Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge has upheld the ATF’s ban on bump stocks, devices that boost firing speed.

U.S. District Judge Jill N. Parrish ruled on Sept. 29 (pdf) that the prohibition on bump stocks imposed administratively by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) several years ago was appropriate.

“This court concludes that the regulation is an appropriate exercise of the agency’s discretion to fill gaps implicitly left by Congress,” and so “it declines to declare the rule unlawful or enjoin its enforcement,” wrote Ms. Parrish, an appointee of former President Barack Obama.

The lawsuit opposing the bump stock ban was brought by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) on behalf of firearms instructor Clark Aposhian. It is one of several challenging the ATF’s ban on bump stocks, which are accessories that attach to semi-automatic firearms.

Bump stocks were banned in 2019 when the Department of Justice (DOJ) amended regulations of the ATF, classifying bump stocks as equivalent to machine guns and making them illegal.

The NCLA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. But the NCLA’s litigation counsel, Caleb Kruckenberg, earlier called the case a “perfect example, unfortunately, of what we call the administrative state.” remove

“What I mean by that is with no intervening action from Congress with no change in the law, the ATF has said that they know better than Congress, and the ATF is trying to rewrite the statute. But that’s not their role,” Mr. Kruckenberg said in a video posted on the group’s website.

“Congress is supposed to write the laws and the executive branch acting through the agencies are supposed to apply them,” he added.

Congressional interest in bump stocks grew after authorities found that the gunman who perpetrated a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017 attached them to several of his semi-automatic firearms.

The ATF’s administrative rule change amended the regulatory text by adding the following language: “The term ‘machine gun’ includes bump-stock devices, i.e., devices that allow a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger by harnessing the recoil energy of the semi-automatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger by the shooter.”

Several bump stock owners, including Mr. Aposhian, filed lawsuits challenging the ban, seeking to block it from going into effect. A common argument was that the ATF promulgated the rule in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

While the case is technically about bump stocks, the NCLA’s Mr. Kruckenberg said it’s about much more than banning a gun accessory—”This case is about who gets to write the law.”

In a series of decisions, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Tenth and D.C. Circuits rejected APA-based challenges to the rule, while the Sixth Circuit was evenly split, leading to a district court upholding the ban. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the three cases.

By contrast, the Fifth Circuit ruled in January 2023 that the rule violates the APA that an act of Congress is required to ban bump stocks. This lawsuit was brought by Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin.

“Cargill is correct. A plain reading of the statutory language, paired with close consideration of the mechanics of a semi-automatic firearm, reveals that a bump stock is excluded from the technical definition of ‘machine gun’ set forth in the Gun Control Act and National Firearms Act,” the Fifth Circuit said in its ruling.

“Without a bump stock or the use of an alternative bump technique, the user must provide manual input by pulling the trigger with the muscles of his trigger finger. With a bump stock, the shooter need not pull and release his trigger finger. But the shooter must still apply forward pressure to the weapon’s forebody in order to maintain the shooting mechanism,” U.S. Circuit Judge Jennifer Eldrod wrote in the opinion. “Again, the manual input remains, even though its form changes.”

Dissenting judges argued that the statutory language is ambiguous enough to support classifying bump stocks as machine guns and that court used “lenity to legalize an instrument of mass murder.”

Lenity is a principle in law that calls for any ambiguity in a criminal statute to be interpreted in favor of the defendant, resulting in a more narrow interpretation of the law.

In April 2023, the DOJ petitioned the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the Fifth Court’s ruling in favor of Mr. Cargill that halted the bump stock ban.

The NCLA said in June that it supports Supreme Court review of the case, saying it believes that the ruling would uphold the Fifth Court’s decision to strike down the prohibition.

“The Fifth Circuit held that the ‘rule of lenity’ requires that ambiguities in criminal statutes be construed against the government so that ordinary citizens will not be punished unless they have clear notice of the conduct that is prohibited,” Richard Samp, NCLA senior litigation counsel, said in a statement.

“NCLA is urging the Supreme Court, if it agrees to hear Mr. Cargill’s case, to address whether the rule of lenity requires rejection of ATF’s rule,” he added.

The case remains pending before the Supreme Court.

