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    Secret Service Shoots Man Near White House

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1

    United States Secret Service personnel shot an armed man near the White House early Sunday morning.

    The individual had parked his car near 17th and F Streets NW, close to an entrance to the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the Secret Service said. President Donald Trump is in Florida for the weekend, staying at Mar-A-Lago, and was not in the vicinity when the shooting occurred.

    “Earlier on Saturday, local police shared information about a suicidal individual who may be traveling to Washington DC from Indiana,” the Secret Service said in a statement. “Around midnight, members of the Secret Service encountered the individual’s parked vehicle near 17th and F Streets NW. They also saw an individual on foot matching the description nearby.”

    “As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel.”

    https://twitter.com/SecretSvcSpox/status/1898680017736843573

    Secret Service shot the man, who was transported to an “area hospital.” The statement said the man’s condition is unknown, and that “there were no reported injuries to the Secret Service Personnel.”

    Six Counts Against Trump and Several Codefendants Tossed In Georgia

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    On Wednesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee tossed out six counts against former President Donald Trump and several of his codefendants in DA Fani Willis’s election interference indictment

    Politico’s Kyle Cheney flagged the ruling and noted that McAfee “says the allegations that the defendants tried to get GA officials to violate their oaths were not detailed enough.”

    The Hill has more:

    Each of the tossed charges related to alleged efforts by Trump and some of his co-defendants, including former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, to solicit Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office. 

    The judge ruled that while the charges do contain the “essential” elements of each crime, they fail to provide enough detail for the defendants to mount their defenses. Under the current charges, McAfee said, the defendants could have violated the law in “dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.” 

    “The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance,” McAfee wrote. “However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal.” 

    McAfee made clear that his ruling “does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” and said the Fulton County district attorney’s office could seek reindictment after supplementing the charges he deemed insufficient. 

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Report: Trump Hush Money Sentencing Adjourned

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1

    It’s always been political…

    On Tuesday, as President-elect Donald Trump was set to be sentenced in his hush-money conviction New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan adjourned the highly-anticipated Nov. 26 meeting.

    No explanation was given by the Court.

    Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts for business fraud in connection with hiding hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

    Trump’s attorney Emil Bove argued last week that the case should be stayed or dismissed to “avoid unconstitutional impediments” to Trump’s ability to act as president.

    Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office prosecuted the case has also maintained that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to back Trump’s claims of broad presidential immunity should not apply to this case. Presidential immunity is meant to shield a president from being prosecuted for carrying out his roles as president. The charges against Trump stem from acts undertaken while he was first campaigning for president in 2016 and continuing into his first term.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Trump Responds After New Audio Tapes Discussing Classified Docs Surface

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    6
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Donald Trump is in hot water yet again.

    In newly obtained audio former president Donald Trump can be heard discussing classified documents with people not cleared to have access to the highly sensitive information.

    On Monday’s edition of Anderson Cooper 360, the host claimed that the audio from 2021, exposes Trump sharing US military war plans against Iran despite the former president telling Fox News host Bret Baier earlier this month that there was no such document.

    “These are the papers,” Trump can be heard saying in the recording while discussing the Pentagon documents. The former president referenced Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, who he said had provided a plan of attack for Iran through the Pentagon.

    “He said that I wanted to attack Iran, Isn’t it amazing?” Trump says of Milley. “I have a big pile of papers, this thing just came up. Look. This was him. They presented me this – this is off the record but – they presented me this. This was him. This was the Defense Department and him.”

    “I was just thinking, because we were talking about it. And you know, he said, ‘He wanted to attack Iran, and what…,'” Trump said.

    “These are the papers,” Trump continued.

    A Trump spokesperson responded to the leaked tape Monday night, arguing it proves that Trump committed no crime.

    “The audio tape provides context proving, once again, that President Trump did nothing wrong at all. The President is speaking rhetorically and also quite humorously about a very perverted individual, Anthony Weiner, who was deep inside the corrupt Clinton campaign,” the spokesperson told the Daily Caller. “The media and the Trump-haters once again were all too willing to take the bait, falling for another Democrat-DOJ hoax, hook, line, and sinker.”

    Trump, who is running for another term in the White House, slammed special prosecutor Jack Smith in a Truth Social post and also claimed the audio recording has been manipulated to make Trump look guilty.

    “The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and ‘spun’ a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,” he said in a post on Truth Social. 

    “This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam,” Trump added. “They are cheaters and thugs!”

    Report: Trump To Appeal E. Jean Carroll Loss

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Friday, former President Donald Trump’s legal team is expected to file to appeal the $5 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s case at a federal appeals court.

    Trump is expected to attend the hearing at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. 

    Carroll alleged that Trump raped her at the Bergdorf Goodman department store across from Trump Tower in Manhattan sometime in 1996. She was seeking $12 million. 

    A federal jury in New York City decided last year that Trump was not liable for rape but was liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The former president was ordered to pay $5 million in that trial. 

    Carroll also hit Trump with a separate defamation suit, claiming his responses to her accusations caused harm to her reputation. 

    Trump and his legal team insist that Carroll’s allegations are fabricated, with the former president’s initial reaction including an accusation that Carroll was motivated by wanting to sell copies of her book. 

    Earlier this year a New York jury found that Carroll was injured as a result of statements Trump made while in the White House in 2019. 

    The jury ruled that Trump’s statements were made to harm Carroll and awarded her $65 million in punitive damages. In total, with the reputational repair program, the jury said Carroll should be paid $83.3 million. 

