Kari Lake and Arizona State University law group file to dismiss Stephen Richer's defamation lawsuit

The motion to dismiss was filed Monday along with an Arizona State University law group called the First Amendment Clinic, which specializes in cases regarding free speech.

Former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a motion along with ASU First Amendment Clinic to dismiss the defamation lawsuit filed against her by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.

"Stephen Richer is an elected official," Lake wrote in a statement on X, the platform previously called Twitter, Tuesday. "His unlawful attempt to abuse our legal system in order to insulate himself from criticism of his awful job performance established a dangerous precedent in our nation's history. Richer's attack on the First Amendment would have a chilling effect on Americans' ability to speak out and criticize officials, public officials, and politicians. For the good of our Republic, this case should be rejected by our legal system."

In his lawsuit, Richer, whose office is responsible for maintaining state voter files, claims that Lake falsely accused him of sabotaging the 2022 midterm election by injecting 300,000 illegal ballots into the final vote tally in the county, the most populous in the state.

"Not only would I obviously never do the things that she accuses me of, but also as a matter of Arizona law and election administration processes, I don’t even have responsibility for – or jurisdiction over – the printing of ballots on Election Day," Richer said in an interview with the The Arizona Republic.

The motion to dismiss was filed Monday along with an Arizona State University law group called the First Amendment Clinic, which specializes in cases regarding free speech.

One of Lake's primary legal arguments, since losing to current Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, is that thousands of Republican voters were disenfranchised on Election Day, when voting machine errors occurred in at least 60% of the voting centers in Maricopa County. She also pointed out major problems with the signature verification process for mail-in ballots.

Lake has said previously that she will take her case all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.

"In 2022, the legislature strengthened laws protecting the rights of citizens to speak freely on matters of public concern," one of Lake's attorneys Jen Wright said in a statement. "Richer's lawsuit is precisely the kind of abuse of the legal system the law was designed to stop. I have every confidence the court will agree, and dismiss the lawsuit.

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/kari-lake-and-arizona-state-university-law-group-file-dismiss-stephen-richers

Chinese Official Sentenced To Life In Prison For Bitcoin Mining, Corruption

Xiao Yi was accused of abuse of power and corruption in operating a $329 million Bitcoin mining enterprise.

A Chinese government official has been sentenced to life in prison for illegitimate business operations related to running a 2.4 billion Chinese yuan ($329 million) Bitcoin mining enterprise and for unrelated charges of corruption.

According to local media reports, the Intermediate People’s Court of Hangzhou City sentenced Xiao Yi, a former member of the Jiangxi Provincial Political Consultative Conference Party Group and vice chairman, to life in prison for corruption and abuse of power on Aug. 22.

The corruption charges stem from non-crypto-related activities of bribery from 2008 to 2021. The abuse of power charges, dating from 2017 to 2021, stem from providing financial and electricity subsidies to Jiumu Group Genesis Technology, a firm based in the city of Fuzhou that at one point operated more than 160,000 Bitcoin mining machines.

Prosecutors say that Yi “covered up” the mining operation by instructing relevant departments to fabricate statistical reports and adjust the classification of electricity consumption. From 2017 to 2020, Jiumu’s electricity consumption accounted for 10% of Fuzhou’s total electricity consumption. “Yi pleaded guilty and repented, actively returned the stolen funds, and all the bribes and their profits have been seized,” wrote the ruling magistrate of the Hangzhou People’s Court.

Currently, China bans all forms of cryptocurrency transactions, exchange operations and fiat-to-crypto onboarding but has stopped short of prohibiting outright ownership. In an Aug. 3 decision, a Chinese court ruled that a $10 million Bitcoin lending contract was invalid based on the country’s Bitcoin ban with no possibility of legal debt recovery. On Aug. 14, a Chinese national was sentenced to nine months in prison for helping an acquaintance purchase Tether

https://cointelegraph.com/news/chinese-official-sentenced-life-prison-bitcoin-mining-corruption

>>19407198

Notable

Nice

Thought Indicting Trump Was The Only Way The DOJ Interferes In Elections? Think Again

After indicting former President Donald Trump earlier this month for claiming the 2020 election was rigged, the Department of Justice (DOJ) is now fighting to schedule the trial right before the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

It’s fairly obvious what the DOJ is doing. By having the trial set in early 2024, the agency can try to kneecap Trump right before the Iowa caucuses and ultimately the 2024 general election, should he be the Republican presidential nominee. Meanwhile, the DOJ also plans to drag Trump into court over a separate set of charges, related to his handling of classified documents, in a trial that’s been scheduled for May of 2024.

