GILLIBRAND URGES SENATE TO PASS LEGISLATION TO BLOCK TRUMP RULE ALLOWING EMPLOYERS TO DENY BIRTH CONTROL COVERAGE

Push Follows Supreme Court Decision That Upheld Trump Rule Which Lets Employers Opt Out of Contraception Coverage Mandated by the Affordable Care Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand cosponsored legislation to protect access to birth control and prevent the Trump administration from allowing employers to deny birth control coverage based on religious or moral opposition. Following a Supreme Court decision upholding the administration’s rule to undermine access to birth control, Gillibrand and her Senate colleagues are urging the Senate to pass the Protect Access to Birth Control Act. The Protect Access to Birth Control Act would block Trump’s rule that lets employers with religious or moral objections opt out of birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act. As a result, more than 120,000 women could lose their contraceptive coverage.

“This is yet another blatant attempt by the Trump administration to strip women of their health care and this legislation is key to safeguarding women’s ability to make their own health care decisions,” said Senator Gillibrand“This rule will cause thousands of women to lose their access to vital contraception — especially those who already face barriers to care, including low-wage workers, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Congress must make clear that no employer can use their personal beliefs to limit the health care services their employees have access to. We must address the damage done by the latest Supreme Court decision and pass the Protect Access to Birth Control Act now.”

The legislation was led by U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and U.S. Senator Bob Casey, (D-PA). It has been supported by National Women’s Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Reproductive Rights, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Power To Decide, the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, Physicians for Reproductive Health and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

Full text of the legislation can be found here.

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Trump Media scrambles to stop short sellers from tanking share prices



Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, is scrambling to stop short sellers from tanking its share values.

NBC News reports that Trump Media this week sent around suggestions to shareholders to prevent their shares in the company from winding up in the hands of short sellers who are essentially betting on the company's failure to make money.

According to NBC, the "tips include holding DJT shares in a cash account at a brokerage firm as opposed to a margin account, 'opting out of any securities lending program,' moving Trump Media shares to the company’s designated transfer agent, and transferring shares to a bank and 'holding them in your retirement account.'"

Short sellers essentially pay brokerage firms fees to borrow shares on a temporary basis on the belief that the shares will sink in price.

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After borrowing the shares, the short sellers proceed to sell them on the open market and then by them back by a specific date when they have to be returned to their owners.

If the share price in that time has indeed gone down, then the short sellers pocket the difference they made between the original sale and the repurchase.

If the share price increases, however, the short sellers lose money because they'll be buying back the shares at a higher price than the original sale.

Short sellers have swarmed to Trump Media shares for weeks now, as its price has plummeted from a high of $66.22 on March 27th to a low of $22.84 on Tuesday, although its price has recovered some of that lost value in the last day-and-a-half of trading.

The longer-term threat to Trump Media's value likely isn't short sellers, however, but simply a lack of profitability. The selloff in shares started earlier this month when the company released an earnings report showing that it lost $58 million in the last fiscal year while generating just $4 million in revenues.

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MAGA lawmaker accuses Mike Johnson of ‘brainwashing’ him with intelligence briefing



Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), endorsed by Donald Trump, explained that he was supporting Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) ouster because the lawmaker had betrayed Republicans' principles on a foreign surveillance law.

On Monday, Massie told podcast host Charlie Kirk that Johnson had orchestrated a "brainwashing session" in the form of a classified briefing to push through the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

"It was like a brainwashing session," Massie asserted. "And here's the thing, Charlie, when you go into a [sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF)], remember most congressmen are used to having two things with them that allow them to verify something if they're being told a lie.

"Number one, they usually have their smartphone with them. And their staff," he continued. "Those two things you are deprived of.

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"So if you are deprived of those two things and any connection to anybody for three or four hours, you kind of start believing what they're saying, and you think, well, maybe they'll let me out of this SCIF if I just nod my head and succumb to the pressure."

However, the "brainwashing session" did not convince Massie to support the bill.

"I slept on it three nights, and then I came to the GOP conference at the beginning of this past week, and I stood up in front of everybody, and I told Mike Johnson he needed to resign and that I was co-sponsoring Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate," he recalled.

The House passed the FISA reauthorization bill earlier this month after an initial failure. The 273-147 bipartisan vote came with 59 Republicans and 88 Democrats opposing it. Trump had urged Republicans to kill the legislation.

President Joe Biden signed the bill into law on Saturday.

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

Text messages reveal previously unknown details in Trump trial: report



Details never before made public are expected to be admissible in Donald Trump's latest New York trial — and onlookers are expecting them to be revealing.

New York Times investigative reporter Sue Craig said she was "struck" by the "new information" revealed in Monday's opening statements, which includes a series of text messages from National Enquirer reporters involved in investigating the stories of adult movie actress Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had affairs with Trump.

One of the text messages, Craig said, read: "What have we done?"

Trump's latest trial kicked off in earnest Monday as each side delivered their opening speeches over Trump's 34-count felony indictment over the hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

"We've heard about text messages that went back and forth with the National Enquirer when they went out to see Karen McDougal, one of the women who had a relationship with Donald Trump," Craig said.

"They were trying to confirm if the story was true."

Craig noted that one of the lawyers representing McDougal was involved in election night texting with somebody at the tabloid, which was previously unknown.

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"We'll see a lot of that come through. And David Pecker was not on the stand for very long, but just hearing the details that we got, the idea that ... reporters were given about $10,000 to get that story," recalled Craig.

"And I wasn't clear if that included payment to somebody or expenses and payment, but anything above that, he would have to sign off on it. What that told me was the payments that went to Karen McDougal, that went to Stormy Daniels, were unusual. They were high."

She referenced a Trump doorman who was paid $30,000 to stay quiet about a possible Trump love child. McDougal was given $150,000, while Daniels was given $130,000.

During the second half of the show, Lawfare's Anna Bower agreed with the assessment that there was new information that dropped and there will likely be even more. There is some conversation about what will ultimately be admissible out of that information that is new.

"We heard a lot about phone records the prosecution intends to introduce," Bower said. "So, I think that we certainly will see new evidence. But the question is — there were these questions about whether it would be admissible for hearsay reasons."

See the video below or at the link here.

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