Prison. The Barrett Brown case is probably one of the most significant threats to suppress freedom that is happening in the u. S. In the last two decades at least. Amy in a democracy now exclusive, we speak with the journalist when greenwald and Barrett Brown himself, still under house arrest in dallas. Then we look at black mamas bail out day, an efforto raise money jeffrey as many africanamerican women from jail as possible before mothers day. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. President trump has once again changed his story about why he fired fbi director james comey. Now admitting on nbc he made the decision in part due to comeys probe russias meddling in the 2016 election. Pres. Trump regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. Just do it him i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. It is an excuse for the democrats are having lost an election that they should have one. Amy President Trumps comment directly contradicts numeral matters numerous statements by white house aides in recent days, as well as trumps own claim he fired, over the handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton and her use of private you now servers. According to the New York Times, comey was fired after requesting more resources for his probing to the russiatrump connection. During that same interview, trump also called comey a show boat and claimed the fbi was in turmoil under his watch. Pres. Trump look, he is a showboat. He is a grandstander. The fbi has been in turmoil. You know that, i know that, Everybody Knows that. You take a look at the fbi a year ago. It was in virtual turmoil will stop less than year ago. It has not recovered from that. Amy the white house has also claimed people within the fbi had lost confidence and trust in comey. But on thursday, acting fbi director Andrew Mccabe rejected these claims when questioned by new Mexico Democratic senator Martin Heinrich at a Senate Intelligence committee hearing. We have heard in the news that claims that director comey of lost the confidence rankandfile fbi employees. You have been there for 21 years. In your opinion, is it accurate that the rankandfile no longer supported director comey . No, sir, that is not accurate. Director comey enjoyed run broadt within the fbi support within the fbi and still does to this day. Amy white house officials have abandoned a plan for trump to visit the fbi headquarters within the coming days after being told the president would not be welcomed or wellreceived at the agency. New details also have emerged about how trump summoned comey for a private dinner in january and reportedly demanded comey pledge his loyalty to trump. The New York Times reports comey promised trump honesty instead. The white house has rejected this account. President donald trump signed an executive order thursday creating a socalled president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The white house says the commission will be tasked with investigating voter fraud, but critics say it will be wielded to enact policies that further suppress the vote. Trump appointed Vice President mike pence as the chair and kansas secretary of state kris kobach as the vice chair of the commission. Kobach, known as a leading proponent of antiimmigrant and Voter Suppression laws, was a key figure in drafting arizonas notorious antiimmigrant racial profiling law, sb1070, known as the show me your papers law parts of which have been found , unconstitutional. He has pushed for the strictest voter identification laws in the country and advocated for a proofofcitizenship requirement at the state and federal levels. Well have more on the Voting Commission after headlines with the nations ari berman. Attorney general Jeff Sessions has released a memo telling Justice Department prosecutors to pursue the most serious charges for drug offenses. He also rescinded two obamaera memos that encouraged prosecutors to avoid seeking inordinately harsh sentences for low level drug offenses. Sessions has long backed lengthy prison sentences and the use of mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, including for marijuana use, which is now legal for either medical or Recreational Purposes in many states. The senate has approved Robert Lighthizer to be u. S. Trade representative. He served as deputy trade representative during the reagan administration. Hes a proponent of trade tariffs and has been a vocal critic of china. Angry town halls are continuing around the country, including in iowa, where republican congressman rod blum faced four straight nights of packed, angry town halls this week hundreds , of people showed up to events in dubuque, cedar rapids, cedar falls, and marshalltown to jeer, boo and interrogate blum about his support for backing of President Trump and the Republican Health care plan. This is iowa resident dale todd, speaking alongside his son, who has epilepsy, at a town hall in cedar rapids tuesday. I would have thought somewhere along the line somebody would have said that when you impact kids with special needs, who, we sort of have an obligation to take care of our own here in iowa, that we would have thought that maybe we should not be doing that. So i am just trying to fathom where that motivation comes from. [applause] amy in iraq, the journalistic Monitoring Group airwars says at least 35 civilians were reportedly killed and 100 more wounded in airstrikes carried out by either the u. S. Led coalition or the u. S. Backed Iraqi Air Force on tuesday. Airwars also says other strikes likely carried out by the u. S. Backed Iraqi Air Force reportedly killed another 27 people in anbar province, also on tuesday. In argentina, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets wednesday to protest a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a member of a dictatorshipera Paramilitary Group who was convicted of kidnapping and torturing people during argentinas socalled dirty war. The ruling could have reduced the sentences for those convicted of crimes committed under the dictatorship, but in response to public outcry, the Argentine Congress passed a law to block the shortening of sentences. In greece, pensioners and workers blockaded the entrance of the finance ministry thursday to call for a general strike on may 17 to protest a new round of austerity measures imposed by International Creditors and accepted by the greek government. This is one of the protesters, a 65yearold pensioner. The amount of harm that has been done to the greek people by all of these policies is unbelievable will stop a battle must be waged. What else can we do . We cannot do anything else. Amy a new report by the International Institute for strategic studies says that mexico endured the secondmost conflict deaths of any country last year with a staggering 23,000 People Killed amid the countrys socalled war on drugs. Mexico was second only to syria, where 50,000 people were killed in 2016 by the ongoing war. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th most dangerous countries were iraq, afghanistan, and yemen. In new york state, residents are celebrating the news that texasbased company Crestwood Midstream announced it is nixing plans to expand a Natural Gas Storage facility in abandoned salt caverns at seneca lake, a Drinking Water source for 100,000 people. The project has faced years of sustained resistance from local residents. More than 650 residents, teachers, health workers, faith leaders, scientists, military veterans, and others arrested blockading construction during the years long campaign. Following this victory, residents say theyre still committed to fighting crestwoods separate plans for a propane Storage Facility in the area. To see our full coverage of the seneca lake struggle over the years, go to democracynow. Org. Meanwhile, in california, students at the university of california Santa Barbara have scored a victory after chancellor henry yang backed the students calls for the University System to divest from fossil fuels. The backing came after hundreds of students participated in a sitin at the Chancellors Office this week. Meanwhile, the 3. 