A hearing in the case of one of the Capitol rioters accused of assault is about to begin.

Some background via @Matt_Naham: "'Mateo Q' Accused of Attacking National Guardsmen at Capitol. His Tweets Are Exactly What You Would Expect."

Live-tweet ahead.

"In Wake of Black Lives Matter Protests, New York Attorney General Wants Federal Monitor to Oversee NYPD for Civil Rights Abuses"

@NewYorkStateAG is holding a press conference soon, and I will update this developing story. https://t.co/XuH44IdqjJ via @lawcrimenews

NYAG's federal complaint is embedded in the story.

NYAG James's press conference is ongoing.

Live stream

NYAG speaks of her investigation into civil rights abuse:

"What we found was an egregious abuse of police power, rampant excessive use of force and leadership unable and unwilling to stop it."

NYAG James:

"This lawsuit seeks broad injunctive relief, including systemic reforms to the NYPD and a monitor to oversee the NYPD's compliance with the law."

NYAG:

"Since the end of May 2020, my office has received more than 1,300 complaints and pieces of evidence about the NYPD misconduct. We have also received 300 submissions of written evidence."

The U.S. Attorney's office announced an update on charges related to the U.S. Capitol insurrection soon.

As I cover that, my colleague @ColinKalmbacher will live-tweet the Aaron Mostofsky hearing.

The briefing is about to begin.

FBI Washington Field office's Steven M. D'Antuono is up first.

"We have opened 160 case files, and that is just the tip of the iceberg."

D'Antuono:

We have received more than 100K pieces of digital media.

He solicits more at 1-800-CALL-FBI

D'Antuono:

He credits pre-siege intelligence to the arrest of Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio before Jan. 6

Georgia GOP and Trump campaign's suit in Chatham County is in court this morning.

GOP witness conceded that he did not know whether a stack of 53 challenged ballots were received on time.

The board's witness testified they were.

Background:

You can follow along with the hearing here.

Trump's Michigan suit also heads to a speedy hearing today at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, per a new order.

We'll be on top of them both at @LawCrimeNews.

Meanwhile in the Georgia case:

Sabrina German, the director of Chatham County's Voter Registration Office, backs up the prior witness's testimony that those 53 ballots were received on time.

None of them were double votes, she said.

Jeff Harris, from the Democratic Party of Georgia, notes both of the GOP witnesses conceded they had no idea about when those 53 ballots were received.

"They have been flatly incapable of proffering competent evidence to prove that point."

I'm watching the City of Austin press conference:

Judge Andy Brown says today's ice storm made roads incredibly dangerous, so please stay home if possible.

.@austinenergy : we are starting to get more power and are prioritizing turning on the power for people who have been without power the longest. if we can sustain this level, we can do true rotating blackouts

.@austinenergy : we have crews out in the community trying to fix things, but they are having people screaming at them and throwing things at them. Jacquie Sargent asks that people let them do their jobs and not harass them.

.@AustinWater : we ask that you DO NOT drip your faucets, stop using laundry machines, dishwashers, and if you know how to take care of a burst pipe please do.

City Manager Spencer Cronk: We know this is frustrating and I'm sorry this is happening. We have shelters open.

(Here is a list of the various shelters, some are for warming, some are for staying the

#BREAKING
U.S. charges political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi with acting as an agent of #Iran's regime.

https://t.co/fsmrOtgImm

Afrasiabi is a known Tehran apologist & strongly defends the world's number one terrorist Qassem Soleimani.

"Afrasiabi was actually a secret employee of the Government of Iran & the Permanent Mission of Iran to the UN who was being paid to spread their propaganda.... he intentionally avoided registering with the Dept. of Justice as the Foreign Agents Registration Act required."

“Mr. Afrasiabi never disclosed to a congressman, journalists or others who hold roles of influence in our country that he was being paid by #Iran's gov to paint an untruthfully positive picture of the nation."

Afrasiab on CNN with Amanpour & Reza Aslan, all Iran apologists.

"For more than a decade, Mr. Afrasiabi was allegedly paid, directed & controlled by #Iran's gov to lobby U.S. gov officials, including a congressman; and to create & disseminate information favorable to the Iranian gov."

Seen here with former regime president Mohammad Khatami.

"Afrasiabi has also been secretly employed by the Iranian government and paid by Iranian diplomats assigned to the Permanent Mission of the IMUN. Afrasiabi has been paid approximately $265,000 in checks drawn on the IMUN’s official bank accounts since 2007..."

1/9

While debt-to-GDP ratios already have a limited but very misunderstood use, it seems economists are finding bright new ways of misunderstanding them. Now we say that when nominal interest rates are lower than nominal growth rates, the

2/9

downward pressure on the debt-to-GDP ratio makes rising government debt and larger government deficits more sustainable and more easily justified.

This is totally confused. When the nominal interest rate is lower than the nominal GDP growth rate, it only means that net...

3/9

borrowers are getting a disproportionate share of growth relative to net lenders. This in and of itself changes the comparability of the debt-to-GDP ratio, so the fact that the ratio may decline tells us nothing about its sustainability which, I'm glad to say, isn't...

4/9

a mistake Olivier Blanchard makes in this article.

At least three things matter. First, whether or not rising debt is sustainable depends almost wholly on underlying conditions in the real economy, and only trivially on the arithmetical relationship between...

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the interest rate and the growth rate. Second, this approach simply assumes away financial distress costs, in which case debt capacity is infinite anyway and the interest rate becomes irrelevant. And third, it assumes that the nominal debt level matters independently...

Today, if Johnson bothers to show up for the impeachment trial, he’ll hear a flimsy defense of the indefensible. Then he faces an existential, character-defining choice: Country and Constitution, or party and personal power. We have a guess. But first, let’s review some clues.

Just a couple of days before the impeachment trial began, Ron Johnson said that there was “no reason” to hold the trial—and that barring Trump from ever holding federal public office again would “pre-emptively” disenfranchise people.

Ron Johnson knows something about disenfranchisement. In fact, he’s a big fan of it. He sought to disenfranchise millions of voters who chose Biden, spreading lies and fueling the fire of the January 6th insurrection.

He went on Fox News to claim there was voter fraud, that “millions of Americans have suspicions,” and made accusations about the validity of absentee

Johnson went on in that same interview to explicitly call for Congress to “delay accepting a particular state’s electors.” He announced that he was going to vote against accepting Arizona’s electors, feeding the fury of the Jan 6th insurrectionists.