Key events
While we wait for news out of the federal court in Washington, here’s the latest out of Texas:
Last night the Texas supreme court overturned a lower court order allowing a pregnant mother whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition to receive an abortion. The decision was handed down hours after lawyers for the woman, Kate Cox, announced that she had left Texas to get the procedure as a result of the state’s strict abortion ban.
Cox, the mother of two who is around 20 weeks pregnant, learned that her developing fetus has trisomy 18, a fatal diagnosis. She sought to terminate her pregnancy to protect her health and her ability to get pregnant again in the future.
The court said in its unsigned opinion that a “good faith belief” by Damla Karsan, a doctor who sought to perform the abortion and sued alongside Cox, that the procedure was medically necessary was not enough to qualify for the state’s exception.
Moss set to testify against Giuliani
Sam Levine
Here’s a quick update from inside the courtroom.
Shaye Moss, one of the two election workers Rudy Giuliani defamed after the 2020, is set to testify shortly in the defamation trial against Rudy Giuliani about the horrific consequences she suffered after the former mayor told lies about her.
Her testimony is at the heart of the case for why plaintiffs believe Giuliani should pay up to $43m in damages. She will likely testify about the humiliation she faced as she sought a new job after the 2020 election and the anxiety and harassment she and her son suffered.
Sam Levine
Our Sam Levine is in federal court covering Giuliani’s trial in Washington
The second day of a federal defamation trial in Washington is not off to a good start for Rudy Giuliani. The US district judge Beryl Howell needled him and his attorney after Giuliani told reporters outside the courthouse on Monday evening that he intended to prove statements he made about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Atlanta election workers, were true.
Howell has already found Giuliani liable for defamation. The only issue in the trial is how much he should pay in damages. She asked whether he was just “playing for the cameras”.
“I’m not sure. He’s 80 years old. It’s taken a toll on him. He’s 80 years old,” Joseph Sibley, his attorney, said. Sibley told Howell he could not control what Giuliani does outside of court.
Lawyers for Freeman and Moss are now playing a video deposition from Frank Paul Braun III, an investigator for the secretary of state’s office, who investigated Giuliani’s allegations and proved they were untrue.
Harvard board backs president amid calls for removal
Claudine Gay will remain the president of Harvard University, the school’s governing board announced on Tuesday, amid calls for her removal following testimony before a congressional hearing about antisemitism on campus last week.
Gay and the presidents of University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faced an uproar for their academic responses to sharp questions about what could trigger disciplinary action under their universities’ codes of conduct as part of a hearing earlier this month to address the rise of antisemitism on campus since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
The backlash was swift. Liz Magill stepped down as president of the University of Pennsylvania over the weekend in response to calls for her removal. Upon news of Magill’s resignation, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a far-right New York Republican who led the questioning, tweeted: “One down. Two to go.”
Here’s what else is happening:
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is in Washington DC to make a last-ditch appeal to congressional Republicans to approve additional aid to Ukraine as the Russian invasion grinds into a third year. During his visit he will meet with members of Congress and Joe Biden.
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Prospects of passing the aforementioned aid, part of a package that includes assistance to Israel as well as other national security asks, are dim – at least this week. Republicans are demanding steep concessions on border security and US immigration policy in exchange for sending more funds to Ukraine, which parts of their base has soured on. On Monday night, Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, told NBC “there’s no way to get it done this week”.
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Rudy Giuliani is back in federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday to defend himself against a defamation lawsuit filed against him for false comments he made about two Georgia election workers after the 2020 election.
