Politics

(Reuters) -ABC News has agreed to give $15 million to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a lawsuit over comments that anchor George Stephanopoulos made on air involving the civil case brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll, a court document filed on Saturday showed.

The lawsuit, filed on March 19 in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida, accused Stephanopoulos of making the statements with malice and a disregard for the truth. It said the statements were distributed widely to third parties and repeated.

“We are pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement.

The lawsuit cites a March 10 interview with U.S. Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican who has spoken publicly about being raped as a teenager. During the interview, Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable for rape and asked her how she could endorse the candidate.

According to the settlement, ABC News must publish by Sunday a statement at the bottom of a March 10 online article that accompanied the interview.

“ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J. Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024,” the statement must say, according to the court document.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; editing by Susan Heavey and David Gregorio)

source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named his social media platform CEO Devin Nunes to lead an intelligence advisory panel and said his former intelligence chief Richard Grenell would run “special missions” in places such as U.S. adversaries Venezuela and North Korea.

“Ric will work in some of the hottest spots around the World, including Venezuela and North Korea,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Ric will continue to fight for Peace through Strength, and always put AMERICA FIRST.”

Trump did not name any other specific countries such as Iran in his post naming Grenell as the “Presidential Envoy for Special Missions.”

Grenell previously served as acting director of national intelligence during Trump’s 2017-2021 term and was Trump’s ambassador to Germany and a special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.

Nunes, a former U.S. lawmaker who runs Trump’s Truth Social platform, will serve as chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which offers independent assessments of intelligence agencies’ effectiveness and planning.

A longtime Trump defender who led the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee during part of Trump’s first White House term, Nunes will remain CEO while also serving on the White House panel, Trump said in a separate post on Truth Social, which is part of Trump Media & Technology Group.

As committee chair, Nunes alleged that the FBI had conspired against Trump during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections in which Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Devin will draw on his experience as former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and his key role in exposing the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, to provide me with independent assessments of the effectiveness and propriety of the U.S. Intelligence Community’s activities,” Trump wrote.

Trump’s nominee to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kash Patel, served as an aide to Nunes in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A 2017 U.S. intelligence report said Russian President Vladimir Putin had directed a sophisticated influence campaign to denigrate Clinton and support Trump in the 2016 election campaign. The Kremlin denied meddling and Trump denied any collusion with Russia.

Trump has vowed to pursue political adversaries and officials who investigated him when he begins his second term on Jan. 20.

Trump on Saturday also named IBM executive and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official Troy Edgar to serve as the department’s deputy secretary. He also said he would nominate businessmen Bill White and Edward Walsh to serve as U.S. ambassadors to Belgium and Ireland, respectively.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Doug Gillison and Michael Martina; Editing by David Gregorio)

source

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.

Kavelashvili, 53, who was the only candidate on the ballot, easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017. It is made up of members of Parliament, municipal councils and regional legislatures.

Georgian Dream retained control of Parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an Oct. 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. The party has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.

Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have boycotted the post-election parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.

In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent, and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.

Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.

Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.

Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.

“I remain your president — there is no legitimate parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”

Zourabichvili rejects government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.

“We are not demanding a revolution,” she told The Associated Press. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.

“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen.”

Zourabichvili said Saturday’s vote was a “provocation” and “a parody” while a leader of one of Georgia’s main opposition parties said it was unconstitutional.

Giorgi Vashadze of the Unity National Movement Coalition said Zourabichvili is “the only legitimate source of power.”

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said Kavelashvili’s win “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty, as well as reducing radicalism and so-called polarization.”

“The main mission of the presidential institution is to care for the unity of the nation and society,” said Kobakhidze, a former university professor and later chairman of Georgian Dream.

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked for lacking higher education by Georgia’s opposition. Some protesters outside Tbilisi’s Parliament building on Saturday morning brought their own university diplomas while others kicked soccer balls.

Kavelashvili was a striker in the English Premier League for Manchester City and played for several soccer clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to Parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the Parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on Nov. 28.

Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard. Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.

Several journalists were beaten by police and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending anti-government rallies, which Georgian Dream denies. The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, in a video statement in support of the protests, said Georgia’s “European dream must not be extinguished.”

“Europe does not seek to sow chaos, Europe does not seek to destabilize or subjugate its neighbors,” he said. “The voice of Georgians must be listened to and respected.”

