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Bush-Era Attorney General Endorses Harris

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Image via Gage Skidmore Flickr

A surprising betrayal…

Former Attorney General to President George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales is turning his back on Donald Trump.

In the same op-ed, Gonzales called former President Donald Trump “perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation.” Gonzales wrote:

The American presidency is the most powerful position in the world. Of course, our constitution and laws, as well as institutions such as Congress and our courts, act as guardrails to that power. The law provides the certainty of accountability and fundamental fairness. Yet it is the president’s integrity, honesty and respect for our institutions that may be the most important and reliable check on abuses of power.

As the United States approaches a critical election, I can’t sit quietly as Donald Trump — perhaps the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation — eyes a return to the White House. For that reason, though I’m a Republican, I’ve decided to support Kamala Harris for president.

The Republican AG also officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

In his endorsement, Gonzales defended her from critics who have raised concerns as to why she hasn’t accomplished more as Vice President, pointing the finger at Congress:

Trump and his surrogates will blame her for the economic policies of the Biden administration, as well as the border crisis. Based on my experience, however, a vice president truly has little to no influence on economic policy. A vice president may provide input, but it is the president who is the ultimate decision-maker. That is part of the job of being the president. Further, Congress has as much, if not more, power to affect our economy through legislation. It is as much their failure as Biden’s that child care, housing, gasoline and groceries cost too much. And as for the border, Trump and his supporters in Congress assumed partial responsibility for the tough border situation when they killed bipartisan legislation in order to help Trump’s election chances.

Ultimately, Gonzales wrote that he had more faith in Harris to carry out the duties as Commander in Chief:

Harris, meanwhile, has sworn fidelity to the rule of law as a former local prosecutor and state attorney general. Her record in law enforcement shows a clear commitment to pursuing justice. While I may disagree with some of her policies, I am hopeful she will be open to dissenting views and will act always in a manner respectful of the power of all three branches of government.

In his closing, he added that Harris was “the best suited, able and committed to unite us in a manner consistent with the rule of law.”

Trump Proposes Punishment For ABC After Debate

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Gage Skidmore Flickr

Trump wants answers…

Former President Trump is suggesting ABC News be punished for what he is calling a “hostile performance” by the network’s debate moderators on Tuesday evening.

“ABC took a big hit last night,” Trump said Wednesday morning during an appearance on “Fox and Friends.”

“I mean, to be honest, they’re a news organization. They have to be licensed to do it. They ought to take away their license for the way they did that.”

Watch:

The Federal Communications Commission does not license major broadcast networks such as ABC, but does license some local stations.

After Tuesday’s debate, which pundits on both sides say went unexpectedly poorly for Trump, the former president argued the event was “three on one,” and has not accepted Harris’s challenge to meet for a second event.

Fox News Panel Drops Surprising Reaction To Trump-Kamala Debate

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A Fox News voter panel expressed shock and dismay at former President Trump’s apparent “lack of strategy” during Tuesday night’s debate, calling the event a win for Team Kamala.

During a vote conducted by the Fox News Digital focus group, a majority of voters—12 out of 17—believed Harris came out on top. The panel, which included Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, largely criticized Trump for his inability to adapt to a new political opponent.

One participant said: “Trump was so bad, he’s just like an old suit from like 1987 right now. He just repeats himself.”

Another added: “He is still in his head basically trying to run against Joe Biden,” said one voter. Several others echoed this sentiment, accusing Trump of rehashing old lines from past campaigns.

Despite this, the focus group wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about Harris. While many felt she handled the debate well, a few pointed out that she failed to provide specifics when pressed on critical issues.

“She knows how to pull at your heartstrings… but she wasn’t very specific when asked certain things,” one voter noted.

Currently, Tuesday’s debate is the only presidential debate scheduled between the two rivals. However, after the ABC debate, Kamala reportedly proposed a second debate in the near future.

“The American people got to see the choice they will face this fall at the ballot box: between moving forward with Kamala Harris, or going backwards with Trump,” Jen O’Malley, the chairwoman of Harris’ campaign, said in a statement.

“That’s what they saw tonight and what they should see at a second debate in October,” she added. “Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?”

