A special master’s review of some materials seized from Trump’s Florida home is now partially stopped, according to an appeals court ruling
A federal appeals court is allowing the Justice Department to continue looking at documents marked as classified that were seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and resort. …read more
Corona Centennial’s Jared McCain signs multiyear NIL deal with Champs Sports
Corona Centennial senior guard Jared McCain has signed a multiyear name, image and licensing deal with Champs Sports. It is his third endorsement deal.
Jan. 6 committee and Ginni Thomas reach agreement for testimony
Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, has agreed to a voluntary interview with the Jan. 6 select committee, her attorney said Wednesday.
“I can confirm that Ginni Thomas has agreed to participate in a voluntary interview with the Committee,” her attorney Mark Paoletta said in a statement. “As she has said from the outset, Mrs. Thomas is eager to answer the Committee’s questions to clear up any misconceptions about her work relating to the 2020 election. She looks forward to that opportunity.”
Her attorney had previously cast doubt on the prospect of her testimony, telling select panel lawmakers in a letter at the end of June he didn’t understand the need to talk with Thomas and said there were “serious concerns” about a potential interview with the select panel.
A spokesperson for the Jan. 6 committee declined to comment. CNN first reported the agreement for testimony.
Thomas, also known as Ginni, has been a target of the select panel’s inquiry for months after evidence emerged of her involvement in efforts to subvert the 2020 election. She’d invited John Eastman, the legal architect of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, to speak to an activist group in the aftermath of the election.
Her lawyer has previously denied any impropriety on Thomas’ part and has said she did not discuss election litigation with Clarence Thomas.
She first emerged as a target of the select panel’s inquiry after the Washington Post and CBS published text messages from her to top Trump allies urging them to fight harder to contest the 2020 election results.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/jan-6-committee-ginni-thomas-testimony-00058182
House appropriators eye as much as $200M for Jackson water crisis
House appropriators are considering sending as much as $200 million to address the drinking water crisis in Jackson, Miss., as part of the stop-gap spending measure to fund the government past Sept. 30.
Documents obtained by POLITICO show draft language that would deliver the money directly from EPA to the city, bypassing the Republican-controlled state government. Democrats, including Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), have accused the state of withholding resources from the majority Black state capital.
The numbers: Thompson told POLITICO he is pushing for $200 million in emergency funds for a first phase to address the dilapidated water infrastructure in Jackson.
Jackson’s 150,000 residents were without drinking water for weeks this summer after flooding on the Pearl River caused the system’s water pressure to drop precipitously. The city has also issued a series of boil water orders throughout the year due to dangerous water quality.
Jackson’s water system, which was built in 1914, is in a dire state of disrepair, according to a 2020 EPA review. The total cost for upgrading it is unclear, but estimates have ranged as high as $1 billion. The city has not completed a long-term plan for addressing its problems. Thompson said $200 million is “what appears to be reasonable” now, in the absence of a plan.
Mississippi’s two Republican senators, Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith, have both voiced support for including additional funds for Jackson’s water system in the appropriations bill. Earlier this month, Hyde-Smith criticized the Biden administration for not including money for Jackson in its funding request.
Neither of their offices responded to a request for comment on whether they support the $200 million figure.
The details: The draft legislative language would not send the money through the federal government’s primary drinking water funding mechanism, EPA’s state revolving fund, but rather through a separate granting authority. That would allow EPA to work directly with the city, bypassing the state government.
The language also allows the funds to be used for more than just for capital projects, where federal water infrastructure dollars are typically directed. It could also be used to relieve the city of prior water debt and to pay for operations and maintenance — line items that federal funding is not otherwise allowed to cover.
Chicago to pay $15M to family of mom-of-six killed by speeding cop who ran red light
The city of Chicago will pay a $15 million settlement to the family of a woman killed when an unmarked police car blew a red light and slammed into her. …read more
Biden’s Delaware neighbors applaud migrant flights, slam open border: ‘liberals are missing the point’
Terri Barbiche, 69, of Georgetown, Del., said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott were “doing something that says, ‘We can’t keep them all here.'” …read more
Former Yankees scout Tim McIntosh on Aaron Judge: ‘There was nothing there’
Tim McIntosh still misses the game and the pinstripes. Meanwhile, he is very proud of Aaron Judge, and very glad he was dead wrong about him. …read more
https://nypost.com/2022/09/21/ex-yankees-scout-tim-mcintosh-was-wrong-about-aaron-judge/
Biden says Putin was ‘reckless’ in veiled nuclear threat, calls on UN to support Ukraine; 2 Americans captured in war freed: Updates
Russia has “shamelessly” violated core tenants of the United Nations and the world must stand behind Ukraine, President Joe Biden said. Updates.
‘Nothing short of ridiculous’: Trump ally Tom Barrack rejects foreign agent claims as trial opens
NEW YORK — An ally and onetime top campaign adviser to Donald Trump sought to trade on his longtime friendship with the former president by covertly providing officials from the United Arab Emirates access to the highest levels of the U.S. government, federal prosecutors alleged on Wednesday.
That ally, real estate investor Tom Barrack, was accused by prosecutors of a “corrupt pursuit of money and power,” on the opening day of what could be a far-reaching trial related to foreign influence peddling in U.S. government affairs.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta argued that Barrack and his aide, Matthew Grimes, used Barrack’s “unique access” to Trump to act as the “eyes and ears and voice” of the wealthy Gulf nation during Trump’s 2016 run for president and through the beginning of his administration. They did so, Mehta said, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars’ worth of investments from Emirati sovereign wealth funds.
The trial kicked off on Wednesday in New York, in a federal court in Brooklyn. While it was overshadowed by other legal matters involving Trump, it will be the latest major legal test for the Justice Department’s aggressive new posture in cracking down on illicit foreign influence operations in the U.S. in the wake of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Barrack is the latest ally of the former president to face legal peril related to illegal foreign lobbying or trading access to Trump, a list that includes his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and GOP megadonors Steve Wynn and Elliott Broidy.
Barrack and Grimes are accused of acting as agents of a foreign government without notifying the Department of Justice. Barrack, who chaired Trump’s inaugural committee in 2017, is also facing charges of lying to investigators in the probe and of obstruction of justice.
A third defendant, Emirati businessman Rashid al-Malik, has also been charged in the alleged scheme but remains at large.
But the government faces a steep burden in convincing jurors that Barrack’s and Grimes’ actions were taken at the direction or control of the Emirati government, experts in the laws regulating foreign agents have said. That is especially true in the absence of any formal agreement or contract.
Prosecutors plan to argue that from 2016 to 2018, Barrack and Grimes sought to influence public opinion by suggesting Trump’s campaign singled out the UAE for praise in a campaign speech on energy issues. Barrack, meanwhile, would talk the UAE up as an important ally in media interviews, incorporating feedback and talking points from UAE officials and at times providing real-time updates.
They also allege the defendants shared nonpublic information about the Trump transition — and, once Trump became president, internal White House deliberations regarding issues important to the UAE — with their connections in the Emirati government, which went as high as Mohamed bin Zayed, who at that time was crown prince of Abu Dhabi and is now the UAE president and ruler of Abu Dhabi.
Barrack and Grimes have both pleaded …read more
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/21/trump-tom-barrack-foreign-agent-claims-trial-00058168
Florida lawmaker plans to file lawsuit to block more DeSantis migrant flights
A Democratic lawmaker in Florida is expected to file a lawsuit seeking to block Gov. Ron DeSantis from transporting any more migrants from the southern border to other states. …read more
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/21/politics/lawmaker-lawsuit-migrant-flights/index.html