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

Former President Donald Trump has further solidified his lead in the Republican presidential primary, following the second GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California.

“63% of potential Republican primary voters support Donald Trump for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, up from 58% in our survey released Monday ahead of the latest primary debate,” Morning Consult said in its survey released on Sept. 29.

In comparison, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seen as Mr. Trump’s biggest rival, saw his support dip from 15 percent to 12 percent after the second debate, though the Florida governor is still in second place.

[ZH: According to PredictIt, the figures look even worse for DeSantis…]

The survey, which polled 1,183 potential GOP primary voters, was conducted on Sept. 28, one day after the second debate, which Trump didn’t attend. Instead, he spent the debate night in battleground Michigan, delivering a speech to striking auto workers.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley both lost 2 percentage points since the debate. Mr. Ramaswamy is at 9 percent and Ms. Haley is at 5 percent.

Former Vice President Mike Pence lost one percentage point and is at 5 percent. Meanwhile, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) did not see any change after the debate, remaining at 2 percent.

“This data reinforces our view that Trump is in the driver’s seat of the Republican primary, and that Trump-less debates aren’t having much of an impact on the other candidates’ national support, and may in fact be helping the former president,” the survey concludes.

In August, Morning Consult found that the support for President Trump went unchanged at 58 percent after he skipped the first GOP presidential debate in Milwaukee. Instead of attending the debate, the former president aired a pre-recorded interview he did with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The second debate, which was aired on Fox News Channel and Fox Business, drew 3.5 million fewer viewers than the first debate.

Even with the absence of President Trump, the seven GOP presidential contenders did not make a breakthrough in the second debate, as they argued over topics including China, the border crisis, crime, fentanyl, and education.

Mr. Ramaswamy finished third with 18 percent saying they were more likely to support him, ahead of Mr. Pence with 16 percent, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 15 percent, and Mr. Scott with 14 percent.

Following the second debate, Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to President Trump’s 2024 campaign, urged the Republican National Committee (RNC) to cancel future debates.

“Tonight’s GOP debate was as boring and inconsequential as the first debate, and nothing that was said will change the dynamics of the primary contest being dominated by President Trump,” Mr. LaCivita said on Sept. 27.

Mr. LaCivita added, “The RNC should immediately put an end to any further primary debates so we can train our fire on Crooked Joe Biden and quit wasting time and money that could be going to evicting Biden from the White House.”

According to Mr. LaCivita, Mr. Trump has no plans to attend future GOP presidential debates, after skipping the first two. The third debate is set to take place in Miami on Nov. 8.

The former president is scheduled to host the Iowa Commit to Caucus event in Ottumwa, Iowa, on Oct. 1.

“Just landed in the Great State of Iowa,” President Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on early Sunday. “Remember, I got the farmers 28 Billion Dollars from China. Nobody else would have even thought of doing that, and if they did, wouldn’t have been able to get it done!”

The former president was also in Iowa on Sept. 20, when he told supporters in Dubuque that he would use troops to secure the southern border if reelected.

About seven months ago, panic gripped financial markets over the regional bank meltdown, primarily due to exposure to the commercial real estate space, specifically office towers. Since then, many market participants have forgotten the turmoil, but not all have done so. 

A new weekly survey of Terminal users by Bloomberg’s Markets Live team finds two-thirds of the 919 respondents believe the office tower market needs to crash before a rebound can be seen. 

Nearly half (44%) of respondents said tower prices will trough in the second half of 2024. About 29% believe 2025 or later. 

Terminal users likely understand what Morgan Stanley pointed out earlier this year: a staggering $2.5 trillion in debt maturities and rollovers at much higher rates over the next five years:

Last month, Kyle Bass told Bloomberg TV that the US banking industry will lose hundreds of billions of dollars from exposure to the office market amid shifting workplace trends and elevated interest rates.

“Banks in the US will lose $200, $250 billion in office over time here,” Bass, founder of Hayman Capital Management, best known for correctly predicting and profiting from the bursting of the subprime housing bubble. He noted, “And there’s about $2 trillion of equity in the banks so it’s like a 10% hit to US banking equity.”

What’s clear is that refinancing won’t be pretty for building owners. A Green Street commercial property index shows towers have already fallen 16% from a peak in March 2022. 