″(Kavelashvili) is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin,” protester Sandro Samkharadze said outside Tbilisi’s Parliament building. Another protester waved a sign saying “We are children of Europe.”

Demonstrators vowed the rallies would continue. “If (the government) wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.

—-

Associated Press writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

source

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday the Republican Party “will use its best efforts” to end daylight saving time, which he called “inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” Trump said on social media. “Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”

Daylight saving time – putting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year to make the most of the longer evenings – has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s, but has been a topic of debate in recent years.

Some lawmakers want to stay on standard time year-round, more are on record calling for remaining on daylight saving time all year, while others want to keep the status quo. President Joe Biden never took a public position on the issue.

In March 2022, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to make daylight saving time permanent but the effort stalled in the House after lawmakers said they could not reach consensus. A bipartisan group of senators in March made a new push to make daylight saving time permanent.

Supporters of remaining on daylight saving time argue it would lead to brighter afternoons and evenings and more economic activity during the winter months. Critics say it would force children to walk to school in darkness, since the measure would delay sunrise by an hour.

Proponents of eliminating daylight saving time altogether say the twice-annual changing of clocks causes sleep disturbance and health issues.

Congress has not held any new hearings on the issue for more than two years and the Senate would need to take up the issue again.

Year-round daylight saving time was used during World War Two and adopted again in 1973 in a bid to reduce energy use because of an oil embargo, but was unpopular and was repealed a year later.

Since 2015, about 30 states have introduced or passed legislation to end the twice-yearly changing of clocks, with some states proposing to do it only if neighboring states do the same.

(Reporting by David Shepardson and Eric Beech, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

source

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — In the decade since SpaceX arrived on the Texas coast, billionaire Elon Musk’s company has created thousands of jobs near the Mexico border, launched rockets and sprung up new homes — all around an area dubbed Starbase.

Now SpaceX wants to make Starbase a recognized city.

Nearby residents are asking for an election to incorporate the area, which sits on the southern tip of Texas at Boca Chica Beach. Musk posted on his social platform X on Thursday that “SpaceX HQ will now officially be in the city of Starbase, Texas!”

But turning Starbase into a new Texas city with its own government won’t happen overnight, and questions remain, including what SpaceX and residents would stand to gain. Already, the idea is drawing pushback from local activists who have raised concerns about SpaceX’s environmental impact.

SpaceX’s operations are in Cameron County, which has roughly 426,000 residents. Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., the county’s top elected official, said SpaceX’s petition delivered this week formally starts the process for becoming a city.

“Our legal and elections administration will review the petition, see whether or not it complied with all of the statutory requirements and then we’ll go from there,” Treviño said.

He did not offer a timetable. But if the process moves forward, Treviño said the county elections department would next create the jurisdiction to decide who gets to vote and then plan a vote.

Neither SpaceX nor local officials have said how many people live in the area who would become Starbase residents. More than 3,400 full-time SpaceX employees and contractors work at the Starbase site, according to a local impact study issued by Treviño earlier this year.

Robert Greer, an associate professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, has studied how cities incorporate. He said a city would need to create its own charter, provide services, create local ordinances and levy taxes. It could also shift the tax burden on residences or businesses.

“If you create your own city, and it’s a relatively small area now, you have kind of control over that area,” Greer said.

SpaceX officials have said making Starbase a city is necessary to continue growing the area’s workforce and the company’s development.

“Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live—for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space,” Kathryn Lueders, Starbase’s general manager, wrote in a letter to the county this week.

SpaceX has faced local opposition to its impact in the area. Most recently, they faced a lawsuit from Save RGV, a regional nonprofit group which alleged SpaceX was dumping polluted water into the nearby bay. SpaceX said in response that a state review found no environmental risks and called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

“Some of the questions that we have is what this will mean in terms of regulation and oversight by the county,” said Jim Chapman, a Save RGV board member.

Musk has long been planting business roots in Texas and has spread them far and wide across the Lone Star State. The billionaire moved to Texas in 2020 and relocated to or expanded a number of his companies in the state, citing the state’s business friendly climate.

Tesla’s massive, 10-million square foot (930,000 square meter) Gigafactory, where the company makes its Cybertrucks, opened near Austin in 2022 and will also serve as the company headquarters.

In 2021, Musk moved his Boring Co., a tunnel construction business, to Bastrop, another Central Texas community near Austin. Musk has said he has a vision to build out a “Texas utopia” where employees could live and work. The company has its own small community of mobile homes and a store called the Boring Bodega, which serves as a general store, lunch spot, barbershop, bar and public playground.

