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To: scion who wrote (12583)	2/16/2021 6:50:25 AM
From: scion	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12881

Parler is back online, more than a month after tangle with Amazon knocked it offline The social media site popular with Trump supporters went dark when its cloud support was cut By Rachel Lerman Feb. 15, 2021 at 8:48 p.m. GMT washingtonpost.com Parler is back online following several weeks of darkness after the social media site popular with supporters of former president Donald Trump was knocked offline. Parler effectively fell off the Internet in January when Amazon refused to provide technical cloud computing support to the site after the tech giant determined Parler was not doing enough to moderate and remove incitements to violence. (Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post). The site was not fully functional on Monday, and some users reported technical glitches as they tried to log in and refresh feeds. Private messaging was disabled, but the basic outline of the site was live. “We’re in for a little bit of a bumpy ride for the next day or two, there’s been a ton of backend work we’ve completed over the last couple of weeks,” Parler Chief Technology Officer Alexander Blair posted on the site Monday morning. Parler, which said it had more than 12 million users when it was knocked offline, became especially popular with pro-Trump supporters last year and emerged as a common place to discuss baseless election fraud claims after Trump lost the November 2020 election. The tipping point for many of its partners to pull technical support came after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, when users on Parler glorified the riot. Apple and Google both removed the app from their app stores, making it nearly impossible for new users to download the app. Then Amazon severed its hosting service from Parler, effectively turning off the lights. The companies cited Parler’s lax moderation policies against calls for violence. Parler did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its return or its hosting service. Parler appeared to be using a Los Angeles-based cloud hosting company called SkySilk to return online. Hackers on Twitter, including the user who orchestrated a large-scale scrape of Parler’s public data as it fell offline, identified SkySilk as the host. John Jackson, founder of hacking group Sakura Samurai, confirmed the technical footprint points to SkySilk via public records. SkySilk did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation. Parler long prided itself on allowing users “free speech” in pretty much any legal form, and regularly railed against big social media sites including Twitter and Facebook for over-moderating what users posted online. It got an initial boost of high-profile users, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), in summer of last year after Twitter started labeling Trump’s posts with fact checks. QAnon and pro-Trump online forums are struggling and fracturing in aftermath of the U.S. Capitol siege The social media site was known as a friendly spot for conservative pundits and supporters who were fed up with “censorship” on other social media apps. But after the election, Parler also became a breeding ground for misinformation about the vote and calls for violence in D.C. It’s been a bumpy ride for Parler since the Capitol attack. After it was kicked offline, the site sued Amazon for the decision and launched a static webpage where it posted periodic updates about its efforts to come back online. Then the site’s board of directors, which includes investor and billionaire Republican megadonor Rebekah Mercer, fired chief executive and co-founder John Matze. Matze told Axios that he advocated for Parler to adopt more automated moderating, which the big social media sites use together with human moderators to enforce their policies. Parler is now being run by interim chief executive Mark Meckler, who co-founded the Tea Party Patriots. “We are committed to continuing to fulfill our role as the premier platform for free speech, data sovereignty and civil discourse,” Meckler posted on Parler Monday. Headshot of Rachel Lerman Rachel Lerman Rachel Lerman covers breaking news in technology for The Washington Post washingtonpost.com

To: scion who wrote (12583)	2/19/2021 3:50:19 PM
From: scion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12881

An Oath Keeper Charged In The Capitol Riot Texted She "Wouldn't Worry" About The FBI A Week Before Her Arrest Newly unsealed court papers showed prosecutors added new coconspirators to one of the Capitol insurrection cases. Zoe Tillman BuzzFeed News Reporter Reporting From Washington, DC Posted on February 19, 2021, at 2:22 p.m. ET buzzfeednews.com WASHINGTON — Three days after allegedly joining a mob that descended on the US Capitol on Jan. 6, Jessica Watkins wrote in a text that she’d been following the FBI’s investigation as it unfolded and wasn’t concerned about being arrested. “Seems they’re only interested in people who destroyed things,” Watkins texted Bennie Parker on Jan. 9, according to messages quoted by prosecutors in recently unsealed court documents. “I wouldn’t worry about them coming after us.” assets.documentcloud.org Just over a week later, Watkins was arrested in Ohio. An Army veteran and member of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia organization that focuses recruitment on the military and law enforcement, Watkins was accused of joining a conspiracy of Oath Keepers members who planned in advance for violence on Jan. 6 and descended on the Capitol in an “organized and practiced fashion.” The Jan. 9 text was included in new charging papers unsealed on Thursday against a retired Ohio couple who prosecutors say were part of that Oath Keepers conspiracy. Prosecutors wrote that Parker, 70, texted at length with Watkins leading up to Jan. 6 and was listed in Watkins’ phone as “Recruit Ben - OSRM,” an acronym that the government says stood for Ohio State Regular Militia. Prosecutors have described the Oath Keepers as a “large but loosely-organized collection of militia that believe that the federal government has been coopted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.” On Dec. 27, according to charging papers, Parker texted Watkins, “I may have to see what it takes to join your militia, our is about gone” and told Watkins that he and his wife, Sandra Parker, 60, were “liked minded.” Montgomery County Jail via AP Jessica Watkins' booking photo On Jan. 3, prosecutors said, Watkins texted Bennie Parker that the group they’d be traveling with to Washington would not be bringing firearms, and that a separate group known as “QRF,” or “quick reaction force,” would be the “law enforcement members of Oathkeepers.” Later that day, however, Watkins sent another message telling him to pack khaki or tan pants and clarified, “Weapons are ok now as well. Sorry for the confusion.” Parker replied: “We don’t have any khakis We have jeans and our b d u’s So I can bring my gun?” (Prosecutors wrote in a footnote that “B.D.U.” appeared to refer to camouflaged combat clothing, or “Battle Dress Uniform.) Prosecutors didn’t say if Watkins responded to his question about bringing a gun, but he’s not charged with a weapons offense. The Parkers’ charging papers include images from a surveillance camera at a Virginia hotel that prosecutors say show the couple with Watkins and another person charged in the Oath Keepers conspiracy, Donovan Crowl, early in the morning on Jan. 6, as well as photos of them outside the Capitol. Prosecutors also included photos from surveillance footage inside the Capitol that they say showed Sandra Parker as part of a line, or “stack,” of people wearing military fatigues and helmets who moved together into the Capitol. They identified Sandra Parker in the stack behind Watkins and Crowl. The third person charged with Watkins and Crowl, Thomas Caldwell, allegedly participated in planning their trip to DC, communicated with other people about strategizing to bring weapons, and sent messages about participating in the assault. Caldwell has denied being a member of the Oath Keepers or participating in an illegal conspiracy. Bennie Parker stayed outside on the Capitol grounds, according to prosecutors, and texted Watkins at 5:43 p.m. asking if she and his wife were OK. The Parkers’ charging papers conclude with the texts between Bennie Parker and Watkins in the days following the insurrection. After Watkins texted him on Jan. 9 that she wasn’t worried about the FBI coming for them, Parker responded with similar optimism. “I’m sure they’re not on us see some pics but no militia,” he wrote. Charges against the Parkers were filed under seal in the federal district court in Washington on Feb. 12. They were arrested on Feb. 18 and allowed to go home while their case is pending after making their first court appearance in federal court in Cincinnati later in the day. buzzfeednews.com

To: scion who wrote (12583)	2/22/2021 6:59:11 AM
From: scion	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12881

Garland to focus on civil rights, political independence By MICHAEL BALSAMO an hour ago apnews.com WASHINGTON (AP) — Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, will appear for his confirmation hearing vowing to prioritize civil rights, combat extremist attacks and ensure the Justice Department remains politically independent. Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court in 2016, will appear Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee and is widely expected to sail through his confirmation process with bipartisan support. Garland’s nomination has gained public support on both sides of the political aisle, from more than 150 former Justice Department officials — including former attorneys general Loretta Lynch, Michael Mukasey and Alberto Gonzales, along with 61 former federal judges. Others, including two sons of former Attorney General Edward Levi, have also written letters of support to Congress. “There have been few moments in history where the role of attorney general — and the occupant of that post — have mattered more,” the committee’s chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., says in remarks prepared for the hearing. In his own prepared remarks, Garland focuses on prioritizing policing and civil rights to combat racial discrimination — he says America doesn’t “yet have equal justice” — as well as confronting the rise in extremist violence and domestic terror threats and restoring the department’s political independence after years of controversial decisions and turmoil. “Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system; and bear the brunt of the harm caused by pandemic, pollution, and climate change,” Garland says. Garland is also planning to highlight the department’s work prosecuting hundreds of pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Biden’s electoral win on Jan. 6. “I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government,” he says. Biden’s choice of Garland reflects the president’s goal of restoring the department’s reputation as an independent body. During his four years as president, Donald Trump insisted that the attorney general must be loyal to him personally, a position that battered the department’s reputation. Garland’s high-court nomination by President Barack Obama in 2016 died because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold a hearing. “I believe that he is the right person for this moment in time,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. “The fact that he’s a judge, the fact that he has worked at the Justice Department, that he worked on domestic terrorism cases and headed them up. That he understands how important it is to bring the law back into the Justice Department.” Garland will inherit a Justice Department that endured a tumultuous time under Trump — rife with political drama and controversial decisions — and abundant criticism from Democrats over what they saw as the politicizing of the nation’s top law enforcement agencies. The department’s priorities and messaging are expected to shift drastically in the Biden administration, with a focus more on civil rights issue, criminal justice overhauls and policing policies in the wake of nationwide protests over the death of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. But Garland will also likely face questioning about his plans to handle specific investigations and politically sensitive cases, like the federal tax investigation involving Biden’s son Hunter Biden, along with a Justice Department investigation examining whether New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration intentionally manipulated data about nursing home coronavirus deaths. A special counsel’s inquiry started by William Barr, while he was attorney general, into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation also remains open. It will be up to Garland to decide what to make public from that report. Garland is a white man, but two other members of the Justice Department leadership, Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, are women with significant experience in civil rights. Their selections appeared designed to blunt any concerns about Biden’s choice for attorney general and served as a signal that progressive causes would be prioritized in the new administration. Garland is an experienced judge who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor in the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. But he is set to return to a department that is radically different from the one he left. His experience prosecuting domestic terrorism cases could prove exceptionally handy. ___ Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. apnews.com