“Nobody wants to sell at a huge loss,” said Lea Overby, an analyst at Barclays Plc. “These are properties that don’t need to be sold for long periods of time, and that means holders are likely to delay a sale as long as they can.”

According to a March report from Goldman Sachs, regional banks hold about 30% of office tower debt as of 2022. Small banks have seen deposits shrink 2% over the last 12 months ending August. That means less funding. 

Bloomberg noted it could take several years for some building owners to experience pressure from higher rates:

Pain from higher interest rates can take years to filter through to owners of the US commercial real estate, which Morgan Stanley values at $11 trillion in total. Investors in office buildings, for example, often have long-term fixed-rate financing in place, and their tenants can be subject to long- term leases as well.

It will take until 2027 for leases that are in place today to roll over to lower revenue expectations, according to research by Moody’s Investors Service published in March. If current trends hold, then revenues by then will be 10% lower than today.

Barclays’s Overby said the office tower market “will take a long time to work out,” adding she isn’t too worried about the threat of the overall CRE market because “debt is spread across a wide enough array of investors to absorb losses.” 

Meanwhile, a recent report from the Morgan Stanley team expects CRE prices to be down 27.4% from peak to trough in 18 to 24 months this cycle, not that far off from the -34.9% during the GFC in 34 months, which will range from a decline of 15% for apartments to a stunning plunge of 40% for office. 

In places like San Francisco and Baltimore, some office tower prices have already crashed:

• Downtown San Fran Office Tower Sells At 66% Off As CRE Crisis Claims Another Victim
• Baltimore Sun Editorial Board Tells Everyone ‘Keep Calm’ Amid CRE Panic

While progressive corporate media outlets tend to attribute the decline of office towers in metro areas to Covid and the rise of remote work, there’s another seldom-discussed factor at play: disastrous social justice reforms that have triggered lawlessness, forcing companies to move to the suburbs or even to states that embrace law and order. 

To sum up, office districts in Democrat cities will be dead for years. This will have significant impacts on recovery and taxes. 

By Clarissa Hawes of FreightWaves

A new report is offering more details about what led investigators to file murder charges against a New Jersey truck driver after a woman was found dead on the floorboard of his tractor-trailer in Maryland.

Matthew Sidney Watley, 46, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, has been charged with first- and second-degree murder after Candice Thompson, 46, also of Sicklerville, reportedly was found dead in the cab of his truck at a Costco Distribution Center in Monrovia, Maryland.

The charging documents state that a detective with the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office was able to positively identify Thompson with the assistance of the Winslow Township Police Department in Camden County, New Jersey, noting that their office had “a long history of domestic violence between Watley and Thompson.”

What happened?

According to the charging documents, a truck driver parked at the distribution center told investigators that he heard Watley say, “Help me, help me,” and went over to see if he was OK. After climbing up on the running boards on the driver’s side of the silver Freightliner Cascadia Watley was driving, the witness reportedly saw blood on the center of the dash and Watley lying down between the seats.

The driver told investigators that he heard a sound that made him think that Watley was cutting or stabbing himself and that he jumped down and drove to the guard station at Costco to notify security that Watley was possibly “having a medical issue or trauma.”

Deputies with the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office in Maryland reportedly used stop sticks, pepper spray and then a Taser to subdue Watley after they were called to conduct a wellness check at his truck around 1:30 a.m. Sept. 24.

Charging documents claim deputies attempted to talk to Watley several times but that he refused to answer and was incoherent when speaking. He also refused deputies’ demands to put his vehicle in park and shut the vehicle off and “would rev the engine of the tractor-trailer.” 

Watley’s tires slowly began to lose air after he attempted to drive out of the gate and into the Costco parking lot. 

Deputies were able to eventually arrest Watley. The charging document states a deputy found Thompson’s body lying face down in the cab of the truck between the driver’s and passenger’s seats and observed “two large gashes that were close together on her back.” More wounds were found later on her back, right hand and face. Thompson’s cause of death has not been released.

A claw hammer and two folding-style knives were located next to the driver’s side door of Watley’s truck, according to the report. 

