Justice department faces deadline for detailed inventory of files while ex-president’s team must argue for review by special master
More from Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe on the legal case around the FBI search and seizure of classified documents from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club-resort and home.
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Continue reading...Test flight that will have no human crew aboard aims to return humans to the moon and eventually land them on Mars
For the first time in 50 years, Nasa on Monday is planning to launch the first rocket that can ferry humans to and from the moon.
The giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is scheduled to take off from Nasa’s Cape Canaveral, Florida, complex at 8.33am ET (1.33pm UK time) atop an unmanned Orion spacecraft that is designed to carry up to six astronauts to the moon and beyond.
Continue reading...Party spent years chanting ‘lock her up’ at Hillary Clinton for private email system, says congressman, a vocal critic of Trump
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, the Illinois Republican who has been one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump, called out his party for criticizing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while continuing to defend the former president’s decision to take sensitive government information to his home at Mar-a-Lago.
Kinzinger’s comments came days after the FBI released a redacted version of the affidavit the agency submitted to a federal judge to justify a search of Trump’s home. The document details how Trump retained classified material at Mar-a-Lago and that the government had been working for more than a year to retrieve those materials. A batch of documents returned earlier this year contained 184 documents marked as classified, including 25 marked as top secret.
Continue reading...‘I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires, Vermont senator says
Senator Bernie Sanders chided Republicans on Sunday for backing tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Americans while criticizing Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan.
“Look, I know it is shocking … to some Republicans, that the government actually, on occasion, does something to benefit low income families and working people,” the progressive from Vermont said during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News’s This Week. “I don’t hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires.”
Continue reading...A Ukrainian woman posed as a Rothschild to gain access to the Florida resort, heightening fears over security lapses
A second foreign national is being investigated by US authorities for gaining access to Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida resort which is at the center of an FBI probe over missing classified documents, heightening fears over security lapses both during and after his presidency.
According to an article from the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty is under bureau investigation after infiltrating the private members club under a false pretense.
Continue reading...This fifth round of discussions was meant to establish a UN Ocean Treaty that would protect biodiversity in international waters
The latest round of talks at the United Nations aimed at securing protections for marine life in international waters that cover half the planet ended without agreement Saturday.
The fifth round of discussions, which began two weeks ago, were designed to establish a UN Ocean Treaty that would set rules for protecting biodiversity in two-thirds of the world’s oceanic areas that lie outside territorial waters.
Continue reading...Heavily redacted document also says several documents contained what appears to be Trump’s handwritten notes
Three new sealed filings have appeared online in the federal court system related to the Mar-a-Lago case, Politico reports:
Since they are not public, it’s unclear what they are, but a federal magistrate judge gave the justice department until noon eastern time today to make the redacted affidavit justifying the search public.
Continue reading...Hospital feared loss of license as state law did not explicitly allow the procedure for this rare condition
An expectant Louisiana woman who is carrying a skull-less fetus that would die almost immediately after birth has cemented plans to travel to North Carolina to terminate her pregnancy, she said on Friday.
Nancy Davis, 36, has been facing a choice of either carrying the fetus to term or traveling several states away for an abortion after she says her local medical provider would not perform the procedure amid confusion over whether the state’s abortion ban outlawed it.
Continue reading...Affidavit is expected to contain information about investigation into Trump’s retention of government secrets at Mar-a-Lago
A federal judge ordered on Thursday that the affidavit justifying the search warrant used to seize sensitive government documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida earlier this month should be partly unsealed according to redactions proposed by the justice department.
The order from Judge Bruce Reinhart, who approved the FBI search warrant and is overseeing the case, instructed the justice department to release a redacted version of the affidavit that he had reviewed before noon on Friday.
Continue reading...Bruce Reinhart gives US government until noon ET Friday to make the redacted document public
As midterm election campaigns hit the home stretch over the next two months, voters may start seeing a familiar Democratic face: Barack Obama.
Axios reports that the former president is scheduled to appear at two upcoming fundraisers for the party, one of which is focused on Democrats’ campaign to maintain their majority in the Senate, which they seem slightly favored to do.
The submission by the Justice Department is a significant legal milepost in an investigation that has swiftly emerged as a major threat to Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have offered a confused and at times stumbling response. But it is also an inflection point for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who is trying to balance protecting the prosecutorial process by keeping secret details of the investigation, and providing enough information to defend his decision to request a search unlike any other in history.
