National Roundup

Washington
Garland says he’d resign if Biden asked him to take action on Trump
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. But he doesn’t think he’ll be put in that position.
“I am sure that that will not happen, but I would not do anything in that regard,” he said on CBS “60 Minutes.” “And if necessary, I would resign. But there is no sense that anything like that will happen.”

The Justice Department is at the center of not only indictments against Trump that include an effort to overturn the 2020 election and wrongly keeping classified documents, but also cases involving Biden’s son Hunter, the aftermath of the riot at the U.S. Capitol and investigations into classified documents found in the president’s home and office. Garland has appointed three separate special counsels.

Garland has spoken only sparingly about the cases and reiterated Sunday he would not get into specifics, but dismissed claims by Trump and his supporters that the cases were timed to ruin his chances to be president in 2024.

“Well, that’s absolutely not true. Justice Department prosecutors are nonpartisan. They don’t allow partisan considerations to play any role in their determinations,” Garland said.

Garland said the president has never tried to meddle in the investigations, and he dismissed criticism from Republicans that he was going easy on the president’s son, Hunter, who was recently indicted on a gun charge after a plea deal in his tax case fell apart. Hunter Biden is due in a Delaware court this week.

“We do not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats. We don’t have one rule for foes and another for friends,” he said. “We have only one rule; and that one rule is that we follow the facts and the law, and we reach the decisions required by the Constitution, and we protect civil liberties.”

Garland choked up when talking about his concerns over violence, particularly as judges and prosecutors assigned to the Trump cases got death threats.

“People can argue with each other as much as they want and as vociferously as they want. But the one thing they may not do is use violence and threats of violence to alter the outcome,” he said. “American people must protect each other. They must ensure that they treat each other with civility and kindness, listen to opposing views, argue as vociferously as they want, but refrain from violence and threats of violence. That’s the only way this democracy will survive.”

 
Oregon
Group of homeless people sues city over new daytime camping ban
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A group of homeless people in Portland, Oregon, filed a class action lawsuit on Friday challenging new restrictions the city placed on daytime camping in an attempt to address safety issues stemming from a crisis of people living on the streets.

The lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court alleges the restrictions violate Oregon law and the state constitution because they subject people who are involuntarily without permanent shelter to unreasonable punishments for unavoidable activities including sleeping and staying dry, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Violators could face jail time and/or fines of up to $100.

Lawyers at the Oregon Law Center, which is representing the plaintiffs, are seeking a temporary restraining order from the court to stop the city from enforcing the restrictions until the lawsuit is resolved.

Portland’s city council voted in June to pass the ordinance prohibiting camping during the daytime in most public places as the city, along with other cities throughout the U.S., wrestles with the longtime crisis of people living outside.

The measure says people may camp in nonrestricted areas from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., but at that time they must dismantle their campsites until the permitted overnight hours begin again. Camping is also banned entirely near schools, parks and busy streets among other locations.

A spokesperson for Mayor Ted Wheeler, Cody Bowman, declined to comment to the newspaper on the lawsuit but said the city plans to start enforcing the new rules in the coming weeks. Wheeler has said prosecutions will focus on alternative sentences that connect people with resources.

Bowman said the city is focused on education and outreach efforts related to the ordinance and will provide two weeks notice to the public before enforcement starts.

Business and property owners were among those who supported the measure, which was introduced by the mayor, saying campsites are causing them to lose customers and creating safety issues.

 
Pennsylvania
Man who served time in murder-for-hire case convicted in shooting of cop
A man who served time in a high-profile murder-for-hire case in Ohio nearly two decades ago has been convicted of shooting a state trooper in a western Pennsylvania convenience store last year.

Jurors in Beaver County last week deliberated for more than five hours before convicting 42-year-old Damian Bradford of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangering and firearms counts. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 29.

Prosecutors said troopers on patrol saw Bradford pull a gun and confront people outside an Aliquippa minimart in July 2022. They allege he “violently struggled” with troopers trying to arrest him in the store, shooting a trooper in the leg and trying to grab another trooper’s gun and stun device.

Bradford had been released from prison in 2021 after serving about a decade in a half in a high-profile murder-for-hire case that began in Beaver County and ended on the Ohio Turnpike. He pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the shooting death of 69-year-old Dr. Gulam Moonda on the Ohio Turnpike in May 2005.

Prosecutors said Moonda’s wife, Donna, met Bradford in a drug rehabilitation center, and the two plotted to kill the prominent Mercer County doctor, with Bradford promised half of the multimillion-dollar estate. Donna Moonda was convicted in federal court in 2007 of murder-for-hire and sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole.