Data released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday shows the top 1% of Americans are the richest they've ever been. The new data reveals that at the end of the fourth quarter last year they had a record $44.6 trillion in wealth. That's up from $30 trillion in 2020. The main driver of wealth gains last year was from the stock market hitting record highs. While wages are increasing for average Americans, the top 1% is gaining wealth at a much faster pace. The wealth of U.S. billionaires is currently at $5.5 trillion , which is up 88% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The nation's rich accruing so much wealth in recent years has renewed calls for a wealth tax. Sen.
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and others are pushing to pass the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, which would put a 2-cent tax on every dollar of wealth over $50 million. Warren referred to U.S. President
Joe Biden calling for higher taxes on billionaires during his
State of the Union when the bill was reintroduced earlier this month. "As President Biden says: No one thinks it's fair that
Jeff Bezos gets enough tax loopholes that he pays at a lower rate than a public school teacher," said Warren. "All my bill is asking is that when you make it big, bigger than $50 million dollars, then on that next dollar, you pitch in 2 cents, so everyone else can have a chance." As progressives fight to pass a wealth tax at the federal level, legislators in many states are pursuing their own wealth taxes. If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis wants to get a conviction in Donald Trump's Georgia
election interference trial, she should either resign from the case or recuse herself, according to
Democratic attorney Julian Epstein. Epstein, the former Democratic Chief Counsel at the House Judiciary Committee, made the comments during an appearance on the Fox News' The Brian Kilmeade Show, saying that if Willis had "any real interest in this case," she would immediately "resign or recuse herself from it." "This is an utter embarrassment. I mean, this looks to me, in my opinion, this was a kickback scheme, where she hired a boyfriend who was then providing her all kinds of benefits," he said. "I think the whole claim about the reimbursements is hard to believe. I think the claims about when the relationship began, I think those are very hard to believe," Epstein said, referring to the widely covered romantic affair Willis admitted to having with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she hired onto the case. Willis has been accused of financially benefitting from the relationship due to alleged gifts Wade gave her that were paid for with the salary he earned. He resigned after an ethics hearing with Judge Scott McAfee ended with him ruling Willis can remain on the case only if Wade goes. Also read: Trump's latest attack unearths heartbreaking video of judge describing son's killing "I think the judge was right to allow the Trump team to appeal. And, I think there's not just that question about whether she should be kicked off the case," Epstein continued. "So I think there's a question potentially about perjury, moving forward that the state could take up the legislature is going to look into. So I think there is, I mean, just the, you know, the standard in Georgia is the major conflict or the apparent civil conflict." Epstein went on to say that at any rate, the case "is an utter embarrassment for, the crowd that is prosecuting Trump in the 11th hour of this campaign." CONTINUE READING Show less In the waning days of former President Donald Trump's first term, he weighed a plan to install DOJ official Jeffrey Clark as his acting attorney general, only to apparently decide against it after the threat of mass resignations at the DOJ convinced him it would backfire. However, Politico reports that an attorney representing Clark is now claiming that Trump really did appoint him to be acting AG, only to rescind the appointment shortly afterward. According to Politico, attorney Harry MacDougald said on Thursday during Clark's disciplinary hearing that "there was a period on Jan. 3 when he was the acting attorney general until the president changed his mind later that day.” Trump had wanted to appoint Clark to run the DOJ so that the department would publicly announce that the results of the 2020 election had been "corrupt," after which Trump would pressure
Republicans in
Congress to refuse to certify the election results on January 6th, 2021. READ MORE: Congress raids presidential campaign fund in surprise reversal It was never clear whether Trump actually went through with appointing Clark to run the DOJ, although
White House call logs obtained by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots showed that Clark was referred to as "Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark" during a call between him and Trump that occurred on the afternoon of January 3rd. That said, Politico also interviewed some former Trump DOJ officials who were skeptical that Clark was ever really put in charge of DOJ for even a limited amount of time. “I never heard of any of that until I read it in a media account long after we left
Washington,” said Richard Donoghue, one of the Trump DOJ officials who threatened to resign if Trump made Clark the AG. “I find that claim to be implausible.” CONTINUE READING Show less Former President Donald Trump's recent attacks on the daughter of the man heading his
New York criminal court trial has spurred a dark reminder that one of his supporters is suspected of having killed a judge's child before. Video that went viral on X Friday shows New Jersey federal Judge Esther Salas detailing the moment Roy Den Hollander — an attorney who once tried to sue a slate of journalists over their negative coverage of Trump — is believed to have arrived on her doorstep with a gun. "Danny turned around and he said, 'Let's keep talking, I love talking to you mom,'" Salas says in her interview with 60 Minutes. "It was at that exact moment that the doorbell rang." This video began to circulate when George Conway offered a gentle fact-check to the New York Times' Maggie Haberman over a federal judge's television appearance Thursday to discuss Trump's
Social Media messaging. "I don't remember ever seeing a sitting judge go on TV before," Haberman said, sharing video of Senior Judge Reggie Walton's appearance on
CNN . "A sign of the extraordinary moment the country is in." Conway shared Salas' interview from 2021, and it swiftly spread across the social media site. "My heart breaks for Judge Esther, nothing worse than losing a child, nothing, and then in this way," responded X user Lisa Todd Sutton . "Judges need the upmost protection no matter how much it cost[s]." On another social media site, Truth Social, Trump has been repeatedly targeting Judge Juan Merchan's daughter by name over the course of several days, calling her " rabid " and accusing her of working at the behest of " crooked" President Joe Biden . While the gag order Merchan ordered against Trump does not bar the former president from attacking the judge or his family, former prosecutor Joyce Vance noted Friday the former president knows the risk he takes with such words. "The former president of the
United States is attacking a judge’s kid," Vance wrote. "We’ve seen Trump do this with other judges. In fact, with pretty much every judge he’s had in a civil or criminal case, with the exception of Judge Aileen Cannon in
Florida, who is single-handedly preventing his trial on charges in the classified documents and obstruction case." ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why Judge Cannon must step away from Trump trial immediately Vance pays particular notice to Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's federal election interference case, and faced death threats from a woman who told her, “Hey you stupid slave n----- ... You are in our sights, we want to kill you.” "When Trump paints a bullseye on a Judge’s back, his followers respond," Vance wrote. "He knows this." What Salas knows is how it feels when a man with a gun rings the doorbell, she told 60 Minutes after her family's horrific encounter in July 2020. After her son Daniel Adernl answered the door, the
Gunman fatally shot him and seriously wounded her husband Mark Adernl, she said. "We were screaming, 'Daniel, hold on' and 'don't leave us,'" Salas said. "As I think about that day, I realize I was watching my only child fade away...It was something no mother should ever see." Hollander, a self-described "anti-feminist" who called Salas “a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama” in a self-published 1,700-page manifesto, died by apparent suicide shortly after the attack, the New York Times reported at the time. Investigators later told Salas they believed she was the intended target . Watch the video below or click here. CONTINUE READING Show less