“There are clearly opposed poles here,” said Daniel C. Richman, a former federal prosecutor and a law professor at Columbia University, who said it might be difficult, even impossible, for Mr. Garland to strike the right balance.
Continue reading...Aimee Harris stole items from Ashley Biden’s room and conspired Robert Kurlander to sell them to activist group, prosecutors say
Two people have pleaded guilty in a scheme to peddle a diary and other items belonging to Joe Biden’s daughter to the conservative group Project Veritas for $40,000, prosecutors said Thursday.
The two, both from Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property, Manhattan US attorney Damian Williams’s office said.
Continue reading...Nuclear negotiations under way, as US-led mission against the Islamic State exchanges fire with armed groups in Syria and Iraq
US-led forces and Iran-backed militias exchanged fire for the second day in a row, but the Biden administration said the fighting would not affect nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
US Central Command said the two bases, Conoco and Green Village, used for the US-led mission against the Islamic State (IS) had come under rocket attack on Wednesday evening, but there were no serious injuries. The US struck back with attack helicopters, killing “two or three suspected Iran-backed militants conducting one of the attacks” and destroying vehicles.
Continue reading...Congressional investigation finds new evidence of efforts to override health decisions early in pandemic
Officials in the Trump White House tried to pressure health experts to reauthorize a discredited Covid treatment, according to a congressional investigation.
A report published on Wednesday by the Democratic-led House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis contained new evidence of efforts to override Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decisions early in the pandemic.
Continue reading...President had campaigned on promise of loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 for those struggling with student debt
• Trump appears to concede he illegally retained official documents in filing
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The GOP is teeing up their counter-attack to Biden’s impending announcement on student debt relief, decrying it as a “bribe” that will be paid for by American taxpayers.
Here’s what the Senate Republicans said on Twitter:
Continue reading...Court motion submitted by ex-president’s lawyers argues some materials seized by FBI could be subject to executive privilege
Donald Trump appeared to concede in his court filing over the seizure of materials from his Florida resort that he unlawfully retained official government documents, as the former president argued that some of the documents collected by the FBI could be subject to executive privilege.
The motion submitted on Monday by the former president’s lawyers argued that a court should appoint a so-called special master to separate out and determine what materials the justice department can review as evidence due to privilege issues.
Continue reading...Democrat Pat Ryan made abortion central to his campaign, and defeated Republican Mark Molinaro in contested House election
After months of bracing for staggering losses, Democrats are suddenly filled with a sense of optimism that the 2022 midterm elections could defy historical precedent and see them perform strongly, especially by highlighting the Republican threat to abortion rights.
On Tuesday night, Democrat Pat Ryan defeated Republican Mark Molinaro in a fiercely contested special House election in New York’s Hudson Valley, in a contest that was seen as a barometer of impact of the US supreme court’s decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion.
Continue reading...President delivers on campaign promise and outlines debt relief measures for those on lower incomes in White House speech
Millions of Americans received welcome news on Wednesday when Joe Biden delivered on a campaign promise to provide $10,000 in student debt forgiveness.
Borrowers who earn less than $125,000 a year will be eligible for loan forgiveness, with those whose low incomes qualified them for federal Pell Grants receiving up to $20,000 in relief. About a third of US undergraduate students receive Pell Grants.
Continue reading...Former Republican governor who became a Democratic congressman edges out Nikki Fried to face the Donald Trump protégé in November
Charlie Crist will challenge Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, in November after trouncing Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida who switched parties and became a Democratic congressman, fought a campaign touting his experience in office and opposition to the 15-week abortion ban signed by DeSantis.
Continue reading...Florida and New York go to the polls as Democrats seek to defend their congressional majority in November
In other Florida news, voters are casting primary ballots as Democrats look ahead to November, where they’ll mount a challenge to governor and potential Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis. Joan E Greve has the latest on what to expect from today’s polls:
Florida voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to determine which candidates will have the chance to face off in this November’s general election. Voters will cast ballots in races for the governorship and Congress, all the way down to circuit courts and local school boards.
Continue reading...In letter announcing defection, state senator Kevin Priola cites political and environmental threat from his erstwhile party
Announcing his switch to the Democrats, a Colorado state senator said Republican attacks on democracy were not the only “existential threat” posed by his former party.
“I have become increasingly worried about our planet and the climate crisis we are facing,” Kevin Priola said, in a letter posted to social media on Monday.
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