On Fox News, which was reporting live from the debate venue in Philadelphia after the event concluded, Trump said Harris wanted a second debate “because she lost.” Pressed by host Sean Hannity whether he would agree to another match, Trump said he might be inclined to do it “if it was on a fair network.”

Trump previously floated three debates against Harris, including the one held by ABC on Tuesday, as well as one held by Fox News on September 4 and another held by NBC News on September 25. The proposed Fox News date was later used for a town hall featuring Trump and Hannity.

Report: Secret Service Official Asked To Resign Following Trump Shooting

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A shocking new development…

On Tuesday, outlets reported a high-ranking Secret Service official has been strongly asked to retire after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July, 13th.

Fox News reports:

Michael Plati, office of protective operations assistant director, has been asked to retire and is ending his tenure with the service in the coming days.

Plati was asked to step down by senior leadership, including Acting Director Ronald Rowe.

USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned under mounting pressure on July 23 following the assassination attempt on the former president, Fox News confirmed. 

The Department of Defense (DOD) has since offered the USSS “additional assistance” in protecting political figures that require personal security.

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

Pelosi Predicts Trump Skips Upcoming Kamala Debate

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Nancy Pelosi via Gage Skidmore flickr

Pelosi is peddling desperate lies…

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted that former president Donald Trump will back out of his next debate.

Pelosi appeared at the Texas Tribune Festival over the weekend where she spoke to journalist Kara Swisher about a variety of topics before signing copies of her latest book. Pelosi spent much of the time ripping Trump and turned up the vitriol when Tuesday’s highly anticipated ABC News Presidential Debate came up. 

Swisher asked Pelosi what advice she would give former President Trump ahead of the matchup with Harris. The 84-year-old Pelosi quipped, “You think he’s gonna show up?”

The largely liberal audience burst into laughter, followed by applause, as Pelosi slightly smiled. 

Swisher asked, “Do you know something I don’t know?”

“I know cowardice when I see it,” Pelosi responded. 

Watch:

The Trump campaign dismissed Pelosi’s suggestion of the former president skipping the debate as “fake news.”

“Nancy Pelosi has no idea what she is talking about and has been proven to be a liar and fraud. If she isn’t busy giving herself fake titles to make herself feel better, she’s peddling fake news because it’s the only thing she’s ever done,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital.

Pelosi and Trump have a long history of animosity toward each other, regularly trading barbs over the years. In 2020, Pelosi famously tore her printed copy of Trump’s State of the Union address immediately after he finished addressing a Joint Session of Congress.

Trump and Harris are scheduled to debate on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. 

Despite Pelosi’s best attempts to stir up trouble, the Trump campaign also released details of Trump’s scheduled arrival in the City of Brotherly Love. Air Force Trump is scheduled to land in Philadelphia at 6:30 pm on Tuesday.

Judge Delays Trump Hush Money Sentencing

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Gage Skidmore Flickr

A New York judge on Friday delayed former President Trump’s sentencing, a ruling that ensures Trump will not face any criminal punishment until after the election. 

Trump’s sentencing date is now scheduled for Nov. 26. The original date was set for Sept. 18.

“There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s Election Interference Witch Hunt. As mandated by the United States Supreme Court, this case, along with all of the other Harris-Biden Hoaxes, should be dismissed,” Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

Trump was found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

Steven Cheung, Trump campaign spokesperson, told Fox News Digital, “There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s Election Interference Witch Hunt. As mandated by the United States Supreme Court, this case, along with all of the other Harris-Biden Hoaxes, should be dismissed.”

“The case was delayed because everyone realizes there was no case and I did nothing wrong,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “It is a case that should never have been brought.” 

Trump said “the public understands that and so does every legal scholar that has looked at it and studied it.” 

“I greatly respect the words ‘if necessary’ being used in this decision because there should be no, ‘if necessary,’” Trump said. 

He added: “The case should be dead.”

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

Report: Trump To Appeal E. Jean Carroll Loss

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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.

Trump Responds As Jack Smith Brings Forth New Indictment

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

Former President Trump’s federal Jan. 6 case is headed back to a D.C. courtroom…

Lawyers are expected to enter a not guilty plea on behalf of former President Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C., Thursday related to charges from special counsel Jack Smith’s new indictment after the Supreme Court ruled a president is immune from prosecution for official acts in office.