Trucking company owner speaks out

Parminder Singh, owner of PAA Trucking LLC, of Westville, New Jersey, said Watley had worked for him for nearly six months prior to his arrest. He added that Watley had worked for him previously, about two years ago.

“He had an accident and damaged one of my trailers. He had gone on a low bridge and hit it — and I had to fire him,” Singh told FreightWaves. “He kept calling me to come back, to give him back his job.”

Singh said he’s unclear why Watley was at the Costco Distribution Center in Monrovia, stating he was supposed to deliver a load of pineapples to Del Monte Fresh Produce in Jessup, Maryland, about 50 miles away. 

“I don’t know why he drove to Costco — he was supposed to be in Jessup,” Singh said. “This has really messed me up. It’s been a bad thing for my company.” 

Singh said he met with Watley about 12 hours prior to his arrest to collect paperwork and hand him his paycheck and the new paperwork for the Del Monte load, which had to be delivered by 11 p.m. Sept. 23.

“It was raining so he [Watley] got out of the truck and walked over to my pickup truck and we talked there,” Singh said. 

He said that what stands out from Singh’s conversation with Watley was that the driver asked if he could go home first to take a shower and do laundry before delivering the load of pineapples.

Singh said Watley told him he was staying at his mother’s home in Sicklerville.

Singh said he tried calling and texting Watley around 11:30 p.m. but he didn’t answer. Singh also said Watley’s GPS tracking system had been turned off or wasn’t working. 

Singh said he received a call from the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office about 2:30 a.m. Sept. 24 that Watley had been arrested.

Watley’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24. He is being held without bond after waiving his right to a bond hearing, according to Jacqueline Rottmann, communications specialist for the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Op-Ed authored by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) via RealClear Wire,

I know who my bosses are. They aren’t the special interests in Washington, it isn’t party leadership, it’s my voters in Florida.

Earlier this month, I sat down with some of my bosses in Destin, Florida for a podcast they host in their driveway. I was there to be held accountable. Congress has yet to achieve the things voters are asking for like term limits and a balanced budget.

That’s what this fight in Congress is all about. It’s about making sure the promises we’ve made to voters are fulfilled. The Speaker made promises to me and other lawmakers in January, and I want to hold him to account. To be specific, that agreement includes a vote on term limits, a vote on a balanced budget amendment, single subject spending bills, and the full release of the January 6 tapes.

This isn’t about politics or personality. It’s about sticking to our word, and getting our nation back on track.

In Joe Biden’s America, families are having to pinch pennies, so Congress should too. Politicians that have spent decades running up America’s deficit are taking this personally.

Rep. John Carter, who has been on the appropriations committee since 2005, recently attacked me as an “idiot” to a reporter. Okay. What’s idiotic is that our nation’s national debt has increased more than $25 trillion since 2005.

Some people are desperate to make a policy battle personal, because their policy failures are personally embarrassing.

We have to stop the fiscal insanity in Washington and get our spending under control. I’m not voting for a continuing resolution that funds Jack Smith’s election interference, dangerous chaos on the southern border, and money for the endless war in Ukraine.

Just think about what it means for Congress to govern by Continuing Resolution. Every time we vote for a continuing resolution, we make no changes in policy or spending. It’s a vote to continue the status quo. If that’s all Congress is going to do, just replace us with AI bots, because we aren’t doing anything. The hearings are fun, but it’s the budgets where real policy changes are made.

Moody’s chief economist recently said that the typical American household is spending $709 a month more than they were two years ago just to buy the same goods and services. That’s nearly $9,000 per year being stolen from Americans through the hidden tax of inflation.

Americans literally cannot afford Washington’s reckless spending. Politicians in Washington DC – on both sides of the aisle – are robbing the American people and their grandchildren to pay for war in Ukraine, drag queen shows in Ecuador, an open border, free stuff for illegal immigrants, and the Biden Department of Justice’s illegal election interference.

I came to Washington to be a voice for my voters and fix this once great nation. I’m not here to empower the Democrats’ radical agenda. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by and do nothing while greed and corruption destroys our great nation.

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R) represents the 1st Congressional District of Florida. He is a member of the 117th Congress currently serving his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged Sunday that New York City’s ultra-progressive “Right to Shelter law” needs to be amended due to the migrant crisis. The open southern border policy started by the Biden administration two years ago was championed by Democrats, but now, many have ‘U-Turned’ and reversed their position on “Sanctuary City.” 

“Gov. [Kathy] Hochul thinks it should be modified, and it probably should under the circumstances,” Clinton told host John Catsimatidis on 77 WABC radio’s “The Cats Roundtable” show. He added the migrant crisis spreading across US cities is not a good look for Democrats. 

Clinton argued that NYC’s “Right to Shelter” law needs to be changed as tens of thousands of migrants flooded the city this year after crossing the southern border with Mexico. 

“It’s broken. We need to fix it… It doesn’t make any sense,” Clinton said of the law. 

“They come here, and we’re supposed to shelter people who can’t get work permits for six months. We need to change that,” he added.

“They ought to work. They need to begin working, paying taxes and paying their way. Most of these people have no interest in being on welfare,” Clinton said.

Days ago, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, chief advisor to Mayor Eric Adams, said NYC should not be responsible for housing migrants on the right to shelter laws in the state. 

Clinton, like many other Democrats, is reversing course on Sanctuary City laws because the writing is on the wall that voters are fed up with the migrant crisis. 

JUST IN: Former president Bill Clinton now opposes New York City being a “Sanctuary City” as the migrant crisis continues to spiral out of control.

Being a virtue signaler was easy when you didn’t actually have to deal with the consequences.

During an interview, Clinton argued… pic.twitter.com/dZrCKHk2Ym

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 1, 2023

Responding to the post above, Elon Musk said, “They did literally ask for it.” 

They did literally ask for it

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2023

In a separate post, Musk asked: “If New York is already buckling under the load and has run out of room, what will the situation be like a year from now?” He said, “The open border policy started under Biden two years ago. That policy was not in place under Obama, and Gov Hochul is Democrat not Republican, so this is not some D vs R political battle – it is specific to the current administration.” 

If New York is already buckling under the load and has run out of room, what will the situation be like a year from now?

The open border policy started under Biden two years ago. That policy was not in place under Obama, and Gov Hochul is Democrat not Republican, so this is not… https://t.co/pEB0rClKRG

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 1, 2023

Musk noted over the weekend, “US Border Patrol just reported the highest number of recorded illegal immigrants in history at over 260,000 this month.” 

US Border Patrol just reported the highest number of recorded illegal immigrants in history at over 260,000 this month.

The full number, including unrecorded, may be over half a million per month, which is the population of Wyoming. https://t.co/KHekAFBBMI

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 30, 2023

Mayor Adams warned last month that the migrant crisis will ‘destroy NYC’ and slammed the Biden administration for doing nothing about the problem they created.

Even the liberals on The View don’t want migrants anymore

JUST IN: The ‘loving and tolerant’ co-hosts of The View say migrants need to be kicked out of New York City before blaming the migrant crisis on “global warming and climate change.”

You can’t write comedy better than this.

“They need to be resettled elsewhere. They need to… pic.twitter.com/AxV5O8w0Ia

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2023

These migrants that Democrats welcomed into the US with open arms will be in for a cold awakening with the upcoming winter in NYC. 

As the mayor said, New York is running out of hotel rooms, so what’s next? https://t.co/2JABfKEAX3

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 2, 2023

So what’s next? 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday moved to force a vote to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after McCarthy enlisted Democrats to pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded through mid-November, and cut a secret side-deal for Ukraine funding.

Wow.@SpeakerMcCarthy made a side Ukraine deal with Democrats and didn’t tell House Republicans until after his Continuing Resolution passed.

More deceit. https://t.co/LC91laLyTp

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) October 1, 2023

A vote on the motion will now be brought up within two legislative days, however the chamber can first use legislative maneuvering to kill or delay it, such as voting to table the resolution.

MATT GAETZ FILES MOTION TO VACATE AGAINST MCCARTHY pic.twitter.com/T9DgsMQ02w

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 2, 2023

Gaetz says he’ll try to oust McCarthy repeatedly, saying “Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming.“

Gaetz still plans to try to oust McCarthy from speakership this week. Says he’s ready to do it over and over again. Argues it’s not him throwing House in chaos. “Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming.”