In 2023, Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott broke ground for the site of a Tesla lithium refinery near coastal Corpus Christi. Lithium is the key ingredient used to make batteries for electric vehicles.

And in September, Musk moved X headquarters from San Francisco to Bastrop, leaving the California spot that had been the company’s home since 2011.

___

Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas.

source

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili became president of Georgia on Saturday, as the ruling party tightened its grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia.

Kavelashvili, 53, was the only candidate on the ballot and easily won the vote given the Georgian Dream party’s control of a 300-seat electoral college that replaced direct presidential elections in 2017. It is made up of members of Parliament, municipal councils and regional legislatures.

Georgian Dream retained control of Parliament in the South Caucasus nation in an Oct. 26 election that the opposition alleges was rigged with Moscow’s help. Georgia’s outgoing president and main pro-Western parties have since boycotted parliamentary sessions and demanded a rerun of the ballot.

Georgian Dream has vowed to continue pushing toward EU accession but also wants to “reset” ties with Russia.

In 2008 Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which led to Moscow’s recognition of two breakaway regions as independent, and an increase in the Russian military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Critics have accused Georgian Dream — established by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a shadowy billionaire who made his fortune in Russia — of becoming increasingly authoritarian and tilted toward Moscow, accusations the ruling party has denied. The party recently pushed through laws similar to those used by the Kremlin to crack down on freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights.

Pro-Western Salome Zourabichvili has been president since 2018 and has vowed to stay on after her six-year term ends Monday, describing herself as the only legitimate leader until a new election is held.

Georgian Dream’s decision last month to suspend talks on their country’s bid to join the European Union added to the opposition’s outrage and galvanized protests.

Zourabichvili, 72, was born in France to parents with Georgian roots and had a successful career with the French Foreign Ministry before President Mikheil Saakashvili named her Georgia’s top diplomat in 2004.

Constitutional changes made the president’s job largely ceremonial before Zourabichvili was elected by popular vote with Georgian Dream’s support in 2018. She became sharply critical of the ruling party, accusing it of pro-Russia policies, and Georgian Dream unsuccessfully tried to impeach her.

“I remain your president — there is no legitimate Parliament and thus no legitimate election or inauguration,” she has declared on the social network X. “My mandate continues.”

Speaking to The Associated Press, Zourabichvili rejected government claims that the opposition was fomenting violence.

“We are not demanding a revolution,” Zourabichvili said. “We are asking for new elections, but in conditions that will ensure that the will of the people will not be misrepresented or stolen again.”

“Georgia has been always resisting Russian influence and will not accept having its vote stolen and its destiny stolen,” she said.

Zourabichvili called Saturday’s vote a “provocation” and “a parody” while a leader of one of Georgia’s main opposition parties said it was unconstitutional.

Giorgi Vashadze of the Unity National Movement Coalition said Zourabichvili is “the only legitimate source of power.”

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze meanwhile said that Kavelashvili’s election “will make a significant contribution to strengthening Georgia’s statehood and our sovereignty, as well as reducing radicalism and so-called polarization.”

“The main mission of the presidential institution is to care for the unity of the nation and society,” said Kobakhidze, a former university professor and later chairman of Georgian Dream.

Georgian Dream nominated Kavelashvili — mocked for lacking higher education by Georgia’s opposition. Some protesters outside Tbilisi’s Parliament building on Saturday morning brought their own university diplomas while others kicked soccer balls.

Kavelashvili was a striker in the Premier League for Manchester City and in several clubs in the Swiss Super League. He was elected to Parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket and in 2022 co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and become known for its strong anti-Western rhetoric.

Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

The EU, which granted Georgia candidate status in December 2023 on condition that the country meets the bloc’s recommendations, put its accession on hold and cut financial support in June following approval of the “foreign influence” law.

Thousands of demonstrators converged on the Parliament building every night after the government announced the suspension of EU accession talks on Nov. 28.

Riot police used water cannons and tear gas almost daily to disperse and beat scores of protesters, some of whom threw fireworks at police officers and built barricades on the capital’s central boulevard.

Hundreds were detained and over 100 treated for injuries.

Several journalists were beaten by police and media workers accused authorities of using thugs to deter people from attending anti-government rallies, which Georgian Dream denies.

The crackdown has drawn strong condemnation from the United States and EU officials.

″(Kavelashvili) is not elected by us. He is controlled by a puppet government, by Bidzina Ivanishvili, by Putin,” protester Sandro Samkharadze said. Another protester waved a sign saying “We are children of Europe.”

Demonstrators vowed the rallies would continue. “If (the government) wants to go to Russia, they can go to Russia, because we are not going anywhere. We are staying here,” said protester Kato Kalatozishvili.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Reps. Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton roared into Washington six years ago as part of a record wave of women vying for House seats, many on a mission to push back against the politics of Donald Trump.

“We were part of that 2018 class, and we sort of ran in there like: ‘There’s a fire. We’re here,’” Spanberger said.

The outgoing congresswoman, who along with Wexton recently reflected on their time in Congress in interviews with The Associated Press, drew a quick breath.

“It’s slightly different than the tone of where things are right now,” she said.

That is an understatement. Trump, a president the two Virginia Democrats campaigned against as they unseated established incumbent Republicans, is about to embark on a second term after mounting an improbable political comeback. Of the 35 Democratic women first elected in 2018, Spanberger and Wexton are among 14 who have since left or will be leaving Congress by next year.

That’s not to say their journey is over or that they are retreating from public discourse.

Kelly Dittmar, research director at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, described Virginia as a canary in a coal mine when voters elected more women to the statehouse in 2017, followed by the election of Spanberger, Wexton and former Rep. Elaine Luria there in 2018. But Dittmar said progress toward better gender representation hasn’t always been linear.

Last month, 21 of the original 35 female Democrats first elected in 2018 ran for reelection to their House seats, not including Rep. Elissa Slotkin, elected to the Senate by Michigan voters this year. And in those races, 20 won. They’ll be among the 150 women — 110 Democrats and 40 Republicans — serving in the 119th Congress next year, one woman shy of a record of 151 set in 2023.

Spanberger, meanwhile, is running for governor in a race comprised solely of two female candidates, making it likely that Virginia’s next governor will be a woman for the first time.

But when women leave elected office, Dittmar said, their absence is felt more acutely because there is less female representation to begin with. She said it’s unclear whether the U.S. will see another surge of women filing to run anytime soon.

She looked into why women said they ran in 2018 and “yes, there is evidence that they talked about Donald Trump,” Dittmar said. “I think the difference between ’16 and ’24 — and that we just can’t know yet — is the degree of exhaustion and the degree of toxicity that may go into a calculation about deciding whether or not to run for office.”

For both Spanberger and Wexton, that path has taken unexpected turns.

After twice winning reelection, Wexton was diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder similar to Parkinson’s disease, and made the difficult decision to retire. Spanberger is exchanging her congressional pin for a loftier goal in state politics. They will be succeeded in Congress by Democrats Eugene Vindman and Suhas Subramanyam, cutting Virginia’s female congressional representation from four to two.

In the stately formality of a congressional conference room, Spanberger and Wexton reminisced on their time on Capitol Hill. They have become uncommonly close, bound by time spent together, some shared views on public policy and a friendship that has managed to transcend the ups and downs of Washington politics. A stream of text messages that began after their victory speeches in 2018 has continued ever since.

Their bids for Congress were backed by many women who marched, phone-banked and organized in a grass-roots movement that decried Trump and worked to elect female Democrats.

They won the votes. They took an oath. And then, the women got to work.

Wexton, previously a state senator and prosecutor, developed a reputation for taking care of her district, said Rosalyn Cooperman, a professor at the University of Mary Washington. Cooperman said she vied for funding opportunities and committee assignments that helped bring tens of millions of dollars in federal investments to northern Virginia. She also tackled opioid addiction, transgender rights and childhood cancer research. After announcing her diagnosis, Wexton co-sponsored the National Plan to End Parkinson’s Act, which President Joe Biden signed in July. Lawmakers named the legislation in her honor.

Spanberger, an ex-CIA operative who stopped working at an education company to run for Congress, cultivated a knack for tackling lower-profile issues: bringing broadband to rural areas, fighting drug trafficking and veterans’ issues. The Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School ranked the Virginia Democrat as the 17th most bipartisan member of the House last year.

“Both women really understood the districts that they represented and what the districts needed, and went about the work very effectively and without too much fanfare,” Cooperman said.

Spanberger and Wexton became fast friends while first campaigning for their House seats in 2018. The two formed a trio with Luria, who left Congress after losing to Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans in 2022. Spanberger described Wexton as her quick-witted big sister — someone who gave her advice on everything from raising teenagers to navigating a legislature. At one point, Wexton wrote Spanberger a script for speaking on the House floor.

