Monday, January 11 top news briefs

It is Monday, January 11. Here are top news briefs.

Today Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a single article of impeachment against President Donald Trump in relation to the mob riot of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

The charge, outlined in a resolution, is “incitement of insurrection.”

I will discuss this charge, but I wanted to give some updates related to the mob riot.

On Sunday afternoon, there was a solemn funeral procession for Brian Sicknick, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died after being injured during the riots. He was 42. He was in a flag-drapped coffin and his hearse drove past the U.S. Capitol as hundreds of police officers stood up in a row with a salute.

There is a murder investigation and evidence is still being gathered. There were several images or videos posted on social media of police officers being attacked, but it’s unclear if this had to do with Sicknick. An analyst told WTOP News that prosecutors may charge multiple protesters with felony murder.

On Sunday, a U.S. Capitol Police officer committed suicide while being off-duty. His name was Howard Liebengood, was 51 years old, and worked as security during the riots on Wednesday. It is the second death within the police department since the riots.

Four people involved in the mob died — one was shot and killed and three had medical emergencies.

Now, let’s go back to the impeachment process.

The resolution said in the months preceding the Joint Session of Congress (January 6) to count the Electoral College votes, President Trump repeatedly issued false statements that there was fraud in the 2020 election. The resolution said on January 6, Trump addressed a crowd in which he falsely claimed that “we won this election, and we won it by a landslide” and said, “if you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.” The House said members of this crowd unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President, and Congressional personnel, and engaged in seditious acts. The resolution said Trump betrayed his trust as President and gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of Government.

Trump only has about nine days left in his term. The House will vote for impeachment on Wednesday. If they do vote to impeach, Trump would be the first president to be impeached twice. The charge will then be handed over to the Senate, who acts as a jury and has the power to convict with a two-thirds majority. However, if there is a trial, it would happen after Joe Biden’s inauguration. It is possible that the House will hold off on transmitting the article of impeachment to the Senate to allow Biden to have his first 100 days of his presidency and work with legislation before getting the Senate wrapped up in a trial. If the Senate votes to convict Trump, they can then vote to ban Trump from the presidency, which would prevent him from seeking re-election in 2024.

Now I will show you an ad from our sponsor.

[SORENSON AD]

On Friday evening, President Trump’s Twitter account was permanently suspended. The company announced that they interpreted Trump’s last tweets referring to his voters as “American Patriots'' and for them to have a “GIANT VOICE long into the future” as an indication he supports the violent riots at the Capitol and plans to continue to support and empower those who believe he won the election. Twitter said they saw online chatter from other users making plans for an armed protest on January 17 and decided to ban Trump because there was a risk of further incitement of violence.

In separate but related news, a social media app called Parler, which was popular with conservative users, was shut down after the web host provider, Amazon, suspended its service, citing failure of the platform to moderate violent or threatening content. Google and Apple also removed the app from their platforms. Parler said they would sue Amazon.

The bans by Twitter against Trump and tech companies against Parler has only increased conservative criticism that big tech is silencing conservative voices. There are also calls to ban Iranian or Chinese officials. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the ban against Trump was “problematic” because it limits freedom of opinion.

The PGA of America announced it would no longer hold the 2022 PGA Championship at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. because holding the tournament there would hurt the PGA’s brand. The Trump Organization said they were incredibly disappointed and that this is a breach of their contract.

At least 120 people have been arrested after they were identified as being a part of the Capitol riots. AP News reported that most of them were Trump supporters according to their social media posts, voter registrations, and public records which would debunk the idea that there were antifa or BLM protesters who dressed up like Trump supporters to make them look bad.

Two rioters who carried plastic zip ties in the Senate chamber were identified and arrested. One person was from Tennessee and another was from Texas. They were charged with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. There were questions raised by journalists — what would have those protesters done with members of Congress if they managed to get to them faster?

There was buzz online that the protesters from Wednesday may be placed on federal no-fly list, a list that was set up shortly after the 9/11 attacks to prevent international terrorists from getting on planes. There was a viral Tik-Tok video that showed a man sobbing because he was kicked off a plane, saying he was labeled a terrorist. News reports said the man was prevented from getting on a plane because he refused to wear a mask rather than because of the riots. However there is a hot debate on whether the Capitol rioters would be added on the no-fly list. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), Chair of the House committee on Homeland Security released a statement where she urged the TSA and the FBI to add them to the no-fly list.

Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo) said he received word from the Army that there are at least 25 domestic terrorism cases that have been opened since Wednesday in relation to the riots.

The FBI said it has received information that there are armed protests planned at all 50 state capitols and at the U.S. Capitol starting this week through Inauguration Day. The FBI said there is chatter online by those who want to “storm” government offices when Biden is inaugurated.

That’s all the top news briefs for today. Check out our Deaf News video. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.

https://www.axios.com/trump-impeachment-house-democrats-22cb5b31-fc36-411e-9349-61ff774a1fb1.html

https://apnews.com/article/pelosi-house-impeach-trump-575a4070cbef5441d61fb7e4a497f9b7

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/10/donald-trump-capitol-attack-impeachment-abc-poll-majority-joe-biden

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55586677

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-brian-sicknick-capitol-officer-funeral-procession-20210110-3o7xl5gjkvbvvelltnp446h77i-story.html

https://www.fox5dc.com/news/capitol-police-officer-dead-by-suicide-after-responding-to-capitol-riot

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2020/suspension.html

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/955664150/parler-files-lawsuit-against-amazon-seeking-to-restore-web-service

https://abcnews.go.com/US/blow-trump-golfs-pga-strip-major-championship-trump/story?id=75168540&cid=social_twitter_abcn

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-riots-zip-ties-larry-brock-eric-munchel-arrested/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/10/politics/jason-crow-army-inauguration/index.html

https://abcnews.go.com/US/armed-protests-planned-50-state-capitols-fbi-bulletin/story?id=75179771&cid=clicksource_4380645_6_heads_hero_live_hero_hed