Clinton slams 'unregulated media' and highlights France's preelection coverage ban

Ryan King

April 03, 03:17 PM April 03, 03:17 PM

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton decried "unregulated media" in the United States on Monday and appeared to blame it for her election loss in 2016.

Clinton further warned that the prevalence of greed and lies promulgated by media and Big Tech companies undermines its democracy during a wide-ranging conversation with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at an event hosted by Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

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"When you have a media company that is like Facebook and like other platforms who do not care what lies they traffic in as long as they get ad money, you have consequences," Clinton said before giving some advice to other countries. "Don't go where we went, which was to largely unregulated media with no fairness doctrine, no accountability for lies — unless, of course, these lawsuits against Fox are successful."

Recalling her 2016 defeat, Clinton alluded to Russia's efforts to interfere in the election against her. She explained that French President Emmanuel Macron's campaign asked her what happened so they could craft a plan to avoid running into the same fate during his first election.

"Probably what really helped Macron was a law in France, which said no coverage of the election 72 hours before. And a lot of the people who we were in on this effort to takedown Macron ... didn't know about that law," she said. "So they started dumping all of this phony information on the Friday before the Sunday election, but because they didn't know about the law, it got no traction."

Clinton also recalled a conversation with former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in which she asked why Wellington was less plagued by political polarization than Australia.

"We never let Rupert Murdoch have a television presence," Ardern replied, according to Clinton.

Throughout the discussion, both Clinton and Pelosi echoed sentiments that U.S. democracy is in dire straits. Pelosi pinpointed the start of the "backsliding" of U.S. democracy back to the 2016 election, surmising Clinton was the one whom Russian President Vladimir Putin "feared most."

Pelosi suggested that the remedy is to show the "public what is at stake" and root our "dark money" from politics. Clinton concurred and emphasized that voters must be resolute and not disillusioned. The two struck a somewhat optimistic tone that the U.S. will recover.

Clinton also elaborated on her prior warning that artificial intelligence poses a threat to democracy and pointed to a deepfake video of Pelosi in which she appeared impaired or inebriated.

"I was so outraged. I called her office," Clinton recounted. "Facebook would not take it down. ... [They said], 'We believe that our customers have the right to make up their own minds.' I said, 'Yeah, but this is not something to make up your own mind about because this is not real.'"

"We are going to be in a constant state of uncertainty and instability because other people have captured so much information about us. And then the final thing is impact on politics and governance," Clinton added. "Democracy requires at least a minimal level of trust."

Pelosi, for her part, largely shrugged off the episode but warned that AI could be weaponized against innocent bystanders in the future to tarnish their reputations.

"I don't even drink alcohol," she quipped. "Our artificial intelligence [is], again, a double-edged sword. So many wonderful opportunities that could be there. But the bad use of algorithms can create any reality that you want."

Clinton is slated to teach a course titled "Inside the Situation Room" next fall, assessing the various decision-making processes behind key events such as negotiations with Iran, the "red line" in Syria," and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to a press release from Columbia. Last month, the institution released a tongue-in-cheek promo teasing the course.

The interview Monday was the first in a series by SIPA featuring in-depth discussions about pressing issues with top former officials "as they close one chapter in their career and look towards the next," according to SIPA Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo.

Ex-Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti raises doubt about Trump indictment

Ryan King

March 24, 07:12 PM March 24, 07:12 PM

Former Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti raised doubts about the Manhattan district attorney's case against former President Donald Trump.

A staunch critic of Trump, Avenatti highlighted the unreliability of star witness Michael Cohen. He argued that the former president's legal team will tear through his testimony in a hypothetical trial and likely put any indictment reliant on Cohen in jeopardy.

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"I have been consistent for 5 yrs: NEVER underestimate the ability of Michael Cohen to screw something up by engaging in stupidity, lies, and sheer f***ery. NEVER. #zeronothero," Avenatti tweeted.

"Rule: If you have to meet with a witness over 20 times to get to the alleged 'facts' and the 'truth,' RUN!!! Because you've got yourself a terrible witness who can't be trusted and might just crater your career and your reputation," he added.

Cohen was Trump's personal lawyer and fixer from 2006 to 2018. During the tail-end of the 2016 election cycle, Cohen took out a home equity line of credit and then wired $130,000 via a shell company named Essential Consultants LLC to Daniels's attorney, according to court records. Daniels is also known as Stephanie Gregory Clifford.

The money was transferred in exchange for Daniels's agreement to sign a nondisclosure agreement to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump roughly a decade prior.

In March 2018, Avenatti worked on a lawsuit on behalf of Daniels against Trump and Essential Consultants LLC to nix the NDA. He waged a massive public relations campaign, railing against both Trump and Cohen in a flurry of TV interviews to great fanfare at the time by Trump critics. About a month later in April, the FBI raided Cohen's home and office.

