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Paramilitant communications under close scrutiny in Capitol riot investigation, court records show
CNN
Secret communications cited in court records are revealing just how aggressively federal prosecutors are working to understand the paramilitary extremists who played a role in the US Capitol insurrection.
Two court filings Thursday in the Justice Department's efforts to keep in jail affiliates of the Oath Keepers, an extremist militant group, rely heavily on text messages and other communications between extremists. Investigators have now cited direct quotes from the walkie-talkie app Zello as paramilitants coached each other -- talking about "executing citizen's arrests" and "everything we f--king trained for" -- inside the Capitol. They've found a text message from an alleged organizer among the Oath Keepers discussing an idea to bring weapons into Washington, DC, on a boat crossing the Potomac River. And they've acknowledged finding planning materials, including bomb-making documents, in multiple defendants' cases.![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20240725164452.jpg)
A Justice Department watchdog has found that former Attorney General Bill Barr was personally involved in the decision to publicize an incident from the 2020 election – nine mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being discarded in a dumpster in Pennsylvania – that flamed the false narrative of widespread voter fraud.
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President Joe Biden is expected to be as forceful as he has ever been in urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire agreement when the two leaders meet privately at the White House Thursday afternoon, sources tell CNN, as US officials believe that a deal may be on the cusp.
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California’s Park Fire grows 7 times larger in hours as Oregon battles country’s biggest active fire
The largest active wildfire in the United States has scorched nearly 270,000 acres in eastern Oregon, as nearly 80 large active wildfires are burning in the US, including a California blaze that exploded in size overnight. Here’s the latest: