Top DOJ official expects to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell
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The Herald Scotland
17 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Trump says FBI may arrest Texas Democrats who fled over redistricting
Trump made the remarks when asked by a reporter about Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn's request earlier in the day for the FBI to "take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest" the Democratic lawmakers. Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety Aug. 4 to arrest the Democratic lawmakers. His order was designed to force the absconding legislators to comply with civil arrest warrants that state Republican lawmakers voted to issue earlier in the day. However, it has not been clear how Texas law enforcement would be able to force the Democrats back to Texas when they are in states where local law enforcement might not be willing to execute the warrants. Many of them went to the Chicago area in Illinois, where Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker greeted them. Others went to Boston, Massachusetts and Albany, New York. "A lot of people are demanding they come back," Trump said Aug. 5. "You can't just sit it out. You have to go back." Contributing: Savannah Kuchar - USA TODAY
The Herald Scotland
18 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Texas Democrats flee state, but GOP doesn't look much better
I don't know what's worse: That Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to remove House Democrats from office if they didn't return to the Capitol on Aug. 4. That the Texas House on Aug. 4 passed a motion allowing Speaker Dustin Burrows to issue arrest warrants for Democrats who skipped the legislative session. That Democrats in the state House fled Texas for Illinois and New York to prevent the legislature from voting on new congressional district maps. Or that House Republicans, in a bizarre power grab, are trying to redraw congressional maps to ensure that the GOP has an even stronger hold on the state and a better chance of retaining the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm elections. Is this the wild West? The chaos in Texas now threatens to spread to other states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said they will consider redrawing maps to heavily favor the political party in power in their state. Where will the madness end? Democrats fleeing Texas is not a good look It's a challenge to be a Democratic politician in Texas. They are vastly outnumbered, and those who do hold office have little power. I understand why Democrats are angry. Texas was historically a Democratic stronghold. But Republicans have held the governor's office for the past 30 years and controlled the state legislature for more than two decades. Not a single Democrat serves in statewide office now. Every few years, progressives and the news media champion a Democratic savior who is supposed to be the one to finally turn Texas blue. But candidates like Beto O'Rourke fail repeatedly. Now, along come Texas Republicans trying to gerrymander themselves to even more power. Still, the Democratic leaders fleeing Texas for Illinois and New York are hurting their party's image in our state. Opinion: Democrats have devolved into a clown show. No wonder polls show voters prefer GOP. In a post on X, Rep. Ann Johnson, a Democrat from Houston, tried to make her fellow lawmakers' cowardly retreat noble. "They're willing to break the law to cling to power," Johnson wrote. "We're willing to break quorum to protect it. We don't stand by. We stand up." "We stand up" by fleeing the state is not the winning message that she thinks it is. Texas House Republicans are engaged in a power grab As bad as House Democrats look, however, I have a bigger complaint about Republican legislators. GOP lawmakers have admitted that they are redrawing congressional districts to help Republicans gain even more power. "Different from everyone else, I'm telling you, I'm not beating around the bush," Corpus Christi Republican Rep. Todd Hunter, who authored the redistricting bill, said in a hearing. "We have five new districts, and these five new districts are based on political performance." Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on conservative values, family and religion from columnist Nicole Russell. Get it delivered to your inbox. I appreciate Hunter's honesty. It's obvious that Republicans' bid to redraw the congressional districts, which were approved in 2021, is a raw power grab. It's unethical and unnecessary. Republicans have reshaped politics and policy in the state over the past 30 years. Voters have given them that power because they have grown the economy and protected our freedoms. Opinion: GDP soars and Trump's economy roars. Liberals still won't give him credit. I love living in Texas because the state's culture matches my conservative values. It's full of history, beauty and gun-carrying, freedom-loving, patriotic men and women. And that's exactly how we convert all those expats from California to become conservatives - through our values, policies and way of life. Not through stupid redistricting efforts that create a national spectacle. I hope the next time Texas makes national news it's because the Dallas Cowboys are ready to win the Super Bowl. Nicole Russell is a columnist at USA TODAY and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@ and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.
The Independent
8 hours ago
- The Independent
Trump says he ‘didn't know' about Ghislaine Maxwell transfer from prison to Texas Club Fed: ‘I read about it just like you'
Donald Trump says that he was not behind the order directing Ghislaine Maxwell's transfer from a prison facility in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas dubbed 'Club Fed'. The president claimed on Tuesday that he'd only learned about the prison transfer in news reports. Maxwell remains in prison on a 20-year sentence for crimes committed with Jeffrey Epstein, her former boyfriend. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting charges for sex trafficking children. 'I didn't know about it at all. I read about it just like you did,' Trump told a reporter who asked him if he'd personally approved the transfer. He added: 'It's not a very uncommon thing.' Trump went on to defend the private meeting between his former personal attorney, Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche, and Maxwell — something he also insisted wasn't 'unusual'. The meeting was heavily scrutinized, as the Department of Justice did not explain why Maxwell would have information that the FBI and federal prosecutors didn't uncover during her prosecution, or Epstein's. Blanche met with Maxwell for nine hours over two days, releasing only a short statement on Twitter with no details from the meetings. He hasn't commented publicly on the matter since. Trump has been criticized for his handling of the so-called Epstein files and their non-release by his administration, both among the president's typical critics as well as among members of Trump's own MAGA base. Maxwell, adding fuel to that fire, offered to testify to the bipartisan House Oversight Committee only if she were to receive a clemency deal for her testimony from the government. Trump has repeatedly been asked if he'll pardon Maxwell; the president has hedged that he's 'allowed' to, without indicating whether he was specifically considering it. 'I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it," said Trump during a Newsmax interview on Friday. "I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons. I've given pardons to people before, but nobody's even asked me to do it.' Inmates at Maxwell's new digs include Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes and 'Real Housewives of Salt Lake City' star Jen Shah. Nicknamed 'Club Fed,' it's described as a relatively low-security facility with a sports field, a program where inmates can participate in training service animals, and generally does not house offenders with sex crimes on their records, absent a federal waiver. Trump and his administration have now been battling the firestorm over the Epstein investigation for a full month. In early July, the Department of Justice and FBI released a joint memo stating that a list of Epstein's alleged co-conspirators or other evidence linking the powerful men rumored to have taken part in the sexual abuse of minors did not exist within the agencies' files. The memo also concluded that Epstein's 2019 death in federal custody was by suicide. At the same time, the Justice Department told Americans that no further releases of files of the investigations would occur. This infuriated MAGAworld and reignited conversations about the topic across social media and the podcasting spheres, as Trump's associates spent months and in some cases years ginning up speculation around the Epstein case and adding fuel to conspiracy theories involving Joe Biden and the so-called 'Deep State'. Right-wing influencers were even called to the White House at one point this year to receive binders titled 'Phase One' of the administration's Epstein document release plan. Phase two never materialized. The furor proved impossible for Republican members of Congress to ignore, and a number have called on the administration to provide more transparency. House Speaker Mike Johnson called the August recess early to avoid a forced vote on a measure to compel the Justice Department to release documents from the case, but that measure is expected to be a fight Congress wages in September once lawmakers return.
