Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show.” Follow him @DeanObeidallah@masto.ai. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN
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On Monday, the GOP-controlled House Judiciary Committee — chaired by Donald Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan — is set to hold a field hearing in New York City called “Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan.” A statement bills the hearing as an examination of how, the Judiciary Committee says, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s policies have “led to an increase in violent crime and a dangerous community for New York City residents.”

In response, Bragg’s office slammed Jordan’s hearing as “a political stunt” while noting that data released by the New York Police Department shows crime is down in Manhattan with respect to murders, burglaries, robberies and more through April 2, compared with the same period last year.

In reality, this Jordan-led hearing isn’t about stopping crime but about defending Trump — who was recently charged by a Manhattan grand jury with 34 felonies. Trump pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges stemming from an investigation into a hush-money payment to an adult film actress. The former president also is facing criminal probes in other jurisdictions over efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Bragg sued Jordan and his committee last week in federal court, accusing the Judiciary Committee chairman of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” his office for its investigation and prosecution of Trump by making demands for confidential documents and testimony.

While Jordan and his committee appear focused on discrediting the investigation into Trump, why aren’t they looking into two recent bombshell reports by ProPublica that raised red flags about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ financial relationship with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow? After all, the House Judiciary Committee’s website explains that it has jurisdiction over “matters relating to the administration of justice in federal courts” – for which the revelations concerning Thomas fit perfectly.

First, we learned in early April that Crow had provided Thomas and his wife, Ginni, for decades with luxurious vacations including on the donor’s yacht and private jet to faraway places such as Indonesia and New Zealand. That information was never revealed to the public. (In a rare public statement, Thomas responded he was advised at the time that he did not have to report the trips. The justice said the guidelines for reporting personal hospitality have changed recently. “And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future,” he said.)

Then on Thursday, ProPublica reported that Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 real estate deal involving the sale of three properties he and his family owned in Savannah, Georgia, to that same GOP megadonor, Crow. One of Crow’s companies made the purchases for $133,363, according to ProPublica. A federal disclosure law passed after Watergate requires Supreme Court justices and other officials to make public the details of most real estate sales over $1,000.

As ProPublica detailed, the federal disclosure form Thomas filed for that year included a space to report the identity of the buyer in any private transaction, but Thomas left that space blank. Four ethics law experts told ProPublica that Thomas’ failure to report it appears to be a violation of the law. (Thomas did not respond to questions from ProPublica on its report; CNN reached out to the Supreme Court and Thomas for comment.)

The House Judiciary Committee has long addressed issues such as those surrounding Thomas. In fact, the committee is where investigations and the impeachment of federal judges often commence.

One recent example came in 2010 with Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr., whom the committee investigated and recommended for impeachment.

The committee’s Task Force on Judicial Impeachment said evidence showed Porteous “intentionally made material false statements and representations under penalty of perjury, engaged in a corrupt kickback scheme, solicited and accepted unlawful gifts, and intentionally misled the Senate during his confirmation proceedings.” The Senate later found Porteous guilty of four articles of impeachment and removed him from the bench.

Yet the Judiciary Committee has neither released statements nor tweets raising alarm bells about Thomas. Instead, its Twitter feed is filled with repeated tweets whining that C-SPAN won’t cover Monday’s New York field hearing. Worse, the committee retweeted GOP Rep. Mary Miller’s tweet defending Thomas as being attacked “because he is a man of deep faith, who loves our country and believes in our Constitution.”

Jordan’s use of his committee to assist Trump should surprise no one. The House January 6 committee’s report called the Ohio Republican “a significant player in President Trump’s efforts” to overturn the election. The report detailed the lawmaker’s efforts to assist Trump including on “January 2, 2021, Representative Jordan led a conference call in which he, President Trump, and other Members of Congress discussed strategies for delaying the January 6th joint session.” As a result, the January 6 committee subpoenaed Jordan to testify — but he refused to cooperate.

In contrast with the House panel, the Senate Judiciary Committee — headed by Democrats — announced in the wake of the reporting on Thomas that it plans to hold a hearing “on the need to restore confidence in the Supreme Court’s ethical standards.” Beyond that, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia sent a letter Friday calling for a referral of Thomas to the US attorney general over “potential violations of the Ethics in Government Act 1978.”

The House Judiciary Committee’s website notes, “The Committee on the Judiciary has been called the lawyer for the House of Representatives.” Under Jordan that description needs to be updated to state that the Committee on the Judiciary is now “the lawyer for Donald J. Trump.” And the worst part is that the taxpayers are the ones paying for Jordan’s work on Trump’s behalf.

CNN
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Shares of Google-parent Alphabet fell more than 3% in early trading Monday after a report sparked concerns that its core search engine could lose market share to AI-powered rivals, including Microsoft’s Bing.

Last month, Google employees learned that Samsung was weighing making Bing the default search engine on its devices instead of Google’s search engine, prompting a “panic” inside the company, according to a report from the New York Times, citing internal messages and documents. (CNN has not reviewed the material.)

In an effort to address the heightened competition, Google is said to be developing a new AI-powered search engine called Project “Magi,” according to the Times. The company, which reportedly has about 160 people working on the project, aims to change the way results appear in Google Search and will include an AI chat tool available to answer questions. The project is expected to be unveiled to the public next month, according to the report.

In a statement sent to CNN, Google spokesperson Lara Levin said the company has been using AI for years to “improve the quality of our results” and “offer entirely new ways to search,” including with a feature rolled out last year that lets users search by combining images and words.

“We’ve done so in a responsible and helpful way that maintains the high bar we set for delivering quality information,” Levin said. “Not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to Search, and will share more details soon.”

Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google’s search engine has dominated the market for two decades. But the viral success of ChatGPT, which can generate compelling written responses to user prompts, appeared to put Google on defense for the first time in years.

In March, Google began opening up access to Bard, its new AI chatbot tool that directly competes with ChatGPT and promises to help users outline and write essay drafts, plan a friend’s baby shower, and get lunch ideas based on what’s in the fridge.

At an event in February, a Google executive also said the company will bring “the magic of generative AI” directly into its core search product and use artificial intelligence to pave the way for the “next frontier of our information products.”

Microsoft, meanwhile, has invested in and partnered with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, to deploy similar technology in Bing and other productivity tools. Other tech companies, including Meta, Baidu and IBM, as well as a slew of startups, are racing to develop and deploy AI-powered tools.

But tech companies face risks in embracing this technology, which is known to make mistakes and “hallucinate” responses. That’s particularly true when it comes to search engines, a product that many use to find accurate and reliable information.

Google was called out after a demo of Bard provided an inaccurate response to a question about a telescope. Shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet fell 7.7% that day, wiping $100 billion off its market value.

Microsoft’s Bing AI demo was also called out for several errors, including an apparent failure to differentiate between the types of vacuums and even made up information about certain products.

In an interview with 60 Minutes that aired on Sunday, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stressed the need for companies to “be responsible in each step along the way” as they build and release AI tools.

For Google, he said, that means allowing time for “user feedback” and making sure the company “can develop more robust safety layers before we build, before we deploy more capable models.”

He also expressed his belief that these AI tools will ultimately have broad impacts on businesses, professions and society.

“This is going to impact every product across every company and so that’s, that’s why I think it’s a very, very profound technology,” he said. “And so, we are just in early days.”

CNN
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For all the interest in big-name witnesses and eye-opening private text messages, at the core of the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News are 20 specific broadcasts and tweets in which the voting company says Fox knowingly promoted lies, destroying its reputation.

According to the lawsuit, all 20 statements took place between November 8, 2020, and January 26, 2021, and came in the form of on-air comments from Fox hosts Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo; interviews with prominent pro-Trump election deniers Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell; and several of Dobbs’ tweets.

The wild allegations in the statements fell into four broad categories: that Dominion conducted election fraud, that it used algorithms to flip votes, that it had ties to Venezuela and that politicians received kickbacks to use the company.