    Trump attorneys on Friday are expected to argue that the jury’s verdict should be tossed because evidence was allowed at trial that should have been excluded, and that other evidence was excluded that should have been permitted. 

    The court is highly unlikely to rule on the matter before the November presidential election. 

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    This Trump Cabinet Member Is On ‘Thin Ice’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The tides are turning against this Trump Cabinet member…

    Michael Wolff, the Trump biographer who has long studied the president, revealed on The Daily Beast Podcast this week that the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is getting increasingly close to being fired.

    Over the weekend, the U.S. launched an attack on three nuclear enrichment sites in Iran. Despite Trump’s declared victory, however, early intelligence assessments suggest that the strikes did not destroy the facilities at all.

    “It’s always important in the Trump script, the fallback is always who to blame, who to blame,” Wolff told The Daily Beast’s Joanna Coles. “Just have to have someone to blame. Tulsi is in the line of fire.”

    To Trump, he added, she is a “stooge” at this point.

    Reports of the still-existent nuclear sites are at odds with Trump’s repeated claims that the strikes “completely and totally obliterated” the facilities.

    Tulsi Gabbard via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN: “This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.”

    But now that the assessment is available for the public to judge for themselves, Wolff said that Trump is in search of someone to throw under the bus.

    “There is an investigation that is going on,“ said Wolff. ”They will try to find someone to blame. Within the White House, within the West Wing, what they are saying as of this morning, who this is being pinned on, is Tulsi.”

    White House staff have confirmed that the leak is already being investigated.

    “President Trump’s Peace through Strength foreign policy is a tried-and-true approach that keeps America safe and deters global threats,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast in a statement. “Efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division are a distraction that will not work. President Trump has full confidence in his entire exceptional national security team. DNI Gabbard is an important member of the President’s team and her work continues to serve him and this country well.”

    Watch:

    Gabbard was awkwardly snubbed by President Donald Trump this week after he dismissed her Congressional testimony that countered the administration’s justification for bombing Iran.

    “The intelligence community continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” she said in March.

    But this month, Trump publicly slammed Gabbard when her comments resurfaced.

    “I don’t care what she said,” Trump said of Gabbard’s comments. “I think they were very close to having them.”

    Trump later doubled down, telling reporters that Gabbard was “wrong” about the issue.

    Gabbard bowed down to Trump’s assertions, quickly posting on X that the “dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division.”

    Sign Now: Trump, Rubio, and Israel Need You in This Fight

    Trump Responds to Brittney Griner’s Release

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Former President Donald Trump reacted to news the U.S. has agreed to release Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, commonly known as “the merchant of death.”

    In a message published to TRUTh Social, Trump called the prisoner swap terms “unpatriotic,” noting U.S. Marine Paul Whelan still remains wrongfully detained.

    “What kind of a deal is it to swap Brittney Griner, a basketball player who openly hates our Country, for the man known as “The Merchant of Death,” who is one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the World, and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and horrific injuries. Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking. What a “stupid” and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!!” Trump wrote.

    Georgia Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Effort To Halt Election Probe

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    2
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously shut down former President Trump’s attempt to stop a potential indictment for tampering with the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state.

    In a five-page decision issued Monday afternoon, all nine justices of the Georgia Supreme Court said Trump’s lawyers had failed to make a persuasive case for shutting down the inquiry led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. She has signaled that indictments are possible in the election-related probe in the next few weeks as a grand jury convenes to consider possible charges.

    The Georgia court said there was no reason to permit that in these circumstances.

    “He makes no showing that he has been prevented fair access to the ordinary channels,” the high court wrote in an opinion not attributed to any specific justice. “He is asking this Court to step in and itself decide the motions currently pending in the superior court. This is not the sort of relief that this Court affords, at least absent extraordinary circumstances that Petitioner has not shown are present here.”

    Willis’ probe reportedly focuses on pressure Trump and his allies put on Georgia officials the weeks after the 2020 election to try to reverse Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the Peach State. A key piece of evidence in the probe is an audio recording of a call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urging him to “find 11,780 votes,” which would have pushed Trump across the threshold to claim victory.

    Various election officials and national GOP figures have testified during the special grand jury probe.

    Trump’s attorneys also filed a petition in March with Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, asking that Willis’ probe be halted. However, McBurney has yet to rule on that motion. 

    Georgia Judge Drops Two Charges In Election Case

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    1
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    A Georgia judge has again dropped multiple charges in former President Trump’s 2020 election interference case.

    The Hill reports:

    Judge Scott McAfee granted a motion from some of Trump’s co-defendants to quash three counts in the sprawling racketeering indictment brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), finding they “lie beyond this State’s jurisdiction.” 

    The ruling also hands the former president a sizeable victory, as he faced two of the charges in question. 

    “President Trump and his legal team in Georgia have prevailed once again,” Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead defense attorney in the case, said in a statement. 

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Matt Gaetz Withdraws From Attorney General Consideration

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    4
    Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    On Thursday, former Congressman Matt Gaetz (Fla.) announced he is withdrawing from consideration to be the next U.S. Attorney General.

    On Wednesday, Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance traveled to the Capitol to meet with Republican senators who could potentially make or break Gaetz’s nomination to serve as the nation’s next attorney general.

    He wrote on X, “I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition. There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1.”

    Trump responded to Gaetz’s withdrawal with a message on Truth Social.

    I greatly appreciate the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. He was doing very well but, at the same time, did not want to be a distraction for the Administration, for which he has much respect. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

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