Wexton, with the help of an artificial intelligence program, spoke of Spanberger supporting her in a more vulnerable way: styling Wexton’s hair as she showed up to Congress with her health struggles.

“That is no small feat — I had experienced first-hand how hard it was becoming to do my hair,” Wexton said. “For the next almost 90 minutes, Abigail would put various potions in my hair and dry it with a round brush.

“It was wonderful. I felt so pampered.”

Spanberger, with tears welling in her eyes, laughed, “You have so much hair!”

Wexton learned she had progressive supranuclear palsy in 2023. Within the last two years, she lost her ability to speak clearly and walk without assistance. In her interview, the congresswoman used her pointer finger to type thoughts on her tablet, which she then played aloud. In her final months in Congress, she said, well-meaning colleagues would talk to her like a child or reintroduce themselves to her.

“My PSP has robbed me of my voice, and others may take that to mean it has robbed me of my cognitive ability as well,” she said. “But that’s not true. I’m just as much me as I’ve always been.”

As the current term ends, many women are coming to terms with Trump’s ascent back to power. Many Democrats say the fight isn’t over but has changed in unexpected ways.

“To be very clear, I’m super excited that Eugene Vindman and Suhas Subramanyam are replacing us,” Spanberger said. “But it is a little bit bittersweet that we came in with this group of three women, and within three terms, we’re both — that all three of us are no longer there.”

Wexton said she hoped people, and women specifically, would persevere.

“We’re not going to win every battle or every election,” she said, “but it is true that our democracy works best when more people participate in it.”

___

Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

source

(Reuters) -Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender, and investment bank Goldman Sachs plan to contribute to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committees, but have yet to decide on the amount, spokespeople for each bank said Friday.

BofA, along with JPMorgan Chase & Co, were the two largest bank contributors to Trump’s 2017 inauguration. JPMorgan representatives declined to comment.

The inaugural committee plans and finances events, including opening ceremonies and parades, galas and balls, but not the swearing-in ceremony itself, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Bank of America contributed $1 million to both Trump’s first inaugural fund and to President Joe Biden’s in 2021. JPMorgan donated $500,000 for Trump’s 2017 inaugural festivities.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison)

source

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his hush money conviction, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea “absurd.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response.

In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed.

They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won’t include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn’t sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity.

Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment.

It’s unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option.

In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution’s suggestions.

Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” that he’ll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20.

“To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics,” the defense lawyers wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional.”

The prosecution’s suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they argued.

Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump has tabbed for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump had died.

Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “fabricate” a solution “based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump” who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September “and a hypothetical dead defendant.”

Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what’s already a unique case.

“This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.”

Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Trump’s impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury’s verdict, which came when he was out of office.

Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution. Other world leaders don’t enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza.

Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies.

In their filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers citing a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s hush money prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges.

“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday on Truth Social.

Trump’s hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.

Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases, which pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in all.

Trump had been scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November. But following Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.

Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds.

A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than 10 minutes was all it took for a large pile of toys donated by the White House staff to disappear as Jill Biden and children from military families sorted them into boxes as part of the annual Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign for the less fortunate.

The White House is a longtime supporter of the program, which has been helping families for 77 years, said Lt. Gen. Leonard Anderson IV, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

“We’re making a significant impact right here in the nation’s capital, where these toys will go to kids in need,” he said at a White House event hosted by the first lady.

Last year, the program delivered over 25 million toys to more than 10 million children nationwide, he said. “This year we think we’re going to set another record, so we’re really excited,” he said.

Jill Biden told several dozen military children who sat in front of her on the floor of the East Room facing two large glittering Christmas trees flanking the doorway that they are loved. Her father and late son served in the military.

“If you only remember one thing for the holidays, after all the wrapping paper is cleaned up, let it be this: You are loved,” she said. “There are so many people who care about you, from your family and your friends, from your teachers and your classmates, to the president and me.”

“And the best thing that we can do with that love is to let it overflow, to share it with others who might really need it,” she added.

After her brief remarks, the first lady asked the children: “Are you guys ready to get sorting?” And off they went toward the large pile of dolls, stuffed animals, sports gear, vehicles, books, puzzles and other items, including a copy of “Delaware Opoly” — a Monopoly-style board game themed after President Joe Biden’s home state.

source