon in his bag — he was charged with crimes related to the insurrection, not the substances.
In another case, prosecutors alleged an Instagram video from an account called “brotunda” that appeared to show Hart smoking marijuana in the rotunda of the Capitol building.
“It can be inferred that Hart was smoking marijuana in the video due to the fact that the induvial who was taking the video was counting how many ‘joints’ were in the video and asked another individual if he smoked weed,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