By August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to a litany of federal charges, including campaign finance violations connected to the Daniels payment. Later that month, reports indicated that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office was investigating the case and was scrutinizing Trump's business empire in connection with the Daniels payment.

Recently, numerous reports have indicated that Manhattan DA is mulling charges against Trump for falsification of documents related to the reimbursement of Cohen paired with a campaign finance violation. Several legal experts told the Washington Examiner that the rumored case against Trump is novel and untested.

Avenatti previously cast aspersions on the case.

"There are many critical facts and pieces of evidence (texts, emails, etc.) relating to the hush money scandal that have yet to see the light of day. And they will unfortunately be very damaging to the prosecution if Trump stands trial. At this point, you simply can't build a case on the testimony of Cohen & Daniels," he tweeted.

In March 2019, Daniels cut ties with Avenatti. She later recalled how she "began witnessing his lies and dishonesty until I realized I too became his victim."

Avenatti was sentenced to four years behind bars for defrauding Daniels in June 2022. Avenatti was also slapped with prison time over a guilty plea for embezzling millions from several clients, bringing his total sentencing to over 20 years in prison.

Both Cohen and Avenatti were disbarred in New York. Avenatti was also disbarred in California.

Cohen has reportedly met with prosecutors and a special grand jury in the case multiple times. Daniels has met with investigators as well. He has publicly maintained that Trump directed him to pay Daniels. Trump has heartily denied wrongdoing in the case.

Earlier this week, the special grand jury reportedly heard from lawyer Robert Costello, who consulted with Cohen before his guilty plea. Costello dubbed Cohen a "serial liar" and drew attention to his guilty plea to perjury for lying before Congress in 2018.

"Atty Joe Tacopina is no Rudy Giuliani/Sydney Powell. The guy knows his way around a criminal courtroom. He will destroy Michael 'Dumb as a Box of Rocks' Cohen on the stand, esp. seeing as Cohen publicly lied for 15 mos. and now won't stop talking on TV. #terriblewitness," Avenatti added.

Trump's attorney in the case, Joe Tacopina, had prior communications with Daniels that were subsequently turned over to the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and could complicate his ability to represent Trump and cross-examine Daniels, CNN reported. Precise details of those communications remain somewhat murky, but Tacopina has insisted it's not a conflict.

Trump dubiously claimed that he would be "arrested on Tuesday" of this week, but that never came to fruition. His campaign enjoyed a fundraising boom amid speculation that an arrest was imminent. The special grand jury in the case has been meeting Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, per CBS.

Should an indictment come down, it will mark the first time in U.S. history a former president is indicted. President Ulysses S. Grant was arrested in 1872 for speeding.

True the Vote leaders jailed for contempt of court

Ryan King

October 31, 10:56 PM October 31, 10:56 PM

Leaders of the True the Vote, a Texas group that peddled claims rampant fraud dogged the 2020 election, were arrested Monday after a judge deemed them in contempt of court.

Catherine Engelbrecht and former board member Gregg Phillips, who founded the group, were marshaled into a holding cell after they failed to comply with a judge's demand that they divulge the name of the person who helped them tap into election software company Konnech’s computer systems.

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“We need to know his name,” said Konnech lawyer Dean Pamphilis, per the Texas Tribune. “We haven’t heard any testimony that his confidentiality status has anything to do with this case. It’s a complete red herring they’ve manufactured to keep us from the truth.”

Engelbrecht and Phillips have claimed that their source was an FBI informant, though they have not yet presented evidence to back that up, according to the Washington Post. They were reportedly given until 9 a.m. Monday to name the person and declined to do so, prompting U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, a Reagan appointee, to hold them in contempt.

"We will be held in jail until we agree to give up the name of a person we believe was not covered under the terms of the judge’s [order]," Engelbrecht said in a statement.

Konnech is suing Engelbrecht and Phillips for defamation over claims that the company allowed the Chinese government to access the personal information of roughly 2 million U.S. election workers — something the company adamantly denies.

Last month, the founder and chief executive of the company, Eugene Yu, was arrested on suspicion of theft. Prior to his arrest, True the Vote accused Yu, an immigrant, of essentially conducting intelligence work for China. Some of the justifications for his arrest appeared to echo some of True the Vote's accusations, the Washington Post reported.

His legal team is seeking to get the charges dropped.

Both Engelbrecht and Phillips have long championed claims of election denialism. They served as executive producers on 2000 Mules, a heavily disputed documentary by conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza that claimed Democratic-linked groups tapped "mules" to dump false ballots into drop boxes illegally. The claims have been roundly dismissed by election experts and officials.

Phillips had also boosted claims that he had proof over 3 million illegal votes had been cast in the 2016 election — an assertion amplified by former President Donald Trump in a bid to diminish his popular vote loss in that election.