The judge overseeing the defamation trial has already ruled that these allegations were false, saying it is “CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”

At trial, it will be a jury’s job to determine if the statements were made with “actual malice” – a high bar based on knowing falseness or having a reckless disregard for the truth – and potentially award damages. Dominion has asked for $1.6 billion in damages and additional punitive damages, a number Fox says is wildly overblown.

Fox has denied wrongdoing and said the case is a meritless assault on press freedoms. Lawyers for Fox have argued that Dominion hasn’t come close to clearing the high bar to prove defamation.

Here’s a closer look at those 20 specific broadcasts and tweets of alleged defamation.

The broadcast: “Sunday Morning Futures” on November 8, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud and algorithm flips.

Key false quote: “Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software. I know that there were voting irregularities. Tell me about that,” Bartiromo said.

“That’s to put it mildly. The computer glitches could not and should not have happened at all,” Powell said. “That is where the fraud took place where they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist.”

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 12, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud and Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “So, we’re using a foreign company that is owned by Venezuelans who are close to – were close to (Hugo) Chávez, are now close to (Nicolás) Maduro, have a history. They were founded as a company to fix elections, they have a terrible record, and they are extremely hackable,” Giuliani said.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 13, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties, kickbacks.

Key false quote: “Let’s start with Dominion, a straight out disavowal of any claim of fraud against the company, its software or machines. Your reaction,” Dobbs asked.

“Well, I can hardly wait to put forth all the evidence we have collected on Dominion, starting with the fact it was created to produce altered voting results in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez and then shipped internationally to manipulate votes for purchase in other countries, including this one,” Powell said.

“We also need to look at and we’re beginning to collect evidence on the financial interests of some of the governors and Secretaries of State who actually bought into the Dominion Systems … to line their own pockets by getting a voting machine in that would either make sure their election was successful or they got money for their family from it,” she added.

“Well, that’s straightforward,” Dobbs said. “You’re going to have to be quick to go through and to produce that investigation and the results of it.”

The broadcast: Quote-tweet by Dobbs of Giuliani tweet on November 14, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “Did you know a foreign company, DOMINION, was counting our vote in Michigan, Arizona and Georgia and other states,” Giuliani wrote.

“Read all about Dominion and Smartmatic voting companies and you’ll soon understand how pervasive this Democrat electoral fraud is, and why there’s no way in the world the 2020 Presidential election was either free or fair. #MAGA @realDonaldTrump #AmericaFirst #Dobbs,” Dobbs wrote.

The broadcast: “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on November 14, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “It was created for the express purpose of being able to alter votes and secure the reelection of Hugo Chavez and then Maduro. They’ve used it in Argentina,” Powell said. “There is an American citizen who has exported it to other countries and it is one huge, huge criminal conspiracy that should be investigated by military intelligence for its national security implications.”

“Yes. And hopefully the Department of Justice, but who knows anymore,” Pirro said.

Broadcast 6: Bartiromo previews interview with Powell and Giuliani

The broadcast: “Fox & Friends Sunday” on November 15, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties, kickbacks.

Key false quote: “Sidney Powell is also talking about potential kickbacks that government officials, who were asked to use Dominion, actually also enjoyed benefits to their families,” Bartiromo said. “We’re going to talk about that coming up as well.”

Broadcast 7: Bartiromo interviews Giuliani and Powell

The broadcast: “Sunday Morning Futures” on November 15, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties, kickbacks.

Key false quote: “We have sworn witness testimony of why the software was designed. It was designed to rig elections … We have so much evidence, I feel like it’s coming in through a fire hose,” Powell said.

“Wow,” Bartiromo said.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 16, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “I’ve just gotten some stunning evidence from a firsthand witness, a high-ranking military officer, who was present when Smartmatic was designed in a way that – and I’m going to just read to you some of these statements, if you don’t mind, so I get them exactly right,” Powell said.

“Sure,” Dobbs said.