Says he’s spoken to Trump. pic.twitter.com/1mLMrqcw0O

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 2, 2023

On Sunday, Gaetz appeared on ABC‘s “This Week” to say that McCarthy will get his wish, and that he was going to file the motion this week.

.@SpeakerMcCarthy is going to get his wish. I’m going to file a motion to vacate against him this week.

If at this time next week Kevin McCarthy is still Speaker of the House, it will be because the Democrats bailed him out. He can be their Speaker, not mine. pic.twitter.com/ITlcwynY39

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 1, 2023

In a Monday op-ed, Gaetz wrote:

We have to stop the fiscal insanity in Washington and get our spending under control. I’m not voting for a continuing resolution that funds Jack Smith’s election interference, dangerous chaos on the southern border, and money for the endless war in Ukraine.

Just think about what it means for Congress to govern by Continuing Resolution. Every time we vote for a continuing resolution, we make no changes in policy or spending. It’s a vote to continue the status quo. If that’s all Congress is going to do, just replace us with AI bots, because we aren’t doing anything. The hearings are fun, but it’s the budgets where real policy changes are made.

Of course, there’s no Republican in the House who both wants the job and could get the votes, after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said he’s out.

Only a year ago NY Governor Kathy Hochul adamantly supported illegal immigration, and some argue she encouraged it by stating publicly that New York was “desperate for workers” and that the migrant were “good for the economy.”  However, as NYC and the state in general is being overrun with hundred of thousands of illegals, suddenly the governor has changed her tune – Now she believes at least “some restrictions” should be put in place to limit the number of people who enter the country. 

NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Calls for a “Limit On Who Can Come Across the Border”

“It is too open right now. People coming from all over the world are finding their way through simply saying they need asylum and…ending up in the streets of New York.”pic.twitter.com/fcCmQMpUqc

— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) October 1, 2023

The abrupt change of heart follows a swiftly derailing situation in the sanctuary state, as local governments struggle to house and feed the surging invasion of asylum seekers demanding access to welfare services.  Reports from a year ago should have made the outcome obvious, with Illegals canvassing door-to-door in NYC asking for handouts and homeless shelters packed to capacity.  At the time, Hochul was more concerned with wristbands put on migrants bussed from Texas that had barcodes designed to show that they arrived safely to New York, calling the practice inhumane. 

Today, Democrats from Washington DC to New York to Chicago are finally getting a taste of their own Robitussin and they really don’t like it.  The concept of open borders and sanctuary cities was perfectly acceptable to them, as long as they never had to deal with the direct consequences.  How quickly people adjust their thinking when the crisis they caused is on their doorstep.

Authored by Petr Svab via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor charged with breaching election machines in Georgia, had nothing to do with the breach, save for paying for it after the fact, and only because the forensic firm that did it threatened to dump the data online, her lawyer said in a recent court filing.

Ms. Powell was charged as part of the election interference case against former President Donald Trump that was brought on Aug. 14 by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It alleges that the efforts of President Trump and 18 others, including Ms. Powell, to challenge the 2020 election results amounted to a racketeering conspiracy.

Ms. Willis has accused Ms. Powell of participating in the alleged conspiracy and conspiracies to commit computer trespass, computer theft, computer invasion of privacy, election fraud, and defrauding the state.

The charges are tied to a Jan. 7, 2021, incident in which personnel of data forensic company SullivanStrickler copied data from election machines and computers in Coffee County, Georgia.

The lawyer for Ms. Powell, Brian Rafferty, has vehemently denied the allegations and is seeking dismissal of the charges.

Mr. Rafferty has argued that examination of the machines wasn’t a crime because it was authorized by the Coffee County Election Board. Even if the board didn’t ultimately have the authority to allow the examination, the people involved operated under the belief that their action was authorized. For their actions to be criminal, they would have to have been undertaken with a knowing lack of authority.

Further still, however, Ms. Powell didn’t organize or participate in the incident, Mr. Rafferty asserted.

“There are no communications of any kind between Ms. Powell and any of the alleged coconspirators or unindicted coconspirators that evince any agreement by Ms. Powell to have SullivanStrickler personnel to travel to Coffee County or to contract for their services for Coffee County—much less to do so for any illegal purpose,” he said in a Sept. 28 filing.