8 billion Dakota Access pipeline has already had its first leak and the pipeline is not even yet in operation. The 84gallon oil spill occurred in tulare, south dakota, about 200 mile south of the site of the massive resistance camps, where thousands of Indigenous People and their allies camped out in efforts to block the construction of the part of the pipeline that crosses the missouri river. Florida university will be awarding Trayvon Martin with a posthumous degree in aeronautical science in a ceremony with his parents on the degree aims to honor the saturday. African american teenagers pilot, before he was murdered by white Neighborhood Watch vigilante George Zimmerman in 2012. And in san diego, california social justice activist and , priest Thomas Melville has died at the age of 86. He was one of a group of catholic activists who became known as the catonsville 9 after they broke into a draft board 1968, office in catonsville, maryland, stole 378 draft cards and burned them in the parking lot as a protest against the vietnam war. Others involved in the action were his wife, marjorie melville, and the late berrigan brothers daniel and phil berrigan. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Voting rights activists are expressing alarm after President Donald Trump signed an executive order thursday creating a president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The move comes after trump repeatedly claimed that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in november because between 3 and 5 3 million and finally and people voted illegally. No evidence has ever been presented backing up his claim. On Deputy White House press thursday, secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders unveiled the plan for the new Election Integrity commission. I would like to announce the president also just signed another executive order establishing the bipartisan president ial Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission will review policies and practices that enhance or undermine the american peoples confidence in the integrity of federal elections and provide the president with a report that identifies system vulnerabilities that lead to improper registrations in voting. Amy civil Rights Groups and several democratic lawmakers denounced the Election Integrity commission, suggesting it is designed to perpetuate the myth of voter fraud as a pretense for new policies that will make it harder to vote policies such as voter id laws, eliminating early voting, and prohibiting sameday voter registration. Particularly worrying to voting right activists is the selection of kansas secretary of state kris kobach as the vice chair of the commission. He has pushed for the strictest voter identification laws in the country and advocated for a proofofcitizenship requirement at the state and federal levels meanwhile, and the report has called into question whether President Trump would have duringy won wisconsin the 2016 president ial election without the states strict voter id law. The study published by the Progressive AdvocacyGroup Priorities usa says the law suppressed the votes of more than 200,000 residents, the majority of whom were African American and democraticleaning. President trump won only 22,748 23,000 votes than Hillary Clinton in wisconsin. Well, for more, were joined now by ari berman, senior contributing writer for the nation, where he covers Voting Rights. His recent piece is headlined trumps commission on Election Integrity will lead to massive Voter Suppression. Explain why. First off, it is important to note this is not an Election Integrity commission. This is a Voter Suppression commission. Because there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud to investigate. Everyone who has looked at this, including trumps own lawyers during the recounts in michigan and other states, have said that the election was not tainted by fraud. So the only reason to do this and to announce it this week, other than to trumps ego and distract from the news about comey and russia, is to perpetuate the myth of voter fraud in order to the groundwork for policies that will suppress the vote. Explain what the commission is all about. How came about, what its history is, and what exactly it is going to do. I guess you could say the roots of it happened after the election when trump startled everyone by saying he would have won the popular vote except for the fact that millions of people voted illegally. He subsequently tweeted and set it. He has provided no evidence for these claims. It is in attempt, just like what he said about wiretapping. There was no evidence of it any calls for an investigation. Basically, he manufactured this issue. There was no evidence. Now we have an entire president ial commission designed to investigate it. There is going to be taxpayer money. Some of the heaviest hitters and the Republican Party are part of this commission. I think it is easy to dismiss it as another laughable thing that trump is doing to try to distract from the news. But the real worry is that theyre going to say all of these outlandish things about voter fraud. It is going to have the venue of a president ial commission, and then theyre going to say, oh, by the way, there is this voter fraud and now we should pass voter id laws. We should pass proof of citizenship laws. We should purge the voting rolls. We should not just do it in the states where it is are in the happening, but on the national and federal level as well. The president the United States endorsing a policy of Voter Suppression is absolutely chilling. Amy as you said in general, President Trump called for this Major Investigation of voter fraud as he continued to falsely assert you lost the popular vote Taylor Clinton because 3 million to 5 million unauthorized votes were cast in the election. Abc anchor david new york questioned trump about those claims. When you say in your opinion, millions of illegal votes, that is something that is extremely fundamental to our functioning democracy of a fair and free election. You say youre going to launch an investigation. What you prevent presented so far has been debunked. Pres. Trump take a look that he reports. He said they found evidence. Rest of what it he write the report . Then why did he write the report . Again. Is growling i always talk about the reporters that grovel with a want to write something that you want to hear but not necessarily millions of people want to hear or have to here. Amy so that is donald trump. Is kobach defended trumps unfounded claim that millions of people illegally voted, supposedly costing trump the popular vote. This is kobach being requested by reporters question by reporters. I think of president elect is correct, the number of illegal votes cast exceeds the popular vote margin between him and Hillary Clinton at this point. What evidence is there that that happened . This is the problem with aliens voting and registering. There is no way you can look on the voter rolls and say, this one is an alien, this one is a citizen. Once a person gets on the voter rolls, you dont have any way of easily identifying them as aliens. You have to rely on postelection studies like the corporate of congressional survey or you get data from aliens themselves say, oh, yeah, i voted. It doesnt view that aliens to vote a very large numbers. Amy that was kris kobach in november after the election. All