As nefarious as it is, the DOJ’s targeting of the former president is hardly the only way the corrupt federal law enforcement apparatus seeks to benefit Democrats ahead of the 2024 contest. Over the past several years, the DOJ has made a habit of filing and joining leftist-backed lawsuits against Republican states’ election integrity laws.

The strategy is reminiscent of the left’s legal bombardment against election integrity laws leading up to the 2020 election, in which Democrat-backed legal groups filed a bevy of lawsuits aimed at altering state election laws in their favor. Whether it was ballot signature verification or voter ID requirements, no commonsense provisions were safe from Democrats’ legal assault.

Now, with Joe Biden in the White House, the DOJ has been able to further Democrats’ election interference by piling on the legal jihad against Republican-backed election laws at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer.

The Laws and Cases

Following a chaotic and messy 2020 election, Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature and governor implemented SB 202, a benign law designed to enhance the integrity of Georgia’s electoral process. Included in the measure were voter ID requirements for absentee voting — a provision the majority of Americans support — and safeguards on giving voters gifts or money while in line to vote or within 150 feet of a polling place.

Despite the temperate nature of SB 202, Democrats and their legacy media allies began baselessly smearing the law as a GOP-orchestrated effort to “suppress” nonwhite voters. President Joe Biden grossly referred to SB 202 as “Jim Crow on steroids” and called on Major League Baseball to relocate its 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta in protest. The MLB ultimately acquiesced, condemning the law and relocating the event to Colorado. The move cost the Peach State an estimated $100 million in revenue.

Contrary to Democrats’ claims the law would suppress Georgians’ ability to vote, the state saw record early voter turnout for the 2022 midterms and the state’s subsequent Senate runoff election. A poll conducted after the midterms further revealed that zero percent of black Georgia voters said they had a “poor” experience voting in the 2022 contest.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/22/thought-indicting-trump-was-the-only-way-the-doj-interferes-in-elections-think-again/

State media

Australia's transition to a cashless society raises concerns about financial exclusion, privacy and safety

Aside from those that involve the tooth fairy, cash transactions are at an all-time low.

According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), cash accounted for just 13 per cent of all payments made in 2022.

The ability to pay by tapping our phones is partly driving the downward trend.

"Even credit cards, or debit cards, are starting to feel a bit antiquated," Chris Berg, director of the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, tells ABC RN's Download This Show.

Cash payments plummeted during the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, when online shopping spiked, and they show little sign of bouncing back.

According to RBA data, just 7 per cent of Australians are "high cash users" (those who use cash for 80 per cent or more of their in-person transactions). That's a 50 per cent drop since 2019.

While the benefits of phasing out cash include increased convenience, transparency and safety, the transition to a wholly digital economy risks excluding some sections of society.

"A lot of policymakers will talk about the end of cash as if it is something we should be aspiring to," Dr Berg says.

"It's probably the way we are going, but it shouldn't be a public policy decision because there are some people who still need cash."

So if a cashless society doesn't benefit everyone, who pays when a country goes cash-free?

Disadvantaged and at-risk communities

The transition away from cash disproportionately affects disadvantaged groups, such as people with disabilities and those who live in remote and regional Australia who have difficulty accessing digital financial services.

Many people over 65 still rely on cash, with nearly one in five qualifying as high cash users.

RBA data also shows that people from low-income households use cash more often than their more affluent counterparts.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-23/cashless-society-financial-exclusion-safety-privacy-concerns/102706718