Powell continued, “From the affidavit, (Smartmatic was) ‘designed in a way that the system could change the vote of each voter without being detected.’”

Powell also incorrectly claimed that Smartmatic owns Dominion.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 18, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “But I mean just the mere fact that we have a foreign country, we had this in a foreign country, done by friends of an enemy of the United States, Maduro, is outrageous and has to stop immediately,” Giuliani said.

“It’s outrageous,” Dobbs said.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 19, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “Let me put it this way, there are thousands of people in federal prisons on far less evidence of criminal conduct than we have already against the Smartmatic and Dominion Systems companies,” Powell said.

The broadcast: “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on November 21, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “The President’s lawyers alleging a company called Dominion, which they say started in Venezuela with Cuban money, and with the assistance of Smartmatic software, a backdoor is capable of flipping votes,” Pirro said.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 24, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “We are just continuing to be inundated by evidence of all the frauds here and every manner and means of fraud you could possibly think of,” Powell said.

“I think many Americans have given no thought to electoral fraud that would be perpetrated through electronic voting; that is, these machines, these electronic voting companies, including Dominion, prominently Dominion, at least in the suspicions of a lot of Americans,” Dobbs said.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on November 30, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, kickbacks.

Key false quote: “Different states shaved different amounts of votes, or the system was set up to shave and flip different votes in different states,” Powell said. “Some people were targeted as individual candidates. It’s really the most massive and historical egregious fraud the world has ever seen.”

The broadcast: “Hannity” on November 30, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud and algorithm flips.

Key false quote: “The machine ran an algorithm that shaved votes from Trump and awarded them to Biden,” Powell said. “They used the machines to trash large batches of votes that should have been awarded to President Trump. And they used a machine to inject and add massive quantities of votes for Mr. Biden.”

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on December 4, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud and algorithm flips.

Key false quote: “Dominion Voting Systems, you have described it with algorithms which were designed to be inaccurate rather than to be a secure system,” Dobbs said.

“Give us your sense of who is driving all of this,” Dobbs asked Phil Waldron, a Trump supporter who worked with Powell and others to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

The broadcast: Dobbs tweet with embedded document on December 10, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud and algorithm flips.

Key false quote: “The 2020 Election is a cyber Pearl Harbor,” Dobbs wrote, embedding a document.

“We have technical presentations that prove there is an embedded controller in every Dominion machine, that allows an election supervisor to move votes from one candidate to another,” the document stated.

The broadcast: “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on December 10, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud, algorithm flips, Venezuela ties.

Key false quote: “Let me make you an offer, very straightforwardly,” Dobbs said. “We will gladly put forward your evidence that supports your claim that this was a Cyber Pearl Harbor. We have tremendous evidence already … of fraud in this election, but I will be glad to put forward on this broadcast whatever evidence you have, and we’ll be glad to do it immediately.”

The broadcast: Dobbs tweet with embedded video of Powell interview on December 10, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud.

Key false quote: “Cyber Pearl Harbor: @SidneyPowell1 reveals groundbreaking new evidence indicating our Presidential election came under massive cyber-attack orchestrated with the help of Dominion, Smartmatic, and foreign adversaries. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs,” Dobbs wrote.

The broadcast: “Fox & Friends” with hosts Will Cain, Pete Hegseth and Rachel Campos-Duffy on December 12, 2020.

What they alleged: Election fraud.

Key false quote: “We have a machine, the Dominion machine, that’s as filled with holes as Swiss cheese and was developed to steal elections, and being used in the states that are involved,” Giuliani said.

The broadcast: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on January 26, 2021.

What they alleged: Election fraud.

Key false quote: “Every outlet in the country, they go, ‘Mike Lindell, there’s no evidence, and he’s making fraudulent statements.’ No. I have the evidence. I dare people to put it on. I dare Dominion to sue me because then it will get out faster. So, this is – you know, they don’t – they don’t want to talk about it,” Lindell said.

“No, they don’t,” Carlson said.