Ms. Powell challenged the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona, but she never represented President Trump, he said.

“It cannot be disputed that Ms. Powell went her own way following the election, and she never reached an agreement on a course of action with any indicted or unindicted coconspirator,” he said.

She did share evidence used in her lawsuits, all of which failed, with President Trump and his aides, and she advised him on his authorities in case of foreign interference in the election, Mr. Rafferty acknowledged.

“All those substantive communications, limited as they were, effectively ended by December 19, 2020,” he said.

He also acknowledged that “Defending the Republic Inc., a non-profit Ms. Powell founded, paid a bill from SullivanStrickler,” but he added that it did so only upon the company’s “threat to post information publicly online after its technicians apparently collected data from Coffee County machines.”

SullivanStrickler didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“Ms. Powell did not request that trip; she did not even know of that trip—much less authorize it,” Mr. Rafferty said.

“Accordingly, she did not agree with anyone to undertake the collection of Coffee County data—even though it was done with permission of Coffee County officials—and the State has no evidence she conspired with anyone to violate any law.”

Ms. Powell and another defendant, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, asked for a speedy trial, which is scheduled to commence on Oct. 23. Other defendants will be tried separately, though it’s not clear when. Several defendants are also trying to have the case removed to a federal court. In some of the latest developments, lawyers for President Trump informed the court that they will not joint the removal effort.

President Trump is facing another indictment for his election challenges in a federal court in the District of Columbia. He’s also fighting charges of illegal retention of defense information in Florida and more charges in New York for allegedly fraudulent bookkeeping entries. In a separate civil suit targeting his businesses, a New York judge recently ordered his businesses in the state dissolved.

President Trump has denounced the legal cases against himself as politically motivated efforts to interfere with his 2024 presidential run.

The Fifth Circuit has partially granted, but essentially denied, the government’s motion to cancel a district court’s injunctions in the Firearms Policy Coalition’s lawsuit (VanDerStok v. Garland) challenging the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “frame or receiver” rule. The injunctions will now only apply to two plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

LEGAL ALERT: The Fifth Circuit has partially granted the government’s motion to vacate the district court injunctions in our lawsuit challenging the ATF’s frame or receiver” rule, saying the injunctions will no longer apply to non-parties: https://t.co/qcBmmWGKrv pic.twitter.com/cw1VBeAMs3

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 2, 2023

The case involves so-called “ghost guns,” weapons that are sold in ready-to-assemble kits. President Biden has pushed hard to require background checks and serial numbers for buying sets of gun parts under the pretext that these are ‘readily convertible’ and, therefore, firearms. The ruling today means the plaintiffs, Defense Distributed and Blackhawk Manufacturing Group (incorporated, doing business as 80 Percent Arms), can sell every kind of ghost gun kit to their customers while the courts review ATF’s 98-page rule. 

“Fourth and finally, courts should be able to review ATF’s 98-page rule, and the decades of precedent it attempts to change, without the Government putting people in jail or shutting down businesses.” pic.twitter.com/phiuw83BNV

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) October 2, 2023

Since the plaintiffs, Distributed and Blackhawk Manufacturing, were the only ones permitted to sell ghost gun kits, this essentially grants them a monopoly on selling the kits nationwide. The government, by implementing this rule, has essentially crushed the industry. But they’ve now inadvertently established a monopoly in the process.

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson explains more on this:

“These are the kinds of accidents integral to Executive and agency overreach in the federal courts. Should have stayed out of the People’s business. Someone will have to break the bad news to Kamala and her lackeys in the new WH Office of Gun Violence Prevention.” 

Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t even two weeks into her new role as ‘Gun Czar‘ and has already been delivered a blow as Biden’s war on guns has been squarely pointed at ‘ghost guns.’ 

Remember this: 

It’s likely that anti-gunner organizations like Giffords and Everytown and their billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg will be displeased with Defense Distributed being allowed to sell ghost gun kits again.

Here is constitutional attorney Mark W. Smith breaking down what happened today: 

Since this is a ruling in favor of the Second Amendment, we doubt Reuters, Bloomberg, and or any other left-leaning corporate media outlets will be reporting on this.