Trump will not appear in court.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is planning to hold an arraignment on the new superseding indictment in the election subversion case.

According to a court filing obtained by Fox News, Trump signed an entry of not guilty plea. In the document, filed on Tuesday, Trump also waived his right to be present at his arraignment.

“I authorize my attorneys to enter a plea of not guilty on my behalf to each and every count of the superseding indictment, Doc. 226,” the document says. “I further state that I have received a copy of the superseding indictment and reviewed it with my counsel.”

The new indictment keeps the prior criminal charges but narrows and reframes the allegations against the Republican presidential nominee after a Supreme Court ruling that conferred broad immunity on former presidents.

Specifically, the indictment has been changed to remove allegations involving Department of Justice officials and other government officials. It clarifies Trump’s role as a candidate and makes clear the allegations regarding his conversations with then-Vice President Pence in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate.

The new indictment removes a section of the previous indictment that had accused Trump of trying to use the Justice Department to undo his 2020 loss. 

Trump has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights. Those charges, to which Trump pleaded not guilty, remain. 

The special counsel’s office said the updated indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was issued by a grand jury that had not previously heard evidence in the case. The new grand jury has only heard this new information.

Sources familiar with the matter tell Fox News that discussions surrounding the superseding indictment will likely not speed things up, and it is unlikely it will go to trial before the November election. 

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

Report: Trump Judge Sued For Financial Disclosures

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Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

America First Legal (AFL) is suing New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan.

AFL sued Merchan, who presided over former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York v. Trump, stemming from the yearslong investigation out of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. They also sued the New York State Unified Court System’s Ethics Commission.

Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump has appealed the ruling and called on Merchan to overturn the verdict. 

The lawsuit comes after the AFL sent a demand letter last week for Merchan’s financial disclosures, threatening legal action. The AFL previously requested those records in June. 

Under New York law, judges are required to file annual financial disclosures, which are required to be made available upon request. 

“The law is clear that judicial financial disclosures must be released to the public,” AFL Vice President Dan Epstein told Fox News Digital. “New York’s highest court has stated that such disclosures are necessary for parties before the courts to get a fair shake.” 

Epstein said the public “needs to know what Judge Merchan is hiding or even if he failed to file financial disclosures at all.” 

“This is especially important given the fact that Merchan appears to have engaged in unlawful campaign contributions and is on the precipice of criminally sentencing the former president of the United States,” Epstein said. “Fundamental fairness dictates a resolution of America First Legal’s suit in its favor.” 

The AFL is seeking the records amid longstanding concerns of a conflict of interest in Merchan’s role in the trial amid his daughter’s political work. 

Loren Merchan sits as the president for Authentic Campaigns — a company that has done political work for top Democrat clients like President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Watchdog Group Seeks To Remove Judge From Trump Case

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Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

A group is asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to remove Judge Aileen Cannon from overseeing former President Trump’s classified documents case.

The brief filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) argued Judge Cannon has taken “many efforts to undermine and derail the prosecution of this case.” The brief coincides with special counsel Jack Smith’s appeal of a ruling from Cannon that tossed the documents case entirely in determining Smith was unlawfully appointed.

The CREW brief asks for the documents case to be reassigned to another jurist in South Florida. Smith did not make that request, but the 11th Circuit could independently determine the rare move is warranted.

The Hill has more:

“Even before she dismissed this case on novel and insupportable grounds that ignored both statutory authority and Supreme Court precedent, Judge Cannon’s other extraordinary rulings and sluggish administration of the case had provoked well-founded concerns that she might be biased against the Government’s case and unable to manage that case impartially,” CREW wrote in its motion to file a friend-of-the-court brief filed late Tuesday.

The filing also cites Cannon’s “inexplicable call for jury instructions on a spurious legal defense that would have gutted the Government’s case had it ever gone to trial” after she mulled embracing arguments from Trump on jury instructions even as she failed to account for a trial date in the case.

It also notes “Cannon’s failure over the course of one year to move the case forward in any significant way—until a one-Justice concurrence in the Supreme Court’s presidential-immunity opinion expressed approval of the novel constitutional theory that allowed her to end the case.”

That was a nod to an off-topic footnote from Justice Clarence Thomas.